Go here to find my new posts, for my 2022 adventures: https://heybethpdx.blogspot.com/
Thursday, June 9, 2022
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Swedish bread update
After my trip to Sweden I'm interested in recreating the delicious brown bread I had several times there. I talked a bit about it in a recent post.
I've made two attempts so far, but I'm not there yet! Both were edible, the second more so than the first.
In the first, I used the crazy rose hip meal (or whatever it is) that I brought back. It's ... weird. Very red in color, and very vitamin-C-like in flavor, if that makes sense. I don't think I'm going to use it in further attempts, unless I get a lot closer to the ideal and am in tweaking mode.
You can see the redness of the meal in the finished product.
I've made two attempts so far, but I'm not there yet! Both were edible, the second more so than the first.
In the first, I used the crazy rose hip meal (or whatever it is) that I brought back. It's ... weird. Very red in color, and very vitamin-C-like in flavor, if that makes sense. I don't think I'm going to use it in further attempts, unless I get a lot closer to the ideal and am in tweaking mode.
You can see the redness of the meal in the finished product.
The second attempt was better - it tasted pretty good and was rather hearty-seeming:
But the attempts so far haven't even BEGUN to match the real thing, or even the photos in the recipes I used. (Here's a link to the recipe I used as a starting point for the first attempt. The second attempt came from The Rye Baker: Classic Breads from Europe & America, which I got from the library)
Obviously I'm not using the right flour, so my next step is to get my hands on dark rye and/or pumpernickel flours. Fortunately I'm in driving distance of Bob's Red Mill - and they sell in bulk, so I can buy a few cups, not a few pounds of flour while I'm in test mode!
One good thing is that I've been scaling these recipes WAY down - I think I calculated them down to an eighth of the original volume. I've been making 3-4 muffins with each attempt. Thank goodness for digital scales and recipes written in grams!
Friday, February 10, 2017
More about Sweden
Here's a fly-by upshot:
We had a half-day and then two full days in Stockholm:
Then we took an overnight train 12 hours north:
And stayed in the OMG WOW TreeHotel - we got the MirrorCube:
Inside picture, and picture of the on-site sauna:
Then we went even further north:
Where we saw Northern Lights (not a great show, unfortunately, though I know it sounds ungrateful), and enjoyed some fresh air as we hiked around a little:
And finally, we went to the Ice Hotel which was as amazing and crazy as it sounds. It's built every fall and is gone - melted! - by May. Since it's so popular they've now built IceHotel 365 which will use solar power to generate a cooling system and keep the rooms below freezing year-round.
Our room - brrrrrrr! Though the sleeping bags were quite snug:
Finally, we returned to Stockholm for some final walking-about, great meal, and final night.
In general, Sweden is very easy to visit - everyone speaks terrific English, the exchange rate was decent at this time (apparently not usually the case), and the food was amazing. Here are some final food shots:
We had a half-day and then two full days in Stockholm:
Then we took an overnight train 12 hours north:
And stayed in the OMG WOW TreeHotel - we got the MirrorCube:
Then we went even further north:
Where we saw Northern Lights (not a great show, unfortunately, though I know it sounds ungrateful), and enjoyed some fresh air as we hiked around a little:
And finally, we went to the Ice Hotel which was as amazing and crazy as it sounds. It's built every fall and is gone - melted! - by May. Since it's so popular they've now built IceHotel 365 which will use solar power to generate a cooling system and keep the rooms below freezing year-round.
Our room - brrrrrrr! Though the sleeping bags were quite snug:
Finally, we returned to Stockholm for some final walking-about, great meal, and final night.
In general, Sweden is very easy to visit - everyone speaks terrific English, the exchange rate was decent at this time (apparently not usually the case), and the food was amazing. Here are some final food shots:
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Swedish goodness
Sweden was awesome! No surprise, I suppose, since it WAS vacation after all. It's a great place to visit - everyone spoke excellent English, it was easy to get around, heck, my cell phone even got data service there! (Thanks, provider!)
One thing I loved was the breakfast buffets - lots of delicious food, usually included in your lodging cost. My boyfriend and I would usually eat a hearty breakfast, skip lunch, have a late afternoon snack and then have dinner.
I have come back vowing to recreate the bread I found at every breakfast offering. It's dark, but not dry or heavy. It's got some nuts or seeds in it but no heavy flavoring. I've found some recipes that call for orange or anise or fennel and I'm certain the ones I had didn't have those elements - some posts hint that's a Christmas-related flavoring choice.
At one place I cleverly took a picture of the label, so I would know the ingredients involved when looking for recipes.
The above label indicates it's bread made with filmjölk, or sour milk. I have a friend in Sweden (who we didn't get to see) who tells me it's sort of like a cross between buttermilk and yogurt; they always have it on hand for their kids to drink. He even made a little video as he poured it into a glass so I could get a sense of its density!
I've tracked down some recipes for "sour milk bread" and also found this post for so-called Kavring, or dark rye bread. It calls for plain yogurt and a little milk or cream if the dough is too thick, so I think that is her attempt at substituting for the sour milk ingredient used in Sweden.
There are two more odd ingredients on that label: one is mörk sirap - aka dark syrup. Apparently it's kinda like dark corn syrup, sorta like molasses crossed with light syrup.. on that I took no chances. I bought a bottle and brought it home.
The final mystery ingredient is nyponskal. Here, I'm sorry to say, the internet has not been helpful, nor has my friend. The best I can find that this is rosehip husk... it can be used in soup. I'm thinking it's kind of a ... bran-like thing? Anyway I bought a bag of what seems to be rosehip meal.. so I will try that and see if it works.
I'm going to construct a recipe that mainly follows the Kavring one but has some additional elements, and will sub in my best guess at the Swedish-specific options.
Stay tuned!
