Stockinette Baby Toque

Today, I picked up my knitting needles for the first time in a long time.  Lazy girl that I am, I prefer crochet, as it works up much, much more quickly than knitting.  However, after a lovely tea (Ice Cream Cake from David's Tea) with a lovely friend, who was diligently working on this adorable baby toque, I got rather inspired.  So, I hunted up some patterns and came up (all by myself!) with this pattern for a basic stockinette baby toque, complete with pompom.

Cast on 48 st.
Row 1-5 k2, p2 (rib stitch)
Row 6-21, k one row, p one row (stockinette stitch)
Row 22, k6, k2tog, repeat to end
Row 23 (and every wrong-side row from here on), purl
Row 24 k5, k2tog, repeat to end.  Repeat for every right-side row from here on, decreasing by one stitch each row (eg row 26 k4, k2tog) until there are six stitches left.  Break yarn and draw through the stitches.
Join edges with mattress stitch.
Add a pompom on top.
All done!

I was super impressed that it only took me an afternoon to complete -- usually knitting projects, even small ones, take me forever.  This is definitely a pattern that I'll be using again!

I Have Too Many Leftovers

We seem to go through cycles.  One week our fridge will be completely, or at least nearly, empty of leftovers, and the next week there will be so many I don't know what to do with them.  It doesn't help that my Many Children (including the big, overgrown child) will eat everything I make and more one day, and not touch their food the next; or, that they'll eat and eat and eat something, and hardly touch it the next time I make the same thing.  It makes food quantities pretty hard to guess.

Anyway, this week is one of the "so many I don't know what to do with them" weeks.  I have a big container of scalloped potatoes, two different types of leftover chicken, mexican-style rice, roast beef, fried onions, and probably a few more things I've forgotten about.  So, I figured it was time to use some of those things up.  Monday night is pasta night, so I wanted to use some sort of noodle base; and roast beef and fried onions aren't something that would get eaten quickly, so I wanted to use them up.  There was a little bit of sour cream left in a container to use up before I could open up the new container and get it out of the fridge downstairs.  It all added up to beef stroganoff.

I would take pictures (it's still on the stove as I type) but although it tastes pretty good, it looks revolting.  I've never liked the look of beef stroganoff.  So, I'll just put up the recipe, suggest you eat it without looking at it, and hope you enjoy.

Leftover Beef Stroganoff

leftover roast beef, cut into thin strips
about 1/2 cup fried onions, or raw if you don't have any
coarsely chopped garlic...I used three cloves
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
the last bit of a container of sour cream, plus about 3/4 cup more to top it off
a generous sprinkle of paprika

Heat up the beef, onions, and garlic until the garlic (and the onions, if they were raw) is (or are) soft.  Dump in the cream of mushroom soup, sour cream, and paprika, stir it all up, and heat it through.  Voila!  Really ridiculously easy beef stroganoff.  Serve it over egg noodles and you have a meal.

Christmas Carols, and Decorating for Fall

Yes, you read right: Christmas carols already.  I can't help it.  The advent of fall, and cooler weather, signals (to me -- The Man would disagree) the advent of advent, and advent means Christmas music and all the other delightful things that go with the celebration of Christ's birth.  Don't get me wrong; I love fall, at least in theory, but Christmas, now that gets me excited.  The other day at the thrift store, I found some lovely Christmas ornaments that I'm looking forward to putting on my tree.  The fact that they have a shelf set aside for Christmas all year reassures me.  I'm obviously not the only one with this unseasonable desire.

Despite my early Christmas kick, I do enjoy decorating for autumn as well.  Just yesterday I found some adorable pumpkins made out of grapevines, on sale no less, which are now sitting on my mantel.  Last year I got a pretty gold-coloured, leaf-patterned tablecloth, on sale again, at Fred Meyer that is actually big enough to cover our rather enormous table.  And...okay, and that's about all I have for fall.  Still, I'm just getting started.  There are lots of years to collect fall decorations, and the right ones, too.

