A Different Way to Preserve, and Actual Knitting Content!

I had a brainstorm the other day. Doesn't happen often that I'm struck with a genius idea out of the blue, but I was on Sunday. My grocery store sometimes has some decent finds on the "half-price produce" rack, and other times, it's either all junk or there's no rack at all. On Sunday, however, I hit the jackpot. Pint after pint of gorgeous grape tomatoes (those super-sweet little oval cherry ones). Ten pints. Normal price is $2.99 a pint. I paid a buck a piece for them. And the worst I came across was maybe a little mold on one or two per pint. All in all, a total steal! But what was I going to do with ten pints of cherry tomatoes? Never fear, I had a plan :)

They were so juicy and so pretty, I couldn't resist. And when you find out what I did with them, you may set aside a plant or two next year for just this purpose.

It's okay to pack the baking sheet this tightly, because as they dry, they'll pull away from each other. That's right, I set my oven to 200F and tossed the sheet in there overnight (it was more like five sheets... this was the last batch). The next morning, I had this:

Imagine if someone decided to make a tomato candy. A complex, rich, sweet, smoky candy that just brought back your happiest summer afternoons when a bonfire in the evening was just starting to sound like a good idea. Now imagine if that candy was not only delicious, but also had no sugar added, and was good for you! These crunchy/chewy little morsels are hard to pack away, because you just want to keep popping them in your mouth. I now have a quart jar full of dried ones, and once the last batch comes out of the oven tomorrow, I'll have a couple of four ounce jars of them packed in olive oil. SO GOOD. You can either eat these dry, or you can rehydrate them in soups, sauces, casseroles... I'd like to add some to turkey sausages for a more complex flavour.

Now, onto the knitting.... I have actually been working on knitting, I promise! :) Here's a hat I cast on Saturday afternoon during can-a-palooza!

Knit out of Gedifra Airmix (discontinued) that I got at Knit Knackers very shortly after I first learned to knit, this is the Bankhead Hat by Susie Gourlay. This stuff is a dream to knit with. It's wool and cotton mixed, it's fluffy, it's soft, and it's warm! For some reason, when this time of year rolls around, I get a hat fixation and I have to knit a half-dozen of them before I'm satisfied. Which is odd, because I don't wear hats. What I really need is some fingerless mittens, because my forearms and hands get really cold. Like right now.... the rest of me is perfectly warm, but my arms and wrists are frozen.

So, of course, I'm knitting a sleeveless, off-the-shoulder sweater. UGH. It's pretty though :) I love the chartreuse shade I picked. The top is Tempting by Jenna Adorno, knit out of Jill Eaton's Minnow Merino in Celery and it's available on Knitty. Another thick, poofy, soft cloud of a yarn. Although this one fluffs something awful, and it tends to untwist itself slightly. Also, don't use invisible joins with this stuff. I had two come apart before I clued in (had to duplicate-stitch those back up). It's pretty, but not terribly practical...

But OH SO PRETTY!!!! And soft! I'm loving it :) I've also made a bit of progress with Rob's kitchen curtain. I'm on the last pattern repeat before the top garter stitch. I'm debating whether to have eyelets for the curtain rod to snake through or having a fold-over tab to slide it through. Decisions, decisions....

I should probably point out that this is only the bottom panel. As they're café-style curtains, there's a small upper panel as well, but he really just wants the bottom one. This is knit out of Estelle Cadenza which was given to me by a friend who was destashing it a few years ago. It's tried to be a few things since then, but this is what it really wanted to be. Cadenza is a (sadly) discontinued yarn made from merino and silk and it's lovely to knit with. Please excuse my mismatched stitch markers. The only way I can knit lace and retain my sanity is to have a stitch marker every pattern repeat. The pattern in this case is this one from Knitting on the Net's online stitch dictionary. I adapted the bottom, side and top borders, but it's basically just miles of Triple Chevron lace :)

And that's what I've been up to lately. The Riverbed socks have been entirely ripped back and will be started again when I can face the idea of knitting socks for someone else, since I know they'll never fit me. The plain vanilla socks will be picked up again the first time my feet get cold, I'm sure! Rhinebeck is only three and a half weeks away!!!!!

Preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse...

... in my own special way ;)

This weekend, I had no plans whatsoever. None. I was a girl without a plan (errr... clue). So of course, I decided to can ALL THE THINGS!!!!! Seriously dudes, I produced so much canning this weekend that the zombies can come at me any time they want. I'm ready.

