Category: Free Inquiry

This week I worked on the page for my blueberry muffin recipe! It’s been a while since I made them, but once I took them out of the oven, I was reminded of how much I love them! They are light, fluffy, and not too sweet, with the bonus of incorporating fresh berries! After learning my lesson with the chocolate chip cookies, I made sure to pay extra attention to the labels on my measuring spoons. I also made sure to bake the muffins before writing out the instructions and ingredients to pay attention to the unwritten things I do when I bake.

Above are some photos of my original recipe page from back home. I am really glad to be making this recipe book page because the previous state of this recipe was a little post-it note on my fridge. The instructions were also very brief, to the point where I sometimes didn’t remember what I meant. So when rewriting the recipe, I took care to elaborate a little bit more.

On the new recipe page, I did include a new ingredient, brown sugar. I specified that its optional because it really is just for decoration on the top of the muffins. I like to add a little bit on top to add to the golden brown look of the muffins, and it makes the top a little more crunchy. I also changed the baking time and instructions. The original recipe had the oven preheated to 390°F, to bake for 5 minutes, then to turn it down to 350°F for another 13 minutes. I decided to change this for simplicity. The new instructions are to preheat the oven to 350°F and to bake the muffins for 22 minutes.

I started the page with my usual process: to pick a background material. This time I picked blue gingham, the same as for the cover page. I chose it becase I wanted something blue for blueberries. For the next parts, I wanted to try something different than for my previous pages to mix things up. When I was first preparing my materials for this project, I bought an old cookbook from the thrift store that has lots of cool culinary pictures and beautiful patterns. My new idea was to cut out some of the patterned plates from the staged pictures and write out my ingredients and instructions on them.

After I cut out the plates, I cut some pieces of lined paper to fit, then wrote out my instructions and ingredients. The next step was to make a title card. I took another flip through the cookbook and found a pattern that I liked and I thought matched the other colours on the page. I cut a small piece out and glued my recipe title to it.

For my drawings, I decided to do one blueberry muffin and one single blueberry. I positioned all of my elements on the page and once I decided on an arrangement that I liked, I glued them down.

I’m really happy with how the page turned out and I am definitely going to use more patterns from the cookbook for future pages. The muffins turned out great as well! Next week, I will be making a year-round favourite of mine: Apple Crisp!

— Sofia 🎀

This week I made my lasagna recipe, which is my only savoury recipe from my collection. Although I mostly bake, there are a few meals that I used to cook for my family (usually lasagna or pasta). I started making this recipe because I wanted to eat lasagna that didn’t have ricotta cheese in it. I have always been a picky eater and was never a fan of the texture of ricotta. So I decided to make it in the way that I like.

Above is the recipe from my folder. I realized once I had already made it’s page in my new recipe book that there are some things that I usually add in that are not in the ingredients for this recipe. For example, I usually add in oregano and basil to the sauce before beginning the layering process. Although I’m disappointed that I didn’t think to add them in as ingredients, this serves as a good reminder to me to think about what has channged in my recipes since I started making them.

I started my process as usual: by cutting a piece of paper for the background and gluing it down. Then I wrote down the ingredients, instructions, and title of the recipe. For this page, I went to Michael’s to look for a patterned piece of paper. I have some background paper that could work but they are all lighter and mostly pink. I associate Lasagna with the colour red (maybe because of the tomato sauce), so I wanted to find a special piece of red paper.

Next, I worked on some drawings to add as decoration on the page. The first thing that I drew was a piece of lasagna. I tried my best, but I am no artist. It ended up looking more like a piece of cake to me, but hopefully because the recipe is named “Lasagna”, it will be clear. Then I started arranging the elements on the page and made some more drawings.

My next drawings were an onion, and a lasagna noodle. As opposed to my recipe last week, I was struggling to think of memories or associations that I have with this Lasagna that I could channel into my little drawings. So instead I just drew some of the ingredients.

