Food & Wine – Page 3 – The Knitting Doctor

Knitting on the Edge

Once again, it’s been awhile. Happy August! Just so I can bitch about it publicly, the temperature has gotten up to a steamy 61 degrees here today, and it’s raining, again. Where the hell is summer?

Actually, we have had a little summer weather, but only in bits and pieces. We had friends over a couple weekends ago for beach fun and barbecue, and to try out our latest toy.

Meanwhile, John managed to convince Riley that riding in the canoe is a good thing.

And after a tough workout on the water, a nice hearty dinner of barbecued ribs and all the fixings.

A closeup of the ribs:

Yum, they were really good. I bought John a smoker a couple years ago, and thanks to his southern heritage, he makes the best barbecue in the west!

Now, on to knitting. The title of this post has nothing to do with the knitting book by the same name. I’ve finally finished the body of the Whitewater alpaca silk shawl, and am about half way through the edging rows. I may or may not have enough yarn to finish.

6.5 grams. That’s how much yarn I have left, with half of the edging to go. I love the excitement of knitting, let me tell you. Fortunately, I placed a lifeline many rows back, after the second to the last repeat of the main shawl body. If I don’t have enough to bind off, I can always rip back to the lifeline, then knit the edging and have lots leftover. Where’s the fun in that, I ask?

Stay tuned next time to see how it all works out. Any guesses as to how much yarn I’ll have left?

Oh yes. The Elizabeth Zimmerman book in that photo has nothing to do with the shawl. I’m still working on that damned Cobblestone sweater that I’ve had on the needles for years (not really years, but it seems like it). I’m doing yet another bit of jerry-rigging of the pattern. I’ll tell you about that later, too.

I’m Still Alive…

OK, another 2 weeks got away from me. All of a sudden it’s August, the month of visiting friends and relatives. Our extra bedrooms are fully booked for the next 2 weeks, so if any of you want to come out and visit, take a number. And of course, now that we have people coming to visit, the weather has gotten crappy. It’s only in the 50’s this morning, though it’s supposed to get nicer later.

Here’s what I’ve been working on.

I’m close to the armhole decreases. I’m still working with a somewhat nebulous pattern. I want a v-neck, but after Lisa posted this, I’m revising how v-d it will be. I don’t want it to grow into something I need to wear a camisole with. I also want three-quarter length sleeves, but I’m not sure I have enough yarn. Of course, if this stuff grows that much, I can just do short sleeves, and wait.

I’ve also been working on those Krauterbeet socks, yarn from the Wollmeise. I have one done, and the second started.

I can’t even tell you how much I love this yarn. Wendy posted recently that the hank she had split like crazy, and was very twisty while knitting. It is very twisty, indeed. Mine doesn’t split, though, I’m not sure why the difference. I have, ahem, four more skeins of this in different colors in the stash. Well, I couldn’t just order this all the way from Germany and just order one hank, now could I?

And here’s the shawl and Riley, being Kinneared:

Sorry about the crappy quality of that photo. I just held the camera down and clicked, hoping to get some version of the shawl and the lake. Riley was a bonus. No, she wasn’t drinking the wine, I was, that might account for the photo.

Here’s what else I made last week.

Upscale BLTs, with pancetta, arugula, and mozzarella, and heirloom tomatoes. These were yummy enough that we’re doing them again today, this time with the burrata cheese that the recipe called for, and homemade bread. The recipe is in Bon Appetit from August this year. You can find it here. These are just unbelievably good, so go make some. I’ll take photos of the finished project and post them later!

Grits And Sticks!

World Grits Day was Saturday. We decided to celebrate the occasion with a dinner party. Kris and her family were invited, along with a few other guests. (Hey, I’m not above bribing the contest-runner with food and chocolate martinis!)

The menu was all southern. We had John’s famous Cheese Biscuits for appetizers.

The rest of the menu included shrimp grits, greens, and cornbread. And chocolate cake for dessert.

The whole thing involved lots of butter and cream, and yes, chocolate martinis. It’s not southern without lots of butter and cream. A real southerner would have put bacon grease in there, too, but we were looking for ways to cut calories.

Anna Grace had fun, once she realized that Riley the dog wasn’t a vicious wild beast.

It was Patti’s birthday, so we had chocolate cake for dessert. Ok, we would have had chocolate anyway, but the birthday made it legal.

Even the dogs had fun. Here’s Rae the Corgi, having worn herself out completely, and ready for a nap.

And the dinner was over, table was cleared, ready for cake, when I remembered the whole point of the dinner was to take a photo of the grits and sticks. We rescued some leftovers and made a valiant attempt to recreate the plate. It was much prettier the first time around.

The Daily Bread

Here’s what’s on the table this week. Note that I almost missed the photo opportunity. I left this out to cool before putting it in a storage bag, and before I knew it, a third of the loaf was gone.

