Church Purse

My mother was the kind of mother who would make me plan my whole week's wardrobe on Sunday night after church. I had to iron everything and hang it up in the order that it was to be worn in my closet. This meant that in 1987 it only took me an hour and a half to get ready (80's big hair took a long time to style) instead of two hours. She's a hyper-organized, hyper-planned individual. I was the total opposite until my son came along when I was 35. Now, I am a slightly more organized than normal, somewhat more planned out than normal kinda gal. I'll probably never be as well organized and well-planned as Mama but at least I don't make fun of her anymore. Now I appreciate, revere, and long for that kind of organization.

In my new-found organizational maturity, I have developed an amazing and wondrous tool called The Church Purse. It's a special, magical bag just for church that lives on my hall table and holds my Bible, Sunday School stuff, Bible Study stuff, a granola bar in an eyeglass case, tissues, gum, cough drops, clean underwear (for my son, not me), a tiny plastic bag with two band-aids, a teeny tub of Vaseline, a safety pin, and a mini nail file. On Sunday mornings when I am rushing to get to church on time all I have to do is throw in my day planner, phone and wallet. After church it is usually crammed full of art-projects and crayon drawings from my child. So, it does need to be a good size but not huge. Also it needs to be pretty, loud, and full of attitude because that's what I bring to the table for church - a pretty loud attitude. (Off-topic, but I am a liberal in a conservative Southern Baptist Church.) (Also off-topic: eyeglass cases are great for holding stuff. I also use one as a first aid kit in my regular purse.)

I have been using a Vera Bradley bag that I got forever ago but every Sunday I would get annoyed because it was way too small for all that I needed to carry. I would wind up trying to wrestle my kid AND all of our stuff. My solution was to buy a lovely Penny Bennett Designs Bible Tote from etsy.com because they are just about exactly what I was looking for with the exception of interior pockets. But then my second cousin, once removed, challenged me to make my own.

About a month ago my sewing machine that I had been using since high school died and I upgraded to a Brother SE400 machine. Since my totally FINE UPS guy brought my new baby to the door not a day has gone by that I haven't worked on something with her. It's been a fantastic transition to a computerized machine. I had no clue what I was missing. Sewing on her is a dream compared to my old clunky Kenmore who never held her tension.

I started looking around for patterns or tutorials when I came across exactly what I was looking for at The Renegade Seamstress in her Renegade Tote Bag. Her tutorial is full of clear photos of each step. The pictures and instructions are very easy to follow if you trust the process. You must trust the process. Don't question, just do.

I did do a few things differently just because I made a few mistakes. I think my straps are a bit too wide and a teensy bit shorter than they should be because I was watching the latest season of Psych on Netflix while sewing instead of paying attention. I also didn't line my outside pocket like I should have since I was using iron-on fusible webbing. Probably I'll just stick a hemmed contrasting piece of lining in there and ironing it on so that I don't wind up with webbing coming out every time I pull something out of the pocket.

The other big thing I did differently was to add internal pockets. I did this by using two 14" sections of my main fabric and folding them to make them 7". Working each 14" piece separately (to make two pocket sections - one for each side of the bag), I sewed down one long side and made a tube. Next, I ironed on my fusible webbing, turned it right side out and ironed it again to make the webbing stick. Then, I stitched a line across the top to add some strength. Next I took my lining piece and folded it in half, ironing it to make a crease and finishing the pockets BEFORE I sewed the edges like in the tutorial. I measured 2" inches up from the fold and 3.5 inches from the top of the bag in order to know approximately where to place the pocket-tubes. After getting them straight (enough) I sewed them across the bottom to hold them in place. After that I sewed straight lines down each pocket to break them into approximately 6" sections with the majority of the extra room going into the middle pockets on each tube. Then I just followed the tutorial.

I am extremely happy with how this bag turned out but I do think I am going to add a piece of fabric covered cardboard the the bottom just for a little extra structure.

