New kitchen lesser deity

In addition to my previous list of Kitchen Gods, I've recently re-discovered this blog: The Homesick Texan, who's happily stuck in New York City but missing the food of the South. While I haven't actually made anything from this scrumptious-looking site (I keep promising myself to make biscuits... arg!), the pictures and stories to go with the pictures are fantastic and drool-worthy (I'm sure she'd be horrified to hear "drool-worthy" as a descriptor of her blog).

Now, let me explain: I am a Northern girl. Very much so. I've never even been through Texas on road trips. I have no idea what Texan cuisine is all about. I do, however, have some idea of Southern cooking, having lived in Atlanta for three years. Not a lot, but some. I'm quite relieved to be back above the Mason-Dixon line, and don't intend on returning south except for friends' weddings or somesuch. But some of that Southern cooking really can be good for the soul (but not often for the waistline... eh... sacrifices). I'm not so hot on grits, but I'll take any variety of barbecue, stew, or cornbread.

Sewing: B&W&P dress inching along

It's so nice to come home from a long day at work, followed by the gym and tasty dinner, and totally crash for the evening. Which is why I've only done a little more on the dress:

Hey, check that out... forgot the purple sash. Go, me.

Obviously, I haven't shortened the hem of the lining yet. I figured it'd be easier to do once the outer skirt was done. It also looks a little shorter on the sides than the front. I think this is just a picture-image problem rather than a real-life problem. I think.

I ended up using that hem tape stuff after all. If you look reeeeeally closely, you can still see the dark/light layers through the seam, the hem tape, and the folded over (i.e. backside of the!) fabric. Doubling over the tape makes for a pretty hefty seam, but also gives the skirt some body and not-as-clingy look. We'll see if it stays that way once the lining's shortened.

New problem: If you know me, you know that I have very pasty-pale skin; the pictures make me look like I have a decent tan. I just realized that I already know that I look pretty bad in off-white. Huh. Why the heck did I choose a color that looks terrible on me?

Well, one more (major) seam to go...

Baking: More End of Summer

Even though the La Nina off the coast is determining otherwise, there was one last outing to the u-pick blueberry farm for jam ingredients. (Yeah, sometimes it's just hard to let go.) End of season berries still make good stuff:

The color of the contents of the jars are actually more like that of the top jar. If you look at them in the light (or with camera flash), they appear strangely pinky, like the bottom jars. Eh.

Now having made three kinds of preserved fruit goodness, here's the weird thing: I don't eat that much jam. What to do...