Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Tying in loose ends

I like to keep my hands busy so when sitting still for any length of time my hands are usually smocking, hemming, knitting, embroidering or crocheting something or other. My brain can not help but take hold of visually imagining the tying in of all the loose ends of threads, rather they be sewing, embroidering, knitting, or crocheting.

Today I tied in some of the loose ends of completely other things gathered around my house, mainly in the kitchen.

Apples, another dent made in the bag of abundant supply, this time with crockpot apple butter. We learned from making applesauce that we did not want to stand over a pot of simmering apples for too long so the crockpot was the appliance of choice. My kitchen is smelling spicy and appley right now.


Herb vinegars, drained through a sieve, siphoned into pretty bottles and simple tags strung to identify the herb ingredients.


Roasting peppers for making pepper pesto. You may want to try this recipe if the ingredients appeal to you. I thought it was throw your eyes back into your head delicious.

1 large red pepper roasted, find how to here
5 Tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup fresh basil
5 Tablespoons parmesan cheese
3 cloves of garlic
salt and pepper to taste
You may just want to add the roasted pepper and vinegar to any prepared basil pesto and that would work just fine.

Since I happened to pick up my CSA produce and it contained several heirloom peppers, purple and light yellow, I decided to make a batch. I really prefer the muted red color of the red pepper pesto, but the green color is pleasing too and the taste is pretty much the same. I do believe green peppers would not be as good because of their strong taste.

This pesto makes any sandwich zing, or you may prefer it on a cracker.


dumplings and cookies

" We'll all have chicken 'n dumplings when  she comes...." ( 4th stanza , She'll be Coming 'Round the Mountains,  ...