Fiber Star

Tangling, Moebius and Valentines Day!

2012-01-31T06:30:00.000-06:00

So what do tangling, moebius and Valentines Day have in common?

First I started at I am the Diva's blog to check out her weekly tangling challenges. I'm new to her blog and just came across Weekly Challenge #55. which uses moebius as the central theme. Then I followed a few of the links and found this blog post here at Xplore&Xpress That showed me how to make the hearts below and more about the moebius. So I spent about an hour on Wednesday night making and cutting moebius strips then Thursday took the time to make my Valentine something geek worthy. This is my practice run.

You really must try this at home. All you need is some paper, pens, scissors, something to make things stick (I used double sided tape) and a bit of curiosity to explore how the heck it works! I'd tell you all how to do it here but I don't need to because all you need to know is in the 3rd link above.

Then you can make one for the geek in you life. Or you could do it together.

Just keep tangling!

Monday Musings: The Marilyn Monroe Meme

2012-01-30T06:30:00.000-06:00

On facebook Marilyn Monroe has been hailed as an example of beauty that counters the love of the thin model.. I do think she rocks but this blog post here suggests we need something even better to counter society's shackles. Do we want anyone telling us what is beautiful. Do we want to compare ourselves to each other? Read the blog post she has some good points.

I think Dar William sings it up in her song Cool as I am

"I will not be afraid of women."

Sip it Saturday: Shlafly Winter ESB Ale

2012-01-28T09:39:00.000-06:00

Winter ESB Ale was smooth, lighter than I expected and fruity. Not bitter at all even though ESB stands for extra special bitter Apparently ESB beers aren't supposed to be bitter despite having bitter in the name. Stephen was meh on it but I liked it.

It was nice with my chicken quesadilla for lunch. Yum.

Foodie Friday: Steak Tacos

2012-01-27T07:30:00.000-06:00

85% local dinner, sometime in 2010 that is! I planned to post it but never did. Maybe it can inspire you if you are in a food rut. Might have to make changes because tomatoes and tomatillos aren't sadly not in season. Bummer. Cabbage is still easy to find and maybe some really good jarred salsa would do in a pinch.

Steak Taco's

12 plus ounces of Kansas Grass Fed Angus Flank Steak Cut with the grain. Marinated in lime juice, garlic, and cumin. Then cooked.

Tomatillo Salsa

Local Roasted tomatillos, one ear
local sweet corn, small onion, local purple pepper, salt. This was so good it didn't last for dinner. So I made some Pica Da Gillo to make up for it. 2 Local tomatoes, 2-3 gloves crushed garlic, one ear local sweet corn, one small onion, one local anaheim pepper, salt.

Marinated Red Onions: vinegar, sugar and red pepper flakes or jalapeno for spice. Cabbage slaw: cabbage of course, grated carrots, vinegar, salt.

Thankful Thursday

2012-01-26T08:34:00.000-06:00

I'm thankful the light is returning!

Wordless Wednesday: Ahhhhhhh....

2012-01-25T09:08:00.000-06:00

Tangling Tuesday

2012-01-24T06:30:00.000-06:00

Over the holidays I took a long break from knitting, spinning and more. One, I was sick, Bah! Two, I was having fun with my family. Three, I got distracted with Pinterest where I came across more online information about Zentangles. I first heard about Zentagles through my local fiber guild. I wasn't able to go to the meeting where everyone learned about it. I tried to find out more online but my internet and google fu was lacking at the time. I was going to get a starter kit and share it with a friend but we got busy and didn't pursue it. I even looked on amazon and swear nothing came up when I typed in zentangle.

So while I was recuperating and pinned things on Pinterest I zentangled. Some of my favorites patterns are: betweed, mooka, cubine, tuscon, and paradox. I watched these video here from the creators of Zentagles.

On Flickr you can find a lovely gallery of Zentangles. I have Zentangle inspirational and patterns collected on my Pinterest Board.

An official Zentangle is on a nice piece of drawing paper. Cut to 3.5 inches square and drawn with a fine ink pen. Sakuara .25mm pigma pens are recommended and I love them too. Since falling in love with tangling I got myself some pens, a nice journal to explore patterns and some lovely white paper to cut to size.

Here's some of the first tangling I did before I understood the standard process or size.

My tangling journal where I explore new patterns:

Some how I came across the basic steps. This is how I understand it.

Draw four points in the corners of the card with a pencil. Then connect those points. Don't fret about the lines they don't have to be straight wibbly-wobbly is good! If you want the design to go to the edges of the card you don't have to do this.

Also with your pencil draw what's called a string inside the box you made. Not sure on the rules on this. I see ones that are done all curvy and some that are several lines all straight too.

Then with your fine ink pen fill in section with patterns that please you. Most of all have fun and don't fret about it. Your string is a guidde but not meant to restrict you. You can tangle outside of the lines.

Then last you can add some shading or not. It can really make it all pop.

Here are a few of my official tangle squares:

You can see the string lines I created and how I used them and didn't use them.

This was done using a diamond grid and combining lines and the paradox tangle.

This one I followed the string a bit more.

What I most like about Zentangles are the "rules" that help you get started but not so much a "rule" that it blocks your creativity. Last I leave you with a link to a free pdf download. You will need to join the website to get it but I'd say it's worth it. Just go here

Tangle! You know you want to. It's like doodling in highschool but better and you don't have to do it to stay awake during a boring lecture. You an do it because it's fun!

Edited to spell Tuesday correctly and remove my draft notes :P

About Uberlist No. 2

2012-01-23T06:30:00.000-06:00

I want to be more organized and get things done. I find if I don't make a list and check it twice. I don't get things done. Sunday I had big plans. Instead I spent almost the entire day on blogger exploring what I could do and writing some posts. This is good because I want to write more and have content for the blog but...you knew I was going to stick my but in there somewhere right?

I want to get other things done too. Like the laundry, picking up the house, errands, spend time with the kids and my husband, watch a good movie, knit or spin or something crafty, and get dinner cooked at a reasonable hour. So I have a basic to do list of sorts. It helps.

It only helps if I use it!

I didn't use it Sunday.

Enough said.

My Apologies

2012-01-22T15:40:00.000-06:00

If you follow my blog in a reader. I'm trying to get the hang of the new format and keep hitting the wrong keys or forgetting to click other things. I'll get the hang of it eventually. In the meantime please be patient. You might come across an empty post or a post that seems like a repeat to you but in reality I unposted it because I was trying to schedule the post but didn't. So there it is.

Sunday Book Review: Rise and Shine

2012-01-22T06:00:00.000-06:00

Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlin narrated by Carol Monda - A very belated posting of this review. I started writing it over a year ago. So take the review for what it is.

I picked this audiobook up because of the narrator. At least I thought I did. I thought Monda had narrated at least one of the books in the Ember Series by Jeanne DuPrau. I was wrong. If you like to listen to audiobooks and find you really like a certain narrators voice all you need to do is put the narrator in the author field at the library or on amazon you can find other books the narrator has read. Just make sure you have the right one.

I still liked Monda's reading of Rise and Shine. Her voice really seemed to fit for the narrator of the story, Bridget or Brightie as her nephew called her. I found the story compelling although at times hard to listen too. It's hard for me when I know someone has made a mistake even if the character in the book was a jerk. I don't want to give too much of the story away. There is some sad parts in the very end. Over all a very real story and one about relatonships: sisters, family, comittment, love, parenting etc.

Sip it Saturday: Two Hearted Ale

2012-01-21T06:00:00.000-06:00

From the shores of Gallifrey

Two Hearted Ale, an ale fit for a Time Lord. A two hearted ale for a two hearted Doctor. The Tenth Doctor is my favorite. Sadly I did not take notes on this beer. I know that it was good and I would drink it again. Yes we got it because of the name.

Fiber Friday : Wonderful Woolfest 2012

2012-01-20T18:00:00.000-06:00

I should have taken pictures of all the pretty shops and lovelies at the Winter Woolfest 2012 in Wamego. This was the first time I was able to go. I was either sick or there was something close to a blizzard happening. Not this time! Even better I had a ride thanks to a member of Knit Lawrence. And a few other knitters came along as well, so double the fun.

I got some fiber, merino/targhee roving and some local rambouillet fleece, and a spinner's control card. Later in the afternoon we had some coffee then we stopped at a thrift store and I got a few more the things. The brown swing top bottle will be for simple sugar for mixed drinks or herbed vinegars. The photo frames for a photo of course. The tin now stores my wire and beading tools so now things fit better in the tin that holds beads and jewelry making findings.

There were several free classes or demonstrations to choose from. I got to watch Nikol Lohr from Yarn School make batts again. I needed some reminders so I know how to use my drum carder.

I also learned how to do a moebius cast on created by Cat Bordi. So I can knit a moebius cowl for Jade. She geeks out about the moebius.

All in all a good day. I recommend going if you have the time. Woolfest is often the 1st Saturday in January. So keep your eyes peeled on the Wicked Stitch for details.

Thankful Thursday - An Uberlist for 2012

2012-01-19T06:00:00.001-06:00

Why Thankful Thursday? It's one of my ideas for this year to write more on my blog and it's on my Uberlist for 2012 to express thanks. What does a to do list have in common with thankfulness? Because doing these things will enrich my life. Anything that enriches my life is something to be thankful for.

1. Enjoy cleaning house for me. I want a cleaner and more organized home. I don't want to resent doing it. It needs doing and it's better to enjoy it than to resent.

2. Be more organized and get stuff done I will say I will get done.

3. Play games with my cool kids.

4. Watch good movies and bad ones too.

5. Walk 3 days a week.

6. Knit a saddled shouldered sweater for Stephen.

7. Get the yoke sweater going for Jade that I will steek! Eeek!

8. Dye fiber and card it on the drum carder. Pick a color scheme. Spin it long draw. Enough to knit a sweater for me!

9. Work on long draw spinning. I want to spin soft lofty yarns.

10. Go on dates with my husband.

11. Visit Wamego with the Fam - we have a coupon for the Wizard of Oz Museum

12. Take walks when it's beautiful outside.

13. Take a camera with me more often to take pictures

14. Dye with my natural dyes, indigo and cochineal.

15. Do some silk scarf dyeing with Jade using Safflower petals.

16. Dye silk scarves inspired by India Flint.

17. Zentangle on some clothes.

17. Make zentangle cards.

18. Get scanner set up in family room. Move printer into garoffice.

19. Set up garoffice so it's easy to put stuff away.

20. Get stuff off old computer and store things virtually and/or on thumb drives.

21. Get something to store thumb drives.

22. Save for Yarn School 2013!

23. Weave or sell the freekin' loom already and save up for the Wolf loom I really want.

24. Get the color gamp napkin kit from Halycon or see if Yarn Barn can put one together for me.

25. Get up the nerve to sell my mom's 4H table loom. I can use the money for something fibery cool.

26. Make beer for the first time.

27. Get out more and do stuff.

28. Shelving for the family room on either side of the fire place.

29. Start Blogging again. I have some ideas!

30. Stephen and I need to get our ducks in a row like if the worst happens and now I take this out of the law. Nothing bad will happen. Nope not going to happen.

31. Start health care savings account.

32. Roof on the house.

33. Paint some of the furniture I have around the house to revamp it.

34. New windows. For the whole house but we can start with the kitchen.

35. Read more about Zen practice and set aside specific time for it.

36. Attend more events at the UU fellowship in Lawrence.

37. Play piano. Take lessons. Practice. Something!

38. Make amigurumi. I have the urge to make toys again.

39. Make some picture shelves like these here.

40. Review this list when I get bored.

41. Sew pajamas pants for me and the kids.

42. Sew some aprons - have this idea brewing to use old jeans.

43. Help Jade make jeans skirt.

44. Play more video games with Corbin - at least talk about it lots.

45. Remember to breath.

46. Call and chat with my sister.

47. Keep in touch with family.

48. Go to an unschooling conference.

49. Get a job to pay for it all.

50. Build a time machine so I can do it all. That or find the time turner Hermione used.

51. Remind myself that this list doesn't have to be done this year.

52. Have fun

53. Enjoy life

54. Knit a sweater for Corbin. He said he wants blues.

55. Help Corbin sew some bags.

56. Blog about the uberlist.

57. Dye fiber in colors that work with the sweaters and things I have so I look less like a crazy yarn lady OR stop worrying about it and embrace crazy yarn lady persona.

