Monday, October 18, 2010

Butter Pecan Tarts, Apple and Pumpkin Pies.

A little pre-Christmas baking going on.
Butter Pecan Tart recipe:
Pastry:
6 cups of white flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp brown sugar  

Mix the dry ingredients together
1 pound lard or vegetable shortening

In a measuring cup beat 1 egg
add 1 tablespoon white vinegar and
enough cold water to make 1 cup of liquid set aside
add one pound of all vegetable shortening or lard to the dry ingredients
cut in with pastry cutter until dry mixture resembles the texture of dry oatmeal
Add the wet ingredients to make dough, work the dough until it is smooth
divide dough into three balls, wrap each separately in plastic wrap and refrigerate

While the pastry is chilling make the tart filling:
2 cups white sugar
2 cups raisins
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup butter
8 tablespoons heavy cream (whipping cream)
2 cups pecans or walnuts

Beat eggs then combine with remaining ingredients except the pecans.  Boil at medium heat for 3 minutes or microwave 1 minute at a time on high stirring between each minute until mixture has boiled. Add pecans.

Fill unbaked tarts shells and bake at 375 degrees F for 15 - 20 minutes. Tiny tarts, bake at 400˚ for 15 minutes.  Tiny tarts are filled using little coffee or baby spoons.  These tarts are easy to remove from tins if left to cool in pans for 15 minutes, then insert sharp knife tip between tart and tin to lift up. Yield: 7 dozen little tarts from this double batch. Note: for butter tarts omit nuts.

Apple Pie
Pastry is identical to tart recipe. 

Filling:
7 large peeled and sliced Macintosh apples
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/3 cup white flour
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves

Combine flour, sugar and spices together, add lemon juice to apples and mix together.  Add dry mixture to apples and mix together.
Fill unbaked pie shell with apple mixture.  brush water on rim of bottom pie shell.  put top shell on and seal together.

Bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes, reduce heat to 350 and bake 20 minutes until pie is nicely browned and apples are cooked.
Pastry is identical to tart pastry. 

Pumpkin pie filling:
6 eggs
6 - 7 cups cooked and mashed pumpkin (or canned pumpkin)
2&1/4 cups of sugar
1&1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp ground cinnamon
1&1/2 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp ground cloves
5 cups of evaporated milk

Beat eggs then combine the remaining ingredients. pour into unbaked pie shell bake 15 minutes at 425 degrees F then reduce heat to 350 bake until knife inserted in centre comes out clean.  Serve with sweetened whipped cream if desired. Yield: 5 pumpkin pies.

Enjoy!

Friday, October 1, 2010

Identifying a Necchi Model Number

I received this email:
"hi  tammy
my name is fabian and i got a problem defining the type of my necchi i bought recently on ebay. it was sold as a necchi lelia 513, but the sign is missing. and all the pictures i can find on the internet showing this type look a bit different, also the machine in your manual does ( thanks a lot for scanning and putting it online :) ). but i found one picture on google showing a machine, looking the same as mine does, except for the color and the desk ( mine is in a box).  could you maybe tell me wether its a type 513 or not? would be a great favour.
i already say thanks a lot and nice greets from germany"

From looking at the photo Fabian included in the email and comparing it to my machine it is a Necchi Lelia 513.  Below are new photos I took today.
 
 
 
 When lifting the front the serial number is revealed.
 
 
 
Hope this helps!  Happy Sewing.

Friday, September 24, 2010

1976 Elna Air Electronic TSP

 
Manufactured in Switzerland.  Isn't it pretty?  I bought it used in Brandon for $55 CAD from a lady who was replaced it with a Husqvarna Designer machine from the 1990s.
 
 
 
The manual is well-written and easy to follow.  This sweet little machine arrived at the craft emporium in perfect running order.  All it required some cleaning.  Elna came with her manuals X 2, bobbins and accessories.
 
