Dead or Alive? A post about a hat.

I owe Thelma Egberts a debt of gratitude.  Her Fish Hat pattern in '08 Knitty is one of my favorite patterns of all time.  It is a cool pattern all by itself, but you can go nuts personalizing it.  I made the first one last year as a Christmas present for a nephew .  I used Patons wool and made random width stripes depending on my fancy.   It came out so well that I made one for the kiddo and went nuts doing  fair isle with scrap yarn.  I am still really proud of that hat.  Then a few weeks ago I made another one using up lots of bits and ends of Patons yarns.  I kept the stripes narrow because I was worried about running out of yarn.  The tail and fins are two different colors because I really did run out of  blue, green, and red yarn.

When I gave my nephew his at the family Christmas party last year, one of the farmer's brothers loved it.  He put it on and joked that he wanted one.  He is an avid fisherman, so I sent him a note asking if he was serious.  He said he was, so I'm making him one.  The yarn for his is red malabrego and black and white alpaca.  I moved up a needle size because he has a big head and it is thick yarn.

Day 1: Knit the red of the mouth and half the short rows.

Day 2. Knit the other half of the short rows.

Day 3: Knit 1.5" up.  Start worrying that I will not have enough of the black/gray/white  alpaca.  I am forever worrying about not having enough yarn.  Gonna compensate with wider white stripes.

Day 4: Just keep knitting.  Not sure I like the stripes.

Day 5: First decrease done.  Is he really going to wear this?  Really? 

Day 6: Second decrease done.  Where do you think my size 8 double pointed needles are?  Still worrying about running out of yarn.

Day 7: Went to Saturday knitting and knit like a madwoman.  Used the magic loop technique to deal with the small rounds.

Day 8: Finished knitting and wove in all the ends.

Took a break for a few days.   

 Day 12: Time to work on the eyes.  I like him.  

1st Christmas present made.

Skinny Cat

Meet "Brunswick"

We adopted Ella from the SPCA in November of 2006.  We had a cat, Ariel (I did not name her! I swear!), who was a bit neurotic and we thought she might like some company.  We picked Ella by going into the big cat room with a few dozen cats and sitting down in the middle of the room.  Kiddo was trying her best to be good, but she was still a squirming, excited two-year old.  We waited to see who would come to us.  Ella climbed right into the kid's lap and purred her head off.  She was not frightened or skittiesh at all.  She was not the most attractive cat in the bunch, but she was a love muffin.

Feed me!

She was also big.  Really big.  There was discussion of naming her "Brunswick" after the bowling ball manufacturer.  She had been left in front of the SPCA in a box.  She was spayed, de-clawed, and clearly used to being cuddled and hand fed people food.  She loved people food.  Especially cheese.

As it turned out, Ariel did not appreciate our kind gesture.   Despite our efforts to provide a good introduction, Ariel chased her through the house.  Ella claimed our bed as her own and for a few weeks she was either on my pillow or at the food bowl.  She even liked Ariel's kidney diet cat food.

She thinks she is invisible under there.

Ariel passed on and Ella was lonely.  We got two rescue kittens.  Ella liked them.  She loved their kitten food.  She did not exactly play with them, but she seemed more active.  Slowly, she lost some weight but she was still a substantial cat.

A little privacy please?

At least she was.  Six months ago she started loosing weight.  Then we got the dog.  She lost more.  1.5# in 3 months.  That is a lot for a cat.  You can feel the bumps of her spine as you pet her back.   Three months ago the vet was not concerned.  Now at 11.5 pounds, she is being tested for feline hyperthyroidism.

Skinny!

Initial lab results all came back looking good.  No diabetes, kidney, or liver disease.   We are waiting to hear back for confirmation that it is in fact hyperthyroidism.  Do you know that it costs about a grand to make your cat glow in the dark with radioactive iodine?  She won't take pills.  We have no idea how old she is.  So now we wait for definitive diagnosis and treatment options.

I hate waiting.

Cinnamon Bun Pancakes

Sometimes you just need to have breakfast for dinner.  Someone posted this recipe over on Low Carb Friends a few days ago.  I know.  How weird it is to pick up a pancake recipe on a low carb website?  These are pretty good.  The kid asked for seconds.

Cinnamon Bun Pancakes!

1 1/2 cups flour

3 Tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup milk

2 Tablespoons maple syrup

1/4 cup melted butter

1 Tablespoon vanilla

Whisk the dry ingredients together. Put all of the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the wet ingredients and whisk together until well combined. Preheat a griddle or large sauté pan over medium heat. Cook until brown on both sides.

To make the frosting:

1 cup confectioners sugar

2 Tablespoons melted butter

2 tablespoons milk

Whisk the ingredients together until smooth and a pouring consistency. If too thick add more milk, if too thin, add more sugar.

It made about 12 small pancakes.

To balance it out, we had watermelon from the CSA box for desert.

Peach Butter Bread

I'm not thrilled with my first attempt at Peach Butter.  It tastes "cooked."  Still good, but not great.  Not good enough to be gifted.  So what to do with it?

