Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Catching Up: Pumpkins and Pennants

I've been back in the kitchen cooking.  This is what happens when there is a chill in the air!  We're in need of some comfort food.  

Apples were a bust this year with the early warm temperatures bringing out the blossoms only to get clobbered by several hard frosts.  To compensate for the lack of apples, I am diverting my attention to pumpkins.  Here is the best recipe for a pumpkin bread.  It is a yeast bread that is super easy and the texture is wonderful. There are raisins and ginger in the dough.  The ginger is a wonderful compliment to the pumpkin flavor.

Be sure to plump your raisins before you add them to your dough.  You can do this by taking your raisins and placing them in a bowl with a few tablespoons of water.  Cover and microwave for two minutes on high.  Let them cool before adding to your dough.  If you add dry raisins to your dough they will absorb the moisture from your bread and make it dry.   I brushed the top of my braids with butter and then sprinkled raw sugar to the top before baking.    

My husband is not fond of pumpkin and he thinks this bread is delicious.  Thank you again King Arthur Flour for having the best recipes and products!

Next month is my daughter's wedding.  I got an email from her the other day announcing she had forgotten all about decorating the outside area of the arboretum where the wedding ceremony will take place.  Could I make some wedding banners to block off the chairs from the center isle?

Let see, I've been collecting lace, hankies and tatting for over a year now, I'm sure I have something in my sewing room.

Some wonderful NOS hankies.  Also, some great embroidered organdy from the 1950's.

This is some vintage bias tape with the right patina to go with the vintage lace.  If you ever get discouraged going to the grocery store to find the one pound bag of coffee (16 ounces) is no longer 12 ounces, but now 10 ounces, realize this sales merchandizing of providing less product for more money has been going on since Capitalism was invented.  Notice the bias tape package went from 10 yards to 8 yards.  I bet those home sewers were upset!!!
One of the doilies I cut up looks like a heart. 


So off to the sewing room.  Three banners made, three to go.......

1 comment:

  1. It's as if you'd planned to make that banner all along. So pretty!

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