Did a little cleaning out yesterday - unearthing projects in my sewing table, finishing some things and organizing. Cleaned out the hats and scarves and gloves bag by our door - and all the hopeless cases are removed and only useable things (and gloves with matches) are in there now.
WIPs work in processes :
I have a pair of gloves in a gray discontinued yarn that I hope will be enough to make them complete.. started them before Christmas and only got as far as the index finger on one hand.
There is a satiny mulberry yarn scarf in simple garter stitch that I have been working on for more than a year -- did a bit on that.
Unravelled the zigzag thing I was trying the other day back to yarn and three gray hats that we never used much.. yarn for something else and more practice. There are several hats in the bag that we do use.. although I have to repair one of them.
Sewing WIP : I have cut down Esme's old kangaroo cloak for 'parts'... making a stack of four kitchen cloths out of it and will have scraps to put in another project. She was a little sad about this but the young dogs (Kif and Rex) grabbed it down from a hook the other month and began chewing around the button... rescued it but no, it is no longer 'heirloom' save it for her kid territory... and the rest of the cloth is very good - so make it into something useful. I also have a bolster from our bed that, now that we have the new headboard last fall, is too large to be under the pillows. The old board had a much larger gap between the mattress and the board and now the bolster is just 'too much'... going to cut it down for parts and make it longer and skinnier.
Found an old sweater I was knitting last year.. and all the yarn to complete that... not sure if I will continue on that. Looking it over trying to figure out 'what in the world' I was doing with it. I never use a pattern so.. I'm probably lucky the piece that is finished looks like it would fit any part of me. It does.. look like it will fit some part of me.. but I know there are measurements and such in a notebook if I can find them I'll know more than 'make a mirror of this one and then guess'...
Not bad for a start! Cleaning up that is.
I'm still learning Welsh... bought an English-language cookbook about old Welsh traditional cooking... interesting and a bit 'archaic'.. the recipes are little more than lists of basic instructions 'start with a pound of flour' etc... not like a typical recipe nowadays. Still, lots to be learned there.
I've also given in and for Esme's sake, as that is the language she wants to learn when they offer it in school, I've begun doing a Spanish language lesson each morning while I wait for her to get ready before the school bus. She doesn't hear it.. but it helps to do it then and keep it 'separate' in my head from my Welsh studies later in the day. It doesn't do badly for keeping me at the top of the charts in my 'video game of Duolingo' as Mark calls it.. either...
Today would have been my mom's birthday. I lit a candle for her last night.. since I had missed doing that in February.
This was a scarf at first. Then I made it a shrug by sewing the sides together to make sleeves. Then the other night I was wearing it and I was STILL cold. So, I added a tighter rim around it and longer sleeves and a clasp at the front with a button to hold it on. So, its makeshift.. but I'm wearing it and that really counts. It's there to throw on when I'm freezing.
recipe for Bulgur Wheat and Cabbage with Celery Seed, Red Beans and Tobasco
I made this for lunch and everyone was following their noses to the breakroom when I had it in the microwave. I took inspiration from a 2017 BHG recipe.. which, of course, I didn't have everything for. The things in the other recipe I substituted were green cabbage for radicchio, and tobasco sauce in lieu of green or Kalamata olives. I also added some red beans because they were in the fridge already next to the cabbage.
Ingredients:
Fresh Green cabbage
Bulgur wheat (red or white, I used red)
garlic clove
olive oil
tabasco sauce
cauliflower (frozen okay)
canned red beans
lime juice
garam masala
salt
pepper
celery seed
step 1:
Boil 1.5 (plus a little more) cups of water
in a glass beaker and pour into a glass mason jar containing 3/4 cup of
red bulgur wheat. Cover mostly with a lid and let steep for 10 to 15
minutes (while you do everything else)
step 2:
About a cup of steamed cauliflower, pulsed in food processor
with one clove of garlic, generous topping of black pepper and a few squirts of lime juice and tabasco sauce
step 3:
chop up some green cabbage - maybe 3/4 cup? and sprinkle with salt, pepper and celery seed. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil (and I put a tiny bit of walnut oil on top of that because my olive oil is getting slim). Toss seasoned cabbage in the oil until it begins to wilt. Add the cauliflower mix from step 1.. stir well, let steam a little with a lid over it.
step 4:
drain the remaining water from the wheat and add to the cabbage and cauliflower mix - stir up well. Add about 1/2 cup of canned beans to mixture and also 3/4 cup of water. Add a smidge of garam masala over the surface.. maybe even less than 1/8 teaspoon - I just did a pinch and didn't measure. Put lid back on and steam some more on medium to low heat for about 7 minutes... we want the wheat to soak up some more of the spiced liquid and get a little less chewy.. and the beans to soften up a little as well. Make sure nothing sticks to the bottom of the pan, turn it o ver and steam until the wheat is the right texture (add more moisture if needed ,but should be okay).
I added this to some slightly sweetened cornbread and it was a very spicy good meal.
