Clone wars!

I'm glad Alan's surgery went so well. And I'm really glad he's up to making the coffee.....I need a cup after just reading all this!! Good going, Kate!

Sharon

The alteration done and dusted, and the frock completed for fitting/fixing hem length. Now to get on with the coats...

Hurray for Alan, and Kate needs her support staff with all that work to do!

James has been a super-hero! He's turning into an excellent cook, and did Greek salad for lunch and Blamanger of Chicken (our fave mediaeval dish!) with peas fpr dinner. He also cooked Tuesday's dinner - venison burgers, oven bakes 'sauste' potatoes with garlic, and baked tomatoes & mushrooms.

He and Alan did the menus for next week too!

The current mad sewing fest will be done by Wednesday: I then have until mid May to complete the Victorian corset, drawers, chemise, skirt and bodice, and a Regency pelisse! The corset will be fine as I've done the fitting for that.

He's a good man, Alan, and I'm glad his wrist(s) is (are) well again. And yes, you've got a lovely boy there, although he doesn't look it at first sight. ;-) Gotta go, dinner... (No, I've still got to make it. )

U.

James tends, like most adolescent lads, to suffer from bouts of Teenage Grumpus! ;) MOST of the time he's fine, but he's so large that if he gets a sulk on him, it kinda spreads... And he LOOMS! :D

They are both wonderful and put up with a lot from me... Jams even helped sew buttons on this lot this evening, made coffee for the customers, went and quarried in the stash for coat hangers, and was a generally cheeful gofer.

Everything is done and delivered, and I'll put pix up when I've eaten and my paws have recovered! My dinner is out of the freezer... Home made a couple of months ago, and stashed for just such an emergency!

Yeah well, I remember those days of my youth and I think I must have been far worse. But in my days there were no computer games to hide behind, just books on the loo. ;-) Plus, I had brothers who were always better in most anything, so I didn't get any praise, no matter what I did. It must be nice to be a single child...

An amazing young man, indeed. Man enough not to be above helping his mom, whatever it is. I guess he'll grow into just the kind of guy to partner the self-confident 21st-century woman; happy to be together with a successful woman without being a wimp (or whatever it's called). It's nice to hear of a promising youth once in a while. ;-)

Yes, I know that type of dinner. I had that in my freezer when I was still at university. There were days when I was so down that I didn't even like stuff from the pizza man. I had some portions of home-made bean soup from beans out of my garden. Do you know something similar, soup of green beans? It's called 'Schneiderscourage' (Tailor's courage), don't ask me why, but it was heaven to come home and indulge in this type of meal. And isn't microwave the greatest thing since sliced bread? ;-) Hope you enjoyed your meal.

My parents were very strange... They praised each and every one of us for the things we did well or tried hard at (even if the results were a failure!). They taught us how to think for ourselves and to do all the practical things: bro can cook, iron his own shirts, run his own house... Us three sisters can change fuses and plugs, paint walls, mix concrete...

My mum wanted a bookacse for the bedroom Big Sis and I shared. She went to evening classes and built one. 40+ years later she still uses it. I wanted a shed. I helped Alan put the roof on it!

There are lots of them about. Trouble is, we really only hear the bad stuff. MOST kids are just fine if you look beyond the general anti-teenager attitudes of the press.

I did! Do you have a recipe for that soup? It sounds like it would be lovely, and just the ting for those 'I'm too tired/busy/in pain to cook' days.

Not strange, good! I'm sure that my life would have looked a lot different with a little bit more praise. But at least none of us was ever discouraged if they wanted to learn skill typical for the other gender. Anyway, from where I am now I can see that the burden my parents put on my back is just a fraction of what theirs (and WW II) put on their backs. So I mustn't grumble, especially since I've been able to learn to cope with it. Mind you, what is perfect in this world? ;-)

You know what I think? 'Gender specific work' is an invention of snobbish upper classes (or patriarchic forces, depending on how ultra feminist you want it ;-)) ; in the olden days, the farmer and his wife had cope with whatever workload was there, and if you were a poor man's wife you couldn't tend your sewing basket all day but had to give your husband a hand out in the field or where ever he worked. Made you an equal, though, and uncomfortably self confident I can imagine. Ah well, I'm drifting off and haven't got the time to follow this road (coffee at mum's and dad's).

