Tahini Sauce and Hummus: Quick Snack Recipe

Here was this new jar of tahini sauce on the pantry shelf, and it had not yet been opened.  It was just waiting for me to make this hummus recipe sent by friend Lynda in Wisconsin.  She found it in Cooks Illustrated (May, 2008).  Apparently she uses this recipe source often.

From what the recipe indicates, the problem with most hummus is that it has a course, dense consistency caused by the tough skins of the chickpeas.  The solution is to use canned chickpeas, not fresh garbonzo beans.  Not a problem since there was also a can of chickpeas patiently waiting on that same pantry shelf. 

But the REAL secret for smooth hummus is to emulsify the beans in a blender while slowly adding olive oil.
Here are the ingredients:

3 tablespoons juice from 1 to 2 lemons
1/4 cup water
6 tablespoons tahini , stirred well
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil , plus extra for drizzling
1 (14-ounce) can chickpeas , drained and rinsed (see note)
1 small garlic clove , minced or pressed through garlic press (about 1/2 teaspoon)
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
Pinch cayenne
1 tablespoon minced fresh cilantro or parsley leaves

Instructions:

1. Combine lemon juice and water in small bowl or measuring cup. Whisk together tahini and 2 tablespoons oil in second small bowl or measuring cup. Set aside 2 tablespoons chickpeas for garnish.
2. Process remaining chickpeas, garlic, salt, cumin, and cayenne in food processor until almost fully ground, about 15 seconds. Scrape down bowl with rubber spatula. With machine running, add lemon juice-water mixture in steady stream through feed tube. Scrape down bowl and continue to process for 1 minute. With machine running, add oil-tahini mixture in steady stream through feed tube; continue to process until hummus is smooth and creamy, about 15 seconds, scraping down bowl as needed.
3. Transfer hummus to serving bowl, sprinkle reserved chickpeas and cilantro over surface, cover with plastic wrap, and let stand until flavors meld, at least 30 minutes. Drizzle with olive oil and serve.

Lucky for us that our parsley is still growing outside and was available for garnishment.  No pita bread in the cupboards, but Fritos worked just fine with the hummus.
 
Thanks, Lynda, for this superb recipe.

Calorimetry Scarf

The Calorimetry Scarf is off the needles.  It is a free download pattern available at the referenced site.  Check out a copyrighted picture of the scarf here.

The word "calorimetry" has been given this definition:

Calorimetry is a scientific term describing the measurement of heat lost or gained. Knit hats are a wonderful way to block out the cold, but when you have long hair it usually requires wearing it down, not often the most comfortable option on a blustery day. This headscarf allows you to wear your hair up while keeping your ears warm and preventing heat from escaping from the top of your head.

Above is a picture of the one just completed, and here is another that Velvet (her blog posting can be found here) finished a few weeks ago:

It is toasty warm, and doubles in its function as a way to keep not only your ears and head warm, but also serves for iPod earphones to stay in place while walking. Best of all, it can be knit in just a few hours.

It's a good thing.

Vintage Embroidery for Baby Pillowcase

Anticipating the birth of her first child, Marie at Knitted Gems is busy making darling things for soon-to-be born Elizabeth.  Knowing that Marie is a beautiful knitter, it would be like taking coals to Newcastle to give her a hand knit baby item.

Looking through my vintage pieces of needlework that good friend Dorothay sent me a while back from her mother's and sister's stashes dating from the early 1900's, here is what I found: a baby pillow case cover that was about 3/4 completed in embroidery.

The bunnies and flowers were so cute.  And the flowers gave it a whimsical feel.  But the back of the pillowcase was a grey cotton linen and definitely needed an update.

Here are the project finds that would help complete the "new" pillow after a bit of tweaking with embroidery floss, crayons, and a new piece of fabric backing:  Tracey at Giggleface Studios has an excellent tutorial on using crayons on fabric that can be accessed here. Using those techniques, more color was added to the picture.

Just a  fat quarter of fabric was required for the new backing for the pillowcase.  $1 would purchase a bit of batik color fabric that coordinated with the existing floss colors.

