I'm a bit late with and because of this:


Here's link to the Casket Arts website if you need directions

I'm pleased to be a part of Cache at the Casket again this year, and I have TONS of new, super cute stuff that I can't wait to show you! Come see me this weekend, won't you? I think I'll be in the 2nd floor common area again, just like last year. Just look for the crazy bright stuff :)

I finally got around to getting to the bookstore, where I haven't been pretty much ever since I started the whole Paperbackswap.com thing (which I still am completely loving, and if you say splatgirl when you register, I'll get a credit!). But I was jonesing for the new Peter Reinhart Whole Grain Breads cookbook, and the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day book, which I am perhaps the last person on earth to get, so I had to bite the bullet and fork over the...um...dough.
Ahem.
Turns out the Artisan Bread in 5 book is really not worth it for me, as there's nothing particularly special about it once you get the whole make dough in bulk and give it a long retard in the fridge thing. But the Peter Reinhart book is great, complete with all of the obsessive but very useful detail and technique I was familar with from my first P.R. book, Bread Bakers Apprentice. And so I set right out to make something from it.
I chose the 100% rye bread recipe to start with because rye is Boy's favorite and he was so patient and polite about my fruit and nut bread experiments despite being not so much with the fruit and nut breads.
Anyway, I think it came out pretty darn awesome.

These loaves were dense and flavorful and the PERFECT vehicle for a little reuben dip action. Or a meals' worth of reuben dip action, actually. Sliced thin and toasted just a bit, it was like what you wish those stale little square cocktail rye breads would be but never are. It was cocktail rye done fabulously, deliciously right, and was amazing just toasted and slathered with butter and for a ham and cheese, too. Next time, I'm going to make sure to have some lox and cream cheese in the house, because that would have been even better.
Bake on, friends, bake on!

So it's Monday and I think I'm just the tiniest bit crabby because it's been raining for like a week straight which is keeping me from getting the stuff done outside that I'm feeling anxious about, what with it being fall in Minnesota and all. Because we feel something is urgent when it gets to be this time of year here, don't we?
So with that in mind you'll forgive me when I start rant about food, right? But more importantly, you'll listen, because this applies to YOU. To me. To everyone.

First, let's start off with something happy. Happy meat! Steaks from the cow who wandered around and lived it's life at the farm next door, butchered in the town next door to that and sold at the same place it was raised. It doesn't get any better, and I can't wait to grill these up:


So then, did you happen to see this article in the NYT? It's about the disgusting practices of industrial-scale slaughterhouses and commercial beef processors that led to a St. Cloud woman's permanent disability due to e. coli infection, and it will make you want to barf and it will make you angry. But it's important and enlightening, so go read it, I beg you.

So it's good, and DISGUSTING, to know exactly what goes into those "meat" products you buy at the store. And the players in this game can and do stand around pointing fingers at each other and fighting about who's responsibility testing for e. coli contamination should be, but THAT IS ONLY PART OF THE PROBLEM. What I think the article misses is the fact that industrial agricultural practices, namely feed-lot "finishing"of beef cattle, are what gave us pathogenic e. coli in the first place, and if we'd quit doing that and quit eating that, we'd have a lot less to worry about. Likewise anything that's been slaughtered and processed on an industrial scale. IT NEEDS TO STOP, and the only way I can see that it might, like ever, is if we stop it.

So MY point here is this: lets redouble our efforts to get off industrially raised and processed meat, eh? I know, it's more expensive to buy pasture raised, non-industrually produced meats and it probably takes more effort to get them, but it has an impact that goes way beyond being safer and healthier and I think it's the single most important thing you can do with your own personal part of the food chain and your food dollars...right after getting hooked up with CSA or local farmers markets for your produce.

I've been doing fairly OK with the happy-meat-only goal I set for myself a few years ago. Not 100%, but probably 80% of the meat I buy these days is pasture raised, organic and most often local. What's harder is the eating, because it's harder to control for that when you're eating out and I'm not the kind of girl who would ever say no to a nice hunk of slow-smoked prime rib or pork shoulder at a BBQ with friends, even if it did come from Sams Club and an animal that stood around in a crowded poop swamp for months eating antibiotic-laced GMO corn. So while I've never been a big restaurant steak or burger eater anyway, there's always those times that I just have to give myself a break. And then I might just try and find a way to start a conversation about the provenance of meat, because I'm an annoying bitch that way.

So, how about setting a happy meat goal for yourself and your family? For me, yes, it does cost more and take a bit more of my time, but the result of those facts at my house is that we eat less meat, which is a GOOD thing, even if it does take a bit of getting used to and a change in thinking. It's totally do-able, people! If you need a place to start, check out the Local Harvest website or these local sustainable farming resources.

