Bowls of Cherries

This weekend was filled with joyful and fun events. Friday night we went to the DeYoung museum to see the end of the quilt exhibit. It was neat to see some Amish quilts from Arthur on the wall of a museum. It made me miss all the quilt auctions I have attended there and the beautiful quilts that were always offered. We also saw the newest exhibit that is visiting from France highlighting the beginning paintings of the Impressionists. It was a great show, and some of my favorite paintings were there for me to see in person and up close. It was also nice that we went on the Friday night as there were few people in the gallery when we were in there, so you could spend some good quality time with each canvas. On Sunday I went to a friend's baby blessing ceremony. It was beautiful and very relaxing. The setting was just gorgeous, and the women there were so friendly and wonderful. The above picture is of the blankets I made for the new baby we are all awaiting. They were fun and quick to make. I got the wonderful idea for them from a knitting group friend's blog. Brilliant and easy! I did mine a bit differently though by doubling up the fabric for each blanket. That way there was the pattern on each side of the blanket.

Saturday was my favorite day of this fun filled weekend. Dan and I went cherry picking in Brentwood. I was on the hunt for sour cherries. There is only one place to find them in the Bay Area from my research, so we headed out to Bacchini's Fruit Tree for their Montmorency cherry trees. They had more of them than I thought, so my panic to get there before they were picked clean was a now calmed fear. Ladders were at a premium since these cherries are a taller tree compared to the sweet trees. Having a tall husband was very much appreciated. Once a ladder was abandoned, I seized it and began picking high up in the canopy. Most people were there for the sweet cherries and not the sour ones. It was fun to hear people come into our grove all thrilled that here were "tons of unpicked ones here." Then they would undoubtedly taste one and exclaim how awful and sour they were along with the obligatory "Who wants these!" comments. Those of us on our ladders and with in eye contact range would look at each other with knowing smiles and laughs. It took us a few hours, but at the end we had 11 and a half pounds of sour cherries and three and a half of Rainier cherries for jam.

After getting some lunch, we drove home, and I set to work pitting. Cherries went into the sink to be cleaned and rinsed, stems were pulled, and then they went into the hopper of the pitter. The pitter I bought from Noropro was very good. It went through all 11 and a half pounds of cherries in a quick two hours. It beat doing them by hand any day! The big keys to keeping the pitter working was to make sure the metal plunger did not get clogged with cherry flesh or skins. Also, making sure that the plunger had some vegetable oil on it for lubrication was also key to clean and easy operation.

I loved that most of the cherries stayed whole! The only thing that told you there was no pit any longer was the two small holes in the cherry. The other fun thing was all the tiny X's that the pitter made of punched out cherry flesh where the pit was extracted. The pitter was also more gentle to the extra ripe cherries than I expected. very little juice was in the pit hopper each time I had to empty it out, and there was also little juice in the finished cherry bowl. This resulted in my having to smash the cherries in the colander to get the four cups of liquid I needed for making the goop part of the filling.

It was my first time using Clear Jel, and it was interesting. I would recommend that you whisk together your Clear Jel and sugar before adding in any liquid. I did not do this and just added the liquid to the unmixed powders which resulted in lots of clumps I had to beat out of the mix. Once it gelled up, it was super thick and hard to stir. Next the cherries went in all at once, and the stirring became even more difficult. I tried to stir as best as I could with out making a total mess of the stove. Then it was into the jars for canning. I ended up with two quarts and five full pints with almost another full quart in the fridge. I cannot wait to make a pie with it once I get back from my trip this week.

Today I am off for jogging day one of week three. I hope it goes well. This week is usually the last successful week I have in the program, and then I usually repeat the week or just stop all together. I am determined to do "week three" once and then move on to week four next week! The Rainier cherry jam is on the list of must do things today. I also have a birthday gift to finish for Jozef and some house cleaning and prep to do before I depart. It is going to be a busy day, but I am sure I can get it all done... especially with that handy dandy pitter!

