Knit Think

Friday food

Or rather, Friday guilt.

Princess Gracie had quite the trip to the vet yesterday. The journey started a few weeks ago, when she went to the groomer for her routine spa day--yes, it worries me that Gracie gets more spa trips than I do--and the groomer noted that Gracie had an ear infection. This is a fairly common issue for Her Royal Highness, so off to the vet we trotted. While giving her a going-over, the vet discovered that she not only had an ear infection, but a rather badly abscessed tooth. Full of pus and general grossness. So, antibiotics for the abscess and a return for some dental work under general anesthesia, possibly to remove the tooth.

You'd think we'd have noticed something like that.

In our defense, Gracie is, for a princess, hardly a delicate flower. She never gives us an indication when something's not right. Ear infection? Fffft. Abscessed tooth? Who cares? She ate her crunchy dog food with great gusto and pranced around the house pretty much like she always did. OK, maybe a little lower key, but she is 8 after all, a little slowdown could be expected, right?

So off to the vet bright and early yesterday morning, with no breakfast. Ohhhh...the guilt started early. Gracie watched Holli have breakfast, but didn't get any of her own. She was completely befuddled and kept staring at me, as if to say, Mom, what did I do wrong? I didn't mean it! Please feed me!

But even better was when the vet's office called during the procedure to tell us that not only did the abscessed tooth have to go, there were 4 more that needed to go too. Five! Five teeth pulled! The vet's office was flummoxed too--the other teeth looked fine from the gums, but the x-rays showed a different story.

So poor Princess Gracie has been hobbling around with no less than five teeth in miserable shape in her little princess mouth.

She's home now, snoring away, exhausted from this less-than-spa-like experience. She'll be on soft foods for two weeks--which means none of her favorite rawhide chews--and then, remarkably, she'll be back to normal. Normal, minus five teeth.

But no Christmas goodies for her. Even though she doesn't know what Christmas is, that still makes me feel bad.

I guess Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a little guilt somewhere.

Holiday tour!

Ah, 'tis the season. I do love me some Christmas. I love all our decorations, even the ones I'm too lazy to use. But Miss T. and I thought perhaps y'all would like to see what warms our hearts this time of year. Welcome to a Knit Think Christmas!

The basket I use to display Christmas cards. Very cheery.

Candles! Lots of candles. I like candles. I've no doubt there are many of you out there who could do a very artful job of arranging them. Not me. I just slap 'em on the chest and enjoy the randomness.

This tree, which is metal, has little shelves behind each open star. The idea is to put tealight candles on the shelves, which would then light up the tree. However, since at least one of our dogs (I'm talkin' to you, Gracie) would find lit candles an appealing sort of toy, we've never actually tried it out. Geez. If it's not kids, it's dogs.

We also have lots of homemade, high-sentimental-value decorations, such as the above picture, done by my dad on a scroll saw. Or, from my dearly departed (several years ago) MIL, who was a very gifted ceramicist:

A few years back, DH got a bee in his bonnet and decided to embark, with the boys (they weren't Teens yet), on a large paper mache project.

This was quite the undertaking. Damn near wrecked my Kitchen Aid mixer, and took almost a month to dry. But the kids loved it, and so do we. Just for scale:

And, of course, the official tree.

Yes, it's artificial. Sorry about that. Have I mentioned some general laziness in our household? But still, respectable, yes? And lots of fun ornaments. Got this one at a local craft show a few years back:

 

Another of my dad's scroll saw pieces:

Among my favorites are the handmade school Christmas gifts. Oh, how I miss those days, when the kids would bring home their felt and glitter and painted projects. I may be a cranky old thing at times, but I have a huge soft spot for all my kids' projects and presents.

 

Then there are fun ornaments, gifted to me by friends.

 

What? You don't have South Park characters on your tree?

 

And I do believe every Christmas tree needs its own Starship Enterprise. Heck--why have just one? There are so many versions of that venerable ship.

With another scroll-saw Santa in between, and R2D2 traveling upper right. Space is a busy place.

Beware the Borg!

 

Even worse--beware the Borg Queen. Oh no! What will happen to Capt. Picard!
 

