Upcycling and southern wisdom

There fell into my hands today a thrift shop purchase, not by me, which turned out to be not the right size for the buyer, and I undertook to alter it and make it into something wearable.

It was a 3X size velour jersey shirt, that's like a knitted soft fine fabric, nice hand, placket front, long sleeves and cuffs.  So after I slashed right up the fronts, removing the placket, too, trimmed back the collar, cut a swathe off the sleeves and hemmed it to make a very narrow cuff, it is now a nice long coat, lightweight, to go over sweater or shirt or something.  Nice soft grey.  Very nice drape, too.

So I posed it here with one of my circle scarves just to give it a bit of dash, and I think it will do nicely.  Half an hour's work.

Then from the southern cookbook, which I may or may not cook from, I did get a terrific piece of info: the best cinnamon is not the hard, rather harsh and gritty stuff from the supermarket, even when you can get the sticks, which is not always, but is Ceylon cinnamon.  

So I sent away for some thinking, well, yes, more expensive, but worth it if it's good, in my apple dishes and other things. And it's every bit as good as they said. 

Heavenly scent, very delicate, and the sticks are much more fragile than the ones I've used before.  You can break off a bit and grind it using the mortar and pestle to make the right amount for the recipe. The shapes are lovely just to look at.

Then while I was at it, I invested in a jar of very good whole nutmegs, again, amazing scent, and I've been wanting to grate my own nutmeg for ages, so now I can.

On the way still, yes I did get a bit carried away, is a jar of tamarind paste, supposedly good.  I like tamarind but wasn't up for starting again from scratch as I did last time out.

And I rationalized my expenditures on these items by pointing out that my new duster coat for $4 is a good counterbalance. That's my story, anyway.