makings for a cozy quilt

Today has been an interesting day.  The area has had more rain in a morning then ever recorded for a day.  There are areas that got they monthly rainfall per hour over an eight hour period.  People are complaining about the flooding but it is better then it has been in the past with less water.  There is still damage.  People lost homes.  Lost cars.  People died.  There were rescues.  But we did get through.

I walked to work and home.  I decided that I would take less risk on foot then on my bicycle.  I waited until the lightening lessened to start.  It was not a bad walk and I got to work damp.  Work was not closed but there were very few people who were able to get in.  The rain stopped by the time I started home but I still used my umbrella because I had forgotten my sunglasses.  People were out watching the water rushing through the bayous on my path home.  I just wanted to be home.

Home was about a comforting soup and tea.  Sometimes cozy is needed.  The Tall Short Person asked for a cozy quilt recently.  So while we were out watching very fast motorbikes, I stopped a different fabric shop in a different town which means different buyers.  I have always found the buyers for this shop much edgier which is going make a fun cozy quilt for her.  I know I bought too much but that is how it goes.  It was all her favorite colours!

The yarn is what I spun on the hill watching fast motorbikes.  I had to document it, did I not?

Possibility of three more inches of rain tonight and tomorrow.  It will be mostly okay.

galette perougienne

Being away all weekend watching fast motorbikes and then coming back to layoffs at work means that all I have wanted to do is have my hands in dough.  Notice that is not even a past tense!  My stomach was tied up into knots so hard this week that yesterday was the first day that I even felt like eating and it still did not settle well.  The whole building where I work feels pretty shell shocked.  It is very quiet.

Before we left for the races, I had borrowed a cookbook from the library, A Kitchen in France, by Mimi Thorisson.  I read her blog occasionally.  I come back to it every few months and read back to where I last read.  I love the pictures.  Most of the recipes do not inspire me to make but that is just me.  In the cookbook, there is a recipe for galette perougienne.  One of those very old fashioned bready cakes, medieval in fact.

 

I decided to give it a try.  And it was not an epic failure but the dough did not come together the way I thought it should.  I do make galette bressame.  They are similar.  And I used the weight measures which is normally pretty foolproof.  Not in this case, on this day for me.  But saying all of that, the cake was good enough that it all got eaten in days and I had ideas on how to improve it.

I used my sourdough recipe for galette bressame, using weights because I have been enjoying them since I picked up Bien Cuit for myself at Christmas.  I used a thicker levain because I do like the once that are almost a dough into themselves.  I brought brought the flavor of lemon and the topping from Mimi Thorisson's galette perouginenne.  This is my type of cake.  The Tall Short Person would say this tastes even more like a sugar brioche so why not eat it for breakfast?  Or eat it with your favorite port after a lovely dinner.  It may be tacos but why not cake and port after dinner?  Just why not?

galette perouginne

Note:  The inspiration comes from Mimi Thorissen, A Kitchen in France.  The recipe was very close to my galette bressame recipe.  I did use a levain, of course.

sourdough starter

75 grams (about 1/2 cup) whole wheat flour

75 (about 3/8 cup) grams water

170 grams flour plus extra for kneading (1 to 2 cups)

1 egg

80 grams (about more then a 1/3 cup) butter

30 grams (2 tablespoons) sugar

zest of one lemon

1 pinch salt (two finger)

up to 75 grams (6 tablespoons) sugar

up to 60 grams (4 tablespoons) butter

8 to 12 hours before you wish to start mixing the dough, combine the sourdough starter, 75 grams flour, and 75 grams water in a large bowl.  Cover and let ferment.  This is a cake that is nice warm after dinner.  Sitting a few minutes after baking to eat.  Start it in the morning to eat after dinner, if you chose to skip the refrigeration step.  I do silly things like that!

After 8 to 12 hours, remove a bit of starter for next time.  In the remaining sponge, mix the 20 grams sugar,  80 grams butter, egg, lemon, and salt.  Mix in enough flour to make a soft dough.  Knead for until smooth, less then five minutes.  Put in a large plastic bag and refrigerate for 24 to 48 hours.

After refrigeration, cover a baking sheet with edges with parchment paper.  Roll the dough out until it is 1/2 inch thick and about 9 inches across.  Cover and let rise for two hours or until very puffy in a warm spot.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Sprinkle the 6 tablespoons of sugar on top.  I found this was too much but go for it!  Dap with the 4 tablespoons of butter.  For the size I made, this was also too much for me but why not!

