This and That. Ends with Cuteness.

As tired as I am of the cold weather and winter (which is still here, regardless of it being a lot sunnier overall than last month at this time), I do love that I can still really enjoy a hot cup of tea for the moment, inside and out, as I use it to warm my hands up as well as my insides. I'm most definitely not a 'hot drink' drinker once the weather turns and ice tea isn't quite the same so time is running out for this little pleasure. :)

I took inventory of my loose/bag teas in January (written down on paper no less!) and, well, that was sobering. *ahem* I swore I was going to stop buying any for a long while............and OF COURSE  I didn't stick to that, but I really have been a more judicious in my purchases since then. Except I've recently fallen down a bit on that though as I've discovered the new-to-me Harney & Sons tea line. Oh my! Such nice teas! And they come in these brilliant little tins that I have no idea what to do with but, gosh, they are pretty. These are my three latest (all fairly 'fruity' ones) but my favorite so far is the Hot Cinnamon Spice which tastes like a robust black tea with a Hot Tamale candy melted in it. If you like that kind of biting cinnamon taste, it's dead on.

Finished stitching the last of the three stockings in this L*K pattern book and finished them off with a bit of flossing cording which, I have to say, I really have no love for stitching on. It takes so much time if you want to do it neatly and hide your stitches. So.....much.....time......

My favorite of the three is the 'Noel' one. I like the holly border/beads at the top. Second fave though is the sampler one.

My finishing, as always, is fraught with one mishap or other - as you can see I, uhhhhhh, sewed one inside out on the back. Whoops? I had some thoughts as to patiently ripping it out and redoing it..........and then those thoughts vanished into the wind because I plain ole don't care enough about it. lol

Until flowers and pretty things start popping up outside, I'm going to have to fill in the color gaps in my life with brightly colored yarn, I think. It's only fair, right? The one in the back (Poste Yarn from Simply Socks Co.) might be a tad too neon even for me. (There is no such thing, of course, but I'm trying to picture that as socks and it makes me laugh EVERY TIME.)

Well, there. I broke the streak of posting only once a month. *bows* I'll finish this off with a couple new pictures of the 'kittens' because they haven't been around the blog in a long while. 

 (You can't comb out the curlies. You can but they are right there again an hour later. It's like the worst magic trick ever.) 

(Livvy and her 'chinny chin' aka goat's beard.)

Kittens. Ha! At almost nine months, they aren't kittens but definitely not adults either. What they are is HUGE. And PUFFY. With fur. Oh_so_much_fur! Does that LOOK like a belly that is combed out every other day? ARGH. The bald spots are from where I've had to cut knots out. You just blink a few times a knot forms on these guys. I really hope their fur 'settles down' and gets less sticky as they get older otherwise they are going to be SHAVED BALD for the summer! lol

Happy Friday the 13th! :)

It's hard to be spooked by it though when it's so bright and sunny and warm though, right?

(I've come across this multiple times today on Facebook, etc. and, while it doesn't seem that fair, I have to say I've snorted  laughed at it every single time. Why? I don't know.)

Hard to believe another week has gone by!! Let's see, what did I get into to this week.......

I finished up all of my current sock projects!

Oh, don't be too impressed though - the "Wayward" (red) ones have been ongoing since the beginning of March. 

 I just had a bitty foot on the right one to do to put that project to bed. (And, because of the complementing wrap-a-round cables, these socks actually *DO* have a left and right to them. Thankfully, I paid attention to what chart was what, out of the stack that this pattern comes with, and ENDED UP with a right/left one vs. two lefts, etc. WHEW!) 

 The Dragonfly socks were a quick knit - easy, easy! Probably could have gone with another repeat for the leg so I'll remember that for next time. (I don't like my socks too long so it's no biggie either way.)

Also (semi) finished:

Stitched my flag stitchy again, this time on the 'proper' fabric so it will fit on top of the star box that came in the kit. Just need to find the time to do the finishing now. (I didn't improvise a little '2012' on the new one but now that I see them together, I kind of miss that? I might have to go back and put that in!)

