in-laws!

Due to my husband's bum leg, my in-laws have come up for a visit to help us out around the house for a couple days.  One of the main things we wanted some help with was food!!  Last night my mother-in-law made several casseroles to freeze so we could have some go-to meals.  Yay!!!

To keep things uncomplicated, I didn't tell her about the use-my-stash challenge.  :-)  I think it's hard enough for her to figure out what ingredients I have to work with.  For example, she reported that she used up all of the zucchini I had but made sure to keep one so we'd have enough to make a dish for the two of us later.  I was shocked - I had a LOT of zucchini in the refrigerator.  I couldn't get over it, so this morning I looked through the fridge and...yeah, I still have about a dozen zucchinis...  I suppose most people don't have zucchini in 3 different locations in their refrigerator, huh?

She also used "the ground beef" from the freezer...and I had to ask about which of the 2 freezers it came from & from which shelf, because there are many "the ground beef"s in the freezers.  Kind of a good lesson for me!  At least with this purging I have made a list of everything I have; it would be wise to keep this list updated so I don't end up thinking I need to go out and buy more ground beef when I've already got 3 pounds at home!

In addition to MIL's using of various items (possibly using up all of the frozen chicken breasts & chocolate chips...but I'm not sure yet - haven't had time to check!), there were a few other point-earners yesterday:

-corn tortillas +1 (#1)
-Chinese food +0.5 (#1)
-pesto +2 (#1, #3)

Total July 18:  3.5
Running total:  76

monday, monday

Point-earning consumption on Monday, July 16 - Wednesday, July 18:



-dried strawberries +1 (#1)
-orange +1 (#1...the last one!)
-mushroom gravy mix +2 (#1, #3)
-beef +1 (#1)
-onion soup mix +2 (#3, #5)
-carrot-top pesto +1 (#1)
-cheese +1 (#1)
-salsa +1 (#1)
-blackberries +1 (#4)
-cream soup mix +1 (#1)

Total points earned:  12
Running total:  72.5

july 12 - 15

Breakfast:
-corn tortillas
-peanut butter
-jam
-kale
-banana
-a fun Chinese cake
-the-town's-best-latte!!!!!

Lunch:
-3-seed bread (don't worry folks, only 2 slices to go!)
-carrot-top pesto
-pine nuts
-cheese
-baby carrots +1 (#1...I'm giving myself a point for these even though there are other carrots at home...I need some points!)
-potato
-orange

Dinner:
-hm...I don't remember what we ate!

July 13, 14 & 15 (summary):

finished up:
-3-seed bread +1
-leftover chicken +0.5
-Reese's pieces +1
-Reese's mini cups +1
-pumpkin spice trail mix +1
-flour tortillas +1

from the garden:
-blackberries +1

ForeverFoods:
-tomato juice (I made gazpacho) +1 +1 (I used it up, too) +1 (new recipe)
-baking mix +1 +1 (#1)
-chocolate sauce +1 (post-run chocolate milk) +1
-frozen grapes +1

That's more or less what happened.

Total new points:  15.5
Running total:  60.5

garden delights

Wednesday was a GOOD day in the garden!  An unexpected surprise and an anticipated joy both came to pass:

-Surprise!  I have adorable eggplants.
I had purchased 2 eggplant plants from a nursery in the late spring.  I know very little about eggplant varieties and just knew that my husband does not like the "typical" type but has enjoyed the long, what I often hear called "Asian," eggplants that we had at various meals in (appropriately) China.  I picked out two plants that had pictures of long, thin purple or white fruits and plunked them in the ground.  The other day I noticed that they both had the teeniest little oblong fruits forming.  Baby eggplants in full color!  How cute!!  I was excited they'd be on their way to my table in the coming weeks.

But then...yesterday through a strange series of events I realized that...they're both SUPPOSED to be only teeny tiny!  I had purchased Fairy Tale and Gretel varieties, and both of these are bred to make fruits that are best around 3" long.  I quickly ran out to the garden and picked them all off before they got too big!

The bad news that I will still not have the long eggplants I was aiming for is reconciled by the fact that I have lots of the cutest eggplants ever!!!

-Joy!  The blackberries are here!!!
Husband and I have been waiting...and waiting...and waiting for the many, many wild blackberry canes around our property to bear and ripen.  Yesterday after nabbing my babies, I ventured to take a peek at the blackberries, and...THEY WERE READY!!  A few, at least.  And thus begins the blackberry season.  I need to make sure I wear some heavy, long clothes.  Those canes really like to grab on!

Look for these ingredients coming up soon-ish.  I don't have an exact plan for either yet.

focusing again!

