Countdown to Farm-dom

So we should find out this week/next weekend whether or not the farm is a go. Or should I say that we will find out THAT the farm is a go. By way of preparation for farm living, I've been trying to decide what I want to grow when I'm a farmer. Desired characteristics for produce include 1)delicious-ness (no brainer) 2) preservability (can I can it, freeze it, or put it by in a root cellar WHICH WE WILL HAVE) 3) interestingness. Having been working A LOT from home these days, I have been able to start paying more attention to making dinner, and what it's going to look like when done. I have discovered the lost art of presentation at the table. Expect to see more pictures of this soon- Like tomorrow.

So by way of preparation for my preparation of trying to decide what I will want to grow, I've been experimenting with all the cool stuff coming through the farmers market. I've been making a point to buy things I have never tried before. I just this very year started eating squash and the possibilities on that front alone are astounding. Taste/texture wise, the variety bowls me over, and the possibilities of fun fooding with them would make Martha Stewart hot.

So here (because I know what the people want) are this week's "As yet untasted foods" from the Sunday market (the one downtown, under the highway where homeless people live 6 days a week, but on Sunday it's the market space)

Left to Right: Daikon radish, hubbard squash, rutabaga, Romanesque cauliflower, watermelon radishes.

Now the cauliflower is so cool it deserves it's own closeup:

It's a fractal! And that's just cool. I am also transfixed by it because it is angly and pyramid having, and veggies are usually roundish. I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but it's going to be awesome. And you can't tell me this won't look cool. It might look so cool it deserves new serving plates. It's much prettier than it represents in my pictures, I may go steal one of someone else's pictures later for show. And I'm pretty sure I'm growing some next year. Oh yeah, it's on the list.

Daikon and watermelon radishes will be shredded on salad, and since the Daikon is huge I may also try roasting some of it, and I have also heard that there is some soup that can be done with it, though I remain skeptical.

Rutabaga is basically a Scottish turnip, so I'll roast as always, because I am obsessed and in love with the visual and tasty beauty that is purple onion/brussel sprouts/carrots/turnip/sweet potato/red potato tossed with olive oil and roasted. I can eat pretty much my body weight in that combo, and completely without guilt, which is just about my favorite damn thing in the world to be able to say about a food.

And here, just for context and because I went a little nuts at the market, is my complete haul:

Carrots, ginger, red potatoes, sweet potatoes, salad mix, daikon, squash, cauliflower, rutabaga, radishes, brussel sprouts. And I intend that it all be eaten this week.

HN and I are on a "we should eat more (local) veggies" kick, so when he told me this morning that he wasn't coming to the market and that I should just take his money and go, I did my best to keep this in mind. And I took his money, and I went. Next time I go unsupervised I will need to bring 2 bags and a porter because although it doesn't seem to look like much, it was heavy. In fact the only reason that I only came home with one squash was because it was all too heavy. The cauliflower weighs 5 POUNDS. It's huge! and that's awesome! Because I am the only one who eats it, and I mean to experiment my way through it all in preparation for the awesome thing I am making and bringing to Thanksgiving. Next week will involve a large squash purchase, that is the purchase of a large squash, not large as in quantity of varietals. I know this, because I have an idea that I want to bring to life and see if it tastes as good as it looks in my head.

And now I am off to forget about the rest and mess with the best. Tonights cauliflower experiment shall be: Roasting! Because I'm throwing together a rather large quantity of the others this way, I thought I should give the tried and true favorite a whirl. And also, this would be my preference for working out because it seems it would do most to retain the cool lookingness of the veg, and that is paramount.

And here just because is Star getting pwned by kitty. He's not content to just put himself in her bed anymore. Now he's the Big Spoon.

And so it begins...

The weekend blissfully brings nothing to report. I cooked, I cleaned, I ate, I slept. I quilted.

