A winner and stash-building

Veronica was the lucky soul who won the plus-size pattern pyramid giveaway (it’s easy to pick a winner when there’s only one entrant!). Congrats – I sent you an email.

I was in Michigan last week and managed a trip to Field’s Fabrics. I went to the location in Spring Lake and it was a delightful, old-fashioned-y fabric shop, with a good selection of both quilt cottons and garment fabrics. I came home with a few different pieces, which you can see in these unartistic photos.

The pinky-red is an organic jersey destined for PJs, and the blue print is a cotton voile for some sort of summer floaty top. The speckled blue was called a denim, but it’s not a usual denim weave; I think it’ll work well for loose pants or crops.

The black and the b/w print are rayon that will hopefully become a dress (I’m thinking colorblocked Vogue 8809). The white-based print is a knit which will probably become a basic top, pattern as yet undecided.

I’m posting this so that hopefully I’ll get some of these done this summer. I’ve lost enough weight so that a lot of my clothes are too small, which probably means I need to start over with my pattern fitting too. Sigh.

Food Friday: Smoked salmon crustless quiche

Eggs are one of the recommended sources of protein on my current ‘slimming program,’ but the rub is that I don’t really like most of the usual ways of cooking eggs (except deviled eggs, I’ll happily eat those all day long). So I’ve been looking for some new and different ways to make egg dishes. So this week’s and next week’s recipe are egg-o-rific. This one’s inspired by a recipe from emeals (from the paleo plan) but I tweaked it quite a bit.

4 eggs
~1/4 cup milk (honestly I just eyeballed it; use whatever amount you’d use to make scrambled eggs or an omelet, if you are a milk-in-your-omelet kind of person)
4 oz pouch of smoked salmon
¼ cup onion, chopped (I used red onion which looks nice; shallots or leeks would also be yummy)
¼ cup of both feta, crumbled, and shredded gruyere (i chose this weird combo of cheese not only because that was what I had in the fridge, but because I hoped it would taste good in combination, which it did – the feta gives it saltiness and bite, and the gruyere makes it smooth and hold together well – but use whatever combo of cheese sounds good to you)

Preheat the oven. Beat the eggs, and stir in the milk and seasonings. If necessary, chop up the salmon into smaller pieces. Add the salmon, onions, and cheeses. Bake in a glass pie tin for 20 minutes at 375 degrees.

Food on Friday: Moist boneless porkchops

In the past, my tried-and-true method for keeping boneless pork chops moist in the past was to dredge them in panko crumbs and a little melted butter. That doesn’t really fit with my current “slimming program,” as the Brits say. I went trolling around the web for ideas and settled on this approach from the Boston Chef blog which has you sear first on the stove and then finish cooking in the oven. I first sprinkled them with French country vinaigrette mix* from Penzey’s on both sides, cooked them on medium-high for 2 minutes on the first side, 1 on the second, then baked in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes (honestly, it was however long it took me to make the asparagus). They turned out quite good and I plan to use this approach again in the future.

* Penzey’s sent me this as a sample with an order one time and I don’t think I’ve ever actually made salad dressing with it, funnily enough. It’s very good on pork and chicken and since it already has salt and pepper in it it’s very quick for seasoning meat.

Plus-size pattern pyramid giveaway!

I was fortunate enough to win one of the Plus-size Pattern Pyramid giveaways that Dixie at With Needle and Thread held a few weeks ago. The patterns arrived the other day and they are lovely!

I pet them and looked through them and decided to keep the two Burda patterns. But I will be adding several of my own patterns to the giveaway, enough to split the pyramid in two if there are multiple people that are interested.

If you’d like to win, please leave a comment. If there’s a particular pattern that catches your fancy, leave it in your comment and I will try to make sure it ends up in your winnings.

I will leave this giveaway open for a week and plan to draw a winner next weekend.

Food on Friday: Stovetop asparagus

I like asparagus but I’d never had great success cooking it at home except with the pre-packed ‘microwave in the bag’ option. Steaming made it bitter, and sautéing never cooked it through consistently. Thanks to a pre-portioned package of asparagus, mushrooms, and onions from Trader Joe’s, I figured out that you can cook asparagus on the stove if you add a little bit of another vegetable that gives off water while it cooks. Basically you steam everything a little first with the lid on, and then sauté for the rest of the time.

Stovetop Asparagus

1 bunch asparagus, washed, woody bits broken off, and chopped into thirds
1 cup total of sliced onion and/or mushrooms

Heat a non-stick skillet to medium with a tablespoon of olive oil. Add the veggies in an even layer, cover, and cook for 3-5 minutes or until the asparagus is bright green. Uncover, add salt and pepper, and turn up the heat to medium-high. Sauté for 5-ish minutes until the asparagus is a little caramelized on each side, turning often to keep everything from burning.

Food on Friday: Sesame kale

Are you ready for another tediously healthy recipe today? Brace yourself, it’s my new favorite way to eat kale: sesame kale (scroll down past the steamed chicken), recipe from Marisa at the fabulous blog (and book) Food in Jars.

I made as written, although with olive oil instead of coconut oil (where did all this foodie love for coconut oil come from all of a sudden?). My bunch of kale must have been smaller than Marisa’s, because I only needed to use a tablespoon and a half of sesame seeds, which was plenty. Nom nom, and the mister liked it too. (I think right now I’d eat anything as long as it had some soy sauce on it, honestly. Salt! Flavor! Some vague hint of sugariness!)

New indie men’s patterns

Have you seen Thread Theory, a new pattern line for men? It was mentioned on Pattern Review and I love the look of the patterns they plan to release. There are so few patterns for men so I’m glad to see an indie pattern maker moving into this space. It looks like their first patterns will be available in June.