A Walk in the Woods, Part 2

I've been workin' on the raaaillroad, all the livelong day.....

During a break in the recent rains we've been enjoying, we got out and took a hike in the woods near us. It was a beautiful fall day, warm in the sun with cool air, bright blue sky, everything I've been missing for the past several years.

Look at that sky!

I find nature can be so inspiring, even if it's manmade.

That's a joke, son.

At a glance, everything seemed to have come through the rains and flooding just fine.

But upon close inspection, we could see that the forest got flooded up to our waist height.

All the leaves were muddy.

But near the river, it was obvious the water had risen over our heads, as this bridge is that high. You can see it's covered with debris washed up by the floods.

Fall is on the way!

Apples!

Last weekend, we went with some friends of ours from Singapore, the Bridgemans, to go apple picking. This was an outing I looked forward to every fall when I still lived in California, and missed terribly while I lived in Singapore. And, being the kinda tech-saavy girl that I am, I brought my camera with no batteries. So, I don't have pictures of the tiny little orchard we went to, or of how beautiful the blue, cloudless sky was, or of how wonderful the weather was. I can't take pictures of the temperature, anyway. But it was a lovely day and I was so happy.

We were warned that the orchard had suffered a hail storm (on May 15th!) so the apples were pocked, but still tasted good. We found that to be very true.

So with a huge quantity of apples (and a gigantic pumpkin, to boot), I started hunting for recipes. Apple butter is a bit too complicated, I think. So my first apple endeavor was applesauce.



I pulled all the winesap apples from the basket for this recipe; they are tart and perfect for cooking.

The flesh is almost hard, and very white. And the peels can be so dark, I almost thought they were plums when I went to pick them.


The recipe called for 3 or 4 pounds, and by hitting a conversion site online, I found that that was about 2 quarts, peeled and cored and quartered.




Here they are with the rest of the ingredients: a 3" piece of cinnamon stick, 4 peels of lemon rind, the juice of a lemon, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup white sugar, and a cup of water. The recipe allowed that not all of the white sugar need be added, but I had tasted these apples and knew they were tart and so I added the full amount. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 30 minutes, and voila!


Apple mush! Now remove the cinnamon stick and the lemon peels which are hard to find but also hard where everything else is mushy.
Last year, when I went to clean out my mother's house, I inherited a food mill. I use it to make mashed potatoes now and then, and it is great! Now I used it to make applesauce, and it worked like a charm.




Have you ever had hot applesauce? I never had, but I have found a new love.


Home made applesauce is very similar to store bought, except perhaps it's a bit denser. I think Motts says they use gravenstein apples, but the winesaps make such a great flavor contrast: tart/sweet.
This was such an easy recipe, I hope you will try to make your own applesauce. I have so much, I may try to make an applesauce spice cake with some of it. We'll see. It was delicious with cottage cheese and walnuts for breakfast this morning, too.

The Chattanooga Farmer's Market

On Sundays after church, we have been going to the Farmer's Market downtown. Even though it has been very rainy, many people still make it there because it is so fun, and also, there is a roof on the pavilion where it is held.


It is not only a farmer's market, but also a craft show, and there's food and usually live music, too.




The last time we went, I had a delicious steak taco.




Then I went and got one of these potato chip things. Very decadent, also very delicious.



The veggies are always beautiful and tempting.






But maybe it's weird to have a bell pepper match one's dress.



More temptation.

On this day, we only bought some apples and tomatoes. The tomatoes will be made into a delicious fresh soup, and the apples?



They were used appropriately.

Greetings from Chattanooga

Why doncha sit a spell?

We finally unpacked the cord that will allow me to download some pictures, so why don't I show you around?

Here's our new home.

Of course, I'm kidding. These are pictures taken nearby, of Audubon Acres. It's a wildlife park we visited, and it's close enough to go all the time, if one wanted to do that.

Here's a more accurate picture of what we've been living with.




But, who wants to look at boxes? We sure don't, so we've been finding lots of excuses to get out of the house when we can. Lacking furniture and storage solutions, we've found lots of excuses to go out. Today will be more unpacking, and tomorrow will be more going out.

My daughter seems to be finding her way in high school. She attends Ooltewah High School (pronounced Oo-de--wah) as a freshman, and aside from having to get up at 5 am (ouch!), she seems pretty happy.

My husband and I have put out lots of applications and resumes, and will keep doing that, but so far we haven't found jobs. At this particular moment in time, I'm not very worried. At other moments, I find myself quite anxious. But really, after all we've been through in the past four years, living in Singapore and all that attended that life, I don't feel like I have any right to worry. I have been taken care of and will continue to be taken care of, and that's all I need to know.

But your prayers are appreciated.

The past couple of days have been rainy and cool. I'm sure you know how happy that makes me feel. I'm currently sitting in my living room with the sliding glass door open, quite comfortable. It's stop raining for the moment, but the sky is grey, so we may get more rain.

Here are some pictures I took on our recent hike at Audubon Acres.



Not sure what kind of flower this is, but it was hiding in the grass.




Isn't this inviting? One of the things I really missed when I was living in Singapore was going for a walk in the woods. Of course you can walk in the woods in Singapore, if you like sweating. It's so humid there. It was humid in these woods, too, but not nearly as bad.




