Peppermint Clematis

I found another old friend blooming in the garden, my Peppermint Clematis. Every time the flowers start to come out it always surprises me. Not because it is blooming, but because of how unique the flowers are. Watching the flowers transform from tightly wrapped four pointed stars into big greenish-white puffballs is always a fascinating time.

We baked chocolate chip cookies today to celebrate Chocolate Chip Cookie day, which coincidentally is my daughter's favorite cookie. Baking with her is always fun because she spends most of her time tasting and smelling of the ingredients. She likes to feel of the egg yolk and sample the brown sugar, and off course the chocolate chips. We use this recipe from King Arthur Flour: Basic Drop Cookies.

Wood Lily

Every year when my wood lily blooms, it is always a surprise. I forget that it is planted there, because it disappears shortly after it blooms, and doesn't look that different from the phlox that it is next to. It is a vibrant, beautiful splash of color in the otherwise muted pastels that make up my front garden bed.

Confederate Jasmine

I have wanted a jasmine vine for years. The smell of them takes me back to San Diego, where I smelled them everywhere. After the untimely death of my new clematis vine that I planted last fall, I needed a replacement climber. Since I didn't want to rush into a decision, I started thinking of annual vines that I could plant, and then put in a permanent resident this fall. We were at the nursery on Mother's Day, and I followed my nose to find this beautiful jasmine vine. And wondered why in the world I hadn't just bought a plant and replaced it every year. Okay, it goes against my nature of not wanting to spend money on disposable things, but for the price of a lunch out I can smell the lovely jasmine all summer long. And since my back garden is protected, it just might have a chance of overwintering. And if it doesn't I'll get a new one, but I don't want a garden that is empty of jasmine again.

Adventures in Morrowind

I have been having an absolute blast for the last few months, playing through Morrowind with the Morrowind Graphics and Sound Overhaul. It totally overhauls the characters, landscape, water, many of the mechanics, etc in one mod. I have taken fully as many screenshots in Morrowind as I did in Skyrim, which was my most screenshotted game to date.

#59 - Paint the Butterbug

My super talented and creative cousin makes metal sculptures for lawns and gardens. Last summer, he agreed to make one for me. He asked what sort of things I liked and I told him just about anything - animals, bugs, flowers. He needed a challenge, so I said a firefly - that had an area where I could put a candle and light it up at night. He brought the results to my sister's wedding in July. Here it is:

It has a solar cell on it, which lights up a lightbulb on its tail. Since it looks like a cross between a butterfly, dragonfly and lightening bug, I took to calling it my butterbug. Unfortunately, it came home with us in the middle of the heat of summer. I put it out in the back yard garden gravel and it sat there for a while. I noticed it starting to get rusty so I got some paint for it, but hadn't gotten it painted. So I put it on my to-do list for this year so I wouldn't let my beautiful butterbug rust away. Since we have had a nice warm sunny spell for the last few days I broke out the spray paint cans and got it painted.

Sourdough Saturday - Ginger Cookies (Epic Fail)

Perhaps I was pushing my luck too far with my recent successes in sourdough baking. Perhaps it had to do with cooking while sick...who knows. So when Saturday rolled around I really didn't feel like baking, or doing much besides curling up and sleeping. We've all been sick lately, not enough to be bedridden or anything, just dragging around. So I amended my original planned baking to do something that would be easier. In my Alaska Sourdough cookbook by Ruth Allman there was a recipe for Soft Ginger Cookies. Since cookies are my specialty and I can bake them in my sleep, it seemed to be a no-brainer. I mixed up the dough, got it chilled in the refrigerator, GS and I rolled them out, cut them out, and put them in the oven to bake. As I was cleaning up the counters while the cookies were baking, I was reviewing in my mind the reaction between the sourdough starter and the baking soda which makes quickbreads rise, when I was struck by a strange thought - "I don't remember putting baking soda in the dough". I went back to the book and re-read and the baking soda was there at the bottom of the list. I had missed it! Too late now, the cookies were already baking. At the finish line they looked about the same as they did at the start, little dense circles of cookie dough, baked on the outside and like a lump in the middle. So alas, the cookies did not make it and I will have to try them again.

On that note, this is the first recipe I have tried from that book. It is an interesting book, it is in handwriting and not print. It has a lot of stories and history in it. The annoying thing was that the ingredients were not in the order that they were used in the recipe, which accounted for going back and forth, and I believe one of the reasons that I missed the soda. Still, I hope to try this recipe again on a better day and to try other recipes in the book.

Snow!

