My Willow Cat.

Well…I wish I had something exciting to share, but…

Behold the Mighty Practice-Bezel!!

I’ve been practicing my bezel-setting skills of late. I thought I had good hand-strength from my piano practice. That is all obviously in the past because these bezels are kicking my arse! It reminds me of stretching a canvas–press the metal at the top, bottom, left, right, diagonals, etc. Except once you have everything pressed-in, you then have to go back and burnish the sides. On something small, it can be challenging, but I am determined to learn how to do this well.

Because all work and no fun makes me a sad panda, I thought I’d spend some time this weekend playing with acid-etching. I saw some work in the studio today that was so inspiring–photos, soon!

My parents will be up this weekend, as well, so I’m hoping fun fun fun all around–

My original intention when I started photography back in 2003, and then metalworking just this year was to gain enough confidence to learn how to paint and draw. Having success in other art and craft fields help–I feel like I am better able to articulate what I am trying to convey (can’t be shy about it). That said, picking up a pencil or paintbrush or pastel still leaves me a bit catatonic. I sometimes wish I were 8 years old again with no reservations. I wish I could find artwork from that age, but that’s wasn’t the sort of thing that was nurtured or saved in my childhood home. I don’t feel sorry for myself, just…a bit delayed.

Oh well…try try try try try…and I have to remember to say “thank you” for what I AM able to do! So, Out There,

Thank You!!

(oh, and for those of you who notice this sort of thing, yes, I posted this at 4:30 am. I’ve been awake since 2:30–oye!)

So do yourself a favor–make some dough the old-fashioned way, and don’t commit yourself to baking it right off. Be totally nonchalant. Be junior-high cool and wait a few days…all good things, as they say! ::wink::

Found on Wisebread

Dear, dear friends are hard to find.  You know the ones–you visit and don’t feel forced to sight-see because it’s all about “being” there.  You have some iced-tea, chat, drive around places like Two Harbors, MN, and find things to do because it’s all about good company.  JAK is a great friend–she’s so smart, and you can depend on her friendship.  She would be happy for me in anything that makes me happy, in general life, trips, ideas, realizations.  I wish she lived nearby.  I would kidnap her and bring her BACK to Missouri–I am that confident of my ability to entertain!–but I know that after lovely Minnesota Summers, an imposed August in Missouri might make her realize the “short end of the stick”argument.

Thanks for having me out this spring, and for visiting us last year–thanks for always reaching out!

Much love,

Me

Whoa…what a tiring week. I think we’re still recovering from that nasty virus. So, life has been slow.

Still, we had some time for a few events in this smaller-but-joy-dense life. Like yogurt made from raw milk.

Raw milk is so inspiring, so delicious with that lovely cream. I ordered some cheese cultures because I want to taste-know what a raw milk mozzarella has on the standard store variety. We’re making ice cream tonight. Yum.

We’ve had quite a few storms come through town. The sky will be blue while driving into town, storm while shopping, and then full of post-storm clouds on the way home. Once you reach your abode, another wave of weird, specter-like gray fog will roll in with yet another storm.

The katydids are fond of raindrop-spattered lilies…

The cats, full of anxiety and fear between storm fronts…

I made this pie on Monday night (around 10 pm!) after we thought we’d recovered enough from our shared illnesses. Quick question: why would anyone who loved you not tell you their house was full of a summer plague? If I were that sick, I would guide possible guests towards the Holiday Inn or a B&B. Honestly–

So, the recovery pie–why blueberry? I am trying to catch up with what’s hiding in the fridge. Would you believe that in all my blueberry freezing from last week, I missed an entire quart? I think a wayward Viking must have swung by, hidden a box in his office, and then returned it to the fridge when The Freezing of Aught Eight was finished.

There are a myriad of pastry dough methods and recipes online (Bits of Time used Mark Bittman’s recipe, which sounds good!)–I prefer using butter, but in the spirit of using what we had in the pantry, I used vegan, non-trans fat (how is that possible if the oil is solid?) shortening. The recipe used is JOC’s (Joy of Cooking) Flaky Pastry Dough recipe.