58. Keep going with the budgeting for the most part it's working.

59. Keep using google calender and getting reminders. It helps with number 2.

60. Budget some money so the kids and do some decorating for their rooms. Things like posters etc.

61. Finish painting bedroom doors.

62. Finish bathroom - fix tile - supposed to be on Stephens list.

66. Keep going to swing dancing with Stephen because it's fun.

67. This list doesn't have to end. I can add more to it all year long and cross things off if I decide it's not something that needs doing.

68. Celebrate Summer Solstice this year. I keep saying I want to do that and don't. It would be a nice balance to our Winter Solstice celebration.

69. Return to Uberlist regularly for inspiration. This is on here twice. That's a good thing.

70. Have people over to do more with fiber with others.

71. Be thankful. Express thanks.

added after posting

72. Finish working up spiral sweaters and get the pattern written up too so I can sell it!

Getting Started Homeschooling

2012-01-12T10:41:00.011-06:00

Hey all you folks who come to see what I have been doing with fiber I regret I've been too busy doing stuff with fiber and spending time with my family to blog. Right now, I'm taking the time to post something about homeschooling because I've been getting lots of questions and need a one stop place to send new hoemschoolers. So new homeschoolers in Kansas and those contacting me locally in Lawrence. Here you go! If you knit, spin and like to cook you might like my blog too. Maybe I'll be around more often this year and maybe not.

So first off, If your kids have been in school you will need to formally withdrawal them in writing. If they haven't ever been in school then you don't have to worry about that. So starting reading:)

Homeschooling in Kansas - How to homeschool in Kansas

Join a local list or two:

Lawrence Area Homeschool Network Yahoo List (LAHN) is a secular, inclusive homeschooling group to support families and encourage homeschooling in Lawrence, Kansas and surrounding areas. LAHN values diversity and requests participants to be considerate to all people and faiths. Our common bond is homeschooling. Most of our meetings will be social in nature, although members are encouraged to share their skills through classes, activities or organizing field trips. This list is pretty quiet these but I assure you we are a friendly bunch and even more so in person. We currently meet on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month. I started this list and group about 7 years ago. I'm not as active in facilitation stuff as I was. I still got to group twice a week.

Topeka Area Homeschool Network Yahoo List (TAHN) We are a secular inclusive homeschooling group whose main focus is facilitating social activities in the Topeka, Kansas Area. We value tolerance, acceptance and respect for individuals regardless of age, race or religion. We recognize and celebrate diversity. Members use a variety of methods to homeschool their children. We recognize learning happens at all ages in a variety of ways and that there is not one right way to homeschool.

So you've dealt with the legal issues and joined a local group. Now what? First you breath. Then start reading anything you can get your hands on about learning and homeschooling. The more you read about homeschooling the better questions you can ask so you can get the help you are looking for. Watch your kids and observe how they learn.

Some good books to read

My top 5 at least it was about 10 years ago!

Learning all the time -John C. Holt

Child's Work: Taking Children's Choices Seriously - Nancy Wallace (might be out of print)

Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense - David Guterson

Homeschooling Book of Answers - Linda Dobson

Deschooling Our Lives - Matt Hern

Meeting Children’s Unique Learning Needs:

Punished By Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes-Alfie Kohn

In Their Own Way: Discovering and Encouraging Your Child's Multiple Intelligences - Thomas Armstrong

Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences-Howard Gardner

Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century - Howard Gardner

Dumbing Us Down: Curriculum of Compulsory Education - John Taylor Gatto

Better Than School: One Family's Declaration of Independence – Nancy Wallace

Christian Unschooling : Growing Your Children in the Freedom of Christ-Teri J. Brown, Elissa M. Wahl

The Unschooling Handbook : How to Use the Whole World As Your Child's Classroom-Mary Griffith

Homeschooling for Excellence-David Colfax, Micki Colfax

And the Skylark Sings with Me-David H. Albert

The Unschooling Handbook : How to Use the Whole World As Your Child's Classroom-Mary Griffith

Homeschooling for Excellence-David Colfax, Micki Colfax

And the Skylark Sings with Me-David H. Albert

Homeschoolers' College Admissions Handbook: Preparing Your 12- to 18-Year-Old for a Smooth Transition-Cafi Cohen, Linda Dobson

The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education-Grace Llewellyn

Real Lives: Eleven Teenagers Who Don't Go to School-Grace Llewellyn

If school was a bad experience you may need some time to deschool. Deschooling gives your time decompress from the stress of school and move to the kind of learning you want to do with your kids. Having kids home full time takes some adjustment if your kids have been in school for a while.

While you deschool don't worry about curriculum. Spend time with your kids and learn about homeschooling.

What kind of homeschooling will you do? Eclectic, classical, school at home, unschooling.

Ann Zeise has a fantastic website to get you started here.

My family unschools. I'm inspired by things found on here and here. You can find other posts I've written about unschooling on my blog as well here.

Let me know if this is helpful and anything else you think I might add. Mostly this is the basics to get you started.

Okay the formatting sucks for the book list - formatting is better.

Italian Inspired Phyllo Triangles

2010-09-19T09:01:00.003-05:00

The veggies contents of the fridge that needed eatin' on Thursday.

preprepared phyllo, broccoli, spinach, misc greens, green onions, squash, ricotta, cooked red pepers and onions that were used for tacos earlier in the week.

A lot of the ingredients I have are leftovers from making a greek spanakopita. Last time I made that dish I threw away the ricotta because it got bad before I figured out what to do with it. So I am set out to make an Italian inspired spanakopita.

So I chopped up the red peppers and onions as well as the basil and green onions. I cooked the spinach and other greens down just enough and let them drain for a bit. Then mixed it all in a bowl with some crushed garlic about 4 cloves. I also added some marjoram.

I added the rest of the ricotta and 1/4 cup plus if shredded Parmesan cheese.

Then mixed that all together. Now on to the fun part of making the triangles. I melted about 1 stick of butter for brushing the phyllo pasties. I would have used olive oil but we didn't have enough. Also preheat your oven to 425 deg F.

Lay one phyllo sheet on a cookie sheet and brush with butter. Lay one more sheet down and brush with butter again. I used two sheets for each triangle. Then fold the two sheets in half the long way.

Place a dollop of the filling on the bottom. Then begin to fold it into a triangle.

Brush the top with butter and set aside on another baking sheet. Repeat until the triangles are done. Cut a small slit on the top of them. I don't know if this is really necessary or not but I did it. Place in the oven for 15-20 minutes. I like to turn the pan in the middle so they brown evenly. Take them out and them cool for a bit then devour!

What did I do with the broccoli and squash? Stay tuned for another post someday, maybe.

Raspberry Crisp

2010-08-27T18:34:00.001-05:00

Inspired by the recipe found here

1 cup (2 cups would be better) raspberries plus 1-2T of sugar
3T Flour
3T Oats
2T Brown sugar
pinch of salt
4T Butter
1/4 T crushed toasted walnuts

Mix dry ingredients, cut in the butter, add walnuts. Pour berries in to pan then top with crisp mixture.

Bake in preheated 400 deg oven for about 10 minutes.

Oops forgot to take a pic before is was slurped up!

Dye Progress

2010-08-27T15:11:00.003-05:00

Just 6 hours later and the avocado pit dye liquor already looks much darker.

Here's what it looked like this morning. From left: 2 jars with avocado pits with water and ammonia, pits with water only, avocado peels with water and ammonia. I started the peel soaking today and it's super dark already.

Yarn I dyed earlier this year then did a post mordant with copper a few days ago. From left to right: Tansy, Osage Orange, Onion Skins. The copper gave the tansy a green cast to it and made it much darker. The Osage orange in much darker and the onions skin is slightly deeper color. What next?

To dye, dye, dye; to dye, dye, dye

2010-08-26T13:22:00.004-05:00

is all I want to do, do , do....

With the cooler weather it's a perfect time to dig out all the frozen dye stuff and experiment. Not to mention I bought some other mordants from Carol Leigh's Fiber Studio in Columbia, Mo that I'm dyeing to use.

Wednesday I started with collecting some Black Eyed Susan flowers. I soaked them over night then boiled them and simmered for an hour on Thursday.

The flowers still have quite a bit of color so I plan to boil again and simmer for at least another hour.

The dye liquor looks quite dark.

Then I prepared some mordant liquors. Jenny Deans Natural Dyeing recommends making mordant liquors instead of measuring dye stuff every time you are ready to mordant. I used Carl Leigh's mordant proportions rather than Deans. She used the least amount per pound of fiber. As I understand despite these mordants being heavy metals that most of the mordant binds with the fiber so I can pour the leftover water bath into the garden without harm. Some of the mordants are especially good for certain plants. The only mordant I have not made up is chrome but I plan to soon. It's the one the scares me the most.

These are all in concentrations to mordant one pound of fiber in 24 ounce canning jars. From left to right: Iron: 1 tsp ; Tin: 1/2 tsp (will add Cream of Tatar (CoT)to the mordant bath) ; Copper: 1 tsp

I keep them wrapped in black plastic trash bags to keep them out of the light and store them in dark place in the house. Each has their own color of rubber band. Iron: red, Tin: white, and Copper: green. If you have young kids I suggest a locked cabinet.

Next up are the avocado pits I have been collecting and friends have graciously saved and donated to the cause.

After they thawed a bit I broke them up with a mallet. Sometimes I needed a way to break them up more so I used a drill bit to crack them open.

I added the broken up bits to my food processor to break them up more.

The two 24 oz canning jars each have 10 oz of avocado and 1 Cup ammonia topped off with water. The small canning jar on the right has 5 oz of avocado pits with only water.

I dyed these yarns last year. I'm warming them up to add a post mordant of Copper to see what happens. From left to right: Onion skins, Tansy and Osage orange.

Stay tuned tomorrows results.

It's Magic

2010-06-03T17:30:00.004-05:00

Blocking is magic when you are making lace.

Before

After:

Close Up:

This is my Plume Shawl which I fondly call 7 0f 10 not 7 of 9. I wish I could call is 7 of 9 because that's the kind of geek I am. But I'm making 10 shawls this year and this is the 7th one. It's the 3rd one from my own handspun yarn. 560 plus yards of single ply and hand dyed with acid dyes. I am very pleased with it even though I had to frog back and adjust. I crocheted to the the last row of the edging and came up short. So I frogged back to the 2nd row of the pattern then started the lace pattern but only did 3 triple crochets. ch2 3 triple crochet for the the first edging row. I followed the pattern for the second row.

Food Glorious Food!

2010-05-29T07:46:00.000-05:00

We harvested some Sugar Snap Peas and some Snow Peas. We took advantage of Pendleton Farm's free pick Fridays. We pick the peas then they keep half and we keep half for free.

The girl kid made sure we harvested one more batch of asparagus. When I got home I looked over our sad strawberry patch and found about quart of fresh berries too.

Ahhh Friday....

2010-05-28T08:25:00.000-05:00

Kind of a miscellaneous week. A little bit of walking, a little bit of knitting, a little bit of skate boarding and making plans for the summer.

Last week after taking stock of the stash I started on a stashbusting project or two:

A felted bag made from leftovers of my handspun. It needs a strap. That will just have to wait.

A hat that was going to be a bag. The bling is not a part of the hat but I couldn't resist taking a picture with them still on it. The "jewels" are stitch markers. Maybe I can start a new trend?

I finally started the heel on my socks.

I know it does look like it but I really, really have.

Since temperatures are rising I finished the last square I will knit for a while on my Crazy Blanket. 67 squares so far. So I got quite a bit done. The photo below shows where I was on May 12th.

Remember my Iris Dyeing?

I used some of the iris dye liquor to overdye some onion skin yarn. That the bit on the left that's the lovely olive green. The stuff on the right was only iris liquor. The one in the middle was sort only iris dye liquor. It was meant to be only irises. It's a toned down color because the pink ties I used were dyed and it leached into the iris dye bath. I just harvested the last of my irises and out them in the freezer. There is something about freezing the flowers that helps bring out more of a blue. I'll let you y'all know.

The original plan today was to go harvest some food from a local farm but the kids, one of them balked. When they realized that we were going to actaully get out an do things this summer discussions ensued. We have 13.5 waking ours in the summer maybe more we need to take advantage of it. This does not mean screen time. It mean get out of the house and do stuff!

So on our list to do this summer is Letterboxing. We now have most of the supplies gathered. We still need some log books. Soon, very soon. First I need a beer.

Yes that is bottled beer from Free State Beer! Yum!

Dinner is Prepared!

2010-05-24T07:16:00.001-05:00

Smoked Chicken Wings from the wings we have been saving up for about 6 weeks or so plus a few more from the store. Also starring: Black and Corn Salsa, Cream cheese dip, Carrots, Hummus, and Chips. There was also a hot dipping sauce for the wings that was even too hot for this family. Everything else was fantastic!

