Mother's Day, Quick One Pan Meals, and The Crimson Field-WWI Field Hospital

The Crimson Field, the next series in my exploration of watching British TV.  LOVED this show.  It was an interesting glimpse into life in France (and England-Ireland) during World War I.  There was sadly only one season, as it was cancelled after that.  

It explored the importance of ladies who volunteered for service, and showed how difficult their lives were.  These 3 all had a story to tell and all joined the service for different reason.  They came from very different backgrounds.  At a time when it was scandalous for women to be in close company with me, nurses and volunteers had to learn how to bath wounded men...the difficulty of bridging their learned privacy rules from civilian life and that in service was huge.

Both men and women were drummed out, or executed for what was deemed to be unpatriotic service or cowardice.  Even though there is only one season, I do highly recommend it.  I was able to watch this series on Amazon Prime for no extra fee or membership.

This past weekend was Mother's Day.  My Darling Daughter sent lovely flowers on Friday so I was able to enjoy them for the whole of the wkend.  There were 3 bundles of flowers in the box, enough for me to make two large beautiful bouquets.  Thank you Darling Daughter.  This is a close up of one of the prettiest roses...look at the gradation of color on the outside of this rose as it begins to open.

I'm a huge fan of one pan, or one dish meals.  Makes prep and clean up so much easier.  That's even more important to me currently since I'm not super mobile with my broken foot.  In the beginning, I would do some prep, sit down...do a bit more, sit down again.  Was hard trying to move about the kitchen using a walker or crutches.  I would get things at the ready as much as possible (often it took a good while), so when hubby came home from work; he could actually do the cooking.  Generally, he put something in oven and with my chair-side direction........dinner would come together.  I am more mobile now with my ortho boot, but still trying to minimize how much I'm standing there in the kitchen.  It's just not that easy.  

Asparagus, potatoes, and chicken.  This required a minimum of work to prep.  The chicken breast's were cut in in medalions (smaller pieces cook quicker), plus the chicken breast were very large and thick.  They were dipped in an egg wash, and layered in the pan with thin lemon slices and topped with fresh basil.

Potatoes quartered, asparagus cut in half.  I put all in fridge, and when hubby called that he was on his way I sprinkled olive oil, dash, and Parmesan cheese on potatoes and asparagus and turned on the oven.  Cooked in pre-heated oven at 400-425 for about 20 minutes.  It cooked while hubby and I had our Martini's

Tasty, not time consuming with either prep or clean up.  The egg wash and lemon gave the chicken a nice flavor and helped keep it moist.  Was an experiment....one both hubby and I thought worth repeating.

Happy Birthday Girl

 This gorgeous bouquet is one of two from my Darling Daughter!!  Sipping my 2nd cup of coffee of the morning, still relaxing in my jammies when the door bell rang.  It was Fed Ex, who rang the bell as they left the box of flowers by the door.  I don't know what some of the flowers are, but they're so pretty.  Pink roses, several shades of pink in the unidentified category and pretty purple.  This bouquet is on the dining room table, and the 2nd bouquet is in the living room.  So I can enjoy these in more than just one room.  Happy Birthday to me.  My DD is so thoughtful.    She'll be home next week for Thanksgiving, can't wait!!  Thank you Darling Daughter!!!

 Those who know me, or have read some of my posts, probably know how found I am of a good Martini!  This Birthday Card really made me laugh out loud.  I sometimes attempt to do some yoga moves.  Mostly my exercise is doing planks, and walking...lots of walking.  One of my Fitbit Friends, Cheryl saw this card and thought of me.  Yep, she knows pretty well.  Thank you Cheryl.

This cute little bouquet is from my work.  They gave it to me yesterday, since I wasn't working today.  Love the pretty fall colors, and the little mason jar.  I am enjoying this in my office.  It's on top of my bookcase.

I'm not a person that really does much about birthdays.  My family really never was.  We're not big card buyers, or gift givers; so it's unusual for me to even post about it.......but hey with pretty flowers and funny card....just thought I'd share.

Are you big on celebrating birthdays?  Do you buy cards for others?

Hubby is taking me out for a nice steak dinner ...and I had a lovely massage earlier today.

So, yeah I'm getting older.  As old as Dirt; but life is good.

