1832 Sugar Cakes

I had a follow up appointment with my surgeon, who was happy with my progress.  When I relayed her information to my physiotherapist, and suggested that I should be able to start cooking soon, she actually yelled "NO".   Apparently there is too much risk for contraindicated movements, and overdoing it, creating swelling and delaying recovery.   

Today, though, with help of both the menfolk at home, my son and hubby, I was able to make cookies.   My son set everything up for me, the bowls, mixer, ingredients were all set out neatly and ready to go.  I was able to mix and set the dough in the fridge to set while I took a break.   That was a mistake that I'll mention later - the putting the dough in the fridge, not the break :).   Hubby took over when I rolled and cut the cookies, by actually baking them.

Once again, I'm happy with the results from one of my favourite historic cookbooks, The Cooks Own Book.  I have a digital copy which was published in 1832.  It's a book I would actually like to own in it's original form, because I like it so much.   It's different from other cookery books of that time period, and many others, in that it's more like an encyclopedia, set up in alphabetical order.   It's really easy to find recipes for whatever you're looking for.   As well, it's quite comprehensive in it's recipes, and so far, they've worked properly and been tasty. 

Sugar Cakes

Ingredients : 

1/2 lb butter,     (1 cup butter)

1/2 lb flour,       (2 cups flour)

1/4 lb white sugar,  (1/2 cup sugar)

1 egg yolk     (1 egg yolk)

1 tbsn cream   (1 tbsn cream)

1 tbsn zested orange peel

Modern method:

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add the egg yolk and cream and beat until well blended.   Mix in the flour until ingredients are well combined and make a soft dough.   Sprinkle flour generously on the work surface.  Using half the dough at a time, dust the top of the dough before rolling 1/4 in. thick.  Cut into shapes and set on a parchment paper lined cookie tray.   (because of the butter content, you might not need to butter the cookie pan before baking, if you don't have parchment paper.)

Bake until done -   1 1/2 in rounds took 10-12 minutes, yield 5 dozen cookies of this size.  

The original instructions call for mixing the flour and sugar together and rubbing in the butter.   Then beating the egg yolk and cream together, before adding it to the flour/butter mixture.   This would work quite fine.  Due to being on crutches, and not able to spend a long time standing yet, I used a hand mixer and beat the butter and sugar together, before mixing in the egg and cream.   Once it was well blended, I gave it a quite taste because this recipe has about half the sugar many other similar shortbread type cooking recipes have.   It definitely was not sweet, and was a bit bland.  That could be because I didn't wash the butter in rose water.   Instead of adding more sugar, I zested the peel of an orange and added it.   This really boosted the flavour and not out of the realm of 1832 possibilities.

The dough was really soft.  I was worried it was too soft to roll, so I set it in the fridge while I rested my
hip.   This was a mistake because with the amount of butter in this recipe, the dough just hardened up completely and wouldn't roll out.  It just cracked.  I had to warm it up again before I could roll it out.

Using a generous amount of flour, I rolled the dough to 1/4 in thick and used a metal cutter to make cookies about 1 1/2 inch in diameter.  The first batch went in for 8 minutes, which wasn't long enough.  We added 4 minutes and it was fine.  The edges on some of the thinner cookies are a little brown.   Next time roll a tad more evenly or cook for 10 minutes.  My excuse is that I had to do this sitting down, and it was harder to judge the correct thickness.

They are really good.  Not overly sweet and a very nice flavour and texture.  By changing up the method, they have more of a sugar cookie texture to them, whereas I think the original method would be more like a traditional shortbread.  Still, they were really easy to make, fast and tasty.

Since we're pretty much snowed in again today, with crazy blustery winds, snow covered roads, snow and blowing snow, it's nice to have an extra snack.  

Getting back to normal

So far the wait has been worth it.  There was a hip replacement 2 weeks ago.  I've been told that I'm fairly young to have a hip replacement.  However, this is my second one and the first one was much younger still.   While there's pain from healing, the arthritis pain is gone and I'm moving better - so yay!

