tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20184021969497354122024-03-13T05:57:16.445-07:00Sicilian Sisters Grow Some FoodTwo sisters, two urban gardens, and a question: How much of our families' food can we produce ourselves?
Moving toward sustainability on urban farmsStefaneenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08422241601075022500noreply@blogger.comBlogger841125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2018402196949735412.post-7319978225679121392014-02-15T21:11:00.001-08:002014-02-15T21:11:53.488-08:00Only hopes for the future<a href="http://howsrobb.blogspot.com/2014/02/rainfinally.html" target="_blank">Lisa reminded me</a> that worrying about summer fruit during the winter might be a time-honored farmer thing to do, but it doesn't mean it's actually useful.<br />
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That said? I'm worrying about my summer fruit right now. The trees are covered with beautiful blooms:<br />
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Another worry is that by removing all of my bees there won't be enough bees to pollinate my trees. I haven't yet seen any workers on the trees, although I've seen them out front on the lime tree. I know there are at least two hives one street over -- plenty of bees, should they scout out these trees. It's not as though I can compel them, however. So -- I worry.</div>
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In addition, not all the things that are blooming are good things (apologies to Dr. Seuss). The unseasonable warmth means it's time to cut back the existing AND replant more kale.</div>
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So I don't really know what's going to happen.<br />
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Then there's one more project in the works:<br />
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That's the decanted and mixed limoncello. We'll see how it turns out. I tasted the unsugared base, and nearly was knocked off of my feet. I hope it mellows -- that Everclear is strong stuff. No wonder the Italians insist it be served straight from the freezer. You probably don't want your mouth to actually get all of the taste.Stefaneenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08422241601075022500noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2018402196949735412.post-15974234935039913382014-02-09T17:57:00.000-08:002014-02-09T17:57:58.023-08:00Makings, Old and NewNothing warms this knitter's heart like seeing a <a href="http://siciliansistersgrow.blogspot.com/2007/02/if-sweaters-could-talk.html" target="_blank">beloved sweater</a> passed down among the kids. It's softer, felted, and still delightful.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>I think there's an adult in the making. She's still not that close, but growing up takes a LOT of energy, and sometimes you have to fall asleep, face down on the floor. Under the dining table.<br />
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She's been busy with school projects. I give you the Sewer Pipe Harp.<br />
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</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">For some reason, apple pie seemed reasonable for tonight. I cheated and bought a crust, but it's still mostly homemade. It may end up as breakfast tomorrow.<br />
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And there's knitting, but it's mostly left over from unfinished Christmas, so I'm not showing it. And the rain is reminding me that there is at least a chance we're having a winter, so that's nice. If wet, and doggy, and drippy. I know there are people with much worse weather out there, so I'm not too upset. It's good for us, certainly.Stefaneenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08422241601075022500noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2018402196949735412.post-44328419635793268762014-01-02T19:10:00.001-08:002014-01-02T19:10:27.373-08:00Now with more UltimateRemember the summer trips to Minnesota for the big youth club championship tournament?<br />
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The highlight video is up.<br />
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What amazes me now, watching this, is that both Sarafina and Adam have gotten exponentially better in just a few short months, and they look pretty good in this clip. It's going to be an interesting next few years.Stefaneenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08422241601075022500noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2018402196949735412.post-44208278488601826242013-12-29T16:08:00.001-08:002013-12-29T16:09:38.673-08:00When pruning gives you lemons. . .Careful pruning this year means that the Meyer tree is doing what all the other Meyer trees around here do -- pumping out lemons as though it's going out of style. This year, I went to BevMo and got prepared.<br />
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There are many different zesting options in my drawer. I tried two at first. The little strip zester seemed to be better at taking off only the yellow stuff, but even that got more difficult. I may have become impatient after a few tries, too.<br />
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Then I remembered a post somewhere on the internet about zesting essentially from the inside out. Tablespoon to the rescue.<br />
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If I aimed correctly, I ended up with a round bit of lemon and an empty shell.<br />
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Then the fun really started. In varying ways, I tried holding down the half shell and scraping out the white pith. Everyone is <b>really serious</b> about how you must get all of that white pith out, or doom will ensue. I tend to take stuff like that pretty seriously, and then spent all of the time (except for the brief errand run for chicken food) left obsessing about whether or not I was getting all of the stuff out.<br />
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Scrape, scrape, scrape.<br />
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The peels didn't always stand up well to that kind of force, but my cutting board is well-oiled with pure lemon oil. My hands aren't super happy, though. The jar has many different bits of scraped peel on it. I aimed for the clearest yellow part of the piece to the right of the spoon in that picture, and mostly think I got there. We'll see.<br />
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So, in a few months (?) we'll see what I've made. Ellie and I were talking as I was buying the Everclear, and I was explaining that it's pure alcohol, famed for fraternity parties and making people extremely inebriated, but that it didn't have a flavor to interfere with the lemon flavor. So she said, "You're making alcohol that tastes like lemons?"<br />
