About The Country Wife Blog

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

The last few days have been quite busy in our house as in most other houses.  This year we are having bread bowls and soup for Thanksgiving dinner...a first, but a royal treat as we LOVE Alissa's soups and you cannot beat a good bread bowl.  We are trying the "Farmer Wheat" bread bowls this time (from Price Chopper).  Their artisan bread bowls are great.  We will see about this flavor!

Yesterday I made a Layered Toffee-Pumpkin Cheesecake which recipe I found either on "Our Best Bites" blog or "Mel's Kitchen Cafe" blog, or maybe another blog.  It sounds good, and it actually looks pretty good, too.  The only glitch in the system is that I did not have any ground ginger available...out in the garage in a box from the move in April...and no reasonable way to get it...so it will not have the same tang to the pumpkin part of the cheesecake.  Oh, well.

Pie crust was made and refrigerated yesterday.  This morning I was up at 5 to make the blueberry pie.  It is now cooked, but there was almost certainly not enough cornstarch in the recipe. I am likely to give up on blueberry pies, at least ones that are cooked in the crust. I did see a recipe that advocated par-baking the crust, cooking the filling, then putting the filling into the crust, topping with more crust and baking for a shortish period of time.  I didn't plan to do that so I did not save the recipe.  Bummer.



Yesterday I also made some very cute Oreo cookie/Peanut Butter cup/Whopper/Candy Corn turkeys for plate decorations for dinner.  They really are cute, even if the execution wasn't very good!  "Our Best Bites" has them perfectly executed.  I loved their Pilgrim hats, too, but didn't notice them until too late to make them for our local grandchildren.



In the meantime I have gotten out the Bond Incredible Sweater Machine and set it up in the addition to work on while Bob watches "24" and other blood-pressure-raising programs on NetFlix.  I had thought of making some simple sweaters for the grandchildren on the machine.  As a warmup I made a Christmas stocking in white for the temple.  The short row heels and toes on the Bond are likely to make me bald.  No lie!  They are a nightmare.  I cannot for the life of me figure out why the stitches drop off the needles.  Not every row, of course, but pretty often. I am getting better at re-seating them, but it is REALLY aggravating.

This is the first sock, knitting done and ready for sewing up, for the temple for people who have casts or need to wear their street shoes for some reason rather than white temple shoes.  The Matron asked if I would make some.  I will gladly make them.  More gladly after I get the short-row heels and toes together!

 At Halloween I found some cute mummies on "Our Best Bites", I think.  I thought they were so cute that the children would love them.  If I think of it, I will put some mustard eyes on them.  The top photo is after baking them.




Thursday, November 17, 2011

Leg Warmers

Leah has sweet little legs which can get cold in winter so I knit up some leg warmers for her.  I could not find any legwarmer patterns handy so I made up my own.

Using Galway Chunky yarn and size 8 and size 13 needles.

Cast on 28 stitches with the size 8 needles.

Knit 2, purl 2 for about an inch.

Switch to size 13 needles and knit all rounds for 10 inches.

Knit 2, purl 2  for an inch, then bind off in rib.  If you think the little leg is too small to do the final rib using the size 13 needles, go down to a size 10.  For chubby legs, knit the knee ribbing with the size 13 needles.

Hopefully Leah will allow me to photograph her legs in the warmers, but that is not a foregone certainty.  She has a mind of her own at age 2-plus!