Foodie Friday: Winter Cobbler

I made winter cobbler again recently, and thought I should share the recipe, as this iteration went over well with almost everyone in my family!  (Even Ponchik ate it without complaint and that child doesn't like potatoes in any form, nosir.  It's a good thing she looks like me, or I'd wonder where she came from).  I made it again earlier this week and was again well received, so I'll take that as a hit! 

I sort of made it up, but it is loosely based on a recipe I saw in Beatrice Ojakangas' Best Casserole Book Ever as well as a recipe I saw made on The Great British Bake Off.  The trick is to slice all the vegetables very thinly (in disc-shapes).   That way, the zucchini-haters in the family could just remove that layer from their portions. The Bake-Off pie that inspired me to try this again featured couscous as one of the layers, but only half my kids like that, so I ended up serving it on the side.  I think it would be lovely inside, though.

Everyone gobbled this up so quickly, I only had time to snap a photo of Piglet's plate since he was late to dinner that night.

Winter Cobbler

2 medium baking potatoes or 2# baby yellow potatoes, sliced thinly (peeling is optional)

2 medium to large sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly

1 small to medium zucchini, sliced thinly

3 carrots, peeled and sliced thinly

2 small or 1 large sweet onion, halved and sliced (but not diced!)
16 oz package of diced frozen butternut squash (optional)

2 packages of Gardein Teriyaki Chick'n Strips, thawed and diced (set sauce packet aside)

Olive oil (a couple of tablespoons)

Maldon salt (or sea salt)

1 1/2 packages of prepared pie crust (Pillsbury's is vegan)

9x13 glass dish

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray pan with oil to prevent sticking.  Layer vegetables in the pan in order, leaving off the Gardein and pie crust.  (It is important to put the yellow potatoes on the bottom layer, as sweet potatoes get a hard crust and stick if they are on the bottom).  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt (do not stir) and bake in the oven about 50 minutes.  Let stand to cool a bit. *Preroasting the vegetables saves time at the end, but it does take a while, so I find it helpful to do this step earlier in the day.

Add the diced Gardein to the top of the pan, evenly distributed, and drizzle the contents of both sauce packets over the pan.  Do not stir.  Place pie crusts over the top and arrange to your liking.  Cut in some steam vents throughout and bake at 425 for 40-45 minutes, or until pie crust is a deep golden brown.  Let stand for 5 minutes and then slice and serve.

Goes well with couscous.  If you are feeling ambitious, you can add the (prepared) couscous to the pan at the same time as the gardein.

Minimalism Hits the Road: a confession

Earlier this week I was categorizing our household expenses and realized that I've been on a bit of a spree lately. We bought a lot of books this month, mostly for a reading-related fundraiser that our kids' school runs every March, and I've bought a lot of craft-related supplies (fabric, yarn, patterns, etc).  It also happens that the kids needed a bunch of clothing items all at once and suddenly it all added up.  We can afford it financially, but I felt that my consumption was out of order not only with the spirit of simplicity that I try to foster in myself and in my home, but also not really in the spirit of Lent, which is to put aside earthly cares to focus more on spiritual matters and on disciplining the passions in order to imitate Christ.

To crave holiness instead of food or things.  

To my shame, I realized that while I've been trying to slay the dragon of bodily gluttony during Lent, I've been quietly feeding a spirit of gluttony with regard to shopping and consumption.  Or more precisely, a spirit of avarice, which is the close cousin of gluttony and craves material things all out of order with bodily need.  I suppose these dragons are more like Hydras, and when you try to cut off one head one place, several more grow up in other places.  Unless you cauterize the beast at the root, it will continue to rage.

I need to get back into the habit of asking myself questions about potential purchases: does this benefit the household in some way?  Do we need it, or is there something we already have that will work instead?  Will this add to the clutter and chaos in the home or help it?  Is this going to end up in the trash or donation pile after only a few uses?  Why am I shopping right now?

Sometimes I think I'm just not very good at minimalism and simple living.  The spirit of gluttony and avarice that lives in me wants to devour everything--to have all the things, to eat all the things, to be all the things. To be stuffed from top to toe, from roof to basement.  But that is a sinful distortion of a passion that needs taming.  The answer is not to have nothing, but it does mean a more radical approach to what is needful and spiritually helpful.