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"Well, after the peels have steeped for about a month and a half, we'll add some simple syrup, you know, water and sugar boiled together?"<br />
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"So you're making super-alcoholic <i>lemonade</i>?"<br />
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"I'm not serving it to people by the TUMBLER!"<br />
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The funny thing is that I may not end up <u>serving</u> it to anyone. I'm the only one in the family who actually seems to like the <a href="http://siciliansistersgrow.blogspot.com/2010/12/giving-garden.html" target="_blank">nocino</a> that I made, and even I rarely drink it. A digestif seems odd drunk alone, to me. Anyhow, the few times that I have encountered limoncello, in Sorrento, and other Italian towns, it wasn't exactly love at first sip.<br />
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In fact, I reacted a lot like the character "Ben" on Parks and Recreation in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XepXmESQ4k" target="_blank">this clip</a>. Just hated it. Like bad lemon-flavored cough medicine. To be fair, I'm also so-so on Lagavulin. . . So why make something that makes me want to wipe my tongue?<br />
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Well, it <i>might</i> be different.<br />
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And it might not.<br />
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But someone, somewhere may like it, and hey, it's a new thing to try, right?Stefaneenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08422241601075022500noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2018402196949735412.post-28820619100043596782013-12-27T16:21:00.000-08:002013-12-27T16:21:28.203-08:00Quietly<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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After the busyness of getting ready for the holidays (see, we <i>did</i> decorate these houses, although Oona kind of wandered far afield from the whole "sticking things on cookies" theme), things have gotten very quiet today.<br />
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Math with a nearly-asleep dog in one's lap.<br />
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Reading with a chewing dog in one's lap.<br />
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What happens when the kid gets the camera. I had hoped to feature the knitting I was doing -- knitting I wrapped up as a gift, still on the needles. It will be done, really, soon. I promise!<br />
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When I was out making pointy mulch piles flat with the help of my inexplicably broken rake, I remembered that the chickens needed water and probably food. Look what was waiting in the nest box! The days are lengthening, but I didn't know the chickens had noticed yet.Stefaneenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08422241601075022500noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2018402196949735412.post-41013205447001537222013-12-22T19:32:00.002-08:002013-12-22T19:33:04.405-08:00Assembly timeIn a previous life, I studied counseling psychology and had to take a lot of tests. Personality tests, intelligence tests, tests of psychosis, etc. While scoring low in psychosis, I tended to score high in what was called divergent thinking -- thinking out of the box.<br />
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Do I still put this trait to use, lo these many years later?<br />
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You know I do.<br />
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Exhibit A: gingerbread house pre-assembly, without uniform pieces.<br />
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If I can keep the dogs from snacking until that icing sets up, these little A-frame cabins are going to be turned right side up and hidden until tomorrow, when the decorating will begin.<br />
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This year we'll have a detail-minded eighteen year old, five other people, plus a three year old around the table. Should be interesting.Stefaneenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08422241601075022500noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2018402196949735412.post-46454917620744199782013-12-21T09:21:00.000-08:002013-12-21T09:21:06.941-08:00A Whale of a DayYesterday, the whole family plus our bonus friend went to Santa Cruz to see whales.<br />
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But first, we saw sea lions. They looked, according to our youngest two, like "jumping olives."<br />
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The humpbacks aren't supposed to be here this late in the year.<br />
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A record anchovy run, caused by a warmer than usual fall, apparently has brought out the glutton in whales. What amazed me was that, even from a 60' boat, they looked pretty big from 100 yards away. They also seemed happily buddied-up, cruising along together and chomping surface fish.<br />
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These guys are probably younger males, resisting the call to go to Chile to breed because of two things (this is my surmise; I didn't check it out with the über-professional naturalist): they probably don't have a really big chance to breed, being young guys -- I assume all the mamas are sewn up; and two, there's all this fish still here! Why not stay and eat? It reminds me of a softball team at a pizza joint.<br />
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The whale backs that show as they roll through the water are only a fraction of their size. Something like a tenth, according to the boat folks. <br />
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Sometimes we'd turn and see them from the back as they swam away from us. They looked like draft horses -- huge around the middle. Just great animals, really gigantic.<br />
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And every once in a while, they'd say goodbye and dive.<br />
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We're super fortunate to be able to see migrating and feeding whales relatively near home. We didn't even have to leave the Monterey Bay. Gorgeous December weather, and a pretty drive. The kids were pretty tickled, and only two of our party suffered from the bumpy water, and both only at the tail end (hahaha) of the trip.<br />
