MJayKnits

New Endeavor

2011-03-28T14:24:00.002-05:00

Alright, alright. I realize it's been....months since I have posted. I apologize. We have been so busy around here! It's difficult to find time to blog when I'm so busy with kids and homeschooling and knitting, etc... But I plan to start up again, and I wanted to start by telling you about my new endeavor.

I have been on Etsy for awhile, but mostly as a buyer. I decided to try my hand at knitting needle cases. I designed my own and am pretty good with a sewing machine and I think they turned out pretty great! I hope to make a little extra cash selling these on Etsy, so if you know anyone who is a knitter, I'd appreciate you all passing my Etsy link along! : )

Here is my ETSY SHOP.

So I will leave you with that for now, and I'll be back to post about more going-ons at a later date.

Knitting: Finished Objects

2010-10-23T21:21:00.003-05:00

It's been awhile! Wow, I didn't realize it's been over a month since I've blogged.

This post will be mostly photos of recently finished items.

I decided to start knitting random hats with my current "stash" of yarn and sell them for $10 each. I have so much random yarn and half-skeins laying around that I need to just use some of it up and I thought this would be the perfect way....some of these are sold and some are still for sale. If you are interested, email me at mjayknits at gmail dot com. The contact email on Blogger doesn't work and it won't let me change it.

Here's what I've been working on.

Amelia's Hat

*Sold*

Kierra's Hat

*Sold*

Turkey Hat (custom order)

*Sold*

Bunny Ear Hat

*Sold*

Drewdy's Hat

*Sold*

Soph's Hat

*Sold*

Ugly pom-pom Hat

(circumference is approx 14" - will stretch a few inches for a nice snug fit)

$10-

Stripey Gnomish Hat

(circumference is approx. 13" - will stretch a few inches for a good snug fit)

$10-

Pink Cabled Newborn Hat

(circumference is approx 11.5" - will stretch a bit for a good snug fit)

$10-

These next two were my big projects that took me much of the summer (I usually only knit in the evenings). It doesn't look like much, but believe me, it is. This is a hat/scarf/mitten project for a mom and daughter. The girls mittens have a string that runs through the coat so they don't get lost. It took many, many, MANY hours. But it was fun. And rewarding.

This is much of the knitting that I've been up to. Now that I'm home and the kids are always home with me, I've been doing a ton of baking and roasting and preserving and teaching and cleaning and hugging and kissing. The fun never really ends around here. We are poor as dirt but I haven't ever been happier in my adult life. I'm so very glad to be out the rat race and into a life that is more fulfilling and relaxing and sloooowed down. So worth it.

Strawberry Picking

2010-09-13T07:02:00.003-05:00

This post is VERY late. We went strawberry picking way back....well, when strawberry season was around. When was that? Mid-June?

This was one of the first things the kids and I did once Isabel was done with 4th grade and summer began. Admittedly, I was nervous because having been a working mom, I usually did most activities such as this with Jeremy so I had a helper along. It's so silly that I was so afraid and unconfident in my ability to mother my children, but it's true. When I worked, I didn't think I could parent as well as I could analyze a system issue on the computer for Anthem. I was unsure of my parenting, nervous that something would go wrong and I wouldn't know how to handle it. I wonder how many moms feel this way, because I certainly did.

There isn't anything that could have corrected this way of thinking for me, other than throwing me into full-time parenting and not having a back up plan! I quickly learned that I could go anywhere with these kids, and even if they embarrassed me or had a tantrum or fell in mud and we had no back-up clothes along, that I would survive, they would survive, and life would go on.

Being home has really strengthened the bond I have with my kids. Especially Isabel, who is 10 and right at that age where everything is the-most-important-thing-in-the-world at the exact time it is happening.

She is in her 3rd week of homeschooling and really enjoying it. She tells me it doesn't even feel like school. She's already done 3 experiments in Science, which she tells me is 2 more than she did all year at school in 4th grade. And the great thing is, we experience it all together. Avery also takes part in some of the school things she does. Along with the things I am teaching him, he has really grown a lot since the end of May.

Anyway...back to strawberry picking! There is this great little farm on Hwy 151, about 15 minutes outside of Fond du Lac. The kids and I went there and spent about $18.00 on strawberries, made a pie and strawberry-rhubarb jam, and ate strawberries until we couldn't stand them anymore! It was a beautiful farm, a nice big field and wide open. I really need a farm. Although mine will have sheep, and maybe just a small patch of strawberries.

A few pictures from our adventure:

I have been doing some knitting. I will have something great to share in about a week. A big order I have been working on for a friend and her daughter. Many, many hours spent knitting this order! They are beautiful though, you'll see!

Summer Sand

2010-08-13T22:02:00.004-05:00

There is this great State Park somewhat near our town. It's only about a 45 minute drive and it's 3 miles of sandy beach, campgrounds, and trails. We go every summer, at least a few times. We haven't camped yet because we just felt Avery wouldn't do so well with his sensitivity to, well, everything... but we love the beach and the trails that are planked over sand dunes and in forests. It's beautiful and breathtaking and right on Lake Michigan, which stretches as far as the eye can see.

I took the kids several weeks ago on a weekday, which was a great idea since hardly anybody frequents this beach on the weekday. We had a blast! The kids loved digging in the sand, and despite the frigid temperature of Lake Michigan, Isabel goes out neck deep and jumps the waves. We always bring a picnic lunch and several blankets and we find a place on the beach (usually the same place every time). After we swim and dig and build and eat, we change into clothes and walking shoes and walk the trails, and then go home. If Jeremy is with us, he knows exactly how to get to a Coldstone Creamery and so we usually stop there on the way home.

Sand dune trail

Skinnyminnie on the beach.

He was so proud of his sandcastle (round space with shovel in the middle) which he built entirely by himself!

Isabel sitting inside of the river and lake we built, and our village surrounds it. Well, the start of our village anyhow...

Our little spot in the sand.

Isabel. I think I've seen her in this suit more than clothes this summer!

I definitely recommend Kohler Andrae State Park if you are in the Sheboygan, WI area. It's beautiful. I would absolutely love to see the sunrise from our spot on the beach someday.

Dear...

2010-08-08T22:51:00.003-05:00

...God,

I have decided that you know what you're doing up there. Because of that, I have also decided that I am not going to worry about all of the medical bills. I am also not going to worry about my cancer tests that showed elevated serotonin, nor am I going to worry about my upcoming "re-test" of my tumor markers. Or how we will make ends meet this winter. You have a divine plan, you are Holy and all-powerful.

Tonight I called my credit card company to activate my new card - the old one had expired. I was told that I have a $240.00 check coming to me because of a new points system on our card, and all previous purchases accumulated toward those points. The medical bill on the top of my pile is for $240.17. I'm not surprised.

You have it covered.

Love,

Maryjane

Life Just Happens

2010-07-25T22:00:00.006-05:00

So, I quit my job and we are a month into our new lives. Everything is going fine, we are making ends meet. And then something happens. On a Monday night, Avery wakes up screaming and says his neck hurts. I also noticed that he was snoring so loud he could have woken up the neighbors. The next day he seems alright, except for nap time he again complains his neck hurts. The next night, more screaming and crying and I am alternating Ibuprofen with Tylenol every four hours which doesn't even put a dent in Avery's pain. The next day (Wednesday) he has a low grade fever, along with the snoring and neck pain. I take him to the pediatrician. She diagnoses him with torticollis. I Google it, and know it sounds wrong. That night, more screaming and neck pain and I take Avery to Urgent Care the following day. They take x-rays and see nothing wrong and agree with the diagnosis. I also called the pediatrician back and she agreed to write a stronger prescription for Naproxen. It doesn't even put a dent in his pain.

At this point, Avery has no idea where he is, he seems to just be wandering around the house, laying down for a moment wherever he is, writhing with pain. Then, his eyelid starts to droop, which is the photo you see above. I am at my wits end and am feeling so terrible for Avery that I can't make him better and nobody seems to want to look into this further. I call the pediatrician again and tell the nurse his eyelid is drooping. The doctor herself calls me back and says to take him to the Emergency Room right away.

We take him, they finally give him something strong (morphine) which helps with pain. He gets an MRI. His pediatrician walks in during the MRI and seems to try and prepare me for the worst. They think he has a brain tumor. She also mentions it could be an abscess, but that I should prepare myself emotionally for whatever they find.

The MRI reveals a 3 cm abscess right behind his sinus cavity and is putting pressure there and also on his optic nerve, causing the eyelid droop. They tell us to take him to Children's Hospital, either in Milwaukee or Madison. We choose Milwaukee because we know right where it is, and how to get there. So they call ahead and arrange for emergency surgery that night and we leave for the hour long drive. I sit in the back and support Avery's head and he sleeps.

We arrive at Children's and there is a break in communication and the ER doesn't notify the doctor right away that we are there, and so we sit in a room in the ER for nearly 2 hours. We finally convince them to contact the ENT that is waiting for us, and he arrives and they perform surgery around midnight.

They are unable to drain the abscess. It isn't liquid yet, and they had hoped to go through his mouth and drain it, rather than through his neck and having to leave an open wound there to heal. They take the tonsils and adenoids out because the ENT said his tonsils were in awful shape and he believes that is where the infection started. They decide to try killing the infection with antibiotics. Within 3 days his white blood cell count is back to normal, and they tell me he can go home the next day if he is feeling well and we can cancel the CT scan that was scheduled to check for shrinkage. But that day, I notice his gait is back to how it was when the abscess was hurting. His low-grade fever is back. He refuses to move. The nurses tell me reasons for why this might be, but I know something is wrong and I push for the CT scan and they agree to do it. The CT shows that the abscess is not getting smaller. The normal WBC count is due to the rest of his body responding to antibiotics, but the infected area itself remains the same. However, the ENT can tell that the abscess has now liquified and so they take him back to surgery immediately and successfully drain it. The next day, he wakes up happy, ready to move and eat and is smiling again. The day after that, we go home!

See the mark on his neck? This is the side they would go in if they couldn't successfully drain the abscess through his mouth.

The day after the 2nd surgery. Back to his usual self (almost).

Home after six days in the hospital. Him and Isabel make our belated 4th of July cake, and Avery wants it to also say "Happy Home, Avery!" so of course I oblige.

I am so happy everything turned out ok. But before this we had no debt - only the mortgage on the house. No credit card debt, no car loans, nothing. Now we are faced with two office copays, an Urgent Care copay, an ER copay, a $2,500 deductible and 20% of the bill up to $5,000 out of pocket....total $7,500. And, we found out that Children's Hospital is not contracted with DeanHealth and so anything above what they feel is "usual and customary" for these services will be in our hands to pay. This could be THOUSANDS of dollars. I used to work for a health insurance company, and I have seen the drastic write-offs. If they were contracted with them, this amount would be written off. Of course Children's Hospital in Madison IS contracted with them. We didn't know this. We had no time to call, because of how urgent the situation was. And we had no idea where that hospital was located in Madison. So we chose Milwaukee, because we knew exactly how to get there due to all my visits to Froedtert for cancer stuff, and Children's is right next to Froedtert.

I know I am supposed to trust God with this, but we are living on a really tight budget. We have a savings but it isn't huge. And any extra money that Jeremy makes we planned to put away for the winter months when he doesn't work as much. I still have a bill for my cancer tests in May. And I will have more in August. We just don't have the funds to even make a dent in this every month. It is suffocating.

I am relieved and thankful that Avery is ok. But I am panicking about these bills. We will have them coming from at least 4 different places. Even if we pay $50.00/month on each, that is $200 a month that we already don't have. *sigh*

Well, I don't mean to sulk. I am just thinking out loud, which is what blogging is all about, right?

So that is our story, and where I have been, and why life has been so crazy and frustrating and sad. And some days I really just want to curl up in a ball over this, but like a friend just told me recently "It's just money, Maryjane". True. It is. Money we don't have. But really, JUST MONEY. We have Avery, he is healthy and alive and for that I feel blessed beyond measure.

Happy Birthday Boys!

2010-07-15T21:35:00.002-05:00

My husband and sons birthdays are only 19 days apart, so I thought I would just squeeze them both into one post. That makes it ok, right?

My baby turned 4 years old. FOUR.YEARS.OLD!!! When?! He specifically requested a fire truck cake. It went something like this:

Me: Avery, what would you like your cake to be this year for your birthday?

Avery: I want a fire truck cake.

Me: So a big cake with a picture of a fire truck?

Avery: NO. I don't want a picture, I want a HUNK of a fire truck.

Funny that I know him so well, I knew exactly what he meant. I wasn't happy about it, but yet I labored over this cake for the better part of Saturday... I think it turned out OK. And the birthday boy was happy, so that's all that really matters.

And the other birthday boy, my husband, specifically requested a rice krispie treat cake. He's such a little boy sometimes.

So this is what he got:

Happy Birthday, Boys!!

Finished Objects

2010-07-15T14:25:00.002-05:00

No. I'm not dead and the rapture hasn't come and taken me yet! I have just been BUSY. In a crazy way. I can't really even tell you what I've been busy with, but staying at home with the kids now (which I LOVE, bytheway) seems to take up insurmountable gobs of time. Phew!

I do have a few finished objects to share. Some are new, some are not-so-new. I haven't been making much ground on knitting lately. I have a big order that I've been working on, but it involves a few scarves, and those are so slow-going...

This is a scarf that I created a pattern for, to match a headband that was in the Interweave Knits 2009 Holiday Issue. This was for an order. I also knit the headband but I didn't get a decent picture of that. I think it's beautiful and wouldn't have minded keeping this one for myself. But, I had to give it up.

My aunt has a friend and they have some sort of inside joke which she didn't fill me in on, BUT she wanted a teeny tiny sweater for her friend's cubicle at work. This knit up very fast, and was small enough to be a Christmas tree ornament. Very cute.

Three cupcakes.

I knit this purse for an order. My friend Amy had me make this for her sister as a birthday gift. I LOVED this as well. Again, I could have kept it for myself but I didn't.

More posts to come. I know I've neglected the blog but I hope to catch up soon. I have a few summer trips to share, a boy that turned four, a scary hospital experience, and some other junk trapped up inside my head.

We start our Homeschooling adventure the first week in September. I am so excited, and the kids are too. And I hope to blog about that as well.

Well, that's all for now.

Two Days From Now Is The First Day Of The Rest Of My Life.

2010-05-27T09:33:00.003-05:00

Did you get that?

Yes, two days from now is the first day of the rest of my life. I have mentally prepared myself as much as I can for living with less money, less time to myself, less QUIET and more noise, more time with children, more time as a family, more time to enjoy life and learn together and really get to know my kids and who they are and what they want to be.

I have never NOT worked, since I turned 14 I have had a job about 99% of the time. So this is a new adventure for us. For me. I'm a little bit scared, a lot nervous, and almost entirely happy! What will we do with our day? How will I teach Avery to tie his shoes and read and write? This is silly to even think, because I taught Isabel how to read and write and do basic math before she started kindergarten, and how to tie her shoes, but I had that security of knowing that if I failed, the school would succeed in teaching her the things I couldn't. Which makes me think that perhaps parents put too much value in what the school can teach and this removes confidence in how capable we, as parents, really are.

In September we will begin homeschooling as well. I've chosen Isabel's curriculum (LIFEPAC, except for math we are using Saxon) and given her placements tests to see where she is at with Math. She will be in the 5th grade, but we'll start with 6th grade math based on her placement testing. We haven't settled on a Pre-K curriculum for Avery just yet, and I'm not sure we really need a set plan for him - Kids really learn so much just through reading at the age of four. This first year we'll focus on a curriculum, so we can get our feet wet and not feel like we're struggling to get a daily plan going, but I am also very interested in "unschooling" which is a child-led approach to learning. Rather than focusing on specific subjects, you find a way to tie them all into a specific topic or several topics that interest your child. I've been talking to a mom in our local Homeschooling support group that does this type of teaching, and I think my kids (especially Avery) would flourish with this.

