something is eating my oregano

Yes there should be herbs there, I planted herbs there and all I have is pile if dirt... but he eats bugs so I guess he is alright with me. I replanted the oregano elsewhere and bought a climbing hydrangea to climb the wall and give him some shade as well. He is a happy toad.





Not that I can go out to see him today as I am trapped on the second floor of my house for at least another hour - I am refinishing our floors, I can paint myself out the front door and entertain myself outside for 6 hours or paint myself upstairs where I can knit and watch season 1 of Grey's anatomy. My choice is obvious is it not.

really?!

As all GF free folks know coming up with an "instant" meal can be a real challenge. Sometimes after a long day of teaching or working outside I just need something that I can put in the oven. Today I found a gluten free fast food. Ian's (www.iansnaturalfood.com) makes gluten free chicken nuggets and fish sticks - and they taste good! Tonight I dined on his sweet potato fries and chicken nuggets, not a morsel of gluten entered my body and it was pretty good! Yeah for Ian's Natural Food.

See there is knitting here

Well I am back from a lovely weekend away and as promised there is knitting to be seen. I finished my STR Inside Out! sock, well one sock is finished and the other needs to be cast on. It will be finished but given that it is way too hot to wear them I am not to eager or to motivated.
While we were in Montreal I made it to a yarn store, yes I know you are all so surprised! We went to Mouline Yarns ( they are having a sale) and of course some stash enhancing was done. After chatting with Scott, the owner? I came home with some Debbie Bliss ( I already have some of this in the stash) and some fabulous yarn from Susan Anderson - 50% baby Suri, 40% Extra fine Merino, 10% Cashmere. I got enough for 2 hats, they had lots of great colours but P wanted black
And in other knitting news I am working on the Melon Shawl from Victorian Lace Today. I'm using SeaSilk and really enjoy it.I am working on the inside at the moment and will add a border when I have finished. I need it for August, cross your fingers.


Last but not least, an almost finished baby sweater knit with Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in Blue Jean and another colour whose name escapes me at the moment.
And some spinning, my wheel has been quiet for ages but I rearranged my stash recently and was inspired to spin this up. It's roving I got from the Yarn Barn that I dyed myself with Golden Rod flowers, it is spinning up well and I am hoping for some sock yarn.

It's the last non knitting post this week, I promise.

7 Septembers ago, in the fall of my third year of "higher education" I sat in a class at a university were the majority of the students were male ( then I called them boys) and female students were few and far between. In this particular class, History of the First 5 Centuries, there were 4 other women. I sat with 2 of them at a table near the back next to the window. Behind me sat 2 men who I had yet to meet. One was my age and babyfaced the other older than I and quick to crack a joke. I took them in as just another couple of guys at a school where that was the norm. As it turned out they were both Roman Catholic seminaries in their first year of studies. The semester passed and we joked with one another and made cracks about other students, professors and life in general. Fall led into Winter and I became friends with those "boys" who sat behind me. We had other classes together and began to meet in the cafe coffee breaks. They were nice enough boys and joker made me laugh. The joker hung out with me and a few of friends more and more often.

3rd year turned into 4th and the joker and I had more classes together, I used to copy his notes when I skipped class. I confided in him about the boy I had a crush on as they were friends and I thought that maybe he could help hook us up. I invited him to parties at my house, including my 25th birthday party when he gave me a miniature telescope so that I could always see my dreams. He was great friend and I felt lucky to have him in my circle.

In my last year of school I was on a different campus and didn't see him to often, we saw one another at parties and he came some at my house. That summer he helped me move. He also decided that summer, after he finished school that a RC priest was not what he wanted to be. He left the seminary and decided to begin a master's degree. As I struggled with finding a teaching job we kept in touch, getting together with other friends who lived in the city and then when I decided to leave for Asia he stored my stuff, bought my TV and came to my going away party. We kept in touch over email. I confided in a number of friends that if he was older or I was younger I would so marry him. He didn't seem interested and so off I went to Korea with his email address and miniature telescope.

We kept in touch while I was gone, chatted on MSN and such. I missed him but I missed everyone as I was so far away. I came home 18 months later and he was the first one to call and welcome me home. We saw each other soon after for coffee and then a few days later for dinner. I muttered to my friends about him and wondered if maybe I was missing something. Days turned into weeks and we were spending more and more of our free time in one anothers company.

