Rays of Sunshine: Year-End 2020

My husband remarked sometime this fall that future historians of our era will have to microspecialize in 2020, as in, "I'm an expert on October 8, 2020."  It has been a year in which we lived a century.  Here are some (not-so) quick takes from an epic year.

1. We survived Covid in the early days of the pandemic.  My infection was brutal (but not hospital-inducing); the rest of my family less so.  

2. My kids learned to get along with each other during the six-month lockdown in this tiny house, and continue to develop their relationships with each other in unexpected ways.  Yes, they still fight, still annoy each other, still know how to push each other's buttons, but on the whole, the four of them can rub along okay, which is something I never thought I'd be able to say.  We did many puzzles and played lots of Scrabble and other word games this year.

3. The kitchen garden was a source of delight to me all summer and fall, and I'm looking forward to digging in the dirt in the late spring.

4. While I wrote less this year, my final Slezkine essay remains my favorite, although my latest Crawford tribute comes close.

 

5. I'm pleased to announce that my novel, All This Without You, will be published in mid-February.  I'm working through the final formatting and galley proofs now.  Pre-order will be available in a few days.  My first novel, Deliverance, finally got the cover I wanted from the start.

6. The kids discovered shchi, kuleyabaka, and pirog this year, and my fasting menus got a bit easier as a result (if more labor-intensive).  

 

At the same time, I crossed some kind of culinary Rubicon this year, and have enjoyed making some nice-looking meat, fish, and cabbage pies (with pre-made crust; I'm not that invested).  

 

The food shortages of the spring put my long-neglected bread maker to work. 

After 8 months of heavy use, it went to the Great Appliance Store in the Sky.  RIP, you served us well.

 

7. I fell down a few crafting rabbit holes this summer and fall, including jewelry-making, which I completely enjoy, and dyeing, which I do not. 

 

 

I also returned to making art this spring and summer, and am holding these new creative endeavors under the broad umbrella of This Living Hand Designs. 

 8. After stalking various listings for used pairs, I finally found a pair of Blundstones on ebay for a great bargain, and they are pretty much the best things ever. My transitional shoe crisis solved! So stompy.  

9. With hair salons closed for months, I learned how to cut both boys' hair, and have continued the practice since.  My husband had me trim his hair once in May in desperation, but has since returned to his barber, much to my relief.  I trimmed the girls' and my own hair once, since we don't need regular cuts.  It's not perfect, but it will do!

 

10. My sewing stalled out this year, but I made a few things I really loved, including my cropped linen Emerald tops, and a laundry cycle's worth of underwear.  

11. I dipped my toes into more challenging knitting, including lacework and colorwork, and find I have a an appetite for charted work. 

I also discovered some new-to-me designers and have enjoyed some new patterns.

12.  I discovered some truly enjoyable book series this year, including the All Souls Triology, The Court of Thorns and Roses series, and the Throne of Glass series.  The Throne of Glass series was an unexpected delight, and I binged all seven (rather large) books in about a month's time this fall.  I dipped back into the Court of Thorns and Roses series again this week in anticipation of the next book's release in February.  I guess I'm into supernatural fantasy now?

Wherever this year has taken you, and whatever difficulties you've experienced, I wish you peace and joy in the year ahead.

 

Happy New Year!

See ya on the flip side.

Foodie Friday: Lovely Slavic Things to Make with Tinned Salmon

I'm not a huge fan of fish.  At least not the stinky whole-head variety.  That said, I don't mind white fish like flounder or haddock or branzino, and my dad is an avid fisherman when he can get to a lake, so we sometimes had fresh water fish in the summer when I was a kid.  I also grew up eating canned tuna in various forms (casserole, salad, etc) and really like that, but sadly developed an allergy as an adult and can no longer eat it.  *sniff, sniff*  I challenged it unsuccessfully with my allergist sometime in 2012, but perhaps I could try again in the next couple of years.  When I lived in Russia, one of my favorite things to get at a kiosk for lunch was "crabovie salat" (kрабовый cалат), which is fake crab legs (pollack, usually), white rice, mayo, corn, and pickles.  I sometimes made it myself at home too.  Delish!!

