It’s a new year

The holidays were mixed. We spent a very quiet Christmas weekend. We never got around to getting a tree, I couldn’t see the point because no one would be sharing it with us and, in the end, it is always a mess of needles and water.

Instead I hung a red bow.

And lit my candle chimes.

Well, it turns out this wasn’t enough for Tim. So next year, we will have a tree.

New Year’s Eve was celebrated with family and a Buche de Noël, complete with merengue mushrooms. I finally joined the Great British Breaking Show craze and have upped my baking.

I also tried my hand at their staple dessert, macarons. I used the wrong sort of almonds, ground instead of flour, and cheated by filling them with Nutella, but they were a hit.

I received candle molds as a gift and had just enough saved beeswax to make two adorable candles. This reminded me to order bees for next spring since my hive flew the coop, so to speak.

Days are getting longer but I got to watch the sun set behind the hills at 4 pm yesterday.

We have already had a chance to play with the snow thrower a few times, have had countless fires, moved wood around to keep up, and slept in the cabin.

So it is winter.

Eating on the edge

My pantry is generally well stocked and we are eating our way through it. This week was a little iffy. I opened a can of sweetened condensed milk that expired in 2017. It was tanner than usual but seemed fine in my coffee. I froze some with a batch of yogurt that had failed and called it ice cream.

Today I opened a jar of peach jam from 2018. Lid was sealed, delicious.

I have been making all sorts of bread; I may have recreated the soy linseed bread that is sold as a mix in Australia but is impossible to buy here. White bread, english muffins and yesterday, no knead bread.

Soil sprouts are doing well indoors and I added some to lunch.

Polenta in the instant pot, is easy, creamy, cheesy, and delicious! This recipe alone makes the instant pot worth its weight.

Yesterday was a trifecta. The aforementioned bread, apricot almond scones and apple pie.

Since I have a lot of root vegetables, potatoes and carrots are often on the menu. The other night was gnocchi in a butter herb sauce. Made half a batch and froze half of that batch. Well worth it and only used 2 potatoes. Plus they are fun to shape over your thumb with a fork.

I have an old mixmaster from the 1970’s ( I found the same one we used on Deal Island on eBay) and have souped it up with many accessories. I use it to bake cakes and cookies, juice oranges and for the first time I made a batch of chicken sausages with the grinder. I was intimidated before I started but it was easy and fast. What I did not have was a sausage stuffer, although I had the the casing from a local grocery that sells it during hunting season. A stuffer is on the shopping list. I spiced it up for breakfast patties and they were great.

Tim has a mouth full of sweet teeth, which takes a lot of baking to satisfy. I made cinnamon buns for easter, chocolate chip cookies, coffee cake (again from a less than satisfactory batch of yogurt), stovetop vanilla custard ( a recipe from my daughter who is the newest cook in the family since she has been home – in DC).

Dinner sometimes suffers when I have exhausted my cooking mojo with desserts and the like. This weekend it was hotdogs (uncured, thank you very much) and last night French toast. Latvian piragis have been requested, maybe tonight.

On a more serious note, I am grateful for what we have and worry about the long term economic effect for others. So far I have contributed to two local food banks, and if you are able, I encourage you to do the same in your community.

Finding things to do

There’s never a dull moment here on Protection Island. We combine our island chores with our own hobbies and interests every day.

Today for instance, I wanted oreo cookies. We won’t be ashore for a few days and didn’t buy them on our last shopping trip but luckily I found a great recipe on the internet. You can see it here. I just happened to have all the ingredients, mostly, on hand. A well stocked larder is the key to life’s pleasures. We don’t have a mixer or beater and we don’t even have a wooden spoon in our kitchen. But my hands and a strong, long handled, metal serving spoon did the trick. Although I overcooked them a little and shaped the cookies too big, they are delicious and satisfied my craving. I may let Tim eat one or two as well.

Yesterday I reached a milestone. I finished knitting a lace shawl I started for my daughter in 2015 while we were caretakers on Deal Island, Tasmania. I wrote about it here. I knit the body of the shawl, which measured 60 x 30″, during our 3 month fall season there and brought it home to  “just” finish the edging. I could knit about 3 inches of edging a night, there were 17 feet of edging to knit, or 204 inches, which basically would have taken 3 solid months, every night. But other projects intervened. So with some devoted knitting time here and the courage finally to rip out my provisional cast on, the shawl is complete. The pattern was recreated from a lace stole made in the Shetland Islands by Mrs. Jane Thomasina Williamson and was a joy to knit.

Here’s my version.

I’ll wait until I get home to wash and block it in our pristine well water.

The other activity I obviously enjoy is taking photographs. The scenery and wildlife are inspiring. Sometimes unexpected, to me at least, results occur. I took a few photographs of sunset when we went out for a walk after dinner. I must confess, I almost always only use my iphone these days for photos. I am sooo lazy. I even gave away my SLR camera.