Yes, it would, especially since it's got the right name. ;-) As for the recipe, it's one of those you learn from you mother and never get proper amounts, more like 'take this special pot and fill it to here with water, then add this bowl full of whatever'. It'll take a while for me to translate and write down the right measurements, but then I'll gladly share it. If you think it might be of interest to the entire group I'll post it here. Sorry, gotta go now, getting myself and everything ready for the afternoon out. Promised to bring 'Waffeln' and whipped cream, made the batter, DH is baking them. Anyway, still loads to do. Have a very happy Easter,

U.

If you just say 'fill a saucepan 2/3 full of whatever', I'm sure we can all work it out from there. I have recipes that start with 'Take the carcas from Sundays roast chicken, break into large chuinks, put in a soup pot and cover with water... ' and go on from there! However much soup you end up with depends on the size of the chicken to start with, how much stock you make, and the quantity of leeks you happen to own that day. :D

Today may be Easter Sunday, but I really *NEED* to tidy up the sewing stuff and get all the bits dragged out from wherever put away again properly, leaving out only the stuff that is In Progress, and all that neatly bagged and ready to roll!

I'll parcel up your fabrics and shirts and get them off to you, and follow as soon as possible with the patterns and the new toile (without godets) so you can see what it looks like. :)

I'm in a right old mess hear (more so than usual!), and some easy-peasy been soup in vats in the freezer would make life so much simpler!

I am going to TRY to clear the decks enough to finish Vickey's Knickers

- the Victorian bloomers for Vicky the Customer!

OK, I did my best, I hope I translated the essential ingredients correctly. Don't hesitate to ask if I didn't express well enough. Here goes:

Tailor's Courage (enough to feed a small army or freeze for many unhappy days as a 'comforter' ============

2 l cold water 500 g of boiling meat (beef, with fat, bones and some nice meat) 1 bay leaf 5 allspice berries ½ Tb peppercorns 1 - 2 Tb salt

Let it boil up and then simmer for about 1 hour. Or just use stock cubes for 2 l of broth.

Add

4 Mettwürstchen (German pork sausage, smoked and soft, not hard like salami) in slices or about 2 cups of baconbits. The taste of smoked pork is essential!

Add diced (in order of appearance while the pot is already beginning to heat):

1 bit of celery root 1 parsley root (optional) 1 small parsnip (optional) 1 - 3 carrots (matter of taste) 6 or so potatoes (size of chicken eggs, and anyway, it's a matter of taste) 1 sprig of lovage (fresh, don't bother with the dried stuff, don't know about frozen) ½ - 1 leek (matter of taste)

Add last (in case of the stock-cube version when everything has begun boiling)

1 kg fresh green beans cut into 4 cm-pieces (not the princess ones, should be thicker) or the same stuff, frozen. If you want to freeze the stew, don't use tinned green beans, they'll disappear into nothingness after thawing.

Let boil until everything is done (watch the beans, they tend to overcook, at least with me ;-)) Take out the boiling meat, pick it over and return the nice parts in small pieces into the soup. Season to taste with salt, ground pepper, perhaps more stock cubes. If you like hot Dusseldorf mustard, put some on the soup to go with the beef. Chopped fresh parsley on top is nice, too.

Guten Appetit! ;-)

U.

Hah, I don't give a d... about what day it is! I had my major housecleaning on Good Friday because then DH could watch over DD. My rule is: Don't be too loud so that pious neighbours have no reason to complain, and don't hang the undies out to dry (baby stuff is the exemption). ;-) So I hope your cleaning went well, I know exactly what you mean. Almost our entire house is like that. No, not really, I'd have gone bonkers if that was the case, but if I start too many messes at once (and see them lying around) I get fidgety and cross, so I keep things fairly ordely. And anyway, with the amount of different projects you work on, you really hacve to be careful not to use the a part of a wrong pattern. ;-) (Seriously, although I've seen you at work, I still have no idea how you manage all that stuff on your agenda.)

Oh, that's nice, especially that you'll make the other toile, too. I really owe you! I don't know if I told you already, but I've found melon beads on the net. The 'only just' need to be spun into silver wire.