This is where sites like Pinterest and Houzz come and invade my life.  I spend way too much of what little free time I have searching things like "Christmas" and "fall decor" on Pinterest, and while I find lots of lovely ideas, it seems that very few of them are actually practical.  Especially with kids.  And a dog.  And a husband.  I mean, really, glass jars on my coffee table full of red and green striped mints?  Beautiful, but shattered and eaten (the jars and the mints respectively, I mean) in no time flat.  Homemade berry wreaths hanging from the mantel look too much like those monkey bar rings on the playground for my littlest guy to leave them alone, and are far too time-consuming to make, to boot.  No, I think that grapevine pumpkins, well out of reach, and a clear-vinyl-covered leaf tablecloth are as good as it gets for now, and, all things considered, are darn good.

Not that there aren't things I would like to get to spruce up the house for the fall season.  I really would love an orange berry wreath to hang in the stairwell (I can see it mouldering on the front door, so the stairwell it is), and Chinese lantern makes me squeal and bounce up and down a little bit.  A nice autumnal display in the front planters would be nice, too.  The Man could care less, I think, but I do like the house to look seasonable.  But, as I said, there are plenty of years to get there, and to gather ideas along the way.  Everything is a process.

Pullman Loaf

Here is The Bread Recipe, courtesy of The Fresh Loaf, if you're interested.  Mostly, I admit, it's for my own reference.

unbleached all purpose flour (KAF or Gold Medal or Pillsbury)  4 cups (20.5 oz/585 gr)
dry whole milk             1/4 cup (1.5 oz/ 40 gr)
instant yeast                1 tbspn ( --   9.6 gr)
unsalted butter softened  6 tbspn  (3 oz/  85 gr)
water at room temp (70-90 deg F) 1 1/2 liquid cups (12.5 oz/ 354 gr)
honey                        2 tbspn   (1.5 oz/ 40 gr)
salt                            2 tsp  (-- 13.2 gr)



Mixer method

In a large mixer bowl, whisk together the flour, dry milk and yeast.  Add the butter and mix with the dough hook on low speed (#2 with Kitchenaid mixer)  then add the honey, water and salt.  When all the flour is moistened, raise the speed to medium (#4 Kitchenaid) and beat for 7 minutes.  The dough will be smooth, shiny and slightly sticky to the touch.  If the dough is not stiff, knead in a little flour.  If it is not at all sticky, spray it with a little water and knead it in.  It will weigh about 38.5 oz/1102 grams)

Hand method

Leave out 1/4 c flour.  Whisk flour, dry milk and yeast together.  Add the butter and with a wooden spoon or your hand, stir in the water, honey and salt until the flour is moistened.  Knead the dough in the bowl until is comes together, and then scrape it onto a lightly floured counter,  Knead for 5 minutes, enough to develop the gluten structure a little, add as little of the reserved flour as possible to keep the dough from sticking.  Use a bench scraper to scrape the dough and gather it together as you knead it.  At this point, it will be very sticky.  Cover it with the inverted bowl and allow it to rest for 20 minutes.  This resting time will make the dough less sticky and easier to work with.  Knead the dough for another 5 minutes or until it is very smooth and elastic.  It should still be tacky (sticky) enough to cling slightly to your fingers.  If the the dough is still very sticky however, add some of the remaining flour or a little extra.  It should weigh 38.5 oz or 1102 grams

Both methods

Shape the dough and let it rise.  On a lightly floured counter, shape the dough into a football.  Flour the top and cover it with plastic wrap.  Allow it to relax for 10-15 minutes.  Remove the plastic wrap and gently deflate the dough, using your fingertips to spread it into a rectangle about 10 inches by 8 inches.  Flour the counter as necessary to prevent sticking.

Give the dough one business-letter turn, then press or roll it out again to about 12 inches by 5 inches and shape it into a 16 inch long loaf.  Set it in the prepared greased pan ( a long sandwich loaf pan).  Grease the top of the loaf. Leave in a warm place, draped with plastic.  Allow it to rise until doubled about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.  when the dough is pressed with a fingertip, the depression will very slowly fill in.

PREHEAT THE OVEN to 425 degrees F at least 30 minutes before baking.  Have an oven shelf at the lowest level (DO NOT USE AN OVEN STONE)

Bake the bread by gently placing the pan in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.  Turn the loaf around to encourage even browning and continue to bake for 30 minutes until deeply browned.  If the bread seems to be getting too brown, tent with foil.

