So Much To Do...

Photo taken from Beaver Creek Guest Ranch lodge porch

...so little time.

I'm going to take a couple days later this week and spend them at Beaver Creek Guest Ranch
in the White Mountains of Arizona. This is the place I've gone to before to get work done on various fabric art projects and even a couple quilts.

I'm not a domestic type person, as you might have figured out if you've read previous posts here. The quilts I've made at these quilting retreats are for my bed, and I don't need to keep making them, so I am free to focus on wall hangings. That's where my creative juices are stirred.

As with my approach to domestic matters, I'm not much for following rules when it comes to quilting type stuff. If I read directions carefully, it's so I can figure out how to deviate from them. Once I've tried a technique the "right" way, it's my joy to see how I can tweak the process to get something very different.

That means, of course, that there are a few failures along the way.

Unlike with my bread-baking adventures (and the BBQ baking method is working quite well, thank you very much for asking) I can't just toss the failures to the dogs or chickens (or compost) to take care of. But that's OK. Quilters have a tradition of always having a few UFOs (UnFinished Objects) hidden from the light of day. These are projects you realized along the way you didn't love as much as you thought, or that required more technical skills than you had at the time, or that you simply haven't gotten around to dealing with because Life Gets In The Way.

Collect enough UFOs and you earn your quilters' PhD (Projects Half Done). I have a few PhDs now. I should get a raise.

So the other day I decided to clear out my sewing tool box, because I couldn't stuff anything more in it that I wanted to bring. Surely there would be a few items from old project that I didn't need to haul around.

Perhaps that box with false eyelashes didn't have to go with me this time. Thumbtacks: Will I need them? Have I ever used thumbtacks at a quilt retreat? I certainly don't need all those pencils and pens, especially since most of the ink in the pens has dried up (a hazard of living in arid country). Ditto for glue. Empty boxes and baggies with holes in them, five sets of tiny straight pins too small to use for anything (but they have such pretty crystal balls at the ends), hooks and snaps and buttons (sheesh, you'd think I was sewing clothes). Oil pastels. Fancy quilters thingamajigs that I've never taken out of the package. 

And even more.

Satiny fabric and metallic fabric and glittery ribbon.
I like sparkly stuff.

In the end, my tool box had tons more room, even when refilled with stuff I know I'll actually use.  Maybe that balances the extra fabric I decided I should bring in case I get inspired to work on something other than the UFOs I'm determined to finish.

Two days.  That's all I'll be up there.  Wonder if everything I want to bring will fit in the car or should I use the pickup truck...

Summertime and the living ain't easy

This morning started out so well. After completing my regular chores I decided to tackle a task I've been putting off for a while. I've got a spot where summer floods have caused enough erosion to expose water line, and I've been avoiding a real fix by having a neighbor come over with a dump truck load of fill. But every summer it rains again and the valley floods again and the fill washes away. This has been going on for several years.

Some months ago I decided to get going on a permanent fix. I placed old tires in the gully, overlapping them on their sides. My plan was to anchor them with t-posts and fill them with rocks, the manual labor for which was not much fun.  After moving the tires I decided I had achieved enough for a while.

Well, now that summer is here the monsoon rains can't be too long in coming. The floods can carry stuff for miles and miles so if I don't get those t-posts in the tires will be gone. The tires aren't worth anything so they'd be no great loss to me -- there are plenty more where they came from -- but they would be litter for someone else. And besides, that would be more work for me.

Last night I woke up in the wee hours worrying about all the stuff I hadn't done that needed doing before the rains start. Top of that list was the erosion problem. I decided I'd do something about it today, and I promptly fell back to sleep.

This morning I remembered my decision and went at it. As you can see from the photo, the project is still in process.

I've just put arnica salve on my left foot where I dropped a t-post on it. I don't know why that's the foot that hurts so much because I dropped two t-posts on my right foot. But hey, the posts only fell a couple of feet - it could have been worse.

My back hurts, too. I got one post in. I guess if I was a buff young cowboy I'd have gotten them all in, but I'm practically an old lady, fer cryin' out loud. I'm proud I can lift the damn post-hole driver at all, much less pound in a post. One at a time is good enough progress for me.

The big question is: will I sleep better tonight or will I be forced to promise myself to pound in another post tomorrow, too? I hope not. I've got weeks and weeks till the rains start and finishing the job now would be so counter to the whole mañana ethic of my life.

A dream of a recipe

I should start out by saying that I am not a Johnny Cash fan.  Partly it's because I can't stand most country

Young Johnny Cash in studio

music (there are a few exceptions - but I even avoid those) and partly because with his nasal voice and his dreary stereotypical subject matter, he epitomizes everything about country music that I can't stand.

So this morning I woke from a bad dream that had Johnny Cash as the focus.  

I dreamed that I was required to transcribe a Johnny Cash music video as it was being recorded in a studio by Mr. Cash.  Although there would be no audience, the recording would be a straight run-through with no interruptions and no retakes.  I talked with the man but briefly, and only in preparation for the work.  There was a lot of pressure on me to get it right.  

And then the very first song that he did was a recipe for Chinese chicken salad.

Needless to say, I woke up before getting into that nightmare of a dream. 

Maybe not so coincidentally I came across an interesting recipe for Asian chicken salad recently that I'm eager to try.  I'll share it here.  I may omit the habanero sauce.  The jury's out as to the hot pepper sesame oil.  Plain sesame would be just fine, seems to me.

