Posts from — February 2009

Current view- no rowing yet!

Just in case any of you rowers out there were wondering when I’ll be getting on the water, it won’t be soon.  Here is where I normally row.  Notice the NO WAKE ZONE sign, which is for the whole lake.   Now notice the tire tracks and the ice fishing shacks on the ice.  I took this photo at about 9 AM.

Yes, it’s enough like spring that I have stopped wearing a coat when I run errands, but the ice is still pretty thick if it can still hold a Ford Ranger, which I saw near one of the ice shacks.  It looks like I’ll still be on the ergometer for a few more weeks.

This week at our Friendship Circle meeting, we got to see Jo’s fracture quilt completed.  Thanks to Mary for taking this photo for me, as I forgot my camera.  DOH!

Jo's Fracture Quilt

Jo took the original photograph for her quilt in her garden.  We didn’t really know what the background was, as she brought a black & white photo, and said  that the ground was covered with “chips” or “mulch”, or some other not very descriptive phrase, so that we wouldn’t be too literal. I like the fact that there are different backgrounds, and yet, the fractured flowers all come together as foreground anyway.

We also discussed options for a group project this year, and it looks like we’re going for something a bit simpler, partly because the group is growing, and partly because of the time commitments the fractures took  (“You panic for the first week, then you start to get some ideas, then you have to go buy fabric, and finally do what came into your head…. it can be pressure!”)  Ok. that’s a combination of many comments into one big sentence, but it COULD have been a quote.

I still think this group is GREAT.

My 2009 WAQG Mystery Workshop Quilt, in progress

Here’s what I did today.   This piece is 22 inches square, unfinished.  Yes, the blocks are itty bitty. The green border is 3/8 of an inch wide.  The orange squares are 1 inch.

Each winter, Sue M, a member of  our local quilt guild, puts on a Mystery Quilt workshop.  We gather with our tools, irons, sewing machines, and a collection of fabrics that fit general guidelines.  Sue provides us with separate steps (cut Y pieces of Fabric A, size G by H)  on paper, and by the time you reach the last step, you have parts that can be made into a quilt.

(Lilly Hansen’s baby quilt was the result of last year’s workshop)

Sue, who is a small woman by stature, is also famous for making quilts with tiny pieces.  This year, she promised a small quilt from this workshop, after a few years at larger formats.  There was one section of the mystery that I ended up editing out of the end result, and trust me, those pieces were SMALL.  I edited them out more due to their color than their size- it was a dark purple that was fighting with the blue.

I don’t have plans for this piece once it is finished, but it might make a good gift for someone.  Like it?

Here is the second “Gardening for PhDs” tutorial- how to set up an Earthbox to grow tomatoes.  I won’t go into as much detail as I did here, but I will demonstrate the different needs you’ll have for growing tomatoes, in comparison to herbs.  And since all my readers are smart, I’m sure you can figure out how to combine techniques to grow peppers, right?

We all know many reasons for growing our own tomatoes, most of which are related to tastiness, and the non-rubbery texture home garden tomatoes have, in comparison to their (dare we call it? ) relatives that one finds in Minnesota supermarkets in February.

An Earthbox is designed to handle two tomato plants, which will grow and prosper.  DH and I actually did the experiment of 2 plants in the ground in the yard vs. 2 plants in an Earthbox one summer.  Ground: 3 tomatoes, Earthbox: 40+ tomatoes.  You now understand why we haven’t bothered with the ground since.  If you want to have more tomato plants (more varieties, etc), get more planters, rather than crowd the box (We did this one year, too, and there’s a reason the experts say to do it the way they do.  Believe them.).

Think ahead a little about what kind of tomatoes you like, and what kind you think taste best.  It is also good to check if the plants are determinate or indeterminate types when you are pairing them in boxes.   Determinate plants will stop growing in height after they reach a certain size, while indeterminate plants don’t.  This can be important when planning for your staking needs.

