Knitting In The North

This is My Kung Fu...

And It Is Strong!

 

Some people prepare amazing turkeys, succulent hams, tasty vegetables, flaky pies...

 

I throw a bunch of yummy ingredients in a bowl, and call it dessert.

 

Happy Easter!  I'll show you cute kid pictures tomorrow...

 

 

 

Quiet Days

What a mama to do when she finally starts feeling better (after weeks of illness - weeks!), only to have her babes come down with it, too?  Liam got it, then Brian.  I hoped the girls had given it a miss, only to wake last night to poor Gwenyth's tears.  Fever, earache, cough...  poor little thing. 

 

So, today was another quiet day.  After so many, even I start to feel restless, so what to do?

 

 

 

Snuggle up under soft blankets,

 

 

Mix up a Pineapple Upside Down Cake,

 

 

 

Sneak outside for a brisk half hour of sawing freshly pruned apple branches,

 

 

Prepare a fresh batch of homemade yogurt,

 

 

Watch Liam be the only person on the entire planet glad to see snow swirling in the air,

 

 

Sew a sick little girl a Feel Better Zippered Pouch (to match her spring coat-in progress).

 

All in all, the day passed fairly peacefully, and yet I still feel productive.  Let's hope this is the last of the nasty germs for a while! 
 

 

 

 
  
 

 

A Little Taste of Luxury

 

I saw this simple recipe quite a while ago, and it's taken me ages to spend  a few minutes putting it together.  Am I ever glad I did!  A hot, sweet cup of chai is just the little luxury I need when the day starts to feel crazy.

 

Like it did the other morning, when Young Master Liam decided to help himself to my knitting....

 

It's a good thing for him that he's so cute.

Won-Ton-less

For our soup night last week, I tried a new recipe - Chinese Vegetable & Meatball.  I'll admit I was a little worried that the kids would all rebel, as they're not usually into the won-ton soup idea when we order Chinese food, and this is basically won-ton soup without the rice paper.  I was pleasantly surprised, though - not only did the kids all eat it, but Stuart had three (THREE!) helpings! 

 

Here's the recipe, in case you want to try it for yourself:

 

Chinese Vegetable & Meatball Soup, from $3 Meals by Ellen Brown

Meatballs:

• 2 T soy sauce
• 2 T cornstarch
• 3 large egg whites
• 1 T Asian sesame oil (I used whatever I had on hand)
• 3 scallions, white parts & 3" of green rinsed, trimmed & chopped (I used green onions)
• 3 T chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 T grated fresh ginger
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled & minced
• 1 lb ground pork
• 1/2 cup finely chopped water chestnuts
• salt & peper

Soup:

• 7 cups Chicken stock
• 6 scallions, white parts & 3" of green rinsed, trimmed & chopped (I used green onions)
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled & minced
• 1 T grated fresh ginger
• 2 T soy sauce
• 1 large carrot, peeled & julienned (I grated mine)
• 2 c chopped iceberg lettuce or Napa cabbage (I used bok choy)
• 1 c thinly sliced green beans (I omitted, and threw in the rest of the can of chopped water chestnuts)
• salt & pepper

 

1. For meatballs, mix soy sauce with cornstarch.  Combine egg whites, soy sauce mixture, sesame oil, scallions, cilantro, ginger & garlic in a mixing bowl, & whisk well.  Add pork & water chestnuts, season to taste, & mix well into a paste.  Chill for 30 minutes.
2. For soup, combine chicken stock, scallions, garlic, ginger, soy sauce & carrot in a 3-quart saucepan.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Reduce heat to low, and simmer soup, uncovered, for 10 minutes.
3. Using wet hands, form meatball mixture into 1-inch balls, and drop them into simmering soup.  Cook for 7-10 minutes, or until cooked through and no longer pink.  Add lettuce or cabbage & green beans, and simmer for 2 minutes.  Season to taste with salt & pepper, and serve hot.

Note: The soup can be prepared up to 3 days in advance & refrigerated, tightly covered.  Reheat it, covered, over low heat, stirring frequently.

 

Goings On

 

 

Lots of good fall things going on around here these days:

 

• Great thrift store finds (like Gwenyth's fabulous coat - wool, of course - and matching boots)
• Vegetable stock simmering on the stove
• Apple cake in the oven (as we put the batter in the pan, I asked Gwen how it looked.  Her answer?  "Slimy"  Oh, my literal girl.)
• Toasty armwarmers knit up for me & Katie
• Reading good books as a family (we're on #2, and the excitement is still building) 
• Homemade chocolate syrup
• And really, really good for me this week (helping me along on my journey  to embrace the Imperfect) - this quote

What are you up to?

 

PS - Miss Gwenyth has a request - she is in desperate need of some postcards to brighten her day when we bring in the mail.  If anyone is willing to send her a little piece of snail mail happiness, please let me know - she will be very, very grateful.   

 

Ahhhh... Refreshment

Ginger ale is a big hit around here.  It's one of those products that I often buy, and until recently, never considered making some of my own.  I know there are several versions of homemade ginger ale, many of which are fermented, but just like our small step into soap making, I wanted to start with something very simple.  More chance of success that way, I think, plus I don't make a huge time/money investment into something that might just fall completely... flat.

