A Free Skein

I was given a skein of very expensive yarn by the owner of my LYS to knit up a sample for the store. It's a very fine yarn of buffalo, cashmere, and bamboo and it was screaming out for a delicate lace pattern.
My first choice was this beautiful and intricate creation I found in "Victorian Lace". It was one of those lace patterns that you have to do something on every row. This involves purling two together and slip slip purling. These are not fun or relaxing stitches especially when you are left handed, reading the pattern backward, and have an unusual way of wrapping your yarn which makes stitches face the wrong way. I gave up. It was too hard and too much work.
I have never ever said this about knitting before. I've given up because a project wasn't turning out the way I wanted or I was bored or I got a better idea. I have never found knitting too hard. I annoy other knitters with my constant "try it, it's easy" or "you can knit anything you want to, I'll show you how easy it is". Knitting has never daunted me; it's intrigued me or made me study it to see how it was done but I have never stopped because it was too hard. I was humbled by a silly lace pattern.
To get my courage back, I searched out another really hard lace pattern but one that you only have to do stuff on every other row. This gives you a row to catch your breath (and any mistakes you made on the previous row). It also gives you the opportunity to look up and maybe talk to another human being (lace knitting can be very anti-social).
There are three kinds of lace: the easy kind where it takes one pattern repeat to memorize it and you never have to look at the chart again, medium lace where it takes several pattern repeats to memorize it and you have to keep the chart handy just in case, and hard lace where you have to be some type of savant to memorize the pattern and the chart goes everywhere with you.
My new pattern was definitely the latter but I would not give up again. I ripped out I don't know how many rows. I counted stitches every other row to make sure I still had them all with me. I knitted in silence (not even listening to a book on tape) for the first two pattern repeats and then suddenly I GOT IT.
I'm not sure when it happened but I could recognize when to yarn over and when to knit two together. I could tell immediately when I was off by a stitch and I stopped holding my breath at the end of every row hoping beyond hope that I would end up with the right amount of stitches for the border.
I got cocky. I took it out in public. I knit while watching a dvd. I carried on conversations. It was finally fun. Then, of course, I made a mistake and had to rip back a couple of rows and was humbled once again.
Then the bad news came. My LYS was closing up shop, going out of business after four years. We were all devastated and I had this very expensive skein of yarn that I was finally enjoying knitting and I was going to actually get the sample done before all the yarn sold. I ask Audra, the owner, what she wanted me to do with the yarn now. "Merry Christmas" she said.
So now this sample is going to be a scarf and I'm almost done and if I only had another skein of the yarn I might even get the pattern memorized (but I kinda doubt it). It's hard knitting but damn, it sure does look good now.

The Stinking Rose

I’m reading a book about vampires. It’s not my usual fare but it caught my eye one day at the library and made its way home with me. Not having read much in this genre, I wasn’t sure what to expect. However, I wasn’t surprised when garlic was introduced in the first chapter.
The main character of the book grows garlic in his home, which has become a fortress against the vampires. He has to harvest, peel and chop lots of garlic to keep the fiends from invading his house and he can no longer stand the smell.
I couldn’t relate.
Garlic is a staple food in our house. We have a five foot long braid of it hanging by the fridge and we’ll be lucky if it lasts until next year’s crop is ready. It goes in almost everything we cook. Garlic adds delicious, savory, meaty flavors to food that would be sorely missed. I even like the smell of my fingers after chopping lots of cloves.
Ironically, the smell and bite of the “stinking rose” probably evolved to keep me away (or at least my distant ancestors and the bugs and birds around at that time). Garlic and its allium relatives (onion, leek, chive, and shallot to name a few) developed an amazing defense system. The plant takes up sulfur from the soil and stores it in its cell fluid. The cell walls contain enzymes that, when combined with the sulfur, produce sulfurous molecules with a bitter smell and taste. In an untouched state, there is no smell, but as soon as you chop, mash, chew or otherwise damage the cell wall and allow the sulfur and enzymes to mix, look out! Garlic is the king of producing these sulfurous compounds; it makes about a hundred times more than any of its cousins.
No one is sure when we overcame garlic’s defenses and started to enjoy both the smell and taste of these bitter compounds but it was at least as far back as the building of the pyramids. Since then, there are very few cultures who didn’t embrace this vegetable. Italy, Korea, China, and my kitchen would be lost without it. Aioli, kim chi, skordalia, bruschetta are a few dishes that wouldn’t exist without garlic.
Garlic’s versatility makes it indispensable. Depending on how you cook it, at what temperature and in what medium, you’ll get different flavor compounds. Slow cooking over low heat in butter will give you sweet, almost caramel flavors. Blanching will take away the hotness and leave you with just a hint of pungency and a bit of a nutty note. Cook it on high heat in oil and you’ll keep those bitter flavors and most of the bite.
The variety of garlic also affects the taste. It’s hard to find more than one kind of garlic in the grocery store (and those have been bred for long storage and high yield, not for flavor) but during the summer, you can collect garlic from different farmers and see which varieties you enjoy the most.
Both soft neck and hard neck varieties grow in this area. It’s good to know what type you’re getting. Hard neck garlic doesn’t store well but they have big juicy flavorful cloves and produce garlic scapes (my favorite early summer treat from the market). Soft necks will last all winter and can be braided into beautiful plaits that hang on your wall and give you easy access to locally grown garlic even as the snow falls.
Garlic not only tastes good but may be good for you. Research is being done on garlic’s effect on cholesterol and blood sugar, and on its antibiotic and antifungal properties. Someone even did a study that found adding fresh garlic to mouthwash had an antimicrobial effect; it just didn’t do much for the participants’ breath.
And it is the fear of bad breath that keeps some people from eating this noble bulb. It is not an ungrounded fear since eating garlic can give you a bad case of halitosis. Eating salad, parsley, or an apple after indulging can help with the immediate bad breath. However, as garlic passes through your digestive system, another sulfurous compound is produced that is then expelled from the body through sweat, saliva, dandruff and even earwax. My cure for this is to hang out with other garlic eaters. They’ll never notice.
As I was writing this article, I kept getting phantom whiffs of garlic. It seemed that just writing about it was enough to invoke its delectable smell in my brain. It was making me hungry and I began fantasizing about roasting garlic (my most favorite way to cook garlic) for dinner. When I got up from my desk and went to the kitchen, I realized it wasn’t a fantasy but the emanations from the loaf of garlic parmesan bread sitting on the counter. I made some toast and started peeling cloves for dinner.

