I’d Like To Think I’ll Remember The Blog

Truthfully, I’m not feeling the allure of the blog anymore.  I used look forward to posting photos and writing a little something about what was going on.  Introducing new patterns here was exciting and everyone loves a good rabbit photo.  Now, I post those things to Facebook and Instagram and I write less and less.  The interaction through blogs changed.  It used to be a rather vibrant community with people commenting and reading and sharing.  Then Ravelry came along and it’s better in many ways, but I do miss the personal touch of reading someone’s blog and seeing what else is going on in their life.  I’m not a big fan of forums.  I don’t like the way they are structured and how it’s hard to follow a thread of thought.

I suppose I could just do vlog entries like some people have taken to, but I mostly don’t feel very “put together” of a day.  So I don’t really want to take a video of me bra-less in my pajamas with my hair in a bun.  I work at home now and the impetus to dress nicely with make-up and jewelry and shoes has mostly gone out the window.  So I’m in a bit of a conundrum.  I don’t listen to podcasts (does more than 1% of the knitting population do that?).  So I don’t really want to start a podcast.  I suppose I could continue to post to the blog occasionally as I already do.  It has become more of a log of my activities any more. When I remember to add them.  So.  Almost 11 years on and I’m trying to decide if I want to keep going.

A Round Up

I’m usually better about doing an end-of-year accounting, but I failed this year.  So I’m just going to post it a few days late.

I published another 20 patterns last year.  And knit about 27 things.  Not quite as stellar on the knitting as I have been in years past, but I think I’m keeping up with the pattern writing.

I’ve helped many knitters with my patterns and fielded a few who just struggled with my style of writing (you can’t make everyone happy!).  I taught classes at BlackSheep and the Ozark Fiber Fling.  I applied for teaching jobs at several big venues and I’m so excited to be teaching at IOLI and the Shuttlebirds workshop next year.  Cross your fingers for me because I may, MAY (it’s really tentative) have the opportunity to teach at RHINEBECK!!!  How amazing would that be?

I’m also writing patterns for TWO clubs for Knitting Boutique.  I’m creating a separate sweater pattern for one of Dianna’s other clubs.  I’m in negotiations with KnitCrate for their sock kit in late summer. Oh, and I’m working on another book.  I think the knitting thing is growing quite well. 🙂

Merry Christmas

We took a vacation to sunny LA and San Diego.  While most of the trip was great, I came down with food poisoning yesterday so some of my vacation was spent staring at the walls of our hotel room.  Tomorrow we fly back to our cold and snowy St. Louis home so I’m wishing you and yours the warmest of holidays since mine will soon be soooo much colder. 😀

Pumpkin Bread with Mapel Carmelized Icing

I found myself trying out some pumpkin bread recipes and altering the recipe again. Ha! I know. My version is written below and I much prefer it to the original. It’s slightly healthier with the whole wheat flour, but also less healthy as I’ve made a caramel maple icing for it. 🙂

This was an awesome way to use some of the pumpkin puree that I made earlier this year from those beautiful Long Island Cheese pumpkins. The batter was delicious and the baked bread even more so. This is wonderful with a cup of tea or a glass of milk. Don’t skimp on the spices either!

Ingredients

½ cup butter, softened
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
2 eggs
Caviar from 1 vanilla bean OR 1 tsp. vanilla extract (optional)
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
FOR GLAZE:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar (start with one cup and add more if glaze is too runny)
2 Tbsp maple syrup

Instructions
1)Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Liberally grease a 2 8″ loaf pans with butter from the wrapper and set aside. I also line the bottom with a bit of parchment paper to prevent sticking.
2) Meanwhile, in a bowl cream the butter and sugar.  Then add eggs,pumpkin, and vanilla and beat well again. Add spices, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and beat well again. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat in flour, until well-mixed.
3) Pour the bread mixture equally between the two prepared pans. Bake for approx. 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out mostly clean or with a couple moist crumbs (not wet). Cool for about 15 minutes, then remove from the pan and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
4) While bread cools, make your glaze: in a small saucepan, heat butter and maple syrup over medium-low heat until melted. Then stir in the powdered sugar and cook at a soft boil for 20-30 seconds to thicken.
5) Pour the caramel icing IMMEDIATELY over the top of the pumpkin loaf and let it set. The icing will set very fast so you need to work quickly.
6) Cut into slices and serve!

A Few Cookies

I made a few batches of cookies for Breelyn’s birthday party.  Ok.  I made 4 batches of cookies but you know how I make small cookies.  So each batch made dozens and dozens.  I think all told I had about 500 cookies out of 4 batches.  That was a few cookies.  I gave away as many as I could after the party, but I still came home with about 100 cookies which I have been steadily dispersing.  I certainly don’t need to eat all of those cookies.

For those who are wondering: butterscotch chip, mini M & m, almond flour brownie, gingerbread with maple icing, and gingerbread with orange icing.  🙂

Charlie AKA Shitty Kitty

This little monster has been invading the house on a regular basis.  I call him a monster, but really he is very sweet.  That’s half the problem though.  He is so sweet and cuddles like the best lap cat.  I brought him home to be a barn cat, so him wanting to be a house kitty is a bit of a problem.  Especially as Abbie doesn’t seem too excited to share the house.  Well, really she isn’t allowed out while the kitten is about.  She gets jealous and chases him so that just doesn’t work too well for me.

We’ve taken to calling him shitty kitty due to his ability to always be underfoot, tripping you while begging for love, crawling into the car, locking the car, begging for a ride in the car, begging for a ride on the lawn mower, taunting the dog by sitting at the sliding door on the deck, and dabbling his paws where they do not belong in my nesting boxes.

Lest You Think I Have Abondoned You

I took some time and made a lovely batch of pumpkin puree from 6 of the pumpkins I grew this year.  First, I just loved the pumpkins in the garden, they resisted the damnable squash bugs the longest.  Long after the other plants were dead from the squash bugs, these Long Island Cheese pumpkins were still growing strong.  They also made a good amount of pumpkin puree.

I didn’t have quite the amount of seeds that I was expecting, but I think it was because I had to take some of the pumpkins off early before a frost and they just weren’t done growing yet.  So, many of them were flat and not fully formed.  Saying that, the seeds were lovely roasted and I discovered that it was much better to dry them fully for two days before I roasted them.

Well!  Back to work now.  I’m about to pop out and finish my Christmas shopping because we are having our family Christmas this weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I’m thankful for the produce from the garden and the bunnies who provide me wonderful fertilizer to grow the garden. 🙂

We Did a Bit of Canning

And cleaned out my freezer, garden, and fridge in the process.  Of course, the freezer and fridge filled back up when I completely cleaned out the garden. . .

For a few days though, it felt so good to know that my canning was all caught up.  No more, of course.  I have several days of canning still ahead of me this fall.  It looks like my tomatoes are ready to be made into salsa right now.  The last of them are finally ripe from the garden.

A Bit of Grant’s Farm

So.  Lauren and I didn’t really enjoy Grant’s Farm.  It is too touristy and geared towards children to be much fun for us.  We did like the Clydesdales and had fun in that small section of the farm.  We enjoyed wandering the Ulyesses S Grant National Historic Site more than the actual Grant’s Farm.  That is a lovely place.  It’s quiet, has a great museum, and was as pleasant a jaunt as we could have expected.

So should you be in the area and interested in a few places around St. Louis, I would highly recommend the National Historic Site in lieu of Grant’s Farm.