Happy Easter!

birch buds

pussy willows

Spring Has Sprung!

Gorgeous weekend weather, though cool it feels like spring has finally arrived. Even the wind has calmed down enough for me to hang laundry outside! Happy Easter!

laundry on the line!

happy spring!

Happy Easter!

Hot Cross Buns for Good Friday

I baked hot cross buns this morning, a yearly Good Friday tradition for me. I used a new recipe today instead of my usual. I found it in the new LCBO's Food & Drink magazine. Yummy!

Lemon Blueberry Hot Cross Buns

The recipe is for Lemon Currant Hot Cross Buns. I just made a few substitutions of my own. I used part whole wheat flour, and used my own dried blueberries instead of currants.

Lemon Currant Hot Cross Buns

Dough

2 cups milk, at room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1 tbsp. bakers yeast

1 1/2 tsp finely grated lemon zest

1 tsp vanilla

4 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 1/4 cups dried currants

Hot Glaze

1/2 cup sugar

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp water

Icing

3/4 cup icing sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

For Dough: stir milk, sugar, yeast, lemon zest and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer, or by hand and let sit for 5 minutes. Add flour, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon and currants and blend. Using dough hook attachment, knead until elastic, but dough still sticks to the bottom of the bowl (or if by hand, stir until stiff, then turn out onto a light floured surface and knead until elastic but still sticky). Place in a large oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm draft free place for 1 1/2 hours.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and cut into  12 pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a ball and place in a greased 9" x 13" cake pan. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise for 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Bake buns for 40 to 45 minutes, until a rich golden colour. While buns are baking, prepare hot glaze.

For hot glaze, stir sugar, lemon juice and water in a small pot over medium heat until sugar has dissolved. When buns come out of the oven, brush glaze over buns. Let buns cool in the pan.

For icing: beat icing sugar and lemon juice together until thick and smooth. Pipe a cross onto each bun. Buns are best served the day they are baked.

Makes 12 buns.

Handwoven Superwash Wool Rugs

Who knew after all my ranting about superwash wool, that I would make friends with the stuff. I have been weaving rugs with very fine superwash merino sweaters. They are lovely, and make thick cushy, spongey rugs, I do love them. However it takes twice as many sweaters to weave a rug, as the fabric is so fine. This in turn drives the price up. Twice as much work involved cutting the sweaters, and then weaving, twice as many threads per inch, in comparison to the felted wool.

beige, gold, green, blue superwash wool rug

rust, brown, gray and black superwash wool rug

Date Scones

I love scones and have quite a collection of scone recipes. This is an old favourite, very simple!

Date Scones

2 cups flour
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 cup chilled butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 chopped pitted dates (cut with scissors)
1/2 skim milk
3 tbsp. maple syrup
Butter for buttering baking sheet

1. Preheat oven to 400 F.
2. Combine first 5 ingredients in a bowl; cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add dates; toss well. Combine milk and syrup. Add to flour mixture, stirring until just moist.
3. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface; knead 4 or 5 times. Pat dough into an 8” circle on a lightly buttered baking sheet. Cut dough into 12 wedges, cutting into but not through, dough.
4. Bake at 400 F. for 15 minutes or until golden. Serve warm.

Jewelry

I have accepted a consignment order with a shop in Toronto and have been busily making jewelry for it. I have the rug portion of the order complete. I will admit  I am nervous about it. The unknown, it is far away. I will feel better once the package reaches its destination. Here are a couple of the pieces I have finished.

pearls, glass & copper

a trio of pearls with silver

Spinach and Cheese Gnocchi with Spicy Tomato Sauce

This is an old family favourite, and I just figured out how to copy and then paste onto Blogger, with the very kind help of Lillyella. This will come in very handy for recipes as I do have the cook book I made for my kids online, not I will just be able to copy and paste instead of typing them out again. Much easier!
A friend who I have been cooking for while she is having cancer treatments requested this for her dinner tonight. Unfortunately I did not take any photos, I was too busy cooking. I hope you will enjoy!

Spinach & Cheese Gnocchi ( I always double this so these will be leftovers)

1/2-lb. spinach leaves (I use frozen, chopped spinach)
4 tbsp. butter, melted
1 cup well drained ricotta cheese
2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs
7-tbsp. flour and more as needed for rolling
3/4 tsp. salt
Fresh ground pepper to taste
Pinch of nutmeg
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Cook spinach in 1 tbsp. of melted butter over medium high heat, stirring often, until it is completely tender and the liquid has evaporated completely. It should be just sticking to the pan. This may take 10 to 15 minutes. Puree the cooked spinach in a blender or food processor.
In a fairly large bowl, combine the spinach puree with the ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, eggs, 7-tbsp. flour, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Stir the mixture vigorously until it is perfectly blended and lump free. Chill the mixture for at least 1/2 hour.
Using 2 teaspoons, form little gnocchi about the size and shape of a pecan. Scoop up a rounded teaspoonful of the mixture in one spoon, then with floured hands; shape into the oval shape. Drop into a bowl of flour. Roll it in the flour, dust it off, and put it down on waxed paper. Continue forming the gnocchi until all of the mixture is used up.
To cook the gnocchi, drop them carefully into a large pot of simmering salted water. Allow them to simmer (not boil) for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring them very gently once or twice with a wooden spoon to make sure they don’t stick to the bottom of the pot or to each other. Remove them from the water with a slotted spoon and drain them on a clean cloth (tea towel).
Pour half of the remaining butter into a large shallow casserole pan. Arrange the gnocchi in it in one layer. Pour the remaining butter over them and sprinkle them with the Parmesan cheese. Bake the gnocchi in a preheated 350 F oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until they are hot through and the cheese is starting to colour.
Serve with spicy tomato sauce. Serves 6.


Spicy Tomato Sauce

3 tbsp. olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2-tsp. red pepper flakes
1 large can plum tomatoes, pureed
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/3 cup dried basil

In a large skillet heat the oil. Add garlic and pepper flakes, cook until fragrant but not browned. Stir in the tomatoes, salt, pepper and basil and cook until thickened.