I started out with something I've been *talking* about making for weeks, if not months. That's right, Marissa McLellan's Cantaloupe Vanilla Jam from the Food in Jars cookbook! This jam... it's complex and yet simple at the same time. I need to watch a few more tutorials on how to scrape vanilla beans though, because those suckers are NOT easy to work with. Maybe I just need a better knife. Anyway, after much frustration and cursing at the vanilla beans, I ended up with this:

Every year for New Year's Day, my aunt Nicky invites the entire family over for brunch. And every year, it is tradition that a basket of croissants and a variety of "different" jams be placed on the table. This year, this is going to be one of those jams. I was supposed to pickle a whole bunch of carrots, so I got everything ready, had the pickling spice in my freshly-sterilized jars and was ready to just put the carrots in when I opened the bag and... all my carrots were covered with black rot. Boo! But I had gotten some asparagus for an excellent price earlier in the day, so pickled carrots became pickled asparagus!

Five pints of this lovely stuff now grace my pantry - the sixth went to live at Kari's house. I can hardly wait the two weeks you're supposed to let these sit. I love asparagus, I love pickled asparagus, and this is MINE. This is kind of a combination between Marissa's Pickled Asparagus recipe and Williams-Sonoma's Crunchy Pickled Carrots recipe. There's lemon, there's dill, there's pickling spice, but I didn't have any cider vinegar, so I made it with plain old white. I had prepared seven jars though, because my new canning pot (with a RACK!) holds seven and the recipe was supposed to make nine. So I had this pickling spice sitting around in a jar... I couldn't just toss it.

BAM! One lonely little jar of zucchini pickles! I had a zucchini in the fridge, so I sliced it super thick, made up a bit more pickling brine, and off I went. So now I have eleven jars sitting on my counter, and I know I have this huge bag of yellow plums in my fridge that won't last forever, so.... Marissa to the rescue again. I used her Spiced Plum Jam recipe (from the cookbook again) and ended up with this:

Three pints of pure heaven! I didn't get quite four pints out of it, but I got three and a bit, and Kari says it tastes fantastic (she got the "and a bit" and apparently had it for breakfast this morning. I was concerned that it would be too tart because the plums were REALLY firm, but she said it was just the perfect balance of tart, sweet and spicy. YAY!

So this morning, I was in the shower when I suddenly decided that I really needed to do something with the huge bag of onions I got on the half price rack at the grocery store before they met the same fate as the carrots (which weren't half price!). I waffled between making onion chutney, onion relish, and finally decided to just bloody pickle them! Now I've made pickled onions in the past, but never with full-sized onions. I'd only used pearl ones before. In addition, I didn't have a recipe. I was just flying by the seat of my pants. Turns out, I'm pretty good at flying by the seat of my pants, so I present to you...

Sweet Balsamic Pickled Onions

8 lbs onions, halved and cut in thirds cross-wise (to make thick half-circles)
1 1/2 cups balsamic vinegar
2 1/2 cups white vinegar
4 cups water
2 Tbsp coarse salt
1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp pickling spices, divided among jars
3 sprigs fresh dill (optional)
3 quart-sized canning jars

Sterilize your jars by submerging them in water, and bringing the pot to a boil. Boil for ten minutes, then remove from heat (but do not remove jars from water). Place the lids (the little flat part only) in a small pan of water and simmer.

Chop your onions and set aside.

In a large pot, combine the vinegars and water. Add the salt and sugar, and bring the liquid to a boil. Once the liquid has boiled, remove your pots from the water they've been resting in. Add 1 Tbsp pickling spices and one sprig of dill to each jar. Pack each jar with onion slices until you reach the narrow neck.

Ladle the hot vinegar mixture into the jars, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace. Place the lids on the jars, tightening the band just until it resists (i.e. fingertip tight). Once all the jars are filled, put them back in the hot water (you may have to bail some out to prevent overflow) and return to a boil. Once a rolling boil has been reached, process the jars for 20 minutes.

Remove jars from heat and set aside to cool. Let jars rest for 3-4 weeks to fully develop flavours. Enjoy!

©2012 Lynne Toll at http://blueceramicmug.blogspot.ca

Blog Roll, and a bit of boring...

I was kicking butt and taking names this morning, even though I felt like a walking corpse.

