Health check-in smoke gets in your eyes and yogurt happens

 Today I wove again, no trouble from the shoulder from weaving, probably because it's large arm movements, so I'm happy about that, and about my selvedges which are holding up fine 

This was the color of the sunlight this morning

Orange sunlight from the smoke from the now extinguished fire in South Jersey and the northerly Nova Scotia fires.

I did get a walk, though the air quality isn't high..

And I did a bit of gardening, pruning off the spent flowers from the sage , watered the seedlings and small herbs.

I've got back to walking after a few days when it was too hot, and the difference to my back is terrific. I had been stiffening up, and probably that triggered the shoulder issue. It's also good for your spirits to walk. Just walk and look and listen, no audiobook nor music.

Icing, rest, range of motion exercises, ibuprofen all helped.  Doing much better today. But I'm listening to blogistas telling me not to rush back into knitting and spinning and getting back into trouble. I hear you! You're right. 

I'm making yogurt today, writing while waiting for the boiled milk to cool down.

I also finished the last of the dandelion leaf soup with the cannellini beans in it, and it really developed in the freezer. No bitterness at all, just a great flavor. 

Later this afternoon there's Textiles and Tea so I'll report on that tomorrow if it's interesting. 

Happy day, everyone.  My whistling is coming along.  About to practice Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, favorite ballad and appropriate today. Bigger than my range, makes my whistler tired.

Today more than ever 

As they cope with the catastrophic  attack on the dam.  

Memorial Day in the US

 It's Memorial Day, to remember and honor the people who died in wars. 

One way to honor them is to celebrate the living, and when Handsome Son announced he plans to come over this afternoon, I thought I'd better make a little something.

Yesterday I'd set dried apricots into apple juice overnight thinking maybe a sauce for fish. 

Then Gary came dashing in last evening, i was spinning and winding on, so I couldn't put the spindle down. 

He had been grilling chicken and got a plate out of my kitchen cabinet to leave me some slices for today.

So then I thought ah, apricot sauce and chicken, great. Then when handsome Son planned to come over I rethought.

Made the apricot, juice and cane sugar into preserves this morning

the idea being jam tarts. 

A search for a nice pastry recipe not written in impenetrable British terms was, um, fruitless. So I searched on and remembered making the artisanal apple pie which readers will remember from a while back. That was when I found that artisanal doesn't mean quick. 

But the pastry, buttery and flaky, was worth a try.

I noticed that the preserves set up much more glutinous than expected because I forgot the pectin in apple juice as well as apricots. 

So I had to think yet again. I doubted if it would work to bake the tarts as usual with the preserves in them. Better bake blind (empty) then add the preserves.

I like this way of baking blind which I did ages ago and liked - draped over the other side of the muffin pan

I rerolled the extra pastry to freeze for a future fruit pasty

Cook's privilege bottom left 

See it's lovely and flaky

 

I had to take a guess at baking time, so settled on 15 mins at the normal flaky pastry 400°f. I could have taken them out a minute earlier, noted for next time.

So here are Memorial Day Fruit Tarts. A couple will probably go next door, Gary loves anything to do with jam. And I have extra preserves, maybe to go with the extra pastry.

Yesterday I took a stab at gardening, got the sage tied up searched in vain for Iris rhizomes. I think they may have rotted. 

Found one, which I'll hopefully replant in a better spot. Out front I know there are quite a few under the pachysandra waiting for rescue another day. 

And in honorary family news, most people wave cute baby pictures of grandchildren, or sweet little dancers in tutus. 

Here's my honorary granddaughter with her marathon and 5K friends.

Front row. Banana suit. I rest my case.

Also seen lately, on Freecycle

And let's not forget on Memorial Day, the people now fighting and dying in Ukraine, fighting our proxy war, to secure Europe from a would-be dictator.

Happy day everyone, enjoy being here.

Happy Mday, dove, dandelion and sage

Happy mother's day, if it applies. Mine will be celebrated Tuesday, since today's a work day for Handsome Son.

Meanwhile yesterday's cooking involved chutney, since I have no pickle related condiments in the house. Apple and raisin, with onions, vinegar, ginger, lemons, cinnamon, apple juice 

Apples cooking down while jars sterilize in boiling water in the background

Raisins added in with cane sugar, lemons, cinnamon, to cook down slowly till thick 

And final product. I'll try it in about a week, after it's blended. This will be good with curried fish, or cheese sandwiches, or practically anything that needs a condiment.

And while I had the raisins out, being all out of breadesque food, I made a batch of walnut raisin scone things, nice for breakfast

Also for a snack for Handsome Son's Tuesday visit.

This morning's dove sighting, nearly vanished under henbit

The potatoes doing well, and the sage starting to flower

While I was picturing the dove, I picked a handful of greens. Probably a bit bitter for salad, but they'll work in today's fish sauce.

Surprising how much cooking I seem to need, always at it. I wonder what other people do? Maybe eat out, or buy prepared food or something, I dunno, but they don't seem to be always in the kitchen. Maybe they're more efficient cooks, too, though, there's always that.

Happy day everyone! Enjoy whatever's cooking chez vous, in any sense.

Good eye witness report , Textiles and Tea, fiber plans

All's well with Eye One, now ready for Eye Two tomorrow . Very good reports up to now. And the optho promised a word with the anaesthesiologist to dial down the fentanyl in the mix, to avoid the aftereffects. So  all's good.

