Thursday, November 27, 2014

Happy Turkey Day!

Or for anyone who doesn't celebrate it: Happy Thursday!
For the NaNoWriMoers:  Only four days left!!!!

As you have probably read on here about a million times, I am feeling like my charity stuff has been suffering this month.  I would like to claim that my other blog is suffering too, but it has been suffering for a few months, so that's all me.  I have a new goal for next month and that will be to finally finish some of my projects that have been sitting around waiting for me to add that last step to them.  Some sort of ending the year and ending projects kind of tie in.  Everyone likes a good theme.

I also still plan on trying to do my work 50,000 stitches in one month in January.  I don't want any finishing work on old projects to get in the way of my goal.  It will be also very interesting because I will be working on some stuff for myself during that month in preparation for Katsucon the following month.  It will be happening over the Valentine's Day weekend, so I have something heart themed planned.  Yay for themes!

I still need to weight my owl mitts and get the last two bits of info onto my pattern file so I can get that put up.  I think I will see if I few people from one of my knitting groups wants to test knit for me.  I'm also still thinking of making a chart for the owl section, but I am still not sure about that.

In case anyone was wondering what to get me for *whatever winter holiday you want* this year, here is a hint.  I think it is a pretty awesome idea.  I was even surprised to find that I am not too far away from them. Only a bit more than a three hour drive.  This seems like an awesome idea because you get all the joys of owning your own sheep without all the hassle of having to clean-up after them.
I don't see them now, but I think they used to have pictures of the sheep so you could browse and see when one you might want would be available.  There was one I saw with a spot over one eye and I just loved her.  I wanted her but The Hubby didn't get me her last year.
They also have piglets for take-home-adoption.  I will be the first to admit that I want some very odd pets.  A pet pig is on my list.  Pigs are just so dang smart.  I think it would be fun to own one of them, even if they grow up to be one of those giant piggies.  The closest I can get are Guinea Pigs, which are also awesome pets, but not the same.
I've also wanted a pet cow too.  I love how soft their noses are.  I think I need to move to a small farm.  That way I would be able to own all of the creatures I want.  Most of these I can't own in my house because it isn't rated for agriculture.
Another odd pet I have always wanted was a skunk.  I just love their little waddly walk.  Though according to Skunks as Pets, it seems that is is illegal for me to own a skunk. Boo!

List of adoptable sheep sites: there are probably a lot more but here are the ones I look at.


Since I get so distracted so easily, I have found a few more knitting blogs that look interesting.

Since I like having pictures in each of my posts, here is a random one.  This little guy started out as three dimensional until he met me.  I put him in my cargo pocket and I figured he would be okay since the last time I did that the snowman stayed dimensional.  Well, I think I sat on this one or something because he is barely past being two dimensional.  Poor little dude.  At least I know he will still be tasty since he was made from Lindt.


On that same grocery trip last week where I got the stuff to make the oatmeal in a jar I also picked up some So Delicious Coconut Milk Pumpkin Spice to have with Turkey Day dinner.  Also in the theme of Thanksgiving and cooking your little hearts out, here are some things I like to cook.

Your favorite recipe: Dessert

Chocolate Crack

Ingredients:

  • 4-6 Matzo crackers
  • 1 cup unsalted butter
  • 1 cup dark brown sugar (I've used white or a combo of the two before)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 12 oz bag of dark chocolate chips

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 12 x 17 inch jelly roll pan with foil. Place crackers salt side up and side-by-side in the pan as tightly as possible without overlapping. Use saltine pieces to fill any gaps at the bottom of the pan. Set aside.
  2. In a medium saucepan melt butter over medium heat stirring frequently. Once butter has melted, add sugar, and vanilla stirring to combine. Cook for about 5 minutes or until mixture is an even brown color and has begun to bubble. Remove from heat and pour over saltines using spatula to spread sauce.
  3. Bake crackers for 10 minutes or until butter mixture begins to bubble. Remove from oven and sprinkle evenly with chocolate allowing the heat to melt the chocolate. Spread chocolate evenly with the spatula so all of the crackers are completely covered. Refrigerate until chocolate sets and hardens. Break apart and serve.
I've also used other bases.  Pretzels work pretty well too.  You could also use different kinds of chips, I used butterscotch once.  It was super sweet, but nice.  It could also be fun to use a few kinds of chips and swirl them all together on the top.  A white chocolate and lots of candy cane bits would make some super yummy crack.
I'm thinking of dissolving some puff mints in with the butter step and then using the mint filled dark chocolate chips mixed with a bit of leftover chips from something else.  The mint filled chips come in a smaller bag than the plain chips.  I want to make sure there is enough chocolate for everyone's tastes.  It should be interesting to see how the mint filling reacts to getting spread out.
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For my experiment I crushed 2 oz of the puffy mints and stirred them in with the butter and other things at that step.  It made the mixture turn a festive pink color!  I was hoping the centers of the chips would be green like in the picture on the front and I would get some green swirls, but that didn't happen.