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They suggested we come back -- a lot. I don't know that I would necessarily do it from a boat again, but watching the whales was pretty cool. And, quite frankly, I don't know how many more years this sort of stuff is going to happen -- the ocean feels kind of <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/04/starfish-deaths_n_4215015.html" target="_blank">under siege</a> lately. I'm glad we got to see it now.Stefaneenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08422241601075022500noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2018402196949735412.post-86660485087904279042013-12-12T16:33:00.000-08:002013-12-12T16:33:05.057-08:00This one's for Sarafina (and a Grinchy rant)Mama and Mmmmmmmmocha Nut Butterballs.<br />
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In our house, that means Christmas! It also means the start of Stefani Not Eating Them All, which is an actual season, but more difficult.<br />
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And just in case you can't wait to make your own, <br />
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Ingredients:<br />
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour<br />
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder<br />
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules<br />
1/2 teaspoon salt<br />
1 cup butter, softened<br />
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1/2 cup white sugar<br />
2 teaspoons vanilla extract<br />
2 cups finely chopped pecans<br />
1 cup confectioners' sugar for rolling<br />
Directions:<br />
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Stir together the flour, cocoa, coffee crystals and salt; set aside.<br />
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Mix in the dry ingredients just until blended. Stir in the pecans. Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place them 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet.<br />
3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until the bottoms are lightly browned. Remove from cookie sheets and roll in confectioners' sugar while still warm. Store in a tightly covered container at room temperature.<br />
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And now for the rant.<br />
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I finally deigned to listen to the local station that does continuous Christmas music, figuring it would get me into the mood a little bit -- hey, I made the cookies, right?<br />
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I was thinking maybe some Handel, some Santa Baby, some In the Deep Midwinter? But nooooooo. I hit, <i>first thing</i> that crummy, stupid, execrable song about the boy with the dying mother who is <b>buying her pretty shoes to meet Jesus</b>. I cannot say enough about how horrifying I find the whole thing. It's really everything I hate about everything in one little package.<br />
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I went back to punk on the Mp3 player.<br />
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So there.Stefaneenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08422241601075022500noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2018402196949735412.post-79737889441842872192013-12-11T18:58:00.002-08:002013-12-11T18:58:52.060-08:00Tangled Up<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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An unprepossessing mess, no?<br />
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It's what is passing for my knitting project these days. Having misplaced my almost-done project <i>and</i> the project bag it was in, my knitting mojo took an enormous hit.<br />
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It's metastasizing all over. I can't seem to get anything done. Drafts of writing due, essays to edit, gardening projects (heloooooo, mulch), nothing. I've got nothing.<br />
<br />
So, I figured instead of launching into my next big colorwork sweater project, which would involve, oh, <u>designing a sweater</u>, I'd find some sort of mindless make-a-sweater-without-thought project. This bag of vintage yarn, given to me by Sainted Betty, my Knoxville knitting teacher, has come along and seemed appropriate.<br />
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Alas, it's a mess of mild tangles. Technically, I don't even think it's tangled. It's just that yarn has stored energy and if it's allowed to twist, in, oh, I don't know, multiple moves from state to state, it needs undoing.<br />
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So when I can't engage my brain enough to do anything, make anything, finish anything, and I've done the housework and the kid wrangling and carpool driving and dinner making and dinner cleanup, well, working on these twists and turns feels as though I'm accomplishing <i>something</i>.<br />
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It's not going to get Christmas sorted here, though. Bleah.Stefaneenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08422241601075022500noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2018402196949735412.post-65055856795239652652013-12-08T17:36:00.001-08:002013-12-08T17:36:17.542-08:00It's the most wonderful time of the year. . . Ultimate time!! The high school season is slowly beginning, despite record low temperatures. The two younger kids and I may never warm up after watching three games in a row. <br />
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But it was wicked fun. <br />
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The team even did my two favorite cheers. I love the intensity and fun the kids bring to the game -- "Eat the babies!"<br />
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And, you know, as an almost-50 year old woman, I don't often think to myself, "I wish I could trade bodies with a 17 year old for. . . just a couple of hours," but when I do, it's during Frisbee games.<br />
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They <i>fly.</i><br />
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And when they fling themselves on the ground, as they did repeatedly during the second game? (I would have bet good money they were just messing with us at that point.) They bounce right back up and do wonderful things.<br />
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My second girl can throw on a hard mark. <br />
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<br />
But she was a little winded. I had to laugh when I saw that after a terrifically long point, with many turns, she was taking breaks bent in half with her hands on her knees, a position I know very well from my own forays into running around.<br />
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After one long series, she staggered off the field and collapsed. This was just before she pathetically asked me to throw her a Gatorade. . .<br />
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I love this sport. I love to play, I love to watch, I love the kids, I love the coaches, I love the other parents.<br />
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<br />I do not love the cold. Fortunately it's supposed to get a little better after tomorrow.<br />
