The Domestic Greek Goddess

What to do with 60 lbs. of tomatoes

2008-08-24T11:14:00.006-06:00

This post was initially titled: what to do with 40 lbs. of tomatoes....then I got another 20 lbs. To see all the pictures click here. (Disclaimer: these pictures are only of the original 40 lbs. the additional 20 are becoming sauce as we speak.)

Quart jars contain raw tomatoes for future soups, stews and sauces. The pint jars contain the sauce.

Some of the tomatoes were fire roasted for the production of yummy home made salsa:

Other tomatoes were dried, partially in the Sun Oven (which I've recently learned that Ed Begley Jr. also uses) with the door open and partially in the car on a hot and sunny day. (This was inspired by Ruth Richel on Diary of a Foodie on PBS.)

The tomatoes are then ground in a coffee grinder used for spice grinding purposes and a fine powder is produced. This powder can supposedly be stored on the shelf, but I have chosen to keep it in the freezer for additions to pastas and dishes in the future.

The moral of the story: 60 lbs. of tomatoes is really not that much.

At The Wheel (this time potters, not spinners)

2008-08-02T07:23:00.005-06:00

This summer I've been taking a community ed. class in pottery. I've always loved pottery (another in a long list of things my mother influenced) and the community ed. center is only two blocks away from the house so it is very convenient. Hubs has been taking a wood working class there as well and has been creating up a storm (it's in his blood however, his great-great grandfather was a famous New York furniture maker!) So without further adieu, here are some of my first pieces:

Slab bowl, very organic in nature (large enough to hold about 8 good sized peaches!)

Twice Dipped Bowl (first thrown piece on the wheel, had instructor help)

The Coco Vessel

Detail on the coco vessel

there is a lot of catching up to do

2008-07-09T09:57:00.000-06:00

Some how (no one can guess I am sure) the blogging has, lets say, gotten away from me. I could come up with all sorts of excuses, but really when it boils down to it, laziness is probably the answer.

Much has happened. Some fantastic things, some horrid things. I'll get the horrid over first. About a month ago we lost our dear kitty Apollo. He was the quite possibly the most fantastic, fabulous cat ever and I can only thank God (seriously) that he came into my life. Hubs, Penny and I miss him dearly and are still trying to cope with his loss. He deserves a post all onto himself but I don't think I have it in me.

This horrible thing came on the heals of a wonderful spring. Many good things have happened in our lives and some of them I really cannot speak about yet. But the big hint is that we will be moving in early 2009 and it is to the one place we most wanted to move. (More to come on this front.)

In other news, the crafty goodness is going well:

I SOLD YARN!!!! YARN THAT I MADE!!!! I am still in disbelief over this fact. I made Cub Scout from a batt of Romney wool that I washed, dyed and carded. But it was...well....a little too Cub Scout-y for me. It was, however, very nicely spun and it sold within 5 minutes!!!!!! Thus I am shocked! (Well not really) that the other two handspuns I've listed on Etsy haven't sold. Oh well, their listing is up at the end of the month and I will simply keep them if they haven't sold. Especially the Regal Rhenium...I have kept one skein of it and I absolutely love it! Here is the Etsy site for all of you (where you can see the sold yarn, plus what's currently for sale, I'll also post it in the links): Mad Scientist Creations!

I'm up to my eyeballs in other unfinished projects. I've several sweaters, socks, scarves, skirts, etc. on the needles. I need to finish these things soon!

In addition I am taking a pottery class from the Community Ed program. I am really enjoying it and mainly using the manual kick wheel! I love that I can do this w/o any electricity coming into the equation. In addition, it's a pretty good work out.

Speaking of a good workout and in effort to save money/the planet, Hubs and I have purchased new bikes for the express purpose of riding into work. It's about a 7-8 mile round trip and we're going strong, riding in most days.

Our garden experiments have been going well too. Thus far we've harvested spinach, lettuce, beats, green and pole beans. Currently we have sunflower seeds, cucumbers, corn, peppers, (hopefully squash) and my favorite, tomatoes, coming in!!!

Goats are grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat!

2008-02-21T13:06:00.002-06:00

Since I went to yarn school this past September I've been really interested in goats. Well, to be honest, my interest started before then. I love goats cheese of several varieties (I am a little Greek girl after all.) But at yarn school I met some lovely pygora goats (a pygmy/angora cross) from Laura's Pygoras and learned that my friend Sarah (who was one of the instructors at yarn school) also has these cute little guys. Marissa and I are also doing a fiber CSA through Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm and I can't wait to see the mohair we're going to get for our spinning projects.

