Hobbits In Rivendell

Arachnophobia

October 16, 2006

6:34 pm

May I just ask WHAT’S UP with the vermin this year!?

Yeah, you know which ones. We’re being freaking OVER RUN with spiders in this fair state. It’s not like we’re in Louisiana. Katrina left NOLA suffering from all of the creatures who are out of place after the levee breakage; they have brown widows right now, which are the mildly-less-toxic cousins of Lady Black. But I just didn’t expect the number of creatures crawling around here. It must have been the late rains — people reported a lot more garden pests and fleas, which is why I let the dill and cosmos go mad — they attract beneficial insects. We had a really bug-free garden this year, in terms of bugs eating plants (and I don’t count the fluffy, feathery quail-bugs). Nobody said they weren’t hanging out in the plants, however more on that later…

Meanwhile, the TV news gleefully reports that it’s tarantula breeding season, so you won’t catch me within five miles of beautiful Mount Diablo where all this is happening — or Texas, or Arizona or the Nevada highlands, or anywhere else where the great furry things just blanket the landscape, running around breeding. They’re so neat, my teacher’s mind tells me… but fuzzy spiders and me? And fuzzy spiders larger than my palm? Um, no can do, sorry…

The number of black widows getting acquainted with me personally is also worrisome. Saturday’s paper carried a column about wrestling dinner from black widows, and it reminded me of a scene I’d effectively blocked from my mind. The weekend we pulled out the garden, I was pulling out a pepper plant, and I saw a fat, black, marble-butted spider — and I was two rows away before I knew how I’d gotten there, leaping like an Olympian. (Fear promotes the most astonishing reflexes.) I recalled this yesterday, and Mac said, “Oh, yeah… I’ve killed about five in the garage. And then there’s the one that was in the kitchen…”

All right. Usually, I get my Zen on, and try to respect all creatures and all, but there’s only going to be one fat, marble-butted lady in my kitchen.

I’m just saying.

Retail Insanity: Catching

by David T. Macknet

October 13, 2006

9:38 pm

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Remodel

It’s craziness, but you kind of have to admit that at some point, you KNEW it was going to happen…

See, it’s like this: just having the idea of a book contract — idea only, since the bloody thing will take between 5 – 8 weeks to get here (on the backs of flea-ridden camels, apparently), and first half of the advance money, sans the agent’s cut, apparently, will take even longer (since she has the bad-timing to get married this month – oy vey, not another one!) — gives you the feeling that immediately, if not sooner, you should just jump into all of the House Projects you’ve been putting off until you Had Money.

Never mind that you still don’t actually have cash in hand, just the promises of various people practically a continent away are enough to send you off into nonsense. To that end, today I got my floor samples. I haven’t opened them yet, but I am gleefully waiting for the opinions of Very Random People I catch and pester within the next few days to give me their input. Should you drop by this weekend, my question to you will be “Light or dark? Vertical, or horizontal? Or cork? Paper or Plastic?

And then, next Sunday I look forward to going over these questions with a Phil the Contractor. Already it bodes… amusing to work with him; he cannot for the life of him remember my name (nor my Senior Sibling’s name, and she lives next door to him and has since April), so he calls me …Sweetie. (He calls Senior Sibling “Girlie,” which is just no improvement.) Now, only ONCE in my life have I let someone get away with calling me ‘sweetie’ and it was because it was a boss of mine, and he was a minister, and some of those guys just can’t disconnect from the paternalistic thing in moments of stress. I let him do it once, mind you. Once. So… not sure how I’ll ultimately handle Contractor Phil. I shall feel like either a toothless grannie or a sticky three-year-old throughout my entire remodel. Oh, bliss.

But seriously – with the prospect of floors that pretty, can much honestly bother me for long?

Stove Redux

by David T. Macknet

October 13, 2006

7:46 pm

2 Comments on Stove Redux

Remodel

I’ve been told that I need to praise the stove. I was told this because I’ve used the broiler in it two days running, and have found it to be absolutely fabulous, and then realized that (except for the self-clean ‘incinerate everything’ setting) we’ve used every feature of the oven … and it’s come through with flying colors.

