Archive for October, 2007
Here it is October 24. The windows are open. I have to sleep with a fan because of the heat and humidity. I still have robust bunches of basil. I can’t EAT all the darned green peppers that are growing. And the tomatoes keep going and going and going.
Do you suppose this can possibly last through to November 1?
It has been a strange, strange fall–and not just the weather. Many changes in many strange ways. I am thankful that I have had the time, finally, to slow down, take stock, reevaluate and just attend to the home fires–and my mental health–for a while.
Speaking of home fires…
If you’re in a baking frame of mind, try this Double Chocolate Bundt Cake with Ganache Glaze.
I first read about this cake a couple of days ago on Cream Puffs in Venice. Since we had just finished our Italian Creme Cake, this was like a sign from God that I should make this fabulous chocolate cake this morning.
I also made homemade bread using the whey from my hard cheese making efforts. The Cheese Queen was right. Substituting the whey for the water makes a fabulously flavorful difference in the bread.
Of course, based on the comments to my cheese making experiments, none of you will actually HAVE any whey to be baking with since no one else seems interested in making cheese–just in eating it. I suppose I must have some sort of recessive peasant gene that makes me want to do things like make cheese, raise chickens and weave.
Oh, and did I tell you my handyman, Walter, is installing a new outdoor clothes line for me? I can hardly WAIT to do laundry tomorrow! I’ll post photos!
(Perhaps these are signs of an impending breakdown?)
Robin
Last year at this time I was refilling our backyard bird feeders DAILY. Now, the food lasts a week or more. Where have all the birdies gone?
Here are the facts:
–I first hung out our bird feeders last fall. Within a few days I had a booming business from cardinals, chickadees, sparrows, wrens and all manner of other birds. I could sit on the family room couch and enjoy the show at any time of day. There were ALWAYS several birds moving about enjoying the buffet.
–We continued to have a busy bird business all summer long. Despite some people’s insistence that I would “make the birds lazy” by feeding them in the summer (silly myth, by the way), I continued to feed them. My morning routine included padding out in the a.m.–before I even had two SIPS of coffee (I am so very dedicated)–to refill the feeders, which had been emptied the day before.
–I did not change the type of bird feeders. In fact, I didn’t change the bird feeders at all.
–I ALWAYS wash and disinfect the bird feeders every week to minimize the possibility that my birds will transmit disease and pestilence to their friends.
–During August and September I was traveling a HUGE amount. The men in my household do not worry so much about the birds and their banquet, so many days would go by when I was who-knows-where when the bird feeders were empty.
–Since then, I have had the bird feeders well-stocked for a month now.
–Initially observing the drop in avian activity I changed foods not once, but TWICE. First from the bargain BJs food that someone bought for me then to the premium food from PetCo and then back to the original food I purchased from the local grocery store.
–I am desperately sad. I now must read the newspaper instead of watching birds while sipping my coffee and coming to grips with another day.
To be sure, we have birds visiting. But not NEARLY in the numbers and variety that we did last fall when I first hung the bird feeders. I judge this in two ways:
1) By the frequency with which I need to refill the feeders and
2) By the number of birds I observe while moving from barely comatose to wakeful state, drinking my coffee from the couch.
So where the heck did they all go? Why won’t they come back? Is anyone else experiencing a decrease in backyard bird activity?
I would much appreciate any insights and advice that my fellow nature-lovers could offer.
Update:
They’re back! Please see the steps I took here.
Robin
I have to admit that home cheese making feels a bit like conducting a chemistry experiment in my kitchen.
I mean, with bread baking, I can FEEL the dough. There is some effort behind the whole affair of mixing flour, water, yeast and other ingredients, watching it rise, kneading and watching it rise again before shaping it with your hands into a final, glorious loaf.
With home cheese making, you do quite a lot of waiting about. You mix in special ingredients that you must special order. Everything must be kept immaculately clean and sanitary. The guru of cheese making, Ricki Carroll, even recommends keeping meticulous notes in a cheese making journal.
Nevertheless, the results of home cheese making can’t be denied.
