Just lolling around here on my couch.By God that's a strange and beautiful vegetable. And quite a steal too--only $2 per tree.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
The vegetable that Dr Seuss designed
Just have to share a photo of the two Brussel Sprouts trees that I brought home from the Farmer's Market:
Just lolling around here on my couch.
By God that's a strange and beautiful vegetable. And quite a steal too--only $2 per tree.
Just lolling around here on my couch.By God that's a strange and beautiful vegetable. And quite a steal too--only $2 per tree.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Sew it up
I've been knitting a fair amount lately, all of it for small people. It has been a while since I knitted a baby sweater and I'd forgotten how satisfying it is to finish a project in a relatively small amount of time. Now I have a significant amount of sewing and blocking to do.
My daughter's preschool is having a fundraising auction in November and I made this to be auctioned off:
It's the reverse colors from the sweater I made for Jonathan (more of a kelly green than the borderline-tealish color above).
I also made another baby sweater for the auction, but I can't decide whether to donate it or not. Here it is in pieces:
And all that seems relatively well and good. But I was a little spacey when I made this sweater and didn't notice that I was using lavender yarn from two different dye lots. Once I was done I looked at the front and saw this:
Can you see the color break in the bottom lavender row? It shifts from being a slightly bluer lavender to a slightly pinker lavender. I don't have any way of correcting the mistake since I ran out of both the bluer and the pinker yarn. And I just don't feel great about submitting something for auction that has a flaw smack dab in the front right side of the cardigan. I'm thinking maybe I should just gift it to a friend whose sister is having a baby girl in December and knit up something else for the school auction. But I really want to work on my red sweater; now that it is getting chilly again and the days have been so gloomy, I am eager to finish the big cozy, cheery thing.
So it comes down to selflessness vs. selfishness (again...). What would you do?
My daughter's preschool is having a fundraising auction in November and I made this to be auctioned off:
It's the reverse colors from the sweater I made for Jonathan (more of a kelly green than the borderline-tealish color above).I also made another baby sweater for the auction, but I can't decide whether to donate it or not. Here it is in pieces:
And all that seems relatively well and good. But I was a little spacey when I made this sweater and didn't notice that I was using lavender yarn from two different dye lots. Once I was done I looked at the front and saw this:
Can you see the color break in the bottom lavender row? It shifts from being a slightly bluer lavender to a slightly pinker lavender. I don't have any way of correcting the mistake since I ran out of both the bluer and the pinker yarn. And I just don't feel great about submitting something for auction that has a flaw smack dab in the front right side of the cardigan. I'm thinking maybe I should just gift it to a friend whose sister is having a baby girl in December and knit up something else for the school auction. But I really want to work on my red sweater; now that it is getting chilly again and the days have been so gloomy, I am eager to finish the big cozy, cheery thing.So it comes down to selflessness vs. selfishness (again...). What would you do?
Friday, September 29, 2006
Before the season ends...
...head over to Makielski's Berry Farm and pick a quart of raspberries so you can make this:
The Best Ice Cream I Have Ever Tasted
Sarah brought some of this over two weeks ago and after tasting it, Brian and I were ready to turn our backs on our previous favorites (mint chip for him, lemon or chocolate peanut butter for me) and crown this the ultimate ice cream experience. On Tuesday, when the sun finally appeared from behind the rain clouds, Fiona and I went and picked a quart and promptly set about our attempt to reproduce Sarah's results.
Last night Brian and I enjoyed some (with Saunder's hot fudge sauce) and hallelujah it turned out great! This ice cream has the intensity of fruit flavor that both Sarah and I remember from our various gelato snarfing expeditions in Italy. Zingerman's fruit gelatos don't even come close--both their strawberry and raspberry are more like a vanilla ice cream with good jam swirled in. Not bad, but not the intense pure blast of fruit essence that this ice cream delivers.
