Ks Are Wild

I got this off of Apartment Therapy just now.  I always went from an old Martha Stewart mag. tip.  The one thing I hesitate in using this on is anything silk or satin - you know, anything where water spots or fine oil could be problematic.  Note the distilled water.  I rarely, if ever, do it with that.  Haven’t noticed any problems.

How To: Make Your Own Linen Spray

More Tips:

Make Your Own Spray Starch for Ironing

(A post on this guy’s blog, but something I already did off of an old Martha Stewart Mag.)

Want to know how to get crisp collars, protect your clothes, save money, and help the environment? Make your own starch.

About Starch

Laundry starch is a liquid used to crisp collars and smooth fabrics. It is sprayed directly on the fabric before ironing. Upon heat, the starch firms up the cloth, making the fabric crisp. The garment looks sharper and keeps a press longer than conventional ironing.

Not only does it improve appearance, it also forms a protective barrier between you and your clothes. Dirt and sweat stick to the starch instead of the fabric. When laundered, the starch washes away with the dirt and sweat attached leaving the fabric untouched. This preserves the fabric making your clothing last longer.

Making Your Own Starch

Starch is not expensive at around $2 a can. However it is very easy to make and you probably already have the ingredients. Most likely you can make it faster than you can buy it. By making your own starch you also eliminate any unwanted chemicals and reduce waste by utilizing reusable containers.

Ingredients

• 1 heaping tbsp of corn starch
• 1 cup water
• 1 spray bottle

Directions

• Heat water for 90 seconds in the microwave. This makes it easier for the corn starch to dissolve.
• Add corn starch and stir till completely dissolved. The water will be a milky white color.
• Carefully pour into the spray bottle.

Use

• Shake the bottle to make ensure a good mixture.
• Spray sparingly on fabric
• Iron as usual.

“Rosa sat
so Martin could walk.
Martin walked
so Obama could run.
Obama ran
so our children could fly.”

I served this to Kham’s aunt and cousin for lunch this weekend and am making it again for my family for tonight’s dinner.

Ingredients:

Tortillas ( I also like to use the puffy Mediterranean bread but it’s harder to find around here fresh enough.  Trader Joe’s sells them and so does my Safeway.  I do NOT like flat hard stale pocket pitas.)

lettuce

red wine vinegar

1 inch slice of peppered turkey (for 4+ adults)

crumbled feta cheese

cucumbers

calamata olives

Greek yogurt PLAIN

juice of 1 lemon

fresh mint

garlic salt

ground cumin

ground coriander

Directions:

I soften and warm tortillas, used fresh red leaf lettuce that I predress with a touch of good olive oil and tart red wine vinegar, chopped cubed peppered turkey, pitted calamata olives, feta cheese, lemon cucumbers from the garden.  For the tzaziki I use plain greek yogurt found at Trader Joe’s or our co-op and mix it with lots of lemon juice, fresh mint, garlic salt, and a little ground coriander and ground cumin.  For kicks I stirred in a little of my white bean dip too.  This, you’ll have to find your own balance of flavors for your preference.  Load it up on edge of tortilla, dress tzaziki down center and then roll tortilla up like a burrito.  Those calamata olives are pretty pivotal to this sandwhich.  I also like to top with small slices or shaves of random veggies left in the drawer (carrot ribbons or shreds) and canned chickpeas.

As with all Slater gatherings, this past weekend was one full of lengthy and amusing discussions along with tremendous amounts of eating.  I was prepared for those Italians.  Here’s some of what I made/ provided.

Friday night: Red and white wines and handmade Baklava by my Egyptian friend.

Saturday breakfast: Kari’s Banana Hazelnut Waffles: Banana waffles made with Krusteaz batter, employing Hazelnut oil, 2 fresh bananas per large batter batch, a tsp. of hazelnut extract, and substituting fresh applejuice for water.  Peet’s Major Dickenson’s blend of coffee (our new fave).

Saturday snack: fresh sourdough bread with a Rosemary Tuscan White Bean dip

Saturday lunch: Kari’s take on Greek wrap sandwiches with her own tzaziki sauce.

