Skirting the Issue

My first garment sewing class is over!  I learned quite a bit.

Cutting and laying out the delicate tissue-paper pattern pieces:

Installing my very first zipper:

Darts!

It was definitely an imperfect job, with uneven stitching, but I'm very pleased that it came together into an actual skirt.  It should've fit snugly at the waist like this:

But although the proportions were technically correct, the skirt was several inches too big.  I measured  I measured myself carefully and had Todd do the measurements to make sure I was accurate.  I just don't know where I went wrong.

It's all right, though, since it was just a practice skirt.  I will just the waist of a currently-fitting skirt and use that measurement next time.  I bought a ton of retro patterns last week:

Others were modern but had the look I wanted.

I also bought enough gingham and madras to make several dresses:

Thankfully, the cats are great help with my work!

I've been making more of my healthy and quick summer meals and thought I'd post a few here with recipes attached.  Last week I made

Shrimp and Couscous Foil Packets with Avocado-Mango Salsa (my modifications:  fish and roasted asparagus over rice):

Tomato, Basil, and Fresh Mozzarella Tart (my modifications:  fresh spinach!):

Skillet Chicken with Creamy Spinach Artichoke Sauce:

All in under 30 minutes and extremely healthy.  Hope you'll give one a try.  Have a great week!

Just (Cinnamon) Roll With It.

I've just been out in the garden, weeding in the dill patch. There's a lot of love about dill. I love how my skin smells after contact with it...a prickly, pungent smell. Its soft, ferny leaves stroke my arms as I pull weeds, and I'm entertained by the tiny flowers on the seed head, fluttering open as they're warmed by the sun. As I work, I daydream about what I could make with a handful of the green sprigs...a white sauce for salmon? A spicy soup? I never make anything with dill, though. I just grow it because it's beautiful.


Here's something functional, though. My tomatoes are coming in, and soon I'll have more than I know what to do with! I see a lot of homemade sauces and salsas in my future. I liked these particular tomatoes. Each is an exact replica of the one before, slightly enlarged.


At long last, my cosmos are up! I've planted bright orange, pink, and cream colored varieties this year, and they are cheerfully nodding in the breeze as I write.


Cosmos are so easy to care for...a recurring theme in my garden plan.


When these flowers bloomed, they made a liar out of me. I'd written earlier about my mysterious self-seeding hollyhocks...imagine my surprise when these great spikes of purple and white bloomed, and proved to be mallow plants. Still, they're quite lovely, and very similar to hollyhocks. I'm pleased that they've come.


A soldier beetle (Cantharidae) marches with purpose across the head of this yarrow plant. Soldier beetles are wonderful additions to any garden. They eat a number of pests and do no damage to garden plants.


A grasshopper (Caelifera) relaxes in this daylily. I chased a lot of grasshoppers as a little girl and was rewarded with frequently stained clothing...as a defense mechanism, grasshoppers will "spit" a dark brown fluid that's distasteful to attackers. I'm not fond of large brown grasshoppers with their staring eyes and scratchy, spiny legs, but these small green ones are pleasant.


As I quietly watched, a large katydid (Tettigoniidae) clambered over the left side of the lily and chewed busily on a petal. The grasshopper fled, and after having a quick nibble, the katydid disappeared into the greenery.


I've been busily knitting this week on several different projects. A 12-pointed star is halfway done, but still lying like a deflated balloon in my knitting basket. A pair of fingerless gloves and matching neck wrap, knitted up for my swap partner on Ravelry, is waiting patiently for last-minute buttons. An accusing glare comes from my red knee socks, which have not yet been repaired. Two balls of cheerful orange cotton wait to be formed into an elephant, my first commissioned project, for a friend of my husband's. A big project has been completed, though. Eunny Jang's Tangled Yoke Cardigan, begun in January, is finally blocking in my sunroom.


I had a lot of trouble with the braid that twists across the sweater yoke. It's from a 17-line chart that requires up to 400 stitches across at times. Being off by just one or two stitches could ruin the whole pattern, so frequently I frogged back hours of work to get a correct count! I ran out of yarn several times. At the end, I had to order an entire skein just to complete my final 20 inches of work. A sigh of relief...and I think I'll take a break on sweaters for now!

Busy in the kitchen, as usual. I found a good recipe for sourdough bread on the King Arthur website. These two loaves were finished just in time for our Fourth of July celebration.


Today I felt inspired to rework an old recipe. I'm a huge fan of Cinnabon's cinnamon rolls, but I don't like the heavy, sick feeling I get after eating there, or the nagging feeling that cavities are forming at an accelerated rate with each and every bite. I decided to play with the recipe and make it a little lighter, easier, and dare I say...healthier?

Don't worry, if you're a die-hard fan who can't bear the thought of sacrificing one iota of sugar, just send me a request and I'll post the original recipe.

