Cooking School

I live less than two hours from Los Angeles, but I only go there a couple of times a year. Today I had one of those days that makes me glad I live so close. I went with some friends down to Culver City to The New School of Cooking to take a class in fresh Thai cooking. I like Thai food a lot, but now I feel like I understand it better. The girl who taught the class just happened to be Thai; she taught a souffle class the last time I went. We did all of the cooking ourselves, but she gave us a cultural/culinary introduction beforehand. Her description of the peppers that are traditionally used in Thai cooking was a little daunting. She said that we might want to kick it down a step with habaneros if the Thai chilies were too hot. Habaneros are milder??? Yikes!
We worked with partners. I cooked with one of my ex-students who I now teach with, and is now one of my best friends. We prepared "Dry Style Panang Curry," which was exceptionally good, without being too hot or strange....except that it has pork belly in it...which was strange to me. I really don't think we should eat pigs, but they are so darn tasty, even their bellies!

Our "Dry Style Panang Curry" is in the small bowl on the far left. The cream-colored dish was called "Seasonal Thai Vegetable Curry, and it was also delicious, as was the clam dish right next to it.





Dry Style Panang Curry

2 Tbsp. oil
1 lb pork belly, sliced into thin tiles
1/2 yellow onion (thinly sliced)
1 cup coconut
2 -4 Tbsp. Panang Curry Paste
2-3 Kaffir Lime Leaves, julliened
1/2 cup Thai Sweet Basil (Whole with stems)
2 tsp. fish sauce
1 tsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. Tamarind Paste
1/4 red bell pepper, julliened

Heat oil on high in a skillet and add pork belly. Brown the pork stirring occasionally for about five minutes. Drain excess oil.

Stir in 3 Tbsp. of thick coconut milk, curry paste, onion, and lime leaves. Stir-fry for about 30 seconds until paste starts to brown.

Stir in remaining coconut milk into curry paste. Increase heat to high until boiling. Allow to boil for about 5 min. or until reduced by half.

Add basil leaves, fish sauce, Tamarind paste, and sugar. Adjust flavors if necessary and serve garnished with bell peppers.

Red Curry Paste

15-20 red chile (Serrano or Thai) Dry if fresh is unavailable
2 stalks lemongrass, chopped
5 shallots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1'' section Galanga (Try finding that in Kansas, ha,ha)
2 - 4 Tbsp cilantro roots or stems
1/2 tsp. coriander, ground
1/2 tsp. caraway seeds
1/2-1Tbsp. fish sauce
1 Tbsp. shrimp paste
2 Tbsp. oil (if needed)

Seed and soak the chiles in hot water until tender if using dried.

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until smooth.

Store in an air-tight container in the fridge until ready to use.

Another Hat!

I'm not that excited about actual Halloween night, seeing that our neighborhood has seemingly been deemed by our town to be the neighborhood least likely to give out poisoned candy so that we often go through between 400 to 600 mini-candy bars between 6:00 and 9:00 P.M. On the other hand, I like the build-up to it. I knit a second little Halloween hat for one of my sister's kids last night while we watched Shawn of the Dead. I hate horror films...except for this one. For some reason I'm not disturbed by the zombies getting skewered or the whole "removing the brain" advice from the newscaster. Maybe because it's British. Whatever the reason, we had a pleasant evening eating a "Wildcat Special" pizza with Paige and her friend Veronica and watching zombies get blown away. I just make the pattern up, and I'm not overly happy with it, but it was fun along the way.
I have the temporarily on display on my mantel until I mail it on Monday. The cute little woodblocks, however, get to stay. I already had the little Arbor Lodge, which is located in Nebraska City, Nebraska, built by the founder of Arbor Day. The trees are new. They have lots of apple trees in Nebraska City, so I ordered an apple tree and another "falling-looking" trees from Cat's Meow in honor of the falls I would like to experience again sometime.It seems pretty obvious that I like to show off my kds, but usually I do have their pics have some connection to knitting. So, here's my connection. I have only one show on T.V. that I regularly watch. It's The Office. Jim and Pam got married last week, and Paige baked a cake to eat as we watched. What could be better than eating cake and watching a show you love? --Knitting once you finish your slice of cake!

Routine Smoutine

It seems to have happened again that I've disappeared from blogdom wholehog. When I'm disconnected, I'm really disconnected. I can't fully blame it on my busy daily routine although I am really busy, I think it's mostly that the endless September heat depresses me and for some reason discourages me from holding warm wool in my hands in the evening.

