Thanksgiving Menu 2009

It's going to be slightly untraditional this year. DH does not like turkey, and I found a duck at a local market...ergo, duck will be the main course this year.

Since it's duck (does anyone make duck gravy?) I will be roasting vegetables in some of the duck fat: yellow turnip, yellow and orange carrots, yellow onions (do I sense a theme here?) and a few other things, I suppose. I am going to put some chicken stock in the roasting pan, and the duck will be stuffed with an orange, some cranberries, and an onion. I'll use the pan drippings to make a glaze, adding apple marmalade and port.

I also want to make a mushroom gratin. It's very rich. I saute crimini mushrooms in olive oil & butter, with thyme. Deglaze with white wine, and the result is piled into a gratin dish with cream and Parmesan cheese and baked. It's lush.

For something a little less decadent, we'll have green beans almondine, and I might make some kind of cranberry relish.

We'll have a light red wine, and homemade apple pie (already in the freezer). We have some gorgeous eggnog from a local dairy, and whiskey and cognac to add, if we wish. (I'll wish. DH probably won't.)

Also on a foodie note, someone on the jury (I am presently serving on a grand jury) asked for my recipe for chicken pot pie! I'll be writing that out for him tonight.

Crime Bake 2009

Nearly time to go!

I'll be bringing my manuscript with me, though I have not signed up for a critique...I hope that this will give me the push to get back into working regularly (that is, a kick in the posterier to make me act like an adult with a proper work ethic).

This is going to be fabulous. I have been wanting to attend a mystery conference for many years. Twenty at least!

If I remember to bring the camera pictures will make an appearance after I return.

Proof of Socks

I've been making socks still. The knee high cream boucle socks are on my feet right now.

Jimmy's Regia Silk socks are here:



He hates the pointy toes. :-D So his next pair (cream and gray boucle with a Fair Isle band) will have round toes.


Here are the openwork ribbing socks I made a few weeks ago:



Unfortunately, the flash washed out the details. Still, here's some proof!

Pumpkin Soup

Yesterday I baked: orange flavored sugar cookies cut out as pumpkins and decorated with orange icing. I also made the maple spice cake. It looks great. (We'll see how it tastes on Saturday. Living dangerously...)

Tonight I made pumpkin soup and pepper-Parmesan cheese spread (just 8 ounces of cream cheese, about a cup of grated Parmesan, a few dashes of Tabasco, and a spoonful of light cream. Freshly ground black pepper to taste).


Pumpkin Soup

3 tbl. olive oil
1 tbl. butter
~2 tbl. flour
2 cans pureed pumpkin
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
2 medium carrots, scraped and chopped
4 small garlic cloves, chopped
4 c. chicken stock
2 c. beef stock
2 c. white wine
1 qt. milk
1 c. grated Parmesan cheese
2 tbl. lemon juice

For seasoning to taste: Tabasco, Worcester sauce, sea salt, freshly ground black pepper

Prepare the vegetables and saute in the butter and oil until the carrots are almost tender; sprinkle the flour over and stir frequently for several minutes. Pour in the wine slowly, stirring as you do so.

Next, whisk in the stocks. When the soup begins to warm, pour in the milk slowly. Blend again. Add the Parmesan.

Simmer until beginning to bubble at edges, up to an hour over very low heat. Puree (in a blender or with an immersion blender).

Add the lemon juice, and taste for seasoning. You will need quite a bit of salt and Tabasco. If it is still a too sweet, try a few dashes of balsamic vinegar.

Serve very hot, with toasted pumpkin seeds.

Halloween is on its way

So...we're having another Halloween party. Smaller than last year's. In fact, on request. A friend whom we met last December will be having guests next week: her brother and his girlfriend, from France. They're unfamiliar with American Halloween celebrations, and she (the friend) has heard about our parties, and....

I told her we'd have a small gathering. There will be eight or ten all together, and instead of chili this year, we'll be having pumpkin soup. I still have to come up with the recipe, but it will probably be a kind of bisque, very smooth. (I'm going to buy an immersion blender, finally, so as to be able to make this and not deal with cleaning the blender and pureeing hot soup that way.)

