Oh, the Iron-y

The irony is not lost on me.  I assure you.

Yes.  This is a snowball maker in my child's

hands.  Because we only purchase really smart

things with our allowance money...

Not only am I sitting here on the second day of spring, but I am sitting here on a SNOW DAY on the second day of spring.  (Pictured left) is how Connecticut is doing spring these days.

But the real irony is that I have just finished reupholstering four of the cutest outdoor patio chairs that have ever wanted to see sunlight. 

As they sit in my living room -my dark, cold, wintery living room- I'm not sure if they are a comforting reminder of our coming summer, or a taunting indication of the weeks of drear that possibly lie ahead.  Good thing they are so cute.

Though this blog often features local items to purchase from our geographic region, I also know some of the most awesome local items a person can have are the ones made in their very own home, by their very own hands.  Here is just such a recent project I have undertaken, with not an ounce of consideration for the weather....

When I came across these four wrought-iron chairs sitting -for free- on the side of the road, I knew why.  They were rusty. They were torn. They were -gasp- a titch on the ugly side. But they had a few things going for them, too, as they were local treasures that could easily be renewed for a few dollars rather than purchasing new versions from faraway places for much higher prices.  So I led them home with a trail of breadcrumbs and promises of sweet nothings in their ears.  Don't they look happy in my warm basement?

 

Once home, these chairs just needed a little TLC (here is a good guide on how to clean up rusty wrought iron), some new outdoor canvas clothes for their in-great-condition wooden seats (I picked something that echoed the iron swirls), and four thousand staples (and who doesn't love a reason to use a staple gun? ... said my six year old...). 

Taking these puppies apart was a dirty job, with four layers of old fabric inside.  But the elbow grease and twelve dollars of fabric was well worth it.

And voila.  A whole new set of chairs, locally acquired, saved from the big bad landfill, bright and cheery and ready for their new life. 

Outside.

In summer heat. 

Any day now.

Local Recipe: Berry Cream Puffs

I pretty much hate puns. Whenever my husband pulls one out (which is way too often, and, I suspect,  for the simple enjoyment of getting under my skin) I always remind him that they are considered the lowest form of humor.  Still, between you and me, it's so hard not to do an egg pun.  After all, there are about 500 to be had. (no yoking, I'm cracking up, eggstremely, eggcetera, etc!)  So please know I am hitting the restraint hard as I share this favorite quick and local recipe with you... a recipe I love so much I don't even have it written down.  It just rolls around in my little ol' head, waiting to be made when the urge for a pretty low-sugar dessert comes a calling.

Today I am inspired by the fresh eggs on our counter and the distant hint of spring in the air.  Or maybe it's just my ridiculous Connecticut imagination and an urgent sense of longing for warmer weather.  Either way, I love an excuse to make a cream puff.  And though there are oodles of ways to take advantage of having local eggs at the ready and local berries on call in the freezer, I can't think of a better use for them together!

The first time my husband's co-worker approached my husband with a dozen of her just-collected eggs from her small family farm, she apologized, saying, "These do not come washed off, like they do in the store."  My husband had laughed, as she apparently had not seen the eggs we lived on in Africa, purchased with feathers and poo as a standard requirement.  We have done our best to assure her we never mind fresh local eggs!

Local eggs are one of the easiest foods for a person to find year round from their region.  Do a quick search wherever you are and you will surely be able to find small farms that love to get their eggs out to nearby families.  But enough about eggs.  This recipe is also about beautiful New-England-grown berries.

It's not hard to find local berries in the northeast in Spring or Summer.  From strawberry season to blueberry, black berry, and raspberry picking time, there are plenty to go around!  But come winter,when my freezer empties and the price of berries imported from places like Chili and Argentina are high, I like to mosey into the freezer aisle.  Wyman's of Maine, a local berry supplier located in Milbridge, Maine, always has the best and most affordable products I can find in almost any grocery store. I love their Website, which is less about pumping themselves up and packed more with recipes, health articles, and nutrition facts that remind me just how awesome a super food like berries can be!

Now, I am no food photog.  And while I work on that, never mind my poorly-lit cream puffs.  Just try a batch and you will not care about their hot looks (and really, they are gorgeous in person, I promise).  Taste them and you might just say they are berry egg-cellent.  (Sorry, couldn't control myself...) Enjoy!

     Berry Cream Puffs

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  In a saucepan, heat on medium:

1 cup of water
1/2 cup of butter, or, to be dairy-free, Nutiva (a wonder product like butter but made of coconut and red palm oil)

Once all butter is melted (it may boil before this happens), add:

1 cup of flour (all-purpose gluten free flour works, too!)

Mix flour in while the pot is still on the heat. It will form into a ball in the middle of the pot when it is well mixed and heated. Once this happens, take off the heat and add:

4 eggs, added and mixed in one at a time

When the eggs are mixed in well and the batter is uniformly gooey, place piles of approx. 1/2 cup-sized worth of batter onto a baking sheet.  Bake until lightly browned on the outside, about 15 -20 minutes depending on your oven.  

Cool baked puffs. On a plate, cut open cooled puff by cutting off a lid (I liken this to carving a pumpkin- your lid should be slightly smaller than the diameter of the puff). 

Scoop out some of the interior if desired (we like the eggy inside, so usually I just move it aside with clean fingers to make space for filling) and fill with whipped cream.  My dairy-free family loves using So-Delicious Coconut whipped cream, a low-sugar alternative.  But if you use milk-based whipped cream, it's another great opportunity to use a local product!

Spoon some delicious thawed berries on top of the whipped cream (some will roll out onto the plate and that is gorgeously okay!), then replace the "lid" of the puff.  Sprinkle with a few puffs of powdered sugar for a professional look and a sweet touch.  On a paper plate or in a fancy dish, this sweet treat is great all year round!