knitting « Beckle Speckle’s Zany World

Cheesecake-o-rama

October 12, 2009 at 8:04 pm | In baking, food, knitting | Leave a Comment

Things are the same here – work, cook, sleep, etc, etc.

The butternut squash soup from the Sheepish Little Blog (Knitscape) has been THE SOUP for a few weeks now – sad to see they are giving it up.

Pumpkin Cheesecake and Banana Cheesecake were some of the cheesecake experiments here – both were a bit mushy, but good. Both were based on the “Mary’s outstanding chocolate cheesecake” without the chocolate. For the pumpkin I added 1 cup of fresh pumpkin and 2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice and used half brown sugar instead of all white sugar. The banana one had one ripe banana that was pulverized in the blender with the sugar. I also put a little cinnamon in the topping (a la bananas foster)

Both pairs of slippers have been felted and sent to their new owners. Spring Green Ice Queen is finished…

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Little Monkey is growing up…

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Pound cake and socks (mostly) with no pictures :(

July 30, 2009 at 7:53 pm | In baking, food, knitting | Leave a Comment

Well, that title describes what I’ve been doing with my “free” time lately.

I’ve been working on finding a good pound cake recipe since the horrible disaster a few weeks ago. I tried the Pound cake recipe (with fresh blackberries) from the next to latest Martha Stewart Living – it was HORRIBLE! too salty! I should have known adding 1 tablespoon of salt was too much, but I reasoned that it was ‘course’ salt AND it was for 2 loaves…. ICK!

Last night was a better trial – Cream cheese pound cake from Bakerella. I made one blackberry and one chocolate chip. The pans overflowed in the oven badly, but the cake turned out ok. Not the dense pound-like texture, but good cake.

I also tried making Blueberry Boy Bait from Smitten Kitchen except with Ranier cherries. It was ok, but didn’t look like the pictures. I had to use dark brown sugar and I don’t think I beat the sugar and butter long enough.

As for crafting…

I am done with the lace scarf. It needs blocking and pictures. I am working on the Cookie A socks and a ‘vanilla’ 3×2rib sock (both at the gusset increases). There will be pictures next post….

Hamburgers from scratch

July 13, 2009 at 6:32 pm | In baking, crochet, family, food, knitting | Leave a Comment

The Bug and I helped Uncle G make hamburgers from scratch (grind meat, bake buns, make ketchup, relish, and mustard) as inspired by an article in Gourmet magazine. They were very good, especially those that were more coursely ground.

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I’ve also made a few dishcloths…

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This last one didn’t handle the ‘up-sizing’ as well as the other blocks.

I’ve also made progress on the lace scarf (a la Meghan-Jasmin’s Lace Throwdown)…no pix just yet.

The blackberries are going full-ahead, so we also made blackberry crisp using this recipe from Alton Brown. I made a double batch in a 9×13 pan and just used all the ‘crumble’ part. We used gingersnaps for the cookies. It was yummy!

Summer, finally…

June 12, 2009 at 9:11 pm | In baking, food, gardening, knitting | Leave a Comment

My last class for the summer was today – whew! It has been a whirlwind of classes… only grades left to assign and calculate.

We’ve gotten some green beans out of the garden and the squash are doing some serious blooming. The blackberries are formed their nice little green orbs. The CSA boxes are started to have more variety than just lettuces – I get tired of lettuce easily and have been looking forward to the changes.

CSA box: week 5 contained carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, eggs, sirloin steak, red romaine (or swiss chard?), radishes, butter lettuce, peas

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We used everything but a bit of the butter lettuce which is still in the fridge. I made cabbage au gratin (new recipe) from the UK extension office using 1/2 head of cabbage and some green onions added in – this one is a keeper! We steamed the cauliflower and the peas. DH loved the peas. I gave away the radishes and we froze the steaks. I made a spinach provolone frittata (new recipe) from the Mixing Bowl site using several eggs. It was rated good by me, but not by DH. I also used some of the eggs to make a chocolate cheesecake for a friend’s birthday.

CSA box: week 6 contained peaches, radishes, green onions, white onion, basil, mint, dill, swiss chard (or red romaine?), eggs, chicken breast, peas, red potatoes, zucchini, yellow squash

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I made a skillet fried chicken breast to use up the chicken (rating = ok). We steamed the peas (again a hit according to DH) tonight. I used the last carrot from the last box, along with the big onion, the basil, and our own oregano to make pasta prima vera tonight.

I have been working slowly on the sock from the Cookie A book. It is a nice, but complex pattern (Bex), but I modified it by going toe up and may leave the large diamond areas to just adorn the cuff/leg area.

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Princess Tea Party and ‘blather’

April 2, 2009 at 9:30 pm | In Baby, family, gardening, knitting | Leave a Comment

Bug loves to dress up…

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so when I saw a “princess” tea party advertised in Nana and Pappaw T.’s home town, I signed her up. Paducah has this thing called Paducah iList that is an email of all the happenings in Paducah each week. I wish we had one for Murfreesboro. Princess Bug went to the “Princess” tea party with her Nana T. We went to Paducah especially for it. It was a fundraiser for Easter Seals. Bug had a great time and wore herself out.

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I’ve been trodging along working on bits and pieces of things. I finished the knitting part of the gradient scarf and just need to find the right masculine button for it (DH claimed it). I’m waiting to take pictures until it is done. The afgans are still in progress and being worked on, as well as the socks.