I am so very thankful for the tutorial and for all the help the Renegade Herself gave me when I got distracted and messed up.

Here are my final pictures. I've already got a request for one for a friend and I am going to use a yellow buttercup pattern to make a Church Purse for my Mama. I just can't gush enough about how much I love this bag and how much I appreciate the Renegade Seamstress for making it available online.

This fabric is form the new spring collection form Joann's. I am not being pompous. That's what the sign said. For real. I had no idea Joann's had "collections".

In the last photo you can see where I messed up. I am not exactly sure where I went wrong but my contrast fabric doesn't line up exactly correct. Also you can see where I had to add two extra lines of stitch to the straps where they are sewn on to the bag. I can't remember how I screwed this up but I wasn't following directions when I did it. Lastly, my thread is black because I started sewing before I realized that I was using the wrong color and I didn't want to pick it out. So, I am pretending that is a design element.

Apple Mango Chicken Drumsticks

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner! Ding! Ding! Ding! I finally made a food that Liam will eat! Yahoooooooooooo! He said "Mommy! Hot candy chicken!" To me it wasn't excessively sweet but it did have a nice flavor.

It was really easy and I just used what I had on hand. I started to use lime juice and molasses instead of apple juice and jam but when I opened the jar of molasses it sighed really loudly and started bubbling. That didn't seem right to me. Are molasses supposed to talk to you? Grody to the max!

On that pleasing note...


Apple Mango Chicken Drumsticks (collected from my imagination)

2-3 pounds drumsticks, skinless
2 cups apple juice
1/2 jar of mango jam
1 teaspoon lime juice
1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon chili powder

Add all ingredients except the chicken to a saucepan and cook on low until well mixed. Put chicken in a large bowl with a lid and pour the marinate on top. Marinate overnight.

Bake on 350 until cooked through, about an hour.

I served these drumsticks with Annie's macaroni and cheese that I enhanced with a tablespoon of cream cheese, edamame roasted with lime juice and cumin seeds, and applesauce.

We Got the Beet!

I ran across a recipe last week for hummus made from beets and it made me realize that I have only eaten beets pickled or like a potato chip. Whole Foods always has a large variety of beets and they look so pretty that I almost want to polish them up and put them on my mantle. But since I am lacking a cornucopia and my cutesy Pilgrim gene is deader than a door nail, I decided to just scour all my cookbooks and the internet for ways to eat beets.

I kept running across two separate ideas. The first is to roast the beet itself and the second was to trim the greens and sautee them with garlic and cooked pasta and sprinkle with Parmesan. I knew I wanted to roast the beet but I was hoping for a salad idea for the greens. So I gathered up a couple of ideas and this is what I came up with.

A few notes:

I read somewhere that beets greens are naturally salty so be careful about adding salt to your cooking greens.

The larger leaves are tough and chewy. That doesn't mean you shouldn't use them. Just be aware that they aren't like spinach.

If you use too much olive oil while sauteing your greens they will leave a yucky film in your mouth. This always happens to me when I go to PF Chang's and order the Stir-Fried Spinach and Garlic. Great dish. Yucky film.

The greens will cook down A LOT. Don't worry that your pan is too small.

I read that you can roast the beets without peeling them and the peel will slip off later but that if you peel them first the outside will get nicely caramelized.

Roasted Golden Beets with Beet Greens and Goat Cheese

1 bunch of beets with the greens attached (I used organic golden)
olive oil

Peel and scrub your beets. Put them in a small baking dish and drizzle with olive oil. Bake on 350 for 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hours (depending on the size of the beets) turning them occasionally so they will not burn on the bottoms. My small one cooked in about 45 minutes. My larger on took the whole 1.5 hours. In all I had 4 beets of varying sizes.

While the beets are roasting, wash your greens in cold water and trim the woodier sections of stem. Fill a sink with cold water and put them in to soak for a while. All the sand and dirt will fall to the bottom and your greens will stay on top.

