things this week (7/27)
27/7/19 20:54![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rugessnomeI'm sorry, I don't have pictures.
Crafty Stuff: The Sierpinski Carpet in filet triple (2/box) crochet is finished, 3 third order or one third (one side) of a fourth order. It was long enough, and that made more sense than extending into a weird segment of a fifth order.
The Penrose EPP saw a little progress but uh. Not really significant, and I actually don't love the results I'm getting. I am trying to do it in two prints, one for each type of diamond, and the star doesn't seem very differentiated (as I expect visually from patchwork?), part of which is probably the whipstitch and possibly not having taken out the papers yet but part of which may be the print. Don't love the 36° diamonds, especially with the 3/8" seam allowance.
Current charity baby blanket has half complete and assembled and as of this writing I'm working on the edging of the 7th/10 strip.
Last Sunday, think it was, I embroidered for most of the day (because I was at my mom's and forgot the other projects) and the acorn sampler had progress:
...also starting plans (and wound yarn to make yet Another Elizabeth Freeman Pitsilised Koerkirjad based shawl because apparently Laminaria just. sticks with me. And I am perpetually wanting to be knitting one. (Although it's another [probably beadless as I lack that patience atm] Aeolian I'm after just now) ...where did the Orenberg scarf I haven't actually enough yarn for get to, anyway?
Cooking: oof. So uh what I guess I never did tell you, in part 'cause I intended to read more of the original blog behind Julie & Julia (I swear it's probably better than the book, however it's been years since I tried to read that so maybe not)...is I'm trying to cook my way through Still Life With Menu over the next year! (from when I started over a month ago) so like...Mouse and Mollie?
Unlike with MtAoFC, there's about 35 menus in Still Life With..., and iirc the assorted other recipes number that or fewer (actually tempted to think about 20), so there's not a huge rush and sometimes I cook other things (and sometimes I don't cook)
This is also reminiscent of the blog/project at Dinner is Served 1972 BUT SLw/M is almost entirely vegetarian (there's at least one instance of anchovies) and idk mostly Not In-Questionable-Taste (excepting perhaps the "pad Thai" and a few other adaptations). There will not be a lot of looking for expensive meats or truffles or foie gras... But also there mostly won't be random convenience ingredients as in DiS1972.
I think SLwM suits me better than MtAoFC; I don't actually but for the most part I wish I ate like this all the time...loads of veggies, pretty fresh, but more interesting than just a plate of plain vegetables. It doesn't feel super dated either? (oh and Katzen has also been given credit for changing our eating habits as a nation.)
(...as for why I will never cook my way through MtAoFC, French cooking is probably on the bottom half of my list of interesting cuisines, except maybe for like Provençal stuff--the haute cuisine and all the sauces don't interest me that much. I don't even particularly like mayonnaise (kinda hope I'd like aioli but idk) and doubt I'd like hollandaise. I remain an omnivore but this only rarely results in the sorts of roasts and Big Time meat dishes Julie documented 16-17 years ago. Deb Perelman and maybe Liana Krissoff seem to strike a balance that's more like me in this department.)
I'm not using butter at MtAoFC rates, but there is certainly some butter usage. My guess is it averages out to between 1/2 7/8 of a stick (1/4lb, about 113g)/menu, due to butter-heavy desserts on some. The hard and expensive to find for me will probably be stuff like baby artichokes (I've found them before! But it was like they made an appearance less than once a year, unpredictably. I don't live near NYC, so hopefully somewhere in Cincy will have some before June 2020) or slightly unusual cheese or nut oil.
I'll try to back-post about the ones I already made, but here's today's:
Started out with the salad, which is lettuce and watercress topped with minced scallion, currants (the raisin sort, I assumed), walnuts, nut oil, and balsamic vinegar. I used red leaf lettuce (but without the crunchy stems for soft effect), as it was cheaper and somewhat more local (OH or MI) than the butter lettuce called for. I also don't have any walnut oil, so used pecan oil I got on clearance a while back; was too lazy to toast walnuts, and forgot to put salt and pepper on it. It's tasty enough though not a new favorite per se, and not particularly hard as salads go.
Indian Summer Casserole is a bunch of vegetables sauteed and baked in a buttermilk (or yogurt) custard with a light amount of white cheese (I did preshredded mozz because I didn't think about whether we had any Monterey/pepper jack as I would have used. Or possibly a Mexican cheese). I had more veg than fit comfortably in my baking dish, perhaps bc my 2 green tomatoes were more large than medium, and maybe our bell peppers are bigger these days? Frozen corn--less bother and it's not a great year for fresh anyway. Left out the olives as we don't care for them, used a probably-Anaheim for the chile but stuck it in with the rest of the veg. Bit short on scallions and parsley, used some red chile flake for the cayenne I don't have here.
