It's a Blizzard...

...a blizzard of knitting, I guess. Finished some things, and am thinking that I'm leaning toward "monogamy." Explanation below. First, Thanksgiving...

It was just the two of us for dinner. Hubby cooked a turkey breast; I did the potatoes and Brussels sprouts and he did the Apple Cranberry Chutney. 

It was nice; the potatoes and Brussels Sprouts we roasted in small cast iron pans. The chutney took about 40 minutes, but served warm, it was lovely. 

The Sprouts did get a "bit caramelized" - a tad more than I usually like them, but they were still pretty good. The potatoes were kind of cool: slice them thinly, fan them out and arrange them in a pan that's been brushed with olive oil. Season however you like, dot with butter and cover with foil. Bake at 350* till fork tender. Remove, sprinkle with Parm and stick 'em back in for 10-ish minutes. Imagine this picture only in a cast iron skillet. I used 4 potatoes, and we had leftovers to have with another meal. 

You can use however many potatoes you like. I seasoned with an Italian blend, salt & pepper. I should have used some more of our fresh Rosemary, but I used several stalks in the turkey breast, so I didn't want to overwhelm the taste buds with only one note of flavor. We used Yukon gold potatoes, and they cook up nice and tender. 

I've done that before, with a whole baking potato: cut it in slices, almost all the way through, drizzle with olive oil, put a couple of bay leaves in there, wrap it in foil and stick it on the grill. 

Christmas Baking has commenced...

I had an early dismissal on Wednesday (thanks, doc!) from work and got my list in order. On Friday I started baking. And baking. And baking. 

Here's the list. Here are the check-marks. That's what's done. The rest is Hubby's except I'll do the Honey Cookies. I may do Kolachky (sometimes spelled Kolache), if we think we need more. 

This year, I've done one batch of each; usually I double them, but Hubby and I talked and thought that perhaps singles would do. We shall see... 


We did the usual: Snow on the Mountain - Kid #2 is doing his version with a dash of chili powder and cinnamon + sugar to roll them in (also to let people know which are plain and which are a little on the spicy side! This mix killed a cookie scoop. Ended up molding them by hand, which is always fun. And I should have dredged them more in the powdered sugar. Either way, this is an outstanding fudgy cookie. Look for them as Mexican Crinkles or the like on Google. 

This was supposed to be Pear Bread. I had some pears that were "leaning toward death" and I thought I'd make a bread so that I could use it as a filler on cookie trays. Well. Pears crapped out. So, "plot twist!" -- we went to Apple Bread. Used 2 large Granny Smith apples, mace, and powdered ginger (spices from Penzey's - I don't get anything out of this endorsement, but they deserve the shout-out because they've got fantastic spices!). 

The apples were supposed to be peeled, but, lazy baker that I am living dangerously, I just diced them up pretty fine. The bread smelled fantastic, and I was able to get two loaves, nicely browned. They're in the new freezer. 

Yeah. Hubby says, "Maybe we need a freezer just for cookies, and we could unplug it after the season..." I said, "Have you been thinking about that a lot?" He claims not, but then again... 

So - this is now set in the basement, next to the ElliptiKILL. It's got a slight dent in the bottom left corner, but who cares? For under $200, I can deal with it. He was aiming at an upright, but we ended up with a chest. That's ok. I can reach the bottom without falling in (!) and chest freezers are more efficient, anyway. 

Next up, the mix that almost killed my Kitchen Aid. It was a double batch of the Vanishing Oatmeal Cookie recipe which is on the lid of the Quaker Oats tube/box, to which I added pecans, golden raisins, and dried blueberries. Oh, and about 1 1/2 c. of dried cherries. I kept it simple. It's a great basic recipe in itself. You can use it as a base for chocolate oatmeal, white chocolate + cranberry, or stick with dates + nuts. 

Usually, my oatmeal cookies are "garbage cookies" - remnants of dates, candied cherries, raisins, etc. This time, I narrowed it down to the 3 kinds of dried fruit I had on hand. 

