Post #1000!

Friends, I've had a ball. One thousand posts and four years after I first thought, "what are these blogs I hear so much about?" I look back with total enthusiasm on my time here with you. I am putting The Enthusiast on an indefinite hiatus now, to find out how all the cooking, sewing, movie watching et. al. feels when I do it without reporting on it. I'll leave you with this one last image of what has to be a quintessential baking adventure for me: whole wheat sesame seed banana muffins. Thank you for looking, commenting, and letting me enthuse.

Scrambled Eggs

with fried potatoes and salad.

Salmon

with fried purple grits (sorry no picture Naunihal! can't seem to get my act together) and broccoli.

Roast Chicken

with quinoa and green beans.

Eggs

with fried green tomatoes, okra, and cornbread. All (but the cornbread) made by the spouse!

Broiled Steak

with turnips and fried purple grits. Yum.

Mushroom Frittata

with swiss chard and steamed yellow beans.

Fried Blue Grits

Actually, they were more purple; still delicious. We had them with fried red peppers, broccoli, and fresh tomatoes.

Lamb Chops

with quinoa and okra.

Grilled Grouper

with steamed green beans and fried sweet potatoes.

Sweet Potatoes

with okra, broccoli, and scrambled eggs.

Bacon and Potatoes

both leftover, both fried up together as a base for fried eggs and sauteed bok choi. Super good.

Proper Attire Skirt

Here is the "Proper Attire Skirt" from Anna Maria patterns, in Japanese cotton ("Unfocused Dream") from Tessuti Fabrics. It is also my first project made with the assistance of my new serger (a machine that simultaneously cuts and sews over the edges of fabric; very, very handy for sewing and not replaceable by a regular machine). I bought a Brother 1034d entirely on the basis of online reviews, and am so far totally happy with it. It is super-scary to cut and sew at the same time, but also an astonishing time-saver. I am happy with the skirt too; I cut a size 12 (I'm a rtw American 6) but by the time I finished tweaking the fit at the waist and hips it was pretty much a straight ten. So, the pattern sizes big.

Salmon

with quinoa, turnips, and turnip greens.

Sauteed Vegetables

Red peppers, shiitakes, and salad mix over brown rice. With salad.

Kale Soup

I hate not having soup, frozen in individual servings, on hand. I like it for lunch, I like it for dinner, I like it at work, I like it over rice, I like like like soup. But I haven't had any for a while, so last night I made this one: Mexican chorizo (no match for the Spanish kind I had in mind, but still ok), onions, tomatoes, chicken stock, white beans, and a big mess of torn-up kale.

Crab Cakes

with quinoa, okra, and salad.

Costello Tagliapietra

I haven't kept up with the fashion shows in some time now, but a brief dip back in reminds me of this: for sheer I-want-itness and I'd-wear-that-everydayness, almost nobody beats Costello Tagliapietra for me. The designers are a pair of burly dudes who dress in identical full beards and lumberjack rigs, and who work almost exclusively in draped jersey, and I love them and all their works. Behold from the Spring collection:

Scrambled Eggs

with greens and fried sweet potatoes. Because if it ain't broke, etc.

Grilled NY Strip Steak

with quinoa, turnips, and turnip greens.

Grilled Wahoo

with bok choi and fried sweet potatoes. Wahoo!

Scrambled Eggs

with okra and sweet potatoes. This sounds like nothing, but is delicious and of a color palette that would make you weep with joy.

Roasted Vegetables

Eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, onions, elephant garlic, shiitakes, over noodles with tuna.

Grilled Grouper

with quinoa and sauteed greens and garlic. Two cupcakes for dessert.

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

There are times, increasingly numerous just lately, when I wonder why I am driven to do what I do. Why is it that the thought of a pound of carrots in the refrigerator won't leave me alone? Why must they absolutely be turned into cupcakes? Why do I always have to make things into other things?

I'm sure the answer is neurochemical in origin, and I'll probably never know it. In the meantime, these are remarkably good. I used Maida Heatter's recipes for cake and frosting, deviating from them only to decrease the sugar in the cake by half a cup, and whip the frosting in my mixer to make it airy. I also dug up my giant icing tip and it does make for a pretty and easy cupcake top.

