Using What We’ve Got

The summer bounty is upon us, people.  Our CSA box has been a bit overwhelming lately, so we’ve been getting sort of…creative…with our cooking in an effort to use all of what we receive every week.  We pick up our box from the farmer’s market every Tuesday, so we pretty much eat normal food all the way through till Friday, but all meals from Saturday through Monday have basically become a series of vegetarian freak shows.  We bring it upon ourselves, though–our next door neighbors asked if we wanted their tomatoes (they don’t like them) and we agreed, then our neighbors down the street asked if we wanted a bag of squash (they have too many) and we said, “sure, why not!”, then on Saturday, we had nothing to do, so we proceeded to go to the big weekend farmers market and BUY MORE PRODUCE.  Seriously, my body is going to turn into one giant multivitamin if this continues. 

Anyway, here’s what we’ve been doing with it:

A peach tart.  This is definitely a fall back item for when we have a surplus of fruit (apples, pears, stone fruit, etc).  We just use a sheet of puff pastry, slice up and arrangethe fruit on top, cover in pats of butter and sugar, bake and then give it a brush with some melty jam (I think David used apricot jam on this one).  It is impressive and shiny and tastes super good.  Be sure to put down some parchment paper or a silpat or something on your cookie sheet, though because this juices everywhere and will stick like crazy.

David also baked a buckwheat pound cake, which used no produce, but was delicious nonetheless.  He’s been in a bake-y mood lately, apparently.

This definitly doesn’t look as good as it tasted.  We used this recipe to layer potatoes, yellow squash and a mixture of cheese and scallions, then baked it for an hour or so.  I could have eaten the whole thing by myself, but abstained because we had guests.

Pickles!  Two weeks ago, I went to Raven’s house to watch So You Think You Can Dance without David, since he and Donnie had both been banned from watching with us due to lack of respect for The Fine Arts.  When I got home, David was down the street at our neighbor’s house surrounded by jars and jars of pickles.  And they came out pretty good!  Very exciting stuff. 

Last night, we made tomato soup from a recipe in the Splendid Table cookbook How to Eat Supper.  It was awesome–pictures tomorrow. 

So tonight will be the most desparate and incongruous meal of the week, but tomorrow, we will be flush with veggies once again…

Dahlonega

This past weekend, David and I went to Dahlonega, Georgia (pronounced de-LON-ega) to attend the wedding of a dear friend from Philadelphia.  We dropped the pup off at David’s parents’ house in Tennessee and then drove through the Appalachian Mountains to get there.  Since we moved to Kentucky, I’ve developed a healthy respect for the culture and beauty of the mountains and, since there isn’t really a direct route across, we got to drive through a lot of little, rural mountainy towns along the way.  It was really a lovely drive. 

We stayed in a small b&b right at the beginning of the Appalachian Trail called Cedar House Inn and Yurts, run by the extremely friendly and hospitable Marybeth and Fred.  Oh, I’m sorry, did you have a question?  What is a Yurt, you say?  Well, I’m glad you asked.  A Yurt is like a tent for Troop Beverly Hills–they were permanent, had real queen sized beds, toilets, electricity and a deck with a lovely view.  Obviously, I had to become beautiful for a wedding, so we stayed in an actual room, not a Yurt, but if I went back and had more rustic beauty demands, I would totally stay in a Yurt.  They were so awesome!

Isn’t that cute?

So anyway, we stayed in a real room, but we thought the whole b&b was so cute that we had to reassure eachother that we are not, in fact, middle aged.

Super cute, no?  And they are “green”!  Awesome. 

At the end of the wedding, the guests each got an enormous sparkler-they had to be 3 feet long–and were instructed to make a sort of fiery arch for the bride and groom to run through to get to their limo.  Like a gauntlet.  This seemed like a great idea, until the people standing behind you light up and hold their fireball torch over your hair.  I felt just like MJ (RIP) in the Pepsi commercial!

Luckily, the reception site had the forethought to set out tiny buckets with 1/4 inch of water in the bottom.  Good thinkin’!

 

Because nothing says matrimonial bliss like a bucket of fire surrounded by dry pine needles.

Things I would want, were I to have a wedding do-over. Etsy Edition.

