A new fall hat + yarn p*rn

I had been really, really good in not purchasing new yarn for several months. Well, expect for the Magnolia Club, but I don't count that. A few weeks ago I was looking for a skein of yarn to use for backup in case I ran out for what I was using on a shawl I was knitting. When I ordered that I also found a skein of extremely pretty yarn in a very autumnal color. I clicked 'add to basket' and it arrived at my house a few days later. I decided it should be a hat for fall. The yarn is Jill Draper Makes Stuff - Hudson and the color is Cinnamon but I think it reminds me of a persimmon. I bought it at Happy Knits and they have some other really lovely colors. For the pattern I pulled the Molly hat out of my Ravelry queue. So far it's knitting up really quickly and has a super easy pattern, which is great for my addled brain.

 These gorgeous skeins are what I got with this round of the Madelinetosh Magnolia Club.

This first is Tosh Merino Light in Astrid Gray:

 The second is DK Twist in Chapterbook:

And finally, 80/10/10 Fingering in Sand Dunes:

I'm sitting out the next round of the club, the yarn is always beautiful but I'm at maximum capacity for yarn right now. Plus I still have to figure out what I'm going to do with all this pretty stuff!

Finally fall

I am one tired gal. Baby + work + working with baby in my office, is leaving very little time for blogging right now. Because of the busy season at work I started working again during my maternity leave at home. I went back to full-time work three weeks ago with George joining me at the office until he starts daycare at the end of October. Adjusting to life with baby hasn't too bad but having a tiny one and breastfeeding has left little time for me to bake or blog. I'm finding a little time to squeeze it in again though.

• I can't believe it's October! Time is flying. The weather has s-l-o-w-l-y started feeling a little fall like. In celebration I put out our Halloween decorations this weekend

• My geraniums and sweet potato vines have played out so I pulled them out and potted up some pansies, creeping jenny, and bronze mums.(no pics because neither flower has bloomed yet)

•  Saturday morning I sent Doug to Gibson's for pumpkin donuts (and maple bacon ones too) They were so good and well worth diet-cheating. 

• Once the new iPhone 5 was announced, Doug and I took the drop in price of the 4S as an opportunity to upgrade from our iPhone 3's. They are so much faster.

• While on maternity leave I started watching bad television, including re-runs of the 'Reba' show on ABC Family. I've watched almost the entire series. I'm a little ashamed about it. 

• Speaking of female country singers, I signed George up for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library and I can't wait for him to get the first book. I loved reading so much as a child and Doug and I are both avid readers. I hope we can pass along that love to him. 

• Previously I thought instant coffee was gross and I wouldn't touch the stuff. However, I tried Starbucks VIA in Pumpkin Spice and plain Iced Coffee and it's pretty good. The Pumpkin Spice is not the same as a Pumpkin Spice Latte but it gets the job done when you can't go get a real one. The Iced Coffee tastes similar to an actual Starbucks iced coffee and it's nice to have when you don't have the time or energy to make your own coffee concentrate.

And here's another gratuitous  baby picture, sitting in the chair that belonged to his late grandfather, also his namesake. (I'm right out of the photo frame for baby-safety)

Baking with a newborn

Or alternately 'Baking with a newborn while breastfeeding'. George will be one month old tomorrow (!) and I'm slowly getting into something of a routine. Here's a gratuitous baby picture.

I'm on maternity leave and the first couple of weeks were a blur but it's getting easier. Most of my time is still spent feeding him or trying to catch a nap but I've found a few spare minutes to bake and even cook dinner.

The other day I was craving something sweet and while the little napped I thawed a sheet of puff pastry, brushed it with egg wash, and baked it for about 20 minutes. Once it was out of the oven I spread the top with Nutella and then topped that with fresh raspberries. It was not fancy but it took very little time to make and it satisfied my sweet tooth. Hopefully in the next few weeks I can progress to something a little bit more challenging.

Meet George

Our tiny IVF miracle arrived one week early on July 24 after a quick labor, weighing 6 pounds, 9 ounces. It's a boy and he has a head full of dark hair. I can't tell you ecstatically happy and grateful we are. When I start thinking about everything we've been through to get here I start crying. So many years, so many procedures, so many tears and he's finally here.

This is George:

Baking with Julia: Blueberry Nectarine Pie

I've totally been slacking off on Baking with Julia, but I did manage to bake one recipe this month. The last recipe for the month is this Blueberry Nectarine Pie. I'm so glad I made it because it was so incredibly good and a great use for all the fresh fruit available right now.

First of all the pie dough is the best I've made in terms of ease of making, flakiness, and taste. In the book there are several ways listed to make the dough; in a food processor, by hand, or by stand mixer. My food processor is too small so usually I make pie dough by hand, which is a pain. However, since this dough gave stand mixer directions I decided to try it and it was so much easier. The dough recipe uses both butter and shortening which I think is the best of both worlds, you get the taste from the butter and the flakiness from the shortening. Plus this recipe made two (double crusted) pies worth of dough so I had enough to freeze for a second pie. 

The filling was (obviously) blueberry and nectarine. You took half the fruit and cooked it with sugar, lemon zest, and flour and then added it to the remaining uncooked fruit. I really liked this method, there were still crisp pieces of nectarine in the filling which I thought was a nice touch.I do think in the future I would have added some breadcrumbs (a la Dorie Greenspan) to the bottom of the crust before adding the filling to soak up some of the juice but other than that I really loved this recipe.

Go visit the hosts for this recipe! 

