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This post is my entry in Sew, Mama, Sew! Husqvarna Viking Serger Back to School Giveaway.  The giveaway hosts asked that we post our contest entry on our own blogs, and what do you know?  I happen to have a blog!  Not one that I used very often, as you all know, but it’s good to know that it’s there when I need it.

How would my life be better with a serger?  Shoot… how wouldn’t my life be better?  What’s a serger, you might ask?  Take a look at pretty much any piece of clothing that you own that is store-bought and is not a sweater.  Turn up the edge of your sleeve or skirt and take a look the seams.  Are there zig-zaggy little stitches along the edges of the fabric that look like this?

Then you, my friend, have been serged.  A serger is a sewing machine that performs this amazing feat of wrapping the raw edges of fabric in a tight, flat little cocoon of thread that will keep the edges from fraying.  I don’t know how the machines function, but I do know that they require several (usually 4) gigantic spools of thread and that they are very expensive.  And the fact that I do not own one has been the major obstacle standing in the way of me spreading my wings and becoming the kind of person who makes their own clothes.

My sewing projects, when I think about it, are all the kinds that are performed by the seam-ophobic.  Most of what I make are projects that use “sandwiched” fabric, meaning that  you sew the front layer to the back layer then flip the project inside out, so all the raw fabric edges are hidden neatly inside (think pillows, quilts, lined tote bags, etc.).  But clothing doesn’t really work this way.  Your clothes pretty much always consist of one single layer, with finished edges.  And without a serger, finishing those edges is a total pain in the butt and oftentimes results in clothes that don’t lay right, or edges that eventually start fraying.

Ok, so, I have explained what a serger is and why they are awesome, but how would my life better?  Here’s a list:

• There’s this pile, you see, of clothes that I own that are in need of mending.  Skirts with fallen hems, long-sleeved shirts that would make great short-sleeved shirts if I could just shorten and finish the sleeves, etc. A serger could finally see these projects to completion.
• There’s this other pile of clothes that I had determined to be beyond help, and had planned on giving to Goodwill because they are too big (yay weight loss!) and would be too difficult to take in. I cannot promise that I’d alter all of them, but I’ll betcha—with a serger—I could alter a lot of them, and keep them in circulation for a good while longer.
• And finally, I could design and create my own clothes! I did a lot of this when I was young and hippie-ish and I didn’t care as much if my clothes looked a little hand-made.  As my tastes have evolved, I desire to wear things that look finished, and well-made, and I’ve lacked the equipment to really pull that off.  But with a serger, I could finally resume clothing-making! Huzzah!

So, dear Editorial Board members and staff, please do think long and hard about granting me this serger. It would be such an excellent motivator for me to make more stuff, and would be *perfectly* timed for the holiday gift-making season!  Even if you don’t choose me, thank you for having this giveaway.  It’s definitely going to make someone’s life better!

Thanks,
Ellen

I’ve mainly been using this blog as a place to talk about my cooking, eating, exercising, and weight loss adventures, and you can be certain that weight loss remains, as ever, an important item on my list of New Year’s Resolutions. But there are some other pretty major things going on in the next year… such as the wedding we’re planning! So in addition to the usual “lose weight” and “spend less money,” my resolution list includes “plan an awesomely fun wedding” and “don’t be a psycho-bride.” And that’s pretty much it!

On the food and eating front, I got some pretty cool toys for Christmas. I cannot wait to use the avocado cutter that my dad got me, or to grow herbs in the Aerogarden my mom got me, or to make ice cream in the ice cream maker I got myself. My friend Darcy got me an adorable set of primary-colored dinosaur-themed cupcake papers and picks. I’m not sure what event I’ll use them for, but it’s gotta be something special! AND I got a fondue pot from Steve’s brother and his girlfriend! It makes me happy to know that the people who know me see me as enough of a cooking enthusiast that they get me awesome cooking stuff for Christmas.

Do you know the blog Cake Wrecks? You totally should. The blogger, Jen, posts daily photos of professional cakes that have something hilariously wrong with them. Her story is neat—she was a working schmoe like you or I, but she started blogging about something she found entertaining, and now it’s her full-time job. Nice, huh?

