Step Into My Thimble

This is a very long post today.

I’ve been thinking about this meme when I can’t sleep at night, ever since I saw it on Sweet Juniper. Of course, I couldn’t remember any of the categories except “7 Things I Cannot Do” but I still wanted to do this.

7 Things To Do Before I Die
1. Go to the Grand Canyon, and stay there for a while
2. Own a funky old sailboat and go places on it (this is really Rodney’s dream but I share it wholeheartedly)
3. See a lot more of Europe, such as Heidiland or any German places that my family pretends to claim as heritage
4. Make a quilt, or several quilts, and not just baby-size ones
5. Pay back my stupid student loans or find a clever way to have someone else do it for me
6. Have a regular, thriving garden every year
7. Raise some good kids

(Anyone else pondering the above category, does it make you think about how lucky you are for all the life experiences you have already had? That’s how I feel right now.)

7 Things I Cannot Do
1. Have an actual hairstyle
2. Eat sauerkraut
3. Drink coffee on an empty stomach (or regularly like an addict, for that matter)
4. Run more than 1/2 mile at a time
5. Enjoy church
6. A handstand (headstands, yes, and quite well in fact; handstands, no way)
7. Give up sugar completely

7 Things That Attract Me To The Opposite Sex
1. Strong shoulders
2. Thick hair
3. Good shoes
4. Nicely formed, clean hands
5. Imagination
6. Spontaneity/restlessness
7. A twinkle in the eye (naughtiness? joy?)

7 Celebrity Crushes
1. Andrew McCarthy (circa Pretty in Pink only, though now that I look at that, did he have a mullet in that movie??)
2. Judy Davis especially in Impromptu, one of my top three movies of all time. Also although I haven’t exactly wanted to watch any of her latest made-for-TV schlock, somehow I can get behind the fact that she’s going a little camp on us.
3. Oliver Platt and Stanley Tucci’s characters (well really all the characters) from The Impostors. These are not “sexy crushes” by any means but they all seem like people I would really want to know.
4. Kyle MacLachlan. What can I say, I spent the summer watching all the “Sex and the City” episodes and I did like him as Trey MacDougal. Also of course as Agent Dale Cooper. I like discovering these things long after their peak of trendiness, which is what happened with “Twin Peaks” and me, too.
5. Stockard Channing. What’s up with me and middle-aged actresses? I hate the concept of her new TV show, won’t watch it. But I love her as Rizzo in the Grease movie, and as Donald Sutherland’s wife in “Six Degrees of Separation.” I guess she and Judy are in some ways women I’d like to be, minus the acting part of course.
6. Vince Guaraldi. Sure, he’s fresh in mind since “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” was on the other night. But honestly, his is just the kind of music I could listen to at any time in my life, when I’m sad, happy, need something for the background, need something for dancing…perfect.
7. Daniel Clowes.

What a weird mix of celebrity crushes. I could probably do better in that category but that’s it for now.

In today’s cholesterolfest (um I mean lunch) report, I bring you chicken soup with egg noodles.

I guess this is what my dad calls “Frame Soup.” This was made using the tried-and-true boiled chicken carcass technique. After we made the roasted chicken (a nice hormone and antibiotic free one raised about an hour from here, and the most neatly dressed roaster I’ve ever seen) on Monday, we deliberately left a lot of meat on it. I cooked the carcass in water for a couple hours to make a broth, then removed all the remaining meat and discarded the rest. Then I threw in celery, onion and carrot, plus some poultry seasoning, and toward the end, one whole bag of country-style egg noodles. That’s where the cholesterol really comes from, but they’re so good. We also added some fresh picked lovage from one of Rodney’s co-workers, to give it more celery flavor.

That co-worker happened to invite us over to help harvest her herb garden, so now I have a big rack of drying herbs in my basement. Yay! Next year, I’ll grow my own, but it will be nice to have these in the meantime.

And there has been some Kepler progress.

The cable band for the bottom of the front piece is done, and I am on the first wrist band. I’m trying to plan it so that I can knit the sleeves and front first, and if I have to, I’ll make the back all in the solid Fir color.

Neighborhood news: Our closest next-door neighbor used to be a home-birth midwife. What luck! She only stopped doing it because the long stretches of time away from her own children were too taxing on them. But I have her library and knowledge at my disposal. All of our neighbors so far seem very cool–we met many at a little open house we had last weekend. There is an elderly couple who used to run one of downtown’s most famous cake and cookie bakeries (Malnight’s, formerly on the corner of the mall/South Street for you Kzoo folk). The Mrs. has invited me to coffee next week sometime. So nice, and such a welcome change after three years of big-city anonymous apartment-building living.

Pregnancy news: I went to the women’s health center again last week for the super fun lady exam. Everything is fine, with the exception of a slightly low blood pressure, common in our family anyway. Our midwife is so cheerful and energetic, I already really like her. Tonight we’re going to a “Meet the Midwives” event because they all take call, so there is a chance we may not have our regular person on the baby’s birth day.

