Official Turkey Day Run

Today was my "Official Turkey Day Run", what does that mean? It means a few hours at my local grocery store gathering all my food items in preparation for this coming Thanksgiving.

I'm pretty organized when it comes to this stuff, so I have a saved file with a list of my "Thanksgiving Menu", with all needed ingredients to make the menu, and I like to go in and out as fastest as I can.

I print the list out each year, take my calculator and pen, and off I go. I write prices down as I shop and tally it up on my calculator. My goal this year, really out of necessity, is to get the most for my $$. I'm aiming to stay under $150.00, which is pretty damn low for me cause I usually spend a few hundred. I have between 10 -12 mouths to feed, all adults, with the exception of my kids and 1 baby. This means that everyone will eat larger portions and even get seconds.

Here's what I'll be making:
**Turkey** (probably a 24lb one or bigger)


**Mashed Potatoes**


And so much more! Homemade stuffing, Carrots steamed with fresh Rosemary, Fresh string beans and corn, and dinner rolls, gravy, and of course cranberry sauce. Yum-O! I can just taste the food now!

I got my Turkey items, now all that waits is the prepping, which is mandatory to have a relaxing Turkey day. Guess how much I spent? My bill tallied up to $96.00! Of course I have 4 items left to buy, but that's gotta wait until Wednesday morning, and I know I'll stay under $50.00 with the remaining 4, plus I got everything in under 1 hour! Believe me the store was packed, everyone was turkey shopping, and all lines had cartfulls with like 4 people waiting in each line. I got lucky because the line next to me opened and the guy in front of me let me go ahead of him cause his girlfriend was off getting a last minute item.

Now that my grocery shopping is done, onto some yarny goodness. I got my latest installment of the Seven Deadly Spins Club, and is greedy!



Yellow to me is an acquired taste but this purse looks so pretty and fashionable.



I also got the coolest little $100 dollar stitch marker, but no pictures cause my camera could'nt focus on it.

This package made me greedy for more yarn, and wouldn't yah know, I also got me hands on some Pirate Booty!



Latest colorway is Herron. It reminds me of those cold rainy winter days that are gloomy. It has a nice shade of purple blended in that act like a mellow purple umbrella to add that sparkle to your day.



I think this colorway calls for a cowl! I'm starting to love cowls, there so addicting. I'll have to choose from the huge array of cowls I covet.

Another fun project I've been secretly working on is a pattern for a Christmas Stocking. I'm putting the finishing touches on it, and I'll share probably tomorrow. It's a fun festive project!

Well I'd love to stay and blog more but I gotta get my booty nighty night for me trabajo tomorrow.
Catch you tomorrow!

Were almost there

It seems like these weeks are flying by faster than I can catch up. So many changes, so many things to deal with nowadays.

As I've posted prior, my job has not be one that I've enjoyed, in most aspects. Anyways, I found my own inner peace and ways to enjoy myself and feel like I'm making progress. All that I've preached to my kids about making your environment enjoyable is actually paying off. I can also attribute my enjoyment to a co-worker who works with me, she's pretty cool, and we get along great. Were both very strong willed and both have a desire to make things work. I'm thankful she's there, it's definitely a nicer environment.

As for other things, my kids are just getting bigger and bigger. My daughter still wants to Trick'o Treat, she's 15yrs., but we have no kids to Trick'o Treat with, so she's kind of bummed. My son isn't interested, but more so because he has braces and candy isn't an option for him, plus he's a total health freak, literally, counts calories, saturated fats, etc.

Last time this year, I was working at my job of 7 years, I was living in the Central Valley in a brand new 3000 sq. foot home on a 13,000 sq. foot lot, 3 bath, 5 bedrooms, 3 car garage, on a half court, next door to my cousin, who is like my brother, commuting to work daily from Newman to San Jose to Palo Alto. This was my life then, now I'm back in San Jose, commuting about 25 minutes to work, sometimes less, living in a house, 4 bedroom, 3 bath, decent lot, probably about 7000-8000 sq. foot, renting it, and working at a new company, that I'm trying to grow into. What a difference time makes, huh?

