One of the (many) grapefruit cake recipes out there

Hello, everyone.

My sweetie has been trying to use up grapefruit a lot this year.

He's made a batch of grapefruit wine. (Seen here in secondary fermentation, under the carboy jacket with beer bottles on it. After this he clarified it and let it set in the big jug some more, and then he bottled some and racked the rest...ran out of containers.)

Grapefruit wine in the back, a beer kit in the front. White bucket in background on floor contains sanitizing solution for cleaning hoses, testing equipment, and whatnot.

 Then he made a grapefruit cake recipe he found on the internet. It was a fairly basic white-ish cake. Used whole eggs, and had some zest and juice in it.

The grapefruit cake--which wanted to slide apart. Thus the toothpicks temporarily in the cake top!

Then he was supposed to pour a boiled-down juice glaze over all and make a frosting with confectioners sugar and juice and butter. (?) The icing wasn't that great at first, but the grapefuit flavor came out more over time. I told him he should try making the French pound cake (quatre quarts) with zest either instead of vanilla or in addition to it, and then pour the fruit glaze over that and call it a day. It might be really good.

Unidentified volunteer (Updated)

Hello, everyone.

There is a volunteer in the flower bed. [update Feb 13 2016: I picked a leaf and sniffed and it smells like parsley. So I guess parsley it is!--the leaf differences being just varieties I guess.)

Is it parsley? Or a similar-looking plant?

 When it first sprouted up next to the potted tomato there had been some parsley seeds in the area and I thought one had escaped. But these pots are from the parsley seeds that might have escaped, and they're not the same plant.

These are certainly parsley--the flat-leaved kind.

 The angles of the cuts on the leaf edges are deeper and pointier.

Max says hello, just because.

My buddy wanted me to stop playing with cameras and pet him.

Garden update

Hello, everyone.

There has been a new item harvested in the garden today!

Beets! And their tops.

 Looking at other things, it was obvious that the baby broccoli needs to be picked again, too.

Baby broccoli os "cut and come again" as the side shoots sprout like gangbusters.

Brewing experiments

Hello, everyone.

DH is a beer maker, as our friends know, and he's been taken with the urge to use up grapefruits this year. (With two mature trees, we have a lot of grapefruit to use up!) He dug up some information about grapefruit wine making online and got  yeast and suchlike supplies from the local brewing supply shop. Then picked about 60 fruit to squeeze. The juice marinated for a few days and then he, following the directions, put the yeast, sugar, and water in. It took almost two days to start bubbling, but then it was a champ!

Today he moved the grapefruit juice mixture to the secondary fermentation carboy, and covered it with its carboy jacket.

Then he started making one of the little one-gallon beer kits that were on special at the Giant Book Store that is more interested in selling non-book stuff. I knew he'd started that when he turned up in my sewing room with the small carboy in his hand. (Think of a 1 gallon moonshine jug here, in clear glass.) A new, small-sized carboy jacket was needed.

I pulled out a piece of stash fabric: polished cotton from the dining room window swags. Added the back half of a stained linen top, which was still black. Cut both to size and attached at the bottom edge.

The jug is a smidge less than 21 inches in circumference, plus seam allowance gives 22"

Base of jug to neck is around 11 inches--the neck itself will stick out a bit.

Bottom seam pressed open. 

 I had cut the lining piece a little shorter than the outside piece, so the selvage you see at the seam is folded up in the pressing.

Bottom folded up, sides sewn together and serged to prevent fraying. The layers are treated as one piece from now on.

The next step was to sew the short sides together to make a tube to fit over the jug. Then press that seam open, so it wouldn't be a big lump inside the cover.

Sewn into a tube. 

 The top edge was folded down and pinned for a casing. A piece of stash ribbon (1/4" or 3/8" wide satin and about 12 inches long) was used for the drawstring.

Sewing the casing with a 1/2" seam.

 Threaded the ribbon through the casing with the always-useful safety pin, then sewed the ends together so it would stay threaded.

Completed carboy jacket!

Father-and-son carboy jackets

 The fermenting grapefruit wine is in the 5 gallon carboy in back. The 1 gallon carboy in front is ready for action.

Little updates

Hello, everyone.

It's been chilly here the last couple of nights, with yesterday bottoming out in the mid 30'sF (about 2 or 3C) as dry cold fronts wash over us and the clear night sky radiates out all the warmth that builds up in the sunny day. We did get perhaps a quarter inch of rain on Wednesday this week.

Baby broccoli (gai lan I think it's also called) are beginning to really produce. Arugula is still ahead of me and the loads of dill that God planted are almost ready to run the row of cabbages out of town on a rail. Some beets are making roots now, and the Natasha endive is trying to make heads...very tiny heads at this point, but that's more heading out of lettuce than I've ever had before.

And there has been some sewing on little things inside.

Mug rugs!

 Mug rugs are all over Pinterest these days, and they're a great way to use up some stash.

One of the night blooming cacti is trying to make a fruit.

This cactus has tried to fruit several times over the years, but I've never seen a ripe, red one on the plant.

Winter in South Texas

Hello, eveyone.

The Chamber of Commerce down here will probably love me for this post. But I saw a bird--while holding a camera--the other day, and also took some other pictures.

Sunshine coming through the branches of the Olmos tree.

 The Olmos tree hasn't dropped its leaves yet, because it waits until the new leaves come out in the spring to do that. It's fairly fast-growing (with water) and the birds love to perch in its branches.

"Are you looking at me?"

 The mockingbird is the Texas state bird. This one looks like he's a little suspicious of that strange human with the camera.

A rare bit of leaf color in the Valley

 This little Red Oak isn't growing very fast, but it did color up this winter. Behind it, the grapefruit trees and the tangerine tree. DH is going to try and make a batch of grapefruit wine this year.

Curly-leafed kale

Beets

And a couple of things from my cool-season garden. There is also a row of arugula that is going crazy. I'm trying all kinds of things to use it up!

Thank you St Nick

Hello, everyone.

St. Nicholas was very generous to me this year.

This is the new sewing machine, which has *adjustable presser foot pressure.* It doesn't have a zillion computerized stitches and I have to manually move the needle up and down if it stops in the wrong level, but it does hum in a way that's unbelievable.

Also visible is the really neat add-on lighting kit: a set of LED bulbs attached to stickum, with their own on/off switch.

It's been getting its first workouts on the bibs and now on some mug rugs. Next up, either going back to R's dress--coming up on its finish date now--or starting the pink/blue/white quilt that has been going through square choices recently.