Yarn Over Eureka

I started working on a new sweater as soon as I finished my first one in April. It's the Green Gable from Zephyr Style, the same girls who designed the Juliet sweater I made. In February when Yarniverse had their 40% off sale I bought enough Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece to make the Green Gable sweater and the Rusted Root sweater. I picked out Peridot, a pale green for my Green Gable and buttercream, a soft yellow for the Rusted Root. When I made the Juliet sweater I knew something was slightly off with my stitches I had too many. I could never figure it out but it turned okay and the blocking helped and probably I'm the only person that notices its imperfections.

Green Gable - WRONG

For Mother's Day I made my mom a reusable grocery bag out of Hempathy, a hemp yarn. (It's actually not quite finished because I still need to make and sew on the handle. Whoops.) The bag is an open lace pattern made with yarn overs. Again I ended up with extra stitches. It's slightly off too, it doesn't look terrible just not perfectly executed.

I saw a cotton lace/cable shrug on Ravelry I wanted to make too. I started it and again more yarn overs and more stitch problems. I didn't want to go to the yarn stores for help, I wanted to figure it out on my own. I got pretty far into the Green Gable three different times before ripping it out and starting it over again because I couldn't the stitches correct. I knew I had to be doing something incorrect with the yarn overs, there was no other explanation. I looked online at KnittingHelp.com, I looked in my Stitch & Bitch books, I Googled 'yarn over help' nothing. From the video on KnittingHelp.com I knew I was doing my yarn over correctly but I was still ending up with a leftover stitch. Finally I took a piece of paper and wrote out my stitches and tried to figure out where that extra stitch was coming from. After half an hour of being near tears I figured it out. I was making a yarn over and then knitting a stitch. That's wrong, you're supposed to place the yarn in a certain position and then follow your pattern, whether that be knitting a stitch or knitting two together in the case of the Green Gable sweater.

Green Gable - RIGHT (it's the same yarn, the picture above is with a flash, the picture below is sans the flash)

I was still concerned that was the right thing to do but I decided to go ahead and knit a few rounds anyway. Well apparently I was right, that was my problem. I'm almost all the way finished with the lace portion of the sweater and when I compare it to photos of other people's on Ravelry it looks right. So now I'm excited to finish this sweater, the shrug and make another bag for my mom that' has the proper number of stitches and thus the proper lace pattern.

Big sigh of relief. I'm not a complete knitting moron.

How Does My Garden Grow

The vegetable garden is in it's 6th week. The main problems I'm having are slugs and whiteflies. I used beer traps to get rid of some slugs, it was a cheap treatment (thanks to Doug's friend Jeff leaving a 6-pack of Southpaw at our house) but it was pretty nasty cleaning out the dead slugs from the plastic cups. Gag. I treated the whitefly problem with some organic pesticide/fungicide spray but it's rained nearly everyday since I used the spray so I'll probably need to spray again. I hate those little creepy whiteflies, it seems like there are hundreds of them. I've read that marigolds can help get rid of them so I guess I need to get plant some marigolds in the garden.

So far the butternut squash, the watermelon, the cantaloupe and the summer squash seem to be growing the fastest, they're all in the same garden bed. I planted all of those from heirloom seeds that I bought from Seed Savers.

I'm still kind of nervous because I'm afraid my garden won't actually produce anything. But I've got my fingers crossed and I'm trying to be vigilante. Sadly my green peas have caught what I believe is some sort of root fungus. They started out really healthy but in the last few weeks they've wilted and their leaves have dried up.

My two cayenne pepper plants have some baby peppers on them and my tomatoes are starting to bloom too. The cucumbers, carrots and lettuce are still pretty tiny but hopefully they'll start getting bigger since it's gotten so warm in the last week.

Our hydrangeas are also blooming. When we first moved into the house last year the were all cut down to the base of the plant and they never bloomed last year because the morons that lived in our house before us had cut them down so far and hydrangeas bloom on new wood. But this year they are full of big heads and the best part is they're multi-colored. They're blue, pink and lavender. I love them. Growing up my mom had Nikko Blue ones and my grandmother had pink ones so I'm really excited to have multi-colored hydrangeas. Doug thinks that hydrangeas are "old lady plants," I have no idea why. Maybe the blue blooms remind him of blue-haired ladies?

