Dropped a Stitch

Jumping Right Back In

2011-09-06T11:31:00.000-07:00

Okay, I took a major blog hiatus while all kinds of things happened, and rather than try to cover all that ground, I'm just jumping back into the knitting. Specifically, I've got a brand new baby niece to knit for, so lemme show you some of that.

The pattern is Wool Leaves by Jared Flood, and I did enough repeats to make it square.

The yarn is Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton held double in natural. It's the most beautiful cream color, very soft.

For the trim I used Debbie Bliss Pure Cotton in a very lovely blue, because everyone was convinced that baby would be a boy. I think blue's nice for girls too, though.

Hairy Slippers

2010-12-24T08:35:00.000-08:00

Stocking #2 out of 3, progress shot. I'm 95% done with the 3rd one, racing Santa.

I should be cooking my face off in prep for Christmas dinner, but instead I'm cruising the interwebs looking at knitting stuff. Take a look at these Tom Scott slippers. They are alpaca and have a crocheted sole and garter stitch upper...not exactly difficult crafting there. They are $188. That's right, $188.

By that reckoning the girls owe me $1200 at least for each of their stockings but I'm not holding my breath.

Heart Knitting Chart

2010-12-19T09:45:00.001-08:00

I'm working on the last of three stockings and I thought I'd share this chart with you. Happy Holidays!

Punctuated

2010-12-10T15:47:00.000-08:00

I have a new pattern for sale on Ravelry! It's a very fast knit - start now and finish in time for the holidays!

Knitting in the Wild

2010-08-28T10:06:00.000-07:00

Props at my local Crate & Barrel. Not sure what the hoop's doing there.

Puttin' Up With Frank

2010-08-26T14:24:00.000-07:00

How lucky am I? Turns out my cousin Frank, who's quite the foodie, has been making his own preserves and sending them my way from his 'hood back east. The first batch (savory - including the most amazing Caponata Siciliana) he sent arrived on the day I was having the girls' farewell-gone-to-college dinner and it flew into the hands of my sisters and nieces so fast I didn't get any pictures.

This batch (sweet - peach, nectarine and plum jams) arrived a couple of days ago and the weather finally cooperated enough for me to capture all its glory on film. Now I ask you...should I share this bounty? Maybe only with the sisters and nieces who read my blog - the rest won't know any better.

They're like little jewels, no?

I plan on using some of it for a jam tart, one of John's favorites. Perhaps that glorious peach.

A Night Out, a Morning In

2010-08-06T19:08:00.000-07:00

My table companions tried to convince me that was shooter of some kind, but it's vinaigrette.

The other night John and I attended a gala fundraiser for the Old Globe, one of San Diego's several fabulous theater companies. The Globe and the La Jolla Playhouse are probably the most widely known, and they're two of the reasons this is such a great town to live in, along with fish tacos and the weather (notwithstanding the sucky summer of 2010). But if you live here, there are lots and lots of opportunities to see interesting live productions all over the county.

Delicious roasted duck breast with berry sauce and a ravioli I gave to John

Along with the usual silent auction, the gala featured a showing of Robin and the 7 Hoods, followed by dinner and dancing (or if you're me, followed by dinner and the vague shuffling around that comes from being up way past my bedtime - it's kind of a long night) outside under the stars.

That mysterious object is an almond crisp over strawberry shortcake with ice cream.
There were also fabulous mini strawberry ice cream sandwiches but they went so fast I didn't get a photo!

You wanted to see what they served, right? Luckily, I had my iPhone to capture these quality shots. I wish I could show you how they light up the Museum of Man tower next door - it's really cool - but I'm already stretching the capability of my phone with these.

Um...I'm pretty sure I brushed my hair before we went, but I do look like I'm up past my bedtime.

And while I'm showing you food, here's a batch of brioche from the following day. Fiona learned Dorie's method for the dough, and I baked these off the next morning so she could sleep in during the final rise. That's right, I'm the BEST mom, kids.

Red Gaenor

2010-07-26T08:37:00.000-07:00

Here's something I've had off the needles for quite some time but only recently had time (and the proper weather) to block. It's a little shawlette; the pattern is called Gaenor and the yarn is Aspen Sock by Red Rocks Fiber Works. The yarn is fantastic - the colors are gorgeous and it's sproingy and delicious as only yarn can be.

Along with mittens, shawlettes are my knitting love du jour, because they're more interesting than scarves and yet can be worn in the same way, wrapped around the neck. My Ravelry queue is full of them.

The other thing I've been doing lately is tinkering with my blog design a little bit. Since I'm a graphic designer, you'd think I'd be busily designing myself a beautiful website, but it's one of those cobbler's children things...designing for myself is the last thing I ever feel like doing, so instead I've updated to the latest version of Blogger and it's driving me crazy. In the process, it lost the link to Google Analytics (took me several days to figure that one out) and while I appreciate the pushbutton nature of Blogger, I'm starting to think about alternatives. If you all have a recommendation, let me know.

Rainbow Fiddlehead Mittens 1

2010-07-25T11:04:00.000-07:00

In preparation for the girls' departure for Boulder, I'm knitting mittens as fast as I can. I love mittens. They're fun to knit, completely portable, and I can indulge my love of wild colors without ending up looking like a clown hooker.

These are Fiddleheads in gray Ultra Alpaca and Noro Kureyon; I'm knitting them tip-to-cuff on two circular needles. I cast on yesterday afternoon and I just popped that sore thumb onto the first one so I'm on fire, baby.

Pie, Pie, Pie

2010-07-22T22:41:00.000-07:00

Peach Pie

As promised, today we're talking about pie. Earlier this week I read about this life-changing crust method over at Chez Pim and had to give it a try. Pie crust is one of those things for me...it's touchy. I can make perfect crust one day and the very same recipe will flop the next time I try it. I know, I know - it all depends on the humidity, the temperature of the water/the butter/your hands/your kitchen, the earth's position with respect to various far-flung stars, whatever. The point is, it's not to be trusted.

Blueberry Pie

Enter this completely heretical recipe (Yes, I'm still watching The Tudors.) calling for salted butter and manhandling of the dough. Since I often inadvertently manhandle the dough anyway, I figured I'd try it. Less than a week and two pies and a quiche later, I'm sold. I love it. It's easy to work with, it's flaky, it's buttery, it crisps nicely on the bottom, and it worked all three times in a row. I don't want to jinx it, but I think this is now my go-to crust for pies both savory and sweet.

Bacon & Egg Quiche

Blueberry Pie

5 cups fresh blueberries

3/4 cup sugar (1 cup if the berries are on the tart side)

5 T cornstarch

1 t cinnamon

1 T unsalted butter

splash of lemon juice

One beaten egg for washing the crust if you want, and some raw sugar if you'd like to sprinkle that on the crust as well.

Crust for double-crust pie

Preheat oven to 425F and line a deep-dish pie mold with bottom crust, pricking a few times with a fork.

Make sure berries don't have twiggy bits and put them in a largish bowl. Whisk together dry ingredients and add them to the berries, turning over gently with a spatula to coat. Add a a teeny splash of lemon juice as you turn them over.

Pour the berry mixture into the prepared bottom crust and top with a lattice crust, or just slap the top crust on and cut a few vents in it. Crimp the edges and brush with the egg wash to give it some shine; you can sprinkle some raw sugar on it too as I did with the peach pie above.

Bake for approximately 50 minutes, until the crust is brown and the berries have thickened. If the berries still look liquidy when your crust is brown, top the pie loosely with aluminum foil and bake for a bit longer. The berries will be bubbling and thick when the pie is done.

Don't Lose Your Head Over Mittens

2010-07-21T16:09:00.000-07:00

I apologize in advance to all of you who froze through an unforgiving winter and are now sweltering through a humid, boggy summer and are reading this in disbelief at the temerity I'm about to exhibit, but I must now complain about the weather. Today is July 21 and I am in long sleeves, staring out the window at yet another gray and somewhat drizzly day in La Jolla - another in the long string of gray and drizzly days we've experienced since early June. Last week the sun came out for two days and people danced in the streets, only to be disappointed and resigned in their aspect when our 48-hour summer slammed to a foggy close.

It's been so chilly (don't laugh - our blood is thin, people!) I've been baking pies all week (more on that tomorrow) and today I'm seriously considering lighting the fireplace. It's been so chilly I've actually been knitting heavy woolen things and been grateful for their warm weight in my lap. It's been so chilly I think the girls are looking forward to leaving for Colorado to warm up.

These mittens are last week's project, in colors inspired by season one of The Tudors, which I've been watching on Netflix (and which, by the way, I found somewhat slow for the first few episodes and then wham! people started dropping like flies and Henry started looking really scary and now I can't stop watching...the betrayals! The beheadings! I'm a little disturbed imagining the personal hygiene issues they must've encountered, too.). They're from Magnificent Mittens and I knit them up in some soft and warm Ultra Alpaca for Fiona to take to Boulder with her. I love the patterns in this book and I'm already planning a few more pairs; I'm also planning to use the "toe-up" technique on other mittens as often as possible, because I really like the custom fit you can achieve this way.

From Your Wayward Blogger

2010-07-17T08:43:00.000-07:00

Here we are, Mr. & Mrs. Windansea and Daughters

In case you were wondering where I've been for several months, I've been right here, but with so many family obligations and other complications that I haven't been able to sit down and write. Since last we spoke:

Senior Recognition for National Charity League, May 2010

My mother fell and broke a vertebra (she's better from that now, thanks)
Anna graduated, was presented at National Charity League, and subsequently double-pierced her ears and streaked her hair blue
Mary graduated from 6th grade
I gained ten pounds from all the celebrations and lack of time at the gym (but not to worry, I'm peeling those off one sun salutation at a time and will be back to fighting weight soon)

I remember when blue hair meant you were elderly....

Now we're dealing with something else altogether. In life, there are ups and downs, and thank goodness things in my life tend to balance out - when something goes to hell in a handbasket, something else is usually doing pretty well. Right now, I'm very happy that both my older daughters will be at the same college next year. Anna is going to CU Boulder as a Fine Art major, and Fiona has transferred there from Bennington because she changed her major to geology, and it just made more sense. I love Boulder, so I'm really happy I'll get to visit them in such a great place with the added bonus of a short, direct flight. And they'll have breaks at the same time - it's a miracle!

The handbasket contains my mom's health. This week we received a confirmed diagnosis of lymphoma, and she will be starting chemo in a few days. They think it's one of the indolent kinds of NHL that may have been laying low for quite a while, but it's now reared its ugly head and is causing all kinds of problems. She's 88 but she's in pretty good shape so we're very encouraged by the prognosis, but still. Cancer sucks.

My mom with Fiona, May 2010. We all hope to look this good at 88!

I've bowed out of several of my community obligations to make room in the schedule for my mom's treatment, and this last week I went through a lot of my yarn and knitting projects to get everything organized for the waiting rooms. I've got all sorts of stuff to photograph for you, so stay tuned for that.

As always, thanks for the well wishes, my internet friends. I know you're out there, and I appreciate you all.

Tuesdays with Dorie - Thumbprints for Us Big Guys

2010-03-08T07:26:00.000-08:00

I know, they look like little fried eggs, no? They're actually delicious, melt-in-your-mouth hazelnut cookies with lemon curd filling without one bit of egginess - they don't even have egg in the dough! These were the TWD pick for this week from Mike of Ugly Food for an Ugly Dude, and they came in very handy because I volunteered to provide baked goods for someone on Monday morning and then promptly forgot and went out of town instead. Sunday afternoon found me watching the Oscars and scraping the skins off hazelnuts whilst discovering I was out of raspberry jam.

It was lucky that I almost always have raw hazelnuts in the pantry for just such emergencies and I always have lots of lemons, so at least I could bake something - and with all those lemons, lemon curd it was. The recipe made about five dozen cookies and I sent four dozen off to make other people happy. The remaining two dozen stayed behind to make my husband happy, which I think he deserves at least once a week so it's a good thing there's TWD.

Back to the Oscars. By the time all was said and done, I'd managed to watch just a couple more of the nominees, but even so, it was so much more interesting because I knew what the hoopla was about. I now have a Netflix queue full of even more movies and last night I watched the nominated animated shorts, because they always look so interesting to me. I loved La Dama y La Muerte and Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty. And if you're interested, there was a link online to Logorama, the winner, here. Logorama turned out to be not at all what I was expecting.

