7 Quick Takes Friday

1. I finished knitting my dad's Christmas socks. I can post them here because he's not exactly a blog reader, and is not aware of my presence in the blogging world. Here are the socks, which I've been knitting on since July. (I do multiple projects at once, so they took me a while to complete.)


A close up of the stitch pattern:

Knitting Stats (For those interested):
Yarn: Skacel Schoppel Wolle Zauberball in 1993 Creme of Chocolate
Needles: Size 1 (2.25mm)
Pattern: Corded Rib from Charlene Schurch's book Sensational Knitted Socks

2. Here's another project I haven't posted yet. This is a baby blanket I knit for my baby niece who will be due in December. For those who know me: No, my sister is not pregnant. However, my sister in-law is, and her baby may be born on Fee's Birthday.

This blanket was crocheted, and I designed it myself. My sister in-law hates traditional baby colors but loves black. She should be getting this blanket in the mail in a few days. I hope she likes it.

Stats:
Yarn: Bernat Berella 4 Solids in Black, Grape, and Rose
Crochet Hook: Size K (6.5mm)
Pattern: My own (If you really like it, let me know. I'll write it out for you.)

3. Last week I mentioned that I would be making a tutu for my daughter, Fee. Here she is in all her tutu glory. We had a photo session in the leaves, and I took some really great pictures. I have a picture frame designed for three 4X6 photos, and I'm going to put 3 of my favorites in this frame. We need more pictures around our home.

4. Here's another picture from our photo session, and this one seems to be a favorite among people who have seen the tutu pictures. What folks do not realize is that this picture looks HORRIBLY UGLY in color. Dingy-brown carpet with off-white walls, combined with a pastel tutu and a black and grey cat--it was a recipe for ugliness. Nevertheless, the black and white picture has a nice artistic quality to it, and I have a special frame for this picture too.

5. Last week I mentioned that I would be starting a new theology book and trying to decide what to read. I finally settled on Introduction to Christianity by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI). So far I am LOVING this book. It is both a commentary on the apostles creed and a look at the place of faith (credo) in our modern world. I recommend this to my Protestant friends as well as my Catholic friends. I'm only up to page 100 or so, but I appreciate the way in which Ratzinger has given Protestants such as Kierkeggard and Luther a voice, taking what is good from Protestant theologians. Don't be fooled by the title, because although it is an "introduction" to Christianity it is not dumbed-down or overly simplified. There are multiple references to German philosophers such as Hegel and Heidegger, as Ratzinger brings philosophy into the discussion of faith. Philosophy acts as a conversation partner because to come to term with faith in an age of unbelief, one must engage other philosophies.

6. While Fee naps (what wonderful days those are), I like to watch documentaries on Netflix Instant while I knit. I usually have to watch these in 30 minute to 1 hour segments, but I can usually watch full documentary in 2 days. My favorites have been Waco: Rules of Engagement, about the government stand-off at the Branch Davidian compound, With God on Our Side, about the history of the Christian Right, The Business of Being Born, about homebirths, and Killer at Large: Why Obesity is America's Greatest Threat. I watch documentaries because I am somewhat clueless when it comes to picking out movies on Netflix Instant. Most of the good ones are not available on Instant, and I don't know how to go about picking one out. I suppose this is the downside to not having television, when you want to watch something, you simply don't know what to watch. Then again, that may not be a bad thing after all.

7. I need a new baby carrier. Fee is getting too big for the sling. I can still carry her on my hip, but the weight limit is 22 lbs, which she is quickly approaching. Our baby bjorn has a weight limit of 25 lbs, but I think it would be more comfortable to carry Fee on my back than on my chest. Any recommendations would be great, as it's much easier to carry her with a carrier than to use a stroller.

* As always visit Conversion Diary for more 7 Quick Takes Friday.

7 Quick Takes Friday

1. I've been trying to give more handmade gifts when Birthdays and babies come along. It's even better if I can make the gift myself. With my sister's birthday coming up in November, I decided to make her this lovely bath set.

That's a hand knit washcloth I made using Louisa Harding Nautical Cotton. This is a really nice and soft cotton yarn. I actually made the pattern myself using a stitch pattern I found and making a garter stitch border. In addition to the washcloth, you will also see some of my cold process "Pumpkin Celebration" soap. This is a delightful soap, which includes shea butter, avocado oil, jojoba oil, sweet almond oil, and get this, real pumpkin. It also smells like a delicious pumpkin pie.

2 . This time change has been great for Fee because she now goes to bed an hour earlier! Yes, she gets up an hour earlier too, but I don't really mind that. I can now have her in bed around 7 instead of 8, and this makes a huge difference because now PK and I can now go out on a dinner date.

