I'm definitely a spring person. I love flowers and green and all the new sprouting life. I was born in the spring, so it just makes sense. But fall seems to have arrived in earnest now, and I'm realizing how much I enjoy this time of year too. Up here in the mountains it gets frosty every night, while the days are still warming up to a perfect 65 degrees. I fired up the wood burning stove for the first time since last winter, and spent a cozy Sunday evening knitting and contemplating how to re-arrange the furniture in our tiny room so I could sit right in front of it for the next five months. 

I'm starting to appreciate all the foods of this season as well. The weekend started with pumpkin pancakes, inspired by the fact that I woke from a crazy dream in which two old ladies had somehow barged into our house and commandeered the kitchen. They insisted that they wanted to make me pumpkin pancakes. It was strange and happy, except when they spilled the can of bacon grease all over my kitchen floor. I woke up when the frustration of trying to clean up all the grease while they were stepping over me became too much to bear. And I found myself craving pumpkin pancakes. 

The two ladies were nowhere to be found, so I went to work. And no cans of grease were spilled while I whipped up a batch of tender, hot, flavorful pancakes. My recipe could use a little work, but I crave pancakes about once a year, so if you can figure out how to tweak it to make it just perfect, let me know. As it is, it's really good, and the leftover pancakes are almost even better. At least Mr. HeyLucy seemed to think so, as he proceeded to eat the leftovers that were sitting on a plate on the stove, over the course of the weekend.

Pumpkin Pancakes

1 1/2 c. flour

1/4 c. brown sugar

1 t. baking powder

1 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. each ground cloves, nutmeg and ginger (adjust to your liking. I only added a dash of each, and it was not quite enough flavor. I will add more next time).

1/2 t. kosher salt

3/4 c. canned pumpkin (about half a can)

2 large eggs (I used duck eggs now that our ducks are laying in earnest, and I think they are great for baking!)

1 1/2 c. milk

1 t. vanilla

3 T. melted butter

Combine the dry ingredients. In another bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Dump the wet into the dry and mix just to combine. Cook them up on a buttered griddle and eat them while they're hot! 

So here are my thoughts on the finished pancakes: they were very, very moist, almost like they weren't cooked through. I'm wondering if I should have used less milk to make them a little drier. Fresh out of the pan they were good, but that moistness was actually very nice when eating them cold as leftovers. I also definitely need to add more spices next time. I could taste them, but the pancakes were just not quite spicy enough. 

Some other seasonal foods we are really enjoying right now include Roasted Acorn Squash with Wild Rice Stuffing, which I made for Sunday dinner along with some simple grilled pork chops. I will be making this again soon, it was so delicious, and really easy. Plus it's really adaptable, you can make as much as you need and switch up the type of rice you use. It worked well to use just one squash for the two of use, but it's easy enough to make more if you have a crowd. It would be a really pretty side dish to bring to a Thanksgiving dinner too. 

On the sweet side, I got some Chewy Egg Nog cookies from Trader Joe's, which were pretty yummy, and their Spiced Apple Cider is just about perfect, not too sweet and just the right amount of cinnamon. 

What are your favorite treats of the season? 

 

Read More

So I thought that knitting season had finally arrived in earnest when I woke up Sunday morning to white frosty roofs and white frosty ground, but it turns out the autumn can't seem to commit, and it was nearly 80 degrees today. I don't care, I'm forging ahead with my knitting plans anyway. It will eventually get cold enough for sweaters and boots, even if I am wearing a skirt and sandals today, right? 

I'm pretty excited to have finished my Tea Leaves cardigan! I love it, and even wore it one rainy day last week. It was crazy warm and cozy. I just gave it a quick steam blocking, so I still need to block it properly. With the previously cold and wet weather, I just didn't want to soak it and then have to wait days for it to dry, but now that it warmed back up, I think I better do it soon so I'll be ready when those colder days return. So, that's my excuse for not having any photos wearing it, they will have to wait until it gets a wash and a block. These will have to do in the meantime:

 

The buttons were a flea market find during a weekend trip to New York years and years ago. I think the tarnished brass suits the pumpkin alpaca quite nicely. 

I didn't quite keep to my resolution of finishing all current projects before starting another, and suddenly felt I needed to knit a hat. But I had the yarn (ravelry link), and I had the pattern (ravelry link), and it was a quick and satisfying project started and finished all the same day. 

Again, no modeling shot, since I was having a bad hair day, but trust me, it's pretty darn cute.

The mitts are done, and the shawl is growing, and I still love the Malabrigo lace yarn. The color is so perfect and interesting and just pretty. 

Since I finished a few things I was allowed to start some others. I love a cozy, loose sweater, so I started a Snowbird (ravelry link). I've been thinking that I have a problem. I tend to like sweaters with a lot of stockinette stitch, but it gets boring, and so I start things and don't finish. I'm working on getting over the boredom, and this pattern definitely helps. While it is pretty much all stockinette, it has some interesting construction that I think will fight the boredom.

