[cooking] Salsa Verde

Got all the ingredients for salsa verde in the CSA box a couple weeks ago:

Tomatillos, garlic scapes, japapenos, onions and cilantro (not pictured). I chopped and boiled it all:

Then blended it up with salt and cumin and garlic powder (since I didn't have any cloves to boil with the rest of the veg):

It was good on its own, to have with tortilla chips. The best way was over pulled pork enchiladas. 

This was so amazing, we had it for dinner twice:

I would love to make a huge pot of this salsa verde and can a lot for the winter.

[cooking] Stuffed Squash Blossoms

Last weekend I wanted to make some stuffed squash blossoms. I picked male flowers on Saturday morning:

YouTube videos helped me be able to identify the male vs. female flowers. I left the flowers alone all morning. While they were starting to close up, I made the ricotta cheese:

Ricotta is so easy. 1 qt whole milk + 1 cup cream. Bring to a boil. Add 4 tablespoons of lemon juice and stir slowly on a simmer for 2 min. Strain the curds into a kitchen towel over a colander. I chuck the acidic whey but you could use it in place of the water or milk any baking recipe (I've used it in breads in the past).

So the filling for the squash blossoms is a mix of fresh ricotta, Parmesan, mozzarella, minced garlic scapes, one egg, salt, pepper. 

While I did pluck off the whispy green things at the base of the flower, I left a little bit of stem to act as a handle. I stuffed the blossoms with a spoonful of the cheese mixture (this was the most fiddly part).

I heated up oil in a dutch oven and dragged the stuffed flowers through a plain batter. Fried for a few minutes on both sides.

Oh yeah, and I made some homemade marinara to go with it: saute minced garlic in olive oil, add Italian seasoning, add plain chunky tomatoes, simmer.

This was good. A little fussy. And the stems that I left were not rigid after frying, so I would cut them clean off to the base of the flower next time.

If there are still too many blossoms this weekend, I might pick more and just drape them on pizza. It's nice having fried food but then there's the leftover oil and you're tempted to fry everything in sight because you might as well while the oil is there.

I would definitely make these again for a special dinner.

[spinning] Tour de Fleece 2020

I quietly participated in Tour de Fleece this year. This is pretty much the only time I spin yarn any more. 

First, I worked on a colorful two-ply using fiber from Into the Whirled:

This is 8oz of fiber. Polwarth, I think.

Next was a rainbow gradient, about 4 or 5 oz, of soft fiber purchased at a Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival:

I chain-plied the skein to keep the colors together. I'm very excited to come up with a project for this.

Lastly, I spun 4oz of colorful wool into a low-twist single ply:

This yarn should make some nice stripes.

All the fiber I spun this year was very colorful. I'm so into rainbows and I'm especially thrilled when I catch one outside.

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My knitting mojo is starting to creep back. The weather is getting cooler... and this is the time of year when I'd really be ramping up projects to enter into the fair (no Tunbridge Fair this year). I'm working on a small shawl now that I should be able to finish in a night or two. Not sure what I'll cast on for next. I really want to make a concerted effort to start knitting things with all my handspun yarn...

[baking] Chocolate Peanut Butter Stuffed Cookies

I swear these cookies aren't burned:

I made some peanut butter stuffed cookies. The cocoa powder is black cocoa, like the kind used for Oreo cookies.

They were fussy to make in that you have to make two different kinds of dough. Also, it was super hot out and the chocolate dough would kind of melt in my hands as I was working with it. But the results are worth both annoyances. 

Like a very grown up peanut butter cup. The black cocoa isn't very chocolatey. Next time, I would probably use a natural or dutch cocoa.

A lighter cocoa might make it taste more like an authentic peanut butter cup... and people would probably stop commenting on how burned they look.

The recipe is Chocolate Peanut Butter Stuffed Cookies by A Spicy Perspective.

I have much more peanut butter dough leftover than the chocolate so I might have to make inside-out versions.

[cooking] Ratatouille... ish.

I'm doing the best I can to use up all the vegetables I've been getting in the CSA (and I'm about to drown in cucumbers/tomatoes from my home garden). Here's a easy way to use one or two of everything that's in season now...

Slice and stack the slices on their side in a ceramic dish.

I put a smear pizza sauce down in the dish first (chunky canned tomatoes mixed with some of Penzey's pizza seasoning). Then the veg (no particular order but I did get a little fussy about not have two slices of the same thing together), then top with mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.

After baking at 350 F for 50 min:

I liked this, Dollar not so much. I even served it with rustic toast (everything is better with crunchy carbs) and put little forkfuls of the veg and sauce on the toast (essentially making bites of pizza on the fly)- but I think he just doesn't like a few of these particular vegetables. 

