Baking Beans and Watching Playoffs

Because what else does one do on a snowy Sunday in January?

We had a bit of a snowstorm last night.  Only four inches landed where I live, but since predictions were up to six inches or more, people hunkered in.  One of the Connecticut police departments had posted this last year, and it circulated again this weekend:

I did not plan as well as some, and so didn't have soup or anything simmering or ready to simmer while the snow was falling.  I decided to make old-fashioned baked beans, so started the beans soaking last night.  I also looked up recipes, and found that most modern baked bean recipes either used canned beans, or dress up pork-and-beans, or some combination.  I was having trouble finding an old-fashioned recipe using soaked beans.  So I went to one of my reproduction cookery books, which has a fairly basic one:

 

I didn't want to make that much, so I used a cup of mixed dried beans, soaked overnight.  Then I drained, rinsed, added fresh water, boiled, and simmered until a bean was soft when tested.  I drained them again and scattered them into my Dutch oven.  Give the quantity of beans, and the size of my onions, I used a half an onion, which I cut into four wedges so they could bury in the beans, which were a bit thinly spread in my Dutch oven:

At that point, I added about a quarter-cup of molasses, and rinsed the jar a couple of times with water to clean it and make sure I had all the molasses.  I doubled the proportion of mustard, adding the full two teaspoons, as I thought it would be better a bit spicy.

      

I also put in two cloves of garlic (one whole, one split) and a bay leaf for added taste.  I left out the pork, having none, nor any other meaty thing that would substitute.  Then I covered the pot, put it into the oven, and left it to bake.  I gave it a look and stir at ninety minutes, then another ninety minutes took another a look and added a cup of water, stirred, and back into the oven:

Then I had a nap, so the next check was after two hours, when I added more water, and at the end of about six-and-a-half hours I decided it was done enough and put the oven to warming until I was ready to eat.  At this point, it looked nearly black and the beans were quite lacquered:

I put the beans in a white bowl to make them easier to photograph.

VERDICT:   Meh.  Rather sweet, of course, and not much tang from mustard, onion, or garlic.  Definitely something you need to eat with other things, to balance the meal, or additional spicing is needed.  No wonder so many of the recipes I found were for dressing-up or added things to the pot.  Some of the beans were also still quite firm, so maybe more water and simmering instead of putting it on low?  Lighter molasses, not blackstrap?   (I'd wanted to finish off the jar, which a friend left when moving out of state.)  Maybe some smoked paprika; one vegan version used liquid smoke, substituting for the pork, and that might have balanced the flavours better, but I don't have any.

I thought about adding hot sauce or some other spices while the beans were cooking, but I wanted it to be reasonably close to the original recipe, so I didn't.  However, when I portioned out the beans for storage, I put a portion into a small dish and added some ground allspice, as I thought cloves might be nice but I have only whole ones, and allspice is similar.

The remainder, about two portions, I put into a larger dish and added most of a can of Ro*Tel fire-roasted tomatoes with green chiles.  I think that will be a nice counter to the sweetness and heaviness.

Will I do this again?  Yes, but with many adjustments to the seasoning.  I've seen recipes use half maple syrup and half molasses, or all maple syrup, and will try that the next time.  I will add more onion and/or garlic, and maybe more mustard (but not if I use all maple syrup), and some ground pepper.  I might do it in my crockpot instead of the oven, as that limited what else I could do in terms of cooking today.  I've been doing roasted brussels sprouts a lot, and also a modified version of British jacket potatoes (partly cook in microwave, finish in very hot oven), and those are yummy.

Resolution Check-in

While I am here, an update on my resolution for January:  Finish Scarves.  I have finished four of the ones I listed:

• Browns - Bernat Super Value Stripes in Beechwood, knit, and Caron Jumbo in Chocolate Variegated crocheted on the sides.
• Patons Lace in lavender and Porcelain.
• Red Heart Fleece Hugs in Jungle.
• Stitch Studio Sweet Dreams in Creamsicle.

