Red Pepper Curry

Well, I fell off the face of the world.

Or rather, things are going well in life, and as such, anything involving computers has been forgotten and ignored. I’ve got a new job, and it’s pretty seriously fantastic, but it’s also (obviously) a job that involves not being in the house very often, and doing things that aren’t very interesting to anybody besides myself. It is, however, pretty exciting- lots of things I love and yet somehow I can get paid to do. Oh, and it’s technically still non-profit sector, so yeah, I’m excited.

 This weekend, however, I carved out some time to do some cooking (for lunches during the week, oh yay!). And some cooking was awesome. 

Oh, yes, a giant pot of red pepper curry. Well, “curry” in the loosest sense, in that it is vegetables cooked in an Indian style with some sauce (mostly juice from the veggies).

I made a giant pot, to take to work and eat through the week, but the dish itself is pretty and simple and could serve six, which would make it a nice dinner party dish. Particularly alongside some white rice, yogurt, and if you’re feeling ambitious, some roasted lamb or goat.

I have a mild craving for goat, but that’s another issue.

  

The curry is pretty sweet, though the ingredients are pretty simple: red peppers, onions, zucchini, grated fresh ginger, and some spices. No sugar, just the natural sweetness from all the ingredients. There’s a lot of spice, but it creates balance with the sweetness from the peppers and onions (and plus, what’s a curry without spices?). The final result comes out more deeply flavorful than spicy, and I loved it.

Red Pepper Curry

Ingredients

• 5 mid-sized red bell peppers
• 2 medium zucchini
• 3 medium onions
• 2 tbsp fresh grated ginger
• 1 and 1/2 tbsp Garam Masala*
• 1 tbsp Cumin
• 1 tsp Coriander
• 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 3-4 tbsp butter
• kosher salt
• black pepper
• water

Cooking Instructions

1. Slice onions, red peppers, and zucchini into pieces roughly 1/4 of an inch wide
2. Heat half the olive oil and butter in a pot large enough to contain all your ingredients on the stove, until butter is melted and oils are hot enough to make an onion slice dropped in sizzle slightly. 
3. Add sliced onions to the pot along with 1-2 tsp kosher salt (as needed to caramelize), and immediately lower heat to medium-low. At this point, add in Garam Masala, Cumin, Coriander, Cinnamon, grated Ginger, and Black Pepper to taste, and continue to cook. Add in remaining olive oil and butter as needed to keep onions caramelizing and spices cooking.
4. Once spices begin to deepen and color, and onions are about halfway caramelized, add in the sliced red peppers. Stir thoroughly, and then cover pot. Stir the dish regularly until red peppers are halfway to the texture you want.
5. When red peppers are halfway to your desired texture, add in zucchini slices, stir thoroughly, and re-cover. Continue to cook, stirring regularly, for around 4 minutes. This is a good point to taste, and add more spices and salt as needed. 
6. Once zucchini are nearly cooked, uncover pot, raise heat to medium-high, and add water in one-tablespoon increments until you reach a sauce consistency you like.  If you overdo it, like me, just simmer, stirring regularly, until sauce reduces back down to where you want it. 
7. Remove from heat, and serve.

Serves 6. Best served alongside a plain basmati rice, and plain yogurt. 

*Garam Masala is technically a spice mix. I’ve never had a problem finding it (if your grocery doesn’t carry it, check an ethnic grocery), but if that’s a real problem, try making your own by following a recipe such as this one. 

Strawberry Chocolate Sauce (and cake)

While working on several other things today (particularly, making this behemoth birthday cake for my sister), I had to clean out the fridge and lit upon an idea.

I mean, what else could I do with a pound of strawberries, just this side of turning? I was already making a cake, and figured I could use something to stick in the middle. Something a bit runny, that would kind of melt into the bottom layer of cake. Something that would complement the neat yellow cake and not-too-sweet chocolate icing I was making. 

(actually, on the icing: it came out a bit sour, and tart, and not quite what I wanted in an icing that’s supposed to mimic the stuff out of a can except better, and so while I used it straight for the crumb layer, I mixed in a dallop more oil and a bunch of confectioner’s sugar for the top layer, and it tasted awesome).

So I chopped the strawberries, stuck them in a pot, stirred and tasted and added until I had this:

It came out so deliciously, I put some on the cut-off cake bits I had laying around and ate it right away.

Strawberry-Chocolate Sauce

created to work with Smitten Kitchen’s Best Birthday Cake

• 1 lb strawberries
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 and 1/2 tsp cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp unflavored gelatin

Rinse strawberries, and then remove tops and chop (or just mash, you’ll mash them later anyway, but I chopped them because I like making more work for myself) until you’ve got a nice big pile of strawberries.

Put strawberries, water, and sugar in a small saucepan on high heat, stirring frequently, until you reach a steady simmer. Once simmering, lower heat to medium-high and continue to simmer gently, stirring frequently.

Once strawberry mixture has turned into what is best described as “a giant pot of scary liquid that looks like it’ll never reduce,” or if you’re more technical, once a good portion of the strawberries have liquified and the pot appears to be composed of more liquids than solids, add the cocoa powder and gelatin. (Also, do whatever it takes to overcome your fear of this giant pot of liquid).