3. None of my clothes fit me anymore, or should I say, my wardrobe selection is more limited than I would like. As I see it there are three solutions to this current problem:

A. Lose about 20 pounds
B. Get pregnant (I have lots of maternity clothes)
C. Go shopping.

I'm currently trying to decide which of these is the least painful. Yes, this seriously is a dilemma for me because I HATE SHOPPING! It's not that I hate spending money, but that too can be painful, I hate the shopping experience. I hate trying to find a balance between teenybopper and LOL (Little Old Lady). I hate the plethora of jean selection that overemphasises skinny jeans and mom jeans. And I have difficulty trying to strike a balance between modesty and looking like frumpy-bag-lady. I also can't stand trying on clothes, with those dressing room mirrors that emphasise every flaw. Really they just make me feel ugly and not want to buy anything. Most importantly what is a 20-something-year-old mom supposed to wear? It was easier to find clothes in high school and college. I knew what was in style and what looked good on me. Now I don't even know my size, and I'm pretty sure high school/college clothes are now inappropriate. This is why losing 20 lbs or getting pregnant just might be less painful than going shopping.

4. Speaking of decisions, I've almost completed reading Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, and I need to figure out what to read next. The last few books I've read have been in the long-works-of-fiction category. What can I say, I love the pacing of Russian novels. Nevertheless, I'm thinking I should read a nonfiction work this time, perhaps something spiritual or theological. Right now I'm thinking about finishing Come Be my Light (about Mother Teresa), a theological work by the Holy Father (we have a lot of them), or An Infinity of Little Hours (about 5 men discerning their call to enter a Carthusian monastery). Advice on this decision or my number 3 decision (or both) will be taken into consideration.

5. I love the look of 1950s curls made using rags. In addition, the look is quick, easy, and requires no heat or styling products. What could be healthier for your hair or wallet? The hairstyle is very soft and feminine, so I followed the direction here to give it a try. Aside from my front curls being tighter than the rest (probably because I could reach them more easily), I really like the results. This works great for my hair which is thick and funky-wavy. My hair is also at that awkward medium length that I have difficulty styling, so I think I'll just keep rag rolling for a while.

6. A friend from my hometown made a really cute baby tutu for her daughter. Her tutu is so cute, she's inspired me to make one for Fee. The tutorial can be found here. It should be interesting to see how this tutu turns out because I get the sense that Fee is not really a girly-girl. She won't wear bows on her head, and she likes to hit her baby doll against the ground. Instead she enjoys playing in the grass, eating leaves, and pulling on the cat's tail. Maybe it's still too early to tell, but I'm guessing she'll turn into a little tomboy. Maybe wearing a tutu will bring out her girly-girl side.

7. I have to echo Jennifer's endorsement for Baby Mum Mums. My daughter LOVES these. In fact one of her first words with actual meaning was Mum Mum. I will say "Fee, do you want a Mum Mum."

And she will respond, "A Mum Mum," very matter of factly.

I give her a Mum Mum while I fix dinner, and they also keep her hands occupied when she's eating babyfood. My only complaint about them is that they are individually wrapped with two crackers in each wrapper. Do these really need that much packaging? I understand the idea behind wanting the crackers to be portable and convenient, but I still think the extra packaging is unnecessary. If I want to pack a snack for Fee, I just put it in a sandwich baggie. Actually, when she only eats one of the two crackers, I end up putting the other one in a sandwich baggie anyway. I've been reusing the same baggie for her Mum Mums because we really are trying to be more environment-friendly. Unfortunately the Mum Mum crackers aren't helping in this pursuit.

* For Baby Mum Mums and more check out Jennifer's Quick Takes at Conversion Diary.

Happy Halloween

From the Fee-bee!

I think my first sewing attempt was a success. I see more homemade Halloween costumes in the future.

7 Quick Takes

1. If you're one of the six people who keep up with my blog, then you remember me talking about my CSA dilemma. Well, we ended up signing up for the CSA with another family from PK's work. We pick up our first basket and lots of raspberries next Thursday. I decided to join the CSA to have access to a local farm, and if everything works according to plan we'll be visiting our farm Sunday after church. Hooray!! I'm excited about being able to show Fee where her food comes from. We'll also take her to another farm open house in April. My thought is that taking her to the farm will help encourage healthy eating habits at this crucial time in development. Yes, this is probably some sort of idealistic fantasy from a first time mom, but my thought is if she never knows junk food, she will not ask for junk food. Our CSA pickups are every other week, so we will continue visiting the Farmers Market on weeks we don't have pickups.

