Walnut Spinney

A yard is enough

2012-01-11T00:02:00.002-05:00

Sometimes I buy a yard of a fabric I just can't pass by. It's only a yard and I can find a way to use it up, right? Well, yes, most of the time. (And that's what I tell DH...) But sometimes I just can't find the right project to commit it to. In the case of the yard of cotton I used for my latest quilting project, the design was too big to cut up neatly and I couldn't bring myself to cut it up in small pieces to utilize it for just the bright colors -- I wanted a project that would take advantage of the design and the colors. I really liked that yard.

Then when I was searching for just the right design for a baby quilt intended as a gift for a friend's adoption, I came across a book at the library, Joan Ford's Scrap Therapy: Cut the scraps and a project she calls "Once Upon a Scrap". As soon as I saw the picture, I knew I wanted to make that quilt and I knew exactly which piece of fabric I wanted to use for the three main sections.

As often happens once I decide on a "dream project" (one that incorporates and builds off favorite fabric, fiber, color, and/or design), the other bits came together without much effort. I used odd bits of cottons I had on hand to cut out almost all of the 180 2-inch squares required for the two patchwork sections. It was a lot of fun searching out blues, greens, reds, yellows in my fabric stash. And I even found a couple of orange prints to use.

Because my mind usually tries to organize things I'm working with into patterns even when I don't want it to, I laid the stacks of colorful squares out on the ironing board and began to play with their layout. I wanted to keep the patchwork section colorful and free without a discernible color placement order. To aid that I purposely cut no more than 10 or 12 squares of any fabric so I wouldn't be able to fall back on a coordinated presentation.

I did end up buying a black, horse shoe-patterned fat quarter that jumped out at me on a trip to the local fabric store where I also found the perfect mottled blue cotton used for one of the borders and the soft flannel print used for the backing. (And what I actually went there to purchase!) Also, I used a wide green double-fold bias tape for the binding because I think it wears better than the straight-cut quilting cotton which the directions called for and while my best wish for this quilt is that it's worn to tatters by the little one it's intended for, I don't want it to be in tatters due to shoddy fabric or workmanship!

The cotton batting recommended quilting or tying at least every 4" or so and since I used flannel for the backing I planned to hand-quilt. (I don't machine-quilt when using flannel for backing as I always have trouble with it "ruffling". YMMV) The simple design encouraged me to just "quilt in the ditch" but the large landscape sections and the long blue border required more coverage.

DH suggested I do a simple block pattern across those areas but when I attempted that, the white quilting thread didn't look right to me. Usually I love a simple, primitive quilted design like that but it seemed to distract from the colorful quilt. The fabric I couldn't bring myself to cut was instead cut up by little white stitches. Well, not that little -- I average 6-8 stitches to the inch when quilting. My grandmother, who hand-quilted all her work, considered anything less than 10-12 stitches to the inch to be a hazard as, in her words, "you could get your toenail caught in stitches that big!"

So this quilt features hand-quilting and tying. I used embroidery floss, blue for the border and green for the design print, to tie the layers together that were deemed not suited to quilting. DH asked me why I didn't consider hand-quilting with colored thread but I couldn't bring myself to use anything except my usual white cotton quilting thread for the hand-quilting. Traditions are hard to break, you know?

One lost turkey yields quite a few current and future meals

2012-01-09T20:07:00.004-05:00

Trying to clear out the chest freezer before we defrost it later this month and found a turkey. Yes, a 22-lb turkey, in fact. I don't know where it's been hiding but I spotted it under bags of frozen nectarines and strawberries intended for smoothies.

What's worse than admitting I lost a turkey in a large chest freezer? Admitting I haven't bought a frozen turkey in at least 2 years, maybe longer.

The turkey didn't show any signs of freezer burn but our manual-defrost chest freezer will hold well-wrapped meats and most produce in good condition for a long time. Drawbacks? It needs to be defrosted every 12- to 18-months and, if you're short like me, plan on standing on your head to retrieve anything that falls to the very bottom.

Because the outside temperature stayed in the 30s during the day (lower at night), I let the turkey thaw outside for several days. Instead of taking up (a LOT of!) space in the refrigerator, it sat (still sealed in plastic) on the deck in a large enamelware dishpan covered by a laundry tub. When it had thawed enough to allow the giblets and turkey neck to be retrieved from the cavities, DH plunged the turkey into a 5-gal (food-grade) bucket of brine (recipe here), enough to cover the turkey completely and set the covered bucket outside in the cold. Overnight temp was well below freezing but the high concentration of salt and sugar in the brine keeps it from freezing. I swear by brining -- it does wonders for a turkey, especially an aged one.

After brining overnight, I drained the turkey and soaked it in buttermilk for several hours. I did this because I've found with this step the skin will turn the most gorgeous perfectly-roasted brown color, even in a roaster oven, and, perhaps more importantly, the buttermilk soak lessens the saltiness of the pan drippings. Before I started taking this extra step, I didn't like using the pan drippings to make gravy or add to stock.

Rather than use a rack, I put carrots, onion wedges and celery stalks on the bottom of the pan under the turkey. They add good flavor. When the drippings are cooled in the refrigerator, it's easy to lift off the solidified fat that rises to the top. The gelled liquid goes back in the roaster along with the bones, skin and other bits and pieces plus water to make rich turkey stock.

This time, I cut up the roast turkey immediately, while still hot, and readied about half of it for canning immediately. I heated (home-canned) seasoned chicken broth in a pot and added the turkey to it as I carved. Then transferred the hot chunks of turkey to pint jars (ended up with 8) and added the hot broth to cover. Processed for 75 minutes while we had dinner: turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy, butternut squash and peas. The rest of the meat went in the refrigerator destined for several days worth of hot turkey sandwiches with mashed potatoes and gravy, cold turkey sandwiches, turkey hash and, one of DS's favorites, turkey vegetable soup.

As soon as it was stripped, the turkey carcass went into the roaster oven which still contained the warm drippings and roasted vegetables. I added the roasted skin, the still-raw turkey neck and the gizzard from the giblet pack along with some fresh thyme, rosemary and sage leaves and about 3 gallons of water. The turkey stock simmered on a low setting (200ºF.?) for several hours while the canner was going and I cleaned up the kitchen. By then it was nighttime and I was ready to call it quits for the day. So DH helped me strain out the bones, skin and vegetables and set the covered roaster oven outside under the laundry tub till morning.

It was definitely cold enough overnight to chill the turkey stock thoroughly and I lifted off almost 3 cups of white turkey fat the next day. It's great for making pastry or biscuits to top a pot pie. The turkey stock I brought to a simmer, still in the roaster oven, and then jarred and processed in the pressure canner for 25 minutes. I really love the tall AA canner we have as it lets me stack jars so I could do all 11 quarts of turkey stock in one batch -- a definite time-saver.

I used part of the turkey fat to make potpie crackers which we ate with, naturally enough, turkey pot pie made from part of the leftover turkey. DH and DS also like the potpie crackers in their turkey vegetable soup instead of oyster crackers or crushed saltines but I've never been one to put crackers in my soup (served alongside, yes!) so I can't recommend that personally but even plain, as a snack, they're pretty good...

Potpie Crackers
(adapted from Doris Janzen Longacre's More-with-Less Cookbook and attributed to Doris Brubaker, Mt. Joy, PA)

3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup turkey fat, other shortening or lard, or butter
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk, kefir, yogurt or buttermilk

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cut in fat. Add eggs and milk, stir lightly and form into a ball. Divide dough into 3 or 4 parts. Roll each out on a lightly floured board, as for thin pie crust.

Either cut and transfer each 1" square or lift dough and lay in cookie sheet before cutting into small squares. Bake at 375ºF. for 10 minutes or until crackers are lightly browned. In my oven, the bottoms brown long before the tops -- check carefully.

Crackers keep well in tightly-covered container so can be made in advance. Except at my house the fact that they will keep is no guarantee that I can keep them. See note above regarding snacking...

Serve with creamed turkey or chicken, soups, anywhere you might think to serve dumplings or saltines.

Creamed turkey or chicken (like a potpie filling)
(adapted from Doris Janzen Longacre's More-with-Less Cookbook)

1/4 cup turkey or chicken fat or butter
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped (optional)
1/4 cup flour
2 cups turkey stock or chicken broth
1 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste
2-to-3 cups diced, cooked turkey or chicken
1 cup frozen peas or peas and carrots (optional)

Melt fat in heavy saucepan. Add onion, and celery if using, and sauté until translucent. Sprinkle flour over all, stir, and cook until bubbly.

Add liquids. Cook, stirring constantly, until smooth and thickened. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add frozen peas and turkey. Heat through and serve with potpie crackers.

Instead of peas, try adding a cup or two of any favorite leftover cooked vegetable you have on hand -- chopped broccoli, diced potatoes, or green beans are ones we like to add.

Last year it was felted hearts,

2012-01-03T17:21:00.001-05:00

This year it's stockings -- elvish-styled stockings.

I don't know if it was DS's insistence that I read all four of Paolini's Inheritance Cycle books in late November or just one of those things, but when I sat down to make an ornament for my guild's annual exchange an elf bootie is what I kept coming back to no matter how many other ideas I tossed around. That's pretty much the same thing that happened last year when I made Grinch-styled hearts, from the same felted wool sweater...

Used a stocking template I found in a book, Sweater Renewal by Sharon Franco Rothschild, but have since run across Rothschild's original template in a November 2009 post on the Etsy blog. You can find her version and a link to a pdf including the template at this link.

Even though I think I was channeling elves this year instead of Grinch hearts, I couldn't seem to let go of the color combos that still remind me a bit of Dr. Seuss and the Grinch...

So far I've made three, one for the guild ornament exchange, one for the local homeschool support group exchange and one for my aunt. Each is a little different as I played with the embroidery stitches but they all share the same overall shape and the feather-stitching (plus beads down the front) following the seam lines. I used a combination of regular DMC embroidery floss and pearl cottons.

And perhaps it's more than just Paolini's books influencing the elfish choice this year. It also could be I was influenced by these little guys who live in my corner china press. They were my mom's when I was little and she gave them to me a few years ago -- I still like them.

They were always so cheerful-looking when I'd spot them under one of her flower arrangements or just hanging out on a shelf somewhere. I couldn't pass them up when she offered.

Chris' dice bag

2012-01-02T17:24:00.001-05:00

Two years ago I made a chulo for my nephew. It was a surprise but, fortunately, he really liked it. So much so that he requested a knitted bag to hold his dice -- said the other guys mostly used those velvety Crown Royal bottle bags but he wanted something different.

Nothing I like more than making something I know someone wants so I said, no problem! And started looking around for a pattern for a knitted dice bag. Ravelry's pattern library yielded just what I was looking for -- Nina Hyland's Deep Sea Flower Dice Bag made up in Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn.

But when I was all but finished, just in time for Christmas Day 2010, you understand, DH took one look and said "that won't hold enough dice!" So I told Chris I had to frog my first attempt but would get a larger one finished asap. The only problem was I really wanted to make the Deep Sea Flower one. None of the other bag patterns I came across appealed to me at all.

So I decided to adapt the pattern by increasing to six petals instead of four. That should make the bag about 50% bigger in diameter. Surely that would hold enough dice for 40k... It seemed easy enough, except as often happens to me, I was in a hurry to get to the part I really liked, the flame-stitch-looking petal.

The first part of the pattern is all about knitting a small square which is used as the bottom of the bag. Stitches are picked up around the square to create the sides or petals. But if I wanted to increase the number of petals, I would need to increase the bottom of the bag, too. A hexagon instead of a square seemed like the way to go. But I didn't have a pattern, couldn't find one quickly enough so decided to jump ahead to the fun part. I could always go about adding the bottom last, couldn't I?

Well, I could and probably should but for some reason, when I was ready to do so, I couldn't get my mind wrapped around reversing the pattern and working my way down to a minimum number of stitches on my needles -- sort of like drawing up a hat at the crown or finishing my favorite knit houseshoes at the toe. So I was left with this which I carried around in my knitting bag for several months.

Took it out at when fiber-y friends would gather and asked for ideas. Which I received more than once but, it was like a cruel curse, as soon as I'd get home and try to decipher my notes and remember what seemed so reasonable, and yes, even sounded easy when told to me, wouldn't come together in my head and translate to my needles. For some reason, I can "think" in crochet but I struggle to convert to a pattern anything knitted.

Finally, it was December again and I still hadn't finished last year's gift. (This year's gift was to be a set of steampunk-styled dice.) So I decided to go with another method and knitted a short-row hexagon (using this dishcloth pattern as a guideline), seamed it together and picked up around the edges just as the original pattern instructed but since I had 6-sides to work with I picked up a total of 90 stitches rather than 60. That went fast and I was soon knitting away on the part I (still) liked best.

It took me about two days to finish the newly-started bag what with all the other holiday stuff going on. But I'd had 12 months of it hanging over my head.

Am I the only one who does this kind of stuff? Surely not.

But now I can heave a big sigh of relief that I have that project out of the way and move on to the next project -- when asked what he'd like for Christmas 2012, Chris said hand-knit gloves...

Never give up, that's my motto...

2011-12-06T17:25:00.000-05:00

I love Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. As a child, I only knew it as the written story. Then somewhere along the line, probably on late night tv, I saw the 1938 film with Reginald Owen as Ebenezer Scrooge. Of course, I've since seen a lot of newer film versions, too, including a modern adaptation, Scrooged, with Bill Murray. And, I remember at least two animated versions, one that must be a Walt Disney interpretation starring one of Donald Duck's relatives and another with Mr. Magoo as Scrooge. I admit it -- if there's an adaptation of Carol, I'm likely at least to give it a chance. (There's even a free audiobook version available through LibriVox on archive.org.) But it has to be pretty darn good (and few are) to merit a second viewing because Dickens' words are wonderful all on their own.

For 11 years I've been planning to see A Christmas Carol at Blackfriars Playhouse. It's Dickens' work adapted for the stage, it's nearby and it's always performed by talented actors -- this year ASC's Almost Blasphemy Tour troupe. Every year, I remember to check out the performance schedule months in advance and even go so far as to write in a few "good dates" on my calendar. Then other things come up. Things that, like this play, are only happening during the Christmas season. And another year goes by.

But early last week a friend forwarded a note about a full dress rehearsal scheduled for Sunday evening and open to the public. It wasn't on my calendar. And we didn't have anything else on the calendar for that night, either. So we finally made it to Blackfriars to see Carol. And, boy, am I glad we did. It was great!! Now I just need to put it on the calendar for next year because we want to go back and watch it all over again...

It's started.

2011-12-03T05:04:00.000-05:00

There are a lot of things I should be doing. But earlier this week I spent some time crafting -- working on a Christmas tree-themed gift for a swap on Chickens in the Road.

Once again my camera's failing me on color translation but, trust me, I think I'm channeling Dr. Seuss this year. The green in the green-and-red print fabric reminds me of the Osage-orange globes my mom gave me this fall. (Osage orange trees are rare around here so naturally I want one...)

I went searching for handmade gift ideas and quickly found the appliqued tea towel pattern. From there it was easy to decide on the knitted dishcloth I found through Ravelry and then, when I had a few scraps of the printed fabrics leftover, I found the patchwork ornaments through a fun November challenge titled "No Ugly Ornaments". I think I'm going to try #19, the origami dress ornaments next.

Today it's back to regular chores and I need to put up some more taco soup as DH and DS finished the last jar in November and are demanding a refill. But 'tis the season and all that, so I'll be back with another project to ~~show off~~ share shortly.

(Just after) Sunset

2011-11-26T23:29:00.001-05:00

5:23 pm, Saturday, November 26, 2011 (50ºF.)

Can't forget the lard

2011-10-11T05:17:00.001-04:00

This past weekend, a beautiful one by the way, we enjoyed an afternoon with homeschool friends at Polyface Farm. As always the day included a hayride and farm tour followed by a potluck picnic with delicious burgers made from salad bar beef and pigaerator pork. DH came home reinvigorated and ready to implement a few more ideas here at home and I came home with 20 pounds of creamy white pork fat for rendering.

This stuff is gorgeous. Yeah, it's fat and feels greasy but once I put it in the roaster oven, melt it for several hours over low heat and strain it into jars for storage, it's like buttah, I tell you. (Said with a plummy accent...) And, yes, I do this outside -- the roaster oven sets on a small table under the eaves on the back deck. At night I use a couple of bungee cords criss-crossed over the lid to be sure no small nocturnal animal gets into it as it slow cooks. If we had large nocturnal animals, I'd bring it into the garage or shed overnight but other than two coyotes last spring we don't seem to have that issue.

The rendering doesn't make a big mess and the smell isn't bad -- it's just a very rich roasting-meat smell. Makes me hungry, in fact, but also hangs around inside after the rendering's done. So outside is more practical though the wafting scent did raise the expectations of at least one visitor today who was disappointed to learn it was only lard rendering and not the beginning of a pig roast that he could smell.

Once the pork fat's melted, I strain the hot liquid lard through a couple layers of cheesecloth and pour it into canning jars. Put on lids and rings and the lard's ready to use. I store it along with our other canned goods as it will keep on the shelf for a good while. When I open a jar to use, I store the opened jar in the refrigerator. Cold lard makes the best pie crust...

Here's a link to stovetop directions for rendering lard. The basic idea is the same as how I do it except I use an electric roaster oven (set on 200-225ºF.) and don't add any water. If I was only rendering a pound or two, I'd probably go back to doing it on the stovetop or try out one of my crockpots so I could still set it outside.

One potato, two potato, three potato, four...

2011-09-06T20:07:00.001-04:00

Bushels of potatoes. Mostly Kennebecs, some Yukon Golds and some Red Pontiacs. All neatly sorted and stacked in (thrifted) bread racks, ready for cool, dark and humid winter storage.

That just leaves the culls. A few were culled because they were small. Past experience says that if we store the smallest potatoes, there'll be nothing left when/if they sprout. (Mid-winter we sort through the stored potatoes, breaking off any sprouts and removing rotten ones. Helps keep them through till spring -- or till we eat them all, whichever comes first.)

This was a good year for potatoes so we have only a small dishpan of itty bitty potatoes to deal with. Those won't last two weeks as I'll scrub a potful at a time, boil in their jackets and put them in the refrigerator for use in a baked dish like Doris' Golden Potatoes or make our favorite late morning breakfast -- home fries (cold boiled potatoes, sliced and fried) paired with garden tomatoes, cucumbers and onions in vinegar, plus farm fresh scrambled eggs with just-picked chives. Yum!

The other culls are potatoes injured while digging or showing damage from wire worms or other pests. A few more of those but still not a bad year.

Some will be used over the next few weeks in the usual manner -- mashed, scalloped, roasted or perhaps as oven fries. But today I'm filling the Excalibur with 10+ pounds of grated potatoes so we'll have dehydrated hash browns ready to prepare when needed.

Peeling, shredding and blanching that many potatoes is a tedious job but it's pouring rain outside and the heat from the stove burner and the dehydrator are welcome. DS's helping by running the Salad Shooter and even set up one of Susan Wise Bauer's Story of the World audiobooks for us to listen to as we work. Wish Alex Bellos' Here's Looking at Euclid was available as an audiobook, too, since we're using that as a math read-aloud this month but Jim Weiss' narration of Bauer's works are surprisingly soothing on this rainy day.

The difference between the white-fleshed Kennebec and Pontiac Red potatoes as compared to the buttery yellow Yukon Gold potatoes makes for some pretty hash browns when laid out on the dehydrator trays but once they're dried the difference will fade to almost nothing. When I'm ready to use, I'll pour boiling water over top, let them rehydrate for 20 minutes or so then prepare according to whatever recipe I'm following. If I'm following a recipe -- these are really good simply tossed on a hot greased griddle and quickly grilled. Maybe with a few onions added...

