Dabble Do It!

Sneak Peek

2012-06-29T21:22:00.001-07:00

I'm working on an original crochet design. This is a little sneak preview. I'm almost done with the "prototype" and hope to have a basic pattern worked out soon.

The other night I was thinking of different things I could make/design for my shop and an idea flashed in my head. As soon as I got home I started working on it because I feared if I just put my idea on paper that I wouldn't remember clearly what I was thinking.

So far it's coming out pretty close to what it looked like in my head.

Sneak Preview

2012-06-16T15:07:00.000-07:00

A little sneak preview of what I'm putting together for my Etsy shop which should re-open soon.

Of Babies and Blankets

2010-12-07T16:03:00.000-08:00

Way back in August my cousin had her second child, a girl, born with the best birthdate ever (8/9/10)!

Soon after I started a blanket with the intention of giving it to her for the colder months. Well here it is December already and I'm not quite done.

Because this blanket is HUGE! The pattern I used, a Catherine Wheel crochet stitch pattern is based on a 10 stitch repeat. At this point I don't remember how many stitches were in the starting chain - 80? 100? 150? More?

All I know is that this can not be referred to as a baby blanket. This is more like a toddler blanket, a small afghan really. I've worked on it nearly exclusively while sitting at the cold ice rink while my daughter has her lessons. If I had to estimate I would say it's about 80% done. Yet I probably need about 10 more hours on this thing until I'm satisfied with the proportions. It is large enough to keep my entire lower half warm while I work on it.

I'm switching colors every two rows and each row takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, depending on attention level. Because of the multiple colors it has strong horizontal lines and the blanket is worked from the bottom up, so to speak. Right now it is wider than it is tall. I need to keep going until it is at least square for my symmetry-loving brain to deem it acceptable for gifting.

Fiber snobs, sheild your eyes, for I have made this out of soft baby-melting acrylic. Chances are quite high that this blanket will be peed on, pooped on, spit up on, spilled on, dragged on the ground, etc. It needs to be durable and washable, and it needed to cost less than a car payment to make.

I've kept it under wraps for quite some time, but I'm giving you all a sneak peek. As soon as it is 100% complete (and gifted) I will post a photograph of it in all it's glory. The colors remind me of an ice cream parlor and I love how the pattern has a bit of a 70's retro feel to it.

Hopefully my cousin will like it.

Skating is Life

2010-12-07T15:11:00.000-08:00

As I sit in the cold metal stands watching my daughter's skating lesson I realize that she is learning much more than skating out on the ice. She's developing tools that will help her succeed as she grows as a person as well.

Balance is one of the first things she learns. Finding her center, figuring out how much she can lean forward and backward without falling over. Standing her ground amid the flurry of skaters she learns how to stand on her own and not let others intimidate her, yet she is still courteous - letting the skater performing a run-through of her program ample room to execute her pattern and elements.

After balance comes control. Skate too slow and she doesn't have the momentum to execute a jump or direction change well. Too fast and she is suddenly past the limits of her ability and becomes a danger to herself and others. Control is knowing when to slow down and when to speed up and finding that sweet spot where everything works as it should.

As she masters balance and control she gains confidence. With this confidence comes the desire to try new things, even if they seem scary or downright impossible. Confidence is not expecting to do everything perfectly the first time, but it is having the knowledge that with proper instruction and practice her abilities will develop and she will make the most of the talent she possesses. Having this confidence also means that she will take criticism well and use it to improve her performance.

With repetition and additional exercise she develops flexibility. She can extend herself to get the most out of her performance and she can stretch until she can attain what was once out of her reach. She can also adapt to different rinks and ice conditions without it throwing her entirely off her game.

The last and most important thing she learns is perseverance. Learning how to skate means falling. Often. Every time she falls, she must get back up again. Giving up isn't an option. Her program needs to be seen through to the end. She will fall 10, 20, 30 times before finally landing a new jump, but she will learn it. She will learn how to shake off the bumps and bruises she acquires along the way, knowing that if she sticks it out she will have expanded her body of knowledge and will be proud of the fact that she stuck it out and learned something new instead of giving up and always wondering, "What if?".

Sometimes she doesn't want to go to the rink. Sometimes she would like more free time, but what she is learning on the ice is invaluable and they are skills that will help her be successful not just in skating, but in life.

Jardiniere

2010-09-15T07:58:00.000-07:00

One of my dad's favorite treats is jardiniere. I remember when he and his friend would open a jar and eat it usually with Mexican food and beer. Both would become red in the face and sweat would pop out on their foreheads. I always thought it looked like a painful food to eat, but they both assured me that it was quite good.

