Did you know the new Knitty is up?
But, before you head over, check out this story about a woman who wore her dog as a stole to get around “No Dogs Allowed” restrictions. I wonder if I could get Chappy to do that?
(Although, of course, in this day and age, I’d risk having some PETA person through pigs blood in his face … though, imagine their surprise when they did!)
Not much to say, really. Knitting-wise, I’ve been working on a gift for my mail carrier. I’m gearing up for Stollen Weekend. Chappy is being adorable–and getting way too attached to gingersnaps.
Sad, sad news at the Martha’s Vineyard Fiber Farm. Chappy and I are both sending hugs.
Ruth finally has the pattern up for the Leafy Mitts … and I recommend them. (Be sure to watch the video, too.)
And, honestly, these really DO sound like the best cinnamon rolls ever.
Okay, if you like cookies, get out your drool bibs…
Yum. Soft and chewy on the inside, crisp and crunchy on the outside. Nice, fresh, gingery taste … Mmmmm.
Naturally, Chappy helped.
And, cookies aren’t all I baked, either.
Although, of course, this tower is looming….
(Do you think it’s possible I like taking pictures of food too much?)
If you’re interested, the recipe comes up below the fold…
All it needs is a heroic, flying cape…
Because, yes, I ran out this morning and bought some. The cookie dough is chilling in the fridge, and all’s right with the world.
Well, at least, in my kitchen, anyway.
I’ve been hankering after gingersnaps lately. Not any old gingersnaps, but the ones that come from my favorite recipe. You make the dough and refrigerate it, then, when ready to bake, you roll nickel-sized pieces in your hands, roll in some sugar and bake. What you get are soft, chewy cookies that are crisp around the edges from the sugar and just so, so good.
I’m not normally a cookie baker. I tend to like things that you mix, you put in a pan, and you bake. Rest periods for dough rising are fine. Complicated assemblies are fine. Adding frosting later is fine. But the reason I don’t like baking cookies is that every 8 or so minutes, you have to switch cookie sheets. That’s not enough time to do anything else–you’re tied to the oven until all the batches have been baked and are on cooling racks. And, who has time to stand there for an hour, doing nothing but swapping cookie sheets back and forth?
Yes, in theory, you can bake more than one sheet at a time, but in my experience, that always means that some of the cookies burn. And besides, we only have so many cookie sheets. What I normally do is put the first dozen in the oven, and then get the second batch ready to go. When batch number one is finished, I pop the second sheet into the oven and then remove the cookies from the first sheet, and get it ready to go back in again. Meanwhile, the cookies cool on their wire racks and, usually, by the time the third batch is ready to come out of the oven, the first batch is cool enough to touch and to move to a plate or tin without collapsing, so that there’s room for the next dozen to cool.
It’s a reasonably efficient system, but even with all this preparing, swapping, and moving baked (and unbaked) cookies about, there’s still at least four minutes per dozen where I’m just standing there, waiting. Once we’re past the first dozen, that usually means munching on the fresh cookies–usually way too many of them–and mostly just standing there. Possibly reading a book (since it’s, you know, me.)
So … baking cookies is a relatively rare thing for me. Probably about once a year. Almost never more than twice. And today was going to be the day. I pulled out my favorite gingersnap recipe to check the ingredients, and we had everything but the ginger. (Which, you’ll agree, is fairly important for gingersnaps.)
Mom and I were going to stop on the way home from the craft show, but we were there for so long, by the time we were driving home, it was about 1:30 and we were both hungry and more focused on stopping someplace for coffee than on detouring to a grocery store. (Yes, I am aware that grocery stores often sell coffee, but it’s not the same.) So, we didn’t stop, but she said she and Dad would go to one when they went out to supper.
Which was the plan. It threw my planned schedule off, but hey, if I’d mixed the dough tonight, I could still have baked them tomorrow, and all would have been good.
(Note the ominous verb tense.)
Because, while I was cleaning up from my supper, the phone rang. No ginger at the grocery store. None. At all. There was crystalized ginger, which sure, can be a nice addition, but is not a substitute to the powdered stuff for cookies. (And, no, the knobby fresh stuff from the produce department was not an option, either.)
So … no gingersnaps for me.
