Zipper advice

I've always been freaked out by putting a zipper on something I've knitted. Zippers don't stretch, sweaters do. I don't ever sew with jersey knits for the same reason.

So I "finished" my Urban Aran yesterday:
Before we get all giddy that a piece of very warm knit wear actually was completed in the season in which it can be worn, let's take a closer look at that collar.

Uh oh. Wonky collar-zipper shape.

So it isn't "finished" after all. I've got to re-do the neck since it is both too baggy and warped.

I'd like it to look more like this. Or this.

Here's what I think I need to do:
1. Get a different zipper. Plastic. The inside of the metal zipper scratches my chin when it is zipped all the way up. Ouch.
2. Rip out the collar. Re-knit it a bit smaller by picking up fewer stitches. And don't continue the cable pattern into the collar because it makes it flex funny, especially with the zipper.

I noticed that the other people who have made this have used 2-way zippers. I don't think I need to do this because I don't really plan to unzip from the bottom. And I'd have to mail order the zipper.

Any advice from experienced zipper installers before I embark on my knitting revisions? Is there anything else that I should change that I haven't thought of yet?

Not dead (yet)

When you start getting calls from friends far away and e-mails from folks across town wondering if the blog-silence means you are dead or in some serious crisis, then I guess it is a sign that you've been neglecting your blog.

So what happened to me? January. And February.

I was so crazed in January that I didn't notice it had become February. I only figured it out when the small critter, whose birthday is at the end of February, started her daily "how many days until my birthday" request and the number I would respond with indicated that, by golly, January must have ended a little while ago.

The good thing about all that chaotic energy that was expended is that I made it through one of my hardest months without really noticing it. Time really did zoom by while I scurried from one demand to another and I hardly noticed the hostility of the climate.

So hopefully, now that things have quieted down a bit, I'll have some posts coming--I read some great books in the past month, have been plugging away at the writing with mostly positive results and need some knitting advice from more experienced knitters (if there still are any out there who read this blog). Cooking? Eh, not so much. A crazed schedule did not lead to culinary marvels.

Resolution time

What with the 11 inches of snow that fell last week and half inch of ice that has formed on the inside of our weather-stripped, storm-proofed windows, you probably don't want to hear about virtuous New Year's resolutions. You probably would rather read Maggie's recipe for Candy Cane Cocoa that I'll get the critters to make today since it is too cold for school and I need a good bribe (ahem, "reward") for decent behavior for stir crazy kids. A mug of that delicious stuff would help you stay warm and comfort yourself from the hostility of the world.

So, sorry for the timing, but I have actually made a few modest food resolutions and dare I say, I think I might even be able to keep them.

1. My first resolution might comfort you if you are a certain type of person. I have some blood sugar and cholesterol issues so my first resolution is to eat a bowl of this every morning:
This is a bowl of virtue. Oatmeal, ground flax seeds, frozen wild blueberries, walnuts and a drizzle of maple syrup. All good for both cholesterol and/or blood sugar stabilization. Add a splash of milk and it turns into gray mush, but if I don't look too closely, it's fine. I'm more of a savory breakfast type so I need the resolution to nudge me to choose to eat this every morning instead of a bagel with cream cheese, cayenne pepper and raw onion. So far so good. I'm not ravenous for my second breakfast by 9:30 am and I'll get the cholesterol tested next month and see if it makes a whit of difference. And my kids don't flinch from the smell of my breath anymore! My plan is to switch to homemade granola come summer.

2. No seconds, except for salad. This resolution just requires a little self-control. And it really only applies when I make something so tasty (which, let's face it, is not a daily occurrence) that I am tempted to keep eating it even though I'm no longer hungry.

Favorite things of 2008

Time for a little looking back at my obsessions in 2008 before launching into 2009.

Books
In the books-intended-for- grown-ups department:
1. My favorite book of the year is one that I just finished last week: Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link. I give this book credit for keeping me in a good mood while the kids were out of school. (Well, at least in a better mood than I would have been without the book...can't be cheerful all the damn time.) Link's stories are strange and ominous and surreal. But this collection also had a touch of whimsy and optimism that I don't remember in her other collections, and which I appreciated very much. I loved "The Wizards of Perfil," "The Surfer," and "The Constable of Abal," particularly the last story which has permeated my dreams. Even better was the fact that each story began with a drawing by the immensely talented Shaun Tan (I love his book The Arrival). Putting Tan and Link together is a perfect match and I commend whatever editor or publisher had the vision. I have the book sitting here, ready to go back to the library, but I really don't want to let it go. I don't feel that kind of greediness very often.

