December « 2008 « Stoneview

The rest of the story

There were a lot of other nice gifts beneath the tree this year. The "big" one was a family gift of a Roku box. This lets us watch some of our Netflix choices as instant downloads right on the TV (and Daniel can watch them on his xbox in his room if he likes, he LOVES that). The newer movies must still come via snail mail but in the meantime we can watch our favorite BBC detectives and things on Roku. It was an instant hit with us. There was also the travel tea mug I'd seen in the Concord cook shop and requested. This will be awesome for those fiber fests that occur in spring or fall when the weather can be cool. I was pleasantly surprised by this p-touch labeler and it's already had a workout tagging things around the house. Jason will now be able to suss out all those mystery canning jars of beans and pasta and other foods in the pantry. MIL send me a yoga dvd off my Amazon wishlist. I'd had it from Netflix and knew I really liked it.

A new friend

The big deal for Christmas this year was a new wheel. I'd sold the old one to subsidize the purchase of the new one and sent her packing in mid-December. This is the folding model of the Lendrum which I'd fallen in love with at Rose's back in September when I realized just how much improved my spinning was using her wheel. I requested the Lendrum "complete" with carrying case so that I now have pretty much the same capabilities as I had with the old wheel. I already knew I wasn't keen about the Lendrum lazy kate but I didn't realize Lendrum bobbins won't fit on my Ashford tensioned kate so I must order a new kate before I begin to ply. Knowing that a new friend was coming to play I ordered a wee bit of new fiber to play with. First though I'm going to work up the last of Tarragon's roving (well, just that from the first fleece I bought, there's still a full bag from her second fleece waiting to be spun as well). This is a roving that I've worked with a good bit so it'll be something familiar to use as I get to know the new wheel. I've spun a bit here and a bit there and have already filled one bobbin.

Gone pecan

Gabby and Gwen waited patiently while Chris packed his bag to head out again yesterday morning. Gabby in particular really thinks his sole job should be to pat her but alas he's gone back to the tunnel building business. We did get to see some really cool pictures of the job he's working on at the moment including the ginormous icicles in the tunnel and a video of him running an enormous drill. I'd started working on a new pair of fingerless gloves for Daniel the day before xmas but they've been slow going. He doesn't like a regular knit purl rib so he chose this ribbing out of 365 knit stitches a day and I got starting using Ann Bud's basic glove pattern. The first time through the fingers were much too tight so I ripped them out and redid them with a needle size larger. That improved things quite a bit but they were too long for his tastes. In the end I ripped back the fingers 3 or 4 times before the first glove was done.

In the kitchen

While he was here Chris made lasagna for us. He's been cooking for himself in his new apartment and even has a little basil plant. He lamented a lack of sunlight so I suggested he get himself a little grow light to cheer it up. Daniel is always after pancakes so I made a batch with my new pancake molds. I quickly discovered you need a much thinner batter for these so I added an extra cup of buttermilk and things began to flow more smoothly. These molds are very fiddly but the boys were really amused with the resultant pancakes.

Christmas Day

One of the changes I made this year was to do away with paper wrappings and switch to re-usable cloth. This year we simply tied it on but next year I hope to begin turning it into fabric envelopes and drawstring bags. I don't think anyone was overly excited about the new method but I used stash xmas fabric and I'm sure it was much better for the environment. Chris's new hat was a good fit and we let the boys hook the xbox up to the TV to check out their new games (a very rare occurrence in our house to have the gaming on the tv). Just at the bottom of the picture you can see the top of my new spinning wheel. The gaming didn't last very long as the power went out around lunch time and was off all afternoon.

Thankfully, I'd baked my cake in the morning before the power went out. This is the pomegranate cake out of the current Fine Cooking. It's a light airy chocolate cake topped with a layer of pomegranate jelly over which you layer a chocolate glaze and a sprinkling of pomegranate seeds. I'd goofed the cake the day before so the boys had that plain one to each which they preferred. We prepped for dinner by candlelight but the power came back on in time to cook and we didn't have to wing it with the grill. My camera battery died just as we were sitting down to eat so I only have the one very blurry picture of dinner. We had a sirloin roast with shallots cooked in red wine, creamed wild mushrooms, horseradish Emmenthaler popovers and green beans with a meyer lemon sauce.

An untimely goodbye

On Christmas Eve morning we received some terrible news. Daniel's father Keith had a very bad stroke and was in the hospital on life support. Later that day a decision was made to take him off life support on the advice of doctors. At 3:45 am the following morning he died. Despite the differences that led to our parting, he was always a lot of fun and the kids loved him dearly. This photo was taken the day Daniel was born. Chris was 5 and Kathryn was 6.

Merry Christmas

Linzer cookies.

The wheels on the bus go ’round and ’round

This "Turn a Square" hat is for Chris with yarn leftover from his wild ski mask. His head is a bit smaller than Jason's or Daniel's so I used 88 stitches rather than 96 as the pattern calls for. Gabby isn't a very good hat model so I did some mirror shots because this hat really looks a lot better on a head than crumpled flat.

Busy bee

Sunday I spent all day making aprons with Gabby's close supervision. This gets me pretty much caught up with the gift stuff though I do still have a couple quick hats to knit.

The driveway and street were an icy mess Sunday morning so I didn't even attempt to go out to knitting. Instead I stayed home and made beignets for breakfast. The folks in the MVCSA Ravelry group have been chatting about Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day which got me reinvigorated. I'd stopped making the dough because the container I was using took up too much fridge real estate but after listening to them rave for a couple weeks I ordered myself a proper dough raising bucket and mixed up a batch of dough. Sadly that was right before the power went out and by the time the power came back on there was something icky growing on top of my dough. I started over again but this time I forgot to move my dough into the fridge after it's initial rise which meant it was smelling like sour dough pretty darn quick. What better to make with sourdough than some beignets!

This is the basic dough recipe. I dumped it out onto a well floured board and flattened it to about 3/4-inch thick with my hands, covered it with a towel and let it warm up about an hour. I cut that into squares and fried them in oil at 370 F. Drain for a few minutes, sprinkle with powdered sugar and devour. Yum!

White Christmas?

After three snow storms in a week we have a good bit of snow on the ground and all the talk is of a white Christmas. It's supposed to warm up on Christmas eve though and rain. I'm not sure that really counts.

Jason frequently asks me to make dressing for his salad when he cooks dinner. My goto recipe is about a tablespoon of the Green Goddess mix, 2/3 cup buttermilk, a tablespoon mayo, a big pinch of salt, a sprinkle of cayenne pepper and a small clove of garlic run through the garlic press. If you like thicker dressing add more mayo, this is fairly thin.