Grandma Club

Apron-making

This is Grandma Donovan reporting on the latest Grandma Club activity. Kathy and I got together in the evening last week to make aprons. It ended up being just one apron, but that was because it was decided Kathy had enough aprons and I needed extra help. I had never used a sewing machine and was only experienced with hand sewing in a straight line.

I brought my own fabric in an air mail motif, because I just can't help myself. The first thing to do was decide on a style. I wanted an apron with full coverage because I am a messy person. For pattern ease, we simply traced around one of Kathy's existing aprons. Kathy, being a veteran seamstress, had some amazing scissors to cut the fabric. The fabric was cut carefully, leaving about a half inch on the outside of the pattern line to create the hem. On the curved lines for the arms, Kathy showed me how to cut out notches so that the fabric curved nicely. We cut the bias tape for the ties after trying it on for size and seeing where it was comfortable to tie the apron on. I don't think we ever used a tape measure. It was all done by feel. 

Next, we pinned down the hem. I have always pinned things long-wise, but Kathy showed me that if you pin the edge so that the pin sticks out, it's easier to remove them as you feed the fabric through the machine. I never would have thought of that since I do all my sewing by hand. After all the hems were pinned, Kathy had me quickly sew in the ties by hand just to keep them in place while we sewed the hem. Then it was on to the machine.

As I said before, I had never used a sewing machine.Having Kathy there was a miracle. The act of threading the machine is such a confusing conglomeration of seemingly incorrect movements that I never would have done it on my own. That said, after Kathy showed me how it was done, it was much clearer. She had me try out the machine on a couple of test pieces of fabric to start, and then we went right to the main event.

I had a bit of trouble remembering to put the presser foot down, but overall it was a lot easier than I thought it would be, and fun too. Having been a hand sewer all my life, I was amazed by the speed with which I finished the hem. After the hem was done, the apron was essentially complete, but I was feeling adventurous. It was time to add a pocket.

Using the scraps that were cut out for the arm holes, Kathy helped me create the pocket. The tricky part was we wanted to make sure the design all lined up correctly. She basted {which is a loose line of stitching} the two pieces together first and then I followed that line through the sewing machine. This gave us a large enough piece to make a pocket from. I then pinned it and hemmed it just like I had done on the apron. We marked out where the pocket should go using a mirror {the lines of the fabric helped as well}, and then I sewed it on. Viola! I had an apron.

More pictures of the process can be seen on the Grandma Club Flickr page.

Cribbage

Together, on a dreary Saturday afternoon, we met at Grandma Betsy's and enjoyed tasty treats and Glögg, a Scandinavian mulled wine drink. Continuing our focus on games in the Winter months, Grandma Betsy offered to teach Grandma Club how to play Cribbage. Unfortunately, Grandma Kathy was busy with library school work and Grandma Noel was in Hawaii, but Grandma Betsy and I had a great time along with our respective Grandpas, teaching and learning the rules of Cribbage.

Cribbage consists of a points-keeping board and a deck of playing cards. You can play it in pairs or as a group of up to four. {You may be able to play with more, but four is what we had.} As with any new game, the rules can seem arbitrary and elusive until you set down to actual play. Cribbage is mainly a game about cards adding up to the number 15 {except when they add up to 31} and any pairs or straights equal bonus points. The name Cribbage comes from the "crib" of cards discarded by each player. Any points in the crib go to the dealer of the round.

We watched Betsy and Matt play a round and then Dillon and I took over. Then we played together in a group. It seemed easier to converse around Cribbage than Mah Jong, but that's probably just due to familiarity with cards rather than tiles. Plus, getting a scoreless hand in Cribbage is rarely your fault, just the luck of the draw. Fantastically, I pulled one of the highest scoring hands you can receive in the game by being dealt all four 5's for a total of 28 points. The only higher score is having a Jack of the same suit on the dealer's card. That adds one more point for 29. 

It was a really fun game to learn and I find myself really wanting a Cribbage board myself. Dillon and I don't even own a deck of playing cards. I think it's off to eBay for me. How about you Grandmas? Any other games out there for us? We're thinking about tackling Bridge.

Gingerbread Houses

Grandma Club was able to squeeze in one last meeting before the holidays. It was a week night meeting, so to save time, it was agreed that we would all prepare our basic gingerbread pieces at our homes, and then come together to decorate them.We all met at Grandma Kathy's kitchen with our pre-made gingerbreads and fixings. Grandma Kathy was cooking and decorating gingerbread cookies. Grandmas Noel & Denise were alternating between houses of gingerbread and ones of pretzel and graham. Grandma Donovan was using gluten-free gingerbread. The recipes will be at the bottom of this post.

Grandma Donovan chose to bake her gingerbread into house shaped pieces, while Grandma Denise opted to carve her gingerbread squares into the building blocks she wanted. It was recommended that you decorate the sides of your house with icing prior to assembling them. Ideally, you'd want to put the house together and then let it dry for a day before decorating, but we did not have time for that.

