Hi guys, this is just a friendly reminder that I’ve moved my blog. My new address is: http://thewildairlife.blogspot.com
Today I’ve got a recipe for raspberry gelato. Check it out and follow me at my new blog home.
For a variety of reasons, I have decided to move my blog to a different host. I’d love it if you followed me to my new home at dreamcalluna.blogspot.com.
Today I’m sharing a recipe for homemade vanilla ice cream. Check it out:
I finally got a 50mm lens. I went with the canon f1.4 rather than the f1.8. Even though it was more expensive, the difference in quality was so extreme that I was more than willing to shell out a little extra.
I’m SO happy with the lens. It is so much faster than either of my other lenses. The images are tack sharp, and that huge aperture just eats up the light. Although there was a bit of a learning curve with the shallow depth of focus. Yesterday I went out by the coop and pestered the chickens while I played with the aperture.
Hey! It’s May Day! And that means… absolutely nothing!
I finally got the 50mm lens and my ice cream maker off of my last wish list. I try not to lust after things too much, but it’s hard when there’s so much cool stuff out there. And now that the weather’s finally turning nice, I want nothing more than to wear cute clothes and flounce around in them.
Like this chambray corset from FULL TILT. I want it so bad, it hurts.
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And this Pine All Mine dress from ModCloth
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These canvas skimmers are a staple of my summer wardrobe. They work with everything from sundresses to sweat shorts, they’re insanely comfortable, and they’re so easy to slip on and off.
The Kensington Satchel from Madewell is absolutely perfect for traveling.
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I love the simple style of the Classic St. Andrews Lady wristwatch from Daniel Wellington. It would work with almost any outfit.
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So that’s what I’ve been pining over lately. What have you been dreaming of adding to your closet?
I’ve been wanting to try this project for months. Finally, I found a great reason to do it – a gift for my brother. I got some scrap wood out of my dad’s workshop, took some pictures of my brother’s 1968 International Harvester Scout, and got to work.
Materials:
Picture-sized lumber scrap
Laser-printed photo (black and white)
Gel Medium (found by the acrylic paints at your local art store)
Mod Podge (or some other clear sealer)
Wood Stain (optional)
Directions:
First of all – measure your lumber scraps. Cut them down to size if they are not already proportioned correctly. Be aware – any ripples or dips in the wood will affect the quality of the transfer. Use the smoothest planks you can find.
Print your photo out to the size of your wood scrap (you can use photo editing software to adjust the size of the image). If the orientation of the objects in your photograph is important, you will want to use image editing software to “mirror” your photograph before you print it. The transfer process will reverse it back so that it looks right in the end. It is important that the photograph be printed from a laser printer. Chances are, your home printer is not a laser printer. Take it to a copy shop or the library, or some place that has laser printers. The ink saturation you get from a laser printer is part of what makes this transfer work.
Cut any unprinted paper off of your image. This will help you place it correctly. Spread a layer of gel medium over the smoothest side of your scrap wood and lay the image face down. Smooth it out and allow it to dry overnight.
When the gel medium has completely dried, use a wet washcloth to dampen the paper. Rub the paper away gently, revealing your image. If you rub too hard, you will rub the image away. Also, any undulations or unevenness in the wood will probably result in the photo not transferring to those places. It can give the final product a nice rustic look, as long as there is not too much of it.
After the paper is all rubbed away, you’ll want to seal it. If you want to give your image a more rustic look, you can apply a layer of wood stain. Wipe away the excess and let it dry. When it’s dry, apply a generous coating of Mod Podge (or other sealer, like polyurethane). Let that dry, and then you’re good to go. Enjoy your homemade art!
After the novelty wore off, I quickly came to dislike my portable chicken tractor. It was small, difficult to access for feeding and cleaning, cumbersome to move, and vulnerable to predators. So, since I’m adding more hens to my flock, I decided it was past time to build a better coop.
My dad is helping me build it. I could’ve built it myself, but he grew up working construction, and if I didn’t let him help, I’d have to hear about how the square was off by half a centimeter for the rest of my days. I’m not ungrateful for the help, though. My dad is an excellent carpenter, very fussy about detail and soundness.
