infryq

Busy weekend, and this week I’m off work, so update time!

Friday I met Rm in person for the first time; he was in town stirring up (good) trouble in the Pittsburgh biotech community. We talked about some of the trickier aspects of Delphi and the magic of the “third path” that is being technical staff in academia.

Saturday P and I worked independently in the kitchen to make a batch of ma’amoul and halva respectively, which is always a comfort. I scorched the tahini but it was a serendipity and now I have to figure out how to do it on purpose. I’ve been riffing off P’s recipe (it’s on his website) with less sugar, higher sugar temp, and a quarter teaspoon of cardamom. In the evening F&A dropped by to deliver a peach blueberry crisp and chat briefly masked on the porch. It was good to see them.

Sunday we went to the farmers market and got jam fruit in addition to the usuals. Sunday afternoon we went to an Olin summer party, after a brief rain delay. I met (re-met maybe?) E, who is at CMU doing a robotics masters. Caught up with M&B. Met the host’s daughter, a rising sophomore, and talked FWOP and summer internships and insufficiently well targeted research projects and GoS.

Yesterday P had a job interview and I prepped peaches for jam and a variety of fruits for oatmeal, somehow managing to pack it all into the fridge. P made yogurt in the sous vide.

Today is jam day.

Hello again! I may start doing weekend summaries; we’ll see how it goes. Over the weekend I finished laying out six new handkerchiefs on fine linen using drawn threads. I haven’t decided whether to draw more threads for hemstitch work or just press the hems before felling them.

Sunday was busy; we went to the farmers market and got blueberries, pluots, sour cherries, peaches, rhubarb, snap peas, zucchini, broccolini, parsley, kale, and hummus. We did the laundry and hung it out on the line. I made fruit sauce for oatmeal using the blueberries, rhubarb, and some of the pluots, in an attempt to reproduce last week’s amazing combo and write more details down this time for posterity (1 pint blueberries, 4-5 stalks rhubarb, 3-6 apricots or pluots, 6T sugar, macerate a bit to release some juices, bring to a boil covered without adding water, remove solids with a slotted spoon, reduce liquids, return solids, simmer 3-5 minutes). I made a batch of lentils, switching from Mexican-ish to herb and mushroom, which will be worth some more exploration. P made bread dough for the 4th, and went over to F&A’s for some masked outdoor social time after dinner.

Yesterday afternoon P assembled the pita kit (cutting board for rolling, rolling pin, tava, the magic spatula, flour sifter, basket, towel), I made some emergency mujadara, and we headed over to C’s for a cookout. It was fantastic, few enough people you could hear everyone and believe in the ventilation. Had some good conversations, a splash of good wine, a bourbon-soaked cherry also enjoyed vicariously by people temporarily forbidden alcohol, and made a shitton of pita in spite of the misbehaving gas grill.

I’m currently shopping for new wireless earbuds, as the Know ones are starting to get unreliable in their charging. I have P’s rejected Sonys as a stopgap but they are a bit big for my tiny tiny ears. Two candidates: one that uses UV-curing polymers to literally mold to your individual ear, but which has suboptimal audio in the vocal range; one which has better audio for vocals and still high comfort ratings on a thorough “for small ears” review list from last fall.

Vacation log part two!

Tuesday I finished the hems, and we played the best damn game of scrabble of our lives to date with a board score of 822.

Wednesday P went out for a last grocery run before Christmas.

Thursday I made two more attempts at butter tarts, the second successful. They need a little bit of blind baking, just not as much as I did the first time. Cornstarch makes for a better texture than roux.

Friday we did a porch swap with F&A to relieve them of some mistaken lamb and chicken wings, and got bonus cinnamon pastries. We opened gifts (Rejected Princesses from P, a nice marble mortar and pestle from D, the best hoodie I’ve ever worn from M; the socks for P were a hit).

Saturday we did a video chat with P’s folks, then with mine, and P made fesenjan (a sour Persian meat stew with nuts). T sent me progress photos from the infinite lizard torus puzzle so that seems to have been a win as well.

Sunday I woke up with mega neck pain, so spent most of the day propped up on pillows, doing gentle exercises on a timer. I made a start at the annual zine.

Monday was better. P helped me make another batch of lentils and grits, this time with a parsnip thrown in, an excellent addition.

I started a workout plan on the 20th called “Couch to Crushing it” and it’s going well so far.

I’ve been reading Kill The Farm Boy by Delilah S Dawson and Kevin Hearne. It’s a bit like Shrek in its frenzied comedic tone but otherwise standard D&D theater. Enjoyable enough to finish but I wouldn’t bother recommending it unless you are hard up for lesbian representation in sword and sorcery.

Over the weekend I made a batch of lentils and grits, showered, and played large quantities of Factory Town. Two more days until break!

