I Open at the Close

The end of the era, the end of my childhood. When I finished reading the seventh Harry Potter book, I really did feel like I had left a part of my childhood behind. I went to all of the midnight book release parties, read and re-read the books, listened to the audiobooks on cassette tape and then CD, when the movies started coming out I was always around the same age as the actors; essentially, I grew-up with Harry Potter. I was definitely part of the Harry Potter generation, and Harry Potter certainly left an indelible impact on my childhood. For the last Harry Potter movie midnight premiere, I had my friends over beforehand and we ate Sheppard's Pie and I made Butter Beer, and for dessert I made Golden Snitch Cake Pops!

The cake pops were not that hard to make, but did take a little bit of practice and trial and error. To make the wings, I made marshmallow fondant and tinted it yellow, and cut it out in the shape of the wings. Make sure to allow plenty of time for the wings to dry out and harden (at least 24 hrs!) before trying to attach them to the cake pops. To give them a more wing like texture, use a fluted fondant wheel and make ridges on the wings. We also dusted our wings with Wilton golden dusting powder to make them appear more gold. To make the cake pops,I used my Babycakes CakePop maker, which sort of functions like a waffle iron, but makes round balls instead of waffles. Then I stuck the cake on the sticks and dipped them into the melted yellow candy melts. After the cake pops were completely hardened (we let them harden overnight) we cut small slits into the sides of the pops and carefully inserted the wings into the slits. (Make extra wings because some WILL break!) Once you insert the wings, just be very careful in handling them, because they become very fragile.

Baby Jumper

Felix, my 16 month old cousin, sporting his new jumper. He was surprised that I was able to sew this for him!



For Christmas my parents gave me sewing lessons;however, I had to wait until summer to actually be able to take them. I grew up learning the basics of sewing, but recently started to want to learn more about sewing, especially about how to make clothes! I learned to hand sew when I was in first grade. My first grade teacher taught us all how to sew and while she would read to us during circle time we would all sew little gnomes or weave on the looms that were in the classroom. We still have some gnomes floating around my house! I don't exactly remember when I was taught to sew on a sewing machine but I am sure it was one of the times my mom was making us Halloween costumes or something like that.

So I finally had time to take sewing lessons this summer and this jumper was the first thing I made. It really was pretty simple to make, I was able to complete it in two classes, so a total of 4 hours. I think that the hardest part about sewing is reading the pattern, so taking the lessons really helped to better understand all of the tricky things in the pattern, plus the woman who taught the lessons was really knowledgeable and had a lot of great tips that are definitely not included in the instructions! I am excited that I can now say that I can sew clothes, but I am in no way an expert, there are still so many things to learn, and much practice needed!

Zucchini Bread

I don't have any pictures for this one, but I made this zucchini bread and a lot of people asked for the recipe so I figured I would go ahead and put it on here. The zucchini I used came from the garden at my aunt's work, American Funds, they had this "green initiative" and decided to start a company garden with the space on their campus and have been growing things throughout the year, most of which they use in their company cafeteria. The zucchini she gave to us was humongous, it was probably at least a foot and a half long, if not longer!

This recipe comes from my moms old Betty Crocker cookbook that she got when she was in college, its a little worn around the edges, but is definitely a go to cookbook for great recipes!

2/3 cup shortening
2 and 2/3 cup sugar
4 eggs
3 cups shredded zucchini
2/3 cup wayer
3 and 1/3 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
2/3 cup coarsely chopped nuts
2/3 cup raisins

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease only the bottoms of the loaf pans, I used 2, 9x5x3 inch ones. Mix shortening and sugar in a large bowl, then add in the eggs, zucchini and water. Next, add the flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, and vanilla, and blend together. Stir in the nuts and raisins and then divide evenly among the pans. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool on wire cooling racks and then remove from pans.

(this recipe can be used for pumpkin bread as well, just replace the zucchini for 1 can of pumpkin, 16 oz, and omit the vanilla and increase the baking time to 1 hours and 10 minutes.