The coop we’re building will accomodate 12 hens. Although it’d be fun to raise chicks, I’m going to buy some 20-week hens from the guy that I got my first four from. The four I have now are hardy, and good producers. Although one in particular has a bit of an attitude problem. I think, in the absence of a rooster, she’s decided to take on the role of flock protector.
I’m really excited about the design of this coop. It has windows for ventilation in the summer, a great big door for cleaning access. The run is tall enough that I won’t have to crawl on my hands and knees to get inside (or even stoop at all). I’ll be able to put in a much bigger watering system, so I won’t have to fill water twice a day. It’ll be placed right next to the garden, and I’m working on building some chicken wire tunnels that will allow the hens to scratch in the garden, but will keep my tomatoes protected from curious beaks.
Once the ground thaws, we’ll start leveling the site where the coop is going, and from there it should be finished by June. I can’t wait!
My hens have been producing like crazy over the past couple of weeks. I only have four hens, but I’ve been getting six eggs a day. I was eating eggs for breakfast, and egg sandwiches for lunch, and still the eggs were piling up.
So I decided to make Angel Food Cake. This is a modified version of the America’s Test Kitchen recipe, which can be found at their website.
Ingredients:
1 c. + 2 Tbsp sifted cake flour
¼ tsp salt
1¾ c. white sugar
12 large egg whites
1½ tsp cream of tartar
½ tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp almond extract
Directions:
Leave your eggs out on your counter for 30 minutes – an hour before baking. Room temperature egg whites whip up fluffier than cold ones. Preheat your oven to 325°F.
You’ll start by grinding your sugar in the food processor. You could just buy fine grain sugar (sometimes called “bakers sugar”), but then you’d have to calculate the volume difference for the finer grain. Pour all the sugar into the food processor and run it on high for 3 minutes. (Putting a damp towel over the food processor will prevent a sugar cloud from rising.) After processing, pour half of the sugar into a separate bowl and set aside. Measure out your cake flour, and add it to the half of sugar that is still in the food processor. Process these together on high for about a minute so that everything is evenly combined.
Begin separating your egg whites. The yolks can be frozen with sugar or salt to be used later in different recipes. Make absolutely certain that you don’t get even the slightest bit of yolk in with the whites. Even a little smidgen of yolk can prevent the white from whipping up properly. Add the cream of tartar to the egg whites, and then beat on high until the egg whites are frothy.
Add the reserved sugar slowly, with the mixer on medium speed. Then add the vanilla and almond extracts. When the sugar and extracts are incorporated, return to high speed and beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. (When the whisk is removed from the bowl, the egg whites will stand up stiffly without drooping.)
Remove the bowl of egg whites from the mixer and begin sifting the flour/sugar mixture into the egg whites. You’ll want to do this in sections, using a silicone spatula to fold each addition in. When all the sugar and flour is totally incorporated, gently spoon the batter into a tube pan. DO NOT grease the pan! The cake needs to stick to the sides so you can invert it after baking.
Smooth the batter down with a spatula so that it is at an even height all the way around the pan. Bake for 50-55 minutes at 325°F. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. After removing from the oven, immediately invert the pan. An angel food pan will have “feet” that allow you to simply tip it over without smushing the top. If you don’t have these feet, balance the pan with a beer bottle through the center or something similar. Allow the cake to rest for 2-3 hours, or until it is perfectly cool. This upside-down rest period is crucial to achieving the light, fluffy texture that makes angel food cake so special.
When the cake is cool, remove it from the pan by loosening the sides with a knife, and pulling the bottom out. The outside will look a little shaggy because of this, but that doesn’t matter. This cake is too delicious to also be expected to be beautiful.
Cut into slices and serve with fresh fruit and whipped cream.
Enjoy!
I have a tendency to get break-outs on my jaw. (Probably because I always rest my chin on my hand.) Commercial acne creams get rid of the pimples, but leave my skin raw and red. So I went looking for a simpler, more natural solution.