One thing I loved was the breakfast buffets - lots of delicious food, usually included in your lodging cost. My boyfriend and I would usually eat a hearty breakfast, skip lunch, have a late afternoon snack and then have dinner.
I have come back vowing to recreate the bread I found at every breakfast offering. It's dark, but not dry or heavy. It's got some nuts or seeds in it but no heavy flavoring. I've found some recipes that call for orange or anise or fennel and I'm certain the ones I had didn't have those elements - some posts hint that's a Christmas-related flavoring choice.
At one place I cleverly took a picture of the label, so I would know the ingredients involved when looking for recipes.
The above label indicates it's bread made with filmjölk, or sour milk. I have a friend in Sweden (who we didn't get to see) who tells me it's sort of like a cross between buttermilk and yogurt; they always have it on hand for their kids to drink. He even made a little video as he poured it into a glass so I could get a sense of its density!
I've tracked down some recipes for "sour milk bread" and also found this post for so-called Kavring, or dark rye bread. It calls for plain yogurt and a little milk or cream if the dough is too thick, so I think that is her attempt at substituting for the sour milk ingredient used in Sweden.
There are two more odd ingredients on that label: one is mörk sirap - aka dark syrup. Apparently it's kinda like dark corn syrup, sorta like molasses crossed with light syrup.. on that I took no chances. I bought a bottle and brought it home.
The final mystery ingredient is nyponskal. Here, I'm sorry to say, the internet has not been helpful, nor has my friend. The best I can find that this is rosehip husk... it can be used in soup. I'm thinking it's kind of a ... bran-like thing? Anyway I bought a bag of what seems to be rosehip meal.. so I will try that and see if it works.
I'm going to construct a recipe that mainly follows the Kavring one but has some additional elements, and will sub in my best guess at the Swedish-specific options.
Stay tuned!
Monday, January 16, 2017
tap, tap, tap
*clears throat*
Well it's been a while! I'm resurrecting this blog because on Friday I'm heading to Sweden for a week and putting stuff up on social media is fun for the likes, but isn't easy to look back at later. I don't know if I will REALLY update this every day, but I might.
Agenda:
- arrive Stockholm on Saturday the 21st, explore the city all day Sunday & Monday. Take an overnight train 12 hours north to be above the Arctic Circle.
- Tuesday night: stay at the TreeHotel in the MirrorCube
- Wednesday night: stay in the Abisko Mountain Station at the one combination hotel/hostel. I'm vague on what this thing is - but the entire point is to go to up a chairlift to the Aurora Sky Station for a swank dinner and then a Northern Lights observation (we hope)
- Thursday night: stay at the IceHotel - yep. Yes, we will be sleeping in a room that is cold enough to have its very own ice sculptures. Yes, I am open to the idea of finding the sauna and sleeping there!
- Friday: fly back to Stockholm, last night there in a yacht hotel!
- Saturday: bonus excitement, flying back in international business class as a way to extend the vacation just a leeetle bit longer.
What else is going on with me?
Job: I'm five months into my new job and it's still feeling pretty good. I took a month off between jobs (which was SO GREAT) and then was in training for pretty much the entire rest of 2016 (which is an astonishing investment for a company to make). I'm actually/finally now going fully live on doing my job and it's a lot to juggle but so far I am very happy I made a change.
Fitness: this fell apart. I did summit South Sister with friends in August, and it was so hard - 13 hours of hiking because it was a LOT of very steep up and down, and I'm slow. But my running practice ground to a halt and hasn't been replaced by anything. I have intentions of getting back into it if we ever see the ground again.Snow! We get snow here in the Pacific Northwest every now and then but we got about 8 inches a week ago and it's just lingering. It's been temps in the 20s, we don't have plows, ice and snow still all over the side streets.. I haven't been in a car since last Tuesday, and I ventured out on foot last Thursday night and on Saturday afternoon - that's been the extent of it!
The state of the world: big enormous panicked grump. Trying to focus on the good, learning how to use my voice politically. Very sad I'm going to miss all the amazing energy of the political protest march here in town on Saturday - I think it would be enormously uplifting. Stockholm is hosting a march that day as well, but I don't know if we will get there in time to participate.
January challenge: For the weeks between Christmas and Sweden, I've done a challenge to have no sugar/no alcohol/no restaurants. Part of this is health-related, part of it is financial: I think by spending NO money (except on groceries and doing some political activism), I will balance the spending in Sweden and come in okay for the month's total.
On the plus side: Cutest niece ever. Knitting some more. Cooking a lot of good food.
Monday, July 18, 2016
Changes are afoot!
So I got a new job. I've only been at my current job for 15 months, and there are parts of it I like. My current title is customer success manager (which I cringe at, a little) and I've liked helping people using our software get the attention & information they need when they need it. But I haven't liked having too many accounts to serve well, and I haven't liked that our software is so complex that I'm not expected to really know much about it (it's back office enterprise software, aka accounting, HR, professional services... complex stuff).
I applied for a couple of jobs last summer, and I wrote great cover letters to explain why I was looking after only 4 months on the job, but I knew it was too soon and so I stopped searching. And then, one of my coworkers let me know she was in the final stages for a job at another company, and they might be adding another person. She asked me to hold off on applying until she got her offer, which was fair, and I officially applied in early June.
They really did an awesome job of getting me through the process, and I got a job offer last week - whew! It's a 4% pay cut (6% if you factor in that they don't pay for home internet & cell phone like my last job did) but that's okay - I'm making enough money and think this will be a better fit.
I'll still be at a software company, with a better title (Strategic Account Consultant), fewer accounts to manage, and will be expected to be pretty skilled with our software so I can advise my accounts on best practices and help them use the software more & better than they might be currently.
Of all my jobs it's most like the one I was most enthused about, way back in the late '90s. I don't know if I can love a job, but it feels like this one has a chance at that. We shall see.
