Gardening and Crafting

Over the last few days, I haven't been doing much else other than gardening and working with my clay.  We have had a LOT of rain, so the storms have impeded the garden progress at times, but I can't help being thankful for the rain.  I only wish we had installed rain barrels already!  

Here is the newest bed:

I know, I'm a little late putting them in the ground.  I had issues getting the seeds started.  Plus, the plants are still a little small, and I was hesitant to put them out too soon.  My smaller, tender, tomatoes were shredded by some unknown force of critter origin...and I didn't want the same to happen to these guys!  I'm hoping now that they are out in the sun and well fertilized dirt, that they will start growing better.

We have our first heirloom Amish Pie Pumpkin!  I'm so excited to make a pumpkin pie with a pumpkin that came out of my yard!  This plant is a little cramped for the beds I have, but I learned my lesson for next year.  A large portion of the front end of the vine snapped when I tried to move it away from the bunny fencing, even with my efforts to be exceptionally gentle.  It eventually rotted apart, and I had to toss it.  I was sad at the loss of two potential baby pumpkins...but that's gardening I guess.  At least it has more room in the bed for the few pumpkins that have started already!

Here's one of the bunnies we have in the neighborhood.  There are a few, and I've seen two at a time roaming through the yard while gorging themselves on our dandelion field (aka the back yard).    I enjoy watching them, so I haven't wanted to repel them.  But I was super paranoid about them getting into the beds, hence the bunny fence.  However, I was reading that bunnies tend to stay out of raised beds anyway, due to fear of putting themselves in a vulnerable position.  Even so, I'd rather be safe than sorry...and the fence still serves a good purpose:  it keeps some of the roaming neighborhood cats from pooping in my beds!  Cleaning someone else's pet's poop piles out of my garden beds, was not something I was expecting...

Most recent crafty endeavors have involved working on some video game themed items.  I just finished up some Plants vs. Zombies based desk buddies.  I've gotten some really good feedback on these, so I'll be making more soon.  This is one of my all time favorite games, which I keep on my iPad and my PC.  I sucked my husband into playing as well, and he's taking to playing on the iPad while we're settling in bed for the night.

These pics are while they are still in progress.  I'll be posting some "formal" pics when I finish up the touch ups and sealing.  I've got a big pile of baked clay items to paint and seal, which I can hopefully get done this weekend.

Granny Squares are Great!

I'm still a noob when it comes to crochet.  I've been steadily working my way up to more complicated projects.  I had always looked at a granny square and thought "That looks hard!  I better wait to try that till I'm a little better at crochet in the round..."  But really it has been quite easy, and I regret postponing my attempts.

One day at the store, I was looking at acrylic yarns and thought "Screw it, I'm going to start a blanket."  I picked out a color palate I felt was pleasing to the eye and bought some yarn to start.  I went with Caron Simply Soft yarns, in Pagoda, Persimmon, and Heather Grey.  I can't seem to capture the true colors with my camera.  The pagoda is much more green than it looks, and the persimmon is much more orange/coral than it looks in the photos.  I need a better camera!

It's much easier to do a granny square than I previously assumed, especially when you get in a groove.  It takes me a little longer sometimes because I frequently attempt to watch a show while I'm crocheting.  There's lots of eye movement from my hands to the screen, and it slows me down quite a bit!  9 squares completed, only about 90 more to go!

I originally thought I would keep my first blanket attempt, since I knew there would be some measure of trial and error.  I've made some mistakes.  The first two squares were more difficult while trying to figure out the pattern and what worked best with tying off and changing colors, etc.  And in one spot, I have 4 double crochets instead of 3...I didn't catch it until I had tied everything off....oh well!  When I picked out the colors, I was thinking that my mother would love them...and sure enough, I asked her if she wanted this one and she was thrilled.  So my mom will get the first blanket ever made by her first daughter! 

Since I still haven't had any progress on getting a client started up again with my counseling, I continue to not be working at all.  I'm up to 2 months, where I'm technically employed but do not have a client to work with.  This has been stressful, but I'm trying to keep my mind off of it by crafting, cleaning my house, and cooking awesome dinners.  I don't have much space to craft, so the dining room table gets overrun.  This is what it has looked like for at least a month:

I'm finishing up quite a few video game related pieces.  During this last month, I lost some steam...I've been slacking on putting the final touches on some of the items, but hopefully I'll be finished up by the end of the week.  I also get sidetracked by crochet projects which are easier in a lot of ways...they are often less steps, less cleanup, and more instant gratification.  Completing one project before starting another, should really be a goal of mine!  

Enough chit chat, back to crafting!  Hope to have some more pictures up soon!

Escarole and Bean Soup: A Tutorial

A lot of non-Italians might be asking:  "What is escarole?"  Well, it's related to chicory and looks like this.  Looks kinda like lettuce, but it certainly doesn't taste like it.  It's a bitter green, in my mind, comparable to kale or collards.  We live in Virginia, and escarole isn't the easiest thing to find.  Collards are in abundance in the regular grocery store, but escarole is harder to hunt down.  I found this bunch at a locally owned natural food store, Ellwood Thompson's.  And this escarole was local to boot, grown right in Henrico County!

