425

This is what 425 pounds of beef looks like packed into a Mini Cooper:















Of course, my discerning readers are hungry for more detail so here you go:














Yes, we did the beef pickup tonight as planned. The meat was very nicely packaged and all of the ground beef was in tubes like sausage. Now, SO has the project of stashing all of this in his freezer -- that could require discarding some old items (at least this time, things aren't being cast out by my hand!). I suspect there will be some smoked brisket this weekend.

The farmer wasn't there but his Mrs. was and she helped us put the beef in the car and handled the transaction. I learned that they also grow all the grain and hay that they feed the animals so I'm anxious to try the meat as I know the food makes a difference in the taste of the meat. They are also working on a chicken CSA -- stayed tuned for further developments there.

A parting shot of the horse barn -- I didn't get a good pic, but the horses were all dressed up in their blankets.

New Feature on Blog!

Did you ever wish you could find out when the latest and greatest in my little wooly world hits the internet? Now you can! Notice on the right hand side, I finally installed the email subscription option. So, fill in your email address and hit send -- you will receive a confirmation email -- and then, all the lovely updates will be use to peruse without checking on your own.

Ta - Da!

Cooking To Do List

Rattling around in the back of my brain is a Cooking To Do List -- it's not like my regular to do list of mundane things like get info together for taxes, etc. -- this is my little fantasy world of stuff that I'm meaning to get into. In honor of it being Monday, I'm going to share my list:



First up -- I bought a madeleine pan for no good reason awhile back. I'd been burning for one for ages. Why? I don't know because I don't think I've ever eaten a madeleine, but after reading the first 100 pages of Proust, I fell for the idea of eating them.

Next up, I recently broke down and bought a pasta machine -- about a week before I went on the first two weeks of the South Beach Diet whereupon, pasta was immediately (temporarily) off the diet. I used to own a pasta machine but gave it away about ten years ago. The killer is that the one I had was a very, very special machine that isn't made anymore and I can't get it back (long story). In any event, I bought this one and am dying to break it out to make some whole wheat pasta.
















The third thing is hot smoked salmon to be made in the smoker that recently entered my life:







This project is most likely to happen before either of the other two -- however, there is one hold up: I need to acquire the elusive Morton's Tender Quick Salt --

I've been looking around for this and was seriously close to pulling the trigger and ordering it but then, I looked on the company website to find that I should be able to get it at Wegman's. I did check there, but will look again before I cave in and pay for shipping.

Also on my to do list is to pick a classic cookbook and work with the recipes extensively. The big problem is that I can't decide which one. I'm totally fickle about this.

What's on your Cooking To Do list???

Facing the Truth

It was like getting on the scale after you've been eating away merrily for some time and seeing that you've gained ten pounds...

I took the time to add up how many projects I've got in my yarn stash earlier this week. I knew things were adding up because (1) I've been buying frequently in all sorts of places and (2) honestly, I've outgrown my "one suitcase-worth of yarn" limit.

For starters, we have the yarn that needs to be wound into balls:















Next we move onto the yarn in the suitcase -- One side for socks and one side for other things such as hats, scarves, sweaters:

















And, then we have the projects pending:














What does all this add up to? A little over 50 projects with 33 of those being for socks. Because I work on two projects at a time, it normally takes me about one month to complete a pair of socks unless there's some type of vacation yielding surplus time sitting on an airplane or riding in a car. So, basically, I have about three years' of sock knitting ahead of me already without addition. Let's take this a step further, each pair of socks is something on the order of 10,000 stitches. Yes, socks are a commitment or as my friend, Maryann, says, "If you give someone a pair of hand knit socks, you must really like them."

I feel like an alcoholic facing up to the blackouts, dancing naked on tabletops in dive bars and waking up not knowing how I got where I am.

Oh, but the colors are so pretty and the yarns so soft and after you knit your little heart out, here's what you have:




My own personal collection of little sock-beauties (one pair is missing -- lives at SO's in case I somehow forget to wear socks). Who you don't see here are the numerous pair that I've made and given away to PEOPLE I REALLY LIKE. Yes, they are hard to part with after you've knit them. Oh, and one other thing, two pairs in the picture were knit for me by Maryann which just proves that I am a person SHE REALLY LIKES.

I wish I could promise that I've hit bottom, but it would be a bald-faced lie. For in a few short days, the limited edition of Lorna's Laces for March will be coming out and there's a good chance I will buy it. However, I know that this cold, hard moment of truth will slow me down on the buying. I can't knit any faster -- I mean I've already taken to knitting at stop lights in the car so you know I'm taking advantage of most of the possible knitting that life offers.

