Three Red Scarves

 I finished the last of the red scarves very late last night:

This used up an entire ball of A Pound Of Love in "Cherry", plus a small ball of brighter red that I bought when it was clear that I couldn't get a full third scarf.  In the end, I had less than 3" of the Cherry as scraps!  I do have a bit more of the brighter red (it's "COLOR/COULEUR # 15705", no name) but not enough for a single additional row.  I'll use some to tie on the washing instructions and put the rest into the box of scrap yarns.

These are closeups of the stitch patterns:

Bavarian Stitch - crochet

"Hot Frosty" or broken rib (K3P1+K1) - knit

Simple 1dc1sc repeat, worked from center - crochet

I have made not enough progress on the Advent/Channukah item, because I was focused on getting these three scarves done.  But I made some progress:

I planned to use three stitch patterns but did not like the transition from #2 to #3.  So I frogged the third stripe and now I am using just two, seed stitch and single moss stitch.  I also realized that some of the minis are longer than other minis, and decided that rather than have wildly uneven stripes, I will end each one somewhere around the 2½" width.  So I will have bits of leftover yarn, which may get added later, or put into another project.

Tonight is the holiday party for one of the local fiber groups I have joined.  They are collecting the red scarves, hence my deadline of today.  We are having a potluck and I made Grinch Cookies:

Simply dye a basic cooky dough green, roll into balls, flatten
slightly, and add a red candy heart before baking.  These were
made with a gluten-free cookie recipe, but you can use any.

For the white elephant gift exchange, I made a few stitch markers and packaged them with a hank of yarn from a mystery yarn purchase.  I love the dyer but notice this has a lot of mohair, which can be an issue for me.  I have kept all the other mystery skeins!

Later:  Party was small but fun enough.  We played a game of pull a question from a bag and answer it, which generated some interesting discussions.  The person who received my gift was very happy to have it, and I scored a Bonne Maman 2024 Advent Calendar, which I am very happy to receive!  I'm not opening it yet, in part because I scored sugarplums from Andy's Orchard and am very happily eating those.

{Also:  This is my 350th post.  A piker compared to many who have posted daily for years, or decades, or even those who posted weekly from The Beginning.  But more than I expected I'd have.}

'Bootleg' Girl Scout Cookies

Middle of last week, somebody posted that his granddaughter would be at the North Texas Irish Festival's Volunteer meeting on Sunday, selling Girl Scout Cookies.  I generally send a few boxes to the troops, or whatever is the group's local charity (some donate to soup kitchens or shelters), and the friends with whom I was staying asked for a box of Thin Mints®.

However, when I got to the ballroom at the hotel where the meeting was occurring, the cookies were being packed up and removed.  I was disappointed, thinking I missed the timeslot when the girl could be there, or sales weren't allowed during the meeting proper.  No, it turned out the hotel didn't want the sales onsite.  So, her grandfather announced at the start of the meeting, they would take orders during the meeting, and you could pick up from the vehicle in the parking lot after the meeting.  Yup, in the best Irish manner, a workaround was created, and we all joked about our bootleg Girl Scout cookies for the rest of the morning.

The rest of the weekend was fun:  Two plays, a new pizza place, tacos (different meal), visiting with friends.  I got some rest, and decided to skip the Yoga Boot Camp on Monday because it began at 5:00am locally and I am not that dedicated.

I did get knitting done, of course:

The scarf on the right was knitted on Saturday, and a bit at the meeting on Sunday.  It's just garter stitch of a handdyed acrylic skein I bought at the last DFW Fiber Fest.  The other is the Ghost Ranch Cowl done in Whimzee Stitches DK Deluxe "Maxed Dallas", their 2022 show colourway.  Very yummy yarn, and I won't keep it because there's more pink in the colourway than I like, but somebody should enjoy it.  I made a hat from the yarn and will re-do it in the same stitch pattern.  In the photo I was still working on the (remainder of the) first skein, and now I am well into the second, and it's moving nicely.

Baking Breakfast Cookies.

A quick post walking through something I baked for breakfast yesterday.  Usually my breakfast is some kind of cereal (oatmeal or a packet type) with fruit (dried in the porridge, fresh with the other, unless it's Raisin Bran) and yoghurt if it's the packet type because that is dry.  Sometimes orange or blended juice if I am eating Weetabix or Shredded wheat.  Once in a while I do a pastry thing, or a sandwich, depending upon what's in the house and my timing.

My friend Jodie posted a link to a recipe for Banana Blueberry Breakfast Cookies, which looked easy and interesting.  I thought I'd make some and see.  Since it's not blueberry season, I rehydrated some of the dried ones I use in my porridge.