Now that I've got my wood-fired oven up and running and have started to get a handle on the whole pizza making thing, I'm working on dipping a toe into bread baking. Being a "bread baker" is something I've always aspired to do but never really fully embraced mostly because I've had limited success with so many of my previous attempts. This time, however, I think I'm well and truly committed and willing to work through whatever failures I encounter just because playing with fire and smoke and hot bricks is so darn fun and it's a way to make the most of a nice hot oven in the aftermath of a pizza cooking event. And because what I really love are those crusty artisan breads and a WFO is absolutely perfect for that type of baking.

I decided I'd start with trying to master my most favorite kinds of breads, and toward that end I've been cultivating a wild-yeast sourdough starter. As those of you who are bread bakers know, starting a sourdough culture from scratch takes time and patience. I've tried before and failed, but this time it actually seems to be working which is just the kind of early encouragement I needed! I've only just barely gotten it to a point where it's ready for an actual attempt at sourdough bread (tomorrow, with full report to follow) but while waiting around for my little yeasties to grow and thrive and sour, I've been reading and researching like crazy, trying to really understand all the howto's and whatfors of bread baking instead of just blindly following recipes as I've tended to do in the past.
Anyway, in the course of that adventure I came across a recipe for ciabatta that sounded so foolproof and simple that I knew I just HAD to try it. Because really, it's my favorite bread for just about anything and to say that my previous attempts at home-making ciabatta were limited succeses would be drastically overstating things. In fact, those loaves have been some of my most miserable failures. But as of today, my ciabatta world has shifted, and I'm exceedingly proud and happy to report ciabatta success!

The recipe comes from The Fresh Loaf website, which is a new-to-me and completely awesome resource on all things bread baking. It's basically a very, very wet, batter-like dough that, by beating the daylights out of in the Kitchen Aid, turns into a wobbly gluten-y wonder that requires nothing more than a couple of hours worth of rising and proofing. I thought the recipe seemed pretty amazing, and now that I've made it, I'll say that it IS pretty amazing. I'm certainly no expert, but it seems like the effort to results ratio is well into the realm of fabulous with this one. You can find the recipe here.

I neglected to take a picture of the various states of the dough, but as I said it starts off more like cake batter and is transformed by A LOT of whapping about in the mixer to a jiggly blob that holds together quite strongly but is still very, very sticky and wet. Here's my proofing loaves:

All I did to get to this point was mix and then do a bulk ferment in a container on the counter until the dough had tripled. Then I dumped it out of the container onto floured parchment and cut and nudged it into three portions with my dough scraper, being careful to degas it as little as possible. These sat to raise for about 45 minutes before being flipped onto another piece of floured parchment on my peel and then shoved off into a hot oven:



For the sake of time and R&D, I baked these off in my indoor oven on a preheated baking stone with the temperature at 500. As you can see, I think I went a bit overboard with the flour, but that's an easy fix. And my crumb didn't come out quite as open and loose as I think it should have, which I'm taking to mean that I should have let the dough whap about in the Kitchen Aid a bit longer. I mixed this batch on speed 6 for about 15 minutes, so I guess next time I'll go for 20 or 25 and see if that gets me bigger holes. And yea, there DEFINITLEY WILL be a next time, as in probably tonight or tomorrow, because the end result is ridiculously tasty for what little time and effort it required, and this is by far the most successful I've ever been with a ciabatta. I can't wait to try it in the WFO!

Check out the best part of the whole endeavour...a delicious tomato/arugula/cheddar sandwich for lunch:


I'm darn pleased with myself and I can't wait for Boy to get home so I can show off my mad skillz. Good thing the recipe made three loaves or he might have missed it!

Labels: cooking food bread baking ciabatta

Now that it's found it's home with new owner Meleah, another reveal of another uber-fabulous bag!


Because she's a local girl, Meleah was able to come to my studio and make her material selections in person. She got to work on perusing my fabric piles while I got to work munching on the delicious chocolate biscotti she brought along. She didn't really need me anyway, because she's obviously got a great eye and make some selections she did! She said she wanted something crazy and bright and fun and I think we succeeded on that front!

I'm beyond honored that Meleah chose me and my craft over diamond earrings to celebrate her wedding anniversary, and that her fab husband took the cue and then took the time to track me down and get her a Splatgirl Creates gift certificate. I think my Boy could use a lesson from hers!

So those Pacific Northwest peeps might have their Nanimo bars and their pink cookies and their Clover coffee on every other corner, but apparently that good old midwestern favorite, that addictive little pot luck gem that we take for granted, the Special K bar, is something unheard of. Who knew?