After a weekend of "survival mode" I've regrouped a little and have some semblance of a plan for moving ahead with the get-rid-of-food plan.  Still may end up eating out more often than originally anticipated, but that's okay.

Monday, July 9

Breakfast:
-kale
-banana
-oatmeal
-chia seeds
-dried strawberries
-milk
-coffee

Lunch:
-potatoes, carrots & zucchini +1 +1 bonus (#2 - carrots)
-cucumber
-ham & cheese sandwich with lettuce

Dinner:
-we went out.  The day ended a little crazily.

Tuesday, July 10

Breakfast:
-cottage pancakes +1 (#1) 
-jam
-yogurt +1 (#1) (this is good, because I will have to stop eating yogurt for a study I'm volunteering for next week)
-black raspberries +1 (#4)

Lunch:
-3-seed bread
-carrot-top pesto
-potato & black bean burritos +0.5 (#1)
-apple
-peas +1 +1 bonus (#2)
-baby carrots

Dinner:
-tortillas
-deli ham +1 (#1)
-lettuce
-cheese
-orange

Wednesday, July 11

Breakfast:
-banana
-bread
-peanut butter
-kale
-milk
-coffee
-berries

Lunch:
-tuna pasta +1  (I'd made a batch of these several months ago & stored in the freezer for go-to lunches.  Today I needed a go-to lunch!)
-raspberries +1
-corn
-carrots
-apple

Dinner:  it's a little lame-o, but technically this was a new recipe for me...cook chicken in the slow-cooker with broth, use the broth to make gravy!  +1
-chicken
-potatoes
-gravy mix +1 +1 (#1 & #3)
-lettuce
-cucumber

Total July 9:  2
Total July 10:  6.5
Total July 11:  4
Running Total:  45

a turn of events!

Well...Thursday, July 5 began some added excitement at the home...

Breakfast:
-yogurt
-black raspberries +1 (#4)
-3-seed bread
-peanut butter
-strawberry jam

Lunch:
-tuna casserole
-spinach
-carrots +0.5 (#1)

Snack:
-apple

**at 5p.m. my husband called to tell me he had broken his leg and was laying on the ground in our yard.  I left work as quickly as I could, checked that he was ok (the police were there when I arrived, and the ambulance was on its way), then ran inside to get some things ready and to get him some water...and Reese's peanut butter cups.

Disaster-control:
-Reese's
-trail mix +1 (#1)
-amaranth cookies
-peas

Dinner:
-Chick-fil-A

Relief:
-chocolate peanut-butter cup ice cream (new acquisition)

Not quite what I had anticipated.

Admittedly, the rest of the week & weekend was not the best eating, and using up my food was not the first thing on my mind by a long shot.

Friday consisted of something like this...

Breakfast:
-Cottage pancakes, a Starbucks' latte, and orange & more Reese's

Lunch:
-who knows.

Dinner:
-hm...leftovers, I'm sure.

I know that over the course of the weekend I managed to use up some leftovers, so I'm giving myself 1 point.

All in all, I'd say this weekend earned me 3.5 points.  Sounds good to me...

Running Total:  32.5 points

the top ten...er...more than ten

Here are the items that are in my ForeverFood group.  That means I've had them sitting around forever!  I especially want to make sure I get these gone forever, too!  Unfortunately, even if I used up one of these items each day, it would take nearly 2 months to get through all of them...!

tomato juice
apple butter
blueberry-lime jam
peach jam
popcorn
baking mix
alphabet pasta
mung beans
weird chocolate bar
sweetened condensed milk
turkey gravy mix
mushroom gravy mix
onion soup mix
instant chocolate pudding
flan mix
strawberry jello
peppercorn steak marinade
bernaise sauce
chocolate syrup
melting chocolate
dipping chocolate
Dutch-processed cocoa
brown lentils
Devil's food cake mix
powdered sugar
sweet buttermilk cream
shortening
Karo syrup
lemonade mix
Kool-Aid mix
Thai tea base
dried chiles
zucchini (frozen)
French fries (frozen)
grapes (frozen)
cherries with pits (frozen)
pesto (frozen)
thin-sliced turkey breast
wheat germ
BBQ sauce
bulgur
flax seeds
maple syrup
walnut oil
Dijon mustard
pearl barley
Key West sauce
salad dressing
butterscotch chips
blackstrap molasses
pancake syrup
mulling spices
Teeccino
apple cider mix
tea

july 3 & 4

Here's what went out of my pantry/cupboard/freezer/refrigerator July 3 & 4.  When I left you with July 2's update, my Running Total of points was 6.

