Edgehill House

For the Kitties

2012-02-16T15:17:00.004-05:00

Someone, before we lived in the house, decided to refinish the banister. Rather, they started to, but gave up partway through the process. It is not pretty, and I honestly can think of about ten thousand things I would rather do than get into the toxic work of stripping the rest of the paint off the woodwork. I have been ignoring it, for the most part, since we moved in. However, someone got a nasty sliver from it not too long ago, because as you can see in the above photo, Jack Burton just LOVES to sharpen his claws there. We can't have people getting splinters every time they come downstairs, that is a public safety hazard. Rather than execute the kitties, I decided to cover the problem up with a half-baked idea and some slapdash craftsmanship.
One day my friend Bryan said "I have some goat hair fabric in my possession!" and like magic the goat hair fabric appeared in my living room. I draped the square over the offensive banister and that was that for a month or so, till the kitties figured out how to knock it off. Then last night I decided to more permanently attach the scratchity fabric, so I located the HEAVY DUTY staple gun, a big ol' pair of scissors, and when the scissors proved too fainthearted to cut through the fabric against the grain, my trusty Dozier Folder.
Last year I wrapped the newel post with some macrame cord I found at Goodwill, to maybe give the boys someplace more satisfying than the banister to scratch. I tried to unwind it, only to find that it had become one with the gnasty half removed paint underneath - so I incorporated it into the new design. I think it gives the project a little bit of a "really crazy people live here" feeling. Also it will help the fabric stay up once the cats find and pull out the staples. I hope. But there are a lot of staples.

So far neither one of the kitties have tried it out. It will last longer that way.

music for the holiday

2012-02-13T21:05:00.000-05:00

for my valentine from serafinaholt on 8tracks.

Monday is Funday at the Dental School

2012-02-13T12:21:00.004-05:00

This whole saga began around Halloween, when I shoved a piece of Trick-or-Treat candy into my pie hole and was rewarded with a dull ache in my teeth that didn't even go away when the last bits of caramel had been dissolved. I figured I had a cavity, and maybe should get it taken care of. In a move quite unusual for me, I called the Dental School and made an appointment. I'm the kind of person who would rather pull her own tooth than go let strangers poke around in there, but I couldn't tell which one was the offending chomper. Also my insurance doesn't cover dental, or self inflicted wounds. So the Dental School seemed like a good option.

Fast forward through to now, about six appointments into our interminable relationship. My student dentist, I'll call her Jennifer, is getting my upper right quadrant of teeth ready for root planing. If you don't know what that it, well, basically they clean the tartar off your teeth - under the gum line. I have been diagnosed with a teensy weensy case of periodontal disease, which I gather means I have a lot of tartar (thus justifying the 4 appointments necessary to do a "deep cleaning"), although no two supervising dentists in the whole time I've been going there have said the same thing about what it actually means.

Anyway, today's Qualified Educator, we'll call him Doctor Sharp, comes over and starts talking. He's telling Jennifer how important it is to sharpen her instruments. He also instructs her that if she isn't making her patient bleed, she isn't doing it right. (Yikes!) He talks for so long, the numbing agents that Jennifer shot into my mouth with a comically large hypodermic needle begin to wear off. That g/d needle makes me want to pee my pants, and I'm a champ at getting tattoos and donating blood. The first time she stuck the damn thing into my palate I involuntarily began to weep. The tears just started rolling out the corners of my eyes, and I think it shook poor Jennifer up a bit. We were both hesitant to give it a second go, but she told me Dr. Sharp was rumored to be rough and I really might need it. Since I was still a little bit numb, it wasn't that bad. But I think it may give me nightmares anyway - there is just something so disturbing about a needle going into the roof of my mouth. GAH!

After my second round of injections, and Jennifer's last little bit of root cleaning, Dr. Sharp comes back to check her work. And he sits down right next to me and starts sharpening the dental tools on a little whetstone. Schick, Schick, Schick... I hear that sound quite often at home, but that's because it's Keith sharpening his pocket knife. Even though these dentist tools have blades shorter than half an inch, the scrapey, grating noise is just as big as that of any Buck knife blade. The mental image forming in my head just isn't comforting at all!

I joke to Jennifer that she should sharpen her tools before the patient gets in the chair, as it is kind of unnerving. Dr. Sharp seems incensed, and proclaims that he sharpens his tools chairside all the time! He then proceeds to go back over my teeth with extreme prejudice. In the process of flipping the double ended tools around like some baton twirling majorette, he manages to catch one on my bottom lip - and man, it certainly was sharp. But he doesn't apologize or anything. Once he is finished, Jennifer hands me a damp paper towel and advises me to wipe the blood off my face, because Dr. Sharp evidently felt that my gums needed a serious shredding. So, that was really fun. And now every time I smile the cut on my lip splits back open. Way to go slicing up my kisser the day before Valentines Day, Dr. Sharp!

I do understand the importance of good oral hygiene, and I do appreciate the fact that the Dental School is just across town and prepared to provide care to me at a relatively low cost. But I have to say, it really sucks giving up my day off to get this taken care of, over and over and over again. I thought I would go in, get a filling, and be done. I'm on my sixth visit now (at roughly fifty bucks a pop) and there is at least one more root planing visit between me and my filling. One teacher thinks I need 3 restorations, while another thinks I need just one, and Jennifer thinks I need 2. How many does it take so I can eat Rollos with impunity again is all I want to know. So far they've tried to talk me into getting my perfectly fine wisdom teeth cut out - to which I said "NO," and now they want to fit me for a don't-grind-your-teeth night guard, which I keep telling them I don't need. Night time is the only time I don't grind my teeth, and it doesn't look like the appliance is something you can wear at work, so I really don't think it will be useful to me. I certainly don't want to pay $250 just so Jennifer can check it off of the list of things she needs to do before she can graduate.

She's nice and all, but I'm already donating so much time! I though about just not going back after Christmas break, but felt guilty. Most of the patients are retirees who have the time to spare, and every single dentist remarks on how great my teeth are. I kind of feel like I owe it to society, lending my mandibles to Jennifer for three hours every week so she can learn to be a good dentist and then pay it forward to the schoolkids of southern West Virginia by providing free dental care (which is what she did over Christmas break, which is one of the reasons why I like her).

Sigh. The perils of having 32 almost perfect teeth!

Things making me smile today

2012-02-11T11:45:00.001-05:00

Four and a half pounds of chocolate chips.

Snow falling on the courtyard.

Root beer liquor in a cool bottle.

Hey, I'm Famous!

2012-02-09T16:19:00.003-05:00

The current issue of Corridor Magazine has an article called "The Blogging Life" in which I am interviewed! How cool is that? Just pretend that this picture was high enough resolution to make it to the printed page - which of course none of my cameraphone photos were, but then again I like being mysterious.

I went to Books A Million the other day to see if they had the new issue yet, but the disaffected fellow who was helping me said he didn't know when they would get it in. Phoey on him, I say.

You might be able to read the story here if all links remain open.

This Moment

2012-01-20T13:57:00.003-05:00

An idea borrowed from Soulemama.

Bedtime Ritual

2012-01-19T20:41:00.005-05:00

It is eight thirty, a fine glitter of snow has begun to fall. You can see it if you look out the window at the streetlight. Hard to tell if it is sticking, but it is winter...

"Go To Bed!"

"Dad, can I borrow your chicken bone?"

"Sure."

The girl pokes around in the part of the kitchen where we cure the chicken bones but comes up with nothing.

"Where is it?"

"I don't know"

"I know where the is a wishbone. I've been saving it since Thanksgiving, it is a powerful one."

Synchronous gasps of delight.

"We can both make the same WISH!"

"For a Snow Day?"

"Yeah!"

"One, Two, THREE!"

I watch both halves of the wishbone snap simultaneously, and the little y shaped piece from the top spiral through the kitchen. There was a moment of silence as each one checked the piece in hand, which lasted until they looked up at each other and broke into jubilant cheers.

And with that, the girl took a spoon up to bed (it goes under her pillow).

Salad of the Week

2012-01-18T17:27:00.003-05:00

I had big plans for supper tonight, but as usual in my life, things did not go in the direction I originally planned. For instance, I forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer to thaw. I failed to pick up olives when I was at the store. I sat down to look at the internet for JUST A MINUTE and the next thing I know Delia is home from school and I know Keith will be home in 20 minutes and then he has to go back to work and DANG I need some supper FAST!

Here is what I threw together. It turned out pretty great, according to my husband.

Spinach Pesto Pasta Salad

On goes some water to boil, with a generous dose of salt. It warms up the kitchen and helps me get into the cooking mood. Once it starts roiling I dump in half a box of whole wheat penne. I didn't really like the whole wheat pasta when I first started using it, but it has grown on me. As with many things, you must train your palate, and whole grain is the wave of the future. Also, to get the picky kid to eat it I try to cook it when she's not looking and coat it with a brightly colored sauce before I serve it.
Into the food processor goes half a bag of fresh spinach, four green onions, two big cloves of garlic, 1/4 cup of sunflower seeds, and a generous glug (maybe 2 tablespoons), of my favorite garlic vinagrette salad dressing. Process till it looks like pesto. I would have put some fresh herbs in too if I had any, particularly parsley or basil.
When the pasta is about al dente, I toss a cup or two of bite sized broccoli florets in there with the pasta, and give them about a minute to blanch. Then it all gets drained and shocked with cold water, drained again and tossed with the pesto.
Toss in some grape tomatoes and sprinkle with some more sunflower seeds.

There are three of us and we only had one serving left over, so you might want to double it to serve as a main course or make it as is for a side. If you must have meat on your table for your diners to feel like they got supper, I think this would go great with a grilled steak or chicken breast. Maybe those packages of ready-to-eat chicken strips would easily go in this dish too, in keeping with the quick and easy theme. Or serve with my new favorite indulgence from the Kroger Seafood department - steamed and chilled peel and eat shrimp! They are so good!

Tuesday Lunch Date

2012-01-17T20:24:00.004-05:00

The cutest soy sauce dispenser I have ever seen in my life.

This week we decided to try out a new to us sushi place over on Patterson Drive in the plaza with the Beanery, Volcano Japanese Restaurant. The place is really nice inside (much nicer than I expected with it being in a strip mall and all), there is a sushi bar with tall stool seating on one side and a bench running all the way down the other side so each table has 2 bench spots and two chairs. I don't usually like sitting that close to other people but I got over it. We were lucky to get a table because it filled up quickly during the lunch hour. There was a little bit of a communication breakdown with our waitress when Keith attempted to order a can of Sapporo, but after a couple of tries he got his ice cold beer. She was a very nice and attentive server, but someone should probably show her how to pour beer into a glass or maybe just leave well enough alone.

We didn't even crack open the menu because the lunch bento box was what we were after. You can pick any two items from a list a mile long including all kinds of rolls, sushi, sashimi, or hot entrees from the kitchen. Keith ordered a Spicy Tuna Roll with his and I ordered a Spicy Salmon Roll. We both got Vegetable Tempura too. It comes with a bowl of miso soup, a salad, rice, and two little fried thingies - I have no idea what they were but they were tasty.

The miso soup was really good. The salad was bright and crisp and delicious. I am a sucker for that kind of ginger dressing anyway, it really makes a handfull of iceberg lettuce and some carrot shavings into something awesome. Neither of us was impressed with the tempura. The veggies were just a little on the raw side of crisp tender, and the coating was slightly soggy and tasted strongly of oil. Eh, I ate it and was nourished, but was hoping for something better. Our rolls were both disappointing as well. Instead of the solid piece of fish rolled up in the middle that I am used to, it was filled with a really mushy paste made of minced fish. They weren't spicy at all either. I wasn't inclined to eat all of mine, but Keith said his were edible.
For desert they brought us an orange on this lovely little dish. I did enjoy the lunch date as a whole, but next time we want sushi we are going to try our luck somewhere else. We'll probably be back sometime though, it wasn't awful by any stretch of the imagination, and it was a good value at around $10 per person.

This Moment

2012-01-13T05:26:00.003-05:00

An idea borrowed from Soulemama. One picture without words from the past week remembering something good that I love.

Knitted Christmas

2012-01-10T18:51:00.004-05:00

Here is my cute-as-a-button niece Zoey wearing the Rainbow Girl sweater I made for her Christmas present. The pattern is Radiant by Meghan Jones from the Winter 2010 issue of Petite Purls. The yarn is Bernat Mosaic, which is an acrylic (easy care) self striping yarn I found at A.C.Moore. The only modification I really made was to put buttons all the way down the front. Delia and I picked out some crazy swirly buttons at Jo-Ann's for this sweater, but when we got them home they were way too big to fit through the buttonholes. That was OK with Delia because she immediately took them off my hands. I wonder if that wasn't her plan all along. Anyway, I sifted through the most recently discovered jar of my Grandma's buttons (Mom finds these things in the house and sends them home with me) and came up with exactly 5 carved shell buttons dyed orange. The reason we save things, I hypothesize, is so someday they can bring joy to someone else, and remind them of us. I have a feeling that every time my sister buttons her girl into this sweater, she will feel the coolness of the shell and think of Grandma.

And Zoey really seems to like it too!

Here we have the hat I knit for Seester! She told my hubby some time ago that she was still wearing the hat and scarf I crocheted for her back before Delia was born! That is dedication. Hopefully this hat will serve her for another 12 years. The pattern I used is Irish Girlie Knits Snowboarder Hat That Rocks, and the yarn is Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande. Seester is sensitive to wool - as in, she thinks it is really itchy even when I think it is not, so I knew whatever yarn I used would have to be super soft, and this 100% alpaca fits the bill. The cables were so fun to work and never got tedious because the yarn is so big it knitted up quickly on size 10 needles. One hank of this yarn will not finish the hat (four rows from the top, I had to grit my teeth and wind the other hank into a ball to finish), so I got 2, and I have plenty leftover if those pom-poms ever need replacing. Instead of the braided ties from the pattern I knit on three lengths of I-cord and braided them, mostly because I love knitting I-cord. And the pompoms, well, they were for fun.

I think she likes it too.

Back to school lunch date!

2012-01-10T14:39:00.002-05:00

Not only are the streets of Morgantown once again crawling with students, but my sweet husband is one of them now! He is taking classes full time AND working full time, so we are easing into "ships passing in the night" mode.

Tuesdays we found a little window of together time after I get home from work and before he goes to work, so he took me out to lunch at The Dirty Bird. It is a fried chicken place on the corner of High and Walnut. This is a picture of my sandwich, the *Bake Sale Betty* which is a lovely combination of their house slaw, a fried chicken breast, and tomato on a grinder roll. It was AWESOME, and I really shouldn't have eaten the whole thing BUT I DID. Keith got two pieces of fried chicken and a biscuit, and he liked it very much. Crispy, juicy and not really greasy, this was the freshest fried chicken I have ever encountered.

There are quite a few interesting sandwiches on the menu, including the *Jimmy Sinatra* which is salami, baked ham, pepperoni, provolone, roasted peppers, oil & vinegar, lettuce, tomato and red onion on a grinder roll, and the *Raging Bull* which has roast beef, muenster, lettuce, tomato, bacon, red onion, and garlic horseradish mayo. I think the next time we go we will probably get these, but there are plenty of other really good looking choices.

The joint is small, there are about 10 tables, but it didn't feel claustrophobic even though the place was almost full. Bright yellow walls are covered with photographs of chicken shacks from all over. They were pretty fun to look at while we waited for our food. It felt like we waited for a long time, but I was really hungry. Didn't matter though, once the food came we were quite happy.

I can definitely recommend the place for your lunch. I don't think they're open for dinner, but they have egg sandwiches and biscuits and gravy on the menu so I reckon they're open for breakfast. The most expensive thing on the menu is only $8.25, with most sandwiches ringing up at $7.25. I DEFINITELY got my money's worth out of this lunch! Sadly, their iced tea is from the soda fountain, which I think tastes gross, so next time I will just get water. They also serve pepsi fountain drinks.

New Year, and some snow.

2012-01-04T17:12:00.005-05:00

Keith, in his Civil War pose.

The Hosts with the Most

Me, in a funny hat.

Scenes from our rocking Scrabble NYE at Lisa and Willy's house. Everyone had a hat, except Pippa, who was in bed, and Delia, who was at Grandma's House. Lisa made us Fantabulous Beef Bourgoignon with Oven Roasted Potatoes and a salad. Willy beat everyone twice at Scrabble. At midnight we ate Vasilopitta and drank Champagne. It was most excellent.

New Year's Day we ate pork and sauerkraut with apples at Mom's house. And more cake, and some candy, and chips, and more sauerkraut, et. cetera.

Brownies

Now I am really truly in need of a New Year's Diet, but ever since I decided that I needed to eat differently, I have only made a bunch of rich, marginally unhealthy food and eaten it all, then gone back for seconds. Probably because I am cold - the temperature finally dropped below freezing here in West Virginia on January 2. Two sweaters and a hat on inside, yes that is me, and also a plate of Mexican Dark Chocolate Brownies to keep me warm. I must not recommend them, as they were way too sweet. My recipe called for unsweetened chocolate, but I only had regular old dark chocolate. Delia requested I Mexican them up by adding 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper. So I did.