Why are cupcakes suddenly the thing? I'll bet money there is a single PR agency somewhere responsible for the craze.

French Lentil Salad

I was solo for dinner last night so I got to eat the way I really like to: out of one bowl. I poached some lentils, then added shredded carrot, diced bell pepper, feta, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Took me right back to grad school days.

Sunny Delight

A hat for the young'un, made from leftover lace yarn.

Ibid

Add some fried eggs to last night's dinner and there you have tonight's. Yum.

Veggie Delight

I love it when my live-in hunter returns with a big farmer's market kill. Last night we feasted on whole wheat spaghetti with field peas and sauteed greens, and roasted red peppers with all the fruity intensity of jam.

Vogue 8511

The pattern of this fabric is working against its photographability, but perhaps you'll take my word for it that in life it is flattering (especially when I remember a belt.)

New Look 6968

This is one of those patterns that experienced sewers describe as very simple to put together. For sewers like me, on the other hand, nothing is simple: despite the fact that I made a full muslin for this dress before starting on the real thing I still had to put in nearly every seam twice. I also experienced a crisis of faith near the end when my fabric choice seemed all wrong, the silhouette blah, the fit depressing. I persevered, however, on the theory that the only way to get better at something is to put in hours doing it, whether or not the outcome is any good. And in the end, it's ok. Also, it's my first ever invisible zipper!

Sockeye Salmon

with a melange of brown rice, field peas, and sauteed greens.

Scrambled Eggs

with okra and sweet potatoes.

Rainbow Trout

with cornbread and roasted sweet peppers.

Pink Hat

This pattern was designed by the same person who designed the purple hat.

Purple Hat

I'm woefully behind on my craft blogging. Lately I've been using up spare skeins of yarn, so stay tuned for hats and fingerless mits.

Leftover Pot Rost

as good as it promised to be. With more greens, more cornbread. Do you want to know my cornbread recipe? Here it is:

2C cornmeal (any grind is fine with me, but I only roll with the whole grain. McEwen is my go-to.)
1/2 C other flour (lately I've been using semolina, but I'll use anything)
1 1/2C milk
6-8T melted butter (I've used bacon grease but I actually prefer butter)
1 egg
1t baking soda
1t baking powder
1 t salt

25 minutes in a 400 degree oven. It's true that the very best way to make it is in cast-iron cornstick molds, which tips the crunchy outer to tender inner ratio in favor of improbable levels of deliciousness, but I rarely have the patience for this. Usually I just bake it in an eight inch cake pan.

Pot Roast

Two short words, one flabbergasting meal. We had it with sauteed garlic and greens, and boiled red potatoes. When I saw the three dishes together in their respective vessels I suddenly understood what color composition in a meal is all about. The pot roast was super simple: a big piece of meat browned, then long cooked with carrots, celery, onions, stock, and some wine. At the end I reduced the remaining liquid to about a quarter, having squished the juice out of the vegetables into it and run it through a strainer. As good as it was last night, I anticipate it being much better tonight.

Grilled Grouper

with fried grits and a salad of tomato, cucumber, onion, and feta.

Cornbread

with okra and scrambled eggs. Sometimes the longing for cornbread suffuses me; thank goodness it's easy to make at the last minute.

Baked Sweet Potatoes

with scrambled eggs and pan-roasted okra. Every time I have a truly delicious sweet potato I can't believe I don't eat them every day. The best ones (I've learned) are small and fresh from the dirt. They bake into a velvety, not at all watery or stringy, paste. I know eating paste sounds awful, but in this one case it isn't.

Crawfish Cakes

with fried grits, salad, and some delicious whole roasted little red, yellow, and orange peppers.

Lamb Chops

Grilled, with pan-roasted okra and corn on the cob.

A Surprise Winner

Sometimes you get home and think: "dinner has to happen. How can it happen with the absolute minimum of work on my part yet still be something I want to eat?" Last night I answered that question by dumping leftover roasted vegetables (eggplant, onion, tomato, red pepper, olive, garlic) into a pan with fresh arugula and half a can of tuna; when it was hot I put it on whole wheat spaghetti and called it dinner. And it was fantastic! Truly, a great meal! It's so nice when things happen that way.