I forget what creek this bridge spans; I think it's the Chickamauga. I can't get my mouth to say that word correctly.



Everybody needs friends, right?



And speaking of friends, these two trees struck me with their closeness yet obvious difference in their bark. I'm aiming at some profound statement about unity in diversity here, but I'm not quite making it.






Tomorrow my sister is coming down and we are having A Day. Hopefully we will both remember to take lots of pictures so we both have something to blog about.

More Crochet

This is one of the projects I've completed lately. It's a scarf made of light gray mohair in a lace pattern. The pattern is from a book called Crochet Designs by Tess Dawson. I'm having difficulty photographing it properly. Seems like having Singapore as a backdrop doesn't really work. Hmm...



And this is fun! Can you believe it? I crocheted a mitten. Pattern from Lion Brand Yarn site.


And as you can see, it fits! Of course, I intend to make the other one very soon.



This is a neck warmer and I made up the pattern myself. No, don't ask me for it. I wasn't paying attention. Ok, I think it's 90 stitches long, and I used single crochet except where I wanted the hole to be. There I did 10 slip stitches and then when I returned I did 10 chains, and that was done at 5 rows in, so I think it's 10 rows total. And then the fuzzy yard was added to the edge, and I did 2 sc in each space to make it wider than the other part.
How's that for a pattern?

So, you must be wondering what I am thinking, making all these cold weather items in Singapore. Well, it looks as if my family will be leaving the island this summer for good, and wherever we are going, they will have a winter there. So I'm just being prepared.
Plans are not definite yet, so forgive me for being oblique. When I know for certain, I'll let you know.

Christmas on Orchard Road

We didn't actually go down and look at the lights on Christmas day, or even Christmas eve, but on the 23rd. We did this last year, too, and it was pretty nice, if you like crowds.


We started out near the Forum. Actually, we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe and then headed out to Orchard.



All the different malls have their own theme.


But the overall theme seemed to be sweets or candy this year.




We walked down the road for an hour or two, and then we had enough of fighting the crowds and stuff, so we went home.

I guess this is as close as I can get to driving around, looking at how people have decorated their houses for Christmas, which is one of my favorite things to do during the holiday. Of course, it wasn't near cold enough, and all the decorations were more commercially motivated rather than just for being pretty. No wonder we were disenchanted. I don't guess I need to do this next year, but it was nice to get out with the family.

Adventures in the Kitchen

So on my grocery shopping spree Monday, I bought a pair of spring chickens to roast. Since Monday was a public holiday here in Singapore, my butcher shop was closed. But the grocery store was open, so I bought them there.
Warning: younger or more delicate blog readers may find this post disturbing.




Let me just say: be glad you don't have to deal with this stuff.




I was only mildly surprised to discover the chickens still had their heads,
but take a look at the indignity this poor fowl is suffering.
Sorry to be so graphic, but I had to share.





Well, I am proud to say that I simply sharpened my chinese cleaver and removed two heads and four feet. And then I made something truly delicious.




First, I made a compound butter: 2 or 3 tablespoons butter, a teaspoon each of chopped fresh herbs (I had rosemary, dill, and some basil harvested from our own plants which I planted for my DH on his birthday in August), 3 slices of turkey bacon, chopped (I would have used regular bacon, but it's so unusual to find the turkey variety in Singapore that I had to buy some), and 2 crushed garlic cloves all stirred together in a small bowl. This butter was then spread under the skin on each chicken breast.
Then I quartered a small red onion and put half in each bird's cavity. I tied the legs together with cotton twine, then placed the bird in a roasting dish. Next I poured a generous amount of olive oil on each chicken, laid some whole sprigs of herbs on the skin, sprinkled some more olive oil and then some dry white wine, and then some freshly ground black pepper.



These were baked at 450 for a half hour, then 325 for 15 more minutes.

I'm not exaggerating when I say they were probably the best roast chicken I have ever made. Totally worth the vivisection I had to commit.

I served them with fresh corn on the cob from Malaysia and roasted root vegetables: potatoes, carrots, parsnips and sweet potatoes with rosemary, quartered onion and sliced garlic all coated with olive oil and salt and pepper.

The dinner was so good, I had to come up with an equally good dessert. So I served perfectly ripe nectarines with vanilla ice cream and crumbled graham crackers, sprinkled with cinnamon.

I feel like such a genius.

The neat part was that we had such a nice breeze blowing through the house that I turned off the air conditioners and they've been off for hours. That NEVER happens. It's usually too humid for me, but it's so pleasant I almost feel like a real human being.

So, what's the occasion? None. Just felt like doing it.

But this post is entitled AdventureSSS (plural)

So, while all this was going on, I made up a batch of cookies I found the recipe for on the internet.

Here's the recipe. See if you can spot the adventure.

3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
Cream together. Add dry ingredients:

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt

Chill for 1 hour. Roll out and cut out shapes. Bake at yadda yadda yadda...Did you catch the error?

I'm standing there, in front of my KitchenAid, thinking this is a little too wet to roll out. Even if I chill it...


Where's the flour?

Well, I eventually ended up adding 4 cups of flour to make the right consistency. But the recipe never mentioned it.

I'll bake these off tomorrow and let you know how they are.