Punchy Plum

I do believe this is the first post in which I feature clothing that I've sewn, which is interesting because most of my past projects have actually been garment sewing. I'll be sharing stuff I've made in the past as I get a chance to take photos...

...which brings us to today's post! I'm calling this the Punchy Plum dress.

It's plum!

and it's punchy!

I used Vogue pattern 8663 for this dress.

pattern drawing

It was pretty simple and I'm planning to make at least one or two more versions in the future. It's cute and flirty and has an interesting seamed detail around the neckline.

Sunburst seaming detail around neckline

I used a kind of bulky, gray zipper to add some interest to the back as well.

It's super comfortable, since it's knit, and I can even do weird things like this in it:

Yeah, this happened...

Plus! it matches my favorite shoes! Can a girl ask for anything more?

Ravioli Extravaganza!!!

There are certain things that are just not easy to do in a typical New York apartment. Complex culinary projects are especially difficult in my situation. I have approximately two square feet of counter space, and half of my tiny kitchen's floor space is taken up by my dog's crate. There's definitely no room for rolling things out.

Teamwork!

But, the Vanjinator has a whole house! And a big kitchen! And a lovely kitchen table on which to roll and fill and cut fresh ravioli! So we did it!

This was super fun. The pasta dough was very easy to make, using a food processor. We used smitten kitchen's pasta dough recipe.

The dough kind of mixed itself, and after taking a little nap under a bowl, it was cut into four equal pieces and passed through the pasta roller. We went all the way to the next-to-last setting, and the sheets of pasta were translucent and smooth and wonderful!

The first filling was sauteed altogether, a delicious combination of onion, arugula, tomatoes, mushrooms, and goat cheese.

I know it doesn't look like much, but this filling was grrrrrreat!

All ready to be sealed in!

Getting the air bubbles out

It was a bit difficult to get all the air bubbles out, and sometimes the attempt caused the pasta to tear, but it pressed back into place easily.

For the second filling, we made little caprese towers with a dollop of fresh pesto, a chunk of mozzerella, and half of a cherry tomato.

Fresh pesto!

They looked adorable all lined up, like little tomato soldiers!

We served the veg-goat cheese version with browned butter and sauteed bell pepper, and sprinkled plenty of parmesan over the caprese version.

They cooked up so quickly!

So good! So good! So good!

Oh, sweet dear 8 lb. 6 oz. newborn infant Jesus (Taladega Nights, anyone?), this was SO GOOD! Usually, when I have a really good meal, I'll really savor the first few bites and enjoy the wonderful flavor, but I get used to the awesome taste after a while. Not here. Not this time. Every single bite inspired a moment of dining silence. Amaze-balls.

For dessert, we filled a few ravioli with peanut butter and chocolate chips, and Will fried them before sprinkling a little sugar on top. Also, SO GOOD!

Sweet and fried!

I can't wait to do this again!