Yours 'til Niagara Falls

Food, Glorious Food

Going to the farmer's market throws me into a tizzy.  My selections have no rhyme or reason.  This year, my own homegrown produce is adding to the dilemma.  This is how my brain works when it is time to cook:

I think I'll use up those ears of corn in the Joy of Cooking corn chowder recipe (corn, potatoes, whole milk and bacon - we are not on a diet).  Oh, look!  I need to dice onions and celery.  I might as well make macaroni salad.  I had a giant bowl of peaches, apricots and plums - I'll cut them up for a cobbler.  As long as I have all the baking stuff out (and the oven on) I'll throw together a cherry pie.  And the result is... a random variety of food which does not remotely constitute a balanced meal.  But it's sooo good. I'm  going through a zucchini glut just now, so there is some zucchini bread in our near future.

Some Crafting, Some Reading

I made this felt vessel last week.  Wonderful Linda at Raveloe Fibers held a class to teach how to make this.  I haven't always had the best luck with wet felting, so I'm pretty happy with my results. I particularly like the mohair curls on the surface.  The shape is pleasing to me, too.

I was in the mood to spin last night, so I used some fleece I vaguely remember having dyed at a natural dye get-together from last year.  I don't write things down.  It could be cocheneal, it could be something else.  I'm feeling like I want to do some patterned mittens for winter.  One thing that is kind of interesting is how pretty patterns turn out when all natural dyes are used.  It is almost impossible to make the colors clash.

It rained on and off all weekend.  I wasn't complaining because it gave me a chance to read Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple.  It was about a British family living in harmony until a Frenchwoman comes along and spoils everything.  This book is one of the Persephone Classics, which is a series I am endeavoring to read.  They are re-prints of books by authors which are, according to the publishers "middle-brow, neither too literary nor too commercial.  Many of the books are written by female authors considered to be the "surplus women"  between WWI and WWII. Denied the possibility of marriage and family, these women began writing as one of the few "respectable" career options open to them.  Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is another popular Persephone title.  The website is here .

  

He's on the roof, even though he's not a fiddler.  My husband is repairing the damage sustained last January when a tree limb impaled the roof of my studio.  A new roof is going to happen sooner than later, to my great joy.

Rain, Rain Go Away

It rained 3.5 inches here today.  Some of that rain came through the roof and landed on my bed.  It saturated two quilts, the sheets, a fairly new featherbed and the mattress.  My favorite-little-boy-in-the-world spent the day here.  He informed everyoned he saw that "Papa's bed got ruined-ed", accompanied by a tragic facial expression.  If only it were only the bed that got ruined-ed.  That section of the roof will have to be replaced, as will most, if not all the drywall in the room. Bummer.

A little later I sent my-favorite-little-boy-in-the-world into his room to get some toys.  He came trotting out seconds later with big round eyes and said only "Scared".  I went into the room, and standing over his toy box was my dress form.  I guess my husband had placed it there.  It gave my poor little guy (who will turn two years old next month) an awful fright.  He told me "Papa's office" and so that is where Madam Dress Form will now reside.

Lattice Smocking

This is really shaping up to be the year without a summer.  I did spend a little time outside looking at my garden.  I was able to observe a bee going from blossom to blossom with the pollen sacks bulging on her legs.  It gave me such a sense of serenity.  There really is something to gardening that I didn't understand before.  I also sat by the river and re-read a chapter of Animal, Mineral, Miracle.  By 10:30 the weather began to deteriorate and I went into the house to work on a project.

Years ago I had tried to do some smocking.  I remember seeing throw pillows on the couches of old ladies who were competent with a needle. I couldn't figure out how it was done, but I knew I wanted to learn the technique.  I purchased a Dritz Smockruler when I was newly married.  I had no luck with it.  That ruler was lost somewhere in the hum of the cosmos.  On Sunday I went to a church rummage sale and lo, there was was another smockruler waiting to go home with me.  Later on Sunday I took my aforementioned trip to Joann Fabrics and bought some pretty red velveteen because I made up my mind to teach myself how to do lattice smocking.  And, TA DA!

 

This is a view of the backside of the work.  The blue object is the plastic Dritz Smockruler.  I have to say that the technique took a lot of concentration.  The ruler is used to mark the fabric with dots and then using a needle with heavy duty thread the dots are gathered together in the proper sequence.