Doris' Golden Potatoes

2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter, divided
2 cups sour cream (*see note)
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
6 large potatoes, cooked -- approx. 6 cups diced

Cut cooked potatoes into a medium dice.

Combine cheese and 1/4 cup butter in medium saucepan; stir over low heat until cheese is melted. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream, onion, salt and pepper. Add potatoes, mixing gently.

Pour into a greased 2-quart casserole; dot with remaining butter. Bake at 350°F. for 30 minutes.

*Note:
I like to sub lightly drained kefir for the sour cream and when I'm short on cheddar, I use almost any hard cheese or blend of cheeses including Monterey jack, colby, or Swiss that's on hand. And leftover ham, diced and tossed with potatoes, and toasted breadcrumbs sprinkled on top before baking make nice additions.

Another broody hen comes through with two cute chicks

2011-07-20T06:35:00.001-04:00

Echa hatched two chicks and I think Snowball's envious. Or maybe she just wants her pen back...

Bierrocks for now and for the freezer or another idea for an extra head of cabbage...

2011-07-17T06:00:00.003-04:00

DH brought in a couple of heads of savoy cabbage from the garden when I'd asked for one. He does that a lot. Sometimes it's a push to use up what's ready in the garden. One extra head doesn't seem like enough to run through the dehydrator and what with all the other garden produce flowing through the kitchen, it can get lost in the chaos.

So I decided to make a batch of bierrocks for the freezer. Sort of kills two birds with one stone as we always need quick meals when the garden's growing and the outdoors is calling.

I took three pounds of ground beef from the freezer and a couple of red onions from the garden, and started them to cooking in a big skillet. I never bother thawing the ground beef first. Just put a teaspoon or so of oil (our beef is really lean) in the pan, add the frozen meat and put a lid on the pan over low heat. I check it every few minutes and break off the cooked meat, stirring everything together. Then put the lid on and let it cook a few more minutes. In a half hour or less, the meat's cooked and broken apart, while I've been able to work on the rest of the dish.

Homemade dough came together pretty fast, though I use the sponge method to get it off to a good start. And one could always use frozen bread or pizza dough if need be. The fresh-ground whole wheat dough I used this time is pretty light and the same one I use to make sandwich buns but a good pizza dough would make a great bierrocks' bread, too.

Once the meat and onions were done, I added the whole head of cabbage, shredded, to the pan and let it cook for another 8-10 minutes or so, until the cabbage was tender but still slightly crisp. Rolling out a piece of dough, a little smaller than a tennis ball, into an oval was the next step. I mounded a tablespoon or two of shredded cheese on each oval of dough and topped that with 2-3 tablespoons of the meat-cabbage mixture.

I like to fold half the oval over and leave enough of an edge on the bottom section of dough that I can overlap the bottom over the top edge and crimp them together with a fork. That's the best method I've found to contain the filling so little to none will leak out while baking. I do have a neat little plastic pocket-looking thing that supposedly lets you prepare the works in one step, then folds over to crimp the edges together. It works about half the time. Doing it by hand works all the time plus I don't have to worry about extra filling poking out the open hinge area of the plastic thing when folded. Overall, that kitchen tool is a good idea but not truly effective. Still can't bring myself to toss it, though.

So one extra head of savoy cabbage, three pounds of lean ground beef, two red onions and a batch of fresh ground whole wheat bread dough yielded three dozen small-hand-sized bierrocks or 33 for the freezer. (After all the hard work, we each had to have one for supper...)

Bierrocks for now or for the freezer

3 pounds ground beef
1 head cabbage, chopped or shredded
2 onions, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
12 ounces shredded cheese or sliced American cheese
1 batch of Wholegrain Hamburger Bun dough
OR 3 pounds frozen bread dough
1 egg, beaten (optional)

Brown ground beef in a large skillet with the onion. Drain grease, if necessary. Add cabbage and continue cooking 5-8 minutes or until onion is soft and cabbage is tender but still slightly crisp. Season with salt and pepper. Let cool while preparing dough.

After dough has risen the first time, roll out balls of dough into thin ovals about the size of your hand. Place a couple tablespoons of shredded cheese or half a slice of American cheese on one end of dough oval and top with meat-cabbage filling. Fold over and seal like a turnover. I like to use a large meat fork to press the edges together and fold the bottom edge over the top edge, then crimp to make a good seal.

Place on a baking sheet and brush with egg. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve immediately or cool and freeze. To reheat frozen, simply bake until hot. May also be frozen before baking and baked from frozen state. Will require longer baking time. Plan on at least 30 minutes.

Yield: about 30

Hamburger bun heaven

2011-07-16T06:22:00.005-04:00

Nothing beats a good hamburger. But the bun can make a good thing even better. I've been on a quest for a good wholegrain hamburger bun for a couple of years now and think I've finally found it using a variation on a recipe from a Bosch mixer cookbook, Healthy Recipes from the Heart of Our Homes by Phyllis Stanley and Shirley Heinmets. The buns even keep well in the freezer -- for the short-term, at least, and the prepared dough, shaped into rolls, then frozen before baking was a success, too. I haven't had time to test it for more than a few weeks on either method, tho. We keep wanting to thaw and eat them -- with a hamburger or just on their own. They're good!

Wholegrain Hamburger Buns

4 cups warm water
2 tablespoons sugar
7 cups fresh ground hard white wheat flour
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 tablespoons wheat gluten
2 tablespoons powdered milk
4 tablespoons Saf yeast
1 tablespoon salt
additional water, 2-3 tablespoons
additional fresh ground hard white wheat flour as needed

Using the dough hook, mix water, sugar, 7 cups flour, vinegar, oil, gluten, powdered milk and yeast together in the Bosch bowl until moistened. Let rise until it doubles.

Add salt and enough additional flour so the dough pulls away slightly from the sides of the bowl while on setting 1. Add another 2-3 tablespoons water and knead for 5 minutes.

Cut off dough pieces and shape lightly into rolls. My baking sheets are not full-size cookie sheets (9x12-inches) and I put 6 rolls on each. Let dough rise until doubled.

Bake for 20 minutes at 400ºF. until golden brown. Remove from oven and brush with butter while still hot.

One variation I've tried is using real buttermilk (left from churning butter) in lieu of the 4 cups of water. That made a great dough for bierrocks...

Rain + hot weather means garden's growing!

2011-07-14T13:58:00.000-04:00

Yes! For the first time in several years we're catching a few of the thunderstorms that bounce around here. No hail, thankfully, but some good rains at the right time make a great change in how the garden grows.

Not everything's perfect, of course. We lost the first planting of green beans to wildlife depredation so had to plant again. But we're on the third picking of the short double row DH finally got past the birds and rabbits and they're so good! So far we haven't gotten past the steam-and-eat stage but I have hopes of getting a cannerful one of these days.

Bistro Salad with homemade creamy Italian dressing

2011-06-19T06:11:00.001-04:00

Using up garden produce is sometimes a challenge. When faced with a bountiful harvest of sugar snap peas again, I find myself wondering how to prepare them. So far we've had them steamed, stir-fried, included in fried rice, as an ingredient in a green salad, tossed in a light chicken soup just before serving, and raw with dip. Some of those have appeared on the menu more than once -- not so much that I couldn't squeeze another one by the family but often enough I want to try something different.

So I rummaged in the fridge and found some cold roast chicken plus, thanks to a trip to the newly-opened Friendly City Food Co-op, there were a couple of tomatoes, a bell pepper and a cucumber. Since it's the Year of the Onion here, the garden could provide an onion, too. But our lettuce has started to turn bitter and bolt (go to seed) so if we were going to have a salad it would have to take a slightly different form from the usual lettuce-tomato-cucumber one. Green sugar snap peas could be the basis instead of lettuce. And the dressing would have to be homemade as that's one thing I've cut from my grocery list -- homemade dressing tastes better and I control the ingredients. This is what I came up with -- and we all loved it. Can't beat that kind of meal.

Bistro Salad with Creamy Italian Dressing

Makes 4 main dish servings

2 cups cooked cannellini or great northern beans, drained and rinsed
3/4 cup cooked chicken, chopped
1 small bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 small cucumber, diced
1/3 cup diced sweet onion
salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 cup creamy Italian dressing (recipe follows)
12 oz. sugar snap peas, optional
3 small tomatoes, optional

Combine first five ingredients in a large bowl and toss to combine. Pour dressing over salad and toss to coat. (I start with a 1/4 cup, add more if needed, then serve extra on the side for those who really like to drown a salad.) Taste and add salt and pepper if desired. Serve on a bed of raw sugar snap peas and sliced tomatoes. Crusty bread makes a good partner.

Creamy Italian Dressing
(adapted from Jim Long's excellent book, The Best Dressed Salad: World Famous Salad Dressings & Their Origins)
Makes about 1-1/4 cups

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup rice vinegar
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dry marjoram
1 teaspoons dry parsley
1/4 teaspoon dry basil
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1 tablespoon fresh chives, chopped
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon liquid lecithin, optional

Combine all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. Recipe may be halved or doubled. Will keep several weeks in refrigerator.

1 chick, 2 mama hens

2011-06-18T05:31:00.004-04:00

This is a conundrum almost worthy of King Solomon. We have one chick but two hens who are each sure the chick is hers. The chick doesn't seem unduly worried either way.

It started a few weeks ago when DS reported that Mrs. Badger, our grey Silkie bantam hen, had gone broody. Then after a few weeks we realized that E.B., a black hen, herself hatched in the backyard last year, wasn't out-and-about as much as usual -- reason? She was broody, too! And seated right beside Mrs. Badger in the corner. They even seemed to be sharing eggs. When one would take her daily break to eat and drink, the other attempted to cover all the eggs.

We were busy with other things (mainly garden and end-of-year homeschool activities) and instead of separating them and giving each a clutch of fertile eggs from the pastured girls as is our wont, we left them to it.

Well, late last week, DS went out to check for eggs and discovered there was a tiny chick tucked under a hen in the backyard coop. Problem was, we couldn't tell just which hen was claiming the chick. He (tail could indicate a cockerel but not sure yet) would pop out from under first one black wing then another. (Mrs. Badger, though known as a grey Silkie, is more of a charcoal color -- nearly indistinguishable from E.B.'s coloring except in bright light.)

Snowball and her two-month-old chicks were still in the baby pen so first we had to relocate them and re-situate the pen on fresh ground. Snowball still isn't happy about that -- she sits right outside the gate apparently waiting to be let back in though she did lead her chicks into the big girls' coop from the first night on. Since we couldn't tell which hen had hatched the chick, we decided to move both hens with the baby. We figured once they were in the baby pen, the "real" mama hen would take over and the other would want to be freed to roam again with the other backyard girls, guinea fowl and Badger, the grey Silkie bantam roo.

But that's not the way it was. Both hens would call the chick and he went to either; they all slept in the little house together. However, after a few days, E.B. seemed to want out -- she was pacing the pen, eyeing the other chickens in the yard as though she was ready to re-join them. Mrs. Badger and the chick just watched her from a distance. We thought "Aha! It's Mrs. Badger's chick and E.B.'s ready to give up and re-join the rest of the flock!" So DS let E.B. out yesterday afternoon and all seemed fine. Mrs. Badger called the chick to her when I gave them some treats and E.B., though she hung around the yard near the baby pen, ranged with the other girls.

Until evening, that is. Mama hens and their little chicks often go in for the night long before the rest of the chickens. Around 6:30 or 7:00 last night, well before the 9:00 bedtime the other chickens adapt this time of year, E.B. began to terrorize the other hens and Snowball's two chicks. I'd tossed out some leftover cornbread near the baby pen and the big girls were all enjoying their treat except for E.B. She would pick up a few crumbs, then charge an unsuspecting hen from the rear -- pulling tail feathers and seeming to ram into them before they could run off. Then she'd go back to pecking for crumbs. She's always been a bit of a bully so DS and I, watching from the deck, didn't think too much of it except that there was no cause. She had access to as many crumbs as any other chicken. I'd scattered them far and wide over that area of yard.

When the cornbread crumbs were mostly gone, E.B. began pacing, then practically loping around the chick pen. And the chick was trying to keep up with her on the inside. Mrs. Badger just sat quietly by the door to the little house and watched. Finally DS and I got the idea -- E.B. wanted in the chick pen. (We can be pretty dense sometimes.) So DS opened the gate and shooed her around the pen till she could see it was open. That's all it took. E.B. ran into the pen and almost immediately she and the chick were inside the little house settling down for the night. Mrs. Badger joined them in a few minutes and scooted right up to E.B. with the chick sort of in between them at the rear.
I tried to get a clear picture but only the hens were visible. DS suggested he take off the house's roof in order to spot the chick but that just stirred everyone up and they all hopped over the side walls fussing up a storm. Or maybe that was due to me using the flash -- hard to spot a little black fluffball between to big black fluffballs without proper lighting...
So for now, we have a chick who has two mamas. Perhaps one hen will get tired of the process and give up but no sign of that yet.

Yield: 1 pullet, 1 cockerel

2011-06-17T11:35:00.002-04:00

Snowball, the white Silkie bantam hen, hatched three eggs (gathered from the pastured hens) in late April. They were all Turken chicks. One was lost to an unknown cause about a week after hatching. The survivors have grown and are 10 weeks old now.

They're taller than Snowball now thanks to their long legs and probably weigh a little more, too. One is definitely a cockerel and, I'm pretty sure, the other is a pullet.
I love how her black-and-white patterning makes it look like she's wearing a cool cap. Sometimes Turkens just look like Woody Woodpecker to me so I like to see one that appears almost fashionable.

It's a jungle out there...

2011-06-07T05:21:00.057-04:00

Hollyhocks and spiny bear's breeches gone wild. Where will it end?

Spring, no, better make that early summer garden update

2011-06-06T05:52:00.002-04:00

A few days last week seemed to herald the end of spring -- the daytime temperatures shot up above 90ºF., nighttime lows (71ºF. one night) were not really low and everything seemed to shimmer with heat waves, especially me! But by the weekend it leveled off and Sunday was a gorgeous day. We went to a graduation party at a nearby lake in the afternoon and it was warm enough to swim yet comfortable enough in the shade to be, well, comfortable. I still think it's more summer than spring but, by the calendar, it's at least two more weeks till summer's official.

Jericho and Rouge d'Hiver lettuces are keepers for next year's garden list.

Savoy "Ace" cabbage proves it was worth searching out the seeds again this year.


Ruby red cabbage

Cool weather plants like lettuce and cabbage are still looking good. I really wanted to try row covers for the cabbage this year but the time came and went for covering them and I still hadn't decided which type to order. Maybe next year. So far they're not showing much, if any, damage so perhaps this won't be a bad year for cabbage loopers. One type of kale has gone to seed but I managed to fill the dehydrator with kale chips early last week using the other varieties that are hanging in there for now.

Various tomatoes

I made a crock of kimchi with the last of the Michihili cabbage which is billed as a "Chinese" cabbage. I like it but so do the bugs. A lot. Every year I say we won't plant it again because of how bug-eaten the leafy part becomes but the crisp stalk part more than makes up for what I have to trim away. And the sheep and chickens seem to like the leafy part -- bugs aren't an issue for them, I guess.

Caged cucumbers

The tomatoes are set out and, in some cases, staked plus green beans are up. If only the rabbits and birds would leave them alone. DH had to do a second planting for beans and some squash and cucumbers thanks to those rascally rabbits. He cages them till they're of a size that's no longer quite so tasty but I think the birds must nip off more than just beans because the rabbits I see in the late evening are too big to get through the cages...


Potatoes in bloom

Three types of potatoes (kennebec, pontiac red, and yukon gold) are blooming so I'm looking forward to scrabbling along the edges for new potatoes in a week or two when the flowers die back. DH always acts irritated when I do that but the one year I managed to hold off, he came in carrying a bunch of golf ball-size potatoes in his shirttail asking if I would fix them for dinner.

Steamed, stir fried, pickled and straight from the vine -- that's how we've had sugar snap peas so far. I picked a couple of pounds right after taking this photo on Saturday and we should have another picking ready today or tomorrow. They will keep blooming if I keep them picked and the temperature doesn't soar again (and stay that way).

Blooming herbs and sugar snap vines loaded with peas

I really need to pick some of the herbs in the surrounding beds and dry them or, in a few cases, use to flavor vinegar. They could all be used like that, really, but I've found that lovage, chive, and tarragon vinegars are the ones I use the most. One of the cold frames has a few Swiss chard stragglers that DH never got around to transplanting out and I plan to dry that and some of the kale to serve as a vegetable base I want to try. I dried kale and powdered it on its own last year and really enjoyed the little burst of "green" flavor it could add to soup and broth.

Other than herbs, the other more-or-less permanent plantings like berries (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries), rhubarb, garlic,etc. are not planted in the regular garden beds area. But a little over a year ago, my mother needed to relocate a gooseberry bush so DH said he'd just "heel it in" one of the garden beds. Well, after a brief discussion of where it should go "for good" -- I wanted to put it near the little one he constantly mows down in hopes he'd quit doing that, we promptly forgot about it and so it's stayed in it's temporary spot and, apparently, is thriving. DH took the headboard from an old maple bed frame I intended to use in a flower bed and set it as a support for the gooseberry. I guess I'll have to figure out how to prune this one but I kind of like the way it looks leaning on it's frame.

Watching the mist burn away as the day warms up - 6:30am on the first Saturday in June

Busy, busy, busy -- must get back to a menu plan, week of 2011-04-18 plus Paneer Manchurian

2011-04-18T17:57:00.000-04:00

Okay, so we're on this season's third (or is it the fourth?) complete new set of seedling flats under the lights. Lettuces, cabbages, broccoli, kale, spinach, lots of onions, some potatoes, horseradish, sugar snap peas, and some other cool weather veggies (daikon radishes? bok choy?) that I can't recall right now (nor ask DH because he's at work...) are growing out in the garden. The latest batch of seedlings, which DH spent part of the past weekend potting up in newspaper pots, is mainly tomatoes and peppers. We're getting ready for warm weather and the last average frost date for our area which is around May 15.

DS and I try to spend a couple hours every day weeding, trimming back herbs and mowing. Just yesterday I found, under the leaf mulch, two rhubarb starts that were planted late last year and I thought were lost to the fall's dry weather -- Cherry, I think, and Canada Red. Or maybe they're both Canada Red. I definitely need to keep better gardening notes...

And thinking of garden journaling, I should note that DH set out another grape vine last week, a seedless red called Reliance, plus, in an area of the backyard where plants often fail to thrive or even die because of the many black walnut trees, he put a couple of currant bushes. Currants, along with raspberries, are included on many plant lists suggested for tolerance to juglone. I'm determined to find productive plants that can co-exist, even thrive, with the black walnuts.

So whenever time is short (and, really, when isn't it?) I know I need to plan a menu in order to make the best use of available foods, leftovers, and prep time. Otherwise we end up stopping for a sub sandwich or chinese takeout when we'd be better off budgetwise and foodwise to eat at home or take a packed lunch with us. Not to mention it seems silly to spend so much time growing our own food only to declare we don't have time to prepare and eat it! So back to menu planning for me.

