Some Pozole recipes

I found this in my drafts... I was looking for these recipes! I'm pretty darn happy with my pressure cooker, and who doesn't like pozole?  Posting this so I don't lose them...

https://www.simplyhappyfoodie.com/instant-pot-posole-pork-stew/

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020110-pressure-cooker-chipotle-chicken-pozole

https://blog.williams-sonoma.com/instant-pot-chicken-posole/

Some Bread success!

Bread is looking better

I've been talking and reading a lot about sourdough recently... It's starting to make sense. I baked this loaf yesterday! There was definitely oven spring... It had not risen enough and was a little dense, but it's tasty and I'm happy with progress!

What some of the books/websites  are suggesting is to keep a large active pre-ferment going at all times so that you have the 100-200 gm of starter ready at short notice. The Perfect Loaf recommends a much smaller starter (less waste!!!) and an extra 8-10 hours to build the pre-ferment.  He also has a recommended timeline that suits me better...  There were a couple of issues. I was halving the recipe and I think I got the water wrong; the dough was much too dry, so I added water until it "seemed right". The bread kept it's shape when I took it out of the banneton (at first) but I wonder if under-hydration caused it not to rise as much... 

Another issue was that the oven never reported it was at temp (450 F). Did it hit that temp? I have no way of knowing.  Also, I had the raw loaf out of the fridge and waiting to go in the oven... and waiting... and waiting... So DH ordered me a thermometer and I'll be able to test it. I also suspect the dutch oven wasn't warm enough. 

I didn't do the November cookbook challenge. The recipe I picked called for preserved lemons and mine smelled funky... I ended up making a Rick Bayless Chicken Escabeche recipe. I've repurchased preserved lemons and will go back to the Moroccan cookbook in January.

December's cookibook is Santa Fe School of Cooking Flavors of the Southwest: I've already cooked the Black Bean Soup (added extra chili). Very tasty and fast in the Instant Pot.

Komebukuro #1

I've also finished the second rice bag (Komebukuro). It's very similar to the first rice bag but I used a lighter weight lining without interfacing, and added a zipper to one of the lining pieces. I have all of the instructions and pieces in a box, at some point I'll have to decide whether to make another one or two.  This is the first one; the second one looks very much like it and currently holds my knitting in a very stylish fashion.

The purple towels are off the loom but not hemmed yet. Both looms are currently naked! Oh no! I'm hoping to get projects on them this week.

Purple Towels?

We ate our way through Santa Fe last week...

• The tasting menu at Sazon was amazing but the synchronized service was a bit odd. I tried the tasting menu which offered a lot of tequila... not my favorite but it was interesting. 
• Dined at the Shed for the first time; really solid NM cuisine and very popular. Fortunately mid-November is not a popular time in town.  Note that the Shed does not serve Sopaipillas.
• DH's sis joined us for dinner at the Pink Adobe; we enjoyed that quite a bit... I had a huarache and now I want to cook some.
• Met my brother and his wife at Cafe Pasquals; it never disappoints.
• We had one disappointing meal, at Coyote Cafe's rooftop cantina; I had an enchilada... the chile was ok but the enchilada had too much cheese and sour cream on it which made it feel gloppy.
• Finally, dinner at Artichoke Cafe in ABQ... still solid after all these years. 

Museum wise:

• The Museum of American Indian Culture on Museum Hill had an amazing Navajo rug exhibit; there were a few works and commentary by Barbara Teller Ornalez and Linda Teller Pete. I've taken a few classes from them so it was nice to see their work given the praise it deserves. ... The wedge weave tapestries were amazing. Some of the pieces were attributed to "a once know artist" instead of "an unknown artist which I really appreciated.
• The nearby Botanical Garden had an outdoor exhibit of works by Native American sculptors. 
• SITE in the Railyard had some really interesting contemporary art exhibits; pictures of the Arctic taken through a (melting) lens of ice in a huge boxlike homemade camera; huge cyanotypes of trans and non-binary artists, created on the National Mall in DC (the film was as interesting at the art); and an exhibit which used found glass bound with wire to create surfaces and sculptures. This is the first time I've really enjoyed contemporary art exhibits.

