Knitting up Rhinebeck 2008: Creme Brulee

This is the yarn that I grabbed first at my first Rhinebeck Sheep & Wool Festival. It was a gorgeous crisp sparkling blue-sky autumn day, and the plentiful maple trees were in fantastic color all around the fair grounds. I wandered into this building with straw on the floor, flooded with sunlight, stuffed with amazing yarn. I found myself in the booth run by Decadent Fibers, and I wanted ALL OF IT.

I settled for 2 skeins from them. The absolute first choice was this hank of Creme Brulee, because the color was going to be my souvenir of the day. The yarn is absolutely a perfect reflection of autumn leaves, so I had to make something "leafy" out of it.

Merino, silk and mohair blend in a soft, chunky gently twisted strand...it cried out to be a beret, even though I had some fear of itchiness. I invented a circular leaf-lace pattern suitable for a hat, then added the mitts and scarf using a standard Barbara Walker leafy lace.

Lemme tell ya, inventing a lace beret pattern is HARD. I frogged the darn thing at least 6 times because I kept making it too big. It's really hard to measure something scrunched up on a tiny circular needle! Especially as it was only the 2nd beret I'd ever made. I finished the beret in 2009, but only wore it when winter was nearly over! The mitts and scarf waited even longer. I only finished the scarf in early December 2010.

The other thing that was hard was letting this yarn take me out of my personal color comfort zone. I've never been a huge fan of orange, and never thought it looked good against my skin. But there are enough complicated color changes in this yarn to allow me to ignore that small issue.

Rhinebeck 2010 Stash

I was pretty restrained at the 2010 Sheep & Wool Festival. Mindful of having 2 years of gorgeous yarn still just sitting around at home unusued, mindful of having to still get rid of a lot of less special yarn, mindful of having less time than ever to knit, I did a lot more looking than buying. In fact, I finally saw the entire Festival! I finally made it into 2 buildings I never did before, and I enjoyed more browsing, and I enjoyed the walking and the beautiful day so much more than when I was anxious for MORE MORE MORE YARN.

I'm quite happy with what I got, and had projects in mind for all of it as I bought it. There are 9 projects here -- 7 entire, and 2 more that are new additions to previous year's purchases cos I love the yarn so much, I wanted to make sure I had enough!

So now that I've posted all my 3 Rhinebeck stashes, I'll next start posting the projects...

Belated Rhinebeck 2009...

Still not sure exactly what happened, but I suppose into every blog a temporal gap must fall. Or appear. Perhaps I had a sense that my life was entirely too leisurely, and chose to focus on other things instead. Harrumph. Well, now that life is no longer leisurely, now that I've returned to a 9-5 job for several months, now I can force myself to find time to blog again. Of course.

To catch up on one thing at a time, my 2009 Rhinebeck trip yielded yet another treasure trove of fantastic yarn goodies. See above. I figure, if you're going to a place like Rhinebeck Sheep & Wool Festival, one might as well support true fiber artisans making really nommy handmade or handpainted stuff. ("Support" of course means in this context "hand over large sums of cash".)

From the above picture, I have actually begun a whopping uh, two projects. Two! And neither is finished. I might have to partly frog one, only 1/4 done.

But the good news is that from Rhinebeck 2008 I actually finished knitting 1 entire skein of yarn! The bad news is...Rhinebeck 2010. Next post....

Itty Bitty Baby Orchids

When one goes to orchid shows and one already grows orchids, one inevitably buys more orchids. I was again lucky enough to go to the Southeast Pennsylvania Orchid Society Show at Longwood Gardens in March. This time, however, due to new time obligations, I was able to-- rather, forced to -- skip the setup AND the early morning trip! Instead we spent about 4 hours there on Saturday.

I went into OMG THOUSANDS OF ORCHIDS!!!! mode, and went frantically about making 2 rounds of the show with two different lenses on my Sony a300 camera: first the 100mm macro lens for close-by flowers, then the 75-300mm macro zoom lens for everything else. Seriously loved using the zoom, as I was able to get really nice pics of plants waaaay in the back of the exhibits (and some of those bloody exhibits are like 10 feet deep), not to mention the miniatures on the floor and anything wired to a tree over my head.

I hate doing an orchid show rant since there are now so few, but here: I really HATE it when tiny flowers end up at ankle-level in a display. SMALL = EYE LEVEL. The BIG plants should go on the ground, where you can't miss them! Eensy-weensy mini-catts haven't a chance of being noticed or photographed or judged properly when you can't see them! Nobody sane would put a Masdevallia infracta on the floor, but plenty of displays put brachypetalum paphs there!