My tolerance for other fish has dropped along with my tuna allergy (no shrimp or tilapia, or pretty much any fish I haven't had prior experience with, because I'm careful), so my fish consumption has dropped and I've not had a crabovie salat for years.  As a practical matter, that means fish days in our house are pretty much either breaded or battered frozen white fish in some form or another, or salmon.

Now, I like salmon a lot, but my kids do too, and fresh fillets make for an extravagantly expensive meal for our family.  I do have a recipe for salmon patties that I've adapted into a hash for fish days that uses tinned, but that was the extent of my canned fish repertoire.  And by the way, most of the tinned salmon I was able to find locally was also eye-wateringly expensive. 

Until now!  

The Apostles' Fast (which ends on Sunday) has a LOT of fish days.  Like, a lot.  This week alone there were four if you count Sunday.  I've been experimenting with different Russian recipes for fasting times particularly, and decided to have a go at a few with fish this week.  I was able to find tinned salmon in a 12-can flat for a really good price on amazon a few months ago and have been getting a flat every couple of months since my recipes tend to use several cans at a time. Everything I made this week went over reasonably well with my unpredictable eaters, and even my potato-hater loved the fish cakes (since I didn't tell her they had potatoes...sneaky, sneaky).

In the interest of sharing the wealth, I thought I'd share my "recipes" here.  These are really just loose adaptations of other people's recipes, which are in turn adaptations of national cuisine that everyone's mother or grandmother had their own recipe for, so keep that in mind.  The main thing to remember about Russian recipes is to use enough salt to flavor the dish (which I'm coming to understand is more than you think if you are mostly cooking from scratch) and to have a bit of sour in the mix, usually in the form of dill, but sometimes vinegar, pickles, or lemon juice.

Ukha (Yха)
Admittedly, this one is more like "shchi with salmon" (щи c лососем) but everyone liked it, and I'll take that.

Ingredients:
Mirepoix (or roughly 1 cup each onion, celery, and carrot, diced or grated)
2 cans salmon, well drained (add 1-2 more cans for additional heft); don't flake finely, leave it a bit chunky
10 oz. shredded cabbage (a bag of coleslaw mix works well for this)
8 cups no-chicken or vegetable broth (I like Better than Bouillon)
2 bay leaves
2 potatoes peeled and diced
ketchup or tomato paste
pepper
dill (fresh or dried)
olive oil or margarine

In a heavy bottomed pot like a Dutch oven, saute mirepoix in margarine or olive oil on medium low heat until sweating and softened, about 10-15 minutes.  Add cabbage and stir to coat in oil, then add salmon, stock, bay leaves, and potatoes.  Bring to a boil and then lower heat to a rolling simmer until potatoes are cooked, about 20 minutes.  Squeeze a bit of ketchup or tomato paste (1-2 T.) over the top and stir through.  Season with pepper and dill (I just sprinkle across the top of the pot, and then add dill to each bowl when served but your mileage may vary).   If having dairy, a dollop of sour cream adds heft.  Sprinkle with dill at table.

Fish Cakes
This is a mash-up of two recipes I found, and I only measured the salt and pepper, so I'm guessing a bit on the quantities of spice.

Ingredients:
2 potatoes, peeled, diced, and boiled until soft, then drained of water.
2 cans salmon, well drained and flaked into a bowl
1/3 cup bread crumbs
1/4-1/2 tsp dried dill (or 2x the amount fresh, chopped finely)
1/4 tsp dried mustard
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/4-1/2 tsp onion powder
2 small shakes cayenne pepper (optional; my kids didn't love the spice, so I'll leave it out next time)
1 tsp (or so) lemon juice

Mash the potatoes with a fork and add to the salmon along with the spices and bread crumbs.  The result should be fairly sticky and thick.  Using a cookie scoop or two spoons, divide mixture into small balls (about 1/4 cup of mix), shape and flatten with your hands.  In a heavy fry pan (cast iron is ideal) spray cooking oil and heat until oil sizzles with a flick of water (like for pancakes).  Reduce heat to medium and place about six cakes in a pan (or five, however many fit with a bit of room around the edges) and cover for 3 minutes.  Turn cakes over and cook covered for another 3 minutes.  They should be golden brown.  Turn onto a plate and then repeat until all patties are cooked.  Serve with rice or grechka.  For dairy eaters, they are very nice with a dollop of sour cream or a bit of mayo.  Vegan mayo with dill added would also work.

