Fridays

If you ever wonder how your waitress feels when she gets off work at the end of the night, take a look at my groceries from Friday night circa 1 AM.

Yeah, that's a by-God mozzarella log. And an US Weekly. What? I grabbed that salad for balance. It's fine.

green stuff

I'm, like, really into these things right now.



I'm going through 2 boxes a week. I'm eatin' them right now. As we speak. As I blog. DAMN PITA CHIPS YOU LOOKIN GOOD.


Reclamation Scarf. Artyarns supermerino. 2 balls. Shoot, I'll wear it.

This weekend I went home to the farm for a few days to celebrate a couple things. One was my cousin Frank's 18th birthday. He was recently named Prom King, and he's about to graduate. We're pretty proud of him!

I also wanted to spend Mother's Day with my mom. And I needed to get away for a couple days, anyway. So we went to see A Little Night Music, which was just fantastic. I'd never seen it. Most of the time was spent just hanging out on the farm though. Here is spring on the farm, in photos.

Max and Phil. When you've got cookies, Max (the black one) does a sweet Stevie Wonder impression.

These guys want carrots like I want pita chips.

The Guinea Foul: Vinnie and Minnie. If they get separated for any reason they FREAK OUT.

Dogs.

Cows.

Familytown.

Green.

Luv,
Bruce

List of Excellence

Hey dudes! Here's some stuff!

1) Our friend Katie graduated! I'm SO proud of her. She's amazing. She just figured out what she wanted and went for it and did it. That is so great, and I know she's going to be a big giant success. A Chef Success. Chefcess.

Here is the picture I took of her actually accepting her diploma.


She's the short one...see, I was so busy jumping up and down that I put my camera on manual focus. I'm pretty much awesome.

Here she is at her graduation party, with an apple and her cute mom. If you think I'm proud, you should see this lady. These parents were about to burst. Chef KT! You win!

2) The morning after KT's graduation party I woke up with a bunch of bruises on my legs and I have no clue how I got them. I probably got them in some really awesome way. Also I remember walking, in a tizzy, up to a friend of mine, holding my handbag up by a broken strap and exclaiming "My handbag broke!! What! What a crappy handbag!!! Can you believe that!" And he took it from me and handed it back fixed saying, "It wasn't broken, Libby. It snaps on and off." Well la di dah. Obviously I am ready to be a big mature business owner.

3) Lucy watches television when there is an animal on the teevee. Only animals. Even when the sound is off! How does she know? What do they look like to her? How? What?


4) The shop is coming along all fastlike. Brax and I are working really hard on it and we should have it open real soon. We'll tell you a date as soon as we know for sure. Sorry about the lack of precision on this--we just want to be able to open the doors the very minute we're ready.

5) Amazing potato cheddar soup!

a buncha potatoes
1 carrot
1 stalk celery
water
SALT
1 stick of butter
a couple cups grated cheddar

This recipe goes like most of my soup recipes. Katie is probably going to read this and be like, "Bruce, you're doing it wrong," since she is a big chef now and all. But this is how I do it, and I think it's delicious!

Put all the chopped up veg in the soup pot and put in just enough water to cover it. Add salt to taste. For me this is a bunch of salt. Let it boil for maybe 30 minutes. Then take out a few cups of the soup and put it in the blender and puree it. Put it back in the pot. OK. Then make a roux. (A roux is when you take some of the hot broth and put it in a bowl with a couple tablespoons of flour and make a smooth paste out of it.) Put the roux in the broth. Stir it on in! Stir in the butter. Then add in the cheese, a little at a time. Sprinkle, stir, sprinkle, stir, until it's all incorporated. Delicious! Really, really healthy low fat food. Perfect for vegans.

That's all for now!
Bruce

too too too too tooooo darn hot

Brax,

It is too hot to blowdry my hair. My hair is really thick and by the time I'm done I'm so sweaty that I shouldn't have bothered showering. It's also too hot to care that my hair looks crappy.

We have central air but we are not using it unless it gets above 85 degrees inside the house. I am proud to say that I have only had the air on four times this summer. All of those times, it was about 4 PM and the house was boiling, and I just turned on the air until the sun went down. My carbon footprint=reduced. I'm lucky in the sense that fans really make a difference in my house. In our old apartment there was absolutely no air circulation--sometimes it would be 70 degrees outside and about 400 million degrees inside. Anyway. We all need to do our part!