We worked up an appetite picking strawberries.

We picked pounds and pounds of strawberries about 19 pounds in all. It's a lot but it didn't take all that long to do about 45 minutes.

The container on the left was for strawberry shortcake. The rest will be for jams and smoothies and more.

Have some short cake!

Nom, Nom, Nom...

2010-05-23T08:28:00.000-05:00

Pizza, Pizza, Pizza!

Black olives and sauted red peppers on homemade crust. Yummy melted cheese goodness. There was yummy pizza for all that's just one of the pizzas Stephen and I shared. Then for breakfast Waffles.

Multigrain waffles with hand whipped egg whites and yummy local berries. I finally got the farmers market in time to snag the berries. Let me tell you people are serious about their berries.

Nom, Nom, Nom.

Toad

2010-05-22T08:01:00.000-05:00

In the jungle of our backyard I found a toad:

The boy kid was able to catch it:

Sort of Sweet & Spicy Peanut Pasta Stir Fry

2010-05-21T07:18:00.002-05:00

I say sort of because I didn't use pasta and didn't use peanuts. I made this before exactly and it's fabulous. My favorite part is the sauce. I followed the recipe from the February 2010 Merc Newsletter. Follow the link, down load the February 2010 Newsletter. Recipe is on page 7.

I followed the sauce recipe exactly.

I added some cabbage so there would be plenty of leftovers. I added some green onions on top after it was cooked because we had some from the farmers market that needed eatin'

Finally I steamed up some Edamame to top it with on the table since I didn't have any peanuts. My original plan was to have a bit of sliced beef in the stir fry but I forgot to thaw it soooo beef was not for dinner.

No pics of it all together. We ate it over rice rather than on noodles but it is really good over noodles. Try it you'll like!

Italian Lentil Soup

2010-05-20T08:35:00.000-05:00

How authentically Italian this is I don't know but I'm going for an Italian taste.

1 - 28oz. can ground tomato
6-8 C - Chicken broth - How much depends on how thick you like your soup. You can also adjust the lentils. I was going for a lighter soup rather than a thick stew so I did about 7 C broth
1 onion chopped
1 large carrot chopped
2 stalks celery sliced thinly
1 red pepper chopped
.25 pound spicy Italian sausage cooked then chopped
4-6 cloves garlic crushed
1 T oregano
1 tsp marjoram
1 C Lentils
1/2 - 1 C red wine (optional) - Idid use red wine but if I had had some hand I would have.

Heat the oven up to 350 deg F then quickly sear the sausage in an oven safe skillet on the stove. Then place sausage in the oven for 2o min. I cooked up two sausage links but save one back for later this week with pasta.

Sauté up the veggies starting with the onions then adding celery, carrots, and peppers. This will take about 10 min. Add garlic and other spices.

Add the canned tomatoes, broth and lentils. Cook until lentils are tender about 1- 1.5 hours. Add wine some where near the end of the cooking time.

Mmmmm... Smells good!

Serve up with the some fresh bread and a salad.

Veggie Sushi and Fancy Onigiri

2010-05-19T07:50:00.002-05:00

We've been eating lots more meals for both lunch and dinner. Mostly in the effort to save money. The time we get together as a family is bonus. On Tuesday we made veggie sushi together and some onigiri. Much eating and laughter ensued.

Sushi and Onigiri

Veggie Ingredients: nori, sushi rice, carrots, red pepper, avocado and cream cheese.

I'm informed byt the girl kid that the onigiri is not fancy it's what you would find in a kids lunch. I think it's pretty fancy compared to your basic onigiri triangle or ball. She made the onigiri and I think it looks really pretty. So there ;)

Ita daki mas! (ee-tah dahki maas - I think that's close for the sounds) - I'm ready to eat!

Iris Dyeing

2010-05-18T09:22:00.001-05:00

Lovely irises that smell really good too. Another dyer on Ravelry did a some iris flower dyeing and got a lovely pale green. So I thought I would give it a try.

80 grams of flowers. I poured boiling water over them a let steep. Wait stop that, reverse that. Do not I repeat do not pour boiling water over the flowers. If you do you get nothing. The boiling water "kills" the colors. Pray pay attention! Place flowers in pot and let soak for a few days.

Okay lesson learned. So the next day I picked more spent blooms. Then in a few more days I got this:

So I took a wee bit of Alum mordant yarn and tossed it in the jar. Heated it to 180 deg for an hour and let it soak overnight.

Now I have this lovely pale green.

It looks prettier in person. Seriously. I'm going to let it soak for longer to see if it will get any darker. Maybe some solar dyeing will help.

Taking Stock of the Stash

2010-05-17T13:48:00.006-05:00

Off to the left you can't see some of the handspun yarn very well I have a few skeins and small bits that need to find a project. You can see it a better better in the photo below.

Sad things is after sorting it all out I only have ideas for about half of the yarn and fiber. I have a small to med-bag of yarn leftovers. Some of it I could make into something but some of it I like to keep around just in case for sweater repair. The left over sock yarn might go in blanket but might not. I can't decide. Maybe a market bag?

I inherited the acrylic stash from a friend thinking I would make some toy veggies but I'm not in the mood. I'm tempted to use in a ripple blanket but then I would need more yarn. I'm not sure I want to start another blanket project.

I'm really tempted to pass the misc stuff on to someone who would enjoy stitching it up into something fun. Because I do have about 3 shawls I'm working on, a crazy blanket, socks, and some yarn I need to finish spinning.

I need to make room for about 3 pounds of fiber to spin up yarn for a sweater. I don't need all the fiber for the sweater but I want plenty for practice. I need to make room to start the Central Park Hoodie. I'm dying to get some of the new felici sock colors.

It has to fit in my fiber dresser. So some yarn has got to go....

Sunshine, Daisies, Butter Mellow

2010-05-14T10:22:00.003-05:00

Turn this boring yarn:

Yellow!

How did I do it?

Onion skins about 4 ounces or so saved from this winter. I simmered the yellow onions skins in enough water to cover them for about an hour. I saved it for a month or so in some canning jars until I had time to mordant some yarn.

Yarn is mordant with 1 T Alum and 1 tsp Cream of Tartar.

Added the yarn to the onion skin dye liquor in my big pot and cooked for about at hour got it to 180 deg F. It made a lovely yellow yarn. Let me show you again!

Dyeing Progress and 8 of 10

2010-05-13T11:46:00.004-05:00

A blurry pic but shows the neonish greens kooliad dyed mini skeins. I overdyed it with some acid dyes. 2tsp red, 1 tsp blue, 5 drops black. The mini skeins total up to about 100 grams of yarn.

I wish I had saved back some of the colors for a better comparison. I think photo above shows how overdyeing with a wee bit of red really tones down the colors. I like the greens much better.

On the left you see some of the Raspberry Sherbet next to Purple Rain. The Purple Rain is about 100 grams of the Raspberry Sherbet overdyed with 1 tsp blue, 10 drops yellow and 5 drops black, 50 ml vinegar.

While dyeing yesterday I started 8 of 10. Yes that means another shawl. I'm using my teal dyed handspun merino/silk.

Dyein' to Dye

2010-05-12T10:23:00.004-05:00

I've been yearning to dye for for a few weeks now. Finally there has been a break in the cooking and cleaning to get some dyein' done.

I started by getting the dyes ready. Then washing up some of the bags I wanted to dye.

I wanted to make an Eye of Jupiter Bag inspired by the Eye of Jupiter painting and symbols from Battlestar Galactica.

I'm such a geek. The bag along with 180 plus yards of handspun will be a prize for the Ravelry BSG Games in July.

While the bag was dyeing I started on some of my handspun yarn.

This is merino/silk single about 500 yards plus. I went for a medium dark teals green color. I'm pretty happy with how the color separated in the dyeing.

I started with 1% stock solution and added 5 teaspoons blue and 2 teaspoons yellow and 100ml of vinegar in the water before I added the dye. Got the temp up to 180 deg for one hour then let it cool for a few more before rinsing and hanging to dry.

I can't wait to hook this up into a lovely shawl.

Then next day I started snagged some of my Knit Pick Worsted Weight Bare Wool and mixed up a redish color, 5 teaspoons red and 2 teaspoons blue, 100ml vinegar added to the water then added the dye.

Fiber peeps call this Raspberry Sherbet. I think it's a good name for it. I'm going to take half of it and over-dye it to get something a bit more burgundy or purple. This yarn will find it's way into my Crazy Blanket which I have done a wee bit more on since I last shared.

I really like this square with the stripes.

Wine

2010-05-07T17:06:00.002-05:00

We just got our shipment of Yorkville Wines. Which one should I open tonight?

The Boy Kid's Salsa

2010-05-07T10:09:00.007-05:00

The Boy Kid's Salsa
1 28 oz can Fire Roasted Tomatoes
1 28 oz can Diced Tomatoes
We used Muir Glenn but use what you have on hand. I do think the fire roasted really makes the salsa extra good.
1 med- large onion coarsely chopped
2 jalapeño peppers seeded coarsely chopped
6 med garlic cloves crushed
a pinch or so of chipotle chili pepper ( the more you add the smokier and hotter it will be)
1 teaspoon or more red pepper flakes
salt to taste

Put the tomatoes in a large bowl and give a quick blend with a hand blender or a few pulses food processor. Put tomatoes back in bowl if you used the processor.

Add the onions and peppers to the food processor and give a few pulses so the onions and pepers are a finner. Add that to the tomatoes. Then add the garlic, chipolte chili powder, red pepper flakes and salt to taste. Mix well.

Then grab a bowl of corn chips and try not to eat too much!

The boy kid can't wait until the tomatoes and peppers are all local and fresh so he can make this again.

Note: I made a mistake get 28oz cans not 24oz cans. Basically the large cans of tomatoes.

Crazy Blanket

2010-05-06T17:53:00.000-05:00

I started My Crazy Blanket in October 2009. I'm only using yarn leftovers or yarn I have dyed myself and the bits of handspun that's the right weight. I'm trying not worry about colors and and any particular sequence. This is very hard for my symmetry and color coding tendency. I'm not all that patient either.

My first go around was a fail as some of the yarns were too bulky so it came out kinds of wavy. I was trying to go with the flow but just couldn't manage it. So I started over.

Phew, much better.

This is where I was in December of 2009. Oddly enough just as it start warming up I've been motivated to work on it some. I picked it up again at the ned of april I have completed a few more blocks.

Even though long term projects are hard for me, I'm considering a similar blanket with sock weight yarn. See what I mean. Crazy!

Pesto Quinoa Salad

2010-05-02T07:30:00.001-05:00

I interrupt Knit and Crochet Blog Week with a recipe because food is good for you! (To be honest I won't answer the rest of the questions because I just really don't want to.)

Spinach pesto
One bunch spinach
6 cloves garlic crushed
1/2 cup olive oil more or less - I started with 1/4 cup this bunch of spinach was on the large size so I needed more
a pinch of fresh basil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 cup toasted walnuts

Blend all ingredients up in your favorite food preprocessor.

Pesto Quinoa Salad - Serves one 1-2
1/4 - 1/2 cup cooked red quinoa
1/4 - 1/2 cup broccoli cut small
1 T shallot only because I had some and it need to be used up
1/4 -1/2 cup carrots diced
small amount mesculan salad greens
a dollop of pesto

I steamed the carrots and broccoli just a bit to make them more tender.

I mixed the quinoa and the veggies in a bowl, topped it with a bit of fresh salad greens and a dollop of pesto.

Hmmm, Hmmm, Good!

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, Day 5

2010-04-30T21:50:00.000-05:00

Where do you like to indulge in your craft?

My living room is my studio. Sometimes it looks kind of like this or it did when we still had the couch in there and when the stash was over flowing.

Now it looks a little more like this if I keep things more orderly.

My glider is the chair you will find me in most often knitting or crocheting while listening to a good audiobook.

Sometimes I like to spin next to the window. All my yarn and fiber stash is stored in the dresser. I have been busy washing up the sweaters to get put away for next winter.

I do love to knit in public. I yarn when I'm at the skate park and sometime I bring my wheel along. I especially like hang out with my fiber friends on Saturdays and on Tuesdays.

knitcroblo5

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, Day 4

2010-04-29T07:20:00.001-05:00

A New Skill

I really want to learn to weave.

Where do I find the time? When I also...

Garden

Spin

Knit

Crochet

Dye

Cook and Eat

Spend time My Husband

and take care of the ~~zombies~~ Kids.

and sometimes I just need to chill with a glass of wine!