I finally found "the idea" I was waiting for to begin my next quilt, which is for my nephew. It started like 4 months ago, when I found some sweeeet rocket fabric in happy colors. I immediately bought a fat quarter bundle, thinking this would get me going. It did not. I've been surfing, drawing and seeking inspiration in other ways (cough, cough) but have been unable to find any design I liked enough to motivate me. Well I finally hit on it the other day, and here is the artist's representation of what it should look like (give or take)


The left side will be the sweeeeet rocket fabric, to wit:
(minus the tacky bits that make it obvious that I stole this pic from someone else's website)

To that end, I cut roughly 1 trillion little things up this weekend and on Sunday when I was able to tear myself away from the sunspots in which I was lounging, I managed to get 5 blocks done:

This is my favorite block.


This is my favorite block if I decide to outline it in red (thanks Photoshop!!)

Here's what it could look like if I did blocks around them all (not all red though, I don't want little dude trippin')
In retrospect, white and 5 years old do not necessarily make good friends but it's so flipping cute I don't think I care.

p.s. for those of you who love this about me. This morning dog bit off a big chunk of her gnaw bone. I took it away from her, and dropped it off to the side in a coke can so she wouldn't chew it. At some point I got another coke. At some later point I picked up the wrong can to drink out of. Gnaw bone marinated in soda is a little bit delicious, and a lot surprising.

p.p.s.s I made this last night. It's that good.

12!

Who else remembers?

My life after Idaho.

For a while there I wasn't even sure there was life after Idaho. I believe when I left off that I was trying to decide what sort of deliciousness to bring to the table after finding that there was no Mac and Cheese to be found. In the end I just stayed in and didn't eat. I couldn't seem to find anything I felt worth getting up for, so I just skipped it all. I do that sometimes when I travel. I woke up extra hungry, extra early the next day and found the bomb coffee/bagelry though so I was able to go out on a good note.

Portland was a good but long day, as I flew in in the morning, went right to the office and did my work there. Computer install, camera calibration, and site visits to the 5 hospitals for this customer. All while in the backseat of the car, and accompanied by 2 very chatty people. So basically I was carsick and wanting to put my ears out all day, as I had gotten little to no sleep in Idaho.

When I packed it in for the day in Portland I was ready for some air, so I decided that instead of bussing back to my hotel, I would walk along the bus route and jump on at some point. I got totally lost, and just under 2 hours later (about 1 hour after it started raining, praise be to my new raincoat) I managed to find the Max streetcar to take me to my hotel. I got lost a little after that, but ended up not only finding my hotel but stumbling at it from a new direction, past a little Pho shack. Being unable to think of anything better for a sad wet Portland night than a bowl of delicious soup, I went in and ordered some to go.

It went sort of like this:
Her: "Hello! Welcome. Have some tea!"
Me: "I'm just going to order some soup to go"
Her: "yes. Have some tea!"
Me: "Do I look that pathetic?"
Her: "Have some tea!" at which point she pretty much forced a mega mug of tea on me while I looked at the menu and ordered. (when I got back to the hotel my suspicions were confirmed. I looked like who did it and ran, the rainy version)

When she handed me 2 grocery bags of food, I began to wonder if I had slaughtered the pronunciation so bad that I had ordered a feast, but since it had still only come to 12 bucks I was not concerned enough to question. It turns out it was just Pho done right. I wish I had had the foresight to take a picture of the setup, because it was f*cking deluxe, but I forgot. I was too hungry, too cold and it all smelled too delicious, which in fact it was. But she packed everything. Fish sauce, pickled peppers, jalapeños, royal basil, sprouts, veggies, tofu, something that I didn't even know about...everything except a bowl for which I really can not blame her. Even though I looked homeless she was totally within her rights to assume I probably did have a home, and dishes. It was cool though, I was able to over come and enjoy several delicious pots of soup:

coffee-ness is next to godliness

I went to bed fat, happy and warm in the middle in that way that only soup can help you do, and left the next morning for home. Flights were uneventful, except for the 2 yentas I got stuck sitting next to on the first flight. One german, one just plain crazy. The crazy one had a purse full of clippings about all the recent stories on frozen embryo property rights, and apparently either had an embryo she wanted to see made into a baby or was trying to create one - that's maybe not so crazy, the crazy part was that 1) somehow her father was involved ("I just can't bear to see his genes not live on, we're such good people!") and 2) She didn't actually want to raise the kid. ("I think my brother would probably do it, or we could find someone who would and who would let us visit") Umm. yeah. So I spent most of that flight with my headphones on, studiously avoiding eye contact and trying not to choke when she said shit like that.