Pecan Maple Buttermilk Bread

1 Tbl butter
3 Tbl maple syrup
1 cup water
1 1/2 cup white bread flour
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
4 Tbl buttermilk powder
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp yeast
1 1/2 Tbl gluten flour
2/3 cup golden raisins
2/3cup chopped pecans

I made the dough in the bread machine, and added the raisins and pecans towards the end of the kneading process so they didn’t get too mashed up. Knead it a bit by hand before you shape the loaf if you need to so that the fruit and nuts are dispersed evenly. It was baked at 350 degrees to an inside temp of 190 degrees (use an instant read thermometer). My oven runs a bit hot, so you might need to up your oven temp to 375.

Go here for my generic bread instructions.

You could add more or less syrup to taste, or use molasses for a little different flavor. You could also use different nuts, walnuts would be great, but I had pecans so that’s what I used. If you can’t find some of those ingredients, check out this online store. This bread is lovely toasted, with either cinnamon sugar or jam on top.

For something similar, but with a little less of a free-form recipe, check out Rose’s Cranberry Walnut bread from a couple of days ago. She uses a starter with hers, so it takes longer.

After reading her instructions for the cranberry bread, I realized why my Daily Bread turned out a bit dense this time. She suggests adding the fruit by hand, not in the bread machine, as it breaks up and will result in a compact loaf. So next time I make this, I’ll let the bread go through the initial dough cycle, and then take the bread out of the machine and add the raisins before it goes through the first rise.

Enjoy!

More Pink Knitting

I actually got a comment today asking where the hell I was. She worded it a little more nicely, but that was the gist of it. I really didn’t pack up the yarn stash and move to Siberia to knit in peace and quiet for the remainder of my days. Though I’d consider it if they’d let me take the yarn.

I’ve been here, knitting away, though once again I have little to show for it.

There are a few more inches on a lace shawl that looks like one of those crocheted market bags at the moment. It wasn’t worth taking a photo. Look at this one (scroll down), it has a couple more rows than that now. And no, I really don’t need a reminder of how slow I knit. There’s been a little project creep around this house (meaning more than the usual three projects going at once), and that means nothing ever gets finished.

I spent most of last week working on this:

Yes, that would be Shedir, from Knitty. You can find the pattern here. I got this far, then compared it with the pattern photo, as something just didn’t look right.

See the nice little crossed cables over there, marked by the little purple arrow, by the teddy bear*? Click on it to make it bigger so you can see the arrows. Now look at the non-crossed cables, over there on the left, by the red marker. I crossed the first two sets, then didn’t cross them again all the way around the hat. Frak.

I looked at that for quite awhile. I even stupidly kept knitting, even after I noticed it. Then I realized that I would hate this project forevermore, and probably never finish it with those frakking uncrossed cables. You can probably guess what comes next.

I did try to just rip it back to the ribbing, but because this yarn has a good bit of stretch to it, I couldn’t get it back on the needles without a lot of yarn splitting and bad words, so out it came. I’ve started over, and am partway back to where I was up there in that first photo.

More pink stuff:

That would be the Mystery Riley project (for my soon-to-be-born niece, Riley, not the dog Riley). That’s one sleeve, and the beginning of the second sleeve. The good thing about baby sweaters is that Sleeve Island is a much smaller, more intimate vacation destination. I finished the first one in an evening, and the other one will hopefully get done tonight. Last night’s episode of Robin Hood is Tivo’d, and tonight there will be a new episode of Battlestar Galactica to satisfy my sci-fi jones. And we have three whole discs worth of the first season of Rome from Netflicks at the ready, in case we need any more television.

Last but not least, here’s this week’s bread recipe. The first photo is before it went in the oven.

And after:

Here’s the recipe, or rather, the ingredient list. Look at any general cookbook, or a bread machine recipe book, or my prior bread post, for how to put it together.

Lorette’s Thursday Rye Bread

1 Tbl butter

1 Tbl sugar

1 Tsp salt

1 1/2 cup unbleached bread machine flour

1 1/2 cup rye flour

2 1/2 tsp yeast

1 cup water

1 Tbl Ground caraway seeds

1 1/2 Tbl gluten flour**

After the second rise, top with whole caraway seeds and salt, then slash and bake. I use a gourmet flake sea salt for the topping, and crush it a bit. Bake it at about 375 degrees, use an instant-read thermometer to tell when it’s done (190-200 degrees in the center).

Next post: Yarn Shopping with friends! Loot!

*Yes, I have teddy bear stitch markers. You have a problem with that?

**Makes it rise better with less effort. If you want to knead the hell out of your bread, then leave it out. I like less guesswork with my cooking.

Give Us This Day…

The Daily Bread

Here’s the bread that I came up with yesterday.

And here’s the recipe, such as it is. You’re on your own as to the details. I mix this up in the bread machine on the dough setting, then make a free-form loaf and bake it in the oven directly on a baking stone.

I’ve discovered that there is a lot of flexibility in a bread recipe. I basically start with a formula of 3 cups of flour and 1 cup of water, and improvise from there. My bread machine is a Zojirushi, and they don’t make the particular model I have any longer. It makes a 1 1/2 pound loaf, so if yours is smaller, you’ll need to modify the amounts accordingly. My machine calls for adding the liquids in the bottom, then the dry ingredients, and the yeast on the top.

