The Ides of March, and other more cheerful thoughts

Today's the Ides of March, the day his wife, Calpurnia, warned Julius Caesar to not go to the club meeting with his buds, give it a miss, and he went anyway, despite her saying beware.  And when his best friend, Brutus, joined in the fatal attack, exclaimed "You rotten brute, you!"  Or something.  

Anyway, on this and a couple of other months, the Ides falls on the fifteenth.  Not every month though, for reasons I have forgotten, in the midst of studying how Julius Caesar was busy dividing Gaul into three parts, also for reasons I have forgotten.  The rewards of a classical education.

Onward.  Today's stitching was a bit tricky, very difficult getting the needle through several layers of fabric.  A needle with an eye big enough for three strands of floss is not easy to pierce with.   I did the ties on the Robe, two of them, anyway, so as to have them harmonize with the rest of the work. Then my hands needed a rest.

The sashiko stitching, that's the running stitch you see here, will be on one layer only in the next part, much easier to deal with.  I mixed the thread colors in the needle, too, so as to give a bit more subtlety to it.

Here's the threads in a very messy heap, waiting for action

And here's the sashiko done on two of the ties, so that they look like this

Now the ties look like part of the work, not an afterthought.  Next I have to mark the curves and shapes of the sashiko to be done on that side, seen here as the left, after I stitch down the peacock motif permanently in place.

Then there was lunch

Fast food again, this time a dish of frozen cooked leeks, potatoes and onions from the freezer, leftovers from some earlier pasty caper.  And the last little ball of dough from the tortilla recipe.  

I really recommend this fast food idea.  You make the flour tortilla recipe, I don't think the harina one would be sturdy enough, knead and divide into six bits, wrap separately in parchment paper and freeze.  Then an hour of thawing for one piece, roll it out on a floured countertop, fill, seal, bake at 400f for 20 minutes, spritz olive oil on top to keep it pliable.  You can make one big pasty like this one, or two smaller ones, from one ball of dough.

It's about 25 minutes from thinking of it to eating it, if you remember to get it out of the freezer, time to wipe the counters, do a few dishes, little bit of macarena around the kitchen.  I do like my little kitchen dances, who knows what the passersby think, since the window opens on the street.  Then your lunch is ready.  And, a nice misfits salad, fit for a queen. All the veggies in the pasty were misfits too.  The yellow potatoes make really great stuffing types of results.  And you've done a fitness exercise, too.  

I often do stretches and Eight Pieces of Silk exercises in the couple of minutes I'm waiting for something in the microwave.  Balancing exercises, all that. A couple of minutes is plenty, done fairly often.

The Silent Patient and the Not So Silent Reader, and kitchen conundrums

 My partner in crime in the email Tiny Book Group embarked on this, and I promised to give it a go.  So I started it, and to be honest it didn't hold up well against the soaring prose of Ali Smith, but I'd promised, and it was our selection, so I kept on reading.

It's set in the world of psychotherapy and residential care for mentally ill patients, some violent, the narrator being a psychotherapist, and there's a murder before the story began, which ended in the guilty person being consigned to this residence, and there are the intertwined stories of the various people connected with her and each other, who tend to turn out quite differently than expected.

It's not one of those endless dull self important sort of books about mental health and treatment, which got me past my first resistance and it does get more and more gripping as it goes.  It also uncovers mysteries where the reader didn't know there were any, and that in itself is very clever writing.  I was taken by surprise at the denouement, and at the end I decided, yes, this is good stuff.  So I recommend it.  

It's his first novel, and it does have some flaws I wish an editor had persuaded him against, such as the long discredited had I but known type of meme, that oh, I'd never have done that if I'd realized, or ah, and things were to get worse, etc.,  which is a cheap way of keeping the reader's attention.  Good writing doesn't need to do that.  But maybe that's beginner's practice. Anyway, I'd try it.  Don't read it right after a truly brilliant book, because that's not a fair context.  But do read it, it's a very exciting piece of work.

Then I thought I'd like a couple of those improper pasties, or empanadas, or various other names according to where you're eating them.  My misfits leeks, red onions and yellow potatoes were the main actors.  The yellow potatoes are not labeled Yukon Gold, and they would be if they were, so I think they're just another yellow potato, Gold adjacent.  They're very good indeed.  I microwaved them for a few minutes before peeling and chunking, and they kept their shape nicely.

So the leeks and onions then later the potatoes, sauteed in butter and oil, shake of salt, shake of Old Bay Seasoning.  And I used the last of the pastry I'd made the other day. There's always a bit left.

As you see. Enough for two.  I rolled this very thin, because I find that's what I like.  And I discovered that must be why I don't like pie.  Too much crust.  This is thin and crisp, much more to my taste.

So, after the onions and leeks cooked down well, I added the already cooked potato, just to take on flavor and heat up.

And here's the result. Two nice sized pasty things.  Perfect for picking up and eating.  Baked at 400f for about 25 minutes.  I sprayed the top with olive oil halfway through, to encourage some browning.

 Here's where you see how thin the crust is, very nice crunch when you bite in.  And it's strong enough to contain the fairly heavy contents without collapsing, always a big point.

I find now that I've used up the pastry, and I have filling left over.  This might be an endless chain.  More pastry to use the filling, then pastry left over, then use the pastry and you have filling left over, etc. It's like the clever marketing of hot dogs and rolls, where they are sold in different amounts, so you're endlessly shopping for one or another.  But I seem to have pulled this clever trick on myself.

As I was picking out today's outfit last evening, it made me think yet again of the people who once they were working from home, gave up dressing in real clothes, and sloped about in pajamas and sweatsuits and that kind of comfy but depressing stuff.  I wonder if that's part of the generalized depression I hear around me all over. 

I've heard so many comments that you only dress up for other people, and that you only get dressed up because you'll be seen at work, etc.  Yes, I get that, having been employed for decades in various occupations some of which required less comfortable clothes than others.  But to give it all up because you're not being seen all the time, I wonder about that.  I totally support comfortable shoes in fact went against the mores and wore them at work, which gave my juniors permission to do likewise, which they were very happy about.

But what about your ow spirits, I wonder?  I go days without being seen as far as I know, but I would be so bored wearing the same stuff or dull stuff, with no interesting changes. Admittedly my outfits are basically turtleneck, jacket and pants.  But different color combos and fabrics and it's just more interesting and certainly better for my own mental health than the same old same old.  What do you think?

I notice clothing manufacturers are getting with the idea of very comfortable work clothes and introducing great colors and styles instead of the tight, unyielding skirt suit and that sort of office uniform. Which means they'll be in my thrift store by next year, when I might be able to return there and shop. 

I think it's socially responsible to try to recycle, buy used, alter, generally get mileage out of the clothes that are often made with virtually slave labor on the other side of the planet.  The least I can do is buy rarely, and not at retail.  And make my own and even spin my own yarn where I can. No, I'm not an economic saint, but I do think it's worth trying to remember the earth and the overworked people on it.  One way to help them is to seek out fair trade places to shop.  Dharma Traders is one, and there are others, you need to be aware that if they're fair traded they'll be labeled thus.  Fair trade is paying a proper price to the maker at the source. It's not supporting sweatshops.

My Misfits subscription supports smaller farmers and bypasses the giant food chains, while feeding me well.  It's all part of the same notion that I at least  try to live by.  I need to sleep nights!

So there's the end of my current economic and ecological PSA!