Tuesday 30 August 2011

Cooking up a Storm

I hope everyone weathered the storm okay. It's wasn't as bad here in the city as elsewhere, but I don't think I have stayed inside so much in my life. Not only did I get pretty much all the stuff done that I have been avoiding all summer since I'd rather be sunning myself, I cooked like a crazy person. Hurricane is just another word for Party in my house.

Blame it on my Maine upbringing, but I'm pretty sure my ancestors would disown me if I wasn't already prepared for the power to go out at any given moment. Flashlights, a stockpile of batteries, candles and matches, buckets of water...this is my everyday supply closet. I was a bit appalled to have to run out to the grocery store on Saturday morning for a bit of ginger root and have to see people in a total panic, trying to BUY ALL THE THINGS and leaving the shelves with nothing but a thin coat of dust as they scoop up the last of the sad potted meat product.

irene weekend

Our fruit and veggie CSA this week had a lot of cucumbers, so I started a few batches of pickles. Refrigerator pickles are pretty damn easy and fast, and you can really get creative with the veggies you choose and the spices you use- cukes are an obvious choice, but cauliflower and greenbeans and carrots and oh, just about anything can be pickled. I'm such a fan of Szechuan spices, so I made a batch with all the good stuff I have from Penzy's. I used a basic refrigerator pickle recipe and replaced all the standard spices with decidedly more exotic- numbingly warm Szechaun peppercorns, garlic, ginger, Tien Tsin dried red peppers, and I used rice vinegar instead of regular white or apple cider.

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You let the spices and vinegar come to a boil with a half cup of sugar and let it simmer for 10 minutes before pouring it in the jars with the cukes. Throw it in the fridge with lids once it is cool and in three days, you will eat like a king. The King of Pickles.

While I had that going on, I had a good sized watermelon that needed to be consumed. I scooped out the flesh, blended it with some water, ginger, fresh lime juice and some honey, strained the pulp and made a delicious agua fresca. It's perfect with vodka, rum or gin or just as a purely innocent teetotalism juice.

irene weekend

And all the gorgeous rind shouldn't end up in the garbage.

irene weekend

Cube it up and pickle it! It's the perfect vehicle to get more salty sweet brine into your diet.

Also with the CSA was about 10 pounds of perfectly ripe heirloom tomatoes. I went to work making a batch of ricotta gnocchi, which I fried in a bit of butter before throwing chopped tomatoes, basil and garlic over it and some really nice olive oil.

irene weekend

It makes a fantastic lunch. Plus, I always make a double batch of the gnocchi and freeze half of the uncooked little lumps. I was hoping pretty hard that the power wouldn't go out. I was lucky, and I have enough gnocchi to feed a crowd.

At this point, I wasn't so soused on watermelon cocktails to forget about desert.

irene weekend

I had a quart of these tiny tart plums. Each one was hit or miss as to whether you would be able to bite into one without your face contorting into a permanent pucker, so I went ahead and cooked up a luscious tart. The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen. If you are tight on kitchen space, she's the food blogger for you.

I made a few other things as well: a big pot of chili with cornbread muffins, ricotta pancakes for breakfast, a frittata that required the broiler to be on, which predictably lead to thick black smoke pouring out of the kitchen (but now my oven is clean). My friends stayed dry and well fed, with enough booze to go around to not care about what was going on outside. I felt like it was the most perfection I could possibly squeeze out of a crap situation.

The next morning, I was up early. We went for a walk to the park down the street to check out what kind of damage had been done.

There was a scenic lake where people are usually doing tai chi early in the day.

irene weekend

The skate park was now a swimming pool, with more than 4 feet of water in it.

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There were a lot of sad corpses of giant old trees lying about.

irene weekend

irene weekend

I found a leaf insect who seemed kind of confused about the situation and was sitting on a brick wall.

irene weekend

There were quite a few people ignoring the "stay inside- it's still dangerous" warnings and checking things out. The high tide had washed over the roadway, shutting down the Belt Parkway earlier, but it was clear now.

irene weekend

The city still stands.

irene weekend

irene weekend

It was delightfully windy out on the pier. There were lots of people gleefully playing in the wind and watching the swells roll in the normally calm bay.

irene weekend

irene weekend

The clouds were whipping by in a furious tangle. The sun would peak through briefly, give us a wink, and then slip back into obscurity. By evening, the wind had died down and it was still and quiet, and there was a beautiful peachy sunset.

