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For Valentine’s Day I gave my sweeties fun glitter projects for school. It’s been quite a messy morning, but it’s been worth the peace and quiet and overall happiness that has been the result.
We all look forward to Valentine’s Day because of dinner. Every year since Paul and I have been married we have had Chinese for dinner on Valentine’s Day. The first two or three years it was a fluke (we were living in NY, restaurants were impossible but there was great Chinese take – out), and then once we realized there was a pattern going it became tradition.
So tonight we are all excited for Chinese, and we are adding a new element. I got a fondue pot after reading all of Susan’s blogs from Zurich this week and tonight we’ll have chocolate fondue for dessert (I cannot wait to try cheese fondue, though. Maybe tomorrow?) with strawberries, marshmallows, pound cake cubes and pretzels.
How about you? Do you have any fun Valentine traditions?
My needles have been on fire!
Well.
Not in the Caroline Fryar sense of “on fire”. Seriously, that girl can knit. Not only that, but she is quite the up – and – coming designer. I’m ridiculously proud that my Emily got to model some of Caroline’s garments for the JMF spring books, because before long that girl’s name will be all over the place.
Anyway.
I have been keeping my head down and zooming through some projects I’ve had going for awhile. I’ve still got at least 5others going on needles now, but that’s a story for another day.
I finished a hat for myself while Paul was in surgery – I wanted a slouchy but simple thing to keep my head warm around the house (and possibly in bed) while the cold winter settled over us.
Unfortunately the cold winter never materialized, so the broken upstairs heat pump has been not much of an issue.
And I haven’t really gotten to wear my hat at all.
I got the pattern HERE.
The yarn is Debbie Bliss “Baby Cashmerino”. It’s light, it’s soft, it’s a perfect icy, wintery blue. If only it were really winter instead of fake spring.
The other finished thing was actually finished for quite awhile now but awaiting blocking. It’s a good thing I finally managed to get it done because it’s a very belated Christmas gift for my grandmother.
It’s another “Far Away, So Close” shawl, this time knitted in Malabrigo. I don’t remember which Malabrigo or even the colorway because I lost the tag.
Surprise grandma! I’ll have it in the mail ASAP.
It’s super – soft and warm, and Emily is upset that once again she was asked to model a shawl that she does not get to keep. Yes, I get the hint.
It’ll be nice and cozy with my grandmother, who lives not far from Buffalo, where it’s much colder than it is here.
Usually.
Just not this year.
It’s been a hectic, eventful couple of days for us here.
Yesterday morning Paul underwent his neck surgery at our beautiful new local hospital while I waited it out in the hospital lounge. I brought my knitting (and finished a hat for myself) as well as plenty of reading materials and the time flew by. It helped that my lovely friend Sallie brought me lunch and offered a friendly face amid the sea of waiting and worried strangers. Staying connected to the outside world via social media was a great help and I am ridiculously grateful to everyone who wished Paul well.
Maddie stayed with the girls and they got her hopelessly hooked on “Dr. Who”. In fact, they stayed up ALL NIGHT watching it (and eating ice cream).
I got to spend time with Paul as he recovered from the anesthesia and adjusted to having a neck full of staples (seriously – staples. They come out next week, thank GOD). I spent a lot of that time helping him in and out of bed for potty breaks and fluffing his pillows, switching out ice packs and holding a straw to his mouth so he could have water. He does fairly well on his own now for short bursts during the day, but it’s going to be a long couple of weeks for me helping him manage. So, if the winter gods would just smile on me and dump a bunch of snow right now, we’d all be pretty happy since we can’t go anywhere anyway!
I’m doing my best to enjoy the temporary quiet that has fallen around the house as the girls are reading by the fireplace, and Gully is curled up in his new dog Snuggie on my lap. I think it might even be time for a cup of Harney & Sons tea.
Yesterday was the kind of January day I need more often. The kind where you get a surprise snow shower and have plenty of knitting and reading, and a full tank of propane to keep the fireplace lit all day.
The snow barely stuck and was over too quickly, but it was lovely while it lasted. Oona kept begging to go play in it – but it was too wet and muddy out.
I did manage to block a sweater I finished back in November after we finished up school for the day, and installed our new National Geographic Complete Collection onto my computer (the girls will be using this for social studies).
Paul will be having back surgery soon (nothing to worry about – we are looking forward to some relief for his pain) and I am hoping for winter to finally show up in force afterwards since he will have a several week recovery at home (and we won’t have to go anywhere). For now the kids are indignant that the sun is out and temperatures are hanging in the 50′s. So am I.