I was able to continue perfecting my provisional cast on technique, and I think I've got it down. I'm keeping things tidy as I knit, so I practiced grafting the collar sections together as soon as I could. I hope that someday I'll be able to do the kitchener stitch from memory and not have to look it up, but I'm not quite there yet. I've also now learned how to do an i-cord edging (at least I think that's what it is), which I very much like the look of. I think I am at the point as a knitter, where I appreciate a little challenge in a knitting project, and I want to learn something new with each new thing that I knit, so I'm so pleased with this sweater so far because I am learning and challenged.

I know, that's a pretty boring picture, you can't even tell what it is, but it's the collar and beginning of the back. Another inch or two, and I'll sew the collar down. I think the finishing bits are also a nice break from stockinette. Oh, and I didn't mention the yarn! I'm using Knit Picks City Tweed DK, which is so nice for the price. Once I grafted the collar, I steam blocked it a bit to prepare to sew it to the back, and it turned into the nicest, soft, drapey fabric. I'm looking forward to wearing this one this winter, so I better keep going! 

Oh, wait! One more little thing on the needles! This is a gift for a friend that loved my daffodil jaywalkers. I accidentally bought this yarn in sport weight, rather than sock weight, and it's been languishing in my stash for ages. There's not a lot you can do with yarn this bright, but the chevron scarf from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts seemed like a pretty good match. 

I'm making it a bit narrower, and went up to size 7 needles for a slightly drapey-er scarf (why is drapier not a word? it totally should be!). 

So, how many projects are you working on? Am I weird for having so many? My sister works on only one thing at a time and has no yarn stash. This impresses and disturbs me. 

Read More

I need to find a book group. I'm trying to go to the one at my local library, but I haven't managed to get the right book and have it read in time for the meeting, and I've been trying for the last three months. The book for October was The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. I'm listening to the audiobook, and it's just…soooo…long. I'm on disk 16 of 18. I tried desperately to finish before they met last Tuesday, but I just couldn't take any more and had to take a break. I don't know what the problem is, I've listened to books that were even longer, and there is a lot to like (although there are some very unlikable characters, of course). I think there are just some books that are easier to read and some that are fun to listen to, and this is in the former category. 

So, for my break from the never-ending audiobook, I read Sarah's Key , about which I have been hearing all sorts of good things. And now I need to have a book discussion about it, so I just thought I'd have it here, and if anyone else has read it, please talk to me in the comments! Be warned, there are going to be spoilers, so if you haven't read it yet, stop right now, I don't want to ruin it for you! And also, I didn't like it much, so I'm really sorry if you loved it. Please feel free to explain why, if you did. I'm open to other opinions! 

Okay, let's chat about this. I really wanted to like this book, I feel like I've read quite a few WWII/Holocaust books lately, and they have been among the best books I've ever read (The Book Thief, and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, just to name a couple), and I've seen some excellent documentaries on the same subject (The Rape of Europa was a fascinating look at the loss of art, particularly from Jewish-run galleries and collectors as well as from museums. Highly recommended!), so I'm already in this WWII mindset, and just fascinated with it.

So, it starts out alternating between two stories, that of a young girl from a Jewish family in Paris in 1942, and that of a 40-something American woman in modern day Paris. I found the quick transitions between the two stories in the beginning really jarring, and just when you have really connected with this young girl, and really want to know more about her experience, the story shifts solely to modern times. 

I really had a hard time with Julia. I'm reading all about this horrific event, where families are rounded up, crowded into a velodrome under deplorable conditions, and then torn apart and sent to different camps, and, of course killed. It just made me not really care about her first world problems. Also, I really couldn't understand her difficulty in making a decision about having an abortion. As soon has her husband said that's what he wanted, the marriage was over. That kind of ultimatum, to me, is the end of any relationship. If she went through with it, how could she live with this man who would ask such a thing of her? I thought it was just a cheap dramatic ploy. Ugh! And then the whole attraction between her and Sarah's son, I just didn't see it, it was like a cheese-y romance novel. I did like the development of the character of her father-in-law, and I thought Mamé was someone I would have liked to know more about, but they were the only ones in the modern Paris that I liked. The rest just seemed so underdeveloped and little more than caricatures. 

I think there was enormous potential here, and rather than having the two POVs of Julia and Sarah, I would have loved to have read some other character's perspectives, like the policeman that let Sarah escape, the older couple that took her in, and even Sarah's husband and son, and seeing how the grown-up Sarah coped with her past. Oh, and one other thing that I didn't understand was the author referring to Sarah as "the girl" until she tells the older couple her name. As if we don't know who she is. The name of the book is Sarah's Key, I think we all know what her name is. Was it a literary device that I am too dense to have gotten? 

Okay, I'll stop here, but please, oh please, if you have read this book can we have a discussion in the comments? I would so appreciate it! 

