It’s well-known that beer bread is tasty and simple to make. I’ve pondered whether bread could be made with wine instead of beer. According to a few people on the internet, the answer is yes. This past week I tried both beer and wine, and both worked. The wine version had a different flavor from the beer version; in a way not easily described. The flavor of beer bread is distinct and also not easy to describe, but it’s very tasty. It’s sweet, with a velvety soft, slightly spongy texture.
Here is what my beer bread and wine bread looked like side-by-side.
WHAT TO PAIR THEM WITH:
Beer bread tastes great warm or toasted with butter. That’s my favorite way to eat it. But it can also be used for sandwiches or as as you would use any loaf of bread.
The wine bread flavor wasn’t quite so easily adaptable to my palate, but I did enjoy it made into peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I still want to try it with savory spreads as well.
THE RECIPES:
Beer bread could not be simpler to make. It’s only three ingredients mixed together: a can or bottle of beer, self-rising flour, and sugar.
This trip was to see the ‘Royal Affair’ tour, consisting of Asia, Steve Howe’s Yes, John Lodge of the Moody Blues, and Carl Palmer’s ELP Legacy with guest vocalist Arthur Brown.
The show opened with something ‘Crazy’ I never expected to experience live:
One thing that did draw me to the show was Carl Palmer. Fifty years ago, he was the amazing drummer for the amazing Emerson Lake & Palmer. Today he is possibly even better. He did sets with his own band, and as a member of Asia.
Curiously, there was a little megaphone on stage.
Before long, I knew why: One of the Asia members was in the Buggles. So I’ve now sung along to ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’…with Carl Palmer on drums!
Other special moments were hearing the John Lodge 10,000 Light Years band perform ‘Legend of a Mind’ (Timothy Leary’s Dead); a song from John’s early years with the Moody Blues at their most psychedelic.
Then Steve Howe’s ‘Yes’ did a full set of Yes songs. Steve’s guitar playing was another main highlight. The entire concert was over four hours long. Definitely a full evening.
The next morning, it was back to Fort Worth for an afternoon of museums via Bike Share. It was Sunday morning, so I had extra time to kill before the museums opened. I did some exploring around downtown, first with a bike ride around downtown, and then via the free Molly-the-Trolley loop. All of my modes of transportation were available from the Fort Worth Intramodal Transportation Center (Fort Worth ITC).
When the museums opened, I headed to the Cowgirl Hall of Fame and Museum via bike. It was already a hot day, but with a slight breeze, thankfully.
The museum district has these great murals on the buildings.
After that, it was time for an unplanned treat. Just down the street from the Cowgirl museum, the Kimbell Art Museum has a special Monet exhibit! It runs through September 15, 2019. I saw dozens of original Monets! It was fascinating, comparing the painted scenes at a distance, and then up close where the brush strokes and colors seemed almost random.
The famous bridge.
All of those lovely water lilies.
From the museums it was a bike ride back to the Fort Worth ITC station, and time to board my Amtrak train for home.
It was another gorgeous, scenic ride; on time, with a dinner of buffalo chicken and wine, and no bad weather. I was home by midnight.
This was the kind of Sunday afternoon that makes me start counting the weeks until Spring. A friend posted an invite this morning for an afternoon bike ride, and two of us joined her. We met at the park and took off on the bike path.
After a couple of miles, we neared the grocery store, where I planned to drop the group and turn the outing into an errand. I picked up a few things from the store and then headed back home on the bike path….in the sunshine, with sunglasses on, mittens off, and coat unzipped.
The crocuses haven’t even popped out in my yard yet, but I’m starting to get excited about Spring.
“Don’t buy a suit to match your tie,” is a proverb that has served me very well… except when it should be ignored, such as with this project. It started with a picture of knit+crochet cuffs I saw online, which led me to grab knitting needles and some cotton yarn from my stash, and experiment with the design. Soon I had a set of cuffs I loved, with nothing to put them on.
So, with cuffs in hand and no plan except that I might like them on a dress, I went fabric shopping, and came home with this lightweight rayon plaid:
I sewed the dress and attached the cuffs before deciding what to do with the neckline. At that point, the answer was obvious–make a collar to match the cuffs.
The finished dress: Tada!
I’ve now worn the dress once, and am quite happy with it. Here are a few thoughts on the dress and fabric:
The A-line skirt makes the dress bicycle-friendly.
The cotton cuffs and collar, and lightweight rayon make a very comfortable dress.
The lightweight fabric makes the dress fit easily under a blazer when called for at work, or under a jacket for chilly Fall mornings and evenings.
The weight of the dress feels quirky on the hanger because the fabric is lightweight and flowy, while the cuffs and collar are weightier cotton. The weight disparity isn’t evident when the dress is being worn.
The rayon fabric is not very durable. It will be susceptible to snags. The edges of the fabric fray profusely, so I had to finish all of the edges first thing.
About that plaid. I should have had my head examined for buying flimsy fabric with a plaid that had to be matched. Eventually, I figured out a method that mostly worked, but not before several frustrated do-overs. Marking a straight hem was a bear, too, because of the shifty fabric and the plaid.
