Tie-Dye

Knowing we were going to be gathering for 4th of July AND I needed to use up all my old dye, I tie-dyed a bunch of stuff: T-shirts, camisoles, and bamboo socks, and too, some summer onesies I'd got for the Grandbabies. So yesterday everyone got at least one shirt with matching socks.

Also, it's fun to see people using things I've made and given them. Last Christmas I tie-dyed aprons for gift-giving. Travis wears his apron all the time when cooking - especially grilling, as he did 25+pounds of ribs this 4th of July, using my mom's dad's bar-b-q sauce recipe.

RhubarbAde

A beverage I make often for company and family gatherings is rhubarb-ade. It's my made-up version of lemonade utilizing rhubarb we harvest and freeze. It's gotta be made from frozen rhubarb, otherwise you'd need to break down the rhubarb by cooking. I think I already mentioned in the Rhubarb Crisp post that I freeze rhubarb in 2 quantity sized bags: either a heaping quart measure (so more like 5+ cups) for my rhubarb custard pie (in my Hearth & Home cookbook), or a heaping 2+ cup measure, for the crisp.

From the pie bag measure of rhubarb I make a gallon of the ade beverage.


So, the RHUBARB ADE recipe proportions:

1 heaping quart of rhubarb
1 cup of sugar
1 gallon of water

Mix and cook in saucepan the rhubarb, sugar, and enough water to cover till rhubarb is soft. You have two options: either pour this mixture in a colander and pour the rest of the water to equal a gallon over the rhubarb, OR have your full gallon of water with the rhubarb and strain it all into your serving container. Then of course chill it before serving.

People like this beverage and I often have it requested by guests. I took it this past weekend for our 4th of July gathering. Years ago when Monte was telling a Wisconsin uncle about the drink, he laughed, thinking it sounded like silage (green farm fodder stored in silos for winter animal feed). I don't know if he believed us that it could taste good!

Posted at Gnowfglins

Sarah's Baked Beans

Every time our family gathers for summer meals (typically 4th of July) at Travis and Sarah's, Sarah makes this dish (or I'll request it). Now I'm finally getting the recipe recorded for my own personal use.



Can Butter Beans (drain all the beans)

Can Garbanzo Beans

Can Lima Beans

Can Kidney Beans

Can Northern Beans

1 large can Baked Beans

1/2# bacon, cut up

1 onion, chopped

1/4-1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1/2 cup red wine

2 Tbs Worcestershire Sauce



Cook in crockpot all day or bake in the oven for 1 1/2 hours.



Sarah says when it's just her and Travo she'll just do a couple of the beans and other bits in a saucepan.

Sourdough Pancakes

I'm currently at my son Travis and Sarah's home, sitting at the dining table with the back sliding glass door open to the back kitchen garden. We came yesterday for a 4th of July family bar-b-q meal using my grandpa's sauce on ribs. I'll have to post that recipe - it's in my cookbook Hearth & Home. We spent the night ... were going to go to fireworks, but it was pouring rain. Sarah's Mom and Dad drove in last night from TX and we made sourdough pancakes for breakfast.

Sarah's sourdough starter came from my starter (below). The pancake recipe comes from an Alaska Sourdough book.

Monte making sourdough pancakes

The Alaskan sourdough is made from potato water, sugar and flour (maybe yeast initially?). I've never made sourdough using milk like some recipes use. The current recipe I'm using is from the book Nourishing Traditions  by Sally Fallon. She claims the best results for sourdough starter are obtained from rye rather than wheat flour. And that's fine with me since we consume so much more wheat than any other grain. Her reasoning is because rye contains a lower phytate content (don't ask me what that means cuz I haven't researched it yet).

Rye Sourdough Starter

Start with mixing 2 cups rye flour and 2 cups water and cover the bowl with cheescloth and let sit out on the counter (I've got my bowl covered with a dish towel and rubberband). Each day for a week add another cup each of rye flour and water (or if you do have potato water left over from boiling potatoes, use it), then it's ready for bread. (I'm still working on creating a favorite sourdough bread.) Once your starter is created you can jar some of it up and refrigerate it, then take it out the night before, or a day or two ahead depending upon how much you need, for your next batch of pancakes.

So, from the Alaskan cookbook-

Sourdough Pancakes

Start griddle heating.

Mix together:

(I typically double the recipe all the time and it feeds 4-6 people)

2 C starter (I've been using 4C in a 2 quart pyrex bowl - it'll bubble up, so bigger is better)

2 Tb (sucanat) sugar

1 egg (I've used both 2 or 3  when doubling, and either works)

4 Tb oil

1/2 tsp salt

Mix together: 

1 tsp soda

1 Tb warm water

and fold into batter and let set a bit to rise.

Using a ladle, pour the pancakes to cook on an oiled griddle.

