Pretty FO's

Kim's February Fitted Pullover. She likes it a lot. :) I think the yarn is BFL a light worsted weight. She picked it out from a BMFA barn sale a few years ago. And I think there is enough for a cute matching beret.

I attempted a new cinnamon roll recipe on Friday. They were so sticky it was hard to get them into the pan.

However, they rose nicely and tasted good. I found out after eating them though that there is something in them that my mouth doesn't like. We think it might be the potato flour and potato starch. I am going to play around with other starches to substitute this out. Gluten free baking is not easy!!

I finished these on the weekend too. FiberTrends Felted Clogs by Bev Galeskas. They were super quick and easy really. I used leftovers of Cascade 220. I didn't have enough of one color to do the same on each sole, so decided they needed to be different colors. I'll eventually get to Home Depot and buy some rubber stuff to paint on the bottom so I can wear them outside to get the mail. I have a second pair I want to make it solid purple and a periwinkle/lavender.

I'll get menus put up tomorrow. We keep changing things around, so it's not quite done yet.

Menus January 23-29

I've had two days out of the last week where I didn't feel absolutely like crap, so my menus are late, even though I had them done last week.

Sunday- Gluten free spaghetti with meat sauce, used ground buffalo and made sauce since most of them either have wheat or dairy in them.

Monday- Sushi, use smoked tuna, cream cheese, cucumbers, red bell peppers and rice.

Tuesday- Sniffle Stew, gluten free biscuits.

Wednesday- CP Apricot Turkey, brown rice, frozen mixed veggies.

Thursday- Gluten Free baked macaroni and cheese, Kim's version.

Friday- Baked Salmon with herbs, roasted red potatoes with dill and rosemary, green beans.

Saturday- Shepherd's Pie

I got Kim's February Lady Pullover done last night, but it's not blocked yet. She loves it! I also found a really cute beret using the same pattern to use up the rest of the yarn. I started my slippers for Stitches West today and they are so easy. I am almost done with one of them.

Menus January 16-22

This time I printed out our fancy Menu Planner that has the days of the week, B, L, and D and on the back it has the grocery list with it divided out by store sections. Robert made it up for me back when we lived in Corvallis I think. I haven't used it in a while and because I am trying harder to not leave everyone to their own devices, I figured it was better to print it out and start now. It makes life a lot more organized.

Last week, we ended up not doing the BBQ chicken or the Beef and Broccoli. One of those days we decided leftovers were in store and the other day I can't remember what we had.

Sunday- beef fajitas with peppers, onions, mushrooms, corn tortillas, sour cream and chopped spinach

Monday- Leftovers from the weekend--mashed potato patties, steamed broccoli, CP Best Brussel Sprouts from More, Make it Fast, Cook it Slow. Pho noodle soup?

Tuesday- CP Pesto Minestrone Soup from More Make it Fast, Cook it Slow, GF Corn bread

Wednesday- Turkey Lettuce Wraps like PF Changs does, roasted root vegetables. I found the Chicken Lettuce Wrap recipe years ago and have not tried it with turkey yet. Kim can't have chicken, and we will use GF soy sauce.

Thursday- Grilled Leg of Lamb, Greek Quinoa Salad, Hummus and chips, tzatziki sauce

Friday- Baked Potatoes, chili from freezer, swiss chard

Saturday- Spaghetti with meat sauce using ground buffalo, chopped salad

Any of these days could be swapped out for leftovers if there is too much stuff in the fridge or if we have other things come up.

I recently bought both cookbooks from the website A Year of Slow Cooking. It's easier for me to look at a cookbook than to try to search for things on her blog. That doesn't mean I will stop reading her blog.

Finished a Vest

Nothing new here, knitting away all week, thinking of menu ideas now for the week. Will post those tomorrow.

I did finish the hooded vest as a test knit for Samantha Roshak. I went downtown Portland on Wednesday and found some clasps I am going to try on it. They are darker than the picture shows, they don't have the gleam on them.

It's hard to see the color here but it's a dark green with blue in it. Malabrigo worsted in Verde Azul. Oh, if you go to my Flickr account you can see both of the pictures I uploaded to Ravelry and see them bigger there to see the color a little bit better.

I am getting close to being down with Kim's pullover. I finished the front neckline this evening and have put the back stitches back on the needles and will finish that tomorrow. I still have sleeves to do, but we think we might do short sleeves, it depends on how much yarn we have left. It looks like half a ball at this point. We started with a full ball and made a good 3/4 of the sweater with it. I don't positively know what yarn it is, but it is a Blue Moon worsted, or dk.

