A few pictures around the house

Today Hubband had a fit of needing to take pictures. BTW, he wants it to be made clear that "fit" is my word, and nothing to do with him. Anyway, I was weaving away and he was upstairs in his office working. The next thing I knew he was setting up the camera in front of the loom and taking pictures of me. So I decided to share one of them with you.
The other day Miss Sadie Rose was hanging out on the deck in the sunshine, one of her almost most favorite things to do. She would be hard pressed to pick between hanging out there or inside next to me. She would really rather I was out there with her all the time. We were lucky enough to get her picture before she saw us; otherwise she would have been rolling over to let us know she has a belly in need of scratching. She never has a hard time picking between having her belly scratched or something else. Belly scratches always come first.



We were also lucky enough to catch Mr. Simon coming down the stairs and getting him to stop and hold still, not something he is really big on doing. If he keeps going, he would be where your hand is and of course you would then have to scratch him.


You did all know that people were put here to cater to Bassets, didn't you?

(You almost got a bunch more cute dog pictures, but I decided to spare you.)

A smattering of dish cloths

Anne, over at The Bag Lady and the Pro, is having a Dishcloth Contest. I am running late on letting you know about it (but I figure most of you that might want to know that read my blog probably already do know!), but I have had the dishcloth done for a few days. I just haven't posted the picture until now.



I used Bamboo circulars in a size seven. The pattern calls for a size six, so that might account for why mine seems to be a bit bigger than the "expected" results. But hey, isn't a dish cloth really just a good-looking usable gauge swatch? I knit in the "English" style. I will toss the nominee "Leaving Kansas" into the "Name the Pattern" hat.

I have also made this funky dish cloth from the Monthly Dish Cloth KAL. "Funky" because it is so different from most anything I ever make, but it was kind of fun to watch it turn into an apron. I will say, "Yes, I know there are strings hanging off of it. It isn't done yet." I am supposed to crochet around the "neck" and add crocheted ties on the shoulders. Do you all remember that I don't know how to crochet? Thus, why it isn't done. I don;t even know if I am supposed to cut the strings off, so I am waiting until I go to one of my knitting groups this week and see if someone can help me. Hmm, I guess that means I am going to have to find a crochet hook and remember to take it with me.



I have made another dishcloth this week that is for my spoilee in the FIADS. This is the first view.

This is the second view. I finally did a piece of shadow knitting! I think it is pretty cool!
I actually made another dish cloth this past week, but just realized I forgot to take a picture of it. I'll work on that tomorrow when it is daylight and I am not falling asleep.

More Wizard Tales

I mentioned the other day that it turns out my uncle was a teenage wizard. Today he has posted about trying to teach an owl to fly. It is a very entertaining account as why this is NOT the best idea.
Just in case any of you wanted to know about such a thing

Ginger Scones (among others)

I have had several folks ask me to post my recipe for Ginger Scones, so here goes. Well, maybe I will give my basic scone recipe and a couple of favorite variations, including the ginger ones. Hope that is OK with those of you that have requested this!

Basic Scones
2 cups flour
2 TBS sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter, cut into pieces
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 large egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Grease cookie sheet or line with parchment paper.
Combine flour, sugar, BP, soda, and salt in large bowl (or bowl of food processor if desired). Cut in butter until it resembles coarse crumbs. (if using food processor, transfer to a large bowl.) Mix together buttermilk, and egg, then pour into dry ingredients and stir gently until mixture comes together. On a lightly floured surface knead gently five or six times. With floured hands, transfer to cookie sheet and pat into eight-inch circle. Cut into eight wedges with a sharp knife. Separate slightly. Bake 14 to 16 minutes,or until golden. Transfer to wire rack.
You could also pat these out gently on the floured surface and cut there, then transfer gently to prepared sheet.
Variations: All added ingredients get mixed into flour/butter mixture after the butter is cut in and before the milk/egg is added unless otherwise noted.

Drop Scones: Do not knead. Drop by quarter-cupfuls onto prepared cookie sheet. Makes ten.

Cheddar-Bacon-Chive: Reduce sugar to 1 TBS and add 1/2 tsp pepper. Stir in the following ingredients: 1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese, 1 TBS chopped fresh chives, and 3 strips cooked, crumbled bacon.

Corn-Green Chile: Reduce flour to 1 3/4 cups, add 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal and a pinch of red pepper. After cutting in butter, add 1/2 cup frozen corn kernels (thawed) and one 4 oz can chopped green chilies, undrained.

Rich Tea: Increase sugar to 1/3 to 1/2 cup (as per your taste), increase butter to 1/2 cup and substitute 2/3 cup half and half for buttermilk. Bake for 12 min. (You could use whole milk.)