I use King Arthur flours, and keep everything except the unbleached white in the freezer. I use that up fast enough that I don’t worry about it. The yeast I use is SAF-Instant brand, and I buy it in bulk and store it in a tin in the refrigerator. The added gluten flour gives you more of a rise out of your flour. I use it if I’m adding whole wheat or rye flour, about a Tbl of gluten flour for each cup of ww or rye that I’m using. If you’re going to bake the bread directly in the bread machine, watch it with the gluten flour; it gives the bread a nice oven spring, and you might overflow the pan! If you take a look at that loaf in the bread pan, it never would have made it through the machine cooking cycle.

2 cups KA unbleached white flour
1 cup KA pumpernickel flour
1 tsp salt
1 Tbl gluten flour
1 Tbl olive oil
2 Tbl honey
1 cup water
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
1/2 cup seed/grain mix, soaked in just enough hot water to cover

More flour or water as needed

Put the ingredients in the bread machine according to your machine’s instructions. Let the seeds/hot water stuff cool a bit before adding. You can use a commercial cereal mix, or mix your own (wheat flakes, oats, a variety of seeds, polenta, bulghur wheat, etc.). I mix up a plastic container full and keep it in the freezer.

Once your bread machine starts, open the lid and play around with adding more flour/water as needed. You want a ball of dough that is floury enough to stick together, not too wet, but not too floury either. With experience, you’ll figure out how much to add. Remember that after you add more flour, it might take a bit before it absorbs the liquid, especially if you’re using ww or rye flours. If you add too much flour, you’ll get a leaden ball that feels more like a brick. After the machine is finished with the dough cycle, take it out, knead a bit to get a feel for the dough, add more flour if it’s sticky. Form your loaf, either in a pan or on a board, let it rise again until almost double. I sprinkled this one with poppy seeds, then slashed the top right before popping it in the oven. I beat an egg white and brush a little of it on the top so the seeds stick before I do the sprinkling.

I keep a baking stone in my oven, and preheat for at least 30 minutes so the stone is evenly heated. This one I started at 400 degrees, but this is a bit flexible as well. My oven runs cool, so you might try 375. Watch the bread, if it’s looking like it’s getting too brown on the outside but not done in the middle, turn the oven down, or cover your bread with a piece of foil. I start checking the bread at about 20-30 minutes, and use an instant thermometer to tell when it’s done. Stick it in the middle, when it reads somewhere around 190 degrees, you’re there. Your bread should also sound hollow when you pick it up out of the oven and tap on the bottom.

I also use a spray bottle and shoot a little water in the oven towards the oven walls every few minutes during the first 5-8 minutes or so to create steam. This gives it a nicer crust, but mostly makes me feel like Julia Child. If you have an oven light, don’t spray right on the bulb, the cool water could break it. Julia would never do that.

When it’s done, take it out, put it on a rack, and admire it. But restrain yourself from cutting into it until it’s cool, or nearly so. Bread, like a roast, cooks more when you take it out of the oven. If you cut into it right away, you’ll get an unsatisfying texture, more gummy than not. And remember that homemade bread doesn’t keep as well as store bought. This is usually not a problem around my house!

This is a great resource for bread bakers, and has a lot of other cooking tips as well. My favorite bread book is this one. Peter Reinhart’s books are also lovely, though not about bread machine baking. Yesterday’s bread was from one of his books, and is his Struan bread, one of my all time favorites. Here’s a link to the recipe.

This link tells you a little bit about adding other stuff to your bread, and what you might expect when you do so.

I’ll now return you to your regular knitblogging programming.

Been There, Done That…

…Bought The T-Shirt!

The theme this year was the changing face of bluegrass, and as such, included a few artists that stretched the definition a bit. Some of it didn’t work for me, most did, as usual. I’ll listen to it all, though my favorite is still traditional Appalachian style old-timey music. There wasn’t much of that this year. Uncle Earl was as close as it got, and they were every bit as good as they were last year.

Other favorites? Crooked Still, with a great lead singer and a cello player (yes, cello!) that will knock your socks off. All the girls seem to like him, too. There was a lot of girly screaming every time he played a solo. Blue Highway, playing more straight-up bluegrass, and with one of the best dobro guys around, Rob Ickes. John Cowan, Darrell Scott, and Pat Flynn, each a great musician, and together they were dynamite. Cowan’s voice will send chills up your spine. The Infamous Stringdusters are a great bluegrass jam band. Mike Dowling is a wonderful acoustic roots-blues guitarist, and was one of my favorites of the festival. Doyle Lawson and his band were polished, as usual.

My personal favorite? This one was a surprise to me. Mike Marshall has never been one of my favorite performers. He plays mandolin, and is one of the best in the business, but his music tends to run a bit experimental for my taste. This time out, he performed with Hamilton de Holanda, a Brazilian bandolim virtuoso. Their music is astounding. I don’t buy many albums any more, as I can listen to pretty much anything I want on Rhapsody, but these two were good enough to warrant buying the CD. Mike also did a solo performance on Sunday of Bach’s Chaconne (yes, Bach on a mandolin) that was terrific.