She’s put out a book, and went on a book tour with her husband. On November 5^th, they went to the Barnes and Noble in Bethesda, and I simply had to be there. One component of the tour is that attendees were invited to make cupcake-sized replica (wreckplicas) of the cakes on her site and compete for prizes. And… I simply had to do that, too. So I chose to re-create the “dirty turkey” cupcake cake from this post. Here’s what I came up with:

Nice, huh?

I attended the event on the 5^th with my coworker Erica, and while I do believe that my cupcake was well received, it was not a winner. That’s OK. If you check out her roundup blog post, you’ll see that I had some hot competition (and you can also see Erica and I in the second row in the crowd photo!)

Despite my loss, it was a cool event. They gave a slideshow of their favorite wrecks, took some audience questions, and then signed our books for us. And there was cake! Of course.

Wasting time apologizing for the infrequency with which I update this blog is SO last-month. I’ve crossed three significant milestones with my swimming in the last few weeks, and I’ve been thinking about how I wanted to post something about it, but have simply not had the time. But this is a three-day weekend for me, and that extra 24 hours makes a world of difference! It’s time to catch up.

1) Back in July, I posted about the USMS Go the Distance program. A few weeks ago, I passed my first milestone—50 miles. My goal is to get to 100 by the end of the year, and what’s particularly exciting about this halfway point is that I reached it exactly when I predicted I would (mid-September), so I’m exactly on track to reach 100. I’ve kept to my 15 miles/month goal pretty darn well, and that feels awesome.

2) Swimsuits do not last forever, particularly when they’re used regularly. My Speedo reached a point where it simply could not be worn anymore—it had lost all its elasticity, so it was dragging in the water and sliding all over the place. I bought a snazzy new one online in a size smaller than I had been wearing. I was a little afraid that the smaller size wouldn’t fit, and I couldn’t bear to be without a suit for another week, so to be on the safe side, I also ordered the bigger size. But the smaller one fit! So I returned the bigger one, and am very happy to be swimming in something that is snug and doesn’t drag. It’s amazing what a difference it makes.

3) I’m down to a 40-minute mile. When I started all this swimming-madness, it was my goal to get to a 45-minute mile, which didn’t take too terribly long. I’ve been doing pretty much the exact same workout every time I go (though sometimes on weekends, I’ll swim an extra 400 meters, just because I can), and slowly but surely, I’ve shaved 5 minutes off my time. Maybe when I get to 35, I’ll switch up my routine, but for now, my plan is to keep doing what I’m doing!

Make applesauce! Today I set myself up at the dining room table for a lengthy stretch of peeling and cutting (with Navin serving as a pretty worthless assistant). I gotta say, it’s a lovely fall-like way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Armed with what the internets told me about apple varieties, I chose to whip up some applesauce using 6 Ozark Gold, 4 Grimes, and 2 Rome apples, which I think turned out to provide a pretty nice balance of flavor.

I started with a recipe that called for half a lemon’s worth of juice, 2 t of cinnamon, and a cup of sugar, but the apple flavor was tasty enough that I only used half the cinnamon and a half-cup of Splenda. The other change I made was to run the sauce through a food processor twice, because I’m not a fan of chunky applesauce. And I have to say it turned out delicious. It was a splendid accompaniment to the pork chops I made for dinner tonight!

Onyah Fail. Weeks 12 and 13 whizzed by without getting a chance to blog anything. I’m a big sack of lame, I know. Here are a few highlights from the past two weeks…

The End of Peaches! When I was picking up my share yesterday, Mr. Farmer said that there will be no more peaches, and a small cheer went up from the crowd. Which made me laugh. But the end of peaches heralds the arrival of craploads of apples! So it’s time for me to stock up on T. Marzetti’s fat-free caramel dip and start gathering apple recipes. Here are the results of some apple research I’ve done:

• Golden Delicious: Sweet and well-balanced flavor makes it perfect for fresh eating, salads, and processing in applesauce or pies.
• Grany Smith: Tart but well balanced flavor. Their crisp bite and tangy flavor can be enjoyed out of hand or in a salad, but their flavor really comes through when baked or sautéed
• Rome: Good eating apple due to its sweet and mildly tart flavor. Better as a cooking apple because its flavor grows richer when it is baked or sautéed.
• Grimes: Rich, distinctive, aromatic, and spicy in flavor. Perfect for applesauce. It is an excellent, juicy, cider apple; good for all kitchen uses except baking.

