Apricot preserves 2019

The farmer's market tweet this morning mentioned peaches and apricots. So I thought I'd better get over there, since the apricot season is only days long. This year has not been kind to fruit. Rain, cold nights, not enough sunshine to sweeten them.

So I got a container of each while the getting's good. Peaches can sit a couple of days to get riper. I tasted an apricot, hm. Better for jam than for eating raw.

Around here, to think is to do, so apricot preserves happened.

Sugar, lemon juice, apricots cooking, jars boiling in the background.

Unstirdownable mass here. This is where you're glad you used a big pan.

And lovely jewel-like results. There's a bit more, in a yogurt container, less glam.

And now I'm off to read the latest Donna Leon.

Handsome partner's birthday

Andy Adams, June 27, 1932 -- August 8, 2011.

I like to celebrate his birthday as a remembrance rather than the day he died, which is our son's birthday. So I keep that day for Handsome Son.

And Andy's favorite of all fruit was the strawberry, I remember the total enjoyment each year,  when he had the first of the season.

Dosa coda

I froze half of the batter, to see if it freezes. And it does. Thawed it out and

 had two dosas and a fried egg for breakfast. Crisp edges, cooked middle, really good.  Just passing it on.

Handsome son trying out dosas this evening

Here's the stuffing, yellow potatoes with mustard seeds, salt, chili powder, mushrooms, onions, hot Italian sausage.


Cooked on top of the stove, to be finished in the oven while the dosas heat through.

And the dosas ready to reheat and fill.

Just a snack, really,  not a dinner, but not bad anyway.  And any leftover stuffing will come in handy for me.

Bumper June cherry harvest

I've had cherry bushes on the patio for years. Sometimes they fruit, reluctantly.

This is the entire 2019 crop.  For them it's a bumper one. Everything's relative.

I could eat one a day and have a week long season.

Dosas, part two. whoa!

Today I did the potato stuffing. Yellow Idaho, like Yukon gold, I think, nuked five minutes to get tender. Cut up, too tender to dice.

 Meanwhile in olive oil, chopped onion, mushrooms, in fresh ground methi (fenugreek), turmeric, salt, mustard seeds, chili powder, sizzling nicely, tipped in potatoes and added more olive oil. 

Turned to get all the moving parts mixed while it heated through. While the dosas reheated in the iron pan on top of the stove. I also toasted them a couple of minutes to get crisp edges.

Spooned in the potato mixture, rolled it shut, took a picture quick before it was history.

One of these is very filling. And aside from healthful spices, you get potatoes, mushrooms, onions, rice and lentils. Checking off a few boxes.

Dosas, my version

I was just thinking about Indian food, and leafing through an Indian cookbook, and realized I had the makings of dosas, right in the kitchen. Always a good point.

Dosas are south Indian crisp pancakes you roll up with some spicy filling.

I more or less winged the prep, used up my remaining couple of cups of basmati and jasmine brown rice, and a couple of cups of red lentils. Soaked them for a couple of hours. Added in a very nontraditional egg, but traditional turmeric, salt, cumin, chili powder. Blended all this together, then left it in the fridge overnight. It's a thin batter.

Then today I made a couple for lunch, rolled around spicy chicken, and they were fine. Not as crisp as normal, probably because I added the egg, but fine.

Done in medium cast iron pan, oiled, over high heat, couple of minutes each. I'm thinking of making all the batter into dosas, and freezing the extras, just to see if it works.

Meanwhile tomorrow I'll have them with a spicy potato filling, more traditional. And I'm wondering about other fillings. If you have any ideas, please comment.

Books I have readed

I read a lot but only occasionally feel moved to recommend books.

Here are a couple worth your time:

Noreen Crone-Findlay you may know from YouTube, very appealing presenter.

Here's her book about bags, entertaining and very well written, illustrated, and generally presented.

It comes in an ebook too, but I can't work from e-books, can't see several places at once, refer back and forward, so paper is my choice. This one you really can work from, and it's just fun to read anyway.

Then a new discovery, though not a new writer. This is a really great mystery, with a cast of actual characters, not just puzzle pieces. Set in the first world war, in London, some excellent women protagonists, really well plotted.

Just one problem:this just came out, and it's the first of the series. So I have to wait till she writes another.

And, since it's Bloomsday, I made my annual Kindle visit to Ulysses. As you see, I'm getting there.

Visiting kitties

So, next door has an infestation of moths or something. They're bombing the upstairs. So the two resident dogs and two visiting cats need to be elsewhere for now.

After much calendar comparing, we decided today at 10am I could stand by for boarders.

Now these are beloved people and I know from experience that timing is not their strength. Another family member was supposed to get the dogs away by 10, then the cats could be captured and carried over. Just from next door. Right.

At 11 the relative arrived, seized the chance to visit and to load the grandchild's little bicycle, then the dogs. That took a while.

Then the capturing of the cats took  another while.

So, near noon, we're all set. Maui and Finny do not approve, but they've stopped howling now, and have taken up their stations, one at the patio checking the same view as theirs next door, one on the top step of the second flight.  They already tested the view from the front door and the landing.

Nice to have them here. They've decided to just tolerate it all. They won't accept their regular treats from me, because you're not my mom, you don't know how to do it.

New mantel, old wood

Several months ago I asked my contractor friend to look out for a nice piece of seasoned old wood to build me a mantel. I really wanted a mantel, years since I had one.

So he kept it in mind, then last week came dashing across the street to show me a marvelous old mahogany shelf. Probably about 75 years old, taken out of a house on the market, heirs wanted a wallful of shelves gone. He works with a realtor on situations like this.

I knew he'd find something, and he'd know what I like. So a blizzard of texts and pix happened at each stage of deciding.

And here's the result. He got the shelf, apron and five corbels all out of one piece. Beautiful warm mahogany. Works a treat.

Now I have to spruce up the living room to live up to it!

Farm to fork!

Stopped at the farm on the way home, and added freshpicked lettuce and raspberries to my lunch of local mushrooms, pasture raised egg and roasted Yukon gold potatoes in a crust of parmigiano reggiano.