2. Runner up: Monsters of Templeton (yes, another book with Monsters in the title...)

In the intended-for-children department:
The revelation of the year was the audio version of Tale of Desperaux. I'd read the book before, and enjoyed it, but the audio version is a whole different level of wonderful. It has become a part of our family lingo with lines like "Whoopsie" and "Cripes" resonating through our speech on a daily basis. In fact, we even named our new car "Whoopsie" (an explanation of the name will be in an upcoming post). And you couldn't pay me to go to the movie--every clip I've seen has rendered the story "cute" which is the opposite of the book.

Crafting
I didn't make a whole lot of progress on the knitting front in 2008, just a baby sweater and a lacy scarf. That's not too impressive. It does look like I will finish the Urban Aran before it is 90 degrees out though. So my two favorite crafting things from the past year were sewing related which is a bit of a surprise since I'm not a natural with a needle.

1. My most satisfying project were these super simple little bags which I use to hold my MP3 player and digital camera:

I made the first one following (loosely) the plans in Bend-the-Rules Sewing, and made the second one even more basic with fewer seams (and it is just as functional for something this small). They keep the crap off my electronics when they are bumping around in my purse next to my wallet and the bag of dried apricots I always carry for blood-sugar-level crises.

2. Runner up was pimping the dragon which made me feel like a competent parent for a change.

Recipes/Food
1. The recipe that I tried for the first time in the past year and will probably make more often than any other in the coming year is tahini lemon sauce. I have pretty consistently kept a container of this in the fridge at all times and it has provided countless "relief" meals when I haven't had a clue what to make for dinner. I dig through the fridge, find the tahini lemon sauce and then am able to improvise something pretty tasty and low effort: dollop it on roasted vegetables, toss it with some sauteed chicken, thin it with a little extra lemon and water and use as a salad dressing. Really useful stuff to have around.

2. Runner up: lamb/yogurt pasta stuff. This isn't the easiest recipe, nor the most challenging, but it has a flavor profile that I seem to crave often.

In the food someone-else-cooked-for-me department:
1. I am so happy to have a friend who makes the effort and invites us over to consume his wonderful smork.
2. Runner up: the three Lady Food Blogger events I've been to have made me feel nourished by my community (and by the terrific and widely varied cooking passions of the members).

Writing
1. My longhand editing project was my favorite writing experience of the year. It was particularly comforting to me since I had a year of rocky computer experiences (at this time, my computer is the only one in the house that is working so while the computer gods still are not smiling on our house, at least they've decided to spread the pain around among our family members.)

2. I don't really have a runner up in this obsession, except for the fact that I'm still having fun writing my novel.

Now onward to 2009!

Sticky Toffee Therapy

We had a doozy of a day today. No sun. No snow to play in (plenty of ice to slip and break your neck on though!) And Brian was gloomy too. I usually count on him to be able to pull me out of my funks, but he's fighting off a cold and had a crappy night sleep so his humor reserves were at a low.

I tried. I really did. I went to the gym first thing in the hopes of having endorphins help me out. I made a good breakfast: spinach sauteed in garlic and olive oil, egg cracked on top then sprinkled with feta accompanied by multigrain toast and strong coffee. We took the kids to see a planetarium show about the stars in ancient Egypt. I even wore the cheerful socks my sister gave me for Christmas:
But no go. Gloom still permeated the air. I decided it was time for some Sticky Toffee Pudding Therapy. Brian has never had Sticky Toffee Pudding which was everywhere you turned in England when I was there one winter in the early '90s. I figure that the English know something about gloom and how to treat it. Bring on the toffee!

It helps that it is a pretty simple recipe. The only "specialized" ingredient is the heavy cream for the caramel sauce. I made it in a loaf pan because as I accurately predicted, my freaky kids wouldn't eat it, so I halved the recipe (which would normally make an 8 inch square steamed pudding).

Sticky

Stickier
Stickiest

After devouring one piece, Brian looked up at me with the first sign of a smile I'd seen all day and asked: "How sick would we be if we ate the whole thing?"


Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake
serves 4-6 people, depending on gloom levels
adapted from Cook's Illustrated

Pudding cake
2 T butter melted
1/2 C plus 2 T unbleached all purpose flour
4 oz whole pitted dates, cut into 1/4 inch dice
a little less than a 1/2 C warm water
1/4 t baking soda
1/4 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
a little less than 1/2 C of dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla

Toffee sauce
2 T butter
1/2 C packed dark brown sugar
1/4 t salt
1/2 C heavy cream

Pudding cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 4x8 inch loaf pan.
2. Combine half of the dates with the warm water and baking soda and soak for 5 minutes.
3. Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl.
4. Bring a kettle of water to boil.
5. Process other half of the dates and the brown sugar in a food processor until it looks like damp sand, 45 seconds. Drain soaked dates--save the liquid, but set the dates aside. Add soaking liquid to the food processor. Add egg, vanilla and melted butter and process until smooth, 15 seconds.
6. Plop wet stuff from food processor on top of the dry stuff in your bowl and sprinkle the softened dates on top.
7. With a spatula, fold wet into dry until just combined and date pieces are distributed. Spread batter into prepared loaf pan. Put loaf pan in a bigger pan and pour boiling water in the bigger pan until it is about 1/4 inch deep. Cover the whole thing tightly with aluminum foil so the pudding cake will steam inside.
8. Bake for 40 minutes until puffed and springy.
   
9. Flip cake out onto serving platter.
10. Take a toothpick and stab holes in it for the toffee sauce to seep into (very therapeutic!) Spread about 1/4 of the sauce and let soak in. Do it again.
11. Cut into squares (or rectangles) and top each serving with more toffee sauce.

Toffee Sauce:

1. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in brown sugar and salt until smooth. Continue to cook until sugar is dissolved and slightly darkened, whisk occasionally (about 4 minutes).
2. Add 1/4 C cream and stir until smooth. Pour in remaining cream and whisk. Reduce heat to low and simmer until frothy, about 3 minutes.

Christmas meats

I left it until the last minute, but today, on Christmas Eve, I started (and finished) a revision of the decorations to Brian's stocking. Some folks who've been reading this blog waaaay toooo long may have a vague memory of our personalized stockings. Fiona's robot decorated stocking is pictured here. Mine has a pile of books; Ian's has a train. And Brian's used to have an assortment of cheeses. But cheese just wasn't right (I think it was just the first word that popped into his head when I asked him what he wanted on his stocking. It could very well have been "pontoon" on a different day.) Don't get me wrong, Brian likes cheese just fine, but he does not fetishize cheese the way he does meat. This is a man who has a "wall of meat" display of weird meat-related items next to his desk at work.

Here's a close up of the meats:
Ham, bacon and sausage (with fluorescent mustard) in a roll. The sausage was by far the hardest to pull off. The meat-man gave an appreciative nod of approval to the alterations.

And today, poking around at the Vault of Midnight, I found the perfect item to stuff in said stocking:
It looks revolting, but will be warmly appreciated.

When it comes to real meat, tomorrow I'll be making a prune stuffed pork loin for Christmas dinner, loosely based on this recipe.

The annual granola factory

It's a good thing I got my fun baking done last week because this week, the granola factory has been churning along:

This year's variety: Cherry Cranberry Granola

Here are the bags, all lined up and ready to go.
We're dropping them off a day early since 7-11 inches (!!) of snow are forecast for tonight and my guess is the last day of school before the break will be canceled. I do not need 10 pounds of granola sitting in the house waiting for school to start up again in January!

And yes, I did mention fun baking at the beginning of the post. On Saturday I attended my first cookie exchange with the Michigan Lady Food Bloggers. Patti hosted us (again!) and I have to say, the selection of cookies way exceeded my expectations:
Now that is a groaning table of bounty!

I made the cookies on the three goofy floral plates at the lower center of the photo: chocolate chocolate chip shortbread, mini mince pies and cranberry orange shortbread.

Want a closer look? (Of course you do!)
There were mincemeat spirals, date nut spirals, Italian wedding cookies, chocolate espresso cookies, chocolate biscotti, chocolate chip with coconut cookies, ginger snaps, jam thumbprint cookies, gingerbread mittens, pistachio bars, ginger cookies with candied ginger, homemade toffees and truffles and probably a few others that I'm forgetting.

Whew! And it's funny thing, but there aren't very many left from the heaped up container I brought home. Fiona gobbled up the ginger snaps and gingerbread, I appropriated the Italian wedding cookies and anything with mincemeat, and Brian has been coming to bed with chocolate and nuts on his breath (Ian thought they all looked too scary. Sigh.) So I might have to do a bit more fun holiday baking to get us through until Christmas, especially if the 7-11 inches of snow trap us in each other's company with no escape. Butter, sugar, chocolate and spices are almost as good as therapy in such a situation.

How does anyone get any work done?

