Cheese at the Farmer's Market

Finally we have cheese at the Farmer's Market in Shreveport. I am so excited.

The cheese makers come from south of Dallas, which seems like a very far piece to come, so I hope they had an excellent day and will be back. They sell artisan cheeses made from milk from their own cows, so this is the real thing.

I got some nice feta, which I am using for supper tonight mixed with tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, also from the marker. I added just a hint of ground Jalapeno Pepper, a market find and some oil, also market available. It will be a wonderful addition to the cucumber salad I made with the other half of the one I cut up with the feta. Had to use Greek Yogurt from Kroger, as there is no yogurt at the market yet. As the main dish, a spinach pie (just warm it up in the oven). How do I survive without the market?

Have some cheddar, which will go well with cauliflower to make a cheese soup, and, for school lunch next week, pepper jack. The market just makes Saturday as far as I am concerned.

Thanks to Noma for seeking and finding some interesting vendors.

Pumpkin & Lentil Soup

It has been raining here for the past 20 hours, so the perfect time to make some comfort food. What could be more comforting than soup?


I got pie pumpkins at Kroger last week, 2 for $4, which was a bargain I think and today was the perfect day to use one of them. What I love about this kind of soup is that the only waste is the stem. Very eco-friendly and healthy.


First cut the pumpkin in half and scooped out the seeds. Put the seeds into a small pan with a bit of oil, salt and various spices. I personally like Indian. Coat the inside of the pumpkin with a bit of oil, salt, pepper and spices. Indian again for me, though even sweet spices might be good. It depends on your taste. Bake both seeds and pumpkin in a 325 oven for an hour or so, until the seeds are crunchy and the pumpkin is soft.


Meanwhile, start some yellow lentils with salt (not much), cayenne pepper, and some onion powder. Also brown some onion and two stalks of celery. Add these to the lentils, and, when it is baked nicely, add the pumpkin, skin and all. Boil the whole in water just to cover and then shut it down to cool.


I worked the Revel of an hour or so and when I got home put the soup into the blender a bit at a time to make it creamy. Serve with a nice big spoonful of plain yogurt on top. Splendid.


Will take the seeds to school for a snack tomorrow. Lots of soup left for an easy Monday.

Natchitoches Meat Pie Fish

I am the "Artist for a Day" in the children's section of the Red River Revel on Monday and as such needed a project to teach. Came up with a new way to make fish, or at least I cannot find the idea anywhere on the web, so it is new to me. There is one thing I have learned, however, and that is that no matter how novel the idea seems, there is probably someone out there in art idea land someplace who has had the same brain storm before.


The fish I am teaching are made from a pancake of self-drying clay with a triangle cut tail section. The rest is then brought together much like a meat pie. The mouth is left open and eyes and fins are added. The nice thing about self-drying clay is that in a day or two it gets hard enough to paint with watercolors, tempera or acrylic.


I like this idea for the regional appeal. Plus, it is so easy that even a three year old can do it with a little bit of help. Perfect for the Revel.

Quilt on Second Thought

After thinking for a week that I really didn't have, my chioce is...

This is the location of a drum roll, or one verse of "Scotland the Brave"-

To just go ahead and do what I was going to do anyway before I went around hunting up compliments from my husband and justification from Kaye, my quilting expert.

Decided to use the photo option this time just to spice up the blog a bit. It is not sewn together yet, so this is just an approximation.

I don't really care anymore what anyone thinks. The beauty of this blog is that no one reads it, so I can say anything I want and get things out without critical worry. Where I live a blog can spark tons of criticism and many arguments. Right now there is a big debate going on about authentic criticism of local theater. Lots of raw feelings about this. Don't think personal feelings about my quilting decisions will have quite the ability to spark a fire.

Of all the uses for blogs, I think this one is best. Say what I want for anyone to read, so not just writing a letter then burning it, but knowing that it will remain a rant!