Cool bread by tipping loaf onto a rack, to let it cool.  Cover with a tea towel if you wish.

Enjoy!  We sure do.

Thinking of Tea

I almost always have tea on the brain.  My favourite way to spend time is drinking tea with my dearest friends, maybe over a game of Scrabble or a good conversation.  I drink tea in the morning; I drink tea at night; I drink tea in between.  I have a whole collection of tea quotes on my computer.  I just like tea.

So, it shouldn't come as any surprise that I like sitting down to tea.  You know, with the little sandwiches and scones and sweets, and a pretty tea pot and dainty cups (which, sadly, hold far too little).  However, I do get a little tired of the usual egg salad (which I don't eat), tuna salad (which I don't eat), tomato, and cucumber sandwiches.  Why not spice it up a little? I asked myself.  Yes, indeed, why not spice it up a little?  No one said that a tea menu has to consist of the same things across the board.  So, here are some recipes I found that may just make your tea table more interesting.

How about smoked salmon with capers?

Stilton, pear, and walnut?

Maybe some turkey sandwiches with Earl Grey honey butter?

Of course, it's not necessarily the fillings that need to be changed.  Try tucking some chicken salad inside some pita wedges, or using a croissant or rye or pumpernickel bread instead of white or whole wheat.

And of course, we can't forget about the sweets.  Scones are a classic; it just doesn't seem like tea without a warm scone with clotted cream and jam (or jelly; potato potahto).  Try livening them up with a little bit of orange or lemon zest, or mix in some dried cranberries, raisins, or blueberries (I'm a fan of the cranberries, myself).  Experiment with different kinds of jams.  Right now my favourite is a cherry-berry freezer jam that I made this summer.  Try a little bit of mascarpone cheese instead of clotted or whipped cream.

What do you like at your tea table?

I Think I Found "The Recipe".

And, of course, I didn't take pictures of the process or the finished product.  Why would I?  That would just make sense.  At any rate, I needed bread and decided to surf the net and see what I could find.  The recipe that stood out to me was Rose Levy Berenbaum's recipe for The Pullman Loaf (courtesy of the description "...soft like little clouds in a loaf.  It's the bread Wonderbread wishes it were.").  And oh my good gracious, it is amazing.  Soft like little clouds in a loaf.  Light and fluffy without being insubstantial.  Tasty, tasty, tasty.  No chemicals.  I am in love.  Hopefully The Man will be, too, because it cost me about 50c to make two loaves.  I can do 50c.  Now, if only I could find a way to get fresh milk from home, without buying a cow.

In absence of pictures of what I actually made, here is a picture of what I'm going to make for supper on Friday.

When I cook it, I hope this gourmet white pizza with chicken doesn't look so pixelated.

Happy Autumn!

Boy, it's been a while since I last posted.  I apologize for my lack of verbosity, and will attempt to make amends by filling this sentence with pedantic-sounding words.

Now that I've done that, here's a little catch-up.

We celebrated the beginning of fall in Edmonton this year, where the days were warm and the nights were cool.  Autumn was definitely in the air!  I think it's my favourite time of year -- or rather, that it would be, if it weren't for how soggy it is here on the West Coast.  I have dreams of experiencing an autumn that looks something like this

instead of something like this

I'm sure you can all see the appeal in the first picture.

However, regardless of the weather, fall does bring with it increased opportunities to bake.  This fall my goal is to find a bread recipe that The Man will actually eat and enjoy.  I grew up eating homemade bread, and one of my favourite smells is the smell of freshly-baked (or freshly baking) bread.  In fact, the fresh-baked bread smell is what my mum swears sold one of her homes, so I must not be alone in this.  I'll keep you all posted on my progress, anyway, as I go through what I'm sure will be hundreds of recipes, one at a time.

Fall also means non-baking comfort food.  I think that pretty well anything that comes out of the oven qualifies as comfort food, but I especially look forward to soups, stews, and casseroles.  Besides not eating much bread, The Man also doesn't eat much soup, so I hope to find some recipes that he can -- or rather, will -- eat enthusiastically.