So I've decided that the next place Hubs and I move to has to have a little land because we are GETTING GOATS! I would like a small dairy herd and a fiber herd. But as most of you know, my loyal readers, I am not exactly well versed in the farming arts. Currently I am reading this, but that doesn't give me hands on training....So I asked my friend Kris (who works at my University) if I could spend some time on her dairy goat farm. She was very enthusiastic. Last Saturday was my first day on the farm. I learned a lot and had the opportunity to be there as two little doelings came into the world. I can't wait to go back.

The Girls Laying in the Hay

Miracle the Mama and Her Two Kids

Miranda and Mike Take a Snooze

Fidget (Mama) Welcomes Gidget and DellaMae into the World

DellaMae Is Up on All Fours

Chiffon and Rayon Say "Welcome" to Fidget's Girls

Briana the Guard Dog in Training Loves a Pet or Two

Pasta! Patsa!

2008-02-19T19:08:00.002-06:00

Making fresh pasta is one of my favorite dinners because it is so simple but so delicious! I went through several recipes before finding one that I feel really makes the best, most elastic, most authentic dough. Believe it or not, I did not find this recipe in a cookbook but on the back of a package of semolina flour (which is a must, Must, MUST!!!)

In your mixer attach a dough hook.
Combine 1 1/2 cup semolina flour and a generous pinch of kosher salt.
Make a well (I just let the hook stir a few times) and add to the well 2 large eggs, 2 tbsp. olive oil and 1 1/2 tbsp. water.
Turn the mixer on stir and let it do it's job! This should be relatively quick before you have a nice dough all pulled together.
The dough should look like the picture. If it is too dry add a tsp. of water. If it is too wet add a bit more semolina.
Let the dough hook kneed the dough a bit more.

remove the dough and cut into 1/4s. Wrap each in plastic wrap and place in the fridge.

NOW HERE IS WHERE THINGS GET DIFFERENT

My recipe says to leave it 20 min in the fridge. But in my experience it is much better to leave it at least 5+ hours. I've even left it a few days. This seems to make the dough more elastic and a better finished product.

Roll out the dough with a pasta machine. I like to roll my dough out until the penultimate setting (no. 5 on my machine) Keep the dough in sheets or use the slicing attachment
Crucial step: allow the rolled out dough or cut pasta (or formed pasta if your making something like ravioli or bow-ties, etc) to dry for 30 minutes. I use a handy-dandy pasta drier.

Boil your pasta in salted H2O. It should cook in under 4 min. Best when al dente.
Here are some bow-ties in pesto.

Here is some tagliatelle in a marinara.

The great outdoors

2008-02-11T17:09:00.001-06:00

The weather this weekend was so wonderful! We spent a lot of time outside and did some things to get ready for our garden this summer. I cleared away some vines and plants that were growing along the fence where we are going to plant. We are going to use the Square Foot gardening method and thus some plants will be growing up the fence.

This is the composting area. The left side is dedicated to yard waste and the right side is from our bokashi system! I can't say enough good things about the bokashi method of composting. It uses bacteria to ferment waste products. After a two week period in an air tight bucket it goes into the "ground" (now our compost zone, previously we put it in pots and covered it with dirt) for an additional two weeks and presto-chango you have wonderful compost to use in the garden.

When I was a little girl, I tried to make a solar oven (with a overturned metal pot and clay pot) to make my mom a birthday cake. This was not a bad idea as we lived in California and the sun was very strong, but California also has many ants which were soon drowning in my flour, egg and of all things maple syrup batter. Recently Hubs has purchased a "Sun Oven!" So we decided to test it out. This thing became very hot very fast (within a 1/2 hour) and reached temps as high as 325 F! I was quite impressed as this was a sunny but cool winter day. I can only wait for summer when it's much hotter and the sun is much stronger. Our potatoes were not entirely cooked after 2 hours, but they were cooked.

After my last post I decided I had to finish the yarns. Some are here on Hub's head. He's really too cute isn't he?

Also I received some Jacob's Wool from Hub's (and I guess now my) friend Michelle. I hope that I can repay her generosity soon! (And visit her farmlette.) (Oh and p.s., I cast on for the Hourglass Sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts this weekend too! More on that to come.)

