baking

Words get the best of me

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Not spoken or written words – the game, Words with friends. As I write this, I have 6 games in progress. Several just get a word a day.

It’s sort of like Scrabble but its not. Nonsense words are accepted. There’s no opportunity to challenge an opponent’s move; if the computer doesn’t like it, they can’t play it. And the computer likes crazy words – luv, bens, jape, om, bo. These are desperate times. Z and Q words remain limited.

I’m sure this game leads to corporate waste because I see a few moves made during working hours. It’s a nice way to stay connected but I don’t want it to interfere with baking

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bread making

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cooking

20121130-103854.jpg or weaving time.

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The first photo is the most amazing nutmeg and black pepper popovers from Bon Appetit magazine.
They went perfectly with short ribs cooked in the crockpot and kale and leeks. Hoo boy that was good!

There’s a party going on

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Or so it seems at our compost pile. I have somehow manage to dodge the trek to the compost pile since mid- December; I couldn’t carry the bin with crutches, the ground was icy, the driveway was icy. These excuses don’t work anymore and I ventured off yesterday after 6 inches of new snow fell. To my surprise, there’s been a a party out there. All sorts of tracks lead in from the woods and encircle the compost bin. I saw deer tracks, maybe rabbit, coyote and mice. But what are these claw like marks? They are linear in groups of four. Coyote scratches? I don’t see tracks associated with them, only claw marks. I’m thinking Adirondack bear paw, one of my favorite flavors from Stewart’s. But shouldn’t they still be sleeping?

party tracks

So we had our own little party. My son and BGFF are visiting and had the makings of a key lime pie. We debated whipped cream or meringue and as you can see, meringue won. It was a joint effort and delicious outcome. Today’s baking project is spinach pie and we may head out to tap some maple sugar trees.

Lady of the river

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Lady of the river

Today was a snow day. I remembered to take my camera with me on a drive to Lake Placid. It snowed softly in the morning, continued all day into the night. There will be an early easter egg hunt, in the snow, at our house this weekend. Tradition.

These pignoli cookies always look so promising. Alas, in the end I threw out the batch. I’ve been having a problem with them rising and haven’t had suggested parchment paper in the house for a long time. This batch rose fine but got stuck to the foil. Worse yet, some had a little piece of foil still stuck to them and left a metallic taste in my mouth. Out they went.

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

Hopping along

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For those of you who have never needed crutches, I hope you stay that way. Whenever I meet someone who has already used them we are instantly bound by a common ground of resourcefulness. Everyone remembers how hard it is to carry a drink from one place to another. People have devised various bags and even carts to help them along. Ice is treacherous. I grow tired of being dependent so I am trying to do more and more on my own. I even went back to work yesterday for a day.

There’s an advantage to a small kitchen. I can cook by keeping a chair in the middle of the work area to rest ingredients or myself on, while I hop around using the counters on the perimeter as support. Oddly enough, I can’t clean up! So far I have tried two batches of mozzarella cheese, much easier than expected. The night nurse in the hospital shared his fascination with it and I found an easy recipe on the internet. Ingredients are simple: a gallon of milk; two teaspoons of citric acid; and a rennet tablet. You also need a thermometer and the whole process only takes about 90 minutes. Somehow both batches were eaten or used before I took a final picture, but the last step is magical. You heat and knead the lumpy mess a few times and it becomes silky, stretchy delicious mozzarella cheese. One gallon of milk makes about a softball size ball of cheese.

Mozzarella 1

Mozzarella 2

Mozzarella 2

My view from the house has improved because Tim’s project to remove the overhead wires was completed this week. The wires are down, we still have phone service and electricity and all went well. I have a video of a very cool piece of machinery yanking the pole out of the ground and may include it at some point.

Getting ready to take down the pole

Our unobstructed view of Jay Mountain today. I hope the birds don’t mind in the spring.

We continue to eat well and colorfully. A couple of days ago, I made a batch of mashed potatoes from blue potatoes from the farm. They were very an interesting shade of blue but not as creamy as the white ones.

Blue potatoes

Tonight I made a chicken pot pie entirely with farm ingredients. This is the way to eat.

Chicken pot pie

Pot pie minus one

I’m knitting and weaving and plan a big adventure tonight – I’m going to go downstairs for the first time in almost a month to be near the wood stove, my weaving and quilting. The temperature is going to go below 0 degrees F tonight and it should be cozy there. If it wasn’t for the kitchen, I might never come back upstairs.

Transformations

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I’m still standing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s still better than sitting while my back slowly heals. I’ve spent the time causing many transformations from a vertical position. Most of the work is based upon the raw ingredients we pick up from the farm each week with a little wool thrown in.

This kohlrabi is huge, bigger than a grapefruit, smaller than a breadbox. Apparently you just carve a little off as needed. i’ve made a slaw with apples and craisins two nights and have hardly made a dent in it.