Food posts also means that I will delve into food photography this year.  Yikes!  Photography has never been one of my skills, so bear with me.

I think that pretty well catches up on the important things.  The next post will, I promise, be much closer to this post than this post was to the last.

All Quiet on the Home Front

Well, not exactly quiet.  August has kept us hopping, with a trip to the Cariboo, lots of camps, one last trip to the Okanagan, and now getting ready for school.  We've also made dill pickles and canned and frozen peaches, with enough, I hope, to keep us supplied through next year.  Now things are settling back down, ready for the start of school on Tuesday and a return to normalcy.  Routine, at least.

As I sit on my comfy bed and write this, I can hear the thunk-thunk of wood being tossed into a wheelbarrow, ready to be carted around back and stored until burning season next year.  Our woodshed is blessedly full, waiting to be slowly emptied as we stuff the wood stove full and enjoy the crackle and pop of a roaring fire.  I only wish the stove were upstairs, not down.

There are a myriad of things on tap for us come September.  School, an out-of-town wedding, drying apples, cleaning house.  One of my goals this fall is to get my house in order.  (Isn't that always one of my goals?)  It seems that no matter how hard I try, life keeps getting in the way and the disorder gets out of hand.  But let this be my promise, friends!  Before fall fades into winter, I will have a home that has less clutter and more peace.  But, more on that at a later date.  No before pictures.  I'm too embarrassed.

On that note, I sign off on this little update.  Cheers to you, and may the autumn see you well and happy.

Things that Make Me Smile: Laugh Out Loud Edition

Did you know that babies laugh roughly 300-400 times a day, while the average adult may only laugh 20 times a day?  It's time to inject some laughter into our lives.  Here are some videos, images, and links that may hopefully do just that.

This is long, but it's worth watching the whole way through:

 Not quite so long, and funny in a schadenfreude kind of way:

 

One view of the effects of social media from www.xkcd.com:

More from XKCD:

Items Lovely and Otherwise

Someone suggested that I borrow post ideas from other blogs, and one type of post I've seen repeated is of lovely things that can be bought in various places.  Now, I love lovely things, so without further ado, a list of items that I find lovely, inspiring, or otherwise delightful.

This fabulous stationery from C. R. Gibson.

This pretty birdie from an Etsy shop.  I wish I could draw like that.  (And no, it's not just practice.  Trust me; I've tried.)

Pyrex.  Anything Pyrex.  I don't think I've mentioned how much I love Pyrex.

This baking powder canister.  Why a baking powder canister?  That's a really good question.

This is actually more difficult than I thought, and I even had a stock of lovely and inspiring photos to choose from.  Where do you find your inspiration?

Things that Make Me Smile

I love posting things that make me smile.  We all need to smile more!  I hope these bring some cheer to you as you prepare for the new week ahead.

Coffee-it-Forward

On the Bookshelf: Bleak House

The book currently in the spotlight, and actually off the shelf (on a chair beside it, to be precise) is Bleak House by Charles Dickens.  It's the very first Dickens book I've ever read, and while I was warned that Dickens is rather, well, bleak, I'm enjoying it mightily.  It's a novel about a will dispute and the lives of the people involved, and includes love, murder, friendship, and intrigue.  It also contains a lot of ridiculousness, which lightens it up immensely.  In fact, there have been several parts that made me laugh out loud.

I find the characters delightfully well-developed, including the more minor characters, and the plot moves along nicely, albeit slowly.  The story itself changes point of view frequently, but each view is easy to differentiate and the changes are easy to follow.

I can't say how it's going to end, not being there yet, and I wouldn't anyway.  However, if you're into Dickens and long books (my edition is just shy of 900 pages), I highly recommend picking it up and giving it a try.

Camping in the Cariboo

If you check in here regularly, you may have noticed that the last several days have been pretty quiet.  That's because this August long weekend, The Man and I took the family camping in the Cariboo for the first time.  We packed everyone and the family dog into our 25-year-old 12-passenger van and hit the road early on Friday, and arrived at Green Lake just before dinner time.  It's a beautiful, and, surprising to us, rather large lake nestled in the beautiful south Cariboo, just outside of 70 Mile House and about a 7 hour drive from our home near Vancouver.

