Yesterday I did a good bit of needed housecleaning and hand-washed a number of clothing items, including my three linen dresses (also my big tencel button shirt).
In engaging in a brief spot of weeding, I managed to break off the biggest cane of my struggling hydrangea in the shade garden --- and noticed, in picking up the broken end, that against all expectations, this poor hydrangea had actually been making preparations for blooming.
I brought the broken end in and put it in water, to see if I can root it. I know that people propagate hydrangeas by just bending bottom canes down and anchoring them in the dirt until they root, but I wasn't sure I could stick a broken cane in the soil and have it flower. So I thought I'd see if I could get it to start putting out roots, and then I'll try planting it, maybe in a pot for the winter.
It was looking very limp in the vase yesterday afternoon, but this morning it's perked up a lot, so I have hopes. I'd love to be able to grow hydrangeas --- I've historically not had good luck with them. Most of the ones I've been given have been the very small forced-bloom variety that you can pick up in the supermarket at Easter, but they're never really mature enough to do well outside over a winter (I should probably have planted them in bigger pots and waited for them to mature more), and often, even if they do survive, they never bloom again. You really have to get the gallon-pot-sized ones to have any luck at all. But I'd like to put some hydrangeas in my back-door garden, where the hostas have, for whatever bizarre reason, not done well this year. And if I could do it for free, instead of $25 a plant . . . that's certainly my preferred price point.
The husband worked hard in the backyard yesterday, and it looks less like a jungle, but not not like a jungle.
Actually, it's just very foresty and green. My redbuds, the trees more or less in the foreground here, have grown a lot this year, thanks I suppose to all the rain. They hold up my clothesline handily, and I look forward to their being sturdy enough that I can string a hammock between two of them. I also look forward to their fall foliage. They turn a very pretty gold, and this year they should make a lovely show. The leaves are nice and thin, too, so that they mulch down pretty quickly on the grass --- unlike oak leaves, which are basically leather. I don't miss the oaks that have come down in our general vicinity.
Other things are quite overgrown --- some privet I misguidedly let sprout has become a thicket at the back, blocking the sun from things I'd really like to get more sun, and also some mulberry trees which seem to be all male, i.e., not fruiting. I've said I'll give them one more year to impress me (that is, to bear fruit and be worth having), but if I don't see berries next spring, out they go. Two of them are shading my kitchen garden too much, and if the trees aren't going to provide me with food, then I need that sun and space for things that will.
Speaking of food, this is mostly what I'm being provided with at the moment:
Every year I plant lots of things. Every year I harvest lots of peppers. I'm not complaining, mind you. I love peppers, and I hope that this year I'll have plenty to dry and use through the winter. I'm still making my way through year before last's stash of dried cayenne and jalepeno peppers, but I will be happy to have some fresher ones.
Basil still thrives, too:
I need to go out and cut it before it flowers, and just make up a lot of basil-garlic-olive-oil paste to freeze.
But now it's raining again, so I probably won't do any of that today. I'm just glad I remembered to bring my laundry in last night. I haven't washed these dresses much at all, but they were ready for a bath, and now they smell fresh and lovely. I'll give them a break this week to wear other things (unless I change my mind, as I am free to do), but it's good to have them clean and ready to go again.
Today:
*Wash hair
*Walk dog in rain
*Go to Mass at noon
*Confront prospect of next week's 3 Substack essays, because all of a sudden I'm not ahead of the game anymore
*Return collegial phone call --- I was vacuuming yesterday and missed him.
*Put pork loin in slow cooker for dinner. I'm going to cook it with lime juice, ginger, garlic, etc, and serve it with mango-mint chutney left over from the chicken curry I made late last week. Really I've just been looking for an excuse to use this mango-mint chutney again, because it was so very delicious. I might have to make another batch, because it would be good on salmon for Friday, too.
Last night's dinner, by the way, was a retread of Sunday night's ground-beef soft tacos. I had leftover ground beef, some plain yogurt that I'd used in place of sour cream, and salsa. I wanted to make some kind of baked thing, because there really wasn't enough meat to stand on its own.
In the fridge I found a bag of "Brewer's Barley," which is really just flour made from wheat and rye left over from beer making. There it was on the supermarket shelf one day, and I bought it for the sheer novelty of it, and --- it's a strange taste if it's not what you're expecting, but it's not bad. Here are the suggested health benefits of "spent grains," if you're interested.
You're really supposed to combine spent grains with regular flours at a ratio of about 1:3, but for a batter composed of a half-cup of this malted-grain flour, plain kefir added to create a fairly thick consistency (I didn't measure, but just used enough to make the flour doughy), and four eggs, the flour worked out just fine, and the taste was not too strong. I mixed this batter with the meat/onion/chili pepper combination I had made for the tacos the night before, the leftover salsa (maybe 1/2 cup total), the yogurt (again about 1/2 cup), and a can of black beans, plus some extra chili powder and salt to taste, and spread this mixture in an 8x8 square baking dish.