 

 

Read More

What are you planning to do this Autumn? Here's what I want to accomplish by the end of the year:

• Finish Christmas shopping/making by the first week of December
• Find the perfect  cream of mushroom soup recipe (I think I'll start with this one, Ina never lets me down!)
• Bake a Ginger Pear Upside-down Cake
• Bake a pear tart
• Bake an apple cake
• Make lots of pickles for gifts
• Finish a quilt
• Finish current knitting projects before starting a new one
• Go on a hike
• Clean up the garden
• Plant some cold-weather vegatables (Kale, spinach, etc)
• Plant pansies and flowering kale in pot on the porch
• Make a desk for the guest room, so I can work there on my laptop instead of sitting in bed or on the couch
• Chop wood for the stove and start building fires (I need to learn how to split wood, I think that will be a good skill to develop)
• Move the mulch to the garden
• Build another planting box

I can't wait to eat this cake again! 

Read More

I am pleased to report that I have organized all my knitting. I've cleaned out the stash yarn, made plans to use most of what I have left, cleaned up my Ravelry queue, and am working away on a few things that I want to finish asap, so I can cast on some other things that are ready and waiting-yarns and patterns together in bags, hanging from the hooks in my little studio, just hoping to be cast on soon. Whew, that feels so good! 

I finished one mitt to go with my much loved shawl, and the other should be done shortly. These will be worn regularly this winter. I just love these patterns, the stripey-ness and the lacy-ness of them. 

And because I have been making progress on my Tea Leaves cardigan (button bands are done! sleeves are underway!), I just thought I'd go ahead and cast on a big, lacy shawl. It's just that the yarn, it was sitting there so prettily, I couldn't help myself.

It's Malabrigo Lace (the color is Bobby Blue), and oh my goodness, it knits up like a soft, soft cloud. Those two skeins should become a big shawl that will weigh nearly nothing. This is my first time knitting with Malabrigo, but I really think I need to try every yarn they make. I should, right?

And mostly unrelated, I just thought I would jump on the "what's in your bag?" bandwagon, and take a picture of the contents of my purse. This is one of very few places that I have complete control, and I like to keep it super tidy and organized. Doing this I realized that I really need a much cuter case for my sunglasses, and a much cuter cover for my check book. Why have I been carrying it around in the navy vinyl monstrosity that came with the checks? What is wrong with me? I'll take another picture when I remedy these things, don't you worry. 

What is the state of your bag? What all do you carry around with you? 

Read More

I'm having kind of a good time finishing some things that were started a long time ago. Here are just a few: 

A long ago thrift store find, this little display shelf was dusty, dark wood. I think it still needs one more coat of glossy paint, I just had some flat spray paint, but I love it so much more in white. It's nice to have a place to showcase some tiny treasures that I love. 

A simple appliqué quilt I started long, long ago. I finished sewing the three big flowers and their stems, so now I just need to get some batting, figure out the backing, quilt, and bind the whole thing. I love the saturated colors of these batik fabrics. I know they're maybe not so modern and hip, but I don't care. I'll probably hand quilt it with lots more of the same bright colors. 

It's nice and chilly in the evening, so I've picked up the knitting needles again! This is the Tea Leaves cardigan (Ravelry link) I started in March, and that is the bottom edge, just about ready to be cast off. Then I'll just have to do the sleeves and the button band, and I'll have a new sweater for this autumn!

There are a couple more projects in the works, and all this suits my ADD style just fine. I've also managed to hem my living room drapes, which have been hanging there un-hemmed for longer than I'd like to admit. There's also another porch project that I hope to finish this weekend that I think is going to be very cute. 

Luckily, Winston keeps me company in my little house studio as I work on all these projects. It really must be fall, his summer haircut is growing out quite nicely! 

Read More

I think Mr. Heylucy could live on a diet that alternated soups and sandwiches, with the occasional combo of both at the same meal. Luckily, I pretty much agree with him, I like soup and enjoy a good sandwich myself. I have long loved Vietnamese Banh Mi, and have an eternal inner struggle when going to my favorite Vietnamese restaurant: pho or banh mi? It's so hard to decide. Until now, banh mi were a take-out treat, but a friend sent me a link to this recipe from the traveler's lunchbox, and now I can make them at home too! I think every ingredient is important here, so don't skip anything!

I made a whole jar of daikon/carrot pickles, which are the most time-consuming part of these sandwiches, but since they can be used for other things as well, they're worth having on hand. The bread is key, and I was lucky to find that the deli inside the big Asian grocery store I frequent sold the rolls individually. Vietnamese baguettes have a definite French influence, but they use rice flour which somehow makes them lighter on the inside, and shatteringly crisp on the outside. If you can't get the real deal, try to find rolls that are soft (not too chewy), with a thin crust that will get nice and crispy in a warm oven. 

There's just something about the warm, sweet and salty, sliced pork paired with the fresh, cool vegetables that makes my mouth water. My regular restaurant banh mi also includes an egg, cooked over easy, so the warm, runny yolk adds a delicious sauce on top of all those crisp vegetables. I didn't include the egg this time, but that extra step would be worth including the next time, I think. 

 

Read More