 Like I said, everyone and the family dog.

We got rained on the first two days we were there.  The sky would start out blue in the morning, and by mid-afternoon would look something like this:

Half blue, and half stormy.  It started raining shortly after I took this picture.

Now, this picture doesn't give a very good idea of how very black that storm cloud was, but I assure you, it was black indeed.  It also had a lot of rain in it.  A lot of rain.  Fortunately, and thanks to The Man, our campsite looked like this:

We spent lots of time at the beach, made some friends (for the dog, too), and the boys and I even got treated to a quick spin along the lake in a boat the day that we left.  The water was Caribbean blue and so clear that I could see the thirty feet down to the sandy bottom from where we were.  It wasn't quite Caribbean warm, but it also wasn't as chilly as many other lakes in the north, and the cold water was very refreshing during the hot parts of the day.

Camping marked the middle point of the summer and now we're on the downhill slope, headed for September and a return to school.  There are still a few more adventures left for this summer, though.  I hope you enjoy whatever adventures remain for you!

Chatter Blossom Giveaway

Hello friends!  I'm advertising here for a giveaway courtesy of Jessica at Chronically Vintage and Jamie at Chatter Blossom.  Yeah, okay, so I'm in part doing it because I want these earrings:

but I'm also doing it because Chatter Blossom has some fabulous jewellery that I know some of you would appreciate.  Pop over to Chronically Vintage to find out the ways you can enter to win a 25$ gift card, and surf around while you're at it!

Things That Make Me Smile

Just a short post today!  I spent most of my weekend taking standard first aid, which was hilariously fun, but here are a couple of extra smiles.

On the Bookshelf

I spent a wonderful day and a half this week with Jessica of In a London Fog, playing Boggle and Scrabble, drinking tea, and having an extensive catch-up time, as well as hauling my kids back and forth to day camp and swimming lessons.  This morning we managed to squeeze in a quick trip with the little boys to Renaissance Books in New West, where we both added to our book collections.  I got four books:

Growing up, I loved reading "The Adventures of Lightfoot the Deer" by Thornton W. Burgess.  Some years later I came by a copy of "The Adventures of Sammy Jay".  Both are paperback and not in the best of condition, but at ten years old, I didn't much care.  A few years ago I was in Campbell River and found a whole selection of Burgess's books.  Only "Chatterer the Red Squirrel" had the dust jacket, so I picked that one up for 4.95$.  A little pricier than I like to pay, but, well, it was only one, and it's part of a series I like and have already started, and, and, and...

Anyway, today I added "Danny Meadow Mouse" and "Reddy Fox" to the collection.  They have the same cover as "Chatterer" but no dust jackets, and were 3.95$ a piece.  Unfortunately the price of the books with covers was beyond my budget.  Also unfortunate is the fact that they don't fit on my bookshelf.  I guess that if anyone has a shelf to be rid of, I'm in the market.

"The Mystery of the Bamboo Bird" is a Dana Girls Mystery from 1960, written by the incredibly long-lived Carolyn Keene of Nancy Drew fame.  The Dana Girls series is roughly on par with the Nancy Drew series, although not nearly as well-known.  It shares the same exciting adventures, kidnappings, and close calls, and of course, the bitter and/or remorseful revelations of the usually hardened thieves to the youthful detectives.  Fine literature it is not, but it's great for a quick read when I'm looking for something to make me smile (or smirk, as the case may be).

 

An image from the cover of "The Mystery of the Bamboo Bird" by Carolyn Keene

Last but not least, the red book is an undated copy of "The Pilgrim's Progress" by John Bunyan.  It's in a little bit of rough shape -- worn at the bottom of the spine, with a few pages fallen out (but still tucked in where they ought to be) -- but it has character and is a book I've long wanted to read.  It also only cost 2.86$.  I don't expect that it's older than the '40s, but it would be pleasing if it were.

 

The cover of "The Pilgrim's Progress" by John Bunyan

 That's the shelf for now, my friends.  Check in another day for more bookish delights!