For years afterward I had wanted to make jardiniere for my dad but never managed to get around to it. This year I had so many fresh veggies from my garden that I decided it was time. This one is for you, Dad!

Good jardiniere starts with fresh ingredients. Well, good anything starts with fresh ingredients, but you know what I mean. I was lucky enough to get most of the ingredients from my garden, including the herbs. I omitted the mushrooms, substituting hot peppers (jalapeno and Hungarian hot wax), and added celery I bought from the store. If I had been thinking I would have picked up some cauliflower as well. Oops. At this time I should probably let you know that I started with the recipe in the Ball Blue Book.

Fresh harvest from the garden, except for the celery
I spent the next hour or so chopping the vegetables into fairly uniform sizes. The sweet peppers were cut into strips and the onions were sliced. Because I think it looks neat, I cut the hot peppers into rounds. All of the cut vegetables and herbs were put in a large bowl. While I was chopping, the cider vinegar and pickling spices were coming to a boil on the stove. Unless you are seriously congested, do not put your face over the boiling cider vinegar/spice mixture and inhale, it may cause pain.

Ask me how I know this.

After all the vegetables were sliced and the cider vinegar mixture comes to a boil, add the veggies to the pot, stir and heat just until they become tender. These will be getting a boiling water bath in a bit, so be sure not to overcook them. Nobody like mushy jardiniere.

Veggies cooking in the pot.

While the veggies were cooking, I put my sterilized jars on the rack suspended above the water in my canning pot to heat them up. Putting hot ingredients into cold jars can cause breakage, so better to be safe than sorry.

I packed each jar with the veggies and ladled the hot liquid over, leaving about 1/4" of headspace. Check for air pockets and bubbles, I like to use a clean chopstick to release the bubbles. Add a little more liquid if necessary, seal and process in boiling water according the the recipe directions. Times vary according to altitude. Remove the jars to a towel or tray to cool and admire the pretty colors!

Oooh, pretty!

Apple Picking at Shafer Orchards

2010-09-14T16:24:00.000-07:00

Every year in September we travel up to Michigan with friends to pick apples at Shafer Orchards. We've done this as a tradition for quite a few years, sometimes squeezing in a few wine tastings at the local wineries. This year the weather was chilly and rainy, the perfect weather for apple picking!

The barn at Shafer Orchards

As usual, the Shafer family is friendly and welcoming, showing us where the best apples are.

Mr. Shafer leading the way

Since I am interested in using the apples mainly for baking, I stick to the variety that works best and is in season, Golden Delicious.

For a reason I can't quite figure out, my husband is a big fan of Red Delicious apples so a few of those go in the bag as well. Since the Jonathan and Jonagold apples are also in season, we snag a few of those for snacking. After filling the bag halfway I swear that I am going to source actual wooden bushels for use next year, I think the bags encourage bruising and they tend to roll around in the trunk more often.

Upon arrival, Mr. Shafer made the "mistake" of showing one member of our party where to find a variety called Molly's Delicious. I'm in the mood for a snack so I pick one off the tree, take a bite, and...

...Oh. My. Goodness! It's like candy that grows on trees. Molly's Delicious is the best tasting apple I have ever had. It's crisp and sweet and the skin is delicate. If you can find a source for them in your area, I encourage you to try them at least once.

Red Delicious apple trees

After picking a bushel and a half of apples (three bags) we are done and head out. Before leaving I also pick up two acorn squash and some honey from a little "farm" down the road.

Our group heads down to the home of FloraLia honey and it is my idea of paradise.

There are goats:

One of these guys tried to eat my pigtails when I pet him

and llamas:

The brown one does not look happy!

and chickens:

and turkeys:

and everything is slightly messy in the most charming of ways. It's like discovering a little fairy garden in the middle of the vineyard.

After our traditional dinner of pizza, we head home and I'm rendered speechless by the technicolor sunset. What a beautiful end to a day that started out cold and rainy! I snapped some pictures from the passenger seat and I just had to share:

I also picked up something else I'll be working with this week:
So, what did you do this weekend?

Pumpkins: Puree and Pepitos

2010-09-14T14:31:00.000-07:00

Not sure if I mentioned it before but I managed to harvest 13 'Small Sugar' pumpkins from one single plant in my garden. In August.

August Pumpkin Harvest

Maybe it's just that I'm so used to pumpkins being associated with Halloween and Thanksgiving that it seems ridiculous to have harvested in August. Yet if you live anywhere near the Chicago area, you know that this year's gardening season has been ridiculous in it's own way. We had a quick start on the warmth (never to really drop down again) and copious amounts of rain early on. A fantastic start to an amazing summer harvest.

Back to the pumpkins.