Short Ribs Again

which, following the law of all things long-cooked, were twice as good on the second day. It helped that we had them with out-of-this-world cornbread (thank you, McEwen & Sons cornmeal!), pan-roasted okra, and a friend's delicious kale salad.

Braised Short Ribs

There are times when Smell-O-Vision is called for and nothing else will do; this is one of them. This (not great) photograph doesn't do justice to the rich, complex scent the pictured dish filled our house with all afternoon as it braised. I followed the recipe for Braised Barbecue Short Ribs in the Hot and Hot Fish Club Cookbook. To the standard broth and mirepoix braising liquid it adds some barbecue sauce, and it's an excellent marriage. I used sauce made by my semi-uncle Loy. Delicious! With brown rice and pan-roasted okra.

Roasted Vegetables

over brown rice: eggplant, red peppers, garlic, onions, olives.

Simplicity 2406

This is actually a dress patern, but I had fabric (and a life) better suited to a tunic, so that's what I made. I sewed with abandon, which means a real seamstress would blanch and grow faint at the sight of the garment's inside. I'm ok with it though; I decided it was more important to finish a bunch of stuff than to worry too long over any one piece (at least until I'm a better sewer than I am now).

Sockeye Salmon

with quinoa and pan-fried okra. Very hard to beat that.

Whole Wheat Spaghetti

with pesto (half basil, half parsley), and a big mess of edamame (fresh CSA soybeans!) Cherries for dessert.

Frittata

with chives, shiitakes, arugula, and nicoise olives. With brown rice.

Crab Cakes

with brown rice and okra. More than one brownie for dessert.

Sockeye Salmon

with buttered whole wheat spaghetti with parmesan and tarragon, and roasted cauliflower, shiitakes, and red peppers. The peppers were the little ones we get from our CSA; when roasted they concentrate into something closer to jam than pepper. I could have eaten my body weight in them.

Long Hiatus

Bad blogger! But here I am, full of tonight's dinner: lamb chops, okra, and brown rice. For dessert cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcakes. Have you seen their TLC show, "DC Cupcakes"? It's a pretty grating show, but lordy, the cupcakes are all they are cracked up to be.

Simplicity 2365 Take Two

Same pattern as the wearable muslin below, this time with long sleeves. I'll spare you detail shots of all my mistakes; I'm happy with it!

Lace Cardigan Number Two

And I'm not done yet! The next one is already on my needles.

Leftover Chicken

with Meyer lemon chutney, steamed squash, and fried grits.

Okra

with rice, chicken, and field peas.

Scrambled Eggs

with sauteed okra and fried grits. My husband loves grits in the morning; I love them chilled, sliced, and fried for dinner. He makes enough for breakfast plus plentiful dinner leftovers, and in this way the marriage perks along.

Crab Cakes

with sauteed okra and cherry tomatoes.

A Wearable Muslin (Simplicity 2365)

Since I've re-entered the world of sewing (a world transformed, like everything else, by the internet) I've been on a steep learning curve. One term I hear a lot is "wearable muslin," which means, essentially, a test version of a pattern that you can wear if it turns out decently. A muslin, or toile, is the term for a test garment made in cheap, unbleached woven fabric (muslin). Below is a picture of the muslin I made for Simplicity 2601. A wearable muslin, then, just uses whatever fabric you have around that you don't mind sacrificing to the inevitable mistakes and adjustments that happen to the first garment one makes from a pattern. With that in mind I used this small floral, with which I fell out of love after buying, to make Simplicity 2365. I learned pintucking (fun and pretty!), used contrasting scraps for facings at the collar and hem, and sewed on the two orange buttons I had left over from the blue dress I made a month ago. I ended up with an imperfect but pretty garment that I will certainly wear (it looks better on me than on my strong-shouldered dress form). But what I really learned is this: a wearable muslin is less an object than a state of mind. Anything you allow to be imperfect is a muslin, no matter how expensive the materials. It's a metaphor with limitless potential. Your first boyfriend? A wearable muslin for your eventual marriage! Your first book report? Muslin for the dissertation! Etc. etc. The power of the idea is in the freedom it grants one to play, to err, to falter, and still to enjoy the ride.

Lamb Chops

with brown rice, sauteed okra, and roasted bell peppers.

