Slow Knitting

Can anyone guess this sock pattern? It's been my zen project - you know, the type of project you have to buckle down and give your undivided attention. No listening to podcasts, certainly no television watching, and no gabbing on the phone. Just knitting. This project was just crawling along until I figured out how to knit 1x1 cables without a cable needle. Also, I was fumbling with different circular knitting methods.

This project started out as magic loop because I only had one 32-inch circular needle that was the right size. It was an Addi Turbo lace needle, and as much as I love them, the cables were a bit too stiff for the magic loop method and I was getting huge ladders on the sides. Then, I got my second circular needle back that was the right size (it was on loan), and I did my trusty 2-circ needle method. This would have been ideal, except my two circular needles were insanely long and kept getting in my way. Off to the LYS I went with every intent of buying another Addi Turbo lace needle that was only 16-inches. However, the Kollage square knitting needles caught my attention, especially since they were 1/2 the price of the Addi Turbos.

Knitting on DPNs is not my favorite, but I've used them before and the novelty of knitting with square needles is keeping me interested. I did have a "duh" moment when I first switched the project to DPNs and I completely removed one double pointed needle from my project. And then I freaked out. And then I put the project in a time out until I could collect myself. However, now I've finally found my groove. Sock Summit is my project deadline, although I really hope I'm done before then.

To counteract my "must concentrate" sock pattern, I've been crocheting on my neverending afghan. It's one year and two days since I first started it, and 80 rows are complete. I'm probably 60% complete. My afghan's days as my go-to knit night project are probably limited because it's a little odd to bring a blanket with you to cafes and pubs, even if I am working on it. I'm beginning to see the appeal of modular blanket squares.

To make up for the lack of pics, I leave you with Imploring Fifty ("if you just open the front door and let me give the dog a quick shove, problem solved!") and a blurry side by side comparison of Fifty-Fifty and Greaseball. Fifty's probably average cat size, weighing in at 11 pounds. Greaseball, on the other hand, is a whopping 20+ pounds the last time I checked. He's a jabba!

Miso Decanting

The sweet miso I started last month is finally done! Well, it's a little overdone, but more on that later. When I first opened the crock, it smelled strongly of sake, a logical smell since koji is used in sake production.

I spooned it into the food processor and let it whiz about until it was blended to a velvety smooth paste, about 3 minutes.

 The end result was 5 cups of sweet miso. Due to the actual summer temperatures early on during the fermentation time, I think I could have pulled this miso out of the crock about a week earlier. I can taste lactic acid, one of the main acids that gives sauerkraut and sourdough bread their tang, in the miso. Still, I made a batch of miso soup with it, and it was very warm and comforting on this drizzly, gray day. I even got the boy to down a mug, without force, which was a surprise. He wasn't thrilled when I fed him a spoonful of plain miso paste earlier in the day, so the fact that he voluntarily drank that soup is a testament that it wasn't too sour.

I don't know if I'll be using this batch of miso for salad dressings, but I do think it will be a wonderful addition to marinades. Any additional thoughts on what to do with tangy miso?

Vintage Cardigan

 Another cardigan complete!  This is Miette by TheAndiPants, a free pattern on Ravelry. So far, I've knit 4 cardigans for myself in 2011(Aidez, Ocean Beach, Swingy Cardi) - I needed some more cardi action in my wardrobe.

 

The yarn is Spud & Chloe Sweater, a 45% organic cotton and 55% superwash wool blend. Knitting with the yarn was more pleasant than ordinary cotton yarn due to elasticity of the wool, but the finished yarn does feel very much like cotton to me. And so far, it's stretching like cotton, too. Remember that if you knit with the stuff - add some negative ease!

I'm a shortie, so again many shortie-specific modifications were made. For the details, see my Rav project page.

The flower buttons were a lucky find. The wall of buttons made my eyes cross at the craft store, and I almost missed them.

My next FO will hopefully be a pair of socks, the Twisted Flower by Cookie A. I need to finish up my sock stash before Sock Summit!

Swingy Cardi

Being less than five-feet tall makes it hard to find clothes that fit right, especially when the style I'm after is a cardigan that's long in the front and short in the back. (It's a reverse mullet cardi!) So, what's a knitter to do? She makes one herself!

I added picot trim to the sleeves and the bottom of the cardigan,

 and I added some scalloped edging to the neck.

Madeline Tosh DK is so smooth and soft. I had reservations about knitting with a single-ply superwash yarn, but those reservations melted away with each stitch I knit. MadTosh is a pricey yarn, but I was lucky that it was 20% off at Article Pract (it was a staff pick).

 Speaking of yarn stores, my all time favorite store is no longer. Stash Yarn, you were the best! I am going to miss you.

More details on the cardi can be found on my Rav project entry. Perhaps I'll write this pattern up, too.

Anyone going to Sock Summit in Portland? I'll be there attending the marketplace and hopefully the Sock Hop! My train ticket and hotel are booked, so now I can concentrate on what I'll eat and where I'll visit. A friend works at the Omsi, so that's on the list, and I've love to do some kayaking, hiking, and yarn shopping.  All recommendations are welcome and appreciated.

