Dainty Kitty

Cookies for Santa

Last night I made Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies from Orangette's recipe.  Her blog was the first food blog I read regularly.  It's wonderful and even her words make you come away smacking your lips.

Unfortunately, my brain was on backwards last night and I made a huge mistake.  Two mistakes, actually.  I didn't check my oatmeal and when I pulled it out of the cabinet I found I had about a fourth a cup of oats left.  Off to the store (for the second time in an hour).  When I got back I had oatmeal on my mind and tossed the required amount along with the chocolate chips in with the egg and sugar mix...completely ignoring the bowl of dry ingredients sitting there on the counter.  So I didn't quite mix it together the way I was supposed to and I think that may  have caused them to be so dense.  Next time I'll actually pay attention to what I'm doing.  And I might also make them a bit smaller - a fourth cup of cookie is a lotta cookie.  I ate one last night after dinner and I couldn't even think about eating a second one.  Granted, I was also also sipping on a mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows....

I'll try to take a better photo in the morning - I'm not fond of the fact that it's dark by the time I get home but I didn't want to write yet another photo-less post.

Now I'm going to settle into a night of knitting with my recent Netflix deliveries: Mrs. Brown (thanks Kim!) and An Awfully Big Adventure....

edit: I completely forgot that these cookies help out with my 101 in 1001 list!

44. Try four new cookie recipes (1/4)

Ups and Downs

Downer: This afternoon sucked.  Sprint charged my debit account twice for a payment I made on Sunday.  The fourth person I talked to about it today gave me some random fax number to send my bank statement to and told me it would take ten to fifteen days.

Upper: I threatened to cancel my account and was transferred to another customer service rep who guaranteed the funds would be back in my account within 48 hours and also credited me thirty-five extra dollars.  Oh, and she also told me I was fun to talk to.      

Upper: I spent an hour cleaning my craft room and it looks a million times better.

Downer: It's not finished and I own a lot of junk.

Upper: House was really good - I'm excited about the new team.

Downer: No new episodes until after the first of the year.

What else?  Oh, I still haven't finished putting up the Christmas decorations. Meh.

Learning to Love the Wart

This is my wart.  If it weren't so late, I'd take a better photo since this is over two years old and wasn't taken at the best angle.  Then you could see the true beauty of my wart.

I've had it as long as I can remember. 

Several men have been bothered by this wart (some have also been bothered by the fact that I wear something on my left ring finger - I've since retired the LOLA ring and now wear the braid on my wart thumb).  One wanted to rip it off with duct tape and another asked about having it frozen.  Sure, there was a time when I bought one of those Dr. Scholls bandage kits to try to remove it myself.  It took too long, the tape kept falling off and it was icky so I just gave up.  I've also talked to my doctor about it but that's as far as I've gotten. 

I've also thought, "What if I get married and want to have one of those photos taken of just my left hand?"  Could it be taken from a different angle?  Could they airbrush it out?

Of course, these thoughts never go anywhere because I can't imagine my hand without it.  What if, like Chandler on Friends who thought he'd lost his funny when he had his "nubbin" removed, I loose some part of me by having it zapped?  What if I forget how to spell or I no longer recognize my family or my voice changes to something that sounds quite like Tiny Tim? 

I think I'd much rather live with the wart.  No one has ever developed their own wart by touching it - that's gotta be a myth - and it's not really hurting anyone (except me when I hit it on something every once in a great while).   It's been a part of me for at least twenty years - probably longer - longer than any man anyway.  I don't think I'll make a move to have it removed any time soon.   

The Killing Time Hat

This is my Killing Time Hat for two reasons:

1. I started it last night and finished it up this morning, all while watching Dexter, a Showtime series about a serial killer (a damn good series, by the way).  I've actually named it Dexter.
2. It killed an evening and a good part of the morning. 

It's actually the Cranium hat from Crochet Me.  I used the wool I received for my birthday, doubled.  I thought doubling it might make it too big but, Goldilocks, it fits just right.   There's a larger size included with the pattern which I might make with the rest of the skien and then felt.  I've been working on a bag with another skien just like this (knit, knit, knit - too boring, I haven't worked on it in months) that I'm going to felt and now that I've finished something and see how pretty the colors turn out I'm sort of anxious to felt something with it.

Well, that really did kill a good little amount of time: downloading the photo to Flickr, putting it in Ravelry and then posting it here. 

