Scarves, socks, supplies and soup

Today I finished the scarf, and here it is.

Now I'm planning the next. That was a good piece of learning. And today, using Joanne's family darning mushroom, I repaired my  sock, which had developed a hole around  the toe

Fairly wobbly darn, which became invisible when I put the sock on.

Meanwhile, since the weaving isn't portable, I started a new pair of socks for the Ministry, so as to have something to bring to the knitting group.

Then I had to sort out yarn, to find washable wool for the next ministry scarf. 

This looks like a good supply, but, reading heaps left to right

In the box are miscellaneous small unlabeled amounts which I can't use for ministry knitting, don't know if they are machine washable.

Next cotton remnants, socks okay, maybe another pair, scarves no, not warm enough.

Next a small supply of super wash, which can be socks or scarves, good. Next definitely not, hand wash, dry flat is for my use only, can't expect anyone else to do it.

And that's about it. As you see, I'm eking out the black yarn in stripes because I have a good supply of the (terminally boring) grey, but not much black.

So that's where we are.  Next parcel to Sister M. will be the scarf, which to my surprise, is nice enough to give, and two pairs of socks.

Yesterday I also finished

And recommend it as a well written, passionate auto, written with a ghost, they all are, but with a genuineness about it and great narrative ability. I've heard part of the audiobook version read by him, and his narratives talent really shines.

It's sad to read his struggles, despite the seemingly golden good fortune of birth and wealth, quite a bit of which is illusory.  The endless pursuit by the gutter press which printed literally thousands of slanderous articles and hundreds of books, none with permission, from the moment his mother died, when he was 12, is stunning.  

Then on to the savage press coverage of his biracial son's birth, with images and descriptions that I wouldn't repeat, so vile.  The scurrilous articles about Meghan can't be repeated here.

And his father cancelling his sll important security detail, while another source leaked his location, it's all so House of Cards, it's stunning.  

In the 24 hours after the news broke that he but not Meghan would attend the coronation, one single newspaper rushed out over 30 articles attacking her. One paper. 24 hours.  This is on top of six years of non-stop spying and hundreds of unauthorized books , thousands of unauthorized articles.

I think one Netflix show, one Winfrey interview and one book, are a very mild and courteous response on his part. He doesn't criticize his relatives, just relates his puzzlement over their actions and words. He criticizes the media. 

I'm glad he not only has established safety in the US but has made the press and the family who colludes with them, grasp they've taken on the wrong people. 

He's probably the most capable and intelligent of his family,  and has a great partnership with a strong woman. That's the good part. It's a long but readable book.

Here's the immediate supply

by the stove, left olive, right avocado. You can see color differences. 

The main supply is kept in a cooler place, behind a closed cabinet door, light not being very good for oil. They come in dark glass bottles, too.

While we're in the kitchen, here's lunch

Red lentil flatbread with cream of butternut squash, carrot and sweet potato soup. 

The garnish is lemon balm, which I think is in the mint family. It grows to world domination, but is a great lemon flavor for all kinds of food, such as lemon chicken, lemonade, any place you want the flavor of lemons.

Happy day everyone, enjoy your weaving, whatever form it takes!

Food rules

Deliberately ambiguous title this morning.  Read one way, it's about how food rules my current world.  Read another it's about the rules I need to observe in order to stay in charge of the food and not be ruled by it!  This is not about consuming food.  This is about the logistics of liking to cook and save and freeze vs. the reality of a smallish freezer at the top of my fridge.

So I made a giant loaf of bread yesterday, whole wheat and oatmeal with sunflower seeds inside and poppyseeds on top.  This is a variation I made of the whole wheat recipe in the Healthy Bread book.  I also quit using loaf pans, and put the entire lot into one great big casserole with a non stick lining, which creates a fabulous crust. 

I bake at the usual 450 F. for about an hour and a quarter, had to lengthen the baking from the loaf pan time, but now I've got it down.  The crumb of this loaf is lovely, too, nice texture, firm, but good.  Excellent for spreading tomato lemon jam on..

Then found that when I quartered it into useable sizes, the segments  that I freeze wouldn't go into the freezer, dangit.  Those containers full of herbs I picked for pesto were taking up too much space.

Deep sigh, removed them from the freezer, put the bread in their place and set to work, forced by necessity and the rules of food to get on with pesto making.  And after all that whining and tergiversation, it only took about an hour to create flattened packages of pesto for the freezer, now in there lying on a plexi sheet to keep flat while they freeze.

Rosemary, sage, basil, English thyme, lemon thyme, peppermint, spearmint, oregano, I think that's the lot, all done.  Instead of my usual olive oil, walnuts, herb, grated parmesan, I used all the above, but subbed grated asiago for the parmesan as an experiment, so we'll see how that works out.  And I made a container of pesto water at the end, to rinse out the blender without wasting any pesto.

I also finished one bottle of oil in the course of this, just came to the end of it.  Then left it capped and upended while I got on with the newly opened one.  After a few minutes, uncapped it and as I expected, at least another ounce of oil in there still, poured that into the new bottle, waste not want not, good olive oil is expensive.

The food rule seems to be like so many other parts of life: just do it. Don't put up the ingredients and waste a lot of mental effort remembering and planning and resolving to do it.  My whole winter's pesto is now up and done.  And the bread and the pesto all fit nicely in the freezer.

Next to make soup from all the little containers of potato water and pesto water and green bean water and other bits saved up, along with all the veggies waiting their soup life.  I'm thinking of putting soup into freezer bags and squashing it flat, too, why not.  Space saving. 

Every year at this time I wonder if I should have another freezer, and the urge passes if I lie down for a while..or until I get another space saving idea like this one.  So that the cook, not the food, rules!