red sky at night...

in which our plucky heroine rides home into the sunset...

The westering sky this evening was really spectacular, painted with various colors of red, magenta, and vivid madder. Had I not been on my bicycle I'd have tried harder to capture it on camera. This week has been a good one for noticing nature. I saw a house finch perched on the salad table cages, a hummingbird just sitting in the Japanese maple next to my porch, and the goldfinches are definitely here, at least for the moment.

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~ potsticker lasagna ~

Made up my usual filling (ground pork, minced Napa cabbage, green onions, and cilantro, seasoned with tamari, ginger, garlic, oyster sauce, xiaoshing wine, and sesame oil), but set layered flattened tablespoons of filling between four wrappers in a custard cup and steamed for about 20 minutes... it cooked while I made up the rest of the filling into individual gyoza. I'd been seeing this concept in various places online and wanted to try it. Was not difficult, and results were successful as a dinner ready by the time the rest of the gyoza were formed and in the freezer... 

...but, in the future, I'm more likely to mostly continue my habit of making a large batch of individual dumplings, as once frozen they store really well, but this, while it wouldn't store well made ahead, was an easy meal to cook at the same time as doing the rest of the prep work. Next time remember to be a bit more generous with adding broth or water over the top before steaming, as the wrappers were partially stuck to the sides of the custard cup. And, while wandering online checking out the concept, also saw an easier way to fold the individual dumpling wrappers. Double win!

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Yesterday started with a kitchen crash, as while barely awake I somehow knocked one of my quart mason jars off the countertop, to shatter when it hit the concrete floor. Ugh, and alas, since it was one of my favorites, being turquoise blue rather than the more usual clear.  So, instead of continuing to make breakfast, it was necessary to find a paper sack, Very Carefully pick up the larger shards of glass, go get the vacuum to gather up as much of the smaller bits as possible, and finally with great care wipe down the entire area with damp paper towels. Do you know that tip? The damp paper towel grabs the tiniest glass fragments, the ones almost (or actually) too small to see, but after wiping the area, if you hold the paper at an angle, the bits of glass sparkle. Once there are no more sparkles, then the area is clean and safe again!

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~ simple decoration ~

Though the teal long janes were technically complete, one design detail often part of my style is to decorate hemline edges in one way or another. In this case, rather than add block printed trim, a faster option was to use Alabama Chanin reverse applique with several layers of scrap cabbage from the teal jersey fabric. One of the easiest options that came to mind was to simply trace around the edge of a thread spool in a line of dots, far enough apart to allow for stitching, and then cut away inside the dots. The tone-on-tone textured border is subtle, and, as the dots are stitched one at a time, is also flexible enough to allow for needed stretch.

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While am still wishing for the Exactly Right Sort of grey fabric for a new pinafore, there are enough much higher priority projects and garments on my list to keep me busy for months. It recently occurred to me to modify my TNT pinafore pattern into a cross back apron... as both a kitchen apron  and a workshop apron would be most useful. I'll use some of the odd greenish-grey Ikea curtain fabric (I've no idea why that is on my resource shelves) to sample the concept, and if it works as well as imagined, that will become a shop apron, and the Marimekko poppy fabric can be a somewhat more decorative kitchen apron. Use what is on hand.

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February SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	plaid flannel shirt	rice bags	greenwaste bin
2	23 postcards	INTERNET!!	recycle bin
3	teal linen pinafore	hydration station	greenwaste bin
4	bedroom shelves	grey felt slipper	recycle bin
5	tiger pocket	teal turtleneck	greenwaste bin
6	teal long janes	long jane borders	recycle bin
7	lots of drawings	removed 2 ferns	greenwaste bin
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

assorted gratitudes -
- sleep when tired. After bad insomnia, was so tired by late afternoon that a nap was essential. Set alarm for an hour and managed to wake back up and be functional.
- easier faster way to fold dumpling wrappers (not that my other way was difficult)
- Karen is going to send me a mini skein of red sock yarn to make tinyfolk hats.
- almost caught up on drawings.
- my good neighbors have several bird feeders in the side yard between our houses, which means I can enjoy the birds as well!
- the cotton lawn fabric from the Sewlarium is fabulous! Finely woven, not slubby, can be neatly snipped and torn, 60" wide and only $8/yd!!

Time of Isolation - Day 2058