Now Norma Knits

The Dreaded Meme is Alive And Well and Other Good Stream-of-Consciousness Stuff for a Wednesday

Oy vey. Facebook, Facebook, Facebook. You are Meme City, and you know how much I [don't] like memes. It is an endless.stream.of.annoying.crap*. I've made it so I don't see the stupid game updates, like "Sandy (or whoever) has just found THREE MAGIC EGGS in their (sic)** backyard in Farmville!"  **How much do I hate those mismatched pronouns? Sandy/their?????? FFS. 

Over and over and over again.

Also, the ads: Nurses are In Desperate Need! Teachers are in Serious Need!

Of what? I have wondered time and time again.

"We desperately need 50-year-olds to test the new iPad, a pair of Uggs, an orange Macbook (they must have mined info that my favorite color is orange). Sometimes they REALLY show how smart they are by saying, "We need 50-year-old Vermonters to test" ... blah blah. WOW!  That's ME!  I should jump right ON this! (This is a come-on to get you to sign up for some service.) The best one yet is "Free Food For Seniors! 50-year-old Vermonters, sign up to win free groceries." 

Now I'm a senior.

I repeat, oy vey! I can't deal with it! But Facebook has its good points, I have come to acknowledge. I had to search hard for them, but they're there. Perhaps. Not sure. Maybe. 

I must admit, the latest meme in there (or is this "so yesterday"?) had me a bit interested:  Go to urbandictionary.com, type your first name into the search field, and post the first result in your status.

I saw all these ones, like "a name meaning beautiful goddess," blah blah.

Or:

A bodacious beauty with full lips, luscious locks and dark mysterious eyes. Most Teresas are sensitive, caring listeners, but they also have their mischievous, fun-loving sides. A great girl that any one would be lucky to have as a friend or special someone.

Or:

In Ireland, this is a name given to someone that makes you laugh alot. "I was laughing all day because of a Victoria I know."

Mine:

Norma: A blonde moment; including, but not limited to: stating the obvious, trying to relate things that can't be related, pretending to understand when there is obviously no understanding, not understanding in general, etc..If u dont understand this its a Norma. Basically, anytime one says something stupid.

Excellent.

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As I'm typing this, I've got a raging headache. (I don't think it's related to the meme, but maybe.)

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The cleaning lady is here, and she usually incites Mr. Jefferies to too much excited barking. But this morning, I said one word to him: "Enough!" and bam. No more barking. (It's been an hour so far.) Some of you have said this, and I think you're right -- I hope I only use my power for good. (And Mr. Jefferies is one helluva dog.)

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Headache notwithstanding, I must go do some more organizing while I have someone here to help move furniture and stuff.

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Joan just sent me a notice about the indoor farmer's market upcoming at Fletcher Allen, and the part I can't get over is they even allow payroll deductions as a form of payment. Now that's progressive! Of course, it doesn't affect me, because I'm not an employee of anyone except Uncle Sam, so my "payroll deductions" would be from my own checkbook. But given the fact that I sometimes can't even get a shop in New York City to take a credit card, I think it's pretty cool.

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BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA! Some people asked if that photo the other day was my entire stash. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA. Hell no. This is but the teeniest-tiniest appetizer. Just something to remind me that I am a knitter. Or am I? At last reckoning, I believe I have somewhere between 15 and 20 sweaters' worth, plus lots of random other stuff. At my present rate of knitting, it has definitely reached SABLE status -- Stash Amassed Beyond Life Expectancy.

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I have been allergic to aspirin and ibuprofen for 25 years, since just after Abigail's birth. I was able to take them before my pregnancy for her, but I suffered three occasions of anaphylactic shock symptoms since that time -- two from aspirin and one from ibuprofen. Not fun, and the time I figured I was closest to actual death (this is debatable, because this is a lot like being "a little pregnant," I suppose) I was in England at a hospital with no ID on me and had been dropped off there by a cab driver in the middle of the night after a shift at work. My final thought just as two nurses caught me by the elbows before I hit the floor was, "I'm in a foreign country without ID, and nobody knows who I am or who to contact when I die." Thankfully, that did not occur. The young doctor there saved my life. 

So you can imagine I have been fearful of NSAIDs since that time. 