Sunday night I took a banana out of the freezer (actually, a whole bag and then separated one when it was half-thawed, and put the rest back) to thaw, instead of buying a fresh banana.  Why waste a fresh banana in baking?  I wanted to do a half-batch because I don't need a dozen.  So these are my ingredients:

The banana looks brown and liquidy because that
is what happens when you freeze and thaw them.
The maple syrup is from a cousin's maple trees.

I didn't do an in-progress photo because it didn't look like much, since everything was fairly brown.  Also, I am not a content creator so I don't remember to take photos at every point and put a lot of natter about the recipe into my posts.  I made six cookies, and since I had a small spoonful of mini chocolate chips, one has very few blueberries and a bunch of chips on top.

They baked for the full time, and didn't get overly golden, but were firm.  I tried one as soon as it was cool enough to do so and it tasted mostly of banana.  Maybe I will try again during fresh blueberries season, but I think these would be fine without the blueberries.  Or maybe try chopped strawberries if you like that combination, or some other fruit that is compatible.

I also ate several slices of dried persimmon from Andy's Orchard.

Today I ate another one, curious to see how the overnight rest might affect the taste.  It was much softer, probably because it was in a closed container and the blueberries and banana held moisture that made the cookies softer.  The banana is less pronounced today, with the vanilla and cinnamon making themselves known.  It's still not something I'm overly excited about, but maybe it's me.

No fooling, this happened.

In the background of my life for the last several months, I've been working on this:

Yes, I moved.  From Connecticut, where I've lived for a dozen years, down south to be nearer family.  Once travel became possible, and I could visit family, it became apparent that my parents have been slowing more quickly than a year or so in the past.  As the least-hampered child, it was logical for me to move closer to them, and also to my grandmother, who continues on although fading and frailer.

So I started to make plans, intending to find an apartment for a year so I could get my bearings differently from when I stay with family.  However, those plans, as Robert Burns would say, 'gang a-gley'.  First, I somewhat accidentally bought a house not far from my parents.

You've heard the joke about "I don't want to go to garage sales because I don't need a garage"?  My mother heard of an estate sale and suggested I go with her to look at a couple of items that hadn't sold, including a lovely cabinet sewing machine with all sorts of accessories and threads and so forth.  And of course the house was going up for sale as well, and long story short, I ended up buying it.  (Also the sewing machine.)  I tell people that I am walking distance to my parents' house, but they are not walking distance to mine.  😉😇😊

I didn't move immediately, in part because of winter, and in part because I wanted to make some changes to the house.  The garage was unfinished, just taped drywall, so I had it finished and painted, and added a floor (over the cement slab) and cabinets.  I changed out most of the lighting fixtures which were builder grade and mostly ugly.  Especially important was to get rid of the low-dangling chandelier in the dining area, to open up the space more, since the house is open-plan and mostly one big room with bedrooms attached.  I found some cool, mid-century, space-inspired fixtures that float near the ceiling and give huge light and freed up all kinds of space.

It was funny that these sorts of things were left, as the home has other upgrades such as a patio shade that works electrically, and sunports in the main spaces.  I am going to have to get used to those giving light and realizing I've not left a ceiling light burning.

I wanted to tell certain persons personally that I am moving, so didn't let too many people know.  A few figured it out when I started donating furniture, and large quantities of household items.  Others remained surprised until the end.

I'd hoped to have more time to tell people, but apparently the "location, location, location" mantra works and even though I sold my home "as-is" because the refrigerator died just before I listed, I had offers over the list price within two days and entered a contract in four.  The closing was a month later so it was a mad time of packing and getting rid of things and I had a trip already planned to visit my parents (conveniently I could go a couple days early when showings started to be requested) and then the North Texas Irish Fest.  I came back and packed madly again, then the movers, then it was cleanup and clear-out.  I had to get a handyman in to do a door repair which had been botched by my Realtor®'s handyman, and tell the neighbor who had been renting half my garage to move his car, and getting a removals company to take the remaining furniture and repurpose it to other homes.  Some of the kitchen items went to Journey Home, which was very glad to receive them.

I also made this difficult decision:

My car - "The Ruby Slipper" as my grandparents named her - had an issue that was going to be expensive to repair, and would cause her to fail an emissions test.  Since the repair would be a minimum of twice the KBB value, and her registration was still valid, I decided to donate her to the local PBS/NPR station through a charity donations system.  Yes, I would have gotten a few hundred to sell her outright, or possibly as a trade-in, but I enjoy the programming and figured this was easier for me.