 

Fish Pie--Kulebyaka (Кулебяка)
This dish has a lot of iterations, mostly based on the crust type--some people use puff pastry, some people use a short crust or pie crust, some people make pirog dough, similar to pizza dough.  This iteration uses pie crust, but I will probably try it with pirog dough at some point too.  It was a brilliant way to use up leftover grechka, but rice works too.  I mostly used this recipe as a guide (sans eggs), but Anya Von Bremzen's recipe in Please to the Table was also helpful.  It could benefit from a little bit of liquid binder to hold the contents together a bit better.

3 (ish) cups cooked rice or grechka
4 cans salmon, well drained
4 pie crusts (for pirog dough, use my cabbage pirog recipe as a guide for use)
1 small can mushrooms, well drained (fresh work well too, just cook them until liquid comes out and is reabsorbed and they are browned
1 medium onion, loosely diced and cooked to deep brown in 3 T. olive oil or margarine, with a sprinkle of salt
generous sprinkle of dill, fresh or dried
lemon (maybe 1 tsp?)
more salt

Preheat to 400.  After onion has cooked, add salmon and grechka and mushrooms and mix, adding lemon and dill and more salt to the mix.  Divide the mixture between both pie crusts and pack tightly.  Cover with pie crust and crimp edges and poke holes to allow steam to escape.  Place pies on cookie sheets lined with parchment in case of drips.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until crust is nicely browned.  Cut and serve.

Makes two pies, about 16 small slices.  There were two slices left after my family of six had finished.

And if you are thinking it looks like a lot of brown food, you would be correct!  Because actually, most home cooking looks like that.  Cooking at home is a good thing, but it isn't always pretty or photograph-worthy.  Or especially fast.  (This article made me feel so much better about my culinary efforts--I'm not a 12-person professional kitchen with a full-time staff working 12 hour shifts!)  Annd while my photos are amateur (and always will be), even the best photographs cannot disguise that some of the best-tasting food, and the most nourishing, made at home, is not going to be especially visually appealing.  Sometime I'll write a post on the history of pottage...

Lenten Cakes

I made a couple of Lenten cakes lately for guests and for St. Pharnourios (because: lost things) and thought I'd share them. 

The first was a spice cake with maple glaze frosting made for dinner with some friends.  I wanted to make something with applesauce instead of eggs, so I cast around for a recipe that used it.  There are a lot of recipes to choose from, but I used this one because it had no exotic ingredients, and I could adjust the spices to my liking.  I don't care much for nutmeg, so I always reduce it or omit in these sorts of things.  I ended up putting in 1 tsp of cinnamon and 1/2 tsp ginger and 1/4 tsp nutmeg.  I also used 1/2 cup brown sugar, as I don't like a ton of sweetness.  The maple glaze was about 1/2 c. powdered sugar, 2 T. maple syrup and 1T.  coconut milk with a tiny bit of margarine (maybe a tsp), melted on the stove and drizzled over the top.

It was very tasty and lovely when warm!  (It didn't improve with age, however, so I recommend making a half recipe if you can't eat it up within a day or two).

image via

The second was the Phanouropita that is traditionally made after asking the saint to help with finding something.  In this case, it was several lost reading logs over several days, as we've just come away from our school's annual Read-A-Thon fundraiser.  It is an intense two weeks in our household, as Piglet in particular is very competitive about it.  Both Boo and Birdie's daily logs went missing over several days and after finding them both in succession after asking the saint's help, I knew I needed to make the bread!

I have made this recipe many times (I always make a half recipe because it doesn't keep well, and a half is exactly two desserts for the family).  My usual changes are to omit the nuts and put in frozen berries along with chocolate chips and occasionally raisins.  This time, I made a half recipe, used brown sugar instead of white and used frozen cherries along with chocolate chips.  I usually don't glaze it, but I did make a quick powdered sugar+lemon juice+water glaze in a bowl and drizzled over.  I thought it improved the cake a lot.  It usually doesn't taste that great the second time, but it was still okay the second day with these changes (I also rewarmed the cake the second day, which helped significantly).

