A woman who can sew

When I was a very little girl, my mom helped organize an annual event, that raised money to support a non-profit dental center. I remember my mom planning the table decorations for this event. She had quite a talent for that sort of thing. I also remember her sewing a gown every year, to wear to this ball.

While my mother sewed, my sister and I played together, under the table. My mother would give my sister and I some scraps of fabric from her gown, and the two of us would sew dresses for our Barbie dolls.

I was just 5 years old, so you can imagine my lack of sewing skills. Yet, I was so very proud of my handiwork. My doll dresses followed one basic "pattern", a rectangle, with a hole about 3 inches in diameter, cut in the very middle of the scrap of fabric. I used this as the neck-hole for my doll dress. Upon slipping the "dress" over Midge's head, I proceeded to fashion the rest of it. I hand-stitched side-seams, leaving just enough room for arm holes for Midge. A piece of ribbon for a sash, and my doll was dressed for her own ball.

My parents were like most young couples at the time. My dad worked, my mom stayed home. Consequently, they didn't have a lot of money for extravagances in those early years. My mother sewed quite well. She made most of her own, mine and my sister's clothing. Sewing a ball gown was just another garment to sew, for her. The gown that I remember most was a taffeta gold plaid, with a large sash. It was floor length, and to a little girl, she looked like a princess.

There was a time when sewing was something every young girl learned to do. It was thought that this would be a valuable skill to learn, to be used throughout her lifetime. Today, just a fraction of girls learn to sew. It seems that shopping is the "skill" they learn best. Where will this "skill" get them? When times are good, they may dress very well. But how will they dress themselves when times are lean? Compare this to my mother's generation. Good or lean times, a woman who could sew, could contrive a fashionable wardrobe for herself.

I realize that times change. Our technology continues to propel us further and further away from traditional domesticity.  Learning to sew does not have to reside in our past heritage. The ability to do for oneself, is empowering. How empowering it is, to know that you can transform something with a needle and thread, and next to nothing in your wallet. One may not "need" to sew their own wardrobe, but how wonderful it is to know that you can.

My weekly menu plan -- it's definitely January here

Menu planning -- dull, huh? "Not so," says the one who couldn't drag herself to do this for literally years!!! The week was most definitely made easier by having my meals all figured out in advance. Busy days call for a plan of action.

We are in the midst of a freeze, here in the Pacific Northwest of the US. That means the outside garden is on a break, and my "garden" produce is coming from my indoor light garden. It's just a small patch of baby salad greens. But a wonderful treat once a week! I used the light garden lettuce this past week for the base of the avocado-citrus salad on Monday. It was delightfully fresh and made me think of spring.

How did the menu plan go? Well, for the most part, pretty well.

The thumbs up --

• having the menu plan on creative savv meant that my kids could look up what we were having for dinner, without asking me
• I could go online and quickly see what I needed to do for the next night's meal
• it meant we were even more on top of using everything up, including working through the freezer stash. I went through the freezers, pulled out all the dinner leftovers for Saturday's dinner, and breakfast leftovers for this morning's breakfast. And I now know what we have, and what we're needing. (It was a bonus to discover I have several containers of pasta sauce still!)
• it saved me the trouble of thinking what to have each night, and wondering if we had all the ingredients in stock
• my kids' help Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday gave me a bit of extra time to take care of other matters

The thumbs down --

• My one big glitch came on Thursday. I made an oversight. When planning that day's dinner, I totally forgot that I would be starting back to work this week, and Thursday is my day out of the house. My plan had me preparing 3 items for dinner, from scratch. I managed to get one item finished and another set up and ready for the oven, before I left for work. I gathered all my ingredients for the third and had them in one place.  Cooking that dish was made slightly easier by that bit of work in the morning. So, while it did work out, I was dead tired by the end of the day. I'll have to remember this for Thursdays.

This next week will be even busier, as I have a couple of afternoon appointments, along with work, volunteer work, dance classes, and driving the daughters to and from school every day. So most of my menu will be simpler items, though still scratch-cooked.

I'm still working from the freezer. I have 3 freezers here. I'm trying to empty one of them, so that it can be unplugged.

Shopping is minimal. We had a freeze this week, so kale and broccoli are gone for the time being from my menus. Frozen leafy greens will need to be purchased. I'm using fresh produce which is seasonal for winter -- cabbage, carrots, onions, potatoes, celery and mushrooms.

what I have ready and in the freezer: buns, cooked ham and turkey, pureed pumpkin and sweet potatoes

what I need to buy: soymilk or Lactaid, mushrooms, celery, frozen spinach

Monday

• turkey-noodle casserole, with homemade mushroom/celery cream sauce, served with carrot-pineapple salad and pumpkin snack cake (pineapple in freezer, double snack cake recipe for Tuesday, make extra cream sauce for ham/spinach on Thursday, cook extra noodles, and toss w/ EVOO for Wednesday's pasta with marinara, save some shredded carrots for tossed salad on Tuesday)

Tuesday (daughter make plum-apple sauce)

• French dip sandwiches on buns, tossed salad w/ shredded carrots, cabbage, and light garden lettuce, plum-apple sauce, leftover pumpkin snack cake (buns from freezer, snack cake leftover from Monday, save leftover beef for soup on Friday, make extra plum-apple sauce for Wednesday)

Wednesday (daughter chop celery, shallots and garlic)

• pasta with marinara, marinated lentil salad with celery and dijon dressing, leftover plum-apple sauce (marinara in freezer, make extra salad for Saturday's dinner)

Thursday (son help chop carrots and onions)

• ham and spinach in leftover cream sauce over toast, with roasted carrots and onions (take turkey breast out of freezer for Sunday) 

Friday (kids cook)

• vegetable-beef soup, biscuits, brownies (for vegetables in the soup, use carrots, onion, celery, potatoes, canned tomatoes in freezer, spinach in freezer)

Saturday

• oven roasted potatoes, leftover lentil salad, fruit salad, leftover brownies

Sunday

• roast turkey breast, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potato souffle, spinach