Woolythyme

I can't let go....

 

 

Oh, Sunny (Sunbeam).  (sigh)  A couple times a year I threaten her.  (She's coming up on 42 years old.  She pretty much ignores me now, although last year she threw a beater.  I had it coming.)  For the most part, she behaves beautifully; actually 'beautifully', might be a slight exaggeration, but she gets the job done adequately.  Most of the time.  She really struggled with mixing this bread and got dough all stuck in the beater connections....so I gave her a hand.  It's bread.  My fault.  I should have just kneaded it by hand like bread is intended to be made.

 

I have dreams of owning a fancy Kitchen Aid.  I've even gone (several times) to the store with the specific goal of bringing one home.  Have you ever tried lifting one of those things?  And all the attachments?  And the storage it would need?  Each time, I come home empty handed, pull Sunny off the shelf, give her a good cleaning, and smile.  I really do like her.  

 

She put me in the appliance-thinking mode today as I was q-tipping the gunk out of the gears.  She's not the oldest appliance I own--by far!

 

I'd like you to meet "THE WORLD'S BEST BLENDER" (a title bestowed on him by a friend who has spent years and more $$$$ than anyone should--- trying to find a blender that crushes ice as well as this one.)

 

I fondly remember the day my dad drove me to Sears (I couldn't yet drive---and he was still driving---must have been AT LEAST 1964!!!), handed me the credit card, and said--'Mom wants a blender; pick out a good one! I'll wait in the car.'

 

Still going strong, that blender.  The base is slightly  cracked, the glass pitcher was replaced years ago, but that motor.....still purring, and still making the 'world's best strawberry daiquiries'! 

 

And he is a mere baby compared to ......

 

my mother-in-law's waffle maker.  Don't you love the deco design on the top---and the wooden handles?  This baby is SEASONED!!!  Best waffles ever!

 

#1 Daughter has my mom's waffle maker---which is actually a bit older than this one.  Come to think of it.....my #1 Daughter-in-law has my mom's Sunbeam mixer!!

 

Can we genetically not let go of appliances?  Or do they really not make them like they used to?

 

 

************************

 

The bread that started all this....turned out pretty good!!

 

Herb Sour Cream Bread 

 

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp  each: dried thyme, dried marjoram, dried oregano

2 pkg quick rising dry yeast

1 c sour cream

1/2 c water

6 T butter

2 eggs

 

In a large bowl, combine 3 1/2 c flour and next 6 ingredients (counting the herbs as 3 ingredients).  Heat sour cream, water, and butter until hot.  Stir into dry ingredients.  Add eggs.  (This is where Sunny messed up!)  Mix enough of remaining flour to make a stiff batter.  Cover and let stand 10 minutes.

 

Stir down batter.  Pour (more like spoon in globs) into two greased 1-qt casserole dishes.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds.  Cover and let rise in a warm place 30-40 minutes or until doubled in size.

 

Bake at 375 for 30-35 minutes.  Cool on racks.  

Try not to eat it all before it's completely cooled.

 

From:  Today's Herbal Kitchen: how to cook and design with herbs through the seasons.

weekending.....

After all the galavanting we've done the past 6 weeks, it was heavenly to have a stay-at-home/do-nothing kind of weekend that consisted of:

:: taking a friend to the airport (and being glad that I wasn't the one getting on a plane)

:: reading an entire book (granted, it was a YA book--The Aviary)--in a single sitting, knitting through the whole thing, and starting another

:: helping #1 daughter block her rocky coast cardigan (which necessitated doing a bitty adjustment to the too tight bound-off edges--can't help it; I admit, I'm rather compulsive.)

:: cooking a simple salad dinner one night, and a garden pizza dinner the next

:: baking some blueberry muffins*

:: starting a new project--and lining up three more (seriously---purchased and printed out the patterns, gathered the yarn, put each in a project bag--but held off casting on.  What restraint!!!  They will most likely be cast on tomorrow--restraint is usually only good for about 24 hours.)

:: watching Sherlock Holmes: a Game of Shadows twice (once by myself, and once with PapaGeek--I missed a few things first time around.   Note to self:  only garter stitch or stockinette knitting during action movies.)

:: cheering for the Cardinals (guess I must cheer harder--they lost)

:: ruining two pairs of pants (bleach incident); since they were two of my favorites, I'll probably wear them anyway.

Yes, I was pretty much a slug all weekend!

 

* I thought I had shared this blueberry muffin recipe before, but I couldn't find it in the archives, so here it is again.  It's yummy.