Instead of Royal Icing, because the intention was to make edible houses, Donovan whipped up some Almost Buttercream {recipe at the end of the post} as her cement. Noel & Denise used some fudge icing. Both seemed to hold everything together pretty well...  Some of the items used in decoration were:

• chocolate-covered, candy-coated sesame seeds {excellent Christmas lights}
• spice drops in assorted colors {Denise made the green ones into tiny wreaths}
• candy canes {tree trunks, roof rafters}
• mini meringue drops {perfect little snow puffs, or steam clouds, or the whip on a tiny cupcake}
• mini peanut butter cups {base of said cupcake, stumps}
• After 8 mints {roof shingles, paving stones}
• peppermint Livesavers {wreaths, snow rings around "tree" trunks}
• pretzel sticks {logs}
• caramels {bricks}

Donovan built a cardboard base and covered it with foil as a lot for her house which was then given a candy landscape by Kathy, while Denise & Noel created free standing structures. Denise has so much fun making her cabin that she built another one entirely of pretzel logs. By the end of the night, we had an entire little gingerbread/baked good village.{See Denise all hyped up on sugar and a job well done at left.}

We all had a great time, even when Donovan's roof collapsed her entire house during the placement of her last chimney piece {which is why you should let them dry before decorating}. A last minute fix of some ric-rac cut parchment paper piped with icing details saved the day! And it looked even better than before and even stayed standing the whole way home.

RECIPES________________________________________________________________________________________

Gluten-Free Gingerbread

INGREDIENTS
1 cup brown rice flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
pinch of baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons soft light brown sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup

PREPARATION
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Sift all the dry ingredients together into a large bowl. Place the butter, sugar, and corn syrup in a small saucepan and heat gently until melted, then stir into the flour mixture and bring together to form a ball.

2. Place the dough onto a surface dusted lightly with rice flour and roll it out to a thickness of 1/4 inch. Cut out shapes, then place on a baking sheet and place in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, until golden brown.

{From The Daily Green}

Almost Buttercream Frosting

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup white shortening
3-1/2 cups powered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
3-4 tablespoons milk or hot water

PREPARATION

Beat shortening and flavoring for about one minute, then slowly add half of the sugar, mixing in well. Add half of the milk or water and mix well. Gradually beat in the rest of the sugar and just enough milk or water to reach the desired consistency, whether for piping or spreading.

{From Celebrating Christmas}

Mah Jong + Cherry Liquor

   

After years of gabbing about it, we finally decided to learn how to play mah jong. I mean, what is more grandma-ish than getting together to play this game? It gained major popularity in the 30s, which is why I was drawn to it. I have to guess that Donovan was drawn to it for its complication and Noel was attracted by the booze that I offered to serve.

This "meeting" was actually a potluck dinner where we grannies did little work, which was a nice change from our normal grandma meetings. The whole excuse for getting together was that the sour cherry liquor I made (from our summer fruit picking excursion) was finally ready to drink and I wanted the grannies to get together for a tasting.

The cherry liquor turned out well, although it is definitely an acquired taste. Noel described it as cough medicine tasting, but not in a bad way. I decanted the liquor minutes before the grannies showed up and I think this was a mistake. I didn't give the liquor time to breath and develop a richer flavor. A week after the liquor was in the decanter it gained a sweetness and deeper cherry flavor. It is definitely a nice after dinner drink to have on a cold night. Now I just need to try to make this liquor last until next cherry season, which may be difficult!

After we had a good dinner and a few drinks we decided to teach ourselves mah jong. We were lacking a forth player, but luckily we were able to convince my boyfriend  to play with us (I think the big plate of food helped). Donovan got a mah jong set from Ebay that came with some poorly written rules, so she also purchase a "Lets Play Mah Jong" book. We based our game rules between those two sources and some rules found in internet searches.

There are many many different ways to play mah jong. We have stuck to our own little variation of the American game rules. Now, I'm not going to lie to you - mah jong is a complicated game that makes you go cross-eyed when you are first reading all the rules, but it is worth it. We found it was best to just understand the goal of the game and start playing to learn the rest of it. (We had a cheat sheet that spelled out what you needed to win mah jong, which was helpful for the first few rounds.)We definitely made some mistakes in our first few games (as evidenced by the photos), but we kept learning little by little and had so much fun in the process. We will all admit that this game is very addictive. So addictive that I ended up buying my own set to take home for the holidays and proceeded to get my entire family addicted to mah jong. Even my nine year old cousin is addicted to the game, and pretty damn good at it to boot!

All in all, this was a great way to spend a winter night. We are planning on a few more granny game nights where we shall teach ourselves new-to-us games. Donovan recently got me into Settlers of Catan. Any board/card games you are a fan of or want to suggest to us?