It is a mystery

I had a good weekend if pretty quiet. Saturday I alternated between cleaning a little bit, sewing and spinning. At one point I was so tired I decided to nap and read a book laying in bed instead, but felt rested afterwards so it worked out. Saturday night I had my usual GBBO rewatch with J via discord. I got enough bobbins cleared for my electric wheel that I could spin in bed, but I still need to get two more emptied. I may also try and cone off the bobbin that is full of samples, mostly plant fibers so that I can weave it all someday. 

I think I've come up with ideas for the wool samples, I'll spin up a warp and then just use weft of whatever I have laying around that is somewhat close yarn weight just to get some stuff used up. Anything that isn't of the 2 or 3 ply will become striped hats or something. I've got a bunch of wool I've spun up that is not good for warp but would be good as weft and I don't have any other project in mind. My knitting and crochet has fallen by the wayside especially since I haven't had as many meetings this year to knit in. Maybe I'll get it back when I finish the sweater. I just like spinning more idek. I do want to crochet something large, maybe another circles of change blanket with random yarn but I don't know if I have quite enough. 

Saturday afternoon I cleared the two inches of snow we got and ran out for urgent supplies, eggs for baking and ice cream. Came home from the farm store with rutabagas, carrots and chorizo, so I'll come up with something interesting to do. I wish I could find a savory vegetable other than potatoes that I like. I like a lot of sweet vegetables, carrots, sweet potatoes, rutabagas (recent discovery!), peas, sweet corn. But I can't think of any other savory vegetables I like. Brassicas almost universally taste terrible to me. I will eat them if I'm at someone else's house provided they are a minor part of the meal so I can eat them alongside the good stuff and it will mask the taste. When I eat dinner I want a starch, a protein and a vegetable but only one sweet thing. I dunno. Still working on it. 

Sunday I made eclairs, which is what the eggs were for. I mucked up my pastry cream and didn't cook it long enough to thicken it properly, so I put it in a pan and put it in the freezer which worked so well I might do it again. The eclairs were going in the freezer anyway, it's one of my favorite ways to eat eclairs since they don't gush pastry cream everywhere when you eat them. And also there's only so many eclairs I can eat in a week. The batch of choux pastry I made came out too crunchy to fill well, so I cut them open, popped a slice of frozen custard in and then back into the freezer. Then made the chocolate ganache, put it on and froze again. In between all this, I was working on sewing projects, spinning and then I went for a walk in the woods because I was grumpy and it helped a lot. 

I worked with a classmate on a recorded ASL assignment, then had a quick farm meeting with my parents which was mostly just updating each other on what we hadn't accomplished. My dad is making a doctor's appointment for his back, so that's not going well. We've got set dates for my trip down there for renovation fun and apparently the deeds should be in the mail which is a hilarious way to get a deed to someone. 

This is my last week of ASL class and I'm trying to work ahead on things. I just recorded my homework due tonight which I'll post soon and I'll start watching the videos for the essay assignment. I need to figure out how to keep learning after class is over if this is a language I want to gain fluency in. 

Onward to the week!

Friday, I did very little. It was great. ETA: Actually, I went to my local NCAA women's team's hockey game and it was fun!

Saturday I ran errands in the morning, which was go to the co-op for baking supplies, the farm for 3 doz eggs and goodwill to get a fleece blanket to use as a muslin for the coat I'm working on. I found one old dog blanket but it wasn't enough material for the size of this coat, so I had to get another. It's still sitting in the washing machine but I'll pull it out tonight during crafting. 

That afternoon, I made the two hour drive to Brattleboro, VT for the book event of Country Queers: A Love Letter. I found this project back when it was on the original blog in 2014 or 2015, when I was looking for other people like me in rural areas. Since then it has become a podcast and now a book. Rae was really wonderful to talk to and the event was awesome. I ended up chatting with some random folks at the event as well. I stopped on my way back to take a few pictures of pretty VT hills. 

