ispindle

Thanks all for your input on the inside – outside sock dilemma.

When it boiled down to it, my issues were:

1) Like you, I thought the inside was more visually interesting than the outside.

2) But I started the sock w/ the pattern as is and w/o a bit of tweeking (which I didn’t feel like doing) or knitting the whole thing inside out (which I sure as hell wasn’t about to do all those purls for the sole!) I wasn’t sure if I could get a good match to my beginning. And I didn’t feel like playing around.

3) While I set out to alternate between a 2 knit stripe and a 3 knit stripe and *like* that about the outside, it bugged me that if I turned it inside out, I’d have a 2 purl indent and a 3 purl indent now showing. This “error” in the pattern would have driven me to distraction. Yep. I do realize what that says about me. Maybe. I just know I couldn’t live with it. =P~

4) Yes, I realize I could frog the thing and totally redo. But … and this is a HUGE BUT … I was knitting on this sock when I attended Barbara Walker’s lecture at Sock Summit. I was also knitting on this sock when I attended the Luminary Panel and was awed by luminaries Nancy Bush, Judith MacKenzie-McCuin, Barbara Walker, Meg Swanson, Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, Anna Zilboorg, Deb Robson, Cat Bordhi, Lucy Neatby and the incredible hosts Stephanie Pearl-McPhee and Tina Newton. So now you understand that I. Cannot. Frog. This. Sock.  Hell, I’m not even sure I’ll be able to *wear* this sock.

So anyways, here I sit, with my first sock nearing the point where I start the toe decreases. I’m happy with it. Outside out.

goofy photo courtesy of photobooth -- bad hair courtsey of Saturday morning bed head ;D

If  I should keep my current sock outside out

or change it, turning it inside out

before I proceed with the heel.

I kinda like ‘em both!

Emily (12, watching Mythbusters) — Mommy! Did you see THAT?

Mommy (38, facing opposite direction of the tv) — Sure, with the eyes on the back of my head.

Sarah (9, playing on the computer) — She’s being sarcastic. The eyes on the back of her head are looking at me.

Another momentous moment in the day. =D

Hope you celebrate the time / day combo in interesting style.

Me?

Thanks to the post schedule feature, I’m likely drooling on my pillow at this very moment. Its SUMMER after all!

Heaven help us, this was SO good!

Wanna make some yourself? Of course you do! Here is the EASY PEASY recipe:

Stuffed French Toast Casserole

Ingredients

:: one fat loaf of french bread

:: 8 oz room temp cream cheese (we used pineapple flavored)

:: 4 eggs (or your favorite substitute)

:: 1 cup milk (or your favorite substitute)

:: 1/4 cup of sugar (or your favorite substitute)

:: a pinch of salt

:: cinnamon to taste

:: butter or some sort of spray oil to help release the goodness from the cooking pan

Mechanics of cooking

Prepare a casserole pan (9″ x 13″) by giving it a light coat of butter or cooking spray.

Basically, you will make little cream cheese sandwiches and cram them into your casserole dish, covering them w/ an egg mixture before baking.

You’ll need to cut the bread into roughly 1/2″ slices. My loaf cut into 14 pieces and these (stacked double) completely filled my casserole pan. Adjust your slicing to fit your pan/bread needs. I sliced two slices then fit them (stacked) into the pan. I left them in the pan as I continued to slice, stack and cram. It made filling the pan as completely as possible quite easy.

Once done w/ the slicing, take off the top layer of slices and smear each piece with cream cheese. Replace the top layer, cream cheese side down.

Now mix up the eggs, milk, sugar, salt and cinnamon. Get this mixture good and combined, using a blender or submersible blender if you need to. Now pour this over the “sandwiches”, making sure to saturate the tops and pouring in the nooks and crannies to let the bottom layer of bread get some eggy goodness too.

Cover and set aside for a bit to allow the bread to soak up all the egg mixture. You can make this the night before and have it waiting to pop in the oven for a quick brunch dish. Or make up during the day to serve for dinner.When ready to cook, bake the casserole uncovered in a 400ºF oven for 25-30 minutes or until the top is golden.

I may adjust this recipe just a wee bit. Our top slices came out a little dry and the bottom slices a little soggy. It really didn’t make a noticeable difference once it was on the plate with the berry topping. But I noticed as I was serving.

