Motel Problems...

We were at the temple for our monthly service and spend two nights at the motel nearby.  It is always a treat to sleep in a nice clean tidy empty place which also has television (which we don't) so we can watch the Weather Channel, Food Network (me),  Law and Order, and Warehouse 13 (Dear One).  So nice.

Well, this time things were a tad different than usual, no big deal but little bitty disappointments.

When we got back to the motel last night and I pulled the bag of romaine lettuce I had chopped up at home early on Thursday morning I discovered it had frozen in the refrigerator department!  Uck!  Since it was not TOTALLY dead, I picked out some of it for Bob and some of the worse stuff for me, then put on some tunafish and some cottage cheese with a little Newmans Own Lite Honey Mustard sauce.  It was edible but disappointing.

This morning I could not believe my eyes at something that happened!  We went over for breakfast in the nice new breakfast room and enjoyed some "pan fried" potatoes of some unknown nature, some perhaps eggy scrambled eggs, and several very nice fatty spicy link sausages.  In the fruit bowl were several perfectly-sized small bananas so I put one on top of my plate to carry to our table.  That was going to be a sweet to complete my meal.  When I had finished my food I went to toast some English muffins for Dear One.  While I was waiting for the toaster I noticed he had gone to make himself so hot chocolate.  When the toast popped up I took it back to the table to butter then halves and to eat my banana.

You will imagine my chagrin when I noticed it was no longer there by my empty dishes!  I asked Dear One if he had eaten it but he had not.  A few tables away there were two boys, probably 10 or 12 years old, one of whom was stuffing a banana down his mouth!  I am pretty sure he is the guilty party, and while I was piqued by it after a few moments of gritting my teeth I realized that with Dear One and me both gone from the table they may have though we were gone and didn't want the banana after all, so I cannot fault them too much, but I was miffed!  I went back to the juice dispenser and partially filled a cup with cranberry juice then topped it off with orange juice.  It may have had many of the nutrients I was hoping to enjoy in the banana.

Now we are off to the next part of our weekend adventures...bishop's storehouse and Super Saturday in two places!  Our own bed will look pretty good tonight....

A Couple of Shawls, Some Dishcloths, and Baby Janes

Recently I have been working on a shoulder shawlette-sort of thing.  It turned out pretty well, but did not do the trick for me. It was intended to kind of curve around my neck so I could pin it in front.  Wrong shape and size.  Well, maybe I am the one with the wrong shape and size but it did not work out as I had planned.  Nice shawl, though.  Knit with Noro sock yarn which I purchased at Country Woolens in Lebanon, NH.

Shawl spread on porch railing.

Top detail showing the shawl was supposed to be stocking stitch but I changed to garter stitch due to sloth.

This shows the colors better.

Another shawl I made was for a little friend. I had wanted to make the Pine Forest pattern into a shawl but not for myself necessarily. I found a recipient and made it to her color choice.

Pine Forest pattern, an easy four-row repeat

Finished Pine Forest shawl

Notice the "design element" about one-third down...I planned to embroider the recipient's name there but found I was a disaster at embroidery and just left it.

Other completed projects lately are some washcloths:

Simple baby washcloths in garter stitch

Spiral lacy dishcloth

 Saving the cutest for last are these Baby Janes which were fun to knit for a fundraiser.  All four pairs went, and went for good prices, too!  I am so pleased.  I do think they are way cute.  I started knitting three pairs at once but got all tangled up and dropped back to two at once! 

Someone suggested I should make these for sale.  What do you think?

Baby Janes...casting on 28 stitches.

Food Failures! A lot of them...

Saturday evening and night until 6:05 AM Sunday I was indisposed, REALLY indisposed.  It seemed like a good day to stay at home.  By mid-day I was feeling a little better so I thought I would do some cooking.  I had recently seen some very yummy-looking recipes.  May I say it:  they do not always come out as advertised!

Amazingly, all the pictures I took of the failed food seem to have disappeared.  I guess they are no loss.

The things I made (which I remember a week later....!) which did not work were Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel Bites with Salted Caramel Sauce and salt-baked potatoes.

It appears that I did not save the recipes but I did find a recipe for the salted caramel sauce, which I WILL make again even though the first batch failed.  Let me give you a tip:  do have everything ready (that means have your butter cut up into pieces and sitting in a bowl beside your stove, ditto with your cup of heavy cream) and a MAJOR TIP: do not worry about the thermometer!  When the two cups of sugar have melted and are completely smooth, REMOVE FROM HEAT IMMEDIATELY and stir in the butter then the cream....being extremely careful with the cream not to slosh it into the pan.  This way you will avoid burns.

Even though my caramel sauce was a failure, it was just barely a failure...in that it burned JUST SLIGHTLY, but that was enough to make it less than pleasant to eat.  I tried dipping in the cinnamon sugar pretzel bites off and on for about four days, and the sauce sort of grew on me, but finally I tossed it.  The texture was so wonderful and it looked so good.  If only it did not taste just barely burned.  Oh well.  Next time.

