Apricot preserves 2019

The farmer's market tweet this morning mentioned peaches and apricots. So I thought I'd better get over there, since the apricot season is only days long. This year has not been kind to fruit. Rain, cold nights, not enough sunshine to sweeten them.

So I got a container of each while the getting's good. Peaches can sit a couple of days to get riper. I tasted an apricot, hm. Better for jam than for eating raw.

Around here, to think is to do, so apricot preserves happened.

Sugar, lemon juice, apricots cooking, jars boiling in the background.

Unstirdownable mass here. This is where you're glad you used a big pan.

And lovely jewel-like results. There's a bit more, in a yogurt container, less glam.

And now I'm off to read the latest Donna Leon.

Handsome partner's birthday

Andy Adams, June 27, 1932 -- August 8, 2011.

I like to celebrate his birthday as a remembrance rather than the day he died, which is our son's birthday. So I keep that day for Handsome Son.

And Andy's favorite of all fruit was the strawberry, I remember the total enjoyment each year,  when he had the first of the season.

Dosa coda

I froze half of the batter, to see if it freezes. And it does. Thawed it out and

 had two dosas and a fried egg for breakfast. Crisp edges, cooked middle, really good.  Just passing it on.

Handsome son trying out dosas this evening

Here's the stuffing, yellow potatoes with mustard seeds, salt, chili powder, mushrooms, onions, hot Italian sausage.


Cooked on top of the stove, to be finished in the oven while the dosas heat through.

And the dosas ready to reheat and fill.

Just a snack, really,  not a dinner, but not bad anyway.  And any leftover stuffing will come in handy for me.

Bumper June cherry harvest

I've had cherry bushes on the patio for years. Sometimes they fruit, reluctantly.

This is the entire 2019 crop.  For them it's a bumper one. Everything's relative.

I could eat one a day and have a week long season.

Dosas, part two. whoa!

Today I did the potato stuffing. Yellow Idaho, like Yukon gold, I think, nuked five minutes to get tender. Cut up, too tender to dice.

 Meanwhile in olive oil, chopped onion, mushrooms, in fresh ground methi (fenugreek), turmeric, salt, mustard seeds, chili powder, sizzling nicely, tipped in potatoes and added more olive oil. 

Turned to get all the moving parts mixed while it heated through. While the dosas reheated in the iron pan on top of the stove. I also toasted them a couple of minutes to get crisp edges.

Spooned in the potato mixture, rolled it shut, took a picture quick before it was history.

One of these is very filling. And aside from healthful spices, you get potatoes, mushrooms, onions, rice and lentils. Checking off a few boxes.

Dosas, my version

I was just thinking about Indian food, and leafing through an Indian cookbook, and realized I had the makings of dosas, right in the kitchen. Always a good point.

Dosas are south Indian crisp pancakes you roll up with some spicy filling.

I more or less winged the prep, used up my remaining couple of cups of basmati and jasmine brown rice, and a couple of cups of red lentils. Soaked them for a couple of hours. Added in a very nontraditional egg, but traditional turmeric, salt, cumin, chili powder. Blended all this together, then left it in the fridge overnight. It's a thin batter.

Then today I made a couple for lunch, rolled around spicy chicken, and they were fine. Not as crisp as normal, probably because I added the egg, but fine.

Done in medium cast iron pan, oiled, over high heat, couple of minutes each. I'm thinking of making all the batter into dosas, and freezing the extras, just to see if it works.

Meanwhile tomorrow I'll have them with a spicy potato filling, more traditional. And I'm wondering about other fillings. If you have any ideas, please comment.

Books I have readed

I read a lot but only occasionally feel moved to recommend books.

Here are a couple worth your time:

Noreen Crone-Findlay you may know from YouTube, very appealing presenter.

Here's her book about bags, entertaining and very well written, illustrated, and generally presented.

It comes in an ebook too, but I can't work from e-books, can't see several places at once, refer back and forward, so paper is my choice. This one you really can work from, and it's just fun to read anyway.

Then a new discovery, though not a new writer. This is a really great mystery, with a cast of actual characters, not just puzzle pieces. Set in the first world war, in London, some excellent women protagonists, really well plotted.

