CSA August 8, 2009

My CSA partner said I could have ALL of the CSA veggies this week, since I'll be away for the next 2 pick ups. Hmmmmm, that's a lot of tomatoes for a gal with a husband who doesn't eat tomatoes. Actually, that's just a lot of vegetables to eat in 5 days!



As usual, I was drwan to the beautiful flowers in the pick your own garden. This week, I went with a purple and pink theme.

I attacked the veggies with great vigor! I am detemined not to let anything go to waste:

1. Shredding/freezing squash for future sweet bread or muffins.

2. Blanching/peeling/freezing tomatos for a winter sauce.

3. Pesto... this jar might last until next summer!

Elephantine hat-trick, radishes, and a princess lioness

They are done! Three mix-and-match Elijahs. And boy do my hands hurt. I calculate that each Elijah took me 12-13 hours. Nothing like Cascade 220 Superwash on size 4s for that many hours to give you a hand cramp. But they are way cute and I can't wait to give them to the recipients! These little guys are for three little boys, ages 5, 3, and -8 weeks (i.e., still in utero). :) I hope they like them!

Tonight I cut up some radishes from this past Saturday's CSA haul. What beautiful colors!

One more random picture to share. Here's little Miss Chloe, The Princess Lioness. Yes, I put a feathery scrunchy (favor from a baby shower - -not something I willing purchased!) on her head. She posed proudly. Or she was too lazy to move. One or the other.

Alco-tourism in San Francisco

Actually, we went to San Francisco (probably one of my fave cities ever!) for a wedding. But why not turn it into a little mini-break for us, right? My only regret is not bringing more knits. It was cold! I could have used some more wool!


I really love San Francisco.




A pair of hand-knit socks came in handy on a particularly windy day.








Here's a mini-sampler at Beach Chalet (stout, red, wheat).







We found the Rogue Brewery in town. Surprisingly, the walk to the brewery seemed much longer than the walk home. :)







Our favorite brewery was the Magnolia Pub on Haight, which featured some awesome cask conditioned brews.



Knitting a few rows of my jaywalkers in between sips of my Blue Bell Bitter. (Sadly, since arriving home, these socks have ended up in the frog pond because they fit terribly. I'll use this yarn for another pair of socks.)





Of course, there was yarn to be purchased! Here's a new little buddy I met at Imagiknit. What a fantastic store.




And here's the purchase from Imagiknit. One skein of Malabrigo merinocash for me and one for a friend. Lettuce and Smoke.








And a little souvenir from Bluebird Yarn in Sausalito. Paca-Peds HT from the Alpaca Yarn Co. It's superwash Alpaca Hand-Dyed Sock Yarn with 360 yards of the colorway and 90 yards of a coordinate solid heel/toe color.





And on a food related note... two exciting finds! First, I tried some fresh-caught bay abalone. So cool! (Yes, that's my swallowtail shawl keeping me warm!)








And, a kumquat tree in our cousin's backyard in Sacramento. These beauties came home with me.

little herb garden

Pictures of the the little herb garden from last summer.

This little crew of pots was transferred into the kitchen for the winter and back to the deck last weekend. We had a few fatalities over the winter: the hot pepper plants, the dill, and the basil. But the sage, mint, rosemary, oregano, parsley, and chives are still going strong.

One note on the parsley is that it grew increasingly covered with aphids in the kitchen. I tried to get rid of them by spraying the plant with vinegar (which burned the leaves!) and then some diluted castile soap. No luck. The aphids came right back. Interestingly, they didn't infect any of the other plants. A friend of mine suggested buying some ladybugs, but the smallest quantities available for purchase would give me something like 20,000 ladybugs. Probably not the best thing to introduce to my little potted eco-system. Well, oddly enough, as soon as I put the parsley outside, the aphid problem went away. So many thanks to all the little buggies, whoever you are, that have help clean up my little friend!

Oh, and one side note on the herb garden from last year: A tomato surprise! I fertilized my pots with compost that was not quite finished composting. And the result was a tomato plant that sprouted up! I was so excited. Too bad it only yeilded one yucky, mealy, flavorless tomato. Booo. But at least it was pretty, right?

What inspired this post? It's almost CSA time again! Red Wiggler has been busy planting goodies for this year. Goodies are just around the corner...

Little senses of accomplishment

I've been doing a little of this and that today. The nice thing is that I finished several projects today, which makes me happy!

