Sweet Tarts--Project of the Week

Just in time for Valentine's Day:

You might not be able to see it, but the fabric has an opalescent sparkle to it. It is a 28 count Lugana. I worked it with size 5 and 8 perle cotton #3743. The finished size is 5 3/4 inches. It took over 25 hours (at least, that's where I lost track).

Now that Christmas gifts are behind me, I have no idea what I'm going to do with this piece. I'll either sell it on Etsy or stash it for a birthday present. If I can part with it, that is.

*note: I have decided to sell this piece on Etsy for charity--more details tomorrow.

Krumkake

**Disclaimer--The author assumes no resposibility whatsoever for any adverse affects suffered by the reader, either direct or indirect, as a result of this post. The following substance is inherently dangerous and should only be experienced under the most strictly controlled conditions.

Norwegian Krumkake (pronounced kroom kah keh) is a thin, waffle-like, crisp cookie rolled into a cone shape. They are worse than potato chips in that once you eat one, before you realize it you've eaten nine of them. I am thoroughly convinced that the reason Ole and Lena are shaped the way they are can be entirely blamed on the consumption of Krumkake. There is no such thing as willpower when there is Krumkake in the house. Resistance is futile.

For Christmas, I received a Krumkake iron. This is probably not a good thing, but I have wanted one for several years. Of course we had to try it out right away, but the first batch got inhaled before I could even take pictures.

Krumkake

3 eggs
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. melted butter
3/4 c flour
1/2 t. vanilla

Mix all ingredients well. Drop by spoonfuls onto hot iron and close lid. Heat 30-40 second until light brown. Roll on cone while hot and place on wire racks to cool. You can leave one on the iron so it stays soft, but you must work quickly. Store in a large airtight container or tin.
This really is an easy recipe to make (and therein lies the danger). The trick is getting them to look pretty. Just the right amount of batter placed slightly off center, so they end up round when you close the lid, is something that only comes with practice.
Oddly enough, the recipe we like best comes from the back of one of my Hardanger books.

Krumkake is very fragile. They can be allowed to cool and harden flat, but they store better and break less as cones. I should probably mention that the cones can be filled with sweetened whipped cream, but to be honest, they have never lasted long enough around here for us to even try it.

New Year's Ambitions

Every year thousands of people, myself included, make resolutions for the New Year. They may include weight that will be lost, bad habits to be broken and new habits formed, or other goals that will be reached. Somewhere around June (or long before for some), the song changes to "Well, maybe next year", and the resolution resolves into memory.

This year, we have decided to have ambitions instead of resolutions. I have no idea if changing the name will actually help us complete them any better, but it sounded good.
I'm not going to burden you with the whole passel of them, but rather share the one that might interest you.

It is our ambition to complete one craft related project in each of the 52 weeks of this coming year. It might be an embroidery piece, or a hand carved stamp, or something we've never tried before. Whatever it happens to be, we'll post the finished product, good or otherwise, here; complete with pictures. We have already deemed January to be our Family Project Finishing Month and hope to catch up on all of the little odds and ends that have been patiently waiting for our attention.

Some of the specific projects that we have planned:

• The sock puppet kit M got for Christmas
• The pop up scrapbook kit M got for Christmas
• The beeswax candle kit M...
• The knot a quilt M... (sensing a trend here?)
• Ugly firestarters (Yes, I know we already made ugly firestarters. This is a different project. They are ugly on purpose.)
• A second crack at pouring our own pillar candles
• Seeing how many different variations of one Hardanger pattern we can come up with
• Krumkake!
• My first attempt at a layered stamp
• LTCs with the Qat stamps I've carved
  
• Brown Bag cookie mold projects (including making our own butter)
• and many more

I also plan to do some serious letterboxing with my new knee once the snow clears. And I have a book to edit, and others to write, and read. With all the plans we have, you can expect some delicious, but quick recipes as well. There will be positively no time for laundry.

So, where shall we start?

