Another New Cookbook or 3

Of all of my addictions, none of which unfortunately are a physical damage to myself or others - well, other than the risk of being buried under my various stashes if the shelves fall down - my cookbook addiction is the worst and most long enduring.  It started in university when I picked up a few of those cookbooks geared to students ... cooking for one, cooking on campus, cooking stuff that isn't chips and pop, etc ... and has continued to this day.  Fortunately, I regularly use them.

I have been pretty good about going to the library first when a cookbook interests me ... the lady who orders the books is a big cookbook fan too so they generally have the books that catch my eye.  This has really curtailed my acquiring because it gives me a chance to really look at the book to see if it gives me anything I don't already have in another book.  Generally the answer is no and I make something from one I already own.

Lately, 3 books have come to my attention that I find unique or interesting enough to buy.  Combined with the fact that the library doesn't have them yet and they are now on my shelves.

Tender, volume 1 by Nigel Slater.  This book ties into my veggie gardening obsession and has really good chapters on most vegetables.  It includes growing ideas, eating ideas and general thoughts by Slater.  New ideas for cooking veggies was the original draw but the gardening tie-in makes it a big winner.  I almost bought the fruit book (volume 2) the other day but decided to hold off until I've at least finished reading the stories in this one.

Ottolenghi by Yotam Ottolenghi was another must-have due to the pleasure I'm getting cooking from Plenty.  I haven't spent much time with it yet but did use a green bean recipe for Christmas dinner.  Very nice.

Pangea - Why it Tastes so Good from the restaurant Pangea at Bay and Bloor in Toronto.  We went there for lunch the other day - which was fabulous.  I had celery root soup with a nice little apple garnish and a beet salad with goat cheese and ginger crisps (which happens to be on the cover of the book).  I had heard about the book, they had copies, it included a recipe for the beet salad and their very yummy mushroom risotto so I was lost.  Last night for dinner I made the black cod with Jerusalem artichokes, tomatoes, mushrooms and spinach (I think the title is something much shorter but don't feel like getting up to look).  It was excellent.  I had some Jerusalem artichokes in the refrigerator, picked out of my abundance in the garden the other week.  I do have to say that I need to find somewhere to take some Jerusalem artichokes next year because, despite giving some to neighbours and a friend at the office, I have at least 2 plants left in the garden.  I like them but can only eat so many.  Read the link and find out why!

Finished the Christmas gifts

This was my last Christmas gift.  The BeTween Shrug from Spud & Chloe with their Sweater yarn.  Both the pattern and the yarn were nice to work with and the finished product is cute.  And 5 fewer buttons in my button stash.

Meagan and Dennie at Lettuce Knit were telling me that they (and presumably the Wednesday S&B crowd) are having a "knit a sweater a month" challenge.  They include baby sweaters in that challenge and are including sweaters that are already on the needles.  I'm thinking about doing it too.  While I won't get to their Wednesday Knit Night, I can join them in spirit.

I have about 2 sweaters on the needles now which would set me up for completing January and February with relative ease.  Someone I know is bound to have a baby.  And if I include a felted bag that is taking years to make as an acceptable project, I would finally make a dent on the stash and might actually be able to start something new without feeling too bad about those poor, neglected projects tucked in various bins in the craft room.  This would also lead to the need to buy more yarn, supporting yarn stores in general and Lettuce Knit probably most of all.  Everybody wins.  Wonder if I could convince Natalie to join me.

Alternate Christmas Dinner

 Merry Christmas!

I spent the weeks leading up to Christmas trying to figure out what to make for dinner.  There were only 3 of us, turkey is not my favourite, my husband detests cleaning up after a big turkey extravaganza and there are so many left-overs.  I am not a lover of left-overs and after the first turkey pot pie and one sandwich, am glad to see the last of the turkey.

So, I was in the local butcher shop last week and asked Carol for alternate ideas.  I had thought of beef tenderloin, which would have been nice.  Then I saw the picture taped to the counter from last year's Food and Drink magazine from the LCBO - Classic French Beef Ribs - and that was it.

The butcher shop sets them up in the fancy presentation and after that, it is pretty much a classic braise. Except that it is one of the best braises I've ever tasted.  The initial flavourings are the big secret here.  Tons of onion, carrot, celery and garlic help.  So do the port and wine simmered down to a gravy before adding the stock and the meat and popping it in the oven.

It was a perfect match for the potato and celery root mash with a side of green beans.  Add to that, it goes naturally with a nice big red wine and it was the perfect Alternate Christmas dinner.

It is also an easy way to make something special any day of the year.

Finally, we used the Christmas plates my sister-in-law bought us about 3 years ago that have never made it out of the box.  Very festive.

Little Monsters

Check out these cute little monsters.  I ran into the pattern at the quilt show at the Royal Botanical Gardens in the summer and instantly thought of Christmas gifts for my little nephews.  Who knows if little kids will be interested in a pillow with monsters but I think their parents will like them.  This was very easy and quite fun to make.  The hardest part was finding rectangular pillows.  Thankfully my favourite fabric shop on Ottawa Street in Hamilton has it all.

Yesterday was Christmas cookie extravaganza day.  I took the day off work and baked.  I made kahlua truffles, chocolate bark, shortbread, jam filled shortbread, smores bars (from the Toronto Star's annual Christmas cookie advent calendar) and chocolate covered coconut macaroons.  The smores bars are a little too sweet for me but I think kids and my husband will like them.

All of the recipes were from magazines or newspapers, finally justifying the work of copying them into my word program.  I used to cut recipes out of magazines and file them somewhere but then I never looked at them.  It is a bit more work to type them or copy them from magazine websites but at least they are in one place and I don't have to hang on to 7000 magazines.  I'm not sure why I can live with clutter in fabric, yarn and books but can't stand having magazines hanging about forever.  At least there is one thing in my life that I like to keep organized.    

Back to the cookies.  The truffles and bark are awesome.  Rich and delicious.  My other favourite are the macaroons.  I picked up this recipe from Bon Appetit magazine but link to Orangette's version here.  She is the author of the Bon Appetit article too but that recipe didn't use almond extract which would probably be great.  The truffles are from Dufflet pastries.  I think it was in an LCBO recipe pamphlet.  The rest, who knows.  Sometimes I take good notes about where the recipes are from.  Sometimes I don't.  But they are all on my computer so I can find them again for next year's cookie baking extravaganza.

Quiet Period

I would like to say that my quiet period away from blogging had something to do with being more productive or doing something fun but it has simply been the result of the huge desire to lounge around when I get home from work.  Books on the Kobo have been a contributing factor to this behaviour.