David and I are off to Georgia for a wedding this weekend, so I thought I’d do a quick post of things I might do if David and I went back in time and re-planned our wedding, which was really a lot of fun the first time.

This is photo montage of little things I would like to have:

diy cake toppers

Guest book/address cards. It will actually be useful later.

Letterpress Invitations

Ooohh prettyprettypretty

A very cool gift

Vintage Stamp Wedding Cake Garland

Zebra wood ring

And another thing…

After I finished those other green fingerless gloves, I had maybe 65 yards of the light green malabrigo left over.  I really wanted to make a slouchy hat with it to match the mitts, but knew in my heart that 60 yards was not enough to do this.  That didn’t stop me from trying, though!  First, I tried an eyelet cable pattern (note: cables are not a good way to conserve yarn), which was a sad failure, so I ripped it out.  Next, I tried lace, since a fabric with a bunch of holes in it, while not a very warm hat, doesn’t use a whole lot of yarn.  Unfortunately, I forgot that I really suck at knitting lace because I obviously can’t count.  So that got frogged.  Then, I tried just plain old stockinette stitch, and this was when I realized that I just didn’t have enough yarn for a hat. And that made me very sad.

But then, last night, I was digging through my yarn scraps and found some olive green Malabrigo left over from David’s hat and inspiration hit me.  Stripes!  Even though olive and sage are not the most obvious as far as color combinations go, I went for it.  I think I was just determined to get this hat knit.  So, on the 4th try, I knitted a striped, slouchy hat from start to finish last night.  And here it is:

Isn’t it cute?  I’m going to have a hard time giving it away, I think.  But give it away I must, because I committed to a handmade Christmas and I am nothing if not cheap dedicated to the cause of handmade proliferation. 

Other news:

Last night, I watched “Knowing”, which reinforced my aversion to all movies that are about the apocalypse.  They scare the bejeebers out of me and I hate them.  This explains some really tightly knitted areas on the above hat, which probably took place while people were screaming because their faces were on fire.  Also, Nicholas Cage, I love you because you seem really nice, but sometimes, your voice is a little zombie-ish.

Tomorrow night is a very important one for those of us who follow So You Think You Can Dance as they will be bringing back past dancers to do the best dances ever (park bench, door dance, bed dance, hummingbird dance, the list goes on…)! Raven and I watch SYTYCD together every Wednesday night, but usually I skip out on the results show and hear about it from her later.  Not this time, though! 

Today, I will start another pair of fingerless mitts, this time for a boy and with a convertible top.

Christmas 2009 Gift Update

I don’t want you to think that I’ve been slacking on my Christmas knitting duties–I’ve finished a couple more things to add to the pile.

This is a slouchy little hat I made on the way to Myrtle Beach a couple weeks ago.  It only took a three hours, which was a shame because I was counting on it to take up a bit more car-time than that–it’s the only time I’ve ever wished a project took longer!  It’s a very forgiving pattern (Star Cross’d Beret) in my most favorite yarn (malabrigo) and was a pleasure to knit up!

This is a pair of fingerless mitts to match the hat.  It was another one day project and was a lot of fun to knit up. They are a little more fitted than the green ones, which is sort of nice.  The colorway of the yarn is called “Paris Night”.  I think it’s an extremely lovely name for this purpley-blue color.

Finally, this little fella came together over this past weekend.  Isn’t he cute?  I used the Mr. Dangly pattern (isn’t that name a little….I don’t know….strange?).  I’m calling him Ollie.  He’ll be for Ellie Belly this Christmas.

I’ve also finished an entire sweater for my mom, but I haven’t blocked it yet, so it looks a little wonky right now.  I’ll get a decent picture up soon, though.

I’m so proud of myself for all the progress I’ve made!  I just have a few more things to do and then I’ll be ready for the holidays–and it’s only July!!

Summertime and the Living is Busy.

What a fun summer we’ve been having!  Here’s what we’ve been up to:

A CSA farm tour–we’re now in the middle of summer bounty!  Finishing up with the salad greens and well into squash and corn!  Tomatoes are just around the corner, I can’t wait!!

