A Domino Effect

The dress above (picture of which I pinched from the t’internet) is from Oasis. Cute, huh? To my surprise, and amazement, I found one in a charity shop on Saturday morning for a measly fiver. It was priced so cheaply because it was damaged – I’ve no idea what the previous owner was trying to do with it, but it had several holes around the waistband, a few frayed edges and it generally looked a bit shabby. I knew I’d have a bit of work to do to spruce it up, but at the time I thought a little hand stitching around the waist and a nice chunky belt to cover up any flaws would be all that was needed.

I got it home, tried it on and realised, to my profound dismay, that I had grossly underestimated the size of me in comparison with the size of the dress (hate it when that happens!). There was NO WAY this thing was zipping up – I would have had to get rid of both boobs and probably a few ribs as well before it would go anywhere. And forget about breathing after that! I was mad, especially because I almost never take anything away from a shop without trying it on first – Saturday was a freak exception which I put down to there being a crazy person with half the stock of the charity shop in the changing room - I couldn’t be bothered to wait.

In my dismal state I put the dress in a corner and settled down in my rocking chair to sulk for a while, whereupon I was suddenly slapped in the face by a colossal desire to be destructive. Before I knew it I was attacking this preppy pink delight with my sewing scissors, hacking the skirt from the waist, severing hundreds of tiny, and extremely tight, stitches and discarding reams of raspberry coloured thread left, right and centre…

A mess, granted.  But there were better times to come.  I quickly made a black waistband from three random scraps of elastic I had in my sewing box, gathered the newly hacked bottom half at the top, and then sewed the one to the other, exercising lots of patience so as to get as straight a line as I could.  Similar to the 20 minute skirt from a few weeks back…

Ta Da! Nice right? And it fits! I could happily eat three loaded platefuls of carbs in this thing and not feel constricted at all! I’m going to attempt this on Friday at the local Italian…

Oh, and I’ve still got this bit…

I’m not sure what to do with it though – it’s far too pretty to throw away, but if it’s ever to fit me it will need serious expansion work at the back. All suggestions welcome!

This is a lovely Italian recipe that’s cheap to make, and really quite healthy as well, despite the rather large cheese volume.  I made it last night with two aubergines from my veg box, although the internet tells me you can make it with courgettes or fennel as well.  Here’s what I did…

Ingredients

• 2 aubergines (mine were on the large-ish side, and that made plenty for two people)
• 1 can of chopped tomatoes
• 1 large onion
• Lots and lots of garlic
• A good sprinkling of salt, pepper and oregano
• Several handfuls of grated cheese (parmesan is the preferred option, but I didn’t have enough so I used some cheddar as well, and it made little difference)

Method

1. Fry the onion and the garlic in some olive oil (just for note, Tesco does a really good garlic-infused olive oil which makes everything taste extra rich and garlicky – delicious).
2. After a few minutes, add the chopped tomatoes, salt, pepper and oregano. I also added a splash of balsamic vinegar for some extra kick.
3. While the mixture is simmering on a low heat, slice the aubergines lengthways into thickish pieces, and fry each one lightly on both sides in a non-stick pan (you could also stick them under the grill – that would work).
4. Once you’ve fried/grilled all of your aubergine, layer it all up in an oven proof dish. So a layer of tomato mixture, a layer of cheese and a layer of aubergine. Repeat this until you’ve used everything up, and make sure your final layer is of cheese, which will melt and go all delicious in the oven. You can also add breadcrumbs to the top for some extra golden brownness.
5. Bake for around half an hour at 180ish degrees and serve with lots of fresh, crusty bread and some black pepper.

Ta Da!  Parmigiana by your own fair hand.  A triumph indeed.

Image above from Flickr – Darwin Bell.

My second fruit and veg box arrived from the farm last Thursday, packed full of colourful and delicious-looking goodies.  The contents haven’t changed much from the last time, although I did receive a melon instead of a grapefruit, and a bunch of beautifully red radishes in lieu of an aubergine.  Although I’ve only received two boxes thus far, I’m already finding them to be incredibly useful devices as far as meal-planning goes.  I know lots of people make meal plans religiously but it’s not something I’ve ever really taken seriously myself, not that I doubt their thrifty credentials in the slightest.  Now that I’ve got the veg box as an incentive, however, I’m finding it much easier to discipline myself into planning ahead.  If I want to get the most out of each box, and use everything up before it turns, I’m going to need to be a bit savvy about what I cook, and when I cook it.  Here are a couple of things I’ve made this weekend:

This was the yummy salad I had for lunch on Saturday.  It consisted of various types of leaves (the box always contains two big bags of mixed greenery, none of which I can formally identify), fresh tomatoes, sliced radish, mushrooms and cucumber, with a slice of home-made herb bread and a slathering of honey and mustard dressing.

And these are the stovies I made for dinner this evening.  Each veg box has contained a large bag of potatoes, so I’m now constantly racking my brains for interesting ways to use them up.  These ones I boiled and roughly mashed with salt, pepper, mayonnaise and wholegrain mustard.  I then added roughly two cans of tuna, mixed with one red onion and more mayonnaise.  A sprinkling of parmesan cheese on the top and you’ll be safely at the door to carbohydrate heaven.

More meals from the veg box later in the week, I’m now off to the sofa where I can fully embrace my mash-induced lethargy…