old and new

The hen in question has dutifully adopted the pair but seems to know something is amiss. They don’t quite look, sound or behave like chickens, but she seems resigned to the fact that whatever they are, they’re hers to make the best of.

Men don’t wear scarves.

  At least not mine. Not with his heart in it. And so I reclaim Earnestly Well-Meant Christmas Present of 2006 for my very own this fall. It is too soft and meringue-colored… Read More →

old tricks

More of the wonderful same around here lately. More pickles: I’m using a recipe by Lisa Krissoff, and there’s no going back. I cannot stop eating them, have given up completely on the… Read More →

Under our house

There’s something living in the crawlspace under our house. It’s pickles. Slow-fermenting jars need three weeks of solitude at cool temperatures to reflect properly on their evolution from vine to sandwich condiment. Solitude… Read More →

sourdough starter, hard lessons learned

Ever since moving to my Very First Apartment, I’ve tried at predictable intervals to make my own sourdough starter. It has the nerve to sound so simple: you mix flour and water in… Read More →

brandied cherries

To start, a note of caution. It is spring decidedly here– I have green tomatoes and Bill promises the first zucchini will be ready to pick before the weekend is over. There are… Read More →

project shelf, part FINISHED

If anything looks crooked, I’m pretty sure something’s wrong with your screen. Total cost of project was somewhere in the $150- $170 range. About $70 for the wood, $60 for the casters, and… Read More →

project shelf, part 4: the final frontier

Oh, man. So. Heavy. I find it hilarious that, what with all the trips we’ve made carting the boards from one place to another, it never occurred to me that attaching all the… Read More →

kumquats!

It turns out they’re GORGEOUS to preserve. My favorite canning adventures are the still ones that can be instantly turned into cocktails. This one (from a landmark treatise on canning and drinking alike)… Read More →

project shelf, part 3: the still pretty easy part

In which a De Walt table saw is exacting despite great age, … I find employment as dead weight, …and where, in attempting to simultaneously carpenter and document the proceedings, I take an… Read More →