Sew and Sew Says

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

sewandsew — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 18:37:02 +0000

Quick entry. We just returned from a trip to Hawaii with Son #1 and wife. We had a wonderful time away from the gray and rain of Portland. I had gotten a bag of macadamia nuts to snack on but had a lot left over, hence the cookies

This recipe is from Allrecipes with a tweek, one of my favorite sites for recipes. These cookies were so yummy I wasn’t even able to get a picture before we gobbled them up. I highly recommend these!!

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies-Makes 4 dozen

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup butter flavored shortening
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup coarsely chopped macadamia nuts
1 cup coarsely chopped white chocolate (or white chocolate chips)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, shortening, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla and almond extracts. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; gradually stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in the macadamia nuts and white chocolate. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls (I used more like rounded tablespoons) onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.

Falling off the face of the earth

sewandsew — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 06:53:14 +0000

Warning-Long posting!

Life does that to you. We get so caught up in the “have to dos” that we forget about “want to dos.” We have managed, though, to fit in a few things since I last posted 9 months ago (oh my, I have been negligent!) and I will try to catch up.

When we were first married and living in California, we would take a road trip almost every other weekend. One weekend we would go to Tahoe, another to Yosemite camping, another to Lassen. When we had more than a weekend we would take longer road trips to Yellowstone, the Rockies, and many other parks—all camping. Then kids came along, but that didn’t affect our trips much. But somewhere after that, life got too busy and we stopped taking road trips.

So this summer we decided to drive to Oklahoma via Utah, still somewhat on a schedule, but still had time to divert to see some sights. Can’t wait until we have time to take out and stop wherever and whenever we want! Our first stop was to visit Hubby’s aunt and uncle in Park City, Utah. They were celebrating their anniversary, but welcomed us with open hearts. They are lovely people and so giving—always loved visiting them. Aren’t they delightful?

Then we visited the Canyonlands and Arches National Parks. Hotter than heck! 102 degrees and would head for any shade we could find. September/October would probably a better time to visit than July but oh my it was worth it! Absolutely beautiful and such red, unearthly formations! See for yourself.

First the Canyonlands. I liked the Canyonlands better than the Arches, less crowded.

Then the Arches

After that we visited relatives in Oklahoma.

And went to Platt National Recreation Area, Oklahoma. Used to be Platt National Park, the smallest national park, when I was growing up. Also used to have sulphur springs but it has dried up.

October we visited our son & daughter-in-law in Massachusetts. Spent two weeks there & visited with old friends too. I am lucky to have bosses & a job that lets me work remotely. We missed the peak fall colors by about a week, but it was still beautiful.

While we were in on the East Coast we drove to Baltimore to a friend’s daughter’s wedding. What an adventure: got lost even with a GPS!

Thanksgiving we took 5 days to drive to visit our other son & daughter-in-law in the California Bay Area, stopping along the way, sometimes only driving 80 miles a day. Marvelous! We made it home in one day.

Fern Canyon, Ca. Had to drive through and wade up streams. Good thing we had our Gortex boots.

Somewhere in all the travel we went to Cannon Beach, Oregon.

Whew, now that I look back we did a lot of traveling! More on a few projects I made next time.

Coconut Cream Meringue Pie

sewandsew — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:08:21 +0000

Finished pie

In honor of Father’s Day I decided to do some real cooking. I enjoyed cooking something that didn’t come from a box, but man I forgot what a mess it makes! On the menu: Pecan Crusted Salmon, roasted potatoes, peas and for dessert-Coconut Cream Meringue Pie. I always have a problem with meringue pies–weeping and beading. Only once did I have a successful pie. I found the recipe for Never-Fail Meringue at Allrecipes and decided to give it a try. I will have to let you know tomorrow if it works.

Pie Crust Ingredients (makes 2 10” pie crusts)

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup shortening
8 tablespoons ice cold water
Dry beans, any type. I use black beans (using for pie weights)

Pie Crust Directions

In a bowl, combine flour and salt; cut in shortening until crumbly.

Gradually add water, tossing with a fork until all the flour is moistened and dough almost cleans side of bowl. Be sure to toss and not stir in the water. You may need to use more or less water depending on the humidity of your room.

