Cooking Chemist

Fun mail and crazy weekends

2010-06-15T14:02:00.001-06:00

So after much work and planning, this year's Sheep-to-Shawl for Estes Wool Market is officially over, and it was a blast. I'll post more details (and pics!) about it later, but for now I'm taking a mini break from spinning. Which for me means some sewing, yay!

Waiting for me in the mail on Saturday was this sweet little package of fat quarters from Alissa as part of the SMS giveaway. So cute and inspiring, I can't wait to start planning a new project. Any ideas?

I've also tried my hand at making a 90 min shirt from this awesome tutorial from Dana at MADE. I came across her awesome blog during the Celebrate the Boy month, and I have been wanting to try one for a long time. It was a lot of fun to sew, and I know I will be making a lot more, once I have some softer T-shirt material and tweak my pattern a bit for a better fit. The t-shirt I used was from hubby's pile of uncomfy shirts, which features his fav car, the 1970 Dodge Charger. Only fitting our little boy follow in his daddy's car preferences, right? Next up, have to find him a Porsche and a Volkswagon shirt, for his mommy's car tastes. Or I might try and attempt a freezer paper stencil design of the ubiquitous VW Bug or maybe a Thing.

Otherwise, the weather here has been a bit crazy, but mostly nice and summery, which means not only have I been making a few more skirts for me (I love it! So comfy and easy to wear), but I have been eating more fruit and baking some favorites, like tasty cherry clafoutis. Again, I love the recipe from Mark Bittman, but with a little bit of almond extract added, it's wonderful (and right now I'm too lazy, but if anyone wants my adapted recipe, let me know, k?). And I joined the local CSA with a friend, as I have missed giving it up since California. So far, the first batch was mostly lots of lettuces, plus some parsley and cilantro and spinach, so it look like lots of salad for us for a bit. In general, I have found this site to be a great resource for ideas with all the veggies, and again, the Bittman cookbooks are great too. My mom recently got me this great book for fruits, as a library weed, and the complimentary one for veggies looks good too.

And...baby pic!

Cupcakes!

2010-05-18T21:35:00.000-06:00

Sadly, not the edible kind, but the awesome fabric kind to make a sweet apron! This already makes me feel happy and productive for just hanging around or crafting, plus the pockets are nice to put my iPod in while sewing in my new skirts. Like this one yard ruffle skirt! Bit higher than I normally like, but it still works pretty well.

Also, I have been cooking a fair deal lately, part of the housewife/mommy package, and while it is usually pretty standard fare, for us at least, a few months back I tried the awesome Tomato with 2 Fennels soup from Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life. Here is an adapted recipe, since I feel odd posting my adapted recipe, copyright and all. Plus, I'm lazy. Super tasty, and the goat cheese is a must!

Another thing I've been doing is making my own coarse grain beer mustard, from this awesome book. Super easy and way cheaper than storebought. Plus, I can use my hubby's yummy homebrewed ESB beer for it. Haven't tried many recipes so far from here, but the cuban black bean and plantain bake is great (especially with fresh mango), and I am a total convert of buying dried beans, cooking them in big batches, then freezing for use, as opposed to buying canned. I can control how done they are, how much salt, and again, way, way cheaper. I mean, a pound of dried beans usually costs the same price as one can of cooked!

Other news, trying my hand at growing some basic herbs, which are going pretty well, except puppy really wants to nibble on my chives, so those are currently on the counter to avoid "overharvesting". And poor Oz has a nasty head cold, which makes for a very cuddly, but tired baby. And now, a baby pic, of him with his Uncle Will!

2010-05-12T11:18:00.000-06:00

Been busy here at Casa Campbell, between Oz growing up, weird weather, trip to North Carolina to see family (and our friends Neil, Dana, Sophie & Henry), and swim class. But overall, things have been going well. Oz eats like a frat boy, downing bottles and eating solids like you wouldn't believe. And he's working on mastering the art of eating cheerios very quickly, which the pup loves, since he gets anything that falls (which is still a lot).

And we have had crazy spring weather here as well. Some awesome, gorgeous days around 85, but....currently we have 2 inches of snow on the ground and it's quite gloomy out. I guess nice for tea anyway, but I really didn't think Oz would still be wearing the wool jacket I knit him this late in the year.

However, I also got to take a wonderful class at Fancy Tiger with a friend for A-line skirts, which was a lot of fun and produced this:

I am planning to make several more, as these would be perfect for spring/summer weather (not the snow though!), and have the fabric ready to go. I made a second one, a bit different, out of one yard of rose-designed retro looking fabric and added a ruffle for length, even though it was a stretch to do one with just one yard. After doing it once, it is really quite easy and quick to bust these out, taking about one long naptime, or more likely these days, 2 medium length naptimes (not me but Oz of course).

Speaking of the little guy, we had our first swim class on Saturday, and he had a lot of fun splashing around in the water and watching other babies. I can't wait for next week, as I think he will really enjoy each class.

And also on sat night, Kyle and I went to see the Denver Roller Dolls play a double header up in Broomfield. We saw the Mile High Club beat the Texecutioners, and the Bruising Altitude soundly beat O-Town Derby Dames from Utah. It was a lot of fun, and we can't wait to go back again. Also nice to have a date night, thanks to my lovely mom who babysat for us. Luckily since he goes to bed pretty early, evenings around here aren't too bad, but it sure is nice to leave every now and then.

We like to eat!

2010-03-05T11:45:00.000-07:00

Resolutions

2010-03-05T11:37:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know, the whole New year's resolution post. But I prefer to think of it as new mama resolutions, things that will help maintain my sanity and balance both as myself, a wife, a pet-owner and a mama through this year and all the ones following. They range from the simple to the more detailed, things like make time for myself in a calming way, either simply taking the time to listen to a quiet house with a cup of tea and no distractions, to spinning more in the evenings to celebrating life as a mama, much as some of the inspirational blogs I read do. And of course make some dedicated time for sewing, knitting, and cooking.

As our Mr. Man keeps shooting through clothes in no time (in 18 mo sleepers already, holy cow!), he's been reaching the ends of a commercially purchased sleep sack in no time. I finally put together a quick replacement in fleece with a separating zipper that is working well for now, but is none too pretty of an example of sew-manship. That being said, it was my first time installing a zipper, and it went pretty well. Hopefully on the next one I make, I will do a much better job and incorporate an excellent idea from finger thumb to add a front tab to avoid poking him on the chin.

Speaking of cute chins:

Wearing some of mama's knitwear, giving me an expression that is so his dad when I do something weird

Holiday Pics

2010-01-22T11:48:00.001-07:00

Opening gifts with Grandma

Flag from Trinity Site, NM on first museum visit

Replica of Little Boy

2010-01-22T11:18:00.000-07:00

So awhile back, one of the awesome blogs I visit, SlavetoSave, hosted a bunch of baby-themed giveaways, with some really cool stuff. I entered a few of them, and I actually won something! Been waiting to post, what with holidays and all, but I got it in the mail last week and had to take a pic.

It's a Snuggle Me'z carseat cover in the Brody pattern, and it's really come in handy with the cold weather we've had lately. Of course, this last week has been all about staying home and paying tribute to the many nap attempts that need to be made on behalf of proper day sleep, but hopefully I'll be able to go out again soon and show it off around the mall.

How food-adventerous are you?

2009-12-05T18:20:00.001-07:00

Came across this list of omnivore foods and though it'd be fun to go over with Kyle and see what we have tried over the years, only bolding the ones we've tried. How did everyone else do?

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison

2. Nettle tea

3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile

6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue

8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi

15. Hot dog from a street cart

16. Epoisses

17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese

26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper

27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl

33. Salted lassi

34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float

36. Cognac with a fat cigar

37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat

42. Whole insects

43. Phaal

44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more

46. Fugu

47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin

51. Prickly pear

52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle

57. Dirty gin martini

58. Beer above 8% ABV

59. Poutine

60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads

63. Kaolin

64. Currywurst

65. Durian

66. Frogs’ legs

67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain

70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini

73. Louche absinthe

74. Gjetost, or brunost

75. Roadkill

76. Baijiu

77. Hostess Fruit Pie

78. Snail

79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict

83. Pocky

84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.

85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers

89. Horse

90. Criollo chocolate

91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab

93. Rose harissa

94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox

97. Lobster Thermidor

98. Polenta

99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee

100. Snake

ETA: I realized that with the font color, the bolding isn't clear, so I italicized tried items instead. Also, #36 bothers me, as I have had both some very tasty cognac, and a rather nice handrolled cigar, but on 2 separate occasions. Make of it what you will.

Awesome blog opportunity

2009-12-04T17:10:00.000-07:00

One of the many blogs on my google reader is Sew, Mama, Sew and this week Dec 2nd through Dec 6th, they're hosting their 3rd annual giveaway. Many cool people with blogs, shops, and crafty-inspired items participate, so there's a pretty good chance of winning some cool hancrafted item or supply. But the best part is the exposure of some pretty neat blog and new artists that I wasn't aware of. Not only am I now hoping for some pretty sweet items to win, I now have a lot more blogs bookmarked and subscribed to for reading and inspiration.

Quick pics and update

2009-11-28T12:55:00.001-07:00

Oz is 12 weeks old already, so crazy! In that time he has grown to over 12 lbs, zooming through clothes and now in mostly 6 month sizes, smiles and laughes tons, and is really, really interested in everything around him. So far, he loves baths with mommy, looking at the red chile-esque lights in our house, wearing clothes made by mommy (see pic), having us wash laundry a lot, and being rocked to sleep a lot.

Through some trial and error, we found out not only does he have "silent" reflux, but also a sensitivity to dairy, nuts, and possibly soy. But with meds and cutting those out of my diet, he's tons better. I do miss cheese though, but he more than makes up for it :)

Also he loves both sets of grandparents, as he's lucky enough to be near my parents a good deal, and Kyle's mom and dad came up for a nice visit a few weeks ago, and will soon see him again at Christmas. So lucky to have both families nearby, so he will grow up with tons of love and affection from many different people.

Otherwise, have been being a 24-hr mommy, with not much time for other cooking/knitterly pursuits. Did make a cute baby Jayne Hat, that Oz seems to like. And slowly working on some cozy cabled socks for me, after finishing a basic pair of socks for Kyle. And made a yummy butternut squash soup (from How to Cook Everything) the other night, topped with roasted pepitas and paired with crusty bread and chicken apple sausage from Sprouts (Cali friends, think Henry's, exact same thing). The no-dairy, no-soy has been a bit of a challenge, cooking-wise, but luckily in this day and age, there are a lot of other options, such as rice milk or coconut milk. Sadly no almond milk though, due to nut issues. The ped assures me that these food items are more of a protein issue for him, and don't necessarily mean a later dairy/nut allergy.

6 week madness and pics

2009-10-15T10:16:00.010-06:00

Apparently the 6 week mark is one of great change and fussiness. Oz turned 6 weeks on Tuesday, and with it has come some intense parenting challenges and fussiness. But we also have had some great moments, like real grins and happy arms and legs. And he's growing so fast! He's already growing out of some 3 month size sleepers since he's so long!

