Pretzel Day

It’s pretzel day!!

I chose the soft pretzel recipe here because it seemed most like the one that was demonstrated on the pretzel factory tour  on Mr. Rogers.  It seemed fairly simple and also included the boiling soda water step. P must have been paying attention when she watched the demonstration because she knew just what to do.

The thumb print makes each baker's pretzel unique.

Sprinkling the salt was fun.

I had to be quick to get the finished pretzels in a photo. As I mentioned earlier, baked goods disappear quickly with teenage boys in the house.

They turned out great. Next time I will grease the pan better as a few of them stuck.

And I think we'll try a recipe that doesn't have the boiling soda water step. That should be easier but I wonder what the difference in taste will be.

Calm Before the Storm

We heard the forecast for a big snow storm and did our prestorm preparations yesterday. We let the chickens out to scratch for whatever they could find. I wonder if they suspected anything. We stopped by feed store and got a few bags of chicken feed.

Stopped at the library and picked up a selection of videos and books.

Then, went to the grocery and bought as much milk as would fit in the refrigerator and other groceries for meals

At home we brought in some firewood from the barn.

and washed the wool socks.

The evening was spent doing homework and hoping for a snow day while watching an episode of Planet Earth!

We woke up this morning with a bit of snow and a SNOW DAY off of school.  An additional 6 or more inches of snow is predicted today.

Today we shall try making pretzels. I have several recipes so we may attempt them more than once this weekend.

Factory Tours

Before Jeff Daniels became famous and opened his local theater, The Purple Rose, Chelsea's claim to fame was that it was the home of Jiffy Mix. Chelsea is the only place in the world where those little boxes of Jiffy Mix are made.

Chelsea Milling also gives free factory tours. Some of the equipment is over fifty years old. I love the old mechanical machinery. The box builder machine is great. I could stand and watch that for a long time.  P is not old enough to take the Jiffy tour; you have to be 6.For now, we will watch Mr Rogers DVDs from the library.  I enjoyed watching Mr Rogers with the boys too. I never did like the other kids' shows that were on TV. They were, and I guess still are, too fast paced for my taste. They were like MTV for little kids.  Mr Rogers was different.  He talked TO his audience.  He asked questions. M would always answer. M liked Mr Rogers a lot.  He would wear cardigan sweaters and would always leave them  hanging on hangers in his dresser when he was not wearing them. M liked that his dresser had a door like Mr Rogers' closet. He wore this sweater that P wears now. No, I did not knit it; I got it for 50 cents at a garage sale!  I did put new buttons on it, though.

P watched her first Mr Rogers episode with me the other day. He toured a pretzel factory. She was mesmerized. First, they showed how to make pretzels by hand, and then they toured the automated factory.P is very eager to make pretzels now. We will be trying that soon. Does anyone have a good soft pretzel recipe that they would recommend?

Toasty Toes

I used to think that wool socks had to be bulky and uncomfortable. When I was growing up we would backpack in the Colorado Rockies every summer. We would pack in and camp, often for a week or two at a time, in lovely alpine spots by a lake or stream. These were the days of John Denver's  "Rocky Mountain High" and when backpacking was the new rage. The hiking stores that sold freeze-dried food packets (like the astronauts ate) and hiking boots were a new thing. They also sold thick wool socks to wear with your hiking boots. These one-size-fits-all socks were supposed to wick the moisture away from your skin and keep you from getting blisters. All the socks I had worn until then were synthetic or cotton and came from Roses discount store or Leggett department store. We put the scratchy, uncomfortable socks on under our boots and trudged around in them. The part about not getting blisters was not true.

Now, I am happy to say, I have been educated. I can say that, yes, wool socks are the best winter footwear I have.  If I notice on a winter day that my feet are cold, I switch to some soft, knit-to-fit wool socks and my feet are instantly toasty warm. Even on frigid, five degrees F days like today.

Even lacy socks like this are warmer than my store bought socks.

I am still building my wool sock selection, as I would like to wear them every day in the winter.

Shortbread Cookies

We did make our shortbread cookies on the weekend.

I have to love a recipe with so few ingredients.

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups flour

Blend butter and sugar until smooth. Scrape sides of bowl and add vanilla. Add flour slowly until well blended.

Divide dough and flatten into two discs. Put each in a plastic bag or plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 1/2 hours or overnight.
Roll out dough on a floured surface to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut with cutters.

Bake at 325 degrees on an ungreased cookie sheet for 15-16 minutes be careful not to let the cookies brown.
Transfer cookies immediately to a cool, flat surface with a spatula.

Dipping the cookies in chocolate did not work as well as I had hoped. The chocolate was too thick and then didn't harden after they were dipped. Next time we want to add chocolate we will just spread some chocolate on top of them which is what we ended up doing this time after making a large chocolate mess.

