Scrub Oak

Vanishing Oatmeal Cookies and Overdue Paperwork

This is my weekend to be on call for the mental health center and I've made it to Sunday morning - Yay!  I had it in my mind that I'd get some overdue paperwork for work caught up this weekend, thinking that since I was working anyway I may as well go in and write service plan reviews, too.  Well, to hell with that idea.  I clued in to how wretched I was feeling about the whole thing.  It wasn't really that difficult of an insight because I was very into being the Victim all this past week until I realized that I was setting myself up to do just that. 

So, so, so.   This morning we walked up the road with the dogs and were invited for coffee on old Bob and Bonnie's porch.    They're very sweet folks and just neighborly.  We discussed the excitement yesterday in which lightening had started two fires in the higher ravines above our places.  Somehow the volunteer fire folks thought it was our house that was lightening struck and all sorts of folks showed up to help out.  We've been lucky this year and have gotten so much rain with our lightening that although people are cautious, they're not so worried as they might have been in recent years.  It looks like both those fires are out this morning,  but will bear watching in days to come.  The lightening struck trees can smoulder for days just waiting to flare up. 

I'm making vanishing oatmeal raisin cookies this morning (because carbs are good when you're into being the Victim).  This is a great recipe from Quakers Oats that I've made for simply years.   I think it will be a good day to work on my stitchery, watch the rain, and eat a few cookies:) I'll do that paperwork that is waiting another day. 

Frost in the Air, Green Beans, and Stepfathers

There's a Fall-ish tinge to the air here in the Rockies.  The San Luis Valley had a frost advisory last night.  We got our garden in rather late this year because of confusion about where we'd be living (more on that later) when the harvest came in, but the garden is starting to produce and I have some thoughts about extending the growing season so that we can "catch up".

 

I came home from work tonight and threw on my jeans and my ratty wool plaid bathrobe and went down to the garden.  Started picking green beans which, overnight it seems, had grown into something edible.  Now, whenever I pick green beans I think of my stepfather, Tom Kennedy.  I remember how he used to come into the house with a basket of beans and with great delight would cook them up for supper.  All of them at once.  He'd dolly them up with lots of butter, pepper, and onions.  After supper he would pour off the pot liquor into a tall glass and - to the absolute horror of my brother and I -drink it with relish.  He'd even smack his lips for more effect.   

I haven't yet gotten the taste for green bean juice, heavy on the butter, but I do love a green bean pot.  Fresh green beans, onions, bacon or ham chunks, potatoes, basil, bay leaf, and pepper.  Tonight I added some sun-dried tomatoes that I dehydrated over the weekend.

 

And when I pick beans I always think of my stepfather who taught me to love a garden.

Spring Snow Blessings and Chicken Corn Chowder

 

Here's to beautiful, wonderful, lifegiving Spring snows.  We're in a most delightful time of year here in the Rockies - not too hot, not too cold, lots of cloud cover.  I was very afraid the snows wouldn't come this year - we all were - but here they are.  Whew!  The brown grasses have just a hint of green.  You just know things will go on growing this year. 

We built a fire in the stove when we got home from Florence this afternoon and I had just enough time to make some chicken corn chowder.  At least that's what I call it.  It's just made with chicken pieces, broth, a couple each of potatoes, carrots, and celery chopped up, onion, garlic, bay leaf, salt and pepper, and a can of corn.   I thickened it today with corn starch and whole milk.  I would have used cream but I forgot to buy some.  The canned corn was 5 for $2 at our little, local grocery store so I bought a tray of 12 cans. I never bothered before with "stockpiling" but now I plan our meals around "great deals".  Okay, not that canned corn is THAT great of a deal but I like it and it makes soup kind of crispy, crunchy, sweet.  

 

Forgive the "steamy" photo.  The camera lens kept fogging up.  It was quite annoying.  We'll have this as soon as I finish this post, I think.

I was able to finish these dishtowels and hotpads for my swap buddy in Australia this weekend.  I'd bought a great many yards of linen from this online fabric store because I love the natural feel, sway, and drape of linen and use it a lot in my sewing.  Linen is the perfect dishtowel anyway. 

 

I really must practice applying binding.  A humbling experience in my mind. time for some soup.  Happy week all!

