On dagginess and overalls

A while ago I lamented how overalls are just extraordinarily uncool these days, unless you're under the age of 4 or pregnant. I'm a bit proud like that, concerned about first impressions and running into people I know down at the shops while looking frumpy. I would love to wear overalls in public anyway, but just don't have the charisma to carry it off. And I don't really want people thinking I'm expecting when I'm not.

Anyway, I have been working on my car recently and I usually just wear grotty old clothes that I don't mind destroying, but then Gib said to me "Geez dude, you totally need a pair of overalls". Why had I not thought of it before? Finally an appropriate place to wear daggy overalls! I did some searching at all of my local op shops and online, and it seems that overalls for people my size are quite hard to come by: the kids sizes don't quite extend to size 12-14, and adult overalls are mostly men's ones, and are far too big for me. So I decided to just buy a pattern and make them myself.

As an aside and while we're on the topic: why do all pattern magazines always have models with really dorky hair-dos? And poor colour coordination? I always wonder when I buy a pattern: am I really going to look as un-cool as this person in the photo? Will my clothes be poorly fitted like on that model? Pattern magazines have a way of making really hot people look ugly. It all adds to my nervousness about making my own clothes.

There were only two overall patterns I could find, both in Burda's "Young fashion" magazine. This pattern was "easy" and had wide legs (I love wide leg pants). Although, I think these might be a little too wide-leg to the point of being impractical for my purposes, so I might need to make them narrower, and and I'll need to check the length, but often 3/4 pants are just right for me. We'll see. So soon I'll have my own pair of overalls to wear in the comfort of the garage, where it wont matter if the pattern does turn out to be a bit crap and where it doesn't matter if I look like a big dork! Here's the pattern:

Burda 7822: These two sporty and super-comfortable outfits really fit the bill for leisure and holidays/vacation! [...and even working on cars]

8 foot giant squid pillow

Following up from how to make a giant squid cake is how to make a giant squid pillow! (Not by me this time though). I'm seriously impressed.

Just amazing...

I've been lying low a bit this week, one of the few times when I have been totally lost for words. Everything seems to pale in comparison to what's been going on around me. It's impossible describe the devastation that the bushfires have caused, but we all have seen the enormity of it so I wont even try.

Courtesy of The Age

It's amazing to watch everyone rally around though to help out. I've been cleaning out the cupboards (which we've been meaning to do for some time anyway), donating old blankets and sheets for the RSPCA, donations to the Red Cross, and scrounging together bits and pieces to furnish a house that Gib's parent's church is offering to fire victims who have lost their homes. I'm absolutely amazed and inspired by the work of Cindy who has established the Handmade Help blog featuring all these wonderful things that wonderful people are making to raise funds, and Meet Me at Mikes for getting together the Handmade Help recipe book.

It truly warms my heart to see the work and efforts of all of these people, and all of the generous actions from the whole community.

Eye spy... my secret (food) shame

I loved this week's theme. I do have a massive food shame. No, really, it's truly awful, and actually I'm really embarrassed to admit...

I love eating butter. That's right, you heard it:

Beth eats butter. On its own.

Salted butter, of course.

Tragic. I know you're cringing. This is, I think, is my worst habit. In my defense, it's not something you'll find me doing every day (I know the harm of saturated fats), but if I just happen to be cooking with butter, then I've been known (ok, I can't resist) to shave bits off the block and just pop it in my mouth, like thin slices of cheese. There, I said it. It's off my chest.

Thank you, Jade, for helping me admit my shame to the world and Cindy, the wonderful host of Eye spy!

How to make a Giant Squid cake

Yesterday was the hottest day in Melbourne on record: 46.4°C. We have massive bushfires raging throughout the state. Needless to say things have been a little stressful* in these parts. It also means it's not the best weather for making a birthday cake. However, I headed to my parents' place where they have air conditioning in the kitchen and a spare fridge out the back. I started nice and early in the morning, so it was all done before the worst of the heat kicked in.

