Really Good Weekend

I don't know about you, but I had a really good weekend.

The weather was AWESOME! Sunny and warm and sunny.

My Mom and I made a day of it. We started out at Goodwill for their 50% off sale. I hit the mother lode too. I got 2 practically new pairs of jeans, 1 lime zippered cardigan, 1 brand new still had the tag on blue sweater, 4 scrub tops, 2 scrub pants, a small brand new Tupperware strainer and 4 wool felting sweaters. I spent $40, but new scrub tops alone cost $12.99 each. I wasn't expecting to spend that much, but I definitely got more than my money's worth of merchandise.

Then I took my Mom to the South Bend Farmers Market, where we got some dark espresso roasted coffee beans for my Dad, some herbs, loose leaf tea (darjeeling, french vanilla, chai), fresh pumpkin donuts (the yummy cake kind), broccoli (which I steamed on Sunday for dinner), tomatoes, garlic, yellow bell pepper. I got to taste a chanterelle mushroom, which was very good. We probably spent a good hour to hour and a half wandering around checking everything out. She's already making plans with her friends to come back for another visit.

Then we headed to Goshen to the Ewe-Knique Knit Shop, where I had to exchange a skein of yarn I bought when I was at the knitting retreat. While trying to find the end of the yarn from the center of the skein, I totally messed up the skein and had to re-wind it. In the process, I found 6 big slubby areas. 1 or 2 I could have lived with, but not 6. Well they didn't have the same color of mini mochi, so I got another colorway. And to be on the safe side I decided to go ahead and get an extra one while I was there. :o)

After lunch at the chinese buffet, I went home and took a nap. When I woke up, I did laundry. I had to wash my new scrubs, so I could wear a set to work on Sunday. And I figured If I was going to do one load I might as well do several. Not going to admit to how many loads I did; I let the laundry kind of pile up. I finished up the last load on Sunday morning before work.

All in all, a very good weekend!

New Recipe - Tomato Florentine Soup

A pizza restaurant here in town (Barnaby's), used to serve Tomato Florentine Soup everyday on their menu. I loved it! I don't know if they tried to do something different or what, but they removed it and replaced it with Italian Wedding Soup. Oh it was horrible! I stopped going there as often, because I was always getting the soup/salad combo and they didn't have any other soups that I liked.

Well I got to craving that soup last week. I looked up recipes on-line and found several that I liked "bits" of. So I combined them and WOW I loved it! So here it is:

Tomato Florentine Soup
Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

1 lb ground Italian sausage

1 small onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

3 beef bullion cubes

1 cup boiling water

2 cans diced tomatoes

1 12 oz. Can V8 Juice

1 small can tomato sauce

¼ tsp Tabasco or other hot sauce

2 stalks of celery, diced

2 tsp. oregano

2 tsp. thyme

2 tsp. basil

1 tsp. dill

2 cups of water or milk

1 bunch of Spinach, julienne

1 to ½ cups cooked shell pasta

Salt and Pepper to taste

Brown sausage until it is almost done. Add onion and garlic. Cook until onions are translucent. Add this and all other ingredients except the pasta to a crockpot. Cook on high for 1 ½ hours. Add cooked pasta. Cook for ½ hour. Serve with crusty bread/butter or grilled cheese sandwiches.

Note: I took this to work with me, that’s why I used the crockpot, but the original recipe(s) were geared towards making it on the stove. It was very good the first day, however it was awesome the next day.

Knitting Retreat

Ok, I mentioned earlier that I would be updating everyone on the knitting retreat that I attended on Halloween. The South Bend Knitworks (Rav Group) held our first retreat. It was so much fun, I hope it isn't our last one. Thanks to Faith and Madalyn for organzing the whole thing. And thanks to Rachel for decorating the gift bags, Kelly for the neat stitch markers (SSK & K2tog), and to Carly for the cool name tags. They had small wound hanks of yarn. And thanks to all who brought snacks, Yum!

