Money, fame and fortune never could compete

Playing with my Macbook, I discovered that uploading my photos from my camera and uploading them to Flickrs was easier than ever, so here’s a long-overdue picture post!

I shall start with today, proceed reverse-chronologically, and illustrate (quite literally) some random items along the way. Yay!

Anyway, this weekend is Thanksgiving weekend as well as the first Advent Sunday, so I decided to throw a Thanksgiving dinner. I might have overdone it slightly…

… keep in mind that this is for four people! Although somehow, miraculously, we have a surprisingly low amount of leftovers. What was on the menu? Rosemary goose (mostly following these instructions), Burgundy Mushrooms, Thanksgiving Mashed Potatoes, Sweet Potato Casserole, Buttermilk Biscuits, Cornbread Stuffing, Creamed Corn, Pumpkin Pie, Hard Sauce, and I think that was it. It was beyond awesome, and totally worth the spending two days in the kitchen.

After dinner, we took a walk along the canal to aid digestion. It’s been cold here the last couple of days, and it’s even snowed – it feels kind of early for snow, but then again, I keep forgetting it’s almost December. Oh, wait, I don’t forget that: I purposefully push it out of my mind. Oh god.

Incidentally, this was the first time I wore my Vespergyle mitts outside! The right mitten hasn’t been steamed yet and it shows a little if you know what you’re looking for, but I’m absolutely enamored with these mittens: big enough to fit my hands, comfy, Argyle… lovely, just lovely.

Anyway, the pumpkin pie with hard sauce was kind of the highlight of my evening. Lovely stuff. I really like this photo for some reason.

In other, less gluttony-induced news, I’ve been spinning! That’s 50g of New Zealand Lamb, dyed by Sandy at Alles Handgemacht, bought at the Bunter November event at the Strickcafé. I bought a bunch of stuff, including two skeins of BFL yarn and some red laceweight, but the thing I love most is this gorgeous 150g skein of merino from Handgefaerbt.com:

I kid you not, it’s the most beautiful yarn I’ve ever seen. I don’t know how it’ll look knit up, but it’s rich, and subtle, and earthy, and vivid, and soft, and brilliant, and just so, so gorgeous! In every stage of winding, too, which is something I see rarely:

It’s one of these yarns I’m not sure I’ll ever knit up, because it’s so hard to live up to something that gorgeous.

So, yeah. In other words: nothing new in my corner of the Land of Knitting. I’m trudging along on my Christmas project and getting my instant gratification through cooking and baking. (Two days of cooking are instant gratification?! Somebody help me!)

The sugary smell of springtime

Patti’s Super Secret Broccoli/Veggie Soup recipe!

feeds one, or two if you make some garlic bread
SOUP
500g thing of broccoli
600ml/two mugs of hot chicken broth
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
1 thing of Crème Fraiche
1/2 pack of Feta cheese
salt, pepper

GARLIC BREAD
4 slices of white bread
butter
garlic salt

Cut broccoli flowers off and in reasonably even-sized chunks. Depending on your hunger, peel stem and also cut up.

Dice onion and garlic.

Dice feta. Heat some olive oil in a pot, put in onion and garlic. After about a minute, add broccoli. Pour broth in, let boil for about 8-10 minutes, until broccoli is done.

In the meantime, mix butter and garlic salt to achieve desired garliciness. Optionally, chop some garlic and add. Lay bread on cookie sheet, butter generously, shove in the oven at around 180°C for about 10 minutes or until nice and toasty.

When broccoli is done, add crème fraiche, feta, salt and pepper.

Using hand held/immersion blender, blend until only a few chunks are left.

Serve hot, with garlic bread on the side.

For extremely awesome variation, substitute broccoli with sweet potatoes, use less broth, and add a chili pepper about 1/3 into the cooking time. It’s the perfect surprise soup – first sweet and creamy, and then the chili kicks in!

(I make some form of this soup at least once a week, I have to admit. I love it.)

**

Also, on another note, I’ve been feeling kind of mopey all day. I didn’t even knit – well, one needle of the Caramel socks, but that’s so little it doesn’t even count.

BUT I cleaned up my room (minus the desk, but eh), vacuumed, did Portuguese homework and waited for the janitor to find out it’s not our fault there’s water dripping from the bathroom ceiling in the apartment below us. I also didn’t go to any of my classes at all because of said janitor, who has a very limited time frame for stuff like that, for whatever reason.

I also called my grandma, and she was telling me how lovely I looked the other weekend when we went out to dinner, when I was wearing my little black dress and the Sand Shawl with it.

“However, honey, it would look so much nicer if you made your next shawl in a more… colorful yarn. Like orange. Or lilac!”
“Granny. I don’t do violet.”
“No, not violet! LILAC!”

… -.- Yes, I’m aware lilac and violet aren’t precisely the same shade, but they’re still one color family. The one color family I actively boycott. (Well, mostly. I admit to having one purple blouse, one violet skein of sock yarn, and a berry-colored scarf, but these were all bought in moments where I had an acute lapse of reason. Though I do look pretty cute in that purple blouse.)

And all that I can see is just a yellow lemon tree

A day full of Eurekas yesterday.

First, I did up the shoulder seams on my cardigan, and lo and behold – it fits! I did the button band, too, and while it’s still lacking the hem, I wore it yesterday when we were taking the dog out for a quick walk. Doing the hem today in my free period between Portuguese and… Portuguese, on smallish needles because I can’t find my 5mms… which I now discover I won’t need anyway. Good.

Ah, the Tempest… yesterday, when I’d done both shoulder seams, I was so excited I jumped up, pulled it over my neckholder top I was sleeping in, and danced around the hallway in the cardi and my panties. Great moment of humanity, that. Especially since my roomie’s friend with benefits just came out of her room at that precise point.

In between, I made some ridiculously delicious Welsh Honey Veal with fresh green beans and potatoes. It was supposed to be a group effort,  but in the end, I did it pretty much all by myself because my one roomie is helpless in the kitchen and the other one was away with her fwb. THat was cool though – very validating for me, as it proved that I could put together a whole friggin’ dinner. With veal! And, oh, the veal. God, was it good. I swear, that has got to be the best veal recipe out there. The tender, tender meat, the sauce rich with the sweetness of honey and the tang of apple wine… brilliant.

AND I also finished the Swallowtail Shawl!!! Last night, I did a bit while we were singing and playing guitar in the kitchen (I swear, we’re such a bunch of hippies sometimes) and the rest when we were all watching a movie together. 401 stitches! Four hundred and one stitches!

That’s a lot of binding off.

A good day.

Now, today: Blocking.