As you can see, we like them just as well without the chocolate!

Red and White

I thought I would share a little more of our winter beauty.

Viburnum berries.

more

sumac

P shovels the walk.

Hat Update

Here is a quick hat update. I have done one round of decreasing.

This picture makes the hat look more pink and blue than the rich red and green colors that it is. I will have to get a true color picture on another day. This is the best I can do on this cloudy day.

I may have to stay up tonight until I finish it!!!

Family Focus - winter white

Ice on the Huron River taken by B on his way to work.

M found hugs and kisses in the driveway.

D took this one at midnight the other night. He went to close the chicken barn and came running back for the camera to get this moon shadow of the redbud tree.

Today, I will be traveling to Grand Rapids with the High School Symphony Orchestra for their performance in the Michigan Music Conference. I have my knitting packed for the bus ride! If I can possibly manage it on the bus, I'll work on the December Lights Tam (designed by Mary Jane Mucklestone) shown on the cover of Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts 2007.

Don't ask me why. I have never worn a tam. I don't need a new hat. I have two and am already knitting myself another hat. It's just that my friend A got the magazine and, well, she and I drooled all over page 38. We were practically fighting over the magazine. We finally broke down and ordered the yarn. We figured that if we went in together and just ordered one extra skein we could get two hats out of the yarn. Dear A  divided the yarn last weekend and now I am dying to start. I know that she has started and she knits really fast. I can't let her finish first!!!

If I can't do that project on the bus I can always work on simple socks.

Snow White

More winter white:

Michigan is seldom sunny in the winter. Here is a glimpse of snow in the evening sun.

B cut down some locust in the field for firewood next year.

Yesterday, the first thing I heard from P, while she was still in her crib, was "what should we bake today, mom?" Of course, we had to bake some cookies.

She wanted to make cutter cookies. I am working on finishing things on my list this week, so I wanted something quick and easy to satisfy this request. We made chocolate chip cookies because, well, I am sure I could make those in my sleep. I promised that next time we would use the cookie cutters. B has requested short bread cookies dipped in chocolate. We will make those next.

Great Grandmother's Gown

Today I'll share photos of a gown my great grandmother made before her wedding in 1914.

The padded satin stitch petals are amazing.

Isn't that hand stitching incredible! I love all of those little eyelets.

Look at the edge stitching on the cuff!!I hope someday to be this good!

Garden Plan

Now, as it is snowing outside, is the time to make our garden plan.

We are thinking of warm rows of soil and what will go in those rows. We usually grow lots of root crops like potatoes and onions because the deer and rabbits like to visit our garden and eat the tops of plants.

purple potatoes

Last year, we fenced part of the garden and were finally able to harvest enough peas to put some in the freezer.

peas

Now, we think we will add some new foods to our garden plan- some tomatoes, more peas, and after trying Amy's pumpkin muffins I know we will be planting more pumpkins to freeze.

We also have our perennial plants like rhubarb and raspberries.

raspberry

Those are the ones I like best, the ones that rest underground under a blanket of snow all winter and then burst through the soil after being warmed by the sun.

That's what we think about when we look out the window on our cold world  of white.

Graham Banana Squares

Back when I was in college, I ripped a recipe page out of a magazine at the doctor's office. That page had this great recipe that I have been making for almost 25 years. Yes, I still have guilt

! I have made myself feel better about it by telling myself that the magazine was old and no one else would be making those recipes! My boys loved these when they were little. M always requested this as his share treat at school parties.

Graham Banana Squares

1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs (10 whole crackers)
1/2 cup wheat germ
2T brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking sodadash of salt
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 medium bananas)
1/3 cup peanut butter
2T oil1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Put the graham crackers in the mixer bowl. (I break them up a bit with my fist.) Add all other ingredients except the chocolate chips. Turn the mixer on slow and mix until all ingredients are moist. The crackers may still be a little chunky. Spread the mixture in an 8 x 8 inch pan. Sprinkle the chocolate chips on the top. Press them lightly into the surface of the dough otherwise they will fall off after baking.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Darn

I started darning B's socks twenty years ago when we were first married. I did it then because we didn't have much money. Those wool socks he liked to wear were expensive and we wanted to make them last. At first I used bits of leftover yarn. Then, when a pair got too worn for darning I unraveled it and used the leg yarn to darn the other socks.

I enjoy darning the socks because I feel a connection to my ancestors. They were thrifty folk. I also get to use this wonderful darning egg that belonged to my great grandmother. B now wears socks that I knit for him. He likes those better than the store bought as they fit his foot exactly and don't have a seam on the toe. I still darn these socks for him as it is much quicker to darn a hole in the toe or heel that to knit a new pair. He also likes plain "utility" socks which are not the most interesting to knit. I darn his socks so that I can have time to knit socks with yarn like THIS.  