I had rental cars on my last days in Connecticut, and although I asked for the cheaper sedans, both times I was given an SUV.  While driving was tricky (I'm not used to such a behemoth) it was very handy to have them as I offloaded household and other items all over town.  Both the Free Center (which conveniently had a community swap on one of the weekends) and Bici Co. received deliveries, as did some wonderful friends who tolerated getting all kinds of kitchen and food items.  One of the couple is a sometimes baker with whom I've exchanged baked goods, and the spouse has contributed beverage mixes, and they are lovely people.  I said I want to see what the baker does with some fancy items.

I've been unwinding the rest of my life.  Both my congregation and the yoga studio continue to have online options that I will continue to use, at least for the foreseeable future.  I will no longer be on-site active in our lay leaders group, but have offered to write the monthly drash if somebody else will read it.  I am letting my museum memberships lapse and I will be joining museums here, and likely a makerspace, but first I'll take time to unpack, and settle, and get bookshelves built.  The kitchen is completely different from my old one and that will take adjusting, especially as the counters seem taller and the cabinets are definitely more difficult to reach.  I do have a pantry and am working out how to organize it most usefully to me.

And so a new adventure begins.  As my current email .sig file says:

"We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, 

so as to have the life that is waiting for us."

E. M. Forster, English novelist (1 Jan 1879 - 7 Jun 1970)

PS:  A surprise was in my mailbox today - friends sent a "we'll miss you" note and a housewarming gift:

I am sharing the cookies with my family.

Caramel Cupcakes

When I saw the post asking people in my congregation to donate baked goods to be used as prizes for a bingo event held last night, I thought about making a King Cake.  Then I realized the difficulty to explain to a northern (and really, Yankee) Jewish congregation about such things and remembered the reaction when I'd suggested having a chili cookoff (which some believe is impossible to make kosher, which would be a huge surprise to my old community in Dallas), and decided to make other things.

Because there are always people who want something gluten-free, I offered to make chocolate cookies.  They did not come out as pretty as the recipe promised, but seemed edible.  They probably did not flatten out as much as the recipe said they would because I was a little short of confectioner's sugar and made up for it with cocoa, then used regular-sized chips instead of mini-chips.

Since I am allergic to chocolate I could not test them, and I was glad for an unexpectedly warm day that allowed me to open the windows while they baked.  I ended up with twenty-six so wrapped up two packages of a baker's dozen each.

The cookies used only egg whites so I looked for a recipe to use up the yolks.  I thought of making more cookies, maybe to donate to BiCi Co's Earn-a-Bike crew.  I had planned to use one of my Pampered Chef packets to make a quick Apple Cider cake with cider drizzle, because I have apple cider to use up, or a Caramel Latte loaf.  I thought if I made the Caramel Latte mix into cupcakes, I could add caramel frosting and use some to fill the cookies into pairs.

Then I found a recipe for Golden Cake in one of  my old (1930) cookbooks, and plans changed!

As you can see, the recipe uses only egg yolks - and exactly the number left over from the cookies!

I also had cream left from making biscuits last weekend, and it would be just enough for the cake and frosting.  So I made this, substituting vanilla and imitation black walnut extracts for the orange, because I thought those would work better with the caramel.  I baked the recipe as eight cupcakes, luckily using large decorative papers because it rises nicely.  One cupcake quickly disappeared as quality control.

While the cupcakes baked, I made the caramel frosting, from a 1957 recipe.  I don't have a Mixmaster, I have a Kitchenaid, but I love how this little booklet offered so many ways to use the machine:

The tedious parts were basically no-work, just the occasional stirring as the caramel came to the boil, and waiting for it to cool.  To speed that I poured most of the caramel into the bowl of my Kitchenaid.  I used the whisk attachment.  I worried about the amount of confectioner's sugar (see above - I thought I had more than the new package, but I didn't, and it was just under four cups) so I put a small slick of the caramel on top of the cupcakes, under the frosting.  And quality control got a taste, too.

This was the end result:

I had a bakery package for four cupcakes, so I made six and selected the ones I thought looked best.  They have a huge pile of frosting on top, over a very light cake, with that slick of caramel, and just barely fit.  Hopefully people were attracted and took them as an early prize.  I have the other two cupcakes in my freezer, to doorbell-ditch for a friend, or take to my mother for her birthday.

Midmonth - UFO Completed

The Omega Shawl is complete!  I didn't do the lace at the bottom - I tried it and really didn't like it.  So the bottom is just three ridges of garter stitch, to blend with the borders.  It's light and large and two inches longer (because I did extra of the stockinette part) than the pattern indicated, so I think it's just fine and I have a UFO converted to a FO.

I decided to celebrate by trying a new pattern:  Fae Elf Mitts.  I used oddments of wool yarns:

 

Since they are very long on me, and I am not a fingerless mitts kind of person, and I did these just for fun, I asked if anybody in my circle wanted them.  A fellow knitter, somebody I met in the group I joined when I first moved to Connecticut, spoke up first.  I dropped them by her house this afternoon, and she's quite happy with them.

