Tuesday and Wednesday

Yesterday, I had a salad at lunch with my olive and red win vinegar dressing. I don't like the salad oil at work and they don't give you a cup to mix the vinegar and oil together which is bothersome. I've been drinking water lately since those three or four glasses of tea I've been drinking a day are about 500 extra calories a day -something I do not need. For dinner, I ended up just having bread and oil with herbs. I could have heated up more apple pie but I just wasn't hungry.

Today, I'm not feeling great (not quite to sick yet, but getting there. I'm hoping to hold out until Friday). Even though today is a fast day, I'm snacking on pretzels for the salt. I need some of the ginger but all of it is at home. I might be able to stomach some raisins later but, right now, pretzels. Lots of them.




This is one of the apple pies I made. It looks...horrible in the picture but it really is tasty.

And, of course, Fried mushrooms:



Oh! And my "helper" that evening:

Thursday's Dinner

Oh my! It was so good!

First, I went shopping today. Basically buying an entirely new food supply is not cheap but it wasn't horrible either. I ended up with a nice large fillet of salmon, grated orange peel, grated lemon peel, marjoram, rice, crystallized ginger, a beef bone for the dog, almonds, more almonds, sliced almonds, not yet cracked almonds, almond milk, almond flour (seriously! They had it at my local grocery store for $9.99; it was the most expensive item after the salmon.), rice flour, another flour I can't recall right now that wasn't normal white flour, parsley, red wine vinegar, white wine vinegar, olive oil, and probably a few more things that I can't recall off the top of my head right now.

When I eventually got home, I looked up good recipes using what I had. I ended up landing on this page for a decent salad. My salad was a spring mix with spinach, carrots, mushrooms, and chopped almonds. The dressing was olive oil with red wine vinegar and black pepper. It was quite good.

The side dish was a fabulous mushroom dish I'd love to make again. I used fresh mushrooms rather than dried and used dried minced onions rather than fresh. I then added garlic powder once everything was almost done. I fried it up in olive oil. Towards the very end, I added chopped almonds. It smelled delicious and only needed a small amount of salt to make it absolutely perfect.

The main course was the salmon dish which I overcooked a slight bit. Still, it was quite good. I just used the beer my brother brought over once that had been sitting in the fridge - I doubt it's period but it worked.

I was going to make apple fritters as well but I really just don't have the time. I've never cooked fish before and had NO idea what to expect. (One of the reasons I liked the recipe above, they had the modern adaptation.) Now, I have some idea at least.

Overall, a delicious meal. Ginsie is in love with her beef bone. Since I gave it to her two hours ago, she has not stopped chewing at it other than to growl warnings at Jasper.

Dress University Plans

Hello!   Rather than post pictures of a finished product (by Friday night I *should* have a new dress to post!), I figured I'd post my semi-finalized Dress U 2012 plans.

For the Welcome Party, rather than go 18th C, I figured I'd do something a bit different.  Ever since I heard of the upcoming movie "Mirror Mirror" a couple of months ago, I fell in love with this outfit Snow White wears:





I know where to get the silk for the bodice and I have the pattern for the outfit since the bodice looks to be a pseudo Elizabethan, but the silk for the skirt is going to be $$$.  It looks to be a Kravet Lampas Silk pattern.  I'm probably just going to go with something similar rather than exact since the cheapest price I've found is still $75 a yard.  Eeck!

I'm not sure about the Gibson Girl Pool Party other than I do want to make a turn of the century (if not earlier) swimdress.  I need to do more research on it as of right now. I know my colors will be red wool and probably black trim.

For the Mad Hatter Tea Party, I've decided to go with a somewhat Lolita 18th C styled dress to match the hat I want to make.  The hat (it is a Mad Hatter tea party after all, I need a hat!) is going to be styled after a cake.  For right now, I really like this cat as my inspiration:


...but that may change. BTW, click on the photo. The lady who made this cake has a ton of jaw droppingly gorgeous cakes and cupcakes up on her flickr page.

I'm keeping what I'm doing for the Titanic Party at Dress U a secret because I really want to see the reaction when I get there. Yes, it will be that different. :-)

For the "Let them eat crepes", I'm doing an 18th Century Turkish outfit. I have a pair of green, pink, and gold shoes that are perfect for a Turkish outfit so I'm planning around those.



The above is one of the many paintings I'm using for inspiration.

And now for the Tiaras and Jampagne. I was debating for a while on whether to go as Empress Sissi or as Buttercup from the Princess Bride. I scratched both after watching Van Helsing a couple of nights ago. I need Anna's red ball gown instead. Now, to find a tiara with red stars all over it... hmm... and way too many yards of red silk taffeta....


I'll bring a few more dresses -probably my pink 18th Century gown with the green trim and maybe an Elizabethan if not the 18th C Sack Back that will be done by then. However, I need to get all this done, plus three more projects by June.

In Jan, I need to finish an 18th C Jacket and the Catherine Parr gown (I have the materials for both, they are just in the need to be cut phase). For the beginning of Feb, I need the sack back gown. March, I might just be silly and not wear one of my four or five green gowns I already have for the Saint Paddy's Day party but make yet another one. April...we aren't even going into everything I need to do for April. And then...May. Which will be slowish costuming wise but I'll be gearing up for June! So, a lot of outfits will be posted over the next few months.

Oh, and for those that are not on my LJ blog as well, this is Jasper.


He adopted me the Friday before Thanksgiving. Poor darling was stuck in the crawlspace beneath my townhouse! Since it was 24 F out, I let him in and he's stayed ever since. (I did contact the local animal shelter/animal control but no one reported a cat missing so....he's mine! Ha!) Miss Ginsie is delighted at having a cat in the home.


As you can see, they get along perfectly fine. :-) Poor Jazz, he doesn't know what he's gotten himself into!