Socks and Blooms

Spring has finally arrived in Rochester! This morning on my way to the gym I looked at my rhododendron and it is practically blooming. I'll give it to Wednesday before I see some full blown blossoms...given this nice sunny and warm weather continues. On the side yard, the lilacs are starting to bloom as well. Rochester is known for its annual Lilac Festival which is coming up shortly.

Speaking of sweet sights for the eyes, I ventured down to the Village of Fairport for the Perinton Historical Society's house tour. It was the perfect sunny, warm day to walk around the village, enjoy period houses and eat ice cream on the canal. In fact, we were the first ice cream customers at Lickety Splits, a great ice cream shop on the canal. Nothing inspires me more than looking at other people's crafts and there were some beautiful quilts in the houses. Perhaps I will be fabric shopping soon for a little something to make for me...

I have certainly spent a lot of time in fabric art these days with the birth of the Butterfly Garden quilt, that I put my fiber on the back burner. The other day I spoke to Amy, the knitting-extraordinairre who taught me knitting in the round over many cups of tea in Hemlock, NY who asked me what was on my needles these days. Sadly, nothing except the Trinity Christmas Scarf for my mother was in progess. With new found excitement for the garter stitch and some sock yarn from my birthday in November, I began to make a little something for me.

It's knitting up quite fast and I'm about to turn the heal, which is clearly the best part of knitting socks. Hopefully, I don't come down with the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome... If I don't I have a whole slew of other socks to start making from my most favorite knitting book ever Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush. My fingers are crossed that these Spring Fling socks will be done in time for Amy and my Knit and Tell and yarn shopping extravaganza in a couple of weeks!

You say "Potato," I say "Potato"

Potatoes, potatoes, potatoes. I could really care less about most potato products. French fries, no thanks. Mashed potatoes, only on Thanksgiving. Smashed potatoes are better, but ROASTED ROSEMARY POTATOES are a staple in my life. This little dish is quite versatile. Its a great side to a steak dinner in January or something to bring to a BBQ in July. Whenever I bring roasted rosemary potatoes somewhere, they are gone before the meal is over. They are so easy to make and easy to PREPARE AHEAD I can't think of a reason why they aren't the best side dish ever.
So here's the recipe:

• 2 lbs. red baby potatoes (you could get white potatoes, but why?)


• fresh or dried rosemary


• olive oil


• kosher salt


• fresh ground pepper
  

Put your oven at 450 and remember to put parchment on your baking sheet

Ok, quarter your potatoes so they look like this:

Then add 2 tbs. of dried rosemary (remember that dried rosemary has a stronger flavor than fresh...so adjust the recipe accordingly), 4 pinches of kosher salt and a good amount of fresh ground pepper. Drizzle olive oil over the potatoes and seasoning and stir.

Finally put on your baking sheet. Roast in the over for 45 minutes or until the potatoes are that dark, roaster color and your house smells like rosemary...which ever comes first.

Put the potatoes in a dish and enjoy!

So you wanna know about: Salt

Salt, the only mineral condiment we use in our food has more history than you'd think. There is a whole Institute of Salt, Literature about it and even a Salt Museum here in New York.
The ancient world used Salt as a currency at various times and places. In Ancient Rome, salt was so valuable, soldier were often paid part of their wage through it. Originating the Latin-derived term meaning a payment, it is the root of the word "salary". A natural preservative, salt eliminated our dependency upon the seasonal availability of food, allowing travel over long distances.

In terms of variety, Salt has two main sources. Sea Salt, which is distilled from sea water and rock salt, which is found in crystalline forms in the earth. So you may be thinking, well...salt is salt. What is the point of this?

Well, to the discriminating taste bud, salt my friends, is not just salt. Pumped full of sodium by all the processed food Americans eat, very few actually understand that there are different salt with different tastes, meant for different things.

Kosher Salt, is one of the most commonly used varieties of salt. Kosher salt, unlike common table salt, typically contains no additives, like Iodine. Kosher salt has a much larger grain size than regular table salt, and a cleaner, brighter, more delicate taste. it also dissolves faster and the flavor disperses more quickly. Kosher salt gets it's name because of its use in making meats kosher by extracting the blood from meet, not because it follows the guidelines for kosher food as written in the Torah. When substituting kosher salt for table salt, the basic rule is twice as much kosher salt by volume to replace table salt.

