The Seven-Year Itchy Wool Dress

I bought my first sewing machine in May with some hard-earned stage management pay. I'm not super fancy when it comes to sewing, so I went for a basic machine, a Brother LS 2125i. I really enjoy this machine, but it's very intuitive and it works almost exactly like my mother's sewing machine that I learned to sew on. When it comes to choosing projects, I have, up to this point, almost entirely focused on sewing dresses.

I love vintage dresses, particularly from the 50s, but it's hard to find them in good condition (because really, it'd be fifty years old), and even harder to find them in my size. So I sew them! Having discovered the wonderful world of craft blogs, I have about a billion things I'd like to sew now, but for now I'm still working on a dress.

Several years ago, while driving from Napa to Salem, OR for my freshman year of college, my family stopped at the Pendleton factory store and picked up this amazingly beautiful wool fabric. The original intention was to make a skirt for the cold Oregon winters, which is a little funny now that I've lived in Maine and Chicago - no offense Oregon!

For whatever reason, the skirt never got made. So when I was visiting my mom this summer I dug out out the fabric and the old skirt pattern and snuck it into my suitcase. However, I was less enamored with skirt idea by this point, so I did some looking around found this McCall's pattern.

I have to admit, I was a tad terrified as I cut out the pieces, because I've never worked with plaid before, so I stared at it for about 15 minutes before I cut anything. Fingers crossed!

The cut pieces have been sitting in my sewing box for several weeks and I finally pulled them out tonight and did some sewing. Since space in my apartment is limited, I sew on the kitchen table, but since we use the table I have to set up my machine and put it away each time I want to sew, so its often easier to pull out the knitting (and I am working on sweater #2 - so that has a lot of work to do on it as well).

In any case, I finished the bodice tonight and I couldn't be starting this dress at a better time, since I'm seeing plaid everywhere these days from Domino Magazine to CBS Sunday Morning. Apparently the design world is mad about plaid!

My Favorite Leftover

I am one of those holiday eaters who live for leftovers. Yes, Thanksgiving dinner takes way too much time to make for the amount of time it takes to eat it (especially when its just two people), but the food is so good and you hardly have to cook at all for about a week (especially when Mr. Cleaver makes an amazing turkey stew)!

My favorite use for leftover Thanksgiving food is something I like to call "The Portlander." I call it the Portlander because I totally stole it from a New England bagel chain and that's what they call it. It takes no skill and is totally tasty.

The Portlander

Ingredients: Leftover turkey Leftover stuffing Canned whole cranberry sauce (I preferred the canned because the slightly gelatinous nature holds together better) Bulkie rolls

Put the two halves of the roll in the toaster or under the broiler and heat until warm - not toasty.

Reheat the turkey and stuffing the microwave. Take your warm roll and add a thick layer of stuffing, topped by the turkey and the cranberry sauce, put on the top half of the roll and enjoy how the flavors blend so magically!

My First Sweater: An Adaptation

Last night I finished my first sweater, just in time to show it off at my Tuesday night knitting circle.

It an adaptation of the "Anthropologie-Inspired Capelet" from peonyknits.blogspot.com. The numbers were a significant departure from the original, which was designed for bulky weight yarn, so I thought I'd post the pattern below for anyone interested in doing the pattern in DK-weight yarn. But I take no claim for this awesome pattern. All the glory goes to peonyknits.blogspot.com.

Peony Knit’s “AnthropoIogie Inspired-Capelet” Adapted for two colors and DK weight yarn.

What I Used: Size 5 (24 inch) circular and one set of size 5 double-pointed needles. MC 2 skeins Green Mountain Spinnery “Sylvan Spirit” in Peridot CC 1 skein Green Mountain Spinnery “Sylvan Spirit” in Blue Opal

Sizing: Gauge= 22 st over 4” Note: I made mine to fit a 36-37” bust and 12” arm circumference

What I Did: CO 90 st (Note: If I had to make one change, I would have cast on a few more and had the front pieces be a bit wider) Knit in CC 2 x 2 rib for 2 inches to create neckline

Raglan Increases: (you will need 4 stitch markers to separate the body into 5 sections: left front, left sleeve, back, right sleeve, right front)

MC: Row 1, RS: k3, p11, yo, place marker, p2, yo, p13, yo, place marker, p2, yo, p28, yo, place marker, p2, yo, p13, yo, place marker, p2, yo, p11, k3 Row 2 and all WS rows: knit all stitches Row 3 and all RS rows: k3, *p to next marker, yo, slide marker, p2, yo* repeat from * 3 more times, p until last 3 st, k3 Continue raglan increases until sleeve measures the circumference of your upper arm. End with a WS row.

Split sleeves and body: MC: RS: k3, p to 1st marker, move all st from 1st to 2nd marker onto scrap yarn (right sleeve). P to 3rd marker. Move all st from 3rd to 4th marker onto another piece of scrap yarn (left sleeve). P to last 3 st, k3. WS: Knit all st Continue in reverse stockinette stitch (with k3 at each edge of the row) until desired length, ending with a RS row (I went until I ran out of MC)

CC: Knit 1 row. Switch to 2 x 2 rib, for two inches. BO all st

Sleeves: CC: Pick up all st unto doubled pointed needles, one sleeve at a time, from scrap yarn. Knit 1 row. Switch to 2 x 2 rib, for two inches. BO all st Repeat for second sleeve.

