Smitten for these recipes

If you haven't already figured it out for yourself, the Smitten Kitchen cookbook is really wonderful. Not only are the recipes delicious, but so are the stories, instructions and photos. I have several cookbooks, and I am always drawn to the ones that have a photo for every recipe.  Sadly, the photos in this post are all iphone photos because I am not a food blogger, and it does not occur to me to take good photos of food. But rest assured, the photos in the book are much, much better, and are right on par with the quality of the recipes.

Eggplant & 3-Cheese Calzone

In addition to the few recipes I tried out right after Christmas, I've tested 6 more in the last couple of months, and all of them were awesome.

• Cheddar Swirl Breakfast Buns
• Almond Date Breakfast Bars
• Eggplant and 3-Cheese Calzone
• Spaghetti Squash and Black Bean Tacos
• Sesame-spiced Turkey Meatballs
• Olive Oil Ricotta Cake with Lemon Glaze

 
The only one that I probably wouldn't make again was the Cheddar Swirl Breakfast Buns. While tasty (when isn't bread and melted cheese?), they were extremely time-consuming. Also, the last step was to coat the tops in melted butter and I just couldn't do it (I have an aversion to melted butter). Sadly, it's really necessary to making them look appetizing, so I was a little put off by their pasty appearance. In reality, I'd probably just make myself a grilled cheese sandwich next time.


The Eggplant and 3-Cheese Calzone was one of the best! Since I was sick the night we had this, Mike actually made it while I assisted (read the recipe and handed him the tools). It was really flavorful and tasty and not at all difficult (and was the first time I've ever made anything with eggplant). Since we were running late we ended up using store-bought pizza dough, which was the only down-side.
 

Unknown Orange Squash

We made the Spaghetti Squash and Black Bean Tacos in January at my dad's house because they don't eat a lot of meat. Another quick and easy dish. We didn't actually use spaghetti squash since we didn't have any, but I don't think it really matters (and to make it really simple - we just used canned black beans). We paired it with the Cabbage / Cucumber Slaw from the book, which I've now made 3-4 times.

Squash Tacos, with Feta, Avocado and the Cabbage/Cucumber Slaw

The Almond Date Breakfast Bars were delicious. My sister Sara made them first and gave me a good tip about buying the pre-diced date pieces. It saves a lot of work as cutting sticky dates is not fun. They have also been a great addition to the granola I make. I didn't have any almond butter on hand so I substituted peanut butter. The only thing I noticed is that they were a little crumbly. Next time I'll do the second "chilling" in the fridge that Deb recommends. I ended up throwing these in a cup with some plain yogurt and eating it at my desk for breakfast. It traveled well and paired perfectly with the yogurt.

The Sesame-spiced Turkey Meatballs are probably my favorite recipe in the book so far. At least, I've made them the most. They are so easy, and incredibly light and flavorful. We just pair them with hummus, pita, feta and chopped cucumber. Sara made them with the recommended Smashed Chickpea salad, which she said was delicious. Her only complaint on the salad was that the recipe didn't make enough, so her suggestion is to double it.

Lastly, the Olive Oil Ricotta cake... so lovely. It's a really simple cake, but as Deb says, it's really flexible. The recipe includes instructions for a Grape Coulis, but I don't tend to keep Concord Grapes on hand, so I went with her "cooking note" alternative: the lemon glaze.
This cake will be made again.

Cheers for a Perfect Day

 
Last Friday we had another one of those perfect ski days. We headed back to Timberline on Mount Hood, and were welcomed with blue skies, fresh snow and very, very few people. I love days like this and it makes the $60 lift ticket worth it. It even snowed very lightly in the afternoon, which made Mike happy.

Papa, you would have enjoyed skiing on this type of day!
 

There was one slight mishap when Mike's snowboard bindings released his board just after we got on the lift and I threatened to make him ride the lift back down to retrieve it. Luckily the lift operators sent it up with a skier and he was saved the embarrassment.

It bears pointing out that the ski lift operators seemed to be in an incredible mood on Friday - all smiles, well wishes and helpfulness. Maybe that's normal...

We called it quits around 4 pm so that we could grab a seat at the Rams Head Bar in the 

Timberline Lodge for some mugs of cocoa.