My view these days (sling - only thing that calms him and lets him sleep)

Superman sleeps! (blankie by Amy)

Astronaut Oz (socks by Kristi)

These grins make up for any sleeplessness and fussy baby times

Baby Oz!

2009-10-04T12:01:00.005-06:00

baby James Oz Campbell arrived, Sept 1st, coming in at 7lbs 2oz and 20.5in. We're thrilled to have such a wonderful baby and watching him change and grow is so wonderful

Parenthood has been a wonderful challenge so far, but it feels like I'm slowly getting the hang of it. Right now Oz is taking his morning nap (yay!), and a routine for the days is slowly forming. Odd to now have a schedule and eat dinner at 5-6pm, instead of the 8-9pm we did only a few short months ago. But with all the fun and craziness, i wanted to post a quick update with a list of a few things we have found indispensable as new parents:

1) Happiest Baby on the Block DVD - even after reading the book, some things didn't really click. Watching this made us realize that swaddling wasn't something all babies like at first, but does help them overall. Thanks to this, Oz is less overtired during the day and he gets better sleep at night, meaning we do as well

2) Circo brand Swaddling blankets - At 42" x 42", these blankets are nice for long babies. Also being a tad heavier than the standard receiving blanket, they're nice for colder nights.

3) Cradle - Very nice to have Oz next to us at night, so we don't worry about him. Also, the ability to just lean a bit over out of bed and touch or rock him for soothing makes sleep much easier to come by for all 3 of us

4) DIY Diaper Sprayer - From this tutorial online, it not only is great for diaper washing days, but the pressure is perfect for those pesky spit-up stains that can be a pain to wash out. Speaking of cloth diapers, I'm finding they really aren't much work at all, and diaper changes take about the same as with disposables. Says a lot, since we went with the prefold/fitted cover options, the cheaper but more time-consuming route of cloth diapering. Throwing in a load of laundry now and then also is no big deal, as babies tend to create more laundry anyway, with all the outfit changing and spit-up and other fluids, always right after you've gotten dressed or changed your own bedding, much less their clothes and bedding.

5) The Best Help of All - My wonderful hubby and the new dad

ETA: Also forgot (new mom, duh!) how much I love these two things as well:
6) Waterproof pads - awesome for placing in cradle, on changing table, in pack-n-play, etc. Just buy a few of these instead of a whole bunch of specialty sized ones, since baby is only so big at first and can't roll around anyway

7) Microwave steam sterilizer - Use it a ton, mostly to sterilize my breast pump (Avent Isis) parts. Great for the everyday use, but the steam bags will be nice for traveling, I imagine

Crafting crazy

2009-08-25T10:11:00.009-06:00

Only about a week away from baby coming, and I've been pre-cooking and knitting and sewing a lot to get ready for our little guy. Last night we hung up the framed panels of Calvin and Hobbes in the baby room, and thanks to my mom's help, all the stuff is organized in a way that (hopefully) will make it easier for a sleep deprived mom like I soon will be.

A few weeks ago, the wonderful ladies of my knitting group held a combined baby shower for me, Carrie, and Kristi, and it was a blast! There was lots of yummy brunch foods, virgin peach bellinis, and tons of fun. We also painted some onesies and bibs with fabric paint, which was a lot of fun, and of course had fun opening gifts, all 3 of us together. So many adorable things and such talented knitting friends!

(From left to right, top to bottom: Knitted blanket from Amy, Avery sweater from Amy, Knitted hat from Debbie, Quilted blanket from Carrie; Sleeper, bib and tiny baby socks from Becky, Puppy Barley-appliqued onesie and knitted socks from Kristi, Knitted bear with removable clothes from Lara, Snuggle bunny from Leslie; Mitered blanket from Linda, Kimono from Michelle, painted bibs and onesies from shower, Cabled baby cardi from Celeste)

The amazing talent and love put into each of these is just fantastic! Our little guy is going to be so well-attired, and he'll grow up loving knitting, I just know it :) And of course, I was finally able to share what I had been making for Carrie and Kristi.

(Top row: gifts for Kristi; Bottom row: gifts for Carrie)

As you can see, I've been enjoying using my sewing machine, and I have been sewing little baby things like a madwoman. Between cute little pants for our guy and kimono tops (from tutorial here, a wonderful blog to browse through as well) with a few modifications. For the little pants, I have just used purchased baby pants to get the outline for a pattern, and sewn from there. The adorable pinafore dress and bloomers is from Simple Sewing for Baby by Lotta Jansdotter. All are very easy to do, and it's been fun learning how to use binding and even making my own for the finishing on the kimono tops. Been sewing much more as well, way too much to mention each here (but in my flickr photos), but it really has been a lot of fun. I guess this counts as nesting?

Teaching and Learning

2009-06-28T14:51:00.002-06:00

Since posting last, much knitting has been accomplished, and the belly is even big enough to rest stuff on top while I knit or eat. Amazing how fast baby-belly has grown in just a month! As to the knitting, I taught an Intro to Knitting class at the Hudson Public Library in the beginning of June for the tween/teen age group, which went really well. I designed and wrote up a quick project (cell phone/mp3 cozy) and made up some handouts to show them the basics, then attempted to teach several kids around 5th grade level or so how to cast-on, knit, and generally how to hold yarn. It went pretty well, and hopefully a few of them will stick with it and try something new.

Otherwise, it turns out that 2 other women in my knitting group are also expecting, one in October, one in December, so I've been pretty busy knitting for their bellies as well as mine. And since one of the babies is for sure a girl, it's giving me a chance to try out some fun things to make for her that would not work for our little guy. I do love knitting baby stuff though, something so satisfying about making tiny garments and still trying out new techniques and patterns without a huge project undertaking. Right now I am working on the cutest little baby knit for our boy, the Little Bubbles kit from Knitpicks. Even though it's on size 2 1/2 needles, the Comfy sport is so soft to work with and it's going pretty fast. I have the yoke done, and I'm just getting ready to split for the sleeves. I'm trying to make a fair amount of baby clothes in the one year range, so that he'll get a little more wear out of it than just a few moments.

Mostly I've been all about getting things ready for baby and spinning and knitting when I can. My mom made me (and I helped!) some wonderful burp cloths out of some cute flannel we picked out at Joann's, and they turned out so well! I need to get around to sewing up the cloth wipes soon, now that I finally cut them out, but as I've been finding my zen in knitting lately, that's been the priority. And of course, I went up to the Estes Park Wool Market this year with some great girls from knitting (pic on Amy's blog), and even though I had no intention, I bought a lovely steel gray CVM fleece for play and learning on :). It's about 4.25 lbs unwashed with an approx. 2.5 to 3 inch staple with very nice crimp. Washed up a bit and kept lock formation, spun a few locks flick carded, and it is wonderful to spin. Think I'll try drum carding though to blend all the grays together into a heathered effect, and I can try spinning a few different ways. But I definitely have lots to play with and do, even before the baby comes!

First knit

2009-05-29T16:29:00.003-06:00

Lots of knitting going on here, especially of the baby variety, for not just my belly but for the many, many friends who are expecting. Here's a pic of the first completed baby item for our little munchkin.

Otherwise, we've been doing a fair amount of yard work, trying to get the sprinkler system going and the mowing on a reasonable schedule, along with some tree trimming and weed pulling. We still have a lot I'd like to get slowly done over the next few years (like a good garden plot and compost pile), but this year's main project is getting rid of a sucker elm only inches from the house and fixing our gate and fence section. My wonderful parents are coming out tomorrow, chainsaw in hand, to help cut down the tree, which will later be mulched. It will be such a relief to have it down before our main event this fall. And as to the horrid amount of mint, while most of it (and another pernicious runner-based plant) has been removed, there are a few things to the raised garden bed that need to be changed to keep this from happening in the future. So that goes on the project list for sometime in fall or spring next year. Hopefully in time to do a proper garden next year, but we'll see.

Big (and little) news

2009-05-11T10:50:00.002-06:00

So I was please to find out a few months ago that I would have a whole to new reason to cook and knit for another person..one of my own making! Yup, my hubby and I are expecting a wonderful baby boy this fall, and we couldn't be more thrilled. I wanted to wait until I had pics to show, and while he was a little shy the first time around, we were finally able to tell that it's a boy in the ultrasound today. I can't wait to start making lots of little baby knits and things for our own little guy, instead of just passing around the love to friends.

And speaking of activities and baby-having friends, I've been quite busy keeping up with the mini baby boom sweeping through all our friends recently with some baby knits. The red vest below is a modification of the Boy-O-Boy pattern from this book, which is a great thing to have around to get ideas for almost any project. I've also been doing some spinning and dyeing lately, with approx 400 yd of luscious handdyed BFL at sockweight, and some fun corriedale roving in nice, spring colors. Also wanted to post a pic of some socks I made for my MIL, a variation of this pattern but changed a bit to make the socks more gothic looking and keep the ribbing and heel detail matching with the pattern.

Otherwise, I've been enjoying the lovely spring/summer weather around lovely Colorado, and we even celebrated by doing some much needed yardwork! There were many weeds to be pulled, trees to trim, and very long grass to mow. I still have a lot of work left, mostly revolving around digging up and garden plot and planting something drought-resistant in the front yard, not to mention dealing with a hefty mint infestation in our backyard (anyone want some spearmint? Note to the wise for others: never plant in ground, as it will TAKE OVER your whole garden and it's a pain to remove, something the previous owners didn't know), but I can't wait to plant some lovely flowers and herbs in the garden

October/November

2008-11-21T16:03:00.005-07:00

Looks like about once a month is all I can manage to post. Want to do a quick-ish recap though, about events lately (and there have been a lot!):

1. Homeowners, yup, new to the clan. Home Depot here we come.
2. Went to Edinburgh for work, and had way more fun than should be allowed. Kyle went with, and at some point I'll get around to posting pics on my Flickr, but until then, some key phrases: cold & windy, wonderful friendly people, whisky (yumm!), chips with curry sauce (double yumm!). Totally love the curry sauce on fries, now ranks up there with green chile cheese fries :)
3. Painting..a lovely blue to distract me from the cleaning needed in the house
4. Need glasses now. Hubby assures me I look adorable, but they still feel really odd. Never wearing glasses means I have to continuously resist the urge to swat them off my face like hair. Also, frames in the vision feel weird!
5. Been spinning a lot more lately, but not knitting too much. Made some fun navajo-plied superwash merino, about dk weight. Pretty lofty, which is nice
6. Taking Maggie Casey's Spinning 1 class at Shuttles, which is so awesome, as I am learning a ton! At some point I hope to do a brief summary of what I've learned, but so far I've gotten to try different wheels and types, worked with gorgeous fleece, and made my best spinning ever.

Been crazy busy lately, or maybe it just feels like it. Lots of changes/events in the last month, all of which have really gotten the creative side of me out. Hopefully I'll get my butt in gear and upload some pics of Barley running around in some of the snow we've been having around here, not to mention updating for December too :)

Home & Spinning

2008-10-17T14:18:00.008-06:00

So you might be asking, did I mean homespinning? Nope, I mean home (we're buying a house!!!) and spinning (Spinning week Oct 4-10th all over, but spinning month for us Coloradians). Been doing more regarding buying a house than on the spinning side, but have gotten a bit of spinning love in.