Too.Much.Food.

This past weekend was a holiday weekend so what else did I do with an extra day off? I made more labor intensive dishes. I really, really love chicken salad. You can do almost anything with it. I really like the pre-made Waldorf Chicken Salad at Fresh Market, the crunchy grapes and walnuts add something special. But when you make it at home the possibilities are endless, you could do an Asian style chicken salad with wasabi mayo or a Mediterranean style chicken salad with sun-dried tomatoes and Kalmata olives, nearly anything.

My favorite chicken salad recipe comes from Epicurious.com, it's Chicken Salad with Walnuts & Peaches. I first made it when my best friend and I hosted a bridal shower several years ago. It got rave reviews and I've been making it ever since. Usually Doug is not a fan of something like chicken salad, there are too many 'unknown' ingredients for him. But this past weekend I made some and asked him to try a bite. He did and he actually liked it, so I can add another dish to my lunch/dinner repertoire. The recipe is relatively easy but it does involved the poaching and shredding of chicken breasts, chopping an onion and peeling and cutting up peaches, the end result is worth it though.

Last week, around Wednesday, I bought a huge container of strawberries from the grocery store, mainly because they were on sale and when they're in season I eat strawberries several times a week. Monday afternoon I realized I hadn't eaten those berries yet so I pulled them out of the fridge and inspected them. They were still good but they weren't as sweet as the ones I bought at the Farmer's Market the week before so I went looking for a strawberry cobbler recipe. I didn't have any eggs on hand so I had to find a recipe that didn't call for an egg. I found this one on the Whole Foods website. I made it and it was great, not too sweet and not too soupy. The fruit is held together with a mixture of flour and sugar so it gives it a little more 'body'. I topped the biscuit-y part with raw sugar and butter and it was perfect, even better with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Pecan Honey Sticky Buns

This is my first Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, I *just* joined and I am so excited to be part of this bake-a-long. The book is Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, it is huge and filled with tons of recipes for baked goods. There are so many fabulous blogs over there with even more fabulous pictures of the finished product. And every week one of the members chooses another recipe from the book for everyone to make, then we post about how we did it, what we thought about the recipe and pictures, all on Tuesdays.

This week's recipe was chosen by Madam Chow of Madam Chow's Kitchen. The sticky buns are made with a brioche dough, which you make first and have to refrigerate overnight. I was a little intimated at first because the recipe called for a stand mixer (which I don't have) but also said you could use a wooden spoon too. I ended up using a combination of a wooden spoon and my hands, which was sort of fun, squishing the butter into the dough. I was afraid it wouldn't rise, because this was really the first true bread I've made, but luckily it made it through. The next morning I pulled it out of the fridge and divided it into two, one part for the buns and one part for a loaf of brioche. The brioche part just went into a buttered loaf pan with an egg wash. The buns got a layer of butter and cinnamon sugar and then after being rolled up and sliced and were placed into the baking pan with the topping of honey, brown sugar, butter and pecans that I had made earlier.
I loved these sticky buns, they were so good. My husband said they were "dangerously good" which is completely true because the recipe (dough, topping and all) uses almost four whole sticks of butter. Tasty but not so healthy. I'll probably save this recipe for special occasions, not only for the butter issue but because it is rather time consuming.

Also the separate loaf of brioche I made was delicious, it has the consistency and flavor of croissants, very buttery and flaky but not too sweet. Wonderful with a smearing of apricot jam.
I'm already ready for next week's recipe of French Chocolate Brownies chosen by Di's Kitchen Notebook.

Herbs, a Symphony & Chicken

I got up extremely early yesterday morning and drove to Brighton to Anthony's Herb Festival. I went last year and it's a nice little place to go and buy herbs and plants and other random homemade things. I bought some onion chives, two different kinds of mint, two pepper plants, a spinach plant and a scented geranium. I also bought a bar of homemade lavender scented goat's milk soap (I even got to pet the goats) and a jar of homemade strawberry jam for Doug because he always complains we never have strawberry jam/jelly. My mom went too, she was going to work a shift in the Tipton County Master Gardeners tent, but she got there early so she could walk around and shop. The festival is at an actual farm and it's such a pretty piece of property, two houses and lots of barns and greenhouses. It's all beautifully landscaped too, if I lived on a farm I would want it to be this place.