Help!

knitcroblo4

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, Day 3

2010-04-28T09:36:00.002-05:00

Crafter I admire?

I really enjoy Lucy from Attic24 blog. She uses such beautiful colors in all her projects. She was the one who inspired my flock of birdie bookmarks with her Birdie Decoration pattern.

knitcroblo3

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, Day 2

2010-04-27T09:22:00.005-05:00

What do I aspire to do? Good question.

Honestly that's hard to say. I want to learn it all yet at the same time I knit and crochet for pleasure. So I'm torn. My next big project will be my first sewn knit sweater with cables because I really would liked a cabled sweater. The pattern I'm itching to do is the ubiquitous Central Park Hoodie but without the hood.

I'm also interested in a colorwork sweater. That could be my first colorwork yoke sweater. I also want to spin all the yarn for sweater. I'd also like to do more lace yarn work like tackle an EZ pi shawl.

I'd like to write up some some patterns but writing patterns make my head hurt. Remember I like knitting to be fun.

So what do I do? I'll go spin:

knitcroblo2

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, Day 1

2010-04-26T20:48:00.004-05:00

Since I have been at a loss for something to say. Since a local knitter shared on her blog about the Knit and Crochet Week. I thought I would participate too.

How and when did you begin knitting/crocheting?

I learned to crochet when I was 10 years old or maybe younger. I have always known how to double and single crochet. For some reason I never did anything with it as a child or young adult, not even a granny square. Then in 2001 I brushed up on my skills again and just had a blast with my hook.

I fell in love with doilies:

And Amigurumi:

I kind of miss these guys. Then I learned to sort of spin then got sidetracked with knitting. I made this:

Was it a skill passed down through generations of your family, or something you learned from Knitting For Dummies?

My dad crochets and my mom did do lots of crafts. I brought Mom back in to the knitting fold. She's kind of a crazy sock lady although she will deny it now that she is more into sweaters. I don't know who taught me how to crochet but it had to have been my Mom or Dad. I had to relearn the basic for crochet and how to read a pattern but I fumbled through.

I really like to learn from videos so NexStitch crochet videos were my friend when I was learning to knit it was KnittingHelp.com.

What or who made you pick up the needles/hook for the first time? Was it the celebrity knitting ‘trend’ or your great aunt Hilda?
I had been looking for a hobbies that I could make some functional and beautiful things and some times some fun things. The fact that it's popular was kind of bonus. Not so much that I wanted to join the crowd but that there are so many cool things for me to make I will never be bored again. (The being bored thing is not entirely true though. I still get bored but I really shouldn't because there are so many cool things to make)

knitcroblo1

The Lasagna is in the Oven

2010-04-23T16:51:00.002-05:00

So I thought I'd share the finished hat I made with the yarn I dyed a few weeks ago. At first I knit it way too long so it kind of flared and the cast off was all wrong too. Confused? It's a top down hat. I used Jeny's Amazingly Stretchy bind off but it was just too stretchy. So I frogged back a few rows and tried the knit two together through the back loop cast off and that also looked wrong. So finally I did a loose basic cast off.

Fail:

Also a bad photo. It was raining that day and lighting kind of sucked.

Ah much better....

And oddly last a work in progress photo to show the stitch.

I fell in love with my garden again....

2010-04-17T10:10:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday after edging and weeding most of the garden beds in the front yard, I planted a few more things in the Mail Box Bed:

I transplanted some phlox and sweet woodruff from the front patio bad. You can't see the sweet woodruff very well because it's behind the daylillies. The Ajuga I planted at the end of the last year is doing great. The peonies look like they like it there too. They came from Stephen's grandmother's house and before that they came from back east somewhere in the 1800's.

Wednesday I started on the back yard. I weeded garden Bed D.

I added few things from the fence beds. I'm going let the fence beds go this year. Then figure out what I want to plant there. I want to get the weeds under control first so I'm not constantly weeding that area.

Then I weeded the Patio Tree Bed.

I added some sedum ground cover, more yarrow and some salvia. I also cleaned off the porch but I don't have a photo of that. Not much to see really.

I also prepared Garden Bed C. I attempted to grow pepper and some basil in this bed last year and failed. I had laid an old sheet down to prevent weeds so only a little weeding here. Then I had an empty flower canvas to fill.

So I transplanted some purple gay feather, yarrow, sedum, cone flower, salvia, a mystery plant, etc...

I called that good for Wednesday so Thursday I prepared part of the new Herb Bed. The bed was a fail as for Asparagus. It gets too wet. I moved many of these herbs from another wet part of the garden so they should do fine here.

Here we have thyme, cat mint, chives, salad burnett, a sad bit of lavender that barely made it over the winter, winter savory, and cone flower.

I did a bit more work on the Patio Bed. I added some of the mystery plant, sweet woodruff and some cat mint where you can't see it. I took a lunch break then decided to do a wee bit more so I weeded the two Back Patio Beds.

The Ajuga-Woodruff bed Patio Bed was fill with dead nettle and other weeds. I pulled them all out and added some yarrow and a cone flower. Then I weeded the Hosta Bed but I'm holding off on adding more to this bed for now.

Here's Garden Bed B that's covered in weeds so I got more work to do.

I better get back out there so I'm so I'm really sorry but this:

and this:

Will just have to wait.

The Knit Princess

2010-04-16T08:41:00.001-05:00

No, that's so not me. But a knitting comic that's quite funny. Go find it here. That's all for now as I need to take photos to share more.

More Flower Woo

2010-04-15T09:05:00.000-05:00

More yummy flower goodness.

This time to pretty up some salad and soup.

Some pretty flowers in the garden too.

The violets in their natural habitat.

Phlox and more phlox.

Some blue bells on there way out.

Oh yes, I'm dyein' please believe me....

2010-04-14T08:29:00.001-05:00

I started with this yarn here:

It's some of my bulky handspun. I actually dyed the fiber for this yarn some time last year. I kind of felted the fiber. So I carded the semi fielted fiber and spun it up.

(this photo is totally off in color)

I added the yarn to my dyeing Crockpot along with a few gluggs of vinegar. I squished it a bit to make sure the yarn was socking up the vinegar water. There's just enough water in the pot plus a little more to cover the yarn. After the water temp reached 140 deg F I added the dye. About 2 cups of water with one teaspoon of neon purple food coloring.

Here's how it looked soon after adding the dye liquor:

When It got to 180 deg F it cooked for about an hour or longer. I let the yarn coo off in the pot before rinsing it. I was very patient and waited for all the dye liquor to soak in. The water was clear when I removed the yarn. It bled very little dye when I rinsed it.

Ahhhh a natural light photo, so much better.

I like how the dye struck on the fluffy bits of yarn. It has kind of a heathered look to it. Stay tuned for future hat.

Kiwi and Wild Flower Fruit Salad

2010-04-13T08:00:00.001-05:00

More flowers yum! Violets and Red Buds.

Organic Kiwis were on sale at my local market for 39 cents each as opposed to 69 cents each. So I bought a few. The green of the kiwis makes a great back drop for the pretty flowers.

Socks Pattern Smattern... Part I

2010-04-12T10:30:00.000-05:00

I was tempted to enter Elinor's Sock contest but realized I don't follow sock patterns so how can I in good conscious write a pattern for someone else to follow? Yet, I will share my sock madness process because I love hand knit socks.

I only knit toe up socks, with magic loop, at the same time but on separate circs, most often with a fleegle heel.

See it makes it easier to try them on and see how they fit. Since I make them at the same time I don't suffer from second sock syndrome.

Right now I'm working on pair of socks with Knit Picks Felici.

It's a really soft springy yarn so I'm going to go with 2.00 mm needles because I shoot for a gauge around 9st/inch but I don't mind if it's 10sts/inch. If the yarn was a bit stiffer I'd go up a needle size or two. Since I plan to knit some very plain vanilla socks I'm going to use my Hiya Hiya needles. If I was going to do a pattern that needed lots of increases and decreases I'd use my fixed Knit Picks needles because they have long pointy tips.

Let's start with the toe. I start by casting on about 24 sts. I find this works for my foot. Less or more might work for you. If you have really pointy toes you might use less. So as I said I start by casting on 24 sts using my favorite toe up cast on, Judy's Magic Casts On, or look here for more Magic Cast on.

Knit one round even
[k2, right leaning inc, knit to the last 2 sts on the needle, left leaning inc, k2] x2 (On the first increase round I add an inc/dec marker so I can keep track of my rows)

I repeat the above rows until I get the number of stitches I need. Then end with knit one round even row.

See knifty inc/dec markers below: (inc/dec position on the left and knit even position on the right)

How do I know how many stitches I need? In general I know I need about 64-80sts using sock weight yarn depending on the gauge. So at about 60 sts I take a look at my gauge.

For this pair of Felici socks I'm getting 9st/inch. The ball of my foot is 9.5 inches. I like some negative ease in my socks so I strive between 15-20%. I say strive because I don't always get the perfect fit but I get a good enough fit. I figure the more socks I knit the better I will get at it. This particular pair of socks I'm trying to get a better fit so I'm going for 20% negative ease.

20% ease: sts/inch x ball of foot x .80 = number of stitches needed
15% ease: sts/inch x ball of foot x .85 = number of stitches needed
So for my foot I get 9 x 9.5 x .80 = 68.4 for 20% ease or 72.67 for 15% ease. Round the numbers up or down. If you don't want to crunch the numbers feel free to use this hand dandy spreadsheet here.

The pattern I have in mind, 3 by 1 seed stitch ribbing, is a multiple of 4 so it will work for both 68sts and for 72sts but I'm going down to 64sts because I don't think I need the extra 4 sts and this means I have the same number of stitches on both needles. If needed I can add some stitches later. I need to do that sometimes for my arch.

3 by 1 seed stitch ribbing pattern:
R1: knit 3, purl 1
R2: knit all
Repeat rows 1 and 2 to create pattern.

Note: I have a bit of an issue with balance so I like to frame the the pattern on top of the sock whenever possible. To make that work in this sock I knit or purl the last stitch in pattern on the sole so the pattern on the top of the sock is framed.

So far so good:

I'll knit until theses socks until they are both 3-4 inches long. Then take some more measurements. Stay tuned for further progress.

Flower Salad for Lunch

2010-04-11T08:02:00.003-05:00

Food from the backyard some of it considered weeds!

Salad mix came from the farmers market. The flowers in the salad came from the backyard: wild violets are the blue white flowers and the pinkish ones are redbud flowers. Eat up it's good for you!

The rest of the lunch was leftover Slower Cooker Barbecued Beef Brisket in the Spring 2010 issue of Cooks illustrated. It was goooood! Finally roasted sweet potatoes. I cut the sweet potatoes up then tossed them with garlic powder, onion powder, cumin and salt then cooked them in a 400 deg oven for 20 or more min. I actually meant to add a wee bit of chipotle powder but forgot.

Ubiquitous Kitty Post

2010-04-09T08:00:00.000-05:00

The boy kid has been volunteering at the animal shelter for some time. We finally found a kitty we all liked and adopted her. The shelter gave her the name of Candy and she is pretty sweet.

She is settling quite quickly and likes to sit in my lap when I'm yarning and doesn't mess with the yarn too much.

Chirp, Chirp, Chirp.....

2010-04-08T08:16:00.001-05:00

I have lots of miscellaneous bits of handspun leftover from projects as well as the bits of unplied singles.

I decided to make some bookmarks inspired by the Birdie Decorations here

So you want to learn to Knit too....

2010-04-07T08:31:00.008-05:00

Someone just asked on my blog for some advice on learning to knit after being a crocheter for a long time. So I thought I'd share a bit of my journey from crocheter to knitter too and the attitude I needed to take to bring on the needles.

Some of my fears were handling two needle instead of just one hook and all those stitches on the needles made me nervous. How did I do it? I was already adventurous with crochet then so brought the same mindset over to knitting.

I found knitting continental much easier than throwing because I was already used to tensioning my yarn in my left hand. When you need help knowing what to do I highly recommend the videos on Knitting Help.

So if you want to knit. What is is you want to knit? I wanted to knit socks. But knowing I like to have some skills under my belt I started with a scarf, a Harry Potter Scarf to be exact.

I really don't recommend making this scarf unless you enjoy knitting endless stockinette in the round. By the time I was done with this scarf I had essentially knit the body of 10 toddler sweaters. My husband does look very courageous though. Yet this was a great take with me project. If I were to do it over again I think making a some wool hot pads would have been a good idea. If the work was not to your liking you could felt them.