When I planted the pumpkin this spring it was always in the hope that I would have enough for my aunt to make at least one of her incredible pumpkin pies (she is the one who always makes them for Thanksgiving. Always.). Imagine my surprise when somewhere around the end of June I was checking out the pumpkin progress and I started counting. My expectation was to get 3-4, perhaps 5 pumpkins if I were lucky. I was downright giddy with the thought of 13 pumpkins. The last week or so of August the pumpkins turned orange and the vines shriveled up. It was time to harvest. One sad little pumpkin felt light and sort of spongy and hollow, so I pitched it. The others sat on my dining room table for about two weeks while I worked up the courage and studied my schedule to find the time to process them.

In my mind, I had made the actual process of turning my pumpkins into puree difficult and complicated. After a short stint of online research I realized that I had worried for nothing. Except for maybe the time investment, but more on that later.

I have one oven. As much as I have lusted for a double oven and walk in pantry, sadly I have neither. So I would have to do this in batches. In other words, there goes my day. I started with the smaller pumpkins so I could fit more in to start. After pre-heating the oven to 300 degrees, I cut each one vertically from stem to bottom, scooped out the seeds and pulp (I put these aside) and lay them flesh-side down on a cookie sheet prepared with a light coating of non-stick cooking spray.

I let them bake for about 45-60 minutes in the oven. When they can be pierced easily with a knife they are done. While they were baking I set up what I needed to process the pumpkin into puree: a cutting board, sharp knife, food processor, large bowl, and freezer bags. I also cut and prepared two more pans of pumpkin to go in the oven when the current batch came out. I would have three batches in total.

Roasted Pumpkin

When the pumpkin was done, I took it out and let it cool ever so slightly (no more than a couple minutes). Then I got to work separating the flesh from the skin. Unfortunately it wasn't as intuitive as I thought it would be, but after a few pieces I got a rhythm down and was able to consistently and quickly get the pumpkin flesh off the skin and into the food processor.

I pureed the pumpkin until all lumps were gone, transferring it to a large bowl so I could work on the remaining pieces before they cooled off (it's easier to remove the flesh from the skin while the pumpkin is still relatively hot, it gets more difficult as it cools). Once all the pumpkin from the first batch was pureed and in the bowl I started filling freezer bags. This is where the online directions diverged in their methodology. Some said to strain the puree in cheesecloth to get rid of excess moisture, others (like The Pioneer Woman) said it is not necessary. Bowing to the gods of sloth I decided against straining.

The first bag I filled, I measured the puree first so I could get an idea of how much I was putting in each bag. Once I realized that 3 heaping scoops of my scraper/scooper was about 2 cups, I was in business. I transferred approximately 4 cups of puree into each gallon size freezer bag.

You might want to take note of the fact that all these sites consistently said that each pie pumpkin would yield around 1 to 1 1/2 cups of puree. After processing the rest of the 12 pumpkins I wound up with 4 gallon size bags and 2 quart size bags of puree. That is a total of ~18 cups, which averages...*drum roll*... 1 1/2 cups of puree per pumpkin.

18+ cups of pumpkin puree!

Now here is where the kitchen math gets really interesting. If the average pumpkin pie uses approximately 2 cups of pureed pumpkin, then I have enough for 9 pies!!! The puree is stacked nicely in my freezer awaiting delivery to my aunt who is going to make at least one test pie to see how it works for her. I may keep a few cups of puree for pumpkin bread, or muffins, or pancakes.

Remember the seeds I told you I put aside? While the last batch of pumpkin was in the oven, I rinsed and cleaned the seeds and soaked them in saltwater for about 45 minutes.

Seeds getting a saltwater soak.

I rinsed them again and spread them out on two cookie sheets. This made for a fairly thick layer of seeds per sheet, but it is nothing to be concerned about.

I drizzled a few tablespoons of olive oil over each of the pans and stirred them with my hands (I found that trying to stir with anything else caused them to jump out and over the sides of the pan). The first pan got a sprinkling of sea salt and were stirred again. The second pan got a sprinkling of Old Bay seasoning. They went into the still hot and running oven. After 10 minutes I checked on them and found they were starting to stick to the pan a little, so I gave each pan a bit of a shake to knock them loose and evenly distribute the seeds. I kept checking on them every few minutes until they started to look drier, shaking every time I opened the oven. After about 30 minutes some of the seeds were starting to brown, so they got a final shake and 5 more minutes in the oven. I took them out and let them cool, sampling one or two to make sure they were truly done. After they cooled I put them in clean mason jars to store, and had a little over 3 pints of roasted seeds in total. It took my family about 2 minutes until they pounced on this treat and even my picky eater loved them.