Lars and the Real Girl

Tonight I went to see Lars and the Real Girl.  I laughed so hard I cried and I can't believe I didn't cry when it turned serious.  I'm a crier, that's for sure.   

I don't like to use the phrase "poignant" when describing a movie but this was certainly poignant - and sweet and amazingly funny.  Ryan Gosling was convincing as the delusional Lars and I hadn't seen Kelli Garner  in anything else but she was wonderfully awkward as Margo.

Oh! And there's a scene where a few women of the town are working on various projects - one knits, one crochets, and the other is embroidering.  Plus there are a million knitted hats, scarves and mittens...none of them memorable but certainly noticeable!   

Christmas Tree Tradition

I found these guys lounging outside my apartment one night after work last year.  It's not a great photo but I had to take it because some creative kid did the best he or she would with limited resources (i.e. not a lot of snowfall). 

Besides turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie, Thanksgiving means that's it acceptable to start decorating for Christmas.  Although, hooray for my neighbors who already have a pink tree up and decorated in their window. 

I haven't had a live tree in five or six years.  It used to be a staple - my family always had a live tree.  When I moved out, I went to the tree farm with my parents and picked out my own.  Eventually my parents bought a fake tree but then there were boyfriends (one of which is married now and made it his own tradition) to help me pick out trees. 

One year I was at a Lowes after Christmas and spotted a skinny fake tree that was the epitome of what I looked for in a live tree every year.  And I bought it.  I haven't had a live tree since and really don't feel all that guilty about it.  I don't have to water it or worry about the mess.  It's perfect - no holes or a branches that stick out too far - and, best of all, I never have to water it or worry about the needles it leaves behind.    Plus, my cats are much less interested in climbing a fake tree which is a very good thing. 

But I'm feeling a pull I haven't felt in a long time.  A pull to bundle up and spend a hour hunting for the right tree, to drive home with that smell filling my car and then filling my apartment.   I think I want a live tree this year.  I think it started back at Fulton Farms in October when I heard a fellow pumpkin picker mention coming back to put a tag on their tree for Christmas.  I'd never heard of "tagging" a tree ahead of time and it's probably a lot more pleasant to look for a tree on a mildly chilly day than a downright cold one but...I think part of the charm would be lost. 

I'm not exactly committed to the idea yet.  I could certainly see myself shrugging off the pull and putting up the fake - I have pine scented candles, after all - but I don't know.  We'll see. 

Ginger Pear Muffins

Ginger Pear Muffins
from Better Homes & Gardens

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2/3 cup mild flavor molasses
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup boiling water
2 small pears, cut in 6 wedges each
3 oz. dark chocolate broken in small pieces
Raw sugar for decoration

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat the muffin cups with non-stick cooking spray and flour.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. In a second bowl, whisk together molasses, butter, brown sugar, and egg. Pour into flour mixture and stir until combined. Whisk in boiling water (I think this is so it makes the batter easier to pour). Add 1 pear wedge to each muffin, pressing lightly.

Bake 15 to 18 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Sprinkle with raw sugar. Add the chocolate pieces on the tops of the muffins. Cool in pan on rack 10 minutes. Use a table knife to smooth the melted chocolate. Remove from cups and cool completely on a wire rack.

Emily's Notes:  First of all, these are delicious! So perfectly moist and cakey and with just enough ginger to give it a wee tiny bite.   I need to make another batch in the morning because it only made sixteen muffins.  I um, ate two, and I took two to my mom and two to one of her coworkers who is also a friend.    I made a few changes when I made this batch.  I didn't quite get the pear wedge thing - I found this recipe on someone else's site and her pears fell over so I just cut mine into tiny pieces.  I also grated my chocolate and sprinkled it over the top, trying to avoid the pear pieces.  I almost skipped the chocolate all together because they just came out so perfect.  Oh, and I skipped the raw sugar because I  didn't have any.   

With the next batch I think I'll chop up some of the pear and actually bake it in the muffin.  The few bites that had the muffin and pear were divine.  I'm also thinking I might throw the rest of my grated chocolate into the batter rather than sprinkling it on top.  The taste of chocolate is nice but...it really doesn't ruin the aesthetic beauty of the muffin.  I also bought some sugar for the second batch. 

I've also discovered that I don't care for the smell of molasses at all.   That's the only thing I'm not looking forward to with the second batch.  Yuck. 

In closing, a photo of the moist cakey goodness!

