Twice in less than 7 days. Wow! Are you shocked? I am!

So, I'm still up on the post election high. President-Elect Obama. I love the sound of that. And, I'm extremely proud to have put all the time I was able to spare, into helping the campaign. I have very high hopes, but I'm not an idiot either. Things are likely to get worse before they get better... particularly economically. These times, they scare me... a lot.

In other news, we made frybread this weekend. Thanks to Laura for emailing me MY recipe when I found myself unable to find MY own damn copy! I did find it eventually, but now I have it stored in my email folders as well as on my cookbook shelf. Whew!

So we made up a single batch to go along with some chicken chili (no pictures because I'm an idiot) and it was an awesome pairing. We used this recipe.. sort of. A few things we did different were, dried northern beans from the pantry vs. canned ones. A WHOLE LOT LESS cumin than the recipe calls for because I hate cumin. No canned chiles.. instead we chopped up a jalapeño and cooked it with the onions. The final step of adding the sour cream was the secret to making this a fabulous dish. Its definitely a keeper!

Now one of the best things about making frybread, is the leftovers. They make awesome sammiches, and even better toasted the next morning for breakfast...

And if that isn't enough fat on a plate..

pair it with a bowl of steel cut oats, sprinkled with a bit of sugar, and a splash (or two) of half and half. Its my favorite breakfast, especially on a cold morning.

I also started a new project last night, mostly to escape some of the never ending knitting of this year's spinning guild holiday project, which I can't show you yet.. obviously. Its halfway done, and I have plenty of time. Don't look at me that way.. I needed a diversion!

You may remember this handspun (or maybe you don't - I'll remind you) I tried to knit it into the boutique scarf (rav link here) some time in the last year, but it wasn't the right yarn, and I frogged it. Then I tried to make a mini clapotis (rav link here) out of it unsuccessfully. But after picking up the new Interweave Holiday issue last night, I think I have a winning pattern: Hourglass Eyelet Scarf (Rav link here). I'm really loving it, especially the easy 4 row repeat. This represents only about an hours worth of knitting last night, so I can see it going pretty quickly, which is just the sort of diversion I needed.

Lastly, its Monday. And I totally fell off the wagon doing this...

I only heard about My Morning Jacket through my friend Kira (Hi Kira!) and wow, was I missing out. Its a bit jammy (and you know I like that) plus you can hear a bit of Coldplay in there, and definitely some Allman Brothers (Coldplay and Allman Brothers Band, never thought I'd put those two sounds together!)

Anyway, I really like it and if you do too, there is plenty more to be heard on imeem! ETA: I'm not sure why imeem hates me lately with the shortening of my embeds, sorry about that.. the full song is on imeem however.

P.S. Thank you for all of the wonderful birthday wishes!

While Richard has the kids out for lunch and some errands, and I'm home alone, in a blissfully quiet house, I should really be doing something productive, right? A shower? A nap? Basking in the warm sun knitting something? Naaah.

But I have missed blogging this week. And taking pictures.. so I have a few to share now that I finally bought a new battery.

We are slightly addicted to this amazingly easy recipe in my Moosewood Simple Suppers book, roasted ratatouille. We've enjoyed it two weekends in a row with fresh crusty bread on the side. Its a really good thing the kids don't like it.. all the more for myself and Richard!

I learned to crochet. Or rather, I taught myself to crochet.

I fell, completely in love with this one image on flickr, and knew I needed to learn as soon as possible. I spent a day with scraps and a hook and learned. Then I spent another day figuring out the pattern. Now I've gone and bought a boatload of acrylic yarn to make a throw for my knitting chair.  While I'm not a big fan on the acrylic yarn.. I needed something inexpensive, and that can withstand the abuse of small children, not to mention able to be subjected to multiple washings because of said abuse by children.  I'm loving the colors and the rhythm, though I'm not very fast at this. I guess that comes with time?   And before anyone asks, no, I haven't given up knitting. I still prefer it. But I cannot fathom the amount of time it would take to knit a throw unless at a super bulky gauge.

Now, I'm going to go out and crochet in the sun for a bit while the house is still so calm.

Despite spring kicking off a bit on the cool side here in upstate NY, on Easter Sunday we took a short hike through the woods bordering our property to a historical site. I kid you not, no more than 40 yards as the crow flies from our back door is this..

This, if I'm to believe my neighbors, is an ammunitions dump from the American Revolutionary War. Cool as hell huh? And visiting this site is only possible this time of year. Once the greenery starts to grow, its just not safe with the abundance of poison ivy up on this hill. While there is a decent path from our neighbor's house directly to this site, there is still a patch of woods to climb through to get to it.. more risk of poison ivy. But thats ok.. keeping our kids fearful of poison ivy also keeps them from visiting this place without a grown up. And the thought of them sneaking up there to climb on the already crumbling 230 year old walls.. I physically shudder just thinking about it.

