chrysanthemum

To ease your mind

There's more than enough yarn here. The seaming is intensive though, and, ironically, I seem to have less time for crafty pursuits on the weekends than during the week, so even though I got a good start on Thursday (!), I'm still no where near finished. Soon though. Soon.

And damn, that red is hard to photograph...

Not sure what to call this

'Kitchen aid'?

or 'Stand mixer'?

These, though, are whole-wheat cherry chocolate-chip pecan bars. A mouthful in more ways than one.

Lyra said they were good, even with the nuts inside.

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Whole-Wheat Cherry Chocolate-Chip Pecan Bars

Butter an 9 x 13" baking dish and preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1/2 c. white sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 t. vanilla
2 eggs

1 c. oats
1 c. chopped dried cherries
1 c. chocolate chips
1 c. chopped pecans

Combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl.

Cream the butter and sugar in a larger bowl, then add the vanilla and eggs.

Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and mix.

Add the oats, cherries, chocolate and pecans and mix till it looks like everything is evenly distributed.

Spread in the prepared baking dish and bake for 25 minutes.

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I usually make these without the cherries or pecans, but with 2 cups of oats. Shredded coconut is a nice addition, and probably any number of other things, too, but this time I wanted cherries and nuts.

What do you think?

It looks like enough. I think. Except for when it doesn't. There are narrow little cuffs to knit too. I think there's enough. But maybe not. I don't have anymore of this yarn. But that looks like enough. Right?

Chocolate: It's what's for dinner

When I went to college, I was (almost) completely innocent. The most decadent thing I had ever had on a pancake was whipped cream, and it was almost certainly out of a can, eaten after a full night in the car on the way to Walt Disney World for spring break. But in the fall of 1987, Pearsons dorm, Mount Holyoke College, the breakfast cook was more than happy to make you anything you wanted for breakfast every damn morning. There was no reason to eat toast or cereal or even donuts--though, to be fair, I don't think there donuts available, and if there had been, I likely would have eaten some. Anyway, she introduced me to chocolate chip pancakes, and then she made them for me every morning until Christmas. Yikes.

These days I almost never put chocolate chips in the pancakes. My darling husband aspires to hermit-like levels of  ... whatever the stark opposite of chocolate dependency is. He swears he doesn't like it. I don't believe him for a minute, but I do try not to serve chocolate as a main course at any meals. You should see the way he looks at me when I put chocolate chips in the banana muffins. Yeesh.

Nevertheless, pancakes are one of my favorite standby dinners on nights when he's got class. This quarter his classes have been early enough that he's always home for dinner, so the kids and I haven't had pancakes for dinner in ages. But there was some special study group for Thursday's Stats exam tonight, and people, that bacon chocolate bar was practically burning a hole in the countertop. Let me be the one to tell you, if you have the slightest affinity for bacon, for chocolate or for pancakes, this is your dream meal. You may not want it for dinner, depending on your sensibilities about these things, but seriously: Yum.

In clover

My youngest sister, Kate, recently graduated from Notre Dame, for the second time, with some fancy finance degree. Thank goodness my parents had a fifth child, because out of the twenty grandkids in my family, I think Kate is the only one with a head for the family business. I made her a little wristlet for luck, and packed it full of protective charms.



I was actually a little worried that Kate must have been horrified that I'd put condoms in her bag, but I got a little note from her today assuring me that she thought it was funny. So did Mom, but where's the surprise there? The woman has five kids--she ought to know the value, humorous and otherwise, of lucky charms.



Good luck, Kate. I'm proud of you!

Dear Aunt Lane,

Thanks for the introduction, all those years ago, to Kalamata olives and raw garlic. They make everything taste better.

Thanks also for telling me that nothing is irrevocable, quite before I knew how to pronounce that word and long before I ever would have thought such a thing to be true. I'm not sure I believe that nothing is irrevocable, even now, but I'll always associate the freedom behind that idea with you. I do believe, for certain, that nothing lasts forever, even garlic breath.

Aunt Lane's Pasta Salad

1 pound pasta, gemelli above, but radiatore is my preference
broccoli, cut into small florets, cooked and cooled
cherry, grape or Roma tomatoes, quartered or chopped
Kalamata olives with their juice
toasted pine nuts
fresh rosemary
pinch of oregano
1 cup olive oil
1 cup grated Parmesan
salt and pepper

You pretty much just mix all this stuff together in quantities that seem appropriate. Apparently Aunt Lane felt strongly, at the time, that an entire cup of olive oil was necessary, but I made it with half that tonight (there wasn't a whole cup in my bottle, and I didn't feel like going downstairs to get another bottle), and it seemed fine to me. Also, tonight I threw in a can of chick peas, because I can just never get enough chick peas. Feta would be awesome in there, and probably pretty much anything else you like in your regular life, you'd like in this pasta salad. Mine could have used a little more black pepper, but I was too busy eating to be bothered.