First, the house: we are now under contract for a lovely 3bd, 3 bath house in the westminster/broomfield area. If all goes well (fingers crossed!) we will be homeowners by Nov 13th, which is very cool and scary all at once. Especially due to the bellyflops going on with everyone's finances now. Really, who can say their job is 100% secure, no matter who they are. And as Kyle works for a company tied to the financial sector, it does makes things potentially a bit more interesting. All part and parcel of why we went for the pricing range and house size that we did. We easily could have gotten a loan for more $$$, for a bigger house, buy why? So far, it's just the two of us (well, for now at least), and we both wanted to ensure that if for some horrid, unknown reason one of us lost our job, we could still make the mortgage payment and other bills. Granted, it'd be tight with no extra for fun stuff (like beer and yarn), but totally doable. Sometimes I think it pays to be very practical, even though I am often teased for it at work. Okay, okay, but besides financial reasons, we both do love the house we picked, plus the lovely deck and backyard. Barley will certainly have fun there. :)

Now as to the spinning, I've been working hard at not overtwisting some of my yarns when I spin, so I get a lofty endproduct. On my other wheelspuns, the yarns turn out a bit too tightly spun, and even with a generous plytwist and thwacking during finishing, they don't really relax to give a nice knitting hand. True, I spin worsted, so that decreases the loft factor, but these are way beyond that. So lately I've taken to spinning on the lowest ratio for my wheel, even for fairly fine (approx 24-30 wpi) singles. Seems to give me the lofty yarn I'm looking for, but makes me wonder if I don't have something set-up wrong? Well, hoping the Spinning class with Maggie at Shuttles will help me figure this out more.

**From top left, cwise 1) handspun, handdyed cumulonimbus 2)Autumn Sunset handdyed BFL top 3) Pansies handdyed 2ply fingering wt wool 4) Forest handdyed lcwt 2ply wool

Otherwise been working on knitting a few things (all gifts, shh!), but the lovely Kristi brought me back some lovely alpaca roving from the Taos Wool festival, so hopefully once done with current project, I can try my hand at it. So soft! Otherwise, also got a bit of dyeing done, also looking forward to knitting/spinning. Way too many projects and not enough time!

Pirating

2008-09-19T15:53:00.004-06:00

Ahoy, it be Talk like a Pirate day! In th' spirit, I bring you past posts in Arrrrr-speak. just type my url where there be a space, and hit the shiny button! can amuse this scallywag all th' day!

Scallywags' Blog

You are The Cap'n!

Some men and women are born great, some achieve greatness and some slit the throats of any scalawag who stands between them and unlimited power. You never met a man - or woman - you couldn't eviscerate. You are the definitive Man of Action, the CEO of the Seven Seas, Lee Iacocca in a blousy shirt and drawstring-fly pants. You're mission-oriented, and if anyone gets in the way, that's his problem, now isn't? Your buckle was swashed long ago and you have never been so sure of anything as your ability to bend everyone to your will. You will call anyone out and cut off his head if he shows any sign of taking you on or backing down. If one of your lieutenants shows an overly developed sense of ambition he may find more suitable accommodations in Davy Jones' locker. That is, of course, IF you notice him. You tend to be self absorbed - a weakness that may keep you from seeing enemies where they are and imagining them where they are not.

What's Yer Inner Pirate?
brought to you by The Official Talk Like A Pirate Web Site. Arrrrr!

Be back a'later for more a'blogging!

Update

2008-08-26T18:28:00.003-06:00

Been up to quite a lot lately, so finally here’s an overall update. Besides the craziness that has been work, I’ve been getting a lot done in the knitting/spinning/dyeing arena. On my shiny new wheel, I spun the below as a worsted, with the brown a NZ merino wool and the blue a self-dyed brown sheep wool top, both singles overspun then plied to give approx 14 wpi and approx 180 yards. My spinning seems to be pretty dense still on the wheel, as I only got 180 yards of a heavy fingering to dk weight out of 2oz of each fiber, which doesn’t seem like a lot. Seems like I can get a lot more yardage out of my drop spindles for now, but mostly because I’m still learning the ins and out of my wheel. Any way, for the first wheel spun, whee, pretty yarn from my wheel!

Also for dyeing, I’ve tried my hand at both food coloring dyes and acid dyes from Cushings, both with good results. Also, I’ve been using the KnitPicks Bare yarns, which I love! Made some very pretty sock yarn this weekend, all blues and purples, with the Cushings dyes. Then with essentially the rinse, squeezing of the dye, and a few select drops of green food coloring, dyed this wool (ensconced in pantyhose leg, to prevent any felting) to give a much softer effect.

I can’t wait to play with both! Also, I’ve been wanting to start some judicious naming of my dyeing and spinning projects, any suggestions? Was thinking “Starry Night” for the sock yarn, and something else for the roving? Maybe try theme names, like paintings or weather terms or something? Who knows maybe I just like naming stuff too. Is that a hobby as well? ;)

Regardless, I’m looking forward to making some socks for people (both in fingering and in heavier weights), as well as some gifts for fall/winter/Christmas times as well. If people are really good (and also tell me what style/color/size/how heavy) they may want it, they may find stockings in their stocking! (okay, so lots of caveats there, but people! It’s not just a scarf, which will fit any ol’ person either, but an honest-to-goodness garment to fit your individual foot!

Vacation for the Nation

2008-07-09T12:12:00.007-06:00

Since Kyle's work gave him the 3rd of July off, as well as the 4th, I decided to take it off as well. Being my mom's birthday and a long weekend, we took the opportunity to drive up and hang out with my parents at Carter Lake. Of course, since we were near (sort of?) Fort Collins, I finally got my spinning wheel from Lambspun! I loves it so much! Then we headed to the lake and hung out with my Aunt Connie and cousin Laura and their families. It was a lot of fun, as my Dad busted out the jet skies and Barley got to romp around in the water some. Turns out he only really likes to splash around in it and not actually swim, unless we're in the water, then he'll swim to Kyle and I just to hang out.

Also started and finished a golf club cover for Kyle with a skull design
with a crooked mouth. Mostly designed for fun and also to sort of go with the mythic brewery name we have of Crooked Mouth Brewing, from the name Campbell. It was my first Fair isle, and it was pretty fun, as long as I had my chart to go from. Also, finished Gracie's top by trying steeking for the first time. Not as scary as I though, but I need to work on picking up the stitches after steeking to give a more delicate edge. Hmm, what else? Also tried navajo plying on my drop spindle for the first time, and I love how it turned out! Turned out to be a very fibery weekend, as I started spinning some chocolate brown merino, and decided I should ply it with another color. Had some undyed wool roving around and so I decided to dye it a slightly varigated sky blue for later spinning and plying. And while I was dyeing, I dyed up some KnitPicks sock yarn with a range of plummy colors, for knitting into Kristi's wonderful Froot Loops socks. Overall, it was a very, very relaxing weekend, with lots of fun time with family, sun, water, pup antics, and of course, beer.

Sprains, Pains, and Rot

2008-07-02T16:01:00.006-06:00

So lots has been happening lately. Our big plan for last weekend was to travel up to the Colorado BrewFest on St in Ft. Collins, stopping to get me a spinning wheel (yay!) on the way. Instead, due to an unfortunate meeting in the dog park, our Barley managed to hurt his leg, which prompted a very stressful night and morning in the vet's office on Sat morning. Turns out it's just a bad sprain, no bones broken, and the vet wrapped him up and sent him home. he's been doing really well and actually got the wrap off this morning, so he should be back to his active self in no time. Of course, after we were leaving the vet, I noticed a large bolt/nail in the tread surface of my car's passenger tire. We thought "oh, crap, but at least it can be patched!" Nope, instead we needed all 4 tires replaced. Why you ask? Well, turns out that tires can rot! Did you know this, cause I had no idea. Guess after a few years, especially in dry climes or coastal climes (hmm, like San Diego or Colorado, ...yeah) the tires can rot and be unstable. So while we dropped a cool grand before noon on Sat on nothing fun, at least we're assured that my tires won't explode (I hope!) on my commute and that our pup is happy and healthy. Needless to say, I didn't get a spinning wheel that weekend though.

But as Barley was feeling better, we did decide to make the trek up to Fort Collins with a few (somewhat new) friends Andy and Kristi. Even though quite toasty out, it was fun to go somewhere and chat about beer and stuff with new people. Of course, Kristi isn't quite new to me, as I met her as part of the wonderful knitting group I joined in winter, and then she got be started on drop spindling too. And of course, she let me try out her lovely Lendrum DT, prompting my growing need for a wheel of my very own. But it was nice for Kyle to finally meet some of my new friends, especially when it involves beer.

WoW and knitting

2008-06-26T11:29:00.003-06:00

Finally finished drop spindling the lovely blue merino roving I bought from Shuttles, which I turned into a 2-ply. My beginning efforts were the standard thick and various thins of a first-time handspinning try, but by the end I was making a lovely, even sockweight, once plied (about laceweight before ply). Since I had already started this shrug with the thicker yarn, I decided to finish with my thinner yarn doubled up, and it’s turning out nicer than expected.

I also (finally!) finished Kyle’s WoW (World of Warcraft) guild socks. As a WoW widow, I am quite used to some of the terms, one being that he belongs to a Guild called “Death From Above” who have a tabard design that each person in the guild can wear, so I did a bit of my own sketch designing for a duplicate stitch version of the tabard for his socks. They turned out pretty well, and I think Kyle is pretty happy with them. Granted, now that it’s hot out, he has no cause to wear these comfy around the house socks, but in fall he will soon enough.

Estes Park Wool Market

2008-06-17T19:42:00.002-06:00

On Sat June 14th I went with Kristi and Alyson (who I had just met but is really cool!) to the Estes Park Wool Market. It was a great day, even though it was pretty hot, but I picked up all sorts of fun new types of fibers to try my hand at spinning. I got llama, alpaca, bamboo, merino/silk, and superwash merino, all fun things I've never tried before.

Right now I still have my blue merino on my drop spindle, and once that's done, I can start playing with new fibers. I have severe wheel lust for the Lendrum DT thanks to Kristi's bad influence, and after checking with Shuttles, they said it will take 2-3 months to get a new one in! I'm so impatient, I don't wanna wait 3 months! Anyway, the wool market was awesome, filled with so many fibers and yarns and animals. I used my spending allotment almost immediately. Saw some cute llamas and alpacas though, and adorable baby sheep. Afterwards we all went to Estes Park proper and did a little winetasting.

On Father's day my hubby and I went my my dad, mom, and brother to lunch and to see the movie "The Happening", which is a horrible, pointless movie without any real suspense. Was going to see Indiana Jones, but they had shut off half of the theater building due to a fire alarm joke, so we need to go back next weekend and actually see Indy Jones.