The salt-baked potatoes were totally a bummer as a result of not going back and reading the recipe before making them.  No, you can not just throw 2 cups of kosher salt in the bottom of your pan, toss on the potatoes and cook at 425 for 1 1/2 hours.  Does. Not. Work.  Sadly...and since they were not at all well-received, I won't try them again.

Good luck with your cooking!

TIme flies! Knitting, sickness, reupholstery...

It has been such a long time since I wrote.  So many things going on, some really nice projects finishes, and many others started. 

Some of our church ladies decided to work on a community service project knitting and crocheting hats for preemies, babies, and chemo patients.  The first collection was 19 hats!  So nice of the ladies.  Several more are under construction.  Pictures will follow.

Everyone in our house was struck down with a most virulent virus in February which took more that a week to subside.  Upchucking is about my least favorite thing in the world, and something I have not done for MANY years, but this time there was no stopping it.  A few days after the worst of it, when I was feeling better, I discovered that I had missed cleaning the entire walls of the bathroom.  Yes, it was that bad.  Fortunately the other people in the house cleaned up after themselves, except in the truck cab.  I have used the vinegar and water cleanup which only partially fixed things.  If someone wants to tell me how to get rid of the last of the smell, I would be very grateful.

Two pairs of mittens are finished. An afghan is started on the Bond Sweater Machine.  The wingback chair that I started reupholstering back in June of last year but stopped forward progress when I realized my little electric stapler was not robust enough to do the job has now started moving on since I purchased a pneumatic longnose stapler by Rainco.  Making progress, to my great delight.

A better breakfast...

Recently we have been having a lot of eggs for breakfast.  Even more recently dear one has mentioned that he has become less enamored of all the eggs we have been eating!  Something new was called for so I put on my thinking cap as my dear mother-in-law used to say.  This is what came to mind: Spanish Omelet.

Many years ago I was at a friend's house for a birthday lunch.  We had a wonderful green salad and Spanish Omelet.  She had studied in Spain for a semester while in college and had learned to make these.  Very delicious.  These are also popular at our house now!

Spanish omelet doused in black pepper and topped with cheese

Sushi at Home!

A couple of weeks ago a wonderful lady at church invited us over to teach us how to make sushi.  I love vegetable sushi with soy sauce and a TINY bit of wasabi for dipping.  I will purchase this sushi when I am out at the grocery store for a neat and tidy snack to eat in the car on the way home from errands.  Once I tried making it myself and it was a disaster.  Not so now!

M made her sushi rice and had laid out bowls of multiple fillings, some of which were fish-y things.  Since dear one is a vegetarian, I decided to make vegetable sushi consisting of nori, sushi rice, lettuce, carrots, and avocado.  I made seven rolls of that kind then made three rolls of avocado, carrot, and tofu strips which tofu I had pressed well for a couple of hours then sliced and cut the other way so the pieces looked like french fries.  After sauteing them for a few minutes in canola oil, they looked even more like french fries, and had the real bonus of being chewy, not soft and icky.

This is how the sushi looked when I plated it for the youth group meeting at our house:

Sushi Project before

One of the boys saw the sushi and got up from where he was sitting, walked across the room and asked me in the sweetest voice if I had made that sushi.  When I said yes he gave me a big smile and a happy thumbs up!  That pleased me greatly as I had not known if the kids would even eat the stuff.  I just wanted to have something a bit more healthy to go along with the cake and brownie bars.

After the youth discussion was over and the closing prayer had been said, the kids leaped to their feet and descended on the plate of sushi like a flock of locusts!  This is what the plate looked like within a very few minutes!  AND they seemed to eat it without the soy sauce, making it even better for them...

Sushi Project: After

Oh, they did eat the cake, too...

Barbara Walker Learn To Knit Afghan Project, Squares 18 and 19

Square 18, called Hexagon Pattern, was a pretty easy square to knit.  You use a multiple of 8 stitches, plus 6.  For this one I cast on 38 stitches.

Square 18: Hexagon Pattern

You will notice that it has not been blocked, and not even had the ends woven in, but I had the camera and these two squares in the same place at the same time and thought it would be a good idea to take the photo NOW!

You will also notice that this square is a very curly block.  It will benefit greatly from blocking as well as being sewn into the afghan, which I am sure will finish the squaring-up process.

This next square is Square 19 and is called Instant Plaid.  It really is a rather instant pattern.  There was no trouble with the pattern, but it is really pretty important to read the pattern directions!  Have I said that before?  I forgot that every last stitch needs to be a knit stitch, and every beginning stitch also needs to be a knit stitch. Oh well...error-prone, but no problem for my spirit...

This pattern is another multiple of 8 stitches, plus six patterns and I cast on 46 stitches.

Square 19: Instant Plaid

Now on to the next!  Well, not just yet, actually. I just picked up some Noro Kureyon Sock yarn, which I hear they have discontinued, to knit up the Ravelry free pattern called Gaia Shoulder Hug by Anne Carroll Gilmour.  I have a dress that I really like but which has a wider neckline than my slip likes so I need something to wear to cover the white...!  Of course, I want it done now, but it will work out for whenever I get it done!