Shoestring Chic #3: The Ultimate Wool Skirt

I was trying to take a picture of the toothbrushes.  Joking.  OK, this is my favorite skirt.  I should have taken a better close up so you could see the multitude shades and colors in it.  I can wear every color in the world with it and it looks great. 

You've seen this necklace before.

Shoestring Chic:

vintage plaid wool skirt: $24

brown wool non-hoodie: $4

long john top is from high school, I think

scarf: gift

boots: $40

tights: $7

total:  $75

Old Thread on Wooden Spools

Every time I had a few minutes, I would unwind the old thread from a wooden spool.  One of my friends was cleaning out her sewing cupboard.  I didn't want to use the old thread because it can be weak and rotten.

But I'm saving the lovely spools to wind ribbon on.

Don't forget!  Shoestring Chic #3 tomorrow!

Sunday Dinner: Make-Ahead Black Beans and Rice

My friend Maria converted the Black Bean and Rice Skillet recipe in Simply in Season to an oven baked recipe.  I riffed on her recipe to have an easy Sunday dinner, happy for a tasty alternative to beef roasts.  And oven baked rice gets so light and chewy, not gummy. 

Remember, even though these make-ahead meals serve my family as Sunday dinner, you can use these menus and ideas any time you have to be away a chunk of time and want dinner basically waiting when you return home.  I love opening the door and having good smells meet me.

Menu:
Oven black beans and rice
tortillas, cilantro
guacamole
raw beet salad
(this would be a good place for a dessert, right?  we went to a party instead. . .where Ben managed to snag 4 brownies)

Friday:
check the avocadoes for ripeness - pop them in the fridge to hold for Sunday
put frozen black beans in fridge to thaw
make beet salad

Saturday:
thaw tortillas

Sunday morning:
assemble black beans and rice - put in oven on timed bake

Sunday noon:
make guacamole
sprinkle cheese on black beans and rice
set table
chop cilantro
warm tortillas

Oven Black Beans and Rice
Stir together in oven proof dish, approx. 9x13:
1 chopped onion
2 c. cooked black beans
1 c. white rice
2 c. chicken stock
some chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper to taste

Cover and bake at 350 for 1 hour.  Sprinkle with cheese and allow to melt before serving.  Great served with tortillas or tortilla chips, and all the toppings you like.

And a note about guacamole:  I mash an avocado with a hand masher, the zest and juice of a lemon or lime, a little olive oil, salt and pepper, some cumin, and a little chopped onion or garlic.  Incomparable flavor.  Sometimes I add cilantro or chopped tomatoes.

Rebecca Herself

You asked to meet Rebecca because I quote her so often.  She is my on-call cooking, parenting, sewing, and sanity hotline.

Driving to the farm at dusk. . .

the winter sunset out her kitchen window. . .

the window over the kitchen sink. . . (the little stand on the right is laminated hymns - you can flip to a hymn with your soapy, wet hand and sing the whole thing as you work.  Made by the clever Amish).

We'll be friends forever.

Mending Tights and Slippers

I wanted to show you two recent mending jobs, and it happens that they are both for Genevieve's lower half!

You know how uncomfortable it is to watch little girls trying to haul up their slipping-down tights?  I mean, I lose my focus entirely when my tights won't stay up and I am almost as distracted by Genevieve's efforts to yank up her tights.  So I stitched two pieces of elastic into the top.  These are sweater tights, so they are sturdy enough to handle that. 

These same tights (which I love - they go with everything and they say everything a child's clothes should say) also suffered a hole in the knee.  I simply drew the hole together with a regular needle and yellow thread to match.  It's a visible mend, but still, Genevieve can get more wear out of these favorite tights.

The other lower half mending job was patching some badly fraying material on Genevieve's slippers. 

I covered most of the fraying by handstitching a wide black grosgrain ribbon around the bottom edge.  I eyeballed two tucks near the toes to take in the extra ribbon. 

As I sewed, I was awkwardly sticking one hand inside the slipper until it slowly dawned on me that this is the purpose of darning eggs (or mushrooms, as Marlyn clued me in).  So I got the sweet little one that came with my sewing valet, and it worked so much better.

The slippers are in heavy action again.

Buttered Noodles with Saffron

Do you know about brown butter?  It's divine.  Just heat butter in a pan until it foams and then turns brown and then quick, get if off the burner before it scorches.  Pour it over any steamed vegetable (angels will sing).

Here, I made buttered pasta from my childhood memories.

Boil 12 ounces egg noodles al dente (I used semolina pasta because that's all I had and I didn't have the gumption to make my own noodles). 

Drain and set aside in serving dish, covered.  Melt 2-3 Tbs. butter in the empty pasta pot.  Add a pinch or two of saffron and salt to taste.  Stir and watch.  As soon as it turns caramel brown, turn off the heat, dump in a few tablespoons breadcrumbs, and the cooked pasta.  Mix thoroughly.  Return to serving dish, using a silicon scraper to get all the good stuff out the of the pot.

We ate our pasta with 7-Layer Salad.  Now, back in the day, the noodles and the salad both would have been side dishes to a meat, with probably bread or potatoes to boot.  I think it's thriftier and more balanced to have the simple, chewy noodles next to a complex, rich salad with great texture.

But I think that was the night we ate Peach Kuchen later on.

Fast and Easy Diaper Soakers

An (Embarrassing) Progression of Realizations:

1.  Ben's pajamas are wet in the morning, unless he's wearing a random Pull-up.
2.  I should buy Pull-ups because I can't keep up with the pee-stinky laundry (wait, I have lots of excellent reasons for using cloth, not disposables!!).
3.  Wait, what if his cloth diapers could absorb more?
4.  Like, what if I bought soakers?  ohhhhhhhh, SOAKERS.

Very rapid progression from stuffing cloth wipes in his diapers to online research to sewing machine, where I proudly whipped out 7 of these babies:  now I can keep up with the laundry!

(Construction & Usage:  5-7 layers of flannel or knit pants - the occasional towel scrap too;  cut in a bell shape; straight stitch 1/2" from edge; zigzag edges together;  ugly but good at their job - put the bell upside down on the little boy's fire hose, so the wide part of the bell is where it's needed the most)

The real question is this:  how did I make it to my secondborn's third year before I heard of soakers and needed them?  What else am I missing in life?