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elainegrey
He hung out in the living room for a long time last night - -after Marlowe and Carrie came in he retreated to under the couch. He might have felt a little trapped. This morning he's spent in his room despite Marlowe and Carrie being closed in the bedroom sleeping.
elainegreyOnce upon a time, a long long time ago, Christine and i lived on the top floor of a house in West Philly, and usenet delivered to me a recipe about making soup in a pumpkin. I remember it fondly, although it was very very rich. Cream! French bread! Swiss cheese! One served the soup by scooping the baked pumpkin out with the cream soup.
Last night i took two of those little pie pumpkins, cut the tops off, scooped out the seeds (left them overnight in brine), and then the stringy innards. I filled each with a hunk of (frozen) French bread, seasoning (paprika, onion powder, nutmeg, pepper), shredded Swiss cheese, and whole milk. We'd bought the bread last week, and i froze what was needed for the soup, as i realized the pumpkins would keep while the poblano peppers needed prompt roasting. That casserole kept us in leftovers for a good while.
A recipe i found for a similar soup in a 4 lb pumpkin suggested it would take two hours to bake, but i found it just one hour at 375°F. I'd guestimated the pumpkins at 4 lbs, or a bag of sugar, but maybe i was quite off.
It wasn't soup. It had gelled up, which is good because one of the pumpkins lost structural integrity. I am uncertain about the gel. Just slow cooked milk? The boundary between the pumpkin and the "soup" had a browned skin. The bread kept its dimensions and clearly gelled up, too, but around the bread was the plain milk gel. There was a layer of the melted Swiss cheese. It was a delicious as an orange vegetable can get for me. Turns out a half a pie pumpkin was a serving, so another awaits today. I suspect i could never repeat this result. I meant to stir half way, but what was half way turned out to be the end. I did leave it in the other oven section to stay warm for an hour, so perhaps that hour of slow heat was the gelling function?
I'm happy with the recent soups: the harissa fig chickpea soup, the radish greens and potato soup, and now this pumpkin soup... er... custard? Christine says she would make it sweeter and more pie like.
elainegreyJust a quick note to say that Bruno came out of the front room on his own several times yesterday. He may have spent a great deal of time under the couch but he roamed. And the third outing, in the evening, Marlowe did spend time glaring at him under the couch. Other than a resonant warning tone -- it wasn't exactly a growl -- they got on. This morning he came roaming around and got on the couch a few times. And he kept roaming, and he sauntered back to his room, not dashing across the open ground.
He's also standing up a little more to Marlowe's attacks.
I think the stress of trying to make sure they both get enough attention and Bruno feels safe without making Marlowe feel she's loosing anything has been very hard on Christine. (And it takes cycles for me, too.) I feel like i can imagine a January where we aren't managing which doors are open and closed.
elainegreyI'm not meeting my expectations of myself and read novels instead of working on Friday, plus lots this weekend, and some late nights. I'm not quite why i am so pulled to escape. Although i suspect the serial quality -- instead of series -- for this cozy fantasy didn't help me feel finished. I'm going to start tagging my whining about this rut with 354 -- a code inspired by the name of my fictitious nemesis, 35mereld4 -- and this year, which had a remarkably bad first six months. I am working with my therapist on giving myself space to mourn the losses and adjust to my ITP diagnosis. I believe the treatment i got in May is going to keep me out of the hospital, but there's a depression/fatigue/out-of-shape-ness that is hard to sort from procrastination and bad habits and the ITP.
Today's lunch is another soup, with Maine kombu, dried mushrooms and onion greens plus a bunch of radish greens simmered together. I pulled the kombu out, blended, added it back with all the basil stems i'd saved from... last? weekend's rescue of basil. (The Thai basil and the one rescued plant might actually survive in the plant window where i overwinter coleus.) Then i added diced potato and what was probably too much nutritional yeast. Simmered until the potatoes were done, removed kombu and the basil. It's a attractive but drab green: i blame the fact that the potatoes were all purple. (And going to sprout, so i wanted to use them up.)
I rescued the lemongrass. I bought hanging planters and a plant stand. If i can keep the Torenia and Impatiens alive all winter and don't need to replace them with other "annuals" it's a win.
Frogs are singing outside tonight. Weather service is calling for a freeze tomorrow -- we haven't had a frost yet.
elainegreyYesterday i made a marvelous soup -- dried figs, chickpeas, and a can of fire roasted tomato with half a jar of harissa sauce. Blitzed up some of the figs, chickpeas, and tomatoes, but kept it chunky. The only issue is when i dried the figs i left the stems on. I usually blend them up when making my buckwheat bread (blending with the buckwheat) and between the long fermenty soaks and the blending, i have never noticed the stems. Noticed this time. Other than that, divine.
I'm trying to decide if buying The Spice House's Harissa mix is worth it. (https://www.thespicehouse.com/blogs/recipes/20-minute-harissa-spread) This resource (https://www.chefs-resources.com/culinary-conversions-calculators-and-capacities/dry-spice-yields/) says 4.25 tablespoons per oz, so it's roughly 5 batches of the recipe. (OMG olive oil prices.) I will buy Tampa resident nephew who fishes and cooks two Hawaiian sea salts and Sichuan peppercorns for Yule, and NYC student nephew maybe a popcorn seasoning and a baked potato seasoning, and then i start looking for me and i want all the flavors.
The mix is probably not worth it. The sauce i bought may have sugar in it and leads with water, but it was fine (not too garlicy).
