improvisation quilts

Sewing quilts has always been a daunting idea to me. The precision of cutting out perfect geometric shapes and stitching them altogether was never appealing, however I looked the patterns and colors of the quilts and wished I could produce my own.  Then, I stumbled upon Susana Allen Hunter and her improvisational quilts.  In the early 1900s, Hunter sewed beautiful quilts mixed in geometric shapes and colors.  She clearly had an eye for color and pattern and her quilts are amazing.  She brings inspiration to those of us not willing to conform to the perfectly squared quilts.

{source images found here}

morning calm

Have you seen the beautiful soaps from Etsy seller, Morning Calm?  Not only are her soaps beautifully crafted, but Hwasoon Kim's photography is also lovely, crisp and clean.  I ordered my first batch of soaps and received them in the mail yesterday.  I LOVE THEM.  They make your face feel soft and clean and they smell beautiful.  I bought a "happy endings" sample set, and the Korean Hwangto Clay soap. I can't wait to order more of these! These are definitely a perfect addition to a Christmas gift... just saying...

{images by hwasoon kim, morning calm}

morning calm: etsy, blog.

an instagram doughnut adventure

Several years ago I decided as a goal in life, to become a doughnut connoisseur.  I wanted to "master" the doughnut and open up my own doughnut shop.  Original? No... but fresh, natural doughnuts does sound good, doesn't it?  At first I wanted to call this doughnut shop "O'Henry's" mainly because I wanted to tagline to be a reference from Gilmore Girls when Rory says "More twists than O'Henry!"  That line satisfies the English major in me and both the television geek in me. I would stick with it, except for the fact that O'Henry is a famous candy bar.... but I digress.  After a couple failed attempts at some doughnuts recipes, fried, baked and all that - I stopped making doughnuts.  The inside was either undercooked, or the outside too brown, the texture wasn't soft and airy... I could go on.  Finally on a whim, I bought Seattle's Lara Ferroni's doughnut book.  You may have remembered the sour cream doughnuts I blogged about here.  Those were okay.  These basic raised doughnuts, however, are AMAZING. Unfortunately the lighting was particularly bad when I photographed these, so, you'll have to bare with the instagram look.

BASIC RAISED DOUGHNUTS

with

VANILLA BEAN PASTRY CREAM

+ the recipe +

fall french toast

Since the beginning of October I have been searching out canned pumpkin puree in the Montreal markets - I have yet to be successful.  So far I've come across canned pumpkin pie mix, but I will never (NEVER) resort to that, hopefully.  I have an assortment of pumpkin recipes on my Pinterest board that I have yet to use this year and it really makes me sad.  Breakfast recipes such as pumpkin french toast or pumpkin pancakes always sounds like the perfect weekend morning, but so far, no luck.  So, rather than sulk and deprive myself of breakfast, I decided to make french toast, 100% from scratch.

To start, I made a light, brioche-styled loaf called Sally Lunn bread.  This can be found on Smitten Kitchen.  I do not normally make bread, as I have a husband that has managed to become quite an expert in bread baking.  However, this recipe seemed easy enough and I prayed that the rising would come through. It did!  The bread baked beautifully and it made FANTASTIC french toast. Hopefully soon I will make the accompanying honeyed brown butter spread.  If you want some lightly sweet bread for either toast or bread pudding, I highly recommend this bread.

P.S. Do you like my maple syrup pot?  You should. It's made by Montreal artist Marianne Chenard. Normally her maple syrup pots have really beautiful illustrations on the ceramics, but this past Puce Pop Craft Fair she had made limited run white ceramic pots with woodgrain like grooves which I couldn't resist.  I love it!  Plus it holds exactly 1 can of Quebec maple syrup, so storage is made easy.

To make French toast a little more "fall festive" I like to add cinnamon and nutmeg to the egg/milk mixture.  Enjoy!  And make sure to take advantage of all the pumpkin cuisine out there while you still can!

preparation for halloween

It's been awhile since I've blogged again - no thanks to work and school, but during this time away from Blogger, I've been thinking about halloween costumes.  After watching Fantastic Mr. Fox again, I decided an easy, comfortable and most importantly warm costume for me this year would be Ash.  It'd be a relatively cheap costume, too.  All you need are some white sweatpants, a white cardigan, a makeshift cape, an "A" felt patch and possible 2 sets of tube socks (2 cut to fit your face).  If you really go the distance, buy this amazing felted fox hat on Etsy.  Here are some findings I've discovered for my costume (as long as I have a party to go to).  What are your costumes going to be this year?
'

Ash costume by hollin featuring elastic pants

American Apparel stripe socks, $8
Forever21 elastic pants, $14
CARDIGAN WITH BUTTONS - Collection - Knitwear - Collection - Woman -..., 46 CAD

Ash costume

Ash costume by hollin featuring stripe socks

Forever21 elastic pants
$14 - forever21.com

American Apparel stripe socks
$8 - americanapparel.net

CARDIGAN WITH BUTTONS - Collection - Knitwear - Collection - Woman -...
46 CAD - zara.com

ricotta drop doughnuts

I can't seem to manage my time efficiently.  It's not that I'm just lazing off - I'm doing things.  However when all of your time is being pulled in different directions all at once - working on homework for 10 minutes then working on photos for 10 minutes... it doesn't seem like anything will get done!

So what do I do?  I go to Jean Talon Marche, buy some ingredients and then I make ricotta drop doughnuts.  I used Lara Ferroni's Doughnut book and I have to say I was quite pleased with the results.

RICOTTA DROP DOUGHNUTS

Vegetable oil for frying
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup superfine sugar
1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest (I didn't have any so I used orange zest)
3 eggs
8 ounces ricotta cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Make the doughnuts: Sift the flour and baking powder into a medium bowl. Stir in the sugar, lemon zest, eggs, ricotta and vanilla, mixing just enough to combine. Do not over mix. 
The batter can be used immediately or stored up to 1 day covered in the refrigerator.


To fry, heat at least 2 inches of oil in a heavy-bottomed pot until a deep-fat thermometer registers 360 degrees F. 


Drop tablespoon-size dollops directly into the oil and fry for about 45 seconds per side, or until golden brown. (I had some issues with dough in the middle of my doughnuts. I ended up frying these drops for about 1 minute - 1 minutes and 30 seconds each side).


Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on a wire rack. Repeat with the remaining batter. Let cool slightly. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar
Recipe Page