Long time, no see

2008-06-16T17:58:00.001-06:00

Yeah, yeah, I'm a horrible blogger with 18 months between posts. But instead of the long version, here's a quick recap: working as chemist at Catalent Pharma (formerly Cardinal Health); visiting families over 2007; went to see Keith and Abigail in Seattle and went to the yummy Cheese festival and had lots of beer there; some cooking but not as much as Kyle would like; Comic-Con again but sadly this time no pics of me with my personal heroes; many friends had babies (so cute!); big fires hit San Diego in the fall and lots of people were evacuated and the city pretty much shut down for a week; got back into crocheting and then learned to knit; knitting quickly became a large passion (just look at the pics in my Flickr if you don't believe me); visited Jimmy and Mirka for Thanksgiving and had a blast; Kyle defended and got his doctorate in Physics, yay!; he accepted a job in Colorado, and we moved in the winter; I'm working as QA Manager in Denver at company called Eurofins; I joined an awesome knitting group and made lots of great friends (see blog lists); we met some awesome beer people from Great Divide and are enjoying lots of yummy local beer; my brother has also started homebrewing, and Kyle's started back up again and got a fancy new brewpot, and he's updating his blog; spending lots of time with my family, and also Kyle's by visits; started using a drop spindle and am now spinning my own yarn!; considering purchasing a lovely Lendrum double-treadle spinning wheel; looking at buying a house in the fall/winter; adopted a wonderful 1 year Corgi mix dog from the Boulder Humane Society and named him Barley......

And of course, with the addition of a new dog, life is a little more crazy but way, way more fun. Hmm, don't think I forgot anything major, but feel free to remind me :)

Bread and Onions

2006-11-27T00:23:00.002-07:00

Recently I have been attempting bread again, and I have a nice, bubbly starter going in a crock in the fridge. However, it seems that I do not have the best of luck with bread. True, I have a good bubbly starter, good flour to work from, using a scale to consistently measure, long rises, the steam method for baking, and using an instant-read thermometer. But no matter what, no matter how great it smells, how pretty it looks, it just...isn't bread. I'm hoping if I keep plugging away, eventually I master a decent bread, but until then, maybe I'll have to stick with other talents.

To that effect, I decided to make some pickled pearl onions today. I used a variety of onions grabbed from Trader Joe's, so they make a pretty contrast as you can see. Hopefully I can make myself wait at least a month or so before trying them so they'll develop more flavor. Also, I really want to try them served along some nice cheese and some homemade sausage.

Yup, I hope to try my hand at grinding and making my own sausage someday soon. I have asked Santa to bring me a food grinder attachment for my lovely KitchenAid, and I hope to enter the realm of charcuterie soon.

Of course, on a related note, this is due in part to a local fabulous restaurant called The Linkery which is not only dedicated to local producers and knowing where your food comes from, but they also make their own sausage in house! And wonderful sausage and food it is! In fact, to celebrate my new job, Kyle and I went to The Linkery about 10 days ago, and we had such a delicious meal. First, we started with a simple picnic plate with two links (Thai green curry chicken sausage and Romanian beef sausage), yummy cheese, and red wine onions. Kyle had a cask-conditioned Pizza Port Good Grief brown, and I had the San Pasqual Meritage, a local red wine, to drink.

We then had a mixed herb salad and the "grilled filet of wild kangaroo (Australia) with vegetable curry, multi-grain saffron pilaf, and organic kiwi". And I have to say, the kangaroo was cooked to perfection! Cooked like a medium rare filet mignon, it had a delicious pure beef taste with just a final hint that echoed vast spaces of land, sun, and wild grasses. Of course, the multi-grain pilaf and kiwi paired very well with it, two things I wouldn't have thought would work so well together. And to finish we had a Mexican Chocolate Mousse Cake which was beautifully light and fluffy in texture, but sinfully rich and spiced on the tongue. Obviously, we will be going back and enjoying many, many more meals there!

Fall's bounty

2006-11-24T23:39:00.001-07:00

So it has been awhile since updating, and I have been quite busy in the kitchen. Besides the normal cooking that I do, mostly with the CSA box bounty, I have done a few other projects to speak of. Firstly, I made a new batch of jam, a Pear Lime and Ginger jam, of completely my own creation. And it seems I've been in a big ginger mood lately, as I also tried a new recipe for ginger cake, or Gembertaart, as Gourmet magazine calls it. It's quite good, but the recipe has some ridiculous steps, such as making a foam out of egg whites and folding it into the very dense batter, which completely deflates the whites. But it is quite good, and makes an excellent tea cake or something to eat a slice with a small glass of sherry.

Speaking of sherry, I have to share that Kyle and I are wine club members of Mount Palomar winery in Temecula, CA and they make the best Solera aged cream sherry. Very nice and hazelnutty in flavor. Anyway, we went up to Temecula for some wine tasting, and we picked up another bottle of this divine liqueur.

Hmm, what else? Well, I made cheese again, this time a mascarpone cheese. It's a very rich yummy cheese, perfect mixed with a tiny bit of vanilla sugar and served along ripe, sliced pears. And of course, like many other people, I keep mispronouncing it "maRSCapone" instead of what it should be, "masCARponE". Otherwise, I have stumbled upon a really interesting vegetable item at Bristol Farms (which has a great full-service butcher, by the way), an upscale market. Brussel sprouts. Yup, you read that right, Brussel sprouts. But on a full stalk, which I had no idea they grew on. I ended up cooking them with a roasted spatchcocked chicken and some roasted potatoes for Thanksgiving. Of course, the best way to cook Brussel sprouts is to cook them simply and quickly. Briefly, I trimmed and washed the sprouts, boiled for 10 minutes, then tossed in a saucepan with some melted butter, minced garlic, some lemon juice, and minced parsley. Very good. And nice to have a simple meal, as I mostly boycotted Thanksgiving this year, as for some reason it always stresses me out every year.

Of course, when spatchcocking the chicken, I used my kitchen scissors and realized they aren't as heavy duty as I would like. I went ahead and bought some Messermeister heavy-duty kitchen shears that should easily handle chickens, and I can also separate the blades for cleaning and sharpening. Of course, Kyle doesn't get how I still need kitchen stuff, but oh well. And related to that, I was able to purchase some lovely All-Clad pans, like a saucier and a fry pan at their outlet, which carry factory imperfections. This means i got both pans for quite cheap, actually for more than 50% off retail since I purchased the pans with a friend and got an additional 20% off. I can't wait till they arrive!

Bones, lard and more

2006-11-11T13:48:00.001-07:00

So I haven't been blogging lately, but I have a good excuse, I swear! Well, a few actually. First of all, I have been looking for a new job recently, one with more challenge, more chemistry, and more pay. I found a job to fit all three categories, and I'll be starting in 2 weeks! So besides a job search to keep me busy, I've also been doing a lot more volunteer work for the Central Shelter. Okay, okay, I guess they aren't that great of excuses. But at least I tried some new dishes over the last bit that I can talk about.

For starters, I checked out the cookbook "Bones" from the library (by the way, everyone should use their local library as a resource, especially for cookbooks). Basically, the cookbook is based on the premise that the bones really need to go back into cooking. Keeping meat on the bone while cooking results in more even cooking, moister meat, and usually more flavor. Unfortunately, cooking with meat on the bone has become harder and harder, mostly because supermarket "butchers" are providing few cuts on the bone to meat consumer demand. And by consumer demand I mean paltry, tasteless, boneless, skinless chicken breasts, boneless pork with no fat left, etc. And don't even get me started on what they call a butcher these days! Which is why, expensive as other things are, if I want a real butcher, I make a trip to Whole Foods or Bristol Farms. But better than that, they can give me scraps of fat, stock bones, and helpful advice for not more than a buck or two.

Okay, off track a little, but here goes. So I decided to make braised beef short ribs on inspiration from the cookbook. The first time, I made a red wine reduction style braise, and served the short ribs atop a cheddar polenta. It was amazingly good, although a bit rich as the ribs contain quite a bit of fat, along with the rich polenta. The second time I made braised short ribs I used a recipe in "Bones" for a dish with a balsamic vinegar glaze that was quite good. Served along with some fresh arugula from my plant pot (plus some roasted marrow bones for me), it was a very tasty dinner.

That's right, I said roasted marrow bones. Very yummy and very bad for me, but perfect spread on some toast with a sprinkling of coarse salt and a bit of chopped parsley, shallots, lemon juice, and capers. I can definitely see why people rave about roasted marrow bones.

Also inspired by the book, I made a basic brown stock, and then concentrated it down so I wouldn't have to store so much in the fridge. And of course, while I was at Bristol Farms, getting the beef bones and veal knuckles (for almost nothing at all), I picked up some pork back fat from the butcher for rendering my own lard.
Which sounds pretty crazy and weird, and I know it is. But lately I've been wanting to get into sausage making, but without a sausage grinder, I kinda stuck just fiddling around with pork bits in other ways. Still have to try using the lard for refried beans or tortillas or such. I wanna try a pie crust, but as it smells a trifle porky, I'm not sure how it would turn out. Maybe I should make a crust for empanadas or meat pasties instead to take advantage of the pork smell.

Pears, peaches, and pickles

2006-09-19T15:50:00.001-06:00

So I've been going a little canning crazy lately, and I have managed to put up two types of confitures and some dill pickles over the last 10 days or so. I am just loving the new confitures book by Christine Ferber I purchased, and it is allowing me to try more tastes beyond the standard typical jams. The only problem is that many of the jams are a pretty soft set, which is okay for me, but it would be nice if I could improve my techniques.

One of the first things I put up lately was a Pear with Balsalmic Vinegar and Spices confiture as Henry's Market had Bartlett pears on sale (3 lbs for $1!). Involving a balsalmic/honey reduction with cinnamon, cardamom, star anise and peppercorns, it is so much of a fall flavor jam. Very yummy.

And of course I had to try the White Peaches with Saffron before all the yummy peaches were out of season, and I'm glad I did. It's more of sliced peaches in a heavy syrup type of confiture, but tasty nonetheless. And the saffron really does come through.

The last thing I put up (yesterday actually) was fresh kosher dill pickles with the cucumbers purchased at the Farmer's market on Sunday. They were so simple to make and so yummy.

Fresh Kosher Dill Pickles

small cucumbers, sliced into about 1/4 inch rounds
fresh dill (dried works well too)
yellow mustard seeds
lightly smushed cloves of garlic
vinegar (either white or cider)
water
coarse salt

Make a solution with one part vinegar to one part water and add 1 Tbsp of salt for each cup total of solution (example: 3 cups vinegar plus 3 cups water plus 6 Tbsp salt). Let come to a boil and boil gently till salt completely dissolves.

In each canning jar (amounts for 1 pint), place 1 tsp mustard seeds, clove garlic and dill at bottom top with cucumber slices. Once jar is half full, add more dill and another clove of garlic and continue packing with cucumber slices until 3/4 inch from top.

Fill each jar with hot vinegar mixture to a headspace of 1/2 inch. Make sure bubbles are not in solution by running clean knife or wooden skewer around inside of jar to release bubbles. Seal and process in boiling water canner for 5 min (good review of proper canning techniques can be found on National Center for Home Food Preservation)
or let cool and place into fridge for up to 4 weeks (if it lasts that long!)

As a reference, I used 6 small cucumbers (about 4-5 inch in length) and amount of liquid above, and it made 5 pints of pickles. My next project is going to be pickled garlic, as Ryan has specifically requested it and in the process I am now quite curious. Maybe pickled peppers too? Hmm, much to consider.

