A picture from last month's trip but it's expressing how I feel. A toast to figuring out how to get back into my blogging groove, particularly as I start the internal debate about Meta and the oligarchy. Not that I'll ever be a whiz at blogging or anything tech but persistence pays off. First, as promised, recipes or links from my last post about our dinner party.
Menu:
shrimp, mango, avocado salsa
cheese coins
soup de poisson and rouille
no knead everything bread
Beef carbonnade
mashed potatoes
sticky toffee pudding
This recipe is so old that I could not find the original link on the internet. Darn google
Cheese coins on YouTube
https://youtu.be/oB8-pUQkKMs?si=vSAic-FscsyLvWbx
I combined a few French fish soup recipes but this one most closely matches how I made mine. We use a potato ricer with three removable plates...using the two largest, to squeeze all the deliciousness but keeping it light.
I used this rouille recipes since I dislike peppers in the recipe above. It calls for some of the fish soup as liquid but I make it with just some lobster "better than bouillon." Vampires don't visit us when I have this in the house.
And King Arthur baker, Martin, gave me the tips I needed to make this bread turn out consistently wonderful. I just made a plain loaf last night to enjoy with soups as the polar vortex sweeps through this week.
Beef Carbonnade America's Test Kitchen
Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes America's Test Kitchen
One of the side benefits of the potato recipe is a whole lot of russet baked potato skins left over. I froze mine and they are thawing now. We will turn them into stuffed potato skin appetizers to take to a Ravens game pot luck tonight. Maybe they too fit in the category of refurbishing.
Sticky Toffee Pudding America's Test Kitchen
With cold and snow in our forecast, I'm especially glad to live in Maryland which I think has the best library system in the US. Between Baltimore's famous Enoch Pratt Library (whose former head librarian is now the current Library of Congress 14th librarian and first woman and African American in that role) and the Baltimore County library which lead the nation decades ago in widening the scope and breadth of library services, I have everything I need to stay home, stay safe and watch the snow fall while I read a good book. My latest favorite is this touching, moving, suspenseful and thought provoking book from 2018. Leif Unger can't write a bad book and I heartily recommend this 2018 one. I may have to recommend it for book group when we meet on Wednesday night.
And now let me show you my small refurbishing projects before I start to prep a new to me sewing pattern for my upcoming sewing retreat.
I own a 12 needle Babylock Embellisher because I love the look of wool and roving embellish onto fabric. And I am a member of a Buy Nothing Facebook group in my area where we can give away (that's my main goal, divesting) or ask for something. The year before last, in "closet change season" I asked for any men's wool sweater with stains or moth holes. I wanted to attempt refurbishing wool sweaters (my favorite fiber) by re sizing them and mending them. This year I finally tackled the two that were gifted to me and I'm thrilled with the result. I could have done "visible mending" on the moth holes in both of these sweaters but since I cut them down to my size (using the Pamela's Patterns T Shirt makeover pattern guide) I decided to see if my embellisher could meld small mending pieces set behind the moth hole. Wow, it blends right in to the naked eye. It's not perfect and purists would show me those labor intensive hand mending techniques that I admire. But I quickly and easily redeemed two cashmere sweaters from the waste land of old clothes and will happily enjoy their warm and comfort for winters to come. Of course they are somewhat plain, deep navy and warm medium blue, sort of typical "guy clothing" colors but I'll be adding scarf each time and am happy with these new additions to my wardrobe.
The color is actually the pretty blue but these pictures came out grey.
Ready for the polar vortex. Cozy clothes, cozy reading and cozy dog
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