There are gingerbread bat sandwich cookies in the freezer--filled with ginger and chocolate, and frosted with more chocolate--and I will be making orange flavored sugar cookies cut out in pumpkin shapes and decorated with an orange icing. The pumpkin bread is already made, and I'm going to make gingerbread or maple spice cake or some other similar thing. I found a recipe for maple spice cake in a 1938 issue of McCall's. It's like gingerbread, but with maple syrup in place of molasses.

Then cheese, raw veggies, and the other usual suspects. We are serving red or white wine and sparkling water.

I'll be wearing (probably) the "daytime" pin-up witch costume from last year, provided that (a) I can find the dress and (b) the damn thing still fits! (I really should stop eating my own baked goods, it's dangerous. Dancing once a week doesn't cut it these days.)

Does anyone else have plans for Halloween? It's on a Saturday this year!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

My mother is a terrific person and parent. She taught us independence, caring for others and how to survive. She's intelligent, well-read, interesting to talk with, and I thank God that my sister and I have her.

My father died when we were very small: I was about two, and my sister was six months old. Somehow my mother picked up all the pieces and never dropped them. (And she didn't have an easy time as a child; her father died when she was seven. Her mother was orphaned at 15 and raised her younger brother and sister.)

But we keep going, all of us. And my mother did it without bitterness or "why me?" or any other kind of self-pity. We had food to eat, a roof over our heads, and even some luxuries now and again.

Happy birthday, Mom. I love you very much.

President Obama...and the Nobel Peace Prize

There's still "Hope" as far as I am concerned.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_nobel_peace

Socks and more

The knitting continues! Now I have two more new pairs of socks. The second is from a UFO I began in January.

Yesterday I started a pair of gloves from "Holiday Knits"; the Vintage Gloves made of an alpaca/silk blend. We'll see how they go. I had to start them 4x, and then the gauge was off, and...we'll see. It's a good learning experience all the same, I've become too accustomed to knitting with wool. In addition, these are the first complete (ie, not fingerless) gloves I've attempted. If they come out as I hope, they'll probably go to my MiL for Christmas.

We're also re-financing the house. It has appreciated considerably in value, too; we had an appraisal as part of the process...the market value is now 2x what we offered for it last year. Our hard work is paying off. (Now if my job search would do the same. To date I've had a whole 3.5 hours of work since March 6.)

Knitting and apples

I've got lots of both.

We went apple picking last Saturday (on the most perfect fall day imaginable) and got half a bushel of apples. I have made four apple pies, 12 4 oz. jars of apple marmalade, and an apple bourbon cake. (Not to mention the apples we've eaten out of hand and the pork chops smothered in apples, red cabbage and carmelized onions). We still have about 12 apples left.

I also made DH a pair of socks from some Regia Silk color yarn. Within a week, no less, and have finished one of a pair for me, made from some wonderful cone yarn we bought the year I began to knit. It's ivory slub (wool) around a nylon core. I've made a few other pairs of socks, as well as a two piece 30s dress from the stuff. It's pretty and rustic, and it wears like iron. (I also have some in gray and in plum.)

It's good to be knitting again. And this particular yarn is inspirational. It looks so warm (because it is) and I'm thinking that a cabled cardigan in this stuff would be wonderful. Maybe on size 4 (American) needles. The socks I'm making right now are on size 2 needles. The gauge is great for socks.

(But I still wish I could find the Missing Yarn!)

A Yarn Conspiracy

Now that I've fixated on a particular sweater pattern, needless to say I can't find the yarn I want. Not all of it, anyway.

I've been through most of the stash and it's hiding from me.

And though I have a ROOM full of yarn (really, I do) nothing else will do. Of course it won't. (If you think otherwise, you're not a knitter.)

A New Sweater, and Antiques

I really want to knit that sweater. I took a good look at the pattern, and it's probably going to take sport weight, which is pretty good. I've got leftover shetland yarn from a 1920s project I made a few years ago. I might want to buy one or two more skeins of shetland, but otherwise I think I'm set. I hope Fresh Purls has some in; last time I looked I didn't see any.