Anyhow, when I looked at the photos, they were marred by a green dot. Not the rumored green flash seen at sunset. A distinct dot off to the side. A quick google search revealed it happens commonly with the iphone camera because…well the reason eluded me. Something about not having filters and a reflection off the lens. It may be prevented by aiming the camera so the green dot ends up in the middle of the bright light. Or it can be edited from the photo. Since I already had the shots I chose to edit them.

Here is the original photo, I was trying to catch a silhouette of a cruise ship leaving the Strait of Juan de Fuca near the New Dungeness Lighthouse.

Notice the green dot. Next I tried to edit it with Snapseed. This was my first attempt with interesting results. The area I “healed” ended up in a different place and two ships appeared.

Interesting but not what I was aiming for. Here’s the final version.

See how the day flies by?

Kitchen produce

This photo shows why I must exercise.

On the left, is my latest loaf of sourdough bread. The recipe is loosely based on a PBS episode with Julia Child and the owner of La Brea Bakery, Nancy Silverton. .

From the episode, I learned three important facts about bread baking. I made my own sourdough starter with red grapes, flour and water, which sits on my counter and ferments away; keep one hand clean while kneading dough; and taste the raw dough and adjust.

I’ve made several delicious loaves and hope to keep the starter happy. This was my best one yet.

Next to the bread is a fruit pie, not really one of my vices but dear Tim loves them and I go along for the ride. Any fruit will do. I only like pie the day it is baked. After that, I’m only interested in the filling.

Next up is white bread, albeit a bit overdone. I make two loaves a week (whether we need them or not). This is definitely not a gluten-free household.

Finally, pasta. I received an Atlas pasta maker for Christmas and love it. I roll out a batch of fresh pasta a week. Semolina flour, salt and water. Run it through the machine several times to get the right thickness, then put it through the cutting blades. Because it cooks so quickly, the whole process doesn’t take longer than boiling boxed pasta. And clean up is a snap.

Other kitchen additions include an old fashioned, metal bread box with holes and a magnetic knife rack. Aah, domestic bliss.

I’m waiting for my new hula hoop and jump rope to arrive so I’ll be able to exercise on that tiny rock of an island in Alaska.

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Back to the recipe

Sometimes you have to follow the rules.

The first batch of pignolli cookies I made, from this recipe turned out perfectly. I followed the instructions to the tee.

As I cook more and more, almost 3/7 (that’s three meals, seven days a week) I take liberties, improvise, create. Not with these babies. When I didn’t make the correct size they sunk in the middle. I tried beating the egg whites first – no good; tried lowering the oven temperature, nope. They have sunk in the middle for 5 years.

Not today though. I followed the recipe closely and it worked.

This

Became these.

The trick is to make them the right size! With pignolli cookies, and so many things in life, big isn’t better.

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Words get the best of me

Not spoken or written words – the game, Words with friends. As I write this, I have 6 games in progress. Several just get a word a day.

It’s sort of like Scrabble but its not. Nonsense words are accepted. There’s no opportunity to challenge an opponent’s move; if the computer doesn’t like it, they can’t play it. And the computer likes crazy words – luv, bens, jape, om, bo. These are desperate times. Z and Q words remain limited.

I’m sure this game leads to corporate waste because I see a few moves made during working hours. It’s a nice way to stay connected but I don’t want it to interfere with baking

bread making

cooking

or weaving time.

The first photo is the most amazing nutmeg and black pepper popovers from Bon Appetit magazine.
They went perfectly with short ribs cooked in the crockpot and kale and leeks. Hoo boy that was good!

There’s a party going on

Or so it seems at our compost pile. I have somehow manage to dodge the trek to the compost pile since mid- December; I couldn’t carry the bin with crutches, the ground was icy, the driveway was icy. These excuses don’t work anymore and I ventured off yesterday after 6 inches of new snow fell. To my surprise, there’s been a a party out there. All sorts of tracks lead in from the woods and encircle the compost bin. I saw deer tracks, maybe rabbit, coyote and mice. But what are these claw like marks? They are linear in groups of four. Coyote scratches? I don’t see tracks associated with them, only claw marks. I’m thinking Adirondack bear paw, one of my favorite flavors from Stewart’s. But shouldn’t they still be sleeping?

party tracks

So we had our own little party. My son and BGFF are visiting and had the makings of a key lime pie. We debated whipped cream or meringue and as you can see, meringue won. It was a joint effort and delicious outcome. Today’s baking project is spinach pie and we may head out to tap some maple sugar trees.

Lady of the river

Lady of the river

Today was a snow day. I remembered to take my camera with me on a drive to Lake Placid. It snowed softly in the morning, continued all day into the night. There will be an early easter egg hunt, in the snow, at our house this weekend. Tradition.

