The final zigzag

Since this is a knitting blog, I will show you my zig-zaggedy knitting. I've been working on this since July 2021, but I was going back and forth to Toronto, and it was staying here in Vancouver. I figure I have about.... 40,000 stitches to go! I can hardly believe that, but it seems to be so, if my rows are almost 400 stitches wide and I need to do a hundred of them. But, I mean to finish 'er off soon!

Brown and green zigzags: 

Green and other green zigzags: 

Blue and brown zigzags: 

It's supposed to reflect the colours of the park: greens, blues, brown and the occasional pink of the cherry blossoms. I think it is a bit more zingy than the park on an average day, but it works. We were faced with buying furniture in the pandemic and everything available seemed to be grey, so we wanted something lively. 

I made my last recipe of the month from Moosewood Restaurant Favorites yesterday. So easy, so good. Take your feta cheese and cut it into bits. The picture in the book has nice even rectangles, but mine crumbled and broke. Zest and juice a lemon. Mix the juice with a bit of olive oil and drizzle that on the cheese, sprinkle the zest over, grind some pepper. The end! It is lovely on crackers, they say you can add it to a salad, or just pop it in your mouth and eat it! Yummy. 

I took a walk around Lost Lagoon this afternoon and saw this heron looking all majestic. A day with a heron is always a good day. 

A day with a duck is also a pretty fine day! This one was walking on the slushy ice, which was probably about half an inch thick. 

And now I must get back to my knitting! Forty thousand stitches to go!

Mapo tofu and more libraries

Yesterday a friend and I ticked two more libraries off the list. 

We started at a SkyTrain station in East Vancouver, found a dim sum restaurant and had a great lunch, and then walked to the Collingwood Branch. It's a small branch, in a purpose-built building from 1951 -- they had some pictures in the foyer of it being opened. My friend actually remembered going there as a child! 

There was a Chinese language section, a decent-sized children's collection, and enough books and magazines, including a good shelf of "things to do around Vancouver" books. 

I was seduced by the Vogue Knitting magazines and picked up two; there was a display for Veganuary so I got a cookbook to look at; and I even found a book about trails in Stanley Park, so I was well loaded-down when we left. 

We discovered that another branch was not too far away, and getting there involved walking by a ravine, so we tried that out. 

It's great to see the mountains to the north of the city from a different angle. 

The Renfrew branch is in a community centre complex, and we first went in the building with the swimming pool and some 8-year-old's birthday party, but a friendly dad sent us in the right direction.

 

My selfie skills need some work

A new building, with a large, airy main room for the library, really quite nice! We looked at more and more books, but didn't burden ourselves with any more to carry. We also didn't look around for a coffee shop or anywhere to have a muffin, but just walked back to the station and headed out. 

It was a good walk and a good lunch and I found a ravine, so a successful day!

Since it's the end of the month I should update you on the cookbook situation. We had a great success with Moosewood's Mushroom Mapo Tofu. You marinate cubed tofu in chili-garlic sauce with vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, tomato paste, sesame oil, water and sherry, except we didn't have any sherry. Then you cook up onions and a ton of mushrooms, add the tofu and cook it all together for a while. Serve it on rice with broccoli, voilà. Throw some green onions on for pretty, and they suggest walnuts as well. Oh, yes: this is vegetarian, but if you happen to have some ground lamb around and you wonder what to do with that, it goes in this very nicely! 

I've also made coconut rice, which is rice cooked in coconut milk: not very thrilling really. I made their ratatouille as well, which is a bit crazy for January, since we used canned tomatoes. It was eggplanty spaghetti sauce, which I like, but Stephen said was "not very exciting." And there was hummus: a very basic recipe in which you throw chick peas and tahini and lemon and garlic in a blender with a bit of spice and whoosh it up. 

There are other recipes I love in this book but I wanted to try new things. The mapo tofu will certainly be a recipe we go back to. We have to eat today and tomorrow, so who knows if we will get another recipe in? For February, we get to look at Jamie at Home, a good Jamie Oliver book. It's quite familiar, but I am sure we can find some new treats. 

Zigzag month is also coming to an end. We have some human-made zigzags, like a staircase and a pattern in bricks. 

We also have a couple of natural zigzags: a leaf and a crack in some bark. 

I like these things that are not too clear-cut. What exactly is a zigzag? 

I have one more zigzag to show you tomorrow. 

Okay, so it's 2023

Written some time ago, maybe even in October: Things certainly fell apart with the cookbook business late this year. I believe that all these books are in a box, on their way to Vancouver. I know I gave away the Michael Smith one that was September's choice. 

• October: Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1
• November: The Essential NYT Cookbook
• December: Jamie's Italy

I hope that by January 1, I will have another dozen books lined up to be eaten from all year, 2023! I will get to these first, I think, but I could just throw them in the randomizer and see what happens. 

Things might have fallen apart earlier than I remember. Here is the list for 2022. 

• January: Moosewood Cooks at Home
• February: New Basics
• March: Parties for all Seasons (this one didn't survive)
• April: Whole Foods for the Whole Family
• May: Small Plates Perfect Wines
• June: Nantucket Open House Cookbook
• July: Happy Hour at Home
• August: Plenty
• September: Chef Michael Smith's Kitchen (this one didn't survive)
• October: Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1
• November: The Essential NYT Cookbook
• December: Jamie's Italy

Okay, so time passes. Now it is 2023!

I got twelve books together and randomized them all and here is the list for 2023, cookbook-wise. 

• January Moosewood Restaurant Favorites
• February Jamie at Home
• March Plenty More
• April The Essential New York Times Cookbook
• May Breads
• June Joy of Cooking, 1975 edition
• July Various magazines and stray recipes
• August Gourmet Club recipes from the UBC Faculty Women's Club, 1967
• September Jamie's Italy
• October Lighthearted Everyday Cooking
• November Plenty
• December Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1

Yes, there are two Jamie Oliver books and two Ottolenghi books and two months that are a bit weird: the Gourmet Club recipes my mom used in the 60s and 70s and a collection of various recipes and magazines. I'm looking forward to it!

Here's a quote from a speech about the history of the UBC Faculty Women's Club: 

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention some at least, of the many, many interest groups that have given life and shape to the FWC: foremost among these is the now defunct “Gourmet Club”, founded in 1964 – a Club that still stuns us by its former members’ ability to produce amazing meals seemingly effortlessly, and by the stories that pour out of these women when they reminisce about it. That was followed by “Dining Out”. Founded in 2001, by Joan Bentley, a group of around 20 members try out restaurants all over the City…though I doubt if the quality of the food is as consistently brilliant!

My mom took part in the Gourmet Club for years. We'll see how amazing I can be, but first up is a recent fave, a collection of Moosewood Restaurant hits. 

I will also have another batch of photo themes. I'll get to those shortly!