I would recommend not having more than one cherry tomato plant unless you have a household of more than two people, unless you have plenty of time for picking, or you just like teeny tomatoes.  I think we had six different varieties of plants this year.  This summer I  finally really understood the appeal of “beefsteak” type tomatoes.  I usually just head down to the Farmer’s Market here in town, and start asking questions about varieties from the plant vendors.

Note some of the following pictures show the Earthbox with a staking system, which we use for our tomatoes, though as you’ll see, traditional tomato cages can also be used to good effect.

Initial Planting

Once you have the casters on the box, and you have installed the grate and the watering tube, you’ll add soil to the square holes in two corners, to create the “wick” for the water to reach the soil.  Then you’ll fill the reservoir with water through the watering tube, until some water starts coming out the drain hole.

Wicking soil added to corners, after grate and watering tube

Tomatoes need the extra nutrients supplied by lime or dolomite, so if you got the kit, now is the time to mix your dolomite package with the potting soil.

Mix the dolomite with the potting soil

Get your hands right in there and mix it up.  Don’t be afraid to get dirty… this is GARDENING!

Again, fill up the box as full as possible, mounding the soil up over the rim, as shown in the profile view below.

Profile View of Soil

Now, add the plant food/fertilizer strip on top of the soil, in the appropriate position for your tomato plants.  This time, you want the fertilizer along the opposite long side of the box from where you will be placing your plants.  And yes, I do use Organic fertilizer.

Fertilizer Strip for Tomatoes

Then, put on the mulch cover.  Now you’re ready to plant.  Cut your X shape into the mulch cover in the corners opposite the fertilizer strip and watering tube, dig out a hole for the seedling, and push the seedling through the cover.

Plant Tomato

Here you can see I am planting my tomato seedling.  This is a good view of the outriggers for the staking system, which also have places for casters at the bottom.  The casters are especially useful in the fall when temperatures dip at night.  When there’s danger of frost, we just wheel the tomato plants into the garage overnight.

Water in your seedlings from the top JUST THIS ONCE, and assemble any staking system, or place your tomato cages.  Do it now, since it’s hard to do once the tomato plants are bigger.

Tomatoes planted in Earthbox with Staking System

And all you’ll have to do now is keep the water reservoir full for the season, either with a hose, or your trusty bucket and funnel, or, if you are really not into maintenance, the Earthbox people have come up with a perpetual watering system if you have several boxes.  Even we haven’t gone this far yet.  We still see the fetching and carrying of buckets as a small part of our fitness routine.

In just a matter of weeks, your plants can look like this:

Tomatoes in Cages

And you will be the grinning  (urban or suburban) farmer(s), not unlike MIL and FIL, here.

S and J, happy suburban tomato growers

As the weather gets closer to spring, and the seed catalogs are piling up, I decided it was time to rebuild the Earthbox Tutorial that was lost in the ISP switch, so the family can use it as a refresher, and I can provide examples to everyone I mention them to.

I am in no way compensated by the Earthbox company for my enthusiastic support of their product.  But I LOVE these things. As someone without much natural patience, and little patience for maintenance routines, these planters make it possible for us to have real tomatoes growing along our driveway, and to have fresh herbs within reach of the kitchen door all summer.  These make home cooking fun and more tasty.  How’s that for Slow Food?

Of course, you can learn this in more detail from the Earthbox site, but these are containers that have a water reservoir in the bottom, and a mulch cover on top, so it is gardening with  NO WEEDING and it’s IMPOSSIBLE TO OVER WATER.  We currently have about 6 Earthboxes in our collection, and we may supplement them this season, as we have yet to have too many tomatoes.  Essentially, all you need to do is go buy yourself an Earthbox, some potting soil, and some healthy seedlings.  After about half an hour of setup time, all you do all summer is add water, and pick vegetables!

