Made this delicious strawberry icebox cake.







We had it for dessert tonight. It rivals anything you'd get in a fancy hotel or restaurant--that's what my husband said :)

Tonight, I also found a monarch egg on one of the milkweed plants surrounding our vegetable garden, I was so excited! I've been hunting for a week:


This will be its new home until it's big enough to transfer into the cage with the larger screen holes:


I try to raise a monarch every summer. I used to as a kid and my own two enjoy this too--they're very excited right now!

I'm still knitting the baby blanket for my husband's cousin in Seattle--more to come on that later . . . .

Labels: butterflies, cooking/baking

Late this Fall, I treated myself to this book by cookie a:


I first heard of her at The Creative Stitch in Hingham. One of the nice women who work there was telling me to get on ravelry and to download cookie a's patterns for socks (after telling her I love to knit socks).

So, I also became a member of Ravelry. I'm a newby so I'm not that great at updating my projects, but this site is awesome, I can see that!

COOKIES!
**(Yes, I had my two cookie swaps to go to this year)**

Baker's Soft & Chewy Chocolate Drops



4 squares BAKER'S Unsweetened Chocolate
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 ½ cups flour

Glaze
1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping (Do not thaw.)
6 squares BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate

COOKIES:
PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Microwave unsweetened chocolate and butter in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 min. or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Add sugar; mix well. Blend in eggs and vanilla. Add flour; mix well. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour or until dough is easy to handle.

SHAPE dough into 1-inch balls; place, 2 inches apart, on lightly greased baking sheets.

BAKE 8 min. or just until set. (Do not overbake.) Let stand on baking sheet 1 min.; transfer to wire racks. Cool completely.

GLAZE:
PLACE frozen whipped topping and semi-sweet chocolate in microwaveable bowl. Microwave on HIGH 1 ½ min. or until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is shiny and smooth, stirring after 1 min. Let stand 15 min. to thicken. Spread over cookies. Let stand until glaze is set.

Christmas
I hosted Christmas dinner this year and we had a roast, salad, creamy au gratin potatoes, and squash (from our garden) for dinner. It was delicious! I also made a pumpkin pie and fudge for dessert along with my mother-in-law's awesome raspberry linzer cookies, among other treats!

I'm home with the kids this past week for Christmas vacation. It's been hectic, fun, stressful, everything. We saw "The Princess and the Frog," shopped at the South Shore Plaza, stayed in and played with Christmas toys because it was zero degrees outside, and today made these Wilton Gingerbread Pops (marked down at Michael's). Talk about a royal disaster. What a mess--I need to lighten up about it, but talk about microscopic candy beads everywhere when your six year old decides to dump the bag upside down!!!!

the pictures don't tell the whole story:






NEW PROJECTS:
B requested a scarf. He is in kindergarten now and just turned six-years old. So FULL OF ENERGY, it's crazy. He picked the colors and I did this sketch with his help:


We also shopped for the colors today at Michael's, laid them out to the sketches and I am going with the first order (black next to yellow). So it will go:
Black, yellow, orange, brown, blue, ending with black:





I can't wait to get knitting this TONIGHT!! Nothing makes me more happier than being INSIDE on a cold New Year's Eve night with my loved ones, knitting under a blanket.

***I also bought lavender yarn for C's Vintage Owl vest, stay tuned.***

NEWS!
Oh yeah! I wrote a letter to Creative Knitting Magazine and it got published in the January 2010 Issue! It's on newstands now, CHECK IT OUT! :) :) :) I'm excited about it anyway.

Labels: children's knits, cooking/baking, life in the BerryKnitty household

We all went apple-picking and had a long, fun day. The weather was gorgeous and the apples were plentiful!





and who can resist a caramel apple?


or apple pie? I made two!


I have a sweater for B on the needles:



and C's cardigan is awaiting the perfect buttons!

Labels: children's knits, cooking/baking, Fall

Yes, I've been baking in this extreme heat we've had these last couple of weeks here. Don't know why I get the urge to bake in the heat, but I love to bake and I guess the heat just doesn't stop me.