Knowing that Elizabeth has a great chance of inheriting her mother's beautiful strawberry blonde hair color, just a bit of mixed orange and pink embroidery floss was used on the fabric for the little girl's head to make it a personalized pillow for Baby Elly.  A new pillow, a bit of vintage tatting and lace, re-worked embroidery and a bit of sewing turned out this:

This was a fun project, and hopefully the pillow case will be something that Elizabeth will save for her own daughter in future years.

Easy Cowl to Knit

Using only 150 yd. of yarn, the Rievaulx cowl can be knit in a few days.  Here is what designer Kelly Herdrich said about this pattern:

Rievaulx is modeled after the green, rolling landscape on the drive to Rievaulx Abbey, and the gorgeous columns and architecture that make this abbey ruin such an amazing place to visit in Yorkshire. There are two versions for the pattern; one long, drape-y, reversible version, perfect for warmer days, and one snugger, taller version perfect for chilly weather.

Kelly's blog can be accessed here, and the pattern is free.  I modified it by adding a bit more ribbing to make it wider, and held two yarns together while knitting to add some color into the monochrome dark green and brown novelty fiber.  The second, more colorful, yarn was a bit of leftover hand dyed sock yarn in reds, purples and greens.

This cowl will be just the ticket for keeping warm on morning walks.  Thanks, Kelly.

Extreme Knitting

Here is something interesting from this site about extreme knitting:

Rachel John, Extreme Textiles, broke records by knitting with a 1000 strands simultaneously! This video shows the set up of the event and the event itself. This event took place at the Southhill Park Unravel Textiles exhibition in October 2006.

It is a challenge for all of us to take the waste products that our society produces and to put it to good use. This video was made in order to stimulate that process.

Go here to see the video.

Fiber Artist Diedre Scherer

Deidre Scherer is the talented fiber artist who is perhaps most often associated with the poem "When I am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple" by Jenny Joseph.  Her picture of a contemplative older woman created in fabrics and threads has been in my study for the past three decades, alongside the poem by Nadir Stair that begins ... If I had my life to live over....

This same replica of the picture (copied at the bottom of the post) is framed and matted in reds and cream colors and is just to the right of my computer.  It always give me pause for thought when my gaze falls on it.

This is another favorite created by Scherer, and is one of her pieces in a collection (15" x 13" in fabric and thread) from this site of nine fabric works:

The Last Year, a series of nine fabric works by Vermont artist Deidre Scherer, portrays the final year in the life of an elderly woman. With immense compassion and respect, Scherer chronicles the woman's journey toward death, from the onset of her decline, through brief reprieves of renewed strength, and finally, to acceptance and release.

Combining the techniques of layering, piecing and machine sewing, Scherer builds a rich surface of images that have contours, highlights and shadows. Her unique approach to fabric and thread medium serves to tell the story narratively, and gives the figure a three-dimensional quality.

Each work depicts a visually compelling moment, while raising universal and social issues that surround the processes of aging, dying and grieving.

 This site gives the poem copied below, along with Diedre Scherer's picture, again created in fabric and thread:

I'd dare to make more mistakes next time. I'd relax, I would limber up. I would be sillier than I have been this trip. I would take fewer things seriously. I would take more chances. I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers. I would eat more ice cream and less beans. I would perhaps have more actual troubles, but I'd have fewer imaginary ones.

You see, I'm one of those people who live sensibly and sanely hour after hour, day after day. Oh, I've had my moments, and if I had it to do over again, I'd have more of them. In fact, I'd try to have nothing else. Just moments, one after another,instead of living so many years ahead of each day. I've been one of those people who never goes anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a raincoat and a parachute. If I had to do it again, I would travel lighter than I have.

If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dances. I would ride more merry-go-rounds. I would pick more daisies.

Nadine Stair, 85 years old.

As for me, I am trying to eat all the green bananas that life gives me.  And you?

Scrabble Again

See the word "M-U-T-I-L-A-T-E" up in the right hand corner of the Scrabble board in the above picture?

That was my coup de grace in a winning game with opponent Wesley Slocum in Calgary on October 23.  The word spread across two triple tile scores and used all 7 letters on my rack, and the play counted for 149 points.  That play truly won the game for me as Wesley had a 120 point lead on me prior to that coup de grace play.  Wesley was a nice guy about the good word find and even took a picure of me with the board to bring home to Colorado!