It is not exactly too hot to knit, but it is hot enough that my crafty mojo is sort of...lethargic? I've been doing some stuff. The Alexandra top:

Progress has been made, but now I've increased so much that it really looks like a crazy blob on those 24 inch needles. I get to separate the sleeves in a few rows here, then it will really look like something.

Also, birthday yarn!!!!!

Blogger is just DYING to upload my pictures sideways. Why? Why? Anyway, you can turn your computer sideways and see that this is my pretty pretty birthday-present-to-myself yarn worked up into a brioche stitch scarf. I always assumed brioche stitch would be hard. It's not. It's fun! It's sproingy.

I onlt bought 220 yards of the stuff, so it will probably be a pretty short scarf. A scarfette. Anyway, it will be nice and warm and soft and pretty.

And! Now that we live in a house with a yard, we can have plants! My dad gave me some zucchini seeds and Matt planted them. They poked up, like, immediately.

I'm a little nervous about them, since Aunt Purl had a hostile zucchini takeover. But I'm taking the chance. At this point, I think I'd be thrilled at a hostile zucchini takeover. Hooray! Zucchini!

See, I'm reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, and it's one of those books that you can't read without reexamining the most basic assumptions of your day to day life. I know that is a vast claim to make, but it's absolutely true. I'm only about 50 pages in and I'm already all "NO MORE ASPARAGUS OUT OF SEASON! WHERE THE HELL DID THIS APPLE COME FROM? WHO LAID THIS EGG?" And so on. (Go on, send my husband a sympathy card, I won't be offended.)

I mean, I'm not going to go living off the land (yet). I live in the city! But next summer I'm going to garden something fierce, and I'm going to immediately renew my commitment to the farmer's market, which lapsed when we moved. I don't know what market to go to here. Any Columbus readers have a recommendation?

Sincerely,
Bruce

P.S. Cheer up!

Happy May Day!

Bruce,

I think it's definitely a good idea for us to start celebrating all the festivals on the Wheel of the Year. The wheel of the year is a series of 8 festivals, or "sabbats," spaced throughout the year. 4 of the festivals correspond with the equinoxes or solstices, and the other 4 fall somewhere around the halfway point between seasons:
Today happens to be May Day, or Beltane! Happy Beltane everyone! I don't know too much about it, but I know that celebrating May Day involves lots of flowers and bonfires. It is basically a big ol' fertility celebration. On May Day it is traditional to decorate your house or your neighbor's door with flowers, and that's the tradition the Maypole came from. People would also set up big huge bonfires after dark, and everyone would take home a little bit to light their hearth.
Being in separate cities, it's difficult to celebrate festivals that are centered around planting and harvests, of course. But next year you can bet we'll be lighting a bonfire! Of course, I'm reasonably certain that we will be able to celebrate the next festival, the summer solstice, together! We should start planning that feast now.
Last night, I was feeling kind of lazy on the dinner front, and bemoaning the fact that I didn't have ANY food in the house. Then, I checked the freezer again and realized I had a whole Quorn Roast!!! I was going to eat it at Christmas, but ended up being lazy and not making it. SOooo, I decided to make a delicious May Day Eve feast!
I cut up a bunch of potatoes and threw them in the ol' Dutch Oven (ha!) with olive oil, onions, and garlic cloves, and seasoned them with...I don't know, some seasonings. Then, I plopped that quorn roast right in there and baked the whole shebang for about 35 minutes at 400 degrees. (The roast calls for a higher temp and 5 more minutes. I didn't want my potatoes to overcook, so I half-assedly "thawed" the quorn roast by boiling it in the plastic for a few minutes. Things worked out just fine.)
Mmmmmm!!! Sadly, the only green vegetable I had lying around the house was a can of green beans. I Really need to buy groceries. But it still made for a pretty good feast.
LYLAS,
Brax

In which Bruce announces Big News, tells you what people of taste do with strawberries, and organizes her circs.

Everybody,

Man, guys, I’m sorry we’ve been absent for so long. I'm going to try and make up for the long absence with a looooong, informative post.

