hat!

One pink and purple hat with ears! and a white pom pom on top finished! Eva is wearing it as I type. It is a hit!! Maybe someday I will be able to post a photo...



Eva in her new bear hat and the baby doll I finished a couple of days ago. Her name is Charlotte. Eva added the pink bow barrette and a necklace for her. [Hat 5 sts/inch, cast on 96, #6 needles, ears, pom poms.]

Eva reminded me of my other camera and I found it. The resolution is not nearly as good but hey it is a camera! I found several dozen lost photos on the camera from the end of 2006, beginning of 2007, mostly Christmas of that year but also some photos like these when we watched our friend's dog Gizmo-



It is after all, all about the Frisbee. Jack and Gizmo.



Gizmo with Frisbee; Eva and Samuel (3 1/2, 6 1/2).



Eva age 3 1/2 (12/2006). She has been making this face a lot lately as well; Eva and Samuel ice chopping in the winter (3 1/2 and 6 1/2)



Cats! Agnes, Magoo, Maxwell (left to right) and Eva (3 1/2).

pomegranates

We never got around to making this yesterday and the kids are already tired of turkey (remind me to go back to a smaller turkey next year, so much for growing bodies) and what better way to fill your belly than with pomegranate sorbet. This recipe is actually originally for pomegranate granita in Chez Panisse Fruit but you can also put it in the sorbet maker. Either way it is so worth it and really good. Samuel looks forward to pomegranate season all year.

Combine 1/2 cup water and 1/4 cup sugar, simmer until sugar is dissolved; pour this into 1 cup pomegranate juice. Taste and adjust with a squeeze of lime (oops, just remembering this now...) OK I added some lime juice, tasted the results, no harm done. For sorbet, simply pour into sorbet maker and go write...For granita, pour mixture into bowl and freeze. After about an hour or so, stir the mixture so that it doesn't separate into juice and syrup. Once the mixture is frozen, chop it up with a knife or pick and transfer to smaller container and cover tightly. Alice Waters likes to serve this with tangerine sorbet.

Here is a quote from last year's pomegranate season-

And we made pomegranate sorbet/granita. It is so worth it! Just so you know, it takes about two full pomegranates to make a cup of pomegranate juice. It is good stuff and it goes quick!

Yes- it does take two full pomegranates to get enough juice for this recipe. If you have a larger sorbet maker, you can double the recipe. Take out seeds, put in food processor. Process. It is all a process, after all. Strain, strain, strain. Eh voila. Pomegranate juice!

I keep thinking this will go really well with a little dark chocolate...

I broke with tradition yesterday twice and cooked the turkey without stuffing it AND I made the stuffing/dressing with sprouted grain bread (Alvarado Street Bakery). The stuffing turned out amazing and I highly recommend it. I didn't dry the bread at all before using it, just cut it up and added celery, celery leaves, thyme, shallots, leek, garlic and some of the broth from the giblets. Oh and butter. And apples.

The kids wrote up their Christmas lists for Santa Claus today. Samuel sent his off in a hurry, in the mail, direct to Santa Clause, The North Pole. We usually get a reply letter from him after a couple of weeks. Eva opted to hold onto her list and leave it for Santa with his cookies and eggnog on Christmas Eve. I was remembering leaving lists in the fire place? at one house I lived in while growing up. I had completely forgotten this memory until reading something about this tradition somewhere out there on the Internet. Fascinating what memories are still in there somewhere.

I am happy to say that our rat Charlie is feeling a little better and has regained a bit more mobility in his leg thanks to the anti-inflammatory meds I have been giving him. I think his leg is permanently wounded but it isn't purple any more and he has more energy. It is hard for him to sit on my shoulder and move around because of his foot being not as flexible, so I have to move slower than usual and sometimes give him a hand, but it is definitely an improvement.

We are reading the second book in the Mushroom Planet series- Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet...we are suspicious of one of the new characters and there is a distinctly suspense-ish feel to the beginning part of the book. And at long last we got Comet in Moominland after a couple of friends highly recommended it. Looking forward to reading about the Moomin Trolls, particularly after reading so many troll stories of late.

I at long last have Oscar Wao back in possession and need to hurry up and finish it before I need to return it again...It is really just such an amazing book, night and day with some other fiction I have tried to read recently. Wondering what will come along to read next.

happy thanks-giving

On this day when my cat keeps licking the turkey and my dog is eyeing it suspiciously, growling and barking at the unknown form in the kitchen, I wish to send out peace and love to family and friends, wherever this day may find you. I am thankful for the abundance and peace in which I find myself, for the love that surrounds me and for each of us in our uniqueness of purpose and spirit. For Be-ing. For the trees, the air, the cats. For everything that is.

of late

-cookie making
-science museum
-chemistry experiments
-playing in water
-Charlie went to the vet for his foot which he injured and I am giving him the tiniest smallest amounts possible of anti-inflammatory medicine to help his foot...
-knitting a pink and purple hat for Eva that when she saw she said, "Oh momma that is the prettiest knitting I have ever seen in my whole life!" OK!
-fun gathering of females to wish a friend's daughter well as she moves into womanhood...
-preparations for Thanksgiving
-wii, Clifford, music, Star Wars, Freddy the Pied Piper, more Mushroom Planet books...
-wind, wind, wind...

pumpkin cookies

I modified a pumpkin cookie recipe sent along in this past week's produce basket. The original recipe is included in parentheses-

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar (recipe called for 1 1/2 cups brown sugar only- you could use less than I did)
1 cup cooked mashed pumpkin
dash of salt (1 tsp or whatever you feel comfortable with)
1 tsp cinnamon
(1/2 tsp allspice- I was out)
1/2 tsp ginger
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups whole spelt flour (2 1/2 cups all purpose flour)
3 tsp baking powder
(1/2 cup walnuts- again, as you enjoy...)
I also added chocolate chips- semi sweet- about 1/4-1/2 cup, depending. I like just a few...

I cooked the pumpkin earlier in the day, whole, and then scooped out the seeds. One small pumpkin has so far given me enough pumpkin to make these cookies and some cranberry-blueberry-pumpkin muffins and another cup or more frozen for later. You can always use squash of any sort to make these as well.

Follow usual cookie making steps as in cream butter, sugar, add eggs, add pumpkin, add dry ingredients, add extras...Spoon onto greased/ parchment paper lined cookie sheet. They don't spread very far because they are quite cake-y. If you add only brown sugar I imagine they would be even fluffier...The recipe said to bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes. I baked at 350 for about 18-20 minutes.

oh what a picture

there would have been today if not for the untimely demise of my camera...there are at least 20? perhaps 30? stuffed animals gathered around the kitchen table, on the floor, on the chairs, under the table...and some of them have swords! Do you think I will be able to serve dinner tonight with such a ruckus?

Without a camera, my mind turns toward food preparation. I have been roasting kale the last several days after buying two large bunches at the market on Saturday. This is a lovely way to prepare kale and one in which you can eat A LOT of kale. Chop it up (without middle stem) and put on a baking sheet, toss with olive oil and a little salt and roast for 20-minutes-ish in the oven, checking often and turning and moving with a spatula so that it doesn't over cook. You can cook this much more quickly at a higher temperature but I am not usually johnny-on-the-spot-enough to accomplish this without burning at least some of it. Remove the kale and toss with Parmesan cheese. Eva loves this as well and today was so excited when I pulled it out of the oven. "Oh goody, that stuff!" she exclaimed. [large smile]