The Apron is Done!

Remember my troubles getting the sewing machine to work?  I would like to take full credit for getting the machine functioning again and for ensuring it’s continued smooth operation.  However, my dear husband (AKA official taste tester and machine fixer) took the time to untangle my tangle of thread and chaos and set the machine straight.  As I went to work on the apron this past weekend Andy told me seriously, in a calm voice, “If anything goes wrong, come and get me right away.  Don’t try to fix anything yourself”  This was very reassuring and I attacked the apron with renewed confidence.

Winding the bobbin, before it all went to hell.

Laying out the pattern pieces for cutting.
Accurate cutting is key to getting  your bias tape to fit correctly.

Thankfully a lot of sewing on the machine wasn’t required and I spent much time hand sewing bows.  I really don’t enjoy bows.  It’s kind of a girly-girl thing and I’m not into that much (as I write about sewing an apron!).  These bows are lovely though, truly lovely.  If you’re ever sewing a project that calls for bows, don’t skimp!  They cover up mistakes and ugly spots!  Granted, if I were to actually use bows to cover up all of my mistakes then the entire edge would be a series of bows, perhaps some curly ribbons too.

Bows are your friend.

Back in Action!

Patience is key when making toffee sauce.

Hey there folks!  Sorry it’s been awhile.  There are no excuses for abandoning my legions of fans (hello again mom!) for roughly a month.  One thing I blame it on is my evil, evil sewing machine.  “Sewing machine?” you say, “It is simply an inanimate object created to ease the lives of humans, a sewing machine cannot be evil.”  And there, dear reader, is where you’re wrong.  My sewing machine has conspired against me and my effort to create my first paid-for apron.  Which is the reason I haven’t been posting.  This apron was supposed to be done the first week of August and then I could post about it and then move on to other projects.  Alas, no amount of hitting or yelling could move the machine to work like it knows it should.  I’ll post something once I get this *$@#ing machine to work.  Without Andy’s cool head and mechanical knowledge sewing just doesn’t happen.  So once the machine realizes it can sew just fine (and perhaps, I learn to put a bobbin in correctly) apron #2 post isn’t going to happen.  I’ve learned to accept that.

But we still have to eat.  And that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing for the past month.  Working and eating, some sleeping.  But not taking pictures and blogging.  Until today!

The makings of toffee sauce, without the brown sugar...

Sticky toffee pudding.  What more can be said?  Possibly... what is it?  I’d never heard of this dish until a seminal episode of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares where the sticky toffee pudding was the best dish in the whole restaurant, despite the head chef’s chagrin.  As I’ve mentioned before, I love toffee. So this dish intrigued me, despite never having made a British “pudding” (or an American pudding without use of a packet for that matter).  It’s like a cake, or a quick bread with dates and a toffee sauce.

Grinding Meat

Recently I’ve come down from a steak craving high and once again I can enjoy other forms of meat. I didn’t always like meat very much, which is why my steak cravings were so surprising. As a child I was an animal lover, so much so that at one point I wrote in my elementary school diary entry to “wear more animal shirts.” Since wearing images of animals on your clothing is the best way to support the cause of animals world wide. A little while later I decided to up my animal commitment from shirt wearing to vegetarianism. That lasted until my dad made hot dogs for dinner that night.

For many years I didn’t think much about the meat that I ate. Humans are omnivores and therefore there’s nothing wrong with eating meat, that’s how we evolved and survived. Recently there’s been a lot of discussion about our meaty food system, from a health and food safety point of view. I don’t want to gross anyone out by getting into too many icky details. Though, sometimes difficult to take knowledge helps to make decisions. So I only have 2 bits of info and then we’ll get on with the meat of this post (sorry for the pun!).

Awhile back I read an article from the New York Times that really got me thinking about beef. The gist of the article is that a woman ate a hamburger that was contaminated with E. coli and became paralyzed. Paralyzed! Now if that doesn’t make you think about your food more seriously, I don’t know what will. It’s food! Food is supposed to nourish us, not hurt us. One of the main issues in this woman’s case was that meat from hundreds of cows can go into making a burger, so it becomes difficult to determine where the contamination came from. Jamie Oliver had a piece on his show Food Revolution about ground beef and the addition of something un-tasty called “pink slime.” I’ll let you watch the video if you’re curious about learning more.

