Saturday, October 23, 2010

Autumn Cooking and Getting Stuck

One of the things I love about fall is the fact that using the oven is so much more pleasant.  On my treadle sewing machine list a topic of conversation has been cleaning pans after cooking.  I confess, that's something I don't really concern myself about, since I can always clean my pans in a few seconds.
That wasn't always the case.
About six or seven years ago, one of my friends told me about DeMarle at Home.  By now most people probably know about Silpats, even if they haven't bought one.  At that time I hadn't even heard of them; then my friend began selling DeMarle products--and I fell in love with cooking nutritious meals and cleaning up (in a hurry).  DeMarle products are made in France to extremely high standards.  Their products are made from silicone and a glass mesh--and have almost nothing in common with the silicone cooking products you may have used or purchased elsewhere.  They literally clean up in seconds!  Other people make gooey or messy foods in pans that they throw away or soak for hours after cooking.  I no longer hesitate to make gooey or messy foods.  I do make the concession of using a silpat on a perforated aluminum tray beneath the Flexipans when there's likely to be a spill or bubble-over. The acorn squash above could have been a mess because I had to cut off the very pointy end of one of the squash halves to get it to sit upright--and then before it was done cooking, the buttery, spicy sweetness inside ran all over the bottom of the pan--creating what would have been a caramelized challenge if I hadn't had access to a Flexipan.
(The other cool thing about these pans, a trick I use with the muffin pans, is that they can be turned inside out to make clean up even easier!)
I don't work for the company--but I would if I could manage it!
Next up:
Ever just get stuck during the quilt-top process?  I'm stuck right now--and neither EQ7 nor a mechanic ;-) would help. Over a month ago I picked out these for a quilt for Mary's birthday.  Some of these fabrics are gifts from Mary--she's given me quite a few fabrics for prayer quilts, and she really, really deserves a quilt.  But I just can't get moving on it.

It's not the only quilt top I'm stuck on.  I'm also stuck on a purple/gray/white one for a nephew--it's a prayer quilt.

And I'm guessing that despite how much I need quiltmaking therapy, I'm not likely to get much of it with the really long commute that begins Monday and will be part of my life for the rest of this academic year.
Trying to stay positive--a lot of niceness from fellow staff members at the school I've been at for seven years has been gratefully received in the last week--and I banked it in memories and am going to be drawing on it frequently, I'm sure.

2 comments:

lw said...

I'm stuck on a charm quilt that I'm about 80% done machine quilting. But for three blocks, I lost tension in the bobbin (stupid lint!) and I've spend about 3 hours pulling out bad stitching. I'm not done, but it's in the way of me working on anything else.

Candace said...

I hope that your first week at the new location went as well as possible and that you aren't completely exhausted. You are in my prayers for an improvement in your situation. Been through something similar myself, only to keep my job I lived with my brother (I was lucky and had that option) during the week and made the 180 mile each way commute each weekend. This to shall pass.

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