Tuesdays with Dorie - Toasted-Coconut Custard Tart

2010-03-02T13:49:00.000-08:00

Sometimes a hectic schedule pays off. Between fighting a cold all week and dealing with everyday life, by yesterday evening it was looking like I wasn't going to have time to make a tart this week. My solution was to make only half of the TWD recipe for Toasted-Coconut Custard Tart - the custard half. I was going to just make coconut custard and be done with it, but in reading over the recipe I had a brilliant idea: Didn't this recipe look a lot like an ice cream base? Leaving out the corn starch, I let the custard cool overnight in the fridge and then popped it into my ice cream maker this afternoon, making THE best coconut ice cream, which I strongly considered not telling my family about so I could eat it all myself. They don't always get around to reading the blog for days, so hey, that's what they get.

So while my ice cream was getting a little harder in the freezer, I set off to run errands this afternoon before picking Anna up and heading over to Whole Foods for our dinner ingredients. I think I've probably mentioned that I spend half my life driving and the other half waiting for someone, right? And that I hate driving, and that I get bored easily? Because of this, I always keep a good selection of audiobooks on hand at all times along with a bit of portable knitting. There I sat, waiting for Anna, knitting and listening to Outlander via the car stereo, when she finally arrived and I turned the key in the ignition. Click. You know that sound? The sound of no battery? It sucks. Thank goodness I have Triple A and the guy was there within 15 minutes to give me a jump, but it was just enough aggravation to make me order pizza for dinner.

And here's the upside to that little aggravation: Because I wasn't making dinner, I had time to bake shortbread instead. I made a very basic recipe and added a little coconut extract and let it bake while I waited for Mr. Pizza Guy to get to my house, and then I served my family a very nice little dessert. We all loved it, but two of us liked the shortbread best and two of us liked the ice cream best. The ice cream was really good - the rum and the cardamom gave it a wonderful perfume and the toasted coconut rounded out the flavor of what was basically a rich vanilla custard - fantastic.

I like coconut a lot; in fact, I order cases of coconut water from Amazon (didja know you could do that?) and drink it after I work out instead of one of the many sports drinks that line the grocery aisles. It's very refreshing. I make a pretty darn good coconut cake, too, universally loved by all who taste it, even the coco-haters. There was no way I was going to miss this week's TWD entirely, that's for sure, and I'm glad I gave it a whirl. Thank you Beryl of Cinemon Girl for this week's pick. One day I may even try it as a tart!

New Camera

2010-02-28T11:21:00.000-08:00

These mushrooms came in my CSA bag this week.

This post is just to see how my new camera is behaving. I decided to get one of those little Nikon Coolpix point-and-shoot jobbies so I will never again miss a photo op (friends, you've been forewarned). My big camera, a Canon eos Digital Rebel, is fantastic and has a big ol' flash and a couple of lenses, but it's heavy and kind of a pain to take out easily. My iphone is pretty great in a pinch, but there's no flash. I thought the Coolpix S570 might be a good compromise: it has a rechargeable battery and built-in flash, and when you turn it off it collapses the lens into no space at all. And the price is right. Here are a couple of photos I took right after I turned it on for the first time. Not bad....

Does it look like an olive in the middle of this banana bread? It's actually a chopped-up date!

Tuesdays with Dorie - Honey Wheat Cookies

2010-02-23T12:53:00.000-08:00

On the heels of being completely grossed out by my discovery of chicken rings, I just finished watching Food Inc. and reading both In Defense of Food and Food Rules. While In Defense of Food reinforced my belief that my grandparents' diet (along with their lifestyle - i.e., walking a lot, socializing while eating, and generally maintaining a much more relaxed attitude in regard to just about everything) helped them live long, healthy lives, it also gave me a nice dose of additional stress to pile onto the normal everyday paranoia that seeps into virtually every one of my life choices. For example, bread. I now feel like I must plant ancestral grains and somehow harvest, thresh and grind them myself, little red hen-wise, before I can eat a sandwich. (It goes without saying that I will also have to figure out how to raise a pig, plan for its humane demise, and cure a ham from its eventual parts in La Jolla . Good luck with that.)

Anyway, that's all pretty ambitious. I do try to buy whole ingredients and cook a lot, and we eat a lot of fruit and vegetables, and I've been getting a CSA bag for the last month or so. This week I even bought some whole wheat flour to try to integrate more of that into my biiiiiiiiggggg weakness: homebaked anything. I love bread, pastries, cakes, etc., and I love them with real sugar, butter, and white flour. I don't think I'll ever be one of those people who can sub applesauce for butter and sugar, but I'm trying to use honey a little more (Yes, I know it's still sugar, but at least it's closer to its natural state than the white stuff.) and I'm backing off on using highly refined staples period. This week's Tuesdays with Dorie pick by Flour Child was the recipe for Honey Wheat Cookies, so that fit in nicely with my plan.

There's still sugar and white flour in these cookies, but I subbed in half whole-wheat flour, and the recipe calls for honey in place of some of the sugar. The dough has to be refrigerated for a couple of hours and then you roll it in wheat germ before baking. The result is a subtly-flavored honey-lemon-toasty deliciousness that is perfect with a cup of tea. I loved these cookies. John said they were only okay but he did eat 10 of them, so I'm not sure you should listen.

Tuesdays with Dorie - Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-02-17T15:23:00.000-08:00

What can I say? I'm late for TWD again this week! I actually made the dough for these cookies a week and a half ago, baked off one batch, froze the rest, baked off another batch last night and only managed to get one grainy iPhone photo of the finished product. These cookies are the leftovers that my niece is taking to school for a friend's birthday - cute, no? I used Scharffenberger 60% chopped up for the chips and left out the nuts; they were pretty good! Kait of Kait's Plate chose the recipe - thank you!

Oscar Nominees!

2010-02-02T07:45:00.000-08:00

A few years back John and I were invited to an Academy Awards-themed party at someone's house where we all got a ballot and got to choose our picks for for the Oscar winners, with a prize going to the couple who predicted the most. Now, I know some people have date nights and get out to the movies on a regular basis, but John and I have never gotten our acts together enough to organize actual dates, even when we were dating. We came in dead last because that year we'd managed to see exactly two movies on that entire list. One of them was Shrek 2, and the other one was some action movie that John had seen (Spiderman 2? Mission Impossible 3? I can't remember.) that was up for best lighting or something. Our huddled conversation: "Oh, well did they have good lighting in that movie?" "I can't remember the lighting. There were explosions."

So a few days ago I realized that I've actually seen a record-breaking number of movies this year (For me. Record-breaking for me.) . I have actually seen three - that's right, three! - of the best pic nominees! I've seen Avatar, Up in the Air, and Inglorious Basterds. I've also seen Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and Julie and Julia. That's right, biatches, I've seen SIX Oscar nominees! I am that damn proud of myself.

Tuesdays with Dorie - Cocoa Nana Bread

2010-01-26T18:49:00.000-08:00

After a couple of weeks' hiatus from TWD we're back with this week's entry, a quickbread using chocolate and bananas as the main components. I love bananas and eat one probably every day, but John is allergic - he can't even touch a banana. A few people on the TWD boards said they were substituting either Greek yogurt or sour cream for the bananas, so that's what I did; I used a cup of sour cream in place of the two bananas called for in the recipe. As a further disclaimer, I believe I undercooked it somewhat because, as usual, I was baking late at night and I just had to go to bed regardless of whether my bread was ready!

After cooling and cutting, I decided it looked pretty dense and needed something to lighten it up, so I thought of whipped cream. Because really, what can't be improved by adding whipped cream? I defy you to name one thing, unless it's something that could be improved by adding bacon fat. Go on. I'll wait over here while you think about it, my non-vegan friends.

Anyway. I took the bread to my seasonal care-package-for-our-college-girls group where it was very well received, and the whipped cream was an excellent call. Thank you for this week's entry, Steph of Obsessed with Baking!

Geek Knitting

2010-01-17T07:58:00.000-08:00

Baby booties, several pairs for homeless teen moms. Cascade superwash, various patterns.

Let's all cheer for a bit of knitting content on my supposedly knitting-centric blog! First, while you peruse some of my ongoing knitting (the tiniest tip of the WIP iceberg, my friends!), a link to some geeky knitting. You know, if my husband wasn't such a big guy I would seriously contemplate knitting him a periodic table sweater, just so I could watch him walk out the door every morning and say, "Wait, you forgot YOUR SWEATER!"

Then there's this one. I read a caption for this photo somewhere that called it the world's biggest bully magnet. Luckily nobody in my house is Mario obsessed so I don't have to commit that particular act of intarsia. And since I wrote this post a couple of days ago there are now a lot of other gaming sweaters making the bloggy rounds if you want to see more. (Edited to add: a Tetris blanket!!!)

In other knitting news, I helped someone cast off yesterday. Fellow knitters, do you remember those days? It's the scariest thing for non-knitters. The cast-on isn't such a big deal - you don't have too much time invested. But after slogging through miles of garter stitch rectangular knitting, screwing it up at the end is an overwhelming prospect.

Get Ziggy - the back. Not too Ziggy yet.

Imagine what it was like before you could go here! Seriously, my non-knitting friends, I'm happy to cast on and bind off (and pick up dropped stitches, or tell you why you suddenly have more stitches, or how a hole appeared out of nowhere, or whatever) for you as many times as you'd like. But some of you have expressed embarrassment at having to ask more than once...go to that link. Or go ahead and bring it by - you know I wouldn't tease you if I didn't love you.

Haiti Relief

2010-01-16T09:02:00.000-08:00

All politics aside, if you're wondering what you can do to help the people of Haiti, go to the Clinton Foundation website, where there are links that enable you to choose from MANY different organizations that are working on relief. You can also donate $10 immediately to the Red Cross by texting "HAITI" to 90999, or through the Clinton Foundation by texting "HAITI" to 20222. In either case, $10 will be billed to your cell phone and given to relief efforts.

The Collapse of Western Civilization

2010-01-11T16:36:00.000-08:00

This is where we jumped the shark, right here. I don't care how much omega-3 it has - there is no part of a chicken shaped like this. Or at least, no part I'm willing to put in my mouth.

Tuesdays with Dorie - Apple Tarte Tatin

2010-01-05T17:32:00.000-08:00

In the spirit of Julia "Never Apologize" Child, I'm just going to pretend my Apple Tarte Tatin is flattened ice cream topping and call it a day.

PS It would have to be the one I had to take pictures of.

PPS It still tastes divine.

PPPS Next time, don't overthink the flipping.

Happy anniversary, Tuesdays with Dorie and thank you for choosing this week's Apple Tarte Tatin - practically perfect in every way.

Holiday Baking

2010-01-04T07:57:00.000-08:00

Cardamom Crescents

Here it is, 2010, the Monday after the holiday break. There was so much baking, cooking, knitting, wrapping, decking, and general revelry that I completely forgot to post my Tuesdays with Dorie entry for last week (chocolate cheesecake, which I even baked two weeks ahead because I knew I'd get entangled in the day-to-day) and I haven't taken pictures of any of my knitting.

Hazelnut Shortbread Sticks

There were holiday concerts to go to, dinners to host, trees to trim, and movies to watch, and we topped the break off with a trip to see the snow yesterday (more on that to come). Fiona was home so of course we had to see New Moon (a thinly-disguised excuse for a bunch of baby men to take their shirts off, if you ask me) but we also saw Avatar and Up in the Air, both of which were excellent. Plus how amazing is George Clooney? He even manages to be cute in Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Coconut-Orange Snowballs

Snoopy turned three on New Year's Day, and even though we didn't throw him a party he marked the day himself by accidentally falling into the pool, which was exciting because he hates the water and completely overreacted and then dried himself off by running under bushes which necessitated a trip to the doggy spa and a second dunking. He's so small, and loves being inside so much, that it was the first time he'd ever gotten dirty with actually dirt.

Sablés

Anyway, I thought I'd wrap this post up with a few pictures of my holiday baking. The cookies, well, you've gotta have Christmas cookies. In addition to the sablés, molasses ginger, and chocolate crinkles I've made before, I tried three new recipes as well: coconut, hazelnut shortbread sticks (these were voted the best) and cardamom crescents. I probably won't make the coconut ones again, and although we all liked the cardamom ones, the hazelnut ones were so amazing I'll stick with those.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

For dessert after Christmas dinner, I made flourless chocolate cake with warm caramel sauce and a French pear tart so people could choose chocolate or fruit. (Or both. I'm looking at you, Self.) This was the first time I ever made frangipane...so good. The tart proved to be very popular so I will definitely make that again next year and the chocolate cake is a recipe I make often because it's fast and delicious.

French Pear Tart

And just in case you think we didn't have enough sweets, the leftover caramel sauce became the topping for homemade ice cream on New Year's Eve, forever spoiling me for caramel out of a jar. Happy 2010!