Hey, guess what?  June was Bike Lexington month!  There were a bunch of fun events for the professional bikers and for the…less professional bikers.  This was the drag race and those are my clothes, but that’s not me (hopefully, that is no surprise to you).

One mildly frustrating, but productive day of sewing with my bff Raven.  She ended up with a super cute top that she has actually worn  outside of her house (although I don’t think she’s actually washed it–we do not push our luck around here)!!  Today, we made cardigans a la Angry Chicken, which were a lot more agreeable because we are awesome at cutting, but not so great at sewing.

Eating these cookies.  Usually, the box is half empty by the time we get back from Whole Foods.

Eating.  A lot.  But luckily, it’s mostly healthy.  Okay, this sandwich wasn’t the most healthy thing and neither are those cookies, but mostly, it’s good stuff.  I love the way toast on a sandwich makes the top of my mouth sort of raw.  It reminds me of soup and sandwich dinners at home with my mom.

Riding MY NEW BIKE!  Now, I want you to re-read the phrase “my new bike” but say it like the announcer on Price is Right, because that’s the kind of enthusiasm this bronzed beauty deserves.  Do it.  Isn’t this the most lovely bicycle EVER?  What should I name it?

Discovering and eating the best pancakes ever.  Here’s some simple math for you: this recipe made 14 and we split them evenly between the two of us.  How many did we each eat?  Like I said, we are eating HEALTHY.

I hope you are having a great summer as well!

Geekery

Last night, I played Scrabble with my neighbor, Matt, and won, due to a lucky 7 letter Scrabble word, “rations”, which also made the word “darts” and which also covered the coveted “triple word score”.  After you play Scrabble, do you go through the play-by-play and figure out exactly which word clinched the victory?  I do.  In Matt’s defense, I did put down the word “retuft”, which, if my spell checker is correct, is not actually a word.  But there was no challenge due to my Balderdash definition, so the win stands. 

 
Here’s the final board.  In addition to identifying the winning word, I like to take a moment at the end of the game to admire the way the words covered the board and to congratulate the players on making such good use of it.

For dinner last night I purchased a baguette, a few lumpy heirloom tomatoes and some mozzarella cheese and made myself a caprese sandwich with my “garden” basil and a little balsamic vinaigrette.  David didn’t make it home for dinner, so I ended up eating the whole thing. I felt quite disgusted with myself, but all that bread made me a very happy girl. 

On an unrelated note, I have been thinking a lot about how much my new bike reminds me of that scene in The Sound of Music where they are singing the do re mi song and riding bikes down a lovely Austrian street.  That Brigitta really sings the ti note with a lot of passion. Good for her.  

 

This morning, Maxwell was moving a bit slowly.  In his defense, being awake for 2 hours every single day can be exhausting.  Very stressful, indeed.

I will not be a slave to Christmas this year!

Since last Christmas was such a headache due to my own procrastination and over extending, I’m starting on gift making now. Actually, I started on gift making last week and already have a finished object to show off. To preserve the surprise, I’m withholding information about specific recipients, but do you know what I will not withhold? Artful Pictures of me trying on the awesome presents.

 

These are Susan’s Reading Mitts (free pattern on Ravelry) in Malabrigo Merino Worsted. This is my most favorite yarn in the entire galaxy and beyond. I love the colors (this is in the Vetiver colorway, which is greens and grays that lean toward pink in a very subtle, but warm and cozy, way). It is also so very soft and smushy. I want the whole world to be knitted from Malabrigo Merino Worsted yarn.

What was I talking about? Oh yes, the mitts. So these fingerless gloves (a concept to which I was whole-heartedly opposed until very recently, for reasons which I cannot recall) also feature a picot edge, which is freakin’ adorable. I was unsure of it while I was knitting because it looks sloppy until you hem it down, and then it looks neat as a pin, very old-timey and charming. So these are a huge success and really only took about 2/3 of the skein, so I have quite a bit left over to play around with (you can refer to the previous paragraph if you’re not sure about how that makes me feel).