Continue simmering gently for about a half-hour, until the mixture reduces by half, stirring throughout.

Once mixture has reduced by half, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly before applying to cake (or scones or muffins, or just toast- whatever you’ve got around that’ll make a good vessel for fruity chocolate deliciousness).

Catching Up

I have neglected you, poor blog.

I’ve been inconstant, but you know I love you…

In any case, I’ve been knitting, and doing many things, but mostly knitting.

I found some owls in my stash…

A new Ganomy Hat:

And and and, a surprise:

A Baby Surprise Jacket!

I received a (second) copy of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitter’s Almanac for christmas, and found a renewed joy in her simple, but efficient and pleasing, patterns- thus zimmermania of my knitting.

I’m chugging along on a sweater, and a few other crafty projects, and will post about them when they’re done.

This morning, however, I’m enjoying the view…

pony naptime!

a nice big cup of coffee, and my knitting.

snow ponies

So yesterday we got the first “good” snow of the year, about four inches in total.

The ponies were displeased, at first, since they couldn’t go out when the snow was falling and had to wear clothes last night. It went down to about 10 degrees Fahrenheit, so I don’t feel too guilty about this last part.

 

Today, however, everyone got to go out in the snow, and they were very happy.

Dewey felt the need to put on a show.

Yes, Dewey has the most pathetic buck in the world. It’s part of why I love him.

snow

We got our first snow since October two nights ago.

Seriously- we got a doozy in October, and then practically spring-like weather until two weeks ago. And then finally, our first snow, and we got barely an inch. It was also followed by an afternoon of rain, making the world muddy again (but also meaning I didn’t need to shovel, so I guess it’s okay).

In any case, I used the few morning hours between snow and rain to snap some photos of my kids, and our barn.

My black, white, and mud-colored Booger

Snow is not a good backdrop for stained grey ponies.

The snow was gone a few hours after I took these photos, but I love seeing my barn in the snow- it looks so classic. With the split-rail fencing on either side, and the snow obscuring any modern convenience, we could be out there at any time – now or two centuries ago. It’s part of why I love horses.

cats and things

So this evening, I’ve got the place to myself, and I’d decided to make catnip concentrate.

This may have been a mistake.

Mr. Kitty is the cat with no name. Well, no, he’s got a name, it’s Mr. Kitty. I adore him. He’s my baby. When I traversed the skies to return home from livin’ in Egypt, I brought Mr. Kitty with me. He’s my boon companion, my dear friend.

He’s also seriously crazy.

Now, about Mr. Kitty.

I’ve had him since he was a kitten- he was the only of three littermates to survive some moderate neglect, and so I decided to step in and “rescue” him. He’s a bit cracked, but he’s a sweetie- he loves to cuddle and get attention, and he’s the most personable cat I’ve ever known.

Since coming home with me two years ago now, he’s grown into a handsome, sweet cat who occasionally goes outdoors – primarily to sleep in the hay in our garage/hay shed. He originally had the name “Lando,” (as his neglectful owner called him Mocha, mistaking his orange tiger spots for brown), but he’s now a Russian kitty, with more nicknames and no true “name,” just Mr. Kitty.

Well, Mr. Kitty is doing just fine, even if he does have a rather slapdash name. He adores my dogs, avoids the horses, and gets to run around being confused about many things (name, species, gender… he’s not a very determinate fellow).

But tonight…

I was trying to make some simpler cat toys- just felted bits of leftover roving with some catnip scent- and it turned into a catnip essence experiment, and Mr. Kitty here got very stoned.

Now I adore Mr. Kitty, and I usually love his antics… but half an evening spent with a dVERY stoned cat just forced me to take pictures of his indignified state. I suppose he’d be  offended if he had any dignity but, well… Mr. Kitty was more focused on the catnip steam pervading the house this evening than his dignity. Meowing, chasing shadows, more meowing, knocking stuff over… it was a night for Mr. Kitty’s craziness to shine.

In which atrocious photography maligns a truly delicious dessert

So this story, I guess, begins a while ago.

About two weeks ago, I had some vanilla beans, and some butter, and some sugar, and I made vanilla butter. The caviar of one vanilla bean, one stick of unsalted butter, and a quarter cup of sugar mixed together, then stuck in the fridge.

And then I got some blackberries, and some pears, and I felt like making something.

So I went online and searched way too many recipes and couldn’t find anything I really loved the idea of, so I combined ideas from a few things I saw, and then came up with this.

With a slightly modified pastry dough grabbed from Smitten Kitchen, and a modified filling recipe from Savour Faire, I came up with what has to be some seriously delicious dessert. I know it looks mildly disgusting, but it tastes so good I’ve had two slices since it came out of the oven, before I even got it together enough to take pictures.

