Cheeseburger buns

 The recipe for the aforementioned buns.

I've had this recipe for many years, but I can't remember exactly where it came from.  Obviously a magazine, but which one?  Probably either Taste of Home or Bon Appetit, the only two cooking magazines I ever had subscriptions too.  I'm guessing it's Taste of Home, as 'Cheeseburger Buns' seem a little low-brow for Bon Appetit.  Low-brow, but not low taste.  

You could experiment with the fillings, depending on what you had on hand.  It's kinda like a pastie, although the dough is different.  I prefer this bread-dough covering to the shortcrust covering of a traditional pastie.  It's lighter and sweeter.  Just make sure the filling is fully cooked before it goes inside the buns.

The week's news

I have the weekend off!   Woohoo!  Work has been very busy lately.  Not customer busy, although we had over 100 people on the sledding hill last weekend, but paperwork busy.  Which is a lot of my job.  I won't bore you with the details, but suffice to say that working for the government involves a lot of stupid bureaucratic crap.  Not exactly an epiphany, I'm sure.

I don't have any big plans.  The whole pandemic thing, you know.  I will be making a large vat of wild rice soup this evening.  O wasn't feeling well last week so Hubby brought our last frozen bag to him.  Time to make more!  I'll use leftover ham from Wednesday's ham supper.

Last night's supper was biscuits and gravy.  Which meant this morning's breakfast was biscuits and gravy with fried eggs on top, a favorite with all our kids.  And me.

O and E went up to St. Cloud to visit her family last weekend, so we're skipping our weekly visit with them for a bit.  Hubby did drop off a batch of cheeseburger buns (homemade buns with meat, tomato sauce and cheese baked inside) to him on Thursday, so they still got a free supper, sans socializing. 

G had a Knowledge Bowl tournament yesterday.  No other students were at the school, everyone was socially distant and he agreed to wear two masks, so we let him go.  His team got 4th place out of 23.  Way to go G!  He's also been spending a lot of time on the Seterra geography website, trying to break speedrun records.  If you ever need a geography nut for a trivia match, he's your guy.

B is currently downstairs firing off Nerf guns.  Over the years we've amassed a large amount of guns and ammo, so every once in awhile he goes downstairs and fires off numerous rounds.  It's a bit of a stress release.  Sometimes the cats go with him and chase after the bullets as they ricochet off the walls.

Melting snow and ice puddles in the yard.

Temps have been in the 30s and 40s this week, which means a lot of our snow has melted.  The farm fields behind our house are bare, although we still have snow and ice in our yard.  Open black fields warm faster than grass-covered lawns.  The snow-melt has turned our driveway into a mushy soup of gravel and dirt.  But the chickens are happy that we've opened their door and let them outside again.  They just have to step around the glacial lake in the middle of their run.

On Monday Hubby gets his annual physical, and I get my second COVID vaccination.  Several of my coworkers who got theirs this week were hit the next day with fevers, aches and migraines, so I'm anticipating a day of partial sick leave to recover.  Hopefully my immune system learns how to deal with the virus, and remembers the next time I'm exposed.  And hopefully the vaccine is good against the various mutations cropping up around the country.  And hopefully the rest of my family can get their vaccines before the end of summer, so we have some time to travel before the start of the school year.

Seedling setups

My seed-starting setup has changed over the years.  I've always used fluorescent lights for starting seeds, with mixed spectrums to suit my different plants.  Fluorescent lamps have different Kelvin ratings, with the lower spectrum good for vegetative growth (leaves) and the higher spectrum good for flowering and fruiting.

What I've attached the fixture to, however, has changed.  My first layout was in the unfinished basement of our farmhouse in Ortonville.  Hubby suspended the fluorescent fixtures from the ceiling joists, and placed a table underneath the lights for the seed flats.  The fixtures were hung on long chains, and could be raised or lowered depending on how high I wanted them to be.  

Tomato seedlings on the floor, under lights.  2011.

My next design, also in the Ortonville farmhouse, was two card tables in the dining room.  I hung the lamps under the tables, and had the flats on the floor.  The flats would be on top of boxes to bring them closer to the lights, and as the seeds grew I removed the boxes to lower the flats.

When big enough, seedlings went onto the sun porch.

When we moved into the house on State Street in New Ulm, I took a break from starting seeds.  I relied on mail-order seedlings and my local nursery.  Which is just fine, but you have a smaller selection to choose from.  Several seed companies, including Seeds Savers and Burpee, offer mail seedlings for certain species including tomatoes, peppers, onions, eggplant, brassicas, kale and herbs.  Mail order seedlings are also a lot more expensive.

I have a few aloe plants.

