Garam Masala

I'll be working part time for the next few weeks until they find someone to replace me.  Don't ask how I got suckered into giving a 7 week notice, but I did.  At least I was able to dictate my schedule, and so starting last week I transitioned to my part time schedule of 3 days a week.  Last Wednesday on my day off, Taylor and I took a little down time after homework was complete to watch the Food Network, and oh how I have missed my shows!  The weekend line up is just not the same, with marathon episodes of Guy Fieri going through endless Diners, Drive Ins and Dives, making me want to puke at the crap people eat.  Sure, there's also lots of Alton Brown thrown in on the weekend, but let's be honest, one can only handle geeky food talk for so long.  But I digress.

We caught an episode of Sunny Anderson's Cooking for Real and the Baked Chicken Drummies looked fantastic.  I love Indian food but am too intimidated to make it, but this looked like a simple enough recipe for me to try.  I made my grocery list on Saturday and searched two grocery stores for Garam Masala, the key ingredient to this dish, to no avail.  I became transfixed on making this dish Saturday night so I looked up how to make my own Garam Masala and found a quick and easy recipe here. 

Lo and behold, I just happened to have all ingredients ON HAND in my pantry to make my own mix!  I jumped up and down and immediately tweeted "I have arrived!  I am officially a foodie!"  Never mind that no one was here to crown me with an official Foodie title, I went ahead and took the honors upon myself.

Garam Masala is more smokey in flavor than hot or spicy and added a nice punch to the chicken.  I also added some to our sauteed spinach, the veggie side dish of the meal.  It is a beautiful concoction of rich spices, including Cumin, Coriander, Cardamon, Pepper, Cinnamon, Cloves and Nutmeg.  The Cardamon spice is a little random, but luckily I had a stash of it from making my own Chai. 

I have made my own concoction of spices a couple of times before, including Jerk Chicken rub.  Our local grocery store Sprouts has a wonderful little bulk spice section where you can get small amounts of random, yet common fresh spices.  It ends up being much cheaper to make your own mixture, or even to just get small amounts of spices that you don't commonly use so that it doesn't go bad, rather than buying even a small jar of a spice.  I calculated that this little bit of Garam Masala cost just under a buck, where you'd normally pay at least $5 for a jar.   

The chicken drummies turned out great by the way.  Did anyone out there cook up something good this weekend?  I'm linking up to Heather's Life Made Lovely Monday.

Kuchen - Say What?

I got my usual inkling to bake this weekend.  Lucky for me I had plenty of inspiration thanks to a copy of Better Homes & Gardens Christmas Baking issue, which I had picked up on a late night trip to CVS last week.  Think hormones, think enticing cover with red velvet cupcakes on the front, think me very-very weak.

As I was flipping through the magazine, I came upon a whole section on Kuchen (pronounced Kook-ken), which is basically a form of dense cake and the pride of German farm wives.  Quite honestly some of the heavier, drier recipes didn't appeal to me at all, but one in particular caught my eye.  The Blueberry-Peach Custard Kuchen looked warm, gooey, sweet and inviting, and the perfect excuse to serve cake for breakfast and call it nutritious because it has fruit in it.  Sign me up, I'm on board!
Blueberry-Peach Custard Kuchen (from Better Homes & Gardens)
*they advise to use frozen fruit, but I only had frozen peaches on hand and fresh blueberries, but it turned out fine.
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 package active dry yeast
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup sliced and peeled fresh or frozen peaches thawed
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1 egg lightly beaten
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cu[p half & half

1. Grease 9 inch pie plate; set aside.  In a large bowl combine 1 cup of the flour and the yeast, set aside
2. In a small saucepan, heat & stir milk, 1/2 cup sugar, butter, and 1/2 tsp salt just until mixture is warm and butter almost melts.  Add milk mixture and 2 eggs to flour mixture and beat with an electric mixer on low for 30 seconds, scraping side of bowl constantly.  Beat on high speed for 2 minutes or until smooth.  Beat in as much of the remaining flour as possible and stir in any remaining flour to make a stiff batter (and it will indeed be stiff).
3. Spread batter into pie plate.  Top with peach slices and blueberries.  Cover and let rise to double in size (about 45 minutes).   Mine did not double in size, maybe increased about 1/4 higher?
4. In a medium bowl combine 1 egg, 2 tbsp sugar , vanilla, nutmeg and 1/8 tsp salt.  Whisk in half & half & pour over fruit.
5. Bake in preheated 375 degree F oven for 45-55 minutes until golden brown.  Cool on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes.
**I would say that the recipe could have used 2 eggs at the end to make it a little more custardy and break through the denseness of the cake

 your main ingredients

 layering the fruit over the batter

 letting the kuchen rise

 milk mixture poured on top

I'd like to say that this was my favorite cake ever.  But I could do even better. It was my kid's favorite cake ever, even topping chocolate cake they claimed.  I was shocked by the speed and veracity in which they devoured this cake.  They each had 2 pieces in one sitting and I allowed it because really, aside from a scant amount of sugar, this cake is pretty decent in terms of healthy desserts.  I'm sure the Organic Kids Clif Bars have more sugar in them than this cake.  I don't even have a problem with them eating it for breakfast this morning!

