Knitting Zeal

Chill in the air means soup time

So fall is officially here, despite my brain and wardrobe still thinking it is summer.  I need to pack away the summer clothes and dig out the sweaters from the attic.  I really enjoy making homemade soup and am always looking to try out new soup recipes that will please the different palates at home.  Over the summer my friend brought over a batch of tomato soup that was amazing, so I decided to make that last night.  It is from the Barefoot Contessa's latest cookbook, Back to Basics, which I just happen to own.  I also found the recipe online. Check out Cream of Fresh Tomato Soup by Ina Garten.  I used locally grown beefsteak tomatoes because my one lonely tomato plant only produced two tomatoes this summer.  I inherited my mom's food mill and it worked great at creating a nice texture in the soup and removing the tomato seeds and skins.  I really love this soup--it has a wonderful taste and aroma.  I am planning to make it again soon and freeze it in small batches for the winter, while tomatoes are still relatively good here fresh.  I did read a comment about the recipe that it works well with canned tomatoes too.

Sock knitting is going well.  I finished the first sock part and started a second sock.  The next part of the mystery pattern comes out today, so I need to print that out and get working.  I really like the sock pattern so far and the yarn is great.  No photos yet, but soon.

Andrew has a friend coming over to play this morning.  The remainder of the soup will be lunch!  The kids may not eat it, but the mommies will enjoy it!

Friday Favorites

This week was a blur.  We are loving the spring weather and have been getting outside as much as possible. 

• The playgrounds in our neighborhood are lots of fun and we are starting to see some of the same kids there.  Maybe we'll learn a bit about toddler friends!

• This recipe for ginger-hoisin pork tacos in the crock pot was great!  sUsAn posted it a few weeks back--she finds great recipes!

• Andrew's "girlfriend" is a big sister as of this afternoon!  Now he has two potential prom dates in his future!

• I've been busy crocheting squares together to make a blanket for the above mentioned new baby.  My knitting group created squares and I have to get going on finishing the blanket so I can give it to the baby.

• Ikea:  I went in search of kids chairs...they had many on display and Andrew enjoyed playing/trying them out.  After I picked the ones I wanted, wrote down the location and went to pick up, they had NO KIDS CHAIRS in stock!!  The only thing I could find were cheap red lawn chairs.  We got a couple of them for now.  Andrew loves sitting in them.  I wish the store had a sign up about being out of stock before I wasted all that time trying them out.  We do have fun exploring that store!

• Cupcakes!  I baked cupcakes, with Andrew's help, today to celebrate his 18 month birthday, which is tomorrow.  He ate almost two!  A big change from his first birthday when he would not even taste his cake.   Before....  ...and after eating cupcakes!

Have a great weekend!!

Happy New Year!

It's amazing to me that it is 2009 already.  I remember the millenium celebration and in one of our closets still have the time capsule that we made at out New Years Eve party that year.  I think we decided to open it in twenty years, so we are almost half way there--yikes!  I forgot to make resolutions this year, but I do have a few ongoing goals, so they will have to do. 

• Find and cook more crock pot recipes
• Cook more from the tremendous cookbook collection that fills three bookshelves
• Continue to work on being more organized
• Get rid of stuff--we have way too much stuff in our posession.  I have been making a point to donate a bag or two each month to the purple heart organization.  They make it easy by picking up from our porch once a month. 
• Recycling more--I've been trying to recycle packaging of things--boxes from cereal, snacks, etc and not just newspapers.  We have stopped buying bottled water and use refillable bottles.  It not only has saved us ten dollars or more a month, but it is easier than shlepping a case of water home every other week. 

It's a good start to the new year!

So far this year I've used my crock pot twice.  Once on New Year's Day to make a pork roast and today, to make beef stew.  I am not a fan of beef, but my "boys" are, and this was a really easy and healthy recipe that I found in a cook book that I bought ten years ago!  It was one of those little mini-magazines you see at the check out at the market.  I almost threw it out, but found this recipe and decided to try it.  I only modified it slightly.

Beef Stew with Shiitake Mushrooms 

• 1 lb of beef cubes, in half inch cuts
• one package of fresh shiitake mushrooms sliced (approx 3.5 oz)
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 1.5 lbs of new potatoes cut up
• .5 lb of baby carrots
• one can of small dice tomatoes, undrained
• one can of beef broth
• one tsp salt
• one tsp sugar
• one tsp dried marjoram
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/2 cup flour
• one Tbsp worscestershire sauce

Combine all ingredients, except beef, in crock pot.  Add beef.  Cook on low for 8-9 hours.  (It says it serves eight--not in this house!)

I added about a tablespoon of corn starch mixed with the sauce at the end to thicken the stew.  I made some cheddar drop biscuits to go with it.  Andrew loved them!  It actually was good, even if it isn't my favorite thing to eat. 

Happy 2009!

holiday fun

Chris is off this week, so we've been trying to do different holiday-themed activities as a family.  Yesterday we took Andrew to the mall to see the decorations, walk, and see Santa.  We were hoping that the more he sees him, the less frightened he'd be.  Plus, we got to watch other kids see him and sit on his lap this time.  Unfortunately the little guy that was in front of us in line freaked out on Santa's lap.  Let's just say, Andrew was not a happy boy, either. Can you see the sheer terror in his face?  Yes, forget college fund, we'll be saving for his therapy fund.  Bad parents!

