Monday Cats

I have a collection of pictures of the Fifty and Greaseball, sans hats, napping in similar positions. They are ridiculous.

Happy Lunar New Year!

Beautiful cakes from Schuberts Bakery in SF

Happy New Year, folks! I hope the Year of the Snake brings everyone good fortune and much happiness. We celebrated last night with four mousse cakes, potato leek soup with dill, and a simple dinner of vegetarian tan tan noodles. It was an odd combination, but since we decided to not eat out, that's what I was able to make with the food in the refrigerator. A friend came over and helped me cook, and she brought champaign (bubbles are a must for special events) and the cakes.

One Chinese tradition that I find hard to stick with is to not sweep your floors, the idea being that sweeping your floors sweeps out all the good luck. Did the people who made these rules have cats or a dog who sheds his own body weight every 2 weeks? Or a house in the middle of a fireplace remodel? I think not! So, my workaround it that I'll vacuum and keep the vacuum in the house for the week. That way, the good luck can still marinate our house, because after last year, we need it!

Letting the oil cool before adding to the chile flakes

For the vegetarian tan tan noodles, I made quite a few substitutions using ingredients that we already had on hand. The recipe, loosely adapted from Fuchsia Dunlop's new book Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking, calls for roasted chili oil and its sediment. Interestingly, one of her substitutions for dried, ground Sichuan chiles is to use Korean chile flakes. I usually have a big jar of Korean chile flakes on hand since I use them for kimchi and Korean chicken stew, so putting together the oil was a simple matter of weighing out the flakes, heating the oil, and adding them together with crushed ginger and sesame seeds. I love it when I don't have to run to the store for a specialty item, especially if I have to go the Chinese market whose parking situation is perilous at best, and just plain whacked out near Chinese New Year. 

Finished roasted chili oil

Another specialty item that I subbed out was the Sichuan fermented vegetables, ya cai. Since I only need 1.5 ounces of the stuff, I used kimchi instead since I had a jar aging in the refrigerator. It was perfect! We topped the noodles with toasted sesame oil (which I'm going to make next time in the blender), roasted chile oil, and finely diced shitake mushrooms and kimchi. I felt a little sheepish serving my friend refrigerator dregs, but in the end, I shouldn't have said anything because our dinner was delicious. I'm not a stickler about food being authentic so long as it tastes good, an attitude that reflects California cuisine.

My first big batch of kombucha

Since it is cold in this house all the time (hence the fireplace remodel that includes adding a gas insert), my kombucha is fermenting slowly. Ideally, kombucha should be kept at 80°F. Our house has been hovering around 50-60°F, but the SCOBY is still doing its thing. I made a big batch of Jasmine tea, added sugar, and floated the SCOBY on top. The tiny bit of kombucha from my last batch has been blended with tangerine juice, ginger, and bottled so I can enjoy it later this week with a little fizz.

My two workers are sleeping on the job!

Although we did the fireplace demo work, we decided to hire a mason to put up the ledgestone. Being people who like to DIY, it is strange to have someone in your house to do work that you feel you should be doing. However, the job this guy is doing is so much better than anything we would do because he has experience, the proper tools like a wet saw, and a lot more patience that us - he told me that he has to talk to the stone to figure out where it should go. The only talking we do when we're building things consists of expletives,  so I can't imagine we are nurturing our projects. 

So, the only reason I'm mentioning this is because I have a huge craving for kimchi fried rice or something else smelly to eat for lunch every time the mason and his assistant are over. Out of courtesy, I am not cooking said smelly foods although I'm sure they would be polite and not say anything if I did so. (I'm wondering now if cooking black bean chicken was pushing the smell factor a little too much, but I had to eat!) It gets to the point where I wish we were doing the work so I could eat my smelly foods with abandon, but I know that this craving stems in part because I'm telling myself I cannot do something. This is why dieting is something I cannot ever do, or else I'd be 3 times bigger. I have to concentrate on the wonderful things I can eat, not the things that I shouldn't eat, and make sure that junk food doesn't exist at our house.

