Thanksgiving Eats

As the saying goes, "The Best Laid Plans O' Mice and Men Aft Gang Aglay" (and if you like Eddie Izzard, you know the mice are planning their own version of the Italian Job). For us, our Thanksgiving travel plans were thrown out the window when both girls got sick, in the Belly's case a double-ear infection, and we decided not to fly. So, we had a nice dinner at my lovely friend S's house, and made our own little family for the night.

For me, it's just not Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie. And I found the most amazing recipe for Caramel Pumpkin Pie, courtesy of Dorie Greenspan. (I haven't made it with the strussel as in the link, but it's got to be even more fantastic.) S made a delicious apple pie which was made divine with the inclusion of The Pioneer Woman's Hard Sauce. I made yummy noises the entire time I ate it.

It's also not a holiday unless there's Pink Salad. It's something my stepmom always makes for big dinners, a recipe she got from her mom. It's wicked easy, very refreshing, and since it has light cream cheese and pineapple, you might be able to convince yourself it's a healthy thing to eat.

Pink Salad
1 - 6oz package of Strawberry Jello
2 - cups water
2 - 3oz packages light cream cheese
1 - 20oz can crushed pineapple
1 - cup pecans
1 - package Dream Whip, prepared according to the box
(Note: if you can't find Dream Whip, you can use a container of thawed Cool Whip)

Combine pineapple and water. Bring to a boil. Stir in jello. Cut up cream cheese and stir until nearly dissolved. Chill until set but not jelled. Fold in Dream Whip and pecans. Put into lightly oiled mold (I use a pie pan) and chill until jelled.

The perfect thing to wear to eat all this? Hot Pattern's Wong-Singh-Jones Marrakesh Drawstring Pants. They look nice and dressy, but have an elastic drawstring waist, so you can eat your fill and still look fabulous.

Getting a start on Christmas baking

I have some posts on my latest sewing projects, but today I want to talk about holiday baking. I love holiday baking, even if it does drive my a bit batty trying to get it all done in time to give out to people.

My mom was big on Christmas baking. When I was older, my aunt and I would go to my mom's house for what I dubbed "Cookiefest": a weekend-long marathon of baking, frosting, chocolate-dipping and talking. Her two most-popular items were Chocolate-Dipped Candied Orange Peels and Buche de Noel. I've been making them for the past few years, because they remind me of her and all the great times she gave us all. Recipes for those will come later, don't worry.

Since I have two little ones, elaborate cookies and confections aren't really easy for me. I stick to quick, tasty things, like fudge, caramels and slice-and-bake cookies. To make things even easier, I make dough ahead of time, freeze it, then slice, bake and snarf them down. I usually make 3 types, for variety. This year, it's Lemon Sables, Chocolate Mint Cookies and Oatmeal Crispies with Cranberries.

For the sables, I go with Dorie Greenspan's delicious recipe. I use coarse red and green sugar for the decor and they look so festive in a tin (or a box, or a bag, or on a plate with a cup of tea...).

The Chocolate Mint Cookies are my own variation of her Korova/World Peace cookies. They are quite amazing on their own, but, as I've posted before, the Andes mint chips are my new obsession and I was looking for a way to incorporate them into holiday baking. So, I used the base cookie recipe, omitted most of the salt and used the mint chips instead. The dough sticking to the bowl that I, um, couldn't scrape out, yeah, that's it, was delicious.

The final recipe is the Pioneer Woman's Oatmeal Crispies. I've actually made these a few times, plain and gussied up. This time, I added some cinnamon and nutmeg to the dry ingredients, then dumped in a bunch of cranberries before shaping the logs.

Mmmmm.... is it time for baking yet?

Fake Headboard

First, let me say I haven't watched the finale for Project Runway, but I do know who won and I'm gutted. However, I'm sure Mondo will have a bright, colorful future, even if Gretchen did win the final prize. I'm not really a fan of the slouchy, Boho aesthetic she uses. It doesn't suit my body type or lifestyle. I know Nina Garcia is pregnant, but I don't know what Michael Kors's excuse is...