Anyway, that everyone's favorite Pacific Northwest resident Mariko didn't know about the Special K bar is the sole reason this photo exists. Because if it weren't for her demanding to see this mysterious treat, I'd just as soon have forgotten about them. But not because they weren't good. (she also got me to tweet the recipe, which is something of a thing. recipe tweeting, I mean, and for the record, it's much harder than you'd think. recipe tweeting, I mean.)

Boy was gone last week and without him here to distract me or bring me to my senses, I was having a little obsessive battle of wills: Me vs. my sweet tooth. Yes, me. Really. I was craving Special K bars like a madwoman.

Here's how it went...
Boy's absence, day 1: thinking to myself how much I'd like a Special K bar. Special K bar. SPECIAL K BARSPECIALKBARSPECIAL K BAR SPECIALKBAR

Boys' absence, day 2: trying to convince myself that I don't need to make Special K bars, but then deciding that I should walk my mail up to the post office and stop at the grocery store for the ingredients I need to make the bars I'm not going to make so that in case I decide to make them I'll feel 1% less guilty about it for having earned a little exercize offset. Walk dog 4 miles after dinner, then feel extra smug about exercizing twice in one day AND not making Special K bars. I am SO the boss of you, sweet tooth.

Boy's absence, day3: make deal with self: go running. A good long hard run, and THEN you may make Special K bars and have one. Return from good long hard run and discover, for the first time all week, I am no longer obsessed with eating a Special K bar. Wonder if I might be getting sick.

Boy's absence, day 4: Wake up with a wicked Special K bar craving, likely due to having been reminded of such by the previously obtained ingredients left out on the counter. I think the butterscotch chips are speaking to me. Yes. They are definitely speaking to me.

Boy's absence, day 4 1/2: I fought the bars and the bars one. A half-batch. Thin, and with a thin coating of chocolate/butterscotch just like I like. Eat one. Eat another one. Repeat.

Boy's absence, day 4 3/4 : Eat one. Repeat. Repeat. Follow with special bed time treat of Special K bar.

Boy's absence, day 5: Wake up to a breakfast of four Special K bars. BEST MORNING WITHOUT BOY EVER. Feel like a slave to sugar. On the other hand, I put them on a plate, so that makes them more nutritious, right?

Boy's absence, day 6: thinking it would be sad for Boy to come home to stale Special K bars so decision is made tha the remaining two rows must go into the freezer, right after I have just one more. Repeat day 5 breakfast. Is that the freezer speaking? Remove remaining now frozen bars from freezer. Repeat day 5 breakfast for lunch. Have a nectarine just for kicks, followed by another Special K bar. And since there are now only three left in the bag, it would be best just to finish them. Right?

Special K bars? What Special K bars?

What else to do on a lazy Labor Day than get the wood-fired oven going and make some pizzas!
I had some leftover pulled pork from a shoulder I smoked a while ago, and I decided it was time to put that to eats and celebrate with some jerk. Jamaican jerk, that is.


Jerk pork pizza, anyone?
These got some of the pork, a drizzle of reduced jerk marinade, sliced shallot, a mix of aged cheddar and mozz, some EVOO and a scattering of chopped scallion after cooking. And I mixed up some spicy slaw to top it all off. Sort of like a pulled pork sandwich except easier to eat and much, much better!


At this rate, it won't be long before we're all pizza, all the time here at Splatgirl Creates. In case you haven't figured it out yet, wood-fired oven=best project ever completed.

A while ago I got a note from fellow blogger, Splatgirl Creates client, and Etsian Liz. She had an idea for a fundraiser project combining her beading talents and my affliction for designing stuff for MOO cards. As a vehicle (hehe) for some special MOO cards she's created, she asked me to make a keychain-style MOO card sleeve that she could embellish with beads or charms and then offer for sale, with proceeds going to the gorillas of Virunga National Park in the Congo. I was flattered and thrilled to have the opportunity to participate in her project!
After a little R&D, I whipped up a streamlined, low-pro version of my key fob MOOpocket, designed with a window on one side that will eventually showcase the gorgeous gorilla-themed MOO cards Liz has created:



For want of a better name, I temporarily nicknamed them them MOOTabs, but hopefully Liz will come up with something more clever. MOOmates maybe? Get it? Anyway, I'm anxiously awaiting a peek at the finished product once Liz has a chance to work her bead-ie magic!

Check out Liz and her creative awesomeness on her blog, and keep an eye out for her Gorillas of Virunga fundraiser, coming soon over at Liz's lovely Etsy shop.

Maybe you've already had a peek at this via my Flickr stream, as I've had some photos hanging around there for a couple of weeks with the intention of getting a detailed DIY run-down written and posted. At the rate time has been flying around here, however, it'll be winter before I get around to that, so I'm giving you the happy finished product post first, instead.

