I love love love Renate Hiller’s explanation of the importance of handwork.
As long as my hands are functioning, I can’t see me ever not making something with them. It’s the ultimate “me time” activity.
Sour pork stew
Often, when my mother (who is a nurse) works I’ll prepare food for my father. This past weekend she worked and so I thought it would nice to prepare a few meals for my father.
Initially I was unsure at what I should make? But after turning over, and rejecting various animal product possibilities, my mind drifted to the Boston butt (pork) that I’d purchased about a month before. Initially, I’d purchased it to make sausage, but that never happened and so it made its way to the frozen food animal product section of our deep freezer.
With a few ideas in my head I pulled it out of the freezer, cut up the frozen meat and put it in the pressure cooker garlic with a variety of herbs and spices that I’d ground in my mortar and pestle.
Freshly pressure cooked garbanzo beans were added to the mix, along with carrots and potatoes. The broccoli was added the last minute of cooking. The six pounds of frozen meat was tender in 1.5 hours! Got to love pressure cookers.The broth was drained and set aside in the refrigerator. Once it was chilled It was much easier to remove the fat since when chilled it turns a creamy white and rises to the top. The broth was then was reserved since I planned on making a stew the next day. All the pork was shredded with a fork, to be used in pulled pork sandwiches and the following day I made the sour pork stew.
As you can see, there are plenty of vegetables in this stew.
What made my pork stew sour?
The simple addition of freshly squeezed lemon juice and apple cider vinegar gave it just the right amount of sourness without overpowering the dish. The rich creaminess came from adding cream cheese.
Results?
How was it? Well… both my father and daughter scraped every last drop of that stew and came back for more. I guess, I’ll chalk that up to a success.
Leading by example: Showing others how to make healthier meals
While I might not eat animal products, I do think it’s important to show others a healthier approach (if they aren’t eating healthy already) to prepare their meals. That’s if they ask, I don’t randomly go about forcing my beliefs onto others. How arrogant would that be? I will say, because that I have been open to working with animal products many of my friends (who’ve regularly eating my food) eat less animal products now since they know that adding produce to the mix does not mean the food will taste bad. It won’t, if you know how to prepare food correctly.
Cold weather, warm mittens; knitting two at a time
Oh the weather outside is frightful
But the fire is so delightful
And since we’ve got no place to go
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!!
The past few days have been very chilly in Maryland, some days our temperature didn’t climb over 10 F. With weather like that you want to stay warm when you brave the elements outside.
Of course I went down a mental checklist to see if there is anything that was needed and the only thing that popped into my brain was mittens for my daughter! Well… that’s an easy fix. I told my daughter to choose yarn that she liked and after she made her selection I casted on 40 stitches. Ever since I switched over to circular knitting needles any project that requires a pair is done two at a time.
The mittens I’m knitting will be an upgrade for my daughter since they replace the mittens I knitted (last year) for my rapidly growing daughter. The girl is ten years old and is only two inches shorter than me. Also, she is now wearing a 7.5 shoe. She’s a beautiful, tall, slim and kindhearted girl. My daughter rarely asks for me to knit her anything. She can see the time it takes to create many of the items I make, but I do it for her anyway because she’s worth the time.
These mittens have knitted up fairly quickly and I must say it’s going much faster since I’m doing them two at a time. I don’t have to worry about the gauge on one being possibly different, since they are being done at the same time. Also, if the inspiration bug hits and I decide to add different stitches as I go, I don’t have to remember what row that happened since I’m knitting both mittens at the same time.
If you want to know how knitting two at a time is done on circular needles, check out the above video by Liat Gat.
Cuteness overload; Gracie our lionhead bunny
It’s been a while since I posted anything about our furbabies. They are all doing well. Gracie, our newest rescue, is enjoying her home and we can’t imagine life without her.
Earlier this week, I snapped a few photos of her.
She’s still as inquisitive as ever and will follow me anywhere. She’s definitely “mommy’s girl.”
Weaving cloth with my rigid heddle loom; 32″ Kromski Harp
I’ve really enjoyed weaving this cloth with my 32″ Kromski Harp. The yarn chosen has created a lovely cloth, don’t you think?
I could easily see myself weaving this again…
Initially I had planned on making a scarf with this woven fabric, but now I’m unsure…
Whatever I decide, I’m tucking this away for now and will either secure the ends or I might simply use it as cloth for some small sewing projects.
Weaving a woolen scarf with my rigid heddle loom; 32″ Kromski Harp
Patons Classic Wool (felts wonderfully) and the cotton yarn; Sugar N Creme (I love using that for crocheted, knitted and now woven cloths) are the only two yarns that I purchase from Michaels.
Early yesterday morning, when I was online, I noticed that Michaels was having a sale on their Patons Classic Wool! I was there when the store opened at 9:00 a.m. In fact, I was the first one in the store. I purchased about six skeins of wool yarn. I would have purchased more, but it was slim pickings. I imagine that was because there were only a few days left of the sale.
Last evening, after the skeins had been rewound, I warped my 32″ Kromski Harp.
And shortly afterwards I was weaving. This marks my fourth weaving project. The past few days, I’ve been itching to weave with my 32″ Kromski Harp, but I’ve been preoccupied with my beadweaving adventures.
With this weaving project, I did something a bit different… I used a different weight (DK weight) yarn from my stash, for the weft. I used worsted weight for the warp yarn. The weft is the fiber is drawn through the warp yarn to create cloth. What you can’t see is the shimmer that the weft yarn brings to this cloth. It shot with silver thread and when it hits the light it gives off a bit of shimmer.
And while I normally don’t keep projects, this one was specifically done for myself. Each time I weave I’m seeing improvements. It won’t be long before I start using some of my expensive yarns for my woven projects.
Initial thoughts on the 32″ Kromski Harp
I really love this loom. To be fair, I don’t have much to go on since this is my only cloth loom. Give me a few years, and I’m sure I can add more to this since I plan on acquiring at least one floor loom and perhaps a lap loom (so I can easily take and weave during some of my daughters after school activities.)
Nevertheless, I’m pleased with my purchase and can see myself weaving many cloth projects.
A minor quibble, I do wish the the ratchet and prawls were metal instead of hard plastic and I also would have liked to have had a video included with my purchase. However, there are plenty of videos available on YouTube.
Purchase complete: Native American Flute in the key of G
Well… I finally got around to ordering my Native American Flute, after a bit of research I settled on getting a flute in the key of G.
I was no older than eight when I started playing the piano. I still play. The Native American flute, is an instrument that I’ve always wanted to learn and recently I decided I would teach myself.
My 10 yo daughter (who also plays the piano) has promised me that she will do duets with me once I get the basics down. I did tell her she’ll have to take it easy on me until I’ve mastered the flute. Do you ever really master an instrument? It seems to me that with the piano I’m always learning something even though I’ve been playing for over 35 years.
There are a few songs that are on my must be able to play on the flute list. I’ve listed them below. I already play them on the piano and so does my daughter.
Until recently, I did not know the name of the song House of the Rising Sun but I was able to play it by ear. I read music and do play a lot of piano music by ear. I even create my own songs. I look forward to doing the same, eventually, with the flute.
Of course… I’m already planning on creating a beaded flute case for my new musical instrument.
Amazing Grace: Mark Akixa – Native American flute
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel – Native American flute
House of the Rising Sun – Native American flute
Nearer my God to Thee – Mattias Valletto