Not Your Dad's Salmon Patties

As I was growing up, the only thing my Dad cooked (other than barbecued items on the grill) was salmon patties. I have no idea why these became a tradition in our house, but at some point during every month my mother would get sick of cooking for all of us and tell Dad it was salmon patty time. I thought these were delicious at the time but as I've grown apparently so have my taste buds. The last time I made these I have to admit I thought they were horrible (sorry Dad). The were tough and dry and not at all tasty. So I made a mental note to NEVER cook them again.

Alas, since I don't live in my perfect world (where I would employ a chef), I found myself staring at a completely inadequately stocked pantry last week with my hungry firefighter breathing down my neck for dinner. The only things that caught my eye were two cans of salmon so I thought "Surely I can come up with a better recipe?"

Needless to say, it was kind of fun to venture in to the no-man's-land of cookbook-less cooking and I managed to again impress The Grump. Here's what I came up with:

Ingredients:
10 ounces canned salmon (drained)
1/2 slice dry sourdough bread
3/4 - 1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 an onion finely chopped
Worcestershire sauce
powdered mustard
dried parsley flakes
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
Throw everything together in a bowl and mix. I didn't really measure how much of the seasonings I used so feel free to use whatever tastes best to you. Form into flattened patties (about 3.5 to 4 inches in diameter). Fry in canola oil until both sides are browned.

Yield: 6 patties

Well Finally

For years (yes years) now I've toyed with the idea of making a shepherd's pie but I was always a bit put off by the fact that it looked like it could get time consuming and involve cooking things just to combine them with other things and cook them again (which I get bored with). However, with my newly inspired cooking craze (thanks to all the wonderful cooking blogs I have discovered that keep me from getting too bored) I decided to try it. That and I had nothing else to cook The Grump and he likes food that he can mash up and mix together anyway.

I admit, I googled for a recipe and looked at a couple of the images, got the general idea, and then just gave up on recipes. This is not at all like me but I've gotten sick of the wisecracks I get from The Grump (a natural, no recipe, everything always comes out great, cook) when I adhere strictly to recipes so I thought "I'll show you!" and decided to wing it. Here's what I came up with (while The Grump looked on in what I flatter myself was sheer amazement):

Shepherd's Pie

Ingredients:

1/2 pound ground beef
4 large red potatoes
1/2 can crushed tomatoes
1/2 package frozen vegetables
1/2 onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic chopped
splash of Worcestershire Sauce
1 cup shredded cheese
butter
olive oil
heavy whipping cream

Directions:

Peel the potatoes and chop them coarsely. Cover them with water, add a dash of salt, and bring to a boil. Continue boiling for about 10 minutes while you prepare everything else. When the potatoes are fork tender, drain them and mash them up. I like to add a bit of heavy cream, butter, and season salt too.

In a separate pan brown the ground beef until no red remains. As you are doing that, chop up the onion and garlic and add to a skillet with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Heat until onions are translucent then add the (drained) ground beef. Stir in the tomato sauce and frozen vegetables and cook until vegetables are no longer frozen (about 5-7 minutes). Add Worcestershire sauce and cook another 3-4 minutes. Transfer ground beef mixture to a greased 8x8 inch baking dish and smooth the top.

By now, the potatoes should be about done so distribute them evenly across the top of the meat mixture and smooth until all of the meat is covered. I topped this with about a cup of shredded cheese.

Now pop it into a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes and then enjoy! This makes about 4 servings.

Newness

I love that you can change a few key appearance characteristics of your blog and - viola! - you have a whole new site! Makes me all motivated again. We'll see how long that lasts - you'll notice the new tag line about low expectations. I just plain refuse to be bogged down by a blog that no one reads! That makes sense right?

So, since I am physically (and mentally?) incapable of concentrating on one hobby for longer than a month the new one is - wait for it - cooking!

"How anticlimactic!" you might say.

But seriously, have you seen some of the cooking blogs out there? I am totally addicted. Especially to The Pioneer Woman. I just know that despite the fact that over 30,000 readers routinely enter her prize contests I will one day be the lucky winner of some wonderful bit of kitchen gadget goodness. I just have to keep telling myself that.

