Anyways, I’ve been cooking up a storm since getting back and getting unpacked, and I’ve been reacquainted with one of my favorite kitchen gadgets – my ice cream maker. It’s a basic Cuisinart, the kind where you have to pre-freeze the bowl, but I’ve never been able to justify a higher end model, despite my love of STUFF for the kitchen. It’s served me well for a long time & it’s been getting a work out since getting unboxed. Since the SO can’t really do dairy (and custard-based ice creams are (a) really high in calories and (b) can be a real pain in the butt to make), I picked up a vegan ice cream cookbook – Hannah Kaminksy’s Vegan a la Mode. Other than some new-to-me ingredients, primarily thickeners like agar, it’s similar to other good ice cream cookbooks I have – fun & creative.

Due to the aforementioned Meyer lemon tree, I’m on the lookout for recipes using lemons. For my first venture into the world of dairy free ice cream-that-isn’t-just-sorbet, I picked out a strawberry & lemon curd variation. Here in the Bay Area, it’s still possible to get lovely, sweet strawberries, so I picked up a nice basket & got some lemons off the tree.

The ice cream is pretty basic, once you break it down. It consists of strawberries stewed in almond milk (any non-dairy milk will do, though Kaminsky recommends staying away from rice milk) and sugar, with a smidge of vanilla.

After freezing the mixture (after putting it in a blender to smooth it all out), it’s mixed with what is essentially glorified lemon jello. Kaminsky’s recipe for vegan lemon curd is simply lemon curd, agar powder, and sugar. I’ve never used agar before & am still experimenting – the brand I got has a slightly strange aftertaste that isn’t noticeable when the curd is paired with the ice cream & frozen, but was somewhat unpleasant.

I probably put too much curd in, but the extreme tartness plays well with the mellow strawberry ice cream. The mouthfeel is definitely different from ice cream (as one would expect – it’s lacking a lot of fat, which is a good thing as far as my waistline is concerned!) – probably something like sherbet, a touch of creaminess in the midsts of a clean fruit flavor? However you’d describe it, it’s pretty delicious. I’m planning on working through the whole book – there are so many tantalizing recipes & there’s only so many times I can make lemon sorbet before wanting to move on to something else.

Even though I love to cook, I’ve been A-OK with eating plenty of stuff that wasn’t made from scratch – top on that list is pasta sauce. This has been helped along by the fact that the first (and last) time I tried making a tomato sauce (admittedly with meat) from scratch, I wound up with an oily, not very appetizing sauce that I didn’t want to eat, but didn’t want to throw out (all those wasted ingredients!). It languished in the freezer for a month before I admitted I had no desire to eat it & threw it out.

My SO has been out of town this week, so I’ve been cooking for one – since I try to keep up a reasonably varied menu when he’s home, it’s a bit of a relief NOT to have to do that. Which is to say, I’ve been eating a lot of one thing & been totally fine with that. Luckily, it happens to be a versatile and very yummy one thing: tomato sauce made from scratch (with one more variation). I’ve mentioned my fondness for my slow cooker, which is only growing – Slow Cooker Revolution is only helping matters. I’ve read some criticism of the cookbook – it’s too complicated, takes too much time, defeats the purpose of the slow cooker, etc. etc. And while it’s true it does take time (and I wouldn’t want to get some of this ready before trying to rush off to work), the results are so good for the most part, I don’t care. This tomato sauce came out perfectly. I can’t wait to make it with fresh tomatoes (the basic marinara in SCR uses canned tomato products – they cooked for ~10 hours, so there was no hint of tinny taste, but I can imagine what it would taste like with high quality fresh tomatoes!). I crumbled a little goat cheese on top of the sauce & stirred it in – it gave the sauce a nice creaminess and a bit of a bite.

Since eating pasta and sauce for 5 days straight is a bit much even for me (and I had approximately 3 quarts of sauce to use up or freeze), I cooked pesto meatballs in the sauce. I’m not 100% sold on the meatball recipe yet, but it’s possibly because the sauce alone was such a success. Anything less than that does seem like a bit of a disappointment. However, it was certainly good enough for dinner & I have a jar in the freezer, ready for a quick weeknight dinner in week or two.