Monday, April 18
Potato soup with ham bits and fresh chives
Cornbread

Tuesday, April 19
Spaghetti with meat sauce
Carrots and celery sticks with ranch dressing as a dip

Wednesday, April 20
Egg salad or homemade pimiento cheese sandwiches
Harvey House slaw
Peach crisp

Thursday, April 21
Paneer Manchurian (recipe follows) over brown rice or noodles
Stir-fried vegetables (whatever's in the crisper or ready in the garden)
Stewed rhubarb

Friday, April 22
Scrambled eggs and/or sausage patties
Homemade biscuits and apple butter
Milk

Saturday, April 23
Country-style steak with gravy
Mashed potatoes
Green beans
Pickled beets

Sunday, April 24
Potato salad
Cold ham
Yeast rolls
Fruit salad
Oatmeal cookies or gingersnaps
_____________________________________________________

Paneer Manchurian

This is adapted from a recipe I found at dhara.org. The sauce is wonderful with the paneer but equally good on cubed and sauteed chicken or tofu, too.

12 to 16 ounces paneer, cubed
2 tablespoons grated ginger
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 poblano pepper, diced or other fresh pepper of your choice
1 cup chopped onion
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon sriracha sauce
up to 1/4 cup vegetable oil, divided

In a medium saucepan, heat a tablespoon of oil and add ginger, garlic, pepper and onion to saute. Stir in the soy sauce, ketchup and hot sauce after the onions have started to turn translucent and cook for a couple of minutes to blend flavors.

Meanwhile, heat a wok or iron skillet over high heat and add 2 tablespoons oil. Toss in half of the paneer and lightly brown on all sides, stirring or tossing as for stir-frying. Remove the toasted paneer to a holding dish or, if the sauce is finished, add to saucepan and toss lightly to coat. Add remaining 1 tablespoon of oil, if necessary, and repeat with the rest of the paneer. Serve with rice or noodles, if desired.

Notes: I use my home-canned Western Gourmet Ketchup but regular ketchup or even a thick tomato sauce (spicy or plain) would work, too.
I use a poblano pepper and opt for a hot sriracha sauce however it could be switched around a bit by choosing a hotter pepper but a milder sweet chile-garlic sauce instead of sriracha.

Baby quilt with embroidery -- finished!

2011-03-17T06:07:00.003-04:00

And before the baby's arrived, too. That's a new record.

I took the quilt block I embroidered last month and turned it into the center block for a 52"-square baby blanket. Backed with flannel and lined with a piece of white sheeting, it reminds me of two my grandmother made. They had tractors and farm animals and nursery rhyme scenes embroidered in the squares. And they wore out from my brother, my sister and I dragging them around wherever we went.

My embroidery wasn't as ambitious. The fun duckling with balloons in the center block was a full design, the other four embroidered blocks were done to supplement and tie the overall design together. So I chose four simple shapes from Doodle Stitching: Fresh & Fun Embroidery for Beginners -- I found a dragonfly, butterfly and duckling that echoed the printed duck fabric's designs and then added a balloon for the fourth block, lifted from the larger duckling design in the center block.

When I drew out the quilt top on graph paper, I realized I didn't want to simply surround the center block with straight nine-patch blocks. That seemed sort of blah to me and, somehow, seemed to take away from my center block, too. So I used four nine-patch blocks with the plain, yet embroidered center squares and added those other four with the three long blocks of color in each. I know where that idea came from. Just prior to drawing out the overall design, I was reading a thread on Chickens in the Road and saw a photo of a just-completed baby quilt that I couldn't get out of my mind.

This blanket is meant for regular use. To cover a sleeping baby, to spread on a floor to provide a toddler's play space or just to be dragged around by a growing child. It should go through the washer and dryer without a problem. And I hope it wears out just like the ones my grandmother made. I think that's what happens to all well-loved baby blankets and so it's what I wish for this one.

99 sweaters to wash in the wringer, 99 sweaters to wash

2011-03-16T06:49:00.003-04:00

Put some in, swish'em around, 93 sweaters to wash... *

From 9 a.m. till 3:30 p.m. last Saturday, I washed knitted wool sweaters plus woven wool skirts, jackets, scarves and slacks. And one wool Army blanket. (Smelled like wet dog, washed it just before lunch when we changed out the water.)

Some of the woolens had been washed previously at the laundromat. I'm always leery of bringing in stray moths when I get woolens from the thrift store so I either store them in the shed or my car's trunk till I can get them washed in hot water and rinsed with a bit of lavender vinegar. And I've learned my lesson about washing thrift store woolens in my front-load washer. It doesn't felt as well, of course, as this old Maytag wringer washer but the main risk is my next several loads of laundry are likely to smell like wet mothballs. So the ones I'd washed late last year at the laundromat were cleared for moths, but hadn't felted as well as I like so they needed a round in the wringer to achieve their fulled potential.

Since my mom's stroke four years ago DH and I've made a monthly commitment to deep-clean her vinyl kitchen and laundry room floors and apply a coat of the shiny "floor finish" she likes. Between moving all the furniture, sweeping with a broom, scrubbing the floor (on hands-and-knees scrubbing, not the long-handled mop kind), waiting for it to dry, then applying the shiny stuff and waiting for it to dry before putting everything back in place, that's easily a two- to three-hour job. This month DH agreed to tackle the floor on his own while I washed woolens with the wringer washer in the shop. He did it because he's a good man but also because he wants a pair of felted mittens to wear, as he said, "the one day every winter when we go out shopping for Christmas." Yes, he had an ulterior motive and it means I have another project added to my list but, hey, I have till December to worry about THAT.

His willingness to help may have been influenced as well by the last trip we made to Activity Day in my car. DH and I were in the front, DS was in the back and the trunk was so full of woolens waiting to be washed that DH had to put his two crates of Squad Leader game pieces and hex maps on the backseat next to DS. When we swung by the farm co-op on the way home to pick up a bag of mineral salt for the sheep and a couple of bags of chicken feed, there wasn't a place to put them except for under the passengers' feet. And since I invariably drive my car, as DH does his truck, that meant he was one of the inconvenienced passengers. So when I arranged the day for cleaning with Mom, I asked to use the wringer washer, too. That's when the Army blanket was added to the queue.

A few years ago the wringer washer lived in our garage. I used it for much of our regular laundry during the warmer months and whenever I had wools to wash it was right there ready to go. But we have no basement and very little storage space other than the attached garage which also serves as the root cellar in the cooler months. So when our 25-y.o. top-loading washer gave up a few years ago I moved the wringer washer (it was my grandmother's originally) back to my mom's shop and we bought a very efficient front-load washer. (One of these days I hope to have space again for the wringer washer and its tubs.)

Mom's shop only has cold running water these days so DH carried hot water over from her house in 5-gallon buckets. It took two trips or about 3-1/2 buckets to fill the wash tub. Meanwhile, I filled the rinse tubs with cold water. I added two tablespoons of Orvus Paste in the wash tub and 1/4 cup lavender vinegar in each rinse tub. I don't use regular laundry detergent because I avoid washing wool with the so-called brigheners or bleaches that are often added to detergents. Orvus Paste is what I use for washing fleeces and it works just as well on the finished goods.

Once we had the tubs filled, I added the first load of sweaters and commenced to washing. So sweaters in wash tub, wait 15 minutes. Run the wash load through wringer and into first rinse tub. Put next load of sweaters in to wash. Use stick (wonder what happened to the long-handled wooden spoon we used for this purpose when I was a kid?) to poke clothes below level of water and just all around play with the laundry. You know, same way you do with an outdoor fire...

Then after about 10 minutes, start the batch in the rinse tub through the wringer again. This time they go into the second, or last, rinse tub. Then move back to the washer and wring those clothes, which have been washing for just about 15 minutes, into the first rinse tub. Third load goes in the washer and the countdown starts again.

This time there's even less waiting as I factor in how long it will take to run both rinse tubs-worth of clothes through the wringer and still get back to the load in the washer at the right time. It's not a problem if I run the wash longer than 15 minutes, but I've found that's a pretty optimum time for felting most wools and I want to do this as efficiently and quickly as possible without unnecessary delays.

In between washing, poking the rinsing (can't forget that important step!) and wringing, I sort the items by color. It's not perfect but I like to start out with the natural or lighter colors first and move through to the reds and then blacks at the last. Many red wools bleed dye so I aim to do them just before the darkest items or before we plan to change out the cooling wash water for hot. And in between washes I top up the washer with hot water from a fresh bucket DH brought over mid-way through the morning. It's surprising to me but the washer does a good job of holding the water's heat, especially when I remember to keep the lid closed except when necessary to pull out/put in clothes.

At lunchtime, DH drained the washer and I did the same with the rinse tubs. The tubs are made with a fixture on the bottom where a hose can be attached but we just used the buckets and emptied them outside around flowers or shrubs. It's been so dry here this winter they can use all they can get.

Mom often fixes Saturday lunch for a friend who helps her with landscaping and house maintenance so she increased her covers to include us as well. (The menu was country-style steak, mashed potatoes, green beans, sauerkraut, fried apples, cornbread and chocolate cake -- well worth stopping work for!) After lunch, DS helped his grandmother clean up, DH carried fresh hot water for the washer and I refilled the rinse tubs. I was ready to get the job finished. And DH still had to clean the floors -- he didn't want to interrupt lunch preparations in the morning but once the dishwasher was running he got to work, too.

Final count was 69 sweaters, 2 scarves, 10 jackets, 9 skirts and 2 pairs of pants. And can't forget the one Army blanket. So it wasn't QUITE 99 sweaters but 93 woolen items is close enough for me.

*DH has this habit of ad-libbing lyrics and he couldn't keep it to himself while we were unloading baskets and bags of sweaters for washing. And you know how it is when you get a song stuck in your head. Especially a silly one.

Trimming onion seedlings -- easier than trimming hair

2011-03-15T05:52:00.005-04:00

But has to be done much more often. On the positive side, these trimmings are great in scrambled eggs or scalloped potatoes.

I'm trying to keep the onion seedlings (seeds planted January 30) down to 2" or 3" in height to encourage strong root growth and avoid spindly tops. Every couple of days I have to trim the onions. (And I hate to waste anything, you know that.) So I've been using the trimmings like tender young chives. They're excellent for adding a touch of fresh green onion flavor to our scrambled eggs, egg salad and scalloped potatoes. Next time I trim them I plan to stir the green bits into some of the creamy kefir cheese (drained kefir, like yogurt cheese) and use for a dip with crackers. They're much too good to waste.

Menu plan, week of 2011-03-14, plus scalloped potatoes from our dehydrated potatoes and kefir

2011-03-14T13:18:00.011-04:00

Monday, March 14, 2011
Scalloped potatoes (recipe below)
Deviled eggs
Applesauce

Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Pork potstickers with dipping sauce
Harvey House slaw

Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Egg salad
Potato wheat bread
Strawberry-banana yogurt

Thursday, March 17, 2011
Green beans
Butternut squash
Sticky chicken
Homemade egg noodles

Friday, March 18, 2011
Homemade pizza
Carrots and celery with ranch dressing made w/ kefir
Sliced apples

Saturday, March 19, 2011
Cilantro-lime brown rice topped with taco-seasoned ground beef
Corn salsa
Tortilla chips
Fruit salad

Sunday, March 20, 2011
Vegetable-beef soup
Soda crackers
Ice cream and brownies

Scalloped Potatoes (from dehydrated potatoes)

2 - 3 cups dried potato slices
enough boiling water to cover potatoes
1 cup kefir or light cream
1 egg, beaten (optional)
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt or celery salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon butter (optional)
1/4 - 1/2 cup cheese, grated (optional)

In medium bowl, pour boiling water over dried potatoes and set aside for 10 minutes. Grease a shallow 2-quart baking dish. Lift potatoes from water and spread in bottom of baking dish. Don't worry if a little water clings to potatoes.

Discard (or save for other use) all but 1 cup of the potato water. Add all remaining ingredients, except cheese, to the cup of water and whisk to blend well. Pour the mixture over potatoes, cover and bake in 375ºF. oven for 40 minutes or until sauce is bubbling and starting to thicken. Then dot potatoes with butter and grated cheese and continue to bake, uncovered, for another 20 minutes or until potatoes are fork-tender, sauce is thickened and top is golden brown. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Notes: I decide how many potatoes to use by pouring the dried slices into the baking dish I want to use to get a measure then moving them to another bowl for soaking. This is very good layered with onion slices -- 1/2 cup fresh or 1/4 cup dried. Or sprinkle chives in with the potatoes. If using dried onions, I don't bother soaking them first. The egg may be omitted but I like the way it adds to the sauce -- similar to a very creamy mac-and-cheese. When I want to make this more substantial, I add diced cooked ham or sausage to the potatoes.

Menu plan, week of 2011-02-22

2011-02-22T16:23:00.000-05:00

Still trying to make this a habit. So much for 21 days... And, yeah, my week's starting today (Tuesday) -- it's gonna be that kind of week, I guess.

Tuesday, February 22
DS's pasta dish (whole wheat ziti, corn, tomatoes, some type of beans, onion, garlic, chili powder, arbol chiles and Italian seasoning)
Tossed salad w/ranch dressing made with kefir
Peaches, home-canned in light syrup

Wednesday, February 23
Spicy turmeric chicken
Garlic mashed potatoes
Pickled beets

Thursday, February 24
Salmon, marinated and grilled
Roasted vegetables (potatoes, onions, carrots, butternut squash)
Apple salad

Friday, February 25
Thai noodles with vegetables and peanut sauce (and leftover salmon if available)
Chocolate cake
Kefir ice cream

Saturday, February 26
Chicken and dumplings (from leftover spicy turmeric chicken and home-canned chicken broth)
Apple-carrot salad

Sunday, February 27
Egg salad sandwiches on homemade rye (local rye but NO fennel seeds!)
Harvey House slaw
Sliced apples

Monday, February 28
Meatloaf
Greek-style oven fries
Steamed cabbage
Rye bread

Change of plans - cooperative quilting

2011-02-17T06:38:00.018-05:00

Ever have a day where it's like you didn't get the memo?

The quilt block we made at Saturday's fiber guild workshop is an applique block made with Do Sew® and called Really, Really Broken Dishes by Kim Montagnese. Because of the way you make the block, cut it into quarters and then trade quarters with other quilters before re-assembling, the blocks are integrated, sharing fabrics and pattern though each is made by a different quilter. So the blocks we made Saturday will become the quilt for our expectant member.

Makes more sense to me than combining disparate blocks into a quilt so the embroidered block I made last week is now the center block for a small quilt (about 3x4-feet) which I'm putting together as a baby gift. With luck I'll even get it done before the baby arrives!

Saturday's Really, Really Broken Dishes block was very easy to make -- circles without fear of piecing curves (I love that part especially!) and is a great way to mix up colors in a modern-looking quilt pattern. You start with a square of fabric that will serve as the block background. Sew a piece of Do Sew to the right-side of the piece that will be the largest circle on the background. Then cut away the Do Sew, being careful not to cut the other circles you're drawn on it.

I've never worked with Do Sew before but can't wait to use it for other sewing. When you spritz Do Sew with water and then press with a hot iron, the Do Sew draws up just a bit, letting you easily fold the edge under as you press. No burning your fingertips or resorting to a pin to try to fold over the edge as you press.

The largest circle is sewn to the background (we used sewing machines set for a blind hemstitch but you could also do that part by hand), then the block is flipped over and you carefully cut away the background fabric from within the stitched circle. This keeps the block from becoming too thick with the multiple layers and also gives you a circle of fabric just a little bigger than you need for the next circle. So you trade that circle with another block maker and then you each have a new fabric to sew Do Sew to, using a slightly smaller circle pattern drawn out on the Do Sew. And spritz, press and sew to center of the larger circle on your block.

Follow the same process for one more smaller circle (trading fabric again) and press the completed square. Then take a deep breath, pull out your rotary cutter or scissors and cut the square into four even quarters. Trade three of the quarters with other block makers and seam them back together into a square. Take a look at what you've made and say "Wow! That's pretty neat!" Because it is.

Here are photos of my block in the making and the photo above is of all the blocks laid out for the final assembly. (My block, after trading off 3 quarters and re-assembling, is in the lower left. Can you spot my other quarters now assembled into other blocks?)

The same designer, Montagnese, also has a block called Really, Really Mended Hearts that I want to try next. It's a similar block but the appliques are hearts not circles. Then, instead of dividing in quarters with a vertical and horizontal cut through the square, you make three or maybe four vertical cuts (perhaps even cutting wedge-shapes rather than, say, perfect thirds) and re-assemble. Trading sections encouraged, when working in a group setting, though you can get the same effect (but probably without the comaraderie) by cutting, sewing and mixing blocks you make all by yourself.

Menu plan, week of 2011-02-14 plus ranch dressing made w/ kefir

2011-02-16T06:01:00.003-05:00

We got a bag of produce from my mother this week. She decided on the spur of the moment to take advantage of the warmer weather and go visit my cousin in Ohio for a week or so. When I went to help her pack Monday night, we also cleaned out her fridge and I came home with cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce and more. Altered our menu plan a bit but mainly it created a need for some salad dressing -- something we don't use a lot of over the winter.

Monday, February 14
CORD at Mom's

Tuesday, February 15

Tuna loaf
Oven fries (spicy)
Green beans

Wednesday, February 16

Curried chicken thighs
Basmati rice
Tossed salad w/ Ranch dressing made with kefir (recipe below)

Thursday, February 17

Country-style steak w/ potatoes and onions
Harvey House slaw

Friday, February 18

Homemade pizza
Tossed salad

Saturday, February 19
Cheese and black bean quesadillas, topped with lettuce, diced tomatoes and cucumbers
Corn salsa

Orange wedges

Sunday, February 20
Bbq on buns
Pumpkin Seed salad dressing over salad of green peppers, bean sprouts, corn, and sweet onion
Chocolate cake
Kefir ice cream
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I can't believe how much I like this kefir made from the grains. We made ice cream with it this weekend and I've even been drinking a cup of it plain every day. It's soothing and refreshing at the same time.

And it makes a good ranch dressing -- thick and tangy. Like ranch dressing should taste but rarely does.

Ranch Dressing with Kefir

2 heaping tablespoons dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups mayonnaise
2 cups kefir

Blend mayonnaise and kefir together till smooth. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Refrigerate for at least 12 hours before using to allow flavors to blend. Makes 4 cups. Recipe can be halved.

Some make-a-mix recipes for ranch dressing call for a thickener such as crushed saltines. Using kefir keeps the dressing thick yet pourable, without need for any thickener. Buttermilk or thinned yogurt can be substituted but dressing may be thinner.

Embroidered quilt block

2011-02-12T00:46:00.000-05:00

A fellow fiber guild member is expecting a baby this spring. One of the members suggested we each make a quilt block and she would set them together into a quilt as a baby gift. The choice of design was left wide open but she plans to use blue fabric to separate the squares in the quilt as the baby is a boy.

Recalling small quilts my grandmother made for my brother and sister when they were small, I immediately knew I wanted to incorporate embroidery into my block. She had embroidered nursery rhyme characters and farm animals on white blocks then spaced them alternately with solid-colored blocks -- blue for my brother's and yellow for my sister's. The quilts were like Linus' blanket and went with them everywhere. Then what was left of the quilts went with me everywhere. There are only one or two blocks remaining of those quilts. They were well-loved.

I really like the baby duck fabric, and used a little of it last year for a baby bib, so I pulled it out for this project, too. Plus, I remembered an old duckling iron-on I came across in a '60s-era Workbasket not too long ago and tried to draw it out on my easel pad. Hmm. The little duck was not well-proportioned to say the least. Fortunately I found the iron-on when I scrounged through the stack I'd culled and didn't have to rely on my rendering.

When I tried to find a white fabric for the embroidered block, they were either too harsh and bright or tended towards a cream instead of white. Then I found a 100% white cotton pillowcase in my stash that had been washed so it was soft but without wear. The fabric's slightly heavier than the duckling fabric but that is a good thing as it means it's not as see-through. Even so, I still pressed the seams away from the embroidered square.