I confess, I don't have a good answer to that right now.  If my goal as a Christian is salvific dispassionate holiness (that is, proper ordering of the passions in imitation of Christ), then I have far to travel on that road.  Right now, it is a but a faint scent on the wind, something I do not quite grasp.  But I will keep reaching for it, working for it, begging God's mercy and grace to mold me and move me along the road.

Rifle and Co: Birch Floral

Another Rifle and Co. rayon dress!  I wrote on Monday that this dress was a hot mess to start with.  I actually made this dress in February in anticipation of my spring rotation.  My first mistake was trying to make an elastic waistband ala The Staple Dress.  I really like the shape of that dress, and the pattern is actually very similar to the Simplicity 1080 I use for these dresses.

I realize that the Staple Dress pattern calls for elastic shirring instead of an elastic waist band, but I figured the end effect would be similar and an elastic waist band is a lot easier to unpick than shirring.  So I went for it.  And regretted it.  The dress looked awful--the top looked two or three sizes too big,  the elastic in the middle added visual weight to my midsection, and the whole thing just hung weirdly on me.

I was really disappointed, as this fabric had been a birthday present from my husband last summer, and I was really excited to use it.  I unpicked the elastic waist band and set in tucks in the front which helped considerably.  I did retrofit them, so the tucks are a bit deeper than how they are on the pattern, but I think it works.

  The sleeves are still a bit big on me (I don't really know why--I cut this exactly the same as I always do--maybe the fabric shifted a bit during cutting), but taking the front in and redoing the back elastic helped the fit on the top a lot.  This dress also came out slightly longer than my other dresses off the same pattern, so I think the fabric must have shifted a bit during chalking/cutting.

The next problem was the pocket.  I had originally put a kangaroo pocket on the dress, but it just hung strangely and looked bad.  I kept looking at this dress in my closet and not wanting to wear it because the pocket looked so bad.  Well, this rayon was expensive enough that I wanted to salvage the dress!  (Plus I really like the print)  After the pocket success of my Painted Roses rayon, I knew I had to switch out the pocket for the patch pockets, so I did that last Friday morning and now I'm super happy with this dress!  (I made another rayon dress at the same time as this one and I will have to do the same thing to that dress as well)

I don't remember right now, but I think I cut the back piece in between my old back piece and the front piece--so probably 5/8" off both side seams.  I had a couple of dresses that I cut this way before I decided to just cut the back and front the same width (which is just right).

I again layered a navy blue long sleeve shirt underneath for warmth and added a heavy weight cotton sweater and cotton-wool cowl over top.  The combination is a nice one for warmth and comfort.  It was particularly damp and chilly the day I wore this dress--I got rained on as I was finishing up taking photos!

The print is a little bolder than what I usually go for, but I like it.  All in all, a success!  I'm glad I stuck with the fitting and design changes, because I think it is a great addition to my closet.

Just the facts:

Birch Floral dress: Rifle and Co. for Cotton+Steel rayon challis fabric (from the Les Fleurs line); Simplicity 1080 (redrafted), elastic, bias binding

Undershirt: Loft via ThredUp

Sweater: LLBean (from last spring)

Cowl: me-made from Main Street Reserve cotton-wool yarn

Earrings: etsy

Tights: Foot Traffic Signature Cotton Tights in Navy via Sock Dreams

Boots: BOC Faye via Macy's (from two autumns ago)

Talking Tuesday: The Sweetness of Grace

I've mentioned a few times that I'm reading Mat. Constantina Palmer's latest book, The Sweetness of Grace this Lent.  It is very good!  It is a collection of stories about monastics and ordinary Orthodox Christians living all over the world.  It is a nice follow-on to her first book, The Scent of Holiness (also excellent).

image via (I believe this is by the hand of Fr. Paul Drozdowski)

I'm about half-way through the book, and several things stood out to me enough to dog-ear the pages, and I thought I'd share one or two here.  I thought this passage was particularly apt as we enter the fifth week of Great Lent, and the renewal of our fasting and preparation for the glorious feast of Pascha.

"After we returned to Canada from Greece, Fr. John [her husband] was ordained to the holy priesthood.  However, he was required to return to Thessaloniki for one month to defend his doctoral dissertation.  During his time in Greece, he went to visit dear friends of ours (a priest and his family) who live and serve the Church in a village in the mountains.  While there, Fr. John co-celebrated the Divine Liturgy.

