Ok, I'll put it away.

 

But really, can you blame me when you look at this darling little Santa baby!  This is the little tree that usually sits on the table next to the window and reading chair.  Last year brought new counters, cabinets and most exciting a new outlet, so that's where I set up the wee tree and with all the grey, very cold winter days I had it plugged in all the time.  Quite cheerful!

My friend Helga crocheted the outfit.  The baby is 6 inches and the mittens and boots are only an inch big!  It just makes me smile.

It might get to 70 degrees today so I guess I can put it away.

Craftsy

Do you know it?  It's a craft community with classes and dialog.  They offer quite a few free classes, free patterns etc.  It's not just sewing, there's all kinds of stuff you can learn.

Yesterday, I learned that an equals sign (=) with a tilde (⁓) over it stands for approximately.  At least that's what the knitting teacher said when she wrote it on the white board.

First time I have used the word tilde this year.  You?

I Heart Spinach

There are only three vegetables that I really like frozen, corn, peas and spinach.  (Which is why I recently threw out a bag of frozen mixed vegetables with a best by date of 2009.)  Buying spinach in a 1 pound bag rather than the solid 10-oz. block works the best for me.  I like to add it to scrambled eggs and to rice as well as soups and casseroles.  Tonight I tried this recipe and it will be "in the rotation" as it was fast, easy and very, very good.

The original recipe came from this here and this is my version:

Tortellini Skillet – adapted from  Hungry Harps

1 teaspoon olive oil

6 oz chicken sausage (2 Italian Parmesan bun sized sausages)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 pint home grown tomatoes (or a 14 oz. can)

8 oz frozen spinach, defrosted

½  cup chicken broth

1 ½ teaspoons Italian seasoning

8 oz. tortellini, fresh or frozen

 Heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat, remove sausage from casings and add to pan with the  garlic. Break up sausage and cook until it starts turning golden brown.

 Add tomatoes, spinach, chicken broth and Italian seasoning to skillet. Stir well.

 Add tortellini, stir well and bring ingredients to boil. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until tortellini is cooked. 

 3 servings  (Leftover tortellini get really soft and mushy so for optimum enjoyment, it would behoove you to add only as many tortellini as you will eat in one sitting.)

A Big Find

The sorting here really never ends and today I found what I knew was here somewhere....U.S.  postage stamps!

I guess the safe place for them was the envelope from the post office but the envelope itself was tucked in a small miscellaneous box of stuff.

Seventy one Liberty Bell Forever Stamps, eight assorted 41¢ stamps, one 4¢ stamp and seven flag stamps which are not marked but are also 41¢ stamps.  Those were the ones in the envelope and I also currently have at my fingertips, fourteen holiday Forever Stamps, five 26¢ stamps and two 37¢ Ogdan Nash stamps.  I know there are other stamps floating around the house.

If I can keep track of these stamps, I am pretty sure I will never need to buy stamps again.

Or perhaps I should just be sending more mail.

Never Ending Excitement

 

Now that the temperature is above freezing at night, I am filling the outside water dish.  The boys find this so thrilling that they only drink from the inside water bowl at night and request to go outside during the day.  By requesting I mean that Jack carries around a shoe until I ask him if he needs to go out and Dylan just lays his head on my chest and stares at me until I telepathically get the message.

Really, it's the same water silly boys!

5 lbs of Carrots and a New Toy

 

Maybe not a toy but certainly not a necessity as I do have a blender.  A blender is kind of a pain to clean and kind of a pain to store.  The stick blender, or immersion blender, is easy to store and easy to clean.  It is one more thing with a cord though.  Perhaps I can get rid of the blender.  Please speak up if you think that would be unwise.

I've been wanting to make the Smitten Kitchen's Carrot with Miso Soup since I saw it on her website in January.  This recipe was actually from a year ago and she made a different version this January.   This is my version:

2 Tablespoons olive oil

2 pounds carrots, peeled, sliced and divided

½ pound sweet potato, peeled and sliced the same size as the carrots

1 large onion, chopped

4 regular sized cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed

1 ½ tablespoons chopped or grated ginger, or more

4 cups of chicken broth

1 (15-oz) can of vegetable broth

¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon of unseasoned miso paste

Heat oil in a large, heavy saucepan over medium heat.   Add onion, garlic and half the carrots; sauté until onion is translucent, about 10 minutes.  Add chicken broth and ginger.  Cover and simmer until carrots are tender, about 30 minutes.

In a small, covered saucepan, simmer remaining half of the carrots in the vegetable broth.

Purée soup in batches in a blender or all at once with an immersion blender right in the pot.   (I under blend mine so there are some noticeable carrot pieces.) Blend the miso and about half a cup of the soup in a small bowl then stir back into the pot.  Remove carrots from small saucepan with a slotted spoon, then add vegetable broth until soup is desired consistency.   

Taste soup, adding salt and pepper or more miso to taste.

Note:  I added the sweet potato because I only had a pound and a half of carrots when I made the soup.  I decided I wanted more carrot chunks and a broth-ier soup so I ran to the store this morning to get more carrots and a can of vegetable broth since that's what the original recipe called for.

I love this soup.  One of the best I have ever made and it seems like there is cream in it although there isn't.  In fact there is almost no fat in it either. 

Miso I used (Korean) from Asian food store.  $2.19

On the Needles 3/2/13

As usual, a day late in posting this but it's coming along!  In class on Thursday, Elizabeth gently reminded me that I should be knitting at home not just in class.  Pitifully, I have been knitting at home but just not enough.

The bottom edge is 23 inches and the sides are 10 inches.  I don't think the bottom edge really is the bottom edge.  The part in the middle is not the neck opening, at least I don't think so.  All part of the surprise.