Feeling Soup-er

It seems like everyone's enjoying the crisp fall weather that's finally arrived in the Midwest. From this female fox squirrel, who's taking advantage of the bounty of seeds and nuts in our yard...
...to Bosewichte, who rolls with exuberance at every opportunity. Of course, he still takes time out...
...to stop and smell the flowers.

Clarence is still coming around for snacks every day. I've been worried about him being outside in winter weather, but Todd is going to build a small shelter for him so he'll have a place to curl up, just in case he gets too cold.

I've been watching the ginkgo tree across the street with particular interest. I look forward to this change every year. First, the leaves develop a slight golden edge.

Then, whole swatches become golden.

Finally, the whole tree is aflame.

Alas, it only lasts a few days. Today, most of the leaves are a soft, brilliant carpet beneath the tree.
This particular tree is a male. Female trees produce a small, round fruit that have a very pungent smell, especially when accidently squashed underfoot.

Speaking of underfoot...I really have to be careful when visiting the kittens now. They're incredibly active. They have great fun with each other now. Climbing...

...kicking...

...wrestling...

..romping...

...and the occasional ambush.

The kittens are seven weeks old now. It's really important to socialize them with humans, and several different ones, by this point. Kittens who associate positive feelings with human touch from an early age tend to be much friendlier adults. Thankfully, these little guys get lots of love from lots of people!

Any little scrap can provide entertainment for them.

They are so inquisitive, too!

So angelic-looking...but don't be fooled!

I've been knitting a lot lately, as the weather provides the perfect atmosphere. I've felt particularly restless here. I didn't feel like knitting more mittens or hats. I didn't want to start on a sweater or another pair of socks. I decided to dig into my knitting binder for some seasonal motivation, and found this great idea. Tiny stockings to string on your Christmas tree, or even for an advent calendar. You can slip a small piece of candy and a note in each one, to be retrieved each day in December. What fun!

I made just one before realizing that I couldn't pull this together before December. I'll be working on it as time allows over the year, however, and hope to have an active sock advent calendar in 2011!

Meanwhile, I contemplated my sock yarn scrap stash. I've been collecting these mini-skeinlettes for months, through Ravelry swaps and outright purchases. They're about 10 grams each and I love the fiber and color variety.

I originally started collecting them for the purpose of starting a sock yarn blanket. Inspired by Shelly Kang's creation, I started stockpiling scraps. A blanket. Knit with size 2 needles. Sock yarn. Insanity? Perhaps, especially considering that each square takes 20 minutes to knit, and most blankets have around 500 squares.

Regardless, I'm diving in. My blanket contains seven squares, and I'm going to set a goal of knitting at least one square per day.

Todd has been sick with a terrible cold this past week. Of course, there's nothing better than a good home-cooked remedy. Fresh sourdough loaves...

...and the best homemade chicken soup! It's so easy to make, with ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen.

What really makes it great is fresh sage, which I've harvested from my small kitchen garden. Dried sage will work too. Anyone can have good, homemade chicken soup in about 30 minutes!

Best-Ever Homemade Chicken Soup
Adapted from MissNezz, Food.com

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 cup chopped carrots
1 (heaping) cup diced potatoes
1 onion, chopped
1 teaspoon thyme
7 - 8 sage leaves, chopped, or 3/4 teaspoon dried sage
56 ounces of chicken broth
2 cups chopped chicken, cooked
4 ounces egg noodles
2 teaspoons chicken bouillon
salt and pepper to taste

Saute carrots, onion, and potatoes in olive oil until slightly softened, about 10 minutes. Add spices, chicken broth, and bouillon, and bring to a boil. Then add chicken (to save time, I just cook 2 chicken breasts on my little grill) and egg noodles. Simmer for about 30 minutes, or until potatoes are soft. Top with a sprinkle of parsley.

Can't you almost taste it? It's so good, especially with homemade sourdough.

Perfect for chilly fall days. Enjoy!

Just (Cinnamon) Roll With It.

I've just been out in the garden, weeding in the dill patch. There's a lot of love about dill. I love how my skin smells after contact with it...a prickly, pungent smell. Its soft, ferny leaves stroke my arms as I pull weeds, and I'm entertained by the tiny flowers on the seed head, fluttering open as they're warmed by the sun. As I work, I daydream about what I could make with a handful of the green sprigs...a white sauce for salmon? A spicy soup? I never make anything with dill, though. I just grow it because it's beautiful.


Here's something functional, though. My tomatoes are coming in, and soon I'll have more than I know what to do with! I see a lot of homemade sauces and salsas in my future. I liked these particular tomatoes. Each is an exact replica of the one before, slightly enlarged.


