Noo Year Newdle Party

Okay, that was not good, but it is the theme I came up with for this year’s holiday party. It is now a tradition (three years strong) that we throw a holiday party and I cook lots of food. Last year, we tried to do it for NYE but I think only one couple actually stayed until midnight. This year, we decided (okay, I decided but he went along with it) that December 30th would do. Everybody was gone by 9:30 pm but honestly, I still think of it as a success. We had a good time! Also, I was able to give away enough leftovers that we only have to eat the party remnants for like three days.

So, theme-wise, I decided on noodles but I could not think of any noodle-based appetizers, so I made samosas because everybody likes them, including me! I did come up with more noodle dishes than I ended up making but thankfully cut back because adding noodle kugel, pho, stroganoff, etc. would have just made my life more stressful! I did have plenty to do, especially since I made the spaghetti noodles myself. I did not try to make the others from scratch though, only the one kind I have successfully made before.

I ended up making five noodle dishes. Well, four plus a ramen bar of sorts. I made macaroni & cheese, using several kinds of cheese plus cream instead of milk for the béchamel sauce. I baked it, of course, although I did not top it with breadcrumbs this time, I was a little wary since I burned the top the last time I did that although I did put plenty of extra cheese on the top and broil it just a bit. To go with my homemade noodles and marinara sauce, I made a bunch of meatballs. I used soy milk in the panade so that they would be friendly to my fiancé’s tummy but otherwise they were pretty standard.

The pad thai is probably what turned out the worst among my dishes. The flavor was okay but I oversteeped the rice noodles and so they kind of clumped up and fell apart instead of having the proper noodle texture. On the other hand, the japchae turned out quite well! I was a little self-conscious about it since my [future] mother-in-law served japchae just two days before and we actually had some leftover but I was assured that it was excellent, so I will happily take that compliment!

For the ramen bar, I made a broth from chicken thigh bones plus scraps from onions, mushrooms, garlic, and ginger. Of course I threw in some peppercorns and bay leaves and just a pinch of MSG. For protein, I made poached chicken, air fried tofu, and marinated soft-boiled eggs. I was actually very pleased with how the eggs turned out, the yolks were properly jammy in my [admittedly biased] opinion. Vegetable-wise, I sautéed some bok choy and some beech mushrooms, which are pretty much my go-to ramen veggies, and I cut up some scallions that are amazingly still growing in a pot outside.

I deep fried the samosas because; yum! I did cheat a little and use egg roll wrappers instead of making my own dough but I do not feel too guilty about that. I made the filling myself and two kinds of chutney, so I am still a passable Indian Auntie! I don’t tend to do dessert but a friend / guest is good at it and she made delicious oreo truffles and dipped wafers. We also put out a cookie tray from my MIL. It was the second one we received this year. I am definitely developing a cookie problem!

So, other than feeding people, one of the things that excited me the most about the party was the opportunity to use my new Christmas present – a super fancy Japanese chef’s knife. It is great, it cuts super easily through carrots; mushrooms are like butter; onions give off fewer fumes! Of course, that level of sharpness does come with its dangers. My fiancé warned me several times not to cut myself and I replied that was less likely with such a sharp knife since I would not be exerting as much pressure. Even so, he said, I needed to be careful.

I concentrated very hard on not cutting the fingers of my left hand and so was super surprised when I saw some blood on the cutting board before I even felt the pain. It turns out, I should have been more worried about my right hand! How did I cut my dominant hand? By choking up too much on the knife and letting my index finger touch the base of it. That is a mistake I will [hopefully] not be repeating anytime soon! The cut was clean but deep and long and it just kept bleeding, keeping me from being able to bandage it adequately right away. I left a lot of blood droplets as I flitted about trying to take care of it but eventually I managed to staunch the bleeding with some tightly wrapped gauze. It is mostly on its way to healing now but even four days later I have to keep a bandage on it in order to protect my environment from occasional blood droplets. Also, the affected finger is definitely swollen but I guess that is to be expected. I am keeping an eye on it for pus but am not too worried, I am working to keep it clean.

I also burned myself a little on my Instant Pot. I was using the air fryer lid. That makes the rim of the metal pot get a lot hotter than pressure cooking does so when I leaned across it and my arm touched – ouch! (The photo is almost four days post-burn, so it has had time to significantly discolor.)