The center square is 6" on all sides. The duckling fabric is cut for 3" squares. And the blue fabric, which also came from a pillowcase, is cut as 3x6-inches rectangles. The finished size should be 12-1/2" square but I allowed for 1/2" seams on my pieces (trimming away the excess as I seamed the blocks) and left the full 1/2" on the outside edges. I figure that way the block would offer a little ease when fitting all the blocks together -- one can always trim away fabric but when an 1/8" or so is needed, it can't be added back.

I can't wait to see the other quilt blocks. The meeting and baby shower are later today. Nothing like waiting till the last minute...

Baked oatmeal made with blackstrap molasses

2011-02-10T06:53:00.000-05:00

DS likes to eat breakfast as soon as he gets up. DH prefers to wait at least an hour or two. In hot weather he even wants to get in a few hours working outside while it's still cool then sit down to breakfast at 10 or so. And I'm somewhere in-between. So we tend to eat breakfast in shifts.

To keep breakfast quick and easy, I try to keep breakfast staples like sausage-egg burritos and blender oatmeal pancakes on-hand in the freezer. Eggs are always in the refrigerator thanks to the chickens and ham, sausage and bacon are readily available in the freezer or canned on the pantry shelf. AJ's Pumpkin Bread or something similar will sneak into the breakfast rotation occasionally. And there's always hot cereal like oatmeal or rice.

Every so often I make baked oatmeal (aka Amish baked oatmeal) which I think of as a cross between plain oatmeal and a sweet quick bread or bar cookie. What DS calls the mom-friendly version I make these days (less sweetener and oil) means we can have it more often and without guilt. It's a not-too-sweet dish with an almost cake-like texture which when eaten for breakfast is usually served warm in a bowl with milk but late afternoon is a good time for a piece eaten out-of-hand and accompanied by a cup of tea or hot chocolate. I prefer to soak grains whenever possible so I mix this up part way the night before and then add the remaining ingredients the next morning and bake.

Baked Oatmeal with Blackstrap Molasses

6 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
2 cups water
1/3 cup kefir, yogurt or whey
1/2 cup vegetable oil or melted butter
1/2 cup applesauce or pumpkin puree (pumpkin is good but will impart a pumpkin flavor)
1/2 cup blackstrap or regular molasses
8-10 large eggs
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup raisins or other dried diced fruit, optional
1/2 cup nuts, optional

12- to 24-hours before you want to bake this, combine oats, water, kefir, oil, applesauce or pumpkin puree and molasses in a large bowl and stir well to mix. Let sit on the counter, covered with a tea towel, till you're ready to bake.

Preheat oven to 350ºF. and grease a 9x13-inch pan or two 8-inch square pans. Break eggs into a bowl and stir in cinnamon, vanilla, salt and baking soda. Then pour this mixture into the soaking oatmeal. Stir well to break up oatmeal and combine ingredients, adding dried fruit and nuts as you're stirring. Pour into prepared pan(s) and bake for 30- to 35-minutes till a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

The baked oatmeal will keep in the refrigerator for several days or can be frozen in individual portions. If you prefer a sweeter taste, add 1/4- to 1/2-cup honey with the molasses and you can use regular molasses instead of the stronger-flavored blackstrap molasses if you want. If using pumpkin puree, add 1 teaspoon each nutmeg and ginger for a light pumpkin pie flavor. Serve warm covered with milk or at room temperature for eating out-of-hand.

Yield: 12 servings

Onion and leek seedlings

2011-02-09T06:11:00.009-05:00

The onion and leek seeds just sat there in the soil from January 30 to this past Monday (February 7). Then, Monday night I spotted the first thin spindly shoot popping up. But only one in each flat! Tuesday morning it looked like every pocket had at least one seedling showing up and several seedlings were a couple of inches tall already.

Evergreen hardy white bunching onion and King Seig leek seedlings

DH had already set up the lights so I carefully watered everyone and put them under the shoplights yesterday (February 8). Set the flats on top of empty flats in order to get the little seedlings within 2 inches of the bulbs -- want to make sure they don't stay spindly by stretching too far for the (artificial) sun. We want strong healthy onion seedlings to transplant outside when it's time. DH will set up a small table fan in the next few days so it will blow across the flats (on low) and that will help strengthen the shoots, too.

The photos show the two flats DH seeded on the 30th. He used egg cartons filled with sterile seed-starting medium and set them in the plastic flats we used last year. They don't hold as much as the little mesh "pots" that came in the flats originally but they're functional and free. The flats come with clear plastic lids but I've found you have to be careful leaving the lids in place after planting. The idea of keeping in the moisture may be a good one, but the minute the seeds start to sprout we have to remove the lids or the tall seedlings bump into the "glass ceiling." And the heavy condensation that can form on the lids sometimes causes fuzzy mold (mildew?) to develop on the once-sterile soil. So we keep a water-filled misting bottle on the counter beside the seedlings and I just spritz them heavily several times a day. And sometimes I water them from the bottom, too. Especially after the seedlings have developed their leaves. They need lots of water to maintain growth.

Australian brown onion seedlings

The Australian brown onion, bunching onion and leeks came from Southern Exposure. The Southport red globe onion seeds I ordered from Pinetree are on backorder. Hope to get them soon as we're still in the experimental stage with onions for storage and I'd like to try with onions what we can do with potatoes -- plant an early crop for fresh eating and a later (but not too much later) crop for fall storage.

Menu plan, week of 2011-02-07 plus Kefir-Honey dressing for fruit salad

2011-02-08T05:42:00.005-05:00

Except for the marshmallows, I've always loved what my mother calls 5-cup salad. It's made with a cup of each ingredient: pineapple chunks, shredded coconut, mandarin oranges, sour cream and the dreaded marshmallows, usually mini-. (I like homemade marshmallows and toasted marshmallows but I haven't found a dish yet where I like intact marshmallows as an ingredient. Weird? Probably.)

This Kefir-Honey dressing, while it has a touch of orange from the juice, makes a similar salad when tossed with fruit. If you don't have kefir, see the note following the recipe for suggestions on substituting sour cream or yogurt. This makes a nice winter fruit salad but is very refreshing in the heat of summer, too.

Kefir-Honey Dressing for fruit salad

1/2 cup kefir (drained to thicken, if you prefer)
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon orange juice

In a large bowl, mix kefir, honey and orange juice till smooth. Add 4 or 5 cups of fresh or drained, canned fruit to the bowl and toss lightly to coat.

I use orange sections (clementines are nice), sliced bananas, grapes (cut in half), pineapple chunks, strawberries, sliced peaches and blueberries, depending on the season. Mandarin oranges, pineapple and shredded coconut will make a salad similar to 5-cup salad (a southern specialty?) and, if you like nuts, chopped walnuts, pecans or almonds are nice to sprinkle on top. (But I like nuts with almost everything...)

If you don't have kefir, you may substitute sour cream or a good whole-milk plain or vanilla yogurt. If using low-fat or non-fat yogurt, I'd use half sour cream and half yogurt to keep it rich-tasting. YMMV

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Menu planning that's actually written down (and even better, made public) holds me accountable and makes for a smoother week. And I'm all in favor of the latter, if not always the former. So here's this week's plan:

Monday, February 7
(Super Bowl party leftovers)
Chili
Crackers and cheese spread
Carrots and celery sticks
Chocolate cake

Tuesday, February 8
Chicken roasted with potato and onion wedges
Bean sprout salad w/Outrageous Dressing

Wednesday, February 9
Frittata (eggs, ham and leftover roasted potatoes and onions)
Fruit salad with Kefir-Honey dressing (recipe above)
Rye 5-minute artisan bread

Thursday, February 10
Baja-style fish tacos w/Chipotle White taco sauce (made with kefir instead of sour cream or yogurt)
Shredded cabbage, bean sprouts and onion for topping tacos
Orange sections

Friday, February 11
Chicken sandwiches on rye w/nectarine mustard
Applesauce
Preserved bean sprouts

Saturday, February 12
(Family dinner for 15 -- I'm responsible for cobbler and ice cream...)
Tenderloin and gravy
Mashed potatoes
Green beans
Corn
Cole slaw
Macaroni and cheese
Apple salad
Rolls
Blackberry cobbler
Homemade ice cream

Sunday, February 13
Crockpot tortellini vegetable soup
Crackers
Apple slices

It's definite

2011-02-07T06:07:00.003-05:00

Smokey, the grey silkie bantam, hatched last year is a cockerel.

Determining whether a chick is a pullet or a cockerel can be difficult unless they show specific sex-linked traits like feather barring or color. Smokey was pretty androgynous for the first 6-months. Then between Thanksgiving and Christmas, he began to crow. Good to finally know but bad because we've learned it's rarely a good idea to have two roos in a small flock.

We raise chickens for eggs but we are not vegetarians. We usually process extra cockerels for the freezer. Neither DH nor I wanted that to be Smokey's fate, however. The main reason? Because he's part of our backyard flock -- more pet than livestock. (For additional reasons, see note at bottom of post.) So we needed to find a new home for Smokey.

It needed to be a place where he wouldn't be penned with a full-size rooster as that would be potentially worse than here with us where he only had his sire, Badger, to contend with. We were in luck, tho, as the first person I told about the predicament had a co-worker who might be interested. Another homeschooling family, they were in the process of adding silkie bantams to their homestead flock and offered Smokey a home with a half-dozen silkie bantam pullets. They already had a flock of full-size hens but had built a separate coop to house the silkies. And since silkie bantam roosters are often not as aggressive as full-size roos may be, they were interested in adding a rooster to the bantam flock.

So Smokey moved to his new home last week. And his new family have promised to provide regular updates on him as he settles in at his new place. Good luck, Smokey!

(I love a happy ending.)

Note: More practical reasons for not consigning a silkie bantam to the freezer exist. He probably won't top 2 pounds in weight and he's still growing, not there yet. Another reason is that silkies exhibit melanism where dark pigmentation extends into their connective tissue and even bones. This goes beyond the range of what people call white and dark meat in poultry -- more like a grayish-black or almost purple bruise color. Not palatable-looking to many of those accustomed to the only offer being "white or dark meat?" when chicken is served. Check out the silkie entry on Wikipedia for more information and photos of prepared dishes.

Making kefir

2011-02-06T16:38:00.000-05:00

I've been making kefir with kefir grains for a few weeks now. I find it very easy to make, less fuss than yogurt, and I've learned I like it plain. Which came as a big surprise to me!

Previously, I'd had kefir purchased in a bottle and generally fruit-flavored, like strawberry. Sort of like a thin shake. Then I found a package of kefir-starter at Cranberry's. That's a simple process, too, but it's not self-perpetuating. Each packet made a batch of kefir and I could save a bit to make another batch. But that only works for a few times. Then I had to go back to mixing up another packet. When I ran out of packets in the box, I would have to buy another. Or switch to using kefir grains.

Switching to the grains made the most sense. So now I have a small wide-mouthed jar with creamline milk and kefir grains working away all the time. As soon as a batch of kefir is ready, 36- to 48-hours what with the cooler indoor temps, I strain out the grains and store the liquid in the fridge till I'm ready to use it. The grains go back in the small jar with another cup or so of creamline milk.

There are slightly differing views on how to make kefir. Because the milk's already pasteurized I haven't found it necessary to scald the milk prior to pouring over the grains. And I don't rinse the grains before plopping them back into the jar with more milk. Some kefir-makers recommend both those things; others don't. And some kefir-makers insist on only using raw milk. If I had raw milk available, I'd use it instead. As it is, Virginia doesn't allow the sale of raw milk and I don't have dairy animals (yet!) nor a cow share, so I rely on a local creamery's pasteurized milk.

I'm finding that kefir makes an excellent substitute for buttermilk in recipes -- blender oatmeal pancakes are equally good made with kefir, buttermilk or thinned yogurt. I like kefir as a buttermilk sub in ranch dressing and as a sub for sour cream in our favorite macaroni and cheese recipe. Makes a good, not-too-sweet, dessert when topping lightly sweetened fruit. Alternatively, the kefir can be sweetened with a teaspoon or so of honey and then poured over fruit or cereal. It works great for soaking grains prior to bread-baking. I have yet to try using it as the sole yeast source when making a sourdough-type bread but that's on my list.

Smoothies made with kefir are great but I have learned that, since it's not quite as thick as the yogurt I previously used, I need to include a frozen banana or something similar so the drink remains thick as we prefer it. If made with kefir and only fresh, non-frozen fruits, it's still tasty but thinner, more like the kefir beverages from the store. Not what we think of when imagining a thick fruit smoothie sucked up through a straw or scooped with a spoon. YMMV

Kefir, like yogurt, is supposed to be a good-for-you, easily-digested food. But it doesn't matter how good something is for me, if I don't like it, it's hard getting it down. Especially on a regular basis. So I'm very happy to learn that not only will my kefir grains continue to grow and steadily produce kefir into the future with just the addition of milk, but we like it. And I even like it plain -- it's refreshing and, this is important, doesn't greatly remind me of cultured buttermilk. An irrational fear I've had ever since I bought the first bottle of flavored kefir years ago.

Menu plan, week of 2011-01-31

2011-01-31T06:57:00.002-05:00

Busy month ahead so back to menu planning to stay on track. I don't like to lose food in the back of the refrigerator, forget to use what (little but worthwhile!) is in the garden, or spend money on something quick-to-eat when a little planning would make all the difference.

Monday, January 31
Costa Rican-style tilapia (made w/already-cooked basmati rice, black beans and canned pineapple)

Tuesday, February 1
Beef pot roast with potatoes, carrots and onions
Rye bread (5-minute artisan - local rye and hard wheat)

Wednesday, February 2
Blender oatmeal pancakes with maple syrup
Breakfast sausage patties

Thursday, February 3
Hot roast beef sandwiches (from Tuesday's pot roast)
Mashed potatoes
Spinach or Swiss chard from the garden

Friday, February 4
Homemade pizza

Saturday, February 5
Vegetable soup (last of Tuesday's pot roast)
Homemade soda crackers

Sunday, February 6
Superbowl party at Mom's - take oatmeal-raisin cookies, crackers and cheese ball

Snow!

2011-01-26T20:30:00.000-05:00

After watching at least two snowstorms pass by this winter, including one that missed us but left 10 inches of snow in Virginia Beach(!), we finally have a lot of our own. 8 inches as of an hour ago and heavy snow still falling.

Except for the fact that DH still has to drive home from work through this stuff and get the truck up the hill to the house, I'd be ecstatic. As it is, I'm merely happy, happy, happy. I think DS was on the same wavelength until a few of the backyard chickens decided to hide out under a deck.

Chickens don't like snow (anyone remember Owl?) and when it started snowing at noon, the backyard girls ran under the deck. At dusk a few refused to come out even though DS had shoveled a path and was coaxing them with a bucket of scratch.

So DS had to catch and then carry each stubborn hen (plus, Badger, one stubborn silkie roo) to their coop. The last one out was Turkey, one of the naked neck chickens. I guess I can see why she doesn't like the snow...

Canning ham or smoked picnic shoulder plus making ham salad with or without puff shells

2011-01-21T06:03:00.004-05:00

Earlier this month I canned ham I bought on sale prior to Christmas. Hams are often on sale before the Christmas and Easter holidays so that's a good time for me to can a few jars. We don't eat a lot of ham so a couple of hams each year go a long way -- a little diced ham in a frittata, in scalloped potatoes or macaroni and cheese can make the meal. And, as I mentioned before, ham salad is another great way to use up ham. When I make ham salad, my mom always expects me to send a little bit over for her, too. It makes a quick meal with crackers, stuffed in a garden tomato or as a sandwich.

I can western ham and sometimes smoked picnic shoulder (picnic ham). Sometimes it says semi-boneless. And even though the ham I buy these days is always labeled Ready-to-Eat, which means it's already cooked, I like to cook it in the roaster oven (regular oven would work, too). That way it's hot and ready to go straight into the canning jars as fast as I can get it cut off the bone. How long I cook it depends on the size of the ham -- the package has directions as to temperature and how many minutes per pound as well as recommended internal temp.

Once the ham is cooked, I lift it out onto a cutting board and trim away all skin and fat. That goes into a stock pot along with the bone when I'm done. Makes great ham stock for canning beans or cooking potatoes for potato soup. The ham gets cut into chunks. I try to cut the meat into even-sized pieces about an inch thick. Since I'm never sure just what I'll want the ham for when the jar's opened, I go with large pieces overall -- I can always slice, cube or dice it as needed later.

Hot jars are packed with hot ham to within an inch of the rim. Wipe rim of jar clean. (I use a clean cloth dipped in vinegar as it seems to help cut any grease that may be on the glass jar.) Place lid on jar and tighten ring. Using a pressure canner, process pints and half-pints for 75 minutes and quarts for 90 minutes at the appropriate pressure for your altitude. If you've never canned before check out the latest Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving or the USDA-funded website, National Center for Home Food Preserving, for detailed directions. The ham will yield a little juice so when you remove the jars from the canner you'll often see an inch or two of liquid in the tightly-packed jars. That's normal. If you don't take care to trim away all fat, there will be a bit of that in there, too. It will harden as the jar cools and form a white layer on top of the liquid or ham.

When I told DH I was going to post my recipe for ham salad, he just rolled his eyes and said "what recipe? You just throw it together and taste as you go!" And he's right. I have four ingredients that I combine to make ham salad but I don't measure any of them. One reason is because I rarely have the exact same amount of ham each time because ham salad is a favorite way I use up leftover ham -- after we've eaten it hot from the oven and in cold slices on a sandwich we have it ground up with mayonnaise, mustard and sweet pickles added to make ham salad. But I can give you what I start with and then suggest you let your taste buds lead you on.

Ham Salad

2 cups cold, cooked ham
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sweet pickles or 1/3 cup sweet pickle relish
1 to 2 tablespoons yellow mustard

Using a food processor or meat grinder, process ham and pickles. You want them to be finely chopped but not pasty.

I scrape the ham and pickles into another bowl before adding the mayo and mustard as I don't want to risk processing to much. Texture is important here.

Add mayonnaise and the smaller amount of mustard, then taste and adjust mayo or mustard till you have the right combination for you. I don't want to add so much mustard that the salad turns yellow but I definitely like to have a little tang to the salad -- it offsets the sweetness of the pickles, I think.

This is ready to eat at this point but it's even better if you can give it an hour or so in the fridge to chill and let the flavors meld.

----------

If you're tired of sandwiches or crackers, try making little puff pastries to fill. They're pretty easy and they look impressive on a plate. They're also good filled with chicken salad.

Puffs for Filling
(adapted from Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book, 1976)

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup flour
dash salt
1 egg
1/4 shredded Swiss or Cheddar cheese (optional)

Melt butter in 1/4 boiling water. Add flour and dash salt; stir vigorously. Cook and stir till mixture forms a ball that doesn't separate. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Add egg and beat vigorously until smooth. Stir in cheese. Drop dough onto greased baking sheet, using 1 level teaspoon dough for each puff. Bake at 400ºF. about 20 minutes. Remove puffs from oven; cool and split. Fill each puff with 2 teaspoons of ham or chicken salad. Serve immediately or refrigerate for up to 4 hours. (They are actually still tasty the next day but will eventually soften in storage so best not to plan on storing too long.)

Seeds, sets or slips?

2011-01-11T07:07:00.007-05:00

Onions, that is. It's January 11 and it's trying to snow and I'm searching for onion seeds. And not having much luck.

Onions are a staple here. I think it's a rare day that we don't have onions on the menu -- either added to a dish as it cooks, sliced on a sandwich or diced for topping green beans or something. You know, a day without onions is like a day without sunshine. Or something like that.

Every year we expand our onion production. Planting more types of onions and just plain more onions. In addition to the yellow and red onion sets DH always picks up at the local farm co-op, we've planted perennial onions like Egyptian or walking onions, welsh or bunching onions, multiplier or potato onions, and slips of sweet and storage onions.

