My Fantastic Friend...Focaccia

Jonathan and I made Christmas dinner this year. We didn't go the traditional route with turkey or ham or any of the regular fixin's. We went a bit Italian.

I made a spaghetti recipe that had yummy garlic and parsley mixed with an olive oil sauce. I got the recipe from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison (side note: this cookbook is amazing whether or not you're a vegetarian, just as long as you like vegetables--it's full of seriously delicious recipes). I also had a tomato-based sauce that I cooked humongous meatballs in for the meat-eaters.

We also whipped up some homemade hot, cheesy spinach dip and everyone knows you can't have dip without bread. Which leads me to my favorite food of the evening...the Focaccia Bread (recipe also from Vegetarian Cooking...)!

I kneaded in fresh rosemary from the rosemary tree and covered the top with caramelized onions and more rosemary. I. Am. In. Love. With. This. Bread.

I hope everyone enjoyed and continues to enjoy this holiday season! And that everyone gets to eat yummy food and hang out with their favorite people!

Enjoy Yourself!

Wishing everybody Happy Holidays
and a Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

Chocolate Dips & Toffee Bits

Sarah and I made yummy treats for about 7 hours yesterday. We dipped pretzels and homemade butter cookies into all types of melted chocolate.

It was chocolate-dipping madness!!

The toppings "kicked it up a notch! Bam!" as Emeril would say.

Hooray for toppings!

We used:

• Coarsely Ground Coffee Beans
• Toffee bits
• Peppermint Cane dust (peppermint canes ground in a coffee grinder)
• Chocolate Mint bits
• Christmas sprinkles
  

Mmmmmm!

Autumn Has Definitely Left the Building!

It snowed!

And when it snows this much, we get a hankerin' for building a snowman.

Everybody meet Bob Frost. He fancies himself a bit of a poet. So, of course, his shoes have holes in their soles when he has shoes at all. Lately, he's been drinking espresso at the local coffee shop while talking about the relevance of iambic pentameter with Li Po and Charles Bukowski.

We bought him a coffee, and being a bit cold, he borrowed the Guinness scarf I made Jonathan last year. You know poets, they're always broke.

Twinkle Lights. . .

. . .and holiday cheer!

A Slow Meandering Through Entrelacville

There is one knitting project I can share: The Annetrelac Socks from Interweave Knits: Holiday Gifts.



I'm using the Shaefer Anne from before. Hopefully, the yarn will be better behaved this time.

I'm taking my time with them, knitting two or three rows a day. It will be awhile before they're finished, but I just don't want to get frustrated with the yarn or the pattern. I want to enjoy the process.

I Love Snow

It snowed during the night! One of my favorite things is waking up and finding snow on the ground. Mainly, I love it because it's so beautiful but there's probably a small part that goes back to the ol' school days when snow meant school was canceled.

I'm starting to feel a bit better! Not well enough to play in the snow outside but I can stare at it from the window. :o)

Last night I made some cornbread. I've never made cornbread before but I thought it might complement the veggie chili we were having for dinner. I used a recipe from Moosewood Restaurant: New Classics by the Moosewood Collective.

I followed the recipe exactly except that I used corn flour instead of corn meal, because that's all I could find.

I'm corn flour! Yippee!

I made the little well and poured in the wet ingredients.

Make a wish!

Presto Change-o! We've got cornbread.


It came out pretty tasty. It was moister than some cornbread I've eaten but still a bit dry. You know, the get-stuck-in-your-throat kinda dry. I don't know what can be done to make it more moist. Maybe dryness is just the nature of this bread. We did crumble some of it directly into the chili and that tasted pretty darn good.

Books!!

I have a cold. Sniffle. Of course, this makes reading much easier because you're forced to rest. I just finished an inventive book entitled The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers.

It's a story filled with white-knuckle adventure, books, heartbreaking woe, books, a colossal monster and books. Did I mention the books? There are thousands and thousands of books stacked high and low. Books that would eat you, books that could kill you and books written so well you can't eat or sleep for the reading of them! There are dinosaurs too, well-read dinosaurs who have a knack for writing prose.

Intrigued? Perplexed? Scared?

I love books. Not simply reading them but even the dusty ol' smell of them in secondhand and antiquarian bookshops. And The City of Dreaming Books is all about dusty ol' books! Hurrah!

Okay, I have to go and start reading another book now.

Scary Cheeses & Edible Trees

I can't share my knitting projects this month for obvious reasons. So, I thought I'd share some of my other interests such as cooking and baking.

So, here's my lunch today. Technically it doesn't require cooking or baking but you do have to "assemble" it. :o)



I used green leaf lettuce and fresh spinach for my greens. Then I added gorgonzola cheese, golden raisins, Bartlett pears and dried cherries. I topped the salad with a balsamic vinaigrette. It's pretty tasty.

Here's a side note about my two favorite cheeses: gorgonzola & muenster. Yes, it's true I like the flavors of these cheeses. But the real reason I love them is because they sound like Gorgon and Monster cheese! That evokes all types of mythically scary images in my head which is what drew me to the cheeses when I was a kid. So, hooray for scary cheeses!

We also purchased our Christmas tree this year. And we're going to eat it too!!!

Our tree this year is a Rosemary tree.



It smells wonderful.



I can't wait to actually use it after the holidays!

One More Thing...