Anyway, the boyfriend unit is making no complaints - when he tells me he hasn't had a steak like that since his grandmother's I know I must have done something right because she was one hell of a cook. We'll see how the waistline holds up - I might actually have to enter that 5k I've been threatening to run.

Until next time......... oh and............ please feed my fish. It's addictive too.

Two Firsts

For the first time in probably 4 years or so I am going on a vacation and for the first time in (sadly) more than I year, I am posting to this blog. What better way to start the blogging habit again that by blogging about our vacation?

So, we're on our way to New Mexico for some camping and mountain biking action and true to form, we started out about 2 hours late so I am writing in the car, it's dark, and we still have about 2 hours to go. Props to us for being so on the ball. But it's been an interesting trip so far. First, we stopped for some emergency food at the Dairy Queen in Lampassas and since I love Chris I gave in to his need to eat inside at fast food restaurants rather than just zipping through the drive through like any sane person would. In addition to about 500 flies, the people were, well, interesting. There was a gay couple wearing matching white bandanas that made me wonder if they had somehow managed to find a gang to join that far out of the big city, two old men who sat down and then 15 minutes later asked us what town they were in, and the troupe of mentally challenged kids ushered in by a little old lady who I swear wanted to steal our french fries. Even Chris had to see my point about the usefulness of the drive through after that experience.

Other than that things were pretty uneventful. We've seen some beautiful scenery - I love the bluffs in northwest Texas - and we stopped to waste time for a bit in Sweetwater with Chris' family. I love it - no time constraints and no worries. Now if only the tent could pitch itself in the dark.

Stranded

Okay so I'm stuck here at work waiting on my ride and I'm bored, and I have a ton of FOs to show so I figured - why not write the blog you've been saying you're going to write soon? At the very least, it will make my ride call right before I'm ready to post but here goes.

Most recent FO:



Pattern: an adaptaion from Evelyn Clark's book
Yarn: Southwest Trading Company's Inspiration in Mountains
Needles: US 7 circulars
Notes: I really, really, really love how this turned out. My hands hurt
something fierce after binding off but it turned out beautiful.
I really loved the pattern and will dive into another of hers
(the Swallowtail Shawl) as soon as I finish Spring Things.

Speaking of which:



Pattern: Spring
Things by Susan Lawrence
Yarn: Jaeggerspun Zephyr Wool/Silk in Ruby
Needles: Knit Picks Options US 4
Notes: So far so good. I really love the yarn - sooo soft.

Also, there are socks to report but I only have pictures of one pair:





Pattern: my own
Yarn: Southwest Trading Company Inspiration (don't know the colorway)
Needles: Knit Picks Harmony Wood DPNs US 2.5
Notes: none

Also, I'm hooked on Ravelry (finally) so all of these items (and more!) are available there for your viewing pleasure (My Ravelry Page).

Touched and Inspired

I was just sitting in my office this morning and a co-worker from another department (with whom my team has been frantically working to roll out a new web system) suddenly appeared and gave me this:



How lovely! And it's my initial! Apparently it is a custom in Holland (he's Dutch) to gift people with chocolate in the form of their initial on December 5th. He missed that date by a little but who cares?! It's chocolate and it's from Holland - need I say more? I'm so touched (and apparently such a sap). Gifts are in rather short supply for me this year I'm afraid (which would account for my absolute delight at this unexpected one!).

So now, my mind is busily at work coming up with something to gift him and his team with. I think I have just the thing - pictures to follow!

Say Hello To My Little Friends

We're all still recuperating from our trip to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving. Mostly I'm going through withdrawal from all the extra knitting time. The tatting I completed while I was there will soon be for sale in my Etsy store. I'm not sure it will sell for anything but at least it will make me feel like my hobby isn't a complete financial black hole.