Bring on the Beef!

The farmer called last night and we arranged for the pick up of the beef. We will be picking it up next Wednesday night.

The farmer said the beef has been ready for two weeks but they've had nothing but incredibly hard work to contend with because of the snow. He said with each of the large snow falls they had 20 hours of work to get things under control. Even at that, they lost two calves. He felt lucky though because one of the other farmers in the area lost 100 cattle due to a building's roof collapse that could not support the snow.

He said, "Imagine how much work is involved in clearing away all that snow just to get one gate open?"

We go to the store and we buy our food and it's all nice and ready for us. We take it for granted how much work goes into food production when things are going as "they should", let alone what's required when unusual circumstances occur.

I am never cease to be awestruck at the dedication farmers have. They are a crazy breed, for sure.

The Queen of Hearts She Made Some Tarts...

The Queen of Hearts she made some tarts all on a summer's day.

The Knave of Hearts he stole the tarts and took them clean away.

The King of Hearts called for the tarts and beat the Knave full sore.

The Knave of Hearts brought back the tarts and vowed he'd steal no more.


I was getting ready to post something this morning about all the cooking I did yesterday for a Valentine's get together and as I was downloading this picture, this old nursery rhyme popped into my head. The mind is really something -- why do I remember something like this?

So...yesterday I had my single gal pals over for dinner for Valentine's Day (SO was out of town and we celebrated from Friday night on till he left on Sunday morning). I cooked up a storm and I offer many apologies that I only got a shot of the Chocolate Tarts and not even before I put them on a pretty plate. I ran a little short of time so I couldn't take a picture of the homemade pizza (with apples, nuts and cheese) and the Sherried Squash Soup with Toasted Pepitas (with heavy accents of smoked paprika). My guests loaded up the table with appetizers, pink champagne, flowers, salad, and a beautiful raspberry cheesecake with a red heart stenciled on top.

It was a lovely way to spend Valentine's and I enjoyed putting the whole production together complete with red tablecloth and a string of lighted red hearts.

It was a little different for me from my usual parties because there were a lot of things I wasn't doing due to being in the first two weeks of the South Beach Diet (on day twelve today, not that I'm counting the days, hours, minutes, etc.). I didn't have the champagne, the desserts, soup, or pizza. I confess to small tastes as I needed to know whether any of the new recipes were worth repeating (pizza, yes; chocolate tarts, yes; soup, probably not). Maybe this seems a little bizzare not to stop and smell last night's roses, but on the other hand, when you are going somewhere, you never get there if you constantly stop and take side trips. The first two weeks of this plan are really about breaking away from a lot of habits and then re-building new ones so, as my aunt said to me, it's CRITICAL. In any event, only three more days before I start re-building my habits.

But, back to the Chocolate Tarts featured in the picture. Wow, wow, wow...so easy and so good. I got the recipe from Alice Waters, "The Art of Simple Food". It's just a tart shell (I used the pre-made pie crust that come rolled in a tube) which you pre-bake for 15 minutes. Then, you take 6 oz. of bittersweet chocolate (strange coincidence that Sharfenberger made exactly that size package? I think not!) and chop it up. To that you add 1 cup of heavy cream that you've scalded. Pour the cream over the chocolate and stir till just smooth and then ladle the chocolate mixture into the tart shells. Let them sit for one hour and you have got perfect Chocolate Tarts.

I'm pretty sure if the Knave of Hearts tasted these tarts, he'd decide the beating was worth it!

On Again, Off Again

In between bouts of working on my light blue seed stitch hoodie sweater, I take on side projects to break up the endless straight knitting -- last night I completed the first of a pair of socks that are my current "side project":
















A few comments about this sock:

1. The yarn comes from a flat panel instead of a ball -- the panels are hand-painted so each one is different. They are quite fun to work with because you can't imagine how it's going to look.

2. I thought the resulting sock would be more red than grey...I was going for something more Valentine-sy again...I didn't get that but at least, the sock is wintry and I felt I needed more dark colored socks for my hand-knitted sock collection.

3. I ran out of yarn; thus, the black toe. Because of the way the panel is dyed, I could tell when I needed to stop in order to have enough to make the other sock -- which will also need a black toe.

