green_martha | Entries tagged with cooking

I've been going through my books for my 1890s research... project... thingie. All in the name of going back to basics and looking for what's really typical in terms of shape and trim for 1890s lingerie. Turns out colored lingerie seems to be all the rage. I can't find a single fashion column between 1893 and 1898 that would mention lingerie and NOT mention color. Pale pink, pale blue, and pale pink, blue or purple flowers on a white ground. I need to look into what the patterns might have looked like now.
I'm enjoying some free time as the kids are with my parents and I'm home alone. I "only" have to make about 10 pounds of plum jam this afternoon. The plum tree is full of ripe fruit. We've have various cakes already. Tonight I'm going to try duck with a plum sauce, and this afternoon jam. And most of the fruit is still ON the tree. I've picked over 30 pounds of plums already. Does anybody want some ?

Current Mood: geeky

... I think it's what being productive feels like. I did take a real week-end break from sewing - helped by the fact that I was in too much pain yesterday to do anything besides lying in bed and reading The Hobbit for most of the day yesterday. Sometimes I wish I could be rid of the damn monhtly dose of feminity for good. I have my kids, I don't intend to ever get pregnant again, I don't need my reproductive cycle anymore, thankyouverymuch... But at least I've read some.
But I did cook quite a bit on Saturday, and blogged</a< about it. I'm having waaay too much fun with this cooking blog. I came home from my vacation all motivated to cook some yummy stuff ad it keeps me going. So : yay ! Today I was a good girl and went back to work on the skirt. All seams are neatly finished, I'm working towards a waistband now. Well,after lunch, because for now I have one big cuddly boy sitting on my lap and trying to decipher the letters I'm typing. It feels amazing to be moving forward !

Current Mood: productive

I have issues seeing what I type, but the feeling of being outside, hearing the birds chirp, having the little one playing around, the cats exploring... is totally worth it.
I haven't forgotten about the cooking blog, I just wanted to have it not look like complete crap before poting the link ;) Here it is : La Cuisine de Green Martha. I'm posting mostly simple, everyday stuff, and trying to make it accessible to everyone.
Okay, I'm programming one more post and going back to sewing. Naughty girl following too many different projects at the same time...

Current Mood: getting some sunshine !

Nothing very interesting sewing-wise. I figured out I had forgotten facings for the justaucorps, started adding them, am now tired.
Mostly, I've been baking. I have one full box of Zimt-no-quite-Sterne... Some Zimtsterne, and then Zimtschweine, Zimtglöckchen, Zimtmonde... The star cookie-cutters were just too small, so I used the bigger ones. The HG particularly loves the pig ones :) I have a big batch of Anisplätzle drying overnight, and two rolls of Vanillekipferln dough in the fridge which I want to make into actual cookies tomorrow. Yum yum yum !
I'm also on Pinterest now, and trying desperately to follow some of you guys but something's not quite cooperating until now.
*yawn* I finished the Zimtsterne way too late last night, now it's time for bed, night night world !

Current Mood: sleepy

Well, I've been feeling a bit under the weather, and I just realized the dizziness from those past few days might be related to some medicine I'm taking. Grrrreat... My head finally cleared around 8PM and I took it this morning around 5 I'd say...
In short : I've been away at my parents' place for a week, we went to the seashore with the kids, I'm making slow but steady progress on the pirate justaucorps (one half of the body is fully lined, the second half isn't too far behind, and I have fabric for the sleeves lining), I embroidered a few handkerchiefs, I made green jam (rhubarb-apple, with green sugar left over from our wedding). We adopted Lord Darkstone's blind cat.
Lord Darkstone adopted Murphy, a stray kitten, years ago, while he was still living at his parents' place. At that time, Murphy already had some kind of disease or infection that made him lose his sight little by little, so that when Lord Darkstone moved out and in with Lady Darkstone, the cat was fully blind. But he knew his environment, so the Darkstones considered it wiser to let the him live with Lord Darkstone's parents. Enter a few family complications, basically, the cat's caretaker got kicked out of the house and the one family member who now occupies the house threatened to have the cat killed unless Lord Darkstone took it home. Except the Darkstones live in a three-rooms-apartment with two cats already, so we volunteered, hoping that moving the poor animal wouldn't be too traumatizing. Thankfully, Murphy is adapting extremely well. He's probably the nicest cat I've ever met, I just don't understand someone might want to get rid of him. Mind you, the ... person who kicked him out kept a dog AND another cat, it's not an allergy thing, he just stated he couldn't stand Murphy. Charming person. Can't stand cuddles, apparently.