July 3
Breakfast:
-yogurt
-granola +1 (#1)
-fresh red raspberries
-fresh black raspberries +1 (#4) -- these were REALLY fresh; picked just 5 minutes prior.  :-D
-frozen grapes +1 (#3)

Lunch:
-meatballs +0.5 (#1)
-orange

Snack:
-Larabar
-salad

Dinner:
Dinner was prepared for us today as we were hosting a dinner party (that someone else cooked!), so I didn't get a chance to use up anything...except a huge bag of ICE!  (+1; #1)
...unfortunately, I also ended up with a few of the party leftovers...boooo!

Total July 3:  3.5
Running Total:  9.5

___________________________________________________________________________

July 4
Breakfast:
-yogurt
-fresh black raspberries +1 (#4)
-3-seed bread
-peanut butter
-kale
-banana

Lunch:
-BBQ chicken
-peach
-spinach
-cucumber
-corn...leftover from the party! +0.5 (#1)
-carrots

Snacks:
-trail mix +1 (#1)
-peanut butter cookie

And...here's where the day gets great!!

A.  Since it was a holiday, I had the day off from work, and I took that opportunity to finally make some sauce from the tomatoes from my garden of last year.  They've been sitting in the freezer.  Why...?  Well, when the tomatoes were ripe, we happened to be in the process of moving...and I was also taking a cross-country trip...and basically I just didn't have time to deal with the tomatoes at the moment.  Plus, who wants to can tomato sauce when it's ultra-hot?  Why not just wait until the winter when you'd actually WELCOME the heat of the stove?

And...apparently I did not ever can them in the winter, either.

So - at any rate, I used up the tomatoes that were plaguing my freezer (now they'll just be sitting as sauce in jars, plaguing my pantry, but ah well!).  I tried out the recipe from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, with very slight modifications because I happened to not have exactly all the right quantities of the dried herbs & spices.  As a sort of added bonus, I used up several containers of herbs & spices that hadn't been on my get-rid-of list but likely have been sitting around for far too long.  Now I can acquire FRESH dried herbs & spices!!  +3 (#1 & #4 & #6)

B.  There was a cookout we were headed to in the evening, and that meant I could bring food that I would not need to consume - others could help me clear it out of the house!  Hooray.  In addition to some of the leftover items from Tuesday's party at our house (beverages, potato salad...+1!), I also managed the following:

*Amaranth Clusters +1 (#6)
*Cherry Limeade (a.k.a. cherry Kool-Aid + lime Kool-Aid)...got rid of 4 packs of this!  Sadly, still a bazillion to go...  I also used powdered sugar in it, since I have a LOT.  +1 (#3)
*Chocolate Cream-Cheese Strawberry Pie...a mixture of 2 different new recipes +1 (#6)
-oats
-flour
-baking cocoa +1 (#3)
-brown sugar
-soda
-salt
-butter
-strawberries +3 (#1 & #3 & #5)
-strawberry gelatin +2 (#3 & #5)...I was pretty bummed to find this did not use the ENTIRE packet, so I still have some let...grr!
-cornstarch
-powdered sugar +2 (#3 & #5)
-Karo syrup +2 (#3 & #5)

So, all told, that "meal" got me...14 points!!

Total July 4:  19.5
Running Total:  29

cleanup challenge scoring

The first 3 days of July, and eating-from-the-stash is going well.  There's a LOT of food, though...this may be more than a 1-month deal.

I am taking great pride in using up the following types of foods:
*stuff that's been around forever (i.e. since 2010 or older)
*stuff from the freezer
*leftovers (usually just a day or 2 old, but they can really mess around with my meal planning...plus they add MORE to the inventory!)

I've been collecting recipes to help me use up the wide range of items I've got, and I get a thrill when I find a recipe that has multiple of these "special" foods.  What, you can combine my sweetened condensed milk with those ancient butterscotch chips?  SWEET!  And...as good as whatever that would make sounds like it would taste, I probably ought to not eat it all, so...I can give it away to people who want to eat sweets??  Even better!  I can use up multiple ingredients AND not need to eat it!  Score.

And with that concept - SCORE - I've been thinking of creating a scoring system for this Cleanup Challenge.  Here's what I've got:

1.  Each item that gets entirely used up earns 1 point; if it's a leftover from a previously-prepared meal, it earns just half a point.
2.  Each item from the CSA that gets entirely used or frozen before the arrival of next week's CSA earns 1 point.  If it gets entirely used, earn 1 bonus point.
3.  Use of any (reasonable) quantity of a ForeverFood (before 2011) earns 1 point (like...1 pine nut would not count, but why would I want to eat only 1 pine nut?).
4.  Use of any (reasonable) quantity of an item from my own garden earns half a point.
5.  Using multiple ForeverFoods in a recipe earns 1 bonus point for every "multiple" there is (i.e. if a recipe uses 2 FF's, I get 2 points for the FF's plus 1 bonus; if it uses 4 FF's, I get 4 points for the F's plus 3 bonus points).
6.  Implementation of a new recipe that utilizes any item earns 1 point.

