Virtual birthday party

[hrj]

 Hey, it's my birthday tomorrow (possibly today when you're reading this), May 12. Usually I'm off celebrating my birthday at the Kalamazoo medieval congress. This year, for reasons that have been made entirely moot on several levels, I would have been at home anyway for my birthday, but due to having lined up two back-to-back conventions to attend (now also largely moot) I'd made my usual plan to have a displaced party in June. This year's theme was going to be "sharing the produce of our estates" with guests encouraged to bring something home-made for a gift exchange. You know: jams and jellies, charcuterie, personalized spice blends, whatever your signature thing is. The original idea was for preserved items that people could take away with them, rather than a potluck sort of thing.

Just because I can't have you all over to enjoy my garden and share physical gifts doesn't mean we can't have a Produce Of Our Estates party. Here's the deal:

Either on my blog here, or on facebook if you prefer (assuming we're mutuals there), or on twitter (if the character limit doesn't get in the way), post a recipe of something you'd enjoy sharing with your fellow guests. Bonus points if you usually make it using something you grow yourself. Bonus points for photos (although that may be easier on fb or twitter than here).

Not a crafty foodie sort? There's a alternate theme: post me pictures of A) women in riding habits; or B) women with swords; or C) with in riding habits with swords. Again, post in whichever venue works for you.

Let's have a virtual party of the senses to celebrate my 62nd year!

Comments

[rosefox]

Ooh, I'd probably try to figure out the proportions for a soup seasoning blend. I put dill, thyme, tarragon, and ginger in nearly every soup I make, but always each on its own, and it would be handy to have them in one jar somehow (all pulverized to powder because otherwise the ginger will come out fastest and the tarragon will stay stuck in the jar).

My fallback would be 50/50 thyme/oregano, which we gave out jars of at my wedding to J. Friends referred to it as "roseandjosh", as in "Hmm, I think this needs a pinch of roseandjosh".

I got so distracted thinking about what to bring that I forgot to include birthday wishes! Have a very happy birthday, and many joyous returns of the day.

[choirwoman]

Happy birthday!

*riffles through recipes*

You can probably figure out your own strawberry sorbet, and I know your excellent candied peel so I won't insult you with mine. Have what we call "cheese baklava" (easily cut into finger-food pieces):

Make phyllo dough or thaw a frozen packet.
Crumble feta or similar cheese, mix with fresh or dried mint and/or other herbs, finely chopped onion and pepper.
Melt rather a lot of butter.

Brush a convenient (rectangular, medium-deep) dish with butter, start layering dough (double layer, the first sheet crumpled so it has some air and the second flat) and cheese, brushing each layer of dough with butter. Finish with a layer of dough. Depending on proportions of ingredients and dish you can probably manage 2-3 layers of cheese, 5-7 layers total.

Beat 2 eggs with creme fraiche and pour the mixture over the pastry.

Bake about 40 minutes in a medium-hot oven (180C/350F). Eat hot or lukewarm or cold, it's all equally delicious.

(Eek, forgot to take a picture when I wrote it up for my cooking site)

[choirwoman]

And here's a link to a picture of the tiniest swordswoman ever (my eldest daughter at 8 or 9 in the Dutch Youth Tournament on sabre). She ended somewhere in the middle that time. A couple of years later, the last time she competed -- high school put an end to it -- she busted a knee in the final and came second.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/48jnmbth1ae0eis/steek1.jpg?dl=0

[aurumcalendula]

Happy birthday!

I'm very fond of this photo of Nora Kerin

[lferion]

Happy birthday! I will attempt to come back later with a picture or something ♥

[threadwalker]

[hrj]

My favorite woman-with-a-sword!

[hrj]

Some of the pictures people are posting make me long for novels written about their subjects. (That sort of inspiration was one of the reasons I picked the topic.)

[hrj]

This is exactly the sort of thing I'd love to have an in-person party to share around. When I reorganized my spice shelves last month, I found a couple of jars of personal blends people had given me and finally used them!

[hrj]

Oh this would be fabulous! I"m going to print it off for my recipe file.

[hrj]

Nice!

[hrj]

Looking forward to it!

[shewhostaples]

Happy birthday! I have a mug of fresh mint tea made with some of the mint we discovered growing in the compost bin when we moved to this house.

Swords!

[evilrooster]

A couple of shots of me in the two variants of my Éowyn costume for Worldcon in 2014, with sword borrowed from my son's Night's Watch costume.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5lhq7moi1ttip6g/2014-08-10%2013.24.50.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yxvry2vhw2bj9iw/2014-08-10%2013.34.09.jpg

[kiya]

I am afraid I do not have the mental wherewithal to provide an appropriate gift, but happy birthday anyway. :}

[ursula]

Happy birthday!

