food thoughts

May I recommend Eggs Benedict, California style?  Two slices of tomato, three slices of avocado, one poached egg, two strips of bacon, and a dab of Hollandaise. 

Saturday morning breakfast was everything I'd dreamed it would be.  Next time, I'm also going to dream about some hash browns. 

I realize, whenever I look through our pictures, that we frequently photograph our food.  Sometimes it seems weird, but mostly it seems regular.  I mean, we do eat three times every single day.  That's a lot of food.  And most of it is just so pretty- all those bright colors and different textures. 

Sometimes, I worry that to an outsider, it could appear that we eat too much.  So I thought it could be helpful, for scale purposes, to share this picture.  We went to Bruster's for ice cream.  We got a "split single"- half a scoop of coconut sherbet, half a scoop of strawberry sherbet.  That's right- we shared the half scoops.  Secretly, in my heart, I wanted more, but once we had eaten it, it seemed like just the right amount.

Could portion control be an Olympic sport?  I think we'd have a good chance at gold. 

We had this salad one night for dinner last week and then I recreated it for lunch every single day after that because I couldn't get it off my mind.  Spinach + grilled ginger lime chicken + candied pecans + berries + Havarti = the best salad I've ever put in my mouth.  I think it even beat the steak, and that's saying a lot. 

We had a great weekend and accomplished a lot, but all I have to show you is the food.

Today I'm working on more fabric design and calculating how much gray wool felt I will need to make 100 bag handles.  Man, that sounds like a ton of handles.  Hopefully some sewing elves will come in the night and finish them.  Otherwise, it's all me.  I have got to teach Steve to sew. 

the summit

Well, we made it to another Friday, didn't we?  Some weeks, Friday shows up and I'm excited and all, but in a fairly normal way.  Other weeks, I equate making it to Friday with climbing Mount Everest- if I can just claw my way towards it and not look back, I'm sure the end will be just over the next ridge. 

This was sort of an "Everest" week. 

Which I'm sure will make the weekend even sweeter.  I'm dreaming of cooking a leisurely breakfast with Steve on Saturday, spending some time outside, and getting lost in my new cookbook. 

This cookbook is so amazing that it will need its own blog post, but for now I will just say that I took it to bed last night to read and also snuck in a few minutes over lunch today.  Is it weird to read cookbooks while you eat?  I'm choosing to think no. 

I'm loaded up with new scarf fabric over here and, as usual, want to keep one of each for myself.  It's hard to believe I'm making scarves when it's this hot, but we've got a big Labor Day sale in Virginia we're preparing for and September in the mountains is time for scarves. 

Do you have anything fun planned this weekend?  August is shaping up to be a doozie of a month and I'm glad to have a slow-ish weekend to gear up for it!









real salads include steak

For dinner last night, we had a steak salad, loosely based on this recipe I found on the Pioneer Woman's blog.  Do you know the Pioneer Woman?  I am just getting acquainted, but feel we could be true friends.  She talks about food in a way that makes you want to get up and run to the kitchen immediately. 

I'd never eaten crispy fried onion straws on a salad before and now I am forever changed.  Dinner left me asking myself the big questions in life: Why don't I fry more things?  Why aren't more fried foods served on salad?  How soon is too soon to eat this again? 

After dinner, I taught my last session of summer sewing classes.  It was so much fun.  Everyone finished their projects and then, in a last minute whirlwind of "I just can't let you leave without this knowledge", I taught them how to make gathers, hem a skirt, use seam sealant, and cut bias tape. 

Then I made everyone hold up their projects while I snapped pictures.  And yes, that is a part of the class, if you're thinking about taking one in the future. 

I'm glad to have my dining room back, but I know I'll be a little sad when nobody shows up next Tuesday. 

Both my sofa and my sewing table are covered with fabric right now.  When I get new fabric, I like to lay it around and look at it for a bit.  Usually, I already know what I'm going to make with it, but sometimes I get inspired with a new idea.  Come on back Friday and I'll show you what I'm working with. 

bathroom redo

We have been thoroughly enjoying our "new" bathroom and Steve was kind enough to take a bunch of pictures of it over the weekend.  It's amazing how just changing a few things can make a big difference. 

When we first moved into our house, I was dismayed by the super manly master bath.  The black counter top and black and white floors seemed really difficult to work with.  Also, there was a black shower curtain when we moved in.  I know- I thought it was strange too. 

I felt like we were stuck with a certain look right from the beginning, but vowed to make it look less like a bachelor pad (which it used to be, actually, so that's probably why it looked like one).  I added some hot pink accents, as well as some aqua and lots of white. 

I like a bathroom with lots of white because it looks super clean.  I LOVE white towels.  I'm not sure why I'm ever tempted to buy anything else, but inevitably I am and I do and then I regret it two months later when they look faded and weird.  Meanwhile, the white towels that we bought a year ago still look brand new.  Lesson learned. 