I got home at about 10pm, unpacked and passed out. By 7am the next day HN and I were on the road to Jersey, leading a caravan of high school kids for a weekend of canoing. We went to the Mullica River, which was nice. The foliage was gorgeous, and you'd never have guessed we were even in Jersey which was sweet since I make a point to try to never go there. It was a decent time, but I struggled a bit with travel lag and my general disdain for teenagers. These ones were pretty tolerable as far as things go, and there were s'mores to make up for it all. HN was wise enough to get everyone their own bar of chocolate which worked out well, since there was no way I was giving up rights to mine once I opened it.

mmmm, fire.

me and my trusty steed, looking out for what lies ahead

beached for snacktime

Sunday evening involved sweatpants, a book and some french fries and yesterday was a sickeningly work-y day. No word on the farm yet, but I feel lucky. Christmas on the farm sounds so good I can't even believe it won't happen.

Macaroni and cheesing it.

So I ended up with an extra day in Boise IDAPIMP because my coworker can't do the math and must have been holding some of the wacky in his hand while counting on his fingers (3 day ground is not the same as 4 day ground, bro and I WILL tase you). The camera that was supposed to arrive yesterday, allowing me to assemble it last night and train users on it this morning and fly to Portland this afternoon instead arrived 11am today, so I put it together and trained all day today, thereby missing my Portland flight and extending my ID experience by 14 hours. When I yelled at him about this (ok, one of the times I yelled at him about this) yesterday, he told me it would work out and we would "Ham and Egg it" I didn't know then and I don't know now what the fuck that means. I told him I hate stupid ham (this is truth!) and hung up before he hurt my head by explaining further. (update: you must be kidding. This is a real expression?!)

Here's what I'm doing with my time:

-NOT going to the Basque museum. Because it is closed, but I think it's neat that there are other people here. ( I don't get out enough?) I watched some Boise public access last night, and although the Basque people do not speak English, I was still compelled and unable to look away.

-DID go to The Bardenay. Trivia: Sailors used to call cocktails Bardenays, and now, so do I. Plus my boss told me to upgrade my dinner plans last night, and my airport driver dude had mentioned the bloody Mary's there so I was inclined to try. I give it a 5 because I can't dance to it. Also, I disliked their tomato juice. But their hummus gets an 8.

-Today I saw a stoned looking gal cruising down the street. We went through 2 intersections together by happenstance, then I couldn't help but notice her conspicuous nervous glances back at me, like she thought I was following her (in my fantasy she was afeared that I was a narc. Because also in my fantasy I look Narc-y and G-Mannish in my fancy pants). So I did what any bored traveler with too much time on their hands does, and actually started following her for a bit. Good times, I'm pretty sure she hid under a car because I lost her in a parking lot. I draw the line at actually LOOKING for her, besides I had started to wonder if she was crazy not stoned (she def looked stoned though) and if it might be a bad idea to incite her further. It was fun while it lasted.

-I'm going to take a page out of HareBrained Coworkers book: make meal expressions into verbs, and then begin committing those actions. Tonight I will Mac and Cheese it. Fact: I love Mac and Cheese and I know we were meant to be together. Another Fact: I continually seek out delicious new experiences containing said ambrosia. I have been having The Craving for a couple of weeks now, and finally caved the other night when I took myself out to One World Cafe because I had googled "delicious mac and cheese baltimore" and their name came up and I love them anyway. (The MnC was a solid 7, but I thought the tomatoes were extraneous) I have also experienced Mac and Cheese wonder in Portland (The Doug Fir, and I give it a 9), and several times in Boston. So now I will add Boise to the list, as I have asked the google "where shall I go?" and I believe the google has answered. There's a fat dude downstairs at the desk, and I want to run my thoughts by him just to be sure. If he doesn't dig it, I won't waste my time. (Update: you must be kidding me again. They closed LAST WEEK) Perhaps I will Burger and Fries it. Or Samosa and Vindaloo it. I don't know, this really gums up the works. All I do know anymore is that I will be enjoying a luscious bardenay of sort.