I have managed to complete two projects, however.  The little sweater is a Spud and Chloe pattern for my nephew for Christmas.  It took a lot longer to pull together than it should have given the nice chunky yarn and easy pattern.  I blame the slow knitting on the aforementioned laziness.  Also, the pressure for Christmas projects was reduced by a decision to draw names for Christmas.  This reduced the level of urgency that usually drives these things to completion at this time of year.  Of assistance was the discovery of  Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Netflix.  Watching 2 or 3 episodes at a time has helped me to ramp up my knitting and ramp down the reading.

Speaking of vampires, the mittens are called Bella's Mittens and I was embarrassed not to know who Bella was when the shop at the Creativ Festival (and no, there is no "e" on creativ - presumably they ran out of ink or something) sold me the yarn and pattern as a bundle.  I would guess that my Buffy phase is directly related to the mittens and feeling like I needed to at least be up-to-date with popular vampire culture from the 90s or whenever the show aired.  Anyway, the mitts are fabulous, the yarn is Malabrigio Twist and very soft.  I've got a second pair virtually done for a Christmas gift.  Actually, the blue pair here were supposed to be the gift and a green pair were going to be mine but I find that I can't part with the blue so am not going to.

I've started some Christmas cookie baking with two very good recipes from my favourite book, Flour.  The first was Rosemary Shortbread and the second a Molasses Spice cookie.  Both delicious but the Molasses Spice cookie was a huge surprise.  I really, really like these and as a chocolate fanatic am not usually passing up a chocolate cookie for a spice one and I did just that at dinner last night.  The rest quickly went into the freezer for upcoming events that require cookies.  I only hope a little mouse doesn't eat them first or I'll have to make some more.

At least this addiction saves space

I recently acquired a Kobo ereader.  Tilley Endurables, the travel clothing store has a - spend $300, get a free Kobo promotion on - so I decided to go check it out.  I easily managed to find $300 worth of stuff and got the reader.  Previously I was of the opinion that I preferred books and would never be interested in reading on a screen.  I saw the benefits when travelling - one ereader vs 4 books makes so much sense - but never thought I would adapt to using it every day.  Since the machine came loaded with 100 classic titles, I charged it up that afternoon at the office and broke open Pride and Prejudice on the train home.  Instantly, smitten.  Since then,
 - I have downloaded books from the library.  Although I would have to say the selection there isn't too spectacular.  Hopefully that will only improve with time.  My local library branch is closed for renovations and the alternative takes a little longer to get to so being able to download immediately is very appealing.  Add to that, I don't have to decipher the little splotches on the pages, wondering where the book has been before me.
 - I have purchased a couple that both of us will read.  I bought one of these gizmos for my husband for his birthday and feel much more frugal when buying a book if both of us will read it.  And no need to find space on a bookshelf when we're finished.
 - I bought the Yarn Harlot's latest this morning - no frugality here, just supporting a local knitter :).
 - And I still have 99 free classics to read.

I can't wait until we go somewhere on vacation and I don't have to figure out how to get one more book in the bag.  I guess I should figure out how long the charge lasts before we do that.  There is an advantage to the page turning kind after all.

Another step toward organization

My husband is a natural organizer.  He is so organized that the last time we moved, the moving company underestimated the amount of stuff we had by a whole truck.

I am completely the opposite.  While he generally stays out of my craft room (due to the overwhelming futility of it all), lately he has been helping me out.   As a result, all of my fat quarters are now housed in plastic bins that were on sale 2 for 1 a few weeks ago at Zellers.  In addition to things being neater, this seems to have freed up some space despite the bulkiness of the bins.  We're also making a pile of stuff for a garage sale in the spring.   Some under-loved cookbooks have gone in that pile.  As a result of both of these initiatives, I've got more room.  

And the latest project - find something to do with all of the bags, homemade and provided by well meaning stores instead of plastic.  As an aside, while I have always been a reusable bag/container person at the grocery store, I don't really need every store providing me with a reusable bag.  At least a plastic one is good for kitty litter.  Who needs 50 reusable bags.  And beside which, I want to be able to make some and actually enjoy them rather than feeling more cluttered.  So stores - stop giving me reusable bags.  I'll reuse the plastic for the kitty litter cleanup and will continue to use reusable containers whenever possible.

Anyway, these cute hooks were sourced from Home Hardware and the bags are behind the door.  Off the shelves and much easier to grab on the go.  The shelf they were previously living on is now freed up for a plastic bin full of fabric scraps.  Now if I could just finish some projects.  Imagine how much more room I would have.

On an unrelated note, I need to complain about skeins of yarn.  I have a ball winder.  I have a swift.  And yet for every 3 skeins of yarn I easily make into a ball, I have one that gets so tangled I just want to throw the whole lot out the window to be used by birds for a very big nest.  I don't know if I'm just skein challenged or if this happens to everyone.

I don't know why we don't hike more often

 I actually know the answer.  A multitude of reasons - other things we have to do, or, more commonly, laziness.

But it is so great.  Especially on a nice day like Saturday.  We caught the end of the leaves - many on the ground, not many on the trees.

We saw Hilton Falls which is always lovely.

We got some exercise; never a bad thing.

I took pictures of random things that interested me.

We talked about the week's events.










And we just enjoyed a nice fall day.

And said, we really have to do this more often.

Buttercream Icing

I really wish I was one of those people with fast metabolism who can eat desserts all of the time and not instantly gain weight.  If I were, I would have made every single recipe in Flour by now.

Yesterday we went to a dinner party and I pulled out the cookbook with the thought that I would make an apple pie.  Being somewhat exhausted from very little sleep last week, I decided that a cake would be a better way to go.  I had all of the ingredients in house and didn't have to fight with pastry dough (which I don't make often enough to have the flair for so always fight with).  While chocolate cake is my general favourite, I knew it wasn't a favourite of one of my hosts so looked around for something else.  After the other half did an inventory of the spices a few weeks ago, I was made aware that I have an overstock supply of a few things, particularly cloves.  Since this recipe would drop my clove supply by 1/2 tsp, it seemed like the right thing to make.  Add to that, the buttercream icing, which I've never made before, would use up 3 egg whites I froze after making the extremely rich and delicious chocolate tart from the same cookbook a few weeks ago.

If I really look at it, making this cake was probably about the same amount of work and time as the pie would have been but, based on every apple pie I've ever tasted, so much better.  Having yet to make the apple pie from Flour, I may revise my thinking at a later date but for now, this cake is the winner.

