AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

36 eggs : part 1 (12 eggs)

This weekend was a huge swath of baking and ice cream making with just the barest smattering of knitting and a good heap of friends.  It started Thursday night, when I breathed a sigh of relief that I had Friday off for the bulk of my cooking, and started to with a cake I will write about later this week.

The weekend went like this:
Thursday night: cake (version 1), sorbet and sherbet prep
Friday: sorbet, sherbet, mousse, cupcakes, frosting, chocolate ice cream
Saturday: grilling - chicken kebabs, stuffed burgers, veggie skewers, corn on the cob, a whack of friends
Sunday: cake (version 2), frosting, layering and serving after dinner out with friends

I played food blogger most of the weekend, but proved my ineptness with pictures like this

Followed by a lack of pictures of finished products.  That, by the way, is just part of the ingredients I used this weekend.  I used 18 egg whites and another 16 whole eggs (not including the extra one I used when I had one break in my hand over the counter instead of the bowl... whoops!).

Friday's foodie fun started with a little bit of lemon.  I prepped the sugar syrup the night before, and Friday morning made the Lemon Buttermilk Sherbet from the Perfect Scoop.  It was wonderful.  Light, refreshing, and tangy without tasting mostly of buttermilk.  Better yet, it was super easy to scoop.  Not every homemade ice cream or sorbet gets so lucky.  I have enough ingredients to make it again, and I quite likely will.

Of course I took a picture of the sherbet...

Oh wait.  Nope.  Just a picture of the ingredients.  I misread the recipe and cut an additional lemon, because I thought I needed a 1/2 cup of lemon juice, not the 1/4 listed.  I put the right amount in, but I have extra lemon juice.  Slurp!

I did a better job at my food bloggy attempts at the Chocolate Raspberry Mousse.  This mousse is one of the components of the Chocolate Wedlock cake from Death by Chocolate.  I was living in Somerville a couple of presidencies ago when I borrowed this cookbook from the library and hand wrote a half a dozen recipes into my trusty little cookbook.  This cookbook isn't being filled the way it used to, because now if I like a recipe I just bookmark it into a set of folders in Firefox.  Sometimes I miss the act of writing into the book, but my hand writing is easily messed up with a little spill of water.

See!  I managed a finished picture (click to make a really large mousse even larger!).

I love this chocolate mousse.  It is made with crushed raspberries, but I have also made it with cherries.  It's delicious and always has come out smooth without any seizing for me.  In the wedding cake, this mousse is the filling between the layers and as such comes in at a whopping 40 ounces of chocolate, 3 cups of heavy cream and 12 egg whites.  I was not filling a wedding cake with this mousse, so I really should have cut the recipe in half... or maybe quartered it as I have over half the container of mousse left.

Tomorrow will be either cupcakes or regular cake, because desserts are tasty (unless I throw you for a loop and actually post some knitting content).

at home in the kitchen

This morning was a bit of a comedy of errors, especially after last night's fire alarm fiasco.  There was no burning.  Heck, there was no fire.  Just a low battery fire alarm that took a ridiculous amount of time to locate.  It is quite a difference going from one or two fire alarms to 15 (I kid, but it is a lot more than we had before).

Last night I made an attempt to make the Best Birthday Cake from smitten kitchen (can you tell it is my go to place for tasty recipes).  I say attempt, because the cake was a very golden brown on the surface (on the wrong rack), and it split in two when I tried to rap it up for decorating at a later date.  Well, now I have a copious amount of cake for trifle, and have to go back to the drawing board for a  tasty dessert that is, well, actual cake.

This morning I went to the grocery store with my list, and proceded to forget things.  My normal reason for forgetting them - I didn't put them on the list.  Thank goodness my husband can get things on his way home or I would have to go out again (and again, and again).  Once I was back and the rest of the ice cream maker pieces were out of the dishwasher (the dasher... why did I even bother putting it in there.  I could have made so much more progress if I had just washed it by hand), I finished making ice cream #2: Lemon Buttermilk Sherbet.  So wonderfully tasty.  Yum! 

Now I just have one batch of ice cream left to make, a ton of dishes to wash, hamburger meat to defrost, and a few dozen other things I want to do.  It's my lunch break, but I will be back in the kitchen momentarily to add another batch of baked goodies to the oven.  