In related news Keith and I bought a juice machine down at Aldi's this afternoon, it is pretty neat. We made Carrot-Apple-Cranberry juice as soon as we got home and found the thing quite easy to use and clean. I have plans to go on a New Year's Cleanse sometime soon, there is an article about it in Whole Living magazine. Also we recently learned some not-too-appetizing information about our favorite orange juice, so these things conspired to drive us to this purchase.

Yesterday Delia went back to school in spite of all the children and their Grandmothers dancing and chanting for a Snow Day. I got out of work a bit early too, as it seems nobody has much room for my sweets after the holiday bingefest. Even though it was TWENTY TWO degrees outside I still had to take the opportunity that presented itself to me and drag my asthmatic husband on a walk down by the Reservoir. We met only one lady and her dog on the trail. During a crazy beautiful snow squall I got rather turned around and unsure of where exactly I was - although only someone who can get lost in a paper bag can really get lost in White Park. I followed the five Whitetail deer in the picture below out of the blizzard and back to the main trail. What do you mean you don't see five deer in that picture? Oh, they are masters of disguise, and also I heard they can't be captured by conventional cameras. Trust me, they are there.

Herd of Deer?
Yes, I've heard of deer!

It was rather eerie walking through the park in the muffled silence a snowfall makes. The only distinct sound was that of the trees creaking over our heads in the wind. We spotted a mysterious tire track in the snow, it was about 3 inches wide with deep treads. Too wide for a bicycle, but there was only one track so it couldn't have been the cart the BoPark guys drive around... Keith thinks it might have been a dirt bike. It is an unsolved mystery.

My new/old coat kept me plenty warm in the winter weather.

Vasilopita

2011-12-31T09:35:00.006-05:00

In honor of Serafina's Greek ancestors, I decided to bake a Vasilopita (or Saint Basil's Cake) to take to our New Year's Eve dinner at Lisa and Willy's house. I found a couple of different recipes but settled on this one, mostly so I had an excuse to buy a bottle of brandy. :)

I had to look up brandy on the internet, because I didn't know what kind to tell Keith to get at the store. So I learned something new...

"The origins of brandy are clearly tied to the development of distillation. Concentrated alcoholic beverages were known in ancient Greece and Rome. Brandy, as it is known today, first began to appear in the 12th century and became generally popular in the 14th century.

Initially wine was distilled as a preservation method and as a way to make the wine easier for merchants to transport. It was also thought that wine was originally distilled to lessen the tax which was assessed by volume. The intent was to add the water removed by distillation back to the brandy shortly before consumption. It was discovered that after having been stored in wooden casks, the resulting product had improved over the original distilled spirit.^[3] In addition to removing water, the distillation process leads to the formation and decomposition of numerous aroma compounds, fundamentally altering the composition of the distillate from its source. Non-volatile substances such as pigments, sugars, and salts remain behind in the still. As a result, the taste of the distillate may be quite unlike that of the original source. -from Wikipedia

Also according to the internet, Greek families cut this cake at midnight on New Year's Eve, or sometime on New Year's Day, or whenever they get together with their loved ones after Christmas and before Epiphany. The whole thing is sliced up and then the pieces are handed out, starting with the eldest person present and going on down the line to the youngest. Someone gets a slice with a coin inside, and that person will have extra special good luck in the coming year.

Keith and I had a long discussion about baking a coin into the cake. He didn't feel good about the idea, what if somebody swallowed it? I disagreed, but lack of a celebratory coin only got me thinking about my other options. In lieu of a coin I thought a piece of candy slipped into the cake from the bottom (after it was baked and cool) would do nicely, and since I have an extra pound of caramel in my fridge from our holiday candymaking, that's what I decided.

Ours went into the oven with nary a photo snapped in process. Why? Because Santa brought me a little radio that I can plug my spacephone into and listen to Pandora while I cook. And my phone is also my camera. So it stayed on the counter and played 3 Leg Torso radio to Keith and me while we beat the crap out of some eggs.

I love love love cooking with my husband. He is on the culinary adventure with me, not just carrying the heavy stuff for me. It doesn't hurt that he is strong and patient, since we don't have a Kitchenaid. He and I took turns zesting oranges, beating egg yolks, and whipping egg whites till soft peaks formed.

My cakes cracked a bit across the top, like a cornbread does, and so weren't particularly fit for the traditional dusting of powdered sugar/stencil of the new year date that I had planned, as seen here. Instead I whipped up a glaze for the top.

Caramel Brandy Glaze

In a small saucepan combine 1/4 cup of caramels, 1/4 cup brandy and the juice of half an orange, and a teaspoon of butter.
stir over low heat till caramels are melted and sauce is blended.
pour over the top of the cake!

And so it was Christmas

2011-12-29T20:02:00.004-05:00

Christmas Eve I was at work before the sun came up. Of course, I am always at work before the sun comes up. My boss was drinking a Coke in a classic glass bottle, and you know, that's pretty special since you don't see it very often.
"It is Mexican Coke." she says. "It's made with-"
"Real sugar. I know, it was my Dad's favorite."
And so after that I had to go sit in the bathroom and ball my eyes out at pretty much thirty minute intervals till I finished baking all the Cookies and Christmas Bread. Don't get me wrong, I still like Christmas. But when Elvis sang "Decorations of red on a green Christmas tree/ won't be the same Dear, if you're not here with me," it meant something different this year...
Then I walked home, in the not quite cold air, and it didn't really feel like Christmas at all. I got myself together and decided not to cry anymore, because it would just bum everybody out and I didn't want to do that to them on Christmas, you know?

The first thing Husband said to me when I walked in, as cheerful as always, was "So how was work, baby?" Of course I just threw myself into his arms and sobbed something about Mexican Coke, and he just held me like he's so good at doing. No heavy sigh emanating from his lips to let me know how unfortunate it was that I was ruining Christmas, just that strong hug and the familiar "I know, baby." Because he does, he knows about the unopened bottles of Coke in my parent's basement that my Dad was saving, and he knows how much I miss my Dad. And then I just had to sob even harder, because it hit me real hard how it might be to go on living without him, and that my Mom was living in a world like that. This great bleak panorama of all the women in my family history outliving their husbands played out behind my watery eyes, and it was humbling and terrifying all at the same time.
A girl can only cry for so long, and trust me, I've been crying semi-professionally for my entire life. When the tears were about dry I ran upstairs to hop in the shower and get ready for the big Christmas Eve Dinner at my Mother-In-Law's house. There was something really healing about the quality of light in my giant southern-facing bathroom. I don't get to take a shower at noon very often, but the sun shines full into my bathroom through layers of sheer curtains and the draping pothos vines and citrus trees I have in front of the windows. The combination of that soft, bright natural light with the steamy shower helped me rinse all my tears and worries down the drain. The nap I took after that helped a lot too. By gosh and golly, at 3 PM we were all ready to go down to Clarksburg and have some good Christmas fun with Keith's family. My Mom went to Seester's house this year, so we didn't get together at Sun Valley. Which might have been just as well, me being an unstable snot/tear factory and all...

Dinner at Grandma Virginia's house was Absolutely Lovely. Constance baked a wonderful turkey and scalloped potatoes, and macaroni and cheese, and stuffing. There were also deviled eggs made by Grandma Virginia - and instead of being sliced long ways they were sliced the other way and they were super cute and delicious and I think Delia ate half a dozen of them. I whipped up some gravy when I got there, FROM SCRATCH, with a can of beef broth that Grandma had under the cupboard. There was not a speck of green vegetable in the house, much to Delia's delight.
After dinner, and after Grandma's Galettes, we opened presents, and everyone was delighted. Constance gave us, among other lovely things, a real boss coffee maker that has a water filter and timer and a couple of other bells and whistles that are sweet. The girls all got cute PJs and sweaters and makeup and perfume and were happy as clams. I kind of felt bad that I didn't get presents knitted for Becca and Schyler, but they can place requests and I will make them something in the future.

Of course I didn't take enough pictures in North View, in fact, the only one I got at Grandma Virginia's house was this one of my niece Kaitlynn in the present I made her! The hat is Leethal's Short-rows Wavy Hat and the scarf is Karen Baumer's Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf. Both are knit in Bernat Mosaic, Psychedelic colorway, a 100% acrylic self striping yarn that I picked up at AC Moore in Bridgeport. Both were knit on size 8 Clover Bamboo needles.

She is just the cutest thing.

After Ryan and Deb and the girls took off in their sleigh to go visit Deb's fam, Keith and Delia and I wandered next door to Grandpa Carson's house.

My sweet girl in front of Grandpa's Christmas Tree.

They say Christmas is for the children (well, at least Barry Manilow says it!) and you know, Madyson was the star of the party at this house. She had plenty of packages to open - but she got a little sidetracked after the first one, which was a shopping cart. She pushed that little thing all over the house and wouldn't sit down to open another thing! During this time Delia decided that she was going to buy herself a viola with her Christmas money. My girl has priorities.

Grandpa Carson and Cathy got this awesome slide for Maddy, and she LOVED IT! I think she slid down it a hundred times.

Grandpa helped her climb, and Uncle Keith caught her.

It was super fun. I must have taken 30 pictures, but most of them were of a blurry Maddy in mid slide. Blurry is in this Christmas I hear.

Keith, Delia and I made it back to Edgehill House before midnight this year! Once my sugarplum was tucked into her bed, the Elves got to work Elving, and we had a nice quiet little time waiting up for Santa with The Twelve Beers Of Christmas, courtesy of Keith's bosses.

Christmas morning came early, Delia woke us at 7:30 and we enjoyed coffee from our new coffee pot and bacon & eggs while we opened gifts. I am ever so thankful to have this little family.

Elves in the Kitchen

2011-12-22T18:37:00.001-05:00

Most of this stuff has already been gifted, so time to make more!

So many Questions

2011-12-16T21:23:00.003-05:00

Here we go!

I was directed to this blog earlier today by a friend on Facebook. He shared the latest post, 30 things to stop doing to yourself with a friend, and I read them and saw that they were good. So I looked back over some of Marc and Angels recent posts and came across the 95 Questions. Maybe that is too many for me and my rather short attention span. Maybe it is just what I need to get focused on my very own Meaning And Happiness. Anyway, it was plenty to get me started thinking and writing, and if all it does for you is make you think about things, then I'd say it has indeed done some kind of good. Since I can't post any pictures of my frantic holiday knitting till after the gifts are passed out, this is what I am typing to give my poor tendonitis elbows a different kind of activity...

In one sentence, who are you? I am a Bread Baker, a Thing Maker, a Hike Taker, somebody's mother and somebody's wife, not necessarily in that order.
Why do you matter? Everyone matters, and besides, nobody else can make the brioche properly.
What is your life motto? Keep putting one foot in front of the other, do what must be done, and lift your arms up above your head and breathe deeply while you're walking that way.
What’s something you have that everyone wants? The perfect, storybook, One True Love.
What is missing in your life? Oh gee, some people who are dead, maybe a person or two who never got born, maybe a closeness to other people that I just can't manage to achieve... and possibly some superpowers I might have if only I had been brave enough to do the really hard drugs... But they say you can't miss what you never knew, so I am 3/4 OK.
What’s been on your mind most lately? Whether a future of monastic seclusion could be a workable goal. Or, how I could train myself not to cringe away from the general public.
Happiness is a ________? Happiness is a long brisk walk in a quiet woods.

There are 95 questions, I might tackle some more in the future, but please feel free to answer some yourself. Make it a meme, make it a blogthing that you do in conjunction with me, do it on a sheet of notebook paper that you keep folded up in your pocket. If you put it on the internet, leave me a comment with your link!

A Sweater for Pippa

2011-12-15T19:56:00.003-05:00

My little friend Pippa turned one earlier this month. She and her mom went with me in the fall to the Sheep And Wool Festival up at the University Farm, and while we were there we found this skein of pink coral wool that decided to become a sweater for her. I used the pattern for the Sunnyside Baby Cardigan, with some speculation, alteration, a bit of hope and my own force of will to make it come out. As it started growing on my needles, with the cables highlighting the raglan increases and all, it reminded me of the BPT cardigan I made for myself last year (or has it been two years now... I forget). And you can't tell from these photos, but the cables meet at the underarm and continue down the length of the sleeves and down the sides of the sweater.
I couldn't get gauge on the initial swatching, but just went ahead and made the sweater anyway, estimating up a size or two in the pattern to compensate for the tightness of my knitting. I also ran out of yarn before I knitted the sleeves on, so had to unravel several inches at the bottom of the sweater to get enough yarn for the sleeves. Ultimately I went into my stash and wound up a hank of kettle dyed Malabrigo Sock to finish the hem and cuffs - although it is a somewhat finer gauge yarn, knit on the same needles it worked out just fine.

The buttons are from my Grandmother's stash, Delia and I went through all our button tins and also a new trove that Lisa (Pippa's Mom) brought over. Ultimately we decided on these vintage pearly shank back jobbies that are made of some kind of classic 1950s opalescent plastic. I did break several trying to sew them on with the darning needle I had handy - the eye of the needle being just slightly larger than the hole in the button shank, until there were only enough to finish the sweater. Then I had Keith use his sorcerous powers to get the yarn through the hole in the button, and then I threaded it back onto the needle to finish sewing it on the sweater. It was rather tedious and harrowing, but Oh So Much Fun! Really, I would have had to walk all the way upstairs to my attic workshop and putz through boxes of notions to find a needle one size smaller that would still accommodate the yarn through it's eye.

I fear I made it a bit small, or maybe I didn't put enough buttons. The last one I made for her had TOO MANY BUTTONS. Perhaps the next one will have no buttons at all!

I am also in love with that Snoopy hat.

Salad of the Week

2011-12-13T18:16:00.003-05:00

I have been trying, trying, trying to get more veggies into our family's diet. To accomplish this, we decided to eat a big ol' salad at least once a week. In days past we would chop up different veggies and put them all in individual bowls so everyone could assemble a salad that pleased his or her own palate. That usually meant my daughter ate some of the lettuce I put in her bowl topped with whatever protein we put on the table and possibly a slice of onion. It was frustrating, to say the least.

Then one summer evening, my Cousin was making supper for us, and she crafted a salad that was magnificent! Delicious! Dare I say Phenomenal? Although I can't remember exactly what all she put in it, it changed the way I made salad FOREVER! See, this wise woman put all the ingredients in one bowl, tossed them with dressing, and then served it up to everyone, just like that. The children didn't have a choice, and if they couldn't abide a piece of onion, well then, that was just TOUGH. (Easy enough I guess, Cousin's girls always eat whatever I put in front of them with nary a whimper of complaint.)

It worked on my girl too! Or at least it did as far as I know. Maybe I didn't notice what all she scraped into the trash can before she put her dish into the dishwasher, but it sure beat sitting at the dinner table begging "Please, just TRY a slice of artichoke heart, it is Delicious! No, ok, you have to eat at least one bite of pepper, seriously... I don't want you to die of malnutrition! No one can survive on boiled eggs alone..." et. cetera...

Anyway, now when we make a salad, it is a harmonious conglomeration, a co-mingling of flavors and textures designed to go together in one big salad bowl. Tonight, we made a variation on Delia's Favorite, the Steak Salad.

Thanks to my Food Network Boyfriend Alton Brown, I learned a while back how to cook a steak. So we do up a steak, usually whatever I find on sale at the grocery store because I slice it very thinly across the grain at a steep angle and that keeps it from being tough even if it is a cheaper cut of meat.
To a bag of salad mix we added some cherry tomatoes, a shaved carrot, half of an onion sliced thinly, and a small head of broccoli that I break up, parboil and then plunge into ice water. Also, we get these super awesome rosemary and garlic potato wedges from the freezer section at Aldis (but any old frozen french fries will do). Really, any stray veggies we have hanging around might end up in the salad, but to be a Delia Steak Salad it just has to have steak, potatoes, broccoli and onions. AND my beloved Steak Sauce Dressing, which is so easy I am almost ashamed to call it a recipe.

1 part Marzetti Original Slaw Dressing
1 part Steak Sauce
1 part Garlic Vinaigrette Salad Dressing
fresh ground black pepper

Whisk these together in whatever proportion you need to cover your bowl of salad. My family likes their salad dressed a little on the sparse side (a puddle of dressing in the bottom of the bowl is THE KISS OF DEATH here), and I dip french fries in whatever I have leftover.

Oh, Christmas Tree

2011-12-10T20:31:00.006-05:00

It snowed, finally, if only a little bit, so we made our annual pilgrimage to King's Tree Farm for the Strother Family Christmas tree! Lisa, Willy and Pippa went with us.

