Ten on Tuesday - Ten Favorite Super Bowl Foods

Is it really time for the Super Bowl already? Yay! I am not a huge fan of football so I love the Superbowl because it means that another season is over. No more delays in my Sunday night tv lineup.

The othe reason that I love the Superbowl is that we often watch with good friends and snacks - lots of snacks. Yum! Here are 10 of my favorites.

1. Pigs in blankets - truthfully these are great at any party.
2. Little knishes - they go really well with #1
3. Chips and salsa
4. Baby carrots and other veggies with dip, any dip
5. Beer battered tempura veggies - perhaps with a teriyaki dipping sauce
6. Whatever PW is making - have you seen her show? OMG yum!
7. Fried zucchini - but probably not this year 'cuz we had some last night
8. Chicken fingers - I'm not big on wings but I love fingers
9. Chili would be good too - a nice bowls of chili all dressed up.
10. Chocolate chip cookies - for dessert of course

What are your favorites?

If the Baby Sees Her Reflection...

Yesterday Miss M was 7 months old and I took her to a play group. It had been months since we went and she really enjoyed it so much more this time. She crawled here and there, shoved stuff in her mouth, and smiled at everyone she saw. The biggest hit for her was the mirror around the perimeter of the room.

Then I was reminded that Groundhog Day is this Thursday. So now I'm wondering, I know what it means if the groundhog sees its shadow but what does it mean if the baby sees her reflection?

ECF - Books are Delicious Edition

Today ECF stands for Extra Cute Friday. Here is Miss M experiencing But Not the Hippopotamus the way she experiences most things - with her mouth.

She thought it was delicious.

Ten on Tuesday - Ten Movies I Want to See Right Now

Marissa was helping Lindsey do her homework last night. By helping I mean crumpling the sheets of algebra into messy little blobs. She had a blast and her sister enjoyed watching her as long as there was no paper tearing or paper eating going on. This baby is so lucky to have such a patient big sister.


Anyway, I have seen more movies than usual recently. I really don't know why. You would think that with the changes in my household it would be quite the opposite. I can't even begin to speculate over the reason. I do know that there are still quite a few movies that I want to see. Some of them are already in my possession on DVD and some are still in the theatres. Sadly, possession doesn't really make it any more likely that I'll see them.

So what do I want to see? Here, as always, is my list:

1. The Descendants - this just looks good to me and, of course, it's got George Clooney in it.
2. Moneyball - yes, it's about baseball but it still looks good.
3. Crazy, Sexy, Love - we've got it on DVD. It sounds really good but possession means I can put it off indefinitely
4. Horrible Bosses - ditto
5. Our Idiot Brother - it looked good but mostly I just like Paul Rudd
6. The Wrestler - Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei
7. The Conspirator - I heard a whole program discussing this story and it was really fascinating
8. 127 Hours - 2 words... James Franco.
9. Blue Valentine -I love a good drama
10. 50/50 - did you see the cast on Anderson? I did and I've got to see this movie.

Way back on the 11th I told you about one of the 2 gifts I knitted for the holidays. Today is all about the other one.

As I mentioned in the earlier post, my niece "R" asked for this when she overheard her brother making his request. She said she wanted an ear warmer in an olive green. The yarn for this one was just as easy as the yarn for the Fresca Hat. I happened to receive an email from Webs about the limited edition short skeins of Madeline Tosh Vintage and was instantly sold on a color called Lowland. Isn't it gorgeous? It's a good thing that this yarn is so awesome because the pattern I chose required me to knit about a mile of tube. Fatally boring if not for the deliciousness of the yarn.

The pattern I chose was called the Anthro-Style Plaited Wrap by Melynda Bernardi. I was really torn between a traditional ear warmer that was flatter (and boring) and this one. I also saw a few versions of this including a few that were cabled but the comments indicated that this one worked the best and it just looked cool.

Knitters often say that a pattern is about the construction but I've never seen one where this was more true. The knitting involved here is super simple and boring... a seemingly endless, stockinette tube. Boring! Then comes the folding and weaving which took quite a few tries before I got it right. I really don't think it has to be that hard. Better instructions would help a lot but once I figured it out it was fab!

The end result is a woven wrap with an invisible seam that is thick and warm and lovely. My niece likes it very much too. Even though it was quite late.

ECF - Indian Echo Caverns Edition

The second day of our trip started at Indian Echo Caverns. To get in to the caverns you need to walk down a long stairway with a lovely view of the Swatara River.


Inside, we saw sights like this and heard great stories.


After that it was a hop, skip, and a jump to Hershey Chocolate World. A truly sweet trip.

Traveling Girls

Isn’t it funny how you have the most to share when you have the least time to share it? Last weekend I took Stinkerbelle’s Girl Scout Troop on an overnight trip and we had a great time. Unfortunately since we got home I’ve been sick from exhaustion and now Miss M is sick too. But a trip as fun as this one needs to be shared so here it is. Our Lancaster trip in pictures.

We started at the Turkey Hill Experience which was new to all of us. We really didn’t know what to expect but I can sum it up in three words – Endless Free Samples! Really.


They had lots of great information there and I think that we all learned a lot. Some things were interactive like the exhibit above where the seals dispensed different scents on a slip of paper so that you could experiment with them together. Then again, there were free samples. Here is Stink eating one while learning about tea. They had samples of that too.


