the air was filled with snow

Windy, and the air was filled with dust.

A good day to hang in the greenhouse,

with Percie.

Now the air is filled with snow.

the weather is under the weather

This is that little reminder that winter always drops on us just when we really begin to believe in spring.

About a month ago K got the news that he would be taking a pay cut of about 1/3. We are lucky to still be in a position to pay our bills but it means that it will be longer before the debts are payed off and he can retire. Since I came down with chronic fatigue I have not been able to work so I find myself walking in my mother's footsteps, trying to find every possible way to cut household expenses. One thing I can do is cook to replace some of the pre-prepared food we buy at the grocery store. As you could see from my previous post I am making an attempt to make bread. Since I really love good bread and really good bread is approaching $4 a loaf these days, this could be a way to cut costs. Also there is the satisfaction of doing something for ourselves and our bodies, and the fact that food one has spent time and energy on feeds one's body more fully. So I am baking bread and coming up with things that will make enough to leave leftovers in the fridge which K might be tempted to eat. Of course he has "husband refrigerator blindness" and so it's an ongoing battle.

Anyway, back to the weather. Since I know that every pleasant spring day will draw me out to work on the gardens I have been using these stormy days to get a few things cooked in advance.

Here is a great brine for an inexpensive pork loin which I did over the last few days. The brine makes the meat stay moist through cooking and gives it some flavor. It has a slightly Asian flavor to it but not so strong that one can't use the leftovers for just about any purpose. In addition to the initial serving of Roast Pork Loin, I intend to use the pork for Sandwiches, Pork fried rice, Arroz A la Malloquina, and Japanese Curry Rice. It was a big Pork Loin but quite inexpensive at a dollar forty something a pound.

adapted from epicurious.com

Brine for Pork Loin

1 T whole Sichuan Peppercorns

6 whole star Anise

3 sticks cinnamon

1 T cloves

1 T Coriander Seed

1 3 inch piece fresh ginger - sliced

1 C Kosher Salt

Combine spices with a few cups water in a a saucepan. Heat, stirring occasionally until boiling and salt is dissolved. Remove from heat and add enough water to cool the spice mixture to room temp. Place Spice mixture and pork loin in a metal or ceramic container big enough for pork loin to be submerged. I cut a large loin into 3 pieces and put the three pieces in a large stockpot. Add enough water to cover and swish things around a bit to distribute the salt and spices. Let the loin sit in the brine in a refrigerator for two or three days. Remove Pork from the brine, wipe off any spices that cling and roast Pork in the oven or on the grill, or cut into cubes for rice dishes or strips for stir fry.

It occurs to me that these are not cheap spices, but since I already had them before the axe fell it is economic to use what I have on hand. When they run out I'll have to rethink.

I feel quite energized by the thought of making a difference in our situation with cooking. So I'm giving it a whole lot more energy that I should and tiring myself out every day. I know I will pay the penalty but I don't seem to be able to hold myself back, there are so many things I could make! This period of excitement will just have to run its course, then perhaps I will be able to approach it more sensibly. Part of accepting life with Chronic Fatigue is accepting the fact that I sometimes don't operate wisely, but I do enjoy my life!

Spring is really here even though it doesn't seem like it today. Here's a shot of a miniature nectarine tree in bloom. It bloomed last year but had no fruit. It probably needs a pollinator, but I won't be buying any new trees this year so I'll just enjoy its extravagant pink blooms.

sourdough success!

Success! This is my third loaf this try. I've tried to bake bread before with very mediocre results. This is my best so far. The flavor was also good - a bonus! I do hope to develop even better internal structure. This loaf was baked in a cast iron dutch oven in my oven. The dutch oven keeps the moisture around the loaf and helps it to develop this lovely crust. The previous loaves I baked on a stone on the racks of the oven and they were over done and hard.

I read a Post on a blog today that was most honest and moving. Raven spoke about the inner demons that make even a disabled person disbelieve their own pain and feel as if they are just lazy and perpetrating a fraud. Her mother disbelieved her pain when she was a child and that became an inner lie that effected her for her entire life. This is a place where health and emotional health are so deeply interlinked.

a day indoors to cook

Just for fun here's a picture of a tiny butterfly on a Chrysanthemum flower in the garden last fall. Love her stripey antenae!

We had the craziest dust storm last night, really unusual for our location. After the storm there were tiny drifts of fine red sand on the windows of my car. The light actually was red at the height of the dust, it looked like sunset but was much too early. It blew our patio furniture around and broke one of the cable ties holding the shade cloth onto my greenhouse.

I'm baking bread again, I'm trying to replace a bread that has been a part of my diet for several years, an artisan multigrain from Albertson's made by Maple Leaf Bakeries. This is the first multigrain bread I have ever had that is not sweet, has great flavor, and crust and crumb are both enticing. It's also been great for my health and eating it every morning actually lowered my cholesterol, which had been climbing in spite of eating meat only three times a week at the time. Unfortunately it costs nearly $4 a loaf and the budget just won't handle that any more. Well, that's one reason, the other is that I believe that any food you invest your time and interest in gains chi and returns it to your body, thus making it a more physically satisfying and energy giving meal.