I have also made progress on the crocheted one from leftover Ferris Wheel from my grandmother's Christmas vest.  The other two from my original list are pending, as they are not in my current possession:

• Premiere Serenity Chunky Big Ombre in Walnut - in Plano, waiting for my next theater trip, which happens at the end of this month.
• Caron Chunky Cakes in Trifle (red/white/blue) - at my parents', and I will get it next weekend when I am there for the opera.

Unfortunately, the list has grown longer by two, as I found them whilst doing other things:

• Crocheted in Patons Lace in Woodrose (and I have to figure out the pattern).
• Knit in a slip-stitch pattern of Big Twist Premium in Peacock Stripes.

Right now I am working on my niece's mittens and scarf.  I've restarted the mittens and adjusted the pattern for gauge, as I need to use the washable yarn I have and they were coming out huge even though it's a worsted yarn, just not the one the designer used.

Playoffs resulted in the KC Chiefs against the SF 49ers for Superbowl LIV in Miami.  As a lifelong (and fourth-generation) Chicago Bears fan, I am glad the Packers didn't make it.

Endings and Beginnings

New Year's Day posts usually review the successes of last year's resolutions and setting new ones.  I didn't do a post on Wednesday because I was busy and sad - MakeHartford closed, and we were doing final clean-out of the space.  Well, I was; most of the work had been done the previous weekend, and I was freecycling as much of the remaining shelving and cabinets as I could.  This meant being in the space to meet people or otherwise arrange for pickups.

Our President arranged for us to merge with other spaces in Connecticut, but I have yet to accept any of the offers (given my longevity, it would be a free year at the new space of my choice) although I probably will later this month.  I just need a little time.  And to organize the things I culled from the space, mostly fiber and paper arts supplies, and the infinity mirror class supplies, and other oddments.

I did get to several yoga classes in the last week, since work was quiet and I had the time.  I tried a Restorative Yoga class and decided it's more meditation than yoga and not for me at this time.  Good to know, as I'd been curious about those.

I'd planned to do more cleaning and organizing of my own home, but kept losing time to being at the space.  In the end, I am glad that things went to good homes, but I feel I'll being doing catch-up at my own home.  I already have some donations to make to the local thrift stores, and will probably do a run this week.  I've had discussions with people about whether to itemize or not; last year my donations exceeded the standard deduction, not by a lot, but enough, so I was glad I kept detailed records of what I donated.  I'll probably keep doing it out of habit.

I haven't made further progress on last year's resolutions since my September post.  The remaining UFOs are still unfinished, although I did make progress on the "Omega" shawl.  The sweater that I was going to take apart and reuse turned into a nice scarf, which I finished last night:

I did get the pantry somewhat organized, although I am now re-organizing it to turn the bottom shelf into storage for supplies and equipment from the makerspace.  I got a small microwave that I can use to melt soap for melt-and-pour projects, and the two crockpots we used to dye yarn.  All of these are technically foodsafe so can be stored and used in the kitchen, but now I don't have to put my own items to double use.  I also have the toaster oven we used for polymer clay - NOT food safe and well marked to indicate this.

I didn't get rid of the china cabinet.  Still need to do that, either through a yard sale (at a friend's house, we're not allowed to hold them in my condo complex) or donation to a local charity.  While at it, I have one or two other items of furniture that can go.

Much of November and December I spent making items for family.  My grandmother's annual vest was joined by two shawls, since she really likes shawls these days:

The vest is Lion Brand Ferris Wheel in Buttercup; I knit a tube to the underarms then back and forth.  The green shawl is Lion Brand Cupcake yarn in Peas and Carrots (slight playing with the yarn to pull out the white and use it for the edging) and the other shawl is Caron Cakes yarn in Buttercream, which she chose when we were out and about one day.

