Sale alert: Hanna Andersson

Hanna Andersson, the official clothier of my daughter, is having one of their ginormous sales. Almost all of their summer clothing is on sale, with many items at 60% off. There's tons of stuff for only $10 and $15, which especially for their quality is a great deal. But hurry! Things at these sales sell out fast. If you order, it's worth your while to set up an account and give them your email address. You'll get email notices of their sales; when the print sale catalog comes in the mail, many items are already sold out.

Look at all the cute, comfy, mixy-matchy stuff I just got for Sophie:










This should keep her in business well through the warm fall weather of next school year.

I guess I didn't mention that I'm on a clothing diet. I have a ridiculous amount of clothes I don't wear very often that are perfectly fine. I'm hoping to save some money while rediscovering some old favorites and new combinations. But, of course, buying clothes for Sophie clearly falls outside this policy.

Weekend play, organizing, and sewing at Figs

Sophie and I reveled in a weekend with almost no plans. She spent a little time at the neighbors' on Saturday and went to the movies with a schoolmate on Sunday, but otherwise she was amazing content to play with her dolls. Her very busy dolls. One of them has non-stop classes, homework, and performances of various types that Sophie needs to supervise. She has, according to Sophie, "A really horrible life!" I asked if it was anything like her life, and she thankfully said no. It's the last week of school, and she'll go from her K-1-2 classroom to her school's 3-4-5 room next year. She knows it gets more serious academically and that she'll have more homework. I wonder if this is her way of expressing concern about that.

She also mentioned that she is the mother of these dolls but that there is no father. "I divorced him and took all the kids." Why? "We just weren't getting along, so I had him leave." Fine, I told her. Just remember if this ever really happens to you be sure to get all the money too. I reminded her that Husband and I are not planning on getting a divorce. 

While she was occupied, I knocked off a long overdue house organizing chore. I've decided I'm going to try to organize at least one thing in my house every weekend, and I have to complete the entire task in the weekend. So we're ignoring the fact that this project has been in progress for about six months. The point is that I finished it this weekend:

My recipes are now organized. I like keeping recipes in folders according to course because then I can include papers of all sizes. Within each folder, I paperclip together similar things (e.g., the thirteen recipes I have for chocolate frosting). I had a recipe box like this, but it was bursting with recipes I will probably never make and duplicates of things I make all the time, with many recipes mysteriously not in their folder but crammed in the front of the box. And the whole thing was looking a little drab and sloppy. These cute folders helped motivate me.

Here it is back on my bookshelf in the kitchen hall (yep—an entire bookcase for cookbooks and back copies of Cooks Ilustrated). 

Next up was taking another run at the pillow project. Careful readers will recall that I botched my first sewing project in my beginning sewing class by measuring incorrectly. So I measured really carefully this time, holding the pillow form up to the measured fabric and asking myself "Does this look reasonable?" It did, but then I sewed it together with one of the sides facing the wrong way. And then my bobbin ran out of thread and I did not notice and continued to sew away, wondering why it did not all hold together. And then my main thread broke, and I did notice, but it took me a long time to rethread the machine. But the point is I used our machine all by myself, winding the bobbin and threading the machine for the first time.  So what if making a simple pillow took me about two hours? Victory was mine.

Behold: the back enclosure overlaps properly.

And since I was on such a roll, I whipped out a doll pillow from the leftover fabric (dish towels that come in packages of matched sets).

Because those stressed-out, overly busy dolls need a place to rest their weary heads. 

Any ideas on what I should make next? I see that Martha has lots of sewing projects, but I'm not sure I trust her.

What's cooking: Really quick summer pasta

The other day I tasted my first good tomato of the season. Sophie and I are both sick of eating burritos in the car on our way across the bridge to opera, and these tomatoes provided the inspiration for a quick pasta dish (we still ate it in the car).

I don't give specific amounts, because this is a recipe that can use whatever you've got on hand. And because, let's face it, I just don't cook that way. Probably one of the many reasons I'll never write a cookbook, but also one of the reasons I've always got something good to eat at my house.

QUICK SUMMER PASTA

angel hair pasta
olive oil
garlic, chopped into large chunks (not pressed!)
prosciutto, several slices, diced
fresh tomatoes (I used cherries, which I halved)
fresh basil, chiffonade (stack leaves, roll into a cylinder, slice into thin strips)
fresh mozzarella
paremesan, shredded or grated
fresh lemon juice (I also grate the zest and throw it in too)
salt (I use this wonderful black flaked salt: tastes good and looks great)

Cook pasta in salted boiling water. While pasta is cooking, saute chopped garlic and prosciutto in olive oil over medium heat, stirring often. Watch the garlic; it can burn quickly.

Drain pasta. Rinse in hot water. Add the olive oil, garlic, and prosciutto from the pan and toss. Add the other ingredients, adjusting to taste.

I think this is a fine meal served with just a green salad, but it's also nice topped with grilled shrimp or scallops. And it was fine eaten in the car out of a plastic container.

Enjoy!

Yes, that's my kid

In a wig.


I think it works.

A successful opening night

Well, at least from the perspective of parents hunkered down in the opera house basement.

Hair and makeup went smoothly and right on schedule.

These are some of the adult Niebelungs. Someone's got to be steering those mining carts full of gold.

Most of the parents watched a video feed from the house in the basement canteen. 

It's a relatively relaxing scene: We chat, we sew, we read. And we get a chance to hang out with the kids between scenes.



Here's Sophie working on getting into character. She's pretty pleased with her newly discovered dramatic ability.

In the past I've sometimes let her sleep in after a night performance, taking her to school whenever she wakes up. However, even though we got home at 11:00, she popped right out of bed this morning all fired up for the dress rehearsal for their class spring play, which is this evening (what luck). They're doing the Swedish folk tale The Seven Swans, and she's the evil queen who dupes the king into marrying her after his first wife dies and then turns his seven sons into swans to rid herself of them. I think she's adopting some version of my pledge "I'll sleep when my daughter goes to college."  

Sophie thanks all the blogger pals for their good wishes!

Opening night jitters

Not from Sophie—she's fine. I'm on the edge.

I'm home getting ready.

Snacks? Check. We take lots because there's an amazing number of parents who send nothing. Even if you feed them dinner right before their call, they're starving the minute they come off stage and get out of costume. Duh. They're kids.

Dressing room activities? Check. What's important here are things they can do without glue, paint, or markers—anything that could damage a costume.

Sophie's ready for the stage; I'm ready for the opera house bar.

A little cheese, please

Over the weekend I happened upon a cheese I've been reading about and wanted to try ON SALE. Lucky me.


Stichelton is an English blue similar to Stilton but made with raw (unpasteurized) milk.The name Stilton can be used only by certified dairies, and these dairies all use pasteurized milk and synthetic rennet. To create their own cheese that varied from these restrictions, the creators of Stichelton had to choose their own name. Tasty stuff. A little milder than regular Stilton and wonderfully buttery.


I followed the lead of The Pasta Shop where I bought the cheese and served it mixed with honey. I could have eaten it with a spoon but thought it was a little neater served on a sliced baguette. This would make a nice dessert course served with fresh fruit, like a sliced fig. What could be easier than that?