Phoebe Goes to Church in a Sober Dress

My vision for this dress was a little French girl:  a charcoal grey dress with a bright white Peter Pan collar, worn with black tights and black patent shoes.  In reality, Phoebe looks like a sober little pilgrim, still a darn cute look for a toddler.

But I could also call this dress the Goldilocks dress because I had to try three times before I got it right.  First, when I followed the pattern, the enormous 80s puff sleeves were wearing Phoebe.  Then, I recut the sleeves with a sleeve from another pattern and they turned out to be too small for the arm scye of the dress, but I tucked them in there anyway because it was the night before Phoebe's dedication at church.

She wore the dress to her dedication and it was all bunchy across the shoulders, which no one noticed because Phoebe herself was charming.

We came home after the service with our extended families in tow and had brunch instead of Sunday school.  My husband came up with the idea, and I worked on the menu to make as much ahead as possible.

:::tartines composed of homemade French bread or flax-seed bread, with bacon, proscuitto or ham and yogurt cheese, brie, or local cheddar, or tuna cream cheese, plus onion jam and smoked tomato chutney
:::roasted potatoes, mushrooms, and onion
:::olives
:::fresh fruit tray
:::caramel pecan sticky buns
:::coffee
:::mimosas

Everything was so delicious and leisurely that several people begged to have brunch together every Sunday.

I had decided to salvage the adorable striped buttons off the dress and junk it, but really, Phoebe did look so cute in it, that I found the very last scrap of grey fabric and redid those sleeves a third time.  And finally, finally, I got them reasonably right (still a tad long across the shoulders and through the wrist, but at this point, Phoebe had started shrieking "no!" when the dress crossed her line of sight because I had tried it on her so many times).

I'm really grateful to have pictures to show some snippets of the good times we had.  Thanks to my sister for snapping some phone photos during the service itself; I hear my sister-in-law also got a short video of Phoebe saying "amen" to the congregation, too, and laughing and clapping at them when they started laughing and clapping at her. Oh, Phoebe!

Spiced Meatballs

I got this recipe from a Lebanese man at market, who has been in the US for more than 30 years and is not a chef by training.  But his food is delicious and these meatballs are an easy way to make Middle Eastern food at home.

Typically I serve these meatballs with quinoa or couscous, flavored simply with olive oil, parsley and garlic, plus some wilted spinach.

I love Middle Eastern food, but it makes me sad these days in the midst of all the fear and dissension about refugees.  Our church is currently helping to re-settle a Syrian family; Ben was at their place last week ostensibly to play soccer with their boys, but all he could talk about when he came home was Randa's food.  He asked me to get her recipes, bless his heart.

Food is my favorite cultural sharing, so I hope to eat Randa's food, too, and communicate my love in whatever way I can.

Spiced Meatballs from Mr. Saif

In a mixing bowl, combine and let stand together about 10 minutes:
1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup plain yogurt

Separately, combine and let stand together also about 10 minutes:
1/3 cup raisins
boiling water to cover

Drain raisins and add to yogurt mixture.

Add:
1/2 cup finely chopped toasted walnuts
2 finely chopped scallions
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground allspice
1 tsp. salt
1/4  tsp. freshly ground black pepper
dash hot sauce, or cayenne, to taste
1 lb. ground lamb or beef

Mix gently and thoroughly.  Form into 1" meatballs and space out on baking sheet (I line mine with a Silpat). Bake at 350F for 15-25 minutes, depending on how big your 1" meatballs really are. Serve hot over rice or cous cous.

How I Grocery Shop

I'll start by saying we drive a gas-hog SUV because that's what we could pay cash for last summer (it's a 2004) and haul our family with some extras.  Fortunately, we seldom drive our car because we live in walking distance of most of what we need and my husband's firm pays his travel expenses.  But when I realized that my local grocery store would give $.10 off per gallon of gas per $50 spent, I started making some changes to how I shop.

I aim to get as close to $50 dollar increments as possible.  This usually means I shop twice or three times a month, $50 each time.  I also shop at the farmers' market twice a week on the walk to school and about every other month, do a large bulk-food shop at Amish stores out in the country.

For the grocery store, I keep a running list and start planning a shopping trip when I think I can hit $50 and can do it without kids.

I never take my kids grocery shopping.  Never.

Even though I look at the store circular and my coupons before I go to the store, I still have to concentrate and make decisions on the spot, and kids would distract me.

I only take my kids on short errands when I have a short list and know exactly what I need so I don't have to make decisions with kids milling around me.  That is probably my biggest thrifty tip for shopping! (And I realize not everyone can work their schedule that way, but I'm sure they have their tricks for making the shopping work with kids).

I also look at my calendar before I go shopping to see what events are coming up so I know if there's anything I should stock now or seek on sale.  I'm grateful to have a large pantry and freezer space so that I can take advantage of good sales.

