Yes, I think I remember this. . .

Once upon a time I really loved to cook. . . and I vaguely remember being fairly good at it.

I used to be inspired to cook fresh tasty things regularly.  Nowadays it takes a minor miracle to create enough energy to inspire me to try to wrangle the two Littles, during "witching hour", and cook.

Thursday my friend Sonya and I were at the Lake City Farmer's Market.  (Oh, how I love summer in the Northwest!)  One of the vendors there, Patty Pan Grill, makes the most incredible veggie quesadillas which have no "no no for Duchess" veggies in them and the grill dude will happily make it w/ vegan cheese for me!!!  I LOVE THEM!

It occurred to me that I needed to eat these more often than my farmers' market budget allowed.  So, I was gonna hafta cook.

Friday afternoon I went to my fridge and pulled out every veggie in there.

Patty Pan's veggie mixture (as far as I can tell) is : some sort of wilted green leaf, carrots, parsnip or maybe rutabaga, onions, garlic, cauliflower, beets

My mixture was a little different:
My wilted green leaf was hearts of romain, carrots, cauliflower, orange pepper, onion, sunflower sprouts (So Good, try them) garlic, tomato.


I think you could probably put any fresh veggie in and have it be good, although, I did purposefully go light on the peppers.  I didn't want them to dominate the dish.
The key is, you need A LOT of veggies.



That's my largest bowl in my generic nesting bowl set.  Probably 8 cups.

And you need them sliced/ chopped very thin.


This little device was very handy in preparing this dish.  I picked it up at a garage sale a couple weekends ago.  I'm not much of one for kitchen gadgets.  I figure if you can't do it w/ a nice knife, a wooden spoon, or a spatula, then it shouldn't be done.  This gadget, however, I will make an exception for.  It proved itself highly useful.  I could not have sliced those veggies that thin with a knife.  I also used it to grate my cheese and it worked like a charm.

Next, I fired up my grill.



Here are the veggies fresh on the grill, they take up my entire two burner griddle. I also noticed the dude from Patty Pan's sprinkle some red spice on at this point. I don't know what it is, but I guessed from the color and the very slight taste, that it is probably cayenne pepper. I added some of that, some paprika, a little cilantro and salt.



Let them cook for 5-6 min, then throw a tortilla on the grill, add cheese, add your veggies and cook just long enough to toast the outside of you tortilla.



Then, cut it in triangles and eat and enjoy. The Duke and I sure did. All those veggies made 4 quesedillas. I must say, though, one fills you up very well.

I can't wait to make this with fresh veggies from the market!

Spinning for Sanity

For those of you who know the torture of the unknown that we are living through right now, you will understand why measures must be taken to maintain sanity. Spinning and other antique past times are fulfilling that need.


In addition to the lovely stuff I all ready showed you I have continued on a spinning frenzy. There is something both calming and satisfying about spinning.


This is some yummy Corriedale from Judy' Novelty Wool. (no website, but she goes to a lot of festivals- or visit her home studio in Centerville, UT.) It was a step outside of my color comfort zone. I really like it. And like all of Judy's fiber, spun like a dream. It's a 2 ply light worsted weight.


This is some BFL. I can't remember who dyed it, but I do remember that my mom bought it for me at Village Yarn and Teas a while back. It was happy to have a turn on the wheel! It is a 2 ply heavy worsted weight.


And THIS!!! This is from a beautiful batt (that I should have photographed before I spun it, but was too excited and didn't think about it.) I was so excited about it that I didn't even remember to get the fiber information on it. It is a wonderful wool and silk noil, but more than that I could not tell you. I will look for the information and get back to you. It is a 2 ply nubby dk weight.


Fall time in Washington of course means apples, and lots of them. I found an excellent price on them, acquired a nifty little apple peeler-corer-slicer, and turned them into. . .


eight quarts of apple sauce and 15 half pints of apple butter so far. (although there are only 14 left, as we have all ready eaten one!) I still have one more batch of apples to cook before I decide if I am done or not.

I suppose that depends on how my sanity is holding up.