Form into a ball and divide dough in half. With floured rolling pin on a lightly floured surface, roll the dough 2 inches larger than the inverted pie pan. I use a silpat mat and a silicon rolling pin so that I use minimal amounts of flour to roll the dough out.

Fold pastry into quarters & transfer pastry to pie plate. Unfold and create pastry edge. I like to flute the edges.

Prick the bottom and sides thoroughly with a fork.

Line the dough with foil and pour in the beans until the bottom is covered and goes up the side a little.

Bake at 475° oven for about 5-6 minutes. Remove foil & beans and continue until light golden brown, about another 5-6. Cool crust. OK, this is real-time baking–I burned the edges a bit.

Flatten other dough ball, wrap in plastic wrap. Put in ziplock and freeze for another pie.

Before starting the filling, you need to do step one of the meringue so that it can cool.

Coconut Cream Filling Ingredients

3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups milk
3 egg yolks, beaten *
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup shredded coconut

Filling Directions

*Cold eggs separate more easily than those at room temperature because the whites hold together better. To separate the egg: crack the egg and hold the shell halves over a bowl. Transfer the yolk back and forth between the halves, letting the white drop into the bowl. Make sure the yolk does not break and that not a speck of yolk gets in the egg white or else the egg whites will not whip up properly for the meringue. If you do get some yolk in the whites, fish it out with the egg shell, not your fingers. It is a good idea to do one egg at a time, transferring the egg white to another bowl after you finish separating in case you have major yolkage in the whites. Let the egg whites warm up to room temperature (70 degrees) before whipping for meringue.

In a large saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Mix well, then slowly whisk in milk until smooth. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

To temper the eggs, blend a small amount of hot mixture into egg yolks, blending well. This is an important step so that the eggs do not cook upon contact with the hot milk mixture and form lumps. Add yolk mixture to hot mixture, blending well. Cook until mixture just begins to bubble, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

Stir butter or margarine and vanilla extract into mixture. Add shredded coconut and mix thoroughly. Keep hot while you make the meringue.

Never-Fail Meringue Ingredients

1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons cold water
1/2 cup boiling water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 egg whites
6 tablespoons white sugar
1 pinch salt

Meringue Directions

Blend cornstarch and cold water in a saucepan. Add boiling water, and cook until thick and clear. Cool completely.

Copper, stainless-steel, or glass bowls work best for making meringues and should be clean, completely grease-free and dry. Same for any utensils/beaters. Beat egg whites till foamy.

Gradually beat in sugar, beating on high speed until soft peaks form (peaks with tips that curl over when the beaters are lifted). Add cornstartch mixture 1 tablespoon at a time. Continue beating until stiff and glossy (forms peaks with tips that stand straight when the beaters are lifted). Do not stop halfway to take a break.

Add salt and vanilla, mixing well.

Pour hot cream filling into the baked crust. The filling should be hot because it helps cook the bottom of the meringue. Top with the meringue; be sure to spread to the edge of the crust to seal (helps to prevent shrinkage and weeping). Bake at 350° F for 10 minutes.

Refrigerate pie for at least 3 hours.

Pie Filling Variations:

Butterscotch Cream Pie: Substitute firmly packed brown sugar for white sugar.
Chocolate Cream Pie: Increase sugar to 1 Cup and add 2 oz. unsweetened chocolate to filling mixture before cooking.
Vanilla Cream Pie: Omit coconut.

TIP: Sweating, beading, weeping, or moisture droplets: When water seeps between the filling and the meringue, the pie is weeping. Weeping is a common problem with meringue pies, but it is avoidable.

This is caused by over baking the meringue. When egg whites bake too long, they begin to tighten, squeezing out little drops of moisture.
Meringues will also weep if there’s any undissolved sugar. I like to use superfine sugar when making meringue because it dissolves faster than table sugar.
Over-baking also produces a tough meringue. Meringue needs to be cooked to 160 degrees F but not so long that they are overdone. Lower the oven heat and bake for a shorter time. Bake meringues just until they are light brown and dry to the touch. It can also be caused by under- or over-mixing, or too little sugar was used.
Also frequently occurs when beaten meringue is spooned onto a cool filling. Be sure to place the meringue on the filling while it is hot. The residual heat carried by the filling cooks the base of the meringue ever so slightly, making it less prone to leaking or shrinking.