Since things get dark in these parts before 5 pm nowadays, we had to bust Delia out of school a little early so we could get up the mountain and have time to find a tree before dusk.
Is it as good as the Griswold's? I made them walk for MILES (ok, not really miles, but maybe YARDS) to find it. The first one I picked out was a 12 foot tall hemlock, which might actually have been a denizen of the surrounding forest and not part of the farm. Keith vetoed it. This little guy is a blue spruce.
Darkness fell over the tree farm (although the moon was full and bright enough to light our way) as I tried to pull the truck out of the muddy parking area so Keith could throw our tree in the back. It didn't move. Lisa and Willy pushed and rocked it, but there was no purchase to be had in the three inches of mud. Keith and Delia made their way over eventually when I didn't show up over the hill. It took some serious doing - I think there were some rocks from the drainage ditch involved, shoved underneath the tires, and a great deal of pushing - but eventually we got the truck back on the road! YAY!

The man who runs the farm came looking for us, I think, about the time we pulled into the bailing station with our trees. He was super nice, and gave us a bunch of extra white pine trimmings for decorating. This was the eighth year in a row that we've gone to Kings for our tree. I love it there.

Of course we had to cut a little over a foot off of it to fit it in the house, and it still curves over a bit at the top, just like we like our Christmas trees to do. Lights are pink LEDs, which I am madly in love with. They are almost bright enough to read by! I reckon we'll get around to putting ornaments on it sometime tomorrow, but I honestly don't mind having just the lights for now.

Saturday Morning at the Bakery

2011-12-10T08:24:00.002-05:00

This is me, trying out the new Hipstamatic Foodie Pack, taking pictures of what's going on in the world of small scale cookie manufacture.

Alton Brown Looks Like My Husband

2011-12-06T18:23:00.006-05:00

Image lifted from here.

Taken just now in my living room

Don't tell me the thought has never crossed your mind either. They share the same propensity for spectacles (the optical adjustment kind) and the same hairline. They are both dryly funny and straight to the point. It is no surprise that Alton Brown is my culinary crush, seeing how closely he resembles my sweetheart.

For tonight's supper, we turned to Alton's Mac N Cheese recipe. Of course, I had to mess with it, but I kept it's spirit intact. Delia has never had real baked Macaroni and Cheese. I have not made it since I have been a Mom. So this was a first for both of us, sort of. When it came out of the oven, all bubbly and crispy, I could barely wait till it cooled down to shove it in my pie hole. Delia took one bite and shook her head remorsefully. It's ok, because I ate hers too.

When I was a kid, to make Mac N Cheese, I made a white sauce (didn't know the French word for it back then) and melted Velveeta into it, cause that was what we had. Now I kind of think Velveeta is a crime against nature. But Macaroni and Cheese is still the World's Best Comfort Food, and with a little finesse and a pound of cheese I have managed to create a classical modern adaptation of Alton's solid recipe. Here you have it!

Bring a big pot full of water, like the biggest pot in your house, to a roiling boil. Add an absurd amount of salt. As Si at A Bountiful Kitchen suggests, your pasta water should taste like seawater. If you haven't had the pleasure of real ocean brine in your mouth lately - get thee to the beach!
Add about 3 cups of elbow macaroni and stir, stir, stir. If you have a nice baking dish that gets used frequently, you oughta know how much pasta it holds. Make that much pasta. My Corning French White Casserole just fits this recipe. Cook that macaroni till it is al dente. It will cook a bit more in the oven, so you don't want it to cook it too soft here.
While the pasta boils, melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a medium saucepan. Whisk in 3 Tablespoons of flour, 1 Tablespoon of dry mustard, a teaspoon of turmeric, and a nice pinch of nutmeg. Cook for about five minutes over medium low heat.
Now whisk in 3 cups of milk, a goodly splash of strong beer (bout 1/3 cup of Sam Adams was used here) 1/2 cup minced onion, 2 smushed cloves of garlic, half a teaspoon of paprika, and a bay leaf. Simmer for ten minutes, stirring frequently. It should thicken up somewhat, but not too much.
Sometime around here your pasta will get done. Drain it and then toss it back with a bit of butter so it doesn't stick to itself while you are finishing the sauce.
After the ten minutes are up, stir in a bunch of shredded cheese. I used 8 oz of sharp cheddar and about 5 ounces of this really nice English Cheddar that I got at Aldis. Save a little bit of the cheese to sprinkle on top, about 1/4 of the total cheese.
Stir your elbow macaroni into the cheese sauce, and pour into a greased casserole dish. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the top of the casserole.
In a saute pan, brown about 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs (or more if you like) in some butter. Then sprinkle them over the top of your mac&cheese.
Bake at 350 for about half an hour. Let it rest for at least 5 minutes after you take it out of the oven before cutting into it.

Finished Objects and some Self Reflection

2011-12-02T14:24:00.004-05:00

Self Portrait with iPhone

I'm just not so good with the Humans. Cats, I can communicate with. Humans, not so much it seems. I got myself into a little pickle in the middle of November by making a hat for a complete stranger. Which was spontaneous and kind of fun, but these things always seem to backfire on me somehow. One thing lead to another, and she asked me if I would like to make a couple of hats for her to give as Christmas gifts. This was really immensely flattering. I have a friend who makes lovely things and people like them so much they give her money for them, which has always seemed like a romantic way to earn your daily bread. So when the nice lady for whom I made a hat asked me, I said yes. I thought, I can totally crank out two or three hats in between my big Christmas projects, and it will be nice to have a little extra cash for Santa-type activities.

Couple of days later she brought me a bag full of yarn, 8 balls of yarn, and said here you go! These 4 are for men and these 2 are for ladies and these 2 are for kids. And there was a serious conflict raging within me, because it was less than 2 months till Christmas and here was a HUGE bag of yarn and an order for more hats (in 6 weeks) than I have made IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. But also the possibility of some extra money. So I took it home and started to work.

These three hats are what I have finished so far. One for a toddler, one for a teen girl, and one for a lady. And knitting these three hats has taught me a whole lot about myself and my craft.

Knitting for money is not as much fun as knitting for someone you love.
People who don't knit have NO IDEA how much time and effort goes into a handmade item.
I am NEVER going to do this sort of thing EVER AGAIN. If I sell anything in the future, I am definitely going to make it first, put a price tag on it, and if someone wants to buy it then that's all good. I just can't handle the pressure of "just do whatever" because there are too many variables. What if the hats don't fit the recipients? How big is a toddler's head? What if she doesn't like them?
Most patterns say that you can't sell stuff you have made with them without permission from the author. I am a real stickler for that sort of thing, and therefore didn't use any pre-written pattern. Which means I don't know what a thing is going to look like until it is finished. Which adds to my stress.
People do not really want to pay as much for your time as you think it is worth. If I paid myself minimum wage for the time it took me to knit these hats, the littlest one would cost $43.50, and the biggest one would cost $72. That is kind of ridiculous. But my time is worth way more to me than the money I could get from these hats even if I sold them for $30 each. I don't buy presents anymore, I make them. But if I made all 8 of these hats, I wouldn't have time to make the Christmas presents for the people I love.

When I finished the High Tension Cable Hat (maybe there will be a recipe for that one up here soon) I decided to work on some of the projects I have going for my gift list. I made good headway on several of them, and also got a couple of hanks into the dyepot with some awesome BLACK Kool-aid I picked up after Halloween for a nickel a pack. I basically Space Dyed these and they came out a delicious silver grey with pink and blue gradients. The yarn is about 45% bamboo, which doesn't take dye like wool does so the color is not nearly as intense as it would be on 100% wool. But if Santa is on the ball I will get a hank or two of nice wool in my stocking and use up the rest of my Kool-aid stash on it.

Bread for Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T13:57:00.007-05:00

You know I work at a bakery, and yet I didn't get any bread to serve to my guests for the Big Thursday meal. A little shortsighted, right? Things get away from me, work is often just work and not as special to me as it is to someone coming into the shop to get a nice handmade loaf of awesome bread. So this morning when I realized that we were quite breadless, I looked about for a recipe I could make for dinner. After toying with the idea of making brioche rolls, and then moving away from that due to time constraints, I stumbled onto this one from the King Arthur Flour website. I like for my dinner rolls to be made with eggs and milk and butter, not the lean kind we have at the Bakery. I also had a beautiful butternut squash sitting around wanting me to use it for something. When I got up at 8, the kitchen was cold and the oven wanted me to turn it on. So I roasted that squash, and used it to make the dinner rolls. It was a big squash, and there are a lot of people coming over for dinner, so I doubled the recipe. And then I messed around with it some more.

Start with a big roasted squash, mine was about 3 cups worth. Puree. Or not, I don't really think it maters much, especially if you roasted it really well.

Dissolve 4 packets of instant yeast in a cup of warm water. Not hot water. There are instructions about this sort of thing on the yeast packet. I actually used one pack of quick rising, 2 packets of active dry, and one chunk of fresh yeast. So I don't think it makes a whole lot of difference what kind you use. Just know that if you have fresh yeast you will have to use more of it by volume than you would the granulated stuff. Also, King Arthur has a good article on yeast, worth reading if you do this sort of thing a lot.

Ok, in a big ol' mixing bowl I combined the squash, a cup of milk, about 1/3 cup of apple cider, 4 beaten eggs, about half a cup of honey, 2 tablespoons of butter cut up into little pieces, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 4 teaspoons of salt (if you use kosher salt like I did, use more, maybe twice as much. I wish I had) and oh yeah, I put in a little bit of levain from the bakery, which I just happened to have hanging out. I wouldn't go to the trouble of making a whole sourdough starter just for this dough, but I love my levain - you could call it my secret ingredient. Then mix in the yeast & water.

In another bowl measure out 6 cups of flour. I almost always go by weight when I am making bread, but I was in a rush on the fly and so I didn't. Beat this into the wet mixture with a spoon (or paddle attachment), it will be soupy, for about 2 minutes. I also added about a cup of our West Virginia Wheat flour for texture, and next time I will add more because I really like how those whole wheat berries look and taste.

Measure out 6 more cups of flour, I used a combination of white and whole wheat. Add that to the dough and change to a dough hook if you are using a mixer. If you are making this "unplugged" be prepared to stir and knead and then keep on doing that for half an hour or so. I took this down to the bakery and did it in the Hobart stand mixer and it only took about 4 minutes. This much dough wouldn't fit in a Kitchen-Aid mixer anyway.

Mix it till it is smooth and elastic, adding more flour if necessary as you go along. When it passes the windowpane test, turn it into a greased bowl and let it rise till doubled.

I weighed this out into 2 oz portions and baked the rolls in a well greased muffin tin. Baked it in with the TURKEY at about 375 for about 10 minutes. When the internal temperature reaches 190, they're done. Brush the tops of the hot rolls with melted butter, or do like I did and just use the stick of butter to swipe the tops. It made 24 rolls and I still have more than half of the dough in the fridge. Might make it into sweet rolls for breakfast tomorrow.

Making Stuff

2011-11-03T21:01:00.003-04:00

For her birthday Delia got this sweet jewelry model/stand, and since she's in bed I figure it is ok if I use it to display the cool necklaces I made tonight after supper. Way back when we went to the Gem and Mineral show, I spent a silly little bit of fun money on some spectacular beads. Specifically a $15 dollar string of what the bead guy called Spiderweb Agate. It was the only one of it's kind on the table, and I was absolutely smitten. I walked past it about 4 times before I bought it, and also a couple of teardrop agate pendants and another string of rather less exotic beads. So it has been something like 6 weeks since then, and tonight I finally got around to making some necklaces.
Delia was kind enough to loan me her tool kit and some stringing wire and findings (which of course I bought for her with the money I make slaving away in the bread mines, but from her point of view once things leave my hands they are altogether hers. At least she shares with me. :) The one at the top of the post is the Spiderweb Agate, interspersed with some nondescript little black beads from Michaels arts and crafts. They had a ridiculous sale there a couple of weeks ago, and Delia and I had a blast picking out beads and Halloween decorations and random stuff at 50% off.
This agate teardrop came from the Gem and Mineral Show, but all the rest of the beads came from Michaels. You wouldn't think stringing beads would be very difficult, but you would be wrong. I can sit here for three hours at a stretch and knit complicated cable patterns, but this string of beads had me fiddling around at my wit's end. Luckily Keith opened a bottle of Winking Owl Cabernet Sauvignon, and things got considerably easier. Truth be told, I am not much of a wine drinker, but for $2.69 a bottle I can afford to get a little practice in.

It was a hoot to get out of Knit Mode for an evening and play around in another crafty medium. I dug my old beading stuff out of the attic and my daughter was quite impressed, she had NO IDEA that I had any jewelry making experience. I think she will find something to do with the box of gemstone beads that have been sitting around since, oh, she was born! So I give her the iolite and moonstone and she gives me another three uninterrupted hours to work on Pippa's One Year Sweater. I think it will be a good trade.

Wednesday Lunch Date

2011-11-02T18:55:00.003-04:00

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T13:10:00.005-04:00

Our trip to Watoga

2011-10-18T19:46:00.004-04:00

Idyllic Lake Watoga

Watoga State Park is located in the south eastern part of our fair state, or as my mother so eloquently put it "in the middle of nowhere." Not entirely true, in my experience visiting WV State Parks over the years (have you been to Twin Falls? THAT is as close to nowhere as I have been), but I can see from whence her sentiment comes. It took us something like 4 hours to get there from Morgantown. Hitting the road at 5 pm, we didn't have much daylight left, and the sun set on us somewhere after Weston, but not before giving us the gift of a fantastic double rainbow!

Rainbow, captured by Delia from the backseat of the car!

We took I-79 as far south as we could and then took Rt 19 to Summersville. It got a little hairy right around there, as the road signs directing us to Marlinton didn't jibe with what I had gleaned from Google Maps... and a recent iPhone update wiped out all my presets and data - ahh technology! We took out along State Road 55, which isn't particularly well marked, and ended up driving in a big circle around Muddlety WV. When I zoomed past the gas station where we filled up our tank 45 minutes prior, I almost cried. It was really quite lucky, because were it not for that neon landmark we might have driven on into the depths of the wilderness for hours before realizing our mistake. After a quick map check we were back on 19 and certain of our route once again.

About two hours later we found the lonely sign directing us into the park. Mom, Zoey and Seester were already there in spite of the harrowing journey they took down Rt 33. It was late but we made time for some sweet catching up around the fire that Trisha expertly kindled from coals the previous occupants of Cabin 7 left in the hearth for us.

The Park Office, Keith and Trisha

In the morning after a pancake and bacon breakfast we took a nice long walk up the park road to the office to officially check in. The building was quite breathtaking in it's State Park kind of way. It looked to be a lodge maybe at one point but now there are no rooms in it to rent, only a restaurant and gift shop that were both closed for the season. A fellow traveler we met in the office told us about a little cafe in Hilsborough just up the road, run by the very same woman who keeps the park restaurant in season. We made plans to visit the Pretty Penny later in the day.

"The C.C.C. Worker"

This statue commemorates the boys of the Civilian Conservation Corps, who built Watoga State Park and most of the other facilities of the West Virginia State Park System. There is a museum of C.C.C. history in the park too, which we never made it down to see.

Minerals and fossils, oh my!

2011-09-17T18:24:00.001-04:00

Keith and I went to Mont Chateau to the gem and mineral show this afternoon. It is a lovely place out on the edge of Cheat Lake, used to be a lodge of some kind but now houses the WV geological survey offices. There is a hiking trail that connects the place with Coopers Rock, which I intend to hike one day soon.

There was a fella right outside the event center selling geodes from Mexico and other destinations exotique. He had a huge saw and would slice your rocks open so you could see the magical world of crystal formations inside. I had brought several geodes with me that my Dad had probably purchased from the very same vendor maybe 10 years ago. The plan was to get them sliced open. But I didn't end up doing that. They still sit in their shoebox, resembling baseballs made out of rock. Maybe someday.

The show was really great! It was free admission, and all kids under 12 scored a free rock. They even had a concession stand run by a local church, we got hot dogs and peanut butter fudge for our lunch. The minerals were on display in every shape and size. I was overwhelmed by the table in the middle selling beads - so beautiful! And of course the fossilized dinosaur poop made me think of Dad again too! We came home with a couple of treasures. Anyone ever seen spiderweb agate? My new favorite stone - hopefully soon to be a necklace. What a fun afternoon we had. Hopefully we'll make it back next year.

Jamacan Latkes

2011-09-11T13:33:00.001-04:00

Brunch today was supposed to be sweet potato hash, but someone got distracted by yarn and the sweet potatoes boiled to the mushy stage. Oops! Keith had the idea to turn them into latkes, and the rest is history!

1 large sweet potato, or a can of sweet potatoes (not in syrup)

1/2 cup black beans

Squeeze of lime juice

Mash these together in a medium bowl.

