JANE'S EGGS

This post will primarily be about food, but I wanted to say that Freddie and I took another unbelievable hike yesterday, and unfortunately I choose not to take my camera along. It was a terrible mistake! ! We hiked along the mouth of Billings Creek, entering where it spills into the Kickapoo River, and it was one of the most stunning hikes we've taken. I cannot say how many times in our 2 1/2 hour hike I lamented my decision to leave the camera at home. Next time.

On to the food....

The other day a friend of mine gave me some goose and ducks eggs that she had gathered from her pampered, well-loved geese and ducks. She wondered if I would experiment cooking/baking with them. I thought that would be fun and embarked on this venture.

...goose egg on the left, large chicken egg on the right...

Goose eggs are quite, quite large, and after some research found that one goose egg equaled somewhere between 2 and 4 chicken eggs.


Goose egg shells, unlike chicken egg shells, are tough to crack, thick and hard.



So on to my stint in the kitchen.

When I was a child one of my favorite desserts (also one of my father's three favorites) was tapioca pudding. As a child I loved rolling the little small 'pearls' around in my mouth as I was eating the pudding. I thought them rather magical. Oh, and the pudding delicious, too.

I am not sure why tapioca occurred to me but I decided that one of the things I would do with the eggs was make the pudding. I believe my mother used Minute Tapioca, but I went for the long route and purchased the pearls themselves.

These 'pearls' 1/2 c. had to soak overnight in 2 c. of room temperature water

They are tiny and actually look like little pearls.

After soaking overnight, they were soft.

In a double boiler heat 2 1/2 c. milk until just no longer cold. Add 1/4 tsp. salt and tapioca and heat until small bubbles appear at sides of pan. Cover, turn heat to very low, and cook for one hour...never simmering or boiling mixture.

Here they are slowly heating in a double boiler....


While they slowly heated, for an hour, I separated the eggs, beat eggs yolks with 1/2 c. sugar until light colored, then added a little of the hot mixture to the yolks and blended well. When the hour was up I added this slowly, mixing well, to mixture in the double boiler. I raised the heat to medium and cooked about 15 minutes until mixture was quite thick. Meanwhile I whipped up the egg whites until stiff..

Which I then folded into the thickened tapioca added 1 tsp. vanilla and refrigerated it.

Now, on to the other goose and duck eggs.

They were so vivid in color and after cracking into a bowl, thought they looked like a flower.

I thought a good use for these would be to make some pasta, fettuccine to be exact.

...1 1/4 c. all purpose and 1/2 c. semolina flours mixed...

addition of the yolks (9 yolk equivalent) a 3-4 tbs. water and 1 tbs. very good extra virgin olive oil

slight kneading and resting in refrigerator for at least an hour

then to the noodle machine where first the dough is passed through the rollers to re-knead it,
then passed through the cutters, these being the fettuccine cutter

then left to dry for several hours.

On to a delicious supper of the proverbial salad

traditional Sicilian Sunday 'succo' (tomato sauce)
with meatballs
grated Romano cheese
fresh snipped basil

This transported me back to my grandmother's kitchen where my father made homemade pasta quite frequently. Homemade pasta melts in your mouth.

A good glass of wine and a husband who truly appreciates good food, what could be better?

ABUNDANT BLESSINGS

Despite a brisk, cold wind, last Sunday was a beautiful sunny day. Freddie and I spontaneously decided we'd try hiking the Reserve thinking that being in the woods would protect us from that harsh wind. We were correct.

What a blessing is our life here in the Kickapoo Valley, surrounded by such natural beauty, living so close to the 8000 acres of Reserve land, to say nothing of the fact that Freddie grew up on that very land before it was Reserve. He knows those acres intimately, and never fails to guide a stunning hike.

Here is Weister Creek, the heart of F's extended family's original homes. There is a massive fallen tree spanning the creek, on which we carefully inched our way to the other side in order to stand beneath the most beautiful rock walls one could imagine.

Rocks jutting into our path...

How deceptive this photo is. We had just climbed almost straight up to reach the top of this shelf. I truly mean straight up. It was almost technical, and in spots it was on all fours in order to find steady footing on vertical expansions. Trying, but so much fun.

In the stretch of woods that we hiked, we were almost constantly surrounded by lovely hemlock trees, nearly 10 acres of them.

Little ones sprouting all over...

...the ground completely littered with the tiny cones that had fallen....

What looks like sky in the background is really the Kickapoo River, which is only barely frozen over in spots. The ice blue you see, is a bit of ice.

Just one of the stunning, massive rock outcroppings.

This stretch was like a cathedral, silent and holy seeming and we, as silent as the trees, traversed our way among them.

