36 Stitches . . .

Jaden's 1st Birthday

2011-07-22T20:34:00.000-07:00

My friends, Jim and Yeni, have the most adorable and chubby child, Jaden. He's a total sweetheart because the first sound that came out of his mouth after I asked him how was my cooking? Jaden at nine months old with his mouth full and a big happy grin said "MMMMM -MMMMMM". Right there and then I knew he belonged in my foodie circle.

Jaden is celebrating his first birthday tomorrow and his mother asked me to make some traditional Korean items for his dol, doljanchi or tol, toljiabee, where his mother will put several different objects and he will choose one of these items up, and supposedly it will predict the child's future profession in life:

a large spool of thread = long life

book & pencil = good scholar

computer mouse = computer programmer aka Microsoft, because his father works there

stethoscope = doctor

gravel = lawyer/judge

I had a lot of help from my friend Evelyn who I sew with every Friday, and we were able to construct everything in one day. Jaden's birthday theme color is blue and yellow, thus all the toys were made with blue and yellow felt. We even had some blue and yellow polka dot felt that we incorporate into the plush toys.

Luckily it was one of those rare warm and sunny days in Seattle and I was able to shoot these photos.

Here is spool and thread with a lucky knot and his initial, J

His little book

Stethoscope, my friend Chara, came up with this great way to make the stethoscope more obvious. She said to embroider "Dr. J" on it and now it looks more doctorly, don't you think?

With the gravel, I kept it simple and ended up embroidering the polka dots to give it more texture.

Pencil with "No. 1" to celebrate his first birthday

Here's his pencil and book with the first page having the number one to celebrate his first birthday. I think next year I will make a number "2" page to add to his book and so forth, and hopefully he will have a cute number book where he can learn his numbers later on.

and finally the computer mouse with his initial, J

surprisingly I ended up liking this photo the best, because the mouse looks like a cute little fat mouse's butt, tee hee

I'm pretty sure whatever Jaden will choose tomorrow, he will have a successful career because he's such a cute, smart kid!

Pretty Pillows

2011-07-20T12:14:00.000-07:00

I'm slowly phasing out pastel colors into more bold colors in my living room. Currently it's more light teal, yellow and pink and now I'm adding more blacks, deeper teal, red and gold and hopefully purple into the mix. Here are some pillows that I made yesterday with My folklore by Lecien.

I love the little details on this fabric. So many wonderful and cute details to look at! Here's a close up of the little horses, birds and flowers

Combining Sewing + Cooking

2011-07-14T23:16:00.000-07:00

And this is what you get :)

Tonight I spent the evening baking some cookies and packaging them into some glassine bags. I then made some cute labels with the name of the cookies on the back and sealed the bag up by sewing some zig zag line with the tag on it. I'm really happy with how they turned out.

these were the cookies that I made:

Snickernoodles

Oatmeal cookies with buttered pecans + dried blueberries

Espresso Chocolate Apricot cookies

These cookies are going to a Garage + Bake Sale Fundraiser to benefit Susan G Komen 3 Day for the Cure this weekend. I hope they raise a lot of money and people will enjoy these little treats.

I especially love how I was able to combine my two love of sewing and cooking to create these fun bags. I really enjoyed how the colored threads made the bags look fun and festive!

Sunny Happy Yellow

2011-06-22T23:14:00.000-07:00

My love affair with the color yellow has gone a long way, ever since I was very young. I have always been attracted to this color, specifically PANTONE® 14-0848, and like all affairs you fall in and out of love. For awhile it was pink, then orange, then green, then I had a very quick affair with purple, and fortunately I am back in love with yellow. When I look at it it just make me super happy and always put a smile on face, so I'm putting more happy yellow in my life. Starting with this lawn chair.

I bought this chair for $1 at a church rummage sale a couple of months ago on a trip down to Portland with some friends. While down there, we stopped by Fabric Depot and I found this incredible happy summery linen fabric to cover it! The following week, with the help of my friend, Chara, on a non-rainy day in Seattle, we sprayed and sprayed it and prayed it would not rain, and luckily it held out. Then I had to wait until it dried and I kind of forgot about it until yesterday when I pulled it out and said I have a fun fabric that needs you. I dusted off my sewing machine and made a top and bottom cover. Now if only the weather would warm up and the sun would come out.

Sweet Innocence

2011-05-17T16:44:00.000-07:00

My love for Jen Corace goes way back and it all started with Tiny Showcase. I probably have a seven or so prints plus a book illustrated and signed by her. They all are just so beautiful and lovely. Here is her latest called Anesthesia. You should hop over to Tiny Showcase quick where they are selling only one hundred prints. I just brought mine and they are selling fast! So hurry!

Lazy...

