three firsts

I really wanted to title this 'a week of firsts,' but, well, one project alone took more than a week start-to-finish (I hope you can figure out which).

Yesterday, for my Wordless Wednesday, I posted this



She is my first all-on-my-own sewing project. She is based on a project from Sewing By Hand by Christine Hoffman and Harriett Barton. Of course, the amazon description says the book's for four- to eight-year-olds, but no matter. Of course, my mom has been sewing on her own since she was about eight, maybe younger, and I've seen her do this all my life, but no matter. I'm just getting a late start. I even made a modification to the pattern, which was for a cat, but Pic wanted a bear. She wanted a polar bear, actually, but she hasn't said anything to me about how un-polar bear this is. So, I rounded the cat's ears. Fancy, no? Also, the fabric? We recently went to Joann's to pick some up and I let her pick something from the clearance rack and this was her choice.

The sewing is definitely not perfect (um, yeah, don't ask what happened with that foot...let's just say that, first, my overhand stitch needs some work, and, second, I should not wait a week while Pic plays with the bear before I sew up her foot because by then the fabric is all nice and frayed). The beginning knots are a gargantuan mess, so I'm glad they're hiding on the inside there. Also, I did the sewing, but as this was Pic's toy, I wanted her to help with it, so she did the stuffing part. The project in the book called for filling the toy with beans or lentils or something, but I was afraid that my stitches would be too big and they would fall out, so we used polyester stuffing. Next, time, though, I'll use the beans, but only because Pic's four and past that whole three-and-under-choking-hazards-everywhere stage, because you never know when my stitches will split or whatever it is they do.

So...next.



A week ago, today, I made my first pumpkin pie from scratch. I'm pretty sure that at one point I made a pumpkin pie with canned pumpkin and premade dough. This time, though, I wanted to try my hand at something of a challenge (hey, for me, most cooking/baking is a challenge). I actually made a pumpkin and butternut squash pie. I roasted the pumpkin and butternut squash at the same time and then let the puree languish in the fridge for almost too long. Finally, Pic and I gathered all of the needed ingredients, made the dough (oh-so-not-as-difficult-as-I-thought), and mixed together all of the ingredients for the filling. That's when I started to freak out. Experimenting in the kitchen is daunting to me because so many things could go wrong when I'm in charge. Then what? We have a mess we have to throw out and we still need to eat. I know I sound melodramatic, but I hate the thought of wasting so much food on a failed recipe and we aren't exactly rolling in the dough here (ha!) so I'm worried about throwing away food we spend Cardo's hard-earned money on.

So, the pie filling? It was watery. Is it supposed to be like this? Shouldn't it be thick? This is not what it looks like when it comes out of the can. This is what kept running through my head, but I couldn't find any place where I had messed up, so I went with it. I was just extra-careful (or, overcareful) getting it to the oven. After the prescribed amount of time in the oven, though, the pie looked just like it was supposed to (except that kind of burnt spot there where the filling went over the edge of my imperfectly shaped pie crust). That night, I made some whipped cream and then waited as Cardo first tasted the pie. (I do this with just about everything I make. I wait until he tastes it first. He never complains, but I wonder if that's just because he doesn't want to have to do the cooking himself.) It was good! We ate all of it over the next few days. (Oh, I used the recipe from the label on the sugar pumpkin I bought at Trader Joe's. I used that pumpkin plus the butternut squash, so I just substituted half of the pumpkin with the butternut.)

Finally, tonight



My first homemade pizza dough! Just like with pie crust, I was thinking, I can't make pizza dough. It'll probably suck. I'll mess it up. It'll be too hard. Ha, ha! I say now. Although our apartment is about ten degrees (okay, so it hovers just under sixty most days now) and I was sure the dough wouldn't rise because there isn't a warm place to put it, unless I tuck it in my bed, the dough did rise.* I only had a recipe for the dough, a recipe I got from The New Moosewood Cookbook in Katzen's calzone recipe, and I didn't actually use any instructions other than that. I didn't bother to see how hot the oven should be or how long we were to cook it. So, I wung it ('wung' 'winged'...y'know). I set the oven for 425 and let the pizza cook for twenty minutes. We probably really didn't have to let it cook that long, though.

On top of the pizza: a bit of olive oil brushed on, queso fresco casero (it's the only cheese we had), yellow squash, zucchini, turkey bacon. The bacon almost didn't make it because I wanted to eat it while I was cooking it. I usually only make apple pizza, so I wasn't sure what needed to happen with the toppings for this pizza, so I cooked the bacon and the veggies for a bit before we assembled the pizza. Is that how it's done?

The taste? Oh, so good. I'm so having a piece for breakfast tomorrow. I'm so making pizza dough again...and again and again.

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* When I'm making WHO bread and, now, pizza dough, I let the dough rise in a bowl on the rangetop. I cover the bowl with a hot damp towel (which, of course, cools). As I've only been making the bread for the past month and the pizza for the past few hours, I've been dealing with a cold apartment. To create some warmth, I set the kettle to boil (making sure to not light the nearby towel on fire) so I can have a nice warm mug of tea while I wait. Also, today, cooking the bacon on the stove and roasting the squash in the oven underneath helped create some warmth. Otherwise, I might have to actually turn on the heater and warm the apartment. So far, though, my methods have worked.

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P.S. Yes, you guessed it (I sincerely hope): the bear took more than a week. It could easily take a day (for me...a half-hour for others), but I was procrastinating. I copied and cut the pattern and pinned it on one day. I did all of the sewing, minus the last little bit the next day. And, then...I waited several days to actually finish it up.