While summer is still in full swing... a couple of views of our almost complete "new" outdoor room!!


from above:


The biggest and most time-consuming portion of the new room was that red thing, aka the shade sail that I designed and fabricated myself and installed with the help of Boy. It's something that had been on our to-do list since we've moved in so I'm thrilled with a capital T that it's finally done. It wasn't easy or quick, but if I had known what a transformation this one simple thing would give us, it would have happened two years ago.
We went from a hot, bland and boring concrete patio to an actual outdoor room that we are LOVING getting to hang out in, and just in time, since we're out there more than ever now that the wood fired oven is functional. Even better, it's helping to shade the interior of the house and keeping us (mostly) happily A/C-free for yet another summer.

If you haven't seen them already, check out my in-progress pictures of theDIY shade sail project on Flickr. And yes, I still hope to give you all the down and dirty on making your own shade sail in a bit.

Doesn't it make you want to come right over for a mojito? Bring your favorite toppings and I'll make you a pizza!

The rugs are by Koko from outdoorrugs.com because they were priced right and darn cute. I was also oogling the lovely outdoor line by Dash and Albert which are GORGEOUS in person but alas, my patio is large and the two rugs I would have needed were more than I wanted to spend at this point.
My next project for the space is going to be some prep tables for the cooking area and different patio furniture, and my plan is to leverage the awesomeness that is IKEA once again but using their UTBY line of stainess table bases and legs with some more DIY concrete tops. Because I haven't spent enough time screwing around with concrete yet this summer. And because modern patio furniture costs a mint that I don't feel like spending. Definitely more to come on that project soon.
So now that the lower patio is becoming something, I've been inspired to start working on the lower roof deck area as well. It's another hot, boring space that I've always had a vision for but have yet to get to work on. It'll mean making another shade sail which I'm not exactly looking forward to, but because the impact-to-effort ratio is fairly high, I think I can suck it up one more time to do battle with another 400 square feet of unruly fabric.

Labels: shade sail patio outdoor

Some soon-to-be-married friends of ours invited us on a celebratory adventure on that thing, the Pedal Pub last weekend.

I know, what a crazy fun idea, right? It's basically the perfect combination of two of my favorite, most obsessed-about things: exercize and cocktails.
What could be better?!
It was a blast, but not being a cyclist means my butt still hurts. But it was a fair trade, trust me.

Anyway, a couple of super fun coincidences that I have to share...

Boy and I spent the previous afternoon at a family picnic, and after having eaten a bunch of food and consumed two gin and tonics, I was sleepy. I said "someone needs to invent coffee beer!"

Fast forward to the next day on the Pedal Pub: the almost-groom opens the cooler full of adult beverages he had brought and offers up, much to my surprise and excitement, a Surly Coffee Bender:



Hello Splatgirl, your wish has been granted!!
The conversation that followed with folks that are much more beer-ie than I informs me that there are acutally several coffee beers out there, which a quick Google confirms. Like Surly, most of them seem to be local, so your mileage may vary. I can tell you that the Minneapolis-brewed Coffee Bender was surprisingly delicious and it's one that I'm definitely going to pick up next time I'm on a beer run at someplace other than my lameass city-owned liquor store.

OK, so imagine that I really have three favorite things. And at this point, two of them, exercize and alcohol, are already being partaken of. So what could possibly make the event better, you ask? Because yea, it really does get even better...

Our groom, with what was quite possibly the most genius party snack idea ever other than mini Bombay Sliders....

It was !!!!BACON!!!!
YES!! BACON!!

Our host had cooked and stashed delicious crispy bacon in a cooler with a hot pack, and it was the most freakin' perfect goes-with-drinking-and-exercize snack food since the invention of the tortilla chip. Seriously people, can you even believe what a ridiculously great thing this was, as we're pedaling along and sipping cocktails? TO HAVE BACON TO MUNCH ON?

Let me just proclaim that from this day forward may no cocktail party ever, EVER go without cooked bacon as a snack.

It was stupid awesome.

So a couple of days later my neighbor comes over and asks how the Pedal Pub adventure was, and I'm telling her "it was so much fun...cocktails and exercize all at the same time...you know, two of my absolute most favorite things."
And....I shit you not, she said: "so about the only way that could have gotten any better is if there had been bacon?"

BWWWAAAHHHHHHH!!! THERE WAS BACON!!!

Classic.


p.s. did you know you can get gin and tonic in a can, too? And champagne, with a straw! Clearly I have not been doing enough drinking outside the home, as I had no idea such fabulousness existed in cans.