2. Actually we may keep visiting the Farmers Market weekly. We recently discovered the wonderfulness of FRESH, grass-fed milk. This is some of the best stuff ever, and has way more flavor than milk from the grocery store. We're not sure how much longer the fresh milk will be offered, but we will go every Saturday we can to get some. PK even suggested joining a cow-boarding program. This is like a CSA, except with cow milk. You buy a share of a cow and get milk weekly. In addition you can go out to the farm and watch the milking. The program we are looking at also has a library full of books on organic farming and works by folks such as Wes Jackson and Wendell Berry.

3. I actually blame my obsession for local food on Wendell Berry. If you are not familiar with Berry, I recommend starting with his Port William fiction series or his poetry, then move on to some of his essays. Now if we can only find some local grains and flour, we'll never have to buy food at Wal-Mart ever again.

4. All this talk about Wendell Berry and farming reminds me of something PK and I discuss sometimes. We essentially want to start a Catholic farming community with about 5 other families. We would live off the grid and build our own solar panels. We would also have an on-location chapel, and maybe we could convince the bishop to send a priest to visit us once a month for mass. We would grow our own food, and whatever we have in surplus we would give to charity. All this is mostly an exercise in imagination because we lack money, land, and skill. It's still a fun dream to have. If the money and land ever come along it will be good that I've been reading about farming and foraging. I think my adventures in summer gardening and soap making will also come in handy. And if we never have money or land, these are all still good things.

5. I finally started making Fee's Halloween costume this week. She's going to be a little bumble bee (a baybee). Since she's too young to go trick-or-treating, we are taking her in full costume to the Farmers Market to see the great pumpkin.

6. Speaking of Miss Fee, I've discovered that the 10 month age is certainly the most difficult so far. She's become a skilled climber, and things on the couch are no longer safe from her reach. She's also in a not-wanting-to-nap phase, which is frustrating. Even with the difficulties I still count my blessings. She loves eating healthy food (Pureed pumpkin with banana bits is her new favorite.), and she sleeps through the night. Even when she doesn't take a nap, she stays in good spirits as long as I give her extra food. I can see her little personality developing, and I must say she's an attention-seeker. But I guess that's not surprising, considering her theatrical parents.

7. Seven quick takes are a great way to update when I've been blog-lazy. If I haven't posted in a while, I usually don't know where to begin. Should I explain my absence? What should I post about if what I'm doing now is unrelated to what I posted about last time? Right now I have pictures of the process of making acorn bread. I want to post a tutorial on acorn bread, but I've been blog-lazy. I also want to post pictures of my little Fee-bee in costume and pictures of our CSA farm and the great pumpkin. These things are encouraging me to get out of my blog-lazy rut, but if you never see these pictures, know that I'm researching the patron saint of napping babies in hopes of a little bit of me-time. If I'm not blogging, know that Jen at Conversion Diary blogs regularly, and she hosts the 7 Quick Takes every Friday.

Fall Foraging (Or Why Some Folks Think I'm Losing My Mind)

Rolling Hills of Tennessee--When I think about foraging for food, I am reminded of my childhood. I suppose this is where my interest in foraging began. I grew up in a small town in North East Texas, in an area known as the Piney Woods. Before development, the area used to be quite woody, and I was fortunate enough to grow up in a house surrounded by overgrowth and a bit of leftover woods, which separated our house from the neighbors. It really wasn't much woods, mind you, but for a child it offered plenty of room for exploration.

Around our fence grew several honeysuckle vines. I don't recall who taught me how to extract the sweet nectar from the honeysuckle, but as a child my sister and I would often venture over to these vines for a sweet treat while playing outside.

My sister and I both played softball as children, and because I've never really enjoyed America's civil religion (sports), I would wonder around during my sister's little league games. The softball fields were also surrounded by a woody area, and on the border of these woods I found some delicious blackberries. Fortunately blackberry season corresponded with softball season, and I would often eat these straight off the vine.

Actually most of memories of foraging revolve around blackberries. My Aunt Mae Mae collected blackberries around her house, and would make the most wonderful jelly from the fruit. Around blackberry season, my mom would bring her jars which she would fill with this jelly.

One year, while vacationing in the Ozarks, my mother, sister, and I were walking along the side of the road leading up to our cabin. I don't remember where we were going, but I do remember discovering a huge patch of blackberries. We collected those blackberries together, and since our cabin had a fully furnished kitchen, my mom made us a blackberry cobbler with the very berries my sister and I gathered.

