I do, Flickr. I do.

See, and you thought she was sad in that picture.

Just wait until I tell her about this, internet. Just you wait.

Sewing Patterns

I like to sew.

I'm not particularly great at it, but I enjoy doing it and I enjoy the results. Still, I most certainly still need patterns for a lot of things. Not only do they make the act of the sewing a lot quicker, they make the garment turn out better. Sure, sometimes I can still whip something out using a piece of clothing as a guide, but with patterns, it's kind of a no-brainer.

The thing is, patterns for simple things that I could figure out if I try always seem like such a huge expense. Call me cheap, cuz I am, but the notion of spending $10 for a pattern - on top of fabric, notions and the commitment of my time, plus a few needle sticks doesn't always seem like the best idea anyone ever had. When I add it all up, sometimes it just seems easier to wait until that dress is on sale.

I've ordered two patterns from McCalls/Butterick/Vouge before - two dresses. I've only made one so far - it's a little cotton number, loose fitting, easy to belt at the waist and throw on with tights. It's light weight, perfect for spring or fall and still something that I could be comfortable wearing to the office. The other dress is a cute little thing with an adorable bodice but it's cut is slightly more formal, and since I haven't had a great need for it, I haven't made it yet. (I'm trying to tackle the fabric in my drawers before I buy anything new.)

Anyway, today I opened my e-mail to find a 75% off a total order offer from the pattern company and, cheap as I am, I was naturally drawn to the sale. The fact is, I've been shopping for patterns since I bought the first few, I've just held off on buying because the price seems so prohibitive. (It seems that as soon as I open the pattern envelope, I find a garment that fits great at the store on sale for a few dollars that I can tear apart and use as a pattern or I land a free one online.) Today, I went crazy. I picked up nine patterns for &30 w/shipping. I can't say that I've picked a favorite yet. Though, I'm pretty sure B5217 is the most practical addition to my collection. Most of the shirts I tend to buy to wear to the office are a very simmilar shape to those - with embelishments and little adjustments that I can make myself. Sometimes I belt them, sometimes I dont - they're easy and forgiving to wear, and they still look nice enough for me to get away wtih it. (Though, to be honest, people in my office wear clothes that have paint stains on them all the time, so who am I kidding - as long as I throw a cardigan over a t-shirt these people are happy.) M5586 is very simmilar, but I bought it as well because this really is the kind of thing I wear all the time, so I know they'll both get used. I also picked up V1051, a pant pattern. I don't have a pant pattern and my life would certainly benefit from one. I grabbed V8553 which looks super cute for summer and M5703 which is a super cute little jumper that I love in an irrational way and am completely obessed with having even though I will probably look retarded in it. Oh, and of course V1086 which is slightly more grown up than the skull t-shirt I made this weekend and wore underneath my pink argyle polo...

because everyone needs a little dork in their life - and, yes, i so totally wore it with my nerd glasses and a little white cardigan. my grandma would be so proud...

Happy V-Day Everyone!

My photography might leave something to be desired but, aside from the potatoes (which stubbornly refused to be cooked through in time to go on the table with the rest of dinner), this dinner did not.

Rosemary Focaccia, a Caramelized Onion & Gruyere Gallette, Fillet with compound butter, mushrooms, blue cheese and some plain old chocolate cupcakes....we're having a happy V-day around here.

To you and yours :)

Thursdays

I, like Arthur Dent before me, could never really get the hang of Thursday's.

That's why, this morning, when I wandered into our temperature controlled parking garage to discover that our car wouldn't start, I wasn't really all that surprised. Sure, we're not outside in the sub-zero, arctic front that all the local weathermen insist on calling "the Deep Freeze" (the graphics are really fabulously bad) but, on a Thursday morning, I expect nothing less. First, I phone call to my Dad - i.e., the car doctor. (Turn your headlamps and cough, please.) Then, to my sister-in-law - i.e., "Hey....how far are you from work right now and how do you feel about getting a little farther? We'll go back, I swear!" Then, to the office to tell them that my sister-in-law was a little too far from work to get us both there on time so I was going to be late all by myself.

When superman showed up, battery pack in tow I was all ready for him to MacGyver the car back together but it didn't go quite like I planned. Apparently, the starters bad. But that's a problem for after work.





So, thus begins my weekend. In the mean time, Superman gave us his car so we can all get to work and class where needed.

All in all, it's good times.

French Onion Soup - A.K.A. I Have Sulfuric Acid In My Eyes!

A few days ago, my Magic TIVO picked up an epsiode of America's Test Kitchen where they re-revisited French Onion soup and, while I've always loved French Onion Soup, I have a renewed interest in it since M has recently discovered a love of caramelized onions.

So, it seemed only fitting that I fill my recent need for soup with a batch of French Onion soup, and the Test Kitchen never fails me and this time was no exception. Deglazing the pan thrice, caramelizing onions in the oven for hours....it really has all the potential in the world and it meets it.

The problem?

CUTTING FOUR POUNDS OF ONIONS.

Can I just tell you that even though it was a whopping 5 degrees Farenheit outside today (no, that doesn't include the wind chill) we left the door open for nearly an hour to help cut the amazing amount of sulfoxide in the air. In fact, when I posted a note on Facebook, my mother called me to make sure I was OK. It was that bad.

Still, now that I have a bowl in my hand, I'm totally happy.

