Pizza Perogies

Perogy Dough. I made 2 different kinds of dough, one with eggs and one with out. I would highly recommend the one using eggs, as the dough was a lot nicer to work with.

Ingredients (Dough with no eggs) - makes approximately 20-24 perogies:
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup warm/hot water
Method:
Sift flour and salt together onto a work surface. Make a hill with the flour and form a hole. Pour the water in a thin stream and work in the flour. Mix well and knead until smooth. Rest under a bowl for 15 minutes.
Rolling Method:
Roll out dough to approximately 15mm and cut into circles (I used a pint glass for a template). You can also just cut squares out of the dough, I feel the circles look better, so I use circles. Roll circles so they are approximately 10mm thick.
Ingredients (Dough with eggs) - makes approximately 20-24 perogies:
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup cold water
1 egg, beaten
Method:
Sift flour and salt together. Add egg and cold water. Mix well and knead until smooth.
See above for rolling methods
**NOTE: I found that the dough turned out a lot nicer if it was made in single batches rather than double.
**NOTE: I always do an egg wash around the edges of the perogy before pinching together (and make sure not to get any of the filling in your pinched edge or it will self-destruct in the water)
**NOTE: If you are not planning on cooking your perogies immediately after making them...put the finished perogies onto cookie sheets (not touching each other) and freeze until hard to the touch.


I also chose to go non-traditional in the filling for the particular batch of perogies shown below. I chose to try and make them taste like pizza!

Ingredients (Pizza filling):
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
1 white onion
6 cloves of garlic
butter (not margarine)
salt
pepper
dill
basil
oregano
Peperoni (or any other kind of pizza meat)
Grated Cheese
Method:
In a large pan (I chose to use a wok, as it provided enough space in order to make all of the sauce in it), saute together chopped up white onion and garlic in the butter.
When nicely browned add in the can of crushed tomatoes and tomato paste. Season to taste with above mentioned spices and set to simmer together. I let mine sit on low on my stove for 2 hours, stirring every now and again to make sure nothing burnt to the bottom. I found my sauce to be a bit watery, so I also added to it 2 tbsp of flour to help thicken it up.
After the sauce is finished, let it cool overnight in the fridge.
After the sauce has cooled, chop up desired pizza meat into small pieces (mine were approximately 0.5cm by 0.25cm by 0.1 cm thick) and mix in with sauce. Mix as much, or as little as you want for a meat to sauce ratio.
Spoon small portions into the centers of rolled out perogy dough, top with cheese and pinch close.
If you are not going to eat the perogies right away, I suggest laying them out on a baking sheet and sticking them in the freezer until they harden up a bit (to prevent sticking). Then put them in freezer bags to finish freezing all the way

10 Favorite Christmas Crafts

Every year around this time I start thinking about what I want to get for people in my family for Christmas gifts. And every year I end up spending way too much money. So this year, I decided that I was going to make a bunch of my gifts in order to put a personal touch in them.

1. Mittens. Everyone loves mittens, and they are super easy to make. My favorite patten is from www.lionbrand.com search keywords 'crocheted mittens' and it is the "Holiday Mittens Free Pattern". I have used this pattern as a base many times changing up the type of stitches to suit my mood for the day.
2. Scarves. Another super easy, super customizable project. You can make scarves of any length, width, color, texture, stitch pattern... the possibilities are endless!
3. Toques. If we have mittens and scarves, might as well have toques! There are many different styles of toque patterns out there. Once again, some of my favorite ones are from http://www.lionbrand.com/, however once you get the basic pattern they are easily customizable (maybe even to match the mittens and scarves!)
4. If there are new babies in your life this list (especially for them) got even easier! You can do...
1. Baby Blankets
2. Sweaters
3. Booties
4. Rattles
5. Teddy Bears, or toys in general.. the possibilites are endless!
5. Couch blanket. These are my favorite! I always make sure to have at least 2 blankets readily accessible while sitting on the couch. A super easy pattern can be found at http://www.lionbrand.com/ search key words "5.5 Hour Throw".
6. Holiday baking is always a hit, and can be wrapped up in small boxes to make excellent stocking stuffers, to add the finishing touches to gifts, or as hostess gifts. Some of my favorites include:
1. Fudge. This is always a hit. Check out the fudge recipes at http://www.allrecipes.com/ for ideas
2. Chocolates. These are super easy to make. All you need is: Melting chocolate, chocolate molds, a new clean small synthetic painting brush, and any desired fillings. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler (or we always used glass jars sitting in a frying pan that was filled with water and kept at low heat to keep the chocolate melted but not cooked. Be sure not to get any of the water into your chocolate, as it will ruin the consistency of it), when the chocolate is fully melted drop a small amount into the mold. Using the paintbrush (or just swirling the chocolate around) make sure that the mold is nicely coated. Place in the fridge or freezer (or we would always do ours in the winter so that we could stick the molds outside to cool off) until hardened. Place desired filling into the hardened chocolate molds and top with more chocolate. Place in cool environment until chocolate is hard again. Turn mold upside down on a hard surface and lightly tap to loosen the chocolate out of the mold. Keep chocolates in a cool place (my mom would always hide them in the freezer so that they didn't all get eaten at once!)
3. Poppycock. It would not be Christmas in our home without poppycock. You can find recipes for this online, or if your family has an old recipe get a hold of that one. The old recipes are usually tried and true and work the best. Make sure that you get not only the recipe, but any small tricks that your granny/mom uses as well.
4. Peanut Brittle
5. Chocolate Truffles
6. Anything peppermint
7. Depending on your skill level (and ambition), you can also make soaps, bath fizzies, aromatherapy oils or salt scrubs. Using bring colors and vibrant scents, wrap them up in re-usable jars or containers.
8. Beaded jewelry. You can pick up all necessary earring backs, clasps, string and beads at a local craft store.
9. Candles
10. Ornaments. Pick up the appropriate craft paint, sparkles, ribbon and blank ornaments from your local craft store and create customized ornaments.

