2x2

Hi, y'all!

All quiet on the Western front - which means, our moving project is still work in progress, but we stay positive - there's nothing else we can do anyway. But as a compensation, I'll shower you with pictures of two different variations of two different things - stay tuned...

Let's start with two variations of squash - for once not vegetarian, but I'm sure creative chefs can turn them into veggie dishes without minced meat or bacon. First I cut a butternut in two, hollowed it out a bit and sprinkled the pieces with olive oil. Seasoned them with fresh garlic, loads of rosmary and thyme (again, no parsley, no sage...). 

While they roasted in the oven, I stir-fried ground beef with onions and chopped squash which I then filled in the butternut halves. Combined it with feta cheese, and it turned out delicious: 

Btw: Yesterday I tested "The Wonder Hack" (also exists in patties called "The Wonder Burger") which is a vegan alternative for ground beef (Hack or Hackfleisch means minced meat in German). I fried it in a pan with some canned tomatoes and beans to fill taco shells. Highly recommend! In the beginning, I was slightly irritated that the stuff didn't turn brown, but stayed reddish instead. But the taste was awesome, and I am sure it would go perfectly with this recipe here. 

For the second dish I chose Hokkaido, because you don't have to peel it - can't beat that, right? I chopped it into half-moon slices and mixed them with olive oil and some s+p. Topped it off with some bacon and feta cheese, and then it went right into the oven. Easy peasy, and with some fresh bread totally sufficient for the two of us. 

Those were the first two, now let's jump to the next - some projects for my sewing machine, after all. You might remember, that I had an UFO (unfinished object) waiting in my stash to be completed. It took quite some time, but I finally found a fleece blanket in the perfect shade of pink as backing for my quilt.

Working under difficult conditions:

As the top denim layer was larger than the fleece blanket, I had to cut it, and thus I gained some material for another sewing project. But I will explain later. 

So I sewed the fleece and the denim together, but I didn't quilt it in detail, I only connected it in the center of the crochet polka dots. Then I made some binding with some matching polka dot fabric. For the first seam I used my sewing machine, but the finish I always do manually. Time consuming, but with both the quilt and Heinrich on my lap also quite meditative...

And this is the result - not that I was in dire need of yet another blanket, but it's simply beautiful. And sometimes that's all you need - something beautiful :-)

A co-worker's little girl was expected any day last week, and although I already sewed a crackling sun plushie I was lacking an idea for something a bit larger. Because of the quilt I had some left-over denim fabric, and just at that time I stumbled over a floor pillow looking like a bunny. That calls for a robust fabric, and my leftover denim was just perfect. The picture and the pattern construction looked pretty simple, but the devil's in the details, which I had to learn during the sewing process...

I started with the body by ironing on some interlining and adding piping in a rusty colored lightweight corduroy. For the piping you place some cord in the center of a long strip of fabric which then has to be sandwiched between the two fabric pieces you wanted to join in the first place. After turning to the right side, the piping becomes visible. To get as close as possible to the piping, I sewed with my zipper foot, and my good old machine did it's best to sew through all those different layers of fabric.

 

To keep the bunny ears standing upright, I had to get creative - feeding bunny Viagra wasn't an option... Therefore, I made two tunnels into each ear and filled it with large zipties (like corset boning). Also, the zipties had to be longer than the ears itself to prevent them from kinking at the seam. At this point, my sewing machine went into strike; after almost breaking a needle, I sewed the ears to the front piece by hand. 

Then I managed to sew it together, and for the bottom I used some leftover vegan cardboard-based leatherlike fabric. Very sturdy and durable - exactly what I needed. 

Sewing the sandwich of denim with lots of seams, interlining, piping and vegan leather was no walk in the park, I can tell you! But, miraculously everything worked out, and I could tackle the task of stuffing the bunny. 

And that was the exhausting part of this journey - making tiny little scraps out of larger scraps to stuff into the bunny belly. I totally underestimated, how many scraps fit into that bunny...