Table salt is refined salt, nearly pure sodium chloride. It usually contains substances such as silicoaluminate, an anti-caking agent as well as a very small amount of sugar to prevent discoloration. Table salt is often iodised with a small amount of potassium iodide to reduce iodine deficiencies. Iodine is important to prevent the insufficient production of thyroid hormones, causing goiters, cretinism and myxedema. Table salt has a hard, nearly metallic taste.

Sea salt is obtained by evaporating seawater. Due to the higher expense of processing sea salt, as opposed to mining it, it is more expensive than other salts. It is often considered superior to other salts for its taste and texture. There are many different varieties, including grey salt, and Himalayan red and pink salt.

So, how do you know what to use and when? It's all about taste. I almost exclusively use kosher salt in my cooking. I tend to prefer the softer, more delicate taste it offers. I have sea salt, given to me as a gift that I use sparingly for special occasions. Salt will never go bad, though it will absorb moisture, so it is best to keep it in a dry cool area. If moisture does leak in, simply break up the caked salt or dried in the oven with no harm.

Other uses for salt include curing, canning, brining and many house hold uses.

Butterfly Quilt is BORN!!

The Butterfly Garden quilt has been in progress for some THYME now. I don't think we will actually tell how long, but lets say that three sewing machines have seen their tension have better days. Anyhow, that's another story. Recently I have been promising my crafty counterpart a day devoted to quilting. Even when two polar-opposites combine to craft, its always better than trying to make something without another's eye. Even though I am very, shall I say, go with the flow, I have limited creative vision regarding color-combinations and details. I need someone else to turn the fabric around or suggest a change when my creative juices run out. Soooooo, on to quilt day. With two working sewing machines, I thought it only appropriate to turn this:

and this:

into something more....quilt-y.......in ONE day.

Good thing we made a big pot of coffee because it took two brains, two sewing machines, two meals, 14 hours, 131 photos and a lot of laughs before small three inch squares turned into bed-sized quilt.

I cannot say how impressed I am with the finished result. Butterfly Garden is far more beautiful, intricate and intense than I ever imagined. However, you all must stay tuned to see the photos!!!

Butterfly Garden Quilt

First, I must explain my obsession with Butterflies. In some ways, it's entirely cliche, like all the women with butterfly tattoos. But for me and my family, butterflies represent a symbol of the beautiful rebirth and Resurrection of a loved one. My Dad Steve, died in December 2005 of Melanoma. For More information about Melanoma screening, go here. Whenever we see a butterfly, we think of my Dad. I think he would smile to be remembered in such an ethereal way.

I started this quilt, with the help and guidance of Jess as a kind of outlet for emotions. Almost like a journal you come back to when you need to release some emotions, creative arts can be a way to express yourself. Creating a quilt as a way to mourn a loved one may seem strange, but imagine wrapping a quilt around you, sewn with a year's worth of love and memories and changes. The finished product, like a flag of battles one and lost in the war you fight with yourself, loving and living with the ghost of someone lost.

Specific detail on how to make this quilt, our process and modifications from the original pattern are to follow in another post, but here's a little Craft Porn, as we call it, Cousin to Food porn, something any blogger might be familiar with. Enjoy!

How creative arts reflect ones inner peace

For me, crafting is really about an obsession with aesthetics. I love that aesthetics is defined as a heightened sense of beauty, because any good crafter knows that it's all about the details that you might be the only one to notice. The way colors play off each other, or the way a pattern creates a sense of harmony is true beauty. While sewing and cooking together, Jess and I have realized some interesting things about ourselves. In my every day life, I'm kind of casual about organization and rules, but in cooking and crafting, well that's another story. Don't mess with my obsession with patterns and organization, or watch out! And don't come into my kitchen thinking we aren't going to use measuring cups and separate our eggs. Jess is trying to teach me the art of letting go. Of trusting that beauty comes from the flaws and human errors, but I'll have none of it. Now, she is entirely the opposite. Organized to a "T" as any good teacher should be, she takes her crafting and cooking as a release from the stress of every day obsessions. It's her outlet of creative energy that doesn't need rules and parameters to be measured. It's all about the experience, not the end product. SEW, as you can imagine, the two of us working together can occasionally create some tension. Maybe I do need to learn to relax more. Maybe Jess could use a little more structure to her creative flow. Maybe release is a reflection of inner peace, and she's just further along on the journey than I am. Either way, the end result is usually quite beautiful, so it all relative I suppose. Keeping reading for more adventures!