Selena's Bishop

 

The dress is all pleated, pleats are now counted and I am ready to smock.  I will be using the Dimity plate from the The Best of Australian Smocking and Embroidery, my go to book for smocking designs. 

 

Bishop dresses require that a "wave" design or some other very elastic design be used at the bottom of the smocked area. This allows the pleats to spread open as it falls over the child's upper chest and shoulders. 

Today is dehydrating tomatoes day and I am off to do that now. Hopefully I can get my half bushel into the dehydrator in one fell swoop. You can also dehydrate tomatoes in your oven at a very low temp like 150º. I only dry mine till they are dry but not leathery. 

Recipe:     

     Mix 2 tablespoons each of freshly ground pepper, kosher salt, and sugar. Cut roma tomatoes in half on the length. Over a bowl and with a spoon scrape out all the seedy wet stuff. Lay on your tray skin side down. Sprinkle with the spice mixture. You can be heavy handed here. Dehydrate for anwhere from 4-8 hours. This is very dependent on weather conditions and can vary a lot. Shoot for a slightly leathery tomato but not one any way near like what you have in the stores. Because they still hold moisture, bag em up in freezer ziplocs and freeze till the depths of February. Pull out a bag, throw into a fresh salad and dream of summers past. 

ETA: Just wanted to add, take that big bowl of juice and pulp that you scooped out and cook it down into a wonderful sauce. I added a garlic, a bit of grated onion, S&P, and two big tablespoons of freshly made pesto and cooked it all down until thick and sticking on the bottom. It was sooooo good.

Bunny