Asian Chicken Salad

• 2 cups shredded carrots
• 1 head large cabbage, chopped into very thin strips
• 2 tbsp  cilantro
• 1 tbsp  sesame Seeds
• 4 cups cooked shredded chicken

• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 / 4 cup white wine Vinegar
• 2 tsp  ginger (ground)
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp hoisin sauce
• 1 tbsp  hot pepper sesame oil
• 1 tsp habanero pepper sauce
• 1 / 4 tsp salt blend
• 5 whole chopped green onions, green and white parts

In a small bowl or jar with a lid, add soy sauce, vinegar, ginger, olive oil, hoisin sauce, hot pepper sesame oil, pepper sauce, salt and chopped green onions. Secure the lid and shake vigorously.

In a large plastic bag or large bowl, combine chopped cabbage, shredded carrots, cilantro, sesame seeds and shredded chicken. 

Add enough prepared dressing to coat and toss until well incorporated. Adjust amount of dressing as needed.

 

Makes 9 servings @ 1.5 cup.

Bread report: Tangy and tasty

I baked the sourdough bread I started two days ago on the wood stove this morning. Grill baking will wait till I can get a small propane tank filled. This dough was from a different recipe for grill baking: the baking temperature is a lot hotter and the dough a lot stickier. But it had risen nicely by this morning and I had high hopes for good bread no matter what.

When I took the bread off the wood stove I let it cool in the pan a bit before flipping it out onto the rack. But oops, the top was still unbaked dough. It stuck to the rack when I picked up the loaf (hence that crustless space in the center).  Stuck to my fingers too. I put the loaf back on the stove, upside down this time, and baked it further. 

It doesn't look too bad and look at those nice holes in the loaf. So far my bread's been kind of evenly grained like store-bought white bread. Eeeeew!  I wanted those holes! So good for catching melted butter when the bread's warm. And yes, so very tasty.

My sourdough starter is nice and strong now, meaning it's very forgiving. Good thing, too, because obviously I need a starter like that!

Bread baking adventures - baking on a grill

In another life I was a mad scientist. In this one I'm a modern contrarian.

As those who know me are aware, my idea of fun is to try something new and different without reading the directions. I guess it must be something in my personality, or my astrological chart or some deep-seated neurosis from my childhood.  Be that as it may, reading -- much less following -- directions is so not me.

I decided some years back that because I love sourdough bread, I should make my own. How that developed is a story for another time, but I am now accomplished at baking bread on top of a wood stove (not in a Dutch oven).

That's well and good, but as spring progresses, the days are warming up to the point where I don't particularly want to be building fires in the wood stove, even first thing in the morning. So my most recent adventure is learning how to bake a loaf of bread on an outdoor grill.

Oh no, no, no. Don't you go thinking I'm weird. I Googled it and discovered baking bread on a gas grill is old hat. Lots of people do it (and here I thought I'd come up with something unusual). Besides, this is legitimate research: The other day I got invited to a friend's house to make pizzas in her new outdoor pizza oven. I want one, not so much for pizza (though I'd use it for that, too) but for break baking.

But wow, what an investment in time and labor to build one. Hence the grill. If I learn to use it and like baking bread outdoor enough to keep using it, maybe I can justify building a nice wood-fired oven over in a corner of the yard.

So okay. Research.

Not that I was going to read the directions closely, mind you, but I did skim through a few web pages to get the gist of it. Part of my tendency to skim is because unfortunately much of the info out there for the weird projects I do is useless (poorly written, written by people who've obviously never done it, or the instructions call for equipment I don't have). I figure if the instructions have to be worked around there's no point in reading closely, right? 

And yes, I will have to do some creative work-arounds for baking bread on a grill. For one thing my grill is older. It doesn't have a fancy two-level rack system to keep the bread from getting scorched by the flames, nor does it have a built-in thermometer. For another thing I want to use the heavy enameled cast-iron bread baking bowl I always use, not a stone cloche (really?) or a pizza stone (could I just use a rock?) or doubled cookie sheets (who knows where mine are). 

And for that matter... where is my grill, anyway?

So, earlier today I decided I should be proactive and get the grill out from where it's been stored for several years. I had to use a shovel to dig a hole to lower it so I could pull it out from under... no, no point in going there. Let me simply say I got it out of where it's been stored and tugged it over to my yard next to the house. Opened it up and whoa. Good thing I was being proactive. Lots of dust in there. It would be a good idea to see if the grill would even ignite and hold a flame, and of course doing so would burn off the cobwebs, too.

Then the next question: Which, if any, of my propane tanks actually had gas in it? Hint: None of the small tanks that I can lift. I eyeballed the four-foot tall tank that requires my using a hand cart to move it. I thought about how I'd have to unhook it from what it was hooked up to, and the gymnastics that would entail. I thought about how much easier it would be to get a propane tank filled next time I'm in town. 

See how these things go?

Looks like I will bake this next loaf of bread on the wood stove after all. It's not nearly as warm in the house as I thought. A fire would be nice. Yes it would. Really.

Dense Bodies: The Classics Revisited

"The Trojans advanced in a dense body, with Hector at their head..."

~ Homer, The Illiad

The Illiad.  Those Trojans.  Really!!

The Classics.  We were forced to read them as helpless children.  They break all the rules of writing we've been taught.  Run-on sentences?  Please! I have no respect left, what can I say. But honestly, the Illiad can sometimes be a yawner and my attention tends to wander. And this is the kind of thing that happens.

But seriously: if Dwayne Johnson doesn't have a dense body, then who does? Well, OK, there is The Hulk, but isn't The Rock a lot cuter?

Putting it out there

It seems to me that the more you put your wishes out into the world, the more likely they are to come true. Can't hurt, can it? Besides, I figure if Amazon is nice enough to ask what I want, I can let them know.