WIP Wednesday: first sweater

One of my goals for the year was to knit a sweater for myself. I've been knitting long enough to take on a bigger project, and I'm a little bored with the same-old. I toiled over which pattern to use (way more than I'm willing to admit), but I knew that if I wasn't excited about it, if I was *too* bored to death with it, that I'd never finish it.

The Raglan (asymmetrical) Cardi from Knit Simple won, hands down! To make the deal a little sweeter, two of my (incredibly talented) knitting friends agreed to do make the sweater as well - knit-a-long style! My yarn? The very affordable Encore Tweed, in grey.

So far, I'm totally loving it. AND I think I'm on pace to finish it by the end of the year, but secretly (I guess now it's a little less of a secret), I hope to have it ready to wear on Thanksgiving. I would cross my fingers right now, but it's clear that I need them freed up for knitting.

sofrito...fresh from the garden (kind of)

The ultimate goal of the garden is to provide ingredients for some of the dishes that we make/eat the most. We planted the cubanelle peppers for the sofrito that we use in rice, beans, marinades, stews, etc. etc. In the past we've had to use anaheim peppers in their place, so we thought it would be cool to get the real deal out of our very own garden.

Imagine my excitement when, just about the time that our frozen supply was running out, our plant yielded the peppers needed for a full batch! So...fulfilling, so...delicious. Garden win #5,716.

leafy-leaf hadband

Some time ago, my magical friend Kyndle sent a package to me with two skeins of Blue Sky Cotton. I've been so excited about it that I haven't knit anything with it. Why? Because it's beautiful and I didn't want it to be gone!

I had it in my head that I would knit a hat with the blue, but the patterns weren't turning out the way I wanted. Cotton has less give and take than wool does, and ultimately, I was afraid that it might stretch out and never retract.

Sooo...I started researching headband patterns. I settled on the (free) Blue Leaf Headband pattern on Ravelry. A very fun, super quick knit...and I even had a button in my stash that pleased and sparkled. WINNING!


And I love it. LOVE. At less than half a skein of yarn, this may be the year of the headband...

Yarn: Blue Sky Cotton
Color: 604 Aloe

cave woman soup

Do you know how hard it was to find enough cave women to make this soup? Alright, not funny. But seriously, I've had several friends recommend the caveman or "paleo" diet to me, since it is the height of healthy, gluten-free eating. I checked out Health Bent, one of the recommended sites, and right away I spotted the carmelized three-onion and cauliflower soup. I vowed to make more soup this year, and even though it's really too hot for it, I whipped it up last week.


What's that green stuff on top? Why that's the most important part - basil oil. I made a bigger batch than what they recommended - probably three handfuls of basil, and 2 cups of olive oil. In addition to topping the soup with it, I dipped my gluten-free cheese and (fresh from the garden) tomato sandwich in it. Oh good grief. Stellar.


What would I do differently? Well, I would probably add an extra shallot for sweetness. I would have some crisp, lean bacon handy for an additional topping. But the most serious alteration I will make is to the cauliflower. Even though I let it simmer as the recipe said, there was a mealy texture to the soup. After brainstorming with my cook-genius friend Scott, I think next time I will lightly steam them, then chop in the food processor, then simmer, then re-process. Stay tuned for the commentary on that. It's cauliflower, how could it go wrong?

WIP Wednesday: the Abitita shawl

I started a shawl with color-changing cotton (yarn and pattern available at Yarn Tree Studio in Raleigh). The shawl is meant to be a gift for Jose's Abitita, and as I started knitting (pulling yarn from the inside) and the color was really dark for the first third of the shawl, I started having my doubts. Taking a leap of faith, I pulled the whole thing out (I was on row 52 of 114).


I started over, pulling yarn from the outside, and I it's like a breath of fresh air. Definitely the right decision! Now I'm pretty much back to where I started.

P.S. If you know Abitita, do not ruin her Christmas surprise :)

dehydrated sweet potatoes

I promise we're not those people. We don't buy organic or vegan kibble and treats...we don't give them garbage either, but we're definitely not the people who spend more on the dogs than they do on themselves. I know it could look that way, especially since I've been posting treat recipes, but I wanted to clarify. Not those people.

But we are cheap, er thrifty. We're totally those people. One of Berger's favorite things is dehydrated sweet potatoes. You can buy thick cuts of them on a rope and they act as a self-dispensing treat because they are so chewy. You can also buy thinner slices that are more like a special treat because they take him a few minutes (as opposed to a few seconds) to eat them. The problem? They are crazy expensive. And by crazy expensive, I mean that the chews on a rope are about $20 and a bag of maybe 12 sweet potato treats is about $8. So he gets them, but not often.