Before I knew it I tripped, fell and was in love with the joker, the one who I told about all the other boys that I liked. The one who laughed at my corny jokes, drove me home on cold winter days and worried about me when I was overseas alone. Fall led into winter again and by the time Christmas came we were engaged.

A year ago tomorrow we were married. But I am typing today as tomorrow we will be in Montreal, enjoying a weekend away and celebrating our 1st anniversary. And so, to celebrate the fact that I love the man I married and that I have never been as sure of anything as in my life as I am about him... I stole this (shamelessly) from Kelly's blog, it's perfect and it says it better than I ever could


The Invitation

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, ‘Yes.’

It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

basic bread

if you are here for knitting

you may as well go now as I have nothing to show you today! I have been knitting but I have no pictures. Just like I have been gardening and seeds are sprouting but I have no pictures. However I do have pictures of birds and butterflies. These wee robins are from a nest right beside the clothesline. Every time I go to hang laundry out these 2 robins go insane and act as though they are being murdered. I was motivated to find out why they were freaking out and so I went on a bit of a search... and look what I found. I plan on checking on them often and I'll keep you posted. We have a few other nests with
other types of birds but they are not as easy to get too.
We also have heaps of butterflies and moths at the moment. They are harder to photograph but every now and then I manage to get one.
And the laziest dog ever! Last night while I was taking pictures of food for the other blog ( there are a few good gluten free recipes up there - rhubarb crisp and the best pizza dough) Chudder decided that she was thirsty but I guess standing up would be to much work so she dragged herself over to the water and had a drink - she is insane.

I'll be back with knitting later this week... I promise.

pizza ( an adapted version)

The GF pizza struggle is a classic one, finding a dough that works and tastes good is a real challenge. P and I have found one that we both enjoy and regularly make it and slather it with all sorts of yummy things. Pesto, feta, roasted red pepper, onion and artichoke is a fav but so is plain old pepperoni and mushroom ( make sure it is GF pepperoni). Here is the crust recipe I like.

Sometimes I do the needing part in the breadmaker and sometimes I do it by hand. To do it in the breadmaker dump in the liquids first and be sure to dissolve the gelatin in the hot water first, then mix all the dry ingredients in separate bowl before adding them to the breadmaker pan. Set the breadmaker just to mix and knead, then follow the directions below.


INGREDIENTS:
1 tablespoon gluten-free dry yeast
2/3 cup brown or white rice flour*
1/2 cup tapioca flour
2 tblsp dry milk powder
2 tsps xanthan gum
1/2 tsp salt1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin powder
2/3 cup warm water ( at least 105 degrees F)
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp cider vinegar
Oil for the pan


DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
In medium bowl using regular beaters (not dough hooks), blend the yeast, flours, dry milk powder, xanthan gum, and salt, on low speed. Add dissolve the gelatin powder in the warm water and then add the sugar , olive oil, and vinegar. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. (If the mixer bounces around the bowl, the dough is too stiff. Add water if necessary, one tablespoon at a time, until dough does not resist beaters.) The dough will resemble soft bread dough. Or use a Breadmaker to blend ( see above)

Put mixture into 12-inch pizza pan or on baking sheet that has been oiled already. Liberally sprinkle rice flour onto dough, roll out dough into a large circle, use more rice flour as needed to prevent it from sticking. Then press dough into pan, continuing to sprinkle dough with flour to prevent sticking to your hands. Make edges thicker to contain the toppings. Bake the pizza crust for 15 minutes. Remove from oven. Spread pizza crust with your favorite sauce and toppings. Bake for another 15 - 20 minutes or until top is nicely browned. If necessary turn broiler on for a few minutes to brown the cheese.

It's good, really good and still good the next day. I think the thing that I like best about this recipe is that it is good cold unlike most GF things.

* If I am doubling the recipe I use 2/3 of a cup of each

grrrr and cuteness

The Grrrr
I need to be working in the garden but the weather is not intrested in cooperating with what I need and want. My almost dry laundry is now wet again as we put it in the sunny morning, went out to run a few errands and came home to thunderstorms. The lawn is now to wet to mow and all my plans for the day have gone out the window with mosquitoes - of which we have millions.

The Cuteness - P and I have decided that we need another puppy... yes we alreasy have 2 but P needs a boy to balance out the 5 to 1 ratio that we have going and Chudder really needs someone to play with.

Sadly none of the pictures turned out too well ( the battery was really low and it was a bit of a challenge to get any at all), but this is the newst addition to the family, he is only 7 days old

And won't come home till mid July. He is one of 10 and man are we in love. He is a bull mastiff and at the moment his name is Max

He is the second one from the right.

