Geeking out foodie style

What with waiting for baby (13 days left, theoretically) and our house (right now our closing date is set for my due date–tee hee), I can’t say I have a lot of extra motivation to start any projects.  Mostly, I’m just trying to keep busy with housework, cooking, and chasing after Noah.  It occurred to me that I should read more though as I’ve mostly been driving myself crazy looking for furniture on Craigslist.

I’ve been plowing through more than my usual quota of cookbooks, but this one I’ve been savoring:

 

I dearly dearly love good examples of food writing.  Don’t just give me a pile of recipes named after your Grandma without some introduction to the beloved woman!  Food is an expression of our lives, and I want to read about other people’s lives in food.  Molly O’Neill took on the task of collecting recipes from home cooks around the country for the past decade!  She does more than simply catalog recipes–she tells us who these people are.  This book is huge (nearly 1000 pages), and I’m grateful that she had an editor who allowed it to be so.  It’s good food too, just the usual home cook cookbooks full of mother-in-law recipes that are missing that one special thing, the absence of which will render the dish so-so or perhaps inedible.  That I get to read about so many people like me who derive so much joy out of cooking for others is bonus!  Am I taking this heavier-than-a-cast-iron-skillet book with me to the hospital?  You bet your biscuits!

My husband, continued this theme by coming up with the neatest birthday present ever.  Several years ago, I viciously, recklessly and savagely went through all of my issues of Gourmet up to 2004 and cut out the recipes that I thought looked the most promising and tossed the rest.  Nathan, knowing that I needed some quality reading material as well as some fresh inspiration took it upon himself to right the wrong I inflicted upon myself in the form of 60 pounds worth of back issues of Gourmet ranging from 1980 to 1996. 

I’m ITCHING to get cooking in our new house, and I dare say I will be more than occupied with new things.  If a girl has to turn 30 within days of giving birth, I dare say that a little dose of such husbandly romanticism will take away the sting every time.

Kurt Wallander would not approve

If you’re looking for a good mystery to read, I totally recommend all the Wallander mysteries by Henning Mankell.  His stories are so well thought out, and he does a great job with character.  I love the portrait that he paints of Wallander–the police inspector who is absolutely brilliant at his job but completely inept in every other part of his life.  I also love that Wallander is an opera nut–a characteristic that I highly suspect is the source of his genius.   What does this have to do with sewing?  I’ll tell you. 

One of Wallander’s many oddities is that he has a collection of sweaters that he wears only in certain temperature ranges.  He has one sweater that he wears from 0-10 C etc.  Inept though he may be in life, he very practically likes being warm without sweating and having to change later in the day.  So naturally, he would wisely put my new jacket safely back in the closet since it’s appropriate for 40-60F and not the 12F it is currently.  No matter.  I LOVE it and nobody can stop me from waltzing around the house in it.

Burda 02-2008-117 Trench Coat

What I learned:

Coats need FBA’s too: well, at least this one did.  With as fitted as it is through the top there wasn’t enough ease to get away with not doing an FBA.  Thankfully I’ve gotten quite quick with this particular alteration.

You can’t always make an apple into an orange:  So I tried lining this, but there wasn’t enough ease to make that work without the jacket being all weird and bulky and tight.  Also my method of using my smocked muslin to produce pattern pieces for the lining that were nice and smooth also didn’t work out.  Poo.  I’ll learn to line a jacket another day.

Lapels are a bit of sewing magic: It took me some time to figure out how the lapel thing was supposed to work, but eventually from the drawings in the pattern and the modeled picture and the pattern lines, I figured it out and it’s kind of wacky to me that the things just kind of magically fold over (okay, I put a 1/2″ strip of interfacing along the lapel fold line per Sandra Betzina) on their own.

Collars are a little fussy:  The collar on this is a LOT better than the last collar I put in, but the undercollar is a bit wrinkly and so forth, probably because it needed a little tailoring.  It’s okay–it’s still functional and the next one will be better.

Why haven’t I learned how to put my walking foot on before?:  There’s a lot of topstitching (that’s really quilting) on the hem facing and the sleeve cuffs (10 rows if I remember on each cuff and 20 on the hem).  I didn’t use the walking foot on the cuffs but I did on the hem and there’s a big difference even though the cuffs look really nice.  I can’t imagine trying to do the hem facing without the walking foot–the coat was pretty bulky at that point to be monkeying it through the feed dogs, so the walking foot made nice even rows with a good stitch.