Roast Chicken

You know, I've been roasting birds as long as I've been cooking for myself (so, let's say for more than twenty years). I've roasted them in a toaster oven, a convection oven, a regular oven; I've trussed and not trussed, basted and not basted, seasoned, buttered, oiled, herbed, brined, and flipped them. (I also went through a phase of roasting them in paper bags, but that's more steaming than roasting, really). There are no doubt many other things to do with them, but I think I have some varied experience. What I've learned is this: it is very, very hard to make a bad roast chicken, and also very hard to improve on a bird roasted in the least fussy way possible. So now I: never truss, never flip, never baste, and roast at 400 degrees till done. To this procedure I add whatever I have around: garlic in the cavity, preserved lemon or butter or olive oil on the skin, herbs under the skin, vegetables in the pan, etc. But seriously, if you do nothing but stick a chicken in a hot oven until it's done, you'll end up with a delicious and comforting dinner that turns, in the following days, into sandwiches, stock, risotto, etc. It's like magic.

On the other hand, if you want to know what roast chicken is like in an ideal world, go to Zuni Cafe in San Francisco and order their spit-roast chicken over bread salad for two.

Last night we had roast chicken with preserved lemon and oregano on the skin, carrots and potatoes in the pan. Sauteed okra on the side.

Sockeye Salmon

badly overcooked, but still ok. With brown rice and sauteed cabbage.

Omelette

with guyere and tarragon; with roasted red peppers.

Pesto

on whole wheat spaghetti, with tomato, cucumber, red onion salad.

Sauteed Cod

with quinoa and roasted red and yellow peppers.

Signe Chanel

Do you have any interest in sewing at all? Well then YouTube yourself up this documentary about the making of a Chanel collection. Forget models and magazines and money (well, not the last, not really); what you want to watch is the Chanel atelier in action translating a sketch into a garment. The movie is made with a lot of wit and style, and with a sense of where the real action is: Laurence's fingers straightening panne velvet ("like a little mouse!"), Martine waiting for Karl ("Who cares if he's left home?"), Jacqueline rejecting a shoulder pad ("This is trash! You can't get anything good anymore.") I could watch these ladies drape all day. It's interesting how in watching the movie I have the simultaneous sense of how well-managed the complex process of making of a Chanel garment actually is, and how frighteningly fragile the whole system is: if a head seamstress dies, an irreplaceable body of knowledge dies with her. It's easy to forget that while a $100,000 dress may seem like an extravagance the world can do without, it's based on a body of skill that takes generations to build, and can easily disappear if any link in the generational chain gets broken. Let's start a fundraiser for couture! Or maybe not. Whatever. You'll love the film.

Lentil Salad

with little French lentils, feta, red onion, mint, lime juice, and olive oil. Even my legume-loathing husband liked it. We had it with sauteed okra and blueberry cornbread.

Second Verse

more or less same as the first. This is once again Simplicity 2601, done in a fabric I bought against my better judgement: wrong color for me, busy pattern. Still, something in it spoke to me, so I bought it. The inside-out shot on the mannequin (catnip for sewers, those inside-out views) shows the bright yellow bias tape I used for the facings, as well as the neat internal bodice facing that keeps the upper seam nice and concealed. This blouse moved fast because I discovered the tool I've been waiting for my whole life: the small-diameter rotary cutter. Made cutting it out fly right by.

Sauteed Trout

farmed! Ick! But still, yum. Especially with sweet corn on the cob and tender sauteed okra.

Pizza

and scrounged leftovers for the last two days. Maybe some actual cooking tonight.

Fried Eggs

with roasted potatoes, and tomato, cucumber, onion, and feta salad.

Sockeye Salmon

with leftover risotto and sauteed green cabbage.

Simplicity 2601

Just finished this. As with most crafty things the beauty is in the details you don't really see: a clever use of double fold bias tape for facings, an internal facing at the bodice that conceals seams, etc. But you get the general idea.

Happy Birthday

to my spouse! The making of the cake was mine, the decorating my daughter's. Let me tell you, whatever it lacked in elegance (and I'm not conceding it lacked anything in that department) it more than made up for in sheer deliciousness. It's been a while since I made an actual cake, with cake flour, full sugar, and all the rest. Now I remember why: it's just as well human history has no record of how much I actually ate.

