Foodie Friday: Frijoladillas

I was felled by the mighty stomach bug last Thursday, and I'm just now (Thursday week) getting my feet back under me.  I don't remember the last time I was so sick!  I couldn't stay awake for more than an hour at a time, was horrifically nauseated every moment I was awake (so much so that I could hardly bear to look at a book or screen or anything), and even ended up in the PETU on Sunday night for IV fluids.  Fun times.

That said, my menu plans for this week went quite out the window last Friday morning.  Fortunately, I had bought a bunch of ready-meals from Trader Joe's early last week, in anticipation of disaster, and have been making use of them instead.  My appetite has also been slow to return, so menu planning for next week has been challenging as well, but groceries must be bought and children fed, so I stuck with the simplest things I could think of.  One of my easy go-to meals during fasting times is one I happened upon this past Nativity fast. This meal is more about assembly than cooking and comes together so quickly.  I tend to keep the ingredients for this meal on hand just in case.

Frijoladillas (adapted from Bean and Corn Quesadillas from Ready-Set-Eat)

• 1 package Fajita-size tortillas
• 1 can vegetarian refried beans
• Chunky salsa (I like Chi-Chis mild salsa, but I'm not a big fan of spicy or salsa, so get whatever you like best)
• Frozen or canned corn (be sure to drain if using canned)
• 2-3 scallions, green parts only
• Optional: red bell peppers, canned mushrooms, zucchini, canned black beans

Spray a fry pan with cooking spray and preheat pan on medium high heat.  Spread thick layer of beans on two tortillas.  Lay one tortilla bean-side up in the bottom of the pan and layer corn and scallions lightly on top.

Spoon a few tablespoons of salsa on top and add other tortilla, bean-side down.  Fry until golden brown and flip to fry other side.  Repeat until beans or tortillas are used up.  Serve with additional salsa and guacamole.

(For additional toppings, fry diced red bell peppers, one 4 oz can mushrooms and one small diced zucchini together and add a few tablespoons of the mixture to the tortillas with the corn/scallions--do not overfill or the tortilla will fall apart on flipping.  You can also add a tablespoon or two of cooked black beans if you like).

For non-fasting seasons, add shredded cheddar cheese and serve with sour cream.

Random Card Parade

Just a random card parade today--these are cards I made earlier this spring to use up some designer series paper scraps I had lying around.  The chalkboard ones are CASEd from Jen Arkfeld, but the rest are just simple designs I made up myself.

The Vintage Seven: A Capsule

Let me just say at the outset that I'm not a fashion blogger. 
I don't have anyone following me around with a camera, and indeed,
I had to mine our photo archive fairly deeply in order to find pictures of myself
to include with this post.

I've written some about wardrobe and a bit about my evolving fashion sense.  As I head into the home stretch of this pregnancy, I have to be more creative in order to maintain my vintage sense.  Many of my vintage or vintage reproduction clothes don't fit any longer, and I'm relying on accessories and a retro hairstyle to achieve a vibe rather than a total look.  That said, however, I was thinking it might be interesting to post a little blurb on the seven things that I consider essential to my vintage wardrobe, or The Vintage Seven.  These are maternity- and nursing-friendly (at least for the most part), and flattering to a post partum figure.

First is a dress. I love my vintage separates, but honestly, a just-below the knee dress is the most versatile thing in my closet these days, and gives me the most options for comfort and layering. I'm 5'5" and I find a 41-42" dress is the perfect length.  I've had extremely good luck with eshakti.com--all their dresses are customizable (you can customize length, sleeves, and measurements, all for a very low fee), and they have nice retro designs. The prices are what I would consider mid-range and there are often coupons and incentives available.  Oh, and did I mention that all their dresses have POCKETS??