I don't even know what the hell this is. Deep Space 9, maybe? Nearly crashing into a reindeer. That final frontier is a dangerous place.

 

I think--don't hold me to this--that what we've got here is a Romulan warbird. Because truly, nothing says Christmas like a Romulan attack.

Hey! What's on your tree?

Making it easy to do good

I just saw this over on Erica's site. Photographer Sarah McGee has a wonderful website where, if you comment between now and Dec. 26, she'll donate 50 cents per comment to Minnesota's Second Harvest Heartland food shelter. That's it--all you have to do is comment, and your pithy words will translate into food for people in need. Go! What are you waiting for? Comment! 

Friday food

We're not doing it as an Iron Chefettes, but Miss T. and I both got a late-fall CSA box from Loon Organics. It was full of the goodness of the end of the season, and many of the items will actually keep quite a while, hence the slowing down and not going Iron-Chefette crazy. One of the items in the box was a butternut squash. I'd seen this recipe floating around the interwebs, and decided this was the perfect time to try it. 

Not particularly difficult, but a little time-consuming. Anything that calls for peeling and dicing a big honkin' butternut squash will be that way.

Well, first you slice a few thin rounds, then dice the rest. Put them on baking sheets that you've brushed with olive oil, then add some fresh sage leaves. Roast away in a 375 oven for 15-20 minutes. Your kitchen will smell quite nice.

While you're doing that, you saute some chopped onion and garlic in olive oil, then add broth and cook up some quinoa. I love quinoa and had been wanting to find more ways to use it. As it turned out, I had some plain quinoa and some red Inca quinoa, so I mixed those together, with, I think, pleasing results.

Eventually the quinoa is mixed with the diced squash, along with some Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and more chopped sage. 

The recipe then instructs you to use nonstick spray in a glass pie dish. You can see I did not use a glass pie dish. I could not find my glass pie dish. I own one. All the baking dishes are in one cupboard. I pulled everything out. It is not there. And it's not like I make so much pie that it might have been in use.

You see, the Teens are in charge of emptying the dishwasher. They know very well where baking dishes go. But I think one or the other of them got distracted and decided the glass pie dish needed to go elsewhere. Where would that be? Who knows? Clearly I don't think like a Teen, because I looked all over the kitchen and couldn't find it. This worried me--when the recipe specifies a glass baking dish, there's usually a good reason for it.

But onward. I had roasted squash and cooked quinoa that needed combining and baking. So--I sprayed my metal pie pan, put a few more leaves of sage in it, topped with the sliced squash, and finally the quinoa mixture. The recipe says to "press" the quinoa in, and then bake. I thought I "pressed," but apparently I did not, for when it came time to invert the pie, it all collapsed.

Oh well.

Even with two kinds of quinoa, even in a metal pie plate, even not properly pressed, this was still delicious. Oh. So good! Loved it! Loved it the next day heated up! Even Teen 2 ate seconds! And so darned healthy! Goodness--I could almost pretend that I care about nutrition by eating this!

Maybe I should add bacon next time.

Lights, camera...

The setting: a suburban Target parking lot, 2 1/2 weeks before Christmas, on a day when a snowstorm is scheduled to arrive.

The character: Our Heroine, a harried, matronly, suburban-type Mom.

The plot so far: Our Heroine has raced to Target early in the morning, hoping to beat crowds before heading to a work meeting, to buy the oh-so-glamorous things her household needs, like toilet paper and laundry detergent.

Action!

Our Heroine is hastily stuffing all her many purchases into her Gecko Green VW Bug, when--riiiiiip--the 17.5-pound bag of Iams Active Maturity Senior Dog Formula food catches on the box of laundry detergent as it's being hoisted into the back seat (the trunk being full of all those other glamorous things).

What would Our Heroine do? Would she:

1. Holler "SON OF A BITCH!" at the top of her lungs, thus angering the mother who's herding young children past the Bug?

2. Burst into maniacal, shrieking laughter, thus scaring the mother who's herding young children past the Bug?

3. Do all of the above?

Feel free to discuss, while I get out the shovel. And not for the snow.

Here we have some Christmas knitting

Fa la la la la, la la la la.

