It has rained and rained and rained.  The sun barely makes an appearance.  The yard has turned into The Soggy Bottom Yard.  Its squishy.  Scooter the dog keeps asking to be let in to dry off.

These pictures were taken in the middle of the afternoon.  Scary, huh?

So I sit and knit.  Finished a hat and socks, re-started a sweater that had formerly been finished and then ripped out again.  Baked some bread.  Made some soup.

And so it goes.

I see why people go on those Caribbean Cruises.

Baking Christmas Cookies is an old and honorable tradition, which I like to uphold every year…to the delight of my friends and family. This week alone, I baked with Jeff at my house and with Melissa at hers.

Altogether, we’ve made Christmas Chocolate Chip, Shortbread Cut-outs, Soft Gingersnaps, Salted Mudslide, Rollo Cookies, Caramels and Marshmallows.
Whew!

The main reason for baking day with Melissa was to learn to make Caramels.  Which are delicious and a bit of a process.  Here they are cooling in the pan.  This was after stirring a vat of lava for a LONG time.

Here is Zac cutting them, I am wrapping them, we took turns, the cutting became a bit arduous.

Melissa is salting the Mudslide Cookies, Zac is sneaking one and Brandon looks on.  Here is what the guys are doing when not sneaking cookies:

They play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, which makes a guy hungry, don’t ya know?

While the Salted Mudslide Cookies didn’t have any problem disappearing, Melissa felt the recipe was in need of revision, which she is already plotting out in her head.

Here is the recipe, try some yourself, see what you think!  http://www.howsweeteats.com/2011/08/salted-mudslide-cookies/

Well, lately, making cards is all I do, for weeks now designing, making, writing in and filling out the addresses to stacks and stacks of all handmade Christmas cards. I will probably live to regret this…however I love creating things and am enjoying the process.

I subscribe to a few newsletters and one of them is for papercrafting, which showed this card made with collected scrap strips like the one pictured above. I thought that was a fabulous idea, I ‘m always saving these bits and then trying to come up with clever ways of using them. So here we are.

Lately I’ve been knitting a pile of wee Christmas Ornaments, which are like candy, you can’t just make one. This  on goes towards my long term LMKG Project, knitting everything in the Last Minute Knitted Gifts books.

These wee ornaments only take a short while to knit, and if, say for instance, you’re watching a Law & Order Marathon via Netflix, pretty soon you have a pile. These simple mittens and stockings come from designer Barbara Albright, who has now left us.

One is limited only by my yarn stash and imagination.

I’ve also knit this large Jester Stocking for Chris, who claims its not big enough.  We’ll see about that when we go to stuffing it!

I also knitted up this Oak Leaf sample to see if I could do it.  I could, barely, with a bunch of help from my Cable Guru friend, who can whip out a cabled thing about as fast as I can knit wee ornaments.  This is the for the Gnarled Oak Cardigan from the lovely Coastal Knits booklet.  I’m in love with this cardigan and really want to knit if up for myself…only the cables are a bit daunting for me.

So instead, I’ve knitted not one, but Two…Sand and Sea Shawlettes!

And that is about all I can share here on the blog, its Christmas after all!

Mom and Jack decided to become snowbirds and moved to Arizona, yesterday I stopped in at their place to check up on the state of things and managed to pick an entire bucket of tomatoes.  Would you look at these?

Insane, I know.  I will be roasting these and putting them up in the freezer for future use.

Since the price of bread is reaching up to 5 dollars per loaf, Jeff and I have been getting together on Wednesdays and baking breads, trying different recipes in a search for a good sandwich loaf.  I read up on all the different methods used to make and rise dough and decided to try mixing up the dough in my food processor when I made pizza dough last nite.  It took about 1 minute to make/mix bread up in the processor, and then, instead of bothering with a bowl, I just left it on my flour-dusted counter to rise, which it did, beautifully.  So, I will definitely be trying the food processor method next Wednesday.

My favorite part of Fall is the Hood River Apple Harvest, Fresh pressed apple cider and, well, pumpkins.  First, I made Apple Cider Pie with Gala and Jonagold apples.

after you cut, core, peel and dice the apples, you cook them a bit in the apple cider, this has the benefit of making a full pie, because it doesn’t slump down in the pie baking phase.

and then you top it with a crumb crust, its really delicious!

