This is called a 'hoedag', it is a gardening tool that is a hoe on one side and a set of tines on the other. I have been calling it, in my own mind, some sort of conglomeration of 'hoedak' or 'hoedar' and today, I decided to go look up what it was actually called. Surprisingly, I have not just made up a name and used it (as I have done with some things all my life, as a way of keeping it organized in my own head) - but it really is a 'hoedag'. Where did I pick up that name? It certainly wasn't on any of the tools when I bought them - I remember looking, and even asking myself at the time - what do I CALL this? Unlike my hori-hori knife, which I also use so often in the garden, and use the name from what was on it when I received it.
It is mid February, and the ice age has ended, at least for now. I hope for all year. In those hopes, I put a small patch of turnip seed out in the front garden with this hoedag this morning. I had given some chickweed that was growing by the front steps to the chickens yesterday and watched them run around and peck at each other to get some. They looked so miserable and wet this morning in the rain, that I decided it was worth some of my co-op 'old but might sprout' seed even at these temperatures to plant a little something - just to ask Spring to keep rolling along to warm.
Mark had made a good pork roast with all the spices a few days ago (Esme helped grind those up and measure them), and we made stir fry with it. I bought a new rice cooker a few weeks ago with a gift certificate, and it finally came in the mail. I think I like it - but I want to see if it will cook lentils as well as rice. The book has nothing about that - but I've seen some things on line. I also wonder if it will cook soaked adzuki beans - if so, that would be 'golden'.
the sauce for the stir fry, as usual : 1 tbsp brown sugar, bit olive oil, about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water (I often add more later), 2 splashes of soy sauce and one splash of balsamic vinegar, and about a half a tablespoon or bit more of prepared brown mustard - mix that all together and put in with the vegetables and pre-cooked meat, and when it has all come to a good cooked mixture, add the recently cooked (but not just cooked) rice, a bit more water and when that has heated back to sizzling - make a hole in the middle and crack one egg. Let the white cook for a moment, then drag the egg through the entire mixture and put the lid on to steam while turning off the heat. Serve immediately. This had zucchini, red bell pepper and onions in it, as well as the pork roast and rice cooked in the rice cooker the night before.
And before we go out to town today, I am making some soup. Mark had given me a large rind of fat in the refrigerator off of his pork roast two nights ago, and it was time to do something with it. I put a pot of split peas on the stove with olive oil, celery seed, and pulverized brown mustard seed in it, as well as the fat rind. In a couple of hours I can blend it up and put it in quart glass jars to use for the week. Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old - not quite, in glass jars put up in the fridge shelf :)
This is the little mortar and pestle that my mother-in-law gave me a few years ago. I use it to grind up seeds like these in small batches to use in cooking. Whole brown mustard seed, from an Indian cooking spice kit I bought years ago, and did not have too much use for it particularly, until I began grinding it up in small batches.
for languages lately, I've done Spanish, German, Turkish and Lithuanian.
I had the opportunity to try to speak to someone in Spanish, they asked me if I could say whatever it was en espanol etc... but all I could think of was half German, half English, and something else in Spanish that had not meant the right thing in the past. For actual usability, I really do need to take some face-to-face Spanish lessons covering things I actually need to say. Maybe some day here.
