Warmth, Wool, and Wolf’s Teeth

by forumholitorium

A two-crows-on-the-roof sunrise, a four-rooks-in-the-tree-waiting-for-peanuts morning, a three-overripe-pears-turning-into-compote afternoon, a 36-rows-to-go-on-the-first-sweater-sleeve evening: a typical November day. This morning the temperature in the living room was a mere 18° C with 69% humidity, so KA prepared the pellet stove and started it up. It is the first time we have had to heat the apartment since early March. A new record. For November, it isn’t even that cold outside – we had our first night around freezing a few days ago but no hard frost – but it is extremely damp, too damp for laundry to dry on the clothes rack. Within two hours of the flames starting to dance in the stove, the humidity dropped to 59%. Such is the miracle of the Pelletsofen.

Wool sock weather has arrived with the cold and damp. I ran into a problem with the (first) sock above: only two grams remain of half of the available yarn, which is not enough to complete the sock. KA said it would be practical to wear such a sock because there is no need to worry about a hole developing in the toe. More seriously, he suggested using a different yarn for the toe. Not a bad suggestion, but I am not going to follow it. The sock is too wide. It was an experiment from the start, one that I thought might fail because the pattern was a one size fits all with customization. Why I still fall for “one size fits all” patterns ever fitting me, I don’t know. By going up a needle size and following a different pattern with fewer stitches in the round, I should have enough yarn for two socks. I prefer knitting socks from the toe up because if yarn starts to become scarce, the length of the leg can simply be shortened. With top down socks, you do all this work before realizing there isn’t enough yarn to finish the toe. As for using another yarn, I like how this soft and squishy yarn feels on my sole too much to combine it with another yarn. So back to square one. At least I finished another hat, a charcoal beret.

There is a story behind this hat too. Four years ago, I knit myself a charcoal beret. I loved it and wore it a lot despite the brim being too loose. Since the beret was knit from the brim up, redoing it would involve starting over. At some point I decided to ravel the brim from the start (i.e., backwards), thinking that if I took my time and remained patient, it couldn’t be that bad. It was. Since that strategy didn’t work, I decided to operate – to cut the yarn at the end of the brim, then pick up the stitches and start knitting the brim from the top down on smaller needles. The yarn was thin, and there were ever so many stitches to pick up. I abandoned this project quickly, having maimed a hat that I liked and wore frequently and that was a color that matched everything. Since half a skein remained, I decided to follow a different beret pattern that requires smaller needles for the brim. Now I have a beret that matches everything AND fits properly.

What has been happening in the kitchen? As always, savory and sweet experiments. I followed the simple recipe for savory frittata di zucchine from the memoir about growing up in Calabria and Rome that I mentioned last week: fry triangular pieces of zucchini in olive oil, then pour egg on top and let it set. Flip twice and serve. No seasoning or herbs are mentioned, so I just used salt. It looked nice but didn’t have much flavor. I blame the bland supermarket zucchini. (I hadn’t had zucchini since summer, and those were fresh off the vine in the garden, so my expectations are high.) The frittata could have benefited from a bit of mint or basil. Served with green salad dressed with pumpkin seed oil and some red grapes, the frittata nonetheless made for a light, filling meal. As for something sweet, there were wolf’s teeth disguised as sugar cookies.

According to Heimat: Das Backbuch, November 10 is the day on which an old tradition, Wolfaustreiben (driving out the wolves), used to be performed in Bavaria. When the shepherds had brought all the grazing animals down from the summer pastures into the valley and stables for the winter, there was a celebration. As night fell, the shepherds paraded through the the village with cowbells and whips, making lots of noise to drive away any wolves in the vicinity. I had never heard of this tradition, nor had I ever tasted Wolfszähne (wolf’s teeth) cookies, whose recipe the book provides for this holiday. These cookies are eaten in Alsace as well, where they are called dents de loup. Since a special form is required to get the shape of a wolf’s tooth and I didn’t fancy buying one, I nearly skipped this one. Then I had an idea for how to improvise the form of a tooth by shaping them with two spoons. I could have saved myself the work – once in the oven, they promptly flattened into irregular rounds. Rich and redolent of vanilla, KA and I found them good but very sweet sugar cookies. Further research uncovered this technique for improvising your own wolf’s tooth mold out of an aluminum baking tray, which I may try if I bake these again. I will file this one away as a good recipe for guests with a serious sweet tooth.

May you stay warm, well fed, and safe from wolves!