Copycat "Healthy" Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls
Adapted from Todd Wilbur's More Top Secret Recipes
Makes 16 cinnamon rolls

INGREDIENTS

DOUGH
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
1 cup skim milk, warm
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg yolk, 2 egg whites
2 cups white flour (I prefer unbleached)
2 cups whole wheat flour

FILLING
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
2 tablespoons butter, softened

ICING
1/2 cup powdered sugar
dash of vanilla
1 tablespoon reduced fat cream cheese
Skim milk - enough to make a thin glaze

DIRECTIONS
Dissolve yeast in warm milk. Add the rest of the dough ingredients and knead for 5 - 7 minutes. Cover dough and let rise for an hour. Next, roll dough out in a long rectangle (it was easier for me to split dough into two portions and work with each portion individually). Once dough is about 1/4 inch thick (or a bit thinner), spread evenly with 3 tablespoons softened butter. Mix together the brown sugar, cinnamon, and cloves and sprinkle over dough. Use a pizza cutter to cut even 1 inch strips and roll each strip up.


Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Cover your pan and let the dough rest for another 30 - 60 minutes. It's hard to wait, but this second step really improves the flavor of your final product! You should see a fine rise before too long.


When ready, bake rolls for 10 - 12 minutes.

While baking, mix your sugar glaze. I used a pastry brush to lightly glaze the tops of the rolls after they came out of the oven. They looked great!


But what about the taste? I'm pleased to report that they're just as good as the cinnamon rolls I remember from my food court days. They're soft, chewy, and flavorful, with caramelized bottoms and sweet, sugary tops. I tried one right away, still warm from the oven. Just to make sure it wasn't a fluke (ahem), I tried a second roll. Yum!

This will be my new go-to recipe when friends are stopping by.


No one has to know that they're practically good for you!

Enjoy!

A Walk on the Wild(life) Side!

I'm constantly amazed by the bustle of activity in our small back yard. At first glance, everything seems calm. The branches of the lilac bushes might be swaying gently in the breeze, and there might be a butterfly or two dancing by, now together, now apart, in their search for food.

But look closer!

We called these "leafhoppers" when I was a little girl. When I looked online, I discovered that they are, indeed, called leafhoppers, and they come in an astonishing array of bright colors, like Amazonian tree frogs. This particular type is called Graphocephala coccinia, and they are destructive to plants. I don't want to kill them, though, unless they start causing a great deal of damage. They're quite beautiful.

This little guy is a young Pholcus phalangioides, or as I call them, granddaddy longlegs. I don't like spiders, even harmless ones like these, but I'm fascinated by them.



Even flies can be beautiful if you look closely. These are common Calliphoridae, or blow flies. They get their colloquial name from old English, where meat laden with fly eggs was dubbed "flyblown." Before you lose your appetite, just remember what an important job these creatures play in helping with the rapid decomposition of dead animals.



This might be a hornet...it looks bigger than a typical yellow jacket. I love his bold stripes. He's got a personality to match!

I left these tall, grassy plants in one of my beds, even though they're considered weeds, because I like their wheaty tufts. What a surprise to see this little bee-like insect busily collecting pollen there!

There's nothing common about this common orange butterfly. Just look at those beautiful colors!

This female house sparrow is having a little breakfast at the feeder...while beneath it, a squirrel gathers up the leftovers.




There's evidence of even more activity, as unseen inhabitants leave little clues to their existence.

Surely a carpenter bee (Xylocopa) lives above this sawdust pile. They make 16 millimeter holes, unbelievably and perfectly round.

A vole probably made this hole. I filled it in a few weeks ago, and it was neatly opened up again several days later. I've seen no evidence of vole damage, though.

I'll continue to keep an eye out for more backyard wildlife!

I'm loving the cool greens of early summer, like this hydrangea...

...and this young goldenrod plant.



This wave petunia adds a bit of cool color.



I've finished my Snapdragon Tam. I'm very satisfied with how it turned out, and I've already started on the matching mittens!

Today I'm making authentic French baguettes--yeast-free, using sourdough starter. I'm absolutely fascinated by this delicate bread that must be eaten the same day it's baked or, as author Nancy Silverton warns, it will only be good for making toast. I'm planning on freezing the baguettes and thawing them out as needed. I have a feeling that will happen pretty frequently!

Baking bread in the summertime can make you feel a bit wilted, however. I thought I'd showcase a recipe that's perfect for a humid summer day. It's quick, easy, and healthy, too. It takes five minutes to go from this:



To this:

I buy 5 pound bags of mixed frozen fruit - blackberry, raspberry, and blueberry - at Sam's Club. It's easy to use fresh fruit, but remember to throw in a few ice cubes to give it the right consistency. Yogurt can substitute for milk.

Perfect Fruit Smoothies

1 1/2 cups of frozen fruit

1/2 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons sugar

Place all ingredients in your food processor and blend until smooth.

Enjoy!