neotoma

Ramps! (I am definitely taking some to Texas), a porterhouse steak, new potatoes, sweet potatoes, a bacon-gruyere pastry wheel, an almond croissant, a lemon curd turnover, 3 arugula plants, a curry plant, a dill plant, a lemon thyme plant, a serving pack of frozen lavender-lemon verbena lemonade and an unsweetened packet to make another 1.5L of it (will take to Texas next week, because the water tastes of mud and the temperature is already in the 80s), three pink lady apples (may take to Texas and make Dad an apple-shallot tart) and a boule of sourdough bread.

Compliments:Two different people stopped me to tell me that they not only liked my packbasket, but my entire look, plus one of vendors wanted to know about my monarobot Diplocaulus as a Mayan glyph pin, and the apple person said I "looked great, as always".
Today's look:
dusty sage green canvas jacket from Talbots (at least 6 years old, needs its buttons replaced because 2/3rds of them have come off)
made-to-measure flared jeans from eShakti
Metropolis belt from Jon Wye
Godzilla tab socks
Oboz hiking shoes
the Velvet Night button-down shirt from MorningWitch over a light green racer-back tank from Talbots
the Diplocaulus pin on the jacket lapel
a straw panama gambler hat
a trapper's packbasket that I bought at least 20 years ago from a fur-trapper's festival
a necklace of amethyst, sugalite, and south american jade beads I made for myself years ago
these Zenni cats-eye glasses I buy again every time my prescription changes

Dad recently asked for this recipe. It is from 12 Months of Monastery Soups by Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourette, who was a Bendictine monk in New York state.

Ingredients

• 4 parsnips (about 1 lb/500g), peeled and sliced


• 2 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and cubed


• 1 large onion, chopped


• 1 garlic clove, minced


• 4 tablespoons of butter, margarine, or oil of choice


• 1 teaspoon curry powder


• 1/2 teaspoon ginger powder


• 6 cups stock of choice (I suggest chicken or vegetable; for a thicker soup, use only 4 cups stock)


• 1/2 cup of half&half or heavy cream (or creamline milk, if that's all you have)


• salt and white pepper to taste (use black pepper if you don't have white pepper)


• chopped parsley, as a garnish

Directions

1. Melt the butter in a good sized soup pout (at least 6 quarts) and add the prepared vegetables. Saute them lightly for 2 to 3 minutes.


2. Sprinkle the curry powder and ginger on top and stir the vegetables thoroughly. Add the stock and bring the soup to a boil. Once it reaches boiling, lower the heat and simmer the soup, covered, for 30 minutes.


3. Blend the soup in a blender or food processor until thick and creamy and then return it to the pot (or use an immersion blender). Reheat the soup, add the half&half and the seasonings, and stir well. Add more curry powder if the soup seems to need it. Do not let the soup come to a second boil.


4. Serve the soup hot with some finely chopped parsley as garnish.

Serves 6-8 and goes well with crusty bread.

Parnsips are not always available, so you might want to check your local grocery's website if they list what they have in stock; if they are available, they will be with the rest of the root vegetables, and look like large, knobby, white carrots, and usually sold in 1-poound bags (at least on the east coast of the USA).

Sauerbraten -- Marinated Rump Roast

Start with 4 lbs of rump roast -- beef (or bison if you can get it)

For 4 pounds of meat you need the following, so you will need to adjust.

2 medium onions, sliced
1/2 lemon, sliced
1.5 cups red wine vinegar (can use cider or white)
2.5 cups water
12 whole cloves
6 bay leaves
8 whole pepper corns
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp powdered ginger

4 pounds rump roast
broken ginger snaps for gravy

1. In large bowl or crock, combine all ingredients except meat and crumbs. Add meat, turning to coat. Cover and refrigerate about 36 hours, turning meat at least twice daily.


2. When ready to cook, remove meat and wipe dry. Brown in 2 tbsp hot fat. Add marinade (remove lemon slices). Cover and cook 2 hours (at 325F) or till tender. Remove meat.


3. For each cup of gravy: combine 3/4 cup strained marinade and 1/4 cup water; add 1/3 cup broken gingersnaps. Cook and stir a few minutes to thicken.

Serves 10.

Tomato, basil, and nasturium plants, feta cheese, ramps, beets (with their greens), hull-less barley, new potatoes, pull-apart rosemary Italian rolls, a carrot cake muffin, oatmeal raisin cookies, 1/2 lb mixed mushrooms, strawberries,3 chicken potpie handpies, a sausage sage corn muffin, a chocolate peanut butter banana muffin, a chewy ginger stack, a lemondoodle stack, and a traditional chocolate chip stack.