• I cooked lunch for the kids and I (that sounds a lot fancier than it was - it was just last night's red rice and shredded tofu leftovers with some chipotle sausage chunks and mozzarella thrown in).
• Got everyone outfitted in clean clothes (which is a monumental task when the minions won't bring their clothes to the laundry room to be cleaned and I can't walk into their obstacle course bedrooms).
• Signed permission slips and found enough money to pay the outing fees even though SOMEONE only gave me the slip at 7:30 this morning as we were supposed to be leaving the house (money was given in quarters. I apologized to her teacher at the bottom of the slip).
• Packed myself a healthy lunch to keep up with food goals (so far, so good!).
• Went in to pay my daughter's school fees (last year, I think it was November before I got that done...)
• Forgot to bring myself a diet coke, so no caffeine yet today.... wups.

Okay, that last one kind of sucked, and I'll be going out shortly to get myself something to drink. The other thing that kind of sucked this morning was that it was chilly, so I wore my lace sweater... and I pulled a thread on it going through the front door at the school. Fixable, but a pain in the ass. This sweater:

(Okay, that looks like crap with a shiny turquoise tanktop underneath it, but I can assure you, it looks quite nice with the dark red one I'm wearing today... not that it does ANYTHING AT ALL to flatter...)

I went to the gym last night and did gym-type things. Two days in a row? Not so much. I was doing fine at first, and then my body just gave out. The recumbent bike was probably the hardest. I really need to find a way to increase my ability on the bike, because it's depressing me. Tonight will be a walk, because I can probably manage that without hurting myself (the other thing - exercising while sick? ugh...)

As for knitting, I got a few inches done on Tempting at school the other night (two-hour presentation on library resources - YAY, knitting time!). Last night, I didn't feel like doing endless K2,P2 rib, so I picked up Rob's kitchen curtain and got five rows done on the last pattern repeat. That means thirteen rows to go, and I can start the garter stitch for the curtain rod! He may get it before his birthday! Sock hasn't been touched, because I'm waiting until I can concentrate on it. The other projects don't require that much thought. 

I figured I'd close off today by sharing the blogs I read regularly. Then I'll link them on the right so everybody can enjoy them! 

1. First, of course, is the blog of my good friends Sue and Kari - Two Tangled Skeins. This is the blog for their podcast of the same name. Sue also has an etsy shop where she sells hand-made cards and stitch-markers.
2. My not-so-secret addiction? The Yarn Harlot's blog. I have met Stephanie twice, taken classes with her, and she is a fantastically funny person. She's one of those straight-faced, sarcastic funny people, and she's my personal knitting hero :)
3. Two Sides of the Same Stitch. I was privileged to be able to take classes with both Kellie and Gwen this year at Stitches Midwest, and I really enjoy their banter and their knowledge!
4. Northwest Edible Life - you didn't think I just read knitting blogs, did you?
5. Dog Island Farm - At one point I was reading about 20 "urban homesteading" blogs... I'm down to two. Be thankful LOL
6. Just Bento - I looooooooove bento meals. They fascinate me! My favourite sushi place offers vegetable tempura on a bento-type platter with several different little treats in it!
7. Food in Jars - I started reading Marissa's blog on a whim, and now it's become one of my first stops every morning. She recently came out with a cookbook (same name) that I bought and love! I've already tried a few of her recipes, and I highly recommend them!
8. Wayside - this is my friend Amanda's blog. It's got a bit of everything. Cooking, knitting, spinning, dyeing... you name it, Amanda talks about it (she also has her own etsy shop selling naturally-dyed yarns.

Now you know what I do all day (other than writing cheques, paying bills and the other fun stuff a financial secretary gets to do...). Enjoy!

Simple joy :)

I feel like crap right now (got a sinus infection, joy) and I'm tired, and things are a bit up in the air in several areas of my life (most of them financial), but then I saw this, and it made me so happy, I cried.

This guy started traveling in 2003, and filming his friends and himself dancing in odd spots. Then he started getting other people to dance, and nine years later, this is what he's up to (his name is Matt Harding, and his site is called "Where the hell is Matt?"

Anyway, I just thought I'd share this with you guys, since it made me really happy, and I figured it might do the same for one or two of you.

