Seamster Skillet

Whole Wheat Cranberry Walnut Muffins with Buttermilk

2009-03-29T16:24:00.000-07:00

I decided to start making these because I was becoming addicted to the O's Campus Cafe cranberry walnut muffins and would spend $1.50 everyday for breakfast. I wanted to save money, but also make a healthier version, as the cafe ones were no doubt filled with sugar, white flour, and fat.

After searching the internet for a starter recipe and several versions, this is the recipe I finally came up with:

Whole Wheat Cranberry Walnut Muffins with Buttermilk

(Makes 12 muffins, about 200 calories each)
Dry ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder, sifted
¾ teaspoon baking soda, sifted
½ teaspoon salt

Wet ingredients:
1 egg, beaten
¼ cup vegetable oil (can also use olive oil or melted butter)
¾ cup pure maple syrup or honey or molasses
1 ½ cups buttermilk (can use yogurt, but I wouldn't recommend it)

2 cups cranberries, fresh or frozen (thawed, drained, and rinsed)
½ cup walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine dry ingredients. Combine wet ingredients in separate container, making sure that they are completely blended. (If using butter instead of oil, mix other wet ingredients first, then add butter.) Stir wet into dry until dry just disappears.

Stir in cranberries and walnuts.

Pour batter into greased muffin tins, filling to the top of the line (don't be afraid... they'll rise a bit, but it won't be overwhelming).

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Serve with butter. Muffins freeze well and also thaw overnight at room temperature. If reheating, microwave for 15 seconds, then toast lightly in a toaster oven. Enjoy!

Thoughts on most recent muffin experience:

This time I used olive oil and honey, which made for an excellent texture and taste. This was the first thing I ever made in my oven at my new place. It's a gas oven like my old place, but as far as I can tell, there is no convection on it. I believe this led to the muffins in the middle not cooking all the way, so they disintegrated when I tried to remove them.

I baked them for 15 minutes on the top rack, 5 minutes on the lowest rack, and then 3 minutes on the top rack. Before baking, I hadn't bothered to move the racks, so next time, I will move one to the middle and see how that goes. If that doesn't work, I might try baking the muffins in two separate tins.

Updates Soon!

2009-03-27T13:10:00.000-07:00

Hey there!

I will be updating this blog soon with posts about my Steampunk Vest, Vintage Dress Alteration #1, Tent Dress Gone Horribly Wrong, Schoolgirl Top, Audrey Hepburn LBD, Vintage Shift Dress Pattern Alteration, and Purple Satin 60s Princess Line Dress from Hell.

Also, if my sister sends me a photo, I will blog about the 60s Shift I made for her.

Stay tuned!

Steampunk Vest - Simplicity 4079, View B

2009-02-01T12:00:00.000-08:00

Completed - January 2009. Documented - March 2009.

On New Years Eve 2008, Siobhan very excitedly told me about the upcoming Steampunk Ball at Elysium (the local goth club). I had absolutely no idea what Steampunk was. The simple explanation is Futuristic Victorian society (somewhat like the old TV show and horrible movie remake Wild Wild West). For more info, check out Brass Goggles. Moving on… Siobhan got the whole gang jazzed about the idea of making costumes and dressing up (we’ll take any opportunity to dress up). So I thought about what I might do…

Just before New Years, I had been in Portland, OR visiting my sisters. My eldest sister Libby is good friends with Leanne Marshall (perhaps you’ve heard of her?), who was at the time preparing for her big move to New York. She had a ton of fabric scraps to share and offered them to the both of us. I happily filled a carry-on suitcase with several random fabrics, having no idea what to do with any of them (many would only be suitable for small projects like tote bags).

At home I sorted through the random fabrics and found that I had picked a few brown ones. I then decided to make a vest, because it was the closest thing to a corset (common Steampunk female garment) that I could make myself.

I settled on two upholstery fabrics (one tan, one brown), a brown woven cotton, an ivory silk that was nice and sturdy (if I ever find that type of fabric again, I’ll be the happiest girl in the world), and silver lining fabric (acetate or polyester) that there happened to be plenty of.

While I had never made a vest before this, I had made a dress with princess seams that had a lined bodice. I wanted to relearn princess seams as I felt that I hadn’t really mastered them the first time around. Also, I would be learning to buttonholes with this project, but I wanted to try something a little more difficult…

…like exposed zipper seams!

