Back from vacation

wow... I'm exhausted! :)

We just returned tonight from our summer vacation. I promise numerous posts with LOTS of pictures, but wanted to get this post out first.

I finished the MDK bib to match the burp cloth mentioned in this post. Thank you to all the MDKALers who helped with ideas and last-minute emailed directions :) I did a log cabin, and I like it in theory, but I'm still not sold on log cabins. They just don't turn out that neat on the edges for me :( But it was a fun experiment. At the end, I used a big circular needle to pick up and knit a trim all in orange. I also did two buttonholes for some adjustability and I used a button from my Grandma's collection. :) Picture below:

and now to catch up on email...

Szechuan Cashew Chicken Stir Fry

Szechuan Cashew Chicken Stir Fry
(adapted from some old Szechuan cookbook my mom owns, but is no longer in print)

1 lb. boneless chicken breast
10 dried red peppers
2 T finely chopped fresh ginger
6 green onions
1/2 c. cashews
4 T. peanut oil

marinade:
2 T. cornstarch
2 T. soy sauce
3 T. rice wine
2 egg whites
1 t. salt

seasonings:
3 T. cornstarch
3 T. rice wine
1/4 cup tamari
1 T. white vinegar
1 t. salt (omit if using salted nuts)
1 T. sugar

stirfry vegetables:
About 4 c. of your choice of fresh veggies, such as carrots, celery, zucchini, broccoli, peapods, peppers, bok choy, napa cabbage, etc. cut into small pieces

To prepare:
1. Cut the chicken meat into pieces 1 inch or slightly smaller.
2. Make the marinade by mixing the cornstarch with the tamari and wine, then adding the salt and egg white. Mix the marinade with the chicken and marinate at least 15 minutes
3. Cut off the ends of the dried red peppers and shake out the seeds. Chop the ginger very finely and cut the green onion into 1/2 inch lengths
4. In a small bowl, mix the seasonings, first mixing the cornstarch with the soy sauce and wine and then mixing in the other ingredients.

To cook:
1. Heat about 4 T. cooking oil in a wok or large frying pan. Add the red peppers, cooking over a medium flame until they start to char. Turn the fire up as high as possible and as soon as the peppers are black, add the chicken pieces. Reduce flame to medium (note: the charred pepper pieces have a bitter taste, so I take them out of the pan before adding the chicken)
2. At the same time, in another pan, stir fry the vegetables until crisp
3. Stir-fry until the chicken is white, then add the ginger and green onion. Cook, stirring for a few more seconds, then add the cashews or other nuts and the stir-fried vegetables. Pour the seasonings over the top (give them a quick stir first). When the sauce has thickened slightly and is glaze-like, remove to a serving dish and serve hot.


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Pagoda Cafe cream cheese wontons, served with Chinese mustard and Sweet and Sour sauce

knitting post

First of all (thanks to all who responded), I decided not to even make a baby kimono. Yeah, I know... it's adorable. Really, it is! But I was a bit afraid that I would run out of yarn, and I don't know if the baby is a girl or boy, and I hadn't tried some other MDK patterns yet, so I decided to do a burpcloth and bib set :) These are my two least favorite colors in the world, and yet I think they look kinda cute together. I'm improvising on the bib and I do NOT like how the sides are looking. Can anyone tell me a better way to put side-stripes? I was wrapping the yarns around each other so there wasn't a gap, but that looked messy, so I switched to knitting one row of 3 stitches yellow, then 4 stitches yellow the next row, but it's still looking funky :( HELP!



And I may go back (for awhile--till someone gives me good advice on the bib) to working on the tank top. I really like how much better the bottom looks on the front part (I knit into the back of every stitch on the first row as opposed to knitting regular on the back). See how much neater it is? Do I want to frog the WHOLE back piece now? I'll have to see if it's noticeable when I'm all done, I guess. It's the process, right? The joy in knitting--not the finished project :)

Gazpacho; grilled bratwurst; fried potatoes

Gazpacho

3 large, fresh tomatoes, or the equivalent of smaller ones (or, in the dead of winter, use a 16 oz. can of tomatoes)
1/2 cucumber, peeled and cubed
1/4 small green pepper, cubed
1/4 small onion, cubed
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 c. red wine vinegar (or your choice of other vinegars)
1/3 c. light vegetable oil (or olive)
salt and pepper
1 slice bread
garnish: assorted chopped veggies and croutons

Peel the tomatoes by submerging in boiling water for 15 seconds, then plunging into ice water. Place all ingredients (except the slice of bread and the garnish) into a blender and puree. While blender is running, add the slice of bread. Pour soup over a handful of ice cubes and chill until serving time (at least two hours). Serve topped with your choice of garnishes (chopped tomato, chopped cucumber, chopped onions, croutons).

