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ETA: Anyone who subscribes to Cottage Revolution via email should have had their subscription transfer to the new site automatically. Be sure to look for a new post on Tuesday to test my understanding of this. Any other subscribers will have to resubscribe to TheCottageRevolution.com. So sorry for any inconvenience this poses to anyone. Thanks for your patience with me as I learn the ins and outs of moving a website. 

Here’s hoping each of you enjoyed a lovely Thanksgiving with family and friends.

Mixed with rye, port, dark rum and bitters this is a powerful little drink, but it’s smooth and sweet, which makes it go down easily. From experience we’d like to tell you to pace yourself.

With a name like the Suburban, we considered all the things that could have contributed to its title. We imagined Don Draper and his Madison Avenue buddies taking the train from NY back home to the suburbs and pouring one of these powerful little drinks after a long day. In actuality it was a drink created at the Waldorf Astoria in the late 1800s and named in honor of James Keene, a big deal owner in the world of horse racing. Little known to us, the Suburban Handicap was (and is) a horse race.

I was a little disappointed in the history, but not in the drink. You should mix one up for yourself this season.

The Suburban
makes 1 

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 ounces rye whiskey
• 1/2 ounce dark rum
• 1/2 ounce port
• 1 dash orange bitters
• 1 dash Angostura bitters

Process

Stir well with ice, then pour into a chilled cocktail glass.

Allison and I have always talked about fascinators and our love of them. She has a collection of headbands and other fun accessories she has made to adorn her unquestionably awesome hair. I’ve never made anything of the sort. Yet for some reason she had faith in my ability to create something unique that she’d happily wear on her wedding day.

So when Allison’s mom gave her the handkerchief she’d carried in her own wedding (hand tatted by Belgian nuns, nonetheless), Allison asked me if I’d make her fascinator out of it. I was completely excited and honored, but as she handed over the handkerchief she said, “Do whatever you want. You can even cut it up.” (Did I mention she’s about as cool and carefree as they come?) But then I melted in fear. I was not going to cut into something so precious.

Instead I spent one evening folding up starched pieces of muslin, trying to figure out how I could manipulate an 11.5 x 11.5 piece of fabric into something that didn’t resemble an oversized origami piece. I had all but given up when I decided to try folding the actual handkerchief instead. And oh, what a difference new fabric can make. It crinkled up gently into something that resembled a flower.

Feeling like the rest would be easy because that initial fold had been so simple, I put the project aside for the evening planning to start fresh the next day. As it turns out, when I returned to the project I’d forgotten the method of folding used earlier, but after a few rounds of cursing and folding, I pinned it all together and took it to Allison to see if it would work. She kindly approved and so I gently stitched it together on the underside as discreetly as possible using stitches that could easily be snipped away if in the future the handkerchief needs to return to its original state.

To finish it, I encased a hair clip in 25 mm ribbon and then stitched the ribbon to the underside of the fascinator which, according to photos, successfully held everything securely to Allison’s head through the ceremony and the ensuing post-ceremony fun in Disney World. She rocked the hairpiece perfectly, but there’s really nothing she can’t pull off.

Congratulations, Allison and Pat. Thanks for trusting me with creating part of your wedding ensemble!

Luckily I was able to share most of the batch with friends. Otherwise I fear Regan and I would have polished off the whole batch within a matter of days. They are kind of irresistible. Let’s just say that I got a little carried away tasting these bite-sized brownies while arranging them for the camera and ruined all the good work I’d been doing in my attempt to cut down on sugar.

Totally addictive. Totally rich. Totally easy. I didn’t touch Smitten Kitchen’s recipe one bit and they were perfect.

After many attempts at the perfect noodle over the last week, I decided to take a break and work with pasta a bit larger in size. I opted to make ravioli. And at first it seemed a lot easier, but then I began to fill each pouch and soon Regan found me stomping around the kitchen while I tried to salvage a sticky pasta dough ball that was oozing pumpkin filling. Realizing the unflattering effects pasta-making was having on my mood I put everything in the fridge and called it a night.

But this morning all was well in the world of pasta. After a good night’s sleep I was in a better mood, and after firming in the fridge overnight the dough was a lot more cooperative. Plus, I remembered the importance of semolina flour and didn’t skimp with round number two.

By the time Regan got home from the gym tonight a hearty dinner of Pumpkin Sage Ravioli with Butter Sauce was ready to be enjoyed. With the wind swirling and thunder rumbling, it was a pretty perfect comfort food to enjoy hunkered down safely at home.

