It's Raining, It's Pouring...

...and it certainly would be easy to be snoring. But instead, I've been doing a bit of sewing.

It's raining, it's pouring!
Suzanne's doing some sewing!

My friend, Abi, posted this tutorial last year, showing how to repurpose pillow cases into shopping totes. I thought it was a wonderful idea! I tried one right away, as you may remember from this post, last May. I gave it away promptly, and continued to look for vintage pillow cases on thrift store trips, but just never got around to sewing any more.

Part of the reason for not sewing was that I haven't been very enamored of my current machine. Flash back to two weeks ago... Hubby and I were rained out of the garden and decided to make the best of it by thrifting our way to the boys' chorus rehearsal. We were getting ready to leave one of our favorite stores when I spied this on a rack behind me:

Price tag: $7.50

Yes, that's seven dollars and fifty cents! No fake! I couldn't believe it.

Let me divert to a slightly different topic here for a moment. The topic is relativity. After shopping in mostly thrift stores for years, $7.50 seems like a hefty price. I actually stood there... considering, cogitating, contemplating. We rarely spend more than $2 or $3 on any single item in a thrift store. $7.50 seemed like so much at the time. This kind of relativity is a good exercise for the mind. Thinking this way, I believe, is a good habit to establish. There is so much excess in our country.

So I started examining the machine. I am familiar with the maker, Janome, enough to know that it has a good reputation. I lifted off the case (not pictured here) and moved the fly wheel, operated levers and switches, examined the bobbin and looked underneath the machine. There was no power cord and foot pedal, so I asked the sales clerk if there were any missing cords laying around. She said there weren't, so I looked around in the electronics part of the store and on the shelves nearby, coming up empty.

Finally, with Hubby's encouragement, I decided to get the machine. The clerk said I could return it in a week if it didn't work. So I got busy, found a foot pedal and power cord for about $50, had a nearby Amishman look at it, and downloaded an instruction manual. All that took about a week. Then I started playing.

Back when I first started sewing seriously, my last year of college, about 25 years ago (oops... I'm dating myself here... a quarter of a century???? Crap I'm getting old...) I bought an old Singer sewing machine from the University. They were having a sale of old equipment and this machine was from the 50s. It had a cast iron head, painted black, and was mounted in a solid wood cabinet with drawers, for $20.


A beauty. I bought that machine, took it home, and promptly went to the university library, where I found an old book that explained how to take the machine apart and oil and lube the parts, check the motor brushes and generally care for the machine. I took that book to a copy shop and made myself a notebook. Then I got busy and fixed that machine right up. I bought attachments for it and used it like crazy for years... about eight years, to be exact. I sewed all of my clothes for work on it, business suits with interfacing, pad-stitching, lining, and welt pockets. It was a great machine, and I really learned a lot using it.

During my professional, working-girl days, I eventually splurged on a new, expensive machine. And it was a nice machine, with some modern conveniences, that served me quite well. But I couldn't maintenance that machine. It had all these access panels that would only open with special tools and I would have had to break the machine to service it myself. I got a lot of use out of that machine, but I hated having to take it in to the dealer and pay $50 to $100 every time I wanted to clean the lint out, oil it, and adjust the tension mechanism. Especially once we moved out to the country. I didn't want to have to drive 50 to 80 miles to pay that kind of money for something I should be able to do myself.

So, about four years ago, I sold that machine on eBay, and for a good price, I might add. With the proceeds we bought a decent mechanical machine with a treadle option, which appealed to me, because I could operate it without electricity if needs be. But I've never really gotten the hang of that machine. And I found myself not wanting to use it that much. I'm a busy person, so this didn't bother me that much. And yet... there remained a nagging sort of hankering in the back of my mind. A hankering to sew.

Now, back to my story. I'll bet you didn't plan on getting a sewing machine history and maintenance lesson, did you?

The Singer has been out of my life for awhile, but the knowledge of sewing machine construction and maintenance stuck with me. So, I recognized that this Janome has all-metal parts, and that the user can maintenance the machine herself. So many modern machines are computerized, and have those funny panels and tools I mentioned earlier. I was delighted that I could simply and easily see under the machine and watch all the moving parts in action as I rotated the fly wheel!

My Janome is mechanical, and the manual even shows how to maintenance the machine! So I did exactly that. I delinted that puppy and wiped it down, oiled the moving parts, and set it up for sewing. The rest, as they say, is history. This is the best machine I've ever had. I love sewing on it, and I have been thinking about it every day for the last week. Thank you, thrift store Goddess, for shining a light on me two weeks ago. I am so grateful!

