Kitchen Surprise

I had a wonderful evening in the kitchen yesterday.
A friend of mine had a birthday yesterday, so after class I whipped up two dozen cupcakes.
But first, I needed dinner.

Rosemary-garlic roasted potatoes, steamed broccoli, and brown rice. I think this might be the first ime in my life I've ever made rice correctly. It's a very difficult task for for me.

Don't you agree that wisks (whisks?) are the greatest kitchen implement? I have a whole jar of different sized whisks- extra large, medium, small, tiny, and baby. Ideal for a plethora of kitchen tasks! (I just like this picture. I didn't actually use any whisks for dinner preparation.)

Ok, now that the tummy is satisfied, let's get to the good stuff. Cupcakes!!

On the left, S'mores Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. And on the right, Fireworks Cupcakes from my new cupcake book. Both are vegan, although I think there might have been a typo in the recipe for the Fireworks... I'm pretty sure they needed eggs to be the right consistency. They were good, but the texture of the batter was not what the recipe specified.

And in Very Exciting News, I bought skis today!!! They were super on sale, end of year clearance, and I got skis + boots + bindings for less than the original cost of the skis! Pictures when I get them from the shop. (They're these ones, for the curious.)

Love Fest, in Photos

Flowers from my mom!

Delivered on the 15th, so they'd be more of a surprise, and less work for the flower shop.

V-Day b-fast.

French toast, soaked overnight, and mimosas.

V-day dinner.

We spent three hours cooking and ended up with an Indian feast! Cashew curry lamb (from the farmer's market), potato samosas, and dried fruit rice pilaf. The curry was delicious, but decidedly un-photogenic. We did not, in fact, eat cat vomit for Valentine's Day dinner.

New yarn, and a new pattern.

Mike's dad is in town for the International Film Festival, and has been very generously taking us out to movies & extravagant meals all week. I was going to the Knit / Purl sale right after a movie, and he handed me some money for my yarn! I got Cashsoft by RYC, a mix of cashmere and cotton, and had a little leftover so bought myself some Addi Turbo circulars, to replace my shitty size 2 dpns that keep breaking and are absurdly long.

The yarn is awesome, and I think this is going to be the softest sweater ever.

And,thank you and welcome to all my new readers and commenters! I don't always receive your email address when you leave a comment, but I try to respond if I can (by tracking you down on Ravelry, for example). If you've left a comment and I didn't respond, I apologize- I promise I loved what you said and am so grateful you are reading my words!

It's a gorgeous spring day today, so I think I'll try doing some reading outside!

Score!

I was trolling Craig's List last night, minding my own business, and happened on a post advertising "Linen & Handspun Wool Yarn to Knit, Crochet & Weave - $8." I emailed the woman, and stopped by tonight to check out what she had. What she had was a trunk full of single ply wool and various and sundry cones of linen, tweeds, and a lot of unidentifiable stuff. She was selling it all for $8 / lb. I walked out of there with 5 8-oz. skeins of single ply wool that smells and feels like sheep. Yummy! And who could resist a cone of lace-weight mohair?! No one with a knitting soul.

The haul.

Gratuitous close up.

After weighing it all up, the total cost was $25. $25!!! Perfect for a poor little student. I'll use the wool for some sort of chunky, lovely sweater- and if I need more, the woman told me just to send her an email and swing by for more!

The mohair will be for socks, most likely held double. I plan to try my hand at dying with this as well. Mike has requested more socks, and with this much yarn, I could knit socks for the whole family, the kitten included!

I also baked last night. Delicious Chocolate Chocolate (er- Carob) Chip cookies, from The Post Punk Kitchen (that taste exactly like Nabolom Vegan Chocolate Chocolate Chip cookies). Have I told you about these? They're yummy, easy, delicious, and good for you. I think the flax seeds definitely cancel out the canola oil and sugar. Definitely.

I also finished and blocked the Endpaper Mitts. FO post when the sun comes out and I'm home during the day! Perhaps tomorrow will be the day, if it snows like they're predicting.