Looking back on what I've just wrote, I think it's funny that I said that this will be the first time I haven't worked. Because I know this will be the most difficult work of my life! After all, growing a person inside your body, keeping them alive those first few months, making important decisions on their behalf, and shaping their character and encouraging their personality, individuality, dreams and goals... what a job that is! But fruitful and worth it. And worth all the money I'll never make. : )

Job...Schmob!

2010-05-13T12:58:00.002-05:00

I quit my job today. I am ecstatic.

Two weeks from now we will be poor....but I will still be ecstatic!

More to come on this as the days progress....

I'm a Mom.

2010-05-11T12:53:00.004-05:00

I've been someone's mom for 10 years now. That's pretty amazing - a decade of being responsible for another human being and I haven't totally messed it up. Before my first child came along I was 100% selfish and I liked it that way. Finding out I was having a baby was a surprise, and I found myself thinking of ways on how to plan this baby around my life, how to "fit her in". Then I had the baby, this little tiny person who I named Isabel.... and suddenly I was trying to remember what life was like before she came around, since she was the most important thing to me in the entire world from that very moment on. And 6 1/2 years later, her brother came along (screaming, I might add) and my love did not have to be divided, it simply multiplied somehow. So now I have these two little people in my house calling me "mom" and I'm ok with that.

Mother's Day used to be a big deal to me, but it's not anymore. I guess over the years I ended up not caring about gifts or "time away" or any of that. My husband is very good at gift-giving so it's not because he is lacking. He certainly isn't. I just don't care much about Mother's Day anymore, and I'm not certain as to why. But every year it comes, and I guess I'm happy it's there. I get a few gifts, have an excuse to make (and eat) cake, and just kind of meander around not knowing what to do with the "free time" I've been given.

We had a cookout at my mom's house and I made this cake. It turned out average. It could have been better but I just wasn't in the mood to overachieve.

I had to throw this photo in here. Isabel is sewing! She has never shown much interest in anything of the sort. She was at our neighbor's house, Margaret, who is 86 and loves to talk to Isabel. She gave her some fabric and she sewed a pillowcase out of it. This amazing girl can do anything she sets her mind to.

Speaking of sewing, I made this little Farmer's Market bag for my mom for Mother's Day. It looks like this all cinched up....

...and when you open it, it turns into a tote bag! It wasn't perfect but I think it turned out ok. I got the tutorial from here.

Isabel made me this little poster. Look at what it says in the heart. Sweet girl.

Jeremy got this for me "from the kids". I had the baking book already and loved it, so he bought me the cookbook. If you haven't bought these yet, you should. They are fantastic.

I also got two skeins of Malabrigo!! Orange and red variegated. Yumm.

...and last, but not least, a mouse pad with my new favorite picture of the kids.

It was a nice day. I love being a mother. It is worth every frustration and heartache. It really is.

I found it - The Perfect Sandwich Bread - Bread #4

2010-04-26T13:40:00.003-05:00

This is it. This is THE ONE. I have made three loaves so far and we have been freezing it, slicing it, using it for sandwiches and toast. It holds up well, and has wheat flour in it. It makes two decent size loaves, plus one free form loaf. It is perfection in the form of bread.

Here is the recipe:

3 cups of warm water
1 stick of butter, melted
1.5 Tbsp Kosher salt
2 Tbsp sugar
1.5 Tbsp Yeast
2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
5 cups Unbleached All Purpose Flour

In a bowl with a wooden spoon, or a stand mixer with hook attachment, mix the first 5 ingredients together. Next, add flour and mix until you have incorporated all of the flour. If you need to get the last little bits of flour in, use wet hands and mix with your hands.

Put a towel over your bowl and let it rise for approximately 2 hours, or until it has risen and the top of the dough has flattened.

At this point you can store the dough in your fridge for up to 2 weeks, although I probably wouldn't exceed 1 week. If you choose to bake right away, form your loaves (using lots of flour) - cloak your loaves using the Artisan Bread Method and let them rise in a greased bread pan for 40 minutes. If you are using refrigerated dough, add an hour to your rise time. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 for 45-50 minutes.

Here is a YouTube clip on how to cloak a loaf. This is a different recipe from the book I am using, but the concept on how to cloak the loaf is the same.

I have the hook-up to use a relatives bread slicing machine - my step-dad owns a bagel shop in our town, but it slices very nice using a serrated knife as well. Just let the bread cool completely before slicing.

Enjoy!

How will I cut our budget in half? (Yes, it's possible. Almost)

2010-04-22T09:30:00.004-05:00

I have been crunching numbers for months now. I think many people know that I plan to quit my job early next year, stay at home, and homeschool my kids. And maybe, even maybe, add another kid to the mix. Maybe.

Right now we are living very comfortably on two incomes. Of course, when you look at my budget/expenses below, it may not seem comfortable to you but it works fine for us. I am not secretive about money, so anyone who wants to know how much we are actually living on can just ask me, and I'll tell you. It's just money. I swear some people keep their income under lock and key. Does it really matter? Just money...

We have two incomes and live well within our means. We aren't extravagant. We have one vehicle and a mortgage that is smallish in size compared to what some of our friends have. We do well, and have money to spare. But the fact is, when you have extra money, you spend it! So over time, even though incomes are increasing we are still managing to spend it all, and I think for many people (us included) you think you really can't live on one income, when in fact, you can!

So, after months of number crunching and making tough decisions about what we can cut out of our budget, I have managed to create a plan that will reduce our expenses by about 44%. Right now our total monthly expenses are approximately $3900.00. Remember, we live in Wisconsin... : )

The number after budget cuts: $2200.00. Not bad!!

I'm going to just lay it all out there so you can see where our money is going, and where it is GOING to go.

Current Expenses:

Cell Phone bill: $70

Energy Bill: $200

Internet/Phone: $140

Auto Insurance: $60

Van Loan: $281.15

Soft Water: $14

Mortgage: $1072.34

Netflix: $9.44

Radio (Jeremy has a subscription to a radio show): $5.95

Groceries: $500

Fuel: $120

Daycare: $636

Water Bill: $80

Life Insurance: $36

Church: $500

Figure Skating Lessons: $60

Compassion Int'l: $32

Total: $3816.88

(I am rounding up to $3900 because I don't have items like toiletries in the above expenses. We buy them as needed. As well as the rare occasion of going out to eat)

Here is the revised budget that will take affect next January:

(actually, a lot of these changes we are making right now, or have already made)

Phone: $70

Energy Bill: $200

Internet: $50 (We are cutting phone. I have a land line right now because I work from home) We will need internet because of Homeschooling.

Auto Insurance: $60

Van will be paid off!!

We just purchased our water softener, so that expense is gone.

Mortgage: $1180 (it's increasing by about $100 for escrow reasons)

Netflix: $9.44 - We are keeping this because we have no cable and we can rent educational videos for school.

Canceling radio subscription

Groceries: $400 (I have been successfully keeping my bill under $100/week)

Fuel: $100 - less to drive. We will be home most of the time.

Daycare expense will be gone.

Water Bill: $80

Life Insurance: $36

Figure Skating will be gone.

Compassion Int'l: $32

Total: $2218.00

You'll notice "Church" is missing. We are still assessing what we'll be able to give. We will still give, but we haven't decided how much yet. We are also keeping the child we sponsor through Compassion International, we made a decision to help this child and we will keep that commitment until she is an adult.

There are other things I plan to do as well -

We no longer will buy paper napkins and towels. I am going to purchase all cloth napkins, and rags for cleaning. It's a waste anyway to use all of that paper.
We will be making our own laundry detergent, softener, surface cleaner, and glass cleaner.
I make all of our bread from scratch. I can buy ingredients in bulk through my step-dad's bagel shop.
I just bought a chest freezer to store meat that I buy on sale.
We will have a small garden, and grow what we can and freeze/can it. Our yard is not huge so it will be a small amount of food, but I am thinking of eventually buying a plot in the community garden in our town and growing additional food there. The plots are very affordable.
I will be selling on Etsy. Hopefully soon! And still taking custom orders for knitted items.
I will be watching my friend's daughter full-time which will produce some income. And she's a sweetie so we'll be happy to have her around.
Jeremy will be able to work more overtime with less guilt. Right now he's hesitant to work so much because we are both tired by the end of the day and he feels bad that I work and do just about everything else when he is doing so much overtime. That guilt will be eliminated.

We are excited to start this new life. The only thing that is holding us back right now is that we have a van payment and we really want to pay it off before we make these big changes. So if there is anyone out there that would like to help with that, be my guest!!! ; )

I don't want to get all reflective and deep on you all, but the fact is - I don't want to spend my life working and allowing others to influence my children more than I do. I want them here. With me. I want to learn with them, and experience life together and be there for them no matter what. I don't want to give them whatever is left of me at the end of the day. Sometimes hardly anything is left, and I cannot rationalize any longer that this is worth it. And I know you wouldn't dare ask how on earth they will get "social interaction" when they are being homeschooled. Because really...think about it. LIFE is social interaction, and where else but school are children forced to interact with an entire class full of kids that are the same age as them? I don't think that equips them for life as much as just random interactions that occur everywhere else- church, the store, clubs and activities. That is where the real interaction and social aspects of life occur. Not a classroom. Not a "one size fits all" approach. That isn't working for us anymore.

We've made a decision to do it, no matter how hard it is. It will be difficult, but it will be worth it.

In Search of the Perfect Sandwich Bread - Bread #3

2010-04-09T11:18:00.003-05:00

Now this is a great loaf of bread. This is the Light Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. It rises nice and high, producing a good sandwich-sized piece of bread, it slices nice, it retains its moisture well... even when refrigerated, which is essential for bread that has no preservatives. And, it gets the vote from Jeremy and Isabel. This is the one they like the most so far. The only problem is, the recipe makes only 2 loaves of bread, and it requires 2/3 cup of oil or butter, 1/2 cup of honey, vital wheat gluten and 5 eggs. Yes, FIVE! So this would defeat the whole initial purpose of making bread from scratch, which was to save money. It's a great bread though.

The search continues. I am going to modify a previous recipe to my liking and see if this -finally!- is the bread we've been waiting for. Updates continue...

Naked Yarn + KoolAid = Fruit Loops

2010-04-06T09:34:00.002-05:00

Christmas of 2008 my mom bought me some "naked" yarn from KnitPicks. It's been sitting there for ages, and I had just found a great tutorial on how to dye yarn with KoolAid in the crockpot, so I decided to dig it out of my basement and give it a try. KnitPicks sells such inexpensive yarn that even if it didn't turn out, I wouldn't be devastated. And KoolAid is pretty cheap too - I think at our local grocery store it's less than two bucks for six packs.

I won't document all the pictures here because the tutorial I used has lots of pictures and specifics as far as instructions go... Pretty much all you do is get the crockpot warmed up with water, submerge the yarn in it and let it soak until the bubbles stop coming up. Sprinkle the KoolAid mix on the yarn and let it soak until the yarn has absorbed it all and the water is clear again, and then turn the yarn over and do that again. I added a little vinegar to make the dye more permanent.

After dyeing it, here it is rinsing in the sink.

I hung it to dry over the shower rod, and once it dried this is what it looked like. I'm not sure if I like it yet. There are a lot of white spots where the dye didn't reach. Next time I'll be a little more meticulous as to where I sprinkle the KoolAid.

Isabel helped me wind it up and it actually looks pretty cool all wound up. I am curious to see how it looks once it's knit up. Isabel decided that it looks like Fruit Loops, so that's the name we are giving it. : )

Knittings...

2010-04-01T11:07:00.002-05:00

Lots of hurried knitting being done around here lately. Between that and Easter and my running schedule, and all-day conference calls, and ripping out walls for bookshelves and getting quotes for central air - oh, and normal everyday things like baths and meals and bread. Yeah, I've been hurried. Busy. And exhausted... my husband has worked well over 12 hours per day this week. He's tired. I'm tired. But that's not what this is about...

Here is what I've been working on as of late.

Another owl lovey is created. Isn't he cute?

The original pattern is for a bunny blanket but I altered it to be an owl.

This is for Isabel's Easter basket. Pasha the Penguin, pattern here.

Ribbed Baby Sweater - always a favorite.

Capitan hat. Ignore how strange I look here.

Baby Bear from Susan B. Anderson's Itty Bitty Toys book.

I knit the legs a bit longer and left off the feet because me and the kitchener stitch, we don't get along very well.

Happy Knitting! : )

In Search of the Perfect Sandwich Bread - Bread #2

2010-03-29T11:25:00.009-05:00

Folks, I think I have a winner. With a little tweaking, anyway. I am going to try a few more recipes but I think this is going to be my "go to" for sandwich bread. Yeah, I know it's a white bread, but listen - it's fresh, home-made, has a few simple, perfect ingredients, and like I said, with a little tweaking I think I can make it perfect. I am going to try substituting 2 or 3 cups of the white flour for whole wheat flour. I think it'll still be great. It has a stick of melted butter in it which gives it a nice soft crust that kids especially love. It has a nice high rise which makes a nice sized sandwich. The bread seems a little more absorbent than a grocery store bread (meaning, if you make a PB&J, the "J" might become a soggy mess after a few hours in a lunchbox) but I think substituting some whole wheat flour will make it a sturdier and more hearty and not so fluffy and...white.

The recipe I used is (of course) from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and is their "Soft American Style White Bread" on page 204. I have their Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day book and I plan to make a few out of there as well.

PS: I no longer think I have a winner. My husband informed me that his sandwiches are sort of crumbly. I'll try it with some wheat flour, and if that doesn't solve the problem of crumbliness, then I'll have to keep searching. : (

In Search of the Perfect Sandwich Bread

2010-03-25T12:04:00.003-05:00

Bread. I love it, but it has to be GOOD bread. Not that nasty Wonderbread stuff.

In our house, we are trying to cut costs and figure out ways to be resourceful due to some big changes coming up in the beginning of next year. No I'm not having a baby.

So, I'm on the hunt to find the perfect sandwich bread recipe. Do you realize how cheap it is to make your own bread? Eventually I will be buying my supplies in bulk but even from the grocery store, here are the stats. If you use a pricier brand like King Arthur, it will be much more, but I go for the regular run-of-the-mill brands:

Unbleached White Flour: $2.89 (I can get at least 9 loaves from one 5 lb bag of flour for the recipe used below)
Whole Wheat Flour: $3.29 (I can get many, many loaves of bread from the whole wheat flour for this recipe, because it calls for only 1 cup - I would guess at least 18 loaves)
Jar of Yeast: $6.69 (1.5 Tbsp per loaf and I'd guess I could get 10 loaves of bread from this one jar of yeast)
This recipe also uses water and kosher salt. I have the salt on hand for all my baking, I'm not going to calculate that into my cost.

Conservatively, it will cost me about $1.25 per loaf of bread.

Don't ask me how I came up with this very accurate, mathematical figure. You might laugh, but this is just my estimate so it's okay (I'm not a math girl). I know exactly what is in it, it's always fresh and there is no HFCS or any other nasty junk in it. Each time I make a batch of dough, I can bake 3 loaves from it. I can also make this into a freeform peasant loaf and serve it with dinner. It's very versatile. If you use a different recipe, it may require honey or butter, or any other variety of ingredients - seeds, nuts, etc... So it all depends on the ingredients you use.

So this is Bread #1 in my search. This is the Light Whole Wheat Bread from the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day book. I won't post the recipe, because I really think everyone in the world should have this book. Also, I don't want to type it all out. The recipe says it makes 4 one pound loaves, but if you are using a loaf pan, it really only makes 3. It is very good, a little denser than the standard wheat bread you'd buy in the store but personally, I love it. It slices nice too.

PS: Did you know that you can apply the hours your children spend in the kitchen with you baking bread (or baking anything, really) toward the required 875 per year homeschooling hours in the state of Wisconsin? Something like bread baking could apply to Home Economics, Math (the measuring), and science!

