March 2009 Archives

See the little pea shoots? I'm not really sure I've ever grown anything from seed before. It's so exciting to see those little green shoots coming up after searching the dirt for any sign of life for almost 2 weeks.

Normally we just plant herbs and tomatoes, but I love the idea of these early season plants (peas, lettuce, spinach), because it makes me appreciate the cool weather and near-daily rain showers we've been having lately. After a long winter, generally I am anxious to get through this time of year, when the sky is blue and the sun is shining, but you go outside, and realize you better go back for both a jacket and an umbrella.

I've found a couple of new folks on twitter (veggielove, plangarden) that are doling out all kinds of good gardening advice, and now I'm seriously thinking about starting a worm composting bin.

Matt is helping me research it, and I think it's pretty funny that you get the worms at at a bait shop, not at a gardening center. I don't think the garden stores where I live have not quite caught on to the recent DIY craze. I called a couple today about buying worms and they were like, "Oh! Worm castings - yes, we have those." "No..." I said. "I want the WORMS." They were a little befuddled by that. But this handy dandy website from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources pretty much gave me all the info I needed.

I have never been so excited about a vegetable in my life. Seriously, I squealed when I saw those tiny carrots in the bottom of my CSA bag this week. (Under a boatload of greens, I might add! If my little greens-killer recipe works out, I'll fill you in on that later this week.)

If you've ever tasted a home grown tomato right off the vine, then you know why eating fresh local produce is a good thing. Throw in the added nutritional benefits and reduced energy costs to bring the food from farm to plate, and eating local starts to sound like a really smart (and tasty) idea.

But (and there's always a but, isn't there) unless you live in California, eating local year-round gets a little dicey in the colder months, especial late winter/early spring when winter storage crops like squash, potatoes, and sweet potatoes are dwindling and/or shriveling up. Luckily our CSA farmers have a greenhouse, so we've pretty much had salad greens all winter long. But it was ridiculously exciting to get that first little bunch of carrots this week.

(I had a similar experience at the grocery store today too - blood oranges! Lovely... they remind me of Spain.)

I am breaking personal records left and right around here. After following Kelli & Finny's sew-alongs for over 2 years, I finally jump in with both feet and do 2 projects in the same month! Frikkin amazing. This project, Crooked Coasters, looked so simple that I couldn't not do it. Plus, it's a great way to use up leftover scraps of fabrics. All I had to buy for this project was thread (so we won't discuss why it took 2 trips to Jo-Ann's before I could finish...).

The other thing I love about these fabric coasters is (hopefully) my dog won't be able to destroy them quite as easily as the cork coasters we currently have in the living room. I think almost all of them have teeth marks at this point.


Crooked coasters
Originally uploaded by kerner

Here is a picture of all 6 coasters - I used a fairly large-scale print for the front, and I really like how each one is different, but they all coordinate.

I've been seeing some random, ridiculous things lately. When I'm lucky, I have my camera with me!

I started these as socks, but then I decided they were too pretty to wear in my shoes. I knit the palm of the hand in plain stockinette and used the thumb gusset from the Knotty Gloves pattern (free Ravelry download - I made some for my mom from Christmas) and did a tubular cast-off to make the top of the hand look nice.

(I finally resorted to a solid colored yarn after I tried to start socks with two different variegated yarns and both of them kept doing crazy pooling, which drives me insane. I knit because I like to do it and like to wear the stuff I make, and I'm not wearing socks that have ugly blobs of color on them.)

I got this cool set of kitchen-y fabrics (6 quilting cotton fat quarters) from my mom for my birthday. What should I make? I'm thinking potholders, but I made a ton of those a few months ago and I'm a little burned out on them.

Aren't the daffodils in my yard pretty? I cut some for table decorations for the little birthday party I'm throwing myself tonight. After all, you only turn 30 once!

(This is one of my first pictures with my new camera. I love it! But I have TONS to learn...)

I planted my garden last Sunday after my dad helped me put in some stakes to hold this trellis up. I am trying some new veggies this year - regular peas and sugar snap peas, and I figured I might as well see if I could get any lettuce or spinach to grow as long as it stays relatively cool.

