Make Do and Mend - Altering a Favourite Dress

The finished dress, accessorised with red.

Back in England and happy to be in my sewing room.

 This dress, which I bought years ago, is one of my favourite summer dresses.  It is made of linen and the neutral colour goes well with a pop of colour, (such as red, yellow or hot pink) or with black or navy.  When I put it on this year, it was noticeably tight around the waist.  It had always been a bit long in the waist for me, but when I was slimmer, it could be pulled up a bit with a belt.  Inspired by 'This Old Thing', a programme about recycling vintage clothes, I decided to see if I could do something to make this dress wearable again.
Some alterations are not that difficult and will make all the difference to the look of a garment.  For example, just shortening a dress or skirt can up date it.  In this case, I decided to shorten the bodice and then to take up the hem  as well. I did it in a morning and I am very pleased with the result. I think it looks a little 1940s.

Roughly pinned at the waist.

The first thing I did was to put it on and pull it up at the waist.  I pinned it roughly, then took it off and pinned it carefully, measuring that I was taking up the same amount of fabric all around. Luckily, I was able to adjust it between buttonholes.

I used chalk and tape measure for exact measurements and checked that the front plackets lined up.

I carefully cut through the fabric, removing the bodice from the skirt.

Turning it to the wrong side (right sides together) I pinned the bodice and skirt together and chalk marked the stitch line.

I stitched carefully along the chalk lines and then added a row of zig zag to the outside of the seam to finish it off and keep it from fraying.

I trimmed the extra fabric away from the seam allowance, then pressed it and top stitched it so the bodice looked finished.

Finally, I turned up the hem to mid-knee length, measured, pinned and machine stitched the new hem into place.

The finished dress, back view (on a mannequin).

Things to do with Left Over Bread (Besides Feeding it to the Chickens) Part 2

This little bakery, not far from our house, sells the best bread in the area.

This is Part 2 of a mini series on using up leftover bread. Since starting this, I have thought of many more recipes, but I left my laptop charger/cable in France, so will publish this immediately!
In France we often have lots of left over bread because real French bread has no additives. I am loath to throw it away, but it can be past its best by the evening of the day we bought it.  You can keep sliced bread in the freezer and it will make passable toast, but pain, baguettes, boules, etc do not freeze well, so I am making a collection of recipes which will use up the left over bread lurking in the kitchen. It salves my conscience as I have heard too many stories about rationing (in England) and the Depression (in the USA) to throw it away lightly. 

Sliced Bread

French Toast

This is an all-time favourite from my childhood.  I still love to make it for a leisurely breakfast.

Use sliced bread with crusts removed. (You can use the crusts for breadcrumbs.)

Beat an egg and about  ¼ cup of milk per person in a shallow bowl.

Dip the bread in the egg mixture and allow it to soak up some of the mixture before turning it over and allowing the other side to soak up the rest. It needs to be soggy.

Heat one Tablespoon vegetable oil and one knob of butter in a frying pan.

Fry the bread until golden on each side.

Put on a plate and sprinkle with icing sugar.

Serve with maple syrup or jam or fresh fruit.

(N.B. For posh French toast, use brioche.)

Croutons or Fried Bread

Heat enough olive oil in a pan to cover the base.

Meanwhile, slice the bread or remove the crusts and cut it into small cubes.

Fry carefully in the oil until golden. Bread burns easily, so keep an eye on it. Use it to make salads more interesting or serve it with a topping of goats cheese with walnuts and balsamic dressing. I use it as an excuse to make Caesar Salad.

Baguettes

French Bread Pizza

On holiday with our young children, we used to make these out of baguettes. Everyone loved them because they could have the toppings they liked and they were quick and easy to make. Served with a salad they make a nutritious meal.

Heat the oven or the grill.

Slice the baguettes lengthways and then in manageable lengths, i.e. 4 – 6 inches.

Spread the cut side of each one with tomato puree and then add the toppings you like.  These might include salami, ham, mushrooms. fresh tomatoes, olives, etc.

Top with grated cheese (in France we use grated Emmenthal).

Grill or bake until the cheese is melted and bubbling.  Watch them disappear.

Garlic Bread

Slice baguettes in half lengthways and smear the cut sides with butter and garlic seasoning.  Alternatively, you can make garlic butter by using softened butter and crushed garlic. (This version is more authentic.) Put the buttered sides together and wrap in foil.  Bake about 10 minutes until the bread is warm and the butter is oozing. N.B. For a healthier version, use olive oil, garlic  and add a little chopped parsley to give flavor.

Things to do with Left Over Bread (Besides Feeding it to the Ducks).