I got home after the festival and started to cook because we had grand plans to go to the Sunset Symphony last night. The symphony is the final 'hurah' of the Memphis in May celebration. I was going to make a little picnic dinner for us to take and enjoy. Then about 3:30PM (while I was breading the chicken drumsticks) it started to get dark and the wind was blowing pretty hard. The heavens opened up and it poured. Luckily there were no tornado warnings or anything but I realized then we probably didn't want to go downtown to the symphony and sit on the muddy ground. So instead I made our picnic food and we stayed home and eat and watched two of the three Netflix movies we've had for at least two months. We saw "Who Killed the Electric Car?" and "The Business of Being Born" both really great, eye-opening documentaries.

I don't really have a recipe for the chicken or the pasta salad, but these are the ingredients and how I made them.

Oven Baked Chicken Drumsticks
6 drumsticks, rinsed with cold water and patted dry
1 3/4 c. panko breadcrumbs
1/2 c. whole milk or buttermilk
5 dashs of Tabasco sauce
2 tsp. cayenne pepper
4 tbsp. butter

Mix together milk and Tabasco sauce in large bowl, add drumsticks. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Heat oven to 425F, line a baking sheet with two layers of aluminum foil, add butter and place the sheet in the warm oven just long enough to soften the butter. Mix together panko and pepper, remove drumsticks from milk marinade and roll in panko mixture. Shake off excess and lay on baking sheet. Bake the drumsticks for 20 minutes, then turn them over and place back in the oven for 20 more minutes.


Cleaning-Out-the Pantry/Freezer Pasta Salad
1/2 box of pasta shells (or any short round pasta)
1/2 bag frozen green peas
1/2 bag frozen broccoli florets
1/2 container Hormel Real Bacon Bits
1/2 envelope of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing mix
1 small container sour cream

Steam or boil peas and broccoli florets together until tender. Drain and set aside in large bowl. Cook pasta until al dente, drain and mix together with peas and broccoli. In small bowl mix together sour cream and ranch dressing mix, add this to the pasta, pea and broccoli. Mix everything well and add the bacon bits. Serve chilled.

hope.

I’ve always thrown around the idea of getting a tattoo. It’s one of those things that you just *can’t* wait to do until your 18, like voting, getting a credit card, smoking, etc. I don’t think any of my friends have tattoos, nor does anyone in my family (except my brother). By the time I turned 18 I wasn’t really thinking about tattoos, but in the last several years I started thinking about getting one again. There were two things that concerned me though; one is that I wanted it to be something meaningful, something I would want to have on my body forever. Two is that I wanted it in a location I could see and that would have minimal sagging/wrinkling over the years to come.

At one point I thought about getting a bee tattoo, not like a cartoon bumble bee, but a more refined, Napoleonic era bee. But I could never find just the right example of one. Then last week I saw a blog with a typographical tattoo, which led me to scan through Flickr for more examples of text tattoos. I got the idea that I would get the word ‘hope’ tattooed on my foot. I thought that would be a nice, optimistic word to get that would help encourage me when I get down about our baby troubles. So I looked for a nice font for a few hours and then it dawned on me I should just draw it out in my own handwriting. So I got a tiny sketch pad and wrote the word out in a few different variations until I found the perfect one.

I called my brother, who just got his second tattoo, and asked him for a recommendation. He told me about the artist who did his, who went to high school with us. I made an appointment with her for this past Sunday and so on Sunday afternoon Doug, my brother and I went over to Trilogy on Highland. The tattoo artist, Jessie, was great. She did such an awesome job. She was able to use my own writing and it turned out exactly like I had pictured it. It really didn’t hurt either, just a few stings. I absolutely love it and I can see it every time I look down at my feet. It’s a really nice reminder that no matter how disheartening infertility can be there’s still hope.

