03.07.16
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Spring itch

I’m really ready for spring. It’s been an odd winter, mild to start then strange fits of deep winter weather. The up and down is weird.

It isn’t quite yet spring though, so I made do:  I made soil blocks (remember the blocking mix post?), and planted seeds!

The blocking process was pretty simple – grab my mix, add some water and stir well. See if it clumps together when squeezed (hmm, that’s almost exactly like pie crust). If yes, make a pile deeper than the blocker, and push it in. I pushed several times just to be sure it was packed in well; then I ejected the blocks into a planting tray. 

ejecting blocks

When I filled the tray, I then put two seeds in per dimple – the blocker intentionally leaves dimples for you – so I could improve my odds of success. 

two seeds per dimple

 

So now I have lots of blocks for Pirat Butterhead lettuce (don’t even ask how that tastes because I can’t tell you, but I had to try it because of the unusual name!), and four each of the Cherokee Purple and Abe Lincoln tomatoes (I’ve never tried these either). 

pic with the seed packets, mostly so I remember which tomatoes are which

Now the tray is under a grow light. Wish me luck! 🙂 

03.03.16
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For Casey, by request

The CS team at work has our weekly meeting on Thursday mornings, and one tradition that came with our boss when joined the company, is that it’s a breakfast meeting; each week we take turns providing edibles.

This week it’s my turn for breakfast. During the week my colleague spent a bit of time Pinteresting and made a suggestion for a dish she wanted to try but felt that she’d like me to try making first: baked eggs in avocado halves.

Hey, avocados, I’m down with that pretty much any day & any time of day. I read through a bunch of recipes and found the consensus is that 425° is better than 350° for the baking part. Beyond that, the field was wide open.

Knowing my colleagues’ meat-loving ways, I hit my local Weggie’s for inspiration. 

I decided to do two different varieties, while also being sure to leave one meatless for myself. Since I needed so little meat (it really doesn’t take much to top an avocado half!), I stopped by the deli counter and got three slices of fancy chorizo, and two slices of organic hickory smoked bacon. 

The meats were fully cooked, which made the task of tiny-chopping marginally less icky. (Don’t ask how many times I washed my hands; it’s probably more than you’d guess.) My husband had to work late tonight so I had no one to beg to please chop this for me, LOL. It was still a pretty icky job but with such a small amount it went pretty quick. My pup Maxtla sure enjoyed cleaning up the dropped bits though (no avocado was dropped – don’t let that near your dog!).

So I have a veg one (just sweet peppers and cotija) for me, some that have peppers, cheddar, & hickory bacon, and the rest which have peppers, cotija, & chorizo.

They are prepped and ready for morning, and ridiculously simple:

Pick your toppings and mince,  small dice, or grate them as appropriate. Halve some avocados. Remove the pit. Take out a little avo so you have some room for the egg. Buy the smallest eggs you can, or cheat like me if you want, and beat the eggs. 

Choose a baking dish where you can fit the avocado halves snugly, so that when you pour in the eggs (whole or beaten) they won’t all run out. Put your avos in, balancing them snugly and levelly, add some of your toppings if you like, then fill the cavities with egg. Add more toppings if you want. Bake at 425° for 20-30 minutes. 

THAT’S IT.

snug halved avocados

toppings started – this is minced sweet pepper

   

cheddar to go with hickory bacon, cotija to go with chorizo

  

tiny cubes of the meats added, with one meat-free


U

I’ve par-baked them tonight, added more cheese, and popped them in the fridge. In the morning, I’ll bake for just a few minutes, pack them up and go to work.When they’re served, I have minced herbs – cilantro and chives – and a bit of sour cream (ok, I cheat there too and use fat-free Greek yogurt) to add.
I’ll update this post after we decide on a verdict!

PS The floating “U” up there – I’ve tried selecting and deleting multiple times but this WordPress phone app isn’t letting me correct. The best I got was to change it to U from an I; when I successfully select it then tap the backspace, it just jumps and adds another blank line. It kills me to leave it, so ugly there, but it is what it is.