Pumpkin Sage Ravioli with Butter Sauce
makes approximately 30 ravioli 

Ingredients

Pasta Dough

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup semolina flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• dash of salt

Filling

• 1/4 cups canned pumpkin, strained
• 3 tablespoons dry breadcrumbs
• 3 tablespoons fresh grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 leaves fresh sage, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 pinches ground nutmeg
• dash of salt

Sauce

• 4 tablespoons butter, unsalted
•  8 fresh sage leaves
• pinch of nutmeg
• 1 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese.

Process

Pasta Dough

1. In a food processor, mix together all-purpose flour, semolina flour, eggs, olive oil and salt until sticky dough is formed.
2. On a surface covered with plenty of semolina flour, knead dough until smooth, not sticky.
3. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and let rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
4. Coat wax paper generously with semolina flour and remove dough from refrigerator. If using a rolling-pin… good luck? If using a pasta maker, gradually flatten the pasta dough starting at width 1 and gradually reducing to width 5.
5. Place each flattened strip on the semolina-c0vered wax paper. You can make crescents like I did by stamping out large circles and putting a small spoonful of filling in the center, then folding in half and pinching edges together. If you want to make real ravioli, you can find lots of tutorials like this that I will use next time I try my hand at ravioli.

Filling

1. Mix strained pumpkin, breadcrumbs, grated Parmesan, salt, sage, nutmeg, salt and pepper together while pasta dough is resting in the refrigerator.
2. Choose method of ravioli-making you desire, then place small spoonfuls of filling on pasta dough. Pinch edges of pasta together firmly, securing your filling in the middle. Place filled ravioli back on semolina-covered surface.

If you are eating ravioli for dinner bring 8 cups lightly salted water to boil and place ravioli in boiling water and cook approximately 3 to 4 minutes. If saving ravioli for later, place on cookie sheet covered with semolina flour and waxed paper and let freeze. Once frozen, transfer to container and store in freezer up to 30 days. When cooking frozen ravioli allow approximately 14-16 minutes.

Sauce

1. While ravioli is cooking, gently heat 4 tablespoons of butter in skillet. Once melted, add 8 fresh sage leaves and gently warm for about 1 minute, then remove leaves from butter sauce and discard them. Add a dash of nutmeg to the butter sauce.
2. When ravioli is cooked through, using a slotted spoon transfer ravioli from water to butter sauce, covering each ravioli with the sauce. If too dry add some pasta water. Toss with Parmesan cheese.
3. Garnish with minced fresh sage. Serve hot.

So when I saw on Pinterest an image of a sundae dish full of cookie dough I was already hooked, then I visited the original source, Chocolate Covered Katie and I became obsessed. Her recipe for cookie dough that can be eaten raw was not only appealing for the “spoonfuls of cookie dough” aspect, but because its base is garbanzo beans. Yeah. Garbanzo beans. No flour. No eggs. No butter. And while this recipe is delightfully sweet, it’s sweetened only with dates (and a handful of chocolate chips). I think it tastes just like peanut butter chocolate chip oatmeal cookie dough, which is delightful.

I’ve been keeping some in the fridge so when I get a ridiculous craving for a sweet that I just can’t curb I have a spoonful. Maybe it’s the bean base, but one spoonful is all I need to be satiated. And while spoonfuls are delicious, this dough is also pretty great rolled flat, frozen and then cut into chunks as a tasty addition to homemade vanilla ice cream.

Are you with me on this?

Custard-Based Vanilla Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 4 egg yolks
• 4 ounces sugar
• 3/4 pint of milk (I used 2% because that’s what we had on hand, but the more fat the better is my general rule for ice cream)
• 1/4 pint half and half
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Process

1. Warm 1/2 pint of milk with vanilla. Do not boil.
2. While milk warms, in a separate bowl, mix egg yolks with sugar until thick and incorporated.
3. When milk is warmed, but not hot, slowly pour milk into egg and sugar mixture, stirring constantly. After all is mixed together, pour back into pan and heat until thickened. Remember that you are cooking eggs so stir constantly and heat slowly so that you do not scramble. Custard is ready when it coats the back of a spoon.
4. Let custard mix cool.
5. When cooled, mix in the remaining milk and the half and half, then freeze in your ice cream maker. When ice cream begins to thicken, add any treats you might desire. I used 1/4 cup of cookie dough rolled flat, frozen, then cut into chunks.
6. Transfer ice cream to freezer safe container and wait for it to freeze before enjoying.

It’s definitely not guiltless, but if you are indulging this is the way to go.

