Faccia di Vecchia

Faccia di vecchia, or sfinciuni, which means old woman's face, is an Italian bread made with anchovies. It's a family tradition to have sfinciuni at holiday meals, and this year I tried making it for the first time for Thanksgiving. I followed the "recipe" given to me by my uncle over the phone. Although sfinciuni is traditionally made with anchovies, you can top it with anything you like. I used italian sausage, anchovies, black olives, and mushrooms. I think it turned out pretty well!

Rockwell 22 pc SoniCrafter Holiday Giveaway

The carpenter extraordinaire and top notch blogger, Robert Robillard, is hosting a giveaway for two Rockwell SoniCrafters. These little tools are amazing at simple cuts, polishing, and sanding. Plus they can get into spots at angles you can't really achieve with any other tool.
Check out his giveaway here at his blog, A Concord Carpenter. I've followed his blog for about a year now and I enjoy it because his posts run the gamut of tool reviews, remodeling, house repairs, and solid advice on construction matters.

Our Garden

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When I think of gardening, I think of Rabbit from Winnie the Pooh...

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who apparently has OCD. Maybe that's why he's such a good gardener.


We started a vegetable garden back in August, and finally got around to picking some of the salad greens we planted. Aside from a few caterpillar holes (and the maker of those holes found crawling around in Zach's salad bowl) we really enjoyed our homegrown salad!

Journal Publication

My second publication, Impact of Asthma 101 Training on Level of Nursing Students’ Knowledge, is published in the Journal of Asthma & Allergy Educators!

Grandma Minnie

My grandmother passed away last week at the age of 92. She will be greatly missed!


Grandma and grandpa, 1946



Grandma and mom, 1955



Toddler shoes

I found an excellent pattern for baby shoes and modified it a bit for a toddler. The free pattern, along with video demonstration, is available here. The original tutorial uses fusible tape to hold most of the shoe together. My approach was a little different and involved more machine sewing.

Materials:

Wool-blend felt

2 shoelaces
Thread
4 eyelets
Fusible tape (Optional. May be used to fuse inner and outer pieces together before sewing. I pinned my pieces together)

Measure the child's foot, adding approximately 1/2" to the pattern. For example, if their foot is 4" long (heel to toe), enlarge the pattern to 4 1/2". Trace pattern onto your fabric and cut out.

Pin the cuff accent onto cuff; Sew around edge of cuff accent, affixing it to cuff.

Pin together the main body pieces (2 for each shoe). I used brown for the inner piece and tan for the outer piece. Cut along dotted lines to form the tongue of the shoe. Sew inner and outer pieces together along top edge and around tongue (shown below in purple.)

Pattern from marthastewart.com

Next, sew the toe piece onto the end of the main body. You only need to sew along the upper curve. Pin cuffs to main body, aligning the top edge of the cuff (shown above in green) with the top of the shoe (purple). Turn the body of the shoe inside out, with the back edges touching (blue). Pin together and sew along edge.

Pin sole to body of shoe, wrong sides together. Machine stitch together. Turn shoe right side out and check seams. You're almost finished!

The last step is to add the eyelets for the shoe laces. I wrapped the cuffs snuggly around the front of the shoe and marked where I wanted the eyelets to go. Using a Crop-A-Dile, I punched a hole through the cuff and set each eyelet.  I chose a short pair of shoelaces and cut them to length. Then I tied the ends off in a knot and melted them slightly to keep them from fraying.

These shoes are a gift for a special little boy on his first birthday! 

Candied Pecans

This was my first time to make candied pecans. I made a few changes to an exisiting recipe and this is what I came up with. The measurements are a little odd because I adjusted them for the amount of pecans I had.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 lb pecan halves
1 3/4 c white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 tablespoon and 1 1/4 tsp water
1 tsp vanilla
3 egg whites

• Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line a pan with parchment paper and set aside.
• Combine sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl.
• Whisk together water, vanilla, and egg whites in another bowl, until frothy. (An easy way to separate the whites from the yolks is to use a slotted spoon.)
• Pour the pecans into the egg mixture and stir to coat; then pour the pecans into the dry ingredients and toss/stir to coat.
• Spread the pecans out on the pan and bake for 50-60 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.

Yields approx. 8 cups of pecans.

I packaged the pecans in "broom bags" and gave them to my coworkers as a special fall treat! The idea for this project came from marthastewart.com. (I made similar bags last year, which I wrote about here.)

To make the broom bags, you will need paper craft sacks, scissors, twine, and sticks. You will use 2 bags per broom. 

Cut strips down all four sides of one bag, leaving the base of the bag intact. For the second bag, cut slits all around the top, a couple inches down.

Fill the inner bag with candy and insert stick. Place the inner bag on the base of the outer bag, with the strips fanned out. Then gather the strips around all four sides of the inner bag and secure around stick with twine.

Happy Halloween!