What's Cookin' Good Lookin'?

Aprons seem to be my go-to with birthday presents. First the Berry and now le Boyfriend. He has a horrible habit of wiping his hands on his pants while cooking, and is generally a flamboyant cook so food gets everywhere. The number of flour handprints on his pants after a baking day is adorable but enough to drive me crazy. Cue the urgent need for an apron.

He is amazing in the kitchen, by the way. I'm not. He enjoys it, especially experimenting with spices and new flavours. He's like a mad scientist that way. I suppose it's his physics degree acting out. I usually watch in horror as he shakes an entire cup of spice over the pot, but the outcome is (almost) always delicious. But it's the baking that takes the cake (tee hee). For someone who measures by eye and takes an "ah, let's see where this goes" approach, it's alarming how good his food comes out. One day an entire bag of cocoa disappeared and I ate cupcakes for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and I have no regrets.

Sadly, I was left to try and live up to this on his birthday. My signature dish is pasta. If I'm feeling adventurous I'll add a sauce, otherwise it's grated cheese. But birthdays are important, so I planned something a bit more tasty. It took me approximately 3 hours in total, but that's including setting up the table and everything. There were flowers and candles involved.

Menu:

- Homemade potato cubes with rosemary, made with olive oil instead of cooking oil

- The Brinnjal Tart, which does not actually include brinjals. The first time I made it was with brinjals, and I'm brinnjal, and it was a successful meal, so that became its name. I made two different tarts:

- Mediteranean with baby tomatoes, spinach and feta

- Beefy veg, with beef strips, butternut, spinach, sweet potato, mushrooms, red peppers, garlic and topped with feta and gouda

The tarts are made using shortcrust pastry (although puff pastry works too) that's folded up around the ingredients to form a bowl. I just pinched where the folds overlapped to help keep its form but glazing it with egg works better. The ingredients are roasted briefly before being added to the pastry, just to ensure they're cooked through properly. Once the tarts are shaped, into the oven they go, and halfway through the cheese is added for extra melty deliciousness. Yum yum.

I laid the table and cracked open a bottle of chocolate pinotage, and we ate by candlelight. The flowers are still in the kitchen today, waiting to become potpourri.

The apron was made from two pieces of fabric, the navy and the chilli pattern. The neck halter strap was made from the same navy fabric and the waist ties from a large fabric ribbon. I attached the pockets, in the opposite fabric to the main piece, on both pieces. Right sides together, I sewed them together, leaving a small gap to turn it the right way round. I left the gap in the place where one of the side ties would go, so that the topstitching would be less noticeable. The fabric is a nice polyester cotton that was quite rigid already, so I just pressed it briefly. I then topstitched with my machine all around the edges for decoration.

Finally (something I should have done before sewing), I added the text. I simply love my little fabric paint applicator tubes, they're so easy to use and the paint doesn't blob out in bursts like my acrylic paint tubes. I wrote the letters in chalk first to make sure they were correctly placed, and done!

Completely reversible.

The pattern is just a trapezoid with a slight amount of curve around the top sides and a good curve on the bottom edges. I just folded the fabric down the centre and chalked it in by hand. Being a gift, I wanted it to be entirely self-made, pattern included.

My birthday is approaching in a few weeks and I was thinking of making a cutsie girly apron to match. Cooking together is one of my favourite parts of our relationship. Happy Birthday my love!

#apron #food #birthday #menswear