Osborn Fiber Studio

Sunday seems like an appropriate day to reflect on this seasonal discipline, so here we go:

Thursday in Easter Week: Go down to the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary with roommate A to do some epic research for my thesis proposal. Take a bunch of pretty pictures, then realize I don’t have my memory card in. Kick self. Afterward, shop for someone’s birthday dinner at Trader Joe’s and Market District. (Note to self: do not go shopping when both hungry and annoyed.) Sushi for dinner, this time taking pictures with phone.

Friday in Easter Week: Go for a walk on a perfect day with friend’s baby. Ignore baby’s apparent disapproval of my existence.

Date night with hubsband in East Liberty. Walk around town and find a weird little shop that is probably hipster heaven, since most of what they sell is LPs of bands that I am not cool enough to have heard of. Discover a rack in the back with random coats for sale and find a vintage red leather trench coat. Justify purchase when I realize that it costs about the same as two skeins of decent sock yarn. (Pictures forthcoming should we have another day this year that is cold enough to wear it.)

Saturday in Easter Week: Make a glorious stew out of leftover lamb meat and lamb bone. Here’s my recipe, adapted heavily from Cooking with Jane Austin by Kirsten Olson, “Mock Turtle Soup” pp. 318-320:

• 1 lb. leftover lamb meat
• lamb bone
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 4 stalks celery, sliced crosswise
• 1 bag of heirloom potatoes from trader joe’s, diced into chunks
• 8 oz. cremini mushrooms, diced into chunks
• 2 broccoli stems, diced into chunks
• appx. 1 tsp. each: whole cloves, fresh ground black pepper, dried marjoram,dried oregano, dried parsley, salt
• appx. 1/2 tsp. each: ground thyme, ground cloves, cayenne pepper, red pepper
• splash of lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp. minced garlic
• 3 glugs each of cooking sherry and white cooking wine (recipe called for Madeira)
• 1/2 c. broth
• 2 Tbsp. flour
• 2 T lemon juice
• 1/4 c. orange juice
• (Optional meatballs, I assume they have to be pre-cooked; i didn’t do them)

Add all the ingredients up to the wine, cover with 4 quarts of water. Set to boil, and go take a 1-hr nap. Wake up 3 hours later, discover soup looks fine but everyone’s hungry. In a small saucepan, heat broth (i used broth from the soup since I couldn’t find boullion), flour, and egg yolks over medium low, stirring constantly until they begin to steam. Pour this slowly into the soup, stirring constantly. Curse when it turns into weird clumps; stir harder. Cover soup and cook for another hour. Get impatient after 15 minutes, stir in the juices, and serve.

Cooking might not sound that celebratory, but I can’t tell you how freakishly happy it makes me to use leftover bits and bobs in cooking, especially in something “traditional” like a stew. I tend not to like stew, but this time I made sure it had plenty of spices, and only put in things I like to eat (read: no carrots or parsnips, which are carrots masquerading as potatoes). I was rather proud of myself for thinking of the broccoli stems. It was super-tasty, very clove-y.

First Sunday after Easter: Have a paper to write, but write it on the front lawn, in the sunshine. Make sweet tea from scratch. Take frequent breaks to work on new shawl, which is all I want to knit on God’s good earth.