Healthy Hedonism

If you know me, you’re asking yourself, “Really, is there anything more Russell can say about Myra and the Healthy Hedonist we haven’t heard a thousand times already?”  And the answer is, “Shut up.  No one is talking you.  And your shoes look funny.”

Myra is an inspiration.  Giving and passionate and smart.  Talented beyond belief and an excellent teacher.  My love of teaching comes from watching and working with Myra.  I can proudly place this blog entry about these two cookbooks because I can honestly say I’ve made every recipe at least once, if not multiple times.  Getting to assist Myra as she develops recipes is to get into the head of a genius (it’s like being a culinary Sylar on HEROES).  How else do you learn about “salting to taste”?  Who else would allow you to do a recipe three different ways with subtle variations in order to achieve perfection?  She’s an artist who can talk to the scientist in me when it comes to experiments.  She understands her craft in the way Alton Brown does, and never sacrifices flavor.  Her recipes are impressive without being intimidating (except to your guests, who may never feel comfortable cooking for you in return once they’ve sampled these feasts), and her writing style is concise and intimate at the same time.

Check out her website (www.myrakornfeld.com).  Buy her books.  Reap the benefits and revel in your own creations.  You’ll start to spread your wings and gain confidence from the first recipe.  Take her classes at the numerous cooking schools she graces.

Imogen and Chris’s Wedding Cake

I can’t take credit for the cake (the three-tiered sacher torte of your dreams) or the absolutely stunning wedding (a weekend of perfection, all coordinated by the bride herself), or the genteel hospitality proferred to a couple of Yanks overseas in Great Britain, but the night before the wedding, Imogen allowed me to do a little chocolate ganache work on the icing of the cake, and the great-delegator she is, Imogen asked me and David to be the cake point-people on the big day.  Which meant I got to re-glaze the entire cake, assemble the tiers, and then decorate according to her specificaltions with giant, beautiful peony blooms.  How classy is this cake?  Only half as classy as the bride and chef herself.  The only thing David and I can take credit for is the use of the leaves around the cake and the actual labor.  Oh, and eating far more than our fair share.  I can own that.

Another Ribbed Keyhole Scarf?

Does anyone really need instructions for this?  I was teaching a beginning knitting class for men at the Stockinette Knitting Cafe in Jersey City, and decided I needed to “feel their pain” and revert back to smaller needles and a more detailed pattern (not that ribbing is detailed, but you know) in order to have an example for everyone in the second week of the class as to what knitting and purling can do for you.  So here you have it, a keyhole scarf to teach casting on, casting off, knitting, purling, joining yarn, splitting a project into two, and understanding the curling effect of different stitch combinations.

US 8 needles

Worsted yarn

CO 26 stitches

All rows: k4 p3 k3 p3 k3 p3 k3 p3 k1

(or for the impatient reader, k1 *k3 p3* (repeat 4 times) k1)

Knit for 12 inches, then add a second strand of the same yarn.  Knit for two rows (using the two strands of yarn as one) and then split off the two balls of yarn on the third row after the 13th stitch (after the second set of purls), continuing on with only one strand of yarn.  On the next row back, again drop the yarn you’re working with and pick up the other ball alone for the final 13 stitches of the row.  Keep up this management of the separate balls of yarn knitting side by side up the needles for a total of 5 more inches of length.  Then, on the next row instead of switching yarns on the 13th stitch of the row, just pick up the second ball of yarn again and knit both strands as one for the rest of the row.  Do two more rows with the yarns as one, and then cut off one of the ball of yarn (it’s woven in strongly enough not to worry about a tail, but you can always cut a tail and weave it in).

Continue knitting with a single strand of yarn until the finished scarf is 56″ total, and bind off.  So easy, it shouldn’t count as a pattern, but it is a good learning excerise since it has a garter row at the start and end, teaches counting, and the stockinette ribbing curls nicely so that the scarf looks identical on both sides.

Red Clay Dinnerware

OK, happy mistakes happen all the time in a pottery studio.  I was trying to make oval serving dishes, thinking I could take a dart out of a wet thrown lipped plate.  Guess what?  You can’t.  (There are other ways to make an oval serving dish, which I’m now doing and should have results by the new year.)  So having thrown these lipped plates, I decided to just glaze them, and one of the other potters was using four different glazes (thanks, Michael!) for his own pieces, and I didn’t want to have to mix up a new bucket of glaze.  So I just chose three of his glaze choices which seemed to be in a color patette, an did my usual color wheel glazing technique.  The reults?  I LOVE THIS COMBINATION ON RED STONEWARE!  So, yeah, now I may make a new dinnerware set for myself when I get around to it (I’m in vase mode right now), just because I love eating off these plates!

Mia’s Activity Ball

My first real exercise in live stitch (provisional) cast-on, as well as working with structural constructs.  Using a double helix strengthened stalk for the rattle (which is actually a squeaker… the ball itself houses a jingle ball for rattling effect), and a single helix for the spiral.  I loved mixing the natural dyed wool with the cashmere as the main, background color.

Thermidor the Lobster

The lobster that inspired the scorpion.  All similarities are meant as an homage, a compliment… a credited, blatant act of standing on the shoulders of giants (check out Molly Lincoln’s blog on wordpress, dirigo, for instructions and inspiration of your own).

Composite Vases

Ignore the arty shadow…  I’m very pleased with how this new technique is working for me, using multiple pieces thrown separately and then attached later for a more articulated effect.  Stay tuned for where this takes me.  These were made two months ago and the newer pieces are very exciting.

Meads and Cysers and Ciders! Oh, my!

So, it’s been a year now since I started making my own fermented meads (fermented honey), cysers (fruit juices plus honey) and ciders (just the fruit juice).  They start off exposed to the air, and whatever yeasts happen to be in the air and find their way to the liquid start the fermenting process.  When they start out, everything has lots of color.  These four are a sweet raspberry cyser, a cherry stomp cyser, a pomegranate cyser, and an Ethiopian T’ej (a mead variation).  Look at the colors!  These are all about a month into the process, and you can see how much sediment they’ve already produced.

A year

Eventually, they get “racked”, which basically means separating out the sediment.  And then bottled.  And look at the results… clear!  That surprised me.   But since there are no fruit skins (like in red wine), no color.  The bottle on the left is a cranberry cider.  It started out redder than the raspberry.  So far, we’ve opened two vintages, one mead, and one apple cyser.  The mead was surprisingly sweet and bubbly. a dessert wine.  The cyser, on the other hand, was a dry white.  Fantastic… and unpredictable.  Which is exactly what I like about this process.  To learn more, read WILD FERMENTATION by Sandor Ellix Katz (www.wildfermentation.com).  And then start bottling for yourself!