Knit Think

Friday food

I'm ba-a-a-a-a-ack!

Things are going very well for my brother, and again, thank you for all your good wishes. It turns out the stroke happened because he has an extra chamber in his heart. The doc (a nice cardiologist, as opposed to the Pompous Ass) says that about 20% of people have this condition--who knew? I didn't--and that for most people, it's not an issue. However, for a select few (like my lucky brother), the extra chamber acts as a breeding ground for blood clots, which can then be sent to the brain, and, well, bad things happen. Fortunately they have a procedure to patch this extra hole, which they've done, so hopefully another stroke won't happen. He's out of ICU, and by the end of today should be transferred to Sister Kenny for a couple weeks of inpatient rehab. Lots of hard work ahead, but the prognosis is for full recovery. Whew.

In celebration of a return to health, and because the grocery store had some lovely cherries this week, I decided to--gasp! Bake! I know, I know. I never bake. But my brother likes cherry pies and the like, so I thought I'd give it a go. I saw this recipe in the latest Bon Appetit, and it looked easy and tasty and sort of more like cooking than baking, since it involves a skillet.

It lived up to my expectations. Of course, good ingredients help.

Yummy fresh cherries, good balsamic vinegar. Oh, and cornmeal.

It starts out with some stovetop action, melting butter, brown sugar, and the balsamic vinegar in an ovenproof pan:

Then stirring in the cherries and bringing all the juices to a boil so they thicken a little. Truthfully? I could have stopped right here. This, all by itself, is splendid. I mean, c'mon--cherries, butter, brown sugar, and balsamic vinegar! Heaven.

But I carried through on my commitment to bake.

How's that for an action shot! Beating butter and sugar together! Then I added egg yolks and vanilla. Eventually I added whole milk, cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and salt. After that, it was time to whip the egg whites with a bit of cream of tartar, then folded the whites into the rest of the batter, which was then poured over the cherries in the skillet, and the whole thing went in the oven for a while. At that point, I sternly kicked the kids out of the kitchen, warning them of the dire consequences involved in eating raw batter with raw eggs, horrible disease, lack of sanitation, etc. After they were gone, I slurped up what was left in the mixing bowl. Hey, I'm older, and I was raised on raw egg batter. This is really good batter.

Bake until golden brown. Your kitchen will smell really, really good. Trust me on this.

After it's cooled in the pan for a few minutes, it's time to put it on a platter. A pretty platter which has not been used in years. Because, you know, I don't bake.

Then served warm, with ice cream. Mmmmmmmmm. Ice cream.

So, yeah, it was easy, and yummy, and now it's all gone. One piece made it to the hospital for my brother. The rest was inhaled by the family. I would definitely make this again. But maybe next time, no baking, just cooking the cherries and serving on ice cream. That kind of cooking suits me just fine.

Stay tuned--long hours in hospitals have lead to much more knitting than usual. Nothing finished, but at least noticeable progress.

Friday food

Thanks, everyone, for all the kind wishes and good thoughts. It's been a tough week with lots of ups and downs, but it's ending on a good note. He's probably going to be in the hospital at least two or three more weeks, but he's stabilizing and might even get out of intensive care this weekend.

So, no Friday Food in particular, because there hasn't been time or energy. However, with the long weekend looming, if you'd like to know what the residents of Casa Knit Think will be eating, go here. I've made some of Pioneer Woman's other recipes, and they've always been terrific. I don't doubt this one will be too, and what better spoil-myself-rotten recipe could I find?

Enjoy your long weekends, and hug your siblings!!!

Karma, wishes, thoughts, prayers

--whatever fits your belief system, please send some good ones towards my brother. He had a stroke and a seizure yesterday and is in the hospital. He's doing well, considering the circumstances. He can talk, move his limbs, is lucid. But the doctor made it clear today it could be a hard recovery. He's only 57. So, yeah--good thoughts/wishes/karma/prayers/candles/whatever, send them his way.

