#Moosewood2022, part 3 - March and April

Continuing with the Moosewood2022 Challenge...

March:

Recipe #7: Eggplant Curry (new), page 172

This one got rave reviews from Hubba.  He kept saying it's "perfection."  So I guess we will keep this one in rotation too.  :-)

Recipe #8: Gado Gado (new), page 180

I had been wanting to try this recipe for a few weeks.  It's more of a warm-weather dish and we had some very cold weather that caused me to put it off.

Most of the vegetables were sautéed individually and then served over Turmeric Rice.

The peanut-ginger sauce is delicious and has made the idea of crudite interesting to me again.  :-)

I did forget the hard-boiled eggs, which I had prepared ahead of time, but this is still a very easy and delicious dish.

Not recipes from the Moosewood Cookbook, but we've used the leftover Gado Gado Sauce in several other dishes.  Most notably on some oven roasted eggplant and mushrooms over rice.

Oven-roasted vegetables are really something special. Wow!

Recipe #9: Herbed Carrot Soup (new), page 23

Super easy and satisfying.

I think this recipe would benefit by being made ahead, so the flavors have more time to meld with each other.  I think I'll also go on the lighter end for lemon juice, next time.

Hubba LOVED(!) it and the color is amazing!

April:

Recipe #10: Swiss Cheese and Mushroom Quiche (standard), page 157

This recipe has been a favorite of ours for years.... like more than 15 and possibly as many as 20.  It was one of the first recipes I tried when I first got my own copy of The New Moosewood Cookbook.  This is the book that this food challenge is based upon.  It was first published 48 years ago, in 1974.

A 1.5x recipe fills two store-bought pie shells.  Which I tend to use so this is a faster meal.  I should note however, that the pie crust recipe provided is delicious and makes the dish better.

We often put other vegetables in it, depending on what we have on hand.  This version has a huge pile of spinach.

Try it.  You'll see why we love it so much.  :-)

Recipe #11: Spinach-Ricotta Pie (new), page 156

One of the things about this challenge is that I am working to try recipes I have not made before, in a book I've owned for more than 20 years.

This recipe is on the facing page of the Swiss+Mushroom Quiche I wrote about in Recipe #10.  Sometimes you just don't see things that are sitting right there....  and since we were trying to use up some spinach, I decided to give this one a shot...

Perhaps this was too many quiches back-to-back, but it is a very good recipe, and one that I will make again.

Recipe #12: Comprehensively Stuffed Squash (new), page 152

Butternut Squash is absolutely in the top tier of vegetables for me.  So finding different ways to use it is always of interest.

This recipe is great!  I think the stuffing would be nice in chicken cutlets, à la Cordon Bleu.

Recipe #13: Mushroom Curry (new), page 174

I love SE Asian foods... and I love mushrooms.  So, why not try this one next.  :-)

I did leave the coconut out, since I am allergic... otherwise this recipe was quite tasty.

Recipe #14: Marinated Sweet Potatoes with Broccoli (new), page 71

Sweet Potatoes are another one of my favorite vegetables and I'm hoping this will be a good way to use Broccoli.   

I ate far too much broccoli while in college... it was cheap and easy and I ate so much of it, that I can barely put it in my mouth anymore.... but Hubba LOVES(!) broccoli.  So I'm hoping this dish will satisfy both of us.

And of course, broccoli always makes me sing this song....  :-)

This recipe reads like it will be a nice side to grilled/smoked meats and was delicious with a riff on our favorite Meatloaf recipe.

Stats:

• 5 + 7 = 12 (new) = new-to-me recipe...  ie, one I have not made before
• 1 + 1 = 2 (standard) = recipes I have made frequently over the years, because we love it so much
• 0 + 0 = 0 (repeat) = previously made in the #Moosewood2022 challenge

For a total 14 Recipes as of Month #4 and Week #17 of the year.

Food Adventure slowed down as we were wrapping up for the sale of our former home/farm.  But my stated goal for this challenge is 1-2 recipes per month.  So we're still on track.  :-)

What are you making for dinner these days?

Fiber Arts Friday: Un-plying

I have not tried this before now, but with the goal of reclaiming yarn from a couple of very-early projects, I decided to give it a try and found this resource.

First up is grey unknown wool

This was the very first time I had plied anything.  It was part of my initial spinning class.  We were given balls of the two different greys in single form and then plied them together.

My resulting yarn was reasonably decent.