Originally I wasn't going to roast the seeds, but after cleaning the first pumpkin I realized that there was a treasure trove of seeds and I wasn't about to let them go to waste. I'm starting to think that pumpkins are designed to take over the world because there is no reason for the sheer multitude of seeds to be found in each pumpkin.

After killing the afternoon (and the better part of the evening) I was exhausted, but knew that I would have more of my harvest to preserve tomorrow.

Tomorrow: Jardiniere

Life and Other Inconveniences

2010-09-14T12:08:00.000-07:00

I should have three or so posts coming up this week. Life has been very busy lately, complicated even more by my car deciding it no longer wanted to shift gears, or you know, move forward. I've been doing a lot in the kitchen as far as preserving the harvest and recently went to Michigan to pick apples and other fruit.

This has left precious little time for getting my photos uploaded and blog posts written. As long as I have an internet connection at the rink today (my second home), I should have a post about processing pumpkin for pie hitting the intertubes this evening.

Another Test

2010-09-08T06:33:00.001-07:00

I'm trying to get Twitterfeed working. It is not cooperating.

Later this week there will be a few cooking related posts.

Let's Salsa!

2010-08-27T13:03:00.000-07:00

The best thing about late August is the abundance of tomatoes from my garden. The worst thing about late August (aside from the heat) is the abundance of tomatoes from my garden.

Let me explain.

Every spring I plant my tomatoes and dream of meaty, full flavored tomatoes that taste like sunshine and summer. The first tomato is harvested, rinsed, sliced and savored with the optional exclamation about how you can't get anything that even tastes close from the store.

Come late August, tomato production often is far greater than tomato consumption. Even after giving them away to the neighbors, friends and family.

This year I found myself fighting off a tidal wave of yellow pear tomatoes. It turns out I had exactly the right amount to make the Tomato and Green Chile Salsa found on the National Center for Home Food Preservation website. To be honest, I was a little concerned about making sure my recipe was acidic enough so I decided to go to the best source available.

I substituted three Hungarian Hot Wax peppers for the long green chiles called for in the recipe (I used my Melrose sweet peppers for the rest of the green chili requirement), but other than that stayed true to the recipe.

At first I thought I was going to be clever and call this Salsa Amarillo-Verde since it was yellow and green, but after cooking, it's pretty much a Salsa Verde.

The longest part of the entire process was the cooking. I kept an eye on it and stirred regularly. Be really careful when putting your face over the pot to stir. Any inhalation of the chili steam will cause throat irritation.

Ask me how I know this.

The salsa at the beginning of the cooking time.

I filled and canned 3 pints of salsa (the recipe yield), with a smidge left over that I put in a smaller jar and popped in the fridge. When it had cooled down I tried it with chips. The taste is not the easiest to describe but it was a great combination of sweet and spicy with quite a kick. In a word, it was delicious.

While the salsa is great with chips, I think it would also work well in my chicken enchilada recipe which calls for green enchilada sauce. I'm not sure why, but it is harder than it should be to find green enchilada sauce in the store, even the market with an extensive ethnic food selection. My kids might not appreciate the heat, and next time I might leave out the Hungarian Hot Wax peppers entirely and only use sweet peppers, but there's something about the chili heat that makes it addictive.

I think the green color is interesting as well.

Poking around in the garden today it looks as though my carrots will be ready in the next week or so. I also still have a TON of peppers (hot and otherwise) in the freezer frozen whole. (Quick defrost tip: plunk them into a pot of boiling water for about 30 seconds then let them cool a minute on the cutting board before chopping).

Next up in my canning queue?

Jardinera - a spicy, pickled mix of carrots, hot peppers, celery and other vegetables.

Raspberry Freezer Jam

2010-08-23T12:26:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite memories of time spent at my grandma's house is the summer my mom, aunts, and grandmother made strawberry freezer jam from the strawberries we picked at a Michigan U-Pick farm. I can still remember the taste of the sweet pink concoction and the feeling of always wanting more. I think I lived on strawberry jam on toast for breakfast for the rest of that year.

Ms. Humble's post about freezer jam the other day brought all those memories and sensations rushing back and encouraged me to make some using the fresh raspberries from the garden. In the past we had stored the freezer jam in old baby food jars, but considering my kids are way past the baby food stage I purchased some half pint jars instead. Finding them was a journey in itself, but lets say that I have a greater respect for K-Mart than I ever had in the past.

This morning I went out an harvested as many fresh berries as I could find. This was not an easy task considering that the bees were a little upset that I had disturbed their pollination to harvest. I wound up with about a pint of rasperries (and down about a pint of blood - those mosquitoes are vicious this year).