Saturday appetizer: Cheese Platter with pears, apples, and champagne

Since we loved the cheese platter so much at our anniversary dinner, I decided to do our own for his birthday.  I tried to be sure to choose some from local artisan cheese (purchased at our co-op).  I paired this platter (served on our cathedral crystal platter our cheesecake was on at our wedding) with three different types of pears grown locally, the most delicious apples (a variety highly recommended by the co-op staff.  I’ll have to find out what kind it was again), and champagne (but of course!).  The cheeses I selected were:

• 6 month Manchego (sheep milk) from Spain.  Always a good one as the firm cheese representative on a platter in my opinion.
• wine-cured goat cheese from Spain called “Murcia Al Vino” - I couldn’t get over the creamy solid texture.  I don’t think I’ve had goat cheese in this format.  It wasn’t the soft, fresh, cookie dough/cream cheese consistency but more firm and solid than the brie.  I really liked it and was trying to come up with another use for that format, but kept coming around to this fruit and cracker type scenario.
• Oregon Blue cheese, Raw (vs. smoked), from Raw Rogue Creamery an award winning place and product.  Quite good.
• P’Tit Basque, from sheep’s milk, by Istara from France
• French Prairie brie.  Fine.  Tiny portions for the cost.  Didn’t excite me for the money, but I love brie so hard to go wrong.  I’ll probably try a different kind next time.
• Cypress Grove Chevre out of my old stomping grounds of Arcata, CA gave us the goat cheese Humboldt Fog - Described as this “Our signature offering, Humboldt Fog® is an elegant, soft, surface ripened cheese. The texture is creamy and luscious with a subtle tangy flavor. Each handcrafted wheel features a ribbon of edible vegetable ash along its center and a coating of ash under its exterior to give it a distinctive, cake-like appearance”  my least favorite.  Looked like a slice of the double chocolate cake with the frosting in the middle, only the middle frosting was vegetable ash and the exterior frosted area was about a half inch of liquefying goat cheese with a pretty grey mold crust.  Looked beautiful for display but it was a little too ripe and drippy for my palette as of yet.  But I am going to try it again today and see if I still think that.  I was open to trying something new that some might be intimidated about but I preferred the other varieties better.

Saturday Dinner:

A plain red leaf salad with lemon cucumbers from the garden dressed with my subtle Asian salad dressing and cracks of fresh pepper

Fresh mashed potatoes from my garden (A mix of All Blue and Caribe varieties) with dollops of that extra flavorful, thick, and creamy organic live culture sour cream.

Marinated Flank Steak broiled in the oven on foil lined sheets using a marinade that was essentially 1:3 ratio of red wine to soy sauce (as Kham likes it) plus some other flavor punches like garlic, fresh ginger, Emeril Lagasse’s “original essence”…  I prepped it and his aunt was kind enough to watch over it and judge it when ready as well as slice it (things I’m not so hot at.  Meat is not my forte.)

Saturday Dessert:

More Baklava and Bailey’s Irish Cream Creme Brulee with more champagne and wine.

All served on my wedding china and crystal - But of course!  Is there any other way?!  I whip it out whenever I can.  Any old excuse.  But the Boyds were an excellent reason.  When the royals are in town, I don’t allow them to eat there food from mere Crate and Barrel.  And if this all sounds good to you, then you need to come visit us too.  We like to spoil guests as best we can so they’ll come back, bring others, and spread the word.  We miss all of you and you are welcome any time to the Casa de Kari y Kham.

Kham turned 41 on Saturday.  As my present to him, I arranged for a surprise birthday weekend of fun with his Aunt Denise, Uncle Randy, and Cousin Kaarin Boyd.  Denise is his mom’s sister.  They were kind enough to take a day off work and drive all the way down from Mt. Vernon and Seattle, Washington to surprise him.  They arrived around 7 pm, right around the time of our pizza delivery.  So I sent Kham outside to pay the pizza guy and when he rounded the corner of the garage - SURPRISE!!!  We got him good!  He was shocked and thrilled.  And the kids were pleased as punch by their dog, Tess.