2011-05-09T22:59:00.000-07:00

I think I ran into a hump or is it a lump (I feel like a lump right now sitting on the couch), where I am just lazy and unmotivated to do anything, even <gasp> cook! Well actually the only thing I have been doing lately is hand quilting an incredibly large king size quilt that I started almost two weeks ago and now in the stage of hand quilting, but I'm almost done - maybe two more hours and I will be done! Woohoo! It's so big that I can't properly spread the quilt completely out. The quilt probably has eleven or twelve yards of fabric, not including the batting, just the front and back! I had to go to my friend's, Evelyn, house and baste the quilt. I have to admit it, I am in love with it. It's colorful and so happy. I smile whenever I touch and look at it.

The fabric line is from Anna Maria Horner's Little Folk and it's voile cotton. I can't tell you how pleasurable and soft this fabric is. I wish I had enough to make a blouse. The colors are just beautiful and it's buttery soft. Sorry for the fuzziness of this pic. I took this with my Windows 7 phone, the Samsung Focus. Here they are laid out so I can reorganize and sew them together. They actually did not end up looking like the below pic.

I can't wait to show you the quilt when it is all finished. The binding fabric is all picked out, it just need to be cut and sew together. I'm getting giddy just thinking about it :)

My favorite meal of the day...Brunch

2011-04-28T12:43:00.000-07:00

Breakfast + Lunch = Brunch

Me + Brunch = Happiness

Brunch meet duck frittata. For our Easter lunch I made a simple frittata and kick it up a knot with some leftover Peking style duck that I roasted on Friday. A frittata is just like a quiche but without the crust. I like to start the frittata on the stovetop and then finish it in the oven to get a nice brown exterior, so make sure your pan has an ovenproof handle.

This recipe is very versatile - just change your ingredients but keep the base the same. I used a 10 inch nonstick skillet and preheat your oven to 425.

Base

8 large eggs

A splash of milk or half and half (whatever you have on hand)

Salt and Pepper

With a large wire balloon whisk you want to whisk the eggs to incorporate lots of air to make the resulting frittata nice and fluffy

Ingredients

1/2 small red onion, minced

1 clove of garlic, minced

2 large button mushroom, sliced 1/4 thick

1 cup of fresh spinach

1 small tomato, diced

1 scallions, sliced into thin rounds

1/2 cup of sage cheddar cheese, diced

1/2 cup of shredded duck

With the pan on high heat, no oil, cook your mushrooms. Leave the mushrooms alone and let them brown and watch as they release their juices. This will help your frittata from getting soggy. Flip to the other side and brown the other side.

Lower your heat to medium and add one tablespoon of olive oil. Add your onions and saute until soft, then add your garlic and cook for one more minute.

Lower your heat to medium low and add the duck and spinach and cook it for one minute. Next add your tomato and scallions to your egg mixture and slowly pour it into your hot pan.

With your spatula gently run your spatula from the edge of the pan to the center until the frittata is slightly set.

Turn off the heat and spread your cheese evenly on top and put it in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes until the cheese melted and the top is golden.

Take it out of the oven and run your spatula around the skillet to loosen the frittata.

Invert your frittata onto a plate and serve with a simple spinach salad.

Photo Wednesday

2011-04-27T22:21:00.000-07:00

Golden Goodness filled with lots of dark, milk and white chocolates

and three delicious salted chocolate cookies!

I love this last picture. It seems as one of the baby chicks is having a conversation with the bunny on how big the egg is and asking the bunny many questions about it and asking the infamous "Why?" question that all kids uses.

Available to purchase only at the Bellevue Fuji Bakery Store until the end of the month for $18.

Paper Record Player as a Wedding Invitation? Yup

2011-04-27T18:28:00.000-07:00

How cool and insane is this wedding invitation? and the cool part it actually plays a song!

A Paper Record Player : Kelli Anderson

Please go to her website and check out all the great details of this amazing wedding invitation.

Tis the Season...to garden!

2011-04-27T18:12:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately I live in a townhome and do not have any personal space to garden, except on my deck. My deck is loaded with containers filled peonies, honeysuckles, lilies, and jasmines that are interspersed with various types of herbs from shiso, mints, oregano, thyme, rosemary, parsley, sage, little delicious Alpine strawberries, and more flowers!

Luckily I live close in an area where there is a communal garden, the P-Patch. The term "P-Patch" originated in the Seattle area and refers to an urban communal public site that provides small leased plots to individuals for organic gardening. The “P” in P-patch stands for Picardo. The original Seattle P-Patch was Raine Picardo’s 2.5 acre farm, located in Seattle’s Wedgewood neighborhood. The P-patch program was developed during the hard economic times of the early 1970s as a way for people to grow and share their harvest with neighbors and friends.

