2 French dishes, 3 skirts, and 4 pies

This past week was my spring break and I was quite productive. Well, productive for everything but schoolwork. But that's what breaks are for, right? I had missed the previous week's French Friday with Dorie  since I get migraines from aged cheeses and my mom was in town. I decided this week to double up the recipes so I made the Beggar's Linguine that was assigned as well as Marie-Helene's Apple Cake that the group completed before I was a member.

The Beggar's Linguine was an interesting combination of flavors between the savory pistachios and almonds and the sweet figs and raisins. It was a very easy dish to make and took only about ten minutes total. While the linguine finishes cooking, you heat the nuts and fruit in a pan with lots of butter and then toss the cooked linguine in with it. Easy peasy. I probably wouldn't use quite so much butter next time. My only complaint was that it was difficult to get the noodles and the goodies in one bite, so I was either eating a bunch of veeeery buttery noodles or a few pistachios and figs. But if that's the worst thing, then it's not so bad.

Marie-Helene's Apple Cake was also quite lovely. It was surprisingly chilly and rainy out compared to the weather we'd been having, so one last wintery dessert seemed fitting. I didn't have any rum, so I substituted brandy, which seemed to have worked well. The cake developed a custardy consistency, but wasn't very heavy or dense. I think next time I might try it in a six-inch pan so it is even denser. It also reminded me of the gobs of Apfelkuchen I ate in Germany.



Since it was break, I also got some sewing done. I started with this tutorial with some Anna Maria Horner Little Folks voile that I'd gotten on sale. I don't love the fit since it's a little too voluminous, so I might go back and tailor it later.

I made some adjustments and wished that I'd started with the Kona cotton that I used for the next and saved the voile for when I had a better sense of what I was doing. Oh well. I liked the way this one turned out. The fabric isn't extraordinary quality, but it's comfortable and lightweight.

Finally I made this one using some Amy Butler fabric I'd squirreled away last spring. I made a happy accident with my measurements and had to use two panels for the main skirt instead of one and I think it was quite fortunate that I did. The skirt is a teeny bit shorter than I'm comfortable with, but it's growing on me (figuratively).

Since tomorrow is Pi Day, I've been in the kitchen all evening making four strawberry rhubarb pies. It's still too early for rhubarb, so I used frozen, but the strawberries were delicious and on extraordinary sale. Pictures of those later. Huzzah spring!