The specifications:

• Make a giant squid cake. I couldn't do a 1:1 scale giant squid, and I wasn't sure how people would know it's a giant squid if it was cake-sized, because it would just look like a regular squid then. So I went with some sort of giant squid reference point: a boat.
  
• The cake should be a white chocolate cake. That didn't happen. I ran out of time, and the day that I was able to make the cake was way too hot and it was going to be really nasty for the oven to be on for that long (1.5+ hours cooking time). So a vanilla cake it was (only 40 min cooking time). Sorry Sarah!
• Must be iced with butter icing (my friend dislikes the sugary soft, mouldable icing). Butter icing, in 46.4°C weather, was going to be far too unstable. So I went with white chocolate ganache, in the hope that that would be more stable and would make up for the lack of white chocolate cake.

How to make a giant squid cake

You will need:

• Double quantity of vanilla butter cake batter (I doubled the vanilla so it was more vanillary)
  
• 1 large loaf pan (23 x 13 x 8 cm)
• 1 slab pan (25 x 25 x 4 cm)
• 750 g white chocolate
• 250 ml cream
• Plastic ice cream container lid, cut into 2 triangles for fins
  
• Red & blue food dye
• Candy necklaces (I got a massive bag for $2 at the Reject shop)
• Toy boat
• Toothpicks

Baking the cakes:

A few days before you need the cake is a good time to bake them.

• Transfer ¾ of the double quantity of cake mixture to the loaf pan, and ¼ to the slab pan. Make sure your pans are well greased and have a layer of greaseproof paper on the bottom. Bake the slab for 30 mins, and the loaf for 40-45 mins.
• Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool completely. Freeze the cakes. (I do this even when it isn't hot weather, so it makes the cake easier to cut, and it crumbs far less).

Shaping the cake:

• Allow the cakes to thaw slightly before carving.
• Using a sharp knife, shape the loaf cake into the shape of a squid's mantle. I used this squid anatomy site as a reference. I wont feature the pictures here because they're kind of gross. Because it's a cake and we need to maximise the amount of cake to be consumed, mine is somewhat more squat than an actual squid. Refer to the shape below. I also made a slight ridge (0.5cm) where the mantle finishes and the eye section begins.
  

• From the slab cake, cut the arms and tentacles by making wiggly strips from the cake. Cut 8 arms and two tentacles. Each arm is about 3 cm wide and 18 cm long (although I then later cut some shorter to fit on the cake board). Each tentacle is 25 cm long and 3 cm wide. I cut the two tentacles from the bottom 6 cm of the slab. The tentacles have a little diamond shaped bit at the bottom. Be careful with your arms and tentacles. If you break on don't fret. Use some icing and toothpicks to glue them back together.
  

My wiggly squid arms and tentacles. You can see that some of the legs have been cut shorter to fit on the cake board.

Make the ganache:

Melt together 700 g white chocolate and 250 ml cream over a double boiler. Set aside the spare 50 g white chocolate (don't eat it!). Stir through 5 ml red food dye and 1 drop of blue food dye. Beat together until blended, allow to cool to room temperature.

Assemble the cake:

• Prepare the cake board. I used a wooden chopping board covered in a couple of layers of blue plastic.
• Place the mantle in a back corner of the cake.
• Arrange the bottom legs around the cake, below the ridge of the mantle, and use toothpicks to hold them in place. I had 7 legs/tentacles below, and 3 on top. Don't bother with the top ones until later.
  
• Ice the cake with the ganache.

The toothpicks poking out there are just place holders for the top legs

• Add the plastic fins. Ice them too. I saved the fins until a bit later so I could ice the sides of the cake better.
  

• I used two white chocolate buttons and placed them in the centre of the bottom end of the mantle/head area, for a beak.
• Place the boat at the end of the cake board. Drape the top legs over the top of the boat, and use toothpicks to insert the legs into the body, and carefully ice them too.
  

Beak and positioning of legs against the body. You can see it was getting a little messy in there! It's ok, ganache cleans up really well.