Thread is different:  I used polyester to construct the jacket for it’s strength and Mettler cotton silk finish thread for the topstitching because it’s beautiful and silk thread to hand sew the snaps.  The silk thread was the biggest aha for me.  It’s SO nice for hand stitching because it glides through the fabric with less tangling, has a great finish which looks really nice, and it just plain feels good while you’re stitching.  

Jackets are less daunting than I thought:  The construction of this jacket is really very simple.  The details take a long time.  I realize that I have a lot to learn in the way of tailored garments and so forth, but this is a good start and it makes me believe that I can try something harder the next time.

As for what I like about this jacket–I love the feminine detail of the smocking at the waist.  The jumbo snaps are so fun to snap and I love how they look and they were worth every last hand stitch.  And I love this fabric.  It’s a really silky lightweight cotton twill from fabric.com.  It has awesome drape and it feels marvelous to wear. 

Why do people have the need to feel superior?

I love Threads.  It’s a great magazine.  I’ve been reading back issues at the library for months now and I’m so excited to pick up the little bits of wisdom that are all over it, but I’m a bit irritated with one thing.

In the letters section at least once (but often multiple times) per issue there’s someone who lambasts Threads for featuring “beginner” techniques and how Threads needs to be a couture magazine only.  It’s like the uproar that happened over the January 2004 of Gourmet (the cupcake tower sparked controversy because it was deemed by many as unworthy of Gourmet and somehow low brow).

 The only difference here is that it happens it seems in every issue of Threads that someone gets upset and says that they were just about to cancel their subscription and then they got the next issue.  Maybe it strokes the editors’ egos to hear people say how much they like issue X, but I resent the cattiness displayed by these comments.  Not all of us grew up at our Grandmother’s knees sewing.  Both my Grandmas sewed, but I never knew until one had died that she did sew, and the other died when I was 10 before she could show me much of anything.  My Mom very proudly duct tapes hems.  Everything I’ve learned about sewing has been from what I’ve read/heard/discovered.  While it may be that a lot of Threads’ readers have moved beyond “beginner” land, there’s no shame in that.

I will say as a musician that I’ve learned more from teaching first graders sol-mi- and la songs than I did playing Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique.  You can learn things from people at every level, even if it’s just–hey, don’t do that (valuable lesson indeed).  There.  I said it.  I’m not into snobby.

You need to read this book

In my quest to make this dress, I decided I really needed to understand the quirks about my own figure.  I’m hooked on sewing clothes for myself now, so I owe it to myself to be educated about fit.

Enter Fit for Real People.  I read some reviews on Amazon about it and it sounded like a good reference book, so I bought it.  I had no idea just how comprehensive or useful it really is. I feel like I blindly found the equivalent of Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  I think after I read this I’ll really have a good working understanding of how to fit patterns to me.  I really love the “you can do it” tone that it has and that their method does NOT require you to make 800 muslins for each dress you make.  Honestly, I’ve never been able to justify the waste of that much fabric.  I’m sure this method is not full-proof, like anything, but it sounds like it fits my personality/the way I problem solve much better than traditional approaches to fit issues. 

Apparently there’s a DVD that they made too–my library has it, so I put it on reserve for myself for kicks and giggles.

Procrastination

It’s not like me to put things off, but when I do, I usually do it in a big way. Currently I’m putting off packing the bag for the hospital even though I’ve had a few nights in a row of contractions (they stop before anything exciting happens). I’ve probably been thinking about it for a month. Why haven’t I done it? Who knows?

Today, my procrastination took me to the bookstore first thing in the morning where I read the newest book by my favorite food writer from cover to cover (not really about food and not her best work…Garlic and Sapphires is definitely my favorite).  While I was there I discovered just how many titles look interesting in the area of food writing.  After I finished reading I grabbed lunch and went on a hunt for a new pepper grinder because mine bit the dust–or rather it was turning my pepper into dust until it stopped working entirely.  I found a great mill, but I will try to find it less expensively online.  As I was walking, I stopped at this wonderful paper store where I found this fun paper:

I haven’t decided if I want to cut this up and frame the individual fruits (that would be a lot at 16!) or to just frame it as a poster.  At home now, I’ve probably played more Rocket Mania than is proper and I’m reading Beyond the Great Wall, which is by two of my most favorite cookbook authors of all time.  Nathan got it for me for my birthday, but I haven’t officially sat down to plow my way through it with a pot or two of tea and a mind for travel.