We were scared of having a glass-top stove (ceramic-top stove – same thing), because of all of the horror stories which abound out there. We were afraid we’d drop something & break it, we’d scratch it, we’d get sugar on the surface & it’d pit / pock. No such thing has happened, and let me tell you that we don’t eat out, like ever. So. Every meal now for a month and a half has been cooked on this stove (with a wee bit of help from the 1970’s microwave), and we’ve had no problems. That’s not to say that we haven’t had some scares, but we soon discovered that what looks like a scratch isn’t, really, but is most likely some heated-on gunk that got stuck to the bottom of the pan and dragged across the surface, and comes off with a non-metallic scrubby sponge.

About the only down-side is that the bottom racks heat differently from the top racks, and that if you’re going to try to bake like 8 loaves of bread … well, you have to test the two racks independently. And the ones on the bottom will have darker bottom crusts, where those in the middle / upper racks will have more even browning.

Aside from that, the thing’s been endless fun, especially the timer / delayed-bake functions. It’s SO fabulous to throw a whole bunch of things into a casserole dish (onions, green beans, some grain or other, some meat substitute thing, some wine, some sauce, etc.), set the delayed-bake function & tell it to cook at, say, 3:30 pm for an hour, and then to arrive home to find hot dinner sitting there, driving TadMack crazy with the smell because she’s been writing and wouldn’t have come up for air OR food ’til like 8:00. Ahh. Sweet torture of regularly-scheduled meals.

Can I praise this oven more? Perhaps. We’ll have to see how nicely the sourdough turns out this evening, and I’m sure I’ll try not to forget which appliance was responsible. But having something which is modern? This is a first for me, and I’ve truly grown used to it!

Barley Boules

by David T. Macknet

October 13, 2006

2:56 am

2 Comments on Barley Boules

Baking, Food, Recipe

So, I feel like for the first time I’ve gotten it right with the sourdough thing. Don’t get me wrong – the other loaves have been beautiful, some have been sour, some have been boules … but I’ve not done any truly SOUR boules up until these. These babies … well, first off, they don’t have any sweet things in them whatsoever – nothing for the yeast to eat, even, except for the flour. (They were kick-started with commercial yeast, but that’s just by way of insurance.)

I’m going to give an ingredient list, just because I want to be able to come back to it and I’m told that I need to start writing these things down. Yes, I suppose I might want to … but then again, I should really start measuring out the flour – by weight – so that I’ll really know how to re-create these things.

Ingredients:

3 Cups of the sour (1.5 of whole wheat sour culture, 1.5 of white sour culture – yes, they’re different in flavor, and it’s worth maintaining two)
1 Cup of water (110°F)
2 Tbsp Active Dry Yeast (insurance, you know)
1 Cup Barley (with the hull still, please), steamed for 1.5 hours in 1.25 Cups water
2.5 Cups Oat Bran
Whole Wheat Flour
White Flour
1 Tbsp Brown Mustard Seeds
1 Tsp Caraway Seeds
1/4 Tsp Cumin Seeds

Go for a single, short rise, ’cause it seems to work better with sourdough than going for multiples – or, at least, it’s worked better for me. Of course, it could be said that I actually go for multiple rises, ’cause I give the sour & the yeast & the first dose of flour (whole wheat) some time to get acquainted in the mixing bowl … so I guess I’m saying to not give them three rises like I ordinarily would with something to which I’ve added honey & molasses. I know what I mean. If you need to know … well, let me know and I’ll explain more.

For tonite, I’m just glad that the pictures of these lovelies turned out so well, and that I’ll be making more tomorrow evening … ’cause there’s only about 1/2 a loaf left.

I must say that they make you mindful … of how you eat, because the barley hanging out on the crust? Way hard. I only steamed it for 1 hour in these loaves … so I’m saying 1.5 hours, above, so that you’ll have some dental happiness if you use the recipe.