And with a gift certificate in hand, I braved the maternity racks at Target today. I don’t quite need anything yet, thanks to the continuing trend of low-rise pants, but pants will be the first thing, and let me tell you even with that whole design thing going on, the selection was depressing. You with the kids out there, what did you do? I’m half-tempted to buy some elastic-waist corduroy skirts from LL Bean or something but I really don’t want to end up looking like…well I won’t say what. The image is bad though.

The end!

Hi.

Now that I have no job, I am blogging less! Great irony isn’t it? I guess that says something about the modern workplace and also about my attention span while in said workplace.

First thing, I sent the finished Turtleneck Shrug to Winnie. Since it wasn’t for me, I felt weird about trying it on. I am hoping she will send me a photo of her wearing it when it reaches her in L.A. And I hear that my scarf is on its way from Alana in B.C. (Canada). Can’t wait! It is already pretty much scarf weather around here.

So, now that the T.S. is done, I am on to something I have wanted to make for a while, for me: Kepler. I really hope I can crank this out before I get a giant baby belly and can’t wear it any more. I give myself a month from today.

I am making it with two types of Tintagel Farms yarn, from the Michigan Fiber Festival. The cables will be in solid “Fir” (left) and the rest of it will be in variegated “Artichoke.” There are some potential problems on the horizon: I might very well run out of yarn, especially since I want to lengthen the sleeves and body a bit; the yarn is 50% mohair and 50% wool, so very fuzzy and maybe not ideal for cables; and the mix of a solid with a variegated for this pattern might end up looking silly. I am starting with the sweater front, and I guess if all else fails it will become a vest with a solid cabled band at the bottom.

I got turned down for one of the jobs I applied for. It would have been a 45-minute commute for 20 hours a week, which in Chicagoland was nothing, but right now I still haven’t gotten my own car (by choice) and was not looking forward to that giant amount of gasoline coming out of part-time pay. So it’s okay, even though it was one of the few “real” archives jobs out there lately.

Also, for Rodney’s mom, who is doing fairly well after her double bypass from a couple weeks ago, I made some quick little sock/bootie things that she can wear around the house. They are made of Manos scraps that didn’t photograph very well.

I also can’t find the link to the pattern any more. I think it came from About.com and you don’t want all those popups anyway right?

But…it’s supposed to be more of a sock with a cuff, and instead I didn’t sew up the front part of the cuff but left it to be turned back. They have a sort of elvish look about them which I think is cute.

If you need a reason why I haven’t posted as often lately, well…here it is. My parents have been coming around non-stop during the day to help with all kinds of things, primarily reglazing windows, and since my dad is such a renegade about it that also means replacing a lot of broken glass along the way, as well as washing up puddles of blood where he cut himself. These people, they will not rest. Right now we’re going to dig a flower bed on the south side of the porch for my daffodils and tulips, then we’re weeding a hedgerow. Gotta go!

At last the Turtleneck Shrug for Winnie has got to the turtleneck point! That’s what I have been up to the last few days, among other things. Now I just need to knit the neck to 8″ and then bind off and it’s done!! Of course, I searched all over the place for my size 7 16″ needle and then I realized, I don’t have one. Oh well, I have done worse things with dpns in my day.

Also since my last post, I have:

• Canned 8 jars of blueberry-raspberry jam
• Washed and put up all the storm windows on the house (with my dad)
• Joined the People’s Food Co-Op (food for people, not for profit)
• Applied for some more jobs I really don’t want. So far, still nothing that matches my interests and experiences around here. But it’s okay, I have so many other interests that I am by no means bored.
• Got a cheap new TV and “archived” the old one that didn’t work forever. With winter on the horizon and several missed episodes of America’s Next Top Model already passing me by, I was getting nervous.
• Got a haircut at a new-to-me salon (Don’t worry all you fans of The Hair, it was just a trim. I mostly went for the scalp massage.)
• Started planning some sewing projects. Baby stuff!
• Got some Keens Bronx shoes in Plum (Carolyn don’t you have these too?)

And finally, in a feeble attempt to fool the neighborhood kids into thinking that we are not a couple of scary weirdos from out of town, I put up some small Halloween decorations. The cultural landscape has certainly changed in America since I was a kid–it seems like people just drive their kids from one house to the next instead of letting them run wild for hours and hours like I got to. At any rate, we’ll certainly be handing out treats at our place, if anyone is brave enough to show up. Maybe I’ll even do like my parents used to and make mulled wine in the crock pot to give to the adults!

Don’t look at my rusty gutters.

I heard my kid’s heartbeat on Thursday. That was very weird and happy. I guess for now it’s just “kid” rather than “kids”–neither of us have multiples in our family history anyway–but we will know for sure at the first ultrasound in six or eight weeks. And I met my midwife, a very vibrant Michigan-Dutch lady with the strongest handshake on earth. I think that is a good thing.

