Cute, but Useless...

 Yeah, that covers a lot, doesn't it?? Well, in this case, I'm talking spatulas. 

The Cookie Baking Season has begun and is almost done here in my house. And I dug out a spatula that someone gave me a while ago. Honestly, it's too long ago - I could've bought it myself, thinking it would be a cute addition to my kitchen. 

Cute, yes. Useful? Nope. All style, no function. 

The snowflake design is adorable, but it's a pain in the butt to clean, and to be honest, the "tips" of the snowflake make it impossible to get a good grab on a cookie. I tried it. The cookies pushed themselves to the edge of the parchment, and the spatula had no grip, in spite of the pebbled surface. And the snowflake cut out? Yeah - not easy to clean. 

So back in the drawer it goes. And I go to my old standard - the GOLD standard, in my opinion. By the way, as always, I don't do "affiliate" things. Whatever I suggest here is just because I think it's a good thing. 

My absolute favorite spatula is the Wilton one. It's got a nice sharp edge. It can actually dig into the parchment paper, but it's a boon for the more delicate cookies. It can also stand up to the sturdier cookies, like slice & bake, chocolate brownies, etc. I got this at the local Michael's store when they had a decent selection of Wilton stuff. Now, lately, it's mostly their own stuff. Sorry - I'm a snob when it comes to some products, and I know that I'm lucky to have the ability to buy the things I buy. It's a good idea to always get the best item you can. It doesn't help if you skimp on some basics, because you just have to spend more to replace the cheap stuff. I think this spatula was maybe $10.00 and it's lasted me for years. 

We have a rule with scissors and spatulas. If I say they're my fabric scissors, and you cut something other than fabric? It's not going to end well for you. 

And if I tell you "This is the COOKIE SPATULA," then don't be using it to lift fish sticks off a baking pan. I will be very upset! 

Anyway, we're mostly done with the cookies except for the Pineapple Crescents, a/k/a God's Fiddliest Cookie. I'm doing the dough tomorrow; it will sit in the fridge all day and then Tuesday & Wednesday nights, I'll bake it all. My kitchen will be a wreck, and I'll be dead, but it'll be done. Actually, Hubby will help me do some of it. He's been a great help in keeping me balanced. 

In order to rehab this hip thing, I'm learning the balance between "pushing" and "don't push." I'm feeling better, and I have to work on the "don't push" thing. 

The Knitting...

Just moving right along...Knitting for about 18" now. I have 35" or so to complete. I'm loving the heft and squishy feel of this afghan. 

Barring any emergencies or injuries, I'm going to sail through this and move on to the other items in the layette. 

Honestly, with a project this big, the changes are pretty much invisible in pictures. But I can tell by the weight of it. This is the heaviest one I've made so far. The Encore yarn I usually use has a gorgeous loft, but this Softee Baby is HEAVY. 

I can feel when it's not quite right on my lap because the whole thing lists over. 

Now, I'm wondering if when I do the Baby Surprise, I ought to just do one strand. I was going to hold 2 strands together, like the blanket, but I'm thinking that's gonna be a COAT and not a sweater. So maybe I just use the 1 strand and work it that way. 

I can always cast on and see how it goes. 

Bad Book...

Back in the way-back, when I had a Kindle Gen 3, I was still unsure about how this "e-book" thing was gonna work. Much like farmers never thought a tractor would beat a horse. 

(sigh) Ok, call me converted. But there are still glitches that wouldn't happen in print. 

I bought a great Agatha Christie mystery and I was so eager to get into it. But...The upload sucked. I mean, there was code or gobbledy-gook on every page. I got to Chapter Two and my eyes wanted to vomit. 

I found out how to report it to Kindle, and then I went on Amazon. I thought, "Maybe it's just me..." and lo & behold -- MANY readers rated this gorgeous mystery as a 1-star because "the upload was crap and we can't read it!"

I mean - zoom in on that picture and you'll see what I was looking at. You can't read that. Your brain searches for the word stuck in all that crap, and your eyes are literally twitching. 

I hope that Kindle sees this stuff and updates the book. I went on to another mystery, but it makes me sad to see how bad this is. 

As an editor, I'm used to being the last set of eyes before a book goes to print. This stuff? It's unacceptable. 

Random Picture...

Well, we finally decanted the Mother Jar of vanilla. Hubby re-upped the vodka and we put it in the pantry till next year. He found a bottle that I think used to carry honey mead. I remember one of the kids got it for him for Christmas. 

He's not a mead drinker... But the bottle is cool. 

I knew it was down there, and I'm glad it's now holding our precious vanilla. I have my original -- I mean from like 2000 -- vanilla where I used Svedka. Hubby decided to get me Tanqueray Sterling Vodka. 

Honestly, when making vanilla, middle-shelf is fine. But I must say, this vanilla is quadruple-strength and it's smooooooooooooth! 

I have Indonesian beans coming. The vanilla comes from the POD, not the bean. So I've been scraping some of my beans to make cookies and frosting. Now, I'll add the Indonesian beans to my Ugandan beans; likely, I'll start another Mother jar, because this one should be split up. Too many beans in the jar. It'll be easier to make 2 jars, as long as we have enough vodka. 

I wonder about transferring the vanilla out of the Svedka jar. I just love it because it's my "vanilla history." It's something think about.