My fresh picked raspberries in my mom's old Tupperware measuring bowl. It must be 25 years old but it's still my favorite mixing bowl.

I purchased two more pints at the store to add to what I was able to harvest. I think I missed the best harvest by about a month. It's been either too rainy or too hot to be out in the garden for any length of time, so we've missed out on a fair amount of berries. Also, my berries were perfectly to almost overripe so I felt that adding the slightly underripe berries from the store would encourage my jam to set up firmer. After cleaning I had to decide if I was going to make a cooked jam or not. I seem to remember my family cooking the strawberries in the past (perhaps it was just the pectin), but I know how fresh raspberry puree tastes so I'm not cooking the berries, I want to keep the flavor bright and fresh.

Using my 4 cup measuring cups, I smashed small batches of the berries with my potato masher. I made sure to keep some pieces because we prefer a chunkier jam. All of the crushed berries were transferred to my mixing bowl.

Forgive the blurry picture. I have the cruddiest light in the house and the flash didn't help.

I'm not straining out the seeds because both my husband and I like the seeds and it seems to make it more raspberry-y (is SO a word!). Feel free to strain some or all of them out at this point if you prefer.

I added the sugar, stirred to incorporate it all, and let it sit and dissolve into the mixture while I prepared the pectin (I used Sure-Jell, but use whatever you like and is available. Most have recipes for freezer jam included).

Right before adding the pectin I gave my crushed raspberries one last stir to make sure the sugar was incorporated and dissolved. I added the pectin, stirring well to make sure that it was evenly distributed throughout. Not trusting my spouted bowl to pour neatly and lacking a wide mouth funnel, I used my small ladle to spoon the mixture into my sterilized jars, leaving 1/2-3/4 inches of room for expansion (I filled to just under the threads for the lid). I wiped off any spillage, put on the lids and let it sit for 24 hours to set as recommended in the Sure-Jell instructions. Brands vary, as do the instructions, so follow what it says in your package of pectin. The recipe yielded 8 half pints (approximately 8 cups) of raspberry freezer jam. This is an easy way to make jam and it's quick too, from start to finish it took about 30 minutes.

Waiting for it to set up felt like an eternity and of course when it was ready I tried it my favorite way:

Now I have to find a way to hide some so my family doesn't obliterate it all in a few days. You can make freezer jam and jelly from a variety of fruits, my instruction sheet lists 13 different varieties including hot pepper. Next time I may make a blueberry-raspberry mixture or blueberry-peach. Let me know if you make freezer jam (or jelly) and what your favorite flavor is.

Attack of the Pear Tomatoes!

2010-08-18T13:15:00.000-07:00

When planning my vegetable garden for this year I took quite a few things into account: the spacing, companion planting, old standbys and new varieties I wanted to try. Tomatoes are a fun place to put this into practice because they can often be full of surprises. Last year I caged and staked my Brandywine and Early Girls and had Arkansas Traveler, Mr. Stripey, and Super Sweet 100 on the trellis. The trellis worked so well I decided to go that route for all my tomatoes this year.

Unfortunately for me I seemed to have amnesia regarding how big and sprawling certain plants can get. Add that to just not knowing how a certain variety grows because I haven't grown it before and you have my current situation with my Yellow Pear Tomatoes. On one five foot wide trellis I have Brandywine and Roma Italia, both of which are doing fairly well (save the blossom end rot on some of my Romas - do they need more calcium than other varieties?). The other trellis of the same size I have Mortgage Lifter, Cherokee Purple, Super Sweet 100 and Yellow Pear tomatoes.

The Yellow Pear Tomatoes have decided they are taking over. Due to excessive rain early in the season, I couldn't get out often early in the growing season to prune. In the past, I haven't pruned much and never ran into problems. This year the Yellow Pear tomatoes have grown up (like they should) and over my other tomatoes to the point where the other plants look like they are wearing a blanket made up of the single pear tomato plant. Is this a usual growth habit of these small fruit tomatoes or do I have some sort of super plant on my hands. In fact, the other day I was harvesting and this is what I got in ONE harvest:

The crazy thing is, just two days prior I had harvested about the same amount from the same plant. It truly is a ridiculous amount for a family of four. So I acted as the generous neighbor and knocked on the door next door and offered them up. I felt it was only fair considering her husband and youngest son helped me fill the beds in the spring. They've also been beneficiaries of my cucumbers as well.

Speaking of ridiculous, this was my complete harvest from last week:

A lot got given away (some cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes and the smaller squash), and a few others were frozen and I still have to find time to shred the baseball bat sized zucchini.