We had a two hour delay on Monday, due to snow. Half the public schools in Portland were outright canceled. There was literally less than 1/2 an inch on the ground. These west coast folks are snow wimps. Back where I come from, we drove ourselves to school in 5' snowdrifts, uphill both ways, no snow tires, and no chains. Ok, just kidding. But we certainly don't cancel school for a dusting of snow.

PS- I changed the comments so you can post a comment anonymously, meaning you don't have to have a blog or an account to comment. I'll be moderating the comments though, so you might have to wait a bit for your comment to show up. Maybe this will bring some of these mysterious readers my mom tells me about out of the woodwork.

Baking!

No knead bread, from the New York Times in November 2006. So easy, so delicious, and so beautiful.

1 c. whole wheat flour

2 c. all purpose (or bread) flour
1/2 t. quick rise yeast
1 1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 c. water

Mix dry ingredients together.
Add water.
Mix to form a shaggy dough.
Cover in plastic wrap and let rise for 12-18 hours in a warm place (about 70*).
Pour risen dough onto floured surface.
Fold four times (as best as possible).
Flip over, seam side down.
Sprinkle with flour and wheat bran.
Cover with floured cloth.
Let rise another 2 hours.
1/2 hour before baking, turn oven to 500*.
Place cast iron pot (or oven safe pottery bowl!) & lid (or pizza stone!) in oven as it preheats.
When oven is hot, pour dough into pot (or bowl) and cover.
Bake covered for 30 minutes.
Bake uncovered for 15 minutes.

Yum!

Peanut Butter Cookies, from the New Best Recipes.
Rolled into a log.
Covered in plastic wrap.
Frozen.
Defrosted.
Sliced.
Yum.

Adventures in Photos

Adventure #1: (Nearly) vegan birthday cakes, ironic Christmas presents, and new cake decorating sets.

My friend Charan celebrated her (second) 25th birthday yesterday, so I baked her a cake. I got Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World for Christmas (along with Vegan Vittles and, from Mike's grandparents who clearly don't know me very well, The Hamburger Cookbook), and I used the recipe for the basic Vanilla cupcakes, but baked it in my new springform cake pan, and used butter instead of margarine. The frosting is the basic Vanilla Buttercream from the same book, again, with butter instead of margarine. Yummy!

Adventure #2: Swatching! I never swatch. Never. I think it's a waste of yarn and time. I'd much rather be working on the actual project!
However, I'm making Eunny Jang's Endpaper Mitts and needed to decide whether to do a yellow background or a navy background. I think navy (er, rather, Midnight).

I really like the colors together- I got the Finch when I bought the yarn for the Minimalist, and the Midnight yesterday with a gift certificate Mike got me for Christmas. We both really like the colors together, so I'm trying to think of these as Starry Night and not Hannukah. It's like putting red and green together- you can't help but think of Christmas, even if it's July.

Adventure #3: More Christmas gift certificates!

An enormous, lap sized tome of the complete novels of Jane Austen. I have visions of being curled up in a nice overstuffed easy chair, snuggled in with a blanket, the fire crackling in the background, this book open on my lap, Lizzie Bennett dashing over the moors to Mr. Darcy's estate... but switch out the overstuffed chair for our garage sale recliner and the fire for our electrically-troubled ceiling light. (Our house has been crazily dim this whole winter and I finally went out and got new lightbulbs, to discover that fully HALF of all our lightbulbs have been burnt out!! I replaced them all, and all the sockets that were burnt out seen to have some sort of electrical problem that results in flickering and buzzing when the lights are on. Mike says he has an idea to fix it.)

And, Interweave's Favorite Socks! I'm quite excited for this one, as I love all the projects from it I've seen on Ravelry.

To sum up: Christmas gift certificates are great, because you get to keep getting new stuff for so long! Christmas cameras are also great, because you get to show everything off!

Heaven, I'm in Heaven

Why didn't anyone ever tell me how wonderful Malabrigo is? It's amazing!
I started my mom's Foliage hat out of a skein of Indigo Malabrigo Merino Worsted I got with my Tree Jacket yarn. The yarn is amazing. The pattern... not so much. I only have a set of four size 8 dpns, so I had to make do on the increases, then my size 8 circular is 29" so I'm semi-magic-looping, and it is impossible for me to keep track of the lace pattern. I had to do the first row after the increases four times! And I've had to go back and fix at least three more rows since, and I'm not even through one repeat of the pattern!!

