Honeybees!

 

Yesterday our new top bar hive with established honeybee colony was finally delivered (after a delay due to the extremely hot conditions earlier in the week.)  We’ve had a great time watching them through the glass viewing windows on the side of the hive, as well as seeing them pollinating flowers in the yard.  When they return to the hive, their route is over the top of the house, down into the yard, make a hard right past the bird feeder pole, and back into the hive entrance.  It’s very interesting to see them all follow this same flightpath.

 

Birthday Dinner Crab Claw Soup

Katherine and I had a joint celebration for our 15th and 29th birthdays (respectively) on her birthday, April 21, since mine was a week prior and Easter was the week before that… that would have been a busy 3 weekends of driving to my parents’ house.

Typically we have a pasta dish with alfredo sauce, scallops, and shrimp as our family’s “traditional” birthday dinner, but I had gotten it into my head that I wanted to make a variation on Maryland crab soup and thought this would be a great time to try it out.

“SOUP?!,” Katherine responded when she heard about my plans.  “Soup is just a bunch of stuff mixed in water.”  So my mom also made crab cakes, a salad, and cornbread.  The entire dinner was delicious, but, along with everyone else, both Katherine and my brother who refuses to eat any vegetables ever loved my soup.  They didn’t even pick through it.  Since that is in and of itself a pretty incredible accomplishment, I decided I should share the recipe in case anyone else was interested… and mostly, so I remember it for next time.

Rachel’s Crab Claw Soup

• 8 c water
• 1 bunch celery, chopped
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 2 – 3 large russet potatoes, cubed
• 7 carrots, chopped
• 1 smallish bag frozen corn
• 1 smallish bag frozen green beans
• 1/8 c – 1/4 c J.O. Crab (or Shrimp) Spice… NOT Old Bay
• 2 cans stewed tomatoes
• 1 lb crab meat (I used claw meat, since it’s the most inexpensive, has the least shell in it for the money, and is really flavorful)

Combine water and all fresh and frozen vegetables in a large pot on medium-high heat.  Add J.O. Spice, stir, and replace the lid.  When all vegetables are cooked through, stir in stewed tomatoes and crab meat.  Serve and enjoy.

*You could make an even easier variation on this soup by using a big bag of mixed vegetables, plus the potatoes, celery, and onion, but my husband is highly allergic to peas.  Also, I may add some cabbage to this recipe when I make it next.  My mom also thought she saw some okra in it at first glance, which is something else that would be delicious.

Chocolate Quint Cake

 

Last night I made a birthday cake for a friend from work.  I didn’t want to go to the grocery store for only one or two items, so I searched Google for a recipe using the ingredients I had on hand- namely a Betty Crocker dark chocolate cake mix and Jello chocolate instant pudding.  I settled for a recipe that looked good but I lacked several of the ingredients that the recipe required and otherwise wanted to make it a bit less calorie-heavy; what I came up with turned out *really* well.  It has chocolate x 5, if you include the 3 kinds of chips, the cake mix, and the pudding, hence the name.  Since I got some requests for the recipe I used that doesn’t really exist, here’s what I did:

• 1 box cake mix
• 1 box instant pudding
• 1/2 c applesauce
• 1/2 c vegetable oil
• 1 c low fat vanilla yogurt
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 c warm water
• 1-2 c chocolate chips (I used milk, dark, and semisweet)

———-

• caramel ice cream topping
• powdered sugar
• sea salt

Preheat oven to 350° F.  Generously spray a bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray.  Mix all ingredients (except chocolate chips) until smooth.  Add chips, stir until evenly distributed.  Pour batter into prepared pan, bake for 50-55 minutes or until the cake tests done with a toothpick.  Allow to cool at least 1 hour in the pan.  Turn out onto cake plate, dust with powdered sugar, drizzle with caramel, and sprinkle a little sea salt on top.

It’s been how long?!

To tell you the truth, I have no idea how long it’s been since my last post.  I don’t even have a clue what it was about.  The format for creating a new post on WordPress has completely changed since I was last here. But I’m back, and have a new favorite recipe to share. A big reason I’ve been gone from the WordPress world for so long is because I’m pregnant (expecting a boy, due July 29) and haven’t been able to stay up much past 8 most days for quite a long while.  This has severely cut into my cherished knitting time, and most of the free time I have after work has been spent coming up with something appetizing to have for dinner, actually making dinner, then trying to stay awake long enough to watch some TV show and knitting while lying on the couch (and failing.)  It’s starting to get better, and with this being Presidents’ Weekend, I’ve had some time to catch up on getting some things done that had needed doing for a while.  I’ve become pretty active on Pinterest, which has really helped with my dinner dilemmas among other things.  I got most of my handmade fine silver jewelry listed on Etsy before my Ravelry ads go live on March 1.  I got my pre-plantable vegetable seeds started for eventual transplanting into the raised bed.  I did a lot of entertaining, and even got some knitting in.  Now it’s time for blogging.