Mother and Daughter Style

 This past weekend I spent a fabulous fun filled "Girls Time" with my Darling Daughter Christine.  We live about 500 miles apart and love love love our time together.  She has some serious talent when it comes to painting pottery.  I dabble at it.  But, with dabble I am getting a wee bit better.  These are 2 small shallow bowls (shallow easier for me) that can be used as salad bowls and or snacky type bowls.  They weren't met to match, but possibly to coordinate color wise?  This is before firing.  The one with the dots and waves, and birds/arrow things should be a deep gold background with brown and dark gray-blackish design.  The 2nd one should be shades of brown and dark dark green with black dots.  Not sure when I'll see the finished results, as she will need to pick them up later this week after firing and at some point get them to me...via mail or something.  Here's my last dabble, wasn't girls wkend, but she and I were painting pottery while on vacation.

 This is more my style.  Finally got the awesome green sweater for my Darling Daughter started.  I cast on the plane trip there and worked just a bit on it during the wkend.  Was able to do a little on the return flight as well.  Several more inches of the basic garter stitch remain which is the trim section of the kimono style sweater.  Then I'll switch needle sizes and get into the pattern stitch.  Believe this will be a traveling companion on my up coming trip to CA.

I told she, DD had mad skills with painting pottery!  She drew this free hand in a deep curved bowl.  I couldn't draw that on a flat piece of paper.  Again this is pre-firing and the colors afterwards will be navy blue background, and a bright gold and yellow flower with shading and leaves.  She made 2 of these.  Both bowls are navy on the outside.  Really anxious to see this done.  All the things she's made have turned out so well.  Here's our projects On a previous Girls Time(this was my first, something happened we never got our pieces after they were fired.  No loss probably on my piece, but here's was really nice.

AND yet another vacation where we painted pottery together

Teavana Tea Time

My special tea corner, thanks to my fabulous Darling Daughter, Christine.  One of the cool, really cool Christmas Gifts she got me was this Teavana Tea Set.  There are the foil bags of loose tea which are pretty heavy duty foil packs for freshness and can sealed...like a zip lock.  You get cute tea canisters, a special tea measuring spoon, a cool pouch of raw sugar cube.  The bags and the canisters have the information you need to know about much tea to use and how long to steep it.  You can write the name of the tea right on your canister, wash it off later if you store a different type of tea in it.  This nice wire basket was from another Christmas gift from Stacie and Megan.  Wanted you to know, all the goodies from it may now be gone; but the basket is being used.

In addition, you get these awesome tea pot.  It holds a nice large mug size amount, and or two nice tea cups worth of tea.  The diffuser is in the bottom of the pot.  Notice the little legs holding the pot up about 1/4 inch?  The bottom of the pot is pressure sensitive....so, after it's steeped, all you do

 

is sit it on your cup/mug and it starts to drain,

leaving you with a nice cup of hot yummy tea.   I generally leave the loose tea in the pot in case I want another cup.  Sometimes you can get a 2nd round...depending on the tea and how long you let it steep.  Sometimes I add just a pinch of fresh loose tea to make the 2nd cup.  Awesome gift.  I've used it almost everyday since Christmas.  Even took it to Hilton Head with us several weeks ago for vacation.  Enjoyed a cup after being out and about on the bike tooting around.  Thank You Darling Daughter.

Columbus, Aruba, Cleveland and back

Isn't it loverly!  Sigh, much more un-knitting got done then knitting, or perhaps that's not true.  The same amount of knitting followed by un-knitting got done.  This awesome yummy yarn is soooooooo soft, so pretty, so shinny.  It's to become something for my DD who LOVES purple.  It's Berroco Bunsai.  Bamboo and Nylon, mostly Bamboo 97%.  Not sure what my problem was, but I couldn't keep count.  Finally after the 2nd try realized the pattern wasn't quite right and tweaked it and figured that would do it.  And it would, if I could have concentrated.  Perhaps getting up at 4am to depart the airport and head for Aruba was the problem.  I was both sleepy and excited.  So....really nothing to show you.  Then I left my bag with my counter, pattern, stitch markers, and scizzors in the seat back in front of me when I disembarked.  ARGH.  I've never done that, left something behind.  Apparently this project was doomed, truly so.  I don't even remember the name of the pattern so...at some point I'll look again and hopefully manage to pull it off.  I also lost a different size needle from my Denise set in the bag.  As I had 2 sizes to work on different projects during the flight.  Sometimes, you just need a change.  After all, the first flight was 4 hours, followed by 1.5 hours in the 2nd leg.  This is named as project for Christmas for DD on the year in progress list.