Also, grant me the serenity necessary to deal with, if I have to, the pompous ass of a doctor who kept smiling condescendingly and calling me "the little sis:" "Of course, as the little sis, you're worried. But little sis needs to be optimistic." There was a bedpan within reach. I could have used it as a weapon...

Friday food

Back to food! Bring on the pork.

Now, those of you who don't eat pork, please don't wander off--this week's edition of Friday Food is less about the pork than about the condiment that accompanied it, which has, in my opinion, many applications. That's not to say the pork isn't tasty, because it is.

And darned easy too. I found the recipe on Ming Tsai's website. The recipe itself is attributed to Ted Allen. Remember him? From Queer Eye for the Straight Guy? I loved that show when it first came on. But once the straight guys started acting like it was cool to be one of the Queer Guy makeovers, it lost its fun. But at the time, it seemed like everyone was ga-ga for Kyan. Personally, Ted was my favorite. He's so cute! And he cooks!

So Ted and Ming published this recipe. The pork part is very easy. You get yourself a bone-in pork shoulder, rub sea salt and pepper all over it, and stab it several times with knife. You might remember that I'm quite fond of recipes that ask me to stab my food. Then you layer thick slices of bacon all over the pork and roast it. Mmmmm. All that bacon-y goodness blends right into the pork-y goodness.

But it wasn't really a surprise that I liked it so much. I like pork. I like bacon. I like salt and pepper. No big surprises here. What caught me off-guard was how much I liked this:

A cilantro-yogurt sauce, also included in the recipe (linked above). Again, really simple--just mix together a bunch of fresh cilantro, cider vinegar, Greek yogurt, and garlic, and refrigerate.

Holy cow! It was so good! It just took that ol' pork roast to a whole new level. And it makes quite a bit, so I kept the leftovers and thought about it. The next day, I tried some on scrambled eggs and black beans for breakfast. Yum. Thus it occurred to me it would be a good addition to things like quesadillas or burritos. Next I tried it on a baked potato. Yum. On a sandwich with leftover roast chicken. Yum.

I think you could put this on almost any kind of meat, on tofu, on beans, on eggs--it has a lot of versatility for something that looks so dull.

So you see--a Friday food for carnivores AND vegetarians. Geez, I'm good.

The one in which I win a big prize

Thanks, everyone, for all the kind wishes and congrats! I'm pretty excited, as you might be able to tell. As a friend of mine said, that's a big "check" on the ol' life list. Next up--private dinner with John Cusack. Sorry, Kristi.

But in other big news, I won a contest over at First Things First. Today I got a box, fairly bursting at the seams. Let's take inventory:

All kinds of goodies! Crazy Aunt Purl's book, two kinds of tea, Altoids gum, suckers, and a cute little carrying case. I love this tea in particular:

I may have to keep the packaging.

And of course there is yarn:

Lots of yarn--Patons and Sugar 'n Cream. I see some Mother Bears in my future!

And some wonderful soap. This smells soooooo good:

And for all those giant shopping trips:

Thank you, Marsha!!! All in all, I feel, as one of my favorite coffee mugs says, like I am:

Friday food

Let's talk about pork roasts. Many years ago, on a family driving trip to Mt. Rushmore, we kept seeing pork delivery trucks that had catchy sayings on the side. One I remember was "Time flies when you're having pork." It truly does--but for me, it drags when I'm cooking it. For some reason, my oven, which is pretty average, takes forever to cook pork. Who knows why? But dang, does it smell good.

So here's what we start with.

Oh...whoops! Sorry about that! There might have been some champagne consumed recently at Casa Knit Think. It has nothing to do with pork roast. But champagne is nice, don't you think? I like champagne. Very much.

Anyway, back to pork roast.

Oh, dear...sorry...I seem to have "click happy" fingers today. But isn't this nice? A gift from a friend this week. Very clever, yes? There's even some writerly text on the back. Very literary and all that. Thanks, blogless Paula!

Where was I? Oh yes--pork roast.

Oh hell. Who am I kidding.

People! This is a big week! A Very Big Week!