Last night I did a flurry of holiday baking and this afternoon a round of deliveries, all surprises, to friends in the area.  I made Caramel Latte Muffins and Apple Cider Muffins (subbing fizzy cider for the beer), both from Pampered Chef mixes that I purchased during a friend's online party.  I don't need more gadgets and things, and figured the mixes would work well as food gifts and potluck contributions.  I also made Peanut Butter Wreaths (think peanut blossom cookies but rolled in red, white, and green mixed sugars, and with a white chocolate disc in the middle instead of a kiss) and Grinch Cookies which are just tinted sugar cookies (I made mine from scratch because I don't have cake mix on hand) with a red heart on top.  I forgot to take pictures but one of the giftees posted one with her thanks:

Apparently some sampling occurred pre-photo.

I've also done some reading.  I've gotten into the habit that after Thanksgiving I shift to some light holiday fare, and it was the same this year, so they were all quick, inconsequential reads.  I did a few more chapters of The Agony and the Ecstasy before setting it aside for seasonal tales, and then I found Tuesdays with Morrie which had fallen behind the laundry sorter that's on the other side of my headboard.  I am almost done with it and decided to save the last bit to finish on Tuesday, so it's packed for my trip.  My parents lent it to me so I'll return it as soon as I read the last chapters.

Mid-Month Resolutions Report

As noted, one UFO finished!  The other two are packed to go with me to visit family over the next couple of weeks.  Hopefully one, if not both, will be done before I return.

The cardigan is now a pullover, and I am on Round 25 of 26 of the yoke.  I probably won't pack it for the trip, due to size (and to focus on the UFOs) but I should be on the stockinette before I leave and that will go quickly once I return.

That will just leave the cheese soufflé to make, and my parents sounded interested, so I might make it for them.

Leap Day!

What does one do on Leap Day?  I went to yoga, did errands, and worked on projects at home.  Pretty much the same as any Saturday.  Keep Hartford Warm held a distribution event; I dropped off a toddler jacket that I was given to pass along, but did not stay.  It's been a busy month, and I needed to catch up on laundry and decompress.

Work took me to Chicago, then I went to North Carolina to see Kinky Boots with family (DNiece #1 loves it as much as I; over Christmas I introduced my nieces to the original film) and stayed for the discussion afterwards.  It was not about the show, as talkbacks usually are, but about LGBTQ+ persons and their lives in North Carolina.  My mother ended up talking to one of the panelists about adoption and all kinds of things, until we all were kicked out so they could set for the next show.  If you haven't seen the show - you must do, if only for the showstopping Act I ending.

I stayed a couple days for a recital by Lawrence Brownlee, which was wonderful.

From there I went to Stitches West to help friends at their booth.  As I said last month, my mini-resolution was to make a sample bag from their hemp yarn.  That didn't work out because I was rushing and the yarn was snarling and it was a bad combination.  So on the day home between trips I grabbed a couple hanks of Makimo that I had lying around for other purposes, and before Stitches West ended they had a sample of the bag in their own yarn:

Closeup of the bag bottom
and the lace pattern.

The small pink balls are all the yarn I had left after finishing the bag.  There is more pink on the handles than the pattern instructs; I was using the Makimo doubled (the original used a worsted weight cotton, and Makimo is a DK weight), which gave a little less yardage than the original yarn.  I started the pink when the purple ran out.  So you can make the bag with two hanks of Makimo.

I bought almost nothing (some stitch markers as a gift, and a couple patterns) because I don't need yarn and didn't find anything that made me excited to dip into my purchasing money for DFW Fiber Fest.  The big names that I really like will be there, and I enjoy buying from small indie dyers who mostly cannot afford to be at Stitches events.


I returned just in time for Fat Tuesday.  A local makerspace held a Fat Tuesday party but it was also Science on Screen night at Real Art Ways, so I made a cameo, dropping off some from-the-pantry jambalaya on the way to the talk and film.  It was fairly interesting, the talk more than the film.  I look forward to the next two but may be out of town for one.

Wednesday I went to a library cookbook club that I'd just found out about, where they cook from a specific cookbook each month, sample and talk about the recipes.  This month's choice was Food52's Genius Desserts, and since I didn't have time to swing by the library to select a recipe I did some online research and chose World Peace Cookies.  We agreed that having nothing but desserts was a LOT to take, even if you just do a bite of each one - and most were too good to stop at a single bite.  Luckily for me, about tw0-thirds contained chocolate, so I didn't have as much to taste as the others.  But what I did taste was fantastic:  Lemon cookies (with a hidden ingredient of avocado); Guinness stout cake that was like the tenderest gingerbread ever; espresso gelato; blueberry cake with pecans; the famous 62nd Street Lemon Cake; almond cake.  Most of these I would make, yes.