The most wonderful thing that came from our trip (aside from the snow) is a new computer complete with internet access and printer and even a new digital camera (though I won that separately in a work related contest). I'm so excited! Now I can blog at home without looking over my shoulder or feeling guilty for stealing company resources. :)

New projects to show (and the inspiration for the title of the blog) are:


Yep you guessed it, that's the Bob pattern from the Mocimochiland blog. I had so much fun knitting it that I knit up another one for my mother and surprised her with it. I think I'll knit up a couple more to give as gifts this season. They're so fast and really pretty fun. I did have some help knitting these though:


As you can see, she's hard at work supervising. In fact, she was so engrossed in what she was doing that she didn't even see the potentially hostile alien being creeping up on her:


Okay, enough horseplay, can you tell that I got a new camera and got a little snap happy? I have to get down to business if I ever hope to finish all the Christmas gifts in time. Besides, our connection was so slow last night that I couldn't get any of the pictures uploaded so here I am blogging at work again.

I See Snow Flurries

No posts lately because I am (officially) on vacation. We flew to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving to visit with the boyfriend's family. I'm not sure I have to say too much more about that but the food was great and I'm ready to go back. This has, however, been a wonderful opportunity to get some crafting done. I've completed 2.5 of the charity afghan blocks for work, each of them with a different (and new to me) lace or cable pattern. The last one is my own design combining a lace and a cable pattern. It looks pretty good so far but only time will tell.

I've also been able to complete two tatted snowflakes that I originally planned to give as gifts to my carpoolers but I think I'll do something I've long thought of doing and open an Etsy shop and post them there just to see if I can sell them. I think they make great little tree ornaments.

Of course, I came all this way and forgot my camera so not only are there no pictures of Pennsylvania, there also aren't any completed projects pics either. Anyway, Rocky II beckons (not really but I'll watch it for the boyfriend's sake)..........

Finito! (almost)

Well it's finally done. I've never been so happy to bind off a project in my life. I hope that's not a sign of what's to come with my future lace endeavors - I really want to like this. Here's the finished product (pre-blocking):

Not a great picture I know - still working on getting a good camera (among other things). Maybe if I stopped spending money on yarn, that would become a reality. But we all know that's not gonna happen. The yarn was reclaimed from a very soft sweater I hated to give away (that's a whole other story). The neck and arms were constructed from the khaki color you see and the body was black. I ran out of the black yarn at the end (imagine that) so I decided to make a "border" of khaki starting halfway through the leaf patter at the bottom of the shawl. I like the effect.

So anyway, I hated the picot bind off specified in the pattern - it ended up looking like baby dread locks so I ripped it out (yet again - see why I hated working on this?) and made my own version of the picot bind off:

Mucho better! Here's what I did:

*Using the "knitting on" method cast on 2 stitches, knit 2 stitches, pass the first
knitted stitch over and of the right needle, continue to knit one stitch and
pass one stitch over until you have bound off 6 stitches. * Repeat from * to * until
completely bound off.

This one was worked over a multiple of 4 stitches obviously but it can be modified however you want by simply casting off more than 6 stitches. Viola! No more baby dreads. They were hideous.

So now I'm happy and can move on to all the other projects that have backed up in the making of this thing. Perhaps I should take this whole escapade as a hint that better project planning is in order? Post-blocking pictures coming soon to a blog near you.

Fiber Fiber Everywhere

I've always thought my family had a bit of an obsessive compulsive streak that I hoped to avoid but i think it's finally manifested itself in my current yarn obsession. Oh well, I guess there are worse things to think constantly about. But, I'm so excited because I've learned something new again:Check me out! I've had my eye on a drop spindle forever and I'm so excited that I finally got one. We went to the Kid 'n Ewe and Llamas Too fiber festival in Boerne on Saturday and it was awesome! I wish I could find more things like this in Texas. The only thing that would have made it better was lots of money to buy yarn and a spinning wheel but I'm definitely more than satisfied to walk away with the drop spindle and a little bit of fiber. The vendor I bought it from was so nice - he kept following me through the booths to give me more "practice" fiber (I told him it was my first attempt at spinning) and the spindle came with 4 ounces of bamboo fiber. Can't wait to start on that. After I got the hang of it I spun all the wool last night. I think the spinning wheel is going to move up on my wanted list!