Someday I’ll get the hang of making lovely little spheres – that day, however, has not yet arrived. I also used a bit of the basic marinara on ricotta, goat cheese & basil pizza – I’m personally a fan of white pizza, but it was a nice subtle addition.

We’re about to launch into moving to a new house (!!) – alongside 80 million other things going on in August – and with time at a premium, I suspect I’m going to be feeling pretty smart for having made a lot of sauce in a slow period!

I get a fair amount of hits on the blog due to people searching for the Pink Lemonade kit – I’ll just put another plug in for it, it’s really lovely. I’m seriously considering adding two of the designer’s other kits to my collection – I’m having such a nice time with this one (and seriously – it is so nice to have a project arrive in one box, no other acquisitions required!).

I’ve made some progress on the Cranberry in Pines stocking, too – I’ve more or less finished the toe. The more I stitch on this, the more fun I’m having – it is really pretty & the subtle variations that can be such a pain (in terms of thread changes) really create a lovely impression.

I’m not sure my SO is quite as in love with it as I am, but this is partially a self-serving exercise, so that’s OK!

On the whole, though, I think they came out pretty well – I’m even warming up to the background paper! I have no interest in scrapbooking & thus no reserves of interesting paper – though I’m considering buying one of those multi-pattern pads to avoid this issue in the future. While the blue-and-pink design isn’t something I’d instinctively gravitate towards, it’s bold and rather pretty.

I gave two of the pendants as gifts (the pink one and the blue one) & kept two for myself. I bought a box of extra pendants on Etsy, along with a selection of cords, so I’m planning on designing my own. I have at least two other projects to finish before then, however!

Since I’ve been in San Diego and Shanghai (right now, I’m sitting in my hotel room – right down the street from where I lived for a year – mostly enjoying the nostalgia), I haven’t done any sewing or cooking. I have had some embroidery experiences, though – I’ll photograph my new Miao acquisition (from the splendid Brocade Country, one of my favorite stores in all the world!) and the rest of my collection when I get home. I also signed up for a Jackie du Plessis (It’s Fine-ally Finished) class (two, actually) scheduled for November at Needle in a Haystack. I’m a little anxious, since I’m still new to finishing (as the photographs above attest) & I selected the two projects that don’t look like a walk in the park – still, it seemed like a fun weekend activity & also something out of the ordinary. I anticipate a very stressful fall and having things to look forward to always helps.

After two weeks away, I’m looking forward to getting back to my kitchen & my armchair + sewing box. I’ve got lots to do before then, however …

On to the acquisitions! This one isn’t new, but currently stuck on Cranberry in Pines. I got my first needle minder only a few months ago & I quickly began wondering how I’d lived without one for 20-some odd years. I decided to get several more, so I could just keep one minder on each project (with needle at the ready) – I turned to Etsy and got two cute polymer clay minders with very strong little magnets from Willowbend Cottage.

And then there’s the stash horde. I recognize that my stash is actually pretty small (99% of it is smushed into the top drawer of my little filing cabinet), but it’s gotten too big for me thanks to my most recent, absolutely irresistible acquisitions – time to hold off on buying until I actually work through some of these! But just like university press sales (where pricey academic books are sold at a deep discount), I have a hard time resisting a good sale on charts and supplies I’ve had my eye on for a while. There’s a reason my library breeds at an alarming speed – so I’m trying hard to make sure my needlework cabinet doesn’t go the same way as my bookshelves.

My most recent acquisitions came from two places: I’m lucky to live relatively close to a great needlework supply store (Needle in a Haystack), which is just far enough away to discourage thoughts of idly going down to browse – for which my bank account thanks me. I also get a lot of supplies through a wonderful shop in Pennsylvania called The Strawberry Sampler. I happened upon them when I was looking to buy a Moira Blackburn chart that could be easily kitted out with thread and fabric – so I didn’t have to drive around trying to do it myself, in an area that wasn’t so great for needlework. They have a splendid selection & amazing themed sales on Wednesdays, which is where a lot of my latest stash came from.

I picked up a Milady’s Needle ruler case which I’d had my eye on for a while now – I’m really enjoying the designer’s aesthetic & am on a real Quaker kick – as well as a set of Christmas ornaments that are Victorian-looking without being excessive or too primitive. The Strawberry Sampler had a Wednesday sale on Quaker items, so I picked up a couple of charts I’d had my eye on – when things are marked down 20% or more, it’s hard to resist!

