A day at home. I love going out on the weekends. It just seems that is what you are supposed to do, throw off all the work, and go have fun. But really, I’m not in my 20′s anymore, I have a lot that I want to do before winter hits, so some time at home, even on the weekends is a necessity.
Something strange came over me today and I set to work, just about first thing, in the kitchen, of all places. I have been wanting to make pizza, especially with all the veggies I have that would be great as toppings…like baby eggplant whose plants died, but the fruit was still pretty small. I found a lovely recipe online that uses spelt flour, which is my more preferred flour of choice. I plan on having frozen homemade pizza dough in my freezer all summer next year. What a great way to serve up some of the yummy veggies, in a no/low fuss sort of way.
I’ve been wanting to make homemade granola since I was in California. One of the highlights of my mornings was having a bowl of the “house” made granola with ice cold milk! All the better when done in my own house with wholesome ingredients, and topped with raw milk from the farm. I settled on a delightful recipe from The Food Network’s, Alton Brown. I like watching him, when I have the occasion to be somewhere with cable. He’s down to Earth and understands the how and why behind food, so I have full confidence with his recipes. Some of the recipes on that channel are a little gimicky, but I haven’t found that with his.
Spaghetti squash! I have a ton. I made some up for lunch by cooking a small one for 15 minutes in the microwave, removing the strands and tossing with butter, salt, pepper and a healthy amount of parmesean cheese. But while working with it I thought…this doesn’t seem much different then shredded zucchini…I bet I could use this as a zucchini substitute in breads and such. Sure enough, I went online, and found that I wasn’t the first to think this. I’m no long bemoaning what I will do with all this Spaghetti Squash. It might even be up on my list of favorite squash, with it’s new versatility and very long storage life. Excellent! I’ll be planting lots next year too.
The slippers are felted and they look great. I love felting Lamb’s Pride by Brown Sheep. It has a lovely texture when it’s felted and I find it works very nicely with my front loading washer…which you can felt in, even though many folks will tell you that you can’t. They are still damp, but I started some of the snowflake embroidery, decided to wait until they are dry to continue, but I think I’m going to like them. Mini already wants to put them on and saw no reason to wait for them to dry. But wait she will.
The Garlic has arrived! I ordered from High Mowing Seeds, as I did all my other seeds this year. I really like that company. I had great luck with germination, and being a first timer, I know it wasn’t because I knew what I was doing. The folks on the phone are helpful, too. Planting garlic in fall for a spring crop is like planting tulips. All the work in the fall, when it’s cool and amiable for being outside, and all the benefits after the snow has melted and you are just getting going on the summer of planting, weeding and hard work. I got to try some Garlic Scapes from my lovely farmers market friend, Shelley, this year, and I’m excited to have my own next year. I got both a hardneck variety, that has scapes and a softneck that doesn’t, but is supposed to store better and last longer. So they seem like a good pair. Now to figure out what my plans are for the garden for next year, so I can find just the right spot for the garlic. Supposedly it does lovely things like improve the flavor of, and ward off many of the insects that attack, cabbage. So I think I’ll try to plant them near each other.
The other day my daughter was given a box of old animal figures. All dating back more than decade…before Made in China sent chills down the spines of news reading parents. She’s has a lot of fun playing with them, can identify all of them, and likes to make houses for them out of her wooden blocks. We have one that we can’t figure out what animal it is. Guesses from those we’ve asked have been Tapir, Ant Eater and prehistoric horse. There are no other dinosaurs in the box, but I guess it’s possible it’s the lone one. But none of those guesses have shown to be correct, when checked on Google Images. Does anyone else have any ideas? For now we are calling it “the strange animal”. Photo taken by my husband and daughter…She then wanted a picture taken of all her animals. I love digital!
The long overdue pic of progress on the “Lady Sweater”. I love this sweater, I can’t wait to wear it. I want to make several more sweaters in this yarn, in varying colors, but I’m also very frustrated with this project. I have made a mistake for a long chunk of a given row, realized it 3 rows later and had to rip back 4 rows to fix it, more times than I care to count…at least 5-6. That is a lot of knitting wasted, and more importantly a lot of knitting time wasted pulling back and getting it back on the needles. The up side is I’ve been capable of fixing it, and then continuing to move forward. This is just one side because the needles aren’t as long as I am around so the rest of the sweater was bunched behind Isabelle’s back, but you get to see the progress and the start of a beautiful sweater!
And a gratuitous Chicken Pic. Elizabeth investigating the fall woods.
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