The best breads I have ever tasted come from La Brea Bakery. The catering company I worked for used them and they are ever so good, chewy, crusty, and flavorful. So I got Nancy Silverton's Breads from the la Brea Bakery and am learning from it. I got a sourdough starter from King Arthur Flour last week and fed it and got it ready to go. My first loaves of County Bread, the bread she recommends beginning with, were not very good, flavor wise because of stale flour from the grocery store shelves and crust wise, dark, hard and bitter. But I'm learning. I got a big bag of flour from Sam's Club and it is fresh and sweet. My next two loaves are now safely retarding in the fridge and will be ready for lunch tomorrow. What a fun adventure.

It was gloomy, cold, and windy today so it was a perfect day to cook. I made Jambalaya, a recipe that I have been working on and customizing for the last year. Here it is:

JAMBALAYA

1 t Olive Oil
2 large onions, chopped
4 medium cloves garlic, peeled
1 red and 1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and chopped
4 stalks celery, diced

6 Tbs fresh Italian parsley, minced
½ Polska Kielbasa, cut into ½ inch cubes
8 oz. ham, diced
1 chicken breast, diced
1 large bay leaf
¼ t ground white pepper
½ t Cayenne
3 inch sprig fresh thyme or ½ t dried thyme
3 inch sprig fresh oregano or ½ t dried oregano

3 lbs fresh tomatoes diced or 3 cans diced tomatoes with juice
4 Cups Chicken Broth

¾ C uncooked rice

You will need a large dutch oven or stovetop safe casserole.
Sauté onion, garlic, bell peppers and celery until onion is translucent.
Add Parsley, ham, Polska, chicken, bay leaf and spices.
Cook, stirring often until chicken turns white.
Add tomatoes and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer.
Add rice, cover and cook, barely simmering, for a good three hours or more.
This is better the next day, and the next. Add shrimp after reheating or 5 minutes before serving if you like. Very tasty.

Apricots in Bloom

It is a little early, five weeks before last frost, but who can blame them? I'm blooming too. The weather continues to be spectacular. Now it's a race to get everything transplanted before it gets too hot. I am so much happier when I can be out in the sunshine and messing with the soil. The gloom of winter is not just a weather condition.

Today I was able to help a good friend with sinus problems by giving her a Jin Shin Do treatment. J has sinus problems associated with burn season for the local farmers. She began to get relief while I was doing the basic neck release, even before I began on the Sinus release pattern. I am so grateful for Ioana Marsaa Teeguarden's books http://www.jinshindo.org/products.htm on the subject. One day maybe I'll get to go study and become accredited, but until then it is incredibly wonderful to be able to do a few small things for my friends and family's comfort.

Couldn't garden today

The twins Anapurna and Wee Jock

You'd think that after six years of working with Chronic Fatigue I'd be at peace with having to take a day and rest. There was a time when I couldn't even take out the trash because one trip down and back up the steps to our front door was more than I could handle. I learned to be patient with it then. Now that I'm feeling better for some reason it's back to finding it hard to accept. Healing sometimes is about working through the layers of ourselves, like an onion. It's funny though, because sometimes the new layer looks an awful lot like one of the old ones.

PercieOne of my tricks to make myself rest is to watch a movie in the middle of the day. Love Netflix! Today it was Man on Fire with Denzel Washington. It started out really good, heartwarming, talking about moral and spiritual questions, giving hints of things maybe not being what they appear. But the hints became too heavy handed and the last half just degenerated into basic violent tough guy thriller. Plplplplplpl. It gets a raspberry from me. (There's no good way to spell that).

Pippin

It was so nice outside I had to find a way to do nothing outside. So I tried to get shots of my garden companions. Here are some of the better ones.

Pippin and Chester

garden makeovers

The weather has been so beautiful these days, it's too good to be indoors. In accord with the theory that one should do what makes one happy, rather than what one "should" do , I worked on an area that has been bothering me and did a redo. It required hard work, which makes me tired, which is hard to recover from. But nevertheless these lovely days would be wasted without grabbing a chance to work and do something good.

Above is a before picture, it's the garden in front of the greenhouse that I have been wanting to redo. although I love day lilies I have not been pleased with the messy appearance of the massed day lily bed in this location. So I dug it up, raised the bed with a stone edging, and prepped it to be planted in vegetables this year. It's already warm enough to plant lettuce, onion, chard, and peas from seed. Later I will add Tomatoes and green beans. This location is sunny about half the day, being shaded on one side with a tree and on the other side by the house. The soil is very shallow, we're on the crest of a sandstone hill. That's the reason for raising the bed.

Here is the improved bed, of course it'll be better when there's something green growing in it. Spring is the time for bursting out from our winter dormancy. It's time to grow, and watch things growing.