Citrusy Cake

When life gives us lemons, we do not make lemonade. We make CAKE!!!

This is Lemon-Orange Chiffon Cake, which The Piemaker found in the March issue of Southern Living. A bit more work than your average mix-and-pour cake batter, but definitely worth it (says the person who doesn’t have to do the work!).

Recipe here

In spite of the name, the orange juice and zest outnumber the lemon by three to one, which results in a heavily orange-flavored cake. You could probably play with the proportions to make it more lemony, or even add lime.Very sweet, rich, and delicious! Also, a great way to use up citrus when your trees are bending over with the weight of the fruit.

Looks like we'll be enjoying this one for quite some time.

Katrina

P.s. My thanks to Anita for her photo styling idea. So pretty!

What Do You Do with Your Arts and Crafts?

I really enjoy creating things, but I still haven’t figured out how to avoid being buried under the mountain of my creations. It used to be that I made useful things for specific purposes, like home dec projects and greeting cards. Then I branched out into mixed-media art, bookbinding, apparel sewing, and embroidery.

There’s no space left on the walls to hang art, I’ve given every one of my family and friends more books than they could use in a lifetime, and my closets are already full of clothing.

I have dozens of canvases in various sizes, stacked under beds and hidden in closets:

I tried selling the little books on Etsy, with zero success:

And I have many of the covered notebooks left, even after bestowing them on everyone I could think of:

The obvious answer is to STOP making so much stuff, but it’s the main thing I like to do!

What do you do with your “excess” projects? Rotate them through different rooms? Spring them on friends as “just because” gifts? Sell them at craft fairs? Rent a storage facility?

I would love to know!

Katrina

Cactus Collection: First Look

My official inventory of the cactus collection is far from complete, as it takes me a while to track down the right names for each one. What's that? A botanist who doesn't know the names of her plants? Ha ha, well, yes.

Many of my cacti started as tiny, unmarked specimens in those dish gardens you can buy. Other plants in my garden came from neighborhood collection expeditions, where I've been known to snip off an agave plantlet or two from a flower spike. Doesn't everyone carry shears on their evening walks? Some of my largest specimens are gifts from a friend who might have had the wrong plant names. That all adds up to a garden of mysterious wonders.

While I do the research, I thought I’d share a few of the photos.

Three of the prickly pear cacti, including my favorite purple one:

An assortment of columnar cacti:

More shapes and sizes of cacti:

Here are some of the agaves and yuccas on the property:

Large and small aloes:

I’ll have more pictures of the cacti later in the year when they have flowers – some of them are quite amazing.

I understand that cacti and their Old World equivalents are successfully grown in many places less conducive than this hot desert. I have a friend in the chilly climate of Northwest Germany, who has a few cacti living on a windowsill in her house. Where there's a will, there's a way!


Katrina

Top Ten Things To Do When You Have a Cold

This stupid cold! I can’t focus on small work long enough to do much reading or sewing, and I don’t have enough energy to undertake any huge landscaping projects, so I’ve just been bouncing around. Here are my top ten things to amuse oneself while sick.

10. Find someone to blame. I haven’t had a head cold for years, and I’m disappointed that my one souvenir from my trip to California is this mess of sore throat, stuffy head and watery eyes. With my recent visits to airports, planes, taxicabs, and hotels, along with sudden close contact with fifty or more people at a party, it’s not too surprising that I picked up a virus, but I’m not happy about it. I think I’ll blame air travel in general.

9. Sleep. This actually should count as items 2 though 9, because it’s practically all I can do. I am such a wimp.

8. Do boring tasks. I’ve paid the bills, vacuumed, done loads of laundry, looked up tax information. Yawn.

7. Organize. Not quite in the category of boring tasks, but not always my favorite activity, either. I reorganized the closets for the umpteenth time. I never quite meet my goal of having all wearable garments in one closet, visible and organized. This time I managed to get all tops, jackets, and pants into one closet, skirts, dresses, and coats into another, and items needing repair into a third. I also did a bit of cleaning and organizing in the sewing room.

6. Shop online. Somehow, I can lose half a day scrolling through vintage kitchenware, fabrics and patterns, and dresses and shoes. So far I’ve resisted the urge to actually hit the checkout button on any of my shopping carts. Good thing I went through all my closets and supplies first!

5. Work outside. I managed to weed three of the four vegetable beds before my energy ran out. Then I decided to inventory my cactus collection. I want to photograph, map and label everything. Some of them I know by sight, others have plant tags around here somewhere, and others are a complete mystery requiring research online and in my cactus books. All this is because a local cactus salvager stopped by my house a few weeks ago and offered to buy some of my specimens. I declined the offer but thought it would be prudent to create a complete record of everything just in case someone decides to collect my cacti without my permission.

4. Play with dogs. My pups are always willing to play or sleep, whatever the situation calls for. Manny the terrier takes things very seriously and understands that I’m not feeling well. He has temporarily abandoned his independent ways and has been sitting on my lap to let me know how much he cares. Dolly the chi mix thinks that continuing her regular antics is the best medicine for me.

3. Drink juice. I can’t taste much with my nose stopped up, but fruit juice is the most delicious thing on the planet right now. I also enjoyed the three grapefruit that our baby tree gave us this year. I’m happy to see it has plenty of green shoots coming out so it can grow big and strong.

2. Plan projects. I have so many things in progress right now: embroidery to finish, cut fabric to sew, zippers to replace. And I can’t stop thinking about linen pants and knit tops I want to make for spring and summer.

1. Eat Pie. I know, you already guessed that one. The Piemaker has been too busy to bake, but we had buttermilk pie and tangerine pie from the backup supply in the freezer. I hope there’s some pumpkin pie in there!

Hoping that you get through cold and flu season safely!

Katrina


(all graphics from The Graphics Fairy)