Over the rest of break, P made popovers and ma’amoul to drop off at C’s for thanksgiving, I made a stuffed pumpkin for the day after (successfully, finally, and the squash itself is really good so I’ve saved the seeds), we took a nice day trip to a new independent bookstore for our anniversary, had video calls with our respective parents, and otherwise took it very, very easy.

Last week was my birthday, and I took the day off and spent it sewing, having a long bath with chamomile, and reading under piles of blankets. I put back pockets on P’s brown wool pants, reinforced the corners on the front side pockets, and patched a rip in his twill pants.

Over the weekend I made myself a new leather thimble, sewed a snap onto a cloth pad that had lost one, and made another batch of lentils and wild rice. At the farmers market we picked up a case of cider, and she threw in a bag of fresh marsh mallow roots. I sliced them up and put them in the dehydrator. If you’ve never had them before, they’re mucilagenous like okra, and smell gently of horseradish and turnips… which is why marshmallows (the confection) were invented, since you couldn’t get kids to eat them unless you drowned out the flavor with sugar. Marsh mallow is good for dry coughs, sore throats, and urinary issues, just be sure not to take within three hours of any prescription meds, since the mucilage coats your GI tract and can interfere with drug absorption. Some sources also say not to mix with diabetes meds, but I couldn’t find one that explained why. Otherwise marsh mallow is very safe, even during pregnancy. You can also use it topically as part of a poultice, since the mucilage dries into a flexible but supportive air barrier: instant bandage! As always, don’t sub herbal medicine for seeing a doctor, and always let your doc know what you’re using.

I gave myself a five day weekend! I finished the seersucker shorts for P, did some mending, trued and washed some fabric I bought for linings, and roasted a pumpkin (dubious succes; this batch of wild rice takes ages to cook and the pumpkin itself was disappointing). I finished Not Your Average Hot Guy (meh, skip it), read For The Wolf by Hannah Whitten in its entirety (lovely reimagining), and started rereading the murderbot books. Caught up on sleep too, and I’m working on resetting my sleep schedule for winter.

Over the weekend I spent some time remembering how to do welt pockets, and installed one into the wool pants for P. The rayon I ordered for lining them arrived, but I didn’t get around to unpacking it. P made ma’amoul, and I made another batch of lentils and wild rice. We went to the market and got apples, pears, beans, peppers, bak choy, sweet potato greens (!), zucchini, and honey. I finished watching Shadow And Bone and started alternating The Magicians with Ada Twist to counteract the gore in the former. Mood’s been shitty but I suspect hormones.

Last night I watched Twitter explode with the news that Frances is the Facebook whistleblower. We’ve lost touch, but I couldn’t be more proud of her.

Last weekend I finally got the White sewing! I had to shim the needle/presser bar assembly to get the needle alignment right, and I added another washer to the top tension adjustment knob so it would compress the spring washer properly. The set screw is working for now but if it works itself loose I may need to have Dad drill and tap the hole in the face of the knob that’s meant to hold it snug. At some point I’ll take all the knobs off and put markings on them; for now they’re just “you know what you’re doing, right?” knobs. I watched some videos to figure out I had the needle clamp on backwards, and that the top thread had to go through the tension disks before the takeup lever (which I should have guessed; the other Brother does it that way). I reviewed a PDF of the manual to get that the flat side of the needle goes to the right, then everything worked! I’m so pleased I didn’t have to adjust the timing, that would’ve been a bear. I did have to drop the bobbin tension to get a good stitch but it should be all set now.

On Labor Day we had lunch in the park with F&A and it was wonderful. Then I went home and ruined a batch of crispy roasted fava beans 😭. Hypotheses include under-boiling and overdoing the alkali. Snacks this week will be bean-less, alas.

Over the weekend, I finished clearing out the sewing room(well…enough), vacuumed, took apart the spare work table, then P helped me move the sewing cabinet back in there. I assembled the new wee desk for me to work at, and it is pretty and lightly industrial. We went to the farmers market and I meant to just get fruit since the veg drawer is packed full of squash and beans and peppers, but they had gorgeous gigantic okra and tomatillos and I managed to fit it all in there somehow.

Fried okra is unbelievably delicious. Wash, dry thoroughly, slice into rounds about half as thick as the pod is wide, then fry in a bit of oil with a touch of salt until crisp and brown on both cut sides, about six minutes total. The texture contrast of dry caramelized outside and soft unctuous inside is wonderful, and the small pieces and dry cooking method prevent sliminess.

P’s folks weathered the dregs of Henri alright, just the usual amount of water in the basement and no major damage to the house. The challenge will be electricity, since the power company is saying they won’t have everything back online for a week, and it’s meant to be excessively hot on Tuesday. They are considering their options.

I had a nice chat with A about window-shopping as a coping mechanism for cooling areas of psychological risk. Was good.