• Put the squid in the fridge for a bit to set the ganache. Once firm, take it out and wtih a spatular or knife dipped in hot water (be sure to wipe off the water) smooth over the icing.
  
• Add your candy necklace suckers along the sides of the arms and tentacles.

The eye:

This was a bit of serendipity. I didn't have any Orchard icing to mould into an eye and refused to go out into the heat. My mum had these small glass spice bowls. Originally I was going to use them as a chocolate mould (with the leftover 50 g white chocolate): fill the bottom with a centre of white chocolate dyed black, let it set, then fill in white chocolate over the top, then tip it out once its all set together. However, they didn't tip out. So I then decided to just keep the chocolate eyes in the spice bowl, and use the whole think as the eye. It really got that freaky eye lens thing going that squids have. I just pushed the eye/glass spice bowl into the side of the head.

The clean up and presentation:

Using a damp paper towel and some ear buds, carfully clean up around the cake board and tidy up any icing that has oozed into weird corners. And here it is...

Happy birthday, Sarah!

And, because I am lazy, this is also going to come under this week's Eye Spy something delicious theme, because, you know, white chocolate ganache is freaking delicious. This week's theme was suggested by the super crafty Handmaiden and hosted by the wonderful Cindy!

* My aunt lives in Whittlesea, one of the townships south of Kinglake where the worst has been that is assisting with feeding people and providing temporary shelter. We have friends who lives in Wallan and they managed to rescue their horses, fire came to within 3 metres of their house, but their house was been saved.

Phantom ant syndrome

We have ants in our kitchen. In the bathroom. In the cupboard under the stairs. You know, I've even found them in my undies drawer. Everywhere. Is. Crawling. With. Ants.

In the last few days the hot weather has brought them out in what seems like the millions. I'm now so used to flicking them off my arms, my legs, the back of the neck, extracting them out from under my clothes, that now I'll be anywhere - even at work or on the bus - and think I have one of those little blighters crawling on me. It's driving me completely mad!

Toys for girls and boys

Just as Gib has discovered overlockers...

... I have discovered the Dremmel!

Recipe box swap: Fun foods!

It's the first topic for the year and it's a good one! Ohhh I can't wait to read everyone else's submissions! I think you should join in too. Head over to I have to say... and just add yours to the end.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love raspberries? We used to grow them in our backyard until it grew into our next door neighbour's yard and they poisoned it! Oh well. We have blueberries growing now and they are just as delicous. Actually, I'll take any berry thanks! I love this white chocolate and raspberry muffin recipe from the ABC. I am never just a straight-out sugary treat person myself, I love to have fruit mixed in. Fresh and dried fruit are so sweet, but they give a treat such an interesting texture and flavour. The best thing about muffins is that they are so quick to make, so when you have a naughty food craving, muffins are just the thing!

White chocolate and raspberry muffins

2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 cup buttermilk (if you're feeling really decadent, try it with coconut milk instead!)
1 egg
90 g butter, melted
1 punnet fresh raspberries
1/2 cup white chocolate bits

Eye spy... a small object

I quite liked The Crafty Librarian's topic this week. I mean, honestly, who doesn't like mini things? For me, my favourite mini object is this little elephant dongle for my phone. It's cute, it's small, it's pink and it contrasts beautifully with my silver/white phone. And he keeps my phone screen clean. But I think it's great to have something so cute hanging out with me all of the time!

This is one of my other favourite mini things. This is one of our two pet rats, posing for the camera. They're going through an exceptionally cuddling mood at the moment when all they want is to be played with and snuggle in. They survived just fine in all of this heat. Normally rats aren't so keen on swimming, but we give our little ones a big tub of water and they will happily go for a paddle (especially if we add some frozen peas!) so it's been easy to keep them cool.

Thank you to Cindy over at Bug and Pop for hosting Eye Spy!

