The Scottish Lamb

Viva Daisy!

I've always loved to cook and I love Food Network.  I remember when all the cooking shows were on PBS and I still watch America's Test Kitchen and Everyday Food (which we aren't getting right now for some reason).

When we moved to West Point a year and a half ago I found a great cooking show on the PBS station here.  It was called Daisy Cooks by Daisy Martinez specializing in Puerto Rican cooking.  Sadly, there were only a few segments on after I found it.  So I ordered her book which used to come with a DVD but doesn't any more.

I have been making THE BEST pork chops marinated in citrus (I use the Goya Bitter Orange Marinade because it's easy to find) and Puerto Rican Yellow Rice ever since.  I'll never make pork chops any other way again.  These are juicy and flavorful unlike the dried-out leather things I used to make.  I fancy myself a good cook but pork chops were my enemy.  Not any more.  When I was trying to find some of the specialty Puerto Rican ingredients (which you'd think would be easy this close to NYC), I emailed Daisy and she wrote back with all her favorite shopping hangouts in the city.

I'm so excited that Daisy is going to be on Food Network with her new show, "Viva Daisy!"   They've done a few pilot episodes so be sure to tune in or set your DVR to Saturday morning at 9:30.  Yeah!  I can't wait!!

It's a Good Day for Comfort Food

Food is a tricky thing to photograph.  This looks much creamier in person. Since Kim shared her Carrot Soup Recipe the other day, I thought I'd share a favorite in our house, Chicken and Cheater Dumplings.  I call them that because I cheat and use Grands Biscuits.  If you're a purist, go for it and make them from scratch, but I swear, these taste just as good.  It's cold, wet and icky here in the New York tonight.  This is just the ticket.  Click on it for a larger image.

 

Twelve more hats arrived today and yesterday!  That brings out total up to 66!  I want to explain why I'm not writing out each person's name with a photo of the hat(s) they knit.  I had some very well-meaning little helping hands when I opened the first few packages and, to tell you the truth, things got a little mixed up.  I have who and how many, I just don't know which ones. Plus, I don't know most people's blogs or any kind of info really.  I have people's first and last name but I doubt everyone wants that posted.  Anyway, I just wanted to explain in case anyone was wondering.  I didn't want anyone to think I was ungrateful or anything.  I really do appreciate the support.

  It's that time of year again and I almost forgot but an Elannite reminded me.  Check out the Drops Knitting Advent Calendar for 2008!

Wintery Knitting

Here's a work-in-progress post for Kim.  This is the little Norwegian sweater I cast on for my cousin's mountain man baby.  Good thing it's a quick knit or he'll outgrow it before I even get it done.  Good incentive.   I totally screwed up my math so when I got to the patterning I had to completely change it and come up with my own.  I pulled out the graph paper and started fiddling.  I learned something.  Norwegian patterns are much easier to do on and odd number of stitches.  Of course I had an even number.  Grrr.   I'll share the chart I did in a future post.  You can just make out the column of green on the upper left that will serve as my stitching line when it comes time to cut.

I was supposed to meet an Elann friend for lunch yesterday but they closed the roads down on post and the boys got yet another snow day home from school.  I would really have liked to go meet T but I have to admit... our backyard is beautiful as a winter wonderland.  You can't even see the houses behind us.

Yesterday was a perfect morning for fresh warm muffins.  These blueberry muffins are FABULOUS!  I just beat the butter and sugar by hand instead of pulling out the Kitchen Aid and they were light and airy and perfect.  I happen to have the book and love it.  It's chock full of excellent recipes.  You can also find the recipe here.

Happy Birthday My Little Redhead

From this (Aggie is on your left):

to this:

in two years.  I took this picture on Aggie's 2nd birthday (Saturday).  Happy birthday my sweet girl.  To celebrate I bought Aggie a gift!  Wasn't that nice of me?  She's always wanted a skein winder that she didn't have to clamp down!  Who knew?!