They are best with maple syrup. Sometimes we'll make up a rhubarb sauce. I often cook up berries or old fruit, adding in any old jams needing to be used up. The fruit syrup is good with yogurt (I always have homemade yogurt on hand). Leftovers are good - spread with almond butter and raspberry jam, and roll them up for a quicky meal when running errands.

The Alaskan cookbook tells historic stories and it's said a special place was always made in their cabin/tent/cave/home for their starter and that they'd rather live a year without their rifle than without a sourdough starter. I also found it interesting that a ball of starter could be stored in the midst of flour in a flour sack, like if you were crossing the prairie in a wagon. Think about it ... no stores, no yeast (except for wild yeast, and that's another story that I have from my own experience) you'd sure love biscuits and bread rather than just crackers or tortilla like flatbread all the time.

H,B,&W Visit

Heather, Bill, and Will stayed with us a big part of June. They were in limbo: moving and Bill on leave. They bought a house, but not able to move in till mid July. So rather than live in a hotel, they stayed with us.

I found out, tho I knew already, my house is not child-proof. We got through this time period fine with rubberbands on kitchen cabinet knobs, though Will was starting to figure out how to pull, stick hand in, and grab something. We kept tightening the rubberbands. I also covered some shelf areas with cardboard. Cushions and chairs blocked things too. As time went on, Will ventured further, finding more things to get into. Someday, cuz soon visiting Emery will be crawling too ... and then they'll be toddleing ... little hands finding things I don't notice - I'm probably going to have to rearrange things. Will loved going into my pantry and grabbing cans off the shelf, or thinking onions were balls, and then there was the 300 sandwich bag pick-up!

Our new season of life! My daughter-in-love Sarah is writing a blog called The Reluctant Mom and I realized myself in her posts and my current season. So I'm calling myself The Reluctant Grandmom. Not that I don't like this new season and grandkids. It's just that I'm not a typical gal that loves to hold babies. I wasn't the typical girl that babysat. Baby sitting still scares me. But having Heather and Will live with us off and on last year really helped me a ton in this journey. So bear with me my family, as I grow with you, as our family is growing.

Monte captured some great pictures with his iPhone. Bill and Heather were setting out on Father's Day to go to the Evergreen Rodeo (while I babysat!), and Monte took a pic of them by the porch post. Then before they left he thought of taking a family picture. Aren't they a cute family? Heather conceived while here that month, so they'll become four.

Rhubarb Crisp

Today Heather harvested the rhubarb. We usually harvest our rhubarb mid to late June, freezing several dozen heaping quart bags as well as heaping pints. I planted some newer rhubarb last year, and we've been letting some of the old plants go to seed and are finding baby plants.

When we built our home in 1984 chokecherries, wild raspberries and the rhubarb were already here, mainly at the edge of a bluespruce and aspen woods, with the rhubarb seeded out into the meadow. There's evidence of a homestead foundation from long ago here. We figure the rhubarb is 100 years old.

We fenced in a large area there for a garden. It's a ways from the house so now I've got more permanent or end of season plants - like asparagus, berry bushes like currents, saskatoon blueberries, canadian bred cherries and plums. I did plant blueberries too, for fun, and added almost 3/4ths of the dirt as peat, so to be acid. Then I plant all the broccoli cabbage family there and winter squash, and have some greenhouse frames for peppers and eggplant (we're at 8000 ft elevation - so cool).

From the rhubarb I primarily make rhubarb custard pie and rhubarbade, yes ... it's my version I invented of a beverage like lemonade. Then someone made rhubarb crisp for a function that I LOVE, so I got the recipe.

RHUBARB CRISP

Set oven at 350 and grease a 9x9 dish.
Mix together, cutting in the butter-
1C rolled oats
1/2C flour (I always use whole grain)
1C brown sugar (using less and sucanat instead)
1/2C butter (I usually use unsalted)

Press 1/2 of this mixture in the dish and spread
2C 1/2"chopped rhubarb
Sprinkle on the other 1/2 of the above mixture and
1/2C coarse chopped pecans

Bake for 45 minutes.

For some of you, you might be asking, "Heather?" Yes, Heather, Bill and 16 month old Will are here for a visit. Heather always loved harvesting rhubarb and helping with preserving food and doing chicken chores. Once she got married and it's pretty much just Monte and me, we got rid of the chickens (but I'm missing them and we may make a new coup up by the house next Spring and have SOME - not lots like before).

Posted at Gnowfglins

Blogs and Photos

A website home page for kareyswan.com is under construction. For now, kareyswan.com takes you to this site, which is my old blog that was called Karey's Overflow.

It's confusing, I know ...

