Baby bibs and shoes

I was super excited to find out today that I won the giveaway on the long thread for the book fa la la la felt!  This is the first blog giveaway I have won, so that was exciting, but mostly I am psyched because I love making holiday crafts, and this looks like it will have lots of great ideas.  I thought that now would be a great time for this post which I have been meaning to write, and which was partially inspired by a post on the long thread.  I thought the baby shoes were adorable and although the idea of making shoes had never occurred to me, it turned out they weren't as hard to make as you might think. 

Inspired by a different post on purl bee I have also whipped up quite a number of baby bibs.  The bib and booties together make quite a cute matching set!  Here is the back of the bib shown above (and the fabric which I used on the inside of the shoes):

As you can probably tell, I made a number of changes to the bib pattern.  I drew my own shape (mostly because I didn't feel like bothering to print the pattern, but I think I like the shape that I came up with better), and I didn't include a pocket.  I also decided that the bibs would be more parent-friendly if I made them with snaps rather than just ties, so some that were already made I added snaps in the middle of the back, and then on the next round of bibs that I made I put a snap to one side and adjusted the strap lengths.  The bibs and the shoes are both a great way to use up leftover fabric - I have been enjoying continuing to use the fabric leftover from Eli's quilt.

These are the backs of the same bibs:

Easy Summer Dinner with Microwave Corn on the Cob

Last night I pulled together a quick summer dinner for us before I went off to my pottery class.  It was nothing complicated but I thought it was a great example of how, when you have such delicious fresh produce in summer, even a last-minute dinner can be really top notch.

We had a tomato basil salad with ingredients from the garden.  Funny side note: my carmello tomato plant went from producing more tomatoes than I can handle to nothing in the past week.  Somehow even though I'm pretty sure it's an indeterminate plant, it set a bunch of fruit that all ripened at once.  I am hoping that if I fertilize it a bit it will come back and have more fruit... for now, we're back to just cherry tomatoes.

We also had spinach fettucine with homemade pesto (although I confess it has been in the freezer since last season - we had so much basil that we are still working through last year's pesto supply).

Finally, I made corn on the cob in the microwave.  I forget where I originally heard about this trick, but after picking up a few ears at the farmer's market yesterday, I remembered it and wanted to try it out.  I used a recipe I found online and followed the directions, although I substituted a wet dishtowel for the paper towel (I can't stand to waste a good paper towel).  It worked really well, and as promised, it was was much easier to husk and remove all the silk!  All in all, a great way to enjoy fresh corn quickly, and it still tasted fresh, sweet and delicious.

We topped the dinner off later in the evening with the last of our peach ice cream... which was custard-based, but reading this NYT article makes me want to try making some philly-style ice cream soon (and reinforces my desire to get David Lebovitz's ice cream book).

Smoky Black Beans

I love black beans.  They are one of my all-time favorite foods.  I may have had a hankering to make black beans for dinner tonight because we went to a crummy suburban Mexican restaurant in Hagerstown for dinner last night, where not only did they serve only bad refried beans with their food, but we strongly suspected that they were using American cheese.  Very sad.  Our dinner tonight was much, much better.

Featuring peppers, basil and oregano from the garden, we ate the beans accompanied by brown rice, feta cheese, and another peach tomato salad (with a drizzle of lime to make it more Mexican side-dish appropriate).  Also visible in the picture at top - fun napkins that I made using Metro Cafe fabric.  I originally thought that we would use these for outdoors to go with our bright red plates, but we have been enjoying their bright summeriness inside too.

Smoky Black Beans

• 1 lb dried black beans or 3 16 oz cans, drained
• 2 tablespoons olive oil or canola oil
• 2 chopped onions
• 2-3 chopped peppers (more if you are using small ones like my garden has been producing)
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil (or 1-2 teaspoons dried)
• 2 teaspoons chopped oregano (or 1 teaspoon dried)
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1-2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ancho chili peppers
• 1/2 - 1 teaspoon ground chipotle chili peppers (this is what gives it the smoky flavor)
• salt to taste

Either pre-soak the beans for 6-8 hours, then drain water and add new water to cover by 1-2", or just cook in a pressure cooker (my preference!), or use canned beans.  While the beans are cooking (if not using canned), chop the vegetables and begin to cook.  Heat the oil in a large stockpot over medium heat, then add the onions and saute for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the peppers, garlic, herbs and spices, and continuing sauteing until the peppers start to soften (or until the beans finish cooking).  Add the beans a a cup or two of the cooking liquid (or water if using canned beans).  Simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for another 15-20 minutes.  Mash the beans or use a hand blender to partially blend (or remove part of the beans to a blender then return to the pot - be careful not to burn yourself).  Add salt to taste, let cool for a few minutes and serve.  Makes about 6-8 servings - plenty for leftovers!

These make great leftovers - the flavor deepens when they have a chance to sit (so be careful not to add too much spice for your taste!).  Also - you can put pretty much any vegetable in these that you please, they are also a great way to use up zucchini.

Camping and birthday socks

This weekend we got away for a quick camping trip to Rocky Gap State Park in western Maryland.  It was amazing how much cooler it was just a few hours drive from DC!  I ended up wearing the one pair of pants and one lightweight sweater I had brought almost all weekend, and not needing the shorts at all... not bad!  It was really relaxing to get away and just enjoy some time in the woods.

Yesterday, we drove up to Pennsylvania and went to see Fallingwater.  It was really cool - not only do you get to walk around and see the house from the outside, you get to tour the inside which is preserved as a museum with all the original built-in furniture and the belongings of the family that owned it.  Unfortunately you aren't allowed to take photos of the inside and you aren't allowed to post any photos you take of the outside, so I can't put any up here, but I definitely recommend a visit if you are able!

With all the time in the car (and with Lawson kind enough to do all the driving), I made some good progress on my current knitting project: Lawson's birthday socks.  The first year we were dating I made him socks for his birthday, and it has become an annual tradition.  I love knitting socks although I do find men's socks somewhat frustrating, since they are not only usually in bland colors, they are also about 1 1/2 times as large as women's socks (at least that's how it feels when I am knitting them!).  But Lawson really enjoys getting new socks each year so it is worth it.  I finished the first sock before we left and have made some serious progress on the second sock (I took these pictures at the campground this morning, I am now down to the heel flap of the second sock).

Maybe I'll actually finish them both before his birthday this year (which is in about a week and a half)!