Notes of a Middle Child

7 Habits of Highly Effective People

I've been tagged by Kim and since I've never been tagged before and since it means I don't have to think up a post topic myself, I'm more than happy to share 7 facts or habits about myself.

Drum roll please...

1.  I love dill pickles!  Now this may completely turn you off, but I will proudly admit to even drinking pickle juice right from the jar (once or twice through a straw, but only to gross out my sisters).  My family thinks this is disgusting, but I recently read about Pickle Juice Sport - a pickle-based sports drink that has 15 times more electrolytes than Gatorade so at least I'm not the only one out there slurping pickle juice (http://www.goldenpicklejuice.com/).

2.  The song I hate most in the word is Send in the Clowns (sung by anyone).  It absolutely makes my skin crawl!

3.  I once named a cat after Bailey Quarters of WKRP in Cincinnati.

4.  I wrote my senior thesis in college on tabloids.  I haven't read one since.  (Now I only read high-minded stuff like People, US Weekly and In Touch).

5.  I go through life in a constant state of dehydration.  I drink much less water (or any beverage for that matter) than I should and often have to remind myself - drink something!  This does have advantages whilst traveling as I rarely have to use the bathroom.

6.  I was once a background swing dancer in a VH1 special.  I can't bear to watch it.

7.  When I first met my husband I noticed he had an unusual last name that I had only heard once before.  It turns out that my mother-in-law was a professor of mine in college ten years earlier.  Part of her toast at our wedding was to say that it was a lesson to her to be kind to all her students because you just never know!

I'm supposed to tag 7 more people for this, but instead I'm going to ask my vast reading audience to leave one random fact or habit about yourself in the comments section.  Come on, tell me something random and weird!

Joel Dewberry Fabrics

I was reading It's (K)not Wood the other day and they posted some very cool woodgrain fabric (in eight colorways no less!) by someone named Joel Dewberry?  Who?  I assumed the link would take me to a high-end $70/yard home decor company, but no!  Joel Dewberry is a new fabric designer and his stuff is being sold at regular old fabric stores and quilt shops like Purl and others.  Not that I'm buying fabric right now of course.  He has three lines and the site says he designs both quilt-weight and home decor fabrics.  Here are just a few that I liked (who doesn't need hot pink woodgrain fabric I ask?). Joel's website is well-designed and I'm going to keep my eye on the Fresh Ideas section which is so far empty.  So this post is just a little heads-up for all the other fabric fiends out there (you know who you are!).

Mrs. Rahmlow's 2nd Grade

I'm sure you've seen this fabric around (from Moda's Mrs. Nelson's 2nd Grade series), but, of course, I put off buying it until it was impossible to find.  What's up with that anyway?  Does anyone else have anxiety about fabric going out of print?  Why doesn't it work like books - The Grapes of Wrath isn't going out of print anytime soon?  Call me naive, but doesn't it seem counter to economic logic to discontinue popular fabrics that are continuing to bring in lots of money?  File this under: "Well, what do I know anyway?

When I first spied this fabric I was immediately brought back to Mrs. Rahmlow's 2nd grade classroom and learning cursive via the Palmer method.  A teacher's pet in every other respect, Mrs. Rahmlow was constantly riding me about holding my pencil incorrectly.  She patrolled the aisles while we practiced handwriting and I played the dangerous game of quickly (often not quickly enough) switching to the correct position.  To this day I hold my pens and pencils "wrong," but I don't think I'm any the worse for it.

Imagine my glee on Tuesday morning when I came across this post over at Pink Trees identifying a source for the fabric.  Quick as a rabbit I hopped over to (Ye Olde) Backdoor Quilt Shoppe and lay claim to 2 yards.  I'd never heard of this website, but was extremely satisfied by their cheap shipping ($2.50 in this case) and quick shipping (2 days in this case).  I'm very sorry to report that this print sold out within an hour or two of my own purchase.  I feel very lucky to have scored some.  While there I found a link to this: a searchable database of 188 quilt shops.  So if you know the name of a hard-to-find fabric, this seems like a good place to start looking for it.  They even show the results as thumbnails which is helpful. 

Nothing says summer like pumpkin pancakes!

Okay, maybe not but they really are good any time of year.  They're from a packaged mix by King Arthur.  If you haven't heard of King Arthur Flour - allow me. Everything they make is wonderful.   Known primarily for their flour, they make bread mixes, scone mixes, pancake mixes, pie kits, and a ton of other goodies.  Their store in Norwich, Vermont is about ten minutes from my in-laws and I always beg to stop in.  In addition to the aforementioned mixes, they sell their own baked goods (and sometimes pizza) and tons of baking accoutrements.  It's a huge store where any foodie, semi-foodie, or future-foodie can spend hours (and dollars!). 