I'm taking pictures of the process in the kitchen.  I'm not sure how the food bloggers I read do it, because I feel like it is slowing me down a lot to take pictures when I am done stirring this or mixing that or taking this other thing out of the oven.  But this does mean that there will be pictures most of next week, though they probably won't include any knitting.

(I cannot begin to say how grateful I am to have today off rather than trying to get this all done after work.  When I decide to bake it is often a full day affair.)

fine art of a quick dinner

Many people, myself included, work a slightly later shift, getting off at 6 or 6:30.  I commute to Quincy, usually walking to and from Quincy Adams (unless I'm going to the library or the grocery store).  With the walk, my commute is just about an hour.  I don't drive, and there is no such thing in my life as an early dinner.

Last night was no exception.  I stopped by the grocery store to pick up my missing ingredients for the hacked caprese salad from Smitten Kitchen.  I knew I was going to be working on desserts last night, at least a couple of things, and wanted to minimize the time I needed to spend in the kitchen working on dinner.  I bought some beans, a ton of mozzarella, a loaf of roasted garlic bread as an alternative to a fun sourdough, and a couple of ingredients unrelated to dinner.

I got home around 8 p.m.  Even a quick trip to the grocery store last night was not the ninja experience I try to make it. 

I cut four rounds of bread from the loaf and put on a pizza pan to toast in the oven at 250F, set the timer for 10 minutes and started chopping away.  It took me 11 minutes from start to finish, and my hubby got home from the library only a few minutes after I had put it in the fridge to chill.  Not for a quick dinner.

Last night I made the base for the Grape Sorbet from the Perfect Scoop.  It is waiting for me to transfer it first to a big old freezer bag and then into an ice cream maker.  It's currently taking up a metric ton of refrigerator space as it is still in the big pot I used for the boiling of the grapes.  It will get churned tonight along with the Lemon Buttermilk Sherbet that I will be finishing off tonight, having just made the syrup this morning.  Two desserts down and one more ice cream to go.

I'm off Friday, having requested the time so I can cook for a friend's party.  It should be a fun time, though it looks like we will be cramped in our house (and unable to use the big yard).  It's hurricane season, and they are expecting another one to blow through New England this weekend.

nothing useful to say

Last night a few friends and I went to see the latest Harry Potter movie.  This time around I did not break out my double thick Ravenclaw scarf. 

I had a lot of problems with this latest movie.  Mostly in how they set things up for the final movie(s) and the choices they made in what to cut and what to keep.  There were definitely things I thought were important plot elements that either were not covered or just received the glancing blow.  Not a bad movie.  Just not what I was hoping for.

Of course, now I'm just really tired.  Bed was midnight, an unkind hour for a person who tends to wake up early.  Tonight I'm prepping an ice cream batch or two, which should be tasty treats for a party for a couple of friends on Saturday.  I think I will prep the Grape Sorbet first, so I know that I won't have the grapes go bad.  I'm dreadfully bad at keeping fruit all happy until I get around to eating it.  I need to remember to freeze more of it, so I can use it in the middle of winter or add it to a dessert without traipsing to the grocery store (like I'll be doing - hacked caprese dinner here I come).

I am knitting.  It's a sock.  Retro Rib is nearly to the toe of the first sock.  I want to work on the sweater, but if I stop working on the sock who knows when I will remember to come back to it.

aaiiieee! oh, and some new socks

Life has been super duper busy.  It's all good, and it involves a lot of fun cooking (hey, Norma! I made some frozen yogurt with your rose petal jam and some cherries mascerated in brandy - it is really good!) and some games, and a lot of multitasking.

Multitasking.  How I grow to love and hate you, but because I know how to multitask, I can do both at the same time!  It's great how these time saving skills allow such contradictions into the world?

These are my newest pair of socks.  The yarn is Fannie's Fingering Weight in the Caribbean colorway.  They are very bright, which is great.  I love wearing these, because they give me that spot of happy color when I'm too busy to stop and smell the roses as it were.

I knit these on size 0 needles, and they fit just fine.  I love my socks a bit on the tight side, so these are perfect.  The only other socks I have that are comparable (in tightness) are a pair of plain jane Trekking socks I made a while back and am also wearing to pieces.

I did a slip stitch heel, but if I were doing it again I would try the Eye of Newt heel (umm, it is a partridge or a peacock and I'm a lazy blogger and not about to look it up - besides, wouldn't an eye of newt heel treatment be a lot of fun!).  My heels were a little short, so if I were to do this again I would knit a few more rows in my heel flap.  The socks fit however, so this is mostly a minor issue with the fit and appearance.