Also while your beets are roasting, collect the remaining ingredients.

olive oil
1 garlic clove, sliced thin
1/4 of a small onion, sliced thin
a dash of vinegar
salt
fresh ground pepper
a small handful of walnuts or pine nuts
lemon juice
crumbled goat cheese
two sliced beets

After your beets are cooked, heat a sautee pan with a tiny, tiny, tiny bit of olive oil. Add your garlic and onions. Let them sizzle 10 seconds and add the greens. Use tongs to stir the greens around. When the leaves are nice and wilted add dash of vinegar and lemon juice. Stir that around with your tongs and add the walnuts just to get them heated a bit and mixed into the dish. Add in the sliced beets.

Put on a plate and sprinkle with a little goat cheese. Enjoy!

Oh my! I just had a thought! What if next time I used candied walnuts and a tiny bit of preserved lemon peel instead of the lemon juice? Or what about adding in figs and plain walnuts? So many options! I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship...

Smiley Chicken Pot Pie

Well the muffins were really yummy but a complete failure in terms of getting Liam to actually eat a vegetable. Apparently he wasn't fooled. He licked a couple of muffins. He blew on them when the were hot. But, he refused to actually take more than a nibble.

I love them. They taste overwhelmingly of bananas to me, but to Liam it seems they taste like Brussels sprouts because he ain't buyin' it.

Today's experiment in attempting to get Liam to eat a vegetable was Chicken Pot Pie with a smiley face. I thought they turned out really cute but his response? "Oooohhhhh!" Then he said, "No. No smiley face" and he got in his car and drove away.

I am pretty sure he hasn't eaten in a week.

Regardless, the chicken pot pies were yummy and comforting. Since I made them in little ramekins they were just a small bite which is perfect for someone like me who can only eat a few ounces at a time. (More on that later.)

I've made chicken pot pies all my life I think. My mother makes excellent chicken pot pie with home made drop-biscuit-type crust, but I decided to do it the easy way and use refrigerated pie crusts.

This recipe is going to be more of a dump recipe because I've been making them so long that I no longer measure. So all these measurements are approximations and you'll need to adjust them according to your own instincts.

Smiley Chicken Pot Pies

1/2 cup of sweet peas
1 carrot, chopped fine
1/4 cup of onion, chopped fine
1 medium potato, chopped fine
1 chicken thigh, shredded
1/4 cup of milk
2 cups chicken broth, with 1/4 reserved
1 refrigerated pie crust
6 ramekins
1 tablespoon butter
2 cloves of garlic mashed or 1/2 teaspoon garlic paste
grated nutmeg, to taste (I love nutmeg with chicken so I used about 1/4 teaspoon.)
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
Some vegetables for garnishing
A sprinkle of shredded cheese

In a large pan, melt the butter and add the potatoes and carrots. Let these cook for a few minutes and then add the onions and peas. When the onions just begin to turn brown add 1/4 cup of chicken broth. Next add the nutmeg, garlic, salt and pepper. Let this cook slowly over medium heat, adding 1/4 cup of chicken broth at a time until the vegetables are tender. The consistency will be sort of lumpy paste like, as you want the potatoes to be kind of stewed/kind of mashed.

Meanwhile preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Roll out the pie crusts and use something (I used my 1 cup measuring cup) to cut out the circles for the top and bottom of your ramekins*. Line the bottom of each ramekin with one circle and pre-bake until a little brown.

At this point your vegetable mixture should be softly cooked and slightly juicy. Add in that remaining 1/4 cup of broth and the milk. Stir together. It should be almost soupy but the vegetables shouldn't be swimming in the liquid. (I took the above picture before adding the milk and extra broth so it will be soupier that this.)

Remove ramekins from oven and fill almost to the top with the vegetables and chicken. Be sure that you don't leave the juice out of the ramekins otherwise your little pies will be too dry. Also don't overfill your ramekins or the contents will boil over and drown your pie crusts. You can't tell in the above picture but there is quite a bit of juice underneath those veggies.