 

02.28.16
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Back to work…

Ok, so here’s the riser I created! All set up at work – I sit at an open table. There are supposed to be tiny dividers but they were back ordered and haven’t come. I do, however, have a great doohickey that lets me switch between sitting and standing whenever I’d like, which is really awesome. 

The existing riser, store bought and standard, leaves my phone pretty low when I’m standing, plus, it was a tiny bit narrow for the laptop. Not problematic, just a tiny little annoyance each day that I don’t need. 

Aside from that, now everything is white Ikea, black chairs, and semi-corporate-ness. How to make the space I spend so much time in feel more comfortable? It’s a shared table, so there’s not a lot of room for knick knacks, never mind that I’m not much of a knick knack person. I do love birds though, and had this turquoise fabric with bird silhouettes in it… So I learned to ModPodge:

 

riser with space for my dishes – I do my best to avoid/limit using disposables

 
We have a nice little kitchenette for preparing lunches, with a microwave and toaster oven in addition to the standard office fridge and coffee maker, but I prefer to keep my own little set of dishware, plus the community knife that’s constantly going through the dishwasher is hardly sharp, so more dangerous to use than keeping & using my own – which I wash myself & has a plastic cover. 

I have a Command hook on the side for my headset, space for my plate & coffee cup, and in the bin at left, my silverware, sharp knife, and cloth napkins. I try to minimize using disposables when there’s a simple non-disposable solution, and it’s hardly any effort to wash a set of silverware and a plate & cup after I eat.  

There’s also room in there for salt & pepper shakers, although, while one is pepper, the other is Penzey’s adobo, not salt. If you haven’t tried Penzey’s adobo – do; it’s really tasty! Unlike many store brands, it doesn’t have salt, but if you want saltiness too it’s easy to add the amount you like.

02.23.16
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February work birthdays – my turn for dessert

With staffing changes in the department I work, only Jonathan has a birthday in February, so this was really for him. I know he likes peanut butter, and when my sister sent this recipe from Epicurious, I knew I had to try it.

  
It was fussier than most pies I’ve made (I mean, peanut butter custard?! Cooked on the stovetop and poured in to chill & set up), but in spite of that ended up being really good. I would not recommend cooking it on a weeknight, but it’s a good made-in-advance pie… on the day of its be super easy to just do the toppings fresh. 

I don’t know how the honeycomb candy would do frozen; it got weepy after a day in the fridge. It’s super easy to make though. I used this amazing honey from Sweet Betsy Farm and it smelled so wonderful while being made, that I might have to make the candy itself on occasion just to take advantage of the yummy honey!

All I have for the recipe is a screenshot, but here ya go.  

In terms of changes, I used twice as much chocolate as specified, and added a splash of cream – the butter-only was seizing up on me in the microwave at work. I also was careful to temper the eggs, a point not mentioned in the instructions, and I passed the custard through a seive before returning it to the mixing bowl. The seiving might not have been totally needed, but I ended up with a perfectly smooth texture so I decided it was worth the time.

 Just for fun, video of the honeycomb candy fizzing in the pot:  

 

02.14.16
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I spend a third of my life at work…

So why wouldn’t I want to look at something beautiful during that time? 

I’ve been working on this project off and on for a couple of weeks. Let’s just say, I’ve never used Mod Podge and it’s been interesting – and sticky! 🙂

It’s going to be a new telephone riser. My office gave me one of those black metal ones to use, but it was just slightly narrower than my laptop, which went under, that it was a small annoyance each day. (Was able to give it to someone else who wanted one, so no waste.) I also have a desk doohickey that allows me to sit or stand, so I wanted one that was a bit taller than the normal 4″ or so.

Here’s the item I started with, a very cookie-cutter white box: 

cookie-cutter white organization cube


Here it is assembled the way I’ve decided to configure it: 

modified!

I’ve trimmed the backboard so the bottom section is open (computer dock and cords will be going in there), and won’t be using the bottom shelf and one vertical divider.  To keep the backboard up, instead of following the force of gravity, I filled in the grooves below it.