The lodge is awesome; built in the 30's as a WPA project, and declared a historic landmark in the 70's. For anybody interested in this sort of thing, here is the interactive timeline.

The level of craftmanship and attention to detail is incredible.
I love sitting up on this floor and looking down at the fireplace and cozy couches. And the views out the windows are great on a clear day, provided that snow hasn't reached the second floor and blocked them out!








Finally, no trip east of Portland would be complete without grabbing food and drinks at Everybody's Brewing in White Salmon. So that's just what we did. Cheers for a perfect day.

Forest Animals (A non-mobile mobile)

More baby presents! When you're in your thirties it's pretty much non-stop baby season.

Next month my friends Megan & Trevor will become parents for the first time to a baby boy. I first thought that I'd make them a mobile, but I wanted to do a forest theme and I had already created that in a mobile in various ways (Forest Friends, Festive Forest, Mushroom Mobile), so I decided to interpret it as a wall hanging instead. 

This approach allowed me to be creative and not feel like I was making the same thing twice.
Most of the piece is handsewn flat felt, stuffed with wool for a little dimension. The animal tails, bird eggs and owl body are needle-felted directly to the blue felt background. The whole piece is framed in a purchased bamboo frame without the glass.

You can see that I adapted my raccoon pattern to be a bit more two-dimensional.

In general this piece came out how I imagined, though I thought I'd get more animals into the scene. Alas, I ran out of time. So while I think it's generally well-composed, it does feel a bit "empty" to me. On the plus side, it is for a baby, so I think he'll enjoy looking at the shapes and colors regardless.

I gifted this to Megan at her baby shower last week, and the invite requested that in lieu of cards the guests bring children's books. So I paired this with the book Forest Bright, Forest Night.

Little Sister

Earlier this month in the midst of an East Coast blizzard, my friend Kristin gave birth to her second, beautiful daughter. I imagine that they have spent this last month hunkered down at home, staying warm and getting to know each other as a family of four.

I wanted to welcome baby Harper with a tiny Flutter Sweater. This is the same pattern that I used for my niece Freya's sweater, but much tinier. It's made from a finger weight yarn from Turkey (Ice Yarns) gifted from my mother. I'm really pleased with how the variegated yarn resulted in such nice striping. It's very soft and lightweight - hopefully Harper looks good in earth tones!

I added a little pair of crocheted socks to the package as well - just like the ones I made for my niece, Elle, but again with a lighter weight yarn. These still have a little stretch to them, so I hope they'll fit Harper in the next couple of months.

For Annie, Harper's big sister, I included the book BIG SISTER and LITTLE SISTER.

This book was written by Charlotte Zolotow in 1966, and my big sister Susanna received a copy of it in 1979 when I was born, from our cousins, also a big sister and little sister duo!

It tells a story of how difficult life can be for the big sister who has to look out for little sister, and how trying it can be for a little sister always being looked after! 

As both a big sister and a little sister, I can really relate to the story. In the end of the book, the sisters learn how to take care of each other - and realize how much better off they are for it. I consider myself incredibly lucky to have sisters for my best friends, and I hope that Annie & Harper will be similarly blessed.

Sallie Ford, Finally!

Earlier this month Mike and I went to Eugene for the weekend to catch a duck's basketball game. The team has been iffy this season, but they managed to eek out a win at the last minute. We left with about a minute left on the clock and high-tailed it over to the Lane County Fairgrounds to finally catch Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside, playing at the Eugene Microbrew Festival.

  

We've been trying to catch the Portland band for the last year, but they seem to rarely play in Portland. We almost saw them in Seattle last spring, but were overcome with exhaustion at the thought of a start time of 11 pm. Sara and Bobby even saw them in Ohio before us! They must cater to the young, hipster crowd, because there is no way that I'm staying up to catch a concert that starts that late. This time she was scheduled at 8:30 pm - much more my style.

We had to pay to get into the beer festival to see her, which was not a bad deal ($21), but their organization of getting people into the festival was horrid! They've been doing this for 14 years or so, and they had only one computer for credit card purchases and the ATM was broken. We waited in line for 30 minutes, and there were only a dozen people in front of us. I was pretty irritated by the time we got inside (patience is not my virtue), but at least there was beer when we arrived.

