Wet Bag

We cloth diaper Adrika. Feels good. She likes it better than disposable diapers and we feel good about doing our bit for the planet. We use Flip from Bum Genius - http://www.flipdiapers.com/products.php
Pardon the slightly archaic picture of my pumpkin. Its kind of cool here and she wears pants all the time, so haven't clicked any recent ones in her cloth diaper!

Unlike disposables it would be a very expensive affair if one tosses the dirty cloth diapers. One could, but you know what I mean. Hence the whole issue of storage of a soiled diaper. This is where a wet bag comes in handy. A wet bag is a cloth bag with a water proof inner lining (generally made of PUL or shower curtain material). The beauty is one can toss even the bag into the washing machine.

Here is the wet bag I made for 'Mon Cherie'. There is a good possibility that she would be cloth diapered as well. Hope this bag holds through.

The tutorial was straightforward - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG8WN7mYr8E
I added a handle to make it easy to hang the bag on a door knob or just to carry it. I think it has many applications, can also store other nick-knacks.

Baby Quilts

Being a mother of a one year old, I have received quite a few baby gifts. I can pile them up into a petite little mountain! Some of the gifts I will cherish and keep forever, like the few handmade one's from my mother and my mother-in-law.  I love handmade goodies. Also I absolutely cherish putting in some thought and effort into any gifts that we have to get. There are two lovely little girls who have been on my mind lately. These quilts are for them of course!

Little doll Diya has already got her's and I hope she is enjoying her new quilt! 

 

These were my very first quilts and believe me it took effort! A lot of hard work and patience. I used double layered flannel as the batting and muslin for the upper and bottom layers.
If ever there is anything more evil in this world than bias binding; I would be greatly surprised. Jokes apart, I got a little smarter on the second one and used a flange instead of binding. The one with the flange has the little pink highlight, looks neat right! Flange was super easy as compared to the traditional bias binding. Oh yes, I was stupid enough to make the entire binding from scratch.

Used a couple of resources -

• http://www.sew4home.com/tips-resources/sewing-tips-tricks/bias-binding-figuring-yardage-cutting-making-attaching
• http://www.seamstobeyouandme.com/2013/05/21/flange-binding/

Also another big big surprise was the amount of Math one needs to do for sewing! Phew! Was totally sucked into square roots and the lot!

Loved sewing these. I put in so much back breaking work - mitered the corners, even hand embroidered the labels!

The second one is for my yet to be born niece - 'Pour Mon Cherie. Stay cozy. Love Rhythm.'

Kinnow Marmalade

I abhor kinnow! Its difficult to eat and doesn't taste like an orange. When I asked Ajay to get oranges, guess what he thought was an orange! Apparently its a type of Mandarin orange. The best thing I found out to do with kinnow is to make marmalade. Jamming transforms this fruit. This marmalade is made with natural pectin and sets beautifully. Also it has a slight bitter component due to the rinds, that makes it delicious.

Ingredients:-
Kinnow - 4
Lemon - 1
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Water -1 cup

Procedure:-
Wash and peel the kinnows. Keep peels of two kinnows, cut them into thin strips. Slice the kinnow right in the half like slicing into two hemispheres! This makes it easy to remove the seeds which are generally in the center. Also remove and keep as much of the white pips as possible. Put the sliced fruit into a heavy bottomed pan. Add the juice of a lemon and strips of kinnnow peel.
In a muslin cloth or handkerchief put all the seeds and pips, including the seeds of the lemon and also the squeezed out lemon itself.  Tie this into a nice bundle and throw it into the pan. All the natural pectin is released from this bundle.
Add the sugar into the pan along with the water. Boil on slow flame for about 1.5 to 2 hours. At 1.5 hour stage check for the consistency. To do this, keep a small plate in the freezer. Add a drop of the marmalade onto this chilled plate and check if it sets into a jelly. If it does, then the jam is made otherwise cook for a further 15 mins and repeat setting test.
We got 1.5 small jars of marmalade.

Pecan Pie

Please excuse my torpidity lately! I have been meaning to put up many posts. Have been fairly busy baking. Here is something I tried by pure coincidence on Thanksgiving day!

It all begins with the story of how I got hold of pecans. Well these nuts are non existent in India. Ajay's aunt was visiting us from London and she is known to come bearing many gifts! Thank you auntie! We are enjoying your presents. Pecans down, only if I could figure how to finish off the truck load of spanish saffron now!