1 onion, 1 green pepper, 1 Anaheim pepper (or other peppers of your choice) all finely chopped

A heaping tablespoon of Jerk Seasoning - I made my own a while ago and can't exactly remember what all is in it, besides allspice, cinnamon and thyme. But that's what the Internet is for, you know, Google it.

In an iron skillet warm about 2 tablespoons of oil and add the spices. Don't get it too hot! This is just to activate the aromas. Add the peppers and onions, and sauté till they start to get soft, about 6 minutes.

Stir the pepper, onion and spice mixture into the potatoes and beans. Then stir in a fistful of flour and a couple of eggs. It will look like thick, lumpy pancake batter.

Heat your iron skillet back up to medium hot and cover the bottom in oil. Drop big spoonfuls of batter into the hot oil and fry till browned! Drain on paper towels, and enjoy with hot sauce!

P.S. Blogger has a new mobile app which I just downloaded today to try out while my laptop is in the shop. So far so good. If you know of a mobile blogging app for iPhone that is awesome, let me know about it in the comments, would you please?

scenes from the shore

2011-08-12T17:19:00.001-04:00

Saturday Afternoon With the Girls

2011-07-02T20:44:00.003-04:00

Friday Night is for Pizza

2011-06-24T19:35:00.006-04:00

For supper we went to the Sabraton location of Pizza Al's. Dudes, this is some gigantic, greasy, tasty pizza! I won't say it is better than my Bakery, but it was certainly fast, friendly service. The place had a steady stream of dine in and take out customers the whole time we were there! They have several kinds of beer on tap, including a crisp Italian pilsner which Keith ordered, served in the traditional plastic cup. If you are picking up takeout you can buy a 6-pack, or a 2 litre of soda to go.

I ordered a tossed salad to go with my pie and it was the classic plate full iceberg lettuce decorated with one slice of tomato cut in half and a green pepper ring and 2 slices of onion, dressed with oil and vinegar. So yummy! Delia couldn't believe that is what passed for a salad, but I guess she didn't live in Clarksburg long enough to learn what a real Italian salad looks like. If you want more frills than that I think they have an antipasto plate on the menu as well.

Delia whiled away some quarters and several minutes waiting for our pizza by playing pinball, and then we played some tunes on the jukebox. Not quite as awesome as my memories of Tucillo's Pizza, but fun all the same.
We got one large pie and of course took half of it home. Pizza Al's is in the same shopping center as Mother's Attic, so we walked around there after supper and found a treasure. Keith bought me a flying dragon kite. It looks like the original owners didn't even put it together once! I know I don't need any more kites, but hey, it's a FLYING DRAGON!

Monday Brunch

2011-06-20T10:58:00.003-04:00

Crustless Quiche with Beet Greens and Havarti Cheese

My Beloved brought me more beets from the farmers market Saturday, and while I immediately prepared the small jewel-like roots by braising them in beer, the red and green tops languished on my kitchen counter for a few days. This morning I plunged them into a cold water bath and sorted out the way-too-wilted parts, chopped the survivors up, and married them to eggs, cream and cheese.

1/2 an onion, chopped
2 small carrots, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped

Get these three going in a skillet with a little olive oil, sautee till the onions start to turn transparent.

One bunch of beet greens, rinsed and chopped

I also used up what was left of my spinach. Greens could be anything though, chard or probably even kale.
Add chopped greens to skillet, douse with a generous glug of your favorite vinegar (I used Balsamic since it was sitting out on the counter), and cover and cook till the greens are quite wilted. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

In another mixing bowl whisk

3 large eggs
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded cheese - Havarti for me since I love it with beets.

When the greens are a bit cool, stir them into the egg mixture, then pour that into a pie plate that has been sprayed with oil. Bake in a 35o degree oven for about half an hour. Ohh, so yummy.

Scenes from our Urban Garden - Mid June

2011-06-14T17:40:00.004-04:00

I love the way this vine wound up the porch and around the flowerpot full of grass.

Coffee trees.

Delia and her Gigantor lemon balm. The thing was towering over my tomato bed, so we moved it. Lemon balm is a member of the mint family, and I was kind of afraid it would take over the whole raised bed. She bought it last year at the Farmers Market, and it stayed outside all winter and came back like crazy. Hopefully it will enjoy life as a potted plant!

One of my hanging tomatoes and some other stuff.

Habaneros. I still have 4 or 5 that could use forever homes if anybody wants any.

Zucchini and some more tomatoes. Keith counted, we have 16 tomato plants. How did that happen?

The first pepper, and some lettuce.

Day lilies and random weeds.

Tomato blossoms.

Hot Enough For Ya?

2011-06-09T15:10:00.005-04:00

It is June folks, and even though technically Summer doesn't begin till the Solstice on the 21st, the temperatures here would like to convince you otherwise. My trusty thermometer is on the shady back porch, and this reading is pretty cool compared to the inside of my kitchen.

Maybe I'm crazy, or maybe I really am somewhat reptilian, but this weather makes me happy! Today when I came home from work (where, in spite of recent AC repairs the median temperature in my workspace was upwards of 80 degrees - residential cooling systems are no match for the Brick Oven) I decided to bake some cupcakes!

My sweet niece is going to VA for the summer, and these are my contribution to her farewell dinner. This recipe is based on Ina Garten's Beatty's Chocolate Cake, which one of my former co-workers turned me on to a while back. Thanks Maria!

Heat your oven to 350. You can save a little energy if your kitchen is already well over a hundred degrees when you decide to bake! Also, now would be a good time to put on a pot of coffee. Who drinks coffee when it is this hot out, you ask? The really awesome people, that's who.

Combine in a good sized mixing bowl (I use the middle of my three awesome Fiesta mixing bowls)

1 3/4 c flour
2 c sugar
3/4 c cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Whisk these together. If you find any lumpy bits, or if your ingredients are old, you might want to sift these all together through a sieve. Or you might not, if you are lazy like me, just pinch the lumps apart with your fingertips.

In another bowl mix together

1/4 c sour cream
3/4 c yoghurt
2 eggs
1/2 c vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla

Pour the dairy into the dry, and beat with a wooden spoon - you know how I feel about electric mixers. :)

Once that gets nice and shiny, and you have annihilated all tiny lumps of stubborn cocoa and baking soda, pour in one cup of strong hot coffee. You might want to break out the whisk for this, and also a scraper thingy to scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl. Don't get freaked out here, just keep stirring, eventually it will look like cake batter again!

Pour in 1/4 cup portions into paper lined cupcake tins. Bake for 18 - 20 minutes. Cool for a few minutes in the pans, then turn the cupcakes out onto wire racks to cool completely before frosting.
Or you could make a layer cake out of this, I don't give a crap, in that case you'd have to bake it a bit longer- but if you do that, do yourself a favor and generously grease and flour your pans. Ina Garten says to line them with parchment, but I never do that since I never have parchment hanging around. Here's a chocolate cake tip though. Mix a spoonfull of cocoa in with the flour that you use to coat the pan. It will get rid of the icky whiteness that sometimes hangs on to the edges of a cake after you turn it out of the pan.

Here's my KitchenAid mixer baby!

I asked Becca what kind of frosting she liked on chocolate cupcakes, she told me vanilla, which kind of threw me for a loop because I usually make a chocolate ganache for this cake... But I was up to the challenge. When I searched for vanilla buttercream, this recipe came up - also from Food Network. It reminded me of the icing we used to make at 4H camp in the cake decorating class. Only classier, because it uses heavy cream instead of milk, and you know, cream makes everything classier. Of course I had to go and twiddle with the recipe just a little bit, and also prove that you can in fact whip it with just a whisk and your natural arm muscles.

1 cup butter at room temperature*
3 c powdered sugar
a pinch of salt
1/2 to 1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla
1 to 2 tablespoons heavy cream

*If your kitchen is already well over body temperature, your butter might get too soft. When I dumped mine out of the paper wrappers into my Pampered Chef mixing bowl, it started to puddle up. Not good... I whipped the crap out of the butter and put it in the fridge for a few minutes before I beat in the sugar. I managed to counteract the detriments of a high room temperature with a judicious application of refrigeration at intervals throughout the mixing process. Your mileage may vary. And if you have an electric mixer and an air conditioner, this will be so easy you might never want to buy cake frosting in a plastic can again.

Beat the butter till it is light and fluffy. If it is unsalted, like mine, beat in the salt.
Beat in the powdered sugar, one cup at a time. I forced mine through a sieve to prevent lumps. After the 2nd cup of sugar is well incorporated,
Beat in the lemon juice, vanilla and 1 T of cream.
Whip it. Whip it good.
Beat in the last cup of sugar. Take stock of the situation. Does it need to be thicker? Maybe you should put it in the fridge for a few minutes. Maybe you need to add some more sugar. Is it a little stiff and lumpy? You could add a bit more cream. Think about it. If the kids I went to 4H camp with could make this, you can too.

Frost your cupcakes! Pipe it on with a star tipped decorating bag, or smear it on with the back of a spoon. It will taste good. I just use a little spatula thingy.

If you have to wait a while till your cupcakes are cool, go ahead and put this in the fridge in the mixing bowl covered with plastic or a lid. You'll have to whip it again before you frost, and it might get crusty if it is exposed to air. Although if it is hot and humid where you are as it is where I am, it might just get melty instead of crusty, but I guarantee it will get eaten.

Beets are the new Breakfast

2011-06-05T13:44:00.003-04:00

Morgantown celebrated summertime with our fifth Farmers Market of the season yesterday. Since I have to work, Keith and Delia went down and brought home some deliciousness. One bunch of chard, two green and two red tomatoes, some local honey, and my first bunch of beets of the season. They also got a cat grass plant, for Naomi's birthday as a gift for her cat Sharkey.

Since Delia was away this morning at the sleepover, I had the chance to make VEGETABLES FOR BREAKFAST, which is like a dream come true. I started out searching Swiss Chard recipes on Epicurious, and ended up intrigued by this one. But the beets were calling to me, and the chard will keep for supper. I made these little guys with the beet greens. I think I will call them...

BEETCAKES

If you think of beets as little slices that come in a can or a jar, you are missing out on over half the plant's bounty. Beet greens can be cooked just like any other greens, and they are an excellent source of carotenoids, flavonoid anti-oxidants and vitamin A. To prepare, chop the actual beet root off, leaving an inch of stem attached - this cuts down on bleeding. Then rinse the whole mess of greens in some cold water, I just put them in my biggest Fiesta bowl and swish them around, but cold running water works fine too. Then I shake them out a little and cut the leaves from the stems.

roots, stems and leaves

I like to cook the stems a bit more than the leaves, because they are kind of tough and stringy sometimes, and if you put everything in to cook together the leaves get all mushy by the time the stems are tender. So for this recipe, I chopped up the following:

One Bunch of Beet Stems
Half a Huge Onion
Two Cloves of Garlic

These were sauteed in a dollop of bacon grease plus a generous glug of olive oil in my trusty cast iron skillet. If that grosses you out of course you can use one of those heinous nonstick jobs coated with a light mist of canola oil or whatever babies cook with...

Once the onions start to turn translucent (and also the edges will turn all pink from the beets, it is super cute), add

A Splash of Red Wine Vinegar
A Tentative Pinch Of Ground Coriander
A Vigorous Shake of Dry Mustard
Tiny Pinch of Salt

Mix that up to distribute the spices and inhale deeply. Then toss in your chopped leaves and mix it up again, finally covering the whole mess for 2 minutes or so to let the greens wilt a bit.

MMMM GREENS!

Take the lid off and turn the fire up and evaporate out as much of the liquid as you can in the next sixty seconds. If it looks really wet, go ahead and strain out the juice. I put it in a strainer over a bowl in the fridge for a little while to cool. You don't want to add hot veggies to your eggs or it will end up all kinds of ugly. While that cools, make some breadcrumbs.

I made this loaf, and I get paid to do that so you don't have to!

You need about a cup of breadcrumbs, more or less, for this mess of pancakes. My current favorite is the West Virginia Wheat from the Bakery. I like to give a couple of slices a pulse in the food processor, but you could toast it and pulverize it a plastic bag with a rolling pin, or tear it apart meticulously with your fingers.

Once your veggie mixture is sufficiently cool (and not before!), into a large mixing bowl crack about 4 eggs. Add salt and pepper here if you like, beat them severely, then stir in the breadcrumbs. Stir in the beet mixture. Pretty cool looking, eh? All kinds of PINK.

Drop a heaping spoonful of this onto a medium hot skillet well lubed with bacon grease and olive oil, and fry!

It took about 3 minutes a side. Then you can keep them warm in a 300 degree oven till you finish frying up the rest, or just eat them at room temperature. I ate mine with a dollop of sour cream, Keith ate his with some awesome horseradish mustard, and I think the ultimate sauce would be the stuff Maxwells serves with their Spinach Balls - because that's what my taste testers said these beetcakes were evocative of.

Poem of the Day

2011-06-01T05:19:00.002-04:00

Lunch Will Be Served

by Eleanor Lerman

Just when you think that you are
on the road to success and the
medications have calmed down
your wife, plus a big sale at
the foodstore means that you
can finally buy your cat a
decent meal—that's when
you get the news that it's time
to stare calamity in the face

And what a face: it comes
at you like a speeding pie
It has three eyes. It was created
by an overdose of nuclear
radiation. It's cunning knows
no bounds. Meaning, now
you are going to pay for something
you did in a past life, or didn't
do or should have thought
about doing. If you even rated
a past life. If not, then these are
just the normal ups and downs
Which do you think is worse?

Anyway. A procession of ghosts
will carry your pencil box
down to the office from which
you will never be allowed
to retire. Lunch will be served,
but all you can expect is
a bag of blood and transfat:
In other words, to rub it in,
even the cat will get a better deal

Meanwhile, the universe remains
an incomprehensible wheel of
grave attraction. Fish, swans,
and archers lie in each other's
starry embrace while dark particles
have been driving by your house
all day in their neutrino cars,
in a hurry to do a job that will
never be revealed to us. And in
some versions of this story,
the cat has magical powers
Oh my God, you say. I had no idea

Well, now you do. In fact,
in some versions of this story,
beings of faith and light
are in the kitchen, dancing
with your wife. Then your
friends arrive, still lugging
around their own dilemmas,
hoping you will feed them
from the common pot, like
in the old days. And as tired
as you are, you think you can

"Lunch Will Be Served" by Eleanor Lerman, from The Sensual World ReEmerges. © Sarabande Books, 2010.
lifted from The Writer's Almanac

The Kid's Been Busy

2011-05-17T19:57:00.005-04:00

On Monday night, Delia and I went to the New WVU Erickson Alumni center to attend the Celebration of Young Writers. WVU held the ceremony for all the kids in the county who placed in the Young Writer's Competition and their teachers. Delia's story "Mystery Demolition" won 3rd place in the 3rd - 4th grade category. West Virginia author, Cheryl Ware, gave a presentation that wove together pieces of every child's story. When Delia heard her words being read aloud, she was just tickled pink. I tried to get a picture of her walking up to the podium to accept her certificate and WVU swag bag, but of course they didn't turn out. I did make her stand with her classroom teacher and her TAG teacher who both came to the shindig to support her! It was pretty awesome. Keith and I are SO PROUD of her, and most importantly I can tell that she is proud of herself.

Last week was the Social Studies/Science Fair at Mountainview. You all know how much I LOVE being packed in the cafeteria like fish in a barrel with the parents of my child's peers. The school did things a little differently this year and herded all the parents into the library for cookies and soda while the judges went around and judged the projects (incidentally, nobody ever told us who won!). Delia researched aluminum in antiperspirants, hand lettered her presentation board and used her very favorite craft item - STYROFOAM - to illustrate how sweat couldn't escape through your skin like it should when your pores are clogged with aluminum. Even though at least one parent kindly pointed out that studies have PROVEN that it is NOT DANGEROUS (ahem, whatevs...), Delia was still convinced by her research to avoid it. Yay for Science Fair!

Our bud Naomi did her project on her cat, Sharkey, who turned out to be a Korat. Naomi (with help from her Mom) sewed a stuffed Sharkey replica and labeled the breed's iconic features with bright green ribbon tags, and her display board was covered in grey faux suede. Very tactile.
The kids are taking West-Test this week, and even though I told her several times that she doesn't really have to study for them, Delia decided to bring home all of her textbooks to study. I don't know how much reviewing she's getting done while she watches Neds Survival Guide on the Netflix... School is almost out for the summer!

Hanging Tomatoes

2011-05-03T18:23:00.004-04:00

I was looking at the upside down tomato planters at Big Lots the other day, and while the idea seemed like a good one, the execution left a lot to be desired aesthetically. Ugly is what they were. This is much more pleasant to look at and hopefully just as effective. You can hang it from a shepherd's hook by your porch even if you don't have much space.

First I found a couple of hanging baskets with coco liners just sitting on my planting bench, condos for spiders. If you buy them new they probably won't have any spiders in them. They are fairly cheap. Other things you need are some potting soil (or just some dirt) and of course, tomato plants. I ordered mine from Gurney's but there are plenty of places you can find them around here now that it is getting warmer. The Morgantown Farmers Market starts up this Saturday, and that's where Keith got my tomato plants last year.