P.S. UPDATE: My pie did weep a bit but not as much as it used to.

Recycled Jean Purse Tutorial

sewandsew — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 23:54:28 +0000

OK, my first stab at a tutorial. I had been wanting to create a bag from old blue jeans but didn’t want to spend a lot of money buying a pair. I have been reading other blogs about thrifting where the blogger bought clothes and craft supplies for $.25, $.50, etc. in thrift shops. We must have a higher class of stores because the least I could find was for $5.00. Where oh where is the rummage sale I used to help with at my church in New England— pants were no more than $.50 each!! Well, a neighbor had a yard sale and I bought a pair of her little girl’s jeans, about a size 5 I think.

Girl's jeans

The pair of pants even had side pockets on the jeans. I cut those off and will make a phone or iPod carrier with them later.

Side Pocket

Pin the waistband together with the top edges even. This will keep it from shifting when cutting off the legs. Draw a line across the body of the jeans just above the crotch and enough below the back pockets for a seam allowance.Cut along the this line.

Cut along red dashed line

Be sure to leave enough below the back pockets for a seam allowance. I had only about 1/4″.

Back of jeans after cutting

The depth of the pants from the waist to the crotch was too short for a purse (for me anyway) so I decided to extend the length with extra fabric. I had a placemat with matching napkins I wasn’t using so I used the placemat for the bottom of the outside of the purse and used the napkins for the inside pockets, including a zippered pocket.

Top of cut off jeans, placemat, napkin

Measure the diameter of the bottom of the cut off jeans. Divide by 2 and add 1″ for seams (assuming 1/2″ seams); this will be your width. Decide on how much extra length you want for the bag and add 1′ for seams and 1 1/2″ for the bottom ; this will be your height. Cut out your pieces and stitch along the two “height” sides and along one of the “width” sides. My placemats were unraveling like crazy so I had to zig-zag the edges.Red dashed line indicates seam line.

Stitch along red dashed lines

I wanted a boxy bottom. To do this, form a triangle by aligning the side and bottom seams together at the corners of the bottom piece; be sure the seams are pressed open. I wanted a 3″ wide bottom so I measure up from the tip of the triangle 1 1/2″ (remember your geometry?) to determine my seam line. Craftapple has a tutorial that might explain it better.

Stitch on red dashed line

Trim off the triangular tab. Zig-zag edge.

Sew the bottom (placemat) to the cutoff jean top, right sides together matching side seams and stitch together. I used a 1/4″ seam since that was the amount I had to work with (see the part about cutting off below the back pockets). I pressed the seam toward the bottom and then topstitched to keep in place. I also decided to add yellow bias tape on top of this seam as decoration. The picture does not show this since I decided to stitch the trim on much later in the process. Best to do it now.

Top and bottom sewn together

Now it is time to create the lining. Height (H)= measurement from the top of the bag down to the seam at the bottom of the bag + 1″ for seams. I actually added a little more and fudged with it later. Remember, if you decide to make your own all the measurements depend on the size of jeans you are using. Width (W) = diameter of bag/2 + 1″ for seams. For my bag H =15″ and W = 13″. Cut 2 piece of lining and 2 pieces of thin batting. Baste the batting to the wrong side of lining.

We are going to create a double pocket on one side of the lining (I used one of the matching napkins). The pocket will be the width (W) of the lining and a depth (D) = to your liking times two + 1″ for seams. Fold right sides together so that your piece measures W by D. Stitch along the edge opposite the folded edge using a 1/2″ seam. Turn inside out and place on lining. I placed it 2″ above the bottom of the lining so that it would just touch the bottom of the bag when completed. Remember, my bag was going to have a 3″ bottom, so 1/2 of that is 1 1/2″ and then added 1/2″ seam allowance.