But so far, the most exciting part has been watering, which involves a freakish dance to avoid getting wet. I think I *might* need some new connectors for my hose and spray nozzle.

In more exciting news... the first day of spring is tomorrow! Does anyone know what that means?

I think I have hit a new low (high?) in my quest for eating local organic food. See those nice green onions my mom helped me wash while she was visiting? Not from the farmer's market... not from the farm share... not even from my own garden. Nope, I harvested them from my front yard, where they were growing wild.

Spring grass with wild onions
Originally uploaded by kerner

See those taller green shoots in the middle of the picture, among the still mostly-brown grass? That's them. They always shoot up this time of year and make the yard look like it needs a haircut, even though the actual grass isn't really growing yet. I ended up eating them in a spring frittata with green onions and spinach. It was pretty good, although the onions were a little tougher than what I am used to getting at the store. Hopefully my next harvest will come from my garden! (I do also have wild strawberries that grow in my yard, but they're really tiny and usually my dog eats them as soon as she finds them.)

5 Minute Pizza Dough.  (except this 2-3 hours of your life doesn't count.)*

5 minute dough rising
Originally uploaded by kerner

(Actually that was probably my main problem with this recipe, since my kitchen scale quit working several months ago and I never replaced the battery.)

I cooked the pizzas on my pizza stone in the oven, like I normally do. Crank the oven up to 500, take out all the racks except the bottom one (with the stone on it), and cook for about 6 minutes. All the toppings have to be pre-cooked, which is a little bit of a hassle, but it makes a super crispy and yummy pizza.

5 min dough - on the pizza stone
Originally uploaded by kerner

I found the dough a little tougher and more difficult to roll out than my normal dough recipe, but that might be my own fault for estimating the quantities instead of weighing them out as the recipe calls for.

Still, you can't go wrong with homemade pizza. I made sausage and canadian bacon versions for my dad and husband, and my mom and I got red & green bell pepper, olive, and spinach versions.

5 minute dough - cooked
Originally uploaded by kerner

I liked the pizza - but can I just say that the name of this project is very disappointing?  I guess it's because I already make pizza dough a lot, but this version is really no faster than any other kind of pizza dough I've made. I expected 5-minute pizza dough to be ready to top with toppings and stick in the oven in 5 minutes.  

I hardly recognized my house when I got up this morning - the guest bedroom and bath were immaculate, my kitchen was sparkling (right down to the floors, which are cleaner then they're been in at least 3 years), and even my car is waxed and shiny!

My parents are "project people," so they're no telling what they will do when they both come visit my house for an entire weekend. I try to plan projects for them - you know, to "channel" the project-energy - but I never would have guessed that my mom would scrub my kitchen floor by hand while she was here.

A bit ridiculous, yes, but I know it's their way of saying I love you, and I really can't complain about that, can I?

Thank you Tigers, for making it through, all the way to the end of the tournament!  Those 2-2 1/2 hour games are the only time I can get my dad to sit down and relax while he is visiting me.  Go Tigers!

Fight, Tiger, fight for old Mizzou,
Right behind you, everyone is with you.
Break the line and follow down the field,
And, you'll be, on the top, upon the top.
Fight, Tiger, you will always win,
Proudly keep the colors flying skyward.
In the end, we'll win the victory,
So Tiger, fight for Old Mizzou!

I love to cook, but baking... not so much.  I have a terrible tendency to leave out ingredients, and that doesn't really work.  (You can't stir in some baking soda at the last minute and expect the recipe to work.)  When I cook, I am infamous for substituting ingredients.  Even in my favorite recipes, I rarely make then the same way twice.  So it's really no surprise that when a friend emailed me a recipe for Barley Soup with Mushrooms and Kale (subscription required), I ended up making Brown Rice Soup with Mushrooms and Spinach.  (It was quite good, even though I realized as I was writing this post that I made more changes than I even planned!)