I carry my grocery list and coupons clipped on a little clipboard I made out of cardboard and a binder clip; I used to get so annoyed with trying to use my hand as a hard surface under my list to cross items off my list.

Also, since I am trying to get just over $50, I keep a running total on my list as I put items in the cart, so I'm writing on my list frequently. The clipboard is a wonderful help. Sometimes, I have to put some items back when I get close to $50 because there are some necessary items on my list yet and those other things will just have to wait until next time.

I also try to go shopping when I have the energy and time to not only go through the store and checkout, but also to deal with all the putting-away at home.  On a good day, I even get the cloth bags back out to the car trunk.

I would love to hear how you grocery shop!  I'm sure we can pick up tips from each other.

A Hat for Me

The color I love to wear currently is navy.  I made myself a navy hat, and just to keep it quirky, I added a stripe of some colorful, lumpy yarn in my stash.  I used this pattern, and it was not too hard, although the top got lumpier than I expected.  

When I cast on, I was worried that the hat would not be big enough and so get stretched out a lot when I put it on my head and let the cold and wind get in.  It's big enough, yes, but now I wished it hugged my ears more firmly!  

I started this hat at a worship leaders' retreat a few hours away.  There were some other knitters sprinkled through the audience; one of them was in front of me at the beginning of the weekend, also a few inches into a hat on her circular needles.  The next evening, I saw that very hat on her friend's head, complete with trees and beaver knitted in different colors on its crown!  I had only managed to add another inch of ribbing to my hat.  I was amazed at her speed and my slowness - I bet she was a continental knitter (I use the English technique - yarn in right hand).  

Another knitter, when I marveled at her speedy continental knitting, told me she manage to switch to continental from English in about a week of concentrated effort.  One of my main gripes with knitting is its slowness.  So maybe I should switch.

Also, in the outerwear line, I re-did the fabric scraps and stitching on my black mittens; I used blues and red perle cotton in geometric shapes to ditch the ragamuffin look I had done a few years ago. Navy is edging out the black in my wardrobe, and I love that.

All photos courtesy of Genevieve!

Bright Silver

We have an odd collection of little toddler forks and spoons for Phoebe.  I really can't recall where they all came from.  Some of them are stainless steel and some of them, the ones in this photo, are real sterling silver.  And look:  the tarnish wore off from everyday use, and they are bright and shiny!  No silver polish or rubbing needed, just use.

Perhaps if I ever get some ancestral silver, I will use it every day to enjoy its luster without the effort of polishing.  I love the life lesson here:  beauty and usefulness hand-in-hand.

Now a Blue-Grey Vest

Here are lots of action shots of Phoebe in her vest.  I finished it just before Christmas and kept trying to get Phoebe to model it for the camera.  Silly me.

It's the same pattern as the red vest.

Phoebe is very interested in dressing and undressing these days.  Sometimes she tugs on the vest, trying to get it off and on, and it has stretched out a bit because of that.  Thank goodness it wasn't a terribly complicated pattern with fancy yarn!

Cornflakes are Mennonite Panko

Long before panko hit American grocery stores, we were using crushed cornflakes to give our casseroles and breaded things crunch.  I intend to keep panko on hand, but I just never get around to it; I have cornflakes, I have breadcrumbs, I have other stuff like cornmeal and soda crackers.  Are you a panko keeper?

I made a new baked chicken recipe recently because I wanted to have something to go with greens and mac-and-cheese.  I needed that Southern menu ever since my sister told me that's what her friend's mom cooked on New Year's Day.  

I usually make mac-and-cheese in the slow cooker as a main dish for a vegetarian meal, but this time I used the stovetop version that Genevieve loves to make. It was an intensely satisfying, comforting menu.  I highly recommend it.

Buttermilk Baked Chicken, from Mennonite Country-Style, tweaked a bit by me

Melt 1/4 cup butter in 9x13 baking dish.

Cut up approximately 3-lb. chicken into 4 serving pieces (I save the neck, back, and wings for stock). Sprinkle with 1/2 tsp. salt and some pepper.

Dip in 3/4-1 cup buttermilk or kefir or yogurt thinned with milk.

Roll the drippy pieces in 1 cup crushed cornflakes. (To crush cornflakes, I do it the way my mom taught me:  put cornflakes in a long-ish bag, pinch the end of the bag between your waist and the countertop edge, and roll the cornflakes to crumbs with a rolling pin.  How do you do it?)

 

Place pieces in melted butter. Sprinkle with herbs of your choice and some paprika if you like. 

Cover loosely, either with foil or a baking sheet turned skew.  

Bake at 350F for 1 hour, remove covering, flip pieces of chicken, and bake uncovered 20 minutes longer or until chicken tests done when poked with a fork or an instant-read thermometer.