Because I already had all fabric I needed, the notions I needed to buy were buttons, a zipper, thread, and a buckle. Greg and I purchased a grab bag of buttons from Hobby Lobby and I opted for a 36” zipper (leaving me with 72” to work with).

Cutting the pieces out was easy in that I was confined to the size of the scraps I was using. I almost used the tan fabric for the inside convex pieces on the front AND the back, but I incorrectly cut the back pieces, so I had to use the brown woven cotton fabric (I ended up being much happier with those results).

Now… it is really hard for me to start projects because I’m a procrastinator and I’m lazy (something I’m working on changing). For instance, I am writing this blog two months after I actually completed the project. So I enlisted Siobhan’s help with getting me to work on my vest. We laid out an entire Saturday two weeks before the ball to work on our outfits. During that day, I went from cut out pieces to a vest with exposed lining and no buttons. Quite an accomplishment for this little lady…

I started off by sewing together the princess seams in the lining because they, of course, would not be seen while I am wearing it. I incorporated my mother’s teachings of how to pin princess seams as I felt the sewing instructor I originally had show me didn’t do a great job, especially when dealing with slippery fabric. This worked out really well, and princess seams are now my bitch. After that, I sewed the outside back fabrics, inserting the tabs in the back with the buckle.

And now for the fun part… zipper seams in the front!

I attached the zipper onto the convex side of the princess seam, pinning the inside of the zipper teeth 5/8” away from the edge, and using a zipper foot to baste it in. To sew the concave side of the princess seam to the convex side, I tried using the zipper foot again, but it didn’t get quite as close to the teeth as I wanted. The next time, I tried using a 3-groove pintucking foot (which works for piping and invisible zippers) and yielded much better results.

I decided to also put zippers on the flaps which ended up being more difficult that the princess seams were (sharp corners and all).

My poor construction led to the deterioration of the flaps after I wore it:

And as you might have noticed, I also put zippers along the bottom of the vest front,which worked out pretty well.

Between the zipper seams and the buttons, I had to attach the outside fabric to the lining, which wasn’t so bad. However, when I flipped it out, the vest was super balloony, and wasn’t entirely helped by ironing. I then realized that I probably should have trimmed the seam allowances to allow the fabric to lay flat. The last part before the buttons was sewing the inside lining together which was insanely frustrating and difficult. I ended up sewing the remaining lining together by folding the seams allowances over each other and stitching-in-the-ditch on the outside. I later showed my mom (a master seamstress) my work, ashamed that the lining looked so tacky, and she said, “Oh sweetie, all lining looks like that.” Phew!

Last, but not least… buttons! I had been using my mom’s Bernina 1130 to sew all my garments (I now have my own… thanks, eBay!), and it comes with an awesome automatic buttonholer. Not much to tell on this part except I required my mom’s assistance on button placement after sewing the holes (I recommend getting help on this from others). The vest was finished just hours before the ball.

To complete the outfit, I had a $40 anthropologie Victorian style blouse (went on clearance a few weeks later for $20), a $20 anthropologie skirt, a $26 floor length green velvet coat from eBay, my yellow leather utility belt, a vintage ladybug clock necklace, and my favorite Fluevog Bond Girl Boots, wrapped in grommet leather strips. To top it off, I had some goggles purchased on eBay that I further steampunked up with some clock parts, gears, and the remaining 10” of zipper I had left (yes, the vest required 62” of zipper total).

And that’s about the size of it. I got a few compliments on my coat at the ball, but it was too dark for anyone to really notice the vest. However, my friends appreciated the work I put into it and I was proud of it, so that’s really all that matters.

What I would do differently:

I’m planning on doing a different view of the vest pattern with some other scraps I have; some formerly Leanne’s, some mine. I’m going to need to adjust the front and back of the top middle parts of the vest to make it smaller as I am shorter between the shoulders and bust than normal patterns and store bought clothes. Also, I will need to redraw the armholes after adjusting. Other than that, I might go a size larger as the vest was pretty tight or I might make the buttonholes looser. We’ll see…

Peach Pie

2008-07-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

Every year my mom and I make a trip out to Burg's Corner in Stonewall, TX to buy a half-bushel of peaches. It's kind of ridiculous because we never eat them all and end up giving most of them away. But the trip is always highly enjoyable, and it usually ends with a scoop of vanilla ice cream topped with peaches (didn't happen this time because I over did it earlier in the day with an organic canary melon... YUM!).

