Home & Hearth

Pickles

Posted on by Dan

For obvious reasons our gardening plans this season were thwarted. But, we are super fortunate to live close to a great farmers market. So, we’ve been taking advantage of the people who have been able to farm and garden this year, providing us with access to delicious, local produce.

In previous years, we made the market a regular part of our food buying, going once a week. This year, again for obvious reasons, we’ve only been able to go two or three times. Today was one of those times, and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect. For, you see, we had pickles on our minds, and there were cukes a plenty, dill and garlic, too.

We made a simple, but fantastic recipe last year, but ran out of them about half-way through. This year we hope to not make the same mistake.

Dill Pickles, year 2

Behold, 11 jars filled with over 13 pounds of pickled cucumber goodness. Of course, I should mention that my role in the process was greatly reduced due to low energy (thanks to my slow-to-recover hemoglobin), so I’m very glad Virginia was up to the task of washing, slicing, dicing and canning. (I did help a wee bit, though. I took some pictures.)

Dill Pickles, year 2

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Abundance

Posted on by Dan

What do you do when you find yourself up to the ears with extra, with more than you need? For the sake of making my point, I say there are two answers to this question. You can either hoard it, stash it away just in case you need it for when there is a shortage. Or—and, this is the one I would like to emphasize—you can create and share something new with the surplus; use it up because who really knows what the next day will bring (maybe more of the same, maybe less, maybe something completely different, or maybe nothing at all).

Why am I talking about this? Today I found out that my bone marrow is doing quite well—creating new cells and essentially bouncing back from the consolidation chemotherapy I received back in early May. The problem is that it seems to be hanging on to the white blood cells, causing a general shortage in my body.

I have a new plan for dealing with my stubborn bone marrow. I will illustrate and talk about all the good things that come about as a result of sharing, in using up the surplus that one has. I figure that by talking about it, and by acting it out (which is the fun part), that other parts of me will take notice and do the same.

The fun (and tasty) part
So, as is typical this time of year in Minnesota, we find ourselves with a surplus of rhubarb and strawberries. Sure, I can hoard them, stash ’em in the freezer for the those deep winter months. Or…

Strawberries and Rhubarb

…I can make Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Granted, I’m not doing a whole lot of sharing (Virginia begs to differ), but I am using up what we have. Fresh, warm crisp today sure beats frozen fruit in the winter (although, admittedly that is a nice thing to have on waffles in mid-January—so my illustration starts to break down right about now). But, in general, I’m finding a lot of value in taking what each day brings and creating something with the surplus (be it extra energy, creative impulses, or even with less tangible things like love and forgiveness). Of course, it’s much more fun when there’s an edible result of the abundance.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

Take note (and enjoy), oh body of mine.

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Cake and Yarn (What more do you need?)

Posted on by Dan

I was jonesing for some cake today, but with Virginia fighting a cold and myself not wanting to get one, I figured it would be best to just leave it… unless, the cake was actually good for us.

Good-For-You Cake

I’m calling this a good-for-you cake. The recipe is as follows:
In a small bowl, soak then combine (I used a wand blender to liquefy):
1/3 cup finely chopped dates
1/4 cup oats
1 1/2 cups boiling water

Add to mixture:
2-3 Tbsp. sour cream
2-3 Tbsp. canola oil (I wasn’t measuring that carefully)
1 Tbsp. maple syrup

In a medium bowl combine:
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cup white flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cardamom

Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, briskly mix together until batter is smooth, but not overmixed. Pour batter into greased 9-inch round cake pan and bake for 30 minutes (or until toothpick comes out clean) in a 350º oven. (I actually used a 7-inch springform, but it was a little small for the amount of batter, and I had a difficult time getting the center done without drying out the sides–hey that’s what experimentation is all about, right?).

Because I had a smaller, but taller cake, I cut it into three sections and spread some cooked-down blackberries (with a splash of lemon and 1/2 tsp. corn starch to thicken it) between the layers… and since we had a bit of cream in the fridge, it seemed like a touch of freshly whipped cream on top was appropriate. Perfect with an afternoon cup of tea.

In the spinning department, I finished up another bump of superwash merino. I kettle dyed some top in several 3 oz. portions (I actually thought I had set aside several 4 oz. portions, but I blame that mistake on the vicodin I was taking at the time…).

Handspun - Superwash Merino

This skein is actually only 2.8 oz. but I was able to squeeze 220 yards of 3-ply yarn out of it. Probably not enough for a full pair of socks, but I’m spinning all this sock yarn a similar weight, so there will probably be some mixing and matching going on.

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Cookuits, revisited… again

Posted on by Dan

You are all probably tired of reading about my pursuit of the perfect, healthful cookuit (as mentioned in an earlier post, they’re not quite buscuits, they’re not quite cookies). Don’t despair, though, there is some knitting content at the tail end of this post.

Cookuits

The ingredients are fairly similar to my previous attempt, but with a couple of key differences–slightly more liquid, and the order in which ingredients are combined. These are definitely less dense, more cake-like.

Combine these ingredients in small bowl:
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup kefir
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup chopped dates

Combine these ingredients in bowl:
3/4 cup oat flour
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup chestnut flour
1/2 cup white flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup golden raisins

Mix dry and wet ingredients together, being careful to not overmix. For each cookuit, spoon about 1/2 cup batter onto baking sheet. Bake for 25 minutes at 375º. Makes 9 cookuits.

Promised Knitting Content
Virginia finished a pair of socks for me, using some of her leftover Cestari yarn. I’m wearing these right now. I love how toasty these make my feet.

Sock #33 (52 Sock Challenge)