infryq

Last full week of vacation! I go back to work on Thursday.

Tuesday and Wednesday were writing days, then I sent the draft over to P for his additions. Thursday I did the laundry, drew illustrations, made a paper model of the weird salwar/sarawal pattern I’d found online, and followed up with a wee fabric prototype. There are only two seams and they’re both on the straight or cross grain but the geometry is complicated so I’m not certain I’ll stick with it. Friday I had therapy, scanned in all the drawings, and cleaned them up digitally. Saturday I finished cleanup, then adapted the layout and content based on P’s edits and added in the images. Sunday I made a cover and did print tests, although I might go with professional printing this year since it looks like our printer is again having problems with toner ghosts and skipping pages. Unfortunately it looks like “sixteen-page half-letter booklet” is not something anyone makes easy to specify, especially for black-and-white printing.

This past week off work has been full of much-needed rest! I’ve been on a pattern of doing something semi productive in the morning or early afternoon, then playing Factory Town or napping until dinner. Although lbr it’s mostly Factory Town. Very sticky.

Wednesday we went to the coop and got baking ingredients and some fresh vegetables. A lemon, an orange, bell pepper, green beans, rice flour, sorghum flour, almond meal, brown sugar, candied ginger, coconut oil, vegan butter, hazelnut milk, and coconut-almond creamer.

Thursday I had a cavity filled.

Friday I made a gf flour blend from the rice and sorghum flours and corn starch, then made pie crust.

Saturday I made mince pies and attempted Canadian butter tarts. The orange and lemon peel went into the mince finely shredded, plus some of the juice, diced candied ginger, a pile of spices, toasted pecans, and the dregs of the bottle of wild ferment cider we’d been working through. Simmered until gloppy. Lined muffin tins with pastry, ran out of dough, made more. Filled and baked. Used the rest of the pastry to line mini muffin tins. Made butter tart batter with gf roux instead of the egg, and half brown sugar half maple syrup. The batter is ridiculously delicious so I’m a bit miffed I overbaked them into sortof toffee tarts instead, still edible but I want to try again. The mince pies are 💯, and I froze most of them so anxietybrain doesn’t freak out about their moist contents.

Sunday I washed my hair and did laundry, and clicked buttons to help N fix the survey machinery for work.

Monday I rescued some of the botched intermediate survey results from Sunday, and documented the process for N to complete. I took down the hem in P’s wool pants, which have shrunk by over two inches in the wash over time. I may decide to put the rest of the yardage through a warm cycle before making another pair. Anyway he tried them on to mark a new hem and they were still borderline too short, so I added a band of fabric to the bottoms. I made a new leather thimble (the other I’d made too small) for the finishing work.

Today I plan to complete the new hems and make paper snowflakes.

Last week was my birthday, and I took the day off and spent it sewing, having a long bath with chamomile, and reading under piles of blankets. I put back pockets on P’s brown wool pants, reinforced the corners on the front side pockets, and patched a rip in his twill pants.

Over the weekend I made myself a new leather thimble, sewed a snap onto a cloth pad that had lost one, and made another batch of lentils and wild rice. At the farmers market we picked up a case of cider, and she threw in a bag of fresh marsh mallow roots. I sliced them up and put them in the dehydrator. If you’ve never had them before, they’re mucilagenous like okra, and smell gently of horseradish and turnips… which is why marshmallows (the confection) were invented, since you couldn’t get kids to eat them unless you drowned out the flavor with sugar. Marsh mallow is good for dry coughs, sore throats, and urinary issues, just be sure not to take within three hours of any prescription meds, since the mucilage coats your GI tract and can interfere with drug absorption. Some sources also say not to mix with diabetes meds, but I couldn’t find one that explained why. Otherwise marsh mallow is very safe, even during pregnancy. You can also use it topically as part of a poultice, since the mucilage dries into a flexible but supportive air barrier: instant bandage! As always, don’t sub herbal medicine for seeing a doctor, and always let your doc know what you’re using.

Over the weekend I finished the second pocket on the wool pants for P, and they are complete for now. I cut out some seersucker sleep shorts (it required some piecing so I gave them a side panel with a small diagonal stripe of doubled up black voile) and sewed all the panel seams and then the center front and back. We went to the farmers market and got three kinds of apples, maple syrup, mushrooms, a new cider (still, bittered with tulsi), beans, sweet potatoes, a pie pumpkin, peppers, a tomato, and fresh onions. Had some of the cider with dinner prep and it was intense; P doesn’t not-like it but it has enough dill seed overtones that my palate immediately labels it as an inferior pickle shot. Bummer.

I had a call with my Olin mentee, and one with my GoS mentee. For the latter we resubmitted her paper to JEI, her first time responding to reviewer feedback, milestone reached!

