So many hobbies!

I don't get it!

Can someone please explain to me the obsession with adding bacon to everything?  Check out this recipe?  Candied Bacon Chocolate-Chip Cookies?!?!  Or, hey, how about Bacon Jam.  What?!  <tries not to hurl>  I've tried chocolate with bacon bits.  It's not that good.  Really!  It was a serious waste of good chocolate.  I just don't get it!!

Keeping warm

A big pot of split pea soup!  Finally!  I tried all week to get to the soup but it didn't happen until today.  They were predicting sub-zero temps with the wind chill so I did all my grocery shopping last night and stayed in today.  It was a day of cuddling with the kittens, watching "The Scarlet Pimpernell" with Richard E. Grant, working on the binding for the little quilt and eating yummy soup.  I think the soup was so good because of the fantastic ham I got from my brother.  Yum!

 

This was my Christmas present from my sister.  I've wanted to make a colorbox quilt for a while and thanks to my sister, now I can.  I was going to go with black for the sashing but after seeing this quilt, I'm torn between black and white.  Of course, it's going to have to wait behind the two quilts I've got cut out but not assembled.  And, I've decided to join this contest and the deadline for the contest is March 31st.  While I hope I win, I have no doubts that other quilters with a lot more experience than myself will be joining.  Mostly, I'm joining to have fun and because, who knows, I might just win!

Feeding myself

It's been a long time since I've done any kind of canning or food preservation.  It's been a long time since I've wanted to.  Lately though, that niggling sense of something wrong, of something coming, has made me start thinking about stocking up.  Sure, I could just go to the grocery store and buy a bunch of canned food but doing it myself is much more satisfying and I'll end up with things I can never get in a store.  There's also the intense satisfaction and confidence that comes with knowing that you can take care of yourself, and your family, if need be.  And, if you grow the food yourself, aside from some sweat equity it's virtually free food.  Oh, and you can be sure it's not covered in pesticides or other chemicals.  You can't beat that.

One of the fun parts of canning for me is trying new recipes.  This year, new recipes (so far) will be sweet pickle relish and Victoria Sauce, which is made from rhubarb, raisins, onion, sugar, vinegar and spices.  I imagine it's similar to a chutney and you'd eat it with chicken or pork.  I'll be visiting the farmers market again this Saturday (our farmer's market is open Wednesdays and Saturdays and since I work during the week...) for more rhubarb, free-range eggs, free-range hamburger, and anything else that looks good.  I'm still trying to find a source of free-range chicken.  After finding out how our beef cattle and chickens end their lives, in unimaginably horrible, cruel ways, I can't stand the thought of giving my money and support to that industry.  I'm not a vegetarian; I like eating meat.  As human animals, our bodies are made for the eating and digesting of meat.  While I am not capable of killing my own meat (I have too soft a heart), I can choose to purchase beef, chicken & eggs, and pork from animals who lived out their lives in the open, under the sky, in as happy and healthy a manner as possible.  That's why I plan on raising my own chickens when I get my place in the country.  We need to take back our food!

No fiber, just food

Yeah, tonight I performed some rare, middle-of-the-week cooking... mostly because the majority of the work was already done.  Sure, I make great biscotti but I always seem to be making it for other people.  Tonight I made myself some fab Apricot-Pistachio Biscotti.  Observe:

Slice them, then...

Bake the second time.  Oh, did I forget to mention that biscotti are twice-baked cookies.  You mix up the dough, take half, roll it into a log, put it on the cookie sheet, do the same with the other half, pat them flat and back until firm.  Then slice (see top photo), put them back on the cookie sheet and bake them again.  This next part is very important:  don't tell anyone you have them or the locusts will clean you out before you even know what's happening.  Trust me on this.

After Biscottifest, I worked on this:

This, my friends, is Pork Roast with Cherries that is currently chilling out in the 'fridge.  Tomorrow morning I'll put it in the slow cooker to cook and get sinfully yummy while I'm at work.  Oh, yes!  After a day of wanting to poke my eyes out being a happy worker bee, I'll return home to food that will probably make my eyes roll back into my head.  No, seriously, that's a good thing.  Honest.

Bed now.  Wool things tomorrow.  I promise.