362: new recipe... friday

I think one of the best things one can do for oneself is to not be strict about challenges: my daily walk can take a few days off, maybe I want to walk quietly without my camera and without the pressure of posting; maybe I have to be back on campus on a Wednesday and cannot try a new recipe on that exact day. But I catch up. I re-embark on photo walks and bring a recipe in on Friday.

I've decided to work hard at cooking more seasonally. I've also decided I want to try a new ingredient as often as possible, and I don't believe I've ever had turnips before.


This week's recipe is Potato, Turnip, and Carrot Gratin with Garlic-Herb Bechamel Sauce
from The Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without by Mollie Katzen

Notes:
• It's easiest to warm the milk in the microwave right in its measuring cup.


• Good bread crumbs are made by hand from good bread. Try either a home-style whole wheat or pumpernickel. Make your own bread crumbs by drying out some of your favorite bread, then crumbling it either by hand (in a plastic bag, so it won't go all over the place) or in a food processor with the steel blade (a few spurts).


Ingredients:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 1/2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups warmed milk
1 bay leaf
Salt, to taste
Nonstick cooking spray
1/2 pound unpeeled Yukon gold potatoes
1/2 pound turnips
1/2 pound carrots
1 cup minced shallots
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 cup coarse bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated Swiss cheese (Gruyère or Emmenthaler)

1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat, adding the garlic and thyme when it is melted.

2. Whisk in the flour and keep whisking for a minute or so as it forms a thick paste.

3. Keep whisking as you drizzle in the warmed milk, keeping the mixture moving until there are no lumps.

4. Add the bay leaf and turn the heat way down. Cook, stirring frequently, for about 5 to 8 minutes, or until smooth and silky. Remove from the heat and remove the bay leaf. Stir in a dash of salt and a few shakes of white pepper, then set aside.


5. Preheat oven to 375ºF. Lightly spray a 2-quart gratin dish with nonstick spray.

6. Cut the potatoes, turnips, and carrots into very thin slices (about 1/8 inch). For the carrots, do this on the diagonal. Spread the cut vegetables (including the shallots) together in the prepared pan to make a single mixed layer. Sprinkle lightly with salt and black pepper.

7. Pour the béchamel sauce from step 4 over the top of the vegetables and cover the pan tightly with foil. Bake in the center of the oven for 1 hour, or until the vegetables are fork-tender. Remove the dish from the oven and remove the foil.


8. Heat the broiler. Sprinkle the bread crumbs and then the grated cheese on top of the vegetables. Broil until the cheese is melted and beginning to form a crust. Serve hot.



Here are some changes I made:
- I am no expert at cutting, so my pieces were more like half an inch thick.
- No shallots, but instead green onions.
- I also added broccoli and our tiny brussels sprouts from our garden.
- I didn't measure the vegetables, so we likely had too many, which meant I needed to adjust the cooking time.

Edit to add: Ryan wouldn't even touch it but made himself a frozen pizza instead. Silly boy and his fear of vegetables. I personally put too many potatoes in; I liked the addition of the bits from the garden. It was awfully dry--it seemed to want some sort of sauce, but I'm not sure what. I'll finish the leftovers, though I couldn't promise following this exact recipe again. After all, there are many new ones to try!

361

New recipe Wednesday will actually occur tomorrow; I have had some things in my schedule unexpectedly get jangled, but I ought to be straight enough tomorrow. I have a little recipe my mother-in-law passed along to me on our last trip through town that I've been itching to try.

Instead, I wanted to share a little music today. I have an hour commute, and usually I listen to books on CD, but lately I have felt a little restless and have had the need to get lost in my own mind. My favorite radio station is MPR's the current, and I'm always glad to be introduced to new musicians.

Here are a few songs I just can't get out of my head:











Happy listening!

360

Yesterday I received a phone call from my dad: my grandmother fell while at the doctor's office and broke her hip in three places. From what I've heard, the surgery went well, and she's recovering. I don't know much more--how long rehabilitation will go, just how risky this is for an octogenarian, if she'll have to spend any time in a nursing home, who will take care of her, why I can't just drop everything and go to her.

The especially unfortunate detail is that she was at the doctor's office to see if her veins could handle a shunt that would ease her regular dialysis for end-stage kidney disease. She technically has above 15% kidney function, so she's not dialysis-stage yet, but nearly.

You already know how much she means to me. Keep her in your thoughts, OK? Hope for a quick and smooth recovering and a return home.

359: my first felting project

I glanced at a few coin-purse patterns on the internet and adapted to make one of my own. This isn't meant to be a guide for others felting, but rather, a chronicle of my own journey--my first felting project, which turned out as any first project usually does--a charming failure.

However, if you want a guide, Knitty has a really excellent one!

With a worsted-weight wool, I cast on thirty stitches and worked in stockinette stitch for about six and a half inches. I used size six needles (bamboo are my favorite), which was likely too small for felting, but still, a part of the process and learning experience.