Anyone else doing the L*K Mystery Sampler Club that was just released??? I started it and love the colors but the fabric is a little larger count (30 ct.) than I would prefer. It's not a deal-breaker though. I'm just a diva and will get over it. *cough* I think the transition from 40ct from the last project to 30ct was a little oogy for me, is all.

I know so many of you are BROILING out there, in the heat, but it's been phenomenally seasonal here the past week...........again. Much better than it usually is for this area! If this is the new 'face' of climate change for this area, I'll take it!!!! Got lots of biking in last week, picture is from one of the (many) bike bridges on the Blackstone River Trail in Lincoln/Cumberland, Rhode Island.

This last pic is from my Epic Kitchen DeClutter this morning. Does anyone else find the kitchen gets cluttered if you so much as take your eyes off of it for a second? I hadn't SERIOUSLY decluttered it in awhile so I went at it in a ruthless manner this morning and now it's all back down to clean surfaces everywhere you look. 

I had to laugh and stop to take a picture of this ridiculousness though:

I *might* have a packet problem. As in, drink packet?

Yeah, I gots it bad. REAL bad.

And I'm not sure the picture is *quite* capturing just how many are there. (And I'm not even getting into how many bottles of MiO are around. *ahem*)

In my defense, I do drink a lot of water. (I even have a water cooler in my kitchen to facilitate things.)

I don't have any defense, really, for ordering more though the other day. True Lemon has 50% off all the lemonade packets this month and I..........may have ordered some more? Less than a 100 packets but, uhhhhh, more than 50. Okay so it was 80. Crap. WHERE IS THE 12 STEP PROGRAM FOR PACKET ADDICTION????? o_0

(Not that anybody asked, but my favorite one is the stevia-sweetened Apple Pear ones from Target. If I could get that one on tap, that would be GLORIOUS.)

Whew! Weekend overload.

That was such a crazy weekend I needed a few days to recover from it. Seriously.

First up was the crazy overwhelming and much-anticipated Stitches East show in Hartford. 

 

(Picture from last year because I wasn't brave enough to thwart security this year and try and sneak a pic. They are CRAZY SERIOUS about no picture taking inside the venue.)

God, this show is exhausting. I mean that in a good way - but it's so big and there is sooooooooooooooooooo much stuff. *fans self* A huge convention center full of knitterly goodness every which way you look starts shutting my brain down after 4-5 aisles, you know? DON'T WORRY THOUGH: I pushed through it and made it to the end *and* even managed to be coherent enough to buy something from all corners of the room. I take my responsibilities for propping up the US economy with my purchasing power VERY seriously. *cough*

I did collapse here in the hall for a bit though to get my sea legs before taking off though.

After a quick jaunt to West Hartford for an outdoor lunch (to enjoy the perfect fall weather) and a little shopping at stores that aren't around here (Penzey's) we made the long haul back to our part of state and had just a wee bit of time to freshen up and haul off to Foxwoods Casino to catch a Kathy Griffin show. A love her/hate her comedian to be sure...........but I'm partial to foul-mouthed broads. Not gonna lie. : )

I'd never been to the MGM Grand theater here before and it was quite nice.......inside anyway. I haven't been to Foxwoods Casino in a long time (I only manage a trip every 5-8 years, even though it's only 30 minutes away) and, yep, I still HATE the place with the burning passion of ten thousand white hot suns. Choking with cigarette smoke, drunk hootchie-mama women traveling in ho herds everywhere you look and the place is just waaaaaaaaay too big for me to the point of utter ridiculousness. And this is coming from someone who LIKES Vegas, mind you. (A Vegas joint is a 500 sq. foot NYC hole in the wall compared to the size of this place.) Anyhoo. I was so annoyed with the casino areas and the awful smell, per usual, that I forgot to play a few quarters in a slot machine 'just in case' I had some lucky ju-ju hanging around me at the moment. *snort* 

Oh well. I'm sure they won't miss my dollar. :)

 

Such a picturesque setting for a fall festival. Perfect!