Because the scarf was so boring I started a Basket Weave scarf to learn to purl. You won't find that scarf here though because I didn't keep knitting it. So don't be afraid to bail. I came away from it feeling confident in my purling so I could do ribbing.

Anyway when I was maybe a fourth of the way done with the scarf and done about 4 inches on the basket weave scarf that no longer exists. I started my first pair of socks. I grabbed some baby weight yarn which was a sport weight in the stash. Yes it was acrylic but I was just learning and it did the job. I used double points even. I broke my first wood needles as well. So that was the last time I used wood needles to knit socks. I followed Silver's Sock Class as well as reading things on Knitting Help to understand the sock knitting process and made some socks.

I made footies because I wanted to get to the hard parts first: turning the heel and the gusset. It really is not that hard, seriously. The first few rows are the most fiddly. After that you get going it gets easier.

So I say go for it what ever you want to do. If you need help I recommend the Newer Knitters Group on Ravelry. Lots of great info and helpful fiber fiends to get you on your way to knitting glory;)

Tips and a few more in brief:

Knitting Help.com
If knitting English doesn't work try knitting Continental or start out that way.
Be fearless! Don't be afraid of making mistakes or need or rip things out. Actually I suggest you knit something then take out the needles then pick the stitches back up again. This way you learning how your stitches need to be mounted.
Use life lines even if you are knitting a dishcloth it will help learn to read your knitting.
Count, count and count your stitches at first.
Use stitch marker to keep track of patterns.
If you can't see the mistake riding on horse then you don't have to fix it.
Knit something you want.
Most of all have fun.

Yet another shawl...

2010-04-04T11:33:00.004-05:00

I'm knitting yet another shawl. You can see more about it on Ravelry here

I've found I love knitting shawls. There is something inherently soothing of larger needles and finer yarns. The yarn overs and the decreases are meditative and relaxing.

Foodie Friday: Sausage Fry

2010-03-26T10:00:00.000-05:00

Yummy sausage of your choice. I cooked up 4 Beelers Brats. I give them a quick brown on the stove then put them in 375 deg oven for about 20 minutes or so.

After the sausages were done I also started some Basmati rice. You can use any rice you want but Basmati sounded good to me. I went the extra step and toasted the grain in some olive oil before adding the water. Hmmm, It smells so good that way. If you haven't done this before add the clean Basmati rice to a bit of warmed olive oil and toast it until you smell popcorn. At least that's what toasted Basmati smells like to me. Then add the water. I do almost 2:1 water to grain. 1.5 cups of dry rice takes about 30 plus min to cook. I'm pretty cautious and check often after about 25 min. You know it's done when you lift the sauce pan and the rice doesn't slide down.

You can use really any veggies of your choice. I'd have added carrots to the mix but were are low and I want it for stir fry for our next meal.

2 onions thinly sliced
2 red peppers or peppers of you choice thinly sliced
1/2 cabbage thinly sliced
4 or more coarsely chopped toes of garlic

With luck this will serve 4 plus extra. Most likely the girl kid will only eat the veggies and the boy kid will refuse to try it. After fixing this up I really needed the carrots 2-3 or the rest of the head of cabbage to have the ratio of sausage to veggies I'd like.

While the sausages are cooking I prepare the veggies above. After the sausages are done I start cooking the veggies. Sometimes I wait until the husband gets home so the food is all warm and yummy and then he helps cook too.

Start by cooking the onions and when the look almost done I added the garlic. This was a new addition to my sausage fry. I haven't used garlic before but it sounded good tonight. Then add the peppers, then the cabbage. When things look almost cooked to your taste toss in the sausage I like to chop mine up before adding it. Then let it cook for a bit more with a lid so the sausage can add some flavor to the fry and warm up. Salt and pepper to taste while cooking or not.

Mea culpa for the blurry photo but it looks a wee bit tasty yes?

Serve up with the rice and optional sauce below.

3 tbl olive oil
2 tbl rice vinegar
1 tsp yellow mustard (I used dijon this time)
1 tsp tamari
1/2 tsp sugar or honey

I kind of like this sauce on the sweet side and use more honey than suggested above. This is the same sauce I use on the Chick Pea Potato Salad. I don't normaly use sauce on my sausage fry and depend on the flavor of the onion and sausage. Since the kids don't like the sausage there was a request for a sauce. So there ya go. I decided against a sweeter sauce and a drizzled it on the fry was really good.

My New Toy

2010-03-19T09:41:00.002-05:00

I got my Spin Dryer yesterday and I love it. I washed up some mittens, socks, and a sweater in the early evening yesterday and they are all dry this morning.

I have my work cut out for mover the next few days as I get my woolens washed and ready to store for the summer. It's always a bit sad when I need to put the sweaters, hats and mittens away. I will miss them. With the help of this spin dryer it will be done in no time. Since it's supposed to snow on Saturday maybe I should wait a few more days.

Shawls - Lots of them

2010-03-18T09:32:00.006-05:00

I've been yarning lots of shawls. So many that I joined the 10 shawls in 2010 group on Ravelry. So my list of shawls to make keeps getting longer and longer.

Shawl One: Ultra Traveling Woman

Traveling Woman by Liz Abinante
Did extra repeats of the horseshoe pattern and could have done more. I had over an ounce of fiber left.
Ultra Alpaca Fine - Love the feel of the yarn but it's splitty. So I 'm not sure if I would buy it again.
US 6 needles

Shawl Two:

All Shawl by Doris Chan
Changed up the edging. I replaced the pineapple border to the shell stitch. I like this shawl but I'm not sure it's my color. They yarn is super soft.
Cascade Heritage Paints and Solid - Used up what was left from my Dreaming of Spring socks.
I/5.5 mm hook

Shawl Three: Red Wine Saroyan

Saroyan by Liz Abinante
I did a few extra pattern repeats in the middle section.
US 10 Needles
365 yards of Cascade 220

It's really soft and squishy but it's more like scarf in style so I don't know how much I will use it. I find I really like my triangular shawls as scarves as they stay on and looks pretty too.

Shawl Four: A nod to the gods shawl

Three-cornered Scarf by Ruth Hollowell in Intentional Spinner by Judith MacKenzie McCuin
US 8 but I wish I had used US 10
Used all but a small bit of my Wenslydale handspun single
I love how this turned out as the colors transition wonderfully.

The fiber before spinning:

Spun Fiber:

Shawl Five: In the Dark

198 Yards of Heaven Shawl by Christy Verity
I used more of a sport weight yarn than the worsted yarn called for in the pattern. Hence I used about 288 yards of my very own black merino handspun yarn. I also omitted the edging rows using some else's mods from Ravelry.
US 8 needles

The handspun yarn:

A bad photos of me wearing it for scale:

Five done and five more to go. I have one on the needles right now and the yarn for one more.

Mad spinning

2010-03-01T18:27:00.003-06:00

Since I finally managed to knit and crochet down most of the yarn stash. Someday I need to show you all what I have been making. What I feel most proud about is all the spinning have been doing. I've been spinning so much that my legs are sore. Really it's true.

Doesn't it look lovely. I started a shawl with some of it last night while sipping a beer with some fiber friends. I needed that beer!

It will be the 3 corner shawl from The Intentional Spinner.

Wine: Tisdale Shiraz

2010-02-22T17:42:00.004-06:00

I tried this wine for the first time tonight. It caught my eye recently as it's very inexpensive. At my local discount liquor store it's only $3.31 a bottle. So a steal by my accounts when I usually go for bottle at about $9-10. Tisdale Shiraz is a very good red wine and would do fine more most. In the glass you smell a very distinct oakiness. It goes down quite smooth with a bit of fruitiness but not sweet. I'd say this particular bottle tastes as good as any of the Gnarly Head wines I favor that cost anywhere from $8-10 and way better than Barefoot wines and cheaper too!

So go ahead and pour yourself a glass.

No Impact Man

2010-02-10T16:11:00.003-06:00

I picked up the audiobook of No Impact Man at the library yesterday. I vaguely remember a friend recommending it on facebook. I began it today with a bit of trepidation because my youthful idealism has been slowly replaced by middle aged cynicism. My cynicism is due to the fact that I did try to be No Impact Mom when my kids were younger. We bought a Wonder Wash for cryin' out loud and tried to do the laundry of a family of three whe one of those three was in diapers. What a joke...ahh the beginning of my cynical despair at such a tender age of 29yrs or so.

Back to the No Impact Man. I was a bit worried it would be on the preachy side. I'm hard enough on myself so I really don't need to have someone tell me how much I have failed. I'm pleased to say I really enjoy Colin Beavan's insight and struggles and I'm only on disc one. His own inner dialogue on our impact on the planet so far mirrors mine quite a bit. So I'm thinking again what to do, what do to do to save the world so to speak because I'm not going to buy another wonder wash. But maybe, just maybe we shouldn't replace our broken microwave.

So today I feel like sharing a bit what's coming up for me while listening to this book. This quote really stands out for me:

"What's so great about trying to be right if it makes you separate. What's so great about trying to be right if it makes you lonely?"

I found this to be so true when I was a strict vegetarian. This separated me from others and made it more difficult to sit down and just enjoy a meal with others. My feeling at the time of vegetarian rightness also separated me from others.

I'll be back later to share what other bits of wisdom from the book or not because my track record on the blog kind of sucks.

My Poor Blog

2010-01-24T18:49:00.002-06:00

My poor neglected blog. It needs a serious revamp and some posting love. Someday.

Black Bean and Squash Burritos

2009-11-15T15:55:00.004-06:00

I don't have a pretty picture of them but they are good. My daughter loved them so that makes them double good.

I loosely followed the recipe here. I used butternut squash because that's what I had. I peeled it before I baked it. I passed on the coriander but added a wee bit of chipolte chili powder. Just a pinch because it's spicy, if you like it hot feel free to add more.

I vant to suck your blood....

2009-10-31T20:21:00.002-05:00

A recipe for handspun hat and mittens sort of...

2009-10-28T16:51:00.004-05:00

A little bit of this fiber:

Windspun Fiber Shetland and mohair blend

and this one:

Shetland

Spin it up on the wheel you get this:

Then get it on the needles:

Then knit and knit and knit, round and round you go. I used the House Mittens Pattern from Charmed Knits. Then finally I get this:

Find more on my project page on Ravelry.

The Boy Kids New Doo

2009-10-26T08:18:00.002-05:00

He was singing a song while I was taking pics. I just love how this photo turned out.

Book Review: Serving Up the Harvest

2009-10-22T15:54:00.003-05:00

If you are struggling with some new ways to cook up your local veggies I recommend purchasing Serving up the Harvest by Andrea Chesman. I've seen this book several times but kept passing it up because I didn't want to spend the money. So when Borderd sent me a 40% coupon I decided it was time. It's the kind of cook book I like. It gives you basic information in a new way that helps you expand your cooking knowledge. It's the book to grab when you have a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

The first half of the book she shares basic recipes to make a lo mein, stir fry, cheese sauce, pastry, etc. Then the rest of the book is ordered by the veggies seasons. Each vegetable has basic gardening information, basic cooking times and information, several tasty recipes, and a meal or two to make with it.

I have several of the recipes marked that I want to try and the ingredients list is easy to find. So I'm sure this is book that I will take off the shelf and actually use.

Alkanet, Onions and Osage

2009-10-18T09:48:00.000-05:00

More natural dyeing....

Alkanet is a root and it stinks when you cook it. In theory you can get purples from it but I did not. I did get a lovely warm gray with a touch of purple but I'm not feeling the love to do this again.

I may have felted the fibers a bit too since I was bit impatient with the whole process.

Onions skins red and yellow.

20 grams of skins, 20 gram of fiber and I'm love the orange I got with this.

A bit of handspun with onions skins

Osage Organge:

Mordant the yarn some mystery yarn and some Lion Brand Fishermens Wool.

onion skins, walnut sock yarn and the alkanet.

What's up

2009-10-17T11:13:00.002-05:00

This is the busiest fall on record for our family. Lots of activities and learning fun. I'm full!

Both kids are volunteering at the animal shelter. It's more Corbin's thing than Jade's so far. I'm really impressed with the initiative the kids are taking with it.

Jade is taking an acting class and really enjoying it.

We are participating in a Science Club with other homeschoolers. That's been fun for me too learning about things along with the kids.

I'm helping with a Fiber Arts Club for homeschoolers as well.

Lots of skatepark time. Corbin can almost jump stairs!

Role playing games at our house.

We are trying to do at least one fun family thing a month, keep up with household projects and still have some down time.

Is anyone else exhausted just reading this list? I am!

Eek! It's a Steek!