Using a knife or fork make some vent holes in the top of your pie crusts. This allows the steam to escape while baking. I just use my knife to make an "X" (again see the * below).

Lower the heat on your oven to 350 degrees and bake your pies for approximately 20 minutes.

When the ramekins are cool enough to eat, garnish with tomatoes, mushrooms, olives, carrot sticks,shredded cheese, green onions slices or anything else you have on hand to make the eyes, nose, mouth and hair.

*Disclaimer: I've never been good with pie crusts so there is probably a better, prettier way to do this. This is a basic, lazy, unedumacated way.

Hang one! Late breaking news...Liam is eating the muffin I put on his plate with his chicken pot pie. PRAISE THE LORD THE SPIRIT HAS BEEN LIFTED!!!!!

Veggie-Sneak Muffins

It has been quite a while since I have blogged for several reason that I will go into later. But for right now I want to get this recipe down before I lose the paper I wrote it on and forget it.

(Singing an ode to the muffins.)



I decided to try and use muffins and a Vegetable-Delivery System for my increasingly picky toddler. As of this posting all I can regularly get him to eat is corn and green beans. In about 1998, I remember Cooking Light doing a recipe make-over for Morning Glory muffins that removed a lot of the fat and sugar by adding in vegetables, applesauce, apple butter, molasses and several other ingredients. I've moved about 25 times since I had that original recipe and couldn't find it on the internet. Instead, I just started combining aspects of muffin making from my Joy of Cooking cookbook and about 6 different recipes I found online for zucchini, carrot and Morning Glory Muffins.

Since I didn't want to buy out the grocery store just to make these muffins I pretty much used what I had on-hand. I keep flax seed and coconut in my freezer just for this kind of cooking emergency.

Veggie-Sneak Muffins

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoons baking soda
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup vanilla or banana yogurt
1 cup mashed banana (2 whole)
1/2 cup to 1 cup chopped prunes (I get lazy chopping them and use 1/2 cup)
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon cinnamon (or to taste - we like cinnamon)
3 tablespoons ground flaxseed
1 zucchini, shredded
1 cup carrots, shredded
1/2 cup shredded coconut
2 eggs
1/4 to 1 cup of milk (depending on how dry your mix is)

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix together the dry ingredients in one large bowl.

Mix the wet ingredients together in another bowl. Add milk slowly while you incorporate the dry and wet ingredients together. You don't want the batter too runny or too dry.

Combine by making a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into the well. Muffins shouldn't be over-mixed like a cake mix. Instead they should be lightly mixed so gently incorporate the wet into the dry. When it is mixed walk away from the bowl. Resist the urge to keep mixing. The light mixing is what makes little "chunnels" in your muffins. As you can see from the picture here, I over-mixed. What can I say? I had a "helper" and he was making me crazy. I probably added a tad too much milk. Baking at this altitude is new to me and every experience is hit or miss.

Spoon batter into muffin tins lined with paper cupcake liners. I guess you could just grease and flour your muffin tin but I hate cleaning muffin tins so I use liners.

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes until the muffins are springy when you touch the top - think mattress commercial, not Temper-Pedic mattress but regular old mattress.

If you overmix your batter your results will look like this. Do as I say, not as I do. Umkay?


You think if I frosted these with cream cheese frosting it would make them cupcakes instead of muffins? And would that defeat the purpose of trying to make them healthy? I mean they already have a whole cup of brown sugar instead of molasses. What's a little more sugar and cream cheese really gonna hurt?

Pinto Bean and Hen Soup

I came up with the idea for this very, very, very, very easy soup several years ago. It was a dark and cold winter's night and I was scouring the kitchen for something to flavor some pinto beans in my slow cooker when I came up with this idea.