I don't really understand why it's Indian Summer, this menu, as I always understood that to be a brief rewarming in the fall (Not sure it's a flattering seasonal moniker either :|). I chose to do it now due to the stone fruit dessert and green tomatoes at the farmers market. It takes some spoons to do all the veggie chopping, but it's not hard aside from that. Tasted good warm, if not hugely spectacular. Will report back on cold leftovers later.
A hot buttered tortilla is recommended as an accompaniment, and I do think a bready element would be missing otherwise. Mine was weirdly salty--idk if the store brand whole wheat tortillas just REALLY don't need salted butter, or if the salted butter was Very Salty.
Finally, stone fruit crumble for dessert. Sliced (for 3-4c stone fruit) half a ripened-to-soft preach, half a crisp straight from the store one, a ripe plum and an apricot of uncertain ripeness, and pitted two cups, perhaps two dozen, sweet cherries (the normal dark ones), as if they were tiny plums except I dug the pits out of the half with my thumb instead of quartering them. These are tossed with a little flour and sugar, then more flour is mixed with brown sugar, a bit of salt, and melted butter, and put on top.
This is as good as you'd expect, if a bit of a hassel (despite not peeling any of the fruit)
I'd make this again; I think my mom was less of a fan...
I finally made the puffed grain chaat out of Whole Grains For a New Generation. It's surprisingly not that hard, although it's a slightly inconvenient amount seeing as I'm really the only one eating it. Also millet, which is what I used, is among the less crisp of puffed grains and I accidentally bought a bag that had just passed the best by, which I'm sure didn't help with that. I have chaat masala, although not here at mom's right now, so I wonder how that would be.
It's been over a week I think but another recipe crossed off my someday list is the charred corn ~Thai-influenced succotash, albeit with soy instead of fish sauce..., from smitten kitchen everyday, and I intend to repeat it soon. I didn't really succeed at CRISPY shallots, and it IS a bit fussy, but mmm it was Good.
I have the eggplants so I'll be making the stuffed baby eggplants from Vegetarian for a New Generation soon...
Crafty Stuff: The Sierpinski Carpet in filet triple (2/box) crochet is finished, 3 third order or one third (one side) of a fourth order. It was long enough, and that made more sense than extending into a weird segment of a fifth order.
The Penrose EPP saw a little progress but uh. Not really significant, and I actually don't love the results I'm getting. I am trying to do it in two prints, one for each type of diamond, and the star doesn't seem very differentiated (as I expect visually from patchwork?), part of which is probably the whipstitch and possibly not having taken out the papers yet but part of which may be the print. Don't love the 36° diamonds, especially with the 3/8" seam allowance.
Current charity baby blanket has half complete and assembled and as of this writing I'm working on the edging of the 7th/10 strip.
Last Sunday, think it was, I embroidered for most of the day (because I was at my mom's and forgot the other projects) and the acorn sampler had progress:
- the petite xstitch letters/motifs in the middle band are done, as is everything but part of the leaves and acorns on the pic beside it
- The squirrels are done except for the "confetti" stitches for their eyes and um the actual nuts they seem to be chasing, because I wanted to look up pin stitches again and the internet was out.
- did the separating bands, and the big rice stitch X's all the way down to the Irish stitch area
- started the Irish stitch--got across once, but midway got mixed up on my mnemonic hour for how stitch direction changed on the up and down parts, and it A) uses less thread! B) might not look as nice bc it may pull in an inconvenient direction
...also starting plans (and wound yarn to make yet Another Elizabeth Freeman Pitsilised Koerkirjad based shawl because apparently Laminaria just. sticks with me. And I am perpetually wanting to be knitting one. (Although it's another [probably beadless as I lack that patience atm] Aeolian I'm after just now) ...where did the Orenberg scarf I haven't actually enough yarn for get to, anyway?
Cooking: oof. So uh what I guess I never did tell you, in part 'cause I intended to read more of the original blog behind Julie & Julia (I swear it's probably better than the book, however it's been years since I tried to read that so maybe not)...is I'm trying to cook my way through Still Life With Menu over the next year! (from when I started over a month ago) so like...Mouse and Mollie?
Unlike with MtAoFC, there's about 35 menus in Still Life With..., and iirc the assorted other recipes number that or fewer (actually tempted to think about 20), so there's not a huge rush and sometimes I cook other things (and sometimes I don't cook)
This is also reminiscent of the blog/project at Dinner is Served 1972 BUT SLw/M is almost entirely vegetarian (there's at least one instance of anchovies) and idk mostly Not In-Questionable-Taste (excepting perhaps the "pad Thai" and a few other adaptations). There will not be a lot of looking for expensive meats or truffles or foie gras... But also there mostly won't be random convenience ingredients as in DiS1972.