My current configuration is set up in our sun room.  I bought wire shelving from Menards, and used metal chain and hooks to hang the shop lights from the bottoms of the shelves.  The shelves are different heights, so I can adjust the distance from seed to light by using different shelves as well as adjusting the chain lengths.

My first scallion seeds didn't grow, so I've replanted more.

At some point I'll probably bite the bullet and invest in expensive LED fixtures, but for now my cheap shop fluorescents work just fine.

Loose ends

Like I've said before, I'm a bit of a hoarder.  Not 'stacks of newspapers and piles of garbage' hoarder, but more of a 'don't throw away a perfectly good skein of yarn when you may want to crochet an afghan someday' hoarder.  Over the years I've collected a few dozen perfectly good skeins of yarn, just waiting to be used.  I got most of them from garage sales during the 80's and 90's.  

Mom's old business card

My mother was an antique dealer, and when I was younger she would take my sisters and I with her on her garage sale expeditions.  We would always go to the same area - south Minneapolis, where she knew the streets by heart.  The night before our outing she would go through the garage sale ads in the paper, making a list of addresses that we would go to, in order from first to last.  South Minneapolis, at least the older part of the residential area, has streets named in alphabetical order.  Aldrich, Bryant, Colfax, Dupont, etc.  I think that was part of the reason Mom chose that area.

A candid of Mom in her antique-filled kitchen, 2006

We'd leave early morning to get to the best spots first, sometimes before they opened up.  Mom was not afraid to knock on a door and ask to get in early.  She loved the hunt, the excitement of finding something rare and interesting.  She wasn't in it for the money -- if she found something valuable that was significantly under-priced, she'd give the seller more money than they were asking.

While my mother looked for antiques, I would look for other things.  Mainly books, albums, weird odds-and-ends, and craft supplies.  In 9th grade I had taken an elective class called 'Creative Textiles' and learned knitting, crocheting, sewing and quilting.  I can honestly say it was one of the most useful classes I ever took in high school.  

My collection of crochet hooks

About twenty years ago I started crocheting an afghan using my hoarded yarn.  I've worked on it on and off, a little at a time.  Every few years I'll get a bug in my ear and bring it out, do a few squares, then tire of it and put it away.  I chose a simple granny square style, easy to make and pretty to look at.  I decided that I would make a 'crazy afghan' (similar to a crazy quilt), with multiple colors in multiple patterns. 

Sounds great, doesn't it?  However, I didn't figure that every time I used a color, it meant two ends of string to tie off and weave back into the stitches.  Weaving in these ends takes a lot of time.  So far I've got 72 squares made, each with three to four colors, which means about 400 loose strands of yarn to be woven.  Some of them I had already done, there were still about 200 to do.

A few loose ends dangling

Two days ago I brought out the afghan.  I took a look at all of the strands hanging down, and decided to do something about it.  So I grabbed a small crochet hook and began weaving.

This afternoon I finished tying up all the loose ends.  Now I can begin making squares again, nibbling away at my hoarded yarn supplies.  When it's finished, it will become a gift for one of my sons.  Which means that I'll need to make two more.  Let's hope I live that long!

Loose ends all tied up

Dueling fish fries

 You can tell it's Lent in our very Catholic town.

We chose the NU Girls Fast Pitch.  Four pieces of fried fish with potato salad, coleslaw and cookie.  Yum.

Cake and custard

Hubby played Egg Fairy again on Tuesday, delivering 6 dozen eggs to friends around town.  Then I took another dozen and made an angel food cake.

It came out pretty well.  Not picture perfect, but very tasty none-the-less.  I didn't use cake flour, so it's a bit more dense than normal.

I enjoy sliced bananas and a bit of chocolate sauce on top of my cake.  The boys like lots of chocolate and fsssht, which is what we call Reddi-wip.  Hubby eats his very thin sliver of cake plain, without adornment.  Stupid borderline diabetes.

Since angel food cake uses only egg whites, we had a bunch of egg yolks left over.  Hubby decided to make a custard with them to try on his morning oatmeal.  We make custard fairly regularly, whenever we make banana cream pie or sticky toffee pudding.  It's pretty easy.  For the non-adventurous cooks out there, Bird's makes a good custard powder substitute.  Just add milk. 

Maybe I'll have my next piece of angel food cake with custard on top, uniting the egg whites and egg yolks once again.  Or maybe that would be like mixing matter and anti-matter together.  I'll let you know if I rip a hole in the fabric of time and space.

Sprouts

My germination tests continue.  I checked the seeds a few days ago, and will check again tonight.  It's such a thrill to see the seed coats splitting open and tiny baby roots growing out.  

