Well cheers.

We’ve kicked 2020 and a few other things down the road. I’m hopeful we are conjuring up a brighter new future.

This is where we focus on those small & big wins for our mental health.

Small win #1: It’s taken me weeks to write this post, but by the second of January the Christmas decorations were hidden in the basement for a proper pack up on a rainy day…of which Seattle’s forecast hasn’t been lacking and more on that later. The timing of taking down the seasonal wood print coincided with a practical need, so it’s been repurposed.

Small win #2: We’ve had an issue of the Boss Dog and the Roomba thinking the fireplace was an extension of the living room. So actually creating, not just dreaming of a decorative screen for our non-working fireplace was a win, especially since it’s a project that’s been on the list for years. We have plans of warming ourselves next to a modern free standing stove.

It’s all too easy to look around and see everything that needs to be done, so I try to keep in mind what it looked like when we moved in. It’s a good reminder that progress has been made.

I could not have cut it any closer with the amount of IKEA fabric I had for this project. Some plant curating will happen after Boss loses interest in attacking them.

King size win number 3: I’ve finished up my magic number based king size Christmas quilt and plan on sleeping under it all winter regardless of it’s theme.

With a puppy around couch time for hand sewing is regulated into smaller increments, and the studio is out of bounds entirely. So my daily small win was to get through one long strand of thread for sewing down binding. Perfect for my short attention span.

Small win #4: If you live in Seattle or close by I’ve listed two machines and a industrial snap press on Craigslist.

My Elgin by Brother. It works great and is so pretty. I always had dreams of displaying and using it somehow, but there just isn’t room. If you are a collector of machines your heart will throb for this beauty.

My Kam industrial snap press. If you’re into making bags or diaper covers this is your jam.

I’m letting go of my Featherweight. It has a new custom box, was serviced but not really used, so will need some oiling.

Small Win #5: So much cooking I could easily turn this into a food blog. Boss has made being in the studio a little more challenging, but the kitchen is full of the possibility that a treat might get dropped and regardless we gotta eat.

Winter = comfort food and I’m finding it hard to get off my Lucinda Scala Quinn kick. Her recipes speak to my Midwesterner comfort food/ Irish/German roots.

The kick started with pot pies from her Mad Hungry Feeding Men &
Boys cookbook (affiliate link). I’ve made both the chicken and the spinach feta with a cream cheese crust with amazing success. I sure Ford would be proud with me stocking the freezer in an industrial mass production manner.

The tamale pie, sesame chicken, mac and cheese from her Mad Hungry Cravings, and the shepard’s pie from Mad Hungry Family are in the full menu rotation now as well.

My other new obsession is a cauliflower recipe I came across in the New York Times. Bonus is I generally have the pancetta, olives and parmesan stocked. I wasn’t completely in love with it until I topped it with an egg and sautéed chard = perfection.

I’ve mentioned Casella’s book, A World of Baking before when sharing the sour cream lemon pie from it. Twenty some years ago in Mexico, before heading out on our weekly shopping trip to the nearest large mercado in Zihuatanejo I would look through this lone book for inspiration. The pound cake was a simple pick for its accessible ingredients and compatibility with the local mangoes and a pile of whip cream. I still make it to this day and eat it straight up or with some seasonal fruit.

I’m not sure what’s up with the individual food servings I’ve been into, perhaps dreams of entertaining with a cocktail party, but there sure are a lot of good recipes packaged this way. I’m looking forward to trying the cheddar tapenade rolls in The Messy Baker (affiliate link), but I started with these delicious chicken, corn and cilantro empanadas. They didn’t last through to the next day.

Let’s end with Big Win #6: Female Vice President=Boss Lady.

Well done America, now go celebrate your wins.