What was nuts that when I gave notice, my current job offered me a 20% raise. That is SO MUCH money. But... though I was dazzled, I wasn't tempted in the slightest. I feel super lucky to be in a place where I can make the best choice for myself by weighing all the factors, not just financial ones.
I applied for a couple of jobs last summer, and I wrote great cover letters to explain why I was looking after only 4 months on the job, but I knew it was too soon and so I stopped searching. And then, one of my coworkers let me know she was in the final stages for a job at another company, and they might be adding another person. She asked me to hold off on applying until she got her offer, which was fair, and I officially applied in early June.
They really did an awesome job of getting me through the process, and I got a job offer last week - whew! It's a 4% pay cut (6% if you factor in that they don't pay for home internet & cell phone like my last job did) but that's okay - I'm making enough money and think this will be a better fit.
I'll still be at a software company, with a better title (Strategic Account Consultant), fewer accounts to manage, and will be expected to be pretty skilled with our software so I can advise my accounts on best practices and help them use the software more & better than they might be currently.
Of all my jobs it's most like the one I was most enthused about, way back in the late '90s. I don't know if I can love a job, but it feels like this one has a chance at that. We shall see.
What was nuts that when I gave notice, my current job offered me a 20% raise. That is SO MUCH money. But... though I was dazzled, I wasn't tempted in the slightest. I feel super lucky to be in a place where I can make the best choice for myself by weighing all the factors, not just financial ones.
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Hiking hiking hiking FOOD
So far I've been doing a lot of hiking this year - in preparation for doing South Sister (outside of Bend, Oregon) in August!
Avalanche lilies
Mount Saint Helens, Mount Rainier, ten million flowers
Mount Hood
Mount Shasta
I also added yet another activity to my non-working hours: cookbook club! A friend organized this, and I'm so grateful she did as it's something I've wanted to do for a long time but didn't have the right people/energy to get it going. We pick a cookbook, everyone gets it from the library (or buys it I guess), we each pick recipes and tell each other what we'll bring, and then we have a potluck made up of dishes all from the same cookbook. OOOOOOH it is so good.
Food from the Jerusalem cookbook by Sami Tamimi and Yotam Ottolenghi
Food from Mallmann On Fire by Francis Mallmann
Running continues to be a major challenge - namely, finding shoes that don't make my legs ache - and I've tried yoga three times at a spot in my neighborhood. Today I get to take off since I hiked 10.5 miles yesterday; since I had an enormous dinner after the hike, I might walk a couple miles today just so I don't feel like a complete slug. We'll see how the weather is looking when I get off work!
Monday, April 25, 2016
Doing a Duathlon
I've had a few fitness goals for this year:
- March: 5k run (completed in really awful weather)
- April: 62-mile bike ride in Salem (an hour south of Portland)
- May: 55-mile bike ride to the coast
- August: summit South Sister in the Bend area
I was supposed to do the 62-mile ride yesterday. It hasn't been a great training season so far - I haven't had a ton of motivation, and my training partner has really been off for a few years now, but hasn't fully admitted it. I think it's a combination of something medical going on, and also not being in the same place mentally she used to be. We've done some training together but everything is a struggle and she's exhausted after not a ton of effort - and I'm not motivated enough to do more on my own!
So, she got a bad head cold before this event, and her longest ride for the season was only 25 miles (at which point she was exhausted). I'd ridden longer, a couple whopping 36-mile rides, but wasn't exactly chomping at the bit to do more. So when she got sick I was actually kind of glad - the weather was looking horrible anyway, and I didn't want to drive 2 hours and bike for 6 hours in crap weather... or at all, to be honest.
BUT THEN I remembered that another friend was doing a duathlon this weekend! So I joined her. We had to run 5km, bike 15 miles, and run another 5km. I hadn't even been running in a couple of weeks and have been struggling with discomfort, so I wasn't sure how it was going to go at all!
The weather was actually not bad at all, so that was the first good news. We got there early to set up our bikes and gear in the transition area - every athlete stages their biking shoes, helmet, gear near their bike so they can change from running mode to biking mode and then back again. Some people had their stuff in buckets which was pretty smart - gives them a place to sit to change their shoes! I just piled my stuff on the ground and then draped a trash bag around the shoes & helmet in case of rain.
The first 5k went reasonably well - I ran (...trotted) the whole thing which was a pleasant surprise. I got to the bike and felt a little bit tired/unsteady, but once I was geared up and got to pedal, it felt nice to use my legs that way. It took me an hour to do the 15 miles, which is a pretty good pace for me! We had to go east, then west, then east again along a flat and open stretch of road, and the westward part had a fair bit of headwind, so it was nice to finish with the tailwind pushing me along.
I got back to the transition area and hung up my bike...and couldn't believe I had to do MORE...putting on my shoes I was kind of in a daze and really not sure how I was going to do anything else. I knew there were only about 10-15 people behind me in the event, but at least I wasn't in last place!
Somehow I managed to trot almost the whole first half of the final 5k, and on the turnaround I alternated walking and jogging as much as possible. I ran across the finish line and only got rained on a little bit! I knew that my friend was behind me so I hung out about ten minutes so I could see her cross the finish line and walk back to our gear together.
I never ever ever would have expected to do a duathlon. I honestly don't know if I'd do it again, but at least I know (at the moment) that I can do it if I want to! Talk about unexpected places in life!
Monday, March 14, 2016
March: money AND home-life stuff!
And now we have March. It's possible that 2016 is shaping up to be the year of Getting Stuff Done. In February I finished painting one single tiny wall that had been sample-splotched for two years, and got air conditioning installed.
So far in March I've ordered curtains for the three bedrooms, and got one set actually hung! (Okay, thanks to my boyfriend, but I totally could've installed that curtain rod on my own. It's not like I've had it sitting around for three years or anything...yes, he looked a bit disbelieving when I confessed that.) Anyway, it's done and I'm making big plans to hang/help hang the other two sets of rods & curtains soon!