Two hours later I surprised Kham with another visitor.  This time it was Kosette’s Kindergarten teacher “Mrs. Watson”, whom he hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting yet.  I joked that she came all the way there at 9pm on a Friday night to do a grown-up version of show-and-tell.  NO, not a stripper!  Shame on you for thinking that.  A bear skull that her father had shot!  Right up Kham, archaeologist, faunal analysist’s alley.  But THEN I whipped out the final surprise.  Mrs. Watson brought her guitar and accompanied me, while I sang Anne Murray’s version of “Danny’s Song” for/to him.  Now some of you may remember Kham singing for me at our wedding reception with my Dad’s group “Kari Waits For Me”.  I didn’t have the balls to do it then.  I’m emotional like my dad, and too nervous a performer.  I don’t thrive on it like my accomplished artist of a sister, Kelli.  I knew if I did it for our wedding, I’d spend the whole time thinking and being nervous about that then keeping my head focused on where it should be in the moment.  So I opted not.  And boy, after Friday night, I sure was glad that I made that choice for my wedding.  I still broke down so much we had to start over twice and try the whole song twice.  I couldn’t even look at him.  But he’s joked for a long time that I owed him, and “one of these days…” so I knew it would mean more to him than any material gift.  And the presence of his family, although just family, was audience enough for my nerves.  Thanks Mrs. Watson!  If you don’t know the song, here’s a link to it on YouTube: Anne Murray sings “Danny’s Song”.

We had a delightful weekend.  Denise and Randy hadn’t been here before so it was fun to show off Corvallis and the house.  As with any Slater gathering, it was full of talk, teasing, laughter, games, and lots and lots of good food and drink.  I showed the ladies downtown Corvallis, and the men went to the top of Mary’s Peak (”On a Clear Day, You Can See Forever”) and then dined at Squirrels and watched a college football game.  Kaarin, professional financial job at day and ex-MAC makeup artist at night (who really should do makeup on the sly for weddings because she could make a bundle and get to exercise her creative side), surprised Kosette with her kit and made her into a butterfly and transformed Kellen’s face into a tiger.  Then Auntie Kaarin allowed them to brush her.  Kosette also brushed herself and ended up looking like a Butterfly Hitler by the end.  Cribbage was played and we ladies even managed to squeeze in a mad shopping spree at T.J. Maxx.  Boy, did I have fun.  It feels like ages since I did such a girlie free-for-all.  And it was nice to have 2nd opinions.  That night we donned crazy wigs and hats and never quite got around to playing the games we thought we would like Apples to Apples.  Next time.  But the candlelit conversation and exchange of ideas was so intense and good and quality, there was no interrupting them for “plans”.  We just went with the flow.  The flow of the wine and champagne wasn’t half bad either

Anyway, after weeks of planning it’s over.  It was great with nary a hitch.  Now, onto the cleanup.

I posted the pics and video clip at our picasa site if you want to check it out:  http://picasaweb.google.com/KariLei/BoydSurpriseVisitForKhamS41stBday#

Two things, both labor intensive and no big deal but I tried to make them meaningful, thoughtful, surprising, and useful; not just stuff:

1. 3 disc mixed cd
2. Master Bedroom Closet organization system (knowing that this was somewhat of a mutual gift and not cheap I told him ahead of time not to buy anything for me)

“7 Years and Counting: A Soundtrack for the Ecclectic Cheesiness of Our Love”

This was a 3 disc set custom downloaded and mixed by moi for Kham.  Most of you probably know that that was a big part of Kham and I working to stay together through our lengthy long-distance relationship (we went straight from long-distance to living together).  Our mixed tape exchanges were musical lovenotes that have permanently associated the person with those songs.  We now, can’t hear those songs without our memories being triggered of where we were and what we were doing when we first listened to those mixes.  In making this grand mix, I realized that the last time we had made a mix for one another was before you could burn cds on the computer!  We had never had a cd mix.  And even now that we’ve just done this, we don’t have an ipod to just transfer playlists.  I had to deal with a tempermental burner that keeps messing up the burning of disc #2 or the set.  Arg.  It was really fun to do.

What made this mix particularly special, aside from the fact that it was a multiple collection and actually on a cd instead of cassette tape, is that I arranged it in an order and wrote a letter to accompany it that retold our love story like this was the soundtrack to our life and romance, putting song names in bold parenthesis.  Normally, I’d arrange it in the most pleasant listening order and vary tempo for listening pacing and attention, etc.  This format was really fun and different for me.