French Onion Soup
America's Test Kitchen

3 tablespoons unsalted butter , cut into 3 pieces
6 large yellow onions (about 4 pounds), halved and cut pole to pole into 1/4-inch-thick slices (see illustration below)
Table salt
2 cups water , plus extra for deglazing
1/2 cup dry sherry
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth (see note)
2 cups beef broth (see note)
6 sprigs fresh thyme , tied with kitchen twine
1 bay leaf
Ground black pepper

Cheese Croutons
1 small baguette , cut into 1/2-inch slices
8 ounces shredded Gruyère cheese (about 2 1/2 cups)


1. For the soup: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Generously spray inside of heavy-bottomed large (at least 7-quart) Dutch oven with nonstick cooking spray. Place butter in pot and add onions and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, covered, 1 hour (onions will be moist and slightly reduced in volume). Remove pot from oven and stir onions, scraping bottom and sides of pot. Return pot to oven with lid slightly ajar and continue to cook until onions are very soft and golden brown, 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours longer, stirring onions and scraping bottom and sides of pot after 1 hour.

2. Carefully remove pot from oven and place over medium-high heat. Using oven mitts to handle pot, cook onions, stirring frequently and scraping bottom and sides of pot, until liquid evaporates and onions brown, 15 to 20 minutes, reducing heat to medium if onions are browning too quickly. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until pot bottom is coated with dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes, adjusting heat as necessary. (Scrape any fond that collects on spoon back into onions.) Stir in 1/4 cup water, scraping pot bottom to loosen crust, and cook until water evaporates and pot bottom has formed another dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes. Repeat process of deglazing 2 or 3 more times, until onions are very dark brown. Stir in sherry and cook, stirring frequently, until sherry evaporates, about 5 minutes.

3. Stir in broths, 2 cups water, thyme, bay leaf, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, scraping up any final bits of browned crust on bottom and sides of pot. Increase heat to high and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 30 minutes. Remove and discard herbs, then season with salt and pepper.

4. For the croutons: While soup simmers, arrange baguette slices in single layer on baking sheet and bake in 400-degree oven until bread is dry, crisp, and golden at edges, about 10 minutes. Set aside.

5. To serve: Adjust oven rack 6 inches from broiler element and heat broiler. Set individual broiler-safe crocks on baking sheet and fill each with about 1 3/4 cups soup. Top each bowl with 1 or 2 baguette slices (do not overlap slices) and sprinkle evenly with Gruyère. Broil until cheese is melted and bubbly around edges, 3 to 5 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before serving.

Comment

I have, at one point or another, belonged to many a community and at all of those communities, commenting has been kind of a big deal. People encourage it - they long for it. And I get that. Comments are nice. They make you feel warm and fuzzy and like people actually care about your inane blather that you insist on sharing on the interwebs. Sure, comments, depending on their nature, can sometimes have the capacity to make you feel like crap, but most people have the good sense to keep that shit to themselves.

Me, I'm not much of a comment whore. I have blogged for going on a decade now and for the first 2/3rds of that decade, my blogs were geared towards my immediate friends and family - if they had something to say, they called. (And, oh, they did.) In fact, the only time I used to get comments, my stomach would lurch and bile would rise up in my throat because the only people who were driven to leave comments were those that didn't know how to get ahold of me by a more personal means and those people are almost always bad for my psyche. So, long story short - I love comments. They do make me feel warm and fuzzy, but if I never get one, that's OK with me.



All right, that's really not what this was about.

Gotcha.

What I was going to say is that as much as I've never been particularly eager for comments, and as much as I'm always willing to espouse my personal opinion on my own blog - I've never been one to leave comments. There's something about scattering my personal opinions on other people's corners of the world that makes me...uncomfortable. So, for the most part, I just don't. Sometimes I want to say something - and occasionally it's even witty, but I just don't. But lately, I've been...inspired.

I never say anything profound and rarely is it interesting, but I've felt compelled in recent months to post wishing people a good time on their trips or letting them know my personal method for achieving the maximum possible amount of "crap shoved in a flat rate postal box" with the minimum amount of "held together completely by packing tape that will give way at any moment."

All in all, it's not as scary as I thought it would be. :P

Making Macaroons & House Guests Who Set Alarms For 5:30 AM

What are Vegans? They're like Vegetarians...only more strict and humorless.

Well, last night, we had our first house guest since the move. (Is it a bad sign that it took us 6 months to get around to it? Oh well.) To boot, it was only my mother...who lives a whole 20 minutes away, but she had an early flight to catch with her boss and, since we live about four minutes away from said boss, it made sense for her to stay with us rather than to have my father drive her, only to turn around, go home and then come right back to go to work.

In any case, at Pizza Night, she mentioned that one of her co-workers brought in Mac's and she's been gushing ever since. It was at that point that I foolishly revealed that I know how to make Mac's.

Well, all right - so the tops sometimes crack and they're always misshapen - but OMG do I have the flavor down. And that's all that's important.

Right?

Hrm...

Anyway, I dragged out my egg whites and my food scale and painstakingly measured out 200 grams of powdered sugar, 100 grams of almond flour, 65 grams of white sugar and less carefully doled out the cocoa powder. The results - YUMMY. The look - not so much. The leftovers, less than half.

Where am I going with all of this delicious gloating? Two places, really. One, I have come just this much closer to achieving one of my New Years Resolutions. Cuz, hey, at least they were all round and approximately the same shape this time. (Piping, why dost thou mock me?) And two, I know why my career as a person with a dedicated food blog ended before it started. Macaroons are the only thing I can stick to the recipe on. No, seriously. Give me a salad, a dough, a crust, a batch of cookies, a roast and I will improvise - improvise - improvise. More of this. Less of that. Measuring cup say what? The problem, I never write any of this improvisation down. And I never measure it or weigh it. I just cook.

All in all - 5:30 AM Sucks.