Sorrel & Cilantro Pesto

Photo is a wikimedia commons cc licensed photo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorrel

Our front yard garden is going great. We're all anxiously awaiting our first major harvest. In the meantime, we've been snipping at the greens that are growing in our cold frames. Yes, it's still cold at night here in Colorado. [sigh]

One of my new favorite things to eat is sorrel. If you've never eaten it, be prepared. It is the most intense lemon flavor I've ever had when not eating a lemon. But it's so so so good! The flavor is bright and springy. And we need more spring.

The other day we decided to make a cilantro and sorrel pesto. It was awesome. It will make your mouth sing. It also goes good with just about everything. Angel hair pasta would be awesome with this pesto. It also goes great atop fish tacos I'm told. Essentially, add this to anything you want to brighten up.

Sorrel & Cilantro Pesto
This recipe, like so many of mine, is something I just threw together. Its more like a guideline.

1/2 - 1 bunch of cilantro
1/2 - 1 bunch of sorrel (we probably used about 1/2 a cup loosely packed)
olive oil
coriander seeds
salt & pepper to taste

Put all ingredients into your blender except for the olive oil, slat & pepper. Turn the blender on and drizzle a few tablespoons in while the blades are going. Stop and scrape down the sides and test the consistency. It'll look like regular pesto does when it's ready, maybe a bit runnier because there is no nuts or cheese in this recipe. Give it a taste and adjust the salt and pepper to your liking. Proceed to eat it on everything. It would be great on bruschetta, also. Just toast some crusty bread with a bit of olive oil brushed on top. Add some yummy cheese and top with pesto.

Enjoy!

Planning & Sewing

If you haven't heard yet, Collette Patterns is having an Almost Summer 30% off sale. You just have to sign up for their newsletter to get the coupon code.

I'm in love with a lot of their patterns. They have a vintage vibe that is really awesome. I like the fact that the patterns are so well designed that they look good on a wide range of body-types. That is the mark of a great designer in my opinion. Check out the gallery to see what I'm talking about.

I got my coupon code and promptly placed an order. Now I just have to decide which one to make first. And in what fabric.

Well, I know already what I'm making first. I first fell in love with Rooibos. Just check out those details. Pockets! Piping! Cute neckline! I'm in love. Now I just have to figure out what fabric to make this out of. I hate synthetics, so those are out. Cotton? Silk? Wool? I'm thinking my first one will be cotton since it's summer. Although, the Parfait pattern is also on it's way and that's a mighty fine sun dress. I think I want to make that one out of a gingham or a seersucker. I may even make that one first so that I can wear it when I go to the beach for my sister's wedding.

I've set a goal for myself: I'm going to be in FL for 3 days, I want to have handmade clothes to wear for each day. I've already got one dress. Now I need 2 more dresses or at least a dress and a shirt. Maybe a bathing suit?? I think that's pushing it a little too far. A girl can dream, can't she?

I think though that the mini-bloomers that come as a free pdf pattern on Collette's site are a necessity for sleepwear or at least as a swimsuit cover-up.

I have too many things I want to make.

A Ravelry Revelation

I've been a member of Ravelry for a while now. But only recently have I really really gotten into it. It's a serious problem. Is there a Ravelrers Anonymous that I can join? 'Cause it's getting out of hand. I have a tab always open with it. I love looking at all of the cool things that people do to make the patterns their own. I love seeing the pattern adjustments and all of the different yarns. It's a time drain though.

But, I think it's also a major encouragement. There are so many awesome projects and patterns on there that I want to knit. I never knew I wanted to knit a shawl until two weeks ago. I thought shawls were old and fuddy duddy. But I'm knitting a shawl now.


In peacock blue malabrigo sock yarn nonetheless. It's going really well, too. I love the pattern, I love the yarn, I love how the yarn knits up. I'm addicted.

The pattern that I'm knitting is called Simple Things. You can find it's Ravelry page here.

I've made significant progress considering how busy my life has been lately. I'm pretty proud of how much I've actually gotten done!


