Those are some damson fine plums!

I had the blessing of more home grown fruit just now--Tif brought over (what I believe qualifies as a "freaking TON" of) tiny Damson Plums. They're the size of large grapes, and are delightfully tart and sweet.

*rubs hands together* Now, to figure out what to do with them! Any suggestions?

In the mean time, here is a tried, true, and very simple pasta sauce recipe that is probably our favorite at the moment:

bell peppers (we like the small red, orange and yellow ones)
onion
garlic
oregano
basil
cream
parmesan or romano
salt and pepper
Though this time we skipped it, you can add just about any meat to this if you desire - shrimp works beautifully, as does chicken.

Fry up the chopped peppers and onion in a bit of olive oil. Let them brown just a bit and stir in the garlic to cook as well.
Add some cream or milk
Add the spices, but don't over do it--the peppers have a lovely flavor on their own
Allow the peppers to simmer away covered for a while, and when you're about 15 minutes from dinner, take the top off, and let the sauce reduce and thicken.
Add some cheese (again--not a lot needed) and stir through before adding to your favorite pasta. We used a whole wheat ravioli from Costco that has no business being as good as it is.

I threw in some baby bella mushrooms last night (they were close to turning so I needed to use 'em up), but we unanimously decided that the flavor fought too much with the peppers, and that the bellas deserved their own sauce. It was still good though.

Follow up: Chardewardon

The cooling did turn out to be the secret! One of the compiled Chardewardon/snowe glasses went into the fridge overnight, and today at lunch, it was much better than last night--everything had firmed up nicely, and the flavors were even better. The snowe in the middle section fell just a bit because it was sandwiched in there, but otherwise, it was perfect.

Note to self: Next time leave plenty of time to refrigerate!

Chardewardon

Tonight we experimented with pears and such and the following is the result:



It's a...well, parfait? Fool? Whatever one would call a layered dessert--made with pear chardewardon (at Doc's suggestion--thanks!) and snowe with a pizzelle stuck in the top. The chardewardon was yummy, though I'd like to give it more time to cool next time. It reminded me quite a bit of a really hearty home made applesauce in flavor, though the texture was more custard-like. The cinnamon and ginger were really nice and the whole thing was pretty fragrant. The pears I used had some discolorations, as home-grown fruit often does, so I used a bit of red wine as well as white in which to boil them. It made it a bit of a deeper color. I'd like to see what colors would happen with different types of pears. I'd also like to try this with Harrow Delight pears, which are supposed to be quite smooth when ripe.

The snowe--as usual--was delicious, and it demanded a closeup.

Hie Thee Hence!

As some may have noticed, there are a couple new blogs in the "Random Blogs" List. One is the Medieval Cookery blog, the fantastic companion blog the medieval cooking website. There's lots of interesting information there.

Speaking of cooking, I recently came into possession of a bunch of home-grown pears (thanks Tif!) and I'm debating between using them for a pear tart (which is about what you'd expect - spicy, sweet, and in a pie shell) or Peeres in Confyt (which is poached pears in a sweet wine and ginger syrup--I've also seen it include juniper berries, which sounds kind of fascinating, though I have none to use). I'm leaning toward the second, partly since I'm abyssmal at making pie and tart shells.

Another blog--only one that deals with the wretched failures of cuisine, rather than triumphs--is the Cake Wrecks blog, which cleverly displays the most awful and ridiculous of cakes. Hilarity ensues.

It's September 19th yet again.

ARRR!

Blessed be Electricity

Hurricane Ike made itself known in Cincinnati on Sunday in the form of some insane wind. There wasn't really any rain, but the wind tore piles of leaves off the trees, and brought branches and trees down everywhere, including on top of a neighbor's poor car, crushing it pretty thoroughly. Power went out, and shortly thereafter, the wind dropped-- as did the temperature to a comfy 70. So that's where we've been for the past couple days. All things considered, it was not a bad time at all, though everything in the fridge will need to be replaced. The temperature was lovely, and the time was quiet and relaxing. We got a bunch of reading done, and I worked on a couple craft projects. People were out chatting and clearing branches off lawns, and even the neighbor with the crushed car was in pretty good spirits.

The project du jour was a tiny door to the Little Country. A fairy door, if you will. The plan is to secretly have it installed in the home of a niece and nephew for Christmas. I've assembled everything, and now I just have to add shingles and frame it with basswood, making it possible for the door to open a crack to show a coat rack and a bit of hallway. I have a tiny umbrella and scarf, along with a miniscule key that fits the lock. Em and I are debating giving Mini M the tiny key for Christmas, (maybe on a bracelet?) and telling her it probably goes to a little door. She'd find the door herself. Since it's going to be a Christmas door, I've made a tiny wreath for it out of paper twisted around a little copper wire, snipped and painted. More photos to come as things get finished.

