cookbook addict

The other day, I escaped over the border to France, to the nearest town -Thionville- in order to buy some fabric. The store is called Mondial Tissus. They have good value fabrics, and lots of choice. It's a bit messy and bazar-like, it's hard to get hold of a sales assistant, some of them are terribly moody, but hey, it's France, and it's cheaper than here. First on my to-do list is a blanket with sleeves, aka snuggie, slanket, or snuglet. I usually need a blanket to snuggle on the sofa in the evening because I feel cold and my husband doesn't. I always have cold hands and feet and nose from mid-October to May. So when I heard about Slankets, I got pretty excited (yes, I'm sad like that ;)) but of course I wanted to make one myself and was lucky to find that thick fleece on offer. It's light blue with dark blue snowflakes embroidered. Classy ... I also bought the fine brown cord and the ethnic-style print to make another dress from my Japanese book. I love c...

This week, I received my first Japanese sewing book. When I realized many people sewed from such books and talked about it on their blogs, I thought that was a bit mad but kinda cool. Like they belonged to a special club . I also thought many of the clothes they made looked like oversized bags with sleeves, he he. That was until I saw Melissa's dress on tiny happy . I thought it was so pretty and stylish, in a simple way. The beautiful fabric certainly helped.  Stylish Dress Book -vol. 1 I wanted that dress, it's the one on the cover, dress E. I wasn't sure I'd actually manage to finish it because a) except for a few words of English, everything was in Japanese, and b) not being an expert seamstress, I didn't know if I could follow all the steps without botching anything. Turns out it wasn't that difficult, which also explains why so many people sew with these Japanese books. The patterns are simple, most have no zippers. I haven't tried sewing a zipper yet....

Today while Alma was napping and Maya was at pre-school, I finished Alma's fleece hoodie, the same model I made for Maya. I had a harder time somehow and had to undo some of the seams to sew them again properly. If I'm not paying close attention, I often end up sewing the wrong side on. I made it quite big, for a 2-year old, but shortened the sleeves. That way it'll be easy to put on.  I'm quite pleased with them, but if you inspect them closely, you'll see the little details that give away my impatience. I also wanted to tell you about a stew I made in my slow-cooker yesterday, because it was so good.  I used ox cheek for the first time instead of plain stewing beef. I was a bit worried, as I often am with stews, because I plonked the rolled cheeks still frozen into the pot, and after a while, when they had started to thaw I cut them up and they were so tough and stringy I thought they'd never soften. But after a long while in the pot, they had become so meltin...

We had exceptionally beautiful warm weather all September, but this week has been wetter and grayer, the leaves seem to turn more quickly to shades of orange and yellow and brown, and we're beginning to spend more time indoors (coughing and nose-blowing too). And so it is that I have been busy in the kitchen and at the sewing machine yesterday. We were out of everything for breakfast and I had been eyeing a pumkin scone recipe so I got to make it. I use potimarron, I think it's called Hokkaido squash, it is a small variety that has a dense flesh with a hint of chestnut flavour (hence the name). It is ideal for all recipes calling for pumpkin or butternut, and you can cook and eat the skin too -less waste, more vitamins, and above all by my book, less work! These scones were a bit dense, but nicely flavoured with a hint of cinnamon, and smeared with Nutella, they were quite easy to eat but dunk anything in Nutella and we'll eat it. Though perhaps not bacon or sausages... I a...

Hello friends, this is a new place to share food, stories and the few items I sew. I am not super creative nor super crafty, I honestly don't have a finely tuned sense for decorating or even arranging things at home, but I enjoy the process of making things, be it food or now clothes. Do not expect top notch photography either, but stop by to see what I'm doing and thinking in my corner of Luxembourg. Hope you enjoy your visit, and please leave a comment, if you feel like it :-) Juliexoxo

Je ne sais pas pour vous, mais moi j'aime voyager dans mon assiette. J'aime voyager tout court, mais avec deux enfants en bas âge, ce n'est pas toujours évident. Du coup il ne me reste souvent que mon assiette et mes livres pour m'envoyer au bout du monde. Pas une si mauvaise chose, je vous assure. Je vous recommande chaudement la lecture de Petits larcins culinaires de Claude Deloffre (voir le commentaire que j'ai laissé) dans la collection foood de Tana. Cette recette en est tirée, et comme toutes les autres que j'ai essayées, elle m'a beaucoup plu. J'adore ce livre, qui se lit de bout en bout, et nous emmène aux quatre coins du monde, même assez reculés, comme la Birmanie. Pour le poulet birman que j'ai vaguement adapté, il faudra, pour 2 voyageurs : 2 cuisses de poulet 1 cc de curcuma 1 cc de gingembre en poudre 2 oignons moyens 2-3 gousses d'ail 3 tomates piment en poudre 1/2 bâton de citronnelle du nuoc-mam ou nam-pla (sauce de poisson as...