And DNiece#2 asked for a hat with ridges to mimic the hat she has been wearing while portraying Thomas Cromwell in a course at college.  Here's the hat:

She wanted more of a beanie style.  And maybe a scarf.  And mittens? I offered.  Why not.  I got the hat and mittens done for Christmas:

DNiece#2 was surprised to find out how the mittens fit, and realized she's been wearing the same ones since about third grade, and now they barely cover her hands to the wrist.  I am still working on the scarf (based on a Hufflepuff house scarf - hence the yellow stripes on the wrists of the mittens and inside the hat, to tie the set together) and I think I'll whip up another pair of mittens to send with it.  A few years ago I did a hat and scarf for this niece in blue, her favourite colour, and I have a bit of it around in a similar yarn, and mittens work up fast, so - obvious!

RESOLUTIONS for 2020

I was thinking about this, and then read an article about doing micro-resolutions: a small one each month, something you can focus on and achieve, but which doesn't seem so daunting because you commit for only 28-31 days.  The author also talks about resolutions to add things to your life, not just take things out of it.

I'm going to do easy things.  First up, resolution for January:  Finish Scarves.  I've started a number of scarves for charity, and this month I would like to focus on getting several of them finished.  Of course, I also have to finish the scarf and mittens for my niece, but I want to try to not start anything new until I get a bunch of the charity scarves done.  I keep starting new ones when the old ones are too big to easily carry around, or if something fiddly happens, and I need to get focused and pin some together (rolling them to be a smaller item) to make them more portable and thus get them finished.

I've started this by frogging one, which I realized wasn't too skinny but would be very, very long if I use all the yarn, so I am going to make it wider.  Luckily it's garter stitch and the kind of thing I do easily on planes and in movies and while standing on line everywhere.

Current list, done from memory, and all plain garter stitch unless noted:

• Browns - Bernat Super Value Stripes in Beechwood and Caron Jumbo in Chocolate Variegated on the sides.
• Patons Lace in lavender and Porcelain, held double (the fiddly one, because the yarn sticks to itself).
• Red Heart Fleece Hugs in Jungle - crocheted corner-to-corner.
• Stitch Studio Sweet Dreams in Creamsicle - the frogged one.
• Premiere Serenity Chunky Big Ombre in Walnut.
• Caron Chunky Cakes in Trifle (red/white/blue).
• Leftover Ferris Wheel from my grandmother's Christmas vest, crochet.

I always have at least one in the car, easy to grab when I run into shops or the post office.  At least one should come with me on a business trip next week - I will have to convince myself it's small enough, and I don't need to start a new one!

I'm going to try to read (or finish, as I'm partway through one right now) at least one book a month.  I'd love to read more, but since work requires me to read all day, my brain gets tired of processing words.  I'll report as I finish.

Where did the summer go?

I intended to update the blog over the summer, but I was out and about and kept forgetting.

RESOLUTIONS:

I have now finished all the books in my Resolutions post!  I'd previously reported about finishing "The Fortune Cookie Chronicles", and since then I finished "Dreams in the Golden Country" (I almost finished it on the anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, but couldn't, and finished it earlier this month instead), "Rookie of the Year" (which I did indeed finish while at summer camp), and "The Whisperer", which was better than I expected, although with an unsurprising ending.

I have also finished an additional book, "Shopping for Buddhas", a Lonely Planet book from the late 1990's.  I started it at camp after finishing "Rookie of the Year" and since it's not seasonal I continued until the end.  An interesting light read, definitely viewing Nepal through the eyes of an unschooled but sympathetic American.  I feel as though I have read more, but it may be that I read a lot of articles and such, not proper books.

I finished one of the three shawls I listed, the one of handspun (two different skeins by related but different spinner/dyers) purchased at DFW Fiber Fest:

I tried to get a closeup to show
all the wonderful colours.

Very simple basic triangle, with four rows from one skein in stockinette, and two rows from the other in garter, which helped disguise the differences in spinning.  Although they looked very different in the hanks, the yarns blended so well people sometimes though it was a single skein.  The yarn is incredibly soft and this is both light and warm.

