FOOD (a recurring theme in my brain)

Here are a few tasty things I've eaten & discovered in the past few weeks:

Popcorn done the proper way - It's trial by oil. Veg tastes bad, butter burns, margerine burns (oh my poor, poor saucepan). Next try: olive? Any tips? 69p for a big packet of kernels from Sainsbury's, hurrah! Popcorn is amazing for revision-time snacks, its volume is quite out of proportion with its calorie content.

Baked garlic - 1 hour on 190 degrees C with a bit of olive oil & seasoning. I did mine in a very cute teeny tiny casserole from Wilkinson's, but wrapping them in foil also works to keep the moisture in.

Smoothies - Frozen raspberries, orange juice & yoghurt. Schizzed*. Infinite variations possible.

Rosemary & sea salt crackers - From Pastry Affair. These work awesomely, even if you're using 1/3 real butter, 1/3 Flora and 1/3 Utterly Butterly. A great chef I am not.
Personally I'd increase the quantity of rosemary, but then I like rosemary enough to pick it from bushes which are in other peoples' gardens but overhang the pavement. Gallette & mini-tart-things - From Spoon Fork Bacon, adapted twice with good results. Pretty much any combination of softened onions/leeks/spring onions, bacon and cheese is a winner. The small ones I made (1/4 of a half quantity I think) were good for lunches.

Anna's Quinoa Salad - Quinoa, feta, cherry tomatoes, pepper, cucumber. She used Merchant Gourmet's ready-seasoned quinoa and fancy pointy red peppers, I boiled my own quinoa and used yellow pepper and Basics "Greek Salad Cheese". It's still great. I added a little bit of (reduced) parma ham and had a box of it for lunch today.


I also seem to have been on something of an Italian kick lately:


Bruschetta - Toast, olive oil, garlic (preferably pre-roasted, I tried it raw and felt quite bad for the evening...), 1 tomato, basil, pepper, salt, lemon juice. Mix & dump on top of toast. Simple, quick & tasty.

Homemade Tomato Sauce - Onion, garlic, tin of Taste The Difference cherry tomatoes, 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar, 1 tsp brown sugar, olive oil, salt, pepper, fresh basil leaves. Soften onions & garlic then simmer everything for ages & give it a schizz*.
The first time I cooked some smoked bacon & mixed it all up with pasta & asparagus, it was almost the wonderful Roman spaghetti alla amatriciana I had last January. Boy approved.

Nutella ice cream - 4 parts vanilla ice cream + 1 part nutella, mix & re-freeze. Tastes like Italian holidays. Mixing is prbably easier with soft scoop ice cream. I remember my sister doing a similar thing with smashed Maryland cookies when we were younger. The combination was a bit too good to be allowed.

Risotto á la boy - May include some or all of onion/spring onion, leek, garlic, celery, pancetta, rice, chicken stock, pepper, white wine, courgette, asparagus, parmesan, cheddar... He makes it well. The first time he ever cooked for me he said he "could probably cobble something together" and then made me risotto and duck (possibly wrapped in pancetta, I can't remember). He's good.

Lemon & rocket risotto - From the back of the Sainsbury's risotto rice box. I used frozen rocket I happened to have and it worked very nicely. I also used grana padano as it's far cheaper than parmesan and chicken stock for richness. Lemon risotto is incredibly fragrant, I think I'll try Joy The Baker's oven version next.

Outside of the house I have had:
Falafel from Schnafel - A huge pitta with 6 organic spiced falafel, plus tahini, tabouleh & salad. I could have had even more salad but opted not to. Not bad for £3.95

Best Yo Sushi day in a while - Tuna nigri, veg gyoza, chicken katsu, chicken gyoza. Missing the point of the sushi somewhat but I can't stand seaweed! 25% student discount is great.


*To schizz, verb. To blend with a whizzy stick (or hand blender if you must be boring about it) "sch" is pronounced like the end of the contraction of casual, pretty sure we don't have a character for that.

A Capsule Larder?