The cake was delicious with just the right amount of spice.  Not overpowering but enough so you could taste it.  The icing was smooth and creamy and loaded with 1/3 cup of dark rum which, of course, only made things better.

The latest assignment of my photo course was around taking shots of things in motion so I was out in the morning taking pictures of waves at the beach.  They remind me of the icing.  In appearance only, of course.  Although, with all of the junk in Lake Ontario, it could taste like rum but I'm not about to find out.

The nice thing about having 100 partially finished projects ...

 ... is that when you set your mind to finishing, you have a lot to show for it in a very short time.   This little jacket is for the friend who doesn't know what kind of baby he is going to have.  I have now made one sweater for a girl and this for a boy.  Now I wait to see which one gets gift wrapped and dropped off to his office when the news hits.

The pattern is from Joelle Hoverson's More Last Minute Knitted Gifts, a book I actually resisted buying because I didn't see many patterns I liked at first.  Then I looked through it a few times, had  success with the placket pullover in her first book and decided to buy it.  There are several other projects  that I can see myself making at some point so I think it was worth the money.  A buy 3 get 1 free sale at Indigo might have helped change my mind too.  

The next project were these French Press Slippers, which I am not as satisfied with.  I may try them again or I may not.  I made these with Cascade 220 and it took at least 4 tries in the washing machine to get them to felt and they still don't seem right.  Once I started the felting process I did remember that I had trouble felting Cascade a long time ago so trying a different yarn might be more satisfying.  These were going to feature in my Christmas gift giving but, although I will likely give these to my niece because they are too big for me and should fit her, I'm not steaming ahead to make more for Christmas.

A healthier Mac & Cheese

Earlier today I was bouncing around the internet and came across the Broccoli-Basil Mac and Cheese from 101 Cookbooks and was inspired to make it for lunch.  I had a couple of squash in the refrigerator and the basil has almost given up in the garden so through there couldn't be a better time.

It is a healthier version of mac and cheese and, in my opinion, even tastier.  The significant other, who would be happy never to eat a vegetable again, did say that he prefers regular mac and cheese.

Anyway, the topping is made with breadcrumbs, basil and broccoli chopped in the food processor and the mac is mixed with tomatoes, roasted squash, cheese, sour cream and more basil.  It tastes very good and makes a ton so there will be leftovers this week.

One Christmas project finished

This is the placket pullover from Last Minute Knitted Gifts for my nephew.  I had made one for his birthday but it was much too small so he got a toy or something instead.  This one should be big enough with room to grow.  It has a bit of a crazy variation in colours because by the time I got around to starting it, I realized I had picked up a colour-way that was not exactly the same as the other two skeins.  Close, but not the same.  I think it still works and you can barely tell that I ran out of yarn on the neck and had to finish with some leftover brown from my previous, too small version, of the same sweater.  Regardless of my yarn challenges, it is a very easy and fun sweater to knit.

Last night I went to the Creativ Festival in Toronto (not sure why the "e" is left off creative but I'm sure there is some pseudo artistic reason).  It is 1/2 price after 4:30 and it only took about an hour and a half to walk around so better worth the money than taking a vacation day, getting there in the morning and paying full price.  I like the show now that I am a quilter but found it a bit sparse on the knitting front and think that the number of booths has gone down in number from prior years.  Since I have an over-abundance of stash, I kept my purchasing to a minimum and only came home with a very small amount of fabric, a couple of skeins of yarn, a book and a subscription to Quilter's Connection magazine, a Canadian publication.  There were a lot of pretty things to look at and inspiration to be gained so it was worth the visit.

I found it quite amusing that the festival was right next door to the All About Sex show.  While some of the clientele might overlap, in general, the two crowds were about as diverse as you can get in one place.  I think that is great.

I completely understand ...

... the idea of parents-to-be not wanting to know what kind of baby they are having.  But they sure make it difficult for us knitters.  This little sweater was supposed to be unisex but after I finished it thought it looked too girly.  So for that unknown baby being born sometime in November unless he/she is early, I am now knitting a second, more boyish sweater just in case.  The fact that I chose this Debbie Bliss, Simply Baby pattern because I thought it looked boyish on the baby modelling it is neither here nor there.  My version looks girlish.

Not that having an extra item in the baby gift inventory is really such a bad thing but I'm behind on that Christmas knitting I was so excited about a month or so ago.  I've really only completed one of the projects for that event, to be blogged about later.  But I am half way through a second of the projects and a third is with nice chunky yarn so really shouldn't be too daunting.  There, I feel better.  The two pairs of socks might be another issue but it is way too early to give up.

Now for a complete change of topic, my latest recipe from Plenty was roasted pumpkin.  My Thanksgiving roadtrip resulted in the purchase of 3 small (around 3 pound) pumpkins.  One was made into Pumpkin Stuffed with Everything Good from Dorie Greenspan's book Around My French Table (yummy), another was made into a curried apple pumpkin soup (also yummy) and the third sat on the counter looking cute for a week until I decided to make it into Plenty's roasted pumpkin.  The pumpkin was sliced, the pieces brushed with olive oil and topped with a breadcrumb, parmesan and other good stuff crust.   Baked for 1/2 hour and enjoyed.

The only problem with my resolve to cook from my existing cookbooks - I love Plenty so much that I want to invest in Ottolenghi's other book Ottolenghi.  So far I have resisted the temptation to hit "buy" at Indigo.  Must ... stay ... resolved!

Out of the 100 half-completed projects littering my life ...

... finally a completed quilt top.  This one has been in progress for a couple of months but first it was too hot to quilt and then it was too nice outside not to be doing something out there.  Since this weekend has balanced the positives of last weekend by being relatively miserable, I have been able to work on some projects.

This quilt is Lucky Stars, another Atkinson Designs quilt.  As usual with their patterns, this one is extremely easy to follow and I really love the results.  The fabrics are random fat quarters picked up at various places.  Some from my local quilt shop, some from the Royal Botanical Gardens quilt show, some from who knows where but they all look great, I think.

Now onto piecing a back together for another quilt I completed last winter.  I've got to see these quilt tops through to completion.

And the Lentil Galettes (see previous post) were beyond fabulous.  Definitely a cookbook worth the price.

Cookbooks

Last week I stumbled on the blog 101 Cookbooks.  I have seen this blog before but have never really looked at it closely.  Essentially the focus of the blog is that the author had a cookbook buying problem and decided to start cooking from the books she owns rather than buying new ones.  Since I have somewhere in excess of 101 Cookbooks, I recently started taking ones that interested me out of the library and spending some time with them before buying.  This strategy has resulted in a nosedive in the number of cookbooks purchased in the last year or so.