Bookmark

This "Iced Cranberries" bookmark works up very fast, 2 1/2 hours tops, partly because there is no open work on it. It makes a great last minute present because it is more personal and takes about the same amount of time as shopping.

Cream Soda

Working on Norwegian Hardanger Embroidery is one of my complex pleasures. It's complex because of the many types of stitches and myriad ways that you can make mistakes. It forces you to concentrate; allowing you, for a time, to block out other distractions. It also forces you to sit still; something that I'm not always capable of doing.
This is one of the pieces that I worked on as a Christmas present. It it identical to Ginger Ale, but uses different materials. I've made this one enough that I have the pattern memorized, which makes it work up a lot faster than you would think. The finished size is 6 1/2 x 8 inches and took about 12 hours (an hour less than last time).
I've been experimenting quite a bit lately with using different fabrics and threads in various color combinations, but this one is as traditional as it comes: tone on tone in either white or ecru.

Norwegian Lefse

To a certain extent our Christmas baking, at least the Norwegian part of it, is a mild Sequence. (If you are unaware of Sequences, you need to find a copy of Patrick McManus' book The Night the Bear Ate Goombaw and educate yourself.) We need 1/4 c. of Whole Milk to make Potato Cakes. Nobody sells milk in 1/4 c. containers, and so we are left with nearly a half gallon of milk that no one in this household will drink. So there is nothing to do but make Lefse with it.

What is Lefse, you ask? It's a Scandinavian tortilla that you fill with Salt Cod, potatoes and melted butter for Beitas on Christmas Eve. Or spread them with butter and dust with sugar like the potato cakes. Are you beginning to sense a theme here? You can do what you like with them, as long it involves Butter. You get bonus points if you include potatoes with the butter.

In order to make Lefse, you will need some special equipment, as follows:

• A Lefse Grill--an oversized electric griddle. Lefse griddles are larger. They also have no sides.
  
• A specialized rolling pin--the surface is carved into tiny squares. (mine is only parallel lines, not squares, but I can live with that.)
  
• A Lefse Stick--Every Norwegian community seems to have stories floating around about Somebody's Great Grandmother using the stick out of the bottom of a roller shade when the real thing wasn't available.
  
• Extra large new pizza boxes--Pizza boxes?! Of course. You have to store the Lefse in something when it's finished.

The recipe:
Four, Two and a stick. Well, that 's how I learned it anyway. Let me 'splain.

4 c. flour
2 c. whole milk
a stick of butter (this should be no surprise by now)

I should note that there is also Potato Lefse, but that's a different recipe. We'll do basics first.

Measure flour into a large bowl. In a heavy saucepan, heat milk and better until it begins to steam. Turn off heat and pour milk over flour. Mix with a spoon until combined and then knead with your hands until smooth. It will be very hot, so be careful. (Actually, this is my favorite part. By the time I make the Lefse, I've usually already done quite a lot and the heat feels good on my aching hands.) Form into a 13" log, wrap in plastic wrap and set aside.
Taking one inch at a time, roll out on a lightly floured surface with the Lefse rolling pin until you have a large circle (Much heated discussion has taken place over the merits of circle vs. square Lefse. Essentially, circles are prettier, but squares are more functional. Mine tend to look more like the continent of Africa.) You want it thin enough to be able to read through...almost. As you roll, alternate the direction of your motion, so that the pattern on the rolling pin goes every which way. You will also want to flip and re....

Oh, forget it. The only way you're going to learn how to do this properly is to come to my house and let me teach you. I'm pretty sure that if I haven't lost you yet, I certainly would when we got to the part about hanging it on the stick. And I'd never be able to digitally translate how to soak them.

Det blir alltid plass til ein velkommen gjest.
So when are you coming?

Reservations for Norway

The owner of each Artful Logbook was to decorate the first page according to their own theme. If I were truly given the opportunity to travel anywhere in the world, I would have a very difficult time deciding between Norway, Israel and Spain. And Greece. And Washington.
In the end I decided that since I live in a very Norwegian community (Ya, sure, you betcha) I would have much more opportunity to plant Scandi themed stamps. And I decided to do my whole page with stamps. As a pop-up.
If you live around here you may recognize these stamps as the contents of the Norway in a Pine Box letterbox. There are 12 stamps in all.

