over a hot stove

for those who asked about recipies...

the pumpkin bread

pumpkin bread (2 loaves)

3 1/2 c. flour 1/2 tsp. ginger
3 c. sugar 16 ounces pumpkin
2 tsp. baking soda 1 c. oil
1 tsp. cinnamon 2/3 c. water
1 tsp. nutmeg 4 eggs

preheat oven to 350 F. grease and flour two 9 x 5 inch loaf pans. in
large bowl, combine all ingredients. using a hand mixer, blend at a
low speed until moistened; beat 3 minutes at meduim speed. pour into
prepared pans. bake 1 to 1 1/2 hours until toothpick inserted in
center comes out clean. cool 5 minutes; remove from pans.

Note 1: you can also make without hand mixer by combining wet
ingredients and the sugar. combine dry ingredients and add to wet
mixture. mix well. pour into pans and bake.

Note 2: as an alternative to the spices, you can just add 1-2 tsp.
pumpkin pie spice (cloves, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon). i usually add
more spices than called for, but it is to taste.

Note 3: you can use egg alternative as well, but it makes the bread a little denser.


for the cookies

Snicker Doodles

1 C. butter (or margarine or shortening)
1 1/2 C. sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 C. flour
2 t. cream of tartar
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
cinnamon sugar

Cream first three ingredients. Add flour, cream of tartar, soda, and
salt. Chill. Roll into balls and roll in cinnamon sugar. Place on
cookie sheet and bake at 400F for 8-10 minutes til lightly brown and
soft. Yield: 5 dozen. (These cookies will set up and be somewhat
crunchy when they cool).

thanksgiving thoughts.

i'm not a big fan of the premise of thanksgiving. i suspect that that whole benevolent savage saves the pilgrims thing is a model for fibbing about history. but i like food, so i don't mind the cooking bits. well, that's not entirely true. i'm still recovering from a few years ago, when i made my first turkey, and mistook the neck for another bodypart. i ended up naming that turkey mandingo. none the less, last year, we spent a fairly craptastic day at my aunts house. as a result of my uncle being an asshole, we decided that we wouldn't repeat that disaster this year. so my moms new friend has a sister who owns a rib joint downtown. so we went there for thanksgiving, and spent it with her family. and of course, like any family, they've got their dramas, and their baggage, but they seem so much less in need of therapy, than my extended family. i mean, i think part of my cynical attitude about thanksgiving stems directly from my own experience with the nutty family from which i come. but somehow, when it's some one elses family, it's easier to forgive them their quirks. i suspect this is because, it doesn't matter how odd they are, they don't have anything to do with the genetics you pass on.

anyway, it was really nice to be around people who actually like each other, and respect each other. i like that peanut will have examples of that.

this deal was somewhat of a potluck. the rib joint provided the meat, and everybody else brought sides, and dessert. so i made chocolate chunk cookies, snickerdoodles, and dairy free pumpkin bread. ooo.

and i met a baby. a 3 month old baby. who had on nail polish. i love the south.

they CAN'T be serious.

i saw this over on motheranarchy. i clicked, assuming that it was a joke, like those dog cages that made the 'ap' rounds about a year ago. nope. it's real. i have no words. hang your kid by the neeners while you pee? i haven't peed solo in 20 months. and i've never had the need to hang my kid up. matter of fact, (tmi) i've even managed to poop, with the babe, in a public restroom, sans assistance. and neither one of us left icky, or e.coli ridden. natch, i've tried on jeans, with the peanut, sans assistance. and this was pre-walking. and we all know, that i'm not the most coordinated of people. i mean, i've dislocated my knees more times than i can count. so it's not as though these were feats of remarkable balance, or whatever. it's just what you DO, when you have a damn kid. honestly. get a dog. put it in a purse. hang that up. at least it won't need therapy.

and, (coming back to this from earlier) don't they send around an email which says not to hang your purse on the hooks in public bathrooms because purse snatchers lurk about, fixing to snatch them the minute they hear your pee hit the water? so, i can just see all the fendi diaper bag carryin, kids as accessories mamas hanging the fendi on the door knob, so it doesn't get swiped, but then hanging their BABY on the hook.