Like my last pie, I decided to use the ingredients available to me in my kitchen and make a peach pie. This time, I was going to make the ENTIRE crust from scratch, using the same dough recipe and I would also roll out the dough with a rolling pin. I also took inspiration from Pie Therapy again, making a few changes, like using less sugar.

Peach Pie

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Dough Recipe (make more if necessary... I had some leftover from the last recipe):
Cut 1 stick of butter into 1.5 cups of flour. Add 1/2 t. salt if butter is unsalted. Slowly work in 3-5 T. of ice water until desired consistency is reached. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface and place in greased pie dish. Cut off extra dough to use for top crust. You may either make a woven top or a decorative one (pictured above).

Filling:
Blanche, peel, and slice (removing pits and red centers of) 10-12 small peaches (should yield about 5 cups). Pour on 1/8 t. almond extract and squeeze on half of a key lime.

Mix with:
1/2 cup sugar (the original recipe calls for 3/4 cup, which I think is excessive)
3 T. flour (I might've accidentally used 4... I got distracted and lost count)
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/8 t. salt

Pour into crust and top with dough styling of your choice. Bake for 40 minutes or until crust is brown on the edges.

What I would do differently:
-Try using ginger to give it an extra kick (however, the flavor of the peaches was already amazing).
-The original recipe says to "Dot with 2 T. butter", which I didn't really understand, but now I know it's to give the crust a more golden-brown/toasted look and texture.

I think the next pie will be a chocolate pie of some sorts. I also have a lot of winter squash in my house, so I might try that...

Strawberry Blackberry Pie

2008-07-01T10:02:00.000-07:00

Now is as good a time as any to start the blogging.

The other day, I watched the movie "Waitress", and enjoyed it immensely. There are several times in the movie where it could've taken a very cheesy turn, but the plot, the characters, and the humor are all done very well.

The best part?

PIE! Lots and lots of pie!

It was a lazy Sunday evening, we had two frozen Whole Foods pie crusts and a ton of strawberries and blackberries that were starting to turn. I determined that pie-making was in order. I Googled "strawberry blackberry pie" and came across the blog "Pie Therapy". The recipe was very simple, but I was a bit daunted by the fact that I'd have to make a top crust. I've never made pastry dough before. I also went to the grocery store looking for tapioca and couldn't find it anywhere (frankly, I didn't know what I was looking for and when I asked one of the HEB employees where it was, he pointed me to the water aisle... asshole!). When I got home, I found out that tapioca is used as a substitute for cornstarch, of which we had plenty. I also didn't feel like busting out the rolling pin, so I spread out the dough for the top crust with my hands across a large plate. It worked out pretty well. Check it out:

Strawberry Blackberry Pie

Preheat oven to 375*F.

Crust:
1 store bought crust (I like the Whole Foods frozen crusts; you can also double the crust recipe below to have a fully homemade crust on the top and bottom)

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick of butter
1/3 cup of ice water in a pouring cup (NOT ALL OF IT WILL BE USED!)

Mix together flour and salt. Cut in butter until the mixture is nice and crumbly. Pour in ice water a tiny amount at a time, working the mixture into a dough with your hand. When enough water has been put in (1/4 cup will probably be all you need) to reach dough-like consistency, roll the dough out on a flat surface.

Filling:
3 cups strawberries, rinsed and sliced
1 cup blackberries, rinsed and drained on paper towels
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch or tapioca
(for kicks, I threw in a tablespoon of Ficoco, a chocolate fig spread; fun, but unnecessary)

Place strawberries and blackberries in a large bowl. In a separate container, mix together sugar and cornstarch. Mix in with berries until sugar and starch become gel-like. Pour filling into pie crust and cover with dough for top crust. If dough is leftover (which there will be, trust me), use it to make a fun shape for the top of your pie.

Bake for 45 minutes. Serve hot. Store leftovers in the fridge and reheat with toaster oven or microwave.