While we were there, we let the kids exhaust the cans of silly string they received in their Easter baskets.

And I took a family photo, sans me before we made the short walk back home.

Now this picture, I actually took standing in my back door. It is one of two "outposts" on either side of the larger structure. It makes me wonder if they were sentry posts? Did they house cannons? The one on the other side of the hill that I forgot to take a picture of on Sunday, borders a home on Seneca Turnpike that has a cannon in its front yard. So maybe these outlying structures did house the cannons and all of the ammunitions were stored in the larger one as my neighbor suggests? In any case, I'm intrigued enough to call the Onondaga County historical society to learn more. If for no other reason, but to properly label the pictures I took.

Now, for the food portion of the weekend..

Who needs traditional?

Our menu consisted of Grilled Eggplant and Goat Cheese Salad..

And Balsamic Chicken Drummies.Both of these recipes are from the same episode of Everday Italian that we got the sweet potato fries recipe from. As you can see in the salad picture, I also made my baked macaroni and cheese for Alex. Seeing as we were skipping the traditional ham, and that would mean no leftovers to make the yearly mac and cheese (Alex's favorite), we made up a small batch using a ham steak vs. leftover Easter ham.The kids shockingly loved this meal, so its definitely a keeper!

And.. the best part.. Llamie gave me her carrot cake recipe. Now mine isn't as pretty as hers, my ability to apply chopped nuts to sides of cakes needs much practice.. but the taste.. oh my word.. the taste. This is by far, the best carrot cake, ever.

Update on my socks from the previous post? No pictures, but I have turned the heel on sock two. I've even completed the gusset decreases. Now I'm just knitting away on the foot. I expect it to be completed over a few nights worth of tv knitting.

Sorry 'bout that. I intended to blog every day last week, but just never got around to it. Same as last week, there is no particular reason for this.

Last week I did want to blog about a recipe I tried, pasta with peas and bacon...

When I made this last week, I followed the recipe exactly. It was good, although a little dry in my opinion. So I tried it again, this time using more cream, and adding some sauted shrimp at Richard's request. My goodness this was good. Rich. But oh so good.And I've been knitting. Not as much as usual, but I did manage to finish a quick knit project...

The Boutique Scarf by Pam Grossman. Knit on US15 and US6 needles using Twilley's of Stamford Freedom Spirit. I received one ball of this at my spinning guild's yearly yarn swap from Christina. In this swap, we each bring in a ball of yarn from our stashes in a brown paper bag then randomly choose a bag from the pile. The point is to then go home and make something with it, with the idea that you may end up with a yarn or colorway you wouldn't normally use. This yarn and colorway wasn't a real stretch for me at all.. I actually love the colorway and who doesn't love 100% wool? Luckily I found another ball in the same color number and lot at Sheep Thrills in N. Syracuse so that I could complete this scarf. Its currently blocking on my bed, and will be ready to wear by tonight.

Now, real life..

The kids are off school all of this week, so I'm likely to be busy more than usual. And I may end up taking a trip down home, as my aunt and godmother is in the ICU and unlikely to make it through the week. There has been quite a bit of drama and infighting in my family for the past several years and I've had a hard time forgiving things said and done, especially to my gram. My heart tells me that I should make the trip down to see her ASAP. I'm not sure what I'll do yet, but my mom has asked me to, for my gram. Inner struggle - I really suck at this.

Anyway, if I'm not here for another week, don't be alarmed.

Great. Now I have that song stuck in my head.

Its been a week. And I mean that.. its been a week. A rough week. We've had sick kids. John Edwards didn't do as well as I'd hoped in Nevada. And the kicker, Green Bay lost to the NY Giants... bleh. It could have been worse, like a loss to the Cowboys. I generally stick with the NFC team, but this time around I'd risk a case of the hives. So.. GO PATRIOTS!

Anyway.. I have a little in the way of food, fiber, and fun from Chez Martin..

These are the Blue Chip Cookies, posted on Smitten Kitchen last week (Deb has been my culinary inspiration lately.) I like a chewier cookie however, and these were quite crunchy. But the toasted pecans vs. traditional walnuts made them worthwhile and a definite future do-over.

I finished the socks. Nothing special. Just the basic sock recipe from one of the Yarn Harlot's books (Knitting Rules maybe?) Worked on size US1 needles in Shibui Sock "Breeze".