Now, as for the "antiques" part of this post...I've just signed up for a booth at a local antiques mall. Not just any antiques mall, either. RI Antiques Mall, which is rapidly building itself an excellent reputation. I'm to open on October 1st, and I've got a corner booth, downstairs. It's a good location. http://www.riantiquesmall.com/

I already have some stock about ready to go: vintage clothes, shoes, hats and books, as well as a bit of kitchen things and furniture. In addition, I'm going to keep a look-out for 60s items, as "Mad Men" is so popular; I want to set up a corner that I'll devote to trends in vintage, so to speak. (I do like the show. I've only seen Season One, but I thought it was great. I think I'm going to borrow it on DVD if I can to catch up and maybe start watching it on AMC.)

Anyone in the area got requests for stock?

The Socks are Finished

Hold your applause.


I knit two different cuffs. Both are twisted ribbing, but one is K1, P3, and the other is K2, P2. Argh!

And I'm keeping them that way. A lesson, and all that. Apparently I knit the first one and then lost the detailed notes, so I took a quick look at the first sock and went on my merry way. I usually knit K2, P2, you see.

Oh, well. I did get back to my oversized Cozy (from Knitty) and am now back on track with that.

The project I'm thinking of starting is a sweater from a British hardcover on knitting, from the 30s, I think. It's garter stitch, in thin stripes. The sort of thing you knit to use up odd balls. I've been thinking about this particular sweater for quite a while, so it'll happen eventually. And it's a very simple knit; as it's garter stitch, not much shaping is necessary.

The pattern is in The Pictoral Guide to Modern Home Knitting, edited by Catherine Franks, A.R.C.A. No copyrite date, but my guess is late 30s.

Maybe I'll cast on for it some time this week (but don't make book on that).

Art Deco Diva does What?

"Knits", she sighed.

Except that she doesn't. Hasn't much recently. I was in a fine knitting frenzy in the winter and early spring. In March I made two pairs of socks for myself and started a pair for DH. Finally finished his socks in early May, cast on for a pair for myself (to be taken to the PawSox Stitch 'n Pitch)...and I will probably finish them this week. There are about 10 rows left (and have been since late last week).

You would think that an otherwise unemployed Hausfrau/writer would seize the opportunity, wouldn't you? Oddly, this state of mine has the effect of making me feel guilty for "wasting" time knitting. If I'm not doing housework or writing, I'm being bad, get it? (I never said it made sense.)

I did go so far as to put the lightweight lace wrap I started in February in the knitting bag where the white socks are living. Because God forbid I should run out of things to knit...even if I'm not knitting.

An analyst could have a lot of fun with this!

The Taste of Summer

I think most people associate foods with seasons even now, with foodstuffs being shipped world-wide.

Three of my favorite summer fruits have actually been available this year, though not in any great quantities. A few weeks ago DH found me an apricot that tasted like an apricot and was not mushy (I've never had one from a store that was not, which is why I generally restrict myself to dried apricots); I saw red currants in the market (which go into my favorite tart in lemon sauce); and yesterday I bought a whole quart of sour cherries!

Sour cherries seem to be more rare than hen's teeth these days. I haven't seen them in the markets in years...so yesterday I grabbed the ones I saw, and today we'll be having sour cherry crumble for dessert.

I don't use a "recipe" per se; I pit them and strain out the juice, which I cook down with a few squeezes of lemon juice and simple syrup, mix the cherries with brown sugar, lemon zest, almond extract & vanilla extract, and dot them with butter; pour the cooked down juice over the top, and add the following topping:

a crumble topping of butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, flour, and oats.

Bake at 325 F for 20 to 40 minutes depending on the amount you're making...let cool and serve with ice cream or whipped cream or as is.

Leftovers tomorrow for breakfast!

July 2008 to August 2009

July 2008:






August 2009:






Click on the second picture for detail; the first won't enlarge, I'm afraid. The light isn't the best on the new photo (I took it after 6:00 p.m.) but the garden is really beginning to look lovely.

Murder Hunt

No, Big Brother, you can go elsewhere. My murders are fictional. I'm not hunting for real victims, I'm in search of ideas.

The hunt for good ideas is never-ending. I have all kinds of rough general ideas. Fleshing them out into something that a reader will like--and believe--is something else again.

