Bill's Crackers (but you knew that)

This story begins with a bucket of yogurt. I've had reasonable success freezing and thawing yogurt for later use, but I've learned that success may vary with different brands. It always separates to some extent, but stirring generally does the trick. Not with this latest purchase however. Lovely and creamy when new, but not only did it separate but the solid part was grainy and Bill couldn't cope with this. 

So I strained it overnight, putting a double fold of linen towel into a strainer suspended over a bowl. The result was a jar of whey which I will put into some muffins and a tub of 'yogurt cheese'. I knew I could put garlic, herbs and salt into this to make a kind of dip but before I did that I asked Bill for ideas. His response was to make some cream crackers. I think they should be illegal. 

On the other hand, this is in keeping with the recommendation Michael Pollen makes in his book, In Defense of Food. If you want unhealthy snack food, don't buy it at the store, make it yourself. This will limit the number of times you'll eat it. Not that crackers are terribly unhealthy, they're just terrible. Because we eat them, not just with yogurt cheese but with peanut butter or regular butter. The carbohydrate and the crunch combined with something fattening is almost irresistible. I think this is the recipe he used. 

Whey.

So I'd best fight back by making those muffins, right?

Oat Crackers

I was sure I'd written about Bill's oat crackers before, but apparently not. This is another bit of baking he's done recently. Mainly because I complained about having scones hanging around the house and I don't care much for oat crackers. He loves them. In fact he got upset with me last month when I ordered two boxes of Nairn's oat crackers for him...because he ate them.

His latest favourite is peanut butter on oat crackers. I doubt he noticed the jars of PNB in the cupboard for the past ?10 years? but now it's his favourite. 

Never mind, I'm not fussed what he eats carbohydrate-wise, it all gets burned off. This past weekend he set himself a 50 mile challenge, walking 25+ miles on Saturday and on Sunday. Of course he was weary and sore after this, but he gets no sympathy for self-inflicted wounds. Heartless of me, I know.

Bill's Scones

Can't say I've done any 'Quar Baking' as they say in the New York Times, but Bill has. He's made a couple batches of scones, which is good and bad. Good because they are delicious, bad because I eat them. 

He got the recipe from this book he picked up last year at one of the many National Trust properties we visited.

I was going to type out the recipe, but then you'd be in the same fix that I am.

The Reason We Went

When I told Bill what I'd been doing all morning (writing that last post) and I explained about the three posts concerning our trip to Easingwold, he asked if I had this photo (which I didn't). He pointed out I'd not mentioned the whole reason we went. Which was so Bill could hand over as the coordinator for Northumberland to the next area that is supposed to organise a 100-mile walk, South Wales. I understand they were well underway to doing this planning, including having a garage full of food. That food has since been donated to the local food bank.

That's Bill on the left.

I'm really glad that Bill just organising and assists with 100's, he doesn't attempt to do them. However, one of the guys in this photo did the marshal's walk in Northumberland last year and made a pretty neat video of it, showcasing Northumberland. The weather was much kinder to the marshals than to the actual walkers the next week, but you takes your chances with these things.

David's video is pretty wonderful, I thought, not to mention a decent soundtrack. 

Bill's Best Birthday Present: Sausage Making!

Brits don't seem to make much of their birthdays, not like Americans do. So most years Bill is fairly stuck for what to ask for. As it happened, about this time his cousin Mike and Mike's wife Chris had posted on Facebook how much they enjoyed doing this class. So this is how we came to do this.

Apparently Bill's son, Simon, used to like to get on this tractor...

The Northumberland Sausage Company holds the classes in a portacabin in the car park of the Brockbushes Farm Shop, near Corbridge (which you already know is a wonderful place). We arrived early enough to browse the farm shop, which was much as I expected: full of wonderful, tempting stuff that we consider over-priced and thus can live without. However, I expect I'll come back when I start my Christmas shopping as there are some interesting and unexpected items on offer. For example, who knew that 'mango vinegar' was a cordial? Me neither. 

This is what a horseradish looks like when it's not in a small jar...

