Vanilla Icing

Shortbreads & Scarves

I needed a break from turkey and pumpkin.  Tomorrow, I think I'll take Tristyn to lunch at the Indian restaurant and that will give my taste buds that farthest possible taste from turkey I can think of.  Today, I took care of the pumpkin by whipping up these Chocolate Iced Shortbread cookies that my grandmother used to make at Christmas time.  Very plain.  Very simple.  Very delicious.

They put me in mind of chocolate eclairs but they taste much better (I'm not a cream puff/eclair fan) and are one of the quickest cookies imaginable.

You should make them too:

Chocolate Iced Shortbread Cookies

1 cup soft butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1-2 teaspoons vanilla --glug it in, don't dirty your teaspoon
2 cups flour

1 cup of chocolate chips-- (I used 60% cacao Ghiaradelli bittersweet chips, but have used milk chocolate and plain old semi-sweet before)

Combine all ingredients until smooth.  If too soft, refrigerate for 30-60 minutes.  Shape into pinky-finger shaped and sized cookies.  Bake for 9-11 minutes at 350 degrees or until light gold on the edges/bottom.  Cool.

In a double boiler, melt chocolate chips.  Give each cookie a thick stripe of chocolate.  Eat.

My grandmother's recipe says to stir 1 tablespoon of milk and 1 tablespoon of shortening into the melted chocolate.  I never do that because 1--why ruin perfectly good chocolate by adding milk? and 2-- you know how I feel about shortening!

I did some more knitting, too.  I'm pretty sure I'm addicted; a few more weeks should tell.  

Maia already had a perfectly serviceable face covering scarf but she didn't want to be left out of the new scarf stuff going on around here.  I thought I'd try something a little more difficult--for me--and make the Wavy Scarf that was in my "Knitting for Dummies" book.  The book said it was an excellent way to practice increasing and decreasing and it used a couple of methods for it.  I still need to reference the M1 increase but I've got the ssk and k2tog decreases and the k1fb increase down pretty well in that I don't have to reference the how-to to do them. 

With the overflowing refrigerator full of leftovers around here, it left me plenty of time to concentrate on making this today.  I started it last night around 8 pm-ish and finished it today about 6.  Not too bad-but it did come together quickly.

It's not perfect but it makes a pretty decorative scarf for Maia to wear.  And most importantly, all this knitting gives me something to do while I wait for people to eat the things I bake!

Dual Purpose

I have finished scarf #2!!  It's 100% wool in shades of green (I'm sure there is a knitter's term for this) by which I mean the yarn thread is like 4 mini strands of varying colors twisted together to make the single strand.   It's about 5.5 inches wide and about 5 1/2 feet long.

Tristyn has more important plans for this scarf.  It's got an alternative purpose.

It makes a ninja mask!!!

You Don't See Much....

...pie around these parts.

There's not often a lot of pie around here.  Ever wonder why?  Because I can make a pie in my sleep!  In my opinion, once you've got rolling out the pie crust part down pie is about one step up in level of difficulty from making Ice Cream.  It's like a 1 on the scale of 'Difficult Baking.'  After all, once the crust is done if you've got a good recipe making pie consists of dumping some stuff together, stirring and pouring it in the shell.  Sometimes you don't even have to bake what you pour in!  Easy peasy.

Two things:

1) If you are reading this and saying 'Mmmmhmmm.  If pie is so easy where is the picture of the finished pie?' I just want to tell you that these two shells got filled with pumpkin.   Me and pumpkin pie?  Not a pretty sight--I can eat an alarming amount of it.  I even licked the spatula after I filled the pie--and who does that?  Fresh raw pumpkin, brown sugar, eggs, milk, spices....  Anyways, a photo shoot of me and pumpkin pie is going to end with one of us going down and it's not going to be me.  The pies were safer being quickly covered and pushed to the back of the refrigerator.

2) This post is pretty cocky.  I'll admit I'm bragging about my pie making skills.  This is mainly to boost my ego for cooking our delayed Thanksgiving dinner because I had an awful day yesterday!   I need lots of fresh confidence after yesterday's events.  Want to know a few of them?  Okay, in no particular order:  Maia's hamster died, I burned my arm in three places attempting to place somethign in my jerry rigged oven whose racks no longer pull out.  I got two random nosebleeds (???why???), I broke something, and just after I had vacuumed the 3rd and 2nd floor including the stairs my vaccum decided to stop sucking and I couldn't vaccum the 1st floor.  The very floor that will be seen the most today.  Finally, my sister in law, her husband and my new  nephew called and won't be coming from Philadelphia to have dinner with us today because she is sick.  <---I guess that's more her bad luck and not my bad luck but I've got a massive turkey that really needed those two adults to help eat it!!!!