4. The big confession is that the black toe is cotton/spandex while the flat panel yarn is wool. The cotton/spandex yarn was all I had on hand to make the fix with and I'm too impatient to wait till I can get to the store to get compatible wool. P.S.: I cook the same way. I call this approach "The Frankenstein Method".

5. I need the side projects to keep up my spirits, but it makes me feel like I'm cheating on my main project. Still, I need the diversion so I have to put a lid on my guilt.

Below is a "Before/After" picture:














Now, I have to give the hoodie some real TLC and then can start the mate to this sock.

If you are on the east coast, have fun digging out of the snow today!

It's All About the Journey...

There are certain things that we say in our culture that I'm not always crazy to hear. One is, "Everything turns out the way it should, you'll see." This is said when things aren't going well and someone wants to cheer you up and if you are busy wallowing in your own misery, it's hard to believe.

Another one is, "It's not about the destination, it's about the journey" -- again, when you are slogging away, wallowing in misery during the "journey" (like losing weight and depriving yourself of Mrs. Martin's Jalapeno Potato Chips, for example), it's hard to take comfort in that statement.

But, today, I feel differently about wanting a destination. Today, I want a journey back for today I finished my seven month project of listening to all the Harry Potter books on CD. Wah...as much as I wanted to get to the end, I wish it wasn't over!!!













I'm done. I finished this morning on my early morning jaunt back from SO's house. I knew the end was coming, but still...these CDs have been my constant car companion since last summer. I remember when I started, it seemed like such a mountain of listening and now, it's done.

Back in the summer, after seeing one of the movies, I decided to commit to the whole series but knew that I wouldn't be able to get them all read in a decent amount of time so I settled on listening to them in the car and liked the idea of having the company while shuttling back and forth to SO's. I borrowed the CDs from the library and found the series impressive. On top of the great writing by J. K. Rowling, the whole CD series was read by one person, Jim Dale, who did ALL the voices throughout. Each book alone was a minimum of about ten hours of recordings and one of the books was 22 CDs. The last book was 17 CDs and took me about six weeks to listen to. Amazing. Can't imagine what it was like to produce something like that.

Being done is bittersweet; however, I'm going to go out on a limb here and make a prediction that losing 25 pounds will be nothing but joyous...

When it Snows, It Pours

And, it's not done yet...

You May Be Wrong, But You May Be Right

Behold -- The first completed knitting project of February 2010!!!













In an effort to have a thematically compatible knitted object for the month, I whipped up this hat this week. It's super cute on and very warm (wore it to the gym this morning), but alas, it has a HUGE mistake.

I was delighted to be finishing this last night, but highly dismayed to find that I made it incorrectly. You see, the way I read the directions (too fast, evidently), I thought I was supposed to knit in knit 1, purl 1 rib knit the whole way up until the decreases at the top...WRONG. I was only supposed to do that for four rows (about 1 inch instead of the 7 inches that I did). I discovered this when studying the picture for the placement of the heart on a string. Then, I re-read the directions and saw that I just blatantly didn't read the directions closely enough.

On the other hand, the hat looks good and fits really nicely because of all the ribbing so maybe it's not so wrong. Let's just call it my accidental interpretation, OK?

So, maybe it was wrong, but now, maybe it is right.

In the meantime, I've embarked on the Master Knitter's Course, Level 1. I have to make 16 swatches plus a hat sometime over the course of the next year. There's not "maybe wrong, but maybe right" with this. The package gets shipped off to some panel of judges and if anything is slightly different (wrong?) from the directions, it gets bounced back to be redone. Paying attention will be critical here to getting through this in a reasonable length of time.

Wish me luck!!!

Crazyland

In my quest to preserve and delight in traditional ways of doing things, I confess I do get a bit overzealous at times. In fact, sometimes I know I'm verging into "crazyland". If I have any doubts, I can always confirm my suspicions by the looks on other people's faces when I tell them what I'm up to.

I stepped off the edge last week when I caught a fever and ordered the rarest yarn of all: Vicuna. Purported to be the yummiest yarn possible, I took the plunge and ordered one little ridiculously expensive ball -- all of one ounce, barely enough to make a little scarf -- with no choice of color other than "natural". The hook: it comes from a wild animal that is an ancient relative of the camel from the Peruvian Andes. They have to catch the animal, shave the belly for the fiber, then release the animal and can't re-harvest for three years. It came on Monday:














You can't really tell how small this is -- maybe it's the size of a small peach. I have a little lace scarf pattern designed for wild yak that is supposed to work for this too. This proves for once and for all, that when it comes to yarn, I have no shame.