After I cleaned her up, I sewed six nylon shopping bags with it while watching movies.  Elna sews lovely precise stitches!  Then I bought a used green steel Elna case from the Brandon Sewing Centre for it.  Elna along with the shopping bags and some knitted dishcloths was gifted to my lovely niece who is moving to Alaska!  A huge thanks to Lindsay who scanned book 1 of her manual for free downloading to anyone who needs it.  If you do download it, will you please leave a comment here so I know this was helpful?

Saturday, September 18, 2010

90 Years Young! Happy Birthday Art!

This is a half slab black forest cake purchased from the Heritage Coop Bakery in Brandon.  Yummy!
This is my father-in-law! :D
His sons
Grand-daughter with her fiancée.
Great grand-daughter and grand-daughter.
Common-in-law boyfriend & grand-daughter.
Grand-daughter &  Daughter-in-law.
Grandpa & Girlfriend
Personal Care Home  Lady & Grandpa
Blowing out the candles!  Then the batteries on my camera went dead... sad..sad.. sad. ~ no more photos for me. :-(

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Necchi Lelia 513 Instruction Manual

Today I scanned and uploaded the instruction manual to google docs.  Please feel free to download and enjoy.  If you do use it, would you please leave a comment here so I know this link was helpful.
 
Have a super duper day!

I received and replied to this email which may be helpful to others.

Hi,
My name is Patricia and I'm in the East Bay of CA. I found you via the
blog Zigzaggers, which came up in my search to find info on fixing my
Lelia's feed dog issue. I am hoping to pick you brain a bit further.
I do belong to the Necchi user group and have posted this question
there, but no joy! Here is what I wrote/how I can best explain it:
I've been a very happy owner of a Lelia 513 for about a year now. I
bought her in superb condition, with alot of great feet and right away
bought Triflow oil and made sure I kept the machine properly oiled.
I love the stitches and the heavy duty aspect of this machine, it has
taken me a year to truly get to know it. I clean, oil and trouble
shoot using the user's manual and the service manual.
However a few months ago I did start to have some problems with my
feed dog. It seemed to drop and I couldn't get it back up. I did tons
of research and found info about cleaning, oiling and 'unfreezing' the
feed dog mechanism.
I did the whole alcohol clean up, put in tons of oil and then use a
hair dryer. But the lever just goes up/down seemingly not attached to
anything.
I have a feeling I'm not aiming the hairdryer in the proper place.
Where exactly do I aim the heat from the hairdryer?  Is there anything
else I can possibly try to get my feed dog to drop up and down?
Tammy, if you have any insight or advice you can give I would be
eternally grateful!
Best, Patricia

 Hi Patricia,
Before  you try anything more..did your feed dogs ever drop? If you have visited my blog you know I collect vintage machines. Right now my Lelia is set up for free motion quilting with the feed dogs down.  Here is how it works on the Necchi 513.  When the plastic lever is pushed down the feed dogs are disengaged.  This is not automatic I have to turn the hand wheel towards me.  The same is true to raise the feed dogs, I flip the plastic lever up and rotate the hand wheel then the feed dogs re-engage.  This is different than my other vintage machines where button or lever raises and lowers the feed dogs automatically. Would you please try this and let me know if your issue is resolved?

Happy Sewing.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Jason & Karyann's Wedding September 4, 2010.

The bride
The groom
Sister and father of the groom
Karyann &  Ray (her dad)
Groom
Karyann's family waiting for formal photo shoot.  This would have a been a great photo had I asked them to pose.
AJ and Shannon our next groom and bride - July 2011!

Doug, me, AJ, Shannon & Evelyn (my mom)
At the reception
The dip kiss.
 
More kissing
Cake topper

A most eventful day!  

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Elna Special Manual


I published the manual for this wonderful sewing machine today at google docs.  Unfortunately, when I scanned and converted the paper manual to electronic format the page order got reversed.  It is descending rather than ascending.  Page 30 is actually page 1....ooops!

If you download this file would you please post a comment to let me know if it works?  Enjoy!