Strings & Yarn

Things have been warming up around here, and spring is just around the corner. Starting in February, we finally get a reminder that sun does exist behind all those clouds in the Northwest, and that it will stop raining someday. The few glorious days are enough to start the spring fever, big time.

I started in the garden much sooner this year, knowing a little bit more about than last year. For instance, instead of putting strawberries in starter pots inside, I put them outside right away. Anthony and I cleared out a bed of iris bulbs mid February and I planted the strawberries in their place. A much better use for the soil if you ask me.

The strawberries are thriving well, sending out new leaves, and I’ve even found a few buds. They live right under our bedroom window, which I try to look out at them and check on their progress often. Can you tell that I’m excited about our first harvest? The strawberries are tristar ever-bearing strawberries. They should produce a heavy crop in spring and then continue slowly over the summer. They should also last for many years to come, and produce new plants to replace the old.

Since today was a nice enough day to get outside and work in the yard we also did quite a bit of digging.

I leave all plant destruction to Anthony. So while I was planting our seed starts for the summer (tomatoes, cauliflower, okra, peppers, artichokes, and several herbs) Anthony worked away at clearing out beds. We have slowly been working on turning our yard into our vision instead of that of the previous owner. The back bed is destined to become home to plants I can use as natural dyes and some herbs. The dark bed received new seeds today including sugar snap peas, mesclun, kolrabi, golden beets and bok choy. That was my only vegetable bed last year, but this year we should be making at least one more.

Plus, some of the perennials from last year are starting to show.

Asparagus peeking out to say hello.

The Madder plant is also showing new growth.

Newly transplanted Rosemary that I started from seed last year.

Obviously we have some big plans for the yard this year. As I start planning out where I want things to go and what I want to include, I try to keep my garden theme in mind; The Imagination Garden. Most of all I want our yard to be somewhere I can go to retreat from the world, to divine inspiration and to help us lead more sustainable lives. Now for the hard part, waiting for everything to grow! Do you have any garden plans for this year?

I haven’t been blogging much and it’s not because of lack of content, I just haven’t had time!  I’ve had lots of little student violin performances the last few weeks, which has been fun, but has eaten up my usual catch up time on the weekend.  Thank goodness I don’t teach tomorrow morning.  I need a little more R & R.

Last month (yes I have been wanting to blog this for two weeks now) I made this awesome chocolate fudge cake that I got from Laural over at thimble.  It was so easy, and a lot of fun.  You make the batter, put it in the pan and then pour hot water over the batter before it goes into the oven.

It was delicious and will definitely become a regular around these parts.  Check out the recipe here.  I think it would be great to make with kids and doesn’t last long in any household.   That’s all for now, but I have knitting to show you, and gardening season has begun!

I just love saying this.  Try it a few times.  Then try it like Cartman and you’ll feel super cool.

When I found this I decided I had to make it for Anthony as a sort of Valentines treat.  Let me just say, it is everything that it promises to be.

I don’t have any pictures, because it’s gone.  It didn’t last very long in this house.

I wasn’t to comfortable with boiling the unopened can of sweetened condensed milk for 3 1/2 hours, so I turned to the internet for advice.  I found out if you open the can into a baking pan, cover it with foil, put it into a larger pan with water in the bottom and bake it at 475 for 1 1/2 hours you get the same tasty caramel.  If that didn’t make any since go here for instructions on how to do this safer.

If you haven’t seen this issue of Anticraft, you must check it out.  Lots o’ fun for everyone.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I don’t have to do any school work today!  Although, it will be the only day this weekend.  We go to a friends for Thanksgiving so we only need to cook a few things, then enjoy the feast.  So I made some homemade sweet potato rolls, Anthony put together sweet potatoes glazed with cranberry burbon sauce, and we’re taking Vanilla scented mulled cider.  Mmmm…

While cooking the rolls we decided we needed a little something just for us.  We made up a loaf of Chocolate Cherry Stout Bread.  It’s amazing!  We used Rouge’s Chocolate Stout for the beer, Ghirardelli Bittersweet, and cran-cherries.  Both of the bread recipes were from Cooking Light 2004.  If you haven’t checked out these books/magazines, you absolutely must.  All of the recipes are fantastic.

Hope you’re all have a fantastic day!

I made a Strawberry Rhubarb Pie last night. We recently got some rhubarb in our vegetable subscription. (Do you remember the orange?) I decided I wanted to make a pie and it turned out very good. Not very pretty, but very tasty. I found a recipe online, cheated and used frozen pie crusts and it was easy as…..pie. Okay, that was bad.

Recipe - Simply Recipes: Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Anthony and I have been in a little bit of a rut. A kitchen/food rut. We are normally super hero’s when it comes to whipping up something especially tasty and quick, but everything started to taste the same.

It really started with the change of the seasons. It wasn’t limited to our cooking, we couldn’t even find restaurants we were satisfied with . Dark beer no longer satisfied, heavy meals didn’t fill the right way and not eating always sounded like the easiest, best option. We ended up eating a lot of cheese, bread, fruit and fresh veg for a few days. All the uncooked, no preparation kind of stuff.