Follow up: The Bag of Bags

Remember that project from a LONG time ago that I was poking at?

Let's just pretend I finished this bag several months ago, shall we? Here is--as my sister, H.A., dubbed it--the bag of bags! I crocheted it out of a bunch of Kroger plastic grocery bags we'd accumulated, and from donations from friends as well. The lighter tan bags are from Michigan Krogers, and the darker ones are Ohio Krogers. The white stripe is a couple of Hillers bags. It turned out to be surprisingly sturdy and flexible, in part because the method I had of making the "yarn" for them uses a double layer of plastic.

Bags of bags seem to be popping up everywhere, and I love it! Not only is it environmentally friendly, but people are taking up needlecrafts, and that can only be a good thing!

Here it is, stuffed with tea towels.

Nerdfest 2008 Photos

Here's our lovely accommodation. It really was perfect for getting away from the craziness of the convention at the end of the day. Mmm... Jacuuzi tubs.



Indianapolis is a beautiful town. It had some interesting buildings, and it was clean and well laid-out. The conference center was right smack dab in the midst of everything. The older building is a playhouse. Maybe we can see a play next year when we go.




Tomas the Lapidary was milling away on various lovely pieces of jewelry. He was good fun to talk to, and I always love watching craft like that. He does historical pieces. This was a copper headpiece for a bride-to-be.



Ed, Alex and some aviator dude talk to Andy K. about Japanese/English translation. Andy and company's book is the first Japanese RPG to be published in English.



Rebecca Guay makes really neat Wyeth-inspired paintings. She also did a couple lectures.



A lot of the fun was not of the type you take photos of--lectures and interesting chats with people from around the world, etc. One definitely photoable and fun part about Gen Con was the cosplayers. Sure, there were a few people in outfits that they reaaally shouldn't have left the house in, but for the most part, it was good fun, and there were some really well done ones. Star Wars seemed to dominate a bit, probably because Peter Mayhew was there. There were also at least three Captain Jack Sparrows walking around.

Boba Fett and Obi Wan totally hang out when they're off-duty. They're best buds. Seriously.



Darth Vader spent the whole time complaining about convention center food. "I find your lack of cheesy pretzels disturbing." Fun fact: Vader looks about ten feet tall only because the storm trooper was about five foot one. Also, YES. This is a storm trooper in a kilt behind them. Heh!



Speaking of costumes, this lady has maybe the most perfect original series Star Trek costume ever. Simple, but perfect. As for the gentleman--the costume was great, but I'm not sure where it was from. The bag says Torchwood, but isn't that a sci-fi series? He looks rather steampunk, or old west. Huh. Does anyone know?



The Empire is recruiting them young---This adorable storm trooper almost made my head explode. He took off his helmet because he was drinking a juice box. Hey-that's not against regulations!



This girl is cosplaying a character from Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. It's a pretty decent costume, but I don't think she put all that much work into it.

Happy "Earth Didn't End" Day!

So the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland has been successfully fired off without everything in existence blinking out.

Way to go, scientists! *thumbs up*

Just a Nip

It's that time of year again--drag out the slow cooker, and prepare for yummy meals that require pretty much no work.

Today's experiment in kitchen puttering involved two large parsnips and a bunch of carrots.

Appetizing, right? Not really. I admit it. However, the finished product was really satisfying and yummy.

As a result of my recent fascination with medieval cookery and the like, I determined to try using parsnips in a dish, since I'd never even bought one. Here's what went down:

Into my slow cooker, I dumped-
2 parsnips, cubed small
a bunch of baby carrots
chicken stock
a good chunk of ginger, grated into mush
a goodly amount of grated nutmeg
cream
salt & pepper

I turned the slow cooker on around noon and let things simmer away on low until I remembered them in the later afternoon, when I dumped it into the food processor and blended well. I served with these nice little wheat biscuits I got from IKEA.

The result was a hearty soup with lots of interesting flavors. It's got a very mild sweetness and tangyness to it, because of the parsnips and carrots respectively. You can smell the nutmeg. We agreed that it deserved a place on the "Will Cook Again" list. The soup itself was satisfying enough to be a meal unto itself.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I realize this soup looks suspiciously like a certain butternut squash soup posted previously, but about the only resemblance is the color. Swear.