Quilt top! And pie!

I’ve finished Amy’s quilt top! Need to piece the back, then I can start the intimidating process of machine quilting. Will practice with extra fabric and batting first.

I would post the recipe but I must have left it at my in-laws’. The pumpkin was from our garden last fall, baked and pureed and frozen back then. The pie calls for whipping cream instead of evaporated milk and maple syrup instead of sugar. It doesn’t taste particularly mapley — just a nice alternative to white sugar. The crust is made with whole wheat flour and butter — grate the frozen butter right into the flour, then toss with chilled water.

The birthday cake

Amy has had three birthdays, and for all three I’ve made a Texas sheet cake recipe I got from my mom. The first year was the best. Last year I forgot the buttermilk, and using vinegar to sour some regular milk just didn’t give comparable results. (Did I not wait long enough for it to really thicken… or what…)

This year? This year was going great. I remembered the buttermilk way ahead of time. I remembered to start making the icing when the cake came out of the oven, so the cake could cool just a bit before icing it. However, I forgot that on the black measuring spoons, the capital T does NOT mean Tablespoon, like it does on every other set of measuring spoons. It’s Teaspoon. The black tablespoon says Tbsp. Except it’s missing, so I didn’t remember that. The black teaspoon is also bent, which I remembered, and I thought that accounted for its bowl looking smaller than I would expect for a tablespoon.

It was the light color of the batter and cake that made me realize my mistake. Just in time to put enough cocoa in the icing. Speaking of icing, sift your powdered sugar if you want to avoid the little lumps you see in mine.

Next year, I also need to write down what amounts of sugar and powdered sugar I actually use — I usually like desserts less sweet than recipes suggest. I got it right the first two years, but this year I must have used more — almost as much as the recipe calls for. The cocoa mishap might have affected the sweetness, though, too.

Bring to boil:
1 stick butter
1/2 c oil
1 c water

Add this to:
2 c sugar
2 c flour
4 T cocoa (nicely rounded, not leveled)
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt (leave out if you use salted butter)

Add:
2 eggs
1/2 c buttermilk
1 t vanilla
(optional: 1 c nuts)

Bake in a sheet pan at 350 for 20-30 minutes.

When the cake is done, start the icing.

Bring to boil:
1 stick butter
4 T cocoa (nicely rounded, again)
4 T water

Add:
3 3/4 (1 box) powdered sugar
1 t vanilla
(optional: 1 c nuts)

Frost while cake is warm but not hot.

O the various things that float by

1. Dance

This fall’s Dancevision concert at Culver Academies was on Amy’s birthday weekend. What a lovely treat for her last night.

The concert featured student dancers in various large and small ensembles, solos and duets, ballet and modern styles, recordings and the school’s jazz band and a few student vocalists, too.

One student — Asia — choreographed a stunning solo that actually choked me up. She has amazing technique, and expression as well.

I loved the first piece, ballet in several movements — ballet is just as beautiful, just as witty and clever, just as humorous, just as moving, as more modern styles, and it annoys me when people malign it. If you don’t care for it, fine — but it’s not because there’s anything wrong or outdated about it.

That said, I loved the more modern things, too.

I took modern dance in college all four years — I think I only had to miss one semester. Oh how I loved it! Not that I was particularly good at it, and I had no delusions of dancerly grandeur — but it was still wonderful to do. It’s great exercise, reaching every part of the body, in stretching, slow and quick movements, movement in a small space, movement across a large space, movement standing, movement on the floor. Unlike most exercise, to me anyway, it’s also beautiful and meaningful movement that nourishes the soul. Other forms of exercise nourish my soul a little bit, in that exercise does work on brain chemistry, and a body that feels good helps a soul feel good — but dance does it better.

Plus, we were blessed to have a pianist to accompany our classes, and he was very, very good. He always matched the music to the movement so deftly.

I don’t think there are any dance studios in Plymouth, and even if there are I don’t think we could afford for me to take classes “just” for the sake of having a form of exercise I enjoy, and yet — how lovely that would be.

2. Shopping with a conscience

One of my facebook friends posted the 2010 Sweatshop Hall of Shame, which I reposted, and another friend reposted after me.

I think I might have been in college before it even occurred to me to think about who was involved in making the things I had. One of my friends was in a production of the musical Working, based on Studs Terkel’s book of the same title. It’s a series of interviews with workers in various fields.

Starting to think about how one’s activities as a consumer affect other people can get overwhelming fast. It’s not obvious anymore — one store might have who knows how many suppliers in how many countries, shifting however often, and it’s not always easy to find out whether the suppliers are adequately paid, working in safe environments, and protected in various human rights. Some of the countries have good laws, some don’t, and not all supplier companies obey the laws. Some companies have inspections. Some suppliers lie and coach their workers to lie.