Zucchini seeds

I feel a bit guilty not using the sprouts, but there's no way I can save them for the garden.  It's too early - they'd grow too big and get too leggy before I had a chance to plant them outside.  I could plant the onions into pots, but I have enough started already.

Beet seeds

I could eat some of the vege sprouts - people pay big money for bean or alfalfa sprouts at the store.  It's way cheaper just to buy seeds and sprout them yourself.

Bean seeds

I did take the zinnias and onions and put them into some dirt, just to watch them grow.  I can cut the onion leaves off for chives if I really want to use them.

Cosmos seeds

We're supposed to be in a warming trend this week -- it will be 40 degrees by Monday.  We haven't been above freezing since February 3.  Bring on the sun!

Gardeners, start your onions

Onions seeds have been planted!  It was indeed lovely to get dirt under my fingernails for the first time this year.  I've made such a big deal about starting seeds, you'd think the process took hours and hours.  But in reality it took only 45 minutes, mainly because I had everything I needed already on hand.  Seeds, trays, flats, soil, heat mat, and grow lights.  I won't need the grow lights until the seeds begin growing, but it's good to get things ready ahead-of-time.

You need special seed-starting soil to start seeds indoors.  If you use regular potting soil, the hunks of bark and rock in the dirt will impede the seed growth.  If you use outside soil, you'll bring in weed seed and insect eggs.  Best to use the good stuff, which is easy enough to find.  My favorite commercial seed starting medium is from Burpee's.  I usually buy it from Menards for $4 a bag.

Last year I tried coconut coir for the first time.  I was dubious about all the hype around it, but lo and behold I discovered the hype is well-deserved.  An 8-ounce brick costs between $2 and $7, depending on where you get it and how much you buy.  One brick expands to about 2 gallons of soil.

Just like those dinosaur capsules my kids used to play with, the brick expands when you add water.  Just so you know, it expands a lot.  

It's amazing how much water the coir holds.

It was still expanding after I took this photo.  I realized I needed a bigger boat.

Best 5-gallon buckets you can find.

After the soil is saturated, fill your trays (not to the tippy-top) with moist soil.  As you can see, I like to re-use plastic food containers for my trays.  Make sure the trays have holes in the bottom for drainage.  The trays are placed in a 'flat' that catches any water seeping through. 

My seed sprite keeping a watchful eye.

The onions are going to be in these trays for 8-12 weeks, so I used deep trays to have room for root development.  If I was starting tomatoes or lettuce, which I'll transplant into larger cells after a week or two, I'd use a shallower tray and less soil.

Sprinkle your seeds over the soil.  Whether you put the seeds in single holes, rows, or scattered over the top depends on a lot of things.  Because I'm unsure of the germination rates, and because I have plenty of seed, and because I'm fine with thinning the seedlings if too many grow, and because onions are easy to pull apart when transplanting outside, I decided to scatter the seeds thickly and randomly.  Cover your seeds with a thin layer (1/8-1/4 inch) of soil.  Make sure to label your trays!

Cover the tray to keep the soil from drying out - those clear plastic lids that come with some flats work well.  Put the flat in a warm spot, or use a heat mat.  Heat mats can cost up to $30 depending on where you buy them, so they're not cheap.  But they are a good investment if you start a lot of seeds, or if your house is a little chilly during the winter months (like ours).  I like to test my mats with a thermometer to make sure they don't get too hot.

Now that the onions are done, I have to wait a few more weeks before I can start the next round of seeds.  Kale seeds are next on the list!  And after that lettuce, and then marigolds, and then peppers, and then...

Seed miser

Me counting my seeds.

Every day

A somewhat disturbing, but heartfelt Valentines Day greeting.

Valentines Day is always a low-key 'holiday' for us.  Hubby bought chocolates for the boys and myself, and made a run to Mankato to bring candies to O and E and to grab India Palace take-out for dinner. Besides that, it's been a chill (both literally and figuratively) day.  Currently (7 pm) the boys are online with games and videos, while Hubby is watching pro wrestling on TV.

When you have a husband who sweetly does anything you ask whenever you ask, including making you bacon, mushrooms and eggs for breakfast, bringing you hot tea when your mug is empty, hauling heavy boxes of seeds or soap supplies around the house, making you chocolate cake just because he saw your FB post about it, or giving you foot-rubs at the end of a long day, Valentines Day is every day.  I really lucked out in the spouse department, I tell ya.

All things seed

The past few days have been all things seed.  

First, I updated my seed inventory spreadsheet.  I went through all of my totes of seeds (yes, I have totes), through each individual container in the totes, through each packet or jar in the containers, and confirmed varieties and quantities.  Then I deleted the seeds that were planted last year and the ones I tossed after testing badly in my 2020 germination tests.