The reason for the length of the cds was that this was a list of songs that I have been collecting for 5 1/2 years!  Ever since Kham got SIRIUS satellite radio in Elko when Kosette was a baby, I have been writing down song and artist names for future mixes.  Through the years I have saved every little scrap of napkin or receipt back upon which I’d written, and then cataloged them in my palm pilot just for this purpose.  I finally cashed it all in and downloaded a shitload of music off of Amazon and itunes.

I would’ve added the “Anyone Else But You” song from the June movie soundtrack by The Moldy Peaches but you had to purchase the whole album to get it so forget that.  And I wanted the movie version of Pirates of Penzance with Kevin Klein and Linda Ronstadt but I couldn’t find it.  Oh, and I wanted the Kristen Chenowith/ Patti LaPone version of Candide they did for a PBS concert but I couldn’t find that on an album.  Oh well.  It was quite full enough.  I tried to keep a sense of humor to the song selection as well.  It’s like giving sappy cards - I just can’t buy them.  They make me giggle or roll my eyes.  They have to have a touch of comical or be totally blank so I can write my own sappiness.

If you’d like some insight into us, and our musical appreciation, you can have a look at the playlist:

7 Years & Counting: Disc 1:

1. Girl – Across the Universe

2. The Bitch of Living – Spring Awakening

3. Sodomy - Hair

4. Black Boys – Hair

5. White Boys – Hair

6. It Might As Well Be Spring – State Fair

7. Breakable – Ingrid Michaelson

8. Summer of ’42 – Summer of ‘42

9. True Love’s Kiss – Enchanted

10. Stranger on the Shore – Acker Bilk

11. I Want to Hold Your Hand – Across the Universe

12. It Ain’t Me Babe – Walk the Line

13. Make It With You – Bread

14. Sweet Leilani – Chris Isaak

15. Cherry Pink and Appleblossom White – Perez Prado Orchestra

16. Daddy – Kristen Chenowith

17. American Boy – Estelle Featuring Kanye West

18. I Want You (She’s So Heavy) – Across the Universe

19. Teach U A Lesson – Robin Thicke

20. If I Fell – Across the Universe

21. That’s How You Know - Enchanted

22. Sleepwalk – Santo And Johnny Il-Meggio

23. Like A Star – Corinne Bailey Rae

24. Everything’s Alright – Jesus Christ Superstar

25. As Long As You’re Mine – Wicked

7 Years & Counting: Disc 2:

26. 1. That’s All – Michael Buble

27. 2. Blue Sunday – The Doors

28. 3. Anyway You Want Me - Bread

29. 4. What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life? – Chris Botti FeaturingSting

30.5. I Walk the Line – Johnny Cash

31. 6. If I Were A Carpenter – Bobby Darrin

32. 7. Bubbly – Colbie Caillat

33. 8. Hold Me Tight – Across the Universe

34. 9. Hooked On A Feeling – B.J. Thomas

35. 10. Happy Together – The Turtles

36. 11. Breaking Free – High School Musical

37. 12. Reminiscing – Little River Band

38. 13. Super Duper Love – Joss Stone

39. 14. It Won’t Be Long – Across the Universe

40.15. Oh, Happy We - Candide

41. 16. Ring of Fire – Johnny Cash

42. 17. Danny’s Song – Anne Murray

43. 18. Oh, Darling – Across the Universe

44. 19. Here Alone – Little Women

45. 20. The Chairman’s Waltz – Memoirs of a Geisha

46. 21. Syrup and Honey - Duffy

47. 22. She’s No Lady – Lyle Lovette

48. 23. The Way I Am – Ingrid Michaelson

49. 24. If - Bread

50. 25. Lost Without U – Robin Thicke

7 Years & Counting: Disc 3:

51. 1. Never My Love – The Association

52. 2. Our House – Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young

53. 3. Sweet Life – Paul Davis

54. 4. Longer – Dan Fogelberg

55. 5. If Not For You – Bob Dylan

56. 6. Just Remember I Love You - Firefall

57. 7. Baby I’m A Want You - Bread

58. 8. What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life? – Dusty Springfield

