Cooking and Costuming
From Twelve: A Tuscan Cook Book (Tessa Kiros, Murdoch Books, Sydney and London, 2003), used the slow cooker to make something resembling the Zuppa di ceci (Chickpea soup) in the "February" chapter. Used canned chickpeas (2 cans, one whole and one partly mashed) instead of from dry, and could not find a whole dried chili, so used dried chili flakes. Not a big fan of celery, so used the leaves and stalks of the rainbow chard. It was pretty tasty and hearty when I had some for dinner, although it clearly hadn't finished cooking yet. Will see how it tastes tomorrow. Vegan.
From the February 2008 issue of Natural Health magazine, adapted the recipe for Chocolate Soy Brownies. Used gluten-free flours instead of wheat flour and applesauce instead of pureed prunes (too much work to puree them myself!) Got unsatisfactory results from trying to grate orange zest (later discovered that orange rind was supposed to be pureed with prunes) so added some Grand Marnier instead. Recipe as made by me:
3/4 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup soy flour
1 tsp xanthan gum
2 tsp baking soda
1 cup demerara sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder (Green & Black's Organic is several shades darker than standard store brand, ergo must be tastier!)
1 snack pack unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup plain yogurt (could theoretically use soy yogurt for a vegan recipe)
1 cup almond milk (could also use soy or cow milk)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
some Grand Marnier
Mix dry ingredients together
Mix wet ingredients together
Mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients
Bake at 425 F for 35 minutes
Brownies are tasty but a little too moist even after baking for 10 minutes longer than original recipe called for. Next time I would cut back the amount of oil. Grand Marnier does not really give the orange taste - I wonder if it would be possible to substitute orange juice for some of the milk? Will try that next time too.
On Friday, put the darts into the other leg. On Saturday, after breaking a needle, sewed the canions to the legs by hand. Sewed both outer and inner layer of canion to leg - raw edge will be covered by bottom edge of foundation breeches. Sewed shoulder seams of doublet and doublet lining. On Sunday, sewed side back seams of doublet and doublet lining, front seams of sleeves and sleeve linings. Cut out pockets at full width of linen look (approx 40 inches). Created pocket slits in outer breeches (finished by hand). Got started pleating the breeches into the waistband. Janet Arnold shows waistband at 1 inch wide, but even with a facing on the top, I think she must be neglecting to show the seam allowance on the bottom - 1 inch is definitely too narrow. Will cut a new waistband at 1.5 inches and start again - am not completely satisfied yet with the arrangement of the pleats into the waistband. Pockets at 40 wide are too long - each pocket must be no longer than half the length of the waistband, so will have to cut pockets down tomorrow too.