Ars Gratia Artis

…. Although my birthday isn’t precisely today. We celebrate over the course of a weekend most of the time, and this is my weekend. So far, it has been nice.

We had coffee and sammys at Alterra on the Lake with Steve.
We went to the West Allis Farmer’s Market–where we ran into Ruhl Zilke, an [...]

So, it did not take me long to figure out that managing the site content with a blog for every subject might turn into a serious nightmare. I’m going to have to plan it out a little bit more. I KNOW I want to do the cookery bits as a blog, and I don’t have [...]

Some while ago, I stumbled across Resurrected Recipes–well, stumbled is not exactly the right word; I check the parent blog, Slumberland.org every once in a while because the woman writing that blog is, at least as much as I can tell from her blog, like me. She is at least remotely connected to the SCA, [...]

February was a rough work month. There is a certain amount of work that we are each obliged to complete according to the government contract we work under, and February is always a month of long days and cursing one’s salaried status, because there is lots of work, but not a lot of month. It [...]

So, since Angelique has moved to Seattle, we have been watching the boys 1-2 days every weekend. This is nice, in that their father gets some help in caring for them and we get the opportunity to play with them at least once a week. Baby Ry has, for as long as we have known [...]

I really should update the persona blog.
Here is my summary of how the A&S 50 project for Lenten foodways turned out:
http://list.minstrel.com/public/northshield/2008-March/026242.html
Here is the redaction of the pie of parsnips:
http://cookalong.blogspot.com/2008/03/to-make-pie-of-parsnips-another-way.html
And I finished my knit bag for A&S 50:

I still knit terribly, but I am happy with this little bag. I simply could not get knitting in [...]

Welcome to Starvation
(Dear friend, skip to the next bit; we’re talking about fish here. You know who you are.)
Well, I like to cook, as you know, and I’ve been doing most of that write-up over at cook-a-long. Since Lent began this month, we decided to do a couple of Lent recipes. I have already redacted [...]

Michael’s home safely, and I’m glad to say that his weekend eventually began to look up. He brought me a present–a personalized, autographed picture of Robert Picardo, whom I have admired since Meg Mucklebones and China Beach, so when he became a cast member in the Trek franchise, it was a win for me. Apparently, [...]

Angelique, Kiernan, Keith over for Easter Brunch; I hid little plastic eggs containing change and chocolate eggs throughout the house for him to find. Of course, he had fun, and it was less candy for him than a traditional Easter basket. Angelique is really starting to show with baby # 2.
My brother called me, [...]

There they are. Another book bites the dust in the One from Each project. The recipe was copied into this blog here.
After 10 days in the malt vinegar, the beans were patchy in color and tasted of nothing but malt vinegar. I may have made the pickling brine too strong. I boiled them, as instructed, [...]

Lying here, too undone by exhaustion to be bothered with calling Michael and asking him to bring me some malt vinegar. Some big fat illness is rapidly gaining viral steam and here I am, on da couch, drifting in and out of wakefulness.
Why malt vinegar? Here is why:
To Pickle Kidney Beans
Take the beans and [...]