Eat, mend, give, move,sit

 The Sunday chili was as good as ever. It's a simple recipe, Firefighter Chili from World Central Kitchen, that takes a lot of ingredients, and I always forget the hour of simmering it needs. So I was ready by the time I served myself.

Note the recipe page showing serious crowd cooking in vats with paddles. My pot makes about seven meals. I rarely get food in plastic reusable containers, , so I was searching for freezable containers.  I found three to freeze,  and have three more helpings in bowls in the fridge for this week.

Mayo and a resulting tuna salad happened Monday. 

Then there's Freecycle, Monday's offerings, complete with hand embroidery. I've shrunk out of the pants, I went small, they didn't, which are in very nice condition, so we'll see.

With Freecycle comes the reminder about items I like and wear, but which need some tlc.

These jackets, heavy cotton, were turtlenecks when I got them about 20 years ago at a garage sale. I cut them open to make useful jackets, and for years the cut front edges curled under neatly, needing no stitching.

Now the edges are fraying and looking a bit pathetic, so I think I'll bind them with contrasting bias tape I was given many years ago in a stitching declutter gift. I like that rust color with the pink one, jury's out on the jade green. 

And there's a pair of black pants inherited from Handsome Son, great length, good rise, waist too wide.  

The label is stitched right through, closing that channel across the back waistband. I'm going to remove that to open it, then insert wide elastic to draw in the waist. I'd like to avoid cutting and stitching canvas if possible. So we'll see. I can't be accused of having an extravagant clothing budget.

And Freecycle reminded me to attend to exercise again. The weights I gave were out of rotation for years, likewise the leg weights Handsome Son wants. But the five pound ones I officially use were just sitting, too. 

So I did a session, noting I was rusty, needing to rest in the middle of the overhead moves. I'll be more faithful now. 

And I already have the getting out of the chair practice under way. That's where you stand and sit, slowly on the way down, several times without using your arms to lever yourself up. If I don't do it for a few days,  there's a real loss of strength. And there's balancing and stretches, all that.

The immediate effect of weight work is a feeling of strength, capability and total smugness.  And with the encouragement of Chris, though she may not know it,  I've adopted the practice of sitting outside, just sitting, no book, no screens, for a while, just being. It's calming.

Happy day everyone, I hope your reno plans work out. If not, wave your weights about.  Or just make comfort food chili, it's healthy. Beans, you know.

If you're really in need of an exciting quest, here's an idea

Darning. Again. Bee on cosmos. Black walls

Sunday was about slow everything. Lovely sunny walk, cool morning, warming up to 70s later.  More junk tipping on the common area, and I took pictures, sent them to management requesting a cleanup, with the numbers of the two houses, so the contractors can find them. 

At home the cosmos is the last flowering plant and it's had a lot of traffic, from this fat bumble?bee I think, to brown butterflies and other stripy buzzy fellers 

 

How lovely it is with the morning sun shining through the petals, six front ones, two behind 

And I stitched a bit more on my autumn leaves, with people sending me pictures of their mothers' crewel work from long ago. It's usually English crewel, more solid and filled in than American. 

American Colonial era crewel was airy, more delicate designs, largely because crewel wool was hard to get in the colonies,  so people had to work with less material. To look at the early bed hangings you'd never know those wonderful designs arose partly from scarcity. No scarcity of great talent, though.

As I was doing dishes (says Boud virtuously, just to show I got around to it) my assistance was called on to look at Gary's sample painting of the black wall. 

He's not just doing the alcove. It's the whole fireplace side of the room. Oh. I liked the warmest sample, and turns out I agree with his daughter on that. So that convinced him! It's very rich. Also very dark.

From fancy stitching to plain, I found yet another sock needing help, so I inserted my glasses case and got to work.

with Kate of the Last Homely House knitting and chatting in the background as I darned along. If you knit socks it pays to know how to repair them,too, especially if you're a walker. Under the toes goes first.

And here's an artwork of spices, many of which blogista cooks will recognize right off.

Since I've been making my own mixes, umami mix, garam masala, baharat, berbere, curry powder, I've come to appreciate the flavors so much more than buying mixes. 

It's fun to handle and grind them, wonderful scents. Also things like mayo, red chili oil, are just better, I think because they're fresh and personal. Even grinding your own pepper as needed, has more flavor than ready ground.  I don't grind salt, but some people do. And I do buy sugar as crystals, not in a loaf!

My spice taste is more south Asian and middle eastern, and Ethiopian,  than Mexican and US Southwest. Though I do make chili sometimes. 

In fact now that I have ground turkey to hand, also various beans, I might do that today. I'll check my World Central Kitchen cookbook. 

They have recipes for feeding huge crowds which they kindly present for family size, too. Chili is a big crowd food, needing vats rather than my little pot. They're still feeding people hit by the latest hurricanes, I believe.

About which, the NJ first responders are home again after working in Florida, North Carolina and Georgia.  

Happy day everyone, eat well, rest a bit, enjoy what you can.

Chili and other good ideas

Yesterday afternoon was spent on the Making of the Firefighter Chili. Here's where the recipe is to be found

They give the recipe for a huge crowd, hence the men stirring a  vat, but they do give a column for the family size, too

And here are the spices, looking and smelling wonderful, right before they joined the onions and garlic and ground turkey then tomato paste in the pot. After this the tomatoes and the broth and they use cornmeal, I use chickpea flour, for thickening.