So what’s the solution to ground beef that could make you sick? Some think you ought to take ridiculous care with ground beef and not let it touch your hands or anything else in your kitchen. But that doesn’t solve the problem of what’s in the meat itself. Jamie’s solution to guarantee that you know what’s in your ground beef is to go to a butcher and have him grind it right in front of you. Andy and I haven’t found a decent butcher in Nashville, so our solution is to do the meat grinding ourselves!

Who doesn’t like taking a hunk of raw meat and churning it through some contraption to get ground meat? Today’s Antique Modernism takes us more into the “antique” realm of things, but for modern reasons. Meat grinders come in many forms. We have one that attaches to our kitchen aid mixer and a hand crank one that was once owned by my Grandma Summerville. We’ve been using the hand crank one because the one that attaches to our mixer is also a food mill, it seems safer to have one that is dedicated to meat only.

Grinding meat is quite simple and gives you full control of what goes into your food, it can also be cheaper! First you need meat to grind, what kinds is best? We’ve gotten a few kinds of meat and chuck or sirloin seem to be the best. Don’t get taken in by the low cost of a rump roast or something you would cook in a slow-cooker. That kind of meat doesn’t do well in your ground beef as it probably won’t be braised and therefore turns into a gristly burger (trust me, I know from experience).

Ghost hand not necessary for meat chopping.

Once at home make sure your meat grinding area and equipment is clean and sanitary. Also, there is a bit of splatter, so I recommend keeping that in mind when choosing a grinding location, put on an apron for good measure. Next, chop the meat into chunks small enough to fit into your grinder. You can add raw, chopped bacon for tenderness if that’s what you like in a burger (or casserole or pasta sauce). If you want leaner beef, then added bacon probably isn’t for you. Now you grind! Usually we do a bunch at once so we weigh out 1 pound portions and put it zipper bags for freezing.

If you made it this far in the post raw meat probably doesn’t make you too queasy and hopefully you’re interested in grinding your own. I highly recommend it for many reasons. First and foremost is taste! There’s nothing like having control over the leanness or juiciness of your food. Pre-ground beef just doesn’t compare in flavor with what you can do yourself (barring meat ground in front of you at the butcher). Second is food safety, as I’ve already talk about above. You can know what’s in your food and you know the meat in your burger comes from only one cow. Third is cost, the more processed your food is, the more expensive it will be. A large chuck roast will cost less than ground beef and you’ll get more meat from it. It’s especially rewarding if you get it on sale!

Ultimately I don’t think vegetarianism is for me and as much as I like grass-fed meat, it’s not usually in the budget. Grinding meat ourselves is a great way to bridge the gap between these two worlds and stay true to our omnivore roots.

Apronage

Sewing an apron seems very 1950s housewife. Since I dislike any "holly homemaker" labels, I would like to clarify as to why I chose to make an apron (apart from my inability to make a skirt). Since I was a youngster camping with my father, I was taught that napkins were frivolous. Why dirty up a napkin when you have a perfectly good sleeve at all times? Upon returning to the civilized world my mom was horrified at my manners; however, I was delighted at the convenience.

At any rate, I cook a lot, which means a lot of food get spill, splattered and splashed onto me. Therefore an apron would be a practical first time sewing project. Plus, I would be at liberty to wipe my dirty hands all over my apron.

This lovely apron took me 3 days to make, over a 3 month span of hemming and hawing. My greatest challenge to sewing was fear of the sewing machine. Andy knows how to work both our machines better than I do, so I needed his help to set up. I can do most of it now, except winding a bobbin. But the set up was a big mental hurdle.

I worked on the pocket in one day and finished it. It's quite the intricate little pocket. Deciphering the instructions for the pocket were reminiscent of an 8th grade grad standard, which my dad had to finish for me. The sewing project almost came to a frustrated halt, Andy saved the day with his mastery of sewing-instruction interpretation.

Making a stay-stitch.

After the pocket struggle, the rest of the apron was relatively simple. I highly recommend an apron as a starter project. Sizing isn't that difficult and if it doesn't turn out well, at least it's something you'd only wear in your own house. Overall, I enjoyed my sewing experience. If I can get more confidence with setting up the machine myself then I could possibly get quite good. Though I would like some basic practice before branching out too much. Anyone else need an apron?

Tipper enjoying her position of Sew Master and supervising my slip-stitch.