Your favorite recipe: Veggie

Double-Stuffed Butternut Squash

Ingredients:

  • 1 butternut squash
  • Extra virgin olive oil 
  • Salt and pepper 
  • Freshly grated nutmeg 
  • 1 lb bacon (optional)
  • 1 cups sharp cheddar cheese, divided 
  • 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, divided 
  • 1/2 cup ricotta cheese 
  • 1 tbsp Italian Seasoning

Directions:

Double-Stuffed Butternut Squash.

I changed the ingredients a bit but left the rest the same.  I found that using a fork to get the 'meat' out so that it will help to break up the long stringy bits.  When I tried to get it out with a spoon I had big chunks that had to be cut up with a knife.  I also have only been making one half for myself so most of those have been halved again.


Your favorite recipe: Fruit

The FullyRaw Persimmon Nog!

Ingredients:

  • 2 Young Coconuts (Water and Meat Inside) ~I've used just the water before and it still is good
  • 2 RIPE OOuueey Guey Persimmons
  • 15-20 Fresh Dates Pitted
  • Half a Tablespoon of Cinnamon
  • Dash of Nutmeg

Directions:

Blend everything together and pour into two or more pretty glasses.  Enjoy!
FullyRaw Kristina's video where I saw this first.

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So here was how Turkey Day was going to go down: I was going to come over early and when my mom put the turducken in the oven for it's three hour warm-up we were going to knit and eat shrimp cocktail and deviled eggs.
How it really went down: A few days ago my mom's refrigerator stopped making cold air.  The motor was still going, but it wasn't being productive.  When she pulled things out of the fridge and they didn't feel quite as cold as they should she got suspicious but didn't think about it too much.
Yesterday she noticed a puddle at the base of the refrigerator and went to investigate.  It was almost almost warm in there.  Everything in the freezer had defrosted and the inside of the body of the fridge was 50°F.  Since she didn't know how long things had been sitting at such a warm temperature almost everything in there had to go.  Pretty much all of her prep work had gone to waste.
Everything she though would be okay was sitting on the back porch because it is still pretty cold out.  Though things like eggs, shrimp, and other delicate things went right into the trash.

As you can see, we did get some knitting done while eating shrimp.  This is the second one since the first was all mushy and kind of iffy.

This is a picture of the turducken, aka The Beast, in the flesh.  This is the breast meat only version, it is both smaller and not as expensive.  Perfect for three or four people.

 More things were out of a can or container than we usually have, but everything was super yummy.

Now I'm off to make some crack.  I have a feeling that I could not longer work where I am now but I would be getting e-mails asking if I could make some and drop it off anyway.


I've also noticed that if you are viewing the blog with an "unsupported browser" some of the formatting I'm doing in these posts might look funny.  If the word count things at the bottom look bigger than the rest of the text, then you are not seeing everything correctly.  Just wanted to give a little heads up about it.


Today's count: 1,774
Monthly count: 44,365
Prompts used: 25
Words from titles: 137
Pattern words: 1,870
Other blog: 1,162
Pictures posted: 4 (counting only finished objects)

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the shout-out! I knit for charity, too. I'm adding your blog to my Feedly feed.

    One year, I got a turducken for free from work. My family still talks about the year we had turducken for Thanksgiving--we were just talking about it yesterday! I would have liked it more with different stuffing, but it was fun to try.

    Lisa from Bubble Gum for the Brain

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the add! Where my mom got the one we ate you could choose from two or three different stuffing choices.

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