It's Time for Soup...

OK, so the elections didn't go off the way I wanted, but hey - the turnout was good and we were busy as election judges. No machines crapped out. No voters were denied the right to vote. Except for the crazy lady (and I'm deadly serious here; I'll be calling the States Attorney's Office today), it all went off nicely. 

But today is today. Yesterday, I was in a total fog; feeling cruddy physically and mentally. Overwhelmed and sad. But I figure this: Nothing is going to be totally ruined in 2 years. 

They'll just do the same thing that they've been doing. Nothing. 

That being said, it's November. The radio stations are promising Christmas music already (oh, please...) and people are talking about Christmas shopping and all that. I'm going to be missing my usual "Girls' Shopping Expedition" because I have a Free Clinic workshop that week. Hubby will be happy about that...

So. In the spirit of November, fall, cool weather and the time change, I give you:

                                                     Butternut Squash Soup

1 large or 2 medium butternut squash; slice in half, peel, and scoop out the seeds. Chop roughly.

2 large-ish carrots, chunked

2 large Granny Smith apples, quartered and cored. 

1/2 c. leeks, chopped

2 T. olive oil + 2 T. butter

Salt, pepper to taste

1 t. Tarragon

1/2 t. dried lemon peel

8 c. water or veggie stock (add 2 Knorr Veggie cubes if you're using plain water)

1 c. half-and-half

Put the oil + butter in the bottom of a stock pot, heat to melt the butter. Add leeks. Stir around till they're slightly translucent. Add the carrots, squash and apples, and stir around. Let that all saute for about 10 minutes, with the lid on. Add the salt, pepper, tarragon and lemon peel.

Add the water or stock. Bring to a boil, stir it up and then bring down to a simmer. Simmer, covered, about 20-30 minutes - till you can poke the squash and it's tender (the apples will be mushy, but don't worry about that). 

Shut off the heat; use a stick blender (the easiest) and whiz it all up to your favorite consistency - I like it as smooth as I can get it. Then, add the half-and-half, and whiz again just to blend. 

NOTE: IF YOU WANT TO USE BAY LEAF (which tastes yummy), PLEASE REMOVE IT BEFORE YOU WHIZ IT UP. YOU CAN'T EAT BAY LEAF!! 

Serve warm in a mug you can hug. It also freezes nicely, but leave about 1" head-space for expansion. 

Enjoy!

Knitting...

Well, tonight, I'm home, so I'm going to just blitz through the St. Charles sock and see how it goes. I'll start on the blanket tomorrow. I have my first iron infusion, so I'll have to bring knitting and the Kindle so I can have something to occupy myself while they're watching me. 

I've turned the heel and done the gusset. It was a little weird because I ended up having more stitches on one side, so there's some "fudge" built into the sock.   And speaking of socks, here's the "Knit from Sock Stash" project. 

Hubby did his bit. I pulled 12 yarns and he stuck them in bags and labeled them for each month. I'm going to attempt to knit a pair of socks a month, starting in January. One of our designer friends in our "Addicted to Sock Knitting" group is generously going to provide patterns for us, but we can also default to our old favorites if necessary.

For example, I have a car-load of Opal, and most of it is self-patterning/striping. I wouldn't do a fancy lace pattern or something complex with cables (though I don't know how to do cables in the first place...) with a self-striping yarn. It's just too busy. 

But in my "Bags-O-Stash" I know there are some yarns somewhere that'll make nice lace or complex patterns. 

It'll be a nice way for me to not only make the sock drawer more attractive, but also get some of that stuff knit up. 

It also makes room for More Yarn. Which is still cheaper than therapy...I think. 

Politics...

OK, I wasn't going to go there, but I am going to anyway. The mid-terms were destined to really stink if you were a Democrat. The Republicans (and why ANY woman would be Republican? It just makes my head spin) have their people all together. They are in lockstep and I imagine this when I think of them...

And no, I really don't care if it's seemingly "offensive." 

The GOP platform is inherently "offensive" if you have a working brain cell, ovaries, and/or are human.   They talk "compromise," but that's not the first thing I thought of this morning, when I read the Chicago Tribune. Mitchy says he's not going to shut down the government or hold the deficit hostage, but as my friend Jan said, "Did he clear that with Ted Cruz and Joni Ernst?" 

Because he will be just as much an obscure footnote as Boehner is: leader of the least-effective Congress in history. But to hear them talk, Obama is the weak link.

And speaking of weak links, I'm sooooooooooo sick and tired of the Dems who jumped ship. Hey, folks - howzabout you tout the things that WORKED? Stop appealing to the "base" - which are truly the lowest-educated and lowest-informed voters. Perhaps if you talked to those of us who DO think, we'd be less discouraged and more inclined to work harder.

Oh, and let's get the big money out of Election$.... Or, if you prefer: $election$ - because so many of our politicians are truly bought-and-paid for. 

Yes, on both sides of the aisle. 

We have 2 years to watch them do nothing. They'll be busy yammering about "impeaching" the "illegitimate" (so illegitimate that we elected him TWICE) president, and hopefully, we can all finally wake up and smell the coffee.

And say it out loud: They're offended that a BLACK man won the WHITE House. And they want it back to where it properly belongs: in the hands of a rich, conservative white guy. Obama is perceived to be an "uppity" elitist black guy who manages to be, in no particular order: Marxist, Socialist, Fascist, Muslim, Kenyan, illegitimate, etc. Insert your favorite pejorative here... The sooner they can be shed of him and have an upright Christian American MALE in there? The better.

Baghhhhhhhhhh. We get the government we deserve. 

Random Picture...

I'll have to pull one out of the archives, because my Sky Drive is acting wonky. I can't even show you a picture of the socks; the Hi-Res pictures show up, but the other ones don't. And obviously, I don't want a bunch of hi-res pictures on my camera, because I don't want to use up all the space.

Yes. It's The Teal Sock. 

And yes, it's still a singleton. The other one is resting comfortably in the yarn bowl, under a pile of catalogs. It's that time of year, so the mail is full of holiday catalogs. Which I pile up till I get sick of them, and then they go into the recycle bin.

But for now, they're hiding the fact that I haven't done a single stitch on The Other Teal Sock. In months. 

Hey, I've got a baby blanket to finish before Christmas.

That's my story, and I'm sticking' to it!