Old Dress but new picture

I made this dress last year for Bladensburg but only got to wear it for a few hours thanks to the rain.   I wore it again this year for a lovely picnic/party/archery shoot.  :-)  The picture of me is courtesy of Gloria from In the Long Run.  (Really, it was her husband Mike that took the picture. :-) )

I put up the fashion plate with the dress to show a couple of things.  One, the color green I'm wearing is quite period correct and the use of paisleys is also correct.  Also, having a too short dress is easily overcome with a gratuitous use of petticoats - which I did.  The sari I used wasn't quite long enough but turns out, this is perfectly fine for the 1810's.   The style I made is different - the fashion plate has it as an open center front and I made mine a fold over.  The reason I did that was because of the sari - the hidden edge doesn't have the paisleys going up the front of the skirt.   The sleeves are also different.

I wore a tiara because I couldn't go bare headed - that would be unseemly.   I did try on a couple of different hats and...they just looked terrible.  I couldn't find my turban (maybe it's in the trailer?) so...tiaras it is!   That and it is one of Kat's parties - tiaras are necessary.  ;-D

Now, at least, I have a proper picture of this dress!

(And I swear, I am sewing.  I sewed already this morning.  I'm in full Pennsic Panic mode and trying to get at least four dresses done before Pennsic.  I'm hoping to have pictures of one of them tonight.  We'll see)

Beef Pockets

This is something I came up with today while looking at what I had in the fridge. It is so terribly good! I have to write the recipe down so I'll remember.


Ingredients:

• 2 pastry shells - I use the roll out kind you find near the eggs in the grocery store
• 2 eggs
• 1 lb of ground beef - I like the lean kind but any kind will do
• 1/4 sweet onion
• 3 potatoes
• 4 carrots
• 1 tablespoon rosemary
• 1/2 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• Olive oil to drizzle over the shells when you put them in the oven

I preheated the oven to 425f. I then rolled out the shells on the cookie tray so I could fill them easily. I probably should have greased the bottom of the cookie tray with some of the olive oil but I didn't.

I chopped up the carrots (peeled and chopped small), onion, and potatoes (just chopped, not peeled). I then added the two eggs, spices, and ground beef, mixing it all together the best I could in the bowl. It doesn't have to be perfect but it does need to be mixed.

I then took the filling, and put half inside each pastry shell, folding the pastry shells over. Again, doesn't have to be perfect. I drizzled olive oil on top and put these in the oven for 45 minutes.

This should be enough food for probably 6 people. Each pastry shell should feed three. I will be eating this for the rest of the week. It's really quite good and I think I might make it at Pennsic (with smaller portions!). It is a modern recipe - I made it up this evening- but nothing in it screams modern either. Well, maybe the ground beef but if you wanted to do this for a medieval type dinner, you could use small pieces of steak instead.