The print dress has buttons on the bodice, making it nursing friendly, and the second one is knit, so you could pull the sides away for nursing.  Both have elasticized back waists for comfort and slightly higher waists to hide post-partum tummies. I have the first dress in a solid teal crepe and find it to be very comfortable. (I love the print on this one, however--I'm such a sucker for novelty prints!) I have the purple dress in a similar style but in green, and have been able to wear it all through the winter by layering with a mid-weight turtleneck and cardigan. To make the dresses warmer and nursing friendly, layering with a nursing camisole (or even a regular camisole) works great.  I also layer long-sleeve shirts under short-sleeve dresses during winter.  As long as I've got a cardigan over it, it looks fine.  I always wear a slip with my dresses in the winter, which adds a layer as well.  I'm fond of the half slips from A Slip Shop, as they can visually lengthen a dress or skirt that is a tad too short, but also work well under any other dress as well.

Second is a good pair of tights.  I've been wearing Foot Traffic cotton tights for two winters now and I'm not going back to anything else.  The waist band is the most comfortable thing I've found, they wash and wear well, and hold up over the course of a winter even with daily wear.  I have several pairs in different neutral colors so I can mix and match.  You can purchase them directly from Foot Traffic, but I've found Sock Dreams to have a better color selection (I love that Heather Mocha color--so vintage!) and better shipping options.  

Third is a light-weight coordinating cardigan.  For spring and early fall, I really love H&M's light weight cardigans--the length is just right to wear with a dress and can be buttoned up or left open.  They are inexpensive and come in decent array of colors, but if you just want to have a few, stick with black and mushroom as they will go with the most things.  Old Navy has decent light-weight cardigans as well.




Fourth is a heavy-weight cardigan. For the colder months, I layer a heavier weight cardigan in a neutral color; this winter I bought an off-white cardigan from Chadwick's (on clearance!) that has been a work horse for me.  I also have a vintage wool knit cardigan I found on a thrift store rack that goes with several of my vintage dresses.

Fifth is a nice vintage or vintage reproduction brooch.  I am very fond of the resin reproductions available from Acorn and Will, a UK-based online retailer.  They are very reasonably priced, even with the exchange rate, sturdy, not vulnerable to little hands pulling on them, and come in a wide variety of quirky shapes and colors.  I wear one almost every day.  I have other vintage brooches that I wear, of course, but the metal ones are a little prone to catching on things, and my youngest daughter is especially grabby with jewelry, so the resin brooches tend to fare the best throughout the day.

Sixth is a headscarf.  Most of my go-to vintage hair styles (meaning they are easily done in five minutes or less) feature a square scarf.  The one I use most often is the backroll (tutorial HERE), but I use variations on it with pin curls when I'm letting a pin curl set dry for a day.  I often check ebay and etsy for good deals on vintage scarves, and whenever I'm in a thrift shop, I have a look at their accessories section.  I did a brief etsy search for 1940s vintage scarf and came up with this, this, and this; all would work well for easy vintage hair styles. I sometimes use a snood (the best ones I've found are from Arthelia's Attic), but victory rolls take a bit of time to get right, and scarves are faster.

As a hair aside, my hair routine right now consists of doing a wet set with pin curls about two times a week.  I usually do a set in the morning, put a scarf around it and leave it all day and overnight, and then take the pins out the following morning.  I finger comb, roll the front bang and pull the sides back with clips or tie a scarf around my head for day two.  The second day, I give the curls a good brush, then either do a scarf backroll, tie the scarf around my hair again, or pull up in a ponytail with the scarf around the pony.  I repeat until my hair is limp or too dirty to style (usually day 4 or 5).  

