Felt Like Knitting

Sweaters for a cold day

There was a prediction for snow and cold weather here in Georgia and we got both.  The snow (about 0.5 inches?) was beautiful while it was coming down.  I didn't get pictures, but Leslie did.  She also lives in the south, so her pictures show you what it was like here.  Today it's cold but it will be in the mid-60s by the end of the week!

Since it was going to be cold and snowy, I decided I should knit some sweaters.

                                    

Okay, so they won't be keeping anybody warm, but they will make great ornaments for my nieces and nephews this Christmas.  Three down, four to go!  (Goals are great things.  It occurred to me on 2/27 that I hadn't completed a Christmas gift this month.  Two sweaters were completed on 2/28 and one on 3/1.  So I'm covered for February and March now!)

                                    

Here's my menu plan for this week.  I feel like we eat the same things each week so I'm trying a new recipe from the Menu Plan Monday site.  The site is a great resource for lots of recipes since 300+ people post their weekly menu plans.

Monday:  Homemade chicken noodle soup, tomato soup (my DH is allergic to chicken), grilled cheese sandwiches, apple slices

Tuesday:  Meatloaf, roasted cauliflower, Parmesan crusted mashed potatoes (doesn't that sound delicious?!), salad

Wednesday: ---

Thursday:  Venison pepper steak, rice (I finally remembered to buy peppers at the store!)

Friday:  Grill out!  Probably brats, potatoes with carrots, baked beans, salad

Saturday:  leftovers

Sunday:  Stir fry, rice

This week we're eating more food from the freezer because it really needs to be emptied and defrosted!  The end of this week will be a good time to do just that.

Hope you all have a great week!

No Bake Cookies

Earlier this week, my knitting neighbor J gave us some oatmeal cookies. These weren't ordinary oatmeal cookies. These were oatmeal raisin nut cookies and they were the best oatmeal cookies I'd ever had. Unfortunately, I was a pig and finished them so none are left to pack in my lunch for tomorrow. And I'm out of eggs to make the pumpkin muffins I thought I'd bake. Then I remembered one of my favorite cookie recipes from my childhood. These were the cookies I hoped would be the snack at Vacation Bible School each day. :)  They're really more like candy!

                                                                 

No Bake Cookies

2 cups sugar

4 tablespoons cocoa

1/4 stick margarine

1/2 cup milk

Add together in medium size saucepan.  Bring to a boil.  Boil 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and add together:

1/2 cup peanut butter

2 cups oats

1 teaspoon vanilla

Stir together quickly and spoon out on waxed paper.  (I stir in the peanut butter and vanilla first.)

                                

Menu plan Monday...on Tuesday

                                        

                                                    More menu ideas at Orgjunkie.com

I started to clean out the fridge and make my menu yesterday when E woke up and said that she had started feeling bad the night before and still felt awful.  She had a headache, sore neck, fever, and felt like she did when she had mono last year.  Her pediatrician and I both felt like she might have meningitis so E and I went to the ER.  By the time we were seen (and after much praying), E felt better.  So no spinal tap was done (fortunately!) and she's feeling much better today.  I'm really thankful that she's okay.  Now on to the menu...

Monday - Turkey noodle soup (made from cooked turkey and broth from the freezer - cheap!)

Tuesday - Pasta Sausage Bake (made with pepperoni instead), salad, canned fruit

Wednesday - Homemade macaroni and cheese (from my good old Betty Crocker cookbook or maybe I'll try this newer version), mixed vegetables, pumpkin pie

Thursday - Leftovers

Friday - Chili

Saturday - out with friends

Sunday - reception at church

What are you going to eat this week?

Menu Plan Monday - January 5

                                             

Back to menu planning after a holiday break...

Monday - Pork chops, Betty Crocker potatoes*, baked beans, veg

Tuesday - Spaghetti with friends (We provide salad.)

Wednesday - Turkey and pasta casserole, fruit

Thursday - Shepherd's pie, salad

Friday - Pancakes

Saturday - out with friends

* I know these can't be very healthy, but when they're on sale and I use coupons, I can get them for 10 cents a box.  So sometimes we do have them.

I like to cook ahead even though I'm not organized enough to do Once A Month Cooking.  This weekend I bought a 5 lb bag of ground chuck.  We made two batches of sloppy joes, two batches of shepherd's pie (meat portion), and one batch of spaghetti meat sauce.  And it didn't take that long.  Do any of you use the 5 lb bags of meat?  We've used them twice and the meat seems rather chewy to us.  Has anyone else noticed that?

