Really - It's a Cheese Cave

You may look at this photo and say "Hmm, it sure looks like a wine cooler." Here's the secret - this cheese cave that is masquerading as a wine cooler has a thermostat and can be set to just the right temperature for aging home made hard cheese. 
I've made soft cheese for years and was disappointed when I decided to try my hand at hard cheese only to learn that I didn't have a suitable environment for the aging process. A normal refrigerator is too cold and a cool garage is too warm. The temperature should remain consistent and cool for the aging process to work and produce a truly tasty cheese. I've been looking for a used wine cooler for a year and a half. I've come across quite a few but they were too expensive for my frugal pockets. I found this one on craigslist this weekend and I think it will do the trick!

Tea - Beautiful to the eye as well as delicious to drink

I came across an interesting package of tea today while Kristine and I were in Denver running errands. I was intrigued as soon as I saw the lovely photo of a flower within the tea pot. According to the packaging, all you had to do was to put one of the pods in your teapot, cover with boiling water and watch the flower unfold as the plant rendered the water into a delicious pot of green tea. Here is one of the individual envelopes from the box:

 And here's a photo of the pod in my hand and then waiting in the pot while I brought water to a boil:

I had my doubts that this hard, grey-green pod could become the beautiful flower that was pictured on the packaging but I was wrong... Oh, SO wrong:

Isn't that a beautiful flower? This particular pod brewed a delicious green tea with vanilla flavor. I'm enjoying a cup now - come join me for a cuppa! I think I'm going to like this!!


I went out to the Primula tea website and found this information:
What are Primula Flowering Teas? Primula Flowering teas are hand-sewn individual tea leaves combined with delicate flowers. Flowering teas are sewn into small clusters and unfurl when placed into hot water. Flowering teas dance around while brewing. The tea brews while the flower blooms. 
How many cups of tea can one flower make? Each Primula Tea Flower can be brewed 3 times. Since our tea pot holds 5 cups of tea, each flower can make 15 cups. 
How do I re-brew my flower? We recommend using each Primula Tea Flower up to 3 times in a 24 hour period. After you have enjoyed your first pot of tea just pour hot water back over the flower and allow it to brew to your desired strength. Many people say that the 2nd pot of tea actually produces the best flavor.  

Positively Perfect Pumpkin Repast

If you have a pie pumpkin from the fall harvest, have I got a recipe for you! This is SO good that, if you don't have one, you might want to track one (or several) down while there's still a chance to find them.

The recipe is "Pumpkin Stuffed with Everything Good" from Dorie Greenspan. The recipe is from her new cookbook, Around My French Table. I heard the recipe earlier this week in an interview with Dorie on NPR radio.

I took a photo of my little pumpkins after I'd emptied the insides but before they were stuffed and baked.

 I included the garlic in the photo to give you an idea of the size of the pumpkins. The one on the right was 2 lbs. and the one on the left was nearly 1 3/4 lbs. They were the last two left at the market so I had to use them in place of the 3 lb. pumpkin listed in the recipe ingredients.

 I saved the seeds and here they are, bathing in the brine so I can roast them tomorrow - yummy weekend treats!

So here's the recipe. I used a sage sausage as the meat in the recipe. I browned it before adding it to the stuffing. My cheese was a smoked Gruyere and I added some chopped pecans that I had oven roasted earlier in the day. I forgot to take photos after the pumpkins had finished baking but they looked just like this one that was prepared by Dorie Greenspan. My stuffing did go all the way to the top of the pumpkin. I baked them on a Silpat lined cookie sheet and was able to move both of them to a large platter for the table presentation. I served them by cutting each pumpkin in half and plating the halves. It turned out that 1/3 of a pumpkin would have been a very good portion size. I would guess 1/4 of a 3 lb. pumpkin would do the trick. I'll be having leftovers for my office lunch tomorrow.

