Rhubarb...

Until yesterday, I had never even tasted rhubarb, let alone cooked with it. But there I was at Whole Foods, where they manage to make the most unlikely food look appetizing. Really, they should run a dayspa. Anyway, I brought home a few stalks and Mary and I had some fun with it.

After trimming the ends off the stalks, we sliced it up and threw it in a pot with a pint or so of beautiful strawberries, 3/4 c sugar, and 1/4 c water. After a few minutes of bubbling gently on medium heat, the inside of the rhubarb turned from green to yellow, it all thickened up, and we plopped it into some thawed puff pastry I happened to have. 25 minutes at 400F later, we had a strawberry rhubarb tart, and being great fans of tart+sweet, the John and the girls all enjoyed it.

By the way, while researching exactly what you do with rhubarb, I found out that the leaves of the rhubarb are poisonous! Mary and I would both like to know how they found out the stalks were okay....

Bags and Sweets

Vasalissa in Recoleta...a pink and celadon paradise of chocolate

While I didn't manage to get to any sort of fiber-y shop in Buenos Aires, how can a place teeming with shoes, bags, and sweets be bad?

That bag came home with me...

In addition to eating my weight in beef (sorry, my vegan friends...but when in Argentina...although actually I eat plenty of beef right here at home so it's not a good excuse) I also managed to consume a fair amount of chocolate, pastries both straight from the bakery and in the million and one cafes I sat in, cheese, nuts, and olives. In other words, my ideal diet: chocolate, cheese, olives, nuts and coffee, chased down with pastry and steak. The minute I manage to look like Valerie Bertinelli I plan on cashing in.

If you are in BA, don't miss Fervor. We had a fantastic dinner there, the ambience is warm and lively, and the dessert menu includes flan with ice cream. You hear that? Flan AND ice cream, both made in-house. What a great idea - two-course dessert. And of course we went to La Cabrera, a BA must.



I also went to a couple of really nice bars, something I rarely do at home. (Actually, that came out wrong: it's not that I don't go to nice bars...it's that I don't go to ANY bars...lest you think I go to dives. And I do go to the Whaling Bar once in a blue moon.) The Library at the Faena Hotel is such a nice place for a drink, and the bathroom is not to be missed. It's a palace of marble and beveled glass, with fresh flowers and freaking swan faucets. The Oak Bar a the Hyatt was pretty spectacular too, although you do have to brave the cigar smoke.



And just in case you gather the impression we didn't do anything "cultural" at all (four women loose in Argentina = no museums) we did visit the very beautiful Recoleta Cemetery. And, I believe I can make a very good argument for the case that we experienced more culture talking to the wonderful, friendly locals than we would have on the tourist circuit.

Buenos Dias Buenos Aires

Usually my excuses for not blogging regularly are pretty lame: work, busy schedule, sheer laziness, etc. But this time I've got a good one. At the drop of a hat, I decided to go with my sister and another friend to Buenos Aires, Argentina! That's right - I decided on a Friday and on Saturday morning I was on a 757 winging my way to the southern hemisphere.



My niece had been down there for a couple of months visiting a friend, and she had the use of a darling little apartment in Recoleta - so lucky for us! We had a fabulous week of shopping, lounging in cafes, eating in wonderful restaurants, and having a fantastic time in general.



Here you see the view from our little pied-a-terre and the cafe across the street. Isn't it wonderful?



Tomorrow I'll blog some of the fantastic stores and restaurants we visited.

Work, Work, Work

One of the sad realities of my life is that my knitting and my work can occasionally become incompatible. Working the mouse a lot when I'm on deadline for a graphics project irritates my right elbow - if I'm knitting something at the same time I get a painful bout of tennis elbow and that's that - no knitting, no work!

At this time of year I always work on a couple of jobs that cause me to put down the knitting for a while. And since it coincides with warmer weather, there you go: knitting sabbatical. This year, however, I've been able to pace myself on the knitting so I haven't stopped altogether.

