Christmas knitting progress

After a couple of false starts I've finally started making some progress on Georgia's knitted Christmas presents. Since we'll be going back east for Christmas, I wanted to make her a hat and some mittens. So far, I've mostly completed the FiberTrends ladybug hat for her. I still need to make and attach the spots, antennae and eyes an tuck in the ends, but the hat itself is complete. I may or may not make her a second hat, in a more standard stocking cap style, well see if I get to it.

The plan is to make coordinating mittens and socks and possibly a felted ladybug bag. Last night I made a first stab at a sock (as I made the cuff, I realized it was a little too fat for her wrist). It's too long so when I make the second one I'll try to correct that (need to trim an inch off) before ripping down and correcting the first one. I put in an afterthought hourglass heel so it's not AS big a deal to rip down and correct. yeah, me!

As for other mittens, I've talked for years about doing intentionally mismatched mittens and this would be the perfect time to start...perhaps some mice in assorted colors (white, grey, perhaps brown) or bears.

G has also requested purple mittens (purple currently being her favorite color) so when I go out looking for red worsted weight yarn that will felt, I'll see what I can turn up. Luckily it doesn't take very much to make a pair of socks or mittens for a 3-year-old.

Now if I can only manage to complete one of the pairs of socks I have started for Luke as well...

3 great ways to make cocoa

As I'm sipping a cup of morning cocoa, I'm reflecting on the various ways I've made hot cocoa over the years and the ones that really stand out. I'm not talking about cocoa from a packet - this is cocoa from scratch.

The first great cocoa was in college when my friends and I discovered that if you made the standard recipe on the Hershey's cocoa tin (unsweetened cocoa, NOT chocolate milk mix) with reconstituted evaporated milk (NOT sweetened condensed milk) instead of regular milk it tasted particularly creamy. We used a fairly standard ratio of unsweetened cocoa to sugar and a pinch of salt and crammed the mug full of mini-marshmallows. The cocoa got even better when we discovered Hershey's European style cocoa which is difficult to find the farther you get from PA.

Then there is Bonnie's cocoa which I learned to make from a friend when I was in graduate school... 

Take a scoop of your favorite chocolate friendly ice cream (not too big, perhaps half a mug's worth) and an overflowing heaping spoon of Droste cocoa. Add some hot water, perhaps a half a cup, and stir until the ice cream melts and the cocoa powder dissolves then top off the mug with more hot water. Bonnie is fond of using coffee or mocha flavored ice cream but has made this for me with all kinds of thing including Cherry Garcia (which leaves cherry lumps in the bottom of the mug but is still quite tasty if you like chocolate cherries). I've also made this successfully with Hershey's European style cocoa which is a reasonable (and far less expensive) substitution for Droste. This is a less sweet than your average cocoa making it a nice option for dark chocolate lovers.

Finally, my latest method for cocoa. Take about 3 rounded teaspoons of either a European sipping cocoa (like Shokinag) or your standard ratio of unsweetened cocoa powder to sugar (I have vastly reduced the amount of sugar that I add to my cocoa and use about 2 rounded teaspoons of cocoa powder and just one rounded teaspoon of sugar) plus an optional pinch of salt). Add boiling water a very little bit at a time and stir until smooth. Add a bit more water if you need to - you want the result to resemble chocolate ganache, not clay. Slowly add more hot water or hot milk while stirring, once it becomes more drink-like the hot liquid can be added all at once. Finish off with a splash of cream, half and half or evaporated milk. I'm a dark chocolate person so experiment with the sugar, you may well want more.

I've been experimenting with making cocoa from bars of good chocolate based on the last method. The trick is making a smooth paste so the chocolate dissolves. I've found this works best in an oversized teacup so you can use the back of the spoon to smooth the chocolate and one can use a microwave in 10 second increments but you have to add liquid or you risk scorching the chocolate.

craving tabbouli

I've had a craving for tabbouli lately and last evening I finally got together the ingredients to make a batch. It being November, I made what I refer to as "winter tabbouli" which has cucumbers instead of tomatoes (the lack of tomatoes also means it will keep longer). Store bought tabbouli is often a bulger based salad with some stuff in it and it invariably lacks the freshness of homemade. Clifford Wright reminds us in Little Foods of the Mediterranean that tabbouli ought to be an herb salad with some bulger in it. Wright claims that the proper ratio is 7 parts parsley (6 or 7 large bunches plus a bunch of mint) to 1 part bulger. I used the leaves from two bunches plus a bunch of mint and next time I'll probably increase that to 3 bunches. Diced cucumbers, lightly salted, give it volume and some crunch and some thinly sliced scallions in addition to or instead of minced onion give it a little bite. Dress with some lemon juice and a generous drizzle of good olive oil and allow the bulger a little time to absorb the dressing - yum. Though it might well be traditional to scoop up tabbouli with romaine lettuce leaves, I like to use pita chips or even flour tortillas.

kettles should not need annual replacement

I have a love/hate relationship with our OXO Good Grips teakettle. I love the idea - a cushioned handle that doesn't get hot, a spout that opens automatically when you tilt the kettle to pour it and a nice whistle to boot (so when I forget that I've put the kettle on...). Unfortunately there are some design/manufacturing flaws.