But there was a lecture given by a cardiologist in one of Ally's classes last year during which the doctor said that aspirin allergy can be "cured." I seriously thought she was full of shit. But I kept thinking about it and thinking about it, and there really are times, especially when I'm suffering this tendinitis that seems to be plaguing me more and more often, when I sure would love to be able to take an anti-inflammatory. So one day I made sure that David was home, I told him what I was going to do, and that the car had gas in it (we live about 4 minutes' drive, maybe less, from the hospital). I took a baby aspirin.  

NO REACTION!

And I followed the protocol mentioned by above said cardiologist, and pushed the amount a little higher each day, and over time I have now taken the equivalent of two adult aspirin tablets at a time without a reaction. I've done it a few times now, so I assume I'm safe.

It has been several months now, and I've taken aspirin on and off during that time.

And so last week I really wanted to try the same thing with Advil. Long story short, I am still a little bit iffy on the Advil. I sometimes get a little red and a tiny bit of itch in my throat, and I know I still have to be very careful, but I have been taking some Advil on occasion, when I know that David is home in case I need to get medical attention fast, and it's been OK. 

So I'm kind of cautiously happy about that. The tendinitis seems like it just will not go away without an anti-inflammatory, and I'm very glad that I can now take something.

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LOST's new season started last night. I'm LOST.

How to Have Vegetables For Breakfast

In recent comments, emails, and Facebook queries, several people have wondered how to incorporate vegetables into breakfast, a practice which is required (or at least highly recommended) in the first phase of the South Beach diet that I'm now enjoying (I am!). 

I've done the veggies-for-breakfast thing for most of my life (Is it as a result of the vestiges of French Canadianism, the English/Irish influence in my mother's family, New England frugality, or just what? I'm not sure), so I was a little surprised at the surprise, but grateful for the opportunity for blog fodder and something to share.

Tomatoes, onions, asparagus, spinach, parsley, mushrooms, etc., are quite regular features on my breakfast or brunch plate, so it is not so difficult for me to incorporate them even more regularly while following this diet. 

I wish I were both a food stylist and a photographer, but I'm not. And so though this is not as pretty as it might be, here is a photo of my breakfast this morning.

A poached egg over turkey bacon and asparagus. No Hollandaise, though it would probably be allowed in this diet. I mostly eat plain, clean food if I can, though, and so heavy sauces are not something I miss. I guess I don't have THAT much of a French background. Or maybe my ancestors were just too poor to have sauces on their foods, and so that practice was lost over time (tell that to my grandmother who made Creamed Chipped Beef and Codfish "Gravy" like it was going out of style, ha). 

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Here are some other ideas for breakfast veggies, all of which are legal (sans the toast) in Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet:

Sauteed mushrooms and zucchini over ham, with or without whole grain toast

Scrambled eggs with salsa

Omelet with fresh herbs and tomatoes -- parsley and chives are two of my favorites. I pack them in very heavily when I make it.

A southwestern omelet:  eggs with tomatoes, onions, green or red peppers, and sometimes mushrooms or salsa

Smoked salmon with sauteed cherry tomatoes and celery

Eggs cooked any style over a bed of wilted spinach, or chopped spinach whipped into scrambled eggs, an omelet, or a crustless quiche

Canadian bacon, an egg (poached or over light are my two favorites for this) over sauteed onions and mushrooms and/or red & green peppers

Ratatouille with any protein food -- eggs, meat, cheese, tofu, fish

I agree with some commenters that it gets tiresome having eggs every day for breakfast, and so of course any meat or tofu or fish or meat substitute can be exchanged for the eggs in any of the above dishes. 

Mix and match! Be creative! 

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And now, we've got a blue sky for the SECOND.DAY.IN.A.ROW! Yesterday I got out and enjoyed it toward the end of the day, and today I plan to get out there in a pair of hiking boots and tackle that snowy hill behind my house for some serious fresh air, sunshine, and exercise.

Have a great day!

Going Right To Town

In addition to yogurt, another thing we go through a large quantity of in this household is seltzer. Yeah, yeah, you killjoy, we should just drink water, but that gets boring. And at all times, but particularly when we're dieting (Did I mention David is doing South Beach along with me? He is, but he's doing a lot of whining about it, I will note) you just gotta have a little bit of zizz in your life. Seriously. The fizzy bubbles on your tongue and down your throat, you gotta have it. That's why I need my Diet Pepsi or Coke, too. I constantly try to watch my intake, but seriously. I need it. Life is too short to never have anything zizzy. 