One of the cookbooks I took out of the library and fell in love with is Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi.  After trying a couple of recipes during the loan period, I realized this is one that I had to own.  I made a few recipes from it immediately after buying and loved all of them but the book has been on the shelf for a couple of months.  I pulled it out yesterday and have started exploring it again.  The first recipe in that exploration used one of the heads of red cabbage waiting for me in the garden.  It is called Sweet Winter Slaw and combines the cabbage with sweet elements from maple syrup and mango with asian ingredients of soy sauce, sesame oil, coriander and chilies.  It was absolutely delicious.  I modified it a bit to sub peanuts for the macadamia nuts in the recipe.  I also left out the papaya which would have added a nice touch but the store only had huge ones and since I'm not a big fan knew some would have gone to waste.

For lunch it will be Puy Lentil Galettes.

October 9th and we're wearing shorts!!!

It's Thanksgiving weekend and I'm going to talk about the weather.  It is around 27 degrees and sunny as apparent from these very shiny pumpkins we saw on yet another Southern Ontario food tour.  It seems like quite a few people are doing the same this weekend as all of the farms that we went to were also being visited.  The busiest, of course, was Springridge Farm in Milton because it is so kid friendly.  No more time to write.  Have to get outside!

Happy Thanksgiving!

New Internet Distraction

I exercise regularly.  I hate it but I firmly believe in all of the positive reasons to do it.  One of the things that helps me through most workouts is music.  I have a small shuffle and a workout playlist with more to choose from on the computer.  But, despite the large selection of songs in my workout file, I was getting a bit tired of the same old songs.

Just in time, I read about the Jog.fm website in a copy of Real Simple I picked up at Philadelphia airport a couple of weeks ago.  It is great.  So now I don't have to scroll through my thousands of songs looking for some that might be good for a workout.  I can look up songs with beats per minute similar to songs that get me jazzed during a workout, I can look up good cycling songs for the stationary bike or good running songs based on my speed.  I have actually given up running but that is a whole other story.

What does all this have to do with the beer bottle clock picture?  Nothing really, except this was taken in the Philadelphia airport with my iPod.  Art pops up everywhere in Philadelphia, including near duty free in the International portion of the terminal.

The other photos were taken during a previous trip to Philly a couple of years ago.  They are all from random strolls around the city which is one of our favourite ways to explore a new place.  Above is a sampling of decoration that was covering the walls of an alley we walked by while searching for Loop, a really nice knitting store and its next door neighbour, Spool, a fabric shop.

The stained glass is actually the side of a bus shelter.  So much nicer than the ads the plaster bus shelters in Toronto.

And the cat, another random find. Isn't he great?

How Could They?

Today we went down to a local garden to take some photos for the latest course.  On the way in, we noticed a cage that had sawdust on the bottom, looking like it belonged to a bunny.  It was sitting beside a garbage can and the lid was off.  We expressed our distress and kept our eye out for the bunny as we walked through the park.  On our way out, we saw a bunny sitting across the parking lot, walked over and discovered, this was no wild bunny.  Someone had left the bunny there, probably thinking it would survive in this nice garden with lots of plants to eat.  How could they?  With the help of some other people, we quickly caught the bunny and put him in his cage.  We called the local Humane Society who came to pick him up a short while later.  I didn't take his picture but he was a cute little guy, very comfortable in his cage and with people, including kids, and I don't know how someone could do that to a defenceless animal.  If we hadn't decided to go to this garden today, would anyone else have seen him?  How long before he was eaten by a coyote or a fox or run over by a car?  I just hope he was micro chipped so they can slap a fine on whoever left him to die.

Hendrie Valley

Yesterday we went to Hendrie Valley part of the Royal Botanical Gardens property in Burlington.  It's a great place to go for an easy hike.  They have a lovely boardwalk and well maintained trails.  Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), it has gotten a bit smaller as they have recently closed parts of it for conservation purposes but there is still an hour or two of hiking to be had.   You also used to be able to get into the RBG proper through a back gate instead of paying the admission.  The accountant in me did wonder why the RBG didn't lock the gate and they have finally done so.  Which is too bad because I wouldn't have minded stopping in at the tea room but wasn't about to pay a $13 admission price just to go for tea.  Whenever I walk through this park I come up with lots of great ideas for the RBG.  I probably should send them a note with my thoughts just for fun.

As well as being picturesque - the boardwalk is bordered by marshland and there are nice trails surrounded by trees - The thing you will always see there - birds.  Lots of birds.  Most of which are quite tame since everyone (except for us because we forgot) brings bird seed.  They will eat out of your hand which creeps me out so I leave that for others.  The railings of the boardwalk are a perfect dinner zone.  There were also many chipmunks some of which were being hand-fed by other hikers.  Also creeps me out.  Again, a little pile of seed at the edge of the path works just fine as far as I'm concerned.  But, as I said, we forgot our seed so just walked.

The first thing we saw when we parked were this swan and its mate having a big bath.  I love how they stand on one leg for a really long time.   These swans were completely oblivious to me being only a few feet away.  They are used to being photographed as there are always a number of photographers in this park.  I can't do bird photography justice with my little lens.  My lens feels very inferior to the lenses used by the dedicated bird photographers - those are as long as my arm.

Fending for myself

My husband has been away for the weekend so last night I got to cook what I wanted most to eat which is always fun.  I picked a butternut squash from the garden and roasted it in olive oil and a few sprinkles of curry powder.  I tried this mix a few weeks ago and would say that it is positively addictive.  So very good.

While that was cooking, I defrosted some chickpeas I cooked up from the dried beans a while ago, stir-fried them with some garlic until they were getting a bit crispy and added about an equal amount of chopped tomatoes and some rosemary.  I cooked that mix for a few minutes and then added a glug of red wine, cooked it down for a few minutes, added about a tablespoon of whipping cream and cooked it again for a minute or two.

Dumped both of these in a bowl and both were delicious.  I wasn't sure the combination of spices actually went together but it did.  I enjoyed the combo again on a panini maker at lunch with a bit of tangy cheese.  Yummy, yummy, yummy.