Lamb and Roots, Snow and Blow

 

Yesterday the weather changed back and forth - it just couldn't make up it's mind. Sometimes the snow was so thick it looked like a pillow fight out there.  And then the sun would shine.  And then the snow would blow again.  Today is sunnier but the wind blew and blew.  It's hard to do things outside in that kind of wind.  My sheets blew off the line and I had to chase one into the pasture. 

It was a perfect day to make lamb and roots and couscous.  The meat is roasted in a terra cotta roaster for hours at a low temperature and the whole house holds a wonderful wine and spice aroma.  The flavors meld together and are lovely. The root vegetables just get sweeter with every hour of slow cooking.  I made Jerry hold his plate for minute while I took a picture.  (He puts a lot of pepper on everything he eats.) 

 

Roots and Lamb

Small roast of lamb or 4-6 shanks

2 cups Red wine, dry

2 tablespoons soy sauce

tomatoes (canned is okay), chopped with juice

Onion, diced

2 Carrots

 2 Parsnips

2 Turnips

Bay leaf

     Cumin 1 tsp    

Allspice 1 tsp

In a roaster mix together all the ingredients, add the lamb, and arrange the roots around the meat. If you're cooking in something other than terra cotta you might need a cup or so more liquid.  Roast in very slow oven 275 degrees F for 4-5 hours.  Turn the meat once halfway through the roasting time.  Serve with noodles or couscous.  Cucumbers and yoghurt are a nice accompaniment. 

Seeds, Guido, and Sour Dough

 

Guido, the Sock Monkey, sits by my work computer to remind me not to take myself so seriously.  Maybe he's wrong ... maybe I need to be more serious about myself.  Frightening thought.  Let's move on. 

It was Jerry's 15 1/4 birthday this weekend.  He's a Leap Day baby and I find that celebrating his birthday has an amorphous quality about it most years.  When, oh, when does it Happen?  This year we went to China Yuck in Cañon City for dinner - it really isn't yucky and it really isn't called that and, it's quite...okay.  But, there are the local legend tales of rats and cockroaches in the kitchen so that explains our moniker for the place.  We like the proprietors and have watched their children grow from the Head Start bus to waiters to...  ?  After the pu pu platter and fried rice we drove to Pueblo to see Slumdog Millionaires.  I loved it, I loved the "bally-dancing" credits, too.  

It's getting to the time of year when seeds are planted.  My little guys are growing under the grow lights and Jerry is helping me fashion a coldframe so we can get some spinach and lettuce going real early.  I'll post about the coldframe later. 

  I've got mostly tomatoes started but I also started some argula and other greens.  Those (the lettuces) will go into the coldframe (when it's finished).  I'm growing green onions for the first time!  My stepdad always grew onions and garlic and this is my first year.   You can see the spray bottle of vinegar and water off on the upper right.  That is for Miss May, our nasty little cat (not really nasty - she gets away with all sorts of things as a rule). Last year she decimated my entire seedling garden.  Came home from work and found all the little seedlings batted here and there.  She gets a squirt of vinegar water if she even thinks about my seedlings this year.  And that's only happened once so far.  I saturate that pink washcloth with vinegar and keep it hanging off the side of the card table.  She does not like it. 

 

For the past week I've been diligently feeding a sour dough starter every 12 hours.  I was trying to get a starter going using wild yeasts but it's dry here and winter and - no good.  I had a little growth (you can tell when it bubbles) but not near enough to raise a loaf of bread.  So I went ahead and started another bunch using commercial yeast.  I've been reading all sorts of posts on these sour dough endeavors.  It's a bit of a cult, I think.  Some folks say you have to have a "real" starter if you can't capture the wild yeasts in the air.  I had a starter for years that originally was from commercial yeast.  It had a wonderful sour tang and I am convinced that it had taken on the wild yeasts of Colorado eventually.  Rather than pay some bucks to have one mailed to me I think this will do just fine. 

Sour dough breads are said to be easier on your digestive system because there is already some fermentation of the grains going on with the "souring".  I've pretty much eliminated most grain from my diet - bread makes me fat in the stomach and I get heartburn something awful.  But I love bread.  So, I want to keep trying.  Maybe if I didn't eat so MUCH of it....?