Monday Mingus

Mingus of the Camembert and Smoked Oysters

Homemade Coconut Moisturizer

Apparently, all those fresh scratches on my arms are not from my cat Fifty jumping onto me while I'm sleeping, as I suspected, but from me scratching myself while I'm asleep because my skin is so dry. This is what you learn when your husband is sick and can't sleep. 

Inspired by this post, I made a batch of coconut moisturizer to slather on post shower. Right out of the jar, coconut oil is solid. Although you could break out chunks of it and rub it onto your skin, it would be a messy endeavor. I remembered reading about an olive oil whip for dry skin that involved melting beeswax and then blending olive oil into the melted wax. That seemed a bit fussy, so my next thought was using coconut oil as the base since it was already a solid. Sure enough, many people have thought of this already, so I picked a simple recipe and ran with it.

In a mixer using the wire whisk, I blended 1/3 cup of coconut oil, 2 tsp of vitamin E, and 2 tsp of avocado oil on medium-high (6 on my KitchenAid). After 5 minutes, I stopped the mixer and felt the resulting whipped moisturizer. It was still a little grainy, so I turned the mixer back on for a few more minutes. 

That was it! I scraped the mixture into a jar and applied it after my shower. It absorbs quickly into my skin. I'm also planning on using this as an eye makeup remover as well as a facial moisturizer. Hopefully, no more midnight scratching for me!

Coastal Redwood Cowl

$5.00 USD

Although they only span 50-miles inland and range from Southern Oregon to Central California, coastal redwoods dominate the landscape and imagination. The Coastal Redwood Cowl’s lush texture reflects this tree’s strength and beauty.

The pattern’s directions are both written and charted. Also included are instructions for special stitches and the sewn bind off. 

Finished measurements are 6” wide by 20” long.

In addition to yarn, you’ll need the following notions:

• 3 1-inch buttons; lightweight buttons recommended 

• 1 cable needle 

• row counter 

• scissors 

• tapestry needle

$5.00 USD

2013: The Year of (More) Fermentation

Happy 2013, everyone! Lots of experimentation has been going on in these parts, and most of them have to do with food. Of course. I made a beautiful watermelon radish water kimchi, a lightly fermented kimchi that only sits out for a day or two before going into the refrigerator. You eat both the radish and you drink the brine, but I am loving the way this full jar looks on my countertop. I had watermelon kimchi at FuseBox in West Oakland, and since my CSA box is full of radishes, I decided to attempt this kimchi myself.  There's a crock full of cabbage kimchi bubbling away, too, and it will probably go fast because anything spicy is in high demand during our (relatively) cold winter. (I know you snow folks laugh, but a high of 52 degrees F? Brrrrrrrr! This is the Bay Area - I didn't sign up for that!)

Sitting next to my kimchi is what I lovingly refer to as my Kitchen Sheik. It's the start of a kombucha SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast - sounds appetizing, eh?). I was drinking one of those $3 bottles of raw kombucha when I got really irritated that just paid $3 for something that I could make myself. My mom and grandmother used to make kombucha, and I kid you not, but it started to turn my mother's hair black again! Although this is not why I like it, I find the tangy taste addictive, I wouldn't mind it if  my gray hair ceased to exist. So I dumped half of my kombucha drink into some cooled jasmine tea. It's almost been a week, and it smells right. I'll have to add some more tea and sugar to feed it so it can grow stronger.

I wonder if my taste for kombucha has to do with the yoga DVDs I've been using? Or is this like Cabbage Patch Kids, where at first I think they're ugly, but then because all the cool kids have it I want one too?

An interesting side note is that there is kombucha beer from Unity Vibration in Michigan. I've had the ginger beer, gluten free by the way, twice! Both times, it hit the spot. It's a good beer to pair with Asian food, especially spicy food.

Since all my fermentation projects take weeks, I made some lemon cauliflower pickles (recipe here) for some instant gratification. They're lemony, pickley, and crisp!

Beet roasting was also on today's agenda. There's nothing revolutionary here, but I do love the chioggia beet's style.