The little red tab on the handle of the first one gave out after a year or so which meant that the cushioned rubberized grip could slip (off even). They sent me a new one and included a return authorization so I could return the faulty one. After about a year, the replacement did the same thing. They replaced that one too but my husband and I were both less than pleased that the same flaw reappeared.

The third one broke this morning. The handle of the lid to the reservoir came off. Replacement lids are available, but backordered for a couple of months and they won't automatically send them because it's more than a 30 day backorder. I can return the kettle (at my expense) and they'll send a replacement after they receive it. My husband isn't going to be happy about replacing it again, but the postage is far less than a new kettle, especially since after reading reviews, there doesn't appear to be aything out there that folks are really satisfied with.

Overall I've been happy with the customer service though I'm not sure why they have previously replaced the kettle first and send me a postage paid return label while this time I have to send the faulty kettle first at my own expense (and also be without a kettle for a few weeks). I want to love this kettle, but the fact that 3 of them have broken, all after about a year, has me wondering about both design and manufacturing.

grump.

pizza dough

I remember the first time I looked through Nancy Silverton's Breads from La Brea Bakery, reading the sourdough recipe which takes 3 days to make (this after tending a sourdough starter for 10 days, feeding it three times a day and doubling it at each feeding during the day) I thought to myself - a home baker can't do this. First of all, what are the chances a home baker is home to feed a sourdough starter three times a day. Second, who among us can toss 4 or 6 (or whatever it was) cups of starter at the end of every day for ten days. And third, who has 3 days to make a loaf of bread?!

Who indeed...

It turns out that my own breadmaking has evolved to the point where I routinely start bread the evening beforehand with a sponge, made either from yeast or a starter in my fridge. In the morning I add salt and flour and knead it into dough then leave it to rise for most of the day (long slow rises in cool houses give flavor time to develop). I've discovered that a mere 1/4 teaspoon of yeast is enough for a loaf (or a couple of 12" pizzas or a flatbread) and the overnight sponge makes a big difference in the final taste of the bread. It's possible to keep a small starter (enough for a loaf of bread) in the fridge and use it as infrequently as once a week and have the starter survive. We've settled into a Friday Pizza Night habit and it's been weeks since I've used yeast to start a batch of dough. It's not Nancy Silverton's sourdough starter, but over time it develops more flavor and I'm not going through 5 or 10 pounds of flour per week.

For those of us who can't bear to throw away cups of starter, adding some water and flour to the sponge in the morning and setting aside a cup or two of the result before adding flour and salt to the remainder will provide a small amount of starter that will last about a week in the fridge. This isn't as time consuming as it seems and after you get used to the taste of homemade dough, ready made crusts and doughs pale in comparison. It's absolutely worth it!

on gardens

For Mother's Day this year, my husband and daughter gave me a vegetable garden. I've had one most places I've lived since college, but hadn't committed to living on one place long enough to expend the effort since moving to California. Since 'gardener' is one of the first appellations I'll use to describe myself, this has been kind of hard. This year we bit the bullet, turned over the strip of grass next to our patio and planted.

This weekend I'm finally ripping out the tired plants. This being Southern California, the plants have not given up - I harvested 2 zucchinis last week, but it's time to take a rest, turn the whole thing over, and think about the successes (ronde de nice zucchini - I finally got around to trying this and shall never again be without it in a garden) and failures (the heirloom black tomato never produced, which may or may not be better than last year's Brandywines which did, but only fruit with blossom end rot)...what we want to repeat (or not) and what else we might want to try.

I wonder if I could grow saffron crocuses in a pot...

eating locally

I just finished reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and while this is an experiment I would not want to do myself (not even living here in Southern California where I just tore out my zucchini plants, and not because they had stopped producing), the idea of supporting local growers as much as possible - certainly more than we do - appeals. I used to be much better about going to the farmer's market and here there is really no excuse, I know of local farmers markets both days of the weekend and Thursday evenings. I'm sure that we'll never give up all of our conveniences, but know that as we become accustomed to making things ourselves, convenient alternatives often pale in comparison.

Take pizza dough, for instance. Over time I've developed a recipe that I start the evening before - whether with a quarter teaspoon of yeast or a cup of starter saved in the fridge - with a sponge that develops overnight and with the addition of salt and flour and kneading in the morning gets turned into dough that will rise much of the day before being punched down and stretched or rolled into pizzas. We usually add some whole wheat flour and cornmeal, sometimes rosemary or another herb and there's just no comparison to refrigerated dough or worse one of those Boboli crust things.

This week I'm going to get started learning to make a good squash soup. It'll have to be something I can make in small batches as my husband won't touch winter squash and of late the only way I've gotten the daughter to eat it is to sneak some mashed stuff into her macaroni and cheese, but I hear that's possible.