The Flying Umbrella!

Vogue Knitting LIVE in NYC!

Melt in your mouth brownies. I used this super simple yet consistent recipe from allrecipes.com. it is called “best brownies”.
Sorry i dont have the link. I have to still figure out how to copy and paste with my smart phone.

Happy brownie making!

More jewellery making! I tried to incorporate chains into the design. I’m quite happy the way it turned out! Now I just need some inspiration for my next project :)

Happy beading!

Earrings on ears! I haven’t figured out how to post two pictures on one post with the tumblr app for android. Anyone have any tips?

New homemade earrings to match my necklace! Productive procrastination :D

Hello!! It’s been a long time but here is a necklace I just finished making :) it is made with fresh water pearls and turquoise stone beads. I love this new hobby, but it’s not conducive to air travel with all the wires and pliers!

White Chocolate Blondies

Another great recipe.  A big thank you to Jeff for sending me this amazing recipe!!  

Recipe:  I used  the following link from the Williams-Sonoma website to make these half cookie/half brownie tastey treats. I modified it a bit below:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 3⁄4 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1 1⁄2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 2 1⁄4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 3⁄4 tsp. salt
• 12 oz. White chocolate chips

Directions:

Comments/Modifications:  They need far less cooking time than stated. 20-25 minutes was enough, otherwise they turned almost cakey, rather than chewy.  I also made them with white chocolate chips and then I experimented with m&m’s instead, white chocolate chips were definitely the winner, the m&ms turned into strange melty candy globbs (also tastey, but not so pretty).

These treats were a great portable snack and also are amazing with icecream!

Happy blondie making :)

Pizza Dough

At long last, I have the recipe for the perfect pizza dough.  Here it is, my recipe for super quick, consistently tasty, fluffy, yet crispy crust! 

This recipe is enough for a 12’ round or an 8’x13’ rectangular baking sheet.

Ingredients:

1 cup of very warm water

2 1/4 tsp Quick rise yeast (I use Fleishman’s)

2 1/4 cups All-Purpose flour

2 tsp of sugar

1 tsp of salt

2 tbsp of good olive oil

Method:

1) Stir the yeast into the very warm water, set it aside while you put together the dry ingredients

2) Mix together Flour, salt and sugar

3) make a well in the flour (a little indent) and pour in the yeast mixture and the oil and stir with a fork until it resembles dough.

4) kneed the dough until all the flour gets incorporated.  About 2 minutes.  The dough should be soft but not very sticky.

5) Cover the dough and let it rise for 1 hour until it doubles in size.

Tips:

To roll out the dough, you don’t need a rolling pin.  I just put about a tablespoon of olive oil on the baking sheet and form the dough into a flat disk with my hands.

I also poke the dough several times with a fork (before putting on the sauce) to prevent large air bubbles from forming in the dough.

Two new favourite topping of choice are avocado and peas! What are your toppings of choice? 

Best Ginger Cookies Recipe

These are my favourite ginger cookies ever…i think they beat out this other flying umbrella recipe .  The basic formula of these two recipes are very similar.  There are small differences such as these cookies use a little less sugar, they use oil rather than butter, the quantity of fat is larger (2/3 cup vs. 1/2 cup) and an extra tsp of baking soda.  This extra fat means that, even if you let them over-bake a little and become crispy biscuits rather than too hard to eat.

Without further ado, here is the recipe!

Ingredients:

2/3 cup veggie oil

1 cup sugar plus extra for dipping

1 large egg

4 tablespoons molasses

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour (although you can use whole wheat)

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon salt

1).    Mix oil and sugar in a large bowl until combined. Beat in egg and molasses until combined.

2) Sift flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and salt over the wet ingredients and stir until just combined.

3) put about 1/2 cup sugar in a small bowl. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and roll each ball in the sugar before placing 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet. You don’t even need to flatten them, although I did for the first batch in the photo above.

4) Bake the cookies at 350 degrees until set, but still soft when gently touched, 8 minutes for soft cookies and about 10 to 12 minutes for crispy cookies. 

Weekday sugar cookies of fun shapes!!

What is your favourite sugar cookie recipe?