I don't really care for knitting "philosophy" books. I mean the ones that elevate knitting to a religion, basically. On the other hand, I do consider knitting to be far more than a hobby for me. The amount and type of knitting I'm doing usually reflects in some way on my life, at least indirectly. I'm always busy at the beginning of the school year and don't have much free time. Plus, I've been distracted by my poor mom's health problems in the past couple months. She's had cataract surgery, congestive heart failure, and lost a crown all within a month and a half...oh, and her cat died. I think that's why I chose to start the "seaside throw" from Debbie Bliss's Home. It's nice not to have to think too much sometimes, and this pattern doesn't take much thinking. I love it because it's easy to memorize, and I can just sit down and knit it anytime. It's comforting when lots of other things in my life seem hectic and out of control to have that throw waiting there to be knit whenever I have a little extra time. I used 15 skeins of Debbie Bliss Cathay in fuchsia that I bought for only $3.50 from Little Knits a while ago. It was a little "splitty," but overall, I love it and am looking forward to snuggling with my throw as the weather gets cooler.I have gotten in a few other mindless knitting projects lately too. I like knitting little pumpkins and found a new pattern on ravelry that I like called Autumn Pumpkins. I like the little attached leaf. I've only knit one, but I'll crank out more before Halloween.I also knit a little pumpkin hat for my nephew. It was easy too, but a little different from the rest.

A pretty regular compliment I receive from kids in my high school English class is "You're the most normal English teacher I've ever had." I have heard "You've inspired me to major in English,"...about four times in...twenty plus years, so it makes sense that I've decided to embrace the first complement. I don't like labels and "normal" is in the eye of the beholder, but I think what they're really saying is that I make them comfortable, which is partially because I'm a part of many of their lives outside of school since we live in the town where I teach.

Even though it's often incredibly frustrating to live in a small, conservative narrow-minded town, I love many aspects of it too. That's probably why I love the play Our Town, except for the end which I think is kind of freaky because I really don't get the sitting in chairs things after you die. (OK, I kind of do; I just don't like it.) You could argue that Thorton Wilder's theme about the "universality of the human experience" isn't so "universal" anymore, but much of it is still my "normal." There are tons of lines that I love from Our Town, but one of my favorite ones is spoken by Mr. Webb, the Grover Corner's newspaper editor. He says, "...there isn't much culture [in Grover's Corner]; but maybe this is the place to tell you that we've got a lot of pleasures of a kind here: we like the sun comin' up over the mountain in the morning, and we all notice a good deal about the birds...and we watch the change of seasons." Living in Central California, you have to watch really closely to see the seasons change a lot of years, but I appreciate the point of this quote. It's why I love gardening, and it's why when I was browsing through an online seed catalog that I had to buy some heliotrope seeds. I remembered a line where Mrs. Gibbs tells her husband, "Come out and smell my heliotrope in the moonlight." I love that idea of just enjoying simple things. Well, I've gone out in the moonlight all summer long waiting for a lovely scent to waft through the air from my heliotrope. It hasn't happened. They're not that pretty either. (They're the purple ones) Maybe I'll go back to trying recipes from food in books I love because the gardening part hasn't worked out too well.


In fact, I really do need to do some experimental cooking because I've spend a lot of money on food-related books this summer. My favorite by far is Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life I knew about her blog Orangette, and I have enjoyed reading it periodically, but the book is wonderful. What could be better than good stories and great recipes? I read it in a couple of sittings. Yes, I am showing off my bookcase again in the first shot and the nice chair rail and dual-tone wall that Russ painted this summer.

No Fair!

My parents moved to Humboldt County in Northern California over twenty years ago, and it's become kind of a second home to my family. We visit every summer and spend our time hiking, searching for shells and rocks on the beach, eating great food, and just enjoying ourselves whenever we're there. We also almost always, go to the Humboldt County Fair in Ferndale. This year was the third time we've ever missed the fair. It doesn't begin until August 13, which just happens to be my first day back at work. How sad!
The only thing I don't like about Humboldt County is that along with great organic produce, liberal political leanings, and, of course, a sizable number of yarn shops, is that it has a disproportionate number of scary-looking homeless people. I'm not talking about hippies...I mean SCARY people. Paige and I always laugh at this sign near downtown Arcata. I'm sure it's a joke. ..otherwise no one would come through the front door because Arcata has to be the hippy capitol of the world!There's a really nice fabric shop in Arcata called Fabric Temptations. They also have a fairly extensive range of yarn choices, so I was more than a little embarrassed to walk in there and buy...two skeins of red, white, and blue stripe Sugar and Cream yarn. I don't have anything against Sugar and Cream. It's perfect for knitting dish clothes, and I wanted to knit a flower dish cloth for our dog sitter to line a basket of Northern California goodies I planned to give her. I still had the urge to say, "I'm really one of you. I knit with Manos de Uruguay, Lorna's Laces, and Debbie Bliss. I usually waste hundreds of dollars on quality yarn! I'm not usually so....practical"


Humboldt County beaches aren't the type of beach that you go to if you want to tan, but that also means they aren't usually crowded either. We usually go up to Trinidad for a day and hike around.