The man who greeted us (quite pleasantly considering we interrupted his lunch) turned out to be the tutor. As most people do, he asked about my accent, how long I'd been here, etc. He went on to ask if I had a sense of humour ('Sometimes' was my reply), warning me that the course was rather smutty and full of innuendo. I told him I would pretend not to understand if it got too offensive. 

Warning: If you're planning to go on this sausage-making course, you may wish to stop here so that you can enjoy the surprise of it all!!

When we began he introduced himself as "Timothy Sausage" and his wife / assistant as Christine (I think she probably kept her maiden name). He began by telling the history of the business - which is all of five years old - and how he came to be associated with it. He began by saying that when he met Chris his profession was "one in which one rests a lot". However, as he was getting married he couldn't just be on the dole, he needed to find a real job. So he got training in adult teaching. I gather he'd done that for a while before meeting up with his present employment. 

Step 1: Grind up 750g pork shoulder

Sometime later the opportunity presented for me to suggest he'd also gotten acting lessons, such was his teaching style. Now I thought he had just told us he'd been unemployed most his life until a woman kicked him up the backside, but Bill understood the 'resting a lot' profession indicated he had been an actor in his previous life. Mr. Sausage readily admitting to having been such and even pulled out a picture of himself in younger days. We both remarked how much age changes one in unexpected ways. 

Step 2: Add (secret) seasoning, rusk (breadcrumbs) and chosen additions; mix with hands.

As a sausage teacher, he is now a local celebrity, perhaps even more so than when he graced the stage. I have to say he is what makes the day so fun, though getting to play with noisy machines and squishy food also adds to the hilarity. The rude jokes were almost superfluous for me, but I'm sure they added their own spice for those with the national sense of humour. 

Step 3: Put rude red attachment on grinding machine.

So, what did I learn about sausage making? We started with 750 g of pork shoulder and fed it to the meat grinder. The spiral metal blade inside is called a 'worm'. We were of course warned to keep our fingers away from our worms. I'll not bore you with any more 'Carry On' humour. After grinding the meat we added 70g of rusk. I believe Timothy said this was a plant based product, but at one time this was just breadcrumbs used as a binding agent. Then we added 20g of 'seasoning' - the secret ingredients of course. He told us it would of course included salt and pepper but one of the surprise ingredients was nutmeg. I'm pretty sure there was garlic in there as well. Then that was all kneaded together until it resembled a 'brain'. Appetizing, eh? Since this was Bill's birthday present, he got to do the messy stuff.

Mr. Sausage kept wanting to tell us he only had 4 skins left. 

Then 150g of water (which equals 150mls, something new I learned) was also kneaded into the mix. After that we were told we could add up to 200g of other stuff: spices, vegetables, sauces, herbs, jams, you name it - all off the shelves in the portacabin. We were warned that 'less is more' and to 'keep it simple'. Bill chose honey and orange-and-lemon-marmalade. Hey, it was his birthday, right? 






Then came the skins, which were pig intestines. They looked fairly gross and smelled a bit farm-y, but even wet the texture wasn't unpleasant - more like wet muslin than the slime I expected. Getting them onto the cone shaped attachment to the grinder was a challenge, they were so un-slippery. Then I gently shoveled the meat mix into the grinder again whilst Bill handled the stuffed intestine as it came out the other end. That completed, he had to twist (3 times, each in alternating direction) the stuffed intestine into sausages after gently squeezing. That done, we put them in a plastic bag which was placed in the large refrigerator.

Steps 4 &5: Slide all of pig intestine onto red attachment then send the sausage mixture back through the grinder into the skin. 

The second batch Bill flavoured with chunks of red onion and a squirt of BBQ sauce. We sailed right through. At the end, we were instructed how to break down the sausage machines and to extract the remaining ground sausage. The links were to be refrigerated overnight to let them dry a bit; the ground sausage could be had - and was - for dinner. We ended up taking home about 2 kg / 4 pounds of mixed sausage meat.

Step 6: Twist the stuffed skin at intervals to form sausages.