Molasses-Ginger Chewies

Tuesdays with Dorie - Café Volcano Cookies

2009-12-15T06:57:00.000-08:00

I was all set to skip this week of TWD because - let's face it - I think we're all busy, and while there is the opportunity to share creations both knitted and baked with those we love, we're also going to parties and shopping and taking finals and applying to college around here and it's all just too much sometimes! Plus three people in my extended family exhibit unmitigated gall by having their birthdays in December.

There's also the whole nut allergy thing here. John's got to be careful with nuts because, while we aren't quite sure exactly which ones he's allergic to (Understandably enough he doesn't want to do a taste-test to find out.), many of them are processed with peanut oil so they're out no matter what. The result is that I mostly leave the nuts out of stuff - I don't miss them too much and nobody swells up with hives that way. This week's cookies are 90% nut, so leaving them out was not an option. At the last minute I decided to whip them out because they are just so easy to make. I was so glad I did - they're easy, yes, but they're also really good. My family was over on Sunday and they loved them. I'm not sure I'll make them again because there are a million great recipes out there, but once more, Dorie's recipe didn't disappoint.

Thanks MacDuff of The Lonely Sidecar for choosing Café Volcano Cookies!

CSA Box

2009-12-12T16:08:00.000-08:00

Specialty Produce recently started offering CSA boxes once a week. You can opt in via email, which is great because I have commitment phobia when it comes to things like this - I already struggle with a weekly milk/dairy delivery that makes me guilty every time I can't quite finish the milk in any given week.

This is my first week, and I was so pleased with the contents of the box. In addition to the pretty vegetables you see here (heirloom lettuce and tomotoes, baby pink turnips. baby carrots, a leek, some thyme, a fennel bulb, asparagus, arugula, a squash - all locally grown and absolutely beautiful) there were also a couple of nice Meyer lemons and some Satsumas (which I don't really need because I've got a bumper crop of them myself). The interesting twist is that you suddenly find yourself in the position of having to cook something you normally don't buy, forcing you to be creative in your menu planning.

Last night I roasted a pork loin and accompanied it with roasted baby turnips & carrots that I dressed with just a little olive oil, kosher salt, and thyme - fresh, simple and delicious, and the carrots actually tasted like carrots. I also took the greens off the turnips and sauteed them in a bit of bacon fat (from what John calls my little jar of happiness). Dinner was so good I think it actually brought a tear to my husband's eye.

Tuesdays with Dorie - Sablés

2009-12-08T22:19:00.001-08:00

Okay, I know I say this about a lot of things, but these are my favorite Christmas cookies of all. They're buttery and rich, yet delicate and finely textured. I can't help it if I have a long list of favorite things. Don't even get me started on brown paper packages tied up with string.

In a rare instance of perfect timing during this crazy holiday season, Dorie Greenspan's sablés were the TWD pick for this week just when I had to provide cookies for an open house at the La Jolla Historical Society. And in addition to being timely and delicious, they come together in a snap and you can keep the dough in the fridge or freezer to slice and bake whenever you need a few.

Last Christmas I made them several times because they disappeared quickly, and at Easter I made a batch using pink sugar instead of the pretty yellow you see here. I've also tried making them with red and green sugar, but the yellow is my favorite. It plays up the golden buttery flavor of the cookie, I think. Thanks Bungalow Barbara for giving me an excuse to make yet another one of my favorites!

Tuesdays with Dorie - Rosy Poached Pear and Pistachio Tart

2009-12-01T21:25:00.000-08:00

File this under better late than never...I just now finished assembling this tart at 9:30 pm on Tuesday while John was putting the lights on our Christmas trees alone (That's right, trees, plural. It's excessive, but you know how I am.). I almost thought of skipping this week but I love pears and I love pistachios so I had to give it a whirl despite the fact that I still have pie left over from Thanksgiving and I'm finally back to my normal weight after I gained a whopping five pounds in one day last week. It's my super power, gaining weight that fast.

The tart requires a few steps that have to be done in advance, i.e. poaching pears in a beautiful red wine bath, making the pistachio pastry creme (which bore an unfortunate resemblance to my minty hummus - but it's under those gorgeous pears, so who cares?), caramelizing more pistachios and blind baking a tart crust (which I made this morning). While the crust baked I reduced the poaching liquid as Dorie suggests and sliced up the pears in preparation for the assembly.

Given all those steps, you have to ask yourself if it's worth it. Well, it is. It is worth every bit of effort and dirty dish - that's how good this is. And it's impressive as all get-out in person. Go make one for any of the special occasions you have this month. I'd give you a slice of mine but I haven't figured out how to share with you all quite yet.

Thank you, Lauren of I'll Eat You, for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie entry - it was fantastic!

Here Comes the Sun

2009-11-21T12:53:00.000-08:00

Back in September I had some kind of flu that had me down for several days and I really haven't felt right since. I've been kind of tired and a little achy all over, but I kept attributing it to my sporadic workout schedule, since I've been traveling (where all I did was walk but no yoga or anything else) and then coming back and hitting classes to make up for it.

Last week I went for my yearly checkup and all was great except for one thing: my Vitamin D levels. Now, the one thing I try to be really good about is applying sunscreen and mainly staying out of the sun. Living here it's easy to get too much and while I'm trying to avoid getting skin cancer my real fear is of turning into Godzilla. Turns out all that sunscreen can actually be too much of a good thing...unless there's some other crazy reason for it, I'm not getting enough Vit D from our friendly UV source.

Vitamin D deficiency can make you achy and sore, depressed (SAD - Seasonal Affective Disorder), lead to bone loss, osteoporosis, diabetes, give you insomnia (which I already have in spades), etc. Basically a big list of all the things I'm trying to prevent with all the stuff I am doing. Now I'm taking a supplement every day for six months and making an effort to get my Vitamin D the natural way, too. The natural way is better, I think. And after I sunbathe a little I can knit a little.

The Pi Are Squared shawl I was working so diligently on turned out to have a major flaw, all because I don't follow directions. I was periodically doubling ALL the stitches between the diagonal increases instead of just the middle stitches. I'm not sure if it speaks to my idiocy that I thought that was right for as long as I did or to my brilliance that I realized that made no sense, geometrically speaking. Anyway, I frogged the whole damned thing. It was cursed, and I do know better than to work against the curse. I started from scratch instead.

Tuesdays with Dorie - Sugar-Topped Molasses Spice Cookies

2009-11-11T14:19:00.000-08:00

I was finally able to get a couple of photos of these cookies after baking off three previous batches on other days - that's how much my family liked them. I made the dough a couple of weeks ago, doubling it as a go-to in case any cookie emergencies might arise this month. Little did I know that the emergency would be keeping up with the demand.

The dough is super sticky and it spreads like crazy in the oven, but the resulting cookies are simultaneously crisp and chewy, with a very interesting note added by the black pepper in the recipe. We tried them rolled in raw sugar and also in regular cane sugar, and I think the cane sugar held up better. We also tried them after refrigerating the dough, which made it easier to handle, and after freezing, which was easier still since I made logs and just slice-and-baked.

Despite rave reviews on the taste, I'm not sure I'll make these again. I didn't like handling the dough and I didn't like how much they spread - you can't get that many cookies on a sheet. Instead, I might add a little pepper to another ginger/molasses cookie recipe and see how that goes.

Thank you Pam of Cookies with Boys (Make sure to go look at her cookies - they are perfect.) for suggesting this recipe. This is the second sweet TWD recipe in the last couple of months that called for black pepper - fantastic taste, and a great way to expand the palate!

Temptation on a Plate

2009-11-11T07:53:00.000-08:00

WARNING. The contents of this post may be extremely dangerous in the wrong hands. If you are susceptible to the aroma of fresh donuts, frying dough, sugar puffs of warm sweetness, or anything of the like, you have been warned. Don't come crying to me about your potential episode of excess, abuse, or waistline expansion - blame this guy.

It turns out you can take a can of ordinary pop-n-fresh biscuit dough and turn it into fresh donuts in a maneuver that is so easy it's scary. Ordinarily, I wouldn't even consider making donuts. (I'm not from the South; I'm from So Cal - we don't deep-fry, we stir-fry.) And I wouldn't buy biscuits in a can anymore, either. (I'm not from the South; I'm from So Cal - but I do like mixing me up a batch of some of them biscuits.)

But then one morning I was perusing my bloglines and I came across this little video at the Amateur Gourmet where they were talking about how easy it is to make donuts, and I was thinking, "Yeaaaah, once I'm making yeasted dough it's not going into donuts," when bam - they showed the instant donut method and it made me get in the car and go buy a can of biscuits.

The next morning I poured canola oil into the bottom of a pot, heated it up to 325F and punched holes out of the individual biscuits. A couple of minutes later, we had fresh, hot, light, and crispy donuts (and their holes) for breakfast. They fried up easily, were not greasy at all, and they were delicious - so delicious that I might actually make them again using the real yeasted dough - but these were really good for being so incredibly easy. As a bonus, check out the relatively small mess:

FYI, we decided that the ones coated in regular sugar were better than the powdered sugar ones.

Tuesdays with Dorie - Cran-Apple Crisp

2009-11-10T00:05:00.000-08:00

This Tuesday's entry for TWD is the Cran-Apple Crisp, chosen by Em at The Repressed Pastry Chef. Let me preface by saying that much as I don't like cherries in anything cooked, I'm not all that fond of dried cranberries. I tolerate them, but just barely. I do love cranberry juice (including any permutation with vodka - which sounds so bad; my friends will tell you I'm not really a drinker, really, but I seem to keep referencing cocktails here. Must be indicative of my state of mind but I assure you I rarely imbibe.) and I like cranberry sauce (as long as it's the kind that slides out of a can - is that so bad? I don't like actual cooked cranberry sauce.), but that sour aspect of dried cranberries, coupled with the fact that they stick to your teeth, bugs me.

Luckily, this crisp has plenty of sweetness to counteract the sour. The apples were sweet on their own, and then there was the topping - more of that crumbage I love - and I added golden raisins to mine as Dorie suggests as a variation.

I ended up taking the crisp to Sunday dinner at my sister's where it was served up after a wonderful fall dinner of pot roast, mashed potatoes (which I'd gladly eat every day), and parsnips. It was fantastic, warm from the oven with homemade vanilla ice cream - can you think of a single thing that wouldn't be improved by a scoop a la mode?

November is for Pie

2009-11-06T10:31:00.000-08:00

I'm till working on my red shawl, but yesterday I justified casting on a new project because I needed a nice piece of non-thinking knitting to take out on the town. Sometimes I'm in a meeting where people persist in actually talking to me, or where they truly expect me to pay attention...It's just not always compatible with lace knitting. Yesterday I knit four rows on the Gaenor shawl before realizing I'd left out the kfb increase called for on all the right-side rows - i.e. not even in the lace portion - on the first row I touched. I'm still hoping it is magically correcting itself in my knitting bag so I won't have to rip it back.

This is my big fat piece of comfort knitting, no thought required: Pie Are Squared from EZ's Knitting Around, on relatively big needles (10) with pretty fat yarn (Cascade Eco-Wool left over from Bella's Mittens).

Something Red

2009-11-04T09:01:00.000-08:00

Now that my little bout of bitterness toward my local supermarket is over, shall we see what's happening with the knitting? I'm still on a shawl jag, this time working on Gaenor in Red Rocks Fiber Aspen Sock, colorway Ruby Slippers. It's knit from corner to corner so the lace border is knitted on as you go.

Fage Yogurt, Ronzoni Pastina, White Pepper - Shall I Go On?

2009-11-03T11:05:00.000-08:00

Dear Vons La Jolla, despite the fact that you don't sell most of the things I want anymore and that the meat department looks like we live in Odessa (not the one in Texas), thank you for the reminder that now that we're two days past Halloween, Christmas is right around the corner.

PS You can stop asking me if I found everything I need now. You don't really want to know, and I really don't have the time to invest that much in you emotionally.

Tuesdays with Dorie - All in One Holiday Cake

2009-11-03T00:05:00.000-08:00

Very festive care packages!

A few times during the year a bunch of us moms get together and make care packages for our collegiate daughters. It's a nice surprise for the girls, especially since they're sophomores now and their expectations of what we'll do for them are probably dimming by the minute.

There was even homemade apple jelly...

And it's nice for us, because we get together and socialize...and this year we barely even talk about those girls! Not that we don't miss them, of course!

...and homegrown walnuts...

This time there were 15 of us, so we each brought 15 items, ranging from cute socks and gloves to a spooky cd to walnuts from someone's farm. I think we were all on the same wavelength this year because there wasn't nearly as much sugar on the table as there was last year.

...and a light dinner for the moms.

We all share appetizers and salad a little wine. And of course, there's always dessert! I used this as an excuse to get on with my November TWD assignments and busted out the All-in-One Holiday Cake. I've made this before when I've had to take something for a crowd, and it's a definite pleaser. It contains every flavor of the season, all in one cake. I think the only thing it's missing is actual turkey.