What better way to try it out than with the yarn Kim gave to me over Labor Day weekend.  I bought it from The Knit Store on Ebay.  I love it!

Finished the socks I started on Labor Day from Regia.  I have to say that the mismatched look drives me nuts.  Someone in the family is definitely getting these socks.

The color got me thinking of blueberries and blueberries got me thinking of one of my favorite treats:

Blueberry scones and a cuppa tea.  Must be the Scottish blood roaring through my veins.  I've made them enough to have been able to tweak the recipe a bit from various recipes I've found in books and on the web.  I like a denser, not so bready scone with an almost crunchy outside.  This was my latest try and so far it's our favorite.

Scottish Lamb's Blueberry Scones -

• 2 1/2 c flour
• 1/3 c sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 TBS baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• fresh nutmeg (I grate about a tsp worth if you're using the already grated stuff, I'd double it)
• 1 TBS grated lemon rind

Preheat oven to 400F.  Mix above ingredients in a bowl with a whisk until well blended.  Then cut in:

• 1 stick unsalted butter (1/2 cup) - do NOT use margarine

Until it looks like cornmeal.  I usually stick the whole bowl back in the freezer (or at least the fridge if there's no room in the freezer) for about a half an hour before continuing so that the butter gets nice and cold again.

Then add about a pint of fresh blueberries (you can use frozen but don't defrost them so they won't turn the dough blue).  Really, you have a lot of choices at this point.  Try raisins, craisins, nuts, cranberries, etc.  You really can't go wrong.  My favorite is blueberries or raspberries though.

Beat together:

• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk (buttermilk will make the crumb softer and lighter if you'd like to try it)

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix with a spoonula until it comes together into a ball.  Dump onto a floured surface and gently knead just until it is combined well (you have to do this carefully with berries so you don't crush them).  Flatten out into a disk about an inch thick and cut like a cake into wedges.  Place on a sheet pan and brush with either milk or an egg wash.  Sprinkle with sugar and bake at 400 for about 20 min or until golden.  Best when fresh out of the oven. Brèagha (Gaelic for Beautiful)

Nothin' Says Fall like FOOTBALL!!

Black Knights!!  Hooah!

I wish you could feel the excitement here today.  Tomorrow is a special day.   The first home football game of the season and guess who has tickets?!  We are SO excited we can't stand it.  Best news... we live less than a mile from the stadium so we can walk and not suffer all the traffic.  We went today and bought all the fun stuff for the game.  Evidently football is HUGE here.  Dan even had to bring home one of the office cars with the sirens and lights so that he can get through traffic if he has a duty call.

Dan laughed and said we have a pretty good chance at being at a game when Army wins because they're playing Rhode Island tomorrow (please, if you're a Rhode Island fan...  yell at Dan.  He said it, not me).  Next one that we have tickets to is against Rutgers.  He suspects we'll lose big time.  Still fun to go though.

Kim blogged today about the little things I brought her last weekend and I felt like a schmo for not sharing what she gave me.  I'm sure you all know she's been working hard to get ready for the fair but she let me dig into her bag of goodies and pick a skein.  This colorway is called Boysenberry.  Purdy, ain't it.  As soon as I finish up the other socks I started on the trip to NH, I'll cast Kim's luscious yarn on.

I turned the heel on the sock I started last weekend.  This yarn is fun.  I'm carrying the ribbing just down the top of the foot.

I also did a little more canning.  A bunch of Gramp's tomatoes were nice and ripe and I didn't want to lose them so I made some marinara sauce with them.  No recipe.  Just winged it which is usually what I do when I'm cooking.  I had a bunch of fresh parsley and basil to use up to so it all worked out great.  I only got three quarts but that red color is spot on.  I'll save one jar to take back to Gramps on the next trip.  He'll like that I think.

Take Me Home, Country Roads....

What a FABULOUS weekend! Family, friends, even some knitting!