Earlier this week, Marcia (who is no longer blogging) told me about another way to reduce my carbon footprint:  Make my own seltzer and soda with a SodaStream. (Warning: a click on their site starts a video, in case you shouldn't be doing that at work or something. Not that you would if you shouldn't be. But, you know, turn off your sound. Heh.) 

Make my own seltzer. Really? 

Yes! It makes perfect economic and ecologic sense. In the case of the seltzer, no more big, heavy plastic bottles to a) lug from the store, b) have hanging around the kitchen, c) have to return for recycling, and d) before it even gets to me, be driven by the big rigs to my store, and all that that involves in terms of petroleum. (When I talk like this, I start to worry about putting a whole shitload of long-haul truckers out of work. Gah. There is no winning. Is there?)

The claim is that it makes seltzer (from my own filtered tap water) for 25c a liter, which is a huge saving, right there.

And a friend asked me Why? when seltzer is so cheap anyway. Well, in addition to that huge dollar saving right out of the gate, I'll let the box tell you more reasons:

Well, anyway, I stopped in Sears when I was in Burlington the other day to search for one, because the website says that the Burlington Sears store carries them. Not. They had a few bottles of the soda flavoring syrup, but no soda makers. I had put it out of my mind, but last night I was doing grocery shopping to stock up on yummy South Beach Diet foods, and I was about to put two 2-liter bottles of store-brand seltzer into my cart, $1.00 each, when out of the corner of my eye I noticed the SodaStream logo, now familiar to me because I was in search of it the other day. And hot damn, it was right there in my grocery store! Even better, it came with a $10 rebate

and there were far more choices of flavoring syrups available than there were at Sears, as well. I chose Diet Cola, Diet Root Beer (that's Abigail's favorite), and Diet Grapefruit, though I am mostly interested in making unflavored seltzer with this thing. And when I checked out, the woman bagging my groceries said, "These are SO COOL. The guy was demonstrating them the other day, and it TASTES GREAT!" 

And who are you gonna believe if you don't believe the grocery-bagging lady?

Though I have not yet tried it to see if a) it works and b) it tastes good, I'm going to be optimistic that this will not be JUST ANOTHER GADGET cluttering up the counter and be found in next year's Goodwill donation box. 

I figure I've already saved $12, what with the two bottles of seltzer I put back on the shelf and the $10 rebate. And we're not even talking about all that Diet Pepsi I won't be buying if this gives me a reasonable-tasting alternative to that. At this rate, this thing will have paid for itself in a month. Or less. 

The cost of this starter kit was $79.99. I got the low-rent version. Marcia got the fancy top-of-the-line one with glass carafes instead of plastic -- THAT is really putting your money where your mouth is on this whole anti-plastic thing, but I live in Northwestern Vermont. I am sure that the store manager did not and will not stock the expensive version, because it just won't sell around these 'ere parts. I am just beside myself with glee that, so soon after I learned about this thing, it was actually HERE in my neck of the woods.  

So now I've got my reusable mugs, my reusable shopping bags, my reusable to-go eating utensils; I'm making my own yogurt, I'm growing as many of my own vegetables as I can; I'm eating as locally as close to 100% as I can; I'm using cloth towels and napkins instead of paper; and I'm making my own seltzer.

And none of it is really that hard.

Smugness abounds. 

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P.S.  The CO2 canisters are returnable/recyclable, and since this unit was sold at my local supermarket, I am going to assume/hope that that means they will handle the recycling of the canisters, too. Fingers crossed.

Yes, We CAN!

Yesterday morning I got a text message from Ann asking if I were going to be in town that day, and if so, could I stop by her and her husband's store in the mall and pick up something. When I got there after my class in the evening, I almost dipped into the Borders book store which is right next to their shop to get the new South Beach book. I had planned to get it earlier in the day at Barnes & Noble, but when I arrived at that store it was much too busy for the time I had available before class, so I decided to hold off. 

So now I was walking past Borders and had a thought to go in, but said to myself, "No, let's go pick up this mysterious thing from Ann first."

I walked in the store and told the people behind the counter what I was there for, and they handed me a beautifully wrapped package that looked suspiciously like a book. "Hm," I said to them, "I guess I'd better open this before I go to the bookstore, eh?"

Ayup.

Ann and I had been in touch over the past few days when she read in Facebook that I was doing the South Beach diet. She has had wonderful success with it, and was able to direct me to some recipes and helpful tips online. 