My DH took a week off to look after me.   He's very good at that sort of thing, but this experience has been so much different than the first one.  Different hospitals, different surgeons, different times so many things have changed. This one was done as day surgery and that was totally brilliant.   I've been so much more able and alert, far more quickly, that poor hubby has forgotten that I needed help to get in and out of vehicles or in doing a few things around the house. 

  I've also been banned from doing some chores that I'm able to do.   Like putting the clothes in the washer and starting it up.  Using my little bag that works with my crutches, and doing 2 or 3 trips, I can get both  my walking in and the washer loaded.  However, as DH pointed out, our washer has a self cleaning filter, that doesn't always self clean.  It's in a difficult to reach place. as in you have to take the back off the machine to get to it.   It's gotten clogged up a couple of times and the washer has overflowed.  This is fine if you can manoeuver in to turn off the taps and then clean up, but obviously I cannot do that right now.  Right now I'm happy that I figured out how to get my breakfast bowl into the sink.   Baby steps, I know...

For another few weeks, I'm still on a weight restriction on my healing leg, so I'm doing my physio, playing too many video games, wishing I'd put a warp on the table loom or the rigid heddle loom so that I could at least weave.  I painted another set of Xmas cards, have figured out how to get my breakfast and lunch with minimal help, although DH leaves things out in easily accessible places for me. My cats have been giving me extra loving.  I can't even spin because I normally treadle with my left leg and right now I can't :(  I never thought I'd wish I had an electric spinning wheel, but right now?  Maybe ?

Here is a photo of the breakfast preparations that DH left out for me on his first day back at work.   I'm not sure about the cookies left for breakfast though.

Last time it took me weeks to start feeling like things were getting back to where they should be.   This time, it's been days. 

Hmmm, maybe it's time to write a novel?

November Wrap Up

 November has been a busy month.  It's passed by in a whirl of activities and waiting.  It seemed to both speed by in a blink and be interminably long at the same time.  The waiting is almost over though and tomorrow we'll see if it was worth it.   The activities though have been pretty successful.  The weather has been weird to say the least.  We've had snow.  We've had more snow.  We've had rain.  We've had almost record breaking warmth and sunshine.  I hung laundry out the other day because it was so nice.  Yup, totally weird weather.

This year's Christmas cards are finished.   I made 10 of them.   Sadly the tape I used to hold the cards to
the workspace, ripped a bit of the paint off one of them, so only 9 survived.     I was going to make a few more, but these turned out to be fairly time consuming.  In the past, I taped up 3 at a time to paint in stages.  The process for these made it easier to do only 2 at a time.  It was 4 steps, with complete drying time in between the steps, so they weren't really able to be done assembly line fashion.  I liked them enough to inital them this year.  I did enjoy the process though and have already had some thoughts about next year's cards.

I warped up the rigid heddle loom with some kid mohair /silk yarn.   It was $3 tiny ball, of less than 50g and with 219 yards.     It's very fine and I struggled to figure out what reed to use.   I found a single article with actual details on weaving mohair on a rigid heddle loom.   There were lots of  "hey look what I did" articles, but not so much on the "here's how I did it" articles.    So I ran with the single article information and tried it at a sett of 7.5.  It wasn't perfect, but it worked nicely enough.

Mohair is fuzzy and has quite a halo.  If you don't take that into account when you dress the loom, those fuzzy bits catch on each other and are difficult to weave.   Then also can start stick up instead of laying flat, which makes for a scratchier fabric.   The idea is to use a sett which takes into account the extra width created by the mohair halo, and then this allows it to lay flatter and lock together, creating a stable, but light, gauzy fabric.  

The silk core made this a bit slippery but the sett allowed me to weave it easily.  I had to place each weft

shot into place, rather than push the reed to the fell line, or it became to thick and stiff.  The resulting fabric is not quite as stable as I'd hoped, but I only lightly wet finished it, due to days of wet weather.  I will redo it before it becomes a gift.  It's very pretty though, light and the colour is fun.  It's also fairly soft and very drapey. 

It took just under 2 balls of yarn for this scarf - 9 in x 76 in, plus 7 inch fringes.  I have 3 more in this colourway and 5 more in a second colourway.  Lots of yarn to experiment with!