I'll post some of my print projects in a bit, but in the meantime here are some knits I finished in April. As soon as I get someone to model them for me I'll post better pictures, but for now, that gorgeous pinky-purple thing is a Just Enough Ruffles scarf (the second one, and I'm contemplating a third) in Malabrigo merino worsted in Hollyhock, and the wheat-colored thing is a Sunray in Malabrigo again, in the Pale Khaki colorway.

Happy Birthday Anna!

Today is Anna's birthday - 17!!!! We celebrated with the extended family on Easter, and blew out the candles both for her and for one of her uncles. Anna doesn't actually like cake (I know...how does that happen?), but this coconut cake was a big hit even with her! Some people even had seconds, and that was after a pretty fabulous Easter dinner and one or two chocolate eggs.

Two little cousins on Easter - Jane's squeeeezing Mary!

The recipe is this one. It results in a a subtly flavored cake...I added a little coconut extract to the batter and it was just right. Just a little coconutty. You have to be careful not to mangle the egg whites when you add them - fold them in patiently - or you'll get a coconut pancake for sure. I made three layers (1 1/2 recipes of batter) and frosted with this buttercream (2 recipes of frosting).

Two bigger cousins on Easter

I made one recipe of frosting on Saturday and refrigerated it, intending to revive it with a little whip of the flat beater - imagine my reaction on Sunday morning when the whole thing turned into a watery, curdled mess in the beater bowl. Really, nobody should be cursing on Easter. But anyway, I managed to save it by swirling the bowl in mid-air over a flame on the stove and whacking the heck out of it with a wooden spoon until it looked salvageable, and by the time I re-beat it in the mixer it was fine. In fact, I couldn't tell the difference between the two batches of frosting by the time I was done. Three cheers for kitchen chemistry!



Today Anna has school and then practice and then homework, so we'll be celebrating very quietly here at home, but I believe there may be some presents in her future...and maybe some donuts...that's what she really craves.

I Swing Both Ways...

I don't usually stick my baked goods into the shrubbery, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

That's right, baby...chocolate AND lemon. I know a lot of people, including members of my own family, that have a dessert preference. They are either chocolate people, or lemon people. Rich decadent dessert people, or berry dessert people. I say, life's short - why choose? Lately it's been lemony around here. It's Spring.

In the spirit of the season, yesterday evening I went over to a friend's house to make Spring care packages for our college freshmen daughters. We get together every couple of months, and we all bring a little food to share for dinner and a little something for the boxes.

Look what other people brought: those are homemade chocolate-covered strawberries, people!

Last night there were 16 of us, so the girls will each get a box with 16 items ranging from homemade cookies to peeps (gotta have peeps!) to little bottles of hand lotion. And of course we all had fun visiting and making the boxes up, although really the boxes are just an excuse to get together.

Do you find it interesting that I took pictures of the food and the boxes but not of my 15 friends? I'm worried it means something fundamental about my personality, but in the meantime I'll just take another picture.

My contribution was this lemon pound cake, which also came with a berry coulis I didn't take photos of. This is the recipe here, although I did make some changes...I used Neufchatel cheese, which I think has a more delicate flavor, and when I added the vanilla I also added the zest of one lemon, cuz I'm all about lemon zest. (Unless I'm being all about the Valrhona chocolate. But I digress.) And since I used the zest, I omitted the almond extract. Mine takes longer than the suggested time to cook, and about 45 minutes in I made it a little aluminum foil umbrella so it wouldn't burn on the top while it was still goopy in the middle. That's not good.

For the coulis, I used a bag of frozen mixed berries that I let thaw on the counter while I was making the cake, and I did add a little water to help make it the right consistency. This is the third time I've made this cake, and the last time I made blueberry coulis, which was also very good and, I think, a nice combo with the lemon. The cake is dense, slightly crunchy on the top, and has a really really nice flavor. If you bake it in a tube pan I think you can easily get 24 - 32 servings from one cake, too, which is nice for a larger party.

And since we're here, let's see another shot of that lavender.

Beach Knitting, and Cupcakes

See those specks walking into the ocean? Those are my daughters bodysurfing in 55° water, no wetties.