If the rain keeps up I may actually have some kniting to show you... oh and my computer has a new harddrive, yeah for techy friends.

2 weeks in pictures

Yes it has been quiet here, but to distract you from the fact that I have little to talk about because all I have been doing is gardening since I got back from Victoria... I give you a ton of photos of everything but my knitting. There is some knitting will be another post for another day.

Kids who are bigger and almost as big as me.

They started out so small, how did it happen?

A boy who is finds a little peace in a park full of screaming kids

A nephew who knows a good pillow

A musical interlude, they were really good!

Make the baby laugh
Dad's who are getting old... well not really old but we like to tease him about it.

Back at the farm, the beauty continues

The dragonflies are out in huge numbers

but taking a picture of a dragonfly is really hard

I have been planting flowers
and going to wedding showers

*reposted, hopefully the pics are all here now

Strawberry rhubarb crisp

I love rhubarb and we are lucky enough to have about 5 plants that grow in our yard. I started playing with this recipe last week and after I tried it again this weekend, I think it's now ready to post.

Preheat the oven to 350

4 cups sliced rhubarb
4 cups slices strawberries
1/4 cup sugar ( I use raw sugar but white or brown would work just fine)

Combine these 3 ingredients in a medium shallow size casserole dish and prepare topping

In a large bowl combine
2/3 cup brown rice flour
2/3 cup white rice flour
1/3 cup tapioca flour
2/3 cup brown sugar

Stir the flours and sugar together and then add

2/3 cup softened butter ( margarine would work as well but I prefer butter)

Using 2 knives or a pastry mixer blend the butter into the flour mixture until it is well mixed. Using the pastry mixer will mix the butter more completely but as long as the butter is cut into small pieces and mixed throughout the flour mixture it will work fine.

Add the mixture to the top of the casserole dish pushing it down around the edges, so that it doesn't spill out. (My casserole looks very full once I add the topping but the fruit cooks down and it doesn't spill over the edges. )

Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes

Serve warm with ice cream, whipping cream or plain. I like all 3 ways.

I'm not here, I'm there

Where is there you may ask? There is in Victoria but I couldn't say anything because I was surprising R for her 16th birthday. I got here on Saturday morning and am staying through this week as my Dad's birthday is tomorrow and Mother's day was yesterday. It was a good week to come.
I have winners in this years blog contest. Thanks for all the great links! Malva and Lo Sing are the lucky randomly drawn winners ( my mom and sister helped). If you send your snail mail address to me bagknitter(at)yahoo(dot)ca I will get those out in the mail when I am back in Ottawa.

The was some stash enhancing today at Beehive, just one thing but it was one really fantastic thing ( because my sister is fabulous and split it with me). I was sad that they did not have it in a shade of blue but I'll love the red just as much I am sure.

Alrights, that's it. I'll be back when I am land locked again.

F.O

My new bag, the pattern is my own, I kinda just made it up as I went along. I knit it with 3 skeins of Noro, hand felted it and then lined it and added a pocket inside. I added a braided cable so that the endless rows of stockinette would not make my head explode.
I bought the straps in California from this company (I'll add the link later, can't find it at the moment), I really like them and they are far better than the i cord handles that I have made in the past.

This is Norberta II, I made in Cascades alpaca/wool blend. She is really soft and I hope the wee person to whom she now belongs enjoys her.

Last day for my blog contest, there are lots of great links in the comments to all sorts of great patterns. I will announce a winner early next week, I have a busy 3 days ahead of me and definitely won't get to it. Have a good weekend, I know I will.

CSI - Lanark County

It was a sunny Wednesday morning when the tragedy was discovered

A newly bloomed tulip was viciously decapitated by an unknown assailant

and left on the sidewalk for all the other tulips to see

The neighbours were interviewed but no one saw anything

The usual suspects were sought out and questioned about their where abouts at the time of the incident

these two had a realistic alibi given that they are already behind bars

and this one was sleeping and had a witness to corroborate her story

One small black cat is still at large, she is considered armed (with claws) and dangerous. If spotted please notify the authorities as she needs to be questioned in the case of the decapitated tulip

prizes anyone

I can't believe that I have been blogging for 3 years, amazing how time flies. In honor of this momentous occasion I though I would give away some loot..., Canadian loot at that.