Adventures in Ethics and Crafting

There's an interesting article over at Adventures in Ethics and Science that crosses over into the craft world. Not so important for us, but more for our American crafty friends out there. Following last year's issues with China's production of children's toys containing lead, the American Government passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which requires that a sample of products from each batch of products aimed at children under the age of 12 be independently tested for lead. The law in its current state, has some big implications for those who craft and sell children's products. The article runs through the costs of testing products, implications for not just crafters, but libraries and sellers of antiques. "One of a kind toy and children's clothing makers would be out of business or face $100,000 fines.

It sounds like they rushed it through to please everyone without thinking of the ramifications. It's so utterly ridiculous that I assume they'll have the common sense to change it.

Stencil-along results... just a tad belated!

I've finally managed to get in my results of my stencil along, hosted by HoppoBumpo four months late! I had printer issues and for a while there couldn't afford some new printer cartridges - or rather, decided to prioritise fabric over ink cartridges. Melbourne's current weather isn't great for doing much right now, however it is awesome weather for stenciling, especially for people like me with a short attention span and who like instant gratification (wait, why am I doing a PhD again?). The hot weather dries the paint fast and I can peel back my stencil almost instantly to see results! I was originally going to do a robot, but he's a WIP right now as I'm still having a play with the islands, but here's an octopus I did. I'm quite pleased with the results.I used contact paper for the islands and just plain acrylic paint with fabric medium mixed in. I am so stoked with the quality of the freezer paper stencils: the crispness of the edges, how firmly they stay stuck down without bleeding underneath. Thank you HoppoBumpo!

During and after...

Low priced legumes and the edible heart attack!

I was over at Dr Isis' blog reading about the discussions in the science blogging world on Obama's pledge to "restore science to it rightful place" and then right at the end she linked this article on how beans and rice are making a comeback (well, she said it in the context of science living on beans and corn). I've been saying for months now, after reading all of these articles on how to cook a "budget meal" in recipe magazines and in the paper: "Where are the legumes in all of this, people?!". Beans and rice is the cheapest and, done properly, one of heartiest, tastiest and versatile meal combinations ever! But you so rarely see any legume recipes! (with chickpeas being the exception, I think).

So, moving along, I then found myself clicking on and finally reading about The Bacon Explosion. I think this is the true definition of The Edible Heart Attack.

"He [Jason Day] bought about $20 worth of bacon and Italian sausage from a local meat market. As it lay on the counter, he thought of weaving strips of raw bacon into a mat. The two spackled the bacon mat with a layer of sausage, covered that with a crunchy layer of cooked bacon, and rolled it up tight.

They then stuck the roll — containing at least 5,000 calories and 500 grams of fat — in the Good-One Open Range backyard smoker..."

Cakes: brains, hearts and squids

It's my friend's birthday coming up. The one who requested the axolotl cake. And she has requested a giant squid cake. She said she doesn't mind if it isn't 1:1 scale (I wasn't sure how I'd fit a 12 m long cake into my oven), so long as she can pretend that it's a giant squid. While doing some research, I did spot this seriously impressive squid cake:

That is a truly amazing cake. I hope I acquire skillz like one day that so I too can make such awesome cakes.

There is one stipulation on the squid cake: it is to be made with butter icing or similar (otherwise I'd happily use the mouldable icing the dude above used). Butter icing and I don't really get along. Butter icing and I have arguments and it gets messy, but I'm happy to work through our differences and one day perfect our relationship. I now have a new set of icing spatulas and piping tools, so hopefully that'll help the reconciliation process.

And while we are on the topic of cakes, you know how I just love anatomically correct art? Well there was a feature over at Cake Wrecks on organ-inspired cakes.

There was the brain, kidney and heart (complete with infarct!). It's reassuring that there are other people like me out there in the world that like these cakes!

Just a minute in January

Listening... to TV on the Radio, Quan... I cannot get enough of The Prodigy's 'Invader's must die' (for the past few weeks Gib and I have been randomly jumping about and shouting in our most ominous voices 'Invaders MUST DIE') or their other new track, 'Spitfire'. Familjen - Det snurrar i min skalle has also been a regular feature on the playlist - and the film clip is cool. Triple J has been playing some great stuff lately.