This was started on the way home from Aruba on the flight.  Something much simplier was in order I thought, plus I needed to go with the size needle I had on hand.  I LOVE LOVE this yarn and the colors.  It's Mochi Plus, Crystal Palace Yarn, 80% Merino Wool and 20% Nylon.  It's lovely to work with, slides so nicely and is soooooooooo soft and light weight; but will be warm with that amount of wool.  Just blocks of different sizes of good olde garter and sections of stockinette stitch....just wanted a bit of texture.  The yarn is so lovely, not sure much detail is required.  This could perhaps become an object for Christmas for DD.  So, am naming this "Traveling Scarf".  It went from Aruba to Columbus via plane, and Cols to Cleveland and back via car.

And while, I've not shown you Sea and Sand in awhile, I have made progress.  When I last posted a picture HERE, I was working on the brown variegated section.  Finished that and the larger light grey section and am now on the next variegated section. 

Hoping I can get one more row with these current variegated then will do one more section of the light grey, variegated and then the dark grey...soooooo feel like I've really turned the corner on this.

I've been busy and haven't blogged as much, missed lots of WIPW, FOF, and YOP post.  Hopefully, I'll be seeing you all more.  I was out of town for an extended time.  I was enjoying the Aruba weather as the title suggests.  Sadly though, my friend in Cleveland had a huge tree fall on her house, thus the trip there.  Not that I can do much, but hubby and I wanted to provide some moral support for a long time friend.

YOP list, badge and link in tab on blog top.

The Calendar is Full

This is the cotton cloth for the month of March, doesn't it look like an Easter Basket? Though I think the pattern, Garter Stitch Checks would show up better with a solid fiber, you can see it looks a bit like a basket. Or maybe that's because I know that's what it's suppose to be? What do you think? I love the colors, it's very springy looking to me. This completes my Cotton Cloth Calendar Challenge, so this is sorta a Done and DONE on this finished object Friday post. hehe

January = White and snow
February = Red and Valentines Heart
March = Easter Springy colors, and a basket pattern
April = Green and white, fresh and growing after the rains
May = pretty pink flowers
June = Beachy-ness
July = Red, White, and Blue Patriotism
August = Scourching hot, bright yellow and orange sunny
September = Fading Colors of summer
October = Brown, and orange Candy Corn
November = Green, orange, gold leaves changing colors
December = Red, Green, and White Christmas


This was a fun project, I learned some new knitting stitches/patterns in the process. With the exception of January, the cable stitch learning to do new things on small scale like a cotton cloth is a good idea....the cable wasn't a good idea, as cotton has no stretch when your knitting and it was rather hard on the hands.

Finished Object Friday Badge and link in sidebar

Darling Daughter asked for a mound a cotton cloths, not for dishes body clothes. I've been giving them to her as I made them. The last one was mailed 2 days ago. Enjoy, DD.

**Please let me again ask everyone who enjoys meme's, linky parties to please please please stop using those dang captcha's on your blog's. It is soooooo time consuming, and sooooooooo frustrating, and in many cases truly over kill. Most of you who use them, also have your settings set to approve comments. If you're approving them anyway, why use captcha. You're going to delete spam. AND, the filters on blogspot are so good, they catch the spam without comments needing to be approved and without using captcha. Please at least try blogging without the captcha for a 2wk period and see how well the filters work. Those things are killing my eyesite.**
sigh...steps off soap box

Sweet Potato Gnocchi, Yummy

First of all, let me say this is not my work in progress but my Darling Daughter while she was home over The Christmas Holidays. She loves to cook and is a good cook. She had tried this recipe once before, and wanted to fix it for us. Now...having the lap top in the kitchen near food is not something I do, or probably would do. Then again, I don't use a laptop. However, I could find the recipe on the net, print it or write it down for reference. She had music playing on her laptop, and had the recipe there for reference. She was going to make us Sweet Potato Gnocchi with a Gouda Cheese Sauce.
She likes space in the kitchen so I didn't get pictures of her actually making the dough. I was knitting in the other room. She cooked the potatoes in the microwave, scooped out the potato, mixed with flour to make her dough, then set it aside to rest while she got the ingredients read for her sauce. Then began rolling 4 long tubes/snakes. Cut the snakes into appropriate pieces ...about an inch.

Rolling the individual pieces lightly on the back of the tines of a fork to obtain the ridges, then laid them carefully to dry a bit on wax paper on a cooking sheet.

Having cut up and measured her sauce ingredients earlier, she was ready to begin making her Rue while the pasta dried slightly. After she made her Rue she added her cheese. I don't have pictures of it all, and timing, amounts etc....but thought I'd share the process a bit.

