lady cordelia

a sort of chef

Tonight was my friends birthday. 
Here was the menu I had planned:
This Rubarb drink
These buttermilk onion rings with BBQ sourcream dip
A garden salad
Burgers with Anaheim Chiles and Gruyere Cheese (no recipe, just sounded good even though I don't like red meat very much because I like cows a lot and I think they are cute.  I would like a dairy cow someday.  And yet, I had a thing for making burgers tonight. I love you cow.  Thank you. )
These vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting

Here's the deal though: I was out of town until 1 p.m.  Then I had band rehearsal from 4-6.  My friends arrived at 6:30.  I had 3 hours with 2 children to make and or prep everything.

I am not an experienced cook.  This was stressful.  A small fight then ensued between me and husband.   Then there were these other yucky things on my mind: some mean, consciousless fraudulent person (who I don't know) comprimised my checking account somehow and drained it of the small amount of funds available to me. I spent a good amount of the morning and the afternoon on the phone with my bank. Also: my daughter had a stomachache.  And: our sweet little kitten took a dump on my daughters bed (on the mermaid blanket no less).  She also peed on our bed (for the second time in two days.  And if anyone can help me stop the cat from doing these things I will buy you a round trip to Hawaii.  Or, rather, I will thank you profusely and wish I could buy you a round trip ticket to Hawaii. If no one helps me, I will soon be giving a cat away. Just kidding.  Kind of.)   

This was a hard(ish) day. I say hard(ish) because these things are minor in the big fat scheme of things.  I will get the money back.  The blanket can be cleaned.  Husband and I will make up.

So, dinner was served, burgers cooked perfectly by husband, onion rings were rad (though we ended up frying them in a pan them as we didn't have a deep fryer), cupcakes were thick and rich and highly caloric. 

Now. Let me tell you something about real bakers and chefs, ok?  They don't get heavily emotionally swayed by things like cat poo and drained bank accounts. They don't bang pots and pans around and throw little two-year-old tantrums because they lost the $5 vanilla bean.  They never lose their recipes under mounds of spilled flour and sugar.

So, I still have a ways to go evidently.

What else is new.

 

  

 

Me, musician.

I don't often talk about my music on this blog.
Not sure why.
Motherhood overtook me and I decided I wanted to learn to cook and knit and all that.
You know.  You get it. 
But I do play music. Don't forget that about me please.
I do write songs.
I do play shows.
I do have a new band formed.
A lot of things get in the way of my music these days.
That said, I'd love to record a new album.

Here's a few treats for you:
Firstly: I heard the other day Lindsey Buckingham put a song of mine (yes, that I wrote!) called Shut Us Down on a new live album that is coming out in August.  AND: here he is performing the song live on Ellen!  I really had no idea this ever existed until I just today found it on youtube.  When famous people sing your songs, you never know what goes on with them afterwards.  Wow. I feel like I "almost" met Ellen (in that 7 degrees kind of way!) 

.  

And: In honor of all my baking of late, I thought I'd share a song I wrote that was on my last album called Sweet Arrangement (get it?  baking...sweet...did I have to point that out to you? I'm trying to tie my two worlds together here, don't think it's working.)  Anyway:

Here is my song

11 Sweet Arrangement

Please enjoy and if you like what you hear, remember you can buy all my albums on itunes, the link to my itunes store is on the upper right of this blog. I really do owe everyone, including myself, a new album.  I only wish I could snap my fingers and make the reality of making one appear.   In reality, I have to finish writing the songs first. And then figure out how to get the darn things recorded.  And those thoughts, sometimes, are more than a woman of two small children can handle.   We can only do our best.

XO

 

Weekending (in which we find chicks, bad dogs, muffins and more.)

Snow White still sits on her eggs and those chicks may or may not hatch in a few weeks. We'll have to wait and see. What then are these chicks? 

Well, ask my youngest daughter.  She bought them at the local feed store.  My three-year-old said to me in no uncertain terms: "Mom, why must I delay my gratifcation when I can address the issue of chick desire in the here and now?!" And, well, I could not disagree with the logic.  She's very verbal and wise, my three-year old.  And plus, the feed store had Blue Andalusion chicks.  I mean, I'm just not the kind of mother who would keep a three-year-old from the Blue Andalusian she's wanted since she was in utero.  I'm not that kind of mother and I will never be. 