I finished spinning a single of my first bundle of Oompa Loompa BFL roving from Spunky Ecclectic..

And finished plying it the very next day. Navajo ply, not sure of the yardage.. I forgot to count as I wound it. Only two more bundles to go.

Red is impossible to photograph. At least for me it is. This is a little side project which will be revealed maybe in the next week or so. Being worked in a new to me yarn.. Debbie Bliss Luxury Donegal Tweed. I don't adore the yarn. But I don't hate it either. I do however, love my donkey stitch markers.

Lastly, Gilbert found a new hiding place under my new chair. She didn't appreciate being my subject this morning.

No really, this isn't turning into a food blog.. at least full time anyway. But as I said in my previous post, Smitten Kitchen is mighty inspiring. So if you read yesterday's post, you know I linked to her pork chop post. I also mentioned that we would likely dine on take out Chinese, because, well, there is still this sinus thing going on in my head and I didn't feel like cooking. Oh and I had forgotten yesterday, to pick up the red potatoes I was also craving.

Behold, Smitten Kitchen's Crunchy Baked Pork Chops, or rather as Deb credits, Cooks Illustrated Crunchy Baked Pork Chops.

In a word.. deeeeeelish. Everyone loved them, even the very fussy 6 year old. Served with roasted red potatoes and *gasp*, frozen brussel sprouts in butter sauce (I know.. I'm lame! But they were in the freezer!)

The roasted potatoes couldn't be any easier.. but as usual, I'm iffy with the measurements

• 6 good sized red potatoes, washed and cut into largish bite size chunks with skin on. Place in a baking dish and add:
• 1-2 tablespoons of minced garlic (your mileage may vary, add more.. add less)
• freshly ground salt and pepper
• chopped parsley (again, add more, or less as you desire but I'd suggest at least 1 tablespoon)
• drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and toss.

Cover and bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes or until they just start to get tender, but not quite done. Remove cover and increase heat to 425 (this is when I put the pork chops in,) bake for another 20 or so minutes.. or until done.

See.. iffy directions, but really easy.

Back to knitting tomorrow.. I think.

I've had an urge to bake something for a few days now, but certainly nothing too ambitious. Fitting the bill, a little too perfectly was this super simple pumpkin cookie recipe, found at Dana's blog, Life In Abundance.

The only thing I changed was adding a bit of pumpkin pie spice. They are tasty, in that I like anything pumpkin. But they really do have the texture of box cake mix.. and that doesn't say "cookie" to me. Connor really enjoyed making them though.. and Alex and Dylan keep grabbing one from the kitchen counter. So I'm sure we'll make this again on a weekend when the kids are wanting to bake.

Another easy cookie recipe was just posted on The Pioneer Woman Cooks this morning. I'll be buying the ingredients tomorrow for sure. The peanut butter cup ones particularly ... I can almost taste them. Yummm.

Speaking of ambitious cooking.. I'm making this tonight. I think. I sort of feel like ordering Chinese instead, and saving this for Saturday evening. If you click that link, stick around Deb's blog and savor the recipes and especially the pictures. Smitten Kitchen is probably the most inspiring food blog I've come across so far.

Its a new year. The kids have returned to school. Connor's therapy schedule goes back to normal. Richard's office and teaching schedule return..

Its a relief, and also a little sad. Vacation is over.

But... the contract project was finished and shipped off (Its a horrid pattern. I wouldn't suggest it to anyone. I'll talk more about it.. if, when, it makes it to the site or catalog.) The previous one I returned is now up on the site, but I'm not telling which it is until I receive my catalog. This all means, I can go back to knitting what I want to knit.. when I want to.

More relief.

I've started another Gretel, a woven stitch scarf, which will likely be frogged - its not coming out the way I expected, the second basic sock is on the needles. I have plenty to keep my hands busy.

With that said, I haven't made resolutions, but I have set goals for myself. They are..

Get organized or be more organized. I'm sick of looking for obscure paperwork. Or for seasonal clothes for the kids. I need to organize them better in the attic so that they can be pulled out easily.

Make a routine and stick to it. Connor's sensory issues demand this. And some behind the scenes family happenings will also require this.

Be more creative. Not just knit already published patterns. Finally get down to brass tacks with the shawl design mulling in my noggin and get.it.done.

Spin more. And ultimately use more self spun yarn (which means BUY LESS commercially spun yarn.)

Family menus, where we all eat LESS meat.

Cook more. I love to cook.. I should be more adventurous in the kitchen.

Research buying a violin. I want to learn to play one. I've put this goal off for years.. its time to research buying one and actually learning!