I'm hip, busy with baguettes, and winnowing

Hip update: three sessions of Will's exercises and the hip has subsided, much better, clearly the right approach. It's not all gone but the sharp and sharper jab at each turn is down to a pinch. I'll take it. I also did other exercises, toe raises, sit to stands, sideways stepping, all that.

I don't like pie much, even on Pi Day, so baguettes it was. This time I used one third whole-wheat with the ap, and added in vital wheat gluten to compensate. I had to add extra water to get the dough to cohere. It went fine.

Here's a bit broken off to show you the crumb. There's more flavor with the whole wheat, the added gluten made a better rise, and again the crust was great.

I'd taken out a container of strawberries earlier from the freezer with the vague thought of strawberry shake, but realized a bit of strawberry jam wouldn't go amiss with warm baguette. 

Strawberry preserve, to be technically annoying, because there are fruit pieces in there.

Then with hauling out the overstuffed  three ring binder for the baguette instructions,  I realized for the 83rd time that I needed to organize it.

A lot of the entries were either aspirational or more trouble than they were worth, or I just don't fancy them.

So after an afternoon of knitting, reading and sorting, strengthened by toasted  buttered, strawberry-preserved baguette, I got through it.

Quite a few recipes came out for the recycle, and I found a couple I've now noted to make because I'd forgotten about them, raisin bread! I have raisins! and I'm Freecycling a bunch of page protectors.

At some point I need to do likewise with  several binders of knitting patterns hardly any of which I need now, with my limited current knitting arena. But not today.

Happy day everyone, if you're in the windstorms, we're just at the edge, we hope your power stays in, sez Ted and Big Ursy and Pony.

 

A crossroads and new decisions

I'm looking on the recent surgery interlude and the current recovery period as a crossroads. It's a useful time to consider things to change or move on from or continue. 

I'm considering what continues to work for me and what I need to move on from. Just small stuff at this point. But the whole adventure and the encounters with much younger people, reminded me how old I am, something that doesn't cross my mind often when I'm planning projects. 

One thing I decided could go was the dusty old dried flower arrangement in the downstairs bathroom. 

Statice, lavender from my plant, roses from the last birthday bouquet from my now long late sister.  They were years old and disintegrating, aren't we all, so I decided they'd done their bit.

They were in a lovely porcelain container which led to another small decision.

My teaspoons, on top of the stove for tasting when I cook, have been in this old metal can for years.

Now they've got an upgrade

And today I'm going through my sewing stuff to pick out useful items for my friends at Pine Ridge.

I'm looking for multiples, tape measures, scissors, that kind of thing, also I have tons of sewing needles for hand stitchers.

So this will be the next winnowing. It might include hexies I've stitched and other stitched motifs I really am not going to use, I have to be realistic here. They might work on projects under way at Pine Ridge. There may be sewing plans I won't go on with.

About what to continue, the knitting ministry is definitely to continue soon.  And I'll complete the fabric book that's been waiting. And I'll do a bit of spinning.  And pinloom weaving. And maybe socks for me, even.

I just need to take this opportunity to rethink a few making-related plans, and how realistic they are.

I delivered a couple of treats across the street as a thank you for various reasons, including crisp tofu sticks with heating and eating instructions,  and chocolate cherries. It was a visit as well as a walking expedition.  I reunited with their two Cav King Charles dogs, who were wildly excited! 

It's nice to be a giver again, after being dependent for a couple of weeks.

Happy day everyone, take an expedition of some kind, including in your mind.

Ted sez 

Tofu Masala ftw

Today I finally got around to making that Yeung Man Cooking recipe, and it's the kind where you need to be in the zone of process. Also have plenty of spices.

As you see, two counters in play, one for the spices, one for the two boards of veggies and tofu for chopping, mincing, dicing.  

I had to do  a couple of substitutions, crushed for sliced tomatoes, no shallots, used extra red onions, and I added in a handful of chard. I thought it would work okay and it did. I like my green leafy vegetables every day.

Since my adventure a while back when I got hot pepper somehow into my eye, hours after I'd handled it, I  now use kitchen gloves to handle hot peppers, also I chop them when they're frozen, so the oils aren't in action. Likewise I chop onions frozen, same reason.

Will Yeung never does these workarounds, he must be ironclad.

It's a lot of sequences, each needing a couple of minutes sauteeing, until the last stage of cooking covered for ten minutes.

That's when I put away all the spices and cleaned up the counters, and took a rest. But that sequential cooking is why it's so good. You literally experience layers of flavor when you eat, every forkful a bit different from the others.

This one is spicy, so if you're not spice friendly you'd need to dial it back. The coconut milk at the end is vital to take the raw edge off the spices leaving a lovely heat. 

I suppose other equivalents would work if you don't like coconut milk or cream. Other milks, maybe. Or dairy cream if you're not vegan. I'm not vegan, I just like how interesting and light to digest Will's dishes are.