Spinning for a sweater

2008-01-30T14:04:00.000-06:00

Knitting has taken a bit of a haitus this week. Instead I have been spinning quite a bit in the hopes of making enough yarn for a sweater for Hubs. I am making it out of paradise fiber's Columbia/Dorset blend. That I've dyed. I am calling the colorway Lithium Lichen. (I've taken to a periodic table theme for my hand dyed yarns) I think I am going to make him a bottom up raglan, with some cable detailing....we'll see. It's not spun as evenly as I'd like it to be but hopefully it will even up a bit in the finishing. This is my greatest challenge in life...the finishing. I will spin up the yarns, ply them, take them of the bobbins, but I just can't seem to finish anything. I'm the same with laundry. I'll wash, dry, and fold and leave it in the basket for 2 months.

Unfortunately in the picture above you really can't see the variety in the colors....thus here are some singles:

thar she grows

2008-01-22T07:38:00.000-06:00

Progress has been made on the sock front. I am now to the part of the pattern where I am supposed to be beginning the decreases, but I may or may not begin them. The reasoning is that I am actually now at the biggest part of my calf and may want to start them the next cable pattern around. The other reason is that I realized I am not on gauge. I am knitting 9 stitches per inch instead of 8. This means that the sock is smaller than I had planned on (although it still fits amazingly) And no I didn't do a gauge swatch....because I am lazy....so I don't know if it's the yarn or the knitting...probably both.

front and side of sock
back and side of sock
I also began some dying last night for a homespun handknit sweater for hubs. This is the roving pre-oven. When it came out ther e was way too much white , so the next batch (there are 4) is going to have to have more color.

a little spinning

2008-01-21T07:38:00.000-06:00

This weekends activities were many and few at the same time. Progress was made on the sock (although not as much as I'd like, thus no picture.) Some yarn was spun (though not all the fiber.) I had intended to dye some roving for a sweater for hubs, but the closest I got to that was to soak the roving in a bucket of water. Maybe I'll decide to do it tonight.

Meanwhile, I made some sort of concoction that turned out pretty tasty! (But then I'd just eat tomato sauce straight if it were acceptable!)

Homemade tomato sauce with spaghetti squash

two of these bats (Cobalt Cloud) were combined with two white bats (approx. 4 oz) and the resulting plied yarn (I think I may make mittens out of it!)

me and my poor eyesight

2008-01-18T12:33:00.001-06:00

I just noticed how crappy my pics are looking. I will remedy this!!!

keep on blogging!

2008-01-18T12:15:00.000-06:00

I..........must............blog.

Last night I began a great adventure in the art of knitting. I cast on for my first pair of socks! I am knitting them in my own hand-dyed yarn (well it's Knit Picks yarn, and Country Classics' dye.) The dying was a bit disastrous (it was dyed thrice,) the winding was a bit disastrous (see photos below,) and Apollo spent an hour last night trying to eat my size 1 dpns (whilst I was trying to use them of course.) But I now have 1 inch of ribbing or so for this.

Trouble in the dye pot! After two dye jobs, I noticed this. (Yarn Knit Picks bare 70% merino/30% silk, dye Country Classics raspberry)

Hubs valiantly tries to untangle the mess

Socklings on the needles!!!!!

Hi my 3 readers

2008-01-17T11:42:00.000-06:00

I have so much to say. It's been since April since I've posted on this blog. (I have written posts that have gone unpublished.) Horrid I know. So much has happened...I've begun to spin (I am nuts over it.) I will present you with some pictures and hope you forgive me my 3 loyal readers. (god damnit, now I can't get this to not be a link....sigh....technology and I don't mix)

curious curium
regal rhenium

Modified from Stephanie Japel's "Carie Cropped" from Fitted Knits. Yarn: knit picks' panache in coal.
Soups on! (Butternut Squash Soup)

am I crazy? yes I am!

2007-04-04T16:44:00.000-06:00

Currently I have a cell in wash and I am looking at Alpaca adoption online. Has my love for yarn gone too far? Perhaps....but now i think they're just so cute!

here is a pic from the Alpaca Atlantic farm here in TN:

Hub's "fast food"

2007-04-04T09:35:00.000-06:00

Hubs has been busy baking up a storm lately. Here are some of his veganesque creations.

Whole wheat pizza with mushrooms, kalamata olives, spinach and red sauce

Focaccia with kalamatas, rosemary, salt and pepper

Plain focaccia with my "white bean salad"

Here too is our little pot garden with tomatoes, herbs (basil, rosemary, thyme, cilantro), strawberries and jalapeno peppers!

