Tvistsöm

Day 48: What accounts for the popularity of some forms of needlework over others? While tvistsöm is really just a long-armed version of cross-stitch and almost as easy to work, it has never achieved the same distinction as its cousin. It gives a more highly textured appearance owing to the fact that it is always worked in one direction (left to right or right to left depending on your handedness), with the work being turned at the end of each row. Individual rows look braided; side-by-side, they resemble cables. It is a very dense stitch when worked with the correct weight thread, allowing "tails" to be concealed on the front of the work. The back, therefore, is much tidier than that resulting from cross-stitch, and what's not to like about that? Here, I am working tvistsöm on a handwoven table runner with clustered warps. The fabric is not the even-weave on which one would normally work tvistsöm, and I found that I got the best results when working the rows on the length of the cloth rather than its width. It is necessary to treat each three-thread warp cluster (where the yellow floats appear) as a "pair" of threads in order to keep the stitches equal to those in the tabby sections. Where single stitches occur in a tvistsöm pattern, they are worked as cross-stitches.

Spotted Towhee

Day 47: Although Spotted Towhees are resident in my yard year-'round, nothing brings them out of hiding like a snowfall. And such busy little things they are, darting here and there faster than I can bring the camera into focus. They are primarily ground feeders, scratching for seeds and insects with a peculiar backwards hop which captures debris in their front talons and sets it flying behind them in a shower. They use the same technique to dig through snow, and often mine down to bare soil beneath the feeders in the hopes of finding seed scattered from overhead. Why not dine from a whole tray of black-oil sunflower seed when it is readily available? Bird species which eat insects as a principle component of their diet also incline toward searching for seed on the ground. Those which primarily consume nuts, seeds and fruit are more likely frequent raised feeding stations.

Snowjays

Day 46: A light snow fell overnight, and the birds roused early for breakfast. Steller's Jays, Towhees, Juncoes, Chickadees and those brave Anna's Hummingbirds who overwinter here now were all out at first light to check the assorted feeding stations. The suet feeder predictably drew the greatest number of patrons, with even the Juncoes changing their diets to a high-fat regime. Every calorie counts on mornings like this, and I know that if I'm tardy with serving seconds, someone is bound to knock on the window to remind me. Not all my "yard birds" are clever enough to equate the person behind the glass with food, but the Chickadees most certainly know, and so do the hummers. Is there telepathy at work when I can sense a hummingbird staring at the back of my head? Having lived around a number of different non-human species throughout my life, I am convinced it's so. In fact, I think they sometimes wonder why they're not getting through to people, humans having lost the ability to project their thoughts in communication. We've stepped too far away from Nature to use the gift which birds and cats employ.

What's Cookin' Now?

Day 45: Oh my! What's going on in Crow's kitchen now? If you guessed cranberry-orange marmalade, you'd be right. Second only to gooseberry jam, this is one of my favourites, but marmalades are more labour-intensive, so it's been several years since I made any. Those last two or three jars in the cupboard kept insisting, "You're not supposed to archive us!" but it's always hard for me to use the very last of anything. I haven't done much canning this year, so I decided it was time to replenish the pantry. I picked up all the ingredients this morning, and have the hard part of the job done already. A while back, I discovered a slick trick for taking the peels off the citrus without getting too much of the white pulp underneath. I use a potato peeler! It cuts the exact width I prefer for my "shred" (the bits of peel which are a characteristic of marmalade), and it's easy to stack three or four to slice into fine pieces. But then there's the problem of getting the white pulp off the outside of the segments. It's harder to do when you don't have a fleshy peel to use for leverage. In any event, the peels and fruit are now simmering to tenderize, and I'll be jamming tomorrow!

Cranberry-orange Marmalade
Remove the peel from 2 oranges and 2 lemon with a potato peeler. Cut peels into tiny strips. Remove and discard the pulp from the citrus fruits. Break apart, removing seeds and any fibrous bits. Grind the fruit in a food processor, leaving it a bit chunky. Add 1 1/2 cups of water and 1/8 tsp. baking soda to the fruit and peels. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes. Add 2 pounds of fully ripe cranberries. Return the fruit to a boil and simmer for an additional 15 minutes. This can be done in advance (like, the day before).