I had such a great time. Kallie tought us how to do Entrelac. I wasn't going to do it, because I thought "Why learn something else to become addicted to!", but actually it was quite interesting. Here's my sample:

Kallie went around the group giving everyone a little bit of extra help, for which I was glad. I learn better if someone is showing me what to do, instead of just plain reading/interpreting it on my own. Every time she got to me though, I would confuse her because on the purl rows I was knitting backwards instead of flipping it and purling. I think Entrelac would be a huge pain to do if you don't know how to knit backwards. All that flipping to the back side to purl 2, 3, 4, etc stitches would suck.

We also got in some great knitting time too.

Liz, Kallie and Shelley.

Shelley (again), KellyLynn, Megan, Christine, Carly and Madalyn.

Rachel, Susan and Jonel.

Kelly, Faith and Rachel (again).

It was kind of hard not to overlap photos, since there were not a lot of us. Personally I like the smaller sized group, because it was easier to talk to everyone and get to know some of the different Ravelry members. I just realized that I didn't get a picture of Danielle, because she had to leave early.

We all trickled through Ewe-Knique Knit Shop around lunch time. I got 2 skeins of Mini Mochi, that I just love. That's the yarn I'm using for the fingerless mitts from the previous post. Very soft!

Oh, lest I forget, Faith was responsible for getting us some great door prizes, none of which I won though. :o( But Jonel won a Sweater Kit from Berroco, KellyLynn won a kit from Spud and Chloe, Liz won a goodie bag from Lion Brand Yarn, Carly won Purple sock yarn donated by Red Purl. Sorry there were more winners, but I don't remember who won what.

Other donated prizes came from: Erica's Sewing & Craft center - a purple bag and books for our goodie bags and another kit from Spud & Chloe.

I Wasn't Going to do it.

But I did. I told myself I shouldn't, but again I did. I started another knitting project! I have too many started already that I need to get done, but I just couldn't resist.

I attended a Knitting Retreat in Goshen on Halloween (details to come) and while there I bought some Mini Mochi yarn at Ewe-Knique Knits yarn shop. They had this wonderful sample made up of a hat. The pattern could be downloaded from Crystal Palace's website. It's for a fake Fair Isle design. I'm not real interested in the hat, but it also include a pair of mittens that would make perfect fingerless mitts. My hands are always getting cold and I've been planning to make myself a pair. I just never seem to get around to it. I have the ribbing done on Mitt #1 and am only 2-4 rows away from starting the thumb gusset.

I have been working on other things: I have 20 inches done on my pooling scarf and I'm more than 1/2 done on the body of my Hoodie Sweater. It's just that the sweater is getting to the point where it is not too portable and with it taking almost 1/2 hour to knit a row, it's a bit frustrating too.

I know, I know. It doesn't take much to justify starting a new project right? I really do need to get some things done though.

(11/9) Edited to add photo

Family Dinner Swap

Amy of Park City Girl is doing a Recipe Swap and I thought I would add my two cents to the list.

I love love love Thai food and stir-frys. I'm always hitting up my friend Lily (who's from Thailand) for interesting new recipes. Here is one of my favorites.

Chicken Basil (Gai Pad Gra Pow) This recipe was put together from info from both Lily and Thaifoods.com

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp oil
4-7 Thai chili peppers (minced or crushed)
1 Tbsp. sugar
1-2 pkgs fresh Thai Basil
1/2 lb. ground chicken (or bite-sized chunks of chicken)
1 Tbsp minced garlic
3Tbsp fish sauce


Method:
Mince garlic and chili peppers together. Clean and pick basil from its stems. It may appear like a lot of leaves, but they will shrink when cooked and this dish's flavor comes from the leaves. Fry garlic and chili in oil over high heat. When garlic starts to turn brown, add ground chicken. The juice will start to come out. Keep stirring until all the juice is gone. It might take a couple of minutes. Add sugar and fish sauce. Then add the basil. Quickly turn over a few times to mix the leaves with the meat and then remove from the heat and put in serving bowl. Serve with hot rice.

Notes:
You can substitute ground turkey or pork for the ground chicken. Some people like the meat cut up in bite sizes pieces rather than ground. You can also add Sliced green peppers and onions just before adding the sugar and fish sauce.