The credit for the cake really goes to Rose Levy Berenbaum, however, whose Cake Bible supplied the recipes for cake (All-American Chocolate Butter Cake) and frosting (Milk Chocolate Buttercream, which I made with dark instead of milk chocolate). The thing about her recipes is that they make it almost too easy to make perfect cake. If you just do exactly what she says you end up with ludicrously good results, every time. Where is the drama? Where the dread? For that I guess you need to go tackle pastry.

For dinner beforehand we had field peas with onions, bacon, corn, and parsley, over brown rice. Also sliced tomatoes.

(Seriously) Left-Over Chicken

with brown rice and a Greek-ish salad of lettuce, tomato, onion, cucumber, and feta.

Steak Sandwiches

Made from the remnants of last night's out-on-the-town ribeye. We had them on whole wheat, toasted with cheddar cheese, and lettuce, tomato, and onion. Delicious. Also with corn on the cob.

Scrambled Eggs with Tarragon

with roasted potatoes, and roasted eggplant, tomato, red pepper, and garlic.

Sockeye Salmon

with kale chips and corn. Pretty!

Summer Sweater

A cotton sweater, just in time for air-conditioning season. This one has all kinds of little details you have to be a knitter to care about, and their presence makes me giddy with happiness about how this one turned out.

Risotto

This used to be my go-to dish in gradate school, back when nights were freezing and long, quiet stretches of stirring time were in plentiful supply. I haven't made it in years, but this week found myself with a beautiful onion, leftover chicken concentrate (from the braised chicken legs a few days ago), and a sudden yen. So last night I put them together, sprinkled the result with parsley and parmesan, and accompanied it with poached field pieces and orange cherry tomatoes. It was scrumptious. The other advantage to making risotto these days: now I have a spouse who does the stirring for me, well and without complaint.

Field Peas

(aka fresh black-eyed peas) with onion, bacon, and parsley. With corn bread and sliced tomatoes. A word on cornbread: there's no carbohydrate I don't like, but when I veer into morbid obesity it will be because someone set in front of me an endless portion of hot, crunchy cornbread.

Sockeye Salmon

with whole wheat spaghetti (butter, parmesan, parsley) and a salad of lettuce, cucumber, red onion, and feta. All of which was great, except the feta: I bought non-fat by mistake. Nasty.

Happy Father's Day!

We celebrated with a day of truly legendary sloth, concluded with a dinner of baked chicken, yellow squash, quinoa, and the pictured peach-blueberry cobbler for dessert. My spouse took some video footage of me actually licking the bowl in which the cobbler had been, but I'll spare you.

Spirituous Liquors

I don't imbibe much, but when mojitos are in the offing I'm always on board. We have a beautiful pot of mint in the backyard, and this is the best use I know of for it.
Today was a mighty day of cooking: potato salad (red potatoes, eggs, red onion, tarragon, olive oil, lemon juice), tabouli (bulgur, tomato, parsley, red onion), chicken set to marinate (olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, tarragon, garlic) and dinner: okra, tomato salad, corn on the cob, and tabouli.
I learned the most important thing I know about tabouli a year ago. Hitherto I'd been making it by letting the bulgur soak in boiling water until fluffy and hydrated, then adding the other stuff. Terrible idea! As a result of reading somewhere that the traditional method is to let the bulgur soak up tomato juice, I converted: I put a few tomatoes in the blender, then let the bulgur sit in the resultant sludge for a few hours. Perfection. Flavorful and perfectly textured. I also learned that a food processor is the right tool for the job when it comes to dicing parsley and onion fine enough to complement the bulgur.

Braised Chicken Legs

with brown rice and the season's first okra. I made the okra as I always do: sliced it lengthwise, then sauteed it in a good bit of heat until brown. Yum.

Wahoo!

Two big pieces of it, marinated in soy sauce/sesame oil/lemon juice/garlic then broiled. We had it with brown rice and sauteed escarole.