Get Outta Town

2010-03-17T15:03:00.004-05:00

Last week, we packed up and drove about 45 minutes east to Sheboygan, Wisconsin. I absolutely love Sheboygan. My husband used to work in that city and therefore he knows all the cute little downtown areas, the restaurants, the little towns nearby, all the good scenery, and so even though we're out of town when we are there, I never get that "where are we and can we find our way back to our hotel" type of feeling.

We stayed at the Blue Harbor Resort which is a hotel right on the shore of Lake Michigan and was actually built to accommodate people staying in that area for the PGA several years ago. I remember this, because Jeremy was working in Sheboygan at the time and that was his 'big project' that he had deadlines for and had to check in with the building crew every single day and was sort of a thorn in his side for quite some time.

The hotel has an indoor water park, which is why we stay there... the kids love it, it's a lot of fun and the hotel is nice and clean and if you don't want to venture outside there are even a few restaurants on the main level and an ice cream / coffee shop. The big town in Wisconsin that has all the hotels with indoor water parks is Wisconsin Dells, but that town is about 2 hours away and is too touristy for me. And not in a good way. There are no quality shops in that town, it's grungy-looking, and I swear it pours rain every time we go there.

So, we went to Sheboygan. We stayed two nights and three days and had a great time. We did some swimming, ate at a few good restaurants, took the kids to the Children's Museum, and I even found a yarn shop in Sheboygan Falls. Does that surprise you?

This is the Highland House. It's right on the water, and in the summer you can eat out on their deck which is in the back just a ways down from a bridge that can open and close when boats need to pass. The birds are so tame you can feed them, they come right up to your table. It's sort of creepy, but I promise they don't attack. They have a Mexican food section in their menu. I got a chimichanga and it was fantastic!

We had pizza at Firehouse Pizza which is in Sheboygan Falls. Nothing fancy, just a family-friendly pizza place that is situated in an old firehouse. Really good pizza.

Look what I found! A knitting shop. Magpie's Cottage, a very cute little knitting store in Sheboygan Falls, they even sell some designer fabrics here. I bought three skeins of Malabrigo in the color lettuce, which I plan to knit into a short-sleeved sweater for myself from a pattern called 'Wicked'. The lady that was working there (not the owner) was so nice and helpful and I loved the inside of the store. I wish I had pictures, every little nook and cranny of that shop was full of yarn. And their prices were great too.

Here is part of the water park in the hotel. That downpour from the boat on top occurs every 5 minutes. Avery loved to watch that boat dump, but he wouldn't go under it. Isabel would, of course, and I saw the excitement of a little boy emerge from my husband as he stood under that boat, waiting for the water to dump.

This is a bakery we go to every time we visit Sheboygan. Johnston's Bakery is a family run business. They sell donuts, cookies, breads, coffee, and lots of different pastries. Their prices are great - we had 4 donuts, an elephant ear, two gigantic cookies and two coffees for $10.00. All of their display racks are original to the business - little wooden racks on wheels. The floors are wood, all the tables and chairs are really nice. Just a great place, everyone seems to know everyone else, and it's in this neighborhood full of houses.

A sign in the bakery that reads "Unattended children will be given 2 shots of espresso and a puppy". I made sure my kids behaved. The espresso I can handle - but a puppy? Not a chance.

Ten

2010-03-10T09:00:00.002-06:00

I'm still trying to figure out where the last decade went. My first child, Isabel, turned 10 this past weekend. She has graced our lives for 10 years, and sometimes tormented our lives! But you know...kids pull that "unconditional love" thing out of you, and even if they drive you nuts sometimes they still manage to make you love them no matter what. Isabel is special to me in a different way than Avery. It doesn't mean I love her more, because that certainly isn't true, it just means that I am a little bit more protective of her but I won't go into the details here. She's a great kid - sure to please and empathetic towards others and feels other people's hurts like I do. She is smart. I don't mean just smart... she is smart in a crazy way that I can't even take credit for. She is beautiful. She is determined and quirky and strange and sometimes I wonder about her.... but she is MINE. I'm happy about that. It's been the best decade of my life, having her exist and be around and make me smile and cry and laugh.

She celebrated with friends this weekend. I made the hamburger cupcakes and sugar cookie fries from Bakerella's blog. I won't give you a tutorial here, because Bakerella has a better camera and prettier pictures and is just better at that in general. Her blog has a great tutorial.

Here is the result of following her tutorial. These were really fun to make, and easy. Yes, EASY!

For 12 little girls (and a little brother).

10 candles. Never thought I'd see that day - it's double digits now!

In perfect girl fashion, I turned the lights out to sing happy birthday and all 12 girls screamed, Avery looked like he was about to cry, and we barely got the entire birthday song out.

Here's my birthday girl:

Happy birthday Isabel!

Oh. You Know...THINGS.

2010-03-02T13:49:00.002-06:00

What have I been up to? Oh. You know....THINGS. Lots of things. Things that I don't wish to speak of because they will make me cranky (Hint: it involves leaky toilets and infected ears and other bits of nonsense)...and things that make me happy, such as craftiness.art.youknow.THINGS.

Today I will speak in pictures. And maybe a word or two, because I've always got things to say.

El Capitan in blue for Isabel, which apparently you cannot wear the correct way when you are nine years of age. This yarn is acrylic. I wish it wasn't because it was like knitting with a squeaky mess the entire time. But at least it's washable and I won't cry if it gets lost.

Here is my El Capitan, knitted with Manos Del Uruguay yarn in a bright, bright red and adorned with buttons made from coconuts. That makes it fancy.

(excuse the shower in the back, the lack of makeup, and that ratty old sweater I'm wearing. Just look at the hat. The HAT.)

I knit this for a friend as a little surprise. I hope it arrives this week! It's a felted little coin purse. I didn't get many good shots of this, but on the other side is a flap and a button to close it. The little flowers and things were needle felted on - it's wool roving. I wasn't going for artistic ability here, people. Just cuteness. I think I succeeded.

I realize my knitting talents have surpassed washcloths. But this is for a very special girl that we, as a family, sponsor, and due to the theft rate in her country we are not allowed to send any packages, just envelopes that are also limited to a specific thickness. So a washcloth was perfect in this case, and the little girls name is Jancy. J for Jancy. : )

Now this was fun. Yes, I also know how to use a sewing machine, can you believe it? I found this really simple pattern for a tote bag online and sewed this up in one night. Perfect for small knitting projects.

These are little booties that I knit up for Isabel's teacher that had a baby girl yesterday. Aren't they adorable? The pattern for the booties is here. The flower and leaf are here. However, the flower was too large for these teeny-tiny shoes, so I started with 6 sts and doubled every other row 3 times, for a total of 48 sts before binding off. Got that?

And lastly, a paper mache bowl that Isabel and I collaborated on. This was for my mom's birthday. Isabel and I spent several evenings adding layers of newspaper/flour/water to the outside of my McCoy bowl (don't worry, I wrapped it in aluminum foil) to create this bowl. Isn't it pretty? Isabel did most of the flowers and the inside is dark green with a red heart in the center. She loved it and was very fun to make with a certain girl who mostly hates crafts.

Next up: Isabel's 10th birthday party. I will share pictures of that experience, if all goes well and I come out alive.

Valentine Fortune Cookies

2010-02-23T09:42:00.002-06:00

Valentine's Day...once you have children it seems to be more about them than anything else. Which I'm fine with because I never really dug Valentine's Day anyway. I have two little buckets in the basement that are filled with goodies every year for the kids, but it tends to just be stuff that the kids already have - pencils with hearts on them, stickers, tattoos, candies. Lots of things that look nice all arranged in a cute little bucket but once they are out, you might as well just throw them away. So this year I decided to do something different, and I was cringing at the thought of Isabel coming down to find something different than the pink bucket filled with goodies, but she was actually totally in love with these - fortune cookies!

This is the recipe straight from the Martha Stewart website. Good old Martha, she always pulls through for me.

Makes 15

5 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 large egg whites
1 cup superfine sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
Pinch of salt
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon almond extract
Nonstick cooking spray

Directions

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet liberally with cooking spray. Melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat; set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine egg whites and sugar, and beat on medium speed, about 30 seconds. Add flour and salt, and beat until combined. Add butter, heavy cream, and almond extract, and beat until combined, about 30 seconds.
Pour 1 tablespoon of batter onto half of the baking sheet, and spread with the back of a spoon into a thin 5-inch circle; repeat on the other half of the sheet. Bake until the edges of the cookies turn golden brown, about 8 minutes.
Transfer baking sheet to a heat-resistant surface. Working as quickly as possible, slide a spatula (an offset spatula, available at specialty kitchen shops, works best) under one of the cookies. Lift it up, and place it on a clean kitchen towel. Using your fingers, fold the cookie in half, pinching the top together to form a loose semicircle. Hold the cookie with your index fingers inserted at each open end, and slide your thumbs together along the bottom line. Press into the center of the cookie while bending the two open ends together and down to form the shape of a fortune cookie. This whole process should take about 10 seconds. Once the cookie hardens, which begins to happen almost immediately, you cannot fold it. Place the fortune cookie on the kitchen towel to cool, and shape the second cookie. Repeat until all the batter is used up. To speed up the process, bake four cookies at a time, staggering two cookie sheets by 4 minutes to give you time to shape. To avoid wasting batter, practice folding with a circle of paper first.
Write your message on a long strip of sturdy art paper, such as Japanese moriki. Thread the fortune through the cookie when it has cooled.

I gave each of my kids 5 cookies. Inside were the following "fortunes"... or more like coupons that they can redeem at appropriate times. I heard Isabel instructing Avery that he can only use his coupon if we plan ahead and have time that day. Such a little mother hen, that girl.

The chocolate is still drying here. You'll notice I have no photos of the process while I was folding them. You really have about .2 seconds to get these off the cookie sheet and folded. Well, .2 is drastic...but I'd guess within 30 seconds I had the cookie off the sheet and folded. I messed up a few, which promptly got eaten. By me. When you're the cook, you can do that.

Then I packaged them all cute-like in a little cellophane bag with a felt heart and ribbon tied at the top. Isabel absolutely loved this - she kept saying "You actually MADE the cookies too? You didn't just dip them in the chocolate??" Yes. I made them.

Capelet Photo and a Hokie Scarf

2010-02-17T09:33:00.002-06:00

I was supposed to show a photo of me all gussied up in my capelet that I knit, wasn't I? So here you go. My mom took this photo and cut my poor husband's head off, but he said he doesn't mind because he's bald up top anyway. : )

This photo is us before the symphony. We ate at this restaurant, which was the best meal I ever ate in my life!! I had a salad with potato cake, escargot, and poached salmon, along with some other things that I won't try and describe because I'm just not fancy enough to know what it all was. Whatever it was, it was good.

Here is a scarf I just completed for a friend that is a Virginia Tech alumni. She wanted a Hokie colored scarf but didn't want stripes, as to make it look all "Harry Potter"ish. So, I Googled "Hokie Scarf" and found that Malabrigo makes a colorway in just those colors. It's called Oro Y Vino. Beautiful yarn, and great to knit with. The pattern is from the Yarn Harlot's Blog.

This photo is more true to color.

Currently on my needles is a hat for my daughter - a blue cabled hat with a brim called "Capitan". She's excited to wear it, which says a lot considering this child cares nothing about knitting, or what I knit, or how to knit. It's ok, I love her anyway.

My next post I'll share a few pictures and the recipe I used for the fortune cookies I made for the kids as a Valentine's gift.

Pear-Sour Cream Muffins

2010-02-10T14:39:00.005-06:00

Despite the busy week I have going on right now, I decided to further torture myself and add another task to my plate. Avery had his 'leader day' at daycare today - he provides a snack, brings a toy to show & tell, and a book. Now, I know the kids would be fine with Goldfish crackers, a piece of string cheese, Nutri Grain bars, whatever. No, I have to make something from scratch because that's how I roll. I am always looking for an excuse to bake, and leader days are the perfect excuse.

I had a few pears that were ripening on the counter, so I decided to make use of those. I found a recipe for Apple-Sour Cream Muffins and guess what? I had a big tub of sour cream that I needed to use up. So, I replaced the apple with pears and voila! Muffins were made....

Pear-Sour Cream Muffins

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground allspice

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar

1 cup sour cream

1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted (I used salted)

2 pears, peeled and diced.

1 cup pecans or walnuts, toasted and chopped

(I left the nuts out, due to a nut allergy in Avery's daycare room)

Streusel topping:

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1 1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter cut into little pieces

1 Tbsp flour

1/4 tsp each cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg (I used sprinkles instead, because of the kid-pleasing factor)

Grease a muffin tin. I made mini muffins because they were for tiny hands. Don't use liners. Did you know cupcake liners are for CUPCAKES? Muffins are supposed to be baked directly in the tin, no liner.

Preheat oven to 400.

Stir together dry ingredients and set aside.

Whisk eggs and brown sugar together before adding the butter.

Add butter and mix.

Add sour cream and mix well.

Fold the wet ingredients into the dry. Do not overmix! Mix to the point of the dry ingredients being almost fully incorporated, but not quite.

Dice the pears into itty-bittys.

Gently mix the pears into the batter. Do not overmix! If you are adding nuts, mix them in at this time as well.

Mmmmmm....

Mix your streusel ingredients together. Sprinkles, aren't they pretty?

Scoop into muffin tins and fill 3/4 full. Put some streusel on top. I used mini-muffin tins. Bake for 12 minutes if you are doing minis, or 18-20 minutes if a regular size tin is being used.

Aren't they fun?

The great part is if you have leftover batter, you can make some big ones for your family.

You can have one. Take it. : )

Happy baking!

Art

2010-02-02T14:48:00.002-06:00

I've been thinking lately about art. What it means to me and why I love it so much and how I could describe in words what art is to me. Something is absolutely amazing about art - you take (essentially) nothing and make it into something. You take an item and beautify it, change it, distort it, uglify it... it's just amazing to me that the human mind has always had a drive to create and be creative. Happiness is derived from it, you can release yourself from reality for a short while when you create. I can liken knitting to meditation and I'm sure other artists could liken their art to something mind-numbing or mesmerizing as well.

Art has always been a sort of release for me. I used to paint and draw. I've also written a ton of poetry in my day. None that is probably worth reading if I still even have it. Probably just a bunch of teen angst. Nevertheless, poetry helped me survive my parent's divorce. Poetry helped me survive puberty and mean friends and all sorts of problems that seemed like the end of the world when I was 14. Painting and drawing probably helped me cope through some point in my life as well. Art truly is a therapy.

I'm certain there are people out there that don't consider knitting an art, but I would have to disagree with those people. You start with a raw material (sometimes even the creation of the yarn itself is art - spinning, hand painting or kettle dying) and you create. You take your hands and your needles and your yarn, and you CREATE. You make something that didn't exist a moment ago. I picked up knitting when my first born was small, and I promptly made a tiny red purse, which I still have and my kids use in the play room, and then I promptly set my needles down for 7 more years.

The moment I picked them back up again was when I was in a morphine cloud in the hospital after a long intense surgery, with very few visitors because the hospital was an hour drive from friends and family, and I was again trying to cope with something I couldn't grasp. When you have a baby and a young child at home, and you've just had a 10 cm tumor full of cancer removed from your body, you need a coping mechanism. Will I die from this? Will I be ok, or will my kids have to say goodbye to me in the near future? And so knitting became the way that I coped. I really believe that. I was sitting there, trying to not absorb the reality that was around me, so what could I do? I received a package from a friend with some yarn and needles and my step-mom came to visit and cast on for me and I just knit. I don't know what I was knitting and I know that I ripped it all out when I got home, but for awhile it numbed my emotions. And that fact is true to this day. When it's been a long hard day, when I have something on my mind that I just want to forget, I knit. It helps me regroup. I let my mind settle, my emotions taper off, and I just sit and create.

Art is healing. It helps you forget. It helps get you through. It does whatever you need it to do at the time.

Try it.

On The Needles...

2010-01-29T10:23:00.005-06:00

I've got a lot on my needles right now. My love of knitting seems to come and go in spurts...and you can tell when I'm in full knitting 'swing' when I've got multiple projects going on. So I'm going to share a few of those projects right now. Some are just about to start, some in process, and some are finished.

