New baby, new sweater

It's been ages since I updated!. This is just a quickie to show off the sweater I'm making for SIL's baby due in November. I never made anything for the new niece in California when she was born in March, so that will be the next project. If I haven't burned out from getting back in the swing with knitting, then the things for the nephews will be forthcoming as well.

But on to the current project! I'm making the hooded version of Daisy from Knitty.com.

As you can see, I've nearly finished one side and am halfway through the back. Since it's for an infant, it's pretty fast going. Plus it's a dead easy pattern so I can knit on the T in the morning when I'm half asleep.

That's it for now. More when I'm further along on this project.

Picnic in the Park

Spouse wanted to have a picnic tonight, but since we had no picnic basket, I balked. Goodwill to the rescue! He found a never-used (tag still on, utensils still sealed) basket with plates, cups and utensils. So I prepped a meal and off we went to Dorchester Heights with a blanket and food.

Here is Spouse relaxing before the meal.


Me squinting in the sun.


Remains of the meal


Spouse confirms the time of the historical places bike ride he's going on tonight (it's midnight-6am and goes 30 miles)


Getting shoes on to head back down the hill to home


Sunset over Dorchester

And if you're interested, the meal was a caprese salad (tomato, basil and onion all local), oven chips with salt and rosemary (local potato), carrot and leek gratin and cod poached in proseco with rosemary, garlic and lemongrass.

Preparing for Winter

Spouse wants to have veggies put up this year. He says having food in the cupboards makes him feel secure. Unfortunately it's not a good tomato year what with the blight, but we're thinking of at least having pickles (especially since he ate the last of the cucumber refrigerator pickles this morning.)

So my mission for the rest of the growing season will be to gather and properly can things. I'm thinking cucumber pickles, pickled green beans and picked beets. If I can get some tomatoes at a decent price, I'll put a couple of jars of those up too. Brandied peaches seem to be calling my name as well, but they have so much sugar. Maybe I could substitute larger quantities of brandy to preserve them *hic* Ponder.

Hi, Mom

You know, just because I know you read this :)

Soup is good food

Yesterday I picked up some heirloom tomatoes at the farmers' market with a plan for summer soup. I fear the blight will make tomatoes scarce and expensive later this summer, so I thought I'd try this out while I had the chance (gone is the day when the non-heirlooms went on sale at the market for $1/lb!).

In spite of the heat, I decided to roast the tomatoes. I quartered (or sixthed if they were larger) them and placed cut side down on an oiled baking sheet an broiled for 15 minutes until the skin was partially blackened. While that was going on, I threw some sliced onion (also from farmers' market) in a pan to soften and partly caramelize. I removed about a third of the onion and then added the tomatoes, chopped, and some jarred roasted red peppers. About a cup tomato and some red pepper was left aside. The last thing to go in were a few big cloves of garlic I fished out of my pickle jar (did I mention I made pickles last week?) and set it all to simmer until flavours mingled and garlic softened. Poured soup into blender and puréed, then poured back into pot with reserved veg. A splash of light cream to bring it all together and it was ready to serve! Soup was served with fresh Thai basil and mozzarella on top with crusty bread on the side.

Sadly, I can't find my digital camera so was only able to take film pictures. If any come out (I'm still having issues winding my own film to develop) I'll scan them in and edit this post.

New Camera!

This is totally random, but I just bought a new camcorder and had to test it as soon as I got home. Here's a video of my cat Barnaby. Ignore the lame commentary.

Spouse is Home!

And he looks even skinnier! He said he had to hold his pants up going through security because they made him take off his belt. During his 4 hour layover in Paris, he left the airport and did a whirlwind tour of the city which included buying me a croissant. Do I have the best spouse or what? We ate it in Logan before getting a cab home.

It's so nice to have him back.