Don’t Forget!

To fall back on Sunday morning!

Samhain

Tonight is the night to honor those who have passed across to the other side.  Tonight at ritual I will be honoring my Dad.

We miss him so much, but know in our hearts that he is with his friends and family who have passed and that he is happy.

I wish you all a Merry Samhain and hope that you fine peace through out the coming new year.

Heard on NPR

Rosa sat so Martin could walk.

Martin walked so Barak could run.

Barak ran so our children could fly.

Rhinebeck

Most of the excitement this weekend has been good – so that is all I am going to blog about – I’ll just deal with the bad excitement….

Brian showed up at my house promptly at 8am and we loaded the car and headed off to Rhinebeck. I don’t really remember what time we arrived – but we made it just in time to wander through the Ravelry meetup!. It was a beautiful sunny day and the perfect temp. for sweaters, scarves, hats, and shawls! I was getting dizzy swiveling my head from side to side checking out all the fiberlicious sights.

We started out in Bldg. A – the bldg my sister and I totally missed last year – but we were virgins I only brought cash, leaving the check book and credit cards in the car like a good girl.

Since the recent acquisition of the drum carder, I was on the hunt for fibers to card and stuff to play with to blend on the carder.

Both Brian and I were bad bloggers and kept forgetting to take pictures. But I did run into lots of friends and managed to catch Judy with the Harlot (with Juno in the background).

I ran into Jennifer and her family several times, Lucia with her friend Lisa and Miss B also several times.

But what you really want to know about is the booty, I know. I was actually being very good, I got a fetling/doffer brush for the carder, 2 oz. of Baby Camel Top and 2 oz. White Yak from Black Fen Farms, 2 oz. silk noils from I forget where, and 1 oz. Bombyx Mori (55%) and Baby Camel Down from Shadeyside Farm. These will be fun to use for blending on the carder. I also picked up 8 oz. of dark brown w/ bleached tips washed Finn Locks from Misty Mountain Farm – all the fun of carding without having to scour fleece! YAY! And I got some more of the merino/tussah roving from The Sheep Shed – I love this stuff and it’s a great deal 1/2 lb. for under $16! Good stuff.

But then we went into the barn with the fleece sale…….. and I fell down hard – I actually had to borrow cash from Brian but I had to have it. 7 1/2 lb. Romney fleece that is gorgeous! It wasn’t marked as prime fleece, but it looked clean, nice crimp, not too much grease or veggie matter in it either.

You can see how huge this fleece is!

See how lovely this fleece is?

Clouds of fluffy fiber. I only washed this once with Unicorn Power Scour and rinsed it twice. I’m not sure if it’s the clean fleece or this power scour but I think I did pretty well with picking out my first real fleece.

When we got home I had to pull off a small clump and wash it just to see what it was going to look like. Check it out! Brian played with my drum carder – I’ll let him blog about the yummy goodness of blended fibers that I wanted to steal from him.

UPDATE: Of course I totally forgot to mention how awesome the Ravelry party was on Saturday Night! THANK YOU JESS AND CASEY and everyone who put so much work into the party. It was a great time – cold, but fun. I wore my yoga wrap that I had spun merino for – my first ever hand spun then knit project and I also got rave reviews on my Anniversary Mystery Shawl from Goddess Knits too. Thank you everyone for your kind comments. It was great to meet so many new people.

Potato Leek Soup

There is something about a yummy pot of homemade soup on cool fall evenings with some crusty bread.

This past week I had picked up some lovely young leeks at the farm stand. I knew I had potatoes at home and figured I would make a potato leek soup to take with me this weekend as an offering to my friend whose house we are staying at in NY so we can go to Rhinebeck. YAY!

Since one of my friends is vegan I decided to make it with vegetable stock instead of chicken stock and it came out great!

Potato Leek Soup

2 – 14 oz. cans of vegetable stock or chicken stock

1 cup water

3 Russet potatoes peeled and diced

1 bay leaf

1/2 tsp of fresh thyme

Put it all in a pot and bring to a boil then simmer for 15 minutes.

While that’s simmering take a saute pan and melt 3 tbsp. of unsalted butter with a crushed clove of garlic,

Take the white part of three small leeks, rough dice them and rinse them clean, drain and add to the butter and garlic.

Dice a medium sweet onion and add to the saute pan.

Saute the veggies until translucent.

Add 1/2 tsp of celery salt and coarse black pepper to taste.

Add 1/2 cup of white wine and simmer to reduce the liquid for about 8 minutes.

Once the potatoes are tender, remove from the heat DO NOT DRAIN!

Using a potato masher, mash the potatoes leaving it somewhat chunky.

Add the leek and onion mixture and 3/4 cup of half and half, and a tbsp of chopped parsley.

Heat and serve with a salad and crusty bread.

This will easily serve about 4 people.

I hope to see you at Rhinebeck!

Season of Plenty

“O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away.”
-   Robert Frost, October

There is something special and wonderful about warm, sunny October days, and this gorgeous weekend was no exception.

Friday night I made a pot of clam chowder – here is my recipe

2 – 8oz. bottles of clam juice, 1 cup of water,  a little salt, and a bay leaf into a 2 qt. pot, add 2 cups red bliss potatoes diced into 1/2 inch cubes .  Bring to a boil and let the potatoes cook until tender, remove from heat and let cool.

In the meantime, drain 2 cans of chopped and 2 cans of minced clams (6 oz. cans) and reserve the liquid.

In a small stock pot or dutch oven – dice 3 strips of hickory smoked bacon and cook on medium heat until the bacon is crisp and the fat has been rendered.

Add to the bacon fat,  one large sweet onion diced, sauted until translucent with a clove of minced garlic.  Add the potatoes and broth they cooked in to large pot.  Add the clams and their reserved juice,  a tbsp of fresh thyme leaves, and 2 cups of half and half or one cup of milk and one cup of heavy cream. Heat but do not boil. Salt and pepper to taste.  It is very hearty, not too thin and not too thick, in my opinion, it’s just right.

Be sure to serve with oyster crackers, saltines or crusty bread and butter.  You can add a salad for a complete dinner.

We were a little late in the season but we managed to get only 26 lbs of canning tomatoes to make our salsa.  We got a total maybe 13 pints canned – half of our normal batch.  The good news is that the salsa is fabulous, the bad news is that it’s a very limited supply.

The following day, Mary and I went out with Laural and Steve for breakfast at my favorite place for eggs benedict on a beautiful sunny fall day.  Then we drove over to Laural’s.  This is her first fall at her house, so we were excited to see the heavy pruning of her grape vines that I did in the spring really paid off.  We had no idea what kind of grapes would come and we were delighted to see an abundant crop of perfectly sweet, ripe concord grapes.  Yum!  Mary and I picked about 7 + quarts of grapes and took them home and just enough to make a batch of Concord Grape Jelly.  I cannot wait to taste it.  So all and all it was a very productive weekend.

I also finished off the first of the beautiful and free Serpentine Mitts pattern that I am knitting for a friend out of my hand spun dark charcoal Shetland wool.  Remember this?

They fit me perfectly   I hope they also fit my friend.  I even got some spinning done.  I guess I am getting prepared for the long winter ahead.