I helped by setting the table, and prepared the Martini's. Opened the wine for dinner so it could breathe while we enjoyed our Martini's.
She finished it off by making a nice spinach salad with red peppers and walnuts and light dressing. Outstanding!

link for recipe here,
Darling Daughter says she would suggest 1/2 smoked and 1/2 non-smoked Gouda Cheese to lessen how rich the sauce is.

Bought myself and DD a pedometer for Christmas. Was going to wear it daily and record steps taken and how many miles I went. Fell behind from the get go it seems. wasn't doing much here for the first couple of weeks after Christmas, and so didn't put it on. Then forgot to put it on at work. Finally, this week got started. Monday 16th walked 13,806 steps for 5.017 miles. Felt it to when I got home from work. But, yesterday.....19,852 steps and 7.214 miles by the time I sat down after work. And this morning....am still feeling it. Have added a tab here on the blog to keep track of my walking/steps etc.

Taking Stock of the List

10 of 25 squares edged with 2 rows of black. Squares now 12 inches. Details below regarding "Got Brown" Afghan in Works in Progress.
Good headway on Darling Daughters Green Lace Scarf. Love this yarn, love the pattern. Details below in Work in Progress.

On July 10th, 2011 I joined a blog hop on Ravelry called a Year of Projects (YOP)

My list has been broken into 3 categories:
Goals, Work in Progress, and Finished Objects. The list has been alter slightly. 2011 has come to and end, and today is day 3 of year 2012. The half way point in the YOP.

Goals:
1. Learn to knit cables
2. Learn to knit socks
**I've made a cable knit washcloth so have accomplished 50% of this list item. I also have a cable knitted skirt I'm thinking of making...but, don't plan to add that item to the list

WIP:
1. Candy Corn Ghan has been on this list Forever, and hasn't been touched. Seems since we past fall, it won't be for some time to come.
2. Liberty Lace. A scarf I'm making for myself. A challenge as it was a new lace stitch, my first. The yarn is yummy from a feel standpoint. Liking the color less and less as time goes on. On the back burner...haven't worked on it since ( ), a contender for frogging.
3. Buckeye Diagonal Scarf...also on the list a long time, no progess made. Back burner as OSU football season is a way off now, what's the point from a time management standpoint. Last worked on (May of 2011 )
4. Cotton Cloth Calendar Challenge. Fabulous headway here. 10 of 12 months completed 83% Done! Months pending are February and March. Cotton on hand, need to pick out pattern for February in the next couple of weeks.
5. Awesome Blue Scarf...frogged after 3 attempts and removed from list. Rather Replaced with Darling Daughters Green Scarf. Lots of headway, hoping to finish this week and mail to her. Had hoped to finish by Christmas, but that didn't happen. Pictured above and is one of my current focuses.
6. Bridge and Beyond Afghan, Got Brown? This particular item is coming along nicely, however since making ghans for Bridge and Beyond is ongoing...it's never going to be considered Done on my list. Pictured above in the works, and is one of my current focuses.

Finished Objects:
1. Wedding Ghan, this was the first fully knitted ghan with all new stitches I've made. It was a challenge, and I was very pleased with the end result.
2. Odd Ball Baby Blankets. When this was added to the list it was going to be 1 blanket, or my part of the one blanket. Turned into my part of 4 blankets. Cinco De Mayo, Baby Pink Petuna, Mardi Gras, and Fruit Salad. My parts are all DONE
3. Red Scarf No More, due to yarn problems this scarf was not donated to The Red Scarf Project, instead it was donated to Bridge and Beyond.
4. Bridge and Beyond Afghans. As stated above this is is always on going. I assemble ghans from donated squares which are in turn donated to Homeless Families through Bridge and Beyond. From the time YOP began here's the completed list:
A. Pink Poddle
B. Jewels
C. Pink Petuna
D. Rainbow Bright
E. Royalty

Badge and link for YOP in sidebar

Everyone Loves Purple and Green

Started this scarf for my DD on the plane to Mexico last week. It's purple and green of course. Her colors, but apparently not just her's. Several folks on the plane and in the lines mentioned how popular green and purple are right now. One young gal they're really "IN". lol I'd be using them even if they weren't. Knitting this from 100% wool, Crystal Palace which is one of my favorite yarns for scarves. Light weight, pretty, soft, but still warm. No fancy stitching to detract from the pretty yarn are necessary. Using a real favorite, The Condo Stitch with size 15 and 8 knitting needles. One of the nice things about using your interchangeable knitting needles is the ability to use 2 different sizes at the same time.