We got home late late late but didn't let that stop us from heading out to the Johnny Cake Festival at the Kenyon Grist Mill the next morning. Johnny Cakes are, I BELIEVE, a distinctly Rhode Island thing? (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.) They're basically little fried up corn pancakes dating back to the Civil War era. Crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside, with or without maple sugar and that sort of thing. The Kenyon mill has been grinding corn the same way since 1696. I kid you not. That's crazy, right? 

 Though the building they still grind in *only* dates back to 1886. ONLY. *snort*

 

Round and round the stones go, grinding corn and other things all day.

This was a great festival because EVERYONE had free samples to try and TRY I DID. We noshed on locally made chocolate milk, pumpkin seeds, chai tea, hot apple cider, bbq sauce, freshly made bread and, of course, those johnny cakes. There were lots of other vendors demoing their wares like potters, chair caning,  and broom makers, etc. Very fun to watch! Will definitely have to hit this festival up again next year.

Of course we had to take home some purchased goodies from here too. Tea, pumpkin seeds, two jars of honey (as if we need MORE honey in this house!), johnny cake mix (OF COURSE) and I liked this piece of pottery that looked like a beehive to me.

It was nice to get out and enjoy the weather before it turns nasty for good, that's for sure. They are predicting a nor'easter for this area this weekend so that might be that as far as 'enjoying' the fall goes. *sad*

(Don't worry - I'll do a post about my Stitches East purchases. I think I need a whole separate post for that. lol)

Boo hoo, vacation is over.

Wait, was it not apparent I was on 'vacation' last week? Well I was......sort of. I still worked an awful lot but we managed to get out and do a few things outdoors too before the weather gets totally frigid.

He worked on painting the window sills for a couple days, another day we headed down to the RI coast to walk the Cliff Walk in Newport with my mother. I haven't been on the Walk in quite a few years so that was a treat.

It's a walkway on the edge of the cliff that runs parallel to the backyards of all those spiffy, old skool, multi-gazillion dollar mansions from days gone by. (We didn't go back through on the street though where you can see the mansions from the front because if you've seen them once, there ain't much else to see. /shrug) I just like the walking by the ocean part. Oh, and these signs that are posted everywhere:

 OH NOES! DON'T JUMP CARTOON MAN! 

The whole thing is 3.5 miles long (though you have to COME BACK so it's really 7 miles if you start at the beginning) and we did maybe 2 miles. (Which was kind of needed because OMG WHOA vacation eating!)

My 'new' threads came the other day so I sat on the deck for a couple hours and got that organized and put to rights and reorganized my WIP's, etc.

(There might have been some new-new stashing too. *ahem*)

So today is back to the normal schedule, normal eating plan (*cough*) and mentally preparing for fall because, wow, is it chilly already! :(

I'm insanely excited for the new tv season starting this week but my love is mostly limited to two shows: my beloved Fringe and.......

Downton Abbey.

OH YEAH PEOPLES. Can I get a wut-wut for the start of the second season?

How much did I enjoy this series last year? Enough to download the UK version (longer/uncut) and obsess over every last detail. I might have entire scenes memorized. Maybe. *cough*

Well the UK version started yesterday* and I might have already downloaded the episode. And peeked at it. Maybe. Just a LITTLE. (Who is this new maid sassing my Anna???) The hubby wants me to wait to watch it with him but.........I don't know if I can do that. I would have to wait until WEDNESDAY in that case to watch it and I don't know if I can resist the voice in my head going "watch me.........watch the precioussssss............watch me......." until then. *twitch*  

And yes, I got him hooked on it too. Mr. I only watch Pawn Stars/Top Gear/NASCAR and Ice Road Truckers when left to his own devices. Hooked. On a period drama. THAT IS THE POWER OF MAGGIE SMITH aka Cousin Violet. :)

I heard they won a bunch of Emmys last night too, including best miniseries/tv movie so yayyy!

