So I urgently needed banana bread, and found I had one banana, not the required three. Not even a second banana in evidence. So it was date, apple and banana bread, and I pronounced it good.
Always a good idea to have a bag of Granny Smiths, peeled and cut up, in the freezer. And the fresh dates came, of all things, from CVS! They're very good, and about the same price as the posh grocery where I used to shop until they were rude. I get good almonds, whole, there, too, same packaging, and nice quality. Just shows, when you're browsing for mouthwash, what you might just come across.
Also that bittercress that's growing freely among my plantings, is now a regular food. Today, chicken salad, with a handful of bittercress and some chives, all cut fine, mixed in. Good spring tonic as well as salad. I was told bittercress is a weed, but in my book, wild food is not a weed, it's nature's freegan supply.
This is the season of decorating Easter eggs. Only doing five this year, all spoken for already. And I only had five white eggs in the house anyway. This means omelettes this week, too. Pictured is stage two, after I blew the eggs, collected the contents, then rinsed out the shells so that the eggs will be permanently good.
I thought it would be good to do marbling, never done that with eggs, though I've done various decorating ideas with the annual egg caper. And it was a time to try out a new marbling kit of paints, which came complete with Japanese instructions...but there were bits of translation,too. Marbling is pretty obvious, though, no need for a lot of explanation.
This isn't strictly marbling, since I did the classic thing of the designs on the water, but then while the shells were still wet, dropped more ink onto them. I may give them another coat of something, too, not sure yet.
And of course, waste not, want not, I dipped a couple of sheets of paper in, to make the cards that will accompany the eggs to their destinations. Then dropped more ink onto the wet paper. It's very cool to see how the colors react to one another, some being more aggressive in seizing space than others.
So Happy Easter, Happy Passover, Good Spring, inclusive wishes to all blogistas! I missed Nowruz, but I'm including it here, as another Spring celebration.
With the marchers in spirit, and making the world a bit better around here. Made up a new giveback box, and translated my wish for capris into a makeover from cargo pants. Better than buying, even from the thriftie.
So, as I was picking out items for give back, I was not planning on including these cargo pants, and thought I could make them over into capris. No sooner said than done. These were in a batch of freecycled clothes I was given years ago, and have worn sometimes, but they could be more useful.
Cut off the length to make capris while keeping all the pockets. Hemmed it up. Done. And if spring and warmer weather ever get here, I'm ready.
Now to send good wishes and support to the students leading our country back into the light. And to do a couple of other good things for my township, no need to discuss them, just do them.
Seeing out the week with fresh baked white and wheat bread, poppyseeds on top, and a big pot of white bean soup. Apron on heavy duty around here...
Great crust. And a fresh pot of labneh, in case a spread is required. The whey from the labneh is in the white bean soup.
So the first couple of days of spring were all about snow, wind, general oh, not this againness.
However, I looked out this morning, as I was getting up the gumption to go out and shovel off my car, and saw my blessed neighbor and friend, already hard at work.
Reason #345,742 why I like living here. And it's why, in a neighborhood like this, when you live alone, you don't cook for one! Little samples go all over the place. My lemon ginger marmalade got good reviews.
Between storms, the fourth one in three weeks about to arrive, I picked a bit of the bittercress, and a handful of potgrown chives from the patio, dressed them with labneh (strained yogurt with a touch of salt and lemon) and a bit of mayonnaise, and made a very good topping for my supper baked potato.
Spring greens, probably full of good elements, and tasting good, too. The chives are especially onion tasting when they're this early.
And, a civilized afternoon tea for Handsome Son who dropped in to get an update on my medical adventures, now up to three doctors at once all intent on finding something wrong with me. No answers yet, just a lot of speculation and questions and testing and waiting..
So HS came over to get up to speed. It may end up being nothing very significant, but good to be knowledgeable about the organ recital.
And in the process to enjoy newbaked scones split and spread with lemon ginger marmalade, which he approved. We demolished the banana walnut raisin bread, too.