Seventh is a good pair of shoes.  Maybe it is a sign that I'm getting older, but on a daily basis, I just don't have the patience for shoes that pinch or make my feet hurt.  I want shoes I can slip on and off easily, run around after kids, and feel comfortable all day.  I also want them to fit my total look, and while many women in the 1940s and 1950s wore heels, wartime also meant that women began to wear sensible shoes for working--low- heeled oxfords, flats, loafers, clogs, and the like.  My Dansko professional clogs are easily the most comfortable shoes I own, and they go with every thing, so I decided that they are my default shoes for spring/fall/winter (weather permitting). I have a black and brown pair, and wear them both about equally.  I have a pair of reddish Dansko closed-toe sandals for summer that are equally comfortable and are similar to a pair of shoes I saw in a 1940s Sears-Roebuck catalog.  I got both pairs used on ebay for under $50.  I have a few other pairs of random shoes that I wear sometimes (thrifted black heeled oxfords for fall, thrifted bright green ballet flats for spring, and some neutral low-heel wedges for summer--see photos above), but mostly I go for the Danskos.  I also have a pair of green LL Bean Tall Wellies for bad weather.  I had a terrible time finding tall wellies that fit around my muscular calves, and these work great!! I bought wellie warmers to make them work for the snowy months as well.

Danskos are the best!

Talking Tuesday #3

"Thanks to monastics, prayer continues unceasing on earth, and the whole world profits, for through prayer the world continues to exist; but when prayer fails the world will perish." ~ St. Silouan the Athonite (as quoted in Scent of Holiness by Constantina Palmer)

Broken Record

No Quick Takes today--I fear I'm beginning to sound like a broken record, with our tales of sickness woes, but I've been down with stomach flu since mid-day yesterday and I can hardly stand to look at a computer screen for more than a few minutes or the nausea gets more intense than it already is.  I've been able to keep down ginger ale today, and a few saltines this afternoon, but as the day has worn on, I'm more and more queasy again.  Honestly, it's been a long time since I've been too sick to care for myself or my children (and of course, my hubby is at a meeting this evening so I'm on my own for bedtime...yay for that).  Thank goodness for diningin.com and early bedtimes.

And to leave you with a picture: 29 weeks tomorrow.

Foodie Friday: Chick'n Pot Pie

I am a complete sucker for alliteration and I just can't help myself.  (Alice's aunt ate apples and acorns around August...Quincy's quilters quit quilting quickly...Ralph's reindeer rose rapidly and ran around the room...someone stop me!)

In an effort to bring more structure to this blog, and also to get myself onto a more regular posting schedule, I'm starting another new thing for this blog: Foodie Friday.  It's really just a fancy way to say I'm going to try and post a recipe on Fridays.

As a general rule, Fridays are fasting days in the Orthodox Church, but outside of specific fasting seasons, I'll try to post non-fasting recipes as well.  During the Great Fast, however, I think it prudent to stick with fasting-friendly recipes.  (For those who may be unfamiliar with Orthodox fasting rules, recipes are vegan, and depending on strictness of practice, may be oil-free as well.  Fish is a gray area, and different parts of the Orthodox world treat it differently.  Almost all Orthodox treat "junk" fish like shrimp and scallops as falling under every day fasting, and treat fish with spines as days designated for "fish," such as Annunciation or other big feast and saints' days, but some ethnics treat all fish as "fasting-friendly"  Our own practice is currently somewhere in the middle due to allergies and food intolerances).   Please go by the recommendation of your spiritual father as to the place of fish in your fasting repertoire.

And without further ado: the first recipe!  Sorry there are no pictures--I'll try to have more photos of the recipes as we go forward.

Chick'n Pot Pie (adapted from the Pillsbury website)

• 1 package vegan refrigerated pie crust (pillsbury and many store brands are vegan; just check the label)**
• 1 package Gardein Teriyaki Chick'n Strips, defrosted (set the sauce packet aside--you'll need it later)
• 1/3 c. margarine (I use Earth Balance as a general rule)
• 1/3 c. chopped onion
• 1/3 c. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 1 1/2 c. no-chicken boullion (I like Better Than Boullion)
• 1/2 c. non-dairy milk (unsweetened soy works well, although unsweetened coconut would probably work equally well if you are restricting soy)
• 2 packages frozen mixed vegetables (I use Bird's Eye Steamers with an asparagus-corn-carrot-green pea combination because of green bean allergies, but any mixed veg would work)--don't worry about defrosting

Preheat to 425.  In medium sauce pan, melt margarine, add onion and stir to coat.  Allow onion to cook for 2-3 minutes to soften, then add flour. Slowly add (soy) milk and broth, whisking briskly.  Bring to boil and allow to thicken slightly.  Add salt and pepper and teriyaki sauce pack from chick'n strips.  Set aside.