Other bits that come to mind are that Timothy's is not a beer belly, but the much more distinguished claret belly. However is his favourite word. However much he likes wine, he wouldn't cook sausage with wine, nor would he grill it. If we wanted to be 'chefy' we could pan fry it and finish it off in the oven so as not to dry it out.  Beer or cider would work well with pork.

The pork shoulder is only about 20% fat. If making sausage with beef the recipe would be much the same, but if using chicken or turkey it would be completely different. Venison sausage works well using the same recipe, though he would use a shiraz wine with that and he would put in bacon to add fat to the venison. Made sense to me.

He referred to the leading commercial brands of sausage collectively as The Bandits and said they were only required to have as much as 35% of meat-product in their sausages to call them such. I've long known that hot dogs and baloney are made up of mechanically reclaimed bits that most of us would call garbage. They still taste good, but I don't tend to buy those things here in Britain. Mad cow disease made me stick with big lumps of nearly identifiable animal, though I may have eaten horse now and then. I agreed in principle with Timothy when he said he didn't mind eating horse, he just wanted to know when he was doing it. 

He said something about legally being obliged to include preservatives and something to ward off some kind of fungus that likes pork. He mentioned green bacon, which is apparently due to this fungus. I think he said that it's safe to eat if cooked, but don't quote me on that. I don't see me ever cooking green bacon; for one, bacon doesn't stay in the fridge long enough for a fungus to find it and for two I'm not a fan of green meat and would put it in the trash. Sausage being thicker than bacon, the health and safety minders feel green sausage wouldn't be safe or something like that.

Timothy spits before he refers to the French, all in good humour of course. However, I think he was fairly serious when he denied that the Americans have any culture and of course it's our fault that Brits have become so lazy in the way that they eat so many ready meals. For the latter, guilty as charged. 

However I did attempt to tell him about the wonders of Jimmy Dean sausage and about Big Bad John, a pop hit in 1961. I had a terrible crush on Jimmy Dean/Big Bad John when I was a child (not to the mention the sausage). That was even before I knew my family history included generations of miners, including at least one hero who died rescuing others. What more could one ask? History, heritage, music, food, philosophy... I think the Southern US has plenty culture! 

I would go back and listen to Timothy Sausage any day, although I can't say I much love the sausages we made. Even with BBQ sauce and onions I felt they were rather bland. I'm sure that this is because when I think Jimmy Dean and drool; what can I say? I'm not a native Brit.

We don't eat a lot of red meat in this house (though we do indulge when we are out), however I can see me pulling out Grandma and Grandpa's meat grinder and trying out one of these recipes:

Jimmy Dean Copycats

Top Secret Jimmy Dean

An Expat Cooks Jimmy Dean

(Looks like I'm not the only one who misses this flavour.)

Frugal Failure

I've talked often about how my menu plan is basically to rotate through the healthier options for most of the week with the occasional higher calorie (nuts) / lesser healthy (red meat) option once every week or two. A protein, a green veg, a red veg and fruit for dessert is the goal I set for dinner; pasta, rice and potatoes are included occasionally, when my imagination runs out of other ideas. 

I used to use a recipe for peanut sauce with pasta as my go-to option when 'nuts' rolled around but then I discovered how delicious homemade pesto could be. I read somewhere that you didn't have to use basil and pine nuts but could use a whole range of green herbs or red veg as the basis and quite a few different nuts or seeds for the other main component.

However, carrot greens (which I'd grown from carrot tops in saucers, trimmed and frozen) don't work for this. And I've finally got it through my head that Bill really doesn't care for Parmesan cheese. Unfortunately this particular recipe called for quite a bit. I've been reading labels at the grocery and I notice that commercial pesto seems to have other kinds of cheese, eg pecorino.

After I realised how bitter my pesto was I added some tomato paste and sugar to dilute the flavour; I even threw in some lemon juice. But there is a point where you don't want to throw more ingredients in after bad. Bless him, he ate what was put in front of him, I didn't think it was awful, but it wasn't very nice either. I have no trouble throwing my carrot tops straight into the compost bin these days.

On the other hand, Bill started a new experiment which is kind of fun! Can't wait to see how big these will get, and beet greens are definitely more edible than carrot greens! But I'm still not likely to make pesto with them...