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Grilled bratwurst aka "brats"
This might be a Midwestern/Wisconsin thing...
We par-boil our brats for 15 minutes in water (or beer) and then grill them

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Then I just fried sliced potatoes and onions in an olive oil/butter mix and seasoned them with kosher salt, black pepper and Hungarian half-sharp paprika.

Chilled Sweet Potato and Carrot Soup; pork loin; salad

My friend Mo's Sweet Potato and Carrot Soup

This is really good hot or cold.

1 large or 2 small sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
2 carrots, peeled and cut into cube
4 cloves of garlic

Boil above until soft. Puree. Add chicken broth to the pot and stir.
(I actually boiled it in 3 1/2 cups of chicken stock and then pureed it right in the pot with a stick blender)
Heat through (even if you're going to eat it cold). Season with salt, pepper, fresh dill, and the juice of one lime (I thought half a lime was sufficient).

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Hormel Mesquite BBQ seasoned pork loin, grilled


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Mixed baby greens, cucumber, cherry tomatoes and scallions, dressed with salt, pepper and balsamic dressing

Tank top progress and a poll!

I finished the back of the tank top last night. I believe I found an error in the pattern, too. I've emailed Berroco to see if it's a true error, but from the looks of the pattern, each of the little inserts should be seed stitch, and the pattern had the middle inserts (three of them) being knit as ribbing. Of course, even though I *thought* that was what they meant when I read the pattern, I didn't decide for sure that it was wrong until I'd gone four rows into the repeat. BUT it gave me a chance to drop stitches and pick them up individually--a new thing for me. We'll see if it actually worked when all is said and done!

I love the feel of this yarn when it's knit up. It does untwist quite easily (especially when picking up individual stitches!), which is frustrating when trying to knit while doing something else.

One question/poll for knitters or just parents:
A girl (woman) that I used to babysit for from the time I was eleven years old is having her first baby and I wanted to make a MDK baby kimono for her. The first kimono that I made was out of the SugarNCream yarn, which is cotton, but not really soft. I have no money to buy more yarn now, but I have a big stash of SNC and also a lot of hand-me-down "baby" weight acrylic. Which would you rather have a baby kimono knit from--a soft acrylic or a less-soft 100% cotton?

And, finally, with the new computer, C. has been working on updating her blog more. I know that comments would probably encourage her writing, and they're just so much fun to read, anyway ;)

Shish-kabob and marinated veggies on the grill

Beef Shishkabob

Beef tenderloin or flank steak, sliced about 1/2 inch thick
Equal parts of: red wine, tamari, water
minced garlic
fresh grated ginger

Marinade overnight. Thread on skewers and grill.

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Marinated veggies

Your choice of veggies such as:
canned whole potatoes
peppers (green, other colors), cut into 1 inch squares
onions (vidalia, purple), cut into slivers, with root end still attached
zucchini, cut into circles or long slices
mushrooms (baby bellas, field mushrooms, etc.)

Italian dressing, bottled or made from scratch (we like Wishbone)

Marinade most veggies in dressing overnight, except for mushrooms which will absorb too much marinade overnight--4-6 hours is fine. Grill in a grill basket to save the effort of threading on skewers!

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Cucumber and tomato salad

1 seedless cucumber, thinly sliced
About 6-10 cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
2 green onions, thinly sliced

dressing:
1 T. good quality balsamic vinegar
2 T. water
3 T. olive oil

Place veggies in bowl. Season with salt and pepper, then top with dressing ingredients. Toss and serve.