In a separate pan, place chick'n strips and a small amount of oil to coat the bottom of the pan.  Saute on medium-high heat until lightly browned and heated through, about 5-7 minutes (10 if cooking from completely frozen).  Remove from pan and allow to cool slightly. Cut strips into bite size pieces.

Add chick'n and frozen veg to sauce, stir to combine, and spoon mixture into the bottom of a glass 9x13 pan.  Cover with pie crusts (you'll have to overlap them slightly in the middle in order to cover the whole pan).  Bake 30-40 minutes or until top crust is nicely browned.  Cover crust edges with foil during last 5-10 minutes of baking in order to prevent overbrowning.  Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

**You can make this as a traditional pie, in a glass pie plate, but I find that the amount of sauce is too much for my shallow plate, and overflows, making a mess in the oven.  I like doing it this way because the bottom crust almost always ends up soggy and messy anyway, and I don't have to worry as much about overflows.  I would recommend putting a baking sheet under whatever size pan you use, just in case.

Quiet Clean Wednesday

I'm not sure how many of you who read this blog are Orthodox Christians, but for those who may just be stopping in, the Orthodox Church started Lent this week.  I know Western Christians are wrapping up their Lent, and gearing up for Holy Week next week, but we are just at the beginning of our struggle this year.  It is one of those odd years when Western and Eastern Easter are about as far apart on the calendar as they can be.  We celebrate Pascha (Easter) May 5 this year.

So this week is Clean Week, the first week of the Great Fast.  Lent hits me differently every year, and this year is no exception.  I often find myself eager for the corrective quiet and downshift of the Lenten season, and more than ready to come back from the feasting of the winter holidays.  But this year, the winter holidays are long past, spring is nearly sprung, and I've been dreading more than anticipating Lent.  It probably has something to do with starting the third trimester of my fifth pregnancy in six years, and something to do with a gastroparesis flare, which has made most foods beyond toast and breakfast cereal seem completely unpalatable to me, and going on six weeks of continual respiratory illness in the household.  We've barely begun and I'm tired already.

My friend Molly wrote yesterday about the reality of the Fast.  I thought it fitting, especially since it was only day two.  Her thoughtful post is usually something said out loud around week five, not day two.  But it remains a great truth of the Fast--every moment of every day is one to strive and pray and be confronted with the reality that this journey is HARD.  I started reading The Scent of Holiness last night, a book about one woman's experience of women's monasticism in Greece, and the lessons she derived from visiting the same monastery over the course of several years.  Each chapter is a short, digestible bite, but each story has its own little spiritual lesson.  The chapter I read just before turning off the light last night was about the way the nuns continually pray during their daily work.  The rhythm of prayer they employ during their working time is so precious and needful than Ms. Palmer finds herself increasingly reluctant to engage the nuns in conversation during the work times, and instead, joins in the prayers herself.  The concept of continual prayer is not a new one to me, but I found her description of the reality of it very powerful.  How would it be if my speech were restrained and re-trained by a habit of continual prayer? 

I do think that finding true quietness is the hardest part of Lent for me.  I am by nature a quiet and introspective person--I generally welcome time alone to think and ponder and simply be.  With so many small high-needs children under foot, it is difficult to find that quiet place and to be peaceful in the moment.  They are naturally noisy, being small children, and the small things we do in our household to signal the start of Lent (unplugging the living room stereo, eating uncooked food for supper, etc) seems to pass them by, largely unnoticed (Piglet is old enough to notice and ask questions, but for the most part at this age, I think he sees it as an imposition, rather than a useful spiritual discipline; I'm an adult, and sometimes I think the same thing!  But that is my struggle...)  Right now, the enforced quiet seems deafening in a way that isn't particularly helpful to me.  On the other hand, perhaps I'm supposed to be deafened, as a sort of corrective.