Prize number 1,
Yes my friends you can have one of these very lovely Fleece Artist sock kits (picture stolen from here , thanks for sharing), I got one at my LYS, sorry you don't have any vote on the color as I just picked up what they had last time that they had them. It will be a surprise.

Prize number 2, a skien of Fleece artist sock yarn (sorry no picture), again the the color will be surprise.

To enter the contest all you have to do is leave a comment telling me what your favourite free online knitting pattern is. I am always looking for inspiration and I thought this would be a good way to generate a list. It needs to be a free pattern and if you have the link feel free to throw it in. Contest is open to all, 2 winners will be chosen randomly from all who enter and if you win I will mail off your yarn with a few other little treats as soon as can get it all organised.

You can leave your comments here until May 15, that's 1 week from now. I will draw from the entries on May 16.

FYI, not knitting related at all but I have started a 2nd blog to put some of my gluten free recipes on, you can find it here.

Roasted Potato Salad

There is something about warm weather that makes me want to eat potato salad, I am not sure why I always feel so drawn to it but I do. I am often on the look out for new ideas, ways to make those potatoes sing with flavour. Last week I was inspired by a few other recipes and after a little trial and error I came up with this, enjoy.

3 pounds of 2 different types of potatoes, (I used red and yellow) cut into wedges about 1 inch in length. I leave the peels on but without would work as well.
2 large sweet peppers (red, yellow or orange) cut each pepper into 6 or 8 long slices for roasting
1 pound fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces.
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup olive oil
24 Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped

Dressing

1/8 cup balsamic vinegar
1/8 cup red wine vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
1 large clove garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
1 teaspoon of each of the following oregano, basil and rosemary ( I use dried)
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oven to 425 f. Add the olive oil to the bottom of a roasting pan large enough for the potatoes and peppers. Heat the oil for 5 minutes, remove pan from oven and add the wedged potatoes, mix well to coat the potatoes in the worm oil. Arrange potatoes so that they occupy 2/3 of the pan, add the cut peppers in the empty space. I find that keeping the potatoes and peppers separate works best. Place the pan in to the oven. Cook for 10 minutes, remove pan, mix the potatoes well and turn the peppers, return pan to oven to cook for another 10 minutes. Then remove the pan and repeat the process. The potatoes should be cooked after about 30 minutes, transfer them from the pan into a bowl and put the peppers back in the oven for another 10 minutes. You want the roasted peppers to be soft enough that you can peel the skins off, in my oven this takes about 40 minutes total.

While the peppers and potatoes are roasting cook the green beans. Add the cut green beans to a pot of boiling water and cook for about 5 minutes or until they tender, rinse them immediately with cold water to stop them from becoming over cooked. Drain and place onto a clean towel, pat dry. Add the sliced onion, chopped olives and cooked beans to the bowl with the potato wedges.

Remove the peppers from the oven, allow them to cool until they can be handled easily. When they are cool the skins should peel away easily ( use a small knife if they don't come away). Peel all the pepper pieces and discard the skins. Chop the peeled pepper pieces into bite size chunks and add them to the bowl.

Make the dressing. In a blender combine the garlic, spices, oil and vinegar, blend until the garlic is minced and the dressing is well mixed, about 1 minute.

Add the dressing to the salad and mix well. This salad is best if made ahead and allowed to to sit at room temperature for 2 or 3 hours. If made the day before remove it from the fridge early enough to allow the salad time to come to room temp. before serving

Great for barbeque's and summer potlucks.

FYI - I experimented with roasting the potatoes and peppers on the barbeque, it worked quiet well but in the end took about the same amount of time as in the oven

Teaching moments

So I taught all week in the same inner-city school that I often work in. All the same things went on, I was pinched, kicked, hit and shouted at by angry, unhappy small people who really deserve better than there lives are giving them at this point. It was a long week and I am exhausted but as I supervised recess today I had to laugh, a small waif of a kid came running toward at full speed and behind her was a much larger child from her class (grade 1) not running nearly as fast screaming across the school yard "Come here so I can kick your ass!" Luckily the smaller kid ran a lot faster than the big one and she ran straight into my arms. Once I regained my composure (stopped laughing my face off) I dealt with the situation and took the class inside. As soon as the final bell rang I happily ran through the school sharing the brillant line with all the other staff, it was a much need laugh after a very long day.

Since some of you come here looking for knitting content, there is some but I am to tired to share it today... it will come soon.