So where have we been? For one thing, Brax’s computer is broken, plus she’s got all kinds of irons in the fire. Me, I have been just plain busy. Here’s a thing I’ve noticed about life: changes come in clumps. Things are happening, man. To both me and Brax, and to the ball and chain, and to lots of other folks I know. Brax and I are both trying to figure out moving (to the same city! Maybe even in the same neighborhood! Me and Brax! Tearin’ it up!) and career changes and, you know, bright new futures and stuff.

What is a real shame is that I’m knitting lots and lots of stuff that I can’t show you. Why can’t I show you? Because this knitting is going to be published in a book! I don’t think I ever made a formal announcement about this book thing on here. I’m writing a knitting book with my buddy Karida over at the Neighborhood Fiber Company. This book will come out in 2009.

This also prevents Brax from showing off some of her knits because she is being awesome and knitting some of the book projects for me. Don't ever write a knitting book unless you've got lots of rad friends who will help you knit. I am lucky enough to have Brax and Cabbage who will knit for my book and make my life better.

So now that we've uncovered a big part of the mystery of the sparse posting, what else is going on?

I've been reading a lot of Sherlock Holmes. I have to say I have solved some of these mysteries before Holmes has. Did you know that that TV show House is based on Sherlock Holmes if he were a modern day doctor? It is. I just learned that from Google.

Sister has been really digging on Jackson Browne lately.

It got to be spring up in here, with the cherry blossoms!

And the birdies in the trees!

And the strawberries! Why do people spend a bunch of time doing stuff to strawberries, cuttin' them up in pieces, putting sugar on them etc, when you can just spend a fun-filled 15 minutes dipping them in chocolate? DELICIOUS! Easy! Fun! Preserves the strawberryness of the strawberry.

Here is what I did:

Ingredients:

1) Some nice pretty delicious strawberries.

2) One bag of the fanciest semi sweet chocolate chips your grocery store has. Know why? Because this recipe only uses two ingredients, and the fanciest chocolate chips my grocery store has are only about 5 or 6 bucks, so why the hell not? It's dessert! Go crazy!

Melt the chocolate chips in the double boiler (you want to keep the water at a simmer). Dip in the strawberries and then lay them on a baking sheet with some parchment paper on it.
Stick 'em in the fridge for a little bit. Maybe an hour? They're great. Next time I'm going to dip a mint leaf in with each strawberry for added awesomeness.

Ok, and last but not least, I have organized my Addi Turbos into the most organized state they have ever been in. I've devised a system! I was all shop-shop-shop for a circular needle case and I have to be honest: many of them were real ugly. So no. Many of them were waaay cute and made by awesome, creative craftspeople. Those were the best ones, but you guys, I just didn't want to spend 40 bucks on it. My friend Ellie uses a lure case from the Bass Pro shop, and that seems to work really well for her, but I was intimidated by the fishing website, and also it was still a little more than I wanted to spend. So I went to Staples and bought a lime green binder and some plastic page protectors in pretty colors with tabs. BAM! Needles organized, under 10 bucks.

Enjoy your weekend, buddies!
Bruce

Apron time 2008

Bruce,

Sometimes when I get home from work, I just feel like putting on some great tunes and hanging out in the kitchen. Sometimes, I'll tie one on....an apron that is!!
Aprons are the best. Don't you just feel so productive while you're wearing one? So put together? Maybe there's something psychological going on there. Anyway, I just thought I'd dance around my kitchen listening to Chuck Berry and bake something. I decided to be really ambitious and make a pot pie!!
I decided to make it in a 9" pie plate, using a top and bottom crust. I've never made a pie crust, and the results were...okay. I think I added a little too much water to the bottom crust, but the top crust turned out great!!
For the filling, I used lentils, tofu, and some vegetables i had lying around the fridge. Mushrooms and asparagus and stuff. And, of course, onion and garlic and seasonings. Then, I baked it according to the directions for a pie with a top and bottom crust. I got the pie crust recipe from my mom's old Better Homes cookbook from the 60's.

Of course, when I went to upload pictures of the baking process, this is all I took.
Apparently, I needed a little "assistance" of the yellow tail variety.