This recipe is really a journey of scents and textures. It takes a couple of hours, start to bowl, and makes about six big helpings.

Scallions and grated cheddar on top. It's a great recipe, very recommended. It's hot, and I sneeze and tear up and thoroughly enjoy it. 

 The mail brought this nice material from the Arbor Day people, with questionnaire about trees and prizes. 

Yes, it's a fundraiser.  I think the foundation may be past its day now, what with HOAs and cities making tree decisions, however you see I did use the bookmark right away in my WCK cookbook. I think bookmarks too are a bit of a relic, though I have quite a few.

And since I recently tossed out the squirrels'  favorite, butternut squash seeds, it was only a short time before they showed up to fight over them, this one playing King of the hill

While I'm waiting for Yellowface, another library selection came in, which I confused with another writer, thanks, Sue.

This one stunned me by opening in a location a few miles from here, at a Jewish funeral, before moving to Manhattan, Brooklyn and Ithaca in the course of the narrative. 

The central figures, officially narrated by a fourth, later child, but really an omniscient narrator,  are in vitro triplets from a wealthy family.  They feel no connection with each other, attributing it, dubiously, I think, to their petri dish start. There's their wildly wealthy art collector father,  and complications of Cornell, (hence Ithaca, for non American readers, its location), sexual orientation,  infidelity, issues of art as experience and as commodity, and wait,  there's more.. 

Paintings also show up as characters, by Brice Marsden, Cy Twombly and others of the time, real ones in the fictional collection, with roles in the story. There's also what used to be known snobbishly as Outsider Art, understood by the collector,  but seen as puzzling lucrative commodities by the art world's insider dealers and agents. 

It's the art of untrained people, often with religious significance, sometimes in the throes of mental illness, often stunning in effect, but there's the, well grounded, I think, fear of artist exploitation by the art establishment.  Anyway this book has a lot to say,  in an accessible, unselfconscious style, and I'm finding it gripping. Its narrative is full of real toads in imaginary gardens.

Since New Year's Eve is almost upon us, when we're all supposed to wear hats, blow horns and generally get all partied up, or feel envious/guilty if we don't,  I thought you'd like this absolution

Simple pleasures for simple folk. Happy day,  everyone, enjoy the weekend with your version of reading, food, or hats and horns.

White, or maybe, pink, rabbits

November seems to have arrived, so it's White Rabbits again. Handsome Son brought over a box of possible free cycle items which I'd offered to take care of, including this rather shabby and repaired pink rabbit. 

He explained he'd found it years ago at the dumpster and didn't have the heart to leave it abandoned! After a cleanup, it might move in here, to join the other rescued bears, a bit too shabby to free cycle, and people don't usually want stuffed toys.

I haven't looked through the rest of the box yet. 

We had a great visit, despite the doorbell going many times, although the pumpkin and cat were indoors, porch lights off. Gary called to ask me to do his Halloween for him! I explained that I don't do Halloween, and he said oh you don't like going to the door? I thought that was good enough, though it's not quite the reason, and he accepted it. 

Not a peaceful evening.  Handsome Son has been planning an easy Thanksgiving for us, so he's got that in hand. And he replaced my front door curtain with the red felt winter one. He also polished off the rest of the cranwal loaf and really liked it. So chickpea flour is good in baking. I think I'll use it in bread, too. All in all, good.

Earlier I'd made the Firefighters Chili from the World Central Kitchen cookbook, this time no ground turkey in the house, so it has everything else.  You really need cornmeal which I didn't have, to thicken it, and I subbed chickpea flour. It worked great, so I'm making a note on that page, which already shows evidence of being open while I cooked..

Happy day, everyone, rain again here. Time to start thinking about those skirt panels I'm weaving again. The weather's up for warmer clothes, and so am I.

Happy equinox and seasonal events

 

Sandy Boynton's inclusive equinoctial greeting to everyone!

Yesterday around here was about bringing in plants before the forecast storm, including the ficus, which I wrangled myself, nobody available to help. But she hadn't put down big roots this year, so I didn't have to saw through them. She fell on me a time or two, but we came to an understanding.

The coleus and begonia also came in, and, in the kitchen, the Thai basil and Italian basil are now hung in the window near the  food action.

Outside I grouped the chairs,  stacked, and the folded lounger, under the butterfly bush, which you see through the patio window,  against the high winds and rain

Then I got busy with storm prep chili, from the World Central Kitchen cookbook, highly recommended.

I subbed ground turkey for their beef, leeks for their scallions and long pepper for their black, because it's related and much better flavor, and cannellini, aka white kidney beans, for their red kbs. Otherwise I pretty much followed their recipe, the family size, not the mass size they give for all their recipes,  for hundreds.

Anyway it is really good. I can't remember the last time I made chili. It was one of my American epiphanies, when, that first winter in Wisconsin, a  new friend took me to Rennebohms Drugstore, in Madison, on the main street,  for their lunch counter chili, first I'd ever had. A flourish of trumpets with the first lovely taste!

It seems as if our HOA is in tune, too, in their latest email about storm prep, which arrived after I'd made mine

 Speaking of food, I really owe you all who comment with info, because I learn something new all the time from you. Here's a bit of information on the golden berries, after F.  gave us the botanical name and Chris confirmed it.

Happy day everyone, take care if, like your humble blogger, you're in the path of the storm. Make chili, move furniture, whatever floats your boat.