What I'll do differently next time:
-Use less sugar. It's very sweet and not very tart, so less sugar would be helpful.
-Use a rolling pin to flatten out the dough. Also, make a double recipe of the dough for a homemade top and bottom crust.

Little Black Dress #1 - Simplicity Pattern

2008-04-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

So the very first dress I sewed was in my second sewing class ever. The theme was "Audrey Heburn's Little Black Dress". I learned how to do princess seams, line a bodice, gather a skirt, create french seams, and put in a hem.

Many people in the class decided to go with another color or print, but I decided to stick to the theme and go with a black rayon sateen for the main part of the dress because it was shiny and use black cotton voile to line the bodice because it would be more comfortable. The class took place on two Saturdays and each day was 6 hours. The dress was completed by the end except for the hem, which I put in a month or two later.

Here it is!

Not too shabby, eh? It certainly helped that my mom sewed the majority of the princess seams outside of class (which I was supposed to do for homework between the two Saturdays). I was super afraid of doing princess seams ever again until I created the Steampunk Vest, where I learned that I much preferred having the convex/middle piece facing up as I could more easily observe/control the fabric "bubbles" that are created when pinning the two pieces together. When I had them facing down, all hell broke lose and the princess seams came out lumpy, and I got increasingly frustrated every time I had to reach for my seam ripper.

Lesson #1: Princess seams are hella easy when the convex side piece is facing up and you don't trust the feed dogs to do the work for you. Also, moms who know how to sew and are willing to teach you RULE.

Because the class itself was strapped for time, we didn't exactly learn how to cleanly attach a lined bodice to a skirt. If you can tell in the photo above, there is a weird bulge in the waist in the fabric. That's because there is a large mass of fabric all shoved together on the inside (three layers, one of them gathered). I later learned while sewing the Carrot Dress that it's super easy to tuck the skirt in between the bodice and lining and have the lining fold in nicely so there's no fabric/stitches poking you in the stomach.

Lesson #2: While it's easier and faster to sew the bodice, lining and skirt all on top of each other, it doesn't take that much more effort to tuck the skirt into the bodice/lining. Also, it looks nicer and is way more comfortable.

Gathering a skirt is, for the most part, pretty easy. This skirt proved a little more difficult, though, as the rayon sateen was super thick and kinda stiff. Also, it turned out kinda lumpy looking (see photo above) because the outside gathering stitch was sewn inside the seam line.

Lesson #3: Use lighter weight fabrics for gathered skirts and sew the outside gathering stitch right along the seam line. If the gathering stitch gets exposed, use a seam ripper to remove.

French seams: Easiest, most awesome seam ever. I use them all the time now, except on side seam pockets (but I might try them sometime and see if they work). I guess you could say that was "Lesson #4".

The hem was a bit weird because the skirt was already pretty short. The instructor suggested we use a roll-up hem, but it made the rayon sateen roll funny and it didn't sit right. Instead, I took out the second roll up and it looked fine. The hem stuck out in a few places and I fixed it using Web Stitch Witchery. A cheap trick, but one that worked. My mom wanted to show me a faced hem, but I didn't have enough fabric left for one (and also, I didn't really have the time to put one in).

Lesson #5: Roll up hems are not good with medium to heavy weight fabric. Also, Web Stitch Witchery works great on black garments.

Another lesson (#6) I learned very quickly is that there are different cutting layouts for different fabric widths. Because there was very little table space and many many people crowded together, I wasn't able to lay down all the pattern pieces at once. Also, with all the chaos in the room, I didn't realize that there were two pattern layouts for this dress and I started off by using the 45" layout when I was using 60". Oops. This led to me having to purchase more fabric, when I had already spent about $30 on it. Boo.

Another thing I learned that wasn't a lesson so much as a realization over the years is that the measurement between my bust and shoulders is about an inch shorter than what is normally used on patterns and store-bought garments. A closer look on this dress, you can see that the dress is actually sitting up off my shoulders. In the future, I will need to adjust patterns to make that space smaller, but also adjust the arm holes to remain the same size.

If I were to make this dress again, I would:

-put in pockets because I can now

-use a lighter weight fabric

-adjust the bust-to-shoulder space

-gather the skirt along the seam line and tuck the excess fabric between the bodice and lining

-used a faced hem