Friday, November 27, 2009

9000


That may be the low number of the calorie content of yesterday's meal! Of course I probably used that many over the course of two days making it too. Maybe we're even!

I opted not to do a traditional turkey. We had one during my parents visit and it seemed too soon for another. Instead I decided to duplicate a meal my parents use to serve at Christmas. I was warned it was a lot of prep. I was up to the challenge. I wasn't warned that between butter and heavy cream we could keep a dairy running for at least a day.


The recipe for Porc Sylvestre ( braised pork stuffed with ham and mushrooms), comes from Simone Beck's Simca's Cuisine which is a very old book indeed but still in print. The meal was delicious. While I am sure my presentation was not as pretty as what I remembered, the taste was. I haven't had this dish in onwards of 20 years and it was every bit as heavenly as I remembered. We finished with Tangerine mousse with a tangerine flavored cookie or shell.

The mousse was great, the shell it was supposed to go in, not so much. I forget about elevation, I forget that I may have to cook things a bit longer. The taste was there, but the crunch and lightness, no. Next time, more flour, longer cooking time. Both recipes came from Dining in Boston Cookbook by Steven Raichlen, 1983 and probably long out of print.

On the weaving front progress has been made too. In fact, we've started in on the blanket and so far so good.


I am using a temple and have run fishing line on the selvage edges and the folds. Rodger occasionally bats at them but not enough to worry about. A kitten would be more problematic I'm sure.


I've found that with some careful adjustment I can use one of my Schacht end feed shuttles with the Harrisville Shetland quite well. The weaving itself is also going much quicker than the sample did. What is hard is that the warp is so dense being three layers that when I pick up the top layers to weave the very bottom layer, I can't see my shuttle. You would be surprised how much you visually note about a shuttles progress once you can't see it! I am hoping to get a fair amount of weaving time in today. I was actually thinking about going to town but then I stopped myself, I do not want to go anywhere near town on the busiest shopping day of the year. Plus it's pouring out. Two good reasons to sit at home and weave.

I will get out though, at the historic Ashland Armory is a fair of local artisans that I'll visit sometime before it ends Sunday afternoon, assuming I can find parking!

And finally, I hope that each and everyone reading this had a wonderful Thanksgiving, full of family, friends and good food. We counted many blessings yesterday, the 2 legged ones, the 4 legged ones and the ones that can't be touched but are certainly felt.
We are rich beyond belief and not just in calories!;-)



7 comments:

Life Looms Large said...

Your Thanksgiving meal looks fantastic!! Fantastic! I'm feeling a wee bit envious....

We've got rain here today too. I've already visited my loom once....and have discovered several crossed threads after re-threading. So I'll work on that more today.

Glad your blanket is going well!! That must be weird to not be able to see the shuttle!!

Hopefully today will be a less than 9000 calorie day for me too!

Sue

Leigh said...

Your Thanksgiving meal looks absolutely delicious. Well worth the work and calories!

The blanket is off to a good start too. Glad to see you have snoopervision as well.

Jennifer said...

Braised pork stuffed with ham and mushrooms??? Sounds heavenly!

We weren't traditional this year either - well in the send that we ate out rather than at home - with leaving so soom I just didn't want to deal with cooking (and cleaning up) a large meal.

Sharon said...

I like your dinner a whole lot more than the thought that I might need to sink my life savings into an end-feed shuttle.

Theresa said...

If I could send everyone a bit of the pork I would, but I don't think it would look or taste very good using the means I have at hand in the present. Maybe someday
we can both smell and transport items via computer.
LOL, Science fiction makes you think all things will be possible...some day.

Sue, I hope today finds your warp with all the answers since you've mulled over night.

Sharon, it does seem like everything in weaving adds up to an arm and a leg. I have a second EFS that I would be willing to loan you to see if you like it. I like mine very much and have found they were worth the higher cost. YMMV

The blanket made some real leaps and bounds yesterday, well over 18 inches and much of that the stripes that will grace either end of the blanket.

Anonymous said...

Wow Theresa, When you told me what you were preparing for Thanksgiving the other day - it sounded grat - but after the photos...wow!

How fun - you are weaving now! Do you use a hand mirror to check your sheds (to make sure warp threads are not sticking?) That's what I have done in the past. looling forward to more blanket photos.

charlotte said...

This sure looked delicious! Our kitten thought that the weights on the floating selvedges were cat toys, and had a lot fun with them, so I had to put the weights on the back beam of the loom when not weaving.