What's a Babke?

Babke.  Babka.  Bobka.  Baba.   Agh.  This.  It seems to have a few different names. 

Yes, that's a pretty rich breakfast but we won't be having our Thanksgiving dinner until Friday.  Rick's sister and her family won't be getting into town until tomorrow night and we all decided to wait until Friday to have our dinner.  As the cook I must say I am appreciating this extra day to get ready!  I haven't done too much yet--I've made the puree from my pie pumpkins for the pumpkin pies and I made Cinnamon Ice Cream to go with the Apple Pies that will be baking in the oven while we are eating dinner on Friday.

Oh and guess what.   My mixer broke.  Again.  But this time in a different way.  It makes the noise as if it's mixing but it doesn't actually spin the paddle/hook/whisk.  I'll be calling KitchenAid tomorrow and hopefully they will be answering the phones.

And I'm still loving my scarf.  Very much. 

Requisite Scarf

For those of us with low to moderate beginning ambitions it seems that a scarf is the required item as one's first knitting project*.  I am no different; I, too, made a scarf.   However, after knowing how to do the knit stitch for several years and not understanding how to do the purl stitch and FINALLY figuring out the darn purl stitch, there was absolutely no way that I was going to make my scarf all in a garter stitch.

I chose a very simple double ribbed pattern.   A little bit of knit.  A little bit of purl.  Practice, practice, practice!  And no fancy Yarn Overs (Imagine an early Nintendo voice saying that a la Game Over) or increases or decreases.  Or that horribly frightening sounding slip stitch.

I chose a chocolate brown 100% wool.  I don't think I like acrylic yarns.  The length of the scarf is 6 feet and its width is 3.5 inches, un-stretched.  I wanted a long skinny scarf because my red wool coat has a low neckline that lets in lots of cool air. 

I'm not sure I got the blocking thing down quite right.  Apparently I don't have the 'getting out of pajamas to take the picture' type of thing down either.   Doesn't matter.  I think I'm already hooked.  I went out last night to a local yarn store and picked up some more yarn to make a scarf for Tristyn.  I'm thinking a couple of scarves---and I should be confident--and bored!--enough to venture onto other projects.

*Previous attempts at learning knitting do not count towards the true first knitted project.

At Last...

Guess what I finally taught myself to do......

Homework Sucks.

There.  I said it.

I don't think kids should have homework--most especially prior to high school.  It's mind numbingly awful boring for some and sheer torture for others.   I'm sure there are a few that it is neither for.  I feel after sitting all day at school that that is enough 'school learning' for the day.  Time at home should be for being with family and friends, playing and being a kid.  (Think about it--not many adults bring work home!) 

Also, while I'm complaining, why the rush to cram school learning into children?* Does it really matter if they are reading by the time they go to first grade or by the time first grade is half way through?  As an adult, can you remember when you started to read?   Now think--if it had taken you an extra six months would that affect you in your life now?  Probably not.   It's the same for math and all the other subjects too.  All I see is a means to burn children out; think how many children 'give up' by the 7th or 8th grade and just drift through the rest of school doing only the bare minimum to move on.

*I think they cram it in so they can get children ready for those stupid national tests.  Then, after the scores are received they can all stand around buffing their nails on their shirt fronts feeling good about themselves.   Or they can brag about the school's scores to prospective parents of children about to enter.  For the record, I am one parent who could care less about the scores of these tests whether it's the overall scores the children at the school makes OR the scores my child makes. 

Yet, despite my brave words, here sits one of my children doing homework.

And eating a plain pita that decided it didn't want to puff.   Why?  The homework, not the pita.

Because they take recess away for incomplete homework.   =(

Maia's Pocketbooks

Just a few left....time for a coffee break.

~Mad~

Some time ago, while talking to Rick, I was trying to explain to him about people and passion.  I attempted to explain that I have a hard time being around people that have no passion.  Passion?  He asked, Like the romantic stuff?   No, I said..passion for something.  A passion for anything...an all encompassing overwhelming desire for something, to do something--that sort of thing.  But I couldn't explain it precisely which is rare for me because usually I have no problem explaining it exactly what I mean.   Today, I found out why I couldn't explain it; it was because some one else already has! And it is EXACTLY WHAT I MEAN:

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars..."
                                                                                           Jack Kerouac

Crackers, anyone?

Petites Galettes Salees

Minestrone

Good Morning

Hot cinnamon rolls with Ultra Vanilla Icing....

If only you could stop by for breakfast!