After the Pumpkin Festival at Westfield, which was crazy busy and so much fun, I came home with 2 lovely pie pumpkins.  I recently processed them and ended up with 6 packets of pumpkin for the freezer.  There are 5 with 2 cups in them, perfect for pies and 1 with just over a cup of pumpkin, which works for a pumpkin loaf recipe.  

It was really nice pumpkin, better than I found around here.  The flesh was thick and dry, so it didn't need a lot of draining.  I do like having these ready to go packets in the freezer.   There is little waste when the quantity fits a single recipe, unlike commercial tins, which leave me making either double what I want, having to freeze the leftovers, which for some reason, doesn't work quite as well, or some of it ends up as waste.

Autumnal Craziness abounds

Argh, it's been crazy busy around here.  The past weekend was the weavers guild sale.  We had amazing participation from members willing to come out to man our booth.   It was part of a greater community art sale.  The location has been moving around for a number of years, even before Covid, and sales have been pretty iffy at times, depending on the spot.   One location was well attended by a huge number of people who commented each time we tried to engage them, that they were only here for an afternoon out and to look.  It was so frustrating.   This weekend though, the location was such that the people came ready to shop.   Even though they shopped at all the different booths, it was lovely to see the artists happy at the sale.  

There were a couple of potters with lovely wares.  One was a little too softly coloured, with their good smaller and pastel glazed.  The other however, had pieces with lots of cobalt, white and copper glazes with beautiful shapes.  There were mugs big enough for my tea mug.   Since my currant tea mug has suddenly acquired a chip in the base, I was getting worried about it breaking and not having a replacement.  One of those lovely mugs came home with me.  I really liked the cobalt and copper look, but the mugs were smaller, so I came home with a white and cobalt mug, big with a nice shape.  I got to have one cup of tea in it to test it and then hubby put it away.

 I still adore my tea mug that I've used for almost 14 years.  It's the perfect size and weight for me.   It's made by Oneida and it's obviously from a Christmas collection since the cat is wearing a pine wreath or circlet on it's head and a red scarf with stars.  I've looked on and off over the years for a replacement on various sites and not even found a reference to this pattern.  I think of the 100's of cuppas I've had in this over the years and it does make me sad that one day that chip will crack the cup.   Still, it's been a good journey with this cute cup. 

I've been on a weaving binge, although my hip has complained excessively.   With the sale on the horizon, I had a commission for blankets.  They had to be done before the sale though.  I'll admit that one night we ate frozen chicken burgers for supper, and another night I made a quiche in the name of expediency so I could finish the projects.   Much crazyiness ensued for two weeks but my family was okay with it.  Blankets were finished in time and handed off to the new owner.  That was a sigh of relief.

Yesterday morning I put a scarf warp on the rigid heddle loom.    I went to the sale at Spinrite and they had this kid mohair/silk on for $3 a skein.   It's absolutely lovely and I wish I'd purchased more.  This one is about 8 inches wide.   It's very soft and weaving up nicely.   

My research suggests that mohair needs to be woven with a wider sett, to keep the fuzzy halo, soft and not itchy. It's supposed to catch and and can be tough to weave.  It's weaving beautifully however.   I read  that mohair yarn that is 1000yds per 100g, should be sett at 7 or 8.   I'm using my 7.5 reed, so I'm hoping it will be good.   It's certainly pretty enough.  

This is Phil and Dion, the feral kitties who chose to live with us.  Literally, Phil (on the left) hung around all summer, then screamed at me one day when I went to hang laundry when the weather was cooling.   I looked after him and the next day he brought Dion with him.  They didn't leave.  They are now spoiled house cats.  They sleep together when the weather cools down.  

  In the cold weather, Phil really likes to be warm at night.  He wakes me up so that I can lift the covers and give him a space to crawl underneath.   A lot of times he seems to decide to spend the whole night there, so he slips his head on my pillow so his body stays warm.  I've woken up and he's in the same place he was when I went to sleep.  If he's just cold though, he just curls up underneath the blankets.  Once his nose and feet are warm, he hops out.   Believe me, sometimes his feet get cold to be felt through jeans and long johns, so I can understand why he wants to warm up under the covers.

