I <3 lace! – Multnomah in Malabrigo sock yarn…

and LilyCat loves Bug!

Lots of working going on around here, so there is little of most everything else.  I did try a few new recipes – the winners of the bunch were Grilled turkey with apple chutney and candied garlic green beans.  DH picked up the recipe card from Publix – where he tasted the dishes.  It is a hit in my book.  I changed the apple drink to apple cider, actually grilled the turkey loin (not pan seared),  and used more green beans than were called for.   I think we’ll even make this over the holiday.

As for crafting, I’ve been working on a small shawl that I learned about from Manic Purl’s podcast: Multnomah.  I’m doing mine in Malabrigo sock and will do more repeats to use up the yarn.  The pattern calls for 10 repeats, but I’ll probably have enough to do 12 or 13 (on 11 right now).

Miss Bug enjoyed her first venture into trick-or-treating.  It was the first time she has been able to stay awake until dark on the actual day.  She was a ferocious black cat.

Dad took her to the pumpkin patch for school, but she has become terrified of the wagon or the ride or something.  She cried on the wagon, but managed to pick out a pumpkin.

We’ve been enjoying the outside…

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…

Little Monkey is growing up…

Deja vu?

night blooming cereus x 4

petting a corn snake

super-cute x 3

super-cute x 2

dancing with Dad

misbehaving with Mom

an almost finished green ice queen

Psaw! Boom!  It is September!   Why didn’t time move that fast when I was a kid?

Bloo-ya socks: 1 done, 1 to go

Cookie A sock: at gusset increases on first one

Bug’s kroy socks: DONE

Pink Ice (Ice queen): DONE

Elizabeth scarf: FINALLY DONE

Spring Ice (Ice Queen): about 30% done

Pinkie clogs: need felting

Grape clogs: need felting

We went to the Dinosaurs Alive Exhibit at Cincinnati’s Union Terminal.  I was expected more realism, but it was good for little Bug as it was (not scary).  However, she did not like the extreme angle of the omnimax theater seats.

Little Bug ran her first race, a 1 mile with Dad!

We went to the Wilson County Fair and saw lots of crafts and the pig races… very fun!

One of the two quilt displays…

basket display

one of the ‘winners’ behind glass…

canned items….

pig, duck, goat, and pot-bellied pig racing – all were baby animals except the ducks – too cute!

our little princess who is so grown up…

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….

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.

I’ve also made a few dishcloths…

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!

We’ve had a lot of experimenting with recipes going on around here…

I modified a chess bar recipe to use up some bananas and cherries that we had lying around.

The original recipe came from the net: http://www.beaumontinn.com/recipe_chessbar.htm

Beaumont Inn’s Famous Chess Bars - modified

1 Yellow Cake Mix
1 Egg
1 Stick of Butter

1 banana (mashed)

20-30 cherries pitted

8 oz. Cream Cheese

2 eggs

1 pound of confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar)

Mix egg into cake mix. Melt butter, add to egg mixture. Add mashed banana. Stir until becomes a ball. Pat into greased 12×15 flat pan.  Distribute cherries on top of this layer.   Put cream cheese in mixer bowl.  Beat until smooth. Add 2 eggs and confectioner sugar. Mix until smooth.  Pour on top of cherries and cake and bake 30-35 minutes or until light golden brown in color. Bake at 350 degrees.

Cool completely before cutting.

Rating: delicious!

Late on Thursday evening DH arrived… to join our group, so Friday took us to the Oconaluftee Indian Village.  This is a re-creation village showing native American activities and homes representing different times, back to the 1700s.  We saw pottery, weaving, basketmaking, flintknapping (sp?), and traditional dancing.  You wouldn’t be able to tell from looking at us, our family has some Cherokee ancestors, so it was both interesting and a little sad to visit.

I wish we had the time (and energy) to visit the museum and Qualla Crafts, but alas there wasn’t enough of either.

There was a time for the little ones to take a crafting class

On Saturday we headed to rafting (at Raft with Kids) with my sister’s family (little Z and little C included).  Little Bug was very scared and wanted to go back, but the guides were so GREAT with her.  She eventually calmed down and we all had a great time (sorry no pics – camera isn’t waterproof).  A final dinner at Butts on the Creek (good, but a bit expensive) and another round of golf (demanded by little Z) rounded out our vacation…

Final verdict: I am exhausted!!!!

We survived vacation in North Carolina and returned safely on Sunday.  The first evening (Sunday) was spent unpacking and getting settled.  We used Monday to go to the store and then took the kids to do some ‘gem mining’ and putt-putt golf just to get them out of the house and moving around.

On Tuesday we headed to Cherokee, NC.  We stopped in the visitor center there, which is a great location on the water and is staffed with very friendly, helpful people.

We went gem mining again and found the Oconaluftee Islands Park to have our picnic …

the Fun Factory to appease both small and big kids (but when can you appease a teenager? – tell me…!)

On Wednesday, we went horseback riding and then visited the water park area in Cherokee (near the Cherokee Coney and Cream Ice Cream Shop – mmMMMmmm!)  The horseback riding was very traumatic and Bug screamed and screamed, so they took us back while the others continued on…

Thursday took us to Asheville.  Everyone went to visit the antique car museum/sculpture garden, but then we split up.  Bug and I went to the North Carolina Arboretum to see the bonsai and quilt gardens.  Everyone else went to the Biltmore.  I’d been there and never care to go back.  They now agree with me (told you so!)

Enough for now…