Not for tomorrow's monthly brunch, however.  If I had Guinness around I might make the cake, but I decided to make potato cakes instead.  These are something between boxty, which is a griddle-cooked bread, and scones.  I doubled the recipe and am leaving out the seasoning, so they will be plain and make nice sandwiches - if any are left!

Resolutions for March

As noted above, I completed the knitting mini-resolution I set for February.  For March, I am going to make a baby blanket for friends.  I bought the yarn some time ago, and thought I knew what pattern I'd do, then a new one came out and I decided to do it instead.  No photos until it's delivered in April.

Then I have to finish the items I am making for Mittens for Akkol's grads program.  I signed up for four:  a purple scarf, a blue and orange hat, and a red and yellow (or gold) sweater and scarf.  I chose these because they will use up yarn in my stash.  I have a purple scarf, but decided I may offer it for sale at an upcoming sheep-to-shawl-and-beyond event, plus I had some other yarn reclaimed from the sweater that I pulled apart, making the multicolored yarn used in part of it into a scarf.  I'm using broken rib stitch and it's going fairly fast.

Books:  Still finishing The Ballad of Frankie Silver.  I don't have much sit-and-read time, but I am enjoying the historical chapters, which are written in the first-person voice of a young frontier lawyer and court clerk.  So I'm behind on the February book but decided to finish The Agony and the Ecstasy, which I started some time ago and put aside for an unremembered reason when I was halfway through.  Hopefully I'll get caught up in March.  I do have the "book with a nature word in the title" set aside, and it's fairly short - more about it in the next post, once I've started reading.

In Other News..........

Covid-19 is big in the news.  With stories like Communion of Dreams and others, could it become a truly devastating pandemic like the 1918 Flu Epidemic?  I guess we shall see.  My parents are pressuring me to skip the North Texas Irish Festival this year.  I am a manager and we are shorthanded and I hate to not go.

We had more snow today - the weather went from clear and sunny, to a snow squall, and back to sunny within an hour:

Many years ago in Dallas, I worked for a company called Affiliated Computer Systems, or ACS.  After I left, they were acquired by Xerox.  A couple weeks ago, the building where I worked was slated to be demolished.  The usual way to do it in a city these days is by a controlled implosion.  However, that didn't work.  It's been fun to watch the reporting (a wrecking ball is now in use, slowly), and I have to say that this is my favorite photo so far, titled "They finally brought in an expert":

February, a bit late, on International Women's Day

I was going to write this in February, but am traveling and couldn't remember the current password, and it took Google several days to send a link so that I could set a new one.  So here it is, International Women's Day, and even though I didn't plan it this way, an update.

(And yes, because I have snarky male friends, there is an International Men's Day - so there.  No saying "well, every day is Men's Day, which is why they don't have one", because they do.)

A quick update on my resolutions:  I finished The Fortune Cookie Chronicles and have recommended it to someone who wanted to know the origins of some Chinese-American food we were having.  The book also talks about chow mein and other well-known items, not just the cookies.

Currently working on charity items due to a delivery deadline.  DFW Fiber Fest is not doing Knit Your Bit this year, so I am going to send the scarves I am making to them anyway, or donate them locally.  Keep Hartford Warm is doing another distribution next weekend and I've donated a number of scarves to them, and a friend's church collects for the local shelter.  I'll get back to my UFOs soon, and I am trying hard not to join Marly Bird's Tournament of Stitches make-along although I am collecting the pattern pieces for the future; I'm already working on Franklin Habit's lace scarf-along, but not in the pattern yarn - I had a special hank waiting for a project like this.

Plus I have added to my want-to-do list, especially after going to Stitches West.  I helped some friends in their booth, which cut down seriously on shopping, which is good because I wanted to save funds for DFW Fiber Fest, where they have lots of terrific indie dyers, several of whom do only-at-DFWFF colourways, which of course I have to collect.  So this is the sum of my purchases:

They had Girl Scouts doing a coat-and-bag check, and of course selling cookies.  The buttons are glass, the Princess Leia being the last one the artist had, the others going on some mitts I am designing.  the Apple Fiber Studio yarn is in a colourway called "Notorious" after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, so I had to buy it.

I had other adventures at Stitches West.  First, I kept very quiet about going, because of this woman:

Alison Hyde is a lace designer and someone who has been part of the KnitTalk list since the beginning.  She goes to Stitches West every year, and when I started talking to my friends about helping, I decided to surprise Alison.  So I had to keep a sharp lookout for her, and since I had to work on Friday which necessitated me hiding out in an upstairs corner of the conference center for some random hours, I was afraid I would miss her.