Here's to you Idaho!

The power of positive thinking

Doesn't always work.

However, sometimes it does. And so, with that I proclaim that I refuse to believe I won't be living on a farm by Christmas. I think it would be a smashing good time, and anyone with any sense couldn't think there would be better tenants/neighbors/help than myself and HN.

So, going back a bit to the rest of the weekend:

Remember the yellowjacket's nest Star and I found in August? Well HN and I had gone looking for it at one point, but were not able to locate it. Now when I run that path with Star, she refuses to step off the path to the left, so I had pretty much stopped worrying about it, as if she wasn't going to step in it, it seemed unlikely to be our problem again. Enter Orion. Star forgot to tell Orion about the yellowjacket's nest, I forgot to care about it, and we all went for a run on that path again this weekend. Stop me if you've heard this one before.... Actually, it didn't end up as bad as the first time, because although he did find it, it was in the middle of a burst of spastic gnashing through the woods so he didn't linger and wasn't stung. I, however, was lollygagging about in just the right place at the wrong time so I did get stung. Only once, which is some consolation, but right in the neck which fucking blew- it was really quite painful! I didn't have any sort of bad reaction it, but I did have some swelling. I still have a very sexy lump/giant red area at the base of my throat, but I think it adds to my air of mystery.

I also finished - 2 out of 3 times- the quilt formerly known as the quilt for Stella Jr. I say 2 out of 3 times, because it STILL has a mistake in it, so I'm going to have to rip off the binding and do over AGAIN (have I mentioned how much I hate doing over? no? Oh, well I do. It's right up there with "practicing" on the list of things I hate to do. I want to google something, decide to do it, have it work and be done with it- this is a genetic condition inherited from the paternal side as evidenced by the belly laughs of my dad when I explain this to him)

I say the quilt formerly known as the quilt for Stella Jr because I have decided I'm keeping it. Yeah, I know: worst gift giver ever. But for something that is totally not my style, I sure have grown attached to it. I even named the puppy and used it as a lap quilt when reading this weekend. This, coupled with the fact that it needs to be done over, which will probably not happen anytime in the next month or so, justs illustrates to me that I need to decide it's mine and quit worrying about it. Stella would prefer a nice gift card to Babies R Us anyway I think.

Here's a picture, mistake carefully tucked out of sight:

Here is an up close so maybe you can see that with the help of stitch selection 39, i have sewn some very fancy straight lines:

And here's one for the "lessons learned register" (I am learning to speak PRINCE2)
It turns out, there is a concept of "straight" that also applies to the backing of the quilt. If you look at the left side, you can see I have very loosely indeed grasped this concept. Next time though, I'm all over this alleged straight business.

And now I guess I have to get to work, which makes me very sad because I am lazy and not motivated and also a little bit entitled this morning I think. Tomorrow, I conquer IDAHO!

What do...

35 acres of farmland including a pond, an old farmhouse, and 20 kind of creepy because they're empty but full of potential horse barns have in common?

Well it might be me! Hopefully. If we can work out the financials, then HN and I will be relocating to a farmhouse on a now defunct horse farm in the county. Friends of his (ours now I guess) just bought it. It is the plot that adjoins their land, and when it went on sale they couldn't risk developers buying it so they did. Now they need someone to live in the house, help with the small farm they're hoping to start up and take care of the pond. I think Star and I (and HN) are the ones for the job!

The house is more house than we need (2500SF), and would be about impossible to furnish but it has the most interesting assortment of rooms and spaces. It was constructed largely on the whims of the people living there, so there are rooms that were blatantly added onto the main structure just because someone felt like having a bathroom where there's a tub that sits on a corner of the house surrounded by windows, and that overlooks the field where the sun sets (I personally am 100% on board with this room, but it doesn't stop there)

The woman who lives there now is the most toxic person I have ever met, so it was hard to give the house a fair shake when it's filled with her obvious seething hatred and her creepy knife throwing child, not to mention their frightened illegal help, but I am a firm believer in the power of Merry Maids, white paint and eviction of said toxic party. As is our potential landlord, hence the whole situation coming about in the first place. Like I said, I won't know for sure until we talk turkey with her next week, but I'm scoping out overalls and straw hats just in case it goes well.