I’ve also filled in some of the other grooves; those won’t be used and since the inside of the grooves is dark brown MDF color, they were a visual distraction. Here I used caulk, but it shrank and cracked in a very ugly way, so I later filled right over with drywall compound. 

I’m pretty much at figuring out where I can use an aerosol spray sealer in my house (um, it’s 19° and -1° windchill right now – not going outside).

More later!

01.22.16
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Fitting V9040

This is cut to the length for View C, which, while normally not quite long enough for a robe for me (I like them to the ankle), will do for this one. I was planning to add a tier, but the swishiness equals weightiness, so I’ll be leaving it. I used 3/8″ seams on the back pieces, and 1/2″ on the sides, as well as leaving out the front waist darts, but it’s otherwise a straight 14. 

 

Front, with those lovely pockets!

  

Swishy skirts mean plenty of room for the junk 😉

 
The shoulders will need to come in a bit for the coat, and a bit of extra ease added at the bust and waist for it to go easily over layers, but I think fitting this is coming along.

01.18.16
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More coat/robe progress

Vogue 9040 has such a cool way to do the pockets! They end up in a horizontal seam at the waist. The tricky part is being very precise with where you end your stitching lines. 

 

Left hip pocket

  

Left fronts sewn together, with the pocket formed

  

My “secret” birdies inside the pockets!

 

01.08.16
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Winter coat, part uno

I hope you all had a great new year! In the 2016, I’ve decided I shouldn’t wait until projects are finished to blog about them. 🙂

Although I’ve had the materials for a good while, I haven’t had a lot of sewing time lately, and plus it hasn’t been that cold until very recently. 
With the new cold snap, and more potential for actual winter weather coming, plus feeling very inspired by Debbie’s (of Lily Sage and Co) stunning winter coat, I’ve started a  winter coat. I’ve been cutting pattern pieces this afternoon, and will be making a lengthened version of the coat out of fleece initially. It’s not quite the same hand as the lovely wool blend I’ll make the actual coat out of, but I think it’ll give me enough sense of the fitting changes I’ll need, plus, since it’ll be extra long – I’ll get a bathrobe out of it!

 

the bathrobe fleece

 
Obviously, I won’t go through the trouble of facings, linings, and trim, on the robe, so hopefully it’ll be a fairly quick make, but it will give me a good start. I’ll be using Vogue 9040, View C, for the coat (lengthened to the ankle for the fleece muslin). There’ll be some special touches to come for the coat as well, but I’ll share those later.

10.14.15
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Readying for cold weather

Hmm I really do need to get back to sewing too, but some things are just easier and more enjoyable to do when the weather is still reasonable! (Although I do still have a cut-out-ready-to-try pair of pants on the sewing table waiting for me.)

This year the hubs & I are going to try our hand at having some produce in the garden overwinter. After a bit of research, we hit the local Home Depot for a pile o’PVC. 

1/2 -inch PVC

We also got 1/2″ rebar in two-foot lengths. Luckily, most of them were not bent much, and didn’t have a lot rough edges sticking out – there was just enough room inside the PVC for the rebar! – although we did end up having to use a ten-pound sledge on one to smooth it out a bit.

We hammered the rebar into the ground, then used those stakes to prop the PVC.

the hunk of wood didn’t take well to the hammer

 

Sliding a PVC pipe over one rebar, bending it over to other side and sliding it onto the opposite rebar gave us hoops. Adding a cross piece gives structural stability as well, and that was attached with zip ties. It’s too warm yet to put any plastic or garden cloth over the hoops (that is not a complaint, Mother Nature!!), but they are ready when it’s time. 

hoops, hoops, and more hoops

 

The further garden (Blair Block) has kohlrabi and garlic, the closer one (Squish Square) is full of young beets. It sounds like you can’t really start plants in the cold – at least outside – but you supposedly can at least keep the existing ones happy enough. It’s a first try for us, so we’ll see how it goes.

PS You can kind of see Martina at the far right – full of kale seedlings. We’ll be trying floating row covers on that bed, and assuming that the groundhogs won’t be around to get the hog’s share like they did this summer!