Summer Sewing So Far

Although it's been a busy first couple weeks of summer break (trips to see friends, continuing educuation workshops, dentist appointments, etc.), I have had a couple days free to engage in marathon sewing sessions.  And I even remembered to stop to eat lunch!

First, I made this bag for another friend as she embarks on a new adventure in Boston.  I guess when you move to Boston, you just get the urge to have your friend make you a bag.  (Yes that's a dinosaur on the flap.  I can tell you're jealous!)

Next I made this dress.  I guess I'm getting into maxi dresses more than I realized because I now own something like four of them, with additional ones planned.  Please excuse the unzipped part in the 2nd picture, as Virginia is just a tad bit bustier than I am.

 

I made the yoke of this blouse out of an old silk jacket that a coworker gave to me.  The jacket was too small but I was able to cut out plenty of good fabric to use. 

This dress was made using the same pattern as the blouse.  I just lengthened the skirt portion and cut away the middle of the top part to make straps instead of a full yoke.  It's made from an old bed sheet.  A couple months ago I was shopping in an antique store and one of the staff stopped me to say that the fabric (I was wearing a top made from it) was very familiar to her.  Turns out that she used to own the same pair of sheets.  I didn't know whether to be proud of my thrifty ways or embarrassed about others knowing that I was walking around in something that people used to sleep between.  I think the von Trapps would approve.

I realize I haven't posted pics of my jeans yet, but now is as good of time as any.  I really, really love these pants, though I wish they had just the tiniest bit of stretch in them, as that may have prevented me from ripping the crotch seam wide open on a recent trip to visit friends.  I didn't know whether to be more embarrassed by the giant gaping hole in the nether region of my pants or by my apparently shoddy seamstress skills.  I guess they tell you to put in a double row of stitching along that seam for a reason.  You can bet that from now on I will be stitching two rows!

 

CSA Week 4

This week we got snow peas, cabbage, rhubarb, red leaf lettuce, cilantro, onions, beets, and a bag of salad mix.  I am going to try to convince HH to also get a mini bread CSA, which comes with half a loaf of bread and some sort of sweet thing every week.  Their booth is right next to the farm's booth, so it couldn't be easier! 

CSA Week 3

This week I took over the duty of picking up the CSA, first off because I'm now on summer break (woohoo!) but also because HH was out of town on a work trip.  I was in the middle of a workshop but I did have enough time during lunch to run home and to the market to grab our veggies. 

We got: broccoli, radishes, lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, cilantro, and kale.  We were supposed to get spearmint as well, but instead I found 2 bunches of cilantro which is fine because we tend to use a lot of cilantro around these parts.  (Though I was looking forward to HH's recommendation of getting some rum and limes in order to enjoy some mojitos, but that can wait for later in the summer.)

I have been eating big salads for lunch and dinner in order to get through our greens, which has helped a bit with the quantity we have gotten.  It's not always the first thing I'm excited to eat, but it's helping me meet or exceed recommendations for the amount of green leafies to eat during the week. 

CSA Week 2

Another crazy amount of greens this week.  From left to right we have lettuce, kale, cabbage, more lettuce (!), onions, kailan (aka Chinese broccoli according to Wikipedia), and fava bean leaves (!?!).

One of the exciting/scary things about participating in a CSA is getting things you've never seen, heard of, or tried before.  I've already eaten quite a few fava bean leaves directly from the bag and they are delicious.  They taste like snap peas I think.

There is no way we are getting through all these greens this week (we are still working on everything from last week) so we are taking some to our parents when we visit them this weekend with the hopes they will enjoy a few salads.

Cotija (?)

So far cheese making reminds me quite a bit of bread making in that you usually use most of the same ingredients no matter what variety of cheese (or bread) you are making.  The process for making specific varieties change slightly (though usually not drastically) so that you can build skill over time.  Once you get comfortable making sandwich bread you nearly have all the skills to make bagels for example.

Usually with bread making though you at least can recognize what the end result was attempting to be (ciabatta rarely turns out to resemble bialy, even though the dough is almost the same).  I can't say the same thing about my cheese-making so far.  I was attempting to make the crumbly Mexican Cotija but the end result seemed harder and more uniform (closer to a Havarti maybe, though really I'm not enough of a cheese expert to tell you).  The results tasted great though so I'm not complaining.

As I said the processes was similar to the other cheese I've made so far, but this is the first time I've had to press the cheese to remove more whey.  I used an old deli container that I poked holes in the bottom of and placed another deli container on top of the cheese inside to create a cheese mold (I should probably just invest in a small cheese mold which would make pressing a lot easier).

I tried all sorts of things to get enough weight on the cheese to press it (it was pressed overnight).  I eventually put the the set up in the sink so that the walls of the sink would help keep the weight stable and wouldn't tip off and send my pot of water (which was acting as the weight) all over the kitchen floor.

After pressing I let the cheese soak in a brine for another day.  I probably should have just stopped right here and eaten the cheese like this.  It looked crumbly and had the level of moisture I expected (I should mention I've only eaten cotija once before so I wasn't exactly sure what I was looking for in terms of flavor and texture).  My recipe said the cheese should age for 14 days so I placed it in my cheese cave and flipped it every day for the next two weeks.

You can see from the picture of the finished cheese below it seems to have dried out too much.  I'm having trouble keeping the humidity high enough in my cave so I may also have to keep the cheese in a plastic bag or Tupperware container with the lid ajar while in the cave to keep the moisture level high enough.

The final result tasted great but I did have to cut off the rind that had built up on it while it was in the cave.  I'm excited to try another pressed cheese to see if I can get better results in the cave during the aging process.

CSA Week 1

With the closing of the farm where we had been CSA members we were able to evaluate our options for a new one to participate in.  We settled on Stoney Plains Organic Farm partially because they offered a "small" share option, though after seeing our first haul I can't imagine how big the "large" share must be.  We will be lucky to get through everything this week.

The CSA came pre-packed and as you can see it was overflowing out of the bag they provided (I just have to remember to bring the bag back next week to trade for our next CSA so they can wash and reuse the bag).

I'm trying something a little different with the photographing of the produce in the attempt to see it all.  Not sure if I totally like it yet.  From left to right we got chard, green onions, endive, kohlrabi, lettuce, cilantro, and kale.  It is going to be nice to have some salads back in our diet.