Domestic goddess

My northern CSA provides international experiences

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Our farm share continues all year. During the winter months, we eat food I imagine Russian peasants have always eaten – beets, cabbage, onions, carrots, potatoes, parsnips, turnips and rutabaga with some kohlrabi and celeriac tossed in.

I make borscht, stuffed cabbage, roasted vegetables, soups and stews.

This week hominy, or dried corn, was added to the share with suggestions to make tortillas. I gathered my corn and culinary lime and headed south of the border.

Lime is calcium hydroxide and is called “cal” in Mexican recipes. It softens the corn, boosting its nutritional value and helps remove the husks. Water, hominy and cal are heated and then left to soak overnight. Next the corn is ground into masa, traditionally between two stones. Since I live on an old sand quarry, I opted for my food processor.

I may have been better off with two stones. I ground the masa as fine as I could then made a dough with some salt and water. Next I flattened the dough with a spatula and peeled them off the board and tossed them in the hot griddle. The flavor was perfect but they were too thick and a little soft. I tried to pass some dough through my new pasta maker but that was too cross cultural and didn’t work.

Next time…

My knitting is well under way for the year. I already knit three mittens, a hat and wove a scarf. Next is to start a quilt and weave some new placemats.

These are the thrummed mittens waiting to get felted by the wearer.

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This is one of my new mittens. I made a pair last year for one of my daughter’s friends a coveted a pair for myself.

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Next up is a scarf I wove with alpaca, my handspun merino and silk and a little novelty boucle alpaca and silk. Sweet.

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Sympathy Labor

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I am lucky to be heading out for Thanksgiving. As much as I love having the holiday at home, I live too far away for most of my family to travel here. So I will spend most of Thursday, Friday and Saturday knitting while I ride the trains for at least five hours every day. May as well look at the bright side; there could be delays, which would allow me even more knitting time. Plus there will be family and food at the end of those tunnels.

Here’s what I will be working on.

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I am modifying Alice Starmore’s St. Brigid. It may be sacreligous but it was too big and boxy as written. I’m using Cascade Heather on 5’s, eliminated the first chart and using a set in saddle shoulder. We’ll see.

In the meantime, I’m cooking in sympathy with all Thanksgiving hosts. I’m putting up more farm goodies. I have brussel sprouts to feed an army until the cows come home. And the brussel sprouts are making more brussel sprouts right before my eyes!

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Next I’m blanching three types of winter squash – acorn, delicato and butternut. The delicato is amazingly sweet. So sweet I put them in my pancakes. (Don’t tell Tim)!

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The finished product.

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I can

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Well actually, I jar. Why isn’t it jarring? I made a batch of sour dill pickles, watermelon rind pickles and pickled beets.

The dill pickle recipe is from a book, The complete book of small batch preserving, which I think will be useful to help me preserve the farm produce. We generally pick up all we need for a week, but when the crop is in we can take more to preserve. I have been blanching and sealing some veggies but our freezer is pretty small and I will quickly fill it.

Our growing season is about two weeks later than downstate. In fact we just celebrated the 4th of July on Sunday.

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Fifteen minutes of stupendous fireworks seen up close. We heard the first blast at 9 and headed to town and had a front row seat. We came home to find Loki the cat cowering under a bed.

Born with a silver spoon

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Perhaps I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth but at some time during my childhood my parents bought a set of silverware for me. I think they gave it to me after my divorce. Interesting timing. I thought it should be for a wedding. In addition, during that time I lived out of my car for a short while. But that’s a whole other story.

I write today about the care of silverware. I decided early on this would be my only flatware. Silver tarnishes. I am well aware of this because, while growing up, I polished the silver coffee set we had, which we never drank anything from, but kept well polished. Sort of like the candles on the table we never lit.

For a while “we” were hand washing and drying the silver and this kept it polished. Then Tim and others balked at washing silverware so we started putting it in the dishwasher (I think they started throwing out the teaspoons because we seem to have lost a few). This caused it to get tarnished more quickly but otherwise kept the “dishwashers” very happy.