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And yeah, yeah, yeah, I know everyone everywhere else has it worse than we do. But for me, and where I am? I'm cold. Brrrrr.Stefaneenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08422241601075022500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2018402196949735412.post-29838889089535466372013-12-07T14:28:00.002-08:002013-12-07T15:21:57.507-08:00A Whale of a TripIf I could read a calendar, if be on a whale watching trip right now.<br />
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Fortunately, sitting in an In N Out burger is okay. This has been one of the happiest drives I can remember with my children. For example, there was the question, "What would your superpower be if you could have it?" It's one of my favorite car games.<br />
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Tor said, "I'd turn into Batman."<br />
Katie said, "I'd be able to move things with my mind."<br />
Ellie said, "I'd control people's minds. . . "<br />
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I can think of few more horrifying things than my 14 year old controlling people's minds, so the game devolved from there into a discussion of how she'd not be evil, just make people do what she wanted them to do. Of course. Rolling by the beautiful hills just east of Fremont, I thought how wonderful the day had been.<br />
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Fortunately, their good moods lasted through all the songs on the radio. "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCdwKhTtNNw" target="_blank">Sweater Weather</a>," anyone? It sure is cold. . . We belted out song after song after song, and I insisted on total participation when Van Morrison sang about standing in the sunlight laughin'.<br />
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I really couldn't have asked for a better couple of hours.<br />
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So the trip is rescheduled; hope the whales wait. . . meanwhile I have supplies to finish a tree skirt, the big dog is getting an unanticipated visit to the dog park which is usually Taz's sole domain, and there's the Mayor's Christmas Tree lighting tonight downtown. Wonder if it will be worth it to bundle up and brave the cold for that. <i>Edited to add, NO WAY!</i><br />
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It's not as though I don't suddenly have time.Stefaneenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08422241601075022500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2018402196949735412.post-61174232501367440052013-12-06T14:39:00.001-08:002013-12-06T14:39:54.640-08:00Winter crops, summer cropsTwo days of visiting Arctic weather have provided a lovely example of warm weather vs. cold weather crops.<br />
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Tomatoes, <br />
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peppers.<br />
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Note the unharvested, yet perfectly edible, fruit on both of those. Oh, goody, voices in my head, another stick to beat myself with! I may try to grab them, and yet . . <i>I may not.</i><br />
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What I will most likely do, however, is serve a broccoli dish tomorrow, so as not to waste everything coming out of the yard.<br />
<br />Stefaneenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08422241601075022500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2018402196949735412.post-89774020988446197192013-12-04T14:33:00.000-08:002013-12-04T14:33:02.616-08:00Zeno, what a guyIf a woman has a mulch pile to shovel, first she must shovel up, scoop by boring scoop (with apologies to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A63VwWz1ij0" target="_blank">Paramore</a>, but I sing in my head all the time) half of the pile. Then she must trundle these half-pile loads elsewhere, and dump them, leaving the raking of them flat for another day. But, when half the pile is gone, there remains half of the remaining pile, and so on and so on.<br />
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There's apparently a long challenging (to me) maths explanation as to why I will not have a pile of mulch blocking my driveway forever <a href="http://www.mathscareers.org.uk/viewItem.cfm?cit_id=383275" target="_blank">here</a>, but I'm starting to wonder.The only way I can tell I made any progress at all is that one corner of the door is uncovered, and there were damp patches under the stuff that got moved.<br />
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Sigh.<br />
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Fortunately for my sanity, and my back, that's not all I got done today. Our lovely neighbors let me put the cherry tomato plants in their green waste bin, since ours is overflowing thanks to nephew's enthusiastic pruning of some trees. Amazing what you can get a big 13 year old to do if you offer a machete and a ladder. . .<br />
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Like <a href="http://siciliansistersgrow.blogspot.com/2008/08/i-have-not-had-too-much-of-picking_26.html" target="_blank">Robert Frost's apple farmer</a>, I know what will trouble my yard in spring, though. Volunteers in the making, no matter how much mulch gets shoveled on top of them.<br />
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And once all of the vines were cleared away, I could see this lovely thing waiting for discovery.<br />
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Crunchy, cold, perfect balance of tart and sweet, this Fuji made a great post-Ultimate hobbit second breakfast for me.<br />
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Of course, clearing things away meant I could see that not only am I not the only one with designs on the apples, but there's a bad infestation of powdery aphids on the tree. Time to get out the oil! Perils of seeing reality clearly. Stefaneenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08422241601075022500noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2018402196949735412.post-67584323445596857512013-12-02T14:17:00.001-08:002013-12-02T14:17:31.554-08:00Making wayYesterday I thought I might get rid of all of the mulch. I had my work outfit on.<br />
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It's fluffy, easy to move, and there are/were many places that needed covering up. So I trundled. Over and over and over, assuming I would keep doing that until I either fell over or finally cleared the great pile.<br />
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I didn't finish, however. The kids had needs and wants, and I ended up driving hither and thither, as Sarafina once famously said at about three years old.<br />