I think I was inspired to work with such lush fabric because I have been looking at the costumes as I finished watching season two of the Tudors on netflix.  This is a picture of Dame Judy Dench in her Oscar-winning performance in Shakespeare in Love.  Notice her sleeves.  It is lattice smocking! 

My husband, who is not enamored of British royalty, feels my work closely resembles coffin lining.  We actually had a discussion about combining our skills (he is a carpenter) and building coffins for ourselves. The finished caskets could, we reasoned, be used as coffee tables until we need them. 

Using Agar Agar Powder to Make a Dessert

Agar agar powder is a product which is made with seaweed.  It is a vegetarian alternative to gelatin.  It actually has some advantages over gelatin, namely setting very quickly and staying gelled in hot weather.  Agar agar is available through internet sources.  I was able to get some at the Lexington Co-op on Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo.  It's kind of pricey, but you only need a little for a recipe.  Here's how I use it:

You need two cups of juice.  I used an organic mango lemonade drink.  You also need 1 1/2 teaspoons of agar-agar powder.

Bring one cup of the juice to a boil.  Using a whisk, stir in the 1 1/2 teaspoons of agar agar powder.  Let the mixture boil for sixty seconds or one minute - which ever comes first. (haha)

Remove from heat and stir in the other cup of juice.

Pour into a bowl, a mold or individual serving dishes.  I left the whisk in the bowl because it is old and made of glass and I didn't want it to crack.  Chill in the refrigerator.  It should be ready to eat in half an hour or so.

 

Here is the finished dessert.  As you can see, it holds its form enough to be cut into cubes.  The agar agar product has no flavor, so you only taste the juice.  It melts in your mouth a little differently than gelatin, but it is pleasant and refreshing.  I think I'll try a plum dessert next time.

Why Can't I go Shopping Without Some Sort of Incident?

 This afternoon I ran into a Joanne's Fabric to buy a yard of red velveteen for a project I have in mind.  I was making my way to the checkout when I passed the sewing machine department, the salesman there was looking at something on his computer monitor.  Sadly, the image he was gazing at was a scantily clad teenage boy.  As I walked past the salesman, I made eye contact with him, so he knew I had seen what he was doing.  I had a word with the manager on duty and left a message on the Joann fabric website.  I don't plan to shop there any time soon.

Raspberry Pie

With my last punnet of Raspberries, I made a pie.  Punnet.  I love that word.*  It was my first pie in quite a while.  Over the last winter I collected a number of small glass pie plates, about 8" inches in diameter.  Sad to say, that size is just enough to serve my husband and myself. Actuually, I'd have to say 90% of my baking pans are from estate sales. 

* Punnet is not to beconfused with pundit.  Pundit is from Sanskrit which what you call a person who gives good advice.  Currently, my favorite pundit is Maureen Dowd .

Don't Judge Me

How to Make Raspberry Vinegar

Yet another product I do not like are store-bought salad dressings.  It takes just a minute or two to whip up (literally) something tasty.  On top of that, have you ever read the loooooong list of ingredients on the label of commercial dressing? Eeeeeewww!  Today made myself a pint of raspberry vinegar.  In addition to making vinaigrette, there are recipes for green beans with raspberry vinegar  and  pork chops with raspberry vinegar . Here's how I made it:

  

You will need a bottle (16 ounces or so) of white wine vinegar and a punnet of raspberries.  Punnet.  I love that word*.

 

 

  

Put the raspberries in a non-reactive pan and mash them with a fork.  You might notice that I have a ceramic cook-top.  I hate it.  Ease of cleaning is the only advantage. A person could grow old waiting for a large pot of water to boil on this cook-top. But I digress.

Glug, glug, glug, in goes the vinegar.

Heat 'til steaming.Do not boil.

Pour into a canning jar.  Cover and put in it in the fridge.  This is so mother of vinegar does not form.  If it were to form, vinegar eels are sure to follow.  We don't want that. 

 

*The word punnet puts me in mind of the punnet squares we were taught to fill out in biology class.  It is a way of illustrating the odds of passing on an inherited trait like brown eyes, for instance.   This person has a real thing for punnet squares which, by the way, were named after the geneticist that invented them.

This image is from from the Discovery Magazine website. 

Products of a Chilly Season

My raspberry jam came out beautifully.  I was tickled pink to find this lovely zucchini in my garden.

My husband tells me that this is this region's coldest July in 65 years.  I sure hope things heat up a little around here.