Dear Julia,
Thank you for making my world taste better.
Love, Your serventless American Cook,
Mary Catherine
For christmas, I received the two volume set of Mastering The Art of French Cooking. Subsequently, I’ve been cooking up a frenzy. Tonight, I finally thought to take pictures before the food was devoured, so for your taste bud teasing pleasure, I present:
Julia’s Roasted Chicken with Mushroom Sauce, potatoes, and green beans:
The beans and potatoes were my own recipe, but the rest is all Julia. I cut a bit of her butter out, though, as I have no desire to die of a heart attack before the age of thirty. :)
Bon Appetit!
Spin, Spin, Spin
That, my dear friends, is yarn. But not just any yarn- it’s the first yarn I spun on my new double treadle Fricke spinning wheel. I LOVE it. The wheel and the yarn, that is. It’s from 8 0z of Merino fiber and in total I got about 264 yards of two ply worsted-ish weight. There are some thick to thin places, but it’s the most even thing I’ve spun on the wheel yet. I’m not entirely satisfied with the yards I got compared to the weight, but I think I will get better with that in time. That, or I have off kilter expectations. If you’re a spinner, would you leave me a comment and let me know how much yarn I should expect to get from 8oz? Either an answer to that question or a resource I could use to find it would be greatly appreciated.
The colorway of the roving is “Primrose”, though if I think of a better name I may call it something else. It’s slightly heathered, I’m sure it will be even prettier knit up. I managed not to put so much twist in it that it would lose it’s softness. This stuff is incredibly soft. I just want to pet it!
I already have a 2 oz. pink / purple mystery wool batt going, but after I finish that, I’m moving on to:
This color is really hard to photograph- it’s less pink than the pictures indicate.
Oh, and one more picture- a better image of the BFL I spun on the rented wheel:
sigh I love yarn. :)
Spinning
Last weekend, I rented a spinning wheel from ReBelle. It was a single treadle Fricke, and I completely fell in love. I’ve been spinning on a spindle for just over a year now. I’m surprised I didn’t want to try a wheel sooner, but now that I have tried it, there’s no gong back for me. The wheel is so much faster, and after I got through my first pound or so of fiber, I was making yarn that I actually liked! I started with some undyed merino. That went pretty horribly, mostly because I wasn’t used to the wheel yet. It sucked, but I plied it anyway (and it still sucked then). I then spun some more of the same fiber, and it went much better. Feeling confidant, I moved on to something prettier- some hand dyed BFL from frabjous fibers. BFL is a bit easier to spin than merino, but I didn’t want to start with it because I didn’t want to mess up the gorgeous colors. Here’s what i ended up with:
Not bad for my first real wheel spun yarn! I know it has lots of room for improvement (it needs more twist in the ply) but i still LOVE it. Did I mention that it’s navajo plied? Yep, I tackled that beast early on, and I love the way it distributes the color- no barber poll here! Then, I moved back to some merino. This time it was dyed, in a gorgeous color called primrose. I wish I had included something for scale in this picture- these singles are about fingering weight, though it goes up to sport in a few places.
Can you believe how much improvement I got between those two? I was amazed. It was like all the sudden I remembered how to spin, instead of *learning* how to spin. I still have another 4 oz. of that to spin up, then I will ply it together. I can’t wait to see how much yardage it is!!!
So, this evening, I had to take the wheel back to the LYS. But, thanks to my mom, look at this lovely box that came home with me:
There’s a double treadle fricke in that box, waiting for me to assemble it. :D An awesome Christmas present, if I do say so myself! I’ll be assembling it tomorrow, and of course showing off pictures!
Edited to add: Spinners, would you comment with a few of your favorite places to get fiber?
Pear Tart
One of the perks of being at home as opposed to the dorms is access to a full kitchen. We all know I love to cook… a lot. Almost as much as I love knitting. I don’t, however, love to bake. Too much measuring, not enough spontaneity for me. I’m always afraid that when I tweak something it’s going to change a chemical reaction and fux the whole thing up. [Yes, I am aware that is not a word.] Despite that strange fear, I’ve been playing around with a pear tart recipe and have finally gotten it to a point where I’d like to share it. I took pictures the last time I made it, though they were on my phone and are not the best quality. Next time I’ll grab the DSLR and get y’all some decent looking photos.
You will need:
4 egg yolks
3/4 cup granulated sugar
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cup whole milk
1/4 dark rum
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
pinch of ground cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
3-4 FIRM pears
Also, one pie crust- either make your own or use a store bought one. I am horrible with dough, so I use a pre made one…
Combine all ingredients except the pears very thoroughly in a bowl. Core the pears, then slice them into 8ths. Place the crust in your pie pan, pat it down thoroughly. Arrange your pears- either in a circular pattern like I did, or just toss them in if you don’t mind how it looks. Trust me, after one bite, you won’t give a damn what it looks like! Pour the custard mix over the pears. I’ve found that I don’t always use all the custard- you don’t want it to overflow, so use your judgement. This differs based on how many pears you added. Bake at 350 for 45 – 50 minutes. The custard should have a gel like texture- not watery, but not completely solid, either. It will firm up some as it cools. Serve warm or cold- it’s delightful either way! 
You may also like to add other fruit- the tart in the pictures also has blackberries. Once it’s cooled, dust with cinnamon and powdered sugar. Yum!