The filling for this pie is a pretty JOC recipe: 5 cups of blueberries, some sugar (I used almost 3/4 of a cup), 4 tablespoons of cornstarch, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, and a pinch of salt. Mix all that together and let sit for 15 minutes before assembling the actual pie with your pastry of choice.

I baked this at 425 for 20 minutes. The recipe says to bake it at this temp for 30 minutes, but I had to adjust the time because of the fluctuating oven temperature. Despite that, the pie turned out pretty well. I didn’t dismay over the unevenly browned top-crust, the filling sending all aesthetic concerns down the stream of oblivion.  I try to be fair with Missouri blueberries, I really do.  My conclusion is that fresh Missouri blueberries are not the same creature as a Maine wild blueberry. It must be that they lack a comparative acidity, because that tablespoon of lemon juice completely elevated and transformed their flavor.  I’ve never been moved to make fresh blueberry pie before, but this was worth it.  Next time I make a blueberry pie, I’m going to try a Mustikkapiirakka, which is basically a Finnish-style blueberry pie. I am curious about the use of cream in the pastry recipe.

Other pie recipes to try: Filipino Buko/Buco pie, via Heart of Rachel and The Home Baker. Only, of course, to use up the leftover young coconut in my freezer

We’ve been a bit crazed here, at the little one acre. That happens sometimes–this life thing! At any rate, week 4 of our CSA involved a lucky-draw–lots of zucchini, beets, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, purslane (used in an egg-salad concoction last week)–all really good stuff. We purchased an additional 2 gallons of blueberries on the side for preserving. Here’s a quick tip, if you’re going to freeze blueberries, lay them out on a cookie sheet first, freeze them on the cookie sheet, and then place into freezer bags. This keeps the blueberries from sticking to each other and makes them easier to use in smoothie or muffin recipes. I dried a quart of the berries. I have to say, dried Missouri blueberries are not worth the time. They taste interesting, but since Missouri blueberries are sort of a totally different berry, you need their rotund juiciness to carry the blueberry flavor. The blueberry flavor doesn’t concentrate dried as it does in wild blueberries.

Back to CSA4–you might be asking, why was it a lucky draw? Last week, we were only home 3 out of 7 days. The Viking’s sister had her baby; they didn’t tell us they were all sick, so we spent 3 days recovering from a virus; and on top of that, we had a double work-load with freelance projects which required actually driving into town. Besides using gas, such things also use time spent to make and plan decent meals. But because of our lucky CSA draw–zucchini and other items that can wait a bit–we have plenty of food for this week. We picked up our CSA Week 5 on Saturday–a LOT of greens, many berries, onions and potatoes. If this had happened last week, the greens would definitely have not made it. Such is the CSA–it takes planning to use everything up “perfectly.” We don’t waste much produce, but I know we try our best.

It is a naughty cookie, but it is delicious. Heidi’s Banana Chip Cookies (dried banana chips, chocolate chips and walnuts)–you can find the recipe here. I had to freeze most of them so I wouldn’t keep dipping into the cookie jar. A note on fats: she uses butter, which I recommend, as well, if you can. We don’t have any butter in the house right now, so I substituted virgin coconut oil. The cookies taste fine either way, but the coconut oil version doesn’t spread and crisp up the way butter-based cookies often do.

In my “caution to the wind” phase of cooking with fat this week, I also made a variation of Farmgirl Fare’s Swiss Chard and Tuna salad. Actually, my recipe is totally different, but inspired by the use of Swiss Chard, I have to give her credit–such a great addition to a mayo-dressed salad. I made mine with boiled red potatoes (organic–conventionally-grown potatoes have some of the highest pesticide loads), hard boiled eggs (Sage Moon Farms), sweet gherkins (I suddenly like cuke pickles, go figure), fresh dill (garden), salted onion, silver rib chard from the garden, purslane from the csa (we have tons of this growing “weedy” in our yard, as well), green onion, mustard, lemon, and white radish from the garden. Oh yeah, and a good amount of mayo. Pretty yummy, and was dinner last night, breakfast this morning.

Time for a green smoothie.