First Finished Sleeve

OK, this is a weird picture, and no, this is not a big men's tie... but it is the first sleeve (TA DA!) as flat as I can lay it out. It isn't blocked yet. It is shaped up at the shoulder. Now I am beginning the second sleeve and so glad to be done with the first. Finally! I am going to try to "match" the striping beginning at the wrist as best I can so hopefully the striping will be similar on both sleeves. I can hope for it anyway. It is difficult with a pieced sweater like this to get the striping to match unless you get lucky and find where to start your yarn just at the right spot in the skein. Overcast day today, so good day to work on knitting. Remember, this is what I'm going for:


I have the back done, the two front pieces done, and one beautiful sleeve done! After the next sleeve, it will start to get exciting!

Spinach Strawberry Salad

2 bags fresh spinach
1 pt. fresh strawberries, sliced
1 cup walnuts, chopped (I substituted roasted sliced almonds)
Dressing:
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp minced onion (I used white)
1/4 tsp paprika
1/2 cup oil
1 Tbsp poppy seeds (next time I will use a bit less than this-ended up with many in my teeth!)
1/4 tsp Wochestershire sauce
1/4 cup vinegar (I used apple cider)
Toss spinach, strawberries and nuts together in a large bowl. Mix all dressing ingredients together and pour over spinach mixture. Toss lightly and serve. It is best to pour dressing on just before serving.

I got this recipe from the Hearts at Home e-newsletter. They have more on eCommunity Recipe Forum! Also discovered a great foodie site called Kitchen Confit.
So check them out! Oh and P.S., on that cobbler recipe I posted previously: the original recipe called for two types of flour for the topping ingredients, but I used just regular unbleached. Another option was to put toasted nuts on the top, so yum-o! Now, I must quit eating and enjoy the sun!

Raspberry Jam and Back to Knitting

This is called a .5 (1/2 flat) of raspberries. They are pricey, so this is all I got.
Enough to make one batch with a few little 1/2 pints leftover for throwing fresh over cereal or salad or ice cream.The freezer's getting full of jam. I will watch out for blackberries to come into season though.

Now back to knitting....I am working on my first sleeve still so nothing too new to show. But for those who were having trouble visualizing a sleeve, I have layed it over my arm -of course it isn't seamed yet. That happens way later.It's hot weather here again this week. But I'll try to keep workin' on my sleeves!

Blueberry Cobbler and Strawberry Jam

After calling every store in the vicinity the past two days, I finally found the freezer jam pectin I like. It's in a little envelope. If you have never made freezer jam, it is SO EASY. Just put four cups of cut up fruit in bowl, mash it with a potato masher, and then in separate bowl, mix the pectin with the sugar (my recipe uses 1 1/2 c. sugar to one package pectin to 4 cups fruit) stir the whole bunch together until dissolved, then ladle into 8 oz. freezer jars. Let sit 30 min. Voila! Freezer Jam! NO cooking needed!

I had enough of last year's blueberries in the freezer to do a cobbler recipe I found in the newspaper. The topping is actually more like a crumbly shortbread mixture rather than your typical doughy cobbler. Therefore the name:

A TECHNICALLY INCORRECT BUT VERY GOOD SUMMER FRUIT COBBLER

(That really was the name)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Filling:

6 c. diced fruit

1 1/2 c. sugar (depending on the sweetness of your fruit, may decrease sugar)

4 T. cornstarch

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

lemon juice, optional (I threw in a tsp.)

pinch salt

Place in a sprayed, or greased 7 c. baking dish

Blend topping:

10 T. butter, room temperature (Blend butter and sugars, vanilla together first)

1/3 c. white sugar

1/3 c. brown sugar

1/4. tsp. salt

2 tsp. vanilla

Add 2 c. flour

Blend until crumbly. Spoon over filling lightly.

Bake 45-55 min. until bubbling and thick. Topping should be a rich golden brown.

Serve with ice cream, of course! We are going to break out the Donvier Ice Cream maker tonight.

You mix 4 c. of light cream or 1/2 and 1/2, vanilla and sugar (Yes, very fattening!) and put it into the frozen cylinder and crank it for a few min. and there you have it, homemade ice cream!

Now we'll need a jog around the block!