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So today, I shoveled more. It's still not gone, but there is a bigger dent in it. Between tomorrow and the rest of today, I ought to be able to get it done, if I don't get distracted again.<br />
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There are so many things to clear out of the garden, leftovers from the spring and summer. The asparagus appears to be finally dying back, but it also has the weird winter sprouty thing going on that it had before. I pulled bean vines after bean vines, and ended up with a tangle of vines and more pods to shell. With continuing fog and possible rain, I've got to get on top of this stuff. . . and yet, it is sort of sad. So much summer dying out there.<br />
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There are still peppers and green tomatoes, and I could probably let it all go, but I am done. Done, done, donnity done, as I said when I told the local beeks I was selling equipment. Time to clear out.<br />
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The nice thing, though, about gardening and probably life, is that clearing out makes room for new growth. Sometimes it's great growth like the kale crops doing so well in this bed, and sometimes it's weeds. The oxalis is everywhere in the garden. All I can do is faithfully tend and wait patiently.<br />
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Oh, and get out there and shovel some more!Stefaneenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08422241601075022500noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2018402196949735412.post-20900124362902325622013-11-30T18:19:00.000-08:002013-11-30T18:19:03.016-08:00LambentWe used to attend silent Quaker meetings. They were great in many respects, not for me in others eventually. But one phrase the Friends use is "holding in the light." It means a few different things. Today, intermittently, I walked in the light.<br />
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Morning starts early with dogs and vomiting on the floor. Oh well, that's what paper towels are for. Venturing outside, I noticed that the heavy fog of winter mornings was visiting. Always, always I again see my children as tiny little things running in the fog on mornings like this. <br />
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Tea made, paper read, dog park! I rode my newly repaired bike -- but still have a hard time keeping up with Taz. I am The World's Slowest Rider still, apparently. The fog had made art on the fence.<br />
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Later, I overheard the eldest child talking reasonably to the second one, a glow of light.<br />
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Frisbee bake sale -- shining beautiful faces of the players -- leaving time for a dim sum lunch with the child who doesn't get good enough food in Oregon.<br />
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The electric car stayed to charge in the municipal garage because the mulch blocks access at home; off for a favorite hike. As I step over roots and up and down rocks, the dog flings herself into the lake. We've been here so many times. Today, we walked widdershins around the water, so started in shadow. No sunglasses needed. But as we returned from the creek out-and-back, and started on the other side, warm sun broke through.<br />
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Jacket off, eyes closed, face to sky. . . it glowed with thin honey light. A benediction on a winter afternoon, soon before sunset. Candles on the table, golden bubbling wine in glasses on the visiting child's last day.Stefaneenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08422241601075022500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2018402196949735412.post-19160141110847764342013-11-26T13:10:00.002-08:002013-11-26T13:10:16.064-08:00Holiday ProcrastinationShower. <br />
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Dog park. Dog barks.<br />
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Breakfast.<br />
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Computer noodling.<br />
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Help hapless knitter decrease a hat.<br />
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Talk to the nice tree crew and beg for mulch. <br />
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Shopping. Brussels sprouts, thank the gods. Corn starch. There will be berry pie.<br />
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Home - hey, there's mulch! Now I can shovel mulch.<br />
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Clean kitchen.<br />
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Drink tea.<br />
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Roll pie crust.<br />
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Make more pie crust.<br />
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Wrap pies.<br />
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Shovel mulch.<br />
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Sand trim.<br />
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Make dinner.<br />
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Goof around.<br />
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Good thing I'm pretty mellow about holidays - oh, shoot. I forgot to get knucklebones for the doggy knuckleheads for Thursday. I may have to go on a bike ride for that.Stefaneenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08422241601075022500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2018402196949735412.post-5400866441275927662013-11-24T16:58:00.002-08:002013-11-24T16:58:52.987-08:00Transportable skills<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Frosting cakes and repairing old damaged woodwork aren't all that different, fortunately. Tomorrow, I <i>sand</i>.<br />
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And roll pie crust, make more pie crust, and make and freeze pies and stuffing.<br />
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Maybe I'll buy a turkey, too.Stefaneenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08422241601075022500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2018402196949735412.post-46239519819964659352013-11-23T09:04:00.000-08:002013-11-23T13:56:28.480-08:00Last one of the yearLife isn't always easy when you're the only boy in a family of girls. Add in being the last birthday of the year, after the excitement of Halloween and your always-dramatic only two years older sister's birthday, and Tor's birthday can sometimes feel a little ad-hoc.<br />
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Add in an aversion to chocolate in its purest forms, and well. . . what are you going to do?<br />