Freaking sweet!

So, no, this is not my wedding cake (though that would be quite sweet!) Based off a conversation with a friend the other day I set out to find an xkcd wedding cake. And voila!

Nothing to do with art...

...but deals with a common plaguing problem.

http://xkcd.com/627/

Black Forest Cupcakes

As promised..
 I had some family over for dinner the other night and thought it might be nice to have some cupcakes. I Googled 'Black forest cake recipe', chose one that looked relatively easy to make and whipped it up (with a few modifications)! After the cupcakes had cooled, I used a paring knife to cut a dime-sized hole into the top middle and packed in some sour cherries that I had gotten from a tree in my front yard. Then, I whipped up some buttercream icing, piped it onto the cupcakes, and voila!

Easy Black Forest Cake (makes 24 cupcakes)
Ingredients:
· 1 cup milk or cream (I used half and half milk and cream because I ran out of milk) 
· 1 tablespoon vinegar
· 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
· 2 cups white sugar
· 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
· 1 teaspoon baking powder
· 2 teaspoons baking soda
· 1/2 teaspoon salt
· 2 eggs
· 1/2 cup vegetable oil
· 1 cup strong instant espresso, cold
· 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
· 2 cups sour cherries 

Instructions:
· Preheat your oven to 350° F
· Put muffin papers into muffin pan.
· Make sour milk by combining milk and vinegar. Set aside.
· Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
· In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, coffee and vanilla. Stir in the sour milk. Gradually beat in the flour mixture, mixing just until incorporated.
· Pour batter into the prepared pans. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
· Allow cakes to cool
· Cut out a dime-sized hole from the centre of the cupcake, going to approximately the middle of the cupcake in depth.
· Fill hole with sour cherries (2-3, depending on how many you can fit so that the top of the last cherry is flush with the top of the cupcake), make sure to reserve 24 cherries for the tops of the cupcakes
· Frost cupcakes, and add cherry on top of frosting as shown above.

Buttercream Icing (*Caution, this recipe will only ice 8 cupcakes in the fashion shown above. I ended up having to make this twice to get the correct amount of icing)
· 1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
· 1 1/2 cup icing sugar (Sifted)
· 1-2 tsp pure vanilla extract
· 1-2 tbsp milk

Instructions:
· In a mixing machine, beat butter until smooth and creamy (about 2 minutes, depending on temperature of butter)
· Slowly add icing sugar
· Add vanilla extract
· If the icing is not at a spreadable consistency, slowly add the milk 1 tsp at a time until spreadable.

Easy Baby Blanket

For the next few posts I am going to be exploring different kinds of art that are quite different from my usual paint and ink. I hope you all enjoy!



I made this blanket for a friend who is expecting her second baby. It's approximately 5.5ft x 3.5 ft, and very light and cozy. This is a very customizable pattern

Pattern:

Chain until you have reached the desired length of your blanket

Row 1&2: Single stitch in each stitch

Rows 3- Desired width: Chain 3 (Counts a a double), Double in next stitch, *Skip next two, Double in 3rd stitch, chain 1, double in same stitch, chain 1, double in same stitch (fan made)* and repeat until you reach the last 5 stitches. Repeat fan, double in last two stitches.

Row x: After you have reached the desired width, single stitch along the top of all of the double stitches, turn

Row x+1: Single stitch in all. Fasten off.

Optional edging:

 For the edging, I went around the blanket twice using single stitches to create a nice border for the blanket.

This is a quick and easy blanket that is very customizable. I have not specified a hook size or yarn weight so that you can decide how you want your blanket to look. The one above is made using a very light weight yarn and a 12mm hook. I have made it other times using smaller hooks, which results in a tighter blanket.

For something different, try using multiple strands of contrasting colors (I have made one using burgandy and forest green before also), or play around with yarn weights to make heavier or lighter blankets.

Coming up next...

 Black Forest Cupcakes!

Some Day...

Last one for now in the black and red.

This one can be symbolic for anyone who feels that they are stuck in a place that they cannot get out of, but have a yearning to see what's on the other side. Obviously a fish could never leave his bowl, but we have the power to create our own circumstances and to experience what is outside of our 'bowls'. The text behind the fish's tail reads 'Some Day'