...and near the end of our three hour hike, this magnificent old, nearly dead tree, twisted and gnarled, and somehow wise.

FRIENDS...ARTISTS...FOOD...FUN...INSPIRATION

Once a month a gathering of exceptionally creative women meet to share their artistic talents. These talents are many and varied, but most of the members sketch, draw, and/or paint in any number of media.

We have several sketch books, which are traded each month after a 'showing' of what the person who took it home has done that month.

Evan's work

Evan's work

Susan C's work (I think)

Susan C's work

Nancy's painting

Susan's work

Monica's work

There were several other offerings of wonderful art work, of which I either missed taking a photo, or the photo itself was so inartistic, I could not bring myself to include it here.

After enjoying a lunch together, we 'exchanged' valentines. We each brought a homemade a valentine, either entirely homemade, or put together from found materials, and these were randomly selected by the group. What a wonderful variety of 'cards' we were privileged to see and to take home.


Evan's hand drawn valentine...

Olga's gathered seeds and basket...

Joanne's heart-shaped potholder and woven heart...

Susan's multi-media card

Janet's valentine photograph of vintage jewelry from her past...

Susan G's felted heart...

I regret that I have missed some of the sketch books and some of the valentines, but at this first attempt to chronicle our Artlings group, this will have to do. Perhaps I will leave the photo taking to my friend and fellow member Janet, as she has superb skills in that area.

This group is warm, supportive, and so inspiring. What a lovely afternoon, a lovely gathering of friends, a lovely tribute to art and women.

NEVER FAR FROM FOOD

I am being kept creatively busy with lots and lots of sewing projects, both big and very small, and some knitting as well. The loom awaits, I believe next week!!

In the mean time my daily thoughts weave around food, its sights, sounds, colors, smells and how they will meld together. My father had an uncanny ability to think the ingredients and in some mental way perceive how they would taste together. I may not be as acutely able to do that, but to some extent, that talent is mine, as well.

Tucked away in an cool, unheated closet upstairs is a crate still filled, or nearly so, with butternut squash from my garden. Each time I go in there I am tempted by their still solid beauty. The other day I just could not resist picking one up and taking it to the kitchen.

One of the things I love about cooking is reading cookbooks, of which I have shelf after shelf full. So I began my journey through some favorite cookbooks, as well as some not so often used. The following recipe came from a recent favorite cookbook: Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, by Deborah Madison.

Rice and Winter Squash Gratin

The utter beauty of the opened squash, its vibrant orange is unrivaled, except perhaps in some of my home grown sweet potatoes, which have a deeper reddish hue.

*cut the squash into pieces

*cook 1 cup long-grain brown rice

*make bechamel sauce
(*cook 1/4 c. chopped onion in 3 tbs. butter in a small saucepan over low heat for 3 minutes. Stir in 2 tbs. flour and cook for 2 minutes longer. Whisk 1 1/2 c. hot milk in all at once, then cook for 20 minutes watching closely and stirring often, add salt and pepper to taste and 1/2 tsp. nutmeg)

*coarsely grate the squash...



*heat 1 tbs. olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat
*add the squash and 1/2 tsp. salt and saute until squash begins to brown in places (about 8 minutes)
*toward the end stir in 2 cloves chopped garlic and 1/4 c. chopped parsley

*combine the rice, sauce, squash and 1/2 cup grated cheese(something on the stronger side) ...taste for salt and pepper, adjust.
*turn into a buttered 2 1/2 qt. baking dish
*bake at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

...and into the oven it went.

...and a short while later, out it came...

Thinking I needed something green to serve along with this colorful dish, I took out Brussels Sprouts from the freezer and roasted them at the same time.

Now, I am mostly a vegetarian, and Freddie though he ever so gladly eats anything I put on the table, does in fact, love meat every once in awhile. It just so happened I recently purchased very, very local pork....Jonel, my daughter, and her husband Andy, who live close by, raised pigs this past summer for slaughter. They did so not just to earn some money, but to provide consciously, environmentally, healthily raised pigs for friends and relatives.

Freddie's plate with the addition of a sauteed pork chop...

...and my plate without. This was such a good meal, and the butternut squash dish, a real hit.

And on another note:
A big THANK YOU to all that voted for me, be it once, or daily for the month of January, I deeply appreciate your vote! Unfortunately, for me at least as the prizes were spectacular, I was not voted the winner. You can see the winner, Jessica, and her winning essay at http://celebratewithorganic.com/winner

A SMALL SPACE

A very important part of my life is centered around creativity. I love to create...be it a woven rug, a knit sweater, a fine meal, or a poem, it is the creating that draws me, the making of the thing.