(I couldn't get past the opening of the Emmys to watch the rest of the show. Wow. Painful. As in painfully unfunny.)

*If you're download-averse, the PBS version starts in January. I love you PBS but I can't wait that long. And I don't like that you cut it down to 'fit' some predetermined notion you have of how long an episode 'should' be vs. how long IT ACTUALLY WAS. Pfffttttt!

Whew! I made it.

To the weekend that is. It just felt like this week would...........never....................end. But here it is. Hopefully next week will be a little easier to get through. :)

Thanks for all the comments on my mittens! I do love a good hand knitted mitten. Maybe I'll enter one of these into the Fair next year, since they are both a little complicated in design, which I know the judges love. I didn't enter anything this year because I didn't feel I had really knitted anything that would wow them this past year. It's all been pretty basic stuff as far as fair entries go, you know? Your entries can be from any time during the year before the fair though so both of them will qualify for next year. Something to think about! I would have to squirrel one of them away and not use them if that were the case, to keep them new, which would make me sad because I OMG WANT TO WEAR NOW. We'll see how it goes when I actually FINISH a pair. lol

Fair Isle knitting isn't all that hard, I don't think, if you think like a CROSS STITCHER. Seriously. It's the same principle as far as pattern reading/applying that pattern. See -

This is just one small portion of one of the charts used to make my mitten. You follow it from right to left in a row and if the square is green, you knit with whatever color you have designated for the green areas, same goes for white, etc. Any stitcher would be right at home with these charts. The knitting is slower because you are working with two yarns at a time and have to keep switching them but the concept is simple enough. I credit all my years of cross stitching for preparing me for reading my knitting charts. lol

Here is the haul we brought home from the farmer's market the other day:

Corn, radishes, peaches, string beans, orange cherry tomatoes, a few hot peppers, blueberries and maple peanut brittle. (That last one comes courtesty of my husband's sweet tooth.)

I genuinely like eating a lot of vegetables. Like, A LOT. Between the farmers market and the regular supermarket this is what I have on tap to eat over the next week:

2lbs. of strawberries, bananas, apples, a whole pineapple, red/orange bell peppers (for cooking), a bag of mini bell peppers (for snacking on with wedges of Laughing Cow), 6 heads of romaine lettuce, head of cauliflower, yellow squash, baby carrots, two English cucumbers, bunch of cilantro, an avocado, and red/white onions.

Plus the several pints of cherry tomatoes I have coming out of my own garden. (I'm making a big batch of fresh corn salsa tonight, matter of fact, to use up a whole ton of tomatoes. Man, love this stuff on EVERYTHING. Salad, burger, taco, etc.)

Most of that will be gone by next Thursday and I'll get to start all over again. YUM. (And it is mostly me who eats it because I eat fruit/veg with all three meals and he only manages it usually with supper.) It's kind of ridiculous actually. lol (And you'd think, with all that, that I wouldn't be able to find room for 'bad stuff' like Doritos but you would be WRONG. Anytime, any place, baby. BRING IT. *snort*)

One more updated bead set posted today, just because I can:

Have a great weekend, all!!!! :)

*SNIFF* Smells like a Monday to me.

This didn't feel in any way like a long weekend. It just doesn't seem possible it was three days long. Am I alone in this?


We went to go pay our respects to his father on Sunday. It's quite moving see all of the flags out. He's interred at a veteran's cemetery in Exeter, RI, down by the ocean, so there was a snappy ocean breeze that had all the flags at full attention. It's a beautiful, serene place. So so big though. Just one field after another after another. Very sobering.

It's hard to believe it's been almost a year since his father passed away. A whole year. o_0

********************

Other than that I started a pair of Obliviate mitts and then undid them and put them away because I need to rethink the pattern numbers/yarn/needle situation. 