We have so much beer brewing here it is ridiculous. By the end of today, we will have 20-gallons of beer in carboys. 2 of those carboys are going to be tied up for a year since the boy is experimenting with sour beers. The other 2 carboys house a black lager and a Stone 12.12.12. Stone brewery is awesome in that they post their special beer recipes for free, so when we were wowed by a glass of 12.12.12 on draft, we immediately bought the ingredients and made some for ourselves. I think our version is going to taste more like cloves, so it will be a winter beer.

I have developed a perplexing craving for red meat, specifically burgers. Could it be the Cabbage Patch effect again since gourmet burger joints are the food media's darling? I've dragged the boy to burgers at the FiveTen truck, Elevation 66, Hopscotch, Burger Bar, True Burger, and Eureka! Burger.  I also had a kick ass hanger steak (they didn't even ask me how I wanted it - it came out deliciously rare) at Mill Valley Beerworks. Since I've been traditionally a lean meat and veggie person, I worry that I have a brain tumor because it's such a radical shift from what I normally crave. If I start becoming good at picking up different languages and I have a sudden love of raw onions, I'll know something bad is up.

Post Holiday Food Report

Butter cookies with tiny dancing men

I'm back from a whirlwind trip to visit family, and again I'm wishing that I had an extra stomach so I could have comfortably sampled every creation. Growing up in my family requires a fixation on food that those new to the clan, like my husband, think needs some medical attention. 

Thank you Dori Greenspan

Since we travel to get to my family, I never get to make the main meal and show off my cooking chops. This year, I signed up to make vegetables, and at first I was thinking about a kale salad with persimmons and toasted almonds. But, that's a boring thing that I'd make on a weeknight for the boy and I, and I think we'd be the only two who appreciated that dish. So, I decided to show off a little (I think most of my family still thinks all I can "cook" is Jello) and make something harder and more decadent. Nothing says Christmas like butter, bacon, and heavy whipping cream, so I changed my mind at the 11th hour and made a cauliflower gratin (recipe here). It was a hit!

Spoiled, spoiled dog

Mingus got to soak up the love since he was the centerpiece of the gathering. I'm pretty sure he thought everyone was at the house to see him, and he was a ham (and he ate lots of ham). He wrapped the little girls around his paw, and they insisted that he was in our family photo. While the idea was sweet, all you can see is him in the photo! There were also a couple of tiny woofers who snuck in.

Homemade deodorant: this may go horribly wrong

Onto another topic, have you ever been interested in making your own deodorant? Most sane people would say no, but I've been on a "use less chemicals" kick, so I decided to make the boy some deodorant made from coconut oil, baking soda, cornstarch, and beeswax (recipe here). Since he's on vacation, the boy will test it for a few days before subjecting any bus riders and coworkers to the homemade concoction. I have high hopes that it'll work! It took me less than 10 minutes, including clean up, and I could have made more in that time frame if I wasn't leery of it's potency. I'll be sure to report back.

A Table Full of Handknits and Other Miscellany

Next time, more signage

The trunk show at The Yarn Boutique is over, and I can start knitting and designing other things rather than past patterns! I had a blast meeting new people, seeing FOs that other people knit, and hangout out with my friends who stopped by. Lessons learned: make a sign so people know why I'm sitting outside with a table full of handknits, add more height to the display so everything isn't flat and the baby hats don't look like potholders, and bring a mirror so people can try things on since that is the point of a trunk show. Oh, and an iPad or other tablet would be nice - thankfully, I borrowed one from the LYS owner. 

My friend comparing skeins of yarn in the natural light.

 This was a chance to revisit patterns I put on my blog, like the Stripey Baby Beret...

And the Baby Cabled Baby Slouch.

My friend Rachel helped me out by knitting two versions of my Ultimate Slouch Hat. I especially love this version made with Cascade Baby Alpaca Chunky. I'll have to pick up some more of it so I can make one to wear!  Samples of my Tilden Park Scarf, Wildcat Canyon Scarf, and this red Ultimate Slouch hat still reside at the Yarn Boutique, so if you want to try one on before you knit it, stop by!