So.  I did this all for my children.  It had nothing to do with me. And no, I did NOT use my childrens playhouse as a temporary place for the chicks to live in until they are old enough to join the flock.   What do you take me for?  A playhouse-giver-awayer? Ok.  Maybe I did loan the playhouse to the chicks.  But I tarped the bottom and did tell them they had to pay rent and the deposit was hella steep. (They are paying me in eggs, they said.)

Now that that is all settled. 

Here is the type of look created when one wants to pretend they have NOT just eaten half a bag of duck food. "What?  Huh? Oh. Who meee??  Oh no no no no no no. I would never!" And you know what? Had she had not barfed all over the living room not an hour later, I might have just believed her.  

My true find of the weekend: an old metal pot with a rusted out hole in the bottom.  Now it is a home for some yummy Lemon Basil.  Wonders never cease.  Love is too weak a word.

 

And WHY do they have to stand by the door and preen when they have a whole 1/4 acre to roam in?   Do you see how crowded this 1/4 acre is getting?  Oi Vei.

My three-year-old said to me yesterday: Mama, we're farmers.  It's ok to be a farmer.  Perhaps somewhere in between the coop cleaning, the dog barf, the gardening and tripping over the hens she noted the look in my eyes.  The kind of look only a farmer's daughter would understand.

(Luckily there is always this...remember?)

And in closing:  Guess what?  I pulled off some darn good muffins!  I have to give a shout out to Amanda at Habit of Being and Tracey at Clover for helping me with thier baking hints after my solicited advice.  Such fine women abound in this blogging world.  

I also made a decent cole slaw, though I found the recipe just "ok" and not totally amazing (that said the whole family gobbled it all up!)  I would love an interesting slaw receipe if you have a fave... or some sort of summery cabbage-ish salad that is non-mayo would be great too.

And, truly, finally, as a point of interest: Did you know 1 out of every 7 women in the U.S. blogs? (As pointed out the New Yorker magazine).  Yes.  Amazing, no? Doesn't that make you feel totally run of the mill and without special importance?  Well, don't let it, darling. 

Don't you let it. 

(Happy Monday and thanks to Amanda at Habit of Being for letting us 1 of 7 tag along on Weekending.)

 

for your amusement

Oh, people.  I so hope this post makes you feel better about yourself and your skills in the kitchen.   For if there is at least that, all will not be lost. And it will make you feel better about your culinary skills.  It would make a 2 year old feel better.

Before I begin, and in my own defense, I have been a fine breadmaker the past months.  I make bread every week, two loaves, and our family loves it.  It is delicious for sandwiches, toast, or just by itself hot out of the oven.  We love this bread. And I am so happy to have brought the ancient tradition of breadmaking into our lives.  I also made scones.  Perfect scones.  People went crazy for them.  My baking self-esteem went through the roof.

Then.

I had to venture out.  I had to think I was cool.  I had to make a point.  I had to take a chance.  I had to make cupcakes from scratch. After all I had been given from the local thrift (they love me) this awesome vintage mixer and my dad-in-law fixed the cord and everything.  Had to try it out, you know. I had a dream.

The cake recipe I picked is called the "1-2-3-4 Cake" from the Alice Waters "The Art of Simple Cooking" cookbook that I have been loving so much.  She said I coud make cupcakes from it too.  Oh goodie.

First though, I tried an icing recipe from "Joy of Cooking" (before the cake was even made.) Double boiler?  Oh come on, that's silly stuff for silly people.   Then: Whoops: I don't have unsalted butter.  Too tired to go to the store again I'll substitute Coconut Oil.  Should work, no? 

NO.

Thin, way too sweet, nasty.  Plus the mixer didn't seem to be really..well...mixing.  But what do I know?  I've never used a bowl mixer before.  I eventually put it in the fridge to thicken up.  Out of sight out of mind. Spoken like a master chef!

Now, the cake.  Well, I thought it was going well.  My girls were licking batter off everything in sight (and there was batter on everything in sight.)  It was a good sign.

