Here’s the lacy scarf blocked and ready to be mailed. The pattern has been renamed to "Angel Pearls" on Sivia Harding’s website. I went down a needle size, as is usual for me, but made no other modifications. This was knit with Karabella lace mohair yarn which I absolutely adore. It’s soft as a cloud and literally light as a feather. The beads are blues and greens in the colors of the sea.
I’ve been working on things this week to be mailed out in packages. Yesterday’s effort included these delicate cookies. I think they’d be greatly improved by a drizzle of dark chocolate but I’d rather not add anything melty to something I plan to mail so they’ll have to go as is.
Lemon Ginger Cookies
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
grated zest of a lemon
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup crystallized ginger, finely minced
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Coat two baking sheets with cooking spray.
In the bowl of a mixer, combine the sugar and butter at medium speed for about five minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg until well combined. Sift together the dry ingredients in another bowl then stir in the ginger. Add this mixture to the butter mixture a little at a time at low speed until fully incorporated. Drop by small spoonfuls onto the baking sheets, spaced a few inches apart, and bake 14 minutes or until lightly browned at the edges. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

I forgot to do Daniel’s pizza Wednesday night so he had a Thursday pizza instead. I think pizza night is going to happen on Mondays henceforth while I’m away at yoga since Jason eyes the pizza longingly every week. I thawed the frozen crust overnight in the refrigerator then shaped it in the morning and let it rise in the pan in the refrigerator most of the day taking it out about an hour before baking. Just before baking I added tomato sauce, pizza seasoning, mushrooms I sauteed earlier and turkey pepperoni. This baked at 350 for 25 minutes. I’ll definitely be doing more of the frozen crusts, it seems to work quite well.
Earlier this week I watched Knitty Gritty with Iris Shreier teaching modular knitting. She demo’s this little coaster and since I had the exact yarn called for in my stash I thought it would make a great Knitter’s Tea Swap gift. Iris said you could get five of these from a skein and that once you get comfortable with the pattern you can whip one out in about 15 minutes. I’m not sure I’ll ever be that quick but I’m sure I’ll get faster as I go along. Thanks to Oiyi who sent me a skein of Artyarns merino in this beautiful blue along with a gorgeous scarf from ISE2 last February.

For dinner last night I wrapped chicken cutlets around pieces of fontina cheese then wrapped that package in thin slices of pancetta and pan fried them. I broiled a bit of asparagus to go alongside and then completely forgot to make my salad. No one seemed to notice and the chicken disappeared pronto.

Hand-made pasta and gnochi are two things that have always intimidated me in the kitchen. Yesterday I decided to tackle the gnochi and though I have no idea what they are meant to taste like, we were all pleased with the results and that’s what counts in the end. The recipe was a bit larger than anticipated so it did take awhile to execute and I’ve frozen half for later.
Gnochi
1 1/2 pounds russet potatoes
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons salt
freshly ground pepper
2 cups flour
Place potatoes in a saucepan and cover with with water. Bring to a boil and simmer 30 minutes or until tender. Drain and let sit 10-15 minutes to cool a bit. Peel potatoes and grate into a large bowl. (You can use a food mill for this but as I didn’t have one a grater seemed to work quite well.) Mix together the heavy cream, egg, salt and pepper and pour this over the potatoes mixing it in gently with a spatula. Gently cut in the flour just until it’s shaggy and not quite a dough.
On a floured cutting board, scoop out 1/4 of the dough at a time and knead once or twice. Form into a long rope about an inch thick and cut off 1/2-inch pieces. Roll each piece down the tines of a fork to form a slightly ovoid shape. These may be frozen or cooked within the hour. (You can refrigerate briefly but after some hours they will oxidize and turn grey.) Cook in boiling water 4-5 minutes or until they float to the top. Remove to a serving dish and toss with melted butter. Mine were topped with crushed tomatoes and fresh basil.
This week I have "Cooking By Hand" from the library and have really enjoyed looking through the recipes. This book is pretty much just a love letter to food. One of his recipes for green tomatoes led me to make this sort of chutney. Unfortunately, mine has air bubbles in it so it won’t keep long and I’ll have to find homes for some of it. I spent most of the afternoon giving it the occasional stir as it cooked down.
Green Tomato Chutney
5 pounds green tomatoes, chopped
2 large sweet onions, chopped
1 1/2 inches fresh ginger, cut into thick sliced
1 cup golden raisins
2 cinnamon sticks
2 cups dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
2 teaspoons brown mustard seed
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 star anise
Combine tomatoes through allspice in a dutch oven over medium high heat and bring to a boil. Wrap spices in a cheesecloth pouch and add that to the pot as well (I used a spice infuser ). Cook for 2-3 hours or until the liquid evaporates and you’re left with a glossy jam. As it cooks down you’ll need to gradually lower the heat and stir more and more frequently to prevent burning. Then transfer to sterile half-pint canning jars and process in a water bath to cover at least 1 inch for 15 minutes.
I had a little taste and I think this would be great with spicy Indian food so that might come into the picture later this week.
Saturday is grocery shopping day at our house. I make my list either Friday evening or early Saturday morning and most of the time we go out together to do the shopping. If we haven’t got leftovers we need to finish up then sometimes we’ll pick up the makings for bruschetta which makes a quick and satisfying lunch.
Grocery day Bruschetta
1 ball fresh mozzarella
cherry or grape tomatoes
fresh basil
fresh bread
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
Slice and toast the bread then top with sliced mozzarella, halved tomatoes, basil leaves and a drizzle of olive oil and vinegar. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. You can also add lemon zest, capers, olives or garlic to this if you’d like to fancy it up. Alternatively, instead of using it as bread topping, it makes a lovely pasta dish, particularly in the summer time when tomatoes are at their best. In winter it is nice with sun-dried tomatoes instead for a nice punch of flavor.
I’m working on the beaded scarf again. This is about 1/3 complete on repeat four of 11 for the center portion. My goal is to finish this by October 5th at the latest when I’ll be leaving on a little trek with Grace, who’s moving to the other side of the US. I want to have this packed up and in the mail by then so it can be on it’s way to my scarf exchange pal well before the mailing deadline. It’s a pleasure to knit and there’s been very little ripping out so long as I’m sure to knit it when I’m alone in the house and things are quiet. The pattern is becoming more and more familiar so perhaps I’ll chance it and bring it to Sunday knitting so I can move along a bit faster.


Sedum is new to my garden this year and it’s just beginning to pink up. It’ll be a dark sort of brick red at it’s peak and will return year after year. They honeysuckle is still putting on quite a show and the bees are very pleased with that!
Here’s my solution to the weekly pizza deal. Yesterday I made the same old dough and divided it into four. Three of the four sections I shaped into small rounds after the first rising and put into the freezer. I intend to thaw one of those next week and see how it does. The fourth I let rise in my little clay baker and turned it into Daniel’s pepperoni and mushroom pizza. Jason and I had baked sweet potatoes and broccoli for dinner but next week I’m planning something with lentils. Daniel abhors lentils so pizza night will be the perfect night for us to have some.

I’ve had a slight detour on the knitting with a little emergency project for a friend who’s recently been struck by tragedy. This is the small herringbone pattern done in Berroco ultra alpaca. The yarn itself is very soft and this pattern makes for a very nice cushy fabric. There’ll be a return to the rest of the knitting asap.