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.