Isn't that yarn gorgeous?!? The eyelets in the middle are so fun. I'm smitten. If you're related to me, what color do you want for Christmas? ;)

Also, knitted and felted shoes. Yes. Yes, please. I can't wait to get the yarn for this pattern. I'm thinking that I can sew on some leather or maybe a jute/hemp sole and then wear them outside. It'll feed into my obsession with making my own shoes.

An Update

I've been trying my best to get over my sewing block. I have this fear that I'm going to mess up all the amazing fabric that I have. I'm paralyzed. I can't cut into my fabric. It's gorgeous Anna Maria Horner cotton voile. I need to make some awesome things for my summer wardrobe. I'm trying to make the Cabo Halter by Amy Butler.


This is the fabric that I want to make it out of. Pistachio-green and Robins Egg-blue cotton voile. I made a muslin, but there wasn't room for the zipper. So I redrew the pattern and added room for the zipper and I pulled the center front up about an inch. It was waaaaaay too boob-alicious as the pattern was originally drawn. Some cleavage is all well and good, but I don't want to show mine off to the whole world. No thank you. Especially since I teach high school. I was hoping to wear this under a cardigan to work. We'll see. It may be something only for summer and not work. I think I'm also going to alter the pattern a bit more so that I can have the halter straps attached to the back so that I don't have to tie it all the time. That usually makes my neck hurt. I've made a muslin from the altered pattern already. I just need to work on the straps.

Next up, my recent knitting adventures...

Thyme Pickled Mushrooms: April Can Jam Challenge: Herbs

I'll just get this out of the way: I fell off the wagon last month. I was frustrated with my tiny kitchen that makes everything an ordeal. I was frustrated with the lack of anything local to can since this challenge started. So I messed up. I didn't can anything. I bought some beautiful onions and I had no inspiration. I'm sorry.

But!

I think I've come through this time with an amazing recipe.

Thyme Pickled Mushrooms

Ingredients:



2lbs locally grown white button mushroom
A large bunch of locally grown thyme
3 lemons
2-3T green peppercorns
3T kosher salt
white vinegar
water

So, I realized the other week that pickled mushrooms are very likely to be delicious. And I knew that I'd be able to get some local herbs for sure this month. And local mushrooms. There are a couple of people that grow them year round here. So I thought about my favorite herbs. Well, my favorite one by far happens to be thyme. And thyme goes great with mushrooms. And lemon.

There's this amazing mushroom-leek phyllo pastry that I make every Thanksgiving from the Moosewood Celebrates cookbook. The flavor is awesome. The ingredients: mushrooms, leeks, thyme, lemon, sherry, and tofu. I wanted to sort of translate the mushroom-thyme-lemony goodness into pickled mushrooms.

So I started to research how to pickle mushrooms. Except several of the recipes had you boil the mushrooms, then pour olive oil over them and then water bath process them. That doesn't sound all that excellent to me. The oil scares me specifically. I've got a pressure cooker for those kinds of things. The one thing that the recipes all had in common was to boil the mushrooms first.

So I figured that's what I'd do. Only, I want to cook the mushrooms in something flavorful so that they get completely infused with the thyme. So I made a pickle brine to cook the mushrooms in. Here's what I did:

First, cut the mushrooms into quarters. most recipes tell you to cut off most of the stem. I didn't. I don't mind eating mushrooms stems.

Then I made a thyme pickle brine as follows.


In a large pot mix together the following:
3 cups white vinegar
3 cups water
1 1/2 T kosher salt
1 t green peppercorns
1 lemon cut into 8ths
and a huge handful of thyme, don't worry about the stems, just throw it all in there
oh, and a piece of a dried hot red pepper


Bring the brine to a boil and add the quartered mushrooms. Cook for about 20-30 minutes until the mushrooms are reduced in size.


Next, I poured the mushrooms off into a colander and mixed up another batch of brine identical to the first batch.

Into each jar I put an eighth of a lemon and a generous handful of thyme along with a couple of green peppercorns. Then, I shoved as many mushrooms into the jar as I could. Go ahead and pack them in there tightly.