Food is something I generally take a lot of pleasure in, and during revision time deciding what to eat and making it is a great form of procrastination  relaxation. My brain seems to go into overdrive thinking of things I MUST EAT NOW, not helped by the likes of Smitten Kitchen and Pinterest. Yesterday it was bruschetta, today it's been gyoza and cake, some are easier to satisfy than others. I managed to assemble a pretty good bruschetta from what I had in the fridge/cupboard but I have to admit that I do not have the time or kitchen for attempting gyoza.
I'm also faced with the challenge of using up everything I have in the freezer before I move out at the end of June. I could take it all home since I only live an hour away, but most of that stuff was bought in larger quantities to save money, and merging it with my family's larder would be throwing that away. I intend to move out again (and back to Bristol) as soon as I come by some form of paid employment so the less perishable things (e.g. spices) can stay separate, but I also want to reduce what I'm lugging home.
I'm definitely not a minimalist when it comes to keeping my cupboards stocked, I reckon I could go for a good few weeks without buying anything if forced, and my supply of dried fruit and frozen peppers means I might not get scurvy too. Bonus! So, I am living a form of Ready Steady Cook for the next few weeks, anything I buy will be scrutinised for how well it combines with what I already have.
There are some things I will definitely top up on; milk, butter, bread & instant coffee are my essentials. Orange juice, lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes and good cheddar join them form a sort of capsule wardrobe of food.

From the making of scalloped tomatoes last year, needs less bread.

Now I need to come up with combinations to do away with the many, many things I already possess. There are grains, pulses, pasta, sugar & flour and tins of soup in the cupboard; sun-dried tomatoes, a tiny jar of lemongrass paste, a large jar of mayonnaise, four lemons, several baking potatoes I don't seem inclined to eat and ever-changing fresh things in the fridge; and in the freezer two duck breasts, four sausages, a chicken kiev, a bag of rocket, a bag of peppers & a tub of vanilla ice cream.

Ideas thus far:

• Sausage stew with tomatoes & beans (super use-y up-y)
• Duck breasts with roast potatoes or green lentils (a treat for post-exams?)
• Lemon & rocket risotto (the recipe on the back of the rice box, never tried before)
• Thai curry (lemongrass & a can of coconut milk & peppers?)
• Coconut macaroons (bag of dessicated coconut)
• Wholemeal flour cheese straws (use egg yolks leftover from macaroons)
• Nutella ice cream (4 parts ice cream + 1 part nutella, mix & refreeze. Far more likely to be eaten than plain vanilla!)
• Quinoa/orzo salads for library day lunches (+ sun-dried tomatoes)

Are any of these ingredients screaming recipes at you? Let me know!

Oh Hello, May + Morning Musings

Where have the last few weeks gone? The last coursework (ever, hopefully!) is done and submitted and now it's hardcore revision time. My brain seems to disagree, it'd rather think about intricate crochet stitches and exciting things to cook, or just fall asleep.
Spending time in the Physics department library with friends who've been finishing their project theses seems to be a good way of getting some good working time in but I need to improve my ability to get up and go in the morning. I always seem to end up in pajama-wearing internet limbo and not make it out of the house for a good few hours, even when I'm supposed to be having coffee with people I get stuck. Oops? Not really "oops" since it happens so much; I must try harder. The old alarm clock on the other side of the room trick does alright when I remember to set it, now I must learn to jump in the shower at the first opportunity and not descend into warm pajama ickiness.

My morning routine tends to go thus: roll out of bed, coffee & some form of bread, start making sandwich while kettle boils, laze around while finishing coffee (I'm incapable of drinking coffee fast), possibly check e-mails while finishing coffee, ... , shower, brush teeth, dress slowly while trying to round up handbag contents, assess weather conditions & add scarves appropriately, finish sandwich & re-fill water, LEAVE.