These pignoli cookies always look so promising. Alas, in the end I threw out the batch. I’ve been having a problem with them rising and haven’t had suggested parchment paper in the house for a long time. This batch rose fine but got stuck to the foil. Worse yet, some had a little piece of foil still stuck to them and left a metallic taste in my mouth. Out they went.

Works in process

I am a work in process.  I have started physical therapy, actually put a sneaker on my foot and used an exercise machine!  Yeah.  I was given permission to throw my crutches in the Lake and am walking about on my own two feet, with the aid of a walking cast.  This goes in the Lake in three weeks.  My mobility has enabled me to tackle and almost complete a myriad of projects and now I can cook and bake in the kitchen without the aid of a chair in the middle of the kitchen.  I am still not getting out too much due to the layer of ice over everything so all my recent adventures have taken place at home on the range.

On the knitting front, I am working on two Santa Cruz hoodies as an overdue gift for two young boys.  One is taking up a ton of yarn and I ran out of one color on the sleeve so did a sleeve-sleeve transfusion.  I used the yarn from the long sleeve as I ripped it out, to knit the short sleeve.  So while one shrunk, the other grew until they were even, then I had to add a stripe.  As soon as I finish them, I have given myself permission to begin work on a Aran sweater for my son.  He has approved the pattern and yarn and if I can stick to the pattern and knit the gauge, all should go well. (ha ha ha)

Circle of Loki

 

 

 

 

 

On the quilting front, I finished the cat quilt and Loki spends a lot of time sleeping on it curled into a tight ball.  Once that was finished, I tackled the machine quilting of my kaleidoscope quilt.  I had to   wrestle the queen size quilt through my sewing machine but now have only the borders left.  I devised a quilting pattern that avoids dragging the whole thing through the machine again.  I am having mild panic that the marker I am using – now like an artist’s paintbrush all over the quilt- won’t come out as easily as the manufacturer says it will.  Why do I always ignore the suggestion to try a test patch first?

 

 

Quilting

Weaving has had mixed results.  I was able to use my walking cast to work the treadles of the floor loom but felt a bit like Herman Munster.  So my twill scarves remain on it.  I have been weaving with my rigid heddle loom and am trying to master a table runner for my daughter.  The first was a disaster.  I used rayon, which looked so pretty and shiny, but didn’t stretch – at all – and wasn’t able to hide my weaving errors.  Now I am using recycled cotton and applying the lessons learned from the rayon disaster.

Weaving in progress

 

 

Baking is going well.  I used my new crumpet rings with great success, make sandwich rolls regularly, have found a source of rennet to continue making mozzarella cheese and think I may have perfected the art of bagels.  More about that later because it involves broiling, boiling and baking.

Crumpets

 

Rolls

Hopping along

For those of you who have never needed crutches, I hope you stay that way. Whenever I meet someone who has already used them we are instantly bound by a common ground of resourcefulness. Everyone remembers how hard it is to carry a drink from one place to another. People have devised various bags and even carts to help them along. Ice is treacherous. I grow tired of being dependent so I am trying to do more and more on my own. I even went back to work yesterday for a day.

There’s an advantage to a small kitchen. I can cook by keeping a chair in the middle of the work area to rest ingredients or myself on, while I hop around using the counters on the perimeter as support. Oddly enough, I can’t clean up! So far I have tried two batches of mozzarella cheese, much easier than expected. The night nurse in the hospital shared his fascination with it and I found an easy recipe on the internet. Ingredients are simple: a gallon of milk; two teaspoons of citric acid; and a rennet tablet. You also need a thermometer and the whole process only takes about 90 minutes. Somehow both batches were eaten or used before I took a final picture, but the last step is magical. You heat and knead the lumpy mess a few times and it becomes silky, stretchy delicious mozzarella cheese. One gallon of milk makes about a softball size ball of cheese.

Mozzarella 1

Mozzarella 2

Mozzarella 2

My view from the house has improved because Tim’s project to remove the overhead wires was completed this week. The wires are down, we still have phone service and electricity and all went well. I have a video of a very cool piece of machinery yanking the pole out of the ground and may include it at some point.

Getting ready to take down the pole

Our unobstructed view of Jay Mountain today. I hope the birds don’t mind in the spring.

We continue to eat well and colorfully. A couple of days ago, I made a batch of mashed potatoes from blue potatoes from the farm. They were very an interesting shade of blue but not as creamy as the white ones.

Blue potatoes

Tonight I made a chicken pot pie entirely with farm ingredients. This is the way to eat.

Chicken pot pie

Pot pie minus one

I’m knitting and weaving and plan a big adventure tonight – I’m going to go downstairs for the first time in almost a month to be near the wood stove, my weaving and quilting. The temperature is going to go below 0 degrees F tonight and it should be cozy there. If it wasn’t for the kitchen, I might never come back upstairs.