Just one problem:this just came out, and it's the first of the series. So I have to wait till she writes another.

And, since it's Bloomsday, I made my annual Kindle visit to Ulysses. As you see, I'm getting there.

Visiting kitties

So, next door has an infestation of moths or something. They're bombing the upstairs. So the two resident dogs and two visiting cats need to be elsewhere for now.

After much calendar comparing, we decided today at 10am I could stand by for boarders.

Now these are beloved people and I know from experience that timing is not their strength. Another family member was supposed to get the dogs away by 10, then the cats could be captured and carried over. Just from next door. Right.

At 11 the relative arrived, seized the chance to visit and to load the grandchild's little bicycle, then the dogs. That took a while.

Then the capturing of the cats took  another while.

So, near noon, we're all set. Maui and Finny do not approve, but they've stopped howling now, and have taken up their stations, one at the patio checking the same view as theirs next door, one on the top step of the second flight.  They already tested the view from the front door and the landing.

Nice to have them here. They've decided to just tolerate it all. They won't accept their regular treats from me, because you're not my mom, you don't know how to do it.

New mantel, old wood

Several months ago I asked my contractor friend to look out for a nice piece of seasoned old wood to build me a mantel. I really wanted a mantel, years since I had one.

So he kept it in mind, then last week came dashing across the street to show me a marvelous old mahogany shelf. Probably about 75 years old, taken out of a house on the market, heirs wanted a wallful of shelves gone. He works with a realtor on situations like this.

I knew he'd find something, and he'd know what I like. So a blizzard of texts and pix happened at each stage of deciding.

And here's the result. He got the shelf, apron and five corbels all out of one piece. Beautiful warm mahogany. Works a treat.

Now I have to spruce up the living room to live up to it!

Farm to fork!

Stopped at the farm on the way home, and added freshpicked lettuce and raspberries to my lunch of local mushrooms, pasture raised egg and roasted Yukon gold potatoes in a crust of parmigiano reggiano.

Early summer

Ants in the kitchen, strawberries in at the farm.

A Month in the Country, J.L.Carr

I just found this, and wondered what took me so long.

Short, a novel that reads like poetry, a wonderful piece of writing. 

A survivor of WWI  trench warfare, after the war, still in recovery, gets a project to uncover a medieval fresco in a village in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It's a Summer's work.  And it's so much more.

It's about trauma, about being in the presence of great art, about history and transience. And it's funny, on top of everything else.

Just read it.

Irises, heirloom and reblooming

The purple and white are from the farm of a friend's grandmother, who inherited them from her mom.

The white and the blue are reblooming, and are only just finding their feet after two years. With luck, they'll bloom again in the fall.

Taken five minutes ago.

And is there honey still for tea?

Quotation, beloved nostalgic poem about England, from the trenches. Followed by the Peter Sellars' skit: 'oney's orf,dear!

All flashing through my ragbag of a mind as I put out afternoon tea, English breakfast, strong, scones hot from the oven, walnut and choc bit, homemade raspberry jam.

Midst shot and shell and political attacks on my sisters, afternoon tea still helps.

Cookerama

So it was windy and rainstormy and I had to go out anyway. So when I got back all wet and tired,  I was a little peckish.

And thought, it's cold enough for soup even if it is mid May. So I started a pot, tomatoes, garlic, scallions, bits of stuff from the freezer marked soup makings, chickpeas.

And since I had finished up all the bread, I thought maybe I should make those Jack Monroe crumpets, now that the special rings have arrived.

And after I'd mixed up the batter and put it to rise, I thought, as I put the flour back in the freezer, why not use the rest of the frozen raspberries I just put the flour next to, to make jam for the crumpets..

See how the crumpet rings work, like egg poaching rings.

Which is how it came to pass that I ended up timing soup, spooning in crumpets, 12 minutes per batch, sterilizing lid and jar, while stirring jam so it didn't burn. All at once.

I did stop for a bowl of soup to keep up my strength.

And now I have a large quantity of excellent soup, a pot of jam, and enough crumpets for several breakfasts and teatimes. The kitchen is clean. I am lying down writing this.