And here's the last stage, before the tofu and red onions are reintroduced to the spicy sauce, then lunch 

This is really an Indian dish, though presented by a Chinese Canadian chef. 

I got three meals from this recipe. For Will it's one!

And I did some urgent winnowing too dull for pictures. It's that deep cabinet in the corner under the counter where stuff falls about and mounts up and gets a person really annoyed when she can't find things and they fall down the back out of reach.

Mostly its reusable containers from yogurt and cheeses, useful but I don't need that many. Also glass jars, lidless, lids, jarless, you know.

A large bag went into the recycling and now I have the number of containers I need, all with lids, so smug.

A late note about birds. As you know if you keep them, birds are social and ready to join in any conversation that's going. That includes when you're trying to do serious business on the telephone if you work from home as I did for many years.

One client stopped me in mid negotiation to ask "Is that a tape running or are you calling from a jungle paradise?"  I explained and he sounded so envious. 

And as I was about to finish this post, and make a pot of tea, this happened 

A present from dear Mary! As you see, perfectly timed to appear on the teatable with English Breakfast tea and sharp cheddar, Yorkshire style.  

Thank you for all of it! So good. And the fruitcake is definitely staying here, despite being 40proof! Perfect afternoon tea doings. I love it.  And you.

Happy day everyone, let's do like Jimmy did in his long life! And I note that the country's flags will be at half staff throughout January and beyond. That includes the inauguration..

Freecycle, posies and other small things

I'm still winnowing. Art this time. From up in the loft. I've put these on free cycle, in hopes.  They're all framed and wired. That might be an attraction in itself.

One of the cutting things people do, sometimes innocently, is to ask about the frames. Not the art. But I'm not bitter.

And speaking of tiny tasks you finally get around to, the yellow skirt I made a while back, with patch pockets, needed a little something. The fabric is so soft the pockets kind of flop a bit. I've been thinking for, maybe a year mphm mphm, about running elastic along the tops to fix that.

This morning I finally got the skirt out and  found I'd done a really good job, making the pockets of double fabric. Not a hem I could open. Oh. Then I remembered I'm in my pleat period. Bingo. One little pleat in the top of each, nice design touch, and functional. Total time elapsed including finding thread and needle, five minutes.  

You could, of course, say the time elapsed since I first noticed the flopping was vital to the elegance of what now looks like an easy fix. In fact, I think that's what I will say.

And Emma Mitchell has produced a whole array, heck, a panoply, of tiny posies for our mental health.

Happy day, everyone, put your best descriptive foot forward. Nobody else will do it for you.

Wire, weaving and winnowing

The day warmed up quite a bit, the sun came out and I walked. I love this time of year, trees just starting to leaf out, dogwood under way, the last of the daffodils, birds busy singing and making nests.

Home again I set to work playing with wire and weaving. I'd put away the wire, and not seeing it around let my mind create new ideas. 

I realized I can incorporate all my weaving into one little panoramic arrangement. So I threaded wire again and had a lot of fun turning and twisting the woven squares into new shapes. As you see. A couple of pieces, many iterations 

This grouping is beginning to suggest meaning. More to come.

Then I finally did one of those jobs you think about for weeks, then do in about ten minutes.

This time it was oiling the thirsty furniture. Only a few pieces need this treatment, after being vigorously damp dusted by my cleaning family. But the improvement is terrific.

Here's my teak mid century modern table feeling much better after oiling. 

I rubbed in safflower oil, with the grain, then across the grain, then with a terry cloth, and it looks so much better. Then the butcher block island, the oak coffee table, both lovely dumpster finds, and the top of the bedroom chest of drawers. 

About ten minutes every few months, doesn't seem like much to ask, and I usually wonder why it's so hard to get around to.

I might even get around to sharpening my knives at this rate. On the other hand, let's not get carried away here 

And I turned to another annoying thing, this downstairs drawer, where stitching stuff gets dumped, I mean put, or ends up, separated from its upstairs brethren.

 I emptied it out 

Here's finished things, miniature books with woven covers, stump work butterflies, sashiko book covers, bit of gold work, hardanger, woven spun paper.

Very few bits went into garbage. Mainly reels of thread and pins and needles and sewing tools were reunited, some of them upstairs with their friends.

So it wasn't exactly winnowing as much as reorganizing so things are findable.

It occurs to me to wonder if any blogistas would like an artist book, or a stump work butterfly or two, a little present? Cost of postage forces me to limit it to US blogistas. 

If you would like a little something, let me know and email me your address unless you know I already have it, and a little something will be in the mail to you soon.

The other books, not the miniatures from the drawer, are like this 

A couple of them are actually little portfolios with tiny paintings and drawings in them. 

I'd be happy to know they're in good hands. 

Happy day, everyone, share the wealth!

Photo AC