Ginger: Use rich tea version with these added changes. Substitute 1/2 cup dark brown sugar for regular sugar, add 1/2 to 1 tsp dry ginger to dry ingredients. Mix in 1/2 cup diced crystallized/candied ginger tossed with small amount of powdered sugar to flour/butter crumbs. Add 1/4 to 1/2 tsp fresh grated ginger to egg/1/2 & 1/2 mixture. Before baking scones brush tops with melted butter and sprinkle with brown sugar.

I have made the Cook's Illustrated Blueberry Scones using the changes of substituting brown sugar, adding powdered and fresh ginger, and using diced candied ginger for the blueberries. I probably used at least a cup and maybe more.
The amount of ginger used is really to the taste of the baker, so I tend to use a fair amount!

Wow! My Uncle was a wizard long before Harry!

He had an owl to deliver rabbit-package mail to him. How cool would that be!
Just so you all don't have to click through the comments, I'll just post it here.

Jayhawk said...

Oscar was a Great Horned Owl and, yes, my best friend Dale and I did carry him around in a bucket, but only until he developed feathers and learned how to fly. After that he rode on a leather sleeve on our wrists. As I recall he stood about two feet high and weighed about three pounds once he was grown.

We found him in the wild, all down and fallen from a nest which we could not locate. So we took him home and raised him. He hung out on the woodpile and bringing in wood became my job since he would attack anyone who approached other than Dale or me.

His favorite trick was to grab the caps off of our heads in full flight, which always came as a surprise since he approached from behind and we never heard him coming.

I had him for something over three years and he went rabbit hunting with us. The 22 rifle didn't bother him, and he caught more rabbits than we shot.

Since we had taught him to be a daytime creature he could not survive in the wild so when we left for Navy and college we donated him to the local zoo. He was, to my knowledge, doing fine about ten years later.



(Me again) I bet it would keep the squirrel population down too. This isn't a picture of Jayhawk's owl, just one I found so you all could see what a Great Horned Owl looks like.

Odds and Ends of Stuff

Well, for starters, I am so glad I made a fair number of you smile at my humor. Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed my question and for letting me know that I have readers out there!

I heard a story from my Grandmother a couple of years ago about a pet that someone near and dear to me once had. She told me that this said relative had a pet owl that he carried around in a tin bucket. Now I have to take this story with a grain of salt as she was given to flights of fancy, even more often as she got on in years (or maybe flights of dementia, depending on who you ask). Anyway, I sometimes wonder if this story is true, and if so, what kind of owl was it? What was its name? And how in the heck did you convince it that a tin bucket was what it should hang out and be carried about in?

The other night Hubband and I watched Stranger Than Fiction at the recommend of DTE. I loved the "I brought you flours" scene. It was very sweet and thoughtful of him to put such thought into a gift for Ana. I could totally relate to a present like that filling my cupboard. Plus it would be used.

Last item for odds and ends of the day is my answer to the "Topic of the Week" for FIADS.

Autumn has now officially begun here in the States!! What is your favorite thing about Autumn/Fall? Why?
The cool nights without the humidity, because I can finally sleep with the windows open.
The angle of the sunlight coming in the windows that the animals search out all day long.
The crunch and smell of the leaves as I walk through them.
The honking of the geese overhead.
Fall produce.
The changing colors. The colors are different here than in other regions of the country where I have lived, but I have always lived somewhere that gets definite seasons. I wouldn't want it any other way. (For those of you out there who are now saying, "What about the time you lived in Texas?" I will say that Texas was a rest stop in the road, but we never really lived there.)
What is there not to love about Autumn in the northern part of the US?

A question

When the world's most famous mime artist dies, should we honor him with a few moments of loud noise?

(OK, I have a really weird sense of humor, in case you hadn't noticed by now.)

Oops

It was brought to my attention today (by DTE) that somehow the setting had changed and was not allowing anonymous comments. I am really sorry about that. It should be fixed now!

SHINY!!!

Yesterday I stopped into Best Buy, a place I haven't been into in ages. I was just going to poke around a bit and then head home. I had no plans or need to buy anything, "Just looking, thank you."

Then I happened upon this, and I fell down. Hard.

Apparently in came out while I was gone to Portland, and somehow I had missed that it even existed. I am not sure how the daughters let that happen. The new Collector’s Edition has a bunch of new stuff that I am looking forward to watching. No, I didn't watch it right away. The pre-amp for our stereo system is in the shop and has another week or two before it is fixed (if it can be). So if I watch it, it will be through the PS2 without the great sound system. I might make the sacrifice.

It is a very cool box too. I hope I don't have to hide it when the girl-children come home.

Can you see it now?

I have no explanation as to why the rest of you saw no deer picture. I had one in my "preview" option, I had one in my "posted" option, I even had one when I logged onto a different computer (that I don't think can talk to my computer right now). So, "I got nothing." Except I am redoing this and hoping that you get to see them now (but the network support is obviously lacking earlier).
Update: I have fixed the previous post so you should be able to see it there too, but am leaving both up for the network support. Oh, and I just realized they are two different pictures.