59. 9. Keep Breathing – Ingrid Michaelson

60.10. Because – Across the Universe

61. 11. The Wings – Brokeback Mountain

62. 12. Sweet Leilani – Diamond Head Beach Boys

63. 13. All You Need Is Love – Across the Universe

64. 14. We Can Make It – The Rink

65. 15. Chief Cook and Bottle Washer – The Rink

66. 16. Sweet Leilani – Andy Williams

The Mutual Gift of Closet Organization:

I bought, transported 12 foot long x 16″ sections through my Jetta’s sunroof, cut with bolt cutters, and installed in studs and with appropriate wall anchors by myself (except one little part that a neighbor helped me with) variable and fixed Rubbermade wire shelving systems from Home Depot for two walls of our closet AND painted the closet interior in one working day to surprise Kham when he got home.  The biggest gift being another pain-in-the-ass home improvement project that he didn’t have to waste a Saturday on.  PLUS, believe it or not, this was a big gift for HIM because he has more clothes than me now with his outside job.  He leaves so early in the morning and is superconsiderate about the noise and he makes that he dresses in the closet.  But, we didn’t have enough shelving or cubby space and we are not Hang up everything people.  So I’d hear him fumbling around and cursing the tumbling gigantic piles we had stacked on our shoe racks.  We couldn’t find or access anything without knocking others to the floor.  I dreaded putting clothes away.  It was hard to categorize things like work and personal for him.  Now it’s totally neat in there and he gets dressed ultra quick with no stress.  One of the best spent home improvements we’ve made thus far I think.  Wish we’d bit the bullet and done it sooner.  We’ve been dealing with that mess and hassle for 2 1/2 years by then.  (Kellen was my assistant - helped me cut with the bolt cutters, drill holes, and screw things in.  He loved it.)

I’ve made this recipe every tomato season now and have modified it a bit, but not much.  It comes from my Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special cookbook that has mostly soups, stews, and salads.   It is quite easy.

First, a note about the ingredients:

It does take one ingredient that you’ll have to hunt down, paneer.  I’ve seen it at my co-op and it’s definitely at our indian supply store down the street.  This is a spongy Indian cheese similar to firm tofu in texture and acts like tofu in that it’s pretty flavorless on its own, but when put in a sauce or soup, it soaks up the flavor of its surroundings and tastes sorta nutty.  You can use spiced paneer or plain.  If you’ve ever had the Indian dish “saag paneer” (the spinach sauce and cheese chunks) then you’ve had that cheese.  It is essential to this soup, though. So if you can’t find it, then don’t make this or try substituting.

This is a good soup to use your firm tomatoes for.  I like choosing some of my prettiest tomatoes too since the colors of this can be vibrant.  This year I used Kellogg’s Breakfast, German Strawberry, I think I threw in some Ananas Noire too.  I also used Green Zebra but did not like it for this purpose.  (I am trying to perfect this soup so am trying to be more discriminating in my ingredient choices).

Serves 4-5 adults

Yields 6 cups

Total time: 50 mins (about 35 of which are cook time)

Ingredients:

2 tbs. olive oil plus 1 tb. butter

2 cups finely chopped onions

4-5 garlic cloves minced or pressed (can’t taste it at all if you used the 3 it called for)

1/2 tsp. salt

1-2 tsp. ground cumin (really depends on whether you like things subtle or really enjoy those herbs)

1-2 tsp. ground coriander

1/2-3/4 basmati rice, rinsed and drained

4 cups chicken stock (can do water or veggie stock but not nearly as flavorful or delightful.  Not a veg. stock fan for this one)

2 cups chopped tomatoes

2 tbs. chopped fresh cilantro (I grow asian cilantro and I think it suits this better than the mexican kind)

salt and ground black pepper to taste

At least 1 cup of cubed paneer about sugar cube size  (use spiced paneer if you want)

I also like to top with a little avocado if I have it.

Directions:

Warm the oil and butter in stockpot.  Add onions, garlic, and salt and saute on medium heat for about 10 mins. or until the onions are translucent, stirring often.  Add the cumin and coriander and saute for a minute, stirring constantly.  Add the rinsed rice and stock of choice (or water).  Cover and bring to a boil; then reduce the heat, add all the cheese, stir to fully incorporate, cover, and cook until the rice is tender, about 25 mins.