Last month I had a brilliant idea - I could dehydrate my own! The more I researched it, the more reasonable it seemed. Before investing in a kitchen gadget that I may or may not use, I wanted to borrow one to test drive. Our friends Scott and Holly were kind enough to oblige and...




...the outcome was pretty fantastic. There are things I will do differently next time...like cut the slices thinner and more evenly. Overall, definitely worth the savings!

Christy's Epic Idea - Complete!

A few months ago I blogged about OPERATION: MAKE PURSES OUT OF BOOKS, a collaborative project with my friends Tina and Christy. Christy donated three of her Nancy Drew books, I picked out fabric and handles, and Tina assembled all the parts.

There are some professional crafters out there who make these bags and sell them, but the amount of work that goes into them makes for quite the price tag. I have to say that I am completely thrilled with the final product and I'm really grateful to my friends for making it all possible!

side view:

inside the purse:

I can't be sure, but I think that I got the Whispering Statue because of the librarian-esque "shhhhing" statue :)

barkin' PB basil (dog) cookies

The beggin' fur basil bisuits were such a hit with the dogs that we decided to up the ante by adding basil to a peanut butter cookie. Did I need to put (dog) in the title for you to know this was for our furry friends? Certainly humans would never want this combo...

But the dogs really did seem to love it. And we have a serious abundance of basil, so I'll make sure to dry enough to get us through the winter and spring as well.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 cup water
1 cup oatmeal
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2-3 tablespoons of dried basil

Combine the water, peanut butter and oil in a boil and whisk until well combined. Slowly add the flour into the mixture and then the oatmeal and basil. Kneed until well combined...as always, add a little water if you need to, but the dough shouldn't be wet.

Roll dough out to 1/4", cut into shapes and bake at 375 for 30-35 minutes (or until the edges begin to brown). This is for an average size cookie cutter shape (~3"), we also do 3/4" stars for Puggie and those take more like 25 minutes.

The scooping of the peanut butter is always torture for Berger, so Jose let the pups lick the spatula while I worked on the dough. They have a tough life.

i like (gf) toast and (blueberry citrus) jam

Jose's favorite meal is the one I'm most likely to skip - breakfast. Every once in a while I can be talked into a big morning meal...and the promise of something like blueberry citrus jam goes a long way towards convincing me!

The actual recipe is for blueberry lime jam, but I had to make a small adjustment at the last minute - yes, I know I just said that I wouldn't alter any canning recipes until I better understood the science of PH levels, but a small mishap forced my hand.

I had grated the lime peel and juiced the limes in advance and then right before the juice had to be added to the pot, I knocked it over. Could not believe it. Almost cried. With jam, everything is really time-sensitive, so I had two choices: add lemon juice instead or throw it all out. Easy decision. So it's blueberries, grated lime peel, and lemon juice. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but it is amazingly amazing. To quote Jose, "this is the best jam I've ever had. Ever. Really."

My breakfast - an egg over medium, fresh tomato from the garden, oven broiled bacon and blueberry citrus jam on toast made from Udi's gluten-free bread.

Jose's breakfast - eggs over easy, oven-broiled bacon, fresh tomato from the garden, leftover blueberries and blueberry citrus jam on regular gluten-filled toast.

blueberry and lemon verbena compote

My goal for this weekend was to can some blueberries before their season passed. The problem was that we couldn't decide on just one recipe (and maybe that's not a big problem because we ended up with a lot of deliciousness).

My first choice was the blueberry and lemon verbena compote in the Better Homes and Gardens special canning edition. Why? Because you serve it over ice cream (among other things), but most importantly, ice cream.

And can I just say that this is mind-blowingly yummy? It's pretty sweet and I'd like to reduce the sugar for next time, but I'll need to do some research to see what that will mean for the consistency. Also, I think I will use this as a jumping off point for other fruit compotes. I can see me making a big batch, not canning it, and having people over for delicious ice cream and fruit compote. Yes, yes I think I will have to do that.

I turned this:

into this:

The hardest part was going to the farmer's market and hopping from vendor to vendor until I found someone with a lemon verbena plant. Now that I have it, I'll most definitely make and can an additional batch of the above, and I'd love some more recipes that would make use of lemon verbena. Suggestions?

owlie sack and hat

When we found out that some friends were expecting a baby girl in October, I set out to find the right gift to knit. It had to be fun and quirky, yet practical. Since the one thing we share with these friends is a love of Phish, and the best member of the band (Mike Gordon) uses an owl on almost everything he does, I fell instantly in love with the owlie sleep sack and hat pattern.

full view of the hat:

close-up of the cabled owl:

Knit in Berroco Comfort bought at Yarn Tree Studio.