(Honestly, I just need more cake and it has been a week.)

Bake for 15 minutes. Until the butter is carmelizing.

Cake.  I could live on this cake with tea.  I need to make more cake.

a birthday gift from me to me

I have been wanting a yellow/mustard/turmeric sweater.  Cardigan.  I have looked at yarns online and have decided that I am really going to see yarn in person.  Or roving.  I could make my own yarn just like I have been doing.  A lady at work was in my office yesterday was telling me how pretty my yarn was.  I said it is not yarn but roving and I was making the yarn.  I have been spinning at lunch while listening to audiobooks.  Her comment was "You told me you make your own yarn.  You make your own yarn!  Oooo.  Wow!"  So a roving in the right color would be okay.

But as I was looking at yarn colors I came across Cascade's Straw.  Not quite right but interesting.  Then on pinterest I came across lilalu's Climb Every Mountain sweater.  Yes, it is knitted.  Yes, straw is not quite right.  Yes, it is not a cardigan.  But I decided liked it.  

So what did I do, I ordered myself a birthday present of the amount of the Cascade 220 in Straw with a third extra to make the sweater in the shape above.  I came across a crocheted sweater on instagram that looked like it could give me a path forward.  I ordered the Japanese mook (not a misspelling) that the pattern was in.  

And then I started.  Count.  Measure.  Rip out.  Repeat.

I may be getting there.  It joined me for two days on a first turn hill as I watched very fast motorbikes go around.  One day I misplaced the crochet hook so I spun yarn.  I got some looks while spinning on the hill.  More then when I crochet.  It has grown.  

The sweater will not be ready for my next gallivanting.  At least not to wear.  Unless I decide to sit and crochet all weekend.  I would rather spin and sew.  I miss both my spinning wheel and sewing machine after a week away.  But it may be a very nice compactish project to take with me.  If it is done while I am traveling, I can wear it home. 

Traveling.  Alone.  What a treat.  And possiblities of the correct colored roving.

chemise experimentation

I have been experimenting with chemises.  So far, I would say nothing is perfect.  I have two wearable experimentations but nothing that I would say, yes, I may repeat this.  The first was a bit short and the neckline too high to go under dresses.  It is a good thing I have interesting fabrics that would make good experimental runs in my stash.

This one, I had to shorten so it would not show under my dresses.  The darts feel like they are at my waist which they really should not be.  And the lower edge of the armhole also feels like it half way to my waist.  Way too low.  

And the print.  Why did I ever buy this print?  It is so not me.  I was thinking beach dress but even then I do not think I would have ever worn it.  No wonder it was still in my stash!  It is a chemise in my world gets covered by another dress.  

I better ideas now.  I have another piece of silky print that I keep going, why did I buy this.  I know, beach dress, but I would have never worn it.  But it will allow the experimentation to continue.  At least it means I have chemises for the weekends.  Someday I will actually get the pattern right and be able to buy white silk.  White is my favorite colour for a chemise.

blood orange tequila beverage

Since the Maker's Market and the finishing of the last quilt, I have not felt creative.  If not creative means sitting at my spinning wheel and making yarn.  Or crocheting sweaters.  I just needed a different kind of creative but it is not very picture worthy.  I am still working on a quilt because I never make anything easy the back has many pieces.  I am just being slow.  Maybe next week. 

I have not wanted to be creative in the kitchen but want to make doughs with yeastie beasties.  Nothing really very new just beasties.  Next week there will be more time because this weekend there will be many motorbikes in many forms.  Not very surprising for this time of the year.  I will not even have the time to be in this space for the rest of the week.  Just many motorbikes.

After the quilts were finished and shown, I had a day and evening to myself.  No family.  I made myself a salad and needed to use blood oranges so I made something similar to a margarita but it was not a margarita.  Tasty but refreshing.  I am writing it down for next year when blood oranges are in season again.

blood orange tequila beverage

juice of three blood oranges

1 to 2 tablespoons lime juice or to taste

1 to 2 tablespoons agave or to taste

2 ounces tequila

ice

a bit of ginger soda

Mix the blood orange juice, lime juice, and agave.  Start with the smaller bits and taste.  Adjust to your taste.  Add tequila.  Mix.  Pour into an eight ounce glass.  Add six small ice cubes.  Pour in enough ginger soda to fill the glass or to your taste.

Lovely on a quiet weekend evening.