cloth: scrappy roybgiv

Summer has been productive because of hunkering down with the stash and using A LOT of small fabric scraps in a foundation paper-pieced quilt. Below is the visual template for the second ROYBGIV quilt(the first I gave long ago to a friend)that I'm making this summer. 

I counted how many more patches I needed to sew the other day: 39! Yah, it's been a slog, but I'm getting those 80 blocks done.         

Because of sewing and going to the gym, cooking has taken a backseat. I've been relying on supermarket sushi and other convenience grocery items.     

 

And the summer garden is back to producing a bounty of vegetable side dishes. Today Stanley, the ceramics teacher from Burlingame High, was at clay club, and I ended up glazing a stack of bisque plates for the Cone 5 firing.                                

I think I must've glazed 5 plates yesterday, and I imagine they'll be done today--so I'll pop into the kiln room to peek after I've sewn a bunch more patches.

cook: filipino food

I was badly craving Filipino food and messaged my fellow Filipina, Cecilia that we needed to trek to Daly City and eat at a Filipino restaurant. I was thinking Max's or Patio Pilipino for my fix of kare kare and halo halo. Cecilia said Kuya's in San Bruno. Yes! I accidentally stepped into Isla next door, which looked good, but that'll be another dine. Kuya's is much smaller and literally more mom and pop. We ordered the Paksiw Na Boneless Bangus or boneless milkfish marinated in vinegar and ginger and then fried. To my surprise, my favorite of all the dishes we ordered.       

I also craved Pancit Palabok or rice noodles tossed in shrimp sauce and topped with shrimp, hardboiled egg and scallions. Kind of flavorless to my palate, and thank goodness for the lemon wedges. I'll be making as an epilogue, Pancit Luglug to my liking with the addition of bits of ground pork and fried garlic--maybe I can find calamansi to squeeze at Seafood City.

Cecilia ordered Crispy Binagoongan or wok roasted pork cooked with eggplant and shrimp paste. Again to my surprise, one of my favorites at our lunch. Yes, I totally want to cook this dish though it will stink up my kitchen and I'll need to borrow an air fryer.

I also ordered Tortang Talong and Giniling, an omelet with both eggplant and pork. Hmm another poor choice on my part. It was good, but I'd had better at another Filipino restaurant.

We'd also ordered Pork Sisig, but it was not authentic, and I'd wished we had ordered instead the Calamari Sisig. Oh well. We also had ordered  Kalabasa Sitaw Sa Gata, sauteed kabocha and long beans in coconut milk, pork and shrimp--that was tasty! I'd return to Kuya's, and next time, I want to order the Pinakbet, mixed vegetables with shrimp paste, pork and shrimp; Hoy Gising, spicy minced pork with chopped longbeans; Adobong Pusit, fresh squid cooked in garlic as well as the fried fish. But maybe I can convince Cecilia and Chia to instead go next door to try the Buko Pandan.

cloth: no shrinking violet + swim camp

I brought home enough blue fabric to start a baby quilt for another grandnephew due to borne in August. And I left this quilt that I'm calling No Shrinking Violet behind at my sewing sweatshop. I bit the bullet and cut up the king sized batting. I'll "Frankenbatt" or sew together the cut-offs for the next baby quilt.   

Looking at my Facebook memories, I saw a minky quilt I had sewn of unicorns for the sister sibling of this quilt that I'm calling Swim Camp because it's from a log cabin pattern called Campfire. I feel like all the shades are reminiscent of summer swimming in pools.

And I had sewn on enough logs that I'm storing the work in progress on a wood hanger in my coat closet, which brings me face to face to the king sized quilt top and backing sewn from Amy Butler fabrics--I'll sew that quilt on a long arm.

Maybe I'll even be able to eliminate one box of my fabric stash in the sewing sweatshop. I also brought home a jelly roll to start another quilt top as well as enough peach and coral and pink fabrics to start another quilt top with the text, "bliss, joy, love" that is a design of Brigitte Heiland. But the top above has me in love with the striking look of Campfire, and so I'd like to do another one but in a pink palette. Too many quilts, and not enough summer vacation.

cloth: modern crosses

For a week before my trip to Kentucky and the week after, I labored in my sewing sweatshop to finish this quilt. It took a few days to finally sew the binding on by hand after machine and hand quilting the sandwich.

I laundered Modern Crosses before gifting and hung it up to photograph.

The quilt came out of the dryer a lot more crinkly than I expected.

And it was larger than I had anticipated. But I like the back, probably even more than the top.

And I've already started the baby quilt for the young sibling of the recipient of this quilt in the same color palette in a log cabin pattern to be called Swim Camp. To be continued. But here’s a pic of cloth I’ve sewn functioning as intended.     

cook: breakfast for dinner and july 4th side dishes

After my vacation in Owensboro, Kentucky and eating too many French fries and not enough barbecue, all I could cook for dinner if not eating an arugula and grilled salmon dinner was fried eggs with hot sauce and a toasted English muffin or crumpets. Add in grilled tomatoes for a vegetarian English breakfast. 

However, I was craving other hometown foods like a Noah’s bagel with cream cheese, red onion, capers and hot smoked salmon.                           

And then I was also craving sushi.  While at Suruki, I found a couple of cute sake cups too.    

 

And since I was downtown, might as well stop in at my favorite produce shop for some cilantro, cucumber and jalapenos, and oh hey! Therapy opened up downtown and I had no idea that the boutique was an Asian American Pacific Islander biz. And so I felt more than okay buying a new lunch tote for my back-to-school shopping.                        

Oh and here's the irony of souvenir shopping in Kentucky. I adored the air plants I saw at ROMPfest, and they were only $5 and $15 each! I bought just one and learned from the vendor that she gets the plants from San Diego! I've returned my tiny houseplant to its state of origin, California.              

