Bolita Beans

And now for a recipe!

My Bolita Beans

This hands down is my favorite bean. It's also my kids favorite. Once you've had them, you'll see why, they are plump, meaty, smooth, easy on the stomach, and they are a local food for us. We get ours from Schweback Farm, and surprisingly they aren't sold out yet from this past harvest. The year before they sold out so fast we went without for the year!

And if you are interested here is a little info about Bolita Beans at Local Harvest/Slow Food USA, a recipe from Taos News (and chicos, which I'll be giving my recipe in the next blog post), and New Mexico Magazine's version.

What I've found is that I don't like my Bolita Beans complicated with a lot of additions. Many times, tomato products are added to beans because the acid in them tenderizes the bean, as the salt does. Any how I urge you to try them simple.

Extra notes:

You can make 1 pound instead of 2. I make 2 because we eat them a lot.

You can also adjust the ham hocks, onion, and garlic ratios suited to your taste. My mom adds 6 cloves of garlic for each pound. For Texas style beans, I've seen as much as 8 ham hocks added to 1 pound of beans.

For vegetarian/vegans I imagine you could use liquid smoke, I have done this in the past, but never took any notes on the amount added.

For us locals, Keller's has someone that smokes their hocks locally. I can't recommend them enough. They are excellent quality and flavor. Call first to see if they have them, they sell out quickly. When they do have them, I buy extra to freeze.

Two pounds yields me about 12 cups cooked beans. I freeze them, and how I do it takes a bit of extra time, but do what works for you. Remove hocks, bay leaves, and onion and discard. Strain liquid from beans but reserve! Measure out two cups of beans into containers, then pour reserved liquid just to cover beans. I find that reheating them with their liquid after being frozen is better.

Before eating we often add either chopped roasted New Mexico green chile or Red Chile Sauce.

And lastly, don't omit the bay leaf. It really makes a difference!

Bolita Beans

Cuisine: New Mexican

Serves: 12 (1 cup portions)

Ingredients

• 2 pounds bolita beans rinsed well and picked over
• 3 smoked ham hocks rinsed
• 1 large onion, peeled and halved
• 4 cloves garlic peeled
• 2 bay leaves
• water
• 1 tablespoons sea salt

Directions

Place beans thru bay leaves in crockpot. Add a minimum of 10 cups of water. Turn crockpot to high and let come to a good simmer (1 to 2 1/2 hours depending on model crockpot), then turn down to low and simmer for additional 2 to 3 hours. 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 hours of total cooking time for the beans to be tender and cooked thru, but you'll notice the skin may feel just a little tough. Add the salt and cook for another half hour, beans will be perfectly tender.

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Spring Is Around The Corner

Bedouin Sampler

We got some much needed rain! And signs of spring are everywhere. The trees are exploding and the weeds are popping.

Andean Pebble Weave Sampler

I will be taking a break from weaving until April. We have lots going on with the family, I need to get some more items in my Etsy shop (I will start doing shop updates here), and I am nursing a shoulder injury that just won't quit.

Simple/plain weave with combs

And as a reminder, I do post to Facebook and Ravelry, but I am still learning how to use them. But that takes times, and well, I'd rather be weaving!!!

Sampler Warp

So I'll leave you with a few pictures, and I will see you in April.

And some very lovely chickens!

 

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Yurt Band Motifs Revisted

I was really inspired to give this weaving pattern a try after I read the tutorial at Laverne Waddington's Backstrap Weaving blog (link here). It is probable that you will hear me mention her often in coming blog posts as I've finally had a chance to start reading her second book and work on tutorials from her blog. That means I will be sampling more! I think I am going to call this the "Year Of The Sampler".

As much as I love sampling, I had a chance to complete some small projects using this motif.

the finished bag/pouch with button

After a small conversation on Instagram sparked me to clarify some details. Even thou I called my project on Instagram a yurt band, it is not a real yurt band, it is a yurt band motif that is most definitely woven in non-traditional colors!

yurt band motif mug rug

Following the online tutorial, I wove this using both my Inkle Loom and my backstrap set-up. I do prefer to weave this on my backstrap. If you are familiar with the Inkle Loom, the fabric that is woven can get slightly elongated. Either way, the fabric is still wonderful!

Okay now for the details!

I used both size 3 and size 10 cotton for the warp (not on the same project, either one or the other). The weft was also of matching size. The tutorial for the yurt band is located here. To completely understand the process I did weave an X band, an O band, and an X-O band. Then I wove two bands, both of these were done on my Inkle Loom.

O, X, an O-X Bands

yurt band motif, inkle-woven, size 3 cotton

yurt band motif, inkle-woven, size 10

I hadn't used a backstrap set-up in 3 years. I ambitiously warped and wove a small piece of fabric. It was really more than I should have attempted but two wonderful things happened, I wanted to use my backstrap set-up more, and I decided to weave where my kids could touch it. This way really risky if you know my kids!!! Anyhow, they seemed to understand this was really important to mama and they respected the yarn! Doesn't mean I can leave it hanging there, but I can now weave without the fear of them pulling out the sticks while I'm working. My little guy asks to kiss the yarn, which I let him do, and I am over the moon with that!

yurt band motif sample fabric, backstrap set-up, size 3 cotton

After a long break from ravelry, I popped on in to the backstrap group just in time to join the Olympic Weave Along. Deciding to give a go to a wide warp again, I wove a piece for a cell phone pouch.

