super sale story sharing

Not sure if I have local readers, but just in case, through Wed the 30th of January, the Ark on Milwaukee Ave in Wicker Park is having a bag sale for cold weather clothes for $10.00. This price is for what they call a medium sized bag.  It was actually quite large, almost the size of a typical kitchen garbage bag.  I came in a half hour before closing and got 7 merino wool sweaters from the men's section and happily a pair of jeans for my son. I say happily because I assumed they were priced at $6.00 separately from the sweaters and cold weather gear in the sale category.  More could have fit if I had more time to browse were greedier than I already am. Funnily and yet sadly and yet funnily again, the gloves and mittens were not included in the sale. Oh well.  I paid $10.93.  They turned the lights off in the back of the store as I was putting my little purse into backpack I noticed I no longer had my own mittens tucked under my arm anymore. I asked them to turn the lights back on so I could hunt, but a young man working found them it the dark.  So good to get them back.  They were a gift from my mother some 20 years ago.  I lost them one time before trash picking in an alley.  I found them hours later on the ground.

Last week I got a black cashmere sweater for 1/2 off the regular $10.00 price.  The merino wool ones in the bag sale were marked for $6.00 each.    I tend to like the selection in the men's section because the sweaters there are broader in the shoulders (like I am). Oversized is fine, if they shrink a little, no problem, usually they still fit.  If tight they are a good layer underneath.  Or they can be pieced together to make a bigger Frankensweater.  So many good books on the subject.  Some time ago I read a blog post on Mr. Peacock about how he make a patchwork sweater from his dad's black cashmere socks.  I imagine wool and cashmere would take dye as easily as cotton, so a lighter blah color can be transformed into something more flattering (more shrinkage than cotton probably).

OK, that's it happy hunting.  Any good finds on your end?  Any reconstructions?

art cars, road art

Cutie.

 

 

Toughie.

 

 

Stop in the name of Driver's Ed. 

 

 

 

 Flames afire, love's desire, higher and higher, overhead, future Bloomingdale trail.

 

 

Duct taped, foiled wonders.

 

 

 Happiness and gaped-faced awe along Bloomingdale viaduct. 

 

 

 Cowboy with neon aura.

 

 

Formerly bright green taqueria.

Almond mazurkas

It's been a while hasn't it. Chalk it up to holiday related ennui.
Here is a very yummy, mind blowingly flavorful dessert recipe for your enjoyment.

Here's a Wigilia (Christmas Eve vigil) recipe just as delicious for Inauguration Day or Martin Luther King Day.  Original recipe is from the Culinary Art's Institute Polish Cookbook: Traditional recipes tested for today's kitchens.  It's in the general desert section, love the Easter and Christmas sections too, I rely on them for preparing holiday dishes.

The Cautionary Preamble Including Sadness: I didn't have ground almonds as an ingredient so I ground my own. I soaked almonds for 2 or 3 days changing water daily, then ground without blanching/removing skins first.  I ground with lots of water in my Vitamix blender in batches. I got worried when the blender stopped.  I thought I broke it, yikes. I read the fine print on the machine later that it should start again in a half hour or so.  It did.  I used smaller batches of almonds and more water.  Maybe an actual grinder or food processor would be a more appropriate tool.  Later my husband told me that in the directions it says to add the almonds through the top while the water is in motion.  I felt like a dummy not reading first. I froze the excess of ground almonds.

When I was done with the blending I had a water slurry, I poured off the liquid  through a flour sieve, added honey to taste I stored the almond milk in the fridge.  Sadly it did not last for more than a week before fermenting.  I should have frozen some. I saved the ground, bicolored bits of almond for the recipe.  Mine were kind of chunky and irregular which we liked.

As a recipe variation I used rose water for flavoring and stirred in jam I made from rosehips earlier.  It was heavenly. Lemon would be good, or orange water, or vanilla, or a complementary liqueur?

So finally, the actual recipe:

Almond Mazurkas (Mazurek Migdalowy)

1 pound blanched almonds, ground, about 4 cups
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 tablespoons lemon juice ( I used rose water instead)
(I added about a 1/2 cup of rose hip jam, stirred in loosely, so you could see swirls)

Combine almonds and sugar; mix well.
Beat eggs with lemon juice until just foamy.  Stir into almond mixture.  Pour batter into a well greased 15x10x1 inch jellyroll pan.  I used parchment paper thankfully. (The finished product was as sticky as the floors of a downtown movie house circa 1978.)
Bake at 250 degrees for 1 hour, or until golden.
Cut into 2 inch squares while still warm.  Remove from pan.

We layered parchment paper and wax paper between sticky, fragile layers.  Maybe if the almonds were ground finer without the skins the squares would've held together more easily.  After they cooled they held together pretty well.

Let me know if you try this.  Do you have favorite cookie/cooky/biscuit recipes?