Gearing Up for Canning Season

Canning season for me will officially start this weekend. I cannot wait. This year I have added two new pieces of equipment for my canning plans. I bought this used food mill to make tomato sauce, juice, and paste this year. It is just like the one that my Mom and Dad have, and I am looking forward to using it. While I would love to make applesauce with it as well, Dan and I both like the chunkier style applesauce, so that means no food mill for making that. I am looking at perhaps making some berry jam with it as well to chop up the seeds a bit more than just jamming the whole berry. Hopefully I can get some pointers and instructions from my Mom when I go home to visit.

I also went and bought this cherry pitter from the kitchen supply store yesterday. I went to get one off the shelf, as I knew right where they were due to my wanting one since pitting the 5 pounds for cherry creek beer two years ago. When I got to the shelf, to my dismay, there were none there. The was not even a tag for the place where they would be. I walked the rows looking for the pitters, no luck. I finally asked one of the people who worked there and wonderfully they had some in their stock room. I could not have been happier seeing as I would like to kick off canning with cherries this year. I plan on doing 4 quarts and 4 pints of sour cherry pie filling, a batch of sweet cherry jam, a batch of Rainier cherry jam, and if I am feeling crazy, a batch of white cherry jam. I of course will make the obligatory fresh sour cherry pie. Today I have to calculate the number of pounds of each I want to bring home for canning. I am sure it will be a lot. I plan on taking a comfortable chair into the kitchen and putting the new pitter to work.

Today I am off for a jog. It is day three of week two. I hope I can make it through as I am really sore from back to back jogging days and a killer session at Fat Chance last night. You wouldn't think doing the orbit for 45 minutes would make your legs this sore, but it does. Then I am going to do the usual Friday housework of laundry and kitchen cleaning. I am also hoping to get the birthday present for Jozef finished off today. It is a lot to try to accomplish before heading into the city for the art museum, but I hope to get most of it done. Now, to get things accomplished!

Jogging, Canning, and Art Oh My!

Jogging has been going.... pretty well I might add. I am only through day two of week two, but I am feeling pretty good about myself. Jogging outside by the waterfront is turning out to be way more motivating than the workouts I used to try to do in the weight room of the old apartment. There is so much to look at that it takes my mind off of the running itself. I look at the city and the fog, the sailboats with their bright or stark white sails, and the container ships when they are in port. I have to say that I am liking the running skirt. While the shorts underneath are still a bit creepish, the skirt keeps all that covered up, so I am less self conscious about it all. It is also really comfortable to run in for the most part and looks rather nice. I feel way more stylish than just running around in some ill fitting shorts. The only disappointing thing was that the zipper broke on the key pocket the first day I used them. I am looking to repair that today if I can get the key back onto the teeth. My first attempts were thus far unsuccessful.

I am also gearing up for the fist major canning operation of the season. This Saturday I am going to go cherry picking. I have found a place with sour cherries, and I am so excited to finally be able to make a sour cherry pie! I miss those so much. I have already purchased my clear jel and cannot wait to try out my first canned pie filling. I am also going to work on a couple varieties of cherry jam. I am hoping to do small batches of bing or dark sweet cherry jam of some sort, Rainer cherry jam for my Dan, and perhaps some white cherry jam. I also introduced Dan to the concept of spirited cherries. I think they would be a unique addition to his Manhattans, so I may also be canning some of them. I am going to go to the kitchen supply store this afternoon to buy a cherry pitter in order to prepare for this onslaught of cherry goodness. I usually do my pitting by hand, but I think with these huge plans I will need the faster mechanized method to get through them all in the weekend before heading home for a quick family visit.