Ode to the Chalets

Gordon Clan July 2008

The chalets we will never forget, and the time there we'll never regret! Though musty, moldy, sandy, breezy, misty at times.... we also had so many sunny, blue, glorious eagle-spotting views from up top, good books read below, the beach and the meadow -though it needs a good "mow"....and candles aglow (Jenna's Birthday cakes)...Thanks for the memories, thanks for the years...We'll be back next time for more, oh sandy beach, and discover what you hold in store-agates or crabs or sand fleas galore.
There's sure to be a game on the table, music and laughter in the air, someone knitting in the chair, and fireworks to boot.....what a hoot! ....Until next year!

Garden Delights! Rescuing the Cherries, continued!

Lavendar is growing nicely and the bees like it too!


Honey bee is in center happily buzzing away... Below, a lovely bouquet from my garden.

Updated now so you can see how dark the cherries get after a few more days in the sun! That's more like it! Took my special "plucker" out there and got more today. It was too hot to be out there but they are so gorgeous. I couldn't leave them hanging!

WOW!!

Compared to just a few days ago, they are getting redder and sweeter! Yum!

Beautiful cherries are on our tree in the backyard. They are really coming out now and I am determined that the racoons, the crows and the sneaky squirrel I saw today are NOT going to eat them all. So I took my stick with the nails on the end that we get the cherries down with (a tool my hubby made!) and I went out there today to pluck them. It is labor intensive, and takes forever and makes your neck hurt looking up for a long time. No wonder they are so expensive in the stores. The first year we moved here, we got a bumper crop and my daughter sold them by the bag-full on the street instead of selling lemonade and she made $80!

If I wait even longer, they get redder like a Bing cherry, but they are still good at this stage and I am just not letting that sneaky squirrel get them all! Our neighbors had a racoon in their tree the other night and it was eating theirs. So he shot it with an air gun. That scared it off.

Next we will be waiting for our blueberries to ripen....This is how they look as they are getting ripe. They actually have to be a deep blue before you pick them. That one's almost ready! They need watering every night now.

That is pretty much all we are growing. The apple tree we don't prune so it doesn't produce large apples. I am growing a pot of basil though from T. Joes. It was just as cheap to buy a live plant. My favorite appetizer is fresh basil on Vinta crackers, with fresh mozarella and ripe tomato! Yum! Summer food! It's hot here, so it's yummy salad again tonight: Top Ramen salad with roasted chicken, roasted sliced almonds, roasted sesame seeds and cabbage with the yummy dressing-plus I added Yoshida's gourmet sauce to it!

Frogging the Sleeve...Ocean Days

Oregon Coast near Otter Rock

This is the perfect bench for a romantic view of the beach. This is what "our" beach looks like looking north. It's a tradition for our family to come down here every year over the 4th of July.

This is the view of the beach looking south and taken from one of the cabin decks where we all end up gathering for our meals.

Here's one of the cabins that we usually stay in. They are rustic and simple, but have held alot of memories over the years.

Here's a shot of my sleeve before I discovered a major boo-boo and had to start "frogging" and ripping it back since I didn't do my increases correctly. It was a sad, sad thing to rip it back.
Here's a shot of it after I had to rip it back all the way to the ribbed cuff. Now I am going to be much more careful when my pattern reads: "Increase at EACH end of the 10th row"....Grrr!

SO now I am back at it ... and it looks like this again. Much wider. Probably good! Now it may actually fit my arm!In the meantime, Mom is turning out amazing socks once again!

Sandy Days at the beach...The kids decided to do a real sandcastle this year!

Here's part of the crew. Everyone pitched in! Castle was complete with moat and all sorts of sea things decorating it. The waves swept it away in the night and the kids went down to watch it go!

We were very fortunate this year to have had all of the cousins on the trip and Jeff along too. Nobody had to stay behind due to work or other commitments. It was a very special trip indeed!

Vacations are always too short...Our favorite things about our trips to the ocean are:

Playing board games, going to Pie Chalet for Marionberry pie, wearing our Keene's, fireworks on the beach, buttermilk pancakes, chef salad, Mo's chowder, and cobbler, early low tide walks, checking out Devil's Punch Bowl, sand dune rides (don't smile or you get sand in your teeth!), movies at the little theater (it's dark in here, can't they afford lights?) Laughing, reading, more games, pictures, pictures...and no matter the weather...it's still the ocean and it's awesome!