Here is the Lizard Ridge Blanket that I've been working on for.ev.er. I do this when I have nothing else to do. This is a really fun pattern consisting of short rows and wraps&turns. I love it but it really is not a mindless knitting project. I have to get all concentratey&stuff. So yeah, I don't pick it up that often. I'm on my third square. In 2 years. Yup.

This is a capelet that I am just creating as I go. I'm knitting it with this really cool ribbon yarn by Tahki. I will show you another photo when it's all done. This will be a little cover (translation: no one wants to see my arms) to wear with my cute black dress that I'll be wearing to the symphony. Now, don't start thinking I'm fancy. I am not. These tickets were a gift and although I wouldn't picture myself going to a symphony, I am actually pretty excited to go and see what it's all about. (And a night away from children? Heavenly.)

Oh. Malabrigo. If you haven't knit with this yarn, you are missing out. A friend of mine is a Virginia Tech alumni and wanted a scarf in Hokie colors. I'll be using the Yarn Harlot's pattern but will be altering it to make it wider and longer.

Owl clips. Adorable? Knitting these for a friend who will look so cute in these clips. You should also check out the link to the pattern for these, this knitter has a fantastic blog and pattern shop.

I also am finishing up one other knitting project, but it's in the washing machine right now. Yes, it's a felted item. I made the pattern up and just sort of winged it... so here's hoping it turns out. If so, I'll be sure to share photos.

Knit on!

Running

2010-01-21T10:46:00.002-06:00

This post will bore most of you, who probably come here for pictures of cupcakes and to see what I've been knitting most recently...but...

I need to share my love of running, and what better platform than my blog.

Let me tell you, I was the girl who WALKED the mile, and even if my gym teacher in high school would have lit a flame under me, I would have rather burned than run. Burnt skin can repair itself eventually, right? I recall even thinking "People that say they like running are lying. There is no way anyone could love something like that." And so continued my hatred for movement. But one can only be complacent for so long, until age and metabolism catch up with you. Pretty soon, nothing fits, you feel tired all the time, and motivation becomes scarce, not just in movement but in everything. Life.

And it just so happened that a friend was selling her treadmill. And I just so happened to buy it, catching a gaze from my husband who's eyes were clearly telling me "You better use this thing, and I don't mean for laundry holdin' ". Yeah. I bought it. And a few weeks after I bought it I convinced myself to get ON it. Once I was on it, I had to do something, so I figured out how to turn it on and I walked. And walked. And it took me something like 45 minutes to walk 2.5 miles. So I thought to myself "Well, if I want to get this over with faster, I better run some of this time."...and so I ran...30 seconds. One minute. Two. Five. Ten. Twenty! And then I thought "Well, if you're going to do this running thing, you better do a race. Or something." And so my friend Ann gave me a flyer for a 5K, waaaay far away from my town where no one would know me, and I went. And felt crazy. And ran it. And I finished! My husband ran along side me. He didn't run his own pace, he ran MY pace and cheered me on and showed his love and made me do it. I sure love him for that.

So now I've done a 5K. What's next? After much internal struggle, I decided to shoot for a 1/2 marathon. I am now in my 2nd week of my adjusted half-marathon training. I say 'adjusted' because my neighbor gave me an 8-week training program to follow, but I just don't think I could run such lengths in such a short training period so I am extending it to 14 weeks. I checked online and there just so happens to be a 1/2 marathon not too far away from my town on the exact date that I'd be finishing my training. Coincidence? So, I've decided to sign up for that. My husband is also training with me. He will be running with me in the race. We'll do it together and we'll finish.

Here comes the part where I mention people that have influenced my decision to run. Sort of like an acceptance speech at the Oscars. But I'm not famous. I have no money. And who really reads this blog anyway??

Here are my people:

Catherine. Who was the first to run and tell me I could too. And sold me that blasted treadmill that is so near and dear to me now.

My neighbor, Jen. Who watches me run slow at the gym next to her, while she runs fast. Haha!

My dad. who has been a runner for a long time and told me he's proud of me.

My husband. Who watches the kids so I can run. Who runs with me. Who won't care about his race time because he's just doing it to spend time with me. Who kept telling me I could when I thought I couldn't.

My snobs on Yuku. They knew I could do it and told me so.

An acquaintance of mine who has the same type of cancer as me. He keeps running. His outlook is worse than mine, and he keeps running.

Ann. Who peer pressured me into my first 5K and gave me lots of tips and advice. And told me "who cares what you look like when you run?? Nobody looks good when they're running".

There's my list. I know I'll have to add to it, but that is my list of people so far who have influenced me and taught me invaluable lessons about running.

I love running. Did I ever think I'd say that? Nope.

Snickerdoodle...cupcakes?

2010-01-15T08:27:00.003-06:00

Funny how I get the urge to bake so soon after the Holidays are over. Maybe because I can now do it at my own pace and enjoy it, instead of feeling like I have to crank out cookies like the Pepperidge Farm factory.

My neighbors watched my son for a few hours last weekend and as a 'thank you' I baked them cupcakes. I found a recipe on Martha Stewart's website for Snickerdoodle cupcakes. You can find the recipe here. I thought the recipe was really good, however, the cinnamon didn't really shine through like in a snickerdoodle cookie. But it was still a very good recipe. The cakes had good rise, and I'll definitely use it again as a base recipe for other flavors of cupcakes. The recipe has a seven minute frosting on top but that type of frosting is best eating within 1-2 days so I opted for a buttercream frosting instead. Recipe here. I did make a few modifications, because, well...I hadn't gone to the grocery store yet and I didn't have whipping cream. Instead I used vanilla flavored coffee creamer...and I used more than 2 tablespoons because I like a nice soft creamy frosting. It turned out wonderful.

I halved the frosting and used the buttercream on half of the cupcakes and sprinkled them with a cinnamon/sugar mixture. With the other half I decided to mix in a package of Starbucks VIA coffee granules. I made a slurry of one package of granules and about one tsp of water. Once it was dissolved I mixed into the buttercream. Oh yes. You need to try this. These were SO good with coffee frosting.

Snickerdoodle cupcake with buttercream frosting.

Snickerdoodle cupcake with Starbucks VIA buttercream frosting.

You want it, don't you? Just take it.

Starbucks sells these little packs of 3 (and also a pack of 9, I believe).

I've drank this stuff too, it is very, very good. You cannot tell it's instant coffee.

Happy Friday!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-12T14:23:00.003-06:00

Happy New Year! Yeah, it's a bit late. Story of my life. But I do still really mean it even though it's 12 days late.

Do you make New Years Resolutions? I do. I don't know why I torture myself with this, it seems so wrong to set all of these goals before the new year even begins... preparing yourself to be disappointed pretty much by mid-January. But yes, I do make them and I even achieved one of my resolutions last year. Impressed? Me too! The funny thing is, I didn't even realize I achieved a resolution until my husband and I were going over the resolutions that we planned to set for this year.

I set 5 resolutions this year. Would you like to know what they are?

Here goes:

*Knit myself a sweater. (this is because I have knit sweaters for babies, and I have knit a sweater for my husband. I have knit countless items for people but never anything as big as a sweater for myself. So that's a goal.)

*Run a half-marathon. (aka: slowly torture myself in the form of leg burn and short breaths. Actually, over the course of the last year, I have learned to absolutely love running, and even crave it more than knitting at times. Gasp! I know. I'm sorry.)

*Paint the living room and computer room. (We have not touched the inside of our house, and we've been here since February. It's time to slowly start getting things to where we want them to be. These are easy rooms to start with.)

*Finish the front and side landscaping this summer. (The yard is a mess. I don't need to say much more than this, except I spent a LOT of time working on it this summer, and I still have a lot to do.)

*Lose 15 pounds. (Hopefully 1/2 marathon training will take care of this.)

So these are my goals. Do you think I'll accomplish them all? I don't. We'll see...

Some recent projects:

Potato Chip Scarf. You can find this pattern on the Knit Picks website.

(this is a gift for someone)

Picot Edge Hat made with my own yarn that I hand-painted. I know I blogged about this about a year ago but I am too lazy to link it. Oh, this is for sale for $20.00 if you are interested.

Republic Hat for a friend. I love making these. They are fun and really cute. I had enough yarn left to make one for myself also!

Right now I am working on a hat, scarf, mittens set for a friend. I'm about halfway done.

Happy Knitting!!

Christmas Things

2009-12-23T09:13:00.003-06:00

Phew! Ok, I admit it. I overextended myself this holiday season. Right in the midst of Christmas shopping and baking, Isabel had two skating competitions that we had to travel for. Next year I plan to tone the baking down a little bit. Maybe. I think in lieu of a few items, the kids and I will instead make a gingerbread house. I am already planning out what it will look like....

Here is a little view into what we've been doing at our house this month:

Caramels... there are always caramels to make. However, I wasn't as happy with them this year. I'm blaming my inexperience of using an electric range on why my caramels didn't turn out perfect this year.

Candy cane cookies. These are always a hit. Isabel helped me with these.

Lime crescents. My husband loves these in a crazy way, so I make them every year just for him.

Ahh... marshmallows. The store bought ones don't even compare to these.

Isabel made ornaments for the grandparents. Here they are, finished. Aren't they adorable??

...and to wrap the ornaments in, Avery did some potato stamping on big sheets of paper and I cut it into squares and wrapped the ornaments in them.

Yeah, more marshmallows. The peppermint ones were great in coffee and hot chocolate.

Are you tired of seeing marshmallows yet?

Jam thumbprints. Some with pecans and some without. These were excellent.

This picture is tiny, not sure why. But these were cutouts that I made for Isabel's class Christmas Party. Excuse me, "Holiday Party".

And cut-outs that the kids and I made with my step-mom Cheryl. This was a lot of fun, we even forced my dad to help decorate. He's pretty slow at decorating. I think he might have enjoyed it a little bit. Not sure...

That's all that I'm doing for Christmas. I have a few more gifts to wrap for Isabel, and after that I am just going to enjoy my vacation. The kids and I have off until January 4th and we're going to just go do whatever we feel like doing for the day. I think it'll be fun.

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Button Ornaments

2009-12-14T11:44:00.003-06:00

My daughter, Isabel, is not exactly crafty by nature but once in awhile she does get an itch to do something crafty - that is, when it's not volleyball season, basketball season, figure skating lessons, or snow on the ground, or a nice dry ground for bike riding.... Hm, ok...so about 1% of the time she is crafty. She is one of the most creative, imaginative kids that I know though, so she does like it when I come up with something fun for her to do.

Every Christmas since she was 4 years old, we've had her make ornaments for the grandparents and great-grandparents. She really likes doing these for some reason. This year I found the cutest, easiest ornaments on Martha Stewart's website. They are button ornaments, and essentially you just need buttons, pipe cleaners and a little bit of felt or fabric.

Pipe Cleaners

Felt

Buttons. My grandpa gave me all of my grandma's buttons because she isn't able to sew anymore. Literally I have at least 1,000 buttons. You can usually find button "stacks" at your local craft store, and these are nice because they have color themes.

Isabel making a funky snowman.

Complete! Isn't he cute? He has a little top hat and everything. Adorable.

She has 5 ornaments complete so far. She's doing a great job. Once she has them all done, we are going to put ornament hooks on the top, and Avery is going to do potato stamped wrapping paper for them, so they could both take credit for the gifts.

Hats

2009-12-09T14:47:00.005-06:00

Wow, it's been awhile since I've blogged. Sorry about that. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, cooking, baking, decorating....I haven't had a whole lot of time to blog. Also, my daughter's Synchronized skating team has been competing a lot lately. We went to Michigan last weekend and all three of our teams that went placed FIRST! Very exciting. I have made some time for knitting, however, since I've had lots of orders lately. People love to purchase knitted things when it's cold out, particularly hats.

Here is what I've been working on:

This is the Inca Snowflake Hat from Susan B. Anderson's book Itty Bitty Baby hats. I changed the top to a standard decrease.

My son's "A is for Avery" hat. He said he wanted a blue hat with a big red A on the front. This is just a standard beanie hat pattern. I used duplicate stitch for the A because I didn't want to carry my yarn around the inside of the hat. Yeah, I'm lazy. You'd do it too.

And some matching mittens to match Avery's hat.
(there's my thumb)
And a cabled hat from this pattern for my husband, to match his Avast sweater I knit. Which he loves, by the way.
Another hat from Susan B. Anderson's book, the striped stocking cap.

And another one. These are for a brother/sister pair. They turned out extremely cute. I used KnitPicks comfy worsted for this.

I love Susan B. Anderson patterns. I have found though, that I need to go down a needle size in the majority of her patterns, the hats seem to run quite large. But they are well written, and very cute and fun to knit.

I am working on an octopus right now, my own original pattern. I've also started the Whisper Cardigan for myself. I'm not sure I'm happy how this is knitting up, we'll see...

Whoopie Pies

2009-11-17T13:53:00.002-06:00

Whoopie Pies are some kind of wonderful. They are like a cake, a cookie, and something else amazing all mixed together. My friend Kelly came up from Indiana and we made them together. We share a love of baking (as well as lots of other similar interests, and the same sock monkey pajamas) and so we planned when she came here that we'd make whoopie pies. They turned out great! And it was fun to bake with a friend.

Whoopie Pies
cakes:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup dutch-processed cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
8 tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk

filling:
12 tbsp butter, softened
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups marshmallow creme

1. For the cakes: line 2 baking sheets with parchment. whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.

2. In a large bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla.

3. Slowly mix in half of the flour mixture into the butter/sugar mixture, followed by half of the buttermilk, repeat with half of the remaining flour and the remaining buttermilk. Add the remaining flour mixture until combined.

4. Scoop generous 1/4 cup mounds of batter onto the prepared baking sheets, about 2" apart. Bake the cakes until they spring back when pressed, 15-18 minutes. Let cool completely before removing from baking sheets. (Modification: We didn't do 1/4 cup, we thought this would be HUGE so we used a cookie batter scoop and made them the size of regular cookies)

5. For the filling: Beat the butter and powdered sugar together with a mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla and salt. Beat in the marshmallow creme until incorporated.

6. To serve, spread 1/3 cup filling (or less, if using our mods) evenly over the bottom of the cake and then make a sandwich by pressing the bottom of another cake onto the filling. Repeat with the remaining cakes and filling.

Here's the filling, which is a mixture of marshmallow fluff, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla

And here is the end result. I didn't take pictures of the process because we were just too busy and I had two kids in the kitchen as well. But they were so easy, it's actually a fun thing to do with kids.

Here's Kelly and me, about to dig into our first whoopie pie.

And of course Isabel, always willing to pose for the camera.

Mmmmmmmm.

I heart you, whoopie pie.

What Have I Been Doing?

2009-11-12T10:43:00.004-06:00

I have been busy. I am the type that likes to keep busy, but the extent of my busyness lately is making me feel overwhelmed. So, what better to do than push all obligations aside and blog?
So, this is what I've been up to....

...Knitting donuts...

...Knitting a FAIL hat...
(meaning, it turned out awful, wouldn't fit a horses head and is just all sorts of ugliness)

...apples up to my eyeballs. Want some?...

...sewing scrunchies to match the synchronized skating outfits that Isabel's team is wearing to competition next weekend. Lots of giggly little girls in hotel rooms, pizza for dinner, make-up, glitter....ACK!...

...cleaning up messes. I went through 3 microfiber towels today dusting my house. That happens when you only dust about 3 times a year...

...knitting, with beautiful yarn that looks good enough to eat...

...no, not painting. No, not cleaning up after the previous owner's messy paint job. RUNNING. This is the hinge that I concentrate on when I am running and don't think I can run one more second. Sort of like labor, you find a spot and focus on it and don't think about anything else other than that one spot. This hinge is my 'spot'...
(note to self: clean hinges next year)

...baby showers! Around Christmastime I will be an aunt again, to a little girl who's name will not be disclosed until birth...