In addition to knitting a pumpkin, stuffing and lightly felting it, I also oven roasted one, (quartered, scooped out, placed on cookie sheet and baked at 300 degrees for an hour or more, until I could easily slide a knife in it) let it cool, scooped it out into the food processor, pureed it and baked a pumpkin cake with caramel frosting, as per Fannie Farmer.

Pumpkin Cake

1/2 cup shortening

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

2 eggs

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ginger

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup pureed pumpkin

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven at 375 degrees, grease and flour a 9X13 pan.

Cream shortening and sugar, add eggs and mix.  Add baking powder, soda, salt and spices and mix.  Add pumpkin puree and mix, alternate milk and flour, stir until just combined, adding walnuts if you choose.

Pour into prepared pan and bake for aprox 30 minutes. Cake should spring back when you touch it.

This recipe is from the Fannie Farmer Baking Book by Marion Cunningham.  One of the reasons I like Fannie Farmer is that it started out as an update of the original Boston Cooking School Cookbook. Over the years Marion has gone on to collect some of the best old-school recipes and updated them for our generation.

Caramel Frosting

In a microwave proof bowl, melt 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, add 1 cup packed brown sugar and cook on high for 1-2 minutes.  Add 1/4 cup milk and microwave another minute.  Whisk in 2 cups powdered sugar until smooth and creamy, add 1 tsp vanilla and let it set while the cake cools.  Whisk again when cake is cooled and pour over the top, spreading with a spatula.

This recipe is modified from The America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book.

Aside from Fannie Farmer, I would never do without America’s Test Kitchen’s Cookbooks and James Beard’s Cookbooks.  Those are my Go-To Cookbooks, although I have an embarrassing amount of cookbooks really.

Thunk!  I hear more walnuts hitting the ground, I’d better go get them before the squirrels beat me to it!

This year is a sad state of affairs for those of us trying to have gardens in the Pacific NW…while everything is growing in great green abundance, its not producing much in terms of vegetables and fruits.

Here is a pix of our tomato and some squash plants, growing a ton of green vines and by August 27th we still had no ripe tomatoes!!!  

This weekend Chris and I took a drive around the back (country) side of Oregon City and attempted to find a Farmer’s Booth to buy some fresh produce.

By the end, we had driven 90 miles and found one veggie stand with a meager, although interesting, amount of produce. I picked out some things I’ve never had before to give them a try:  Hungarian peppers, Armenian cucumbers and Japanese eggplant.

I plan to make Eggplant Parmigiana, as several members of my online
“Cooking From Scratch” group have mentioned making it lately and it sounds both healthy and delicious.  (We’ll overlook the copious amounts of cheese, shall we?  when mentioning the healthy part?)

We ended up at our local produce store, Spicer Brothers and buying what we needed there. I probably shouldn’t point out that Spicer Brothers is within about three miles of where we live, at the bottom of the hill.  So we picked up a box of peaches, because I desire to make an abundance of peach-related things and the box says “Washington Tree-Ripened Peaches.”  (see above pix)

Well.  All I can say is these peaches are NOT RIPE.  So I laid them all out on the patio table to (hopefully) get some notion of what ripeness is.  I have a recipe from my Rustic Fruit Dessert book  (a recipe book put out by a Porland Bakery, I might add) Caramel Peach Grunt, plus I plan to freeze some and make jam with some.

Look!  Here it is Sept 3rd and I finally have a ripe tomato!!  

On the knitting front, I have just finished some baby stuff, which is really fun because they are soo cute and quick:

In addition to making great gifts, they also are part of the LMKG Project, where I am slowly knitting my way through the Last Minute Knitted Gifts and More Last Minute Knitted Gifts Books.  So far, I’ve knitted thru about 21/2 chapters of projects. I’ve not attempted to knit any of the blankets yet, and wonder why she has no shawls.

Here is a pix I took of Chris in the truck before we left on our fruitless trip, get it?  Fruitless…sigh.  Whatever happened to the roadside produce stands anyway?

After I uploaded and edited this pix, I noticed that I had managed to get three reflections of myself in there.  I am not sure how that happened, couldn’t do it if I had planned too.