Take a look at this 30 Minute Mozzarella that I made last night with some of the last tomatoes and basil of the year. (In our Zone 7 garden we picked about 10 lovely tomatoes just yesterday!)
This salad LOOKS like art, doesn’t it?
The recipe is from, of course, Home Cheese Making, by Ricki Carroll. I have been slowly working my way through the book, starting with the soft, spreadable cheeses. Now that my fancy cheese press has arrived, I am venturing into the hard cheeses.
You can’t really count this 30 Minute Mozzarella as a hard cheese. And frankly, it’s a lot less work than even the soft cheeses. In fact, it’s ridiculously easy.
If you are even a little bit interested in cheese making, then place an order with the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company and give this recipe a whirl. I highly recommend that you buy the book because the introductory information is quite important, particularly information about sanitation, ingredients and heating of the milk.
Look how easy the whole process was. I used the recipe from Ricki Carroll’s Home Cheese Making.
Ingredients I Used:
1 ½ level teaspoon citric acid dissolved in ¼ cup cool water
1 gallon pasteurized whole milk
¼ teaspoon liquid rennet diluted in ¼ cup cool, unchlorinated water
1 teaspoon cheese salt
How I Did It:
I added the citric acid/water solution to the milk when it was at 55 degrees and mixed it thoroughly but gently. I slowly heated the milk on the stove to 88 degrees. (It helps that I have a gas stove, I think, because it gives me a great deal of immediate control over heat.) I gently added the diluted rennet and mixed again and then heated the milk to 100 degrees.
I scooped the curds from the pot into a microwaveable bowl and pressed to remove the extra whey. (If you are very clever, apparently you can reserve the whey for other cheese making purposes.)
I microwaved the curds on high for 1 minute and again drained off all the excess whey. To distribute the heat evenly, I gently folded the cheese over and over like I was kneading bread. I microwaved the cheese twice again for 35 seconds each, kneading after each turn. Then I added the salt, kneading it to incorporate it into the cheese.
The recipe says cheese won’t stretch properly until it’s almost too hot to handle. I found it very hot, but if I moved quickly, it didn’t feel like it was burning at all. I kneaded until the cheese was smooth and elastic. It became nice and stretchy.
(Unfortunately, I can’t knead and take photos at the same time and the two men in my house were busy reading. It was difficult to entice one of them into the kitchen to play photographer.)
I rolled the cheese into small balls and placed them into the frig to cool.
The directions say to put them into a bowl of cold/ice water to bring down the heat if you don’t plan to eat them warm, but I forgot that part. Nevertheless, they were just dandy about 30 minutes later when I made the salad.
What do you think? Does this look like art? Craft? Chemistry experiment? Would you give it a try?
Robin
Thanks to the happy twist of fate that I finally have some breathing room on my work calendar I was able to spend most of yesterday preparing for Harry’s birthday dinner. It’s yet another step toward my slow lifestyle.
And, as my friend Martha would say, “It’s a good thing.”
For his birthday cake, I made one of our family favorites, Italian Cream Cake. I first found this recipe years ago in Bon Appetite magazine. Since then, the recipe has morphed somewhat, but it essentially remains the magazine’s version. I tried valiantly to find the original in the Bon Appetite repository that is now at one of my favorite website, Epicurious, but I suppose this recipe was published before the invention of the Internet. (Don’t laugh. It’s entirely possible that I have recipes from the Stone Age.)
As an added bonus to being a superhero wife and all-around star party-maker for my hubbie, my house smells fabulous—better than those wanky candles you buy at the mall. And if you need to know what “wanky” is, visit Urban Dictionary where you can learn all sorts useful expressions such as “jackass o’clock” (time to be a jackass) or “e 40” (a Bay Area rapper).
This weekend, why not slow down and make a fabulous dessert—or how about make THIS fabulous dessert?
Italian Cream Cake
Ingredients:
¾ cup butter, softened
1 ¾ cups sugar
4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ¾ cups cake flower
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup half and half
4 ounces flaked coconut
4 egg whites
1 recipe for cream cheese frosting (see below)
Additional coconut, as desired
Directions:
In a large mixer bowl beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks and vanilla and beat well. In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder and baking soda. Gradually add this mixture to the egg/butter mixture, alternating with the half and half. Stir in coconut.