Started, then undid, then restarted a pair of socks for him. (Sorted out now so we're good to go.)

 Grill season is in full swing now with the endless parade of hot dogs, burgers, chicken and grilled veggies. I love summer eating so so so much. No pans, hell, no real PLATES either. And lots of fresh, simply prepared ingredients. 

Even better, I'm kinda 'off' bread again (much to the chagrin of my husband who is horrified at the sight of 'naked' hamburgers) so it's all GOOD for you eats too. I'm determined to have a much better annual physical come September than last year's physical so the less bread the better - for ME - because I really don't need the extra carbs. (I like to save them for the REALLY good stuff. :)

(Note: I'm not much of a bun-lover (harharhar) anyway so getting rid of them, for me, doesn't hurt as much as, say, getting rid of potatoes. Now *that* hurts.)

*********************

I feel like this is going to be a slow week so maybe a giveaway is in order? I have 123234 pounds of extra beads to give away - just need to get off mah butt and put it together for you guys. :)

NOM NOM NOM

We don't really watch the Super Bowl in this house (we're more of a NASCAR family and nothing else, though I'm tired of that too now) but I do love the lead-up to it as people post all the yummy-nummy foodie things they are planning to make or want to make, etc. 

One thing I saw last week was these Buffalo Chicken meatballs on the Martha Stewart show. DING! DING! DING! I loves me some Buffalo Wings and Frank's Red Hot sauce so I *had* to make these. 

Oh. My. God. are they good! 

NOM. NOM. NOM.

I followed the recipe as is EXCEPT instead of using the ONE STICK of butter it calls for - I used 4 tablespoons. You won't miss the extra butter - I swear. (Though if you are on good speaking terms with your cardiologist, maybe go for the full stick?) Oh and I ditched the 2 TB olive oil for the sheet pan. Uhh, spray oil anyone? lol
Doing it that way they came out to be 51 calories each with 44 total meatballs**. I figure I can shave that down even more next time (AND THERE WILL BE A NEXT TIME) if I use Egg Beaters instead of 2 whole eggs and maybe trim the breadcrumbs a little.(Anyone have any experience using Egg Beaters in meatloaves and the like instead of whole eggs? I've been meaning to try that out to cut down on calories/cholesterol but *keep forgetting*. Grrr!)

They were great with baked potatoes, celery sticks and more Frank's dribbled over them.
ENJOY YOUR GAME DAY WEEKEND, Y'ALL, no matter what you are doing!! :)

**This is based on grinding my own chicken breast. I can't find pre-ground chicken in the supermarkets around here but once in a blue moon so we ran skinless chicken breasts through the grinder attachment for my KA mixer instead. (Which is INDESCRIBABLY GROSS BY THE WAY. I don't even like the *sound* of meat grinding. *hurl* ) I have no idea what parts they use for store-bought ground chicken so the calories when using that might be higher?

First Day of Non-Vacation

(*pssst* - Don't forget I'm having a giveaway this week. :))

Well, it's a vacation week for the hubby but as anyone who works from home knows, I'm not really on vacation unless I go away. Far far away. But we do have some things planned for the week, like a trip to the Big E, a couple hikes to enjoy the fall weather, etc.

Yesterday we went to Mystic to partake in the Garlic Festival they were having in the Olde Mistick Village. The place was hopping with not only 'garlic' things going but also a farmer's market and an outdoor dog show. (Or obedience thing? I'm not sure exactly what was going on with all the dogs but I loved seeing all of them.) I might be a bit of a germophobe though because the thought of all those people + hot sun kept me away from the free samples of garlicky food. *squick*

So the REAL highlight of the trip was going across the street to get our burger on:

NOM. NOM. NOM.