Put an inch or two of soil in the bottom of your planter. Right above the soil line poke a hole where your tomato plant will stick out. Don't make it too big, but make it big enough to get a few leaves through. Make another hole on the opposite side of the basket. Lay the tomato plants in the basket like so, and gently coax the top set of leaves through the hole till they're poking out.

I have always heard that tomato plants like to be buried quite deep. When I transplanted these guys from their tiny tiny shipping pots, I buried them as deeply as the new pots would allow, and they really started growing like mad, so here they are again getting transplanted rather deeply.

Grandpa Lloyd used to plop a dead sunfish in the hole before planting his tomatoes, so if you have any dead fish lying around your garden shed then this would be a good place to put them. I, alas, had none handy, nor are there any fish in Decker's Creek for us to catch, so we are going without the dead fish here at this time.

Cover the plants up with a bunch more dirt. I planted basil seeds on the top of my basket, because I read somewhere that tomatoes and basil get along quite well. Or maybe I just made that up. Anyway, I expect it to look lovely and be handy if I want to make tomato salad. I guess you could also plant lettuce on top, or parsley, or whatever.

Please be advised that this arrangement will require some tomato food, as the plants are crammed kind of close together and will exhaust the nutrients in the dirt after a while. You can use some nice compost, if you have some, or plant food spikes. I use Miracle-Gro. It was good enough for my Grandpa, and I ate sun warm tomatoes right off the vine every summer from the time I was old enough to climb the hill to the garden - probably even before that. Maybe by next year I'll have learned how to make urban composting work (my compost heap didn't turn into beautiful rich soil over the winter, it looks like a pile of dessicated weeds and kitchen scraps!).

Poem of the Day

2011-05-02T10:11:00.002-04:00

Sonnet 91

by William Shakespeare

Some glory in their birth, some in their skill,
Some in their wealth, some in their body's force;
Some in their garments, though new-fangled ill;
Some in their hawks and hounds, some in their horse;
And every humour hath his adjunct pleasure,
Wherein it finds a joy above the rest:
But these particulars are not my measure;
All these I better in one general best.
Thy love is better than high birth to me,
Richer than wealth, prouder than garments' cost,
Of more delight than hawks or horses be;
And having thee, of all men's pride I boast:
Wretched in this alone, that thou mayst take
All this away, and me most wretched make.

"Sonnet 91" by William Shakespeare. Public domain.

Building a wall

2011-04-25T18:37:00.005-04:00

We'd been planning this retaining wall for some time, to keep our front yard from falling further into the street. I wanted to use the space for more garden, but every time I would try to plant anything there it would eventually slide down into the street. Ever hear of the angle of repose? Interesting concept, and the reason why my landscaping always washed away down the hill.

Originally I was going to build a picket fence type barrier out of disassembled shipping pallets, but upon actually acquiring some of these things we determined that the wood wasn't sturdy enough to hold the weight of the dirt. Scrapped that idea, now I have a pile of pallet wood to use for something else in the future.

Then we went in search of other building materials, pricing cinder blocks, bricks, concrete, and then finally found what I have come to know as castle brick. Castle Brick is an interlocking system just for building landscaping walls. Each brick has a lip on the bottom of it that catches on the brick underneath. The weight of the dirt behind the wall holds the whole thing in place. Pretty interesting, how physics works in all sorts of situations around the house!

Our search took us to Custom Concrete, which is a locally owned building supply company that is just outside of Sabraton on RT 7. They were super helpful, calculated how many bricks we would need for the length of our wall, and even sold us the bricks for a sweet discount (about half as much as they retail for at Lowes). Keith made two trips in the truck bringing about 60 bricks each time, and we unloaded them into the side yard. There they sat for a couple of days till it quit raining. We watched a couple of how-to videos on the internet and became confident in our ability to build this wall ourselves.

If you click here, you can see a photo of the front yard in the before stage.

Keith and Tammy

Thursday I came home from work and the sun was shining for the first time in what seemed like months, so we set out to excavate and then build the wall back up before it started thunderstorming again. That was an insanely tall order, upon reflection, but we did in fact work from about 2PM till it got dark at 9, and in that span of time, with the angelic assistance of one Malissa Goff (who kept us from killing each other during the ridiculously difficult process of leveling the ground and then the bricks). Keith had a sledgehammer (which he named Tammy Wynette) and I had a shovel, it probably wouldn't have been much of a fight.

There were a LOT of rocks in that dirt, not to mention some fairly rotten landscape timbers and the remains of the original wall. But we got it out of there.

Four feet of remaining cinder block wall, reduced to a HUGE pile of rubble by Tammy Wynette.

Me, on the sidewalk, hunched over the trench filled with rocks and dirt and sand, armed with two levels, a spade, and my fierce determination.

We laid the 5th course in the dark, and had to quit, but I decided it was enough to keep the impending rain from washing the whole foundation of our house away. Then we drank a couple of beers and collapsed into a pile of aching backs jello-like muscles.

The first day's work.

Today, Monday, we woke up, ate brunch, and got to work. Delia wasn't really down with carrying bricks or digging or weeding, so she decorated the job site with the chalk she got for Easter. Keith and I got the rest of the bricks in place, and I putzed around in the dirt throwing out even more rocks, mixing in soil amendments and just generally trying to determine where to put the plants. I think we have more work to do on the yard, but the retaining wall is pretty much finished. YAY!

Happy Birthday Madyson!

2011-04-19T17:48:00.005-04:00

Has it really been a year already? Yep! We went to Maddy's First Birthday party on Sunday, at the West Milford Community Center. Stephanie had the place decorated to the nines in pink and purple for her little princess. What a fun time we all had.

Here is the birthday girl rocking a madly fashionable zebra print ensemble. Fabulous!

Grandpa Carson's two little girls.

Maddy needed a little encouragement to dig in to her cake.

Rockin' in her new chair from Cathy and Grandpa Carson.

Opening Presents with Mom!

First Hike at Canaan

2011-03-28T10:10:00.006-04:00

Delia planning our hike over a cup of hot chocolate.

Even though the world was overcast for most of our stay up in the mountains, it didn't rain all the time so we got to go on several hikes. The first one we planned out took us from our cabin to the lodge, over about a mile of mildly hilly terrain along the Club Run Trail.

Delia inspecting some ruins we found along the trail. Are they from the railroad? We couldn't tell.

Club Run made a loop back to the cabin area, and since we wanted to go on to the lodge, we took the Ridge Top Trail connector to the Middle Ridge trail. I love watching my girl learn to use a trail map.

Our hike led us to a wide open area and the Balsam Swamp Overlook. Things were muddy and spare, as spring hadn't quite come to the Highlands, but the barren alien landscape was still strangely beautiful.

The Overlook is situated along one of the paved roads in the park, and we walked along it up the hill to the lodge. It was a terrific first hike of our trip!

Views from the Hipstamatic Lens

2011-03-27T11:17:00.003-04:00

Happy Birthday Robert Frost

2011-03-26T05:13:00.002-04:00

image lifted from here

Acquainted with the Night

by Robert Frost

I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain – and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
A luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.

"Acquainted with the Night" by Robert Frost, from The Poetry of Robert Frost. © Holt Rinehart Winston, 1969.

It's the birthday of Robert Frost, (books by this author ) born in San Francisco (1874). He cultivated the image of a rural New England poet with a pleasant disposition, but Frost's personal life was full of tragedy and he suffered from dark depressions.

He graduated from high school at the top of his class but dropped out of Dartmouth after a semester and tried to convince his high school co-valedictorian, Elinor White, to marry him immediately. She refused and insisted on finishing college first. They did marry after she graduated, and it was a union that would be filled with losses and feelings of alienation. Their first son died from cholera at age three; Frost blamed himself for not calling a doctor earlier and believed that God was punishing him for it. His health declined, and his wife became depressed. In 1907, they had a daughter who died three days after birth, and a few years later Elinor had a miscarriage. Within a couple years, his sister Jeanie died in a mental hospital, and his daughter Marjorie, of whom he was extremely fond, was hospitalized with tuberculosis. Marjorie died a slow death after getting married and giving birth, and a few years later, Frost's wife died from heart failure. His adult son, Carol, had become increasingly distraught, and Frost went to visit him and to talk him out of suicide. Thinking the crisis had passed, he returned home, and shortly afterward his son shot himself. He also had to commit his daughter Irma to a mental hospital.

His behavior became erratic at times and worried people. He asked the wife of a colleague to marry him and she refused, though did agree to work for him as a secretary and tour manager. President John F. Kennedy would later say of Frost that his "sense of the human tragedy fortified him against self-deception and easy consolation" and that his poetry had a "tide that lifts all spirits." Even during periods of deep depression, he drew large crowds to his immensely popular poetry readings, which he preferred to call poetry "sayings."

He said: "A poem begins with a lump in the throat; a homesickness or a love-sickness. It is a reaching out toward expression, an effort to find fulfillment. A complete poem is one where an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found the word."

And, "A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom."

And, "Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired."

And, "In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on."

text lifted from The Writer's Almanac

Rock - N - Roll Hall of Fame

2011-03-25T16:44:00.002-04:00

This Moment

2011-03-25T14:56:00.002-04:00

An idea borrowed from soulemama, a moment from the past week that I just want to savor.

Banana Blueberry Bread

2011-03-24T16:39:00.004-04:00

We're back from our adventure in the Highland Woods, more to come on that later. In my foods basket which returned from camp, I found two sad, neglected bananas. So now they are baked into this yummy bread. Maybe one will make it till Sunday and my Mom will get a taste for her Birthday.

Original Recipe found here.

Back From The Woods Banana Bread Recipe

Grease and flour one largeish loaf pan, or as I did, two smallish loaf pans. Set aside. Oh, and preheat your oven to 325.

2 large eggs
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar

Place these ingredients in a lovely large bowl and whisk incessantly till your arm falls off. Or do what I did and enlist a helper Husband to do that part. Or use a fancy-dancy mixer thingy, I won't berate you for that (to your face). The trick here is to beat the eggs and sugar together till they are light and creamy. It takes a while. Like 8 minutes (less with electric technology). Or as many as you can stand.

2 very ripe bananas - smushed thoroughly
a heaping 1/4 cup of yoghurt
a fat spoonfull of sour cream
a tablespoon of vanilla
a tablespoon of cooking oil

Beat these ingredients into the egg mixture. Beat them well, but don't get so enthusiastic that you splash any on the counter, unless you plan on cleaning up after yourself.

3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

You might want to toss the whisk into the sink, you won't be needing it for this part. Get a wooden spoon or a rubber scraper. Or be a rebel and use the whisk, you might not even notice a difference in the finished product, and you will have one less implement to wash up. Sift these dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and stir till almost just combined.

1 cup blueberries
1 cup walnuts

My blueberries were frozen so I tossed them with a bit of flour till they were coated - this keeps the whole batter from turning blue. I don't think you have to do this with fresh berries. Anyhoo, fold these luscious inclusions in, incorporating them and mixing the last bit of dryness up at the same time. Do not mix too much, quick breads just don't like to be blended overly much and will turn out tough if you are overzealous incorporating the flour. If you were my daughter you would leave out the blueberries and walnuts and instead fold in a whole bag of chocolate chips. If you do that bring her some because she won't eat anything with walnuts in it.

Pour this into your prepared pans. Bake till done. Mine took about 40 minutes, in two pans. If you put it all in one big pan, it might take an hour or more. Check on it in about 35 minutes and go from there. If a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean, the bread is done. If it isn't done and yet it is way way brown on the top, tent the pan with aluminum foil so it doesn't burn (then get an oven thermometer, your oven is probably running hot).

Let it cool in the pans for 5 minutes or so, and then turn out onto a rack to cool completely. If you cut bread while it is still hot you release it's soul, and then you have to eat the whole thing right then or else what is left of the loaf will be a dry husk, or at the very least something less luscious than it could have been had you not been so impatient. Quick breads are even better if they sit overnight, wrapped tightly in plastic or foil. That is why I make 2, so I can steal the first one's soul and then have another the next day.

Cool Color Yarn Dye

2011-02-27T13:33:00.004-05:00

This was my second try dyeing yarn with Kool Aid. It came out really pleasing to me.

The yarn started out an oatmeal color, it came from the stash of Bemidji yarn I used before. I mixed up cups of lemon-lime, blue raspberry lemonade, and grape (although the photo shows Blastin' Berry Cherry because it was in a purple package and I am easily confused).

This is me painting the yarn with a turkey baster. Kool Aid will stain your countertops, so do lay down some plastic to protect them.

Here is a shot of the yarn after I wound it into a ball. And after I went to the store and foolishly left it out on the table. When I got home it wasn't on the table anymore, and after a moment of frantic searching I found it chewed, snaggled and partially unwound in a corner under the table. Thanks Rohn!

I fixed it.

Oughta be Knitting, But...

2011-02-24T13:24:00.006-05:00

So I signed up to teach this knitting class. I can't lie, after the first session I was a little dispirited. It is one thing to teach your kid how to knit over a period of several years. It is quite another to teach ten (mostly) strangers to knit in two hours (which was supposed to only be one hour). It didn't turn out quite like I hoped. Still, they invited me back the next week to give it another go, and so I have been trying to find a different approach to teaching the class (one that actually helps the students learn how to knit). Friday I go back to try again, keep your fingers crossed for us all! I feel like if I can surmount this first hurdle, I can share all the cool knitting tricks I have picked up over the years.

Yesterday I felt like I needed to do something really creative and spontaneous. Trying to pick apart the mental processes of knitting so I can teach them to other people... it is just kind of hard for me (which is why I am doing all this in the first place, honestly.). I was reworking my lesson plans, my approach to teaching the knit stitch, and every time I wrote something different down the internal critic sliced at me. A step back, a different perspective, a diversion, was just what I needed, and so I decided to dye some yarn.

I have been reading about dyeing yarn for a year or more. It is one of the knitting peripherals I have been avoiding on purpose. Like my Dad, I have a tendency to get really into something and then about halfway to mastery, get seduced by something else. I didn't want to have to make an investment in dyes and tanks and dedicated equipment, and moreover I didn't want anything to take me away from the knitting I am working on - sweaters for Keith and Delia, gifts for loved ones, my fruit and veggie projects... Oh well, too late now!

It took about an hour, not including the trip to Krogers for my dye. Hello Kool-Aide! I followed, more or less, this tutorial from Knitty, all the while thinking about the hand dyed skeins I have met and loved. The flavors I used on this hank were Black Cherry, Lemon and Orange. I already have at least two more colorways floating around in my brain, and with Kool-Aide coming in at about twenty cents a packet, I think I can even pull it off before my next paycheck comes in!

The yarn I dyed was Homespun Yarn from Bemidji Woolen Mills in Bemidji Minnesota, purchased several years ago from the Needlecraft Barn in Morgantown. It weighed in at almost 3 oz. AND IT STILL SMELLS LIKE FRUIT! Rohn actually ate about 4 inches out of the top of the ball after the photo shoot before I could stop him. He loves yarn as much as I do, but in a slightly different way.

Caramel Heart Cookies

2011-02-14T18:19:00.006-05:00

No, they don't look like hearts, but they do have hearts. Melted inside each cookie is a chunk of homemade caramel. We made several pounds of the stuff back at Christmastime, and it keeps well in the freezer. I sliced it into portions, wrapped it in buttered foil and then in a plastic bag, and we just take out a piece whenever we're feeling saucy.

We used this recipe for sugar cookies but halved it. Mostly. We didn't halve the egg. I eyeballed the flour. I wrapped a heaping teaspoon of dough around a little cube of caramel - probably the equivalent of half a cube of the kind you get in the store wrapped in plastic. They baked at 375 for ten minutes. I let them cool for about 5 minutes on the sheet before I moved them to the cooling rack. I recommend using a metal spatula with a thin blade because when I used my plastic pancake turner I ripped the bottom off the cookie and all the caramel oozed out.

The cookies suffered a little denting in the center as they cooled. If we'd had any on hand I would have plopped a Hershey's Kiss right in the middle of each one and let it melt down into that divot. As it stands, they are not chocolatey, but they are GOOD.

The first batch is plain on the outside, the second was rolled in red sugar at Delia's insistence. I think they came out really cute!

Valley Falls

2011-02-13T18:15:00.004-05:00

It was a nice day for a hike. We got a late start so we decided to go someplace that wasn't too awful far away that we hadn't visited in a while, and Valley Falls won! I don't think Delia had ever been there before - she thought the falls would be taller.

The sun was shining but there was still a chill in the air. No ice on the Tygart Valley River though. We walked a little section of the River Trail until we came upon a patch that was snow covered, and the consensus was to turn around and go back. Nobody wanted to slip on the ice and fall into the rushing river!