I'm also thinking about removing the closet doors in the guest bedroom. It's a very small room, and I have a Murphy bed in it (a decision I semi-regret, but oh well) and when the bed is down, the person using the room has to very carefully squish between the foot of the bed and the closet door. Removing the door will allow a bit more clearance, but may lead to another future project in terms of building out the inside of the closet with organizers. I've been thinking about it for a while and then saw that a blogger I follow did just that (scroll WAY down for the pic), and it looks great!
I also had a small financial breakthrough. I have 27 years left on my mortgage and intend to pay it off at least ten years sooner - or faster, if possible. I have waffled on how exactly to accomplish this - is it better for me to just send in extra money every month, or should I invest extra cash in a stock fund with an eye to better returns and paying off the mortgage in a big chunk down the road? My mortgage interest rate is really low, so on the one hand it makes more sense to chase better returns in the stock market, but on the other hand the more I pay now the better, for psychological and amortizational reasons. I finally remembered I've got an extremely stable money market fund earning NO interest, so I just closed that and will use it to pay down 3% of my mortgage. That doesn't really answer my bigger-picture question, but it will help me get the balance below a certain large dollar amount by the end of the summer, so that's exciting.
I did make some other decisions about mortgage prepayment: in the short term I'm going to focus on rebuilding my savings, and then once I hit a specific balance in that stock fund, I'll shift to splitting my non-retirement savings between mortgage prepayment and the stock market. Mathematically it may make sense to put it all in the market, but I don't wanna.
Other items on the to-do list:
- add plants in my yard. We'll see about that one.
- finally paint the single wall in my guest room - or at least pick & purchase the paint and let one or two friends who actually enjoy painting know that I would welcome their time & effort!
So far in March I've ordered curtains for the three bedrooms, and got one set actually hung! (Okay, thanks to my boyfriend, but I totally could've installed that curtain rod on my own. It's not like I've had it sitting around for three years or anything...yes, he looked a bit disbelieving when I confessed that.) Anyway, it's done and I'm making big plans to hang/help hang the other two sets of rods & curtains soon!
I'm also thinking about removing the closet doors in the guest bedroom. It's a very small room, and I have a Murphy bed in it (a decision I semi-regret, but oh well) and when the bed is down, the person using the room has to very carefully squish between the foot of the bed and the closet door. Removing the door will allow a bit more clearance, but may lead to another future project in terms of building out the inside of the closet with organizers. I've been thinking about it for a while and then saw that a blogger I follow did just that (scroll WAY down for the pic), and it looks great!
I also had a small financial breakthrough. I have 27 years left on my mortgage and intend to pay it off at least ten years sooner - or faster, if possible. I have waffled on how exactly to accomplish this - is it better for me to just send in extra money every month, or should I invest extra cash in a stock fund with an eye to better returns and paying off the mortgage in a big chunk down the road? My mortgage interest rate is really low, so on the one hand it makes more sense to chase better returns in the stock market, but on the other hand the more I pay now the better, for psychological and amortizational reasons. I finally remembered I've got an extremely stable money market fund earning NO interest, so I just closed that and will use it to pay down 3% of my mortgage. That doesn't really answer my bigger-picture question, but it will help me get the balance below a certain large dollar amount by the end of the summer, so that's exciting.
I did make some other decisions about mortgage prepayment: in the short term I'm going to focus on rebuilding my savings, and then once I hit a specific balance in that stock fund, I'll shift to splitting my non-retirement savings between mortgage prepayment and the stock market. Mathematically it may make sense to put it all in the market, but I don't wanna.
Other items on the to-do list:
- add plants in my yard. We'll see about that one.
- finally paint the single wall in my guest room - or at least pick & purchase the paint and let one or two friends who actually enjoy painting know that I would welcome their time & effort!
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
February?!
It feels like 2016 just GOT here! The biggest news in these parts is home improvement!
I got air conditioning installed in my house yesterday. It felt scary deciding to do this - it's a fair chunk of change, and people are doing Things to my house that I don't totally understand, and Something Could Go Wrong - but I contacted four companies, met with the two who got back to me, and chose the bid I liked best.. and here we are. AC-having.
The good news is (and it's worth stating) - I have the money to pay for it. I HAD been saving for a deck but decided this would do more for my summer comfort, and is probably better for resale too. It's weird - traditionally Portland wasn't a place that needed AC but .. climate change is real, and we've had way too many 90+ and 100+ degree days these last few summers. The other good news is that I got 2 new credit cards to charge the project to, so I'll pay for the project AND get two 50,000-mile chunks added to my flight plans.
Other home improvement projects: finally finishing a paint job on a wall in my office (though my friend is advocating I paint a second wall too... will it never end?!?) (and yes.. there is more progress than in the above shot); swapping out some light switches and outlets (under my boyfriend's experienced guidance, but he did a great job telling me what I was doing and letting me do it all myself); next up: light fixtures.
Do you KNOW how many light fixture options there are in the world??? ....
I got air conditioning installed in my house yesterday. It felt scary deciding to do this - it's a fair chunk of change, and people are doing Things to my house that I don't totally understand, and Something Could Go Wrong - but I contacted four companies, met with the two who got back to me, and chose the bid I liked best.. and here we are. AC-having.
The good news is (and it's worth stating) - I have the money to pay for it. I HAD been saving for a deck but decided this would do more for my summer comfort, and is probably better for resale too. It's weird - traditionally Portland wasn't a place that needed AC but .. climate change is real, and we've had way too many 90+ and 100+ degree days these last few summers. The other good news is that I got 2 new credit cards to charge the project to, so I'll pay for the project AND get two 50,000-mile chunks added to my flight plans.
Other home improvement projects: finally finishing a paint job on a wall in my office (though my friend is advocating I paint a second wall too... will it never end?!?) (and yes.. there is more progress than in the above shot); swapping out some light switches and outlets (under my boyfriend's experienced guidance, but he did a great job telling me what I was doing and letting me do it all myself); next up: light fixtures.