More recently, during my first year of marriage, Waco had an amazing pecan harvest. We lived near Baylor University, and there were many pecan trees on campus and around the neighboring apartment complexes. On a day I didn't have to work, I roamed the area picking up pecans. I snacked on these pecans the rest of the year, and if I had not been working like a dog as a wage slave, I would have shelled these and made a pecan pie.

Now I live on top of a hill in an apartment complex surrounded by woods. The climate here is very similar to Northeast Texas, but with more deciduous trees and fewer pines. With my history of foraging on the border of woods, I am excited that my new surroundings provides this opportunity. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find some of the more easily recognizable wild foods I have eaten the past. But the urge to forage has struck, so my husband and I invested in two books: Peterson's Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants of Eastern/Central North America and The Encyclopedia of Edible Plants of North America: Nature's Green Feast by Francois Couplan.

These books have been a wonderful discovery for us, and in many ways PK is even more excited about foraging than me. The former contains many wonderful pictures to help with identifying plants as well as pictures and descriptions of poisonous plants that are mistaken for edible plants. The latter, offers more detailed descriptions of how to prepare and use edible plants once you have correctly identified them. We have already found that some plants we could already identify are not only edible, but tasty if prepared correctly. In addition we have identified a few plants around our home that are edible.

Here's a list of what we have gathered and/or identified so far:

Dandelions: One of the best edible foods. The flowers are vitamin rich and tasty fresh. They make a great topping for salads. You can also boil the leaves as greens. I have even read that there is a way to make a powdered drink mix from the roots. This mix has a flavor similar to coffee, but is way better for you.

White Clover Flowers: You can boil these to make an herbal tea. I have not tried this yet, but PK really enjoys it. He was caught gathering and boiling clover flowers at his workplace, and now there are rumors circulating that he's some kind of warlock. One has to love the Halloween-imagination October brings.

Juniper Berries: We've read that this makes a great seasoning for meat; simply grind them up in a pepper grinder. I plan to get some lamb at the farmer's market next week and season it with the ones we've gathered.

Pine Needles: Here is something I never knew--any type of pine can be used to make tea. Gather the younger needles from a pine tree (the lighter colored ones). While boiling water, slice the pine needles into small pieces. Pour the boiling water over the pine needles, and steep for about 8 minutes. It tastes very fresh and delicious. You can also dry out the pine needles, and slice and store them before hand. When the ground dries out from our recent rain, I plan to stock up on needles to have on hand.

Acorns: Any acorn is edible, but be careful because you should know what kind of acorn you are gathering. Some varieties can be eaten straight off the ground, but others need more preparation. Acorns have been used to produce flour for centuries. We have two sawtooth oak trees outside our home, but this type of oak makes a more bitter acorn which can be harmful if directly ingested. After leaching the tannin out of the acorns (a process that took about 5 days), I am turning our small harvest into acorn flour. This week I plan to make bread using the acorn flour combined with our regular wheat four.

I hope this post inspires you to find edible foods in your own neighborhoods. Just remember, never eat something you haven't positively identified (without a doubt) as being edible. Foraging and preparing foraged foods is fun, and it helps bring a greater appreciation for the bountiful foods that God has placed all around us.

* Picture: A dandelion by cygnus921 from Flickr's Creative Commons

The Best Pumpkin Soup Ever

I made this soup yesterday as part of my plans to cook something with pumpkin every week this fall. While my husband and I were eating dinner together he made the following declarations about this soup:

"If they served food on Mt. Olympus, this would be it."
"I've never tasted anything this good before."
"I'm so glad you are good at the art of homemaking."
"I could eat this every day."
"I'm tingling because this is so good."

First, here is the original recipe for Velvety Pumpkin Soup with Bacon and Blue Cheese. This recipe was my inspriation, but in the course of making the soup I realized that I made enough substitutions to warrent writing out what I did in the form of a new recipe. I recommend looking at what ingredients are available to you and making substitutions based on that. For example, I substituted the garlic and onion because I didn't have a shallot. Others probably don't have raw, dark wildflower honey or country bacon and would prefer looking at the original recipe. I got most of my ingredients at our local farmer's market, but you could easily get most of these ingredients at any grocery store.

