Fall Gingerbread and Transferware

One of my favorite fall breads is gingerbread. There's just something about ginger, cinnamon, cloves and rich molasses that make it so delicious.

I love to pair fall foods with my brown transferware. I'm certain it makes everything taste better.

I purchased the transferware several years ago when I came across them at Home Goods. I bought twelve bowls, salad plates, and dinner plates as I thought they would make wonderful Thanksgiving dinner ware.

This is what the pattern looks like. I love the birds with the flower adornment.

This is the mark on the back.

This monogrammed 'B' silverplate was my Grandmother's everyday ware, but I keep it tucked away for special occasions. I actually found an entire set of this pattern at a flea market, but without the monogram. I wonder where one would bring silverware these days for monogramming?

Gingerbread Recipe:

2 cups organic all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

3/4 cup low-fat organic buttermilk

1/2 cup organic sugar

1/2 cup organic molasses

1/4 cup organic low-fat milk

1/4 cup organic canola oil

2 large organic eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat 9-inch square baking pan with cooking spray.

Combine flour through cloves in a large bowl with whisk. In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk through eggs and stir with whisk. Pour into flour mixture, stirring until moist.

Bake for 45 minutes or until done. Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes and then remove from pan. Enjoy.

Happy last weekend of October to you! xo

Polka-Dots

My friend's nine-year-old daughter got the chance to have a say in the re-decoration of her bedroom. The theme:

Polka-Dots!!

And, since she's a very good friend, I got my chance to help!

Her very talented husband was tasked with creating a daybed with a round back board. I got to help with upholstering the headboard, and covering it with dots. First he cut three different sizes of circles from some 1/4" board. He has lots of handy tools to do things like that (and yes, I'm jealous). The tool leaves two tiny holes in the middle of each circle, and we used those like buttonholes, stringing wire through each set.

Next we cut a circle of batting the size of the wood, and then a circle of fabric a couple of inches larger.

Using a handy-dandy staple gun, we then stapled the fabric to the back of the wood circle.

It helps to staple North/South/East/West first, and then fill in the rest.


Ta-da! A cute little padded dot.


Oooh, look! LOTS of cute padded dots!

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We laid the dots out on the headboard to get an idea of placement. Then we drilled holes in the headboard for each dot. The headboard was then covered with thick batting and white duck cloth.

Next we had to string all those wires from the dots through the front of the headboard, finding the holes in order to get out the other side! That step was lots of fun.

Here's what it looks like with all the wires sticking out the back side. Notice the neat and even pleating of the headboard fabric all the way around. We're very proud of that :-).


We use pliers to pull the wires straight, then bent them to the side and stapled them in.
Bent the wires in another direction, and stapled them one more time.
They ain't movin', baby!

C. (that's the daughter) got to help by pounding in the staples and any loose wire ends.


Naturally we had to get an idea of what it looked like half-way through...


But then, here it is, all completed! C. looks pleased!


Obviously we chose to use lots of different fabrics, incorporating C.'s chosen colors of pink, purple, with a little green and turquoise thrown in. Plus it helped us use up our respective stashes (but not by much).

It was several weeks later when the bed was completed and assembled, but....here it is!

See the cute polka-dot panels on the ends?

The ends of the bed are actually bookshelves (they face out), and the panels are the back side of the bookshelves, padded and polka-dotted like the headboard.

Yes, I know the bed's not made. If you have a nine-year-old in your house, you should understand!

I also helped with the painting. Two walls and the ceiling are purple. Reeaaallly purple. The other two walls are pink. Reaallly pink!

I covered the shades on the ceiling fan in some polka-dot material...


...and I painted two garage-sale lamps pink and covered the shades for those as well. Hmm... they're supposed to have multi-colored yo-yos on them too! I made them...I'll have to ask my friend what happened to them...


Fun room, don't you think? And I'm not really complaining about the color. You should see my daughter's room...it's NEON green, also with polka dots!

Taste of the season ~ Butternut Squash Soup ~

I have been in a cooking mood lately. I have tried some new recipes, and also I have been experimenting with the pressure cooker. It is fun.

Several days ago, I made this butternut squash soup. I have been wanting to make a "fall soup", and when I was at the grocery store, I bought a butternut squash impulsively. Without knowing exactly what am I going to do with it.

I googled "Butternut Squash Soup" and read many recipes and reviews (well, I didn't want to waste the squash...). I found a recipe here. It sounded easy and tasty, also, it got so many positive reviews. I had to try it.

Mmmm... It turned out good. It was so yummy.

I tweaked the recipe a little, instead of cutting it small and boil it, I cut the squash in half and baked it. Also, I used sour cream instead of cream cheese, because I didn't have any. The soup was very thick. I think I am going to make it slightly runnier next time, but I loved the taste.

It is getting cold, what have you been cooking in your kitchen lately?