Then I put on my goofy hat and Chris took a pix of me too.  We now are wearing identical red Carhart t-shirts and goofy “crush” hats and feel just like those odd old couples you see, dressed alike and looking alike after they have been together for so long.  This is the type of stuff we laugh over.

This special 1957 Jaguar: XK-SS Roadster preceded the D Series and was modified for the street from racing, Steve McQueen owned it at one time and called it “The Green Rat”.

I have a BF named Jeff who is a car buff and who has a birthday this fine month of August.  So I took him to Portland Art Museum’s  “The Allure of the Automobile” as a birthday present.  I think he liked it.  Actually, that is an understatement, he loved it.  I don’t think I’ve seen so many smiles on his face in one afternoon before!

Just look at these cars!  They are rare, beautiful and worth a lot!  As Jeff pointed out, this was a once in a lifetime experience, to physically lay eyes on cars of this caliber.   Many of these cars are one of a kind, prototypes or custom built either by the designer or for a super wealthy client.   They are unlike anything ever usually seen.

This Porche 550 it is not only a protoype, it also raced not once, but three times in the PanAmericana which is a race special to Jeff’s heart.  He has a whole book on this race which was very popular in the fifties when things like this could be done.  (Racing across an entire country  in every type of condition for thousands of miles, yes a crazy race.)

Here is a video of many of the cars we saw made by another museum so you can get an idea of what we oogled at.

Some of these auto’s came with incredible human interest stories, like the 1935 JN Duesenberg Roadster Carol Lombard purchased for her husband, Clark Gable, who refused to lay eyes on it again after her death.  Or the 1954 Dodge FireArrow  where a woman wearing high heels and a dress raced around a track going over 140 mph, or the protoype that the designer named after his wife, now that’s a sign of love!  See here for some quick outlines about these cars.

This French designed and built car was nicknamed “the Teardrop” a 1939 Talbot-Lago: T-150-C-SS and while it survived the German Invasion in WWII the designer/owner did not.  He was executed by the Nazi’s as a spy and member of the French Resistance.

Many of these cars noted were designed to resemble aircraft of the era, aviation being in its hey-day at the time and the thought was if a car looked swoopy like a plane it ought to be as fast as one too!

 The 1937 Delage D8-120S is a prime example of modeling a car after an airplane.

If you live in Oregon and can make it to see this special exhibit before it goes away on Sept 11, than  I urge you to see it, you won’t see anything like this again!  If you hear about “The Allure of the Automobile” show anywhere in your area (its a traveling exhibit and some of the cars change) than GO SEE IT.  Its worth every penny and its very fascinating!

click to biggify, it looks good that way

Before the Fourth of July we took a trip to Newport and visited with my Dad and Patty. The first thing we did was go out to Chinese food.  I’m not sure why, given that for weeks of phone calls and emails back and forth, I’d repeatedly said how much I looked forward to eating seafood while at the Coast.  So I made the best of it by ordering the Happy Family with shrimp and scallops in it, the scallops were yummy.

When we returned we decided we needed a walk, so we drove down to Hatfield’s Marine Science parking lot and took the Nature Path between the sea and river area called the   Yaquina Estuary Nature Trail.

Beginning of trail, bay to right, marsh to left.

The trail is unique in that it contains both sea water and its species and river water and its species and a meeting in the middle with a species diversity that has adapted to both.

http://hmsc.oregonstate.edu/visitor/sites/default/files/exhibits-events/images/estuary-trail-closure-sign-2011.pdf

Above is a map of where we walked.

The sun was starting to set and everything had that beautiful golden glow about it.

Looking towards the ocean on the Nature Trail

We walked along and some of us read the signs,

looked at the pretty foxgloves and grasses blowing in the wind and generally enjoyed ourselves.  Some of us did other things.

Sigh.  Such is life.

What is so interesting is how clearly divided the salinity or lack of makes the land look.  On one side of the path we have the pretty marsh and the other side we have the mud flats.

It was a peaceful and beautiful evening and we only met one other couple who said they lived around there and walked the nature path every evening.

Soon the sun began setting and the bridge and the bay looked so beautiful…

We caught some of the last rays of color as we were driving out of the parking area:

Yes, he’s a Goofball, but he’s my Goofball, and an all around really terrific guy  This was taken at Neskowin, where we stopped to eat lunch on our way home from Newport.

