all buttoned up.

An Open Letter to Chicken: Puff Pastry

I know you are off doing your thing, with the jet setting and the home teaching and the potion mixing, and I realized I missed you and started to make a list of things we needed to address next time. But you know, I'll forget a lot of it and we won't have enough time anyway.

Last time we had dinner we got onto puff pastry and so I bought some at Fred Meyer and decided to try a Spanish custard thing for Paul's birthday. It worked, but there was something lacking on the pastry end and so I made more custard and tried making plain old danishes, just in case the dessert table fell short. They were much better and much faster. I cut the pastry into squares, cut a 1/2 inch line around the perimeter, topped them with a little custard, sliced peaches, and whipped egg white. I put them in the oven and watched them until they had puffed accordingly.

Caramel sauce makes it great. You were right. We ate some that night for dinner and then I put the rest in the fridge for the next day. They are definetely better at room temperature, FYI. The custard recipe is fantastic and I don't think we should skip that step. Steeped cinnamon stick! I ate that for the next two days. Next time I'm getting fancier puff pastry. I know that we should just make our own, yes? I have no time for that. Or maybe I just don't have the patience.

So what else is going on? I'm making tiny clothes which has calmed me down a great deal-- it's no meditation retreat, but it will do. Vintage Cakes? Why wasn't I at that book signing with you? Seriously, how does that woman speak our language so correctly? I just made a plum slump and realized that for me, summer is going to forever taste like that book.

Okay, we are due a dinner soon. Safe trip home--

xo, Frenchie.

Three Small Things

I have managed to sew three small things for Truly during the last week. If everything goes all right and the house is not too much of a disaster, Manny and I will sneak into the basement during T's morning nap and he will draw and glue and I will do something related to sewing or laundry (blech). We have been marginally successful. It helps that the seams are only ever as long as my arm. I traced patterns from a Japanese Craft Book (the NYC kids book everybody seems to have), Anna Maria's Quick Change Trousers, and Shelly's Ayashe blouse.

The little dress fits her now and I made it from a fine wale corduroy remnant and some beautiful cotton Sally let me pick out before she left (there's going to be a lot of clothes coming from Shim remnants). I thought it was the easiest thing I could think of to sew considering that I am quite out of practice. Of course, I picked something that involved some tricky inside-out turning and sewing, but it was fine. She's not much for wearing dresses. They get all twisted up when she's rolling around and refusing to sit or crawl. I don't know if it's because I've dressed three boys, but she wears far fewer traditionally pretty things than I thought she would. She looks right in soft, comfortable things... so what if they are mostly stripes?!

The trousers are too big, but won't be for much longer. The grey came from my Roobios dress and is the sort of fabric I could do with a bolt of. The gingham is from Sally and the reversible side is just an inverse of the two fabrics. I will be making more of these.

I love this blouse pattern and I'm planning several more in different sleeve lengths and sizes. And maybe lengthening it into a dress? That front yoke/neck opening and sleeve draping are exactly my thing in little girls clothes. In fact, when I'm browsing for small tunics or tops I always do a quick calculation in my head: is this more than a 1/2 yard of Liberty? Then I should make it. And also go buy some Liberty (see how that works?). This is double gauze that I've had for a long time-- maybe a remnant from Mariko? Actually-- I think she has a matching shirt? That would be fantastic. This is the 18 month size, which is too large to look right on her, but she wore it today anyway.

I bought some new fabric last month, but really, I should be able to sew for a good long time from my shelves. It's a shame that I'm so terribly wanty over several of the new prints from Liberty's new quilt weight line. That just means I should start cutting out quilts, yes? Manny doesn't have one yet, and Sam is in a new, bigger bed, which probably means a new, bigger quilt. See how easy it is to create unrealistic expectations for myself? DEAD EASY.