Menu Plan Monday - December 1

                                       

I may have mentioned before that my friend Molly posts weekly menus on her blog.  I've been trying to create weekly menus and now I'm going to step it up a notch.  This week I'm trying to create dinners for $5 or less.  This isn't a new idea - check out $5 Dinners.  This site is inspiring and the author has lots of good ideas and recipes.  I'm not sure I have the dedication to actually calculate the cost of each meal, but I am going to be mindful of it.  The great banner above and the Menu Plan Monday idea are compliments of I'm an Organizing Junkie.  I'm looking forward to checking out her site soon.

So here it goes - my weekly $5 dinner menu plan for the week:

Monday - Beef stroganoff (will make enough for two meals), noodles, applesauce, salad, rice pudding  (The cost is probably higher than $5, but most of these things were already in the house.  So I actually will spend about $2.)

Tuesday - Burritos (rice and lentil filling for me and E, traditional for S), salad

Wednesday - Turkey and pasta, vegetable

Thursday - Scalloped potatoes and franks (not the healthiest dish, but I have hot dogs in the freezer), sweet potatoes

Friday - Pizza or leftovers, salad (Pizza is supposed to be the 1 cent item at Publix this week.)

Saturday - BBQ pork/BBQ chicken sandwiches (from freezer), Betty Crocker potatoes, cole slaw

Sunday - potluck at church (taking deviled eggs)

What are you making this week?

I'm thankful for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I have fond memories of waking up, smelling the turkey, and watching the parade on TV.  (Does anyone else get teary when the Rockettes com on?)  If I was smelling the turkey, that meant it was our turn to have the family over.  Otherwise, we'd head to the house of one of my aunts.  Usually there were about 19 of us.

Fast forward to today.  I still love getting up, turning on the parade, and smelling that turkey.  But now I'm responsible for the turkey smell.  To smell the turkey during the parade, the turkey has to cook in the morning.  That's why we eat early in the day.  Kind of a funny reason, huh?  Anyway, there isn't much parade-watching now since I'm cooking and since I'm the only one who likes to watch it.

Another requirement to having the experience is that I need to be at home.  Over the years, we've had invitations from friends and neighbors, but I usually turn them down.  I suppose this may seem a bit antisocial.  But I like to have a day when I don't have to change from my comfy clothes, when I can stay in my own house, and when I can eat yummy food.  :)

The biggest challenge to cooking my favorite meal of the year is fitting the turkey into the oven and being able to cook everything else, too.  Sure, I can make the pies ahead of time.  (Hey, for a great pie crust tutorial, visit Carole.)  But what about the stuffing, the sweet potatoes, the green bean casserole?  This year I solved the problem - I bought a turkey roaster.  I figure it would be a good idea to plug it in today to make sure it works.

We have lots of friends joining us this year.  They're bringing food, too.  I think I still need another vegetable.  (Does anyone have a favorite vegetable recipe for Thanksgiving?)  I really need to start cooking!

Fond of fondue

Last weekend we had a group of friends from church over for dinner and we served fondue.  In preparation, we tried several new recipes ahead of time and bought some bigger fondue pots.  The evening was a success, although I'd do some things differently next time.  And right now, I'm a little "fondued out."  (We tried a recipe on Friday night, served it on Saturday night, and finished up the leftovers with another fondue on Sunday night!)  But, I wanted to share these yummy recipes with you in case you want to have your own fondue party.

Garlicky Cheese Fondue

Pesto Cheese Fondue

Fondue Broth (don't be afraid to add the cocktail sauce)

Honey Mustard Sauce and Garlic Dill Sauce (didn't have dill for the Garlic Dill Sauce, so added chives)

Horseradish Sauce (We also served barbecue sauce and chipotle mayonnaise.)

Flaming Turtle Chocolate Fondue

Chocolate S'Mores Fondue

The kids had a pizza fondue with warm pizza sauce for dipping (chunks of cheese, bread, etc.).

We tried two new fondue pots:  an electric Cuisinart pot and an electric Rival pot.  We preferred the Cuisinart model.  Both fondue pots heated well and cleaned up fine, but the Rival model had a plastic ring (to use while resting the forks during cooking) instead of a metal ring.  The plastic ring warped during high heat and was hard to keep on the pot.  The other fondue pots we used were heated by candle or sterno and they all worked fine for appetizers and desserts.