Crossposts: http://green-martha.livejournal.com/346428.html

Yatta ! Two Dresdner Chrisstollen are slowly cooling under mountains of sugar in the kitchen. I know what I'm eating tomorrow morning for breakfast... *drools*

Current Mood: excited

The boy seems to want out early, according to the OB, so he might be there in the next few days. We have his room ready, and I'm finishing the packing for the hospital stay. I'm also doing some pre-cooking, freezing some stuff for after the birth, when we'll be too tired to think. So right now I'm busy in the kitchen, until I have to leave the house. I'll be a little silent for a while, nothing alarming about that.
I did a little bit of sewing on the bustle last night, it's coming along very very slowly... so no pictures, and no major update either. When I have some free time I mostly concentrate on drawing and my Etsy shop. If you're interested in following what's going on over there, I keep it mostly on my art-related blog, although right now it's quiet over there as well.
I'm still reading the f-list, just not talking much. I do need to take some time to rest now and then :)
And now I'm wondering if I have enough energy to go down and prepare a salty cake to freeze in as well...

Current Mood: content

There are still some things I have to post.
Like,, how my casaque turned out !

My digicam had issues with the petrol color, the most accurate one is the fourth picture. I'm very please with the outfit - although I seem to be the only one to find a cute factor in it :) I was afraid the pocket hoops would be too high but with a little stuff in them (car keys, etc...) and after a short while they slided down to their right position. I'm not happy about the pattern I used for the casaque (Mill Farm), I had to go back so often to Waugh that I might as well have just skipped ordering it. I used Katherine's tutorial for the petticoats, and just made them to be tied over my bump in front, which worked just fine. The stomacher was partly pinned to the jumps, partly to the skirt.
The cap is a bit on the big side, I've since taken it apart, cut it down a little and folded the lace in half. It looks much better ! (I'll post pictorial evidence soon, I promise). The jewelry is my wedding jewelry, which goes with lots of my costumes, apparently. I think it's time I let go off the blue-brown color scheme.

And I promised those to

heileen, I figured I might as well share. ( Recipes behind the cut )

Current Mood: accomplished

I forgot to thank all of you for your answers to the poll. I don't promise I'll be able to add much knitting and crochet stuff soon, but I'll do my best. I must poke the HG for some OCR software that would make uploading the looooooong instructions quicker. There are tons of instructions for corchetted lace in the 1898 book...

heileen we REALLY need to find one afternoon so that I show you some knitting tricks and you show me some crochetting ones, because I'm dying to try those out (and the crochetted Cthulhu from the last Anticraft issue as well).

I have uploaded the page for the Petit Echo de la Mode, April 15th, 1923, minus the crochetted baby shirt.

This week I also tried a recipe from one of my Mode Illustrée books, a baked fish, and even though I did not follow it exactly due to the lack of eggs, both the HG and I agreed it was a very yummy one, and one we should do more often. I'm not sure I'll ever try the weird noodle tart (or should I say noodle pizza ?) I've found. *shudders*
The fish, right out of the oven, under the bread crumbs and herbs crust :

Sadly, it didn't look that good anymore once served. I guess next time I won't take an entire fish and will use filets instead.

( The recipe, for those interested )

And to make this post even more like a list of unrelated notes, I'll conclude saying I was a moron and did not buy enough lacing cord for the Kitty. And the one I have that's the right size is positively unpretty, which annoys me. Thus, it's likely that I won't finish the Kitty's underwear tonight but will instead move on to the 20's bra. Or to my brother's justeaucorps. He'll be there next week and eeep ! I still haven't worked ont he toile ! I'm a bad baaaaad sister !

I have now started again from scratch on the fingerless mitts for the third time. Not counting when I ripped off some 20 rows or so because my increases looked like crap. On the plus side, I know master three different types of increases. It's so cold outside today I had to bribe myself to get the laundry hanging : one basket of wet laundry put on the line = three or four rows to get the blood circulating again in my fingers. And some surfing on Ravelry kept me motivated. Thanks so much folks for mentioning that site. Or not so much for making me add yet some more projects to my evergrowing list of SIWTM (Stuff I Want To Make).
Right now, I've got some motivation to bake, so I'll try to finish some more Plätzchen, then maybe I'll sew some more. Maybe. My energy levels are quite low right now, everything has been sucked away by work. And my next day off is Christmas day. My last one was last Sunday, and we had some friends staying over. Ouch. I think that explain the somewhat random babble you've just read and the lack of concrete update.

Sooooo, I finished the adjustements on Matrioschka #1 this morning, I need a last check - which means trying it on, a thing I'm not willing to do until the temperature has cooled down a bit.

I worke a little on the combination, and it's coming along nicely. The neckline is trimmed, I'm in the process of trimming the legs' hem. Then I'll need to make the lace insertion at waist level, add buttons and (gasp) buttonholes. I've taken the habit to work on it on the bus/tramway and during my lunch break. Even if handsewing isn't as quick as machine-sewing, I'm making progress at it. :)

And a little side note for my frenchspeaking friends. If you enjoy cooking experiments, and good food in general, have a look at this list.