So, let's see how that's working so far:

July 1:

Breakfast:

-Wheat Montana 7-grain cereal

-fresh raspberries

-almond milk

-maple syrup

-Cafe Francais coffee drink

-kale +0.5 (#4)

-banana

Lunch: lots of leftovers from Saturday's meals
-Indian food +0.5 (#1)

-chicken & chickpeas & zucchini curry

-brown rice

Dinner:
-meatballs +1 (#1...technically it cleared out space in the freezer, even though there were leftovers)
-couscous
-apple
-butter
-green onions
-carrots
-orange juice
-mint +0.5 (#4)
-cucumber
-red onion

Total July 1:  2.5 points
__________________________________________________________________
July 2:
I had some bloodwork done in the morning, so I didn't have breakfast at home...it was a fasting blood-draw. I just found some coupons for Dunkin Donuts, too...and it was just a short walk from the clinic...so after I had my blood taken I went and bought some breakfast. But I still managed to work in several ingredients that I want to get rid of:

Breakfast:

-kale

-frozen banana

Lunch:

-apple

-orange

-spanakopita that's been hanging out in the fridge for too long... +0.5 (#1)

-cucumbers & red onion +0.5 (#1)

-new potatoes & carrot-top pesto +0.5 (#1)

Snacks (um...I had a lot of these today...!):

-matzoh

-trail mix

-peanut butter cookies

-yogurt

-ice cream

-chocolate sprinkles
-chocolate-covered coffee beans +1 (#1)

Dinner:
-corn on the cob

-leftover garden salsa

-spinach

-leftover BBQ chicken

-mushrooms

-zucchini

-red onion

Baking:
I prepped some muffins for the husband's breakfasts!  Unfortunately, I have made this recipe several times, so no new-recipe point!  But they're GOOD muffins!!
-fresh raspberries
-cornmeal
-all-purpose flour
-buttermilk powder +1 (#3)
-orange juice
-baking powder
-baking soda
-salt
-egg
-butter

Total July 2:  3.5 points
Running total:  6 points

a food-based experiment for july

I hereby declare myself a foodie.

As a self-proclaimed foodie, I have been acquiring "food" into my home for some time. Thanks to the fact that so many of the things are shelf-stable, and aided by the modern conveniences of refrigeration, preservation, and freezers, much of the acquired food is still there! I've accumulated a LOT. It's a little overwhelming.

To begin dealing with this overwhelmedness, I am taking an inventory of the foods in my home. Then, the idea is to use up these existing foods as much as possible over the next month. With a little skill, I am guessing that I can spend extremely little on groceries over the next several weeks and still be rather healthful; I get a box full of veggies every week with my CSA, which is already paid for, and my own veggie garden & fruit bushes are starting to produce for the season. There will probably be some need for meat, poultry, eggs, milk and, of course, ice cream...and possibly some garlic depending on how much I have in the cupboard.

This is a challenge I'm looking forward to very much! And I hope I'll end up with a bit cleaner kitchen & pantry!!

a garden

We have a good 8 inches of snow on the ground here in State College, but I am already starting my garden for the year. What an adventure...! It's rather like a grand experiment, except that doing something that others have been doing for a long time, not something novel.

From what I've been reading about gardening and seed-starting indoors and other such topics, it appears that everyone has different results, so the best idea ("scientifically") seems to be to just DO IT and see what works for one's self.

The past two years I have had something of a vegetable garden in a small plot on the grounds of my apartment complex, and last year I did some container gardening on my patio (which turns out to not get very much sunlight, and thus does not produce very great crops). This year I plan to reclaim a spot around the apartment AND attempt to gain access to another plot at a community garden (my name is "in" at two different locations). I've spent hours this winter planning out what to plant, when to plant it, where it will go, and even a little bit of what I'll cook it into. NOW...despite the fact that I only have a true claim on about half of the space I've planned to fill with plants, it is finally time to get started.

On Saturday (February 19) I put my first seeds into "soil" using some Burpee seed-starting kit I got from Lowe's. I'm still rather confused about which seeds need to be in the dark to get started and which don't, but I began by seeding some broccoli and some lettuce, and then I put them in a dark-ish corner of my dining room where it's warmest. On Monday morning...I had my first broccoli sprout!