...baking! Always baking...cupcakes for my step-sister's baby shower...
(pumpkin cupcakes with ginger creme filling and chocolate ganache frosting)

...more baking for baby shower. These are chocolate cupcakes with strawberry chocolate filling and a layer of ganache underneath buttercream frosting...

This weekend I have a guest staying at my house. My friend Kelly, who writes this blog. We have never met in real life before and I am SO excited to meet and spend time with her. We're going to gain a few pounds together this weekend. I guess I'll have to stare at that hinge a little more often next week.

Happy living!!
xoxo

Baby Hats

2009-11-10T11:17:00.002-06:00

Baby hats are one of the most gratifying things to knit. They knit up fast, they use up pieces of 'stashed' yarn because they don't require much yarn at all, and they are adorable. My step-sister had a baby shower last Saturday and is having a girl. So within the week, I quickly knit up two hats for her soon-to-be baby.

The bottom hat is a ten-cable hat from this blog. I went down a needle size and added another inch or so to the hat by adding another cable round. It turned out perfect for a 6-12 month head. The yarn for the cable hat is from Knit Picks and is the swish comfy worsted yarn which is great for baby items. The yarn for the Clochette hat is Lana Gatto Wool Gatto and the green leaves is just some random scrap yarn I had laying around.

This one is called Clochette.

I was most impressed with the leaf pattern. A series of yarn overs creates a beautiful design on the leaf and a vein that runs up the middle.

Happy Knitting!

Fried Apple Pies

2009-11-05T08:18:00.004-06:00

A friend of ours has some apple trees and gave us a ton of apples not too long ago. I wanted to use some of them up, and came across this recipe for Fried Apple Pies. You'll notice that it only uses two apples but the recipe piqued my interest so I made them anyway, despite the fact that I was originally looking for a recipe that uses a ton of apples.
I can't believe how good these turned out and I'm sure it's not just because they are fried in oil. The crust turned out great, the filling was delicious, it was just all around a great little after dinner treat. I think with a scoop of ice cream it would be even better.
The only modifications I made to this recipe was that I used Whole Wheat Pastry Flour instead of white flour because it's healthier for you. You know, to balance out the "deep fried in oil" part of the recipe. The other modification I made was that I didn't cut circles, I cut squares and placed two squares together and sealed them with fork tines. I did this because I have a big junk cabinet in my kitchen where I shove a thousand things and I knew my circle cookie cutter was at the bottom of that big junk cabinet.

Recipe:

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour (I used Whole Wheat Pastry Flour)
1/2 cup shortening
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold water
2 apples
1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup vegetable oil

Directions

Peel and dice apples. Add sugar and cinnamon. Cook in a saucepan on low heat. Cook until soft, then mash with fork to form a thick applesauce.
Sift flour and salt together. Cut in the shortening. Add water and mix with fork.
Roll out to about 1/8 inch thick on a floured board. Cut with a large cookie cutter (4 inches in diameter).
In each round, place 1 heaping tablespoon fruit. Moisten edges with cold water, fold and press edge with a fork.
Heat oil in a large skillet on medium-high heat. Fry pies, a few at a time, 2 to 3 minutes on each side; cook until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with confectioners sugar.

Here are said apples. And knife.

Apples, cinnamon and sugar before cooking it down.

The dough seemed crumbly but once you get in there with your hands
and meld it together it is perfect.

Cut your shapes, do this all at once so you aren't cutting, filling, sealing each one and then having to go back and do it all over again for the next...

Filling. I could have done a bit less, but it still worked out great.

My helper (and daughter) Isabel did most of this part.
Wet the edges to seal it more completely.

Before frying

During frying. If you don't have a cast iron skillet, GET ONE! Everything tastes
better when cooked in a cast iron skillet.

Put all sorts of sugar on top. The crust doesn't have sugar in it so I think
this is a vital step. I think a cinnamon sugar combo would work great or even an icing or glaze.

Mmmm. Deliciousness.

These are a bit putzy but definitely worth the time it takes. Actually, I made these while dinner was in the oven. They didn't take too long at all. These are very reminiscent of those apple pies you can buy in the store. You know the ones...about 500 calories and 50 grams of fat - 2/$1.00. But these are so much better, especially when they are warm, and healthier too!

Biggest, Longest Knitting Project is DONE!

2009-10-28T14:10:00.002-05:00

Ok, I started this project in January of this year. I'll admit, I was not faithful to it - I've knit countless things and set this down and let it fester and collect dust. The cat has slept on it, thankfully had not thrown up a hair-ball on it, it's been folded up on the back of the couch for weeks (months?) at a time. But I promised Jeremy this would be done by fall. Of course I also promised him last winter it would be done by the end of winter. Oh well. Keeping one out of two promises isn't bad. It is done! The sweater is done. The biggest project I've ever knit, to date, is done! I am so happy. Yes, happy because it's off my needles. But I am very happy because, just like Mr. Rogers, Jeremy takes off his work clothes at the end of the day, and slips my sweater on and admires it and thanks me many times. Really, this is true! He does this. Now that just makes it all worth while.
Truth be told, this project was very easy. Thanks to the man who wrote the pattern. Yes, a man. Who, in my opinion, would be the perfect person to write a pattern for a mens sweater. The pattern is written so well, and was easy to follow and the only part that I really dreaded was the double cable on the bottom but even that wasn't horrible. The rest was quite simple and straight forward. And even though I was knitting miles and miles of army green, it was still somewhat interesting to knit the entire time. Somewhat.
I believe I deleted my old progress photos, to save our computer from overload collapse. They are in my blog somewhere if you dig deep enough. But here it is, being soaked and blocked and modeled.

It is nerve wracking to submerge hours upon hours of work into a big tub of water.

Sweater is pinned and blocking.

Sweater is done!!

My next sweater will be the Whisper Cardigan, for me! In the meantime, I have orders to fill. Hats, hats, and more hats, and a donut mixed in there just for fun.
Knit on, happy knitters!!

Race Day

2009-10-21T09:55:00.003-05:00

Most of my friends know that I started running some time back in April. It started sllloooowwllllyyy...one minute here, 5 minutes walking, one minute there, more walking. Well, it sort of evolved over time and now I can run about 3 miles before I feel like my legs have turned to Jello. I didn't follow a training program because I don't like to be told what to do. So I did my own thing and eventually worked up to where I am now. I'm pretty happy with where I am but I think I need to start strength training my legs since it's not my breathing that makes me feel the need to stop running, it's these legs that feel exhausted!

A friend of mine talked me into entering a 5K race. At first I absolutely did not want to do it but I signed up anyway. As the day drew nearer I found my self really looking forward to this race. Having two children, it's a rare occasion that I do something for myself (besides knitting, which doesn't count). My husband decided to do the race with me, to cheer me on, and so we could experience our first race together. I didn't care about winning. Apparently neither did he because he ran alongside me the entire time, cheering me on. I love that man.

The race was hard. Half a mile was uphill and I couldn't run the entire time up that hill. I did run the rest of the race though. It was fun, and exhausting, and exciting. I thought about a lot of things while I ran, which is unusual because I usually think about nothing at all while I run. Running seems to be the only time where I can shut my thoughts down. I can feel my feet under me, listen to music, and just GO. But during the race I thought about a lot of things - it was sort of emotional for me but I tried to hide that. I thought about how hard I've worked to get to this point. I thought about how 3 years ago I was putting off a scary surgery I knew I needed to have, and how 2 1/2 years ago the word 'cancer' suddenly applied to me and how I didn't want to die. How it still scares me but only if I really think about it. I thought about that pivotal point I reached in April or May of this year, where I knew I couldn't just survive in life, but I needed to LIVE - take care of myself, be there for my family, create my own happiness, and not just wait to hear I have cancer again. I also thought about how I could never run a mile, not even in school...and what would my gym teacher think of me now? So, some deep thoughts, and some not so deep!

I really can't wait to do it again.

Getting my number and ready to run.

Off we go!

After the race.

Yeah, greasy cheeseburgers, always good after a race. I think?

I didn't win. I wasn't even close. My time was 40 minutes and 4 seconds! Ha! But I finished. Yay!

Finally! Some knitted things...

2009-10-19T13:32:00.003-05:00

Here are a few things I finished for a friend. I think they all turned out very cute, although it's debatable if that purple lovey is a cat or a bat. It's supposed to be a bat, what do you think? Do the fangs convince you?

Coffee Sleeve - horse shoe cable.
(also, I need to mention what a great photo my camera took. Look how clear it is!!)

The picture of these cupcakes really don't do them justice.
I think these are my favorite ones so far that I've made.

Two loveys - on the left is a bat. On the right, an owl.

On a very exciting note, I have one sleeve left to seam on Jeremy's sweater, and the zipper to install. Then it is DONE!! Can you believe that? I'm so excited!

Happy Knitting!!

Chicken Noodle Soup

2009-10-13T13:25:00.004-05:00

When the leaves start to turn (which is right about NOW in Wisconsin), my internal switch which makes me crave comfort food is turned on. Chili, pie, hot chocolate, cookies, and chicken noodle soup, among other things, enter my mind. In fact, as I type this I have enough chili in the crock pot to feed a small army. Or my husband and the rest of us. One of the two.

Yesterday my son was home sick with a weird ear thing, so I decided to make homemade chicken noodle soup. I've never used this recipe before, which was given to me about 4 years ago by someone at work. I remember we had some sort of fundraiser and soup was the main course. Unfortunately it was planned during Lent, and so lots of people decided against the chicken noodle soup and went for the vegetarian option, which I cannot even remember what it was. I remember being "wowed" by this soup, and when I made it yesterday I instantly remembered why. A very simple soup, and perfect 'warming up' food. No bells or whistles, thus creating it's own quiet bells and whistles. Does that make sense? I'll be making this again. And again.

I have to apologize in advance, because this recipe was given to me just scratched out on a sheet of paper and really didn't have instruction beyond what the ingredients are, and how to cook the chicken. So I winged it and this is what I came up with:

Chicken Noodle Soup
1 whole roaster chicken
1 large can of chicken broth (or one of the large boxes)
1 quart water
5 stalks celery, sliced
1 lb of carrots, peeled and sliced
1 small onion, chopped
12 oz egg noodles (I used medium)
1 tsp celery salt
3 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste
extra chicken broth for adding if you want your soup more 'soupy'

1. In a large stock pot, place your roaster chicken. Salt and pepper your chicken liberally. First, pull that bag out first that contains the neck and the other chicken unmentionables. Pour in your quart of water, and your big can or box of chicken broth (or stock). Add the bay leaves. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer and cover. Simmer until the chicken is cooked. Mine took about 40 minutes or so.
2.Remove the chicken from the water and allow it to cool somewhat. Remove the skin. Debone and dice or shred the meat from the chicken. Remove the bay leaves from the stock.
3. Skim the fat off the broth that is leftover in the pot.
4. cut up your celery and carrots and onion. Add that to the pot. Add the chicken to the pot. Add the celery salt to the pot. Simmer the veggies until almost tender.
5. Add noodles about 10 minutes before you are done simmering. Add more broth if desired. (I added more broth and some water and ended up adding more salt and pepper as well)

Serve with really good bread. I made the Vermont Cheddar from the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day book.

And now, some soup pictures:

Chicken, about to simmer.

Slice these.

Slice these too.

Chop/dice these.

Dice this.

Vermont Cheddar Bread. It was pretty awesome.

The finished product. This picture doesn't really do the meal justice.
I need a new camera.

I urge you to try this recipe. It takes a lot of time, and a little effort but the results are just so worth it.

Stripes

2009-09-23T13:56:00.003-05:00

Oh how I love striped hats. I think stripes are one of the best inventions ever. Do you think it qualifies as an invention? Who knows...but I am drawn to them. Striped hats are one of my favorite things to knit, and I don't even mind weaving in all those ends inside the hat when it's done. I knitted this hat for a Silent Auction being held at a Fundraiser Gala that I'll be attending on October 2nd. I have a bunny hat that I'm also knitting for it, and that should be done tonight or tomorrow. Both hats are from Susan B. Anderson's Itty Bitty Hats book.

This is my proof that I am working on the bunny hat.
Happily knitting away in my sunny living room.

Happy Knitting!

Knitted Food

2009-09-10T09:34:00.002-05:00

Why is my blog always about food? Even if it's knitted, it's still food....
I won't fight it.

I just finished a variety of fruit that I knitted for a silent auction fundraiser for a friend's church. I think they turned out cute! All fruit patterns were from this blog (with the exception of the strawberries, which are from here), with modifications to make the fruit bigger and with using smaller needles. So basically my increases were greater and then respectively I had more decreases...

Cute, huh? I just love knitting any type of knitted toy, they are my favorite thing in the world to knit. The strawberries were especially fun, and one of the best patterns I've knit in a long time. Well written, thoughtfully created, etc...

Happy Knitting! : )

Sundried Tomato Basil Crackers

2009-09-08T15:19:00.006-05:00

I subscribe to a magazine called Maryjane's Farm. Mostly I subscribed because we share the same name and I thought that was pretty cool, but after getting a few issues, I realized how great this magazine really is. In the issue this month they have an entire section devoted to crackers. I love making crackers, and it's one of those things that people don't always realize you can actually make at home. Like marshmallows. I love to make those as well, and people always look quizzically at me when I tell them I've made marshmallows.

Here is the Basic Farmhouse Cracker recipe:
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15-20 minutes
Makes: 3-4 dozen

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 t cream of tartar
3/4 t salt
3/4 t baking soda
1/4 cup oil (I used grapeseed oil)
1/2 cup water
1 egg
2 t sugar
1 t balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup sesame seeds

1. Preheat oven to 350. Lightly spray or wipe baking sheet with oil.
2. In a medium bowl combine first 4 ingredients and mix well (I used a food processor).
3. Add oil and stir until mixture resembles coarse meal.
4. Add water and stir until dough forms.
5. In a small bowl, whisk together egg, sugar, and vinegar. Set aside.
6. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll out very thin. Brush with egg mixture and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Cut, tear into strips, or use cookie cutters to make any cracker shape you like. Transfer to baking sheet.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes (depending on size and thickness of cracker). Transfer to cooling racks.

Variation: (This is the variation I used)
Sundried Tomato Basil Crackers
1/4 cup fresh basil
1/4 cup sundried tomatoes
2 T olive oil
2 T parmesan cheese, grated
1/4 t salt
1/4 t pepper

In a blender or food processor, add all ingredients and mix well. Add mixture to dough after step 4 of basic cracker recipe. Omit sesame seeds.

Ingredients. Yes my dry ingredients are all labeled, thanks to my anally retentive husband who loves his P-Touch!

Mix first 6 ingredients until coarse crumbs form

Basil....you either love it or hate it.

Sundried tomatoes...mmmmm....

Mix it.

It's a vision of beauty...

Roll it out on a well floured countertop or cutting board.

brush with egg mixture and cut out.

My old nasty baking stone, but it works so good.
Get one if you don't have one, they are worth the money.

Cool on a rack. (I thought 20 minutes was perfect, makes a crispy cracker)

Enjoy!

Pickles!!

2009-08-24T10:41:00.004-05:00

Now I have never been a fan of pickles, but my husband and son are pickleholics. They can sit down on the kitchen floor and eat an entire jar of pickles. It's a little gross really, when you think of all those pickles sloshing around in their stomachs.
Anyway, my neighbor's friend came over the other day and offered me an unlimited amount of cucumbers. I'd say I took about 15 pounds of cucumbers off her hands. I decided to make pickles and used this recipe.
This really was easy to do but time consuming since I don't have a canner, in the last stage I had to simmer the jars in the only stock pot I had, 3 at a time. I ended up getting 10 jars of spears and 2 jars of sliced pickles. I don't know how these taste yet as the recipe recommends waiting 8 weeks before opening a jar for eating. It will be difficult to wait that long, but I'll do it.

Lots -o- Cucumbers

In their chilly ice bath.

Cut into spears

In their jars, waiting for the brine to be poured in.

Done!!

I can't wait to try one!