Here's what I did:

• Peel & slice 2 cups of fresh ginger (about 1/4" - 1/8" thick)
• Put ginger into a pot with 2 cups of water & 2 cups of sugar
• Cook, without boiling, until syrupy (ours took about an hour and a half)
• Fish out all the bits of ginger with a slotted spoon, or strain syrup into another container, reserving the ginger.
• Coat reserved ginger with sugar, and put on a cookie sheet into a low (225 degrees here) oven for about 3 hours

At this point, you have two ginger treats, which makes my frugal, waste-hating heart very happy.  Eat the candied ginger whenever you have an upset stomach, or feel like a gingery snack.  (I'd like to try dipping it in melted chocolate, myself.)  To use the syrup, pour about 1/4" into the bottom of a tall glass, and fill with tonic water.  Stir & enjoy!

My crew finds the candied ginger a bit hot, although I'm quite enjoying it myself.  Subsequent conversations with friends have suggested that I might substitute honey for sugar in the syrup, which I'd like to try next time.  I'm not really a "wing it" kind of gal, and I tend to follow any recipe as exactly as I'm capable of doing the first time around (and often every time thereafter).

A bonus with this recipe (as if the candied ginger wasn't enough!) is that the house smells fabulous the day you prepare this!

Mmmm, Mmmm Good

If you've been hanging out here with me for a while, you know something about me that surprises many, and generates envy in others:  I don't cook.  Stuart does pretty much all of the cooking around here, with me stepping in on Father's Day, or after a (rare) particularly long day when Stuart needs a break.  Really.  I don't cook.  I bake - all the time, several times a week, but I don't do any cooking.  (Well, I do lunch for me & the kiddies, but you know.  That's not really cooking.  And I have Katie as my sous-chef.)

A little ways back, I borrowed the book A Homemade Life from the library.  I had never read the blog Orangette before, but I kept hearing about it on blogs, and thought I'd check it out.  I was totally unprepared, both for the huge enjoyment I got from each chapter, and from the insane desire I suddenly felt to cook something.  Me?  Cook something?  

 

  

Mais Oui!  I cooked a whole meal - All By Myself.  And I'm still using the recipes - my personal favourites are the Grotto Eggs (will you be surprised to hear I had never, ever made scrambled eggs before?) and the red cabbage salad.  Mmmm.  Even better - the whole crew ate the food I made - and liked it!  (Especially Liam.)

Pop-Pop-Pop

 

I love making jam.  And chutney.  And applesauce.  Really, anything I can successfully water-bath can.  It's just so supremely gratifying; I feel all Manitoba-farmgirlish - in my mind, I'm a pioneer woman, providing for my little family.  Which I guess I am, on some small level...

And the best part?  Definitely the pop-pop-pop of the jar lids, sealing all that blueberry (or apple, or mango, or whatever) goodness in, until we need it this coming winter.  The clear signal that all is well. 

Yum.  Well - eating it might be the best part.  But that sound is pretty darn satisfying.

Gentle Arts

I was in an agony of impatience all weekend - the library called Friday evening to say my copy of The Gentle Art of Domesticity was finally in and processed and ready to be picked up.  (Please forgive the lack of links - Typepad has very rudely changed everything on me, without asking my permission, and I will have to take some time to figure out how to add links.)  However, they were closed because it was a holiday long weekend here in Canada, and I had to wait!  That's just mean.

This morning, off we went to pick it up, as well as a book called Cheesemaking Made Easy, by Ricki Carroll (after reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver, I've become obsessed with the idea of making cheese.  It's probably just a nesting thing, but we'll see.)  I hadn't really thought of baking at home as an art, more of a necessity for all the hungry little mouths in my house, and a craving dampener for the large pregnant woman.  I like the idea, though, of gentle arts.  It brings to mind a sense of peace and pleasure in the process of all the things that we used to do because we had to, and now do because we choose to.  Like baking brownies for an after-school treat, with the help of a Very. Busy. Two-Year-Old.  And like knitting socks.

I finished the first ankle sock during our afternoon quiet time, and have cast on for sock #2.  I know that this should be fairly obvious, but I was overcome with delight today by the realization that ankle socks knit up super fast, since they're half the size of a regular sock.  Plus, I can get two pairs of socks out of one 100g ball of yarn!  Thrilling stuff, I tell you.  Or else, I need to get out more.

One Left

No, not one sleeve on the sweater, although it would be nice!  Not much knitting was done during the last few days, as we've been deep in "school shopping".  We're looking at changing the kids' school for the fall, and so I've been phoning and making appointments and touring and asking questions.  I think we've got it down to one that we're particularly comfortable with, which is a huge relief to me - one less thing to think about, plan for, organize...  Now we just need to get through the registration process, and we'll be able to cross this one off the list!

Recently, I was emailed a recipe for a square that sounded particularly good to me.  On my weekly shopping trip, I picked up the ingredients, but when I returned home, I found I had deleted the email!  Oh, no!  This is my version, cobbled together from a few different recipes that I could find that sounded similar.  It's great to make with kids, and they love to eat it, although not as much as Stuart, who's been consuming it faster than I can keep it in the pan.  I planned to show you a lovely photo, but there is sadly only one left (of the second pan this weekend, yikes!).  Here's the recipe, if you want to give it a try:

Yummy Square - Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Crust:

Mix 1 cup of flour with 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, and cut in 1/2 cup butter.  Press crumbly mixture into a square, greased baking pan.  Bake for 15 mins.

Topping:

Whatever sounds good to you.  We used butterscotch chips, white chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, and crushed walnuts.  Sprinkle onto hot crust, liberally.  Drizzle sweetened condensed milk over all, top with a sprinkle of coconut.  Bake for an additional 10 mins.  It's best to wait until square is completely cold before trying to cut, even though it's torture for small people.  I find this a little bit sweet, but satisfying when I want something like that.  If you can think of a better topping than the sweetened condensed milk, please let me know.  I'm not much of a kitchen person, myself, so tend to not be very creative in that department.