I finished another UFO shawl that I located after creating the resolutions post. It's a basic pattern (based upon one I got in a holiday gift exchange an number of years ago) from a single ball of Taiyo Sock purchased on an excursion with two friends a number of years ago, and which languished a lot.  I took it on a whirlwind trip I had to make suddenly in July, when I knew I wouldn't have a lot of time to think and not a lot of space for packing.  Here it is on a long layover:

Yes, it has since been finished and worn.  Another basic triangle, this one with an eyelet row at every colour change, until those got very skinny and then at every other colour change.

I have made several other shawls, all for my grandmother.  She is always cold, and mentioned that shawls are "the thing" right now, and since they are simple and fun to do, I whipped up a couple:

Crocheted Shawl of Red Heart Dreamy Stripes, and knitted shawl
(Wailea pattern) in Lion Brand Cupcake, colourway "Tundra".

She liked them, so I made three more that I delivered at my last visit, but I forgot to take pictures of those.  One was a rarity for me, using the actual yarn and pattern together, but it came out nicely and my grandmother likes it a lot.  The other two were basic crocheted patterns, both different from the one in the photo.  She likes all of them, and even shares them with friends, but only for the duration of a meal or concert and then makes sure to get it back.  I think she's showing off a bit.

October is coming, which means the KnitTalk list has its annual "Aftober" of completing projects, and I plan to finish the "Omega" shawl (also on my Resolutions list) next month.  I have a lot of travel scheduled, and it's still small enough to be a briefcase project.

SUMMER:

I went to camp.  A friend teaches at a camp, and she has a small cabin of her own during that month, so can host guests.  She gets one day off per month, and we go exploring.  Last year, it was to a local glassworks museum and a small hike.  This year, we went to a local town and wandered through secondhand shops and a flea market, then stopped at a chocolate shop that also carries non-chocolate items.  We got some really cute things for her family and my grandmother.

I visited my grandmother; we wandered around flea markets (one has a pickle-on-a-stick-snack-as-you-shop stand, and you get any of the pickles they have on offer - mine was garlic half-sour - or you can buy quantities to take home) and attended a concert and drove around looking at stuff.  And clouds, my grandmother loves looking at clouds.

MakeHartford celebrated its fifth anniversary with a gathering, and show-and-tell that included a portable pizza oven and a "thermonuclear hot dog cooker", otherwise known as a solar cooker.  We had competing chocolate chip/candy cookies, and I made strawberry marshmallows, and much food and drink and conviviality was had by all.

I've traveled a lot, some for work and some for family and friends.  I've tried to get out more, especially given how nice the weather has been, so movies in the park and concerts in the park and lots of cemetery walks and park walks and other things.  Since the weather is lovely, I think I'll go do more of that today.

April in Amsterdam

....and a number of other locations in The Netherlands and Belgium.  I took a vacation and went on a Craft Cruise - finally!  For years people have recommended them, including my parents who have crossed paths with them on Holland America, but finding the time to do one hasn't been possible.  Then they announced a Tulip Time cruise on rivers in Europe, just a week, and it sounded interesting.

I invited my parents to join me (but in a stateroom on a completely different deck, and theirs had a balcony), as they have wanted to do a river cruise but most of the ones they saw were winery-oriented, which is not of interest.  This one overlaid an AMA Waterways cruise which focused on history and culture and sounded much more interesting for all of us.  And it was!!

They do multiple tours every day, and at multiple ability levels.  My parents usually did the "gentle walkers" tours while I took the more active ones.  Sometimes we would go to the same place and then take our own pace; other times the tours were completely different.  Sometimes there was free time, and did I join the knitters in the lounge?  No, if we were docked I went into town and checked out a museum or did some touring on my own!

I went to the homes of Rembrandt and Reubens, and assorted churches, and because I have a friend who is from Amsterdam and happened to be there at the same time, we got to worship at and then take a behind-the-scenes tour of the Portuguese Synagogue.  It is still lit only by sunlight and candles.