I have one okra packet as a 'free gift' from an order. 

Next, I started the 2021 tests.  I chose the varieties for testing and dug them out of the totes.  Using my tried-and-true process described in my old blog here, I started about 30 seeds and filled out my chart.  In a few days I'll check on them to see if any have sprouted, and then a few days after that, and so on.

Lastly, I'm deciding what (if any) new seeds I need to purchase this year.  I've already made my Seed Savers Exchange order - I made that one in December to use a 20% off coupon I had.  I've still got a Johnny's and Fedco gift card from Xmas burning a hole in my pocket.  I also like ordering from Sand Hill Preservation Center.  But I may not need to get anything else right now.  As you can see, I've got a pretty large seed stash as it is.  And I want to use up some older seed (and save more seed from those plants!) before the germ rates get too low.

Seed germination is a wildly variable thing.  It depends a lot on the species and the storage conditions.  And the timing of the seed harvest.  Sometimes I save seed one year and test it the next, to discover that I've got a really low germination rate.  Apparently the seed I harvested wasn't mature enough.  Other times I've tested really old seed, expecting a really low germ rate, but am pleasantly surprised.  I have radish, flint corn and tomato seeds saved from 2005 that still test at 100%.

Packets for the 2021 germ testing.

This afternoon (or tomorrow) I'll start my onion seeds.  I'm growing the Yellow of Parma seeds that I harvested last year.  Unless they test badly, of course, in which case I'll use something else from my stash.  I'm also trying bunching onions for the first time this spring.  I like to try a few new things every year.

It's 13 below zero right now (1 pm), with a windchill of 35 below.  A perfect time to be indoors playing with seeds.

Prime rib

 It was sooooooo goooooood.

Good news

Good news!  My vaccination was rescheduled, and relocated.  Instead of a 1.5 hour drive to Willmar last Thursday, I was able to get my shot yesterday in St. Peter a mere 40 minutes away.

No reactions thus far.  Not even a sore arm.  I hope my immune system is doing its thing, and not just ignoring the vaccine.  I don't normally have reactions to vaccines, so I'm trying not to read anything into the no-symptom thing.  We'll see what happens after I get my second shot.

Again, ignore the carbon-caked oven.

Good news!  Hubby is making prime rib for supper.  We had a rib roast left from the last beef in January 2020, so we're having it for supper.  It's half-way through cooking and I must say, it smells divine.  He's making roast potatoes and grilled asparagus for sides.  And au jus for the beef.  So much fantastic food!

Good news!  I have the next six days off of work.  My vacation has accrued to the point where if I don't use it I lose it.  So I'm using it!  No big plans for the time off, just staying warm indoors while the daytime temps outside hover around zero.

Transplanting onion seedlings, last spring.

Good news!  It's almost time to begin my onion seeds!  Hubby has lugged my soap-making supplies down to the basement, and brought my seed-starting supplies up.  I can't wait to run my fingers through lovely loamy dirt again!  Maybe I'll spend part of my time off doing seed germination testing.

Good news!  The plumber came this morning and fixed all of our various plumbing problems.  We had been accumulating water issues over the last few months, trying to avoid calling someone because of COVID.  But with a leaky toilet, leaky sink faucet, broken shower pipe and another unidentified leak dripping water onto the basement ceiling tiles, it was time to get help.  I might have to take out a second mortgage for the bill, however.

Tamarind paste

I love pad thai.  The best I've ever eaten can be found at Ruam Mit, a Thai restaurant in downtown St. Paul, MN.  I was introduced to that wonderful eatery when I worked at COMPAS in Landmark Center, and I've been a regular ever since.  Well, as regular as someone can be when they live 100 miles away.  Their curry and spring rolls are also very excellent.

I've tried making pad thai at home, with less than stellar results.  My most recent attempt was two days ago, using a recipe from Cook's Illustrated Skillet Dinners.

One of the ingredients is tamarind paste.  I've made tamarind paste before, but my supplies were running low, so I needed to make a new batch.  I use the recipe illustrated here in the New York Times.

First step is to get your hands on some tamarind pulp.  Here is the kind I use.

Next, break it into pieces in a large bowl.  The stuff is super sticky, so cutting it can be challenging.

Pour an appropriate (1.5 cups for every 9 ounces pulp) amount of boiling water into the bowl, covering the pulp.  Let it sit for at least 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  When the pulp is soft, mix well.  I like using a potato masher to break up the solid chunks.  It looks like thick beef gravy at this point.