These days, my brain is completely preoccupied with a) anxiety about the auto industry and b) the chaos of the holiday season.

Book? What book? I'm supposed to be writing a book?

The task of sitting down and spinning ideas into reasonably comprehensible prose seems even more impossible with the lack of sunlight, short days and hostile weather. It has felt much colder than usual--this Saturday I made the boy critter walk with me to the Farmer's Market when it was 18 degrees out. We got down there, got our 2 dozen eggs and we were about 1/2 a mile from home when I felt like I was ready to give up (the boy was fine, having fun kicking chunks of ice). I whimpered for the remainder of the march, then came home and sat in the tub until my thighs defrosted.

So that does it. I'm taking a break from the book; maybe once the holiday piano recital, the school multicultural fair and other holiday get togethers are over I can contemplate having enough of my brain back to devote time to my characters. But right now, it is dopey to keep fighting an uphill battle and making work that has been a wonderful pleasure into a chore.

The problem with peanut sauce....

....is that it looks like someone barfed on your food.

Despite this unpleasant aesthetic reality, I ate three bowls of the pictured (barfy-looking) goodness last week. Brian was off on a work trip and that meant I got to do some more single-girl cooking. I chucked bean and cheese quesadillas at the critters more times than I care to count, and then assembled the big bowl of brown rice, steamed vegetables and tofu topped with tasty but ugly peanut sauce for myself. I layered raw spinach on the bottom, then hot brown rice (which wilts the spinach a little) and then the cut up steamed zucchini, red pepper, broccoli, green and yellow beans, carrots and tofu cubes. Then a few glops of barf-sauce and ta da! Dinner!

Here's my master recipe. I know that it's hard to crave something so completely un-photogenic, but I'm thinking that keeping a container of this peanut sauce, along with my favorite tahini lemon sauce, ready in the fridge at all times would be a good idea.

Peanut Sauce

1/2 C peanut butter (I like chunky, though it makes the sauce look even more like barf)
1 T soy sauce
2 T brown sugar
juice of 1 lime
1/2 C coconut milk
1/2 C water
1 large clove pressed garlic
about 2 inch knob of ginger, grated (microplane does a great job with it)
2 T fish sauce (optional) or add a little more soy sauce

Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat. Whisk to combine all the elements until the sauce bubble and thickens. Can be served hot or cold.

Thirds

Yum yum.

I'm giving a big old brain-burp now after a week of binge reading my way through two helpings of thirds in two series of books by two of my favorite authors. Follow that?

First I finished Inkdeath, the last book in Cornelia Funke's Inkheart trilogy.

This was one of the most fun books I've read this year; it isn't stand alone, but it was a rollicking good read as the culmination of the (significant) amount of time I've spent in Inkworld. Most of all it fulfilled my appetite for the characters and I think I'm ready to let them go, not because I'm bored with them, but because I like where they are and don't feel a perpetual need to know what happens next. Funke did leave herself an opening for another book, but not in a cliff-hanger way: the meddlesome Orpheus disappears into the northern forest, but he isn't dead and could make a reappearance.

I've read some criticism that the character Meggie is more passive in this book, which is true, but I always thought of Mo as the main character of the series, not Meggie. I liked how his wife, Resa, finally got to play a significant role in the adventure. Also there were plenty of meta fiction references to how adventure and fantasy books are traditionally written (such as when Meggie comments on how Finoglio never lets his women characters do anything in his books) which seemed to be playing with and winking at narrative convention.

Then this past weekend I gobbled up When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson*. This is the third book that has featured Jackson Brodie, a not-always-competent private investigator. While there are crimes committed and investigations mounted, these books are not traditional detective fiction. When the crimes are solved, it doesn't feel like the culmination of the novel; rather it is the characters and their growth and development, their struggles to overcome their pasts and attempts to live relatively moral lives in the present which capture our attention most fully.

And despite loads of traumas and injuries endured by all the main characters, the humor is dark and biting and feels so right. You can feel the author's pleasure when she makes some of the jokes (the Yorkshire town of Hawes is repeatedly misheard as "whores"--soften your "rs" and read both words with your best British accent) and there are loads of little digs buried in the text: sing-song nursery rhymes and bits of Virgil coexist and twist their way into the plot. I think I could easily read the book again just to decipher all the hidden bits that are embeded in the text.

But I'll put that off for the moment. After two helpings of thirds, I'm a wee bit full.

*If you'd like to read the first few pages of the book to get a feel for the tone and see if it is to your taste, the NYTimes kindly published an excerpt here.