There’s a reason I love winter. Winter is made for comfort. Winter is made for cozying up next to the fireplace with your tea and toasted cinnamon bread, with your knitting, with your book (or with back episodes of the Doctor). It’s made for snuggling up with your pets and your kids and watching the snow fall out the window (well, it would be if the weather would cooperate).
So these days, in between cleaning and dentist visits and getting school plans back in order, we are enjoying the cozy. What are you doing to stay cozy?
Pioneer Woman’s Cinnamon Bread
Harney & Sons “Hot Cinnamon Sunset” tea – my absolute favorite.
Local Kitchen‘s version of Jamie Oliver’s Chicken in (Butter)Milk
Quick knitting project: a light hat I can wear around the house when I feel chilly.
I’ve been trying to think of a clever post to end the year and welcome the new one, but I can’t seem to rally any real creativity this week. I worked myself pretty thin leading up to Christmas and since then I’ve basically been couch – bound, resting up and relaxing and enjoying the lack of a deadline. It also doesn’t help that we have finally caught on to the “Dr. Who” craze, and have been watching it every night (starting with the 2005 season). The kids are obsessed and I couldn’t be happier.
So instead of something witty or profound, I will use this chance to catch up on a few things.
I’ll start with bread.
One of my early Christmas gifts this year (and Susan got me a second one in a different size!) was an enameled cast iron dutch oven pot. I’d been wanting one for quite awhile, after seeing this book about baking artisan bread in a pot rather than on a peel. I tried some when Zac made it at the farm and was in love with the results.
You pre-heat the empty pot in the oven and throw your risen dough into it. Once you place the lid on, the water in the dough creates the steam needed to properly bake and finish the bread. The crust in crispier without being too chewy or dense and the crumb is more reliably cooked through this way. Plus the pot is such a pretty green!
Thing number two I need to show off is the lovely ornament my friend Amy found for me.
I just love her! I love the creamy white colors, I love that it’s a shepherd with her sheep, and I love the vintage look about it (in fact, it just may BE vintage: Amy has quite a knack for finding amazing vintage and estate items for a steal). It’s so hard to find sheep – related trinkets that aren’t totally tacky. I don’t know where she found this, but I am thrilled she did!
Speaking of all things sheep-ish, I finished one of my super – secret holiday knitting projects in time to gift it!
A Sluggy Bonnett for my mother! I can’t even believe how fast this knit up – it only took me 2 days! I should have started earlier and made Sluggy Bonnetts for everyone! I still have 1 super secret project on the needles, but it’s just about done. I’ll be sending it off to its intended recipient just after the new year. But here’s a sneak peek of the yearn sitting on my new swift:
Today and tomorrow will be spent cleaning up the holiday clutter and making room for 2012. The girls and I are headed to a get – together this evening (after which I’ll have to talk them out of staying up until dawn watching Dr. Who) and then we’ll spend the first cold months of 2012 doing a lot of what we do best:
Reading! The girls all got Kindles for Christmas (mostly for school, but when you enjoy reading as much as we do……..).
Enjoy the rest of 2011 and I’ll see you all on the other side!
Today’s cookie is so easy and quick you can whip it up for last minute guests. I wove in ends and put finishing touches on a knitting project while making them. The recipe is once again courtesy of Susan Branch, and can be found here.
Paul loves these macaroons. They’re chewy and chocolatey and just enough decadent for holiday baking.
Since they were so easy and quick I have plenty of time left over to clean up and watch It’s A Wonderful Life (in black and white. I maintain only heretics watch it colorized) before we head out for a family tradition: driving around to look at all the Christmas lights. It helps put us all in that holiday frame of mind. I like to do it as close to the day as I can, because it gets us all super excited for Santa!
Waaay back in the beginning of November I got hooked on a site / idea called “Wovember”. The basic idea was to raise “wool awareness”; that real wool comes from sheep. Behind every wool product you buy is a real animal and the shepherd who raised it. There’s a whole farm economy and lifestyle in there that many people don’t even think about when picking out their woolens (or worse, their synthetics).
The fun part of “Wovember” for many of us was the challenge to wear 100% wool all month long. Hand – knit socks from pure fine wool? Check. Hand knit sweater from Juniper Moon Farm yarn? Check. A commitment to only buy 100% non – synthetic wool products? Check. You get the idea.