The Best Blueberry Muffins (that's really the name of the recipe) from Muffins by Elizabeth Alston

1 stick butter

1 c granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 1/2 c blueberries (1/2 c mashed with a fork)-- I think this is what makes them so good

2 c flour

1/2 c milk

1 T sugar mixed with 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg on top

Beat butter.  Beat in sugar.  Beat in eggs, one at a time.  Beat in vanilla, baking powder, and salt.  Mix mashed berries into batter.  Fold in half the flour, then half the milk, the remaining flour and milk.  Fold in remaining berries.  Scoop batter into muffin cups and sprinkle with nutmeg sugar (which I forgot to do on the above muffins! oops.)

Bake 25-30 minutes in a 375 degree oven.  Makes 12 muffins.

 

joining Amanda at the habit of being for weekending.  Hope yours was all you wanted it to be.

yarnalong and WIP Wednesday....

I've got this great set-up at our conference hotel....borrowed a couple bowls that are working out nicely for yarn bowls keeping the balls from tangling on my Catkin.  I LOVE this pattern!!!  I LOVE this yarn!!! (I'll have to look up what it is, but I got it at Squam---my heart is still in the mountains of New Hampshire!)

I've had next to no time to knit, but in a couple days I'll have that 10 hour return car trip....guess what I'll be doing???  There is quite a bit of simple stockinette in this shawl, so right now, my computer props up my book nicely. I have a swell mega-clip from the Presbyterian Historical Society booth giveaway to keep it open, so I can do a little multi-tasking-- reading and knitting at the same time. 

The book is American Artisanal: finding the country's best real food, from cheese to chocolate by Rebecca Gray, and while I'm not very far (not much reading time, either), I'm really enjoying it.  From the book jacket: "The book celebrates 18 of America's leading food artisans--from Wood Prairie Farm potatoes in Maine to L. L. Lanier Honey in Florida, from Reed's Ginger Brew in California to Earthy Delights mushrooms in Michigan.  These are folks who are returning to the basics of sustainable, small-scale, or just plain high quality production."  So far, I've read about Allen Bros meats and Blueberry Hill Farm---each chapter has a recipe at the end.  (Chocolate is the last chapter....maybe to keep you reading through the whole book??  No, I haven't skipped to the end...but there is a YUM-looking recipe for Caribbean Rum Truffles back there.  (well, OK, I sort of skipped to the end just to see what the chocolate recipe was--that's all, honest!)

Also available from the same publisher....Slow Food Nation by Carlo Petrini and Real American Food by Burt Wolf.  (Have I been exposed to too much conference food this week???????)

I'll never have my own cooking show....

Our CSA box this week had zucchini--beautiful zucchini, and while I should have been healthy and steamed it or just had it raw, I decided to make zucchini bread. Since it freezes great, I think I'll double the recipe and have some to take on vacation.  I have a plan.

I know I've doubled this before (surely???), but as I continue to add ingredients, I quickly run out of bowl space....oops. I have another cup of flour to squeeze in there.

We (I like to think I'm not making this mess all by myself, but I am) have pretty much maxed out the bowl capacity.

DOUBLE OOPS.  All that stuff fell out the back.  Gotta jam it back in.  That's the good stuff!

Miraculously, once it all got blended up and the beaters got removed--there was a teeny bit of leeway.  Beaters???

Can you see it in there?  Me, neither.  It's buried.  That was a gloppy mess getting it out.

The sink was a mess.

The counter got even worse.  (That recipe in the corner of the picture is for pickled beets--they were cooking on the stove. It has nothing to do with this post.)

  #1 Daughter once walked in on me during a baking frenzy (I think there might have been eggshells on the floor that time, though) and stated.....gosh, mom, you'll never have your own cooking show.  This place is a wreck.  I beg to differ.  IF I had my own cooking show, I'd have prep people, wouldn't I?  And cleaner-uppers?  AND---here's the real kicker.....a KITCHEN AID MIXER that could hold a double recipe of anything!!  (Poor Sunny Sunbeam--coming up on 41 years and she refuses to quit--and believe me, her beater holes have been clogged with more than just zucchini batter over the years!)

I digress... back to the bread.  This is a great recipe.  After trying dozens of zucchini bread recipes over the years, this one was declared "the best" and I've never strayed from it. It's super moist.  I wish I could give you a slice.

 

 

At least, I can share the recipe.

Zucchini-Pineapple Bread

3 large eggs

1 c vegetable oil

2 c sugar

2 tsp vanilla

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp grated nutmeg

1 tsp salt

2 cups coarsely shreddy unpeeled zucchini

1 (8oz) can crushed pineapple, drained

Throw it all together.  Bake at 350 for about an hour.  Makes 2 loaves. (and fits in the mixer)  Original recipe from Nutbread and Nostalgia.

Enjoy!  I'm off to unclog some beater-holes.  (Next up:  Brownies for 45!  It's tech dinner time already!!!! Gosh, I might have to quadruple that recipe!!!!)