Reading... Geroge Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm. And a book that was given to me by both Gib and my grandpa: The brain that changes itself, by Norman Doige, MD (I was able to exchange one of them). It's about different case studies and research in brain plasticity, how it adapts and how you can teach it to "re-wire" itself. I'm completely hooked and much of it is very inspiring and both directly and indirectly relevant to my PhD.

Writing... my essay and presentation for my confirmation of PhD candidature. I'm still in a slight panic. Had a meeting with both of my supervisors today and feel like I've had a firecracker placed under my rear end (in a good way). I'd love to blog more about the work I'm doing, however it would severely compromise my semi-anonymity around here. Not because I'm famous or anything (give it time, this science is smoking hot!), but because my field of research is a bit specialised.

Enjoying... housesitting while Gib's parents were away in New Zealand for a month (they came back today), hosting a few parties, making the most of the BBQ before we started having total fire bans, snoozing with the rats while attempting to read on lazy Saturday afternoons.

Changing... the front garden layout (we're slowly moving back some of the mint and replacing it with some other things). It seems to be mostly surviving in the heat. Changing my fitness/martial arts routine to accommodate the shift in pace of my PhD and the current crazy weather. Changing my addiction to coffee... to being not-so-addicted to coffee.

Sewing... with my overlocker! Oh yes, I finally did it. You know what? It really wasn't that scary. What on earth have I been worried about? Threading it, while obviously more complex than my sewing machine, honestly wasn't that bad. Also because it was a 2nd hand one from eBay, all of the tension settings were already done for me and they were perfect. And it goes SO FAST. I love it. All of those stretchy and fraying fabrics I've been putting off sewing are now fair game. I also was also lucky enough to get a walking foot for my sewing machine Christmas, but I am yet to use it. Hopefully that will take less than a year for me to get the courage to use.

See? Threading the overlocker really wasn't so bad after all!

Eye spy... a taste of summer

I'm making time to catch up on some Eye Spy posts, hosted by Cindy.

Summer for me always means delicious summer fruits: nectarines, peaches, plums, pineapple, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and watermelon. My mouth is watering just thinking about them.

by adwriter

Over the weekend I whipped up a fruit slice of nectarine and strawberries. There were only a couple of friends visiting, but the slice was gone in no time. Unfortunately I can't find the cable for my phone and so can't download the photo (my camera was misplaced at the time). But just pretend that it looked very pretty! This is my version:

Beth's most awesome nectarine and strawberry slice
Adapted from this recipe here.

Ingredients

• Spray oil or melted butter, for greasing the pan
  
• 3 ripe nectaines, cut into 6 pieces. You can blance them and remove the skin, but I left skin on and they tasted fine, and added colour to it.
  
• 1/2 punnet strawberries, tops removed and sliced in half.
  
• 100g butter, cubed, at room temperature
• 110g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 eggs
• 75g self-raising flour
• 75g plain flour
• 100g ground almonds
• Icing sugar, to serve

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Brush a 16.5 x 26cm slab pan with melted butter to lightly grease. Line the pan with non-stick baking paper to cover the base and extend over the long sides.
2. Beat the butter, caster sugar and vanilla essence in a medium sized mixing bowl until pale and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, until combined.
3. Sift the self-raising and plain flours over the butter mixture. Add the ground almonds and use a large metal spoon to fold the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Spoon into prepared pan and smooth the surface. The mixture will be quite stiff so you must hold the paper in place.
4. Arrange the nectarine and strawberry slices on top of the batter and press down gently so they are slightly embedded. Bake in oven for 35-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the slice comes out clean. Leave in the pan for 5 minutes before lifting out.
5. Serve at room temperature as a slice, cut into 12-15 portions, depending on how much you're looking after your waistline. Or, cut into 8 portions and serve warm for dessert accompanied by cream or ice-cream, if you're ignoring your waistline. Dust with icing sugar just before serving.