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Fortunately, this year boys from his class were available to play video games at a new arcade, his dad was willing to do party duty while I ran off to Oregon, and <a href="http://smittenkitchen.com/" target="_blank">Smitten Kitchen</a> can be counted on for fantastic cakes.<br />
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The Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake is a huge hit, because somehow the presence of peanut butter makes chocolate go from an "eeew" to a "yay!" The ganache was easy and fun, and it's a pretty cake. Lots of bang for a moderate effort, my kind of late in the year birthday effect.<br />
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With this one turned 12, only one more child still in single digits -- the time seems to be moving on pretty fast.Stefaneenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08422241601075022500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2018402196949735412.post-10948726795946056532013-11-14T16:47:00.001-08:002013-11-14T16:48:08.194-08:00In Matters of Dirt, Dirt MattersThe planting bed out front has purchased "garden soil" in it. It gets the same kind of watering as the back. It had broccoli and kale planted in it right about the same time as the back yard.<br />
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I think they look pretty anemic. While I'm sad about that, the plants in the back are giving me cause for optimism. Even though I routinely gripe about my <strike>colander</strike> garden soil, the work I've put in seems to have paid off. The back yard cole crops, in three different beds, look greener and larger.<br />
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Another interesting point is that the back yard plants have had some insect predation (just look at those broccoli leaves below) but they appear to be "fighting back" effectively, outgrowing the chewing of the cabbage moth caterpillars.<br />
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<br />Stefaneenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08422241601075022500noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2018402196949735412.post-32159586436419603632013-11-08T14:39:00.002-08:002013-11-08T14:40:13.726-08:00Long Term DecisionsA long time ago, I told myself that having birthdays in the family between Halloween and Thanksgiving would be "no big deal," and better certainly than between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Turns out, since Halloween is like the high holidays here, it isn't <i>terrible</i>, but it's also not super easy.<br />
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Until this year, when my OACAH (oldest available child at home) decided that a nice dinner out with her family would be a good way to celebrate. Less pressure, lots of fun, and that freed me up to concentrate on the parts of birthday celebrating I <i>do</i> enjoy.<br />
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Cake.<br />
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Cake is the part I like.<br />
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Not just making cake, but looking up new cake recipes and considering them, and trying them out, and testing them, and everything else. So these late in the year birthdays are all about the cake. This one is The Celebration Cake from <i>Bake it Like you Mean it</i>, by Gesine Bullock-Prado.<br />
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I had help, too. Not just from the youngest child, who licked beaters, and the dogs, who tried to get at it, but my sister in law is visiting, so I had competent adult help. Even she couldn't keep me from making bonehead errors, which is why there are three spare wrongly-measured ingredient chocolate layers downstairs in the freezer.<br />
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Oops.<br />
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Making new ones with appropriately measured ingredients helped a lot.<br />
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Layers of vanilla butter cake, flourless chocolate cake, raspberry buttercream, and raspberry preserves make what I think of as a terrifically girly birthday cake.</div>
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And that girliness is appropriate, I think, for a young lady turning 14.</div>
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I can hardly believe it. As we do every year, I told her the crazy story of her 45-minute birth, we made the jokes about her always being in a hurry, and marveled at how big she's getting.</div>
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This one is turning into a marvel of maturity, and her shining qualities keep showing themselves. Her friends are lucky to have her, as are we. We're especially glad that tolerance of her siblings is one of her qualities, because brothers <i>will</i> do things like this if at all possible.<br />
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I haven't even tried it yet. Last night's dinner was too filling. So maybe a slice with tea today, then the search for friends and neighbors to feed it to begins. This cake called for 10" layers, which is craziness indeed. I did discover a new restaurant supply house, though, so nothing but all future disposable income is lost.<br />
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One more birthday cake, then Thanksgiving pies, then at least one Buche de Noel. I'm a happy winter baker!Stefaneenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08422241601075022500noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2018402196949735412.post-7964671049912451592013-10-30T22:04:00.000-07:002013-10-30T22:04:48.337-07:00Our Lady of Perpetual Parsley. . . and kale, and, alas, Oxalis too.<br />
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It's true. If I never wanted to grow anything but kale, tomatoes, beans, parseley, cilantro, and oregano, I could dispense with all deliberate planting.<br />
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Missed dropped tomatoes, kale plants gone to flower, bean roots hibernating underground, my garden is full of potential. If the circumstances are right, as in the tiny kale forest below, up they pop. <br />
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I let the parsley go to seed because the bees like it. Bonus is I never have to deal with fiddly parsley seeds and their picky germination requirements. Apparently, benign neglect is the key.<br />
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There are downsides, I assume. I haven't figured out all of the succession keys yet, so I have either "all" or "none" as the settings. Remember the <a href="http://siciliansistersgrow.blogspot.com/2011/12/i-meant-to-do-one-of-these.html" target="_blank">Tunnel of Cilantro</a>?<br />