You’re thinking, so, Deb, you make them next weekend. What’s the big deal? Except, next weekend is the dreaded Stollen weekend. (You remember this, don’t you? No? Well, here’s my explanation from 2005, from 2006, and from last year.) There’s simply no way I’m doing any more baking next weekend than I have to!
The weekend after that is the MVFF Solstice Bonfire Party, so I’ll be a little too busy to bake that weekend, too. And then, of course, it’s Christmas, and too late to do cookie baking.
And all because our local grocery store doesn’t have ginger.
I suppose I could go out to a different store in the morning to try to find some, but by the time I got it and had the dough made and chilled, it would probably be too late in the afternoon for baking. I’ve got a very small window for baking, really. Sundays are the best day. Weekdays, I’m too tired when I get home from work and, anyway, just don’t have time to bake anything from scratch. Saturdays are my days for running errands and (preferably) doing fun things with Chappy. But Sundays? That’s the day I do things around the house. Cleaning, laundry … and baking. But there’s only a window for taking over the kitchen from about 10:00 – 3:00. If it’s outside that time frame, I start running into dinner preparations, or Mom’s tea time, or Dad’s snack time.
(Hey, I’m sorry, we’re a very structured family!) So–since I don’t have the ginger in the house, that pretty much means that these cookies just aren’t going to happen this year.
And, on the one weekend that I really wanted to bake cookies!
And, honestly, any gingersnaps you could buy at a store or a bakery simply do NOT compare. They have to be from this, favorite recipe, or it doesn’t count.
Drat.
Otherwise? Mom and I went to the local craft show like we do almost every year, but it was kind of sad. There were just as many vendors selling just as many beautiful things, but … nowhere near the number of people buying. Including us. I did get some compliments on my Christmas Tree Hat, though, which is always fun. I bought a lovely wooden spatula to replace the one that came with my beloved Edge Pan that broke a couple months ago. (You’d be surprised at how hard it is to find a sturdy spatula for cutting and lifting that’s no more than 2″ wide.)
Oh, and I bought Chappy some french fry-shaped dog biscuits. He was running low on biscuits anyway, and the packaging was so clever … besides, I was feeling guilty about being away for so long. (Hey, I couldn’t help it! You didn’t see the disappointed face he had when we went out without him this morning.)
I hope you all have a good night!
I’ll end with a cute link–a funny cartoon about the creative process.
And, how about this optimist’s view of the lousy economy?
A quick post tonight because I’m chasing off a headache. (Honestly, I was perfectly fine half an hour ago, and then, boom. Headache!) So, mostly links tonight:
You tell me–if I got an email that said this:
We are Hong Kong Network Service Company Limited which is the domain name register center in Asia. We received a formal application from a company who is applying to register “punctualityrules” as their domain name and Internet keyword on Dec 3, 2008. Because this involves your company name or trade mark so we inform you in no time. If you consider these domain names and internet keyword are important to you and it is necessary to protect them by registering them first, contact us soon.
Is that something I should worry about?
And–again with the good customer service–I got this email about my business cards:
I’ve heard back from graphics and they say it was a press issue and that the
file you sent looks fine. I have released the reprint’s hold and marked it
urgent to print. You may track it at My Account> order status. I apologize for
your inconvenience and value your business. Have a good evening.
Isn’t that refreshing? Especially after some of the other, many customer service problems I’ve had (elsewhere) this year. So, kudos to PrintsMadeEasy for backing up their work.
So, Chappy charmed his grandparents this afternoon. (Yeah, like that’s a surprise.)
Mom has been in “Elf Mode” the last few days, pulling out the Christmas decorations–like the Santa my grandfather made in the 50′s. (It’s not Christmas without our 2-dimensional Santa–I can still remember when he was taler than me.) Anyway, she and Dad decided that today would be the day they would put up the tree.
Mom had gone across the street to our neighbor’s house while Dad dragged the Tree Bag up from the basement, and Chappy just went nuts. Dancing and spinning, and just so happy to see it! Because, of course, this is his eighth Christmas; he knows what it’s all about.
Well, the family, fun, food, presents, decorations part … he’s heard the story about the manger and the wise men and all, but I can’t say he’s really paid attention to all of that part. But he knows all about the Snoopy dance.