Stir in the chopped tomatoes, cover, and cook on low for about 5 mins, until the tomatoes are tender.  Add the cilantro, and salt and pepper to taste, and some fanned avocado slices or piled avocado chunks on top.  \

As always, let me know how you like it or vary it for yourself if you make it.

Kellen:  “Boogers–Googers.  Kosette, Boogers–Googers.  Hey mom, that rhymes Boogers–Googers!”

On a similar note, he has finally stopped his baby pronunciation of sandwhich as “Chanch”.  Now it’s “Sanwhich”.  So close.  I’ll be awfully sad when he self-corrects all his baby words.  It’s one of the few things left of his babyhood.

Kosette: “Can I have cheereal for breakfast?”

Mom: “No, you can not because there’s no such thing as CHEEReal.  There is Cereal and there is Cheerios.”

Kosette: “Oh, sorry.  Silly Kosette.  Can I have some ch- I mean cereal?”

Mom: “Yes you can and yes you may.”

So we’re on our final 16 tomatoes.  There’s about 8 ripe and ready to go on a platter in the middle of my dining room table and about 8 on our windowsill not ripening.  So they need to be used green or chucked on the compost pile.  However, I only thought that you could pickle or fry green tomatoes.  Who knew you could cook with them?  They are delicious!  Firm (like that hard, flat, light orange kind of persimmon), tangy, a little tart - delisch!  I adapted the following recipe.  I’ll just write it as I cooked it, not exactly as written, but the title is listed in the cookbook as above.  The cookbook is called “Tomato Imperative: From Fried Green Tomatoes to Summer’s Ripe Bounty” by Nimitz and Cousineau.  Oh, and, per Kham’s request, I happened to add a bunch of minced prosciutto chunks to it, but I would skip that next time.  Don’t get me wrong, it was wonderful, but I think, the delicate and unique flavor of the green tomatoes got overwhelmed by the prosciutto and it made it a bit of a different monster.  I’m going to make it again tomorrow night minus the prosciutto.

Served one big bowl each for 4 adults and 2 kids (ate it all!).

Ingredients:

1 box dried small sized Penne pasta (forgetting what that’s called Pennini?  Pennette?)  Use something small like fusilli or bow ties that will take and hold the sauce

3 tb. butter

3 cloves minced garlic

3-4 large green tomatoes seeded and chopped

grated zest of 1 large lemon

juice of 1/2 a lemon

1/2 tsp. salt

at least 2/3 cup Creme Fraiche

freshly ground pepper - I could see white pepper being an appropriate taste here as well as not cloud the nice white sauce.

1 cup of reserved salted pasta water after you’ve cooked and drained the pasta

Freshly shaved hard italian cheese.  We used Asiago because I wanted it light but nutty.

Directions:

1.  Make the pasta to desired tenderness and drain.  Try to time with sauce.

2.  Melt butter in large skillet over medium heat.  Add garlic, green tomatoes, salt, and zest.  Stew together for about 5 minutes.

3. Stir in the Creme fraiche (Trader Joe’s carries this and I got mine at Safeway or Fred Meyers), pepper, about 1/4 c. of the pasta water, and mix thoroughly.

5.  Add lemon juice and fully incorporate.

6.  Add more creme fraiche/pasta water/lemon juice to taste, desired thickness, and sauciness.  It is a thin sauce that just barely coats the spoon.

7.  Top with cheese.  Duh.  Can’t have pasta with cheese.  I know, I know, you’re not supposed to add cheese to white sauces, but, I loves me my cheese.

I was thinking that maybe some green capers might be nice, or just a few sprigs of a purple basil (it has more bite and a bit more bitter than the sweet green basil that might accompany the taste of the green toms. better).  Also, it’s really nice to have bread on hand to swipe the leftover sauce that has coated the bowl.

If you make this, let me know what you think.  It was a really nice change of pace if you feel like you’re in a pasta rut.  Now I LOOOOOVE green tomatoes and won’t be so bummed if they don’t ripen.  Besides, as far as tomatoes go, when you’re eating a lot of them, the unripeness alone is a nice change of pace in taste.