A few more views:
The back neck closure was finished with two self-fabric covered buttons and crochet button hole loops.
The day after the ELO concert in Dallas last month, my train wasn’t scheduled to depart from Ft. Worth until 5pm. I opted to spend the afternoon in Ft. Worth, so on checking out of my hostel, I caught the TRE commuter train from Irving back to Fort Worth.
In Fort Worth, I decided to visit the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame. Feeling an acute need for exercise, I opted to get from the train station to the museum and back via Fort Worth’s bike share. There was a bike share hub at the train station and one at the museum complex. Good job, Fort Worth! All went smoothly with the bike checkout process.
Google mapped the bike route for me.
The bike was a joy to ride. It was easily adjustable, and had no mechanical issues.
It was a mostly-flat, pleasant 3.1 mile ride each way.
The cowgirl museum was wonderful. Part of it is under renovation and closed to visitors until February 2019. This means I will want to go back and see the rest. But the exhibits I did see gave me a badly-needed cowgirl ‘fix’ for now. I could have stayed there all day.
I love the way they posed this mannequin and draped her red jacket. It’s as if she just got up after being thrown and is walking back to her horse.
Annie Oakley’s wedding ring!
“Ride the range all the day till the first fading light,
be with my western girl round the fire, oh, so bright.
I’d be the Indians friend, let them live to be free,
ridin’ into the sunset, I wish I could be.”
Can you handle more from the cowgirl museum? They have an amazing collection of historic western-themed Hermes scarves.
This scarf, wow. Here is the center motif of an awards themed scarf that seemed to spoof the Oscars. It was quite an entertaining thing to study.
In their huge lobby, they have a beam from one of the World Trade Center towers.
The beam towered over the lobby.
They had a great section on Energy, which I enjoyed so much I forgot to take pictures.
They had a large Cattle Raisers exhibit, which was an excellent complement to the Cowgirl Museum.
Lastly, they had a Grossology exhibit, on human body functions. The irony about this is that I took a head cold home with me from the trip. Ugh. I was pretty much like this guy for the next week.
When I’d finished at the museums, bike share got me back to the Ft. Worth Intermodal Transportation Center, where I would await my Amtrak train. They had some neat things to see at the station: An old Fort Worth commuter train car.
A series of history-telling tile murals.
Back in the lovely old train station, I reclaimed my bag from the luggage storage service, drank a delicious milk from Subway, and waited the last few minutes before boarding my Amtrak train.
I originally booked Amtrak all the way from OKC to Dallas Union Station and back. Turns out I only needed Amtrak between OKC and Ft. Worth. Between Ft. Worth and Dallas, the TRE was the way to go.
By cancelling the Ft. Worth – Dallas – Ft Worth portions of my Amtrak ticket before those departure times, I was credited that portion of my Amtrak fare, to apply to future Amtrak travel.
The museums I visited are all at the Ft. Worth Stock Show complex. The complex was easy to get to by bike, and offered lots to do in one spot. The Botanical Gardens and Trinity Park are also adjacent to the complex.
I was so excited when I brought this 1960s daisy dress home from the vintage clothing store in August 2015, that I mentioned it in my blog right away.
For two summers I wore the dress as-is and loved its style. But bicycling in it was a no-go, because the dress is narrow and straight with no stretch and no pleat for getting on and off the bike and for pedaling. I loved the dress too much to change it.
Eventually my desire to wear it on my bike commute won out. I formed a bold plan to add box pleats, and worked up the courage to make the first cut. I measured and sliced the skirt where four pleats would go. I was lucky to find some fabric for the pleats that was a near exact match of the creamy white color in the dress.
The result: Ta-da!
The next morning as I was preparing to wear the modified dress for the first time, I took a mirror selfie, BHM (before hair and makeup).
On its first outing with the box pleats, I bicycled a total of 14 commute + errand miles. The skirt was perfect, in roominess, length and drape.
After that first wearing, I decided the top of the pleats should be reinforced to prevent inevitable strain and fraying in the corners. So I added little tabs.
This project was an unqualified success. The person most surprised is me. I feared I was going to ruin the lovely dress for good. But no, I’ll be using the box pleat ‘hack’ again sometime when I need to convert another dress for bike-ability. I want to post a set of instructions, but I feel like I need to try it again a time or two before telling others how to do it. Stay tuned.
And their love that was more than the clothes that they wore,
Could be seen in the gleam of an eye…
Absentmindedly I tossed this dress into the wash with a load of colors, on the cold gentle cycle. Out came a tiny dress for a shorter stick version of myself. Turns out it is one of those awful super-shrinky rayon dresses from a prior decade.
I didn’t take a picture of the shrunken dress, so you’ll have to imagine the dress in this picture not draping freely from the dress form, but instead fitting snugly with open gaps between the buttons down the front. The sleeves were skin-tight on my arms. It was bad.