We  grow herbs and tomatoes and peppers in our Earthboxes, but you can grow almost any plant in them.  In the tutorial, I’ll demonstrate how I planted herbs in a new Earthbox, and then how I replanted an existing Earthbox with tomato plants.  (For some history, for Xmas, we had given several relatives a  Complete Kit and this was to show them how to set it up.)

Besides a good pair of scissors, the best things to have around when gardening with Earthboxes is this:

Water Bucket and Funnel

If  you have easy access to a hose, that works, too.

When you get an Earthbox Complete Kit (my recommendation for newbies), here’s what comes in the box:

Earthbox Package Contents

The thing that looks like a black plastic bag is the mulch cover.  The two white packages contain dolomite (for mixing with soil when growing tomatoes) and the plant food (fertilizer) packet.

If you decide to get an Earthbox without the complete kit, do yourself a favor and get the casters from the Earthbox people.  I decided to cheap out one year, figuring these were standard things I could get at the local Menards/HomeDepot/Lowe’s, but I was WRONG, and the  Menards casters wouldn’t stay in, and fell out at inopportune times.  I ended up buying casters from Earthbox the following summer.  Save yourself the frustration, if you are planning to put your planters somewhere on a deck or a driveway, etc.  The wheels are great- we can roll the boxes into the garage if there is threat of frost/hail.  Or if you’re really obsessive, you can roll the planters around to different sunny spots as the sun moves around each day.

Attach the Casters

Turn your planter upside down, and put the metal legs of the casters into the holes.  They won’t click with a sound, but they will set into the housing.  It doesn’t require much pressure.

Empty Earthbox

Here’s the empty Earthbox, now right side up. Note the drain hole, at the top center.  This is one of the features of genius.  Note in the lower two corners, some small areas that are squarish.  This is where the cut out corners of the grate go when it is added, which is the next step.

Soil Grate In Place

Now, you see the round hole in the top left, where the water tube goes, and the square areas which you will pack with potting soil.  These corners provide the wick for the water to get to the plants.

Water Tube and Soil Wick

This picture shows the watering tube in place, and you can see that I’ve packed the corners with soil.  Your next step is to fill the Earthbox with water, using your trusty bucket and funnel (or hose).

Water Running Out the Drain Hole

As you can see, I’ve filled up the water reservoir, using my funnel and bucket, and since the water reservoir is full, the excess is draining out.  This is your signal to stop watering.    See?  Even a PhD can do it!

Box filled with potting soil

Now, you fill the box as completely as possible with potting soil.  This is an important step.  You want the soil to be mounded up as high as possible, so that when you cover it with the mulch cover, rain will run off, rather than pool in the cover.  Below is a profile view.

profile view of mounded soil

This may require more soil than you think.  The specs on the vendor site say 2.0 cubic feet.

The next step is to add the plant food/fertilizer in a strip on top of the soil.  The position depends on the kinds of plants you are growing, but in this case, herbs, you put the strip of plant food down the middle on the top of the soil ridge, in a strip shape.

fertilizer strip for herb plants

Now, you put on the “shower cap” mulch cover, which comes with a hole for the watering tube.  This is what keeps you from having to weed.  Hurray!

With the mulch cover

Now that the mulch cover is on, you need to get your seedlings together, and your scissors, since it’s time to plant. You can fit 8 seedlings in with this configuration.

You might want to take some time to figure out which plants grow tall, (basils, sage and parsley, for example) and which plants tend to grow out and across (marjoram and thyme, for example), and decide where you will put them in the box (tall on one long side, short on the other; or four talls on the left and four shorts on the right, so you can turn the box as sun exposure needs change).    This is something I didn’t do last year, and my marjoram and thyme died out underneath the basil and parsley that took all the air space.  Again, please learn from my experience.  You’ll have better results.

Now take your scissors, and cut a small X in the mulch cover where you are going to put your first plant.  You may be able to see the faint red box around the x shaped hole in the cover.

