Sorry, Edna

I made a cape. I'm kind of in love with it.

Tweed rides/runs/rallys require suitable clothing and back in the initial planning stages of the rally, I decided it would be fun to make a cape. I originally thought I would make the Peppermint cape because it looked simple, didn't use a lot of fabric, and best of all, it's a free pattern, but the DC convinced me that it would just fall off my shoulders while riding. So the hunt was on for the best cape pattern.

Every body hoped that he would never come there again: P&P #27

Pride and Prejudice 2005.

I finally figured out my main problem with this movie: it's too sombre, too dramatic... too Brontë. It doesn't really have that bright and sparkling tone that characterizes P&P. The director decided to make this a story of two people who were attracted to each other from the beginning and it's so intense. From the very beginning, the music sets the tone of the movie. Aside from all the dialogue they leave out, they've changed most of the comic characters into... not comic characters. Brenda Blethyn's Mrs. Bennet is kind of a sympathetic person (in fact, she and Mr. Bennet seem to be kind of in love, which, just, NO), Judy Dench's Lady Catherine is kind of imposing. Mary isn't pompous at all; in fact, she's rather sweet. and Kitty seems pretty normal. I dare say this makes all the characters more like real people than caricatures, but for heaven's sake! This is P&P!

Pancake of the Month, take one, again: Pumpkin pancakes

What do you get when you divide the circumference of a pumpkin by its diameter?

It is no longer October, but it is still time for all things pumpkin. Pumpkin cupcakes, pumpkin beer, pumpkin cookies... pumpkin pancakes. Yay for clichés! I'm sort of surprised I didn't try these last year. This recipe comes from All Recipes, and I made some slight changes. Since you use vinegar + milk to make a buttermilk substitute, I used buttermilk instead. At the suggestion of a reviewer, I added 1/2 tsp nutmeg. I also did not measure the pumpkin carefully, so there was slightly more than one cup in there.

The verdict?

They are terrifically fluffy, although they could stand to have more of a pumpkin flavour. Really yummy with maple syrup and butter. The DC thought they had just the right amount of spice, and said "this is what pumpkin-flavoured stuff is supposed to taste like." The recipe says it will make 12 pancakes, and I got 12 using generous 1/4 cup scoops.

I forgot to spray the griddle (which I'm still happily accepting suggestions for on how to de-blacken it, btw), so it was a bit of an effort to flip the first ones. When I flipped the third one, I was trying to spray the pan when it slid off the spatula and landed, gooey side-down, on top of the unflipped fourth pancake. Once in a lifetime shot.


The observant reader will note that these were the pancakes I meant to make in October as my second pancake, but did not. I will make a second type this month, once I get out from under all this marking. I'm thinking chai.

Definite probability of Macaron: The hunt for Red October continues...

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In a great rush and very much at the last minute^*, I made the Definite Probability of Colette's Macaron in time both to wear for
Hallowe'en at school and to have as a Sew Red October dress. I had these quilting-weight card fabrics sitting in my gently increasing stash for a while and in an effort to make some room in the bins, I resolved to make something out of them to wear when I teach probability, which dubious pleasure I have in two different courses this year^**. The irony is that while I am in the middle of the probability chapter for one of those courses, I didn't see that class yesterday. Oh well.