Soooo many scraps:

And more:

And even more: 

In the end I finished with a spare pillow I had on hand. Otherwise, bunny would have gotten slighty obese and heavy:-) But pretty cute, I think... (Please excuse my very bad lighting in that picture!) 

With 8 days delay the little girl was welcomed into this world, and bunny will start hopping into her nursery very soon :-) 

Stay safe and stay home!

Happy Birthday to Blog!

  

Well, well, well - I can't believe it completely, but already a whole year ago I asked if the world really is in dire need of another blog (mine, actually). To be honest, I still haven't found out if yay or nay, but I hope, with the help of my little posts I could entertain you, distract you, encourage you, inspire you or at least make you smile a little. And if this is okay for you, I just continue!

But not today, as we all should - with all due respect to Corona limitations - celebrate a bit :-) Because this year 2020 is so chaotic and turbulent, that we should grab every opportunity to have a little fun.

Stay safe and healthy 

Alex 

Light at the End of the Tunnel?

Hi, Y'all

make yourself comfortable, get yourself a cup of tea, or - in my case - hot lemon with lots of honey: 

It's getting quite nasty outside, isn't it? Suitable for fall, but nevertheless I'm very thankful for our functioning heating system and a stash of chopped wood. Due to their advanced age, our two furbabies also prefer a cosy pillow by the fireplace over a walk through wind and rain. 

And when it's ugly, wet and cold outside, I am not very tempted by salad & co, I have to say. I'm turning more to soulfood that warms not the belly alone, but also makes you feel good. In order to avoid making the same old, same old cakes every weekend, I tried something new (at least for me): Buchteln or Wuchteln. I know, it's difficult to pronounce and sounds funny (even if you pronounce it correctly), but that is caused by it's Bohemian origin. And by Bohemian I don't mean the buzzword "boho", but the historical region as part of the Czech Republic. Basically, Buchteln consist of a yeast-based dough with a filling. 

The recipe calls for an egg, and as I think that this is quite reasonable, I didn't substitute it. Nor did I replace the butter and milk, although you surely could use vegan alternatives. Anyway, to make these Buchteln you prepare a sweet yeast dough similar to Brioches, and separate them into small portions, which will be formed into balls. Then you have to flatten the balls and fill them with whatever you like, and then you form them into dumplings again. In my recipe they should be filled with Nutella, but I had plum jam at home, so that's what I used. Furthermore, there was a handful of fresh plums lingering in my fridge, which had to be consumed rather sooner than later, and so I cooked them into a fruit sauce. Vanilla sauce would have been a good alternative, too, but as the plums had to be used, I did exactly that. With a hint of cinnamon it was perfect. 

Saturday evening we were in the mood for fish, and I had Pangasius in the freezer. After defrosting I gave it the classic treatment, which means: clean it, pour lemon over it and sprinkle it with salt. Then I placed the fillets into a baking dish and covered it with a mixture of chopped hazelnuts, grated cheese and cream cheese. While that was baking in the oven, I prepared some red lentils and leek with mustard, creamcheese and some lemon juice. Please disregard the optics which are only average, but the taste was delicious. 

On Sunday evening I prepared a fall pizza which you might remember from last year. But this time I didn't use poultry salami but a veggie one from a brand which is pretty well-known here in Germany. Originally they were manufacturers of meat and sausage products, only, but in the meantime they generate more revenue with their vegetarian alternatives. I was curious and therefore, I tested a variety of their charcuterie products and was deeply impressed by their taste. And what comes in addition: They are low in calories and fat, as well - awesome, right?

Well, that's it for today. At the moment I'm waiting for my mega-delivery of fusable fleece to turn my fabric scraps into mosaics. Other than that I won't be doing a lot of DIY projects, because I don't want to add any more stuff to our moving goods. Because there might be light at the end of the tunnel, and we may be lucky to get our farm, after all - who knows...

Stay safe!!!