I think everyday is a time to celebrate. 

I got out my Stangl tea pot and cups and saucers to go with some tea (Twinings Lemon and Ginger) and

the cupcakes I made the other day.

Just Cynthia and I enjoyed this particular treat.

Actually, Cynthia bought me this cute little machine the other day- and I decided to

give it a try.  It was a dark and rainy sort of day, and I needed something to lift

my our spirits – so I made gingerbread cupcakes with lemon cream cheese icing.

They looked so pretty and bright that I matched them up with the bright brown, yellow, and

green Stangl plates and the whole room looked a little like Spring!

I’ve also made some German Chocolate cup cakes with a box cake, and mini quiches-

The crusts were cut to size and placed into the cup indentions while the machine

was still cold- and about 10 minutes later-

beautiful-toasty and delicious quiche!

Frank says-“Just what you need another gadget!”

But he loved the quiche which I served with a bowl of soup.

Add a fruit salad and it made a wonderful meal!

I’m going to make some pecan tarts this weekend. These are a really nice size-

larger than the mini muffin pan- but smaller than a regular sized cupcake pan.

I really love gadgets!

So many happy faces- so much good food- such a  great time!

We had a pre-Valentine’s tea and a wonderful pre-Valentine’s lunch with some of my favorite

people!

Last week I finally started to feel better and when Allyson invited us over for tea- I literally jumped

on it.  I’ve been staying home-watching the snow fall- watching the snow melt- watching the snow fall-

it is a long process to get better-  and kind of lonely,so it was so much fun sharing time with loved ones.

And then when I got home – I had a wonderful package waiting for me.

My son Luke sent  me these wonderful toe shoes- aren’t they cute?  I know I don’t have cute feet- but with these shoes-

I don’t even mind putting up some pictures of my ugly feet with these on!  Called vibram fivefingers, they are closely fitted

to fit closely to my feet,  I’m looking forward to wearing these on the beach this coming spring and summer.

First of all, let me say – if you have only had store bought bread wraps, then

you haven’t really had anything close to a good wrap.

These have a texture that just isn’t there- and an aroma that transforms the

whole making and eating experience into an occasion!

I patched together 3 different recipes to come up with one that used the

ingredients and processes that I wanted to incorporate into my wraps.

And we ate the first ones still warm from the skillet- this in itself makes the

whole job totally worthwhile!  I’ve made them again when the first batch was

used up- I have a feeling I will be making these up for a long time to come.

Recipe for Quinoa and Spelt flat bread wraps-

*quinoa (pronounced Keen’-wha) is the seedy top of a vegetable related to spinach.  It was used in the

Andes region of South America thousands of years ago- you can read about the

origin here.

**Spelt is a complex wheat originally found in the Mesopotamia region.  It predates

bread wheat – you can read about it here.

Ingredients :

2 cups AP flour

1 cup spelt flour

1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups boiling water

1/4 cup potato flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp instant or rapid rise yeast

2-4 TBS vegetable oil

!/3 cup quinoa

1 cup boiling water

Method:

Place 2 cups AP flour in small bowl and pour 1 1/4 cups of boiling water into bowl and stir well.

Set aside and cool for 30 minutes.

Brown quinoa in skillet and add 1 cup boiling water.  Cover and simmer until water is all absorbed,

take off heat and cool.

In a large bowl add all ingredients together and knead for about 10 minutes. (Make sure that the boiled

flour and quinoa aren’t too hot to the touch, but don’t wait until they are cold either- warmish would

be right.)

Oil bowl and turn the ball of dough over so that it has an oily surface on top and cover and let raise

for an hour.  Separate into 8 to 10 balls.

Roll out on lightly floured surface until very thin- then carefully transfer to lightly oil

medium hot skillet

.And cook until browned.

Turn over and brown other side.

 

Cover with tea towel to keep warm and use immediately.

Or cool completely and put into plastic bag and use later.  I kept them

in the fridge and they were good for a week. ”

I grilled chicken slices, onion and green peppers, added some tomato and scallions-

put down a layer of hummus and added a dollop of sour cream.

Rolled them up-

 

And YUM!  Lunch was served!

Jordan especially loved these and was quite glum when I gave the last one to his aunt.

So I made them again on Sunday.

Try these – they really aren’t that hard to make- and you won’t ever want to go back to

the tasteless cardboard they sell in the grocery stores for wraps!

I should be on my way to Long Island, New York to visit my son and

his family.  But no, I am spending the day and the next little while resting

and recovering.  I have been sick since the middle of December with

one thing or the other, and this week I came down with a very devastating

stomach bug.  I haven’t eaten anything other than a few saltines in the last

few days- and I was close to becoming dehydrated- so now that I’m starting

to keep food down and can sit up long enough to type, I’ve decided to

just take it easy and recuperate. 

So- I’m going to take a break from blogging for a while, too.

I’m going to try and send out the salt mixes to Lilly and Johanna in the next

month, sometime- thank you for your participation and please send me

your addresses via messaging on Facebook.

I’m looking forward to much inspired baking and joyous bread time in the

months to come, but right now, I can’t even eat bread, let alone make any.

I may write a couple of posts sometime because I can’t help myself- but I

don’t want to feel any pressure or guilt (all self imposed) because I haven’t.

I’ll be back in a couple of weeks- ready to share some great recipes!

Maybe by then the snow will stop and the ice storms- and the

sun will be shining.

I used to use a whetstone to sharpen my knives.

They are so messy- and my stone was small- by the time I finished, I hadn’t sharpened all my knives-

it was too much of a hassle.

My mother had this sharpener- metal circles that you pulled the blade

through the center and it pared the edges finer.

This is old.  The circles are rusty and don’t move as freely as they used to.

Pampered Chef sells this knife with a cover that has a built in sharpener-

the idea is that each time you pull it out it sharpens the blade.

Nice idea, but it doesn’t really work that well.

So- I’m going to try to sharpen this knife using a couple of gadgets.

The Rada  company has a sharpener that uses the same principle as my mother’s old one

– but there are only two circles and they are not rusted together so they work.

Look at all the metal filings in the center of the paper.  Those are from the edge of the

knife.  The blade is a little rough, though, since we are pulling it between the circles.

So I use the steel rod that will file down the rough edges on the blade.

And there is the edge- the new edge I was looking for- a sharp knife.

How do you sharpen your knives?