My only options I thought, were to put it in the donation box, or repurpose it into another garment. Then I found this unshrinking method that uses hair conditioner. This blog gave super easy instructions: Almostherealthing.comI checked a couple of other sites to compare, and they were mostly consistent on the method:
In a tub or pan, combine warm water and hair conditioner, in a ratio of 1 quart of water to 1 tsp. conditioner. Soak the garment in the solution for about 10 minutes. Remove the garment and blot with a towel to remove dripping water, then stretch and reshape and dry. Repeat if necessary for more stretching.
I didn’t have hair conditioner on hand for the unshrinking project. Dollar Store to the rescue!
I was dubious. But…wow, it really worked! The unshrinking was easy and inexpensive. It’s truly regrettable that I didn’t take a ‘before’ picture of the dress in its shrunken state, for dramatic comparison purposes.
Here is the dress after unshrinking and drying. I’ve had the dress for years. For ‘vintage’ events, such as WWII or 1940s themed occasions, it is my go-to garment. It’s super comfortable and bike-able. It goes well with a straw sun hat. I’m glad to have it back.
I’m wearing the dress in this shadow picture, taken at the end of a vintage homes bicycle tour.
About that $1 bottle of conditioner…
Now that I have a nearly-full 32oz bottle of hair conditioner on hand. I need to figure out what to do with it. Here are some ideas. 20 Genius Uses for Hair Conditioner This article makes hair conditioner seem like WD-40 for the body. I’ll certainly be giving some of the suggestions a try.
Over the 4th of July holiday, I worked up the courage to to hack into one of my fave summer shifts to make it more bike-able. The dress is straight, and the fabric a sturdy woven cotton with no spandex. Getting on and off the bike and pedaling were all problematic.
I opened the side seam 9 inches from the hemline, and added a 9″ zipper and a stretch panel in coordinating fabric.
Success! I can unzip the pleat and have room for pedaling a bike, and then close the pleat up the rest of the day.
The steps I took in order:
Open side seam to 9 inches from the hemline.
Sew in 9″ zipper.
With zipper open, pin triangle insert in place behind zipper, lining up fabric edges.
Topstitch insert in place through all layers.
From the inside, the pleat looks like this closed.
And open.
(The pleat insert fabric is intentionally shorter than the rest of the hemline to keep the insert from peeking out from under the hem when the pleat is zipped shut. )
Ready for pedaling
Ready for the office.
I’ve biked in the dress a couple of times since installing the pleat, and it works just as I’d hoped. There are a few other dresses and skirts in my closet that probably should get the zipper-pleat treatment.
___________________________
A breeze crosses the porch
Bicycle spokes spin ’round
Jacket’s on, I’m out the door
Tonight I’m gonna burn this town down
And the girls in their summer clothes
In the cool of the evening light
The girls in their summer clothes
Pass me by
Another bicycling dress is finished as of last weekend, complete with reflective bits. With this one, I cut out shapes of sew-on reflective tape that I could embed in the print.
Appliqueing the reflective motifs to the dress was a repeating cycle of trial, error and perseverance. My first attempts were awful. The grey thread I had on hand ended up being several shades too light, and stood out as white on the reflective fabric. [Insert ’50 Shades of Grey’ reference here.] The light thread highlighted every deviant stitch. Unfortunately, there were a lot of deviant stitches. Despite how bad it was looking, I kept on going, thinking that I’d improve my stitching with practice, and then I could go back and re-stitch the first bad ones. But not this time. This was truly bad. So, I cut out some new reflective motifs in a wider shape, and bought a darker shade of grey thread. [Whew, it’s getting hot in here!] Then, success!
The thread color was a tremendous improvement, but the points of the reflective motifs were still coming out looking ragged and misshaped. I couldn’t make the point stay in place to be stitched neatly. So through more trial and error, I came up with this technique that worked:
Start at the wide end of the motif and baste straight down the middle to the tip.
Switch to a regular stitch length, and continue past the end of the tip for 3 more stitches.
Turn the entire piece around and from the tip, stitch around the edges of the motif.
Snip the basting stitch at the point, and pull the thread tail to remove only the basting.
Voila! A better leaf shape, and the appearance of neat stitches.
At first I intended to replace only the ‘worst’ of the original reflective leaves. But in the end, my seam ripper and I spent a lot of time together, and the entire first batch of motifs were removed and replaced. It took quite a bit of time for this do-over, but I think it was necessary.
My sew-on reflective tape was purchased from Amazon: (Product Link)The 2-inch wide 30-foot roll was my choice, because that width allows for lots of creative uses. Smaller widths and lengths are available.
Other construction details:
For bike-ability, I inserted a pleat in the back.
The dress is constructed from the hem up:
The main fabric with the wild print came from my stash, but there was only a yard of it. So, I hemmed it first thing, and built the dress upward from there. Up near the shoulder, the fabric ran out. There I added the polka dot coordinating fabric, to complete the shoulder. The main fabric pieces that were cut away for the armholes, were almost but not quite long enough to make the collar. So again I supplemented coordinating fabric to complete the collar.
The inside facings for the armhole, neck and hem are all made from the coordinating fabric. The cool thing is, I used almost every inch of the stash fabric. There are no usable scraps left.
The fabric is 100% cotton and comfortable, while sturdy enough to stay in place on a breezy day.
run | sew | read 