Just a very few random photos:

Stephen West's shop in Amsterdam

          

Crocheted cover on the bicycle!

There were two KALs on the boat.

If you saw the film "Monuments Men"
you will recognize this sculpture.

Hands of a lacemaker in Bruges.

The oldest lacemaker - almost 90 years!

I get lost after a tour, I find a yarn shop......

......which also sells fabrics.  I bought yarn.

Crafts shop in Gouda.  Some people bought
just to have something but I didn't.

This is my sort of Gouda souvenir.  And stroopwafels!!

Of course, windmills.  

The theme of this year's Tulip Festival at Keukenhof Gardens was the 60's and:

 

A tulip made of tulips.

My parents, amid the tulips.  My mother knit her sweater.

What it was in March to mid-April

Doing a bit of catch-up on the blog.  When I last wrote, the North Texas Irish Festival was just beginning, a weekend later than usual due to international cheerleader competitions that overtook the hotels and Fair Park on our usual (first) weekend in March.  This turned out to be a good thing as the previous weekend's weather was wet and cold and miserable, but the weather on the second weekend, especially Saturday, was spectacular - sunny, warm, and people came out by the thousands.

I didn't get back for the Volunteers Picnic but did get the jacket, which has the 35th year's "Texas Grown Irish Roots" design, and LOTS of pockets.

March was the end of my company's fiscal year, so LONG.  Skidded up to the end of it trying to get deals closed, while also balancing everything else, including my role starting a chapter of (ISC)² which is for cybersecurity professionals.  We're slow starting but determined!

Because I was out of town I missed all the St. Patrick's Day parades and such, but I did a bit of cooking.  Unlike make of my friends who did the Irish-American corned beef and cabbage, I did some traditional Irish dishes:

From the top, soda bread (whole wheat and barley) and butter, braised spinach, roasted onion, poached fish with brown butter and caper sauce, and roasted beetroot with a squeeze of lemon.

Below, my dessert - bread-and-butter pudding with dried fruit.

At the end of March, SWAN Day CT's annual event, featuring women artists of all kinds:  musicians, painters, crafters, performers, and women-led bands.  I love to attend it, and this year assisted BiCi Co.'s "Beyond Gender" group to staff an information table.  This group focuses on women, trans, and non-binary persons in the bicycling community to give them a supportive place to meet, learn how to DIY repairs and upgrades to their bikes, and participate in activities with a community.  Of course, I was able to do a little shopping and listen to a lot of music.

Then in early April was DFW Fiber Fest.  Fourteenth year, and they added a day of classes, and had 95(!!!) vendors.  I took classes and did a volunteer shift, and had fun seeing friends and learning things and tried to keep my shopping somewhat moderate.  Among my classes was a new way to do crocheted cables, how to design my own pi shawl, and how to design a top-down sweater to fit me, which makes me happy because I don't like sewing (I still have trouble getting sleeve caps to lie evenly) AND I am a nonstandard shape so most patterns don't fit me well.  Just learning how to deal with horizontal planes in a vertical fabric was worth the time and class fee.

One of my test things in the crochet cables class.

Yes, there can be a LOT of maths in knitting!  But I can make it shaped like ME.

Start of a pi shawl, pre-pattern.  Lace came next.

While there I went to Rover Dramawerks' 365 Women a Year Festival, which features short plays about women who may not have gotten their full due from history.

The schedule was in two parts, and luckily I could go on two nights (DFW Fiber Fest has a great event on Friday night, so I wasn't going to anything else that night!) and see all the plays.  Definitely interesting, although some of the performances were a bit less interesting than others, all the women featured gave you something to think about and maybe research to learn more about them.  My one complaint was that it wasn't always clear from the title and characters who the woman was, so I've suggested they add her name and birth/death dates at the least to next year's programs.

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.