Here Comes the Sun

Back in September I had some kind of flu that had me down for several days and I really haven't felt right since. I've been kind of tired and a little achy all over, but I kept attributing it to my sporadic workout schedule, since I've been traveling (where all I did was walk but no yoga or anything else) and then coming back and hitting classes to make up for it.

Last week I went for my yearly checkup and all was great except for one thing: my Vitamin D levels. Now, the one thing I try to be really good about is applying sunscreen and mainly staying out of the sun. Living here it's easy to get too much and while I'm trying to avoid getting skin cancer my real fear is of turning into Godzilla. Turns out all that sunscreen can actually be too much of a good thing...unless there's some other crazy reason for it, I'm not getting enough Vit D from our friendly UV source.

Vitamin D deficiency can make you achy and sore, depressed (SAD - Seasonal Affective Disorder), lead to bone loss, osteoporosis, diabetes, give you insomnia (which I already have in spades), etc. Basically a big list of all the things I'm trying to prevent with all the stuff I am doing. Now I'm taking a supplement every day for six months and making an effort to get my Vitamin D the natural way, too. The natural way is better, I think. And after I sunbathe a little I can knit a little.

The Pi Are Squared shawl I was working so diligently on turned out to have a major flaw, all because I don't follow directions. I was periodically doubling ALL the stitches between the diagonal increases instead of just the middle stitches. I'm not sure if it speaks to my idiocy that I thought that was right for as long as I did or to my brilliance that I realized that made no sense, geometrically speaking. Anyway, I frogged the whole damned thing. It was cursed, and I do know better than to work against the curse. I started from scratch instead.

Tuesdays with Dorie - Sugar-Topped Molasses Spice Cookies

I was finally able to get a couple of photos of these cookies after baking off three previous batches on other days - that's how much my family liked them. I made the dough a couple of weeks ago, doubling it as a go-to in case any cookie emergencies might arise this month. Little did I know that the emergency would be keeping up with the demand.

The dough is super sticky and it spreads like crazy in the oven, but the resulting cookies are simultaneously crisp and chewy, with a very interesting note added by the black pepper in the recipe. We tried them rolled in raw sugar and also in regular cane sugar, and I think the cane sugar held up better. We also tried them after refrigerating the dough, which made it easier to handle, and after freezing, which was easier still since I made logs and just slice-and-baked.

Despite rave reviews on the taste, I'm not sure I'll make these again. I didn't like handling the dough and I didn't like how much they spread - you can't get that many cookies on a sheet. Instead, I might add a little pepper to another ginger/molasses cookie recipe and see how that goes.

Thank you Pam of Cookies with Boys (Make sure to go look at her cookies - they are perfect.) for suggesting this recipe. This is the second sweet TWD recipe in the last couple of months that called for black pepper - fantastic taste, and a great way to expand the palate!

Temptation on a Plate

WARNING. The contents of this post may be extremely dangerous in the wrong hands. If you are susceptible to the aroma of fresh donuts, frying dough, sugar puffs of warm sweetness, or anything of the like, you have been warned. Don't come crying to me about your potential episode of excess, abuse, or waistline expansion - blame this guy.

It turns out you can take a can of ordinary pop-n-fresh biscuit dough and turn it into fresh donuts in a maneuver that is so easy it's scary. Ordinarily, I wouldn't even consider making donuts. (I'm not from the South; I'm from So Cal - we don't deep-fry, we stir-fry.) And I wouldn't buy biscuits in a can anymore, either. (I'm not from the South; I'm from So Cal - but I do like mixing me up a batch of some of them biscuits.)



But then one morning I was perusing my bloglines and I came across this little video at the Amateur Gourmet where they were talking about how easy it is to make donuts, and I was thinking, "Yeaaaah, once I'm making yeasted dough it's not going into donuts," when bam - they showed the instant donut method and it made me get in the car and go buy a can of biscuits.

The next morning I poured canola oil into the bottom of a pot, heated it up to 325F and punched holes out of the individual biscuits. A couple of minutes later, we had fresh, hot, light, and crispy donuts (and their holes) for breakfast. They fried up easily, were not greasy at all, and they were delicious - so delicious that I might actually make them again using the real yeasted dough - but these were really good for being so incredibly easy. As a bonus, check out the relatively small mess:

FYI, we decided that the ones coated in regular sugar were better than the powdered sugar ones.

Tuesdays with Dorie - Cran-Apple Crisp

This Tuesday's entry for TWD is the Cran-Apple Crisp, chosen by Em at The Repressed Pastry Chef. Let me preface by saying that much as I don't like cherries in anything cooked, I'm not all that fond of dried cranberries. I tolerate them, but just barely. I do love cranberry juice (including any permutation with vodka - which sounds so bad; my friends will tell you I'm not really a drinker, really, but I seem to keep referencing cocktails here. Must be indicative of my state of mind but I assure you I rarely imbibe.) and I like cranberry sauce (as long as it's the kind that slides out of a can - is that so bad? I don't like actual cooked cranberry sauce.), but that sour aspect of dried cranberries, coupled with the fact that they stick to your teeth, bugs me.