Porky Goodness: Cochinita Pibil

 

Inspired by an episode of "Mexico - One Plate At a Time," an episode that features Rick Bayless and his daughter Lanie digging a pig pit in their backyard (so jealous!), I made a crockpot version of the featured dish: cochinita pibil. Years ago when we went to Merida, the capital of Mexican state Yucatan, cochinita pibil was featured on every menu and I made sure to sample it every time. I am a sucker for a good, slow cooked hog.

An aside, during the TV show, Lanie says, "Speaking of hot, let’s see what my dad is up to outside." The show cuts to a clip of Bayless in a skimpy tank top, muscles rippling as he digs a hole. Before I could turn to the boy and protest, he said "She means he's temperature hot." Who edits this show??? Did anyone else see this episode and have to do a double-take?

Even more of an aside, we had some friends for dinner when the boy made cochinita pibil a couple of weeks ago, and one friend mentioned that Rick Bayless is the kind of guy he expects to see in a dungeon clad in leather. Hm, food for thought.

I had some annatto leftover from who knows what, so into the blender it went with some lemon juice, garlic cloves, and salt. Have I told you how much I love my blender on steroids? Not only can it do demure tasks like make smoothies, but it can grind spices and purportedly grind wheat berries for flour. That's my next experiment!

 

This spice paste was rubbed over a luscious pork shoulder from Marin Sun Farms, then the pork shoulder was wrapped in banana leaves and thrown into the slow cooker over low heat. I added a scant amount of water to the bottom of the crock to ensure that the leaves didn't burn before the pork started to release its juices. After 6 hours passed, I removed the banana leaves and the bone, and used two forks to shred the pork. The shredded pork went back into the slow cooker to simmer over low heat for another hour with all of the juices.

 

To accompany the cochinita pibil, I made the traditional side dish of pickled red onions. The boy first made this a couple of weeks ago, and even a life long raw onion hater (me!) liked it. If you want to make some yourself, thinly slice red onions, pour boiling water over the onions and let them sit for a few minutes. Then, rinse them in cold water. Once rinsed, cover the onions with lemon or lime juice and add a heaping spoonful of salt. In about an hour, you have really pink pickles that go well with any rich meat dish.

I've been checking up on my food experiments daily.  The Indian lemon pickles have multiplied - I put up another jar of the stuff because it smells so good. When I can, I sit the jars out to cook in the sun. The miso smells like sake and is bubbling away, the infused vodka is taking on a golden hue, and the preserved lemons are probably done now and I should figure out what to do with them.

Hope in a Pot

Here it is: 2011's first tomato! This year, thanks to last year's utter tomato crop failure, I started my plants in April. Also, no fancy pants heirlooms, although I love them dearly, but only proven producers get a place in my yard. And, they have to be cherry tomatoes because we live in the fog during the summer. Cherry tomatoes seem to be the most immune to fog, probably because they take so few days to mature in comparison to their larger counterparts. I am growing Sweet 100s and Sugar Golds.

In addition to growing my own tomatoes, I vow to can enough local tomatoes to last us until the next tomato season. If this means that our living room cabinet is full of only canned tomatoes, so be it.

I was also motivated to take care of my little herb plot, which meant weeding, weeding, weeding. I just read "Plenty: Eating Locally on the 100-Mile Diet", and one of the authors, J.B. Mackinnon wrote that he was offended by the high price of herbs when he found out how easy they were to grow. I agree! I have a small patch of oregano, two types of thyme, and two types of mint growing in the front yard. I dared to plant the pineapple mint directly in the ground with the other herbs, but I'm keeping an eye on it and tearing out rouge mint patches when necessary.

Don't ask me about the rest of our yard. Anything I can't eat gets very little attention from me.

Do any of you live in the fog as well and have prolific vegetable plant recommendations? I'd love to plant more food crops for the summer, but the scant amount of summer sunshine here deters me. I'm resigned to not growing peppers or eggplants.

Greaseball continues to be Greaseball. He whines loudly for his breakfast or dinner, sits next to me on the bench during meals, and demands to sit in the boy's lap every evening. Spoiled.

Deadly Hot Sauce and Miso

After a long day at work, it was a treat to come home to a huge Yucatecan feast made entirely by the boy. He even made a habanero chili salsa, complete with a custom graphic of a skull that somehow still has eyeballs. Other delights were cochinita pibil (pork slow cooked with an annato paste and banana leaves), lemon pickled red onions, black beans, and a huge stack of corn tortillas.

The more we cook at home, the more picky we become about our dinners out. This, I've noticed, leads to us cooking in more often.

Surprisingly, we manged to use all but 10 lemons from the freaking huge bag. Not bad! Thanks again for all of your suggestions. Seriously, there is no way I could've thought of all those things myself.

 

 I spied this tub of koji in the refrigerator, noticed I had dried soybeans, and finally put the two together the other day. In 4 weeks, I should have a batch of homemade sweet miso. I bought the koji at Berkeley Bowl for about $5.