Zig, getting attention from the backup 

We also visited our favorite galleries, and attended the opening of a fiber arts show, run by EVFAC, at the Masonic temple. Very little of it was by Native American artists but the work in general was very high quality and certainly worth a visit if you're in town when it happens, and like to look at fiber-y things.

I can't really help but post this selfie... I don't really mind being the backup human; Z snuggled up with me after DH had gotten out of bed. He was VERY happy to be shedding hair on a handmade quilt again.

Komebukuro, just needs rice

Komebukuro #1 is done. I'm pretty happy with it, but I used a chambray for the lining and it's a little heavy with the recommended interfacing. I'll use a lighter fabric next time, and maybe skip the interfacing. I added a zipper pocket on one side of the lining. I have blocks ready for a second one and I think I have most of the fabric I need for 1-2 more. I think it's super cute but there's a lot of time in it; it's also larger than I expected, about a 8" cube. Someone on Etsy was selling bags with machine embroidered Sashiko on them (for $65ish) and it turns out I have some images for that... I might try that if I want to do more. 

I also started weaving on the ikat towels I was threading last report.... It's looking fun! I may try a different weft for the next one, possibly a lighter weight yarn and plain weave instead of twill. Not thrilled with the purple... It was supposed to be blue but there was a dye mishap...

What the heck will I do with Purple Towels?

New distraction, and obsessed with Komebukuro

I have a new distraction, an ebike, and can now climb a hill to the house! That'll likely make me less productive, but I'll be smiling a whole lot...

I've tried to figure out what happened to my interest in mosaic. The answer is the Studio has become a dumping ground for all kinds of crapola... This week I spent some time organizing and cleaning. It'll need another couple of rounds then I'll back at in and finishing that little table.

One side of my komebukuro

I've also been spending a lot of time on the komebukuro kit I picked up in Oregon.  I'll be working on them again and should finish one just before Thanksgiving. Here's one of the panels, most of the embroidery done, bathed in the oversaturated light at the end of the day...  Currently wondering if I should make some bags using my awesome embroidery machine instead of doing it by hand? And wondering where to take the rice?

I'm mostly done threading the loom with ikat. I have low expectations for this project; there were a lot of issues getting the warp on. But the shifting looks better than I feared. Before I use the warp shifter for another project, I'll need to evaluate some best practices for both dyeing and dressing the loom.

On the knitting front, the body of the vest is finished and I'm working on sleeve bands, button bands, etc. I've got a start on a cashmere cardigan.  I also am not pleased with the silk sweater I made (Shiny) and need to maybe add a couple of darts and definately shorten the sleeves.

Ikat Warp shifter!!! Komebukuro, and some cooking

Warp shifter? More info in a later post

I asked DH to make an ikat warp shifter for me: I'm currently trying to learn how to use it. Here's a teaser photo! And when I'm weaving I'll publish a review and some notes. I suspect this won't be a good test as the warp was poorly dyed (by me)... but weaving it anyways.

The October cookbook was Paula Wolfert's The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean... I choose a baked fish dish, covered with a tahini sauce and chopped hazelnuts; I'd cook that again. Paula suggested to eat it with pickled veggies, and yep, that's the right side dish. This cookbook is organized differently than most modern cookbooks, and may not appeal to everyone, and I enjoyed the stories about where she found the recipes... And the Eastern Med covers a HUGE area, which was fascinating as well. 

Pasta wanna-be

For DH's birthday, I made cheese canneloni and a salad with the last tomatoes from the garden... I took a photo at the start but failed to take one of the finished dish! I made a pan of 3 servings, and yep, they were all gone... but there are 2 smaller pans in the freezer to eat later.  We opened a bottle of 2007 Castello di Ama Chianti Classico that we bought at the winery on our 25th anniversary trip... it needed some time to open up and in act was a lot better on the 2nd day. We've noted that for the other bottle we have.

P. and I picked up a pattern and fabric kit for Komebukuro at Sew Creative in Ashland; awesome shop!!! Komebukuro are Japanese Rice bags, used to carry offering of rice to the temple... these bags are super popular for project bags or lunch bags right now. I bought a fabric kit for it but can easily see using leftover fabrics; these bags are embellished with applique, and sashiko and boro stitching.  So far I've sewn together the sides of two bags; the kit is supposed to have enough for three. I'll use scrap fabric for the lining and maybe get a couple more bags from the nice thickish fabric in the kit... (What am I going to do with a bunch of bags? Hmmm...)