In a small mixer bowl, beat egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Stir in about a third of the whites into the cake batter. Then gently fold in the remaining whites.
Pour the batter evenly into three buttered and floured 8” cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick or knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Do not overcook!
Cool for 10 minutes and then turn onto wire racks to finish cooling. When cooled, place the first layer on a cake plate and frost with the cream cheese frosting. Sprinkle on coconut and add the second layer and repeat, finishing the frosting all around. Pat coconut onto the crème cheese frosting for a decorative finish.
Store any leftover cake covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 or 4 days (if it lasts that long).
Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:
12 ounces cream cheese
6 Tablespoons butter
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
6 cups sifted powdered sugar (maybe a bit less)
Directions:
In a mixer bowl beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla until smooth. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating until smooth.
Enjoy!
Robin
Who doesn’t love butterflies? Everyone loves butterflies. But I do take issue with caterpillars eating my dill, particularly when it’s October and I won’t have fresh dill much longer.
This beast and some of his friends have been having a feast in the garden.
A bit of Googling tells me this is a Black Swallowtail Butterfly caterpillar, which apparently LOVES dill, fennel and–happily–Queen Anne’s Lace.
I am planning a caterpillar relocation campaign to start right after this second cup of coffee. I can’t just squish them because 1) I would feel very guilty and 2) RuthieJ would never speak to me again. But I am sure I can find some Queen Anne’s Lace where they can move for their second course.
Later Today…Slow Birthday Cake
You’ll LOVE this!
Robin
I want to start by assuring you that I was talking about gardening and, more specifically, about the importance of mowing the lawn correctly.
See, it was Sunday night dinner following the Packers-Redskins game. Captain, my brother-in-law, who is currently pulling duty at the Pentagon in some PowerPoint intensive job, traveled out here to the country to help Harry and Ben shout at the television. While they watched football, I did the following:
1) Made homemade pretzels for their halftime snack
2) Chopped herbs and mixed it into my homemade Neufchatel cheese, packaged it and put it into the frig so they could have cheese and crackers later
3) Washed, folded and put away approximately 50 loads of laundry
4) Mowed the lawn
5) Hand watered the drought-starved plants, including toting buckets of water to the far reaches of the lawn
6) Started dinner, which, to be fair, Harry finished. He can now make spanakopita. (Smart man!)
Well, Captain, being Captain, started giving a hard time to Harry and Ben about the fact that I was the one who was doing all the heavy lifting associated with the lawn.
Their response?
“Pheethhhhhhttt. She wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Although I appreciate, nay ENCOURAGE, anyone to be on my side in nudging anyone (anyone, please!) to pitch in around this labor-intensive household, I had to admit that they were right on this one.
I do not like for my husband and son to mow the lawn. In fact, I had been trying to figure out how to give my lawn that nice checkerboard pattern, but from my research it involves some sort of press device, which is too far to go even for me.
“Precision is important in lawn mowing,” I explained. “I like all the lines the mower makes to be straight and even. When Harry or Ben mow the lawn, there are always crooked lines and bits and pieces that are missed. It ends up looking like a $2 Navy haircut.”
Well, that was Captain needed.
“OHHHHHHH. That’s the worst!!!!” exclaimed Captain with great feeling.
Turns out he was talking about cheap haircuts, not sloppy lawn mowing.
“I can’t believe how hard it is to get a good haircut. And don’t even GET me started about coloring!” he went on.
Well, I knew that Captain was a devotee of all things related to hair since he started showing up at Christmas holidays with blond highlights. OBVIOUS blond highlights. This provided no end of amusement among me and the other sisters-in-law (of which there are many) because at nearly 6’7 and 265 pounds, there is nothing at all girly about Captain.
“I like to be a little different and go for the blond surfer look—that Coco Beach look. But it’s really hard to get it right at these salons with their foils and their caps. I have been brunette, blond with highlights, even RED. RED!!!! I had to call in sick when that happened until I could get it fixed.”