Despite a few wounds though, the party prep went well overall. A few friends could not join us due to illness but we had a decent crowd and, as always, a lot of fun doing a white elephant gift exchange. Personally, I gave everybody socks! They were selected for each person individually, like when I got them all mugs last year or tee shirts the year before. I don’t know what generic / personal gift I will be able to come up with for next year! I might have to start thinking early.

The Home Stretch – Seamista Completed!

As time was winding down before the Halloween party we planned to attend, I had to ramp up my sewing! I worked to make at least one costume component per night after work the week leading up to Halloween. Unfortunately, I ended up re-making a couple of components so I was sewing up until just minutes before we left the house. I was also running around trying to get my culinary contributions in order as well. When we showed up at the party though, it was in full costume and with beef chili, nacho cheese, and pumpkin cheesecake in tow!

I thought a lot about Mermista’s trident and although it would have been nice to get a proper-looking prop, I knew I would not have time to make one from scratch, so I decided to settle for one that was about the right color thanks to spray paint. I doubt anybody actually noticed the difference anyway. I started early-ish in the week so that I could put on a couple of coats although I ended up with just one and a half coats thanks to the light but constant rain.

Also very easy, was Seahawk’s neckerchief. I just hemmed a bandanna-sized piece of red fabric and folded it in half diagonally. I had originally made plans to tie it off then cut it an install a button or velcro for ease of fastening but my mother pointed out that was completely unnecessary and overly complicated so I just tied it on him when costume time came around. The one thing I did do for this piece was to actually measure the hem. I just eyeballed every other part since costume standards are not quite the same as regular clothes standards. I also re-made my gauntlets since the original pair was a bit snug and too short to really cover my forearms and I wanted to at least try to keep warm enough to avoid having to wear a sweater over my costume top.

I spent a lot of time figuring out the pattern for Mermista’s shoes. I looked at a lot of pictures and even briefly considered buying a pair online but since I will likely never wear them again, I decided otherwise. I had to think a while about how to make the tongue stick up but in the end, I decided to go with the fake leather I was already using for multiple other costume components. I made drawings and did math and had a handful of self-drafted pattern pieces when I started. I don’t know if I did the math wrong or did not account properly for the stretch but the first shoe cover I made was way too big. I did manage to adjust it to fit my sneaker but was not so pleased with the way it turned out in the end, especially after all of that work! So, I sort of reconfigured the pattern and cut out the velour with the stretch going the other way and was way happier with the result. After some waffling, I made a second new one instead of wearing the sub-par starter shoe cover beside the “good” one. In the end, these shoe covers ended up being the costume pieces of which I am the most proud!

Having only one leather boot cover, and one I was not pleased with at that, I decided to start afresh. After reading some advice online, I wrapped my boyfriend’s foot (and shoe) in plastic wrap to make a pattern, necessary to let him sleep in the morning of the party while I scrambled to finish his costume. I tried a much simpler route than my first attempt and the boot covers turned out way better, in my opinion. I topstitched the front seam down and, if I had had time would likely have finished the edges with the bias tape that I bought but given the time crunch, I left all edges raw. I am sure they would have looked nicer if I had taken the time to install zippers but I am not good at that and also did not have two properly sized zippers on hand. Fortunately, despite using a long-ish piece on the failed boot cover, I had just enough velcro to secure both of the replacement ones. What I did run out of was black elastic. I tore out what I had used on the bad boot and should have had enough but somehow misplaced the last bit of what I had bought and had to finish up with white elastic. All in all, the boot covers did not turn out that well but at least they did the job for long enough to take pictures. I did break another needle while sewing them, bringing my total needle count for this project to three. Fortunately, I have plenty in reserve!

I let my boyfriend put the shirt and pants on himself but then I “dressed” him in the belt, jacket, boot covers, gauntlets, kerchief, and purchased clip-on earrings. I also asked him to shave enough to stick on a cheap moustache. He agreed to wear the moustache and earrings only so long as they self-adhered and did not hurt too much, respectively.

The party was a lot of fun! There was a chili bar with lots of options, punch both alcoholic and virgin, and several delicious desserts. Since our friends who hosted have a teenage son, there were several high school boys there, which helped get the food all eaten up. The company was pretty mixed, with guests of many ages, and a lot of them did not know who we were supposed to be because they had not seen the awesomeness that is the new She-Ra on Netflix. That’s okay, I explained it to those who needed context and encouraged them all to see the awesomely representative show that inspired our outfits! Fortunately, enough people (okay, a tiny number) got it and were impressed enough to make me feel good about the effort I put in.

Delayed but progressing

The weekend before Halloween, I had planned to make some real progress on my costume project but circumstances intervened.

