snow and rain and ice and soup

Do you use an "instant pot" or other pressure cooker? I bought a 6-quart Gourmia during a holiday sale a couple of years ago, and it earns it's footprint in my tiny kitchen.

It's become my method-of-choice for vegetables and bulgur, both of which I cook often. Also for hard-boiling eggs. There's been a lot of experimenting and note-taking, to get the timing right - at first it's incomprehensible how short the cooking time can be - and sometimes my experimenting produces a nice surprise like this one:

The Easiest Soup Ever.

I take one jar of pasta sauce:

The shelf of What Was On Sale

And one package of Barilla tortellini.

And I make tortellini soup:

In case anyone wants to try it, here's the detailed description.

• 1) Pour a whole jar of pasta sauce into the pot.
• 2) Rinse the jar by filling it with water and shaking it, then add the water to the pot.
• 3) Repeat step 2 and give it a stir. You have added 2 full jars of water to 1 jar of sauce.
• 4) Turn on the pot - lid off - to a setting that will heat the liquid. I use "Saute" because it was the first one I tried, and it worked.* It takes just a couple of minutes to see steam rising from the sauce. Turn off the pot.
• 5) Add the package of tortellini to the pot, give it a stir, put on the lid and set to Pressure Cook for 4 minutes.
• 6) As soon as the 4 minutes are up, release the pressure and take the pot out of the base so it won't keep cooking from the residual heat.
• 7) You are done making soup.

*I do Step 4 because it can take 10 minutes or so for the closed pot to come up to pressure, and I think preheating the liquid gives the pot a head-start. That way the tortellini isn't sitting in liquid, not cooking, for more time than is necessary. It's just my theory, but like the Saute button, it was an experiment and it worked, so I'll probably keep doing it forever.

So far I've tried six or seven different sauces, and the results were good every time. Sometimes different in consistency - once the sauce I used was quite watery all by itself, so adding 2 jars of water made a lighter soup than usual - but always tasty. Sometimes after cooking the sauce is still so thick, I add even more water to it when I reheat it. This is what happened yesterday, when I tried a new sauce, this one from Italy; the result could be served as "tortellini in a lot of sauce," but I really wanted soup so I diluted it again before serving.

At first I made a note to add even more water to the pot the next time this brand of sauce is used, but then I thought about storage space and realized it's more practical to make it the same way next time, freeze it in my favorite Pyrex bricks, and then add water when reheating.

Here are two Pyrex 3-cup containers, destined for the freezer:

And here's what it looked like with even more water added:

One thing that has really surprised me is that no matter how much water I use, either during or after cooking, I haven't needed to add more seasoning. Isn't that strange? Sometimes I do add things to a bowl of tortellini soup - like cheese or olives or yogurt - but it's not really needed.

This pressure cooker "recipe" is my best soup discovery ever.

So far.

Do you have any pressure cooker tips to share? Please do!

~~~~~

brrr

When I checked the thermometer at 2 AM today, it was 20F. By sun-up and morning chores, it was a rip-roaring 22F. Water buckets were not just iced over, but frozen solid. This is why, even though I unplugged the two bucket de-icers in the barn, I left them in place so it would take only a moment to plunk them back into the buckets. And why I never unplugged the one in the more exposed paddock water bucket at all. This is not my first March in Massachusetts.

Although it was cold it was also nice and sunny today, and all the goats were very happy to spend the day in furry pools, nibbling hay, chewing their cud, or snoozing, until evening. A pleasant day in Goat World.

One nice thing about the return to quite cold: it prompted me to make a crockpot full of soup! And one nice thing about the habit of putting containers of "extra" food in the freezer is that making soup is just a matter of pulling out containers until enough contents have been identified to sound like good soup: turkey meat, candy roaster squash puree, carrots, a very rich broth made - also in the crockpot - from the bones of the whole turkey roasted a while back. All organic but the carrots. Add a little seasoning, leave it to simmer in the crockpot for a few hours, and that's it - lovely soup, served over rotini pasta, also from the freezer. I love that freezer!

A tiny but exciting bit of news: when I walk Piper in a few minutes we will carry up the package left at the bottom of the driveway earlier this afternoon. It is my first ever order from a welding supply house! (I told you it was exciting.) And you can guess what it is if you want to (Liz will probably get it in one) but you'll have to wait for the answer. I'm not going to confirm or deny until I've got pictures and a story to tell, whether successful or just a "learning experience."

Off to have a little walk, then chores. Too cold for the pond today, but a walk along the road here isn't bad. Lots and lots of things to sniff, and that - apparently - is what matters most. Get that sniffer ready, Piper!

~~~~~

winter

ice on motherwort

None of that shilly-shallying, dusting-then-a-warm-spell, off-and-on easing into Winter this year! Our first snow was the night of the 15th, and it was a heavy, wet snow requiring the tall boots. Since then, we've had more and more snow but often right on the edge of freezing rain, so it's a bit of a mess out there.

Still plenty of color, though! Doesn't this Rubus look lively despite it's icy snowcap?

After the most muted Autumn foliage season I can recall in all my New England years, my eyes are reveling in shrub colors right now. I painted this watercolor the day after the first snowstorm, when the sun was reflecting off the snow and backlighting the Kerria japonica between the porch and the stilt barn:

The kids are taking this new snow situation in stride, and of course the rest of the herd is very familiar with all aspects of Winter. All is well, as long as there are plenty of sheltering options when wanted - such as during the freezing rain episodes - and Management keeps the hay coming.

 My boy Betula, reaching out from under the stilt-barn to have a bite of hay.
What? Doesn't everyone recognize their animals just by their noses?