2009-10-16T10:26:00.001-05:00

Steeking is scary process. You actually CUT your knitting. I'm not ready to steek a sweater yet. So I made a coffee cozy instead. I knitted a tube in the round then using a crocheted steek and scissors I cut it to lay flat then added a button band.

You can see more pics here of my the steeking process. Give it try! It's both scary and empowering at the same time.

Overall it was a success. I learned a lot. I wish I had done a grabbier yarn for the crocheting part. The green is Cascade 220 and the pink is Paton's Merino that I dyed. The merino was just too smooth so some of cut ends of the steek worked loose. I manage to tighten it up so it seems fairly secure now.

Walnuts

2009-10-15T09:45:00.000-05:00

About 30 plus walnuts. Steeped over night in about 4 plus pints of hot water from my electric kettle.

Here it is cooking up in the crockpot. The dye liquor was very dark and did not exhaust at all.

The fiber in the bottom left was dyed first with peppermint then overdyed with the walnut. It’s hard to see but it has a touch of green.

Dye notes:

30 plus walnuts - poured hot water from the electric kettle about 4 pints
poured the dye liquor into the crockpot the next morning and filled it about 1/2 way.
Then added the fiber that was soaked overnight with a bit if dish detergent.
Raised dye bath to 180 deg F and soaked for 2 hours. Let it cool.
Started at about 10am and rinsed and drying at about 7pm
There was about 2pints of dye liquor left that still had lots of dye potential left. I have 2 more pints I haven’t even used yet.
Done in crockpot.

More Walnut dyed yarn. This is some of my very first sock yarn.

Before:

After:

Hand Dyed and Spun Scarf

2009-10-14T10:43:00.000-05:00

Lacy Baktus pattern, If you get your google on you should be able to find it online or a search on Ravelry. My handspun corriedale and hand dyed yarn about 3.6oz.

The yarn:

Neon green and neon purple 2 bottles each. Then overdyed green section with 1 iceblue koolaid and 2 of lemonade. Overdyed the purple with 2 grape I think. I'm not sure why I used so much dye with this. I'd like to try this again with less dye.

I really like how this turned out. I used too much dye as it's tuning my hands pink while I knit.

The yarn in it's undyed glory after being washed and whacked:

This is some of my first handspun yarn that I successfully plied, about 358 yards.

Koolaid Time

2009-10-12T10:07:00.003-05:00

Earlier this summer I messed around with koolaid dyeing and food coloring too. There are lots of great resources on line for using koolaid to dye wool.

http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter07/FEATfoodcolordye.html
http://www.memphisfiberarts.org/spin/instructions/colorchart.htm
http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall02/FEATdyedwool.html

Just get your google on and you can find lots more. The benefit of koolaid is you don't need to add vinegar because there is citric acid in the drink mix. I add a good glug anyway just to make sure. If you don't like the small of vinegar get some citric acid crystals as that works too. You don't need separate pots and pans since koolaid is basically a food grade dye. The most important thing is to have fun and not stress it's only yarn.

Here are some of my results from messing around this summer.

1 skein of Knit Picks fingering merino

8 cups water with 2T citric acid for dye bath
Dye amounts: Started with 6 packets of grape and black cherry to 1 cup give or take of water
Soaked yarn then added to 8cup water and citric acid let come up to about 120 deg F
Then added the dye to section of the yarn. Let soak up
Decided it was not dark enough then added 4 packs of Black cherry and 2 packs of grape to the entire bath swished it around.
Temp to come up to 180 deg F for 30 minutes then let cool and rinsed

Then I made a lovely Bruges Scarf with it.

More Red yarn:

Dye Notes:

Soaked yarn then added to crockpot when the temp was 120 deg F I added dye in sections.
Water bath with 2T citric acid 6 cup water give or take
9 cherry and 9 ice blue lemonade dye into 1.5 cup water for each color
heat til 180 deg F for 30 minutes
let cool for short bit then rinse and hang dry

Next up a pretty Blue Green:

6 plus cups water glug of vinegar
water bath up to 120 deg F or so
9 yellow lemonade, 9 ice blue lemonade in 1.5 cups water each
poured over yarn in sections
add dye then heat to 180 deg F for about 30 minutes
let cool for a bit rinse and hang to dry

I'm an impatient person by nature so I rinse my yarn as soon as I can. It's much better to wait overnight or until the dye bath has completely cooled before you remove the dyed yarn. The dye will set better and is especially important with reds that can take longer to bind with the fiber. In the future I will do my best to follow this advice myself.

Hand Dyed and Hand Spun Mittens for Me!

2009-10-11T10:00:00.002-05:00

Lowder Colours Farm Teeswater X

2 ounces - approx. 60 yards
I really like this fiber but the batch I got was either very compacted or somewhat felted because it was hard to draft. It still came out soft and would like to try it again.

Dyed with neon pink and neon blue fool coloring, 1 tsp of blue and 2 of the pink. I now wish I had done 1/2 tsp of each. I dyed it with another larger hank of yarn which turned out more purple, see below. This turned out cherry red, kinda like I use cherry kool aid.

Started with 6 cups water and a glug of vinegar in the bath with the yarn got up to 120 degrees then added yarn. Heat until 180 deg. for 30 minutes. Let cool down then rinsed.

Dyed with neon pink and neon blue fool coloring. 1 ts of blue and 2 of the pink. I now wish I had done 1/2 ts of each. I dyed it with another smaller hank of yarn, see above, which turned out more reddish (kind a like I use cherry kool aid) This one is more purple.

Started with 6 cups water and a glug of vinegar in the bath with the yarn got up to 120 degrees then added yarn.

Yay ! My very first pair of handspun and hand dyed mittens. All for me!

I used up every last bit of the yarn and a tiny bit from another skein in my stash. Since it was purple you can hardly tell. This yarn also turned my hands a bit pink but not quite as bad as the other yarn. It will be interesting when I wear them for a snow fight.

I did a twisted rib for the cuff. Used the pattern I found here. It’s also called a yarn over cable. The pattern is a multiple of 5 sts. I did 8 repeats so I cast on 40sts. Then followed Ann Buds basic mittens. My knit gauge was 6st/inch. I think I followed the pattern for 7st per inch.

Peppermint Dye

2009-10-11T09:00:00.002-05:00

I was reading on one of the natural dye forums on Ravelry and someone shared this absolute gorgeous yarn dyed with fresh peppermint leaves. It was a dk bronze green. Sadly I did not get such a lovely result.

The result isn't bad. It's kind of a warm tan. Unless I change my mind it's destined for an overdye in the future.

175 grams of dye stuff including the stems. Simmered for 30 minutes then steeped for about 4 plus hours. Simmered again for one hour and steeped over night.

4oz premordant (2T Alum and CoT assist) fiber dyed in crockpot with dye liquor for 1 hour.

Tansy Time

2009-10-10T09:11:00.001-05:00

While I was working with the Pokeberries I also harvested some Tansy leaves from the garden.

Most dye resources mention only the flowers. I got a lovely bright at the same time mellow yellow on some Lion Brand Fishermen's Wool. Here it is right out of the dye bath.

I gathered about 175 grams or so of tansy leaves still on the stems then added enough water to cover them. I brought them to a boil then put them on simmer for 30 minutes. Let cool over night and repeated the same in the morning.

I transferred the dye liquor with the leaves in another bin while I mordant the yarn with Alum and CoT assist. I used about 2T Alum and 2t CoT for about 175 grams of Lionbrand Fishermen's Wool.

Then I removed the leaves from the dye liquor. I drained the mordant water off. Then added the dye liquor to the pot with the fiber and cooked it at 180 deg F for 45 min give or take and let cool over night.

Here's the lovely dye all dried and ready for some mittens.

Here a comparison of the Tansy dyed yarn and a small sample of Dandelion flower dyed yarn I did earlier this summer.

Pokeberry Dyeing not Dying

2009-10-09T09:52:00.006-05:00

Pokeberries are toxic but they make a beautiful dye. How toxic they are seems to not be clear. So inform yourself and decide. The berries were used as an ink in the 1800's. Some eat the new shoots in the spring. They do need to be cooked a few times to remove the toxins.

In general berries do not yield good long lasting dye color. I came across some info from Carol Leigh, here, and used them to the best of my ability. Then dyed up 5oz or so of roving.

I collected the pokeberries about 1.5 gallons worth maybe more maybe less. Tossed them in a bin and added a good glug of vinegar and enough water to cover them. Then crushed them a bit. This set overnight.

The next day I cooked the fiber in my crockpot with a few glugs of vinegar. I didn’t use acetic acid just lots of vinegar but I don’t have exact amounts, because I really wasn’t sure on the 56% acetic acid thing. Later I found that citric acid crystals can be used in place of it yet I’m still not convinced that’s true. Mainly I made sure I was using copious amounts of vinegar. Then I took out the fiber and let it cool for a bit.

I got the dye liquor ready by crushing the berries even more. I only used a strainer to remove the berries but wish I had used some cheese cloth as that would have collected the seeds. I had more dye liquor than I needed.

I added the dye liquor into the crockpot and another glug of vinegar. Then I added the fiber. Later I added some citric acid about 4oz to the dye bath. Let the fiber cook for about 30 more minutes after it reached 180 deg F.

Let it soak over night until cool. I rinsed it in the morning and still had lots of color left in the dye bath but the fiber was quite dark. Here are the lovely results!

I saved all the dye liquor I didn't use, 3 quart jars full. I may dye more.

Now I'm spinning it up.

Wine - Cynthiana

2009-05-18T14:33:00.007-05:00

I drink wine. I really like it and I might drink too much since I can't remember once I get to the liquor store some of the wines I've really enjoyed. I wish there was something like Ravelry or Library Thing for wine and there probably is but maybe friends might want to know what I've been drinking.

Last night I opened bottle of Cynthiana, a semi-dry red, from Kugler's Vinyard in Lawrence, Ks. It has a fruity tast that's not overly sweet yet sweeter than I usually drink. I've decided I would get it again. Even better my husband didn't care for it so for me! I think this would be great for mulled wine in the winter. I hope I remember to search my wine reviews in December when mulled wine sounds good. I think this would also taste good with some cheesecake.

I found this at my local liquor store which is unusual for local wines here in Kansas. Cost $10.99 which is not bad for a decent bottle of wine though there are a few that I like for less. So all in a reasonable price for a bottle of wine especially if you like something on the sweet side and something local.

Icelandic Kitty Bag

2009-05-07T20:38:00.004-05:00

This gray Icelandic fiber:

Spun up into this yarn:

About 300 yards of fingering/sport yarn that is. I spun up about 150 yards of black Icelandic yarn as well.

Then I used just a part of that to make this Tapestry Crochet Kitty Bag.

Specs:
A Perrrrfectly Wonderful Tapestry Crochet Kitty Bag Pattern
D/3.25 mm Crochet Hook
About 2.5 oz of the yarn total.
I did a reverse crochet edging with the gray instead of carrying the yarn together as the pattern said because I love reverse single crochet. I still want to line the bag. When that's done it will hold my spinning tools.

Wow....

2009-05-06T21:28:00.002-05:00

I guess I have not posted in a long while. Please blame below:

It's all her fault, seriously!

She sure helps me make lovely yarn:

Winter Vegetable Stew

2009-02-17T16:37:00.003-06:00

In an effort to eat more in season vegetables I'm making this often this winter. My main inspiration for the stew is from Moosewood Cooks at Home. I depart from their recipe to use as much in season produce as possible as and I add stew meat as well.

1/2 lb stew beef
dust with flour

Then brown in pressure cooker. Cover with water and cook at pressure for 10-14 minutes.
Remove from heat and let it come down from pressure and add to the stew when you added stock.

2 (cups) onions finely chopped ( have replaced on of the onions with a leek)
2 celery sliced
olive oil
2 carrots roll cut
1-2 parsnips cubed
1-2 rutabagas cubed
1-2 potatoes or sweat potatoes cubed
1+ cups green beans fresh or frozen
3 cloves or so chopped or pressed garlic
1 green or red pepper (some time I skip it since they are expensive)
2 cups sliced mushrooms (if you wish)
1 teaspoon dried dill or 1 tablespoon fresh
1 teaspoon dried marjoram or 1 tablespoon fresh
1 bottle of beer
veggie or beef stock
liquid from pressure cooking the beef
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
1/2 tablespoon molasses

Saute onions in oil for a few minutes then add the celery. After that add garlic and mix then add the the other veggies and saute for a bit more.

Add the herbs
Add the pressure cooked stew meat along with the liquid. Add stock and a bottle of beer so there is enough liquid to your liking I like to at least cover all the veggies plus a little more.