Knitting? Yarn? What?

Yes, yes, but it's a surprise, so you'll have to wait. Also, knitting with a two year old is actually completely impossible, so it's going kind of slow.



Little Sir was given this vest a few weeks ago by the Queen Mother. Yeah, I love the vest, the colorway made me want to puke.



So in a moment of insanity when I had 8 zillion other things to do, I decided to do this to it. Problem solved. (I don't know if you can see a very big difference, my flash sort of washed out the second photo, but it is a pretty dark gray now instead of white.)



Also, this weekend was the Duke's Birthday. We went camping (I know, what was I thinking?) And since cakes don't travel well, he got cupcakes this year. They were fun to make, I swirled vanilla and chocolate batter together.



Here they are frosted! They were tasty if I do say so myself. Oh, and in case anyone is wondering you CAN make "butter" cream frosting with high quality margarine. You just have to add more frosting than you normally would. Tastes pretty good too! :) Oh, and don't add food coloring to them- it doesn't work well.



And just for the record. . . :)

The only place yarn and jam go together

Here it is. . . the first yarn to come off of the new spinning wheel (who needs a new name, BTW, any suggestions?)



It's Superwash merino (I think) that I dyed so long ago that I don't remember when it was. 160 yds, double ply, light worsted.

And the wheel spins like a dream.

In other news- it is berry season here in the PNW. I haven't been out picking my own yet, but that will come soon, I think. I was inspired by Beep and Bop and Accident Prone Left Hander to take advantage of our berry berry good summer and make some jam.

However, unlike both of them, I am unwilling to cook anything in my second story, non-air conditioned kitchen, so freezer jam it is. It isn't as pretty to photograph, and I don't give it awesome names (K. I'll leave that up to you if you want) but boy does it taste good!





Oh, and just because I was living in the dark for so long about freezer jam, let me fill any of you who don't know in on a little secret. It is SUPER easy to make. I make it in my blender, as you can see.

1. Blend up fruit.
2. Add sugar and pectin
3. Blend for 1.5 min more
4. Put in freezable containers
5. Let sit for 1/2 hour
6. Throw it in the freezer (or eat it- it's ready to go!)

No cooking involved- which is great for our current uncomfortably hot days. (PS- our next house is going to have AC- I don't care if we only need it for a month out of the year.)

Also, it has a lot less sugar in it that most other jam recipes. You add 1.5 cups to 4 cups of fruit. The Duke and I really like this because we don't like very sweet jam.

There you go, easy as pie (which is a silly saying, because pie can be pretty hard to make.)

Costco and Cookbooks

I love Costco. I think it's in my genes. I'm 100% positive I've been there grocery shopping with my mom more times than I have been to a regular grocery store. And that is really saying something, because the nearest Costco to the Queen's house is about 30 min. away.

I like Costco so much that I started having my produce delivered to my house so that I didn't have to go to any other grocery stores (with the exception of Central Market, which is just fun.)

You might find it funny to know that I live about a block away from a Sam's Club. I have never been in it. I don't plan on going in it. I will happily drive 3 miles to Costco instead.

I think they have a great business model, (read about it here if you like) and I like that they treat their employees so well. One of my favorite things about Costco is their rotating SKU's. I like that there are a few different things each time I go there. It's fun to see what new products have been deemed worthy to make it into the very limited number of items that Coscto carries.

On my last trip I found this:



I was very excited. You see, my favorite cookbook is this.




I was a happy camper. If you want a taste (he he) of either of these cookbooks, go here. They have provided some of the recipes from the book (although the recipes are not the point of the book, they are just bonus.)

Now, back to Costco love, I thought I would share what I've made for dinner the last two nights. Why? because most of the ingredients came from Costco, of course!

1. Meatball Subs

Items from Costco:
-Frozen Italian Meatballs
-Brown and Serve Sourdough Bread
-Classico Spaghetti Sauce (I didn't use this, but would have if I hadn't been out of it, instead I made some spaghetti sauce, which I didn't want to do because you don't need much for this recipe, but then I froze the rest in appropriate proportions to make this again, so it's OK.)