All of this so I avoid packing my bag…perhaps I’m avoiding it because that will be the moment when I must accept that this whole labor thing is going to happen.  I feel remarkably at peace about it, but I think there’s part of me that’s hanging on to the state of denial.  I printed out the spreadsheet I made that lists everything I need.  I’m going to do it today.  Really.  I think I’ll vacuum first.

Reading Cave

Valentine’s Day at our house was a quiet occasion…on purpose.  We decided that we didn’t want to battle all of the people out at some restaurant where the staff is probably paid extra to be nice to you and the kitchen staff is rather annoyed that you’re making them work extra hard.

So Nathan got me some beautiful yellow roses (because I think red are boring) and we built a reading cave in our living room. 

As a kid, I loved making little tents in my room with lights and pillows and blankets.  I disappeared in there with a fat stack of books and rarely emerged for the entire day that the structure was up.  We often bemoan the pitiful state of education, and though we haven’t and probably won’t make a final decision for a while as to how to deal with it in relationship to our own kids, one thing Nathan and I both agree needs to happen is that we need to teach our kids to LOVE to read as reading really is the gateway to further education in any subject.  What better way to do so then to build a little blanket fort?  It certainly was a nice way to spend the day with the man I love all stuck in this nice warm cozy den with The Silver Chair, and a couple of books on children I checked out from the library.

I emerged to make us a rack of lamb with some sauteed asparagus and stuffing. 

We decided lamb needs to be a more regular part of our lives. 

We also made smores over our electric stove. 

It was a good day.

Way too much cuteness

Sorry for my recent absence.  The past two weeks have been work work work…but not the kind I’m excited about. 

Another member of Sew Mama Sew’s forum suggested recently this book.  After perusing the images of it at this shop (the previous link said that the item is sold out, but I emailed her and said I was interested and she very quickly listed another copy), I decided the clothes looked far too adorable to pass up.  Japanese craft books are pricey, but this is the first book that really looked like I could make everything in it, so I neatly justified the cost, especially since it has 26 patterns!  I’m excited to get going on these projects:

Can you handle all the cuteness of the little purse?  Nathan thinks I’m crazy.

I guess these are all more girly clothes.  There are boys’ clothes in there too (like the little linen suit), I just really loved these.

Fried Chicken–or still reading

“As everyone knows, there is only one way to fry a chicken correctly.  Unfortunately, most people think their method is best, but most people are wrong.  Mine is the only right way, and on this subject I feel almost evangelical.”  From Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin

So funny.  Any recipe that starts out like that is one that I will read thoroughly.  I wish for Laurie Colwin’s sake that I liked fried chicken because her method is simple and I would say worth a go.  I’m seriously enjoying this book at any rate.  In another chapter, she talks about the perils of feeding fussy eaters.  She suggests having people fill out questionnaires before coming to dinner about any food phobias they might have.  I’m glad to know I’m not the only hostess who has encountered such oddities.  Her humor put a band aid on some painful memories that I’ve had.  Anyhow, go read this book!    

Only one more day of daily posts.  I think I’ll try to keep up more regularly than I had with posting than I did before May.  I’ve rather gotten used to posting every day. 

Reading

Such a lovely food writing book/cookbook.  It’s not as wonderful as Ruth Reichl’s Tender At the Bone so far, but it is very charming.  I’m looking foward to finishing it after school is done tomorrow.

Prince Caspian

I’m trying to reread through all of the Narnia books before Prince Caspian comes out on the 16th.  I sat down and read all of Prince Caspian before church and after church on Sunday.  I really loved this little bit that I missed the first reading:

“Welcome, child,” he said.

“Aslan,” said Lucy, “you’re bigger.”

“That is because you are older, little one,” answered he.

“Not because you are?”

“I am not.  But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.”

For a time she was so happy that she did not want to speak. 

 

How true it is.  I love C.S. Lewis’ view of the Lord in Narnia.  It’s so comforting.

I’m going to go play my accordion now.  Hmmm…maybe I’ll bring it to school to practice after my classes tomorrow…