Before he left he climbed up to set the time on my wall clock, since the hour changed. It's battery driven, and will be handy if we lose power, I suppose. And this new storm is forecast to be damaging, high winds, heavy wet snow. Well, we'll see if the rest of the tree withstands the upcoming couple of days, or if I won't need to fell it after all...meanwhile the neighbors are weighing in on how much we could save, and persuading me not to fell the whole thing. Everyone's invested in this tree. We'll see how it goes.
Since the departure of his lifelong friend Marigold, Duncan has been struggling. He's 14, not in good health, and I'm watching him with care. But yesterday the sun came out and he decided he felt well enough to play with his tennis ball.
Since he drinks from the toilet, comes when called, and greets visitors at the front door, I think he is actually a black lab, playing the part of a cat.
And, since his human is feeling pretty good, despite a battery of tests happening to her bod at the moment, here's a silly quiz. You can estimate your mental age (!) by doing this color test. Just fun. And my own came out at between 20 and 29. Not sure if this is good, as in youthful, or not good, as in flaky kid...but every result comes with reassuring and flattering comments!
Anyway, go here
Made a big pot of seafood chowder this morning as it was snowing. I use an ancient xeroxed recipe, and I can't find a credit on it. But it's very good, and simple, too. It's Manhattan, meaning with tomatoes, condemned by New England chowder purists. But it doesn't have bacon, condemned by me as a foodstuff. Winter food.
But, spring trying to get here, too, I'd also noticed an interesting few clumps of greenery outside with tiny white flowers.
I'm in a wildflower group on Twitter, but they're UK based, and my candidate didn't seem to be in their pix to date. However, another tweeter id'd it for me. Hairy Bittercress! Hilarious name. She dismissed it as a weed, but I pointed out that to wildflower fans, they're all wildflowers. Anyway, it turns out to be edible.
I had to wait till the snow abated and the plant showed up again before I could test this hypothesis. Since it's growing where for many years I've stopped the landscapers from spraying, it's in clean ground, always a good thing to note.
And I took a little sample and tasted. Not really bitter, not peppery, but a bit dark, along the lines of cilantro. I can see people who can't tolerate cilantro not liking this, either. But I fancy trying it on a sharp cheddar, wholewheat bread sandwich. That may happen quite soon. I'm guessing it's best eaten this early in the year, before it really does get more bitter and tough. Also that it's probably a good spring tonic sort of green.
So that's today's adventure in the food world. Except I did get a new supply of lemons and ginger, ready for the next batch of marmalade.
This book is really worth taking a look. It's an examination of the lives and viewpoints of women as seen through the food they are interested in, or cook, or generally respect and pay attention to. Very often their lives are bereft of this sort of important aspect, since male biographers tend to just tear out and throw away anything remotely interesting like this, but I digress.
The best three chapters are on Dorothy Wordsworth, about whom I learned a whole lot more than I knew before, Eleanor Roosevelt, whose relationship with food was a bit fraught and reflected the mismatch of her marriage, and best of all Barbara Pym, whose use of food as symbol and social denominator, as well as a source of humor and sly digs, is unmatched.
Shapiro also gets Pym in a way that male reviewers consistently fail to, seeing all the joy and merriment under the quiet words, and the powerful swipes at male ego, always a good thing!
And, on other topics, as they say in the news, since my dear cherry tree is shortly to be no more, after friends with chainsaws visit soon, I will have no shade at all on the patio, and my little cherry sapling, planted as a successor, is about the diameter of a pencil, not much help yet.
So I thought, what can I build? cheap, easy to construct, not involving heavy machinery, can be collapsed and put away out of season? and particularly, do I already have the materials around?
And it came to pass that my thoughts settled as they often do, on pvc piping and canvas.
I've built several frames and doodads from the piping, for weaving and spinning and knitting, and they can all be dismantled. As you see, they're all in this crate, along with the leftover piece of canvas. I also have two ten foot lengths of pipe, which used to be curtain rods, until I replaced my windows and thought I should have something a bit more sophisticated in their honor, and got actual grownup curtain rods installed. I knew I'd find a use for them sooner or later.