We made our perfunctory stop at Schat's Bakery in Ukiah. Kai got a cherry pie.

An additional tradition that we've seemed to be developing is to go to the Ukiah Farmer's Market. They had a wonderful yarn booth there, but I'm way overloaded with unfinished projects, so I refrained from any purchases. I'll plan better next summer.

Paige got a henna tatoo, which was supposed to last three weeks but is pretty much gone now, but it was pretty while it lasted.

Slow Knitting Month

I haven't accomplished much knitting this month as usual. I didn't even go to the knit shop that I discovered in Lincoln last year, maybe that has something to do with buying a ton of sale yarn from Little Knits just before we left on vacation.

I did finish my "table runner, which actually turned out more like a placemat. I really liked working with the bamboo/silk yarn for this. If it didn't cost 8 dollars a skein, I'd make a whole set...And yes, I have heard of blocking. I just don't ever do it.
I decided to knit fingerless gloves with the Manos de Uruguay yarn that I bought in San Luis. I had a beautiful pattern from Monica Jines for fingerless gloves, which called for sports weight yarn. Typical of me, I went ahead, even though the Manos is closer to worsted. Of course, they ended up being too. big. I took a picture of them, but I'm starting over and improvising a little so that I cast on eight fewer stitches. That should do it...and if it doesn't, it's mostly about the journey anyway.

Nebraska Vacation

Our vacations in Nebraska are always a lot of fun, interspersed with occasional days of boredom. I told my husband yesterday that I didn't think we had been doing enough, something I complain about every year. He proceeded to list the numerous things we've done, and almost convinced me that despite the fact that he isn't as adventurous as I'd like him to be when we're here (guilty son syndrome--can't hurt mother's feelings by venturing too far away for too long while here), that we've still had some great experiences. My brother-in-law, Wayne, is a hardcore fisherman and knows how to fry fish like no one I know. I didn't know that I even liked freshwater fish until I tasted his walleye and crappie..

My sister-in-law, Ann, is always fun to be around even though she's obviously a ham (LOL)
Paige and her cousin Sam are just one week apart. They only see each other once a year, but fall into their usual routine of arguing half of the time and loving each other the other half.

My sister and her family have moved back to Omaha, so we've gotten to spend time playing with little cousins reacquainting ourselves with the joys of children's books, water balloon fights, and babies..and yes, my eight-year-old niece is knitting. She has managed to hide her irritation when her aunt picks up her knitting "just to add a few rows."

Russ and I love good coffee, and our whole family is also pretty adventurous when it comes to food. So, wherever we travel, we always looks for coffee and unique food experiences. Our favorite coffee house in Lincoln is called Cultiva This year, we were happy to discover that they have expanded to the Haymarket District where they share a space with a wonderful bookstore, named Indigo Books.

We also enjoyed drinking numerous cups of coffee at my sister's. They like good coffee too, but we have to be careful not drink too much of her specialty.."candy coffee," our name for coffee with excessive amounts of cream and sugar. She, of course, is careful about the number of calories she puts in her own coffee. Russ has to use his faavorite "Batman" cup when we're there, which was my brother-in-law's cup from when he was a kid until Russ broke the original ten years ago messing around with it for my nephew. He was pretending to fall asleep with it in his hand, and then actually dropped it. We still remember my little nephew saying, "Why you do that, Uncle Russ?" Anyway, Russ found a replacement on Ebay and bought it, and I'm kind of surprised they still let him use it.


We eat a lot of Middle Eastern food at home, so when I saw that Ahmed's Restaurant in the Old Market in Omaha had good reviews, we checked it out after going to the Imax at the Henry Dorley Zoo.

Kitty's Summer

Every year, when we go on vacation, we take our dogs to stay with some good friends, who dote on them for two weeks; but we leave out kitty at home. One of the kids' friends come over to feed her and water the lawn. I always feel a little guilty because she's used to having a lot people around. I made her Wendy's a Pi Kitty Bed with some Brown Sheep wool I ordered from the The Sheep Shed a long time ago, just before we left. This is how she looked on Tuesday morning as we walked out the door, and she'll probably be in the same position when we get home in a couple of weeks!

Plums

This has nothing to do with knitting, but I want to remember how perfect our plums were this year. It may have had something to do with Russ fertilizing our fruit trees this year and with me watering them a lot. I'm not too big on plums for cooking, but we all enjoyed them right off the tree, eating tons of them ourselves and sharing bags and bags of them with neighbors for several weeks.