i hate people. seriously. if i didn't adore socializing, i'd be a hermit.

mmm. warm cell phone.

front (note the button and the yarn over for the antenna. ooo.



back

dishpan hands

so these are the fingerless gloves that i knit for my mom
because her hands get stiff and sore, but she's got a typey job
so these should keep the pain at a minimum.
i have, however, requested that each time she puts them on, she breaks into a chorus of borderline.

another tiny hat for a tiny baby. w00t.

without flash
and with flash

excusing the general mess

where's peanut?

there she is!

w00t! i am on a roll now!

photographically speaking, that is. i've got pix of my newest FO, a knitted kittyear punk hat. it's pistachio chocolate chip colored, and it matches this little fleece we got her for when it gets cool down here. models are peanut, who is, as always, fierce! and bongo, the sultryeyed male model with the attitude problem.

finally. more FO pix..

so here are the loverly pix of the three knitty bags. you've seen the blanket. i don't have a shot of the cell phone cozy, or the 1 and 1/3 fingerless glove set yet. but bask in my knitty goodness. mmm.

the knitty gritty

since i got bit by the knitting bug, i've completed 1 wool baby blanket, 1 LARGE cotton tote bag, 1 small acrylic bag for peanut (she picked out the yarn, i think because of the colors.) 1 small coordinating cotton bag to hold wallet, keys, cellphone, bubblegum, and chapstick inside aforementioned large tote, (because otherwise they get buried beneath the current knitting and the diapers). a cell phone cozy for my mom, and a piece for warm up america, which provides patchworky blankets to shelters and families in need.

next on the sticks: handwarmers/fingerless gloves for my mom, since she started a new job and her office is chilly, and her hands get sore when they get cold, but she still has to type. and socks. and a pillow covering. i'm into knitting. it's too bad i'm so camera lazy. i need to take pix.

and so it officially begins

the unschooling of peanut. via the computer. and specifically, via http://live.wildlife.wavelit.net/451OK. the 'african' webcam. i'm honestly not sure where in africa this is. i know there's a webcam in botswana, but i don't know that this is the same one. in anycase, we've been watching it a lot over the last few weeks, and she's starting to be able to identify some of the animals. this is so stinkin awesome. interestingly enough, since we started watching this, she's started to show an interest in zoboomafoo, that animal show on sprout. i tried to get her to watch that before, and she was like, boooooring! but i think now she's got a context in her head, so now that show ties in with the animals we see on this cam. awesome, no? the cam is pretty hit or miss. sometimes, it's a hoppin lil pond, and sometimes, (esp. at night) you could lapse into a coma. the good news is, the nature sounds seem to calm her into sleep. so all in all, it's a useful website.

whoo!

You paid attention during 80% of high school!

68-84% Pretty good, you know that there are libraries and newspapers, and you remember what you've read. You were a child that wasn't left behind!

Do you deserve your high school diploma?
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the irony here being that i actually didn't even attend during 80% of high school. and i probably have the only group effort diploma in all of Peabody history. so, you know, putting the high in high school didn't impair my internet quiz taking ability, at least. hurrah!

can you smell what the hunk is cleaning?

http://www.cleaninghunk.com/

pick jason. as a rocker. and latin music. trust me. and don't drink anything you don't want to wipe off your keyboard.

it's things like this that make me not want to be a housewife. i mean, if this is the sort of asinine marketing they're going to foist on people who stay at home, maybe i should go to work, so that like, stephen hawking will come use a robot to scrub my oven.

updates, and such.

so. peanut is sick. scarily sick. she's got this horrible cough, and it's making her breathe funny. we've been doing lots of steam, and homeopathic cough remedies, and it seems to be helping. but mommy is looking for anyone who wants to donate valium to me. :) the paternal grand parents are in town, and they are just smitten with her. my mom got a new job, and she starts next week. yay!!!!! i finished knitting the bag, and the strap, and got it all sewn together. i lurve it. i will post pictures of all of this later. i really want to knit socks. i have to wait until we can go to savannah and i can hit a crafty store and get double pointed needles. or that book, about knitting socks on circulars. but either way, i have to wait, and this makes me sorta sad. cuz i really wanna knit socks.