Granted, I shouldn't be trying to knit lace in the round while watching Heroes. I admit it.

Another wonderful thing that happened today: two of my good friends here in Portland had the civil ceremony portion of their wedding (dress / cake / family ceremony to come in a year or so), and it was wonderful to be able to share that with them. It was the first wedding I've been to where the couple were people I really know and care about. I'm very grateful to have been a part of it!

It also was helpful in kicking off my resolution for 2008: Drink more champagne.

This is the cake I made for their engagement party. I got two decorating kits (frosting bag & tips) for Christmas, so decorations will be better in the future.

Vacation's All I Ever Wanted

Mike's mom and my mom both came up to Oregon for a Christmas / New Year's vacation, and we celebrated Christmas with a nice meal and presents on the 28th. In knitting related gifts, I got a swift from my brother, and two ball winders, one of which I will return. I also got a gift certificate for a cute downtown LYS, which I am very excited to use!

In non-knitting presents, I got two vegan cook books and a hamburger cookbook, from Mike's grandparents. It was a strange juxtaposition, especially since I don't eat hamburger! Two other exciting presents were a stove top popcorn popper and a cake decorating kit.

For Christmas dinner we had wonderful brussel sprouts, a beer and almond braised fish, and I made a delicious fudge pecan pie, with homemade whipped cream. (I'll post the recipe links later, when we have a better internet signal.)

I've been diligently working on the Tree Jacket, to meet my goal of finishing by January 14, when classes start. It's going really well. I made a few mistakes on the garter stitch section - the garter stitch section- but hopefully I'll forget and it won't be a problem when I finish.

I used the lace pattern as written for the neck, and it twisted a little, so I'm using the alternate lace pattern for the body. K2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk.

The yarn is a more cranberry-colored than this picture shows, but this is as close as I could get.

We also (as promised) got a new camera, and these are the debut photos! I hope the photography actually gets better around here...

Kitty Luuuuvs Cupcakes!

Over the course of this week, we've discovered that our kitty absolutely loves cupcakes.

First, on Tuesday, a law school friend came over to study. She offhandedly commented that she wanted a cupcake. We convinced Mike to make us cupcakes, which he agreed to if I would make the frosting. Deal!

While we were enjoying our cupcakes (a little on the disappointing side- not so flavorful cupcakes with not so flavorful frosting), Arlo decided she wanted in on the action, too. (Apologies for the green-devil eyes in this shot. The red-eye fixer on iPhoto doesn't fix green eyes... go figure)

Then, last night we were sewing up some pillow covers for the giant couch cushions we got to remedy the incredible uncomfortableness that is our futon couch. I keep my straight pins in a cupcake that I knit up last winter. Mike had mentioned once that Kitty got a hold of the pincushion and went crazy, but I had yet to see if with my own eyes. It's intense. There's hissing and spitting and feverish running about the house.

Do you see the fierceness in her eyes? We think she might be incredibly mad at the cupcake because all the pins in it prick her as she attacks it, which make her think it's attacking her back. I'm going to knit her a pin-free cupcake to test our theory.

In non-kitty news, we had brunch at a friend's house on Saturday. Her condo has an incredible kitchen, but unfortunately she's more of a take-out kind of girl. Mike and I have been promising her that we'd come over a cook for her, and Saturday was the day. We brought all the ingredients over (except salt and oil), plus a waffle iron. Turns out, she doesn't have any bowls or measuring cups! We used drinking glasses and an ice cream scoop to measure, and some large cereal bowls for mixing. It was hilarious.

Luckily, brunch turned out fantastically, complete with excellent company. We went all vegan, since one friend doesn't eat eggs and the other is lactose intolerant. I found an excellent recipe for Lemon-Corn Waffles, and vegan sticky buns (I can't find the link right now... sorry!) All was delicious, and adequately measured.

Lazy Fall Saturday

Fall is officially upon us. It's been gray and rainy, with a chill in the air, for the past few days. It's been nice to pull out the sweaters, slip on the corduroys, and snuggle up with a cup of tea.