Also, my seeds started sprouting! It's very exciting to watch them spring through the soil and shout up quickly day by day. I'm going to be quite sad when it comes to thinning them, as I want them all to survive. At least the mesclun type can be resown quite often.

Weekend fun

2006-09-17T20:42:00.001-06:00

After recovering from a nasty cold over the week and part of the weekend, I decided to celebrate on Sunday by purchasing many fun gardening items. Among these was the rigging for my very own homemade grow light to help my lemon tree be all it can be. Basically, I went to Home Depot and picked up two of the reflector clamp work lights and some compact fluorescent bulbs. I grabbed a cool white 60W equivalent bulb meant to simulate daylight and a multipack of 60W equivalent warm white bulbs for a grow light and also to replace all the bulbs in the house to be more energy-efficient.

Speaking of, I have been working very hard (and succeeding on many counts) to improve the energy-efficiency of my life and reduce my waste and impact on the environment. I've been recycling pretty well, especially given that I have to make a special trip to recycle, which made it harder to start. I just replaced all the lightbulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, which should save energy and money. I have switched my husband and I to more local, sustainable dairy, meat and produce. This last one has actually been in process since last September when we joined a CSA program (Community Supported Agriculture) with BeWise Ranch, which has been one of the best, most rewarding decisions of my life. Not only do we support local farmers and organic, sustainable produce, but our quality of life and nutritional content of food has vastly increased with all the vegetation now in our diet.

Well, anyway, I'm really trying to live a more "back to basics" life without a strong reliance on fast food and consumer waste. Unfortunately, the one thing I would improve would be my driving to work. I really wish I could carpool or use public transit, but I work in a small company with no one near to my home. And I tried public transit when I first started working, but it was so unreliable and time-consuming (took me 1 1/2 to 2 hours to get home versus 20 min to drive home). Well, hopefully people will begin to wake up and realize that life should not be lived in selfish pursuit of "more, right now".

Okay, tangent over, I promise. To get back on track, I have a grow light set-up with a cool white CFL and a warm white CFL positioned towards my citrus tree on a timer to supplement when sunlight is no longer streaming through the east-facing window. I also purchased a few plants for a winter lettuce garden such as arugula, swiss chard, and seeds for radishes and seeds for a mesclun salad mix.

This Sunday I went with a friend Holly to the Hillcrest Farmer's market, which was awesome and filled with so much yummy produce, and I picked up a few lovely things. Besides grabbing a swiss chard plant and arugula plant, I also bought a variegated mint plant. I had never seen anything like it before. It's very pretty and has a great mint smell with just a faint anise aroma. I also picked up some beautiful heirloom tomatoes like green zebra, which is my favorite, and some small cucumbers for pickling. I love having such great access to local, tasty and inexpensive fresh produce!

Lemon splurge

2006-09-10T22:58:00.001-06:00

Yes, it's true, I have finally succumbed to the SoCal dream of my own citrus tree. I've been back and forth on purchasing a lemon tree for some time, as I wasn't sure my apartment would get enough light and heat for my baby tree. But after reading a post in a new blog I love (Lindy's Toast) where someone had a lemon tree in Pittsburgh of all places, I knew I had to try.

Now, for those of you out there who think I have a huge place to have such a big lemon tree, I don't. I have a dwarf Improved Meyer Lemon tree that I purchased from Simpson Valley Nursery in San Diego, so it will never grow more than about 6 feet tall. Of course, that's assuming it thrives, which I really hope it does. Right now I have it outside on the porch, which is a northern exposure. I'm hoping to move it inside to my east facing bedroom window and work up a grow light scenario to help it along. Wish me luck!

New Mexican Love

2006-09-08T23:30:00.001-06:00

What, may you ask, is New Mexican love? Why green chile of course! And by this I don't mean what those sissy people in California and at Ortega call green chile, but honest-to-goodness flame-roasted Hatch green chile! Truly a gift from God! For those who don't understand a mere mortal's obsession with this delicious-ness, this ambrosia, by all means, post a comment with your email, and I will endeavor to spread the word and taste of wonderful chile. And please, it's chile with an e.

Okay, so if it's not already obvious, my hubby and I recently returned from a trip to my second home state of New Mexico, where we were attending a wedding of friends, seeing friends, and visiting family. It was a wonderful trip, highlighted by many outings that involved green chile cheese fries (best thing ever!) as well as meeting the new addition to our group, baby Evelyn Morgan who is the newborn babygirl of our friends Joe and Rebekah in New Mexico. We also saw Kyle's parents, which was nice as always, and attended the wedding of mutual friends of ours from college who now reside in Seattle.

Other than the bliss that is green chile and just hanging with friends, there hasn't been much else going on. However, as strange as it is, whenever we get back to San Diego I always crave sushi big-time, as well as just Asian-tasting food in general. After feasting on yummy sushi at Sushi Deli 2 in downtown San Diego (sooo good, and very well-priced) when we got back, we mostly just hung out. Unfortunately, I managed to catch a cold pretty much the next day we were back, which I still have.

But on Friday I managed to make an old stand-by favorite in our house, Thai beef salad. You can tell I'm really having fun with the new camera too.

Anyway, it's a really simple dish involving a quick marinade of skirt steak (or whatever thin steak you prefer) which is cooked and placed atop a lightly dressed bed of greens.
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Marinade
*1 Tbsp coriander seed, toasted and lightly crushed
*1 Tbsp peppercorns, toasted and lightly crushed
*1/4 cup soy sauce
*1/4 cup sugar
*3-4 cloves minced garlic
*about 1 lb of thin beef of choice

Mix above in plastic bag and let sit in fridge for at least 40 min to 2 hr. When done, remove from fridge and either on stovetop or on grill, cook till medium rare. Let meat rest on cutting board while preparing salad dressing (can cut into slices once rested)

Dressing
*1 small orange, juiced
*1 lime, juiced
*finely chopped serrano pepper (or whatever tickles the fancy)
*1 Tbsp sugar
*1 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce
*1 Tbsp rice vinegar
*1/4 to 1/2 cup of oil (frying up some green onion or shallots to make flavored oil make this really good)

Mix all but the oil together really well, then slowly stream in the oil while whisking to make a dressing of your liking.

Place a small amount of the dressing in the bottom of a big bowl and put in handfuls of fresh greens of any kind and lightly dress each handful. Plate some greens on a plate and top with sliced of the cooked beef. Very tasty, especially as left-overs. The dressing is really good left-over, and I keep it for at long as 2 weeks, although it usually doesn't last that long before I eat it.
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Not so jammin'

2006-08-30T17:29:00.001-06:00

So just a few updates on what I've been doing lately. As for my beloved ricotta salata I was trying to attempt, the curds were way too overcooked, and so they didn't press so well, giving me a cheese that was tasty, but really crumbly in texture and dry in an uneven way. Next time I'll definitely up the citric acid and hope I get better yields. But definitely not adding any more heat is the way to go. Hey, it was worth a shot though. Only cost me about the price of a gallon of milk and some time to experiment.

As for an earlier post involving my apple pectin stock, it did set up. Sort of. But when the big test came for it to be used as pectin stock in a black cherry with pinot noir jam recipe, I got....that's right, cherry sauce. So I now have lots of tasty, runny black cherry sauce and pretty much useless apple pectin stock (but decent apple jelly, if you like that sort of thing). Oh well, maybe I just need to resign myself to using a little bit of commercial pectin for certain recipes.

in other food epiphany news, on Friday I used a coupon at the new Bristol farms to buy some very pretty albacore tuna steaks since they looked good at the store, but wasn't sure what to do with them. I decided to lightly sear the top and bottom of each piece (after seasoning it with salt and pepper and adding toasted sesame seeds) till the inside was about med rare, and serving it with a wasabi compound butter on top. For a side, I did a personal house standard of shredded carrot and shredded radishes, sometimes thinly sliced green onion, with some ginger and rice vinegar (let sit for a bit to get everything all nice and vinegary). It was so incredibly good! And the wasabi butter part totally contrasted with the fish in a nice, smooth way. I love asian-style cuisine.

As you can see form the picture, it made quite a nice sight sitting on a plate. Of course, I'm still experimenting with good ways to take food pics, but now I have a new fancy camera to take better pics of. Yup, we finally succumbed to a new small, sexy camera, the Canon Powershot SD600. It's so pretty and shiny! But now I actually have to get better at taking food pics because I no longer have the "I have a crappy camera" excuse. Oh well, hopefully people won't be afraid to give me lots of tips.

Curds and Whey

2006-08-27T22:15:00.001-06:00

Weekends appear to be my busy Amish times, because this time around I made cheese! I made ricotta again in order to make ricotta salata, which is a dry, salted ricotta that apparently is very good for eating out of hand. Right now its happily being pressed in the fridge, and will soon begin it's salting and aging process for the next few weeks.

I really hope it turns out because when I made it this time, I think I overcooked the curds. I was trying to get it not only to the curdle stage (which it did, beautifully), but also to the "no milky whey" stage like the book suggests. Alas, I still had milky whey, but I finally gave up when I realized the curds were turning a bit rubbery. I think perhaps I just need more curdling agent on the front end to maximize my yield from grocery store milk. Basically, the recipe is as follows (paraphrased courtesy of Home Cheesemaking, a great book by Ricki Carrol):

Whole Milk Ricotta
-1 gallon whole milk (not ultra-pasteurized)
-1 tsp citric acid dissolved in 1/4 cup cool, unchlorinated water
-1 tsp salt

Mix salt and citric acid solution together. Add to milk, stirring well. Heat milk slowly to 185-195 degrees (should take at least 20 min), stirring often to prevent scorching. Once curds and whey separate and no milky whey is left, turn off heat and let sit for 10 minutes undisturbed.

Gently transfer curds into butter muslin-lined colander , and hang for 20-30 minutes above bowl (to catch drips) until desired amount of whey has drained off. Store in sealed plastic container in fridge for up to 2 weeks, if it lasts that long.

Note: Citric acid can be ordered online (see link at left) or found in any homebrewing shop for beer or wine. Butter Muslin can be ordered online, or storebought cheesecloth can be folded several times over for drainage. Jersey cotton shirt material also works nicely. Just make sure holes aren't too large, or all the cheese will drain right through.

So next time I think I'll try adding 1 1/2 tsp of citric acid and see how that works. Hopefully my yield will improve without imparting too much of a rubbery texture

Jam Fever

2006-08-21T16:43:00.001-06:00

Apparently the PTBs (powers-that-be, for all you Angel fans) have decided that my purpose in life is to make jam. Because all I seem to want to do these days is make lovely, delicious confitures. This weekend I made a few types of raspberry jam, all of which are very yummy. Besides plain raspberry, I made raspberry with lemon verbena and raspberry with star anise. The plain raspberry is very tasty and raspberry-ish, always a good basic jam. But the lovely and surprising thing is how different and good the other two flavors are. The lemon verbena one is all summer, with tart raspberries and hints of fresh lemon taste and smell. The star anise one reminds me of fall, with its faint hint of licorice and an earthiness I didn't know raspberries had.

