Monday, September 30, 2013

The Answer to the Riddle is Mistletoe (Recipe at End)

So today I ran around like a crazy person for a while in the morning but in the afternoon I sat and sewed. Some of the sewing was construction, and some was applique, and some was more embroidery.
Here is the little top so far. Linnea Riley's striped cat was green stripes on red but I needed the red background for balance. So mine is another color nature never intended but the flavor is the same. I am not sure about the whiskers I embroidered today. I know cat's can't live without whiskers but I am not at all sure they add anything to the top. The colors are just a touch washed out. The lighter green especially fades in this camera light but you get the idea. Tomorrow I will draw out a border design of twisting Christmas lights with perhaps a mouse somewhere.

Tonight I am making homemade pasta with Italian style chicken livers. Unlike most Americans I like all kinds of organ meats.

Chicken Livers with Sage

1 pound of raw chicken livers
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
5 or 6 sage leaves cut in strips (chiffonade)
1 garlic clove crushed
1/4 cup dry white wine
salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter with the olive oil in a saucepan. Turn heat up to medium high and add the chicken livers. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for about ten minutes turning occasionally until livers are about half done. Add the garlic and the sage and cook for about five more minutes, then add the white wine, stir, and put a lid on. Cook for five more minutes or until livers are done. You don't want them all dried out but most of the wine should be absorbed. Add more salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Sunday, September 29, 2013

No Wonder I Have a Headache

I just finished scoring three sophomore classes' essays on The Grapes of Wrath, approximately 100 essays. These were written as a response to an AP Literature prompt from a few years ago. This prompt, like nearly all AP Lit prompts, has multiple parts. Invariably, no matter how many parts the prompt has, the last item mentioned is where the bulk of the response is expected, with the other parts providing context for the argument. So this prompt asks students to explain allusions to other texts and then to discuss how the allusions enhance the meaning of the work. Paper after paper, students retold stories from the Bible but never got around to discussing how those stories enhance John Steinbeck's meaning. Some students chose the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" as the source of the analogies but for some reason more than half of them thought Lee Greenwood wrote that song. The allusions enhance Steinbeck's work because of their messages of faith, hope, charity, righteousness, etc. Simply writing that Moses led the Israelis around in the desert and that this is similar to the Joads' trip on Route 66 is not what the College Board expects. If you think that Lee Greenwood rather than Julia Ward Howe wrote the "Battle Hymn of the Republic", it's not surprising that you cannot make a connection between the sentiment behind the song and the meaning of the text. Most students did poorly because they didn't answer the question asked. Even students whose papers didn't have many grammar errors had serious errors in addressing the crux of the prompt.

Small wonder that I have a reputation for being mean even though meanness is not my motivation. I want all of these students to do well. I want them to read and enjoy good literature, to think about all of those human aspirations it expresses, not just think of the AP exam as an avenue to score well and pad that resume.

Anyway, I have a headache but at least I can return to sewing now that I have spent ten hours over the last three days reading dreck. The new quilt is either named Felix Navidad II or "If Athletes Get Athlete's Foot, What Do Astronauts Get?" 

Friday, September 27, 2013

Perhaps this Blog is Mislabeled

Although this started as a quilting blog, I usually get as many if not more views if I write down recipes. That's okay--I love food and I love to eat and cook. Everyone is welcome at my table.If you want to ski in Utah this winter, write a comment, ask a question--ask if you can sleep in the Princess and the Pea bed. I live about half an hour from the slopes depending on the traffic. Stay with us and you save on hotel rooms but you have to like very friendly dogs and cats.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Pork Goulash (Another Winter Meal)

When I lived in Heidelberg I was very young but I have some indelible memories nonetheless. American Army officers were expected to hire maids, apparently as part of the Marshall Plan. We lived in a small apartment and a maid was superfluous to requirements but we still followed orders and a succession of young women came to work under my mother's exacting requirements. I don't know if it was that or whether the very situation meant that the maids never lasted that long, but one young woman was deemed trustworthy enough to watch all four children when my parents took a trip to Paris. My mother had purchased food for the weekend and left the maid in charge of the cooking, something she had not done for us before. She made goulash, but because of the difference in language between American English and German, she used cayenne pepper instead of Hungarian paprika in the goulash. I still remember how hot it was and how upset she was that we ate so slowly.