After doing some pro bono work in the morning (keeping an eye on the police at an anti-war march), and slogging through some Civil Procedure, I rewarded myself with an apple pie.

I think the most difficult part about making an apple pie is deciding how to slice the apples. Growing up, we had one of those apple-corer-slicer-peelers, which was always the highlight of apple season for me. I'm used to thinly sliced apples for pie, but the cookbook (yes THE cookbook) said to cut the apples into 1/8ths. I thought those slices would be too big for eating, so I went ahead and sliced each apple in half, excised the core, and sliced the apples thinly, like an onion.

Tossed with sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice,and a dusting of flour, those babies were ready to go.

After I trimmed the crust, and got the pie in the oven, I had a lot of leftover dough. I squeezed it all back up into a ball and rolled it out into a rectangle. I brushed some egg white on it, then generously sprinkled it with cinnamon and sugar, and tossed on some nutmeg and allspice. I rolled it up and put it in the oven with the pie. 20 minutes later, we had a nice little snack of cinnamon bites.

While the baking was going down in the kitchen, I snuggled up on the study chair with the first sleeve of the Minimalist cardigan. It was nice to be back with the familiar moss stitch, after the brief foray with the Ribbed Lace. The kitten has adopted the chair as her very own, so she was a bit put out to have someone else sitting in it. She took out her anger on the ball of yarn, at first. But then she just sat next to me and watched, not even going after the needles! What a good kitty.

Political Bake Sale

Tonight I baked nearly-vegan chocolate chocolate chip cookies for a bake sale at school tomorrow. The National Lawyers Guild chapter is holding a bake sale to raise money to send to the legal defense funds for the Jena 6. (Nearly vegan because I accidentally used chocolate chips instead of carob chips. But I used canola oil instead of butter and flax seeds & soy milk instead of eggs. It's a great recipe, and the cookies came out very similar to the cookies we sold at the bakery in Berkeley.)

Now, onto the reason behind the cookies. I haven't been very political on this blog. I'm sure my (limited) readership is here for the knitting and the baking, since that's what this is all about.

However, in my real life, I'm a very political person. Politically aware, and politically active. And this is a very important subject.

Today (Sept 20) is a day of solidarity for the Jena 6, and students all across the country are raising money and wearing green and black to raise awareness. This is an issue demonstrating the continuing racism and injustice that plagues this country.

I'm posting the whole message from the colorofchange.org website, and even if you're just here for the knitting and baking, I strongly encourage you to read on and take notice of this tragedy. If you feel so inclined, please consider donating toward the cause of these students.
-----------------

Last fall in Jena, Louisiana, the day after two Black high school students sat beneath the "white tree" on their campus, nooses were hung from the tree. When the superintendent dismissed the nooses as a "prank," more Black students sat under the tree in protest. The District Attorney then came to the school accompanied by the town's police and demanded that the students end their protest, telling them, "I can be your best friend or your worst enemy... I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen."¹

A series of white-on-black incidents of violence followed, and the DA did nothing. But when a white student was beaten up in a schoolyard fight, the DA responded by charging six black students with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

It's a story that reads like one from the Jim Crow era, when judges, lawyers and all-white juries used the justice system to keep blacks in "their place"--but it's happening today. The families of these young men are fighting back, but the odds are stacked against them. Together, we can make sure their story is told, that this becomes an issue for the Governor of Louisiana, and that justice is provided for the Jena 6. It starts now. Please add your voice:

http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/

The noose-hanging incident and the DA's visit to the school set the stage for everything that followed. Racial tension escalated over the next couple of months, and on November 30, the main academic building of Jena High School was burned down in an unsolved fire. Later the same weekend, a black student was beaten up by white students at a party. The next day, black students at a convenience store were threatened by a young white man with a shotgun. They wrestled the gun from him and ran away. While no charges were filed against the white man, the students were arrested for the theft of the gun.²