Today was less stressful for him and did not involve strange old men dressed in funny red suits.  We went to Peddler's Villagefor lunch and a walk.  Our favorite restaurant there closed recently (another victim of our curse, I suppose) and the new one in it's place wasn't quite finished yet.  We had lunch at the Hart's Tavern, which is the casual part of the Cock n' Bull Restaurant.  He was extremely well behaved for lunch and enjoyed reading and snacking on some of my lunch too.  I had their chicken and corn chowder--which was yummy.  We stopped by the Chadsford wine shop to pick up a couple of bottles for gifts, and one for us.  Most of the shops there are not child or stroller friendly.  We did stop by to see the gingerbread house display.  The houses were amazing!  

There is a section called giggleberry fair that has a carousel and games for kids, but we didn't make it over that way.  Andrew was getting sleepy, so we headed back.   

Throughout the village are holiday decorations using fruit.  I'm sure this is some kind of tradition somewhere, but I don't know what it is.  It seems that many of the lemons popped off of the decorations, as we saw lots of lemons laying on the ground near where the decorations should have been. 

I found a link on sUsAn's blog for these yummy treats.  I made them Monday afternoon--they were fun and easy to make.  See the one in the middle with two dots?  That one is for you, Audrey--not so spontaneous twin dots!

We started decorating the house.  The tree is up, but undecorated.  Hopefully tonight when Andrew is sleeping we can get it done. 

Off to make dinner!

knitted toy

Since having a boy and reading about scares regarding mass manufactured toys filled with potential chemical hazards, I have been more interested in knitting toys.  I have lots of patterns for toys and have found lots more on Ravelry.  This swirled ball is one that I first discovered on Flickr, which led me to Ravelry, which led to a free pattern here.  It was one of the more fun patterns to knit and would look great in lots of color combinations.  I used cotton yarn that isn't squeaky, especially when a certain little boy chews on it. 

One of my current favorite toy catalogs is Moolka, which is where wee one's birthday gifts are coming from, as well as last Christmas' presents.  I like how their toys require imagination and not tv screens or batteries. 

Dinner tonight is cooking already in the crock pot.  It is a recipe from a friend for Chicken Cacciatore.  

 

1 large onion, thinly sliced

1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breasts

2 six ounce cans tomato paste

8 ounces fresh sliced mushrooms

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 cloves garlic minced

1 teaspoon oregano

1/2 teaspoon basil

1 bay leaf

1/4 cup dry white wine

1/4 cup water

 

Put sliced onion in bottom of crock-pot. Add chicken. Stir together rest of the ingredients. Spread over chicken.  Cook: 7-9 hours low or 3-4 hours high.

I didn't use wine and replaced it with water and a teaspoon of cider vinegar.  I also added some fresh basil leaves from my plants in the yard. It smells great. 

The wee one has awoken from morning nap.  Let the playing begin!

Weekend update

Summer is over???  When did that happen? I love fall, though:  pumpkins, apples, halloween, changing leaves.  I meant to get started sooner on fall hats for the wee one, but life gets in the way of knitting.  I wound some yarn into balls this morning. I want to re-make a pumpkin hat for monkey boy since the one from last year no longer fits--which makes me laugh since the first one was huge on his head!  I also want to make a simple apple hat, so I will be using this collection of tahki cotton classic (the trio) and mission falls cotton. 

Last night for dinner I made a recipe sUsAn posted a link to last week.  Tomato pie from Blue Yonder's site was easy to make and very good.  A hit here! It is layers of tomatoes, basil, scallions, and a cheese mixture all baked into a pie shell. It smelled great and gave me another opportunity to use the basil I'm growing.  I think I have enough left growing for one more batch of pesto.

We are getting ready to go see my new nephew today.  My SIL and BIL adopted a baby boy from Guatamala and made it official last week.  He is jsut six weeks younger than monkey boy, so I know they will have fun together. 

Happy Labor Day!

Friday Favorites

This week flew by fast!  I guess having Chris home on Monday helped make it seem shorter.  We always like having Daddy around to help entertain baby Andrew. 

Things I am into this week:

PomPoms!  I found this cool pom pom maker at AC Moore this week and used my 40% off coupon to buy it.  I recall seeing it on Julie's blog a while back and thought it would be fun.  I always loved making pom poms as a kid, but then I wrapped the yarn around my hand.  I was always trying to make the perfectly groomed pom pom.  So with my new tool, I whipped together 25 pom poms in pink and white and created the pom pom boa from One Skein.  This will be gifted to a certain little girl who is turning five soon. 

Farmer Brown Shears His Sheep:  This is such a cute book about how yarn is made.  I read it to Andrew last night, although he is clueless.  I am surprised to see it is unavailable on Amazon!

Oatmeal:  I've been on an oatmeal kick lately.  I love the homemade kind with lots of raisins and brown sugar.  It takes too long to make most days with an inpatient infant, so the instant kind works too.  I just found a new type at Wegmans: Quaker Simple Harvest.  It has much more texture to it than the regular mushy instant.  If you click the link, there is a place to request a sample. 

Kraft Food and Family Magazine:  It is really a big ad for their products, but this free quarterly magazine has some great easy recipes.  Tonight we are having slow cooker BBQ and orange pulled pork.  Hopefully it will be tasty, even if I didn't use their brand of BBQ sauce!

Slow Cooker plastic liners: My friend Teresa turned me on to these and what a time saver they are!  They really make clean up easy, especially with sticky sauces.

I am almost finished Andrew's Baby Surprise Jacket.  I have about three rows left.  I need to find good buttons for it.  I found some leather covered ones that I loved, but they cannot be washed easily, which sort of puts a damper on my goal of having a simple, easy to care for, baby sweater.  The search will continue!  

Happy Friday!