Obviously I can cut out the internet time (especially now I have the boy's old smartphone to check my e-mail on) and do things like decide what to wear and assemble handbag contents the night before, although I have tried this and not wanted to wear things the next day (or found that vital pieces of clothing are in the wash). I don't really like the idea of sandwiches that have been left in the fridge overnight but it may be a sacrifice I should try for the sake of improved productivity. Making a smaller cup of coffee would lead to less dead time that I'm liable to fill with the internet, but then there are days when I finish my coffee but then feel the need to lie down for a bit and daydream.

Any tips for a more useful morning? What order do you do things in? Why?
I'm interested in the logic in these things - Do you have a very strong order or do you mix things up? Do you find it easy to add new parts to your routine?

I always eat first as I don't like having an empty stomach and know I get all hypoglycemic and sad/angry/useless (the boy once took me to Sainsbury's with no breakfast and I had a self-checkout related meltdown, now he knows girl needs bread to function). My flatmate, on the other hand, will happily go half a day before eating or drinking anything.
I've noticed I've adopted some of the boy's habits too, there is always coffee these days, and he's a great one for making sandwiches. Truth be told I never used to brush my teeth in the morning, it's just a thing my parents didn't do. Now though I feel icky if I don't.

Bath On Film

Back in February I went on a day trip to Bath with the boy and a couple of friendly Photosoc-ers. We wandered about, took photos, ate bagels in Queen Square, took photos, had coffee, took photos...
These are all from a roll of Rollei RPX 400 shot in my Pentax K1000 with 50mm 1:2 lens if you're interested in that sort of thing. More of my photos (but not these yet) can be found on my Flickr photostream. The XL photo size wouldn't fit in my theme but I think these will enlarge if you click on them. They were all developed & scanned by that lovely, useful boy of mine.

All photos by me, if you'd like to use them in a non-profit creative way I'm flattered, but please let me know & link back here.

Nostalgic Floral

Remember the floral bedsheet I acquired recently? Well it looks like these sheets have lasted well, and there're plenty of them about.

Sarah Rooftops has it (complete with cat) and it is in duvet form still.

Meanwhile in Edinburgh it is becoming fox-shaped:

Miss Foxette, from A Wooden Tree

Zoe of Zoe's crafts has three different colourways! Lucky lady. She's got them in her newly decorated spice rack.

Pilfered from this post

She also has the evidence that the sheets are originally from M&S.

Leanne on Vanilla Teapot loves it so much she has it as her blog background.

Anyone else come across this on their travels? Links! Pictures! I'll curate a little gallery of it :)

A Week Or So

There's lovely cherry blossom everywhere

• Last week I had a big Maths exam, 20 credit points (the whole year is 120) which didn't go brilliantly. I may have passed. It's frustrating trying to learn how to do questions with no example solutions (no past paper solutions at all, minimal solutions to problem sheets) and figure out things which are more dependent on your knowledge of things like what the sum from 1 to n of 1/k happens to be than your knowledge of the unit material. I'm terrible with such things, it feels like there's a big fact sheet I'm meant to have memorised at some point but I missed the memo.
  And that crushes my confidence and fledgling ability to get my head round probability theory. Gah. This exam is out of the way now, only six more to get through in May/June!
• I've tried burrata, as recommended by a certain dressmaking genius by the name of Oona. Waitrose had it reduced, from an introductory offer price too, so I snapped it up.
  
  

  

  Funny looking thing!

  SO CREAMY. Insanely creamy. Definitely to be eaten with crusty bread.
  
• I finally bought an Emmy The Great CD, First Love. I saw her at The Fleece in October, I was having a bit of a difficult time and spent most of the gig close to or in tears but I'm glad I went. This is not an album to listen closely to when you're feeling vulnerable, it's full of loss and sadness.
  
• My days are now full of background writing for my project thesis and fiddling with Open CV for Android which seems a lot more complicated than it could be. Stupid things. On the plus side I chose my units such that I only have one coursework to do apart from this and it's a fairly straightforward one.
  
• I've had a play with my blog design, got rid of a broken Flickr widget, added a page which has no content yet, and changed the background to cheery blue polka dots. This is the same background I had on my Myspace page, back in the day. Nostalgia!
  
