Sunday, February 28, 2010

I knew I could...


Well - the socks are finished - and I posted them complete on Ravelry! Whew! That was fun!

I'll take some better pictures tomorrow in natural light...

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Down to the wire...

This was the progress on sock #2 as of Saturday morning...

...I think I can...I think I can...I think I can...

Patrol Flag

The Eagle Patrol finished their flag at Thursday's meeting - but they needed a flag pole - and it needed to break in to for easier storage and portage to parade sites and campsites...

...so we bought a couple of dowel rods and some sort of PVC coupling at the local hardware store - but the dowel rods didn't quite fit into the coupling - so Scout just sanded them a little bit...

...until they fit nice and snug...

...the parade carry...

...the finished coupling - all for less than $3...

...a finished patrol flag - nicely done Scout...

Friday, February 26, 2010

A French Lunch



Hop on over to The Vegan Version to see what we had for lunch...

Tenderfoot


Scout has been working hard on his last few Tenderfoot requirements...

...fusing and whipping rope...

...and tying knots...

...At the Scout meeting they gave out the new uniforms - we had an anonomous donor give money to the troop to buy everyone a new Centennial uniform - Scout is trying his on - they were all too big - but with a nip and tuck here and there we should be able to make it fit - and he will grow into it - now I've got to order all those Centennial patches...

...then the boys got busy on their patrol flag...

...they call themselve the 'Eagle Patrol'...

...and their patrol yell has something to do with the word SNARF - so they put that on there too - I'm not sure about why that is there - but it's not up to me...

...finally Scout met with his Scoutmaster to demonstrate his knots - now there's only the Board of Review left and he'll be a Tenderfoot!

Thursday, February 25, 2010

...a view from my window...


...I love how the swing set get's trapped in the snow every year...
...I also love the patterns the wind makes in the snow...

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Ravelympics


The first sock is complete - I love it - it's so soft...

...and of course it fits perfectly - as handknit socks always do...

...on to sock #2 now...

...this is the progress so far - so I think there's still hope for the 'Gold'...

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Lunch Hour Projects

Y'all know I work from home - so I often plan a 'home-y' project for my lunch hour - and since I don't have any travel time - I can spend a whole hour working on it...
...today's project was to replace all of the little pads on our dining room chairs - have I mentioned that I love these chairs - we bought them many many years ago - to go with the antique table that we inherited from the Man's Mamaw...
...have I also mentioned that I sometimes lament my frugal ways - that would be the case here - instead of purchaing the little felt pads - many years ago - I thought it would be a good idea to glue little rounds of carpet to the bottoms of the chairs - with wood glue - obviously this worked well for us for many years...
...until it comes time to replace the pads - they are non-removable - I pried off as much carpet as I could - it's about ZERO degrees outside today too...
...this left the woven part of the carpet along with a good dollop of old dried wood glue that needed to be removed before the new pads could go on...
...so I got out some sandpaper and started sanding...
...but soon realized that if I intended to be finished in an hour - I'd need the BIG GUNS - so I hauled out the dremel tool - which worked perfectly...
...from there I made pretty short work of the 24 legs...
...and got them all back in place and back to work on time...

Monday, February 22, 2010

SUPRÊMES DE VOLAILLE À BLANC

[Breast of Chicken with Cream]

There's a new post over at The Vegan Version

Shanghai Noodles with Eggplant and Fresh Seasonal Vegetables

It sometimes happens in our little family that everyone is craving the same food at the same time...

...such was the case last night - when all three of us really wanted some Chinese food...

...so we spent a little time perusing our cookbooks and came up with this recipe - it's from my other oldest cookbook The Joy of Cooking...

...so we soaked our dried black mushrooms - and cut up our eggplant...

...salted it and left it to sit (it removes the bitterness - the recipe didn't say to do this - I just know from experience that you need to)...

...then we cut up our other veg - the recipe called for fresh snow peas - but we don't have fresh snowpeas at our little grocery - so we just left those out...

...My brother had given us a big box of oriental foodstuffs when we were visiting down south - Thanks E! - so we had soba noodles and Hoisin sauce - which we used as a substitute for the oyster sauce the recipe called for...

...Scout loved that the noodles were packed in little bundles with little paper wrappers...

...so we got those cooking...

...then we tossed our eggplant into a smokin' hot cast iron frying pan...

...got it all nice and brown...

...took it out and drained it on some toweling...

...then we tossed all of our other veg into the same pan...

...added the sauce - just a mixture of soy sauce, water and Hoisin Sauce...

...add your eggplant back and let that cook almost dry...

...make a bed of your grey noodles on a platter - none of us thought this looked very appetizing...

...but topped with the veg - it made a pretty platter...

...we also had a side-dish/almost dessert of sweet and sour veg over Jasmine rice - this was so good and so simple:

Sweet & Sour Veg

Cook one cup of Jasmine Rice in two cups of water until done and fluffy.

1 can pineapple - drained and juice reserved - add enough water to the juice to make one cup.
2 carrots cut in thin slices
1 small green pepper cut into chunks
1 small red pepper cut into chunks
1 small yellow pepper cut into chunkns
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup brown sugar - we used Turbinado
1 clove garlic chopped
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
2 Tablespoons water

Put the pineapple juice, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic and sugar into a pot and bring to a boil - add the carrots and cook for about 5 or 6 minutes until crisp tender.

Stir the cornstarch into the water and whisk into the boiling liquid.

Add the peppers and pineapple and reheat to boiling - cook about 1 minute and pour over the hot rice.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Valentine's Day Present


Here it is a week old and I just realized that I didn' show off my Valentine's Day present...

...remember when I mentioned that I didn't have a food mill in my very first post over at The Vegan Version...

...well - now I do...

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Sledding Hill Fun...

...you really never can get enough of it...

Scout and a friend spent the morning at the local Sledding Hill - there were just a few other people there...

...and the new snow was rather wet and slow going for the snowboards...

...so let's use our disk and make a shield...

...for a fun snowball fight...