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I also can't really choose with any pinpoint accuracy where these plants will show up. True confession -- I may see parsley all over as I may have flailed some seedhead branches all around while singing a few weeks ago. . . "Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyyyyyyyyymmeee." Still, it's a generalized planting technique.<br />
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However, if you like serendipity, if you are lazy, and especially if you're willing to eat stuff when it feels like showing up -- I am still trying to force pint after pint of lovely Sungold cherry tomatoes on neighbors, and may hand them out as Halloween treats tomorrow -- I can heartily endorse it as a technique.<br />
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What pops up without effort in your garden?Stefaneenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08422241601075022500noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2018402196949735412.post-86274300880358936242013-10-25T19:15:00.001-07:002013-10-30T22:05:15.651-07:00The Big OneOur sadly neglected front yard apple trees put on a lovely show this year. I've been eating apples almost every day.<br />
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Sometimes it's been difficult to see them because they're hidden by volunteer Sun Gold vines, but the other day I was picking some tomatoes to <strike>force them on</strike> offer them to neighbors, and saw the apple of the season.<br />
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Yum.<br />
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The other Big One?<br />
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She seems to be having a lot of fun and studying hard at college. We were lucky enough to get to see her play in a casual tournament last week.<br />
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Watching my kids play remains one of the very most enjoyable things I do.Stefaneenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08422241601075022500noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2018402196949735412.post-46228039946901496122013-10-15T16:45:00.002-07:002013-10-15T17:37:56.019-07:00Daily mealsSome nights it's all I can do to put food on the table -- sometimes going so far as to order takeout or pick up burritos from the very nice people up the street. But I do write a menu every week and try to stick to it. I also like to try new things -- tonight is one example.<br />
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I like gnocchi. At restaurants. At home, it's hit or miss. Out of nowhere, I figured I'd give it a try, and was inspired by some pop-up recipe with spinach. So I looked until I found a <a href="http://www.organictuscany.org/recipes/first-courses/gnocchi" target="_blank">recipe I really liked</a>. Also I'm trying to clean out the freezers, and we had two half-bags of spinach waiting. Coincidentally, they were exactly the weight specified. Yay!<br />
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After I baked the two kilos of Yukon gold potatoes, then riced them, mixed in the cooked and drained spinach and two cups of flour, it looked like this.<br />
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Then the dough got rolled out into ropes. It's pretty wet, so we'll see how it goes.<br />
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I tried cutting pieces with a knife<br />
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But decided that kitchen shears were easier and squished the ropes less. <br />
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After cutting, a quick push with a fork makes groovy places. Apparently, it helps sauce cling.</div>
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A test run in the afternoon. <br />
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They're. . . okay. I think they'll be better with butter, Parmesan, cream, and nutmeg tonight. How could they be worse?<br />
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<br />Edited to add -- gnocchi were only okay. Sauce was terrific. Oh well . . .<br />
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The other first is <a href="http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2013/10/purple-plum-torte/" target="_blank">this plum torte</a>. Very very easy to make. I can hardly wait to cut into it. I may end up taking it to spinning to share.<br />
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<span id="goog_1590226407"></span><span id="goog_1590226408"></span><br />Stefaneenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08422241601075022500noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2018402196949735412.post-70262006702724780992013-10-08T21:25:00.000-07:002013-10-08T21:25:15.830-07:00Making Do<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The volunteer Sungolds have climbed the espaliered apple trees out front. The plant nearest the sidewalk is dense, with many smallish tomatoes. It reaches through the fence to the side where the toddler lives. She runs there each morning and picks orange tomatoes to eat.<br />
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The plant toward the back has bigger fruit and longer, whip-like branches. Denise helps me pick and slice, trying to save as many as possible. We feed them to anyone who will eat them, and still there are more. I think there will be cherry tomatoes until a hard frost. Will I manage to not pull them out before January?<br />
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Estimating how much to plant is an art I've not yet mastered. I thought three Principe Borghese plants would keep me in sun-dried tomatoes all year long. Given the vagaries of my irrigation system, I underplanted. I'm trying to keep up with the harvest and preserve as many as I can. I'm already eating them, chopped into quinoa, tossed with pine nuts over pasta, and in salads.<br />
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But drying them in the oven isn't resource-wise, and perhaps more importantly, I'm over-crisping them. I'm pretty impatient. There's a book in our local library about building a solar dehydrator that looks pretty interesting. I'd hate to buy an electric one.<br />
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In the mean time? I'm making do with the huge solar oven-like thing out front. The dash of the van is good for turning crystallized honey back into pourable liquid, and it's doing a great job on these tomatoes, too.<br />
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What passers-by think of it is beyond my knowing. The results have been wonderful.<br />
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<br />Stefaneenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08422241601075022500noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2018402196949735412.post-21804355128878581622013-10-04T07:07:00.001-07:002013-10-04T07:07:34.775-07:00Recipes for the RedsWhen I'm overwhelmed with tomatoes or red peppers (although, really, "overwhelmed" and red peppers do not belong in the same sentence. It would be like being "overwhelmed" with health), I have a couple of go-to recipes.<br />