Serendipitously, as I came back into the vendor hall once things were sorted, there she was!  Alison wrote her view of it.  Mine is that I knew she doesn't hear well, so when she didn't react to me telling her my name, I just held out my badge.  In the photo above Alison is holding some bamboo laceweight that I was saving just for her.  In response, she gave me the last two Meyer lemons she'd brought from her tree, and knew there was a reason she was still holding them after distributing all the others she'd brought.  Alison also had some chocolate she'd made, but I'm allergic to chocolate so she shared with others.  And the next day, knowing I am usually in a very cold and snowy land, Alison brought a wool hate which I think will go nicely with all my winter coats - black, grey, or teal:

It's much more glorious in person.

On Sunday, I had a surprise.  Many years ago, when I went to Santa Clara regularly on business, I was part of an online group of historical reenactors from various periods, one of whom worked as a printer at Old Town San Jose.  She and I got to be friends, and then lost touch after my travel out there abated and she moved to another part of the state.  She was a tatter, and has taken up knitting since we were in touch, because I noticed a very familiar-looking person coming through the booth looking properly dazed and overwhelmed at options.

"Marjorie?" I asked.  And sure enough, it was!

She's wearing both knitted and crocheted items of her own making, and I am wearing the shawl of handspun bamboo that I'd just finished, which is vastly simpler.  We did some catching up and I ended up going to supper with her and two friends, the wife a quilter and the husband who'd spent some time in our booth considering which yarn to get to work with some other he had in stash.  They took us to the kind of place where we were the only anglos in the room, and we all ate as much as we could hold and still had leftovers going home.  Well, they did, as I was in a hotel and heading to Texas the next day for work, so didn't really have the means to keep anything.  Except some of the bread, which became a tasty breakfast at the airport.

So that was February.  March began with a trip to see my grandmother.  Saturday the weather was wonderful so my grandmother and I did a lunch cruise.  The people were really kind and helped get my grandmother (and her wheelchair) on and off the boat and we got a prime window seat.  Sunday we went to my honorary nieces' school production of "Anything Goes".  It was really good, and we had a celebratory Chinese food dinner and cake afterwards.

This weekend is the North Texas Irish Festival, and I'm back as a Performer Products manager.  It looks like we will have great weather for it - the temperatures have warmed up quite a bit from the below-freezing numbers earlier in the week.

I haven't been home since I left for California, and after this I go to Chicago for a couple of days.  Much of this has also been for work, and happily in the Dallas area so I was able to attend a Dallas Winds concert after many years of not being in town on the correct night.  I splurged on a box ticket (still quite inexpensive compared to Chicago and Hartford) and made friends with the people around me, so that a couple invited me to the special donors-only reception afterwards.  It turns out I am well remembered from my days as patron, volunteer, and donor (OK, I do still donate, just not at the same level) when I lived here, so it was a great evening.  They played about twice as much music as was on the official program, with two encores and an unannounced premiere.  I hope work brings me here on the appropriate weeks again, so I can attend more of their concerts.

Pi Day 2018

I decided to celebrate in proper style today, as I am working at home (in part because we are between snowstorms, and I'm not traveling) and I have some new tart pans to inaugurate.  On the other hand, it's our busy month, so I don't have a lot of time to fuss, even subtracting a commute.

I made a basic short pastry in my new mini food processor, using a cup of whole wheat pastry flour, and proportionate amounts of butter and water.  Rolled out and tucked into the tins:

Lid for the apple pie also rolled, and a tart's worth of extra dough.

Then I filled one with a tart apple, cut thinly and mixed with five-spice mixture, a bit of ground ginger, and splashed with (not enough, it turned out) honey: 

Of course, they have to be trimmed suitably for the day.  After adding the lid to the apple pie, I cut the steam slit.  And I pricked the other all over, to bake it blind.  In the following photo you see it filled with parchment paper and beans: 

Then a bit of baking, I took out the shell, and left the apple pie in to cook through.  How does this not violate what I've given up for Lent?  First, because my life and my rules.  Second, because it's not too sweet. And third, because it's breakfast.

 As Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry might say, you can see from the photo of the bottom that it is "a good bake".  The crust is a bit thick, since I was rushing, but the filling tasted quite nice.  You can see how well the apples cooked down, and got darker with the spice and honey cooking into it:

YUMMY!

I finally got to finish the open tart for a very late lunch.  I'd sliced up the sprouts of some onions I'd overlooked and which had decided to go into another generation.  Since this is a tiny tart, I used them as if they were miniature leeks, and sauteed them with oil, salt, and pepper:

You can see the "π" in the piercings.