After that we headed to the Amish House and Farm where we checked out the farm in the bitter cold and met some very friendly goats.


We also took a really interesting tour of a real Amish home and I found out that I knew far less about the Amish than I thought and that most of what I did know was wrong. Good tour guides make such a big difference and we really lucked out on this trip.


Did you know that they use dozens of straight pins to keep these outfits together when they wear them. Straight pins! Ouch!



And this was just day one - part of it anyway. We finished the day at a hotel with an indoor pool with water slides. did I mention the unlimited free samples of ice cream and iced tea? These girls had energy to spare.

More tomorrow.

ECF - First Snow of 2012 Edition

It snowed earlier this week. It was exciting and pretty while it lasted. It inspired dreams in the hearts of schoolchildren of days off . Even the adults felt a little thrill watching it fall.

Then it was gone. Oh well.

The Fresca Hat

I never even discussed gift knitting this holiday season because I was barely knitting anything at all. It seemed to be completely out of the question. Then, at Thanksgiving, my nephew J, the college dude, saw one of Marissa's hats and asked if I could make one for him. He said it was the only thing he wanted for Hanukkah. He's never asked for anything before and I love him so how could I say no.

I asked a few more questions about style and color and he's such n easy going kid. He just wanted a hat, any hat. Nothing specific but he pointed to a bottle of Fresca and said that he liked that color. Happily, Cascade 220 came in a color that satisfied my need for depth and his love of Fresca green.

Equally fortunate was the fact hat I already had the perfect pattern in my list of favorites. Knotty But Nice by Natalie Larson really appealed to me. It had been a gave for ages and I was so happy to finally try it. I wasn't disappointed at all.

This was such a quick knit and it made me smile all the way through. The only mod that I made was to use different needle sizes. It says to use 7's all the way through but based on Rav notes I started with 5's for the ribbing to get a nice snug fit. Then I changed to 7's for a few rows leading into the chart before moving up to 8's for most of the chart to counteract the effect of the cables which tend to pull the knitting in and make it less stretchy. Finally, after finishing the chart I moved back down to 7's for the crown. It worked like a charm an I would do it exactly the same way again.

Now I just hope he likes it because it's still sitting in my living room. Weeks after the holiday ended. Fail! In my defense I should explain that his sister heard the conversation and made a request of her own. Naturally I said yes to that too but I wanted to send them together and the second piece was only finished earlier this week. I think that hand knit gifts are worth waiting for and hopefully they will too. More on my niece's headwear soon.

Committed

This is the post where I demonstrate how serious I was in my list yesterday. I am beyond busy. I have meetings to go to, trips to plan, construction to prepare for, events to plan, and of course work to do and a family to care for. I yearn for a less chaotic time.

Yet, here I am blogging again. Not only that, I'm blogging about stuff I baked. Cinnamon rolls! Yum.



On New Years Day I decided that fresh cinnamon rolls would be just the thing to start the year off right. Sadly, they're not the easiest or quickest thing to make. The first attempt at the dough went in the trash and I'm not sure these rose as much as I'd like but, they were yummy and nobody was complaining. Let's hope that the sweet cinnamon rolls bring a sweet new year for all of us.

Ten on Tuesday - Ten Things I Want to do in 2012

It's the time of year when most people become introspective and ponder the year that has just ended. What was gained, what was lost? What was accomplished, and what were the failures? I'd love to do my usual and pick a picture and the first line from each months posts but one o the things that fell by the wayside in 2011 was blogging. There just aren't that many posts to cull from. I'd like to fix that in the new year. Its just one item from my list of 10 things I'd like to do in 2012.

1. Blog more - I still don't want to let it run my life and I refuse to feel compelled to blog every day but I'd like to blog more often.

2. Knit more - I am finally feeling the urge to knit again. It's like a constant drumbeat in my brain. This is ironic since I just started putting yarn and knitting stuff in storage.

3. Get my eyes checked - I've always had perfect vision and I was proud of that but it seems like age is catching up with me. I'm going to look at this as an opportunity to increase my style quotient with cute eyewear.

4. Get healthy - I have a free gym membership that I've never used and that's a shame. I should go on occasion. At the very least I can get out and walk more.

5. Eat better - I really do love salads and I need to eat more of them. Veggies of all kinds are good. Starbx... not so much.

6. Cook more - this goes with #5. I used to cook all the time but it seems like the bigger the family gets the less time I get to spend in my kitchen. Hopefully having a new kitchen will help to reverses this trend.

7. Eat more family dinners - we all enjoy this. I hear about my daughters lives and we talk and laugh and plan. I need to grab these moments while I can.

8. Take a vacation - this one should have an exclamation point attached. I really, really want to go somewhere with my family and just chill. I'd even settle for a vacation without enrichment (museums etc) at this point. I just want to get away and steal time with my family.

9. Read more - I've read quite a few books lately. Nothing stellar but very enjoyable. I do love a good book.

10. Take an art class - I'm thinking of pottery or glass blowing. It could even be a drawing class. I always look at the local offerings and

The picture is one that was taken on New Years Eve Day at one of our favorite museums. Enjoy!