This morning, I have a total of 5 broccoli sprouts (out of 9 seeds) and 1 lettuce sprout (out of 8 seeds). It is so exciting to see them starting out, and I hope I can not kill them before it's time to get out into the garden! I'm glad that there's always the farmer's market where I can buy seedlings...and even the crops if it comes to that!

a connection

I really like fall, in case I haven't mentioned it before. One of the things I like about fall are its flavors. I anticipate the arrival of squash and brussels sprouts and "warm" spices like those found in a pumpkin pie. I am always enticed by pumpkin-spice lattes and, as autumn seems to indicate that Christmas-time is here and thus it's appropriate to start selling Christmas-type items in OcToBeR??!, gingerbread lattes. However, here-in lies a problem.

I have noted to myself several times that pumpkin-spice lattes make me feel awful. A stomach ache unlike others I get. Most of the pumpkin-spice lattes I've experienced also seem to taste waxy to me. Waxy is the best I can come up with to describe what I'd otherwise term "like crayons" (not that I believe I've ever eaten crayons. But the taste is the same as how crayons smell). Until this year I have ignored the fact that pumpkin-spice lattes are disagreeable to me, and I've had at least one when fall hits...only to be given another data point indicating that Something Is Wrong with them when combined with my body. I guess I mostly remember the bad taste, and I seem to think that if I try enough versions made using different recipes I'll find one that does not taste like a crayon. Finally this year I took the data into consideration and decided not to further test the hypothesis that pumpkin-spice lattes create a sensation of illness and taste waxy.

However, I did have a gingerbread latte yesterday. I think I've had these before, and perhaps they have been bad and I just don't remember it. But yesterday's left me feeling quite like I'd had a pumpkin-spice latte, although it did not taste waxy in the least. In fact, I really liked it. So I was quite disappointed when I had the just-drank-a-pumpkin-spice-latte feeling afterward!

In my scientific mind, it seems like gingerbread and pumpkin-pie flavoring could indeed have similar ingredients, because they have similar spice-tastes, and I know that gingerbread and pumpkin pie are made using similar spices. So I've tried to figure out what might be causing the problem. I learned something quickly: ingredients lists of flavored syrups will NOT give any useful information about what causes a disagreeable feeling in one's tummy or creates a waxy taste. For example, one list included these ingredients:

• pure cane sugar
• water
• gingerbread flavor
• citric acid
• caramel color
• cinnamon extract

Hm, well...I don't think that water or sugar or caramel color (which is in everything...) would cause me illness. And I have cinnamon all the time, so I doubt that. Thus, the culprit is likely "gingerbread flavor"...which is entirely useless. :-P

Kind of makes one start to think about food chemistry...how do folks MAKE gingerbread flavor. It's just chemicals, I know that. What is the chemical in, for example, ginger that causes it to taste like ginger?

I have concluded that instead of attempting to track down complex organic chemistry formulas of flavor molecules, it will be easier to test the individual spices that theoretically make up the pumpkin-spice and gingerbread "flavors" to see if any create a poor reaction (sounds fun, huh?). So far what I can determine is that cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg and cloves are what goes into the flavor of these two. I'll give it a whirl, but...one thing I still don't understand is why neither pumpkin pie nor gingerbread in their original non-beverage forms don't give me any trouble at all!! Hm...

waiting and waiting...

It seems that I'm in an anxious period of waiting currently. Not Joe was informally offered a new job, and now it's been two weeks of waiting for HR at the company to send him an official offer. I'm also waiting for a lot of samples to be analyzed at another facility (although, honestly, I'm not DYING for the results to come back, because I'd then need to analyze them, and I'm already busy with work as it is).

The biggest ache I'm experiencing, however, is anticipation of the harvest season to be over & winter to set in. Don't get me wrong, I want to enjoy autumn and all its beauty and crispness. But I have been storing away food from the summer's harvests, and...I want to start using it! It's somewhat silly - obviously I CAN use it now. But this primal fear in me says, "But what if you NEED that in the winter! Use the fresh veggies now - they won't last for winter!" And it's not as if I don't have a lot of fresh vegetables. My refrigerator is literally packed full of vegetables that won't store anywhere else (unless I had a root cellar...which, being that I live in an apartment, I don't) (oh, and I guess I could can some of it, but I'd rather have fresh carrots than canned carrots, you know?).

This is thanks to the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) group that I have been a part of this season. The CSA gives me a huge crate of food every week. This experience was rather a snafu. The first time I did a CSA I got a "half-share," which is supposed to feed 2 people who love vegetables - and that was way, way too much for me alone to handle. This year I found a bunch of friends who liked the idea of a CSA, so I went ahead and paid for a "full-share" - enough to feed a veggie-loving family of 4. Guess what. My pals liked the IDEA of a CSA, but they didn't actually want to participate in the paying for or consumption of the food from the CSA. So...I obviously have received a LOT more vegetables than I need. So, it's good that I picked this year to learn how to preserve food, because that was about all I could do with much of it.