Luckily, this crisp has plenty of sweetness to counteract the sour. The apples were sweet on their own, and then there was the topping - more of that crumbage I love - and I added golden raisins to mine as Dorie suggests as a variation.

I ended up taking the crisp to Sunday dinner at my sister's where it was served up after a wonderful fall dinner of pot roast, mashed potatoes (which I'd gladly eat every day), and parsnips. It was fantastic, warm from the oven with homemade vanilla ice cream - can you think of a single thing that wouldn't be improved by a scoop a la mode?

November is for Pie

I'm till working on my red shawl, but yesterday I justified casting on a new project because I needed a nice piece of non-thinking knitting to take out on the town. Sometimes I'm in a meeting where people persist in actually talking to me, or where they truly expect me to pay attention...It's just not always compatible with lace knitting. Yesterday I knit four rows on the Gaenor shawl before realizing I'd left out the kfb increase called for on all the right-side rows - i.e. not even in the lace portion - on the first row I touched. I'm still hoping it is magically correcting itself in my knitting bag so I won't have to rip it back.

This is my big fat piece of comfort knitting, no thought required: Pie Are Squared from EZ's Knitting Around, on relatively big needles (10) with pretty fat yarn (Cascade Eco-Wool left over from Bella's Mittens).

Something Red

Now that my little bout of bitterness toward my local supermarket is over, shall we see what's happening with the knitting? I'm still on a shawl jag, this time working on Gaenor in Red Rocks Fiber Aspen Sock, colorway Ruby Slippers. It's knit from corner to corner so the lace border is knitted on as you go.

Fage Yogurt, Ronzoni Pastina, White Pepper - Shall I Go On?

Dear Vons La Jolla, despite the fact that you don't sell most of the things I want anymore and that the meat department looks like we live in Odessa (not the one in Texas), thank you for the reminder that now that we're two days past Halloween, Christmas is right around the corner.

PS You can stop asking me if I found everything I need now. You don't really want to know, and I really don't have the time to invest that much in you emotionally.

Tuesdays with Dorie - All in One Holiday Cake

Very festive care packages!

A few times during the year a bunch of us moms get together and make care packages for our collegiate daughters. It's a nice surprise for the girls, especially since they're sophomores now and their expectations of what we'll do for them are probably dimming by the minute.

There was even homemade apple jelly...

And it's nice for us, because we get together and socialize...and this year we barely even talk about those girls! Not that we don't miss them, of course!

...and homegrown walnuts...

This time there were 15 of us, so we each brought 15 items, ranging from cute socks and gloves to a spooky cd to walnuts from someone's farm. I think we were all on the same wavelength this year because there wasn't nearly as much sugar on the table as there was last year.

...and a light dinner for the moms.

We all share appetizers and salad a little wine. And of course, there's always dessert! I used this as an excuse to get on with my November TWD assignments and busted out the All-in-One Holiday Cake. I've made this before when I've had to take something for a crowd, and it's a definite pleaser. It contains every flavor of the season, all in one cake. I think the only thing it's missing is actual turkey.

I think I could've been a little more generous with the maple glaze, don't you?

I also brought the leftovers from last week's offering: the infamous flaming cherry cake. Both these cakes improve with time as the flavors blend so we all enjoyed a little bite of each.

Cherry-Fudge Brownie Torte

The next day the packages were in the mail via Priority, so two days later Fiona sent me this picture of her feet - so see? It must be genetic.

Thank you, Britin of The Nitty Britty, for picking the All-in-One Holiday Cake. It's a great choice for this time of year!

It's Done!

I decided on a picot bind-off, and I believe I might like it even a little better than the original.



Now I only have to decide whether it's a gift or if it's a keeper.

Racing the Yardage

I'm a quarter of the way through the knitted-on border of my second Aestlight and I think I'm not going to have enough yarn. When will I learn? This is Aspen Sock by Red Rocks Fiber Works, a really wonderful superwash merino in the colorway Lemon Zest. I've bought a few Red Rocks products at my fave LYS, Knitting in La Jolla, and I've loved all of them; this particular yarn, though....I bought it on sale and I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it so I only bought one skein, about 410 yards. When I cast on I knew it would be close but I plowed ahead.



So now I'm faced with this dilemma: I can forge ahead, knowing I'm going to be close, and then rip out. Or, I can just admit defeat, rip out now and finish it off without the points.



Or maybe I can figure out another knitted-on border that wouldn't take as much yarn...hm. Maybe I'll explore that possibility. Maybe even a picot bind-off; that would be better than nothing.