This year I want to grow plenty of onions suitable for storage. The potato onions are great for this purpose but this will only be the second year growing them and I want to have lots of good, hard onions on hand through next winter. More than a second-year crop of multiplier onions can provide and still allow for next year's planting. So I need to find some onion seeds, preferably yellow Globe, and fast.

The onions planted from sets taste great but don't keep for more than a couple of months. We let them dry after harvesting then I tie them off individually in the legs from pantyhose (never throw anything away, remember?) and hang from hooks in our storage area. But by January, if not before, I'm finding soft onions.

A few years ago we bought a flat of onion slips from a booth at the local farmer's market. They were Globe onions and they proved to be excellent keepers. After reading up on onions and planting seeds vs. sets, I decided last year that we must start with seeds (the market gardener no longer offers the Globe slips) but didn't realize how early we needed to start them to have onions ready to transplant into the garden. So last year went by without onions started from seed.

This year I was going to be on top of things and get that order in the first of January (instead of waiting till mid-February like last year) but one of my favorite seed sources is already SOLD OUT. And I'm having trouble tracking down another source that I want to order from -- plus, there's the problem of being overwhelmed when I search. SO MANY choices pop up and I start second-guessing myself about which type of storage onion I want after all.

I will get an order placed THIS WEEK for onion seeds. I will, I will. I must.

More felted fleece-lined mittens -- for Christmas

2011-01-10T05:58:00.037-05:00

Christmas was two weeks ago, I know. But DH insisted I make felted fleece-lined mittens for his sister and brother-in-law after seeing the first pair. Now, where they live averages less than 20 nights a year with temps at or below freezing and no snow other than a rare dusting every few years so I'm not sure they'll get much use out of felted mittens but, hey, I heard on the news last week that they were experiencing a freeze with the nighttime temperature hitting 28º -- mittens may be just the thing they need! And I had a lot of fun making these. Plus, finally found a use for a pair of those leather buttons I can't resist stashing away.

White oak basket

2011-01-09T06:15:00.002-05:00

Saturday my fiber guild held a workshop on making white oak baskets with artisan Clyde Jenkins. He supplies Colonial Williamsburg with colonial-style baskets but makes other types, too -- all from white oak he cuts and splits himself. In the summer he can often be found teaching workshops at Big Meadows in Shenandoah National Park.

The supplies for the workshop were very basic. He brought 6-feet or so of the lower trunk of a 6"-diameter white oak tree which he'd cut down a few days ago. The trunk had been split into quarters lengthwise and Jenkins spent the first part of the workshop telling us how he chooses the oak and teaching us to split the wood into weavers -- the pieces we'd use to weave over-and-under the ribs of the basket.

I was looking forward to this workshop because I've always wanted to weave a basket but I can't believe how much I enjoyed the whole process! We started at 9 and I finished lacing the last strip around the rim by 3 (we had a delicious working lunch of vegetable soup and crusty bread thoughtfully provided by a couple of members) yet returned home wishing I had another piece of white oak to work on. I especially liked the combination of the smell of the fresh wood and the feel of the wood as I'd find the ring line and pull it apart into thinner and thinner weavers. When it came time to go home, I couldn't stand to put my water bottle and tools back in my canvas bag -- I had a new basket that was just waiting to be filled...

Pizza burgers for the freezer

2011-01-08T06:46:00.042-05:00

A couple times each year I make pizza burgers, a DH favorite, for the freezer. They're quick to put together and I usually double or triple the recipe because they're very handy to have for a quick lunch at home or for DH's lunch bag. This week I put together 4 dozen pizza burgers but only 45 made it into the freezer.

We all needed lunch and they were so handy...

I thought I'd posted about these OAMC staples several years ago but when I told a friend the recipe was on my blog, she couldn't find it. I couldn't either. So here it is.

Pizza Burgers

1 pound lean ground beef or venison
1 medium onion, chopped fine
1 quart spaghetti sauce, or substitute pizza sauce
3 ounces pepperoni sausage, finely chopped (optional)
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
18 regular hamburger buns

Brown meat with onion in a large skillet. Drain, if necessary. Stir in spaghetti or pizza sauce, chopped pepperoni and cheese. Fill the buns with meat mixture.

Wrap each bun for the freezer. Originally I used aluminum foil but DH has to use a microwave when he takes these to work so I now wrap the burgers in wax paper. I fold the paper in what's called a drugstore wrap.

To freeze for later: Put the wrapped buns in a plastic bag and freeze. If I'm using store-bought buns, I re-use the plastic bag they come in but any bag that will hold the buns close together so they don't tumble around is good.

If desired, thaw the buns, still wrapped, for no more than 1 hour before re-heating. Bake foil-wrapped buns at 350ºF. for 15-20 min. or microwave wax paper-wrapped buns for 45 seconds to heat through.

Guineas

2011-01-07T06:11:00.001-05:00

Last spring we had a guinea fowl, Newt Guinea, drop by the pastured poultry pen for a few weeks. He came and went as he pleased and eventually moved on for good.

We learned Newt came from a neighbor's about a mile down the road. They had stopped by a few times over the last couple of years to check out our movable chicken pen and eventually gotten chickens of their own. Plus a few guineas including one hen that's turned out to be a good guinea mama.

This past summer and fall, those same neighbors hired DS to care for their poultry and dogs while they were away from home a few days. The last time, in addition to paying him in cash, they offered him half of the latest guinea hatch. So in early November, DS and DH brought home 6 little guinea keets.

We set up the tallest chain-link dog run we had, put in a small house with a red-bulb heat lamp (these guys were only a week or two old) and the usual accompaniments. I asked DH to put flight netting over the top of the pen, but because it was 6-feet high, he thought it could wait till the keets were older. The first full day they were here, a Cooper's hawk scared the keets causing one to fly up and out of the pen. It roosted about 15 feet off the ground in an arborvitae, too high for DS or me to reach even with our ladder, and DH couldn't spot it late that night when he got home from work. No sign of what had happened to it when we searched the next morning.

So DH put flight netting over the top of the pen. And a piece of chicken wire between the top of the pen and the top of the door where there was a large gap that another keet managed to escape through when the Cooper's hawk returned later that week. That keet was luckier than the first as he managed to hide under the deck with the backyard chickens, finally emerging with them after the hawk took off in search of easier prey.

We used the heat lamp for the first couple of months. The nighttime temperatures were pretty low for November and December here in Virginia. Some nights saw single digit temps which we don't usually experience till later in the winter. After last week's more moderate temperatures, they've weaned themselves from the heat lamp. It's still in place in case we head towards 0º again but their body heat in the small house, insulated by straw bales along three of the outside walls, seems to be plenty for now.

Fed on turkey starter, the guinea keets grew fast. With the excitement of getting them settled, safely, in their new home, plus the usual holiday activities and the bitterly cold daytime weather (and snow!), we didn't even get a picture of them till New Year's Eve. Which is a real shame because when they're little, the shape of their heads combined with the feather coloring makes me think of little snakeheads slithering to-and-fro. (Guineas always stay close and seem to move as one.) Of course, that's another reason they didn't have their photograph taken sooner -- every time I did go outside with the camera, they promptly hid in the far corner of their house. They aren't as sociable as chickens.

For Christmas, I received a book about guineas by Jeannette Ferguson titled "Gardening with Guineas: A Step-By-Step Guide to Raising Guinea Fowl." Ferguson's book discusses a few things that set guineas apart from other poultry but I wish it went a little further in the details. For now I guess we'll learn as we often do -- on the go.

Felted fleece-lined mittens for Christmas

2011-01-06T14:07:00.001-05:00

I've had the hand-drawn pattern for these mittens for awhile but finally got around to making a pair late last month -- Christmas morning, in fact. Actually, I cut out the pieces on Christmas Eve so I wasn't as late as I could have been in making this present. But I was tired and put off the sewing part till after DS (and DH and I) checked out our stockings early Christmas morning. Then I had to rush because we were due at my mom's for our usual family gathering complete with a late-morning Christmas breakfast and opening lots of packages piled high under the tree.

With just three pattern pieces plus cuffs, it only took a turn on the sewing machine for the outer mitten (cut from two wool sweaters previously felted in the wringer washer) with a repeat for the fleece lining cut from yardage, then sewing the cuffs to the lining and turning the wool mittens right-side out and the fleece-lining wrong-side out so they fit together correctly -- they were almost finished. A quick search through my buttons produced a couple suitable for attaching to the rolled cuffs so the mittens and their lining stay connected and I was done.

Now I know what I'll be making for a few presents next Christmas... Here's a link to the pattern I started with in case you're tempted to make your own. If you think you'd like them, don't put off as long as I did before trying a pair -- they really are very easy and even fun to make. I'm making a pair for myself right now.

Ham and beans

2011-01-05T22:51:00.000-05:00

Just because I haven't posted doesn't mean we haven't been busy. Why, last week I canned 13 pints and 1 half-pint of ham plus 14 quarts of pinto beans with broth from the bone and trimmings.

I bought the ham in a pre-Christmas sale with the intention of canning it. I discovered we liked canned ham as well as when the extra is frozen and I don't have to worry about freezer burn or freezer space when it's canned. Baked ham is great when it's just prepared and we like ham sandwiches, of course, but ham is something I use in small amounts for cooking. When layered in scalloped potatoes and macaroni and cheese or included in a frittata, a cup or so of ham goes a long way. Half-pint jars would have been plenty big for most uses but that's not a size I had available. So I used pints and probably will be forced to make ham salad with the extra each time I open a jar. (Forced?! Hah! A little ham salad on crackers is a perfect quick lunch. And I guess I'll share if I have to.)

As for the beans, I had planned to make ham broth with the bone and trimmings from the ham and then can it. But when I thought about it, the ham broth would be used to cook dried beans. So I thought why not go the next step?

After carving the hot ham, I put the ham bone, skin and usual trimmings in a big stockpot and covered it with water. I also threw in one of the bags of vegetable parings (carrot peels, onion skins, and celery trimmings) which I had collected in the freezer. Let that simmer for several hours and then strained it. Cooled the ham broth in order to remove the layer of fat that always rises to the top and brought it back to a boil. Filled quart jars with 1-1/8 cups dried pinto beans which I'd sorted and rinsed to clean. Then filled the jars to the 1" mark with the boiling ham broth. (Added a small amount of plain boiling water to two jars as I ran out of ham broth before all the jars were filled.) Processed the jars in the pressure canner for 90 minutes and now I have 14 quarts of ready-to-eat pintos on the shelf.

More ornaments

2010-12-11T23:16:00.000-05:00

I'm still playing with felted hearts and this is the one I made yesterday for today's guild meeting and its annual ornament exchange. Process was the same as the one I worked on earlier this week but I went with an additional appliqued heart in a darker green. I think it brings out the other green a little more and it fulfills the quote -- "(his) small heart grew 3 sizes that day."

These paper and fabric ornaments came to me through the Chickens in the Road ornament exchange from Kelly F. Who wouldn't love to open a package and find handmade Christmas ornaments?

(his) small heart grew three sizes that day

2010-12-09T14:07:00.000-05:00

When I wanted to make felted Christmas ornaments this year, hearts were what I thought of. And as soon as I started folding paper to cut out a heart pattern, I remembered the line from one of my favorite Christmas videos -- "Well, in Whoville they say that the Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day." From there it was easy to see what I was going to make.

For the fabrics, I chose a heathery red wool sweater and a poison green wool blazer I'd fulled in the wringer washer. I wanted to layer another heart in order to fulfill the quote's prophecy but couldn't come up with a third color from my stash that worked and refused to change the first two. (Sometimes my muse is very stubborn.) So the photo above shows my first attempt. Unfortunately no matter how I changed the lighting I couldn't capture the true nature of the green.

Compared to choosing the fabrics, the process of making the ornament was easy. I pressed a medium-weight iron-on interfacing to the wrong-side of the two wools before cutting out two large red and one small green heart shapes. Then, because the white stabilizer showed along the edges, I tore off a thin piece along the borders of each before attaching them. The blanket stitching affixing the green heart to one of the red hearts as well as the other embroidery and beading were finished before I blanket-stitched the two red hearts together. For a hanger, I whip-stitched a loop of ribbon between the two layers of red wool. Eh, voilà, the first heart was done. More to follow.

My last chulo?

2010-12-01T10:46:00.001-05:00

Well, maybe not, but I have to say I'm glad to have this one is finished.

DS watched me knit a chulo for his cousin last Christmas from the book Andean Folk Knits: Great Designs from Peru, Chile, Argentina, Ecuador & Bolivia by Marcia Lewandowski. I went straight by the pattern and finished the hat in two days. Then DH insisted he needed a chulo, too. DS watched that process patiently as well. So what could I say when he asked for a chulo of his own?

We determined that just as his dad had wanted a change of pattern (Celtic knot from Alice Starmore's Charts for Colour Knitting a Designer's Source Book From the Personal Collection of Alice Starmore), DS also wanted something different. We tried combinations of his initials and llamas and even made an attempt to reduce his cat, April, to a caricature -- apparently impossible to do with some cats! Finally he settled on a modified dog chart taken from Lewandowski's book that reminded him of Holly-dog. I wanted to use the Cascade 220 yarn I had on hand so Holly-dog's biscuit color translated as yellow and DS wanted to deviate from his more usual red or blue color schemes with a khaki green. For the accent color, I used the same light brown I'd used in the other two chulos.

This one took more than two days. More like two months, off-and-on. Had to frog the charted design TWICE as I added an extra row of yellow one time and managed to insert a brown spot on a solid-colored dog another. (That's what comes of me trying to knit and watch a movie.) I also wish I'd paid more attention to the way I carried the yarn across the back of the dog's body because by making consistently even pick-ups I created lines I'd rather have avoided -- perhaps by using an alternating carry.

Also, truth be told, I was bored with the whole chulo. Changing out the pattern helped but, except for those diagonally-knitted dishcloths, basic socks or what I call my Girl Scout houseshoes, I NEVER knit the same thing twice, much less three times. What kept me going was an 11yo who showed so much pleasure at the idea of having a chulo of his own that I couldn't have quit if I'd needed to. The night I finished it, DS wore it around all evening then stashed it away before bed so he could surprise his dad with it when he got home the next day.

Cajun Cowboy Candy Pickles

2010-10-29T10:52:00.000-04:00

Is that a mouthful to say or what? But they taste good and are a sort of by-product of another session of canning.

A few months ago I posted about a tasty hot and dill pickle recipe a friend had shared called Cajun Pickles. Then, last weekend in anticipation of our first frost, DH pulled up all the pepper plants in the garden. So I've been busy putting up serrano, jalapeno, thai dragon and Fooled You peppers. Some went into a ristra, some were spread on trays for drying, some were canned for later use in salsa or crockpot Italian beef, some went into more hot sauce and some went to another friend because I'd run out of ideas.

But I still had about 8 pounds of jalapeno peppers. And peppers are like anything else we produce, I hate to waste any.

Earlier this summer I had filed away a hot pepper relish-type recipe (attributed to Galen Gann) from the Canning2 list as it sounded like something we would like -- Cowboy Candy. Hot jalapeno peppers, sliced, and onions, diced, simmered together till just tender in a vinegar brine which is then drained off. Sugar and spices are added and the result was billed as a "tasty and spicy addition to almost any meal."

So I used the recipe (posted below) to make 9 pints of Cowboy Candy. One of the reasons I like the Canning2 list is most posters hate to waste anything, too. So the original recipe recommended saving the vinegar-water brine to make hot pepper jelly. But nothing was suggested for the heavy syrup that remained after canning the peppers.

Luckily DH had been asking when we were going to have another batch of Cajun Pickles which made me consider that while they start with a jar of dill pickles, the additional sugar and vinegar called for seemed a possible solution for what to do with the leftover sweet syrup from Cowboy Candy. So I made a batch of cajun pickles using some of the leftover syrup and an additional two cups of sugar which I estimated would approximate the original sweetness called for in the cajun pickle recipe. Instead of adding hot sauce, I relied on the heat left in the syrup after simmering the jalapenos plus the jalapeno seeds and almost 1/2 cup of jalapeno and onion bits left after bottling the cowboy candy. And since the cowboy candy recipe included garlic, mustard seeds and other spices I didn't worry about not using tarragon vinegar or the other seasoning called for in the cajun pickle recipe.

Yes, this makes something slightly different from the original cajun pickle recipe. Is it very new and different? No. It's just a little tweaking, no different than I do on a sometimes daily basis to modify recipes in order to use what's on hand. Do we like this version? Yes! The sweet hot dill flavor is still predominant. Can't tell too much difference from the original version -- tho the addition of mustard seeds gives it a slightly more "sweet pickle" flavor, if that makes sense. We like them so much I'm saving the rest of the pickling syrup left from the cowboy candy to make another batch of cajun pickles when these are done. I love a happy ending.

Candied Jalapenos (Cowboy Candy)
Recipe by: Galen Gann

This makes a very tasty and spicy addition to almost any meal.

First process
4 lb. fresh jalapeno peppers, sliced
2 lb. onions diced
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup water
Second process
6 to 8 cups sugar
2 Tbs. mustard seed
1 tsp. turmeric
2 tsp. celery seed
1 Tbs. garlic powder
1 tsp. ginger

Slice Jalapenos into thin slices and dice onions. Place in pan with water and vinegar, bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat & simmer about 10 min or until tender. [Note: You could start with canned pickled sliced jalapenos and skip this step.]

Pour off most of the water-vinegar mixture (reserve for making hot pepper jelly, if desired), add the sugar and spices bring to soft candy temperature to completely dissolve sugar (about another 10 min.). Place boiling mixture into pint jars, leaving 1/2 inch head space. (Reserve extra sugar syrup for making Cajun Pickles, if desired.) Put on 2-piece lids. Process 10 minutes in boiling water bath.

If you've never canned before check out the latest Ball Blue Book of Preserving or the USDA-funded website, National Center for Home Food Preserving, for detailed directions.

Is there such a thing...

2010-10-28T23:59:00.000-04:00

As too much Dr. Who? Nah...

At least not according to DS who went straight to his pc and created this new background picture after watching the last of (the new) Season 2 shows where the Daleks and the Cybermen battle it out for Earth.

Beautiful lettuce!

2010-10-18T00:01:00.001-04:00

No frost in sight and the fall garden's producing gorgeous bug-free lettuce!

Tea towel embroidery

2010-10-17T23:19:00.000-04:00

I always have several projects going at once but when I found this iron-on in an old Workbasket magazine I picked up last month at the thrift store, I knew I had to add one more to the list.

Last night, while DS was busy entertaining a buddy visiting for the weekend and DH was reading the third book in Dewey Lambdin's Allen Lewrie naval series, I whipped out a faux-floursack towel and started to work.

The iron-on didn't suggest any color scheme but I could already see this big guy as our old roo, Brownie. Tho, as DS later pointed out, Brownie had more of a rose comb...

I goofed and lifted the transfer paper as well as the iron halfway through the transfer process so the lower half of the design was almost non-existent. However, I just laid the transfer beside the towel as I worked and I referred to it whenever I needed help placing the stitches.

The wings gave me the most trouble -- something about having to view those little C-shaped lines and reverse them when stitching due to the mirror-imaging. Messed with my head enough I just "winged" the wings... and told myself it was only a tea towel, after all.

Don't know about you, but I always like to look at the back of the work so here's a pic after I finished embroidering. And, at the bottom of this post, the finished towel. Ironed and folded, ready for dish duty. What a great feeling to start and quickly finish a project (good reason to choose small projects!) AND end up with a soul-satisfying hand-tool, too. Doesn't take much to make me happy...