Baby Quilt

Sooooo, haven't done a quilt since the one I made for Edward when he was still a twinkle, and now, too late, I find that quilting has come into the 21st century along with everything else. But me? I'm stuck in the 80's. However, my newest grand-baby will be strictly up to date.

Could be worse, I'm thinking, as I could be stuck in the 70's or 60's, but back in the 80's good scissors were still a tool that was cool. Now, if you don't own a roto-cutter and a self healing cutting board, you are in the dust. A 21st century quilt is expected to be exact. A 21st century quilter is expected to be precise.

Additionally I'm told that the squares, well, nearly squares, that I made are not really baby appropriate and my expert would rip most of it apart, down to the size a baby would appreciate.

So my conundrum: Should I just start over and save the really nice, even if I do say so myself, sort-of-squares for an interesting, if unfortunately skewed, larger quilt? Or do as she suggests and rip, rip rip? I'm leaning to a new start with new tools. After all I have learned tons from this and I like what I have done.

I like unfortunately skewed anyhow, sort of a metaphor for life. Anytime I have to explain my metaphors, they are probably not that effective. Story of...

A week of painting

Going with the process not product theme that I started this year, we have had a week of nothing but painting. Started with monochromatic work. Kids got one primary color tempera and mixed a shade and a tint. Nice results.

Then tempera again, but all three primary colors plus white and black. Kids got a six section palette to mix colors.

Finally watercolors. We did a wash the first day to give a nice painting base. Adding details to the wash for two days with smaller brushes.

I'm blown away with the fun, but hard work keeping all ten classes clean and done in half-an-hour!

Lots of pictures on the school web page!

Portfolios and Graffiti

Started work on the cover of portfolios with the kids today. Using "Tag" graffiti, so have to explain all about when and where it is all right to use graffiti. Hope that message got through.

Some of the children caught on right away and it was exciting to see the art they did. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Used the Banksy art in New Orleans as an intro to graffiti. Amazing stuff! And the kids really did get the message. Here is the link:

http://www.banksy.co.uk/outdoors/horizontal_1.htm

WWDVD

First day of school:
That's right, the little chicklets are starting to follow us around and listen to every word we have in the old brain bank.

It just amazes me that the wisdom from one teacher is sometimes soundly trounced and contradicted the next year, but I'm in the lucky position that no one cares too much what I teach, so no one tries to impart their wayward ways over the jewels of knowledge I impart.

In this vein, I had a WWDVD day today as daVinci is going to be our artistic go-to player this year. I say "Mona," you say "Lisa."

Beet Greens and Mint Chutney

This may be a bit oxymoronic, but the beet greens turned out very tasty, simple as they were, with a rosy red pot-liquor to boot. No need to make them into soup, though they would be a good soup add-on. I think beet greens are my favorite of all greens! Who'd-a-thunk-it.

Beet salad: extremely red and just the right amount of seasoning. We will see in the morning if we have an energy boost as advertised. Had lots left for another energetic supper tomorrow and the next day too. We should be leaping tall buildings by Wednesday, which is very lucky as that is my first day with kidos and I always need a little something extra until I get swinging.

Made mint chutney as well using all three kinds of mint from the herb garden, where it is trying like mad to take over. Experimented two ways: one with yogurt and one with red onions. Found a nice spice mix at the Indian Market, so that made it quite easy. Used the mortar and pestle to blend the rough chopped leaves. After watching the Julia movie, thought it only right to go at things the traditional way, even though I sort of cheated with the mix. Jack liked the oniony one, so that is probably the way to go. Keep the troops happy is my motto.

Raw Beet Salad

Ever since we read on the BBC site that beetroot juice can increase stamina, Jack and I have been trying to find this rare commodity. We haven't tried too hard as we have only been to the Farmer's Market (closes Sept. 5th) and three different grocery stores, so it may be available at the healthy food store. That place is just a little off my normal shopping route, so I will have to make a special trip.

