Laurabelle's Blog

I have a ton of catching up to do on this blog. I'll start out of order, with Christmas.

I spent the fall in a frenzy of gift-knitting. This was part of the reason for my hiatus from blogging; I felt I couldn't blog these projects for fear of giving away the secret. Not that most of the recipients read my blog, but one never knows.

The first-finished (way back in August) was a lace shawl for my sister-in-law. Jeff helped me pick out the yarn, a nice peachy-pink alpaca. The pattern is Miss Lambert's Shetland Pattern for a Shawl from Victorian Lace Today. I dropped one stitch in the whole shawl, but I picked it back up later and sewed it in. I can find the mistake, but I bet no one else will see it even if they're looking for it.

Thanksgiving, like most of my fall, was marked by food — as well it should be. It was just Jeff and myself for for our little celebration, since we have no family nearby and friends already had plans. But we put together our own little dinner, with Cornish game hens instead of turkey, because one only needs so much leftovers.

The menu:

• Creamy sweet potato soup
• Glazed, stuffed, roasted rock Cornish hens
• Wild rice and porcini stuffing
• Broccoli gratin
• Bread (store-bought, but from an independent bakery)

Most of the recipes are from the Joy of Cooking, 1990's revision. However, I must recommend the sweet potato soup, which was not from the Joy of Cooking. It's like liquid sweet potato pie.

I am thankful for my husband. I am thankful that we both have good jobs that we enjoy and that let us live comfortably. I am thankful that I have a home to stay and be comfortable in; I am thankful that I am not driving or flying this week.

I didn't take any pictures of our Thanksgiving dinner, unfortunately (the hens did turn out fairly nice-looking), but I do have photos of some of our other gustatory adventures.

At the end of October, I made beef stock and canned it in a new pressure canner. The impetus for the canner was Eatwell Farm's "Tomato Party," an event spurred by a medfly quarantine preventing the farm from distributing its tomatoes and much of their other produce. The tomatoes could not leave the farm while raw, but they were safe if cooked for at least thirty minutes, so they let members come and cook their own tomato sauce on-site. Jeff and I canned ours in boiling water, and it seems to have worked well enough, but our equipment was less than satisfactory.

Then it turned out that the farm's current laying hens are about to stop laying enough to pay for their feed, so the farm is going to get rid of them. Jeff and I are buying five hens, four for stock and one for cooking. We used to freeze chicken stock, but that is inconvenient both because it takes up freezer space and because it has to be melted before use. So I bought a pressure canner, and its first run was with a few jars of beef stock.

If you're wondering what a pressure canner looks like, imagine a big burly aluminum pot with screws to hold the lid down and a pressure gauge on top. It's more or less a very large pressure cooker.

We used the first jar of our very own beef stock earlier this week in French onion soup. Needless to say, it was excellent and much more satisfying than the "beef-flavored stock" I have been buying out of laziness. Honestly, stock isn't very hard. It does take a bit of initial time investment, but it pays off in laziness at the end.

Speaking of Eatwell Farm, I made an amazing omelet a few weeks ago. Well, it probably wasn't as good as a gourmet chef could make, but it was both tasty and beautiful. I generally achieve tastiness to at least some degree, but beauty in my cooking is due more to luck than craft.

All of the major ingredients in this breakfast came from Eatwell Farm (eggs, onion, bell pepper, and potatoes). Technically I think the peppers were grown on another farm due to the quarantine, but they came in our CSA box.

You may have noticed that the menu did not include dessert. This was mostly because we were too tired to make a pie last night, but it was just as well; we got pretty full. Besides, Jeff made me a pumpkin pie for my birthday earlier this month, and we both enjoyed that mightily. Especially Jeff.

A few days ago I gave you the holiday bullet points. Today you get the slide show.

I knitted Christmas presents for a number of people, but I only have pictures of those I sent to Ralph and Lori. These I finished and mailed at the beginning of December, so I didn’t even see them at Christmas (even though I saw Ralph and Lori). Lori’s birthday present was a pink, flower-shaped cotton chenille washcloth. I made a number of these in various colors, but I trust that the partial duplication has not bothered anyone so far. I gave a bar of scented soap with each washcloth.

Lori’s Christmas gift was a hat and scarf in a brioche pattern, with blue and white Lamb’s Pride bulky wool yarn. In some respects it was a pain to knit, since the pattern is effectively double-layered and thus takes twice as long to knit. However, it was easy enough once I got into the rhythm, and I am very happy with the results. I hope it will keep Lori warm in the cold Pittsburgh winter.

I knitted a checkers set for Ralph. This includes a checkerboard, a bag for the pieces (plastic buttons), and a bag to hold the set. The checkerboard is double-sided and reversible, which was interesting to knit. I also included a rule and strategy book for checkers, since I wasn’t sure whether Ralph played checkers.

Snow-bound Mount Rainier is spectacular from the air. I took this photo from my window as the plane passed by on the western side of the mountain.

This cute little house is on the grounds of the Gruene Homestead Inn, where my family stayed in New Braunfels this December. We have stayed there several times while visiting my grandmother, and I have fond memories of it.

This is my grandparents’ headstone. The date of my grandmother’s death has yet to be attached to her side of the stone. The inscription reads:

Fred Burdette Curry
US Army WWII
Jan 31 1912 – Mar 13 1998

Mary Baker Curry
Loving wife and mother
Apr 23 1912 -

I have not enjoyed the last couple of Christmases, primarily because I felt that I was old enough to exchange presents like an adult but didn’t have enough time to make presents or money to buy them. I was ashamed of the gifts I was able to give.

Last Christmas I had made a few knitted presents but not as many as I wanted, and all were very small. I resolved to start making presents for the next Christmas in January, so that I’d have enough time. I didn’t want to have another miserable, angst-ridden Christmas.

As one might expect, I didn’t start in January. I was too tired from the last Christmas, and I had other knitting projects plus sewing, tatting, etc. In fact, I didn’t even start planning for Christmas (much less knitting) until the beginning of November. However, I had a good bit of free time this fall, and my ambitions were also fairly attainable. I have presents to give my family and a few friends, so I’m happy. This will be an excellent Christmas.

Ten days later, it’s Christmas, everyone else is asleep and I really should be too, and I’m finally getting around to blogging again.