Sewing and Cooking (Plus Recipe)

Let me preface this post by saying that I have no sewing machine. This makes my soul hurt and my sewing table looks so wrong. Luckily it isn't gone for good, just getting some routine maintenance done, which could take up to four weeks. Ahhhh!

Right before I dropped off my machine, I whipped up this skirt. I didn't follow a pattern or tutorial, just copied something I like from my closet and went to work!

To tide me over, I have been working on some hand stitching. Here you can see the completion of one embroidery project and the start of another.

Bunny is in perle, everything else is regular DMC floss. The bunny is also on its way to a new home!

Also cooking! There has been plenty of cooking as of late including a wonderful collection of things on the menu for tonight. Cheeseburger macaroni (think Hamburger Helper, but not from a box) which was super tasty, some parmesan baked green beans, and cheesy broccoli "bites." There was absolutely no way to roll the broccoli into bite sized pieces, so I decided to call them something bigger. At first I went with hills, then mounds, and finally it came to me... Broccoli batholiths! All three were so tasty and the flavor combos were perfect together. Broccoli Batholiths & Cheeseburger Macaroni & Parmesan Green Bean Fries

FYI: A batholith is a giant [almost] mountain sized rock. We have one here in Texas, Enchanted Rock, that my family has climbed almost every year since the 30s. Fun fact! You can't say batholith without sounding like someone with a lisp saying "basilisk."

Next we have Guinness Stew with homemade bread bowls. Bread bowls were the first bread I ever made and they are so simple. After years of practice, here is my recipe.

Homemade Bread Bowls

• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1.25 cups warm water (110F degrees)
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
• 1.5 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil or olive oil (plus a teensy bit more for greasing bowl when dough is rising)
• 3.5-4 cups flour
• parchment paper to cover baking sheet
• corn meal, for sprinkling on parchment paper

1. Dissolve and mix yeast and sugar in warm water. Let it sit, untouched, for 10 minutes.
2. Mix in salt, garlic powder, oil, and 2 cups of flour. 
3. Mix in remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time until it is just starting to not stick to everything like crazy. You might not need to add it all. 
4. Knead the dough for about 5-6 minutes.
5. Oil your mixing bowl and put the dough ball back in. Flip it around so it is oily. 
6. Let the dough rise for about 40 minutes in a warm area. 
7. Divide into 4 loaves and place on a parchment paper covered, corn meal sprinkled baking sheet.
8. Let the little loaves rise for 35 minutes.
9. Bake at 400F degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden. 

Cheating on My Sewing Machine

I have been going behind my sewing machine's back and doing other stuff. I did get some sewing done, and some prep for sewing, but you will see where my time has been allocated this past week. Let's start with actual sewing though, shall we?

First off we have some progress on my goal for April LYoF, the completely EPP table dresser runner. I stitched in the ditch to hold everything in place because I still didn't know if I wanted to machine or hand quilt it. Isn't the mark of good stitch-in-the-ditch stitching that you can't see it? If so, I win!


Then I decided to start with a little FMQ inside the stars. Now that I see how this looks, I am definitely going to add some hand quilting as well. Though where? Hmm...


I also solved a huge problem that has been plaguing me for over a decade and a half: COLLARS! I love witty t-shirts but hate collars. They are too tight and chokey, they do not accommodate necklaces, and they just aren't flattering. Over the years I have started purging some of my favorite shirts all because of the collars. That will never happen again! I found this outstanding tutorial and managed to make a fully functional, scoop-neck collar for a shirt I love but was going to get rid of. Yes! I even machine washed and dried it to make sure it held up... And it did! Double YES! Now I get to save all my shirts!


Speaking of things that were machine washed and dried, here's some pre-washed fabric. I never pre-wash fabric, but I'm making a set of fancy schmancy napkins for the house and don't want any warping after the fact so I figured pre-washing might eliminate any uneven shrinking. After my lunchbox napkins had uneven shrinking between the front and back fabrics, I knew something had to be done. Fingers crossed!


Now we get into the major cheating on my sewing machine. I made a necklace! Over the weekend, my boyfriend's parents came into town to see the chickens (and us, I suppose?), and we are all rock-hounds so we went rock shop-hopping. I didn't find any rocks I couldn't live without, but I did find these fresh-water pearls that I loved. Then at the second store, I found the awesome leaf toggle, and a plan was born! I have never made a necklace before, so hopefully it holds up.


It is choker length. Two pictures of me in one blog post; Wowww!


Then we have a shot of the now 8-week old chickies. Seven of them are going to their forever homes this week. That will leave eight: three for us, five to be sold.


Mmm, then we have the cooking. This was balsamic flank steak (recipe here), roasted veggies (combined my recipe with this one) with bleu cheese biscuits (no recipe link because they were boring and awful).


Then some orange beef (recipe here) with my favorite ever coconut rice (recipe here). We made some changes to the orange beef: No jalapeno, no deep frying, used sesame oil for pan frying, used half the corn starch to toss the beef in, then used some later to thicken sauce, after beef was seared we put carrots cooked for a bit, then broccoli, then garlic/ginger/orange/green onion THEN we added sauce  and put the beef back in.


Lastly here is my go-to quiche recipe, caramelized garlic, but this time made with a spaghetti squash crust to make it a tad bit healthier. To make this, I roasted a spaghetti squash as I normally would (Martha Stewart can explain that part better), then mixed the stringy goodness with one egg. I pressed that into a pie pan and baked at 375 for about 15 minutes or until it didn't look so moist. Then I just used it like a regular quiche crust! Taaaadaaaa!

A Skirt!

With the semester quickly drawing to a close, I have been ridiculously busy. It is terrifying how soon it will be over. After today I only have to teach 4 days until Thanksgiving break. After Thanksgiving, there are only 4 days of teaching all 10 classes, followed by 2 days with only 6 classes, and then proctoring 3 exams the next week. Wow! I have so much grading in my future.

I basted about 30 more 3" half hexies, but forgot to take a picture of them, so you just have to trust me about them!

I also did some recipe testing. My contributions for Thanksgiving dinner will be: Sundried tomato pesto risotto, truffle mac & cheese, cranberry sauce, and a new recipe for me: Cranberry upside down cake. I sampled one at Trader Joe's and decided I had to buy it! That led to me having to make it! I made a trial batch, and the cake was just too dense, so I decided to my standard cupcake recipe with a few modifications. Mmm, they look pretty and taste better than plain old vanilla cupcakes. I will be posting a recipe for these soon.


I also worked on a quiche recipe. This is a hash brown crust quiche filled with goat cheese brie, asparagus, spinach, and broccoli!


Oh my gosh, I can't decide if it looks better all together or cut into slices!


Somehow I managed to also knock out a skirt. Okay, it is an easy pattern, so it makes sense. I followed this little kid skirt pattern, but just made it to my size.

Here is a close-up shot of the fabric and lace trim at the bottom. I used a pinstriped linen fabric, so I had to add in French seams to avoid ridiculous amounts of fray. Sadly the trim was more expensive than the linen.


And here is an action shot of me in the skirt playing tag with my chickens (I am chasing Hyacinth and Rose, while Violet is chasing me!). This might end up being what I wear for Thanksgiving. :)