Theuraputic quilting

2010-10-11T14:44:00.000-04:00

This is a fidget quilt. It's small (this one is 20x16-inches), intended to be held on the lap of an Alzheimer patient. With a variety of fabric textures, beading, buttons and trims it can help provide a sort of calm for nervous plucking and stroking fingers. I'd never heard of the idea till it was presented for this year's annual charity project at my fiber guild. Our meetings are held in space kindly provided by a Charlottesville retirement community which happens to have an Alzheimer unit. So our fidget quilts didn't have far to travel when we turned in the completed quilts at this month's meeting.

Everyone participating in the charity project came up with a unique block. One member opted for a completely knitted quilt, using a variety of brightly-colored yarns and knitting patterns to produce a color-block of multi-textured surfaces. Another member sewed her quilt but included gorgeous fringe trims that made me want to run my fingers through them even when viewed from across the room. Zippers, pockets, woven and braided trims, beads and ribbons rippled across the completed quilts. Corduroy, velvet, flannel, felted wools, and damask appeared on some of the blocks. Other than size, the ability to stand up to commercial laundering was the only other constant for the quilts.

I recycled three fabrics from my stash for the basic block. One, a white linen with bright blue polka dots, was from a set of kitchen curtains that came in a box at an estate auction. Another, a blue flower print fabric was a woven cotton remnant from the same auction but out of a different box. It looked like it had been cut from the bottom of a housedress or apron. The backing for the quilt was a solid white woven wool-linen blend with a small raised fleur-de-lis design. I used it wrong-side out as the texture was most prominent on that side. (It came from the now defunct Stillwater Worsted Mills outlet in Craigsville --I miss that place!)

Laying out the fabric on my cutting board helped me decide on a color arrangement I found pleasing. I used the suggested size, 20x20-inches, as a guideline keeping in mind I intended to use 3-inch polyester satin blanket binding as the edge finish for the block. I don't know why I was so drawn to the combination of these fabrics but I'd decided to use them as soon as I heard of the planned project. Call it kismet -- certainly wasn't because I had no other fabrics to choose from...

Next up came the choice of trims. I found that much harder. Several things I wanted to use, particularly some lace trims, didn't seem able to hold up to long-term fingering. I've made a few fabric books for toddlers over the years and sometimes the trims and textures I most want to include are the least likely to withstand small fingers tugging and stroking them. I figured the same problems would occur with the fidget quilt.

So I went with easily secured items like buttons and appliques with only three narrow polyester ribbons holding a bead each dangling from the surface. When it came to the last section, I knew I wanted to use a piece cut from a striped wool sweater I'd felted. I chose to cut a mitten shaped to my hand and only wish I could have attached a full mitten capable of having a hand slipped inside as DH suggested. But I'd already sewn it to the fabric when he offered the suggestion. Since the project was due the next day, I didn't feel up to a rush job of removing and then figuring out the mechanics of the switch and re-applying.

I always have some sort of handwork project close by because otherwise I fidget when watching a video, waiting for appointments or to pick up DS at his activities. In this case, the fidget quilt while in my hands served to quiet someone before it ever made it to it's intended recipient. I hope whoever uses it enjoys it as much as I did.

This year's hot pepper sauce

2010-09-05T17:53:00.000-04:00

Is a blend of Thai dragon and serrano peppers.

Why? Because those are the main hot peppers, along with cayenne, which DH planted. And, when it came time to make a batch of hot pepper sauce, those were the two that were ready to harvest. The cayenne peppers aren't ripening as fast for some reason.

I make hot pepper sauce that's vinegar-based so it can set on the pantry shelf after opening. Because I make enough to last a year, I process pints or quarts for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath canner. Then when it's ready to use or we need to open another batch, I can decant into a recycled glass bottle more appropriate for dispensing dashes of hot sauce.

Like pickles, this hot pepper sauce benefits from some time just sitting in the jar before using. The flavors will meld and the vinegar will lose some of its overpowering strength. Which improves the overall flavor and lets the peppers shine. I do add a bit of salt and, if I remember, I add a few cloves of garlic -- we were so busy processing tomatoes for juice and ketchup, canning another 18 quarts of chicken broth from chicken backs and necks stockpiled in the freezer, and putting up the pimiento peppers from my brother-in-law's garden that I didn't think of pulling garlic to add this time till I was pureeing the sauce. Thus this batch is garlic-free.

This recipe doesn't require precise measurements but I've learned that it's a good idea to weigh the peppers and measure the amount of vinegar I use so I can come close to duplicating a batch if it turns out to be a very good year. Even with precise amounts, tho, the batches may not be the same year-to-year as the peppers themselves can vary depending on growing conditions. Some years just yield better flavor than others. Lucky for us, drier years seem to be particularly good.

For this year's Thai Dragon-Serrano Pepper Sauce, I used 12 ounces Thai dragon peppers and 26 ounces serrano peppers. Weighed before cutting off the short stems and little caps. I put the peppers in a large dutch oven and added 8 cups distilled white vinegar and 1 tablespoon salt to the pan. I loosely covered the pan and simmered the peppers in the vinegar-salt mixture for about 30 minutes, until they were softened for pureeing.

The peppers and liquid went into the blender in two batches as it was too much to process in one. I put a lid over the opening in the blender lid to try to hold back the splashing. Plus, I put the blender outside on the back deck instead of doing this in the kitchen. The wafting pepper steam will burn eyes and sinuses so fresh moving air is a good idea. Don't do the blending in a small enclosed space!

Even tho using the blender, it's a good idea to strain the mixture through a wire mesh. I processed it in our well-loved and tough-working vitamix and still had over a cup of seeds and pepper bits left to strain out. (The remaining pulp can make a good pest deterrent in the garden but ours went into the compost this time.)

I was left with 2 quarts and almost 1 pint of hot pepper sauce. It was too thick to sprinkle easily from a bottle so I thinned it slightly by adding almost 2 more cups of white vinegar. The hot pepper sauce went into canning jars which I processed for 10 minutes in a BWB. Yield of 6 pints.

If you've never canned before check out the latest Ball Blue Book of Preserving or the USDA-funded website, National Center for Home Food Preserving, for detailed directions.

Nothing like a private fireworks show...

2010-08-10T23:58:00.006-04:00

County fair started tonight, with, as usual, a fireworks show at the end of the evening. The fairgrounds are a couple miles away by road but only a mile as the crow flies. The fireworks are set off on a hill behind our house. Perfect viewing location!

They grow up so fast

2010-08-09T01:21:00.025-04:00

Chickens, that is. (Kids, too, but that's another post.)

Smokey, the grey Silkie chick, (cockerel, we think) is now 10 weeks old. His mama hen, Bandit, a first-timer on the hatching circuit, is like many mothers -- she wants her freedom but she can't quite drop the chick. She's a flyer, always going walk-about in the front yard, visiting the compost pile, that kind of thing. And motherhood didn't change her.

She flew the chick pen the day after Smokey hatched. Fortunately it was warm weather so he wasn't left alone AND cold but we had to put a wire cover on their pen, forcing Bandit to stay in. And that was difficult for Bandit. She paced the fence of her small enclosure, squawking almost constantly about her internment. Poor Smokey spent most of his early days running alongside her trying to keep up so when she did settle down he could scoot underneath for a bit of warm "mama hen time."

DH listened to me debate with myself over whether to leave Smokey in with his seemingly dysfunctional mama hen or foster him in the garage. (He didn't debate because he was not in favor of a chicken in the house. Thin end of the wedge, you know.) I debated because as often happens with our livestock, I'm torn between the food-production side of life and the pet side plus nature vs. nurture -- difficult philosophical subjects here, people!

After the first couple of weeks, we tried letting them both out into the backyard with the other backyard girls (and Snowball's one-week-older chicks) but Smokey couldn't keep up with Bandit's long legs and certainly not with her wings when she would go up and over the fence for a quick compost reccon. So they went back in the closed pen till about 10 days ago.

Then, at almost 9 weeks, it seemed time to let him out with the flock to take his chances in our relatively safe backyard while still, somewhat, under Bandit's tutelage. The neat thing we discovered was while Bandit may head off on her own as usual, Smokey's better able to keep up and, best of all, Bandit is now keeping a protective, if laid-back, eye on her older chick. Now if Smokey cries out -- like when DS picked him up for this photo -- Bandit comes charging to his rescue. Forget the times when she left a newly-hatched chick on his own in the chick pen, she's remembered that she has a responsibility. It's cool to watch their interaction and that of Badger, the grey Silkie roo, who steps in to herd his ladies and any of their chicks as he thinks necessary.

Badger is definitely Smokey's sire and while Mrs. Badger, the other half of our grey Silkie pair, laid the egg, Bandit is his mama hen. Together they make a great chicken family with some human parallels that make for interesting chicken-watching conversations on a slow summer afternoon.

Badger protectively watching over Bandit and a mostly-hidden Smokey -- even Happy Lamb turns from the camera...

Badger and his "other" families including Snowball and her then-11-week-old chicks: the Turken Twins, Dion the Wanderer and, in front, TBD or the-chick-to-be-named-later.

(Sort of makes me feel I'm reporting for a ~~celebrity rag~~ chicken-expose on polygamous roos but then I'm back to anthropomorphizing...)

Something old and something new

2010-08-07T01:15:00.000-04:00

Well, maybe familiar would be a better choice than old...

After canning 16 pints of a spicy plum dipping sauce I've made for years, we tried something different with a few pounds of the damsons picked earlier in the week. I've read of fruit cheeses in novels and English cookbooks and finally the time seemed right to try making some myself.

Fruit cheese is made from fruit and sugar and will hold its shape; it can be made in a straight-sided crock or jar and turned out for slicing when ready to serve rather than being spooned out like a softer preserve. Tart fruits such as damsons and gooseberries seem most common but there may be other fruits that would work as well. And fruit cheese will keep for months, too, thanks to all the sugar.

It's a pretty basic recipe. For each pound of damson pulp left after sieving to remove the pits and break up the skins, you use 2 cups of sugar. Here's a link to a page on the neat site, The Cottage Smallholder, with the easy directions.

The spicy plum dipping sauce is my adaptation of Helen Witty's "Chinese-style Plum Sauce" recipe included in her wonderful Better Than Store-Bought: A Cookbook. I modified it to include crushed pineapple and exclude the corn syrup and whole mustard seeds. I previously posted the original version on Farm Bell Recipes at Chickens in the Road in case you want to compare the two. Either one is great for dipping egg rolls, chicken strips, etc.

The original recipe makes about 4 pints and the version below makes about 15 pints though it could be halved without a problem. I found we liked this so well it's better to make enough to last till the next year's fruit harvest and still have a little to give away. I hate it when friends or family beg, don't you?

Remember that this is a sauce for canning. It's meant to be made and then held on the shelf for a minimum of a couple of weeks before serving -- better yet, make it this summer than wait till Thanksgiving to enjoy. Almost any recipe for a preserve like this, or for pickles or relish -- similar dishes, really -- will benefit from a waiting period to allow the flavors to meld. If you taste this as you're preparing it (and I always do and think you should, too) it will likely taste too vinegary and the flavor of the peppers may be too strong, too. That's normal. Give it a few weeks, preferably a couple of months if you can wait that long, and the flavors will meld into a wonderful dipping sauce you'll certainly prefer over that orangey-pink stuff in the little plastic packets.

Spicy Plum Dipping Sauce

8 cups plum pulp, *See note
8 cups peach or nectarine pulp, *See note
2 (20 ounce) cans crushed pineapple in juice
2 large onions, diced
2 sweet bell peppers, seeded and diced
5 jalapeno peppers, seeded and membrane removed, finely diced
3-inch knob of gingerroot, peeled and finely diced or shredded
1 head garlic, peeled and minced
6-1/2 cups apple cider vinegar, 5% acidity
3 cups water
1/4 cup dry mustard
3 tablespoons kosher salt
2 cups granulated sugar
2 pounds brown sugar (approximately 4-1/3 cups)

Combine the fruit pulp, pineapple, onions, peppers, gingerroot, garlic, and vinegar in a very large non-reactive kettle. Bring to a simmer over low heat. In a bowl, combine remaining ingredients and whisk to blend. Add to the fruit mixture and allow to simmer for an additional 45 minutes.

If you prefer a smoother sauce, press mixture through a chinoise or food mill. Return to the kettle and boil gently, stirring, until the sauce has thickened, about 15 minutes longer (it will thicken a little more while cooling).

Process in BWB in half-pint (10 minutes) or pint (15 minutes) jars, leaving 1/2″ headspace.

Allow the flavors to meld in the jars for at least 2 weeks, better a month, before serving. This one definitely improves with a month or two of waiting — it’s worth it.

Notes:
I use a steam juicer to prepare the damsons and nectarines or peaches. It lets me obtain juice from the fruit than run the remaining pulp through a chinoise or food mill to yield stoned, sieved fruit ready to turn into a smooth sauce. (The juice I either can or use for another purpose.)

Alternatively, coarsely chop fruit and place in a large pot. Heat fruit till softened sufficiently to run through a food mill, removing pits and skins, then measure out the amount of pureed fruit called for in recipe. Repeat for other type of fruit indicated in recipe.

Optional but good:
Roast the sweet red peppers over a flame or under the broiler till the skin is burned almost black. Let stand 5 minutes, then wrap in a plastic bag and let stand for 15 minutes. Quarter lengthwise, scrape off the skin and remove the seeds then set the peppers aside till called for in recipe.

Damsons!

2010-08-05T23:44:00.000-04:00

We picked about 4 gallons of damsons yesterday. I put together one jar each gin- and vodka-infused damsons with sugar. Both will take several months to work their magic and then damson liqueur for everyone!

For each 1/2-gallon jar I used 2 lbs of damsons, each pricked several times with a fork, plus 12 ounces of granulated sugar and enough vodka or gin to cover the fruit -- about .65L each. Put a lid on the jars and covered them with brown paper to keep out the light. I'll shake them once every day or so till the sugar's dissolved. Then they'll sit on an out-of-the-way shelf in the kitchen for at least three months when we'll taste and decide if it's time to strain and bottle or wait another couple of months.

The other damsons are on their way to becoming damson cheese, spicy plum sauce, damson preserves and juice for syrup or drinking. More recipes to come...

Hot and dry but still producing

2010-08-04T23:59:00.005-04:00

Today's harvest.

Hillbilly tomatoes with Arkansas Traveler and a few Early Girls

Green bell peppers with hot jalapenos and some Fooled You imitators.

Hillbilly and Arkansas Traveler tomatoes

Green bell peppers and Kennebec potatoes

99 in the shade

2010-07-06T21:45:00.000-04:00

Yes, it's hot. But even as the indoor/outdoor thermometer was showing 99º in the shady backyard (I refused to look at the thermometer out front in full sun), the inside temperature never topped 80º today. Not bad considering we don't run A/C.

When we bought this house, it needed a new roof and I don't just mean the shingles needed replacing. When we chose the trusses we went with a 36" overhang for the eaves to help shade the windows on hot summer days. I also put those 1" metal mini-blinds at every window -- they are an off-white like the walls and woodwork so can either blend in or unobtrusively hide behind other window treatments as desired. Plus DH installed a whole house fan in the central hall's ceiling to help bring in the late evening's cooler outside air. And last year, DH finally got to mark another item off his to-do list when he installed (with some help from my uncle) new windows all-around. Unfortunately, we're still waiting for a time when we can upgrade the insulation...

But for now, we open the windows when the outside air cools down and turn on the whole house fan in order to pull the cooler air inside. Then, during the heat of the day, we keep windows and doors closed and draw the blinds so the house maintains that coolness. Every room has a ceiling fan that we can switch on as needed, too.

So it gets hot -- sometimes the steel front door is hot to the touch on the INSIDE, but unless the humidity goes above 60% or so it doesn't feel any worse than it might if we ran the central air. I think it's even better because in previous years (this is the second summer for our "no a/c" policy) when we'd break down and turn on the air, many nights it would be cooler outside than in since we set the thermostat high (78º or 80º) to conserve energy and money.

This is the second house we've put a whole house fan in. I grew up with one my dad had purchased thru the Sears catalog so I knew how effective they can be. DH was willing to give it a try at the other house and then, when we moved here, it was one of the first things he worked on. And considering how much work this house needed, that says a lot. If you're looking at ways to reduce the cost of cooling your house, consider a whole house fan. They're relatively inexpensive to buy, easy to install and cheap to run when compared with the A/C. Drawbacks? Can be noisy, check out the sound levels as it varies between models (direct drive vs. belt driven).

Too hot, too dry -- negative waves abound

2010-07-05T21:13:00.000-04:00

This was today's harvest. A few cucumbers, squash, bell peppers and a variety of tomatoes -- plus one shallot I pulled to check their progress. Not too bad, huh? Well, take a good look because it may be the best of the season.

Our garden is wilting from the heat and lack of rain. After more than four weeks without any rain, DH used the last of the collected rainwater over a week ago.

Much of May and June was hot -- days over 90ºF. and nighttime lows tended to stay above 70º. After a slight reprieve last week, the National Weather Service issued an Excessive Heat Watch for the next few days. That means it's likely to hit triple digits. And, other than a very slight chance of thunderstorms at the end of the week, there's no rain in sight.

The melons and winter squash in the photo above are mulched with straw. Can you tell the difference between the straw mulch and the regular grass "growing" in the upper right of the picture? The late-planted tomatoes are coming into bloom but I have serious doubts they will produce much edible fruit. Blossom-end rot is a killer when the water supply's erratic. The second planting of beans is looking good but I expect it will start to show the effects of no rain before many days pass. Yes, I know, "always with the negative waves, Moriarity, always with the negative waves." I'll try to do better tomorrow.

You don't always have to start from the beginning.

2010-06-26T12:46:00.000-04:00

I make most of our pickles from cucumbers or other vegetables that DH raises in the garden. Usually from seeds he started, often from seeds we've saved. But not always.

A friend served these pickles at a Garden Club luncheon a few months ago and everyone present asked for the recipe. They're that good. And they start with a jar of dill pickles.

Pat's Cajun Pickles

1 gallon whole dill pickles
7-1/2 cups sugar
1 cup tarragon vinegar
1 to 2 ounces Tabasco sauce (I use the full amount but we like the heat)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion, sliced

Drain and discard the pickle juice. Slice pickles. Mix vinegar, Tabasco sauce, and garlic together.

Layer pickle slices, onion slices, sugar and vinegar mix in emptied pickle jar. Put on the lid and seal with plastic wrap because the lid invariably leaks during rolling.

Lay jar on its side on counter (you may want to put a folded kitchen towel under the jar to stop it from accidental rolling). Roll the jar to mix ingredients. I tilted and sort of shook mine to get the blending started but that's not required. The sugar will eventually dissolve if you remember to roll the jar several times each day. Let set on counter for 7 days before eating. You can refrigerate after the time's up if you want.

R.I.P. Abby

2010-06-19T18:36:00.000-04:00

We had to put our Jacob ewe down this morning.

Abby (short for Abilene -- she was named for her hometown, a small Virginia crossroads where she was born over 12 years ago) was a one-of-a-kind sheep. She never completely lost her wariness of people though she learned to like animal crackers, a frequent sheep treat around here. And only in the last few years did she stop giving DH a real run for the money when it came time for shearing and other routine care such as foot trimmings or wormings. More than once she's leaped over the 4-ft gates he set up behind the barn to facilitate capture. The other sheep would gather docilely at the gate after being herded into the pen but not Abby.