THANK YOU, ANN! I wish I'd tried this diet two years ago. I have been struggling to lose 10-15 pounds and nothing else has budged it, in spite of my most sincere efforts. I've tried calorie-counting, I've tried increasing protein and reducing carbs (but clearly not enough), I've tried The Zone. I thought I was doomed to accept this new, heavier version of me.

Now, as of yesterday morning I had lost six pounds in four days. SIX POUNDS IN FOUR DAYS!!!! Some people will undoubtedly get all up in arms about "crash dieting," etc., but I gotta tell you, if you don't see some real results, it is damn hard to stay focused. These quick results, all while I'm feeling full and satisfied, (albeit wishing I could have some dried fruit or a big fat chocolate cake -- I AM human, ya know!) give me the boost I need to keep it up hopefully till I meet my goal, and sooner rather than later. 

Anyway.... 'nuff said. Thank you again for the book and the encouragement, Ann!

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As I was writing this post and looking at these photos, I remembered a gift that I received -- OMG -- 15 years ago. (How can that be?) 

I went down to my kitchen to pull it out:

I'm laughing myself silly at the similarities (and yet stark differences) in the inscription, and even the handwriting. This was a Christmas gift from my dear friend Andrew in London. I was 20 pounds lighter in those days, and the word "diet" was not really in my lexicon -- however, I was always concerned about healthy habits -- eating and exercise -- which the British thought made me slightly wacky. All except Andrew. He and I were gym buddies, but at the same time, also pudding buddies. We'd get together on a Friday evening after we had gone to the gym and make rich steamed English puddings together, then sit on the couch with two spoons and eat the entire thing while watching the telly. I've made many a Delia Smith Christmas pudding from this book in the intervening years, too. 

But I won't be doing that for a while now. I've got a date with a camera coming up soon, and I'd just as soon not share it with this extra tonnage, thank you very much. 

Random Wednesday

1. Would you please go and take this survey? It would be of great assistance to the folks at the OFA if you did. 

2. I am pleased to announce that I think we have enough scarves for this year. How is THAT for vague and ambiguous? If you've only just mailed yours this week, don't fret, because if there is a surplus, it can be stored and saved for next year, as long as we don't bury them in a ton of scarves to save. Once again, kudos to everyone for the lovely high-quality scarves that you all sent in! I'm much relieved and so proud of all of us.  

3. I have been getting such a kick out of a series of TV ads for a new medication. I can't remember the name of it, or even what it's for (sleep, perhaps?) but in the warnings it says words along the lines that the drug can cause hostility, anger, and irascibility, or something like that. "If this is unusual for you, please stop taking the medication and call your doctor," or something along those lines. HI-LAR-I-OUS. 

4. I'm a little more hostile, angry, and irascible than usual lately because I am in Phase I of the South Beach Diet. But it's working! Cheerleading will be gratefully accepted. Negativity or advice that this is the wrong diet, or whatever, is not at all welcome. I'm doing it, I believe it's healthy, and it's working, after much lack of success in several other attempts over the last two years. Some extra weight has crept on, about which I am not comfortable, and I'm giving this a go. I am slightly feral due to detoxing from carbs, however. 

Everybody has their own ideas about this subject, I know, and about health in general. I recently bought a book that I thought would be entertaining, called "Skinny Bitch," but besides the two-word title which WAS entertaining, the rest of the book was just annoying and repetitive and could be summed up in another two words: "Go vegan." Been there, done that, with disastrous results back in the '90s. (I gained 40 pounds, my blood pressure was dangerously high, my cholesterol was through the roof. I was being a super-careful whole foods vegan, supposedly doing "all the right things." It was bad, bad, bad for me.) So what is right for some people is not right for others. I should trademark and copyright that. Wait, probably somebody else already has. Nevah mind. 

In the end, South Beach is not so very different from the Blood Type Diet for Type O's that quite literally saved my life and turned all my numbers around after that six-year period following a vegan diet. But I think I have become a bit bored with it and have cheated too often of late. SB, I hope, will shake things up a bit to good effect, and so far it's looking good. 