Today winter weather rolled through Dixie, and we were homebound. I picked GS up from school before it closed and we came home. We watched sleet and rain turn to big puffy flakes of snow. We walked to the mailbox to get the mail and tried to catch snowflakes on our tongues. I worked on my knitting in front of the fire while GS played. It was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon. :)

Chicken Country Captain

Throughout the years, I have read and owned many Southern cookbooks. I have seen the Chicken Country Captain recipes - a dish of curried chicken, usually with raisins in it. I have never been tempted to make it, it was just a bit too odd. Over the years though, my palate has changed. I started making and eating curried dishes - starting with Singapore Noodles and then going on to asian curried coconut dishes and also made curried chicken. I have also grown more interested in using fruit in savory dishes, which I was totally NOT into when I was younger. So when I was looking through the dishes in Sarah Foster's Southern Cooking and saw this one, which used dried apricots instead of raisins, I knew I had to try it. It took quite a bit of prep work to get everything set up, but then went together nicely and baked in the oven. The house smelled wonderful, spicy and exotic. GS ate some of the chicken, and DH loved the whole thing. I think it will definitely become a part of our standard cooking.

Sourdough Saturday - Anadama Bread

I decided that after a quick venture into sourdough quickbreads for the last few weekends that I would try to make "real" bread again. I found the recipe for Sourdough Anadama Bread in my King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook and decided to give it a try. To be honest, at first I thought that the recipe had flopped. The dough didn't seem to be rising nearly enough, and I thought I had messed it up somehow. I put the bowl by the stove while it was rising because the kitchen seemed very cold, but I thought it might have gotten too hot. It baked up lovely, though it was still a bit dense so I might not have done it quite right. The house smelled amazing while it was baking. The bread was dense and moist, with a lovely dark rich flavor from the molasses. I had never had Anadama bread before this, so I wasn't sure what it would come out like, and it is a very nice bread. DH loved it and ate most of it for his lunch sandwiches for the week.

Achtung! Fledermaus

Last night, the Gnomeslayer and I baked some cookies for a friend's going away party at work. He had been on a trip where bats got into his hotel room, and it has been a joke with all of us for a while. I finally got to use the cookie cutters I bought before Halloween to make these. I used a chocolate cutout cookie recipe, because, well bats are supposed to be black. These were absolutely the messiest cookies I have ever made. Since they are dark, the recipe suggests to use cocoa instead of flour to keep it from sticking while rolling them out. By the time I was done I looked like I had been digging around in the garden. The taste made up for the effort though, they were really good - not too sweet.

Mittens!

I have finally finished my first pair of mittens! It is something I have been meaning to do for a while, but never got around to it. I had a pair of convertible mittens I bought at Wal-Mart, cheap acrylic ones though. I wanted to make some woolen ones so that they would be toastier. I found this lovely emerald green Madeline Tosh yarn and thought it would be perfect for my first mitten knitting experiment. I have to say that I love them, unfortunately the topper seems to have been done one stitch too far over so it kind of twists while I am wearing it. And since it is knitted in and part of the mitten you can't just reposition it. And I need bigger buttons - the ones I bought were much too small for how big the i-cord loop turned out. But overall, yay! I made mittens! :)

Book Review - The Infernal City and Lord of Souls

I have had these two books on my shelf for over a year now. I am an avid fan of the Elder Scrolls games, so when I had heard there were books out I had to get them. They got dubious ratings from reviewers at Amazon.com, but since I understand that books relating to games are usually not expected to be high literature, I decided to give them a try. Firstly, if you are a fan of the game series, you should probably read them for the lore tidbits if nothing else. I found myself both compelled and annoyed at points of the books.

I love the setting in Tamriel, but the story itself is pretty odd. A floating island from Oblivion invades the empire (or remnants of the empire), killing everyone it floats over. Several characters are followed as they try to rid the land of the menace. The characters have stiff dialogue at times, and aren't that likeable. However, on the other hand, there isn't a fellowship of nobles traveling together around a heretofore hidden teenaged heir of some long lost line of kings that turns out to be a super-magician-fighter-savior-of-the-world. It was refreshing to at least have something different. So I found myself with mixed emotions about the books. I would recommend them if you are a fan of the series, but otherwise you'd probably get lost. And that marks two books off of my list for this year. :)

Bumps in the Road

For the last few weeks, I was refreshed and rested. I had a renaissance of cooking, crafting and doing things around the house. I purposely didn't make any New Years Resolutions, because they typically fail spectacularly within the first few days. I did have some unwritten goals in mind though, not the typical get in shape and lose weight things (though that would be nice). I wanted to try to cook at home except for one weekly meal out. I wanted to reduce buying beverages (especially sodas) from the store. I wanted to make sure that I tried to cook healthy, nutritious food instead of processed foods.

