A Big Block o’Crazy

The cool creative stuff that I see in a crafty publications always looks so doable and yet I’ve slipped stitches and made a mess in general in my first crazy quilt block attempt. Here is the genesis that block. Fabrics include some remains of a green satin party dress I had made for my performance at TT’s first gubernatorial inauguration, a bolero of my grandmother’s and a velvet jacket that was my mum’s. Who knew that there would be so much ironing? Check out the messy pile next to the sewing machine! Next up: the embroidery.

Block o'Crazy Phase I

Block o'Crazy Mess

Fat Tuesday

In honor of Fat Tuesday,  I am posting my favorite spice blend.   Louisiana Cajun Seasoning.  I enjoy this stuff on eggs, popcorn, cottage cheese, chicken, green beans, cauliflower…It states clearly on the label, “Tastes great on everything.” So far I believe it.  In a world with way too many preblended seasonings, this is the ONE that I buy.

Louisiana Cajun Seasoning

Adam & Eve by Sena Jeter Naslund

Adam & Eve by Sena Jeter Naslund

I was really looking forward to this book because of my great love for Naslund’s most acclaimed, Ahab’s Wife.  If you have not read Ahab’s wife, you must.  Ahab’s Wife is wonderful.  Sadly, Adam & Eve,  not so much.  The author is on to something as she sets up a mystery that is contemporary.  The conflict between our three world religions and science over the genesis of our being.  She does a nice job of this.  She has a scientist (the main character’s husband) and religious leaders set up head to head at the time of her husband’s murder.  The heroine of our story finds herself in the middle of an Eden, where of course she comes upon our young, dashing, yet mentally unstable, Adam.  Did I mention that they are both naked?  Now this is the most intriguing part of the novel with the descriptions of their learning to trust one another and to live within the most primitive of situations.  The reader cannot help but conclude that perhaps Naslund has had some beautiful dreams. As the two main characters begin to move towards the end of their time in Eden the story loses its focus and blurs into the last 50 pages of the Da Vinci Code.  I will not spoil the story line by getting into specifics here but I wish the author would have stuck to the genre that she knows best, narrative fiction, rather than taking a dip into action drama.

The book was not terrible, I flew through it in three days.  I sense that I may still be a bit bruised by Sena Jeter Naslund’s lack of response to a fan letter that I mailed her years ago.  But I will say that THIS is not a book that would elicit an impassioned mailing from me.

Ben’s new hat…Finished!

My hat pattern is from about.com.  Ben has received the Very Large Head Gene and he shows embarrassment every time someone tries to squeeze a too-small-hat on his noggin so I made his hat extra big and tall. This pattern was very easy, it’s really just a tube that you seam together and then close up on one end.

The tube of Ben's hat, note the gorgeous amaryllis.

The pattern suggests covering the closed end with a crocheted circle, but I just lashed the top together with six radiating seams.

Trying on the new hat!

A warm hat for the last day of February.

Ben’s New Hat

So about a year ago I was in California visiting my Fairy Godmother.  I came prepared with the address of a yarn shop.

Alamitos Bay Yarn Company

The gals at the Alamitos Bay Yarn Company were amazing.  You can get to this yarn shop via foot, car, boat or like I did with a bicycle! Their masthead reads, “Knittin’ on the Dock of the Bay.”

Bike on the pier at Seal Beach

I found a yarn that I loved and I crocheted and felted a hat for myself.  I had some  left over so I started a hat for Ben.  Needless to say his head is huge and I needed more yarn so I gave the gals a call and the yarn arrived just ahead of the snowstorm.  I hope to turn this into a hat.  So that’s what’s on my needle today.

Ben's New Tuque, the beginning.

Cross Stitch Complete!

I began this project 16 years ago.  Thanks to a jigundous snowstorm, I finished it today!  What an amazing feeling.  I started this.  I was married. Then I opened a restaurant.  Then I divorced.  Then I met my boyfriend.  We’ve been together over 10 years.  I sold that restaurant.  The boyfriend can’t imagine a world in which this project isn’t laying in a corner.