4. I took two more little steps in the direction of a smaller carbon footprint yesterday. I bought these handy items:

Bamboo eating utensils in a nifty little carry pouch with a hook to attach to my handbag or computer case or whatever, from To-Go Ware. Aren't they CUTE? There's even a set of chopsticks in there, though I'm kind of crap at using chopsticks and will probably never use these.  Now when I'm out and about and eating to-go foods, I don't have to take and then throw away the plastic forks & knives & spoons, which are so awful and always break, anyway. And when I carry my own lunch, these are lighter and more compact and handy in their own carry case than bringing a regular stainless steel set from home.

 And a reusable, washable snack/sandwich bag from SnackTaxi.com

5. Barbara P. sent me info on this highly cool tool to make pdfs.  This could make pattern-collecting (of, say, free patterns suitable for red scarf knitting) really easy and organized.  Check it out!  

On Becoming A Yogurt Foodie

I waited to blog until this morning because I wanted to be able to report how the new yogurt-making method turned out. 

It's an established part of my routine now, this yogurt-making thang. It isn't something I forget to do, or one of the multitude of new things I've tried that I've soon lost interest in. I love making the yogurt. It feels healthy and clean and easy enough (though I have had my share of scorched or overheated milk and a ruined batch or two) and economically and ecologically more sound than buying all those tubs of yogurt individually. As I mentioned when I started this thing, David eats 3-4 quarts of plain yogurt a week (that's a lotta plastic tubs!), and though I had been mostly dairy-free for at least a decade, in the last year or year and a half I have been reintroducing and reincorporating a little bit more dairy into my food repertoire -- mostly yogurt -- and then when I discovered Fage Greek yogurt, well, it was all over but the paying. I was eating at least one to two cups of it a day, and that stuff is pricey. 

So one day I got the idea to try to make my own. Turns out a lot of my friends had been making their own all along. Who knew I was behind the curve on this, what I thought at the time was a back-to-the-'70s nifty idea I had. And it turns out it was easy to find recipes and methods to make my own all over the internet. And try them I did. They all seemed to work well enough -- the crockpot method, the on-the-stove method, the microwave method -- but I found that I was a bit disappointed with the taste. Many of my batches were coming out too tangy, and not at all close to the lovely mild taste of the Fage. Good enough, but not GREAT. 

I want GREAT. I want a yogurt that I really don't have to sweeten -- I mean REALLY don't have to sweeten, like Fage -- a yogurt that I can swallow without squinting my eyes a bit and PRETENDing I don't have to sweeten it. If I want to add some maple syrup or swirl in some homemade jam for a dessert or something, that's fine, but I don't want to HAVE to. I want to eat clean, unsweetened yogurt for breakfast, over maybe half a banana and some fresh blueberries if I wish, and to not have to convince myself that it is sweet enough. So I kept trying, and failing, to get that elusive mild flavor. I tried different temperatures and different incubating times. I tried adding buttermilk powder. I tried skim, 1%, 2% and whole milk. I tried different yogurt brands for starters.

A couple of weeks ago I thought, hm, now that I am a little bit taken up with this, a fun extension of it might be to research and find yogurt cultures from around the world, and do some taste-testing to see which one(s) I like best. As always, you can find just about anything on the internet, and so it was quite easy to find several places I could order yogurt cultures. In the end, and though this is not really what I set out to do (i.e., try different cultures from around the world) I decided to order from Custom Probiotics. I ordered their Yogurt Culture Formula 2, because it has a larger variety of cultures. More is better, right? (heh)

So my order arrived yesterday, and I couldn't wait to make my first batch. The method for making their yogurt is just a bit different from the others I've tried. You bring the milk to a boil, not just 180 degrees. They say this helps to align the proteins for better viscosity. And you cool it all the way to 100F before adding the culture. You incubate it for a longer period of time, starting at 100F -- I imagine it cooled somewhat before it was over, though I did not disturb it or take the temperature after my almost-14-hour incubation time. 

My oven light proved in my previous yogurt-making ventures to keep the oven at the perfect (for that method) 110F, but that is too warm for this yogurt, so I just put the warm milk in the crock, covered it with two beach towels, and put it in one of the warmest places in my house -- on the floor near the refrigerator. The compressor of the fridge gives off enough warmth to keep it at a decent incubating temperature, I figured. Ha, I just realized that the computers in this house probably generate at least as much heat as that, and so whereas the rest of my house is just too cool, near the computers would be another good place for me to incubate my yogurt.  