This weekend has been the first test of those goals. I haven't felt like I had any energy. I think we are coming down with something, because DH feels the same way. I forced myself to cook dinner yesterday and today, because we had bought groceries and I didn't want the food to go bad. I would have been happy to spend all weekend on the couch sleeping, but I've tried to do more than that. I did get my sourdough baking done yesterday, made the steak dinner last night, made red beans and rice tonight, and tried to keep my daughter engaged in more than TV watching. I am still making progress on my to-do list, just not sweating it (because I have a whole year). Hopefully my energy level will pick up next weekend.

Sourdough Saturday - Blueberry Breakfast Bread

One of the books that I got to do my sourdough baking with this year is 'Baking With Sourdough', a Storey Country Wisdom Bulletin by Sara Pitzer. I flipped through it, and picked out this recipe because I had some frozen blueberries in the freezer that I wanted to use. This recipe was excellent, it was crunchy on the outside and moist and fluffy on the inside. The family raved about it, and it went perfectly with a cup of coffee. Definitely going in the keep pile of recipes.

The book isn't very big, it is really more of a pamphlet. It does cover some sourdough history, making a starter, converting standard recipes to sourdough and and  recipes covering the range of sourdough baking - breads, quickbreads, crackers, desserts, etc.

Casting on Clouds

I got my Sky Scarf cast on yesterday, after playing around with different ways of starting it. I am happy to say that I finally have some blue in the scarf, it seemed like it was going to be all gray for a while. Now to stay as diligent adding new rows every day as I am now. I have been taking pictures of the sky every day as a record, so that if for some reason I have to frog it and start over, I will be able to recreate it.

To Catch a Wild Honeysuckle

All through the summer the Gnomeslayer and I visited a stand of wild honeysuckle that grows at the dead end in the road. I have taught her the Southern childhood pastime of nipping off the bottom of a flower and sucking out the nectar. I have a honeysuckle in the back yard, a beautiful orange and red one - but alas, it has a flaw. It doesn't smell fragrant at all. So I decided that I would actually plant one of its wild cousins, so that we could enjoy the beautiful flowers and the fragrance. And eventually make the recipe for Honeysuckle Sorbet that I found. GS and I went for a walk on a bright, sunny and cold day before New Year's day and found a likely candidate to bring home. It is now tucked away in the back porch, waiting for spring to come.

Knit a Skyrim Viking Hat

I love to make different/strange/odd hats. I also love to play computer games. One of my favorite games is Skyrim, set in the land of the frost-hardy Nords in the Elder Scrolls universe. The setting is inspired by Norse mythology, and it is pretty fascinating to play. Last summer I found this hat pattern on Ravelry and knew that I had to make it. The fact that I am also a Minnesota Vikings fan and could wear it on gameday doesn't hurt. I started working on it back in November and finished just before the Christmas holiday. It is now marked off of my to-do list for 2013. Now I can add knitting a chainmail hauberk to the 2014 to-do list!

Sky Scarf

The last project to sneak its way onto my to-do list for next year is a Sky Scarf (thanks Mel :P). You look outside every day, see what the sky looks like, and knit two rows on the scarf that look like it. Over the course of the year, you end up with a scarf that reflects the sky/weather in your area for the last year. This totally neat idea and pattern can be found here. I stopped by my LYS today, but didn't find the colors that I wanted in lace-weight yarn. I did find them in a slightly heavier DK weight. So I am amending the pattern somewhat and going forward. So this time next year I should have a finished scarf to post.

2013 To-Do List

Short explanation - I have the attention span of a squirrel, so I have to make lists to remember things I want to do. I have a tendency to move on to the next thing before I ever finish what I have. So my goal is to start working through things I have and haven't finished, and projects that I have to do. The ground rule is this: If it is on my list, I can buy the things that I need to do to finish the project. If I want to do something that isn't on this list, it goes on the 2014 to-do list. If I finish everything on this list early, I have to take a break from doing stuff, because that was one busy year!

Here is my to-do list for 2013, grouped in no particular order:

Books:
1. The Infernal City - Greg Keyes
2. Lord of Souls - Greg Keyes
3. Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects - Christie Golden
4. The Sagas of Icelanders - Penguin Classics
5. Njal's Saga - Penguin Classics
6. The Norse Myths - Kevin Crossley-Holland
7. Voyage of the Beagle - Charles Darwin
8. Walden - Henry David Thoreau
9. Letters From Honeyhill - Cecilia Hennel Hendricks
10. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
11. The Passionate Observer - Jean-Henri Fabre
12. Call of the Wild - Jack London
13. Ivanhoe - Sir Walter Scott
14. Chicken and Egg - Janice Cole
15. Riddlemaster Trilogy - Patricia McKillip
16. Iron Druid Chronicles - Kevin Hearne
     16a. Hounded
     16b. Hexed
     16c. Hammered
     16d. Tricked
     16e. Trapped
17. A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers - Henry David Thoreau
18. Beowulf
19. Mountains of California - John Muir
20. Collected Poems of Robert Frost