I remember reading this William Carlos Williams poem in college, which I thought was kind of stupid. Now, I've decided I like it. I'm thinking that if he was talking to his wife, she should have been really torqued because there's nothing like a nice, fresh juicy plum...except for a fresh, juicy peach, but that will have to wait until next month!

This Is Just to Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Beachy Break

I can't say that I've been in need of a break since I've been on vacation for two weeks, but I have been working a lot around the house. So, when one of my friends invited me and another friend to spend a couple of days with her at her family's beach house, I was very excited. We've really enjoyed each other's company this year, occasionally going on "extreme knitting" excursions to Bakersfield or relaxing at each other's home with a knitting project and a glass or wine or sometimes cappacino or coffee. We had a wonderful time on Thursday and Friday, complete with a fun evening at the San Luis Obispo Farmer's Market, a great bike ride, several memorable meals, and a trip to Yarns at the Adobe. My friend, Janet, had been there before and raved about it, and she was right in thinking that my other friend, Denise, and I would too. It's right across from the San Luis Obispo Mission in an old adobe building that was built in the early 1800s. It's not only a cute looking shop, the owner is friendly and helpful, but not a "hover-er." We're already thinking of going back to possibly take one of their " beer and knitting" classes, not a combination that I'd usually think of, but we really should take the "Unibroue/Allagash and Scrap Yarn Project" class on November, especially since Janet is from Maine and Allagash is brewed in Maine! I only had my camera phone to take a picture of Denise and Janet in front of the shop, but I think it came out cute. As I've said a million times, I don't need any more yarn, but I bought some silky, soft Panda Silk, which is a blend of bamboo, silk, and merino. I'm knitting a table runner with it, using a pattern from the Spring/Summer edition of Debbie Bliss Knitting MagazineM. I love how soft it is, and it doesn't split like Panda Cotton does. I also bought a skein of Manos de Uruguay silk bland yarn.I felt ever so slightly guilty leaving my family behind, but they seemed to have inexplicably survived just fine without me...my little basil plant seedlings that were just coming up in my garden and which I forgot to tell anyone to water didn't, but I'd say that's a small price to pay to have such a great time with friends.

Yosemite Summer Kick-Off

For the past four years, we've our begun summer vacation with a trip to Yosemite. We go with a large group of friends and share meal responsibilities. Most years it's been very warm during the days, and we've loved hiking up to some of the falls so that we could cool off in the mist. This year, it snowed part of the time on the way up, and drizzled much of the time that we were there, but it didn't matter because it was Yosemite, and Yosemite is the most beautiful place in the world!
The view from our campsite was incredible. I had visions of sitting by the Merced River, knitting away, but that didn't happen this year.We did go for a little walk up to the Ahwanhee Hotel. The cheapest room in the Ahwanhee is over $450, so we can only enjoy pretending to be guests. Russ and I did stay there once before the kids were born. My school paid for a two-day stay for me, and Russ happily tagged along. There was a big English conference at the Yosemite Lodge that year, but the rooms there were sold out, so my generous school approved the Ahwanhee stay. I still remember that the room was $315 per night, and that was back in the early 90s. It was such a memorable experience. The rooms are actually quite rustic with few amenities, but that's not what you're paying for. We also walked to the Visitor's Center and watched a movie since Kai had a cough that kept getting progressively worse.Throughout the day, Kai kept coughing and coughing. We finally decided to admit that we weren't going to have our typical Yosemite experience with loads of hiking, and headed home a day early. Kai was in good enough spirits to play with the water pump at Wawona, but he was pretty sick by the time we got home.


I did get to finish a pair of Loksins on the way home. It wasn't quite the same as sitting and knitting by a river, but it was still knitting!

Hanging On!

Lately, I've taken to checking my blog to see if possibly it's just updated itself since I know there's no way that I've done it. I'm not that sympathetic to people who complain that they're soooo busy. I always feel like much of that is just a choice, and I include myself in that. However, the reason that I stay so busy during the school year is about to arrive! I teach extra college classes because I hate worrying about money during the summer. The two of us make more than enough not to have to worry about making it through the summer, BUT I want to splurge on travel, eating out, and shopping during the summer..so I work extra. My college classes are finished...except for the final grades and my high school classes will be over in two and a half weeks, and then summer will be here!
Maybe then I'll have more than a little, lace doily thing that I knit after discovering Vintage on Ravelry. Of course, now I can't find the exact pattern, but flacon is the one that I was first drawn to because it is an old Danish pattern. OMG! I've just bragged that I knit a doily. What's next? Toilet paper covers?!!!