So I have the makings of a nice little shade thing I can build to shade me on the deck while I read, at least that's the plan. You can attach the canvas easily with special pvc clips, which I have, and I probably have the corner joints and the t joints I need. I know from two seasons of using the awning I made from this canvas that it is a good heatblock.
Plenty of time for this project, since a third nor'easter is expected to arrive this week. I looked at a number of youtube videos, mostly involving Big Saws, and Men with Tools, and women who talked so quietly you couldn't hear them and then forgot to actually show how to do the assembly. And ones with background music that completely drowned out the speaker. So I thought to myself, self, you are on your own here. Just make a drawing or two on the back of an envelope, if you can find an envelope, and go from there.
So that's in the near future for Boud. This shelter will match the awning I put up out front when the weather gets warmer. So I'll have the set. Watch this space.
I don't think we signed up for two nor'easters in one week, but here we are. And for the benefit of blogistas aware that I've been in the midst of it (!) and surrounded by power outages, snowdrifts, downed trees, live wires on roadways, etc., I'm now fine. Pure whiteout for several hours yesterday, high wind, zero visibility. Paths dug out three times.
Lost power, and heat, for eight hours, but I managed to find my survival blanket, everyone should have one, and made up a warm place on the sofa with that and two regular blankets, warm as toast, accompanied by kitty Duncan, who objected to the shiny survival blanket until I covered it with a regular one. It was an adventure getting the blanket open. It's packed down to the size of a postage stamp in the emergency kit, and is not anxious to be unfolded to the size of a large blanket, particularly since it was already dark when I found it. But we prevailed.
Neighbor had stopped over to lend lantern and flashlight in case my own weren't up to it. And to give cellphone number in addition to what I had, in case anything happened during the night.
Earlier in the day, while making soup just in case, good idea as it turned out, and lemon ginger marmalade, just because, I thought of taking pix of the old cherry tree, just in case. Another good idea. Most of it came down in the course of the day, very sad sight.
She was a lovely tree, gave shade, food for bees, birds and squirrels, lovely scent in blossom time.
I was glad to have the soup, since my stovetop is gas and I could light the burners with a match and get hot food after the house went cold. And a nice snack of homebaked bread, labneh and lemon ginger marmalade helped with the spirits.
Here's the unboildownable stage, and the container in the background, sterilizing in boiling water
And the result is one container and one extra
Here's the cook's privilege, homebaked wholewheat, homemade labneh, and a nice helping of the marmalade. No need for pectin in this, just cooked the cubed fresh ginger and the lemon slices, and a couple of lime slices, down until all tender, in a syrup of sugar and water, and it jelled itself.
Power returned during the night sometime, but the local police department is still out, no internet, posting updates on road closings, which are numerous, from a smartphone. Emergency number working though.
Temps in 40sF will help melt the masses of snow burying my car, and I hope for a bit of help with that, too. It will need to be moved for the plows to finish clearing.
A bit tired today, after all the drama yesterday, and now in daylight see that the falling tree knocked the young cherry tree sideways so I hope that's something I can remedy once I can get out there and do something about it.
Today was exciting, but I can report that Handsome Son is home from work safe, and with power, and I'm home, with power, after a wild day of high winds, blizzarding snow, alternating with torrential rain. Soaking wet birds frantically at the feeder getting fuel for the weather. My car was buried under snow then washed clear again at least twice that I observed.
And there was extra drama, of which I was unaware -- next door neighbor trying to take friend to hospital for scheduled major, six hour, surgery, found as they came out to his car, at 6.30 a.m. that it had a flat tire. Frantic attempts to get alternate transportation, and a message on my voicemail, to borrow my car, but my phone was off.