I covet yarn

2007-03-28T09:44:00.001-06:00

But I can't buy any until I've finished (or made considerable progress on) my multitude of projects. (This is according to Hubs, as I would go without food to purchase yarn.) I've only been knitting for about a year and a half but I've become crazy about it and it consumes much of my thoughts.

Some projects I have completed:

A scarf for Hubs in extrafine merino -- mock cable pattern. This is where I learned that left handed knitters (those of us who use the left needle as our working needle) have to rewrite directional patterns to make sure they flow in the same direction as intended. I still like this scarf.

A basic hat for myself in alpaca (very soft!) although I should have made the band a bit tighter as it's now stretched out a bit.

The Clapotis scarf designed by Kate Gilbert -- in a lovely (and expensive) 50% silk, 50% wool blend...my favorite finished product thus far

Fetching gloves by Cheryl Niamath -- this was my first real cable project and very quick and fun to knit. The pattern calls for a single ball of Debbie Bliss cashmerino but it has been updated to say that you may wish to purchase a "just in case" ball. Because I am so cheap I decided that I could only buy one (also knowing that I knit fairly tight) but I became very nervous and thus the second glove was knit much tighter than the first...if you look closely you'll see the right hand glove is a tad bit smaller than the left. (Oh and yes, I had pleanty of left over yarn for my efforts.)

current project list:

bamboo skirt from Knitty
-- which although I love it looks wise, is a tad dull to knit (st st for the most part) which is why it's not finished
mini-afghan for niece's baptism present
-- purling the whole thing (for a looser garter stitch....entirely mindless knitting due to proximity of baptism) and using acrylic (which I don't like but it's soft and for ease of wash-ability) in bright colors
squares for blankets for Hands on Nashville project team (knitting on the West Side)
-- these often take precedence as I hate to not have a square finished by the next meeting time, and because I use them as an opportunity to try new techniques

projects started with no end in site as to finishing/may never be finished and ripped out:

two cotton swim suits
-- one was unfortunately stolen by a sweet 9 month old golden retriever during a trip to the dog park and unfortunately was covered in mud. The other was abandoned due to running out of yarn mid-suit and then finding color to be discontinued!
merino lace scarf
-- probably will be finished and given as a present to someone at some time. I love to knit lace, but I've found I most always don't pay enough attention and end up forgetting a yarn over thus resulting in not enough stitches on the needle.
weird silky yarn scarf/I don't know what
-- purchased for my first lace project, started, sucked, started again, sucked, decided just to st st, and then figured out lace midway through. Will be ripped out entirely and something new will be done with it.

projects I am dreaming about starting/project for which I covet yarn:
I have mentally and somewhat on paper begun to design two (well really three, or four, no the last is really not well thought 2 1/2) items which I can't wait to begin knitting (if they turn out decent I may try and get them published...we'll see)
skirt for fall/winter with matching clutch
-- I plan to use a bulky yarn for this (yea quick knitting), but the one I want to use has beautiful drape
formal dress for summer/spring
-- this is going to be knit with fingering weight yarn (I want it to be very light, almost gauzy, I was considering lace weight but thought I may go insane) and thus will take F-O-R-E-V-E-R, but I have a really cool design in mind (well cool in my mind) and I just taught myself a new stitch pattern (thank you HON squares) which will be perfect!
caplet/jacket/shawl
-- in black with cool accents from a trimming store.
a suit (maybe for my PhD defense?)
-- clearly I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here.
Additionally I have a few patterns I want to make:
Teriokhin swing jacket from the Spring '06 Vogue Knitting
-- This calls for worsted weight yarn, but I think I want to knit two strands of fingering weight of different colors together...we'll see how this looks
A sweater for hubs
-- I may knit this in a merino/cotten blend for a bit more warmth. I'll have to carefully examine the pattern to make sure I don't have to switch things for a left handed knitter.

maybe it's not good to start with food during a fast but......

2007-03-15T10:26:00.000-06:00

So it's the middle of the Lenten season and Hubbo (who is not Greek but incredibly supportive) and I are fasting until Easter (Holy Pascha, April 8th.) The traditional Greek Orthodox Lenten calendar calls for most days to be strict fasts which entails not consuming any sort of animal byproduct (this includes dairy and eggs) and no wine and no oil (okay, I can't do the oil part, I just can't....it's my only concession however.) Now you may be saying to yourself, wait, I know a person of Greek decent and they don't do this whole vegan-esque thing do they? No most of the ones I know (aka the majority of my family) don't either. Or they just don't eat meat. It's pretty tough (and I think being in America tends to make it a bit tougher, impulse wise and more processed foods, less fresh markets, etc.) Nevertheless, I do think I feel really good after, both in body and mind (I think a little suffering is good for the soul) and therefore I think it's worth it.