I now have three blogs. And I have two photo sites. So I'll put everything here as links to them all, for now, until I create the webpage with it's info and links to everything.

www.kareyscontemplations.blogspot.com is this blog. My old blog.
www.kareysoverflow.blogspot.com is my new blog.
www.kareyskitchen.blogspot.com will be a place to post recipes and organize them and talk food.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kareyswan/ is where I'm posting pics of my textile art.
http://www.photoblog.com/kareyswan/ is where family pics and all are posted.

Home. A picture Dawson took. But now the fencing is done and gardens pretty much done (is gardening ever done? ... kinda like - does a kitchen ever stay clean? Is women's work ever done? "Her candle never goes out" ... hmmm)

New Blog

Now I'm going to have three blogs: the blog I posted on for two years is intact at www.kareyscontemplations.blogspot.com. I posted recipes there. But I want a place to post and organize recipes and talk about good food. So here 'tis the place!

The pictured cookstove in the Karey's Kitchen header is my cookstove. It sits in our great room between the kitchen and dining area. The great room also consists of a sitting area with couches, wing-back chairs, and rocker - we call it "the keeping room".

Guests have walked in wondering if that stove is my cooking source. But I do have a regular electric glass top stove/range, that's a part of the kitchen island. And I do have a microwave combo convection oven, as well as a toaster oven - both housed in wall storage where a pull out shelf holds my Bosch Universal kitchen mixer. And my grain grinder is stored on the bottom shelf. I so enjoy and use all my kitchen toys - my wonderful servants!

The cookstove is used primarily to take the chill off the area on cold days when the sun's not shining. If it's burning for long, I often cook on it. Might as well keep a soup or stew simmering. If the electricity goes out ... fine. It's a wonderful place to pull the rocking chair up to, open the oven door for the heat to escape into the room, and prop feet upon, with a warm beverage and read. Great atmosphere!

Weaving in the Garden

Monte built me this weaving loom for our yard. It's made out of cedar, so it will weather as all our other fencing, gates and deck - that is, neutral gray. When reading a garden color book last summer I learned that nature's neutrals: rocks' and woods' grays, are the best surroundings for showcasing nature's colors.

In this summer's "Living Crafts" magazine, there was an article with instructions for building this loom. Because of my love of textile arts, which includes weaving, Monte thought this would look cool in our yard. More on these kinds of looms are at www.weavingalife.com.

It's warp is jute. I'll be weaving in garden materials. As weeds and flowers dry birds may make use of stuff - like for nest building and feeding. I might plant vines to climb up the posts some years.



'Tis the time of Summer Solstice, Midsummer Nights Dream, and John the Baptist Day. I did a post on this season before.

Dawson's welded me some metal arches for vines to climb. Everything's planted for this season's enjoyment and eats. I totally enjoy summer and gardening and sitting out on the deck reading and enjoying the gardens, butterflies, and birds.



The black pots are growing potatoes and some winter squash. I did a post that mentioned planting potatoes in pots with a link to more info about.

Busy with Textile Art

I'm taking a class: "The Language of Color & Design", by Heather Thomas, who's book is coming out this fall. We meet once a month and my final class is next April ... isn't that way out there!?!! I'm loving it. Each month is show-and-tell with lots of fun, creative gals. It's challenging me each month to study and practice. I'm finding myself eating, reading, sleeping, dreaming ... color. I'm exploring all varied textile arts. Needlefelting wool has been my main medium for awhile, but I've returned to dyeing.

Rather than winging it - I am creative. Rather than having success in my unknowing, I'm wanting to understand more about color and design. In the practicing and gaining knowledge I know it'll free me to discover new ways to explore textile art design. It's all about color relationships.

I've worked through a month of Black and White, and the Gray Scale - discovering value and texture though neutrals. Then a month of Monochromatic; then Complementary color schemes. Now I'm challenged to expand the complementary color schemes. I've been journaling and creating a handmade book each month of my journey. I've posted most of these studies at my Flickr photo site.

Last month I taught felting classes and used my doll example for this past month's color challenge. I was fighting with her attire, not liking it; it didn't feel good. When I looked at her torso dress color next to my 3-in-1 color tool, I realized I wasn't working with a violet shade - trying to add it's yellow complement - but it's red-violet. That's the color combination I really was wanting to do all along. YEAH! I ripped off the other violet and yellows, picked out more shades and tints of red-violet and it's complement: yellow-green. I love it! When the colors are right, they pop!

Dawson also recently taught me how to use his oxyacetaline torch and welder. I made a metal chair for my little wool sculpted lady. I'm going to research soldering and see if I can produce a similar product with a lighter weight metal and no torch and welding stuff. I could do it, but it's kinda scary!

So I've been busy. I'm treating it as a job, working at it almost daily. But then too, this past month has been heavy gardening, getting all my flower and veggie greenhouse starts tucked in the ground - envisioning the flowering beauty to come and good eats!