Mickey Gilley at the Poncan Theatre

Thus begins what turned out to be Bill’s Musical Tour. If I let him, every one of our vacations would be skipping between places mentioned in the lyrics of songs he grew up hearing. As it happens, I chose all but the last of our destinations, for reasons nothing to do with music.  

We went to Ponca City to see my Uncle Pat.  He happens to currently be director of this lovely old theatre there. Pat was very excited to have Mickey Gilley perform and to provide us tickets (also free popcorn and cokes - what a great thing, knowing the right people!) We knew that he would be busy with work and that we would basically be hanging out at the theatre during our visit, but that was fine by us.

I knew the name, Mickey Gilley, but had to Google it to remember why. Does anyone remember Urban Cowboy, Debra Winger and the mechanical bull? Yeah, that Mickey Gilley. I’m not a great western music fan, but I was prepared to humour my uncle.

Turns out it was actually a pretty darn good show. Gilley is 78 and recovering from a paralyzing accident – it’s a miracle he can walk, never mind perform. He sang and even did a couple of dance steps with his nurse maids back up singers, but I mostly enjoyed his narrative. He interspersed his songs with the story of his music career, told a few jokes, dropped a lot of big names and made a couple of humorous references to the famous cousins I didn't know he had: Jimmy Swaggert and Jerry Lee Lewis (amazing family, eh?) Listening to his voice, I could hear his kinship with Jerry Lee, though their music styles are quite different.

Pat marvelled that the band – all nearly as old as Gilley – set up and tore down for themselves, and he said Gilley was as nice as he could be. After the show there were photo ops and autographs on offer, also music, pictures and t-shirts for sale. 

I stayed seated and watched the band pack up. After their enormous coach pulled out – they were due to play in New Orleans the next night – we went out to dinner with Pat and some of his colleagues. It was good to see my uncle looking very contented.

Overholser Mansion

The last day I went to the OHS I was determined to spend as much time as it took to find 'my people' so Bill made another plan: as part of his marathon training he would walk the 11 miles back to our hotel – in the 90-something degree heat. 

Love the curve at the top of the ceiling!

I made sure he had his phone and some cash and plenty of water and then set him loose. He had a great time exploring and found all sorts of things to photograph.

One stop he made was to see the Overholser Mansion. We’d been twice before with no luck and it sounds as though they aren’t really in it for the money, but his perseverance paid off. 

Photos without flash aren't as clear, but may be 'atmospheric'.

I only wish I’d been with him.  Next time we’re in OKC I definitely want to visit, if we can get in.

He swears he doesn't remember much about the people who lived there, only that the original Overholser, Henry, made his money selling horses to the U.S. Army and that he was the first to build 'out in the country' in what was to become the grand area, Heritage Hills (a funny name, since it is flat as a pancake). 






I remember Bill telling me that Henry and his wife, only had one daughter - whom they named Henry! She had no children either. 





Upon her death (1959) her husband inherited the house. He lived until the 1970s and the house was purchased by the Oklahoma Historical Society...where I was 'digging up ancestors'. 

Love that quilt!

Oh, heavens, I just looked up Henry Overholser and learned that he had a previous wife, a daughter (Elizabeth) and a son (Edward - so he had no call to go and name his second daughter Henry!). He was divorced from his first wife, Emma, around 1880! And he still managed to get a lake named after him...

Packratting at its best.

I think it's terribly sad that such a grand house was only inhabited by two generations, but then it was only built in 1903, which no longer seems that

old to me. Bill said there was still a lot of work needed to renovate it. I expect wood doesn't hold up as well as brick or stone, the primary building materials in Britain.

Overholser eventually had some rather grand neighbours, though these days they all seem rather 'cheek by jowl' to me, with barely a few yards between them. I suppose I've become accustomed to grand houses have 'estates' to go with them.

Growing up I thought having a transom must be the height of antique elegance. Who knew there was a saying 'like pushing a piano through a transom' about childbirth and any other difficult undertaking...