A good project to test out a new machine is Abi's pillow case shopping tote. Once I did a bag:


I just kept pulling out my pillow cases. And then I started changing things up.



I did a different strap...



dug into my stash of vintage trims,



and have been having a ball.



Thanks, Abi, for the inspiration.

It's been one of the rainiest springs on record here in our part of Ohio, and there is more on the way over the next three days. There are puddles in the garden, and it's hard to plant certain things. So, I'll continue to sew, off and on. There is a time and place for everything, and the time for me right now is one in which to sew.

I have not forgotten about "A" is for Alley Cropping, so please stay tuned. If there's one thing I've learned from blogging, it's that I never know exactly where my entries are headed. I just start with an idea and my posts take on a life of their own. This means you, dear reader, never know what you may find when you drop in here. Thanks, as always, for stopping by.

By Popular Demand -or- Suzanne's Killer Easy Chocolate Pudding

We interrupt this program to present a quick recipe, one that is currently in high demand! I shared this recipe with a few facebook friends the other day, and now there are a whole lot of people who want to try it out. There has even been a request or two to put it on my blog!

It seems people really NEED their pudding! It's not a want, it's a need! So rather than wait until I have the time to photograph the entire process, I've decided to just post the recipe and the one picture I took of it last week. That way you can all get started making pudding right this very minute, or at least as soon as you read this entry.

It's super easy, super delicious, and will have your family swooning and begging for more. I promise.


Suzanne's Killer Easy Chocolate Pudding

2/3 cup sugar (I use organic dehydrated cane)

3 Tbsp flour

2 eggs

2 cups milk

1 tsp vanilla

2 Tbsp butter (optional, but including it makes the pudding super creamy)

6 ounces bittersweet baking chocolate (ghiardelli makes it so decadent)

In a two-quart heavy-bottomed saucepan, mix together sugar and flour. Add beaten eggs and milk and stir very well, so there are no lumps and the mixture looks smooth. Heat over a medium flame, stirring constantly with a whisk. Once the mixture starts to heat up, add butter, then chocolate, a piece at a time. Cook until it begins to thicken and bubble. Turn off heat, stir in vanilla, pour into dessert dishes (here's a great opportunity to use pyrex again!) and leave on the counter if you like your pudding room temperature to warm, or chill in the refrigerator if you like it cold.

That's it! Easy as pie. This doubles well, and I have also omitted the chocolate and added banana slices for a great banana pudding. Have yet to try it with lemon zest and/or juice, but would love to make this into lemon pudding, as well. My friend, Abi, wants to try it with white chocolate and almond extract! Hmmmmm....

(Don't forget to lick the pan and whisk after pouring pudding into dishes.)

"P" is for Permaculture -- and Pyrex

Here's the Pyrex...



Now for the Permaculture...

I'm sure you've all noticed the world is a pretty serious place right now. It has been for a long time, actually, but it seems the festering boil is coming to a head. We can no longer afford to ignore or push aside the current concerns of our day, just a few of which include:

• the economy (yes, it is crashing)
• peak oil (yes, we have passed it)
• our dear Mother Earth (yes, we have abused her)
• ongoing violence (yes, we are at war)
  

It's so easy to feel hopeless, to give up, to let someone else work on the problems, and just go to the movies or read People Magazine.

I refuse to give up hope, and am a firm believer that the solution lies in your back yard, your front yard, your kitchen, your home, your community. I just recently stumbled across a book that completely affirms my feelings and my actions, so I'm excited to share it with you. It's called, INDEPENDENCE DAYS: A Guide to Sustainable Food Storage & Preservation.

It's by Sharon Astyk, and she also has a blog that is a must-follow.

This journey I've been on, this sustainable living, growing food, preserving that food, eating local, journey, is what can make the difference to our entire society. Alone, my efforts do not amount to much. But if we all take steps in this direction, we might just stand a chance. Sharon Astyk's words can effectively be your instruction manual, your text book. If I could afford it, I would buy a case of them and hand them out as gifts! But I can't, so please just go to her blog, start clicking around, read some things, and resolve to get started. Make just one change, or two. Start small, but please just start.

I have such a long way to go, but I know I'm making progress. And it's a battle worth fighting.

On that note, Hubby and I have been focusing our efforts on permaculture.

