Yesterday morning was the coldest day of the year for us. After months of "winter" with temps in the 50’s the sudden bitter cold is hard to get used to. This is our "in like a lion" week and if this is the worst of winter there’s very little complaining to do. There are a lot of things coming up in the garden, hopefully the arctic blast won’t harm them too much.
On Mondays I have yoga so I eat a very early dinner. I try to make something light that will keep well until Jason gets home. Yesterday it was cheese biscuits and tomato soup. I’ve tried several tomato soup recipes but this is the first one I thought was really a keeper.
Tomato Soup
1 small sweet onion, finely chopped
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup flour
2 large cans fire-roasted crushed tomatoes
basil
salt and pepper to taste
Heat oil and butter over low in a Dutch oven until melted. Sweat the onions until translucent. Add the flour and cook for 1 minute then add the tomatoes rinsing the cans into the pot with about 1/2 cup of water in each. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. Add fresh basil right at the end of the cooking time or dried basil at the beginning of the simmer time.
Amber gets the gold medal for the day. After little more than a nap she got up early in the morning and trekked out to Kimballs for Sunday morning knitting, then carted me along with her out to JP for the Team Boston closing ceremonies and finally let me tag along to a KnitSmiths group for even more knitting.
The closing ceremonies party was lots of fun. There was food piled high on the table and knitting going on in every corner. The fashion show was amazing and it was great to hear the stories that went along with each and every item. Most amazing was Cara’s stash of Jaywalker socks. There’s a room full of witnesses now that will attest she really has knit a mountain of them! I’ve got an album full of pictures all taken during the fashion show which you can find over on the sidebar. I apologize in advance for the chopping off of heads and other such photographic inadequacies as well as all the missing names. I certainly learned a few new names and faces but there are many I haven’t yet learned. Please drop a comment if you see yourself without a name.
As a teenager in Louisiana we collected little pins and feather froofies for our cowgirl hats, now instead it’s medals and buttons for my knitting bag.
Although I sometimes forget to post about my scrapbooks I’ve definitely been moving along. The trip ones from last July are nearly done with only a little journaling left to do so last night I needed a new project to bring to the crop and quick. Having been focused on Olympic knitting I didn’t have time to figure out where I was in the family albums so I grabbed this little flower project I’ve been meaning to do.
One of the things I miss most about living in Louisiana is my greenhouse. Not only was it great for getting an early start on veggie gardening but I also had it stuffed full of 300+ orchids. As soon as I saw the flower album I knew it was perfect for all my flower photos and last night I got started on that. It’s a discontinued size so I can’t get extra pages and that meant I had to do some creative cropping to fit in all the orchid photos.
Usually I work on a two page spread and complete that before moving on. Since I wanted to make sure things fit I started by cropping and arranging photos and then I went back and began matting. I’ll finish the matting at the next crop and then start affixing things to the pages and adding journaling or any decoration. It’s a quick little project but it’ll tide me over and keep me busy until I can sort out what larger project to do next.
This week I’ve been cooking from "Jacques Pepin’s Table". I don’t have a food mill so this recipe required some modification. The peppers are meant to be simmered and then put through a food mill to create a sauce. I haven’t got a food mill so mine are just chopped and left whole. He also calls for walnuts but I didn’t have any so I used pine nuts instead. I think this would be lovely with a bit of white wine reduction to give it a bit of zing.
Sausage and pepper pasta
1 package chicken Italian sausage, sliced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 small sweet onion, chopped
3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
3 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
olive oil
freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 pound linguine, cooked as desired
Saute the onion in olive oil until it begins to turn translucent. Add the sausage and bell pepper and cook 5 or 6 minutes or until heated through. Stir in the parsley and pine nuts. Pour sausage mixture over the pasta and toss to mix. Top with cheese and serve with a green salad.
Despite having a really busy week the mittens are in for their soak and will be blocking before the day is out. I think it was a good choice for an "olymipic project". It pushed the boundaries a bit and was challenging to finish within the time frame. Next up is finishing Holly’s lace socks so I can get started on the Sockapalooza socks!
I’ve been meaning to have a go at Navajo plying but I couldn’t sort out how to get started- Thanks Rose for the tip! This is the purple stuff Rose sent me to play with that’s finally been plied and skeined. I’ve got about 80 yards of what I think is a bit overtwisted Navajo plied yarn.
Although I didn’t knit much this weekend I did manage to finish the first mitten. Here it is all finished with end woven in and needing only to be blocked. I cut the ribbing on the cuff short at 2 inches rather than doing the 2 1/2 called for. I weighed the navy yarn before I started and stopped when I was halfway through the yarn based on weight, at least as best I can tell within the limits of my scale. The thumb is a bit short and if I’d thought about it at all I’d have done an extra repeat before beginning the decreases as I always have to buy a size large in gloves just to have long enough fingers. My hands aren’t large but apparently I do have long fingers. I have a really busy week so hopefully I can manage the ribbing and thumb on the second mitten in time to block before closing ceremonies.
Susan correctly noted the Cook’s Garden seed catalog in the origami bookmark post. My order arrived today, or at least the seeds did. The rest will be shipped when it’s time to plant. This will be my first attempt at veggie gardening since moving up from the South. I’ve so far only grown flowers and herbs.
I finished the base of the second mitten so I’m now ready to do thumbs and cuffs. Wish me luck!
I’ve got the easy part done on the second Fanning the Flames mitten. It’s much quicker the second time around since I know what’s coming up and I’m pretty comfortable with the fan chart now. The next half of this one uses mostly different charts though as I’ve now got to do the less bulky one where the thumb goes and leave a space for the thumb (remembering to do that on the left since the first one was a right) and then the half fans where the cuff will go. Perhaps by Monday I’ll be ready to start thumbs and then very slow ribbing. Did I mention I’m very slow at knitting ribbing? It’s all that moving the yarn from front to back and back to front. These are much more fun to knit that I’d anticipated. I would definitely knit them again based on the experience so far but then again I still want to see how they look once they are blocked.
The postman left me a box full of goodies today! Here’s the gorgeous scarf sent by my International Scarf Pal from Oiyi’s Crafts. The color is fantastic and one I keep picking up at the yarn shop myself. I’ve often admired this yarn though I have not yet knit with it myself and she generously sent me the leftover skein. Also included were some wonderful Champagne brownies from Amai Tea and Bake House and a lavender lotion bar from fetosoap.com. Thanks A.! I’ll really enjoy these!
The new Interweave Knits has arrived and I noticed that the Trellis Scarf would work very nicely with the grape laceweight I got in SP6. Of course I had to create another origami bookmark to keep the page so I’ll remember I wanted to knit that. I also played around with a fish bookmark but this one doesn’t cozy onto the page like the triangle ones do.
Yesterday morning was the coldest day of the year for us. After months of "winter" with temps in the 50’s the sudden bitter cold is hard to get used to. This is our "in like a lion" week and if this is the worst of winter there’s very little complaining to do. There are a lot of things coming up in the garden, hopefully the arctic blast won’t harm them too much.
On Mondays I have yoga so I eat a very early dinner. I try to make something light that will keep well until Jason gets home. Yesterday it was cheese biscuits and tomato soup. I’ve tried several tomato soup recipes but this is the first one I thought was really a keeper.