How could I afford to use so many fresh, delicate, expensive raspberries for jam, you ask? Why, I used frozen of course! Stealing the idea from The Great Alton Brown, I have discovered how good using frozen fruit can be when making jams and jellies. After all, they are picked at the peak of freshness then frozen, so sometimes they're even better than fresh, hassle-wise.

And since this was apparently not enough confiture making for me, I felt the need to try my hand at a pectin stock/green apple jelly. After trying to contact local apple farmers in Julian to ask for unripe apples, and being rudely shot down, I decided to try and make the pectin stock with granny smith apples. Basically, you take 4 lb of apples, slice them (leave seeds and skin intact), and simmer for about 30 min in just enough water to reach top (about 6-7 cups). Once done, place mash in colander and collect juice. Then place mash into jelly bag and strain more thoroughly to get all the juice/pectin out. Once done straining, boil on stovetop with sugar (3/4 to 1 cup sugar per cup of juice) and juice of 1 lemon per 4 cups juice. Let boil down and reach jelling point (approx half will evaporate), place in jars, process and cool. Tadaa! Now you should have homemade pectin stock to use in place of prepared pectin from the store.

Or at least that's the idea. I made it last night, and I'm still not sure how well each jar will set up. It was still runny last night, but the jars were pretty warm, so maybe when it cools all will be good? Well, if not I'll have very very sweet apple juice that's a little thick. Maybe I could just label it apple juice concentrate and nobody will know what it should be. Well, I did add a handful of tiny black corinth grapes (labeled "champagne grapes" at Trader Joe's) to one of the jars and then added apple jelly mix, so maybe I'll have a cool new jelly thing to try.

Of course, the real sad thing was having to throw away the beautiful apple mush! Okay, so maybe only I think it's pretty, but that's cause I see its potential...applesauce! Oh, if only I had a food mill. Or the KichenAid fruit/veggie strainer. Or a food mill. Or a... okay, so the real problem is I'm not sure what would be best. On one hand, the food mill is decades old and guaranteed to work...but hand operated. And the KitchenAid attachment would be shiny and new and mixer operated...but maybe not clean as easy or work as well at straining things like blackberries. Any suggestiongs, for anyone who might be reading and knows of these things?

Greek attack!

2006-08-17T12:50:00.001-06:00

So last night was our turn to host the Wed night revelry of friends, and I decided to make Greek food. Because I can never seem to get the timing right, I started prepping dishes a few days before, and I actually made a schedule of when everything needed to be done. Yes, I am a total dork, but it did work and I got dinner all ready to serve at the same time, by 7:30pm.

I made a delicious, and easy, Greek salad with cucumber, tomatoes, red onions, feta cheese and Greek olives (dressing: 1 part lemon juice to 2 parts olive oil, with dash oregano and minced clove of garlic and tbsp honey) which was excellent and fresh-tasting. I also made a spanakopita clone called a borek from a Turkish cookbook I checked out from the library. And if that wasn't enough, I made a lamb ragout in my awesome dutch oven. And of course, what's a night of Greek food without baklava! It was very yummy and very bad for me! But so worth it.

Overall, it was a great night with lots of yummy food and free-flowing wine and hanging out with great friends. I think I enjoy the Wed without Lost and ANTM more than with them simply because we can all just chat and relax with each other.

Cheese & Jam

2006-08-08T22:45:00.001-06:00

I must say, the hardest thing about this blog (well, any writing) is how to start? I mean, since I don't post very often, a lot does tend to happen in my weeks away. Well, a lot for me anyway. Do I start by talking about the mozzarella cheese I made, and show everyone the yummy pics that I took during production? Or perhaps I can regale everyone with tales of my plum jam and the unfortunate cut that occurred? Or maybe talk about the cool new restaurant Kyle and I found that makes its own sausage?

Well, I guess I'll just start from the top, as I am a list person. About a week ago I made mozzarella cheese again, which is important because...I have pics to prove that it happened.

And of course, the cheese was tasty as always. Next time I really want to try and make feta cheese, so hopefully this coming weekend. What else, what else? Oh yes, I made plum jam as a friend of mine kept raving about her grandma's plum jam everytime I mentioned jam. So I decided to make some, since the stone fruit crop is really good this year, and alas, misfortune happened to me.

That's right, while chopping some plums, I decided to chop my thumb a bit too. Knife went right through the nail and started bleeding something fierce. Of course, my first thought was "no blood on the food!" so I was quickly able to avoid any blood on the food and get my thumb all wrapped up so I could finish the jam. So funny how anymore when I hurt myself, it's more an inconvenience than painful and all I can think of is how annoying cooking with a bandaid will be. The plums did get chopped, albeit slowly, and I managed to make plum jam with a bit of cinnamon in it.

I also just ordered a book by Christine Ferber, all on small batch, interesting jams (or confitures, how French!) and I can't wait to try new and exciting combinations.

Hmmm, what else? Well, Kyle's birthday was yesterday, and to celebrate over the last weekend, we went to a great place in North Park called The Linkery. Why is it called The Linkery? Well, they make their own sausage in house. I mean, how great is that! Plus, they're dedicated to local, sustainable produce with high quality for a reasonable price. And it was all very, very tasty. Someday, when I have more room, I can make my own sausage and truly become a Renaissance woman of the hearth. Most people think I'm crazy, and I can't really tell them I'm not, because I do know how odd it is that I have started making my own cheese and jam and want to make sausage and someday learn how to butcher meat, and all sorts of other stuff. Oh well, maybe I really am "Amish" like my friends tease me :)

Long time gone

2006-07-23T17:26:00.001-06:00

So....it's been about a year since writing this blog, and I guess I just stopped doing it for some reason, mostly cause I got lazy. But Kyle and I hung out with a friend (down for ComicCon, more on that later!) yesterday who mentioned the blog and limoncello, and I thought why not start posting again and at least post the recipe for him to use all those lemons with. So first things first, here's my limoncello recipe:

*6-7 thick-skinned lemons, preferably organic so no pesticides
*2 cups vodka (Smirnoff Red works well; don't use a really cheap vodka, but yummy Grey goose would be wasted here)
*1 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar
*1 1/4 cup water

Wash the lemons in hot water before starting with veggie brush to remove any dirt or wax. Remove the peel with a veggie peeler, removing all the white pith on the back so it doesn't turn all bitter. Put the peels in a large jar (enough to hold 4-5 cups) that can be sealed tightly. A mason jar with lid works well, but so does the cool flip top jars. Add 1 cup of vodka to jar and swish around. Cover the jar with cap, date it and put it in a dark place at room temp.

After 20 days, take out mixture. In a saucepan over med-high heat, make a simple sugar syrup from all the water and sugar. Let boil for 3-5 minutes. Let syrup cool completely, then add to vodka lemon mixture, also adding the last cup of vodka. Mix well, cover, and date again.

Let sit in a dark, room temp place for about 2 weeks, at which time taste every so often until it's to your liking. The mixture should be sweet but tart, and smell a lot of lemons. When done, strain the mixture (discard lemon peels) and place in pretty, capped bottles. Really good cold as a sipping drink, but also good poured over fresh fruit or pound cake. Enjoy!
*************************************************************************************

Okay, hope that helps. Anyway, I've been up to a lot in the last 10 months. Hmm, we got a kitty (Kaylee) who is just so sweet, even though she always wakes me up at 6:30 in the morning. Also, since we had such a great time adopting here from the county shelter, I now volunteer at the central shelter. There's a link posted, for those looking for more info.

Also, Kyle has started to make his own beer, which is very good. So far he's made a porter and a German whit beer, both of which are nice and not too hoppy, so I can drink them ;) he's so sweet! As for me, I have started making jam and preserves quite a bit, and also started making cheese. I know, I get teased about being Amish all the time. I realize most people don't make cheese, but actually for soft cheese it's not too hard. I tried a gervais cheese (like cream cheese), ricotta, and mozzarella, and they all were quite delicious.

What else? Well, lots of cooking things I'm sure, and other stuff I can't really remember right now. Oh, but this is important! I've found a fabulous new show to watch that I totally love! Veronica Mars, and everyone should watch it, it's an amazing show! If you liked any Joss Whedon work at all, you would love this simply because it has a fresh, strong woman as the lead with amazing character development, storylines, and dialogue. Which leads me to the most exciting news ever!

I met Joss Whedon!!!!!!

That's right, I went with Kyle to San Diego ComicCon this year, and saw tons of amazing things, but most of all I met Joss Whedon and got him to sign my Fray comic book that he wrote. Seriously, I can't stop smiling about it:) For those who don't know, I am obsessed with all things Joss, such as Buffy, Angel, and Firefly, three amazing shows that everyone should watch.

Otherwise, it's just been horribly, horribly hot and humid here. We have both fans going full time, and it's barely made a dent. I don't remember it ever being this bad. I don't even want to think about cooking or dishes or laundry in heat like this. Luckily our complex has a pool (what one doesn't in SoCal!) so I think I'll take a swim. Hopefully it won't be another 10 months till I remember to post again ;)

Sushi and eggs

2005-10-09T00:12:00.001-06:00

Just a quick update on the produce I got on Thursday night: green beans, red beets, cucumbers, eggplant, green leaf lettuce, purple onions, oranges, apples, and cherry tomatoes. I think I'm going to make pickled beets using a Martha Stewart recipe I found that looks pretty simple. Yum, pickled beets! Course, my husband with have none, as he despises all things pickled, the poor guy. He's really missing out on so much. Not sure what to do with the eggplant or green beans yet, as I don't usually cook either of them. Also, the eggplant it nice and tiny, so it shouldn't have any seeds, or at least R tells me so.

So last night Kyle and I went out with R&A for supper good, affordable sushi. Oh, the joy of living in San Diego: all the sushi I can stuff my face with for less than 20 bucks! We got some standard goodies, such as a mixed rainbow roll and a spicy tuna roll, but also a less traditional roll named the Hot Hot CA roll. This roll is basically a California roll smothered in a hot sauce (mix of chili paste and asian mayo), heated in a broiler till toasty warm. Soooo good! And of course, I had my yummy salmon roe nigiri, which is basically just fish eggs on rice. Good and salty, with a fun bursting sensation in your mouth when you eat on. Mmmm, sushi is so good!

What else, what else? Made a smoked salmon frittata tonight, which turned out really well. Also steamed some asparagus I had gotten on special, so it was still a pretty healthy night greens-wise, even with all the eggs. Speaking of eggs, I tried my hand at making hollandaise sauce with my mini food processor, and it was so easy! There's this little set of holes on the lid just perfect for dribbling in fat to sauces so that a nice emulsion is formed. At least one sauce fear is conquered, although I'll be trying it again soon to make sure I have the by-hand technique down (ie the whisk). But now I shall sign off, and watch "From the Earth to the Moon" with my hubby, the Tom Hanks-produced mini series on space travel.