Do you KNOW how many light fixture options there are in the world??? ....
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Reflections on 2015
My goodness, 2015 went SO quickly! I am surprised I did as many as 18 blog posts this year! Let's see, what can I recall off the top of my head?
Health:
Health:
- I stayed healthy! Not something to take lightly! (I did get my first cold in 2 years at the end of the year, and it sucked, but big-picture - I'm pleased)
- I kept running. I ran about 220 miles this year, I don't know the exact amount but I was slightly below my goal of doing 250. I participated in some organized runs! I did a 5k in March, another one in August, and a 10k in October. I didn't run the whole 10k but I averaged 12-minute miles which is my regular pace, so I was faster than usual when I was running, and did run the vast majority overall.
- I also hiked a lot! I did more than 100 miles of hiking while training to do Mount Saint Helens with friends - and we did it, and it was epic.
- I biked some but not a lot. I walked a lot.
Home:
- I'm about to hit 3 years of home ownership. It's still so great. I joined the board of my neighborhood association, I joined a gardening group (where we meet to talk about our gardens and share information and tour some people's yards) and got to meet a handful of neighbors, and just last month a new neighborhood knit night started up, and I've gone to three of those.
Job:
- I started a new job in April. It's kicked my butt but it was a good change to make. I still work remotely and would like to have in-person coworkers, but the flexibility is pretty terrific.
Money:
- I got a raise with my job, and continued to save one mortgage payment per quarter in a stock fund. My mortgage rate is super low (3.5%) so prepaying the mortgage doesn't seem like the absolute best return on investment - my theory is that putting the money in the stock market will be worth more after a few years, and barring any catastrophes, will let me pay off my house many years sooner than the bank plans for me to. This year hasn't been all that great for the stock market though, so we'll see how it goes.
- I'm still saving aggressively for retirement: 18% before taxes and 5% after.
- Giving back: needs improvement. I did find a cause near and dear to my heart that I was able to contribute to this year (a small family that is so great and can use support), but I can do more.
Travel:
- It was a big busy year! I spent a week in Puerto Rico on the island of Culebra. I spent a week in Paris. I spent two weeks in Canada - one week in Toronto & one a couple hours north at a cottage with friends. I also went to San Francisco at least four times - for work and for play. And I went to Ashland twice, and to RI for Christmas, and to Walla Walla for a long weekend for a friend's big birthday, and to Hood River for a weekend with my book group, and to Hartstine Island with friends, and I even got to spend an unexpected 2 days in Boston with my former roommate when I couldn't get home as planned after Christmas.
Life:
- I have a boyfriend now, for the first time in a super long time, and that's been a nice adjustment - but an adjustment nonetheless!
- I have a niece now, who is the absolute cutest and best and squishiest two-month-old you ever did see. I got to meet her over Christmas and it made any travel hassles (which were rather epic, actually) so worthwhile and forgettable.
- I got crazy and joined a THIRD book group - we'll see if I can sustain that pace!
Goals:
- Like last year, I slacked off on running in December (even more this year than last) but I see that I was back to running 3x/week in January - that's something to live up to!
- I want to focus on connecting better with the people already in my life. I have to figure out how and where to wedge that in, but I think social dinners will be a good starting point - I've already promised to set something up with a long-time friend and his girlfriend, so I'll start small and will see what I can accomplish.
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Niecey goodness
I have a niece! She's a month old now and I can't wait to meet her at Christmas. She's super expressive in all the photos I've seen, and looks like she's got a lot of opinions - definitely one of us!
So I've been getting my craft on a bit for her. In addition to the blanket and burp cloths I made, I've also been in Hat Mode. I made a very cute small hat:
But, alas, it was TOO small (though the picture of it wedged on her head is classic and makes me laugh). Fortunately I'd made a second, larger hat, which is a bit too big but will at least go on her head. But now I'm making a bigger version of the above hat, and perhaps a little sweater to go with it. It's December 1st! I gotta get on it!
So I've been getting my craft on a bit for her. In addition to the blanket and burp cloths I made, I've also been in Hat Mode. I made a very cute small hat:
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Onion jam update!
A couple of people have asked how the onion jam turned out, and how the swap was.
The jam was SO SO GOOD. I highly recommend making a batch. Make sure you really cook the onions for a long time - you want them soft and brown and sweet. There's no need to process the jam - I'd say after adding all of the post-caramelizing ingredients, stir a lot for maybe 20 minutes, fish out the rosemary if it's still intact, and put the jam in a container in the fridge. It will probably keep fine for about three weeks and would be amazing on turkey sandwiches, or dolloped on pork chops.
The swap was a fun success! There were 10 people there, and I brought 7 jars to swap. Everyone had an open container of their goodies so people could sample, and then the selection process began. We were each assigned a number from one to ten and took turns choosing what we wanted to take home; the selection process went from 1-10 and then backwards from 10-1, and was repeated until we were all done. The first two choosers chose my jam!
There's an honor system in place - since I brought 7 items, I got to choose a total of 7 things, but no one was tracking me. I took home a great haul: beer, limoncello, that quince paste called membrillo that you get on cheese plates sometimes, German mustard pickles, tomato jam, and TWO jars of a BBQ sauce I really really liked.
I liked that some people thought outside the box in terms of offering size - the beer was actually 3 bottles of a homemade IPA; one couple brought small containers of three different things and if a person chose their items, they could have two items count as one selection
All in all it was really fun and well-organized. It was over in an hour, and I'm looking forward to the next one in about six months... and I'm already pondering what I might make!