Isn't this color amazing? It has depth and flecks and saturation and everything I love.

"Boil for one minute, then stand back and carefully ignite the Kirsch."

First let me state for the record that I despise cherries in baked things. After being subjected to heat they always looked like some kind of organ to me, and organs in my dessert? No thank you - I'll pass. Cherries from a tree eaten out of hand, yes. Maraschino cherries? Double yes, especially accompanied by rum, fruit juice, and a tiny umbrella. But cooked? No. No thank you. Not even chocolate can change my mind on that.



But here I was faced with this week's Tuesdays With Dorie selection: Cherry-Fudge Brownie Torte. I figured I'd just knock it out and get it over with and take it with me on the bus to the Head of the American River, to be consumed by a horde of hungry teenaged girls. That was when I pre-read the recipe and came upon these directions: "...stand back and carefully ignite..." and I thought, maybe I oughta wait until John gets home from work so he can either: a) man the fire extinguisher or b) call 911 or c) all of the above. Plus...mousse filling. Not really roadtrip friendly.



So last Thursday after John got home (so I'd have a spotter...you don't need one too often in the kitchen but every now and then when you attempt a particularly adventuresome maneuver it seems like a good idea) I made the brownie layer, cooled it, and left it in the fridge all wrapped up so I could go off on my chaperoning adventure and find it waiting for me when I got back.

The mousse layer was simple to put together and delicious to clean up from - I don't often lick the beater blade but if you were trying to seduce me with food and didn't have any chocolate, a mixture of mascarpone, sugar, and heavy cream would probably do the trick.

Would you like to see a little video of me almost losing my carefully tended eyebrows? I knew that you would:

And would you like to know how the torte turned out in general? I ate the little slice you see pictured above, just to try it before I served it to my family. It was the bomb! It's more like Cherry Garcia than weird cooked cherries, and the bottom layer was fudgy and chewy with little chunks of chocolate still whole. I ate it and then I wished I had time to lie down because it was definitely kind of heavy, but the flavors were interesting and went together very well. Thanks for this week's pick, April!

Head of the American River

After being home for what seemed like 20 minutes this week, Anna and I loaded ourselves and a few possessions onto a bus with the rest of the ZLAC girls and headed up to Sacramento for the Head of the American regatta. A few of you have expressed your deep sympathy for my situation, i.e., being trapped on a seemingly endless bus ride with 40 teenaged girls, but don't worry. I had my iPhone, my iPod, a book, some knitting, four other adults and a stream of teen movies to entertain me.

You can tell it's Anna by her black cap...she's the 2nd one from the left.

I hadn't seen (and was unlikely to, in other circumstances) Step Up 2 The Streets or Fired Up!...I actually laughed during Fired Up! so I either must've been really tired or suffering from all the teen hormones in the air on that bus. And Step Up 2 The Streets...well, I do secretly want to join a dance crew, so I was bound to enjoy that. We also watched Get Smart and Blades of Glory, which I slept through.

They remind me of my kids when they were still in high chairs!

The place the girls raced was very pretty: Nimbus Flats there on the American. It's surrounded by oak foothills and I was able to hike around on a couple of really nice trails while the girls weren't actively racing. I'm sure this place is a birder's paradise when there aren't a zillion rowers, and even so I got to see a flock of wild turkeys and lots of ducks and geese.

Really, how hard could a duck bite you with that bill?

The weather was fine and our canopies were right in front of the finish line, and we were shaded with the sun at our backs for the whole time...amazingly comfortable compared to the freezefest on the Charles last week!

I tried to sneak up on it, but the goose would have none of my petting, even for spaghetti!

The biggest entertainment came from the local waterfowl. We had a pan of leftovers that they went nuts over! After gorging themselves for a few minutes, they all ran down to the water, drank and drank, and then ran back to finish. You know how ducks shake their heads when they eat? They made a huge mess of themselves.

Sacramento Sunset

Belated Birthdays

I finally gave my friend her birthday Aestlight. Isn't she the very picture of fall? And she gave me this beautiful new project bag, stitched with her own hands. I needed a new bag, too - I'm all in Ziplocs right now!



Belated birthdays are so fun - presents when you least expect them!

I Tried to Look at Yarn!

The view from my hotel window.

It turned out that I was in Portland for an afternoon/evening by myself so I decided to go out in search of a few yarn stores. A quick Google revealed that there were two yarn stores within walking distance of my hotel, so I bundled up and headed out.

The first one was really close, but there was nothing too interesting to see. It was kind of old school, but it had a decent enough selection of the usual suspects. I was hoping for something local or unavailable in my neck of the woods, but there really wasn't anything like that so I kept on walking.

I had high hopes for the next place, KnitWit Yarn Shop and Coffee Bar. I was totally willing to walk the mile necessary to look at yarn while drinking coffee. Imagine my sadness when I got there only to find they were closed.