First Farmer's Market visit of the season

The Memphis Farmer’s Market opened the first part of May but I hadn’t made it down there until this past Saturday morning. I just started walking at Shelby Farms with my friend Regina on Saturday mornings at 8:30AM and the market starts at 7:00AM. After going several times last year I found that if you go too late all the good stuff is gone, so I like going as early as possible. Anyway, I managed to get up at 6:30AM, through on some clothes and get downtown to the market by 7:15AM. Parking was a little difficult because the Memphis in May BBQ Cooking Contest was this weekend too but I was still able to find a spot. The market has gotten a lot more popular since last year. It’s still early in the season, but there were lettuces, spinach, radishes, strawberries, peas, squash blossoms plus homemade jams, breads, locally made goat cheeses, locally roasted coffee, local honey, handmade wood items, plants and herbs and fresh flowers.

Most of the vendors are really nice, knowledgeable and ready to offer you a sample of what they’re selling. I did kind of get ignored by one vendor because he was busy chatting up another customer on how he cooks the radishes he was buying. The vendor was nearly a dead on impression of Matthew Mcconaughey’s character in Dazed and Confused, lots of ‘hey man’s’ and ‘yeahs’ in that slow, slightly stoned-sounding voice.

I’ve also found that some of the people that come to shop at the Market can be rather rude. I
was in line to buy spinach and an older woman clutching a massive bouquet of flowers wandered in front of me and cut in line. I didn’t say anything because I figured she didn’t see me through her flowers. Then, as I’m standing in the same line, another older woman reached in front of me and grabbed the last bag of spinach. That pissed me off but again I didn’t say anything. I’m just not a confrontational kind of girl. But it was still rude. Luckily the very nice gentleman farmer who was selling the spinach had more in his cooler and I just had to wait a few minutes. I see those kind of older women a lot out in public though, most of them look pretty well off and I doubt they’re used to showing very much graciousness in public.

When I left I had bought a bottle of honey from PeaceBee, a container of Chive-Garlic goat cheese from Bonnie Blue Farm, a container of freshly picked strawberries from Jones Orchard, a container of sugar snap peas (can’t remember the name of the vendor), the bag of fresh spinach from The Gracious Gardener and a package of Pecan Brittle from another vendor who’s name escapes me.

For dinner Saturday night Doug and I picked up some pre-made Chicken Oscar from the Fresh Market, so we had that, the sugar snap peas and then I served the strawberries with mini-pound cakes (again from Fresh Market) and homemade whipped cream I made before dinner. The whipped cream is so good and requires almost no effort. I just dump a small container of heavy cream and about ¼ cup of super-fine sugar in my mixing bowl and beat it with a electric hand mixer for about 5 minutes, or until it gets stiff peaks. It’s great, much better than Cool Whip.

Yesterday (Sunday) I ate some of the Chive-Garlic Goat Cheese on Kashi crackers and it was really good. The only downside is afterwards I had some killer garlic breath.

Happy Belated Birthday to Me and Feeling Lucky

Monday (April 21) was my 27th birthday. I can't believe I'm 27. After high school graduation time seems to be passing by at warp speed. In a happy coincidence I was also off on my birthday because of Passover. I spent the day doing some flower shopping, knitting and just enjoying the gorgeous day. I even picked up some lunch at the grocery store and took it out to enjoy at a park in Germantown, where instead of 'people-watching' I 'duck & goose' watched. I got a free mocha frappe my my coffee shop since it was my birthday (score!) and Doug and I went to eat at Swanky's Taco Shop and then had birthday ice cream at Ben & Jerry's. It was a nice day.

Despite having a birthday on Monday I was in a funk most of last week, feeling sorry for myself about my infertility issues. Then I heard about high school friends of mine (sisters) who lost their father in a sudden accident. And then I heard this heartbreaking story and I couldn't stop crying about the unfairness of the world. That this woman died without getting to hold her daughter and this man was left without the love of his life. Then I didn't feel so sorry for myself anymore and the petty crap I'd been moping about seemed ridiculous. I felt lucky. I'm thinking about and saying little prayers for the people I know and don't know who are hurting.