In any case, I wish all of us a good struggle, peace for the Fast, and hope for the Resurrection.  "Turn not Thy face from Thy servant, for I am afflicted! Hear me speedily, attend to my soul, and deliver it!"

Talking Tuesday #2

To uproot sin and the evil that is so imbedded in our sinning can 
be done only by divine power, for it is impossible and outside man's 
competence to uproot sin. To struggle, yes, to continue to fight, to 
inflict blows, and to receive setbacks is in your power. To uproot, 
however, belongs to God alone. If you could have done it on your own, 
what would have been the need for the coming of the Lord? For just as 
an eye cannot see without light, nor can one speak without a tongue, 
nor hear without ears, nor walk without feet, nor carry on works without
hands, so you cannot be saved without Jesus nor enter into the 
Kingdom of Heaven.

St, Macarius, Homily 3.4

7 QT: Got Liver?

--1--

We are almost two weeks into the respiratory plague that has felled us all, one by one.  We are still coughing and hacking, and going through tissues and handkerchiefs like they are going out of style.  I'm still trying to get the boys to remember that cloth napkins and the couch are NOT suitable substitutes for a tissue.  Le sigh.

--2--

I started feeling like death warmed over about a week ago, and by Tuesday, I was just dragging myself out of bed every day, wanting to sleep every two hours, and barely functional.  I chalked it up to pregnancy and illness and general wimpiness on my part, but on Wednesday, my midwife informed me that my iron was VERY low.  Suddenly, I felt much better--I'm not a wimp after all!  My iron is just too low.  I started a supplement right away, and while I'm not yet up to a full dose, I will say that I'm feeling better.  Not run-a-marathon better, but better, nonetheless.  I'll take it.  

--3--

28 weeks

Tomorrow marks the official start of the 3rd trimester--hello 28 weeks!  I admit that I've let myself go a little this week--I've not wet-set my hair for a whole week, and I'm not getting out of yoga pants many days, but today I did make a bit of an effort to pull myself together and put the rolls in my hair and got a brooch pinned to my sweater (not pictured).  Not managing make up just yet, but I'll get there.  Hopefully as my iron levels improve, I'll feel more like getting my vintage on in the a.m.

--4--

I know many of you on this linky are most of the way through Lent by now, and are gearing up for Holy Week soon, but we Orthodox are starting our Lenten journey on Monday.  Pascha falls on May 5 this year, which is about as late as it can be, but at least we can be reasonably certain of not marching around the church at midnight in snow!  In any case, for those who are in the home stretch, and for those of us just beginning the Fast, a blessed journey to Pascha.  Forgive me a sinner.

--5--

Given the howls of rage on the blogs in the last 48 hours, it appears that everyone now knows that Google is abandoning those of us loyal to it's RSS Reader.  I for one am put out.  I just started using Feedly, which has a nice migration tool for the old Reader, so at least I don't have to migrate all my feeds over manually, but I don't love the look of it (too Pinterest-y), and I'm still getting used to finding everything on it.  Besides, I liked the old Reader!! And I don't like change!  Waaaah!!!

--6--

One of the books in our extensive children's lit collection is Big Ball of String, by Marion Holland.  It was originally published in 1958 as part of the Beginner Reader books by Dr. Suess, and I grew up reading it.  I had a bit of trouble finding it for my own children as it is long out of print, but it has grown to be quite a favorite lately with both boys.  Boo has it completely memorized, with intonation, now, and it is hilariously cute to listen to him "read" it to himself or to Birdie.  He isn't yet three, so he still has some cute toddler pronounciation issues, and that just adds to the cuteness factor.  Okay, shutting up now.