Finishing Weave in all ends. Add a button/pin as desired and enjoy!

Please note that all patterns and tutorials are for personal use only and should not be distributed or produced for sale without the written consent of the author.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

As Fall Winds To A Close

Since, I consider fall to be officially over after Thanksgiving, I wanted to send my favorite season off in style with some more photos of Fall at her peak from my honeymoon trip to Vermont. They know how to pull off a good fall up there.

I'll miss you.

Cinnaminninies and Cheatin' Cherry Pie

In preparation for Thanksgiving, I made and froze Mr. Cleaver's holiday cherry pie this afternoon to be baked on Thursday. There's no recipe for the pie because I am a total cheater and use the cherries from a can. The crust however, is totally homemade, flakey, and delicious. You can find the recipe for that here. There is a bonus recipe at the bottom of this post, for those inclined. 

Mr. Cleaver loves pie. Particularly cherry. Last year, even though we had an apple pie in the freezer, Mr. Cleaver requested cherry. Since I love making pies, I obliged and we didn't eat the apple pie until the Superbowl, which made the Bears spectacular loss more bearable (pun? perhaps intended). This year, since I knew saving the second apple pie would be pointless, I ate it several weeks ago.

In many ways, pie  has been a central part of Mr. Cleaver and I's relationship. Like I said before,  Mr. Cleaver loves pie and I love making it.

It started, ever so circuitously, at Thanksgiving. I was living in Maine and had just started dating Mr. Cleaver a few weeks before. He invited me to accompany him to his parents for Thanksgiving, but I thought that was way too soon to be meeting the folks, so I opted to go with the rest of interns buddies to the Portland Stage annual Thanksgiving.

Hating to come empty-handed, I made a raspberry pie. But living in a furnished apartment meant I was missing several of my usual tools and, among other things, I ended up having to use an oddly shaped glass to roll out my crust. The pie turned out fine, but I wasn't looking forward to using a glass for the rest of the year.

Mr. Cleaver doesn't get any of that pie, but he does finds out that I make them. Gears begin to spin.

Flash forward a few weeks and Christmas is fast approaching. This time, still unable to travel to California for the Holidays, I have accepted Mr. Cleaver's invitation to join his family.  Christmas is still several weeks away, but John has an early gift to give me.  He prefaces the gift by saying that he's been carrying it around in his car for several weeks, and that he was afraid to give it to me, because he didn't want me to think that he had certain expectations, etc., etc.

After much waffling, he gives me a rolling pin.

I am thrilled, he is thrilled I'm thrilled. Everyone is thrilled except my roommate, who had also purchased me a rolling pin for Christmas.

Christmastime and I'm off to Mr. Cleaver's folks, a perfectly-rolled out crust on another raspberry pie for his folks and even though we've only been dating two months, I want to make a good impression. I present his mother with my pie, only to find out they have about four other pies already purchased for about six people. This is a pie-loving family.

Despite this excess of pie, his family is very kind and they eat the pie I brought and declare it tasty. I am relived, though slightly weirded-out by how Mr. Cleaver's brother-in-law keeps making references to how I'm going to be the next in-law.  Let's just call it foreshadowing.

Several months later, I'm at Mr. Cleaver's apartment and I find some cherry pie filling in his pantry. Just in case, you know, I was over and just really wanted to make a pie. 

Bonus Recipe:

Cinnaminninies:

 I doubt my father came up with these, but he did have an awful good name for them. This is my favorite way of putting that extra pie dough to use. 

Ingredients: Leftover pie dough, Milk, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and  Sugar.

Preheat over to 350.

Place small bits of leftover dough in a pie tin. Brush with a small amount of milk and sprinkle with cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar as desired. Cook for about 20 minutes or until brown on edges.Enjoy warm, but let cool enough so they don't become "cinnaminni-owies."

Steinbeck: Makes a Good Book and a Good Sandwich

As promised, my two-person book club met up at the Bourgeois Pig last week for some serious Steinbeck dissection.

Ms. Kasey and I knew we had truly chosen the right locale for our meeting when we found an "East of Eden" sandwich on the menu board. We of course had to order one (as seen above) and I nabbed a chicken sandwich to satiate any meat-eating needs for the evening. Though the "Eden" sandwich was quite the veggi delight with avocados, mushroom that tasted like chicken and lots of leafy greens.

We actually discussed the book for at least a half and hour to 45 minutes, not bad for book-club beginners, before we descended into letting the brunette with the laptop at the next table learn much too much about our personal lives.

As for the book?

I love - love - Steinbeck. In high school and college I had a tiny Mitsubishi pickup truck I named Rocinante in honor of Steinbeck's truck from Travels with Charley, a truck that my parents took a special trip to Salinas to so I could see the real thing. My Rocinante is currently living his third incarnation with some family friends on Mt. Veeder, having survived several trips to Oregon and a run-in with some overnight hit-and-runners in Santa Cruz.