Tea Tree Oil is naturally anti-bacterial as well as anti-fungal. On it’s own, tea tree oil is too potent to be applied directly to skin. So, dilute it in distilled water and you’ve got a simple, natural acne treatment. It doesn’t work as quickly as commercial products do, but studies have found that when it’s used consistently over time, it is just as effective as products like benzoyl peroxide.
When I started experimenting with natural treatments, I knew I wanted more than just tea tree oil and water. Mainly because I don’t like the smell of tea tree oil. It’s like a pine tree and a eucalyptus plant had a nose assaulting demon baby. Diluted in water, the small is not too strong and is much more bearable. But it’s still that smell. So I added lavender oil to my toner. It tempers the smell of the tea tree oil, and lavender oil is also a natural anti-bacterial agent. Together, they actually smell quite nice.
Ingredients:
Distilled Water
Tea Tree Oil
Lavender Oil
A clean, sterile container
Vegetable glycerin (optional)
Directions:
For every 1 oz of distilled water used, add 10 drops of tea tree oil and 5 drops of lavender oil. To help the oil and water bond, and to add moisturizing properties to the toner, you can add 3-5 drops of vegetable glycerin. Store the toner in a small, clean container. For mine, I used an empty purse-sized hand sanitizer bottle. I recommend making this toner in smaller batches – 3oz or less at a time.
To Use:
Use at night only. (Tea tree oil + sunlight = red, irritated skin.) Wash your face with a gentle cleanser first. Rinse and pat dry. Shake the toner well and squirt onto a cotton ball or a q-tip. Apply directly to acne affected areas only. Do not apply to your whole face. You will feel a mild tingling, similar to applying menthol or vapor rub. (If it becomes painful or causes redness/irritation, rinse your face with soap and water to remove the oils.) With clean hands, apply a moisturizer after using the toner. Wash your face in the morning to remove the oils, and go about your morning routine as usual.
Other tips:
1. Washing your face daily (morning and night) with a mild cleanser is important for preventing acne – if you don’t remove built up dirt and germs, it gets into your pores and creates the irritation that becomes a pimple.
2. Apply a moisturizer after washing your face. It helps seal out dirt and germs, and it keeps your skin hydrated and refreshed.
3. Make sure you are drinking a lot of water! I drink 2 liters a day, and when I don’t get that, my skin really shows it.
My to-be-read pile of books is getting ridiculous. I just finished “A Storm of Swords” in George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire cycle. I started on “A Feast for Crows” last night and after that I’ll just have to finish “A Dance with Dragons” and then I’ll be able to really lay into my stack of books. I’m normally a really fast reader, but GRRM’s books seem to take me a while. They’re really compelling, hard-to-put-down books. When they’re good, they’re SO GOOD. But at the same time, they can really drag in places. But you keep reading, because you HAVE TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR FAVORITE(S).
Anyways, here are the spines I’m looking forward to cracking next:
A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin
I’ll be honest – I’m enjoying reading these, but I can’t wait until I’m all caught up and can move on to something else. If the books were only told from the POV’s of Tyrion Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen, Sansa Stark, and Jon Snow, I think I’d get through them much faster. But it looks like neither Daenerys nor Tyrion appear in the fourth book, which might make this one the slowest yet.
Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson
Tired of being shuttled from distant relative to distant relative, Hattie decides to head to Montana to prove up on her late uncle’s homestead claim in hopes of finding her own place in the world.
This is exactly the kind of book I would’ve devoured and loved and obsessed over when I was 10-16 years old. And these kinds of books still have a sweet spot in my heart.
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
An unflinching, darkly funny, and deeply moving story of a boy, his seriously ill mother, and an unexpected monstrous visitor.
This one’s been described as a “low fantasy” and it’s been given sobbing, heartsore reviews all over the place, so I added it to my stack. It’s either going to make me cry, or freak me right the hell out.
One for the Money by Janet Evanovich
When Stephanie Plum loses her job as lingerie buyer for a department store, desperation lands her a gig at her sleazy cousin Vinnie’s bail bond company. Her ex is wanted for murder, and if she can nab him in a week, she’ll get a cool ten grand.