Now my sisters-in-law from both sides of the family are coming to visit and it’s time to polish the silver ware. I remembered trying a technique several years ago that was intriguing but had disastrous results. Basically you create a chemical reaction by lining a pan with aluminum foil, placing the silverware on the foil single layer so each piece is touching the foil and then pour a solution of boiling water with baking soda in it over the silverware. It’s miraculous to watch. Silver sulfide returns to silver and sends the sulphur to the aluminum with the associated smell of rotten eggs.

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In seconds the tarnish is gone. The disaster I had the first time I tried this occurred when I heated the Pyrex baking pan on the stove and the whole thing exploded with glass, silverware and water all over the place. I was traumatized for years and reverted to hand polishing, which actually removes some of the silver – not good for the long term. So I bravely took the plunge today and mixed 2 qts. of boiling water and 1/4 cup of baking soda in a separate pot and poured it over the foil lined pan with the silver pieces in it. In minutes (I had to do a couple of batches) the whole set was done and my silver drawer is ready for inspection.

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With my free time, I put up another batch of beer, an Irish Red Ale. It may be a little hoppy for my taste but I will let you know in about a month. I am waiting to take my initial specific gravity readings.

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Sew what

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No time to blog. Obsessions overtook me. I wanted to finish knitting ( actually modify) the Na craga sweater I made my son, just in time for his summer graduation.

I found beautiful fabric and decided to make my own wrap dress for his graduation (photo to follow, I’m on the road without my laptop). Perhaps a little frumpy but the fabric was beautiful. I prepared and presented a talk about ob/gyn EMS emergencies.

Then on to favorite daughter’s birthday. I made her a potholder, to remind her of her favorite cat, and finished her quilt. I had it waiting for her on my hotel room bed! The quilt not the cat.

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This was my first attempt at free form, machine quilting a queen size quilt and oh what fun I had. Really. I use an old Singer and had bought a special darning foot but couldn’t get the darn thing to sew properly. For two whole days! So I loosened the feeder foot, put a business card over the feeder dogs, and away I went. It was like doodling on fabric.

Now, to the loom before my sewing thread sets the needle and hauls me in, back to the machine … For a blouse, another dress, linen pants, finish two quilts and begin my next large quilt (planning in process).

Chips and beer

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Beet and potato chips

It all began with a review I read in Cook’s Illustrated for a way to make potato chips. It doesn’t require any oil, because they are microwaved. I’ve tried roasting chips and even fried them once but I hate deep frying – too many calories and too much mess. The trick is in the slicing. The Mastrad set includes a mandolin, which cuts the slices 1/32 of an inch. Once sliced, they are placed on a perforated silicone tray and zapped in the microwave for 3 minutes. It works. Especially for potato chips. I also tried beet, celeriac and plan to try carrots. Add salt, or cumin or coriander and you’re ready for a beer.

Nice grain

So now I had chips and I needed beer to go with them. I finally broke out the brew kit I brought home from Australia. It’s different from the ones in the states because the beer isn’t decanted into a second container but we’ll see how it goes. The most involved process in homebrew is sterilizing all the equipment and then all the bottles. The cooking process isn’t too complicated.

It’s clean up time

I bought a Munton Nut Brown Ale brew kit from my favorite store on Long Island, Karps. I bought all the ingredients and bottles last year and somehow never got around to making a batch of beer.

The ingredients

This beer is made with barley, chocolate and 3 types of malt and hops. I added a little extra malt extract to potentially boost the alcohol content a tad.

Wort bubbling away

After everything is mixed and yeast is added, it’s tucked away for about a week to ferment and convert the sugars to alcohol. I think that process ended, you confirm by measuring a stable specific gravity for a couple of days, and yesterday set myself to bottling. Always a bit of a mess and it was nice enough to do it outdoors. To my horror, when I went to open the bottles, I thought I had the wrong tops. I used the flip top grolsch style caps and at first only found long neck bottles. I called the store to explain my dilemma and the beer master remembered me and while we spoke I realized I bought two styles of bottles, the right ones for the caps and long necks. Phew. But I didn’t have enough. The long necks have a capper and I think I had planned to borrow my son’s but never got around to it. Luckily friends had given me some grolsch bottles when they heard I was into brewing. In the end I had 4 long necks I was unable to cap. I tried a hammer, clamps and vise grip but couldn’t get the right seal. I saved two and dumped two. We’ll see how they go. I think the last stage (the next 3 weeks) is mostly for carbonation and maybe aging. For now it’s chips.