The festival also provided many hours of uninterrupted knitting time. I saw a couple of other knitters there this year, including Leah, who is knitting Rogue. She was also knitting it in a dark purply yarn, in near dark. I was having trouble just managing socks in stockinette. I didn’t take any photos at the festival; after I lost my binoculars a couple of years ago at Wintergrass, I try not to take anything that might tempt another thief. (You’d think bluegrass fans wouldn’t be pickpockets, but there you have it.)

And the socks, you ask? How much sock can I knit over a four day festival? (Actually, two evenings, Saturday afternoon and evening, and all day Sunday.) I started on Thursday evening just past the gusset on the first sock. Here’s where I finished Sunday night.

Can’t tell from that photo? Here’s another:

I also have been working on the mystery baby project, using some of my closely guarded Cotton Ease stash. I still can’t show a real picture, or it wouldn’t be much of a surprise, now, would it. Here’s a hint:

By the way, Cotton Ease is back on the market, with newer, better colors. Once I use up the stash I have, I might just have to buy more. (Who am I kidding, I probably won’t wait that long!)

And just to tempt your taste buds, here’s the bread I made earlier this week.

It’s white-bread, but with cooked brown rice, polenta, and enough wheat bran to give it a nice chewy texture. It’s already gone, so I need to go make more. I make my bread in the bread machine, but generally bake it in the oven. I’ve finally gotten to the point where I don’t need much of a recipe; I just start with the right proportions of flour and water, then add the other ingredients according to whim. Yum, now I’m hungry.

Oh, and in case you can’t find it, here’s a link to Wintergrass. Yes, I already have my tickets for next year. Did you really need to ask?

Trains, Planes, and Knitting

We’re back from the Great California Train trip of 2007, and boy, do I have pictures. The trip was a blast, and I’d definitely do Amtrak again. We took the Coast Starlight from Tacoma to Los Angeles, then drove to Newport Beach, where we had a condo a little ways from the water. We flew home yesterday, and I finally sort of have my act together to post a few photos. We booked a “roomette” for the trip, which is two seats facing each other in a compartment that has a big window and a sliding door to the train corridor. At night, the two seats fold down for a single bed, and a bunk folds down from above for the second bed. We slept in this type of room the last time we were on Amtrak several years ago, and it is cramped but better than sleeping sitting up in a chair. The bathroom and shower are down the hall, and shared.

After we got on the train, we asked about upgrading to a larger compartment. Just as a tip, if you do this, you are definitely risking that there won’t be a larger room available, especially during the busier travel seasons, but they quite frequently will upgrade you for much less than you would pay by booking it directly. Fortunately, they had one “luxury” compartment available all the way to LA, and we were first to ask. These rooms still have bunk beds, but the compartment is about twice the size, and has a bathroom/shower combo that is just barely big enough to stand up in and turn around to rinse off. It works, though. Here’s the train pulling in to the Tacoma station:

The Coast Starlight route goes by the water through Tacoma, then cuts inland for awhile until you get into California. Much of the route through CA goes right by the water. Here’s a view of both the new and old Tacoma Narrows Bridges. The one on the left is the new one, in the process of being built.

Here I am, settling in to the compartment for the long trip.

Of course, Sweetpea got to go along. That’s John in the mirror of our compartment.

I did a little knitting in the observation car, along the coast.

The “first class” compartments (the cars with the sleepers) normally have a separate parlor car, which is supposedly pretty fancy, but they are all offline for renovation. We’ll just have to plan another trip, I guess. They do have wine tasting on this route, every afternoon, for the “sleeper people”. Here we are enjoying a glass.

All your meals are included when you book a sleeper. You get to share the table with another couple while you are eating, so we met some interesting people on the route. The Coast Starlight is notorious for being late, but it seems to be getting better. We were only about 90 minutes late getting into LA, but as this was strictly a pleasure jaunt, the time issue didn’t bother us.

Here’s a photo of the first sunset from the balcony of our condo.

Our first lunch was at the Crab Cooker, which is sort of an institution in Newport. Fortunately, it wasn’t very busy when we were there.

We met up with friends from Germany that just happened to be in Newport on family business. It was purely coincidence, and we only found out that they were going to be there a week before we left home. Strange, indeed. They spent one night at our condo, and we had a couple of lunches together as well. We played a killer game of Mexican Train the night they stayed with us. Here’s me concentrating.

I still lost. And don’t let that water bottle worry you. The bourbon glass just didn’t make it into the photo.

Guess where we ate?

Mmmmm. Two double-doubles, with cheese, and chocolate shakes. Worth the whole train trip, right there.

We walked on the beach:

We took a boat tour of the Newport Harbor:

…With our friends from Germany:

We saw more sunsets, this one on Laguna Beach:

I’ll post the rest of the pictures later this week when I get them sorted out. There might also be a knitting update photo or two! How exciting!