I’ll tell you about my new project next time.

It only took me 16 years.

What’s on My Needles? 2-15-11

I'm sooo close!

In the interest of actually finishing something for a change, I intend to show you what I’m working on.  I started this project in 1996, before I started The Square Pie.  I intend to finish it this week…

This is all I have left of this puppy.

The Book List 2010

**Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

**Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving

Under the Dome by Stephen King

I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone by Stephanie Kuehnert

The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant

Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

Night by Elie Wiesel

**Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

**Cleaving by Julie Powell

The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell

The Belly of Paris by Emilie Zola

Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold

A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

**Homer and Langley by E.L. Doctorow

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

The Right Attitude to Rain by Alexander McCall Smith

The Gastromonical Me by M.F.K. Fisher

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

The Careful Use of Compliments by Alexander McCall Smith

The Lovers by Vendela Vida

Fifth Avenue, 5am by Sam Wasson

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

**Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday by Alexander McCall Smith

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell

**Old Filth by Jane Gardam

The Art of Gratitude by Alexander McCall Smith

The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon Reed

**One Day by David Nicholls

The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason

**The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Fly Boys by James Bradley

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larson

**So You Wanna Be A Rock and Roll Star? by Jacob Slichter

Plenty:  One Man, One Woman & A Raucous Year of Eating Locally by Alisa Smith & JB Mackinnon

**Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler

The Art of Eating In by Cathy Erway

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Steig Larson

**Great House by Nicole Krauss

**The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Steig Larson

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

The Charming Quirks of Others by Alexander McCall Smith

Keep the Chang by Steve Dublanica

Notes for The 2010 List:

I think it’s pretty cool that my list has exactly 365 words!

I had started last year’s list on-line with comments for each book.  I switched over to WordPress where I seem to have lost my comments.  Oh well, I tend to say what I want to  after the boat has already sailed anyway.  I would like to mention a couple of stand out books from my year.

First off, it was amazing to start 2010 with two amazing novels.  Her Fearful Symmetry was the perfect way to start the year as the moon was waxing up to it’s New Year’s Eve fullness and then to finish the novel on the third with the waning moon.  Very appropriate for this mystical book.  Last Night in Twisted River is the novel that I’ve been waiting for Irving to write since I finished A Prayer for Owen Meany in 1996.  I thank him for it. It is well worth the wait.

I apologize for making Alexander McCall Smith such a gratuitous entry this year, but I really enjoy listening to Davina Porter’s narration on audio. She helps me keep the house clean!

My top pick of the year goes to One Day by David Nicholls.  Beginning on July 15, 1988 in Edinburgh, Scotland, this novel revisits two people on that same date though out their lives.  One of my top 5 love stories of all time, I will definitely re-read this one again and again.  Did I mention that I was in Edinburgh on July 15, 1988?  I checked my journal.  I didn’t meet Emily and Dexter.  I wish that they were real so that I could have! Take my advice, read this book, you will love them once you meet them.

Pitas & Peas

My pita bread recipe is a mish mash of other pita breads out there and because of that I’d reccommend experimenting with your flours.  Today I’ve used bread flour with a small amount of whole wheat flour but I’ve used all whole wheat when feeling particularly healthy and I’ve never tried bread flour before.  I must admit that the bread flour does make for superior results.  With that said, here are today’s ingredients:

 

2 Tablespoons Dry Yeast

2 Cups Warm Water

1/2 Teaspoon Honey

1/4 Cup Olive Oil

1Tablespoon Salt

4 Cups Bread Flour

1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour

All-Purpose Flour (For Dusting)

 

Mix the yeast in 1/2 cup of the warm water, add the honey, stir and set aside to proof.

