Monday 18 February 2013

Home-Made Squash Mezzelune




A combination of two of my favourite comfort foods, fresh home-made pasta and squash, these stuffed Mezzelune are worth the time to make!




What you need:

Pasta Dough
1 cup of all purpose flour
1 cup of semolina flour
A pinch of salt
3 eggs (two for dough 1 for egg wash) 
3 tlbs water

Filling
1/2 butter nut squash 
2 tlbs brown sugar (optional)
2 tlbs olive oil




1) Mix flours and salt, create a volcano like shape. Beat 2 eggs with water and slowly pour in, taking breaks to knead in with hands.



2) Continuing kneading for about 10 mins. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for around 1 hour.




3) This is a good time to start on the filling. Cut squash in half, drizzle with oil, sprinkle brown sugar. roast at 350 degrees celsius for about 45 mins.



4) Remove squash from oven, let cool for 10 mins. Remove from skin with a spoon, mash.
Feel free to play with seasoning, nutmeg, sage, and/or pepper work well.



5) Split dough in half (making it easier to work with). Roll dough out into a long rectangle. This takes a little elbow gresse. 



6) Spoon tlbs of squash out 1 1/2 inch apart, onto half of the dough, (leaving half to overlap).
Beat 1 egg (this is the egg wash) and brush edges.




7) Fold dough over covering the filling.





8) Cut with favourite cookie cutter, I used a large flower, making the edges easy to pinch close.



9) Pop into boiling water cook of 8-10 mins. Top with favourite sauce. I enjoy them with a drizzle of olive oil. Pesto works well too!

Enjoy
xoxo Sarah





Saturday 16 February 2013

Tea Time (Homemade Tea Bags)



A good friend came over this weekend full of project ideas. We both love making things and agree             handmade is the best! The first project is one I tried years ago, and was excited to try again. Check back  soon to see what else we made.




    What you need:

    Coffee Filters 
    Dental Floss (we used two kinds mint and unflavoured)
    Your Favourite Loose Tea: We used Spearmint and English Breakfast 
    Twine
    Tags




    Fold and flatten the coffee filter. We cut them in half first making them easier to work with.




We cut out heart shapes, but feel free to make any shape you like. Keep in mind you will need to sew      around the edges, so you might not to get to complicated.




Sew edges closed with the floss, be sure to leave a gap to fill with tea. I used the mint floss with the spearmint tea, and unflavoured with he English Breakfast




   Fill each teabag with your favourite tea, finish sewing up the gap.






Attache tags by weaving thread anywhere on the bag you like!
We decorated ours with hearts and personalized messages.




So Pretty!





Enjoy!


xoxo Sarah

Thursday 14 February 2013

Gocco Love


What is Gocco? 

My Gocco wedding invitation.



Gocco is a do-it-yourself at home screen-printing machine that is easy to use and relatively inexpensive. Gocco was invented by Riso, in 1977, and quickly became popular in Japan as a means to create personalised greeting cards. It took a while for Gocco to make its way overseas to North America, but when it did it quickly picked up a following of artists and DIYers who began to do amazing things.


Our simple but sweet thank you cards


I first discovered Gocco’s a year ago when I decided I wanted to do something a little different for our wedding invitations. I loved all the handmade inked drawings I saw artists making, and knew it was the right way to go. I knew if I didn’t use it for invitations I would find good use of it.


My Gocco is a PG-5 model (a slightly older and smaller model), newer ones are available.


a)screens b) gocco printer c) lightbox
d) colour blocker e) carbon pencil f) lightbulbs in box g) notepad for sizing and practised h) blue filter
i) ink made for gocco printers
Unfortunately Gocco’s have been discontinued. The Gocco printers and materials have become more difficult to find. You can still order them online from a few sources (that’s where I purchased mine).  I’ve listed retailers that supply materials, inks, screens, bulbs, below. Also I'm working on a tutorial so stay tuned! Happy Goccoing!

Xoxo
Sarah

Gocco Suppliers


Gocco Sites for Artist and Enthusiast