Nevertheless, I got plenty of satisfaction from the show, which was gorgeous and full of amazing and choice species and hybrids, and some very cool displays. And I got bagfuls of new planties. H&R alone, I went crazy. Will have some great recommendations up soon...

Belated Book Enthusiasm: John Thorne

I meant to post this on September 25, but forgot to copy it from facebook.

All of John Thorne's books are good. I'm finally settling down with "Mouth Wide Open: A Cook and His Appetite" which actually came out last year but I gave away my copy as a present. New copy showed up today. Hard to stop reading and actually cook dinner!

Thorne writes about food in ways that bring little gasps and smiles of recognition to any true food lover. He truly loves things that taste good, whether highbrow or lowbrow. He has a gift of sharing the sensation he's enjoyed. Choosing a recipe by appetite, slicing an onion, frying an egg, even doctoring canned tamales with shredded cheese and pricey Austrian pumpkinseed oil: all grist for his mill. And the tiny essay "Five Month Old Croissant" made me laugh out loud.

Here is a sample of what I love about Thorne, comparing soup to a bright spring morning: "When Matt and I began to eat the minestrone, we kept wondering what the spinach, the zucchini, the parsley, the potato, etcetera, did for the dish; perhaps some of these components could be left out. But gradually we came to understand that each did do something, even if we couldn't easily put our finger on it...pause and pay attention and a quiet pleasure unfolds, one that has a depth to which you were previously oblivious, a harmony composed of many now identifiable parts...the main goal of the cook is to let all the parts shine through."

This minestrone recipe is about technique as much as ingredients, like nearly every dish Thorne dissects and analyzes. Days after reading the chapter, I went and made a pretty good minestrone out of the leftover vegs in the fridge. It wasn't quite his recipe, but now I've made it my own, which is the whole point of his cookery exercises.

And I can particularly relate to this passage, having once been a recipe hoarder:

"...you would have found a single file folder containing, say, twenty or thirty recipes for French onion soup. I didn't collect these because I thought that one day I'd hold a cook-off to discover which one was best. No, like a teenage boy who covers his bedroom wall with photographs of Christina Aguilera, I just couldn't have too many glimpses of the same desirable object."

He goes on and on about spaghetti with simple savory toppings, such as anchovies, olives and capers. Similar to a dish I used to make but forgot about. Now I've rediscovered it for weekend lunches. Spouse heartily approves, since I seem to have a blind spot about cooking weekend lunches.

The recipes are nice, but I also read Thorne for the same reasons I read Oliver Sacks or Stephen Jay Gould. I learn something and enjoy the intellectual exercise, but I enjoy the words for themselves too. Damn good writing.

Canadice Grapes and Shishito Peppers

Love love love Union Square Greenmarket. Today was a gorgeous blue sky sunny cool autumn day, and I enjoyed roaming even the abbreviated Friday market with all its odd goodies. Friday and Wednesday in fact host many farms that are a bit smaller and funkier than the Saturday crowd. Lots more organic/semi-organic produce, and oddball varieties.

Many stands offer Concord grapes and various other lambrusca varieties. I'm a wuss and I like seedless grapes best, and a few years ago I fell in love with Canadice grapes. They're only available for a few weeks starting in September, and only a few stands offer them. They are AWESOME. They taste like sweet juicy spicy mildly grape-flavored candies. The skins are a tiny bit tough but stuff enough in your mouth and you hardly notice. I ate a whole bunch on the bus going home. Spouse ate another bunch waiting for dinner. The bunches are small and very tightly packed, so this is not as indulgent as it sounds. And, y'know, grapes!

Shishito peppers are wholly new to me. I found them at a stand offering lots of other Asian veggie varieties. They look a bit like skinny, dark green pepperoncini. The helpful written sign said they should be seared in hot oil and eaten sprinkled with salt. Folks on line seem to agree. I will try these. I love roasted green peppers more than red peppers, especially in salad, so I'll probably like them. But I cooked gumbo tonight, so maybe tomorrow.

UPDATE: Shishito peppers are fantastic! And super easy. Just heat a little olive oil in a nonstick frying pan, and toss in the washed peppers, stems and all. When they start to brown on one side, shake them up. Turn them and shake them until evenly browned and tender, almost like regular roasted peppers. Sprinkle with salt. Eat while still warm. The clump of seeds is a bit hot, as one would expect, but entirely edible. VERY good eaten with sharp sheep cheese and a crisp Moscato or NZ Suavignon Blanc.