X shaped hole cut in cover, for plant

Use your fingers to push the soil to either side, to create a hole big enough for the soil packed around your seedling.

make the hole for the seedling

And, as you might guess, stuff the seedling (gently) into the hole, and pull up the corners of the mulch cover over the soil.

add the seedling

And JUST THIS ONCE, you will add a little water from the top to coax the seedling soil to meld with the Earthbox soil, and get things going. After you’ve planted the box, you will only add water through the watering tube.

JUST THIS ONCE, water lightly from the top

Repeat this cut/dig/plant/water process with your remaining plants.  In this case, I only had 6 herb plants to put in a box that could have held 8.

Herbs Planted

Now, for the rest of the summer, all we had to do was keep the water reservoir filled, which we did, using our trusty funnel and bucket.  You’ll be amazed at how well the plants grow.   I’ll show more evidence in the next post, where I talk about growing tomatoes in the Earthbox.

I can’t believe I’ve already made FOUR of these aprons, but the pattern is so cool, and I know so many people whom I want to have fun cooking.  This one is for a birthday present.  I think this, with some new measuring cups will be a lovely gift, no?

Birthday Present Apron for K

This one is made with fabrics from Amy Butler’s Midwest Modern collection.  Since this blog has a penchant for regional food, why not a penchant for regional fabric/fashion designers, too?   For those interested in the apron pattern, it’s from Vanilla House Designs.  Sewing is worth fitting in the schedule, too.

This apron is reversable, though I didn’t put a pocket on the other side. Here’s a detail shot of the pocket:

Pocket Close-up

The pocket is faced with the same fabric, so there are no raw edges to fray.  To be honest, I don’t think you could put much in this pocket, but it would hold a bottle opener, which I suppose is the perfect accessory if you wear this while entertaining at home.  Can you see yourself wearing this while greeting guests with a small tipple before dinner?

Ok, maybe not, but it’s a glamourous idea.  Perhaps that’s the point.

At the UU Fellowship, there are some small groups that we call Covenant Groups that get together and explore different ideas.  Each year, the groups do some service projects, and one of them raises some money for use in the larger congregation.  I belonged to one of these groups for two years, and we put on a chili lunch once a year as our fundraiser.  When I got married and moved further away, it was too difficult to make the midweek meetings, so I left the group.  However, I have still made Meg’s chili for the annual chili lunch, by request.   Here are some photos of this year’s chili lunch.  I’m pleased to see that the Building Your Own Theology covenant group has grown and continues to prosper… and COOK!

Who wouldn't feel welcomed by Judy?

Here is Judy, who can make anyone feel welcome at this event.  I loaned her one of my aprons.  She’s famous for making lots of cornbread, and is the person who introduced me to cheese and onions on chili, since she’s an Ohio native.

Prepping for the Service Rush

Here are Rosalind and Laura prepping the accouterments for beverages and toppings. In the past, I have loaned Laura aprons, but she got her own this year- very colorful and appropriate for a Welcoming Congregation, don’t you think?

We like helpers of all ages, who will happily take your donation

UUF events are very family oriented- we’ll even let your kids WORK!  Hehehe.  Misty is providing a little supervision of Zach, her son.

Not 57 varieties, but at least 5 different kinds of chili

There is something for every taste at this chili lunch.  Chili with beef, with venison, with many kinds of beans, with vegetables, the variety can be overwhelming if you can’t decide.  It’s a common practice to try bits of different ones.  Here our volunteers are doing last minute things before the serving starts.

Chef Dave, Tasting for Quality Control

Look- there’s food at the Fellowship, and Dave is involved.  I knew I liked this guy.  Note that he is looking much less skeptical about what’s in the pots than our younger congregant.  Dave has posted his chili recipe on the bulletin board in the coffee room- his had about six kinds of beans, I think.

