Tricotomania and more

Our celebrations started with a party on Saturday, December 20th. Our first time attending, this is the annual do of one of the more active members of our church (and of Integrity Canada, if you are familiar with Anglican politics), a man that I like very much. It was a great party. But, as I was drinking the fabulous Cosmopolitans that his roommate made, I was aware of a faint tickling in the back of my throat as if I were coming down with something.

Sure enough I awoke Sunday  morning with a definite feeling of coming down with something. That and a minor snowstorm made me decide to forego church and lie on the sofa. I did a lot of lying on the sofa this past week. (Better now, thanks.) I finished my vest which I then wore to several of the activities later in the week.

  The Back-to-School Vest from Fitted Knits. It is a great pattern. (Errata for this book can be found here. There are a couple of errors in the pattern.) The wool is Manos de Uraguay that I bought at Rhinebeck in the fall. I thought it took all 6 skeins (and had ripped out my swatches to finish it) but I found a full skein today. That tells you all you need to know about the state of my living room. I knit it to the gauge suggested in the pattern which is tighter than the ball band gauge but worked fine. The vest looks very odd lying flat because the ribbed section pulls in so much but that makes it fit well. The top part is in a stitch pattern that doesn’t pull in but there are also darts to add width to the bust area. I am very pleased with it. And, as you can see, it goes well with my cords. I have 2 tops that are exactly the same colour so having the vest makes wearing those with the cords possible.

Monday evening we met my parents and my brother and his family for dinner at a country inn, the gift of my father. It was quite pleasant. I always dread that kind of occasion but no one said anything inappropriate and apart from running out of energy to hold my head up due to the something I had come down with (just a cold but energy sapping nevertheless) was a fine evening. We went to my brother’s place for a nightcap  before heading home. My first time in his house. It is very nicely decorated and welcoming. He was kind of quiet and formal but he did invite us over and, despite my weariness, I decided to accept that invitation as a gesture of friendliness. And his wife and kids were very cheerful and friendly.

Tuesday there must have been something but I forget what. More lying in the sofa, no doubt.

Wednesday my parents came over in the late afternoon and Mat cooked up a storm — lamb roast, pommes dauphinoise (which I think are the same as scalloped potatoes though he doesn’t skimp on the cream. He is English.), squash, rote kohl that I had preserved earlier in the fall (one of my dad’s favourite dishes; yes, I gave him a jar) and maybe something green though I can’t recall what. Broccoli? Mat’s dad’s fruit cake (also English) for dessert. Again, all went well. We talked about politics — the bailout, the transit strike, etc — and that worked remarkably well. I was too tired to stay up for the late church service so Mom and Dad took Tigger (who was serving), Mat went over to our friends’ place to babysit so they could all go (the advantage of having an atheist in the family), and  I stayed home and went to bed by about 10:30.

Christmas morning we had a quiet family thing involving pancakes and opening presents. Just after noon we picked up a friend from church and headed to our friends’ place for Christmas dinner, with Mat’s lemon tart and a selection of cookies in hand. Another very pleasant afternoon and evening though my friend had had a migraine for a week.

Somewhere in there we did this:

  A jigsaw that Mat’s parents had made from a photo they took on their trip to the Gaspésie in the fall. 520 pieces. A great photo and ideal for a jigsaw. Challenging but not frustrating.

Boxing Day we went out to a cottage other friends had rented for a week and went snowshoeing (with our new snowshoes, our present to each other) and hung around by the woodstove chatting, eating good food and generally enjoying the company.

And that was it for festivities. Since then Mat has been finishing the kitchen floor and is now onto the trim. He also has all the materials to finish insulating the basement. He’s feeling productive.

I’m knitting. And I dyed a white linen shirt that I haven’t worn in a couple of years so that I might wear it. It is a kind of denim-y blue and I think will work well with my other cords. Or even under that vest (which has some blue in it) with some jeans or something. And I plan to take down the decorations tomorrow because they have been bothering me ever since they went up. The living room looks even more cluttered than usual.

I will leave you with this:

  Another gift from Mat’s parents. It is a pastel of the view from their window in Kendal, Cumbria, done my his mom. I love it. Must get it framed and find a piece of wall to hang it on.

(All those photos will be bigger if you click on them, btw.)

Although I’ve been working pretty hard, other stuff is happening. The weather has been getting pretty cold at night and went down almost to freezing the other day. The tomatoes didn’t seem to be doing much anyway, so we picked all but the cherry tomatoes (which we’ve covered) and made a whole bunch of green tomato salsa. I don’t like either cilantro/coriander or chili but other people do and it makes great gives. (Yes, cilantro is coriander leaf. And I do like coriander seed. I’m one of those people who think the leaf smells and tastes like soap.)