Fuschia fun

2005-10-06T00:00:00.001-06:00

Lots to tell so far, at least cooking-wise. Didn't do too much last weekend, but Kyle made me some yummy baked pork chops with plums and green chard, which was good as we had more chard than I knew what to do with. In fact, on Monday I made a frittata with red chard, thyme and yogurt cheese, which was quite tasty if a bit dense. Of course, it was dense because I forgot to add the milk to the egg mixture, so the resulting frittata had an odd texture. And I finally used the red cabbage to make borscht, a tasty cabbage beet soup popular in Russia and Poland. Turned out there's hundreds of ways to make borscht, much like chicken soup, but the version I tried was pretty good. A bright fuschia color, thanks to the beets :) However, since the version I tried left me with tons of soup, I think I need a break from pink soups, at least for a bit. But the pity is that I still have half of a head of red cabbage, and no idea what to do with it. Maybe I'll just try braising it or something.

More yummy produce

2005-09-30T19:19:00.001-06:00

We got our second allotment of produce this week, as you can see in the pic. More chard, yummy oranges, some salad, heirloom tomatoes, and some really green celery plus other stuff was what we got this week. One thing about this, it means I sure am eating my greens :)

Tonight Kyle and myself and a bunch of friends are going out for Mexican food and to see the new movie Serenity! Yay!!! Finally get to see the Joss Whedon movie we've been waiting so long for. For those who don't know, I am a huge HUGE Joss Whedon fan, and I LOVE his shows, especially Buffy and Firefly. In fact, I'm just a tad obsessed at times.

Pate , etc.

2005-09-28T23:33:00.001-06:00

Whew! It has been a busy week so far, at least cooking-wise. On Monday I made sort of a stir-fry with the mizuna, some purple bunching onions, somen noodles, ginger, and soy sauce. It was quite good, nice and light especially since Monday was pretty hot here in San Diego. The mizuna had a light taste, slightly spicy like mustard, but mostly it just smelled really fragrant. And the purple onions added a nice flavor, a little more like a cross between green onions and shallots than like a red onion, which is what I was expecting.

I also made a chicken liver pate on Tuesday night, which turned out pretty well. Again, reading Julie Powell's blog and also Julia Child cookbooks inspired me to give it a shot. I think it turned out pretty well, and people seemed to like it at our dinner party tonight. Speaking of our weekly food/America's Next Top Model/Lost night, this week it was our turn to host. I made minestrone soup in the Crockpot, which was super easy, and I also made panna cotta. I have been wanting to try panna cotta for so long, but everytime Kyle and I try and order it at an italian restaurant, they're out. It turned out really well, nice and creamy with a texture similar to flan. I also made insalata caprese, a tomato, basil, mozzarella starter that went so well with the last of the heirloom tomatoes I got from BeWise Ranch.

All told, it was a great night, filled with lots of friends, wine, and wonderful Lost, which of course didn't really reveal anything else about everyone and the island. Grr! Well, the mystery is part of why I like the show so much

CSA produce

2005-09-24T23:40:00.001-06:00

Thursday was the first week of our CSA produce pick-up. CSA (community supported agriculture) is a great program where the people in the community can pay a small amount each quarter and get fresh produce weekely straight from the farm. We got a lot of stuff, some of which I'm not sure what to do with. We got yummy heirloom tomatoes, mini tomatoes, limes, lemons, red chard, red cabbage, some purple bunching onions, and something called mizuna. Mizuna is apparently a mustard flavored green that's usually placed in salads. Not sure what I'm gonna do with it, maybe a stir-fry of some sort? Also have no idea what to do with a whole head of red cabbage. One of the nice things about the CSA deal is that I can try new, strange types of produce, and try more thrown-together dinners

Garlic and Sapphires

2005-09-19T00:18:00.000-06:00

I just got done reading a wonderful memoir of sorts by Ruth Reichl, the former New York Times restaurant critic, and now editor of Gourmet. She has such an enchanting style of writing, and her descriptions of food make your mouth water. But more than that it's the simple, straightforward manner in which she writes, such that the reader always feels welcome and part of her world. Half of the book excites me to try fancier, gourmet food, but sadly only as a restaurant critic or VIP. It seems as if in general normal people are treated with disdain at many fancy restaurants, which is very sad to me. I want to think its just a New York thing, but probably not.

In other sad news, Kyle and I finally finished off the lovely bottle of Solera Cream Sherry we have been savoring these past months. We grabbed a bottle at the Mount Palomar winery when we went wine tasting in Temecula with R&A, and it is some of the most fabulous fortified wine I have ever tasted. Sipping it really makes me feel like a genteel lady in English drawing rooms at the turn of the century, so luxurious. But Kyle and I have been discussing another, more prolonged trip to Temecula as a getaway this fall, so hopefully we'll be able to grab another bottle.

Otherwise, as the lazy sod I am, I never got around to baking bread this weekend, but I did finally roast the chicken that's been in the fridge all week. It's amazing how simple and delicious roast chicken with potatoes can be. Alas, another long week of work and getting up early awaits. I sincerely miss sleeping in.

Breadmaking

2005-09-16T00:09:00.001-06:00

Two nights ago I went to what was supposed to be the first week of my Breadmaking class. The lady who teaches is quite nice, if a little too mild-mannered and soft-spoken for my tastes. She went over, in great detail, the basics of a white bread recipe, explaining about proofing yeast, measuring flour, etc. Sadly, the class in future will no longer be held, as there weren't enough people who showed up the first time. Apparently, 15 people need to show up to the first class, and we only had 10. Which really sucks, as this was the only cooking class I could take due to it being at night. Every other class takes place in the middle of the day, which I obviously can't do as I work. But she did have some good tips, so it wasn't all a waste. I think this weekend I'll try my hand at breadbaking, without using the KitchenAid! I fully expect disaster, but it might be okay to hand knead the bread. At least my arms will get stronger :)

Crepes

2005-09-12T23:34:00.001-06:00

Tonight I tried my hand at crepes, with the batter recipe taken from the dear Julia Child. Basically just a mix of flour, milk, water, eggs and a bit of butter whirled together and placed in fridge for about 30 min to allow the gluten to rest before cooking. Then you get a small nonstick skillet fairly hot, so "water dances on surface", which is such a perfect description of what it looks like. One of the reasons I love Julia Child is her beautiful descriptions, but also that she lets cooks know why to do what she tells them instead of just following the recipe. So anyway, after you pour the batter in, and swirl a bit and let the bottom cook, you flip it on the other side. Which finally (yay!) I was able to do just by sliding the pan out and back, doing the flip that looks so cool and efficient on TV. Got pretty good at it too, and even Kyle got into trying it. Then I just filled most of the crepes with a cream cheese/sour cream mix, some green onions, and smoked salmon. Very tasty, especially once you put just a bit of jam inside the crepe. Next time I'll have to make more just so I'll have crepes left for dessert.

I've decided that I need a bit of structure and purpose to my cooking/baking, so I've decided to be more systematic, as inspired by Julie Powell. I want to master the basic types of sauces, which I should have already done, but there hasn't been much call for thickened sauces when I usually cook. In fact, I was trying to make a sauce from the left over juice in the pan of the pot roast, and it was totally hopeless. I realized that I really have no clue how to thicken sauces, make sauces, add depth to sauces, etc. So next it's all about tackling sauces. Speaking of, here's a pic of my lovely new Dutch oven.

So I'm not sure what else to tackle besides sauces, so if anyone even reads this, a few suggestions would be nice. There are definitely a few recipes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking that I want to try, mainly due to the descriptions given in Julie's blog.

Plus, every Tuesday I'll be going to a Breadmaking class given by the local continuing education center. Tomorrow's my first class, hopefully enough people will register so the class can be continued and not cancelled. I think another bit of a project, mainly because of the class, will also be breadbaking and possible basic pastry/baking techniques, like making pasta or souffles.

Julie /Julia obsession

2005-09-11T23:09:00.001-06:00

So lately I have been more than a little obsessed with reading all the past blog entries (and yes, most of the comments) on the Julie/Julia Project blog, over at Salon.com where the brilliant Julie Powell has chronicled her feat of cooking through Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" all in one year, taking many stops to discuss Spicy Thursdays (her break from French food which her husband cooks), the joy of Buffy, many vodka tonic drinks, subway rages, and just life in general. This woman has fully inspired me to take a deeper look at French cooking and not be so intimidated by foreign words, pate, or liver. In fact, I always liked liver, but have not had it in ages. Yum! Of course, I have a very definite feeling my husband would not be partaking, as I still can't get him to eat anything pickled, or olives or corned beef. Sigh. Well, at least now he loves mushrooms and is even eating fresh tomatoes with more acceptance. Soon, soon I will have him eating pickles! Of course, thanks so much to my mom, who brought the Julie/Julia project to my attention in the first place, without which I never would have discovered the joys of Better Than Bouillon or started to search for truffle flour for the day sometime in the future when I attempt some of the actual French recipes.

With an update, the pie dough was excellent, which means I finally have a pie dough winner from all my many recipe cards! Especially as I tend to get the craving to make pie when it's hot out (silly me!) and also overwork the dough just a tad, and this pie dough was nice and flaky, but tasted yummy and didn't fall completely apart. Otherwise, I tried to make the mini quiches by placing dough in the mini tart pans for the initial baking, but as the pans aren't very deep, I don't think they'll hold quiche filling very well. Instead, I made a large quiche in my 9.5 inch pie plate, a yummy onion-bacon-Gruyere quiche that turned out just right, if a tad too eggy. Next time, instead of 6 eggs I'll just use 3-4, and I think that will help.

And with the rest of the dough, I finally made an apple pie. Very yummy, even if the apples weren't as crisp as I'd like, so they kinda fell apart inside of the pie. But the dark rum caramel I made for sweetening the apples turned out well at least. And for dinner, Kyle made Portuguese Pork with Clams, which was quite yummy. On a side note, it took me trips to 5 stores before I finally found clams. Sad, as I live fairly near a beach of active clamming, or so Google informs me. So the solution...clam digging! Yes, apparently you can go clam digging, mussel hunting, and lobster diving all for free and in Southern California, as long as you obey standard rules to protect the species (ie not too tiny, not too much, etc). So once clamming season begins in November, I'm hauling myself, Kyle, and a picnic lunch up to a suitable beach for clam digging. It may be a day wasted in vain, but after paying a buck a clam for this recipe, I figure an afternoon of fun at the beach and free clams and mussels will be well worth my time.

And finally, in response to Kathleen. Yes, I do know who you are, as I believe you and myself are the only chemists my mom knows who also share an interest in food :) And as you mention it, I just returned Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking" to the library, and it was a great read. More and more I am reading book about food, be it fiction, science, critiques, or cookbooks. I'm not sure why this fascination has risen so much over the past year or so, but I find that I do a great deal of cooking and baking. For example, last night I made a tasty red lentil soup, and roasted and peeled some chile peppers R had given us for later use so they wouldn't spoil, and grated zucchini for 4 loaves. Turns out I grated enough for 10 loaves, but at least I can freeze it. This morning, quite soon after getting up, I proceeded to make zucchini bread, which was worth it, and a bit later started my pot roast for dinner. Which actually, I was able to bake in my fancy new Dutch oven which I got from a genius potter named Dan McMullin who sells pieces and teaches classes at the UCSD Crafts Center. If it were not currently dirty, I would post a pic. Well, time for that later.