I know, I should've called first, but I didn't. Color me stupid. Doesn't it look like someplace you'd like to visit? They have giant wall mittens!



Amber Grove (I was going to link to their website here but when I searched I just found a link to Amber Grove, human being!), the place next door, was closed too, and that was a bummer because I really wanted a better look at these lampshades that appear to be made of felt, or maybe really really thick and pulpy handmade paper. Either way, intriguing.

Anyway, I walked back to the hotel and consoled myself with room service clam chowder and NCIS, and I did make a lot of progress on a second Aestlight that I'm working on.


The next morning I got in the car and headed back to Boston, determined to see at least one decent yarn store. In Brookline I found A Good Yarn, which was a nice little place. They did have some yarn that I'm not used to seeing in person and they had a nice little selection of Koigu, but at that point I was all packed up for the airport and I left with only a few stitch markers and the holiday issue of Interweave Knits. I realize that I was in the general area only a week after the whole Rhinebeck opportunity...maybe next year!

LL Bean

While I was on the east coast I stayed a couple of days after the regatta and drove up to Portland with Fiona. That's the other Portland for those of us west of the Rockies - the one in Maine, not the one in Oregon. I'd never been to Maine so I was especially eager to see it, and as a bonus I got to drive through New Hampshire so now I've been to all the New England states.

It snowed big fat flakes all the way north from Boston to Portland, but the heater in our rented Corolla worked just fine and the radio had enough classic rock to keep us entertained all the way there. We had a lovely dinner with friends (haddock chowder and brie brioche - how brilliant is that, brie melted into the brioche? You put it in when you add butter to the dough, as opposed to wrapping a brie in brioche and baking it whole.) and on the second day we went up to Freeport, Maine, the home of LL Bean and a whole lot of other stores and outlet I didn't have time to visit. As it turns out, LL Bean does not consist of a warehouse with a bunch of telephones and ladies on rollerskates packing your order as you call it in - it's actually a large complex of stores, each with a theme like hunting/fishing, home, or what-have-you. They may indeed have a warehouse with rollerbabes but I didn't see one.

I made Fiona pose in the trout aquarium bubble and then I wandered around taking pictures of the stuffed animals. I love stores with giant aquariums. Out here the Fry's in San Marcos has a couple of them - awesome. But LL Bean has actual taxidermy - how great is that? The moose here were found locked together like that - they starved to death!

Here's a video that explains:

Head of the Charles

Andrew is wearing shorts. He grew up in Fresno, which I'm not sure really explains this.

One of the only things that's lacking here in La Jolla is the change of seasons as traditionally depicted by the cover of Martha Stewart Living. I mean, you know the old joke about SoCal seasons: summer, fire, mud and earthquake. And we do have some seasonal differences in LJ. If you consider May Gray/June Gloom as our own private winter, we have three: Too Cold for the Beach, Not Too Cold for the Beach, and Too Touristy for the Beach. Everything else is a Santa Ana or one of the 10 days it rains around here.

We are clearly not far enough SOUTH.

So imagine how happy I was to be a chaperone for the ZLAC girls on their trip to the Head of the Charles - real New England fall, right in the middle of the beautiful foliage season! Luckily San Diego is full of sportswear stores that are all too happy to fit you out for any kind of weather just in anticipation of an excursion such as this, so I purchased a bunch of North Face layers and fleecy things (and these really cool longies from Lucy) and set out.

My whole lunch is inside that vest and it still tasted like it came straight out of the fridge.

You see me there? I am only smiling because my face is so cold it froze in that position. This was not fall. This was every kind of winter weather all wrapped up into one three-day period. Rain. Frozen rain. Hail. Snow. That's right, snow. Do you know how hard that is for someone who lives in shorts and flip-flops? Good thing I knit, people.

Tuesdays with Dorie - Sweet Potato Biscuits

Okay, here's the reason I decided to join Tuesdays with Dorie this month: It was all for the sweet potato biscuits. You may recall that I made these last year after finding the recipe online (and don't miss the All-in-One Holiday Cake posted on that link - that's awesome). I'd never in my life bought a can of sweet potatoes until I tried this recipe, and then I bought two cans once a week all through the winter.



The biscuits are particularly good if you are serving any kind of pork, but they're also good for breakfast, or when you want something juuuuuuust a little sweet. And you can fool yourself into thinking they're good for you because they have fiber and Vitamin A and beta carotene from the sweet potato, so really, why not eat two? In fact, in the spirit of eating two, I do tend to cut these out on the small size. They don't rise very much so smaller biscuits look better proportioned to me.



Thank you, Erin of Prudence Pennywise, for picking one of my best-loved fall recipes. I can't wait to see how everyone else's sweet potatoes turned out!