The other day I posted a photo of some fiber Caroline was dying, it was her first experiment dyeing with Kool-Aid. Here are the dried results. The next step will be to start spinning these fibers for the process of making yarn. If you would like to read more about Caroline’s perspective on things, check out her blog over at www.caracolina.com.

I like to cook. Caroline though is a vegetarian. So the question arises from time to time: what do you eat, or more precisely, what do you cook? The answer is tons of stuff, from Indian to Thai, Chinese to Korean, various fusions, and some standard fare. In today’s photo of the day, I’m showing you some of the bulk items we use, such as; hull-less barley, barley cereal, whole wheat pasta, thick-cut oats, blue corn posole, oat groats, raw almonds, poha (a flattened rice product from India), Kala chana (garbanzos with black skin), homemade sprouted and dehydrated granola, brown chipotles, buckwheat, toor dal, chana dal, quinoa, peanuts, couscous, chia seeds, veggie chicken stock, pumpkin seeds, moong dal, chipotle Morita, red walnuts, and sunflower seeds. Not shown but in our pantry are the following; brown rice, wild rice, pinto beans, adzuki beans, garbanzo beans, millet, orzo, moong bean, kidney bean, red wheat, red corn posole, dried fruits including coconut, strawberries, raspberries, apricots, pears, dates, peaches, and apples, dried chiles including red, pasillo, guajillo, cascabel, and ancho. Add to that the 72 spices and herbs, 11 types of pepper, and 4 salts and you have the beginnings of a very diverse range of ingredients to start cooking with.

With the rising sun poking through the window, a dress sitting on the back of the couch caught my eye as its bright colors and glowing orange was illuminated in a brilliance that begged for me to break out the camera before the moment passed.

Finally, Caroline put her dyeing station to work and for the first time, she dyed wool using Kool-Aid. It’s fun watching her out there, the mad scientist at work. The giant smile on her face lets me know that she’s really loving what she’s doing. Now she yells at me from her workbench how she’s looking forward to trying the Indigo next. Seems that I missed something in preparing her birthday gifts: a salad spinner would come in handy for removing excess water from the fibers after rinsing. Well, our 14th Anniversary is coming up.