——————————————————————————-

In even more exciting news, my friend Kris, the Knitting Wannabe, and her husband Dana have opened up an online yarn shop, Sonny and Shear.

Go, shop! I am on this crazy yarn fast, and can’t shop again until the 15th, but I’ve got my credit card number memorized and I’m ready. Buy enough yarn to keep her in business. I am overjoyed to no end to have a friend who owns a real yarn shop. I need to get a sign that says “will work for yarn”.

Firsts

I was tagged by Denise to post a list of “firsts”. Here goes.

What is the first thing you did in the new year?

Cleaned up the kitchen from the NY Eve party. There were no wine bottles on the lawn this time, thankfully.

What is the first thing you ate in the new year?

I don’t remember. I think I had a banana and peanut butter for breakfast. The first “real” meal was those BEPs from the last post.

What is the first thing you knit in the new year?

See below.

What is your first ‘blessing’ of the new year?

Waking up next to my sweetiepie, the lovely man I’m married to.

What is the first thing you will do to make the world a better place in the new year?

Not tag anyone for this meme.*

Just kidding, I’m not really anti-meme. I just liked the whiskey part.

Post the first photo you took in the new year!

Those peas turned out just lovely, by the way. A little overdone, but I had an excuse. Kris came over yesterday afternoon to knit, and before we knew it, the peas were done and it was time to eat. So I shared our good-luck peas with her, and she took the leftovers home for her family. And yes, BEPs do bring good luck; I got to knit half the afternoon with a friend!

Here’s what I worked on. This is the Jo Sharp sweater that’s been in the timeout pile for a long while. I have the front finished, and started on the back yesterday.

The pattern directed me to bind off the shoulder stitches, then later sew the shoulders together. As these have no shaping, but are just straight across, that made no sense to me. Ever one to look for shortcuts, the shoulders are on string holders, to bind off together later.

Last but not least, my New Year’s Resolutions. They’re simple. Knit more, read more. And knit more from the stash, read more from the stacks. I have enough books and yarn around here to last more than one lifetime. I’m not outlawing purchases of either books or yarn, just resolving to at least look at the current stash before I buy more. There you go.

I’m off to Arizona to visit my sisters. One of them lives in Phoenix, the other is going there on a holiday. I’ve mentioned our rule previously, if any two of us get together, the third one has to show up, too. Otherwise the other two might talk about her. So we’re going for a few days, will get caught up on a lot of celebrations we’ve missed, and party a bit. Diane does have internet access, so if there’s a moment when we’re not either shopping or partying (or getting tattooed-remember the last trip?), I might get a post in.

Enough of this! Now let’s go have some whiskey!

*If you want to be tagged for this one, have at it. Leave me a comment so I can go gawk at your answers.

It’s Not Too Late…

For New Year’s Black Eyed Peas, that is. I have a big pot simmering on the stove at the moment. Of course, I thought I’d document the event for the blog, in case some of you aren’t Southern, or married to a Southerner. My husband, being a good Carolina boy, has to have his BEPs for the New Year. And being the good wife that I am, I am cooking up a pot for supper tonight. Here’s my recipe, such as it is.

Get everything together for the photo shoot:

Saute up the veggies:

Toss in everything else, and take another picture:

While you wait for mine to finish, here’s the recipe.

1 large yellow onion
garlic, as much as you can stand (5 cloves in this batch)
3-4 stalks celery
1 large carrot
3 cups BEPs, picked over and rinsed
chicken stock (or veggie stock)
1 bottle beer, any variety
1 jar/can chopped tomatoes and juice (this was a 14 oz jar)
worcestershire, a splash
Dijon mustard, a teaspoon or two
thyme and oregano, about 1/2 tablespoon each
ground pepper
2 bay leaves
cayenne, to taste. I usually start with about 1/8 teaspoon, but generally add more later
Ham hock*
More liquid, as needed (I usually just add water at this point as necessary)

Chop up your veggies. Chopped bell peppers of any variety are good, too, I just didn’t have any. Saute in olive oil until the veggies are soft. Add everything else and bring to simmer. I usually start with a quart of chicken stock, the juice from the can of tomatoes, and the beer, and watch it as it simmers to see if it needs more liquid. You’re aiming for something that’s not too soupy, but juicy enough to ladle over rice later.
Cover and simmer until peas are soft, maybe 45-60 minutes. BEPs don’t take nearly as long as other beany varieties. Taste the juice somewhere along the middle, and adjust the seasonings. Add salt part-way into the cooking. Cook up a pot of white or brown rice, serve the peas over the rice, wish for good luck in the NY!

A good IPA beer goes nicely with this, though a fruity red wine or a Spanish white works as well.

Have a good NY!

* Added later: I actually used a smoked ham shank this time, so it was meatier, then picked the meat off the bone after it was done and tossed it back in with the peas. Not necessary, but very yummy.