This bread is pretty darn good it I do say so myself.  The peach and ginger work together very nicely.

Peach Butter Quick Bread

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Peach Butter
• 1/2 cup white sugar or splenda
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease two loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, combine the peach butter, sugar, oil, eggs and milk; beat well. Sift in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices, and salt; stir until smooth. Fold in the pecans. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 40-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. 

My life as a squirel

Photo from Wordmagazine.uk.co

Tuesday: Blanched and froze green beans.

Wednesday: Trimmed back the basil and zipped it in the mini food processor with olive oil.  Froze it for pesto or clam sauce this winter.

Thursday: Froze 4.5 cups of pumpkin puree.

Saturday: Grated a zucchini and froze it.

Sunday: Prepped ripe tomatoes and froze them for when we are ready for sauce.  Made a double batch of soup to freeze with the sad rainbow chard and dinosaur kale.  Mariquita Farms Original Version

Looks more like salad than soup...

Bird in Hand Curried Chickpea, Lentil, and Swiss Chard Stew
1 bag dried Lentils (~3 cups)
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 generous pinches of dried parsley flakes (I bought them for the dog biscuit recipes)
2 bunching onions, cleaned and chopped (from the csa box)
S & P to taste 

 4 cups chicken stock (salvaged form the back of the fridge)
Heaping tablespoon curry powder 

several good splashes of Tabasco
1 large bunch rainbow chard, leaves and stems, coarsely chopped(from csa box)

1 bunch of dinosaur kale coarsely chopped. (from the csa box)
2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed (hiding in the pantry for who only knows how long...)
Cumin seeds and Greek-style yogurt for garnish

1. Rinse lentils in a fine-mesh sieve.  Revive the greens by trimming the ends and allowing them to soak in cold water.  Set aside.
2. In a stock pot, combine the oil, parsley, onion , and 1 teaspoon salt. Sweat-cook, covered, over low heat until soft but not browned- for about 3 minutes. Add the stock and bring to a simmer over moderate heat. Add the lentils, curry powder, and cayenne and stir. Simmer, covered, until the lentils are tender, about 20 minutes. (cooking time will depend upon the freshness of the lentils –older lentils take longer to cook)  Ours sucked up all the liquid, so we wound up adding 4 cups of water.
3. Add the greens and the chickpeas and cook until the leaves are wilted, about 5 minutes more. Taste for seasoning. (this means add S&P to taste)
4. Garnish with a spoonful of yogurt and a sprinkling of toasted cumin.

The soup rocks and made enough for two or three meals.  Soon I need to inventory the freezer.  Hopefully we will be ready for winter.  

Gift Pumpkins

When I was a little kid we had a compost heap.  I remember that every summer, squash vines would climb out of it.  This year we had gift vines too.  They took over and I let them.  It turned out they were pumpkins.  I don't try to grow squash anymore.  The soil has some kind of silvery fungus that attacks them and they die in August.  Further, squash are so cheap at the farmers market that we can save the precious garden space for something else.

The pumpkins went nuts and this little guy turned orange really early.  It also has a funny scar.  I picked it and washed it with a bleach solution.  The I left it on the warm front porch in the sun for 10 days.  The scar hardened off.   Pick Your Own has great information about prepping fresh pumpkin.  Ours are probably jack-o-lanterns rather than pie pumpkins but you can still eat them.

 

I cut it in half and scooped out the guts.  Then I cut it in eighths and steamed it in a pot for 20 min.  Once the wedges had cooled, I peeled off the rind.  I fridged them for a day and then mashed them for a bit and tossed them in the blender.  I got 4.5 cups of pumpkin puree from the little guy.  More than enough to make a pie or bread or muffins or soup.  But not this week.  In steamy, 85 degree August heat, the thought of baking or soup is not a great idea.  In October, it will be brilliant. 

There are at least 4 more out there.  Just wait for the Jack-o-lanterns!  And, maybe the guts of these pumpkins will gift us with more vines next year...

Tomato troubles

Last year the tomatoes across upstate NY withered and died.  This year I'm having my first experience with blossom end rot. Boo.   It seems to have left the beefsteaks alone, but the romas suffered for a while there.  It appears to primarily have affected the early fruit.  Stuff that is coming off the vine at this point seems okay.  The peppers are also affected and have not recovered.

Blossom rot is caused by a calcium deficiency, in our case  when fruit is rapidly growing and subjected to sudden drought conditions.  Early this season there was a really hot period of days and maybe I did not water enough.    Some tomatoes have the spot on the end.  Some have a rotten spot inside.  At this point I am cutting away the bad stuff and tossing them in the freezer. 

Of course on the internet there are lots of solutions to this problem that you can purchase from their website...  Or use Epsom salts...  The best solution I have read comes from: the Victory Seed Company.  Basically, leave it alone.  By the time you see the problem, the damage is done.  We still have more tomatoes than we could ever cook or eat.  In a week or so I will make our first batch of sauce for the summer. Stay tuned.