Ingredients
2 pumpkins, pureed using this method or method of choice* (see notes below before pureeing)
1 quart chicken broth (low sodium variety)
1 cup half-and-half
1 onion, sliced in half-inch slices
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup raw, dark, wildflower, local honey
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnimon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 lb. local country bacon
crumbled blue cheese to taste

1. Put pumpkin puree, chicken broth, half-and-half, onion, garlic, honey, butter, bacon, and spices in a large crockpot
2. Cook on high for about 2 hours. Remove the bacon, cut off the fat part of the bacon and return to crockpot. Slice the meaty part of the bacon into 1cm cubes and return to crockpot.
3. Cook on low for about three hours. Remove the fat part of the bacon.
4. Serve in bowls and with blue cheese sprinkled on top as desired, garnish with parsley or wrinkled crinkled cress from the garden

* I like to remove the seeds and stringy parts before I put my pumpkin in the oven. I also separate out the seeds and roast them in the oven when I'm done making the puree. Pumpkin seeds are my favorite snack. To roast the pumpkin seeds, set your oven to 385 degrees, put seeds on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with salt or seasonings of your choice (I like to mix a little bit of ground mustard, sage, and Toney's Chachere's Cajun seasoning.). Bake in oven for 5 minutes. Eat pumpkin seeds in the same way you would eat sunflower seeds. You can also use this method to roast acorn or butternut squash seeds, which taste slightly different than pumpkin seeds but are also delicious.

* When I make pumpkin puree, I always set aside some of the puree for my daughter. This is enough puree to fill a large baby food jar. Therefore I used a little less than two pumpkins worth of puree in this recipe. I like being able to give Felicity the same food we are eating, and she really likes pumpkin. If you have a baby eating semi-solid foods, I recommend saving some of the puree for him or her.

--Photo by Muffet

On Punkins and a Possible CSA

Music City, TN -- Fall is here!! This is my favorite season of the year. I love the changing leaves and the comfortable crispness to the air. Sadly, it's still hot, humid, and rainy in Nashville, but I'm looking forward to true fall-like weather soon. Pumpkins are perhaps my favorite fall food.

When PK and I were dating and celebrating our first Halloween together, we decided to carve a pumpkin. It was October 30, and when we went to the store to pick out our pumpkin, we discovered that we were too late. All the big carving pumpkins were gone, and only small pie-baking pumpkins remained. Well, plans can change, and we decided to bake a pumpkin pie completely from scratch. We found a pie recipe, checked out Frank Capra's It Happened One Night from the university library, and bought a 6-pack of some kind of Oktoberfest beer. It was a great typical college-style date, and that pie was the best pie I have ever tasted. In the spirit of giving we decided to share the pie and the beer with PK's roommates. Unfortunately we weren't monitoring their pie intake, and the pie was swiftly gone. I only had one small piece that night, but PK and I decided that our Halloween tradition would be a Frank Capra movie and pumpkin pie.

True to our word, we made a pumpkin pie and watched Arsenic and Old Lace our first year of marriage. Sadly, I didn't save the recipe from the first pumpkin pie, and the second one wasn't nearly as good. Last year, we had a complete pumpkin pie failure when our grocery store in the Bronx had no pie-baking pumpkins. Apparently folks don't make pumpkin pies from scratch in the Bronx. They just buy pre-made pies from the restaurants or use canned pumpkin puree. Being a food snob, a grad student, and 8 months pregnant, I decided that making pumpkin pie with canned puree was not worth the effort.

With our family pumpkin history in mind, I present to you our first pumpkin in what will hopefully be the beginning of pumpkin-baking fall goodness. Fee will show you our pumpkin:


This pumpkin was actually a gift to Fee from one of her farmer friends at the farmer's market. I LOVE the Nashville farmer's market, and the abundance of pumpkins there has me believing that the pumpkin pie/Frank Capra movie tradition will live on. Actually I've decided to get a pumpkin during each weekly visit, and make something new with it, leading up to the traditional Halloween pumpkin pie. This week I made pumpkin cake, and it was ridiculously delicious. (I feel slightly bad about devouring Fee's pumpkin, so I'll get two on my next visit--one to eat, and one to let Fee play with until it starts looking suspicious.)

I post this somewhat sentimental story about pumpkins because it leads into my current dilemma. I have the opportunity to join a CSA with some folks from PK's workplace. There's lots of good with this prospect--supporting local farmer, fresh organic veggies, getting to know people at PK's workplace.

At the same time I'm worried that this would mean making less frequent trips to the farmer's market. Fee is known as the "farmer's market baby." She's made friends there, and her cuteness has gotten us free fruit on more than one occasion. In addition I love the public space that the farmer's market offers. It's more than just veggies. People gather there from all socio-economic backgrounds. There's often local entertainment. Last week Fee and I danced along while a small band played folk music.

I feel enslaved by choice because both options seem good. At the same time I know it is a great blessing to have such an option. Many people live in places where a food supply is lacking, still others can only buy big corporate food, but my food dilemma comes from an abundance of amazing food.