We had a little time before Sallie took the stage to sample some excellent beers:
Georgetown's Lucille IPA
Firestone Walker's Union Jack IPA 
Crazy Mountain Amber Ale

My favorite was the Union Jack and Mike preferred the Lucille.












The concert was great, but the best part was watching the UO students get drunk and dance. It was fabulous entertainment, and wonderful reassurance that being in one's thirties isn't so bad after all.

Renfrew #3: Red Cowl

Per my logic on pattern prices, this third Renfrew means that the pattern was free!

After seeing several more Renfrews online, I noticed that some people have been using sweatshirt fleece – and they look comfy!  I went to Rose City Textiles looking for sweatshirt knit but their selection was not great. I perused their sale room and came across this awesome fabric 50% off! It's a performance fleece, and very warm.

It doesn't have as much stretch as jersey so I had to fiddle with the pattern sizing once again. I basically went bigger all around, but tried to keep the shoulders narrower.

Since I liked the look of the wrong side of the fabric (maybe a little more than the right side even), I opted to turn the inside layer of the cowl wrong side out, along with the sleeve bands.

This is the closest I've come to making a winter appropriate top. I only wish that I had added pockets.

Renfrew #1 here

Renfrew #2 here

Share the Love: Canine Companions for Independence

Last week my company held our fourth annual "share the love" party/fundraiser. This year it was to benefit the Canine Companions for Independence. We had a great turnout - which included 7 dogs!

CCI raises and trains dogs to provide a variety of services (pretty much everything except seeing-eye dogs). Check out their website for lots of information and ways to get involved. At the party we had puppy raisers and program graduates (the people who get the dogs after they are trained). One dog helped assist a man in a wheelchair, another assisted a deaf woman, and a third worked with young children in a school. Seeing the dogs and hearing the stories had me considering raising a puppy!

My colleague Mike and I

We had all sorts of decorations to represent both valentines day and the organization. My personal contribution this year was to needle-felt three dogs.

Since CCI uses labradors, it made my life a little easier. The first animal I ever needlefelted was the brown dog above, so at least I already had one done. I did change his eyes to black beads since I think the beads give them a little more "life". The other two dogs came together very quickly since I didn't give them moveable limbs.

My favorite is the yellow lab below - patiently sitting and awaiting instruction.

This dog was the most like the CCI program graduates. All seven dogs just sat so patiently at the party.

I also love the little black puppy, but it's just impossible for me to photograph it well and show off any detail. In real life, it does indeed have detail, and very much looks like an eager puppy.

For scale: about 2" high

Renfrew #2: Turquoise Striped Cowl

I love pattern books and I always think that it's such a good deal to buy a book full of patterns for $20 rather than one pattern for $20. However, I rarely make anything from my sewing books. I use them for reference and inspiration, but I find more and more that I purchase the single patterns for actually making things.

Sadly the single patterns, particularly from the independent designers, are significantly more expensive than the books/magazines. I prefer to wait until lots of sewing bloggers use the pattern so that I can peruse the internet to ensure that I like it enough to make multiple versions from it. After my experience with the Colette Parfait dress (expensive pattern and total fail dress) I realized that it’s not always easier/cheaper to make your own clothes if you’re only going to make one. I decided that if I make at least three items from the pattern then I can forget about the cost of it.

This was my intention when purchasing the Sewaholic Renfrew pattern (@ $22!). Luckily I'm nearly at the point where I can erase the cost from my mind, because here is Renfrew #2.

Learning from a few of my mistakes making Renfrew #1, I cut out a new pattern with size 4 around the shoulders and chest, but keeping the grading to a size 10 around the hips. This time I used a sweater knit from the Mill End store. This was my first experience sewing with sweater knit and this was a weird one. The two colors are knit with very different thread types. The teal is thin and very stretchy, and after one washing looks like it might pill. The white is stiffer, doesn’t stretch much, but looks very crisp. We’ll see if this one makes it through more than one season.