New Jersey

I just came back from a business trip to New Jersey.  The business part went well but the purpose of the post is to a) wonder why clothes are so much cheaper in the US than in Canada and b) mention two restaurants that I very much enjoyed.
a) I don't have much to comment on regarding the first item except maybe because the market is bigger, prices can be lower.  Import duties might have something to do with it too.  The difference in the dollar can no longer be used as an excuse.  Anyway, I bought a cute skirt, a long sleeve burgundy t-shirt for under jackets (moving away from the 15 black ones I own into something a little more complementary to my skin tone) and a pretty blouse all for under $100.
b) On the restaurant front, I enjoyed two really nice dinners.  The first was at Seasons 52, a great spot that serves dishes under 450 calories.   Tasty and relatively guilt free at the same time.  They also have  avery nice wine list that, of course, increases that calorie count.
The second was Bonefish, also a good spot where our grilled fish could be had with a delicious mango salsa.  The waiter told us that a similar recipe for the salsa was on their website which is where the link takes you.  This was great too because I met up with my oldest friend Heather who lives in the area and we had a great time catching up.  It's amazing how you can link up with someone you haven't seen in a couple of years but those years melt away as you start talking and it feels like it has only been a few days.

Tomatoes!

I picked up 1/2 a bushel or whatever the metric equivalent is of plum tomatoes at the market yesterday so my day was pretty much consumed with finding delicious ways to use them.  My main goal was to make some tomato sauce for the freezer.  In other years the plants in my garden have provided me with enough tomatoes to make a couple of batches.  But this year my plants didn't produce enough for sauce.

Also, I have stumbled upon this blog recently and found a good sounding recipe for tomato jam on the site which sounded good - and it is.  Very spicy - in the flavourful as opposed to hot sense.  Lots of ginger, cinnamon and cloves.  We had some of the extra on homemade bulgur wholewheat rolls that I also whipped up and a taste with the lamb for dinner.  Very, very good.

Even with a huge pot of sauce and 5 pounds going into the jam, I still had quite a few tomatoes left over so decided salsa sounded like a good idea too.  The salsa had the added benefit of using a couple of the hot peppers and basil from the garden.  The basil is plentiful and starting to flower so needed to be used.  The salsa is a bit on the sweet side - these hot peppers aren't very hot - but very tasty.

This morning, because all the canning gear is still in the kitchen and because I can't resist buying more than my body weight in peaches, I made peach jam.  Just my standard of peaches, sugar and lemon juice and boiling the heck out of it essentially.  But I found a recipe that had lavender in the peach jam so threw in a couple of pinches to see what it tastes like.

I do have to pick up some labels so when I go to eat it in February I don't think there are bugs in the jam.  And look at that 3/4 full jar at the back just waiting for my toast tomorrow morning!

We really don't drink this much ...

... honestly!  A few years ago, I started keeping corks because the LCBO had a recycling program.  Then one day, I took my little bag of corks in and found out that they had stopped the program.  This got me thinking about what I could do with corks and trivets came to mind.  After making one and then making more for others who liked it (basically wine drinkers), people started giving me their corks.  And giving me their corks.

Despite making several trivets and Barney (see a previous post), I still have tons of corks.  So it being Labour Day weekend and with my annual desire to be more productive setting in, I was sort of cleaning up the craft room, looked at my previous, really small 8x10 cork board and decided something needed to be done.

I happened to have this frame waiting for a project, lots of glue sticks, lots of corks and time.  The other half nailed a nice sturdy board to the back of the frame, I glued the corks on (crookedly in some places it looks like but we'll just cover those spots up) and voila!

I'm so excited by all of the space to post things that inspire me or that I want to refer to regularly.  On the previous board, the 12 reasons to exercise was buried under 4 or 5 other things.  For this regular, but reluctant, exerciser having this visible is not a bad thing.

Photo Classes

I've recently finished an 8 week course at Betterphoto.com.  I've really enjoyed it.  I'm not sure whether my pictures have gotten any better but I've been taking a lot more which has upped the chances of finding a better picture in the batch.

Betterphoto have 4 week and 8 week courses on a bunch of different topics, including how to use Photoshop which I might investigate eventually.

I wanted to do an 8 week because I felt like by the time a 4 week was over, I would feel like I was just getting started.  With the 8 week course, every Wednesday, the instructor sends an email with a lesson and an assignment and it is due for submission a week and a half later.  I like that set up because I can't always guarantee time during the week to take photos so it gives me two weekends to do the assignment pictures.

While I obviously signed up to learn, my main motivation for taking the course was to get interested in taking pictures again.  I used to take pictures all of the time but have lately lost my enthusiasm.  I wanted to get that back.  I would say that I have accomplished both goals.  The critiques from the instructor are very useful and practical.  The ability to see what the classmates are submitting and the critiques on their photos has also helped me learn.  And I'm really interested in taking pictures again.  I've been going out at least one weekend morning each week to catch the sunrise.  I had forgotten how different each of them are and, actually, how addictive it is to see what the next one will be like.  So far, while all have been lovely, I'm still looking for that spectacular sunrise so it keeps me going back.  There are far worse addictions.  And as the weather changes the other changing aspects of the scenery will keep me going back.

I uploaded my final assignment for the current class yesterday and am looking forward to my first assignment for class number two on Wednesday.

A Public Service Announcement

So, I'm quoting what I remember the doctor saying before he gave me the sedative that made me "legally drunk".  If you want the accurate stats, go to the Canadian Cancer Society or other fabulous websites out there.  You have a 1 in 16 chance of getting Colon Cancer in your lifetime.  If, like me, you have a first degree relative (mother, father, sibling) who has had Colon Cancer, you not only get a special early trip through the screening, you have a 1 in 8 chance of getting it in your lifetime.  This is on par with breast cancer.  The thing about Colon Cancer, it is highly preventable with screening.  The test is actually quite simple, especially with that aforementioned legally drunk thing happening.  The lead up to the test, not the nicest process I've had to deal with.  But better than the alternative.

Since I'm still considered legally drunk, I'm not supposed to make any financial decisions because I won't be responsible.  Maybe I'll head on over to Pink Chalk.  If a parcel should arrive in the mail next week, I can claim that I wasn't responsible for my actions!

I think I've figured out ...

... the problem I had with the Rock Island shawl.  As usual, the Yarn Harlot has determined the cause and summarized it very succinctly.

At least I'm contemplating Christmas crafting in August - maybe I'll actually finish everything!