Other stuff-
-Mozzarella Cheese (for the Duke)
-Almond Cheese (for me)
-Basil

Brown the bread, heat the sauce (add a little basil to it if you like,) heat the meatballs (not with the sauce,) cut the top middle "V" out of the bread (like you are making a bread boat) and cut it in half (each loaf of bread makes 2 subs.) Add 6 meatballs to each bread boat, pour some sauce over them, add the cheese, and top with the top portion of the bread. Eat, be happy.

2. Halo Halo Salad

Stuff from Costco:
-Chicken breast strips
-Hearts of Romain
-Montreal Chicken Seasoning (do they still have this? I don't know)
- Craisins
-Almonds

Other Stuff
-Balsamic Vinegarette Salad Dressing
-Grapefruit (you can probably get this at Costco too, but mine was delivered to me.)

Defrost the chicken strips, sprinkle the seasoning over them, and broil them for about 4 min on each side. Chop the romain, peel and section the grapefruit, add the craisins and the almonds, top with the cooked chicken and dress with the Vinegarette. Easy, yum!

No Sleep?- More Food.

OK, here's another recipie.

This one is scalable, so it works well for 2 people or 10 people. It also freezes well(without the rice.)

Peach Salsa Chicken (originally from the Duke's aunt, but I have drastically altered it)

This sounds strange, but everyone I feed it to loves it.

-The same number of boneless skinless chicken breasts as the number of people you want to feed- cubed (if you are feeding a lot of people, cut it back by 1. I usually cook 4-5 breasts)
-Cooking Oil
-Equal amounts of drained canned peaches chopped or pureed- (I put them through my mini food procesor, but just chopped them before I had it) and salsa. Enough to cover the chicken. To give you and idea, I use about 1.5 cups of each for 4-5 chicken breasts.
-1 Packet of taco seasoning.
-3 cups (or enough to feed the people) uncooked white rice.

Set your rice to cook, either on the stovetop or in a rice cooker. Note: I never use instant rice, as I lived in the Philippines and well, I just couldn't. This needs a sticky rice, so I wouldn't recommend it.
Brown the cubed chicken in the cooking oil
Add the peaches, salsa, and taco seasoning.
Bring to a simmer
Cover and let simmer for 15-20 min to give the flavors time to meld.
Serve over cooked rice.

It's Good to be Sweet!

What do you do when your loving Duke is turning 30 (yesterday was his birthday) and he requests a carrot cake with REAL cream cheese frosting, keeping in mind of course that you are allergic to dairy?

Well, you make it for him of course! I just found that if I got a little creative that I could share his birthday cake with him as well.

First off, the cake was converted to cupcakes. I love cupcakes and the Duke doesn't care one way or the other. (I think he really likes cupcakes better too, they are more fun to eat than a piece of cake!)

Then, I made two batches of frosting. One with REAL cream cheese and the other with soy cream cheese. As my allergy is not sever, just annoying (I get a rash on my face) I tasted a bit of the real kind to see how different it is from the soy version, they taste so similar I don't think anyone would be able to say which was which.

SWEET! Carrot Cupcakes!



The top four are the real cream cheese and the bottom four are the soy cream cheese. (Please excuse the crummy camera phone photos- my camera's batteries are dead and I have no replacements in the house.)

You say you need more sweetness than that? Oh, well let me help you.



Here I am with my sweet little niece who is sitting on top of a donkey- yes a donkey! And where, you might ask, did we find a donkey? Oh just in the Queen and King's front yard. Yes people, here is proof that I have not always been a city girl, but at one time was a sweet country girl. Let's just focus on my adorable niece, though. Have you ever seen such a sweet girl?

SWEET- a super cute niece on a donkey!

Oh, and if that isn't enough sweetness for you, I have a baby bit more!


KILROY WAS HERE!

Here is "W" remembering his great grandparent's generation. Here he is doing his best impersonation of Kilroy!