Sarah's Incredible Raspberry Ice Cream
adapted from Emeril Lagasse
2 pints fresh raspberries, picked over
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1 C milk (whole, 2% or evaporated)
4 egg yolks
In a saucepan, over medium heat, combine the raspberries, sugar, milk and cream. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat. Puree the mixture using a hand-held blender or food processor. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve (you may have to push and stir to get the good stuff away from the seeds). Place the mixture back in the saucepan.
In a separate small bowl, whisk the yolks until smooth. Add 1/2 cup of the warm cream mixture to the yolks and whisk well. Add the yolk mixture back to the cream and continue to cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and strain again through a fine mesh sieve. Cool until chilled, either in an ice bath, or press a piece of plastic wrap over the custard and refrigerate until cold. Freeze in an ice cream machine according to manufacturer's directions.
Excellent eaten on its own, but it can be truly mind blowing if you top a fresh sliced peach (there are still a few available at the farmer's market!) with a scoop of this stuff, or drizzle dark hot fudge sauce over the top.
The Best Ice Cream I Have Ever TastedLast night Brian and I enjoyed some (with Saunder's hot fudge sauce) and hallelujah it turned out great! This ice cream has the intensity of fruit flavor that both Sarah and I remember from our various gelato snarfing expeditions in Italy. Zingerman's fruit gelatos don't even come close--both their strawberry and raspberry are more like a vanilla ice cream with good jam swirled in. Not bad, but not the intense pure blast of fruit essence that this ice cream delivers.
Sarah's Incredible Raspberry Ice Cream
adapted from Emeril Lagasse
2 pints fresh raspberries, picked over
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1 C milk (whole, 2% or evaporated)
4 egg yolks
In a saucepan, over medium heat, combine the raspberries, sugar, milk and cream. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat. Puree the mixture using a hand-held blender or food processor. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve (you may have to push and stir to get the good stuff away from the seeds). Place the mixture back in the saucepan.
In a separate small bowl, whisk the yolks until smooth. Add 1/2 cup of the warm cream mixture to the yolks and whisk well. Add the yolk mixture back to the cream and continue to cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and strain again through a fine mesh sieve. Cool until chilled, either in an ice bath, or press a piece of plastic wrap over the custard and refrigerate until cold. Freeze in an ice cream machine according to manufacturer's directions.
Excellent eaten on its own, but it can be truly mind blowing if you top a fresh sliced peach (there are still a few available at the farmer's market!) with a scoop of this stuff, or drizzle dark hot fudge sauce over the top.
Friday, September 22, 2006
What I've been doing...
I have things to say pear chutney and some recent books I've read, but this week my energy has been directed elsewhere because I've been preoccupied with the fact that my kid wasn't eating lunch. The first week of first grade, he ate some of his lunch; by week two he figured out that if he doesn't eat, then he can play outside at recess for the entire lunch period. One day he brought home his lunch box full, except for having taken one tiny bite of a corner of his sandwich. That was it.
Unfortunately he actually needs to eat and not eating has led to some rocky afternoons.
Have I mentioned before that my sin of gluttony is clearly being punished by having a kid who is so indifferent to food?
So this week, I went into food-as-entertainment over-drive.
I made mini pizzas (whole wheat English muffins, Muir Glen organic pizza sauce, non-rgbh Trader Joe's cheese, and totally toxic pepperoni) with flowers and smiley faces:
I cut salami sandwiches into smiley faces,
and made PB&J sandwiches shaped like flowers with little pieces of papaya or raisins as their centers. I sliced apples into hearts and used tiny pig-shaped cookie cutters to cut out a menagerie made of cheese.
I would foresee making the city of San Francisco out of Jello if I wasn't trying to keep food dyes out of his diet. (Really, you have to go click on the link. See the Transamerica building made of Jello. Then watch the video clip of the whole thing jiggling during an earthquake simulation.)
And today, the effort paid off and he brought home an empty lunch box. Not coincidentally, he also had a really good day.
Unfortunately he actually needs to eat and not eating has led to some rocky afternoons.
Have I mentioned before that my sin of gluttony is clearly being punished by having a kid who is so indifferent to food?
