Lemongrass & Spearmint

The salt dough ornaments have all been painted.   I will need to search out twine for hanging them as the holes are too tiny for even the slimmest ribbons.

Four weeeks to Christmas - are you ready?  Last year, we scaled down a bit on gifts, and I did alot of crafting, but I am afraid that my family is tiring of my 'making'.  I really appreciated not having to step foot in a mall in December, not having to drive around parking lots for hours to find a parking space, not having to push past harried shoppers, not having to stand in checkout lines with impatient children, and so forth.  Frankly I felt a little superior to all of those that simply picked something off the shelf and handed over cash.  I spent weeks knitting, sewing, beading, baking, thrifting, and colouring.   I don't know if that's the answer.   I could support local businesses instead.  I could buy gift cards that benefit non-profit organizations.  I could give gifts of time.  Make donations in lieu of gifts.  Or scale down completely.  Make new traditions and continue with old traditions.  What do I want my children to remember about Christmas?  I guess that's the question.  In any case, their few gifts have been well-thought out and purchased, and I am making them each a gift.   I'm keeping it simple.

Happy Sunday, my friends.  We're off to spend good ol' quality time with family this afternoon - decorating the tree and sharing a meal.  That's what I'm talking about.

N

Holy Cannoli

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

This was my very first time making cannoli. I've eaten them a few times, and my favourite by far was the Sicilian cannoli that Mr. T and I shared while standing on a street corner in Rome. It was crispy and the filling was rich, not too sweet, and had a nice cinnamon flavour.

I do loathe to deep fry at home. That's not to say that I don't love eating all things deep fried, I just don't like the large amount of oil that gets tossed out afterward, not to mention the smell in the house. Is it just me or does anyone else not like their homes to smell like food? This seems a little contradictory since home is where food should be made and enjoyed but while I'm cooking I'll close off all of the doors and open the windows in the kitchen, even if it's minus 30 degrees out.

Anyhow, I ended up using cannelloni shells as my cannoli forms since I had forgotten to go online to purchase some. I wrapped the cannelloni in foil so that the dough would not stick to them and it worked like a charm. My cannoli dough fried up and blistered like they were supposed to. I think the holes were bigger than I would have liked and took a lot of filling to fill them all but that's kind of ok since the filling tasted very good.
I decided to use mascarpone cheese instead of ricotta since I wanted a really smooth and creamy filling. I really liked the taste and I thought the creaminess of the cheese went well with the pistachio, cinnamon, and orange flavourings that were added. I'm not sure if I'd make cannoli again because of the whole frying thing but other than that, I would say that this was a success.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

I'm almost done Monkey #1.  It just needs to be attached at the joints and some nipple-y little legs knit to the body as per the pattern.   While this feels like progress and a head-start on xmas presents, I have had to rip the sweater I was knitting this week because I made a major boo-boo, and the yarn was too shiny for a Cowichan-style cardigan.  I caught my tragic error while gazing at my published blog post.   It occurred to me that the fairisle band around the mid-riff was insanely narrower than the cardigan on the cover of the magazine.  And then the ah-ha moment came like a kick to the stomache.   I had only knit half of the chart!   These things happen for a reason 'cause I really should have ripped it back after an inch into the sweater - the yarn was simply not worthy of the pattern.  I am positive that this is the universe's way of telling me to focus on the holiday gift-making first before I go off on some whim.

Happy Thursday, my friends!  I must go catch up on yesterday's episode of Glee. 

N

Salvaged by Wandering

It's just me and my two lovelies this evening. Homework has been completed, soup has been made for dinner tomorrow, cookies baked for lunches, and knitting resumed. I'm fairisle-ing! Holla!

I've dug out my Treeful of Starling cd, and I am unabashedly belting out my most favourite song; although one can not go wrong with any of them.



Happy Tuesday!

N

Ganomy Bologna

Thank you, everyone, for your 'get well' wishes. The littlest seems to be doing a wee bit better today. The hurling has been replaced with flushed cheeks and shortness of breath. That's probably her asthma kicking in. This is all excellent because I might have told everyone I came across today that she was on the mend - including yourselves as noted in the second sentence.

I was gifted some of this yarn from my sweet neighbour recently and decided to attempt the Ganomy Hat from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitter's Almanac. It's cool, right? I wonder if you say it with a hard 'g' or a soft 'g'. Is it Gah-nomy or Jah-nomy? Either way, it's destined to be a snow-shovelling toque for Mr. J. He cares less what he looks like shovelling as long as he's warm. Ditto that for me. This was easy knitting at it's best. I see piles of Ganomys in my future. Ganomys for everyone!!

Happy Monday! Back to puffer duty.

N

Sweet Surrender

Yesterday afternoon while Mr. J hung up the xmas lights in the front yard, the littlest and I tried our hand at salt dough ornaments. It wasn't easy. I had to climb a small step-ladder and stand over the rolling pin and put all my weight into flattening the dough. After that small feat, we stuck our freshly cut ornaments into the microwave where they bubbled up really strangely. I will have to go out at some point this week and buy some acrylic paints to finish them up, but just because I don't want all this effort lost. I burnt my fingers on these puppies. She had fun though, and that's what matters.

Then she woke up this morning complaining that her tummy hurt. She had half a bagel for breakfast. The bagel was promptly chuffed, and all liquids since. We've been to the doctor, and there's nothing to do but keep her hydrated with popsicles and ginger ale. Poor kid. So that's been our weekend. Doughy tea biscuits, crunchy split pea soup, watered-down coffee, and puke buckets. It's been a bust. But there's always next week. Please let there be edible meals that remain in our bellies.

N

Baby Shower

I managed to get the February Baby Sweater finished in plenty of time. I even found a simple white onesie for under the sweater. Rather than knitting buttonholes and sewing on buttons or even knitting i-cords for closing the sweater, I found a very thin lilac satin ribbon in my craft stash, and I threaded it on a seaming needle and simply wove the ribbon through the stitches in the first increase row in the garter-stitch yoke. I really like how it turned out.

And those cupcakes were yummy.

N