   

I forgot to get a picture of the finished onion sprouts, or the pie before baking,  I was hungry!  This is the final result - I used a bit of trimming to decorate the top:

There's a sprinkle of shredded cheese, and just one egg.  It was tasty, but showed the effect of my trying to squeeze a recipe down to the tiny size.  The dark spots are all the onion bits I'd cooked down, some of which got a bit took cooked.  But I like the crispy taste that onion gets that way.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the death of Stephen Hawking earlier today.  As some people pointed out, other that being a few years apart, he "was born on the day Galileo died and died on the day Einstein was born."  He threw a party for time-travelers (in part to prove whether time travel exists); spoke to astronauts in space; had a wicked sense of humor; and was part of a trio of the hottest brains ever:

Time to wrap up the day with some jokes (the dark side may have cookies, but the nerd side has pi) and listening to the Fugue on Pi.

Frugal Cookery for January (and bonus midcentury cookies)

As I said in my "Resolutions" post, I planned to cook at least one meal per month from one of my historical cookbooks.  We had a sleet/snow storm at the beginning of this week and it seemed the perfect time to try a menu, since I was working from home.

The American Frugal Housewife by Lydia Maria Child, first published in 1829 as The Frugal Housewife, Dedicated to Those Who Are Not Ashamed of Economy, seems a fitting choice for January.  Mine is the commonly-available Dover reprint of the 1844 edition.

The book is not only a cookery book, and the majority is about general household economy, including "Simple Remedies" for various ailments and how to remake bonnets, clean brass, and get rid of ants.  She also tells how to choose meat and store vegetables, and an Appendix at the end includes additional items such as getting rid of ear wax, preserving various fruits, and something appropriate to my current weather:  "Icy Steps - Salt strewed upon the door-steps in winter will cause the ice to crack, so that it can be easily removed."  Two substantial sections are stories (really, moralizing lectures) about living economically, intriguing for their perspectives on the society of the day.

Browsing the main sections, I found this recipe:

A pound of fish per person sounds like quite a lot, but this is fish entire, with the bones and skin and fins and such.  Fillets would be about half that quantity, and I happened to have some salmon in the freezer that I thought would do, once the skin is removed.  In the interest of frugality and using my current pantry, the only item I needed to buy was a potato.

Fish chowder alone isn't a full meal, so I looked for a dessert.  In terms of simplicity, frugality, and midwinter-ness, a pudding seemed the best option.  Given that most of the puddings were boiled, and I've never done a boiled pudding, the one baked pudding was the answer.  Finally, to round out the meal further, some vegetable is in order.  Browsing that section, which speaks more of storage than cooking, I noticed a recipe for stewed tomatoes.  That may not sound practical in January, but I had put tomatoes by in the freezer during the summer when my CSA had them in plenty, and that seemed a nice, easy way to round out the meal.  Plus, the chowder recipe mentioned adding tomato catsup (the recipe she included, not the insipid sweet stuff available commercially today) so it sounded as if the tomatoes would be compatible.

First to be prepared is the pudding, as it takes longest - "three or four hours" - to bake.  I had a pint bottle of milk in the 'fridge from another recipe that didn't get made, so halved the ingredients - and made a few adjustments.

I do not have molasses in the pantry, and my supply of maple syrup (my usual go-to with corn porridges) is running a bit low.  However, preserves and jam can be used as sweetening; I have some recipes that call for it specifically.  After checking what I have, I selected some peach jam as it is on the runny side (no pectin used) and I thought would go well with the ginger.

Although we don't need to scald milk for safety since pasteurization became the norm, I did heat the milk to just below a simmer.  Then I stirred in three and a half tablespoons of cornmeal; a half-teaspoon of salt; and a heaping teaspoon of ground ginger.

How much jam to add?  I estimated that a teacup would hold 4-6 ounces of tea, so I added four tablespoons (two tablespoons to a liquid ounce).  I whisked everything in the pot, and then poured it into the enameled cast-iron casserole, which is a family item that was passed down to me a number of years ago, and seemed appropriate to use.

Stirring in salt and ginger; cornmeal
has already been added to the milk.

The jam fell under the surface quickly!

Oven at 300(F) and I went away for two hours.  I wasn't sure how long the chowder would take, but I guessed it would be about half the time that the pudding requires.  I decided to bake the chowder because of the "don't look" instruction.

Two hours later, beginning the chowder.  This time I was making a one-fourth recipe, since I had about a half-pound fillet, but given that there are no specific amounts in this recipe other than the meats (fish and salt pork) and crackers I went by guesswork.  I skinned the filet and cut it into pieces.  Having been frozen, it was somewhat soft, so I had some slices and some bits.  At least they get hidden in the course of the cooking!

