Raspberry Chocolate Chip Buckle (Weekend Full of "Framily", Cookbooks, Sewing, Meeting Sophie, Etc.)

I am a pushover when it comes to anything remotely in the "coffee cake, crumb cake, buckle, tea cake" category. Just say cinnamon crumbles and I fall in love instantly. If you've got a few minutes to bake today, make this "raspberry chocolate chip buckle/cobbler", now! This recipe didn't start out as a raspberry chocolate chip kind--I really wanted a blueberry buckle. With no blueberries in the house, I settled for raspberries--then the chocolate chips make an appearance, too. To me, this version is possibly better than the blueberry version. The jury is out on that and I'll let you know when I make the other. I'd say this cake is in the same camp as the coffee cake--but would be pulling double duty in this house as I wanted something with just a hint of chocolate, some fruit (for sure) and that oh-so-delightful cinnamon crumb topping. (My favorite part, personally.) With the summer winding down, it makes perfect sense to dive into the last vestiges of ripe fruit in the seemingly little time we have left. Hard to believe our summer fling will be over soon--not soon enough for me, thank you very much. This treat will take you through the week, and even steps in nicely as dessert duty if you warm it slightly and top it off with some vegan vanilla ice cream. My buckle adaptation is from one of the best cookbooks ever published: The King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking cookbook. I turned their Blueberry Buckle into this winner, making the following changes--vegan unsalted margerine sticks, Ener-G Egg Replacer for eggs, a bit of nutmeg in the crumble--plus I added a bit of almond extract in the batter, too. I used frozen raspberries--two cups, and 1/3 cup of mini chocolate chips--folding in at the end of the mixing of the batter because to "overmix" this sort of cake treat would be bad karma.  

Right after we dug in. This is truly a sublime any-time-of-year treat.

 Before the baking begins. Personally, I taste-tested the batter like a dozen times to be "sure" I had the right cakey-batter taste. About my tenth taste test (I had to stop testing or it'd be a cookie soon)--I was happy with the results.

And now onto other "life" happenings. I have been posting in a bit of an irregular manner lately. And as you probably have noticed, I am not all into the Facebook and Twitter stuff. I wish I could change my ways on that, but I find that engaging anyone from my blog seems to be plenty. I am someone with a short attention span and would more than likely cause whiplash with my comings and goings. So I keep my life updates on my blog and the rest of the world can chatter on through other means. For me and for now, this is about all I can handle update-wise.

Two months ago--I got into quilting. I was always a quilt fan, not necessarily a maker of them. I am fascinated with them really. Maybe it's my love of the "blankey". I have a bit of "Linus" syndrome. I had a blankey I carried until I was seven years old--to pre-kindergarten and nearly into second grade when my mother and grandmother had finally had enough of me and my "blankey" and promptly ripped it to shreds and placed it in the street after a hard rain and said something to the effect of, "Mister Blankey had to go away"--taking me by the hand and showing me shreds of it floating in a stream by the curb in front of the house. I have a vivid, painful memory of this. Either that or I have somehow converted my traumatic pains of the loss into this sort of filmstrip that replays over and over in my head. I still must have a "blankey" while Mr. Thyme and I take in the latest in Netflix at my Almost Fifty years of age.

In quilting, you have the making of the quilt top--the fun, colorful design-oriented fabric all pieced together. Then you have the "quilting". Now, quilting can take place at home via a really difficult sewing machine method whereby you roll the thing up and somehow maneuver the gigantic piece of cloth and batting in and out of precarious spots to stitch the quilt top to the batting. I prefer to get the whole mess over with in one fell swoop. I am making a quilt-as-you-go. I found a wonderful tutorial and quilt along here: http://sewtakeahike.typepad.com/sewtakeahike/2010/03/quilt-as-you-go-quiltalong-part-one.html

Each square is taking me approximately two hours to complete. I love this tutorial--she has provided a wonderful template for anyone interested in starting a quilt to just jump in and go! You can see my stitches here in this shot--straight lines--over and over--to give the quilted-ness.

 Here's how far I am today. I got bored doing this. So now, I am thinking about taking the quilt in a new direction and adding some circle shapes. I don't know yet. I do know that I can go even further with this and make it into a queen-sized bed spread--which for the amount of time I'm putting in on the thing--there's a strong possibility that may happen. But I can only tackle it in fits and starts for now. This is not something you sit down and crank out in a weekend, trust me. But here it hangs on my quilt wall in my lair--we keep each other company.

And then there is THIS blanket/throw I'm working on. I got turned onto this via One Hot Stove who had made one of these throws via the blog: Attic 24. (Just spending even a small moment in time in either of these blogs will surely lead to needle art envy!) This hexagon piece is made entirely up of my scrap yarn. (Of which there is plenty--but interesting to see my color vibe runs in this range--which is the range my entire house runs!)

This is Sophie. Say "Hi!". She is new to the family and lives in the lair. She is going to help me with all things "wearable"--the pastime I am up to my eyeballs in right now. Thanks to my latest obsession with Project Runway, I simply felt having Sophie would make me an even better clothing knitter and quite possibly a dress designer. Stay tuned. (Sophie is sporting a little apron made in a recent sewing class I took. I love this apron!)

Yesterday was a busy day around here. First, our best friend's daughter got married. The bride and groom were just adorable, and it was a perfect little ceremony. It was the first time Mr. Thyme and I had BOTH been out to eat having a meal together not prepared by me in over a year. A YEAR! The wedding was beautiful and the location perfect--in the city, at the top of a wonderful restaurant Mr. Thyme and I used to frequent when we lived a "city" life. (There's a photo of us below.) Meantime, I wanted to share this little jewel of a find from the second big event this weekend. I always go the YMCA annual bookfair. Come hell or high water, I am there--for obvious reasons: I love books! After the wedding we were just spent. Well, Mr. Thyme more so than me. So while he napped, I snuck out to get the second day's leftovers. I came across this book (and about twenty more dollars worth of cookbook and memoir relics)--but was so smitten with this one, I just had to share this! First of all--I paid fifty cents for it. But the price and the lovely recipes in the tattered, stained pages are not what attracted me. No. It was the hand written insciptions scattered throughout the book that made me love it even more.

Then what took my breath away was this: "On blizzard Sunday, 1/31/82 (15"!)." I remember this blizzard as if it happened yesterday. We had lived in Missouri only a few years--down in the "bootheel"--which for those of you not familiar--about as southern and conservative as I'll ever go again. Indeed, I do appreciate the southern charm this afforded me, and the southern food appreciation I now have. . . but I digress. I was in high school. The weather man predicted about 2-4 inches. We woke the next morning to 24"! So this book's owner lived in St. Louis because the brunt of the storm dumped on us--nearly two hours south of St. Louis. My mother, of course, being the non-planner that she was, realized desperate times called for desperate measures and sent me hiking in the wake of the blizzard nearly two miles to the grocery store for, what else: milk and bread. I have not forgiven her for that to this day. (The mom issues I have run far and deep--hopefully I will have gotten most of them off my chest by the time I decide to "quit the blogging".) But for THIS note alone, this tiny cookbook is precious to me.

Happy mom, happy best friend. She is our "framily"--our friend, and our family. WE just loved being included in this vow-sharing, festive moment. It was a great weekend.