With no further ado, here is Dorie's wonderful recipe:

Pumpkin Stuffed With Everything Good

Makes 2 very generous servings

• 1 pumpkin, about 3 pounds
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1/4 pound stale bread, thinly sliced and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
• 1/4 pound cheese, such as Gruyere, Emmenthal, cheddar, or a combination, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
• 2–4 garlic cloves (to taste), split, germ removed, and coarsely chopped
• 4 strips bacon, cooked until crisp, drained, and chopped
• About 1/4 cup snipped fresh chives or sliced scallions
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
• About 1/3 cup heavy cream
• Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment, or find a Dutch oven with a diameter that's just a tiny bit larger than your pumpkin. If you bake the pumpkin in a casserole, it will keep its shape, but it might stick to the casserole, so you'll have to serve it from the pot — which is an appealingly homey way to serve it. If you bake it on a baking sheet, you can present it freestanding, but maneuvering a heavy stuffed pumpkin with a softened shell isn't so easy. However, since I love the way the unencumbered pumpkin looks in the center of the table, I've always taken my chances with the baked-on-a-sheet method, and so far, I've been lucky.

Using a very sturdy knife — and caution — cut a cap out of the top of the pumpkin (think Halloween jack-o'-lantern). It's easiest to work your knife around the top of the pumpkin at a 45-degree angle. You want to cut off enough of the top to make it easy for you to work inside the pumpkin. Clear away the seeds and strings from the cap and from inside the pumpkin. 

Season the inside of the pumpkin generously with salt and pepper, and put it on the baking sheet or in the pot. Toss the bread, cheese, garlic, bacon, and herbs together in a bowl. Season with pepper — you probably have enough salt from the bacon and cheese, but taste to be sure — and pack the mix into the pumpkin. The pumpkin should be well filled — you might have a little too much filling, or you might need to add to it. Stir the cream with the nutmeg and some salt and pepper and pour it into the pumpkin. Again, you might have too much or too little — you don't want the ingredients to swim in cream, but you do want them nicely moistened. (But it's hard to go wrong here.)

Put the cap in place and bake the pumpkin for about 2 hours — check after 90 minutes — or until everything inside the pumpkin is bubbling and the flesh of the pumpkin is tender enough to be pierced easily with the tip of a knife. Because the pumpkin will have exuded liquid, I like to remove the cap during the last 20 minutes or so, so that the liquid can bake away and the top of the stuffing can brown a little.

When the pumpkin is ready, carefully, very carefully — it's heavy, hot, and wobbly — bring it to the table or transfer it to a platter that you'll bring to the table.

Serving

You have choices: you can cut wedges of the pumpkin and filling; you can spoon out portions of the filling, making sure to get a generous amount of pumpkin into the spoonful; or you can dig into the pumpkin with a big spoon, pull the pumpkin meat into the filling, and then mix everything up. I'm a fan of the pull-and-mix option. Served in hearty portions followed by a salad, the pumpkin is a perfect cold-weather main course; served in generous spoonfuls or wedges, it's just right alongside the Thanksgiving turkey.

Storing

It's really best to eat this as soon as it's ready. However, if you've got leftovers, you can scoop them out of the pumpkin, mix them up, cover, and chill them; reheat them the next day.

Greenspan's Stuffing Ideas

There are many ways to vary this arts-and-crafts project. Instead of bread, I've filled the pumpkin with cooked rice — when it's baked, it's almost risotto-like. And, with either bread or rice, on different occasions I've added cooked spinach, kale, chard, or peas (the peas came straight from the freezer). I've made it without bacon, and I've also made and loved, loved, loved it with cooked sausage meat; cubes of ham are another good idea. Nuts are a great addition, as are chunks of apple or pear or pieces of chestnut.

Lots of Great Quilt Ideas - and Giveaways!

If you like quilting or just enjoying looking at quilt squares, you definitely need to check it out!

Adoption - A daunting decision

I was pondering my secability this evening while tending to a healing cut on the palm of my hand. I wanted to make sure the wound was no longer open since I plan to spend a great deal of time in the kitchen tomorrow. I have plans to cut up red, yellow and orange sweet peppers for the dehydrator and prepare an isangelous meal of "Pumpkin Stuffed with Everything Good."

Did you spot a couple words in there that aren't familiar? I found a most fun website tonight and adopted the words secability and isangelous. If you love words, I encourage you to go to www.savethewords.org and adopt some words of your own. These are words that have fallen into disuse and are being removed from dictionaries. You have to promise to use the words in speech and written communications to the best of your ability. The words call out to you to be picked - REALLY! Click on the word and you'll get the definition, part of speech and used in a sentence. Once you adopt a word, you get your own little party on screen. Here are a couple screen shots of my parties:

Just in case you're wondering...
Secability - noun, capability of getting cut
Isangelous - adjective, equivalent to the angels

Have fun and let me know what words you adopt!