But then, the timer dinged.  The cakes looked weird.  Greasy.  Then they would not come out of the cupcake pan.  (YES I greased it, ok?)  Then came husband as I tried helplessly to pry the things out of the pan. He tasted them and asked:  Corncakes?
I thought to myself: Please leave the room NOW husband.  Right now.
I said: "Oh tee-hee-hee.  You cutie.  Noooo silly willy, they are vanilla cupcakes!"
He said, kindly (yet with lack of verve):  "Oh."

I felt like throwing the pan through the window as I am on my period and a little tired as well.

The girls ate a little of the crumblings of the cakes then wandered off to something more interesting.  

At least someone liked them:

I frosted the rest of them just for a good laugh.  And I did have a good laugh.  That was before I set in on the next hour it took me to clean the kitchen.

  
Cupcake anyone?

I thought not.

 

 

 

 

Shall I Shawl?

 

Well, I'm finally beginning the shawl I've been meaning to start. I've had to pull it out a few times already and start over.  (I'm still very much a beginning knitter and at this rate may be for the rest of my life.)  That said, I have learned to not get so frustrated with starting over again and again as it's just part of the learning curve.  I've learned to not get upset when my man walks in the room, looks at the knitting, and says: Isn't that getting smaller rather than bigger?  Knitting is making me a more peacful and tolerant person.  (And if I have to rip this whole thing out again, I will stomp my feet, throw it in the trash and never talk to it again.)

Here is the free pattern for Lala's Simple Shawl. And I really wish Lala had not called it "simple" because it's really just not fair to beginners like me. She should have called it Lala's simple shawl for experienced knitters and less simple shawl for less experienced knitters. 

Anyway, one day I shall wear my shawl proudly.  We all know it's a day a comin'.

As we all well know by now I just finished The Dirty Life.  I shan't link to the title again since I've done it twice already in the past week.  I was very sad when the book was over and I didn't know if I could resume normal life (in fact I haven't been able to) but I did find some solace in this book, an old friend: Grow Great Grub: Organic Food From Small Spaces. 

I believe I have the link in my sidebar book list, and if not, I will put it there.  This is just the kind of book I like to read before I drift off to sleep.  I grab tidbits of info and often use them the very next day (As we speak I have some coffee grounds waiting to be dumped on my blueberry bush.)

Have a wonderful Wednesday all!  I'll look forward to seeing  you tomorrow!

 

Joining Ginny today for Yarn Along.

weekending

This weekend kicked off with a ballet preformance.  Little girls in little tutus doing little dances.    My girl was front and center and moved with such grace.  I cried, of course. Nothing new there.

Following days I was either doing a bunch of household chores (not that you could tell if you came over) or finishing up The Dirty Life.  OH THIS BOOK!  I loved it so much, I could often not contain myself whilst reading and, you guessed it (!) I cried.  Sweet, joyful, happy tears. (Same brand that I cried at ballet.)  The girls asked me on more than one occasion if the book had hurt my feelings.

As per the book, and as I've pointed out several times in this blog, and will no doubt continue to:  some people "get" the whole farming thing, and others are perfectly happy to never get their fingernails dirty.  While I don't particularly love having dirty fingernails (at all) there is a such thing as gardening gloves and I am so deeply moved by the idea of feeding ourselves from what we grow. 

Just one more 3/4 acre would really do me.  And in the spirit of the book, I trust it will happen in an easy, sensible way.  Might take a while.  No biggie. I'm good here too, in many ways. Also, in the spirit of the book, I welcome my own sense of adventure to help in the fulfillment of the dream!  Not 10 acres, not 5, one will do us just fine.  (I'll see you, little acre, in good time.  I love you!)

Summer is here but it's hard to tell.  We are socked in by a heavy, dense fog for most of the days.  I brightened our fog with 1 lb. of cherries from the farmer mkt this morning.  For a moment I thought we would just savor a few here and there because they were so darn expensive.  In the end, we ate them all in one sitting and it was much, much better that way.

The kitty is still highly popular around these parts.  The girls love her so much and say so many times a day.  She is a nice energetic relief from the constant irritating dog energy.  Our two labs are huge and always needing something.  About 200 lb's combined, they are way too big to be so needy. Still, we love them dearly, I think.

"We have to feed the dogs even though they are not very smart." said my oldest, the other day.  That about sums it up.

