3 Post Knitting Nobby
After whittling a spare hook out of wood to use with my spool loom for making i-cord, I decided to make a loom too. Not having a wooden spool handy, I decided to repurpose a plastic water bottle instead. I just taped 3 nails to the bottle rim and drilled holes in the side of the bottle to attach the hook with yard in order not to lose it.
After cutting the bottom half of the bottle off with scissors, I ran a lit match briefly around the cut the smooth the edge.
You may notice that most i-cord looms have 4 or more posts. I had never seen one with three posts before, but it works great. It was a good experiment.
Fruit Leather?
Some fruit that I soak overnight in diluted A/C vinegar and brown sugar are still yummy after the liquid is strained off to drink. Some are less so. But I put the less than appetizing pulp in a quart jar in the freezer and when the jar is full, then I puree it to yield just the right amount to fill a fruit leather tray in the dehydrator. The next day it turns into 3 ounces of fruit leather.
More Repurposed Wood
When I find a piece of scrapped wood I ask it, "What do you want to be?" This one said "I want to be a loom."
Bear Country
I wasn't quite expecting to actually see a bear despite all the signs in the Angeles Forest warning of them. However, a cute cub managed to climb all the way up the steep embankment and pop its head out between the white flowers along the road.
Must stop and sees for me whenever I am in that neck of the woods are the Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge and the Los Angeles Arboretum in Arcadia.
Green Coconuts
I have seen people open a coconut the hard way, but although it can be a little messy, getting the best of a young /green coconut is pitifully easy and requires no special tools.
With the pointy side down, just press in a circle around the top until you find a place that gives a little. Then scoop a plug out with a paring knife, and pour the coconut water out into a bottle, using a funnel.
Then on a hard surface pound in a circle around the center, sort of like tapping the lid that is stuck on a jar in order to loosen it.
The shell will magically crack open horizontally and then if the coconut is fresh, you carn just rinse it off with water and scoop the jelly out with a soft spoon to separate it from the brown skin.
I drill holes around the edges of the shells to make hanging planters. They are easier to drill when wet.
Law of attraction
Having recently (for the first time) stumbled across a description of Perilla, I have been hungrily pursuing all the information I could find about this amazing plant.
After much deliberation, I placed an order for seeds to grow Red and Green Perilla frutescans, presuming from the photo that this is japonica rather than crispa, but who knows? There is much conflicting information about this plant.
The very next day without my having mentioned it, a good friend gave me a live green perilla plant. I was floored by the synchronicity, but should not have been, as we tend to manifest what we strongly believe in.
Micro Rolls
My crab apple jelly tasted SO good on these rolls made with spaghetti squash puree and shaped with meatball tongs.
Farmed, foraged, and Friended
Pictured here are flax seeded pita puffs, and crackers covered in cress seeds, topped with a cream cheese spread consisting of black pepper, grated cheddar, and mixed greens from my AeroGardens, and topped with olives that I picked from the tree on the golf course. I use whatever greens I feel like picking. Today I chose Bok choy, tomato leaves, and Holy Basil. At the moment I also have Genovese and Thai Basil, Shiso (Perilla), Swiss chard, Perpetual Spinach, leeks, oregano, pea shoots, string beans, celery, Kohlrabi, nasturtium, and 3 kinds of lettuce.
Lots of blooms
Guess which flower is not edible!
Right! The pink orchid is toxic and should not be eaten.
Green Spaghetti Squash
This winter squash is not only edible "green" but delicious eaten as a summer squash.
Barley Bread
I haven't bought bread in over 3 years and I am so grateful to have a really great bread machine. I almost always use the ferment cycle.
Until recently, I usually replaced the liquid in my go to recipe with pureed (cooked) spaghetti squash, which in addition to adding nutrients, acts as a natural dough conditioner.
However, after trying pureed fermented pearl barley water, I found that works just as well, and gives the loaf more flavor. I dilute the pearl barley 1:1.
Lamb Chops from Good Chops
Bone in, 4 hours at 135° F in sous vide water bath. I normally would have used my Neovide 100 bagless and waterless sous vide cooker for these, but I put them into the water bath that I was using to cook a couple pounds of bacon. I like to precook bacon for up to 12 hours and drain off the fat to use separately.
All of the meat I buy from Good Chops comes in sous vide ready packaging, which is very convenient.
After refrigerating the precooked lamb cops overnight I browned them for a few minutes on each side in the Crownful countertop air fryer. Tender and tasty.