Then add the dijon mustard and molasses

Let it come to a boil then put on simmer until the veggies are tender about 15-20 minutes or so. Then salt and pepper to taste

Then enjoy with some fresh bread and a beer.

Buns and Burgers

2009-02-17T07:45:00.000-06:00

So for about 3 weeks I have not purchased any bread with the exception of hot dog and hamburger buns. Sunday night I tried my hand at hamburger buns using the Artisan Bread Dough.

I made up a batch of light wheat. After it had risen enough I weight out bits about 3.5 oz each give or take. Gently shaped them then placed them on a grease pie pan. I smooshed them down so they were a bit flatter and let them rest for about 20m min. Then baked them for about 20 min at 450 deg F.

They turned out well and taste good with the burgers. The only problem is they are denser than your usual fluffy burger buns. So I'm going to give the American Style bread recipe from the Artisan Bread book a try to see if this will make a lighter bun.

Stephen makes these delish burgers. He kind of marinates the burgers in some tamari, worshteshire sauce, and garlic before he cooks them up. We top them off with cooked onions and cheese. As long as you aren't a veggetarian. You have to admit that looks pretty good and it was! It's a treat to have tastey homemade burgers AND homemade buns.

I'm proclaiming myself a Domestic Goddess. I just sayin'

Take Stock in Stock

2009-02-16T13:22:00.004-06:00

Ideally I like to make my own stock because it's less salty than bullion and it's way cheaper than the stuff you get in cans or aseptic container. If I just take them time it's really not all that hard.

I keep a bag of leftover veggies scraps from meals in the freezer. When that gets full I put it all in a pot with anything else I have on hand, fill the pot up with water...

Here's a basic recipe and how to if you are a stock virgin. Inspired from New Recipes from Moosewood.

Veggie Stock
2 large unpeeled potatoes and quartered
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced thickly
1 large onion and quartered
1 celery stock chopped
1 apple or pear seeded and quartered
1 bay leaf
12 peppercorns
10 cups water about 2.5 quarts

For a spicier stock add garlic cloves skins and all and a small amount of tomato. I always add garlic. I also will toss in onion peels and not always peel the other veggies I add. I always wash everything well.

Bring to a boil and simmer for about an hour. Strain the veggies out and put them in the compost if you have one. Then you are ready to use the stock or put in the fridge for the next day. If you don’t think you will be able to use it right away you can store in the freezer. Some can be put in ice cube trays so you can use a few cubes when you are cooking up some rice. After they are frozen place in a plastic bag.

You can measure out larger amounts and put it in a Rubbermaid container then after it freezes transfer it to plastic bags so you can have the container back.

If you want a chicken stock just save up your bones and skins as well in the freezer and add them to the veggies.

Pizza, Pizza, Pizza!

2009-02-13T10:18:00.001-06:00

My first attempt at pizza using the Semolina recipe from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. I rolled the dough out and baked the crust first for about 5minutes or so at 500 deg F on the pizza stone.

I wish I had done it much thinner as the crust was on the thick side. I baked the pizza on the pizza stone as well at 500 deg F. I also made one pizza with some light wheat recipe which had 1.5 more cups of whole wheat than the original recipe in the book. I liked the taste of the semolina bread for the crust and will try that again. The light wheat works well too and what I have on hand most of the time so it's likely what I will used most often.

I feel particularly good about this pizza because I made the crust myself, the sauce was left over from spaghetti, and the mozzarella was my homemade cheese. The cheddar was local.

Served it up with some local mesclun mix.

This is my second attempt this time using a light wheat recipe that was actually half whole wheat and half white.

This one I baked the crust for about 5 min on 500 deg oven on the pizza stone. I made all the crust in advance then removed the pizza stone from the oven. Topped the pizza with some Muir Glenn Pizza Sauce, not my mozzarella, left over steamed broccoli form lunch, and steamed some spinach. I brushed some garliced up olive oil over the criust before adding the sauce, then topped with the spinach and broccoli, then the cheese. I mized the steamed spinach with some of the garliced up olive oil before adding it to the pizza.

I put the pizza's in the oven a 500 deg F, for about 5 minutes or until the cheese stated bubbling, right on the rack. I think this was the key to making the crust really crips. I wish I has gotten a side view of this pizza as I got a very thin crunch crust.

Apparent my son was in Pizza Heaven.

My next plan is to make up several pre cooked mini pizza crusts and stpre them in the freezer for a handy pizza meal.

Also adding that I docked both pizza's (as in poked it with a fork) so the sides would rise when baking but the center would not. It also supposed to allow steam to escape. While I was rolling out the dough my daughter said "Hey Mom, you should dock the crust." I said "Huh? What's that?" and she proceed to show me. I learn a lot from my foodnetwork obsessed daughter.

Whey? Yes, Whey!

2009-01-31T09:00:00.002-06:00

I used the leftover whey from making mozzarella cheese in place of the 3 cups water. Actually I used 3.5 cups whey because I find if I don't my light wheat dough is too dry since I like to use 2.5 whole wheat instead of the 1 cup suggested. I started the dough late in the evening so I put it in the fridge to rise.

It rose in the fridge just fine.

Voila! Light Wheat Whey Bread with some Homemade Mozzarella Cheese. Yum!

You can make your very own homemade cheese too just go here and order one of the kits. You know you want to. I splurged and bought the dvd/book/mozzarella kit but kind of wish I hadn't.

But then again the book does have some recipes for making ricotta and cream cheese which I do think I will make. I'm in no hurry to make cheddar cheese which is a bit time intensive, especially when I can get some really good locally made cheese.

Very Creamy Potato Cheese Soup

2009-01-30T10:26:00.003-06:00

(adapted from New Recipes from Moosewood)

Makes one dinners worth and depending on the size of you family several bowls for lunch. In my family the first time I make this in the winter it disappears that evening. The secret ingredient for this is the cream cheese.

6 or more T butter
3 onions chopped
3-4 or more! garlic cloves minced or pressed
6-8 large potatoes coarsely chopped
2 large carrots peeled a coarsely chopped
5-6 cups vegetable stock or chicken stock
(I use better than bullion veggie or chicken bullion but I also make my own stock in the morning if I have the veggies on hand to do it)*
2 ts dried dill (4 T of fresh dill)
8 ounce cream cheese
3 cups milk give or take
1 cup grate sharp cheese
salt and pepper to taste

In a large soup pot sauté the onions in butter until the onions are soft. Add the garlic and sauté for a bit more then add the potatoes and carrots and sauté for 5-10 minutes. Add the dill and sauté. Then add the stock water. Simmer until all the veggies are tender.

Puree the veggies with the cream cheese and milk. I use a hand blender right in the pot. You can use a food processor or a blender. Return the soup to heat and add the cheddar cheese.

Sometimes I cook up some bacon or ham to sprinkle on top. Topping it with fresh steamed veggies is probably healthier but not always as tasty. Serve it up with some yummy bread and dig into a carborific meal!

*Check back later for how I make my own stock. When I use the Better than Bullion I don't use the proportions suggested on the jar. I do about 3t to the 5-6 cups of water suggested. Overall I like the chicken bullion better for this than the veggie bullion. If I want a veggie base I prefer to use my own stock.

Chick Pea Potato Salad

2009-01-28T21:13:00.004-06:00

I made Chick Pea Potato Salad for dinner tonight but instead of using a basic potato I used purple potatoes and sweet potatoes. The sweet potatoes gave the salad more flavor and made it purdy too especially topped with some local greens and green onions. The original recipe called for red peppers too but alas I did not have any.

Cooked Chick Peas- you can use canned but I used some I cooked in my pressure cooker - you'll want 1/4 or so per serving (If you are interested in cooking your beans in a pressure cooker: Check out this link here and this one here for cooking times for various beans. )

2-3 medium size sweet potatoes cubed
3-4 small purple potatoes cubed
handful of ground cumin and a few pinches of salt
3-4 T olive oil

Optional toppings
green onions
red peppers
salad greens

Tamari Mustard Dressing - I usually double this when I make it:
3T Olive Oil
2T rice vinegar (I like using red wine vinegar too)
1t mustard (I use dijon)
1t tamari
1/2t sugar ( I like to use honey and use more than this recipe recommneds)

Preheat oven 400 deg F

Heat a skillet then add olive oil. Add the potatoes both sweet and purple. Saute then add the cumin and mix, sprinkle with salt. Cook a for another minute stirring to mix the cumin on the potatoes. Transfer to a baking sheet and place in the oven for 20 minutes or until cooked through.

Place some of the potatoes on the bottom of a bowl, top with 1/4 cup or so of chick peas, chopped green onions, red peppers, salad greens, crushed corn chips, and dressing.

Pour a nice glass of red wine if you want. I had some Yellow Tail Shiraz from down under. Then sit down for a lovely treat if I do say so myself.

Edited to add some info about pressure cooking beans see above.

Arugula Pesto

2009-01-28T08:15:00.000-06:00

At first it doesn't sound very appealing since I don't care for fresh arugula in my salad bowl. I really like Arugula pesto. I had it for the first time with some butternut squash ravioli at Free State. Since I can't afforest to eat out at Free State all the time, I made some at home last week.

I found my Arugula Pesto Recipe here and followed it for the most part but ended up using more raw garlic than roasted. 1/2 the bunch of arugula was enough to make the recipe then I steamed the rest to eat with another meal later in the week.

I found the pesto on the tangy side the first day but the flavor mellowed after a few days. If you wanted to try this on picky kids or adults I suggest making it a day ahead of time then it might be more of a crowd pleaser.

I enjoyed on it pasta with other veggies. It's been an extra condiment on top of local mesclun mix as well. So all in all a success for me so I'm getting more greens in my diet. I found out arugula ain't so bad after all.

Whole Wheat (almost) Artisan Bread

2009-01-27T10:30:00.000-06:00

I'm giving the Whole Wheat recipe a try but I did tweak it a bit.

Only 6.5 cups total flour 2 of which are unbleached white flour and I only used 1 table spoon of yeast. Since I used less yeast I'll need to let it rise longer.

After 4 plus hours the dough had barely doubled. So I did a trick my daughter shared which she learned from Alton Brown. I boiled some water in my tea kettle then poured the hot water in a pan and put it in the oven. Then placed the rising dough in the oven. In an hour the dough had risen even more but not quite as much as I'd like. So I will add vital wheat gluten to the recipe next time. Use the same measurements for everything else.

I cut off about 1/3 of the dough to make a small round loaf. I don't have a picture to share because the bread was gone before I had a chance. I used the same dough to make cinnamon rolls and they were delish.

I did get a photo of the light wheat bread I baked up last night that was done in time to have a bit of bread and jam and an attitude adjustment before bead.

I made some pita bread with the same light wheat dough. I was so fun to watch them puff up on the pizza stone. It was like magic. I made pita bread!

Just to remind you that I was originally the fiber star related to yarnish fiber that is. I leave you with Sarah the Sleepy Ninja:

My son embroidered the eyes then went off to play with her. When I found her to take the picture she was holding a sword which explain how Sleepy Sarah (free pattern is on Ravelry if you are not a member you should be!) became a Ninja.

Attitude Adjustment Mug

2009-01-25T19:02:00.003-06:00

This lovely mug sold through Ravelry is a bit magical.

At first it seems I might be most disagree(able)

Then pour in a nice cup of hot tea or coffee and look what happens:

What's for Breakfast

2009-01-23T10:05:00.003-06:00

So I guess a little break from all the healthy eating I've been doing. These started with a chunk of Artisan Bread 5 minutes a day dough that was already in the fridge. I highly recommend you use cold dough for this as it's easier to handle. With lots of flour and some patience you can use fresh dough. I find I need lots of lour even if the dough is cold so it doesn't stick to the table. Just go here for the basic recipe. This bread recipe is awesome because you don't have to knead it. Really!

Sans Icing

It took off a fairly big chunk about 1/3 of the recipe. I rolled out the dough so it was less than 1/2 thick. Then spread soften butter over it about 4 tablespoons. Then sprinkled it with cinnamon sugar, about 1/4 cup sugar to one teaspoon or so of cinnamon. I used organic sugar rather than brown sugar because I really like how it tastes. Then roll it up and pinch it closed. You can put it back in the fridge for about 10 minutes so it would be easier to cut but I don't always do this. I put a piece of parchment paper on my peel then places the cut rolls not quite touching on the parchment and covered them to rest for about 30 minutes. Then I put them in a 350 deg oven for 20 minutes or so.