The other great development that came from this trip is our new determination to purchase a couple of Alpacas as companion/fiber animals. We met a very nice lady who let us pet these guys:

and who sounds like she'll be very helpful when the time is right for us to buy them. We also got to watch (but not touch) a couple of Suri Alpacas:

but those are far, far, far out of our price range. They're so nimble and cute and I'm so blessed with a boyfriend that's all for feeding my obsession!

As for current projects - one more row to go and then I'm binding off the Rambling Leaves Shawl from Elann.com. I have to say - I hate this shawl right now. Every time I pick it up I end up making a mistake and having to un-knit massive amounts of stitches. I mean, ther are almost 500 live freaking stitches and I hate every last one of them. It was my first attempt at anything resembling lace and I have to admit there are errors though I haven't figured out if it was all me or partly the pattern (probably all me) but I got to a point where I refused to unknit anymore - there's only so much going backwards I can take! So I just sucked it up, re-worked the pattern to accommodate my mistakes and got on with it - I don't think I ever would have finished otherwise.

Also currently on the needles is the Branching Out lace scarf from Knitty. Almost done with that one thought I better hurry - we leave for PA on Sunday and it has to be done and blocked by then.

So, enough of this long winded post - back to work!

(I really need to get a laptop and go mobile instead of milking company resources huh?) ;)

Lost Forever

Okay so I've been gone forever but I'm hurtling through a creative streak right now and I have to share. I just spent six months in training for a new career (doesn't seem long but it was rather intensive) so now I guess I'm making up for all the lost craft time! I started my first knitted lace project which I'll show after I block it - it's still on the needles and just looks like a lump of black mess. I'm extra proud of it because I reclaimed the yarn from an old sweater and it's been pretty nice to knit with.

For now, since I'm at work and technically supposed to be working, I'll just post these pics of my quick gift project. It's a thank you for my boyfriend's mom - she invited us to stay with her in Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving. I went to the yarn shop on Saturday with my mother and (not being the yarn freak that I am) I think she got a little annoyed with me as I ran around with a goofy look on my face wishing I could strip and roll around in all the yarn naked. I swore it would be a quick trip and that I knew exactly what I wanted but she should have known better. I finally settled on a beautiful wool/silk blend from Lang Yarns and I love it so much that I'll have to buy more - it feels wonderful when knitting. So enough talk - here are the pics (bad ones from my cell phone - sorry):

Stay In Bed Day

Today is designated Stay In Bed Day as in, I should have stayed in bed today. Actually, I think I should have stayed in bed for the last six months, but who's keeping track anyway? Suffice to say that things are going wrong and there's a flu virus involved. It's cold and icky outside too and all in all everything is just contributing to a crappy mood. But, lucky for all of us this is not a blog about my life but about my hobbies! So ya'll are all off the hook - this time.

Anyway, I have pictures of the Christmas gift I made for my mother. This began as my first large tatting project and took me about six years - largely because it is my misfortune to have to work for a living instead of sitting around making things all day which is, believe me, what I'd much rather be doing. So, six years later, here it is:

I'm so proud of it even if I can still see every little mistake I made every time I look at it. Mom's going to frame it and I'm glad because she will finally have a large tatted piece to frame. My great grandmother, Ske, was a pretty prolific tatter and my grandmother has quite a few framed doilies that were tatted by her but none of these have trickled to Mom yet.

The only frustrating thing is that I can't integrate my binges (that's what I call whatever crafting frenzy seizes me at the moment). After I finished this, I went on a tatting binge and started a few things and then for some reason went on a knitting binge. I wonder why that is? It's very frustrating to be excited about starting a project and then lose interest in it just to get excited about another project in a different craft. I have about a million unfinished projects laying around and it's not like I need anything else to make be more blah today.

And on that note I guess I should end this entry before everyone has to hear about my currently pitiful existence. :) Peace out hommies!

Ta Da!

Okay so I've reached my daily pinnacle of boredom at work and decided to post. I don't really have anything all that interesting or new to relate but I do have more pictures (coming up). We made it through the longest ice storm Texas has had in the last three decades but it's still wet and icky - not real hospitable weather. My dogs are bored out of their gourds at having to stay inside all the time where there's no cat poop to eat or little moue hors d' oeuvres provided by my serial killer cat. It's just me and I guess I'm boring. Look how cold it got!