Weaving and cooking adventures

 I had a huge post all planned out about cooking on the Happy Thoughts Range, or wood cookstove that I was using at Westfield.   It was Thanksgiving Day, and due to the local fair also being held, it's usually fairly quiet that day in the village.  I brought a number of pumpkin based historical recipes to cook and thought I'd have a ton of time to take photos.  However, everyone seemed to show up.  It was crazy busy, with really nice, interested and friendly people.  It was a great day, but so busy that I had no time to take photos, or to even get all of what I planned cooked.   Next day there is the Pumpkin Festival and it's a ticketed event, so people will be streaming in all day, but not all at once, which should be easier to deal with. 

I did however get the tea towels off the rigid heddle loom a couple of days ago.    There was more shrinkage than I expected with a sett of 20.  They are definitely soft and drapey, due to the fact that I couldn't get PPI for the weft tight enough.   But they are are much closer to the towels I weave on the floor loom or table loom than I'd expected.   Using two heddles, was a tad slower, but once you got the rhythm and order of the heddles, it wove up quickly enough to be satisfying.  After wet finishing they are 16" x 27".  Once hemmed they'll be 16" x 25.  Smaller but acceptable for a tea towel.

On the Rigid Heddle loom now is a wool scarf, with a hand painted yarn for the warp.    Next time I think I'd make it a longer skein to paint, so I could get longer colour changes, to make it more like a serendipitous plaid.    It's pretty enough, although they are not my favourite of colours.   I'm trying to hunt down the photo of the painted skein.  I must have take a picture of it, but I can't remember when I dyed this.   It was beautiful in the skein though.  It was a large skein, Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool, which comes in a 227g (8oz) skein and is 100% wool.  It's lovely to work with on the Rigid Heddle loom and dyes like a dream.

We had family Thanksgiving yesterday.   I was tasked with bringing turkey and apple pie.  I changed the apple pie to a pecan and a lemon pie because my son's girlfriend is allergic to apples.  However, it turns out it was only raw apples and the thing she's allergic to is destroyed by heat, so apple pie would have been fine.   This is a tiny pie I made for testing, with the leftover pastry and filling from the pecan pie.   I used maple syrup instead of corn syrup for the filling and it was sublime.  Expensive, but soo delicious.   The pecans alone, for the 2 cups that I needed cost over $10.  Definitely a special occasion pie!  The lemon pie was just a slightly adjusted old fashioned lemon meringue pie recipe but without the meringue, since that wouldn't hold or travel well and I'd made the pies the day before.   I added a bit more lemon zest and a bit more lemon juice for a slightly more tart pie, which people slathered with whipped cream since my daughter had whipped up a vast amount for the 3 pies which appeared on the table.   I tried the vegan pumpkin pie, which tasted fine, but had the texture that felt more like it was under cooked.  I'd have added a bit of cornstarch or something to make it less like an almost raw pudding texture.  It was a commercial pie and the crust was inedible: soggy and tough.  My guys are spoiled with good pies :)

Rigid Heddle with 2 Reeds and cooking!

On the rigid heddle loom right now, are a couple of tea towels using 2/8 cotton.   The sett for a tabby weave with 2/8 cotton should be 18-22 epi.   To get that range with my rigid heddle, I'm using 2 10 dent reeds, for a sett of 20.   This has been an interesting experiment, using double reeds.   The way this particular one is set up, is to use both reeds at the same time, as they are threaded in alternate order.  This is giving me a sett of 20.  However, even with beating with a closed shed, I'm having a hard time getting 20 ppi.   It is a few picks less than that, and not ideal.  I'm hoping it will be fine and just make for a soft tea towel.   This was relatively quick to dress the loom.  It took me a bit of time to get started because there is some definite technique needed to make weaving with 2 reeds on a rigid heddle loom easier.