 

In a large mixing bowl, add the remaining 1 1/2 cups water, the oil, salt and the yeast mixture.  Then stir in the five cups of flour one cup at a time. Turn out onto a lightly floured board and knead.  Now I found it especially helpful today to knead with The Pretenders.  Brass in Pocket to be specific.

GONNA USE MY ARMS
GONNA USE MY LEGS
GONNA USE MY STYLE
GONNA USE MY SIDESTEP
GONNA USE MY FINGERS 

GONNA USE MY, MY, MY IMAGINATION.

I think you get the idea.  You’re dough will go from looking like this:

To looking like this:

 

Put that sucker into a greased bowl, turning once to coat the top, cover it with a damp towel and let it rise in a warm spot for 2 hours. Two hours is a long time, but then I had a lot of peas to shuck.

After 2 hours, punch it down and let it rest 10 minutes from your abuse.  Again, punch it down and divide it into eight equal portions.

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Shape those eight shapes into balls and let them rest again for 30 minutes.

 

Here is where I preheat my oven.  You are gonna cook these babies at a very hot 500 degrees and that heat is the pita secret.  Using a floured rolling pin on a floured surface roll those puppies out until they are about 1/8th of an inch thick. Spray two baking sheets and place 2 of the circles on each of the sheets, cover and let rest yet again for thirty minutes.****

 

****A note on all this resting:  It seems excessive, I know.  I do cut corners a little bit here, but I seem to make better pita when I give the babies the correct proportion of napping.  I’d be interested to see what Jim Lahey would say about all this kneading and resting, but perhaps there is a reason why he doesn’t give us a pita recipe along with all of his other fabulous breads.

 

 

Place one sheet in the 500 degree oven on the lowest rack.  Don’t open the oven for five minutes…after five, move the pan to the top rack and put the second sheet in. After five minutes the top pan comes out, the bottom one moves up and another can go onto the bottom rack.  You are baking for 10 minutes total in two-5 minute shifts. Work quickly, you want that oven to stay very hot. Cool on racks and continue the process until all breads are baked.  You can rewarm them in the toaster or microwave and they freeze like a dream.  Ben and I had ours with Hippie Salad. MMMmmm. Alas, Hippie Salad is a story for another day.

 

My Hot Water Bottle

 

I’d like to tell you about my hot water bottle.  But first a bit
about my friend Tracy’s hot water bottle.  She had a sturdy rubber
thing that looked industrial not meant for domestic use. I really
couldn’t see her attraction to it.  Then, one day in the immortal words
from Raising Arizona, "Well, sometimes I get them menstrual cramps real
hard."  When Tracy filled that bottle three quarters of the way full
with boiling hot water, nestled it in its Shaun the Sheep cozy and
placed it on my belly I had a revelation.  It was way  better than my
heating pad.  A heating pad wakes you up in the middle of the night. 
It’s hot and dry and mean when it wakes you up. (Like a bad boyfriend.)
You need a long drink of water and you need it now.  You can’t just
shut it off and go back to sleep.  You must get up. A hot water bottle
soothes your needs right now and then it gently backs off.  (Like a
good boyfriend!) I admit, I prejudged it.  I didn’t think it was sexy
and I’m sorry.  When Tracy made one of her many trips to that island
across the pond she asked what I wanted.  I wanted a hot water bottle.
From Boots.  I didn’t hesitate.  I wanted one enough to burden her with
my wishes.  That is a story from many years ago. Since there are no
electrical cords to get twisted and dangerous looking, my hot water
bottle has lived the lifespan of several heating pads.  5 out of 7
winter nights end with me starting the tea kettle to feed my hot water
bottle.  I’ve always wrapped my bottle in a flannel pillow case which
does the job but it doesn’t have a nice snug fit.  This week I made it
an evening gown.  With it’s buttoned strap slung seductively over one
shoulder I think she is ready to spend many more cold winter nights
with me. Now that’s the story of MY hot water bottle.