Those orange things on the table? Why yes, they are pumpkins harvested in August, why do you ask? Twelve pumpkins from one vine. TWELVE! One followed by a two. I need to research how to prepare these for the pies they are destined to become. Did you see how many tomatoes I have there? Some are going to be crushed and frozen, others eaten straight up.

I think I need a nametag that says "Lazy Gardener" because I'm not canning anything at all this year. There is, sadly, a lack of time. More tragic is the lack of motivation.

One thing that this abundance has taught me is to be judicious in what I plant and how many. The past two years have been planting to see if it grew. Next year, I'm only planting what we are sure to eat. I will probably try planting watermelon again after two solid years of failure. My mini-cantaloupe spit out one melon (no more on the horizon), and the watermelon spit out one that I need to pick and see if it's even edible. I planted Sugar Baby and the melon I have is mini, even for that variety. The one more successful melon has been the enigmatically named Green Melon. Not sure if it is named for the color of its rind or flesh (or both). I have a decent sized melon on the vine and the plant seems to be thriving, spreading nicely on the trellis. The watermelon looked like it could barely keep it's own leaves alive let alone a melon or two. And I may pass on the broccoli and cauliflower next year. The cauliflower did nothing and the ratio of edibility to plant size of the broccoli isn't small enough to make it worth my while.

For growing a fully organic garden, I couldn't have been happier. I'm lazy enough to not care when I lose a plant or three and tend to choose varieties that don't need coddling. The fun starts in November or so when there is snow on the ground and I start planning for next year.

Projects for Tiny People

2010-08-03T06:53:00.000-07:00

Being that there haven't been a lot of babies in my family for quite some time (except Gavin, who gets a hat or two every year from me) I haven't every worked on booties or bonnets. Booties kind of scared me with their tinyness and shaping. Most of the patterns I've seen lately are for Mary Jane type booties or lacy frilly things. Finding a pattern for a simple bootie was one of the harder scavenger hunts I've been on.

Finally at JoAnn I picked up a pamphlet, Leisure Arts #3162, "My Very First Layette". I used the pattern for the Blue set up until the cuff where I simply put a scallop edge after the eyelet row. It simplified the pattern even further and they came out super cute. The cuff can be turned down as well. I used a crochet chain for a tie instead of the ribbon that was suggested. In my experience, ribbons tend to untie much to easily.

Doing a quick pattern search on Ravelry for a bonnet I came across the Abigail Bonnet (Ravelry link). The construction is fairly simple, but the pattern isn't all that clear. In fact, I think the stitch counts given at the end of some of the rows/rounds were incorrect. Thankfully I'm confident enough in my abilities to just plow ahead and work it out as I go along. The Abigail bonnet was quick knit, about an hour. Once again I used a crochet chain for the tie.

Now I have to get cracking on the blanket that I was making. Given that it's still summertime, and the blanket is going to be thick, soft, and warm, I think that it will become a Christmas gift. That gives me time to try to get back to my dad's socks. I've been trying to make him socks for years, but I have a hard time even finishing one for some reason. It may be that I'm selfish and I like to keep handmade socks for myself. Also, my Celtic Icon needs to be worked on as well. It would be nice to have that for October. I'm going to be spending a lot more time at the rink with my youngest daughter, so I supposed I should dig in and make a real effort to get through my UFO's which are too numerous to count. Or I could cast on for a hat, or mittens, or a pair of socks for the new baby and her big brother....

Tellabs Garden Plots

2010-07-25T15:08:00.000-07:00

It is my firm belief that everybody should tend a garden (preferably their own) at least once in their life. Not only to witness the miracle that is growing pounds of food from ounces of seed, but also to know where their food comes from and what it takes to get it from garden to table.

This year was the inaugural year of Tellabs employee garden plots. It has been a huge success with all plots being claimed (even those put aside for neighboring companies). I think Tellabs employee and gardener Greg Rigali said it best:

"Eight of my colleagues from the supply chain execution team agreed to form a group, which we appropriately called "The Chain Gang."
The Chain Gang is growing tomatoes, broccoli, beans, zucchini, squash, beets, eggplant, lettuce and a variety of peppers.
And as in the workplace, the group finds teamwork is the best approach in the garden.
"We agreed that the initiative has created a great collaborative opportunity," Rigali said. "In the beginning, the Chain Gang went out as a group to do the initial planting, but now we typically divide up the jobs for the gardening plots."

Not only do the employees work as a team during the workday, but they found a way to have that translate to the garden as well. There is also talk of setting up a Tellabs market stand and donating excess to the local food pantry. A great way to share the bounty with others.

Well done Tellabs, I hope other companies with the land to spare follow your approach.

Easy No Pressure Photography Competition

2010-07-22T08:46:00.000-07:00

Also known as the Pioneer Woman Photography Assignment!