He went on…
“In the military, all these guys like to go for that high and tight look,” he said mocking the military bearing and stiff posture you see of Army generals in the newspaper. “But that’s what gets you promoted.
“That’s why when I was up for promotion for this Pentagon job I got a ‘high and tight’ cut and had my portrait re-touched to give me some grey hair at the temples.”
Well, of course, I was roaring with laughter. And Captain, always loving an audience, played up the hand gestures and stories.
Harry piped in with the importance of regular pedicures, which, of course, Captain also had opinions about.
Later, as he was getting ready to leave Ben asked about the bag that Captain had carried in with him. I thought perhaps he had planned to stay the night or had something inside he wanted to show us.
Well, no. Turns out it’s his “man bag.”
“But I’m no metero-sexual,” he said, meaning, of course, metrosexual.
He can’t bring himself to carry a leather satchel, so he carries this “man bag.”
Good grief. Man hair. Pedicures. Man bags.
Here I am worrying about straight lines on a lawn when there are such many more weighty subjects to worry about!
Tomorrow on Bumblebee…
More on the slowing down lifestyle.
Amused and Dismayed,
Robin
I didn’t set out to eat that big shiitake mushroom growing in my mushroom patch last night.
But as I pulled off the humidity tent to spritz it with water, the mushroom fell right off. As luck would have it, I was already roasting a turkey breast and making mashed potatoes for dinner, so the instant idea was, yep, mushroom gravy!
More or less, here’s how I make mushroom gravy.
First, you buy a mushroom patch from Gardener’s Supply. You refrigerate the patch for a couple of days and then soak it, totally submerged, for 24 hours. After that, you place the patch under a humidity tent and spritz it with water regularly.
Once you have a great big mushroom, keep watching it and spritzing your patch with water until the mushroom practically jumps off in your hand.
Then you chop up the mushroom with some celery, onion and garlic.
You saute the mushroom, onion, garlic, celery mixture with some butter until everything is nicely browned.
You then add 1/2 cup of chicken or vegetable broth mixed with one tablespoon of cornstarch. Stir this into the gravy until it is thick. Then continue adding the broth a little bit at the time, just mixing it in so that the gray stays nice and thick. Season with salt and pepper. You can also add thyme and marjoram.
Sadly, I do not have a nice photo of the finished gravy because it was already 8:30 at night and everyone was hungry.
(Note to self: If you plan to do a food photo series, get a shot of the finished product.)
I did nibble on the fresh mushrooms prior to cooking and have to say that there is NOTHING like a fresh shiitake mushroom. It was fresh tasting and firm. It didn’t have any of that mushy, musty flavor that you sometimes get with store-bought mushrooms. I am anxiously awaiting more mushrooms. (Hurry up, mushrooms!)
Tomorrow on Bumblebee…
How my brother-in-law can turn a discussion of lawn mowing into a 30-minute rant about the importance of his hair. Here’s Captain, the brother-in-law, with his important hair and Ben, my 16-year-old son, also with his hair–perhaps not as important.
Until then,
Robin
[Because I am in no position to preach to anyone about the environment, this is an open letter to myself on Blog Action Day.]Dear Robin,
You joined Slow Food USA. You have written about your yearning for simplicity. You have taken some baby steps toward environmentally sound practices and more healthful living. But I believe it’s time to stop joining, talking and taking baby steps.
It occurs to me that true change can only occur if you just…slow…down. Stop working seven days a week. Stop rushing around and living without, well, living. Stop being so impatient to get everything done right now. Live mindfully about what you are doing every moment and about the consequences of your choices and actions.
Slowing down will be good for you and for your family. What’s more, it will be good for the environment.
I will give you some examples of some of your personal actions that contribute to the environmental crisis we’re facing:
-You sometimes drive when you can walk. Do you really need to move your SUV from one end of the shopping center to the other as you do your errands? Can’t you walk there and back?
-You still use products such as weed killers and harsh cleaning products because they provide a fast, short-term solution, although they add little drips to the stream of pollution that is killing the earth.