Here's the finished product:
I tried to cut the vent-holes in the shape of a tree. But it tasted pretty great. Good enough for some crazy apron wearing wino dancing around to chuck berry all night.

LYLAS,
Brax

Whoa Man!

Warning: this blog post contains close-ups of feet and other disturbing images.

Hey Bruce!! Sorry about the unintentional blogging hiatus. My computer at home totally crapped out on me, so things have been hard. I think I've also been letting the crappy weather get the best of me. But no more!

In knitting news, I joined Karida's sock club! I know, right? Me, a sock knitter. Well, despite my gague issues, I find it quite relaxing! I'm almost done with my 1st sock out of the January color!The pattern is called "Monkey" from Knitty a few issues back. Man! The color is beautiful. I wish my crappy pictures could do it justice, but hey! It's hard to take a picture of your own foot using a cell phone camera. Here's a closeup:

So! That's pretty much what I did with my weekend. That and watch Heroes. I'm totally addicted to that show now! But I'm only on the 1st season, so no one tell me what happens!

I also did find time to bake some of that bread that Micah's been goading me into making:
It's delicious! I ate way too much of it yesterday.

So, that's what I did this past weekend. I also bought that new Pipettes CD, and it is Changing My Life. I've listened to it at least twice a day since it came in the mail!

You know, while I'm here, I'd like to slip in a small "gets my goat" segment.
He's just a little guy!
I went into Target on, like, January 2nd. I just wanted to buy a black cardigan because I had left mine somewhere. Instead of finding the women's section filled with sweaters and pants and jackets as per usual......

Holy Bermuda Shorts, Batman!!!! Yes, it is swimsuit time once again. Right after New Year's, before the last glittering piece of confetti has even hit the ground, Target rushes out their selection of Spring Breakwear: teeny tiny junior's sized swimsuits, coverups, and band-aid sized shorts dominate the women's clothing section! I did find some long-sleeved and -panted items, all crammed together on the clearance rack. However, it was obvious they hadn't placed an order for winter clothes in some time, because everything was either a size 2 or 22. (I fall somewhere in the middle, just fyi)

All I can say is, this kind of irresponsible marketing is exactly what leads to millions of 15 year old girls dressed inappropriately for the weather. The next time you see some teenager walking down the street wearing flip flops and a sundress and no coat in February, you have Target to blame!

Be sure to check back this weekend for Brax and Bruce: live from Amish country!

Lylas,
Brax

Li'l ol' snowflakes eskimo pie chocolate and vanilla for you and I

Brax,
Is that a real song? Or did Danny Kaye just make it up in? A cursory Google inquiry reveals nothing. We may never know.

Anyway, It is totally snowing. It's snowin' to beat Hell.



That's the view from the roof tonight. It made me sort of stupidly happy. We bundled up and went on a walk around the neighborhood, and went to Lincoln Park and watched the dogs romping, romp romp romp all over the place. Also there were children throwing snowballs and stuff. The park was like the grand central station of cuteness. Then we went to the market for bread and cheese and wine, and I tell you what, I consumed that stuff. Also, some Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

It is now pajama time. This is what is nice about winter, this right here.

It's all about flannel owl pajamas and cats and couches and....wine lips!Man, I really miss snow. Don't let anyone from DC tell you that it snows here...it really doesn't. This here 2 inches is freaking delightful. Keep it up, snow, I'm rootin' for you!

Also, the winter Knitty is up! I am not rarin' to knit any of these things up--socks are completely wasted on me, and I ain't makin' no tams--however, this is absolutely gorgeous. Gorgeous. And I think it would be really cool to use that technique in a sweater.

OK, I am going to watch a Christmas movie now!

Bruce

Picklestorm!!!!!

Brax,
We have a guest blogger today! My buddy Mason is so sadly sadly blogless that he has apparently started blogging in MS Word and e mailing it to people. Anyway, when he sent me this I knew it was prime material for our blog. It's got it all--crafting, drinking, drunk crafting, and garlic. Enjoy....Picklestorm!!!!!!!!!!
Love,
Bruce

p.s. stay tuned for actual knitting and vacation blogs from my end. Things have been nuts around here.
Edited 800 times for formatting. sorry if you just got this post 800 times on bloglines. 900 times. the ol' blogger, she is being stubborn today. Edited again so the pictures would show. Damn.