SWEET! A baby Kilroy!

ooooooooooommmmmmmmm

What a weekend!
Here's how it went:

Friday.
I went to work, nothing special to report.
Came home for a bite to eat and a short nap before heading out to The Fiber Gallery for the Seattle Spinners monthly spin-in. It was great to see Sarah and to hear that her little passenger isn't demanding 85% of her strength anymore, just like 50% or so. This was the first time I have gone to this spin with this group, and it was really very enjoyable.
Then I headed up to Village Yarn and Teas to join in their knit nite, that was going on until 12:00am. Georgia of Yarn Pirate (who dyes the most stunning yarns- go buy them!) was having her trunk show. It was great to see all that yummy yarn all in one place and in person. I even got there late after more than half of the booty was gone, and I was still impressed. I was oh so tempted to buy some, but my pocketbook is sadly empty right now. I also got to sit and talk with one of the nicest women who comes in Hilltop. We always have a brief little chat when she comes in, but because I'm working it's always too short. I was able to sit and talk with her for about an hours, and it was so nice to get to know her better.
I didn't make it until midnight. I was sleepy, and got home about 11:45. Plus, I had a big day the next day. . .

Saturday:
Up to Hilltop to set up for MY VERY FIRST SPINNING CLASS. I was a bit nervous, but it all worked out wonderfully. I had five students, and they all were spinning by the end of class. It was so much fun for me, and very rewarding. I hope it was for them as well.
After cleaning up a bit and getting something to eat, I went down to work in the shop. It was so busy, which was great, but also crazy. I hadn't slept well the night before, and I was exhausted by 5:00. Shannon and Daphne to the rescue. They let me clock out and rest of a bit before we all headed off to our next big adventure.
Jennifer, my boss, had arranged for all of us to go to a yoga for knitters class. It was amazing. Now I have done living room yoga, but it really does make such a difference to have an instructor walk you through it. Not having to stop to look at my cards was great, and Amy, our instructor's voice just made you want to relax and helped me stay focus on the present. I can't wait to join a regular yoga class. It has been moved to the top of my priority list. I could not believe how good I felt afterwards.
Then, in crazy HT girl fashion, we all headed over to The Garage for some food and bowling. It was so much fun. It was great to see Tatyana bowl for the first time ever (she did really well) and to find out that Kat and Susan are the real bowlers among us. It really was so much fun, and the best part, I was so tired when I got home that after just an hour or so of down time, I climbed into bed and slept soundly for 8 hours. It was fantastic.

Sunday:
Was enjoyable as usual. The Duke was home most of the day, with only one meeting in the morning. Church was uplifting, the Sunday nap was refreshing, and we had a yummy dinner of Greek slow cooked chicken, artichoke dip, homemade hummus, pita bread, and a salad. Dinner was made all the more sweet by four delightful friends who joined us for dinner and brought some supper tasty crumb cake to finish off the meal.

All in all, it was a whirlwind fiber filled weekend. The best kind!

'07 Was a Very Good Year

Some birthdays are good, some are bad, and some are just plain outstanding! This was one of those birthdays. I didn't request my birthday off, but it just worked out that I didn't work the entire weekend. We celebrated Sat. because the Duke did have to work. After a very nice day of relaxing at home, the official celebration got kicked of with a crashing good time. Now, normally I would not be happy about being woken up early on a Sat. by a demolition crew, but this was no ordinary demolition crew. . .



Yes, that is the abandoned, dilapidated, nasty, awful, building next to our house being torn down at long last HURRAY! A GREAT birthday present.

The pups (and the humans) got a nice morning walk and then off to breakfast, but not before stopping off at the post office to pick up the package I missed yesterday.







My SP is Awesome. I have never seen this yarn before, but I adore it. It's called Malabrigo, kettle dyed pure merino. It looks a little like Manos, only much softer and more yardage (216.) She also sent a couple of bottles of her favorite salad dressing/marinade. I looks delicious, we will be using it Sunday night. And she sent some tart valentine candy, my favorite.

Then off to breakfast (our tradition) at a restaurant we had never been too. Oh we will be going back, it was sooooooo good. The best french toast I have ever had (sorry Mom.)