We also canned a peck of pears and Mat is getting another peck today. We peel them and halve them and put them in a light sugar syrup. Despite Wisteria’s warnings about low-acid foods, etc. I just put the pears in the hot syrup, bring it back to the boil, put them in hot jars, fill them right to the top, put the lids on, and turn them upside down to cool. (Same thing I do with peaches; my grandmother’s method.) Didn’t kill anyone last year but ymmv. I do think that where you live makes a difference, probably, though I’m not sure how or why.

We’ve decided that we should do more tomatoes and beets and possibly beans. Mat was up early so went to the farmer’s market on his own. We’ll see what he comes back with. Tomorrow afternoon might be a busy one slaving over a hot stove.

Tigger has been keeping herself busy and seems to be fine with the level of neglect. Our little co-op has started and this past week it was at a friend’s who is close enough Tigger can go on her own on the bike so she got herself there and back. They were learning about elections, since we are now having one (on October 14th; Becky will keep you up to date better than I will). She’s also been writing like a mad fiend. She and her friend have decided to form a writing club and they spent all Thursday afternoon together writing and illustrating. She’s also been hanging out in her room writing a lot. I see that some of the new stories are up on the blog though I think a lot more has been written.

Tigger has also been working through the next book in the Key To Geometry series. The one on squares and rectangles, which might be the 4th one. There has been some violin practice, too. Her Nana brought her a full-size violin and fixed it up for her. And Tigger has been asked if she can play some sad/reflective music to go with poetry readings that the youth group will do for the Rembrance Day service at church.

Nana and Grandpa have now gone home. Everyone had a great visit. And Tigger has started her choir. Next week basketball and science class start as well as a 5 week babysitting class. So things will be pretty busy and there might be enough structure that I’ll know what day of the week it is

I have some things of my own going on, too. I decided to sign up for a class at church: Eclipsing Empire. It is very interesting. Historical context of Paul’s writings. I had been thinking about it and when I went to sign up, I noticed that many of the folks taking it were people I knew and liked. That helped. And I’m enjoying it. I am also back at my fitness class in the weights room. A bit stiff this week but I think that indicates how good it is for me to do it regularly. And I like the other women there. I’ve identified a 20 minute brisk walk route around my neighbourhood and am trying to do that regularly, too.

Today I think we’ll do a bit of housework and then we are off to a friend’s place for the afternoon. Have a good weekend.

Lots of people wonder why I bother to can when freezing would be easier. My short answer is convenience, particularly in recognition of lack of planning. I do not own a microwave and have no intention of doing so. I really don’t know what we’d use it for. Defrosting things is the only time we’ve even thought it would be handy. It would take up a lot of counter-space (or space somewhere) and use a bunch of electricity. It doesn’t seem worth it.

Also, you can only put so much stuff in a freezer. We did buy a bigger freezer last year. But we prioritize stuff that is best preserved that way. A whole lamb, for example. And we’re going to get chickens from the same farmer. We really value buying meat from local farmers that treat the animals in ways consistent with our values.

Also, while canning uses a bunch of energy when you do it — gas and/or electricity and water to boil all that stuff — that’s it for energy input. Then it sits on a shelf. And it doesn’t need energy at the other end (apart from the superhuman strength sometimes required to get the lids off).

Also texture. I don’t usually bake with the canned fruit. We just eat it. The only fruit we freeze are gooseberries (which we pick green) and blackcurrants both of which will be stewed. We don’t eat jam. We make raspberry syrup and put it on ice-cream.

I know freezing works for lots of people and if it’s good for you, keep doing it. Similarly with jam. But we’ve been really trying to think about how we like to eat things and what works for us and doing things in the most sustainable ways for us personally. Which often means canning in smaller jars that other people might use. Mostly doing passata or crushed tomatoes instead of whole ones. Canning instead of freezing. And dehydrating strawberries instead of making jam.

That said, I always love to hear what other people are doing because sometimes I get ideas that way. I started canning beans in vinegar after reading a post by Wisteria (combined with a few other things like Mat making a bean salad with a vinaigratte). I don’t use her recipe (it has sugar and the beans are cooked for longer than I would ever imagine cooking a bean) but she got me thinking and I found a way that works for us.

BTW, the retreat was fun. And I have some interesting things to ponder. I’m glad I went. If nothing else there are now about 40 women in my church who know my name instead of knowing me as Tigger’s mom.