PICKLESTORM 2007!

By Mason

This Saturday, I got together with my friends, Eric and Stacey, to make dill pickles with a 100 year old recipe (see bottom) that has been passed down dutifully from generation to generation within an Idaho farm family. I have unceremoniously ripped it off from them and am sharing the recipe with shady musician-types.

Let’s get going...

Cucumbers! Smaller is better. You can find pickling cucumbers at produce stands from late July through early September.

About a pound of cukes will make a quart jar of pickles.

Scrub them with a stiff brush in cold water – no soap. Soap is an enemy of crispness.

Scrub them thoroughly, paying special attention to the flowering (non-stem) end which, I have been told, it chock-full of nasty shit. I suspect that is an old wives tale, but why not play it safe?

Garlic: peeled and with the tough bit at the bottom cut off. A small handful per quart is a fair
starting point. Some people like more. I am of the mind that you CAN have too much garlic in your pickles.

Notice the bloody mary on the cutting board: it’s good to reward the person cutting and peeling the garlic with a nice drink, for he is an enemy of the enemies of crispness, and your friend.

Clean your jars! A run through a dish washer (rinse them twice) works. We washed ours in the sink and boiled them for good measure. Say “Hi!” to Stacey, folks.

Ready for Brine Time! Here's a secret tip: use distilled water. Tap water contains chlorine and other additives which, while safe to drink, are also enemies of crispness.

You need apple cider vinegar and pickling salt, as well. Get this stuff boiling in a big pan. Note the grape leaves, more on them later.

Load your jars! Start by setting a clean grape leaf in the jar. The leaves are said to preserve crispness, but I'm pretty sure they’re just for aesthetics, and that’s OK. Aesthetics are important. By this point, we’ve already got the enemies of crispness on the run. Avoid the temptation to use marijuana leaves.

Dill is your main seasoning after the salt and vinegar. You can probably find it growing wild or you can buy it at a posh market. Use at least one flowering sprig as well as a non-flowering one. Again, avoid the temptation to use marijuana leaves. Have fun with the recipe, but don’t go nuts.

Next load your cucumbers, dill, garlic, and peppercorns. You can stuff all your ingredients in willy nilly, but why not take a moment and make a nice presentation?

My dad loads his jars to look like “an undersea landscape.” He’s an interesting guy.

Here’s Eric, also an interesting guy, loading a jar.

Here’s Eric, moments before the previous photo was taken, drinking with both hands. It’s OK, he’s in a band.

Two loaded jars, reporting for duty, SIR!

You want to have you brine mixed, stirred, and boiling by this point. Have a smaller pan that you then fill with the boiling brine and put that on a burner to keep it boiling. Key word: BOILING.

You want to the brine as hot as it can be when you pour it in the jars.

Also on the stove top, have your lids sitting in a bath of super hot water. Boil them first and then keep them hot.

Heat and cleanliness are the keys when it comes to sealing the jars and keeping them sealed.

I have no pictures of this part of the process because Eric kept handing me drinks. Fill the jars to within a ½” or ¼” of the rim of the jar then quickly place a hot lid on top. You can fish the lid out of the hot water with a butter knife. Then screw the neck on top as tight as you can (you may want to hold the now-hot jar in a dish towel) and place the jar upside down on the counter to cool for a few minutes.

If the jars do not seal (if the ‘button’ pops up), open it up, dump the brine back into the pot, reheat it and try again.

Label your sealed jars and let them sit in a cool dry place for about 4 weeks and you’ve got pickles!

This is a great way to spend an afternoon while doing something productive for a change.

L-R, The Enemies of the Enemies of Crispness: Stacey, Eric, Mason.

RECIPE
Brine:
3 qts water
1 qt vinegar
1 cup salt [plain]

Boil water, salt and vinegar together 1 minute

Pack cucumbers in jars with garlic, dill & peppercorns, mustard seed, (this is where you can get experimental) with a grape leaf on top.

Pour water, salt and vinegar over and then seal.

Suggestions: use a scant cup of salt [3/4 cup] boil 1 min.-thoroughly.
Use apple cider vinegar.

Alright, go make some pickles, you crafty jerks! -Bruce