Music Notes

My favourite lullaby, "The Swan" from Camille Saint-Saens's "The Carnival of the Animals".  I used to listen to this as I fell asleep.  Between the melody itself and the cello playing it, by far one of my favourite pieces of music.

You can't go wrong with The Andrews Sisters, either, despite the huge shoulder pads.  Direct from the era of live radio productions, "Straighten Up and Fly Right".  I use that line on my kids sometimes.

And last but definitely not least, the Buena Vista Social Club.  Enjoy!

Things That Make Me Smile

Canadian songstress Alex Pangman in her video for "Hummin' to Myself".

This adorable shirtdress from Pinup Girl.

These shoes from Target.

Cherries and Jam, and the Garden

With the advent of summer, preserving season has begun for me.  Last week I canned cherries

and made cherry-berry freezer jam.  Three dozen cherries are frozen with a view to making cherry kuchen from The Man's Oma's recipe.  This year is peach year, and I would like to can pears for a switch-up.  Apples and pears will both hit the dehydrator.  The kids eat them like candy!  Very healthy candy, that is.  There are also raspberries in the freezer, and there will be blueberries once blueberry season hits, as well as a few oven-ready blueberry pies.  Hopefully my house will be well-stocked until next year or the zombie apocalypse, whichever comes first.

My garden is also growing well.  I rehydrated (seriously) two 84c tomato plants from Superstore and planted another two, bigger, Roma tomato plants that I got for 2.50 apiece.  Two of the blueberry plants are in the ground and the other two are still thriving in their pots; some baby apple trees, courtesy of the tree next door, are suffering in their new pots alongside my happy little peach tree and will hopefully revive. The roses are tidied, my flower pots are still blooming, and I haven't killed the heather yet.  Yesterday I ate the very first, tiny, chewy strawberry from my new strawberry plants

How do you enjoy the summer and fall harvest?

Moving On

Last night I went through boxes and boxes of baby clothes with my sister-in-law.  She took three big boxes full of clothes, my bassinet, and the receiving blankets.  I have a little bitty box of special clothes, four feet of empty space in the top of the spare room closet, and a big hole left in my heart.

I know that it's just clothes, but it's also the end of a precious stage in my children's lives.  They will never be babies again.  This September Monkey starts first grade; it will be Monster's last year of being home with me before he goes to preschool.  Going through those teeny outfits is a reminder of how big my children are getting and how much they have changed.

It's not all bad.  I have loved seeing how they've grown and hearing about their experiences and all the things they've learned.  I love every new word that comes out of their mouths (even when Monkey dropped an F-bomb in the most unexpected way).  I love seeing them grow in independence and maturity.  I love toddler logic.  There are so, so many things I love about seeing them grow up; it's just hard to let go of who they used to be.

We have to leave things behind in order to move ahead.  I may not feel better tomorrow, but those clothes are just that much less that is holding me back from enjoying the next stage of life.  There are so many more adventures to be had.

So Many Projects, So Little Time

This afternoon I was feeling inspired, so I started writing down a list of all the projects and special chores that I need to get done.  I figured I would write the list, prioritize, and start a smaller project that I could finish today.

Then I saw what I had written down.

The list was about twenty items long, no joke.  Painting, crafting, gardening, boring chores.  Tonight I go through boxes of baby clothes.  I need to clean the basement (and you all know how basements can be).  On top of everything big that I want or need to do, there are all the little, everyday chores that need to be done.  I started off inspired, but I ended up intimidated.  It can be tough when you're faced with a big list of Things to Do!

I almost threw the list in the garbage, but I ended up putting it somewhere where it's not staring me in the face.  Tonight I will sort through old baby clothes; tomorrow I will paint.  After that?  Who knows.  I'll take it as it comes, because more chores and projects always do come.  And if they don't, well, I'll either take a break, or, if I'm inspired, make a list...

In the beginning, Maman created a blog.

Yes, I freely admit that I am following a trend: joining the blogosphere.  Frankly, I'm not entirely sure what I'll post about, but I hope that something that I post will touch someone's heart.  In the mean time, welcome to our life.