So this week, I went into food-as-entertainment over-drive.
I made mini pizzas (whole wheat English muffins, Muir Glen organic pizza sauce, non-rgbh Trader Joe's cheese, and totally toxic pepperoni) with flowers and smiley faces:
I cut salami sandwiches into smiley faces,
and made PB&J sandwiches shaped like flowers with little pieces of papaya or raisins as their centers. I sliced apples into hearts and used tiny pig-shaped cookie cutters to cut out a menagerie made of cheese.I would foresee making the city of San Francisco out of Jello if I wasn't trying to keep food dyes out of his diet. (Really, you have to go click on the link. See the Transamerica building made of Jello. Then watch the video clip of the whole thing jiggling during an earthquake simulation.)
And today, the effort paid off and he brought home an empty lunch box. Not coincidentally, he also had a really good day.
Monday, September 18, 2006
Week 3
This is the third week of school for Ian and I still feel like I'm in the middle of a whirlwind. For anyone else who needs a little Monday morning levity, I send you to this informative explication of The History and Geopolitical Importance of Pie.
Many thanks to Brian Pinkelman for bringing this overlooked piece of scholarship to my attention.
Many thanks to Brian Pinkelman for bringing this overlooked piece of scholarship to my attention.
Friday, September 08, 2006
Pear pieces
I'm having some success and some failure when processing the current bounty of pears. I made pear sorbet,
though I would call it more of a granita than a sorbet. It has some Poire William brandy in it (maybe a little too much brandy if you wanted to serve it to small people, though Fiona lapped up the stuff) and whether it is the alcohol or the relatively low sugar content (only 1/3 C) or maybe just my not-so-schwoopy ice cream maker, it never really hardened up. But the slushy stuff was delicious.
Then I made some pear muffins that weren't so great.
They looked kind of pretty and used two whole cups of pear pieces, but the batter was too cakey for my liking (I like a sturdier muffin) and had a weird after taste--like the bitterness of the baking powder was the final flavor on your tongue. Ewwwww. The pear pieces were the best part of the muffins and I found myself picking them out and leaving the cakey bits.
I love the suggestions folks have been sending in but unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to do any of the whole (or even halved) poached pears which require long stretches of intact fruit. Compared to commercial pears, these lovely little honey bombs are 1) small and 2) likely to have at least one wee worm residing inside.
See the difference?
though I would call it more of a granita than a sorbet. It has some Poire William brandy in it (maybe a little too much brandy if you wanted to serve it to small people, though Fiona lapped up the stuff) and whether it is the alcohol or the relatively low sugar content (only 1/3 C) or maybe just my not-so-schwoopy ice cream maker, it never really hardened up. But the slushy stuff was delicious.Then I made some pear muffins that weren't so great.
They looked kind of pretty and used two whole cups of pear pieces, but the batter was too cakey for my liking (I like a sturdier muffin) and had a weird after taste--like the bitterness of the baking powder was the final flavor on your tongue. Ewwwww. The pear pieces were the best part of the muffins and I found myself picking them out and leaving the cakey bits.I love the suggestions folks have been sending in but unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to do any of the whole (or even halved) poached pears which require long stretches of intact fruit. Compared to commercial pears, these lovely little honey bombs are 1) small and 2) likely to have at least one wee worm residing inside.
See the difference?I like the idea of turning the rest of my lumpy supply into chutney, as one person suggested in the comments section of my previous pear post. I love a grilled sharp cheddar and chutney sandwich, preferably on Zingerman's Farm Bread.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
A timely post
This week I made the Calabacitas that Halla brought to our most recent Gluttony Fest and I must report that it is a fabulous way to use up a whole LOT of summer squash in a very pleasant, easy dish.
It drives me batty when (this time of year) magazines or newspapers publish articles on how to diminish the overload of zucchini and summer squash and then include recipes that call for, say, 1/2 of a grated zucchini. People, we got squash coming out our ears this time of year! We need recipes that deal with quantity (quality too, of course). This one fits the bill deliciously.