Foodie Friday: Winter Cobbler

I made winter cobbler again recently, and thought I should share the recipe, as this iteration went over well with almost everyone in my family!  (Even Ponchik ate it without complaint and that child doesn't like potatoes in any form, nosir.  It's a good thing she looks like me, or I'd wonder where she came from).  I made it again earlier this week and was again well received, so I'll take that as a hit! 

I sort of made it up, but it is loosely based on a recipe I saw in Beatrice Ojakangas' Best Casserole Book Ever as well as a recipe I saw made on The Great British Bake Off.  The trick is to slice all the vegetables very thinly (in disc-shapes).   That way, the zucchini-haters in the family could just remove that layer from their portions. The Bake-Off pie that inspired me to try this again featured couscous as one of the layers, but only half my kids like that, so I ended up serving it on the side.  I think it would be lovely inside, though.

Everyone gobbled this up so quickly, I only had time to snap a photo of Piglet's plate since he was late to dinner that night.

Winter Cobbler

2 medium baking potatoes or 2# baby yellow potatoes, sliced thinly (peeling is optional)

2 medium to large sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly

1 small to medium zucchini, sliced thinly

3 carrots, peeled and sliced thinly

2 small or 1 large sweet onion, halved and sliced (but not diced!)
16 oz package of diced frozen butternut squash (optional)

2 packages of Gardein Teriyaki Chick'n Strips, thawed and diced (set sauce packet aside)

Olive oil (a couple of tablespoons)

Maldon salt (or sea salt)

1 1/2 packages of prepared pie crust (Pillsbury's is vegan)

9x13 glass dish

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray pan with oil to prevent sticking.  Layer vegetables in the pan in order, leaving off the Gardein and pie crust.  (It is important to put the yellow potatoes on the bottom layer, as sweet potatoes get a hard crust and stick if they are on the bottom).  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt (do not stir) and bake in the oven about 50 minutes.  Let stand to cool a bit. *Preroasting the vegetables saves time at the end, but it does take a while, so I find it helpful to do this step earlier in the day.

Add the diced Gardein to the top of the pan, evenly distributed, and drizzle the contents of both sauce packets over the pan.  Do not stir.  Place pie crusts over the top and arrange to your liking.  Cut in some steam vents throughout and bake at 425 for 40-45 minutes, or until pie crust is a deep golden brown.  Let stand for 5 minutes and then slice and serve.

Goes well with couscous.  If you are feeling ambitious, you can add the (prepared) couscous to the pan at the same time as the gardein.

Zadie Dandelions, Knitting Azules, Cooking Lenten, and Reading Palmer

This was supposed to be a Yarn Along post, but I read Ginny's post this morning about discontinuing the link up, so I guess it is just be little ol' me talking about crafting and domestic life today.  This is a long'un, so grab a cuppa and settle in.

~sewing~

I made some good progress on the warm weather dresses for Birdie on Saturday.  I finished the chambray one (and tried out a new pattern at the same time).  I think the pocket is a little low, but it works for now.  I used Simplicity 8087, the Lazy Daisy Jones dress pattern.  It has a women's version in the packet as well, that I might try out at some point.

I also finished the trim on the red dress and I think it came out very cute!  (I had Ponchik try the chambray dress on for size, since I'm making a couple of dresses for her from the same pattern.  Both girls are similar in girth, but Birdie is a couple of inches taller)

I also made another Zadie!  I splurged on some Art Gallery printed jersey (I have no idea why this stuff is so expensive--it isn't really that different in quality from the $12/yard jersey) and made this up on Monday.  

Earlier this month I decided it was time to get a proper cutting mat, so I bought a big one on amazon and cut this out with a rotary cutter.  It went a lot better with the rotatry cutting than scissor cutting on my Market Floral version, but it was still a lot of pieces to cut out.  I also used a tracing wheel and transfer paper to mark the pivot points and pleat lines which also worked better.  

The joins at the back went beautifully, but that pesky pocket join at the waistband in the front did not.   Again. I pinned and repinned and repinned again, and it still isn't quite right.  I may put in some hand stitches to make it lay nice and keep the pockets from gaping.  

The neckband also gave me fits on this one; I had to redo it three or four times and got seriously frustrated in the process.  I think I had beginner's luck on the first one.  I remembered why I don't like neckbands!  Won't stop me from making more Zadies, though.  I just need a break for a few months before I make the next one.  