Bagels

2009-08-24T10:34:00.003-05:00

Carbohydrates....mmmm! Bagels are among the best of them - love LOVE them!
So I decided to try the bagel dough recipe from the Artisan Bread book. I have to say I was a bit disappointed. The bagels turned out a little bumpy looking and never did get 'deep brown' like the recipe said, no matter how long I baked them. The one I ate straight out of the oven tasted good but the next day? No, not good.

Rising Dough. Yellowy picture that could not be salvaged.

This was a fun process...you punch a hole through the middle of the dough with your thumb and then stretch it into a bagel shape.

Sesame bagel.

Good crumb on day One. Day Two, notsomuch.

Oh well. Now I can say I've been there and done that.

Domestic Things

2009-08-11T09:07:00.006-05:00

I really need to buy a farm. The problem is, we just moved to a new house (new to us, built in the 30's I believe) right in the middle of the city. If you can call our city a city - 42,000 people or so. But technically it is a "city".
I know I need a farm, because all I want to do is hang wash outside, grow a massive garden, can things, sew and knit, teach my kids things that the public school system cannot, and get my feet dirty walking around outside all day. A few sheep wouldn't hurt either.
One domestic item that I love are aprons. I want to start a collection, except I don't think my husband would approve of all these aprons laying around.
Now, I realize this is cheating, but on Sunday I drove out to the fabric store for some ribbon and came home with this awesome kit to sew an apron. I say cheating, because it was a kit and didn't require much thinking at all....but, $14.99 I felt was a good deal, so I bought it and brought it home and sewed this cute reversible apron in about an hour.

Isn't it the cutest little apron you have ever seen? I am in love with it.

And here is something else I've been working on - baby hats!! Three of these are for a friend of mine who is having a baby. I'm going to try and find coordinating outfits, something that will match. The monkey hat was a special order.

So I've been busy. I'm going to slow down a bit on the knitting for a few days and attempt soft pretzels with the kids. We're using the Artisan bread book, the bagel dough recipe. I hope they turn out, I'd love a good soft pretzel with cheese sauce or something equally fattening.

Happy knitting!

Key Lime Pie

2009-08-07T10:25:00.004-05:00

MMMmmmmm......

Earlier this week, I had attempted Master Cleanse. Total FAIL. That's ok though, after I thought about it, got hungry, and thought about it some more, I figured since I had liver cancer that maybe I shouldn't be messing around with my liver. Plus, I was just really hungry.

So, with all of this citrus on my hands now (namely limes), what can one possibly do to get rid of them? I decided on Key Lime Pie. I've never made it before, so why not? Let me tell you something...this is my new favorite pie. It was so good, a great summer pie for sure. Winter pies, such as apple and pumpkin and other richer varieties of pie, just don't cut it for me in the summer. I need something cold and summery, and citrus surely is the way to go.

I used the recipe in 'The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book' which is a really fantastic baking book I received for my birthday this year from my dad and Cheryl. I've already made quite a few things from this book and they all turn out fantastic. I highly recommend it.

Here's the recipe. Very simple, but simple is good.

KEY LIME PIE

FILLING
4 large egg yolks
4 teaspoons grated fresh lime zest
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed Milk
1/2 cup fresh lime juice (about 4-6 limes or 20 Key Limes)

1 recipe Graham cracker crust

TOPPING
1 cup heavy cream, chilled
1/4 cup confectioner's sugar

1. FOR THE FILLING: Whisk the egg yolks and zest together in a medium bowl until the mixture has a light green tint to it, about 2 minutes. Whisk in the condensed milk until smooth, then whisk in the lime juice. Cover the mixture and set aside at room temperature until thickened, about 30 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, prepare and bake the crust. (OR - buy one at the store and warm it up in the oven a few minutes before pouring the filling in) Transfer the pie plate to a wire rack to cool and leave the oven at 325 degrees. The crust must still be warm when the filling is added.

3. Pour the thickened filling into the warm pie crust. Bake the pie until the center is firm but jiggles slightly when shaken, about 15-20 minutes. Let the pie cool slightly on a wire rack, about 1 hour, then cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the filling is chilled and set, about 3 hours.

4. FOR THE TOPPING: Before serving, whip the cream and sugar together on med-low for 1 minute, and on high until the whipped cream forms stiff peaks. Spread the whipped cream onto the top of the pie.

Now, here are a few pictures.

Limes. Lots of 'em. I didn't use key limes, we don't have them here.

Egg yolks and zest. Whisk until pale yellowish/green.

Oh yes I did!!! I bought a store bought crust. The horror!!

After setting for 30 minutes, the pie filling should be of a pudding consistency, where it holds to the spoon when you tilt it.

After being baked 15 minutes.
Don't over-bake this, after chilling several hours it sets up nicely on it's own.

Whipped Cream Topping. Don't cheat and buy Cool Whip, people. It's simply a bad mistake.

Slice it up. Garnish with a lime slice if you want to be all fancy.

Enjoy!!

Brioche and Beignets

2009-07-31T14:00:00.004-05:00

Last weekend I mixed up a batch of Brioche dough from my Artisan Bread book. The batch I mixed up makes 4 loaves of bread, but this dough is also useful in making other types of things from the cookbook. So, I decided to make Beignets. I went to New Orleans last year to meet some of my on-line friends and we ate breakfast at Cafe Du Monde which serves awesome beignets and cafe au lait. This was the first time I had beignets, and I really didn't even know what it was. Essentially it's just a donut, a fritter....dough deep fried and coated with powdered sugar. But they were good, in a way that is different from a donut from the grocery store or a local bakery. It could have just been the atmosphere, or the company, or the drinks from the night before that were still hanging on. But, I don't think so.
So last Sunday before church, just to stress myself out, I got some Brioche dough out and made beignets. They were worth all of the effort. I made some with rhubarb jam inside, and I really think adding something like jam or chocolate puts a whole new level of deliciousness on these bad boys.
I took a few pictures:

Yeast, salt, HONEY....mmmmm.

I love the way flour looks right before you mix it in.

Wet brioche dough

Roll it out. I love my rolling pin.

Cut into squares

I filled only four of them with jam, but really I wish I filled them all.
These were so good!

Jam-filled beignets, before frying.

Jam-filled, after frying. Oh I'm in love.

Breakfast time.

And for the rest of the dough? I made two loaves of brioche. One for us, and one for my neighbor who is a self-proclaimed bread addict.

Beignets are easy, but time consuming. And it takes a lot of oil to fry them, and hence a lot of running to burn them off. But they are delicious and I can see these being made every couple of months in our house.
The next thing I plan to make from the bread book are the soft pretzels from bagel dough, and a few bagels as well. Isabel has vowed to help me with this and I intend to put her to work!

Have a good weekend knitters and bakers.

Baking With Avery

2009-07-28T10:10:00.004-05:00

I promised Avery that we would bake cookies together, and this weekend he didn't let me forget it. We had a great time, and he loves to help out in the kitchen...but as time goes on he loses his steam and ends up doing other things. Fun nonetheless, he's a joy to bake with. And his older sister isn't as enthusiastic about it anymore, so I'm just happy to have someone around that still is.
I used this recipe, but instead of 2 sticks of butter, used 1/2 crisco 1/2 butter. They turned out nice. A good simple sugar cookie is something good to have around.

Ingredients + 1 cute boy = fun cookie making.

He loves to crack eggs, and I'll admit he is very good at it!

Scooping flour. Also very good at this.

A little distraction, the spatula licking experience.

......aaaand, now we're onto....cutting paper? Hmm. His sister played a part in this. Whatever sister is doing, Avery has to do. So he took a break to cut paper. Hopefully no paper scraps got into our cookies.

Result - cookies! We rolled them in blue and red sugars to make them more fun.
Want one?

What Have I Been Doing?

2009-07-21T09:29:00.003-05:00

Beyond the donuts I've knitted, I really haven't been sharing a lot of what I've been up to.
Well, there's been lots of bread being baked around here...my newest batch was rye and it turned out great.

...here are a few other things...

Wrapping up cute little boys like mummies. Look at those smiley eyes.

Baling some "hay" with my dump truck.

Making some peanut butter cupcakes. Very good recipe, but dense.

Avast sweater in progress. This is a sweater for my husband and I should have it done by fall. I attached the sleeves a few days ago and am now doing the decreases for the raglan-style top. This sweater has a zipper, and I'm a little nervous about sewing a zipper in, but I think it'll be fine. Just fine.

Small amount of cable work on the bottom of this sweater. Once it's blocked it will look much smoother.

I also have orders in for a cute baby monkey hat, cupcakes, an owl lovey, one (maybe two) Marley hats, and a few other random things... It's going to be a busy couple of months. But this is my kind of busy. ; )

And the Winner Is.....

2009-07-16T21:24:00.003-05:00

#16 - SHANNON!!!! Congratulations Shannon! #16 was technically Jen but that was a 2nd comment and I'm going by first comments only.
Thank you all so much for entering. It was great reading everyone's comments about why you like reading my blog. : )
Shannon, I have your address and I can get in touch with you to discuss shipping your items.

Thanks everyone!!!

Last Day to Enter!!!

2009-07-16T09:23:00.004-05:00

Today is the day!! The last day to enter my giveaway. If you still want/need to enter, please leave a comment on my previous post. You have until 9:30pm (CST) tonight!!
I finished the donuts in the nick of time....
What do you think? They're pretty cute aren't they. I wouldn't recommend giving these to a small child to play with as the beads are sewn on and could probably be pulled off and ingested. They are pretty to look at though.
Good luck to all the people that have entered, I didn't expect so many. This is great!
I'll post tonight who the winner is. : )

Blogaversary!! Giveaway!!

2009-07-08T14:24:00.005-05:00

July 16th marks one year of blogging for me. I'm so excited to be consistent with anything, really, but never thought I'd be consistent with this.
So, to celebrate my 'Blogaversary' I am doing a giveaway!! It's nothing huge, but I wanted to offer something to my, what - 10?, readers that are out there...

Item #1:
A brand new copy of Artisan Bread In Five Minutes A Day. Jeremy bought me this book for Mother's Day, and didn't realize that I already had one in my "cart" on Amazon, so he purchased two copies by mistake. Woops! My husbands mistake is your gain. : )
Item #2:
A 6-pack of delicious knitted confections. Namely, donuts!! Now, they are not all knitted up yet, so the colors and styles will be a surprise, but I'll package up 6 of the cutest little donuts you've ever seen and send them your way.

I will choose one person to win both of these items, on my actual Blogaversary - July 16th. I will use a random number generator that will pick a number for me.
Please leave a comment on my blog, telling me why you read it and what you'd like to see more of. Be sure to leave a means of contact, an email, link to your blog, etc.
I will pick a winner on July 16th, at 9:30pm (CST) so you have up until that time to leave a comment which will put you in the running for these great giveaway items. If the winner does not contact me within 2 days of the drawing, a new winner will be chosen.

So, with all of this in mind...go!! Leave a comment and put yourself in the drawing!
Good luck, readers. : )

Presents. For Me.

2009-06-26T11:27:00.003-05:00

Very rarely do I buy anything for myself, except yarn. And even the yarn is to be knit into something...for someone else. I've had a need for a new cell phone for ages, mine was 7 years old and rarely had the battery charged because it needed to be charged...every 10 minutes it seemed! So, look what I treated myself to:

(iPhone)

Oh goodness I am in love. Seriously. I did perfectly fine without a phone and I probably still would, but this is just divine. I can check Facebook, I can light a zippo lighter, I can play Scrabble, I can search for recipes, I can talk on the phone (if it would ever ring. Which it doesn't, really.)....love it.

And on a whim the other day, whilst browsing Etsy, I decided to buy this beautiful apron, which I simply love. I bought it from Boojiboo and it's gorgeous! And it came wrapped in tissue, as cute as a button. I think packaging something up all cutesy makes it even better.
I've already worn it, several times, and cooked in it, wiped my hands on it...Love it.

Foodthings.

2009-06-22T09:44:00.003-05:00

Not much to share lately on the knitting front, but I've been doing a lot of baking lately. I was given some rhubarb from a friend, so I made some rhubarb jam. I know this recipe is sort of cheating, but it's hot in the house right now and I wanted something fast and easy. I used only 2 cups of sugar rather than the 3 cups it called for. Another thing I did was let this sit on the counter top until the jars sealed completely, and then I put it in the fridge to gel the jam. I think these need to stay in the fridge because of the gelatin but I'm not really sure. As long as I've got room in there, that's where they'll stay. And aren't these jars the cutest ever? I bought these at Target and they hold more than it appears - 8 ounces.
Cupcakes for Avery's birthday party at daycare. I used the one bowl chocolate cake recipe from Martha Stewart and a chocolate creme frosting recipe that Avery loves.
Challah bread with poppy seeds, and some with sesame seeds. I used the recipe from the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day book. Very good book, and fast, fast bread. The rhubarb jam is really good on this bread too.

....and last but not least, pecan sticky rolls. Which are also from the Artisan bread book using the basic dough recipe. These are seriously better than any sticky bun I've ever had. I was good though, I only had one.

Brea Bag - DONE!

2009-06-16T09:10:00.003-05:00

I finally received my strap in the mail! This amazing Etsy store owner made it for me and I love it. She actually made me two styles and I couldn't decide so I bought both, and chose one for my purse and will use the other for a future purse.
I am so happy with how the purse turned out. I still need to knit an i-cord for the button loop, but I couldn't wait to share it....so here it is!

And I ended up choosing a completely different fabric than I had originally picked out. The oranges and reds look nice inside the purse.

I can't wait to fill it up with all my stuff!!

Handmade Gift #2

2009-06-08T21:10:00.003-05:00

I knit and felted this purse for a friend awhile ago, and she was one that signed up for a 'handmade gift' on my Facebook page. So I thought a little change purse to match the purse would be a fitting gift. This was the purse I knit, oh, at least a year ago....
And here is the coin purse. Plain, but useful. I think the button is perfect for it as well.

She just got it in the mail today and loves it, and that makes me happy.
Onto gift #3.....

Happy Birthday!

2009-06-02T10:36:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was Jeremy's birthday and so we celebrated as a family. I made him a carrot cake and it turned out great. This is the recipe that I used. But instead of using all of the oil it called for, I used 3/4 cup of applesauce and 1/2 cup of oil. I also doubled the cream cheese frosting, and made a 2 layer cake. It produced a very good cake.

Blow out your candles!!

Mmmmm....

Happy Birthday to my sweetheart. It's the 11th birthday of his that we've celebrated together. :o)

things.

2009-05-26T13:25:00.002-05:00

Well, two weeks without a post! This is very unlike me...
We've been busy around here, trying to make our yard look nicer but really doing quite the opposite. There is just no time when you have a two year-old.

We arrived home from Kentucky on Sunday evening. We went to see Jeremy's brother get married. It was a simply gorgeous wedding that I really didn't get many pictures of because I was chasing my son around. We had a good time, but it's always nice to come home.

My newest work-in-progress, on the needles and traveling through Indiana.
This is the primavera sock pattern. The yarn is Opal.

Isabel made herself comfortable with a book and her ipod.

Isabel and Avery at the wedding reception, which was held at the Brown Pusey house in Elizabethtown Kentucky.

...and two finished objects that I have yet to share. A scarf for a toddler, knit in the round. I tried to do this double-knit style, but could not figure out how to change colors easily, so I knit it around.

and a scarf for the big brother. Just red and black, and plain like most boys like.

I still have Jeremy's Avast on the needles as well, and finished one arm just last night. All that is left is another arm, the yoke, the collar, stitching up under the arms, finding a zipper and sewing it in. Ok, that's a lot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My tumor markers came back and I called to get them today.
Here are the stats:
CgA 77 -steady
NSE 5.9 -steady
Serotonin Serum 227 - a lot higher but the normal range they gave this time was 330 and under. The nurse said this could be because a different machine was used. -31 points higher than November's result
5-HIAA 5.5 -somewhat steady. Has climbed slowly in the last 1 1/2 years.

I'll take it for what it is. Not worrying, just yet.