During the service of Proskomidi, our friend, a more senior priest, noticed that Fr. John had turned the diskos toward himself to make cutting and preparing the prosfora loaf for use in the Divine Liturgy a little easier.  Seeing this, the priest immediately came over and rebuked him heavily for his audacity.  Of course, this shook Fr. John up a great deal, but once he settled down and finished the Proskomidi, the priest approached him again.  "The whole purpose of the Christian life," he instructed Fr. John, "is conforming ourselves to Christ, not dragging Christ to us."

When Fr. John came home, he told me about this experience.  I knew it must have had a very great impact on him for him to relay it to me, since he quite often prefers to ponder things in his heart rather than share every experience with his wife.  Since that experience, he has employed this story as an example for the greater context of our Christian life: our sins and passions are the manifestation of us turning things toward ourselves in order to appease our will, our insatiable desires, and even at times our wicked intentions.  But Christianity is about conforming to Christ, to His commandments, and taking the necessary steps toward turning ourselves away from the world, from the easy path that leads to the wide gate--from sin and the passions, in other words--and toward the straight and narrow path that leads to life (Matt. 7:14).  May God direct our steps!"

~Constantina R. Palmer, The Sweetness of Grace: Stories of Christian Trial and Victory. Chesterton, IN: Ancient Faith Publishing, 2017, pp 105-106.

Rifle and Co. Painted Roses

I made two rayon dresses for my spring rotation, but I'm showing them out of order because I wore this one first.  (The other one was a hot mess until I fixed it on Friday, so I'm happily wearing it today!  Pics to come in a day or two)

This fabric is from Rifle and Co. for Cotton+Steel and is from Anna Bond's Wonderland line (from her illustrations of Alice in Wonderland).  I didn't really love the specifically Alice-themed prints, but this one really jumped at me.  I normally try to avoid black clothing as it doesn't suit my coloring, but I felt that the black was such a background color that I could get away with it.

I'm actually totally thrilled with this dress.  It was a last minute addition to my rotation and I really like it.  I found a light weight wool cardigan on ThredUp that warms it up nicely, and the cashmere cowl (also found on ThredUp) helps too.

Because it is still kind of damp and chilly, I did put a thin t-shirt layer under it all.  I have a coral shirt with 3/4 sleeves that will work when it is a wee bit warmer.  

I cut the back the same as the front on this one and I really like the fit of it.  I am still fiddling with the back elastic placement on the new smaller back piece, but I'm getting there.  I also went back to the patch pockets that come with the Simplicity 1080 because the kangaroo pocket looks really weird in rayon (I discovered this the hard way on the first rayon dress).  I find the patch pockets pretty fiddly, especially in rayon, but the finished look is so much better than the kanga pocket that it is worth it.  Better to fiddle with something and have a wearable piece at the end.

Ponchik was my "helper" for these photos.  She kept up a steady stream of commentary the.whole.time.

All in all, a good dress!  I think I have a lighter weight cardigan in a teal-green color that will work when it is too warm for the wool one (although it does seem like warmer weather is still a long way off--I'm not complaining!  I keep putting my Uggs away and then taking them out again.  Crazy weather.)

The print on this fabric is just so pretty!  My Chinook scarf will look well with this dress too, I think, once I finish it!  (I've set it aside to work on the gemini cardigan).

Just the facts:

Painted Roses dress: Rifle and Co. for Cotton+Steel rayon challis fabric, Simplicity 1080 (redrafted), elastic, bias binding

Undershirt: Loft via ThredUp

Cashmere cowl: Nordstrom via ThredUp

Black wool sweater: Banana Republic via ThredUp

Tights: Foot Traffic Signature Cotton tights in black, via Sock Dreams

Boots: Uggs (Whitely, I think), via ebay

Thistle Earrings: etsy

Zadie Dandelions, Knitting Azules, Cooking Lenten, and Reading Palmer

This was supposed to be a Yarn Along post, but I read Ginny's post this morning about discontinuing the link up, so I guess it is just be little ol' me talking about crafting and domestic life today.  This is a long'un, so grab a cuppa and settle in.

