Today

The weather was so nice today, in the high 20's to low thirties, there was a chilly wind but nothing like the -20's we had last week. Even my house is staying a bit warmer.

However I cannot pretend that I am not sitting in my kitchen with fingerless gloves, two sweaters and a heated blanket on my lap. I am keeping a steady stream of boiling hot tea in my oversize mug and considering putting on another layer.

The thing that really amazes me is how the cats keep warm. They curl up on top of the fridge or snuggle up together.  Only Henry seems okay with sitting on a cold surface. Both Charlie and Tina will go out of their way to sit on something soft or thermal. I guess that has to do with Henry being built for cold weather. He has very thick long fur which gets bigger and thicker in the winter, somehow. He also has fur between his toes that covers the bottom of his feet. Which, by the way, creates a whole bunch of entertainment when he is playing on our smooth wood floors.

But Charlie and Tina, my two short hair cats have found the best way to keep warm. I have to say I am jealous of their ability hang out in the warmest spot in the house.

If only I was small and could hang out by a heating vent...

A Breaded Day

Charlie in "face plant"

It is around 4 in the afternoon on Sunday, though the sun is setting slowly today was a beautiful clear blue and a crisp 9˚.  The day the is going reasonable well. There was the usual breakfast dance around 5:30, that’s when the cats decide that it’s time for mommy to get the heck out of bed which is on time for work M-F, but daddy came to the rescue and scooted them all into the basement for a few more minutes of extra quiet. After there was a lot of door scratching and general begging breakfast was given around 6 and I made the unusual decision to get back into my extremely warm and snuggly bed to get some extra Sunday sleep. Then I ignored my 7am alarm and was not up and moving until 8:45, which is just crazy. 

We continued our favorite Sunday morning ritual of going to breakfast at a local restaurant and spent over 2 hours sitting, talking, planning and enjoying. Then me moved on to one of my favorite activities, grocery shopping which is known as the unspeakable activity as my husband needs convincing about partaking. When we got home I finally made good on my threat to make bread. I have been scheming and dreaming of making bread for many months now. Yesterday I remembered and dug out my William-Sonoma Essentials of Baking book, that was purchased quite literally a decade ago before I was even into being in charge of the kitchen.

Just as a side note I love this book, for someone who is comfortable in the world of baking and understands the basics it will seem a bit over detailed but it is perfect for me as baking is a bit foreign. 

My kitchen work station

Henry helping

As my first experience of baking beyond pizza dough, muffins and cookies it was good.  It was fun to get all of the ingredients and utensils I needed, and measure and create. Kneading the dough was extremely satisfying, even when the olives turned my nice smooth firm ball into a slightly sticky mess from the liquid I didn't drain off enough.

The kitchen plus husband

The dough is shaped and now going through the second rise before baking.. I am a bit nervous but that is normal for me.  Everyone quiet, the babies are all napping in their favorite spots and my husband and I are settled in the kitchen working on our respective computers. The rest of the day holds soup for dinner and maybe a movie. I might even fit in time to work on my devil red sweater.

Yesterday was just as good, happily. I managed to convince my husband to stay awake with me after the 5:00am breakfast dance by watching Return of the Jedi and making raisin cinnamon swirl toast with butter and cinnamon sugar. 

Tina

I spent the rest of the day spread out in the living room getting past the motivation roadblock with my devil red sweater and listening to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. We had pasta and homemade meat sauce and finished watching  Jet Li’s Fearless, which is so good. Like some of Jet Li’s other movies its artistic and extremely well done and the fighting is strangely not that violent.

Charlie and Henry napping together

The bread is done and it really does sound hollow when thumped on the bottom. 

Quick Cowl Triumph!

Hello from the New Year! I find it amazing that this is my first post as I think almost daily of the projects and dinners that I want to write about. It will be crazy as soon as I get going I swear!

Back to my quick cowl triumph!

I was looking for a small quick easy project to work on as I have hit a motivation road block with the sweater I am working on. It got a bit more complicated than I am ready for and I just can’t seem to be finding time to dedicate to it, strangely. In the great House Reorganization of 2011 (which I intend to talk about soon) I had found a few more crochet hooks and some bits of yarn that didn’t really fit into any of my skein end project ideas.

I love the idea of cowls and I have one that I made last year which is nice but not totally what I wanted it to be so a second try was exciting.

