For several years now, my Tuesday afternoons have been spent in various school kitchens, teaching area middle schoolers to cook. I began as a volunteer for one program, moved to another school with that program and am now back at the first school, Walker Upper Elementary, where I am now the lead on the after school cooking program. Continue reading
Scarlett O’Nancy Vest
Remember last fall when I was hot to find patterns of a particular sort and spent entirely too much time looking all over for them? I had this fabric from my friend Nancy that I just knew would be perfect for a vest. An iridescent quilted satin, it was in a bag of upholstery and other decorating fabrics Nancy dropped off, ample sized leftovers she was sure I could do something with. (Question – do other people who sew have this happen? Where they are given all sorts of fabric because they’ll do something with it?) It screamed vest to me – and in my head, this vest was going to look exactly like one I already had, because the fabric was so similar. Continue reading
Better living through organization.
I recently made a batch of chicken broth with a carcass I had stashed in the freezer. You do this, right? Have a stash of roasted bones in the freezer just for making stock? So anyway, I was down to my last jar of broth and needed to make a batch. There was just enough meat that came off the bones to make a pot of soup, but I sensed by my family’s reaction that one more pot of straight up chicken soup – or really, any variation thereof to be honest – might be one pot too many for this winter soup season. That’s when I realized I hadn’t made Dorie’s White Chili in some time and that might be a nice change.
See the reflection of my bedroom windows on my lap top screen?
Ryan’s Ginger Beef Soup
It has been pointed out that I haven’t written a post here in too long – by none other than my own offspring, who apparently uses this blog for her own reference from time to time. Who knew? I certainly did not.
Off the needles.
I confess that most of the sewing I’ve done recently has been of the boring but useful mending sort, like hemming pants. Knitting is far more portable and therefore conducive to traveling or just occupying my hands while watching tv. Along the way, I’ve actually managed to finish some!
Celebrating them.
A few months ago, my girl had asked if we could rent a nearby cabin for her sixteenth birthday party. We had previously rented Dunlodge for her dad’s fortieth birthday a few years ago and found it to be a lovely hidden little spot in town. Sixteen being a big deal, I went for it. And since I had to take the cabin for the full weekend, I thought I’d throw a party for her one night and a party the next evening for my dear husband, who also had a birthday that weekend. It seemed slightly ambitious, but not overly so. Just to be sure, I texted Pat’s best bromance, Will, to make sure he was in and when he was, I went with the plan. Continue reading
January Adventure.
I woke up Sunday morning a week ago to a message from Andrea, inviting me to come out to Northern California and go to a concert with her the following Monday. I immediately thought of at least a dozen sound, responsible adult-type reasons as to why I shouldn’t just take off to the other side of the country at a moment’s notice, particularly the third week in January, which also pointed out exactly why I should drop everything and go. Continue reading