Sunday was Baking Time. I so missed baking with being so busy. I started by making yogurt since I need breakfast yogurt. Then I started chocolate babka from Baked to Perfection. Then did some gluten challah because I really miss making gluten bread. Then I made brownies. Then I had a lull where the oven was still on but the breads were still rising, so I tossed some cheese cornbread in a pan and threw that in. Then threw the challah and babka in the oven together since the challah needed a 400F oven and the babka needed 350, so I put challah on the bottom rack and babka on the top. The babka took forever to bake and I think it's still a smidge underbaked but it's super tasty and not super sweet because I didn't put the sugar syrup on top. 

Then I took most of the brownies and the Forbidden Bread over to the A Farm, where they were smack dab in the middle of turkey pickup. They process around 200 turkeys to sell every year and thus, a ton of people come to pick them up. They have around 10 parking spots on a normal day. I ran out to help with parking people and we had probably 20-25 cars smushed in at any one time. There were a ton of people and not all of them good at parking but we made it work. The last 45 minutes of the pickup time was mostly standing around a campfire chatting with everyone and then we cleanup and went in for dinner. 

They're all exhausted because 200 turkeys is a lot, then they have to weigh and package them all and sort by size for the pickup. They have another processing day on Tuesday, which is mostly someone else's turkeys plus some for processing into sausage and other things in their kitchen. I have helped more other years, but I figure bringing some bread and brownies over helps a little. 

Good weekend.  

Things I meant to do yesterday: write this post, call Shark about not working steam cleaner, wash a fleece. What I did instead: help put plastic on the high tunnel in the wind.

Wednesday last week I made Fig Newtons from Stella Parks' Bravetart book, which is one of my all time favorite baking books. It is thorough and everything is delicious. I'm also trying to digitize the recipes that are in the cookbooks I like, so I can check ingredient lists while I'm at the grocery store if I decide to make them randomly. Usually recipes have both cup and weight options which is nice. I've only typed weights since that's what I usually use. Some recipes she provides gluten free options but I mostly don't have issues with adapting the ones I don't. The fig newtons are the exception, I still haven't quite figured out how to get them right, the dough likes to spread a lot but I make them anyway because they're good.

This recipe is annoying so I usually make it by itself since it's fiddly. But it produces a full sheet pan of snacks that are amazing and tasty.

( recipe )

Sunday was baking morning. I made bread, chocolate cake from Bravetart, pastry cream (because I wanted chocolate cake and pastry cream mmmmm) and savory hand pies (turnovers). Only two typed up here because the others are digital already.

Classic Sandwich Bread from America's Test Kitchen How Can It Be Gluten Free. I like their recipes, they work but often use things I don't have on hand like sour cream or cream cheese which is my only gripe. This recipe is not like that, I make it for my bread for lunches and I've gotten very fast at it.
( recipe )

I also have a great book, Ken Haedrich's Country Baking that is full of delicious recipes, with a lot of garden and produce focus. It has a whole section of savory baking that I'm trying to work through since I'm not an amazing savory baker and I want to get better at it.

North Country Turnovers (locals reference, book author is from NH and the northern area of NY up by Canada is called The North Country)
( recipe )

 I was tasked with making dessert and bread for Thanksgiving. Given I am leaving tomorrow and my brother's place doesn't have a proper stove (his fiance is hosting actual dinner at her house (I don't have time to get into how weird they are but given *waves hands* weird is par for the course) which that house does have a stove but I'm not thrilled with using someone else's kitchen because it slows me down and also I'd be in her way), all the baking had to be done today. Because of transit and time, I decided to freeze everything and then thaw for Thursday. Probably it would be fine but freezing also won't hurt it any. I also wanted snacks for relaxing munchies since we're going to be sitting around playing games and chatting and hanging out.