Mystic is over an hour away from where we live so we only get our Five Guys fix very rarely. I keep dreaming of the day one opens up closer to home. (It has to happen at some point........right?) I'm sure some people don't understand my excitement at a fast food joint but I live in a literal black hole of food nothingness where there is nothing around for miles except for McDonalds and pizza joints. It's nice to have a few different options once in a while. :)

Oh, and I also found time to make 6 quarts of stock using my slow cooker (twice) and the stove: 2 quarts beef pho stock**, 2 quarts chicken pho stock and 2 quarts of regular chicken stock. READY TO GET MY SOUP ON.

**Jaden's Crockpot Pho recipe is pretty awesome. I made the beef one first overnight, washed everything out, then made a new batch while I was out during the day, using 4 chicken thighs instead of ox tails the second time around. DELICIOUS. I plan on eating ridiculously big, steamy hot, vege-and-rice-noodle filled bowls of pho all week long. *lip smack*

July Stockings

Finished up just in time!

I actually stitched them earlier in the month (way earlier) but put the finishing aside and then.................totally forgot they existed. I came across them last night while I was organizing stacks of crap some stash hanging around my living room and whipped them together. Not sure how much I like the wedding ring one though? The stitched part is so much smaller than the stocking template, it looks weird to me? I thought about trimming it/sewing it together so it was right on the edge of the cross stitched part but that would make it a lot smaller than all the other stockings I've done and I know THAT would bother me too so I left it as is. I'll just chalk this one up as "Not One of My Favorites" in the series. /shrug

It was a week of bad mojo for all my projects, I guess. I've been working on a pair of socks with my Watermelon yarn and was making good progress, was up to the toe on the SECOND sock...........and realized I had knit the leg too long by not ONE, but TWO pattern repeats. And I'm not going to lie - I contemplated how much it would bother me that one sock would be longer by about two inches than it's mate. Anything to avoid ripping out a few days of work. But OF COURSE that would bother me because it's such a STUPID mistake and who wants to be reminded of that? lol So I eventually came to my senses and  ripped it all out so I could start the heel/foot part all over again. (Which is where it sits for the moment because I think this project and I need a Time Out for a few days. Hurt feelings on both sides and all.) If you're not royally screwing up your knitting here and there, you're not doing it right.........right? lol

Here's a neat not-quite-a-recipe recipe for Corn on the Cob from Tasty Kitchen that I tried yesterday that came out wicked good. It looks odd - almost like you are cooking your corn in soap water. But the corn really *was* the best ever. Didn't need anything to accompany it other than a sprinkling of kosher salt. And I'm usually the sort to glop butter alllllllllllllllllll over my corn on the cob. I'm not much of a butter lover in the larger scope of things and almost always prefer my veggies plain steamed or roasted with a little olive oil, with two exceptions: corn on the cob and mashed potatoes. I just *have* to have real butter for those and that's that. Heart valves be damned, I say! But this came out so good it honestly didn't need it.

Why is it so freaking hard to find an UNCORNED beef brisket around here in the CT/RI area??????????????

Corned beef is great, love it on rye with a schmear of really GOOD mustard.  But sometimes you want to slow cook your own brisket with other flavors, you know?
I've been systematically looking for one for a month now (4589 food bloggers blogging about their Passover briskets will do that to you) and struck out at: Stop and Shop, Shaw's, Big Y, and Dave's Marketplace. Finally found one today at BJ's. Just a huge ass piece of drool-worthy brisket!! Now what to do with it?

Go with a recipe from P-Dub or do something closer to the BBQ Beef aka Heavenly Goodness that I adore and generally use flank steak for. Decisions, decisions.

Happy Easter!

Or almost Easter as it were as there is still one day left to go.  We're all godless heathens (aka lapsed Catholics) in this house so there are no big plans for the day other than cleaning the basement (still drying) and acting pokey. I think I had wanted to cook a ham (because I'm never going to NOT want to cook a ham) but I forgot to pull it out of the freezer to defrost so that's out. Oh well. I'll be happy the whole thing is over if only for the fact that I've eaten MY OWN WEIGHT IN PEANUT BUTTER EGGS this month. *burp* Those things are pure evil and I have NO willpower when it comes to eating them in moderation. NONE. Zero. ZILCH.