I've actually been knitting up a storm, I just can't show it because some of the recipients read (or I egotistically think they do) my blog. However, this is for someone who doesn't. Isn't it pretty? The Lotus Leaf Scarf in Frog Tree yarn. So soft, so sweet. And that blue is amazing--you can't really see it here, and I did try photographing it under different lights and on different backgrounds, but it has just the slightest violet undertones throughout. Scrumptious.

So scrumptious, in fact, that I've reconsidered its status as a gift. To anyone but me.

I wish me a merry Christmas, I wish me a merry Christmas, I wish me a merry Christmas, and a selfish New Year.

So, seeing as how it would come as no surprise to me under the tree, I put it down for a while and started the same pattern, same yarn, different color, for the previously intended recipient.

Isn't it pretty? The Lotus Leaf Scarf in Frog Tree yarn. So soft, so sweet. And that green is amazing--you can't really see it here, and I did try photographing it under different lights and on different backgrounds, but it has just the slightest silver-gray undertones throughout. Scrumptious.

Oh dear. Deja vu. How can I give this one up?

It appears that what we have here is not the Christmas edition of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, but Conundrums of the Rude and Greedy.

I will persevere and overcome these deplorable tendencies. The green scarf will be gifted, to someone other than me.

Really.

I mean it this time.

Christmas better come soon.

Friday food

I thought that today I'd give a shout-out to poor Rudee, who has been such a good sport for taking all the teasing I give her about not liking eggs.

Although I do have to pause for a moment and think about that. How can you *not* like eggs?

OK. Moving on.

Rudee shared a recipe with me that I made for Thanksgiving.

It's easy, and very pretty. You mix 1 cup chopped cranberries, 2 cups diced red apple, 1 cup diced celery, 1 cup red seedless grapes cut in half, and 1/4 cup toasted and chopped walnuts. You could also add 1/3 cup raisins, but Rudee noted that she doesn't use them, and I didn't either. Isn't it pretty, all bright and festive?

But we're not done yet.

Next I combined 8 ounces of vanilla yogurt (the recipe called for low-fat, but when I went to the grocery store, the choice was full-fat or non-fat--and shockingly, I opted for the latter) with 2 tablespoons sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Then toss with the nummies in the other bowl.

Cranberry Waldorf Salad. Totally delightful, and such a nice contrast to the rest of the Thanksgiving table, laden with starch and protein as it was. Everyone loved it. I do believe there's a strong possibility it will reappear at Christmas.

So, Rudee, I guess I forgive you for not liking eggs. Even if most of the time, I'd have to view that as a major character flaw.

Thankful

'Tis the season for thankfulness, and I have many reasons to be so. If you also have much to be thankful for and can share, please read Laurie's blog post today and consider helping someone who could desperately use some reasons to be thankful this Thanksgiving season.

Friday food

I recently won a Major Award--although it wasn't fre-gee-lay. Nope, this prize was meant to be taken apart, sliced and diced, soaked in water and subjected to high temperatures.

You can see that it was a good prize.

You have to love a box that comes with this note on the outside.

Inside--look at the treasures!

What are all those goodies? So colorful! So varied! So many of them!

Let's take a closer look.

Dried mushrooms. Specifically: samples of maitake, porcini, chantarelle, shiitake, oyster, black trumpet, lobster, and matsutake mushrooms.

But that's not all.

Aren't they pretty?? What we have--or rather, what *I* have, too bad for you--is samples of puya, pasila negro, habanero, chipotle, ancho, aji panca, japones, new mexico, ghost, smoked serrano, and aji cereza peppers.

And that's still not all.

Salts: Hawaiian black, gray sea, smoked sea, habanero, Hawaiian red sea, espresso, szechuan pepper, and lime. Oh: and vanilla sugar, granulated honey, and demerara sugar.

Wow. What riches. Thank you so much, Katie!

I'm still contemplating all my choices. What do you guys think? Any suggestions? Some of the items I'm familiar with (chipotle, ancho), others not so much (espresso salt?). What should I do with these things? How shall I cook with them? What would taste good?

Happy news for me!

Wander Minnesota