When I was a kid my parents took me on vacation and bought me an amazing pair of stonewashed jeans with a button fly, reminiscent of the ones worn on Madonna’s Like A Prayer album cover. I was in love with them — for about 10 minutes. Soon after we exited the clothing store with my coveted jeans in hand, we went into a luggage store. There Mom and Dad bought a luggage set, which in my young mind seemed like hundreds of dollars we very much didn’t have. And I threw a fit. I cried and demanded we take back my new jeans. I imagined our family being torn apart by a single frivolous clothing purchase. How could I let my parents give me something that would ultimately break us? Where would we end up living? How would we eat? And on and on. Mom had to take me outside the store and reason with me, trying to convince me that there was enough money in the bank to buy needed luggage and a special treat for me.

Oh, but the guilt remained. I didn’t want to be held responsible for contributing to our family’s certain trip to the poor house. At age 10 I have no idea where I got this heightened sense of responsibility about money and completely incorrect information about our financial situation, but there it was causing panic and overwhelming guilt. Flash forward twenty years and that’s kind of the situation I’m finding myself in again. Except now it’s Regan calming me down, telling me we can afford both some organic chicken AND the ingredients I need to make bread.

All of this is to say that I took this worried energy and turned out an amazing amount of food this weekend. Our freezer, fridge and cabinets are well-stocked and I’m pretty sure we’ll not be going hungry any time soon. In fact, we’re probably going to have to start bringing food to friends because we have more than we need. And upon looking at our finances again (and again and again), we’ll be just fine. Sometimes I have to go a little crazy before I return to normal.

Where was I though? English Muffins! I made some this weekend and for the money it would take to buy a package in the store, we have 18. Most of them are in the freezer, but the rest are being enjoyed with butter and fig spread.

There is something so satisfying about the process of making these muffins. The dough is a perfect texture and they roll out beautifully. Cut gently with a lowball whiskey glass and placed on wax paper covered with semolina flour they steadily rise throughout the process. With each one I browned in the skillet, I got so excited about how much each looked like the store-bought kind. For some reason recreating what we know can be so satisfying. If you want to see for yourself how fun it is, I suggest using this recipe. They can easily be enjoyed with or without the crazy.

This year our Grand Prize winner for our High School Film Competition won with a documentary about his father and the sacrifices he makes for his family each day. This 18-year-old filmmaker was flown to Indianapolis from California. It was his first flight and his first time out of California. He met filmmakers, received encouragement, got a scholarship to the FilmSchool in Seattle. Good things happen daily at my job, but so much good has happened that it made me realize that I should be making some things happen for myself as well.

And so with the encouragement of my husband and some reworking of our household budget I put in my notice. We decided that we’d be happier with less money if I was happier each and every day, pursuing those things I dream about but have put aside. I’d gotten so focused on others I stopped pursuing what I wanted most in life.

Soon after I put in my notice a locally based designer who has run a successful company for 33 years hired me to work in her studio knitting, sewing, putting samples together and generally learning the ins and outs of the fashion industry. It’s as though as soon as I took that first scary step of quitting, a whole world of new opportunities opened.

Our Festival is nearing its end and the realization that I have a fresh future ahead of me is beginning to sink in. I can’t wait to share these new adventures with you.

I liken my pre-film festival routine to the nesting expectant mothers do before their babies arrive. The weekend before the Festival is always the same for me. I hunker down, clean the house thoroughly, hand wash all the clothing I’ve not taken time to take care of, mend clothes and make lots of meals in preparation for being gone all day every day for 11 days in a row. I deal with enough surprises during the Festival that I don’t want to have to think about what to eat or what to wear every morning when I wake up. And even though I tend to hang back when celebrities are around, in the event I bump into Martin Sheen this year I really would like to be presentable.

When I’m gone all the time, Regan has to take care of the house and Jack on his own, which he’s more than capable of doing. However, I get so mentally exhausted during the Festival he has to take care of me too and so I like to make everything as easy as possible for him ahead of time. In addition to a fall stew and broccoli with curried quinoa for lunches and dinners, I decided breakfast sandwiches were in order. I discovered we had everything on hand for bagels using this recipe, substituting a tablespoon of molasses in the boiling water instead of a tablespoon of sugar. However, upon doing further research while my bagels were baking in the oven and not looking so picture perfect, I decided that I’ll be using this recipe next time. I think the higher gluten content in bread flour will  help with the elasticity in the bagels and make them look more like what you might find in the store and not the reject pile.

These certainly aren’t as lovely as I hoped they’d be, but they were fun and cheap. With the addition of an egg and a slice of cheese, the two of us have breakfast for an entire week. And a breakfast sandwich is going to treat me a lot better than that box of Milk Duds and container of popcorn that sits and taunts me day after day at the movie theater.

Take that, movie theater food. I’m going to win this battle this year.