The biggest reason I begged Dan to endure the winters of the Northeast (he is a Texan, you know) was to be near my family in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. They're only a five to six hour drive away (not counting the Friday before Labor Day when everyone and their brother seemed to be headed the same way we were...).  We've been so busy getting settled in that we've only been up there for once right after we landed back in the States.

Joe got a little taste of what I loved to do as a child.  Go pick dinner out of Gramps' garden.  Fresh potatoes, tomatoes, cukes...  nummy.

My grandfather is the best gardener, historian, teacher (not professionally) and philosopher.  I love sitting and listening to him talk about anything.  When I was a little girl we weren't close.  I lived with them for a while after my parent's divorce when I was four but he was working (they were very young grandparents - their youngest of eight, my uncle, is only a year older than me) and busy with his own kids.  Age has mellowed him but he still doesn't sit down for more than a couple of minutes at a time.   Even at 81 he still works hard keeping the up with the land and home he's built for them up on the mountain.  I remember being about 11 and he and my grandmother would be walking us through the woods next to the house he was born in, telling us just where each room in their house would be.  I thought they were nuts at the time.  Funny, here we are, about 30 years later... yesterday morning Dan and I were walking in the woods with my grandfather having him show us just where we should put a clearing for our camper so we have a place to stay when we go up to work on our little cabin we're going to build down the road from them.  It will be right across the dirt road where his grandmother's house stood more than 50 years ago.   I love family history and I love going home.  I love showing my boys through the little town where my roots go way back.  Lots of people have that every day but growing up military and then raising military kids...  that's one of the things I miss the most.  Roots.

Years ago Gramps used to make these spicy pickled green tomatoes.   As he got older he stopped making them and my Uncle Chet started.  Dan and I always managed to get a jar and we'd savor them for as long as we could.   If you remember, my Uncle Chet passed away suddenly less than a year ago.  Gramps and I made a date for this past Saturday to make those special little treats and I couldn't help thinking Uncle Chet was up there grinning down at us and probably thinking we'd never make them as good as him.  He's probably right. lol.  It was so much fun to share this with my grandfather.  He showed me how it was done.  When we were leaving this morning he told me I could take half the jars and he gave me a few pounds of green romas so I could make some more.  I wouldn't take more than two jars and I plan on bringing some back to him on our next trip.

The other big treat was getting to finally meet someone that I've considered a friend for quite some time now.  Dan and I felt right at home in Kim and Ken's wonderful home.   They live only about a half an hour from my grandparents so I know we'll be seeing each other again and hopefully have the chance to spoil them as they did us.   I brought my camera.  I really did.  I have no idea why I didn't take any photos because they would have been great.  When we got back to my grandparents and were trying to describe the day I hit myself in the head in disbelief.  Kim and I have so much in common and it was so fun to finally meet her family and her beautiful little dogs.  It was funny to see four little Cavs go sniffing at Aggie (who is a little alpha and used to being in charge).  The hubs kept busy talking the whole time as well.  The boys even had a great time playing in the pool and rolling around with all the dogs.

I even got a little knitting done on the trip there and back.  Just a sock but it feels good to have the wool and needles in my hands again....

I leave you with a before and after picture of the town store that my great-grandparents ran for years.   It's so sad to see it as run down apartments now. 

See... I do remember how....

Holy sheep wool, Francis!  I do remember how to knit!

I'm just about to the underarms using the Knitting Pure and Simple  V-neck Tunic pattern.  That's Stahl Woolle's Winter-Cotton in Brick.  I bought it from Elann in May of 2004.  Okay... so yea... it's an easy peasy pattern, but at least the ol' fingers are at it again. I gotta tell ya. It feels good.  Kind of like an old friend. 