Stitch along dashed lines

Now we are going to do a zippered inner pocket using the other piece of lining. There is an excellent tutorial here at U-Handblog and explains it much better than I can. Instead of using 2 pieces of the pocket lining, I just doubled the depth and folded it up after stitching in the zipper. I will, however, try to explain. I cut the lining 9″ x 14″. I placed the top of the pocket lining about 3″ down from the top of the lining, centering and right sides together. About 2″ down from the top of the pocket lining, draw a line centered on the pocket lining 7″ long (the length of my zipper). Draw a line 1/2″ above and below that line. Form a rectangle using those lines and stitch. Cut at the middle line and little triangles (see below picture). P.S. Sew, Mama, Sew has the instructions for the slip pocket, the zipper pocket, and how to insert a magnetic clasp.

Pocket Lining

Here is a closer view.

Stitch along dashed lines and cut along solid line

Push pocket lining through to wrong side of purse lining and press.

close up after pressed

Insert zipper behind the opening you just formed, pin, and stitch along the edge of the opening.

Zipper sewn in

View of wrong side after zipper is sewn in.

Back of purse lining

Fold bottom edge of pocket lining up to match top edge to form a 9″ x 7″ rectangle. Stitch along the 3 non-folded edges. Put the two purse lining pieces right sides together and stitch along the two side seams and along the bottom. Form a boxy bottom as described above.

This is a picture of the lining with the double pocket side.

double pocket side of lining

and here is a picture of the zippered pocket side of the lining. The magnetic snap should be inserted here as described in the above link.

zippered pocket side of lining

I used yellow bias binding for a trim over the seam joining the jean top and the placemat bottom so I used it also for the tabs on the sides of the purse that the strap handle will be connected to using some quick links I got at Home Depot. Decide how long you want the tabs, multiply by 4 and then add 2″ for seams. Fold over the bias once with wrong sides together, ends even and edge stitch. Fold in half again and attach to the jean top section using the 1″ seam. Reinforce well, stitching in an “X” pattern.

Quick Links and Bias Tape used

Do a dry fit of the lining inside of the outer purse. I had to do some fudging of the lining by adjusting the side seams to make it fit well. Fold over the top of the lining and sew the lining to the jean purse, wrong sides together. I left a little of the lining peaking over the edge to make it look like piping. The thickness of the waistband on the jeans and the lining was too much for my machine so I had to hand sew the lining in.

Lining pinned inside the purse

For the straps I cut strips 2″ wide from the leg, enough so that when pieced together it made a 2″ x 44″ piece. Also cut a 2″ x 44″ from the lining fabric. Fold the long edges of each piece to the center. This makes the strap 1″ wide, which will fit through the quick link.

Strap pieces, long sides folded to the center

Pin the wrong sides together of the strap pieces and edge stitch.

Strap pieces sewn together

Fold over end about 1/2″ and then fold over again about 3/4″ to form the casing to insert the quick link.

Ends of Strap

Attach strap to the yellow tabs on the purse and you are done!!

Finished purse

Inside of finished purse

I can tell you this, writing a tutorial is hard work!! I had to keep remembering to take pictures as I was sewing. Also, I have no list of pieces to cut out since I made this up as I went.

Diaper Bag

sewandsew — Thu, 28 May 2009 05:28:11 +0000

Well, as you can see I was busy over the holiday weekend. We are having a baby shower for one of my colleagues at work next week and I wanted to make her something. I used Butterick Pattern #4560 and it took forever to cut out all the pieces. First of all, the pattern had pieces for a bag A and a bag B, yet the instructions were the same. Finally figured out the only difference was that bag A’s fabric had to be interfaced with batting and bag B used prequilted fabric. I used magnetic closures instead of Velcro.

I wanted to use a fabric that was not babyish so that the bag could still be used for a tote later on. It has a ton of pockets to organize both the inside and outside. I had to “adapt” because of some mistakes I made. The one pocket with the flap on the outside of the bag is shorter than it should have been. I put the flap in the wrong place and it was easier making the pocket shorter than riping out the flap and redoing. I had also twisted the strap and didn’t catch it until the bag was completely lined. Boo-hoo!

I shortened the strap by 6″ when I fixed it and reinforced the handle ends with an “X” stitching. I had wanted to make it an adjustable strap but it was too thick. I think next time I make this bag I will put piping around the flaps or make the body of the bag with a different fabric than the flap. With the fabric I used it all blends together too much.

Anyway, I am pleased at how it turned out and hope my friend likes it.