Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Wacko Summer

Summer in Portland has been oddly mild, which is great for people like me, who turn into grumpy assholes in the heat, but the plants could sure use some solar love! Just this week, we've had our first blooms of Morning Glory & Nasturtiums.



Ruben is another fan of the moderate climate, which allows him to comfortably sunbathe like a proper grandpa dog.

Sorry for the lack of interesting foods & recipes, but I've mostly been living off of smoothies, burritos & tasty fruit!


Sunday, June 27, 2010

What's on the Needles

It seems that I tend to do things in waves...periods of furious knitting, canning craziness, cooking/baking for days on end. I thought I should post one of my many WIPs (works in progress), in order to catch the knitting bug & finish the second sock! I'm making these for my friend Shelly, who's like a second mom to me. She's known me since I was a toddler & her daughters are great, lifelong friends to my sister & I.

The pattern is called Monkey, so if you're on Ravelry, you can check out the myriad variations in yarn & pattern tweaking that people have come up with. Pretty cool.


Here's the first one, folded up at Mom's house, next to the itty bitty start of the second one. I've only completed one pair of socks in my life, so I need to get-a-goin'!


Friday, June 25, 2010

Spending Time in the Cool Kitchen

Taking advantage of the mild weather today, I got a chance to bake Ruben some dog treats that I've wanted to try, courtesy of Martha. I tweaked the recipe a bit, using all white whole wheat flour, halving the salt, and not basting them with chicken stock. They don't look as pretty as the ones on the website, but they passed the test & got gobbled up by the world's pickiest dog, ha ha. Good thing I made a double batch!


I also picked up a copy of Laurel's Kitchen at Goodwill recently, which brought back a flood of memories from my first job at a café/art gallery on the coast. One of my duties was to cook Sunday brunch (even though I was in high school, ha ha!), & we always used the recipe from Laurel's Kitchen for our tortillas, the base of the totally-from-scratch huevos rancheros. They're so, so good---I often eat them plain, or spread with refried beans. Simple, good food.


Since everything in the post is beige/tan, I better leave you with some flaming poppies that we saw on a walk. My favorite flower!


Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Old Timey Preservation Fun

Last year, my super-talented, beautiful friend, Coral, taught me how to prepare & can jam & I've been hooked ever since! We picked strawberries, raspberries, blueberries & blackberries, from various u-pick farms, which were either turned into jam or frozen for later. I then tried my hand at pickling: spicy green beans & jalapeños. Salty goodness. Finally, I canned some unsweetened (to make up for the GOBS of sugar in the jam) applesauce & pears that we'd picked around the neighborhood.

This year, us ladies (my sister, Coral & I) headed to our usual strawberry spot, Sauvie Island Farms & this is the result...


Well, that is PART of the result. I canned 25 pints of jam, in all, some in pint jars, some in half-pints. So fun! I'm looking forward to making a TON of applesauce, since it's one of the healthiest things to can, plus peaches & maybe some weird pickled things. Luckily, I got a shit-ton of cheap jar at Goodwill when I was visiting Mom. :)

It's so amazing to take a bite of toast, laden with floral, Summer-y jam, in the middle of Winter, especially if the bread is home-baked!



Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Welcome!

Hello. I kept wanting to get back into blogging, but I'm no longer a vegan (still veg!) & the old site felt stale, so I decided to fire up another. I'll probably post an assortment of rants, recipes, squees, photos, & whatever crafty shenanigans I'm up to.

For this first post, I thought I'd share a glimpse of my garden space...


...as well as the first "harvest" from the strawberry plants...