My knitting mojo has been very iffy this last month. I have frogged the Just Enough Ruffles scarf you see above not once, not twice, but three times trying to get at the root of a problem that I probably needed just to turn a blind eye towards - something nobody would notice, ever, but me, and since this is probably going to be given away, I'd never see it again anyway. I am at the point where I have to increase to 600 stitches, so I thought I'd take my knitting to the beach and try to relax about the whole thing. It was a nice outing for scarfy, especially since I just let it sit at the end of my chair without touching it the whole time. This should teach me not to knit the same thing twice.

I'm also working on a gathered scarf that took a big left turn last night. After eight repetitions of the pattern, I found myself with an unmanageable urge to bind. off. now. So I did. I added a row of buttonholes in the last bit of garter stitch and bound off, and today I will decide what kind of garment it's become. Is it a neckwarmer? Is it the body of a little sweater? I don't know.

I am happy to have any knitting news, though...I have a lot of photos of food to blog but I don't want give the impression that all I do is cook to support an unhealthy obsession with sweets. Not that it wouldn't be true, but I don't want to give the impression.

Truth be told, I bake a few times a week - so much that my family isn't actually too interested anymore (although it has ruined them for store-bought dessert). I made some cupcakes on Tuesday for a birthday party and looky here - I still have all of these left over. Left to my own devices I'd eat every one, but I'm just going to take their picture instead, press them upon anyone who stops by, and then throw the last, sad, uneaten ones, all the while convincing myself not to give in. These cupcakes are the Magnolia Vanilla recipe (follow the timing directions for beating the batter or risk ending up with little bricks) with frosting from Billy's recipe. They are the bomb. And my family is crazy.

Hey lady, what are you knitting? And PS, you need a pedi!

Tastes Like Spring

The sweetest tangerines you'll ever taste.

My knitting has been sporadic and crazy the last couple of weeks so I'm just going to share some pretty pictures with you instead. Half the tangerines and blood oranges are laden with fruit, while the other half is apparently taking a sabbatical - I'm not sure why, but I'm sure they have a good reason.

Blood oranges...not as sweet, but they are pretty

Scones Two Ways

Cheesy chivey goodness

How do you like'em? Sweet or savory? Lemon cream scones have become a go-to recipe for me (Warning - if you've eaten my scones and are looking for the exact recipe, this ain't it - it's the base I started with and the one you should start with too!). They're easy, they always come out great, and you can make the dough the night before and bake them off quickly in the morning. These are light with slightly crunchy tops - I hate it when scones are heavy and dry. They're perfect by themselves with a cup of coffee or tea, but they'd be delicious with jam or cream.

Yesterday we had a National Charity League meeting and my assignment was to bring 4 doz. appetizers. Given that it's St. Patrick's Day tomorrow I searched online for an Irish appetizer. It turns out, Irish appetizer = beer, so after rejecting the idea of green deviled eggs (presumably with ham) I found a recipe very similar to my basic scones that called for cheddar cheese and chives.

I made two batches of this recipe using some fantastic Kerrygold cheddar (to stay in the Irish theme) and used a small biscuit cutter to make these little rounds. The cheddar was white but still sharp, so it had great fresh flavor but didn't make my scones Cheez-it yellow. I tested a crumb when they came out of the oven and they were delicious, but the true test is that a platter of about 80 of these little babies was wiped clean in minutes.

Lemony crunchy deliciousness

Today I have a meeting to hear grant presentations (Support your local nonprofits! They are feeling the pinch from both directions - more clients and fewer donors! But also look here, this is a silver lining.) and I was asked to bring the lemon scones, so I made a double batch and used the same cutter. It's a perfect size for someone who just wants a little something but not a whole big scone.

If you make these, here are a couple of tips that have made a big difference in the outcome for me: good, fresh, aluminum-free baking powder; mixing everything by hand to keep the dough light; wrapping the kneaded dough in plastic and letting it rest for 15 minutes (or even overnight) before patting out to cut; and preheating the oven for a good long time. And of course, if you add stuff like cheese or nuts...the better the ingredient the better the scones will taste!

Short Sleeves That Took a Long Time

Finally. The Ms. Hyacinth Jeans is washed, blocked, woven, done. I don't have too much to say about it other than that. Behold it from many angles:



The pattern is Mr. Greenjeans from Knitty; the yarn is Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Jacinto.



