My goals for today are to get those two lace skirts cut out, do some more marking, and get ready for the family to come over for dinner. My husband always does the heavy lifting in the cooking department for these events and I try to streamline my end of the business into something that won't cut too much into my sewing time.
I am doing desserts, which have to be little kid friendly, so have made a lemon ice cream thing and a baked bananas with chocolate thing. Might do some cornbread on the side.
None of this is rocket science, none of it is Gourmet magazine.
I love to eat and as an offshoot of that cook. However I am always on the search for easy but tastes good recipes, while avoiding the can of mushroom soup culture of my mother's generation. I like vegetables, like spices, and like fruit. I like slow cookers and one dish things that I can get a couple of days out of. You know the reheat and back to sewing dishes.
My middle son and my his girlfriend and my husband are all the kinds of cooks that embark on major cultural experiments, fine print recipes. They stuff things, make rubs, purees, and use thermometers.
They cook Chanel jackets.
I am wondering, with my joy over the Magic Skirt, if there is a correlation between my sewing and cooking personality. What I like about that pattern is that it gives me good results in little time. I am always wanting to sew the next thing, try something new.
Now my question is this.
Do you cook like you sew?
Or vice versa?
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- Barbara
- I am a mother, a grandmother, and a teacher. But whatever happens in my life, I keep sewing. I have worked as a political communicator and now as a teacher in my formal life. I have also written extensively on sewing. I have been a frequent contributor and contributing editor of Threads magazine and the Australian magazine Dressmaking with Stitches. My book Sew.. the garment-making book of knowledge was published in May 2018 and is available for pre-order from Amazon
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18 comments:
I don't cook so that I have more time to sew...*LOL*
Ditto, Carolyn!
Interesting question. I think I cook like I sew. I prefer to have perfect garments, perfectly fitted... an ongoing challenge, and I also want fantastic food and will take some time to make it. BUT, I do go for classic elegance in my clothes where possible, and generally quick but tasty food. So I think I do both the same. A little OCD, a little persistence, and you have what you want!
Interesting idea....While I love to read Gourmet magazine (and Martha Stewart), just as I love to read about Chanel jackets...I love to sew knit tops and straight skirts/cardigans, etc. And my newest most favourite recipe involves a rub on ribs, but it was 10 active minutes of cooking and then slow cooked in tinfoil on the BBQ. YUM. And EASY, and did I ever "look" good. I love to cook and sew (good thing as I'm a Home Ec. teacher) but I'm into small effort for big return or "work smarter, not harder". Enjoy your Sunday dinner!
More like Lynda I guess. I love to cook and to sew. In the cooking department, I've always had an appreciative audience. In the sewing department I am my own harsh critic. Have just gone back to a duffel coat I started in the early spring. Didn't like the pocket placement and didn't want to cut anything until I thought it through. Sheesh. It took months to percolate!
I'm with the less time cooking more time sewing crowd. Your description of simple meals is spot on. I always need more simple prep meals, so if you have some good ones, please feel free to share them!
Ha! I never really thought about it that way.
Yes I cook like I sew. Usually quick and easy but something that looks/tastes really good. Although I do ocassionaly like to cook/sew more complex things.
Great analogy. And yes, quick tasty recipes do share!
You made an interesting association.
I DO cook and sew in a similar pattern. That is, I do both improvisationally with what I have on hand. I have to do this because of the biweekly CSA produce box.
But, I have (my) standard ways of doing things with different ingredients depending on what's in the kitchen and my sewing studio. I just riff on my standard recipe. From long practice, it doesn't take much time and I know that I will get something edible or wearable in real life out of the time and effort.
Occasionally, I expand my repertoire to try a new recipe or a designer odd-shape garment. Issey Miyake is my favorite mind-bending designer. It sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. But that's about learning.
Come to think of it, the way we approach our basic needs (what's more basic than feeding and clothing ourselves?) is indicative of our approach to life in general.
What a thoughtful question. Thanks for posting it.
I cook lots of homestyle dishes, with good ingredients. I am most interested in feeding myself nurturing food which is relatively healthy. I want to see a balanced meal-a blend of raw ingredients and well prepared cooked ones. We do eat some one dish meals, usually when my husband cooks stir fry using leftovers. I don't cook gourmet meals.
And, that is pretty much how I sew for my wardrobe. Homestyle, raw and finished, balanced between easy and technically challenging, some recycled leftovers!
I am with you. If I need to cook, I like very easy things made in large batches. I like leftovers. And I like smoothies - they are so easy and nutritious. My husband cooks the way yours does and I enjoy his efforts. When we have people over, I am the one who cleans the house, sets the table, adds flowers and runs out for a tub of ice cream or a baguette Oh, and I like to clean up afterwards.
As far as comparing sewing and cooking (which I have thought about many times :) I do the right amount of each.
ha ha. Lots of sewing and just enough cooking.
I don't consider myself a couture type, at all. I like using a serger and prefer quick methods as long as the finished garment looks clean, and it is made to last.
Oh, my, this is so spot on. I do cook like I sew, looking for intricate challenges and trying to learn and perfect the classics. Spot on!
Well on reflection I suppose I do cook ( and garden ) like I sew. Simple, down to earth cooking that is healthy .I like lots of variety too and plenty of it ( leftovers are my favourite meal as well ).
I like sewing lots of different things using what is in my stash ( and often thrifted if the fabric is good ) I like sewing simple things that are useful too and will actually get worn .
I read somewhere recently that '"the way you do something is the way you do everything." Sounds true to me.
Yeah, I think I sew and cook the same way - a bit inclined towards elaborate time-consuming projects and to use the same recipe obsessively till I get it right. Probably make too many shirts and too much marmalade. But does one's choice of cooking guru equate to one’s sewing guru? If so, who is the sewing equivalent of Elizabeth David?
As Mae said. That certainly leaves me to wonder! I don't like to cook, but I do like to sew, and I now see that I eat and sew virtually the same thing over and over...simple, classic. And my house is the same way...very little clutter. Just a few sparkly things, like on my clothes. Hmmm. Great topic.
As I am currently sewing up garments a la 1850 and 1915, no, I do not cook as I sew. My father tells us often about how much time he and his siblings spent preparing fuel for his mother's wood stove (no electricity in this part of the state until after WWII). Thank goodness!
Yes, definitely, though I hadn't thought of it that way.
I choose one thing that I am going to get 'right' - trousers and vegetarian cooking last year - and focus on that until I am happy and have something I can go back to over and over again. Then I look for the next area to study.
Fascinating suggestion, thank you!
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