I've been waiting for an assignment that I felt I could participate in and this time the theme is water. It's super easy to enter and it's a lot of fun to look through everyone else's pictures. There are some extremely talented people out there!

If you have a picture that qualifies, go enter it. If not, get cracking and take one!

Most (if not all) the pictures I plan on entering I took with my Canon EOS Rebel XT digital camera, with little photoshop work. I've been looking for an excuse to start taking more pictures and this seems like a low pressure laid back way of dipping my toes back in the water.

What a Pickle!

2010-07-10T16:17:00.000-07:00

I was in the garden trying to establish boundaries for my vine plants - unsuccessfully I might add, there is a pumpkin in my zuchinni patch, up and OVER the garden path - I spied this huge guy lurking in with my pickles and cucumbers.

How did I not see him before today? And does anyone else have a craving for a deli pickle about now?

Emily's Tea Party

2010-07-10T12:45:00.000-07:00

My daughter Emily turned 12 last week and she's having a tea party and sleepover today.

Getting ready for the pre-teen invasion that is currently happening required a little bit of preparation.

First I baked a red velvet cake in a 9"x13" pan to make Bakerella's Red Velvet Cake Balls. While that was in the oven I made two batches of Rice Krispie candy and pressed it into 10 - 4" mini cake pans. Those went in the fridge (along with an 8"x8" pan of candy for my husband and I).

While the cake was cooling I rolled out the leftover white marshmallow fondant from last week's cake. I wanted to make this a quick and easy operation so I just popped the rice crispy treats out of the mini cake pans, put a light skim coat of decorator frosting on the top and flipped them over onto the fondant, where I cut around the cake so there is only a circle of fondant on the top of the rice crispy treats.

I rolled out the blue and purple fondant and my daughters used a flower cookie cutter to cut out shapes. The rolled some of the white fondant into balls as well. I showed my oldest how to affix the fondant to itself and let her get to decorating while I cleaned up.

At this point the cake was cool so I transfered it to a large mixing bowl and mixed in the cream cheese frosting. Emily's tea party has a loose Alice in Wonderland theme so I decided to use some silicone molds I had to make heart shaped cake balls. I popped these in the freezer to firm up. After about an hour and a half I set up a glass bowl on top of a pot of water to melt the almond bark. I suspect that candy melts would work better, but sadly because my daughter is nut-allergic, any colored ones are out of the question and I didn't have time to buy safe white candy melts and coloring. As soon as the almond bark was ready I popped the cake balls out of the mold and into the white chocolate. I transferred them to waxed paper to set up and sprinkled them with red sugar. They are as tasty as they look!

Of course I sampled one...er, maybe two.....ok, ok it was three!

This morning was spent with putting together finger sandwiches. I picked up one loaf each of white and wheat thin cut bread (Pepperidge Farm I believe) and then worked out what we would have as fillings.

My daughter and I decided on four: Cucumber with dill mayonnaise, prosciutto with mozzarella and basil, bacon and onion cream cheese, and tomato with provolone and basil. Some I cut into triangles and others into squares. I was fortunate enough to harvest the dill, basil, and cucumber out of the garden. All in all I made 96 tiny little finger sandwiches. They look cute and are tasty too!

Now it's time to put my feet up, have a drink, and keep one ear on what is going on in the other room.

Bushier Basil

2010-07-07T11:46:00.000-07:00

I was amused the other day reading how Ree Drummond of The Pioneer Woman dislikes picking basil because of a fear of running out. Ree, I'm totally laughing with you, not at you, because I often avoid picking my basil for the same reason!

While checking on my garden this morning I noticed that the basil is starting to bloom. In order to keep the leaves tasting sweet, I need to nip this in the bud...literally. The benefits to pinching back basil are two-fold. One, the leaves stay tasting sweet and two, the plant starts to grow bushier instead of taller.

This is what my basil looks like while it is blooming.

If I wanted to I could let it go in order to save seeds for next year, but I still want my basil to taste it's best so I'm pinching. I'll start letting it go to seed in another month or so. When I pinch back my basil, I pinch off flowers back to the next set of leaves to encourage bushier, not taller growth. This results in more leaves and more leaves equal more pesto!

Basil is extremely easy to grow and there are some really attractive varieties. I'm growing Mammoth, Sweet, and Red Rubin, the last of which is a beautiful burgundy color. What types do you grow and what are some of your favorite uses for basil?