I’ve got a busy summer coming up, both in terms of work and travel, so only time will tell how quickly I make a dent in my pile-of-stuff-that-needs-to-get-finished-some-day. Luckily, several pieces are all ready to start, so that will help (I hope) – we’ll see!

I’m not sure if we’re supposed to feel bad about liberal use of slow cookers or not; they’re not the sexiest of kitchen appliances & I’m sure real foodies turn their nose up at them. I can’t say I do anything that I couldn’t do on the stove, but there’s something nice about throwing everything in for a couple of hours and having good reason not to fuss with it. I love to cook, but I sometimes get stressed out at having to get dinner on the table at 6:30 (or whenever), and it’s just one less thing to worry about.

In any case – my current favorite resource for slow cooking is Slow Cooker Revolution by the America’s Test Kitchen people (their analytical approach to cooking appeals to me in general). There is – as with any recipe – still tweaking that needs to be done, but the basics are just so much more right than most other recipes for slow cookers. I did a Thai-inspired chicken soup earlier this week that was pretty good – the balance of flavors was a smidge off, but I think I can work through that.

For some reason, it wasn’t my week with bread – after a pretty lousy attempt at a basic biscuit recipe that I’ve made many, many, many times before, I decided to hold off on any sort of serious bread. I did make an otherwise delightful chicken pot pie with biscuit topping (recipe via Cook’s Illustrated) – I’m a big fan of pot pies in any iteration & it was the perfect excuse to test drive my new individual-sized ramekins, which are a lovely solution to the leftovers problem! Unfortunately the biscuits were not great – my SO was happy to wolf everything down, but I was left wanting. Attempt number one is below – the biscuits weren’t quite as anemic as they look.

When it came time to use up the leftovers, I tossed out the leftover biscuit dough from attempt number one, and tried something else. Ina Garten’s chicken stew with biscuits is one of my favorite go-tos for this type of recipe (though frankly, the Cook’s Illustrated recipe I tried was almost as good, a lot less time consuming, and certainly a lot lighter!), but cutting butter into biscuits (or anything, for that matter) is one of my least favorite activities, so I turned to my favorite idiot proof biscuit recipes (found here). The result wasn’t perfect, but better than the first go around. I was a big fan of the filling, so I’ll be playing with what biscuit works best with it!

(The biscuits, by the way, are great on their own for biscuits that require so few ingredients and are SO easy – though they’re not the type that really puffs up, so they should be cut pretty thick. I particularly adore them with crumbled bacon added to the dry ingredients – yum!)

Never let it be said that I am a food photographer/stylist – making pretty food is not usually one of my fortes, especially when dealing with persnickety phyllo. Since I’m not a fan of making pastry-ish dough by hand & had a bunch of phyllo in the freezer, I did three sheets as a base and three on top (with a smidge of melted butter brushed between each sheet). Next time, I’ll cut the top down to a single sheet (or maybe leave it off all together!).

Since I couldn’t get ahold of ramps, I used run of the mill green onions & failed to caramelize them particularly well; I’m going to play with fillings a bit more (I will definitely chop the greens much finer next time). I also used a very mild plain goat cheese in place of ricotta (and quite a bit less than a cup) – it basically melted when blended with the veggies and lemon juice, and tasted delicious. If I remember to pick up some ricotta, I may try a half-and-half blend. I zested/juiced a whole lemon into the mix & found the citrusy taste a bit much, but my significant other had no such qualms (but I’ll probably cut the lemon down to half next time anyways).

I’ve already passed this on to a few people – even though my first attempt wasn’t PERFECT, they were really quite good and it seems like a nice, versatile savory pie recipe. We ate them for dinner last night (though they’re more appropriate as an appetizer, I think), and I snacked my way through the rest today during breakfast and lunch. The filling tasted even better today, and the phyllo held up surprisingly well. They’re tasty hot out of the oven – and at room temperature (my favorite kind of recipe!).

Following on the heels of finishing the stitching portion of the pendants I talked about last week, I started on a Christmas stocking (from Rosewood Manor) called Cranberry in Pines. The ‘cranberry’ refers to the red beads which I’ll add after I’ve finished the cross stitch – since I don’t have frame big enough (nor would I want to hold a frame big enough) to hold the entire design, I can’t bead as I go. I’m not religious, but I do love classic Christmas trappings of trees and stockings and ornaments! I actually preferred the companion stocking (Cranberry Row), since I really like band sampler-style stitching – my SO liked this one more, and it is his stocking, so … and it is really pretty, even if I haven’t made a lot of forward progress yet.

