wool purse – Loving Sixty Five

My second little bag is almost done!

February 8, 2018 lovingsixtyfive

I just need to attach a shoulder strap. Even managed to line this bag with black cotton, which is WAY above my pay grade. The first lining was far too small, but I figured it out.

The back. I’ve ordered tags that say “Crafted by Beatrice Bee.” They will get ironed into each item.

Yesterday I went to the thrift shop and bought scads of 100% wool coats at half price. A Nicole Miller pale pink waffle weave. A gorgeous winter white cashmere. Black, red, camel hair, bright green. They have all been boiled and are now drying on chairs by the pool. Next step to chop them apart. The black wool one will provide a shoulder strap for this pink, black and yellow bag. I’ve saved all the linings to use for inside my purses.

I also shrunk the doll hair. Kind of a failure.

Neighbor Lynda saw these and thought they looked like dog doo. I guess they kinda’ do.

The shrunken heads are now pincushions.

Today I went to Walmart and purchased a couple of sets of plastic drawers for all the wool I’ve collected. Now, back to the sewing room to complete my third piece. Also lined! Under that button is a pocket to fit a cell phone. Tomorrow, when the black wool is dry, this will get a shoulder strap.

Another day, another strange purse.

February 1, 2018 lovingsixtyfive

The second purse completed!

I’ve been sending “What do I do now?” thoughts into the Universe, and as always the Universe delivered! I have been invited to show/sell my funky little handbags at the Anna Maria Island Community Center during their annual Housewalk. So between now and March of 2019 I’ll be chopping up shrunken woolies and combining them with all the random junk I’ve collected over the years.

This little purse is a combination of a navy Nordstrom wool sweater Jim donated to my cause. The blue denim bits are pieces of a scarf I began fourteen years ago for my son. But I screwed up the casting off part (my knitting skills leave something to be desired). It’s been living in a plastic baggie all this time.

The yellow parts came from a thrift store cashmere sweater. $2.99 and dammit I’m worth it. It used to be an extra large; now it would fit an American Girl doll. Beads are part of my stash from when I decided to make jewelry. Buttons are my passion. These three lived with the navy blues in my button drawers.

All my items get a bumblebee, as I stated before. Next, I plan to purchase tags the say handcrafted by Alice Jay Tate. I’m off and running, again! New year, new Alice.

Money from this little venture is ear-marked: twenty-five percent to a cause near and dear to my heart, twenty-five percent for my grandson’s college fund, and the rest for greedy Alice. Yay! I’ll probably spend it on more thrift store junk to shrinky dink.

I learned that every other Wednesday the Dunedin Main Street Thrift store sells all clothing half price. You know where I’ll be twice a month.

Serves 10

Ingredients:

2 small bulbs fennel
1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
2 T. good olive oil
1 T. unsalted butter
2 pounds russet potatoes
2 C. plus 2 T. heavy cream
2 1/2 C. grated Gruyere cheese
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Butter inside of 10 cup baking dish.
(10x15x2)

Remove the stalks from the fennel and cut the bulbs in half lengthwise. Remove the cores and thinly slice the bulbs crosswise, making about 4 cups of sliced fennel. I recommend using a mandoline slicer. Saute the fennel and o nions in the olive oil and butter on medium-low heat for 15 minutes, until tender.

Peel the potatoes, then thinly slice. Again, I used mandoline and it made the slices perfect. Mix the sliced potatoes in a large bowl with 2 cups of cream, 2 cups of Gruyere, salt and pepper. Add the sauteed fennel and onion as well.

Pour it into prepared baking dish. Press down to smooth top. Combine remaining 2 T. cream with 1/2 cup Gruyere and sprinkle on top. Bake for 1 1/2 hours until potatoes and browned and bubbly.

Allow to set for 10 minutes and serve.

My notes:
This would NOT have been enough for 10 of the hungry Easter group. Knowing we'd be 12 I did about 3 1/2 pounds of potatoes and 4 cups of Gruyere. Forgot the part about sprinkling extra on top, but that was fine.

Sadly people were hoping for seconds and we didn't have any. Next year 5 pounds of potatoes, double the cream, 6 or more Cups of cheese. These were simply wonderful!

Thanks again, Ina. You always come through.

These are dangerously delicious and gluten free! Made them today to take to a party this evening. They are sitting on the counter just daring me to eat another one. Already had three. Oink. My daughter, Mo, turned me on to the recipe. She also taught me to use a scoop and silpat mats. More on those in a future blog post.

I used a #40 cookie scoop, baked on Silpat lined half sheets for about 18 minutes. You can also line the cookie sheets with parchment papter.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups (335 grams) packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups (450 grams) smooth peanut butter
Coarse-grained sea salt, to finish

Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the light brown sugar and eggs until smooth. Whisk in the vanilla extract, then the peanut butter until smooth and completely incorporated; you shouldn’t be able to see any ribbons of peanut butter.

If you’d like to get those pretty striations across the top of the cookies, chill the dough by freezing it in its bowl for 15 minutes, stirring it once (so the edges don’t freeze first), before scooping it. If you’re not obsessed with these markings, you can scoop it right away. Scoop or spoon the dough into balls — Place on prepared pan. For the tallest final shape, place the tray in the freezer for 15 minutes before baking.

Sprinkle the dough balls lightly with coarse-grained sea salt just before baking. When finished, cookies should be golden at edges. They’ll need to set on the sheet for a minute or two before they can be lifted intact to a cooling sheet. Trust me, you should let these cool completely before eating so the different textures (crisp outside, soft inside) can set up.

Do ahead: You can definitely make the dough in advance and either refrigerate it for a couple days or freeze it longer. However, if I were going to freeze it, I’d probably go ahead and scoop it first. You can bake them right from the freezer.

Check out the Smitten Kitchen website for further info. She said she got the recipe from Ovenly, a site I now need to look into!

2 tsp. fresh thyme leaves
1 tsp. whole fennel seeds
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1/3 C. good olive oil
1 lemon halved and sliced 1/4" thick, cut off and discard stem ends.
1 yellow onion halved and sliced 1/4" thick
2 large cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 chicken, cut up (Ina says 4 lb. butterflied, but I'm lazy and just buy it already cut up.)
1/2 C. dry white wine such as Pinot Grigio
Juice of one lemon

Preheat oven to 450.
Place thyme, fennel seeds, 1 T. salt and 1 tsp pepper in small food processor (I use my Nutri Bullet) and process until ground. Pour olive oil into small glass measuring cup, stir in ground herbs and set aside.

Distribute lemon slices in 12" skillet (I use large Le Creuset) and distribute onion and garlic on top.

Place chicken, skin side down, atop of oniion and brush with about half oil/herb mix. Turn chicken skin side up, pat dry (Ina says this is important!), and brush with remaining herb/oil mix.

Roast for about 30 minutes, then pour in wine being careful not to pour directly onto chicken. Roast another 10-15 minutes until meat thermometer in thickest part of chicken registers 155-160 degrees.

Remove from oven, sprinkle with lemon juice, cover skillet tightly with aluminum foil and allow to rest for 10-15 minutes. Sprinkle with salt, and serve hot with pan juices. The onions and lemons should be included. The lemons are edible and fabulous.

After cooking this go buy Ina's "Cooking for Jeffrey." She is simply wonderful.

Tag: wool purse

My second little bag is almost done!

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Another day, another strange purse.

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