Still, I remember when Heritage Hills was being dragged back to its former grandeur. Not only did one have to be able to afford the house and its renovation, but also security systems and a private school for the children. Still, you'd have a very impressive house, with a lot of living space within a short proximity to the downtown business district. 

Western Scotland

I've heard a lot about the Western Highlands but have never visited. So far I can tell you the scenery is dramatic and that it is either sunny and warm or hammering down rain all day and all night. Bill came home shivering, having walked up Ben Nevis with his friends in the deluge. To each his own: I was happily stitching a patchwork bag on my sewing machine, very grateful the motor home was proving water tight!



I've had a brief encounter with the famous Scottish midgies, but can't say I got bit (though I may have jinxed myself by writing that.) I plan to stay indoors at dusk from now on.

Given my experience of a lovely nap in the sun, I would try more of Western Scotland (in spite of the fact it is now bucketing down again!) 

Grandad Reads Charlotte a Bedtime Story

Time Travel

Bill just put this on my Facebook timeline. Poor guy, I've been completely immersed in genealogy research since discovering 'new' cousins in Brisbane AU and New York, US. I emerge briefly for meals (kindly cooked by him) and witter on about names and dates that make little sense to anyone but me. Family history is like that for some of us.

Not that my reading of books has stopped, only limited to bedtime just now. Few novels grip nearly as hard as the real life stories that can be read in the historical records.  I will share some of the more dramatic 'skeletons' that have come to light in a future post or two. If I only had the novelists talent, I would have dozens of plots sketched and ready to be filled in.  

Happy Birthday to My Lovely Husband, Bill!

Bill's New Hobby

Bill traveled to Manchester earlier this week to pick up the new (to us) motor home. It is a Hobby 600. It is smaller than the Tabbart (easier to drive) and also has

• a much nicer finish on the cabinets, 
• a more informative control panel, 

Apparently it's best to put the dining table on the bed when driving...may have
to think about alternatives.

• more storage space inside and out,
• a more secure locking system,
• a front door for the passenger,

• a passenger chair that swivels around to face the back,
• storage cupboards around the top of the vehicle except above the back door,
• useful trays and drawers in the kitchen cupboards,

• a bed at the back that stays down,
• a second bed in the 'dining area',
• seat belts for two additional passages,
• a folding curtain that separates the bed and loo at the back from the rest of the cabin,

• a better (lower) bike rack,
• a ladder up to the roof
• a roof rack for additional storage.

I haven't got my head around all the cupboards but I suspect there is more capacity than we actually need; I shall try to resist the urge to fill it all.

No immediate plans for any trips.  Need to think about that...

It also could use some curtains to close off the cab at night and possibly to dress up the windows, though they have the usual screens and shades for privacy.  The upholstery is a bit weird with beige, caramel and cool greens on a background that I can't decide whether it's blue, grey or purple.  So I need to think about that as well...

Best of all maybe?  It comes with a 12-month warranty!

Old Grey Goat

(Sorry, Bill, it's your own fault for choosing that lodging and I just can't resist.)

It's amazing how quickly five years has passed.  Five years ago, Bill turned 60 and the family gathered at Kettlewell.  This blog was there to report on it.  Later that year eleven of us went touring Route 66 (with a few additions) in an RV.   This year there are no grand tours planned, though we do have more trips planned in our motor home.  

This year, for Bill's 65th birthday, the immediate family  - that's Bill's three children and their partners:  Helen (Martin), Simon (Simone), Sarah; and Helen and Martin's six-month old daughter, Princess Charlotte) - all gathered in Cockermouth at The Grey Goat Inn.   

Helen and Martin came from Manchester, Simon from France, Simone from Germany, Sarah from Edinburgh and us from Newcastle, so it was no mean feat to gather.  

The Grey Goat Inn was, until about a year ago, a pub; now it is a 'holiday let'. Bill and I were the first to arrive and when we walked in we saw the owner. We were all quite shocked, as we recognised one another.  Hugh owns and runs a pub near us.  I've written about that, too.  I should go visit one afternoon (when it's quiet) and take some photos to share.  It's a pretty amazing place.  We knew Hugh had a place in Cockermouth, we just didn't know it was this one, it being let by an agent.  And while it's been a long time since we were at the Tynemouth Lodge, he recognised our faces from back when we went more often.