We still laugh, DH not so loud, about the time she leaped right over him on a successful attempt to get back out to the field and away from the shearing pen. The funny thing was, once she was in the hands of the shearer (usually DH tho we hired a local Virginia Tech student till DH had a chance to take the 2-day VA/NC Shepherds Workshop then offered down the road at VT's Shenandoah Valley Ag Research and Extension Center at Steeles Tavern), she was a different sheep. Calmly she'd accept her fate and let herself be flipped first one way then the other as the shearer worked to remove her lovely thick coat. Her springy wool made a pretty heathery black yarn as the small splotches of white and brown in her coat blended with the rest of her mostly black wool in the final product. (Her coat would sunburn on the tips making her look more brown as the wool locks lengthened after each shearing but underneath was a rich black.)

Because of her coloring, black legs, black face with a wide white stripe down the middle and a mostly-black coat with a few white and brown patches, many people thought she was a goat on first (or even second) sight -- especially right after shearing when no thick wool gave her away. But we knew she just acted like one. (Myself, I always thought she looked like a holstein calf after shearing.) And as the smallest of the sheep, year in and year out, she would bounce around, trying to exert her dominance, when the others were sheared each spring. I think it's because sheep always look so much smaller right after the shearer finishes and Abby imagined she was now (finally!) the biggest of the flock.

Abby was the sheep that hung back when the others gathered 'round for their treats. She often stayed on the far side of Andy, the guard llama, using him as a shield in case anyone should try to make a grab for her. But with lots of coaxing, over more than a year, animal crackers became too much for her to resist and she finally succumbed to closing in enough that she could share in the bounty, too.

With age, though, she became less agile. We could tell that a couple of years ago when she began putting up only a token chase at shearing time and completely ceased jumping the gates. Early this spring, before DH sheared, she'd even gotten down several times and was unable to stand again without help. Each time it happened, one of us would have to go out and hoist her to her feet.

The good news was it seemed to help her lose most of the remaining shyness with people. Since we'd moved the sheep closer to the house after a serious coyote scare early this past Mother's Day morning, Abby'd even baa and call to us as the other sheep do when we'd be out and about in the backyard -- reminding us that animal crackers were always welcome, I think. We hoped the mobility problem would go away when she was no longer encumbered by her heavy fleece but it didn't and veterinarians, like any other medical doctors, can only offer so much help. It was time.

Holly-dog meets a skunk: the aftermath

2010-06-16T15:46:00.000-04:00

Holly-dog met a skunk. It was not an amicable meeting. Holly-dog had to have a bath. Immediately.

Always before I've used tomato juice to wash a dog that was sprayed by a skunk but this time DH used a recipe I'd clipped from Country Living. It's inexpensive, I had all the ingredients on hand and I thought it might be easier to wash out of her fur than home-canned tomato juice. I won't know for sure till she gets wet again but this seemed to do a good job.

Dog Bath for Skunk Encounters

32 ounces hydrogen peroxide
1/4 cup baking soda
1 tablespoon shampoo or dish detergent

Mix together right before use. Mixture may fizz or build up pressure in tightly-closed container so don't plan on storing it for another time. Use it all.

Wash, rinse and repeat if you still have soap mixture. Let mixture stay on fur for 5-10 minutes before rinsing.

Bath time is not a favorite with Holly but she's usually very stoic about it. Today you might even say she enjoyed it as DS had something with which to bribe her.

Some friends are on the path to a second adoption from Africa. One of their daughters is contributing to the effort by baking and selling "Rachel's Beefy Biscuits for Dogs." Holly-dog thought they were spot-on.

Surprise! Look what Bandit hatched.

2010-06-09T22:38:00.002-04:00

Yes, it's a chick but it's still a big surprise. We only noticed Bandit was broody last week. Bandit is a backyard girl, a 9-mo pullet who was herself hatched by Fifi late last summer.

Apparently she was stealthily broody long before last week. (It takes 23 days to hatch a chicken egg.) And she's an egg thief, to boot.

Unless we swap out the backyard girls' eggs with some likely-to-be-fertile eggs from the hens in the mobile coop, their eggs won't hatch. Well, except for Mrs. Badger's eggs. She's a little grey Silkie we added to the backyard on April 30 along with her mate, Badger, He halfheartedly tries to cover one or two of the fullsize backyard girls but let's just say he hasn't gotten the hang of it yet. So Bandit must have swiped one of Mrs. Badger's eggs and added it to her nest.

So what Bandit hatched is a little grey Silkie. What a turnaround. In one chick pen we have Bandit, a full-size hen, with her suspected bantam chick. And next door, in another chick pen, is Snowball, a little white Silkie, and her now-2-and-a-half-week-old chicks who will grow up to be full-size chickens. (Looking like 2 cockerels and 2 Turken pullets but time will tell.)

And we can't forget Echa, the 3yo Turken and first-time mother in the mobile pen, who decided it's never too late to try hatching an egg. She sat on four eggs in one of the raised nest boxes in the wheeled coop but only one egg hatched. Mama hen and chick are doing fine in the third chick pen we set up, this time inside the electric netting.

DS is ecstatic that we have Turken chicks. He's hoped for that ever since we got the three original Turkens (Turkey, Echa and Misha) as part of a day-old chick order. DH is very pleased that "his girl, Echa" came through with a chick after several weeks of impatient waiting. And I'm trying to figure out how we can set up another two chick pens because Mrs. Badger, the grey Silkie in the backyard, and Amelia Earhart, one of the new Turkens added to the mobile pen April 30, are both determined to brood their eggs. When it rains it pours.

Preserved Bean Sprouts (dua gia)

2010-06-03T00:01:00.001-04:00

3 cups water
1 tablespoon salt (pickling salt or 1-1/4 tablespoon kosher salt)
1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 pound mung bean sprouts, rinsed and drained
1 carrot, cut into very thin strips or shaved with a vegetable peeler

Bring water, salt and sugar to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

Pack the bean sprouts and carrot shavings together in a 2-quart jar. Pour the cooled brine over the vegetables and cover the opening with a towel. Don't worry if the brine doesn't cover the veggies completely to begin with. After an hour or so the liquid and vegetables will equalize or you can press the veggies down with a spoon to get them below the level of the brine. Cover the jar loosely and let it stand on the counter at room temperature for 3 days. Taste to be sure the bean sprouts are sour enough, then cap the jar tightly and refrigerate it. The sprouts will keep for 3-4 weeks.

Lots of pickles but no cucumbers yet.

2010-06-02T11:25:00.002-04:00

When I was a kid, pickles meant pickled cucumbers. Even pickled beets weren't really considered pickles. But now when I think of pickles, my mind races with the possibilities.

The sugar snap pea vines are producing like mad. We pick in the morning and by the next evening the vines look loaded again. Monday I prepared a batch of Pickled Sugar Snap Peas from Linda Ziedrich's The Joy of Pickling, Revised Edition: 250 Flavor-Packed Flavor-Packed Recipes for Vegetables and More from Garden or Market. The directions say to let them set in the fridge for 2 weeks but DS and I tried them last night (barely 24 hours) and they're tasting pretty good. Maybe they'll last long enough to try them at the proper time or maybe they won't.

Tuesday, while DH and DS went on another hike with the WILD GUYde, Lester Zook, and some other homeschoolers, I took advantage of the morning spent in Harrisonburg. Besides the usual stops at the downtown library and A World of Good thrift store, I went by a Taste of Thai's food market to pick up a few groceries.

I bought lots of bean sprouts because I planned to make Ziedrich's Vietnamese Pickled Bean Sprouts plus Bean Sprout Salad in Outrageous Dressing, a great summer salad that becomes a main dish when I add cold cooked chicken or shrimp. After setting on the counter overnight, the fermenting bean sprouts look like this and, after another day or two at room temperature, the taste will be pretty mild. Makes them a good accompaniment to spicy or rich foods.

I cut up the last of the garden's daikon radishes for another fresh pickle so the refrigerator's full for the time being. The beets are ready in the garden but I think I still have plenty of beet pickles canned and on the shelf from last year so they'll probably be prepared some other way. DS and I like them steamed and plain but I might try something different to tempt DH.

4 and counting...

2010-05-23T22:25:00.001-04:00

While the sheep feigned indifference, Snowball, the white Silkie pullet, came through her marathon broody spell with 4 chicks hatching today. Poor thing started out brooding almost 5 weeks ago but every day when she left the chicken house to grab her once-a-day meal, another hen would add an egg to her nest. Soon she had over a dozen eggs and she couldn't keep them all covered. So we cleared those eggs out and gave her 6 fresh eggs and a house of her own on May 1. May 2 we added one grey silkie egg from our new pair.

Around mid-morning today we spotted this little black-and-white Dominique chick poking his (her?) head out from under Snowball. By noon there were three more chicks added to the brood: 2 Turkens and a chipmunk-looking one which is probably a green-egg layer. (All the full-size eggs placed under Snowball were brown but in addition to Cappy, the Dominique rooster, we had Brownie, a green-egg layer rooster, in the pen from which the eggs came.)

One Turken is a yellow-white fluffball and the other is very similar in coloring to the chipmunk-looking chick except it has the trademark naked neck. Maybe it will be a green egg layer, too?

Snowball wouldn't come off the nest even to eat today so I'm thinking there might be one or more eggs she's waiting to hatch. Stay tuned.

Dehydrator Diary - Socks and Mushrooms...

2010-05-20T22:36:00.000-04:00

This week I found organic mushrooms marked down at the grocery. I spent about $15 and came home with 5 pounds of cremini mushrooms, 2 pounds of portobello mushrooms and a pound of shitake mushrooms. They were in very good shape so I put a 1/2-pound of cremini and a pound of portobello mushrooms in the fridge for a couple of meals later in the week. The rest of the mushrooms I prepared to put in the dehydrator.

But first I had to take out the socks that were in the dehydrator. Yes, for the second time in 5 days I've dried DH's wool kilt socks in the dehydrator. You see, it's too warm here for a fire in the woodstove but it's been raining. The socks are so thick they'd take more than a day to dry after handwashing (don't want them to felt so I eschew machine washing and drying) and the dehydrator racks offered good support. Drying went pretty fast; took about 4 hours at 105°F. and, since I add a drop or two of patchouli essential oil to the rinse water as an insect deterrent, the house smelled faintly of patchouli for several days. I like that, too.

Once the socks were out of the way, I spread sliced cremini mushrooms (or, according to the label, baby portobellos) and whole shitake mushrooms on the racks. Before slicing, I removed the stems and sliced them for drying separately. Sometimes they're tough but the flavor's good so I won't waste them but use when I'm going to puree or just need stock. I did the same with the portobello mushrooms, and because I only had a few of them, I mixed them in with the cremini. The dehydrator was full and ran overnight at 115°F.

Kale chips

2010-04-27T20:14:00.004-04:00

Finally had a chance last week to try another suggestion from Mary T. Bell's "Food Drying with an Attitude: A fun and fabulous guide to creating snacks, meals and crafts" and made a double batch of kale chips in the dehydrator. I've seen mention of these things for a couple of years but didn't get around to trying them till now -- wish it'd been sooner as they are GOOD!

They're crispy, almost melt-in-your-mouth light and slightly salty. I followed Bell's directions and used a vinegar, olive oil and salt mixture to coat the chips before drying but DS suggested trying Old Bay seasoning next time. I can think of several seasoning blends worth trying but I'll have to wait till late summer as the chickens finished off the wintered-over kale when they were on the last garden section.

Besides rinsing any sand from the kale, I chose to remove the tough stem that runs up the middle of each leaf. They can become hard and tough after drying. But I did save them as Bell recommends and dried along with the kale chips, then ground to a powder, they'll make a tasty addition (like last week's post about ground carrot peels) to soups or other dishes. I'm thinking I should add a spoonful of the powder to the next batch of vegetable dip we make...

Kale Chips

4 cups kale (stems removed)
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon salt (I recommend reducing the salt, maybe by half?)

Cut kale leaves cross-wise into 1- or 2-inch pieces. They'll shrink while drying so don't worry if the curly leaves look over-large to start.

Mix vinegar, oil and salt together and pour over kale pieces in a bowl. Toss to coat. Let sit for about an hour, tossing every 15 minutes or so to make sure all surfaces are coated. (Bell recommends putting a weight like a large plate on the kale to press it into the liquid seasoning -- this would relive much of the tossing I had to do but my container wasn't shaped to allow this.)

Spread the kale pieces on the dehydrator shelves and dry at 125º-135ºF. till kale is crispy-dry. Depending on variables, it could take from 4 hours to overnight. Mine took about 8 hours to get to the right crispness.

Notes: I liked the cider vinegar but think any vinegar would work. Red wine or a flavored vinegar, like garlic, would be good, too. If you double, the recipe (I did), don't double the salt (I didn't and I was glad).

When 10 pounds of carrots yields 24 ounces

2010-04-17T12:24:00.008-04:00

Stopped at the grocery the other day to get olive oil (50% off regular price--YAY!) and found they had two pound bags of organic carrots marked down to 50¢. The store often has fresh produce marked down as it "ages" but those carrots looked as good as (if not better than!) the ones in my refrigerator crisper at home. So I bought 10 pounds.

When I got home I set DS to washing, then peeling them. I put a big pot of water on to boil and pulled out a knife and cutting board. DH brought the dehydrator in from the garage where it's stored in the off season.

First the peels went in the dehydrator on three shelves. Once upon a time I would throw them in the compost, then I learned to put them in a bag in the freezer along with onion skins and celery trimmings. Those vegetable scraps make an excellent addition to chicken broth fixings. When the broth's ready, I just strain out the cooked vegetables and then they go to the compost pile.

But having a dehydrator has changed that. Now when we need to peel more than a couple of carrots (the chickens get the small amounts) or other vegetables like onions, I dry the peels and grind them to make vegetable powders. You know, the basis for those seasoning blends that can cost a dollar an ounce at the store.

So this week, $5 worth of carrots (10 pounds) yielded 4 ounces of dried carrot peelings (small jar on right in photo) and right at 20 ounces of diced dried carrot pieces (quart jar on left in photo). I blanched the diced carrot before drying but not the peels. The pieces are perfect for adding to soup.

The peels were dried in their long form, just as they came from the carrots, but I crumbled them after drying to reduce their volume. Once I'm ready to use them in powder form, I'll either crush with the pestle and mortar or run them through a little electric coffee grinder. When I first started drying vegetables suitable for making powder, I made them into powder as soon as they were dry. But I don't add any anti-caking agents such as may be found in many store-bought salts or seasoning blends and even though I might vacuum seal the jars, I found the powder could make like a rock and become so hard I had to chip it out of the jar.

Dehydrating the carrots was a good warm-up for the coming growing season. Now that the dehydrator's out on the counter again I'm thinking about what else I want to preserve. There's rhubarb ready to pick and we're out of fruit leather so I think a batch of rhubarb juice for punch and the remaining pulp for fruit leather is a good idea. Also plan to can 10-15 pounds of dry pinto beans and a smaller amount (3 pounds?) of black beans later today. Just seemed like the thing to do as I have a ham bone to use up in the pintos and if I get out the canner for them I might as well do the black beans, too. So back to the kitchen for me...

Seedling update

2010-04-12T07:05:00.001-04:00

The tomato seedlings have grown since we first transplanted them into newspaper pots on April 1. Although the nights have been chilly, with frost warnings, it's warm enough during the day to set the aluminum pans of seedlings outside on a wooden display rack (salvaged at the end of the growing season several years ago from Home Depot's garden center). The rack stands in a protected spot along a house wall and under the eaves. Gathers all the warm sun but keeps most of the wind off the seedlings. I think they like it. And I know it does them good to have real sunshine and just enough wind to build stem strength.

The hillbilly tomatoes are easy to spot with their distinctive leaf form. One can really see why they're called potato-leaf tomatoes...

The first seedlings, cabbages, lettuces, onions, lavender, broccoli and cauliflower are spending all their time outside now. Some have been planted in garden beds and some are waiting their turn, resting in their newspaper pots, on the warm soil in the cold frames. At the rate they're growing, we should have enough lettuce for a salad by the weekend.

Saturday night at the drive-in

2010-04-11T22:22:00.006-04:00

This was opening weekend for Hull's Drive-in down in Lexington. It's the country's only community-owned, non-profit drive-in and we've been members and supporters (and sometime-volunteers) of Hull's Angels since the beginning, 1999. But it seems we rarely get to go to the drive-in. Saturday night all the planets must have been in alignment because we made it.

Hull's is such a local favorite that even though we hadn't planned to meet up, some friends were already there and waved us into a spot next to them. Another family we know was on the other side so we had lots of visiting to do while the kids played ball and Frisbee in the grass in front of the big screen.

Growing up, when my family went to the drive-in, we made popcorn at home and put it in paper grocery sacks to take in the car. When we were all at home, we even took two bags, one for the front seat and one for the back. I normally try to keep that tradition alive but since I had a fiber guild meeting Saturday morning and DH was bottling apple butter with some friends, we ran out of time for food prep. Fortunately, Hull's has a great snack bar staffed by Hull's Angels volunteers.

It was a beautiful day for the drive-in and we started out sitting in front of the car in lawn chairs. That was great for visiting but when the sun sent down, the air cooled off and though we all wore jackets and some (me!) had blankets, we three ended up watching the movie from the car. There were many hardier souls who stayed out in the open, however.

We stayed for the first feature and, at DS's request, the short animated clips that have been shown between features for as long as I can remember but while DH and I might have enjoyed the second movie, it probably wasn't a good choice for a ten year old so we headed home. We have high hopes that we can make it back to Hull's later this summer. Just gotta get those planets in alignment again...

The guinea who wouldn't leave...

2010-04-08T06:45:00.001-04:00

Mr. Guinea is still here. He roosts in the smoke tree every night but gets back in the pen before we're up at daybreak to open the portable coop doors. He spends his day mixing with the chickens though the roosters tend to give him a wide berth.

Yesterday the neighbor from over the hill came by late in the afternoon to let us know one of our guinea fowl was over at his farmhouse. Wait, we don't have guineas.

After explaining the situation and discussing where the wanderer could possibly have come from initially, I went back to hanging clothes in the backyard. DS agreed that the guinea had come to us on the move and that was their nature so we were saddened but reconciled to losing Mr. Guinea.

When I finished with the laundry I came in grabbed a pan of extra buttermilk and a few oats I'd prepared for the chickens and headed out front with it. DS went along to turn off the charger. Surprise! Coming around from the back of the pen was Mr. Guinea (or Newt as DS's taken to calling him). He'd come "home" in time for tea.

DS swung the netting gate open and I led the way into the pen with Newt right behind. He immediately went for the buttermilk just like the hens while the roosters hung back though I did see Brownie with a white mustache after a few minutes.When should we stop considering Newt Guinea a guest and assume he's a resident?

Just like her mama?

2010-04-07T22:17:00.004-04:00

Snowball, the white silkie in the backyard, went broody this week. DH slipped a few fertile eggs taken from the electric netting flock under her this morning so we may have chicks by the end of the month.

She's still just a pullet, not quite one year old, but she's already following in her mama's footsteps. I'm so proud.

Can we keep him, Mom? Please?!

2010-04-06T14:03:00.007-04:00

Yesterday morning we heard a commotion coming from the chickens in the electric poultry netting. While DS and I went out expecting to witness an imminent predator attack, we instead discovered a guinea fowl walking around the yard near the chickens penned on the garden.

The roosters were trying to get the hens under the portable coop or feeding station and were glancing nervously over their shoulders at the marauder who was answering their danger-danger squawks with his own loud chit-chits. Once we were on the scene the hens began to quiet down and came out for their share of the chicken treats DS had grabbed on his way out the door. The guinea cockerel came closer to the electric netting and, after DS turned off the charger and I held up one of the fiberglass posts, went into the pen with the chickens.

Well, I didn't know what else to do with him and that seemed like a good option at the time.

