Ugh.

Ok, after all that bluster, I went quiet. Mainly because of the WORST STOMACH BUG EVER! I'm still barely coherent. More to come.

More Pie!

Made a fabulous strawberry pie last night, and found more fruit stashed in our big freezer than I'd anticipated. Oh no, I'll have to make more pies! Whatever will I do?

Next step: to reinvigorate my knitting which, given some personal crises of the past few months, has fallen by the wayside in favour of sitting and staring into space. That has its rewards, but homeknitted goodies is not one of them. Made G a sweater over the past few weeks, but I really miscalculated the gauge, so it looks like it's made out of llama wool, and weighs about as much as a llama. Might have to take it apart and make something else with bigger needles.

The lesson I've learned from knitting is that when you make a small mistake, you can usually fix it, and when you make a big mistake the best strategy is to face up to it, undo as much as you can, and start again with a revised plan.

Time to Blog!

After many fits and starts, the Kale Lady has decided to restart this blog in earnest. We'll see if anyone actually reads it.

Many many life changes in the past few months, but I still have cherries, peaches, and blueberries in the freezer, plus a bunch of frozen apple segments, so it's time to start making pies before the summer starts up and all we'll want is fresh fruit.

My newest desire: a Vitamix blender. Pluses: there's nothing it doesn't do. Minuses: it costs more than $300. Hard choice.

The Kale Lady Returns!

Yes, after a months-long absence, I have emerged. The winter was spent eating all the amazing food I canned last summer and autumn. What a pleasure to make a cherry pie in February! To eat peaches in March! The applesauce is all gone now, but I still have jam and some pickles. In fact, I think I shouldn't make jam this year -- we're not big jam eaters and it doesn't go very quickly. The peach salsa was a much better idea; that's almost all eaten. And the canned peaches are a huge hit with the kids. This past summer was my first full-on preserving year, and I have learned many valuable lessons, the most important of which was to make only what people will eat, not simply what looks like a cool recipe.

We're gearing up for the CSA again this year; luckily since CSA's have started up in nearby neighborhoods, Fort Greene and Bed-Stuy, we're not quite as overwhelmed by our long waiting list. I can barely contain my excitement, though. Spring is finally here, my winter-long funk seems to be lifting, and a whole new year of beautiful local produce beckons in only a few months.

Recovering slowly...

...from an intensive week and a half of canning, drying, preserving etc. Unfortunately this coincided with hot and humid weather, so I was essentially sweating nonstop, taking time out to shower and go to work, pick up the kids, and then return to the stove. But the results are beyond satisfying: jars and jars of dried apples, peach salsa, tomato sauce, smoked tomato puree, nectarine chutney, pickled beets. What a thrill. The beets are particularly delicious -- I adapted from Rick's Picks, which I'd tasted at the Union Square Greenmarket. I used half white vinegar and half lemon juice for the pickling liquid, and then put a strip of lemon peel and a sprig of rosemary in each jar before adding the liquid and canning. I cannot express how delicious these are.

Less thrilling was the outcome of K's sweater. I finally finished seaming it on last night as we were watching the Emmys (a complete waste of time; I don't understand my love of awards shows, since they so often disappoint. Even -- dare I say it? -- the Oscars), and had K try it on. The sleeves were perfect, which had been my major worry about it, but the body was about 5 inches too short. I have no idea how this happened, but it was hilarious when K tried it on and it hung jauntily at mid-rib. After I recovered from uproarious laughter, I had to come up with a solution that did not include undoing the whole thing, which would have been much too discouraging. So now I have had to pick up stitches from the bottom cast-on row, something I've never done before, and knit down. It actually looks fine, and is not a significant amount of work, but I had really hoped to be finished with it yesterday. My hope is to have completed it by the end of this week, which seems manageable, before The Knitting Ladies convene next Monday.

Canning and Reeling

My oh my, this week is turning into a maelstrom of activity (interrupted by a nasty stomach bug that interfered significantly with my ability to even face the kitchen). We went apple and peach picking on Labor Day, and I bought two cases of tomatoes at bargain basement prices at a farm stand. So far I've turned out nectarine chutney, eleven jars of applesauce, dried tomatoes and dried apples. Friday will be tomato sauce day -- hot, sweaty, but supremely satisfying. We also seem to have a lot of eggs from our CSA egg share, so I'm thinking Eve's Pudding (maybe with peaches instead of apples) with custard for the weekend. Yum.

I know I've been a very inconsistent blog lady, but I'm hoping that will change....

A Brief Ode to Making Granola

How satisfying is making your own granola? Let me count the ways:

1. Homemade granola is SO much cheaper than store bought.
2. You can put whatever you want in it.
3. If you find the right recipe (I love this one, because it's simple and quick -- the trick is to bake it for a shorter time at a higher temperature and stir often, although I found 375 too high and lowered it to 350), you will never buy granola again.
4. You just feel great with a big container of homemade granola on the shelf.
5. Did I mention how much cheaper it is than store bought?

For some reason, making granola makes me feel self-sufficient, like I'm ready to abandon supermarkets and raise chickens for eggs (K has forbidden this until I'm old enough to be truly eccentric, probably at least 60). Also, using the recipe linked above, the whole thing takes about 45 minutes, including washing the bowl and the baking sheet. It feels like picking cucumbers and eggplant from a garden, but it uses up a lot less space. And for two bucks worth of oats and some other stuff I had in the larder, I made probably $10 worth of granola at least, especially that new Bear Naked stuff that costs a fortune.

Ah, granola!