On the weaving front, I'm working very slowly through warping with the warp shifter. I don't know what I'm doing and that makes me hesitate. I will likely warp up a runner on the other empty loom.

The beginnings of my komebukuro

Sewing wise, I have nothing currently planned other than the rice bags. 

I cast on the April Cardigan (a v-necked cardigan in blue cashmere) for travel knitting, repeatedly. I finally got the hang of the right facing and left facing increases and am knitting away. It's a simple top down cardi and it's going pretty fast in the DK weight cashmere.

Still working on the Modular Color Vest version 2, since I screwed up version 1 pretty badly. I'd unraveled it and cast it on a while ago. I'm about 2/3 complete. 

Craftsy! I'm using it!

I started this tote based on instructions in Christina Cameli's Craftsy Class (The
Scrappy Tote Bag). This is the 3rd bag I've made... the other two are in the trunk of DH's car and he regularly uses them for groceries. I made the two embroidered panels from another Craftsy class (Eileen Roche's The Machine Embroidered Quilt) when I first got the embroidery machine, and have been wanting to incorporate them into something since.

Craftsy, incidentally, is a learning service offering hundreds of video classes in mostly arts and crafts... Quilting, knitting, spinning, sewing, fine art, cooking, and a lot of other things. I joined during the pandemic; the first year is VERY inexpensive, and after the first year, a full subscription to as many classes as you can view is fairly reasonable. I do not use it to it's full potential, although I'd like to use it more often. I can give a free year to three friends so if you're reading this and want to check it out, let me know!

Grocery bag, all scraps; the embroidered
panels are a little wishy-washy

I like working on these bags because it gives me a chance to practice some basic skills on a small and low stress project ending with a lovely useful item. They are, however, not low effort projects; after piecing the panels together, they are hand quilted, then the bag is sewn together and lined. 

On this one,  I used Bernina's Pinpoint Placement for the applique, and the Stitch Regulator for the free hand quilting... I also used the walking foot for the bulky things like sewing on the straps, and a variety of other methods, tools, etc. All of the materials are scrap from my stash. 

This really refreshed many of the things I learned when I did the last bag in 2021... I really like to combo of colors and textures (you can't see texture in the photo). I do wish I'd used softer blues and reds to match the center panels better; they are pink on hand dyed indigo dyed cotton. But I didn't want it to be too feminine, and I suppose I have the election on my mind and am channeling our patriotic colors. The word Patriot, and things that are red, white, and blue, belong to both parties, although I suspect both sides forget that too often.

Construction wise, I need to remember to leave enough room on the straps to edge stitch the top after the lining is put in... that and relax and enjoy the quilting. I had one mishap with the rotary cutter (my nemesis!) where I destroyed one of the embroidered panels and had to do another. It's good to remember to be careful with very sharp things.

I do intend to make a bag for a charity auction in the spring... gotta get going on that... And the quilting is motivating me to do more quilting. Maybe finish a couple of the quilts I have in progress.

There's nothing on the looms right now. I started tearing strips of sheets for some rag rug weaving but wow! it's very slow. Meanwhile, DH has finally implemented the ikat warp shifter he's been thinking about for over a year now... it's ready and now I need to get a project on it!

I'll blog separately about the Knitting Retreat.

Now I know why they weigh the dough when
they divide it.. the runt tasted delicious !

I've been cooking a lot, too. I'm just back from a trip to France followed a week later by a trip to Ashland, Oregon for a knitting retreat. So I guess I'm "nesting" a little. Yesterday I cooked sheet pan ratatouille, and today I made slow cooker dal using olive oil instead of ghee, and Paul Hollywood's Ciabatta. All was tasty although the ciabatta didn't have the large airy holes it ought to... The bonus to both of the dishes is that I can store it in the nearly empty freezer for the next few months.  I did revive my sourdough starter and will try some sourdough later this week; I also do it to save the discard to make crackers for DH. It's nice to make him something he really enjoys :)

Q3 '24 finished list (7/19)

Motif from a 4000 year old Iranian pot

Let's face it, I'm not going to finish anything else before EOQ tomorrow...  This quarter I finished:

• Red fabric and a shirt from it just in time to wear to Sweden (counting as two items)
• A swedish rag rug while in Sweden
• 2 runners, one of which now lives in France. I'm keeping the on with too many mistakes :) It doesn't look much different from the sample on the loom I showed in an earlier post.
  