If the first batch is any indication, it results in a far superior-tasting yogurt -- so mild I can hardly believe it -- none of that too-tangy, almost bitter flavor that some of my other batches produced -- and the texture is exquisite, too. I made this batch with one half gallon of skim milk and one half gallon of 1%, supplemented with 2 cups of dry skim milk powder. So I guess it's less than 0.5% milkfat.  [Edited: I forgot to mention the skim milk powder when I first published this post. Sorry!] 

Shown here, thickened even more by straining it about an hour in a coffee filter over a mesh strainer, with a little bit of Vicky Day's Raspberry Black Currant jam 

One word: YUM.

And let's talk about economics. If a jar of this culture lasts a year (in the freezer), and you can make 50-55 batches of yogurt from it (I made a gallon with a half-scoop of the powder, as directed), at $50 for the bottle and $15 for the FedEx shipping that is required to keep it fresh and alive, and $2.69 a gallon for my Vermont milk, that's approximately $3.89 a gallon for yogurt that tastes as good as I can imagine any yogurt tasting (just like Fage, in my opinion), and is as fresh as it can possibly be, with as many live cultures as possible (and relatively quantifiable cultures, as well -- whereas I was never sure what was still living when I made it with the store-bought yogurt as starter before).  

For this big-yogurt-eating family of two, that is a big savings in both dollars and plastic. It's a win-win-win. 

I give Custom Probiotics a big thumbs up. 

Random Wednesday

1. Oops. Both Mr. Jefferies and I forgot that yesterday was supposed to be terrier day. Here is a pic of the pupsicle taken yesterday, for the Yorkie-deprived -- well, those of you who didn't already see this on Facebook, anyway:

That's his polar fleece jacket over one of his Peace Fleece handknit sweaters, which was very warm and cozy indeed. However, those little pawses must have been awfully cold. Still, he did not want to go back inside, and I must have walked 10 miles with him yesterday, slipping and sliding on the black ice all the way. 

Yes, he does have boots, but they are more trouble than they're worth. He has a devil of a time trying to walk in the black set I got him, and they fall off too easily. The ones his parents got him in New York City, while he can walk in them fairly well, I could get arrested if I put them on him here.

You think I'm kidding.

Straight from the canine transvestite store.

2. I miss the LSAT studying. This could be a manifestation of something pathological, I'm starting to think.

3. In addition to the yogurt-making craze (I just made my fourth batch -- I ruined one batch, though, by, I think, overheating the milk), I've taken up with another back-to-the-'70s craze:

Sprouting. About a month ago, I bought a "Best of the Best of the Best" kit from Sprout People, and ohman, are we enjoying it! Mr. Jefferies gets a small serving of sprouts on his breakfast, too, which makes him very happy (he's a real greens-eatin' dawg). We're grabbing handfuls of sprouts (that one on the right is the French Mix and on the left is Beanie's Awesome Mix) to throw on our sandwiches, on our salads, and using the sprouts alone as their own salad with some vinaigrette. The other day I had a huge plate of broccoli sprouts with a can of salmon and maple balsamic vinaigrette for my lunch. Yum! And last night we had those bean sprouts on the left of the photo in our tomato/roasted-red-pepper soup. Slightly weird, but good. 

Now that the daily veg are not available from the backyard, this works as a handy and economical super-fresh and super-nutritious substitute. I know I qualify as slightly crazy in the food department, and this might not be for everyone, but I love the Madison Market Mix (nuts and seeds) sprouted and added to my morning yogurt, drizzled with maple syrup and sprinkled with cinnamon, for breakfast. Sprout People's dehulling video was (you know, without trying to be toooo dramatic) sort of life-changing. I'd tried sprouting many times before, but hated the hulls, didn't know how to deal with them, and just gave up. Now that I know how to manage them, and I found a mini-salad spinner for just $19 at my health food store, I'm all about the sprouts.

4. The basketweave scarf is now a smokin' 48 inches long. I steam-blocked it for this photo, and I am in love. With a scarf. I know. Shut up.