Spring and gardening are pulling at my mind.

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I’ve been thinking of ordering a fig tree and some blueberry bushes for our yard. DH loves brown turkey figs and they will grow here. I signed us up for a CSA (community supported agriculture) at the Avalon Acres Farms. We will be getting a 1/2 share of veggies and a meat/eggs portion each Wednesday starting in May.

School is hectic with the last push of things (research posters and class research projects, etc) with which to deal. With the nice weather, I’ve been walking outside instead of going to the gym. Now, if it will only stop raining and flooding our yard….

Catching up

February 18, 2009 at 9:16 pm | In Baby, crochet, knitting | Leave a Comment

I’ve been finishing up lots of things this past week.

The Lady Gray Scarf from the Luxury One skein wonders book

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Yarn: ecolana from AslanTrends

Color: natural gray

Hook: G

Mods: did 10 repeats of the square because there wasn’t enough to do 11 repeats, crocheted the squares together using the chain stitch areas of the last rows of each square

Comments: nice yarn to work with, but a bit scratchy on my neck – nice and easy pattern

More fetching …

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Yarn: Classic alpaca

color: black

Needles: US6

Mods: none this time, pattern is perfect as is…

Blue Beret (One day beret from Between the Loops)

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Yarn: malabrigo

Color: agua

Mods: did a lot more stockinette and reduced 1+ more inches at ribbing and went down 2 US needle sizes for ribbing

Comments: wonderful yarn and easy pattern

Right now, I’m still working on the poinelle socks, MIL clogs. I’m also going to start a market bag in some yarn I won in a contest.

Other than that, we are still chugging along – waiting to hear about the next round of budget cuts. Bug is getting bigger by the minute… and loves to dress up.

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Ambling along

January 22, 2009 at 9:14 pm | In Baby, family, food, knitting | 1 Comment

School has started and the cold has let up a bit, but it supposed to be back tonight. I have had a fierce need to make stuff, WARM stuff…

KNITTING –

FO: Emerald Hug

A scarf for my Grandma (a knitted, fuzzy green hug)

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Yarn: Riot eyelash from Yarn Bee, color seamist

Pattern: simple garter stitch, CO 15 with US 10

FO: The John Deere clogs for MY Dear Dad

pre-felt

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post-felt

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Yarn: Lopi Lite, every bit of 6 balls (4 green and 2 yellow) for Men’s medium

Pattern: the brilliant FiberTrends felted clogs!

WIP: Blue Beret

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Yarn: malabrigo, mmmmm

Pattern: One Day Beret by Through the Loops

WIP: Pinkie Clogs for MIL

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Yarn: Regular Lopi, pink and gray

Pattern: Yes, more clogs!

COOKING –

DH wants to eat more vegetarian dishes (not so much meat), so I am obliging. I used to eat very little meat – especially in graduate school. So, besides another batch of yummy biscotti (not as good with peanuts as pecans), I made onion soup this week from the Moosewood Cookbook – yum! We’re going to try a butternut squash/quinoa dish DH found, and perhaps a frittata or risotto (from the Splendid Table) this coming week.

ENJOYING –

I am also enjoying the flurry of podcasts that have picked up after the holiday breaks. I am especially enjoying Cogknitive, Stash and Burn, and StitchIt. I seem to be dealing a bit better with the winter blues so far this winter. I have been exercising more and that seems to help. However, I haven’t talked to my family much – I generally do that when I am starting to feel sad. So, I am looking forward to Dr. Gemma’s strategies (cogknitive) for fighting back those winter blahs/blues.

Little Bug has been behaving somewhat better these past few days, so I feel a bit more at ease.

Here are all of our “winter” flowers: Daisy, Iris, Lily and Bug (she has a flower name, too).

New year goals

January 9, 2009 at 8:51 pm | In baking, knitting, recipe | Leave a Comment

I do like to reflect on the past and think about things I want to change around the new year – not exactly resolutions, but things I want to work on.

Be healthier – Cook more at home , eat out less, try new recipes, drink less pop/soda, eat more vegetables and fruits, exercise more regularly

Parenting – be more consistent with Bug, be more patient with Bug, set boundaries

Personal – take more time to relax and enjoy life, strengthen my dancing technique, knit/crochet a few things for me (hat and scarf)

Family – do more family-oriented activities, visit or call out-of-town family more often

This seems like a lot now that I have it written down…

I tried a few new things this week.

Spoon dolls from the Usborne Activity Book

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According to Bug, they are the “princesses who don’t do anything.” If you have a veggie-tale fan, you will recognize it as a spin off of the ‘Pirates who don’t do anything.’

I made a new recipe given to me at work.

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Double chocolate chip biscotti

2 c flour

1/2 c cocoa powder

1 t baking soda

1/4 t salt

6 T butter, softened

2 eggs

1 c chocolate chips

1 c nuts

Beat butter and sugar together and add eggs, beat. Mix flour, soda, salt, and cocoa and add to butter mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Form into 2 logs and flatten to about 1 inch (rectangle shape). Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Bake at 350F for 30-35 minutes. Cool 5 minutes and cut into 1 inch slices. Place on side and bake 8-10 minutes longer.

I’ve been working on my teal/gray socks in the pointelle pattern.

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