I think I could've been a little more generous with the maple glaze, don't you?

I also brought the leftovers from last week's offering: the infamous flaming cherry cake. Both these cakes improve with time as the flavors blend so we all enjoyed a little bite of each.

Cherry-Fudge Brownie Torte

The next day the packages were in the mail via Priority, so two days later Fiona sent me this picture of her feet - so see? It must be genetic.

Thank you, Britin of The Nitty Britty, for picking the All-in-One Holiday Cake. It's a great choice for this time of year!

It's Done!

2009-11-02T13:44:00.001-08:00

I decided on a picot bind-off, and I believe I might like it even a little better than the original.

Now I only have to decide whether it's a gift or if it's a keeper.

Racing the Yardage

2009-10-30T09:28:00.000-07:00

I'm a quarter of the way through the knitted-on border of my second Aestlight and I think I'm not going to have enough yarn. When will I learn? This is Aspen Sock by Red Rocks Fiber Works, a really wonderful superwash merino in the colorway Lemon Zest. I've bought a few Red Rocks products at my fave LYS, Knitting in La Jolla, and I've loved all of them; this particular yarn, though....I bought it on sale and I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it so I only bought one skein, about 410 yards. When I cast on I knew it would be close but I plowed ahead.

So now I'm faced with this dilemma: I can forge ahead, knowing I'm going to be close, and then rip out. Or, I can just admit defeat, rip out now and finish it off without the points.

Or maybe I can figure out another knitted-on border that wouldn't take as much yarn...hm. Maybe I'll explore that possibility. Maybe even a picot bind-off; that would be better than nothing.

Isn't this color amazing? It has depth and flecks and saturation and everything I love.

"Boil for one minute, then stand back and carefully ignite the Kirsch."

2009-10-27T00:05:00.000-07:00

First let me state for the record that I despise cherries in baked things. After being subjected to heat they always looked like some kind of organ to me, and organs in my dessert? No thank you - I'll pass. Cherries from a tree eaten out of hand, yes. Maraschino cherries? Double yes, especially accompanied by rum, fruit juice, and a tiny umbrella. But cooked? No. No thank you. Not even chocolate can change my mind on that.

But here I was faced with this week's Tuesdays With Dorie selection: Cherry-Fudge Brownie Torte. I figured I'd just knock it out and get it over with and take it with me on the bus to the Head of the American River, to be consumed by a horde of hungry teenaged girls. That was when I pre-read the recipe and came upon these directions: "...stand back and carefully ignite..." and I thought, maybe I oughta wait until John gets home from work so he can either: a) man the fire extinguisher or b) call 911 or c) all of the above. Plus...mousse filling. Not really roadtrip friendly.

So last Thursday after John got home (so I'd have a spotter...you don't need one too often in the kitchen but every now and then when you attempt a particularly adventuresome maneuver it seems like a good idea) I made the brownie layer, cooled it, and left it in the fridge all wrapped up so I could go off on my chaperoning adventure and find it waiting for me when I got back.

The mousse layer was simple to put together and delicious to clean up from - I don't often lick the beater blade but if you were trying to seduce me with food and didn't have any chocolate, a mixture of mascarpone, sugar, and heavy cream would probably do the trick.

Would you like to see a little video of me almost losing my carefully tended eyebrows? I knew that you would:

And would you like to know how the torte turned out in general? I ate the little slice you see pictured above, just to try it before I served it to my family. It was the bomb! It's more like Cherry Garcia than weird cooked cherries, and the bottom layer was fudgy and chewy with little chunks of chocolate still whole. I ate it and then I wished I had time to lie down because it was definitely kind of heavy, but the flavors were interesting and went together very well. Thanks for this week's pick, April!

Head of the American River

2009-10-25T13:24:00.001-07:00

After being home for what seemed like 20 minutes this week, Anna and I loaded ourselves and a few possessions onto a bus with the rest of the ZLAC girls and headed up to Sacramento for the Head of the American regatta. A few of you have expressed your deep sympathy for my situation, i.e., being trapped on a seemingly endless bus ride with 40 teenaged girls, but don't worry. I had my iPhone, my iPod, a book, some knitting, four other adults and a stream of teen movies to entertain me.

You can tell it's Anna by her black cap...she's the 2nd one from the left.

I hadn't seen (and was unlikely to, in other circumstances) Step Up 2 The Streets or Fired Up!...I actually laughed during Fired Up! so I either must've been really tired or suffering from all the teen hormones in the air on that bus. And Step Up 2 The Streets...well, I do secretly want to join a dance crew, so I was bound to enjoy that. We also watched Get Smart and Blades of Glory, which I slept through.

They remind me of my kids when they were still in high chairs!

The place the girls raced was very pretty: Nimbus Flats there on the American. It's surrounded by oak foothills and I was able to hike around on a couple of really nice trails while the girls weren't actively racing. I'm sure this place is a birder's paradise when there aren't a zillion rowers, and even so I got to see a flock of wild turkeys and lots of ducks and geese.

Really, how hard could a duck bite you with that bill?

The weather was fine and our canopies were right in front of the finish line, and we were shaded with the sun at our backs for the whole time...amazingly comfortable compared to the freezefest on the Charles last week!

I tried to sneak up on it, but the goose would have none of my petting, even for spaghetti!

The biggest entertainment came from the local waterfowl. We had a pan of leftovers that they went nuts over! After gorging themselves for a few minutes, they all ran down to the water, drank and drank, and then ran back to finish. You know how ducks shake their heads when they eat? They made a huge mess of themselves.

Sacramento Sunset

Belated Birthdays

2009-10-25T00:05:00.000-07:00

I finally gave my friend her birthday Aestlight. Isn't she the very picture of fall? And she gave me this beautiful new project bag, stitched with her own hands. I needed a new bag, too - I'm all in Ziplocs right now!

Belated birthdays are so fun - presents when you least expect them!

I Tried to Look at Yarn!

2009-10-24T00:05:00.000-07:00

The view from my hotel window.

It turned out that I was in Portland for an afternoon/evening by myself so I decided to go out in search of a few yarn stores. A quick Google revealed that there were two yarn stores within walking distance of my hotel, so I bundled up and headed out.

The first one was really close, but there was nothing too interesting to see. It was kind of old school, but it had a decent enough selection of the usual suspects. I was hoping for something local or unavailable in my neck of the woods, but there really wasn't anything like that so I kept on walking.

I had high hopes for the next place, KnitWit Yarn Shop and Coffee Bar. I was totally willing to walk the mile necessary to look at yarn while drinking coffee. Imagine my sadness when I got there only to find they were closed.

I know, I should've called first, but I didn't. Color me stupid. Doesn't it look like someplace you'd like to visit? They have giant wall mittens!

Amber Grove (I was going to link to their website here but when I searched I just found a link to Amber Grove, human being!), the place next door, was closed too, and that was a bummer because I really wanted a better look at these lampshades that appear to be made of felt, or maybe really really thick and pulpy handmade paper. Either way, intriguing.

Anyway, I walked back to the hotel and consoled myself with room service clam chowder and NCIS, and I did make a lot of progress on a second Aestlight that I'm working on.

The next morning I got in the car and headed back to Boston, determined to see at least one decent yarn store. In Brookline I found A Good Yarn, which was a nice little place. They did have some yarn that I'm not used to seeing in person and they had a nice little selection of Koigu, but at that point I was all packed up for the airport and I left with only a few stitch markers and the holiday issue of Interweave Knits. I realize that I was in the general area only a week after the whole Rhinebeck opportunity...maybe next year!

LL Bean

2009-10-23T00:05:00.000-07:00

While I was on the east coast I stayed a couple of days after the regatta and drove up to Portland with Fiona. That's the other Portland for those of us west of the Rockies - the one in Maine, not the one in Oregon. I'd never been to Maine so I was especially eager to see it, and as a bonus I got to drive through New Hampshire so now I've been to all the New England states.

It snowed big fat flakes all the way north from Boston to Portland, but the heater in our rented Corolla worked just fine and the radio had enough classic rock to keep us entertained all the way there. We had a lovely dinner with friends (haddock chowder and brie brioche - how brilliant is that, brie melted into the brioche? You put it in when you add butter to the dough, as opposed to wrapping a brie in brioche and baking it whole.) and on the second day we went up to Freeport, Maine, the home of LL Bean and a whole lot of other stores and outlet I didn't have time to visit. As it turns out, LL Bean does not consist of a warehouse with a bunch of telephones and ladies on rollerskates packing your order as you call it in - it's actually a large complex of stores, each with a theme like hunting/fishing, home, or what-have-you. They may indeed have a warehouse with rollerbabes but I didn't see one.

I made Fiona pose in the trout aquarium bubble and then I wandered around taking pictures of the stuffed animals. I love stores with giant aquariums. Out here the Fry's in San Marcos has a couple of them - awesome. But LL Bean has actual taxidermy - how great is that? The moose here were found locked together like that - they starved to death!

Here's a video that explains:

Head of the Charles

2009-10-22T12:03:00.000-07:00

Andrew is wearing shorts. He grew up in Fresno, which I'm not sure really explains this.

One of the only things that's lacking here in La Jolla is the change of seasons as traditionally depicted by the cover of Martha Stewart Living. I mean, you know the old joke about SoCal seasons: summer, fire, mud and earthquake. And we do have some seasonal differences in LJ. If you consider May Gray/June Gloom as our own private winter, we have three: Too Cold for the Beach, Not Too Cold for the Beach, and Too Touristy for the Beach. Everything else is a Santa Ana or one of the 10 days it rains around here.

We are clearly not far enough SOUTH.

So imagine how happy I was to be a chaperone for the ZLAC girls on their trip to the Head of the Charles - real New England fall, right in the middle of the beautiful foliage season! Luckily San Diego is full of sportswear stores that are all too happy to fit you out for any kind of weather just in anticipation of an excursion such as this, so I purchased a bunch of North Face layers and fleecy things (and these really cool longies from Lucy) and set out.

My whole lunch is inside that vest and it still tasted like it came straight out of the fridge.

You see me there? I am only smiling because my face is so cold it froze in that position. This was not fall. This was every kind of winter weather all wrapped up into one three-day period. Rain. Frozen rain. Hail. Snow. That's right, snow. Do you know how hard that is for someone who lives in shorts and flip-flops? Good thing I knit, people.

Tuesdays with Dorie - Sweet Potato Biscuits

2009-10-20T01:00:00.000-07:00

Okay, here's the reason I decided to join Tuesdays with Dorie this month: It was all for the sweet potato biscuits. You may recall that I made these last year after finding the recipe online (and don't miss the All-in-One Holiday Cake posted on that link - that's awesome). I'd never in my life bought a can of sweet potatoes until I tried this recipe, and then I bought two cans once a week all through the winter.

The biscuits are particularly good if you are serving any kind of pork, but they're also good for breakfast, or when you want something juuuuuuust a little sweet. And you can fool yourself into thinking they're good for you because they have fiber and Vitamin A and beta carotene from the sweet potato, so really, why not eat two? In fact, in the spirit of eating two, I do tend to cut these out on the small size. They don't rise very much so smaller biscuits look better proportioned to me.

Thank you, Erin of Prudence Pennywise, for picking one of my best-loved fall recipes. I can't wait to see how everyone else's sweet potatoes turned out!

Halloween Self-Portrait

2009-10-15T01:00:00.000-07:00

I know, I know...another picture of my feet. I don't know what's up with that either, except that they're always a handy subject. (Get it? My feet are hand-y. I just crack myself up.) In any case, I'm leaving for Boston tomorrow night and I don't believe I have proper footwear for the weather, but if I could wear flip-flops, I'd be stylin'.

PS This is the only Halloween decor I'm currently rocking, inside the house, outside the house, or anywhere else on my person. I may have to go straight to Thanksgiving this year. Or maybe Valentine's Day. I'm sure nobody will notice if I skip everything in between.

Purple Aestlight

2009-10-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

What's not to love about this little shawl? It starts with a garter stitch triangle, so you can take it with you and knit without worrying about screwing up a complicated part. It continues with a fun-to-knit lace panel that stretches like crazy when you block it. It ends with a knitted-on border so you only have a few stitches on the needle at any time so you think you're making a lot of progress. It can be worn as a scarf, so you never have that moment where you wonder where the heck you're going in a shawl or whether you're the kind of person who can pull that off. It's made with Koigu, which is always fun to fondle as you knit.

And it's purple, just as an added bonus. Timeless, regal, and oh-so-in this season (Okay, my fashionista friends, I know it was oh-so-in last season, but I live in SoCal. We're three timezones and a full 365 days behind New York. Be happy I'm not wearing white after Labor Day, at least today.)