As for Snow White.  Oh, I don't think this is destined to work.  There were two eggs knocked out of the nest this morning.  I put them back under her even though they were cold.  Then a few minutes later she was found wandering around the yard with the other hens.

What the h--- are you doing?  You're leaving your babies to die??! Get on your nest! I said as I clumsily ran after her, caught her and quickly put her back on the eggs.  Talk about messing with nature, right?  Thing is, I have my heart set on getting two more hens out of this when all is set and done. I have some sort of emotional investment in her doing what she genetically is bred to do.  And so, well, I am forcing the issue. However, in a loving way.  I leave the coop door open.  And if she leaves the nest again, I won't push it.  See what a nice farmer I am? 

Finally: Daddy was out of town today, Father's day, to work ...so I cooked tonight.  It's happening!  I promised you it would.  Tonight: pesto pasta with fresh basil from the garden, seared cauliflower, and a side of turkey meatballs (Trader Joes) for my kids who I thought would hate the pesto but they LOVED it!  They said it was the best meal they ever ate! Again, I cried.  I'm premenstrual.  What can I say?

(Thanks, Amanda for the opportunity to join you for weekending at Habit Of Being.)

this moment

A Friday ritual. A single photo capturing a moment from the week. A simple, wonderful moment.  One that expresses a special feeling, time, or place. (A tradition inspired by Soulemama.)
 

~Photo courtesy of Daddy

Helping Nature Along

 

Do you want to hear what I  would call a "cool story?"  Now what I would call cool and what you would call cool may be very different.  But since I do write a blog, and I do think this is cool, I will tell the story.

I noticed that Snow White, one of our chickens, was acting odd.  She wasn't coming out of her laying box even when it was free range time.  Then it dawned on me: she wasn't sick, she was brooding (the strong instinct to sit on eggs until they hatch.)  In the absence of a rooster, the eggs she was sitting on were not fertile.  No rooster, no chicks.  But, I don't need to explain that one to you, do I?

We tried a few different things to break her from her "broodiness"  We put her on the ground, took the eggs away, gave her treats.  But she always hopped back up to the nesting box.  So I honed in on another idea I came across while scouring the internet for answers: I would get her some fertile eggs to sit on.

But where?  I searched Craigslist and made calls to people who had put up ads selling baby chicks.  Several calls in, I found a man with fertile eggs (that sounds weird) a few towns over.  As luck would have it, my husband had business in that very town on that very afternoon. 

Hours later, we slipped 6 fertile eggs under Snow White.  If all goes right, in 19 days, Snow White will have 6 small chicks around her- all different breeds and not one matching her own.  I wonder if she will be suprised. 

She sits all day and all night.  I have not seen her drink or eat once so I put water and food near where she sits.   I know chickens have been around quite some time and I'm guessing that few of them have had people giving them food and checking on their well-being every few hours while they are broody.  While Snow White does not seem at all amused by having a human midwife, it makes me feel better. And I suppose as long as I can agknowledge that, I don't need therapy.

I have to say, this new adventure has made me feel a certain fullness and  joy. Such simple things feed my soul and remind me that I can trust in nature, always.  I can lean into nature and it will be there for me, performing its quiet miracles amougnst the difficult rest of the world. 

Much in line with all of this I bought two new books for myself yesterday.  (I rarely buy "new" books, usually used, so this was very satisfying. And in a real "mom and pop" bookstore, no less! )

I bought: The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball and The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters.

As for The Dirty Life, I have not read a book so engaging in years. Along with the fertile eggs, it has shined up my desire for just a little more land someday, just a few more animals. 

We continue to come back to this "more land" conversation even after dropping it for a while.  It is part of our plan and our consciousness.  But it is not time.  And that is okay.  We'll do it within 5 years we said today, as we drove out of town for an errand.  Maybe 2 or 3 years we said on the way home. 

As for the books, I recommend both strongly. The Alice Waters book is a wonderful everyday cookbook full of techniques and recipes that even I can do and seem like I am really cooking well.  I am trying scones tomorrow for breakfast!

might as well link along with wonderful Farmama today!

And you like doing that?

 
My parents came to visit the other day, as they often do on Sunday, and I took the opportunity to do some chores while the kids were occupied.

