Pickled Peppers

I guess I never thought beyond the tongue-twister ("Peter Piper picked a peck. . . ") to consider pickled peppers a real food.  My friend Naomi not only gave me a bag of banana peppers from her garden, she also gave me a little jar of pickled peppers and advised me to eat them on sandwiches.  So good!  And so easy.  

These are fridge pickles, meant to be kept in the fridge only and not canned.  As long as you use a clean utensil to dip into them, they should keep well for weeks.

Pickled Peppers

2 cups white vinegar

6 Tbsp. salt

1/4 cup olive oil

 6 Tbsp. water

1-2 garlic cloves, chopped fine

sliced, seeded peppers

Use time/mixing or some heat to dissolve the salt in the vinegar.  If you use heat, allow mixture to cool before adding the rest of the ingredients.  Use a mixture of hot or sweet peppers as you prefer and make sure the brine covers them; Naomi and I used banana peppers which are mostly mild, a little spicy here and there.  Store in the fridge in a covered container.

What else would you do with pickled peppers besides sandwiches?  I'm all ears.

What My Big Kids Did This Summer

They each got their own library card and became responsible for their own accounts. Such excellent training in due dates, fines, and talking to adults to get information about their accounts and check out books.  When you forget your library card, you can't check out the movie!  When you return an empty movie case to the library, you have to remember to get the movie out of the player at home and bring it back!  

I looked for these kinds of learning opportunities with money, too.  Both Genevieve and Ben looked after pets and plants for various neighbors on vacation for some cash.  I could see them deciding to commit to something and learning to stick with it after the charm of someone else's house wore off. 

 

Every day except Sunday, Genevieve and Ben have chores.  In the morning, I write up a chore list and it lays around until every item is crossed off.  I want them to do their chores in the morning and definitely before any fun activities (this is a great motivator if something fun is scheduled for the day!).  On Fridays, they dust and vacuum the downstairs and steps.  On Saturdays, they clean the bathroom.  Every day they need to practice piano and when there is a basket of clean laundry in their room, they need to fold and put away their laundry.  Monday through Thursday, I assign chores based on what work needs to be done around the house.  This could be various cleaning jobs not covered by Friday and Saturday's house cleaning, or outside jobs such as sweeping sidewalks and mowing grass.  Phoebe's care is not part of the chore list, by the way.

 New this summer, they also take turns washing the supper dishes.  Now they understand firsthand why I always made them clean their plates - the food scraps must go in their mouths or the compost buckets because they are not welcome in the dishwashing sink!  My husband and I have been training them to see the smears and bits of food on poorly washed dishes.  I had to work with Ben to hold his hands and the dishes down in the basin - he tended to hold the dishes in front of his chest with rivers of dishwater on his arms and the cabinets.  They had to learn how to stack the dishdrainer so the dishes could drain.

They also went to camps this summer.  Ben loves overnight camp at a Church of the Brethren camp with family history.  Genevieve tried overnight camp last summer and prefers day camps.  She did a survival camp in our local park, as well as a book-making camp at a local museum.  They loved these opportunities for meeting new people, learning new skills and jokes, and getting out of chores for a week!

This post has been invaluable reflection for me as a parent, to realize how Genevieve and Ben have matured and how much I have enjoyed watching them develop.  I'm so proud of them!  

Lavender Soap This Time

Four years ago, I made soap.  It was good soap and not as difficult as I thought it would be.  So I accumulated more fat in the freezer and finally, just before back-to-back vacations and in the middle of summer canning, I became obsessed with making soap.  I briefly argued with myself about the timing, but the heart wants what the heart wants.  

Because I had waited four years, I had to study up on soapmaking all over again. The most helpful instructions came from an article by Amber Moss Ek in the Song issue of Taproot.  

The recipe I used came from a library book whose name I have purged from my memory because it recommended adding water to the lye which is dangerously, explosively wrong (I corrected the book in pen in the margin, but still).  Here's a useful mnemonic for this part of soapmaking:  snow falls softly on the pond (slowly add lye to water, never never never the other way around).  

I had to wait a while for the lye solution to cool down, so I snapped some other photos, too.

The big kids were strictly warned away from the soap-making area and the baby was napping.  I myself made sure to wear glasses, gloves, and old clothes.  All went well, especially the part where I explained to the big kids what a chemical burn would do to their skin if they got too close to the lye.

The fat that I had collected was mostly tallow, but also some random globs from other meat.  I found instructions from Esther Shank in Mennonite Country-Style on how to clean fat that has cooking contaminents in it that may prevent the soap from setting properly.  I added the fat to an equivalent amount of water in a large pot and boiled them together for about 10 minutes.  Then I cooled the mixture, refrigerated it, and scooped the cleaned, hardened fat off the top of the "dirty" liquid on the bottom.  It must have worked, because my soap set up beautifully.

I tried using a plastic tub as a soap mold; unfortunately, I broke it in the process of getting the cake of soap out.  I will do more research about soap molds before I make more soap.  

Nineteenth-Century Soap

22 oz. tallow

15 oz. olive oil

14 oz. lard

7 oz. lye

22.5 oz. water

1/4 cup dried lavender flowers

I added the lavendar per Amber Moss Ek's instructions.  I ground up the lavender in my spice grinder, an old coffee grinder set aside for non-coffee jobs. After the soap had thickened ("achieved trace"), I stirred in the powdered lavender.  I had more lavender flowers than I needed, so I made some sachets on the spot.  