Houseguest

So we have a new houseguest here. He's high maintenance and pukey, but oh so friendly.

He shield star from Kitty's MUST TOUCH YOU NOW

look familiar?

He digs late night mud puddle diving and flashlight tag...

But not so much late night bathing.

Noone but Jim Lehrer should be allowed to moderate

How the HELL do you just allow someone to say "I know you asked this question about health care, but I think I want to talk about taxes instead"

The debate was so aggravating I turned it off. Palin had her list of things she wanted to talk about, for her it was a speech not a debate.

Ifill is WEAK.

What's for dinner Wednesday

Roasted Garlic potato soup
(but with way more carrots)

Rosemary Focaccia
Exercising the garlic/parmesan on top option

Oven Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Because it is fall, and I am deluxe

Saints preserve us

Or at least put us by for the winter...

Yes, it's that time of year again. It's time to get ready for whatever lame excuse for winter Baltimore has to offer me, time to preserve what the summer has brought.

I did a bit of this and that last year, mostly freezing pesto because it's easy and convenient to drop a gob into sauces, soups, etc and so on. Today I did a crapload more, I really took it to the next level kind of just to see what happens and kind of because I really am interested in putting food by.

Yesterday HN and I harvested carrots from both of our gardens. His had an obnoxious amount, because he is an obnoxious person. Ok, it had tons because he has the patience to let them alone while they grow. My style is more pull one a week while asking them if they are done yet. In the majority of the cases the answer was "No, and now you just wasted me" because if there's one thing I have learned it's that you can't unpick a carrot. Even though it seems perfectly reasonable to me to think so. They just never get over it.

Anyhooo, I did manage to get some carrots to grow to adulthood, by cleverly tricking myself. I took a bunch of carrot seeds at the beginning of the year and hid them in my herb garden, where they were most likely to grow unnoticed by me, and on the times when I did notice them it was because I was in the herb garden, already picking something so I was able to curb the urge. Gaze upon and be in awe of my harvest:

several of them would totally pass for store bought!

Added to HN's 35 large carrots and I had some sh*t to put up. For those of you who wonder, I have done it thusly:
-shredded a bunch and put them into ice cube trays for freezing. Most popular in rice pilaf, sometimes soup.
-chopped a bunch and froze in bags. V popular in soups, stir fry and the occasional casserole (shepherds pie, chicken pot pie, etc)
-cut up a bunch, cooked them in veggie broth and pureed them. This is carrot soup, just add spices etc. I kept some out and froze some in individual portions. I have a fantasy that I make bread to accompany this with dinner tonight.

Other preserveds include:
Parsley, magic bulleted with water and put into ice cube trays. Good for adding to soup. Thawed and drained can be tossed with veggies (onions and carrots) before baking.
Oregano, parsley, rosemary and basil. Magic bulleted with olive oil, also frozen in ice cube trays. For the making of delicious oven roasted potatoes. Microwave cube until thawed, toss with raw chopped potatoes, bake.
The italian gravy mix: basil and oregano magic bulleted with Olive oil. Drop one or more into sauce when cooking meatballs.
Lemon verbena and mint: Magic bulleted with water and frozen in tray. Add some to water and boil, then strain for tea and add honey. This is the shit for a hangover.
cherry tomatoes (seemingly ridiculous yes, but I grew them and I'm keeping them so fuck off) Magic bulleted and frozen in cups. Good for making delicious indian food, I do not prefer this for sauce.

The ice cube tray thing is the bomb for freezing stuff. It makes it all very manageable and allows one to decide how many to use based on what one is cooking.
I also have been known to employ this tactic for saving leftover wine (on the rare occasions when there is any) to put in soups, sauces, etc and so on. Once everything is frozen I pop it out and either put it in ziploc baggies separated by what the hell it is, or if it looks different enough that I can tell I have a monster bin in the freezer for stuff that goes ok together. I'll root around in there, grab a few of everything and drop all in the pan.

thus spake Kerry

/lesson