Vicki Reich gave into garlic breath years ago and only occasionally gives in and has a mint. It’s a rare night when garlic is not consumed at her house in Sagle, ID and it’s even rarer that she gets a cold. She can be reached at wordomouth@yahoo.com.

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Serves 4

2 heads garlic, split into cloves and peeled
5 T olive oil
2 T+ 3 T butter, divided
1 t sugar
4 medium Yukon Gold Potatoes, cut into quarters, peeling is optional
¾ c milk, warmed
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 F.
In an oven-proof pan, melt oil, 2 T butter and sugar. Add garlic and toss to coat. Place pan in oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until garlic is soft as lightly browned. Set aside.
Meanwhile place potatoes in a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook potatoes until a fork pierces them easily, about 25 minutes.
When the potatoes are done, drain them and return them to the pot. Add the garlic and any juices in the pan and mash the potatoes and garlic thoroughly. Turn the heat on very low and add the butter. Slowly stir in the milk. Mix well until creamy and the butter is melted. Serve immediately.

Pizza Party

This is my second winter in Sagle and it’s another doozy. I’m no stranger to winter, having lived just 120 miles south of here in Moscow for the past 15 years. We had winter there, I shoveled my sidewalk quite a few mornings on the way to work, and there would even be berms of snow in the middle of the streets some winters. I know how to use my ABS brakes and how to turn into a skid. But the past two winters aren’t something you can prepare for. Shoveling every day gets old fast and shoveling off the roof wasn’t on my “must do before I die” list (but now it’s been checked off several times). This winter is turning out to be snowier and colder than last winter (which is hard to believe) and it’s the cold that drives me into the kitchen.

Cranking up the oven is not the most efficient way to heat a house unless, of course, you can make something delicious in it while it’s good and hot. After consuming more than my share of sweets over the holidays, I was looking for a savory reason to turn the oven up to its hottest. Having a pizza party was the perfect excuse.

The pizzas I planned to make for the party would be a far cry from the original pizza that developed in Naples, Italy in the 18^th century. Those original pies were much simpler. They took an age-old ingredient, the flat bread, and topped it with the New World tomato (which had recently lost its reputation for being poisonous). There were only two types of pizza in Naples in those days: the Marinara, which was topped with tomatoes, herbs, garlic and olive oil, and the Margherita, named for the queen who loved that the toppings (tomatoes, basil and mozzarella cheese) were in the color of the Italian flag.

Pizza was sold on the streets in the poor sections of Naples in those days but it slowly made its way into the middle class diet and on into Rome where the crust style got thinner and the toppings changed a bit.

Italian immigrants brought pizza with them to the US but it didn’t gain popularity until soldiers who had served in Italy during WWII came back hankering for a slice. Then there was no stopping pizza from becoming one of the most popular foods in the States. And like everything that comes to the USA, we had to mess with it a bit and make it our own. In fact, it seems every area of the country had to change things up a bit to make it unique to the region. There’s New York style, New Haven style, Chicago style, St. Louis style and I haven’t even gotten half way across the country. Each regional style is defined by either their crust, their sauce or their toppings, none of which resemble the traditional Neapolitan pizza but all of which taste really good (except maybe the St. Louis style which tastes more like ketchup on saltines to me and I tried to like it for the nine years I lived there).