I've had to wait on posting finished pictures of this project because it's a belated birthday gift for a certain redheaded friend of mine who gave me this, and yes, it's taken me over a year to reciprocate with a handmade of my own.

I enjoyed knitting Aestlight so much that I've already cast on and am well through the garter triangle of another, this time in a golden yellow. I'm hoping to have it done in time to wear it in Boston when I cheer on the ZLAC girls, but hey - no pressure!

I'm also still plugging away halfheartedly on a Lacy Baktus in Malabrigo sock. I'm not really feeling it, though, so it might end up frogged yet. I don't know why certain projects take off like your needles are on fire and others just putt-putt along like that...yeah, I'm talking to you, navy scarf, and you, all you other half-finished projects lurking in drawers.

Tuesdays with Dorie - Allspice Crumb Muffins

2009-10-13T12:08:00.000-07:00

This week's entry for Tuesdays with Dorie was chosen by Kayte (Thanks Kayte!) of Grandma's Kitchen Table: Allspice Crumb Muffins. I don't do a lot of baking with allspice as the main flavor note - usually it's just one component in a blend of spices - so I actually went all-out and bought a little packet of fresh allspice instead of using the 100-year-old bottle that's been languishing in the back of my kitchen cupboard gathering dust. I had to move the 100-year-old mace to get to that one.

These muffins were pretty good - John and the girls liked them, and I didn't have the sliding streusel problem some other bakers seemed to have. I'm not sure why, because I didn't press the crumbs down into the batter or anything; what I did do was load each one up with so much crummage (crumbage? That seems wrong...) it seemed like overkill, but I figured there had to be a reason there was so much of it and I suspect the sheer weight of it kept it in place. I followed the recipe just as written and included the optional grated lemon rind because I'm always all about the grated lemon rind. The crumb topping was the best part - isn't it always? - and I had just about decided that I probably wouldn't make these twice when I tasted one the day after baking them...it was actually a little better and it was still moist and delish. Maybe I'll try these again with cinnamon or a blend of spices. Or maybe I'll bust out the allspice again. It did feel very much like fall was in the air....

Segway!

2009-10-12T12:55:00.000-07:00

This morning I visited a local nonprofit where they let me ride this Segway despite the fact that I was wearing my Coach pumps in an attempt to look respectable. I can't see myself ever actually owning one but I did want to ride it around some more.

Not a Tuesday...

2009-10-11T08:19:00.000-07:00

Somewhat misshapen, altogether delicious.

Some of you might've clicked on Dorie Greenspan's link in my post about Split Level pudding and seen that she was talking about brioche on her own blog. I myself went beyond the clicking and straight to the baking. Two batches of brioche later, I think I'm in love. Some of the dough went into little breakfast brioches, which made up for the inevitable argument I have with someone in the morning ("Are you wearing that to school?" Stomp, stomp, stomp.) and reminded my family that they should keep me around for while longer. The rest went into a tarte au sucre...I got a little crazy folding the dough over in the pan and I think the next one will be more beautiful to look at, but even the lumpy one was delicious.

Here's the 2nd rise in the early morning. They are about to make my house smell amazing.

Pardon the terrible iPhone photos of the lovely brioche - I forgot to recharge my camera battery and desperate times call for makeshift measures, I guess.

Blocking Aestlight

2009-10-10T09:32:00.000-07:00

Love that bird's-eye lace...

Now that it's finally fall in La Jolla (temps below 70, heh - and that doesn't include the Santa Ana or two we're sure to have any time now) all I want to do is cocoon in my house with something warm on the needles and something warm in the oven. If it would only rain I'd be so happy.

Disclaimer: This image was photoshopped to cover a little more of my skin than actually showed because much as I love you, you just didn't need to see it. I did resist the temptation to give myself the much-needed tuck-and-lift, though. PS I'm the one on the right, in case you were wondering, "Which one of these women has had three children?" - HA! My partner is in the middle, and the hottie on the left is one of the professional dancers, too.

Perhaps you recall me talking about my crazy "celebrity" appearance at Malashock Thinks You Can Dance? Well, it happened, and I'm happy to have lived through it. If you missed it, I'm so sorry - there won't likely be a repeat performance because there's no way I'm getting in that outfit again in this lifetime unless Fiona marries someone I don't like, in which case I think it will make a perfect mother-of-the-bride getup.

This was the day after the Malashock event. I already had chipped salsa nails, because I'm apparently still not grown-up enough to maintain a decent manicure for more than a day.

In any case, now that the salsa is behind me and I've retired into advisory status for Las Patronas, you might be thinking, wow - Lydia must be so bored, right? Well, no. I am so behind on so many things that I'm actually filling my time with as much stuff as I can to avoid doing everything I've procrastinated for so long. Today, for example, I'll be at the La Jolla Wine & Art Festival manning the LJ Historical Society table in the afternoon. I'm taking Anna and Mary with me so that I may even be able to accomplish a little knitting between visitors. Aestight is blocking and I've cast on a Lacy Baktus which will be a perfect project to take with me.

We know it's fall because the tourist have gone.

In addition to Baktus, I'm starting to plan some other travel knitting for later this week. On Thursday I'm heading to Boston with Anna and some of the other ZLAC girls who are rowing at the Head of the Charles. I'm excited because not only is it an amazing event, but Fiona will be joining us over the weekend and I haven't seen her since August! On Sunday Anna will fly back with her team and I think Fiona and I will drive up to Portland (Maine, my west coast friends, not Oregon) for a day. Then she will go back to Vermont and I'll have a day in Mass before I fly home...should I go to WEBS? Or where? Suggestions?

Tuesdays with Dorie - Split Level Pudding

2009-10-05T17:03:00.001-07:00

I think I've mentioned the book Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, haven't I? I just love this book. Not only are the recipes all for things you'd actually want to eat, but they are things you can imagine making yourself. There are great "learning" recipes for basics like pie crust and whatnot, and then there are "playing around" notes at the bottom of each recipe that encourage you to branch out. And that's what I like best - branching out.

So out there in the blogosphere there is a group of bakers who all make the same Dorie Greenspan recipe and post to their blogs on Tuesday - hence the title of this post.

This is my first week as a member and I'm so happy I got to start with pudding. In the event I ever lose all my teeth, I'm happy to report that many of my very favorite foods require no chewing. I'm not sure what that says about me - I guess I'm lazy. Risotto, creme brulee, custards of any sort, soup, creamed spinach, mashed potatoes, sorta melted ice cream, etc. And if it's not soft to begin with, if it will become soft with the liberal application of gravy, that's good too.

This Split Level Pudding is a layer of chocolate ganache topped with vanilla pudding; I pretty much followed the recipe except that I whisked it all by hand instead of using the food processor. I topped it with a little whipped cream (because that's soft and delicious too!!!!) and garnished with a little triangle of dark chocolate. The panel of judges (John, Anna & Mary) all proclaimed it the best pudding they'd ever tasted and managed to finish every little bit of it, whipped cream, chocolate triangle, and all. Thank you Garrett from The Flavor of Vanilla for picking such a wonderful start for October!

September Birthdays, Round 2

2009-09-25T09:26:00.000-07:00

Somebody has to teach me how to pipe better, that's for sure.

It always strikes me as somewhat cruel to send kids back to school in September in San Diego (or, in Anna's case, August - it just ain't right). The beach is freezing well through June most years and even sometimes right through July, and just when it starts to warm up in August, bam. Put on your fall clothes, kids, it's time to swelter through algebra again.

Notice Jen restraining Jane from blowing our candles out!

A plus, however, is that I get to have my birthday dinner on the beach. If you're a regular reader, you know I share my birthday with a lot of family, and I also have a bunch of Virgo friends - scary, isn't it? I truly don't know how I'd feel about having a birthday all to myself because I've never experienced it. I think I like sharing.

Mary's motto: Life is short. Eat the frosting first.

This year my sisters organized dinner on the beach, including grilled pizzas and salad and the kids boogieboarded and swam and played while the grownups kibbitzed over the pizza dough. I was in charge of the birthday cake, and while that may seem like an injustice given that it was my own birthday, it beat the alternative: a Costco birthday cake, which I'm convinced would give us all cancer or at the very least a crisco-frosting-and/or-unnamed-food-additives-induced headache. Plus you know I don't mind baking.

That's right, we ate 33 cupcakes that night. Wanna make something of it?

One of my early birthday presents was the book Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes. I let Mary choose the kind of cake we'd have and she chose vanilla bean with white chocolate buttercream (which was simply incredible, in case regular old buttercream wasn't going to do it for you). Because it's hard to deal with tall layers and sun and sand, though, we made cupcakes. The recipe made 40 cupcakes and we frosted half of them with just the buttercream and filled the rest with a little Valrhona chocolate frosting and topped those with the buttercream as well, because I often feel the need for excess. They were knockout.

Wait, Isn't This a Knitting Blog?

2009-09-20T10:09:00.000-07:00

Lookit - knitting. Yarn on the needles, 10 minutes into an Aestlight shawl, using some Koigu that I have frogged from probably five projects already. It may be cursed from the start, and you'll notice I'm not showing you the metric assload of unfinished knitting strewn all over my house, but still.

Farmers' Market 9/6

2009-09-07T16:41:00.000-07:00

About halfway there. I think Mary was plotting her crepe request here already.

Sunday morning Mary and I decided to walk down the hill to the La Jolla Farmer's Market, in an attempt to get some exercise while it was still cool out while scoping out prospects for Sunday dinner. You know the saying "It's all downhill from here?" Well, that's where I live. It's all downhill from here. I read recently that walking downhill actually has completely different health benefits from walking uphill, which is good, because it kills the calves and is much harder than it appears.

Nutella, we love you!

Upon reaching the Farmer's Market, Mary announced that she was famished so there was nothing left to do but get breakfast instead of shopping for vegetables. There are now two (!) vendors who make crepes, which seems like a lot, doesn't it? Mary ordered a Nutella, strawberry and banana crepe, her fave. I went over and got a lemongrass chicken stirfry despite the early hour. I won't bore you with a picture of mine - imagine zucchini and grilled chicken and that's as exciting as it gets.

Awesome samosas...say that three times fast.

I did, however, get some of these East African samosas which were killer, I tell ya. The beef samosa was spicy and delicious, very crispy, and the potato was flavored with curry. Awesome samosas. Plus the guy gave me some free ones when I told him I was fully capable of eating a dozen.

Squash...no pumpkins yet here, thank goodness!

After breakfast we wandered around taking iphone photos of what was being offered up, just cuz some of it was pretty.

White peaches, which I didn't buy because Fiona is the great consumer of them in our house.

And in case you were wondering, dinner ended up being chicken Milanese (mainly because I wanted to flatten something with a frying pan), a salad of baby greens with herbs and fresh vinaigrette, and some of the bread with caramelized onions they sell at the Farmers' Market too. Some people even had dessert - the cookies & cream cupcakes from Martha Stewart's book...so I got to smash chicken AND whack the life out of 40 Oreos while thinking about Martha Stewart, among other things. I highly recommend it.

The minute it's not too hot to boil pasta, bring on the tomatoes.

Seriously...

2009-09-03T06:09:00.000-07:00

It's 150 degrees eff here.... Do we really need to see jack o' lanterns already?

The First Birthday of the Season

2009-09-02T11:17:00.000-07:00

The apron is a gift from my friend Denise - it says, "You'll eat it. You'll eat it and you'll like it!"

September is the big birthday month in my family - it starts off with John's birthday, and then there's my niece's, mine, and Mary's all in a clump. When my dad was still with us we would celebrate my niece's, mine, and Mary's with him in a big quadruple birthday bash. Since mine was two days after his, I never had my own birthday - it was always shared. And since Mary's is the day after mine, I suppose my birthday will always be a shared experience, which is just how I like it.

Happy Birthday, John!

Yesterday was John's birthday and we celebrated it at my sister's house; she served up chile rellenos made with poblano chiles her husband grew in pots in their backyard. They were delicious but I seriously feel like I gained five pounds yesterday. I hadn't even planned on eating much for dinner because John and I also had lunch at Roppongi and I ate so many onion rings with wasabi aioli I really didn't need dinner.

I dream of cake!

I couldn't resist homemade, homegrown, homeserved chiles - who could? And of course there was cake made by yours truly. The cake was based on this recipe, which in turn was based on this. I used a mixture of Meyer and regular lemons because that was what I had and since John really, really likes lemon, I added lemon to both the cake batter and the frosting. The batter got the zest of two of the Meyers (they were small), and the frosting got the zest of one Meyer and two tablespoons of lemon/Meyer lemon juice in place of two T of water. I used every bit of the lemon curd between the layers, which was sort of overkill but I liked the idea of letting it drip down the outside and then frosting over it with the 7-minute frosting, which has enough body to cover something like that pretty completely. The resulting cake was very reminiscent of lemon merinque - delicious.