I obviously modified it to make a pullover...



...and then shortened the sleeves while lengthening the body.

The hemline doesn't actually ripple like that - I need a photo stylist.
Who probably would've repainted the wall and removed the cat dish, too.

The recipient? Unknown. Anna, while slim, has rower's shoulders (that's a good thing) and Fiona hasn't seen it yet. One thing we know for sure is that it's not for me - short sleeves and a long fitted body are not finding their way into my wardrobe anytime soon!

Unblocked, But No Longer Unfinished

I swear it took me two weeks to knit three little rows of ribbing on the final sleeve of this thing. I finally bound off last night, wove in the ends, sewed down the placket, and called it done. I'm not sure I love it anymore.



We'll see after it takes a bath and relaxes. Maybe the magic of blocking will kindle our romance.

Not My Cats

As we wait for me to finish up my hyacinth Greenjeans, let me just throw a cute picture out for you. I think it's a universal truth that knitters love cats, so here are my friend Denise's cats Quick and Silver. I actually do have a cat, Spot, but he doesn't stand still for pictures. Denise's cats are pretty cute, though. And why wouldn't they be, with a hot mom like this?

Staycation Day

Butterscotch the goat, courtesy of my pretty darn good iphone camera

Today I'm not going to bore you with my ribbing. Suffice it to say, it's done, yippee, and I've definitely decided on making a short-sleeved version of my hyacinth sweater because I'm sick of it. Plus I finished one sleeve already and hallelujah, it's done.

Someone needs to exfoliate

Yesterday we took the girls to the zoo and had a really great day - it was perfect zoo weather: cool and a little overcast, but not cold. The animals were all out and we had no agenda, so we just wandered around in a very relaxed way. Anna even had time to stand still and sketch when the subjects were cooperative.

Ribbing

I'm not sure why this is taking So. Incredibly. Long. I feel like I've been working on this ribbing forever and making no perceptible progress whatsoever. I keep measuring from the armhole to the edge and it's always 10".

My 15 Minutes

Maybe it was worth only 14 minutes of fame, but I was the "10 Questions" person in our local newspaper last week. Here's the link if you want to check it out.

And in the meantime there's a photo above of another WIP I'm working on - the Fan Neckwarmer - while I crank out the rib and cable part of Mr. Greenjeans. I'm hoping to have the body done before too long....

And the Children Sang My Praises...

My children have never set foot on the Iberian Peninsula. They hate Spanish class, they sunburn like crazy, they are light-eyed (except for brown-eyed Mary) and they basically exhibit no evidence of hispanic heritage except for one: they looooves them some Spanish food. And why not? The new interest in Spanish cuisine may be, well, new, but Spanish food rocks the house. Excellent olive oil, good wine, fresh ingredients, fabulous cheese - you can't go wrong.

Yesterday's dinner was a tapa of chorizo with bread, a main course of tortilla de patata (the national dish of Spain - if you don't believe me look at how many images you can google. Spaniards are passionate about tortilla.) with sliced organic tomatoes, and a dessert of homemade vanilla ice cream. And the children sang my praises.

PS Here's a video tortilla tutorial, with English translation...not definitive, but you'll get the idea:

Progress...

Despite a very busy schedule this week, I've managed to make a great deal of progress on several projects. I don't usually post progress shots, as you know, but if we wait till I'm finished it might be weeks before I post again!



Here's one item that's fit for public consumption - that is, it finally looks like more than an amorphous blob of yarn. It's a version of Mr. Greenjeans in Malabrigo Merino Worsted, colorway Jacinto, which means hyacinth in Spanish. I've converted the cardigan to a pullover, and I'll admit I didn't put a lot of thought into it so I'm hoping it will turn out okay in the end. It's looking sort of small right now, too, which is surprising for anything I knit. In the end, whoever fits it best will get a new sweater.

Just Enough Ruffles

Here's another Malabrigo worsted project, a Just Enough Ruffles scarf.



This takes under two skeins of Malabrigo and results in a luxurious, warm scarf.



You do have to be prepared to knit across 600 stitches in stockinette and then bind off in purl, but it goes very quickly and it's completely worth every stitch.