I tried watching the movie on Netflix, and it was so terrible, I shut it off after fifteen minutes. But a book reviewer I trust was appalled by the movie rendition, and had high praise for the book. So, we’ll see.
The Diviners by Libbra Bray
Evie O’Neill has been shipped off to live with her uncle in bustling New York. When a rash of occult-based murders come to light, Evie and her uncle are in the thick of it. But Evie has a mysterious secret that could help catch the killer – if he doesn’t catch her first.
I love Libba Bray. The Gemma Doyle trilogy were my absolute favorite books in High School. I liked Going Bovine and Beauty Queens a lot, but I was so psyched when I heard Libba Bray was working on a historical fantasy series again. I bought this book the instant it came out, but somehow I haven’t gotten around to opening it yet. It kind of got lost under a stack of other books, I think.
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So that’s some of my list – although it’s only the first five. The full list has to be at least ten times as long. I don’t have an actual list written down – I just have heaps of books cluttered around my room. I need to buy a new bookshelf to house them, but I don’t actually have the space for another bookshelf. The woes of a book nerd.
This bread is perfect with soups and salads, and it’s great for dipping in flavored oils or hot cheese. It’s moist, chewy, and delicious. It’s simple to make, but there are two minor drawbacks: It takes some time and it is a very wet dough to work with. Just accept that you are going to have dough all over your fingers, and you’ll be fine. It is completely worth the effort.
For this recipe, my measurements are in weight (grams), so It’ll be necessary to have to a kitchen scale. Weight is the best way to measure for making bread – it’s reliable and consistent, where volume is not. Even if you’re not interested in bread baking, I highly recommend purchasing a kitchen scale if you don’t already have one. They’re affordable little gizmos, and you’ll find they come in handy for a lot of different things.
Ingredients:
570 g unbleached bread flour
11 g kosher salt
4 g instant yeast
450 g ice cold water
15 g olive oil
Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix by hand (note: mixing by hand will be a MAJOR workout) or with the paddle attachment in an electric mixer until dough comes together, and all ingredients are evenly mixed. If using a mixer, switch to the dough hook and mix for 5-6 minutes until dough still sticks to the bottom of the bowl, but pulls away cleanly from the sides. If the dough is too wet/dry, add flour/water as necessary. If kneading by hand, it will take 20+ minutes of vigorous hand kneading to reach this point. (The dough will stick to your hands A LOT – coating your hands with olive oil will help somewhat.) Transfer dough to an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate over night.
In the morning, the dough will have risen some in the fridge, but will not be doubled in size. Remove it from the fridge, and leave at room temperature for several hours, until doubled in size.
Generously coat your working space with flour and transfer dough to floured surface. Using a pastry cutter or a sharp blade, cut the dough into three equal sections. Stretch each section, and then fold them in overlapping thirds, so that each dough section is in a tidy, square/rectangle. Be careful not to punch the dough down or overwork it. Only stretch and fold. Allow to rest for an hour, then repeat – stretch, fold into thirds, let rest for an hour.
Prepare the oven: one rack should be at the very bottom, with another in the center of the oven. Put your baking stone on the center rack, and put an empty metal baking sheet on the bottom rack. Close the oven and preheat to 550 degrees fahrenheit (or as close as you can get). You can shape your dough into baguettes, batards, or ciabatta loaves – whatever suits your fancy. Dust the tops with flour.
Use baguette pans if you have them. If not, line a metal baking sheet with parchment paper and arrange your dough on it. When the oven is preheated, slide the pan with your dough directly onto the baking stone. Toss 1½ cups ice cubes onto the metal baking sheet on the bottom rack and close the door.
Bake until the bread is a deep golden brown (15-20 minutes). Remove from oven and transfer to a cooling rack. Allow to cool for half an hour. Do not cut into your bread while it’s still hot – it’s still cooking on the inside, and cutting it too soon will give you a doughy, gluey bread. When the bread is cool, slice and serve with warm butter.
Enjoy!
Dream, Calluna. 