I’ve been watching The Magicians, which is fine, and reading Not Your Average Hot Guy, which is clearly trying very hard.

This weekend, we had drinks with F&A over at their new house, flirting with the rain. I finished all major seams, waistband, and hem on a pair of brown wool pants for P; remains inserting pockets. I’m thinking of using a remnant from the mauve/grey skirt for the welts and facing just to make them easier to get round the right way. The White has been sewing like a champ, and the narrower presser foot actually makes a bunch of stuff easier.

Yesterday I had the day off for Memorial Day weekend. I spent most of it reading and sewing; I sewed a little chin pocket to one of my pointy-nose masks, and now it fits perfectly and doesn’t slide around when I talk. I washed some cobweb-bedighted stuff from the rag pile in prep for using it as patches on P’s shorts, then took it apart. It needs a once-over with some tweezers to get rid of the worst of the thread shrapnel, then a good ironing, then they’ll be ready to cut and sew.

We did the crossword after lunch, and P had a good nap, recovering from the semester. I finished Magpie Lord and started A Case Of Possession. I finished Trinkets over snack, and started watching Queen’s Gambit. Dinner solo, more Queen’s Gambit, snack, sleep. Dreamt of a weird ballet class with TVs on carts, a puzzle hunt with rubber stamps and first aid supplies, and fishing.

Yesterday I washed my hair, did the laundry, and rebuilt Monster (it was time). He’s now shod in blue flannel, and has had his stuffing fluffed and re-stuffed. I minced and browned last week’s mushrooms over dinner. Crossword after lunch, Atlantis after dinner, then direct to sleep to help adjust to the time change. It seems to have worked. Dreamt of the teary retirement of a private CMU shuttle, an outdoor flea market with really excellent handmade boxes and containers in various materials, and a long caravan of trailers including C & family, loaded up with produce for a big trip. Also archers on horseback for some reason.

I finished The Return of Absent Souls, which wrapped up nicely in spite of it all. Not sure what to read next so clearing my podcast queue in the meantime.

Yesterday P and I cleared the dining room table (a herculean task) and did about three years worth of filing. I did some research to maybe exchange a vest from P’s folks for something less outerwear. The after-Christmas pickings are pretty slim unfortunately so we’ll see. For snack I attempted to pop some of the wild rice I’d bought for the purpose, but wasn’t able to get it to work. I made some popcorn instead, and crunched up the almond butter kale chips over it. Delicious.

We did the crossword after lunch, and I watched SG-1 with hemming after dinner. A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor is wrapping up a bit deus ex machina, disappointing but what can you do.

Yesterday I spent the morning paging through the Handmade Arcade online site. After lunch we did the laundry. I had a call with my mentee about negotiating salary, and then I made another batch of nut and seed bars and finished hemming the second dish towel.

On Thanksgiving, we did a Zoom with P’s folks and M & A, which was lovely. A mostly chill day, and late afternoon started prep for popovers and a stuffed pumpkin. We are both out of practice; the popovers didn’t pop and the pumpkin was still not bubbling after an hour, but we ate anyway (I had extra stuffing going on the stovetop) and everything was delicious. Called my folks after for a nice long chat, played some scrabble, a very relaxing day.

For the pumpkin: use a small pumpkin or squash meant for eating that sits nicely with the stem at the very top. I used a UFO squash, dark green shell and dry rich flesh something like a buttercup squash. Take the top off the pumpkin and clean out the guts. 1/3 cup each lentils and wild rice, soak in 2 cups boiling water with a healthy pinch of saffron. 2T each chopped marcona almonds, red bell pepper, mushrooms, and dried cranberries, and sizzle in olive oil until the mushrooms brown. Mix everything up, add thyme and sage. Use a measuring cup or tiny ladle to fill the pumpkin no more than half full of solids, then top up with liquid to a finger thickness short of the bottom of the cap. Bake uncovered at 350 until boiling (I did not uncover for this step and that was a mistake; squash is an excellent insulator), then cap and bake 30 minutes or until liquid is absorbed, wild rice is beginning to split but not curl, and pumpkin is soft. Meanwhile, simmer remaining mixture on stovetop 30-50 minutes until wild rice is done. Reduce away any remaining liquid. Serve to normal people with crispy garlic and shallots or to Katies straight up.

Yesterday we ate leftovers (the stuffed squash made great soup) and puttered around. I transferred the pattern for the gearbox to a sheet of brass and started learning how to/how not to drill holes in it (do put something behind it; do use a power tool; do back off frequently; do drill more sizes of pilot holes than you think you need). We went through the FedCo seed catalog, and started looking online for missing bits (we want to grow rue so we can try some of the ancient Roman recipes from one of the historical cooking channels we watch). I finished Avatar and started hemming another dish towel. A good day.