(PS: That clean floor? I would say it was a birthday present, but really, it's because one of our dogs [ah-hem, one guess--why, yes, it was Z] got into something and was sick all. over. the kitchen floor, and I suppose Ryan not making me clean it on my birthday was a kind of gift.)


When I got to where I roughly wanted to stop, I began to decrease using k2tog and p2tog, one on each end to create the flap. I love the way st st rolls--it reminds me of a little gnome hat in this stage.

In retrospect, if I try this particular project again, I'd slow the flap down; when you see the final project, you'll note that the flap is incredibly mealy looking, and I doubt any coins would stay inside this little thing. Perhaps one could consider it a film case (rolls would fit nicely in there) or chapstick / lotion holder.


I matched up the two sides up and sewed. I opted to put purl-side in because other patterns I've seen with mixed wool and acrylic will show the knit side, but this is also the side the lip curls out with, which adds to the lumpen final appearance.


The button is one of those extras you get tied to a new dress shirt, and though I love my button collection, I don't think I'm yet ready to deal with functional buttons on felted objects. But because of the end-product, it wouldn't be difficult to slip something into the project without even opening the meager flap.


Above, with a few washes to go.

I think, with this one, I'll use it as a kind of wrapping for a real gift. I hesitate to throw it out (what a waste!) but it's not worth keeping, so this is my compromise.

I've already cast on to make another attempt, another variation, and the person who receives this lumpen wrapping paper can know that tossing it is OK, and that this person will be the receiver of actually nice felted objects in the not-too-distant future. But this one is still given with love. As wrapping.

358: barn bluff at noon

Ryan surprised us all with a tennis ball in his jacket pocket; the dogs loved chasing it along the wooded trail. I loved taking photographs of them flopping around in the air. I had a strawberry shake afterwards, then took a nap, and now--grading. I put it off until Sunday evening, which is depressing, but one lovely trade-off is that I will only be on campus this Monday and Tuesday. The rest of the week, I plan to chip away at the house, cleaning, reading, knitting, cooking.

357: three-oh

For my thirtieth birthday, we filled a string of tables with a dozen of my good friends and family. It was exactly how I wanted to spend the evening.


I had chocolate cake. Kelly took a photo of me blowing out the candles. Angie requested I post the picture. Sigh.


We went to the Happy Gnome after, which has the largest tap selection I've ever seen. Tasting Crispin was tempting, but I opted out, realizing just how my stomach would reject any more than a taste of alcohol.


At the Happy Gnome, Colleen C asked me what my top five goals for my thirties were. On the spot, here they are:

1. To get a book published. (I asked: "Is this allowed? Is that a goal I can have?" and everyone nodded and smiled at the silly girl.)
2. To have "chitlins," as I put it. Kids, you know. Family expansion.
3. To go to Ireland. (It was where we almost-honeymooned. Alaska was a good replacement.)
4. To knit a sweater. (This one elicited some giggles, but I see a great cabled sweater as the holy grail of knitting. I also bought the super-expensive imported yarn for this sweater a half dozen years ago and, of course, need some warm-up sweaters, but am definitely looking forward to gifting it to a certain non-boyfriend-cursed man of mine.)
5. When we are ready for a bigger house, because, you know, those chitlins will need space too, I hope for acreage (originally called "a big yard," I was reminded by my apartment-dwelling friends that my yard is big--I suppose it's all relative)--lots of space for the dogs and kids to run around, lots of trees, neighbors at a distance, and slopey roofs on the second floor. Maybe some chickens. For the eggs.

356: honeybees, and other good things

Tomorrow I turn the big three-oh, which I think is supposed to leave me panicked or flummoxed, or both, but instead, I feel fairly indifferent. To the number, anyway. I'm definitely looking forward to the day. Some good things:

- I'll be eating my birthday dinner at Cafe Brenda, which is a gourmet vegetarian restaurant in the Twin Cities. Fourteen of my close friends and family will be keeping me company.

- A slide show featuring White House Honey. I love that the Obamas now have a kitchen garden and unprocessed honey on their south lawn, and I love the way this slide show is executed--like listening to NPR but with stunning accompanying photographs, making me wish I could keep bees too.

- This weekend, I decided to teach myself to felt. I think I'm already going about it wrong, using too tight a stitch, but I've also decided this: it's about the process. That's what brings me the most pleasure. I haven't yet kept anything I've knit or quilted or crocheted, and I think this is why. Its time with me is in the making.

- Though my new medicine is twisting my stomach into even worse knots, I'm looking at it as a part of the journey, and that's a good thing. I'm on my way to wellness, making good choices, and feeling good about those choices.

- Speaking of choices, I'm joining my dear friend Angie in No Impact Week, which is just a week away. We'll see how I do.

- More signs point toward me returning to my vegetarian roots, just as soon as the meat is used up in the soups and freezer (that my husband won't eat). Read this article in The New Yorker about Jonathan Safran Foer's newest book, Eating Animals.

Have a lovely weekend. And to those I will see tomorrow: I look forward. xo