I am also pumped to go to the DeYoung museum tomorrow night! We are going to go and see the Paris exhibit of the Impressionists. I cannot wait to see this awesome display of some of my favorite painters. It will be nice to get to see some pictures in person without the expense of flying to Paris. I also want to go and see the Amish quit exposition before it closes to give me the inspiration to finally start cutting my first quilt. I have always admired the bold colors and unique use of shapes that the Amish quilts embody. Our current quilt on the bed is a handmade Amish quilt I bought at an auction back in Illinois when we lived near the Illinois Amish country. While my first quilt will not be the typical solid color combination of the Amish quilts, I hope it is crafted as well as the one I bought... with modern conveniences of course. I am going to cut by hand, piece by machine, and quilt by hand. I figure it is a good mix for my first quilt. This is also going to be a challenge since I cannot strip piece my quilt. I am making it out of scraps, so all the diamonds are going to have to be cut individually by hand and then pieced and sew together. It seems daunting, but I am sure I can do it.

Well I am off to finish up some gifts for people and perhaps pick up my black skirt before giving in to this new quilt project. There are also some costumes to be made before the end of July when I leave for Chaos Wars. So much crafting and homemaking, so little time!

Updates

Baking Updates

Lately the cakes are going gang busters! It makes me joyful and thankful that I have started jogging for exercise. If I had not started that, I am sure it would be a sad state of affairs. This was a lemon layer cake that I found the recipe from, yet again, the wonderful people at Cook's Illustrated Magazine. For this recipe, I had to make lemon curd for the filling. It was interesting to work with eggs in that kind of concept and to get experience in cooking with out cooking the eggs as a separate element in the whole package. There is nothing worse than cooked pieces of egg in your curd. I also had to learn to make a seven minute frosting variation for the frosting. That time I did cook the eggs on the fist try, so I had to take another stab at it. The frosting turned out rather meringue like. It was delicious, and also worked well in the small cake halving territory of things.

Bread making has been rather so so. I have been trying to make the San Francisco sourdough recipe from my Peter Reinhart baking books. The loaves are turning out with a good crust but way too dense. I am wondering if I need to cast off my "purist" dream and do his mixed method with both starter and commercial yeast. I will try that once I return from a trip I am going to take and post those results here.

Garden Update:

The peas finally decided it was too hot for them and turned yellow this weekend in the pleasantly warm weather. I pulled them out of the trellis and planted a few more bean plants. Hopefully they sprout and catch up with the rest of the pack soon. I tried soaking them to give them a faster germination rate, so hopefully I helped them along. The tomatoes are crazy this year. One has grown out of the cage already, and the flowers are blooming away.

I found some aphids trying to attack my tender and small herb plants, so it is back to the soap spray regiment to rid myself of the pests. I am glad that I happened to catch them early. There were few of them and not the large swarms that I usually find later when the damage is already done.

The zucchini plants seem to be really happy this year. One plant already has four small zucchini and this other larger one:
I also tried some of the radishes from the box in a pasta salad this weekend. They were great. Just the right amount of hot and not very burp educing. The other plants are trucking along and looking rather happy. I even noticed a new little shoot in the zucchini plant box from a replacement cucumber that I planted when the other one started to die while I still had hope for a cucumber season. I guess I should not have given up so easily. This shoot is rather shaded by the now large zucchini plants, but one can always hope for it to shoot up and claim its own place.

Shop News:

I took several shots of the new pairs of pants at the end of the week. Here is the olive filigree pair in a rough picture. I may have to take some more pictures of this pair today as I am not sure the ones I have will be good enough. I am also awaiting a few new supplies to start some samples of new projects. I cannot wait. What about the old projects I keep saying I will complete? Well I am still working on them actively. After a "rewiring project," I can now work on things at night. Our apartment, while awesomely spacious and full of electrical outlets, is a challenge for being able to plug in a light by the couch in the middle of the room. It creates a trip wire which is bound to inspire an accident. This weekend we ran the wire for a large power strip under the side of the area rug ending behind the couch and bookshelves, so now I can have light to work on things in the living room when we are watching the television or movies without cords running everywhere. This also hides all the laptop cords as well, making the room look much more pulled together and less chaotic. I expect my productivity to increase quite a bit with the new light for working.

