Sashiko

The other day Leo the cat started pestering me around 3pm, herding me towards the front end of the house.  I couldn't figure out what he wanted until he stopped in front of the (cold) woodstove and gave me a yowl and the stinkeye.  Oh!  "Start the f*cking fire, human!  I don't have any thumbs!"

 We use mostly wood to heat our home, and I find that I enjoy the rhythm of chopping, stacking, and feeding the flames.  However, the house is long and narrow, and the woodstove and our bedroom are at opposite ends, so we also have a oil-filled radiator in the bedroom, set low, to keep the chill at bay. The Radiator Adoration Society holds daily meetings, and there's room for one more on the other side.

In the mucky weather, I spend more time indoors...so I'm more inspired to make things for the home than I am to start a new sweater that no one will see while I'm at home watching Netflix.  We travel often to Japan, and I have a strong appreciation for traditional Japanese crafts.  We also use milk crates for seating in our living room, and I thought maybe I'd do a fun craft and defeat the dreaded waffle-butt at the same time.

All the materials used for these crafts were thrifted and cost less than $3.00 Canadian.  This pleases me to no end. 

 The base fabric is a dark blue linen, with applique patches of some blue and white tie-dye.  In between the patches, a simple sashiko running stitch design gives it more depth.  I thought about making a skirting for them too, but at this stage in my life I don't feel any need to pretend that we're too classy to use milk crates as furniture.

There are actually two identical crate toppers, but there was only enough sunlight to get a clear photo of one of them.  It's winter here, all right.

Mike approves of this craft whole-heartedly.  It's manly enough for a man cave, but cute enough for the front room.  The back of the pillows is a simple overlapping envelope like a pillow sham, and the stuffing is an old folded towel.  It works very nicely - no more waffle-butt, but the cushions stay very nicely in place without any slippery polyfill or having to tie them down.  

Back to the bedroom, where the cat likes to kick the door wide open and let all that precious heat slip out into the house and dissipate into nothing.  You'd think an animal that concerned with warmth would care, but again, no thumbs...plus he has nothing better to do than press his nose into the radiator.

The solution?  Japanese style door curtains (noren).  They help hold the heat in, while being high enough off the ground not to pick up hair and drool from old cats and labrador retrievers.  Heat rises, so the room stays warmer, but doesn't get as stuffy as it would if the whole door were covered or closed.  These are made with the same linen for the background, with a separate circular applique of sashiko embroidery (in a traditional hex pattern, which is way easier than it looks) on another applique of light blue cotton.

If you are interested in trying sashiko, here's a simple summary of what to do and not to do to vastly improve the look of the project. 

Winter Dreaming

I'm finally feeling halfway human again after the cold from hell knocked out most of last week.  Clearly Mike is next to fall...but in the meantime, I'm thinking about aquaponics.

You see, we had set up a little aquarium, hoping to overwinter the pond plants and keep the cat drinking lots of water at the same time.

It was working great for watering the cat, but the plants didn't do so well.  Apparently a noxious weed in Florida can't even manage to conquer one little Canadian fishtank.  After a couple of months the water hyacinth was a soggy rotting mess.

I'm now planning to redo the whole thing as a baby aquaponic system, which I can probably do with parts around the house.  It has to have some sort of open flowing water though, or the cat won't drink...so I'm thinking I can pipe the water up and have it flow into a little funnel, then disperse through the growing medium and back into the tank, where maybe I can grow one Tilapia for months until I eat it?  There's not much gardening to do outside, so we have to dream where we can here.

Out in the garden I've put the tomato bed to sleep under a blanket of horse manure from the local riding stable.  The New Zealand Spinach finally gave it up to the cold in November after growing faster than we could eat it for the whole warm season. 

The lettuce and mesclun are still hanging on for now.  They aren't growing, but they aren't dying.  Hopefully next year I'll have a cold frame set up for winter kale.  Never really had to think about that before!

Kitchen Basics - Soup Stock

It's no secret to friends of mine that I love to cook.  I love to eat, too...but I love to cook even more, so sometimes I have to share the wealth.  We gave away a lot of jam and marmalade this holiday season, but I'm hoarding the fire salsa.  It's just too damn good.

One of the most basic stocks in my kitchen is stock.  Seems obvious, right? Making stock, if you aren't worried about making perfectly clear stock for consomme or other fancy frenchery, is really easy.

In my kitchen, all bones from any animal (including bones from restaurants) get tossed into a big bag in the freezer door.  I don't care whose mouth was on it - it's going to be frozen and then boiled to death...you're safe eating here, I think.  When the bag is full, it all goes in the stockpot with enough water to cover the bones.  Bring to a boil, then turn it down to a simmer.  Every once in a while, check it and add water if the level is getting low.  Add a couple glugs of vinegar - it helps the bones release minerals.  Stir it if you want to, but you don't need to.

After cooking a few hours (I have also been known to shut it down overnight, and boil it again the next day) the bones will be softer and the broth thicker.  Keep going as long as you like.  If you want the stock more concentrated, let the water level drop after a while.

When I decide it's done, I strain out the bones and let it cool off.  If you want to reduce the saturated fat, chill it overnight - this makes it easy to scoop the hardened fats off the top. The chilled broth turns into jello because of all the gelatin you've leached out of the bones.  THIS MEANS IT IS GOOD FOR YOU.  No more salt cubes in your kitchen!  Your joints will thank you for it.

Now, warm it up to liquid and pour into ice cube trays.  Once they're frozen hard, you can store them in freezer bags.  I have made stock out of everything from lamb to thanksgiving turkey to chicken feet, and they're all good.  Each batch is a little different - this month's looks like it's all from Shake'n'Bake wings...

This morning

Today the house smells like chili and quinoa and chocolate coconut oatmeal cookies.  A sleepy labrador and a grumpy cat share the sofa.  Each has a cushion to themselves, with the center cushion as a buffer.  If I come sit in between them, they both snuggle up tight to me until they are touching - which is fine with them as long as they don't look.

It's nearly the end of December and I'm already dreaming about gardening and what I'm going to plant next year.  I guess this strikes most Northerners around February, but seeing as this has already been more winter than I've seen in my life, I think I can be excused for being a keener.  As the days were growing shorter and shorter, I felt like the dark was closing in on me...now I feel myself lightening with the sun.