Tired of Rainbows and Unicorns

Sweet Daughter received a new pair of pajamas for Christmas. Due to the concentration of rainbows and unicorns, we immediately dubbed them her “obamapajamas”. She LOVED those things, and wore them every night. Then one night she wasn’t feeling well, spilled medicine down the front of herself, and had to put on a different pair. The next night I heard “Momma, I’m tired of those pajamas. Can I wear my flowered ones again?”


Hmmm. Tired of rainbows and unicorns? Looks like she’s not the only one.

And now for a musical interlude

Hayseed Dixie (a play on the name AC/DC) performs a mixture of cover versions and their own stuff in a style that’s somewhere between bluegrass and rock. They’ve performed in 21 different countries since 2001, which might explain why some Europeans sthink “Dukes of Hazzard” is a documentary.





(Four rednecks with better teeth than Eddie Mercury? What are the chances?)

Or, go listen to a few other classics. They made me smile.

H/T to Theo.

Okay, I'll Bite.

Created by Oatmeal
 
Go on. All the cool kids are doing it. You know you want to ...

Oat Scones

One of my jobs at living history events is to coordinate the food for our group. It’s not that others can’t do it, it’s just something I started doing when Sweet Daughter was tiny. Since I was busy tending a small child (and explaining that yes, she really was a real baby*), I didn’t do much interpreting (which I’m not particularly good at, anyway), and this way I felt like I was actually contributing something if I planned the menus and shopped for the food. My goal is to use what food was in season and available for wherever we are geographically. Most is prepared during the event, but the early risers (and the kids) are a lot happier if breakfast is ready to eat as soon as they’re up. One of my staples for breakfast is this recipe for scones. It’s not a period recipe, but they’re usually gone before the public shows up and asks any questions about them. I love that they use melted butter instead of cutting the shortening into the dry ingredients so they’re buttery, quick to prepare, and they travel well. This means I can make them a day ahead of time, and they’ll last through the weekend. Did I mention that they’re buttery?? Oh, and Sweet Daughter really, really, loves them.

OAT SCONES

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ¼ cups rolled oats, uncooked
¼ cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon or so cinnamon (optional)
½ cup melted butter
¼ cup milk
1 egg
½ cup raisins (or currants, or dried cranberries, or whatever you’ve got)

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Plump your dried fruit by placing in a small microwave safe bowl, add water to the top of the fruit and microwave for one minute. Set aside – don’t drain the water yet.

Stir the dry ingredients together. Add the melted butter, milk and egg, and mix just until dry ingredients are moistened. Add the drained raisins (or whatever you’re using) and stir them in until just combined.

Divide the dough in half, shaping each piece into a circle about 6 1/2” across. Cut each circle into 6 wedges and place on a baking stone, or a greased baking sheet, and bake for 12 -15 minutes until light golden brown.

*No lie. We were at our first event with SD when she was 5 weeks old. At *least* 5 different people asked me if she was a real baby that weekend. This continued until she was ambulatory.

Reworking a Great Coat, Part 1.

I started with an 18th century-style Great Coat purchased from Flying Canoe Traders. This coat was picked up at an event that was a lot colder, wetter and windier than forecast. I had tried making Shorter Half a GC, but the “one size fits most” pattern I had on hand didn’t fit him , and as a result I had a carcass of a half-finished coat sitting in my sewing room, mocking me, and doing him absolutely no good. So now we had a new coat instead of a case of hypothermia, and I started thinking about ways to make it better.


The very first thing that struck me about this coat was the cuffs and pocket flaps. The pieces had been cut out, stitched around the cut edges, turned right-side out, and attached per usual. They looked – puffy. 18th century wool of this weight held a cut edge and so the raw edges didn’t need to be folded in. The wool on this coat held a cut edge, too, so I ripped out the top-stitching and seam on a pocket flap. I opened up and flattened the seam, marked where the folded edge had been, hand-stitched next to it, and trimmed off the old seam allowance. What a difference! Then I did the cuffs, too.