Pantry ingredients, plus potato.

Salmon, thawed, beginning to slice.

For the salt pork I used three slices of bacon.  I fried it in a pot, then poured the grease into the bottom of a Pryex® casserole.  I thought if the layers were pretty, I'd get a side shot.  I followed the layering pretty much as instructed, using all of the onion and about three-quarters of the potato.  I'd guesstimated the packet of crackers would be equal to about one and one-half common crackers.

Fish on the bottom, then sliced onion,
potato slices, and cooked bacon.

Second set of layers, crackers more
visible this time.

Of course there is no quantity or proportion for the "flour and water", just to pour it to the top level of the contents of the dish.  I started with 3/4 cup of water and two tablespoons of flour.  Then I added another half-cup of water to bring it just to the top.

Peeking at the pudding.

Something I didn't photograph was adding a couple tablespoons of apple cider vinegar just before putting the chowder into the oven.  Why?  If you look at the recipe, she suggests a number of things to add flavour.  Lemons were $1.49 at the store, not very frugal!  I don't have homemade tomato catsup and didn't want to create it when I needed a most a quarter of a cup.  I don't have clams, and I didn't want to use beer since I wasn't doing anything with the rest of the bottle.  But vinegar often stands in when something tangy is wanted, and I do have that, so I thought I would add just a bit, about as much as one-fourth of a lemon.

I took a look at the pudding when I put the chowder into the oven.  It's hard to see in the photograph, but it is still somewhat runny, although medium-thick.  I would eat it at this stage for morning cereal.

A little under two hours later, I put the tomatoes (partially thawed because I had not taken them out very early) in the pot that still had a bit of the bacon grease in it.  Mrs. Child's recipe says to add butter, but I figured I would be frugal and use what there is.

So I heated the tomatoes and cooked off the water that separates out when you freeze and thaw tomatoes.  It's not a problem if you are turning them into sauce or another cooked preparation, and it meant I didn't add the recommended "spoonful of water, to keep them from burning".

After two hours of baking the potato slices in the chowder were soft, so I decided that dinner is ready to serve!

The pudding has an almost cakelike crust on the sides.
I am very glad that I thought to grease that casserole!

My opinion on the meal?  Tasty!  OK, the tomatoes were "meh" because they were just tomatoes.  After a couple of spoonfuls I added some Vulcan Fire Salt to amp the flavour.

The chowder was definitely a good item.  Unlike modern chowders which are soup this is a solid casserole of a dish.  The fish was not prominent, probably because I didn't have much of it.  The vinegar was just barely there, alleviating what could have been pasty-white blandness.  Ditto the bacon, which of course softened but added a bit of smokiness that might not have been present had I used uncured bacon or salt pork.  I could have chopped it into smaller bits and the bacon would have blended in better, but it was pretty good.  The crackers and flour-water dissolved to bind everything together silkily.

As for the pudding?  WOW.  I love Indian pudding and similar things anyway.  I can see why people serve it with thick cream, that would really have made it wonderful.  Even without anything on top it's still very good, with the ginger showing up on about the third spoonful.  There's no distinct taste of peach, the jam just added sweetness.

These left plenty of leftovers.  I heated up some of the pudding for breakfast today, and it's still light, not dense, with the ginger a bit more prominent.  I'm going to top it with some vanilla yoghurt to finish, and will heat up the chowder for lunch.

BONUS RECIPE:  I am in a couple of book clubs, and this month both are reading Hidden Figures.  I decided to make a recipe from a cookbook of about that era to serve as snacks, and selected "Gumdrop Cookies" from the Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book, Revised Edition © Meredith Publishing Company 1953, 1962:

Because this post is so long already, I am not going to add lots of photos of the process.  It was very straightforward because this is a modern recipe.  I halved the quantities and used Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free All-Purpose Baking Flour because one club has some people who need to avoid gluten.  This made the cookies a bit more crumbly that the cookies might have been otherwise.  Also, I used butter because I didn't have shortening.   I used only the green gumdrops, because I thought it would be more palatable to keep to a single flavour, and I don't like green gumdrops.

After baking - firm, brown underneath but still light on top.

Verdict?  Surprisingly better than people anticipated.  The lime gumdrops blended well with the cocoanut in the cookies.  I waited a few minutes before removing the cookies from the baking trays, which helped keep them intact.  Even halved the recipe made a lot of cookies, because the dough was fairly stiff and I rolled balls instead of dropping the dough from a teaspoon.   It's hard to see but I made sure that each had a least one piece of gumdrop, you can see a bit of green in the cooky at the bottom.