August Recap

2009-09-02T07:06:00.000-07:00

I ended up hating this dress - it was a portable sauna - but here we are at the Jewel Ball.

Now that September is upon us and the normal schedule of events resumed, I think it's time for me to get back to the blog, don't you? The Jewel Ball has come and gone (with all the craziness that brings), I've gone to New York for a few days of R&R, and now I'm getting back down to business.

Lawnchair sculpture in Times Square, held together by zipties, my favorite all-purpose fasteners!

Fiona has gone back to Bennington, Anna's begun her senior year (check back later for college craziness, application anxiety, and other general institution-of-higher-learning-inspired afflictions), and Mary is now a 6th grader. All of which, sad to say, makes me a relic of the pleistocene and all the more susceptible to the marketing claims of every anti-aging product on the planet.

"You can leave now, Mommy!"

There's very little knitting going on at the moment because it's hard to get excited about wooly garments when you live in the tinderbox that is SoCal in the fall, but I do have a little food to share in coming posts, cuz a girl's gotta eat, after all.

Summertime Blues, II

2009-07-24T07:47:00.000-07:00

Do you think my family might be getting spoiled? This blueberry pie, from a recipe I got from teh internet but have now misplaced, was proclaimed "good but only okay." At least they're comparing it to other things I've baked and not blueberry pie from a supermarket box - that would be truly insulting.

Summertime Blues

2009-07-21T13:55:00.000-07:00

Nothing much to say, other than that I'm particularly in love with my pedi right now....

Downward Dog

2009-07-18T08:11:00.000-07:00

About a month ago my niece Julia convinced me into accompanying her to a Bikram yoga class by telling me how amazing it is and that all I had to do was stick it out and not leave the room. Imagine my surprise upon finding out I had paid good money to endure a near-death experience.

I stayed in the room by remaining on my back without moving for the last half hour, listening to my heartbeat getting louder and steadily moving up my throat, repeating the mantra, "I hate Julia."

Despite the fact that every woman in that room - or at least the ones that didn't look like they would be making a feeble attempt to dial 911 at the end of class - was an amazing specimen of vitality, good looks, and flexibility, Bikram is not for me. The next day I went and took a Hatha class and I'm hooked. I'm now going into my 4th week of daily yoga - Hatha, some light Vinyasa flow, ropes, etc. - and I love every minute of it. I'm so much more flexible, I'm sleeping better, and my tendonitis has abated...I don't think I can stop. Plus you basically wear jammies, and you know how I love that.

PS I've also started taking salsa classes because I'm doing this. It's all in fun and it's a good cause....you can sponsor me if you want or if you're local, come on down. Shout "How's the knitting?" from the audience so I know you're a blog friend. Salsa is a blast - I'm not entirely sure I'll be smooth or even passable, because all my dancing heretofore has consisted of me busting my own personal kind of moves - but hey - these are life's great learning experiences, right?

Summer...

2009-07-16T13:58:00.001-07:00

I love summer so much - I love having my children home, the easing up of the schedule, the beach, the long hours of sunlight. I've been busy, but it's a different kind of busy in the summer. Those extra hours of sunlight in the afternoon make all the difference. I'm spending lots of time on the beach, but plenty of other activities are filling those extra hours too.

If you're from around here, or if you know me in person, you may know that we're gearing up big-time for the Jewel Ball. This is my 7th and last year as an active member of LP...a little bittersweet, but I'm pretty well ready to move onto other projects and ride out my days as an advisory member. All the big print jobs, meetings, events, and preliminary things leading up to the main event are done so now I'm just doing presidential things like hanging out at ribbon-cutting ceremonies and signing final vendor contracts. That first week of August we'll all be working non-stop straight through the party, into the night, all of Sunday and right on into Monday morning!

I'm looking forward to the party, but I'm also very much looking forward to beyond the party. More time for the beach, perhaps.

Happy Fourth of July!

2009-07-04T07:14:00.000-07:00

We're heading out in a little while to celebrate the Fourth, but I thought I'd share this beautiful berry cobbler with you first, because right after baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet, what could be more American?

I used Pioneer Woman's recipe as a starting point, but the fresh berries have been so fantastic all on their own that I didn't want to cook them down so instead I used a package of frozen mixed berries and a package of frozen blueberries that I already had in the freezer. If you have a Whole Foods near you, the frozen blueberries are fantastic. I let them defrost and drain, drain, drain before adding the sugar, and then I let them drain a little more because they just had a lot of moisture and while some liquid is good, bubbling hot berry juice can make a huge mess.

Mary enjoys another American classic - the beach makes you hungry!

I also grated just a tiny bit of nutmeg into the berries and used buttermilk as the liquid in the biscuit dough, and then I sprinkled the whole thing with demerara sugar - assembly was fast, baking was easy, and the cobbler was a hit eaten outside at the beach with a little whipped cream. Along with turkey and roast beef sandwiches on baguettes, cold beer, and a batch of Mary's killer brownies, this was a fantastic 3rd of July prelude to the festivities today.

21 Years!

2009-06-18T07:20:00.001-07:00

I was this close to giving him a big 'ol smack on the cheek, but no...

Yesterday John surprised me with a night out for out anniversary - 21 years! Fiona says our marriage can now go to a bar, which I guess is how many a marriage ends up, heh.

Anyway, he took me to dinner at a place I'd been hankering to go which might now be my favorite restaurant. We went to Cowboy Star, which is directly across the street from my buddy Ken's place. It's lovely inside, nouveau rustic I guess you could say, with cowboy music playing. That was almost enough to make it perfect, since, if you didn't know, I'm a sucker for cowboy music...my car is filled with cowboy cds and for the longest time my cellphone ring was Happy Trails. I also love cowboy poetry, films, memorabilia, or basically anything else related to the Old West and I can yodel the strays in with the best of 'em. Didja know that?

I had a fantastic salad followed by the Elysian lamb, while John ordered a beet salad and the bison steak. They were both really good, but the bison was superb. I'm almost sorry we tried it because now when we go back we'll have to order it again, so it'll be slow going working our way through the menu!

I also had what was basically a vase of very delicious sangria and learned a valuable lesson: I need to carry a to-go cup with me all the time, because that could've lasted me several hours.

Self Portrait After Sangria

After dinner John took me up to Adams Avenue for the real surprise - and I was completely clueless until we were actually in the venue! Marshall Crenshaw was playing!!!!! I've been a fan since...I don't know, way before I was married, maybe 28 years or more, and we've seen him I think every time he's passed through SoCal. Last night it was just him with two guitars and a plank of wood on the floor as a drum kit, and his voice was still pure as can be.

We stood in line for an autograph afterwards and I (threatened) told John that he'd better get a good picture with his iPhone...everyone else went up, got their autograph politely, and left (Marshall says his audience now consists of the "NPR crowd") but, you know, I was excited to meet him and we Californians are friendly people so I made him get up and give me a hug - hence the somewhat stunned/bemused expression on his face in that there picture. Also, I made John take it three times to make sure it was okay.

Rhubarb...

2009-05-29T10:02:00.001-07:00

Until yesterday, I had never even tasted rhubarb, let alone cooked with it. But there I was at Whole Foods, where they manage to make the most unlikely food look appetizing. Really, they should run a dayspa. Anyway, I brought home a few stalks and Mary and I had some fun with it.

After trimming the ends off the stalks, we sliced it up and threw it in a pot with a pint or so of beautiful strawberries, 3/4 c sugar, and 1/4 c water. After a few minutes of bubbling gently on medium heat, the inside of the rhubarb turned from green to yellow, it all thickened up, and we plopped it into some thawed puff pastry I happened to have. 25 minutes at 400F later, we had a strawberry rhubarb tart, and being great fans of tart+sweet, the John and the girls all enjoyed it.

By the way, while researching exactly what you do with rhubarb, I found out that the leaves of the rhubarb are poisonous! Mary and I would both like to know how they found out the stalks were okay....

Bags and Sweets

2009-05-29T07:33:00.000-07:00

Vasalissa in Recoleta...a pink and celadon paradise of chocolate

While I didn't manage to get to any sort of fiber-y shop in Buenos Aires, how can a place teeming with shoes, bags, and sweets be bad?

That bag came home with me...

In addition to eating my weight in beef (sorry, my vegan friends...but when in Argentina...although actually I eat plenty of beef right here at home so it's not a good excuse) I also managed to consume a fair amount of chocolate, pastries both straight from the bakery and in the million and one cafes I sat in, cheese, nuts, and olives. In other words, my ideal diet: chocolate, cheese, olives, nuts and coffee, chased down with pastry and steak. The minute I manage to look like Valerie Bertinelli I plan on cashing in.

If you are in BA, don't miss Fervor. We had a fantastic dinner there, the ambience is warm and lively, and the dessert menu includes flan with ice cream. You hear that? Flan AND ice cream, both made in-house. What a great idea - two-course dessert. And of course we went to La Cabrera, a BA must.

I also went to a couple of really nice bars, something I rarely do at home. (Actually, that came out wrong: it's not that I don't go to nice bars...it's that I don't go to ANY bars...lest you think I go to dives. And I do go to the Whaling Bar once in a blue moon.) The Library at the Faena Hotel is such a nice place for a drink, and the bathroom is not to be missed. It's a palace of marble and beveled glass, with fresh flowers and freaking swan faucets. The Oak Bar a the Hyatt was pretty spectacular too, although you do have to brave the cigar smoke.

And just in case you gather the impression we didn't do anything "cultural" at all (four women loose in Argentina = no museums) we did visit the very beautiful Recoleta Cemetery. And, I believe I can make a very good argument for the case that we experienced more culture talking to the wonderful, friendly locals than we would have on the tourist circuit.

Buenos Dias Buenos Aires

2009-05-25T09:25:00.000-07:00

Usually my excuses for not blogging regularly are pretty lame: work, busy schedule, sheer laziness, etc. But this time I've got a good one. At the drop of a hat, I decided to go with my sister and another friend to Buenos Aires, Argentina! That's right - I decided on a Friday and on Saturday morning I was on a 757 winging my way to the southern hemisphere.

My niece had been down there for a couple of months visiting a friend, and she had the use of a darling little apartment in Recoleta - so lucky for us! We had a fabulous week of shopping, lounging in cafes, eating in wonderful restaurants, and having a fantastic time in general.

Here you see the view from our little pied-a-terre and the cafe across the street. Isn't it wonderful?

Tomorrow I'll blog some of the fantastic stores and restaurants we visited.

Work, Work, Work

2009-05-08T07:03:00.000-07:00

One of the sad realities of my life is that my knitting and my work can occasionally become incompatible. Working the mouse a lot when I'm on deadline for a graphics project irritates my right elbow - if I'm knitting something at the same time I get a painful bout of tennis elbow and that's that - no knitting, no work!

At this time of year I always work on a couple of jobs that cause me to put down the knitting for a while. And since it coincides with warmer weather, there you go: knitting sabbatical. This year, however, I've been able to pace myself on the knitting so I haven't stopped altogether.

I'll post some of my print projects in a bit, but in the meantime here are some knits I finished in April. As soon as I get someone to model them for me I'll post better pictures, but for now, that gorgeous pinky-purple thing is a Just Enough Ruffles scarf (the second one, and I'm contemplating a third) in Malabrigo merino worsted in Hollyhock, and the wheat-colored thing is a Sunray in Malabrigo again, in the Pale Khaki colorway.

Happy Birthday Anna!

2009-04-16T07:28:00.001-07:00

Today is Anna's birthday - 17!!!! We celebrated with the extended family on Easter, and blew out the candles both for her and for one of her uncles. Anna doesn't actually like cake (I know...how does that happen?), but this coconut cake was a big hit even with her! Some people even had seconds, and that was after a pretty fabulous Easter dinner and one or two chocolate eggs.

Two little cousins on Easter - Jane's squeeeezing Mary!

The recipe is this one. It results in a a subtly flavored cake...I added a little coconut extract to the batter and it was just right. Just a little coconutty. You have to be careful not to mangle the egg whites when you add them - fold them in patiently - or you'll get a coconut pancake for sure. I made three layers (1 1/2 recipes of batter) and frosted with this buttercream (2 recipes of frosting).

Two bigger cousins on Easter

I made one recipe of frosting on Saturday and refrigerated it, intending to revive it with a little whip of the flat beater - imagine my reaction on Sunday morning when the whole thing turned into a watery, curdled mess in the beater bowl. Really, nobody should be cursing on Easter. But anyway, I managed to save it by swirling the bowl in mid-air over a flame on the stove and whacking the heck out of it with a wooden spoon until it looked salvageable, and by the time I re-beat it in the mixer it was fine. In fact, I couldn't tell the difference between the two batches of frosting by the time I was done. Three cheers for kitchen chemistry!