I had some leftovers the next morning for breakfast- with an over easy egg on top. Get that yolk running over everything and then eat with toast.

This could be a very pretty (and simple) side dish with just zucchini and yellow squash.

[baking] Herbed Pull Apart Bread

King Arthur Baking (formerly King Arthur Flour) has a nice post on Pull-Apart Breads. I had a big container of garlic scape butter to use up and decided this bread would be perfect.









There was a decent amount of leftover dough even after jamming the loaf tin full. I just twisted it into a knot and baked it on the side. Totally a missed opportunity to shape it into something fun (like a Dollar sign)... I will next time.







It was so good. SO good. Soft and garlicky. I stored it in bag in the fridge- and it sliced/toasted well.

I feel like this amount of dough could make two smaller pull-apart loaves, which would be fun to bring to a dinner instead of rolls.

[gardening] Daylilies

The daylilies have started to pop open at home and it seems like there's a new one every day. I was pretty worried about how they would fare after the drought but I'm happy to see at least one scape is coming up in each type. Some are looking a little thin this year, which could be weeds as well. I've spent more time in the vegetable garden than I have the flowerbed this year.

[misc] Heat Wave

We had a spell of super hot and muggy days. Penny was like this most of the time:

I took the inflated raft to the pond:

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The veg garden is coming along- I've picked a couple small tomatoes. I think I can grab a couple little eggplants soon. The hot peppers are coming along. I need to thin the carrots. The cucumbers, squash and pumpkins are flowering. 

I think it might be chanterelle foraging time in the next week or so.

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We had a couple people up for dinner Saturday evening. I made:

Bone-in pork roast. This is an easy, cheap, impressive roast- you just have to watch the internal temp.

Roasted potatoes 

Sauteed spinach

Big Batch Quick Dinner Rolls. I did 24 rolls on a half sheet pan. This was crazy fast and easy- I'm pretty sure this will be my go-to rolls for a large group from now on.

Garlic scape butter

Peach-blueberry crumble tart and vanilla ice cream

Sunday was spent doing all the dishes. Sigh. 

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Tour de Fleece started June 28. It's pretty much the only time of year I spin yarn and I've slowly made my way though 12 oz so far. I still have plying to do... and I think I'll do 8 oz more. All the fiber I grabbed from the stash is rainbow-y this year.

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Lavender outside should be ready to harvest soon. Then annual lemon-lavender cookies! And lavender sachets.

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I crocheted a couple small doilies- need to take pics. I'm going to get back to sewing face masks and wind some yarn for a little knit shawlette.

[knitting] No Place Like Home pullover

June's almost over and I test knit a little sweater this month:

It is a 5-year-old size. The pattern is No Place Like Home and it's by The Autumn Acorn.

It came out a little on the small size (I think my gauge was about half a stitch finer than recommended) so I think my niece will get one season out of it.

If I were to knit this again, I would add a little sleeve shaping. And beads to the front lace panel.

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We had a spate of hot days the moment I was done knitting this 100% wool sweater, so I switched to crocheting little cotton doilies. 

Tour de Fleece started this past Saturday. I'm working my way through 8oz of some colorful cheviot from Into the Whirled.

[misc] Too busy

I haven't posted for a week. Sheesh. Too busy. Went with my mom to Hmart on Sunday for Korean food supplies (and have been having the best meals since).

Eastern Swallowtail Butterfly on the lilac bush:

Murderface had an emergency visit to the vet Monday afternoon. We've been so good about giving him arthritis and kidney disease medicine that we haven't been making sure he's having healthy poopies. It was a visit about poopies but he's doing better (and is on miralax now).

What else... tending the vegetable garden. It's so dry here and will be for days. I wasn't watering enough and I've doubled the amount I'm lugging around. Sigh.

I attended a Composting 101 zoom presentation last night. Very informative- I think I'm going to build different bins than the kind I originally had in mind. I'm ready to start doing something better with all my kitchen waste- esp now that it's summer and we're producing so much more.

[cooking] Zhoug sauce

A friend brought over two bundles of cilantro- I googled recipes and saw zhoug sauce, which sounded good. I happened to have three large jalapenos and ramp bulbs.

The ramps were from the Chelsea Farmer's Market and the bulbs are SO huge. I used these instead of garlic cloves. I whirred it all up in a little food processor with salt, red pepper flakes, cumin, cardamom and olive oil, following this recipe.

Mine isn't as verdant green but it's very good (but too spicy hot for Dollar). I've never had this sauce in the real world, so I don't really know what it's authentically meant to taste like but it's good mixed into rice and into an omelet. I'm going to keep mixing it into everything.