Looking at the labor rights organizations’ recommended shopping list is also a bit disheartening — there’s no well-known companies listed, and nothing local. Do you order something bland, boring, and expensive online that involves extensive transportation, for the sake of ethical treatment of workers, or do you buy at the local Wal-mart because it’s the only local supplier of what you need, and you want to avoid the transportation costs and keep at least some of your money in your own community?

Then there’s the issue of relationships — you don’t want to get so caught up in this or any other issue that your relationships suffer unduly. You still want your family to have a pleasant, joyful, peaceful home with things they can enjoy. You still want your friends to enjoy being with you. There’s more to life than any cause, and when every activity is tagged with conscience-raising, life gets exhausting and frustrating and dull quite quickly.

And yet — as soon as you see a face associated with that thing you’re coveting, it’s a lot harder to just buy it uncritically.

3. Sugar, sugar — and other abundances

Let me just say that it is interesting how an abundance of sugar — or any other food — can be distressing.

I don’t really think of myself as a Causie with a Vengeance — someone who’s out to sell the Simple Life to the universe — although I suspect some folks see me that way.

But, well, just four days of birthday cake has me stressed. Really, three days of it, with one day in between.

I love birthday cake. But I like it better when I have one really nice piece and then go back to regular life for a while.

I also like my refrigerator and pantry to be full of spaces — when they’re packed I get nervous. Will I eat the fresh stuff before it goes bad… I like to have enough things on hand to have choices, but I don’t like it when the sense of obligation rises above a certain threshold.

We’re on the holiday season now. Kick-started with little girl’s birthday, heading into Thanksgiving, with Christmas around the corner. Not to mention little girl still has Halloween candy she’s working on.

Again, I’m all for a splurge on tasty nothings once in a while — it’s just the overabundance of them, without much rest in between, that gets to me.

4. Thoughts on three

I forgot to make or buy a birthday card for Amy. And I haven’t written down any thoughts on her turning three. And I don’t have any right now.

Um…

Yeah. Maybe later.

5. Emotional peacekeeping

I think I’ve often taken on the role of emotional peacekeeper. I don’t like to see people being upset. I don’t like seeing conflict. I especially don’t like it when I’m involved, but it’s distressing even when I’m not. I often find myself trying to soothe all the wild beasts — either by the unproductive method of minimizing myself and my intrusion in the world, or by remaining calm and speaking calmly and offering calm advice, or by stepping in and separating people (like Amy and me).

I’ve made some progress on being able to tolerate my and other people’s distress — sometimes people just need to be distressed for a while and get through it on their own time. Sometimes I misjudge those cases, and don’t step in when Amy really needs me. Sometimes I think other people are surprised and disapprove even when I think I’m right to give her the space to cry and face her situation independently. Some people seem to get it.

Adventures in saffron, #2

Last night I improvised a pork curry couscous.

Couscous

1 c dry couscous
1 c water
1-2 t butter or olive oil
1-2 t curry powder
1 c frozen veggies — I used peas and carrots

Put all ingredients, except couscous, in a covered saucepan. Bring to a boil. Add couscous, cover, and remove from heat. It will be ready in five minutes.

Pork curry

3 boneless pork chops, sliced into thin strips
1 T olive oil
1-2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1-2 T curry powder
1/2 – 1 t rosemary
2-3 T yogurt
2-3 T milk
Pinch of saffron steeped in a little boiling water
1/3 -1/2 c beef or chicken broth

Cook the spices in the olive oil in a skillet to release the flavors. Add the strips of pork and cook through. Add other ingredients, including the prepared couscous, and heat through.

It was very tasty.

Some recent food

Corn pudding in squash:

I left out the aniseed (didn’t have any), and the cheese.

Apple cake. Used Busy Day Cake recipe from New Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, with half the sugar. Tossed apple slices with some more sugar and cinnamon, then layered batter and slices for this cake. It took longer to bake, I guess because of the moisture content of the apples.

The start of some tomato soup. Sauteed garlic in a little butter or oil, then added the quartered tomatoes from the garden. After it’s all cooked down nicely, I put it through a fine mesh strainer to remove the peels and seeds.

Food adventures

I’ve been thinking lately about vegetables. Part of it was the health screening — said I need to eat more fruits and vegetables and I realized I really don’t get as many servings as I’m supposed to. Part of it is Amy’s changing tastes, and frequent rejection of vegetables. I’m thinking variety — in kinds of vegetables and in recipes and presentation — will help both of us.

For example — she will eat her veggies if I give them to her first while I finish making the rest of the lunch.

Also, I should put some on her plate whether she wants them or not, and not bug her about eating them or not. Calm persistence is more persuasive than irritated insistence, and if I don’t give them to her because she says she doesn’t like them, she’ll never change her mind and try them anyway.