Pinto Bean and Hen Soup

1 frozen Cornish Game Hen
1/2 bag of dried Pinto Beans, washed and picked
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 cloves of garlic, crushed

Mix all the ingredients together in the slow cooker. Cover with water and let cook for 8 hours on low.

After 8 hours, carefully lift the hen out and allow it to cool for a bit. Remove the skin and pick the meat off the bones. The meat is very tender at this point and should shred easily. Add the meat back to the soup and eat with crackers or hot buttered cornbread.

Note: I've tried this with chicken thighs and chicken breasts but the meat is so much more tender when you use a hen.

Knitted Teddy Bear Hat Pattern

I am deviating a little today to post a knitting pattern that I created this week. Last winter was our first in Denver and it was C.O.L.D. And I do mean COLD. It was so cold the that even the Canadian geese were complaining and quacking about moving on to Mexico.

(Note: The hat is Batman approved. Batman even paused in his rescue of dirty laundry to pose in his Teddy Bear Hat.)

I found tons of cute hats on ravelry.com but none that would satisfy the following requirements in one pattern:

1. Must be sufficiently adorable and babyish looking.
2. Must be funny enough to embarrass him in high school.
3. Must have ear flaps.
4. Must be worsted weight because I wanted to finish in a few days time.

I think I achieved all of this with my Teddy Bear Hat.

For extra warmth, I am planning to sew some fleece around the inside.

Teddy Bear Hat (pattern by Toni)

Finished hat is approximately 19" and fits my two year old.

Materials:
100 yards of worsted weight yarn (I used Madeline Tosh DK Superwash Merino in Fig)
One set of US 7 double points
One US 7 circular (you could knit the whole hat on the DPN's. I just didn't want to do so.)
One US 8 circular
One stitch marker
Tapestry needle for finishing

Gauge:
20-22 sts over four inches

Using larger needle to keep CO from being too tight, CO 95 sts.

K1, P1 around. Join into a round by knitting the last st and 1 st together. This makes a nice and smooth join. Place marker.

Switch to smaller needles and knit the remaining 94 sts in K1, P1 rib for 3".

Purl the next round. (This purl row will give better definition to the fold.)

Knit the next round and continue knitting in St St for 4 inches from Purl row.

Begin Decreases:

Round 1: *K10, K2tog* around. Knit any remaining sts on this row and all subsequent odd rows.

Round 2 and all even rounds: Knit

Round 3: *K9, K2tog* around

Round 5: *K8, K2tog* around

Round 7: *K7, K2tog* around

Round 9: *K6, K2tog* around

Round 11: *K5, K2tog* around

Round 13: *K4, K2tog* around

Round 15: *K3, K2tog* around

Round 17: *K2, K2tog* around

Round 19: *K1, K2tog* around

Round 20: K2tog around

Draw yarn through remaining 8 sts and pull tight.

Weave in end.

Ear Flaps:

To determine where to place ear flaps, I laid my hat down flat and placed coil-less safety pins where I thought they should go. In other words, I eyeballed it.

Fold hat up at Purl row.

Pick up and knit 12 st with RS facing you.
K 9 rows in St St.
Row 10: Dec 1 sts on each end.
Row 11: Purl
Repeats rows 10 and 11 until 3 sts remain.

Use these 3 sts to knit a 12" i-cord. BO.

Repeat on other side for second ear flap.

Teddy Bear Ears:

Lie hat flat and decide where you want your ears.

I placed mine 3 sts down from the crown of hat.

Pick up and knit 12 sts - picking up through the entire stitch, otherwise it will make a hole.

Knit 7 rows in St St.

*On next even row, dec 1 st at each end. Purl next row.*

Repeat those two rows (bet * and *) until 6 sts remain on needle.

On next RS row, *Inc 1 st on each end of needle. Purl following row. *

Repeat those two rows (bet * and *) until 12 sts are on needle.

Bind off.

Sew back of ear onto hat and then sew up the sides.

Weave in the ends.