Here's my recipe mods:

No dried mushrooms - didn't have any at the grocery store

No boiling water, since I didn't have any dried mushrooms to revive

1 to 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, as needed

1 large onion, chopped

Substituted 8 oz. baby portabella mushrooms (1 pkg.) for the fancy ones called for in the recipe

2 large garlic cloves, minced

Salt, preferably kosher salt, to taste

Substituted 3/4c. brown rice - apparently my grocery store doesn't carry barley?

Oops - put in less water than called for, 3 1/2 cups instead of 2 cups + 1 1/2 quarts (plus some veggie bouillon base)

Substituted 2 bay leaves and some sprinkles of dried parsley and thyme for a "bouquet garni"

Substituted all the spinach from this week's farm share for 8 to 10 oz. kale 

No pepper - I must no have seen that in the recipe.

Saute onions 5 min.  Ad mushrooms, cook 3 min.  Add garlic and some salt, cook 5 min.  Add water & rice. Bring to boil, then cover and simmer 45 min. Add kale, cook 15-20 min.  Pick out bay leaves and serve!  Quite delicious with a side of farm share fromage on toast.

Well, I'm back home and back into my normal routine.  For the past two years, that has included a monthly book club/women's group/Bible study.  (We really need a name for our group.)  Each month one of the members takes turn hosting us for dinner and selecting the book.  This time we were hosted by my dear friend Adrianna, who I met during our freshmen year of college at MU (we lived down the hall from each other) and now lives just a couple of neighborhoods over from me (!)

She selected Three Cups of Tea as our bookfor the month.  I cannot say enough good about this book.  It's the true story of an American mountain climber who builds schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.  He starting in the early 90's and he was there (in Pakistan, I think) on September 11.  It's not a political book in the sense of Republicans or Democrats, but I love its message of how education, not military action, is only way that we can ever have peace in the world.

For dinner we had some yummy couscous and hummus and pita.  The point of the meal was to go along with the theme of the book, but it was no goat entrails and rancid yak butter tea.  (You would have to read the book to know what I'm talking about.)

Of course, no book club is really all about the reading (or even the food!)  Since we started, we have three new unofficial members!  Here are the two that graced our meeting tonight (although one of them had a6:30pm bedtime so he didn't stick around too long.)

Look! A cactus! Isn't it cool?

Sadly, this is one of only 2 pictures I took during my entire 3-day weekend in Arizona, visiting my new "real life" friend Kelli. Luckily she is much better at remembering to take picture than I am, so I'm fully planning on stealing all of her pictures. (Including some really fantastic ones of me as a taggy blanket superhero - dontcha know my superhero name is Zarah?)

Thank you all for your sweet comments on my Christmas stockings! I know it's weird to be knitting them right after Christmas (I think I started January 1) but I work better when I'm not knitting on a deadline.

This morning I am doing my final packing before I head out to Phoenix tonight! I am fairly sure that even with all the family vacations, church trips, and work conferences I've gone on, I have never been to Arizona before. So that's always exciting, to check another state off the list, right?

I am going to Phoenix to visit a blog/twitter-friend who I've never met in real life. I've always thought it would be fun to visit her, but super cheap plane tickets didn't hurt either. (I heart Allegiant!) I feel fairly confident that she's not an axe-murderer, but I am a little nervous nonetheless. I've met other bloggers in real life before, and it's a fairly awkward thing: you know so much about this person, but you don't actually KNOW them at all - so there you are talking to essentially a complete stranger like you've know them for years. ANYWAY - I need to stop making myself nervous about this whole thing and just get through the work day today and have fun!

Aren't they cute together?

When I was a kid (okay... even now) my dad always referred to my sister and I as "Thing 1 and Thing 2." (you know, from Dr Seuss?) I rarely knit the same thing twice, but I am making an except for these Christmas stockings. Neither my husband or I have stockings for our own house - both our moms keep our childhood stockings for when we visit - so I've been intending to knit up some since I started knitting almost 5 years ago.

Here is the first one. (details raveled.) Matt's is blocking in the laundry room right now. (The second one went MUCH faster after I figured out the argyle and stranded sections.) So here's the big question. The owner of my LYS encouraged me to buy extra matching yarn for a "little one" in the future. (No Mom, I am not pregnant!) Should I knit it now, or hold off until said blessed event actually occurs?