Well, I still like goulash. Earlier in the year my husband and I went to Istanbul. The only items we brought back and the only items our sons requested were spices from the spice market. One of the spices I picked out was a smoked paprika, unlike Spanish smoked paprika in color and flavor. You won't be able to duplicate my goulash with this recipe unless you too have Turkish smoked paprika ( a deep purple in  color and both smoky and mildly hot in flavor), but you can make a close approximation with Spanish smoked paprika.

1/2 to 3/4 pound of pork stew meat or boneless pork ribs cut into one inch cubes (If you have some reason to avoid pork, other meats can be used including veal, beef, chicken, or even turkey chunks.)
1 yellow onion sliced lengthwise and then crosswise
1/4 head of green cabbage sliced thin
Either some fresh tomatoes quartered or a small can of diced tomatoes
1/2 cup or to taste of sauerkraut, drained and rinsed
1 garlic clove crushed or diced
2 tablespoons smoked paprika
1.5 to 2 cups of beef broth
about a half cup sour cream

In a large sauce pan brown the pork cubes in a little butter with some salt and pepper. Remove from pan and add onions. Cook until soft, about five minutes, then add the cabbage, the tomatoes, the sauerkraut and the garlic. Cook until the cabbage wilts then add the pork back in the pan. Sprinkle paprika over everything and stir to coat and combine. Add the beef broth and simmer for about 45 minutes. At this point it can be turned off until about fifteen minutes before serving. Bring back to a simmer and test for salt and pepper. Add the sour cream and stir until combined. This should be reasonably thick but if it isn't you can thicken it with a roux made with melted butter and flour. Serve over egg noodles.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Winter is Closer and Closer

A cold front blew in today bringing some rain and some cold air. It will only stick around for 36 hours but
the change in temperature from yesterday is around 25 degrees. My husband asked for Swiss steak for dinner knowing that I would be more willing to have the oven going for three hours when it's colder.

Here's a recipe that isn't Swiss steak but it is the best chocolate cake you will ever make. It doesn't even need any frosting.

Chocolate Cake

5 ounces unsweetened chocolate
2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
1.5 sticks of butter (12 tablespoons)
1.5 cups strong coffee (I use 1.5 tablespoons of freeze dried decaf crystals in hot water but if you don't mind a high  caffeine dessert you can just brew double strength coffee)
5 tablespoons rum
2 eggs
1.75 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
Half a teaspoon of salt

In a large microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate with the butter, the coffee, and the rum. In my microwave this takes about 3 minutes at power level 5 (half power) but everyone's oven is different. Just be careful not to burn the chocolate. Let it cool down for 15 minutes while you preheat the oven to 275 degrees Fahrenheit. When it is cool beat in the eggs and the vanilla with a whisk. Whisk in the sugar next. Then stir together the baking soda, salt, and flour. Add all at once and whisk until completely blended. Pour into a greased tube pan or bundt pan. Bake at 275 F for 1 hour fifteen minutes. Because this is a very thin batter, if you use a tube pan you should wrap the bottom with aluminum foil before baking.

Test with a skewer or cake tester. Only very small crumbs should cling to the skewer but be careful not to overcook.

This really is just fine without frosting, very moist and very flavorful.

Monday, September 23, 2013

More Progress on New Quilt

Even though I scored two classes worth of sophomore essays on The Grapes of Wrath this weekend,  I was able to make some progress on my new project. There will be candy cane sashing between the blocks and around the whole four block assembly when it is complete. Beyond that I am planning a fairly wide border with twining Christmas lights in all the colors already represented in the blocks, including some of the fabric details from that ornament. The cat with trees block is still missing some embroidery and the two outside top tree trunks need blindstitching. Then the bow on the gift box is not sewn at all yet. The final block is going to be a striped cat (black on green) looking up at some mistletoe in the upper left corner, toward the center of this section. It still is pretty darned cute.