The final image is of the finished lasagna (after I cut out a piece for my dinner). The lasagna turned out great and reminded me of home, which was the best part. I love this recipe because it’s simple and things can easily be changed, added in, or removed. For example, If you like ricotta cheese in your lasagna, you could add it as a layer. I have also experimented with adding different vegetables into the sauce like carrots and bell peppers, and for this most recent time, I added zucchini. I also imagine that it would work to change the ground beef for a different kind of meat. Or even make a vegetarian lasagna!

Stay tuned for next time, when I make my blueberry muffin recipe!

— Sofia 🎀

This week I worked on the page for a family recipe that I learned from my dad, who learned from my grandma. The photos above are of my grandparents farm in Salmon Arm. We didn’t get to visit often but my family’s trips up there were so special growing up. They had cows, sheep, chickens, a donkey, and a handful of cats and dogs. They even have a big hilly field that my brothers and I would sled on in the winter.

My dad taught me how to make this recipe when I was little, and it introduced me to my new favourite way to melt chocolate. The recipe calls for melting the chocolate in boilling water: you break of the chocolate into a bowl, pour hot water over it, and let it sit for a few minutes. Then drain the water and have perfectly melted chocolate. I remember when I first tried it I was hesistant about it but it always turns out smooth and I don’t have to worry about the chocolate getting burnt in the microwave!

I also have fond memories of making this cake with my cousins when I visited in the summer. My grandma’s birthday is in late august, so when we visited before the beginning of the school year, we got to celebrate with her. I would go over to my cousins’ house and we would bake it together and enjoy it with our family in the evening.

Above is a scan of the recipe page from home. I believe my dad translated it from my grandma’s recipe book, which was in German. Before moving to Canada, my dad and his family lived in Germany, but my Grandma is Swiss, so this recipe comes from my extended family in Switzerland. I love making this recipe because it’s different than other chocolate cakes online, and it’s a nice way to feel close to my Swiss roots.

I started the process by covering the page with a music sheet from the old music book I thrifted. I chose to do this as a nod to one of my favourite memories from visiting my grandparents: playing on their piano. I learned to play when I was five and continued recreationally until I was about 13. I wasn’t a master, but my grandparents always loved it when the piano was in use and it was nice to play for them because I didn’t see them very often.

Next, I wrote out the ingredients and instructions on lined paper and layed them out on the page. I made a small title card and added that as well. I then glued everything down and started on my drawings for the page.

Using my coloured pencils, I drew a slice of the cake, a cherry tree, a sheep, and the hilly fields from my grandparents’ property.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make the recipe in preparation of this blog post. The recipe requires you to beat the egg whites until they form firm peaks, and I am unable to do that without an electric hand mixer. I’m sad I wasn’t able to make and eat some of this cake, but I look forward to making it next time I visit home!

Next week, I will be making my lasagna recipe, which is my only savoury recipe from my collection!

— Sofia 🎀

This week, I will be making the page for my Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie recipe. Out of all of my recipes, these cookies are my most frequently made and they are a big favourite in my family. So, it felt right to have this recipe be the first page in my new recipe book! I wanted to pick something that is classic and one of my most used recipes.

Chocolate chip cookies are a staple and it can take a long time to find the right recipe. So once I started adding oats, it was a game-changer. I like these more than regular chocolate chip cookies because I find that the rolled oats give the cookies texture, volume, and extra fibre!

To start my process, I made the cookies using my old recipe page:

The process and final result were very different than usual, considering my kitchen is different and I didn’t have all the tools I usually do. One unfortunate thing that happened is that I accidentally added the wrong amount of baking soda and salt. Because I have new supplies that I am not used to, I read the 1/2 tablespoon scoop as 1/2 teaspoon. I also had to get used to my new oven, which is electric, as opposed to the gas oven I’m used to at home. Overall, the cookies turned out great and I learned that I need to double check the measuring spoon I’m using!

For the process of making the page for the recipe book, I started with choosing a background: Yellow gingham. I cut out a piece to fit and glued it on, finishing the top and bottom edges with light pink paper. I then cut out some pieces of lined paper and trimmed them to fit the page.