Well, the rest of my family have headed off with the grandparents to the Gaspésie for a holiday. They’ll be back next Friday. I’ve got to much paid work to do so I’m staying here on my own. Tigger thinks it is really fun to leave for your holiday the same day everyone else starts school.

I’m also up to my neck in canning. Mat did a bunch of tomatoes this weekend (I helped with some of them). He bought a bushel of roma tomatoes at the market and we’ve mostly done passata and crushed tomatoes because that’s what we prefer to use for pasta sauces and the like through the year. This morning I put some chutney on as we’ve found that quite useful and it incorporates eggplant and zucchini. The former have just started fruiting because it’s been a bit cool this summer but the latter we have way too much of. I also shredded and froze quite a lot of zucchini yesterday. I freeze it in 1.5 cup quantities because that’s what my zucchini bread recipe takes but we also use shredded zucchini in potato pancakes.

We also canned peaches the other day. I need to go and get about 3 more baskets of those and do them this week because they’re almost done. We’ll wait until after they get back to do pears.

I also now have a dishwasher. It looks very pretty but I have no idea what it runs like. We thought we had it all hooked up on Saturday but it wouldn’t work. So I called an electrician this morning. They’ve just left. After much searching for the problem, including opening up the ceiling downstairs to see if the plumbers had nicked the wire, they replaced the whole wire. And discovered that Mat must have nicked the neutral wire when he was stripping the ends and then snapped it when he tightened the strain relief nut. This is another reason to have “contingency” funds in every project budget. So the lights now go on. Later on I will check that the water intake and the drain are all working properly and not leaking anywhere and then we’re away.

We have also recently laid floor in that part of the kitchen. We went with Marmoleum in the 3′ x 1′ click panels, with an underlay made from recycled tires. This stuff is pretty easy to lay and looks great. That section with all the new cabinets has the most cutting of panels of the whole room so now we just need to find the time and energy to clear the rest of the room and finish laying it. It looks pretty good so far though.

A draft of this has been sitting here since before we left. It is about time I tidied it up and posted it. My friend Frank has started a new project. It looks really interesting and I thought some of the bread bakers who read here might be interested.

Here’s what Frank has to say:

AND, my latest project . . . . SPREAD THE BREAD!!!

Let me give you a bit of history on that . . . several weeks ago, while researching on the net for my course, I came across an incredible web site.  A grassroots, non-profit, organizing whose goal is to promote break making with a difference . . . baking bread and distributing the bread to those in need, to honour heroes, and generally bring a smile to peoples’ faces.  I contacted the founder of this organization and, well, here we are . . . I’ve been given the go-ahead to create SPREAD THE BREAD CANADA.

. . . so, break the bag of flour, get out the yeast, and start baking and distributing your bread!!  You can also make muffins, banana break, zucchini bread, any type of bread . . . and register your SPREAD THE BREAD project with the website and help us meet the goal of ONE MILLION breads spread around by Dec 31, 2007!

Since many of the folks who read here (and bake bread) are in the US, and Frank’s project is based on a US project, I asked him for the web address for those south of the border….

Lest you think it is all injured cats and work around here…

I thought I’d provide a recipe that we’re using to deal with the major glut of little tomatoes. There are a bunch of different varieties. Some are red. Some are yellow. Some are round. Some are pear shaped. Some we planted. Some planted themselves. I have no idea what the variety names are but I seem to have an awful lot of cherry tomatoes.

Warning, as some of you know, I’m not a big fan of the low fat diet. Particularly when it comes to olive oil. And if you want to use some cheaper oil or use less oil, the resulting flavour is at your own risk.

Roast Tomato Sauce

Wash and put in a single layer in a baking pan. Put a clove or two of garlic in there (no need to peel or chop). Some oregano (or whatever suitable herb you grow). Maybe some salt and pepper though I’ve been forgetting that. Pour a whole bunch of olive oil over it (enough to roast the tomatoes and provide some oil for the sauce). Stick it in a hot oven for about 30 minutes.

Once it is cooled down I squish it through one of those conical strainer things to get rid of all the skins and most of the seeds. It makes the sort of sauce that just coats your pasta. Very tasty. I bet it would be good on chicken or something, too.

We’ve been freezing this to use later. I’m pretty sure it isn’t acidic enough to can.

I thought about taking some photos but forgot. And then I figured it was more important to provide a recipe than a picture.

A couple of years ago, at my uncle’s 80th birthday party, I discovered that even the drag queens in my family don’t wear high heels if they can help it. The phrase "women in sensible shoes" is obviously made for us. As far as I know there is only one drag queen in my family (and he may be getting enough proper acting jobs nowadays and not doing that). But those friends of mine who have tried to tempt me with more "feminine" footwear laughed about this.