Several years ago, we bought this little stool and recovered the seat with a black and white toile.  Our bathroom is pretty big and I love being able to have an extra (soft) place to sit or set things down. 

With all the white that we have, painting the walls gray was a great move, because now the white has something to contrast with.  Other than painting everything, we also installed a new, curved shower rod, and a new curtain rod.  I've been enjoying the curved shower rod and actually do think it gives a little more elbow room in the shower, although I was skeptical at first. 

The curtain rod has these gorgeous antique glass ends and I'm still on the hunt for some drawer pulls to match.  We moved the dining room curtains up into the bathroom because the colors were perfect.  And it's a good excuse for me to make new dining room curtains, something I've been wanting to do anyway. 

So that's the full reveal!  I still maintain that painting is one of my least favorite activities, but I really enjoy it when it's done. 







stuffed zucchini

Is anyone else totally excited for the opening ceremonies tonight?  I can't wait!  I love the spirit of camaraderie and national pride that a goes along with the Olympics.  We may need to find a more prominent place to display our new flag. 

I'm taking a mini-break from fabric design today to do other necessary things like laundry and lawn mowing and making dinner.  We finally ran out of barbeque chicken.  Bummer. 

Tonight we'll be enjoying stuffed zucchini, a recipe shared by my bff that has become a favorite.  The recipe gets modified (quite often), but here are the basics:

Cut three large zucchini in half lengthwise.  Scoop out the middles (I like to use a melon baller). 

Chop up the middle zucchini parts, 1-2 tomatoes, and 1/2 red onion.  Saute veggies in olive oil, salt, and pepper. 

Bake zucchini shells, cut side down, at 375 for 15 minutes.  Flip shells over and sprinkle shredded mozzarella cheese in the bottoms.

Add something to your veggie mixture- 1 cup breadcrumbs, 1 cup chopped pecans, 1/2 lb. cooked sausage.  Pick one, pick two, pick them all! 

Fill the shells with the veggie mixture.  Top with more shredded Marcella.  Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.  Yum!

Yesterday's mail brought a big package of new fabric and today's should be bringing another one- exciting!  Actually, the mail haul yesterday was pretty fabulous all around- I got fabric, a new magazine, and a thank you note from my favorite four year old.  Written with her own hand.  I loved looking at each painstaking letter and backwards "S" and scribble and knowing how hard she worked on it.  What a treat to receive. 

I'm looking forward to playing with new fabric, finalizing fabric designs, and relaxing with Steve this weekend.  Hope your weekend is delightful!

incomplete sentences and colored pencils

I just had the urge to start blogging in list form again:

- Lots of drawing.  Graph paper everywhere.

- Hours of design work on the computer

- Only one more week of sewing class

- You know it's serious when I pull out the French curve

- Ordered scarf fabric for fall.  Lots of it.  Super excited. 

- Barbecue chicken every night this week.  No time to stop and cook something else.

Apparently, my speech functioning has been reduced to partial sentences.  Sorry about that- I used to have quite a vocabulary.  I blame the fact that I have been working so hard every day that my brain hurts and then Steve gets home and we work for a few more hours, for good measure. 

What are we working on?  We're designing our own fabric, and if that sounds awesome, it is, and if it sounds super hard, it's that too. 

Why so frantic?  We're designing it for an event that is a mere five weeks away.  Meaning I need to have the fabric here at my home in three weeks, so that I can actually make something with it.  Meaning I need to order the fabric in one week, so that it can be printed up and get to me in time.  So you see what that means. 

 Keeping me company while I work is this picture that I found when I was digging out my old colored pencils.  I love this picture.  Not sure why it was in with the art supplies.  I believe that it is circa 2000, the only year that my siblings and I were all the same size.  Just look at us- practially quadruplets!  Our ages at the time- 11, 20, 14, 15.  I miss those rascals now that we're all grown and living in four different houses, three different states, two different time zones. 

It's back to work for me now- I'll stop in on Friday with an update and hopefully some better sentence structure. 

weekend highlights:

- Eating cake (sometimes both before and after dinner)

- Finishing the bathroom! (no pictures yet)

- Coffee in the yard on a cloudy morning

- Date night that included filet, wrapped in bacon, stuffed with gorgonzola.  Heaven, I tell you. 

-Group Skype with my mom and brother

- Peach fizz (not to be confused with "peach fuzz"): peel a ripe peach and throw it in the blender with some ginger ale and sparkling water.  Guaranteed to make any day a party.

- Watching Steve watch hummingbirds.  Precious. 

- Pool day

- Finishing everything on our "to-do" list in approximately 30 minutes

- Did I mention the cake?  It's almost gone. 

After a weekend like that, I feel ready to tackle anything today!