Marcella Hazan's all purpose Swiss army knife sauce

Just finished that recipe and it turns out to be the Swiss army knife of sauces.

Had it at first as prescribed, over pasta. Then realized that the tomato chunks I'd left in made it great for bruschetti. Pieces of whole grain bread, toasted, chunks spread on, excellent snack. Then over cheese and onion (the onion that had been cooked in it, saved) and ham, toasted, lunch.

Then today the rest of it, chicken thighs and chicken garlic sausage, baked for 45 minutes at 400f, then the sauce added, back to oven for ten minutes, very good (two) meals.

I'd say this was worth doing.

Marcella Hazan's pasta sauce

So simple. Butter, tomatoes, onion, salt. Excellent. Long slow simmering. Parmigiano reggiano sprinkled over.

Page 151 of Genius Recipes, Kristen Miglore.

 My lunch

Posing with the official picture

Tomato sauce with butter and onion.

Christmas lights are now summer lights

So the ficus is ready to go out for the summer, and her lights have migrated to the window.

Very  90s, a bit late getting there, but I like them.

Making good use of an expectedly quiet day

Happy Easter to people who celebrate it, and since Handsome Son is working, I decided I might as well make use of the day. Most cooking is already prepped in case we were dining today.

So I did a lot of work cutting and hanging and dyeing warping yarn, as seen at https://beautifulmetaphor.blogspot.com

Then, since the dyeing emptied a lot of materials from the freezer, I finally, after three years, defrosted it. In time for the farm market season.

Another day I'll organize the other freezer, and no doubt find all kinds of flavoring and makings for stock and herbs and things I've been tossing in for ages.

Another day, that is.

Spice bush finally

Every year for five years, this bush has come through the winter, put out leaves then been eaten back to the ground.

Finally this year, a breakthrough. It's blooming triumphantly. And the scent, the reason I planted it, is wonderful.

So glad i didn't give up on it.

Exciting walk, low key supper

We had some wind yesterday. Went out for a walk around the development, and found my path blocked. I had to detour to finish, and kept away from tall trees for the rest of the stroll.

Home to make these exciting things. Black bean fritters.

They're actually better than you'd  think to look at them. Not a great intro for a recipe, I know. But they're good. Filling too.

Quite exciting to make, since the blender did only a medium job of mixing -- I'd mixed all the ingredients before the next screen, when I scrolled down,  said  you needed a food processor -- and my wooden spoon got all stuck in the blades, as I tried to scoop the mixture out to cook it. I might have eaten a bit of wood pulp in the fritters. But it's fiber, after all.

This is one can of black beans, minced garlic, ginger, cilantro, Thai curry paste, salt, breadcrumbs, egg, bunch of fresh cut chives. Made six fritters. Put ketchup with, didn't have  the fancy dipping sauce the food processor owning recipe writer required.

It's one of those recipes people love to describe as "budget". But they assume you have all the spices, garlic, ginger etc. The only cheap ingredient is the can of beans.

This is why food banks list condiments on their wanteds. You can make much more interesting food with spices, but people who need the food bank can't lay their hands on spices.

Also did you know that summer can be the hungriest time for food bank users? School's out, no subsidized lunches then. If you're planning to give, please do it now. And $$ is excellent, since the food bank people know what they need most, and they'll spend it wisely.

Sometimes you need a spot of junk food

Lately I've been thinking about PopTarts, not buying any, but thinking it would be nice..

Then today, on Twitter, Jack Monroe gave a recipe for homemade ones, and, well, this happened.

Just a pastry recipe, roll thin, jam one side, bake, cool, ice. Done. I used the top of the freezer as a pastry surface, worked fine. The jam is my raspberry peach jam.

No sprinkles in the house, so I made some lurid pink icing.

Homemade junk food.

First afternoon sitting outside for tea

Massive bumblebees everywhere, daffodils late this year.

Reading Margaret Forster, Lady's Maid, fiction of the life of Wilson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's maid.

Cook's lunch

Served, and pretty good. Enough left for several meals.

I'm betting this will also improve overnight.