The Story of Bread

Once upon a time~well, last October, if you must know~two farmers named Chad and Duane planted some grass seed. To be more precise, they planted three whole fields of hard red winter wheat. The seed started to grow, but then the cold winter winds began to blow and so the grass lay dormant under a blanket of snow for many months. While the green shoots slept, the sun shone a little brighter each day and melted the snow and warmed the soil, until finally one day, the wheat awoke and stretched itself toward the spring sky. The grass grew stronger and stronger. The gentle rains and hot sun gave it the energy to make a plump seed head of it's own. Then the drying summer winds came and the stalk turned crisp and golden and whispered with it's neighbors through the starlit nights.
The farmers returned one day after the wheat was stiff and dry and had long forgotten what it felt like to be grass. They cut the wheat with large, noisy machines that billowed clouds of dust behind them. The hollow stalks were cast aside for someone else and the seed heads rubbed against the drum inside the harvester until all of the little kernels fell away and were carried into a holding bin.
Eventually, all of the kernels were transferred to semi trucks and taken away. The wheat berries (also known as kernels) didn't know it, but they were in for the processing ride of their life. They would be sorted and cleaned and sorted again. Some of them would be ground into various forms of flour to be made into cereal and bread and the like. Others were destined to become beer and even stranger creations.

A relatively small amount of the kernels were set aside and taken to the farmers' wives. They would create a Julnek to celebrate the blessings God had given them in a bountiful harvest.

(It should be noted that "Bearded Wheat" is much prettier, but as you can imagine, all of those barbed pieces caused innumerable amounts of equipment grief, and thus farmers everywhere rejoiced when the beards were engineered right off the plants. In an extreme effort at self restraint, I am going to avoid the rant about how all grain is genetically engineered now days, and the protestors against such are insane.)
They would also mill some of it to make delicious, healthy foods~mostly of the bread persuasion~for their families. Hard red winter wheat is naturally low in gluten, which is great if you have a sensitivity to such, but not so great if you want bread that doesn't resemble a brick. In order to produce light, fluffy bread from such wheat, either vital gluten must be added or the flour must be mixed with other flours.

Our Daily Bread (in other words, the bread we make most often for sandwiches and other ordinary uses)
Half Whole Wheat Bread Machine recipe
8 1/2 oz. water
1 T. Honey
1 1/2 c. bread flour
1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 T. brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 T dry milk
2 T. butter
2 t. active dry yeast, or 1 1/2 t. fast rise yeast
Whole Wheat cycle

Our Not So Daily Bread (aka, the Fancy Stuff)
Egg Braid Do It By Hand Recipe
2 packages yeast
1/2 c. warm milk
1 1/ 2 c. warm water
1/4 c. sugar
1 T. salt
3 eggs, beaten
1/4 c. butter, softened
7-7 1/2 c. flour (half whole wheat, if desired)
1 egg yolk
2 T. water
sesame seeds
Dissolve yeast in water. Add milk, sugar, salt, eggs, butter and 3 1/2 c. flour; mix well. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. On a floured board (on in Kitchen Aid!), knead until smooth and elastic, 6-8 minutes. Place in greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled, 1 1/2-2 hours. Punch down. Cover and let rise until almost doubled, about 30 minutes. Divide into six portions. On a floured board, shape each into a 14 inch long rope. For each loaf, braid three ropes together on a greased baking sheet; pinch ends to seal. Cover and let rise until doubled, 50-60 minutes. Beat egg yolk and water; brush over loaves. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake at 375* for 30-35 minutes, until golden.
Try not to eat entire loaf in one sitting. (recipe compliments of Taste of Home magazine)
The 7 year old's braid is on top. It is so not fair that hers looks better than mine. I did at least manage a photo before tearing off a steaming hot slice that is melting in my mouth right now.
The obligatory stamp~This stamp was carved a very long time ago when I was still stuck on negative images. It is currently planted in a traditional letterbox, but I hope to replace it as soon as I can find a cool image that I'd like to carve.