Okay, here's my LOST posting for this week.....

It was funny because 3/4's of the way into this episode, I turned to the man and said that it was a good season except for one little fact: NOT ENOUGH DESMOND. And who shows up at the end of eppy? My BRUTHAAAAAAAAA. *squeeeeeeeeee*

Don't mess with this one. *skeered*

Hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day. :)

Personally, I'm not a big fan of the day but I'm also not a big fan of being all grouchy-Grinchy so I sucked it up and made some 'love' cupcakes for the day. I don't have the patience (or equipment) for fancy decorations on baked goods but this..........ahhhhh, this I can do.

I mean.............how freaking PRETTY is that??? A RAINBOW INSIDE OF EVERY CUPCAKE. *squeeeeeee*

I used just a normal white cake and standard buttercream (1 part butter/3 parts powdered sugar/dash of liquid). Nothing fancy here except the colors. :)

(Ain't gonna lie though - it's a bit a tedious to do. Lots of mixing of colors and dabbing and you end up with 234234123432 more dishes than if you had just left them white. BUT OMG AREN'T THEY PRETTY?????????? I had hoped to get some purple in there too to go along with the red/orange/yellow/green/blue but 5 colors turned out to be exactly what I could handle. lol)

Here's what I learned this weekend:

I DON'T KNOW SQUAT ABOUT DRIED BEANS.

I was all punch-drunk-happy at my recent foray into making my own hummus (using CANNED beans) and determined the next step was to make hummus from scratch 'for real' using dried beans. Heeeee heeee hoooooo hoooooooooo. I've never used dried beans of any kind, EVER, IN MY LIFE, because I'm lazy and cans are so readily available so here's what I learned in my first outing: ONE BAG MAKES A HELLA AMOUNT OF BEANS. AN EPIC AMOUNT OF BEANS. ALMOST TOO MUCH TO FIT INTO ONE CONTAINER.

One bag seemed innocent enough. My original recipe used one can of beans and I would have liked a little more. So I figured a bag of dried beans would equal two cans. Heeeeee heeee hoooooo hoooooo! I knew I was in trouble when the damn things *barely* fit into my big ole KitchenAid whizzer and kept creeping up the peephole. And when I was done I had enough hummus to feed an army of very hungry, hummus lovers. Just a never-ending mountain of hummus. Very yummy but still - how much hummus can one person cram into their maw within a short period of time?  Next time: half a bag...........or less.....

I consider it all good research for the 'cause' and, as luck would have it, I saw another dried bean recipe this weekend I'd like to try. (Side note: baked beans are usually made with navy beans? I did not know this. I thought they were done with pintos. Hmph. Can you tell I just learned to like beans within the last 5 years or so? IT'S LIKE A WHOLE NEW WORLD TO ME.)

New Recipe - Baked Parmesan Garlic Chicken Wings

Recipe Link.

Photo credit: Steamy Kitchen

These are sinfully good. It made my face go like this: o_0  Which I was surprised by because I generally don't like making chicken wings at home. (I pretty much only like them when they are fried and I try to avoid deep frying at home, except for making french fries once in a while. I deep fried chicken wings ONCE. ONCE. And the guilt that followed dogged me for at least a week, maybe even two. lol So now I just occasionally get my fix when we eat out. Somehow deep fried restaurant food is more acceptable than fried food made at home. I DON'T MAKE THE RULES PEOPLE. It just is what it is.) Other than grilling them once in a blue moon during the summer months, I never make wings. Ever. But the food bloggers have been out in force this month with the wing recipes (gearing up for the Super Bowl) and this one grabbed my attention. I only made 8 (whole) wings out of a big family pack because I didn't want there to be any leftovers in case I didn't like them but, wow, was that a mistake! We gobbled these up and made sad faces when we realized there was no more. All that was left on our plates was steamed broccoli and, whoaaa, VERY POOR SUBSTITUTE!! lol I still have the other half of the pack left to cook up so I might just makes these again later this week. :)

Mods: Nothing major. I poked small holes all over the wings before cooking so the rendered fat could escape and to help them get crispier. This is essential, I think, because chicken wings nowadays are so so so fatty. I also turned them halfway through cooking and switched to 'broil' near the end to also help crisp them up.