I switch it on when I wake, and by then they'd sorted it all. Another neighbor got a ride to work, lent him her car. I got in touch with him, and instructed him never again to wait, just to come in, he knows where the key is, and take the car keys. Told him where to find them, and he agreed that in the next emergency he will do so. Can't think how his friend felt, hard enough to anticipate surgery, without finding this sort of obstacle, with shrieking winds and rain at that point.
Sooo, waiting to hear how she did.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, after a major battle with this computer, partially sorted, but watermarking didn't take at all, and there are other screen display issues, resulting in trying to post blind, big blank white rectangle squarely on top of the place where commands happen...managed to upload pix of the really good scones I baked today, as a kind of displacement activity, to stay calm in what was a huge storm.
Many outages of power, live wire on roads, roads closed, flooding, cars conking out because their electronics failed in even fairly shallow water. Wondering if my old cherry tree will survive, but that's minor compared to the people. Neighbors safely home from work, I see lights on.
Anyway, I went back to the Solo recipe book, whose writer now follows me on Twitter, evidently quite chuffed about my bean soup blogpost, and this time made what she calls biscuits, but I know as scones.
First time I made the real thing, since there are a few processes to go through, rubbing butter into flour, etc., and for this one I had to mince rosemary (my own homegrown, on the twigs in the freezer, heavenly scent as it thawed) and cube butter and cheese. But, so worth it. Flaky, lovely. And it made more than the number she suggested. I used a small glass to cut them, don't have a cookie cutter.
She recommends peach compote, but I didn't have peaches, and did have apples in the freezer, and that, since there was cheddar cheese, made a good combo. See the lovely blue bowl in the background waiting to be filled.
You can peel off the little skirts of cheese if you want to be more fancy.
And here's an afternoon tea fit for a queen! Probably better than what they get at Buckingham Palace, I hear she eats cornflakes for breakfast, clutches pearls..
There are now half a dozen, scones, not cornflakes, in an airtight container in the fridge, and another half dozen in the freezer, for the next lucky invitee to afternoon tea.
Always interested in new cookbooks just because you never know what great stuff you will discover, and I came across this one
She's an interesting person aside from her cooking cred, really high energy and off the charts smart. The way she mentions quite casually some of the work she's done, and you think, whoah, she's good. Worth reading her intro.
I looked through and found this soup recipe that I could just see doing right off, particularly since a nor'easter, high winds and rain, is scheduled about now.
and did. I will say that she's perhaps a little bit old school in that she talks about pouring the soup into a blender, rather than doing the safer thing, use your immersion blender. And a lot of her recipes are lovely, but they literally make one serving. When she says solo she means it, aside from the occasional whole chicken for several days' use. I tend to think that if I'm going to all that trouble, I may as well double or triple it and have a little something in the fridge for another day.
So that's what I did with this. Used three cans of beans, all white, just what I had handy, increased the recipe liquid and the lemon juice. But I didn't add the salt, since it tasted salty enough to my taste. This comes out creamy, and if you really like cream soups, it might suit you to skip the lemon in favor of cream to add in. I think if you don't skip the lemon you may get cream cheese when you do the blending, lemon creating curds in cream.
And if my food stylist had shown up, she could have snipped a few fronds of the new chives growing on the patio and scattered them artistically about, but she didn't, and this bowl is now history. The next couple might get a chive treatment, though. Note the chunk of wholemeal bread to go with. The golden color comes from the chicken broth.
And there are a few other recipes worth a try in this book. It's very appealing to read, lovely photography, done by a real food stylist. Some rather exotic ingredients I'm not sure about obtaining, but it's worth learning about them.
Just to catch up with world events, Feb 16 was my wedding anniversary, 1963, do the math, it's too many fingers and toes for me. Then February 27 was my forty-first birthday as a US citizen. Still working to do my bit to save it and help it all I can. Full of hope that we can recover from our present trough and come back better. And finally, it's St David's Day, leeks ahoy to our Welsh blogistas, and it's White Rabbits anyway.
So if that isn't enough to celebrate, I just don't know what is.
