Rooby-Rooby-Roux!

I've been cooking up a storm, and last night I decided to make Greek lemon chicken soup. The soup was simple enough, but I decided to use roux to thicken it up. I had never made roux, so it was an exciting challenge. Roux prefers clarified butter, which was also new to me. I had instructions for both, but found the clarified butter part a bit confusing. My butter didn't have obvious separation, so I skimmed off the foam and just used the rest to make the roux, which seems to have come out just fine, though I guess I wouldn't really know the difference.

The nice thing about roux is that you can store it indefinitely in the fridge. It cooks best in a bigger batch, so I just made a whole batch and then put 4T amounts into a muffin tin and refrigerated overnight. Then I popped them out and put them, separated by wax paper, into a Ziploc bag.



Now, whenever I want to make soup, I can grab one circle of roux! Plus they look like a Rooby-Rooby-Roux Scooby snack!

As for my soup, it was perfect last night, but it really thickened up overnight. I had to add water at lunch today, but it still tasted great.

I got all the information for the butter, roux and soup from allrecipes.com.

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I may have stumbled across an exciting opportunity in the fashion design business. I studied some fashion design in Santa Fe a few years ago and took an interest in flat pattern design, but really, I had no idea what to do with that professionally in Albuquerque, since I was far from having the experience and knowledge I would need. And, well, Albuquerque is not exactly a mecca for the fashion design industry. Well, there is a chance I could be an assistant to a local patternmaker who has lots of experience and has worked for and with some big companies. I meet with her on Thursday. It would be just part time, a few hours a week, on top of my regular newspaper job, but I think the experience would be just amazing. If it pans out, I'll describe it in better detail. Wish me luck!

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I had to work a day shift today, and it was no fun getting up at 8 a.m. I know some of you are rolling your eyes because you get up at 5 or 6 in the morning, but, sorry, you are insane. Even 8 is way too early for life to start, though I must admit that the light is pretty in the morning. The world just feels different.

I am proud that I came home and got on the treadmill for a half-hour at 8 p.m.

I just finished cutting the fabric for the baby quilt I'm making, then I sewed most of the squares.



I bought the pattern from OhFransson on etsy.com. And I borrowed that photo from her until I can make my own. I just fell in love with the colors. My fabrics are slightly different, except the animal fabric. Click the photo to buy the pattern.

Here are my squares.



With the two photos next to each other, I realize now that I am missing all of that lovely green. That was what I was attracted to in the first place. How did I do this? It was so stressful trying to pick the fabrics and I really was trying to get it similar to the original. Huh. There's a small chance I'll look for a green for the animal print squares. I've only sewn four of the 12, so I could still change it without too much work.