nor'easter

When we were walking so far in New Orleans, we stopped for a late brunch or lunch at Kenton's.  I am pretty sure we got their lunch menu.  I had their crispy grits with wilted spinach and a pulled pork.  There was a sauce involved but I cannot remember what it was.  I know my mouth thought heaven arrived.  My Beloved had the breakfast sandwich with homemade potato chips.  I am not a fan of either and I could have eaten every single bite.  I just had enough to taste.

I had a nor'easter to go with it.  Kenton's description is food and bourbon so I wanted something with bourbon in it.  A nor'easter was described to me as a bourbon moscow mule.  I would say not.  I looked up the recipe when I got home.  I needed more limes anyhow!

I used less lime then the recipe called for because I find most recipes are just too heavy on the lime for me.  I have been using ginger syrup and soda water because that is what I have but light on the soda water.  The recipe suggests to make a batch, except for the soda water, and store it in the refrigerator.  I find that works well.

So here is my recipe with my small changes.  An easy go to if it is sitting in the freezer.  Easy to make.

nor'easter

Note:  I used the nytimes.com recipe as a go by.  I doubled the quantities because I do store it in the freezer.

2 ounces maple syrup

2 ounces ginger syrup

juice from one lime

8 ounces bourbon

2 ounces soda water.

Mix everything in a mason jar except the soda water.  At this point, you can store in the refrigerator if you wish.

Fill a highball glass with ice or use a 2 inch ice cube.  Fill the glass about 2/3 with the bourbon mixture.  Top with soda water until about 1/4 inch from the top of the glass.  Or no soda water at all.  Stir.  Drink.

This is enough bourbon base for two drinks.

I would love to drink this in front of a fire with a book.  Maybe in November.

and where am I sleeping this weekend?

I admit to never having a summer like this before in my life.  I have not been home for a weekend except once since the first of May.  This last weekend was New Orleans.  Another home.  It rained.  I walked.  It was lovely.

I had gotten a text on my way back from Estes Park asking when New Orleans could happen.  Business needed to be done.  Knives shown.  Rolled into New Orleans Friday when it was hot.  Business finished and beverages and food were needed.  Just a bit of rest and shade.

A few more miles, and a tent was set up.  Across the lake cooled down at night so that was lovely.  There was rain which also cooled things down a bit.

How do I do New Orleans?  I find a place to park, usually in the Marigny.  Then, I walk.  I sometimes use the street car or a bus but it is really about how far you can walk, what you wish to eat, and how much can you drink.  Going to grad school in a geology department in New Orleans has that tendency.

I did a lot of window shopping and got ideas for Christmas.  I bought a few pictures and a silver tea ball.  I have been looking at antique tea things online and I know where to go to find a brick and mortar (truly) store in the Quarter that carry such things.  Makes tea even more lovely.  I will haunt them next for crystal glasses.  They need to be just right.

I tell people who come to New Orleans with me it is:  how far can you walk and how much you can drink.  Elevenish miles later, windows looked in, food eaten, a new bar tried that I really liked, and my day was close to being finished.  The Pride parade did stop forward momentum for awhile but it just gave me another chance to eat.  I need to do elevenish mile type mile days more often.  My joints liked me for it.

New Orleans will happen again in autumn if not before.  I need to do some stocking shopping.

trapezoids

When we were at the mountain, I found a quilt store in Bellingham that I liked.  I really liked it.  What I was seeing just felt very creative and I liked their stock.  Now, most of what I bought there is still in Utah but I brought back some scrappy bits.

The store cuts 5 inch squares in multiple different prints.  They package 21 prints together for 42 squares.  It means I could get one of my normal nine squares from it or two not normal.  It would add a difference to my quilts since I really did not pick my fabrics.  But I decided to do something totally different.

I cut trapezoids.

Small trapezoids that I am stitching together.  This may be a center of a quilt.  Or it may be a bit on the back.  Or I may be asked to make it into a quilt for Spikey or Bruce Banner, Koda Bear's soft friends.  But I know I am having fun.  I have messed it up a bit but that is not surprising.  This is the first time I have tried anything like this.