That Monday at school, a white student, who had been a vocal supporter of the students who hung the nooses, taunted the black student who was beaten up at the off-campus party and allegedly called several black students "nigger." After lunch, he was knocked down, punched and kicked by black students. He was taken to the hospital but was released and was well enough to go to a social event that evening.³

Six Black Jena High students, Robert Bailey (17), Theo Shaw (17), Carwin Jones (18), Bryant Purvis (17), Mychal Bell (16) and an unidentified minor, were expelled from school, arrested and charged with second-degree attempted murder. Bail was set so high -- between $70,000 and $138,000 -- that the boys were left in prison for months as families went deep into debt to release them.⁴

The first trial ended last month, and Mychal Bell, who has been in prison since December, was convicted of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery (both felonies) by an all-white jury in a trial where his public defender called no witnesses. During his trial, Mychal's parents were ordered not to speak to the media and the court prohibited protests from taking place near the courtroom or where the judge could see them.

Mychal is scheduled to be sentenced on July 31st, and could go to jail for 22 years.⁵ Theo Shaw's trial is next. He will finally make bail this week.

The Jena Six are lucky to have parents and loved ones who are fighting tooth and nail to free them. They have been threatened but they are standing strong. We know that if the families have to go it alone, their sons will be a long time coming home. They will lose precious years to Jena's outrageous attempt to maintain a racist status quo. But if we act now, we can make a difference.

Please add your voice to the voices of these families in Jena, and help bring Mychal, Theo, Robert, Carwin, and Bryant home. By clicking below, you can demand that Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco get involved to make sure that justice is served for Mychal Bell, and that DA Reed Walters drop the charges against the 5 boys who have not yet gone to trial.

http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/

Thank You and Peace,

-- James, Van, Gabriel, Clarissa, and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
July 17th, 2007

References:

1. "Injustice in Jena as Nooses Hang From the ‘White Tree,'" truthout, July 3, 2007
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/070307B.shtml

2. "Racial demons rear heads," Chicago Tribune, May 20, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/yvh7t5

3. See reference #1.

4. See reference #1.

5. "'Jena Six' defendant convicted," Town Talk, June 29, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/ysxtgg

Other resources:

NPR: Searching for Justice in Jena 6 Case (streaming audio)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11756302

Democracy Now! - The case of the Jena Six ...
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/10/1413220

Too Sense: Free The Jena Six Now
http://halfricanrevolution.blogspot.com/2007/07/free-jena-six-now.html

While Seated: Jena Six
http://www.whileseated.org/photo/003244.shtml

Nooses, attacks and jail for black students in Jena Louisiana
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/6/28/144445/384

Justice In Jena, by Jordan Flaherty
http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=12783&sectionID=30

The Perpetrator becomes the Prosecutor (and other related entries)
http://friendsofjustice.wordpress.com/blog/

'Stealth racism' stalks deep South
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/6685441.stm

---

*** Michal Bell's conviction has been thrown out, but he remains in jail as lawyers decide whether to retry him as a juvenile.

Dinner for Two...

... Or, what I do when I don't bring books home from school.

Exhibit One: The last of our hand picked veggies. So colorful, so flavorful. I pan seared a red onion & cumin seeds (not hand picked), then simmered some green & yellow bell peppers and tomatoes with garlic, ginger, chili pepper, and Indian spices (specified by our great Indian cookbook). Sprinkle with garam masala and serve hot over rice.


Exhibit Two: Acorn squash "No wonder they call it squash"-ed bread. I made my own squash puree, then followed a recipe for Pumpkin Bread. I doubled the recipe, but obviously there wasn't enough baking powder to raise the loaves. Also, it lacks... something. I think it might be salt. Or maybe sugar. Or the delicious flavor of pumpkin. Mike suggested some apple butter.

Vegetable Love

A friend from New York was visiting this week. He and Mike went camping all week, while I was in class (Boo) but when they came back and I was done with class for the week, we went to Sauvie Island to pick vegetables for dinner.

Caleb and Mike are both excellent cooks- Caleb is starting culinary school sometime soon- and it was the first time Caleb actually went to the farm to pick his own dinner, so he was especially inspired to make something scrumptious.

