Bean, beans the wonderful fruit

In a never ending quest to find peace and balance in my daily life, I have hardly found time to breath and sleep never mind write. I have been busy in the past weeks working my two jobs (I kind of cannot wait for the summer to be over) and still finding brief quiet moments to make knit hats, mittens, socks and some aprons that will be up on etsy in a month. I was rewarded on Sunday though when I got home from work and spent some time working in my garden to discover that not only would my blackberries be providing fruit in a few days but my beans would be providing part of my dinner that night.

Working in the garden can be as soothing to me as knitting and sewing unfortunately my strength wavers fast in the sun and so I have to remember to take a break as I work. It is one of those task I remember doing as a young child, helping my mom after my father had tilled the bed. I remembering help to drag the hoses and watering pots across the driveway to water our pretty decent size bed, weeding, and then harvest. I guess that sense of duty is still weighing on me a little since on Sunday I  only wanted to curl up on my couch and sleep but I pushed forward to water my garden since the little rain we got wasn’t enough to water my food.

Much to my pleasure my push was rewarded, I found beans. Beans were always something my family grew. So much my mother’s parents were called G&G Beans by us grandkids. Even at his apartment my grandpa still keeps his beans. Underrated they are beans, coming in all shapes, sized and colors, and Archaeologist have evidence of them being grown for over 7,000 years. In Native American culture the bean is brought by a crow with the corn and pumpkins. Tribes in the Northern parts would plant their corn in mounds on top of the local fish. On the coast line of New England when the herring (alewife) ran up river it was not only a sign to plant the corn but the very fish that would fertilize their food. They then would plant the beans around that and then pumpkins to cover them. It was a tradition that they taught to the first settlers that we call Pilgrims. One book I read even credited the Natives with teaching the English how to cook the beans and I will give credit where it was due but considering there were cook books with cooking recipes for beans already from England and Holland that predate the English’s arrival so that can be tossed out as a thought.

The first harvest of the year

Underrated the bean may be but tasty and vast in types it truly is. They have inspired rhymes and stories, from Jack and the Bean stock to that lovely rhyme "bean, beans the wonderful fruit the more you eat the more you toot," For my family this vegetable has held more meaning and it will often hopefully grace our garden beds for generations to come because after a long day at work on Monday coming home to fresh green beans made a tolerable day not only uplifting but superb. 

Odd Tools

Every crafter has their perfect tools. Their favorite pair of scissors, favorite seam rippers, books, and those items we just always seem to be reaching for. I have a collection of them near all of my work stations. I have the usual, scissors, needles, pins, seam rippers, a bin for trash threads and a pin cushion besides my sewing machines. Where I knit, I have stitch markers, needles, pins, scissors of varying sizes, crochet hooks, treads, a bin for trash yarn and thread and hand lotion.

We all also have some random weird tools that we keep by use when we work. Here are some of mine

My knitting work space by my couch

• Flashlight - getting a closer look at the machine when it is being weird.
• Q-tips - for cleaning out lint
• Tweezers – for spaces that my fingers don’t fit
• Toe spacers – perfect for holding my bobbins without having to worry about thread tangling
• Safety pins – they are just handy for keeping around
• Purple Thang – I have talked about this before in a previous blog, I still love it.
• A pen, and paper because you never know when you need to jot yourself a note.
• A screwdriver – if you have an old machine or even a new one, (new ones usually comes with one) and changing the needle is easier if you have one. For older machines you sometimes need one to get to all the spots that need oiling.
• An emery board for when you break, accidently cut or sew through your nail.
• Lotion because when working with softer materials I don't like the feeling that my hand is snagging the fabric.
• A place to put scrap fabric, yarns and threads

My current work space on my dinning room table. These need to be kept organized to be moved when mom comes to visit.

Got any useful tools you keep near your work space that have proven helpful? Would love to hear.

Work space near my vintage machines, screws, fashion discs for the easy touch, q-tips and a pill bottle for old needles.

Kitchen cooking hack : eggs

When I was little my brother and I spent a lot of time watching PBS, “Are you being served?”, The bucket woman, This Old House, Norm’s work shop, the best of the Ed Sullivan show, the many children’s shows available during our childhood and one wise woman named, Juliet Child. Everyone knows when she married she couldn’t even boil an egg. I will also be honest with you, four years ago neither could I. I had three eggs, scrabbled, omelet and omelet scrambled. Then four years ago I was at a job interview and they were asking about my gardening skill, my sewing skills but although they told me I would have to cook they asked me nothing about my cooking skills. I remember praying that they didn’t ask me if I knew how to cook or bake. I didn’t know how to tell them I knew how to do a blind hem stitch but couldn’t even boil an egg.

Once training began though I told my trainer I didn’t know one thing about cooking. I knew how to follow directions but other than that forget it. She smiled and told me I would be alright like other things she would be there to teach me. One of the first things she did get to teach me was how to boil eggs and she showed me a really simple and easy way not only to time it but also how to tell they’re done. Simple words place eggs in water, bring to boil for 5 minutes, let sit in hot water for 30 minutes, pull out and watch the steam rise, if the water the wicks away from the eggs with-in few seconds they’re done.

In modern words because this was us using an open fire, I have it down to this and you will always come up with perfect eggs.

Place eggs in water and bring to a hard boil. If you are in the kitchen you will hear it.

Set the timer for 4 minutes. When the timer goes off turn off the burner.

Set the timer for another 4 minutes.  Meanwhile set up a bowl filled with cold water. I add a little ice to my water.

When the timer goes off, scoop the eggs out of the boiling water and if you have kids around it can be fun to let them watch water steam off the eggs. Place them in the ice water and let them sit for 30 minutes.

Congrats, perfect hard boil eggs.

Maybe my next food blog will be my egg salad.

Sewing wisdoms

In light that I recently did a bit on wisdoms I had discovered with knitting, I thought I would share some of my sewing ones...

1. Cloth makes everything better
2. Cloth has a mind of its own
3. Cloth is as expensive as yarn so apparently I can't pick a cheep hobby
4. The feel of cloth is called the hand
5. If the sewing machine and you have a fight, it is always your fault so walk away do something else to clear your head, you have lost and it is telling you that you are tired
6. A shot of whiskey after said fight will help calm you but it won't solve the problem only a cleared head will do that.
7.  Throwing bobbins and needles across the room doesn't help but it make you feel better
      7.5 until you  step on the needles.
8. Keep experimenting till you find a method that works
9. Seriously no one notices too much if you make a mistake, they end up thinking it was intentional
10. Have fun and it is ok to u-tube and Pinterest it.

A wedding gift for a friend from college, with a beautiful quote.