However, my creativity has been, so to speak, flushed away the past several weeks. When we first moved into this house seventeen years ago, I was struck by the very pink, and I mean very pink, bathroom fixtures: tub, sink and toilet. Not only was I confronted with this pink, my least favorite color, but there were also grayish plastic tiles on the lower half of this very tiny, 5 x 8' at the most, bathroom. We have lived with it all these years, my husband far more comfortable with it than I.

Finally a make-over was on the horizon. Initially I wanted to replace the pink fixtures, especially the toilet which all these years has been borne a very ugly hard-water stain, that no matter what I did, I could not remove. (We have spring water pumped directly into the house, thus lots of minerals.)

The bathroom as it has been for years and years.

I had in mind to replace the tub with an old claw-foot. After actually hunting a couple of them up, I realized that they would literally overwhelm this small space. Looking at new tubs, nothing seemed as sturdy and nice as this pink (adobe, is what I've called it all these years) tub. So, I thought perhaps I could design the room so that the pink would look fine. But the toilet, what to do about that? Researching led me to white-vinegar soaked rags, and a pumice stone, and lots of elbow grease. It worked!!! So, new plan, devise a bathroom I liked and still keep the pink.

(The sink appears to me to be a lighter shade than the toilet and the tub, but nothing I could do about that.)

When I individually chiseled each and every plastic tile off the walls, what was left was a rough grout, or paste, in a beautiful yellowish-orangish-beige color that made the pink take on a brown tint. I loved that color. After much consultation and many paint color chips, I settled on what was called yellow-squash.

I have always loved wainscoting, especially in old homes, and that is what I opted to have done to the lower walls, with a nice trim.


The ceiling fixtures in this entire house are basically a bare bulb screwed into some kind of a not-to-fancy receptacle. I replaced the bathroom ceiling fixture....

...with this.

And if you look at the first photo and pay attention to the floor, it was a pretty horrible linoleum with sparkles scattered here and there. We realized that beneath it were the beautiful hardwood boards that the rest of the house has...so up with the linoleum, and on to a lot of hard work.

Which by the way, was well worth it.

I am not finished with this project yet. I still want to accessorize it with shelves and towel fixtures that suit the space. These I have not found yet, but I will take my time, after all it took seventeen years to get this far.

And although I have continued writing during this time, I haven't been weaving. Hopefully in the next two weeks, the looms will be going!!

A FOOD ADVENTURE

The kitchen was the heart of our home when I was growing up. Our life, it is easy to say, centered around food...good homegrown, homemade, slow food. There were lots of cooks in my home, from my grandmother, my aunt, my mother, to the top chef, my father.

My father made all things Italian, rather Sicilian, but one of the things he never made was gnocchi...pronounced neo-key and not ga-no-key, as I have heard it referred to. So growing up I never had gnocchi, although I had seen it on restaurant menus. And all of my adult life, I have never tried it.

Of late, I seem to see gnocchi everywhere...in my cooking magazines...on menus...in cookbooks. So the other day, out of the blue, I decided to make it and make my grandmother's sauce to go with it.

Since I have started roasting my tomatoes straight from the garden and making a wonderful, fresh tasting roasted tomato sauce, I have not made this family style spaghetti sauce. I thought it fitting to do so for this endeavor, although I did cheat a bit omitting the pork butt and the beef roast. This sauce had home canned tomatoes, meatballs, and Italian sausage, and it simmered on the back of the stove for hours. The aroma transported me to the kitchen on Liberty Street in Fredonia, NY.

Sauteing the meatballs and the sausage before dropping into the sauce.

The gnocchi recipe:

3 cups mashed (unadorned) potatoes (I used my own Yukon Golds)
1 egg
2 egg whites
2 cups flour
pinch of salt
fresh ground black pepper

*Cook, cool, and finely mash the potatoes
*add all other ingredients
*knead until a soft dough is achieved
*if necessary add more flour so it is not too sticky
*place in the refrigerator for at least an hour

Divide the dough into six to eight pieces...

Roll out into ropes about the size of your little finger...

run the tines of a fork along the 'rope' and then snip into small pieces, placing them on a cookie sheet with either waxed paper or parchment paper.

(At this point you could place the tray into the freezer and when frozen put the individual pieces into a container and freeze for later use...or you could use immediately.)

...topped with sauce, meatballs and sausage...

...a loaf of bread straight out of the oven...

...a fresh salad, and a good glass of red wine...

It proved to be a wonderful meal!
Still, as much as I liked the gnocchi, personally I still prefer a good pasta, such as rigatoni.