Luckily this weekend we broke our change of season rut. I pulled out some pork chops from the freezer and sent Anthony to the kitchen. The first night he made cranberry, onion, chipotle pork chops. The next night we combined efforts to create a marinade of honey, mustard and apple cider vinegar. Both were wonderfully tasty and I feel like I can take over the kitchen again.

Honey Mustard Marinade Recipe

If you live in Eugene, you have to check out Good Food Easy. It is a produce subscription program that Anthony has been doing for awhile and I am officially hooked. You wouldn’t think you could get amazing juicy oranges in Oregon, but you can actually get them several weeks in a row in your delivery. The produce is great, and you’re never sure what’s going to be in the bag each week, so it forces you to be very creative with your cooking. Not to mention you get several kick ass recipes each delivery too. If you don’t live in Eugene, search you local areas. It is well worth it.

I just finished eating, but I’m so excited about how this came out that I had to tell you immediately. I made a slight variation to my Mom’s chicken soup recipe, and it was oh so good. Recently Sadie’s came out with a Green Chile Salsa. This is not a salsa for wimps, and it’s full of wonderful roasted Green Chile Flavor. I haven’t figured out if they have it here in Eugene (I packed it from Colorado) but if anyone knows where to find it PLEASE tell me. It is so good. Ah how I miss New Mexico green chilies.

Here’s how you make it.

2-3 chicken breasts or thighs
1 jar of Sadie’s Green Chile Salsa
3-4 carrots sliced
3-4 celery stalks sliced
1 onion
8 cups water
8 chicken bouillon cubes
2 cloves of garlic
pepper and salt to taste
egg noodles (wide) - any noodles will do really

Empty the jar of salsa into a skillet with the chicken and 2 cups of water. Simmer. While that is cooking put the vegetables, spices and water in a pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling turn down heat to a simmer for about 20 mins. When chicken is cooked through cut into small pieces. Put all of the chicken and sauce into the soup with vegetables. Keep at a simmer and add pasta. Cook until pasta is done. Let Cool.

My nose is still running from the wonderful spicy food. For those that don’t have Sadie’s, you could try to substitute something else, but it won’t be nearly as good.

Last night some friends, Anthony and I went to the KLCC Beer Fest. There were 40 different breweries there and Anthony and I tried our share. The beers were great, the company was good, but the highlight for me was the record sale.

I have a soft spot for vinyl and that is because it’s cheap. These records cost $1 each and were in perfect condition. Some of them even look virginal. Here’s a list of what I got.

• American Graffiti Soundtrack
• Bach, P.D.Q. - Oratorio “The Seasonings, S. 1/2 tsp., “Unbegun” Symphony, Pervertimento for Bagpipes, Bicycle and Balloons, S. 66
• Beethoven Overtures (a whole slew of them) - Wiener Philharmoniker (Leonard Bernstein)
• Beethoven Symphony No. 5 - NY Philharmonic (Bernstein)
• Beethoven Symphony No. 9 - New York Philharmonic (Bruno Walter)
• Beethoven String Quartet in Bb Op. 130, “Grosse Fuge” Op. 133
• Beethoven Septet Op. 20
• Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2, and 4 - Rudolf Serkin, Philadelphia Orchestra (Ormandy)
• Brahms Violin Concerto - Issac Stern
• Brahms Double Concerto - Itzhak Perlman, Mstislav Rostropovich
• Brahms String Sextet No. 1 in Bb Maj. Op. 18
• Brahms Viola Sonatas - Michael Tree (vla) Rchard Goode (pno)
• Britten The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra - NY Philharmonic (Bernstein)
• Chopin Piano Pieces - Rachmaninoff (pno)
• Debussy String Quartet - Guarneri Quartet
• Dvorak Symphony No. 5 “New World Symphony” - Philadelphia Orchestra (Ormandy)
• Duke Ellington - The Best of
• Ella Fitzgerald - The Irving Berlin Songbook
• Faure Piano Quartet in C Min. Op. 15, String Quartet Op. 121 - Guarneri Quaret, Rubinstein
• Handel Sonatas Op. 1 for Violin and Harpsichord - Josef Suk (vln), Zuzana Ruzickova (pno)
• Mendelssohn Symphony No. 3 in A min. Op. 56 “Scotch”
• Ravel Sonata for Violin and Piano, Tzigane, Berceuse - Zino Francesscatti (vln), Artur Balsam (pno)
• Ravel String Quartet - Guarneri Quartet
• Saint-Saens Carnival of the Animals - NY Philharmonic (Bernstein)
• Shostakovitch Concerto for Violin - David Oistrakh
• Shostakovitch Symphony No. 5, Op. 47 - New York Philharmonic (Bernstein)
• Shostakovitch String Quartets 6 -11 - Borodin Quartet
• Strauss Don Quixote - Cleveland Orchestra (Szell)
• Tchaikovsky Sextet - Guarneri Quartet wit Bris Kroyt & Mischa Schneider

I think I almost doubled my record collection. I got all of that for $25. Not bad eh? I’ve been enjoying the “New World Symphony” while writing this. My house is going to be full of great music for a long while.