I've felt like I've been in a never-ending battle with vegetables. I'd make it my goal for each Tuesday to get all of my veggies eaten so the fridge would be able to accept the new shipment that arrived that day. I kept up with it for a while, and then...well, then I learned that composting is a great way to pay back the earth for the bounty is provided to us from it. If my 10 eggplants from week 1 didn't make it to the end of the week, they'd go in the composter, and I didn't need to feel bad about it at all. Except that I'd intended to pay for the vegetable and not the compost material. Ah well.

So, PLEASE...harvest, stop! I look forward to eating my frozen and canned vegetables en masse with no guilt that I am ignoring the 10 pounds of brassica in the refrigerator! I welcome the day when I can slice open the winter squash that keeps so well in a dark, cool closet, and say, "This is the ONLY OPTION I have! No lettuce, no spinach, no late tomatoes to contend with! I shall consume this squash with no regret!" Come, winter!

moving forward

There has been a lot of waiting going on here for some time. I've been waiting (and...am still waiting) at work for several people to make some contributions to our joint project and for a bunch of samples to be analyzed. Not Joe and I have been waiting to hear about a job he began pursuing on July 26 (fortunately, it was July 26, 2009, not 2008...).

FINALLY yesterday I heard about two sets of samples that will be getting worked on in the next couple of weeks, and today I am going to work with one of the potential-contributors to see if the machine they're dealing with works or not.

And...yesterday...Not Joe got the job he's been waiting for!!!! We are both very excited. Financial stability (or, at the very least, income rather than expenses-only) is a really nice thing. He's also been self-employed for several years, and the new job will have health care benefits -- I think we're both rather relieved about that.

He's not sure on the start date yet, but at least there's a JOB waiting!!

weather?

It's been great autumn weather here over the past couple weeks - crisp and colorful. I was just catching the bug to start cold-season knitting.

And then, today...

IT'S SNOWING!?!?!?!!!

birthday

It's my birthday. So here I am to toot my own horn. :-)

A brief update on me:

I still work at Penn State. I still research the same stuff. It is going okay - slowly, but surely.

I am still dating Not Joe. I hope that soon we will be not-just-dating. Not Joe is looking for a new job because he does not like his current one & there hasn't been much work there anyhow. He purchased a foreclosed home in the late spring or early summer and has been fixing that up to sell at a profit. We hope it gets done soon. Note to self: flipping a foreclosed home by one's self is a lot of work!

Joelle is still kickin'. She's quite fine and is again due for a haircut. Not too long ago she somehow escaped from her cage AND THE DOOR WAS STILL LOCKED. I am not exactly sure how that happened, but I know clamp the door closed at a different angle.

This past year I have grown in my fascination of growing vegetables and preserving them so I can eat "in season." I learned how to can!! Just yesterday I made 8 jars of jam, one of which was made from wild blackberries I picked myself! I learned that if one is to "put up" enough food for a whole winter, one needs to put up A LOT of food. I do not think I will have enough to last the whole winter, but that is quite alright. I dream that some day I can have a "homestead" where I have prolific vegetable and herb gardens, chickens, honey bees, a plot of berries, and a small orchard (and maybe even some goats or sheep or rabbits...??). But for now I will settle for a small step or two, such as...starting a dwarf apple tree & growing sprouts over the winter. I know where to buy the sprout-growing stuff, but I'm not so sure about the tree. I will also note that I believe keeping a homestead will take a significant amount of time - not something that I could do while, for example, being a postdoctoral researcher.

I still knit, although infrequently. Now that the weather is cool again, I'm feeling more motivated to do so. Christmas is coming, so I will need to get on Christmas knit-gifts very soon!

magic bunny

Hello everyone... To the few of you who read this, sorry I've been MIA for so long! :-( No dramatic, tragic things have occurred, I just have not blogged. Sure, life has been "busy," but it always is. It's more a matter of what I decide to prioritize. Lately, work has been the major priority, and it's amazing how much time one can spend working!

One of the things I've been learning (relearning?) in this season of extreme work is that some of the smallest things have the biggest importance. I've spoken before about cleaning. That's one of them. Still haven't gotten that entirely rooted in my brain yet. Another one is taking care of what one's been given -- and for me right now that includes a) my body (giving it enough rest, quality food, showers, visits to the doctor, etc.) and b) my rabbit, Joelle.