The jam was SO SO GOOD. I highly recommend making a batch. Make sure you really cook the onions for a long time - you want them soft and brown and sweet. There's no need to process the jam - I'd say after adding all of the post-caramelizing ingredients, stir a lot for maybe 20 minutes, fish out the rosemary if it's still intact, and put the jam in a container in the fridge. It will probably keep fine for about three weeks and would be amazing on turkey sandwiches, or dolloped on pork chops.
The swap was a fun success! There were 10 people there, and I brought 7 jars to swap. Everyone had an open container of their goodies so people could sample, and then the selection process began. We were each assigned a number from one to ten and took turns choosing what we wanted to take home; the selection process went from 1-10 and then backwards from 10-1, and was repeated until we were all done. The first two choosers chose my jam!
There's an honor system in place - since I brought 7 items, I got to choose a total of 7 things, but no one was tracking me. I took home a great haul: beer, limoncello, that quince paste called membrillo that you get on cheese plates sometimes, German mustard pickles, tomato jam, and TWO jars of a BBQ sauce I really really liked.
I liked that some people thought outside the box in terms of offering size - the beer was actually 3 bottles of a homemade IPA; one couple brought small containers of three different things and if a person chose their items, they could have two items count as one selection
All in all it was really fun and well-organized. It was over in an hour, and I'm looking forward to the next one in about six months... and I'm already pondering what I might make!
Crafty goodness
I know, I've been on a bloggy tear. Don't worry, it won't last!
My brother & sister-in-law are expecting a daughter very soon - the family betting pool spans October 30-November 10. I knit her a couple of hats, but they live in a warm place so it's hard to know how much use she'll get out of anything else. I will probably do a sweater at some point, but I'm not in a huge rush.
I DID want to get her some crafty goodness, though, so I asked some super-crafty friends for very (VERY!!!) easy sewing projects I could do. I was counseled to do a very simple blanket, and some burp cloths.
Blanket directions:
1. Cut two squares of fabric of the same size
2. Line them up face to face
3. Sew them together, leaving a four-inch gap in the stitching
4. Turn the bundle inside-out through that gap
5. Hand-sew that hole closed
6. Do another round of stitches around the whole thing
7. Do some stitching in random spots in the center area of the blanket so the two sides stay attached to each other.
This took me a LOT longer than it should have, but I got it done and am pleased with the results. The cloudy side is flannel and the pink side is cotton; I thought I pretty cleverly made the stitching-down bits look like rain.
Burp cloth directions:
1. Cut a skinny strip of fabric the approximate length & width of the center of a cloth diaper
2. Hem the strip all around
3. Sew it to the center of the diaper
This was faster, and not really as satisfying. Maybe I need EVEN CUTER fabric if I do this again. (See that? I'm already forgetting the teeth-gnashing involved in this project...)
I mailed the crafty goodness off to the expecting couple and they were quite pleased. These were their first burp cloths, so they promptly draped them all over their shoulders as a test run. We were on a Skype video chat and it was quite fun to watch!
My brother & sister-in-law are expecting a daughter very soon - the family betting pool spans October 30-November 10. I knit her a couple of hats, but they live in a warm place so it's hard to know how much use she'll get out of anything else. I will probably do a sweater at some point, but I'm not in a huge rush.
I DID want to get her some crafty goodness, though, so I asked some super-crafty friends for very (VERY!!!) easy sewing projects I could do. I was counseled to do a very simple blanket, and some burp cloths.
Blanket directions:
1. Cut two squares of fabric of the same size
2. Line them up face to face
3. Sew them together, leaving a four-inch gap in the stitching
4. Turn the bundle inside-out through that gap
5. Hand-sew that hole closed
6. Do another round of stitches around the whole thing
7. Do some stitching in random spots in the center area of the blanket so the two sides stay attached to each other.
This took me a LOT longer than it should have, but I got it done and am pleased with the results. The cloudy side is flannel and the pink side is cotton; I thought I pretty cleverly made the stitching-down bits look like rain.
Burp cloth directions:
1. Cut a skinny strip of fabric the approximate length & width of the center of a cloth diaper
2. Hem the strip all around
3. Sew it to the center of the diaper
This was faster, and not really as satisfying. Maybe I need EVEN CUTER fabric if I do this again. (See that? I'm already forgetting the teeth-gnashing involved in this project...)
I mailed the crafty goodness off to the expecting couple and they were quite pleased. These were their first burp cloths, so they promptly draped them all over their shoulders as a test run. We were on a Skype video chat and it was quite fun to watch!
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Onion math
I'm going to a food swap next weekend - organized by some foodie people (women, I assume, but I don't know for sure!) and so of course I wanted to make something delicious, not too hard, not too common, not too expensive... which wasn't an easy task!
In the end I decided to make Caramelized Onion Jam using a recipe I found online. Then I doubled it - and it's a good thing! Onions get very very small when you cook them!
Take 12 onions, chop them and saute until they soften then put over low heat, stirring regularly, for a few hours. I think mine took about 3 hours to fully caramelize.
In the end I decided to make Caramelized Onion Jam using a recipe I found online. Then I doubled it - and it's a good thing! Onions get very very small when you cook them!
Take 12 onions, chop them and saute until they soften then put over low heat, stirring regularly, for a few hours. I think mine took about 3 hours to fully caramelize.
12 onions - in two pots!
12 onions, 3 hours later, consolidated in one large skillet
Add brandy, vinegar, honey, sugar, salt, pepper, and rosemary.
In the end you'll get six 8-ounce jars. That's two onions per jar!
The way the swap will work, we'll let everyone sample what we bring, then we draw numbers and take turns picking what we want to bring home. If you bring six items, you'll go home with six, in theory.
I made another smaller batch of the jam, so I have a total of nine jars. One will be for sampling, one I may hold back, and that means I'll bring 7 to the swap.. I think. We'll see!
Want to know how the jam came out? Check out this later post!
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Pomegranate goodness!
I know, I've been HORRIBLY lax! It's been a super busy year - I got a new job that requires a lot more focus and brainpower than my last one did: I traveled less and worked more and cooked less and all in all - not a lot of blog-fodder.