And now the soap will cure for 6 weeks in the top shelf of Phoebe's closet.  I'm excited to try it out! 

Genevieve is a Sewing Teacher

When her friend came over, Genevieve offered to teach her to sew.  I lurked around to listen and then finally asked if I could snap some photos.  It was so precious and hilarious to hear Genevieve passing on sewing information - she is entirely self-taught, despite my no-strings-attached offers to teach her what I know about sewing.  

 I even made a Pinterest board a few years ago, with high hopes of having lessons such as piano lessons. Genevieve generally uses tape, the stapler, and hair ties to force her fabric into what she has in mind.  This time, she showed her friend how to hand sew with needle and thread.

  The best way to learn anything is to teach it to someone else!

A Simple Peach Tartine

I would have called this "cheese toast with peaches" but the internets have informed me that this is called a "tartine."  I like that fancy word!

A slice of homemade sourdough bread, a slice of sweet sharp Dubliner, toasted together.  Then I put some sweet luscious peach slices over top.  Just wonderful.  Peaches are typically paired with a very mild cheese like ricotta, but I think they are assertive enough to partner the nutty cheddar.  This was a quick bite before I left for a bridal shower one evening, and it's been repeated as breakfast several times.

Sewing Stuff on Tees

It just happened, like dominoes, that I slapped some graphics on tees for the children.  First, Genevieve found a funny tee-shirt at the thrift store in size 4.  I told her I could cut out the peeps graphic and sew it on a larger shirt - and she thought Grandpa would love it because he loves peeps (gross), but on second thought, Grandpa would never wear a pink shirt.

So I found a sale at AC Moore to buy Genevieve a plain tee, but I it was for two tee shirts, so I bought a tiny little one for Phoebe too because I suddenly remembered some vintage iron-ons I had in a drawer.  Then I ironed some interfacing around the back rim of the peeps disc and sewed it on to the new shirt.  "Imagine world peeps" in case you can't read it.

So here is Phoebe's little shirt and look here for Genevieve's shirts from the rest of the vintage scratch-and-sniff iron-ons (and visualize Genevieve trying to help Phoebe understand that she can scratch this thing and smell it - oh, that's funny!).

And then I offered to make Ben an "eight" shirt with one of the plain tees that surfaced in a bag of hand-me-downs (oh thank you Lord for generous friends who pass on clothes!).  

He had a "seven" shirt last summer, which disappeared at some point (probably camp).  I asked him for opinions about the size (BIG) and fabric (shrug) for the eight and he was very pleased with the results. The plaid is some that was left from Grandpa's shirt, also in Ben's quilt.  I wanted the eight to look handmade and a little wonky.  I can't explain why; we want what we want! 

All of this happened in early July and now these tees are faded and probably a bit stained (I don't look too closely).  We are deep into summer.

Vietnamese Rice Noodle Salad

Here, as promised, is my version of Vietnamese rice noodle salad.  I first found the recipe in Molly Wizenberg's book Delancey, which I really enjoyed.  She's an excellent writer and some of her recipes are amazing - this is one of them.

Tonight when I reached in the pantry, I came out with Chinese egg noodles and I thought as long as there was some noodle element, it was fine.  Actually, some people would probably prefer this set-up with rice or with no carb at all.  My two cents is that if you're going to buy noodles at an Asian store as I do, make sure the translation of the cooking directions on the package is clear enough.  Some rice noodles like to be soaked, some like to be boiled, some need to be rinsed - I just follow the package directions.

cabbage (purple would have been prettier), cilantro, the first cucumber from our garden (!), cold BBQ chicken from the 4th of July, broccoli and cauliflower, Thai basil from the porch pot

We love this as a summer meal, using whatever veggies and herbs are available.  I fry the onions outside on the grill burner to keep the smell and heat outside.

Vietnamese Rice Noodle Salad (serves 4-6)

Mix for dressing and set aside:

3 Tbsp. fish sauce

juice and zest of one large lime

3 Tbsp. brown sugar

4 Tbsp. water

1 garlic clove, minced

few squirts siriacha, to taste

An hour before you want to eat:

Thinly slice a large onion in rings.  Place in a bowl with ice water.  Set aside.

Prepare rice noodles (1/2-1 lb.) depending if you want them hot or cold or room temperature.  I go for room temperature because it's the least fussy.  Also, some rice noodles seem to develop a strange tough texture when chilled.

Prepare whatever raw Asian-ish veggies and herbs you have: cucumber, carrot, sprouts, cabbage, Thai basil, cilantro, mint.  Arrange on a platter.  Optionally, prepare cold sliced meat and chopped peanuts, too (I usually do one or the other).

Ten or fifteen minutes before dinner, drain onions from ice water.  Heat 1/2" oil in large frying pan.  Pat onions dry.  Dredge gently in 1/2 cup flour mixed with 1 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. pepper.  Fry onions, turning to get both sides and not worrying if they stick together (but don't crowd the pan or they will steam instead of browning crisp - do two batches if you need to).  Drain on cooling rack or paper towels.  Serve hot.

Assemble salad with noodles, veggies/herbs, fried onions, and dressing over all.