I'm making this Beet Pesto Barley Bowl with Wild Mushrooms recipe, though I might bulk out the basil leaves with ramp leaves and replace the garlic with ramp bulbs; we'll see how it holds up for lunch at work. I do want to eat more vegetables, but they aren't the easiest thing to make tasty.

I wore my A Lotta Axolotl shirt again today and received a lot of compliments for it. I'm planning on getting the Corn Snake shirt next, and maybe one more, but I'm trying to narrow it down between Velvet Night, Corvid Memento Mori , or Dark Jungle -- any thoughts?

ellen_fremedon and the Vegan Knitter graciously shared the use of their kitchen (which is actually big enough to have more than one person in it) for Christmas dinner. ellen made harissa soup, baked bread, and sheet-roasted vegetables (brussel sprouts, onion, sweet potato, carrots, the knobbiest parsnips know to man (which I had bought -- oops), red beets).

I brought a duck and roasted it accord to this recipe. The only changes we made were to add a little bit of cornstarch to get the drizzle to thicken up.

I also made spätzle, because I own a spätzle press and like the noodles enough to make them despite how sticky the dough sometimes is. I make mine with mace instead of nutmeg, for a more delicate flavor.

I also brought springerle cookies and gingerbread tiles from The Springerle House. Technically I could have made them myself, but they require baker's ammonium and The Springerle House has an amazing collection of cookie molds, so why not leave it to the professional?

hollimichele was also there for dinner, and when she asked if she could help was assigned the task of cutting up the pomegranate, which was a bit mean to give someone who'd never attempted cutting one open before. They are very messy, but she was the one wearing black. She rose to the occasion and found a tutorial about how to cut open a pomegranate on Youtube (and then went "why are there still MORE seeds?" as she was taking it apart.)

Dessert was waffles by the Vegan Knitter. They came apart slightly in the iron, but were wonderful crispy anyway.

For New Year's Day, I have invited people to come to my place for vegan pancake and Liège Waffles. I may also make New Year's Waffle Cookies (AKA Lukken/Nieujaar's Wafeltjes/Gaufrettes) because I have a mini-waffle iron and can make them a day ahead. Maybe Smitten Kitchen's Winter Fruit Salad, assuming I can find dried figs and dried apricots.

So I made spiced lemonade this weekend. I think it's going to be my new go-to for summer parties

Ingredients
1 cup of water
1 cup of sugar
1/2 tsp of whole cloves
1 small piece of stick cinnamon (about 1-2 inch long)
1 small piece of lemon peel or the zest of 2 lemons
4 lemons, juiced (or 3/4 to 1 cup of lemon juice, depending on how tart you like your lemonade)

1. Put the sugar, water, cloves, cinnamon, and lemon peel/zest in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil and keep going until the sugar dissolves and forms a thick syrup


2. Turn heat down slightly and add lemon juice. Keep on heat for 2-5 minutes


3. Take syrup off heat and allow to cool.


4. Strain syrup


5. Mix lemonade in the proportion of 2 Tbsp of lemon syrup to 8 oz of water (or ginger ale, if you want it sweeter).


6. Serve over ice

Tonight I made ramp & mushroom orecchiette, though I only had dried porcini and fresh oyster mushrooms (and used some white wine vinegar instead of actual wine), it worked out fine.

I hope to make a ramp risotto sometime in the next week or two, to take advantage of them while they're available.

Given the success of last month's gathering, I'm tentatively planning on hosting monthly gatherings where I cook something slightly to very fancy and hosting friends.

For March, I'm looking for a place I can buy sfogliatelle and probably cooking something from my Ligurian Italian cookbook.

It would probably happen on the 18th or 19th.

Kuzu Patates Casserole (Turkish lamb and potatoes casserole), rice pilaf, country white bread, gingerdoodle cookies, Old Bay empanada, vegetable empanda, chocolate ganache cookies, Parisian macaroons, quart of milk, quart of plain yogurt, 3 cheesesteak handpies, 1 roasted veggie muffin, a chai latte scone, an extreme chocolate chip cookie stack, and pb&j thumbprint cookie stack.

I am starting the French Cassoulet today -- cooking the beans and broth a day ahead, and then doing the rest tomorrow.

I worked from home today because I had my annual physical early in the morning and I didn't want to have to go into the office afterward.

So I took the opportunity to make bread as well, as I only need a little break now and then to turn it for another rise.



It's Ligurian focaccia, recipe from Liguria, the cookbook: Recipes from the Italian Riviera, by Laurel Evans. I bought my copy from Rizzoli on the trip to New York City I took at the beginning of January.