This past week, despite the weather - and the fact that the zipper on my work coat broke completely so I'm now wearing multiple fleeces and moving like the Tin Man - a long-delayed barn project is finally seeing progress. The doors - which have been a headache/backache for a long time - are now 80% functional again. A little more effort and they may be perfect. If I can avoid wrestling with them every day this Winter, it will be a BIG improvement!

Campion says, "Doors are all very well,
but let's focus on that hay you mentioned earlier."

It's definitely Stone Soup time, and the crockpot has been on a constant simmer. Do you keep a soup pot going, and add different things to change it up as you go along?

At this point in it's evolution, my current soup has beef, onions, mushrooms, bone broth, carrots, rice and chick peas. I sometimes add shredded cheddar or curry seasoning when I dish up a bowlful. Yesterday I also cooked a pot of lentils, so now there's an option of roasted squash and lentils with soup poured over. I am eating well. We all are. Bonus: at the feedstore Saturday I bought a new kind of chewbone that Piper seems to enjoy - huzzah! It looks like a rolled rawhide bone but it's not rawhide or bone, it's completely edible. I gave it to her Sunday afternoon and she worked on it for four hours, non-stop, before she had to stop for a nap. Today she was back at it again, so if it retains it's allure and lasts more than a week, I'll order a whole bag.

Time to paint #324 of the DailyMarkmaking2018 and call it a night. Here is a group of one-inch squares I've done recently as a change of pace between "regular" sketches:

Always something new to explore, isn't there?

Amidst all the other stuff we do, and deal with,
let's not forget to have some good fun.

~~~~~

winter theme

If I ever look back on this Winter,

I think I will remember a season of apples and soup.

 I've gotten fairly good at making soup this winter.
There's never a plan; it's just whatever comes to hand.
It's like Stone Soup, without the villagers.

Organic broth. Lots of vegetables; fresh and from the freezer.

Organic chicken, while my frozen stash lasted.
Perhaps cheese. A splash of cream if I have it.
New this week: organic kamut or farro.

Soup.

And...apples.

The 2016 drought meant a tough year for apples in my neck of the woods. I wasn't sure the local orchard owner was going to part with any of her Rhode Island Greenings - apparently she and I have similar taste in apples.
I felt lucky to buy a half-peck.

  They were a bit smaller than usual, again due to the drought.
They reminded me of wild fruit. Precious wild fruit.

Della is not a big cat. This is not a big apple.

The apples were stored in the coolest spot on the porch, and I kept my fingers crossed they would "keep" well there. But in November I discovered that the skin on some of the remaining apples was just beginning to get that leathery-loose feeling that says,

"I'm fine, but use me NOW."

I had been enjoying the apples sparingly,
but as soon as there was a risk of wasting even one apple...
the brakes were off.

Plush porcupine eying the state of the apple skin.

There was to be no apple mosaic cake, since the hens weren't laying.
Just apple crisp, which is about the easiest thing in the world.

The first apple crisp was delicious.
The second, ditto.

Until, one day...

there was One Apple Left.

First, I admired it.

Then I painted it's portrait.

Then I went to the grocery store and bought a few organic Granny Smiths to add to the last Rhode Island Greening for a final apple crisp.

It was...okay.
So that was it. "Farewell to apples!" for a while.

But.

It turns out that making an apple crisp every week for a month
is an excellent way to build an addiction.

A week later, I returned to the grocery store for more apples.

Granny Smith.
Not Rhode Island Greening.

And the week after that.

And, well, yes.

Clearly, I need to put some thought into proper storage for apples before next Autumn. Not too cold, not too warm. Safe from varmints. Accessible even in deep snow.
It's tricky, of course.
If it was easy, I'd already be doing it.

But darn it, I'll have to figure something out.

The goal: to have Rhode Island Greenings right into Spring.

And with that in mind, I'll keep filling the soup kettle.
Maybe it will help me think.

~~~~~

snow and stew

It's snowing again today.
Dara doesn't mind.

"Forget the snow," he says.
"Are there peanuts in your pocket?"

It has snowed for three of the past four days.

Tiny, tiny flakes. For hours and hours and hours.

Azalea catching snowflakes on her tongue.
(Not really.)
(Well, maybe.)

The total accumulation has been less than two feet (so far), but because it has gone on and on, the plowman has come twice. It's an expense, but after decades of not finding anyone reliable to tackle my challenging driveway, I am thrilled to be on this gentleman's list.

Once I asked him if he hates my driveway.

He was nice enough to say, "It isn't the worst one in town.

It is the second-worst."

I genuinely feel so much better knowing that!

~~~

There's been some Big Kettle cooking going on here.

I make a big pot of something simple,

freeze a couple of servings right away,

and then stretch the rest out over a few days

by adding something else to the pot each day.

It's a sort of Evolving Stew.

This ended up as red beans, rice, smoked ham, and cheddar.

This began as haddock chowder.

Then it became haddock/corn chowder.

And ended up as haddock/corn/broccoli chowder.

It was really good, every time!

I'm trying to always have something good, ready to eat.

It's the only way I will eat properly when I am tired.

And I really prefer good food to snacking.

But if I don't plan ahead a little bit,

and cook multiple servings of something good,

I'll rummage in the cupboard and eat crackers all day.

Or peanuts. Lots of peanuts.

I've been buying 5-pound bags of unsalted peanuts in the shell.

For the goats.

Would you want to look at this sweet, trusting face and say,

"I'm sorry, Betula. I ate all the peanuts."

Do you think you could? Really?

While he's standing patiently in the falling snow?

Let's look at that face one more time.

Right.

Time to make another kettle of stew!

~~~~~