~sewing~

I made some good progress on the warm weather dresses for Birdie on Saturday.  I finished the chambray one (and tried out a new pattern at the same time).  I think the pocket is a little low, but it works for now.  I used Simplicity 8087, the Lazy Daisy Jones dress pattern.  It has a women's version in the packet as well, that I might try out at some point.

I also finished the trim on the red dress and I think it came out very cute!  (I had Ponchik try the chambray dress on for size, since I'm making a couple of dresses for her from the same pattern.  Both girls are similar in girth, but Birdie is a couple of inches taller)

I also made another Zadie!  I splurged on some Art Gallery printed jersey (I have no idea why this stuff is so expensive--it isn't really that different in quality from the $12/yard jersey) and made this up on Monday.  

Earlier this month I decided it was time to get a proper cutting mat, so I bought a big one on amazon and cut this out with a rotary cutter.  It went a lot better with the rotatry cutting than scissor cutting on my Market Floral version, but it was still a lot of pieces to cut out.  I also used a tracing wheel and transfer paper to mark the pivot points and pleat lines which also worked better.  

The joins at the back went beautifully, but that pesky pocket join at the waistband in the front did not.   Again. I pinned and repinned and repinned again, and it still isn't quite right.  I may put in some hand stitches to make it lay nice and keep the pockets from gaping.  

The neckband also gave me fits on this one; I had to redo it three or four times and got seriously frustrated in the process.  I think I had beginner's luck on the first one.  I remembered why I don't like neckbands!  Won't stop me from making more Zadies, though.  I just need a break for a few months before I make the next one.  

The print is really pretty!  The centers of the dandelions are mint green.  The whole dress just feels so spring-y to me.  

I spent the morning yesterday cutting out a few things.  The rayon (above) is for me.  Remember how I said my spring rotation was a hot mess?  It continues to be, and I've been shifting things around all month.  I'm hoping it will settle into something useful soon.

I cut out three dresses for Birdie and two for Ponchik.  The white one is for both girls for Ascension and the dark green is for Palm Sunday/Pentecost.  I have black long sleeve t-shirts for them to wear under the green dresses.  The blue star one is just for Birdie.  I'm going to add orange rick rack to trim it.

I also decided to give the Everyday Skirt pattern a try after seeing Kate's most recent podcast.  I generally dislike gathered skirts because I think they add too much bulk in an area that I don't need it, but this one looks well drafted, and I've seen a lot of iterations that make me think it might work for me (including Kate's).  I plan to pleat the front instead of gather it, to further reduce bulk.  I'll have to add 4-5" to the length as well, but if this works, it could be a great skirt pattern for me.  I'm going to try it in the Kaufman Union AK chambray that I love so much (the same as Birdie's dress).  I think it will be nice for summer.  I'd like to make a mustardy-gold linen version for the fall if I like the pattern.

~domestic~

Birdie caught whatever virus we are all passing around and was home sick Monday and Tuesday. She was fairly miserable on Monday and just laid on the couch all day, but yesterday she started to perk up but still coughed a lot when she tried to do normal activity. Let's just say there were a lot of Disney movies watched in the last 48 hours.  The kids had baths in the afternoon, and then there was a whole lotta salon action going on.  Birdie and Ponchik were sitting with one of my sitters, and Boo was working on my hair in the kitchen.  Boo really seems to enjoy the salon stuff.  I sometimes have to part my hair in the middle and let Birdie work on one side and Boo on the other.  I usually end up with a frizzy mass at the end of it, but they are so content during it, that I hate to deny them.

~knitting~

I'm working on several projects at the moment, as usual.  I played yarn chicken with the end of a skein of Berroco Sox (leftover from my Hitchhiker Scarf) and lost.  I'm either going to have to rip back the first one to make the lengths match or just give up on the whole thing.  *sigh*

Boo had a OT evaluation on Monday and I grabbed my Rent/Tess shawl to work on while I waited.  It is a good travelling project since it is still small enough to shove in a bag, is easily interruptible, and doesn't require a lot of concentration on my part.

 I'm making slow and steady progress on it.  I was much further on it in February, but I ended up frogging it all the way back and starting again, so this is about a month's worth of on-and-off work.  It is Malabrigo Rios in Azules and the yarn is so pretty--it is hard to capture the tonality in photos.  There are blues and greens and purples and teals.  I think it will end up coordinating with a lot of my closet.

