Wolves, Bears, Eagles, and on

"...by the time they hit adolescence, those same youngsters will have "grown out" of this animal phase, and...We consider this a sign of maturity, with the unspoken assumption that a child's emotional attachment to wild creatures, and to nature as a whole, are juvenile and somehow delusional." -Scott D. Sampson How to Raise a Wild Child

I can not personally imagine a life lacking a fascination with nature and the natural world.  However, I can attest to the scenario depicted by Dr. Sampson, wherein anyone, male or female, over the age of about thirteen is looked at askance for professing a love of any animal beyond cats or dogs.  Goodness help you if you have a preference for more out-of-the-ordinary domestics, or worse yet, wild animals!  The concept of spirit animals and nature connection is dismissed as edgy and laughable and the stuff of cults and hermits by much of polite society.
I hope that as the ever so slightly deviant mother of a young child, I can provide a world in which a love of nature and a connection to non-human beings is welcomed and celebrated.

Things I Like Episode 1

The Cleanse was derailed by my intervening life... fear not, it will return once I have sorted things out with said life. In the interim I am starting this series of pictures posts chronicling things I like about my home and everyday habits, things that ground me and make me smile. Enjoy!

1) Hot biscuit cinnamon buns, with orange drippy glaze...

2) The weekly Famer's Market haul arranged on my table...

3) Sunny heirloom cherry tomatoes in my (invisible) pyrex mixing bowls...

4) The prism that fills my kitchen with rainbows...

5) My husbands shoes, recently returned from the shop and smelling like shoe polish...

7) My wonderful husband, happily eating pancakes with applesauce on them... *grin*

That's all for today, more to come in the next week!

Yours,

DD

The Cleanse: Day One

So,

One a scale of 1-5 stars for accomplishment in house cleaning, I'd say today is about a 2. I did manage to keep the kitchen straight, thus far, the living room is somewhat less cluttered, and the upstairs bathroom has been mostly cleaned. However, if I am going to get this house in order anytime soon, I'll have to do better than that each day.

On the other hand, I did accomplish the canning of peaches this morning! It is the start of the very brief peach season here in Cbus, so BW and I buy them when they are available. We can only eat so many peaches before they rot, so canning it is! I canned these peach halves using the hot pack method in a medium syrup (my 50's cookbooks say that's sirup, with an i) and then a water bath. They look lovely sitting on my counter cooling. I hope they will taste just as lovely when we go to eat them!

Tomorrow's Cleanse quest: Master Bedroom...

Starting Over: The Cleanse

Well,

It's been just over a year since I wrote anything here. In the intervening year I have gotten married, been working harder as a freelance choreographer and dancer, and have officially quit my day job, thanks to my wonderful and supportive husband. So, let's start over shall we?

I have a unique opportunity to be exactly what I want to be: a housewife with real career to back it up. My choreography doesn't take up nearly all of my time, so when I am home the natural thing to do it keep house. Our apartment has suffered form our busy schedules, when I was working close to 60 hrs a week and BW was working 40, there wasn't much time to make the apartment ours. My first mission as a true Deviant Domestic is to get the house functioning, one space at a time.

First stop: upstairs!...

Failures and Successes(???)

So this is a quick little mid-week deal.  I wanted to document my utter failure yesterday and then add some hopefulness for today's project.

Yesterday I set out to make my first puff pastry!  It didn't seem like it could be that hard, and armed with my 1952 copy of "the American Woman's Cook Book" (complete with pictures and catchy phrases about how to be the perfect housewife*) I dug in.  

*Now, I do have to say this about my book: It is extremely weird, but VERY useful.  I bought it on a whim in an antique store mostly because it was funny.  I have since used it to learn how to preserve, as well as doing other things most current cookbooks ignore entirely.

I was very excited as the work progressed, "wheee this is great! I can make fancy pastries!"I thought.  Unfortunately that excitement lasted right up until I pulled my shiny spinach puff pastry dinner out of the oven...

Ladies and Gentlemen, I created a cracker!  A light and flaky cracker, but a cracker nonetheless.  

Oh well...I am going to blame my flour for the resulting failures.  I have had a lot of trouble getting things to rise properly with the new bulk flour at our co-op.  It was tasty in any event, and we ate it like a pizza. :-)

Today's cooking foray is a Banana Creme Pie.  I'm very hopeful about it so far, and keeping the fingers crossed!

DD  

I Made This! (spring cooking adventures)

Hello there!

It's Market season, which means it's cooking season!  We've been busy around the house the last few weeks and here are some of the results...

Fresh Strawberry Creme Cake 

Strawberry cake with a fruit reduction swirl!

Coco Keylime Cupcakes

Coconut cupcakes with Keylime royal icing!

Spring Market Sauté:

Rainbow chard and french breakfast radishes from the farmer's market sautéed with red onion and garlic, white beans and rice.  I tossed in a dash of keylime juice and soy sauce, as well as salt and pepper to bring out the flavors.

  

That's it for now, enjoy!

DD

Hello again, and welcome back to the Deviant Domestic!

It seems I will be becoming more domestic in the near future (though still fairly deviant), so I thought I ought to at least attempt to start posting again.  Thank you for bearing with me!

Today was a lazy day off.  As such, it is baking day.  BW (his first initials, but I am using them to signify "bread-winner" I think, given my new lower work load.) requested a loaf of fresh bread and "something with pumpkin" today.  Here, we have a fresh loaf of wheat bread, next to it's new best friend, pumpkin bread.  

I know... I really ought to leave them whole to take the pictures.

Here is the pumpkin bread recipe:

13/4 C flour

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1 C sugar

2 eggs beaten

1 C fresh pumpkin purée

1/4 C water

1/2 C veg oil (or applesauce*)

Heat oven to 350 F.  Combine flour, soda, salt, spices, and sugar in a mixing bowl.  Add water, eggs, oil*, and pumpkin.  Stir until well blended.  Pour into one well greased loaf pan.  Bake for 1 hr, then cool completely on a wire rack.  Wrapping the bread in plastic once cooled, and allowing it to sit overnight will increase the melding of flavors! ...oops...

*applesauce will change the consistency, but not the flavor, of the finished product!

That's all I've got for now, see you again soon!