While this was baking, which took about an hour, on the stove I sauteed one onion in thin slices, plus four (?) of the peppers pictured above, also sliced lengthwise in long, thin strips, in butter, until everything was soft and translucent, and also the smoke from the very hot peppers was making me have to leave the kitchen.
Toward the end, I put some dollops of Neufchatel cream cheese on top of the baked . . . whatever you want to call it . . . mix of batter, meat, yogurt, and salsa . . . and set it back in the oven so that the cream cheese could soften enough to spread. When I had spread it over the top, I added the sauteed onions and peppers over that.
I really didn't have very high expectations for this recycling dinner, but it was surprisingly delicious. I had wanted to use corn meal but didn't have any --- that would have been more in keeping with the cuisine, but the malted-grains flour was actually quite good and far more nutritious than corn meal would have been. This probably would have been more delicious with a lot of cheese, but we didn't want the extra calories, and it was fine without.
You could of course omit the meat and just use black beans --- maybe 2 cans instead of 1. In that case you'd probably want to dice up more pepper and onion to mix in, because it would be kind of bland without those ingredients, which were already present in the ground beef mixture. I wish I could tell you how much chili powder and cumin I had used in that ground-beef mixture, because you'll want to add those as well, but "to taste," basically. I find that it's easy to overdo cumin: you want the taste to be present, but not to overpower everything else, which it readily can. So less cumin, gradually increasing if you feel you need it, but a liberal hand with the chili powder. That's my motto, anyway.
Again, I thought this dinner would be okay, as a way of using up leftovers, but it was really good.
This morning I'm using brewers' barley/spent-grain flour again in baked oatmeal. I didn't measure amounts, sorry, but roughly 3 parts rolled oats to 1 part flour, to fill maybe half of a medium-sized mixing bowl, with two eggs and kefir to wet it to a batter consistency (runnier than dough, because you have to be able to spread it out easily on a sheet pan, but not really liquid --- again, I just add liquid gradually until I get the right consistency). I also added (and did measure) 1/4 cup of plain whey protein powder, which will also act as a flour in this mix, as well as (obviously) adding more protein.
I used a good dollop of maple syrup to sweeten, because the other day I read that erythritol, which is what my beloved Swerve sweetener is, can cause blood-clotting problems, so I guess we're not using that anymore. Turns out it really is better just to eat the sugar --- and also learn to love things less sweet, which I have also managed to do over the years. In many things I make, most if not all the sweetness comes from fruit.
Anyway, maple syrup to sweeten, plus a lot of small frozen blueberries (if you use frozen fruit and like me are too lazy to thaw it first, it's good to have your batter be not so liquid, because the frozen fruit will exude a lot of water as it cooks). The blueberries will sweeten the whole thing at least as much as the maple syrup, but it's there to counterbalance the maltiness of the spent-grain flour. I put a sheet of parchment paper over my 26" sheet pan and spread the frozen-berry/batter mix over it, to fill the whole pan --- it made a fairly thin layer. Roughly 30 minutes in the oven, though I'll check it at the 20-minute mark just in case.
I realize that these are not very standard recipes. I could never have a real cooking blog, or write a cookbook, because all my cooking is like, I used some amount, but I'm not sure exactly what amount because I eyeballed it. It generally comes out just fine, but these results would not be replicable without a WHOLE lot of explanation, and maybe some trial and error on the part of the next cook. I'm not good at following directions myself --- I am that person who squints at the picture on the box and says, Yeah, I can make something that looks basically like that. Sometimes I'm wrong. Sometimes the result is a disaster. But often, after 35 years in the kitchen, I'm right.
Here is the outcome.
It's pretty good, though honestly it could be a little sweeter. A bit bland, even for my fairly low-key tastes. It would not taste good to a person accustomed to a lot of sweetness. But full of blueberries and protein! You could spread this with jam, or have yogurt or kefir over it, for a bit more flavor. Even a smear of butter would elevate it a lot. Next time I might add even more blueberries, and also use honey in a more generous amount than I used maple syrup this time (can't even taste that, to be honest).
Wearing today:
Wet hair! But then I'm going to look like this anyway, only wetter, once I've walked the dog. Rain rain rain. At least I've got some cheerful color-blocking going on in my outfit, to lift my spirits.
Also, with the exception of my cardigan, everything I'm wearing today is such a recent acquisition that it doesn't seem that worth tracking how many times I've worn each item yet. The numbers will be single digits, I know that much, but that's only to be expected. I will count wears for the cardigan, though, because I've had it for more than a year and worn it a lot, though not in quite some time.
*Secondhand Carolyn Rowley linen top, bought June 2024, last worn July 21
*Secondhand Garnet Hill maxi skirt, bought June 2024, last worn July 31
*Secondhand O'Connell's merino cardigan, bought sometime in the late winter or early spring of 2023, last worn April 21, wow. Total wears this year: 6. Well, it's been hot. Also, I have a lot of cardigans. That doesn't mean I don't need this one, just that I don't have to wear it all the time with everything --- which is fine.