I've also been baking up a storm for Christmas gifts.  Here's one of the little baskets I put together (I also made various quick breads and piled it all on top of the wrapped package which is a Scrabble game):

I'd like to thank you all for all the comments about Daniel and the camp.  We're fighting with our insurance company (who told us no, but help sponsor a program where kids of deployed parents get to go to summer camp) and looking for other funding possibilities.  He's going no matter what.  I've already sent in a large chunk of the bill.  I'm so excited for him.   This is an investment in his future and a chance for him to feel like he belongs.

I found out yesterday that I won't be running in Berlin in April.  My foot had been hurting since before Athens.  It about did me in during Athens.  I went to a German doctor yesterday.   He  does all the big sports people here (which is funny because I am definitely NOT).  Get this.  It's not my foot.  It's my CALF causing the problems.  He said he was going to do a little therapy and open the calf so it could let out the acids.  He went on to explain that my calf is causing my foot to fall wrong and that's why my foot hurts.  Who knew.   So I'm thinking, "Cool.  I get a leg massage!"  Wrong again.  He pulled out a needle and I wanted to die.  I told him I didn't like needles and he said, "Ah.  It's only one."  Great.  So, today my calf and foot are killing me but he told me it would and that it was a good sign that it was getting rid of the acids.  Okay then.  We'll see if he was right when I go back in two weeks because I gotta tell you, doctor or not, it sounds a little weird to me.

Today is the first day of Christmas break for the boys.  Yeah!  I've been really busy at the school over the last couple of weeks running the book fair.  It was very successful and we earned $1000 for the school!  Yeah!!  Not bad for a small school.  I swore that was my last big volunteer gig... and then I said I wanted to do it again in April.  I'll never learn.

String

The last few people that I've taught to knit or sew have called the yarn and the thread "string".  Drove me nuts.    I haven't been posting lately because I haven't had any knitting to show.  It is a knitting blog after all.   I don't know what it is.  I went through this once before and it lasted about two years.  I have been sewing like crazy though.  Then yesterday I was thinking (I know.  Scary.) in the end isn't all just string? Then I started thinking again (must be something in the coffee).  I think most knitters like anything made of fiber.  I know I do.  And besides...  It's my blog and I'll sew if I want to.   Just think of the thread as really thin yarn. 

So until I get that knitting feeling back....  Here's what I did yesterday:

I made a crayon bag for a three-year old's birthday.  The inside is lined with the bandanna fabric.  I saw a pattern for the bag at Connecting Threads but didn't have time to wait (the party is today) so I winged it.  Pretty easy.  Here's the pattern link at Connecting Threads.

His dad works in Dan's office and they are moving back to the States this week.  I thought it'd be perfect for the plane.  A Tonka Truck wouldn't have been good since they are all packed out and ready to fly.  If I didn't think Preston would get upset when I walked back out with it, I'd bring one in as a joke.

I did another happy little girl bag and accessories for Pam's daughter (Amy Butler's In Town Bag): 

Her birthday party is tomorrow and I can not wait for her to see it.  It's very similar to the one I made before.  Madison, the five-year old that I made the last one for saw this one and was not happy about it.  I assured her they were a little different and she seemed okay with that. The little zippered bag and tissue case were made with scraps so that I didn't have to cut into a new fat quarter.  The zipper bag is lined with the white flowered fabric on the sides of the purse and the tissue pouch is lined with the orange lining in the purse.  Usually a little of the tissue pouch lining shows up on the opening edges but the piece of fabric was a hair too short.  I used a pattern for the zippered pouch from this book:

Pam and I are doing Thanksgiving Dinner for the kids tonight. On Wednesday we are all headed to Garmisch for the Holiday Weekend.   Another family that we were stationed with here in Germany before are meeting us down there.  Can't wait.  I hope there's snow on the mountains because, not that I'm complaining, it's been REALLY warm here for this time of year.  I planted bulbs in baskets to give out in February... I think I'll be giving them out for Christmas instead.

So Happy Thanksgiving to all! 

Here's my recipe for Sweet Potato Casserole.  It's always a favorite and really low in fat (not).