Got through another lace chart repeat on the Three Musketeers Gemini.  I think I finally have even tension on this yarn--the linen is really hard to keep running through my fingers evenly.  

The lace panel is coming along nicely, I think.

~reading~

Still alternating between these two books.  I had to set the Thirty Steps one aside for a few days because it just hit me right between the eyes.  It is pretty deep stuff, so I have to process a little bit.  The Palmer book is small easily digestible bites, so I've been reading that one a little bit every day.

~cooking~

I made vegan mushroom gravy again.  Mods to make it vegan are to use margarine and coconut milk with no-chicken stock.

And since my stitches are out of my mouth (Hallelujah, praise the Lord!), I can have grechka again!  The gravy is lovely on top of the grechka.  I actually need to make another batch to have with the leftover gravy.

Last week I ended up with a surplus of white potatoes due to an error on my grocery order, so I was puzzling about what to make with them, and suddenly remembered the very delicious Vedge recipe for vegan roasted potatoes with creamy sauce.  (Seriously, make this recipe--it is so good; it is worth the price of the cookbook)

You roast the potatoes first and then make the sauce (which is tangy and kind of melts into the hot potatoes after you pour it over).  Delicious.  Unfortunately, the potatoes I used are sort of dense for my throat, so I wasn't able to eat more than a few bites, but they were very tasty!

I guess that's all for me!  

Hobby Horse

It took me a while to finish this skirt, and a bit longer to get around to wearing it, but here it is!  The Hobby Horse skirt.  Ta-da!  I probably spent more time on this skirt than anything modern I've made in the past couple of years.  

The main time consumer on this was the lining.  I decided after I'd mostly constructed the skirt that it would be good to line it.  The fabric is a cotton-linen canvas, but since I was making a straight skirt, I wanted it to have some structure to it.  The canvas does have some shape, but the linen content does mean the fabric softens with time.  I happened to have some cream-colored rayon bemberg in my bin that was the right length, so I washed it up and cut it out.

My previous issues with lining have mostly been due to poor fit at the top of the skirt, which I attribute to darts on the lining.  My skirt has three sets, and it is tricky to get them all the same size between the lining and the skirt.  

She suggested that it was better to simply pleat the excess lining fabric where the darts were, rather than trying to sew the darts in.  Brilliant!  It worked a charm, and I now have a lovely lined skirt.  Her method of attaching the lining to the zip didn't work because I don't use invisible zips, but it was such a small amount of additional hand sewing, I didn't mind.  

I hand sewed the inside of the waist band, which took a bit of time (and was mostly accomplished in freezing cold at the park while my girls were playing).  

I know I say this about a lot of skirts when I make them, but this is my best fitting skirt to date.  I do fit my skirts every time I make one, so I think that has something to do with it, but the lining really makes it feel like a nice skirt.  I added a navy twill skirt to my sewing queue and decided to use up some navy bemberg I had to line it as well.  Now that I'm happy with my lining method, I think I'll probably line more skirts!  

I ended up with a rather big hem on this one, as I have decided that I like these skirts a smidge shorter than where I drafted the original pattern.  I had gotten some lace hem tape in a grab bag of trims and decided it made for a nice finish on the skirt.  I did machine the hem because I was starting to run low on patience for hand sewing with this skirt and I'm glad I did.  It does look quite nice.

I really like the print on this fabric--it is Rifle and Co. for Cotton+Steel.  It isn't a great color near my face, but I think the navy top helps break it up.  I also have a coral three-quarter sleeve tee shirt that will work nicely for slightly warmer weather.

I was questioning whether it even made sense to have proper separates in my rotations, given how infrequently I wear them, but I decided it is nice to have a few just for variety.  I'm glad I made this skirt as I learned a bunch of new things, and gained some confidence about nicer finishing. 