Things that make me happy: picking and/or eating something I grew myself (hasn't happened in a long time), reading a book I can lose myself in, movies that make me forget time passing, watching my kids discover something amazing, closing my eyes and savoring something that tastes awesome, holding hands with Rob for no reason, hugs, laughing with my friends until we're all about ready to puke, singing, dancing with a baby in my arms, seeing a shelf full of jars of things I made, watching someone enjoy something I cooked/knit/made for them, stretching out in crisp, clean sheets, smelling fresh-mown grass, seeing the water trickle or roar over the rocks at the dam on my way home.

What are your happy triggers?

I know... I promised knitting!

But the Tempting top is in time-out right now. My invisible joins? The ones I was so thrilled to learn about? Yeah... one of them came apart when I was about 10 rows further on. Now I have to duplicate stitch the bloody thing to cover the loose ends and make sure it doesn't come apart. Needless to say, I am annoyed with the sweater and have put it in the corner so it can think about what it did.

I did get a few rows done on Rob's kitchen curtain (yes, that one. No, it's not finished. He'll get it when I'm done). I also finished the heel flap on my first sock and I'm three rows away from finishing another charity hat  - I left it in the middle of the decreases to go to Kari's for lunch on Saturday. We made some Parmesan baked squash (kumbota, I think) and shrimp marinated in Frank's Red Hot sauce that was to DIE for :) Then we headed over to Sue's (with a few hiccups along the way) to record an episode of their podcast. Check them out if you're into knitting or just want to watch two whackos have a good time! You can find them on blip, youtube and iTunes as "twotangledskeins" or just follow this link! It's really worth checking out! 

Sunday mainly included being lazy, going to my mom's for dinner and having baby time. After we got home, I chopped up what seemed like an enormous amount of tomatoes, cooked them up a bit and ended up with this:

Yup. That's all. Six pints of tomatoes. (Well, five pints in jars and one in a plastic container in my fridge). That was depressing. Granted, they cost me less than the grocery store ones, and there's no salt added to them (just plain tomatoes and a bit of lemon juice to adjust the pH level). I did them according to Marisa McLellan's method at Food in Jars. Maybe next year I'll be able to grow tomatoes and not have to buy them at the farmer's market. I didn't end up getting around to the plums, because I only have one burner on my stove, so the tomatoes took FOREVER. Yeah... ONE burner. Landlord apparently has a new range for me in the basement, but it's still sitting down there.

Tonight is going to be spent doing laundry, reading for school, relaxing with the kids. Here's what we did for the squash: quarter a kumbota squash and remove the seeds. drizzle with a bit of olive oil (to prevent sticking and add a pat of butter to each quarter. Sprinkle with allspice and bake at 350°F for 45 minutes. 5 minutes before the end, add 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese to each quarter. 

The marinade for the shrimp was just a bit of olive oil, a lot of Frank's Red Hot sauce and a bit of honey to cut the spice. We let them sit until the squash was done, then pan-fried them until they were pink. SO GOOD. (granted, we both REALLY like spicy food - your mileage may vary!)

The fruits of my not-quite labours...

This post is very pic-heavy, so be warned! I just figured I'd show you all what I've been up to this week... I roasted a few pumpkins:

I cut up a bunch of fruit to freeze (the idea here is to make jam when it's a bit cooler in my un-air-conditioned kitchen!):

Those are frozen kiwis and apples on the top shelf, and trays of pears,
strawberries and peaches on the bottom one. Please forgive the ugly ice packs.

These are Bing cherries (lots more in the bottom of the freezer),
pumpkin puree from last summer, and an absolutely stupid amount of
frozen rhubarb from my mom's garden!

Something new I found this year - PLUMCOTS!!! I can't wait to try
these. Just going to do these plain because I want their flavour to shine.

And while I was digging around in my late mother-in-law's old recipe booklets, guess what I found? A VINTAGE BALL BLUE BOOK!!!! For a home canner, this is like finding a Guttenberg bible!

No idea what year it's from,but the cover price is 10ø!

And yet to be processed are some yellow plums I got an EXCELLENT deal on, and some roma tomatoes from the Orleans Fruit Farm. I bought some crab apples too, but the kids gobbled those, so none for canning.

(Sorry those pics are fuzzy... I was literally taking pictures into the bottom of my fridge). And of course, there's this weekend's project... the cantaloupe!