Life News:
This weekend, Dan and I cut the cable... literally. We decided that we no longer wanted to pay for cable when most of the television we watch is over the air, PBS, or available on line for free. Why pay for something that is free right? We have fully signed on to Boxee and Hulu for most of our television as well as using a new high powered antenna in our front office window. I have to say, the picture is amazing; the HD looks better without the cable. I know that sounds bizarre, but the picture quality is better due to it not being compressed down by the cable company. My PBS cooking shows have never looked so good! I am also hoping that this increases my productivity as well since I will not be a slave to my want-to-know addiction to the 24 hour news cycle. Cutting the cable means no 24 hour cable news. Already I am feeling a bit lighter.

I also found my new running shorts solution over the weekend. I am going to try out my new running skirt! I will let you know how it works out for me in tomorrow's installation of the blog. For today's goals, I want to get my jog done, make up some baby shower gifts, hem some pants for a friend, start back on my personal black skirt, go to dance class tonight (really actually go), and work on some falls or the belt when I get home. Lots to do and hopefully with fewer distractions I will get it done!

Reasons To Write

I have been rather busy as of late, but I felt like writing about it would not be the best use of time. I have learned through a odd serendipitous set of circumstances that I may in fact be wrong. Yesterday was the last day for tutoring at 826 Valencia for the school year. We held a party for the kids, and I also worked with some of them on last minute end of the school projects. As I went along saying my end of the year "so longs" to the staff, one of them showed me this treasure chest full of handmade leather bound journals. They were gorgeous, and I was, I have to admit a bit jealous of whomever was going to get one. Little did I know that would be me. I was offered one but had to make a promise to fill the pages with writing. This used to be something that I would have never blinked an eye at in high school as I was a prolific writer back then. I felt as though this was my calling back into the fold.

I selected this one as I liked the fact that the hands of the clock were frozen in time. To me writing it the ability to freeze moments in time forever, allowing you to share them with others if you so choose or keep them for yourself to cherish later. I also really liked the saying in this particular journal. It really clicked with me and how I feel about friendships. I have decided to fill this book with thoughts I have through the day or things that catch my eye. Hopefully that can bud into some more serious writings. It is almost like my jogging program to get me back into shape, only with writing. So to whomever made these beautiful journals, thank you. Your time and effort has paid off for one writer at least. It was by far one of the more thoughtful things I have gotten to be a part of lately. It is always nice to be surprised with an act of kindness like this to keep you from becoming jaded to the modern world.

In other news, I finally got product pictures taken on Wednesday and will be posting those pairs of pants for sale most likely on Tuesday and Wednesday in the Etsy Store. Want a sneak peak? Go to the Fabulous Pants Facebook page and become a fan for pictures of new items before they hit the store. New pictures will be posted over the weekend sometime for your purusal. Now to get down to some sewing. Hopefully I can manage this after today's workout. ;)

Jogging for Dessert

I know that I have said it before, and I am going to say it again. I love desserts... apparently too much lately. I gained weight after leaving the working world before we left for California and briefly lost some, then gained it all back. I blame my love of all things dessert. When we went to Vegas I ate more desserts at the buffets than anything else. A whole plate of them I am sad to admit, and so it comes with great regret that I am back to the couch to 5K jogging program. I just cannot give up that slice of cake or pie or pudding or cookie after dinner. Something has to give, and for now that is my rear being attached on the couch. I know that I have chronicled my exercise program start last year when we were at the old apartment that had a weight room. I have also been tossing around the idea of buying an elliptical, but when I really got down to thinking about it, we live in California. It never gets so cold that I would have to exercise inside like I would in Illinois. So, with out the weight room to hide me, I have started trying to redo my progress on the couch to 5K by jogging outside. It was terrifying at first. People will probably laugh at how out of shape I am even though I don't look it, but really I decided their opinions did not matter. I wanted to be in shape. I want to be able to run and catch that train and make it without getting on board and panting like I ran a marathon in the 500 feet I ran. I have decided this is the best course of action, and I have to stick with it. Day one was Monday, and it went well. I am going to leave for day two as soon as this posting is done before the predicted afternoon rain showers show up. I always learned in my exercise and behavior classes that one of the best ways was to publicly state your goals. So, here it is. I want to do the couch to 5K running plan on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of each week. I also want to make sure that traveling is not a hindrance to this, so no vacations from the program aside from Chaos Wars, which is physically very demanding.