Winter Solstice, 2006 Version

Or,

How We Survived The Winter Storm

A mighty wind blew through here last Thursday night, knocking out trees and power lines in its path. A million people lost power in western Washington, and we were two of them. Our lights went out Thursday early evening, and didn’t come back on until Saturday night. We had flashlights and candles at the ready, though, and we have a gas cooktop, so we figured we’d be OK for a little while at least. And we had running water, though by Friday it dawned on us that our septic pump, which pumps the bad stuff up to the street level, runs on electricity, and we better quit running water down the drain. (You’d think a smart girl who grew up on a farm would figure this one out faster, wouldn’t you?)

The fun part of all this is that we had our annual Solstice party planned for Friday night, complete with a huge standing rib roast and ten people around the table. We waffled a bit, then said, what the heck. And cooked a huge dinner with the benefit of only a gas cooktop and gas grill. I’m happy to report that you can indeed cook 15 pounds of prime rib on a grill with no problem. Ours has a temperature gauge, and it kept the interior temperature fairly constant during the cooking.

It occurred to all of us that this year’s party was symbolic of the whole Solstice thing, with the house lit only by dozens of candles (and a few flashlights at times). We were hoping the lights would come on at midnight, in a truly symbolic gesture, but no luck. We were still in the dark Saturday, and with the house getting colder, and temperatures due to drop further, we bailed out. We packed the cooler with everything from the freezer that would fit, and salvaged what we could from the refrigerator, and headed out to stay with electrically blessed friends. Our lights finally came back on late Saturday night, and we’re now home, and the kitchen is cleaned up. (We left all the dishes from the party out on the deck when we left!)

We’re lucky. All of our big trees survived the storm, nobody we know died or was injured, and we had a great meal in the bargain, and got to spend the whole weekend with friends. From the looks of our little neighborhood as we drive around, the region won’t be back in full swing for the rest of the week. There may even be some people without lights back on for Christmas.

Here are some photos of the event.

The table, before the feast began.

Mashing potatoes by flashlight. Note my husband with his handy-dandy headlamp. I love a man who is prepared for anything.

The main course:

Carving by flashlight:

A few guests enjoying themselves:

The aftermath. Note the little temperature thingie on the table in front of me. At this point it was still plenty warm in the house. Must have been all the candles.

I did make my traditional trifle for dessert, but didn’t get pictures of it. It looked just like it did the last two years, though. Without electricity, we had to whip the cream for it by hand, which was probably the most challenging part of the dinner.

When we got up on Saturday and started to clean up what we could without running water, we did the traditional “count the wine bottles to see how hungover we should be” thing. Hmmmm. Only three wine bottles on the table, along with a couple others opened and not finished. That’s pretty lame for this crowd. Then I looked outside. Apparently some of my guests decided that tossing the empties on the lawn was a good idea. Click on this one if you can’t see them. Four more on the lawn, that’s more like it.

All in all, a good way to survive the storm. I’m off to cook the formerly-known-as-frozen food in my refrigerator.

I’m Not Bitter, Part 2

If any of you were to have the chance to go to any of our local farmers’ markets, you would immediately sell your belongings and move to western Washington. My favorite is in Olympia, a lovely little town that is also the state capital. Pike Place Market in Seattle is bigger, flashier, and more famous, but the Olympia market has the advantage in that the actual real-life farmer is usually the one selling the stuff. They are passionate about their produce, and can tell you exactly how it was grown and where. They will tell you when the lettuce was picked, and when and where the fish was caught. It is also a true seasonal market, with almost all locally grown/raised stuff. You have to wait for corn and strawberries until they are really ready here. You get chanterelle and morel mushrooms in season, usually handed to you along with the farmer’s instructions on how to cook them. Every time we go to the Oyster Man’s stand, we get a different idea on how to serve them this week. The ‘Mater Guy will cut you a slice of his heirloom tomatoes, tell you where the seeds came from, and tuck a sprig of basil in the bag. You can get rabbit meat at the Meat Lady’s store on occasion. There is a Dairy Lady and a Bread Guy, and a Lady that occasionally is there selling knitted items. There is also a local cheesemaker, often manned by their young son, the Cheese Boy. Every weekend, all summer, here is where we forage for supplies for the next week.

Here we are arriving at the market.

First stop is this stand. right now they have apples and pears, and this week they had the first of the spring onions.

There are also many plant stands here. There is a place that sells mostly lavender plants, several flower places, and a lot of tomato seedlings and herb plants.

The apple stand also has nice asparagus this week. We usually plan our meals on the fly here. “Oh you know, they had “x” back there, that would go well with this. What if we cooked this with that??”

Another sample of the bounty:

The fish stand is one of our regular stops. Again, what they have varies, but it is always impeccably fresh. Sometimes it’s clams, sometimes mussels, and right now they have the prettiest halibut on earth. This will be dinner tonight. When the Fish Lady saw us taking a picture, she made us wait until she polished the glass on the case.

Then there is the Egg Lady. She is not particularly talkative, but carefully puts your eggs in a cardboard container and tapes it shut for you. And yes, you can get duck eggs here.

