Fenugreek and other mysteries, Textiles and Tea

 Yesterday's Textiles and Tea featured a guest host, weaver Melvenea Rogers,  who was so vivacious and enthusiastic she carried along the reserved weaving historian Pat Hilts, and brought her out very well.

She weaves on an antique timber frame loom, and recreates patterns she's found in early German manuscripts. She also creates commissioned church banners for the liturgical year.

Advent banner

Easter banners

This is the kind of loom she uses and loves.

She also has a huge collection of spinning wheels, no pictures of them though.

She founded a textile museum out of her family home, which has grown and been added to over the years.

She's a serious historian and researcher, and combines that with her weaving practice, where wool is her preferred fiber, followed by linen. She's spun cotton, but that's less emphasized in her work.

Meanwhile back in the kitchen I assembled the cast of characters for a new batch of berbere. This is an Ethiopian spice mix, and some of the components aren't readily available. I used the Together cookbook recipe this time, rather than the more fiery Marcus Samuelsson mix I first made.

I love the fresh smells of all the spices as you grind some of them and use others already ground.

If you see the recipe it lists fenugreek, which you don't see in my array there. What you do see is methi seeds. It's the Hindi name for fenugreek. It's a green leafy plant. It's like the relationship between cilantro and coriander: one's the plant, the other its seeds.  

Here's the new supply ready to go in the jar. I did omit salt, since I think there's plenty going on already.

And I'm continuing with the Princess Bride, humming along, while I'm also reading Pema Chodron

Her view of life is more austere than previous Buddhist readings I've done. I figured that since we're all living in difficult times and the pandemic has affected everyone's mental health and ability to handle life, this is timely.

Happy day everyone, writing early today, seize the day!

Alice in wonderland, no, it's the power co. And cheering soup

There has been an ongoing billing thing with my power company for several months, since lockdown. I'm getting used to previously reliable folks being shorthanded, working from home, much harder to keep everything straight.  But this was a puzzle.  I have equal billing, meaning every month the same amount is charged, then once a year there's a balancing month when they either pay or bill me the difference between my usage and the monthly charges.  

And every couple of years my township gets into a contract to cover everyone unless they opt out, with a different fuel source, to get a group rate, much better than the individual householder rate.  This has worked fine, same power company, same repairs, same coverage, excellent outage remedies, etc.  Just their source is different. And more and more it involves solar and wind.  And it's cheaper.

Then this year, I got my annual notice that the monthly charge, based on usage, would be 1., a very manageable amount,   I'm saying 1.  because it's proportional, read on  They charged me that once.  Then after one month, it went to 2. which was double the amount, and stayed that way for three months, oooookay, then this month it went to 3. which is triple the amount.  And it seemed to me to have changed three times, not just one steady billing.  

So I emailed them, and after a week of anxiety, this being a lot of money from my budget, heard back from them this morning, one sentence saying I had cancelled the third party billing which was driving up my charges.  So I got back to this lady saying, but I'm billed differently, what happened to my equal billing.  Whereupon she got back, saying, you cancelled the third party that was causing the increase, you are not being billed differently (?) and from now on your bill will be for 1.  Back to the original May number. 

Translation: oops, we fixed it and we don't plan to admit we might have made a mistake...but we'll see what next month brings. It's not the service, that is excellent, great infrastructure, constant communication when there's an outage, all that is great.  They are by far the better company of the two in the state.  It's just the accounts department at the moment.

Then, it being a rainy old day, and my shoulder a bit tired from the spinning, needs a rest for a day, I made a Great Big Green Soup.  This large bowl of frisee leftovers, leek greens, asparagus, and cabbage all cooked down to a very manageable amount, although at first it looked as though I couldn't stuff it all into the pot.

I used baharat for spice, about which more below

And here's the finished product, and pretty good it is.  I used only about a teaspoonful of the baharat, which is just enough for a lovely warm spicy taste, but not heat.

This is where I learned it.  From Ottolenghi's book Jerusalem.  It's a wonderful book about the culture and history of Jerusalem, both Arab and Jew, and the food as it reflects and passes on its culture.

I also talk airily about berbere as if I'd been making it all my life, learned it a few months ago, and it's from Marcus Samuelsson, Ethiopian/Swedish food writer and cook

This is hot, and very good.  I use only a small amount and it goes a long way.  I think you can buy it ready-mixed, but I like the fresh toasted and ground effect.  Also you can decide how hot or not you want it when you make your own. And just a note on fenugreek: in Indian spices, it's known as methi. Same thing, different name.

And last, here's my kitchen friend, which came into play in the course of making the soup when I slipped and caught my finger on the hot saucepan.  Aloe vera, cure for burns.  It's saved my hands many a time. Just break off a bit, squeeze the gel right onto the burned place, and the pain vanishes, the burn subsides and there's no scar.  My neighbor saw this a few months ago, and said, why are all those bits broken off? that can't be right!  I explained the first aid idea, and how that's why it was there at all. Not a decorative plant, a working partner.

Now I'm going to goof off, reading Dodo by E.F.Benson, which I think is a forerunner of the Lucia series.  Certainly Dodo reads like a rough draft for Lucia, and it's interesting to see the development.

Beenzen beans

 Lunch today: bean fritters made with pinto beans mashed with an egg, bit of cornstarch, bit of cornmeal. Rolled about in cornmeal because I'm running out of things to roll fritters in. And a great big pinch of berbere. 

This is an Ethiopian spice  mix, which requires that you are in no hurry to get there. Long list of ingredients, where you decide what to use for the ones you definitely can't get unless there's an Ethiopian grocery in your life.

 Then you pretty much empty your entire spice repertoire onto the counter, and get grinding and mixing and sneezing and getting quite high on the scents.

Since beans are by definition fairly bland, likewise cornmeal, it's fine to add the berbere with panache.

I had this with those farm green beans I mentioned, steamed,  and made a dressing pretty much swiped from Ms Moon.

Oil, white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, minced garlic. I don't think I'll have them any other way after this. Thank you Mary, lovely stuff. I didn't have shallots, but I managed.

Today's lunch

Tomorrow's lunch, together so I remember they should be together. I need visual aids.

Little walk down the street and I came upon a little fantasy world, like a housing development for imaginary characters.

 I wonder if the gnomes I saw the other day  couple of houses down from this Acorn Glen are planning to move in. Or looking for decorating ideas.