Patience is the secret to this squash tasting so good. Don't cook the onions or the squash over high heat--keep the heat on the low to medium side and let the vegetables become meltingly tender. There is no butter in this dish (ok, there is a sizeable quantity of cheese) but the squash tastes buttery when cooked slowly. I'm sure zucchini would taste just as good, but I'd miss the sunny glow of the summer squash since zucchini can get a bit muddy colored when cooked.
I took Halla's advice and made the effort to roast a couple of poblano chiles which were really great, just a mild background heat. The rest of the dish is so absurdly easy that roasting the chiles didn't even seem like much of an effort, despite the little bits of singed skin that are all over the stove now.
We ate this as a side dish tonight (with Pork and Hominy Stew) but it could make a nice light, vegetarian supper when accompanied by a salad and bread or quesadillas.
Calabacitas (Skillet Squash)
5 cubed small summer squash
1 diced large onion
2 roasted peeled diced poblano chiles or about 1 small can diced green chile
1 tablespoon neutral oil
3/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste
Saute onion in oil over medium heat until soft--do not brown. Add squash and keep the heat medium low, stirring once in a while until the squash is tender (not tender crisp). Add chiles; simmer briefly. Sprinkle on cheese and stir until melted.
It drives me batty when (this time of year) magazines or newspapers publish articles on how to diminish the overload of zucchini and summer squash and then include recipes that call for, say, 1/2 of a grated zucchini. People, we got squash coming out our ears this time of year! We need recipes that deal with quantity (quality too, of course). This one fits the bill deliciously.
Patience is the secret to this squash tasting so good. Don't cook the onions or the squash over high heat--keep the heat on the low to medium side and let the vegetables become meltingly tender. There is no butter in this dish (ok, there is a sizeable quantity of cheese) but the squash tastes buttery when cooked slowly. I'm sure zucchini would taste just as good, but I'd miss the sunny glow of the summer squash since zucchini can get a bit muddy colored when cooked.I took Halla's advice and made the effort to roast a couple of poblano chiles which were really great, just a mild background heat. The rest of the dish is so absurdly easy that roasting the chiles didn't even seem like much of an effort, despite the little bits of singed skin that are all over the stove now.
We ate this as a side dish tonight (with Pork and Hominy Stew) but it could make a nice light, vegetarian supper when accompanied by a salad and bread or quesadillas.
Calabacitas (Skillet Squash)
5 cubed small summer squash
1 diced large onion
2 roasted peeled diced poblano chiles or about 1 small can diced green chile
1 tablespoon neutral oil
3/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste
Saute onion in oil over medium heat until soft--do not brown. Add squash and keep the heat medium low, stirring once in a while until the squash is tender (not tender crisp). Add chiles; simmer briefly. Sprinkle on cheese and stir until melted.
Pear Greed
My greed overcame me on Sunday when I went out to Ami and John's house. I brought over a raspberry buckle and came home with a cubic foot of pears. Lest you think I am exaggerating I show the proof:
These were all windfalls from Ami and John's trees--and there are plenty more pears up there that have not let gravity get the best of them (yet). For a free-fruit-freak like me, this is a wonderful way to start a week.
So now I am accumulating pear recipes to manage the bounty--so far I have a pear sorbet recipe and three different pear tarts to attempt (I'll post recipes or links if any of them turns out decent). I'm also planning on a pear/walnut/blue cheese salad. Suggestions for other favorite pear recipes I should try would be gratefully accepted at this time.
These were all windfalls from Ami and John's trees--and there are plenty more pears up there that have not let gravity get the best of them (yet). For a free-fruit-freak like me, this is a wonderful way to start a week.So now I am accumulating pear recipes to manage the bounty--so far I have a pear sorbet recipe and three different pear tarts to attempt (I'll post recipes or links if any of them turns out decent). I'm also planning on a pear/walnut/blue cheese salad. Suggestions for other favorite pear recipes I should try would be gratefully accepted at this time.
