Taken on my street while walking Charlie. The neighborhood is looking so pretty with more lights popping up on houses each day!
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Taken on my street while walking Charlie. The neighborhood is looking so pretty with more lights popping up on houses each day!
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Delicious food. Good company. Chatting on the phone with family all day. A lovely day. I'm thankful for so much!
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It is ON.
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Tonight the cooking prep for Thanksgiving begun: chopping up the sourdough roll and baking the cornbread. Both of these breads, once cubed and aired out, will be nice and dry by Thanksgiving, and just perfect for the dressing. I used a cornbread recipe that calls for an 8" square pan, but am baking it in a regulation-sized (9" X 13") dish, for better cube-ing and drying. This is going to make a lot of dressing - but I'll freeze half before baking, and cook it up for Christmas dinner, so I'm feeling extra prep-o-rific right about now!
It'll probably be pretty darn food and recipe-heavy on the blog this week, since Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and food is the best. ;) Hope your week is going well, whether it's a holiday week for you or not!
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Today I got most of my Thanksgiving shopping done! I just need to buy the turkey, some booze, and a can of evaporated milk. (Random, I know, but the co-op was sold out.) I LOVE THANKSGIVING. It's just going to be me and Jacob (and Charlie!) here this holiday, but we're definitely planning to enjoy the holiday and make a full spread. Grocery shopping, oddly enough, is one of my favorite things to do. I love getting all organized and making a nice menu plan and well-laid out shopping list, and once done, I generally pick the longest checkout line on purpose so I can read magazines while I wait. I love it all! Choosing all the goodies for a special holiday meal is especially pleasing. Everything looked so pretty and tasty at the market - such a treat.
I didn't buy all the cheese... but I came close. ;)
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A corner of our home, under the hot July sun.
Happy weekend!
My office buddy.
Always willing to share his empty peanut butter jar.
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I'm so, so happy with the fit! The bottom border (which looks like lots of fun to knit - I'm definitely on a short-row kick right now) will add another 2 1/4", so I am going to keep knitting for another 2" - 3" before beginning that part. My torso: it's long.
All three of my current active WIPs are making me happy - now I just have to power through and finish them. Blogging more has, in my case, definitely led to knitting more. I'll call that a win on both counts.
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This is the Turbulence Cowl, the newest pattern from Cosmicpluto Laura. One short-row wedge in, and I'm entirely charmed. The yarn is Bijou Bliss, the Bijou Basin yak/cormo blend, which I bought at the Taos Wool Festival last year. This yarn is a TREAT to knit - that's right, a squishy, soft treat that only ALLCAPS can properly express. A happy little project.
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There are a million ways to make tasty chili, and this is the season to try as many of them as possible. It's such an easy, hearty dish, and a great excuse to bust out my crock pot. I made this last week, and it was the perfect dinner on a cold November evening. Here's what I did!
Turkey, Pork, and Three-bean Crock Pot Chili
Ingredients:
1 TBSP olive oil
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 lb ground pork
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 (14 1/2 oz) can black beans
1 (14 1/2 oz) can kidney beans
1 (14 1/2 oz) can garbanzo beans
1 (28 oz) can or 2 (14 1/2 oz) cans crushed tomatoes
1 (14 1/2 oz) can corn, drained
2 - 3 TBSP chili powder (to taste)
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp paprika
salt and pepper, to taste
Directions:
Yields:
10 servings. You can easily freeze leftovers and enjoy later, too.
I topped with a sharp cheddar cheese and some Greek yogurt, and served it with some homemade (Charlie-approved) cornbread and a nice bold red wine. Perfect.
It's pretty easy to modify and adjust for different taste preferences (more garlic?), spice preferences (less chili powder?) and such. You can certainly substitute other ground meats if you like; just be sure that you're using about 1 1/2 pounds total.
Please let me know if you make this - and I sure hope you enjoy it!
I love these!
This weekend was so relaxing, with lots of knitting time for me, and singing time, for Charlie.
Ready for Monday and the week ahead! Hope you had a good weekend, too!
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I made a big batch of chili in the crock pot yesterday (recipe coming Monday!) and of course cooked up some cornbread to go with it. Someone around here thought the cornbread smelled especially good.
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The little details in this sweater - the reverse stockinette sleeves and garter ridges - have added just the right amount of interest to this simple knit. It has been a very enjoyable process so far!
This morning, I thought I would try on 10days to check the fit. I am happy! There are 6 more rows to knit until I join the front placket, and then I'll begin the waist increases, working in the round. Thanks to the short-row bust darts I added, placket does lay nicely together without a gap, which is great: my main fit concern with this sweater was a front placket that wouldn't close nicely! Moving from setting the camera timer to get in place for the photos opened it up a bit for the picture, but I was very happy to see in real life, upon trying it on, that it does lay nicely even before the buttons have been added.
Speaking of buttons, I've decided to use these sweet little vintage Bakelite buttons from my (ridiculous) (-ly awesome) button stash. The rich navy yarn looks so pretty with the butterscotch Bakelite! The pattern calls for two horizontal button bands but I might do three (or even four?) to give some additional closure to the front placket, since I added more length to that section with the short-row bust darts. We'll see! Looking forward to the weekend ahead and (hopefully) lots of knitting time.
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Oh, Charlie. My sweet boy.
I swear he poses for the camera.
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