The other night I had some gal friends over for a "tea party" (we...sat around the table and drank tea. Not exactly a party, but it was good) and towards the end we somehow got to talking about Joelle and grooming her. I mentioned that it's possible to put rabbits in a "trance" to work on their bellies when grooming them, and then of course they wanted to see this amazing phenomenon. So I scooped up Joelle and laid her on her back and rubbed her nose, and sure enough her head lolled to the side and she was passed out.

In the midst of this all I realized that she's a big, huge mess. I know she's been matted for a while, but she hates being groomed and I don't like doing it, so we agree to just not do the grooming thing most of the time. But at this point...it was really bad. So after the tea party I spent a good couple hours working away at her major problem areas.

Angora rabbits typically shed their coats several times a year. If one doesn't brush them regularly - especially during the shedding period - the shed hair just gets incorporated into mats. It makes it sort of fun to brush out mats, because if you put a mat rake to a mat made out of hair that's already been shed, huge chunks of hair start just falling out as the mat is destroyed. I find it rather satisfying.

Another aspect of this shed is that if one were to actually groom the rabbit at the appropriate times, they could easily harvest all of that hair that's being shed because it just pulls out. I have never really done this with Joelle for various reasons -- usually I just cut her hair short every now and then. I actually didn't realize quite what this "harvest" meant until lately when I visited this website.

But, on this fateful night, it just so happened that Joelle was shedding, and as I brushed out the tangles behind her ears, her hair just kept falling out and falling out. It was like magic! So, I thought...this would be a prime time to see just what happens when I harvest in the "right" way.

Joelle wasn't a huge fan of this, and we'd already been in grooming mode for at least 1.5 hours -- producing this fine mess...
...so I didn't get far. But...you can see the results:

light

One of my favorite things about this time of year is celebrating Advent. In the four weeks (or six, depending on which church calendar one is using) leading up to Christmas, I think it's great to take a little time to light a candle, meditate on the weekly themes of Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace (or whichever colors the particular tradition uses).

It's especially nice because this time of year can be really busy. I know it's been true for me this year!!

I learned something new about Advent this year: traditionally, it is a period of fasting and penitence while waiting for the 'coming' (which is what 'advent' means). I feel like the way my world's spinning around so fast, fasting and penitence are the last things I have time for! So I've been grateful for the moments I've taken on the weekends to light the candles one by one and pause for a bit.

The Advent candle lights are just one of the lights I love about Christmas. I enjoy lights on trees, candles in windows, the welcoming glow of a home filled with friends hosting a Christmas party. And a cozy fire.Warmth, cheer, and security are held in light, especially on fReEzInG cold days like today here in central Pennsylvania.

yes, please!

Drool.

Yarn. Sheep. Needles.

I love knitting!

Actually, considering how much I claim to love knitting, I don't really do much of it. Perhaps what is more accurate, then, is that I love READING about knitting and examining patterns of knitted objects and thinking about what would be fun to knit.

On the cold, snowy night that was Monday I busted out the sweater I affectionately call my Barney sweater. It is the first sweater that I made, and it's VERY amusing. I began knitting because I get sick of having to buy menswear in order to have the sleeves come to the proper place on my arm. Case in point -- the following picture is of me wearing an elbow-length shirt.I didn't know much at all about sweater construction or how to translate a pattern from a bunch of instructions on a piece of paper to the concept of a finished garment. And I guess that is why I decided to add a couple inches to the sleeve pattern's instructions. I don't precisely know why I thought I needed to excitedly begin my first sweater following the largest size on the pattern, but I am guessing it had something to do with the combination of not understanding the concept of ease, not knowing my body measurements, and not shopping for clothes much and thus not knowing my size.

These two decisions proved to be mistakes.

The result was a very large, very acrylic, very purple sweater that has very long sleeves.I'm not able to capture a picture of myself showing just how huge this sweater is, but I'll tell you this: if I roll the sleeves up 3 inches, the sleeves still come down to the knuckle on my thumb. This is in large part because the sleeves are joined to the body of the sweater a good 5 to 6 inches away from my flesh. I suppose that if I were going for oversized, this would be a PERFECT sweater. However, that was NOT what I was going for.

Despite my rather disastrous first sweater experience, I have gone on to make several more, and all fit me quite wonderfully, thanks. Good lesson the first time!

While sitting in Big Barney on Monday, I pulled out an Interweave Knits issue and read an article about Kate Gilbert. Let me put in that what I was supposed to be doing was working on the black socks I'm hoping to have done by mid-December (neither have made it past the heel yet...ergh!). If I would actually take up my knitting even half of the time I spend reading, dreaming, and plotting about knitting, I would have SO much knitwear...! Despite the small number in the Projects-Finished column of my mental spreadsheet-o-progress, I was surprised to find how many of her designs I have in fact knitted. I was also amazed at how many are on my list of things I want to knit. I then decided that I really like Kate Gilbert. Or at least her designs. I'm sure she's awesome, too, but I haven't really ever met her.