A popular Italian American dish is escarole and beans.  I decided to try my hand at making an escarole and bean soup.  It's really healthy, easily modified to your tastes, and simple to make with few ingredients.

Ingredients:

A head of escarole
1/2 an onion (red, white, yellow...doesn't matter really)
a few cloves of garlic
1 can of cannellini beans (or great northern beans)
4 cups of chicken stock (I used a box of low sodium, organic, but use what you like, homemade is best!)
salt and pepper
crushed red pepper (optional)
olive oil
Parmesan cheese

Step 1:  Clean your escarole.  Isn't it pretty?!  Just chop off the bottom and rinse really well.  Use a salad spinner if you have one, to get most of the moisture off.  Just treat it like you would lettuce.

Step 2:  Chop your onion and garlic.  Honestly, the onion is optional, I just happen to like the extra flavor.  You could use extra garlic if you want.  I use a LOT of both.  I coarse chopped the garlic, and the onion could have probably been sliced a little thinner in retrospect.

My husband felt that I should remind you of the all important beer drinking (in my case, cider or wine drinking!) that should occur while you prep the food!

Step 3:  When everything is prepped, heat up some olive oil in a decent size pot (I think mine was a 6 quart).  Medium heat.  Saute the onion first, until it starts to sweat a little.  Then add the garlic and continue to saute.  Sprinkle with a little salt.  Right before I add the escarole, I add my crushed red pepper to help bring out the flavor.

Step 4:  Once the aromatics have sweat a little (onions will be getting translucent), you can add your escarole.  As you can see, it will cook down quite a bit.  

Step 5:  When the escarole is starting to soften, add your beans, and your stock.  Some recipes suggest adding a chunk of parmesan while you simmer, but that's optional...it adds some extra salt and flavor.  Cover the pot, and bring to a simmer.

Step 6:  Let it simmer for a while.  Add some salt and pepper, at whatever level you prefer.  Taste it, taste it, taste it!  Add herbs if you feel like it needs them!  You want the beans to warm through, and flavors to meld together.  It shouldn't take too long, maybe 20 minutes maximum.  You don't want a big bowl of mush.  In the meantime, grate your parmesan.  I'm sure a nice romano would work here too.

Tada!  Finished and ready to eat!

I had never made escarole for my husband before this dinner, and he enjoyed it.  If you like collards, kale, or other greens, you'll probably like it.  This is just one of many ways you can use it!  Experiment!  

Possible Glutening? I'll Know in an Hour....

Coincidentally, this is the last day of Celiac Awareness Month!  And I may have been glutened...

Tonight, the hubs and I decided to get a small bit of sushi from a local place.  I've been there many times before, but they do their carry out orders from a location across the street.  When I called to place the order, I asked about whether the spicy sauce they use has any soy sauce (which isn't gluten free).  She said no, but there is soy sauce in the rice.  In my head, I was screaming "What?! Are you sure?!"  But I was at a loss...I'd never heard this before...from this place, or at any sushi place I'd gone to.  So I just said "Uhhhhhhh, I'll have to call you back" and hung up on her.

At my husband's suggestion, I got on the phone with the main store, and told them of the interaction I just had with their "to go" store.  The lovely lady informed me that there was indeed, no soy sauce in the rice.  Wonderful...I'll call back and place an order.

But...this had me second guessing EVERYTHING.  What if the original person was correct, and they had mixed the rice differently that day?  Did they get the rice from the main store, or did they make their own in the "to go" store?  The "to go" menu didn't have the same (gf) or (gfo) labels (gluten free or gluten free option)...maybe they make it differently all the time?  Maybe the main restaurant server was new and didn't know?  Who gave me the right information?!  AHHHHHH!

This is a good example of the difficulty that happens when attempting to eat out with a food allergy or sensitivity of any kind, not just Celiac disease.  It's a risk every time...because that server just has to not remember something correctly, or not remember to go the kitchen and read a label for you...and you're sick.   In most cases, I would ask more questions, be specific, or just pass on anything questionable.  In this case, I decided that calling back or getting upset wasn't worth it.  I decided to trust that one of my favorite restaurants, who has never glutened me before, would not steer me wrong this time.

I finished my sushi about 20 minutes ago, and no tummy rumbles yet...I may have escaped without consequence...

Sleeping With The Windows Open

I'm always reluctant to put in the window units at our house.  Our house isn't large, but it still takes 3 units to cool the house effectively.  One smaller unit in each of the bedrooms, and one large unit in the main living space.  The main reason I don't like putting them in, is the battle with white noise.  This isn't a quiet white noise, like a small fan going.  This is a loud and invasive white noise, that causes you to breathe a sigh of relief when they are off for a while.  If it wasn't so damn hot and uncomfortable to sleep at night, the choice would be easy.  We finally put the A/C in our bedroom the other night, and I did a little happy dance getting ready for bed in a nice cool room.