So today, I got started around 8am because Mara decided to sleep in. I made (in appx order):

• bacon since I turned on the oven and realized I didn't have anything to put in yet, and I needed protein for dinner this week
• gluten free dinner rolls for me
• hazelnut chocolate custard pie for dessert (hazelnut chocolate crust, double batch of regular custard split between dark and milk chocolate) - will get whipped cream added at dinner on Thursday
• mashed potatoes for dinner this week and also I needed a cup for the gluten rolls - I used one of my favorite varieties (Baltic Rose, red skin, dark yellow flesh, absolutely delicious, not really available on the retail market yet but we graded it in the potato trial and I brought home a 10lb bag)
• gluten free bread for my sandwiches and lunches in the next few weeks
• gluten filled rolls for everyone else at dinner - I miss making bread so much, although I resisted eating any, unlike last time I made some (I know it's not a good idea but omg so delicious)
• cornbread - tried a new recipe for fun, turned out oddly but still good
• oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
• no bake cookies
• a second batch of the gluten rolls because the first batch only made 10

I wrapped everything but the second batch of gluten rolls by 2 and got some cleaning done, most of the dishes are all done, I ran the dishwasher, emptied and half filled it again. About half of this went into the freezer for my own eating in the future. A third of each cookie batch is going to F's sister's farm since they're processing turkeys this week and would probably like extra snacks.

I'm mostly packed except for the things I need to pack in the morning which is many important things. I'm worried about forgetting things, especially everything important in the freezer but we'll see. My brother is actually going to be out of town for a day when I arrive, a friend of his is being deployed and they wanted to meet before that, so he's driving to my parents place for that and coming back the next day. He's been texting me instructions on how not to burn his house down, which is mildly alarming given I'll be alone in his house for like 18 hours total. Apparently he doesn't trust his electrical or HVAC system. Given the previous owner of the house built the HVAC system (guy was an engineer for a big company, not an HVAC person), I'm not surprised. I was always alarmed by his HVAC system. Monday crafting group has requested a tour of the house while I'm there since it is delightfully wacky, which I'm happy to oblige. I guess I need to bring the webcam then huh.

1. I've been watching the great british baking show professionals and while interesting to watch actual professionals do very cool desserts, the joking goofy tone of the hosts really doesn't work well with the extra serious contestants, who mostly ignore them or give them short answers.

2. I made lemon bars on sunday and they are incredibly delicious. The recipe is from America's test kitchen gluten free book #1 and it's just so good. I ate four of them on sunday along with oatmeal. This led to unpleasant consequences since those shouldn't be the only things consumed in a day.

3. wrist is almost 100% back to normal. I did knitting yesterday, a little spinning this morning and am currently knitting now. I also made a jig for heddle making and am currently through 60 of 210 heddles tied. I cut them all the other day, so just tying. Hilariously, I posted about tying heddles on my instagram and someone commented and said "hey you should check out this seller who makes heddle jigs" and I was like, why would I buy one when I already made one???? it was free because I already own a piece of smooth 2x4 and finishing nails. weird

4. Mara has very goopy ears and I think it's been bothering her. The vet gave me ear cleaner for her a month ago and I finally used it tonight and she was incredibly upset with me for doing that. She's also losing hair under her chin and has weird scabbies there which is unrelated. She's up to date on her heartguard/frontline and it looks more similar to last year when she had a skin infection on her side. She has a checkup for the pain pills continuing on Thursday anyway, so I'll be mentioning it. Only difference from last week that I've seen is she's a bit wobbly when she gets up, but not a ton more than she had been in the past. Still seems happy enough. Except when I clean her ears

5. we harvested cabbages today at work, the beginning of the cabbage epic. We planted approximately 2000 (small, 2-3.5lb) cabbages and they are ready to harvest. Probably only 1500 of them will actually produce marketable crop, but that's still a lot. I've been coordinating to take them to the regional food bank, estimated delivery to them on thursday will be 400 cabbages with the second harvest tomorrow.

I made cookies yesterday, oatmeal chocolate chip and hazelnut. I was aiming to have different texture cookies and I succeeded. I could have put chocolate in the hazelnut cookies too but decided not to. They are delicious.