A bit more time-wasting led me to the new webzine she and friends have recently begun over at Twist Collective. Yeah. I am eating it up. I like so much about this project. I like most of the projects and love about 75% of them (this is a very large number for me...I am often convinced to buy a magazine if I can find 2 projects I would consider making). I love the graphics - the styling in the photos, the illustrations, the fact that there are multiple angles of garments so we can really see what they look like. I love the articles. I love the fact that it's paperless. And I love the advertisements for Good Things like yarn CSAs and giving small-business loans to women in Honduras. The 'zine isn't perfect, but it has a lot, lot, lot for me to love!

And with that...I think I'll go figure out what yarn I would like to use to make A Cardigan for Arwen.

finally...some (mostly) fo's!

Nothing inspires me to knit more than the following combination: cold weather, Christmas being on its way, and Harry Potter.

After a long hiatus from productive knitting, I seem to be back in the swing of things. It's chilly here - below-freezing weather 24 hours a day. I finally decided that it was cold enough to turn on the heater. Prior, I had been keeping warm with lots of layers and blankets and slippers and heated beverages. AND this:I'd like to say "AND these," being that typically items that go on one's hands are made in pairs. But I have only made one. And I haven't even really finished it - the pattern calls for some crochet edging...plus I didn't even take the time to weave in the yarn ends. BUT...it's not on needles anymore, and it's wearable. And it's REALLY WARM.

This is actually the left-hand mitt (...yes, I'm wearing it on my right hand...) from the Buffalo Girl pattern in the Interweave Knits Summer 2005 issue. Yeah, I've had that sitting around for a while... This is the mitt that I started four times because I would continually mess up the lace pattern. There's one part of the pattern (the thumb gusset) that I either don't understand or is written incorrectly and had to make up some instructions to get through. All's well that ends well: there is room enough for a thumb, and the thing isn't falling apart. The published instructions should be fine for the right-hand mitt, so I've really done all of the dirty work. ...I just need to start mitt two. This guy is ultra soft and warm thanks to its construction in Frog Tree alpaca. I didn't use nearly as much of the yarn as I thought I would, so I may even have enough to make the companion cowl neck-warmer. Suppose I'll leave that until after the second mitt, though.

So - one item done. What else...

Well, I zoned out of the Harry Potter world for a while and missed a bunch of the news. For one, I missed the fact that there is Harry Potter-inspired sock yarn to be had! I stumbled upon some while browsing a yarn store on my birthday. I actually thought that it must have been for sale for a long time because the choices that were left seemed kind of weird to me, but it seems that Tonks, Dumbledore, Hedwig, Lupin, Harry and Ron (together and separate), and Draco are indeed the choices. I was hoping to find a Hermione...and I felt kind of bad that my favorite colorway was indeed Draco. Anyhow, I also missed the fact that the next movie's release date was significantly changed and is not going to be out anytime very soon. I had told myself I would knit up a Hufflepuff scarf for the movie's release using some black and yellow yarn I've had sitting around for a long time. Then I found out the movie would be coming out in the summer and I decided that I should just knit the scarf anyhow. It's not done yet (and has actually been tossed aside...), but it's coming along. I'm using Alison's "HiP" pattern.
Simple and small seems to have been working, so I also cranked out a little sweater.I need to sew it together, but it's mostly ready to be gifted to someone to use as a Christmas ornament. If I can get my act together (a.k.a. organize my time in such a way that I can get a lot of knitting time in between now and December 25), I intend to have a sweater for several friends using this pattern based off of one from Joelle Hoverson's Last Minute Knitted Gifts.

And in the meantime...some socks!What I end up doing with these will depend a lot on how quickly I can finish them and at what point I run out of yarn. I really like these socks - I'm using some Cherry Tree Hill superwash merino that I got from Ruth's sale and following a slightly-modified version of a toe-up pattern from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks. One sock is being made with yarn coming from the outside of the ball of yarn, the other with yarn from the inside. Most of the sock yarn I have worked with has been self-patterning, and I can't do the inside/outside thing to have two socks going at once that end up matching...but it's kind of nice to do with these particular guys. And I LOVE KNITTING SOCKS!!!! They make a great companion while standing in line for 90 minutes at the polling place on Election Day.

So, that's what I've been doing. Among other things. Like visiting Niagara Falls with Not Joe and another pal (not pictured).