But, I was going to a ladies' dessert & drinks night this past weekend, and I was trying to think of something seasonal, and appealing, and easy, and not too dish-intensive. (what has become of me? so sad!)
Out of nowhere I recalled that I'd seen pomegranates at the grocery store, and I wondered if anyone had put them in brownies before? I turned to the internet and indeed they had.
Very easy recipe:
A. melt together: 170g dark chocolate, 70% and 1/2 cup butter
B. while that cools, whisk together: 3 eggs, 1 cup white sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1/2 tsp. salt
C. stir A into B, then stir in 1/2 cup all purpose flour
D. Finally, stir in MOST of the seeds from 1 pomegranate - reserve about 1/4 c (see note below about seeding a pomegranate). Then you sprinkle the rest of the seeds on top and push them in a little. I should have been more careful about where I sprinkled mine, but oh well!
Put the batter into a prepared pan (sprayed or parchment paper-lined or greased/floured) and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes. Mine came out more fudgey than cakey and I possibly should have baked them a bit longer, but oh well. I'd done a 9-inch square pan and thought since they were skinny they might be getting dry inside... nope!
I had a bunch of the brownies left over, unfortunately - mine were among three other brownie-type dishes brought to the event. Next time I will be more creative!
Note: While I was at that internet searching business, I watched a video about how to seed pomegranates. I find it really annoying that so many blogs are turning to video content (I just want to read!!!) but I did watch a video for this technique, and then I tried it. It works! You cut the pom in half, pull the edges apart to loosen up the pith a bit, turn the half upside down over a bowl, and smack it repeatedly with a large wooden spoon. This seems to shake the seeds loose from the pith without making a giant splattery mess.
But, I was going to a ladies' dessert & drinks night this past weekend, and I was trying to think of something seasonal, and appealing, and easy, and not too dish-intensive. (what has become of me? so sad!)
Out of nowhere I recalled that I'd seen pomegranates at the grocery store, and I wondered if anyone had put them in brownies before? I turned to the internet and indeed they had.
Very easy recipe:
A. melt together: 170g dark chocolate, 70% and 1/2 cup butter
B. while that cools, whisk together: 3 eggs, 1 cup white sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1/2 tsp. salt
C. stir A into B, then stir in 1/2 cup all purpose flour
D. Finally, stir in MOST of the seeds from 1 pomegranate - reserve about 1/4 c (see note below about seeding a pomegranate). Then you sprinkle the rest of the seeds on top and push them in a little. I should have been more careful about where I sprinkled mine, but oh well!
Put the batter into a prepared pan (sprayed or parchment paper-lined or greased/floured) and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes. Mine came out more fudgey than cakey and I possibly should have baked them a bit longer, but oh well. I'd done a 9-inch square pan and thought since they were skinny they might be getting dry inside... nope!
I had a bunch of the brownies left over, unfortunately - mine were among three other brownie-type dishes brought to the event. Next time I will be more creative!
Note: While I was at that internet searching business, I watched a video about how to seed pomegranates. I find it really annoying that so many blogs are turning to video content (I just want to read!!!) but I did watch a video for this technique, and then I tried it. It works! You cut the pom in half, pull the edges apart to loosen up the pith a bit, turn the half upside down over a bowl, and smack it repeatedly with a large wooden spoon. This seems to shake the seeds loose from the pith without making a giant splattery mess.
Monday, September 14, 2015
I've got sunshine...
...on a cloudy day!
It's been a long, hot, sticky summer and I for one am excited to welcome fall, and hopefully some rainy weather. Today it didn't get any warmer than 60, and even though I have almost no food in the house, I managed to throw together a little something on my stovetop.
Rainy day lentils
1) Mince four garlic cloves and an inch-long piece of ginger. Saute in olive oil. Add 4 ounces of red lentils and a can of light coconut milk; let simmer.
2) In a separate pot, make some sort of rice or mixed grain. I have a nine-grain blend I got from an Asian supermarket in California. I added soup base to the water to give it a bit more flavor.
Combine and enjoy a rainy-day treat!
It's been a long, hot, sticky summer and I for one am excited to welcome fall, and hopefully some rainy weather. Today it didn't get any warmer than 60, and even though I have almost no food in the house, I managed to throw together a little something on my stovetop.
Rainy day lentils
1) Mince four garlic cloves and an inch-long piece of ginger. Saute in olive oil. Add 4 ounces of red lentils and a can of light coconut milk; let simmer.
2) In a separate pot, make some sort of rice or mixed grain. I have a nine-grain blend I got from an Asian supermarket in California. I added soup base to the water to give it a bit more flavor.
Combine and enjoy a rainy-day treat!
Thursday, August 6, 2015
Mount Saint Helens - to the summit!
After seven months of training and over 100 miles on the trails, I was as ready as I was going to be for Mount Saint Helens. My friend Julie got ten permits (100 people per day get to go for the summit in the summer time) and there were six of us from Portland and four from Seattle.
I'd hiked with each person on Team Portland at least once, and it seemed like my pace was a good mesh with at least a couple other hikers. The other three were faster, but didn't seem to mind regrouping regularly, so we planned to just stick together for the most part.
The MSH trail is an out and back, on a route called Monitor Ridge. It's under 5 miles one-way, and I knew that the trail was broken up like so:
- 1/3 slight elevation climb along a forested trail
- 1/3 "trail" in a boulder-strewn wall, with a ton of elevation gain
- 1/3 trudge/scramble/two steps forward, one step back along an ashy slope.
The entire elevation gain is 4665 feet, with the peak at an elevation of 8280 feet. The vast majority of the climbing occurs in about 3 miles.
The hike was super tough, both physically and psychologically. One person in our group has done the hike many times, but never in summer - only when there is lots of snow on the mountain. Then, he said, all the boulder field is covered by snow, so you just snowshoe on up! Of course, you also have to start a couple miles further away from the trailhead...