In France we often have lots of left over bread because real French bread has no additives. I am loath to throw it away, but it can be past its best by the evening of the day we bought it.  You can keep sliced bread in the freezer and it will make passable toast, but pain, baguettes, boules, etc do not freeze well, so I am making a collection of recipes which will use up the left over bread lurking in the kitchen. It salves my conscience as I have heard too many stories about rationing (in England) and the Depression (in the USA) to throw it away lightly. I am going to post these recipes as a mini series starting with recipes for breadcrumbs.

Things to do with Breadcrumbs

Gratin topping

Use enough breadcrumbs to completely cover your dish.  Dot with butter and sprinkle  with grated cheese.  Bake in the oven until the topping is golden and crusty. You can use this for anything from macaroni cheese to a casserole.  My favourite is ratatouille.  Covering it with a cheesy breadcrumb topping makes it into a good vegetarian meal.

Panna gritatta

Yum. These are just fried breadcrumbs which can be used to top simple pasta dishes. They give the dish texture. Jamie Oliver makes this by whizzing up bread crumbs, garlic and oil in a food processer then frying it gently in a dry pan. I’m wary of making my food processer smell of garlic, so I whiz up the bread crumbs and then heat the oil in a frying pan with a sliced clove of garlic. I fry the breadcrumbs in the seasoned oil and remove the garlic before serving to avoid overpowering everything. This is good on simple pasta dishes.  I use it on spaghetti with butter and parsley or on spaghetti with anchovies and garlic melted in a frying pan with a little oil.

Stuffed Tomatoes

Somewhere at home I have my late mother-in-law’s recipe for Tomatoes Farcie.  I think it goes like this:

Use one large tomato per person.

Slice each tomato in half horizontally and scoop out the seeds.

Turn upside down and drain on kitchen paper.

Mix breadcrumbs with melted butter and crushed garlic, then add some parsley, finely chopped and salt and pepper to taste.

Stuff each tomato generously so that the stuffing is rounded at the top.

Put in the oven until the stuffing is golden and crispy.

These are lovely served with lamb chops or as a starter on a bed of dark green leaves such as lambs lettuce or rocket. (N.B. You could use this stuffing in courgettes, marrows or peppers.  If you use peppers, you will need to blanch them first and serve them with a tomato sauce. Otherwise they will be quite dry.)

 Brown Tom

This is a recipe for when tomatoes are plentiful.  It consists of brown bread crumbs layered with tomatoes and baked in the oven. It could be a main lunch or supper dish.

You will need:

1 lb sliced tomatoes

1 onion (finely chopped)

Brown bread crumbs (about 4 slices)

Some bacon bits, finely cut up (optional)

Parsley

Basil

Butter

Salt and pepper

A little caster sugar

Method:

Butter an ovenproof dish.

Mix the breadcrumbs, bacon, onion and herbs together.

Make layers of the breadcrumb mixture, then the sliced tomatoes, seasoning them with salt, pepper and a tiny bit of sugar.

Continue until the ingredients are used up and finishing with the breadcrumb layer.

Dot with butter and bake at 200C/400F for 30 to 35 minutes until brown and bubbling.

Stuffing

Hubby never quite makes enough of this as we are all very greedy and there will be an undignified jostle to scrape out the last remaining crumbs from the serving dish.  There are no specific measurements here. This is one to just estimate what is enough of everything.  Soften  some chopped onions in a generous amount of oil and a little knob of butter.   (about 10 minutes)  Add a few chopped sage leaves or a little fresh thyme and some lemon zest to the pan and cook for another minute. Stir all of this into enough breadcrumbs to fill a buttered dish together with a beaten egg to bind the dish together.  Bake at 350 F / 180 C for about 30 minutes or until crusty on the top. We always have this as an accompaniment to a roast, but I think it would be good with poached eggs as well.

Cherry Clafouti

Cherries are bountiful in the markets at the moment, as are apricots, peaches and nectarines.  I bought a kilo of cherries and ate many of them right away, but decided to make a cherry desert for company.  Cherry Clafouti came to mind as it is a classic French dish, not too difficult to make and utterly delicious to eat.

The recipe is based on one from an old copy of The Cookery Year, published by the Reader’s Digest in the 1970s.  I’ve used this book for so many things. It has the best gingerbread recipe I know of and other tasty things.  This book is a great reference book for cooking basics as well as special things like this Clafouti.

To make Cherry Clafouti, you need:

1 ½ lbs of cherries (stoned, if possible)

3 eggs

3 level Tablespoons plain flour

Salt

3 Tablespoons sugar

15 ounce of milk

2 – 3 Tablespoons of butter

Method:

Stone the cherries

Put them into a buttered oven-proof dish

Make a pancake batter by whisking the eggs into the flour and then blending in the sugar, salt and milk.

Pour the batter over the cherries and dot with butter.

Bake at 425 F, 200 C for 25 – 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool to lukewarm. 

Sprinkle over with icing sugar and serve.

This is best served on the day it is made, but don’t worry, there won’t be any left anyway.