There are currently 73 P-Patch sites in the Seattle area and every one of them is unique. If you have not wandered to your local P-Patch plot yet, you should make an effort to do so in the near future, as most of them are open year round. It’s a great place to meet and talk to gardeners of various skill levels. Most people are very open to sharing advice and plants with you, so just ask!

If you are looking for your very own plot, check out the Seattle.gov P-Patch site for more information and to find the nearest P-Patch in your area. The cost is minimal and is usually just an annual fee with a chance for renewal each year.

This is my third year at my little patch. This year I brought lots of seeds packets to plant this year along with a detail planting sketch and hopefully, I will not deviate from, like I did the previous two years. I mainly order my seeds from Johnny's Selected Seeds, which I found to be a very reliable seed and plant source with organic and heirloom choices.

Hopefully you have studiously weeded out your garden before they go to seed. Now is the time to plant your peas, beets, onions, carrots, lettuces, and mustard greens. Also think about what items that you need to sow indoors to transplant later like your squashes and pumpkins, and remember now is NOT the time to plant your tomatoes, wait until after Mother's Day - be patience and you will be rewarded with plump juicy tomatoes later this summer!

Busted yolks never tasted so good

2011-04-20T22:04:00.000-07:00

I adore this version of a breakfast egg sandwich from Hi Life in Ballard, simple but with tons of flavors. The egg is fried with herbed breadcrumbs and then splash with Tutto Calabria chile oil, Beaufor vinegar and sandwich between layer with fresh baked English muffin, home made pork sausage and of course Tillamook cheese. It's spicy and tangy and delicious.

You can usually order this Monday thru Friday for breakfast and on request on weekends, which I highly recommend.

Hi Life

5425 Russell Avenue Northwest

Seattle, WA 98107-4015

(206) 784-7272

Milk Sticks, how I adore thee

2011-04-17T13:59:00.000-07:00

These my friend is Fuji Bakery’s Milk Sticks. They are unassuming goodness from my youth and brings wonderful nostalgic with its simple flavors of condense milk spread on good baguette. I don’t know about you, but growing up my mother would give my siblings and I mini baguettes and a bowl of condense milk to snack on after school. Fuji’s simple but sophisticated version of this is small thin 8” baguettes that has been sliced in half and smeared with a combination of whipped butter and condense milk. Trust me, all little kids will love this snack. I know my friend, Enna, who is three year olds loves it and can devour one in just minutes.

The creator of this yummy goodness is Takahito Hirai, or known as Taka. He is the Pastry Chef for Fuji Bakery at the young age of 26. Taka graduated from Tokyo’s Kokusai Seika Senmon Gakko, specializing in breads and French pastries.

My friends, Kendra and Michael, were one of the first people to discover them when they first open and introduced us to this bakery on our way to hike Rattlesnake Mountain. I remember each of us devouring five or six pastries to energize ourselves before our long hike! Good thing we burned a lot of calories on that hike that afternoon.

Once you walk into Fuji Bakery you can smell the amazing varieties of different sweet and savory baguettes from mixed olives, bacon, tomatoes, and chestnut, just to name a few in the store right now. The best part it is ever changing with seasonal fruits and vegetables. Breads are only a small portion of what you can find at Fuji Bakery. They have Japanese inspired French pastries like brioche bread filled with azuki and raspberry jam to give it a subtle tartness, chocolate croissants, and melonpan or pastries known as cookie bread favored with green tea, chocolate, raspberry or just plain! Also they do decorated cakes for special occasion in all sort of flavors, check out their website.

Taka fully believes in using the best and freshest local ingredients, along with organic milk and butter. He scours Pike Place Market, Whole Foods and Farmer’s Market to see what is being grown right now and it inspires him to make unique and delicious bakery goods for his customers.

One of Taka favorite things to make is actually not only the pastries but making a natural starter for his levain, which means he does not use any yeast in making his levain but harvests it naturally from the air.

Another personal favorite you MUST buy is the panettone. It’s not your regular Italian panettone that you usually find around the holidays. It’s filled with plump raisin and citrus peels, and it is light and slightly sweet and just plain decadent, especially if you spread a bit of honey butter on top.

Fuji Bakery is a must visit if you live or visit Seattle and luckily they have two locations, one on the East side and one in Seattle!