I completely forgot about the foliage hat I completed last week.





I really enjoyed working this pattern. It wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it was going to be, and that is always good! I am now very much in love with Malabrigo yarn.

The Holidays Are In Full Swing (or just about)

I hope everyone had a really great Thanksgiving and stuffed themselves silly! I've always thought that people eat and eat and eat on Thanksgiving to fuel themselves for the December holiday madness. You definitely need your energy!

I've completed two more projects.

The poncho for my friend's daughter...


...and the 1x1 rib scarf for her son.


Now, it's on to other projects (some secret & some I'll be able to share) as the holiday knitting time-crunch begins!

Also, I made some stitch markers over the weekend.


Have a great Monday, even if it is cold & rainy outside!

All Roads Lead To Ann Arbor...At Least The One Named Ann Arbor Road

Jonathan went to (and won, hooray!!) a heroclix tournament in Livonia and I tagged along. While he played I went for a little drive. I had a specific goal: to find the yarn store in the area. It was suppose to be on Ann Arbor Road. I never found it. It was probably in one of the strip malls I passed. For some reason I didn't turn around. The road I was on went from strip malls to residential to rural, but I kept going. Mainly, because it was really pretty. I also had a nagging feeling that Ann Arbor Road might actually lead to Ann Arbor. Plus, Ann Arbor Road sometimes goes by the name Plymouth Road. And what's on Plymouth Road in Ann Arbor? Do you know? Well, thirty minutes later, Ann Arbor Road turned into Plymouth Road and I found myself in front of the Knit A Round Yarn Shop in Ann Arbor! Yippeeeee!

I bought a skein of Malabrigo Chunky. So soft!!


I then headed to Sweetwaters in Kerrytown. I ordered a yummy cup of hot chocolate, sat down and started the second big sock. A couple hours later, I was finished!



They are super comfy. I'm going to make a pair for myself soon!

Yesterday was a fun day, indeed!

And I'm looking forward to the Wish List party at Yarn Haven in a couple hours!

Hooray For Socks!

The Undertaker's Daughter socks are finished!



And I am halfway through the big boot-like socks that I'm making with Wool-Ease in Wheat.



These socks are sooooo fast! It's amazing. And they're toasty comfy too!

Back to knitting!

The Ambers and Crimsons of Autumn

Just a little taste of autumn before the winds come and blow all the leaves down.

1 lb. of Black Acrylic = One Fun Poncho!

The poncho is finished!



Thanks to Sarah for being the model!



I also finished the scarf that matches the hat.

It's a simple garter stitch. . .



. . .with a bit of ribbing. . .



. . .and some fringe to top it off.

A Hat. Yep, That's Right! A Hat!

I've been working away on different projects for Christmas. One of the projects is to turn all the yarn a friend gave me (when she decided she no longer wanted to knit) into fun presents for her.

Yesterday, I started and finished a hat for her based off of the Hot Head pattern in Stitch 'n Bitch.



Hopefully, I'll soon have more F.O.s to share!

Here are some random pictures to brighten your day!

The model teddy bear:


And some sweet flowers:


Have a fun and fabulous day! :o)

Happy Sticks!

This is Yarn Ball with Happy Sticks. I just drew it this morning on the computer. A bit of silly fun is always necessary!

Okay, so one of my holiday projects is a black poncho for a friend. It's from the book HOLIDAY KNITS by Sara Lucas and Allison Isaacs.

My friend had given me a pound of black acrylic and I had no idea what to do with it. Sarah suggested the poncho and we used two strands of yarn instead of one. There was a moment of panic, after I'd already started, that the neck would be too big and fall right off. It turned out to be fine, though. Hooray!

I had to do a cable cast on, which I had never done before. Once I got the hang of it, I actually enjoyed it. It makes for a pretty edge too.



We took this picture with Sarah's camera phone. Sarah is the lovely model. I'm actually very happy with it so far.

Could Someone Please Bring Me Some Hot Apple Cider?

The leaves have finally turned and autumn and knitting are in full swing. I've got so much stuff lined up for holiday knit gifts: scarves, shawls, socks, etc. I can't mention everything in detail, however. Prying eyes and all that.

I will discuss some of these projects very soon. First, I have to head out the door and enjoy the day (and run errands). More to come (hopefully this afternoon or tomorrow).

:o)

Blues & Reds & Blacks, Oh My!

I'm working with the Undertaker's Daughter yarn and making a pair of socks for Jonathan.

I only purchased one skein, so to make it last longer I've used a different color for the leg itself.

This is the first one:
Finished and Unblocked.

The second one will soon go on the needles!

Have a great day!!!!

It's Done! It's Done! It's Done!

Stand up! Wiggle your ears! And do a little dance!

The baby blanket, that I started long ago, is finally D-O-N-E...DONE!



Hooray!



Yippeeeeee!




The incompleteness of this project will no longer linger in the back of my mind, causing knitting stress. It wasn't a difficult knit, just a very long, sometimes tedious one. That doesn't matter now, because it's DONE!

All I have to do is block it!

:o) I'm smiling now! :o)

Winter Twilight Just In Time For Autumn

I finished the socks for my dad!


Here's Jonathan's foot modeling the second sock before I blocked it.


I can't wait to give them to him!

Before I Go Do Laundry

An impromptu dishcloth...


And the blocking of the first sock...


Have a happy day!