• I've had a look in the freezer and figured out what I need to eat my way through before the end of the year/my flat contract. It's mostly reduced things I couldn't eat at the time, meat from large packs which I bought as it was better value for money, and strange stews I must have got sick of before finishing. Hmmm.
  
•  On Thursday the boy & I went for a post-supper walk to the suspension bridge. His camera is capable of taking photos in the dark, mine not so much. I got a couple of presentable ones though. I also got very cold!

Bridge! All lit up.

• After an abortive attempt on Saturday that turned into brunch we made it out to Arnos Vale on Sunday with Matt & Alice. It's a huuge place and parts of it are incredibly overgrown. Photos were taken, names were spotted (the best was Pobjoy) and there was discussion of what is and isn't appropriate in a graveyard.

Cameras at the ready, spot which is digital.

Now back to the algorithms, happy Tuesday!

M6503 - Inspiration

After seeing M6503 on StitchyWitch, and thinking up a dozen different variations I'd like to have, I somewhat hastily bought it on eBay (no JoAnns for $0.99 pattern sales over here). It looks like a fairly simple pattern (allegedly "easy") and resembles some of my favourite dresses. Hurrah!

I'm a big fan of dresses and actually managed to wear a different one every day for most of December (á la Dressember). I might do that again and document it; it'd be harder in the summer though, some are just too hot.
Although I haven't seen any completed makes among the blogs I follow, Googling turned up a few, including a Make This Look on Sew Weekly which is a different interpretation to how I'd seen the pattern originally. Looking at other people's completed dresses seems like a really good idea in terms of finding out what the fit is like and what parts of the construction might cause difficulties. Yay for the internet!

Here's a little round up of what I found, in link form:

• Azalea & Rosebud Fiberworks - vintage inspired view A in aqua. I think the collar ruffles with the busy print are not for me, convenient since she reports difficulty with constructing the ruffle "sandwich" of the collar edge.
•  Historical Quintessence - straight view D in a strong floral prin. No problems reported beyond cosy sleeves. Good to be reminded of that since I seem to suffer from larger upper arms, though they've yet to descend into bingo wings...
• Sewing And Music  - She used view D to make a version of a Modcloth dress. I *think* she's quite a petite lady, the waistband looks lower than I imagine it should be and she mentions taking length out of the bodice if she were to make it again.
• Four Square Walls - this lady seems to take pattern altering in her stride, she's made not one but two dresses from this pattern. One is a longer-bodiced colour block version of view D, and the other is a heavily modified view A or B made to resemble another Modcloth dress, and it looks really nice. She observes that "the gathered bust was basically drafted for a double-Z cup" so that's something to look out for.
  

Modcloth is a very popular source of inspiration, and it's not hard to see why. So many pretty things. Definitely not within the price range I'd go for (but, as previously discussed, I am a horrible cheapskate).

I'm almost entirely new to dressmaking (apart from a too-tight halter top made for a birthday disco when I was 11) so when I finally get around to making this I won't be altering anything much.
If I do become confident enough, however, the idea of a version where the back section of the waistband is elasticated appeals to me. My umbrella dress has this feature and it means I can pull it over my head, so I might be able to lose the zip and the accompanying pokey-zip-top-in-the-armpit discomfort. The other thing my umbrella dress has is a waist tie. It's attached to the waistband up to the side seam and ties in a bow round the back, neatly covering the elastic (when I can make it stay).

Me & the wonderful Mr Adam in London, several years ago (outtake)

I can't seem to find  photos that show the structure of this dress very well, but here's an idea. The ruffle goes all the way around the back of the neck (irritating) and it's a bit too short for my liking (no bending over!) but otherwise it's nigh-on perfect. I just had a look and the armholes are finished with self bias binding and the neck is faced. Look at me, I know fancy sewing words!
I have a sixites duvet cover (previously seen here) and a new Asda charcoal grey double flat sheet, either of which might become a muslin for a sleeveless view B at some point in the future. However until I'm done with this here degree and have some sort of a future sorted out there'll be no dressmaking for me.