Squash Bread

As the proud owners of a 40+ pound Giant Blue Hubbard squash this fall, we've been trying different recipes to make use of this tasty resource.  Besides making "pumpkin" pie with it for Thanksgiving dinner, I tried this recipe from the Moosewood Cookbook "The Enchanted Broccoli Forest" for squash bread.  It is a basic yeasted wheat bread with pureed squash mixed in. They recommend any winter squash (acorns, butternuts, etc.)

1. The sponge: 2 T dry yeast, 1.5 C warm water, drop of molasses. Mix and set for 5 minutes.
2. Add: 2 C white flour, 2 C whole wheat flour. Mix, cover and set in a warm place for 30-60 minutes.
3. In a separate bowl, mix 2.5 C mashed, cooked squash, 3 T molasses, 0.25 C melted butter, 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp cinnamon, 0.5 tsp cloves.
4. Add the squash mix to the risen sponge.  Add flour 1 Cup at a time, alternating between white and wheat, as you mix the dough.  When it gets hard to mix, begin kneading.  Knead for 10 minutes, adding flour as necessary.  You may need 6-8 cups additional flour in this step. Place covered in a BIG oiled bowl and let rise in a warm spot for an hour or until doubled in size.
5. Punch down the dough and knead a little bit more. Shape into loaves and put in/on greased pans. I made one bread loaf plus 18 large dinner rolls. I make dinner rolls by dividing each portion into three parts and rolling each into a ball, then putting the 3 balls into a muffin pan socket.  Cover dough with damp towel and let rise for an hour or until doubled again.
6.  Bake at 350 - 375 until done. Loaves take about 40 minutes, rolls about 20.

 Very tasty. If I had remembered, I would have thrown a handful of pumpkin seeds (obviously, the peeled ready to eat kind) into the rolls as I was making them as was suggested in a different recipe I saw.

My big loaf leaned a little, maybe because it had to share an oven rack with the turkey, which was a space hog.

Hats Off

In my continuing efforts to keep the Horner heads warm, I have added another knit cap to the collection. This a pattern by Anna Zilboorg that has been bastardized to accommodate using a much smaller gauge yarn by adding extra pattern repeats and sneaking in many extra rows.  All in all, I think it came out quite cute.

And, for another fun finish (well, the stitching part is finished, but I've not made it into anything yet.)  I got this idea from seeing a QR code made of a waffle with chicklets and chocolate chips.  I know I am not the first to do this in stitches, but when the idea struck, I could NOT RESIST.

Please, please, pull out your smart phone and scan this baby! I was just so tickled that it worked.  Isn't technology amazing!

Circus

It's been a circus of a week. My laptop died last Wed and I've been slowly pulling my life back togerher. It's amazing how much of my daily activities were impacted.

So with many hours sitting and rwloading software and configuring things, I've had some downtime waiting for things to install. There is still much to do, but I have regained basic functionality.

This has been my knitting project for those moments. It will be the central vertical back panel of a cardigan. The yarn is noro in some colorway that makes me think of a sunset over Circus Circus.

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A Loveliness of Ladybugs

Yesterday must have been the perfect combination of factors that culminated in hundreds of ladybugs emerging in the side yard. I first noticed a few on the window screen, but a walk around outside revealed hundreds of them.  Bwah hah ha, you aphids! Don't come around here.

Whenever I see a grouping of beasties large enough to catch my attention, I ponder the proper collective noun to be applied. A few friends were quick to let me know that it was a "loveliness of ladybugs" that I was seeing.  That wonderfully alliteratively enchanting phrase apparently stuck in my head all evening. During the 45 minute wait period between my daughter being dropped off for her orchestra concert and the performance, I sat around in the auditorium and doodled. And enjoyed a lolly from the Halloween booty. (Don't worry, I didn't eat any bugs.)

I tinted it a bit this morning with watercolors. My engineered palette would probably make a real watercolorist cringe, but it works for what I do, which is all that matters. (The little letters are sharpied abbreviations for the color, so when a micro-dot runs out, I can add another drop. Well, except for that pesky Davies Gray and Olive Green that REFUSE to stay adhered once they dry.)

I've had it up to here

...with the boring part and am happy to say I've moved on to the snowflake band mid-chest. This is a Norwegian ski sweater for my hubby. I will be needing a replacement project for my zombie knitting opportunities, as I will be required to pay attention on this one now.

BTW, I have no idea why the photo came out upside down.

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Last farmers market

It was a beautiful day to end out the season. Said fond goodbyes to all our favorite vendors and that we'd see them in the spring. Loaded up on apples, onions, pumpkins and wine.

Hubbub is out of town for a few days, so I really didn't need much. It is such a happy community thing, though, so I never feel bad shopping there. Or in a yarn shop. Shopping for clothes (shoes especially) OTOH ranks right up there with scooping dog poo.

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Just Noodling Around

I had an Amazon gift certificate I had been sitting on for a few months since my birthday. I had been feeling guilty I hadn't read any of my most recent book purchases and shouldn't buy another until I did so.  I order other junk from Amazon, but it just seemed wrong to use birthday money buying the replacement part of a blender or a rubber cargo bed liner for the Subaru (my recent non-book purchases.) Then I chanced upon the ink department and knew I'd have no problem disposing of the disposable income, not that I actually was out of ink.

Arriving last night were these four little bottles of Noodler's Fountain Pen Ink. I did a quick test with a dip pen to see what I got.

But wait - four bottles and only 3 samples on the card???

Bwah hah ha! Did I mention that I also ordered a pair of black light LED flashlights? One for me and one for my son. It takes two to have secrets. It works fabulously - it's just hard to take a picture of it.

Top to bottom:

• Blue Ghost Invisible Bulletproof Ink
• Noodler's Blue Eel (supposed to be a lubricating ink that is good in old crotchety and cheap pens.)
• La Coulour Royal (i.e. purple, but a very deep bluish one - I really like it)
• Hunter Bulletproof Eternal (this one had very different characteristics out of the bottle - it seemed thick, wrote bloopily and took forever to dry. And was a third the size of the others for the same price = rip off.) This one also looked very cool under the black light - each stroke had a glowing halo around it.

And "bulletproof" and "eternal" don't have anything to do with being unsmearable, apparently.  My smears won't ever fade in the light, and a check forget would not be able to remove all traces of my scribblings.

A Likely Yarn

I started teaching a class on knitting Norwegian sweaters at the local yarn shop last night. I figured it would be only appropriate to have one of my own on the needles, so I started this new sweater about the same time the kids went back to school. It's for my hubby - you can see the finished goal in the leaflet.  I really only get to work on it during those morning times when I'm nagging the children onward through their getting-ready-for-school routine.  In its current phase, I call this my zombie knitting projects, as I need barely be conscious or I can be multitasking (i.e., the movie has subtitles). 

Something a bit more challenging, but only a bit.  Some socks for hubby.  This is the last of a kilo of grey rag wool I had bought. After about 4 pairs of gray ones, I decided to dye the rest maroon to give a little variety. I am making this up as I go along, hence the need to do both socks at once. The calf shaping is done by transitioning the wide cabled rib into regular rib - we'll see how that goes.

Last thing to show is one half of a pair of pumpkin hats for a friend who just had twins. This has been such a cute pattern - I've probably made a dozen of them for friends and family.

Bored Meeting

Was I the only person doodling in the margins during the Board Meeting? I find I can't help it no matter how much attention I am paying.  The pen in my hand practically demands to be put in contact with the paper.  Names and agenda items have been blurred out to protect the innocent, as they weren't boring - just meetings in general.

Mandalas - digital