First, I put the buttons on the BSJ that I finished for a baby shower I will be attending next weekend. I think the buttons are two mice in a boat fishing. But it could be some other animal too. In any case, they are very cute! I used Shalimar Sock Yarn and size 4 needles. I still have about 85 yards of this yarn left, which means the sweater took about 320 yards. For a more polished look, I picked up and knit stitches around neckline. After the pick up and knit row, I knit one row additional and then bound off in knit.

I blocked my first Clapotis. For this project, I used size 3 needles with a Peruvian tweed alpaca yarn. It's dark grey and brown , and I simply love the warmth of the color combined with the actual warmth and softness of the yarn. This was a MD Sheep and Wool purchase from last year. I have now officially used all of the yarn I bought last year!! Since I only had 600 yards of this yarn, I knit one fewer set of increases. This means that I had about 80ish stitches on the needles instead of 100ish for the straight rows. (I don't have the pattern in front of me right now for the exact number of stitches... and I'm too lazy to go look on knitty and do the math right now.)





I played in the kitchen today too. I had a craving for quiche, so I improvised this recipe from one of my cookbooks. The key ingredients are milk, broccoli, eggs, cornmeal, Dijon mustard, and onions. I made them in individual serving sizes so they are easier to take for lunches. Also, I skipped the crust, since I didn't have any and didn't feel like making any. Some cooking spray kept the mixture from sticking to the dishes.




Finally, I baked some oatmeal apple cinnamon muffins. I love this recipe! The only adjustments: added cardamom for some zing and didn't put in flaxmeal (didn't have any). And in the time it took me to write this blog, I have already eaten two of them!

Two great accomplishments this week

I made a fantastic soup this Monday. The recipe is amazingly simply... inspired by a pumpkin soup I had a La Tavola a few weeks ago during Baltimore's restaurant week.

Here we go:

step 1: cut up 4 sweet potatoes (leave skins on) and one head of cauliflower.
step 2: steam veggies in large pot with 1/4 inch water and 2 tablespoons canola oil for about 20 minutes
step 3: while the veggies are steaming, boil pearl barley for 15 minutes.
step 4: puree veggies in food processor for several minutes. add water to achieve desired consistency.
step 5: put barley in bowl, pour veggie puree on top. drizzle with balsamic vinegar. add fresh ground pepper if desired.

enjoy!

I presume you could substitute the veggies with others, particularly roots (turnips, for example) or a fall or winter squash.




(also pictured above: sourdough bread rising... used unbleached organic white flour and rye flour in a 2:1 ratio.)


I made a feather and fan cowl from Curious Creek Fibers Etosha (110 yards). I love the name of the colorway: plum thunder. My first knit from the purple color family. It fuzzy and fun to wear! Here's what I did:

- cast on 90 stitches, placing markers every 18 stitches
- rounds 1 and 2: knit
- round 3: begin feather and fan (k2tog 3 times; yo, k1 5 times, ssk 3 times). repeat 4 times to the end of the round (5 repeats total)
- round 4: knit
- repeat last 4 rounds, ending on round 4, until almost out of yarn.
- bind off loosely in knit

And so it goes with a week of creativity. I also have one other FO from this week: my first shawl and my first project using STR (same project). I had fun with both! More on that once I take the pins out and get some pictures.

Plans for February

The KDAL (knit-down-a-long) is in full swing. I have been so very good: I haven't bought any yarn since last November and have finished projects totally over 5,100 yards of yarn in December and January.

So, now I'm planning my next projects... those that will keep me happily knitting and distract me from any new yarn acquisitions.

I just cast on for the clapotis last night using a gorgeous 100% Peruvian Alpaca tweed that I purchased at MD S&W last year. I love the feel of this stuff as I'm knitting it up!



Earlier in January, I cast on for Francis Revisited to FINALLY use up this yarn that's been in my stash for over 2 years. The Francis pattern is very simple, a perfect match for this complex yarn.



I'm also planning to make a pair of brown and cream endpaper mitts this month for a stranded KAL. This will be my first color work project. I'm nervous/excited to see how I do with my tension...

Of course, I need to fuel my body for all that knitting. This week, for lunches at least, I'll be having lentil soup with celery, carrots, and tomatoes and fresh baked whole wheat sourdough bread. The soup is a staple of mine. Simple and hearty. I seem to make a pot at least 5 or 6 times each winter. The bread was an experiment. This loaf rose over night and weighs as much as a brick. It looks like the crust is going to be thick and the inside is going to be nice and sour. I can't wait to try it!

trimming and baking

The Christmas tree has been sitting nude in the living room since Sunday. Shameful! To maintain a little modesty in its bay window perch, we kept the shades drawn. But tonight, we opened the shades for the world to see!