Fabulous Floor is Finally Finished

(I love alliteration, do you?)

Another finishing project in the list of chores for the house is done. Take one empty floor with a layer of Killz primer on it:

 

Add two enthusiastic DIY girls (Kristine & Kathy):

 

Kristine

Kathy

And, about 4 hours later, you get one fabulous floor! 

 

We spent a bit of time laying out tiles and deciding the best way to handle the angle where the room wraps around the house. It worked out great. It's been one day so far and all the tiles are staying in place nicely!

 

 

Time to say goodbye to a dear, dear friend

I know it's been ages since my last posting. My daughter and sister have been prompting me to post something new. I've made excuses that I didn't have anything interesting to post but it's time to face the truth, say goodbye, and move on. It's been a month since the last post and there is a reason. At the last post, I was preparing to leave for PA for a visit with Valerie, Sam and Stephanie. I had all sorts of great ideas for posts on my return. I remembered to take my camera to get photos for my post ideas. My blog helper, Becca, was spending the week with Kristine, Kent and her boyfriend, Bear. 

The first four days of my visit were wonderful! Sam seemed to recognize my voice and face from his photo book. He was comfortable with me right away and we were having a great time. There was never a dull moment with Valerie and Stephanie. I arrived in PA on my best friend's birthday and got to give her a birthday hug ON THE DAY for the first time since 1988 - how cool is that?

Then things crashed down around me. My dog, Becca, had been ill when I left PA but I had taken her to the veterinarian before leaving on Friday night. The vet had treated her and expected her to recover, which she seemed to be doing. Kristine reported that she was mostly back to normal by Sunday and Monday. Becca started having symptoms again on Tuesday and Kristine took her back to the vet. More meds for the intestinal problem and she started to do better by the end of the day Tuesday. But on Wednesday morning, Kristine and Kent found that Becca had passed sometime during the night. I can't imagine how hard it was for Kristine to find Becca that way in the morning and I'm sorry she had to go through that. The call came and Valerie was the one to answer the phone. I was on the deck enjoying my morning coffee. It fell to Valerie to break the news to me. I remember little of the environmental details of the next half hour but have a very clear recollection of the words I heard and the emotions that followed. Becca was gone. She couldn't be - I needed her to be there when I got home. She was my bright spot every morning, my motivation to take a walk each day. She thought I was a rock star every time I came home from work. My car looked like it was upholstered in white fur because she went everywhere with me, except to the office. She listened to me whenever I wanted to talk. How could she be gone? She was only 5 1/2 years old.

The girls did their best to keep things cheery but the rest of the week just sort of slid by for me, as I anticipated the hard part coming up - returning home and not having Becca there. It's been a hard few weeks getting adjusted to not having her around but I'm making progress and am ready to move on, quit feeling sorry for myself and make a great effort to turn my reflections to the good memories. I want to be thankful for the years I had with Becca and lose the thoughts that keep me asking "why?"

I'm grateful that Becca was with family that week instead of being at a boarding kennel. I know she received the love she craved right up to the last. And I'm grateful to my veterinarian, Dr. Terry Stephens of Evergreen Animal Hospital. He sent me a lovely condolence letter after I returned home. He had taken the liberty of performing a necropsy on Becca because he couldn't understand why she had died. He found that her passing was not related to the intestinal problem we were treating. Becca had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. This is a genetic disorder that causes sudden death and has no symptoms. Dr. Terry said that dogs with the condition often die in their sleep and that it is a quick, painless passing. I'm thankful for the blessing of knowing that Becca didn't die because of any neglected problem and I'm thankful to know that it was a peaceful passing for her. Thank you, Dr. Terry, for your time and compassion to learn this from Becca and to let me know.

So why haven't I blogged in a month? There you have it. At first I was in a funk about losing Becca. And then there was this thing we had about blogging. I've posted before about how Becca was my blog assistant. Turns out she was, more than I knew. I had a habit of getting Becca to lay by my desk while I wrote my blogs. I would give her one of her favorite treats - a retriever roll - to keep her occupied and then I would do my thing. It seemed that I just couldn't motivate my brain to write if she wasn't in her usual place. 

This post is my tribute to Becca, intended to help me turn the corner and move on. Thank you, God, for the time you gave me with Becca. She was an amazing dog and a great companion.

                              Becca - December 2004 - September 29, 2010