I also made granola since I was out. Since I had the food processer out for the cookies, I ground the hazelnuts that went into the granola. I also popped a bunch of amaranth that I grew back in 2019 or so. They are delicious although I think I added a bit too much to my granola. Granola recipe: take a big bowl of oats, no more than that. Add an amount of salt. Add maple syrup and mix so the oats are coated. Put on a baking sheet at 350 for 20-25 minutes, longer if you don't wait for the oven to preheat. Take it out and spread chocolate chips across top of hot oats. Add everything else on top of those and let cool.

I got the generator ready to go this afternoon. We are apparently getting the first nor'easter of the winter on tuesday complete with wet heavy snow and up to 40mph winds so they're already warning about power outages. I pulled it out, leveled it on the driveway and got it running. Started up easy. Then got the oil out and re-leveled it so the oil would be correct. Mixed the stabilizer into the gas and put it in the generator. I need to run and get more non-ethanol fuel in the morning since that was the last I had on hand. Put it back under the balcony and I need to put the cover back on it since it was still cooling down when I put it away.

I need to call for propane first thing in the morning. We had a half tank last monday but the forecast didn't resolve until late Friday, so hopefully they can get out to fuel us up tomorrow. We have been going through 15-25% of the tank each week this winter, so I usually call when we have 20-30% of the tanks left, weather dependent. So I'll call if we have 40% and the weather looks super windy or cold. They've been pretty responsive to coming out, so my guess is the delivery will come tomorrow.

Weaving has been happening, especially yesterday and I pulled the last paper off the warp beam so I'm probably 3/4 done with the plaid. I'm so excited about it and it's so cool. Oh! Thursday was the weaver's guild meeting! And it was great! It started at 7pm and ended at 9:45 which was very late, but I met some cool people and everyone was happy to chat with me about weaving and spinning. There was a presentation about a specific type of paper making, which the presenter was definitely a much better paper maker than presenter. They have a weaving library that I can borrow books from, they do a show and tell and have little demos by members. Lots of chat time too. It was a great time even if it was super late for me. I did get invited specifically to the spinning group but they meet mondays at 1pm so that doesn't really work. It was mostly older folks, but there was definitely some other 30 or 40 somethings.

I was planning to make this ice cream pie because I had 8 egg whites left from the boston creme pie last week. I was so pleased with myself, finally! A use for the egg whites! 

I got the crust around, got ready to do the thing, pulled the egg whites out of the fridge and it turns out I hadn't covered them well and they were kinda gross. There was a gross film on top and some crumbs had fallen in them. I don't want to get the egg whites separated without using the yolks same day because I'm sure the same thing will happen somehow. 

So I'm changing my plan. 

Saturday I'm making a long drive up to a farm store to pick up some stuff and I'm gonna get more whole milk. Then I'm going to make regular ice cream to use the yolks and put it in the base of the pie or maybe just on it's own and then I will have egg whites for the ice cream pie. 

I'm not 100% sure why they spread so much, might be the butter too warm, might be that the gluten free flours weren't tested with the bacon fat. Either way, super delicious and the recipe is from Stella Park's Bravetart and she has both the gluten free and bacon variations in there. I combined both into one and they are super duper tasty.

Second batch ended up nice if flat, first batch was overbaked and I made a note of what I changed for that batch. Delicious though.



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 I made apple cake (not the upside down one because I forgot to buy walnuts) = not a success because it turned out very odd and tried to glue itself to my cast iron skillet, pear cake = great success, yogurt = fermenting, squash pie = in the oven. I also reorganized my baking cabinet because I bought a set of fancy containers for organizing. They are working very well. Watched hockey again today, with one blowout game and one overtime game which was awesome. Started a new spinning project that I can hopefully finish before christms. I want to make a hat and scarf set for Jade because I found a roving at the festival that was absolutely beautiful and also matched persona 5 colors because she's been playing that a lot lately. 

tomorrow I need to take my truck for maintenance, do laundry, go ice skating, make granola and probably make fig newtons. Those are a little complicated but so so delicious. Might save fig newtons for another day.