At long last, my cosmos are up! I've planted bright orange, pink, and cream colored varieties this year, and they are cheerfully nodding in the breeze as I write.


Cosmos are so easy to care for...a recurring theme in my garden plan.


When these flowers bloomed, they made a liar out of me. I'd written earlier about my mysterious self-seeding hollyhocks...imagine my surprise when these great spikes of purple and white bloomed, and proved to be mallow plants. Still, they're quite lovely, and very similar to hollyhocks. I'm pleased that they've come.


A soldier beetle (Cantharidae) marches with purpose across the head of this yarrow plant. Soldier beetles are wonderful additions to any garden. They eat a number of pests and do no damage to garden plants.


A grasshopper (Caelifera) relaxes in this daylily. I chased a lot of grasshoppers as a little girl and was rewarded with frequently stained clothing...as a defense mechanism, grasshoppers will "spit" a dark brown fluid that's distasteful to attackers. I'm not fond of large brown grasshoppers with their staring eyes and scratchy, spiny legs, but these small green ones are pleasant.


As I quietly watched, a large katydid (Tettigoniidae) clambered over the left side of the lily and chewed busily on a petal. The grasshopper fled, and after having a quick nibble, the katydid disappeared into the greenery.


I've been busily knitting this week on several different projects. A 12-pointed star is halfway done, but still lying like a deflated balloon in my knitting basket. A pair of fingerless gloves and matching neck wrap, knitted up for my swap partner on Ravelry, is waiting patiently for last-minute buttons. An accusing glare comes from my red knee socks, which have not yet been repaired. Two balls of cheerful orange cotton wait to be formed into an elephant, my first commissioned project, for a friend of my husband's. A big project has been completed, though. Eunny Jang's Tangled Yoke Cardigan, begun in January, is finally blocking in my sunroom.


I had a lot of trouble with the braid that twists across the sweater yoke. It's from a 17-line chart that requires up to 400 stitches across at times. Being off by just one or two stitches could ruin the whole pattern, so frequently I frogged back hours of work to get a correct count! I ran out of yarn several times. At the end, I had to order an entire skein just to complete my final 20 inches of work. A sigh of relief...and I think I'll take a break on sweaters for now!

Busy in the kitchen, as usual. I found a good recipe for sourdough bread on the King Arthur website. These two loaves were finished just in time for our Fourth of July celebration.


Today I felt inspired to rework an old recipe. I'm a huge fan of Cinnabon's cinnamon rolls, but I don't like the heavy, sick feeling I get after eating there, or the nagging feeling that cavities are forming at an accelerated rate with each and every bite. I decided to play with the recipe and make it a little lighter, easier, and dare I say...healthier?

Don't worry, if you're a die-hard fan who can't bear the thought of sacrificing one iota of sugar, just send me a request and I'll post the original recipe.

Copycat "Healthy" Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls
Adapted from Todd Wilbur's More Top Secret Recipes
Makes 16 cinnamon rolls

INGREDIENTS

DOUGH
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
1 cup skim milk, warm
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg yolk, 2 egg whites
2 cups white flour (I prefer unbleached)
2 cups whole wheat flour

FILLING
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
2 tablespoons butter, softened

ICING
1/2 cup powdered sugar
dash of vanilla
1 tablespoon reduced fat cream cheese
Skim milk - enough to make a thin glaze

DIRECTIONS
Dissolve yeast in warm milk. Add the rest of the dough ingredients and knead for 5 - 7 minutes. Cover dough and let rise for an hour. Next, roll dough out in a long rectangle (it was easier for me to split dough into two portions and work with each portion individually). Once dough is about 1/4 inch thick (or a bit thinner), spread evenly with 3 tablespoons softened butter. Mix together the brown sugar, cinnamon, and cloves and sprinkle over dough. Use a pizza cutter to cut even 1 inch strips and roll each strip up.


Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Cover your pan and let the dough rest for another 30 - 60 minutes. It's hard to wait, but this second step really improves the flavor of your final product! You should see a fine rise before too long.


When ready, bake rolls for 10 - 12 minutes.

While baking, mix your sugar glaze. I used a pastry brush to lightly glaze the tops of the rolls after they came out of the oven. They looked great!


But what about the taste? I'm pleased to report that they're just as good as the cinnamon rolls I remember from my food court days. They're soft, chewy, and flavorful, with caramelized bottoms and sweet, sugary tops. I tried one right away, still warm from the oven. Just to make sure it wasn't a fluke (ahem), I tried a second roll. Yum!

This will be my new go-to recipe when friends are stopping by.


No one has to know that they're practically good for you!

Enjoy!