I made oatmeal raisin cookies


and the 'grab 'n go crunchy granola bars' from The Sneaky Chef book for the kids (they love 'em)


and would it be summer without my brown sugar zucchini bread? It's been breakfast for me--I'm the only one in the house that'll eat it. Go figure.


and a blueberry upside-down cake!


I finished 'fixing' B's twisted cables pullover sweater. I pulled out what I did on the collar to fix it originally because it just didn't fit over his head--too tight (after being too loose). I picked up 88 original cast-on stitches and did 2x2 rib, then decreased after about a ½ inch to 84 stitches went up another ½ inch and bound off in rib. It fits better now and hopefully this collar doesn't stretch beyond oblivion. I also added about three inches to the length of the sweater--he might be able to wear this for a while now!




I also found a monarch egg--caterpillar hatched this week!


And isn't this cute? I had to include it in my blog post. It's a honey bear bottle filled with Dial soap on our bathroom sink. I got the idea in a magazine--Good Housekeeping/Woman's Day/Parenting? Funny thing is that they mentioned where you could purchase the plastic bear containers--I just used an empty honey bottle from making those granola bars! I think it's cute, especially having young kids in the house.


To the dog-days of summer!

Labels: cooking/baking, life in the BerryKnitty household, twisted cables pullover

I took a snow day today. The weather is intense outside. Up to a foot of snow expected in the Boston area today--all happening into the evening commute. No thank you. It's pretty to watch from inside a warm house

making gingerbread cookies!


I just ate one with a cup of tea--heaven.

I also made about 4 lbs of fudge:

Labels: cooking/baking, life in the BerryKnitty household

I love the Fall. Pumpkins, apples, my birthday, Halloween, B's birthday, Thanksgiving . . . . getting ready for Christmas . . . .

It's been a month since my last post here. Not that I had nothing to blog about here--that's definitely not it. Just that life got in the way. In a good way.

Work has been crazy-busy. It looks like Tuesday will be my work-at-home (WAH) day. I've had the laptop for months now, have had the VPN access for a while too and I could WAH now, but it's my decision to wait until the first of the year. I want to have 'face' time right now & learn the job more.

The corp. job tends to get in the way of my more important job . . .

FAMILY.

we apple-picked in Bolton, MA:







and just today I peeled, chopped, measured, sifted, and stirred and ended up with:


apple crisp:


apple pie:



and I'm making a 'butternut squash and apple soup.' In case you're wondering when I do this: C's NAP-TIME & B is usually outside working with dad in the yard.

and the KNITTING!

C's dress:

C's dress should be finished by now--I'm disgusted with myself that it's not . . .

as well as . . .

the heart baby blanket
(I decided it may be going to my cousin and not a co-worker--co-worker's tend not to appreciate handmade gifts--at least some--and well, I can't deal with that, and so I won't)


But as you can see, it's coming along and the knitting is still here and I'm still plugging along . . . . somehow.

I will be re-visiting blogland soon, I have missed u all!

Labels: baby blankets, children's knits, cooking/baking, Festive Occasion Jumper

Yield thus far:

zucchini: 10 or so. Three breads made. Maybe a fourth.

bell peppers: 5 or 6

butternut squash: 4 picked; one small runt growing/ripening on vine. Not as big of a crop as last year's 20+ or so. Hoping to save two to have for Thanksgiving.

cucumbers: 5 or 6--again, not as big of a crop as prior year.

pumpkins: 2--one real big one and one real little one. Both still ripening on the vine.

tomatoes: approx. 75 and counting!!!

But what's really funny is that two different neighbors of ours have left us vegetables on our doorstep from their own gardens reciprocating what we did last year (they probably think that because they didn't get any from us this year that we didn't have a garden of our own--but it is only because I haven't had the time to bag them up and walk over with them--good thing I suppose!).