Which made me hungry for peaches. Good thing I had some on hand, because they are delicious cooked in a bourbon bath until they turn sticky with syrup. Topped with mint, it's like you have a little mint julep in edible form. It's transcendent.

Friday 26 August 2011

FO: Handspun Urchin Beret

Back to showing off a bit of knitting here. Here's another handspun hat that I whipped up in an afternoon.

It started out as a 4oz braid of Creatively Dyed roving. It's a 50/50 wool and bamboo blend.

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I got this at MDSW a couple years ago. I just remember that it was hot out, and touching wool was a really big effort for me. Maryland has a great wool festival, but it's timed rather awkwardly. It's at the exact part of the year where you are liable to get your first really muggy days, which make you panic about there never be the need for woolly things ever again.

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I spun this up as a chunky 2-ply, with plenty of thick and thin spots. The bamboo was a little squeaky to spin- it wanted to clump and not be a homogeneous blend with the wool. I went with it, and let it be what it wanted to.

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I got slightly over 60 yards in the end. A hat-amount.

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A simple beret was whipped up in record time. I used size 15 needles. Once again, it's the Urchin Beret by Wenlan Chia. It's a good pattern for a small amount of chunky or bulky weight yarn. I put in some extra rows just so I wouldn't have any leftovers. The bamboo really wants to drape, so it gives it a nice slouchy appearance. You can't really put this on your head, you have to pour yourself into it and let it flop around artfully and lopsided.

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The bamboo didn't pick up the dye, so the white really muted the bright colors. It looks more heathered than anything.

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Voila! It's a cute, fun little topper.

Thursday 25 August 2011

NYC Summer

New York, in summertime, is not without its pleasures. While I prefer not to be here once the weather is nice, I do find little moments of bliss that adds up to make my time here good.

NY August 2011

Despite having a brutal July here and pretty much everywhere on the East Coast, August has been much more pleasant. Less humid, more blue skies. Big late afternoon thunderstorms to entertain you and perhaps scare the crap out of you.

NY August 2011

Plus, with all the earthquaking and hurricaining going on, you can't really feel disinterested in your surroundings.

NY August 2011

NY August 2011

I am lucky that my office is very close to Bryant Park. It's a very nicely manicured and managed bit of public green space. It's very popular with the lunchtime crowd, but they also have lots of events and concerts and movies going on every day after work as well.

It will be a cold day in hell when I decide to eat an out of season tomato. It's just so gratifying when they finally ripen into perfect fat globes of tart-sweet flavor. The Heirloom Tomato BLT from the 'Wichcraft kiosk is something I fantasize about all winter. It's just lovely.

NY August 2011

They recently installed courts to play Boule or Bocci.

NY August 2011

I know I talked about this last summer, but it's really fun to do yoga in the park.

NY August 2011

NY August 2011

Having a crowd around you of 500+ doing more or less the same thing is an interesting experience. It gets a lot of curious on-lookers and a few pervy photographers really intent on capturing you at your awkward worst, so I try to get a spot deep in the middle of the crowd. The class is free on Thursday evenings, with a rotating cast of instructors and styles, but it mostly seems like Vinyasa is being taught. If it's hot enough out, it's instant Bikram.

NY August 2011

It feels like everyone there is taking a collective sigh of relief as they try to shake off their day at the office. Despite the city noise as a constant, you start to block out the sirens and jackhammers and just enjoy the sun and warmth and the grass under your mat.

NY August 2011



Wednesday 24 August 2011

Indian Peaks Wilderness

Just South of Rocky Mountain National Park is a stretch of National Forest called Indian Peaks. It's a really wild place.

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The park contains some of the southernmost permanent glaciers in the US.

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Nice Marmot.
Colorado part 2

Colorado part 2

Colorado part 2

Colorado part 2

Colorado part 2

Oh, New York. Why do I have to call you home?

Ah, that's right. My job pays me enough money to keep me around.