Today Anna has school and then practice and then homework, so we'll be celebrating very quietly here at home, but I believe there may be some presents in her future...and maybe some donuts...that's what she really craves.

I Swing Both Ways...

2009-04-02T08:22:00.000-07:00

I don't usually stick my baked goods into the shrubbery, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

That's right, baby...chocolate AND lemon. I know a lot of people, including members of my own family, that have a dessert preference. They are either chocolate people, or lemon people. Rich decadent dessert people, or berry dessert people. I say, life's short - why choose? Lately it's been lemony around here. It's Spring.

In the spirit of the season, yesterday evening I went over to a friend's house to make Spring care packages for our college freshmen daughters. We get together every couple of months, and we all bring a little food to share for dinner and a little something for the boxes.

Look what other people brought: those are homemade chocolate-covered strawberries, people!

Last night there were 16 of us, so the girls will each get a box with 16 items ranging from homemade cookies to peeps (gotta have peeps!) to little bottles of hand lotion. And of course we all had fun visiting and making the boxes up, although really the boxes are just an excuse to get together.

Do you find it interesting that I took pictures of the food and the boxes but not of my 15 friends? I'm worried it means something fundamental about my personality, but in the meantime I'll just take another picture.

My contribution was this lemon pound cake, which also came with a berry coulis I didn't take photos of. This is the recipe here, although I did make some changes...I used Neufchatel cheese, which I think has a more delicate flavor, and when I added the vanilla I also added the zest of one lemon, cuz I'm all about lemon zest. (Unless I'm being all about the Valrhona chocolate. But I digress.) And since I used the zest, I omitted the almond extract. Mine takes longer than the suggested time to cook, and about 45 minutes in I made it a little aluminum foil umbrella so it wouldn't burn on the top while it was still goopy in the middle. That's not good.

For the coulis, I used a bag of frozen mixed berries that I let thaw on the counter while I was making the cake, and I did add a little water to help make it the right consistency. This is the third time I've made this cake, and the last time I made blueberry coulis, which was also very good and, I think, a nice combo with the lemon. The cake is dense, slightly crunchy on the top, and has a really really nice flavor. If you bake it in a tube pan I think you can easily get 24 - 32 servings from one cake, too, which is nice for a larger party.

And since we're here, let's see another shot of that lavender.

Beach Knitting, and Cupcakes

2009-03-28T08:00:00.001-07:00

See those specks walking into the ocean? Those are my daughters bodysurfing in 55° water, no wetties.

My knitting mojo has been very iffy this last month. I have frogged the Just Enough Ruffles scarf you see above not once, not twice, but three times trying to get at the root of a problem that I probably needed just to turn a blind eye towards - something nobody would notice, ever, but me, and since this is probably going to be given away, I'd never see it again anyway. I am at the point where I have to increase to 600 stitches, so I thought I'd take my knitting to the beach and try to relax about the whole thing. It was a nice outing for scarfy, especially since I just let it sit at the end of my chair without touching it the whole time. This should teach me not to knit the same thing twice.

I'm also working on a gathered scarf that took a big left turn last night. After eight repetitions of the pattern, I found myself with an unmanageable urge to bind. off. now. So I did. I added a row of buttonholes in the last bit of garter stitch and bound off, and today I will decide what kind of garment it's become. Is it a neckwarmer? Is it the body of a little sweater? I don't know.

I am happy to have any knitting news, though...I have a lot of photos of food to blog but I don't want give the impression that all I do is cook to support an unhealthy obsession with sweets. Not that it wouldn't be true, but I don't want to give the impression.

Truth be told, I bake a few times a week - so much that my family isn't actually too interested anymore (although it has ruined them for store-bought dessert). I made some cupcakes on Tuesday for a birthday party and looky here - I still have all of these left over. Left to my own devices I'd eat every one, but I'm just going to take their picture instead, press them upon anyone who stops by, and then throw the last, sad, uneaten ones, all the while convincing myself not to give in. These cupcakes are the Magnolia Vanilla recipe (follow the timing directions for beating the batter or risk ending up with little bricks) with frosting from Billy's recipe. They are the bomb. And my family is crazy.

Hey lady, what are you knitting? And PS, you need a pedi!

Tastes Like Spring

2009-03-26T09:42:00.000-07:00

The sweetest tangerines you'll ever taste.

My knitting has been sporadic and crazy the last couple of weeks so I'm just going to share some pretty pictures with you instead. Half the tangerines and blood oranges are laden with fruit, while the other half is apparently taking a sabbatical - I'm not sure why, but I'm sure they have a good reason.

Blood oranges...not as sweet, but they are pretty

Scones Two Ways

2009-03-16T07:11:00.001-07:00

Cheesy chivey goodness

How do you like'em? Sweet or savory? Lemon cream scones have become a go-to recipe for me (Warning - if you've eaten my scones and are looking for the exact recipe, this ain't it - it's the base I started with and the one you should start with too!). They're easy, they always come out great, and you can make the dough the night before and bake them off quickly in the morning. These are light with slightly crunchy tops - I hate it when scones are heavy and dry. They're perfect by themselves with a cup of coffee or tea, but they'd be delicious with jam or cream.

Yesterday we had a National Charity League meeting and my assignment was to bring 4 doz. appetizers. Given that it's St. Patrick's Day tomorrow I searched online for an Irish appetizer. It turns out, Irish appetizer = beer, so after rejecting the idea of green deviled eggs (presumably with ham) I found a recipe very similar to my basic scones that called for cheddar cheese and chives.

I made two batches of this recipe using some fantastic Kerrygold cheddar (to stay in the Irish theme) and used a small biscuit cutter to make these little rounds. The cheddar was white but still sharp, so it had great fresh flavor but didn't make my scones Cheez-it yellow. I tested a crumb when they came out of the oven and they were delicious, but the true test is that a platter of about 80 of these little babies was wiped clean in minutes.

Lemony crunchy deliciousness

Today I have a meeting to hear grant presentations (Support your local nonprofits! They are feeling the pinch from both directions - more clients and fewer donors! But also look here, this is a silver lining.) and I was asked to bring the lemon scones, so I made a double batch and used the same cutter. It's a perfect size for someone who just wants a little something but not a whole big scone.

If you make these, here are a couple of tips that have made a big difference in the outcome for me: good, fresh, aluminum-free baking powder; mixing everything by hand to keep the dough light; wrapping the kneaded dough in plastic and letting it rest for 15 minutes (or even overnight) before patting out to cut; and preheating the oven for a good long time. And of course, if you add stuff like cheese or nuts...the better the ingredient the better the scones will taste!

Short Sleeves That Took a Long Time

2009-03-10T17:39:00.001-07:00

Finally. The Ms. Hyacinth Jeans is washed, blocked, woven, done. I don't have too much to say about it other than that. Behold it from many angles:

The pattern is Mr. Greenjeans from Knitty; the yarn is Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Jacinto.

I obviously modified it to make a pullover...

...and then shortened the sleeves while lengthening the body.

The hemline doesn't actually ripple like that - I need a photo stylist.
Who probably would've repainted the wall and removed the cat dish, too.

The recipient? Unknown. Anna, while slim, has rower's shoulders (that's a good thing) and Fiona hasn't seen it yet. One thing we know for sure is that it's not for me - short sleeves and a long fitted body are not finding their way into my wardrobe anytime soon!

Unblocked, But No Longer Unfinished

2009-03-05T08:55:00.000-08:00

I swear it took me two weeks to knit three little rows of ribbing on the final sleeve of this thing. I finally bound off last night, wove in the ends, sewed down the placket, and called it done. I'm not sure I love it anymore.

We'll see after it takes a bath and relaxes. Maybe the magic of blocking will kindle our romance.

Not My Cats

2009-02-24T20:00:00.000-08:00

As we wait for me to finish up my hyacinth Greenjeans, let me just throw a cute picture out for you. I think it's a universal truth that knitters love cats, so here are my friend Denise's cats Quick and Silver. I actually do have a cat, Spot, but he doesn't stand still for pictures. Denise's cats are pretty cute, though. And why wouldn't they be, with a hot mom like this?

Staycation Day

2009-02-23T16:59:00.000-08:00

Butterscotch the goat, courtesy of my pretty darn good iphone camera

Today I'm not going to bore you with my ribbing. Suffice it to say, it's done, yippee, and I've definitely decided on making a short-sleeved version of my hyacinth sweater because I'm sick of it. Plus I finished one sleeve already and hallelujah, it's done.

Someone needs to exfoliate

Yesterday we took the girls to the zoo and had a really great day - it was perfect zoo weather: cool and a little overcast, but not cold. The animals were all out and we had no agenda, so we just wandered around in a very relaxed way. Anna even had time to stand still and sketch when the subjects were cooperative.

Ribbing

2009-02-20T09:45:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure why this is taking So. Incredibly. Long. I feel like I've been working on this ribbing forever and making no perceptible progress whatsoever. I keep measuring from the armhole to the edge and it's always 10".

My 15 Minutes

2009-02-17T17:22:00.000-08:00

Maybe it was worth only 14 minutes of fame, but I was the "10 Questions" person in our local newspaper last week. Here's the link if you want to check it out.

And in the meantime there's a photo above of another WIP I'm working on - the Fan Neckwarmer - while I crank out the rib and cable part of Mr. Greenjeans. I'm hoping to have the body done before too long....

And the Children Sang My Praises...

2009-02-09T09:03:00.000-08:00

My children have never set foot on the Iberian Peninsula. They hate Spanish class, they sunburn like crazy, they are light-eyed (except for brown-eyed Mary) and they basically exhibit no evidence of hispanic heritage except for one: they looooves them some Spanish food. And why not? The new interest in Spanish cuisine may be, well, new, but Spanish food rocks the house. Excellent olive oil, good wine, fresh ingredients, fabulous cheese - you can't go wrong.

Yesterday's dinner was a tapa of chorizo with bread, a main course of tortilla de patata (the national dish of Spain - if you don't believe me look at how many images you can google. Spaniards are passionate about tortilla.) with sliced organic tomatoes, and a dessert of homemade vanilla ice cream. And the children sang my praises.

PS Here's a video tortilla tutorial, with English translation...not definitive, but you'll get the idea:

Progress...

2009-02-08T16:19:00.000-08:00

Despite a very busy schedule this week, I've managed to make a great deal of progress on several projects. I don't usually post progress shots, as you know, but if we wait till I'm finished it might be weeks before I post again!

Here's one item that's fit for public consumption - that is, it finally looks like more than an amorphous blob of yarn. It's a version of Mr. Greenjeans in Malabrigo Merino Worsted, colorway Jacinto, which means hyacinth in Spanish. I've converted the cardigan to a pullover, and I'll admit I didn't put a lot of thought into it so I'm hoping it will turn out okay in the end. It's looking sort of small right now, too, which is surprising for anything I knit. In the end, whoever fits it best will get a new sweater.

Just Enough Ruffles

2009-01-31T11:21:00.001-08:00

Here's another Malabrigo worsted project, a Just Enough Ruffles scarf.

This takes under two skeins of Malabrigo and results in a luxurious, warm scarf.

You do have to be prepared to knit across 600 stitches in stockinette and then bind off in purl, but it goes very quickly and it's completely worth every stitch.

Turquoise Fetching

2009-01-31T10:04:00.000-08:00

You may think, dear reader, that I haven't been knitting anything at all since I haven't posted in two weeks. But you'd be wrong, my friend. I've been knitting like wildfire, and doing about a million other things (like this, for example - the first and last time you're likely to see me in a suit).

Here you see a pair of Fetching (Fetchings?) in some wonderfully soft turquoise Malabrigo worsted. This is actually the second time I've knit this pattern, but the first time was probably two years ago and I gave them away without taking a photo!

I did make some mods to the pattern. I knit an extra repeat of the cable both at the cuff and at the fingertips; I added a couple of rows before starting the thumb, after the thumb, and on the thumb (details on Ravelry) and I bound off in purl to give a little gartery goodness on the edges. I love them!

A Quiet Hat

2009-01-11T11:13:00.000-08:00

This is just a simple hat made from the leftover Malabrigo I used for the Target Wave mittens. The color is Frost Gray, and the merino wool feels like cashmere. Quiet and soft.

Twilight Mittens

2009-01-09T11:01:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! I'm just checking in quickly with a pair of mittens inspired by the movie Twilight. Fiona's a big fan of the books and I think she's seen the movie...is it three times now? I'm not sure, but I got dragged out of my cozy house one evening for one of the viewings, which is a testament to her persistence.

