tashabear

I actually don't eat baked beans that often, nor lobster. Tourists like 'em though. A lot of what I eat and was brought up on are hearty dishes that I don't think would be that out of place in rural England. Considering that my dad's family is from Maine and my mom grew up on a dairy farm in central Nova Scotia, it should be unsurprising that I think a ploughman's lunch sounds delicious and I love Scotch eggs and the pub pies that my butcher makes.

The brown bread that served with beans is a steamed bread, and you can actually buy it in a can! If you want to try making your own, though, here's a recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/vie...WN-BREAD-104112 Ham and bean suppers are a traditional New England fundraiser, typically put on by fire departments, historical societies, and churches. Ham, baked beans, potato salad and dessert -- yum! My dad was a volunteer firefighter, and my family worked on these suppers for years; Dad's specialty was making the beans. Once there was a story on the news about a Boston restaurant called Durgin Park, and it was a source of wonderment for the reporter that they made 100 pounds of baked beans at a time. Dad just scoffed -- he'd make 500 pounds of beans at a time for the supper. Of course, now he can't make a small enough amount of beans for a family dinner... As for ranch dressing? It's just cool and creamy and tasty.

Using the petal lifter is a bitch, though.

As far as I'm concerned, being that I was born and raised in Massachusetts, a Yankee is anyone who is from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, or Rhode Island. (Unless you're a member of that baseball team from New York, in which case you suck. ) To a Southerner, it's anyone from north of the Mason-Dixon line. To someone from outside the US, it's someone from the US. Southerners tend to invest the word with the certain special "something" because of the Civil War. Personally, I'm proud to be a Yankee, because my family settled here as colonists before the Revolution, on both sides (though my mom's family was in Georgia and then Canada, because they were Loyalists). Norm Abram's show is called the New Yankee Workshop because he demonstrates techniques using power tools to create traditional New England furniture styles, whereas they traditionally would be made using hand tools. Apparently there is some controversy over that, which is ironic, considering that the circular saw was invented in 1813 by a Shaker woman from my hometown of Harvard, Massachusetts, named Tabitha Babbitt. There's a Babbitt Lane in Harvard to this very day. I haven't even started about the joys of fresh clam chowder or Maine lobster taken off the boat that very morning. You could always fly in to Logan and start there!

Regular apple cider is cloudy juice from pressed apples -- it's less acidic than apple juice. Hard cider is fermented so it's alcoholic. Apparently we have a long tradition of hard cider here in New England, and it is yummy. Everyone in the US thinks Yankee food is boring, but how can you argue with a regional culture that serves apple pie for breakfast? My favorite meal ever, though, is my mom's boiled dinner: smoked shoulder of ham boiled in a big pot with cabbage, baby onions, potatoes, and carrots. (I think my husband would find it perfect if we tossed a turnip in there, too.) Everything takes on the flavor of the ham and it's just delicious. And then for dessert we have blueberry grunt, which is dumplings cooked in blueberry sauce....I just made myself drool.

FYI, that handstitching page had info on sewing fabric, not leather. I'm very experienced at handsewing fabric, and it is extremely different from stitching leather.

That depends: do you want to leave them on the bike all the time, or do you want to take them with you? If the former, then they go under the seat. If the latter, then they just throw over the pillion, but you should tie them to a sissy bar or something so they don't come off. Or you can have the best of both worlds, and put snaplinks on the yoke that goes under the seat, and d-rings on the back of your bags. Then they're easily removable, but they won't fall off while you're in motion. That's what I want to do with the bags I'm working on right now.

That is truly lovely.

Not exactly. A donkey is the offspring of a mommy donkey and a daddy donkey. A mule is the offspring of a daddy donkey and a mommy horse. :-D They're almost always sterile.

Well, here's something on buckstitching: http://kingsmerecrafts.com/page99.html

The Marketing forum is there for the folks who want to sell their goods to discuss how to market themselves and their goods, plain and simple. It's not there specifically to discuss how to market LW. Does that make sense?

Frumenty is a wheat porridge (http://www.history.uk.com/recipes/index.php?archive=8), often made with bulgur wheat. Bulgur wheat is parboiled, dried, and de-branned wheat, usually durum wheat. I forgot to add that I also put a healthy dollop of honey in my sweet frumenty; it makes the apple cider less acidic. I get the bulgur in the organic aisle of my grocery store, usually Bob's Red Mill brand.

Actually, yes -- except I make a sweet version and have it for breakfast. I should make some; it'd be good while I'm fighting off this cold. I cook 1 cup of bulgar in 2 cups of apple cider (not hard cider!) and add butter and raisins. Om nom nom nom!

I was wondering the same thing -- it looks like there are holes at the points of the bib for thongs or strings to tie it to the frame. Or we can go with my smart ass answer, which is contact cement. :-D

I actually do feel loads better than I did when I got up, thanks! I need to print out a few things for tomorrow and then I'm hitting the rack again.

It was a gorgeous clear fall day in New England today. Did I... A ) Go for a ride on my motorcycle? B ) Go to my friend's birthday party? C ) Work on some leather projects? D ) None of the above? If you chose D, you are correct! I did none of these things, because I spent half the day sick in bed and the other half sick in a chair. Yey.

That's really hot, Art. Looks amazing on the bike! I have a tank that I rashed up from my Vulcan 500 -- I'm thinking of doing some experimentation on it with leather, and of course making a tank bib pattern.

What is this alleged difference?

Dedicated to discussing how to advertise? Or dedicated to posting ads?

Laurie, like the girl's name. The show was Jeeves and Wooster, but I was more thinking of him in his various incarnations on Blackadder. ...as I sit here watching The Eleventh Hour on BBC America...

Might this help? http://www.hideandfur.com/inventory/2213.html

It's always a source of amusement when they set a scene or even an entire book in the States, and then their characters still call an elevator a "lift" or an apartment a "flat". Throws me right out of the story. And it's just WEIRD to watch House and hear Hugh Laurie speaking with an absolutely perfect American accent, being an intelligent, evil bastard. Shouldn't he be an upper-class twit?

You can actually create "stamps" in Photoshop Elements to overlay on graphic images -- perfect application for this.

That is wicked cool and kind of hilarious.

*le sigh* Your customer is a very silly person. ;-)