The dough needed to be kneaded. That's a first for me! I didn't even bother to use one of the scoops that Hubby got to replace the dead one (which was one of my favorites, with a padded handle). I went straight to a spoon. 

I think I also added minced candied ginger to these. It's a trick I use to make the cookies a little chewy but with a tad bit of "heat" from the ginger. It's a "sparkly" heat, and I love to use it. I'll even put a piece of it in tea when I need a little digestive boost. 

Next up, Chocolate Shortbread. In this recipe, three ingredients: butter and powdered sugar, with cocoa. Here, we had a little miscommunication. Hubby had to run to the store for a few things, and I asked him to get me a small bottle of "Cinnamon Red Hots" -- only it came out like this:

Cinnamon
Red Hots

Well... I didn't explain, and to be honest, I rarely use them. He didn't quite know what "red hots" were, and bought me yet another bottle of cinnamon. He said, "Why do we need this much cinnamon?" which I thought was odd... Turns out that after all this time, I still need to translate for him! 

Last year, these were stars. This year, I went with bells. The recipe is really rather stiff, and so I tend to stick with shapes that are simple. I put small snowflake sprinkles on the clappers of the bells. These freeze well, but boy are they fragile! So they went on the top shelf of the new freezer. 

Lemon Cherry cookies are Hubby's absolute, every year, must-have favorites, and I admit they're pretty good. My guitar teacher also loves them. This time, we did it in 2 versions, because when I did the first ones and he tasted them, he asked, "could we make this more chewy with some cream cheese?" Sure, why not? 

The first pic is the original recipe. Except that I tweaked it. I used more lemon rind than they asked for, and I used 2 drops of Young Living Essential Oil Lemon Vitality(TM) which I added right into the mix to zip up the lemon flavor. The cherries are from Traverse Bay Farms - again, no silver crosses my palm for this recommendation; I'm just telling you, for your own use, that if you want really good stuff, this is what I use. 

Hubby uses cream cheese for his Soft & Chewy M & M Cookies (my sister's fave). So he figured, "why not?" and re-did the recipe (minus the essential oil), using the cream cheese. 


The result was soft and chewy, but "rough" as you can see. These were more of a soft dough, too, so I used a scoop and made them a drop cookie. 

I think he added more cherries - because I had to kind of finagle the dough to make sure there were enough cherries in each cookie. 

These are such a bright, fresh alternative to all the chocolate and other rich ingredients during Christmas. 

I like to spark it up because we do get a surfeit of sweets and while these do have sugar, the lemon and tart cherry seems to "cut through" the sometimes cloying sweetness of everything we have handed to us. 

Not that we have to actually CONSUME everything we're handed. But we do "eat with our eyes" and that does affect our system just as much as if we did eat the stuff. 

Sometimes, a nice, refreshing bite of something tart can also stave off any urges to consume vast amounts of chocolate, too. Nice thought, right? 

Last up in my Baking Bonanza are new cookies. I'm not sure I like them. Hubby is deciding. These are Brown Butter Salted Caramel cookies. Look them up under that name - I'm pretty sure they're called something else, but this is close. 

So. Kraft Caramels. Soft sugar cookie dough bolstered by browned butter, pinch a hunk, stuff a caramel in it, and top with another hunk of dough. No chilling of this buttery dough required, though you do have to "pad the bottom" so as to avoid caramel leakage. If I was going to really spiff this up, I'd use my friend Alice's caramels (who am I kidding? I save those for ME!) or another good, home-made caramel, maybe from Dan's Candies here in town. They've been in town forever, since I was a kid. They have new owners. The caramels are still ok. Thank God. I'd be very upset if the new owners screw up the caramels. My mom used to send them to me when I lived in VA. 

Anyhow, you sprinkle the tops of these with sea salt. I tried Grey Sea Salt, Pink Sea Salt, and Kosher Salt. I don't have the correct balance of salt + caramel. Gotta work on that. I mean, I'd make these again. 

And then, because I hadn't baked enough, we had the Church Greening today. So we were having a soup lunch and I was asked to bring cornbread. 

