Headless Poppy and Food Talk

About a month ago, I started working on the Poppy Doll pattern from Hop Skip Jump.  I found some lovely soft wool at the local fabric market (it's really too dark but I decided to go ahead with it anyway, for lack of any other available fabric).  I sewed the body together and stuffed it -- it came together quite quickly and satisfyingly.  But then I couldn't find any suitable felt for the hair (only stiff acrylic and I want to stick with natural fibers) and I couldn't find any embroidery thread for the face.  So, the doll has been sitting around my work space, headless:

Dag asked me today "Where's the doll's head?  Where's it's face?"  Happily, these supplies arrived recently from the states:

Today I got back to work on Poppy, making only minimal progress as I ran out of light (the days are getting shorter here, as they are back home).  I'm anxious to finish this project (a headless doll is a bit disconcerting) and I hope Poppy  and Dag will be good friends.

The other thing on my mind the past few days is food and cooking.  It's beginning to cool down here (today was about 75 degrees) and the cool(er) weather makes me want to hunker down in the kitchen and make soup.

I shipped a few of my favorite books.  I had to be really, very, extremely choosy (sorry, we've been watching too much Charlie and Lola over here) about which books made the cut.  I brought a mix of sewing books, cookbooks and literature.  For a girl with an MFA in Writing, I ought to be quite ashamed about the literature selection.  But the truth is, the sewing and cook books are more useful.  I'm not the type to re-read books and I have a Kindle, so virtually any book I'd like to read is about sixty seconds away.  I do miss having my personal library of books nearby.

I've been spending a lot of time the last few nights looking at the cookbooks.  I adore the Apples for Jam book.  It's really beautiful (which is why I brought it).  I haven't actually made a lot from it though.

One of my favorite cookbooks is Peter Christian's Recipes.  Peter Christian's Tavern was one of my favorite restaurants in New Hampshire (sadly it recently closed down -- a google search just revealed that it is supposed to re-open soon -- if anyone knows anything about this, please let me know).  The cookbook has a very good soup section.  Produce is widely available and cheap here so I plan to make lots of vegetable soups.  I'll likely have to do some improvising and omitting for various ingredients and spices so we'll see what happens.

The other cookbook being dog-eared right now is by my mother-in-law (Marie Huntington): Cooks and Company: A Collection of Recipes from Main Street, Indiana.  You can read about dining at her table over at my friend Chloe's blog here.  I figure a few recipes from this book are sure to combat homesickness.  I'm particularly keen to try the Chile Con Queso Soup which is, according to the book, one of Chris's favorites!  Who knew?  I probably should have.  First, I need to email Marie about some substitutions (unless anyone wants to send me a can of mild green chiles).

So, what is the food situation like here, you ask?  Well, it's not terrible.  I can find most of the things I want but certainly not everything.  The problem is that different ingredients are available at different stores.  To get cocoa powder, for example, requires a taxi or bus ride to an obscure store that has little else I need to buy.  I found frozen fish fillets at one store this week and I'm super excited about this.  I tried to buy a fillet of fish at the local market last weekend but it was a disaster -- even with the help of a friend who speaks Chinese.  I ended up tossing the fish in the garbage (don't worry, it only cost about a dollar).  The problem is that there isn't much else I need at the store with the frozen fish and it's a huge store that's a pain to get to and is so crowded, I can barely stand it.  The bottom line is that it requires much effort to get the ingredients I want and need.  I suppose I could try and cook Chinese food all the time but I don't really know how to make much (other than stir-fry) and the fact is that I like to cook the food I'm familiar with.  It brings me a lot of comfort and joy to put things like twice-baked potatoes and apple pie on our table.  And it makes here feel a little bit more like home.

Tomorrow we are heading to a local hot springs resort for a mini-vacation.  I'll be back next week with a full report.