PS: If you haven't tried the Thai Basil, you really should. It is much milder and more flavorful than the regular 'italian' basil that we tend to use here in the US. I've also done eggrolls and Coconut Chicken soup and you can get those recipes by clicking here.

Enjoy!

World Take Notice!

I giving the world notice right now. I'm in a good mood and I don't want anyone pissing on my parade today!

I got my hair cut and colored last night. I was long over due and while I'm kinda on the fence about the color (it's a little darker and a little on the coppery side) I do like it.

I also paid bills last night AND had money left over. And that didn't even take into account the fact that I got paid again today. Then I balanced my checkbook and was only 18 cents off. Whoo Hoo! Teresa (my Accountant friend) will be so proud of me. She shudders when I tell her I haven't ballanced my check book in ohh 6 months or a year. She'll be happy to know I only let 2 months lapse this time.

Tomorrow, my knitting group "South Bend Knitworks" is having our 1st Annual Knitting Retreat. Where I'll get to learn Entrelac knitting. I actually voted for crochet finishing techniques, but that's OK. And it just so happens that the place where we are having the retreat is right across the street from... yep you guessed it... a knitting store; Ewe-Nique Knits. I've never been there and I can't wait to browse their wares as I've heard really good things from other knitters.

I Need to Vent!!

I really really need to vent right now. If I don't, I will explode. Please don't read any further if you don't want to hear me complaining about my family.

You all know that my Aunt Margaret passed away last week. BTW, Thank you all for your wishes and prayers.

Well, Aunt Margaret had a son, Stanley. I always looked up to him. He was the first one in the family to go to college. Well about 14 years ago he dropped off the radar. He stopped calling, visiting, etc. One day my Aunt ran into one of his friends in town and the friend asked her why she hadn't come to Stan's wedding the previous month. Well, she hadn't attended because she wasn't invited nor did she even know about the wedding. Same thing with her learning in the subsequent years that he had children. Not once did he call or even write her a letter.

A couple of us were looking for him to tell him about the death of his mother and also because a second signature was needed in order to have her cremated like she wanted. Well a message was left for him on Friday night by a family friend and another message was left on Saturday by my Mom. My mom was not feeling very charitably towards him and left a message that basically said the reason she was calling was that his signature was need in order to cremate his mother who just died. I don't think I would have put it quite that bluntly, but Mom and Margaret were extremely close and she was very upset by what she considered his abandonment of his mother. Anyway, he didn't call back. More calls were made on Saturday night and Sunday, but the answering machine had been shut off and the phone just rang and rang. So you know somebody was there. He didn't call until after the funeral home contacted the Charleston Police Department to go to his house to inform him of a death in the family.

Now I ask you, what kind of a person just turns their back on family, specifically their MOM. I could understand it if she had been an alcoholic or abusive. But she wasn't either of those. She was a single mother struggling to raise 3 kids. There hadn't been a fight or anything either. She was extremely proud of him and used to tell everyone about him going to college to make something of himself and the wonderful job he got in Ohio. She was so hurt and confused because she never could understand why he did what he did.

My Mom told me today that she heard he might be coming up this weekend. I told that I frankly didn't care and that I wouldn't be around this weekend. I have a knitting retreat on Saturday and I work on Sunday. Aunt Margaret was a very special woman in my life and I just don't think I can forgive him for the way he treated her. I told her I was afraid that if I saw him I wouldn't be able to keep my mouth shut and would probably just kick him in the knee. And I really didn't think the family needed any more animosity running through it than we already have had over the last couple of days.

The thing that set me off today was that I discovered through the wonderful world of the internet that his wife has a blog. And she was gushing over a visit from her Mom and Dad and how close they were to her kids and Stan. But did either of them ever even think about Stanley's Mom and how she would have loved to get to know her grandchildren. I just wanted to scream when I read her entry.

Stanley is such a shit. And you know they always say what comes around goes around. I just hope to hell none if his kids ever treats him like he treated his own mother. But it would be sweet justice if they did.

Thanks for listening to me vent. I just couldn't keep all this bottled up inside anymore and I didn't want to say this to Tracy (Stan's sister) or my Mom, they've been upset enough as it is. Surprisingly I feel much better after spilling all this.