I've got quite the ambitious list of things I want to make for Christmas gifts:

1.  Sweater for my niece - in progress
2.  2 pairs of socks - good projects for a short work trip I have to take later in the year
3.  French press slippers - one pair in the mid-felting stage - if I can get them to look good, 4 pair to go
4.  Two little guy sweaters - one is getting there, the other still in skeins
5.  A table runner with some crazy chef fabric - which I might actually keep for myself but haven't entirely decided - haven't even considered the pattern yet
6.  Baby sweaters for various babies being born all around me.  Why do they always happen in waves?  I really need to give my friends a calendar so they can pick their date to make the knitting easier!
7.  Possibly another shawl like the one I might be keeping for myself, discussed in a previous post

When the list is written out, it doesn't sound too bad.  In fact, it looks so manageable, I'm going to have to think up some other ideas to make things more stressful!  Of course, if I decide to keep everything, that will increase the stress of coming up with replacement projects.

Plenty

The veggie garden has been so satisfying this year.  While the tomatoes have been smaller than usual, I think due to the lack of rain, they have been very tasty.   The zucchini, which I have never had an overabundance of in the past, despite their reputation, have come through with flying colours this year.  And I picked another lot of green beans this morning for dinner tonight.  Last weekend I made the best ratatouille I have ever tried.  It takes forever but is so very worth it.  Most of the ingredients came from the garden.  I had to buy an onion and an extra eggplant to supplement but otherwise, all home grown by me.  And it was delicious.

My latest cookbook purchase is Plenty which came to my attention just when things were ripening in the garden.  There are so many recipes in here that I want to try and the ones I have tried have been wonderful.  Last night it was a bread salad with tomatoes and cucumber.   I'm looking forward to a green bean concoction tonight that looks very tasty.

On the knitting front, I'm making progress on some of the projects I have lined up.  I do have to try felting the slippers again but I'm waiting until we have some laundry to do with them before I plunge them into the water again.  They have started felting but need to shrink a few more inches to be worn by anyone but Bigfoot himself.

I have finally gotten back to the blog after a couple of weeks of laziness.  I would have to say that I've also gotten back to knitting and quilting after a couple of weeks of laziness as well.  I have just exited a summertime sappy romance phase that has got to get cut back.  I know the book will have a happy ending, so why can't I put it down?  I also know it is junk food for the brain, but on the other hand, it is an escape from the stresses of the day.  But so are knitting and quilting and I have a lot of projects lined up.

Anyway, it's getting a tiny bit cooler, I'm starting to think about Christmas gifts and am kicking into knitting gear again.  This is Sursa from Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton and I really like it.  It was like lightening to make and is really cozy.  It was initially going to be a Christmas gift but now I'm not sure.  I could also make another one.  We'll see.

I'm currently attempting to felt some French Press Slippers.  I'd better go see what the washing machine is doing to them.

Summer Produce

I am obsessed with my vegetable garden.  And it has been really productive this year, starting with so many lovely peas and onward to my current crops of green beans, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers and zucchini.  I've never really had the problem of too much zucchini and I wouldn't say the plants have been that productive this year either but I do have slightly more than we can just eat for dinner a few times a week.  So I dusted off the oven which hasn't been on much lately due to the heat and baked some zucchini products.

The first was a bread recipe from High Plains:  The Joy of Alberta Cuisine, a book I picked up randomly a long time ago, which has several really good recipes.  The bread is very tasty.  I substituted chocolate chips for the raisins which makes it even better.

Next were muffins from Flour, the cookbook that I'm going to work my way through because all of the recipes look amazing.  The muffins are also good.  Again, substituted chocolate chips for the raisins.  Clearly this is not the healthy option but I've been eating so many veggies from the garden, what are a few chocolate chips?

A Summer Quilt

This quilt is called Modern Rose Garden which seems an appropriate name for a summer project.  I bought this as a kit from Mad About Patchwork at the Creative Sewing festival last fall.  I think it is quite pretty.  I was a bit worried that my general inability to sew a straight line would show up more in this quilt than in others but I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

The diamond quilt is done

Several months ago, I posted the completed diamond quilt top.  This morning, put the last stitch through the binding and it is done!

I had been debating about getting a professional quilter to quilt it for me but really prefer to finish them myself if I think I can on my little machine.  I have a Pfaff that I won on a radio call in contest in Sudbury when I was in university and it is very sturdy but small.  It has few bells and whistles and does not have a big window between the main control panel and the presser foot.  So I always have to try to keep the quilt on the left side of the presser foot as much as possible.  I discovered that the quilting method I chose for this quilt made that a little difficult but I managed and only have a few areas that are a bit less than perfectly straight.   I used the walking foot to sew down both the inside and the outside of each diagonal row of diamonds further reinforcing the diamond shape.

In deciding my quilting method, I picked up the Kaffe Fassett book the design came from and examined his quilts.  All of his diamond quilts, I think I found 3 of them, were finished in the same way.  So I thought, if a guy who clearly knows what he is doing in this area has finished all of his diamond quilts in the same way, I probably can't go wrong in matching his approach.  So I did.  And I think it looks great.

More food and even more beverage from Southern Ontario

Vacation continues!  On Tuesday we did another tour of Southern Ontario and saw some more good things.

1.  First stop was Morningstar Mill in Thorold, an historic grist mill and saw mill.  I think this is better visited in the spring or winter when the leaves are off the trees.  The mill itself is pretty but there are some nice falls that can't be seen well due to the leaves.  The mill also links up with the Bruce Trail so a hike would go well with a visit to this location.  We walked for a little way but only had our sandals on so didn't make an outing of it.  Next time.  They also sell flour there.  If my pantry wasn't already full of whole wheat flour, some would have come home with me.  Again, next time.

2.  Next up, Lake Land Game Meats - another nice meat supplier.  In addition to farmed game meats, they also have chicken and beef from their farm.  In the store I met a man and his mother who were using the same book I was to tour around the area.  The highlight of this place was the dinner made when we got home of pasta with smoked duck and various veggies from the garden.  Yummy.

3.  Our first of two beverage stops was Hernder Estate Wines.  Someone had given us wine from this winery a few months ago and we really enjoyed it.  So we decided to visit and try some more.  This is a very pretty setting and, in addition to wine, they sell various wine vinegars and grapeseed oil.  One of the ladies who works there claims that a nightly application of grapeseed oil around her eyes makes all the difference in wrinkle prevention.  I would have to say that something is working for her - very few lines around her eyes.  I bought some but have so far only used it for the above mentioned pasta dinner.

4.  Inn the Pines is another farm with a road-side stand.  Since we have a lot of veggies ready to eat in the garden, I didn't buy too much here but could have.  Everything looked so good.

5.  We were going to drive by Nokara Farm in St Catharines but had the windows open in the car and got a smell of fresh baked pies on the way back so turned around and went in.  We brought lunch with us but hadn't packed dessert.  A perfect excuse to buy some mixed fruit tarts.  Yummy again!