Permaculture is a new concept to many, but it's a concept that will ring true to many following a path similar to mine. Bill Mollison, considered by most to be the father of permaculture, says,

"Permaculture is ... working with nature rather than against nature ... of looking at systems in all their functions rather than asking only one yield of them; and of allowing systems to demonstrate their own evolutions."

I am taking this straight from a book I have been reading, a book called earth user's guide to permaculture by Rosemary Morrow.

I often feel overwhelmed by my tasks at hand, and I think this is natural. But we've all got to start somewhere. In order to help myself, to learn the basic concepts and begin to apply them on this piece of land Mother Earth is so graciously allowing me to use, I have decided to blog about it. Starting today, I am introducing the concept in a very small way, to my small audience of readers.

And in my next entry, I will begin my own "Abecediary of Permaculture." So hold on to your horses and dig in with me. This is what you have in store over the coming months, and it's all starting next time with..... drum roll please.....

"A" is for Alley Cropping

Please stay with me. We all have so much to learn, and the clock is ticking.

In keeping with the general theme of this blog, I close with a picture of another thrift store find. The above pyrex refrigerator dishes and the below pitcher were inexpensive. They are useful, and they add pleasure to my life and to those I share that life with.



Sprinkle bits of joy into your life on a regular basis. And tackle permaculture with me at the same time!

Thanks for reading.

Outside it's Only 17...

The low overnight, that is.



Days have been sunny, windy, and cold, in the low to mid 30s. It's cold for sitting on the ground and planting peas, anyway.



These plants in my kitchen encourage me, as does the sunshine.



There are signs outdoors as well...



That's our garlic, poking up happily through the straw. It's been a really long winter. But spring and summer are on the way.

Remain encouraged!

Back to planting peas...

Make Your Own Yogurt - "It's Better Than Marshmallow Cream, Mom!"

As promised, I am posting my yogurt recipe today. Right off the bat, I'd like to say it helps tremendously to have an oven that can be set to low temperatures, specifically 115 degrees Fahrenheit. I incubate my yogurt in the oven for seven hours at 115F. This is not to say that you can't incubate it in a food dehydrator, a cooler with warm water and towels, or in some other creative way you might come up with. People do that, too, and it works just fine. I'm just posting the easiest way, and the way I use all the time.

First off, here's the recipe:

Suzanne's Better-Than-Marshmallow-Cream Vanilla Yogurt

1 gallon of the best milk you can get

2 TBSP gelatin (that's two little pouches)

1/2 cup cold water

1 and 1/2 cups dehydrated cane juice

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup yogurt with active culture (can be your old batch)

Alright... let's get started.

First, dissolve the gelatin in the cold water.

This is just regular, unflavored gelatin and plain, cold water, in my case, well water.

If you are vegetarian and don't want to use gelatin, you can skip this step. I just find the gelatin helps the yogurt achieve the consistency we like in our house, so I use it. You can replace it with agar, if you like, but the yogurt doesn't turn out quite as smooth.

Preheat oven to 115 degrees F.

Have your sink ready and waiting with cold water.

Also, have your containers ready. I use five 1-quart mason jars, very clean, and their lids. I always wash them really well, in very hot water, then keep them on a tray, filled with hot water. As you can see, I've devoted some of my older canning jars with chipped rims to making yogurt. That's why they are marked with bright, nail polish "Ys."

I keep the lids in the hot water, too.

There are some people who insist that you have to have everything sterilized for making yogurt. I just make sure to have everything super clean. I also keep the equipment very warm until I use it. Now, if this process doesn't work for you, don't blame it on me! As with anything else, this is a trial and error process. Sometimes the yogurt doesn't set up, for example. That has happened to me just a few times in the four years I've been preparing this recipe. I just keep it in the back of the fridge and use it in recipes calling for buttermilk. No waste. But I've never had any spoiling issues. If you are the type of person who worries about those kinds of details, then by all means, sterilize your jars first.

Now that I have that little disclaimer out of the way, let's move on. Put the milk in a heavy-bottomed stock pot and heat it slowly to 185 degrees F. Whisk it occasionally to prevent scorching on the bottom of the pot.



Use whatever thermometer you have in your kitchen to watch the temperature of the milk.


I'm kind of kooky, I'll admit it right here and now. Why? Because I have several thermometers that I've obtained from thrift stores or garage sales. I'm not sure which one is the most accurate, so I put all three on the edge of the pot and compare and take averages until I'm satisfied that the temperature reaches 185 degrees Fahrenheit.