Before we left home I uploaded a trail map to my iPhone so we would have it if we needed it. Very Handy. After a quick scan we settled on one that looked like fun. We set out up the park road in search of the Deer Trail trailhead and found it in a few minutes. The lower section of the Deer Trail is broad and wide, mostly well graveled and very easy to walk. It follows the river a little ways above the railroad tracks.
We came to a switchback which is near the edge of the park boundary, and the trail climbs steeply uphill from there. There are no blazes, markings or signs after the switchback, and the trail narrows to about a foot wide and has no gravel. A seasoned hiker probably wouldn't have much trouble following it in good weather, but novices beware! After it crossed the little stream pictured above, Keith and Delia couldn't find it again and thought about turning back. A mountain bike track in the mud on the other side gave us a good clue, and we eventually found the trail again.

The steep uphill climb was pretty hard on us all, so out of shape from being inside all winter. Delia wasn't particularly happy with us when I snapped the above picture. She began to get concerned that we would be walking in the woods FOREVER. It wasn't long before we spotted the park road and began our relatively easy mile or so downhill back to the parking lot. The snacks (that we forgot to carry on our hike) were ravenously consumed!

All these pictures were taken with my new iPhone (thank you Keith, second best Valentine EVER). I love it so much, it can keep my trail maps and flora/fauna identification guides small and handy. It even has a compass. Anybody know of a good trail map app?

snowflakes

2011-01-26T14:07:00.004-05:00

sometime earlier this afternoon it started snowing. huge gigantic enormous clusters of snowflakes so outlandish they made me laugh out loud with joy. later walking home, the snow, now more normal looking, was still coming down heavy and wet and fast. even though things feel quieter in the snow, you can still hear the flakes clicking down against each other like ice cubes into a glass only under a microscope. it covered me up, half an inch of snow on my shoulders and scarf. i imagined just lying down in the hammock in my back yard and letting the snow bury me.

i found this bag of turnips in the crisper last week, and they had sprouted these lovely yellow fronds. so they went into the window, one at a time, and I watched the leaves turn green. they found the light, chlorophyll knows how to find the light in winter. they are smarter than i am, i think.

Cowl Girls

2011-01-10T20:36:00.002-05:00

Here are a couple of marginally unflattering photos of me and my sister wearing our Mobius Cowls.

This one is knit in Noro Kogarashi color #9, on size 11 needles. When I snapped this pic my sister squealed! I hope she's ok with the fact that I am publishing it to the internets. It was either this one or the one with half of her face cut off and the camera looking right up her nose, so I went with the lesser of two poor photos. Maybe my New Year's Resolution should be to learn to take better pictures!

This one was knit in Quaking Maples Farm Handspun color Maple Spring on size 9 needles.
Delia snapped this at my request, but she wasn't taking the photo shoot very seriously. At least the camera strap isn't in this one!

I was inspired to knit the Mobius cowl on New Year's Eve, as it was a portable project that wasn't too fiddly but also satisfied my need for learning something new. If you don't know what a Mobius strip is, apparently you are not alone! I was shocked by how many people at the NYE party had never heard of one. Later I tried to explain it to my daughter but she doesn't believe me. One side, one edge, that's it kids. That's geometry, and math, married in another discipline called topology. Weird, wild stuff, and super sweet knitting!

Morgantown Wildlife

2011-01-07T14:43:00.003-05:00

This morning on my way to work I came upon a fellow twirling fire out in the middle of Clark Street. He had a pair of chains, and at the end of the chains were fist sized balls of fire. It made for a pretty scene, what with the new fallen snow on everything making it all smooth and silent. The spectators on the porch of the house party he was obviously from were fairly quiet too. I could hear the swooshing of the fire chains as he whirled them around, first in front then above his head, then around his legs and back up into the air. He reminded me of Dustfinger from the book Inkheart. Couldn't take any pictures, but it was maybe just one of those ephemeral moments that refuses to be captured. Fleeting, definitely, but undeniably delightful.

Coopers Rock, January 3

2011-01-04T18:33:00.003-05:00

Delia went back to school Monday, so Keith and I went back to the woods. It was COLD. Twenty-eight degrees or thereabouts when we got to the park. The main gate is closed for the winter so we had to hike the Roadside Trail in. We made it about a mile before I decided I was just too cold (and possibly, out of shape) to do all 6 plus miles, and we turned around and hiked back out. Two miles is better than nothing! And we found this really incredible frozen puddle. I think it looks like a geode.
It was really warm here in WV on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, but we just didn't get to spend much time outside. All the snow melted in the fifty plus degree heat wave, but then it rained. The frozen mud along the trails looked like some kind of exotic coral to me, but didn't really photograph well. Many little puddles had thin crystal like surfaces with no water underneath - they sounded like tinkling bells as we crunched over them.
Jack Frost was certainly at work here, although there was no snow, there was plenty of ice!

Those ferns look like Christmas curling ribbons to me.

When we got home my Xmas present to myself arrived from Columbia.com, a new pair of hiking boots! My old ones proved they were no longer waterproof during last year's Great Snow Hike, but now I am ready for some serious snow action in my Laman Peak boots!

Christmas, I'm glad it only comes once a year.

2010-12-30T10:51:00.003-05:00

My Mom's Tree

I only took a handful of photos this year on Christmas Eve, and none of them came out well. So we left the camera alone on Christmas Day and just tried to enjoy ourselves.

I successfully failed to buy presents for ANYONE but my husband and daughter this year. Nada, zip, zilch. Which was really hard, but I expect it to get easier as time goes on. There were a few successful handmade gifts, as everybody really seemed to like the Spiced Nuts Keith and I made. Delia and I made Caramels too, I hope everyone got at least one, there weren't very many, but they sure were fun to make.

Zoey seemed to like her knitted vegetables (I know, tomatoes are really fruit!) and a baguette. She told me that Santa brought her her very own kitchen, and I think she will have a lot of fun making up great (healthy) things to eat in there.

Delia is enjoying her Gir (from Invader Zim) Hat. It technically didn't get finished till the day after Christmas. She can be seen here also enjoying her new e-Book, which is really incredibly cool. She hasn't set it down for very long at all, and has already read Alice in Wonderland and several Sherlock Holmes adventures (the ones that weren't too scary).

The Holidays are so stressful for me, as I am sure they are stressful for others as well. Didn't do a very good job of ameliorating that stress... Our family and friends are all such wonderful people, but I feel like I missed them this year. We were blessed with abundance and gifts from our family and friends, and we ate delicious food and made merry for the Holiday. I am continually grateful for the sweet and thoughtful things everyone made for us/gave to us/did for us this year. Should have been enough to shake any normal person into a cheerful mindset! Hope I didn't Grinch anyone out.

When I went outside on the LongestNight to try and see the lunar eclipse... I could not. Maybe I saw the reddish glow of the full umbra, but it might just have been the lights of Morgantown reflecting off the wintry cloud cover. I knew it was happening, I'd seen the real time video on the internet just minutes before, but it just wasn't happening for me. In my bathrobe and slippers and Keith's wool coat, at 3:15 in the morning, I stared at the sky in vain. A metaphor for my state of mind. I try to keep things as upbeat here as I can (which is why it is quiet sometimes), but really life is made up of good things and also sad things - like feeding my Dad his Christmas Dinner one bite at a time... Good, but sad.

Anyway, Christmas is over, thank the Gods. Heading into another long, cold, dark stretch of time, I am glad I have my friends and family and yarn and kitties to keep me warm.

Some Christmas Cheer

2010-12-19T20:37:00.004-05:00

My mom requested some pictures of our tree, and I have to say that it really isn't that photogenic, but these are for her. It is a white pine, and it is awfully fuzzy, and of course, huge. Some of the lights have already shorted out (who knew leds could short out? Jeesh.) and I can't get them to come back on, so that's sort of a bummer, but it is a metaphor for our lives here at Edgehill House.
We spent the evening baking cookies and dancing around the kitchen. It was awesome! We forgot to buy corn syrup at the store, so we had to change our plans a little bit when we got home (Christmas must be truly magical to get me to willingly consume CORN SYRUP!) but Chocolate Chip Cookies always make everyone here happy.

Here is a playlist I made of some super fun dancey Christmas Music. I hope you enjoy it.

Balls of Yarn

2010-12-06T18:23:00.003-05:00

The Original Snow-Ball.

The Ice Ball (because it is kinda blueish)

Knit from this pattern, using size 5 needles. I am addicted. There are so many other things I ought to be doing right now, but I can't stop knitting these spherical objects. So far there are two, but who knows when the whim will leave me, I might make a million. They are SO MUCH FUN TO THROW!

Poem of the Day

2010-12-05T11:04:00.001-05:00

Notes from the Delivery Room

by Linda Pastan

Strapped down,
victim in an old comic book,
I have been here before,
this place where pain winces
off the walls
like too bright light.
Bear down a doctor says,
foreman to sweating laborer,
but this work, this forcing
of one life from another
is something that I signed for
at a moment when I would have signed anything.
Babies should grow in fields;
common as beets or turnips
they should be picked and held
root end up, soil spilling
from between their toes—
and how much easier it would be later,
returning them to earth.
Bear up ... bear down ... the audience
grows restive, and I'm a new magician
who can't produce the rabbit
from my swollen hat.
She's crowning, someone says,
but there is no one royal here,
just me, quite barefoot,
greeting my barefoot child.

"Notes from the Delivery Room" by Linda Pastan, from Carnival Evening: New and Selected Poems 1968-1998. © W. W. Norton & Company, 1999.

lifted from The Writer's Almanac

This Moment

2010-12-03T17:13:00.001-05:00

Taking a cue from SouleMama, here are a few moments from the week.

Poem of the Day

2010-12-02T05:15:00.001-05:00

Manna

by Joseph Stroud

Everywhere, everywhere, snow sifting down,
a world becoming white, no more sounds,
no longer possible to find the heart of the day,
the sun is gone, the sky is nowhere, and of all
I wanted in life – so be it – whatever it is
that brought me here, chance, fortune, whatever
blessing each flake of snow is the hint of, I am
grateful, I bear witness, I hold out my arms,
palms up, I know it is impossible to hold
for long what we love of the world, but look
at me, is it foolish, shameful, arrogant to say this,
see how the snow drifts down, look how happy
I am.

"Manna" by Joseph Stroud, from Of This World. © Copper Canyon Press, 2009. Reprinted with permission.

lifted from The Writer's Almanac

Leftovers

2010-11-29T20:42:00.004-05:00

The only thing we really had leftover was the turkey. When I picked over the carcass, I came up with about 3 cups of meat (which really isn't a whole lot for a 12 lb bird). And it wasn't the pretty "let's make a sandwich" kind of turkey meat, it was the wings and the thighs and all those nether regions only seen by the person who makes the turkey stock the next day. So while the stock simmered on the stove, I minced the leftover turkey in my trusty food processor, saved about a cup of it to make turkey salad (which nobody in this house, save me, will eat), and made these little treaties with the rest.

Turkey Dippers

3 slices of stale bread (although I bet leftover stuffing would work wonderfully too), crumbed
2 cups of turkey
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup onion
1 celery stalk
1/2 tsp ground mustard
sprinkle of salt and pepper
one beaten egg + a splash of turkey stock or water

I processed the bread into crumbs separately, then ground the turkey, cranberries, onion, celery and spices together.
Mix the meat mixture and bread together, then moisten it all with the beaten egg. If it is too dry add a touch more stock.
Form into patties, mine were about 2 inches across. Place on a baking sheet sprayed with oil, and spray the tops with a little more oil.
Bake in a 4oo degree oven for about 7 minutes, turn and bake for about 7 minutes more.

Serve with Cranberry Mustard for dipping.

1 part spicy brown mustard
1 part yellow mustard
1 part cranberry sauce

mix well, eat with Turkey Dippers and/or French Fries.

I think these would work out well pan fried too, and if I had any left I would eat them like falafel in a pita sandwich for my lunch tomorrow.

A Week of Thanksgiving : ahem, well, y'know how it goes

2010-11-29T20:01:00.004-05:00

On Thursday, I was thankful for a husband who willingly "took one for the team" and drank the whiskey called for in the ham recipe. He baked the ham while I was at work (yes, I volunteered, because I love my sourdough starter and it needs to be fed every day). The ham was a big hit, in fact we barely had any left over. Some time after dinner was over I caught my husband and Chris in the kitchen putting it away, and I do not mean into Tupperware containers! Although, that just proves it is a good recipe.
I was also thankful for FRIENDS! They brought all the wonderful food we consumed. ALL KINDS OF FOOD! Unbelievable amounts of food. Delicious food. I can not name all the food, although I do have a soft spot in my heart for Katie's spinach artichoke stuffing, which was beyond a doubt my favorite leftover.
We ate, drank, and were merry, and it was the best Friendsgiving since Last Friendsgiving. I hope we get to do it again next year.

Billie and Audrey

We also had Babies (although Lisa's baby stayed put and has so far not deemed it necessary to come out into the big cold world) and Children. And teenage girls who used to be babies (Audrey, your mom made me promise not to tell any When she was a Baby stories, so you're LUCKY). Time flies when you're having fun. Naomi and Delia challenged some of our hipper girlfriends to a Dance Off, and I think the old ladies got Pwned, although, to tell you the truth, I am not entirely sure what that means. Next year I am designating a photographer who is not me, so there can be more pictures. If you are a shutterbug who wants the job, send me an e-mail. It pays out in all you can eat turkey and stuffing.

A Week of Thanksgiving : Wednesday

2010-11-25T08:29:00.005-05:00

Yesterday I was so thankful for my wonderful husband and daughter that I didn't get around to writing about it! We cooked, and cleaned and cuddled and it was a lovely pre-Thanksgiving day.
We are a great team! The simple family unit of ours, three people (punctuated by 3 cats of course), trudging sometimes, or dancing mostly through the days of our lives, well, it's the best darn thing to ever happen to me! I can't say it's all luck, because we do a lot of work to make things go here, but I do feel lucky that a) I met a man with a temperament that suits mine, and b) we managed to have a kid with a sense of humor and a heart of gold! When you get right down to it, the simple fact that we love each other makes life worth living, and I am truly thankful for that unconditional love! Yes you can call me sentimental and sappy, and you would be right! The fact remains though, that I wouldn't be the person I am today without them, and I think the world is a better place because of them.

Delia and I worked together to make some tasty Thanksgiving treats. She helped me make a pan of Baklava, this one is flavored with her favorite ingredient, Cocoa Powder (but just a touch). We also mixed up a batch of Curried Nuts, which is my new favorite substitute for Chex Mix. Here is the recipe.

3 cups of mixed nuts, we used a mixture of cashews, macadamias, almonds, pecans, pistachios and walnuts. We are a nut loving house here!
For the spice mix: 1 tsp coarsely ground salt
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp garlic powder

Melt 2 Tablespoons butter with a pinch of salt in a saucepan (over low heat, you don't want the butter to brown).
Add 2 Tablespoons of honey and stir to combine.
Remove the pan from heat, and toss in the nuts, stirring to cover them all with the buttery goodness.
Sprinkle the spice mixture over the nuts, and toss to distribute.
Spread the nuts on a baking sheet (mine is lined with a silpat, but you can use buttered foil or parchment or just spray it with nonstick spray if you like) and bake at 250 for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the nuts are mostly dry but not burned.
If you have some you could sprinkle the warm nuts with turbinado sugar before they cool, but I didn't have any this time so I just gave them a light sprinkle with regular sugar.
When they are cool enough to touch, break apart any clusters of nuts.
Store in an airtight container, if they last long enough to store!

A Week of Thanksgiving : Tuesday

2010-11-23T20:50:00.003-05:00

Today I am thankful for my job. And Keith's job. Without our fine employers, we wouldn't have the material goods that we enjoy, like this house and our car and our computers. We wouldn't have health insurance, and Keith wouldn't have his life saving medicine.
I love that we work for small businesses, that we have schedules flexible enough to do the things we want to do. And that we work for and with good people. My world wouldn't be what it is today if not for The Bakery, and I am ever so thankful that it is still a part of my life.

PS sorry no pictures today, it is past my bedtime and I couldn't find the one I wanted! But there is a pic of me and Zoey at the Bakery on my Mom's Blog, if you wanna go look - it is in the sidebar a ways down the page. This is my first "Try to make a post every day this week" week, and it is a bigger challenge than I thought, and it is only day 2! chee.

A Week of Thanksgiving : Monday

2010-11-22T18:41:00.003-05:00

I am so thankful that I was born in West Virginia. The Appalachian Mountains rise up around me and wrap me in peace and comfort. I am thankful for all our wild lands, but most especially for our State Parks and National Forests. No church building can inspire the awe in my soul that a walk along the trail can. Today Keith and I took a break from the Thanksgiving preparations and hiked Hemlock Trail. It changes with the seasons, we hadn't been there since full on summer, and without the leaves on the trees and the undergrowth, it was a whole different place. The Hemlocks are still the same though, fernlike and delicate but also towering giants. I love them so. I will never feel as at ease around people as I do out in the woods. So it's a good thing I live here, in this state that is 78% forest!

