Why the Hell Not?

A Present for Judy...

Mark's aunt Judy has breast cancer.  Thankfully, it's treatable.  However, the treatment is difficult and long as it's compounded by her other health problems.  Through it all she maintains her typical Judy positive attitude.

Judy is also a crafter.  Like me, she's tried just about every craft out there.  Unlike me, she excels at painting.  In fact, her crafting skills compliment mine well as we're good at different things. 

Since Judy truly appreciates crafters/artists, I decided to make her a gift in metal.  This was truly a labor of love as it was my first time to set a stone, first pendant, first pin, and first of so many other things.  However, I think it turned out quite well.  It's also symbolic. 

See if you can guess the meaning -

The ribbon is made of 18 gauge Sterling Silver that I cut into the shape.  I hand drew the shape from memory.  I used my ball ping hammer to forge a texture into the ribbon.  It's polished to a high shine, which makes it very hard to take a good picture.  The ends of the ribbon are also curved up to give the ribbon more life.

The cross is of highly polished copper (it's not enameled like the picture looks).  I also hand drew and cut it.  The pink stone is a 4mm round cut Pink Tourmaline and is set in a Sterling Silver tube.  I drilled a hole in the back of the piece to allow more light to come through the stone to enhance shine.

Here's the back -

 

The bail is made of the same tubing the stone is set in.  The pin back, however, is hand made (and hand sharpened) from 16 gauge Sterling Silver wire. 

Judy can wear this as either a pin or a pendant.  I figured she'd appreciate the versatility.  The finished piece is about an inch wide by 2.5 inches long.  The wavy edges of the ribbon were created when I forged the texture into it.  

I aimed towards making a classier version of the typical breast cancer ribbon and including a cross.  I think I succeeded. I plan to give it to her today and hope she likes it!

As for the meaning, you probably guessed it.  It's simple.  Hope plus Faith gets you through the fight.  Of course you need medicine too, but the patient can only fight with hope and faith.  Doctors provide the medicine.

This gift is also a temporary one.  It's meant to be passed along as a sort of good luck charm.  When she's cured, she can pass it to a friend or family member that needs it.  Hopefully, she'll be cured and never need to pass it.  However, breast cancer is currently prevalent enough that she will have to pass it to someone she knows.  Or maybe this will be the decade that we find the cure.  Through hope and faith, science just might...

Yummy - Key Lime Curd

Today I started out on an adventure.  An adventure to make curd.  See, I usually avoid any recipe that requires me to stir constantly.  The one and only time I made fudge I burned the tar out of it.  I didn't stir enough. 

I don't like to stir.  I like to ignore.  So, custard recipes are out.  And curd is a custard.  But, I was in Fiesta and the bags of key limes were only $1.50 for a 2 pound bag.  That's about as cheap as they get.  They tend to hit this price in the dead of Winter and in the hottest part of Summer, so key limes must have two seasons around here.  I bought two bags yesterday and pledged to make curd.  I knew that if I put it off, I'd never make it, so I made a point to make it today. 

Have I mentioned that I LOVE key limes?  They're fabulous in just about anything - Cokes, tea, water, Caipirinhas, beer...you name it.  But I've never used them in baking.  Weird, I know.  Especially since I'm a baker. 

For the curd, I used this recipe.  Since I had eight million limes and was determined to use them all, I made a batch that was 5x the recipe. Thankfully I didn't try 6x as it wouldn't have fit into my pan! 

I also varied the recipe slightly.  I eyeballed (and went for the high side) the zest.  I used the zest of 9 key limes and it was too much.  The resulting curd is a bit too bitter.  But, and that's a big but, if you put it onto something sweet (i.e. a cookie or ice cream) it works quite well.  I'll still actually follow the recipe next time and *gasp* measure the zest.  I guess I found the one case where more is not a good thing!

I also used salted butter, in case you care.

Wanna see my curd?

Ain't she purty?  I did strain the curd before jarring. I figured that was important since I forgot to strain the seeds out of the juice before cooking.  Oops.

I also used both pint and half-pint jars.  Figured I could give away the half-pint ones and keep the big boys for myself. 

Also, after doing quite a bit of research, I determined that I should NOT can the curd.  It needs to be refrigerated or frozen.  Basically, the combination of eggs and not enough acidity make it a bad idea to can.  Plus, you only get up to 3 months of shelf life with canning this product, which is not much.  With freezing, however, you get up to a year of shelf life.  If you decide to refrigerate it, you get 3 weeks of shelf life. 

The original recipe makes about a pint.  Since I quintupled the recipe, it made about 5 pints - enough for a couple of pies or whatever else I can think of.  I did once make almond tartlets (I used almond butter cookie dough as the crust) and filled them with lemon curd after baking the crusts.  They were to die for, and I'd imagine the key lime curd would go nicely with almonds as well. 

Did I mention that this recipe is cheap to make?  When Mark and I were in Central Market this weekend, I looked longingly at a jar of Key Lime Curd.  He told me to buy it if I wanted it so much.  My response?  "But it's $7 for this tiny little jar of goodness."  He shrugged and walked off. 