If it turns out good, I can use the excess to make more miso pickles. I think there is at least 2.5 pounds of miso here.

Ocean Beach Cardigan Sneak Peak

I finally sent out my Ocean Beach cardigan to be test knit. It's an open, top-down raglan with eyelet details. Oof, designing a sweater pattern in a non-me size has been a challenge because I have to believe in the size charts. I'm not so good at the blind faith thing!

 

 Hopefully, I can have the rest of the sizes written up and test knit in time for fall, although the thought of my summer being over and done with makes me weepy.

Food Projects Galore

 Thank you so much for the lemon ideas! You are all so creative! So far, I've dehydrated lemons, made Indian lemon pickles, and have frozen lemon juice into ice cube trays.

Up next is lemon marmalade and lemon hard cider. I bought some ale yeast and yeast nutrient after doing a bit of research on what needs to be done to make yeast reproduce in an unfriendly (in this case,acidic) environment. Do you have any more ideas? Keep 'em coming! I love comments, especially because I discover more blogs to follow. Such a creative bunch!

After creating an ugly, dense loaf of bread using the no-knead method,  I went back to making pain au levain the way I outlined for the breadalong. I used rye, buckwheat, whole Sonoma wheat, and regular bread flour for this loaf, and it turned out beautiful! There are lots of pockets in this bread for jam, and it makes a lovely, chewy toast with lots of character. One of my favorite snacks lately is toast with a healthy smear of plain Greek yogurt and homemade guava jam.

Last weekend was a Chinese holiday that I only know as "Grave Sweeping" day, and this meant that I returned to my hometown to clean my grandmother and grandfather's cemetery plots. My grandmother made everything from scratch up until the day she died. Homemade noodles, though, are what her children remember the most. I was feeling a little reminiscent today, so I made a batch of noodles for tonight's dinner, a vegetarian chow mein. My crafty, creative aunts put together a book of Grandma's recipes a few years ago, so I can recreate the taste of her kitchen. Someday, I'm going to tackle some of her harder recipes, like a fermented brown soybean paste and salt pickled turnips.

After making two batches of Epsom salt tofu, I was sick of the grainy texture. I know some people can make tofu with Epsom salt as the coagulant with good results, but not me. My dad, upon hearing of my tofu failure, called his buddy who happens to own a noodle and tofu making manufacturing facility and asked what he used as the coagulant. The answer? Food grade calcium sulfate, otherwise known as gypsum. (When this tofu making guy heard that I was using Epsom salts, he decried my method by saying, "That's a laxative! It shouldn't be in tofu!" I never knew that Epsom salts were used for anything besides soaking sore body parts until recently.)

Anyway, by happy accident, I learned that the beer making supply store sold calcium sulfate, and it was cheap! 2-ounces for $1.50. Score! I immediately made some soymilk and turned it into tofu with out of this world results. The curds were big and creamy. This is what I was after! I think I'll eat this batch raw, sliced thinly with a scant amount of soy sauce, sesame oil, and green onions.

I tried to capture Fifty-Fifty and Mingus resting peacefully together, but as soon as Fifty saw me, she scrambled over for some head scratches. She looks like she's about to attack Mingus. She should attack him. He totally deserves it for always stepping on her.

Life Gave Me Lemons

80-lbs of lemons are out on our deck. Why? You'll have to ask the boy what he was thinking when he filled up a bag (previously containing 50-lbs of Chandler walnuts) with lemons. He says he wanted to make hard lemonade since we had success with our hard apple cider, but I'm not sure how he's going to do this since the nothing I've fermented has had such high citric acid level. Various web searches come up with different solutions, and many require things like yeast energizers and nutrients. This picking frenzy is especially baffling since he hates lemonade. He's on his own for this one.

 

However, I've managed to use up 30 lemon peels for an infused vodka. My original plan was to make limoncello, but the amount of sugar that goes into limoncello is a little sickening, so I may make only a tiny bit of it. BTW, buying 100-proof vodka before noon at the store is going to earn you sideways glances, especially when you think you've swiped your credit card, but have not, and you have to stumble around to dig out your card again, then you don't know the correct phone number for the boy's discount card. At least I wasn't in my pajamas. The cashier strongly suggested I get my own discount card, hopefully because it's a company policy for him to ask and not because he thinks I like to take shots of 100-proof vodka before noon. At least I wasn't still wearing my pajamas.

10 lemons are also destined to be preserved lemons (pic at top of post). That only leaves me with, um, ONE MILLION LEMONS. Give or take a few.

I thumbed through my old school books, and one suggestion is that lemons can go whole into the freezer. That sounds a lot better to me than juicing one million lemons and freezing the juice in ice cube trays. Upon defrosting, the rind will be soft, but the pulp will still yield juice. One sacrificial lemon is in the freezer now to test this out.

So, taking into account that I'm not a sugar fiend (eliminating a lot of baking ideas), what else can I do with all these lemons? Anyone have any suggestions?