6.  Upper Canada Cheese Company - this place is excellent.  They have their own and other local cheeses and have a great little tasting set up that definitely helps them sell their cheese.  I brought a tasting tray of 2 cheeses I picked up there and one from Longo's to a dinner party last night and we all enjoyed ourselves.

7.  Malivore Wine - Another very nice winery with very nice wine.  A few bottles were purchased here after a tasting.  And their Pinot Noir went very nicely with the smoked duck veggie pasta.

The things to see and do in Southern Ontario are endless.  I focused on food but the general scenery driving around is lovely.  You wouldn't know that densely populated areas are very close by when you get out into some of these areas.

Left over sock yarn be gone!

I've been wanting to make something to use up my left over sock yarn stash since I started accumulating it a few years ago but hadn't found the right project until I stumbled on this baby blanket in Ravelry.

What a great use for leftover sock yarn.  It doesn't use too much in any of the 4 row repeats but before you know it your leftover sock yarn stash is a fraction of it's former self.  And it's another gift for my depleted baby inventory.  I have a few future babies in mind for this one.  In fact, maybe I'll build up that sock yarn stash again and make a bigger one for me!

Southern Ontario Food Tour Part 2

Friday we decided to take in the Niagara region, mostly.  In terms of food finds, it wasn't as good as the first tour but we had a good time.  This time I used the Ontario Table and Niagara Cooks as guides, both written by Lynn Ogryzlo.  I bought the first one at Springridge Farm when I picked strawberries there a month ago.  I picked up the second when I went to a book signing by Lynn, also at Springridge.

Our first destination was Niagara-on-the-Lake which is always a nice spot to visit.  We stopped at Southbrook Vineyards, a place we have passed before but never stopped at.  They produce their wines biodynamically which means it is an organic farm but goes a step further to look at the farming process holistically - treating all elements on the farm - soil, plants and animals - as one living entity.  Their website explains it better than I.  And the wine is good.  We bought a couple of bottles of Chardonnay and a couple of Cabernet Merlot.  We will definitely return to Southbrook.

Our next stop, from the books, was Busy Bee Gardens, Ontario's only manufacturer of food grade essential oils.  They sell dried lavender, beauty products, food grade lavender and many other things.  I bought some dried lavender to make sachets, maybe for Christmas gifts, and some very nice lavender shave gel.

The Organic General Store was also worth a stop.  I bought some great looking dried cranberries and walnuts as well as some specialty flours that I've tried unsuccessfully to find locally in the past.

Other than a quick stop at Cheese Secrets, we didn't stop in the town itself but passed by to Kurtz Orchards which was ok but not my favourite kind of place.  They sell loads of different kinds of jams and other condiments.  While I'm sure a lot are really good, I've learned from One of a Kind Craft Sale experience that these tend to clutter up shelves in my house or, worse, get opened for an occasion and languish at the back of the fridge to be thrown out 6 months later when rediscovered looking less than appetizing.  That could be just me.

We continued on, picking up some peaches and plums at a road side stand, past Niagara Falls, to Ridgeway where we bought corn on the cob at Sexsmith Farm - thanks for the baker's half dozen - and then to Port Colborne.  Here we stopped at Muileboom Greenhouses, a hydroponic cucumber and tomato farm.  The tomato plants in the green house were amazingly tall and the tomatoes very tasty.  Our next and final stop was at Minor Fish for some fresh pickerel.

What did I enjoy about the day?  We saw some parts of Ontario we hadn't seen before, met some very nice farmers and enjoyed an outstanding dinner of fresh corn-on-the-cob, pan fried pickerel and Southbrook wine.  Simple and delicious.

On Vacation!

For the first time ever we don't have a big trip or a cottage veg-out planned for our vacation.   We have a sick cat who needs a sub-contaneous fluid treatment every second day so we don't want to go too far.  To non pet owners, and even some pet owners, this sounds a bit crazy but we have been accused of being a bit crazy (or at least I have) in the past so there you have it.

I took a trip up to North Bay for a few days at the beginning of this week.  Highlights included:

1.  The best butter tart I've ever tasted when I stopped for a snack in South River.  The cafe, whose name I can't remember, is on the north west corner at the stop lights.  Anyone who travels through there will be able to find it.  Very, very good butter tart.

2.  Dinner at the White Owl Bistro.  This place looks like nothing from the outside - just a little cottage.  But inside, yummy food awaits.  I had a wild boar tenderloin with a very tasty pommery mustard and cranberry sauce and basil mashed potatoes.  My only complaint - they insist on trying to feed me cauliflower!  Actually, one other complaint - their air conditioner either wasn't working or doesn't exist and it got a bit hot towards the end of the evening.

3.  Homestead Stitches - this actually used to be a favourite place but it, sob, has closed.  I loved this little store but I guess others must not have and it is gone.  I was so upset when we walked up to it and there were workmen doing renos inside.

4.  Stix and Stones - the local knit shop with the lovely dog Cusco.  This is a nice yarn shop and I really like her new location.

5.  Greco's pizza - while I had their Cannelloni this time, which was delicious, this place has the best pizza anywhere.  I'm not kidding.  A guy I know at the office has a friend with a plane and sometimes, they fly up to North Bay, just for Greco's pizza.

6.  Art on Main - I didn't go there this time but this is a lovely store that is an artist cooperative essentially.  A number of local artisans have lovely pieces for sale here and I've contributed to the local artists on a number of occasions!

7.   Zenone's - this is a clothing store whose name has changed to something else recently but it has nice clothes that fit me properly.  I have been particularly successful with shorts there lately but have picked up a couple of nice things for work too.

8.  The Ultimate Kitchen part of the Trans Canada Store has really good kitchen gadgets and I can spend a good chunk of time browsing there.

9.  Twiggs - this place has very good specialty coffees and other good looking stuff.  The only thing I've eaten there is the Hawaiian pizza, which was good, but they have other great looking things too.

10.  Leisure Farms - strawberries are done in Southern Ontario but not in Sturgeon Falls, just a 1/2 hour drive from North Bay.  We went picking strawberries and not only were they cheaper, they were bigger and sweeter.

That's a summary of the first vacation excursion.  More to come.  And the picture of the flower - just because.

Earth to Table Bread Bar

Yesterday, after Pam telling me about this place quite often, we finally went to the Earth to Table Bread Bar on Locke Street in Hamilton.  Pam took me there once before for a latte and brownie between curling games one Sunday but we hadn't been there for a meal.  I had a mushroom and fontina sandwich on their milk and honey bread and it was very good.  Just the right size of sandwich with enough mushrooms to fill it but not fall off.  Just enough cheese to be tasty but not overwhelming.  And a nice small side salad.