These weeks, so fast, it's amazing. Halloween is just around the corner, and I can already feel Thanksgiving. This is my favorite time of the year, and sometimes I wish things would just slow down so I can really take in the season. I love the gloominess that comes, the misty mornings, the mornings you just want to have a nice warm cup of coffee or chai tea in bed, just relaxing and enjoying what nature has to offer. So, if your wondering what got me in this mood, it was, no joking around, the new Yarn Pirate colorway from the Booty Club I just received, "Smoke Rings". This color is so pretty and just emanates this time of year, the gloomy mornings, and smells of mist in the air. The name itself is cool, I love the names that the dyers come up with. They'd probably admit that it's actually very hard to come up with a name, and I believe them. What little dyeing I've done, and colors I've come out with, it's just a very hard thing to do, come up with a name. I'm working on really getting my dyeing going, to try and have a small customer base who would be interested in my hand-dyed yarn, so I pay attention to the names alot.

Just check this out, so soft and cool:



Look at this dye job, Yarn Pirate has such an awesome talent! I just admire her work, it is a very skillful thing to be able to have a dye lot come out like this:



There's no bleeding, the color changes blend so nicely:



**Drool!**

Real quick, but I leave yah.. hopefully drooling like me *-), I joined yet another Traveling Scarves group, #42 Tweeds! It's as you guessed, all about Tweeds! I love Tweeds, and as I said in my prior post, I'll be going with Tweed yarn for my Central Park Hoodie, and now I'll have a scarf to match it. I don't have any pics yet of my seedlet section, so keep on eye out.

Were almost to Friday folks 8) Enjoy!

Falling for Ewe Question of the Week #3 9-25-08

For my swap, Question of the Week #3:

What meals or foods mean Fall to you?



Since Fall is such a happy time for me spiritually, it is also one of the best times to show off real good home cooking. I'm not big on eating out, my family and I do eat out, or eat in, but I really work at making a fresh meal for my family nightly. I really love to cook and really care about the quality, presentation, and tastefulness of the food I cook. All I want from someone I serve is for them to enjoy the meal.

It's pretty funny, I'm a very strong willed person, but for things such as cooking, I'm utterly and completely at the mercy of my guests and family. I know it sounds weird, but my cooking and results mean so much to me, I'm always looking for facial expressions to see if the person is enjoying the food I made. Did I mention I was neurotic???

Well, besides being neurotic, I'm the same way when it comes to actually prepping my food, whether it's for a meal, appetizer, or baking. I use only the best quality products and freshest products available. I have a few favorite "Fall" Recipes, that I only make between October and November yearly.

The first, and my family's favorite, is Cranberry-Pumpkin Bread. I came across this recipe a long time ago, it was given away by a restaurant owner in New York. After about 2 yrs. making the recipe, I added my own secret ingredients to it, but all I can say is it is the most yummy and sweet & tart bread you'll eat. You make it with fresh Cranberries, Pumpkin, and Walnuts. The walnuts are optional. I'll share the foundation recipe with you, it is just scrumptious, if you ever get the chance to make it, I'm sure it will be a fave for you. Please keep in mind that the recipe makes a rather large quantity of bread, with one full batch I can usually divide the batter evenly to 4 standard sized bread pans. I love it warm, and fresh!

Here is the foundation recipe, which can also be found on FoodTV's website.


Ingredients

* 4 eggs
* 2 cups pumpkin puree
* 1 cup vegetable oil
* 4 cups sugar
* 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 4 cups cranberries

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In bowl combine eggs, pumpkin puree and oil. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Add cranberries and mix well. Divide dough into 2 (8 by 4-inch) loaf pans. Bake for 50 minutes.


Besides the yummy bread, others I make specifically in the Fall are:

*Pozole - A Mexican style soup. I make it as healthy as I can using boneless-skinless chicken breast, cubed, my own homemade chili-sauce (I make this in huge quantities during Tamale season and freeze it, it will as forever in the freezer), fresh chicken stock, hominy, cumin, mexican oregano, many other spices.