Excellent news for the caffeinated among us
If you are a coffee-loving Ann Arborite, there's good news to be had! Amazing Beans, the local coffee roaster who delivered your coffee to your doorstep the next day, has re-opened for business under the new name Mighty Good Coffee Roasting Company.
The former owner/roaster Johann Lee sold the business to two of his customers and today I received the following letter that I thought I'd share:
Dear Amazing Beans Customer,
I am writing to you for two reasons. First, I'd like to thank you for supporting Amazing Beans when it was in operation. I started Amazing Beans because I thought that Ann Arbor deserved and could support a local business that provided freshly roasted coffee using the best beans money could buy. I was, and remain, passionate about coffee, and I am grateful to you for your past support. I closed Amazing Beans because I could not make it work while working full time in another demanding professional job. I was simply unwilling to compromise on the quality of my product, and so I closed up the roaster. I am now headed to a new job out of state.
The second reason I write is to give you some good news. Fortunately for all of us, two of my former customers have bought the operation and will shortly resume roasting. Ann Arbor will again have access to the highest quality freshly roasted coffee delivered to your door. I have been working closely with the new owners. We have been roasting a lot of coffee together and I am convinced that they share my passion for delivering the best possible coffee. They will be buying their beans from the same sources I used. They will be using the same roaster and equipment I used. They will even be using the same roast profiles I used so you can again buy just what I was selling. While I'’m sure that there will be some changes, one thing won't change, a commitment to providing the best coffee you can buy anywhere.
I decided I was too fond of the name Amazing Beans to sell that too. The new business will be run under a name the new owners chose: Mighty Good Coffee. Their web site is simply MightyGoodCoffee.com. I hope you'’ll support Mighty Good Coffee. I plan to be drinking it myself, and I'’ll be working with the new owners over the next several months as Mighty Good Coffee starts showing up at your doorstep.
Best wishes,
Johann Lee
As soon as I'm finished with the current bag of Peet's I'll be placing my order!
The former owner/roaster Johann Lee sold the business to two of his customers and today I received the following letter that I thought I'd share:
Dear Amazing Beans Customer,
I am writing to you for two reasons. First, I'd like to thank you for supporting Amazing Beans when it was in operation. I started Amazing Beans because I thought that Ann Arbor deserved and could support a local business that provided freshly roasted coffee using the best beans money could buy. I was, and remain, passionate about coffee, and I am grateful to you for your past support. I closed Amazing Beans because I could not make it work while working full time in another demanding professional job. I was simply unwilling to compromise on the quality of my product, and so I closed up the roaster. I am now headed to a new job out of state.
The second reason I write is to give you some good news. Fortunately for all of us, two of my former customers have bought the operation and will shortly resume roasting. Ann Arbor will again have access to the highest quality freshly roasted coffee delivered to your door. I have been working closely with the new owners. We have been roasting a lot of coffee together and I am convinced that they share my passion for delivering the best possible coffee. They will be buying their beans from the same sources I used. They will be using the same roaster and equipment I used. They will even be using the same roast profiles I used so you can again buy just what I was selling. While I'’m sure that there will be some changes, one thing won't change, a commitment to providing the best coffee you can buy anywhere.
I decided I was too fond of the name Amazing Beans to sell that too. The new business will be run under a name the new owners chose: Mighty Good Coffee. Their web site is simply MightyGoodCoffee.com. I hope you'’ll support Mighty Good Coffee. I plan to be drinking it myself, and I'’ll be working with the new owners over the next several months as Mighty Good Coffee starts showing up at your doorstep.
Best wishes,
Johann Lee
As soon as I'm finished with the current bag of Peet's I'll be placing my order!
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Where I been
Two weeks ago, my husband announced "Honey, I pulled a cottage out of my ass!" After recoiling in horror that such a structure was to be found up his colon, I realized that he was telling me that we were going on a last-minute vacation.
I spent the last week at a cottage called Snug Haven up at Georgian Bay, just north of Parry Sound.