Measure 5 cups of fruit into a large saucepan. Add 6 1/2 cups sugar and a smalll pat of butter to prevent foaming. Stir to combine. Bring to a rolling boil, and boil for one minute. Remove from heat and stir in 1 packet of Certo liquid pectin. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, stirring often to prevent floating fruit. Pour into sterilized half-pint jars (8-9), seal and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Population Explosion

Day 44: They say you should be careful what you wish for. There was a time when I had no Chickadees in my yard. A few years back, one paid a very brief visit and I was utterly overjoyed. Of course having the contorted filbert to provide them a safe zone was probably a major factor, but it wasn't long before I had two 'dee-dees, then three, then half a dozen. For the last two years (maybe three), the Chestnut-Backed have been more than willing to sit in the palm of my hand to enjoy their lunch. The Black-Cappeds aren't as brave. Brave? Brazen is a better word for the Chessies. Just now as I went out to take this photo, one landed on the clothesline across the back steps, a mere six inches from my face. And cussed me out for being slow with the food! This year, the population has exploded. I must have at least three dozen, and the chorus of "Dee-dee-dee! Dee-dee-dee!" is almost deafening when they all come at once and begin clamouring for seed. What music it is to my spirit, this chorus sung by my winter friends!

Leftovers

Day 43: You may recall from a post I made two weeks ago that I was worried I was going to run out of one of the purples in a counted cross-stitch kit, and that I expressed a negative opinion of kits in general due to the fact that many of them seem to always run short of one or more colours. I have only one four-inch line of backstitch to do before the piece is complete, so I have brought together all the leftovers to make my point. What you see in the background in this photo is the excess, colours for which the company supplied an overabundance. In the foreground, however, the needle holds the very last fragment of purple #14223 which predictably does not match any of the standard brands of embroidery floss on the market. That said, it was enough for all the charted stitches, if only barely. If I'd had to make one more backstitch, I'd have needed to unthread and rethread the needle to get it through the canvas. Surfeit and shortage! The incongruity boggles my mind.

Easiest Flan Ever

Day 42: You can keep your pumpkin pie. You can even keep your pecan pie (and I never thought I'd hear myself say those words). I'm having flan for dessert. What's flan? Just the most delicious, decadent firm custard you can imagine swimming in a sea of caramel sauce! Now, there are several ways you can make flan, most of which involve a trip to the grocery store because most of us don't keep fresh cream in our fridges. However, I do keep both evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk on hand, and as it turns out, that plus eggs, sugar and vanilla are all you'll need. And good timing. Flan needs to be made 8-12 hours in advance so the caramelized sugar can liquefy. But we're getting ahead of ourselves here. Let's just assume it's yesterday.

Add 1/4 cup of water to 3/4 cups of sugar and place over medium to medium-high heat. You can stir it right here at the onset, but at no time afterwards. Just cook it until the sugar takes on a golden-brown hue. You can wash the sides of the pan down if crystal begin to form. Use a little water on a pastry brush, but be careful not to drip into the boiling sugar. Once your sugar is nicely brown, pour it into an 8-9" pan, tilt the pan to cover the bottom with the syrup, and let it cool for an hour or so. You may hear it crackling and popping as the temperature drops. This is perfectly normal.

Once the sugar is completely cool, you can make the custard. Heat your oven to 325 degrees. Beat 4-6 eggs one at a time until there are no obvious chunks of egg white or streaks of yolk. Add 1 can of sweetened condensed milk and 1 can of evaporated milk plus 1 Tbsp. of vanilla (yes, a whole tablespoon). Set the pan containing the caramelized sugar in a larger pan (should be at least an inch bigger) and pour the custard over the sugar. Put the pan/pan on the oven shelf and add boiling water to the outer pan until it reaches halfway up the sides of the custard pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes (or longer!), or until a knife inserted in the center of the custard comes out clean. Chill for at least 8 hours. Happy Thanksgiving!