• Cowl using planned pooling, which looks like flowers on a brown background.  I don't have photos yet. 

  Crappy watercolor but fun cards?

  
  
• I carved a stamp depicting Zig, and made a small run of cards, Zig, the dancers, and my frog. And I took an old watercolor drawing and chopped it up into a few cards as well... Now I have a dozen cards plus 4 or 5 postcards.

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September's cookbook challenge was Plenty: I made the Veggie pie, which was pretty much a quiche with roasted tomatoes, onions, zucchini, eggplant, peppers, and feta. I'd make that again. 

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I think I said this a few posts ago, but I need to shift some of my attention from making things to working out; I've lost a level of fitness and frankly it's now or never. I need to revisit my time and priorities... But I'll still be working on things. 

I'd like to spend more time printing... so I'll be looking at a periodic goal to carve a new stamp or learn a new technique.

I'd like to work through some of the stuff that's on Craftsy.

I'd like to set a periodic goal to work though that list of unfinished projects I came up with last March.

SOOOOO.... having said all of that, this is what's on my list for Q4. Note that having said I'd devote more time to it, the list has gotten longer than any other quarter.

Finishing: 

• Those two darn towels I just can't seem to finish.

Printing:

• I need a Christmas card, and have no ideas.
• I'd like to carve a block depicting G&M's Zig.

Knitting:

• I frogged and restarted the Modular Color Vest. It should go fast, it's thick yarn; I'm about 1/4 done with it now.
• The Day Dream sweater (Frogging, need to start over), or another sweater.

Spinning:

• The Diver's Cove roving is singles, needs to be plied.
• I have a bobbin of merino/tencel singles that need to be plied.

Weaving:

• A basket? I have the materials
• I've loosely promised some vegetable towels by April or so. It would be nice to make one or more veggie bags to go with it.
• I have double weave pillows designed and colors picked out... I need 2 for me and two for K.
• An Ikat (DH is working on a warp shifter for me)
• Placemats for the lodge using rag rug techniques.
• The poppy table, so I can start the table by the pool. I came back from France with some ideas.

Sewing:

• The tote bag from the embroidered piece I made a few years ago.
• Finish a started quilt
• Work more with the embroidery class I started.

I'm including the UFO LIST from March just to keep me honest... And yes! It's getting shorter.

Knitting: 

• Anna Zilboorg Sweater- I need to fish it out and make a plan 
• A Capella- frog and return the yarn to the yarn pool 
• Sunset and Sand- needs a decision frog or finish! 
• The jacket with the embroidery that needs rework. If I recall correctly there's an issue with the collar, and the sleeves, and I'm not sure what else...

Weaving:

• This is super easy, since it's either on the loom or not...  and there are projects on both looms. 
• However, there are two hand towels that need hemming. 
• I do have four ikat warps (one I dyed, two from Indonesia, and one from a friend) that need weaving. 

Quilting (Can the list really still be this long?):

• Fan blocks: I've been dithering about what to do with them for 20 years or so.
• The first Judy Niemeyer quilt (straighter pieces): I may need to figure out setting strips but otherwise I think I photoed a layout and I should be ready to finish the top.
• The second Judy Niemeyer class (curved pieces): I stopped while piecing the top together but I did photo the layout; so I need to remember what I was doing and do it.
• Judy Niemeyer place mat kit: it's in the bookshelf, waiting to be made.
• Chili pepper quilt: Ick
• Around the Twist quilt: It's done except I think a couple of the corners need sewing? This'll probably go to donation
• One or two Hawaiians (small) that need quilting
• A cute but fussy quilt that I started in pinks and blues but I'm not sure I'm precise enough to finish

Sewing:

• I have all the pieces ready for a big grocery bag, just do it

Spinning:

• Honestly I have no idea.

Mosaic:

• A table: Unsure of how I want the background to be
• A stepping stone: there's an area I made that needs rework.

Clearly I'm not counting raw materials (quilting fabric, knitting yarn, weaving yarn, tiles, sewing fabric). Let's not go there.