Books

I love books. I've always loved them. When I was growing up the library was a place we walked to in the summer. I remember walking in there and being hit in the face immediately with the cool air and that library smell. Miss Boyd was the librarian for most of my childhood. She was what people used to refer to as an 'old maid.' She was probably in her early seventies when I was a child. She was the person who stamped the little card in your book and let you take it home with you. I read everything imaginable. Amelia Bedila, Jam for Frances, Richard Scarry, the Boxcar Children, Nancy Drew, Sweet Valley High, the Babysitter's Club and eventually as I got older Stephen King, Anne Rice, Lee Smith, Ellen Gilchrist and others. I always took a book with me everywhere I went. Even on the less than 10 minute drive from our house to Wal-Mart I had to take a book. I read books at lunch at school, in the car, in the bathtub, everywhere. I had dreams about having my own personal library in my house with book shelves stacked to the ceiling. I am lucky that my husband loves books like I do and came into our marriage with boxes and boxes of books from when he worked at a bookstore. Currently, I believe our book habit keeps Amazon in business. I'm constantly hearing about a book on NPR or reading about it in a magazine or on someone' blog. Which is how I ended up with a stack of fresh reading material that hasn't even been cracked yet. (Mainly due to my working non-stop on that Juliet sweater)

These are on my desk, waiting to be read:

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science & Sex by Mary Roach
The Book of Dahlia by Elisa Albert
The Sky Isn't Visible from Here by Felicia Sullivan
Boom: Voice of the Sixities by Tom Brokaw
How Sassy Changed My Life: A Love Letter to the Greatest Teen Magazine of All Time by Kara Jesella and Marisa Meltzer

I'm not really sure which one is going to win the battle for being read first, I can't decide because they all look so good. They taunt me every time I pass them on the desk.

Blog Neglect, A Sweater & Spring

I've kind of neglected posting recently but since I'm pretty sure this blog is only an exercise in self-indlugence I think it's okay.

I've been knitting a lot, so much that I've even neglected the STACK of new books I have on my desk. During March I cast on and completed my first 'sweater' although it's more of a cardigan than sweater. It knitted up pretty quickly and turned out rather adorable (at least I think so). There are a few minor mistakes, but hopefully no one else (except other knitters) will notice.

It's the 'Juliet' cardi from Zephyr Style. They have the best designs, I love all of them. After I finished this one I ordered these interchangeable circular needles from Knit Picks so I could cast on the 'Green Gable' pullover from Zephyr. It's going pretty quickly too. I'm really empowered by knitting clothing. I want to make clothes for myself and despite owning a sewing machine, fabric and patterns for 6 months I have yet to make anything.

The weather has really warmed up, we have a frost warning for tonight but I think it's the last one. The temp is supposed to be in the mid-70's by the end of the week. Lots of plants are coming up and I'm starting to plan and buy new things for the flower beds and garden. One of my favorite things is this tree ring of hosta's I did last year. This tree was surrounded by tons of crappy weeds, overgrown monkey grass and other junk, I spent two days digging it up last spring and then my mom gave me a ton of hosta's from her garden that I planted around the tree. And the stones were already there from a previous owner so the whole thing was free, save for the mulch. I love the bright green hostas. I can't remember the name of the variety but I think they are so nice.

We're still a long way from finished on landscaping but it's getting there. We're hoping to rent a tiller this weekend and till up the back location for the raised vegetable garden beds. My peas and tomatoes are ready to get in the ground, plus I have all my seeds from seed savers to plant.

The Office Martyr and Signs of Spring

Every office has one. The person who can't work enough. She (or He) doesn't take lunch breaks, they stay late, come in on the weekends, work when they're sick, all to get attention. I've known the office martyr before but never to the degree I have known now. I have a great job, its fun and I have a fabulous boss, really. I also have a co-worker whom I'll call The Pill. The Pill has been working at our company 3 more years than I have, yet she acts as though she's been there for 20 years. She's at work constantly, even when she doesn't have to be. She lets everyone in earshot know about her illnesses, her children's illnesses, personal family woes, how long she's gone without a day off, etc. I don't think she realizes there's a line between personal life and work life that shouldn't be crossed. She jumped over it a LONG time ago. She and I have butted heads since I started. She is a manipulative liar, gossiper, a whiner, a crier, a complainer and most importantly the office martyr. Did I mention she's in her 40's, and not her teens? Her appalling behavior constantly amazes me. What amazes me more is that no one in 'power' seems to want to do anything about it. They just let her act the way she does with no repercussions. I keep telling myself that she must be a truly miserable person and not happy in the least little bit to act the way she does. It's too bad she has to ruin my perfectly wonderful job.