Then my friend Anna convinced me to enter a photo into the Wovember photo contest. It was a photo of her holding a JMF sheep she had sheared this fall. So I thought, why stop there? I searched out a few other photos I had taken at the farm and submitted a few of my favorites, never dreaming anything would come of it. I mean, the other entries in the contest were jaw – droppingly stunning, super adorable and very woolly.
So imagine my surprise when I got an email from >Kate Davies. I won first prize in the Sheep Photos category with this photo of Neve:
I am honored, excited, and most of all, stunned. Sheep and wool are near and dear to my heart and I am thrilled to have taken part in this!
For day two of the self imposed cookie – a – day challenge, I made gingerbread cookies. And sugar cookies. I was an over – achiever today.
I usually use a Susan Branch recipe for BOTH gingerbread cut -outs and butter cookie cut – outs, but I discovered I was out of corn syrup and had to find another way to go for the gingerbread. Luckily, I have a wonderful resource (other than the internet!): The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook.
Also luckily, I found an online source to link to HERE for all of you of said recipe.
The dough is very simple to make, rolls out nicely, and smells divine in the oven.
There’s also no eggs in the dough so it’s even harder not to eat it raw.
Since I pulled out all the cookie cutters and whatnot I figured I’d whip out the butter cookies as well. This is where Susan Branch comes in again with her Annie Hall’s Butter Cookies recipe.
This recipe makes a ton of cookies and is rich yet not overly so.
I made dozens and dozens of cookie shapes and set them out on the table along with frosting and sprinkles for the kids to decorate. It kept them good and busy for quite awhile, and I didn’t have to do it.
Soon that tub will be overflowing with a cornucopia of sugar and more sugar.
Now, since I am over-achieving, I decided that in honor of tonight being the first night of Hanukkah we may as well have one of our favorite meals: Blueberry Blintzes.
Oh yeah.
I start out making my tried and true crepe recipe:
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1 tsp vanilla
2 TBS sugar
2 TBS melted butter.
Whisk all together and let it rest for 30 minutes.
While that is resting, I made the blintz filling. I searched around the internet (well, Pinterest anyway) and got an idea for the general “feel” of a cheese filling. SO I mixed up a cup of small curd cottage cheese, a package of cream cheese, and a quarter cup of sugar.
Once the crepe batter was ready to go I made them the usual way (in a crepe pan or frying pan) by spreading out the batter into a very thin pancake and flipping once it browned.
When all the batter was used up I rolled a good large spoonful of cheese filling into each crepe burrito – style and sauteed it about 2 or 3 minutes on each side until heated through and somewhat browned.
I didn’t have any fresh blueberries on hand, but I did have a can of blueberry pie filling. I heated that up in the microwave while the blintzes were cooking.
When everything was ready, I placed a blintz on the plate with a dollop of blueberry topping. If I had been thinking, I could have added a little whipped cream as well. Next time.
A little bit of heaven on a plate.
As the days race toward Christmas it is getting more and more difficult to keep the kids focused on schoolwork. They’ve got the proverbial “visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads”.
Admittedly, I do as well. If I weren’t so busy with the business of school, housework, grocery shopping and all the other mundane tasks that take up my time I would be spending my days on holiday crafts and making every corner of the house bright.
Today I relented somewhat, and after some perfunctory math and writing exercises we dove into some paper crafts. Hand prints on brown paper became reindeer ornaments, colored construction paper became the backdrop for wintery tomten pictures.
I am quite taken with Scandinavian style and folklore, and the tomten is no exception. I think I like him particularly because of his traditional connection to farmers. On a lark I traced out a paper cut design to see if I could make a reasonable garland from red paper.
Well, it is reasonable. I didn’t say I was making a stellar garland. I wanted this for over the kitchen sink, and that is where these little fellows hang, for now. The construction paper was a bit too something. Not quite right for this project. Tissue paper was too thin. I am thinking I will re-do this not on paper, but perhaps on felt. Much sturdier, no need for tape. That way it can also be reused every year. Perhaps some single appliques for pillows even?
This holiday season is going to fly by way too quickly for me to accomplish all of the blissfully fun things I want to do. St. Lucia’s Day is coming up soon and there are buns to bake. The solstice will be here not long after and there will be celebrating to be done then. Before we know it SAnta will be making his yearly deliveries and just like that it will be over.
But, then I suppose the season wouldn’t be so special if it weren’t also so very fleeting.