Bottling

Back to homework

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Our farm share now includes cream cheese and we decided to make cheese blintzes for breakfast. I found a low(er) calorie recipe online at MyRecipes.com. They were a smashing success. I’m pretty proud of the presentation as well.

I finished this lovely Na Craga sweater after we got home from sailing. I knit both sleeves while on the boat. It’s been assembled, blocked and the collar was modified a little bit. Instead of a rolled funnel collar, I made a crew neck. I fear it may be too big. So I will hand deliver it and figure out what alterations need to be made. My gauge was correct but my son wanted it longer and now I could wear it as a dress (and I don’t like showing my knees). It’s also the first time I made a drop shoulder sweater and didn’t really account for the part of the sweater that was part of the sleeve, so the sleeves double as hand warmers for me. We’ll see. At least I know I have the means to alter it and make it smaller if I have to. Much better than having to make it bigger. It took 21(!) skeins of Knitpicks Wool of the Andes.

I’m working on a pair of socks for a Friend’s birthday. I am using the embossed leaves pattern from Favorite socks. I made a pair for myself in the summer of 2008, while at Seguin Lighthouse, and I still wear them at least weekly. They are one of my nicest pairs and I thought the pattern goes really well with this yarn, Melody by Jojoland.

Since the sweater is complete I am ready to tackle a quilt for my daughter. I’m using beautiful batik blues and greens from Hoffman fabrics. It seems one of the good things about batiks are you can’t tell the front from the back. I think this will piece together pretty quickly and may even try to bring the top to her next week so we can pick out a border and backing. I may be too ambitious but it’s supposed to rain and/or snow all next week.

Works in process

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I am a work in process.  I have started physical therapy, actually put a sneaker on my foot and used an exercise machine!  Yeah.  I was given permission to throw my crutches in the Lake and am walking about on my own two feet, with the aid of a walking cast.  This goes in the Lake in three weeks.  My mobility has enabled me to tackle and almost complete a myriad of projects and now I can cook and bake in the kitchen without the aid of a chair in the middle of the kitchen.  I am still not getting out too much due to the layer of ice over everything so all my recent adventures have taken place at home on the range.

On the knitting front, I am working on two Santa Cruz hoodies as an overdue gift for two young boys.  One is taking up a ton of yarn and I ran out of one color on the sleeve so did a sleeve-sleeve transfusion.  I used the yarn from the long sleeve as I ripped it out, to knit the short sleeve.  So while one shrunk, the other grew until they were even, then I had to add a stripe.  As soon as I finish them, I have given myself permission to begin work on a Aran sweater for my son.  He has approved the pattern and yarn and if I can stick to the pattern and knit the gauge, all should go well. (ha ha ha)

Circle of Loki

 

 

 

 

 

On the quilting front, I finished the cat quilt and Loki spends a lot of time sleeping on it curled into a tight ball.  Once that was finished, I tackled the machine quilting of my kaleidoscope quilt.  I had to   wrestle the queen size quilt through my sewing machine but now have only the borders left.  I devised a quilting pattern that avoids dragging the whole thing through the machine again.  I am having mild panic that the marker I am using – now like an artist’s paintbrush all over the quilt- won’t come out as easily as the manufacturer says it will.  Why do I always ignore the suggestion to try a test patch first?

 

 

Quilting

Weaving has had mixed results.  I was able to use my walking cast to work the treadles of the floor loom but felt a bit like Herman Munster.  So my twill scarves remain on it.  I have been weaving with my rigid heddle loom and am trying to master a table runner for my daughter.  The first was a disaster.  I used rayon, which looked so pretty and shiny, but didn’t stretch – at all – and wasn’t able to hide my weaving errors.  Now I am using recycled cotton and applying the lessons learned from the rayon disaster.

Weaving in progress

 

 

Baking is going well.  I used my new crumpet rings with great success, make sandwich rolls regularly, have found a source of rennet to continue making mozzarella cheese and think I may have perfected the art of bagels.  More about that later because it involves broiling, boiling and baking.

Crumpets

 

Rolls