I took my car into the shop on Saturday morning because it was making a funny noise. Even though I had made an appointment, they did not even look at it until Sunday, meaning that I could not drive the forty miles or so to visit my grandmother as I do nearly every weekend. When I heard that on Saturday afternoon, I thought, as much as I would miss seeing my grandma, it would work out pretty well for my project. Then, when I woke up on Sunday morning, it felt like the light was stabbing me in the eye. Apparently, I somehow scratched my cornea and man, was it unpleasant! So, instead of spending my Sunday sewing, I spent it lying in the dark and listening to audiobooks because even reading or watching TV were not possible due to the pain in my eye. Anyway, I lost a whole day that way but fortunately, on Monday, my eye was much better. I went to see an ophthalmologist and she said the abrasion was already visibly healing without any indication of infection, so that was a relief!

That night, I was able to get back to costuming and threw myself into the challenge of making boot covers for the Sea Hawk costume. I definitely overthought it and while what I ended up with should work, it does not look great. The vinyl fake leather is not the easiest to work with although honestly, it is probably way easier than real leather (also much cheaper). I used some paper to make a template and went back and forth between my sewing room and the living room where my boyfriend was playing a video game to try it on him. He was fairly patient with my weirdness, or at least tolerant. I shaped the shoe part to go over his chosen footwear with elastic underneath and then added a long tube to go over his leg which fastens in the back with Velcro. I have not yet made the top foldover part and now I am thinking that I will start over instead of going on with this one. It took me two evenings to figure out the one boot and like five minutes to decide I hate it. Hopefully I will have time to re-do it before the party on Saturday afternoon.

When I got frustrated with the boot cover, I switched to make the Mermista gauntlets. Since they are made of stretchy fabric, the fit is not too important although I think I should have made them a little bigger. They are not uncomfortable but getting the narrowest part over my large hands was not super easy plus, they should probably be longer since they lose a little bit of length when they stretch. I do have enough fabric that I can make more assuming I have time left when I finish everything else. Also fairly easy were Seahawk’s gauntlets, I basically cut tetrahedrons of pleather, sewed a gold trim on one edge and put in Velcro to close them. I needed these small reliefs from the creativity required for the boots!

I don’t think the belt is anywhere near perfect but it should be fine. I screwed up the button hole but found a smaller button to sew on, so that worked out. I half-assed a little tube of gold fabric to stand in for what I think is supposed to be a buckle and made a paper pattern for a 3-D pouch, which can be slid onto the belt. Hopefully it will be able to hold a little bit of weight because, as previously mentioned, the Sea Hawk costume pants do not have pockets!

The next thing to tackle was Mermista’s pauldrons, which presented a challenge in the form of, well, form! I knew that I needed something to give them structure, especially since the fabric for them is stretchy (it matches her main outfit). I was thinking about paper, cardboard, maybe even buying some craft foam, then it occurred to me: I have plenty of pleather! So, I cut a shape out of the brown vinyl and sewed light turquoise fabric on top of it, pulling taut enough for a smooth finish but not so much that it pulled the base to bend, although in retrospect, perhaps I should have. The gold edges were a little harder to figure out. I cut a long 3″ wide strip of that fabric and sewed it around where I wanted the trim to be. I did it freehand, which was almost definitely a mistake since I had basically no chance at making the pair match. Overall though, I don’t think it is so bad! What I really do not know now though, is how I will fasten them onto my shoulders. Well, I am sure I will figure out something!

Also on Wednesday, I did a bit of shopping. I decided that I do not have time to create a proper Mermista trident. I know that accessories can really make the outfit but I would really stress myself out if I tried to do so. After looking around online, I found that Party City carries an inexpensive and decent trident although, of course, they did not have it in stock at the one near my work. I ordered it online for curbside pickup at the location closer to where I live and took a detour on my way home that day. I also threw into my cart a can of hair color spray in turquoise. Hopefully, it will work even on my dark hair! I also stopped by Lowe’s and picked up a can of spray paint because even though I decided not to make a proper trident from scratch, I determined that it should be at least close to the correct color. I put on one coat last night while it was still light enough out and will do at least one more before I consider it finished.

So, with two days left before the party, I just need to make shoe covers for Mermista and a red neckerchief and either one or two boots for Sea Hawk. Also, maybe a black headband for him too. I don’t think my boyfriend will let me dye his hair though, even with the wash-out spray and his hair is black, so I don’t know if that will be value-add at all.