SEATTLE (Weekdays 11-7, Saturdays 11-6, and closed on Sundays & Holidays)

526 S. King St.
Seattle, WA 98104
On the corner of 6th & King Street, one block north of Uwajimaya

BELLEVUE (Weekdays 11-7, Saturdays 11-6 and closed on Sundays & Holidays)

526 S. King St.
Seattle, WA 98104
On the corner of 145th & Lake Hills Boulevard, in the same lot as QFC
.

Dobos Torte with Anna

2011-04-14T20:36:00.000-07:00

This is the lovely Anna, currently the pastry chef at Allium & Lily on Orcas. I originally met her at The Herbfarm a couple of years ago baking away fabulous mini desserts and breads early in the morning when I would come by and feed Basil and Borage (The Herbfarm's famous Vietnamese potbellied pigs) or drop off the fresh harvest that we gathered that morning for the evening meal. I would make sure to stop by and say hi to the morning crew and check to see what kind of goodies that were making that day. It was always very interesting and fun to talk to everyone from the front of the house staff to the savory and sweet crew. I do miss working at The Herbfarm, but very happy I made some wonderful friendships that will last a long time.

She came over a few weeks ago and we made this gorgeous delicious torte cake.

Usually you will see this cake as a round cake but by using the rectangular shape it makes it easier to assemble. We made this cake in just under three hours from start to finish. It is a little bit complicated to make but trust me. It is well worth it. The traditional way of making this cake you would piped the cake batter into round circles and then bake. By baking the cake in a 12x17 sheet pan, you can evenly mark and cut up the cake to the specify shape and size that you want.

Cake Batter

6 large eggs, separated and at room temperature

1 Tablespoon water

Pinch of salt

9.5 Tablespoon sugar

9.5 Tablespoon of cake flour, sifted

Grease and line two 12x17 inch half sheet pan with parchment paper.
Whip the egg yolks with half of the sugar, 5 Tablespoon, until ribbon stage (It should be thick and pale yellow)
Whip the egg whites, water and pinch of salt, slowly add the other half of the sugar, 4 Tablespoon, until stiff but not dry
Fold the yolk mixture into the white mixture
Gently fold in the sifted cake flour
Divide the batter between the pans, and then smooth the top and tap the sides a few times to even out
Bake for 10-12 minutes, until golden brown, if necessary rotate the pan half way through
Cover the cakes with a piece of parchment while cooling in order to retain some moisture
Once the cakes have cool down, use a rule and cut the cakes into 8x4 inch pieces, set aside the best piece for the top layer, you should have nine layers.

**Save any cake scrapes for emergency patches.

If some spots are not as thick as the other pieces

Filling

1.5 teaspoon of vanilla extract or ½ vanilla bean

¾ cup powder sugar

6 oz unsalted butter, at room temperature

3 Tablespoon strong coffee

1 large egg

3 oz dark chocolate, we used 70%

Pinch of kosher salt

Mix ¼ cup of the sugar, egg, vanilla extract or bean and coffee over a double boiler until the mixture reaches 140 F and mix in the chocolate until melted and smooth
In a mixer, beat the butter, pinch of salt and ½ cup of the sugar until light and fluffy, add the chocolate mixture and beat until the filling is light and fluffy

Chocolate Buttercream

2 large egg whites

½ cup sugar

6 oz butter at room temperature

3 oz dark chocolate

Pinch of salt

Mix the egg whites, sugar and pinch of salt in the bowl of the mixer over a double boiler until the mixture reaches 140 F
Whip with your KitchenAid mixer until the meringue forms soft glossy peaks
Next add the butter a little at a time until it is well incorporated, keep beating if the mixture looks like ricotta cheese, it will come back together
Melt the chocolate and add it to the butter cream. Mix the mixture with a hand whisk for one minute before putting it back in the KitchenAid and whisking until it is fluffy.

Caramel Layer

½ cup of sugar

** This part you must work quickly; the caramel is extremely hot

and can burn your skin easily - have ice water standing by just in case.

Heat sugar in pan and stir mixture until the sugar is completely dissolved. With a wet pastry brush, wash down the inside of the pan to prevent crystallization. Boil sugar mixture until the syrup turns a lovely amber color or reaches 248 F, about 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
During the last few minutes, watch it carefully because it can burn quickly
Carefully pour the caramel on to the top of the last layer and spread to the edges with an oiled knife. Quickly score the caramel into into eight wedges. Alow to cool slightly and then rescore a little bit deeper with your oiled knife. Allow to cool completely and then cut the wedges up.

Assembly

Fill the eight layers with the chocolate filling. The cake and the filling should be the same thickness, about ¼ inch

** A little secret technique for anyone who OCD like me. If you have a kitchen scale,

this will be your best friend. Have a small bowl and weigh each layer filling.

This will ensure you will have the same thickness for each layer!

Put a little of the filling into a pastry bag and set aside for decorating
Frost the sides with a thin coat of the buttercream; don’t worry about the crumbs, this is a crumb coat
Let the cake firm up in the refrigerator for 10 minutes then frost the cake with the rest of the buttercream
Decorate with the leftover filling and add the caramel portions to the top
Let the cake sit for at least 3 hours to overnight and slice with a hot knife