In happier news, our yard is showing more signs of spring. The quince had starting blooming a couple of weeks ago and the narcissus's began blooming this past week. I cut a few before dinner and stuck them in a vase. So pretty. Daylight savings time starts next Sunday (the 9th) too. It'll be 75 degrees ago before we know it.

Sunday in Pictures

Reminder for the first task of the day












A very green salad for lunch









Budding Quince in the backyard









Peas sprouting









How Ed spent most of his day









How I spent a good portion of my day (knitting my Sophie Bag and listening to Lime n' Violet podcasts

Let it be me

Sometimes you get a song stuck in your head and you keep singing and you have to listen to it to me it go away. I've had "Let It Be Me" by the Indigo Girls in my head since last night. The song's about injustice but I was thinking about it because of the chorus "let it be me." We were at a baby shower last night for a very nice couple and going to baby showers when you are facing the possibility of never having your own baby is not easy. It's painful. Especially when you are the only woman in the room who hasn't been pregnant and you don't know if you ever will be. So many people don't understand. They try to be comforting, which I appreciate, but I've almost become bitter about it. I used to have hope but after IVF my hope has slowly disappeared. I don't really know what we're going to do at this point. IVF is so extremely expensive and I'm doubtful it would work a second time. For now I'm just going to try to focus my energies on other things and attempt to regain some of that hope I used to have.

Finished Objects

I've been intending to write this post for several weeks but hadn't gotten around to it until now and now I have more finished stuff for this year.

I present my first, second, third, fourth & fifth finished knitting objects of 2008:

Doug's Tahki Donegal Tweed Scarf in Black


My Pick Up Sticks Felted Bell Hat, made with Cascade 220 in a deep red. My first felted project. It was super easy and quick. Looooove this hat. Love it even more because I made it with my own two little hands.


Scarf for David, modeled by Doug. This was supposed to be a Christmas gift but I ran out of the yarn and Yarniverse didn't have anymore in one of the colors so I had to search for it online and then order and then wait for it to come in, so it was more like a 'first week of February present'.












Next, was my 'Super Bowl' scarf. Just one skein of Lamb's Pride Bulky knit in stockinette until I ran out of yarn.












And finally, Calorimetry from Knitty.com It's a buttoned headband, I think it's cute but several other people I showed it to didn't care for it very much. Which is fine because I didn't make it for them. Blah.

Now that those are finished I have the yarn and patterns for several more things. Socks, several simple tank tops, an empire-waisted sweater and a few bags. I'm currently working on a little felted bag, knit in the round. I'm hoping it goes quickly so I can move on to the sweater, it's so cute I'm anxious to knit it. I'm really hoping to get a lot more knit this year than I did last year. This month marks my 2 year 'knit-a-versary' (as well as my 4 year wedding anniversary).

In other news, I planted some radishes and some butterhead lettuce today and I started my seedlings for broccoli, tomatoes, sweet peas & eggplant. I'm really hoping to baby them so they don't die. My goal is to have an organic garden this summer. Our super awesome yard crew is coming at the end of the month to clean up the backyard (i.e., getting rid of all the junk plants, shrubs, crappy monkey grass from hell and the two 'killing sheds' in the back yard, YAY!) As soon as that's done Doug's going to make my raised garden beds and I'll be able to plant my seedlings (provided they live). I ordered all of them from Seed Savers, they're all organic, heirloom seeds.

Doug is getting ready to fly out to Sao Paulo, Brazil tomorrow afternoon for work. Luckily, he'll only be gone until Friday. I'm saying a little prayer it will go smoothly. Brazil is not the safest place in the world and he is not a good flier. He does get to go to a lot of very cool places, Amsterdam, Brussels, Singapore and now Brazil. Soo lucky. One day I'm going with him (except to Brazil, I'm not really big on Brazil right now but Amsterdam and Brussels are totally on my list).