This year, when I went for my mother’s 80th, I got my aunt to teach me how to can peaches. I figure it makes sense to can them where they grow and then transport them. She cans them the same way my grandmother did them. Basically, scald the peaches, peel and pit (cut up, cut out any bad spots, etc.). Boil up sugar syrup (my aunt did 1 cup sugar to 4 cups water; clearly we are not from the South). Put peaches in syrup, return to the boil. Meanwhile, have the jars and lids bubbling away in a pot of water. When the peaches are ready fill the jars (she wore rubber gloves and just picked up the jars out of the boiling water, scooping peaches and juice in with a 1 cup measure), use an ordinary dinner knife to get the bubbles out, top up with syrup. Put the lids on tight. Wipe and turn upside down on the counter. She had an aluminum pie plate to set the jar in while filling and all the excess syrup got poured back into the pan.

You’ll note we didn’t put the filled jars back in boiling water. My grandmother did this for years. My aunt is now 85. I am not aware of any cases of botulism so I’m taking that as enough evidence that this is good enough.

My aunt used to make chili sauce (a misnomer since it doesn’t have chili in it. It’s a tomato relish.). She says she didn’t even sterilize the jars, just swish them with boiling water and fill. She figured the vinegar would deal with any bugs. Again, no evidence to the contrary.

Clearly the USDA and probably whatever the Canadian equivalent is are going nuts at the thought. But I’m kind of happy to know that my instincts are not way off the map.

Also, I made chutney yesterday and both sterilized the jars and put the filled jars in boiling water for about 10 minutes afterwards.

You may recall my little experiment in lacto-fermentation. Today, I decided that enough time had passed and that I should open one of the jars and try them out. They are delicious. This is almost as magic as sourdough.

For those that are interested, you just layer sliced of cucumbers with salt in a jar. Close the jar and let it sit for a couple of weeks. The first thing it does is extract a lot of liquid from the cucumbers. The brine then ferments and pickles your cukes. If you use pickling salt I understand that it won’t go cloudy.

I’m not sure how long they’ll keep. They taste so good, you might never find out.

thanks for all the advice. We canned more peaches (now much riper and that went a lot better) last night. I used more sugar (though probably still not as much as Wisteria would have used). I tried to make sure there were lots in the jars but Mat was filling the jars and a couple got by not quite as packed as they could have been. And they float. I’m going to live with this. There are people that won’t care about the brown bits.

I wish your comments had come in earlier though because I would have saved that sugar syrup. Why didn’t I think of that? Oh well, next time. Mat did save the lemon water that peaches were sitting in while waiting to go into the sugar syrup. I made him strain out the lemon pits and bits of peach fibre floating in it but he thought it was tasty looking. This is a man who makes rhubarb juice and adds it to his orange juice, though, so YMMV.

We used some of the vinegar left over from the beans to can one 250 ml jar of chillis. He’s the only one who eats them so we don’t grow tons or anything.

And we dried a small batch of tomatoes yesterday. They are bigger than cherry tomatoes but still small. It was a pretty small batch to justify the electricity but I wanted to give it a try. I suspect that might be a good bet for the cherry tomato glut that seems to be on our way. (Some of them self-seeded it seems.)

I’ve been doing some canning and have a few questions for the more experienced.

1. My peaches are floating. Is this likely to increase the likelihood that I will poison someone? Or is it just an aesthetic thing about the bits at the top getting discoloured from exposure to that bit of air in the top of the jar?

2. Am I crazy worrying about energy efficiency? Yesterday I canned 3, 250ml jars of beans because that was what was ripe. It seems to me that I want to preserve stuff while it is still ripe. But if there is only 3 jars worth, it seems like a lot of hot water. I suspect things will be different when the tomatoes come in.

I think I’ve figured out my questions about the fermenting cukes. I found something about fermented vegetables in the canning book from the people that sell the jars. It suggests fermenting for 3 weeks and then heat processing them. It also says something about taking the scum off every day which I haven’t been doing but I noticed stuff settles to the bottom of the jar. So I’ll wait another week and then taste on jar to see what they are like and maybe heat process the other two. (Perhaps straining the brine and putting it back in would work.)

The peaches was a trial run and ended up being fewer jars than expected because they weren’t quite ripe so we are waiting for them to ripen on the counter before doing more. So comments on question 1 would be really helpful. I suspect we’ll be doing more tonight or tomorrow.

Thanks.