Way back when I was a single girl, I didn't have a headboard that matched the furniture in my bedroom. One day, I found these really cool wrought-iron rose trellises and decided to use those as a non-traditional headboard. The only drawback was I had to attach them to the wall using cable nails so they wouldn't rattle and make marks on the wall.

When the Boy and I moved into our current house, we put my furniture in a spare room in the basement, which we use as a guest room. The trellises were still lovely, but we hadn't secured them to the wall, which was a bit of a problem for guests and when the Bean and the Belly decided they needed to jump on the bed.

I needed a quiet, inexpensive solution that still looked pretty. At Target (god, how I love Target), I found some cool wall stickers that were the perfect thing (please forgive my ugly bed-making skills).

I love this new trend in decoration. They're cheap, fun and you can take them off and re-position them as many times as you need to. Which was good for me, as I put these up after a nice relaxing bath with a tasty beverage.

Holy '80s, Batman!

Before we talk about some truly awful fashion, let me just say I'm totally rooting for Mondo to win this season's Project Runway. He seems really sweet, his clothes are awesome and he's a hometown boy.

And how did I not know Tim Gunn came to Denver? I feel like I should have had some kind of Make-it-Work-Spidey-sense tingle when he was here.

I doubt Mondo, or even Christian Siriano, could save any of the dress patterns at Neue Mode. I found them when browsing PatternReview.com and I had a middle-school, Jessica McClintock flashback so bad I almost had to lay down to recover.

T-Shirts and Tunics

The Very Easy Vogue pattern 8649 looked like it would be perfect for me. V-neck, fitted through the bodice, knit fabric--all things I love. And that it has separate pieces for A, B, C and D cup sizes? How awesome is that?

It went together very easily, but I have to make it again in a smaller size (who would imagine that?!?) as the D-cup pieces have too much ease in them and I have to pull up the shoulder seam about 2" to keep it from being baggy and indecent. I think the easy solution is to go down a size (or even 2 for the shoulder seam) and use the C-cup pattern pieces instead. The pattern is easy and versatile enough that I want to work to make it work for me.

While waiting for more fabric to come, I made the Liverpool Tunic from Amy Butler. I'm not really a "pattern" person, so I just made it in a plain purple broadcloth and used fun, striped buttons instead of covering them (per the instructions).

I love this shirt. It's very flattering, easy to put together and has 4 different hem and sleeve lengths, so you can mix and match to get whatever you want. And her pattern instructions are divine. Everything is written out clearly, illustrations are detailed, nothing is left out. If only every pattern were written like this.

Tokyo Joe Tunic

I finally finished the Hot Patterns Tokyo Joe Tunic and I honestly think it's the most beautiful thing I've sewn so far.




I love, love, love the main fabric and the black trim, but the pleats on the sleeve are an amazing detail, too.

The sewing itself wasn't too hard, and I think I'm getting the hang of reading Hot Patterns instructions. There's a lot of fabric to cut out. The sleeves have 16 pleats, plus underlays for each pleat. The neckband is in 3 pieces and so is the corresponding neck facing.

My main issue came with cutting and sewing the main fabric. It's definitely lighter and flowier than I'm used to, so I had to be even more careful when laying out and cutting the pieces. And, I don't know if I needed a sharper (to cut the threads) or duller (to slip past the threads) needle because every once in a while the needle would hit a thread and almost create a "run" in the fabric. It's not too noticeable and nothing was seriously damaged, but I might have to experiment in case I want to use fabric like this again.

I'm working on a simple V-neck knit top next. It only has 6 pieces and 13 steps, so it will be much easier and quicker, but it definitely will not be as breathtaking.

Creme de Menthe Cookie Bars

I decided to go the quick and easy route with the Andes Creme de Menthe baking chips and made bar cookies. I used the recipe on the back of the bag, halving the chemical leaveners. Instead of making individual cookies, I spread all the dough in a 10x15 sheet pan and baked it for 20 minutes at 375F.

They're delicious. Nice and cakey, since they didn't really spread as drop cookies would. The Boy had 3 for dessert last night, so I'm guessing he really likes them...