After inundating co-workers with some--lugging bags of tomatoes in on the subway--I look like I just came from Haymarket Sq.--I may put some in a food processor and freeze for sauce, to make with lots of paste. Who has the time for canning? I did this last year and it's wonderful.


garden loot from last week:


tomatoes picked just last night--I counted 40:


pizza I made last night for dinner on a whole-wheat crust using tomatoes from our garden:





**knitting progress?**
second sleeve is almost finished--¾ done--and then the seaming will commence on the beautiful Gypsy Mesh. I hope to have the finished pics up and posted the first week of September.

Happy Friday,

Labels: cooking/baking, life in the BerryKnitty household

Bell peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, and cucumbers from our garden:



and the second zucchini bread I've made. We're getting so many zucchini I can't keep up with it all.

Recipe: Brown Sugar Zucchini Bread
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
½ cup packed light or dark brown sugar
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 ¼ teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
3 large eggs
¾ cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini (about 2 medium zucchini)
Turbinado sugar or other crystallized brown sugar, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.
Stir the flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a large mixing bowl. When cominbed, mix in the oats. Make a well in the center of the ingredients. Whisk the eggs, oil, and vanilla together in a small bowl and pour the mixture into the well. Combine lightly, then stir in the zucchini. Do not overmix.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, mounding it up in the center. Sprinkle with the turbinado sugar if you wish. Bake for 60 or 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack covered with a clean dish towel to prevent indentations. Let the bread cool at least 10 minutes longer before slicing. The bread can be served warm or at room temperature. It keeps well and makes good toast, too.

Variation: Brown-Sugar Carrot Bread

Replace the zucchini with 2 cups grated carrot. Because the carrots are a little starchier, reduce the oats to ¾ cup.

notes to recipe: This time around I used a cup of whole wheat flour and a cup of white flour. I swear, using the whole wheat made such a difference--the bread is so much heartier and delicious. I didn't do the Turbinado sugar-thing.

The first time I substituted the oil with applesauce, but I didn't this time around--I used oil--but only about ½ a cup

For future reference, it is good to know that the applesauce works fine as a substitution for the oil.

***************
I don't like to eat my vegetables too altered from their natural state so making this bread wasn't because I don't like zucchini, I do--in fact, I usually just slice it, boil it up and put butter on it--it's just that we're getting so many of them at once and this makes good use of it. I have a slice every morning for breakfast.

I have a zucchini casserole idea from a woman I work with--may try it out!

Dinner last night was salmon and fried up bell peppers in olive oil--and of course, a delicious salad of tomatoes and cukes--very good, I must say.

**Oh, and in case you're dying to know, the back and front are now knitted up to the Gypsy pullover. Tonight, after dealing with this made-in-China-fiasco, I will begin the shoulder-seaming and pick up stitches to begin a sleeve.**

Labels: cooking/baking, life in the BerryKnitty household

I made this delicious raspberry and blackberry tart from the barefoot contessa cookbook that my mom picked up for me at a yard sale about a month ago.





AND all the berries are from my backyard. You see we live in the house my grandfather built and it has about an acre of land --and just about all of it is in the back--huge, beautiful yard--we really are lucky to have it. It's very private too. Anyway, there are all these golden raspberry, red raspberry, and blackberry bushes just bursting with berries this time of year. It's such a treat and while picking or whenever I'm out in the yard, I can't help but think of my grandparents who have since passed. My grandfather had such a knack for gardening. There's wildflowers, some strawberries, he ALWAYS had a vegetable garden--a HUGE vegetable garden with anything you could imagine. And well, we try to too, never like grandpa though.

I plan to bring the tart tomorrow when we visit friends at a cottage near Cape Cod.

Ya, and I've been knitting, really, I have--STILL this:



I can't wait to finish it and hope to wear it out with friends when we go out in August--I better move it. Just not motivated lately . . . new job preoccupying the mind and all.

I got Plymouth Jelli Beenz for C's dress--she loves the yarn as you can see!

the yarn bandit strikes!

and I bought this with another 'health' gift cert!

it looks to be a book right up my ally.

Labels: cooking/baking, Gypsy Mesh Pullover, knitting library