Oh! And I also made hummus for the first time too this weekend. Something I've been meaning to do for a loooooong time. It's so easy to buy pre-done, eh? Verdict: unbelievably yummy and well worth the little bit (and it really is a VERY easy thing to make) time to do it yourself.. I added more garlic to mine because I worship at the altar of Toxic Garlicky Mouth Fumes and needed to make an appropriate monthly sacrifice, *ahem*, but you certainly don't NEED to do that - the recipe is just fine as is. :)

New Recipe - Lemon Parsley Pasta

From Budget Bytes

(image from budgetbytes.blogspot.com)

Or newish recipe because I've done lemony type pasta things before. But I saw this post last week while browsing that site and it looked so yummy I knew I wanted to make it right away. And it *was* yummy. Ate it with some grilled chicken and grilled yellow squash, and, oh, NOM NOM NOM. Delish!

Mods: I used fresh basil instead of parsley because I had that on hand. (I think it would also go well with cilantro but I have Big Massive Inappropriate Love for cilantro so YMMV.) Added a pinch of red pepper flakes to the lemon/garlic/oil mixture. The lemon flavor was quite delicate, I think next time I'll give it a a tablespoon of lemon juice in addition to the zest. I wouldn't want it TOO lemony but I think, for MY palate, I could kick it up a tiny notch. :)

Note: the recipe has one small error in it in regards to pasta cooking time. No biggie but if you really were to cook angel hair pasta for 10 minutes like it says you could very well end up with a pile of mush. 4-5 minutes will do it for that size pasta.

Meatballs, anyone? :)

Most people start off the year with renewed vows or interest in eating healthy, losing weight, going to the gym more often, etc.

Me? I started it off by making lots of meatballs. LOTS of meatballs. Like 100+ meatballs. Using ground beef.............................and pork. Because they just ain't good eats unless they have a little porkiness in there. Though, in my defense, we aren't actually EATING the meatballs just yet. I froze them all in individual food saver packs for when I want a quick supper and/or don't feel like cooking. (I also made quart containers of sauce to go with them.)

I'm not one for resolutions any way other than a generic type of 'simplify simplify simplify' one. Once the Xmas stuff is packed away (done yesterday) I start getting twitchy and look around for other things to simplify. So far, I've simplified my internet 'life' a little by deleting over 1,000 Facebook 'friends'. So if you got deleted recently, don't take it personally. It was all getting to be a bit much and I decided it needed to be brought down to more manageable numbers. Because the way it was, I never looked at a damn thing on there any more because there was too much going on and I didn't feel like wading through hundreds of posts just to get to a few that interested me. So I whacked away at it until I got down to around 240 and I'm still trimming here and there as I go. And I have to say - it feels REALLY REALLY GOOD. (And part of this was the changes FB has made to the newsfeed in recent months. I really don't give a crap to wade through post after post of who friended who, who fan paged what, or hit 'like' on something. Why did they start adding EVERYTHING to your feed? Next up, I expect to see it give you a notice when someone farts! YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST! So annoying.)

Next up: I have to whack away at the 'leftovers' of the handmade Xmas presents/projects piled up on my hearth. Leftover balls of yarns, loose patterns, etc. And I have a pile (A PILE!!!) of needle worked ornaments that need to be sewn up into something that you can actually HANG from a tree. (A tree that is now packed up until next December. lol)