The plan of 10 rows mentioned in my previous post isn't going quite as well as I had hoped. Currently doing 10 rows a day on this scarf I should be at 40 by the end of today, and am only on 19. AND following the same plan for the corner to corner ghan I'm knitting for Bridge and Beyond, I should also be at 40 by days end and am at 25. The day's not over yet, so there's hope but as I finish this post, I'm heading to work soooooooooooooo.....beyond doing a little during my dinner break, I don't know if I'll make it or not.

My other plan of visiting 5 blog mates a day has fallen way short. Too short to report, but I will keep trying.

Hope you're all having a wonderful day. Pretty fall day here, hope it is for you as well.

Stash Alert! Wear Safety Goggles

Can you feel it? Stash alert seriously....I don't need more yarn; but this jumped right into my hand. 220 yards, only $6.00. Look at those colors..........green and purple, do you know what that means? Bet you do, if you've been here and read some of my other posts that talk about those colors. This is Melody Super Wash 100% wool by Jojoland. They recommend size 1-3 knitting needles for this. When I last tried my hand with some lace I was using super fine sock yarn and just really had trouble. I think, I hope....fingers crossed this will work better for me; as a newbie when it comes to lace knitting.
Luscious, lovely and I just couldn't resists this! I've shown tremendous restraint not starting on either of this skeins right after they adopted me. It's been several days, and really I'm trying to finish one or two more WIP before starting on these but.........it's getting really hard. The orangey reddish, bright here is for mawah. The purple and green of course is for the one and only Darling Daughter since purple and green are her signature colors.

Not reporting on WIP here, maybe next post.

Larceny and Old Lace

A while back hubby and I traveled to St. Louis to visit with our daughter and to see a play she was directing. This was the 2nd one she directed this year. Many of you will remember from your high school days a popular and very funny play, Arsenic and Old Lace, this is a newer version of that play and equally as funny called Larceny and Old Lace. Set and costuming is less elaborate then Arsenic version and therefore better suited to smaller schools and or smaller budgets.

We really enjoyed it as did the others in the audience. She's currently working with a cameo cast of 5 doing Shakespeare to close out the year. She loves doing this; but the hours she puts in are difficult. This is not her full time job, teaching 1st and 2nd grade in a difficult inner city school is. So, on top of teaching through the day, needing to grade papers and write lesson plans for 2 different grades, she drives 50 miles to get to this high school for more work. She's very very busy, and it makes me tired just thinking about all she does.

It was a good visit, we had fun, and are looking forward to our next venture with her there in St. Louis, though I don't know when that will be.

She loves it there in St. Louis, and everytime we travel there, we can see why; as we enjoy it
too.

each of the links will take you to a different post about St. Louis, enjoy along with us.

Love my Hubby

Dear Hubby, sporting his new scarf.
This is a nice brownish with flecks of green. I seem to have misplaced the wrapper from the yarn so can't be exact; but remember I used 2 full cakes and that it was a Crystal Palace Yarn; but I don't remember the exact yardage etc. Actually thought I had posted this previously but found this post still in draft form unfinished on my blog. Must have gotten interrupted and never got it done. It's 100% wool, quite light weight which he likes for under his dress coat when wearing his suits to work.

I used the Condo stitch and like the way it turned out. You might recall I've used this stitch before when I made my scarf. My daughter used this pattern as well when she made a scarf over Christmas for a gift.

Moving Day is a Holiday

Staging area, or at least part of it. This photo was taken in our garage a couple of weeks back when we were organizing and getting ready to move stuff to St. Louis for our daughter. We brought things up from the basement and used the garage as the holding place. With tons of snow on the ground we wanted to have everything together to minimize how long it would take us to load the truck and be outside in the cold and the snow.
Another view of the staging area. Daughter did her undergrad in St. Louis at Washington University, and her grad school in Baltimore. So....lots of stuff has been here while she was here, then in St. Louis, then in Baltimore and now.........that's she's back in St. Louis it's time to cart everything back to her; plus some of our older furniture to help her and give us a chance to clean out the basement.
The night was cold, the ground covered. So before we could load we had to clear the walk and the drive....again! Have lost track of how many times we've shoveled snow this year. Tooooooooooo many, far too many I can tell you that.
Loaded, time now for pizza, wine and bed. We plan on an early start. Hubby will drive the truck and I'll drive our car. Luckily we only have to take the truck one way and can leave it there after we unload it.

We knew this would be a working wk-end, loading up here at home and then unloading there in St. Louis. We expected some cleaning and maintenance issues needing attention. However, it was much more of a working wk-end then we expected. We ended up painting and doing far more cleaning than planned; but boy was it needed!! We stayed a day longer due to being snowed in, also something we didn't expect. How many days til spring?