Here's a sour dough starter recipe using commercial yeast.  In a crock or glass jar, mix together 1 cup unbleached flour, 1 cup warmish water (you don't want to kill the yeast so don't make it hot water), 2 1/4  tsps of commercial yeast (or 1 cake), 1 tsp sugar.  Let it sit loosely covered for 48 hours.  (If it's in a real warm spot it won't take this long).  It should have a pleasant sour smell.  At this point you want to "feed" your starter and make a permanent starter pot.  Use another cup of flour, 1 cup of warmish water, and a scant tsp of sugar.  Let it bubble up or "work" for 12 hours.  The sour dough is now ready to use in sour dough recipes.  The longer you keep a starter going, the more it takes on your own special locale in terms of the wild yeasts it accumulates.  I love this aspect of the art. 

To make a "basic batter" you mix one cup of starter, 2 cups of lukewarm water, 2 1/2 cups of flour, and one tablespoon of sugar.  Put it in a large glass or plastic bowl and let it "work" overnight or at least 6 hours.  To make two loaves of bread

2 tablespoons of melted butter

3/4 cup of milk

2 tablespoons honey

2 tsp salt

4-5 cups flour

3 cups of basic batter

Mix wet ingredients, then dry.  Knead for 8 -10 minutes.  It should not stick to your hands.  Place in lightly greased bowl and let rise until double 45 -60 minutes.  Punch down, shape into loaves. Let rise again. Bake at 375 degrees F. 

  

There are so many recipes using sour dough starter - it makes a wonderful yeasty biscuit and fabulous corn bread in addition to breads.  I think you can get a starter going with commercial yeast and just let it "work" over the weeks.  You'll eventually get a special starter that is just right for where you live.  Remember to feed the pot.  You can keep it in the fridge for a couple of weeks at a time - just pour some off or use it in a recipe and feed it every so often.   

Ahhh

Ahh - whatever do I want to write today?  I feel like writing -there's a need here, but.....what?  I could tell you all about the mental health center blues where we are forced to use the dreaded "Profiler" software.  But, why would anyone want to hear of that horror???  It might help ME to complain a bit, though.  I certainly hear complaints most every day of my frigging working life and sometimes it might do me well to have someone listen to MY complaints, you know?  Nah.  Won't help.  Better to distract and focus on healing things. 

I've been working my way through three books about food that I find fascinating.  The first is "Nourishing Traditions:  The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats" by Sally Fallon who writes about getting back to the foods that our great grandmothers knew were good for us.  Soups, vegetables from heirloom crops, meats, eggs, and broths from farm raised animals, pure animal fats instead of imitation low fat dairy products.  It's the way I like to cook anyway - it's instinctive - so it's fine to see some theory behind this.  I've learned over the years that grains really are not good for me as they pack on too much belly fat and Sally Fallon confirms this.  She also discusses the modern diet's fascination with sugar as the killer it really is and suggests that we modify our intake drastically with naturally sweet foods.   

The second book in my trilogy is the companion book to "Nourishing Traditions" and is called the "Fourfold Path to Healing: Working with the Laws of Nutrition, Therapeutics, Movement and Meditation, in the Art of Medicine" by Thomas Cowan, MD.  He works in the realms of nutrition and ancient healing wisdom and discusses how to obtain optimum health.   Some of the therapeutic movement stuff is rather foreign and I'm not a big proponent of supplements.  I think I need to delve into it a bit more before I can comment intelligently.

"Full Moon Feast:  Food and the Hunger for Connection" by Jessica Prentice follows the thirteen indigenous ancient moons of the seasons suggesting that we return to foods that are available locally, in the appropriate season, and are raised with compassion.  Very much a spirtual connection is lacking in the industrialized food machine, she states, and without that connection we suffer physically and emotionally.  She includes several recipes at the conclusion of each Full Moon chapter.  The Moon When Salmon Return to the Earth has recipes for Salmon Poached in Lemongrass and Coconut Milk and Salmon Cured with Maple and Juniper.  This is maybe my favorite book of the three.  Even though I would be hard pressed to find locally produced coconut milk in the Rockies of Colorado.

So, that's a fine set of distractions for what ails ya.  And tomorrow is Friday!   

 

Torrone and nut breads

At Christmas my Italian grandmother traditionally gave us torrone which is a nougat candy made with honey and almonds.  It is very good and every year at this season I crave it.  Nonna always bought La Florentine torrone.  It came in little boxes decorated with portraits of ancient Italian aristocrats.   You can still buy it but somehow it's not the same without Nonna making a present of it.  I mean I wouldn't buy torrone just any old time - you know, flip to Amazon.com and order a case or so.