In the meantime, I finally found fresh organic beets, with the greens attached at the "good" Kroger. "Good" meaning the one in the strip mall in the middle of the higher rent section of town. After managing to find beetroot and educating the staff that radishes were not just really small beets, brought the beets home, trimmed the greens and set them to cook independently in a bit of water with salt and pepper. I think this will be all they need. I really hate to throw things away. If this doesn't work, they will definitely be part of the next pot of vegi soup. All good!

I peeled the beets, though if it were just me, I would have probably just scrubbed them really well and grated the whole. There were three in the bunch which was a big bit for salad so we will have plenty. Then I grated a carrot and some ginger. To this I added fresh squeezed lemon and a drizzle of olive oil. Salt and pepper topped the whole off. It is marinating in the fridge just now, all ready for supper.

I'll see if we have extra energy for tomorrow's run, and if the greens and salad are up to JACK'S STANDARDS.

Edward Cooks

No more figs, thank goodness. I will be sorry about that soon I'll bet.

The good news is that Edward, the twenty year old, soon to be legal, son at school down in Natchitoches, is learning to cook; well teaching himself more exactly.

Last week he picture-texted me twice. The first time he made lasagna and the next stuffed manicotti. Pasta all the way.

By the time he graduates (one more year) he will have a whole recipe book. Wonder if you can do them short enough for twitter. That would be a good trick.

Respectable Doings with Figs

Here is the best one yet:

Fig, rosemary and goat cheese spread on Market bread.

Slice the tomato-basil bread from the market thinly and toast. Mix mashed figs with chopped rosemary and goat cheese. Spread on the toast and broil for a few.

Lovely.

The fig chutney turned out great by the way! Very nice with chopped fresh ginger. I have a small container in the fridge and several small freezer baggies for a time when figs are not taking over.

Fig bread, on the other hand, not so good. Pudding again...

Going Figgy

I have given away almost as many figs as my friends can stand, and still count them among my friends, so I'm thinkin' of ways to save figs for the future...

Ideas:
Dry them. My state of the art oven has a drying feature and they will be ready in a day or two. Oven isn't really state of the art, but I'm trying to keep the oven on my good side.

Fig bread. But not too much, and follow the recipe closely. Sometimes I play just a bit too much and it turns out more like pudding. Maybe some muffins, too.

Fig Chutney. This sounds really good to me. I'm not much of a canner, but I'm a-thinking I can get some of those little freezer bags and freeze up a few batches.

We will see what happens.

Figs for the Future. Has a certain ring.

Squash Soup

I read lots of soup recipes and have a couple of twists to make your soup life easier.

Firstly, use what ever sort of squash you can find at the market. I don't even know the names of all of the squash I used this time. There is a turban squash, something that looks like an acorn squash, but with a white flesh, zucchini, and some sort of yellow squash that looks like butternut, but with a different shape.

Secondly, cut the big seeded squash in half, take out the seeds and rub the inside with olive oil. Put these cut side down in a roasting pan. Add the quartered onions, garlic cloves, carrots, zucchini, celery ribs including the leaves and drizzle a bit of olive oil over the whole. Roast in a hot oven until the big squash is tender and the rest of the veggies are getting a nice brown color around the edges.

I used a frozen container of chicken stock with all of the fat skimmed off. You don't have to do this in advance. The fat will be frozen on top and you can just scrape it off. Easy.

Dump all of the roasted veggies except the big squash on top of the frozen lump of stock. Before you dump in the big squash, cut off the stem ends, but you don't have to peel the squash. This is a real time and energy saver.

With a slotted spoon take out all of the veggies (putting them on the frozen stock cooled the veggies quickly and melted the stock at the same time!) and put them in the blender. Blend until very smooth. Stringy squash will not be stringy; skins will not be a problem but will add some color and fiber.

It will be so smooth that added cream will not be necessary. Salt and pepper are really the only things necessary to spice it up, but if you have some other things you make want to play. Some recipes call for cinnamon and brown sugar. I think a bit of hot sauce would be nice, but then I do live in Louisiana and we do hot sauce with ice cream. It depends on what you like.

Many recipes call for a spoonful of sour cream on top, but what about plain yogurt instead?