Then, a little shopping on Queen Anne Hill in the best weather I have ever been treated to on my birthday. (High 50's and sun in Seattle in Feb. - love it!)

Later we had cake- yes I made it, and happily so as the Duke cleaned the kitchen and cooked dinner. I love angle food cake and my lil sister told me how to make our traditional frosting with cool whip instead of cream. It's not as good, but better than not being able to eat it at all.



Tzarina and Miles joined us and Tzarina and I knit while Miles and the Duke played Scrabble (thank goodness Miles likes it too, as Tzarina and I both detest the game.) I got one sleeve set in, and the underarm is perfect! Not too low, as is often the case. I will share my secrets when I get the sweater done.

In addition to all of this, An Ordinary Mom and another blogless friend brought me flowers, Lucy and Daddy Shark called to sing a lovely Happy B-Day duet to me, My parents and grandparents called on speaker to all sing together for me (and remind me that I am not getting any younger and they want grand kids ASAP- such love!)

It really was a great birthday, the best I can remember.



Last but not least, here is the finished lace weight single from the Wensleydale Grafton Fibers batt I have been spinning. You would not believe the shine on this, it's so pretty. It will be set aside for some very special lace knitting.

For the Curious Among Us

For the culinarily curious

Gnocchi (pronounced NYOH-kee) are small dumplings usually made with potato and flour. Small ridges in the dough help the sauce to stick to the Gnocchi.



They were wonderful, and very filling.
From Taste of Home 2007

4 med potatoes, peeled and quartered (I used 8 very small and had just the right amount.)
1 egg lightly beaten
1.5 t salt
1.75-2 C. flour
water

boil the potatoes, covered, until tender
drain, rinse with cool water, and mash
use 2 C. mashed potatoes and discard the rest (or use for something else)
add egg and salt to potatoes
gradually beat in flour until blended
turn out onto a lightly floured surface
knead 15 or so times
roll out into 1/2" wide ropes
cut into 1" wide pieces
using a lightly floured fork, slightly flatten each piece (makes the ridges)
boil more water
add gnocchi to boiling water in small batches (so they don't touch each other too much, I did it in three batches.)
when they float to the top they are done, take them out with a slotted spoon.
cover with sauce and parm. (or rice cheese if you're me) and eat!

For our sauce, I cheated a bit. I used a bottle of Classico, added about a 1/4 C. of red wine and a couple of cut of Aidell's chicken and apple sausages (SO GOOD!)
It's not as good as my homemade, but it's still good.

for the fiber curious



a little sneak peek at what I'm happily working on. . . and the yarn is from my stash. I'm so good.

Keepers

This afternoon (while I was working at home) I heard a noise outside my front door. I went to investigate.

This is what I found. . .


It was filled with a most wonderful, colorful, and happy respite from a dreary winter's day.



For lunch, one of the best Braburn apples I have ever had. Crisp, Juicy, Sweet!
Keepers, all of them.



After a trip to Costco, some creativity was required for dinner.
Yarnnationized Gyros- Supper Yummy!


Two hamburger patties, pre-cooked from the previous night's dinner, some soy sausage, an egg, some garlic, fresh parsley, salt and pepper. Throw it all together, heat it thoroughly.

Peel and chop a cucumber, toss it in a bowl with some more garlic, about a tsp. of lemon juice, more salt, more pepper, and about a half cup of sour cream (or sour cream substitute in my case.)

Chop up a tomato.

Some pita bread.

It's a KEEPER!



Another finished object.
My design- name name yet (any suggestions?)
Yarn: Classic Elitet's LaGran (4.5 balls)
Needles: Size 11 Knit Picks Options (LOVE THEM!)
Another Keeper :)



I AM working on several other projects, but I need some "tired" knitting- ie- little or no counting, easily memorized pattern.
I have seven balls of Nashua's Painted Forest.
55 yds each
2.5 sts per inch on a size 13 needle
Any suggestions?
I'm looking for another KEEPER!



Oh yes, and for those that inquired, an avocado shake is an excellent way to enjoy the sweetness of the wonderful Filipino Fruit!