Cooking: Yucatán Citrus Pork and Mexican Rice

I wish I had seen Rick Bayless's recipe for Cochinita Pibil, but I had seen this one from Hungry Hounds instead.  I started this recipe because I wanted to use up ingredients already in my pantry.  I also ended up using all the margarita mix too to drink while cooking this meal, and I'll use the rest of the tequila to mix with grapefruit soda for a Paloma.

 What I loved most about this recipe is ALL the citrus and that it utilized just about every part of the orange, lime and lemon--zest and juice made my kitchen smell awesome and was beautiful-looking to boot.

 I used green bell, cubanelle, and jalapeno to spice up the pork.

 And cilantro!  I love me lots of cilantro.

I should have trimmed off the fat cap, but I was worried about the pork being dry.  I needn't have because then I had to drain off a lot of that citrus infused grease.  However, the pork was luscious and delicious.

 I cooked rice to go with my pork dish, and dagnabit, I forgot to use the Azafran to flavor my rice further.

Re-imagining the Book

I'm going to Tennessee.  Arrowmont Arts and Crafts in Gatlingburg, Tennessee specifically to take a workshop called "Reimagining Books."  Below is an example of the instructor's work.

So beautiful and so cool.  Coincidentally, I want to learn how to weave.  The course aims to marry form and function.  And so I think I'm going to take The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn Iggulden to read on my flight and then literally and metaphorically de-construct it and make some statement about toxic masculinity.

Sashiko Stitching: Wall Quilt Sampler

I've fallen in love with sashiko.  Below is a sampler called Cool Water Surface that I stitched on pre-printed indigo linen I bought from Fancy Tiger Crafts, and I'm already working on a second one.  However, I don't want to stitch these into small pillows and plan on making a sampler wall quilt instead.

I also want to integrate some other linens in the blue color palette below and have already seen light medium and dark blue as well as black linens at the fabric shop on which I want running stitches.

"dusty" blue, azure, bilberry, black, blue-gray, bright blue, bright cyan, color matching, cool shades of blue, dark cyan, heavenly, light blue, monochrome blue color palette, monochrome color palette, pastel cyan, shades of blue, silver blue.

Below is an example of what I want to do with my completed Sashiko samplers.

Ceramics: Design As Subtraction or Addition

Lately I've been obsessed in ceramics with making cylinders and then making lids or bottoms to turn them into basically what is a round box.  And isn't that what design is?  The arrangement of shapes in a composition?  

Above are the salt and pepper cellars I made while playing around one morning with round cookie cutters and some sculpture mix.  I made the lids to the containers by scoring and slipping co-centric circles together to fit into the top .  What stirs me is design at its simplest or its basic geometric form.  I injected contrast into the pair with color: Jim Bob glaze and Stormy Blue glaze.  

Sewing: Mending Matters and Geometric Sewing

I had checked out from the public library a book about stitching and patchwork and repair of clothes, which I have to return soon, and then remembered a book I had bought about embroidery and embellishment on clothes.  Below are the jeans I wore to the ceramics studio and another pair I wore to work after I finished running stitches on them.

Both books came in handy.  I trimmed the frayed denim off and then cut a patch from a pair of jeans a neighbor gave me.  The most difficult part of patching I think is the safety pinning of the patch to cover the hole, made all the more difficult if if you don't take out the inseams because you then have to stick your hands into either end of the pant legs to pin all around the patch.

My whip stitches were not the most elegant, and my friend's jeans had deliberately been frayed.  However, I think she was pleased by the tiny crosses I had stitched over these two holes.

Next I went to town on my own holey jeans.  Again I need to improve my whipped stitches, and I kind of bunched a tear with some more awkward looking whipped stitches, but onward and onward.  I had used the plastic grid sheets in my Alabama Chanin book to mark with a temporary ink pen where to run my needle.

Cooking: Enchilada Sauce

Like I mentioned, I'm trying not to have too many odds and ends in my refrigerator and pantry and decided a couple weeks ago to make enchilada sauce.  

After removing stems and seeds (mostly) I soaked the dried ancho and guajillo chiles in a pot of boiling water just to cover the peppers.

I charred some roma tomatoes, red onion and garlic cloves in my grill pan.

I then pureed in my blender the the charred vegetables and soaked chiles.  I had also added brown sugar to dull the bitterness and seasoned the sauce.

I remember having to strain this mixture because it was so thick and had to even add water to thin it.  And so I included instructions on the jar to combine with tomato sauce before putting it in the fridge.

Cooking: Pasta Primavera or Linguine with Spring Vegetables and Basil Cream Sauce

I hate to let ingredients go bad in my refrigerator, and so I took out leftover mushrooms, asparagus and English peas I had bought over Easter weekend, and some more ingredients like heavy cream, grated parmigiano reggiano I specifically had bought to make this "bits and pieces" dish.  I cut up rotisserie chicken breast, chopped a shallot and 3 cloves of garlic, what was left of the basil plant on my kitchen counter, and poured myself a Chardonnay.

I cut the asparagus into bite sized pieces and added that to a pot of boiling water along with the English peas for 3 minutes.  I didn't want to dump the boiling water into the sink because I wanted to also cook my pasta in it, and so I used a spider strainer to scoop the vegetables including the peas from the pot.  I then added the half box of linguine I had left and got that boiling for 8 minutes for an al dente pasta dish.

  After my stock pot was done, I then used my large cast iron frying pan and melted half a stick of butter with some olive oil.  I sautéed the shallots, then added the mushrooms and garlic.

I wanted a bit more color, and so I chopped a hot house tomato and added it to the pan along with what was left of the wine in my glass. 

After most of the liquid cooked off, I added the already cooked chicken just to heat through.

 I then added a little more than half a cup of heavy cream and sprinkled some salt into my dish and got it simmering.

 I didn't want my veggies to get overcooked, and so I cooked down the cream and added a couple tablespoons of the parmigiano to thicken.  When the sauce appeared not too soupy, I added the rest of the vegetables and combined.

Again I like vegetables still crisp to the bite and to remain that bright emerald green and added the cooked pasta a minute later. 

 Again just cook long enough to heat through and combine.

My pasta dish was looking a little too liquidy, and so I sprinkled even more parmigiano to thicken and stirred. 

 I then sprinkled all the chopped basil with a little fresh chopped oregano just because I had it, and if I had not been too lazy to go outside and snip chives too, I would have added that herb as well.  

Then get out the tongs to serve and holler dinner is ready while pouring another glass of Chardonnay.

 Oh yeah.  I had Meyer lemons on my counter, and had cut one in half and squeezed the juice into the pan when I had poured what was in my wine glass (probably a 1/4 cup)for a bit more acid and to cut the richness of the cream.  The hubs went back for a second helping, and so I think the meal was successful.