I needed to muck the duck coop.  "Mucking the coop" is a farmers term that means cleaning out poop and soiled straw or what have you.  I actually think it's "mucking the stalls" as in horses or goats or cows. That said, I like the term so I will use it as I wish.  It makes me seem more "farmer-ish" and that, in my mind, is a good thing.

So. I began to muck the coop when I saw my dad standing there looking at me.  "You like doing that?"  he asked.

Hmm.  Well, I'm not sure.  Would it sound weird if I said yes?  I'm sure it would (and does) to many a friend of mine.  My dad would not think me weird, by the way, rather he would find me fascinating. (People who really love you always find you fascinating and never weird.)

Anyway, it got me to thinking.  Am I "fascinating" for trying to have a farm on 1/4 acre?  Or am I just a complete and total idiot. If I think the latter I will be depressed whilst cleaning the coops.  And that won't work at all.  So, I must think that I am just following one of my callings and a fine calling it is. 

Along with the fresh eggs, I am also interested the following: homemade bread, granola and yogurt.  My city friends may laugh, but c'est la vie.  Perhaps they have never had the scent of homemade granola wafting throughout the house as it cooks nor freshly made yogurt with a bit of maple syrup for sweetening.   

And no, people, I'm not creating a life-style change with the money I save from making my own bread, yogurt and granola.  Is that the point?  Or perhaps the point is simply becoming more self-sufficient.  Less dependent on the world at large. A nice thought for a person who isn't the most social butterfly in the bunch.  But let's not fool ourselves.  I'm fully dependent on the world for so many things.  Except eggs, bread, yogurt and granola.  Nor chard or (soon) tomatoes.

Anyway, let us get back to the point.

After my dad left I finished draining the duck pool and filled it with fresh, clean water.  Right after the pool is filled, the ducks swim and splash and frolic in it with so much vigor that I always laugh.  Then I headed down to the store to get more oats. I like to have plenty of oats around these days.  And flour and coconut oil and yeast... and ducks.  And if I like the ducks, I have to muck the coop.  And that, it would seem, is that.

Weekending

Meet Lucy May.  World's cutest and sweetest kitty.  The girls are doing great being mommies to little Lucy who was found abandoned with her litter and brought to the local shelter.   Lucy is starting to understand that she hit the jackpot and is going to be immersed in loving adoration for all her days. If only all of the planet's creatures were so lucky.

Meet Saturday's real find from a thrift store down the street.  You can't really tell in this picture, but every star has a little rose in it.   I don't know how this could have been done so perfectly by hand. 

Meet my "Mermaid Blanket."  I show it folded here, but it still is only big enough for a little girl.   This sweet blankie was inspired by an ocean-inspired quilt I saw on soulemama's blog.  She had some awesome mermaid material and I was like: wow.  I'll never find cool mermaid material like that.  sigh. whatever.  But guess what everyone!  I did find some on Etsy!  Just little remainders.  Priced way too high, if you must know.  But I absolutely had to have a mermaid blanket.

(By the way: I sew like I knit: imperfectly and with moderate to no attention for rules and regulations that may or may not hamper the overall effect of the finished item.  Simply, for better or worse, I do things my own way.  I've accepted this reality about myself, as any other hope is a lost cause. And so, my seams are not perfect -far, far from it.  Scissored material cuts are more uneven than a 3-year-old's self given haircut.  Measuring tape?  Oh..ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.   You are so darling to joke like that.  I love a good laugh, I do. From a distance, it looks mighty fine.  From close up, it looks mighty "cute" - like a 3-year-old's self given haircut. And so I add to the plethora of funky homemade little girl blankets that grace their wee beds.  Soon, they'll be in real big girl beds and need twin blankets. Way too much work!)

Also: My 5-year-old lost her two bottom teeth this weekend (first teeth lost.)  She asked daddy to pull the first out for her and sat unflinching as he did (what a kid!)  Then the next day she opened her mouth to reveal the other little tooth on her tounge. It had fallen out all by itself.  I was laughing and crying on this most sweet rites of passage.  (Are you crying happy tears again? my toothless daughter asked.  Yep.  Again.)

~Linking today with wonderful Amanda at Habit of Being.