Quilts at my sewing machine.  Lovely times at my wheel.  More time in a tent with tea over a fire this weekend.  Life is good.

granola bars

I made the comment recently that more traveling could occur if we ate more of our own food, both on the road and everyday.  I have only been home one weekend in the last seven.  It may actually be six.  I find the problem with traveling the way I do is that I do not wish to stop and if I do, I cannot find anything I really wish to eat.

Many years ago, when we used to have more food allergies to deal with.  I made my own granola bars based on a Martha Stewart recipe.  I dug it out again because the boyos need snacks.  And because we are traveling again this weekend.  It is a good thing that I like sleeping in a tent and I have a very small tea kettle that I can take anywhere!

These granola bars can be quite crumbly.  I used to travel with them in a plastic box instead of a plastic sack.  Very satisfying though.

peanut butter granola bars

Note:  based on a Martha Stewart recipe.  I went looking for it again and I think the name has changed to be a breakfast bar.  I have also occasionally thrown in a 1/4 - 1/2 cup of chocolate chips.  It is all a matter of taste

1 large egg white

1/2 cup quick oats or other flake type cereal with same consistency (I always thought amaranth flakes would be good)

1/2 cup dried cranberries or cherries.

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup peanut or other nut butter

1/2 cup light brown sugar

3 tablespoons olive or walnut oil

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon.

Preaheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

Line an 8 inch square baking pan with parchment paper.  If you use two pieces, and lay them perpendicular to each other, it makes lifting the granola bars out easier.

Mix the oatmeal and dried fruit in a bowl.

In a small saucepan, heat the oil, peanut butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt together.  Heat and stir until the brown sugar is dissolved.  I usually remove the mixture from the heat before all the sugar is dissolved and just keep stirring hard until it is.  I wish to cool the mixture down a bit because you now stir in the egg white.  Cooling the mixture down a bit means that the egg white does not cook.

Mix the peanut butter mixture into the oat mixture.  Spread in an even layer in the baking pan.  Bake for 30 minutes.  It should be a little darker brown.  Cool for 10 minutes.  Lift out of baking pan and let cool completely before cutting.

I did not get these cut before the picture.  I am still frustrated that I only have my phone camera.  Hopefully, the car will be repaired soon!

Good for traveling.  Good for missed breakfast.  Good for snacks for boyos who run so hard they forget to eat!  Very good for Koda bears.

fleeces

The reason I went to Estes Park was to look at fiber.  I knew the chance to see my best friend was such a long shot that it would not happen but after missing SAFF I so wished to go.  

Things I learned at Estes:  I do not like how llama and alpaca smell in enclosed spaces.  I almost got sick.  I am a sheep and goat person.  The pretty sheep above were for sale. 

I bought two bags of fiber that were from a Blue Faced Leichester/Shetland mix from Black Bar Farm and an unprocessed Bond sheep fleece from Gleason's Fine Woolies.  I was so excited.  I wanted to start spinning right away!  But I really needed to start heading home.  (More mountains in the background.  Already so missed!)

Once I got home and unpacked, the boyos verbally downloaded their life without me, I sat with one of the Blue Face Leichiester/Shetland fleeces from a sheep named Rain.  It is such a lovely dark brown.  I have spun a bobbin of yarn every day I have been back.  I am thinking that I would like a turtleneck like an old JCrew sweater I had in graduate school.  I am also thinking it may go very well with the yellow roving I bought.  I might not have enough of the grey yarn I was making for the sweater I was thinking of.  I am babbling I know.  It is how my head is working tonight.  Exhaustion has hit. 

The white roving may become a yoga rug.  I am making one for my best friend and I am changing my mind as I spin on how wish to put it together.  Welcome to my head.

I need to get into my garden and sit at my sewing machine.  There has been so much rain and heat that there are many weeds and mossie.  And I always have quilts to work on.  There are just not enough hours in the day.