This Lent my favorite meal has been Roasted Vegetable Soup!

For a while now I've been suplimenting my vegetable soups with chicken stock because I just couldn't get the flavor I required from the veggies alone. So I decided to reference making a vegetable stock and consulted the book How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman (Hubs is a bit obsessed with cook books, so we have an ample supply.) The recipe for stock suggested roasting very roughly cut veggies before boiling them with water to create a more flavorful stock. (This was the point where I slapped my forehead, why couldn't I think of that.)

So instead of making a stock, I figured, I'd just chop my veggies finer, roast them and keep them in the soup. I used pretty much what I had on hand, but feel free to improvize.

Veggies:

onions (about 2 or so)
turnips (2)
carrots
leeks (both the white and tender green parts)
celery
zucchini and/or summer squash
1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes

seasoning:

olive oil
a good salt (I use Kosher salt because I am too cheep to buy sea salt)
bay leaves
FGP (fresh ground pepper)
cayenne pepper
oregano
thyme

Slice onions to medium-thinness (1/2 centimeter or so)

in a large flame proof casserole (I used the Le Creuset large oval Dutch Oven -- I think they call it a French Oven haha!) heat a couple of tbsp. of olive oil and caramelize the onions until they are nice and brown. (approx time 30 min. (I did this because during the roasting there is a lot of moisture that comes out of the other veggies that would prevent the onions from becoming as caramelized as I like them.)

While the onions are caramelizing, chop the other veggies to the desired size. After the onions have finished caramelizing toss in the other veggies (minus anything like greenbeans, the canned tomato, and the squashes) coat with oil (add a little more if needed) and roast in the oven (400 degrees) for about an hour turning periodically to make sure all get nice and browned.

Once veggies are nicely roasted, return to stove top and cover them with water (typically 2 quarts or so) and add the can of tomatoes. To this season with bay leaves (notice I said leaves, this means more than 1, I usually add 3 or 4,) salt, pepper, oregano, thyme (I love thyme...I go a bit overboard with it) and cayenne for heat! Simmer to allow flavors to meld.....and your done!

I think that the soup is better the second day, but it is enjoyable right out of the pot.

the beginning....

2007-03-14T13:20:00.000-06:00

First things first.

I am nowhere near divine. I am not pretending that I am. What I've always appreciated about the ancient gods and goddesses, however, is their ability to be both divine and imperfect. It is such a Romantic notion to find perfection in the imperfection. This blog will not be divinely perfect, I am sure it will often be boring, often dull, but like any decent diary hopefully it will have a few interesting things to reflect on.

So who am I? (Who do I think I am? May be a better question.) I am a relatively youngish woman (can I just say here that I hate the prevalence of women/ladies being called "females" this day and age) living in the South (but not native to it) and pursuing my Ph.D. in neuroscience. I promise to try to not bore anyone with ramblings about what I do at work (I say this knowing full well that I will). I am married (here after known as Hubs), no kids (yet), a dog (Penelope, but we call her Penny) a cat (Apollo). (Oh and I really like parentheses.)

My friends, especially my girlfriends from college, have always found me quite amusing when it comes to my extracurricular activities. I've always been a bit domestic. Some of it is fairly self explanatory: food is very important to Greek culture it makes sense for a little Greek girl to grow up in the kitchen with her Mama and Yiayia (grandma -- although my Yiayia really isn't a good cook). Some a little crazy (but in a good way): requesting crystal wine goblets for 16th birthday; baking 12 or so loaves of bread in ones dorm room; driving down the road, one hand on the wheel, one holding a freaking heavy piece of plywood that is hanging out the back of ones car all in the name of making a padded headboard (well that was a bit dangerous). Some I still don't accept as crazy although others have told me that I was: catering the majority of my wedding, doing the flowers, etc.

So this blog is dedicated to the domestic "arts" in my life. The current list is:

culinary
entertaining
knitting (which I have become way too obsessed with as you shall soon see)
sewing (well not really, as I still haven't finished project no. 1)

*photo taken while on tree top walk somewhere in Victoria, Australia