 Concurrent with this, I worked on the buttons. The buttons that came on this coat were “antiqued”. The size and shape (profile) were okay, but the color -- not so much. Not a problem. Covered buttons are underrepresented in the hobby, anyway, AND I found a wool remnant in my heap o’ scraps that was a good match. I covered all thirty-eight buttons.

Pocket Flap and buttons before and after.

Cuffs, before and after.

Reducing the “puffiness” of the coat made a huge difference, so I top-stitched around the collar and down the front edges making for a crisper, flatter edge.

Top-stitched edges on the left, puffy edges, machine stitching on the right.

Then I stared at that collar. I’d never seen a banded one like that on a great coat, not that that meant anything. From the buttons that went all the way down the front to the large cuffs, I could tell that this coat was a mid-century design, so maybe the banded collar was mid-century, too. Now, at this period in time, a collar that stood up (like the one currently on the coat) was called a collar. If it folded over at all, it was called a cape. I thought adding a cape would change the lines of this coat enough that it wouldn’t look like Every. Single. Flying Canoe great coat out there. It would also update the coat to a more 1780’s silhouette.

Part 2 later if anyone is still reading ...

Obligatory disclaimer: No, Flying Canoe Traders doesn't know who I am and didn't give me the coat. The coat is entirely fine for may impressions, I just wanted to see if I could make it better.

Farby

Farb (reenactment)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Farb is a derogatory term used in the hobby of historical reenacting in reference to participants who exhibit indifference to historical authenticity, either from a material-cultural standpoint or in action. It can also refer to the inauthentic materials used by those reenactors.

So, who is farby? The joke is that anyone less accurate than you is a farb, and anyone more accurate is a stitch-counting, hyper-focused whacko who needs to get a life. I've probably been accused of both. At the same event, even. For me, it’s my goal to try to improve upon something each time I attend an event. The important thing is that I do the best I reasonably can at any given time, and try to improve each time I start a new project.

Why am I boring you with this? Why, so I can bore you with a project tomorrow.

Edited to add photo:

These guys look pretty good. Except for the coffee ...

(To be fair, it was before the event began, and they *did* pour it into appropriate containers ...)

An Impromptu Birthday Celebration

Sweet Daughter wanted to bake cupcakes today. Not just any cupcakes, but “twist” cupcakes, based on her favorite ice cream. A perusal of the Usual Suspects alerted me to the fact that today was an important day in history. Coincidence? Does it matter? Sounds like an excuse for a party to me! A quick Google search found a recipe for marble cupcakes that didn’t require cake flour, and made a reasonable amount. Three people do not need 24 cupcakes. “Need” being a subjective term, here.

First to the party was what we call “The Warmth” because it’s a bit of a stretch to consider carry this packing heat. Problem: Should you really eat a dessert that’s bigger than you’re carry piece? Solution: Carry a bigger gun.

The rest of the guests arrive, including the Browning descendants that live here: Baby Browning, Colt Commander and High Power. Also invited were the marble cupcakes and a nice little Pinot Noir. It was a lovely reunion.

The Browning Family

From left to right: Baby Browning .25 ACP; Colt Commander .45 ACP; GP35 Browning High Power, 9mm Parabellum.

Recipe adapted from Baking Bites.

Marble Cupcakes

1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons cocoa

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a dozen muffins tins with paper cups liners.

In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk and vanilla extract. Add in dry ingredients (except for the cocoa) and whisk until combined. Fill paper cups about half full with the batter (it will be thin – much thinner than a box mix). This should leave you with about one cup of batter. Add the cocoa to the remaining batter and mix thoroughly. Put a large spoonful in each cup and swirl the two flavors together with a knife.

Bake for about 15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool cupcakes on a wire rack before frosting.

Makes about one dozen. These have a very distinct buttermilk flavor. I bet they’d be great with orange icing.


(H/T to Tam for the birthday notification.)