NYC Craft Beer Awesomeness #1

So it's been Craft Beer Week in New York City this week, and by Saturday we had utterly failed to actually visit any good bars and drink any awesome craft beers. Fortunately our good friend the Uber Queen of Beer celebrated her birthday this week -- how entirely appropriate -- and Saturday a great number of us ended up at Rattle and Hum. This wonderful establishment was at first rather over-crowded with um, Washington Huskies fans?!? when we arrived, but once they were satisfied with the outcome of the game they mostly departed and had only drunk up some of the craft offerings (I was rather disappointed the Allagash White was gone, but o well, I've had it before).

Now Craft Beer Week means no commonplace big-brewery offerings: no Guinness, no Hoegaarden, not even Sam Adams! The lovely things on tap included -- o be still my heart! -- 20 count 'em 20 -- CASKS of OMG awesome things...alas I hardly tasted any tho. I am just not an IPA fan, and most of the casks seemed to contain IPAs. However in between the loud party camaraderie, I managed to order and cadge and taste a total of eight beverages mostly new to me.

Ommegang 3 Philosophers: had this once before in the big Ommegang bottle. Tastes very different on draft. Belgian-style like all the brewery's offerings, it's a sweet, rich dark Quad (that is, even darker than Dubbel or Tripel). The nose is wholly familiar to dark Belgian brews. It's still and calm on the tongue, with plentiful caramel notes. Syrupy and crisp at the same time. Lovely stuff. Best as a finisher, not a starter...practically a dessert.

Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous: this American Strong Ale (per the menu) is as powerful as any Stone stuff I've had...but not as good as Stone Arrogant Bastard. O well! There's a powerful bitter grapefruity Cascade hop aroma. The Cascade assault faded as the beer warmed up (it was served a bit too cold), so we could appreciate the smoky, rich caramel flavors, especially in the finish.

Stone Smoked Porter: I didn't expect to like this...not a fan of smoked beers...but even chilled this was powerful and tasty, rich and smoky without being too overwhelming. However I just prefer smoky charred flavors on steak rather than beer.

Captain Lawrence Liquid Gold: Nice! Very traditional Belgian pale ale. Not really a standout in the growing field of American-Belgians. But quite pleasant, smooth, drinkable. Comparable to Palm or lighter Chimay. I think I missed the orange and spice notes alas, in the heat of the guzzle.

Schmaltz Coney Island Sword Swallower: I love every beer I've had from these guys. This "strong lager" made with 8 hops and 4 malts perhaps does not quite live up to the expectation of such a complicated recipe. It's pleasant enough, made in IPA style. Frankly, I was getting a bit buzzed by the time this appeared, and I gulped it down without thinking too much about it...that probably says it all.

Captain Lawrence Sour: "Golden ale with Cabernet grapes still in the barrel." Well what the hell! I had to try this casker. How could I not?!? Well. Um. That'll teach me to be recklessly adventurous...not that I'm about to take up base jumping...but this stuff. Wow. The smell, not the bouquet, hit me like super-cheap wine that was out uncorked for a couple days. Not to denigrate cheap wine, I drink plenty of it. So the taste...um. Cheap sweet wine with hops added. Sour and sweet at the same time. Um. I'm glad I had the fairly innocuous Sword Swallower before this. Spouse and I managed to finish it, as Spouse generally finishes his beers. I am not so thorough and decorous.

Allagash Interlude: Ahh! This was the stuff craft brewing dreams are made of!! Billed as an "American Wild Ale" which I took to mean Belgian-lambic style. Yes! Though the brewery's description sounds a bit different from that method, the results are quite similar. Really more gueze-like even. So! The color is bright orangey, cloudy. The strong nose is musty and sour but invitingly so, if you like lambics. The flavor...bold, bright, fruity, cidery, delicious for sipping not slurping. Knowing how it's made, I can't wait to try it again in calmer surroundings. Because by now the party was quite lively, and we'd eaten and drunk a fair amount. I will note, the Interlude actually went quite nicely with both birthday cakes.

Sixpoint Otis Oatmeal Stout: The OTHER Brooklyn brewery, I've quite liked most of their brews I've had. There wasn't anything outstanding about this stout, it's fairly typical of this style but I liked it better than Heartland's as it is less smoky and coffee-like. Really, it's more like a porter than a stout. But I'm not complaining. The sips I cadged were tasty and a fine finish for a busy evening.