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(Also shown with cubed watermelon and a wonderful baguette from Breadsmith)

Chicken and Sweet Potato Curry In A Hurry

Chicken and Sweet Potato Curry-in-a-Hurry
from Rachel Ray 365: No Repeats

1 c. white rice (I made more & it needed more! And I used Jasmine rice in my rice cooker)
2 T. vegetable oil
1 medium sweet potato, peeled, cut in half lengthwise, then thinly sliced into half moons
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 rounded T. mild curry paste or 2 T. curry powder (I used 1 T. garam masala and 1 T. hot curry from Penzey's)
2 lb. chicken tenders, cut into bite-size chunks
1 lg. yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and thinly sliced
1 T. all-purpose flour
2 1/2 c. chicken stock or broth (I only used 2 c.)
1/2 c. heavy cream or half and half (I used half and half)
1/4 c. prepared mango chutney (I used a hot one)
1 10 oz. box frozen peas
1/4 c. fresh cilantro leaves, chopped

Heat 2 c. water to a boil in a pot, then add the rice. Stir and return to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium low and cook for 18 minutes or until tender. Or cook rice according to rice cooker directions.

Preheat a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat with the vegetable oil. Add the sweet potatoes to the skillet, season with salt, pepper and curry paste or powder, and cook,
stirring frequently, for 3-4 minutes, or until lightly browned. Scoot the potatoes over to one side of the pan and add the chunks of chicken. Season with salt and pepper, and cook, browning slightly, for 3 minutes. Add the onions and bell peppers and toss to combine. Add the flour and continue to cook for one minute. Add the chicken stock, cream, and mango chutney, bring to a simmer, and cook for 10 minutes, or until the chicken and potatoes are cooked
through and the sauce has thickened.

Add the peas and simmer for 1 minute to heat them through. Stir in the cilantro and serve over rice.

Supposedly makes 4 servings, but they were BIG servings.

Note: I made this vegetarian once by changing to vegetable stock and subbing mushrooms and eggplant for the chicken. I liked the mushrooms, but didn't like the eggplant. Next time I think I'd sub a can of chickpeas instead.

Some T. bragging

I've held off on posting about this because I couldn't view it, but with the new computer...

T. did a special end-of-the-year project on butterflies for his second grade teacher. She is very "into" using technology as much as possible (which is right up T's alley). So his project is available online, if you have powerpoint (which I do--on this new computer!). Go here to view it yourself!

And here is T., practicing his guitar.(that hair... oh, that hair!)

New Computer

Not much to post about, but the kids' computer died this week and we decided to bite the bullet and get a new one. We really couldn't swing the cost of a Mac at this point, so we got this one. It's an HP Pavilion (our third pavilion in 15 years) with AMD Athlon™ 64 3800+, 200GB SATA hard drive, 1024MB of DDR SDRAM and {drum roll, please} a DVD burner! :) So I've spent the last day and a half doing all the fun set-up stuff like downloading and installing a schmillion drivers and cleaning up our "old" computer (POS eMachines) to give to the kids. They're networked and appear to be running well right now. Fingers crossed!

I did have a bit of time to knit and I've started on a tank top for myself. Our LYS, Ruhama's, had their summer sale a week ago and I found some wonderful yarn on clearance. The yarn I found is Dale's Svale in natural (0020). It's a cotton/viscose/silk blend. So far it's knitting up nicely. I'll try to post a picture so far--soon!

Blogger Categories & Menu planning

Quick post...

I just spent this afternoon/evening setting up categories and categorizing all my posts so far! RawMilkStar set up this really cool tutorial. Now I won't feel as much of a need to separate all my posts. I had to laugh as how (by far) the most posts I've written are about knitting and how there are hardly any about saving money (which is what I initially set my blog up to post about!).

Secondly, I got an idea yesterday to put something new on my blog. I was thinking of posting menus, recipes, and (sometimes) pictures of what I make for supper most nights. I know that I am often at a loss for meal ideas and I also know what a great hit some blogs like Vegan Lunchbox are. Not sure if I'll do it, but I took pictures of our last two meals just in case I do.