Did you see the mittens in the preview above? I will say, if you're a knitter, Twilight is worth seeing for the mittens and scarves, and of course if you liked the books you'll have to see the movie, right?

I read the books while I was down with the flu over the holidays - they have a strangely compelling hold once you start them. The writing isn't that great and I wanted to smack Bella through 90% of the 1600 pages I waded through, but there you go - I read them just the same. Those books are literary crack.

There are a couple of patterns for Bella's mittens out there; you can find the pattern I used for these here. The yarn is Cascade Eco-Wool - very soft.

Happy Holidays

2008-12-25T08:08:00.000-08:00

Wherever you are, we are neighbors in this world. We wish you blessings of the seasons and peace in the new year - the McNeils

It's a Blizzard!

2008-12-22T10:29:00.000-08:00

After a gorgeous, sunny weekend with temperatures all the way down in the 50s at night, we finally have snow in Windanseaville! Okay, it's fake snow made of egg whites and dipped in chocolate, but still. It is a little misty with a tiny bit of drizzle outside, which is what passes for winter weather around here.

The snowcaps are from Tyler Florence's recipe and they are super easy to make. I had the egg whites left over from making sablés yesterday, so I whipped these babies up and popped them in the oven last night so they could sit. The meringues are very sweet, but the semisweet chocolate balances them nicely. If you make them, you can make your own superfine sugar by whirring regular sugar in the food processor just a bit; also, they're sticky to the touch - they stick to each other and they will stick to your fingers, so have a little powdered sugar on hand and dip your fingers into it from time to time so they'll slide right off.

PS Just in case you doubt this is Southern California, witness the avocado next to the snowcaps in the top photo...you never know when you'll need a little guac.

Shortrow Sideways Hat

2008-12-20T09:24:00.000-08:00

Just a quick FO! In between my other projects, I had to cast on for this little donation hat because I knew it would be quick quick quick, and it was! It took less than 100 yards of cotton dishcloth yarn, but I might make it again using some variegated yarn in a larger gauge. The pattern is here (scroll down) if you need a fast gift.

It's Beginning to Smell a lot like Christmas

2008-12-17T11:37:00.000-08:00

In another blog-inspired impulse, I just finished enjoying a rainy morning in the kitchen baking molasses cookies. I followed the recipe as Ree has it, except that I made a double batch, I whisked my dry ingredients together to distribute everything evenly, and I rolled the cookies in demerara sugar before popping them into the oven. I think I rolled them a little smaller than hers too, because I ended up with about five dozen cookies instead of the expected 36 and they're still a nice size. The fragrance is incredible - I shelled and ground my own cardamom in my old coffee grinder (not because I'm crazy - it's because I bought it a few months ago for another recipe and I could only find it in the pod - right now it's in the stores pre-ground probably cuz it's in a bunch of Christmas recipes) and between the spices and the molasses and the demerara sugar baking, I wish I could bottle the smell and sell it as Eau de Noel.

PS John came home for lunch today and proclaimed these the best molasses cookies he's ever eaten...he's something of a connoisseur, so that's a great recommendation! If you bake them, and you should - they're easy - don't overbake. They're best after they've cracked but are still a little on the chewy side.

Rainy Day Baking

2008-12-15T15:28:00.001-08:00

The rainy weather here in Windanseaville is just another excuse not to leave home, in my opinion. This is as close to winter as we get, and with a pot of chicken tortilla soup on the stove and the fire lit it's heaven on earth. A little knitting, a little baking, a good movie on tivo....even if I have to do a little work, the rest of the day is fantastic. Directly after reading this post by Bea this morning, I went to the kitchen and baked donut muffins. I even doubled the recipe so I could deliver some to a friend I had a meeting with and still have plenty for the girls.

Did I mention that Fiona is home for winter break? The tortilla soup (the Barefoot Contessa recipe with leftover roasted chicken shredded into it) was for her - I promised I wouldn't make it until she was home to eat it! The soup was last night's dinner, accompanied by a pumpkin tarte. The tarte was a hit, so you're seeing what's left over, i.e., not much. The filling is basically the recipe on the Libby's can except that I used eggnog from a carton in place of the evaporated milk, and I baked it in a tarte pan with a gingernap cookie crust. Topped with maple whipped cream (3 cups heavy cream, whip until soft peaks, add about 1/2 c maple syrup - not pancake syrup - whip until the consistency you prefer) it is all kinds of good things on one plate. It makes enough for a 10" tarte plus 4 little 4" tartelettes (cuz you know you've gotta taste it before you serve it to people!).

The muffins are pretty fab, too - I only dredged the tops in powdered sugar so they're not actually too sweet - good with a cup of coffee on a rainy afternoon.

Mitered Mittens

2008-12-12T09:35:00.000-08:00

We <3 the LJ Christmas Parade!

December is always such a busy month, I barely have time to catch my breath! Last weekend alone we had a parade, a triple birthday party, and a regatta...these were just the main events and don't even include the errands and life in general, or the things we couldn't do because we were busy with parades and regattas. And if you think I've made any progress on stimulating the economy, guess again. No progress. No stimulation has taken place.

I did make a gorgeous chocolate cake for the birthday people, though. It's the Chocolate Buttermilk Cake from Magnolia, with their chocolate buttercream on top. It may well be the best chocolate cake I've ever eaten. I ended up short on the unsweetened chocolate called for in the cake and had to substitute some very nice cocoa and even more butter, most likely bringing the butter-to-person ratio up somewhere in the this-cake-will-kill-you range, but it was definitely worth it.

On the knitting front, I've been working away on mittens, mittens, and more mittens. I just love them. These are the Elizabeth Zimmerman's Mitered Mittens and they are super fun to knit.

The pattern shows the Noro Silk Garden off beautifully, and the mittens are matched but mismatched at the same time - very cool. I cast on 40 sts, knit 5 rounds of garter stitch, 2.5" of cuff, and away we went.

Rather than using EZ's thumb method for this mitten (snip a stitch and unravel live sts), I used Kathryn Ivy's technique and put in a thumb gusset right after the cuff. She's right, it distorts the palm of the mitten less. I also quit decreasing at the top when I had 12 stitches total and kitchenered the fingertips. I bath in Eucalan and a rest flattened them right out to the shape you see here - they were a little gnarled before blocking.

Target Wave

2008-12-02T08:20:00.000-08:00

Isn't this a great pattern? These Target Wave mittens are from Knitting Nature, one of my favorite books for knitting inspiration. I'll admit I haven't knit very many Norah Gaughan designs, but I love the organic quality of her creations.

The gray is Malabrigo Worsted in Frost Gray, and the cream is some wool I had in my stash...Lana Gatto, I think. The pattern calls for knitting these mittens flat, but you know me, I hate to seam. I adjusted for the seam stitches and knitted the cuffs in the round, knit back and forth for the thumb hole, and joined again for the fingertips.

For the thumbs, I picked up stitches all around the thumb hole, adding a couple of extras where it looked like there might be gaps. Those I dispatched with a k2tog on the first round of knitting and then continued to the thumb tips.

The finished mittens were a little wobbly looking, what with all the curves and color changes, but I cut out a hand shape from an old Amazon box and steamed those babies smooth. I love them!

Crew Hats

2008-11-30T09:29:00.001-08:00

With the holidays here I'm working on a lot of smallish projects: mittens, hats, cowls, etc. They're my standard instant-gratification knits, even given my usually severe case of second-mitten syndrome.

Pretty chipper for 6:00 am!

Last week, between two pairs of mittens, I whipped out some hats for Anna. Anna rows every afternoon and Saturdays starting at, really, the crack of dawn (good thing John likes the early morning because I'm just starting my coffee infusion when it's time to drive down the hill), and it gets pretty cold on the bay (at least until she starts really going, and then it's hot). These crew hats are super easy basic beanies knit in thick user-friendly yarn. In fact, the checkered one landed in the bay on its first outing and lived to tell the tale. I used Encore Chunky for both hats in black and a light yellow - not my favorite yarn, but these hats are probably destined to meet a bad end.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T12:48:00.001-08:00

Here's Anna taking a pecan pie over to our next-door neighbors...I wish we could share with you, too! Have a wonderful day, everyone!

Care Package Knits

2008-11-23T13:19:00.001-08:00

Just a quick post today - I mailed a care package off to Fiona this last week containing the multicolored scarf I finished last week, a brown cabbage rose scarf based on this design (and modified to be a little asymmetrical in the points) and a Noro striped scarf based on this. I think she's keeping the sideways striped one so the other one's for her Thanksgiving host, and the cabbage rose scarf is for her roommate.

I had to have cataract surgery this week (!!! Get your eyes checked! I'm not that old!) so I've been taking it easy and getting used to my new bionic eye. I'm still adapting to reading and looking at my computer screen and focusing properly, but knitting and TV are definitely doable so I'm entertained. And I can drive, so hurray for that. I'm more than halfway through a pair of mittens I started yesterday, so stay tuned for more knitting before our thoughts turn to Turkey Day cooking!

Tastes of Fall

2008-11-16T11:16:00.000-08:00

Sweet potato biscuits. Need I say more? I need not. But I will: the cake recipe in that link is equally fantastic. And in fact, so far, every Dorie Greenspan recipe I've tried has been amazing. Some day I'll join the Tuesdays with Dorie movement, but for now, I'm just a happy visitor in her land of baked superbity.

A Multicolored Scarf

2008-11-13T11:17:00.001-08:00

Last night I bound off a scarf made entirely of leftover scraps of worsted yarn. It's from this formula, which works for any kind of leftovers in any weight - pretty cool.

For mine, I cast on 240 sts of some nice charcoaly Noro Kureyon and then switched colors and yarns (mostly different remnants of Kureyon and Malabrigo worsted - the bright blue is some extremely wonderful Malabrigo silky merino) whenever I felt like it...I kept the ends all on one side and then worked them into the fringe so I wouldn't have to weave them in - let's hear it for not weaving in! I just made a half hitch to keep them in place and the added fringe anchors them well.

The pattern creates a pretty firm fabric, so I was a little afraid it would be sort of misshapen or scrunchy when it was done, but a nice bath in Eucalan relaxed the heck out of it and the finished dimensions are 7' without the fringe and about 6" wide. I considered pinning it out and hitting it with a little steam to make it a bit wider, but decided against it - I like it this way! Off it goes to Vermont, as a thank-you gift to the nice person who invited Fiona home for Thanksgiving!

Tarte

2008-11-11T19:44:00.000-08:00

I had to go to the doctor today for my annual check-up, where I was made to step on a physician's scale. Fully clothed. With tennis shoes on. Those Nikes, they say they're light but I'm pretty sure they're a full five pounds.

I then came home and baked a pear tarte tatin, so I can have fruit for dessert like the French women do.

November in Paradise, 2008 Edition

2008-11-06T14:14:00.000-08:00

Last year, I posted about November in Paradise, aka Windanseaville. This year we had a perfect Halloween weekend: warm on Friday into the evening, sunny on Saturday, and a little rain on Sunday just to make it cozy.

Mary was Cleopatra, as you can see. She's surely in denial about something. Probably homework. Anna was the grim reaper, but she was out the door so quickly in the morning that I couldn't even get my iphone out fast enough for a photo.

Saturday was lazy (at least, it was for me - Anna had rowing so she and John were up and down at the Bay by 6:00). We had lunch by the pool down at the beach...you can see the aftermath of the Halloween festivities and glut of candy here:

So Mary swam the afternoon away, and then Sunday I knitted and watched reruns of House. I hope to have some FOs pretty soon for your viewing pleasure.

October Sunset

2008-10-29T18:04:00.000-07:00

The sky has been so beautiful at my house lately. October tends to be warm here with Santa Ana winds, and in the evenings this week there's been a dense marine layer (fog) just below us at the beach. I drive down from my house and descend into a big cloud bank...it reminds me of the cloud wall in Winter's Tale.

I sent Anna & Mary into the upper part of our yard to take these pictures a few days ago. Isn't the sunset gorgeous behind that palm tree? Don't you wish those phone lines were gone?

I look out at the sky when I'm cooking dinner, which happened to be quiche that day. The camera was out, so here's the quiche portrait as well. The crust is a snap in the food processor, although you could fake it with frozen stuff if you want, and the ingredients are anything you've got handy. In this case: a cup of finely chopped onion, a cup of diced ham, some broccoli florets, about of cup of whatever cheese I've got around shredded up. Beat four eggs in a bowl, add about two cups of milk/half & half/heavy cream or a combination thereof, a little salt, a little pepper, pour it over the filling. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then turn the heat down to 300 and bake until done, about 30 minutes more.