A highlight of the week was going to the Saskatoon Berry Farm west of Calgary for lunch and a look-around.  The saskatoon berry cobbler was a favorite dessert and is local to the area.  Yum.

Thanks, Darlene, for your hospitality and to the Calgary Scrabble Club for hosting the 14th Annual Western Canadian Scrabble Championship last week in Alberta.  A great time was had by all 95 participants in four divisions of tournament play.

14th Western Canadian Scrabble Champtionship

Off to Calgary this morning: the beautiful land of Alberta.  Playing Scrabble.  See you in a week.

Emergen-C and the Flu

If you are feeling ... headachey and a touch of the sore throat...there's a number you can call...don't be afraid...

picture courtesy of RogueSun

Well, you can't call, but you can buy a product called Emergen-C or its generic equivalent.  My SIL stirs up a glass of the fizzy mixture in water a couple of times of day when she feels the need for a Vitamin C boost.

Here is a great review of the product where the reviewer says, in part:

... so I began the regimen: One Emergen-C at 5 am. Another once I woke up (again) at 8. Another when I got to work, two more after lunch. In all, I think I must have had six or seven packets of that goodness yesterday—probably not a dosage you want to subject your body to every day, but these were trying times.

It is now not quite 5 AM, and I have downed one dose of the Walgreen variety in cranberry flavor, am on my second cup of coffee, and actually feeling better than I did yesterday at this time before the wonder product was in my system.  (Yesterday I drank three of the packets with the recommended 6 oz of water and begged off obligations; in other words, so I could lie around and do nothing.)

Who knows, with 1,000 milligrams of vitamin C (1,667% of your recommended daily allowance) in each packet, maybe there is something to it.  It can't hurt.  And water is certainly good for you.

Drop Scarf with Beads

This clapotis scarf finished off with dimensions of 61" x 6.5" and was decorated with 8 mm seed beads along the diagonal lines created by the dropped stitches.   The beads are glass, and in colors ranging from lavender to cobalt blue with various hues of lighter and darker blues interspersed.  They beads were sewn with one strand of Knit Picks Shimmer yarn, a combination of 30% silk and 70% baby alpaca wool.   Don't let a little wool in the fiber fool you, it is as soft as a baby's bottom.  This same yarn was used in the scarf construction.  Although it is lace weight, I held two strands together to construct the scarf; so it ended up more of a fingering weight.

The beads added a touch of more design into the scarf, and although they were tedious to apply, the look was worth the extra effort,  IMHO.

There was no ready model for the scarf, so an outside tree trunk accommodated the scarf for photographic purposes.

Here is a picture of the clapotis scarf half way through:

Combining beading and knitting was a first attempt at gilding the lily.  The pattern for the scarf is free and available here.

Selling a Mink in these Economic Times

Say, wish me luck in trying to sell my mink (female) full length coat at a consignment shop in Calgary, CA next week.  I'm going up for the 14th Western Canadian Scrabble Championship and to visit a friend who also will compete in the games.

Back to this non-politically correct issue of the mink coat.  Groan.  Yes, women (and a few guys) do still wear fur.  But this coat has had very little wear since its purchase 15 years ago, and it is high time for it to have a new home.  Of course, I want to make big bucks off it!

This site gave good information about trying to sell a used fur coat. It said, in short:

Still wearing big hair and eighties power suits? Well why not? They're only 15 years old! How much money do you think you could get for those suits on the resale market today? If they had major designer labels, they might be worth something. If not, by now either you've tossed them out, hidden them in the back of your closet (the shame) or altered them (somewhere I envision a secret tailor's landfill, where they've sent all those discarded shoulder pads). When you pay thousands of dollars for a fur, and want to sell it, it's not that simple. And it's really not funny.

Sigh. So that is where I am.  Like an avid ...good..over zealous ..stupid   average consumer who purchased a coat that I actually did use quite a bit in a different clime and time in my life when that coat got good use, now it is past its prime and worn maybe once a year. 

Let's say that is me in the picture below (it is not). The coat is the same, though.

With original invoice and appraisal in hand (home insurance rider policies requires that, ya know), we'll see if it sells.  I'm curious how much it will bring.  My guess is that I'll pocket maybe a hundred bucks after commission.