I haven’t posted in so long that I have a giant backlog of pictures. Here goes!
A couple weeks ago, Toby attended some sort of workshop where everybody canned tuna and got to bring a few jars home. We’ve already eaten two of these and the tuna is delicious! We still have ten jars to go. I was also supposed to attend the workshop, but I had suddenly become very ill the night before and had to cancel. I remained sick for about a week with some mysterious flu-like ailment, but I have since recovered.
We finally have a rack to hang our little pots from! Toby put it up. I love the way it looks, and it freed up some cupboard space for the tuna jars and several other jars we’d been keeping in the closet.
Two of our friends bought a giant pile of Sichuan peppercorns and sent us back with a big bag of them. We haven’t cooked with them yet, but I’m super excited to try. Sichuan peppercorns make your tongue go numb. I tried one to see and it’s true!
We’ve been drinking port lately! Toby got me two tiny bottles for Christmas and we cracked open the first one about a week ago. We got four servings each out of it (tiny servings!), and I’m excited to try the other one too. I adore port. This one tasted like dried fruit. It was shockingly flavorful, and sweet without being too sugary. Amazing!
I made a really awesome pizza last week. It was topped with mozzarella, hedgehog mushrooms, and arugula. I love to make pizza.
We have been consuming an astonishing number of Clementine oranges. Every time we go to the store, we pick up another five-pound box (or two). Meyer lemons have also just come into season, so I should make some more Meyer lemon poppyseed muffins while the getting is good!
I made an orange-almond cake (Julia Child’s recipe) for a dinner party with friends. It was amazing. Why are almonds so incredibly delicious in cakes?
For the same dinner party, I made a batch of tender muffins. They’re actually just oatmeal muffins, but my family has called them “tender muffins” for my entire life. I didn’t have buttermilk so I mixed milk with some of Toby’s sourdough starter for a bit of fermented flavor!
Finally, the paperwhite bulb is shooting up. This picture is from a few days ago; it’s actually a couple inches taller already by now. I love it! The hyacinth hasn’t done much since I planted it in a jar, but its little shoot did turn bright green. Maybe that’s a good sign?
Next on Pickled Beets: Seattle gets buried under three inches of snow for about a day and a half!