The English (Muffins) Are Coming!

Two months ago I purchased a big lot of tulips at a local plant sale. I can’t pass up a good sale, even when it means sorting, drying, and storing HUNDREDS of tulips bulbs that may or may not ever bloom again. But look at their faces…didn’t they deserve a chance?

The final batch of tulip bulbs, aided by a sudden heat wave, are dried at last. Now they can be stored in the basement, away from the damp, until I’m ready to plant them.

The peonies are popped...

…and my Endless Summer hydrangea is unfurling more delicate pink petals every day.

I love cottage gardens, but I don’t have the space for a real one. In my tiny yard, I like routine and predictability, and plant my garden accordingly. I study garden guides to ensure that I have a nice balance of complementary colors. Each plot of newly-sown seeds is carefully labeled, watered, and watched.

Every year, however, one plot fails to thrive…usually a simple, carefree plant, the type recommended for small children just learning about gardening. This year, for me, it’s dill. Weeks of care but not a seedling in sight (“It’s dill-iberate,” I groused to my husband).

However, in another plot, something mysteriously flourished. I knew it wasn't a weed, but I had to study it for a week or so to determine its true identity.

Hollyhocks!

I haven’t planted hollyhocks for 2 years. This year, however, dozens of them…uninvited, unlabeled, uncared for…are sprouting in my flower beds and even, mysteriously, my container gardens. Lusty, healthy, and thriving, and growing far more quickly than my coddled marigolds and zinnias. How did they get there? I don’t know, but I’m sure glad to see them.

I was surprised by this patch of lettuce in my container garden, which apparently reseeded with no help from me. It came back on its own, and so did parsley and thyme…and a rogue patch of dill!


Lots of these little surprises around, which must be plucked quickly if I don’t want a forest of maple trees in my back yard. I think they’re quite beautiful, though, and it’s so interesting to see how they’ve grown out of their little kidney-shaped seeds.

The promise of new life!

So much time in the garden has influenced my knitting habits this week. I put aside my red stockings and started knitting a hat from the skein of vibrant green yarn (Cascade 220 in the Ireland colorway) I got last week. The hat is criss-crossed with cables and a leaf motif. The pattern is Ysolda Teague’s Snapdragon Tam and although I’m knitting a winter item, using my bright green yarn to knit little leaves feels quite summery. You can see the little leaves forming out of the hat brim if you look closely.

Of course, I’ve been in the kitchen too. I’d planned on making a fun dessert this week, but the desire to try another sourdough recipe before storing it in the refrigerator won out over the desire for something sweet. I decided to make some English muffins, but didn’t want to use a two-day recipe. I’m a big fan of instant gratification, and although I could stand to learn some patience, I’m not about to start with my kitchen. I found a great recipe in the Best of the Best of Alaska cookbook and tweaked it just a bit.

Same-Day Sourdough English Muffins

1 teaspoon dry yeast

1/4 cup warm water

1/2 cup warm milk

1 1/2 cup sourdough starter

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

3 - 3 1/2 cups flour (I used half white and half wheat)

3 tablespoons melted butter

First I took measured out my lively sourdough starter...

…and mixed it with the warm milk, baking soda, salt, and 2 cups of flour. I let it rise for an hour, and then mixed in the yeast, butter, additional cup of flour, and a bit of water, and then gave it another one hour rise. You want a dough that’s not too dry, but not so wet and sticky that it clings to your fingers. You can play with a water-flour ratio until it feels right.

A note: the recipe asks you to add the yeast before the first rise, but I’d hoped my sourdough was active enough to rise without the yeast. However, my dough wasn’t wet enough and didn’t rise very much. It got a nice rise after adding the yeast, of course, and its late entry didn’t affect the taste one bit!

I rolled the dough to ¾ inch thickness and cut out the muffins. If you don’t have English muffin molds like these, you can use an empty tuna can.

Once you have them all cut out nicely…

…grease and heat a griddle. It needs to be fairly hot, but not so hot it will burn your muffins. Once droplets of water sizzle on its surface, it’s ready to go. Drop your muffins on and brown each side, but be patient…it can take up to 15 minutes before each batch is done! Don't worry if you've removed them from the griddle prematurely. They continue "cooking" on the inside and you can always cheat and use a toaster to get things going!

It’s worth the wait. These little lovelies were crisp on the outside and soft on the inside, with a hearty flavor that begged for fresh butter or jam. They're even better the second day! They freeze easily, so you can have fresh, tasty English muffins at a moment's notice.

So delicious! A plate of these, warm and toasted and dripping with honey, eaten with my honey…what better way to spend a quiet evening at home?


Happy toasting!