The Quest for Cabbage

The latest adventure in my quest to get my family to eat more cabbage continues. On this gorgeous spring day, I decided to make Chinese Cabbage Salad.  There are hundreds of recipes for this easy dish and there are lots of possibilities to improvise, such as adding chicken or sliced almonds.  Since we are a nut free household, due to my son's peanut allergy, I selected a recipe from Allrecipes that was peanut free.

To save time, I used bagged shredded cabbage with carrots already in the mix.  I like quick and easy.
I already had rice vinegar, olive oil, and sugar on hand.  The biggest cash outlay was buying the sesame seeds, sesame oil and Ramen noodle packet.   The ingredients are easily mixed together in a bowl. The "hardest" part was browning the sesame seeds in a little olive oil. The browned sesame seeds add a rich nutty flavor to the salad.  The raw Ramen noodles add additional crunch.

Unfortunately this recipe did not score well with the rest of the family--no one would even try it. Still, this is a great, easy, quick salad that would work well for potlucks. If you are interested in this recipe I found it at allrecipes.com under Chinese cabbage salad.

Since it is a beautiful spring day, I took a picture out on the patio.

Happy Sunday!

Rain, rain go away....maybe I'll just sew today

 Another gray, rainy day here in the Midwest.  My little guy and I were hoping to work in the yard today, but no luck.  Instead, I pulled out Reid's over sized Thomas the Train tent and set it up in the living room (much to my husband's chagrin).  Then I decided to focus on sewing.  
It had been quite awhile since I had my trusty Kenmore sewing machine out of the closet.  I pulled out my 1940's sew-a-long project that I did not have time to work on sooner and got started.  First thing first, I needed to prepare a bobbin, which isn't a big deal but I always like to have my machine's owner's manual handy to check tension suggestions and for trouble-shooting.  For some reason, I could not find it. I looked and looked through all my craft stashes with no luck.  That took about an hour in between occupying my son who was excited about my machine. 

Finally, in desperation I checked the internet and luckily I could find a reprint of the manual on the website, Manuals On-line.  A lot has changed since I last had my sewing machine out for a project.   So with machine threaded and ready to go, I realized I had pinned my pattern onto the "right" side of the fabric. By the time the pattern was repinned and cut out, it was time to make supper for everyone.  Still progress made--and it was nice to reconnect with an "old" friend, my trusty Kenmore.   Here are pictures of the day. They may be a little dark, since there was NO SUN anywhere and my kitchen faces the north, which does not help.

Have a happy, crafting day! 












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Homework, the winter that won't end and upcoming fun

Hello,
March has not been a productive month on the blogging front for me.  Although I have been able to read and keep up with my favorite blogs, not much attention has been given to Yarndoll.  Hopefully in the next month that will change. Here in Iowa, the trees will hopefully be sprouting leaves after "the winter that just won't end" and I will be expanding my blog posts.

Vintage style has been on my mind in my free time and progress on a pretty comfortable stylish wardrobe is coming along.  Hopefully, in the next week I will be able to post some of my latest vintage inspired finds. 

For the past few weeks I have been focusing on my graduate capstone project. Much of the work is done on it and time will be freed up for sewing, knitting, crocheting and reading books for fun.  In honor of my final "book and paper class" here is a 1942 photo from my undergraduate alma mater, Iowa State University, back when it was known as a "college."  Interestingly, I found the photo which I though was great, then discovered it a picture of Iowa State students. Perfect!

Photo by Jack Delano, retrieved from "A History in Photos" blogspot.