Made Long Ago, Found While Preparing for the Move

Posted on July 26, 2012 by lazylinchen

So, the move to Finland is fast approaching, which means I have no time to sew. However, many a thing hidden in my drawers for a long time is coming to the light of day again. (Due to having to sort through my stuff to fit that crazy 20 box limit I set myself). So here you see a top I made very quickly after the magazine came out, I think.

Burdastyle magazine 07-2009 top 124A

Yes, the pattern is from a dependent big pattern company (as opposed to independent small pattern companies, such as Sewaholic, Colette or Victory Patterns). But, you see, the greatest mum ever (e.g. mine) gave me a Burdastyle magazine subscription for Christmas 2008.

So this top caught my eye becuse it seemed very easy, but still a bit unusual. It was very easy, though I hadn’t sewn a lot of knits at that stage of my (non-existent) sewing career. It came out exactly the way I wanted it to. What I hadn’t considered before, though, was the fact that you cannot really wear a bra with it. (d’oh!)

Pretty deep back leads to non-bra-wearing

So I didn’t wear it very often since it came into existence. Fast forward 3 (oh, wow!) years, to the purging of unneccessary clothing items before The Move. In the meantime I lost some weight and consequently some cupsizes. So when I put it on I found that nothing is jiggling even without bra. Yay!

Non-jiggly sideview

On this last picture you can see the way it wraps from the back to the front. There is also a maxi dress version of this pattern. I am seriously contemplating doing that as well, but we will see how many summer dresses I will need in Finland…

Risotto Milanese

Posted on July 24, 2012 by lazylinchen

This is a recipe I learned from my mum. She in turn learned it from her Italian Nonna (my great-grandma).

Risotto Milanese – the way my family makes it

During my studies, towards the end of most months (because wages arrived end of month and I usually ran out of money around mid-month), I very often made this risotto. Rice, dried funghi porcini, Parmesan cheese and safron were usually available at my home because they keep very long (the cheese of course in the freezer) and I usually buy in bulk. Now, whenever I eat at a catering event and the vegetarian dish is risotto, I am a little disappointed about the “poor people cuisine”… Very snobbish, I know.

(Just recently a friend pointed out that it was extremely ironic that I cooked a dish that contained the probably most expensive spice there is (safron) whenever I ran out of money…)

Anyway, here’s the recipe:

Ingredients for 4 people
20 g dried funghi porcini
1 Tbs olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, pressed
400 g risotto rice (Vialone, Arborio, St. Andrea)
4 dl white wine
1 l vegetable broth
Safron to taste
Parmesan cheese to taste
Butter (optional)
Salt, pepper

Preparation
Soak the drie funghi in warm water for about 15 minutes. Heat the olive oil in a medium size pot, add onions and garlic and glaze. Add the rice and glaze that too. Add the wine and wait until it is completely avaporated. Add broth and let simmer half covered for about 18-20 minutes, until rice is al dente. Add safron and cheese (maybe butter) to taste. Season and serve while still hot.

Usually, in our family, nothing remains. However, I like to make a big batch (keep the intentionl leftovers well away from the hungry people…) and make rice burgers the next day, to take to the office for lunch. That recipe is for another post, though.