I made a batch of plum jam.  I usually make it with prune plums which come out in late summer.   When you first start the batch up, the cooking plums have a rather odd yellowish colour.  If you chop them up a bit before starting the jam, the skins will not only release their colour, but start to dissolve into the jam, making it a lovely purple/red colour.   I'm a bit sad that I ended up using pectin for this recipe, because I don't normally do so.   It was however, weirdly 32⁰ C, with a humidex of  over 40 C and we don't have AC.  The kitchen was so uncomfortably warm that I used the pectin to make the jam, rather than risk the plums going to waste.   The result is a lot more jam than I needed and a bit sweeter than I usually get.   It's still yummy though.

 

Hearth cooking again on Sunday past.  I was making gingerbread cookies on the griddle.  Not so much of a success this time as I let the  griddle get too hot.  The cookie dough was also a bit soft, so started to burn before I could flip them.    Live and learn

In the dutch oven, is a loaf of pumpkin bread, from an 1854 recipe.   I wish I'd taken a photo of the bread itself, because it was a beautiful, round braided loaf.  The interior was a pale yellow and it had a lovely taste.   

Next Monday I'm cooking at the Misener House, which has an amazing cook stove.  It has 6 burners, a functional oven and throws lots of heat to keep the little house warm.   I'll be cooking up pumpkin goodies for the staff Thanksgiving potluck on Monday after the village closes.

Colour in the garden and dye pot!

 The weather prognosticators said today was the first day of autumn.  It's like Mother Nature flipped a switch.  Yesterday was warm and humid, 27C feeling like 32C with the humidex.   Today the high is 15C, feeling like 14C because of the stiff north wind.  Welcome to fall!   

Carrot Bouquet

My son pointed out that I'd canned about the same amount of tomatoes that came from our garden this year, as I've done in years when I had to purchase them.  I only ever processed one batch at a time, so it felt really easy, compared to two full days of canning.   Now that I've figured out where the tomatoes do best in the garden, I'm hoping I can repeat this.   I still have some herbs and celeriac in the garden, and kale I guess, but other than that, the garden is ready to put to rest for the winter. 

 I planted some carrots in a planter on a whim.  I've rarely ever had success with carrots, so I was thrilled a couple of days ago, when I pulled them up.  Not huge carrots, but they were planted late and the pot didn't quite get enough sun.  It was enough for a meal for the 3 of us though, which was pretty fabulous.  The purple ones are interesting, but just orange carrots inside, with a purple skin.   The yellow and white ones though are tasty.   I'd certainly purchase a packet of just those seeds, rather than the mix, if I could.

 

We had a dye day at our weavers guild.   It was a small group of us as 50% of our attendees had to cancel due to Covid or injuries.  However we had fun and it turned out to be an informative day.  I learned that 80% of white alpacas are born deaf, which I definitely didn't know.   We also found out that some people mis-represent their fibres for sale.  Another participant had a warp wound from what she was told was baby alpaca, and it was this crazy bright yellow with luster.    She painted a gorgeous warp - I wish I'd taken a photo of it, in amazing autumnal colours of various greens, oranges and burgundy.   However after she steamed it, virtually all the colour washed out.    So upsetting!   A later burn test of the fibres suggest that it is a man made fibre and wouldn't be able to be dyed with our dyes.

Painted wool with Procion MX dyes

Because there were so few of us, and we had lots of dye, we were using bright colours.    I had 2 50g skeins of sock yarn - 75 %wool/25% nylon which I wound into large skeins using the backs of chairs.   I wound them separately, but dyed them laying them side by side, to get mainly matching skeins.   

It won't be self striping as I didn't make a large enough skein and had too many colour changes.    But it's pretty.  The colours turned out beautifully.   I was a little worried about the purples because in the garage light where we were working, it looked more brown to me.   It's perfect though.  This will be fun to knit and fun to wear!

 

Here is a quick picture of cooking "muffins"  from an 18th c recipe at Westfield.  They weren't full of holes, more bread-like.  However they were tasty and light.   They were delicious with jam.  It's been a while since I've cooked at the historical village, as the summer was so hot and muggy.  It was fun to get a chance to do it again.    I'm currently researching recipes for the next time I'm there.