Trellised Tomatoes

2010-07-05T10:59:00.000-07:00

Like most gardeners who grow vegetables, I reserve a decent amount of space for growing tomatoes. This year in my garden I am growing many different varieties: Brandywine, Mortgage Lifter, Roma, Cherokee Purple, Yellow Pear, and Super Sweet 100. Last year I used spiral tomato cages from Veggie Cages and while they worked very well and kept the garden looking attractive, I felt that there was still too much space taken up by my tomato plants.

This year, when installing my expanded garden I wanted to maximize the space my tomatoes use, so I decided to go more vertical. Last year I grew a few plants and my peas on a vertical trellis made of conduit and nylon trellis netting. This year I decided that anything that needed trellising was going to use this set up.

Conduit is inexpensive and comes in 10' lengths. For around $20 you can get a conduit cutter that makes cutting them to length super easy.

I picked up corner connectors(I prefer the ones that use a screw to tighten) as well as some rebar to anchor the trellises to the ground. Bury the rebar at least a foot into the ground and slip the conduit over the exposed part. It holds up amazing well to high winds, I have yet to have one bend or collapse.

Here is what they look like early in the season installed for my cucumbers (forgive the wonky angle, it was taken with my cell phone):

Because the trellis netting was longer than I needed, I just worked my way back up from the bottom while tying it onto the conduit.

This method works wonders for vining plants like peas, cucumbers and melons and works surprisingly well for tomatoes. Here is what my tomatoes look like this morning:

The trick with trellis tomatoes (and most everything else) with this method is to check on the garden nearly every day. As the plants grow, gently weave the stems in and out of the trellis netting, adjusting as necessary. There are often a few tomato branches that escape my notice until they are bigger, but I just tuck them in where I can without breaking them. No ties are necessary and the fruit is easily accessible from both the front and the back. If the plant grows higher than the trellis (like those on the right), gently train the tomatoes to go over the trellis and back down the other side. Sometimes this may take some time, but if you catch them when they are still fairly flexible, it's an easy matter to encourage it to go the way you want.

So far, this is my favorite way to support tomatoes. How do you grow and support yours? If there is a better, more interesting, or more attractive way, I'd like to hear about it.

Adventures in Fondant

2010-07-03T09:13:00.000-07:00

Every year for the past 12 years I have baked and decorated a cake for my eldest daughter (my youngest has had this honor for 9 years). I have always wanted to try working with fondant but there were a few obstacles to this. First, the pre-made fondant was pricey, and not always safe for my nut-allergic daughter to eat. Second, the fondant recipes seemed too fiddly and difficult. Thirdly, the taste of fondant detracted from the beauty of the finished product.

Some time ago, I was searching for cake ideas and somebody had used what is called marshmallow fondant. Apparently marshmallow fondant has all the properties of standard fondant, but with a better, sweeter taste and it was easier to make (many people have the ingredients in their cupboard).

Imagine my delight when I not only found a recipe for marshmallow fondant, but an instructional video for making it using the microwave and Kitchen Aid mixer, thus reducing the mess factor.

A few days before the party I mixed up a few batches of fondant.

Once my cakes were crumb coated, I grabbed a fondant roller and pizza cutter and got to work (note that I show green fondant here and the finished project is blue - I used the green for another layer).

Forgive me for missing photos for the intermediate steps. It was late in the evening (or early in the morning depending on how you look at it), I was covered in powdered sugar, and I was figuring everything out as I was going along. Next time I do this, I'll document properly, I promise.

I was able to roll it out to about 1/8" thickness. Draping it over the roller I transferred it to the cake, which had gotten a fresh coating of butter cream icing so the fondant had something to stick to. Using my hands and a fondant smoother, I eliminated bubbles in the top of the cake. I continued to smooth down the sides while manipulating the excess fondant on the edges to eliminate ripples.

For a first-timer entering the realm of fondant cakes, I couldn't have been more pleased with how easy it was to work with (it's about the consistency of fresh play-doh) and the finished result.

For those of you who haven't tried fondant for fear that it is too hard, or too messy, try marshmallow fondant. It was easier than I anticipated and the cleanup was actually easier than working with butter cream. The finished result looks very professional. The cake sat out for a few days (you don't want to refrigerate after covering with fondant, it will sweat, then melt) and it still looked great!

(recipe and video: Marshmallow Fondant).

Peter Rabbit

2010-05-11T18:29:00.000-07:00

I found this guy hopping around in my screened porch then caught him with the camera outside before he ran home to mama.

He didn't leave a coat or shoes behind, but I did see little nibble marks on my spinach.

Coming Soon!

2010-05-08T17:51:00.000-07:00

DabbleDoIt! is the soon-to-be home of tips, tricks, and general information sharing on a variety of topics. Anything from Gardening and cooking, to photography and Photoshop.

This site is currently under construction and will be fully launched in the near future.