2010-11-21T22:49:00.008-05:00

The Strothi have been going to Kings Tree Farm for our Christmas tree every year for the past 6 years. This makes the fourth year in a row we've gone with Lisa and Willy to pick out trees together. I was a little worried about keeping our tradition, what with Lisa being super pregnant now, that she might not want to go with us after the first snow to get trees, since she'll probably have an infant by then... So we decided to make the trip today and stake a claim on our trees now.

Lisa and Willy found their tree first. I think it is a Scotch Pine, because it has fairly sharp needles.

Their tree is past the pond, our tree is right before the pond. How cool is it that our tree farm has a pond! With salamanders (which Willy caught to show Delia), and at least one GOLDFISH!

When we got our tags down at the House, the nice fellow explained to us about the Frasier Fir Shortage. He said that in recent years their farm had become so popular that they were running out of Frasiers, because that's what everybody seems to like best. Also, he told us the difference between their hand trimmed trees and commercially available machine trimmed trees, as an explanation of why their trees are so popular. They have about 40 left that are over 8 feet when they would usually have 400. So Frasier Firs are going for $10 per foot this year, fresh cut. They are getting in a shipment from another tree farm sometime next week, he hopes people will let some of the young Frasiers he has now grow up and in a few years when the crop matures the price will go back down.

All the other kinds of trees are still their usual price, and so we decided to look around and see what else King's Tree farm had to offer. I was pulling for a hemlock, but Delia decided on a White Pine.

Not this particular White Pine, but one very much like it that only shows up in the video clip I can't get to upload!

We will go back after the first snow to cut down our trees, and probably have a snowball fight too. And then we will come back and have hot cocoa, and possibly ogle a little tiny baby while we're at it.

Refashioning Delia's Room, Part One

2010-11-12T17:41:00.003-05:00

Delia got a new twin mattress yesterday, thanks to my Mom. It works beautifully in the Wheat colored Heywood Wakefield twin bed Lisa found for us earlier this year at Goodwill. Delia wants to paint her room in peaceful beach colors, but we aren't quite ready to do that yet - it'll probably have to wait till spring.

What we can paint, and have been planning to for a little while, is her dresser. My sister and I used it when we were little. Delia didn't really like it because it was a bit too girly for her. Also the drawers were getting difficult to open and close. It was decided that the dresser would be the first thing we overhauled on the road to a more grown-up room for Delia.

they call that green stuff growing in the crevices "verdigris" in the antique shoppes

The first thing we did was remove the old knobs and handles. Over the last 30 years or so they got pretty yucky. These handles were not attached with screws like most normal knobs, but were affixed with some kind of expanding anchors. They required (as Delia predicted) a screwdriver, a hammering implement (Keith used a ratchet) and brute force to extricate. Luckily, my husband lives to knock things about with a ratchet. Now we have a free set of six moderately yucky drawer pulls, but I have seen uglier on the Internet being sold as Antiques, so if you would like them to add a bit of antique elegance to your next rehab project, they are yours! Otherwise I guess I'll just toss them.

So the Dresser, sans hardware, moved into our huge bathroom for the painting phase of the project. Delia sanded all the chipped paint places, and then I scrubbed the whole shebang down with Trisodium Phosphate. That was yesterday, and today I primed that dresser with the Killz Primer the cute guy at the Lowes paint counter sold me. Tomorrow when I get home from work we will slap on some Valspar Low VOC Semi-Gloss in Well Water, and then we will wait for it to dry.

And then the exciting task of replacing the drawer glides! Stay tuned!

Poem of the Day

2010-11-09T05:22:00.003-05:00

I woke up this morning and these two guys were asleep at my feet. My precious little boys, I love them so.

exactly right

by Charles Bukowski

the strays keep arriving: now we have 5
cats and they are smart, spontaneous, self-
absorbed, naturally poised and awesomely
beautiful.

one of the finest things about cats is
that when you're feeling down, very down,
if you just look at the cat at rest,
at the way they sit or lie and wait,
it's a grand lesson in preserving
and
if you watch 5 cats at once that's 5
times better.

no matter the extra demands they make
no matter the heavy sacks of food
no matter the dozens of cans of tuna
from the supermarket: it's all just fuel for their
amazing dignity and their
affirmation of a vital
live
we humans can
only envy and
admire from
afar.

"exactly right" by Charles Bukowski, from The Night Torn with Mad Footsteps: New Poems. © Black Sparrow Press, 2001.

Lifted from The Writer's Almanac

Coopers Rock, Mid Fall

2010-11-08T15:15:00.003-05:00

Keith picked me up after work this afternoon, we filled our thermos with coffee and grabbed a couple of cold cut sandwiches, and then headed up to The Woods. These photos are from our hike to Raven Rock. We stood on the edge of the precipice and stared down into the Cheat Canyon and got dizzy and laughed and it was windy and scary and WONDERFUL! My mom phoned while we were up there, and I thought it was just a crazy confluence of magical technology and divine providence that I could talk to her at a moment when my heart was so full of joy. She would not like it there, staring down from that dizzying height. Keith couldn't even watch me walk out to the edge - there are no railings like there are at the Overlook. For me there is something intoxicating about being so high up, looking out over the forest and the river that I love.
You can see a sandbar in the last picture, right before the river turns out of sight, and I decided that I will try to get to that sandbar. It is not easy to find the time to go off the trails, we usually only have an hour or two after I get off work before we have to leave to make it home to meet the school bus. For years I have been aching to get down to the water, but it is a LONG WAY DOWN, and we always run out of time. Someday soon, I will make it there.

Delia's Birthday

2010-10-31T08:55:00.001-04:00

It might be a day late, but hey, we were busy making her birthday Awesome! I hope you enjoy my tribute to my wonderful daughter.

Have Felt, Will Decorate

2010-10-26T20:07:00.004-04:00

Delia and I decided this year to forgo the crepe paper streamers and instead make some decorations for her birthday that could be reused. These banners are the result of our first night's work. The big one is made from triangles we measured and cut out of a length of felt. Each is 5 inches wide at the top. They are machine stitched along with a piece of black ric-rac. Super simple, mega cute. I wanted to cut the felt triangles with pinking shears so they would have zig-zaggy edges to kind of echo the ric-rac, but alas, my Grandma's pinkers are plenty old and not as sharp as they used to be (much like me). They wouldn't cut the felt, so the edges of these pennants are just straight.
These little guys are made from scraps I had left over. They came out pretty awesome, for being all kinds of random. I did sort the triangles generally by size, and then stacked them so the littlest ones would be closest to the ends. Just overlap the triangles a little bit as you feed them through the machine and they come out strung together. I made little loop hangers for the ends out of pieces of felt, and stitched them onto the end triangles.
You could make the little doorway garlands from the notebook paper sized pieces of felt you can get at the craft store. I bought a little more than 2 yards of felt from JoAnns when it was on sale. About 6 dollars invested in it, tonight we used up less than 1/4 of my felt stash.

I am jazzed by how easy this little project was, once I brought my sewing machine down from the attic and got it all set up on the dining room table. Now that it is ready to go, I might have to round up some more colors of felt and make decorations for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Poem of the Day

2010-10-26T05:11:00.004-04:00

For anyone who ever worked in a coffee shop, or stood in line beside someone talking on a Bluetooth and holding up one finger to suggest to the Barrista that he should wait to take the order... This is why at the bakery we have serve yourself straight up coffee independent of the espresso machine, and why Starbucks should have 2 lines, one marked PITA and one marked Cup Of Coffee.

Your Punishment in Hell

by Gary Leising

Someone will douse a cobra in gasoline,
light the sucker, and shove it headfirst
down your throat. It'll speed straight
through your esophagus, unfurl
its hood to fill your stomach
then begin to strike and strike and strike
and strike and strike: fangs pierce
your stomach, venom pours in,
the little burn of incipient ulcers
grows quick, paralysis sets in.
Your lungs stop before your brain,
before your hand, which lifts
to your mouth the plastic-lidded
paper cup holding the caramel
macchiato cappuccino with a double
shot of espresso and frothed soy milk
topped with two shakes of cinnamon
and no, NO (yes, you said no twice)
sugar that was made for you
slowly, while I, already running late,
waited behind you for a simple,
already-made black coffee.
You will lose all motion before
that drink reaches your mouth,
but you recover and the drink,
strangely, has vanished, and barrista
and cobra-douser-slash-lighter do it all again
and again. I know this because,
for my angry impatience,
I am behind you in line in hell
forever, the pot of black coffee
behind the counter steaming,
turning, I know, bitter.

"Your Punishment in Hell" by Gary Leising from Fastened to a Dying Animal. © Pudding House Press, 2010.
Lifted from The Writer's Almanac

Sunday Afternoon in Sun Valley

2010-10-24T21:30:00.000-04:00

Baklava

2010-10-22T19:16:00.003-04:00

This is one of our family's favorite treats, and although it may seem exotic, it is quite easy to make. You can find the basis for my recipe here. Of course I always have to make changes, so I will tell you my tweaks and tricks so you can make this awesome dessert that is different and fun.

I use a mixture of nuts, this time it was almonds, walnuts and pecans, but I also use cashews, hazelnuts and/or pistachios if I can find them on sale.
Chop your nuts in a food processor if you have one, that makes it quick and easy, but pulse the harder nuts (almonds and hazelnuts) a few times first before adding the softer nuts, that way you get uniform pieces. Otherwise you'll end up with big chunks of almonds in a walnut paste. It is up to you how coarse to make your nut mixture!
I add about a 1/4 cup of sugar and my ground spices to the food processor while I am chopping the nuts. You can really play with the fun flavors of spices. I used 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon cardamom here, but other great spice combos could be played with. Ginger, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, black pepper, cocoa powder, even cayenne could be used. Not altogether of course!
The syrup can be greatly enhanced by using different flavored honeys. At the Bakery we sell WV honey that comes in a wide array of flavors, from Wildflower to Tulip Poplar to Basswood. Your local Farmer's Market might have other varieties. Whatever type of honey you get can help you decide what kind of other spices to use, for instance if you found orange blossom honey you might substitute orange flower water for the rosewater and use ginger and cinnamon as your spices.
Of course, you can use any citrus rind in place of the orange rind, I have had success with lemon.
In place of the cinnamon stick (or in addition to it) you can use any whole spice that won't go to mush when it is boiled (so you can take it out before you pour it over the baklava).
I boil my syrup for about 5 minutes so it gets a little thicker.
Many recipes say to cover the phyllo dough with plastic wrap and a damp towel, which I would suggest if you've never worked with it before. It really does dry out quickly, becoming very easy to tear. Once you get the hang of putting this dessert together you may find you are speedy enough not to need that step. If your pastry sheets do get a little raggedy, don't worry too much! Try to save one nice intact one for the top layer, that's the only one that really matters for overall good looks.
I don't trim the pastry sheets to fit the pan. A little bit of folding and scrunching of the pastry dough just makes for a lighter, flakier dessert! And untidy edge pieces are the beat ones to eat first.
I usually only use one stick of butter. You do not have to slather the sheets to get this to turn out wonderful. I also have read of people putting butter in a spray bottle! Whatever works to give you a thin coat of butter on every pastry sheet.
Make sure you have a Very Sharp Knife. Do not mess around with this step, it is insanely frustrating to layer up a whole pan of pastry sheets only to have them get all torn up by a dull knife that won't make clean cuts.
Don't cut all the way through all the layers when you score the pastry before baking. Leaving some layers intact keeps the syrup from running right down through and pooling in the bottom of the pan.
Make the syrup far enough ahead that it has time to get Cold before the pastry comes out of the oven. Cold Syrup poured over Hot Baklava makes the best sizzling crackling noises ever, and that says to me that the dessert will be delicate, crispy and not soggy.
Most big grocers carry rosewater, as do specialty international groceries, but don't be discouraged if you can't find it. Baklava is still delicious without it.
Phyllo dough can be found in the freezer section, near frozen pie crusts usually. For best results, give it 24 hours to thaw out in the fridge before you attempt to use it. Do not cut open the plastic wrap till you are absolutely ready to use it, the stuff dries out QUICKLY! There are usually 2 packages in a box, and unless you plan on doubling the baklava recipe, I suggest trying to use the other half of the dough to make spanakopita or some other adventurous dish!
Leftover syrup is really good on pancakes, in oatmeal, in tea, or anywhere else sticky sweetness is desired.

Happy Birthday Phllip Pullman

2010-10-19T05:20:00.002-04:00

image lifted from here

It's the birthday of Philip Pullman, (books by this author) born in Norwich, England (1946). His father died in the air force when Philip was seven, and was awarded a medal after his death, and Philip grew up believing his father had been shot down. He learned much later that his father died in a plane crash, and that he had been dropping bombs on the Mau Maus in Kenya, who had no weapons sophisticated enough to shoot down a plane.

His favorite stories as a kid were the cowboy and gangster shows on the radio, ghost stories, and also comics, especially Superman and Batman. He said, "I was sure that I was going to write stories myself when I grew up. It's important to put it like that: not 'I am a writer,' but rather 'I write stories.' If you put the emphasis on yourself rather than your work, you're in danger of thinking that you're the most important thing. But you're not. The story is what matters, and you're only the servant, and your job is to get it out on time and in good order."

He went to Oxford, but he earned the lowest class of degree. He said, "I thought I was doing quite well until I came out with my third class degree and then I realized that I wasn't — it was the year they stopped giving fourth class degrees otherwise I'd have got one of those." He got a job teaching English to middle schoolers, and he published a novel called The Haunted Storm (1972). He usually acts as if The Haunted Storm doesn't exist when he discusses the books he has written, although it did win an award for young writers — he was only 25 at the time it was published.

Pullman was a popular teacher, and he got his start with children's literature by writing plays for his middle school students to perform. Out of those plays came the books that launched his career as a respected and popular writer, books like Count Karlstein (1982) and The Ruby in the Smoke (1986), the first in his series starring the spirited Victorian heroine Sally Lockhart.

But the books that really made him famous are a trilogy called His Dark Materials, named for a passage in Milton's Paradise Lost:
"Into this wilde Abyss,
The Womb of nature and perhaps her Grave,
Of neither Sea, nor Shore, nor Air, nor Fire,
But all these in their pregnant causes mixt
Confus'dly, and which thus must ever fight,
Unless th' Almighty Maker them ordain
His dark materials to create more Worlds."

The first book was published as Northern Lights (1995) in Britain, but in the United States they called it The Golden Compass. The books tell the story of two children, Lyra and Will, who journey through shifting worlds, learning about a mysterious particle called Dust that the Church believes is the physical embodiment of Original Sin. They eventually take down the Kingdom of Heaven. The books are full of armored bears, witches, gypsies, people with animal companions who represent their souls, and portals between parallel universes. Despite this, Pullman said, "I've always resisted calling it a fantasy, just to be perverse, and tried to maintain that it's a story of stark realism."

His most recent book is The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ (2010), a retelling of the story of Jesus, which divides him into two separate figures: Jesus, a loving and radical preacher, and Christ, his smart and manipulative twin who twists his brother's message and establishes a power structure in order to ensure that Christianity survives. Philip Pullman said: "I have always written what I wanted to write. I have never considered the audience for one second. Ever. It's none of their business what I write! Before publication, I am a despot."

When he writes a book, he writes down scenes on Post-It notes, and then he puts them all on a giant piece of paper and rearranges them. He said that he believes in exercise and healthful eating, but that he himself doesn't practice either of those things, and that the most exercise he usually gets in a day is unscrewing the whiskey bottle.

lifted from The Writer's Almanac

New Plants

2010-10-18T19:58:00.005-04:00

This sweet pothos came from Aldi last week. I love these plants because you almost can't kill them! They thrive even in low light and with minimal watering. As in you can forget to water them for weeks (and there are a few in my house that may have gone months without any love) and they still survive. If anybody would like some cuttings, I have several of these babies in my house, growing like gangbusters. They take right off, you just cut and stick into a pot, no messing around.
This little guy is a Sassy fern. He was on the clearance rack at Lowes this afternoon. I LOVE the one dollar plants. A little loving care, and possibly a slightly bigger pot, and this frilly fella will be the star of my kitchen (or bathroom, or wherever he ends up this winter).
Nephthytis is my new favorite houseplant. They remind me of caladiums, which I had a few years ago. Several weeks ago I rescued two little nephthytis from the sad plants rack at Lowes, they were marked down to 10 cents each which is almost a toe tag for houseplants, but with a bit of trimming and some attention, they came back and are looking good. This hanging basket was a dollar, and I couldn't resist her either, she's labeled Nephthytis Maria. I think these pretties need serious attention, they like to be watered frequently but do not like to be soggy, so we'll see how they survive in this house of sporadic plant care.