I have had time to mull over my current obsession with food, along with my summer “no sugar” experiment. I think it must all relate in some way to being pregnant–the “no sugar” thing was a kind of self-preparation, and now that I am and have reached the second trimester, I just want to eat good things all the time. Food, I love you!

Rodney and I have been talking about naming our house the way people do in England. He has relatives that live in “The Hut” and all kinds of other cute places over there. I would like to name our house “Butler’s End.” Any suggestions?

At this little house of ours, the food preservation machine has been working non stop all week. On top of the applesauces and jam, we now have 14 pints of unsweetened Concord grape juice, which was also totally not let to sit for sediment-removal purposes and is therefore a straight cup of fiber but SO GOOD that way. This juice, made from grapes I picked myself, can be watered down or mixed with other juices, and it can also be strained in a jelly bag to make grape jelly. Straight cups of fiber are ideal for ladies on the evil prenatal vitamins.

And, to break in my 12-quart pressure cooker, another housewarming gift from dear mom, I have made six quarts of butternut-squash/leek/ginger soup. This is one of my all-time favorite fall recipes, and it comes from the Joy of Cooking. It is so simple, but the flavors are really complex and will cause you glee upon consumption, I promise. The recipe is in the Continued part below.

Finally, I braved the freezing wind this morning after dropping Rodney and friend Brian off for their fifth annual hike, this time on the Kal-Haven Trail. I wanted to catch up with a meat guy at the farmer’s market and stock our freezer with good hormone and antibiotic-free meats. Alas, he wasn’t there this week, but I did go to the Otto’s Chicken booth and got a roaster, two pounds of ground chicken, and a package of chicken bratwurst. Rodney’s pork and beef may involve a special trip to a meat locker out in the country instead.

The farmer’s market is full of all kinds of other irresistable delights like homemade soap, warm apple cider, mums for the front steps, bread and cookies, fresh-cut flowers… If you never have been to one, you really should go!

I have four more pints of raspberries for blueberry-raspberry jam, tomorrow morning’s project.

Read on for the butternut squash soup recipe.
Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday was applesauce day. Three batches through the canner, and we ended up with 20 pints plus a little bit left for after supper. Here’s the ingredients, and varieties we made:

Apples: Northern Spy ($12/half bushel from Ann Arbor farmer’s market); Jonathan ($7/half bushel from Schulze’s farm west of Kalamazoo, we picked them yesterday morning); plus three or four each of Mollies and Macintoshes. There are some of the Spys and Jonathans left over, enough for a couple pies and some snacking. Seen on a sign at the farmer’s market: “An apple a day keeps the doctor away, a pie a week makes the husband more sweet.” Cross-stitch project, anyone? Anyway…

Batch 1 of the applesauce had nothing added to it but water to keep it from sticking to the pan. There are seven jars from Batch 1. It is tangy but all natural!

For Batch 2, we remembered there was some cider in the fridge so we used that instead of water. This batch was also spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg, and about 1/2 cup of Michigan beet sugar was added to sweeten. There are five jars.

From Batch 2, prior to the spicing and sweetening, we took out enough for two more jars. To this was added about 1 cup of crushed, food-milled blueberries, plus a bit of sugar. It looks pretty in the jar, but unfortunately the taste is not blueberry-ish at all. It was just an experiment.

For Batch 3, again we made it strictly out of apples, but with cider instead of water. These apples had sat around the longest after chopping, so the batch is a bit more brown but still tasty. There are four jars.

From Batch 3, enough for two jars was set aside. To this was added about 1/2 cup of crushed de-seeded raspberries, about a teaspoon of lemon juice, and about a quarter cup of sugar. This raspberry applesauce is truly the ultimate result of a ten-hour day of applesauce-making. It is a shame there are only two jars because it is SO GOOD. Even Rodney, hater of most things raspberry, liked it.

Left to right, above: Batch 1, Batch 2, Batch 3, Blueberry, Raspberry.

Of course, in order to make the sauce we had to get the apples. The Jonathans, at least. This is me on a ladder pretending to pick–really my mom did all the ladder work, but since the trees were loaded it only took about 5 minutes to get a half bushel picked. We also got concord grapes, but they are all hers and she’s at her house today making juice.

I’m waiting for a guy to call me back from a u-pick raspberry place because I NEED MORE. I still want to make my blueberry-raspberry jam sometime soon. It’s a pectin-free recipe.

I am also going to roast three giant butternut squashes soon in preparation for soup. I want to can a bunch of it–the recipe from Joy of Cooking is great and really simple. Just squash, leeks, fresh ginger, butter and stock. I love it. Today’s supposed to be 85 degrees and humid so I may wait on the roasting until tomorrow.

So…on the subject of being pregnant, here is an update.
Read the rest of this entry »