How much did my version cost?  About $8...for 5 pints.  That "little jar" was either an 8 or 12 ounce jar.  So, I made more than 5 times the amount for the same price.  Here's the breakdown:

15 eggs - $0.99 (Fiesta had a sale on for 18 for 99 cents. I still have 3 eggs left but rounded up on cost.)

2 - 2 lb. sacks of key limes - $3.98 ($1.49 each)

2 1/2 cups sugar - $1.10 (I used about half of a 4 lb package and the full package was $2.19.)

Just under a pound of butter - $2.00 (love store brand butter prices!)

Reused jars - "free"

Total: $8.07.  

Total of on jar of pre-made stuff with tax: $7.57.  Total cost for 80 oz of the pre-made stuff (assuming it comes in 12 oz jars) - $50.47.  (Assuming it comes in 8 oz jars) - $75.70.  That's quite a difference!

So, for a whopping 50 cents more  than the cost of one jar I have at least 5 times as much curd.  Now, granted, I didn't use all of the same ingredients as they do in their curd.  After all, I didn't use preservatives.  

If you want to figure jar prices in there too, add $5 to the total.  The jars run about $1 each new.  And, since you're not truly canning them, you can reuse the lids.  I do plan to cover the lids with Press n' Seal as well before freezing since the liquid was not hot enough to create a true vacuum. 

Off to enjoy my curd!

Hey Kiki...

Um, um...remember when you told me that we could go to the Zoo and talk to a scientist about something I found?  Well, I want to go.  And I brought a rock to trade for points so I could get some stuff.

Okay.

And off we went to the Dallas Zoo.  What?  You haven't been lately?  Well, you should go.  It's renovated, they have a new and rocking cool Savanna exhibit, and they even have the trading post that Mr. Future Banker loved.  After all, where else can you sit eye to eye with a geologist and talk about a rock your aunt brought you from Oldupai Gorge, show your "journal" on the topic (which Mr. Future Banker called a speech he "threw together" the night before Camp Kiki began), and get points you can spend on getting more fossils and cool stuff?  In a word, the Dallas Zoo "rocks."  Um, literally.  At least literally in the Trading Post.  

And here Mr. Future Banker discusses the incredible value of the rock he brought.  If you look closely, his speech is he piece of paper on the bottom left of the desk.  It now resides on my fridge as it's one of those things that you keep forever.  It marks that key time in his eighth year where he put the pamphlet that came with the stone into his "own words."  Gotta love this kid!

And, since he knew so much about the stone, he got 1,000 points.  That traded for quite a few fossils!  He was very excited and I was completely proud.

Fold Forming Greatness

On Saturday, I took a class at the Dallas Craft Guild on Fold Forming.  Fold Forming is a technique in metal working.  Basically, you fold a sheet of metal and then apply various techniques to get the results you want. 

During the morning, we learned fold forming techniques.  During the last part of the afternoon, I used those techniques to make the bracelet on the right.  It was originally a 1"x7" piece of 18 gauge copper.  The one on the left I made today.  It was originally a 2"x6" piece of 18 gauge copper.  The larger one ended up a bit thin (I've quite the ability at forging), so I'll have to use 16 gauge copper next time. 

If you're wondering why the right one is shiny and the left one has what looks to be a pink powder on top, it's because I haven't fully cleaned the left one.  I've pickled it but not attacked it with the brass brush to remove the oxidation. 

See, when you heat metal to anneal it, oxidation occurs.  On copper, oxidation tends to be reddish black.  To remove this oxidation, you pickle the metal, meaning you place it into a pot of "pickle."  The pickle we use is a mixture of water and pool chemicals.  This pickle removes the oxidation.  Then, you wash the pickled metal with water and scrub it with a brass brush and Dawn soap to remove the last bits of oxidation.  If you don't scrub the copper clean, the pink powdery finish will rub off onto your skin when you wear the piece.  So, pickle it!

To make these bracelets, I annealed the metal (heated it to a certain temperature and then quenched it in a bath of cold water) to soften it and then folded it in half.  I annealed it again and then forged (hammered) it into a "C" shape, annealing each time I needed to soften it back up.  If you work in metal, you learn quickly that metal work hardens, meaning doing something like forging will make the metal get super hard and unworkable again.  Thus, you have to anneal it often.  After I'd reached my desired shape, I pried the metal back open, making sure to not lose my fold.  I shaped it on an oval mandrel and then annealed it again.  Lastly, I flipped the metal inside out and shaped it on a mandrel into the cuff.  The whole process took me a couple of hours, though I was working on a second project at the same time (to be shared later). The result is a frilly bracelet that looks like a feather or leaf.

Wanna see what the bracelets look like on a wrist?  Here's the smaller one on -

And the larger one:

 

And some detail shots...

Inside of Big Daddy Bracelet -

This would have been the outside if I hadn't flipped it inside out.

Edges of Big Daddy Bracelet -

Edges of the small bracelet - 

 

One of the cool things about this technique is that you never quite know what you're going to get.  I have to admit, I'm hooked!