It was just gorgeous; see, here is my kid looking poetic instead of frenetic:
We canoed or kayaked almost every day:
The last time I was there was when my now-six-year-old son was one. Brian and I took him on his first canoe camping trip out to Franklin Island and we visited the place again, this time for a picnic and a little skinny dipping.
It is a most excellent thing to be the one with the camera when skinny dipping.
The landscape is so beautiful it is hard to take in--there is a lot of mica in the pinkish granite rocks and this means that everything sparkles. You stick your hand into the shallow water and stir up a little sand and it looks like someone just dumped in a container of glitter. And thanks to the glaciers, there are the coolest chains of islands to explore--I found this image on Flickr that gives you a sense of all the little bays and inlets there are to poke around in a canoe. And much of the area is Crown Land so you can pull your boat out of the water and explore the islands and let your kids run around like little mountain goats without fear of trespassing.
The cottage itself was pretty nice--incredibly clean and spacious enough for me to enjoy a week with husband, kids and my mother-in-law (yes, we brought Brian's ma with us and didn't abuse the built-in-babysitter feature too much). However--you knew there had to be a "however" in there somewhere, right?--the kitchen supplies were woefully inadequate. I adjusted to the electric stove quickly enough and it wasn't an evil one like our old "inferno". But I can't understand how anyone is expected to make a sandwich, much less a meal, with one crappy 3 inch serrated knife.
Note to self: things to bring to supplement otherwise-perfectly-satisfactory-rental-cottage:
So I spent last week cooking a lot of food on the grill (to get around the absence of reasonable sized pots), canoeing, kayaking, reading three terrific books--Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, Mary and O'Neil, and Small Island (reviews to come shortly)
and mostly managing to stop obsessing about the start of a new school year and whether Ian's new teacher will "get" him or not.
I spent the last week at a cottage called Snug Haven up at Georgian Bay, just north of Parry Sound.
It was just gorgeous; see, here is my kid looking poetic instead of frenetic:
We canoed or kayaked almost every day:
The last time I was there was when my now-six-year-old son was one. Brian and I took him on his first canoe camping trip out to Franklin Island and we visited the place again, this time for a picnic and a little skinny dipping.
It is a most excellent thing to be the one with the camera when skinny dipping.The landscape is so beautiful it is hard to take in--there is a lot of mica in the pinkish granite rocks and this means that everything sparkles. You stick your hand into the shallow water and stir up a little sand and it looks like someone just dumped in a container of glitter. And thanks to the glaciers, there are the coolest chains of islands to explore--I found this image on Flickr that gives you a sense of all the little bays and inlets there are to poke around in a canoe. And much of the area is Crown Land so you can pull your boat out of the water and explore the islands and let your kids run around like little mountain goats without fear of trespassing.
The cottage itself was pretty nice--incredibly clean and spacious enough for me to enjoy a week with husband, kids and my mother-in-law (yes, we brought Brian's ma with us and didn't abuse the built-in-babysitter feature too much). However--you knew there had to be a "however" in there somewhere, right?--the kitchen supplies were woefully inadequate. I adjusted to the electric stove quickly enough and it wasn't an evil one like our old "inferno". But I can't understand how anyone is expected to make a sandwich, much less a meal, with one crappy 3 inch serrated knife.
Note to self: things to bring to supplement otherwise-perfectly-satisfactory-rental-cottage:
- your own chef, paring and bread knife
- a decent sized cutting board
- your cast iron skillet
- a pot wide and deep enough to cook 5 ears of corn on the cob (for one meal I had three tiny pots of water boiling each of which fit 3 halves of a cob of corn)
- a salad spinner
So I spent last week cooking a lot of food on the grill (to get around the absence of reasonable sized pots), canoeing, kayaking, reading three terrific books--Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, Mary and O'Neil, and Small Island (reviews to come shortly)
and mostly managing to stop obsessing about the start of a new school year and whether Ian's new teacher will "get" him or not.
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