Just the facts:

Hobby Horse skirt: Rifle and Co. Hobby Horse linen-cotton canvas fabric (from fabric.com), rayon bemberg lining (from Joann's of all places!), zip, lace hem tape, dress hook and eye, snap, Anne Adams 9481 (redrafted), McCall's 6361 (for the pockets)

Thermal henley: LLBean

Cowl: ThredUp

Tights: Foot Traffic Cotton Signature Tights in navy

Boots: KadiMaya via amazon

Earrings: etsy

Yarn Along: Stashbusting

So how did the rest of you Northeasterners fare in the blizzard yesterday?  We didn't have it too badly, to be honest.  We got a bit of wet heavy snow overnight (maybe a couple of inches) that was then following by a lot of sleet that then froze very hard over night, so basically, whatever got shoveled *during* the storm is what got shoveled.  The kids had a ball shoveling in the front of the house, and then playing around in the back patio.  

Birdie's snow pants are hilariously too big on her, but that's what happens when the children who are 16 months apart are head and shoulders apart in height!!  (She is wearing Boo's pants from last year)

~making~

I'm starting to work on Birdie's warm weather dresses, as she's outgrown nearly everything she wore last summer.  The advantage of her and Ponchik being similarly sized is that Ponchik can wear her clothes from last summer this year, so at least I'm not having to make everything twice this year.

I had some vintage fabric scraps that I had bought from Lily at Mode De Lis sometime last year, and some broadcloth and chambray that happened to coordinate rather well, so I got three dresses worth out of some odds and ends in my bin.  I made up this dress today and I'm really pleased with how it came out.  These dresses are great stash-busters as they are also good for using up random lengths of bias tape and trim that I have in my bin.  

The pocket is so cute!  I also made a red dress that is almost identical, but it doesn't have rick-rack yet, so I didn't want to photograph it because it looks a little unfinished without it.  But here is the pocket:

Isn't that cute?  The rick-rack is royal blue and I think will make a nice contrast.  I have a chambray one cut out of a different pattern that I'm eager to try, plus I have Palm Sunday/Pentecost and Ascension dresses in the plotting stages for both girls.

~reading~

I started Constantina Palmer's latest book, The Sweetness of Grace this morning and it does not disappoint.  I'm a couple of chapters in and I'm really enjoying it.  I've already dogeared a few pages!

I also picked up a copy of Thirty Steps to Heaven at our church book sale two weeks ago and have read the first six (out of 30) steps.  It is a very good and accessible book.  It has given me much Lenten food for thought.

~knitting

I am still working on my Gemini cardigan/pullover, and have completed one complete repeat of the lace chart, and I haven't lost my mind yet, so I think I'm doing okay!  The fingering weight linen is a little tricky to keep tension, but it gets easier the more I work with it.  

I also decided to use up the last little bit of sock yarn from my Hitchhiker scarf; I gave the scarf to a friend and wanted to use up the yarn.  I decided there was enough to make leg warmers for the girls to share.  I think the stripes are really pretty!!

I'm playing a bit of yarn chicken with it, as I'm on the second warmer, and it is going to be close, but I think I'll be okay.  I'm counting the brown and white speckled sections and I have a second one left in the skein, so I should *just* make it.  I will say that knitting these has gotten me over my fear of fingering weight yarn.  The first warmer went surprisingly quickly, and I actually found it easier to keep tension than on the Gemini, which I attribute to the fiber being wool instead of linen and a bit stickier.  I even ordered another ball of Berroco Sox yarn to make more leg warmers and maybe a shawlette or something.  I might have unleashed a monster. 😉

~random~

While sorting out Pascha dresses for the girls on ebay, I found two matching Hanna Andersson sweater dresses in their sizes and got them.  Given the weather we are having, I think they will get some good wear yet this year!  Both girls are very happy with them, and the Scandinavian folk art lover in me gets a little thrill every time I see them.

~cooking~

Vegan mushroom gravy!  I made this recipe a lot during the Nativity fast (sometimes with mushrooms, but mostly without) and decided to make again.  It is so tasty.  It is nice on grechka (buckwheat) or potatoes.  My mods to make it vegan are to use culinary coconut milk instead of dairy milk, margarine in place of butter, and to add 1/2 tsp of soy sauce for additional flavor.  Grechka is one of those protein grains like quinoa, and I like it quite a bit (and tolerate it rather well, considering the state of my GI tract), so I've been making it very often.   I did have to take a break during the last couple of weeks because of my dental surgery, but the stitches came out this morning, so I promptly made a batch!

Linking with Ginny for Yarn Along!