you know it's love when

You knit someone a sock that is 114 stitches on size 0 needles. That's nearly 11 stitches per inch. Forget romance, forget poetry.

THIS is love.

No Bake Cookies

Or, melly's comfort cookies as I like to call them. I always make them the week before . . . you know, and they comfort me. Until I eat nearly the whole batch and I get a stomach ache. Comforting? Not so much.

I remember eating these as a kid in elementary school. Somehow going back to one's youth can also be comforting. I knew them as soon as I tasted them once I found the recipe. Those lunch ladies sure know how to do a cookie up right.

I was glad when the pictures didn't turn out looking like a poo poo platter. Good lighting this evening. Make these. You won't regret it. Unless you eat the whole batch. That you will regret. Take it from a girl who knows.

2 cups sugar

½ cup butter

½ cup milk

3 cups oatmeal

½ cup peanut butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 tablespoons cocoa

Bring sugar, butter and milk to a boil over medium heat. Boil for exactly one minute, no longer. Remove from heat and add oatmeal, peanut butter, vanilla and cocoa. Mix together and drop by teaspoon onto wax paper to cool. If you can stand to wait that long!

food and yarn porn

tasty soup for lunch, a copy cat recipe for Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana from http://www.tuscanrecipes.com/recipes/olive-garden-zuppa-toscana.html

I've been making this soup for years. It's an absolute favorite. Some of the things I've adjusted over the years are in parenthesis below. Do make this soup you won't be sorry.

1 lb ground Italian sausage

1½ tsp crushed red peppers (I use a scant teaspoon, while Ken likes it really spicy, I find a little less pepper to be more tolerable)

1 large diced white onion

4 Tbsp bacon pieces (I use about three quarters of a pound, cut into one inch bits before frying crisply. Can you ever have too much bacon?)

2 tsp garlic puree (I use one fresh, minced garlic clove)

10 cups water (I usually buy one of the large cans of chicken broth and add half a can of water. This seems to be a good mix for the broth/water required)

5 cubes of chicken bouillon

1 cup heavy cream

1 lb sliced Russet potatoes with skins, or about 3 large potatoes (I quarter the potatoes before slicing. It's much nicer to not have potato skin strings hanging from your chin as you eat)

¼ of a bunch of kale

Saute Italian sausage and crushed red pepper in pot. Drain excess fat, refrigerate while you prepare other ingredients. In the same pan, saute bacon, onions and garlic for approximately 15 minutes or until the onions are soft. (I usually fry up the bacon in the same pan, adding the onions and garlic after the bacon is nicely crisped) Mix together the chicken bouillon and water, then add it to the onions, bacon and garlic. Cook until boiling. Add potatoes and cook until soft, about half an hour. Add heavy cream and cook until thoroughly heated. Don't boil the soup after cream is added. Stir in the sausage. Add kale just before serving.

So good.

and for dessert:

new fiber to rub on me naughty bits

birdhouse bonanza

There is some serious birdhouse business going on in the house of melly.
These are not my doings.How fun that my always serious spouse is doing something so whimsical?
It totally makes me smile. I might love him. Shhhhh. Don't tell.

the food meme

Favorite food to crunch:
popcorn, chips, hard candies

Favorite comfort food:
potatoes anything

Favorite picnic lunch:
cheese, fruit and wine

Favorite food scene in movie:
in Chocolat where the Comte woke in the display window of the chocolaterie after gorging all night during Lent

Favorite food lyrics:
not necessarily my favorite but one that came to mind, from Lisa Loeb: "I'll stop cryin' on the mountain that we made from the molehill where we spilt the milk."

Best food smell memory: my mom looked like a nurse but smelled like a hamburger. (she was a cook in a restaurant growing up). I liked the way she smelled.

Favorite summer snack:
watermelon

Food that reminds me of the ocean:
shrimp!

Favorite winter snack:
movie popcorn

Most likely to eat for lunch:
some sort of sandwich

Least likely to eat for lunch:
something healthy

Makes me gag:
any meat that looks like what it was. I don't ever look at a pack of ground beef and think of a cow but a tongue? eeeewwww.

Food tradition I love:
banana cream pies during the holidays

Food tradition I loathe:
bobbing for apples

Favorite wild foods:
we used to eat huckleberries and blackberries as kids

Favorite medicinal food:
"brownies" helps with the glaucoma. ;)

Food that reflects my heritage:
Heinz 57?

Favorite raw food smell:
anything fresh - fruits, greens

Food most like me:
coffee - bitter and murky.
heh heh

From http://www.slimcoincidence.com/blog/

Short Haired Woman

click for the big picture

good day sunshine

Is there anything better than sunbathing?
Ok, so chocolate, knitting, gin - this list could get quite long.
When you're a little dog, is there anything better?
I think not.

the never ending sock - update

I'm ready to start the heel flap! But I'm a little stuck. I'll have to wait for some time with muh knittahs.
It looks like a sweater sleeve! The man has some big feets. He loves it though.

Cami pointed out with 112 stitches, I wasn't going to have enough yarn with just one skein. Great. It's a limited edition. I made some calls and found a shop in Oklahoma that's shipping me another one. Thank gawd for the internet.

I guess maybe I can start my monkeys while I wait for assistance on my magic looped heel flap. I'm excited about those.

I was going to post some pictures of the cute cards I made with Rhonda yesterday but if I keep posting pictures here, you all won't be surprised when you open your mailbox! Thanks for the fun day, friend.

Guests are Welcome!

Since girl-child moved out I officially have a guest room. I hurried and set up the ironing board and put my sewing machine on the left-behind desk. The space was claimed as mine! However - said room is quite sparse and is in need of some sprucing. And since my talents do not lay in interior design, I'm asking for help.

The walls are cream colored with this blue ticking-like wainscoting wallpaper and blue curtains. None of that is likely to change. I was thinking about this bedding from Pottery Barn:

but it's got that crisp white backing so I'm not too sure. And what sort of headboard? Iron perhaps? I'd like the room to have a country (though not tacky - no hearts or dried flowers), comfy feel to it. Any Marthas out there feel like decorating my guestroom? The payment is free lodging and a waffle breakfast.

Anyone?

my mom rocks

You all everybody (that's for YOU Red -g-) remember this sock? Or maybe you remember this? If not, there you have the whole story.

My mom is so great I get to finish those socks after all. You know, the ones I can't remember how many stitches I cast on or the decreases I made for the heel turn, gusset nor toes? Yeah, those socks. Gee, thanks, mom. ;) There may be another pair of hand-knit socks in your future. heh heh

She searched high and low for another skein of this yarn. In fact, she had to go all the way to Washington State from California just to find the yarn I needed to finish this project. That's how much my mom rocks.

Mom? You need another hobby. ;)