Saturday’s snowstorm meant my Sunday paper did not arrive until late Sunday afternoon, which curtailed my usual Sunday morning habit of curling up with the Sunday Times and a pot of coffee. I decided this was a fabulous opportunity to work through the rather ambitious stack of books I had grabbed on my last visit to the local library. Continue reading
Category: Uncategorized
Musings on knitting.
Can we talk knitting? As an activity it’s rather rhythmic and soothing, easily portable and keeps one’s hands busy when they might be otherwise unoccupied. I particularly like that I can spend an afternoon sitting watching the telly (sports, bad movies, old tv show marathons) and yet still have something productive to show for it. Continue reading
Just like mom used to make.
It’s official – my baby girl is a full fledged teenager now. To celebrate, she wanted a cupcake decorating party, similar to what one of the local cupcake shops hosts, only she wanted it here, because according to her, my frosting is better than any cupcake shop in town. Which makes me so irrationally happy I can’t stand it. She is after all, a teenager now, so I am incredibly annoying, horribly embarrassing at times and other times just beyond ridiculous, but I still make the best frosting in town. I call that a small triumph.
Stash busting, uniform changing matters.
I don’t know if it was turning 45 or if it’s just been a long simmering dissatisfaction with the winter version of my trusty uniform but I recently decided a change was in order. Continue reading
And so it goes.
The first week of January always feels like such a let down after the crazy rush towards and then relative quiet of the holidays that make up the end of December. We had a mostly lazy last couple of weeks that involved watching many hours of Gilmore Girls – how had I never watched that until recently? – interspersed with catching up on movies while eating hands down the best chocolate cake I make all year. Edie challenged me to an entire day of doing nothing, with an exemption for knitting, which made it doable. Because as anyone who knows me knows, it is pretty near impossible for me to sit still. And to spend an entire day doing nothing? Whoa. Thank goodness for netflix. Continue reading
My version of Uncle Kevin’s Oyster Stew.
One of our holiday traditions is Uncle Kevin’s Oyster Stew. Years past, he’s always had a nice big pot of it simmering on the stove welcoming us when we arrive for Thanksgiving eve. This year found me in charge of the oyster stew, stemming out of our offer to bring some of Smiley’s oysters for the purpose of making said stew. Uncle Kevin is not the sort who cooks from recipes nor is he the sort of make the same thing exactly the same way twice, so there was some wiggle room in how I made it. He sent me a link to a recipe that he thinks his was based on once upon a time. I took a brief glance at it and then went about making oyster stew the way I’ve been making it for a few years now, based on his as I know it.
The real deal.
When I first sat down to write my previous post on the cookbooks Abigail passed along, I intended to mention, but mostly skip over the fiestaware pieces in the box of goodies. I’ve collected fiestaware for probably close to twenty years and we’ve used it as our every day ware since we were married, having received a good amount of it as wedding presents. Knowing this, Abigail thought I would enjoy having a few pieces that belonged to her grandmother. In addition to a sugar bowl and creamer set in yellow, there was a sauce boat, large bowl and a large spoon in what we thought was orange. Being a fan of orange, I was quite excited about my new dishes.
The Best Weekend of the Year.
It has come to my attention that the practice of wandering around with camera in hand, trying to capture at least part of the magic that is Oysterfest has led some to believe that I know exactly what I’m going to write about here when we get home from Urbanna. Continue reading
A most practical give away.
I know at least some of you have heard of Mrs. Wheelbarrow, aka Cathy Barrow, blogger and columnist for the Washington Post, if only because so many of you sent me her star-shaped watermelon rind pickle blog post this past summer. But did you know her food preservation knowledge is now available as a cookbook?
Fun with Ferments
As part of the ongoing canning and food preservation program I have been organizing for Market Central, Dawn Story of Farmstead Ferments led this week’s class on fermenting.
Chicken Wire & Paper Flowers 