 

Oops

Oops, I never did get to making the celery soup yesterday.  Instead I:

1. Did another practice LSAT test. (The result was disappointing.)

2. Made a gallon of homemade yogurt in the crock pot. (The result was NOT disappointing.) (In fact, it was awesome.) (I've got a bee in my bonnet about all the [plain and Greek] yogurt we eat and all the 1-quart plastic containers we throw away. Oh, all right, "send to the recycling center." But still, what most people don't know is that sending all that stuff to the recycling center should not leave one with a completely clear conscience. It's better than the landfill -- or is it? Does everything that we think we are recycling get recycled? Is there an outlet for all the recycleables? Is there a market for them? Is it economically sound to recycle them? The answer, more often than we wish, is no. I'm told by my recycling center reps that there is a huge glut of recycled stuff -- or more accurately, stuff that is returned by well meaning individuals who think it is really going to be recycled -- and nowhere to send it.) (Sorry for all the parentheticals.) (I won't do it again.) (I promise.) (Probably.) Plus, making yogurt was easy and fun, I didn't have to buy anything except a gallon of milk (I used 1%) and a box of nonfat powdered milk, and it will save (lots of) money. (Oops.)

3. Knitted on my red scarf. At last measure it was 45". (I'm thrilled to see the enthusiasm with which the blog community is taking on the Red Scarf challenge. If you don't already know, the Knitspot Ravelry group is having a knitalong -- with prizes!)  Erika has instituted a six-inches-a-day plan. I'm not touching that one with a ten-foot pole. (Oops.)

4. Went to the gym and had a hell of a good and varied workout, using the Tabata protocol, and taught the protocol to Abigail. She's a fan. 

5. Followed the workout with a light dinner of leftover broccoli-mushroom-cheddar soup and a huge salad, and grapefruit.

Life is good. Well, all except for that LSAT. Oops.

Caramelized Squash & Apples -- Somewhat of a Recipe

Oh. My. 

Sundays this time of year are often for experimenting in the kitchen. Yesterday I decided it was finally time to cut up a couple of the squashes I harvested a while back. I only ended up with two butternut squashes from the garden this year, and I've been rather loath to use them up, but really, how silly is that? I grow them to eat them, right? 

Oh, golden nuggets of wonder! This method really did them proud -- adding flavor interest, without being overly sweet. There really isn't much of a caramelized glaze to this. If you want that or want it sweeter than just a hint of sweet, of course, just add more brown sugar.

But oh, how nice it smells while cooking. Autumnal and spicy.

The two squashes were rather small (or at least I thought so until I cut them both up), so I used them both. I also cut up four small red onions, and four smallish apples from our local applefest a couple weeks ago, that had gone almost mushy (they go bad so fast). If I had had some cranberries on hand, I might have sprinkled a few of those in the mix. 

I coated the vegetables and fruit with sunflower seed oil from Rainville Farm which is about eight miles from here. I then added a generous sprinkling of cinnamon, a little sprinkle of kosher salt, and about a tablespoon of brown sugar -- just enough to help to bring out the naturally sweet flavors of the squash, apples and onions. I mixed it all up and put it in the oven, spread out on a large roasting pan, at 350F for just under an hour, giving them a couple of stirs along the way. 

I served this dish with local chicken breasts coated in maple-chipotle glaze. 

Holy cow, was that delicious. 

Sometimes the simplest of combos just totally rocks the house. 

Unheard Of

 

A giant salad composed entirely of vegetables from my garden.  

All right, I hear you.  I put those in my blog all the time; it's no big deal.

But not on October 8th.  

This salad, from my garden, on October 8th?  

Crazy talk!

(This is northwestern Vermont, need I remind you?)

But it's true.  

In the salad we have:  baby spinach, microgreens (various mystery baby greens from a seed mix I planted in September), sprouted sunflower seeds that fell from the sunflowers I grew this summer, baby kale, baby Swiss chard, broccoli, carrots, red onions, tomatoes (there are now only THREE left from my summer pickings -- I'm stunned and thrilled that they've lasted this well), parsley, chervil; and believe it or not I found some blueberries on a bush that were still edible and delicious, and a great addition to the salad.  In order to gather the ingredients for the salad, I felt like quite the forager, and looking at my garden in its end-of-the-season state, I had my doubts that I'd end up with enough for a decent salad.  Au contraire!

We enjoyed this salad on Thursday with maple vinaigrette and a nice little piece of steak from a local farm. It was arguably even more fabulous than a salad in the dead of summer, given that it is such an unexpected treat for this time of year, and it was packed with the freshest of flavors, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals & phytochemicals. 

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Hey, maybe you'll spot me on the NYC Yarn Crawl this weekend.  At the very last minute, it turns out I am delivering Mr. Jefferies for visitation with his parents, and they are very busy, so I need to keep myself entertained in the city for the weekend.  Aw, darn.