Still Life With Sprouts

Brussels sprouts, who knew,

That I was partial to you?

With cranberries, yum!

Recipe: A delicious, and easy, way to make sprouts with fresh cranberries.

My beautiful daughter makes them this way.

http://lacasadesweets.com/blog/2013/11/14/maple-roasted-brussels-sprouts-with-cranberries/

90% of brussels sprouts come from nearby Watsonville! http://patch.com/california/watsonville/love-em-or-hate-em-but-brussels-sprout-season-is-here

Sewing: Hanky and a Flu Shot (No 2 of 2)

Click on the handkerchief above to help yourself to the whole hanky

Help Yourself to Another One of my Virtual Hankys: My Mullein Mélange

     A couple of virtual sewing* projects help me make the seasonal transition from our California Indian Summer to a, hopefully, rainier cold season. Hopefully that 'cold' part is just going to refer to our slightly lower temperatures, not the stuff that sends me to bed with a big pitcher of herb tea and a Jane Austen novel for the day. I'm also hoping that flu shot I'm getting today will make the cold season flue-less. 

     This article, Flu Shots: Far From Perfect, Still Advised,  (I listened to it as a Health broadcast on NPR, and it's based on an article in the Lancet) had a lot of news about the future of flu shots, for those of us who following the guidelines of the mainstream medical community. I'm really looking forward to the day when the flu shot is something I get along with my every-ten-year tetanus vaccination. Until then I'll get my yearly shot and stock up on virtual hankys.
     I designed the handkerchief above using Photoshop and a photo of some cotoneaster berries I took in my garden. I'm sorry I don't recall where I got the free download of the Pony Express stamp.

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     Tonight I'm going to try cooking some Cornish Game hens for supper. Does anybody else besides me remember when they were in vogue? (It will really date me if I tell you that I remember when they were a hot foodie item.) Did their ancestors really come from Cornwall, or are they just little chickens? :-) 

     I made a number of jars of apricot jam this summer. Luckily I'd biked instead of walking over to the the farmer's market when one of the farmer's offered me all of his leftover squishy apricots for free (!), and my bike has a good sized front basket. So I'm going to pop open one of my jars of homemade apricot jam to make a glaze like the one in this recipe.

      I'm expecting we'll have some leftover chick- I mean Cornish Game Hen meat. So tomorrow, I plan to try out Nellymary's idea from today about using up leftovers on pizza You all remember Nellymary's blog, right? She lives in the land down under. Do Australians still call it that? I'll have to ask Nellymary. She calls her blog, Just Like My Nan Made. I subscribe to her entries by email, in the same way that people can subscribe to this art journal (look for the subscription link in the upper right part of this blog).

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You might also enjoy this mini Time Travel story

Indian Summer at Edgewood

Part 1: Creekside

Part 2:  Oak Apples

Part 3: Rose Hips

* Sewing: I haven't tried this yet, but am thinking about two ways to convert the full sized design to the real thing. One would be to put one of those fabric sheets into my home printer. I've only tried this once and I had a hard time removing the backing. I wonder if it would work better if I soaked it off?

     The other would be to have it printed it at Spoonflower, where I've made some really pretty fabric with my own designs. They have a variety of fabric to choose from too.

     If you click on the illustration, you should get the larger version. If you have any problems with that, send me an email (laurelshimer AT gmail DOT com) and I'll send you back the full-sized jpeg. Just let me know which hanky you want (or if you want both).

Turkey’s in the Pot and All’s Right With the World

for a little more turkey'liscous detail, click above

My husband’s idea of Dante’s Inferno is being forced to smell a turkey cooking. It’s not that he’s allergic to it. He just doesn’t like it. He will consume some white meat once a year on Thanksgiving. After that he may be convinced to down a little stir fry with leftover meat. Pretty much the rest is for me. I happily make myself a big pot of soup from the carcass and slowly consume it, remarking every few days on the delights of real turkey soup.

For the time being, I’m the supper-cooker in our house. My husband is a good cook, but his work is over-the-top right now. So, temporarily, I’m anointed. As long as nobody complains, I don’t mind. Y’all remember the Moose-Turd-Pie joke, right? (Good though!)

Last week, when I was feeling no end special recovering from my root canal, nothing suited me but turkey soup. Real evocative-of-my-childhood turkey broth, made from the bones of the fowl. OK, I make it in the microwave which never seems quite as real as the way my parents did it in a pressure cooker. My husband ate other things during my root canal recovery stage.

The challenge is that having made myself turkey soup with real bones, I have leftover turkey meat. I was MUCH too special to chew the meat while my mouth resumed it’s functions. And, being the children of depression-era parents, we can’t bear to feed the cats entirely on cooked turkey, not that they haven’t benefited.

There is one other thing Dave will eat made from turkey. That is turkey pot pie. I make it like a savory cobbler with a biscuit topping. He is quite partial to the buttermilk biscuit recipe ( substitute a little parmesan for the sugar and cinnamon) I use. In fact, I bet he would happily consume the substance my father delicately refers to as “horse pucky”, if it had a biscuit crust on top.

Being as it’s not actually Thanksgiving, Dave can’t bear the thought that he is eating turkey. So, tonight, we are having CHICKEN pot pie.

Hold the chicken.