It's all here now

It's my Mom's birthday, Happy Birthday to a fabulous woman who loves me even though after 30 years I still mix up the actual day of her birthday, I blame in on the fact that I had lots of friends who have April birthdays as a kid... I did get most of her present in the mail in time this year though if that counts for anything.

I have finished P's felted clogs from the Fibre Trends pattern, yes they are that big his feet are size 13. He is never, ever getting socks from me.
I got treats in the mail from Ms. Stitch-dom as she is celebrating her blogiversary, I got this great fleece artist roving and this scarf book.
I finished Clapotis, it is not the same size as the pattern but I am really happy with it. It is knit with some handspun silk from Blue Mountain Spinnery (no website). I have also begun knitting a baby kimono as well as a few other baby gifts but their parents read my blog so there are not going to be any photos until they have been gifted.
Winter has finally left and now the all the flowers in my front garden have a chance to actually survive, unless we get some more random snow but I think we are finally safe.

And the best part of spring is sheets on the line, yippee for sun and wind.

funny

Happy Belated Easter - We were in a restaurant on Sunday morning for brunch and the family at the table across from us was just finishing when mom mentioned that she needed to visit the washroom, Dad asks Mom to go quickly as he would like to get home for something and the young son shouts out as she walks away, "run like your a pregnant woman" to which the whole restaurant responds to by laughing hysterically. It was a good moment especially since the restaurant was packed since it was Easter.

P and I spent the majority of the weekend trying to get some of our many reno projects finished. We are getting close to finally being finished and aside from needing tons of paint, varnish and refinished floors we are almost there. I am excited to be in the home stretch. I also finally tiled our kitchen backsplash with tiles that our friends painted at our wedding reception, photos will follow another post.

I finished Clapotis and am happy with the end result, it is more square than the original pattern asked for but I was running out of silk, I actually only had about 2 inches left as I cast off the last stitch. It's soft and lovely to wear. I also finished P's Fiber Trends felted clogs, they are huge as he has huge feet but they look good. You will have to trust me one the knitting as there are no photos of those things either.

I am off to paint closets, the fun never ends around here.

PS 3 year blogversery contest coming soon... with some good treats to be had

really....

Yes really, the best and most original search term that has ever lead someone to my blog is "she taped her mouth shut" it leads you to this page. I think what is the most humorous about the whole thing is that the person actually clicked through to the page and has been back since, so whoever you are, welcome to my world. It is for the search engines stats that I love Statcounter, I also like to follow the referring links sometimes because I find out about people who have linked to me that I didn't even know about.

It's another rainy day here in Ontario, sadly the rain is supposed to turn to snow tomorrow, I have my fingers crossed that it won't happen because I just uncovered all the lovely green shoots from my bulbs thinking that it was safe, nothing like snow for Easter.

Now as promised here are the very overdue photos leftover from my trip to CA . Here is R's Rainbow sweater, it's knit with Lang Tissa (dk weight cotton that I can't find for sale online but I didn't look very hard) and the pattern was sort of made up as I went along. I used a pattern to get the sizing and measurements and thought that I would us it for more but since I didn't get gauge, wanted to knit is the round (the pattern was flat and seamed) and stripped the whole thing the pattern became a very, very general guideline. I am going to knit it again and tweak the sleeves a bit,

you can't see it here but there are some issues with the reductions on the sleeves as I picked up stitches and knit the sleeves in the round. The decreases haunted me as I tried to make the 2nd sleeve match the first which had funky decreases to begin with. Overall I am thrilled with how it turned out and the fact that I got the wool on clearance and have enough to make 2 more is a bonus.

Hopefully I will write up the pattern and share it with the world but I can't promise anything soon as I have a few million things on the go.

And because every now and then the photo gods smile upon me and I get a fabulous picture or 2 here are some more. These were both taken at from the Gondola at Heavenly, Lake Tahoe. When I was in CA we went up for the weekend, Tahoe was interesting, I didn't find any fibre but the warm weather and the snow was an interesting pair.

and I got to play with these 2, (always fun) while their folks ran away to ski for the morning. We went up the mountain in the gondola and the kids thought it was great but G was not interested in having his picture taken, peek a boo is much more fun.

Alright I am off to knit, I am working on a Clapotis in some fabulous silk that I got at Stiches West, I am about 4 decreases from being finished and I want to get it finished before it is to warm to wear it.

sad, sad

I was trying to some pics of R's rainbow sweater but my dial up connection dislikes blogger and for some reason Hello seems to not work with the new blogger... I guess the actual post will ahve to wait until I am near high speed, tragic I know.