I’m happy to see squash, eggplant, and sweet potatoes. The DC weather has turned cooler lately, and I am loving the feeling that fall has arrived! I used the eggplant and basil to not-so-creatively make my usual eggplant parmesan. The sweet potatoes I foresee being turned into these curried Sweet Potato Wedges, which I’ve made before and found very tasty. I’m also planning on roasting the tomatoes and tossing them with whole wheat penne and shrimp for dinner tonight. (The tutorial on tomato-roasting on Smitten Kitchen’s blog is excellent. Interesting side note: I learned that my friend Karen and her boyfriend Jwon are friends with Deb from SK, and I was totally starstruck and dorked out in her dining room when she told me this. Deb is one of my heroes.)

My last peach recipe: This one was a real crowd-pleaser, so I wanted to share. Another gem from SK was this Peach Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Frosting recipe. I brought them to a BBQ and to work and everyone thought they were mega-tasty. I was glad to see the Great Peach Onslaught of 2009 go out on a high note.

Weigh-in switch: I’ve been forgetting to weigh in on Thursday mornings. Every other Thursday I’m out the door before 6:00 AM to hit the gym, and I’m just not capable of remembering to weigh in (and then remembering what the scale said) that early in the morning. So I’m switching my weigh-in day to Sunday. Sadly, my first Sunday weigh-in was not a stellar one, likely because of all the beer and Mexican food I consumed on the Saturday prior.

What a lovely assortment of stuff this week! An eggplant! Hot peppers! A tomato the size of my head! Since I’m around this weekend, for the first time in a while, I have no reason to fear that we’ll have any trouble gobbling up all this tastiness. I foresee eggplant parmesan, more tomato sandwiches, some spicy stir fry, and maybe… mojitos? Yum.

Wednesday night, I used the purple potatoes to make purple French fries. I’d had purple potatoes twice before—once in chip form (one of those artsy brands of tri-color chips), and once in ice cream form (in Japan, where purple potato ice cream is popular, very delicious, and a really gorgeous color). They’re kinda sweet, but not as sweet as sweet potatoes. And they made some awesome fries! I roasted them with salt, pepper, rosemary, and olive oil, and they had such a delicious flavor.

In the “after” picture, you see them served beside what I have come to refer to as “Robin burgers,” because I had them for the first time when my friend Robin made them for me when I was visiting her in Morgantown, and she was kind enough to photocopy the recipe for me. They’re made with red peppers, couscous, and an assortment of curry-ish spices, and they always turn out awesome.

Today, I committed a full-on CSA failure. In the photo at right, you see a mystery vegetable. When I went to pick up my veggies, farmer-man was saying that this mystery vegetable was a cross between several crops—broccoli, cauliflower, and kohlrabi—that had interbred in some sort of sexually explicit way that only vegetation can accomplish. So I told Steve, “I dunno what it is, but I’m cooking it.” I ripped off one of the leaves and tasted it, and it was very bitter and icky, so first I tried trimming off all the leaves, with the intention of slicing up the remaining stalk-ey bits and sautéing them in olive oil. But the stalk-ey bit was filthy, and no amount of scrubbing with my Veg-Hog would get it clean, and every time I thought I’d gotten the thing clean, I’d turn it in one direction or another and uncover a caterpillar, clinging to one of the stalk-ey ridges with all its might. I found a total of four of them, and was just kinda grossed out, and uncertain about what the heck I was doing in the first place… so I just tossed it, and we ate a veggie-free dinner. CSA fail.