And vacation is happening so fast. 4th of July already happened. I just barbecued brats, but I also made salads. While two Russet potatoes were boiling, I combined yellow mustard, mayo, chopped red onion and cornichons and celery and dill. However, too mustardy for my taste.                   

 

And so I chopped two eggs, folded them into more mayonnaise and added them to the potato salad. Better but still too mustardy. My Clinkendagger Broadway pea salad though was reliably yummy.

And so lunch yesterday was just a mish mash of salads.

And I'm back to my no food waste ways and made Christmas (both red and green sauces) enchiladas with the rest of the rotisserie chicken in my fridge as well as leftover chopped red onion from the holiday grilling.

And must not forget the serrano and jalapeno chile peppers found in the vegetable bin.

 

I gave one of the casseroles to Cecilia who loved the added heat. And now I'm in the mood to cook again. I've got plans to cook lamb and feta burgers and something different with the skin-on and bone-in chicken thighs I bought on sale this week.

craft: how bourbon is made

While in Owensboro, Meral and I toured the Green River Distillery. Right away you're greeted by advertising after the Prohibition painted upon one of the brick buildings.

 

I never made the effort to come a day or two earlier or stay a bit later when working in Louisville to tour a bourbon distillery. We had driven 2 hours from Louisville to Owensboro for ROMP, and I was mighty glad that there was a distillery right in town for me and Meral to tour--me because I used to love drinking Kentucky bourbon neat and Meral because she's a bartender and dabbles in mixology.

There are so many breweries in Kentucky, and I'm glad to finally have gotten far enough out of Louisville and find one in Owensboro. And here's a flowering bush I'd never seen before.

We had a lovely tour guide in Day Ogisi, who originates from New Orleans and a family of psychologists and studied accounting for a career. He knew a little bit about the Bay Area because his brother once lived in Sausalito. He told us about the original founder of Green River Whiskey, J.W. McCulloch, who originally was a tax collector for the Internal Revenue Service. One of the themes of McCulloch's advertising was the front side of the label featuring a horseshoe and the slogan "The Whiskey Without a Headache," which after Prohibition had to be changed because medical claims in advertising whiskey were forbidden. Day led us outdoors to the where the mash was being made in the stainless steel cooker with milled corn, and to which yeast was added. Outside smelled like bread rising and sweetness and added to the infernally hot temperature. 

 

Mashing or heating the grains converts the starch in the corn and rye or wheat into fermentable sugars. Inside the entrance and on the first floor of the distillery, we could see an outline of the steps to making the whiskey.

 

The Green River has been owned by several owners throughout its history, but the Bardstown Bourbon Company has restored its original name in homage to Green River Distilling Company being the 10th oldest distillery in the United States (indicated by DSP #10 or the 10th registered distillery in Kentucky--a license number that never goes away even as a distillery changes hands and names). I saw that my favorite, Four Roses was older being the 8th oldest and one I grew to like later and became very popular--Angel's Envy one of the very newest.

 

The good smells continued upstairs in the distillery and emitted from the fermentation tanks. Day had explained that before Prohibition, the distillery had burned down in 1918 and only recently rebuilt again by the Bardstown group after being moribund in the 1980s. 

Day opened the lid of one of the fermenters, and one could see the mash simmering and bubbling away as the yeast converted the sugars into alcohol in those 3 to 5 days of fermentation.

Copper!

 

Here's where the distillery endeavors to be the "whiskey without regrets" as it lets the liquor boil and condense and remove impurities.

Described by the Green River Distiller, "Green River Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey is 90 proof and has been aged more than five years at the distillery in Owensboro. It is rich in color with an amber hue and made with all Kentucky-grown corn, most from Daviess County. The mash bill is 70% corn, 21% winter rye, and 9% malted 2 and 6-row barley. The higher rye content results in a bourbon with warming spice notes on the nose and palate. Additional aroma notes to look for include cinnamon, dried cherry, and light leather. For taste, it has notes of cinnamon, vanilla, caramel, and chocolate mint. The finish is rich, thick, and lingering."

We then toured a bourbon warehouse or rickhouse, one of which I photographed at the beginning of this blog post and where barrels of whiskey are aged and stored. Green River ages their whiskey in charred oak barrels (which are only used once), and aging mellows the bite of the alcohol and lets the wood impart flavor to the spirit. The rickhouses built on this campus are not actual brick but of ceramic. 

Temperature changes in the weather evaporate bourbon in and out of the barrels--the bourbon lost to evaporation is called "Angel's Share." 

Barrels are generally stored in the rickhouse on their side in wooden framed “ricks”, or racks, which here span 3 barrels high on each floor. Sweet notes in bourbon come from the wood sugars that caramelize during the toasting process, and below is the very first barrel produced at Green River signed by all the employees.

We returned to the event space building to the tasting room. We tasted first the wheated bourbon, but I liked the second or less spicy Green River Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey the best. 

 

We also got to taste the Devil's Cut. The raw whiskey's portion that is absorbed and trapped in the barrel's wood is known as the Devil's Cut. I couldn't finish my shot as I was already woozy from sipping the first two shots. I've become such a lightweight now at imbibing bourbon. 

The bottle for Green River is unique. The raised horseshoe at the bottom of the bottle allows you to play quarter hockey when the bottle is upright. I played at ROMP and got a pin as well as a sticker from the distillery.

I'm now one who can no longer sip bourbon neat and prefer it now in an Old Fashion.

 

I watched this gentleman roll a barrel of bourbon to be delivered to another rickhouse for aging and storage.

The humidity in Kentucky also improves the barrel aging of the whiskey--bourbon ages faster and therefore can come to market sooner.