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<a href="http://annieskitchengarden.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Annie</a> suggested that I needed to share my tomato recipe, and I hesitated. It's not really a recipe, more like a procedure. At any rate, here goes.<br />
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Take a bunch of your lovely, fresh, ripe ripe ripe tomatoes. It doesn't matter what variety; you just have to enjoy them enough to eat them somewhat concentrated. Wash and core them. Chop roughly. Set aside. Mince an onion, leek, or a bunch of shallots. Make the allium pile correlate to the amount of tomatoes -- a whole onion for a large pot, half for half, etc.<br />
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In a heavy-bottomed pan, melt about 1/4 cup butter and an equal amount of good olive oil together. Add the onion and saute on medium heat until translucent. Add the tomatoes. Cook until the skins are coming off of the pieces, and the tomatoes are breaking down. Hasten this process by smushing them with a spoon.<br />
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When they're cooked, remove the pot from the heat and either in batches in a food processor or with an immersion blender, blend until smooth. Pass the puree through a fine sieve and then salt and pepper the resulting liquid to taste.<br />
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You could then gild the lily by dressing each bowl with a lagniappe of something -- a spoon of cream? A swirl of pesto? A drizzle of good balsamic vinegar? Any of those suffice.<br />
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I try to make batches and freeze them because heating up a bowl of this in the doldrums of February, along with topping it with thawed cubes of pesto, is a great way to remind myself that the earth is still turning and spring will come again.<br />
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So that's my "made up" soup. I also cook things from recipes. This week, Denise and I shared another soup-centric meal that featured the Roasted Red Pepper Soup from Deborah Madison's <i>Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone</i>. Since it asks for quite a lot of red peppers, I can only make this when the garden cooperates. Another good reason to go pepper-mad each spring.<br />
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<b>Roasted Red Pepper Soup with Fried Polenta Croutons ** I do NOT often make croutons!<br />
From Deborah Madison's <i>Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone</i><br />
Serves six</b><br />
You will need some leftover polenta, chilled and cut into cubes. Why? Why? Why? I'm not a huge polentist, so skipping this isn't a challenge for me.<br />
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3 Tbsp olive oil -- I put "some"<br />
1 medium onion, chopped<br />
1 small russet potato, peeled and thinly sliced<br />
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced<br />
1 bay leaf<br />
1 Tbsp chopped fresh marjoram, plus more for garnish -- I skipped this part, because I didn't want to walk to the back corner of the garden<br />
1 Tbsp tomato paste -- or you could use one smallish fresh tomato and not worry?<br />
4 red bell peppers roasted and chopped<br />
1 tsp Hungarian paprika -- In my case I misread and put in one tablespoon. Still, okay<br />
Salt and pepper<br />
Quart of water<br />
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Heat olive oil in a soup pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and potato and cook, stirring frequently, until edges begin to brown, about 10 minutes. Add garlic, bay leaves and marjoram, and cook, stirring, one minute more. Stir in tomato paste and cook for yet one minute more.<br />
Add peppers, paprika, 1 tsp salt, a few grinds of pepper and the broth. Scrape the bottom of the pot. Bring to a boil, then cover, reduce heat and simmer until potato is quite tender, about 25 minutes.<br />
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If you have a sister to watch the soup, you can drive to school to pick up a child who it turns out is not there, so you have made the trip for no reason. (She had gone to a friend's. Sigh.)<br />
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Fish out the bay leaf. I use an immersion blender -- seriously? They are so useful! -- but you can use a tall blender or a food processor, with care -- to blend until smooth. Taste and correct salt and pepper as needed.<br />
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Madison says to serve with croutons, but you can ladle it into bowls and top with balsamic vinegar and it's still fantastic.<br />
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To roast the peppers, I cut them in half, put them under the broiler before I did anything else until they were nicely charred, and then stuck them in the soup pot with the lid on. After they steamed for a while, I pulled off what skins I could but didn't get too crazy about it. I'm willing to eat some charred bits of skin.<br />
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I missed all of the in-between pictures (see going to the school) but this is what it looked like post-blending. Apparently I'm a huge fan of almost single-ingredient pureed soups!<br />
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But pureed soup does not, on its own, a meal make. In the "Get 'em while they're fresh" approach, we also had some beans. I've posted before about how much I love my dried beans. <br />
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However, I also enjoy shelled beans, and they're not easily available here. I figured I'd grab some of the green ones while I still had them. Denise helped me shell both kinds of beans, and Oona thought it was interesting, but was a bit less helpful. <br />
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We just boiled the shelled beans until they were tender, but discovered that, like Favas, they had sort of a strong inner peel. We nipped that off and were left with starchy, soft, bean innards.<br />
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Finally! Dressed with a crunch of sea salt and some very good olive oil, they made a fine accompaniment to the soup. Can you tell I'm not a food blogger? Sigh. . . pictures.<br />
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Although Denise and I each yummed up our lunch, after demanding soup and beans, Oona decided that perhaps pb&j would be more to her preference. Have to eat lunch before getting ice cream!<br />
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<br />Stefaneenerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08422241601075022500noreply@blogger.com4