The main produce of our estates right now is green onions. Here they are in an improvised tuna salad, in a stir-fry with noodles, and in the garden with some very relaxed wildlife.

[hrj]

Simple and direct! I've always been used to thinking of mint as the plant that will crowd out *everything*. And then, at my last house, I planted mint and violets in the same area and the violets choked out the mint.

Re: Swords!

[hrj]

I love your sewing projects! And I love that my "women with swords" feed is included a number of people posting pictures of themselves!

[hrj]

Thank you for coming to my party!

[hrj]

Every once in a while I get in the right rhythm with my onion plantings to have both green onions and bulbs available fairly consistently. But it takes some attention to advance planning.

[hawkwing_lb]

So my orange ricotta marzipan buns did not survive long enough to have pictures made of them...

First make your own ricotta. Then take:

i) some ricotta
ii) some orange zest
iii) some orange essence
iv) egg
v) small amount of butter
vi) sugar
vii) mixed peel

Mix together until it looks like sponge-batter before you add the flour.

Then take:

viii) some self-raising flour

Add it to the above (sieved into is better, but you can just fling it in)

Then take:

ix) some marzipan

If you are making buns, press small balls of marzipan into the centre of the dough before you put it in the oven. Also make flat marzipan hats for on top. If you are making a large cake, I imagine just do the hat.

Put in the oven at 200C (180 fan) and cook until ready. For buns, this is approximately 15 minutes.

Serve with candied peel or fresh oranges. Or coconut cream if you're feeling deluxe-dessert-y.

Happy birthday!

[hrj]

Saved off into my recipe file!

[hawkwing_lb]

:D

[cellio]

Happy birthday!

Last year I grew food for the first time, one simple basil plant because a seedling came in the CSA box. And I learned that caprese salad made with fresh-off-the-plant basil is the best! This year I am expanding from basil to also include cherry tomatoes, which are the wrong kind of tomatoes I know but this stuff all has to work in pots.

Making soft mozzerella is probably beyond me; that comes from the store thus far, along with the balsamic vinegar.

[hrj]

There are a number of plants that are supposed to "idiot-proof" that I have little luck with. Basil is one of them. Either it dies immediately or it bolts immediately.

Don't diss cherry tomatoes. They're the best for gratification and security. They come early and often and you never have the experience of watching that one tomato grow and grow and just when it was about to ripen, it cracks or gets knocked off or critters get it.

[cellio]

Oh, I'm not dissing cherry tomatoes; I love them and they're perfect for salads. I just meant that they are not the conventional tomato type for caprese salads specifically. But assuming I don't mess up this seedling, I plan to explore that use this summer anyway!

Happy Birthday!

[kareina]

First, have you seen this photo of my friend frualeydis in her riding habit? https://www.instagram.com/p/B_9siban_WU/


Second, here is the best risotto I have made recently:

Ingredients: pumpkin, rice, artichoke, dried nettle, black currant, Västerbottensost, toasted sunflower seeds, butter, garlic powder, onion powder, rosemary, pepper, salt, verjuice

* Peel and chop a butternut pumpkin and boil in just enough water to cover.
* While the pumpkin cooks wash and toast and eat the pumpkin seeds
* Drain a can of artichoke hearts, separate the leaves, and chop the bases
* Grate ~0.5 cup or more of cheese (if you can't get Västerbottensost substitute another flavourful hard cheese)
* When the pumpkin is soft use an immersion blender to make a smooth broth
* Saute 2 cups of porridge rice (or sushi rice, or other short grained rice that will absorb lots, if you can't get porridge rice) in butter till it starts to go translucent
* Add the pumpkin puree, the chopped artichoke, grated cheese a couple of large spoons of dried nettle, spices, a cup of frozen black currants, and a teaspoon of verjuice, then cover and let simmer, stirring occasionally (I do this in a rice cooker, but it really does need to be stirred often.
* While the rice cooks toast some sunflower seeds (or just buy some pre-toasted in advance, and relax during this time, but I find it convenient to stay in the kitchen, so I remember to stir the rice)
* When the rice is cooked stir in the seeds and enjoy.

Note: If one uses a whole pumpkin and 2 cups of rice this makes a lot. One could try a smaller batch, but I happen to love it left over, too.

In this recipe it is only the nettles and black currant that grow on my estate, though I now have rosemary growing indoors.

[kareina]

Oh, that sounds amazing

Re: Happy Birthday!

[hrj]

I tend to go by the "contagion theory" of Produce of One's Estates -- any ingredient claims it!