Success: Brussels Sprouts Chips

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Roasting vegetable chips. It's not just for kale anymore.

That is, we had some brussels sprouts sitting around, I chopped off their bottoms, ripped off their leaves, chopped the bottoms some more, ripped off more leaves, etc. until there was nothing left. Then I tossed with olive oil and salt, roasted at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, and filled my belly full of leafy greens. Lunch!

You can find a more specific recipe for brussels sprout chips here.

[Edit: I have since discovered that just cutting the sprouts in half and roasting them in a bunch of salt is way less effortful and still tasty. The more you know.]

Je suis encore retourné (Paris)

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

I have returned from the first of the next three trips. It seems I'll be spending a lot more time returning encore and encore. ...but if it's from places as lovely as this conference's locale in Paris, then I won't be complaining!

Expectation Management.
Having been to Paris on family vacation in high school, I used my 2.5 non-conference days in a laid back manner: walking until my feet fell off, seeing the Louvre, and climbing to the top of L'Arc de Triomphe. After my time in Japan I reject that MUST.SEE.ALL.THE.THINGS pressure.

Also, if everyone keeps telling you that the Mona Lisa is smaller than expected, she will end up being larger than expected.

Faire du Shopping.
I found this guide to Parisian souvenirs to be particularly useful for my short time in Paris, and I've returned with Bensimon sneakers, honey made by monks, cheap Dijon mustard, fancy macarons, and not a single Tour Eiffel keychain! While I resist the must-see-all-the-things way of life, I'm still fully subscribed to must-buy-all-the-things.

Noms Away.
My friends and I noticed a very peculiar thing: anytime we used a Lonely Planet restaurant recommendation the food was mediocre to poor, but any time we chose a random brasserie off the street, the food was satisfactory to excellent. Sometimes the restaurants we thought were tourist traps were excellent, and sometimes they really were just tourist traps. I've eaten enough chocolate mousse, macarons, and duck confit to last me awhile.

More photos up on my Flickr page.

Tea Drinker's Best Friend

Sunday, May 12, 2013

I don't usually do product reviews, but I've been using this Thermos Nissan 12-Ounce Stainless-Steel Tea Tumbler with Infuser for almost a year now. And it's pretty much the best thing for a tea drinker. You pour the hot water into the Thermos through the tea infuser, screw the solid cap on, flip upside down a few times, then replace the infuser+cap with the drink lid and you're good to go. No real steeping necessary (unless it's a more delicate tea, in which case you should probably just plain 'ole steep). It's double-walled steel so it keeps the tea hot without burning your hands.

I use it as a commuter mug. I use it sitting around the apartment. Pretty much all the time, every day.

Fail: Salted Caramel Brownies

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

I'm a decent baker which means that most of the time, when I try new recipes, they come out alright. These brownies are one of my more recent, yet still edible, failures which just shows that there's always more things to learn.

This recipe for salted caramel brownies has the potential to be oh so good, provided you don't make oh so many alterations. I made my own caramel, instead of using store-bought, which could have something to do with the lack of visual presence of caramel on these brownies. Also, I think I spread the caramel instead of swirling it, which could have lead to some problems.

Basically, I suspect the spread out caramel soaked into the brownie batter which somehow made the toothpick placed into the center never come out clean. This eventually lead to non-swirled, subtly caramel-flavored, slightly burnt brownies. Hence the weird craters on the top and the black undersides. C'est la vie.

Commitment

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Real commitment is selling your intro-level Canon DSLR and switching brands to match your boyfriend's intermediate-level Nikon. I'm not sure who in their right mind decided that the negative side of the light meter should be on the right. He had better be damn worth this atrocity.

It also takes real commitment to sell a DSLR on craigslist. 19 interested parties to get to the real buyer!

I shot with this Nikon D5100 and 18-200mm lens the entire time I've been in Japan. It's pretty nice to have a kit lens + modest zoom lens all in one, although it does add a bit to the weight. This guy's a bit of a chunk. I think in the future I'm going to want a really nice prime lens for portraits and still life. Then I can die camera-fulfilled.

2013 Conference Season

Friday, May 3, 2013

Conference season is upon us once again, and I've got three destinations: Paris, Edinburgh (family vacation, not conference) and Madison, Wisconsin. Mmmm, airplanes!!



P.S. I'm in Paris right now.

Tattoo Flowers Macaron Shirt (Colette Patterns)

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

I liked my Colette Patterns Macaron Dress so much, that I made a top from the pattern. Initially, I was going to make this T-shirt-like, a la Emma's Favourite Things, but midweight cottons don't drape particularly well. So instead, I ended up with a shirt more like Erika Made It. Unlike the Sorbetto Top, the Macaron pattern has a much more tailored fit, so medium-weight fabrics work fine. I used Marqueterie in Ginger from Pat Bravo's Indie Collection and a Quilter's Showcase gray and yellow dot fabric.


Fit - SBA, etc
I followed all of my previous adjustments from the dress, as described here. This includes the SBA, yoke slimming, and removal of back bottom darts. Having put together the bodice and yoke, I realized that the bust darts were all overshooting the apex, so I ended up shortening all four darts by about one inch, and shifting the armscye darts down about one inch as well.

Construction - Matching Midriff
I varied slightly from the pattern in that the midriff/belt piece was done in a matching fabric, to prevent the top from visually chopping my torso into too many tiny pieces.


Construction - Skirt Piece
After attaching the yoke, bodice, and midriff pieces, I laid the WIP-shirt on top of the Sorbetto Top pattern pieces, lined up the armscye, and traced out a shortened skirt piece from the size 6 Sorbetto pattern (for both the front and backs), with the length of a size 18 (the Sorbetto top is quite short). An extra 5/8" needs to be added to the skirt piece, for the seam allowance. The Sorbetto top piece is still much wider than the Macaron midriff piece, so I inserted four 2.5" long pleats on the front and back of the shirt. To determine the width of the pleats, I just measured the difference in the Sorbetto top piece and the Macaron midriff piece and divided by four. I initially was lazy and just tried using gathers instead of pleats, but the midweight fabric poofed out too much, making me look pregnant. The pleats create a much slimmer silhouette.

Construction - Rearranged Assembly
Rather than following the construction instructions exactly, I waited to sew the armscye->hem seam until after attaching the invisible zipper. Inserting an invisible zipper is a pinch easier when the sides aren't yet attached to each other. I used a regular zipper foot for inserting the invisible zipper, as before.

Construction - Finishing
As usual, I finished all seams with either a French Seam or a zigzag stitch, when French seams were too bulky. I also finished the bottom hem of the shirt with a rolled 1/4" hem as instructed in the Sorbetto Top pattern.


For Next Time
Next time, I really really really need to remember to cut about 1/2" off of the bottom of the back yoke and add that 1/2" to the top of the back midriff piece. Or else I'm just forever going to be encountering mismatched side seams.