Lately I’ve been craving Pho, the Vietnamese rice noodle soup made with beef broth (or, in the case of Pho Ga, chicken broth) and topped with various meats, mung bean sprouts, and basil that is known for being tedious to make yourself.  I went out to get some for the first time in about a year with my husband, and loved it.  (I did have to stick to Pho Ga though, as all the other soups on the menu had an asterisk indicating that the meats might be undercooked.)  I wanted more within a week, but he said that for him, Pho was something he only needed to eat once in a long while.  So I went out with another pregnant friend the next week, and a different friend the following week.  After that, a colleague posted on Facebook that she had made her own Pho and it was delicious.  After inquiring, I found out that Pho bouillon cubes could be purchased from Asian supermarkets to emulate the taste without all the work.  I went to my local Great Wall Supermarket, but they had no such cubes.  They did have a product packaged in a container that looked similar to  ones I had purchased containing chicken and beef stock paste / concentrate that was labeled as Beef Pho and Chicken Pho, respectively.  I bought both, and it turns out they’re more of a cake of dried ingredients than a paste.  The Beef Pho comes with filter bags full of the necessary spices, and are meant to be thrown into a pot with the whole Pho cake and 2 gallons of water.  Since I only make a couple of bowls at a time, I just scoop out what I think I’ll need and adjust it to taste.  Below is my “recipe.”

• Water
• Pho Flavoring (see picture above, or do some searching at your local Asian supermarket)
• Mung bean sprouts
• Bok Choy
• Beech Mushrooms
• Basil
• Sriracha
• Meat of choice (or not)
• Fresh Rice Noodles (in the refrigerated section near the tofu)

Add water for desired amount of soup, Pho seasoning to taste (and a sprinkle of included spices, if applicable) veggies, and Sriracha to pot.  Heat, stirring occasionally, until Bok Choy is softened and soup is heated to your liking.  Add meat, if using, and rice noodles (cut them up first to prevent messes while eating) and cook an additional 5 minutes or until noodles are desired softness.  Serve in big bowls with those Asian ladle-type spoons and chop sticks.

Note- I added all of my veggies at the beginning because I’m pregnant and not really supposed to eat sprouts.  If you would rather your sprouts stay crunchy, add them and basil just before serving.

September in Pictures

I haven’t post on here in over a month, so I thought I’d do a quick update of some of the things that took place during September that I remembered to photograph:

 

I knit a friend a hat for her birthday,

and wrapped it up as a vase…

my 2nd Meyer’s lemon ripened and was turned into GF lemon squares…

I knit a colleague a hat for his birthday…

My passionflower finally rebloomed….

I pulled out my tomato vines

and made 8 pints of green tomato pickles…

and test knit a cardigan in the round

that I machine stitched on both sides of center

and steeked before picking up stitches and knitting the shawl collar.

 

There’s more from the last week or so, but my camera is dead at the moment.

Honeycomb Cardigan

I just finished a test knit for a designer last night, and I thought I’d share the final product with you.  I’m looking forward to wearing it, but it’s so warm that I think I will have to wait several months yet.  I still need to block it one more time to even out the button band, but overall I’m pretty pleased with it.  The buttons are my own; you can find more of my  handmade buttons at Knitterings and Things on Etsy.

Deck Herb and Vegetable Gardens and Orchard

This summer my deck gardening has gone kind of crazy.  I have 9 over-the-rail planters filled with herbs, nice pots with the dwarf blueberries and citrus plants from last year, and cheap pots with seasonal vegetable plants.  Between all of these, the deck is pretty lush.  I kept forgetting to post about this all summer when the deck was looking nice, but today I found that my passionflower had rebloomed for the first time since I bought it 2 or 3 years ago, so I went ahead and took pics of everything else while I was at it.  Of course, a recent thunderstorm left leaves and dead branches all over the place, but I’m sure you’ll be kind enough to look past that.

Recent Cooking Experiments

I’ve been having a bit of fun in the kitchen lately, and thought I’d share a couple of the resulting meals. Inspiration came from friends Jess and Joanna, respectively.  Please check out their blogs for other fun miscellany!

On Thursday evening I decided I needed to use some tomatoes from my mom’s garden immediately, as they were perfectly ripe.  I remembered Jess’ Doublemint Dinners post on tomatoes and replicated the dish from memory.  Here’s the gist:

 

 

Turn tomato upside down and make slices most of the way through.  Insert thin slices of cucumber into every other cut in the tomato.  Sprinkle salt and pepper on top, and put in the oven at 350°F for about 15 minutes.  Remove from oven, put slices of Havarti cheese in remaining cuts in the tomato, and put back in the oven just until melted.

 

 

Serve with grilled steaks, goat cheese-stuffed squash blossoms (dipped in backyard fresh eggs and rolled in Panko), and a margarita on the rocks with salt.  (Next time, I’ll also try the recipe Jess posted for what looks to be an incredible margarita!)

 

 

My other noteworthy culinary experiment from the past week utilized my new musubi press.  Joanna made some surprisingly delicious Spam musubi while we were at her family’s beach house at the beginning of the summer, so I had to try out the process myself.  I got a press that was twice as long and half the width / height as Joanna’s (whose was designed to perfectly accommodate a slice of Spam) and I am glad I got this smaller, longer model: the resulting “sushi” is more bite-sized.