So, without further ado, here’s my recipe:

 Blackberry-Pear Galette

Pastry Dough

• 1 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 stick butter
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1/4 c sugar
• 1/4 c sour cream
• 1/4 c cold water
• juice of 1/2 of a lemon

Filling

• 12 oz. Blackberries
• 1 pear, sliced
• 1/4 c heavy cream or half-and-half
• 1/4 c sugar
• juice of 1/2 a lemon

If you don’t have vanilla bean butter (because you’re not crazy like me), you can just mix the sugar, vanilla, water, lemon juice, and sour cream together when you’re preparing the dough.

I also rolled my dough out between two pieces of parchment paper, and then refrigerated the resulting circle for a few hours. I’m pretty new to this whole dough-rolling pastry stuff (I usually go the cakes-and-cupcakes route for desserts) but this seemed to work pretty well. I also used an egg wash to seal the corners of the galette together.

Baked at 400 degrees for about thirty minutes, and eaten with vanilla ice cream- it tastes amazing.

 

Gilbert’s Busted Face

Well, things have been a bit hectic here.

For once, there is only one creature to blame- Gilbert.

Gilbert’s an eight year old pit bull/’husky mix who joined our family seven years ago.

Gilbert is… needy. Very needy. He constantly wants attention, and prefers to sleep next to me under the covers. He just constantly wants to be IN YOUR FACE.

Gilbert’s also rather accident prone. He doesn’t just do stupid things (he’s not the brightest dog), he seems to attract problems. He developed a soy allergy. He regularly rubs his paws raw playing in the water, and then coming inside and licking obsessively. And lately, he’s been getting tooth infections.

We do all the things you’re supposed to do to help your dog’s teeth- lots of good bones to help clean off their teeth, combined with occasional cleanings. But Gilbert’s a moron, and apparently this is just a pit bull thing, so he’s gotten a recurrent infection in one of his teeth this past year. We’d treated the infection the first three times, but with this current one, our vet recommended pulling the tooth.

His tooth got pulled on Thursday, and he’s on a diet of mushy foods and antibiotics for the next week as the swelling gradually goes down. He’s back to his needy, crazy self already, but his face still looks pretty busted.

Pepper

Well, I’ve done some knitting, and some cooking, and some other things, but I don’t particularly feel like writing about them. I feel like writing about Pepper.

Pepper is our pony. Well, he’s my mom’s pony. He’s been in my family for as long as I can remember- he taught my little cousins how to ride, and when they outgrew him, he came to me and my mom, to work as her trail horse.

Pepper’s had an illustrious career, teaching young riders and calmly entertaining older riders. Plenty of kids have loved and learned with him. Some of them have gone on to ride other horses, too. He’s worked as a lesson horse, a therapy horse, and a trail horse for years. He’s gone to more schooling shows than even he can remember. He’s my favorite horse to teach beginners on- he stops as soon as he feels them loose their balance. And he won’t go faster than they know how to ask. Or where they don’t know how to ask him to go. But if you know, he’s fun, with neatly adjustable gaits and a fun little jump.

This is my cousin, the first young rider Pepper had, riding in a jumpers class at HITS. She's one of the *ahem* little angels who taught Pepper to buck when tapped on the croup with a crop.

Pepper’s nineteen now, and he’s enjoying his “semi-retirement”. We say it’s a semi-retirement, because every so often (i.e. whenever the footing isn’t going to kill us all) I stick a hackamore and a bareback pad on him and ride. This doesn’t usually happen more than once or twice a week, but as he’s the only horse in our little herd whom is sound, he’s considered to be a bit less retired than them.

He’s not the boss of our little herd, but he’s certainly very… communicative about his opinions. He pulls faces. I don’t have photos of those faces. Mostly because I am often laughing too hard to take pictures, but he is quite adept at them. Mostly they occur when you interrupt his post-meal cribbing, or if you’re Dewey.

(Dewey is the big paint. More on him later).

Pepper’s kind of like a weird, crabby sibling to me here on the farm. We make fun of each other (he tries to push me over with his nose when he finds treats in my pockets, and I tickle his nose when he tries cribbing so he makes funny faces) and he keeps me entertained. He and Dewey are generally inseparable, though they bicker like an old married couple at times.

And sometimes Pepper harasses the dogs.

So here it is- a post for Pepper, my weird, crabby, patient, fun little pony.

Who isn’t really a pony.

Pepper is 15 hands high, and of unknown heritage. He has been with our (nuclear) family since 2002, and in our extended family for longer than this writer can remember, honestly. She’s not much older than him herself.

In which I finally finish a pair of socks

Socks, and booties, for a dear friend and the child he and his lady are expecting.

Socks, adult male medium, and Booties, newborn size.

The yarn is Plymouth Yarn Company’s Happy Feet Yarn. The yarn has short (1-2 inch) stripes of green and black, and it’s turned into an unusual stripe pattern that I actually kind of like. Not the sort of thing I’d want to wear myself, but it’ll suit my friend to a tee- he’s quite the mad scientist.

No pattern- just the usual basic sock, with a short ribbed cuff and a dutch heel. My gauge wound up at 9 stitches to the inch on size four needles- which feels kind of obscene. The booties are basically very small socks, with a seed stitch leg/cuff and a stockinette foot.

I’m pretty sure these should have knit up quicker, but I’m slow. I’m hoping to finish my next pair in less than two months