Farrow Rib & a Jalapeno Smack Down

I cast this scarf on last night.  I'm not using a pattern, though, I just cast on 25 stitches and am knitting it in the farrow rib stitch (which the owner of my LYS also said she's heard called the mistake rib - it would be hard to spot a mistake).  I'm using Suri Merino in Donegal Green Heather.  I made Dad a scarf with Suri last year and I'd forgotten how good it feels and at six bucks a skein it's an easy purchase.   Look how pretty....

And when I bind off this scarf, I'll have a tale to tell you.

Here's a little tale to tide you over until then: I had a very bad run in with two jalapenos this evening.  I was making jalapeno chicken corn chowder which calls for two chopped peppers.  I was very careful because today was a really bad allergy day for me so my nose was raw and 100% vulnerable to capsaicins.  Yet - even after I washed my hands - when I brushed the area near my nose, my face caught on fire.  I ran to the bathroom to splash water on it but that only made it worse - I think no amount of hand washing can save you after you've chopped a pepper. 

My entire nose was red as well as about an inch to two inches surrounding it.  It went through my head to take a photo for pure posting pleasure but I couldn't stop trying to make it stop burning long enough to pick up a a camera.   I've never been seriously injured so I don't have much to compare things to when it comes to pain but I'm pretty sure this was the worst I've ever experienced. 

I doused a cloth with milk (because you're supposed to drink milk to cool capsaicins if you're eating an overly hot pepper so why not apply it if your face is experiencing the same kind of pain) which helped a bit.  Then I smothered my face in aloe which, if it were at all possible,  made it even worse (I think it was just a case of more fingers touching the face).  I finally called my mom and she told me to put ice wrapped in a wet washcloth on it and that it would probably just have to burn for awhile.  I was freaking out by this point and trying to stay calm.  Seriously - this was unbelievable pain.  The washcloth helped, though (lesson: always fill your ice trays - I was down to my last two).  She called back a few minutes later to suggest the milk so I didn't feel quite so silly about trying that. 

I'm still really tender, though and I'm afraid to take out my contact lenses.  Every time I chop jalapenos I remind myself that I need to pick up some gloves for that express purpose but I always forget.  Not this time.  This incident is burned - no pun intended - into my brain.

So, in order to avoid taking out my contact lenses I'm going to watch an episode of Veronica Mars and knit.

Oh, farrow rib pattern - in case you're curious and not familiar:

Multiples of three plus one
1. k2 p1 end with k1
2. p1 k2 p1 across
Repeat to desired length.

Buzz, Buzz, Buzz

Here's the Noro Hat I made for my dad.  I've never been so stupid when it comes to knitting.  For some reason, I had it stuck in my head that it was knitted on tens.  I didn't have size ten dpns so I even made a special trip to pick some up.  Well, I got several bands into it and realized I was k4, p3 rather than k4, p4...it also seemed to be rather large.  I frogged it and double checked the pattern to make sure I had casted on the right number of stitches.  Yep.  Oh, but I used the wrong needles - it's supposed to be made with eights!  Oops!

If I make another one, I think I might even use sevens or knock it down a few stitches.  It fits okay (my dad's head probably isn't much bigger than mine - physically, that is - ha ha) but I think it might be better if it were a bit tighter.  I'm not fond of how the colors worked out either - the pretty purple got buried since it came up during the knit stitches - but I was going for bright because that's what dad likes.   And bright it is - except for that gray section above the light blue.  A very odd little bit of the skein that didn't seem to fit with the greens and blues.  Oh, one last note - it says it takes a little over one skein but this wasn't true for me.  I probably used two thirds of the second skein.  Luckily it leaves me just enough to make a tissue holder or two. 

Emily the Elf

It's amazing how much knitting you can get done if that's all you do from the moment you walk in the door at a quarter after five until you go to bed around midnight.   Although tonight I actually did the grocery shopping, washed some dishes and finally moved the folded laundry - that I did this weekend and left on the couch - to the bedroom.  Where it has yet to make it into drawers and won't until tomorrow night.   

But I finished one of Dad's Christmas presents - the Noro Hat by Saartje de Bruijn - tonight.  Hooray for getting two projects done in one week!  Now I think I'll take a break and crochet a few more dishtowels for another present.  Well, not now because now I'm going to bed.  ;-)  Pictures, hopefully tomorrow!

Anyone know where to find molasses in the grocery store?  I looked in the baking aisle tonight but came up empty handed.  I'm beginning to wonder if I might have to go so a higher end grocery store to find it....