Sticking to my goal of having more winter clothing, I used the long sleeve pattern piece for this one instead of the ¾. I like the fit of the narrow shoulders better and I like the long sleeve length much better. The torso length is still too long, but most likely I'll just live with it.

Renfrew #1 here

Renfrew #1: Plum Cowl

Living in the pacific northwest I tend to populate my closet with “layering” items. My intention is to be able to wear most of my clothing items all year long, just layering on more when needed. In reality, it doesn't really work for me. I'm always so cold that to be warm enough in the winter I'd have to wear 3 or 4 layers. Instead I tend to wear 2 layers, find that I'm still cold, and proceed to wear my down jacket all day while I sit at my desk.

So this winter I’m attempting to make myself some clothing that could be considered “winter” appropriate.

I started by picking up the Sewaholic Renfrew pattern that has been on my wishlist since summer. I love cowl necks and I really wanted to start sewing more knit items. I picked up a plum jersey over the summer at Joann Fabrics before I had any project in mind. It's a great winter/fall color, so I used it for my inaugural attempt at the pattern.

Based on my measurements I cut the pattern for a size 6 top and graded it up to a size 10 around the hips. As you can see, it's much too big. The shoulder seam is a couple inches down my arm, it's baggy in the armpit and it's a several inches too long. The designer must have a long torso because in all of her photos the shirt looks much shorter.

I followed the pattern exactly for view C, which resulted in some cursing at step 6 when I encountered a typo and had to sew the cowl three times (I did it correctly once; reread the directions and thought, "oh crap it’s backward"; resewed it; realized that the direction was a typo and the way I did it first was correct. Finally, I went back and did it a third time to get it back to how I originally had it). Luckily I didn’t have to cut the fabric more than once, but as a result the cowl is slightly shorter than intended.

I clearly need a smaller size at the shoulders and arms and to shorten the overall length. I also need to use the long sleeves, since as I've mentioned before, I really dislike this sleeve length.

I wore this top for the first time layered under a green cardigan, so while it’s a step in the right direction, I suppose I haven’t really achieved my goal.

Especially since I was still cold.

Planning for the Future: Sewing Projects, that is

Well, I am a project manager by trade, so occasionally I try to apply those skills to my personal projects. Most of the time I see a pattern I like, or fabric, and I drop everything to make it. I get a bit obsessed actually. But when I happen to acquire several patterns and yards of fabric at once, I get a tad overwhelmed and I must plan to stay sane.

Thanks to my recent purchases from Joanns, Mill End and Fabric.com, I now have 6 new cuts of knit fabric in my stash.

The Teal Striped fabric is very drapey and heavy, so I'm thinking a wrap dress would work.

The Charcoal Ponte would be perfect for a tunic. It's thick and doesn't wrinkle. I wish I had more of this because it's the perfect fabric for my lifestyle.

The Purple Space-Dyed is very thin and I got it specifically to make leggings.

The Black Ripply was too cool to pass up (plus it was on clearance). It's got medium stretch and I think it would also make a cool pair of leggings. Especially to go with the Charcoal tunic.

The Gray & Pink is a light-weight sweatshirt french terry. The inside is bubblegum pink! This will be used for a gift.

The Brown Sweater knit is thin and drapey. I have a lot of it, so I thought I'd try a couple different cardigan styles. I'm thinking of drafting some patterns off some of my favorite sweaters.

 

In addition to the fabric, I picked up a few new patterns as well. And I've already put a couple to good use:

I've been wanting the Minoru for a long time. It looks perfectly my style. I've been hesitant to start because it doesn't look like a quick project and I know I'll have to create a muslin first - which is not appealing. I keep seeing great fabrics for this jacket at Rose City Textiles, so at some point I'll bite the bullet and start the project.

 For a more instantly-gratifying project, I also picked up the Renfrew pattern. I've already made three! I'll be sharing them soon.

 I got this one at Joanns on sale for $1.99. This will be my first "non-independent" pattern. I got it because I'd like to make Mike something and this is the only handmade thing that I think he'll wear.

I saw a few bloggers recently make this dress so I slapped down the $13 for the digital pattern from Craftsy. I made a version of this last weekend and I've got quite a few comments on it...











I feel better now that I've planned. I'll be curious to see if the projects actualize correctly.