Lily got a new toy this week. It's supposed to keep her mind busy trying to figure out how to get the squirrels (that look like chipmunks) out. She had fun with it the other night and was able to get one out. I see all three on the floor now, so need to stick them back in the stump for later. We are talking in both of them, but you don't need the sound on, we were mostly talking to Robert in the background. I'm loading the videos onto Flickr and it is sooooo slow getting them up.

This first one shows her playing with the stump, trying to figure it out.

This one shows her doing the same and finally getting one squirrel out.

Yesterday I made some yummy breakfast sausages from ground lamb, garlic, sage, salt and pepper. I see more of these in our future. They were easy and freeze nicely making a quick breakfast in the morning later.

I'm listening to a Sherlock Holme's book on tape. The Sign of the Four. I got two versions from the library, one is unabridged and not a super good narrator. The other one is an abridged version done by the BBC. I think that one will be better in forms of voices they will use. :) It is in preparation for a Victorian Writer's club package from Woolgirl. The first one is Sherlock Holmes. We (as a group) are reading a book from each author before that shipment. Should be fun.

Menu January 9-13

This is what I have so far and it will be tweaked as we go along.

Sunday: Lentil soup and gluten free cornbread

Monday: Gluten free homemade pizza made from Pamela's All Purpose Flour, red sauce, turkey pepperoni, olives, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, red bell's and cheddar goat cheese, romaine salad with cucumbers, tomatoes and pistachio nuts

Tuesday: Broiled fish tacos(tilapia) with guacamole, lettuce, tomatoes, corn tortillas, sour cream, grated cheese and salsa

Wednesday: BBQ baked chicken, risotto, brussel sprouts

Thursday: Beef & broccoli, rice

Lost

I know, I have been non-existent here. I'm sorry. I've thought about blogging, then realize I really don't have much to say. I am going to try harder though.

We have had a lifestyle change at our house over the last two months. It's been hard, though not impossible. I don't remember if I said much when Kim went on an allergy friendly diet. She went gluten free, mostly dairy free, chicken egg free, and peanut free. There were some other things in there too, but these were the biggest ones. That was around Thanksgiving of 2009. She has done really well on this diet and rotating her foods through so she isn't eating the same thing every day. This last fall, the other three of us did an allergy panel as well and found that most of the same things we needed to avoid. Gluten, milk and chicken eggs. We did switch to duck eggs last year, mostly for Kim, but now two of us have found we can't tolerate them either. :( Eggs are such a great protein for us and this is hard to get rid of. If you look at any of the good breads that are out there in the gluten free world, there are eggs in them. We have been trying to make bread at home and just haven't gotten it right yet. Soon I hope. We really miss bread. Good protein breakfasts are hard now at our house since the eggs are out. Anyways, enough whining on that. I will try to post some recipes once in a while that we have found to be good. We did come up with the most awesome chocolate chip cookies that taste exactly like the ones we made before going gf. Today Kim is in the kitchen with some gf oats and I don't know what else. She's making something that I am sure will be tasty! She likes experimenting even if it fails.

On the knitting front, I've done quite a few things for the BSD (Beaverton School District) Yarnfest. It goes to help out the 1600+ homeless kids in our school district.

I've also been working on several sweaters. My Traveling Sweater that I started in Ireland is still only about 1/2 way done. I've got 3 other sweaters on needles as well. 2 for me and 1 for Kim. One is actually a test knit that I am almost done with. Deadline is Tuesday and I have to sew the pockets on, weave in a few ends and block it. It is a hooded vest/cardi for Knitquest. She has been designing a lot of sweaters lately and I love it!! Sam is a friend from the first year of BMFA Sock Camp. I joined a group on Ravelry called 12 in 2011. We are making our way through some of our stash, queue and patterns that we already have, so one of my sweaters in the February Lady Fitted Pullover for Kim. It is in an amazing green that will look good on her.

Other things I will be doing in regard to knitting, going to Stitches West in Santa Clara, California in February! I am taking three classes in hopes of preparing myself to do more tech editing of knitting patterns. Two of the classes are actually on tech editing and one is on designing your dream sweater. I actually have a drawing of a sweater I wanted to make several years ago and I think I have a picture of a sweater/vest that I saw in a store a couple of years ago. I am excited to go. I'm taking some extra time to spend before and after with my parents as well.

Oh, the other thing I am doing, I signed up for some writing classes through the Community Education at the local community college. Those start in about 10 days. I signed up for three classes, but they aren't all at the same time. They do overlap a few days on each one, but for the most part they will be by themselves. They are all online as well, so I don't have to commit to being "in" class every session.

Christmas 2010 of Kim and Lily. It almost matches last years picture.

Christmas 2009 Kim and Lily.