I made not only the traditional Spam musubi, but also “sushi” with smoked salmon, cream cheese, and avocado, as well as some made with smoked oysters and cucumber.  By the end of the night, I ended up making a batch of delicious musubi with all the leftovers from the evening.  All varieties had a generous sprinkle of furikake on top, and were enjoyed with soy sauce.  (I have already picked up wasabi powder, pickled ginger slices, and rice wine to up the ante for future sushi dinners!)  The musubi press is a super-simple method for creating sushi, and I got mine from Amazon.

PMC Final Crit

Here’s 95% of my PMC jewelry, set up for our final critique on Monday.  (2 pieces were still in the tumbler getting shiny and beautiful at the time of these photos.)

Many of the pendants I made had jump rings or double wire wrapped loops to enable me to hook the chain to the front… I outfitted 2 chains with little wire wrapped “bra-type” hooks I made so that there is no closure to try to work blindly at the back of your neck, and nothing back there to eventually rotate around to the front.

At the time of this picture, I had not yet dipped the knitted earrings into liver of sulfer, so they’re still bright and shiny, but I have since treated them and now it’s a lovely matching set.

 

This piece was inspired by a photograph by Karl Blossfeldt, and is strung up with rutilated quartz and neat little peanut-shaped beads that fit together in an interesting manner.  I still need to get a yo-yo or channel bead on which to attach the pendant so it sits nicely and looks more professional.

 

 

The pendant was inspired by this photograph, and was created using bronze wire mesh that I accordion folded and coated with 30+ layers of PMC silver slip.  After I was satisfied with the thickness, I added the leaf and vine / bail portions with PMC silver clay.

 

This is my sage leaf set, which I know I will wear a lot.  I created a Sculpey clay mold with a sage leaf from my deck rail planters herb garden and used it over and over to make the silver beads and pendant.  There are also 2 matching rings in the next picture.  I am especially proud of the bracelet, because I tried at least 3 wire wrapping and jump ring hinge methods before finding one that I liked, that kept the bracelet lying flat on my wrist (instead of flipping to the back), and did not detract from the leaves.

 

I had a great time (and quite a challenge) with these rings, partly because I never wear wore rings and wanted something comfortable and not huge.  From top to bottom: super thin sage ring, ring with a ruby earring embedded in it (and yes, that’s my fingerprint in the disc of clay, and yes, I put it there intentionally), super narrow sage ring, wide thin ring with lino-cut swirls I designed and cut, and knot ring with a diamond earring embedded in it.  I especially love the last one, partly because it has a diamond, but mostly because of how I made it.  It was my first experiment with making a ring from a coil of clay (instead of rolling it out to an even thickness) and it’s super comfortable.  Also, later in the class I played with hiding the join on the rings (like I did first with the ruby ring).  Instead of the join being on the underside of your finger, where it can eventually rotate around to the front, with the gemstone rings I was able to hide the join under or around the stone, so the back looks just as good as the front.

I’ll definitely be doing some more PMC jewelry in the future, as funds allow me to purchase more clay!

Summer PMC Jewelry Class

My third school year as a teacher has ended and I’m enjoying my summer so far!  It hasn’t really seemed like summer, though, because (after a long weekend trip to Ocean City the day after the teacher workday) I’ve been taking an all-day summer class through VCU at one of the county high schools.  The class has been incredible, but I always come home counting the hours till bed time!  Monday will be our last class, so I’ll commence relaxing, weeding in my garden, and knitting soon enough.

 

PMC stands for precious metal clay, and it’s a clay-like material made of microscopic precious metal dust (in my case, silver) and an organic binder (the instructor believes it to be rice flour) and water.  It can be molded just as you would normal ceramic clay, but when it is fired (at between 1100-1600° F for between 30 minutes and 2 hours) the organic binder burns out, the “clay” shrinks by 12-15%, and you’re left with solid silver.  When the pieces come out of the kiln, they’re white and chalky looking but a quick run through a tumbler produces a gorgeous high-shine polish.  We’ve also used a chemical called liver of sulfer to add a patina to certain pieces.  The effect can range from copper and gold to green, gray, and almost black.  Then, if you toss the piece back in the tumbler, the raised portions of the piece get shined back up, leaving the patina on the rest.

 

The pictures show most of the pieces I’ve been working on so far, in various stages of completion.  I still have some of the (super-expensive) clay left, so I’ll make a few more things to use it up before Monday’s critique.  I used Sculpey clay to make molds of various textures I wanted to use in my work, my favorite of which include a sage leaf and some knits.  I also used some EZ-Carv linoleum to make some tiny swirls to impress into a ring, with another planned.  I used some single earrings (for which I’d lost the mates) to add gemstones to a few of my pieces.  I also painted layers of PMC slip over brass mesh to enable crisp folds in one piece.

 

During the class we had a lampwork bead artist come in and do a demo before allowing us to purchase some of her beautiful beads, as well as an enamel artist who did a demo before we got to do some enameling ourselves!  I went a little overboard on the blue knit piece.