Movies/TV:
21. Monty Python's Holy Grail
22. NCIS Season 1
23. Tales of the Green Valley Series
24. Victorian Farm Series
25. Andy Griffith Show Season 1
26. Doctor Zhivago

Games:
27. Complete Morrowind Main Quest
28. Complete Skyrim Main Quest


Music:
29. Learn Ragtime Nightingale on Guitar
30. Learn Arkansas Traveler on Guitar
31. Lear Swallowtail Reel on Guitar
32. Learn to play songs on tinwhistle in 'The Clarke Tinwhistle' book

Cooking:
33. Cook recipes from Sarah Foster's Southern Cookbook (minus seafood)
34. Cook recipes from Jamie at Home (minus seafood)
35. Make tamales
36. Make something from sourdough starter every week
37. Make homemade pasta
38. Make beef jerky
39. Can peach jam
40. Can marmalade
41. Can pickles
42. Cook with lingonberries

43. Make peanut brittle
44. Make hot sauce
45. Homebrew root beer
46. Boyle a pigeon

Garden:
47. Move the flowerbed from the computer-room window
48. Mulch flower beds
49. Make a new raised garden bed
50. Grow soapwort and calendula
51. Grow peanuts
52. Grow a lotus
53. Set up the pond again
54. Save garden seeds from beans and tomatoes
55. Set up vermicomposting bins
56. Powerwash the outside of the house and sidewalks
57. Catch a wild honeysuckle plant
58. Put up a trellis for the honeysuckle plants
59. Paint the butterbug
60. Make a miniature garden
61. Make a fairy house

Crafting:
62. Crochet Skyrim Viking Hat
63. Knit hat for me
64. Knit scarf for me
65. Knit gloves for me
66. Knit flower hat for friend's baby
67. Knit something for other friend's baby
68. Knit socks for John
69. Knit socks for cousin's wife
70. Finish Barn-Raising Quilt
71. Sew Quilt for/with the GS
72. Sew GS's Angry Birds
73. Spin yarn on my Navajo spindle
74. Spin yarn on drop spindle
75. Make small tri-loom
76. Make large tri-loom
77. Weave Gordon tartan

78. Make shampoo with soapwort
79. Make balm with calendula
80. Finish preparing fleece and spin it
81. Learn Nalbinding and make something with it
82. Work on watercolor/drawing
83. Make a treebark throw
84. Make a straw hat
85. Learn Fair Isle knitting
86. Learn how to cable in knitting
87. Put together the Starry Night puzzle
88. Make an olive oil lamp
89. Make a terrarium
90. Knit a Sky Scarf

House/Organization:
91. Make rotating menu plan
92. Make pantry supply list
93. Make home inventory
94. Make electronic cookbook
95. Make budget and debt repayment plan

96. Organize family pictures
97. Make a photo wall
98. Finish lifewalk planner
99. Make a garden scrapbook
100. Take donations to the Salvation Army
101. Update Christmas Card Mailing List
102. Finish reading/crafting room

Travel (Local/Distant):
103. Take GS to a movie
104. Take GS on a picnic
105. Go to the Art Museum
106. Go to the Wheeler Wildlife Refuge
107. Go to Burritt-on-the-Mountain
108. Go to Constitution Village
109. Go to Falls Mill in TN
110. Hike every trail in the Monte Sano park
111. Go to Buck's Pocket State Park, AL
112. Go to Gulf Shores, AL
113. Go to Arkansas
114. Go to the Ozark Folk Center
115. Go to Nebraska
116. Go to Mansfield, MO and the Baker Creek Seed Co.

Overall:
117. Reduce amount of waste

Sewing Lessons

The Gnomeslayer is five now, and I have started working on getting her involved in doing more homely tasks. She has always "helped" me cook, helped me unload the dishwasher, put her dishes in the sink when she's finished eating, cleaned up her toy messes, and made her bed. But now that she is a big girl, I wanted to start teaching her some other practical skills that are also fun. So we have started working on her first quilt, to help her learn how to sew. I picked out some bright fabrics and cut them into squares, and she is helping sew them together. I have to say that it takes a brave person to help a child learn how to sew...you are subject to lots of pin pricks and a wandering attention span. So far we work through one seam joining two blocks per day. When she starts to get the hang of it we might try doing more, but that seems to suit her attention span for now. She is very excited to be making her own quilt, though less enthusiastic when she realizes that it is actually "work" and isn't instantly done. I love being able to share one of my favorite pastimes with my little girl.