Cooler weather also means that bread baking is back on! This time, I made the Tartine Country Bread recipe, and it turned out full of holey bread goodness.  The dough hydration was higher than I'm used to and you don't need a kitchen stand mixer at all. However, the biggest drawback is that this recipe does take a long time and it isn't something you can decide to do at the last minute (you need to prep your starter), so I can't see myself making this all the time. The sad thing is that I still have some leftover bread here that I'm now using as dog treats since the boy and I can't manage to finish a loaf of bread in under a week.  Baking bread is always such a fun experiment, and I'd bake bread all the time if I had an outlet for the end product, but we're slow bread eaters. Next time, I need to cut the loaf in half and freeze it so Mingus doesn't get the lion's share of the bread.

Exciting happenings for me also included organizing my spices. (I'm not being sarcastic at all!) Instead of piling them all in my pantry, I'm going for a more flat layout that makes all of them reachable and visible. We'll see how this works. The good thing is that it made me throw out some of the bulk spices I've acquired over the years, and it always feels good to know exactly what lurks in the kitchen.

I had to put this gratuitous shot of my carnita scramble here. I didn't make it, Chow in Lafayette made it, but I've been thinking about the lardy goodness of carnitas all week. I'm starving again now!

And another picture with no transition at all: Thomas the cat. He came to visit me on Saturday, and we had a grand old time. I think he likes to visit me because he likes to tease Greaseball and Fifty, but I'll let that slide. However, when he rolls around like this, I do not pet him because I worry that he's spring loaded and just waiting for an opportunity to scratch me. My cats are mellow and do not do this, but Thomas is full of himself and probably not as docile as my crew.

Trunk Show in Lafayette (Eek!)

Hello, blog-o-sphere! I'll be at the Yarn Boutique in Lafayette next Saturday (12/8) from 11 AM to 3 PM for a trunk show. Stop by and say hello! I'll have samples of my designs that you can try on, and I may even sneak a cat hat or two into the mix. Although, I don't know how people will react to a pimp hat. For my cat. And I'm not sure I'm up for explaining it, so I may just bring the beret and the fez and call them "baby" hats.

If anyone has tips on what makes a fun trunk show, please share! I'm such a noob. I'll be offering pattern support and I can demo a couple of stretchy bind-offs like the k2tog and the sewn bind-off. 

As a bonus, if you buy yarn for any of my projects, you'll get 10% off! Doesn't someone or some cat you know need a hat or scarf?

So, if you feel like inhaling some yarn fumes and you are curious if a person who designs cat hats for fun is as weird as you think she is, then come on over and introduce yourself! I can't wait to meet you.

La La La, Gualala!

The ridiculously peaceful view from our cottage

To celebrate the passing of another up and down year, some friends and I trekked up to Gualala for some quality time together. It's so easy to become engulfed in day to day existence and to not spend time with the people you never seem to see enough, and after losing Vespa, I didn't want that to continue. Life is too short, and we'll never regret taking "too much" time off. I made reservations at a cottage, and then sent the email out to some of my close friends, not expecting anyone to be able to have a weekend free so last minute. Much to my surprise and delight, almost everyone and every dog came!

Roula enjoying her dogness

It was a rainy weekend,  but when the main attraction is being together, the weather doesn't really matter. We cooked breakfast and dinner together, played games, knit (OK, so only two of us knit), and simply enjoyed hanging out around the fireplace.

Fritatta in progress, onion-free per my request

 Communal cooking and dining is my favorite part of vacation. I love cooking for my friends and setting a big table for all of us, even if it is a bit hectic in the kitchen before we sit down to our meal.

Roula and her person 

Next year, they may not all fit on the couch together

Jabba the Bunny. He has a real name, but I forget it.

How could I not be happy with all that freshly picked kale?

This looks like a photo from a lifestyle magazine

Mingus singing the blues or yawning. Or belching.

A makeshift vase for our rustic bouquet

There is something about the Northern California coast that centers me more than most places. The beaches are rugged and deceptively quiet, but I wouldn't dare take a swim in the ocean unlike the user-friendly warm and sandy beaches to the south. The Mendocino coast would be a fantastic place to retire, but until then, I'll happily spend any extra time there.