Then there is my favorite, the Oyster Man. He even comes here in the winter when the market is closed. People who know anything know that the Oyster Man is in the market square on Saturdays all winter, selling oysters that he collects himself. He can tell you exactly where he got them, and when he got them. And tips on how to open them, as well as how to cook them, if you are one of those who likes them cooked.

Here are the oysters. This week we bought a dozen of the European flats, and a half dozen of the Kumamotos.

And the Oyster Lady giving us a close up of the Flats.

The Oyster Man also has geoducks, which is pronounced goo-ee-ducks, for some reason that escapes me. I’ve never tried these, and really have no intention of doing so, at least not sober.

On weekends there is always a different band. Here they are:

There are also several food stands and picnic tables, and this is just the greatest place to have lunch on a warm spring day.

Next stop is the ‘Mater Guy. Right now he has greenhouse tomatoes, and he always makes you taste one before you buy.

Note the caption on his sign: A tomato a day keeps the doctor away…

This is one of our favorite produce stands. Right now they have several kinds of kale, green garlic in bunches, and fresh sorrel, which I adore. Make yourself a classic potato-leek soup, toss in a couple of bunches of chopped sorrel, puree it in the processor, add cream, and you have sorrel soup from heaven. I have been known to eat it leftover for breakfast.

Last but not least is the Worm Tea Guy.

Here is their website: Wiser Worm Farm. (They are really going to wonder why they are getting traffic from knitting blogs!) They sell Red Wiggler Worms, and Worm Tea for your garden.

All of that foraging tired us out, so we had a big lunch when we got home with the goods. We always buy several bags of mixed lettuces, and we made a salad with that, and fresh radishes, green garlic, avocados (those were from Trader Joe’s), and leftover roast beef from a couple of nights ago.

Yum. It’s time for a nap!

Update:
Here’s the website for the Olympia Farmers Market! You can even find out what band is playing, and what’s for lunch.

International Pajama Day!

Celia, from Unraveling, has a mission in life. She is trying to spread the word about the joys of spending a whole day in your jammies. Yesterday was International Pajama Day IV, and I’m proud to say that I participated. I changed into flannel pants and a warm fleecy top and passed the whole day lounging around the house.

Celia did it in much higher style; she’s had several chances to perfect her pajama performance. Check out her blog post from yesterday for her great photos.

I spent the day reading and playing on the computer. In the evening, John cooked me a nice little spring risotto.

Here’s me helping. I’m still not allowed to handle any sharp objects.

And here’s the recipe, as best I can reconstruct it. It’s a modification based on lots of trials and several recipes. Once you figure out how to make a basic recipe, you can add whatever you find that looks good. We got all the fresh ingredients at the Farmers’ Market in Olympia this weekend. If you ever see green garlic in the market, buy it and try it. It looks like big green onions, and has a wonderful flavor. You can use it wherever you would use garlic.

We usually blanch whatever vegetable we’re going to add in the broth, and saute any raw fish or meat bits separately. That way you can add it all at the end and not have to figure out how long each part will take to cook. You can use leftover stuff in this as well. About the only thing we haven’t tried in risotto is Spam, and I suppose you could use that if you were desperate.

Some people frown on cheese in risotto with fish or seafood. I like it, so there.

Spring Risotto with Green Garlic, Asparagus, and Shrimp

2 cups arborio rice
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Another tablespoon butter
3 stalks green garlic, chopped; use regular garlic if you can’t find this.
Shallots, chopped, about 3 tablespoons (or leeks, if you have them)
1/2 cup white wine
6 1/2 cups broth. We used fish stock that we buy frozen, but you can use chicken or veggie.
Asparagus, cleaned and cut into 2 inch pieces. We used about a dozen or so stalks.
1 cup peas, shelled; fresh or frozen
Handful of chopped Italian flat leaf parsley
3/4 pound shrimp, cleaned and shelled, tails off
Another 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese. Please don’t use that stuff out of a can or the risotto gods will get their revenge eventually.
Salt & pepper

Heat the broth to just simmering and keep it there. Dump in the asparagus and cook for a few minutes to blanch them, take them out with a slotted spoon and set aside. If you’re using fresh peas, blanch those too and set aside. Put the first tablespoon of butter and the oil in a largish pot and saute the onion, garlic, and shallot till soft. In another pan, melt another tablespoon of butter and briefly saute the shrimp, just till they turn from pink to white. Turn off, and set aside.

Add the rice to the pot with the butter, garlic, shallot, and onion, and stir briefly until rice starts to look translucent at the edges. This will just take a few minutes. Add the wine and stir until liquid is almost absorbed. Now start adding your broth to the rice about a cupful at a time, stirring most of the time and watching closely. When most of the liquid from each cup is absorbed into the rice, it’s time to add the next cup of broth. As the rice gets closer to done, add the broth in smaller amounts, and taste the rice off and on to make sure you’re not getting too much liquid. You want it done but not mushy; the rice should still have a firm bite to it when you’re all done. When the rice tastes like it’s just a few minutes from being done, add the asparagus, shrimp, parsley, and peas, and keep stirring and adding more broth in small amounts till the rice is done. You may not have to use all the liquid in the pot.