I must say, I like everything about cooking. Well, not everything. Not dishes, that's for sure, and not the mess I make when I'm done, which of course needs to be cleaned up for me to cook something else the next night. And everyone always says "But you have a dishwasher! It should be easy!" And to that I say, yes, it is, for the plates and glasses which are so not the problem but the pans! My God all the pans and ladles and pots and assorted items that need to be handwashed and invariably have some such thing stuck to them. I am convinced that anyone who thinks having a dishwasher should make doing the dishes painless obviously does not cook much, or else they would also face a sinkful of pots and pans and moan pitifully just like I do.

Hot summer nights

2005-08-28T23:09:00.001-06:00

Things have been going well, although very busy. So well, that Kyle and I finally purchased a car (a silver Mazda 6) so that I can drive instead of taking the bus to work. I don't mind the bus so much, if its on time, and that's a big if. But it has been nice to get around on my own without always relying on my hubby:)

I just got done reading this great cookbook (yes, I read them cover to cover) by Steven Raichlen all about BBQ sauces, rubs and marinades. Many great ideas to try even though I'll be roasting and broiling instead of grilling. In fact, I recently tried my hand at authentic (almost) North Carolina pulled pork, complete with slaw and everything. The pulled pork from NC is smothered in this delicious vinegar pepper sauce, and the slaw to top is just cabbage that has been soaking in the same sauce. Soooo good! My version turned out pretty well, although I had to go for oven roasted instead of barbecued over coals for a long period of time. Someday, we will have a barbecue, and I can finally do all this cooking outside.

Which would be especially nice right now as the weather has been horribly hot, and no AC to speak of. Which means everytime I have to cook even a bit, it heats up the whole house. Even just steaming some rice and corn, and broiling salmon quickly for dinner tonight heat up the kitchen tons.

Otherwise, I also made a big batch of pie dough. I grabbed a lot of yummy apples on same at Henry's which I'm looking forward to making apple pie with. The Baking with Julia cookbook I recently got from the library had a great recipe that's large enough for 4 pie crusts, which should give me enough for one apple pie plus some dough for quiches and such. Speaking of, I finally got mini tartlet pans so instead of making a whole quiche, which is quite rich for two people, I can just make mini ones and freeze them. Plus, each one can be a different kind!

Otherwise, I made some yummy coconut ice cream, which when topped with the homemade kaluha, was so good. Kyle and I first tried that dish on our honeymoon, and it was so refreshing and creamy at the same time. And tonight for dessert it's fresh raspberries and blackberries, which were also on sale at Henry's and at their peak. Yum! By the way, I love Henry's and Trader Joe's! So nice to have stores of quality where things aren't outrageously expensive like dairy and chicken broth. Also, being able to buy items in bulk, like red lentils for cheap and flour for 29 cents/lb, and many types of spices for pennies, is so awesome. I really hope these stores pop up all over the country, or at least in New Mexico and Colorado, soon. I have hope for NM, as Trader Joe's is expanding into that state, so we'll see.

Cheese and Sushi

2005-07-27T21:44:00.001-06:00

So finally I get a chance to update this blog. Work has been pretty busy, but in a good way. And of course instead of writing about food so much, I've been making it. Last Saturday I went to a sushi making class that my old coworkers purchased for me. It was so much fun, and I learned a lot about making sushi and sushi etiquette. Plus, I got to make and eat tasty sushi, which is always fun. The class was in this cute little shop called Kitchen Witch with lots of fun cooking and baking supplies to tempt me. But I was fairly good, and I only grabbed a few things like dried lavender and bittersweet chocolate.

But I finally got a chance to make lavender pound cake from a recipe I had, which sadly sounds better than it actually tastes. It's pretty good, but not as fluffy as I thought it would be. Also, I added some lavender to honey to make lavender honey for use with hot tea, and it already tastes yummy.

Also had R&A over on Sunday for dinner and Firefly watching. Made a lime-ginger salmon and a side of warm potatoes with basil vinaigrette. Tried my hand at making yogurt cheese from the tasty French-style yogurt from Trader Joe's. It was quite easy, just a matter of draining the yogurt on paper towels in a strainer, then hung in a ball in cheesecloth. It turned out creamy and slightly tangy, sort of like goat cheese.

Knife class

2005-07-19T22:02:00.001-06:00

Last Saturday I had the fun opportunity to take a knife skills cooking class. The teacher was a funny, talented chef who teaches other people that cooking can be a fun, easy way of life. We mostly went through the basics, such as types of knives, sharpening, cutting boards, etc. Of course we also went though slicing, dicing, julienne, and chiffonade techniques. Then using these wonderful skills, the class split into 4 teams and each made a yummy recipe. It was so much fun, and best of all, free! Well except for cost of food stuff ($5 ea) which is practically nothing when you look at prices for S. California. I'm really looking forward to the next class, all about spices and flavorings.

In other home news, my coffee liqueur finished steeping. It was so easy, took only 2 weeks, and it's very tasty. Gave some to friends again, so I hope they'll let me know what they think. Our friends, R & A, are great to hang out with as they love food just as much as we do. In fact, A loves to cook as well, so she went with me to the cooking class, which made it even more fun to have someone else to cook with. Over the last year at least, if not longer, us couples have traded off preparing supper and watching shows together like Alias, Firefly, and America's Next Top Model. It makes a great break in the monotony of the week, and also lets each of us try out new recipes for more than just 2 people. Last time I made a bacon-rosemary wrapped pork chop in sherry-garlic sauce that turned out well. I'm not sure what to make this week, I'll have to see what in my "To Try" section of the recipe file has.

I did make risotto for the first time last night. It was pretty good, but I think I added too many porcini mushrooms, as it was quite heavy and earthy. Of course, next to a side of fresh tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella with balsamic vinegar, what wouldn't be ? ;) Nothing like fresh herbs and veggies. Just wish I had more than a few pots of herbs and more sun at my apartment to grow.

Limoncello

2005-07-01T00:48:00.000-06:00

My impatience took over, and I tried my limoncello. It tasted quite good, so I decided to bottle it. Gave a bottle to my friends, and I hope they like it. Making your own liqueur is actually quite easy, if you're patient enough to wait:) I think next I'll try a coffee liqueur, but this time I'll make a much smaller amount. Speaking of, with a few days off before I start my new job, I'm looking forward to experimenting a little in the kitchen. I'm planning on baking a Wiliamsburg Orange cake (courtesy of Betty Crocker, my husband's favorite cake) in tiny size, one for my friend who just got job offers, and one for my husband. Hopefully I can try a few new things with chicken as well, maybe even bake some bread.

Cookbooks and memories

2005-06-28T20:57:00.001-06:00

Today I got offered a job! It's so nice to know, and not have to do job searching anymore, it has been a big pain. Last night I had a girl's night at my place with a few friends, and it was great! We just sat around and chatted, helped with some wine, but it was so nice to talk with women again. So much understanding that guys just don't get. Like the joy of a "good cry", and how cathartic it can be. In fact, a few friends are joining me tonight to watch The Notebook, as they assure me that it's too sad to watch alone :)

Ate the last of my Mexican wedding cookies that I make a few days ago (or Russian teacakes, if you prefer). Got the recipe form a great old Betty Crocker cookbook. When I was growing up, I learned to cook at my mom's side, along with her trusty Betty Crocker and it's white vinyl cover. So many memories are associated with that great cookbook. I still remember each recipe that I made, especially the times when I tried to make dinner for everyone in the family. It still amazes me how easy going my mom was with me cooking, especially as it could be quite dangerous. In fact, most of the injuries I've had since being a kid have been cooking related. I have nicked, zested and burned my fingers and arms more time than I can count, not to mention just tearing up constantly around onions, and cutting chile peppers and rubbing my eyes like an idiot.

Guess I've always had a fascination with food and color and texture. For a long time I poured my creativity into writing, and then oil painting, but now it's mostly cooking and baking. Of course, it's hard to really paint when you have to worry about a rental deposit, and I do so much technical writing that it's not as much fun anymore. Of course, this blog has been pretty nifty so far, mainly just because it's fun to post memories, thoughts, and feelings somewhere. And I know my friends and family are getting tired of hearing about my obsessions ;)

Anyway, back to the cookbook. So my mom had this great cookbook with so many memories tied to it, and I really wanted a copy. Turns out, they're kinda rare and go for a lot of money on eBay all the time, even without the special white cover (it's usually a red pie cover, even though the cookbook's exactly the same). Being a sweetie, my mom offered me hers, even though she still uses it all the time. After some watching on eBay (and sniping, it felt so wrong!), I finally found it. Well, technically the 11th ed. instead of the 10th ed., but basically the same, especially down to the white vinyl camper. Such a flood of memories, holding that cookbook in my hands, and weird to realize that when I cooked with it as a child, my hands could barely hold it, the book was so large. I have this great picture of me on my fridge of when I was 2 years old, taking hot cookies off a baking sheet with a spatula and potholder. I hope the cookies turned out well :)

Now, I have my own favorite cookbook that I pick up whenever I have a general question ("How to Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman, a fantastic book to learn all about food itself, as well as cooking). In fact, now I have lots of cookbooks with different themes and styles, like all my New Mexico cookbooks (best food ever!), my Indian cookbook, plus all the baking and Alton Brown (best at explaining science behind cooking, really the why to everything). But somehow, the white Betty Crocker will always have a special place in my heart, and I'll probably use it often enough to leave pages spotted with food and notations in the margin. One day far in the future, I'll have my children at my side, learning to cook just as I did from Betty Crocker plus the other cookbooks on my shelf. Seems silly, but I love the thought of passing on my love for cooking from my mom to me and to my children in the same way.

Insomnia

2005-06-27T02:26:00.001-06:00

Spent the day cleaning the house in prep for a long awaited girl's night tomorrow with friends. With my hubby gone for a few days, it will be nice to have the place to myself. But actually, it's already feeling a bit empty and lonely, generating random crying at movies already. Decided to make chicken parm tonight, and it turned out pretty well. Guess it's a dish hard to mess up, just like salad :) However, I saw a really interesting stuntwoman documentary tonight on PBS. I kind of take for granted all the stunts done on TV and movies, and it's easy to forget that these real people can be really injured. Tonight I have a rare bout of insomnia, even though I'm dead tired, I just can't get to sleep. I should hopefully hear about the job I interviewed for soon. I really hope I get it, as not knowing where I'll be over the next few months is very nerve-wracking. Anyway, lots of usual rambling from me in this post, as will be common in the future ;). Guess I'll try getting to sleep again, maybe read a few boring books to help me along.

Newbie

2005-06-25T12:58:00.001-06:00

Thought I'd try this blog thing that's been all the rage with my buddies. A friend of mine just went to Europe for post-doc job stuff, and it's been a blast living vicariously through him by virtue of the blog. Mostly though, I'm just hoping for a tiny piece of the internet to share my love of all things cooking with anyone who cares. I get the feeling most of my friends are worn out listening to all my discussions of food, although they seem to like the food itself pretty well :) Speaking of, I've been baking for anyone of my group that gets a job offer, which has been quite a bit of people lately. The most recent baked good I tried was Mexican wedding cookies. Very yummy, and kind of hard to part with. Luckily, I made two batches, so my husband and I can devour a batch all on our own. Which reminds me, some baking is due for my Europe friend with a current total of 3 job offers now. Hmm, that means 3 new things to try :)