The other half had their riff on poutine but had them hold the cheese curds.  So it was gravy, mushrooms and green onions.  Quite tasty but too salty.

I had a great latte and shared some of the other half's brownie which I had forgotten was not one of my favourites.  It is the more fudge-like sort of brownie - very dense and very sweet.  I prefer brownies at the cake-like end of the spectrum without icing.

I would definitely go there again but stick to the main course items.  I think I might try a pizza next time. They had lots of good looking combinations.

I also reserved their cookbook at the library to take a look through.  I have been getting cookbooks from the library to spend more time with them instead of buying them outright.  That way, if I really like the cookbook I buy it.  If it doesn't interest me for very long from the library, I don't.  I still buy way to many cookbooks but found this has cut down on the obsession, and expense, considerably!

Neighbourhood Kitties

I worry about all of the neighbourhood cats.  Take this one, Silver, for instance.  He has absolutely no street smarts.  He likes everyone.  And he sits in the middle of the road.  He always wants to play and rolls around on his back until you pet him on his belly.  He does this with everyone.  No street smarts what-so-ever.

We have been fortunate in our cats because none ever had any interest in going outside.  Of our current cats, one is a complete chicken who was a stray which might have something to do with it and the other is just way too attached to us to be very far away.

So I worry about the neighbourhood cats instead.  I worry about Silver because he is too trusting.  I worry about Carmen because his people are always yelling for him for ages at night.  I actually thought Carmen might be gone because we hadn't seen him for so long but he was out this morning and his people were yelling for him last night.  And then there is the big black cat who stays well away from everyone.

I know I can't worry about all the little buddies roaming around the neighbourhood but I do.  I can't help it.  I love them all.

Rekindling my photographic imagination

I signed up for a photo course with Betterphoto.com recently and received the first assignment this week.  The assignment is to take three photos of anything in three different ways, varying whatever I want.  It is harder than it sounds.  I think I have three good candidates from this morning's efforts but the assignment isn't due until next weekend so I'll work on some more and see what I get.  I am defaulting to my favourite photographic subject, flowers, since the assignment was to shoot anything.  In case future assignments are more specific in terms of subject, I wanted to make sure to get some flowers in.  It is also a good warmup for me since the camera has only been used for snapshots of crafty projects lately.

I don't think I blogged about my latest Flour recipe.  I made the Strawberry Shortcakes a couple of weeks ago and would have to say that the biscuits were the best I've ever had.  No exaggeration what-so-ever.  I did use one too many eggs in the cakes because I didn't read the instructions fully before starting so I'll have to see if they are as good with two.  The strawberries are marinated in sugar and balsamic vinegar and were also very yummy.  Baking has slowed down for the summer but I love this cookbook so will be diving into it again in the fall.

Southern Ontario Food Tour

I recently bought a copy of a book called the Ontario Table  "featuring the best food from around the province".  As I was reading through it the other day, I was inspired to go visit many of the places mentioned so planned a road trip for yesterday.  Based on the success we had, we'll be trying to visit more of these over the summer and beyond.

Our first stop was Paron Cheese, 400 Hwy 20 in Binbrook.  This place makes various, no preservatives added, cheeses, including one called Montasio which when aged, they say is a good sub for parmesan.  Since I'm not even halfway through a Costco Parmesan cheese (which translates into - I will be using this cheese for another 6 months), I bought the milder version of the cheese and another butter cheese called Casata.  We sampled both in the store and popped open the Casata yesterday afternoon and enjoyed.  This is not a comfortable shorts and t-shirt environment.  The customers and the staff join the cheese in the refrigerator.  Brrr.  And they only take cash.  Fortunately, my dad was with me so could spot me the $5 I needed to complete my purchase.

Next up, Fenwood Farm in Ancaster.  This is an organic chicken farm with an on-farm market. They sell other meats as well and we bought a bunch, glad we had thrown the big cooler into the back of the truck.  The farm supplies a number of markets and restaurants including the Organic Garage in Oakville.  Buying directly from the farm felt great and without the markup that a store has to put on the products, was less expensive.  There was also a small veggie stand outside the store with garlic scapes for sale.  I haven't had these for a couple of years because our local farmer's market does not sell anything that doesn't look like the supermarket.  In fact, I'm pretty sure at least half of the booths at the farmer's market around the corner from us get their produce at the food terminal.  The bananas give it away.  Anyway, back to the scapes.  I made a very pungent pesto with these that I drizzled over roasted asparagus and then threw it all back in the oven for about a minute.  Yummy.  I still taste the garlic this morning so won't stand too close to anyone today!

Our final stop was Morden's Organic Farm Store in Dundas.  Most of the food is from local farms and one of their biggest draws is their gluten free product suite.  We picked up a number of game meats and some fish from this store.  They have a walk-in freezer that made the cheese place seem like a day at the beach.  Next time, I'll bring a jacket.

I think the bottom line of this kind of shopping is that we got to meet some really nice people either selling their own food or selling the food of their neighbours.  This made for a great day.

After way too many rip outs ...

... the Rock Island challenge is over.  I did notice after blocking that I had a little jog in the decreases in the centre but I don't care!  It is barely noticeable anyway and there is no way I'm ripping out any part of this shawl again.  Done, done, done.  Never to be made again.

I'm not entirely sure why I found it so difficult but my theory is that the rows were very long and my attention span is very short.  This resulted in my mind veering off into a day dream mid row and forgetting my place but not realizing it.  I was generally 3 long rows past the problem when I saw that things weren't looking right.  After this happened 2 or maybe 3 times, I wrote out the pattern for each row, made myself count every repeat in the row so I concentrated fully.  It worked and I'm done, done, done!

In terms of the finished product, I would have to say that I prefer the Bridgewater shawl that I made last summer but Rock Island is pretty.  Light and airy.  It is perfect for summer.

Barney's hat

I wanted to use up stash for Barney (see previous post).  The scarf was easy since I find Jared Flood's very simple striped scarf crazily addictive and had some leftover Silk Garden just waiting for a project.

Since I still had some Silk Garden left at the end of the scarf (one colour ran out, the other didn't), I popped on over to the Ravelry search engine to find some options.  And was happy to find this Jared Flood Turn a Square hat that not only used up the leftover Silk Garden, I was also able to dive into the stash and use some leftover Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran.  Excellent!  The colours were a bit closer together than they likely should have been but it looks good anyway.

Happy Canada Day!