Tales of a Sky Blue Dress

Well hey now, what's this? It's my first adult garment sewing project in about ten years. I got the cotton fabric at Mood in NYC; the pattern is Vogue 8577. I made a muslin first, which of course seemed totally tedious and unnecessary until I made the first of a series of mistakes that would have been disastrous had I been working with the real fabric the first time around. Don't get me wrong, I made plenty of egregious mistakes on the real thing as well. A partial list: markings that were supposed to wash out and didn't, many hours of labor to produce two right-side pockets, bad buttonhole placements that had to be ripped out. I could go on. Nevertheless, the muslin did indisputably save my bacon when it came to making the armholes. The directions as written result in armholes that droop inches below the braline and protrude out from the shoulder in an unflattering way. Because I had the muslin I was able to figure out a better answer (bias tape right up against the bottom of the armscye, moving inward to take off an inch and a half of the shoulder width at each side). Overall, I am pleased; it fits, the color is nice, and the mistakes really only show to me. I was amazed at how different sewing is from knitting. I have so much less experience as a sewer that it's hard to tell how different I'll eventually find them, but for now it's wonderful to have such a distinct fiber vista opening up to me.

Lamb Chops

broiled, with brown rice and super delicious green beans. Listen, I know, I'm as bored by this pictureless blog as you are. The thing is, posting pictures entails my remembering to bring my camera to work, and that, apparently, is just a leetle more than I can manage. But either I'll remember or I'll once again be blessed with home wifi, and then this long drought will be over, I promise.

Cheddar-Leek Omelette

with corn on the cob (yucky) and kale chips.

Mackerel

with brown rice and cabbage/carrot coleslaw. I swear I'll get a picture or two on this blog before too long. Wifi still nowhere in sight.

Scrambled Eggs

with chives and cilantro, roasted red potatoes, and salad.

Sockeye Salmon

which I overcooked, with quinoa, crispy kale chips, and salad. Do you know about kale chips? You tear up the fresh kale (without the stems), toss it with olive oil, then spread it on a baking sheet and stick it in a 500 degree oven for 5 minutes. Then you salt and eat every last piece because they're so good.

Lamb Chops

broiled, with green and yellow beans (steamed), and a mixture of leftover quinoa and brown rice. Something about the hot dustbowl that is my current environment has really shut down my desire to cook.

Steelhead Trout

grilled, with quinoa and salad. Steelhead is one of those things that is so good my principles crumble before it. It is farmed; I buy it anyway.

Skirt steak, mahi, eggs

rice, quinoa, potatoes, garlic, salad, cucumbers, tomatoes. And more! Oh wifi, just wait until you are once again mine.

Gah

We have been eating dinner all along, but until wifi is restored my record of it here will continue to be spotty. Of note were a recent batch of chocolate chip cookies and a carrot cake, both whole wheat, both delicious (in my opinion).

Petit Pois Frais a la Francaise

or frozen peas with lettuce and scallions. The recipe is in Julia Child but I got the idea from watching Nigella Lawson make it on TV. We had it with a hash of leftover ribs and brown rice.

Scrambled Eggs

with cilantro, roasted potatoes and garlic, and salad. Sometimes dinner just scores.

Lamb Chops

with quinoa and spinach.

Grilled Salmon

with corn on the cob and spinach.

Omelette

with dill, cheddar, and leeks, with quinoa and swiss chard.

Sauteed Haddock

with brown rice and roasted cauliflower.

New Blog Sib

Have you ever wondered how beautiful amateur astronomical photography can be? Surf on over to www.solarsystemimages.blogspot.com and find out.

Omelette

with cheddar, leeks, and tarragon. With roasted red potatoes and cauliflower.

Hello Again

and thanks to any who stayed faithful to the blog despite the recent hiatus. What did we have for dinner last night? We had sauteed haddock, buttered whole wheat fettucini, and steamed broccoli. We ate by electric light, which made it all taste wonderful.

We're Safe

To the many who have kindly asked, we are all safe at my house. Our neighborhood was hit very hard, and there is true devastation all around us, but we were safe in the basement when the tornado hit, and our house sustained remarkably little damage all things considered. We are without power or cell phone or internet, so it will be a bit before I can respond to friends and family individually.

Crab Cakes

with brown rice and sauteed mei quing.

Blue Tee

This has been on the needles for a while; glad to have it done for the arrival of The Heat.

Happy Easter!

The Bunny did right by us this year.