When it's fully dissolved press it through a small-hole colander.  The recipe says to use a fine mesh sieve.  However, the last time I made this I used a sieve and it took FOREVER to press the paste through the screen.  This time I used a colander and the process went much faster, with no noticeable difference in texture.  Again, a potato masher is most helpful.

The paste can be stored in the frig for a few months, or frozen for longer storage.  

Viola!  I now have about six cups of tamarind paste for any future cooking experiments.

FYI, the results from the Cook's Illustrated recipe were disappointing.  Too vinegary, and not enough peanut flavor.  The homemade pad thai quest continues.

Blooming again

Cold snap

Yup, you read that right.  For the next three days we won't get above 1 degree Fahrenheit.  Which is -17 in Celsius for you non-Americans.  And the cold is here to stay--we won't get above 4 degrees F for all of next week.  

An extended cold snap in winter isn't unusual for Minnesota.  While it's something to add to a conversation, it's not something to get overly excited about.  If I had a job where I had to be outside every day, however, I'd be as bitter as the cold is.

I'm not a meme person, but this one does sum up my feelings about living in the arctic north.

That, plus the seasons.  Occasionally I'll ask myself which is my favorite season, and I'll come to the conclusion that I have no favorite.  I love them all.  Minnesota has all of the seasons in glorious splendor, and the changes between the seasons are lovely to behold.  Yeah, I could do without the handful of 90+ degree days in summer, but at least I know that those are few and far between.  

My brother-in-law moved from MN to FL a few years ago.  From the beginning of May to the end of October their average daily temperature is above 85.  That's averaging daytime and nighttime temps.  Gah.  I could never do that.  But he seems happy there.  

I'll take my Minnesota climate any time of the year.  This is where I grew up, and this is where I'll grow old.  It is my home.  And heart is where the home is.

Happily Ever After

A few weeks ago we had Os and Bs birthday celebrations.  This year I decided to break with our tradition of using Christmas wrapping paper for every holiday, and asked Hubby to pick up some birthday paper on his next late-night grocery run.  We normally use curbside delivery for groceries, but occasionally we'll plan a late-night or early-morning in-store grab-and-go.  Goodness, that last sentence had a lot of hyphens in it.

So Hubby graciously picked up a roll of wrapping paper at the store.  And I started to wrap presents.  Then I saw the paper he had bought.

In his defense, in the roll form you can't see all of the words.  Hubby said he saw the 'Happ' and went with it.

And so in January we wished O and B a 'Happily Ever After.'  My boys are now 20, 17 and 15.  Where has the time gone?  'Ever After' goes by much much faster than I want it to.

Risk vs. reward

Today was the day I was scheduled to get my first COVID vaccination.  Working for the State in front-line essential services means I got a crack at the first round of shots.  I was pumped.  Not that it would have changed anything for us -- you can still catch the virus and pass it on to someone else even after you've been vaccinated.  Which means I could still bring it home to my unvacced Hubby and kidlets, including the youngest kidlet with lung disease.  Until all of the family gets vacced, we're still gonna hermitize.

An 18th century garden hermit.  Me in a past life.

But it was a positive step toward normalcy, and I was looking forward to it.  Of course, Mother Nature had other plans.

Mother Nature's plan was to send us rain late last night, followed immediately by plummeting temps and a few inches of snow.  Add sustained winds of 25 mph with gusts up to 40, and you've got yourself a doozy of a driving hazard.  The schools were closed today because of the roads.  And our 511 website showed all of our nearby roads as completely covered with snow and ice, with 1/4-mile visibility.

I love MNDoT's 511, especially the plow cams.

Nevertheless, I made the attempt.  Hubby brushed off the minivan and started it up, then snowblew the driveway.  I got ready, gathered together a winter survival kit and an extra cell phone, and stepped out the door.  On a normal day the drive to Willmar would take about an hour-and-a-half.  I budgeted myself two-and-a-half.

I made it about five miles before turning around.  The roads were truly horrible.  In open areas the wind blew a fog of snow across the road, with nothing to see beyond it.  On the leeward side of groves the snow piled up in drifts.  But the worst was the layer of ice under the snow.  I never went above 25 mph and tested my breaks several times.  Each time I tapped the breaks the car began sliding, and the anti-lock breaks kicked in.  A particularly strong gust of wind would push me across the road a few feet.

So I stopped the car and decided that the risk of driving for three-to-five hours in these conditions was higher than waiting another month or two to get a vaccination.  That being said, I'm not sure I'll be able to get into another State employee clinic -- vaccine supplies just aren't meeting demand.  I may have to wait til summer like the rest of the population.  

Which is just fine.  Like I said, until the whole family is vacced, no one is vacced.  We can wait.