Giant winter kohlrabi

I finished knitting the second clog, felted them and gave them to their recipient, who proceeded to wear them while wet to form them to her feet. What a trooper.

Clogs before and after

Felted

For a bread variation, I made rolls to go with pulled pork. Yummmmm. I just made my basic bread recipe, formed half of it into one inch round balls and threw three in each compartment of the muffin tin. Bread flour from the farm.

Hard rolls

Rye flour became rye bread in the bread machine with both yeast and beer as the leavening. It’s a coarse bread, great with lots of butter and probably a beer. So much for the diet. It was fun while it lasted.

Rye bread

Winter preparations begin

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Found all my knit hats, mittens and scarves. Chimney swept. Furniture brought in. New snow tires purchased. Yarn acquired. I’m ready for months inside but will be able to get where I need to go with my new snow tires.  I may need them to buy english muffins and cream cheese.

Frozen weeds

I’m baking again and working on english muffins. These look right but there are missing the essential nooks and crannies. I have a recipe for crumpets that makes nooks and crannies but I’m having a hard time finding crumpet rings in the north country.

We’ve finally joined the local CSA – great timing right? – just in time for lots of cabbage, squash and potatoes. But it’s all delicious and fresh and local! Tomorrow is our next pick up; time to clean out the fridge and think of a million things to do with cabbage. So far I only know of cole slaw, risotto and sauerkraut. I’ll have to get that recipe for stuffed cabbage again. I made cream cheese this morning from old yogurt. It mostly tastes like old yogurt but dry. Not all experiments are successful!

English muffins

Rest stop for passing birds

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Fly by
The island is a rest stop for many migrating birds. The species have changed during the month. We’ve had common flickers, american kestrels, some from the warbler family and others (unidentified by me).

They dart into open doorways, windows and people. We’ve had birds in the whistle house, donkey engine house and the lighthouse. I hear my children’s ancestors having premonitions because of three birds in the house! Tim and I have managed to get them all out unharmed. One was still in the lighthouse when the USCG chopper arrived. Luckily they were only looking for a toilet and never ventured into the tower.
Touch down
 Really.  A very cute, young USCG, with an English accent, hopped off and asked to use the bathroom. They are all closed up here, so after a brief walk,  he reboarded and they took off. THEY LOVED THE NEW HELIPAD. He said it looked brand new (Ethan uncovered the old triangle of bricks and I mowed it when the rider mower ran). They will be back this week because they plan some work on the light.

I was just getting ready to incubate a batch of yogurt in the lighthouse before they arrived. It turned out to be too cool so I used a combination of a warm water bath in the crock pot and a slightly warm oven. We had homemade yogurt and english muffins for breakfast. Now I am going to try to use the rest of this batch as a starter for the next. And so on and so on…

Yogurt

But Norton, can it core a apple?

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Big seas, strong winds, I had a day of domestic bliss – of sorts. First I finished knitting the second mitten of a pair, proudly put them together and discovered the first was two inches longer than the second and the thumbs don’t exactly begin at the same place. Oops. So I ripped back and knit again. They are shocking anyway because I made them from scraps.

Next I discovered some beautiful apples just waiting to be picked. Waiting because they were so gnarly even the birds passed them by. But we haven’t been off the island to shop in two weeks and are out of fresh fruit so…they weren’t as bad as they looked. I made two mini pies, which were pretty tasty. The garden provided a nice salad.

Lastly, I was disappointed by the rider mower, which hasn’t been running since we got here. We have spent two days tinkering with it – checked and added oil, filled the battery with water and charged it, Tim cleaned the fuel filter, I cleaned the spark plug and air filter, tightened the starter and made a tiny adjustment on the carburetor. I got it to run and work for about a half hour and then it laid down and died. Maybe it’s time for a new battery. Now we get to mow with the rickety push mower again. One of our highlights is using the rider mower. Oh well.

Sent fom my Palm

Over the top tart

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Inspired by the movie Julie and Julia, I have been adding new recipes to my repertoire.  This tart tatin last night was amazing.  It was so pretty, I almost didn’t want to eat it.  But we did.  And it was good.  Years ago my parents gave me a hardback version of The Way to Cook.  I had old bookmarks scattered throughout it but had not used it for years.  Now I refer to it almost daily and find something delicious to make and eat.

So today I have to go out and cross-country ski to work off the calories.  It’s a balmy 20F with some fresh new snow.

On the knitting front, the little Aran cardigan from my hand-spun is coming along.  I have a picture of a sweater that Tim’s mom had made for his sons and am using that as a guide.  Here’s the work in progress. I’ll post photos of the two side by side at some point.  I’m really enjoying working with my yarn and can only hope it stands up to the test of time- and that my gauge is right and it will fit someone. I’m using my mother’s old knitting needles, Tim’s mother’s design and I really feel connected to the older generation.