After creating the base for my page, I copied the ingredients and instructions for the cookies onto my lined paper cards. Next, I used my coloured pencils to draw some chocolate chip oatmeal cookies for decoration.

Before gluing the elements to the page, I made a title card and added some of the paper doilies I bought. I then glued on the ingredients and instrcutions cards along with my pictures, but I thought that the page needed something more. So I drew a few more things to add to the page.

If I could do something different next time, I would write out the recipe before cutting out the lined paper. It ended up looking nice, but I had to purposely write smaller so I could fit everything on the cards.

In the end, I am very pleased with how the page turned out! I think it was a good choice to make this recipe the first in my book and I really enjoyed baking these cookies!

Next time, I will be making the page for “Boesch Chocolate Cake”, a family recipe passed down from my grandmother!

— Sofia 🎀

Before I could start filling up my new recipe book, I had to make a cover page and gather some materials that I’ll need for this project.

I started by going to Michael’s to get a small multimedia book, pencil crayons, an assortment of pink paper, and some paper doilies. I plan to use the pencil crayons for create drawings of the food I make; The pink paper is to use for the background of the pages; and the paper doilies are to use for decoration on the pages.

I also stopped my the thrift store to look at magazines and picked up an old recipe book with great baking pictures, and a music workbook. I love the look of sheet music, so I am hoping to use some for the background of some of the pages.

My cover page process started with wrapping the page with a blue gingham fabric that I had in my craft basket. I love gingham patterns, so I have been collecting some as I see them in stores. After folding over the edges I covered the back with a piece of light pink paper to create a more finished look.

I then had to decide how to make the title, the verdict was cross-stitch. I have done small and big cross-stitch projects before so I am familiar with the skill and the process of designing a pattern. The tool that I use is FlossCross, an online pattern creator that has all the DMC thread colours for easy physical re-creation. Once I planned out the pattern I got started on stitching it onto a piece of off-white 14-count Aida cloth I had from a previous project. After stitching the pattern I glued it to the blue gingham cover page and added some lace as a finishing touch.

I love cross-stitch because of the finished look and I find it the process of it very peaceful. If you are new to cross-stitch or want to try it out, here is a great tutorial on the two main cross-stitch methods that I found useful when I first started:

This video explains the main cross-stitch methods, but there are lots of other great videos on youtube that explain how to start or finish a row of stitching in more detail.

Overall, I am really happy with the way the cover turned out. When I take on new craft projects I often get disappointed when my end product doesn’t meet my expectations. While I may have big ideas, my actual skills are sometimes not enough to recreate them the way they are in my head. So for this cover page I wanted to make something that showed off my personality and preferences but was still simple.

Now that the cover is done I am ready and excited to get started with my baking and crafting. Stay tuned for my next post on my classic chocolate chip oatmeal cookies!

— Sofia 🎀

Ever since I was little, one of my favourite things was to help my mom bake in the small kitchen of my childhood home. She would set up a little stool for me to stand on and give me instructions on what to mix together, remaining calm when I created a flour explosion or accidentally allowed too many egg shells into our bowl. She baked all of our Christmas cookies, birthday cakes, and muffins for our lunch boxes every week.

The pictures above are of me and my family members with the beautiful birthday cakes that my mom made.

As I entered my double digits, I reached the age when I could cook and bake by myself, so I got started on trying to be a baker just like my mom. Even though my mom still baked for us, I started to make my own baked goods. I fed my family chocolate chip cookies, brownies, blueberry muffins, and more. I even started making my own birthday cakes, still with some much needed assistance from my mom.

Now, I have a little folder full of recipes that I have collected over the years and in little ways I have made them my own. I held onto them with the goal of one day having my own recipe book that I can pass on to my children with the hope of giving them the same happy memories I have when I think of baking with my mom.

And so, I thought of an idea for this blog that would combine my love for baking and my passion for multimedia projects. My goal is to create a recipe book with hand crafted pages for each of my favourite recipes that I can add to and pass down one day to my family. I hope to make each recipe as I create its page and post my culinary and crafting process.

As the title says: let’s get started!

— Sofia 🎀