I think SLwM suits me better than MtAoFC; I don't actually but for the most part I wish I ate like this all the time...loads of veggies, pretty fresh, but more interesting than just a plate of plain vegetables. It doesn't feel super dated either? (oh and Katzen has also been given credit for changing our eating habits as a nation.)
(...as for why I will never cook my way through MtAoFC, French cooking is probably on the bottom half of my list of interesting cuisines, except maybe for like Provençal stuff--the haute cuisine and all the sauces don't interest me that much. I don't even particularly like mayonnaise (kinda hope I'd like aioli but idk) and doubt I'd like hollandaise. I remain an omnivore but this only rarely results in the sorts of roasts and Big Time meat dishes Julie documented 16-17 years ago. Deb Perelman and maybe Liana Krissoff seem to strike a balance that's more like me in this department.)
I'm not using butter at MtAoFC rates, but there is certainly some butter usage. My guess is it averages out to between 1/2 7/8 of a stick (1/4lb, about 113g)/menu, due to butter-heavy desserts on some. The hard and expensive to find for me will probably be stuff like baby artichokes (I've found them before! But it was like they made an appearance less than once a year, unpredictably. I don't live near NYC, so hopefully somewhere in Cincy will have some before June 2020) or slightly unusual cheese or nut oil.
I'll try to back-post about the ones I already made, but here's today's:
Started out with the salad, which is lettuce and watercress topped with minced scallion, currants (the raisin sort, I assumed), walnuts, nut oil, and balsamic vinegar. I used red leaf lettuce (but without the crunchy stems for soft effect), as it was cheaper and somewhat more local (OH or MI) than the butter lettuce called for. I also don't have any walnut oil, so used pecan oil I got on clearance a while back; was too lazy to toast walnuts, and forgot to put salt and pepper on it. It's tasty enough though not a new favorite per se, and not particularly hard as salads go.
Indian Summer Casserole is a bunch of vegetables sauteed and baked in a buttermilk (or yogurt) custard with a light amount of white cheese (I did preshredded mozz because I didn't think about whether we had any Monterey/pepper jack as I would have used. Or possibly a Mexican cheese). I had more veg than fit comfortably in my baking dish, perhaps bc my 2 green tomatoes were more large than medium, and maybe our bell peppers are bigger these days? Frozen corn--less bother and it's not a great year for fresh anyway. Left out the olives as we don't care for them, used a probably-Anaheim for the chile but stuck it in with the rest of the veg. Bit short on scallions and parsley, used some red chile flake for the cayenne I don't have here.
I don't really understand why it's Indian Summer, this menu, as I always understood that to be a brief rewarming in the fall (Not sure it's a flattering seasonal moniker either :|). I chose to do it now due to the stone fruit dessert and green tomatoes at the farmers market. It takes some spoons to do all the veggie chopping, but it's not hard aside from that. Tasted good warm, if not hugely spectacular. Will report back on cold leftovers later.
A hot buttered tortilla is recommended as an accompaniment, and I do think a bready element would be missing otherwise. Mine was weirdly salty--idk if the store brand whole wheat tortillas just REALLY don't need salted butter, or if the salted butter was Very Salty.
Finally, stone fruit crumble for dessert. Sliced (for 3-4c stone fruit) half a ripened-to-soft preach, half a crisp straight from the store one, a ripe plum and an apricot of uncertain ripeness, and pitted two cups, perhaps two dozen, sweet cherries (the normal dark ones), as if they were tiny plums except I dug the pits out of the half with my thumb instead of quartering them. These are tossed with a little flour and sugar, then more flour is mixed with brown sugar, a bit of salt, and melted butter, and put on top.
This is as good as you'd expect, if a bit of a hassel (despite not peeling any of the fruit)
I'd make this again; I think my mom was less of a fan...
I finally made the puffed grain chaat out of Whole Grains For a New Generation. It's surprisingly not that hard, although it's a slightly inconvenient amount seeing as I'm really the only one eating it. Also millet, which is what I used, is among the less crisp of puffed grains and I accidentally bought a bag that had just passed the best by, which I'm sure didn't help with that. I have chaat masala, although not here at mom's right now, so I wonder how that would be.
It's been over a week I think but another recipe crossed off my someday list is the charred corn ~Thai-influenced succotash, albeit with soy instead of fish sauce..., from smitten kitchen everyday, and I intend to repeat it soon. I didn't really succeed at CRISPY shallots, and it IS a bit fussy, but mmm it was Good.
I have the eggplants so I'll be making the stuffed baby eggplants from Vegetarian for a New Generation soon...
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