A Feasting Fellowship

We had a good crowd, though I think the cooks were prepared for many more.  On the bright side, I was able to give some of my extra chili to some of my friends  in the group who really like it for another meal.  I do know that the people who stayed really had a good time, and I met two new people, and learned a lot about them.  I’m happy to keep helping with this event each year.

An Apron for A

One of DH’s best friends from childhood is getting married soon.   The gift we’ve assembled for him and his bride is similar to the one we gave R&H this past summer.

• an enameled cast iron Dutch oven
• a box of kosher salt
• some recipes that use a Dutch oven  (like this, this, and this)
• an apron for her (pictured above)
• an apron for him (shown here)

As usual, we are going off-registry with our gift, but I am hoping the couple finds this gift useful.  The recipes are ones that we use often, and the Dutch oven is a very versatile and durable cooking tool.  I don’t know about the cooking skills of either person in the pair, but I hope this will encourage them to cook for each other, and cook together.

I’ve had a lot of fun compiling the recipes, making the aprons, and building up the package, with the two of them in mind.  I hope the personal nature of the present comes through.

A More Masculine Apron

Because we know men cook, too, and have the same needs for clean trou and pockets that women do when they are in the kitchen, I devised a pattern for a basic apron that is more masculine.  When it is made in a more masculine fabric (though I know women who like fish and fishing… like ME), it looks like a perfect gift, no?

Perhaps I should send it to Eric Ripert, to show my respect for what he can do with fish (and chefs)?

This is likely going to head southwest as part of a wedding gift package.  The groom needs to know that the 5 sexiest words a woman can hear after work are “Dinner Is In The Oven!”

Dutch oven + Winter Day + Veggies = CHILI

Meg Rajala is a woman whose children I babysat while she taught Lamaze classes at the local hospital where I grew up in New Hampshire.  She contributed this recipe to a community cookbook entitled A Shelburne Sampler, which had a plastic spiral binding.  I think this is one of about 4 recipes we’ve ever made from the book, but this was a signature dish for me from high school through graduate school.  Now, people from church request it when we have potlucks.  Who knew it would come to such status?

The picture above is a double batch in a 6 quart Dutch oven.  This chili will be great if you soak and cook your own beans, or use fresh tomatoes, but it is still great if the beans and tomatoes are canned.  Don’t be intimidated by the length of the ingredient list.  It’s a really easy recipe.

Equipment:

• Dutch oven or large pasta pot
• wooden spoon or spatula for stirring
• cutting board
• chef’s knife
• measuring spoons
• large liquid measuring cup (2- or 4-cup)
• can opener
• ladle

Ingredients:

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 ½ cup carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 cup celery, chopped
• 1 cup green peppers, chopped
• 4 cups cooked kidney beans
• 2 cups chopped tomatoes
• 6 oz. tomato paste (small can)
• ½ cup sesame seeds
• 3 Tbs. olive oil
• 1 Tbs. chili powder
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. pepper
• ½ tsp. dried rosemary
• ½ tsp. dried basil
• Tabasco, dried chili flakes, or ground chipotle pepper
• ¼ cup water

Procedure:

1. Wash, peel or seed, and chop the vegetables – onion, garlic, carrots, celery, green peppers (and tomatoes, if you’re using fresh ones)
2. Heat the olive oil in the Dutch oven, and add the onions and garlic.  Saute them until the onions are soft, but not brown.
3. Add the carrots, celery, sesame seeds, herbs and spices, and the Tabasco.  Cook until the vegetables are almost tender.
4. Add the green peppers, and continue to cook until the vegetables are tender.
5. Add the tomatoes, beans, tomato paste and water.  Cook covered, over medium low heat, for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Makes 4 (generous) servings.   We usually serve this with cornbread,  but it’s been served over rice, or with corn chips, too.  Do whatever feels good to you.

This recipe works well with variations- change up the spices, or add a can of corn, or use a mixture of different kinds of beans (say, pinto, garbanzo, or black beans).  Make it your favorite recipe, too.