We ended up with boatloads of delicious veggies (including strawberries! In September! Who knew?) and Caleb went to town in our little kitchen. He did two types of baked acorn squash (chili-spicy and brown-sugary), pan seared red peppers and onions, and delicious green beans with mustard seeds and toasted almonds. It doesn't look very appetizing here, mostly due to my totally lame photographic skills, but I promise, it was the essence of delicious. It is the most wonderful thing in the world to go from field to dinner in less than four hours. At 5 pm these veggies were still eating from their mamas, and at 8 pm, they were giving each other high fives in our mouths (Caleb's metaphors). Incredible.

While dinner was focused solely on fall - acorn squash and pumpkin beer- we leaped back to early summer with dessert. Amidst Caleb's frenzy in the kitchen, I whipped up my Grandmother's strawberry shortcake. It's just a simple baking powder biscuit, but it's so flaky, so light... I can never eat strawberry shortcake with angel food's cake or whatever other people serve it with. For me, it's Grandma's biscuits or nothing. Strawberries in September! Amazing.

Today, we took Caleb to the airport and drove around northeast Portland, looking for yarn stores until Ikea opened. We needed some cushions for the incredibly uncomfortable futon in our living room. And those you just can't get on Craig's List.

We're going to a wedding next weekend and I've been planning to make the Ribbed Lace Bolero to wear over my dress since this summer! The wedding is in LA, so it's probably not going to get too cold, so I'm wearing a fun summer dress and these little silver heels I've got, and I had a dream of the bolero in a light, silvery cotton yarn. I went to (the awesome and amazing) Yarn Garden shop in SE Portland, but couldn't find the right yarn. I had to go to Jo-Ann's to get the cheap (and oh-so-wonderfully soft) Lion Brand Microspun. (I know, I know- I'm a bad knitter. I tried to buy from the LYS, I really did. We went to 3 yarn stores before we found one that was open. But if you don't stock the right color yarn, I just can't help you.)

I've never seen this particular strain of Lion Brand, and even with the ridiculous splitting action, I have to admit to liking it. The designer of the bolero used Lion Bran Cotton Ease, which I'm convinced only exists in other people's blogs, because I've never seen it in a store, and when I've looked for it online, I get told that it's been discontinued. Is it just me? Anyway, Cotton Ease is worsted weight and Micro Spun is sport weight, so I dropped to size 7 needles for the ribbing, but I'm going to go ahead and to the lace part on 10s anyways. Mostly because I don't own any 9s, which would be the logical size to use.

The photo is of my swatch for this sweater. Yes, that is my entire swatch. I really hate swatching. All I can think when I'm doing it is, "I could be knitting something for REAL!" So I tend to do as little as possible to measure the fabric, and then rip it right out to cast on for the project. This here was 20 stitches over about 5 rows. So far, though, I've managed not to make any completely egregious gauge mistakes. I also haven not actually knit that many things from actual patterns in which gauge, like, matters.

Bread and Roses

This weekend has been a great good-bye to summer.

We started out going to the downtown farmer's market on Saturday, and walked away with armloads of fresh kale, spinach, peppers, corn on the cob, and a package of grass-fed, sustainable and local ground buffalo. The corn and the buffalo (made into chipotle burgers) are on the grill now.

We've been having some really excellent game nights with our new law school friends, and last night was no exception. We went through an entire deck of Apples to Apples cards, which is a first for me. Mike wanted to make cookies to take over, but he's been sick (he just started work at a daycare center, and he got infected with baby germs). So he took a nap and I made cookies. Delicious, soft, chewy, melty peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. As close to cookie-perfection as one can come, if I do say so myself. So perfect, in fact, that a full 24 hours after baking the chocolate chips are still melted. The recipe, as always, was from the Cook's Illustrated New Best Recipes book.


You might notice, lurking in the background of that delicious looking spread of soy milk and pb-chocolate chip cookies some other, mysterious, no so perfect looking cookie. Those are the cookies I made today. We had plans to go to a potluck BBQ for a law school group, and I wanted to make something for any vegans that might show up. The bakery in Berkeley had a great vegan chocolate cookie recipe, which I tried to fudge. I started with the recipe for triple-chocolate cookies from the Cook's Illustrated cookbook, and substituted carob chips for the semi-sweet chocolate and bananas for the eggs. I should have added more flour and cooked them for a bit longer. What I got were chewy, not-so-chocolatey, banana flavored blobs.