After watching them for a few minutes and determining the guinea wasn't planning to take advantage of his size and bully the chickens, we went back to our regular chores. Throughout the day we checked on the guinea and I called a couple of neighbors to see if we could locate the guinea's owner, even calling the SPCA in case he'd been reported missing, but no luck.

The guinea made his chit-chit call almost all day. It was loud enough to be heard in the house but didn't seem to indicate any distress on his part. He mainly paced along the half of the pen the chickens alloted him. Once or twice he wandered near the feeders and waterers but mostly kept his distance. The roos definitely kept theirs! Anytime the guinea moseyed their way, the roosters practically ran over the hens to get out of his way. But he never offered them any violence or really seemed to notice them as individuals at all. By evening we'd discovered he particularly liked chicken scratch and that he stopped making his call while eating.

At dusk, DS and I donned long-sleeve jackets and gloves, expecting we'd have to bundle him into the portable coop when it was time to close the doors. But DS spotted the guinea near the top of the smoke tree when we went out. The smoke tree is near the garden but well outside the netting so he had to have flown over the fence and then up into the tree. He was about 15 feet off the ground and close to the end of a slender branch. Of course, the leaves aren't out yet so he was very exposed but we decided to leave him there for the night.

It stormed here last night. Lots of wind. Caused Holly-dog to push our bedroom door open and squeeze into her favorite spot for riding out storms -- under the bed. I woke up worrying about the guinea. DH promised he'd go looking for him in the morning.

This morning just after sunrise when DH went out to open the coop, the guinea was already down from the tree and back inside the ring of netting. He's decided he likes it here, I guess. And DS has gone from asking "Can we keep him?" to "Let's order some guineas when we order the baby chicks!"

Below is a video I shot when he first went into the chicken pen yesterday. Even with the sound of the breeze, you can clearly hear his chit-chit call over the usual clucks and crows from the chickens.

Two months and I'm learning to be thankful for the first housefly of the season...

2010-04-05T06:55:00.000-04:00

On February 4, DS, accompanied by DH, attended a Carnivorous Plant Workshop at the Edith J. Carrier Arboretum and Botanical Gardens at JMU. He came home with a terrarium in which he'd planted five carnivorous plants (a venus flytrap, pitcher plant, and, I think, three sundews) provided by the workshop presenter. He had notes on how to maintain the terrarium -- when to feed, ideas on what to feed, how to collect snow or rainwater for watering, lighting needs, everything except a supply of insects.

We still had snow on the ground that week and by the end of the next week we had another foot added to it. Where's a bug when you need one?

DS's tried growing carnivorous plants before. For several years he would save his allowance for a few weeks before the local farmer's market opened for the season and purchase a venus fly trap from one of the market gardeners. Unfortunately, though he assiduously cared for each one and reported back to the seller whenever we went to the market, none survived more than a few months. These are looking better.

The venus flytrap set a flower stem, one of the sundews is blooming and the pitcher plant has a big beautiful new pitcher. Or whatever you call it. The part that catches the bug.

The main difference seems to be DS collected snow for melting or rainwater for watering the plants. Previously, we used our well water, thinking that was better than the treated county water. Seems we forgot to take the minerals in the well water into account, neither the public water supply nor most well water is good for these guys.

Now the only problem is finding insects for the plants. I'm assured that once summer arrives the plants will earn their keep by dispatching fruit flies but for now excitement comes from finding a slow-moving housefly buzzing around early in the season.

(Photo below is current. Note decomposing apple bit in lower front, resting on, I think, a Lego. According to DS, it's supposed to draw in unsuspecting fruit flies... I'm not sure what purpose the Lego serves. Maybe it keeps the soil from getting gooey? Photo at top of post is from early March.)

Tomato seedlings

2010-04-04T22:28:00.008-04:00

This is what the tomato seedlings looked like on Thursday, April 1. Here's what they looked like today, Sunday, April 4. I'd recognize them anywhere, how about you?
Yesterday was so beautiful; I wanted to set out the seedlings to take their chances rather than keep them cooped up under the indoor lights. These days with temperatures in the 80s are so hard to resist. But with effort, I remember that our last frost date is often in early May and, only a couple of years ago, we had a hard freeze on May 30. So I resist temptation tho flowering bulbs are everywhere and the redbud trees, Nanking cherry bushes and tulip tree are exploding with blossoms.

Little girls' skirts

2010-03-31T21:43:00.004-04:00

My mother's been clearing out some of her fabric stash over the last few months and while much of the cotton fabric is going into patchwork quilts she and my cousin are busily cutting and sewing, I used a few pieces to make adorable fun skirts for my niece's two young daughters. The pattern, called The Market Skirt, was as simple as could be and came from an online tutorial I found on the Dana-made-it.com site.

The red skirt was made to the specs included in the tutorial but the blue skirt, below, was for the oldest girl and required re-sizing. It wasn't difficult and the pattern is very forgiving anyway. I haven't seen pictures of the girls in their skirts yet but am told they couldn't stop twirling around and were unwilling to take them off so it sounds like I need to go back to Mom's stash and pull out some pink and purple fabrics to make the girls skirts in their favorite colors.

First seeds up and repotted, more seeds in

2010-03-20T16:05:00.004-04:00

Cabbage, broccoli and more all up and growing. Another flat, mostly tomatoes, started and a third (combination vegetables and flowers) going in today. May need more shoplights at this rate.

DH made paper pots. I made paper pots. DH filled paper pots with potting soil and carefully transplanted each seedling. I filled pots and transplanted but not carefully enough. So back to pot making for me.

DH prefers to separate any multiple seedlings and plant them individually in paper pots. It sometimes takes a steady hand to get the seedlings apart without breaking. I am not that patient. Besides, with 72 seedlings to a flat and sometimes almost double that with DH's careful attention to planting any multiples, someone needs to focus on pot-making and lots of them, too.

Playing with fire

2010-03-18T23:42:00.010-04:00

Today was Activity Day, a monthly cooperative sponsored by our local homeschool group, which offers a variety of classes for the kids. This year, one offering is a class using William Gurstelle's book, "Backyard Ballistics: Build Potato Cannons, Paper Match Rockets, Cincinnati Fire Kites, Tennis Ball Mortars, and More Dynamite Devices", as a text.

Today was also a beautiful day. Many of the Activity Day classes opted to spend the afternoon outside including the fiber arts class I teach -- I took wool roving and the kids used cardboard to create a resist in order to wet felt small bags. While we were out on the lawn working with the hot soapy water, netting and our pool noodle (more on that another day), the Backyard Ballistics class entertained us with their Cincinnati fire kites.

On the way home, I told DH and DS about the fire kites. As we prepared dinner, DS read the relevant chapter from his copy of Gurstelle's book. As soon as dinner was over, he took an armful of newspaper, a roll of scotch tape and a box of wooden matches outside to try his hand at making fire kites. DH and I followed him. Who wants to clean up the kitchen when one could be playing with fire instead?The first one was a failure due to not getting all four corners lit at the same time. But the next one was a great success.We used a single, full-size sheet of newspaper. Folded each corner in to the middle, starting with opposite corners first. Taped the corners together and tried not to crease the paper while folding. Two were better than one at this. Turned the packet over and lit all four corners at once. This definitely required more than one worker. Stepped back and watched the paper burn till enough hot air was trapped in the fiery packet to lift it off the ground and up, up and away.Then, after the ashy remains fell back to earth, DH and DS ran over and stamped it to be sure there weren't any escaping embers.

Half a Sunday paper later, just as it was getting cold, we grew tired of the game and quit. But at the next family cook-out, DS will be ready with his new parlor trick.

Jim's chulo - finished

2010-03-10T06:48:00.002-05:00

Definitely took me longer than the two days needed to finish Chris's chulo but it's done. The celtic pattern from Alice Starmore's "Charts for Colour Knitting" (out-of-print) was a bear to knit. I'm not sure why as it wasn't particularly complicated with a 10-stitch repeat and less than 25 or so rows. Maybe it was because I was also listening to Karen Cushman's "Catherine, Called Birdy" with DS? I had read the book before but I've already learned I probably shouldn't drive and listen to audiobooks as I arrive safely but can't recall anything about the trip... Maybe it affects my knitting ability or, at least, my ability to follow a charted pattern while listening.

I washed and blocked the hat before presenting it to DH but he insists on turning up the front brim so it will stay as pictured. Also, he likes to play with his hats, turning them this way and that to make new forms, so the ear flaps will probably grow to be twice their beginning length. But it's his and one should always remember that a gift is a gift -- no give-backs, you know, and no "thou shalt do this" with it rules attached. If I tell myself this often enough I'll come to believe AND accept it. I think.

Seed-starting, take 1

2010-03-09T08:58:00.002-05:00

We intended to start a flat of seeds last month but the ground was still covered with snow and spring seemed a LONG way off. Now it's March, Saturday was sunny while Sunday was sunny AND warm with a high of 61ºF. DH could no longer resist the urge to plant.

On Saturday, he planted 72 pods with a combination of seeds including cabbages (red, green and savoy), cauliflower, broccoli, and lavender. On Monday there were tiny cabbage seedlings pushing through and today the flat looks like this. From left to right, the flat shows sprouts of three different cabbages (Ruby Perfection, Early Jersey Wakefield and Savoy Ace), Early Snowball cauliflower, Calabrese and De Cicco broccoli, Parris Island and Jericho lettuces (romaine or cos lettuces), and a couple of bunching onions in the last two fully visible columns. With 72 cells, DH planted 6 of each variety. Nothing on the right side, out of view in this photo, had sprouted as of this morning but the flat's sitting on the landing near the woodstove and according to the thermometer resting beside it, the temp is a constant 75ºF. so the remaining sweet onions and lavender should be coming along soon.

Sunday's warmer temps encouraged him to weed a couple of beds in preparation for the real spring planting to come. Hopefully in another week, this bed will have sugar snap peas planted at the foot of the wire trellis.
He also put covers on any open cold frames. The soil temperature should rise to allow direct planting in there later this week. Some years we leave the covers on all the cold frames but this year's snows (30", 22", 9" and several lesser ones) didn't seem to melt before the next one hit so DH was worried the weight of a big snow might break the glass in the old window sashes we use for covers. Plus with the nightly temps hanging around 0ºF. and sometimes down to -9ºF. the frames weren't as helpful in prolonging the growing season as they've been in more moderate winters.
The only thing we had to winter over in a cold frame was winter rape. Immediately after taking this picture I picked some and added it to the fried rice I made for lunch. We also like it in a green salad or on sandwiches. For some reason I think egg salad sandwiches are a particularly good fit with Hanover salad as it's sometimes called.

The chickens are still pastured on the rear garden plot, planted with potatoes and pumpkins last year. Usually by this time they'd be on the front beds but, again, the snows caused us to deviate from the regular plans and it's on the ground in areas (notice background in photo below). We'll move them to the next section before the week's out and then on to the last garden area before it's time to plant in earnest. Letting them roam over the garden beds has made a huge difference in the amount of bug damage the garden suffers each summer.

Who cares about the menu plan? We're snowed in and hungry for take-out.

2010-02-06T21:21:00.009-05:00

So we made our own.(Alright, who snagged one before I could get a picture?)Started off with Vietnamese spring rolls (cha gio) filled with ground pork, shredded carrots, bean thread noodles, minced onion and garlic, fish sauce, salt, pepper and a dash of sugar then wrapped in rice paper wrappers I soaked in beer and a little water. DH prepared the fish sauce, rice vinegar, lime juice, bird pepper and garlic for a dipping sauce called nuoc mam cham. Then I made a chicken, Chinese broccoli, fresh mung bean sprouts and brown rice dish -- sort of a cross between a regular stir fry and fried rice.I had several cups of cold, cooked brown rice in the fridge and didn't want to be bothered heating it up to serve under the vegetables so I tossed it in the pan after the vegetables and chicken were cooked, treating it as I do when making fried rice and drizzled a tiny amount of sesame oil over it while quickly tossing it around to heat then added the veg and meat back to the pan. DS ate two helpings on top of 4 spring rolls.

Don't know for sure how many cha gio DH ate but I had 5 besides a test one DH and I shared while I was cooking them. I wrapped 33 and there were 9 left when we were done. You do the math. I think it means they were good. Or he was hungry. Or maybe both. Ah, well, they're small with only a tablespoon of filling on a quarter-round rice paper. And he did all the washing up... But wanted no supper this evening. Wonder why not?

Wholegrain Blonde Brownies

2010-02-02T05:15:00.001-05:00

I made a batch of these yesterday and meant to include the recipe in the weekly menu plan post. These are so easy to make and since they take only a few pantry items, I can always whip up a batch on the spur of the moment. In yesterday's case, DS had been visiting his grandmother and my uncle was going to drop him off on his way home. A plate of blonde brownies can be an excellent way to say "thank you!" (Plus I won a blue ribbon for them at last year's county fair.)

This recipe came from a lovely old cookbook from 1963 titled "Favorite Recipes of Home Economics Teachers: Desserts Edition, including Party Beverages" and is credited to Mrs. Dixie Dunn Ruby, Charles Town Sr. High School, Charles Town, West Virginia. That book has 378 pages of recipes and every one I've tried so far has been a success. It's a keeper.

Blonde Brownies

1/4 cup vegetable oil (original calls for melted butter)
1 cup light brown sugar or sucanat, packed
1 large egg
3/4 cup whole wheat or all-purpose flour (originial calls for all-purpose)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, optional but very good!

Combine oil and sugar in mixing bowl and stir until well-blended. Stir in egg and vanilla. Add dry ingredients, stirring to combine. Stir in walnuts.

Spread in a greased 9"-square baking pan. Bake at 350°F. about 25 minutes. Do not overbake! Cut into bars or squares while still warm.

Menu plan for week of Feb1/10

2010-02-01T14:34:00.001-05:00

Forgot to do a menu plan last week but we survived. It is easier for me with a written menu, tho, so here's another attempt at making this a habit. The recipe for Monday's soup is included at the bottom of the post.

Monday, Feb 1
Tortellini Italian Vegetable Soup in the crockpot
No-knead wholegrain bread

Tuesday, Feb 2
Roast chicken
Broccoli
Mashed potatoes

Wednesday, Feb 3
Broiled fish (whatever's in the freezer - flounder or tilapia)
Potato cakes (made with Tuesday's mashed potatoes)
Peas

Thursday, Feb 4
Oatmeal Blender Pancakes w/blueberry syrup

Friday, Feb 5
Chicken & cheese quesadillas (using Tuesday's chicken)

Saturday, Feb 6
Black olive & mushroom pizza (crust recipe)
Carrots & celery
Rhubarb-ade

Sunday, Feb 7
Swiss steak over noodles
Green beans
Fruit cup (canned or frozen)

-----
Crockpot Tortellini Italian Vegetable Soup
12-15 servings

1 quart whole tomatoes
1 quart tomato juice
6 oz tomato paste or 4 oz dried tomatoes, powdered
1 quart green beans
1/2 to 1 pound ground beef or venison, optional
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped or 1/2 cup dried, chopped bell pepper
1 carrot, chopped or 1/4 cup dried, chopped carrots
1 quart chicken, beef or vegetable broth or water *See Note
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon dried basil leaves or 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon garlic granules or 2 cloves, crushed
1 pound fresh or frozen cheese tortellini or 9 oz. dried tortellini

Brown ground meat in olive oil. Add onions, cook till they're translucent.

Combine whole tomatoes and tomato juice in 6-qt crockpot. Use large spoon to break apart tomatoes. Add chicken broth, green beans, tomato paste, chopped carrots and peppers, salt, basil and garlic. Add cooked meat and onions.

Cook on HIGH for 2 hours or LOW for 4-8 hours. About 30 minutes before serving, turn crock to HIGH if on LOW, and add tortellini. Monitor cooking as frozen tortellini may be cooked in as little as 10 minutes, dried will take longer. If preferred, tortellini may also be prepared by boiling in a separate pot of water (4 minutes for frozen, 10 minutes for dried). Drain then add to soup mixture. I do it all in one to save a step and a pan...

Note: If using dried tortellini and cooking it in the crockpot, add an additional 1 cup liquid (water or broth).

Another snow day! Finally, a chance to sew...

2010-01-30T11:58:00.012-05:00

12°F. at noon and 4 inches of snow on the ground and still falling steadily. A beautiful old Singer 301A in place on top of my sewing machine cabinet. I am happy, happy, happy! DH, not so much.

We were expecting the snow but the forecast keeps being revised for more snow and colder temps. Supposed to be a high of 20°F. today but I don't think it's going to make it. Total accumulation predicted to be 7-12 inches. Hmm, maybe that one will be on target.

For me, I'm a very happy camper here in my work room which also happens to be the room with the woodstove. Sometimes I whine because of the heat but not today! The old Pfaff 230 I've used for years is down for repair. The machine was originally my grandmother's. She ordered it from Germany soon after WWII and after a wait of a year or so it arrived and has been going strong almost continuously since then. It should be back up and running shortly but in the meantime I want to sew!

So my mom, as always, saved the day by offering me one of her machines. This one, a Singer 301A, came with it's grasscloth-covered case and boxes of attachments -- more than I can readily identify. Mom's not much help on id as this is one of her "rescue machines" she picked up at auction.The woman hates to think of a sturdy (near-) working sewing machine being trashed which, very sad to say, is what often happens if the auctioneer can't get a bid. And not many people seem to want the old machines unless it's a Featherweight and easily recognizable as a "collectible." So for $5 or sometimes up to $15 if it has a cabinet, she buys them and puts them in her basement sewing room. When my cousin, Hope, comes to visit, they pull a couple machines out and set up a piecing party down there. (Hope makes beautiful quilts in the time it takes many people to make a set of placemats.) Mom works on her 1980s-era Pfaff, Hope and anyone else who wants to work on a quilt choose from the extras.

So when she offered me the Singer, I knew it was in good working condition and since it's an early portable I could bring it home without asking DH to help load/unload. And now I'm able to sew again! After being without a machine other than my serger (after *gasp* 7 years I have to admit I'm still only using it for straight seaming and have yet to change thread -- thank goodness for those large cones!) I'm even happy to be hemming DS's jeans and mending towels. But today I AM going to do a little more, more fun, that is. I started by making a baby bib pattern (couldn't readily find one to hand or online and didn't want to spend time searching!) and putting together a little bib to tuck in a swap package I have ready to mail. It's a book swap so the bib is something extra I wanted to include because I just found out the recipient is expecting a baby boy. Had thought I'd knit something but now that I have a working sewing machine again, everything MUST be sewn, kwim?

Drafting the bib wasn't too hard. I used a sheet of 1-inch square graph paper (from an easel pad) and drew out the pattern after estimating the size and attempting to shape it by viewing a few pics of DS wearing a bib of his I'd always liked. (Meaning one big enough to catch almost everything, even covering the shoulders.) I did one side, then folded the paper in half and cut both sides at once. I'm no good at symmetry.Using an old pair of jeans, I cut the front of the bib. To take advantage of the best part of the denim (these were discarded jeans, remember -- I'm just happy there was a "best part") I laid the pattern over the triple seam, placing it down the front middle. Then I found a piece of cotton print that looked suitable. Little yellow chicks with kites and butterfly nets are middle-of-the-road baby stuff -- even tho we THINK the baby will be a boy there's always a chance it won't be.

To hedge my bets further, I cut out a couple chicks from the scrap of fabric cut from the bib's neck area and appliqued them on the front and back of the denim fabric. I was going to put the little guy on the front but decided he fit better on the back, above the hook-and-loop fastener.

And there you have it. In less than an hour start-to-finish an "I want to sew now" project that helped me stave off the non-sewing d.t.'s. The end result is kindly modeled by DS's old teddy, Kissy. Now, excuse me, as I have to get started on another sewing project. Stat.