It was not enough for a full hat, even though I tried... twice.  :-)  The results were closer to a Yarmulke than even a beanie, let alone a full, fledged hat.

Step 1 - take the hats apart.  :-)

Step 2 - un-ply with the wheel, aka spin backward

Step 3 - wind into separate balls/cakes

Second Attempt is with Handspun Alpaca

I did not un-ply enough.  So while separating into a ball and cake, I got stuck.

So I ended up cutting the yarn a few times and did a couple more passes at un-plying.  This alpaca is a very-early-example of my spinning and plying skills..... I've come a loooong way.  :-D

These will now be going into my Scrappy Palindrome Scarf.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

Fiber Arts Friday: Save Our Sheep Sweater, part 6

Picking up near the end of Section 5 of my Save Our Sheep Sweater...

I finished the Clun Forest yarn and started Navajo Churro.

My initial plan was to match the breed bands across both sleeves and the body.  But the more I thought about it, the more I think it will be too much to wrangle.  Thereby removing the fun and making it stressful instead.

So I decided to pull the Hog Island (yellow-ish) from the bottom of the plan up to the sleeves.  This should make the sleeves primarily yellow, and each of the breed bands thicker on the body.

Navajo Churro is a Rug Yarn

I have been back-and-forth on whether to include Navajo Churro in this project.

You can see from the picture above, that the color flows nicely....  from the sweater thus far in Clun Forest, to Navajo Churro (top cake) and on down the line.

Navajo Churro is more of a rug or outer wear yarn but as a primitive breed, there is a lot of variety between fleeces, and this one has a nice hand.

Navajo Churro

The experience of knitting with it is very different from the Clun Forest.  It was clear, even in the first few stitches, that there is not much spring/bounce.

However, with the intent to make a fully-informed decision, I knit two rows and then set the project aside to think about it.

Clun Forest with 2 rows of Navajo Churro

I am concerned whether Navajo Churro is appropriate for a knit sweater... and it's placement in the lineup puts it across the bust and into the armpit... where extra stretch and give would be favorable.

I may still find a way to use the Navajo Churro in this sweater, but at this point,  I'm all but certain I will TINK it out.

Until next time.  Happy Fiber Arts Friday!!

Fiber Arts Friday: Estes Park Wool Market 2022, part 2

Whelp, in comparing the homework list for the 2022 version of Finishing with Excellence against the homework I completed for the 2020 version that was cancelled due to Covid... I have 8 swatches to make.

The large swatches are 5 stitches fewer and 1 inch shorter.

It took a few days to find the yarn, since it was still packed from our move.  Then it took about 2 weeks to make the new swatches, 

about an hour to wash, and a couple of days to dry.

I thought I might re-block the stockinette swatches due to the remaining curling at the top and bottom, but I compared them with the existing swatches.

I think they are all good-enough for the purpose.  Therefore my homework is (again) complete for the Finishing with Excellence class at the Estes Park Wool Market in June.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

Fiber Arts Friday: Save Our Sheep Sweater, part 5

Continuing my Save Our Sheep Sweater with section 5... (part 5 and section 5, ha)

My gut kept telling me to add a life line.  While section 5 appeared straight forward, that doesn't mean that I won't make a mistake.

So, as I like to say.... it's better have a life line than to need a life line.  ;-)

As the sweater gets larger, the risk of losing work due to a mistake increases.  So I have been employing the generous use of life lines to ensure I don't have to rip back too far in the event of a mistake.  Therefore protecting the work that is correct.... aka Risk Mitigation.

Part 5 is almost complete now.

The Navajo Line detail across the upper back is interesting.

At the time of these photos, I had 8 rows to get to the point of dividing out the sleeves and not enough of the Clun Forest yarn to get there.  So this seems like a good place to pause for a progress report.

The next yarn is Navajo Churro, which I'll talk about next time.  :-)

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

Fiber Arts Friday: New Studio, part 2

Slowly, my Studio is coming together.

Over a recent weekend, we got my floor loom and shelves assembled.

I mentioned in January, that I've been working my Day Job from this space for a while.  So to have the other big pieces together makes me exceedingly happy.

The work needed at our old place has been is winding down, so we have been able to spend time and energy making our new place the way we want, rather than just functional.

Most of the furniture is now in place.  So we will just be with it for a while before we start hanging art.

In the meantime, I am very excited to be to the point of unpacking and organizing books.

I expect it will be some time before I warp my loom, but wow.... I just love it when a project starts to wrap up.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!!