Plans and what happens

Saturday's plan was mainly to rest and listen to Tudor history, aside from vital cooking, and it went a little awry.

Gary came dashing over, wondering if I had any ice blocks for him. I've been sending them back to Misfits since they started recycling, but I used to pass them on to him. 

I did, in the bottom of the freezer, so after we'd conferred with another neighbor about his hurting knee, recommended my PT -- Gary is already setting up a series with him about his hurting back -- where was I oh yes, ice, we dug in the freezer.

This entailed emptying it to reach the blocks after which Gary offered to put everything back but I said it's okay it needs to be reorganized anyway. 

So while lunch cooked -- roasted rainbow carrots, tuna cheese fritters -- I found myself hauling frozen stuff. Not sure if the organization is working, but I was surprised to find how much oatmeal I had. I definitely have to shop in the freezer for a while.

Then he asked neighbor and me to save boxes, he's packing. I pointed him to the recycle where I'd just a few minutes earlier put a couple of boxes, flattened and tied. 

So eventually I got the house back to myself and I did the dishes, at which point I urgently needed to lie down, so I made a pot of tea. I also separated the milk into several smaller containers which I froze, not wanting it to go off before I got to it. Then I watered the downstairs plants. Finally I guess I got to rest. Or what passes for rest chez Boud.

Still coughing, throat's fine again, nose is calming down, I just need to regain energy. I may have to rethink my approach to resting.

Comic relief from the etiquette column today 

So would I if my potluck offering were described as poisonous. Bad restaurant reviews are one thing but this is a bridge too far!

I found a new Atomic Shrimp video, Drink Can Tinwork, great fun, craft beers made into boxes and their labels into book covers. I suppose if you keep drinking to get the empty cans your results might show it.

Happy day everyone, what's your version of resting? 

 Marigold and

Fluffina could give us handy tips.

Freezer brag and upcoming days

 Yesterday I did it. Emptied the chest freezer, de-iced it my way. I never do that open the drain, catch the water thing. I just chip gently then finally lever huge sheets off using a spatula. It's very pleasing.

And the result is in fact a lot more room inside there.

This situation was helped by making several bags of stock material and reducing them to stock ready for soup

 Likewise the fridge freezer. I seem to have found a lot of outdated items. I did keep one container of dye, black walnut, because the nuts are much less plentiful at the moment.

I found one new situation, about making yogurt. The old fridge ran very warm on top, perfect for proofing bread and making yogurt. The new one works better, and the top is cool. Not good for yogurt 

The stove is electronic ignition, no pilot light. The stove light is led, doesn't emit heat. Oh. So I set the stove at its lowest temp 170°f, a bit high for leaving  all night, set the yogurt jar wrapped in its usual emergency blanket, turned off the stove after a couple of hours, left it shut all night. And this morning I got pretty good yogurt. 

All this is displacement activity because tomorrow is a doubly significant day. Handsome Son's birthday and Handsome Partner's twelfth anniversary.  

We celebrated HP on his birthday in June, so whenever Handsome Son is free, he'll let me know, we'll celebrate his birthday. I did a chocolate cherry cake for HP, so I won't repeat. I think a plum crumble is the plan.

 I'll bake it today and it will freeze till needed. 

A handmade card, a hand signed check (!) his usual birthday gift, and I think he'll be happy. He's getting to the age where you're less thrilled about each successive birthday, I notice.

This morning recalls to me the long ago final ob visit, where he declared at least a week to go, baby's head not engaged or even close. Yeah. Water broke that evening, sudden emergency situation, nemmind the details, but nobody got any sleep that night. 

We all survived to tell the tale, though I was too weak to hold my baby, couldn't lift my arms. The nurse held him to me instead. He was fine! So happy though, such a rush to meet this lovely little boy who'd been kicking my ribs mercilessly for months.  Starting as hyper as he went on! Fittest member of the family. 

Happy day, everyone, especially August birthday people, you Leos! Here's birthday flowers for you

Farm fresh doings in the kitchen 6WS

Many things to think about today: Handsome Son's birthday (celebrated last night with a big Italian dinner and chocolate cake, with afterdinner mints and prosecco to celebrate him) dinner courtesy of Liz's Kitchen, and a lot of fun it was to prepare and serve it to us both.  Very merry evening.

Also Handsome Partner's fourth anniversary, or possibly ten minutes, at times it seems to be so recent.  We celebrate him on his own birthday, so as to reserve today for son.  Seems fair!  It would amuse him if he knew.

And since the birthday dinner is done, and the son is off to the shore, I went to the farm market and the farmstand and came home loaded down with tomatoes and peaches and eggs and chicken sausage and energy to prep the tomatoes and peaches for winter use, or at least fall use..

I celebrated with a little drawing while waiting for the water to boil for peeling the toms and peaches.

But I did remember to keep one tomato and one peach for lunch, there is nothing better than a New Jersey tomato, right from the farm, just sliced and a bit of salt.  Followed by a Jersey peach, likewise, with a dash of ginger.  No need to fancy them up, they're fancy already.

And my new kitchen toy is getting massive use: the chest freezer I've been banging on about for years, and finally bought.  Less than 24 hours from deciding and ordering to actually starting to fill it!  It's about 5 cu ft, plenty for my purposes.  Lightning swift delivery.

The bottom is all natural dyes, so I can use them in the winter when there's not much foliage to get, and the rest is rapidly filling up with fresh fruit and veggies.  In the course of organizing my freezer from the top of  the fridge I found all sorts of nifty items I'd forgotten, sauces and things, so that freezer is all about pesto and herbs and sauces and various other condiment type stuff.  Amazed at how many little packets of curry leaves I found in there, now all in one bag.  Just bursting with gloat over all this.  And now when I make soup I can store it without risking life, limb and toes when I open the packed freezer to find it..

 

Behind the Scenes Chez Liz, Kitchen, that Iz

First full day at home, and it's cold and rainy, so since I'm out of bread and yogurt and fully stocked with vegetables, it seemed inevitable that, between bouts of stitching, see Art the Beautiful for that update, I would make soup and bread and yogurt.

The bread is what you might call artisanal, or peasant, or something I just call it bread.  The flours are white wholewheat, homeground split pea flour and homeground oat flour.  Very sturdy!

The yogurt, which you see well, you don't, since it's in this mysterious wrapping, the aluminum coat thing, and it's held in place by the handle of my hand mixer. 

Inside there is a saucepan, lidded, with about a quart of milk, scalded, cooled, yogurt starter added, and which will sit quietly fermenting for seven hours before it's ready to fridge and leave to go cold before eating.  And I'll make another batch of yogurt cheese.  The starter was the very last of the yogurt cheese of last week.

The soup is cabbage, acorn squash and zucchini,  with basil pesto, several curry leaves, turmeric, salt, black pepper and the liquid, aside from what was already there in the vegetables, is yogurt whey, from a previous making of yogurt cheese.  It does terrific things for flavor in vegetable soups.  It's currently in the freezer.

And here is the treasure chest of frozen goods, pesto in bags on the right, soup in bowls all over the place, and in bags slipped down on the left along with spaghetti sauce and tomato paste, various spices and garlic and breadcrumbs in the door, loads of frozen vegetables ready for maintaining me over the winter.  This is after I took out several bags of vegetables for the soup!

There's another lot next door in a friend's freezer, too, but I'm too lazy to go out in the rain and organize that area in order to open it and show you.  However the state of my freezer shows you the situation which gives rise to the occasional avalanche.

Off for a healthy walk in the rain in a little while, can't stay in the house for long without needing to move a bit.