At last, another craft project done

I finished Eleanor's nightgown yesterday, with lots of help from my mother. I have a picture of the nightgown on my phone, so I'll put that up later. Eleanor doesn't like having her picture taken, so we'll have to make it fun somehow, maybe by taking a picture of her with her sister.

Diamonds Turned to Rain

Last night we had some precipitation, and I was excited because it looked like diamonds had rained down on our deck. This morning, some were still there, but now they're melting and joining today's rain. Bleah.

Today is another day to work on E's flannel nightgown. Long ago, in October, I bought fabric for two Christmas nightgowns. Now it's late January, and one of the two gowns was completed last week. I'm late. Here is a picture of the first one, for P.

What stories are authentic folktales?

I was trying to remember the name of a story, then the name of the audiobook on which it was recorded. The story was called, "The Bear Child." The audiobook was called Lessons from the Animal People. The storyteller was Dovie Thomason. It occurred to me to look for independent confirmation, any other sign on the internet, that the stories on this album were not simply stories Thomason had written herself. So far, I haven't found the stories anywhere else, but I still love the stories. These stories are probably old tales whose origins are not visible through a Google search.

The story that broke my heart, and then tried to put it back together, was the one I mentioned above. "The Bear Child" is about a boy whose uncle walls him up inside a cave, because the uncle doesn't want to care for the boy anymore. The boy gets help from other animals, notably, a mother bear. At the end of the story, the storyteller states that bears live near humans, and that humans respect bears because they have the ability to sniff out child abuse, and to do something about it.

My daughter, Phoebe, loves this album. She likes to sing the chant from "The Bear Child." Also, she thinks "The Making of the Animals" is funny, with the different animals being shaped differently by their creator. The animals try to describe how they want to look, but they keep talking over each other and confusing the creator, who then gets impatient. Mistakes come next. We listen to the copy from the library, often. Maybe we should get our own copy.

Baking on the Grill

It is humbling to find inspiration to write my blog in the movie, "Julie and Julia," a movie about a writer and her blog.

To Beatrice, some notes on my recent experiments in baking on the grill

The first try was Saturday, August 8th.

On Saturday, we were going to cook on the grill anyway, so I quickly threw together some bread dough made from half bread flour and half whole wheat flour. I gave the dough one rise in the bowl and one rise in the baking pans. I put the loaves on the grill when the temperature was around 250-275F, closed the lid, and tried to use fuel and venting to increase the temperature to 375F. I think the temperature never went above 350F.

The resulting loaves of bread were edible, and about 7/8's of this baking was eaten. The bread didn't brown inside the pans, only on top. The bread tasted quite yeasty, I assume from spending much time in the grill below 300F. I don't know at exactly what temperature yeast dies, but it appears to be at around 300F.

The second try, on August 16th, I again chose to bake on the grill at a time when the grill going to be used anyway. This meant that, as the grill was preheating for baking, it could be used to make burgers, so there would be less wasted fuel.

This time, I took Brad's suggestion and made rolls. Rolls are smaller, take less time to bake, and have more surface area exposed. Therefore, rolls should brown more easily and use less fuel.

I put a cookie sheet, one without any coatings, on the grill, to help with browning. The dough this time was 1/4 whole wheat flour, 3/4 bread flour, and I used kefir (plain yogurt drink) instead of milk. Again, I let the dough rise once in the bowl and once after shaping. I weighed the rolls as I shaped them to make sure they would bake evenly, and I placed them on another cookie sheet. After about 15-30 minutes of rising, I put the rolls on the grill, one cookie sheet on top of the other, and closed the lid. This time, the grill stayed above 300F during baking, sometime rising as high as 400F. After 15-20 minutes, the rolls were done.

I thought the rolls tasted extremely mild. Eleanor said they tasted like kefir, and didn't like them. There are some strong advantages to making loaves of bread. A loaf of bread can be used for lots of things. The rolls were quick to prepare, though, and I liked how they turned out. We have eaten almost all of them.

For both experiments, I used a recipe that was quick to prepare, that I had used several times. It would be interesting to see how baking would work on a gas grill. I understand that heating would be much more even, but that the bottoms of the loaves might burn. There is some kind of raised, aluminum sheet available that is supposed to keep burns to a minimum, by allowing air to circulate between the food and the grill surface. Another option would be to turn off the gas directly under the food.

The point of baking on the grill is to keep the house cool while still having homemade bread. the grill-baked bread is inferior to oven-baked, but it is still good to eat.

I Wish I Hadn't Missed the Sock Summit

Here's a picture of my last project, completed just in time to give the socks as a gift to my daughter, Eleanor.

I just watched a video at the Oregonian newspaper's Web site, in which a crowd of 935 broke the world record for the number of people in one location, knitting. The previous record was 256. This record-breaking event occurred at the Sock Summit, in Portland, OR, earlier this month. I couldn't go, but I was amazed at the speed at which classes for the summit filled. The server broke down on the first day, in the first few hours of the registration period. So I've known, ever since two days after that, when I tried to register, that I would not be attending the summit. Next time, for sure.

Meanwhile, Afghans for Afghans is asking for baby blankets for their fall campaign. No smaller than 30 inches by 40 inches, and no longer or wider than 45 inches. No fringe, no light colors. Wool only. I may knit a blanket for this. It's just a matter of finding the right amount of wool in my stash. My hoardings are heavier on the acrylics, because I don't use them often, but I do have some wool, including some leftovers.

I'm still working on my socks for myself. I'm using a beautiful, variegated green yarn in washable wool. I also decided to extend this yarn, with some leftover light green yarn from an earlier project.

Mountains Beyond Mountains

Mountains Beyond Mountains, by Tracy Kidder, is my most recent read. It is about Paul Farmer, a doctor who treats individual patients in Haiti, and also plans ways to combat tuberculosis on a grand scale. This book made me think that it is essential for all people to have access to good medical care, in order to fight outbreaks of TB, AIDS, and other diseases. The book also shows the relationships between clean water, good nutrition and good medicine. Get your copy of this book today, or borrow mine.

Review of Three Cups of Tea

Three Cups of Tea, by Mortenson and Relin, was a fast read. I loved reading about building schools for boys and girls in Pakistan. I loved hearing about mountain climbers. I loved hearing about a good excuse to move to Montana.

This book made me understand the importance of health care, oddly enough. There was a certainty about how people in remote areas need extra help, and those who can help lose their humanity when they say, " No."

I want to keep track of ikat.org to see how the various projects progress.