Fortunately I'd read a recommendation somewhere online to bring sturdy work gloves. I used my hands a LOT on the scramble up and down, and would have shredded my palms and fingers without my trusty leather gardening gloves.
We got lucky with the weather - it was warm but not hot, and we had cloud cover much of the time. We got one wind/rain squall, right after we cleared the boulder field on the way up, but it abated pretty quickly and I didn't even bring out my warm jacket, though I did put on a hat and long-sleeve layer for a while. We all had plenty of food and water - in all I drank nearly all the 5 liters of water I brought, but I didn't run out!
I was most despairing when we stopped for lunch. We started hiking at 7am, and at 12:40 the top still looked impossibly far away. We (I, anyway!) had a tentative plan to turn around at 2pm - my logic was that we'd have been hiking 7 hours by then, and could spend nearly that long coming down, and I didn't want to get caught out in the dark if I could help it. Others on my group wanted to go for the summit no matter what, and I was nervous about the possible consequences.
At 2pm we weren't at the summit, and it still seemed a ways away, but at least we were out of the boulders and onto the steep rocky/ashy slope. We decided to go for it (summit fever is real!) and I made the summit at 2:10. Woooooo!
One of my friends stopped about 20 minutes short of the summit, just feeling too maxed out. But she was close enough that she could hear our voices, and after some reflection and regrouping, she decided to go for it after all. Fortunately I spotted her attempt to join us, just before she was obscured by a rise in the ground. One of the fitter members of our group went down to confirm she was in fact making an attempt for the top, and kept her company on the way back up. I was grateful he was able to be so nice, because I did NOT want to cover any bonus ground myself!
We hung out at the rim for a while, taking pictures and enjoying the moment. Then, however, we had to face the fact that we were only halfway done with our hike! Going down was still super hard, and I was so so tired already... I didn't take a single picture of the descent!
The last two miles of trail (the wooded, gradual grade) felt like they took forever...but I officially signed us off the trail at 7:21 - for a total of 12:21 hiking. What an accomplishment!!!! My body is still sore four days later, but I'm slowly getting back to normal.
I'm actually toying with doing South Sister next year... we'll see!
Every hiking party has to sign in and out, so they know if they have to come looking for you.
I'd hiked with each person on Team Portland at least once, and it seemed like my pace was a good mesh with at least a couple other hikers. The other three were faster, but didn't seem to mind regrouping regularly, so we planned to just stick together for the most part.
View of Mount Adams
The MSH trail is an out and back, on a route called Monitor Ridge. It's under 5 miles one-way, and I knew that the trail was broken up like so:
- 1/3 slight elevation climb along a forested trail
- 1/3 "trail" in a boulder-strewn wall, with a ton of elevation gain
- 1/3 trudge/scramble/two steps forward, one step back along an ashy slope.
The entire elevation gain is 4665 feet, with the peak at an elevation of 8280 feet. The vast majority of the climbing occurs in about 3 miles.
An idea of the terrain we had to climb - for hours.
The hike was super tough, both physically and psychologically. One person in our group has done the hike many times, but never in summer - only when there is lots of snow on the mountain. Then, he said, all the boulder field is covered by snow, so you just snowshoe on up! Of course, you also have to start a couple miles further away from the trailhead...
Fortunately I'd read a recommendation somewhere online to bring sturdy work gloves. I used my hands a LOT on the scramble up and down, and would have shredded my palms and fingers without my trusty leather gardening gloves.
View from lunch - we'd come a long way!
We got lucky with the weather - it was warm but not hot, and we had cloud cover much of the time. We got one wind/rain squall, right after we cleared the boulder field on the way up, but it abated pretty quickly and I didn't even bring out my warm jacket, though I did put on a hat and long-sleeve layer for a while. We all had plenty of food and water - in all I drank nearly all the 5 liters of water I brought, but I didn't run out!
We still had a very long-looking way to go - that lighter brown is the rim, and there are people up there.
It took us about 90 more minutes of uphill hiking to get there.
I was most despairing when we stopped for lunch. We started hiking at 7am, and at 12:40 the top still looked impossibly far away. We (I, anyway!) had a tentative plan to turn around at 2pm - my logic was that we'd have been hiking 7 hours by then, and could spend nearly that long coming down, and I didn't want to get caught out in the dark if I could help it. Others on my group wanted to go for the summit no matter what, and I was nervous about the possible consequences.
It was a relief to get out of the boulder field, though the going was by no means easy!
At 2pm we weren't at the summit, and it still seemed a ways away, but at least we were out of the boulders and onto the steep rocky/ashy slope. We decided to go for it (summit fever is real!) and I made the summit at 2:10. Woooooo!
Dramatic summiting shot.
One of my friends stopped about 20 minutes short of the summit, just feeling too maxed out. But she was close enough that she could hear our voices, and after some reflection and regrouping, she decided to go for it after all. Fortunately I spotted her attempt to join us, just before she was obscured by a rise in the ground. One of the fitter members of our group went down to confirm she was in fact making an attempt for the top, and kept her company on the way back up. I was grateful he was able to be so nice, because I did NOT want to cover any bonus ground myself!
Looking down into the crater. It was hard to get a decent shot!
We hung out at the rim for a while, taking pictures and enjoying the moment. Then, however, we had to face the fact that we were only halfway done with our hike! Going down was still super hard, and I was so so tired already... I didn't take a single picture of the descent!
Triumphant group shot (of most of us)
The last two miles of trail (the wooded, gradual grade) felt like they took forever...but I officially signed us off the trail at 7:21 - for a total of 12:21 hiking. What an accomplishment!!!! My body is still sore four days later, but I'm slowly getting back to normal.
This is how we all felt!
I'm actually toying with doing South Sister next year... we'll see!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