Sunday Morning and Sunday Night

Sundays are bittersweet for me. I really enjoy the kind of lazy-feeling the day has but at the same time I'm kind of depressed that the weekend is almost over. Doug and I have a Sunday morning routine (most of the time). I'm almost always up by 7:00AM and then I browse the Commercial Appeal online before I go into the kitchen and start a pot of coffee. If Doug isn't awake by 8:00 I go pester him and ask when he's getting up. We like to watch CBS Sunday Morning and it starts at 8:00 so I try to get him up by then so I don't have to DVR it and wait until he gets up to watch it. This past Sunday I got the coffee going and set out our mugs, his is a Imus in the Morning one from the now defunct Don Imus MSNBC show and mine is a mug from 'A Prairie Home Companion'. Anyway, the sun looked so pretty coming in the kitchen I took a few pictures of it. Some weekend mornings I make elaborate breakfasts and other times we just eat oatmeal or cereal. This weekend we had leftover Blueberry-Banana Bread I had made a few days before. This recipe is here. (I omit the nuts & use 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour instead of all white)

I usually attempt my more 'complex' recipes. Things that require lots of prep work or extra steps. I made a simple quiche for dinner but for dessert I made Martha's Glazed Lemon Cakes with Meyer lemons. They were really, really, really good. They rival even the Molten Chocolate Cakes. Delicious, really. The zesting and juicing of 8 lemons did take some time though but it was well worth it because those cakes were so good. Completely unhealthy though.

Apricot Love

I've gotten on a recent apricot kick. I've always loved dried apriocts, as well as fresh apricots and apricot jam, and most recently Bonne Maman Apricot Preserves. Pure heaven. It's the first jam/jelly/preserve I've actually eaten out the jar with a spoon. Yum! Apricot jam is great with pork too. Two of my favorite pork recipes have apricot jam with them. This Martha recipe for Crispy Apricot Porkchops is a staple of my weeknight meal rotation. And this Martha recipe for Apricot-Glazed Pork Tenderloin is delicious too. I'm collecting several more apricot-themed recipes to try out soon. Including:

Luscious Apricot Squares

Apricot-Almond Cobbler

Oatmeal Apricot Cookies

Apricot-Dijon Glazed Chicken

Apricot Stuffed French Toast (apricot jam AND cream cheese!)

We'll take a cup of kindness yet

Tonight we have plans to hang out with friends at their apartment, order pizza, talk and drink too much. We've hung out with them on NYE the past three years. I plan on drinking either Woodchuck Granny Smith or a concoction of champagne/pineapple juice/triple sec.

When I was younger time d r a g g e d on it seemed but as with everyone, the older you get the more quickly time passes. In January of this year Doug and I began the enormous task of house-hunting and by end of the month we had put in an offer. In February our stomachs were in knots waiting for the mortgage paperwork to process, we finally closed on the 23rd and we spent our 3rd wedding anniversary moving into the house.

In March and April we did a lot of small house repairs, including painting the master bedroom, doing some landscaping, etc. We bought a gas grill and had cookouts with friends. In May and June we bought new bicycles (that we have yet to ride, oops). Doug built an Adirondack chair for the patio, I planted some more flowers and we tried to avoid the impending heat.

In July Doug left for a month to work in Singapore and I stayed at home and kept the house running and tried to stay cool. In August he came back and the temperatures reached 106F degrees. In the middle of the month we took a short vacation to the beach in Florida. We also tried another IUI, which failed. In September we took another short trip to Chicago and also drove to Milwaukee to see a Brewer's game.

In October we decorated for Halloween and waited for cooler weather (it took awhile). In November we hosted Thanksgiving and in December we decorated for Christmas, shopped and I did a whole lot of baking.

We hope to have just as good a year in 2008 but hopefully a little bit better. Maybe this will finally be the year we become parents, Doug's book will get published and we'll pay off the credit cards. Maybe.

Ham, chocolate, ham, ham, chocolate......

Christmas seems to not only be a holiday for spending money you don't have on things you don't need but also for eating things you shouldn't. Last Saturday night I had a very small pre-Christmas gathering of about 4.5 people. I made a spiral sliced ham, as well as some other things. I sent ham home with people but at the end of the night we still wound up with a lot of leftover ham. Add this to the FLOOD of boxes of chocolates we've received as gifts and you have a lethal combination. I've eaten mostly ham and chocolate for five days now. This is most unhealthy.