*Sarma - I was introduced to this food by my husband's Mother. She made it one day, and I was very hesitant to try it, but once I did, I just loved it. It is basically very lean ground beef, flavored heavily with mint, salt, pepper, seasonings, finely chopped bell pepper, onion, etc. You mix up the meat thoroughly with the ingredients, then take cleaned, stemmed whole grape leaves, and put some meat in them, roll into an eggroll shape, layer in an oven pan, pour some chicken stock over them, with some tomato paste, cook in oven until meat is no longer pink. Serve with homemade Rice Pilaf, no boxes! This is an absolute delicious dish, and great for your body!

So those are a few that I like and make seasonly. Now how can I leave you without sharing another yummy treat, hmmm.. fresh new yarn! Even better, from my Yarn Pirate Booty Club installment.

It's as if this yarn was waiting for this post because it fits the "Fall" theme to a *T* 8)
Yarn is Superwash Merino in colorway "Hard Cider"
Have a good weekend everyone!
~Rocky

Getting Ready for the Ravelympics 2008!

As you probably know, on Ravelry, there is a group for “Ravelympics2008�, where knitters, crocheters, like myself will compete in different events. Events range from WIPwrestling, which is completing as many WIPs as you can, or AmigurimiToss, making animals, Hand-Dyed Hurdles, dyeing yarn, and so on.

The competition will run parallel to the Official Summer Olympics in Beijing, CHINA, which starts this Friday, 8-8-8. Once ceremonies open, knitters have the green light to start knitting, dyeing, spinning, you name it, all until the ceremonies end.

I’ve joined a number of teams...

TEAM ROLL:

Team Knitting Bloggers EVENTS Hand-dyed hurdles & Handspun Heptathalon
Team Blue Moon EVENTS AmigurumiToss & Sockput & Cowljump
Team Hopelessly Overcommitted EVENT ShawlRelay
Team Junkie EVENTS MittenMedley & Hatdash
Team Bob EVENT FeltedFreestyle
Team Hogwarts EVENT HolidayHandball
Team Stashdown EVENT AmigurumiToss & Hatdash
Team Sundara EVENT Freeforallstyle
Team Loopy EVENT Sockput


Isn’t he a cutey!


So, I’m crazy, no?? But it is fun 8-) There’s no penalty for not completing your projects, but at least you apart of a team with the same purpose to complete your projects before end of ceremonies. Wish me luck 8-)

In other news, guess you could call it a “Online Yarn Crawl�….

I’ve gotten some goodies in, I was reading a blog, or got an email from the Yarn Pirate, can’t remember which happened first? Anyways I was able to score 2 skeins of Yarn Pirates Booty (boy doesn’t that sound weird..hee hee).

Feast your eyes on “Blueberry� , just luscious! Now I wish I had bought 2 of these.


And “Sweet Magnolia�, I just love the soft colors



Now to Knitterly Things, I usually check the shop update, and see if I can score some more Vesper yarn, usually I miss out, but this time I was at least able to get my hands on one of the cute “Wee Skein Kit’s� #37, which has colors: Mamacita, Algae, Neopolitan, and Strange Little Mama.




Onto Eat.Sleep.Knit, where I purchased some soft yarn “Pima Petite� in the “Gems of Turquoise� colorway.




And “BREAKING NEWS… JUST A ‘BIT AGO�
I got an email from Eat.Sleep.Knit. that they are now offering the newly coveted “Malabrigo Book One� book. I quickly clicked over and bought this puppy…. Ooh can’t wait…

Is that cover not to die for?? I want that pattern and yarn color!


Last, but not least, I finally received my pre-ordered “BIG Stitch� book, that I ordered from the Bagsmith, way back a million years ago, from then to now, I’ve moved, and this books been on a mission to get to me, finally. I completely forgot that I bought this until I got a phone call from the Bagsmith trying to track my new address down. What’s even nicer, I had no idea it would be signed by the author? So sweet, and there are some pretty cool patterns in this baby. These are to be used with EXTREME knitting needles, I bought size 50 at Stitches West 2008, there monsters, but totally cool! Can you believe the gauge requirements are 1 stitch per inch!!! OMG!