I {heart} gymnastics

Some of you might remember my last post about M. and gymnastics. Well, we decided to go ahead and enroll her in the second session this summer, with the four-year-olds. The first cool thing that happened was that M. realized that *all* four-year-olds wear underwear. The day she realized this, she came home and announced that she was going to be potty-trained. Now my other two were notoriously late trainers, so I wasn't sure how it would go. And let me tell you that the first week was NOT fun--at all! But then it clicked and we are (for the first time in a long time) a house without diapers! (knock wood...)

The second session of gymnastics was a bit different from the first. She had a different teacher (Miss Sarah is an elementary school teacher and I believe her second session teacher is a college student) and she went from a class of three (often only two were there) to a class of six (with all six there most days). Every day she was thrilled to go to class and she didn't miss a single one. Today (the last day of summer session) she got her certificate, which said that she should sign up for five-year-old gymnastics next session! Yikes... And she read that part herself and was very, very, very excited!

Felted Bags

Following my mission to finish some UFO's, I felted two bags this week.

C. started a booga bag several months ago. She *started* it, but Grandma did most of the body of the bag and I did most of the I-cord (C. hates I-cord). But it's still C's bag! Pre- and post-felting (click on the pics for more detail of the stitches or felting):











And here's my MDK buttonhole bag pre- and post-felting:











Two more checked off the list!

one last camp picture

(I hadn't checked for a few days)


The last day!

Favorite "bind off loosely" method???

I'm working madly on finishing some projects this week so I can start some new ones (there IS a limit to the number of projects I can comfortably have going at once!). I am all but done with a pair of socks that are knit (at this point) in K2P2 ribbing. They've been knit toe-up (of course) and I don't want to ruin the whole sock by binding off too tightly. So I'm looking for favorite/best ways to "bind off loosely".

I appreciate all input! :)

TIA

Mother-Daughter Bookclub

C. and I belong to a wonderful Mother-Daughter Book Club. Last night was our turn to host. The book chosen was "Gathering Blue" by Lois Lowry. We tried to make the snacks fit the theme, so everything we served was blue!


Clockwise from top:
Blue-frosted cake
Blue corn tortilla chips
Blue raspberry gummy bears
Blue margaritas
(water)
blue cups
Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade kool-aid
blue plates
Bleu cheese dip
Terra Blues potato chips
(in the center:)
Blue JBz
Blueberries

It was fun and everyone liked the book so well that we decided to do "Messenger" for next month! :)

MDK ballband trio and nine-patch

I finished these last week, but am just posting now. Notice the trio (blue, purple, pink) of rotating colors. :)
I have been knitting like crazy, trying to finish up some UFO's (oh, and I did a buttonhole bag in there, too. As soon as I can find my zippered pillow case, I'll felt it and post pics). I want to start on a mitered square throw (or, if I get really inspired, I'll make a full-sized one for T's bed (he'll move to a full-sized bed when we re-do the upstairs next year). I have quite a bit of cheap acrylic gunk, but if I make it into a duvet to put over the down comforter, it might look really cool...

Oh, I also finished the 9-patch warshcloth featured on MDK. I made it before the revised pattern and I also had always made my SSK's by slipping stitches purlwise. At any rate, my miters don't look like Kay's, but it's kinda cool anyway, I think. More curvy miters ;) My modification was to do seed stitch for the center square, in hopes that it wouldn't have an obvious direction when done. Then I tried and tried to find someone to show me how to crochet an edge on the warshcloth (I don't seem to learn well from a book) and I finally winged it. It's not beautiful, but it'll do for my dishes! :)

Day 5 of camp pictures

No camp pictures today

I'm assuming this is when they're away from camp--sleeping in a teepee. I'm a bit frightened, as there were supposed to be severe storms last night. ugh...

Grandma and Grandpa got a postcard from C. It said they were learning how to tip the canoe! I assume so that they knew how to get back in it, if it happened to tip! (I sure hope so--lol!)

UPDATE: we got a postcard! The contents, verbatim (well, names changed to protect the friends):

Dear Mom, Dad, T. and M.,
I have been having a great time at camp! M1 & I have alredy refound black berry trail! M2 is loving camp. K. has found out she's afrade of bugs. We had mackaroni-chese for dinner.

love,
cranky c.

Only one camp picture from day three