I have also been dipping my pinky toe into bike riding. David and I have been going on short bike rides around the block fairly frequently lately, but last weekend, I rode my bike to the pool, which is a couple miles away, and also to the yarn shop to pick up the Malabrigo. I felt really good about myself for these accomplishments and David very helpfully and encouragingly told me he was impressed and that I did a great job. I am now in need of my own bike, as I have been borrowing a friend’s for awhile now. Luckily, my neighbor, Matt, works at Pedal Power in Lexington and is hooking me up with one of their old frames, all souped up a la Greased Lightning.

In a couple weeks, I will be the proud owner of an orange schwinn bicycle with a working headlight that runs from power generated from the wheels. I am not sure if I’m excited about the whole bike, or just the headlight, but either way, maybe I’ll get in better shape (although I already feel extremely healthy) and also help to save the Earth (which is not extremely healthy).

David went over to the bike shop to help Matt get started and took pictures of their progress for me, since I was far away on a business trip to Baltimore that I’m purposely avoiding writing about due to how tired I STILL AM, even though I got back on Friday *going to my happy place*. So here is my orange beauty, all shiny and with an awesome light:

I just love it! 

More Christmas gifts are in the works (I am sort of lying…I haven’t actually started anything else, but I do have the patterns queued up in Ravelry and I just need to buy the yarn) and I will post pics as they come.

Spring

How many ways can we eat asparagus? So far we have had it raw, roasted, sautéed, in scrambled eggs, in pasta, on pizza, with rice, with garlic, with onions, with goat cheese… the list goes on, and yet we get a fresh bundle with every CSA box. I have to say, though, that every spring, we eat ourselves silly on asparagus, which is just as well, since we don’t have it out of season very often. We need to be sick of it when it stops coming-to be able to breath a sigh of relief that the madness is finally over-so that we don’t miss it all year long. We’ll be ready for it when it comes back next spring.

On Saturday night, David sautéed onions, asparagus and garlic, made a buttery alfredo sauce, and poured it over fettuccini.

We are not quite sick of it yet!

Yesterday, we went over to Ashland (Henry Clay’s Estate), sat on a blanket and enjoyed the beautiful day. I’m taking a break from the never-ending stockinette stitch of the buttercup sweater on the advice of the owner of Stone’s Throw. She told me that if I started something new, I’d be able to go back to buttercup when I got tired of the new thing. Good thinking, so I bought two hanks of Araucania Ranco sock yarn and started a shawl, which is interesting knitting and going pretty fast. I’m not sure if I’m really a shawl kind of girl-I may feel like an old lady with it-but we shall see.

I’ve never really used variegated yarns before, but I am digging the way the little stitches look on the needles.

It’s like a spectrum or like of those things in chemistry where they find out what a chemical is by its color…hang on, let me google…ah, chromatography. Yes, it looks just like that.

Between looking down at that and looking up at this, it was pretty much a perfect afternoon.

Summer Reading

This summer, I plan to read more.  Lately, instead of reading, I’ve been knitting while listening to Selected Shorts, episodes of This American Life, and Librivox audio book recordings.  That will be changing soon, though, because the new house is very close to a small library branch that I plan to ride my bike to throughout the summer.  However, my life is a series of broken commitments, so in the spirit of this lazy season, I accept that I may not actually make it to the library until August.  Or not at all. But wouldn’t that be a waste?  So hopefully, I’ll get there this weekend or something. 

So here are the books I’m planning to read, one at a time, with a generous smattering of knitting breaks so that David doesn’t worry that I’ve lost the ability to speak aloud.

I’ve recently discovered a love for Latin American novels.  There’s this magical element that is incorporated without warning and in a totally normal way, as if it happens all the time.  My first experience with this was on a trip to Boston, where I read Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (now one of my all time favorite books) and I thought that the mystical events in that book were specific to her particular style of writing.  A few years later, I read 100 Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera, both by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and realized that the flowery and romantic magic of Like Water for Chocolate was not just one author’s trait, but an entire genre!  Score! I’m excited to read more from other Latin American authors this summer–my top three picks are:

 

 

The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dreaming in Cuban, Cristina Garcia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

 

 

 

 

 

And one Indian author to round out my list: The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy

 

 

 

 

 

 

Currently, I’m reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn for the first time and am pretty much enthralled.  I borrowed it from Raven and she told me I’d like it.  She was right. 

So that’s my summer reading list!