This and that

Nothing big has been going on at our house (which I think is a good thing) but lots of small events have taken place instead. I have been very productive lately (what is up with that?) and have made excellent progress on my "to do" list.

One item first appeared on my list back in January of 2009, as a new year's resolution: organize my recipes. My recipe notebook was stuffed full of newspaper clippings, pages printed off the Internet, and scribbled notes. I finally bought the supplies I needed and, section by section, I sorted, culled and put them in usable order. I didn't get all crazy and retype anything on fancy cooking-motif paper; I rather like seeing the notes I've written in the margins, the splatters of ingredients on the recipes. I simply put the recipes in sleeve protectors and placed them in my trusty 3-ring recipe binder. Not only are my recipes now easy to find and protected from additional splatters, but I found recipes that I had forgotten - it's like having new recipes to cook!

Speaking of new recipes, I have tried two new ones in the last two weeks that were wildly successful. The first was Slow-Cooker Chicken Tikka Masala from one of my favorite blogs, Foodie With Family. It is an Indian-inspired dish with rich, flavorful spices such as coriander, cumin and garam masala. We all liked it - I thought Aidan was going to lick his plate - and I think I liked it even more when I ate it for lunch two days later. Swoon.

The second new recipe was Chicken and Biscuit Casserole, which came to me as a daily recipe from AllRecipes.com. I substituted frozen peas for the canned peas but otherwise stayed true to the recipe. It was a big hit with us and with our friends who came over for dinner that night. I was nervous about serving a rookie recipe to guests but everyone liked it and the casserole dish was scraped clean. The next morning Aidan asked me when I was going to make it again!

I also finished three knitting projects. I made another sparkly sock yarn ornament:


I made this lacy, luscious cowl for me:


LOVE the color, the sheen and the softness of the yarn, which is Lana Grossa Chiara.

Last year while in Lake Placid, I bought a hank of Fleece Artist Big Merino as my trip souvenir. It was the perfect amount to make the Shroom hat, which is described as a slouchy tuque; it fits close around the head but then shrooms out into a slouchy beret:


It is difficult to see in my photo how the hat really looks, so go to this Knitty.com page to see better photos.

Not only did I buy the yarn while in the Adirondacks but the colors remind me of the Adirondacks: the blues of the clear lakes and sky, the greens of the trees and plants, and browns of the tree trunks and ground.

Once I started taking photos of the finished hat, Spenser roused himself from an hours-long nap to investigate and pose:


Thank goodness that he did not attempt to try it on, or else there would have been an ugly scene. Paws off my hat!