In regards to warping, I used a 4 stake method. Instructions for this can be found in Laverne's first book. But it wasn't until I took the picture below that I found that I had made an error. I warped too many revolutions! After fixing that I went to weaving.

using the back of my Navajo loom to warp, and I warped too much!

Laverne has a video tutorial that deals with the topic of sticky sheds. Folks, I can't recommend it enough that you watch and practice this! The link to this tutorial is here.

Also, for the first time in a finished project I used a coil rod. I will write about that another time, but I can say I really liked using it and it made a difference.

weaving in progress, with a coil rod at the top

The pouch is completely lined, I hand sewed the lining in and the woven strap with a baseball stitch.

fabric covered edges

done but needs a button!

Lastly I wove a small mug rug. I had enough warp for two, but I decided to do weft twining for the first time (will discuss eventually in another blog post), and I kept weaving until I was happy with the result.

Yurt Band Motif Mug Rug With Weft Twining

So, that is my adventure with the yurt band motif! I'm sure I'm not done with it yet.

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As The Days Grow Longer

We've past the solstice and the days are slowly growing brighter longer. We are also noticing a shift in temperatures, although, I see that many of you are still in the deep throes of winter.

This winter has been mild, with a cold snap here and there, but nothing major. As much as I am glad not to have snow, having shoveled my share in the past, it is worrisome when we go a length of time without precipitation. Please, please, rain or snow, we'll take it.

Sometime in the beginning of December I checked out on technology/media other than Instagram. I needed to just BE with my family, and be with me. I did do a lot of reading, of the weaving kind!

I've been struggling to find time to be with my camera, but finally carved out time to photograph my woven key fobs and opened my etsy shop! And I've been sampling, studying and taking notes on weaving. I've wanted to keep a notebook, for instance, when I look at the tablet-woven bands I've made, I have no idea what I've done. Fourty pages of notes have been written so far!

Intermesh Samples

I'm still sampling Intermesh (lol, I'm still sampling a whole lotta techniques). I want to come up with a project that will really show off the double-sided nature of the fabric. I've settled on a guitar strap, but need to decide on a pattern that I will enjoy.

Backstrap-woven small bag in progress, with Yurt Band Motif

I have been sampling ALOT, and feeling the need to make a small project. I joined the ravelry backstrap weaving group weave-along for the Olympics. I decided on a cell phone bag. I had my heart set on doing a tubular woven edge, but I'm not quite confident yet that it'll come out looking all that great. I made an Inkle loom band that ended up too short for a strap, so I am working on another one!

Finger-Weaving

Finally, I started looking at the Weaver's Journal PDFs that are available online. You must take a peek at these! I have started with the tutorial on Andean Crossed Warp Techniques for Woven Trim and I love the weaving. It's done by finger manipulation, and the instructions were a bit mind boggling at first, but I figured it out.

In the book this is called pebble weave but I consider this speckled background.

I've been working my way thru the Inkle Weavers Directory and I will share some sample photos. I can tell you, I did not like doing Monk's Cloth at all, and will most likely never try it again. It's so funny how some weaves resonate, and some don't!

I also think we also underestimate how beautiful plain weave really is. It's fun to do complicated pick up patterns, but sometimes my favorites just end up being plain weave.

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Sopa de Papas

Note: working on a better photo, I don't like this one. I am not a good food photographer!

And on the stove or in the oven at a New Mexico Kitchen.......

Sopa de Papas

This recipe is loosely based (to be milk-free/gluten-free/nut-free) from an adorable little gem of a cookbook called Flora's Kitchen, Recipes from a New Mexico Family, by Regina Romero. I think this was the first New Mexican cookbook I purchased the first time I moved here. I may have mentioned this before, New Mexican cookbooks are more than just recipes, they are history, a coming together of family with the staples of New Mexican cuisine.

We eat this because, well, it is just down right economical and it tastes good. I will be the first to say that I love creating fancy meals when I have time, but lately, the trip to the grocery store is just killing me. And with the crazy food restrictions we have going on in our household our food bill is driving me a little crazy!

I caramelize the onions while the veggies are cooking. If you don't want your soup to have a pink tone, remove the carrots before processing.

This is my version of her recipe. Yields 4 servings.

Sopa de Papas

Course: Soup & Stew

Cuisine: New Mexican

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 4 medium yukon gold potatoes peeled and diced
• 2 carrots peeled and diced
• 2 celery stalks diced
• 1/2 quart water
• 1 1/2 cups rice milk (optional)
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 small onion peeled,and cut into thin cresents
• Olive Oil (or other fat)
• Herbamare to taste
• Black Pepper to taste
• Roasted New Mexican Green Chile (optional)

Directions

Put potato, carrot, celery and water in pot and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until veggies are very soft. Strain and reserve liquid, puree veggies and return to stock. Add the rice milk and beat in the egg yolks, heat gently and season with Herbamare. Saute onion in olive oil to your liking, lightly browned or caramelized, and add to the soup. Serve. Of course we add a dollop of roasted green chile.

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