I did get to take almost an entire week off from work but I have very little to show for it since I stayed up way too late every day and then slept in. I did make my first sock though and I'm so proud of it I could bust. For my first attempt I used Lion Brand's self striping sock yarn and the pattern on the label and by the end it was obvious that I had made something that would fit Paul Bunyan so I frogged and fell back on a pattern from my favorite knitting site, knitty.com, and used leftover Kureyon wool from the Lizard Ridge afghan pattern on the same site. I have to say that Noro's Kureyon is one of my favorite yarns EVER. I love to knit with it and my second sock was so much fun - and it fits! I like the toe-up pattern alot better than traditional sock patterns and I really like the whole wrap and turn thing - which is probably why I'm knitting the Lizard Ridge pattern too. My only problem is that I can't keep enough Kureyon around to knit!

So here are the photos as promised.......

That's my sock, and here's what I do at work (other than post to this blog).............

Am I useless or what! :)

Day Two

Okay so I went home, took some pictures, knitted a little bit and now it's time to see if I can figure out how to get pictures on here.

First things first, here is the tatted/beaded necklace I'm currently working on:

Not too bad considering it's my first design attempt and I have an awful time stringing the right beads on the right shuttle - especially when I'm doing split rings which this necklace is entirely composed of. The darker seed beads are hex cut delicas I ordered online and I LOVE them! They are just beautiful and I think they've helped fuel my newfound beading interest. The next tatting project floating around in my head is a pair of earrings addapted from a pattern I found online - I'm going to add a lot more beads and see where it takes me.

As for the knitting, the yarn I bought myself after Christmas is gorgeous. I'm going to get so spoiled with these yarns that I'll never go back to acrylic again and I'll have to wander the streets begging for spare change to support my yarn habit. At least Christmas will be easy for everyone wanting to get me presents next year - yarn and beads! What a deal!

Anyway, here's the yarn,

And here's what I've doen with it so far,

It looks a little bit more like a raspberry colored candy cane than I intended but who cares? It feels great. I read once that great knitted lace shawls could be pulled easliy through a wedding band and this will come close even if it's not really knitted lace. I wonder what I'll ever wear it with?

Greetings!

Okay, as this is my third attempt at a blog I'm hoping this one will prove to be a charm. I've had alot of time latley to peruse the web (thanks to a ridiculously boring job) and I keep coming across some amazing crafting blogs so I thought I'd give it a whirl. Most of the stuff I make goes to somebody else and I forget I've made it, but I've resolved to try and take pictures of everything from now on so I can post them here. I've learned alot from some of the other bloggers and I hope that I am someday good enough at my crafts to help others who want to learn.

As for the crafts themselves they include knitting, tatting, crocheting, needlework, and now I've added beading to the list. My grandmother taught me to knit when I was eleven and after that initial project (a pair of really hideous slippers) I did nothing else until high school. Then I began knitting washcloths which are pretty much the standard fare for the knitters in my family. I have since taught myself how to tat and crochet and I'm now making an attempt at beading. My grandmother also taught me how to cross stitch and do needlepoint and I taught myself how to embroider. I think it must be a genetic trait to do these things because I come from a long line of knitters/tatters/embroiderers so I can't take any credit for creativity.

Currently I am working on two knitted afghans (I have plans for a third crocheted one soon), a tatted doily in black thread instead of traditional colors, beaded rosaries, and tatted/beaded jewelry. Generally I have "spurts" of creativeness where I acquire a lot of projects that I don't finish and then a dry spell where I do absolutely no crafting but for now I seem to be steadily creating things and especially using up my yarn stash which means *dramatic pause* I get to buy more yarn! Yippee! Tonight I may try to begin knitting my newest yarn acquisition (a wonderful merino/alpaca/silk combination) into a shawl which is a completely useless garment to me because I never wear them but I can't seem to stop making them. I have ambitions of knitting one of those feather-light gossamer lace creations one of these days but for now maybe I'd better focus on my current overload of projects!