Sunday, March 22, 2009

The Domestic Weekend, Part 1...

You all know I love to knit. And crochet. And bake. And cook. And grow my little houseplants.

My little apartment - where ever it may be - has to have room for my hobbies.

When I had a TV in the living room, I used to watch PBS on the weekends - when I wasn't out on a trail somewhere. I watched cooking shows, gardening shows, New Yankee Workshop and This Old House. It would get my little creative juices going.

I have spent many hours this weekend working on a raglan turtleneck sweater of Araucania wool that I wanted to get done back before Christmas. Well, I've actually made progress. The body is done; all that remains are the sleeves. It's purples/browns/salmons - perfect colors for spring! LOL

Besides the knitting, I have spent hours reading about local farms, CSAs, and co-ops, in the hopes of satisfying my gardening urge. (I'm hungry now, too.) Friday, on the way to Olympia, Fawn pointed out a farm that has a huge berry patch; you can go in and pick your own, pay by the pound. I'll be hitting there in season!

Pardon me, I need to go eat some bread and butter pickles.

--

Ok, that was a nice little snack. My goals (perhaps too lofty?) for the coming season include the following:

Preserving:
* blueberries
* apples (sauce and butter, although I'm afraid no apple butter will ever compare to Salem's...)
* tomatoes - I hope to try several types, including some form of spahgetti sauce, a tomato/chili concoction similar to Rotel (which I use/eat way too much of), and versions of homemade salsa and ketchup... I really need to find Jenny C.'s salsa recipe that we had a Lambspun that night...
* pickles - I want to get myself away from the corn syrup sweetened pickles. I love both dill pickles and bread and butter pickles. Need to perfect both.
* pumpkin - I use a lot of pumpkin in the fall, in baking mostly. Usually, I just cook it up and freeze it. I may just settle for that method again.

I have lots of other ideas..... I could go on for hours.

---

For those of you curious about my picture from last week, yes, it is a lichen. I'm having other park staff confirm my ID, then I'll post the name and details. Sorry it's taking a while. ;)

--

Bethanyg, no update on Boots. No noise this weekend. :)

1 comment:

  1. Apples--you'll have access to new varietals before the rest of us, but you'll have to cross the cascades to get great deals (get wine while you're there--Bonaire Vinyard's "Bonnie" is happiness in a bottle.

    ReplyDelete