Genesee Street Tea Party for Girls

I have two sisters and two nearly-sisters who lived a few doors down from us on Genesee Street.  Every summer our moms would host an all-girl tea party (Girls Gone Wild!) and we'd invite all the little ladies in the neighborhood (no boys allowed!).  We'd dress up, eat "fancy" food and one of the mothers would narrate a runway fashion show.  (That's me standing on the right hand side with the fan.) I don't know what happened to most of those girls, but I know all their names and remember their childhood personalities perfectly - to a tee, if you'll pardon the pun!

The tea party tradition lived on through high school and, fifteen years later, I thought it was time to bring it back to life and relocate it to my Brooklyn backyard.  I love my guy friends dearly, but there's something special about getting your women friends together.  It was great fun for me to watch them interacting - a dozen or so women from different parts of my life introducing themselves, finding common ground and many exchanging emails and phone numbers to keep in touch. 

My primary goal was to be organized enough that I was relaxed and could enjoy the party myself.  While I did enjoy it immensely, I wouldn't quite say I reached my goal.  You know, getting dressed 5 minutes before the doorbell rang, spending too much time in the kitchen instead of socializing.  But it was really the first party I've thrown by myself so I'm calling it a success and I'll just tuck a few lessons learned into my pocket for next year. 

Genesee Street Tea Party for Girls Menu: 2007 Edition

Cucumber sandwiches with mint
Chicken, cranberry & walnut sandwiches
Mushroom & thyme crostini
Avocado & goat cheese crostini
Spinach "brownies"
White bean dip with carrots, sugar snap peas and pepper
Chocolate-dipped cherries
Nilla wafer ice cream sandwiches
Lemonade cookies
Coconut bundt cake
Lemonade
Cherry/lime iced tea

Contributed by guests:
Ice box cake
Scones with jam and clotted cream
Chocolate chocolate chip muffins
Baklava
White grape juice (with vodka!)

Items that didn't make it out of the kitchen in time:
Cream-filled strawberries
Fruit kabobs
Feta & watermelon skewers

And, the lavender sachet party favors were a big hit.  (Non-sewers are really impressed with anything handmade!)

Oh snap!

A friend recently turned me on to sugar snap peas.  I am a consistent consumer of snow peas, but had never bought sugar snaps.  Whoa, was I missing out!  I blanched them for about a minute and then tossed them with some coarse salt for a perfect summer (okay, technically late spring) snack.  I wish these were in season longer, but I'm going to take advantage of them while I can.

Floating away

These three flannel blankets are floating away to China via Cindy at Skip to my Lou.  I know I promised myself I would learn proper blanket binding, but these need to get in the mail so I had to use my usual crude method. 

Last Friday a friend (and major fan) and I went to see Xanadu on Broadway.  We are both huge fans of the soundtrack and movie (so bad it's good) and the show was hilarious.  It's a huge departure from the movie and embraces the campiness 100%.  Since then I've had the soundtrack playing pretty much nonstop.  I have such clear memories of checking this album out over and over again from the library and singing along to it in my sister Anne's room.  I hope the neon lights will shine for you today!

Eggs 101

How did I get to be 33 never learning how to poach an egg?  In fact, I'm not even sure I've eaten a poached egg.  We were soft-boilers at our house growing up.  Trying to use up our carton of eggs before they spoil, I had a sudden urge to poach yesterday.  Here's how to do it:

Step One: Turn on computer
Step Two: Google "how to poach egg"
Step Three: Watch Epicurious technique video

Okay, there's no photo of the finished product because despite how clear the video is and how simple it seems, my eggs were inedible and I ended up with the tried-and-true soft-boilers.  I think poaching must be something that takes a lot of practice, like the viola.  But the Epicurious videos are worth checking out (under videos on the lefthand side).  Under eggs, they teach how to make fried eggs, poached, whipped egg whites, soft boiled and omelets (another true art).  There are also segments on sauces, brining a turkey, piping leaves and roses in frosting and many other helpful topics.  My favorites might be the napkin folding videos which would have come in handy at my diy wedding. 

Sweet lavender

Here they are, in all their Freshcut glory: lavender sachets to be given as party favors at my tea party next weekend.  They were really fun to make, except maybe the stuffing them with lavender part.  I thought a funnel would do the trick, but the only one I had was too thin.  So I channeled the spirit of MacGyver and used a coin wrapper (dime size) cut in half which worked out well.  The scent of lavender wafting through the house is something I could get used to.

Lavender aplenty!

Spatial relations are not my strong suit.  Or even my mediocre suit.  I recently purchased dried lavender to use as filler for sachets.  I am making about 25 sachets around 4"x4".  The website clearly states that a 1 pound bag holds 13.5 cups so I can't explain why I felt I needed to order 3 bags.   The bags are probably 7"x7"x3" which is going to be plenty.  More than plenty. 

If you can find lavender locally, that's great.  But if you can't the best deal I found was here.