Handsome Son and I had a rapid lunch, card presentation and cake, before he had to dash into work, taking half the remaining cake home with him, birthday custom. It went well. It's pretty good, worth the dratted pitting.

Then I fell into a deep sleep, partly the cake, partly the effects of being out in feels like 100+ temps. 

I woke with the alert telling me Textiles and Tea was up.

She's very young but already established, famous textile artists such as Rebecca mezoff messaged in as she talked, to greet her.

She works in tapestry, very small, here about six by nine inches, and overshot, very large, here seen as bedspreads. And she embroiders in cross stitch. Next she fancies willow basket making! Such energy and talent, fun to watch, and so happy in her life.

Later I caught Sally Pointer on YouTube organizing her fibers and seeing that wonderful array of threads it occurred to me that I might mix roving into my natural string.

I remarked recently that cord making us really spinning and plying, and it dawned that I could try drafting roving into the process of cord making, for a mixed wool and plant thread for making the rest of this basket or whatever it is.

Or maybe plying some spun yarn with string, we'll see.

 When my shoulder agrees, that is. Those few inches of cord I made a couple of days ago cost me. 

And socks will always be happening, just not as incessantly as before. Sister M knows the situation and is fine with it.

This morning, less hot today, nice rain for the plants, and the self seeded tomato has taken over, hopeful of a good crop, since we have plenty of growing year left. 

And, in the other corner, the sage has never grown like this, taking over chairs, other plants, all it surveys. 

The little Italian basil I started indoors in water, here meeting its future home

And here, established as a kitchen plant

My neighbor who grew up on a farm, swears by a pot of basil in the kitchen to deter insects. 

Soon the Thai basil will come in, too, to use in cooking. 

And the political scene appears more cheerful than for years, two new NATO members now in solidarity, right wingers in disarray with Scott's phone under scrutiny. 

I really wonder if there's an increase in stress-related medical events in the right wing. They're certainly seeing chickens coming home to roost big-time. I don't wish them ill, just clearer thinking. Which might be the impossible dteam.

Happy day everyone, play on! Enjoy what you can, you're worth it!

Latest dispatch from the chai front and other reports as they break

I tried the chai last evening, as a replacement for my golden milk, and it went pretty well. The mix is a bit heavy on pepper for my taste, but it's a great improvement to hold down the sweetening. Just enough sugar to oppose the spices is fine for me. 

You use just a couple of teaspoons of the spice mix, simmer several minutes in a milk and water mix, strain and drink.

I might start trying out my own mixes. There's no ingredient list with this mix, but I identified cloves, cardamom, fennel seed, coriander seed,  caraway seeds, nutmeg, ginger and the base black tea, very finely ground tea though, not the big leaves. All of which I have.

And I found out how to dry the mix after use, by accident. I'd emptied the strainer back into the pan, thought it was switched off. Well, it was on the lowest setting. Good thing I went in there later, before the pan burned through. 

So I now have a little collection of dried spices which might work nicely the next time I make crackers. They still have flavor but it's muted, after what it's been through.

Today was a pasty day, mushrooms, hot sausage, onions. This is enough for two filings. 

And it was a day for while I'm at it cooking, meaning the oven will be at 400°f for the pasty baking, so I may as well roast a head of garlic while I'm at it.  Pasties need about 20 minutes, garlic nearer an hour.

So the garlic, muffled in foil, drizzled with olive oil, then completely enclosed, set into its own pan, went in while the dough was resting.

Today's dough, it's different every time, was lovely to handle, velvety, not sticky, just a treat. I rested it only 20 minutes, not the official hour, but I wasn't making tortillas, so I think that counts. And I pretty much guessed the quantities. 

I remembered at the last minute that I needed Parmesan cheese. And that it was solidly frozen. So I thought arghgh, then, wait, I bet my microplane will work for this. I mainly use it for zesting. And it did work lovely.

Then when I was cleaning up afterwards, I noticed on the blade guard

Now, no fair expecting me to read it. I was just feeling so smart for having this cool idea.

Anyway, a nice lunch happened, despite the cook.

Here's the garlic nicely roasted to where you can scoop it out to spread. The spoonful shows you. This will go into a jar for all kinds of uses, including garlic bread.

And the pasty was pretty good. Dressed up with a sprig of sage. See the blossoms? Like snapdragons. Also known as antirrhinums. 

The rhin bit tells you noses are involved, and it turns out this muzzle shaped flower head is named from its resemblance to a calf's nose! It's a brilliant piece of engineering.

That front petal bit serves to stop too small insects from pollinating it. They have to be big enough to push past it, so the designated bees get in and wannabes don't.

I saw this in action when I picked it, a couple of tiny insects trying  unsuccessfully to get in, and sort of wandering around looking for another door, I suppose. 

It occurs to me, a bit slow on the uptake, that cooking and inventing in the kitchen has taken the place for me, of making and exhibiting art.

It's an art form, as one of my art teachers pointed out to me reproachfully, when she found a few years ago I wasn't much into food, at least talking about it. 

It's art and invention and skills and technique and realizing connections you hadn't before. Just like studio art. And letting things happen and experimenting and listening to your materials. And rarely following instructions.

I'm finding that when I would go into the studio in the past is when I go into the kitchen now, with much the same attitude. Just a general idea, which will become a meal on a plate.

 Sharing with Handsome Son and neighbors is the new version of the art opening. 

Cool.