I've also been busy watching movies.  I caught the end of North by Northwest the other day, but I'm not going to scratch it off the list since I didn't see the whole thing.  I did see all of Dr. Strangelove and Easy Rider.  It turns out that I must have previously seen more of Dr. Strangelove than I remembered because it all seemed familiar to me.  I don't really like this movie.  It's not a bad movie, but it's not a "Beth" movie.  I was very surprised by Easy Rider.  I thought it was just a motorcycle drug movie, but it was way more than that.  It gave me a lot to think about and even though it was a bit hard to watch at times, I'm glad I saw it.  Next up is American Graffiti.  (I've seen some of this, too, but I'm not sure how much.)  I also watched the original Goodbye, Mr. Chips even though it's not on the list.  What a great movie!

There has been knitting during all the movie-watching.  I'll show you that next time...  :)

You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream!

                                     

The neighbors in our cul-de-sac get together every July 4th and this year I decided to make ice cream.  Each of these recipes turned out great!  Clockwise from the left:

Blueberry, cake batter, vanilla (from the instruction booklet), and mint chocolate chip.  My daughter says that the cake batter ice cream is great, but I can't quite get into it.  It does taste just like eating cake batter - not my thing anymore.  But I can tell you that the others are tasty.  I can't decide if I prefer the mint chocolate chip or the blueberry.  They're both incredible.  Now I'm tempted to come up with my own recipes.  It was pretty funny when I was shopping yesterday.  My cart was full of whole milk, half-and-half, and heavy whipping cream...and a box of Lactaid (for me)!

And I had no idea that homemade ice cream and knitting go together so well.  Each batch takes 25-40 minutes to churn and I had to stay nearby to add more ice.  Perfect knitting time!  The weather has been a little cooler and it was so pleasant to sit outside, knitting away.  I will volunteer for ice cream duty any day!

Later I confided to my husband that I had always thought the churning/freezing part was a bit mysterious.  Then after making my own first batch, I realized how simple it really is.  He told me "If you can knit one of those sweaters you made, you can make a batch of ice cream."  :)

                                    

Phoebe liked the mini scoop of vanilla ice cream that I gave her!  You can see some of it on her nose, but she took care of that when she came up for air.  :)

                                             Happy July 4th!

Cake race

E has become more and more interested in cake decorating lately and I'm glad she's found a hobby she enjoys.  I'll knit for her and she can bake for me.  That sounds like a good trade!

It was unfortunate that the fondant didn't taste good, because her latest cake turned out to be very cute!  (We've been peeling the fondant off then eating the tasty cake.)  You probably can't tell from this angle, but the pink and white thing on the right side is a flag.  I especially like the blue car that has crashed into the bushes.  She followed the instructions in a cake decorating book from the library.  The next time I take a cake picture, I need to wait for the liquid to dry where she attaches the fondant.

Now for my daily hoodie update.  The hood is all gone and I've got the stitches on the needles...all except for one.  I cannot tell where I went wrong.  I need a clear mind and then I'll go back and count the stitches in the previous row to see if I picked up enough stitches.  I really don't want to have to do more ripping, so I may just M1.  I guess that's not the best thing to do, but I'm almost to the point of not caring.  :)

My aspiring chef

I feel a bit behind.  My house still needs cleaned for tomorrow's dinner and I haven't made the first thing.  So today will be a cleaning, grocery shopping, cooking kind of day.  But, I won't be alone in my endeavors.  My pre-teen daughter will be along for the ride, even if she doesn't like it.  :)  She does love to cook and wants to make a dessert for tomorrow.  If you want to cook something, you have to buy the ingredients and clean up the kitchen, right?

The funny thing about E's cooking is that she dislikes using recipes.  Years ago she wanted to make a chocolate chip cake without a recipe.  That's something I wouldn't even try.  It turned out okay, though.  Recently she made a cake that looked like a giant s'more.  Today's recipe is something she's calling Hot Chocolate Pudding Pie.  When it's done, I'll add a picture to the post.  If it's chocolate, it has to be good!

On the knitting front, I've completed another hat and worked on my hoodie.  I tried knitting the hoodie while reading, but that didn't work so well.  Today I'm making an emergency trip to the LYS and while I'm there I'll buy some superwash wool for more hats and the blanket square.

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving preparations are going well!