But enough about pizza from long ago and far away, let’s plan our North Idaho style pizza party (North Idaho style would be defined as crust from a French cookbook and whatever topping are on hand because you couldn’t get to the store due to the snow). First you’ll need to invite some friends (preferably no one on a diet, low cal pizza isn’t worth the effort). Ask them to bring a few toppings they’d like to share. I always invite my friend Carla because she makes this killer pesto that makes a great pizza sauce (and she lots of fun too). Depending on how many people you’re expecting, start mixing up a batch of dough to make enough for everyone to have at least half a pie (hopefully this will leave you with some leftovers) about two hours before you want to start baking. I crank up the oven to 475F as soon as I make the dough. I know it’s probably wasteful (I tell myself it helps the dough rise better) but I love how it warms up the house while we’re preparing toppings.

As for toppings, if you like it on its own, it’ll taste even better on a pizza. I’ve used everything from your standard pepperoni and cheese to grilled chicken in peanut sauce, to just olive oil and grilled onions. My only rules for toppings are they shouldn’t be too wet or they’ll make the crust soggy, and any meat should be pre-cooked. Sauté the mushrooms first and use Roma tomatoes instead of beefsteak if you’re going to use fresh tomatoes. Fry up your bacon and brown your sausages before you start building your pies

For our party we used anchovies, basil, black olives, green onions, mushrooms, Italian sausage, kalamata olives, pepperoni, pesto, roasted garlic cloves, sautéed onions, smokies, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, tomato paste seasoned with oregano and basil, and lots of cheese: cheddar, feta, mozzarella, and provolone. Everything was chopped, shredded, sautéed or sliced and put into bowls before the guests arrived.

You don’t need any special equipment to make pizzas. If you have a pizza stone and a peel, your crusts might be a bit crisper, but you can make a delicious pie on a baking sheet as well.

When guests arrive, divide the dough into as many balls as there will be pies and start spreading the first one out. You can use a rolling pin but half the fun is stretching the dough out by hand. The thick and thin sections that result from hand-forming give the crust more interest and flavor. If you’re feeling daring, try twirling one around on your knuckles.

When the dough is roughly 12 inches in diameter, place it on a baking sheet or a cornmeal-coated peal and start piling on the toppings. This is when the fun really starts. I like to stare into all the bowls of toppings and try to imagine what the different combinations will taste like (but not for too long, I want to get the thing in the oven so I can have a real bite). There are no rules. You can put the cheese down first and top it with a sauce. You can arrange items neatly or just toss them on. You don’t even need to add cheese. Give everyone a chance to build their own pizza and enjoy the results.

When the first pizza is ready, place it in the well pre-heated oven until the cheese and crust are golden brown (about 10-12 minutes). In the meantime, start building another one. We eat them as they come out of the oven, slicing them into thin slices so we can taste each pie. You could have a more formal affair where you baked a couple at a time and actually sat down at the table to eat, but I love to stand around the counter, building one pizza while eating a piping hot slice of the one that just came out of the oven.

By the time the last pizza is done, your kitchen will bit a bit of a mess, everyone will be full but still eating, and your house will be nice and warm. And wasn’t that the whole point.

Vicki Reich just finished the leftovers from last weekend’s pizza-making extravaganza. She and Jon made six pizzas for six people and stuffed themselves. She’s well fueled to go out and shovel more snow. She can be reached at wordomouth@yahoo.com

Pizza Dough (adapted from Dough by Richard Bertinet

Makes 3 pizzas (9-11 inch diameter)

1 package instant yeast

18 oz. all purpose flour (approx. 3 ¾ c.)

2 t. salt

2 fl. oz. olive oil

12 fl. oz. water

Preheat oven to 475F. Mix flour and yeast together in a bowl then add remaining ingredients and mix until well combined. Scrape dough out of bowl onto work surface and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic (5-10 minutes). It will be a bit sticky. Add more flour judiciously; you want the dough to remain moist. Form the dough into a ball and place it in a lightly floured bowl and cover with a lint-free cloth. Let rise for one hour.

Turn the dough out onto the work surface again and cut into 3 equal piece and form these into balls. Cover with cloth and let rest for 10 minutes.

Working one at a time, flatten each ball into a disc and start to stretch the dough out into a larger circle. You can do this whatever way works for you; press it out with your fingers or the heel of your hand, lift it up by the edge and let it stretch down while moving your hands around the edge, drape it over the tops of your knuckles and gently stretch it out. As a last resort, you can use a rolling pin. When the dough starts to fight you and keeps springing back, let it rest for a minute or two and start stretching again to the desired thickness, keeping the edge a bit thicker than the center. Now it’s ready for toppings.

Flower Power

It all started innocently enough with a request from a friend to teach her how to make flowers out of yarn. I said sure, whenever she had time (mind you, I really had no interest in making flowers, I was just being nice). I was in the library a couple of days later and found Nicky Epstein's Crocheted Flowers and thought it would be the perfect place to start. I sat down to test out a pattern or two and haven't really stopped. I'm not sure I can stop, it's a bit addicting and there's always one more flower to try or one more bit of yarn that would be perfect for that sunflower and gee, wouldn't it be fun to make all the flowers for my June wedding. And with the holidays, I could make holly for all the presents. Here's a sample of the addiction to date. They are so fast and so fun that when I needed a handmade gift for a party this afternoon, I sat down and cranked out this necklace while my bread for the potluck was rising. I have a ton of work to do but all I want to do is make flowers. Someone help me!