Sunday, September 22, 2013

Waffles and Pancakes, Not Quilts

My grandmother went to the Fannie Farmer Boston Cooking School back in the early days of the twentieth century. She got one of the very earliest cookbooks published by Fannie Farmer as part of the curriculum. This was pretty basic American fare even if some of the recipes did try for elegance. I don't think my grandmother ever cooked with garlic in her life--too much like "foreign" food for her. But two of the recipes my family has made ever since her days in Boston are Buttermilk Waffles and Buttermilk Pancakes.

These are essentially the same recipe with minor variations in the amount of flour.

Buttermilk Waffles and Pancakes

3 large eggs separated
1 stick of butter melted
2 cups of buttermilk
For waffles use 2 full cups of all purpose flour.
For pancakes use between 1and 1/4 cups and 1 and 1/2 cups depending on how light you want your pancakes.
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
half a teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of sugar

Preheat your waffle iron or a griddle. Pancakes need to be cooked somewhere between 400 and 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Waffles are more to personal taste with some people liking darker and crisper and some lighter.

Mix the dry ingredients and set aside. Beat the three egg whites until stiff peaks form and set aside. In another large bowl beat the egg yolks until lemon colored and then add the butter and the buttermilk and stir to combine. Add the dry ingredients all at once and stir briefly until lightly blended, scrape down the bowl, then beat vigorously for about 30 seconds. Fold in the stiff egg whites until no large white patches remain (small ones are all right). If you wish to add fruit (bananas, apples, blueberries for pancakes, blueberries for waffles) do so when folding in the egg whites.

My waffle iron is eight inches round and takes 1 and 1/2 cooking size spoons of batter per waffle. Pancakes are about 1 cooking spoon size worth.

Cook on griddle or in waffle iron as usual.

These are  the best you will ever eat. I don't think they even need syrup.

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Fascinating Statistics

One of the very interesting functions that the Google blog assistance provides is the location of viewers more or less in real time. Or you can list those viewers in whatever time scale you want--by the day, by the week, all time or whatever. So I know that today I gained some viewers from Norway but that most viewers are from the US. There are people on every continent but Antarctica and in dozens of countries. This week I gained my first German viewers. That was coincident to the closing of the Campbell Barracks in Heidelberg that made me remember the years I spent in Heidelberg as a very young girl. Then the New York Times food section had a focus on meat cutlets this week and that also made me remember Heidelberg. Even though it was strictly off limits to American military personnel and their families we used to go to the Fidele Bauer. It had the best schnitzel. The restaurant is closed now but it only closed a few years ago. I have only been back to Germany once since I left in 1956 and I didn't go see Heidelberg. Perhaps that should be one of my future European adventures.

Update--It's so cool to me that right now there are people in the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, and Australia looking at this site. I do travel a fair amount and I have been to all of those places, some for fun some for swimming competition, some for both. 

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Beginning of New Quilt--Darned Cute

Several years ago I got a Christmas catalog from the Chicago Institute of Art. A woman who trained at the Institute, named Linnea Riley, designed holiday cards for the catalog that featured cats in amusing poses. I drafted a couple of blocks from her card designs to transform into a quilt at some date in the future. Yesterday and today I have been working on the first block.

I still have to blindstitch the trees to the background, complete the blindstitch on the cat's paws, and add some more embroidery to make the cat's features show up better. When completed this is going to be a four block quilt with sashing and a border. There is another Linnea Riley cat card that features a striped cat eyeing some mistletoe that will be the bottom right  block. The alternate blocks are an ornament and a wrapped gift. The border I am planning is a string of Christmas lights with perhaps a mouse in there somewhere.After three bed sized quilts in a row, it is fun to have a project that moves quickly. The blocks are all about 12 x 15 so the finished quilt will be somewhere around 50 inches square with the sashing and the border.