I'd be interested to know if anyone tries this, and if you do, I would love to know if your cake rose much.  Now, go forth and bake my friends.

p.s. I'm linking up to Heather's Life Made Lovely Post.  Because it's fun and she's rad.

Raffia & Waxed Leaf Garland Tutorial

When we decided to wax some pretty fall leaves (I used this tutorial because Greta is not a scaredy cat and lets her children partake in the waxing fun - thanks Greta!), I knew I wanted to make a garland.  But our window is so huge, that I was afraid it would look too puny just hanging on a string.  So I decided to spruce it up a bit with some raffia.
Now I know what you're thinking, raffia, ugh?!?  I know, it reminds me of bad 80's country decor too.  But I promise when used with respect, raffia can look very apropos for the season.  Use it sparingly and wisely.  And for goodness sake, don't tie a bow with it.  If you look in my corners, I tied a bow in my garland and then almost gagged.  So I took a pair of scissors to the loops and cut them to make more of a shabby looking fringe.  It also helped (I think), that I used a darker color of raffia, not the usual light beige variety.
So enough of my babbling, here's the easy-peasy tutorial: 

A long pretty line of waxed leaves

I bought Martha Stewart glitter for the first time & used it on this project.  Wow.

It is on a pedestal because it deserves to be. 

 And hang above your favorite window!

Or on your not so favorite mantel

Tomorrow I'll reveal more of the dreaded mantel and how I changed the decor to fall in love with it again.  

I also reveal how I made this sweet Give Thanks banner. 

For now, I'm linking up to Centsational Girl's Fall Craft Party

Heather of Blessed Little Nest

Welcome to Blog Relaunch Week here at Four Flights of Fancy!  I am excited to welcome my first guest poster, Heather from Blessed Little Nest.  I started reading Heather's blog late last year, and instantly became hooked.  I poured over her archives one night and was struck with just how genuine she came across in every single post.  I wrote her, and since then we have exchanged countless emails, tweets, comments and blog love over the Internet superhighway!  I was honored when she agreed to be a guest blogger.  Now, without further adieu, Heather...

Hi there Four Flights of Fancy readers!!
My name is Heather from Blessed Little Nest and I'm delighted
to be participating in Andrea's guest blogger series.

I've always loved fluffing my nest, but in the past few years
it's taken on a whole new meaning for me.  In the Fall of 2007 my six
week old son Samuel died from a rare form of bacterial meningitis.
As I've learned to live this new life of mine without him, I've come to
understand how important my home environment is. 

Before Samuel was born I would spend much of my

time trying to make my house look like something out of a

catalog, when in reality what I needed was a home that was

healing and inspiring, not the exact room setting off of page 12.

 "Whatever else anything is,

it ought to begin by being personal."

Tell me you know what movie that's from.  C'mon!

I know you know.  It's okay if you don't, we can still be friends,

but it'd be a whole lot cooler if you did.

Ha!  I did it again.  What movie's that line from?

Okay, I've gotten completely off track.  Movie trivia

tends to do that to me.  Back to what I'm here to talk about....

I love that quote and find myself coming back to it often.
I believe that no matter what life throws at you, it's important
that we all have a space to come back to that we can call our own.

For me that space includes a mix of vintage, modern, and industrial

with a nice big dose of handmade thrown in for good measure.

I enjoy shopping at thrift shops and junk sales, and love to

upcycle things to fit into my design aesthetic.

  By taking something new, like this pillow cover, and adding a few

vintage sewing notions and a needlepoint design that I found on one of
my thrifting adventures, I end up creating something personal to me.

And since I have two small kiddos at home under my wing
it's important that our home not only have an inspiring, cozy and
happy environment, but that it function as well.  In order
to make that work I find ways to combine the two worlds, like
using old suitcases to hold dress up clothes and using pretty
blankets for fort making.

I'm always thinking up new and creative ways to display their artwork, too.

So, while you will likely never see my home in a catalog

or magazine, that's kind of the idea.  It's created to perfectly suits the four

people that live in it.  And for us, we couldn't ask for more.

Thanks for having me Andrea!

+Heather

In honor of Heather's work and dedication to the Joyful Life Library, I thought it only appropriate to give away a children's book bag from my Etsy shop.  To enter, leave a comment just to say hi to Heather!  Additional entries can be made by becoming or being a follower of Four Flights of Fancy and Blessed Little Nest, Tweeting, Blogging, Facebooking, you name it.  Just leave a separate comment for each shenanigan :)