The A/C unit also helps with filtering pollen, which is a godsend for someone with allergies (me).  Breathe Right strips help a little, and so do eye drops, but nothing beats a good air filter.  Leaving bedroom windows open during pollen season isn't the best option....

Another complication:  because of my paranoia of living in a less than reputable neighborhood, I don't like to leave the windows open wider than the little security tabs.  I'm sure they aren't much help in preventing a break in, if someone really wanted to get in...but it adds to my piece of mind when I'm sleeping.  The downside is severely reduced air flow in the 2 inches of open space that is left.

Lately, we've had some birds singing at night...sometimes till 3 or 4 am, and LOUDLY.  Last night I noticed that the bird was in our front bushes, right outside the window.  I sat and listened for a while, and realized it had to be a mockingbird.  There were calls that sounded like frogs and car alarms, thrown in with the largest variety of calls I've ever heard!  Here's a sample of what I found on YouTube:

I should record my own video to put on YouTube because our guy is certainly interesting.  At least I can hear him when I choose to, and not have to deal with him keeping me awake.  One plus to the white noise that is loud enough to drown out a car alarm.  

I've done my gardening for the day, and decided to hunker down in the cool bedroom since it's close to 90 degrees out today, and the other window units have yet to be taken out of the attic.  Later I will be venturing out to a talk at Ellwood Thompson's Forgiveness Farming with Joel Salatin.  It's going to be awesome and informative.  For those of you haven't seen it, watch the movie Food Inc.   It featured Mr. Salatin and his farm, Polyface, which I plan on making a trip to visit in the near future.  

I Hate Earwigs.....

I fully admit, I'm no country girl. I spent my early years in Queens, NY and cried the first time a stick bug landed on me.  The only bug I will touch willingly is a ladybug....I don't know why, but they are just not as creepy.

I had a firm "if you come into my house, I will smush you!" policy for bugs, until I met my husband. Now we have a catch and release policy for most bugs. He taught me a technique using plastic cups and junk mail, which I use for the friendlier bugs.  I still kill things like house centipedes (google them if you have the stomach), and especially earwigs.

Unfortunately for me, gardening usually involves some contact with bugs. I've developed a more understanding perspective over the years. Oddly enough, I've done exceptionally well in outdoor activities like hiking and tent camping.  When I'm outside, I'm in their house (so to speak), so I don't mind as much.  Today I was dead heading my snapdragons, and I felt something pinch my unloved finger. I dropped the bud, and much to my dismay, watched an earwig crawl out of it.  Cue 15 minutes of hand washing and heebee jeebies. (Not really 15 minutes but you get the point!)

So my veggie garden has been doing ok this year, until last night. I think a vole shredded two of my tomatoes....both Amish paste variety, which I was looking forward to.  The two in the middle were the ones that suffered the onslaught. I kept a spare indoors in a peat pot just in case of critter eating, so I'm prepared to replace one.

Here's the zucchini that got shredded.  I planted two close together, because I figured at least one of them would die.  Sure enough....

My husband is exceptionally pleased that the Amish Pie Pumkin is doing well.  He's dying for some pumpkin pie this fall.

 I have been procrastinating on building my 2 additional beds so it looks like I will have to add some wire mesh underneath....hopefully that will suffice in making the beds more "vole resistant"....

Polymer Clay Galore

I have spent much of this weekend working on polymer clay jewelry and trinkets.  This is in preparation of potentially selling them in a local video game store, so all of the items will be gaming related.  I'm excited to have a focus for my crafting, and it's good to get things done now, while I still have the free time available.  Things are picking up at work, and hopefully I will have a client to work with soon, which will be the end of my free time.

So far, I've been able to finish up a few World of Warcraft inspired Hearthstones. The swirls glow in the dark!  

This morning I finished up a tray of Pac-Man ghost earrings, which I've made before.  I have a pair for myself, and they have been in my Etsy shop for a while.  This is a new batch, with new colors I haven't made before.  Here's a shot before they went into the oven to bake.   Can't wait to get them painted! 

The purple & green thing at the top of the pan, is one of my clay tools that I use regularly.  The rubber grip was caked in clay and falling off, so I threw a quick handle on there out of clay to make it a little more comfortable.  

The downside to working with clay in heat and humidity is that it gets overly soft.  And having the oven warming up for baking items doesn't help at all.  Sometimes details you try to put in, won't stay if you try to move the piece.  Thankfully, the few items I've been working with have been simple, but I've still had some difficulty with excessive sticking to my work surface.  Instead of putting in the air conditioners, I'll put my clay chunks in the refrigerator to cool it off and harden it up a little between passes.  Far too hot and lazy to lug the air conditioners out of the attic today.

Right now, I'm taking a break to eat some chips and guacamole!   But then I'll be back to work later!  Hooray for productivity!