I could let them make a necklace of them, too. A proper one, not Apache style. Well, you said something about lovely ideas, so I'm really eager to hear those, of course.

Recipe is posted already. If I'll ever make it to your place again, I promise to bring the right kind of sausage, too. ;-)

Go girl, go! You'll manage, it's just knickers, after all. ;-)

U. - off to feed DD with left-over Waffeln and fresh whipped cream and prepare tonight's barbecue (both brothers and partners are coming).

Excellent. I can work out a nice lower fat (essential for me) version using beef stock, a little roast beef, a reduced fat 'German saussage', and work from there. I dare say every tailor's wife did their own version anyway, so little variations here and there aren't a problem. It's soup, after all, not Pavlova cases, where the slightest deviation from the recipe and method results in soggy, flabby things rather than crisp pavlova that snaps into a suggary, powdery mess when you bite it (as it should!) :D

I have an internal timetable - and I spent years as a teacher juggling projects, but it is a bit like plate spinning - you have to tweak the right ones at the right moment, as when one wobbles, they all start falling!

here we don't care about hanging the knickers out on whatever day it is. If other folk are bothered by my undies hanging out in My private back garden, that is THEIR problem, not mine! :D We have no laws about what may be hung out, and are encouraged to hang as much up as possible rather than use the dryer. I still use mine a bit too much, but it is so convenient and the last months have been so wet...

I'll get working. I found some grey poly habotai lining in the stash for your jacket. I'll fling that in too. And the beads look wonderful.

I saw. Next week's menu will include bean soup!

(Joke:

*MUM! What's for dinner?* Bean soup! *I don't want to know what it's been, I want to know what it is now! *)

The tidying has taken longer, but I did more on the way! One mess in my bedroom has been sorted, for a start! And a corner of the conservatory emptied, cleaned, and stacked back more tidily, with some items moved to The Shed and other places... Makes a lot better use of the space and the stuff is more accessible!

But I do feel like this:

Ursula, Great recipe. We love soup. The beads are beautiful. Did I read correctly that the beads are 22mm. My German is lacking. Juno

Kate: I answered this yesterday, but it seems to have disapeared into cyberspace.

Anyhow, I do just about everything lowfat these days - save the fats for when they really DO make a difference - and the way I do something like this is I split it into two days. The firat day I prepare the stock, just pop all the ingredients into the Crock-Pot and let it simmer all night. The next morning, strain it, put the meat on a plate and the liquid into a glass jug and refrigerate both. Leave them there all day. Then when the fat has risen to the top and hardened, I take it out and either discard it or save it to use as dripping, put the rest ofthe stuff into the pot and carry on from there. If I do the second stage also in the slow cooker it will take care of itself while I get on with other things - like reading a novel, maybe if I am not desperately sewing.

Ursula, this sounds like a great recipe. I have printed it out and will file it after I have tried it.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans

That sounds like the standard way mum taught me to make stock. We both always hated greasy soup! ;) have a fat separating jug, so I can speed things up a bit, but I'm thinking of cheating and using stock cubes this time out, as we so rarely eat beef (it's one of the things I can only cope with in miniscule quantities well spaced!).

I alternate the slow cooker and the pressure cooker, and have been known to use both in one recipe! :D

"Olwyn Mary"...

Thanks for the praise, it's really nice, a great soup for early autumn or cooler summer days, when fresh green beans from the garden need to be used up. I always liked the beef bits in it... Go give it a try, although I sometimes find it difficult to do 'traditional' recipes in another country when ingredients important for the taste can't be found (like Mettwürstchen). Anyway, you try it and it'll be your own soup, widely related to the German original. Never mind the details. ;-)

U.

Thanks again for the praise, I'm a great soup maker (if not in quality at least in frequency, DH loves stews ;-)), sometimes it's just fridge soup (you know, stock cubes and whatever veggies are left in the fridge) or something from tinned pulses and sometimes I buy really nice fresh ingredients, including meat and stuff.

Oh, the beads go from 16 to 22 mm, so the bigger ones can go into the necklace while the smaller ones go as buttons. Mind you, I intend to buy two of those. And it's all Kate's and Eleonora of Toledo's fault. ;-)

U.