As Christmas approached I did a bounty of gift-baking. Including these boxes of Cornmeal-Cherry Cookies, Chocolate/White Chocolate Fudge and Chocolate Shortbread. I put them in clear treat bags and then put those inside of .79 cent kraft boxes from Michael's with green ribbon (also bought at Michael's) and some Martha tags (again from Michael's). They were really pretty and well received. I also made Jam Thumbprints for my in-laws and Cream Cheese Meltaways for my grandmother. The best part was I got to use one of my early Christmas presents, a new Kitchen Aid hand mixer. It's not the pink Artisan stand mixer of my dreams but it's a complete upgrade from my old Proctor Silex hand mixer I've used since I moved out on my own (in July of 2001).

The Thrill is Gone and a Lesson in Butter

Why is it that as a child everything seems so much bigger, happier, fancier, more fun? Around the holidays I always think back to how exciting the Christmas was to me as a child. I grew up with a single-mom who never had a lot of money but we still had really nice holidays thanks to several generous aunts and uncles as well as grandparents. For years, my mom’s brother would go chop down a real Christmas tree for us. We’d decorate it with an assortment of Wal-Mart ornaments and things my brother and I made in school. My mom made lots of fudge and peanut butter balls and we ate way too much summer sausage and cheese. My grandparents would always take us to this church-sponsored Christmas light thing, where you could sit on Santa’s lap and ride around in a little train and look at the religious-themed light displays. There were Christmas concerts as school, velvet dresses, stockings at our house and our grandparents house, so much food and general excitement over the impending holiday. Because we were ‘children of divorce’ we had several different stops to make. Christmas Eve was spent at my absentee father’s parent’s home, were we ate with extended family and got to open presents. Christmas morning was spent at our house, waking up at the crack of dawn to tear into our gifts. Christmas day we went to our maternal grandparents and to our great-grandparent’s home until they passed away. My grandmother, Nannie, made tons of pies with names like “Millionaire Pie” and “Chess Pie”. My brother and I were the only grandchildren for 13 years so we had 13 years of pestering everyone to hurry up and eat so we could open our gifts.

These days my great-grandparents and both of my grandfathers have long since passed away. I’m married and live 45 minutes away, my brother and I gave up our ‘only grandchildren’ status to our twin cousins, now 13, and their sister, almost 10. I really love Christmas, and every year since I moved out on my own I’ve done my best to enjoy it. Tons of decorating, baking like there’s no tomorrow, faithfully watching my favorite Christmas movies and television specials, but nothing seems to recapture those same feelings I had as child. I hope that when I have children of my own I can create those memories with them and maybe recapture some of those old feelings.

Now, about the butter, I was craving some home-baked goodness last night and decided to bake a batch of chocolate-chip cookies with a recipe on the back of the Ghirardelli chocolate chip bag. Now I should have known I was in for trouble when the recipe called for 2 sticks of butter, yes 2 sticks! Instead I happily ignored it, mixed up the batter and ended up with a lovely batch of chocolate chips and pecans surrounded by a melted pool of buttery batter. I ate one and immediately felt my arteries clogging. Next time I’ll know, don’t use 2 sticks of butter no matter what the bag says.

An Etsy Xmas

I spend a lot of time (and money) on Etsy, a great website where you can buy handmade everything. I complied a list of just some of my favorite Etsy items that would make great holiday gifts for the people on your list, and the best part is they're all under $20.00! Yay for your wallet!

They are (in no particular order):

2008 Letterpress from Greenchairpress- $18

Beverage Quote Coasters from Letterary Press - $12.95

Hand-embroidered & framed vingette from Twinklythings - $17.50

Petite Pinecone earrings from Susan Marie Designs - $9.00

“Branching” watercolor print from Jellybeans - $12.00

“Amelia Bumble” print from The Black Apple - $13.00

“Tree Hugger” magnets from Belle & Boo - $9.00

Pod Cards from Jenn Ski - $7.00

Ho-Ho-Ho flashcard garland by Cari Kraft - $10.00

"Tiny Tripods" modern porcelain bowls with feet by Shoshona Snow - $10.00

“Architecture of Dreams” print from Art and Ghosts - $20.00

Carnelian pendant necklace - $20.00

Support indie crafters, take the handmade pledge!