Delicious, yes, but I think they'd be better crumbled up on ice cream. Or maybe crumbled up with some Bailey's Irish Cream (or some vegan alternative) drizzled on top. Or both. But as cookies, they didn't work out so well.

Amidst all this baking, I even made a fair amount of progress on the sweater! This is the completed back and right front, lounging in the garden. This sweater flies off the needles, when I actually work on it.

Let Them Eat Bread

We ran out of storebought bread yesterday, so today I decided to make some bread that would work for sandwiches. I used the very first recipe out of Beth Hensperger's Bread Bible, for White Mountain Bread. I usually have trouble (especially in our fairly cold kitchen) letting the dough rise enough so that the loaf will be of a size appropriate for sandwiches, but I think I found the key this time: leave the house! I went out on some errands downtown while the dough was doing its first rise, and it had definitely doubled by the time I got back. This might also have to do with some highly active yeast- I don't think I've been using hot enough water and my little yeasties aren't usually able to make enough babies. Today, I had just boiled some water, so I removed my quarter cup that I needed for the yeast, and ta-da! Ten minutes after mixing in the yeast and the sugar, I had a full cup of foam and froth. A veritable yeast orgy had occurred in that steamy bowl!

The cold kitchen makes for a very difficult second rise, after the bread has been split and put into the loaf pans. I've tried to remedy this by turning the oven on for just a few minutes, then popping the loaves (covered in a clean cloth) into the slightly warm oven. This works well, until you have to turn the heat up to preheat! Even so, my loaves turned out taller than any I've made in a non-professional bakery.

Instead of making these out of just white flour (unbleached, thankyouverymuch), I used a 1:2 ratio of whole wheat and white flours. This left the dough nice and soft, but added the lovely flavor of whole wheat. The recipe called for honey and milk, which also led to a very soft dough. I didn't want a wimpy bread, though, and about ten and twenty minutes into the baking, I opened the oven door and used a spray bottle to spritz the loaves with water. This simulates a professional steam oven, and gives the bread a really nice, crisp crust.

After letting the loaves cool, I ate a slice just slightly warm with butter, and another slice toasted with butter and (local!) Cascade Farms Blackberry Jam. Perfection.

Blueberries for Me

Ta-da! Start to finish in just six days, the Rainy Day Socks! Shown here with a bowl of blueberries, picked straight from the farm last weekend. First, let's talk socks.

Pattern: Rainy Days from MagKnits
Yarn: Patons Astra in Teal, colorway 2945 (it's 100% acrylic- a leftover from a sweater coat I made when I first took up knitting and didn't know anything about fiber)
Needles: Brittany US 2 (2.75 mm) dpn

Notes: These went quickly, and I didn't get too bored with the pattern. I think I actually beat the second sock blues by finishing these so fast. My kitchener is really improving; The only part I have to perfect is the edges of the seam. I get lumps on either end of my seam, but if you smoosh them into the sock, they pretty much go away.

I started the heel flap in a different place on the second sock, and had to make some adjustments when I finished the gusset and started the pattern stitches again, but I think it all worked out. The pattern flows nicely down the leg and onto the foot. I thought I was a strong short row heel enthusiast, but these gussets look great- and there's no wrapping of stitches involved!

How, let's talk baking. Like I said, we went to a farm this weekend and picked, among other things, blueberries. Lots of blueberries. Several pounds of blueberries.


When we got home on Saturday, I made a pie, and today I made blueberry-corn muffins. The pie was really easy- even the crust was easy! The New Best Recipe book has a really great crust recipe and a great technique for rolling out the dough. They also have an illustrated, step by step guide to making the lattice top.

The corn muffins were also from the New Best Recipes book (can you tell it's my favorite) and I just added frozen blueberries as I mixed the batter. I think they should be a little sweeter to make them a good blueberry muffin, but they're great as corn muffins.



I know the pictures are sort of backwards, but the pie is just so much prettier!