Not totally jazzed with this. I used Jiffy mix, which I rarely do. But I also added about 3 T. of chopped pimiento for color, a couple handfuls of a Mexican Cheese blend (Kraft, I think), and 1 1/2 c. of sweet corn. 

They weren't quite done in the time allotted, and when I checked, the middles were still uncooked. So - I had to nuke them for about a minute each. 

That messed with the texture, so I'm not pleased. But people ate it. 

Young Living Essential Oils...

Black Friday - that sale that lasted 2 days. And we have Cyber Monday yet. Yikes. Anyway, this was one gift that I'd gotten for Hubby. 

I'm learning to use the Vitality(TM) oils in various ways, and this had a cookbook, which has some really nice recipes in it. And the bowl was pretty cool - Hubby decreed, "This is great to raise bread!" And the silicone bottom? I love those mixing bowls because they stay put!

I'm being honest here - I'm trying to build a business, tied in with my yoga studio. I use these products, and I love them. And I suck at "selling." I can only tell you my opinion and give you the option to do your own research. 

If you're interested, and you want to sign on - here's a link you can use: https://tinyurl.com/yljustbreathe

This link will direct you to the enrollment page, and you can go from there. I'm available to help you - just comment here. Or find me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/yogapatperrier/

That's where you'll find inspiration, comments on living a well-rounded life, and events for the studio. Recipes, occasionally, too - on the healthier side! 

Anyway, that's my pitch. Come find me out there on social media. 

Knitting monogamy...

So here's what I meant by that. I've been in a dead heat to finish the Christmas knitting, and I think it's done. I've noticed a trend in myself. I tend to buckle down and finish "the thing" and lately, instead of starting something else new, I've been plucking something out of "the closet" and charging forth to finish THAT thing. 

It's like the Knitting Fairies have decreed that I waddle through some of the WIPs that have lingered almost into antiquity. 

So I think I actually showed you this hat... but here it is again. I'll spare you the other pics of it. And yeah, I need to get a larger "wig head" but I'm not sure that I want to...I've got this one. 

I turned into my office/dumping ground/one-of-these-days-a-yoga-room, and found again this lovely Precious Metals scarf. Precious Metals is the colorway of the yarn and the pattern is the Grapevine Scarf. 


Nope. Not cables, but boy do they look like it! 

Here's the front - and when you click on it, you can see the lovely pattern. I'm looking forward to blocking this and wearing it. 

The yarn is from Rembrandt Yarns, my friend Sandy. 

It's a great place to shop. Give it a look. 

Anyway, you can see the cable-like structure, but you can also see the "sausage tube" that's happening. 

I'm not sure about this...

See here? Will this block out, you think? It's superwash wool, which I believe I can steam-block. 

But it's been ages since I took an iron to my wool... I'm kind of scared. One part of me thinks, "It's a scarf. Deal with it."

Another part says, "Yeah, but it looks like CABLES and will be awesome!" 

Soooooooooo - I've got a bit left; probably a week's worth of dedicated knitting. And then I'll pin block it first. See how that works. 

But I'm betting that I'll be pulling out the iron and steam blocking it. 

Anyone have experience doing this? Help!!! 

Random Picture...

This is absolutely one of my favorite pictures of our River (RIP). She was such a dignified dog; very sure of her own beauty and a gentle personality. 


She would never do something as undignified as going belly-up... Till she did. I guess the Elkhounds taught her a few things about "sleeping in comfort." She did that several times in her later years, and it was always stinkin' adorable! 

She had such a beautiful coat, even after the diagnosis of Cushing's Disease. Her belly was so fluffy. She learned, after she retired from the show ring, about the Joys of the Belly Rub. 

She learned to love sardines, our "special treat" for their birthdays and "gotcha" days. 

She learned to poop in the street - and enjoyed the ability to poop whenever she wanted to. Small thing, maybe, but it took her a while to act like a "normal dog," and not a "show dog." Though she could put on the show when she wanted to, for sure. 

I still miss her.