De-Violet-izing

It's been 24 hours since our great-niece, Violet, went back home after a two-day visit with us, and I've been adjusting to what feels like an empty house.

Although Violet and I are 60 years different in ages (She turned 7 at the end of October; I turned 67 at the beginning of November), we don't let our slight age difference stop us from having fun.

This visit with her Uncle Ken and Aunt Jean included....

Making cinnamon ornaments. (Mix equal parts ground cinnamon and plain apple sauce, throw in some Elmer's glue for good measure, roll them out, apply cookie cutters, bake at 170° for 30 minutes, then finish air-drying over night. Oh, and don't forget to use a straw to place a hole in each ornament, for hanging, before letting them dry.)

Reprising our crystal-making experiment. We first made crystals (hot water, Borax, pipe cleaners) and decided then that we'd try for colored crystals when she next visited.

Violet opted for adding red food coloring to one jar, red and blue to the second one, and just blue to the third.

Patting Molly as frequently as possible. Violet loves dogs.

Adding ribbon ties to the now-dry cinnamon ornaments.

Reading. Violet loves to read; the "Good Dog," I believe it is, series is her current favorite after just completing the "Bad Kitty" series.

Declaring our colored crystal experiment a success, although the lavender one was a tad lacking in vivacity.

And helping me decorate three of our four small Christmas trees. The kitchen tree received the honor of being bedecked with my portion of the new cinnamon ornaments.

This might not sound like the two of us "girls" did all that much in 48 hours, but add to this list the following:

-We attended a local, huge crafts fair, where Violet couldn't resist buying a new dress for her doll, Haley.

-Violet started her first cross-stitch project. She made fine progress on it and took it home to finish.

-We "did lunch" together at McDonald's.

-And we browsed in several stores at the mall just before we rendezvoused with her dad so she could return home.

Violet carried home with her a shoe box containing her new crystals and her cinnamon ornament, and I...

I staggered home and collapsed on the sofa for two hours!

What little I've been up to lately

The other morning I noticed one of our neighbor's horses was out of its fenced-in area behind their house and enjoying a good munch on their front lawn.

I started to go out to Ken's workshop to tell him we'd better try to get the horse back into its pen, since its owners were away at work.

Then I noticed little Oreo was on duty, so I knew all would be well. Oreo is the neighbor's tiny dog who packs a wallop. He puts up with absolutely no funny business from the three horses on the property. Need someone to round up a stray horse and get it back into its corral? Oreo's the man dog for the job. You can just make out Oreo's four legs beneath the horse's head. He's telling the horse to get back where it belongs, which it did, promptly.

I made another loaf of Crusty Bread last week. This time I let it proof for about twenty hours, which worked out fine. I decided at the last minute to add grated cheddar cheese and minced garlic. Delish, but I could have added a whole lot more of each for even better flavor.

I decided to make some Thermis cowls for Christmas gifts. I stumbled upon this pattern on Ravelry and loved it. So the cowls are done, blocked, and waiting to be gift wrapped.

I was watching an outdoor concert on the Today Show a few days ago and was surprised to see just how  popular cowls are right now.

 On Saturday I drove to a nearby church to drop off 14 Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes packed with gifts. Only one of the shoe boxes was packed by me; the others were packed by the other members of our Alpha Delta Kappa chapter. I won't be surprised if this year's Operation Christmas Child boxes go to some extremely deserving youngsters along the New York-New Jersey coast.

This little hat is being modeled by "Douglas" but is actually for   two friends' first child, due December 31. I made the newborn size, thinking it might be just the ticket for a tiny head in January and February.

The pattern is the Aviatrix hat, also found on Ravelry, and it's a free pattern.

(If you haven't discovered the gold mine known by knitters as "Ravelry," you really must check it out.)

Douglas was rather blasé about modeling the hat, as you probably noticed.

Another baby bunny, the one on the far left, has joined the menagerie. This one, with his "nappy" and blanket, will be another gift for the soon-to-be-born baby mentioned above.

And finally, a friend in Kentucky mentioned a couple of days ago that she had just bought an American Girl doll for her grand daughter for Christmas. (She also mentioned that the doll cost more than her wedding gown back in 1972!)

That got me to thinking that there might be knitting patterns available for AG dolls. Soon I was scouring Ravelry and found several. This is a vest which I'll send to my friend to include with the doll. It's actually a much brighter blue than it appears here. Also, I've blocked it since taking the photo of it, so it looks much less lumpy and distorted. (My actual goal was to knit a sweater for the doll, but I ran out of yarn, so a vest it is. I think I'll also make a cardigan, though. It's a fun, quick knit which a little girl will no doubt appreciate.)

So that's what I've been up to. Now I'm busily worrying about Thanksgiving dinner. It's my year to be the hostess. The turkey is purchased, the yeast rolls are made, and so is one olive-cheese ball appetizer. It's being able to orchestrate everything in its proper order on Thanksgiving Day that causes my worry. I find Thanksgiving dinner much more nervewracking than Christmas dinner, for some reason. The guests are pitching in and bringing various dishes, though, so I'm sure the meal will be a success.

Happy Thanksgiving to you!

Bread to die for

We received our first snowfall of the season one day last week, so that made for a good day of staying indoors and baking.

One recipe I decided to try for the first time was Crusty Bread from Simply So Good.

I don't remember how I learned about this recipe, but it probably was recommended on someone's website, so I bookmarked it for a time when I could give it a try.

It's an usual recipe compared with my other bread recipes. It requires no kneading, which isn't terribly unusual, but once the dough is mixed together, it needs to sit for 12-24 hours at room temperature in order to "proof."

Then, when it's ready for the oven, it is placed in a preheated cast-iron Dutch oven or casserole, or anything that can stand a heat setting of 450° and has a tight-fitting cover.

It's baked for 30 minutes with the cover on, then 15 more minutes with the cover off.


Oh. My. Word.

This bread is super-delicious. As evidence of that, compare the two photos of the loaf on the left, before and after dinner that evening.

I have a small confession, though. Since I  mixed up the dough around 10:00 a.m., and since the dough kept rising to giddy heights and trying to escape the bowl entirely, and since I'd stirred it down to get it under control at least three times and I wasn't sure it was even supposed to be stirred once, and since I didn't want to be baking bread somewhere between 10:00 p.m. and 10:00 a.m. the next day, I baked it after only six or seven hours of proofing. The dough didn't seem to mind at all; it was really, really, really tasty.

Next time I'll plan ahead a little better and mix up the dough around 6:00 a.m., just to see if it's even better if it's proofed longer.

But I honestly don't know how it could be.