guest at the demure muse

Hi all!

The lovely and talented Katrina of the demure muse has kindly offered me some post space for today.

Head on over and read some delicious (tested) summer recipes, plus food porn.

[Link!]

pies and pillows

Hi all! It sure has been a long time!

I have been very busy with work and terrible, terrible television shows, but I thought I'd share some things that have been keeping me busy over these past few months. I'll say from the outset now that this post was supposed to be titled "pies, pillows and progress," but that would involve me taking pictures of all of my neglected knitting projects and it's too sunshiny outside to be "staging" my knitting. I promise pictures are on the way.

Disclaimers aside; look at this pie I made!

I used smitten kitchen's pie crust and a recipe (which I have now lost) for the lemon meringue. Though the pie was delicious, I don't miss the recipe - the boiling cornstarch and sugar spat all over the kitchen and myself. Not cool. Nevertheless, I walked around the house with my chest puffed out, chuffed to bits with my pie-making abilities.

I also took a break from knitting a pair of socks for my Nonno (I promise, those pictures are coming!) to embroider a pillowcase for my boyfriend and his roommates, some of the coolest people around. They let me stay in their lovely downtown apartment whenever I have raging suburbanitis (and any other time besides). One of them loves this saying, and what better than to do it up in American Typewriter with a French-knot fill?

My spacing is a little effed up, but I think the overall effect is really cute. The letters feel really curly, even though they look sharp from a distance.

The 'g' is my favourite. French-knot fills take a long time, but for a special gift, it's worth it!

brother's chocolate cupcakes

It is my brother and Nonno's Birthdays today - they are exactly 60 years apart. Given they both love chocolate, and I am a sister to one of them, nothing could have been more appropriate than ming's "Sis' Chocolate Cupcakes."

The thick chocolate frosting just begged for a fresh strawberry.

Ming Cupcakes: 6/33

nutella, butter, cream, sugar, or cardic arrest in a paper liner

I used ming's Sour Cream Chocolate with Nutella frosting. My brother ate one and then wordlessly gave me a hug.

Ming cupcakes: 5/33.

Temporary Hiatus

Hello lovely people,

I will be on a small hiatus until Christmastime - not because I have stopped crafting but because my upcoming crafting/baking will be surprises! Expect December 26th to be a deluge of gifts already given.

Until then, take a look at a seedcake made for a (successful) Lord of the Rings marathon - I had to replace more than half of the milk (which I didn't have) with Irish Cream (which I did). Also, my mom has been hiding this pretty cake stand from me for too long.

happy canadian/southern/italian thanksgiving

What a weekend.

Thrilled to finally assist in making this year's bird (an astonishing twenty-five pounds), I woke up bright and early Saturday morning to stuff, truss, and do whatever else it is you have to do. Our family dressing is what I live for - onions, butter, celery, apples, pears, bread, and spices.
The turkey went in just a little after noon and I went off to enjoy a lazy midday, when disaster struck. Remember how I was off raving about my oven last week? We're barely on speaking terms now. The heating element decided to crap out right in the middle of turkey time. Ruination.

Long story short, after coaxing my parents down from two seperate conniption fits, I sought out a "cook your turkey on the barbecue" tutorial on the interwebs - one hopefully minus thousands of conjunctions (especially y'all or ain't). We ended up finding one that worked and, thank the Lord, Thanksgiving was saved (to be honest, it was delicious).


As I'm the one taking this photo, you can't see me giving this oven the finger it deserves.

Sunday night was my family's Italian thanksgiving spectacular. Open bar, five courses, dancing. Though I've tried explaining this tradition in the past, it might be easier if I just show you.

Miguele nella signora from Lauren P on Vimeo.

This is my cousin, Michael, dancing a fine tarantella in a 10 (maybe 11) foot lady costume. We call her la signora, and she's supposed to represent Santa Maria della Salette. This, to be honest, is nothing. In Italy, they attach firecrackers to the suit and then burn the entire thing down. Probably not acceptable in Woodbridge's finer banquet halls.

Monday called for much more traditional fare - turkey two-point-oh. I couldn't resist cooking up some ming tasties to accompany the pumpkin pie. I used - what else - recipe #15, Pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese icing and candied ginger. A little leftover yarn and some handmade nametags, and poof, instant placecards.


I hope everyone's thanksgiving was bawllin' (read: no oven meltdowns). I will be posting halloween costume haps these coming weeks - I have a lot of work to do!!

Ming cupcakes: 4/33

to reap autumnal rewards

Being Italian-Canadian has left me blessed. In values and culture, sure - but especially in food. My dutiful Nonni grow three out of four seasons in the year, and work overtime to make sure that enough sauce and pears are jarred when winter hits. This fall has been no exception: bushels of pears, zucchini, the final few tomatoes, and apples.

Now, my grandparents don't really eat apples. My Nonno avoids hard-skinned fruits because he thinks they all need to be peeled. As a result, much of their harvest was handed down to us. After my mom and I made a blitz of apple crisps (ein apfelkreig) they largely sat neglected on our countertop.

Until today. Not forgetting my promise to get through ming's list, I settled on the appropriate Cupcake #10 - apple cinnamon cupcakes with caramel frosting. Given that I don't regularly stock heavy cream, I opted instead for a simple cinnamon buttercream (recipe below). I also replaced the sugar with brown sugar, because apples and brown sugar should be together all the time.

Apples going rotty. What a horrible, ungrateful anonna I am.

I swear this gloop of a batter looked more delicious in person.

Can I use this space to jot down a quick ode to my stove? Look at the glass. It is an original, 1950s, yellow-enamelled GE Frigidaire. The light on the inside sources from a huge globe bulb. It's beautiful.

Out the oven!

Normally I take out my piping bag to frost, but I thought the rustic-ness of the recipe called for spreading with a knife. I couldn't resist giving them all a little cowlick, though!

Simple Cinnamon Buttercream

Blend half a stick of butter, one teaspoon vanilla and 1/4 tsp cinnamon. Add 2 and 1/4 cups of icing sugar, blend (frosting will be dry and crumbly). Add 3 tbsp milk, blend until fluffy.

Ming cupcakes: 3/33

C is for Cupcake, it's good enough for me!

Last week, I spent a lovely Wednesday afternoon in my friend Tarika(of The Baker's Apprentice)'s kitchen, concocting deliciously adorable cookie monster cupcakes. I have been on a bit of a cupcake binge this summer, drooling over Ming's 33 incredible recipes and attempting the red velvets for Canada Day festivities. Boringly, I've stuck to star-tip swirls for décor - though Tarika sent me a picture of these cookie monster wonders and I've been trying to figure out how to make it work ever since.

So after an afternoon of birre, dog-wuvvin', panic-attacks on my behalf and effortless baking nonchalance on T's, these were our accomplishments. (Cupcakes were recipe #30).


(I really love this picture of us staring into the oven like impatient little kids.)

I think I'm going to try and bake my way through Ming's list. Watch this space.