This isn't the only pair of socks I've been working on.  I also have a pair of socks in the Melon Cooler colorway from Woolcott.  I started them off in the Retro Rib pattern, and other than the pattern growing v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y this is a lovely pattern.

I love how bright these are, though I still don't think of them as bright as the Caribbean socks.  Probably because the light blue-teal colors just scream at me and with the melon cooler, my eyes are instead drawn to the golds and the little tiny spots of red.

It's a little weird to alternate rows with twisted stitches and rows without, but it is making it easier to remember the pattern.

I took this picture days ago in the last patch of sun I could find, and they are now almost 7 inches long.  I think I am supposed to start the heel when I get to 8 inches, but I keep leaving my book behind.  Makes it hard to double check things during the morning commute.

So, two pairs of socks, one an additional FO and the other sock 1 on the needles.  Neither of these is getting the biggest of the projects done: either my new sweater (which I haven't even swatched for) or the baby set that I keep letting get the best of me.  This Sunday is New England Revolution, and I find watching the NE Revs a very soothing way to work on a cranky project like the baby blanket.  Maybe this weekend I'll be able to get to the sewing up with some GOAL! action to keep my eyes and brain occupied while I plod along.

from the local farmer's market

I go to the farmer's market near work (yeah, South Station) twice a week when I can.  Usually I head straight to Kimball's to pick up some better tasting produce.  Fresh fruit, teeny tiny fingerling potatoes, fresh corn, and weird mutated tomatoes and squash.

This past week I picked up basil and and the aforementioned mutant tomatoes to make a simple basil, mozzarella and tomato plate for dinner.

The victims:

The results:

I just loved the hooked tomato when I saw it in the bin that I knew it had to be mine!  Dinner was a matter of 10 minutes of cutting, placing on the plate and lightly salting and peppering.  Definitely a good dinner for a hot summer night.

Saturday is Braintree's farmer's market, which also has some beautiful produce, including the currants I used at the beginning of the summer and some of the pattypan squash I like so much.  Better yet, the Braintree market has Ever So Humble Pie company.  We've been enjoying their tasty, tasty pies all summer long!

one step forward

Umm, and two steps back.

Last weekend, oh so long ago, I went to Snow Goose in Milton, which is a dangerous 30 minute walk from my home.  That is well within my comfort zone for walking distance (which is closer to a 1.5 hour walk).  Now I have the new Interweave Knits and Vogue Kniting from my subscriptions and had recently picked up KnitScene and The Knitter.  Dangerous magazines all.

There are 3 projects I want to make from IK, and at least 2 from VK, and one or two each from the other magazines.  I don't have the time or the stash to make all of these.  So, I picked the one I fell in love with and fell in love with hard.

The Vogue Knitting Rib and Cable Cardigan will be mine.

So, I walked to the Snow Goose, because I was tired of watching the guys play Dokapon.  Lois gave me a few suggestions for yarns, but I was unfortunately in the mood for instant gratification.  Worse, I had a specific color in mind.  I wanted to make this sweater in a grey that had a bit of a shimmer or sheen to it that would work with anything I would ever wear at work.  Ever.

So, I fell in love with some Wool Bamboo.  A poor choice.  It's a little more expensive, and has a bit less yardage on the skein, both annoying but possible to work around.  Worse, there wasn't quite enough yarn on the shelf for the sweater.  We estimated I needed three more balls of yarn.  Even worse?  The dye lot was from 2006 as I found out when Lois called me earlier this week with a shop in Alabama that had 4 balls left.

The four balls are mine and arrived on Friday. 

I can't imagine how many places Lois called in order to find this shop in Alabama, but I am grateful.  I'm going to go to the Snow Goose and get some of the yarn for the sweater.  And I will be back.  It was amazing service and any quirkiness (I thought I was being ignored due to a misunderstanding on my part) was purely a matter of confusion and minor problems of miscommunication.

Suffice to say that sometime this upcoming week I will be putting a yarn sale up on Ravelry.  I have some pretty nice yarn that I will probably never use, including a sweater's worth of Velvet Wool and some Euroflax Linen.  Come shop my yarn stash!

UMA! UMA!

Well, it's not really UMA, but it is also not a UFO. 

