My roots are showing

Around now it's birthdays and feast days, my aunt Kitty, Shakespeare, St George, patron saint of England. So

Yesterday's Misfits arrived early and welcome. 

Prices are up enough that the minimum order is now a weekly, not biweekly event. And some common items are either not available, like yellow onions, or might as well be, like apples, at those prices. Nonetheless we eat okay around here. Thankfully.

The Friday evening salad includes some garlic scapes from the garlic you saw me plant. All the sections are growing, and it's pungent and lovely.  Dressed with a few crumbs of blue cheese. Dessert was blueberries and walnuts, a sprinkle of cane sugar.

Current cookbook to see if there's anything I fancy in here

Often cookbooks have only one or two recipes that interest me,  but good general ideas. I like her fearless slinging together spices and changing old traditional recipes. 

I think I'll try her savory Welsh cakes, and definitely veggie pancakes.  Simple ideas, and the kind you wonder why you didn't think of them yourself. 

Speaking of which, I thought of this in the middle of the night: using some of the sari silk I showed you when I got the cut price sari for the fabric, to line the denim vest. A statement!

It took a few minutes to locate the silk because I was so used to seeing it as a portiere, that I'd forgotten it was meant to be fabric. Duh.  There's still yards hanging in the doorway, saris being very long.

And I'm lining the pockets, too, bespoke touch.

The fence is complete, I put the bird feeder up and just now here's a female red bellied woodpecker breakfasting, yay. 

That cheered me up no end. If the birds can handle it, I can.

Here's one of the latest paintings from  Dave Flitcroft's studio, selling as a benefit for Ukraine.

I love his loose flowing style. He's painted a series of sunflower studies, all fresh and different.

Happy day everyone!

Art equipment in the kitchen

Long ago, while I was doing printmaking, I saw some wonderful blind embossed work -- pressed without ink-- and fancied trying it. 

I didn't have access to a printing press, so I tried a number of techniques, standing on the assembled paper and materials, rolling them, various things, none of which worked.

I ended up getting a little simple pasta rolling machine, thinking maybe I could get that to exert enough pressure to emboss. The small width was okay because my prints were small, so I tried it, on the closest setting.

And it didn't work either. Just didn't have the required heft. So I moved on in  printmaking to other techniques. Including hand embossing done with a burnisher. I taught this to a few classes who were thrilled at how simple the technique is. I'll blog about this if there's interest.

Meanwhile I had a pasta maker clean as a whistle, only touched by clean paper, other materials sandwiched in, not touching the roller. It was not returning to the studio. One of the few times the kitchen has received from,  instead of giving to, the studio.

So I thought self, learn to make your own pasta. You've had marvellous pasta in Trenton restaurants, where there's an old Nonna in the kitchen making it old style. 

It totally beats even the best commercial pasta, which is made from a harder grain, and dried to be shelf stable. Your own pasta is cooked in a couple of minutes, very tender. So I did and loved it and then life intervened for a few years.

But yesterday I thought, I'll be giving handsome Son the monthly dinner soon, why not a from-scratch lasagna, noodles made to fit the dish.

And here's why I completely overlooked yesterday's knitting group, despite having decided after all to Zoom it. I got engrossed.

After mixing the pasta, added in a drop of water as I mixed, it needed resting for half an hour.

Then fun with rolling, starting at setting 9 then working down to setting 3.

Several layers. They're on parchment paper, and now they're bagged flat and in the freezer. 

I'm wondering if I need even to cook them before assembling the doings. They're much more tender than the boxed kind. I'll see.

Last night I only wanted a small meal, so here's a nice idea that really worked. 

Sweet potato, microwaved for a couple of minutes so I could make it into fries, then salted, chunks of fresh ginger I had in the freezer, harvested from my own pot, 400°f about 20 minutes. 

Enough for two helpings. I never roasted ginger before that I remember, but I'm going to do it again.

The weather's been bright but cold recently, in the teens Fledermaus, and suddenly there are birds at the suet feeder. I can't get good pix, take my word for it. 

Yesterday, first time in two years, woodpeckers showed up. Several visits from a red bellied, or maybe it was more than one, one from a downy. And the usual crowd of house finches, Carolina wrens, bluejays,  juncoes, and a new visitor, a white-crowned sparrow. It was great.

I finally gave up on the other feeder out front after several months of no traffic, and all this action was on the patio at the back. It's more protected, easy hiding places and shelter. 

Also I can bird from the sofa on freezing days, always a good thing.

Let me know if you wanted to see the embossing technique, and I'll set up pictures as s step by step. Maybe Valentine cards.