I was going to show you a bunch of photos we took of the Grey Goat, which dates back to 1780, but the website does that just fine.  Just click on that first photo and take the tour!

Easter approaching, I made everyone an Easter chick, using a pattern I've only ever seen the ladies at the sewing group use.

Amazingly, on our first jaunt around the town, Simon spotted a bunch of these in the window and said I'd just come early for some shopping!

The Perfectly Imperfect Home

As part of painting the front room, another project I had in mind was from The Perfectly Imperfect Home.    This book was recommended to me by Gretchen Rubin of The Happiness Project.   (I should go leave a comment with a link to thank her!)  

Practicing, on the kitchen floor!

This is a great decorating book for us ordinary folk who wouldn't dream of hiring a decorator, who don't have thousands or tens of thousands to spend to re-do the whole house.  And maybe it would be good even for those who do.

 One of the ideas I particularly liked was the 'gallery wall'.   Between us, Bill and I have been given, bought, inherited or made quite a few things meant to be on a wall.  Instead, our attic has been really full.    I thought that should finally change.



I dreaded the idea of poking loads of holes into a newly painted wall but there was nothing for it.  Bill was prepared to do the measuring and nailing to my satisfaction so long as he didn't have to decide what went where.    

I read a bunch of websites (see list below) for tips and ideas and came away with a few general principles I thought I could use:  space frames a uniform two inches apart; do trial arrangements before deciding; group like items together; have some logic to your choices. The latter was sort of my idea after reading other's ideas.  

One thing I did not do was to have all matching frames; neither did I have all the same type of subject in the pictures. However, I did exclude photographs from the mix and a couple of pieces that seemed to clash horribly with the new colour scheme were left out.  

I started by defining the area I wanted to fill, which was between the picture rail and the top of the couch, stopping short of bureau so there would be room for it to open.  I cut a piece of dressmaking paper, marked off in inches, to size and put it on the only empty floor space in the house large enough, the kitchen floor.  I tried putting the larger pictures in the upper left and lower right corners; I tried putting the largest picture in the centre but decided it was just too large for any arrangement.

The outcome

Bill declined to have his favourite pieces on the wall as it gets western sun in the evening.  At the last minute, however, he threw in a few pieces from his mother's house that I quite liked and I started again from scratch.  By then, I had enough practice that it didn't seem too hard.  I'd already learned that I seemed to think in columns:  start with a width-definer and centre things above and below it; I liked the green frames reasonably near the mainly green paintings; I liked small groupings beneath larger pictures and if possible I wanted some oval shapes.  I don't think I ended up with everything I wanted, but there is another vast empty wall on the upstairs landing and loads more pictures to hang!  

I can see that lamp has been moved to accommodate cards...

I only bought one piece, a silhouette series from John Speight in Kirkharle.  Most of the pieces hung on the walls in my Mom's house, she painted or she or I did the needlework.  Some were from art festivals or souvenir sketches on holidays.  A few were frames I bought at yard sales 20 years ago which have never been hung and which need something better in them, so it will be a work in progress as I find new things to put in the frames.  Mark, at the Tynemouth Fleamarket, is my go-to resource for framing anything we don't feel we can manage.  

However, the hard part, the measuring and nailing up, I shall live with for a while - probably another 12-15 years...


http://www.laurenconrad.com/post/picture-perfect-how-to-hang-a-wall-collage-gallery

http://coreasotropa.wordpress.com/2010/02/05/how-to-hang-a-picture-gallery/

http://www.curbly.com/users/mollymc/posts/13814-how-to-curate-a-gallery-wall

http://thenestinggame.com/2011/11/21/how-to-hang-a-gallery-wall/

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/9-gallery-walls-done-right-173044

http://www.brooklynlimestone.com/2010/01/gallery-wall-tutorial.html

http://tatertotsandjello.com/2012/03/family-picture-gallery-wall-reveal.html