The first picture in this entry (before the exercise commitments) is my first attempt at making flan. It turned out really well and was a perfect compliment to my cake baking obsession of late. Most of the cakes I make need just egg whites, and I hate to throw out the yolks. Custards take up the slack of the yolks perfectly. I guess that means when I make cake one week look for a custard the next! I made these to go with our taco night on Monday. The peas in the other picture came from the patio garden. I am thinking about ditching the beans next year in favor of a round of peas only. This may be amended if the beans suddenly start to do something good. Perhaps I will sneak in a late fall round of peas out there. I used them in a beef stew that I made last night for us to combat the nasty rainstorm we were having. Lately it has been more like California winter than spring or summer here. I made some lean bread to go with it from the freezer. Have I mentioned how wonderful those new bread baking books are?

Well it looks like it may be sunny enough for the jog and hopefully some product pictures. Now... off to jog away that flan!

Shop Progress

Yesterday was surprisingly productive, partly due to the rain storm that did not arrive. I was getting ready to go out for my walk, and I saw what seemed to be impending rain clouds. I checked the radar and decided that it was too risky, so I went into the studio and set to work. While the rain did not show up until later it must have inspired my African violet to bloom. Spring showers and May flowers and all.

In this burst of productivity, I tried to get some pictures of the chocolate pin stripe pants in our blue stairway. There was just the right amount of light, but I could not get the pants to fit right. They fit much better before I started loosing weight, so I guess I will have to figure out how to model these or break down and get someone else to model them for me. I may have a few fitting ideas up my sleeve, so that I can get them uploaded to Etsy without them looking too weird. I would say, though, that these pants are great for someone a bit bigger than myself. They are also great for a business casual setting.

I have been working on these wonderful olive filigree style Jakarta pants. I really love this fabric. It is an unusual fabric for me to pick, but it just looked so great I had to have it. Here they are just after I finished sewing them up. I will have to wait for a sunny day with low wind before I can photograph them and get a listing up on Etsy. It is, as I have mentioned before, rather difficult to photograph these fabrics. They often times will look washed out or the embroidery designs will not show up on the photograph. Full sun seems to be the only solution to this. I am rather shocked to see how well this fabric photographed just in the craft studio. It is pretty close to correct for the color and the embroidery actually comes through.

I also settled on the final motif for the bottom parts of the elephant and peacock belt. I drew some flower doodles that I make often and satin stitched them in and also added fern stitch for the vines. I have one finished and another one started. There are three more to be done, and then all I have left is some mini tassel making for the elephant's tails and decorations for their mirrors. It will be rather intricate once finished. I am almost there on finishing this, and I can't wait to reveal it to you all. First, though, I need to buy more floss for the tassels. I can't seem to estimate exactly how much I need. I am keeping notes if I ever get crazy enough to make a belt like this again.

I got so many things done that I could not believe there would be time for a personal project, but there was. I worked on a 25 yard skirt for myself. I have the black fabric all cut and began serging the edges tonight. Today I am going to work on the stitching of the tiers and the gathering stitches. If I am lucky, I can get the first two tiers tied together before I leave for tutoring at 826 and class at Fat Chance. Here is to hoping I am as productive today as I was yesterday.