Last weekend, my brother called and asked if I knew my book was out. I said, why no, bro, it comes out June 2. And he said, um, no, I'm at Barnes & Noble at Ridgedale, and I'm looking right at it, there are 5 copies.

Holy cow! My book! Is out! Is published! For real! In paper and everything! With the photos I took! And the words I wrote!

And a typo on the acknowledgments page. Sigh.

But doesn't it look NICE??!?!?!

See, at my Barnes & Noble (Eden Prairie), it's on a big table by the front door! How cool is that! And yes, Kristi, right below it is the book about Glensheen we were talking about. See, Barnes & Noble has it!

And yes, I was indeed geeky enough to go to the bookstore with my camera and take a picture. In fact, I took two, after DH decided maybe the book should be displayed on two sides of the table:

We thought it looked very nice right under the book about Minnesota beer. It was still there the next day.

Why, yes, I did go visit my book more than once. And possibly I went to more than one bookstore.

So. There you have it! Just in time for Minnesota's sesquicentennial AND Mother's Day.

Anyway. Sorry, no Friday Food today. Next week, we'll talk pork.

Cheers! And Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there! Hey--I know a great idea for a gift...

Bloomin' art

Every year, the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts has a big spring deal called Art in Bloom. Florists come in, find a piece of artwork, get inspired, and create a floral piece based on that artwork. This is a nice concept, a welcome-to-spring, although it should be noted that visitors with spring allergies might want to up the dosage of Claritin before visiting.

Apparently a completely free hand is given to the floral designers. That seems fair and in keeping with the spirit of artistry.

I thought this was a thoughtful interpretation.

Storm, fire, war. Very intense.

And this is just lovely.

I love the colors, the shapes, everything about it. Very creative and inspired.

However.

Um. No. Just--no.

At my funeral, given a choice between the mummy and the flowers, please display the mummy.

And finally, there's this:

From a distance, looks like a reasonable reimagining. But wait--look closer--what's that in the flowers?

A Barbie doll. Because, yeah, nothing says "fine art" like Barbie. One has to wonder how the artist of the painting would feel about having their work reduced to Barbie in the bushes. And the plastic seashells.

Thank goodness it's not part of the permanent collection.

Friday food

I love sauerkraut.

I was thinking about sauerkraut earlier this week, when I posted the previous entry about The Teen's birthday. During the first trimester of my pregnancy with him, sauerkraut was my food craving. Many nights I came home from work, heated up a bowl of sauerkraut, and washed it down with a glass of skim milk. DH went along with it, fixing his own dinner and not commenting on my odd choice until one night I had my sauerkraut with a side of pickled pigs' feet. He left the table. No doubt wishing his wife would develop more stereotypical pregnancy cravings, like ice cream. Which, after the first trimester, I did; unfortunately, there was a Dairy Queen right around the corner from my workplace, and by the third trimester, my doctor sent me to Weight Watchers. Yes, there is a special Weight Watchers program for pregnant women. You have to have a doctor's order to sign up for it.

Anyway. I never got tired of sauerkraut. I think it's a lovely thing to eat. My favorite form of cabbage. So when Kate published a recipe earlier this year that had sauerkraut in the spotlight, I had to try it.

First, though, I made a trip to a place I've been longing to visit: Kramarczuk's. if you like sausage, any kind of sausage, this is your Nirvana. There were smoked sausages and lamb sausages and curry brats and beer sticks and chicken sausages and and and...you have to see it to believe it.

I came home with this:

Krakowska and sauerkraut.

Look at that sausage! It's huge!

A lovely garlic-filled sausage. Mmmmm.

Kate's recipe (here) is really easy. You brown onion and garlic, then brown the sausage. Remove the sausage, add sauerkraut, white wine, chicken stock, bay leaves, whole cloves, peppercorns, and juniper berries. Mix all together, put the sausages on top, cover, and simmer.

Voila!

Soooooooooo good. And plenty of sauerkraut to have for lunch. Without the skim milk this time.