Anyway, when Mom came home, Chappy greeted her at the door like, well, like it was Christmas! He couldn’t WAIT to show her that the Christmas tree was here! Mom said that you would have thought she’d been gone for weeks, he was so happy to see her.
Which just goes to show you that dogs love Christmas too. Just like on this cute little stocking we’ve had since Jilly. She was our miniature dachshund and she definitely loved Christmas–she perked up every year when the decorations came out, so one year, Mom bought her this stocking to put next to her pillow. I can’t say for sure that Jilly loved the stocking, but it always makes me smile.
And, well, it’s TRUE. And Chappy can ALWAYS put a smile on our faces.
In other news, my new business cards came. What do you think?
That’s two, separate cards. One specifically for Punctuality Rules! and the Freelancing thing. And the other one is a general card that lists all three of my blogs. You know, so that if I’m talking to someone about general kinds of things and the freelancing comes up, I can give them a card that lists everything. I love the way it looks–I finally found a use for that deliciously swoopy, curvy, scripty Fontina! I love the way my initials look in the background (even if it’s a little more green and less teal than I had expected).
The problem is that I’m not happy with the way the Punctuality Rules card came out. The triangle, first of all, should be blue/teal, and it’s green, but more than that, it’s not a solid green–it looks patchy and spotty and sloppy, like their printer was low on toner. I sent them an email to complain, though, and they offered to reprint them to keep me satisfied so … so far, at least, they’re customer service gets good marks. I haven’t gotten the new cards yet, of course, but they responded nicely and promptly, and that’s so refreshing. Especially since some of the other customer service problems I’ve had (elsewhere) this year. So, good for them!
Is it just me, or do these cookies sound really tasty?
And, here are some clever alternative uses to a digital camera. What other ones can you think of? Like, say, snapping a yarn label for dye lot information? Or, my favorite, taking pictures of the warranty labels with all those long ID numbers on televisions and computers, so that you can read the numbers without having to climb behind the dusty units and get tangled in all the power cords….
I’m in a funk tonight. Scary conversations. We’re looking around to see where the silverware drawer is, in case it needs closing at some not-too-future date.
(Yes, vague and indefinite, just play the word game there and don’t make me say it. But meantime, pray for a miracle.)
Here are the books I read in November:
1. The Eagle & the Nightingales by Mercedes Lackey (410 p.) Third in the “Bardic Voices” fantasy series
2. Dark Moon Defender by Sharon Shinn (435 p.)
3. Reader and Raelynx by Sharon Shinn (420 p.)
4. Fortune and Fate by Sharon Shinn (403 p.) The last three of the “Thirteenth House” series. Well, you already know how much I love this author…
5. Free-Range Knitter: The Yarn Harlot Writes Again by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (228 p.) One of her best, very funny. Full review is here.
6. Prince of Ill Luck by Susan Dexter (249 p.)
7. The Wind-Witch by Susan Dexter
8. The Ring of Allaire by Susan Dexter
9. The Sword of Calandra by Susan Dexter (341 p.) I’ve gushed about this author often enough. Sadly-out-of-print, great fantasy. I’ve loved them since high school.
10. The First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language by Christine Kenneally (300 p.) A disappointment. I thought this was going to explore how WE came to develop language, but it focuses more on the biology and inclinations of primates, with an eye to how their behavior casts light on what ours might have been in the mists of history … Interesting enough, I suppose but, NOT what I expected.
11. Deerskin by Robin McKinley (309 p)
12. Sunshine by Robin McKinley (389 p.)
13. Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley (340 p.) Then I went on a Robin McKinley binge. She doesn’t do “series” but some of her books fit together better than others. These three are more “hard-edged” than some of her others, so the tone and the horror/tragedy that occurs in each fit together. (Which isn’t to say any of them are “horror” books because I simply don’t read those–I like to sleep at night. But Sunshine is the only urban-fantasy/vampire book you’re likely ever to see on my reading list.)
14. House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones (404 p.)
15. Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones (230 p.)
16. Conrad’s Fate by Diana Wynne Jones (375 p.) And then, a Diana Wynne Jones binge, because she’s so much fun…
17. Knitted Jackets by Cheryl Oberle (141 p.) Patterns for knitted jackets. Full review here.
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