pepperknit

Time to knit this skirt: 2 weeks.

Time to weave in the (many) ends: 2.5 hours.

Time between finishing the knitting and finishing the finishing: 4 months.

When I left for Singapore for Christmas, I brought my skeins of Tess Designer Yarns Superwash Merino, my size 8 needles, and a photocopy of the pattern. My goal was to finish it while on vacation. As it turne dout, I finished up the knitting while on my flights back, and I even went so far as to block it in a jet-lagged hazed at 3:45 the morning I returned home.

I chalked it up to a success, because I had finished the hard part! But then it sat. In truth, it sat in a crumpled heap at the bottom of my closet. But finally, this past weekend, I got my act together and wove in all the ends. Unfortunately, I was about 4 days too late to have Lolly photograph the FO, which really would have been awesome—if only because exactly one year ago I finished my Shocking Skirt and she photographed it for me. We were on a photo-taking rampage last week anyway! Oh well, I made do by myself in the subway.

Snapping Turtle Skirt
Knitting Nature, by Norah Gaughan
Yarn: Tess Designer Yarns Superwash Merino
Skeins: 1.25
Size: 34″
Modifications: Rather than the zipper, which I think would have been ultimately nonfunctional, I attached each successive row of hexagons continuously so there would be no seam, and then instead of the little rolled waistband, I knit for 9 rows and made a casing for some 1/2-inch elastic.

More skirts are in my future—hopefully more than once a year!

I definitely love the skirt, though it hugs every curve. Luckily, I like my curves.

Lolly and I are playing in NYC!

Since the pantry is just a different sort of stash, I find I get the same satisfaction when I can prepare an entire dish out of on-hand foods alone, just as if I’d knit a gift out of yarn that’s been sitting in the closet.

Since finishing my batch of brownies, I’ve been woefully devoid of breakfast foods here. Muffins—the perfect straddler of the dessert/breakfast food worlds—seemed a good choice, so I turned to my trusty muffin cookbook, which I swear no one else in the world owns, but which I got as a gift and consistently turns out reliably good muffins, Mad About Muffins, and looked to see what I might be able to make without leaving the apartment.

I was lucky that the Asparagus Wild Mushroom Bread Pudding had called for milk and that it was still good, because otherwise I really never have milk in the house, and I wouldn’t have been able to throw these together so quickly. And it’s true that the recipe actually calls for chopped dates and I didn’t have any, so I just upped the quantity of raisins and used the dried apricots I had on hand. (Dates may well make this muffin moister, so I’d like to try it with them.)

All in all, I’m pretty pleased. They definitely tend toward the dry side, but when served warm with some butter, they’ve got that kind of scone/muffin quality that’s really nice. They’re nothing like the cream scones I made a few weeks ago, which were heavy and moist and absolutely decadent. These are the type that’s dry but studded with flavorful dried fruit, sliced almonds, and the key ingredient, coconut flake. I had only unsweetened coconut flake on hand (the recipe doesn’t specify), so the flavor is light—and because I’m not overly into sweet things (despite what posts here might indicate to the contrary!), I didn’t add any additional sugar. But if you make them, know that they are not very sweet. Some other suggestions for upping moisture and adding flavor include: soaking the raisins in rum beforehand to plump further; using cream instead of milk; using packaged shredded coconut rather than dry coconut flake.

There are definitely better recipes in this cookbook, which perhaps I’ll share with you the next time I cook from it, but these were great, if only because I made them without having to leave the house—and now I have breakfast for the next 11 days!

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I felt some food eye candy was in order. Enough with this pretty nature stuff. . . . It’s tea time (with champagne, of course).

It was 75 degrees and utterly, completely, 100% perfect weather yesterday. Unfortunately, it’s due to be rainy and chilly today. It’s so nice to have photos, isn’t it?

I might not be a vegetarian, but I’m definitely aware of my eco-footprint. I might actually be one of those people who get smug satisfaction in the fact that I have never owned a car, that I walk or take public transportation (very rarely ride in cabs), that I recycle, etc. But really, I’m barely doing a fraction of what I could be, and Deborah Madison’s Local Flavors has me entertaining romantic fantasies of getting up early to head down to the Union Square Greenmarket every week, eating “Slow,” etc.

Since it’s spring, asparagus is on the brain, and the Asparagus and Wild Mushroom Bread Pudding seemed to leap off the page at me. I had to drop everything and make it as soon as I could. It sounded like a perfect brunch/light supper/room temp entree. I would make this for any pot luck in the future.

Usually I say that everything I make or cook is easy (this is no exception—nothing was hard), but it’s worth noting that there are a lot of steps and you dirty a ton of tools, as you steep the milk, blanch the asparagus, saute the mushrooms and shallots, and then mix it all together in something big before putting it in the baking dish. It’s a great improvising dish, so you can easily make it your own.

But I don’t want to get ahead of myself. You start with the bread.

Now, I don’t know where the flour, sesame seeds, and whatnot are from, but the loaf was baked at a bakery around the corner. It was so good and smelled so heavenly, I slathered the ends in butter and snacked on them while preparing the rest of this meal. It’s best stale, but this was freshly made that morning, so I sliced it up thick and lightly toasted it in the oven before tearing it up and soaking it in the garlic-steeped milk. The recipe calls for a head of green garlic, but I just smashed 3 cloves of garlic.

The asparagus was marked “local,” and the mushrooms are from Kennett Square (as they should be), which, while not truly local, is only 2 hours away.

After cooking the veggies, everything gets mixed together with grated fontina cheese and 4 farm fresh eggs. I shamefacedly admit that the cheese was imported. (Baby steps!) Damn was that cheese tasty. I definitely consumed quite a bit while grating it up. I don’t think I’d ever had straight fontina—somehow, in all my cheese eating, I’d overlooked this more basic cheese. It gets melty and gooey and brought all the flavors together into a savory masterpiece.

So go ahead, organize a pot luck party, and I’ll bake this up, walk over with it, demand that you recycle the aluminum foil I wrap it in, and will generally be that girl at the party who won’t shut her yap about the environment. But if making a meal like this—or anything else from that cookbook, for that matter—is considered doing my part for Earth? Well, let’s all go green!

Don’t get too excited—this does not represent a dive into quilting. More a dip of the proverbial toe. And while the water feels just fine, I’m not sure I’m ready for a swim just yet. Perhaps a bit more time to digest lunch is required.

A friend is organizing a surprise group quilt as a gift for another friend’s upcoming 30th birthday. No rules, no color suggestions—just the request for an 8.5 x 8.5 inch square. Based on the emails that have gone around, it seems both crafty and non-crafty folks were asked to participate, which means that there’s no expectation of a professionally pieced quilt.

So what better time to play with the medium than now, right? Gory details after the jump.
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A Friday chocolate fix. . . . Fudgy, gooey Ghirardelli brownie mix with 1 teaspoon of instant espresso powder added.