I'm a little worried about this

On both counts. I have no idea how to spin, and this lovely roving is a particularly beautiful blend of silk and merino. Also, the bacon is in the chocolate. I should mention, though, that I'm a notorious chicken about trying new things. I was pretty scared about knitting and sewing too, back before I started, and I wasn't entirely sure I was going to like the sea salt brownies I made yesterday either. Things are going pretty well on the knitting and sewing and brownie-eating fronts, though, so I'm going to be brave and try spinning (just as soon as I locate someone who can show me how), and I'm going to eat the chocolate too (though not at 7:44 on Sunday morning. What can I say? I have quite unexpected standards about some things).

This bounty, also quite unexpected, is a prize from Sasha. I won a giveaway on her blog. I wasn't trying to win--I usually don't enter giveaways--but she asked for my thoughts about bacon, and, folks, I have thoughts about bacon. So I shared. And then I won. And now I have bacon chocolate and beautiful roving and a new drop spindle and a bundle of magazines (my husband immediately absconded with BUST, and Lyra latched onto Ladybug, and Living Crafts? I've never even seen that one before, but this issue is packed with Little Red Riding Hood things, and suddenly I think I may need to knit a cape--how suggestible am I?), plus some sparkly rick-rack (ooh, shiny border for something! maybe my new skirt?) and some very cool, bright green vintage buttons that I've already got a bunch of conflicting plans for. It was an awesome prize package. I am deeply excited. And grateful. Thank you, Sasha!



Just look at those pretty cloudy colors!  OK, looking for a spinning class...

Him and her and him and me

 
Not exactly innovative, I know--and wait till you see the back--it's a total rip-off of at least ten bloggers you could name off the top of your head, but look, it's got all of our names on it, and it's light and summery and in the space of the 20 hours it has spent in our living room thus far, no bodily fluids of any kind have besmirched it. Sorry if that was too graphic a thing for you to imagine.


It looks fantastic on the chocolate brown couch, though it clashes horribly with the purply pictures hanging above the couch (Quick! I need to redecorate the walls!), and it might also clash with the burgundy rug (I seriously doubt I'm going to be permitted to buy a new rug anytime soon), but you know what, I just don't care. Not today. Today I'm wondering what the best way is to complement this cushion with some plain brown linen in my stash. Embroider it? Appliqué? Stencil? Then again, I'm not making more cushion covers today. I'm onto the next thing already... Thank god for creative energy, otherwise I might not have any energy at all.

Sunday evening, take two

Yes, it's really Monday, I know, and only for another two hours and two minutes, but today felt nothing like Monday, and tonight felt like the Sundayest evening ever. Michael and I ate a frittata stuffed with all of the best leftovers from the past three days, and the kids ate alphabet soup and toast. Actually they just played with the soup.

I put Lyra to bed at 7 o'clock and spent the next three hours sitting alone in the living room listening to the classical music station and stitching around the flowers on a piece of fabric for a cushion. I'd show you, but it's dark now and my photos aren't worth the pixels. It was marvelously relaxing. And now, I'm going to bed.

It seems a bit late in the season

but I think I've got a touch of spring fever.

Yesterday Michael denuded our neighbors' lilac tree. (Or is a lilac a bush?) He only cut the part that hangs entirely over our fence--and with the neighbors' blessing, of course--but judging from the masses of lilacs arrayed all over our house, I think he got every single flower. The house smells divine.

Anyway, spring fever... I can't stop thinking of new projects to start. I bought yarn. I'm making a little sweater for myself. I have more sock yarn. I've got Meagan's shawl yarn. I bought fabric for skirts. I bought fabric for bags. I'm thinking that I'm finally ready to sew a Roman shade for our bedroom window--all straight lines, I know, but it's a really big window and I've been afraid I'd screw it up. Until now. So I need to buy some more fabric. Plus shade hardware and stuff like that. And then last night, a friend commissioned me to make a little linen pouch for her sister. A commission?! I've never had a commission before.

I think it's all these extra daylight hours (I say that like it's 12 extra hours or something). I've got so much more creative energy. Why can't it be May all year round? OK, no more time to type. Must make something now.