I’ve tried peach muffins and peach pie and this week decided to try something savory, and attempted this recipe for pork chops and peaches tonight. Steve and I were both pretty pleased with the outcome, and I succeeded in using up four peaches to make it—woo hoo! I’m thinking that before this adventure is through, I’ll be making this one again.

While I’ve been loving the weekly dosage of fresh basil, I decided it was time to try drying it. I trimmed off all the leaves and layered them between some paper towels, which I clipped together and hung up to dry. For the next few days, I’m supposed to flip them twice a day, and hopefully they’ll be nice and dry by Friday, since we’re leaving town this weekend.

One last cooking effort this evening… I finally used up all the tomatillos to make this green salsa recipe, which made a pretty hefty batch of salsa. I was surprised by two things: 1) tomatillos are really sticky, and 2) the salsa had a nice, sweet flavor. Here you see the results festively displayed with Steve’s chili pepper Mardi Gras beads

And lastly… I’m psyched that the tomato time of year has finally arrived. Consuming farm-fresh tomatoes is no kind of challenge at all. I’ve been making a lot of tomato sandwiches—thick slice of tomato with salt, pepper, and light mayo on a toasted sandwich thin. Delicious, satisfying, and only 2 points apiece!

While last week’s delivery was a pretty sane assortment of things that are none-too-difficult to use up—a tomato, a pepper, a few peaches, a few apples—this week is a bit more challenging! Another dozen peaches have arrived. And I’m flying to Houston for my cousin’s wedding this weekend! How am I supposed to consume a dozen peaches when I’m not even around?

Also… when I land on Sunday afternoon, Steve is picking me up at the airport, and taking me directly to our friends’ house for a BBQ (and not just any BBQ—a goat roast)! So I did a little research on pie-freezing, and the internets say that you can freeze your pies before you bake them, then pop them in the oven and they’re good as new. Trusting that the internets know what they’re talking about, I embarked on another cooking adventure!

I took today off to prepare for the trip, and spent the better part of the afternoon making these hand pies from Smitten Kitchen. The recipe calls for a lot of prepping and chilling and prepping some more and chilling some more… so it takes a while. But I baked two of the hand pies, just to see how they would turn out, and I had one of them and they. are. awesome. The crust turned out wonderfully crispy and flaky and I’m sure all those chilling steps are to thank. The rest of the pies are in my freezer, and baking instructions have been written down for Steve, so he can bake them on Sunday and we can bring them to the goat roast. Lord knows I don’t need 20 tiny pies sitting around my house!

I’m just about finished reading Julie & Julia, which is a book that I am very much enjoying. For those of you who live under a rock and haven’t seen the commercials, the book—now a movie—is about Julie Powell, a blogger who challenged herself to cook every recipe from Julia Child’s Mastering The Art of French Cooking in a year. I really dig Julie’s personality—I am constantly reading passages that make me nod emphatically or laugh out loud. I like how she swears a lot and likens cooking to bizarre sex practices, and today I read the chapter where she throws around the phrase “cheese-eating surrender monkey.” Love it.

So… there’s an example of someone who embarked upon a wildly successful food/cooking/blogging adventure. I had the same pioneering spirit when I joined the CSA—but I’m lacking a little of the discipline. Taking pictures of the food when it arrives, and making sure I cook every last morsel of it before it goes bad, hasn’t been too tough. But the blogging part is coming a little slower. I think I’m just out of practice! That year-or-so that I neglected this blog took its toll. So, hopefully you’ll forgive me if I don’t post a new CSA picture every Wednesday and a weight-loss progress update every Thursday… but you can rest assured that, sooner or later, I will post them!

On the subject of weight loss, I’m happy to report (5 days late) that I had two good weeks, back to back! I’ve been ever-so-frustrated that the 30+ miles I swam in June and July only yielded about a 6-pound weight loss (and that’s including the 3.1 pounds I lost last week)! But I’ve tried not to let it keep me down, and I’ve remained a committed gym-goer nonetheless. I don’t want to jinx it, but maybe my body has decided to work with me on this whole swimming thing, finally?