There are a lot of thread changes and it’s requiring a lot of counting at the moment, so this is not my go-to piece for work breaks – hence the slow progress. It is a really pretty pattern, though, and I’m looking forward to getting more work in next week.

Closeup - that's five colors on one little tree!

I’ve made a lot more progress on a much smaller little project. I picked up this kit at a local needlework store (Needle in a Haystack); called Pink Lemonade Cottage, it included everything needed to put together a needle book (the portion I’m working on now), a pin cushion, and a little scissor fob. I have been SO impressed with this kit – the colors are gorgeous, I love the pattern, and it’s just been a lot of fun to work on. It’s pretty repetitive (in a good way!), so it’s been easy to pick up and put down. The designer (the Purple Thread) is new, and I’ll probably pick up her other projects in the near future – this one’s been really super. For whatever reason, even though I generally shy away from flowery anything in the rest of my life, I really like traditional sampler-style flowers.

I should have taken a picture before I started work & messed it all up - it includes everything needed for the embroidering and finishing, and is packaged in a really cute way

My only “complaint,” if you can call it that, is that one of the pinks (Weeks Dye Works ‘Camellia’) is a bit bright/bold for my tastes, at least in some portions of the thread. But it’s a minor grouse, and I love everything else – the Weeks ‘Scuppernog’ thread (the green of the border) is gorgeous and I’ve spent a lot of time admiring the subtle color changes.

The pink isn't quite this aggressive, but it's close

It’s a chilly, overcast day in the Bay Area today, so I’m looking forward to getting some more stitching in this evening – and some bread baking, but more on that later.

The only hitches were ‘Frankenhoop’ and getting used to working with highly variegated threads. I’m hoping to get a floor stand at some point in the next year, which will mean I won’t have to clip my chart holder and magnifier to one tiny little frame. I’m gradually getting the hang of ‘placing’ colors as needed, and a friend who knits shared a nice tip (that I didn’t have occasion to use) that may come in handy in the future.

Frankenhoop

The pendants – designed by Gloria Moore – were worked on 36 count Lakeside Linen ‘Luna,’ with one strand of Vikki Clayton silks over one. Clockwise from top left:

VCS ‘Magpie Warbles,’ 45w X 45h
VCS ‘Huckleberry,’ 41w X 41h
VCS ‘Oxblood,’ 43w X 43h
VCS ‘Old Maid of the Forest,’ 41w X 41h

Quaker Pendants II

I think the red one is my favorite (I modified it slightly & removed the ‘1891’ – I could just imagine people wondering what a random date was doing there), followed closely by the green. I’m anxious about finishing the pendants, but what’s the worst that can happen?

In an attempt to consolidate my bits and pieces of what I affectionately refer to as ‘domesticity’ (for me, meaning baking, cooking, cross-stitching, and other crafting and creating), I’ve created this space that is ever-so-slightly separate from my academic/professional blog (The Wayward Historian). I hope to keep myself appraised of my own progress, successes, failures, likes and dislikes – things that are currently jotted down in the margins of cookbooks, filed away in memory, and scattered across a myriad of social sites like Twitter and Facebook.

For the moment, my cross-stitching projects will probably take precedence. A great aunt taught me how to cross stitch when I was four or five, but it was only in the past couple of years that I managed to actually complete whole projects, and it was only in the past 8 months that I discovered a world of higher-end patterns, fabrics, and fibers. In January, I complete a Moira Blackburn sampler called ‘The Announcement’, which was my first time stitching on linen (though it was worked in regular DMC cotton floss). It was made for my partner’s new nephew, and is now residing in London. I’ve now amassed a frightening (or thrilling) amount of projects for my ‘to-do’ pile. Cross-stitch satisfies my desire to be doing something with my hands that is low-stress and repetitive – giving me lots of good thinking time and unwinding time.

I’m setting the personal goal to try and update once a week with my works-in-progress, and go from there. An attempt to track getting off the beaten path in order to stay on the beaten path of my dissertation!