Topping

Really, you could use any topping of your choice. Today, we lucked into gorgeous fresh, local strawberries and blueberries at the market. SCORE! We bought a couple flats and mixed some up as our topping. I didn’t measure anything, just eyeballed. I did add about 1/8 of a cup of sugar to the berries just to get them macerating. I thought about adding a wee bit of vanilla or mint or coconut syrup or balsamic vinegar or maybe even some amerreto or rum, but didn’t. The berries were perfect enough on their own.

Maybe next time a plain cream cheese filling with a ginger peach topping? LOTS of possibilities!

… the day the school supply display is discovered.

That would have happened today. In Target. About 11am local time.

Every time the kids start wearing my nerves thin, the school supplies magically show up in the store and remind me that summer break is temporary. This joyous revelation is usually accompanied by the parting of the clouds, rays of heavenly light shining down upon the fresh supply of pencils and paper, and a choir of angels singing Hallejuia

Today, it was also accompanied by a teenager’s whine and gnashing of teeth.

Ahhhhh … the best day of summer!

How sweet are these?

The girls and I had fun making these simple summer bracelets. Crafting really doesn’t get much simpler than these.

Materials:

a fat quarter or two or three or four or more! You could also use any scraps or yardage you have on hand. We happened to have  fat quarters on hand and their short sides were the perfect length to make a bracelet.

scissors.

Step 1: You need to rip a strip off the fat quarter. (yes, you could cut nicely, but riping is so much more fun!)

On the long edge, make a snip about 1″ long and roughly 1/2″ from the short edge. Grab this tab you just created and tear the strip off. Strips roughly 1/2″ by 18″ worked well for our bracelets. Of course, you can vary the thickness of the strips to fit your fancy!  Cut/tear as many strips as you need to complete your braid. We did simple three strand braids, so used three different colored strips.

Step 2: Braid the strips together. You may find it easiest to safety pin the non-working end to your jeans. Or find a handy-dandy clipboard to hold it. Or enlist a friend’s help. Or just let the end hang free while you braid.

Step 3: Once you are finished braiding, tie around the nearest girly wrist!

Above are just two of the ones we made this afternoon. The left one was finished w/ a “granny knot” and the edges trimmed to make a little bow. The one on the right was finished by tying an overhand knot into each end and then using one end to knot a loose overhand knot around the other end. This sliding knot finish lets the wearer take the bracelet on and off with ease.

Dinners at our house are always a challenge. There are five people under the roof with five different ways of looking at the table: (1) one confirmed meat eater who won’t admit you can eat a well rounded meal w/o consuming animal products, (2) one who is a lacto-ovo vegetarian (all meals here have some sort of vegetarian option even if its not listed specifically), (3) one who just cannot stomach beans or rice in any combination, (4) one who is either a vegetarian or meat-eater when its convenient for her to be one or the other (aka doesn’t like the meal served), and (5) one who prefers to eat sustainably as much as possible.

And because I’ve been insanely bored with cooking the same meals over and over, I trolled the internets for a few ideas. Links provided where there was one!

Orange chicken and vegetable spring rolls. Both of these came from Costco and were requested by the youngest. We actually had this meal twice already — once Friday and once Saturday. Made for quick and easy meals while the older two girls were in Forks.

Mediterranean salad with chickpea patties.

Husband requested Grilled burgers, tater tots, and melon or salad. The vegetarian will have a grilled boca-burger-esque patty.

Zucchini with quinoa stuffing. Quinoa is an excellent source of complete protein, but some eaters in this house would prefer something “more” on their plate than just the stuffed zucchini. I may or may not serve this with chicken or salmon or possibly a tossed salad.

Pan-fried pork chops or veggie patty with applesauce for dipping, mashed potatoes and glazed carrots. This meal was added by request. (Love you, Baby Doll who reads the blog!)

And at the risk of too much zucchini on the menu too early in the season: Zucchini Crescent Pie and caesar salad.

And I still haven’t gone to the market to gather all the foods needed for the menu this week. I’ve gone “spot shopping” here and there, but no big trip. I plan to go tomorrow when I am on base for Sarah’s swim lesson. (Yes, that means going to the stinky commissary!)

I dusted off the Girl Scout skills and lashed together a trellis for my cucumbers using some bamboo and dishcloth cotton.

I’m pretty proud of it! Hopefully the cukes grow UP big and strong! Right now they are trout-sized puny …

Grow little cucumbers! Grow!