My favorite ornaments are the chimney sweep and the crochet snowflakes from my grandmother. The chimney sweep goes up near the top of the tree and always gets a little light in his hands. The snowflakes are all unique, just like real snow flakes. Amazing works of art!









Keeping with the holiday theme, I baked tonight.

Two dozen big, soft ginger snaps. A favorite in our house!



And, vegan chocolate chocolate chip cupcakes. Some of the key ingredients in the recipe were oat flour (organic!), cocoa (fair trade!), applesauce (local, organic!), and chocolate chips (organic!). I'm planning to take these to the DC Namaste yoga/knitting meet-up on Saturday. Since this is my first go at this recipe, I made a baker's dozen and let the mister try one. He approves! I hope my fellow yogis/knitters enjoy them too! They were pretty quick to make, and I'm thinking these might be a great addition to our Christmas dinner spread. (Oh, and I used my lovely monogrammed apron , a souvenir from Firenze, to control the mess. I am such a messy cook!)

Febuary lady, February baby

I've already made two February baby sweaters. They were so fun to knit that I was sure I would make another one or two or more at some point. I've also been meaning to cast on for the February lady sweater, which will be a Christmas gift for my mom. These projects seem to go hand in hand, so I decided to cast on for both this weekend.

I swatched for February lady last weekend on size 7 needles. I'm using Valley Yarn's Sheffield, the same yarn I used for the gallery jacket, in black. Sherbert (named after the error message Sherbert on Ravelry), my trusty sheep tape measure, told me that I have about 16.5-17 stitches per four inches using the 7s. The pattern calls for 18 stitches per inch. I’m liking the drape of this yarn with the size 7 needles, so I’m not going to go down a needle size, I’m going to knit the smaller sweater (35 bust) instead.

I worked the first button hole this morning using the button hole instructions in the back one of my Interweave magazines. I think this method is similar to the method the pattern recommends, but I find the Interweave instructions easier to follow.

As for Feruary baby: I bought this Araucania Magallanes yarn in 2005. Way before Ravelry, that's for sure. I have 2 colorways: this one with whites and browns and another one that has blues, burgundy, and black. I tried to make a ribbed scarf (k1, p1) with the blue colorway a long time ago. I didn't like the look and kept starting over... again and again... using different basic stitch patterns (1x1 rib, 2x2 rib, garter stitch, etc.). I finally gave up and threw the 10 inch scarf and the ball of yarn into my stash bin. Yesterday, when I was organizing my stash, I tried to frog the beginnings of that scarf, which has been rolling around in my stash bin for a few years. It was nearly impossible to frog. The yarn seems to have almost felted to itself at the end of each row. After trying to unravel and untangle for 20 minutes, I finally have to give up and threw it away. The sad new is that I still have about 3/4 of the blue colorway, which I really hate. Now I have no idea what to do with it!

The reason for that little detour is that I realized yesterday that one of the main reasons I didn't like the results I was getting with this yarn (other than the colors!) was because the thick/thin aspect of this yarn was really obvious on the needles I was using (6s? 7s?). So with the FBS, I am using size 2 needles. Much smaller than what is recommended, but I am loving the results because the thin parts aren't too thin. And the fabric, surprisingly, isn't too stiff. Now we'll see if I have enough yarn to finish the sweater. I might have to add a little of something else at the bottom, but that will be a game time decision. I plan to work the entire sweater in garter stitch because I believe the gull pattern and this yarn would not look good together.

As a side note, I cooked up some delicious lentil curry with brown basmati rice tonight. I served the curry with yogurt. I also brew some delicious earl grey tea this weekend, adding mint leaves and dried lavender for fun. I think the idea of lavender mint tea idea steeped (pun intended!) into my unconscious from the DC knitting meet-ups at Teaism.

Coincidentally, I found a great website for cooking times for whole grains. I bought the basmati rice in bulk, so there were no cooking instructions. But, no fear, the Internet to the rescue: http://www.grandtimes.com/Whole_Grains.html

CSA Extended Harvest 3: November 5, 2008

My half of this week's share (the other half already with my CSA "partner"). I am loving fried green tomatoes, so I was excited to see more green tomatoes this week. I still have 2 peppers from last week so I wasn't sad to see only one green pepper this week. The greens have been wonderful... I'm going to miss them 3 weeks from now!