I grew up in the Bay Area, so the worlds of Steinbeck's novels are something familiar and dear to me. His writing is honest and he is fair man who gives the bum and rich man equal dignity, with perhaps more dignity to the bum.

My two favorite Steinbeck works are the aforementioned Travels with Charley and East of Eden. Charley is a love letter to America - a kind-hearted real-life roadtrip filled with the beauty of the America landscape and the kindness of strangers. 

Eden dances on the boundary of fiction and non-fiction: the Trasks and the Hamiltons are real people, with a very young Steinbeck even making an appearance. But beyond these family trees, what is really true?

Invented or not, the epic of these families is both touching and painful.  Most of our discussion on Thursday focused on the familial relationships: sibling rivalries, the love of between parent and child - how our own lives intersect and different from the Hamiltons and the Trasks. Intersections, I'm sure, even the brunette with the laptop would understand.

PS: We're currently looking for our next book selection: preferably something classic, wintery and shorter than Eden. If I hadn't just read Call of the Wild it would have been perfect. I'm thinking maybe Ethan Frome? I'd love to hear any suggestions!

Local Eating, Vacation Style

I've been a bit lax in posting this week (it's been one of those). But I've been wanting to post a few photos from the honeymoon back in October and as fall is quickly ending, now seemed as appropriate time as any.

Today's theme: the best of eating locally in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom.

Cider and syrup. It doesn't get any better than that.

Except for maybe the Maple Syrup Candy...

Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce and Sweet Cucumber Salad

I came up with this recipe after a visit to a local Thai place with Mr. Cleaver about a year ago. I don't know if I've ever made it the same way twice, this is one version. As with most recipes I make. this oowes a heavy thanks to the joy of cooking and searches on Epicurious.com.

Chicken Satay: (serves 3-4) 2 Chicken Breasts 1 plain yogurt 1 tsp. minced garlic 1 tsp. curry powder (or to taste - this version is very mild) 1 tsp. lime juice ½ tsp. soy sauce bamboo skewers

Soak the skewers in water for about ten minutes, so they'll burn less. Turn on the broiler.

Slice the chicken into thin strips. In a shallow pan, mix together yogurt, garlic, curry powder, lime juice and soy sauce. Add chicken and stir until chicken is coated in sauce. Thread chicken unto the soaked skewers and place on a foil covered baking pan or cookie sheet. Place under the broiler and cook for about 25 minutes, turning halfway through, or until cooked completely.

While the chicken is cooking make the salad and sauce.

Sweet Cucumber Salad: (serves 2) 1 cucumber ½ cup shredded red cabbage 1/4 cup lime juice 1 Tbl sugar

Remove the skin of the cucumber and dice, avoiding the seedy center. Place in a medium bowl, add the cabbage, lime juice and sugar. Mix together and allow to sit. The juice will turn pink. Note: this does not keep, so serve immediately.

Peanut Dipping Sauce: (serves 3-4) ½ cup creamy peanut butter ½ cup (coconut) milk 2 Tbl brown sugar 1 Tbl soy sauce 1 tsp lime juice

Mix ingredients together in a small pot and warm over low heat. Whisk until smooth and serve warm.

Ladybug Invasion!

Maybe it was due to the unseasonably warm weather today, but there was a ladybug invasion in Chicago today. Look at how many are on our kitchen window (not to mention the awesome view of the McDonald's parking lot...)!

Good thing these guys are supposed to be lucky!

One Bowl Banana Bread

If the only reason we had alcohol in the house was to bake Sherry Nut Bundt Cake, then the only reason my mother owned a Cuisinart was to make banana bread.

Okay, that's not entirely true - occasionally my dad would use it to make really tasty hashbrowns, but for the most part the Cuisinart was a one-hit wonder. But like Don McLean's American Pie, it was a good hit. Whenever I feel like I'm in a breakfast rut I like to make a loaf - it also travels really well, so I'll often make some for road trips.

The recipe below is an adaptation of the banana bread recipe from an old Cuisinart cookbook that always fell open to this page, because again, it was the only thing it was used for.

I don't own a Cuisinart and while you can do the recipe in a blender for the most part, it's easier to make and clean if you do it one-bowl style.

One Bowl Banana Bread

Makes 1 medium-sized loaf

• 3 overripe bananas
• ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup wheat flour
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp lemon juice or vinegar
• ½ cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350° F

Break up the bananas and butter into a large mixing bowl. With a sturdy whisk, mash together the butter and bananas until mixed well - the butter will still be a little chunky, but should be about pea-sized.

Add flour, sugar, soda and salt. Whisk around on top of the bowl before using a spoon to combine with butter/banana goop. Add eggs, milk and lemon juice, adding the juice last. Mixture may bubble slightly when the lemon juice is added. Mix in walnuts and pour into a greased loaf pan.

Bake 55-60 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

Serve warm with butter. Makes a great breakfast treat.