 I had a bit less than half is a skein of Lionbrand Homespun pink left over from another project that struck my fancy so off I went on Monday. First with the wrong size, it was way too big, so I took it apart. The next night I tried this weird diamond pattern thing- not good at all. It took too much concentration and time.  So yesterday I was scoping out my usual yarn and pattern websites and I saw a cowl done with a large sized hook and a simple double crochet stitch. It was perfect! I got home last night, hunted down my biggest hook – a size M wooden hook from my mom and got to work. Of course I had to stop and find an emery board, the hook and gotten a bit beat-up and kept on snagging on the yarn.

Two hours last night and 20 minutes in the car this morning I have exactly what I wanted! Major Triumph!

Here you can see the two together.. any my littlest helper, Charlie-my youngest. 

New Post!

If any one could give me tips on making the pictures work on my blog I would be much appreciated...

Happy Tuesday!

Lone Sock

I feel and hope that I will get better at posting, but making sure my camera is ready and conveniently waiting when I have an idea is almost impossible! I find myself thinking that I should stop and capture my progress but then I want to continue my progress while I can…Hence I have mostly pictures of completed projects or no pictures at all.

I can only laugh about this because it was intended to be a present. I completed one whole sock, of my own design, and just could not convince myself to do the other one. The punch line is that I then got inspired by a cowl pattern from Lionbrand Yarns (an after Christmas post) and used up almost all of the yarn I had for that sock project. So I have my lone sock :). 

This is not the first time that I have started and then taken a break in the middle but this will be the first time that I am choosing to not finish. At this point I can't really decide what I should do next, take it apart and do something else with the yarn or keep it as a pattern and example. 

So my lone sock sits in the bottom of my yarn bag, swimming around with the rest of stuff; candy, spare change and pocket knife.  I do have to say, my knitting bag is much more organized as of late because of my incredibly talented sister-in-law. She made me a small bag “to place things” which is perfect for my scissors, measuring tape, stitch markers and holders and other yarn what-not. Thank you for an already functional Christmas Gift!

 See you all in the New Year!

My love of Jiffy mix

I wanted to talk about some other recipe that I love that does not seem to involve cheese somehow...so Jiffy Mix it is.


I discovered Jiffy Mix at the grocery store because Jiffy offers those great, one recipe size boxes of the best corn bread mix. I am something of a brand follower so I tried the Jiffy mix, also the box has a ton of recipes on it, anything from waffles to cinnamon buns and chicken casserole. The product is much like Bisquik but I find Bisquik has a very distinct flavor that I am not so fond of.


I have made the pancakes and cinnamon buns with great success  and decided to try the sugar cookies. The thing is I really don't like sugar cookies- I think they are boring and can be ruined easily but there is no shortage of chocolate chips in my house! Here is what I did:

2 cups Jiffy mix

1/3 cup milk

1egg, beaten

½-1 ½ cups of chocolate chips

2/3 cup sugar

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp of nutmeg

Bake at 350 on a greased cookie sheet for over 8 minutes…they take  longer than I expect so I start checking at 8 and take out when ready.

The trick is to let the dough sit out for 15 to 20 minutes before baking. It will rise a bit and so the cookies end up being little golden brown mountains instead of flat cookies, see difference in pic... And because of the mix they are not crunchy but cakey which I love.

You can also add an extra cup of mix and a half cup of peanut butter for a twist.

I was thinking of experimenting with other things like adding cranberries and nuts or white chocolate chips and candied orange peel but I haven’t gotten there yet. 

Fish

I wanted to write a quick post on the weird but good fish i made last night!

It has .74lbs of Trout, which I have never had before. Its flesh is very similar to salmon but the taste is perhaps a bit lighter. I bought it because it was a good price and something different from the standard Haddock, Halibut and Flounder.

I left the fillet whole with skin on and baked it in my toaster oven on a piece of tin foil, temperature between 425 and 475.
The fish was dressed with:

A splash of lemon juice (about 1 tsp)
An even sprinkling of Morton Season All *Low Sodium* Seasoned Salt (about 1/4 tsp)
An even but light coat of ground ginger (about 1/2 tsp)
An even but light coat of ground cumin (about 1/2 tsp)
...This is where the weird starts....
A liberal amount of Asiago shredded cheese (about 1/4 cup)
2 to 3 dollops of butter or spread

It was good. I have no idea what inspired this either but it was really good. The cheese didn't burn and crust up but got nicely golden. The spices added a nice warmth (if that is possible), the fish was moist and it all still tasted like fish! Which was a good thing last night, though sometimes it is not.