Then pour the boiling brine into the jar leaving 1/2" of headroom. Poke out all the air bubbles. The mushrooms are really good at catching air as the brine gets poured in.


Wipe the rims clean, put on the jar lids and bands and process for 20 minutes in a water bath. I went for 30 minutes 'cause of the altitude. I probably should have only gone 25 minutes, but I like to be on the safe side.

I think that these will be like most pickles, the longer you wait to crack a jar open, the better the flavor will be. Give it a month, then crack these babies open.

[sigh]

My camera is dying. It was a major award. And now the shutter keeps freezing shut so that it only takes black pictures. I found a suggestion on how to reset the shutter. But I have to reset it now for every single picture I take. [sigh] I can't afford a new camera right now, hence the picture-less posts. My camera phone takes decent pictures, so that will be all I can do at the moment. Buh.

MOM. I just realized its your fault! YOU named it the major award. WHAT HAPPENS TO THE MAJOR AWARD AT THE END?!?!?! It gets broken, that's what.

Also, what movie has a MAJOR AWARD in it? You each get 3 guesses. Go!

Some thoughts

I was reminded of a semi-past-time of mine today. I like to look at things in the grocery store and think to myself "before we had grocery stores, someone had to make that. If someone made that, I can make that. What would it be like to make ________?" This may get me in trouble some day. But, so far, so good. I figured it'd be fun to make a list of the things that I either can make or do make on a regular basis that is usually bought at the store in the state that you use it.

So, here goes, things I now make that I used to only buy at the store:

bread
yogurt
butter
pickles (seriously, I'll pickle anything)
jams and fruit butters
pasta
soy milk
tofu
seitan
cakes and pies
underwear
bras
skirts
winter coat
scarf
socks
pants
all-purpose cleaner
tub and tile cleaner
toilet cleaner
face cleaner
toothpaste/soap
deodorant
face oil
toner
face mask
lotion
lip balm
tinctures
duvet cover
pillow cases
mouthwash
sweater
donuts
yarn (I LEARNED HOW TO SPIN!!!! When I get my first skein done and my first project knitted, you'll be hearing ALL about it.)
ice cream
kombucha
beer
hard apple cider

And now with my next list, things I've not made yet that are on my list to learn to make SOON:

bagels - and with Joy's success I'm not so intimidated!

cheese - I went to a cheese making class this year and the guy messed up mozzarella!

dresses - OK, so I've made a few dresses, but that was a long time ago and I've got a few on the drawing board and I can't get over my fear of them right now. I want so bad to make this really cute dress I have in my head but I'm terrified that I'll mess up the dress and ruin the awesome fabric.

crackers - I <3 crackers. I don't like them having all kinds of crap in them. So, I should make them.

SHOES - this is the biggest one for me right now. I want so bad to learn how to make shoes. Just check this guy out on YouTube. The shoes he makes are amazing. I've watched every. single. video. He teaches shoemaking, too. You can apprentice with him also. I want to apprentice to a master shoemaker. I want to make my own shoes so bad. I also want to make custom lasts that exactly match my feet. Do you think that if I watch these videos enough times all of his knowledge will be imparted to me and that I'll be able to make shoes? 'Cause I don't think I can afford the apprenticeship fee. [sigh] Just think about it for a while. Making shoes is something that very few people know how to do. I can already make almost all of my other clothes. If I could make my own shoes I'd be set. I could have days where I wear only clothes that I have made myself. All the way down to, well, my shoes and socks. I know, I'm a dork. And a nerd. But not a dweeb.

knickers - not underwear, the pants that button below the knee and are made of tweed. I really want to ride my bike in knickers this summer. yes, it'll be hot. no, I don't care. I'll be hot in anything this summer.

t-shirts - oh man oh man, my last attempt at sewing jersey was the worst disaster I can imagine. Boatneck shirts don't have a neckline that hits below your boobs. Just sayin'. 'Cause mine totally did.

jeans - if I can figure out how to make jeans that fit me awesomely I'll never have a bad shopping day again. Also, the less I go shopping the happier I am. Stores stress me out.

I think that's about it for now, I'm sure there are more things I'll think of later...