This - and the gorgeous display Mother Nature puts on - is the reason I love fall so much. It's a time of preparation, of anticipation. It's a time where we put things by, like squirrels and bees, to get us through the long, cold darkness of winter. It's a time for knitting cozy warm things, and for stewing fruits and vegetables on the stove in anticipation of these things becoming scarce (or at least prohibitively expensive). It's a time of apples and pumpkins and spicy goodness, and a time to kick piles of leaves while walking in the forest. It truly is a time of thanksgiving for all that we are given. I hope you all take the time to enjoy it to the fullest!

Next post: KNITTING!

With the smallest of efforts...

The smallest effort is not lost. Each wavelet on the ocean tost aids in the ebb-tide or the flow; each rain-drop makes some floweret blow; each struggle lessens human woe.                                                                                           ~ Charles Mackay

I have no idea who Charles Mackay is, but I like him :) Day three has dawned bright and early. And the change in seasons means that I just want to bury myself ever-deeper in the covers and sleep until noon. Especially on a day where I spent the previous evening peeling and chopping kiwis for the freezer so they wouldn't spoil before I could use them in jam! I'll confess I probably went to bed a tiny bit later than I should have. 

I stayed on track food-wise yesterday. Ate about 200 calories more than the previous day, but still kept well under my goal. I was kind of peckish around bedtime, but I figured it'd keep until morning. I also did my walk at lunch time, but didn't end up going to the gym later in the evening.  My right ankle was a bit weird, and I didn't want to push it. Got on the scale this morning (yes, I know, I'm obsessing), and with two short days of concerted effort, I am down FOUR POUNDS. Holy Toledo! See, now THAT kind of result is motivating! I have a long way to go, but THAT kind of success makes me want to blow my goals out of the water. 

I've been kind of bummed at the lack of knitting time lately. Other than at knit night, I never have time to touch it. Part of that is because renos in my apartment mean there's a new mess waiting for me every night when I get home (red brick dust everywhere), and because I'm trying to keep the house neater, I'm actually doing, y'know, HOUSEWORK in the evenings. There's also the fact that I'm back at school, so are the kids, and they've started swimming lessons again as well. Busy family is busy! If I'm going to finish Tempting before Rhinebeck - remember Rhinebeck? I'm going to Rhinebeck! - I need to bust a move on it!

So many fantastic things should be happening in my kitchen, but I've a) not got the space right now, and b) not got the time... ARGH. I do hope to get at least one batch of jam out of the way on Saturday. That cantaloupe in the fridge isn't going to last forever. So that's why cooking posts have been scarce of late. I did make an awesome batch of cabbage soup at my mother's last weekend. I can't remember if I've shared that recipe before, but Mom swears it's as good as the Habitant canned cabbage soup we used to get when I was a kid (that's high praise indeed from my mom!)

There are endless variations on cabbage soup. You can add carrots, you can add tomatoes, you can add pork sausage if you want. But this is my basic recipe (which was arrived at when trying to reverse my mom's favorite canned cabbage soup LOL)

Simple Cabbage Soup

1 head cabbage, quarted and shredded
2 large or 4 small onions, quartered and thinly sliced
2 Tbsp olive oil
2-3 quarts of low-sodium beef stock
black pepper to taste
1/2 tsp celery seed

Heat olive oil in a wok over medium-high heat. Add cabbage and onion, stirring to coat. Sauté until softened, about 8 minutes. THIS STEP IS VERY IMPORTANT. If you do not sauté the vegetables before cooking the soup, you will get that god-awful boiled cabbage smell all through your house, and you'll be forbidden to ever make it again! That, and the sautéing process imparts a wonderful nutty flavor to the cabbage! DO EET.

Once the cabbage and onion has softened, transfer to a large stock pot. Add beef stock, celery seed and black pepper to pot, and return to medium heat. Bring to a rolling boil and reduce to a simmer. Continue simmering for 20-30 minutes. Serves 10-12.

©2012, Lynne Toll at http://blueceramicmug.blogspot.ca

This soup freezes beautifully, which is why my mother has me make it for her several times a year (she asks once she's run out of the frozen stuff). It's also DIRT CHEAP to make, especially if you use a box of bovril instead of liquid stock, or if you use HOMEMADE stock (gah... I can never do this - I have no space to keep it!). Cabbage is often 69¢ a pound or so. This last time, I added a head of Napa to it (yummy!) which added a bit of sweetness to the soup, so I added a 1/4 tsp of celery salt to offset that. Enjoy!