Q's New Sweater

I showed this project in process but now I get to show the final result. Q loves it which means I'm very happy with it. He picked everything - yarn, buttons, and pattern - out himself and I must admire his taste. The color is a little washed out in the photos. It's actually a very dark, cool purple that has flecks of color - Brown Sheep's Lamb's Pride Superwash in "Northern Lights". It knit up beautifully from the pattern. My gauge was just a tiny bit off (which adds up when a sweater is 53" around) so I was glad I'd chosen the 56" size rather than the size below because it fits perfectly. I'll hopefully finish the sweater I'm currently knitting soon - this one - so I can show it off here.

Quentin's Marinara

Q got ambitious and created his own marinara recipe. It is much, much more complicated to make than my usual but it is very, very good.

The recipe...
4 lbs. Roma tomatoes, cut into chunks
1/4 c. diced onion
1 oz. diced garlic (about 6 large cloves)
1/2 oz. chopped basil (or about 2 T crushed dried)
1/4 oz. chopped oregano (or about 1 T crushed dried)
1 T parsley
4 T olive oil
2 T butter, cut into chunks
1 1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper
1/2 t crushed red pepper

Here it is, ready for the oven. We cook it in a 350 degree F oven for 2 1/2 - 3 hours.

A Clean Pair of Hands

When I'm canning, I always wish that there was some way to always have a clean pair of hands in the kitchen so I could be more efficient. Q was kind enough to be those for me this weekend and we got a huge quantity of peaches put up in record time. (He was also responsible for creating a new marinara recipe, which I'll share tomorrow.)


I thought I'd give a quick snapshot of my canning process. I've got it tuned to just how I like it now. (Thanks for the action shot, Q.)

The prep station

The blue bowl is a citric acid dip with a colander in it so the peaches can be drained in situ before getting poured into the syrup. The silver bowl is compost. The white plate was whole pits. I'm saving them to try and grow my own peach trees. Putting my cutting board into a baking pan has totally contained all of the peach mess.

The canning pots

Back left is the boiling water canner. Front left is the blanching pot (it has a built in colander!). The front right has a couple of inches of water and jars upside down in it steam sterilizing as the canner is processing. The back right has the syrup. We have gotten very good at rotating them around as needed. I'm am frequently grateful for the granite countertops during this type of procedure.

We're almost done preserving for the season - and the peaches are definitely done!

Zucchini-fest

When we returned from Colorado our harvest included a very large zucchini.

Zucchini Parmesan turns out to be really scrumptious.

Zucchini Pancakes were surprisingly fantastic. We had them with plain yogurt on top. Next time, we're thinking of smothering them in mushroom gravy. They reminded Q of egg foo young. The last half pound or so of zucchini is getting shredded and frozen so we can have these again this winter.

Zucchini cookie dough has been frozen and we're baking cookies every other night or so a half dozen at a time. This recipe is really really good - flavorful and not too sweet. It's the perfect "biscuit" for our evening tea.

Root Vegetables

After school on Thursday we came home and started in on some yard work. The basil was going to seed so that got cut off, tied into bundles and hung to dry. We're packing the carrots, parsnips and beets in some straw and trying to keep them for a while. The edamame got blanched and frozen. I'm so excited about having that in the freezer ready for a quick before dinner snack this winter - 5 pounds!

Just as we were getting ready to go in, we decided to check on the potato crop. This was the first year we've grown them and a huge number got torn out before they even started growing when the back trees got taken out. We just put the cut sections on the ground and then piled mulch on top of them. They were incredibly fun to harvest - brush away mulch and there are the potatoes! We didn't get a huge harvest this year but I'm really excited to grow them next year now.

We put up 80 pounds of peaches and made marinara with 35 pounds of tomatoes this weekend. Posts will follow in the next couple of days.

Heirlooms

We got back from our vacation in Colorado on Sunday but school started today so I've been run off my feet since we got back. I've got lots and lots of fun stuff to post but I'll have to get it on here this weekend. Below are some pictures I took before we left. I couldn't post them then because it would have ruined the surprise for others who were receiving the cedar chests as gifts.
When Mom and Dad came out in August they brought an amazing gift - a custom built cedar chest that matches ones that were made for my brother and two cousins. They were crafted by a woodworker in Carbondale, CO from black walnut my grandfather harvested from his family farm in Kansas many many years ago. It had been sitting in his shop in Grand Junction, CO for a few decades until my mother and aunts inherited it a couple of years ago.

They also brought out the quilt that's visible on the bed. My grandmother and I pieced it during the last year or so of her life and got it onto the quilting frame. She passed away before it was completed and my mom graciously moved the frame to her house, finished the quilting, and even did the binding before bringing it to me completed. To give perspective to that project, the bed it's on in the photo is king-sized.

The cedar was also in his shop. We also now have a brass plaque to mount in the lid that briefly explains the significance of the chest and gives our names and the year the chest was made. The red and white houndstooth was given to me by an aunt who apparently won it in a "make it with wool" contest when she was still a teenager. I'm hoping to get it together and make an awesome retro coat one of these days.

Getting the new quilt out made me want to show off and document the other quilt I have, the first one my mother, grandmother and I made when I asked her to teach me how to quilt, many years ago.
Grandma finished quilting that one and bound it. She gave it to me for Christmas 2000 with the label above attached. When I was just in Colorado I made myself a similar one documenting the story of the new quilt.

And so I get to show off a few of my most treasured possessions. :)
I'll get busy posting this weekend because we've been very busy and I have the pictures to prove it!

Fried Squash Blossoms

We arrived in Colorado last night and today I got the grand garden tour from Mom, including the "mystery vine" that planted itself this spring, took off like crazy (attempting to eat the air conditioner), and has recently been identified as a pumpkin. She's got several nice looking pumpkins and we carefully trimmed back all of the vines that weren't holding fruit already. We'd both heard of eating squash blossoms and today seemed like a good day to try it.

The filling was put together out of what was in her fridge - a couple of slices of pepper jack, crumbled; some cream cheese; basil and parsley from the garden; and garlic powder.
After being dipped in egg and coated in flour, they were fried in olive oil.
They turned out delicious. In this recipe the blossom doesn't seem to add a lot of character to the product but being a cheese delivery system seems like a valid purpose in itself.
We also had the last of her meager corn crop for lunch. They had a hail storm in early summer. It was pretty impressive that the stalks produced anything. They're not much to look at but the flavor is excellent.

Her tomato plants, however, managed to get fairly well protected and went absolutely crazy. I'm very likely making myself sick on delicious cherry tomatoes. I'm so jealous since mine were just turning when we left.