Turn off the heat and add the sweetener. I use organic dehydrated cane, but you can use whatever sweetener you prefer. I've tried honey and maple syrup and sucanat. I once even used regular sugar (Gasp!) when I didn't have any healthy alternatives on hand. They all work. I just prefer the dehydrated cane. And you can vary the amount as you prepare this recipe to hone it to your own tastes.


As an aside, let me say that I take every opportunity I can to employ vintage stuff in my kitchen. For example, this lovely bowl, obtained for less than a dollar while thrifting:


Sigh... I love pyrex.

While we're on the subject of thrifting, I like to use more than pyrex... check out this tray, obtained for a mere quarter last fall, while garage-sale-ing in Amish country:

Wow, what a beauty! All my hot jars are waiting for me on that tray. Now, back to work...

Add vanilla:


and the gelatin mixture.

Stir well, with a whisk.

Place the pan in the sink of cold water. Cool the mixture, while stirring occasionally, to 110 to 115 degrees F.

Pour off one cup of the mixture and mix in 1 cup of yogurt.

Blend these together (I shake them up in a jar)

then add back to the pot and whisk again.

Finally, pour into jars:

wipe the rims with a clean, damp paper towel, screw the lids on

and place in the preheated oven for 7 hours.

I use a post-it note on the outside of my oven, to remind me to take the yogurt out. It also reminds me NOT to preheat the oven for some other project later in the day. I've done that before. Those jars are kind of outta-sight-outta-mind during day. "Oh, I think I'll make cornbread to go with dinner! I'll preheat the oven to 375..." You get the picture. What a mess that would be!

You can begin to taste the yogurt after 5 hours to see if it is firm enough, or tart enough. I, personally, have found that 7 hours is the trick for my family. Eight hours definitely produces a tarter yogurt, and any earlier than 7 hours, the texture isn't firm enough.

My recipe makes about 4 or 5 quarts of yogurt. This variable has to do with whether or not there is any cream in the house. Sometimes I have half-and-half or cream in the fridge. Rarely, but sometimes. I occasionally add some to the milk mixture to make the yogurt almost sinful. It even develops a tiny bit of cream on top, like those super fancy brands in the store.

You can easily halve this recipe if it makes too much for your family.

To make plain yogurt, just omit the sweetener and vanilla.

It keeps three or four weeks in the fridge, but never lasts that long.

And that, my friends, is my yogurt recipe. Please let me know if you try it, and how it turns out for you.

I Did It -or- Remember That Chair?

I have to say, back when I posted about my knitaholicism (in hindsight, I think that really should be knitaholism), I didn't believe I would finish these items that quickly, but guess what? I did! Well, mostly, anyway. Remember the tea cozy? I had yarn, needles, and pattern gathered for that project, but never even cast on. I have decided to put that on the back burner for the time being. Instead of the cozy, I snuck in another pilot cap, in chocolate brown cotton, to match the baby kimono. A very nice set, which you may already have seen in this post. Plus I've got another pilot cap in cream colored wool on the needles right now. Ummm.... and another towel! Okay, maybe I really have a problem here...

Anyway, just to remind you of what my chair looked like ten days ago:


And here's the after picture:



See what another ten days will do?

I have many other projects in mind but really am determined to finish Mary's sweater. It will be my "thinking" knitting, while the towels and pilot caps can remain mindless, reading-out-loud-to-the-boys, tv-watching, waiting-at-chorus-or-jujitsu, car-riding knitting.

Just wanted to share! Thanks for looking!

{aPaD} In Which I Am Driven To Distraction...

We are dealing with flooding here in our neck of the woods. It's kind of overwhelming me at the moment, so I'm not going to post pictures I took of the rushing, crazy water. Instead, I'm going to post a humorous picture I took yesterday afternoon. Yesterday afternoon, the whole family drove to the city to do a little grocery shopping, see a movie at the cheap seats, and hit the thrift store. We all had cabin fever and hadn't left the house together in a long while. So... off we went. Anyway, I was using the public restroom and looked up from my seat in the stall and saw this:


It cracked me up, made me smile. With all this water, I can use the giggle.

So, there you have it! I posted (more than) a picture a day through the end of February. That was my personal goal. I have some new entries planned for the coming weeks, the first of which will be devoted to making yogurt.

Hope you are warm, safe and dry, wherever you find yourself!