We ate yummy food at the Hawk Creek Cafe and then took a small walk on the beach.

There is this small lagoon created by Hawk Creek running into the ocean and it was full of kids playing with every kind of flotation device and some climbing an overturned tree/log.

This dog had me amused, here s/he sits, looking totally unconcerned, but just you step too close!  That Ball is being carefully guarded as well as a sharp eye kept on the kids out there.

Chris took this pix of me by holding the camera at a totally screwy angle, however, I kind’a like it.

As you can see, it was a beautiful day.

And my favorite beach, even if it is much diminished by storms this past winter.

In the background is the famous Proposal Rock.  Which has both happy and sad stories to tell, if a rock could tell them.  Chris proposed, that we make another stop at the fruit stand on the way home for another 3lb basket of fresh local strawberries.  So, that is what we did.  And then I made shortcake, and everyone was happy

First, the registration went smoothly with no crashes and tearing out of hair or other angst-y moments.

Second, tons more classes!  I even got to take a class myself, which in itself is very cool.

Third, a bunch of lectures and demos, which were very interesting and informative or just made you laugh out loud.

Fourth, the vendor selection was Fantastic!

It seemed to me that there was a bunch more Indie Dyers and Sellers of Knitting Related Stuff there than last time.  This was a good thing.  Which meant there was less commercial vendors there, like stores and such.  Not that there is anything wrong with that, I just appreciated the focus on the Independent Sellers.

Yarn pictured from Wonderland Dyeworks.

Fifth, the PDX Knitbloggers got to set up a little meet-up area, which was great because I knew were to go to find my knit buddies.

Sixth, I was a volunteer, which gave me some new opportunities to help out and gave me a cool green volunteer pass which allowed me access to places the normal attendee didn’t get to go.  (For instance, entering the Marketplace before it opened, not shopping, mind, just entering.  And I discovered where the teacher’s lounge was too. )

Seventh, I attended two lectures, one as a volunteer and one because I was a volunteer.  Yeah, that makes sense.  One lecture I was sent as a volunteer, the other was the “reward” so to speak, for being a volunteer.

Eighth, I met new peeps and made new friends and had fun hanging with my old friends, especially trtgrl, who is a kick to hang out with!

HAY by Rachel, hand-spun yarn and hand-dyed silk hankies in Red Riding Hood.  

Rachel and I went out to dinner together and got along like a “house afire” as they say, and I hope she is one of my new friends.  Aside from her fantastic products and ridiculously low prices, she is a terrific person.  You should totally get some fiber from her!  (HAY stands for Hand-spun Art Yarn.)

Ninth, Cool New Sock Yarns and Knitting Patterns, Swag and a Free Book were Acquired!

My Grandmother’s Knitting, signed by the author, Larissa Brown

My Grandmother’s Knitting is a charming book with the first half full of stories from all kinds of famous knitters and designers, such as Jared Flood of Brooklyn Tweed and Norah Gaughan,  Creative Director for Berrocco and many others.

The second half of the book focuses on updated designs based on some classics, such as your Grandmother might have knit.  I especially like the 1940′s styled Bed-Jacket styled shrug by Joan McGowan (who had a booth at the Summit btw) and was amused by the remake of the timeless slippers, complete with pom-pom on top by the author of the Gin and Tonic blog.

Tenth, My Honey Bunny went shopping at the Marketplace for my birthday!  He did an awesome job of picking out special things for me, and wouldn’t let me see until he had gone around the Marketplace twice, making sure to get all the freebies he could too

Most of the swag acquired at Sock Summit  II 

One of the cool items pictured here is the charting software from Intwined Studio, which I am playing with and trying to figure out how to use.   The class I took “How to Write Up an Awesome Sock Pattern” by Kate Atherly who is the Tech Editor at Knitty.com was really helpful and informative to me.

She taught us some great things about pattern writing as well as mentioning how the use of charting software is a terrific time-saver.  Intwined Pattern Studio lets you create any type of chart and it instantly converts it to a written pattern as well.  This is a very cool thing, and after hearing several class members say how great it was, I had to have it.

All in all it was an exhaustingly fabulous time and I came home with plenty of stuff to keep me busy for a long while.

Sock Summit Shopping-Loot!