Ingredients:-

For Filling
Brown sugar - 1 cup
Normal sugar - 1/4 cup
Whole wheat flour - 1 tbspn
Eggs - 2
Vanilla extract - 2 tspn
Milk - 3 tbspn
Melted butter - 1/4 cup
Salt - 1/4 tspn
Chopped Pecans - 1 cup
Rum - 1 tbspn

For Pie Crust
Whole wheat flour - 1.5 cups
Sugar - 1/2 tbspn
Salt - 1/8 tspn
Oil - 7 tbspn
Liquid (Milk or Water or Juice) - 1/4 cup

Procedure:-

For pie crust - Mix in a bowl all the ingredients till moist clumps form. Add the liquid slowly into the dry ingredients. There is no need to refrigerate this pastry. With your hands press down the dough on the pie mold evenly on the bottom and up the sides. Score with a fork. Pie crust is ready for filling.

Filling - In a mixing bowl add both the sugars, flour, salt and two eggs.  Beat very well till all the sugar is dissolved. If the sugar is not dissolved it would sink to the bottom of the pie during baking. So ensure it is nicely mixed. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.

Pour this filling into the pie shell and sprinkle with pecans on top. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 40 - 45 mins. Cool completely before cutting the pie.

For a variation, one can add a bit of chocolate to the filling.

Bagels

The alarm went off and I indolently stare at the arms of the old pest. It always feels like you only just slept. I am sure you can empathize. Once your organs kick back into action, you realize there is indeed a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I have spent lot many Saturday's getting up early trying to get some freshly baked bagels from "Daily Bread" bakery. This was the "Before-Oven" era and bread and bagels were the food of gods. I am glad in the 2013 AO (After-Oven), we can do this at home!

Here is my attempt at homemade mini bagels. They did turn out quite scrumptious! I like them with sour cream instead of cream cheese. And yes we also make the sour cream at home.

Ingredients:-
Whole wheat flour - 2 cups
Dry instant yeast - 1/2 tablespoon
Salt - 1 teaspoon
Sugar - 1/2 tablespoon
Warm water - 1 cup

Procedure:-
Combine all the above ingredients and knead vigorously  for 15 mins till you get a stiff but pliable dough.This dough should not stick to your hands. It should be slightly springy and stay indented if you gently prod it with your finger. Let this dough proof for about 1.5 hours or till doubled in size.
Punch the dough down. Split the dough into small balls and shape as bagels by punching small holes in the center of the ball using your finger. You can also roll out the bagels by shaping the dough into a pipe and then rolling them into rings. I tried the first shaping method. Let these bagels proof again for 1 hour or till doubled.
Preheat the oven at 220C at this point while preparing the water bath.
For the water bath, boil water with 2 heaped tablespoons of sugar and a teaspoon of salt. When it is at a rolling boil, drop your bagels into the water and after 2 mins flip them over. Cook for 1 more minute on this side.
Remove the bagels on to a greased cooking sheet. You can sprinkle any toppings at this point. I used sesame seeds and sharp cheddar cheese on a few. You can also use poppy seeds, nigella seeds etc.
Bake in a 220C oven for about 20 to 30 mins. Enjoy your fresh bagels!

Crossover Pinafore Dress

I have never touched a sewing machine before in my life.
I see all these cute clothes people make and pin on their boards in pinterest and it has just galvanized me. Time to set the wheels into motion and adopt a new quirk.

First, a big cheer goes out to my mother in law who gave me indispensable first lessons on her awesome sewing machine!

Second, I got this pattern and the tutorial from the below blog, the instructions made the whole project effortless. So a big thank you to Maggie.
http://smashedpeasandcarrots.blogspot.in/2011/05/little-girls-crossover-pinafore-pattern.html

Here is my amateur attempt at a reversible pinafore for my little pumpkin.

And here she is, modeling her new "Mommy Made". I am hoping my pint sized wonder would fit into it better in a couple of months.

Hoping I can keep up the enthusiasm!

Pin Cushion

I am a sewing novice and like most people I love to read and take online tutorials and yes, purchase all my supplies even before the first project begins!

I got these most colorful set of pearl head pins!

I wanted to make a simple pin cushion for these. So found some online tutorials and ended up making something that fits the bill.

Here are the supplies:-

Small circular piece of cloth
A small bottle cap
Small piece of ribbon
Needle and thread
Adhesive
Cotton as batting

Procedure:-

Using a needle and thread, do a simple running stitch over the circular cloth.

Glue on the ribbon to the sides of the bottle cap.

Pull the thread on the cloth and make a small pouch.

Add cotton batting to this pouch.

Stick this pouch into the bottle cap. Here is a neat little pin cushion.

Happy sewing!