Today I've been searching through the archives of the NY Times. (I think they could use a better search engine, but it's still a wonderful source.) Arsenic was a common cause of poisoning in the 20s and 30s, partly because it was so prevalent in pesticides sold over the counter. That's something I already knew, thanks to our huge collection of vintage magazines and the collection of mystery books cluttering up my house, but it is drawn from real life happenings.

How-to is something else. I start writing, and my characters want to ramble on, but I have to give them something reasonably intelligent to say, or I'm just wasting time and cyber ink.

Working on this has confirmed my appreciation of Helene Hanff's writings. In one she talks about her difficulty with play writing, saying, "I specialized in plotless charm." and she also mentions that for the most part, she had little appreciation for non-fiction. (It's not "I was there", as she put it.)

I like fiction. Not the "best sellers", as a rule, but I love mysteries and authors like Jane Austen and E.M. Forster.

I only hope that the idea of me coming up with a viable plot and characters doesn't fall under the heading of "fiction" too.

Finally: evidence!

This unlovely mess is a section of the upstairs bath at Before.




(wait for it....)






These are After.

It's a Mystery

I do a lot of reading. More specifically, I read--no, devour--mysteries. It's a long standing habit, begun in childhood, when my mother got us a subscription to a Nancy Drew book club. From there I moved on to Trixie Beldon and other YA series, taking in an occasional Agatha Christie, though at the time I couldn't appreciate the subtleties she worked into her books.

As a younger adult I read a few mysteries, but the bulk of my fiction reading fell under the fantasy/science fiction banner, and in the past ten years or so it's swung back to mysteries.

My favorites are either real golden age authors: Dorothy L. Sayers, Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, et al, or modern works whose authors set the scene in an earlier time, 1920s and 30s for preference.

Throughout all of this I've thought about writing one. It happens to most people who do a lot of reading, especially those who field the "you should write one, you read so many you must know how!" comments. I've been hearing a lot of those comments in the past few years from my husband, who has had to put up with stacks of books on the staircase, next to the bed, on the dining room table and even next to the bathtub.

As of last week, count me in as a would-be author of a mystery novel. It really has begun. So far there have been hours that fly...when my last memory is of noon, and I look at the lower right hand corner of the laptop to find that it's suddenly 4:36, and days when half an hour produces no more than four tortured sentences.

I have a setting, main characters, a time period and some gimmicks that aren't, I hope, too cozy. What I need now is persistence, a cohesive plot, and a better plot to crash the publishing industry.

The Bouchercon will be held in Indianapolis, IN this year. I don't know if I'll be able to attend (I think it might come into conflict with the RBS weekend of this year), but if I can I'll absorb all I can in order to do this thing properly.

It's no overnight job but it's possible (if not necessarily probably) that two years from now I'll be a published author.

Champagne Cocktails

Champagne cocktails are not only a classic, they're easy to make. All you need is sparkling wine (Champagne for preference!), sugar cubes, and bitters (I use Angostura, the only easy one to find these days).

Champagne Cocktail

Put a sugar cube in the bottom of a champagne glass or flute; dash on 3+ drops of bitters. Tilt glass and fill slowly with cold Champagne.

Voila. The traditional garnish is a twist of lemon peel, but in a bar you're more likely to get a maraschino cherry.

There are a number of cocktails that include Champagne as an ingredient--the French 75 is my favorite--but this one is the classic.

New York

We went into the City yesterday for lunch and a show. And we had a miracle; we didn't get washed off the streets.

Lunch at Sardi's was grand. It opened in 1921 and it's still going strong. We had a very good meal (and cocktails), and had a long conversation with the man sitting in the next booth seat, all about Broadway and Angela Lansbury and the theatre in general. I haven't been there in 15 years or more, but I can still recommend it.

"Blithe" was at the Schubert, just across the street. It was one of the better productions I've seen. I know the play well; I've played both Ruth and Elvira, and done costuming as well.

Rupert Everett played Charles, Christine Ebersole played Elvira, and Angela Lansbury was Madame Arcati. Miss Lansbury stole the show (she's entitled), but the rest of the cast was excellent. The set was elegant and bang on target (right out of the script, which oddly, I've not seen before) and costuming was good too.

It's closing next month (July) on the 19th. If you're a fan of high comedy, Coward, or period productions, I recommend it.