Pruning Out the Deadwood, Changing Seasons

by David T. Macknet

October 10, 2006

10:00 pm

3 Comments on Pruning Out the Deadwood, Changing Seasons

Gardening

Autumn is making me melancholy. Or something is. On nights when the moon is full, and the sky is that particularly brilliant shade of blue, when the wind is cool, even at noon, and things all around you are changing, well… you don’t really need an excuse to gently indulge your melancholia, do you?

‘Tis the season to read books and sip spiced hot chocolate, to ponder life truths and have a good cry for no particularly good reason; to write letters sans keyboards, with actual pens that use ink; to cement friendships, or slough off particularly noxious ones you’ve been hanging onto for too long. ‘Tis the season to shake off the deadwood, prune back the branches, and prepare to go dormant so that new growth can take place. Autum-time — it’s the slow-down that comes before the little death which comes before life returns.

Part of me hates change so much that all of this pruning and such makes me want to go back to bed, but letting something die back without pruning it, in plants, anyway, means that it’s not easy for the plant to come back to life. Trying to make changes stick in myself, without making room for them, without giving things up a few things that are comfortable, but hurtful, probably won’t work out either. So, it’s time, and every year this time rolls around again. I look forward to seeing how it will all turn out.

Meanwhile, the Silly Sibling’s Ceremony that took over my life is now over — (Which has me convinced that there is a God, if not, we’d still all be at the church still, waiting for her to finish her pedicure and maybe show up on time…wow. There are no words.) so I’m finally digging out of the filthy dusty house, returning library books, putting up the rest of the produce in the freezer and into the dehydrator, and finding the bedwarmers. It’s actually been coldish and rainy and it’s a welcome respite from the state of Eternal Summer via Global Warming. I’m relieved. Admittedly, I’m still disappointed at my retarded sunflowers; the only one I got is a full four inches tall — it looks like an oversized dandelion — but it’s time to shake off the failure and put in the bulbs and the sweet peas, maybe some amaranth, and more kale. Hopefully better results next time…

I have a wee dram of champagne waiting for me to take notice of it. Can you believe that someone had the good sense to make a sweet potato chutney that calls for champagne? I can’t drink it, but I can eat it!

Sweet Potato Chutney

1 large yellow onion, chopped
4 cups sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
1/4 cup champagne
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup dried cranberries
3 Tbs. crystallized ginger, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbs. curry powder
1/2 tsp. sea salt
3 Tbs. fresh mint, minced

In large saucepan over medium high heat, place onion, sweet potatoes; champagne; sugar, dried cranberries; crystallized ginger; cloves garlic, curry powder; and a spoon sea salt. Reduce heat to low and cook 30 minutes, stirring frequently.Remove from heat and stir in minced mint. Garnish with minced sprigs.

Meanwhile, I have a hankering for some more ‘classical’ applications for sweet potatoes… (and NO, they don’t include marshmallows, sorry): I think I’m going to jazz up the traditional caramelized sweet potatoes with ginger and orange juice instead of using brown sugar and butter. Or, better still, I might just try the whole thing with delicata squash; I hear it’s great baked with apples and caramelized.

The season of change: brings many possibilities!

Endings and Beginnings

by David T. Macknet

October 10, 2006

6:53 pm

5 Comments on Endings and Beginnings

Miscellany

No pictures for this one, folks. Just a quick entry to say that there’s going to be a lot of change around our lives pretty soon:

I gave notice today that I’m terminating my main contract, as it’s really been over with for quite some time, even though they won’t see it.
I’ve got a small contract lined up for the beginning of November, but have a MAJOR contract lined up beginning in like two weeks.
Major contract is only 20 minutes in hard commute traffic (10 min’s in off-peak time) from home.
Major contract is NOT with the State.

All of this means that I’ll be blogging a whole lot less, as I’ll probably be having to actually work for my money. On the up-side, though, the pay’s much better, and I’ll be in an organization which rewards people for working. And which has offices in France … so, all of my efforts to learn French in the car on the way in to work may pay off!