*Secondhand Alegria floral Mary Janes, bought August 2024, last worn on Sunday. I was going to wear Birks or clogs, but it's so wet that I've changed that plan. These closed leather shoes are a little dryer, anyway. I also thought about wearing my brown Earth Shoe Mary Janes, but I still really need to get some moleskin. They're so cute, and really comfortable except for that spot on my right heel that gets rubbed. Everything else has relaxed a lot, but that one heel place still needs to soften up.
Well, rain or no rain, I had better let the dog out and get on with it.
LATER:
My stomach felt a little crummy --- from experience over the last several days, I think I might have picked up some low-grade little bug while we were away at the weekend --- so I didn't go to Mass. But the rain has stopped, I feel not too bad, and have been out with the dog in the lovely cool afternoon, with an actual almost-autumnal-feeling breeze.
I have had a good and useful and extensive collegial Substack phone conversation.
I have written and uploaded one essay for next week.
I have welcomed the Artgirl home (though she's currently out having a friend cut her hair, which I hope goes well).
I have made pork loin in the crockpot: pork loin (actually I think it's half a loin, which is a cheap cut of meat, but good and easy to cook) seasoned with salt, splashes of lemon and lime juice, ginger paste, whole cloves of garlic, and a splash of tamari.
To be served with cauliflower rice and (extremely spicy) mango-mint chutney, a good thing to make if you happen to have frozen mango chunks and onions, plus fresh mint and chili peppers in your garden. The ingredients are basically
*some mango chunks (enough to make your chutney the consistency of applesauce)
*some sprigs of fresh mint
*about 1/4 of a medium onion, sliced so it fits in the food processor
*a big squidge of ginger paste (depends on how much you like ginger; I like it a lot)
*a generous splash of lime juice, not so generous that it makes things soupy, just enough to help it all blend up together
*a jalapeno or other medium-sized chili pepper (you can use less than a whole pepper if you don't like fire)
*puree it all together in a food processor, scrape into a jar, and serve.
This is my riff on a mint chutney recipe in Melissa Joulwan's Well Fed cookbook, and as with all my cooking, this is as precise as it gets. I will note that you can make mango salsa in exactly the same way, omitting the ginger and substituting fresh cilantro for mint, and not processing it to a puree, leaving it all kind of coarsely chopped.
So, that's what's for dinner, since I've been on a food-report kick lately.
Also, my hair did dry. I really think this makes a difference to the whole outfit --- that's why I often cut off my wet-hair head in outfit photos in the mornings, though I didn't today. But here are some updates, also in better light, because the rain has stopped and I could take shots without any interior lights on, just the light from the window.
Amazing how much more dressed and together I look and feel, even when my hair is fairly messy. It dried very curly --- like lots of spirals, more than I think I've ever had before --- though eventually I did loosen those clumps with a wide-toothed comb, because it felt tangled. It's still very wavy, though, with defined waves.
I washed with Head&Shoulders Bare, then used a tiny amount of LUS 3-in-1 diluted with rosemary water mostly for a little more slip rather than any full-on conditioning, since the shampoo itself is very moisturizing. Combed it all through to detangle. Then, before I got out of the tub, I soaked my hair again and added maybe slightly less than a ping-pong-ball-sized amount of Not Your Mother's Curl Talk foam, spreading it on and raking it through with my fingers. While my hair was still soaking wet, I then brushed it in informal sections, especially the top, just taking a section and brushing it straight up from my head, then shaking out the length to help it form a curl, and sort of setting it out of the way so that I could move on to the next little section of hair.
That's the main thing I've been bothering to do differently, and I really like the outcome, especially given how little work it is. It sounds laborious, but it takes really just a minute to go around my head, then brush the under layers and shake my head, to help them clump. I scrunch the excess water out with my hands, then when I'm out of the bath, I use my microfiber towel to scrunch again. I let it air dry for about an hour, a term I use loosely since this included walking the dog in the pouring rain. Then I diffused it most of the way dry --- but again, it was raining, so I was not being at all perfectionist about things. I just wanted not to have wet hair stuck to my head.
So, I'm happy with these results, and maybe the process details will be helpful to somebody else.
. Other than feeling a little blah, physically, it's been a nice day. In a minute I'll set the table and start the dinner machine in motion in earnest. The pork has been cooking since noon, but the cauli rice needs making and the table needs setting.
Oh, also, this has been a fun outfit. I meant to say that. My feet have been comfortable all day in my Mary Jane shoes --- they're fantastic for walking. All the thumbs up. And I just love this skirt. Knit skirts can feel droopy and stretched out so quickly, but this one holds its shape pretty well, owing mostly to the elastic in the hem, which gives its bubbly appearance. I love the green, which goes so well with everything I own. And I really, really like the blue-pink-green color-blocking, with my shoes picking up but not matching these tones and providing a little interest. I've really felt --- not physically great, but nice all day, with minimal effort.
This cardigan is very pilled, though. I need to get one of those shavers. On my list for sure.