The print is really pretty!  The centers of the dandelions are mint green.  The whole dress just feels so spring-y to me.  

I spent the morning yesterday cutting out a few things.  The rayon (above) is for me.  Remember how I said my spring rotation was a hot mess?  It continues to be, and I've been shifting things around all month.  I'm hoping it will settle into something useful soon.

I cut out three dresses for Birdie and two for Ponchik.  The white one is for both girls for Ascension and the dark green is for Palm Sunday/Pentecost.  I have black long sleeve t-shirts for them to wear under the green dresses.  The blue star one is just for Birdie.  I'm going to add orange rick rack to trim it.

I also decided to give the Everyday Skirt pattern a try after seeing Kate's most recent podcast.  I generally dislike gathered skirts because I think they add too much bulk in an area that I don't need it, but this one looks well drafted, and I've seen a lot of iterations that make me think it might work for me (including Kate's).  I plan to pleat the front instead of gather it, to further reduce bulk.  I'll have to add 4-5" to the length as well, but if this works, it could be a great skirt pattern for me.  I'm going to try it in the Kaufman Union AK chambray that I love so much (the same as Birdie's dress).  I think it will be nice for summer.  I'd like to make a mustardy-gold linen version for the fall if I like the pattern.

~domestic~

Birdie caught whatever virus we are all passing around and was home sick Monday and Tuesday. She was fairly miserable on Monday and just laid on the couch all day, but yesterday she started to perk up but still coughed a lot when she tried to do normal activity. Let's just say there were a lot of Disney movies watched in the last 48 hours.  The kids had baths in the afternoon, and then there was a whole lotta salon action going on.  Birdie and Ponchik were sitting with one of my sitters, and Boo was working on my hair in the kitchen.  Boo really seems to enjoy the salon stuff.  I sometimes have to part my hair in the middle and let Birdie work on one side and Boo on the other.  I usually end up with a frizzy mass at the end of it, but they are so content during it, that I hate to deny them.

~knitting~

I'm working on several projects at the moment, as usual.  I played yarn chicken with the end of a skein of Berroco Sox (leftover from my Hitchhiker Scarf) and lost.  I'm either going to have to rip back the first one to make the lengths match or just give up on the whole thing.  *sigh*

Boo had a OT evaluation on Monday and I grabbed my Rent/Tess shawl to work on while I waited.  It is a good travelling project since it is still small enough to shove in a bag, is easily interruptible, and doesn't require a lot of concentration on my part.

 I'm making slow and steady progress on it.  I was much further on it in February, but I ended up frogging it all the way back and starting again, so this is about a month's worth of on-and-off work.  It is Malabrigo Rios in Azules and the yarn is so pretty--it is hard to capture the tonality in photos.  There are blues and greens and purples and teals.  I think it will end up coordinating with a lot of my closet.

Got through another lace chart repeat on the Three Musketeers Gemini.  I think I finally have even tension on this yarn--the linen is really hard to keep running through my fingers evenly.  

The lace panel is coming along nicely, I think.

~reading~

Still alternating between these two books.  I had to set the Thirty Steps one aside for a few days because it just hit me right between the eyes.  It is pretty deep stuff, so I have to process a little bit.  The Palmer book is small easily digestible bites, so I've been reading that one a little bit every day.

~cooking~

I made vegan mushroom gravy again.  Mods to make it vegan are to use margarine and coconut milk with no-chicken stock.

And since my stitches are out of my mouth (Hallelujah, praise the Lord!), I can have grechka again!  The gravy is lovely on top of the grechka.  I actually need to make another batch to have with the leftover gravy.

Last week I ended up with a surplus of white potatoes due to an error on my grocery order, so I was puzzling about what to make with them, and suddenly remembered the very delicious Vedge recipe for vegan roasted potatoes with creamy sauce.  (Seriously, make this recipe--it is so good; it is worth the price of the cookbook)

You roast the potatoes first and then make the sauce (which is tangy and kind of melts into the hot potatoes after you pour it over).  Delicious.  Unfortunately, the potatoes I used are sort of dense for my throat, so I wasn't able to eat more than a few bites, but they were very tasty!

I guess that's all for me!