We tried to take a bike ride this afternoon, but got rained out. Instead we went shopping, and ended up at Lowes. I needed a new 10 inch pot because a recent squall knocked one of my plants off the porch and busted the pot. The new pot I picked out was a chocolate colored terra cotta, but the check out clerk broke it while she was scanning it out and it was the last one. So I got a plain orange terra cotta pot, AND some guys from the sad plants rack. I would have brought two more home but there really wasn't room in the car.

Then Keith fired up his drill and installed a plant hook I bought at the beginning of the summer. It was supposed to go on the front porch but now that winter is coming I need a place to put all the plants I have collected. They will have to hang from the ceiling to survive with 2 rambunctious kitties flipping out all over the place.

Delia and I made Double Chocolate Nutella Peanut Butter Oatmeal cookies after supper, and they were great! That girl is an expressive cook, and she just loves chocolate. She wants a double chocolate cake for her birthday and I intend to make it from scratch. If anyone out there has an extra Time Turner lying around, I could certainly use it for the next few weeks. I promise not to bump into myself and disrupt the fabric of space and time!

I tried to watch the debate for WV's senate seat but the Capitalist Pig made me want to throw up in my mouth, I thought about turning it off but the website crashed out before I could do it. Maybe I will be able to watch the replay tomorrow. I am so tired at 8:30 pm, this working 6 days a week is for the birds, I hope someone qualified applies for the relief baker's job soon because we all need some relief!

And that's the way it is. Goodnight.

A Sweater for Pippa and other stuff

2010-10-16T21:05:00.005-04:00

Check out those sweet buttons I found at The Sew Inn on High Street in Morgantown!

This week I knit like a madwoman every day to finish up this sweater in time for Lisa's baby shower. It is based on the Elizabeth Zimmerman February Baby Sweater from Knitter's Almanac. I substituted my favorite lace pattern, Fancy Trellis, for EZ's Gull Lace because both are 7 stitch repeats. The yarn is Patton's Kroy Socks in the Flax colourway.
The main deviations from the original pattern are in the sleeves, which I knit in the round. The sweater is made seamlessly by picking up the cast on stitches at the underarm just like I did on the Madyson Sweater, using the selvage of the knitted-on cast on as a row of stitches. It isn't perfect, but anyone who picks up the baby's arms to stare at my seamless join deserves whatever they get!

Delia and I arrived late to the baby shower because unlike most people, I have to work on Saturdays. It was a lovely party which we enjoyed very much (Judy has a TREEHOUSE in her backyard!).

We left the party a little early, but I think it was actually a cosmic good thing, because as we pulled onto Edgehill Street I saw an old friend of Husband's walking up. He'd knocked on the door, but I think Husband must've been upstairs because he failed to answer. It was a great thing that I caught him and his wife before they got to their car. We had such a lovely visit! I hadn't met Andy's wife Yu Ezhong before (so strange to think how quickly 6 or 7 years can pass, what all can happen in that time that you didn't realize you'd missed!), but we hit it off. We ended up having dinner at Lavender Cafe. Our dinners were not brought out at the same time, I stared at my Spicy Red Dragon Roll for 15 minutes while we waited for the rest of the food.
Otherwise everything was DELICIOUS, and the conversation was also delightful. Yu Ezhong (please forgive me if I butchered the spelling, I had to crib it from the internet as best I could) ordered a seafood dish that so reminded me of Dad. She told us about her favorite restaurant food back in China, which is kind of a meatball made from squid, which nobody here in WV seems to know how to make. She also helped Delia with her Chinese pronunciation, because Dee has been learning a few phrases in school. We all had a great time! I hope we get to do it again soon.

On the way home from the restaurant we were waylaid by a shambling tide of ZOMBIES. I wish I'd taken photographs, but it was still a worthwhile experience. We stood on a pedestrian island so the ZOMBIES could drag themselves down the street all around us. They were led by several men in Umbrella Corporation uniforms, which I thought was a super nice touch. Delia was delighted by the spectacle at first, but then came the first Screaming Fast Moving Zombie. And I have to say here that I am SO IMPRESSED by the decorum of the ZOMBIES. Even the folks who were really in character, really making it scary, they never crossed the line and got close enough to touch my kid. It really only took two scary monsters to get Delia Deliciously Scared. And by that I mean the good kind of scared she gets from reading Goosebumps books. We all three huddled together in the street as the tide of ZOMBIES flowed all around us. I especially liked the Gas Mask zombies from Dr. Who. Hooray for the Zombie Walk!

The Madyson Set

2010-10-04T21:59:00.002-04:00

Thanks to Lisa who had the perfect color of sewing thread in her embroidery bag, and to Keith who picked up the buttons while he was in Clarksburg for work on Friday, the Madyson sweater and hat set are complete!

The sweater is Knitted Baby Set, No. 107 from Doreen Volume 100 Baby Gems by Nell Armstrong. It is available on line here. The hat is Aviatrix Baby Hat by Justine Turner, and is available free on Ravelry.

The buttons are JHB from Jo Anns. The yarn is Red Heart Ltd. Heart & Sole, which I picked up at AC Moore.

This sweater was knit on size 3 needles, and the construction was intriguing because it is all shaped with short rows. Even though the pattern doesn't call for it, I wrapped all the turns and then knit the wraps. Doing that takes the eyelets out, but I didn't really want those little holes there, as I wasn't going to finish the sweater with ties anyway. I did a button band to finish instead (repeated the garter stitch part of the pattern stitch, and made 7 YO buttonholes).

Instead of doing the sleeves as called for in the pattern, I did the following:

Cast on the underarm stitches using the Knitted On method.
Instead of binding off at the end of the sleeve, I left those stitches live on one needle. Left the working yarn attached and hanging at the cuff end of the sleeve.
Using the other needle I picked up 48 loops from the cast on edge, starting at the armpit. My cast on was loose enough to allow this, your mileage may vary.
Turned the sleeve with right sides together and from the cuff edge did a 3 needle bind off to armpit, where I jumped back in to the pattern as written.

It was fun! I hope Madyson likes it.

Delia has overcome her fear of knives.

2010-10-04T21:17:00.007-04:00

We made mini muffins tonight! Same recipe from last Sunday, only with Acorn Squash instead of Carnival, cinnamon and a tiny pinch of chili powder for the spices, melted butter for the oil, and the addition of chocolate chips and very finely chopped walnuts!

Coopers Rock, Early Fall

2010-09-30T14:19:00.003-04:00

Brilliant moss in the diffuse light of a moist Autumn afternoon.

Tuesday, Keith picked me up from work with a thermos full of coffee and another thermos full of hot chicken and noodles for my lunch, and we raced to the forest to dine. I love the picnic tables in the old campground area, it is woodsier there than in the picnic area near the park office. We saw the new playground they recently finished, and can't wait to bring the kids up to swing from it's tilty wheely monkey bars.

From the picnic area we took out along the Eagle Trail towards the Rock City parking area, following the paved road for a while till we located the Rhododendron Trail. A new Trail for a new season of hiking! The ground was damp but not very muddy, but the trail is really rocky and already blanketed with slippery leaves. It was a pleasure to explore a new area of the park. Eventually we came to a crossroads and headed back toward Rock City and the picnic area, via the Ridge Trail. It was interesting to gradually recognize where I was, we usually hike the Ridge Trail in the other direction and take a different fork back around. This time as we came around a bend I knew in my bones what would be up ahead. It is a wonderful feeling of intimacy with the land, and it draws me back to the park time and again.

We didn't see another human the whole time we were hiking, which was just fine with me, but we did cross paths with a ginormous Grey Squirrel who was too speedy to be captured on film. The smells in the park change with the seasons, some amplified by the recent damp weather. Sweet decay is creeping in to overwhelm the smells of dirt and green... Water in the creeks is cool but not yet icy... The forest floor is carpeted with acorns. I can't wait to get back.

A bit of blazing orange fungus.

Sunday Morning Breakfast Muffins

2010-09-26T10:24:00.004-04:00

Squash Muffins

1 1/2 c flour (our house blend is about 50/50 white/whole wheat)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 c brown sugar, lightly packed
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

3/4 c milk
1 beaten egg
1 T olive oil
2 T apple butter
about one and a half cups (one medium sized Carnival squash) roasted squash flesh

Mix dry ingredients together in large bowl.

Mix wet ingredients thoroughly in a different bowl.

Make a well in the flour mixture, add the wet mixture, fold together just till moistened. The batter will be pretty thick.

Scoop by scant 1/4 c into greased muffin tin. It makes a dozen regular sized muffins.

Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Happy Birthday

2010-09-22T05:25:00.002-04:00

to my Adventure Husband!

Things that are making me happy Right Now

2010-09-16T17:25:00.008-04:00

Pizza with garlic & onion sauce, topped with spinach, mushrooms, ricotta, roasted beets and Havarti cheese.

My fern is growing!

Elizabeth Zimmerman's puzzle of a baby sweater pattern, and the magical internet community of knitters called Ravelry which helps me make sense of it. Oh, and the Araucania Nature Wool that is such a pleasure to knit up.

My Distinguished Scholar daughter, who brought home some stratospheric WesTest results, decided to scent our last batch of homemade laundry soap with her lemon balm from the garden, and also gave me a foot massage.

The wet orange leaves all over my neighbor's driveway and the smell of earth after rain.

Our little PurrMonster Rohn, jumping up onto my lap on purpose.

Fun at the Park

2010-09-16T14:12:00.001-04:00

A New Playlist

2010-09-09T21:26:00.001-04:00

Inspired by my recent nightmare, I made a new mix tape to listen to. Don't worry, there aren't really any songs about blood!

Ohiopyle

2010-09-06T18:11:00.002-04:00

Weekend Images

2010-09-06T17:51:00.005-04:00

11 uses for cat litter bins

2010-09-02T14:25:00.005-04:00

As you may or may not know, Edgehill House is home to three cats. I haven't yet taught them to use the toilet, so we go through quite a lot of cat litter. It comes in a large (non recyclable) plastic bin most of the time, and sometimes we get it in the slightly smaller plastic jug. I hate to throw stuff away, and I have accumulated about a thousand empty Tidy Cat Bins. Fortunately I have discovered plenty of uses for them, and I thought I would share them with you.

1. Recycle Bin - They already have nice handles and they are small enough that I can fit two or three under my kitchen cupboard. Plus, the relatively small size encourages us to go to the recycle center on a regular basis. The first batch I spray painted several years ago are looking rather worse for the wear, but now adays they make spray paint especially for plastics, so you can make them look as cool as you like!

2. Kitchen Laundry Hamper - A nice thing to have if you are trying to cut back on the use of paper towels.

3. Homemade Laundry Detergent Container - The shorter 27 lb container is the perfect size for the recipe we use. I thought I had a blog post about Delia and I making it, but I don't. This One was the starting point for our recipe, but we replaced the bar soap with one part grated Fels-Naptha and one part grated Zote.

4. Bathroom Trash Can / Emergency Vomit Bucket - Once when we were young, a guest at one of our parties decided he needed to puke in my stockpot. That will NEVER happen again. Also, if you've ever had the stomach flu or food poisoning, you know how nice it is to have an extra bucket handy.

5. Drip Catcher - If your house is old like mine, you might have the occasional indoor rainstorm. I can always use one of these buckets to catch the drips, which leaves me free to freak out.

6. Toy Tote - We keep the water pistols, frisbee, and any other picnic toys in one, but you could use them to sort Legos, Barbies, Bristle Blocks, Lincoln Logs, or any toy that has multiple parts or needs to be toted.

7. Gardening Tote - I keep my trowel and fork and gloves in there. They are also good for carrying potting soil around from the front of the house to the back and vice-versa.

8. Watering Can - I am particularly proud of that one. It is made from one of the 20 lb jugs. I used a sharp object to cut holes in the lid and holes in the handle to let air in. It works GREAT.

9. Rain Barrel - Kind of small, but it fits right underneath the gutter drain that sticks out of the retaining wall in front of my house. If we're outside playing in the rain, we can fill up several buckets, and the lids keep mosquitoes out.

10. Compost Bucket - Fits under the sink, and I can carry it out to the compost pile whenever.

11. Charcoal Bin - Keeps the briquettes for our charcoal grill nice and dry!

Mixtape

2010-08-30T14:49:00.002-04:00

I found this neato website that lets you make music mixes and share them on the web. Kind of like making mix tapes except I don't have to sit on the floor in front of the tape deck for two hours. Few people have a tape deck now adays anyway. Give it a click. I hope you enjoy it.

Kitty in the Cupboard

2010-08-30T08:02:00.003-04:00

Jack has this habit of opening cabinets, and now he has a new pair of cabinet doors to open. We were discussing what to keep in the buffet (which was supposed to become Delia's new dresser, but after much heaving and swearing getting it into the house, we determined that we would never get it up the stairs!) but Jack has his own plans for the space.

The matching dining table is so rad, because is shrinks right up. It lengthens out to seat 8 when all the leaves are added in, but for just the three of us we are going to keep it tiny.

Thanks Mom, for the grown up furniture!

Back to School!

2010-08-23T12:23:00.002-04:00

First day of Fourth Grade.

Produce Time!

2010-08-19T13:28:00.005-04:00

The bins from Round Right Farm CSA were full to bursting with good stuff this week! All local, all organic, and ALL DELICIOUS! I just ate one of the big tomatoes for my lunch, and it was the tomato I have been waiting all summer to taste.

I really lucked out this week, because I didn't get a spot on the CSA list this year, but since they drop off the produce for South Park at the bakery and several somebodies didn't come pick up their shares yesterday (on vacation, maybe?), we got to split up the bounty and take it home so it wouldn't go to waste.

What shall I do with TWO KINDS OF BEETS? Sorry for yelling but beets just make me SO HAPPY. Corn, shallots, peppers, cucumber, onions, carrots, lettuce, red potatoes, green beans, four different kinds of tomatoes, and did I mention both red and golden BEETS? Mom, are you coming over for supper?

Fiesta Tent Sale

2010-08-12T17:10:00.007-04:00

The highlight of my vacation was our last stop on the way home, at the Flatwoods Outlet Mall. I knew that the Fiesta Outlet was hosting their annual Seconds Tent Sale, because I follow HLC on Facebook. I'm not saying I planned my entire vacation around the event, but there was a reason we left on Thursday - so we would be passing through Flatwoods on the first day of the Tent Sale!

A little more than halfway through the line to check out at the sale!

I only purchased one crate of stuff, and I am proud to say it cost me less than the retail price of one place setting. I guess if you add in the value of an hour of my life standing in line in 90 degree heat... it was still worth every sweaty moment. To be surrounded by all that color! To hear the din of plates clacking against one another, old women slamming the bowls against the pallets to separate them... Friendly chatting in the mile long line. It was time well spent in my opinion.

Part of my sale booty, the small Peacock Mixing Bowl being the crown jewel find!

Mugs, drying on my stove, for Seester!

Raindancer

2010-08-01T19:26:00.000-04:00

Ron the Cat Becomes a Man

2010-07-24T15:30:00.002-04:00

Poem of the Day

2010-07-24T04:36:00.001-04:00

Perhaps the World Ends Here

by Joy Harjo

The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what,
we must eat to live.
The gifts of earth are brought and prepared, set on the
table so it has been since creation, and it will go on.
We chase chickens or dogs away from it. Babies teethe
at the corners. They scrape their knees under it.
It is here that children are given instructions on what
it means to be human. We make men at it,
we make women.
At this table we gossip, recall enemies and the ghosts
of lovers.
Our dreams drink coffee with us as they put their arms
around our children. They laugh with us at our poor
falling-down selves and as we put ourselves back
together once again at the table.
This table has been a house in the rain, an umbrella
in the sun.
Wars have begun and ended at this table. It is a place
to hide in the shadow of terror. A place to celebrate
the terrible victory.
We have given birth on this table, and have prepared
our parents for burial here.
At this table we sing with joy, with sorrow.
We pray of suffering and remorse.
We give thanks.
Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table,
while we are laughing and crying,
eating of the last sweet bite.

"Perhaps the World Ends Here" by Joy Harjo, from Reinventing the Enemy's Language. © W.W. Norton and Co., 1998.

lifted from The Writer's Almanac

Poem of the Day

2010-07-21T17:00:00.001-04:00

Just to Feel Human

by James Tate

A single apple grew on our tree, which
was some kind of miracle because it was a
pear tree. We walked around it scratching
our heads. "You want to eat it?" I asked
my wife. "I'd die first," she replied. We
went back into the house. I stood by the
kitchen window and stared at it. I thought
of Adam and Eve, but I didn't believe in Adam
and Eve. My wife said, "If you don't stop
staring at that stupid apple I'm going to go
out there and eat it." "So go," I said, "but
take your clothes off first, go naked." She
looked at me as if I were insane, and then
she started to undress, and so did I.

"Just to Feel Human" by James Tate, from Memoir of the Hawk. © The Ecco Press, 2001

lifted from The Writer's Almanac