Busy with Beads

My table has been taken over the last couple of weeks.  I made a few watch bands as presents the last two weeks and that turned into a few more people wanting some.  I thought it would be fun to take some pictures to remember how I composed them.  I didn't get a picture of my red/fall one though and a couple others.

I hope they enjoy them!

Rhubarb Crumb Bars

This was my Rhubarb yesterday.

...

Here is my Rhubarb today!

Which one would you choose?

I should have taken another picture of just the stalk I think this was my largest rhubarb leaf ever.  It was almost 2 feet in diameter (just the leaf).  I measured.

These bars are my third favorite rhubarb recipe.  First being plain ol' Rhubarb Pie with vanilla ice cream, NO STRAWBERRIES!!! Really I think that is nasty.  Ok, now that I think about it, just plain rhubarb jam-like ice cream topping has to be high on the list too, but I don't know where to put it in the order.  Someday I may share my second favorite, but not today.  This is another Martha recipe.

Rhubarb Crumb Bars

Ingredients

FOR THE STREUSEL
     6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus room-temperature butter for pan
     1 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pan
     1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
     1/4 teaspoon salt
FOR THE CAKE
     1/2 pound rhubarb, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
     1 tablespoon light-brown sugar
     1 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
     1/2 teaspoon baking powder
     1/4 teaspoon salt
     1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
     1 cup confectioners' sugar
     2 large eggs
     1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

   1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan. Line with parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on two sides. Butter and flour parchment and pan, tapping out excess flour.
   2. Make streusel: Whisk together butter, brown sugar, and salt. Add flour and mix with a fork until large crumbs form. Refrigerate until ready to use.
   3. Make cake: In a medium bowl, combine rhubarb, brown sugar, and 1/4 cup flour. In another medium bowl, whisk 3/4 cup flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy; beat in eggs, one at a time. With mixer on low, beat in vanilla, then flour mixture. Spread batter in prepared pan. Sprinkle with rhubarb and top with streusel.
   4. Bake cake until golden and a toothpick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs attached, 45 to 50 minutes. Let cool completely in pan. Using paper overhang, lift cake from pan. Cut into 16 bars.

I baked my bars in a larger pan (on purpose) so in an 8x8 pan they will be higher.  Also the streusel covered my larger pan just fine so for a smaller pan it will be plenty.

View from My Table, May 24th.

The weather this year have been very disappointing.  I was at Kindergarten today and missed taking a picture that was really snowy.  By the time I got home it was all wet and compacted.   My garden is very weak, I hope it warms up enough to plant before mid June.  I guess I will have to forget seeds and just to seedlings this year.  If I can find any.  Anytime I try to start stuff in doors I end up with a mess and nothing lives when I put it outside. Take my broccoli for instance.  I started cool weather broccoli this year and the day or two after I put it out we had a big hail storm that ripped it all to shreds.  Usually it just dies of heat or something.  At least this time it lived until the hail came.  Because of that nasty weather I also have had no flowers to enjoy.  I finally got a few tiny daffodils and thought I should cut those and take them inside to enjoy in a vase, but decided they would last longer outside.  WRONG.  The next day they were gone.  Stupid storms.   Honestly I don't know if I was young and naive or what because I do not remember weather this bad this late when I was younger.  I do remember a snow storm usually every April but that was surrounded by several nice days.   It seems the last several years have been bad way into June.  Ok, enough whining.  I have lots of work to accomplish today. 

Banana-Walnut Chocolate-Chunk Cookies

I have shared this recipe before, but not on my blog.  My husband wanted to make Banana bread this weekend with the over ripe bananas left on the counter.  Really, I think he left them there on purpose because bananas do not generally sit un-eaten in my house.  The banana bread I make usually has a lot more than just bananas ( apple/zucchini/carrot +)  and I didn't want that much work.  This recipe popped into my head and I knew it would be a better solution. 


We made them using a gluten free flour mix instead of the wheat/white flour.  They turned out so good but a little more crumbly/cakey than they might have been.  They were so crumbly that they prompted a whole song from my 6 yr. old. generally consisting of a lot of words that rhyme with crumby or crumble.  We did a first test batch and decided that we would put the rest in a pan to make bars.  I think this was a wise decision, mostly because then I only had to make one batch instead of several pans full.  It turned out very well this way and I would love to tell you how long I baked them, but I didn't pay attention.  I think it was around 15 min?  Mostly I baked until they really started to smell good and then I checked and they looked done.  My husband is always appalled that I don't use a timer all the time.   The other day he asked me how long to cook something (I don't remember what it was)  I said I don't know maybe about 'this' long.  He set the timer and was shocked that it wasn't done when the timer went off.  "Uh, I told you I didn't know for sure!"


I think this was originally a Martha recipe.


Banana-Walnut Chocolate-Chunk Cookies
 
Ingredients :
1 cup all- purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp coarse salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup mashed ripe banana (about 1 large)
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped into 1/2 inch chunks (~224 gr)
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (about 2 ounces), toasted

Directions :
1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Whisk together both flours, salt and baking soda in a bowl.
2. Put butter and both sugars into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Add egg and vanilla; mix until combined. Mix in banana. Add flour mixture just combined. Stir in oats, chocolate chunks, and walnut.
3. Using a 1 1/2 inch ice cream scoop, drop dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing about 2 inches apart. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until golden brown and just set, 12-13 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks; let cool completely. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 2 days.
Makes about 3 dozen.

For a Gluten free version you can probably use whatever flour mix you like.  The mix we used was 
6 parts brown rice flour 
2 parts potato starch
1 part Tapioca flour


Just use 1 1/2 cups of the final flour mix.  
Also I added a teaspoon of Xanthan gum to the batter, I perhaps needed more, I don't have the whole Xanthan thing figured out yet.

Cherry Dress

I thought this material would make a cute quick dress.  And it did.  All I had to do was sew up the side then make some straps.  My daughter did all the ironing, she didn't feel like sewing this time.