I'd like to thank Massey Ferguson, Bosch NutriMill, Kitchen Aid, and West Bend for making this bread not exactly possible, but certainly a heck of a lot easier than it would have been in Pioneer days.

Norwegian Kringla 101

Between the noisy family and the persistent requests on the AQ boards, I decided to put together a quick Kringla making tutorial for you. Norwegian Kringla are not difficult to make. A few tips and some pictures (provided by my 7 yo and her new camera!), and you'll be set to make your own Kringla. A warning though before we start: They are inexplicably addictive!!

First you need the recipe:
1 c. sugar
1/2 c butter, softened
1 egg
1 c. buttermilk (fresh is best, powdered is acceptable, but do not use soured milk)
3 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt

Mix flour, baking powder, soda and salt in a bowl. Cream the butter and sugar, then add egg, buttermilk and flour mixture. Place in airtight container and chill overnight.
Quite a few recipes will use sour cream in place of buttermilk (at a different ratio), but we like this recipe better.

You will also need:
A Tablespoon
Flour for dusting
A cold surface for rolling. I have a cutting board that I put in the freezer before rolling.

Preheat the oven to 375*. Remove a small portion of the dough to work with at a time. I divide a single recipe into about 6 portions. If you take too much, it will get too soft before you can get them all rolled.
The keys to perfect Kringla are Cold, Speed, and a Light Touch. Prepare your rolling surface by dusting it lightly with flour. You only want enough flour to keep the dough from sticking, but not enough to make the Kringla powdery. Lightly flour your hands as well. Take a slightly rounded tablespoon of dough and using a very light touch, quickly roll it into a thin log about 6-7 inches long and about as thick as a sharpie marker (or just a touch thicker). This is where all of that practice making Play-doh snakes comes in handy.

Expect your first several attempts to be disastrous. Once you get a feel for the dough and how much flour you need, things will begin to go much smoother.

There are two accepted shapes for Kringla: figure 8s, and pretzel/hearts. The pretzel shape is easier to start with. There will be a little bit of open space in either design before you bake them, but this dough puffs up considerably and those gaps will close--provided the spaces aren't too big.

I put about 9 Kringla on a tray (Nordic Ware baking pans, of course.) Bake them at 375, one tray at a time for proper browning, for 10-12 minutes. When they are done, they will only be very slightly browned on the bottoms. The tops won't have much color at all, but should by dry and not doughy.

This is a bad Kringla. It is "burnt" and the spaces are too open. The result is that it will be dry. My hubby will probably eat it anyway. A single batch should make about 30 Kringla. Yes, the spelling is the same for the singular and plural, just like "sheep".

And this is a perfect plate of Kringla! The proper way to eat them is to butter the bottoms first. Of course, the Norwegian put butter on everything. Again, a warning: there isn't much to Kringla, but they go down awfully quick. In our family of four, I don't expect a single batch to last 48 hours. With or without the butter.

Maybe next time, we'll do Potato Cakes!

Rosmaling

Some images translate to rubber much better than others. During an attempt to carve stamps of all things Norwegian, I created these stamps of Rosmaling, which is a type of Norwegian decorative painting. Be sure to visit the link to see examples of the real thing. As you can see, it didn't work out so well. It also doesn't help that most of my Marvys need replacing.
Rosmaling is quite beautiful and each region of Norway is represented by a different style of painting. I can't decide which is my favorite. The Gudbrandsdal is a style that imitates carving. Perhaps that's what I need to try. Carving a painting that imitates carving. Hmmm. This large stamp is 3 x 2 1/4 inches.
This smaller stamp turned out a little better, but still isn't what I was hoping for. It measures 1 1/3 x 1 1/4 inches.
Of course, no set of Norwegian stamps is complete without this sentiment, which pretty much expresses how I feel about the whole deal. This one is big at over 2 inches each way.