A very Shark Look

A common prejudice against teachers is that we have so much free time, because a lot of people think that school holidays = teacher holidays and end of schoolday = end of workday. Sure, people do see my car parked all snug and safe at 2 pm, they don’t see me sitting at my desk at 10 pm. Same with the holidays: not only is it the time when we’re reducing our overtime, it’s also grading and preparation time. Not to mention that nobody cares if you are sick during that time, the grading is still expected.

But here still is some free time left so I used my new work area to get something done I bought the material for last year: A shark hoodie. We absolutely love sharks. Dolphins, those guys are assholes, but sharks? Cool!

Side view of a woman wearing a hoodie with a shark fin on top and eyes on the side

©Giliell, all rights reserved

3/4 front view of the woman in the hoodie. You can see the shark teeth in the hood

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Actually I’ll claim that this is medically necessary as my neck should be kept warm and nothing is cozier than a hoodie.

Pumpkin Mustard

I am taking the vaccination against Covid and flu rather badly this year. The vaccines had to be staggered by a week and a half because the delivery of the flu vaccine was delayed. After each shot, first, my arm hurt for three days like I was kicked by a mule and after that subsided, I was tired, depressed, and had an elevated temperature in the afternoon for over a week. I had a lot of work to do but I managed very little.

Those issues notwithstanding, I would like to share a recipe for pumpkin mustard, one of those things I have done with this year’s insane harvest. I did use one of the hokkaido squash that I wrote about previously. Hokkaido has firm flesh with a rich yellow color and is thus superbly suitable for this.

© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

I put the following ingredients into the pot:

  • 2 kg of finely grated pumpkin flesh
  • 2 finely minced white peppers (for spicier mustard one can use hot peppers, goat horn peppers, or even chillis if you feel suicidal)
  • 100 ml of vinegar
  • 250 ml of cooking oil (in my case sunflower oil)
  • 120 g of sugar
  • 60 g of salt
  • 1 teaspoon of white pepper (added because it is milder in taste than black pepper and also is not visible in the finished product, optional)
  • 5 tablespoons of soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons of fresh shroomce (optional, 1 spoon of Worchester sauce can be used for spicier taste, I don’t like Worchester sauce that much)

I started to slow cook it under the lid until all the pumpkin pieces softened and started to break apart. Once that happened I added three 180 g glasses of storebought french mustard and mixed and shredded it thoroughly with food mixer into a smooth paste. If you are hardcore on self-made, you can use mustard seeds and not mustard.

© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

I did mix it really thoroughly until it was smooth. I then carefully and slowly evaporated some water until it had an appropriate consistency when cooled. It did not take too long, hokkaido pumpkin is not too watery.

I put the finished product into small screw-top jars which I subsequently sterilized at 80°C for 20 minutes and then opened and closed when hot to form a proper vacuum seal. I made enough mustard to last me for several years, and from experience I know that it can last for several years in the cellar.

© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.

Since this is a rather special product as far as I am concerned, I went through the trouble of designing and printing labels. One glass failed to form a proper vacuum seal so I put it in the refrigerator for immediate consumption. It is delicious, although I will add a little bit more spices next time, possibly more white pepper and maybe a touch more vinegar. That is a long way off though, like I said, this batch should last for at least two years.

Back to the Cutting Table

Off.

Did you hear that, when I finally finished? I just completed a major project on my journey to a less cluttered house (which is all part of our devious plan to get a dog).

My office/sewing room is a pretty big room with a large window front. My desk and my sewing table stand at a right angle to the windows, what is left of the walls has bookshelves and cupboards and some chests of drawers. This leaves a pretty big space in the middle, which got constantly more and more cluttered. No crafty person has ever enough storage space, neither does any teacher, and the combination is a lot. Any attempt at cleaning up was doomed to fail since I didn’t have any storage space.

I finally got fed up and decided to do something about it. Especially since the master plan is to get the house into a state where it’s possible to add a fluffy four legged family member to the mayhem. The idea was to take some chests of drawers the right height to work on them standing, out them back to back with some space in between, and then add two desk tops to make one big surface.

Problem 1: the Ikea Malm chests either come in 80cm (too low) or 100 cm (too high). I finally went for the 80 cm and added feet, which was no easy feat, since Ikea furniture is not made for “unauthorised” changes. We had to add some pieces of wood with some metal angles to create enough surface to add the hardware store feet. Halfway through I was like “fuck that shit, we’ll return the one chest we haven’t opened yet and get kitchen cupboards, they come with feet, but then I saw the price tag and decided, I could stick with my original plan.

Problem 2: The original plan was to create a surface of 1.6m x1.6m. While this fitted, it made the room too cramped. We finally decided on 1.4×1.6. Now the ready made desk tops were too large and need to be returned. It wanted to buy some solid wood panels, but they absolutely don’t come in the sizes I need. I’d have to buy 4 pieces of  40cm x 200cm  and then have 60 cm cut off each panel. This seemed like a lot of waste, plus it would cost another 150€, so I decided on two laminated boards that would fit in between, which leads us to ….

Problem 3: The Malm chests are pressed flake boards where you have little chance of adding a decent screw. In the end we glued and screwed some strips to the backsides of the chests so the boards can rest on top. At this point I was ready to throw everything out of the window. This works, kind of, but I think I’ll have to bite the bullet and buy those wood panels. In the end, it just took 4 more days to clean everything up, but look at this!

View of the two chests of drawwers, with the sewing table in the background

©Giliell, all rights reserved

I finally have the possibility to clean up, let’s hope it stays that way.