 

But today I made some!  I've had a recipe card for it that must be 20 years old and I've never tried it.   I can taste the honey, vanilla, and almonds all together and, yet, standing on their own merit.  I've already eaten a bunch of it and have a sugar high going here. 

   

Drop a note if you'd like the recipe for your own torrone tradition.  Minus the adorable little boxes, drat!

 

Christmas nut breads 

 

Cirrus, granddaughter of Cloud

Have a wonderfully blessed holiday season all!

The Way It Goes

 

(Autumn scrub oak leaves on Middle Hardscrabble Creek) 

Well, then.  It's been a week or turmoil, hasn't it?  Many people are wondering, wondering, worrying, worrying about what will happen.  A financial crisis of unprecedented proportions for America and the world.  Bailout? or no.  I've been reading a lot of the financial editorials on CNN, listening to National Public Radio.  Googling.   It's complicated and my simple mind wants to separate it into two camps - those who favor government regulation and those who prefer deregulation of the so called Free Market.  I tend to favor government regulation.  When I was in high school I spent a summer in Germany.  I was able to cross the Wall in Berlin and sightsee in East Berlin.  I've always remembered the contrast between East and West Berlin.  One city was lightness and the other darkness.  I reformed some of my then extremely liberal views about communism after seeing the darkness.  Today I think that somewhere between the two worlds is the balance that is fair and gentle.  And I'm not going to worry anymore because all will go the way it goes. 

My dill pickles have been curing in the cellar for 8 weeks.  I cracked open a jar and tasted them tonight.  Wonderful!  Crispy, crunchy, dilly, with just a hint of red pepper.  I'm very proud of them and made my husband eat two.  What a relief!  You know, dills can be very yucky if they get soft in the jar. 

I've begun to thread the cottonwood leaf towels in my old Ahrens 10 shaft loom.

 

And I've begun to believe that whatever happens we will survive.  We'll just keep doing what we do. 

Barmbrack and Aspenglow

 

The aspens are really glowing now.  They are very pretty and every year make me homesick for the glorious Michigan autumns and my extended family.  Lots of memories.

I made Rhonda Jean's barmbrack bread on Sunday (check out her post for August 12 if you would like her recipe) and we've been having it toasted with butter each morning for breakfast.  It is a yummy Irish bread made with lots of currants and raisins that are soaked in strong black tea.  I used the chai black tea that Madeline left in the cupboard when she went off to school.  The chai spice did a nice thing with the fruit. 

 

 

I've made mozzarella cheese today!  It's very tasty and although there were a few moments of lip biting, all in all it is fool proof.  I read through the directions, gathered my pots and measuring things, and just had a feeling I would botch it up.  (It's been one of those weeks in which you wonder if you're going to come out the other side in one piece, you know?).  Well then, this kit comes with everything except the milk and although you really could just get buy with the rennet tablets and citric acid, as a first time cheese maker it seemed comforting to know it was all there.  It is important to purchase milk locally to ensure that it has not been "ultra pasteurized" (which is heated to very high temperatures so that it will ship long distances and have a longer shelf life). 

The milk is heated to 90 degrees F which concerned me because I had no clue about how to adjust for high altitude (water boils at a lower temperature at high altitudes).  So I heated the milk to 92 degrees using the little dairy thermometer that comes with the kit.   Who knows if this was at all necessary?  Not me.  More lip biting came when I discovered that I had neglected to stir the citric acid solution in with the milk as it heated per the directions.  I added the rennet and wondered, "Now just when do you add that citric acid?"  Read the directions again and hastily dumped in the citric acid.  At any rate after the rennet is stirred in "with an up and down motion" (?) the pot is covered and left for about 5 minutes.  You should be able to see the formed curd and the clear whey.

  

There was some more lip biting because it seemed from the little recipe booklet that the curd really should have been more solid at this point.  But, I persevered and stirred the curds some more, then drained the whey off.  I put them in hot water (the curds are supposed to be heated to 135 degrees F at this point - in the microwave or in hot water), drained them again and pulled and stretched them like taffy for a few minutes.  It really did work even with all my goofs and guesswork. 

  

Of course, we had to try it right away so here it is melted on crackers with sun dried tomatoes. 

   

It was actually very easy!  Hmm, mozzarella prosciutto rolls, mozzarrella rolled in herbs, mozzarella and peppers.  Mozzarella for Christmas...the possibilities are endless.