In April (Ravelry says the 30th, but I thought it was earlier than that), I borrowed Crochet Me from the library.  Normally I would buy my craft book, because I believe in supporting the designers who make my craft possible.  However, I only really wanted to make the one top.  I wanted to make the Icelandic Turtleneck.  I first saw this top either in the book preview or on Brainylady's blog.  Her's was black, and was a very me choice.  I loved the idea of a simple non-long sleeve turtleneck for the late spring and summer. 

I finished it in 2 weeks.  It was crocheted during the time I had the book out, after I had made all of the scarves for Iolanthe, mostly during the show while I waited for our cue to go back on.

It was done, and then I worked on potholders.  It sat, waiting for me to wear it, because I was looking for a decent tank top (wide straps, not low cut, mid-thigh length) to wear under it.  Well, today I gave up and decided to pull it off my In Progress list and call it a done deal.

I love wearing this.  The Comfort Baby (though admittedly not my favorite color) is soft and easy to wear.  The top was easy to make and lends itself well to a number of variations.  If I make it again I will probably change the yoke to a crochet lace motif and then use the foundation chain thingie to cast on for the rest of the body.  If I make the lace area dense enough, I won't feel like I am putting myself on show.

Other options would be some interesting crocheted colorwork or maybe a trim on the sleeves and hem.  Change it to a crew neck or something more like a scoop neck, add some funky short rows.  I'm sure all of these things are options, even if they aren't all feasible.  Also possible is to just take the general measurements and turn this into a knitted top with a little raglan action.

Completely unrelated: one of these days I will not take finished pictures before work when my hair is still wet.  It's just not the best look and makes me look like a drowned rat.

the numbers lie

Jess and Casey are still adding functionality to Ravely by leaps and bounds, most of which are little surprises when I go on usually when a new magazine comes out or when I want to think about sweaters.

One of the newer things (I imagine, but I don't go on that often) is the filtering options for the Ravelry Project list.  This is one of those things I've been hoping to see for a while, because once your list gets large, ney huge, you don't really want to see all of the finished projects or the frogged items cluttering your space.  So, I pulled the drop down and selected In Progress.

Whoops.  Big Mistake.  Made bigger by realizing that I have at least two projects that are not on there.

The total: 20 unfinished projects, going back to March 2007.

The numbers are a bit misleading.  I have a sweater on there that is finished.  I just need to find a good undershirt and take some photos.  One scarf is just waiting for me to weave in the ends and block.  I think the vest just needs pockets, but if I left the pockets off then I could just block it and call it done.

There are a ton of projects that are so close to completion, stupidly close, but I'm a process knitter.  What I love best is making the silly little loops, over and over and over again.  Washing, blocking, sewing are these necessary evils that I put off repeatedly (what, were you expecting more over and over and over).  When I get home, I'm going to pull a couple of these projects out and put them on the Finish Line. 

How about anyone else?  I cannot be the only knitter who has entire projects that are just waiting for a pocket or a button or something else small to call it finished.

On an Unrelated Note: Cat!

the long run

Saturday was our weekly long run.  My friend and I are at week 5 of the half marathon training program.  The non-novice program said to log a 10 mile long run.  I ran to the T (2 miles) and then joined my friend in Davis Square to run along the bike path (10 mile bike path route).

It was a gorgeous day for a run.  Not too warm, and dry enough that your sweat didn't just stick there.  Of course, by the end of the run we were both gritty with salt and I had a streak of salt going down my right temple. 

This was also the run where we started using hydration belts.  His belt has 4 bottles, each holding about 6 ounces, and a pouch for things like keys.  Mine holds two 6-ounce bottles and a pouch.  My bottle holders have little elastic bungees to help keep the tops of the bottles in place, so mine don't fall on the run (except when I don't manage to shove them back in correctly). 

It's kind of weird, but there is a technique to drinking and running at the same time.  I'm glad that we thought to start this now, because it is too hot most of the time to not drink along the route.  I tend to suck on the bottle in order to not spill water all over myself.  I guess you could squirt the bottle into your mouth, but I am just not coordinated enough to do that without making a huge mess (it would be a huge mess if I were using gatorade).

Our run was on the slow side, because I just stopped every once in a while to drink.  By the end of the run, I was sore but I was also able to mostly drink when I ran. 

So, Saturday: 12.25 miles, plus about 5+ miles of walking.  A good day for exercise.