Manchego's Kitchen

That Skinny Chick Can Bake

Final baby prep

In about 10 days (or really whenever this baby decides he or she is finished baking) we're having a baby. If you've been reading my other blog you'll know that I still find this completely amazing and slightly unbelievable. 

Last weekend I got into severe 'everything must be done now' mode and got a lot done. Doug installed our carseat bases, put together the baby swing and the stroller. I made three more meals and a batch of cookie dough for the freezer. My hospital bag is kind of packed, right now it just has my toiletries and my robe in it but I do have the list of things I want to go in there. Doug has a bag but will probably be waiting until the last minute to pack it. The baby's bag is pretty much packed, expect for socks. For some reason I couldn't find plain white baby socks anywhere around here. All the socks I found were either girly or boyish. So silly, socks should be plain for goodness sakes. I ended up ordering some plain white ones online and I'm waiting for them to come in. People keep asking us if we're ready and I think we're as ready as we're going to be. Although is anyone ever really ready for parenthood? Probably not. 

A few weeks ago we had some super nice photographers (Charbonnet Photography) come over and do some maternity pictures and pictures of the nursery for us. They turned out so well, despite the fact it was around a million degrees outside and the dead chipmunk we found in our backyard.

 

 

The nursery is 99% done, it's missing that darn mobile I should have finished weeks ago and it's also missing some type of rug. I'm looking for something plain and easily cleaned but have to find anything suitable yet. We are both really happy with how it turned out, Doug did most of the work, bless his heart. It's a really happy room and hopefully it's pretty gender neutral. 

 

 

 

 

Summer bundt

It's hot. Obviously, since it's July in Memphis. It will be hot until October. Or possibly later judging from the recent NOAA report. I'm doing my best to stay indoors. One of the few perks of summer is the widespread availability of produce. Berries, squash, tomatoes, etc. Oh and watermelon, I have been eating the heck out of watermelon lately. I've been pinning a lot of summer-inspired recipes, there's a recipe for peach-ginger handpies I hope to make this weekend. Last weekend I made the Triple Berry Summer Buttermilk Bundt Cake that Deb at Smitten Kitchen posted a few weeks ago, the recipe is adapted from Rustic Fruit Desserts (which I own and has lots of great recipes, including a delicious jam cake).

It's a berry-filled bundt cake with lemon zest and a sweet, thick lemon glaze. It's completely worth turning your oven on for. I sent half home with my nephew and I think he, his brother, and his parents liked it. Doug and I liked it a lot too, we managed to polish it off within a few days with nary a crumb left.

Brown Butter Blueberry Muffins

After finally getting our kitchen back in working order I got back to baking. I missed it so much, you don't realize how much you much using your whisks and cake pans. One of the first things I baked were these muffins from the Joy the Baker cookbook. I can't say enough good things about this book, it's been out for awhile now but I still love thumbing through it and picking out something to make.

 Besides the blueberries, the browned butter is the other major flavor going on. Browned butter makes almost anything better. The first time I made it I burned it, it was blackened butter - not as good. However, when you don't burn it it's awesome and makes everything taste better.

They're super easy to make and especially right now when blueberries are in season (you can use frozen too).

Garden Update #2

It's been very warm so the garden has been growing pretty well. We also had two days of heavy rainfall last week which probably kicked things into gear too.

Some of the wildflowers have started to bloom, even though the Morning Glory looks like it's threatening to choke out a few of them.

The two happy squash plants are producing tiny baby squash. The other two plants seem to be growth-stunted.

The dill is blooming and the lemon verbana is trying to take over. (they're to the right in this picture)

We caged the tomatoes and I'm hoping that the Mortgage Lifters will perk up now that they're off the soil. The cherry varieties are making lots of green tomatoes and a few ripe ones.

I still have one empty bed (at the front) but I may put down some bean seeds in it since our growing season lasts into October.

 

Finished kitchen update

Finished! Well mostly finished. There's still the dryer venting issue to contend with and I have to buy frames for the Etsy prints I bought, but the big stuff is done.

Doug spent a whole Tuesday night putting the island together. It looks great and has some nice storage space for some of my baking pans. The top is maple and the whole thing is super sturdy. We're really pleased with it and we'll be able to take it with us if we move. It's given me so much more space for prepping and making.

The shelves we were going to make ended up not being made. On one of our (many) trips to Lowes we saw some pre-made shelves and just bought those instead. So they aren't DIY but they look good and I think they'll hold up pretty well.

The counter tops finally got installed and they're so nice and smooth as opposed to the tile we had before. It's a hundred times easier to clean them too since we don't have to dig into the grout. I love the under-mount sink, it's slightly deeper than our old one and holds more.

I couldn't find any curtains I really liked and after searching for inspiration on the internet I thought it would be neat to do cafe curtains. I bought the hardware at Target and used a fabric shower curtain, also from Target, for the fabric. The shower curtain was $20 and made the curtains for the window and almost fit the back door. I did end up about 4 inches short on the back door curtain, so I picked up some lace to sew at the bottom to make up for the missing inches. Still not bad for twenty-ish dollars. Plus if we get tired of the pattern we can just grab another shower curtain (Target has some really great looking and reasonably priced fabric shower curtains).

Our new dishwasher was the final installation piece and it came last week. It's quieter and more efficient than our old one.

All and all we are very happy with the way everything turned out. The dryer thing is obviously something we didn't plan for, even though the installer knew about it beforehand he didn't take the lazy susan in the cabinet into account, but it has been our only major hiccup. It was hard in the interim between the cabinet installation and the countertop/sink installation and I probably whined about it more than was necessary but we are both glad we did it.