--7--

My creative pursuits this week have been limited to My Digital Studio (MDS).  I've said it before, I'll say it again, I really enjoy working with this software!  I'm still learning all the ins and outs, but I had a good time creating some cards using one sketch.  (I agreed to make some samples for a stamping event in June, and I have to use the same sketch for each sample).  It is interesting to see how each card can use the same layout but look completely different.  And to that end, I present my mustaches card.  It is based on a card I saw from Linda Callahan, but uses a different stamp set.  

 

 Oh, and while I'm at it, my friend Emily and her husband are raising money to adopt a little girl from the Congo--she is holding a Facebook auction to raise money, and I know they'd be grateful if you'd pop on by and see if something catches your fancy.  I donated three packs of cards to the auction, so check them out!!  If you have trouble finding the auction through the link, friend her on FB to make a bid.

Right, that's it for me.  Go see Jen and Co for more Quick Takes!

Talking Tuesday #1

I've decided to give this blog a tiny bit more structure, and to that end, I'm instituting "Talking Tuesday", consisting of a quote (short or long) from my quote book, or something I've been reading lately.

"The wise man in the storm prays to God, not for safety from danger, but for deliverance from fear." ~Emerson

Painting: Jan Theunisz Blankerhoff

Passing Go, Not Collecting $100

I know it is Friday, I know I missed last week's Quick Takes, but honestly, these takes would just be a big pile o' whiney, so I think I'm going to take a pass this week.  My husband was gone for a week, came home ridiculously sick, I'm coming down with it, and the kids are still fighting it.  So we're a fun bunch of respiratory complaint over here.

26 weeks 5 days o' huge.  (With hair in pincurls and scarf--I'm classy that way)

I'll just leave you with a photo of me, taken yesterday--I figured since this baby isn't getting any ultrasound pictures (boo-hoo!), I'd better take some belly shots for the baby book.  I'm officially entering beached whale territory, but I like the Vermeer-esque look of the photo.  (Thank goodness for auto-timer and a well-placed bookshelf).

Storytime!

I know it has been quiet around here--my husband was gone for a week and my sister came to keep me company for the duration, so things just ran a bit differently for a while.  But my husband returned this morning, and hopefully things will slide back into our weird version of normal again soon.  

I have another card parade for you today!  I worked my way through the Storytime paper in late January, and am pleased with the results.  I still have some little scraps lying around that I might use to make paper dresses with, but otherwise, I used up the whole pack!  I'm posting one or two cards that I posted previously with this set, just because it fits the theme.

A swap card I made last fall.

 

CASEd from Ann Schach.

This one is all me--I fiddled a lot with this layout, but I'm pretty happy with the result!  I also did very little stamping with this suite.  There were two sheets of dsp that were full of these little kids to cut out, and so I spent two evenings cutting until my fingers cramped, but then it was like playing with paper dolls!  I just had to figure out what do with with all of them!

 I got into stamping directly on the dsp during this series--I like how the ruled note paper worked here.

This is CASEd from Ann again, but I did mine as an MDS digital hybrid and created the background in MDS, had it professionally printed, cut it down, mounted it on the card, and added the sledding kids and sentiment.  Easy-peasy!

I had the idea for these cards in my head, and I'm fairly happy with how the finished cards compare.

 I tried to keep the sentiments simple and yet scaled properly for the focal point--it was a little tricky to find sentiments that worked well!

 I confess, I loved these little ABC/1-2-3 cards that came with the pack, but I was a little at a loss as to how to showcase them.  They probably would have worked best on a scrapbook page, but I don't scrap like that, so I was a little stumped until I happened across Julie Davison's excellent sketch, and suddenly, I knew how I was going to use them!  (It also helped me make a serious dent in the over supply of So Saffron I had lying around!) I used all 26+ of these little cards in this layout--these are just a few random picks from the pile.

 These two kids were the peskiest to cut out, with all those little bubbles, and there were 4 of them, but I'm glad I did!  I think this card might be my favorite of the layouts--simple yet engaging.