Wednesday, September 18, 2013

The Ties That Bind Completed (With Pictures)

It has been a few years since I made a new quilt for my own bed so both my husband and I are very excited. Add to that excitement the charm of the quilt itself with its bright colors and pretty border.
                                   Here is the quilt in situ with my hand holding up one corner.
Each corner has the repeated morning glory (bindweed) cluster but with different fabrics for the flowers, demonstrating another use for the Japanese Fan idea. This corner also has a small caterpillar and a butterfly appliqued along with the fuchsias on the sides. Except for some of the small circles on the fuchsia all of the fabrics are also in the bowties in the pieced part of the quilt.
The center of each side shows rudbeckia with the stems forming a loose heart shape. Although I like symmetry I never aim for pure symmetry so some of the centers have butterflies and some don't and the rudbeckia are different yellow fabrics throughout but the plaid parts, from a cotton dressmaker fabric given to me by an acquaintance, remain the same.

Here are two segments of the border showing the dragonflies that I often incorporate into my quilts, one flying and one at rest.
The unidentified five petal red flowers are multi-layered--red petals, either black or blue inner petals, and stuffed yellow centers. All of the fabrics appear somewhere in the bow-ties in the body of the quilt.
The label on the back.

As I was working on this quilt and deciding what name it would have, I considered all the ties that bind us to our families and our lives. My husband and I have always taken in animals who need homes and we have been extraordinarily lucky to have known some wonderful cats and dogs. One of the most memorable was our dog, Spuds, half border collie and half Maltese who had been mistreated as a puppy. He was the epitome of the good and faithful friend and lived for over 16 years. We still miss him. 




Saturday, September 14, 2013

Nearly Done--Pix Soon

Well this has been a busy week. School started so my involvement there picked up. I made presentations to five classes of sophomores about the importance of good writing skills and the basic structure and purpose of a five paragraph essay. I also scored one set of first essays on Crime and Punishment for a class of juniors. They aren't going to be happy on Tuesday when they get their papers back. But I also made huge strides working on my Ties That  Bind quilt. Now I have an area about the size of a dinner plate left to quilt and then it's on to the finish work. Once it is complete I will put up pictures of the various fabrics and close-ups of some of the border.

I have made up my mind about my next project. It will be the Christmas Cat quilt rather than either of the other two. I have made three large quilts that took a long time in a row. The Christmas quilt is the smallest and least intricate of the ones that I have in mind so having a project that won't take months on end seems very attractive right now.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

One Side to Go

I got a lot of quilting done while my husband was gone rock climbing. This was at the cost of making my quilter's calluses bigger but otherwise I wasn't too bothered. I am lucky not to have any arthritis at 63 but I am unfortunate because I have had my left thumb operated on twice. The first time I had my ulnar collateral ligament snapped in two in a swimming accident (yeah, go figure) and the second time was to repair the damage when that repair came apart after eight years. I have a cool radiograph taken just prior to the second operation showing my thumb bent back at a very acute angle and displaced from the knuckle.I should add that this was taken when I was already fully anesthetized otherwise I probably wouldn't think it was so cool. Anyway, when they did that repair they had to harvest a tendon from my wrist so now I have some problems in certain positions with my wrist and my thumb is sort of achy all the time. No complaints here though. When I lost the sensation in my hands due to neck issues I was worried I would never quilt again so small aches and pains are expected, in a perverse way even welcomed. At least my hands still work.

Anyway, I have one side left to quilt. I have been working both counter-clockwise and clockwise on this wide border so I am at the midpoint of the last two sides with one more corner to quilt. Then trim, bind, and play Beethoven's 9th Symphony. There's nothing quite like the Ode to Joy to finish a long project.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Prints Hanging

Here are three of the new prints hanging above Tom on his favorite chair--hence the dusty look of the chair. These three are from a Cruikshank series that features "Tom and Jerry" and the other two are from the Cruikshank series featuring "Dick and the Captain". The flash changes the color slightly, washing out the colors a little (the matting is not grey-blue but grey-green and the wall is red not orange) but this is close. Although the idea seems a little archaic now, I still remember my junior high English teacher intoning in her plummy voice, "Pictures are hung; men are hanged."

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

New Catalog

Admittedly I am obsessed with fabric. My husband even built me a "woman cave" one year with adequate shelves and large lidded bins to hold all my stash. But I just got my new Hancock Fabrics catalog in the mail and I can't wait to see all the new fabrics. Leafing through the catalog I always think of how I would use a particular fabric or what color combinations I would devise for the quilt designs they also feature. Gotta go--the catalog is calling.