-You drive past local farmers’ produce stands and buy the same produce at the grocery stores that is imported from the other side of the country–or the other side of the world.
-You still buy some ready-made foods rather than baking your own bread, making your own cheese or growing what you need with methods that don’t require chemicals, additives or being shipped from far away.
-You still throw clothes into the dryer rather than air drying them in the sun and fresh air.
-You waste energy by doing such things as leaving the computer on all night long so you won’t have to wait to read your email in the morning.
-You haven’t taken seriously the environmental cry to reduce, reuse and recycle.I could go on, but I don’t want to embarrass you here.
By slowing down, you will walk more gently on the earth. You can make some healthy changes that will mean better, healthier foods, less stress from hurrying around and more time with family and friends. You might also save some money and sleep better because you’ve gotten a bit more exercise (and, uh, saved some money).
Nuff said. Go out and do better now.
Robin
At the risk of boring you with mushroom tales, I really have to show you this.
This was the mushroom patch two days ago.
Here is the mushroom patch today.
Okay, it’s only ONE mushroom. But it is a very BIG mushroom. It’s now about the size of one of those portobello mushrooms that I buy at the grocery store to put onto burger buns for a quick dinner.
Also, I can see that other little tiny baby mushrooms are starting to sprout. Eventually, this whole mushroom patch is supposed to be absolutely covered in these shiitake mushrooms.
RuthieJ emailed to ask more about the patch.
This is my first time intentionally growing mushrooms. Yes, I have unintentionally grown mushrooms in my lawn and flower beds. But I don’t dare eat those!
The block is apparently compressed sawdust that is embedded with the mushroom spores. When it arrived, I put it in the refrigerator for a couple of days. After that, I soaked it in a huge bucket of water for 24 hours. Since the patch floats, I had to be creative about piling on pots and pans to make sure the whole patch was submerged.
Since then, it’s simply been a matter of misting and keeping the humidity tent in place.
I plan to harvest my single mushroom success shortly. Yummm. Fresh, home-grown mushrooms. Not sure how it will make it into my cooking yet, but don’t be surprised if I keep it all to myself–like the first tomato!
Bonus photos. Cute little dogs!!!!
Poor Sophie is a drama queen after a bath and nestles with her dad for warmth. Her tongue doesn’t fit into her mouth properly.
Sarah excels at cuteness at all times.
Okay, that’s it for today. I am happily chewing through my home to-do list after having been submerged in a boatload of work for the past two months. I feel like a new woman!
Robin
I am happy to report that, so far at least, mushrooms grown intentionally seem to grow as rapidly as those grown unintentionally, i.e. those that grow in your lawn.
Remember how I just started my mushroom patch a couple of days ago? Well, lookee here.
That shiitake mushroom is about the size of racketball!
Take another look. (This is the beauty shot.)
I mist the mushroom patch about twice a day, although the instructions tell you to mist it “several times a day.” I do keep the humidity tent in place. And although you might think that the mushroom patch should reside in a dark closet, the instructions say that you just need to keep it out of direct light. So that I don’t forget it and accidentally kill all those precious mushroom spores, my mushroom patch is living on the floor of the kitchen next to the cabinets. So far, the little dogs have taken no interest.
In other news about pet projects…
Remember Steve Martin in the movie The Jerk excitedly yelling, “The new phone book is here!!! The new phone book is here!!!”
I did my own Jerk impression the other day, yelling “The new cheese press is here!!! The new cheese press is here!!!”
The little dogs were confused, but unimpressed. I think the UPS guy was just a wee bit curious about why I was skipping back to the house with the box.
I waited about three or four months for this cheese press from the New England Cheesemaking Supply, which was having some vendor issues getting these made. They were excellent about communicating the difficulties and I decided to hold out for this cheese press. I have been working my way through Ricki Carroll’s book on Home Cheese Making with excellent results, so I trusted the source. In fact, we have become addicted to all sorts of homemade soft cheeses thanks to Ricki. My friend Angela said the neufchatel is like crack and she can’t stop eating it.
Off to adventures in cheese making now!
Ciao!
Robin