When the rice tastes done, turn off the heat, add the last tablespoon of butter and the cheese, and stir in. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve. This should easily feed 4 hungry people as a main course, or 6 as a side dish. Leftovers are wonderful: we form patties out of it, about the size of a big burger, and saute in a bit of butter. Yum. I’m off to find lunch.

I Deserve Only The Best

I received this little doctored-up photo from our good friends with whom we are supposed to be on vacation in Spain. If you don’t get the significance, read the last few posts. Yes, they both have a sick sense of humor, which is probably why we love them.

And yes, it was one of our Riedel wine glasses, just to add insult to injury. To answer another question from the comments, the wine was a nice sauvignon blanc from South Africa.

My next post will be a discussion of the positive implications of my hand injury. It’s taking me a while to come up with the list…

Solstice Party

The light is coming back! Even though I can’t actually detect a difference, I KNOW that the days are getting longer from here on out. To celebrate the event, we had a neighborhood Solstice party at our house last night. It was a sit down dinner for a dozen good friends, and if the number of empty wine bottles on the counter this morning is any indication, a good time was had by all.

We had to rearrange our dining room a little to accommodate everybody. Here is the table before we sat down. John and I went to Pier One earlier this week and bought every red, green, and white candle they had. And yes, we had the fire extinguisher handy last night just in case.

We had a cheese and pate selection for before-dinner munchies, along with champagne and numerous bottles of wine. Dinner was a huge standing rib roast. It wouldn’t fit into my oven, so we cut it into two pieces and roasted it in two ovens. We had a wintery root crop side dish as well as a red beet/white beet combo. Mashed potatoes with gravy and steamed green beans completed the dinner.

For dessert we had a trifle:

And a few more pictures from after dinner:

Here’s Riley saying goodbye to everyone:

We put all the food away and stuffed the dishwasher full of as many dishes as would fit before we went to bed. Here is what the scene still looks like this morning:

Clearly the kitchen gnome forgot to stop here during the night. I’m hiding in the basement until somebody cleans that mess up.

For those who love dessert, here is my trifle recipe. I had never written this down before this morning, so the amounts are flexible. You might want to overestimate a bit, in case I underestimated!

Lorette’s English Trifle

1 large clear glass bowl

Sara Lee frozen pound cake, 2 of them. I actually only used about half of the second cake.

Whipped cream, I used about a quart of whipping cream, whipped with a bit of sugar and vanilla.

Vanilla pudding…NOT INSTANT, it will separate out in the trifle unless you eat it right away. I used 2 large packages of Jello brand pudding. Make this the day before so it can chill.

Fruit. I used frozen fruit in big bags that our local market carries. Thaw it out, and spread out on paper towels on cookie sheets to absorb some of the moisture. In season you can use fresh fruit. Peaches, blueberries, raspberries went into this one, along with kiwis for decoration. A big trifle like this one used a dozen or so kiwis, peeled and thinly sliced. I probably used 3 or four cups of sliced peaches, roughly the same amounts of the berries. Use more or less as you prefer.

Seedless raspberry jam. I used about a quarter to a third of an 8 oz. jar.

Sherry. Doesn’t have to be really expensive, but make sure it is not cooking sherry, use something you would actually drink.

Slice cake into about half inch slices, then cut these in half or thirds and line the bottom of the bowl. Spread a thin layer of jam on the cake pieces. After trying various utensils to do this, I decided that just using my fingers to spread it around works best.
Sprinkle with a bit of sherry…I used about 2-3 tablespoons per cake layer, maybe more, maybe less.
Stand your kiwi slices on end around the side of the bowl. See picture.

The idea is that you see the layers of kiwi slices through the glass, so you have to be a little fussy about placement. Putting the kiwi in place before you plop on the other layers keeps it all neater.
Layer fruit next, then a layer of pudding, then a layer of whipped cream.
Now do another repeat of the same layers…cake, sherry, jam, kiwi, fruit, pudding, whipped cream. Depending on the size of your bowl you might get a third repeat, but my bowl holds 2 sets.

On top of the last layer of whipped cream, arrange fruit slices in a decorative pattern.

Chill for at least 2 hours, then serve. You can make this earlier in the day as well. If you make it the day before, things get a little soggy, and the whipped cream doesn’t hold up as well.

You can vary this by using different fruit, different jam, flavor your cream, etc. I’ve seen variations that use chocolate cake, chocolate pudding, etc. If you’re not feeding the whole neighborhood, obviously you can cut this back and do it in a smaller bowl. The leftovers are great for breakfast, though, and people will eat more of this than you think. Even after devouring about twelve pounds of prime rib, we ate two-thirds of this bowl last night.

If you were Martha, you would make your pudding from scratch instead of a mix, and would make real pound cake yourself instead of buying it. It’s good even with the shortcuts, though. There were grown people standing around the bowl just digging in with spoons by the end of the party.