On Friday, I made tomato green bean couscous. Sauteed garden green beans in minced garlic and butter. Cooked couscous according to package directions, in water with a slice of butter. Cut up garden tomatoes and drizzled them with olive oil and basil. Mixed it all together — easy and delicious.

Today I made this lentil soup — yes, I even bought saffron. I made it with spinach. The soup is interesting — much more bright / tart than I usually care for. Some of that is likely the yogurt, and a lot of that is probably that I used frozen garden tomatoes, rather than canned — garden tomatoes seem more tart and bright tasting than store canned tomatoes. I think crumbled bacon and beef broth would improve the recipe, but then again it wouldn’t count as meatless then.

Saffron is interesting. I’m not sure yet that it’s a flavor fabulous enough for the price, but now that I’ve got some I’ll try some other recipes here and there.

Amy ate her soup and asked for more. Mark didn’t care for it but ate it.

We had it with the egg bread from Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook — with 3/4 whole wheat flour, 1/4 white. First time I’ve used the dough hooks on my hand mixer, and they did quite nicely until the last bit of flour, and by then it was ready to knead.

Another one I want to try is this corn pudding in acorn squash.

Because there is more than food

My apologies for those of you who could care less what I eat.

I decided to track my eating for some undetermined length of time, to get a more accurate idea of how I really eat (not just how I think I eat). Keeping track might also make me think a little more wisely when making food decisions.

If you’d like to track your eating, too, please join in.

Otherwise…

1. Amy says: “I don’t like to touch animals that crawl.”
“I do want to watch puppets, though.”

The sentences are unrelated, but struck me with their sophistication.

2. Trying to avoid more diaper rashes occurring, we’ve been having Amy sit on the potty for five minutes before bed. Might have to give up on the idea — she’s resisting. Maybe if we just accept that an hour after bedtime we’ll have to change her diaper again, she’ll eventually come around and want to poop in the potty again.

3. For the last four days I’ve actually gotten up and exercised before breakfast. There’s not really a better time — mid-morning is prime Amy time, nap is prime me time, after nap we’re all too unmotivated, after dinner I want to relax. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to exercise before breakfast — that I’d be too hungry to work that hard. But it’s actually fine. And I even like it. And I have more energy the rest of the day. And I’m not even getting up all that early — I’m already awake because Amy wakes around 7 or 7:30, so I might as well get up. (If you care, I’m doing Pilates Sculpt; the warm-up, one or the other of the standing workouts, and the last three parts. It’s much more sculpt than Pilates, but that’s okay.)

4. Today I dusted and oiled my sewing machine. How pleasant it is to be sewing often enough to need to oil it more than once a year. Unless it’s already been a year. Hmmm. Not sure. This week I’ve fixed a fallen-apart seam in an Amy shirt hem, added two inches of fabric to lengthen one of her skirts (it was crotch length — even with attached shorts underneath I think that’s inappropriate), cut and started stitching some more cloth napkins, attached an applique patch to a friend’s shoe over a hole, started stitching some hat straps for her kid, and cut and pinned some new hems for another friend’s pants.

5. Barter! The pants hemming I’m trading for help making my dress form. I’m excited. Need to get back to cutting the paper tape strips. The other altering, along with some pants tailoring for the friend’s husband, is possibly going towards a used bike from their shop. I like bartering.

Food and faith

Wow, this is a thought-provoking post.

A new sourdough bread recipe

I tried a new recipe for sourdough bread.

I started in the morning making two cups of starter — in the afternoon it seemed bubbly enough to start the bread dough. I made it with half whole wheat and half regular flour. Amy helped me a little here and there, and we decided to make a little loaf out of the piece she was kneading. Hers came out prettier than mine — I think I needed to slice the top of mine more deeply.

It’s pleasantly sour, but not too much, which is fine because it’s not the sour that interests me in sourdough, but the health benefits.

The crust and crumb are both quite nice — this would make good sandwiches as well as breakfast toast or dinner bread.

Pie

I think this is one of the prettiest pies I’ve made. I cut out a star for the center steam hole, and thought about cutting out crust stars for decorations, then remembered I had some small cookie cutters. No stars, but the little people are cute.

I did the crust differently this time. I grated the frozen butter directly into the pile of flour, and just tossed it around.

The hardest part for me is always adding the ice water — even when I have too much water, it’s almost always crumbly and dry. I had to knead it a little before it would roll out nicely.

The bottom was a little soggy — needed more flour in the filling, and to have the top crust decorated so I could pop it on and get it in the oven immediately.

But the top was actually flaky — very nice surprise for an all-butter crust.

Of course we made pie treats with the extra dough.