Cheddar Crackers

2009-05-13T07:35:00.005-05:00

Cheddar Crackers
Yield: 6 servings

1/2 c Butter Or Margarine
1 1/2 c Unbleached Flour; Sifted
1/2 t Salt
1 t Baking Powder
1 ds Cayenne Pepper
2 c Cheddar; Extra Sharp, finely grated.

Stir the dry ingredients into a bowl and then cut in the butter to
resemble cornmeal. Blend in the cheddar cheese with a fork until
well blended. Mix in the remaining ingredients and shape into
1 1/2 to 2-inch rolls. Chill for 30 to 40 minutes in the
refrigerator and then slice each roll into slices about 1/4-inch
thick.

Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 400 degrees F for about
10 minutes. Remove from cookie sheet and let cool. Store the
cooled crackers in airtight containers in a cool place. They will
keep for several weeks this way and if you freeze them, they will
last indefinitely.

Ingredients:

I used my food processor and I don't honestly know how anyone could make these without it. Especially once you incorporate the cheese into the mixture, you have to pulse for quite awhile, so by hand I can only imagine how long this takes.

Be sure to shred cheese on the fine side of the grater.

Let your cute son pulse the processor many, MANY times.

Correct consistency for rolling.

Several short rolls are easier to handle.
(Oh goodness, look at those adorable fingers.)

I sliced them thinner than 1/4".

Lay them on a cookie sheet with parchment paper and bake.
I baked them about 13 minutes, since I like crunchy crackers.
(there's those cute fingers again!)

Enjoy!

Terrarium

2009-05-04T14:11:00.005-05:00

At some point I decided a terrarium would be fun to make, so naturally I dragged Isabel into my idea and over time she got pretty excited about making one.
I found this huge jar at Target for $13.99. It wasn't this set, but the same exact style of jar and quite large. Isabel and I went to the local nursery and found 3 smallish plants to put in our jar, and I bought some tumbled rocks for a little path. Isabel already had a tiny ceramic frog, and so we stuck him in there too. I really wanted a garden gnome but wasn't able to find one small enough.

Our supplies: dirt, plain rocks for under dirt, tumbled rocks for 'show', some small plants, ceramic frog. (frog not pictured)

Our end result!

Later that day....lots of kite flying...

...except for this little guy, who would rather swing. : )

Personal Pizzas

2009-04-30T11:19:00.005-05:00

I couldn't wait until Friday, so last night I used up the rest of my bread dough for dinner. We made personal pizzas and I had just enough dough for both kids to get their own, and to make a larger one for Jeremy and me. I didn't take photos of the process because once the oven and stones are heated you need to work fast.
Here you can find a good instructional on how to use this dough for pizza - I think it's on page 3 or 4 of the article.

Avery's pizza - he chose green peppers, corn and chicken.

Isabel's pizza - she's a meat girl. She chose leftover steak on half and pepperoni on the other half.

Jeremy and my pizza - We had chicken, steak, corn, roasted red potatoes, green peppers and spinach. I also added some garlic to the sauce.

These pizzas are great because you can truly use anything you have left from previous dinners. Everything except the spinach and green pepper was from a previous dinner this week, and so I just stuck it on our pizzas and used it up rather than letting it get fuzzy in the fridge and throwing it away.
The kids loved their pizzas - even Avery, who usually refuses to eat it. He put his own toppings on and I think that helped with the excitement factor. The crust was perfect - not too chewy, not doughy at all, just the right amount of crunch on the edges, and not 'floppy' toward the center of the pizza - just perfect!!

Loaves.

2009-04-28T09:33:00.004-05:00

Of bread, that is! A friend of mine gave me a link to the basic recipe for crusty bread in the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day book. Here is the basic recipe:

Recipe: Simple Crusty Bread

Adapted from “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day,” by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François (Thomas Dunne Books, 2007)

Time: About 45 minutes plus about 3 hours’ resting and rising

1 1/2 tablespoons yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
6 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour, more for dusting dough
Cornmeal

1. In a large bowl or plastic container, mix yeast and salt into 3 cups lukewarm water (about 100 degrees). Stir in flour, mixing until there are no dry patches. Dough will be quite loose. Cover, but not with an airtight lid. Let dough rise at room temperature 2 hours (or up to 5 hours).

2. Bake at this point or refrigerate, covered, for as long as two weeks. When ready to bake, sprinkle a little flour on dough and cut off a grapefruit-size piece with serrated knife. Turn dough in hands to lightly stretch surface, creating a rounded top and a lumpy bottom. Put dough on pizza peel sprinkled with cornmeal; let rest 40 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough or refrigerate it.

3. Place broiler pan on bottom of oven. Place baking stone on middle rack and turn oven to 450 degrees; heat stone at that temperature for 20 minutes.

4. Dust dough with flour, slash top with serrated or very sharp knife three times. Slide onto stone. Pour one cup hot water into broiler pan and shut oven quickly to trap steam. Bake until well browned, about 30 minutes. Cool completely.

Yield: 4 loaves.

Variation: If not using stone, stretch rounded dough into oval and place in a greased, nonstick loaf pan. Let rest 40 minutes if fresh, an extra hour if refrigerated. Heat oven to 450 degrees for 5 minutes. Place pan on middle rack.

(my notes: I used bread flour rather than all-purpose and I'd probably reduce that amount to 5 3/4 or 6 cups next time. Also, covering with just a dishcloth in the fridge made the top of my dough get too firm, so I added about 1/4 cup of water and tilted the bowl so the water wet the entire top, and it is now covered with plastic wrap.)

Risen dough, slashed and ready to go into the oven

After baking - I baked it 25 minutes - I had one smallish loaf and one larger one.

I couldn't resist so I cut it while it was hot and had a piece. If you wait until the loaves are completely cooled (or close to it) it will slice very nicely.
The crust is very firm and crunchy at first, but as it cools it will soften a bit. I have mine currently wrapped in wax paper and wrapped in a dishtowel. This will soften the crust but if you don't somehow cover it, it will get stale.

I'm using the remainder of the dough to make personal pizzas on Friday!
(This dough keeps in the fridge up to 2 weeks)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In other news, my Brea Bag now has this lining. I think this pattern/color matches the bag quite well. I am waiting for my strap to be made, and once that is done and I have chosen a button from my favorite knitting store, I will reveal the completed bag in all of it's glory! : )

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
...and last but not least, the simple yet useful marble bag that Isabel and I made. She cut the shape out and I sewed it together for her on my machine. She LOVES it, I'm not sure why... normally she shrugs off my craftiness with an eye roll and a "whatever" but she really loves this bag and even brought it to school to show her friends.

Marbles, anyone?

No Pictures, Just Thoughts.

2009-04-22T15:52:00.002-05:00

I don't have anything to share right now, other than thoughts. No pictures...

Regarding the Brea bag, I am waiting for the strap to be completed, and I am going to sew the liner tonight and start piecing the bag together. Perhaps I will blog about the lining being made. I have the pieces cut but also want to make a pocket with a button or snap to keep little things contained inside the purse. Still thinking on that...

Isabel and I have decided to make a big terrarium for our dining room. I have an old dresser that I shabby chic-ified awhile back in the dining room and right now it doesn't have anything wonderful or interesting on it, so I thought it would be neat to have a plant there. Then I remembered that we have a cat. So we are going to make a terrarium and I am really hoping I can find a miniature Gnome to put inside. : ) I'll blog about this when it's time.

I saw on Betz White blog (bookmarked on my sidebar) that she made this neat hanger storage thingy out of an old button-up shirt. I have stared at it long enough to figure out how she did that and it's pretty simple so I am going to sew one of those up sometime soon with a shirt that Avery has grown out of. Not sure what I will use it for but it's such a cute idea, I'll think of something.

Isabel and I are going to sew a draw-string bag for some marbles she just got. It came with one of those plastic net bags but of course it already ripped, so she's requested a draw-string bag and we are going to make this together tonight, after skating.

Triangle garland - Saw this in a Martha Stewart magazine once. I want to make some triangle garland from my stash of fabric in the basement. Not sure of all the details but I think it would be great strung up in the playroom (it has a vaulted ceiling).

So these are things that I hope to have happen in the near future...

(On the needles right now is an adorable scarf that I'm knitting for a friend's daughter. It's pink and pomegranite stripes and turning out beautiful!)

More to come...

Brea Bag Update #2 - Lining

2009-04-17T09:43:00.003-05:00

This bag needs a lining, and I've narrowed it down to two asian-inspired fabrics. Since the outside of the bag is a solid color, I thought it would be nice to add some patterned fabric on the inside, like a little surprise when you open the bag!
This is what I have it narrowed down to. I prefer the darker one but in my knitting group last night a few of the ladies like the lighter fabric because it had more orange hues in it.
What do you think? Leave a comment and tell me which you prefer! The blue one? The orange one? Neither?

I had to share this picture of my cat sitting in the window. He's so happy the windows can be opened now, and is having a great time laying about and rolling around on the floor when the sun heats it up. Do you remember this rocking chair? Now that we've moved and have a bigger living room, I have given this chair a proper place.

Brea Bag Update

2009-04-16T10:28:00.003-05:00

My Brea bag is turning out beautifully, and I even found someone on Etsy that can make me a custom-made braided leather strap for it! I'm so excited about this. When all is said and done, this bag will have cost me around $50.00 to make, but it's so pretty and I know it will be my everyday purse, so it's worth it! I am not one of those that has a purse for every season, so this will be it for quite some time.
I have both sides done and am working on the middle piece that makes it wider - what is that piece called? I don't know. The middle piece is moss stitch which seems to take a lot longer than a basic stockinette stitch, but it's so SO pretty.
Here is where I am at:
As you can see, it is four sections of a hexagon. I am going to try and block it so it's more rounded than angular but either way it will look gorgeous. It's a perfect balance of cables and simple design and I am so anxious to get it done. I need to sew a lining for it as well, because I don't want the heavy contents inside the purse to pull the stitches, and I know a lining will help to support that weight.

Will keep you posted on my progress!

Cupcake(s)

2009-04-13T10:03:00.004-05:00

I finished the 6-pack of cupcakes for Ashley's baby Evey (who has the cutest dimples, by the way).
I think they turned out very nice. I made them to match the colors in her room, which were chosen based on this bedding:

And here are the cakes:
(I always include a little metal tin for them so kids can pretend to bake them and take them out to serve)

And speaking of cupcakes, I made two different kids for Easter at my dad's house. They turned out great, everyone seemed to like them.

One was Lemon Creme with lemon buttercream frosting:

The other was chocolate with chocolate buttercream frosting:
(Some of these had big pieces of the homemade peanut butter cups on top)

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I am now starting two scarves - one for a 2 year-old and another for her older brother. I'm going to do a double knitting technique that I haven't done before, but it looks fairly easy. And of course I visited one of my favorite sites today, Purl Bee, and what do they have posted? A double knit belt! So using that same technique I'll be making these scarves.
Also on the needles is the beautiful Brea Bag, for myself!! I'm using Katia Peru yarn in #22 Orange, which is a bulky yarn that is a wool/acrylic/alpaca blend and very nice to work with. I am so excited to get this done. I'm going to line it as well, and I have to find a leather handle to sew on.

Happy Knitting!!

Cutest.Ever.

2009-04-09T14:55:00.003-05:00

Isabel and I had our "date" last weekend and made the drive to Hobby Lobby to buy some frames for a few pictures that we ordered, and to get some canvases for Isabel to paint on. Isabel is a child that thrives on feeling her importance in everything, and I like to feed that need as much as possible. It's not a "spoil her" type of thing... it's just in her personality - the need to have a task and an objective in most things in life. It helps her feel validated and I like to validate my kids as much as I can. It also motivates her to do better, and that is always a good thing to strive for.
When we moved to our house in February, Avery's room looked a little empty to say the least. He shared a room with Jeremy and me and so he didn't have much beyond a crib and a dresser. No bookcase, wall art, nothing.
I suggested to Isabel that it would be really special if she would make the art for Avery's room. We have already hung a picture in there that she did at school - a sky scape painted with beautiful bright colors that she was very proud of. So from Hobby Lobby we bought two stretched canvases so that Isabel could paint a few more pictures for Avery's room. She has completed one of them! I think she did an excellent job, and there is nothing sweeter in this world than the innocence of a child's artwork. They don't care if the lines are straight, if it has proper shadowing (or any shadowing, for that matter). They decide what to make, and they sit down and make it. No toiling over "should it be impressionist or realist or modern or...?"
She decided to do two paintings. One is a truck and the other will be a digger. Avery loves anything on wheels so this is perfect.

Here is her artwork!! Isn't it great? I think it's just perfect.

Isabel and I also went to Red Robin for lunch and Starbucks for drinks (she had a cream-based drink - don't worry). It was a great day together.

Peanut Butter Cups

2009-04-08T08:52:00.005-05:00

The combination of peanut butter and chocolate makes my knees weak. This is a sad fact. My kids seems to have inherited this same confectionary love. Rather than buying peanut butter cups to fill their Easter baskets, I decided to make them myself. It was time consuming but a very simple process.

Peanut Butter Cups

2 small bags of milk chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups of peanut butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
cupcake papers

1. Melt the chips in a double-boiler or in the microwave. Mine melted in 2 minutes at 40% heat.

2. While chocolate is cooling, mix the peanut butter, powdered sugar and vanilla together. The mixture will be like a paste after combining. If it is too stiff, you can add milk, one teaspoon at a time, to soften it.

3. Using a piping bag and a large circular decorators tip, pipe a bottom layer of chocolate into the cupcake papers. Put in freezer to solidify quickly so you can move to step 4.

4. Using the same type of bag and tip, pipe peanut butter on top of the chocolate layer, being careful not to pipe to the edges. Smooth down any lumps with a knife.

5. Using the piping bag with the melted chocolate inside, pipe around the sides of the peanut butter and on top, completely covering the peanut butter. Tap the cup on the counter so the chocolate gets in all the crevices, and flattens to a nice smooth surface on top.

6. Be patient! Don't put them in the fridge or freezer at this point, because they will harden but won't actually solidify the chocolate. Once you take them out, they will get soft again. Let them sit out overnight at room temperature and they will harden nicely.

7. Remove them from the papers or trim papers down so they can be wrapped. You can wrap them in cellophane or waxed paper, or just stick them, one-by-one, into your mouth. : )

Now for photos...

Peanut butter and powdered sugar.

Piping bottom layer into cup

Layer of peanut butter. Doesn't have to look perfect no matter how much you want it to.

Done!

Oh yum yum yumm!

What to do with the bottoms when you've miscalculated and run out of chocolate for the tops?
Stick them together and let your husband eat them.

Eggs!

2009-04-06T10:17:00.005-05:00

It is so much fun when kids finally can do things like this on their own, or with little help from the parents. Avery will be 3 this summer and really gets the concept of Easter eggs now and how to pinch the egg carrier, put in into the dye, be patient and wait, and then put it back in the carton to dry. Despite the sour look on his face below, he did indeed have fun, and of course Isabel did too.
The eggs are nothing extravagant, because if you have young children like me, you understand with things like this you keep it as simple as possible. Anything too complex and the fun dies down quickly and everyone ends up upset. So we used dye, the wax crayon, and....that's about it. They turned out beautiful though and I'm glad Avery got to take part in the egg dyeing this year.
Actually, it was so much fun that we're going to buy more eggs this week and have a 2nd round of dyeing. We did 18 eggs and that just wasn't enough.
Avery waits patiently for his egg to turn orange. I have no idea why they gave a pink cup for orange dye. Recognize the sweater?

Eggs!

Look at that blue.

A perfectly boiled egg.

Do you know that once the boiling starts you should turn off the water? I've tried for years to get a good hard-boiled egg and usually end up with that green ring of sulfur around the yolk. This year, I put the eggs in cold water (only enough water to just cover the eggs) and turned the heat on. Right when it started to boil, I removed them from the heat and put a lid on, set the timer for 13 minutes and let them sit.
Then I poured cold water and ice into the pot to stop the cooking. They turned out excellent. The yolk isn't dry or chalky, or green. It's perfect. Try it and let me know if this method works for you.