With the job change also come the facts that the sister-in-law’s not-wedding thing is now over, and that we’ve torn the garden out except for some onions & shallots, and that we’ve moved the portable a/c into storage & have taken down the deck umbrella. So, it’s fall, we’re looking more towards canning & being warm, and I’ll be closer to home for all of it.

I am content.

Sous Vide

by David T. Macknet

October 9, 2006

7:37 pm

1 Comment on Sous Vide

Food

After all the chaos of this weekend, we’re cleaning house … trying to unearth ourselves from the newspapers (and to read the backlog), and to just generally get ready for winter by moving the air-conditioner down to storage, pulling in the rugs from the deck, etc. In the process, I figured I’d do some tidying of the computer as well, so I’ve been uninstalling all the silly little things which, like barnacles, have encrusted this machine, and also tossing any pictures which haven’t proven to be worth keeping.

In the course of going through the pictures, I happened upon a gem, and realized that I hadn’t even blogged about it! The fish arrived, and that was all I said about it. Well, here’s to enlighten you: Sous Vide is absolutely fabulous, and I won’t be going back to the charred slab o’ meat method any time soon!

Instead of buying anything uber-useless like a vacuum bagging thing just for doing Sous Vide, I went ahead and just bought some chicken roasting bags. Good, cheap, hold up to just-boiling water, certainly, and worked quite marvellously. I threw in just enough wine to cover the fish, a handful of thyme, some onion powder, a good half-cube of vegetable bullion, and that was about it. I’m sure that I overcooked it even in doing the sous vide method … primarily because, even though I used my electric skillet, the temperature control on it isn’t really all that fabulous at low temperatures. So, next time it’s going to be the stovetop method, but either way, I’m quite pleased.

Back to recycle-mania.

End of the Garden

by David T. Macknet

October 2, 2006

6:23 pm

1 Comment on End of the Garden

Food, Gardening

This weekend we tore out the garden. With the nights dropping below 50°F, there was no chance of the tomatoes ripening any further, so before the rain starts we decided to get everything out. One more weekend for those pesky things like shallots & onions and we’ll have everything ready to turn under for the winter, and we can start worrying with planting things like Cabbages and Kale. It’s looking like rain in the next few days, but we’re hoping it’ll stay away through next weekend, so that everything can be fully harvested and for the first time in many years we can get it turned BEFORE the wicked weather comes.

We ended up chucking the green tomatoes into the deep freeze, so as not to have to deal with them until we’re ready to make chutneys & mincemeats. The ripe tomatoes will be dried or frozen as well, the peppers strung up, and we’ll be all snugged in for the winter.

The only transplant to overwinter is the little Chiltepín, with its pea-sized fruit of doom (aka “hotness distilled”). They’re not so mean as the habañeros, as they don’t linger, but they do pack just about as much of a bite. They’re supposed to turn red … but I’m doubting it, as the seeds were fully formed & the plant hasn’t turned out anything BUT the little round green fruit. I’m almost afraid to see what happens if they DO turn red … but I’m really hoping that it’ll survive the winter inside. They grow wild all over the southwest and Mexico, and are supposedly the precursor to the modern pepper. So, I’m thinking that maybe ours is just going to stay green

With the end of the garden comes free weekends, and more baking. And figuring out what to do with about 15 pounds of hot peppers. The joys of gardening.

Still More Yarn

by David T. Macknet

September 28, 2006

3:15 am

The Last Knit

by David T. Macknet

September 27, 2006

8:38 pm

4 Comments on The Last Knit

Knitting

(Knit one…purl one… knit one…purl one… Knit two… purl one, knit four, purl… Oh, crud.)

Happy Birthday to the obsessive knitter in the house!

May the shoulders on your sweaters always fit, may the heels on your stockings be properly turned; may your many knitting projects someday be finished, and may you get rid of all of your nasty acrylic yarn on unsuspecting strangers (Heh heh!).

Many happy returns of the day, auld Scot!

Glasgow:
NY:
Grinnell:
Roswell:
Berkeley: