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Oct. 22nd, 2005 02:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickToday I accomplished several things.
First, I went to the apple place to get apples for pie. I have a couple of pie obligations coming up, like pie for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
not_your_real's function and pie for elections early in November, and I needed apples to meet those obligations. Generally I make cherry pie for the election but the cherry crop this year sucked ass and I don't have enough cherries to make a pie. I also don't much like cherry pie, so fuck it. The election pie is going to be apple this year. For not_your_real's function, there will be one apple pie and one squash pie. (Persons having difficulty with the squash concept should try thinking of it as pumpkin. It's not pumpkin -- it's better than that -- but it's something along those lines.) I didn't have to process squash this weekend because I did that last weekend. I have enough squash for all the squash pie obligations that will face me in the coming year. There are also going to be lots of squash custard desserty things (basically, squash pie without the pie part) in my future. :) (The official squash is a fairly substantial thing and makes more than one pie's worth of squash.) At any rate, the local grocery stores were not making with the selling of proper apples, which is why I had to go special to the apple place. If, prior to me mentioning it just now, you had not been aware that there were proper apples and unsuitable apples for pie purposes, you might benefit from the pie tutorial. Anyway, I bought apples. Half a bushel (one peck) of apples, which is enough for about three pies, cost me eight bucks.
I also started making ham and bean soup. The grocery had really pretty hams and it's fall. It's time for ham and bean soup. Also, while I don't generally eat much meat, pigs are for eating. Ham and bean soup is going to take the better part of the afternoon, but it doesn't take continuous attention. If you've not ever made ham and bean soup, it's not difficult.
Ingredients:
butt ham (real, not that "boneless" shit.)
2 lbs. navy beans
celery, onion, carrot
bay leaf, black pepper
water
1. Get a butt piece of ham. You need the kind with the bone in it. Don't try this with one of those boneless things. It has to be a real ham with a bone in it. Put it in a very large pan and cover it with water. If you cannot cover your ham with water, your pan is not big enough. Turn the heat to medium and add a lid if you have one. (My large pot doesn't have a lid, so I keep an eye on the liquid level.) Allow to boil for about two hours, until the ham is soft, hot all the way to the bone, and easy to tear apart with a fork. (This is the step I am currently doing.)
2. Remove the ham from the broth. Strain the broth to remove any errant hunks of meat or bits. (I don't like any unscreened meat bits in my soup. No icky bits for me!) Store the juice in another large pan while you're off working on the ham.
3. Pick the ham meat from bone and portion into amounts you feel will fit on a spoon. It's easiest if you let the ham sit for twenty minutes or so before you start this -- otherwise you'll burn your fingers. Carefully remove all fatty bits or connective-tissue bits from the meat because those are icky. When you're done with that, put the picked-over ham bits back in the broth. Add two pounds (rinsed) navy beans and some chopped up celery, onions, and carrots. (No, I don't know how much to add. Until it looks good. Probably at least two stalks celery, three carrots, and a whole onion. Start with that and see how it looks. If you think it needs more of something, add more.) For a lot of soups, I sautee these guys (technically a mirepoix if we're being all french and crap) in butter but ham and bean soup generally isn't on the short side of richness and therefore I just dump the raw veggies in the broth and move onward. You can also add a bay leaf -- it won't hurt anything. One thing you don't have to add is salt, reason being that this is a soup made out of ham and is therefore plenty salty already. If you're feeling all motivated and stuff, you can add some black pepper but the world won't end if you don't.
4. Cook on a low-medium until the beans are soft enough to eat. Keep an eye on the fluid level, of course, and feel free to add more water if needed.
I worked some more on the dresser project. I've got the finish and stain stripped off the wood. Yay Zar! I did that in the middle of the living room, which you'd think would have killed orf mah brain cells, but it didn't appear to have done. Besides, it's cold and rainy outside. I'm not feeling much of an urge to work on furniture refinishing in the out-of-doors.
I also sanded out most of the soaked-in water damage stains on the top of the dresser. I don't know that I can get all of them out without removing an excessive amount of wood and I'm not sure they're that damn visible at this point. Since that's the case, I'm in a holding pattern on that front until I put at least one layer of finish on the damn thing to see what it looks like.
I've reglued the loose guide slats on the drawer bottoms -- these I had, just not attached. I didn't have to *make* them. That's not the case for the in-dresser drawer guides -- two of those are missing and I will have to make them. Since they're more complicated than the drawer supports, which I also have to make, I am saving them for later.
Most excitingly, I got to have some rockin' circular saw action when I measured and cut the five missing drawer supports. These are on the sides of the inside of the dresser and they provide the rails for the drawer to slide on. If these are missing, the drawer falls down in the back so that the front of it doesn't sit flat against the front of the dresser. That came out amazingly well -- the ones I made fit tightly enough that I think I'm just going to glue them after all. They're one of those tap-into-place deals -- not going to move once they're in there even without glue. They also *work*! Yay me! (How come we never got to do cool stuff like this in wood shop? We made fucking candlestick holders. I made a ghastly four-leaf clover one which, to my eternal shame, my grandmother Gothie kept and still displays on occasion. Do they even have wood shop in school anymore?)
I also sent off for stuff (plain tung oil) to put a finish on the wood because the future owner of the thing asked for a clear, wood-grain-visible finish and I want to see how that does before doing it on something for myself, like the interesting cedar thingie I'm picking up at Sandra's house next weekend. We'll see -- the wood isn't a uniform color because it's cheap furniture. It was originally finished with a colored "maple-look" finish that hid the different colors of wood. When I stripped off the finish, the color came too. It isn't ugly, though, and it looks okay wetted down (with rubbing alcohol) so that the colors are darker like they would be with a finish on them. If the tung oil doesn't work the way I think it will, I can strip that off, stain the wood to a uniform color, and try again. Hell, if the whole thing is a disaster, I can *still* paint it later. I have many options and I'm not particularly in a hurry. :) I can walk around a half-assembled dresser in the living room for a long time.
And now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to ensure world peace with what remains of the afternoon. :P
First, I went to the apple place to get apples for pie. I have a couple of pie obligations coming up, like pie for
not_your_real's function and pie for elections early in November, and I needed apples to meet those obligations. Generally I make cherry pie for the election but the cherry crop this year sucked ass and I don't have enough cherries to make a pie. I also don't much like cherry pie, so fuck it. The election pie is going to be apple this year. For not_your_real's function, there will be one apple pie and one squash pie. (Persons having difficulty with the squash concept should try thinking of it as pumpkin. It's not pumpkin -- it's better than that -- but it's something along those lines.) I didn't have to process squash this weekend because I did that last weekend. I have enough squash for all the squash pie obligations that will face me in the coming year. There are also going to be lots of squash custard desserty things (basically, squash pie without the pie part) in my future. :) (The official squash is a fairly substantial thing and makes more than one pie's worth of squash.) At any rate, the local grocery stores were not making with the selling of proper apples, which is why I had to go special to the apple place. If, prior to me mentioning it just now, you had not been aware that there were proper apples and unsuitable apples for pie purposes, you might benefit from the pie tutorial. Anyway, I bought apples. Half a bushel (one peck) of apples, which is enough for about three pies, cost me eight bucks.I also started making ham and bean soup. The grocery had really pretty hams and it's fall. It's time for ham and bean soup. Also, while I don't generally eat much meat, pigs are for eating. Ham and bean soup is going to take the better part of the afternoon, but it doesn't take continuous attention. If you've not ever made ham and bean soup, it's not difficult.
Ingredients:
butt ham (real, not that "boneless" shit.)
2 lbs. navy beans
celery, onion, carrot
bay leaf, black pepper
water
1. Get a butt piece of ham. You need the kind with the bone in it. Don't try this with one of those boneless things. It has to be a real ham with a bone in it. Put it in a very large pan and cover it with water. If you cannot cover your ham with water, your pan is not big enough. Turn the heat to medium and add a lid if you have one. (My large pot doesn't have a lid, so I keep an eye on the liquid level.) Allow to boil for about two hours, until the ham is soft, hot all the way to the bone, and easy to tear apart with a fork. (This is the step I am currently doing.)
2. Remove the ham from the broth. Strain the broth to remove any errant hunks of meat or bits. (I don't like any unscreened meat bits in my soup. No icky bits for me!) Store the juice in another large pan while you're off working on the ham.
3. Pick the ham meat from bone and portion into amounts you feel will fit on a spoon. It's easiest if you let the ham sit for twenty minutes or so before you start this -- otherwise you'll burn your fingers. Carefully remove all fatty bits or connective-tissue bits from the meat because those are icky. When you're done with that, put the picked-over ham bits back in the broth. Add two pounds (rinsed) navy beans and some chopped up celery, onions, and carrots. (No, I don't know how much to add. Until it looks good. Probably at least two stalks celery, three carrots, and a whole onion. Start with that and see how it looks. If you think it needs more of something, add more.) For a lot of soups, I sautee these guys (technically a mirepoix if we're being all french and crap) in butter but ham and bean soup generally isn't on the short side of richness and therefore I just dump the raw veggies in the broth and move onward. You can also add a bay leaf -- it won't hurt anything. One thing you don't have to add is salt, reason being that this is a soup made out of ham and is therefore plenty salty already. If you're feeling all motivated and stuff, you can add some black pepper but the world won't end if you don't.
4. Cook on a low-medium until the beans are soft enough to eat. Keep an eye on the fluid level, of course, and feel free to add more water if needed.
I worked some more on the dresser project. I've got the finish and stain stripped off the wood. Yay Zar! I did that in the middle of the living room, which you'd think would have killed orf mah brain cells, but it didn't appear to have done. Besides, it's cold and rainy outside. I'm not feeling much of an urge to work on furniture refinishing in the out-of-doors.
I also sanded out most of the soaked-in water damage stains on the top of the dresser. I don't know that I can get all of them out without removing an excessive amount of wood and I'm not sure they're that damn visible at this point. Since that's the case, I'm in a holding pattern on that front until I put at least one layer of finish on the damn thing to see what it looks like.
I've reglued the loose guide slats on the drawer bottoms -- these I had, just not attached. I didn't have to *make* them. That's not the case for the in-dresser drawer guides -- two of those are missing and I will have to make them. Since they're more complicated than the drawer supports, which I also have to make, I am saving them for later.
Most excitingly, I got to have some rockin' circular saw action when I measured and cut the five missing drawer supports. These are on the sides of the inside of the dresser and they provide the rails for the drawer to slide on. If these are missing, the drawer falls down in the back so that the front of it doesn't sit flat against the front of the dresser. That came out amazingly well -- the ones I made fit tightly enough that I think I'm just going to glue them after all. They're one of those tap-into-place deals -- not going to move once they're in there even without glue. They also *work*! Yay me! (How come we never got to do cool stuff like this in wood shop? We made fucking candlestick holders. I made a ghastly four-leaf clover one which, to my eternal shame, my grandmother Gothie kept and still displays on occasion. Do they even have wood shop in school anymore?)
I also sent off for stuff (plain tung oil) to put a finish on the wood because the future owner of the thing asked for a clear, wood-grain-visible finish and I want to see how that does before doing it on something for myself, like the interesting cedar thingie I'm picking up at Sandra's house next weekend. We'll see -- the wood isn't a uniform color because it's cheap furniture. It was originally finished with a colored "maple-look" finish that hid the different colors of wood. When I stripped off the finish, the color came too. It isn't ugly, though, and it looks okay wetted down (with rubbing alcohol) so that the colors are darker like they would be with a finish on them. If the tung oil doesn't work the way I think it will, I can strip that off, stain the wood to a uniform color, and try again. Hell, if the whole thing is a disaster, I can *still* paint it later. I have many options and I'm not particularly in a hurry. :) I can walk around a half-assembled dresser in the living room for a long time.
And now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to ensure world peace with what remains of the afternoon. :P
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no subject
Date: 2005-10-22 07:15 pm (UTC)Member of the studio audience: Hated cooking? ... but you cook all the fucking time! You're snooty about cooking. You make damn near everything from scratch, even things normal people are content to buy. You are, to hear you go on about it, reasonably capable in the kitchen, even.
Er. Yeah. That came later. In eighth grade, Mrs. Snow took every drop of joy out of making cookies. That, you see, was what we did in cooking class. We made drop cookies and roll cookies and refridgerator cookies and press cookies and bar cookies and possibly one other kind that I'm not currently remembering.
I wouldn't have guessed, prior to that class, that it was *possible* to take something as innocuous and inherently fun as making chocolate chip cookies and make it roughly as enjoyable as a root canal. In that particular regard, Mrs. Snow was the Delores Umbridge of cooking class. She did not intend for any of us to enjoy cooking, ever.
I count it as a triumph of the human spirit on my part that I currently enjoy cooking as much as I do. And, y'know, I lick the beaters and the bowl. All the time. I consume batters containing raw eggs. I eat raw pie dough. Most of all, I refer to the metal thing that one might use to flip pancakes as a spatula even though Mrs. Snow insisted that it was a metal flipper-turner. (She took off points if you asked anyone in your group for the "spatula" when you meant metal flipper-turner.) Flipper-turner, my lily white ass. In my kitchen, that thar thing is a fucking spatula.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-23 03:27 pm (UTC)damn. and spatula is one of my favorite words. really. that, and askew.
i remember in 7th or 8th grade cooking class they taught us how to make tea. boil water. pour water. insert tetley's tea bag. steep. you're grading me on this shit? (later i learned that tetleys tea is perfect for staining stain-resistant materials, like when you need to take white nylon rope and make it look wood-colored because the stage manager picked up the wrong kind of rope with the last of the set budget, but they don't teach you the useful stuff in jr high.)
no subject
Date: 2005-10-24 08:17 pm (UTC)I call 'em all spatulas, of course.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-25 05:02 pm (UTC)bah.
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=spatula&x=0&y=0
vs
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=flipper-turner&x=0&y=0