Computerless

2009-04-02T09:29:00.003-05:00

On Tuesday night, Jeremy and Isabel took the Mac and headed up to Appleton to get more RAM put in. They also went to Cold Stone Creamery without me, but let's not talk about that.
Well, they made the drive, came back home and turned the computer on and -- nothing. The RAM was faulty and it kept turning the computer off. So Wednesday evening he headed back up to Appleton and had new RAM put in, and now I am back online and extremely happy. I mean, I had lots of Scrabble moves on Facebook to make, blogs to read, knitting patterns to look up...very important stuff. And yesterday morning when I ate my yogurt and banana, I wasn't even able to hop onto Facebook and say... "Maryjane is eating yogurt and a banana." How sad...

The last blog I gave a few updates on what I've been up to, and I was going to share a couple recent photos of my kids and then the computer was snatched out from under me. So I'm back today to post a few pictures. I wanted to share more than just one of Isabel from her ice show, but most of the action shots turned out fuzzy. I really need to get a new camera.

Here is my gorgeous son Avery. Those big blue eyes melt my heart.
Isn't he the handsomest thing ever? He's sporting his new haircut too. Jeremy takes him to a male barber shop in town that serves peanuts while you wait, and Avery just loves that. There is a sign on the wall in the barber shop that says "Haircuts for Men: $10.00, Haircuts for Women: $400.00". I love that.

My ice princess, Isabel. Did I ever tell you that's the movie that started Isabel's love of figure skating? She saw this movie when she was 5 and said "I want to ice skate!" and that's what started it all...
Here we are 3 1/2 years later and she still loves it just as much as she did the very first time.
This was her 4th show.

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And, on the topic of knitting- I am working on a set of 6 cupcakes in a tin for a customer. She has red, white and blue floral crib bedding, and I'm coordinating the colors to match the room. They are turning out so cute, and I was given creative license to make them however I want. I love them! They are my favorite set of cupcakes so far. I'll share pictures when they are done, probably next week.

Is it Thursday already? Have a wonderful Thursday.

Milan Jacket - Done!

2009-03-30T09:05:00.004-05:00

It's done! This was the first sweater I've made that I had to piece together. Most sweaters I've done were knit in the round, raglan-style, and only the armpits had to be kitchener stitched together. I am really happy with how this turned out and even knit a little matching hat to go with it. I can't wait to see this on the baby it was knitted for.

The toggle buttons really make the jacket.

Other things going on...
...Amish friendship bread starter is on the counter-top. We are on day 5 and will be making bread this Saturday (it's a 10 day process).
...Made chocolate sugar cookies last night with the kids.
...The 2009 Ice Show is over and we have a little break before spring ice begins.
...I am starting another tin of cupcakes for a customer.
...Avery is almost potty-trained!
...I will share a few pictures of Isabel and Avery tomorrow. Ave got a new haircut and looks cute as a button.
...The dumpster is in the driveway and is full! We have cleaned all the junk out of the basement that the previous owners left behind.
...Trying to draft up a landscape design for this spring. Lots of yard work to be done, but we can't start until this ground thaws!!

Have a happy Monday. : )

Skating, Skating!!

2009-03-29T21:47:00.005-05:00

Phew! What a weekend. Isabel was in her 4th Annual Ice Show with her Figure Skating Club. This years theme was CandyLand on Ice. She skated with her Freestyle Group to "Sugar Sugar" and did a great job. I will share photos tomorrow but wanted to share the video of their number.
I am so proud of her. She has really started to mature in her skating the last several months. Her private coach is doing a great job refining her moves. We have an exciting skating year planned..spring ice is starting, and later in April are Synchronized skating try-outs and workshops. There will be competitions, 'Moves in the Field', and other great times to be had.

Here she is skating with her group to Sugar, Sugar:

And here is the competition from earlier this month. She skated to a song from Sense & Sensibility:

Happy Sunday to all! It's been a great weekend...

Pie

2009-03-23T14:29:00.005-05:00

Apple Pie = Comfort Food for me. Not with the same intensity as Pumpkin Pie, but it's pretty close...
I bought some Macintosh apples last week and decided to bake an apple pie. My little helper did all of the fun parts like rolling out the crust, mixing the apples with sugar, and crimping the edges, and I was stuck with the more tedious task of peeling, seeding, and slicing the apples.
But we had fun, and this is an excellent recipe.

I peeled like crazy while Isabel played her Wii. My Nana could peel an apple in a spiral without the peel breaking - can you do that?

Quartered them...

Sliced them...

Oh look who's stopped playing Wii to come and help? Stirring sugar and cinnamon in...

Isabel mixing up our pie crust.

She rolled it all out and did an excellent job...

I helped get it into the pie dish. Do you see that rolling pin in the back? My Nana gave that to me, it's really old and still my favorite rolling pin (yes I have several).

Look at those adorable kid hands adding the apples to the crust.

Crumble topping makes this pie amazing.

Ready to try it?

Apple Crumble Pie

1 (9 inch) deep dish pie crust
5 cups apples - peeled, cored and thinly sliced
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup white sugar
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C.) Arrange apple slices in unbaked pie shell. Mix 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over apples.
Mix 1/3 cup sugar with flour; cut in butter until crumbly. Spoon mixture over apples.
Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until apples are soft and top is lightly browned.

This is from Allrecipes. I made a few modifications based on reviews. I did 1/2 white and 1/2 brown sugar for the apple coating. I also baked at 375 for 1 hour instead of 400 for 35-40 minutes. It turned out perfect! The crust is a basic crisco crust. Very flaky - don't overmix!

Handmade Gift #1

2009-03-19T11:37:00.003-05:00

Here is where I explained what this is all about.... and my first person received her gift. Yay!! She seems to really like it, and now that she's got it I can show what it was that I made. Kelly and coffee have a serious love relationship and so I made her something that she can snug around her mug and keep her hands cool and her coffee hot. Or maybe to just make her cup look pretty. And, I thought she might like a little snack with her coffee, so I sent one of those as well.

Coffee Cozy

Donut
with I-Like-Lemons mods

These were fun, and a quick knit for a gift I was so excited to send! I haven't ever met Kelly in real life but I think we may try to meet up this Summer near Chicago. And she better bring me
a 14 layer cake. : )

The Mysterious Benedict Society

2009-03-18T09:29:00.002-05:00

Isabel and I have started our current 'read together' book this week. With all the busyness of moving, we finished Edward Tulane and didn't start a new book until this week. Our latest book is The Mysterious Benedict Society. So far it is pretty good. It's about a boy in an orphanage that is very smart, and gets invited to a strange series of tests to see if he qualifies for a certain...something. We're not quite sure yet because we are only in chapter two. The book has almost 500 pages, which is a pretty big book for Isabel to read on her own, so we chose this as our book that we'll be reading together. I really like it so far and so does Isabel.

Look at this lazy fur-ball. As you can see, he has taken over my favorite chair. Just before I took this photo, his legs were dangling over the side as if he were about to slip off, and he curled them up right before I snapped the photo. How does one sleep like this, if even just a cat?

"Finish Each Day...

2009-03-16T11:59:00.003-05:00

...and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Isn't that a great quote? I sure have a 'lot of old nonsense', I know that! This was on someone's email signature at my workplace and I really liked it. It reminds me that I just need to accept whatever has happened, a day/month/year ago, and move on with my life. Very true...

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Anyway, I finally have a finished object to share. I have knit another Republic Hat for a friend, and I think the blues/purples and this button I found look great together. What do you think? Hopefully Carrie doesn't mind that I tried it on - I usually do this to make sure it's not for a pin-head or a monster-size head. That wouldn't be good. I've blocked it and it is pinned and drying as we speak, and should go out in the mail tomorrow.

This photo shows the beautiful purples and blues in this yarn. Aren't they fantastic?

Handmade Gifts

2009-03-12T14:51:00.002-05:00

A friend on Facebook posted a note called "To the first 5 people to respond..." and it consists of the first 5 people that place a comment on the note receiving a hand-made gift from that person, with the understanding that they then turn around and post the same message with the same requirements and so forth...make sense? So, I was drawn in of course because I love anything hand-made. It's kind of a 'pay it forward' sort of thing, and I like that.
I responded (as one of the first 5) and then posted my note and of course had five people respond to my note, and now I have 5 (actually, 7 - I'm a sucker and can't say no) people to make hand-made things for...
I love this part. I love making things for people and getting a positive response. You know, in life I have realized that one is either a gift giver, or a receiver of gifts. At some point in my late childhood/early adulthood I turned from being a gift receiver, and now I much more enjoy giving a gift. I am so excited to attempt to personalize each of these gifts to each friend's liking...I hope I get it right! And the hard part will be waiting to blog about it until after they receive it! Every time I make something, I want to share it right away. So this will be difficult.
Kelly is first up, and I know exactly what I am going to make for her!!

Yes, this is about as exciting as my life gets....

Tumor Markers

2009-03-10T09:22:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I had two people contact me that are living with Carcinoid cancer. That was so surprising because I've had my diagnosis since my tumor was removed in June 2007 but never had anyone contact me. One person I found on a rare cancer forum that I check in with once in awhile, and the other found me on a knitting forum called Ravelry that I use.
For some time I've wanted to call my Oncologist and get all of my tumor marker levels so I can write them down and track them myself. I've always hesitated doing this and I'm not sure why... maybe because I was afraid they'd ask why or refuse or tell me I had to come in and fill out a form, etc...
So yesterday, maybe with the influx of communication with other carcinoid survivors, I just did it. I called.
My markers seem to be all over the board. But I noticed that my serotonin (serum and urine) are both steadily climbing. Not by much, but still...climbing. I know that Chromogranin-A is the major marker to watch and that one seems to have no rhyme or reason to it's levels. I also had 2 of those levels checked at Froedtert and the other two with my new Oncologist, and they must have different ways that they mark that hormone because, well, you'll see when I post them below.
So here they are. If you are a carcinoid expert and happen to come across my page, feel free to comment on what all of this means. : )

7/12/07
Chromogranin-A 4.8
Neuron Specific Enolase 5.8
Serotonin (serum) 225
5-HIAA ---

9/20/07
Chromogranin-A 6.9
Neuron Specific Enolase 49.4
Serotonin (serum) 183
5-HIAA ---

1/07/08
Chromogranin-A 98
Neuron Specific Enolase 7.2
Serotonin (serum) 190
5-HIAA 2.6

11/10/08
Chromogranin-A 78
Neuron Specific Enolase 6.9
Serotonin (serum) 196
5-HIAA 3.6

According to Mayo Clinic specific lab tests:
Chromogranin-A ~ 225 or less is normal
NSE ~ 15 or less is normal
Serotonin (serum) ~ 230 or less is normal
5-HIAA ~ 8 or less is normal

The thing that worries me is that the levels dated 7/12/07 are already within normal range and this was only 3 weeks after my surgery to remove the tumor. I wonder if levels plummet quickly after a tumor is removed? Or did my tumor just not secrete the levels needed to show on a blood test, and does that mean that my levels may never mean much at all?
Just thinking out loud here...

Anyway, I'm happy to have called and gotten these levels. It's nice to just know, you know?
Have a great Tuesday!

Post #2 - Milan Jacket Update

2009-03-09T15:37:00.003-05:00

I'm attempting to catch up on everything I've been wanting to post about, so today we have two posts...
Update on the Milan jacket - I have the back and one front side done, and will probably finish the other side by Tuesday or Wednesday. It's going really well and I love the pattern. It's written so clear and concise. I need that right now!

I'm using Valley Yarns Superwash.

Weekend in Pictures

2009-03-09T09:42:00.004-05:00

Ready for Competition

Warm-up:

Elements event:

Isabel's first trophy! She placed 4th on both events.

Birthday - Isabel is 9 years old now

One of our gifts to her. Goodbye Hello Kitty CD player, hello iHome alarm/iPod/radio player.

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

2009-03-06T13:59:00.005-06:00

Birthdays for children often consist of several rounds of treat-making. We have one set of treats for school, one celebration on the actual birthdate with just the four of us, and usually at least one family celebration.
Every year for school, Isabel picks ice cream cone cupcakes. Have you ever made these? They are pretty cute and simple to make. I usually make the variation where you set the cones upright in a muffin tin, and put a small amount of batter into the cone to bake it. The problem with that method is that you can't put much batter into the cone, otherwise it bubbles over the top. The amount you can actually put in equates to probably 3-4 tablespoons, which isn't much, and doesn't give a nice rounded top for frosting.
This year I tried a new method. I placed my cupcake papers into the tin, filled them as usual and then placed an upside-down cake cone on the top of each and pressed down slightly.

When they came out of the oven they looked like this:

Of course panic set in because, well - look at them! But I soon remembered that any cake can be scaled down or sculpted with a knife or a good set of cooking shears.

So I gathered my supplies and set to work, rounding each cupcake out with the scissors.
This was the result:

And here are several, post-surgery:

And the waste (good for snacking):

I didn't take photos of the process, because frosting the side of a cupcake with a frosting tip and bag is quite tedious. But the outcome is so pretty. Blue frosting, a request from the birthday girl, and sprinkles.

All cones must have a DQ 'dollop' on top!

aaaand...what my husband does with the leftover frosting.

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We will be on the road to the figure skating competition tomorrow, so I should get some productive knitting done in the car. I finished the back of my Milan jacket last night at knitting club and have started one front side. I also picked up my new knitting chair yesterday. My husband doesn't know yet that this will be my chair for knitting but he will soon find out.

New Things

2009-03-04T22:17:00.003-06:00

I have not finished any knitting since moving to our new house, but I did start something new! The Milan Jacket from Natural Knits For Babies and Moms. I have a Republic Hat that I should be starting, but I still haven't been able to go down and dig through my yarn. I'll plan to take a picture of my Milan jacket this week...it's turning out very nice. It's got this great rib and seed stitch design around the bottom and collar, and the entire length of the sleeve. Gorgeous!

Another 'new thing' - our fireplace! We've never lived anywhere with a fireplace and we had our first fire last Saturday. Wanted to share this picture of Isabel sitting in front of the fire. It's not a great photo because I was forced to use the flash, but you get the gist...

We are all still so in love with our new house. We purchased a new couch and chair with ottoman, and will be choosing a few area rugs over the next few weeks. There have been a lot of late nights trying to get things unpacked and put away after the kids go to bed. There are a lot of things that don't have a place - like books just waiting for a bookshelf to be built. But all of the vital things are out and unpacked, and it feels good to finally sink into bed each night having at least one (okay, half of one) box unpacked.

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Another exciting event coming up - Isabel is doing her first solo competition this weekend for figure skating. We are traveling to a different rink for her to compete, and she's very excited and I can't wait to see her out there skating her very best. Let's hope she places First - or at least places!! It's also right on her birthday, so I think that would be a great birthday gift, don't you?

We are Home!

2009-02-24T15:02:00.003-06:00

Well, we did it. We are all moved in. Inside the new house is pure chaos, but we are all just so happy to be here. I went out for groceries today, since the cleaning people came yesterday and scrubbed down the kitchen and bathrooms for me. I was able to put my kitchen away last night. Of course there is one box I cannot find and do you know what's in it? Baking supplies!! I have looked high and low, it's nowhere to be found. Do you suppose someone was envious of my baking supplies, in their own plastic containers, neatly labeled as "Sugar" "Cake Flour" "Kosher Salt" and ran away with it? This is the conclusion that I've come to.

As great as it is to be here, we are all missing the familiarity of the old house, and on Saturday night we all went to the house to say goodbye. Isabel had an especially difficult time, crouched in the corner of her old, empty closet and crying. I went back Sunday morning to clean and had my fair share of tears. I sure was sad to shut that back door for the last time, thinking I will probably never walk into that house again. But, the old has gone and the new has come...

...there will be plenty of time in this house to make great memories here. Once all situated, and once I find my camera, I will share some pictures of the inside of our new home.

Can you believe I haven't knit a single stitch for five day??