I make the icing while they are cooking. When they come out of them they get iced immeduialtey so it melts and they rolls are super gooey.

Icing Recipe, just cream together the following then ice the rolls when they are hot
2T butter
2T cream cheese
1t vanilla
1t milk
1/2 cup or so powdered sugar

Iced and Super Yummy!

I made these yesterday and since dh didn't get any I made more for breakfast this morning. It was pretty hard not to eat them all but we manage to save back a few for the kids who are not up yet.

So have a yummy, virtual, cinnamon roll. The good thing is there are no calories so you can have as many as you want.

4 cups of veggies a day! Really?

2009-01-23T08:30:00.001-06:00

Apparently with with the new guidelines we should eat a certain amount of cups of fruits and veggies. I should eat 4 cups of fruits and veggies a day, ideally 1.5 cups of fruits and 2.5 cups of veggies. If want you want to see what your recommended amount it check out this link here. I'm averaging about 3 cups a day and honestly don't see how I could have more.

Unless I start adding veggies or some fruit at breakfast there is no way I can get that much in my diet. The only possible way to do so would be to completely leave out breads, grains, and meat. I'm not ready or really willing to do that because a bit of animal protein keeps me on an even keel. The grains add nice texture to the meal as well as some quick energy.

As it is I am pleasantly full after lunch and dinner so adding more veggies to the meal doesn't seem doable. I rarely want dessert which is very good but neither do I want any extra food at all.

I personally don't like to eat a large a breakfast. Sometimes after a breakfast of oatmeal or other grains I am hungry a bit later. So I could fix myself a small fruit cup, smoothie or a salad to add a cup of veggies. I really think if I did that I wouldn't be as hungry at lunch so my veggie intake would go down a bit. So it would only add 1/2 increase total.

Personally I think I'm doing really good getting 3 cups of veggies and some fruit a day. So I'm going to focus on that. The Harvard School of Public Health says not to focus on the numbers because it's different for each person. Yet they sort of contradict themselves here, saying we should aim for 4.5 cups each day. Maybe I'm too hard on myself , and I probably am, but 3 cups seems 1.5 cups short of 4.5 which in my half empty mine seem I'm running short.

In reality 3 cups is twice as much veggies I'm getting a day than I was eating and that is a good thing. When the fresh veggies start coming early this summer I might try a few days only eating veggies and fruits and see how I feel. I don't see that as completely doable everyday but might be nice for change.

Artisan Bread in 5 minutes!

2009-01-22T07:24:00.000-06:00

Really it's more than five minutes but can you be against bread that you DO NOT need to knead! It's true, no knead artisan bread. I tell you it works and it tastes goooood and it's not just wine I drank with dinner either.

This is the dough just after mixing

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day If you can't find the book give the basic loaf recipe a try. You won't be sorry you did. I promise. Just go here. The book which I bought with 30% off coupon from borders has many more recipes, several which are whole grain or multi-grain and other yummy treats. If you follow the other link above it takes to the books blog which has other ideas.

After 60 minutes of rising

hour and half of rising

The loaf resting for about 20 minutes before I put it in the oven.

This loaf that is rest is only about fourth to a third of the dough. The rest is now in the fridge to make other yummy breads.

The loaf fresh from the oven

We had this with dinner tonight:

This is what my dinner looked like. The kids was not quite as veggie intensive.
Pasta, homemade tomato sauce, locally made Italian sausage, steamed broccoli and carrots topped with arugula pesto, local mesclun greens, and fresh bread. Oh yeah a glass of Gnarly Head Old vine Zinn , very, very good! Shhhh! Don't tell the kids but for dessert was another glass of wine and some Green & Black Chocolate with Cherries, also very good.

Today was a bit more intenseive of the wheat that I'd like but I want to get better at making this kind of bread. We had pasta that needed eatin', you see. I am trying to eat a great variety of grains which is why I had quinoa and rice with meals yestarday.

What's Cooking

2009-01-21T08:00:00.000-06:00

Breakfast yesterday leftover oatmeal topped with toasted walnut, flax seed, some dried cranberries, and a bit of half-n-half.

I was a bit hungry later and had a slice of homemade bread topped with cheese.

Lunch was pinto beans, quinoa, sauteed then baked squash and red peppers from last nights dinner, succotash, local mesclun greens, and leftovers of the steamed broccoli and sweet potatoes from yesterdays lunch topped with some cheese and a bit of salsa.

Dinner was 5 Things inspired from Let's Cook Japanese. The recipe did not call for not garlic or onions (it did call for green onions but I didn't have any) so I was skeptical that this would taste very good. The only flavoring was the sugar, soy sauce you add at the end and the veggies of course. I might add a bit more flavor but not much more using more suace or some ginger but then maybe it's not 5 things anymore?

There's maybe 1.5 cups of food there.

My 5 things included the following:
Carrots
Chicken
Tofu
Egg
Burdock root
Broccoli

Obviously had more than five things! I'm not sure which five things should be counted? You can find the recipe I used here. Served on some short grained brown rice.

Served on top of the 5 things was some steamed arugula topped with a toasted sesame soy sauce dressing that is just yum!

At 11 pm I still felt nicely full. So I'm not starving reducing the carbs in my diet. Almost the exact opposite. I can't see how in the heck I'm supposed to eat 4.5 cups of fruits and veggies each day. Maybe if I only ate veggies I could do it. As it is I feel like I have drastically reduced my grain intake.

Yum! Food

2009-01-20T11:46:00.002-06:00

After reading In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan I'm making an effort to eat better this year. His guidelines to eat better has given me the kick in the pants I needed. He reminded me that if you want good food (and I mean food not processed food.) it takes time. So I've been spending more time in the kitchen and hitting the cookbooks too.

So my biggest goal is eating lots more veggies. Right now I'm not eating very locally or always in season but I'm eating better. When spring and the growing season here in Kansas returns I will make a concerted effort to buy lots at the farmers market and freeze much to eat more locally through the year.

Here's what I had for lunch yesterday:

1/2 Cup leftover Very Creamy Potato Soup topped with succotash, steamed broccoli and sweat potato. All in all about 1 cup of veggies if you count the soup. Some say you can't count the potatoes since it's more of starch. It was delicious and I'd do it again. I'm not going to eat potatoes everyday so I'd do this meal again. I love my potato soup.

Breakfast that morning was Oatmeal with, chopped apples, topped with toasted walnuts, flax seed and raisins. I had the same this morning but topped with dried cranberries and a bit of half-n-half.

So far this is really working for me. I am not hungry at all except after breakfast. I'll get into that in another post. After eating lunches and dinners with more veggies than I usually put on a plate. I feel much more satisfied. I think this is working so much better to eat more veggies than to tell myself to eat less carbs or meats.

Want to join me?

It's a Whoo

2008-12-05T14:26:00.002-06:00

But she's not from Whooville. She sure looks sweet in the Whoo Hat I crocheted up for her. This is the same babe I made the Frog Blanket.

You can find this pattern in Not Your Mamma's Crochet. I used the Red Heart Soft that I used for the Frog Blanket: Lt blue, Teal, Dk Purple, Lavender and Lt Green.

For the joining round I only joined in the 3dc of the shell (or the middle one) that made the most sense to me.

Dear Entropy,

2008-11-24T10:50:00.001-06:00

Would you please play somewhere else today?

I have work to do. Is it obvious?

I'd rather to more fun things too.

Actually could you just take an extended vacation?

I would like to be clutter free and clean for the holidays.

Thanks!

Sunday Book Review: Monkey Girl

2008-11-23T19:45:00.000-06:00

Monkey Girl by Edward Hume made my head hurt but in good way. It's about evolution. So if this bothers you please stop reading now.

Things I learned:

The Scopes Monkey Trial was kind of a joke. The town was having some financial problems so the town elders thought that a trial about evolution would help the local economy. So they asked Scopes to say he taught evolution in his classroom. He agreed.

I didn't realize how much or for how long the teaching of evolution has been contested and challenged in the United States.

Text book publishing companies have watered down evolution because they fear the books won't be purchased.

Random Thoughts from reading the book:

I learned about about Intelligent Design. All I can say is why bring science into religion? I can't help but believe that this is drawing line in the sand. If intelligent design is real science then you need to test it. If you did test it would it hold up? I don't think so. So might that then prove there is no God?

I personally don't think evolution makes it so there is not a God. The more I know about the world and how it works the more amazed I am and the more I believe in something. How can you not look at your child's tiny body and not believe in something? How can you not think about life and not be amazed and thankful? I can't.

Ultimately, I believe Religion, Spirituality, and Philosophy is about why we exist. Science is about how. Let's keep it that way.

Silky Soft Scarf

2008-11-17T12:30:00.004-06:00

So I’ve had some of this Frog Tree Pima Silk yarn in my stash for a really long time. On a whim I made this. I really like it. So I wrote up the pattern and got some great hookers to help me test it.

This pattern is also available as a pdf download on Ravelry and you can find it on Fiber Star Originals as well.

Remember when...

2008-10-29T11:59:00.001-05:00

My dishwasher died? We lived without one for over a year. We broke down a few weeks ago and bought one. The last few weeks have been torture waiting for it to get delivered and installed. Why did I do or not do dishes by hand for over a year w/o out too much complaint?

So here is our wonderful new dishwasher.

Yet, I wonder if it's really worth the cost. I truly doubt it will help me keep up with the dishes. Unless somehow this dishwasher comes with magical properties so the dishes literally jump into the washer when dirty and out when clean. Now, that would be a dishwasher!

If you are curious we bought the SHE4AM1 model from Sears on sale for about $500 dollars. We've used it twice and it's cleaning the dishes pretty dang well. The only draw back I can see is the use of controls. I think this is the same quality in materials as the higher end Bosch but to save money that skimp on the electronics. So there's lots of button pushing manipulations to make some things happen. So for me there will be a learning curve to figure out how to use the dang thing. The wash cycle is long. I believe that normal for many new dishwashers. It's quieter than our old dishwasher but not quite as quiet as I expected.

The fine print:
The photos in the blog post have been cropped to hide this blogger's messy kitchen.

Brrr!

2008-10-27T11:30:00.005-05:00

I have yet to turn on the heat. I know a but crazy. I try to wait as long as possible to save money and do my part to reduce greenhouse gases. We keep the heat pretty low all winter long too so the longer we wait the warmer 65 deg F feels. I'm also inspired by the Yarn Harlot who has Furnace Wars each year with her family.

But dang I'm cold. It's currently 58 deg F in the house. I'm wearing a hat, scarf, sweater, fingerless mitts and warm wooly slippers. If I was moving around and doing some housework, ha!, I might be warmer but I'm not. Now my nose feels cold and the key board is sucking the heat out of my fingers.

It's less than 60 deg F in the house. Why does it seem so cold? If this were spring we would have the windows open and enjoying a lovely day. It may be warmer outside. Let me go check. Our out door thermometer reads 50 deg F and the newspaper says it's 41 deg F. So no it is warmer in the house. I think I'l go make tea. I'm going to hold out a bit longer, atleast until halloween. I can do it. I can but I need some long underwear.

Library Reading Programs

2008-10-25T08:34:00.000-05:00

Oh how, I do not like them. I don't really care for them because I don't think kids need rewards to read and sometimes these programs backfire. Kids will read to get the reward then after that they don't read for the rest of the summer. That's what happened the first year we did the summer reading program. However,the next year we did it, it did not seem to make a difference either way.

Jade is in her room right now with a load of books to read for the winter reading program so she can get a silly prize. Well, I think the prizes are silly like erasers, stickers etc. Maybe she won't reach the goal of 10 books or maybe she will. She's doing it on her own. I'm not making her do it. We talked a bit about the programs and why I don't like them. She came up with the idea that she can set her own goals and maybe her own reward for reading.

The cool thing is she is excited to read and to challenge herself. So that's not a bad thing. I told her if she really wants some fun pencils or note pads then please let's go the dollar store. I don't see them helping my son love reading more. He's enjoying books because we've found some stories he likes me to read to him.

The not so cool thing about the summer reading programs is if the kids do them then they get coupons. Often the are coupons are to fast food restaurants that I need to buy a meal as well. Sometimes this doesn't fit into the family budget or I don't want to eat there. So I make no promises to help them use the coupons. If I don't want to eat there too we don't go. I'm just sayin' I'd much rather eat at Rudy's pizza in town than Cici's Pizza. Depending on the coupon offerings I'm willing to busget and plan for all kinds of cool things to do for the summer so we don't need the rewards anyway. I tell them read because you want to not because you will get something.

PS I wrote this but never published it sometime last year. I liked it so I decided to post it after all.