I am planning a couple of fair isle pairs for myself. I liked both the top hank AND the bottom with the gold in the middle so I had to buy all three!!! I will get several pair from them.

Be Mine

Again, I am inspired by Valentine's Day. Remember those candy hearts with the messages? Be Mine, Forever, Yours Truly,...

B has always said that these thirties reproduction prints remind him of super sweet candy. As with candy, large pieces can be overwhelming. But in small doses, mixed with something else,

they are quite pleasing.

I finished the edge with rick rack

and hand quilted this small quilt.

I love it!

Family Talent

I come from a family of makers.

My Aunt made this pink blanket for P when she was born. It has become her blankie. She sleeps with it every night and takes it on all trips.

P  also still tries to squeeze her head into that little hat.

This Makes Me Smile

As mentioned here M WAS Buzz Lightyear when he was younger. He dressed this way all the time. Only the rocket was added to the outfit for Halloween. His brother was an eagle that year. D really got into his character. His arms did not go down the whole time we were walking around town! He soared.

M was also a prolific artist. Here are some of his Toy Story illustrations. If you have seen the movie at least a gazillion times as I have,  I am sure you can recognize the army men parachuting down beside the jump rope.

Here we have Rex, Ham, and the army men carrying the baby monitor.

And of course, Woody and Buzz.

I fell in love with these drawings when he made them. I started doing them in bluework. (redwork with blue thread.)

Like many projects I start, they get buried under new projects and resurface periodically. I like working on these on and off as they remind me of when the boys were small and how we did things we never thought we would do before we had children. We went to Burger King and got the Woody doll. Then B drove around to all the Burger Kings in the "tri-county area" trying to get the Buzz Lightyear give away doll. I don't think we have been to a Burger King since!After the boys had the Buzz toy they both wanted to play with it and have it in their bed at night. This is when they REALLY learned to take turns. They each had a night with Buzz and then a night with Woody. For years after that we called turn taking "Buzz-Woody."

M does not know that I am working on this. Unless of course he is reading this blog while he is at school. Perhaps this would make a fun graduation gift in a few years.

Don't you think a quilt out of these would look great in his dorm?

Seeing Red

I was trying to find something in the sewing room today and came across this.

I should use Valentine's day as a deadline to do something with it. I did the needlework about 10 years ago and then it got buried in a pile of other stuff.

There are lots of inspiring redwork ideas out there.

The beautiful thing about this needlework is that you can so easily make your own patterns.

This rabbit design was from a magazine but, if you can draw it you can stitch it. It is fun to stitch children's drawings. I have another (almost) 10 year old project I'll share tomorrow. It features some of M's early work!

Valentine's Chocolate Shop

P has really gotten into the tea party thing. She uses her "not a box" as an oven and sets out a big spread. Sometimes her parties are casual and sometimes she uses the fancy tea set.

If she and her friends drink any more tea they will spend the rest of the day in the bathroom.

Her parties always include something chocolate! I wonder where she gets THAT?

When thinking about Valentine's Day there is one thing that always comes to mind first.

Chocolate. Chocolate shop chocolates, home baked cupcakes, and pink coated chocolate candies, chocolate cookies...

Pink and brown seem to be good chocolate shop colors. They come together in this child size "chocolate shop apron."

The cupcake is actually a pocket.

I made a couple of these. 

Teachers all the time

Two year olds are quick learners. They soak up everything around them. B has started teaching P birds from our bird identification book. She knows bluebird, blue jay, cardinal, chickadee, pileated wood pecker and many others. We are all amazed at her skill in learning new things. She also learns things that we are not trying to teach her. We find we are teachers all the time- even when we don't think we are. The boys hear that a lot. "You're a teacher all the time." It has become a sort of code word for them to be more mindful of what they say and do. Table manners, language, dangerous things, whatever it might be.

P loves to join in whatever others in the house are doing. She has fun "exercising" with the boys in the basement.

She has learned how to do jumping jacks and can lift a short dowel stick over her head. She has also demonstrated some exercises on the weight bench. She sits on the bench, moves her legs, and counts to ten as if she can hardly breath! Yep, she is a quick study!

Cookie boy land

P. has gotten some lovely gifts from "Cookie Boy Land."

The crocheted boy came from our friend Tracy. The felt boy is from her aunt G. And the book, which is ALMOST as old as me, is from our friend Melissa. I think she may have a hard time packing those ornaments up with the Christmas things. We will keep the book out for reading all year. Thanks to you all."

Run, run, as fast as you can..."