Shrimp scampi-Christmas eve

Well it is the day after Christmas.  We try to do a little reincarnation of my mother's Christmas Eve party.  It was a little quiet this year without Josh, my oldest son.We also did our New Year Resolutions  on Christmas since my daughter will not be here on New Years.  Its sort of become a tradition.  each person comes up with one or 2 resolutions and the family comes up with another couple of resolutions for that person.  I write them down in a book I keep.  So its always fun to read past resolutions and if we were able to keep any.  Its caused some great family discussions.Another tradition is Book Night during Hanukkah . When they were little I started the idea of Book Night.  On that night the only gifts given out are books.When the kids were little they complained about it but now they ask "what night is book night?' It is my favorite night of Hanukkah. Of course some of the "books" were magazines or comic books.  Speaking of books I finally finished "The Marriage Plot " by Jeffrey Eugenides.  It was a pretty good book but as usual I am not sure about the ending.  A lot of times it seems authors don' know how to end their books.  I started another book called "tidings" by William Wharton.  I first read it about 20 years ago.  It is about a family who come together in France at Christmas time.  Their house in France sounded so romantic it is in a stone mill in what sounds like a beautiful spot.  The kids are all adults and they each have a chapter or 2 in the book so you get many different points of view.  It seems everyone has a secret .  The main character is the father.  When I first read it I liked it and I didn't.  My children were young at the time-in fact I think I only had one child.  Since it had a Chrismas theme I thought it could be nice to read it now.  It is out of print but I found it through Powell Books for a couple of dollars so I ordered it.  I had hoped I would be finished with it now.  Anyway tonight is book night so I can't wait to see what I got.  I did get a Kindle Fire for a gift.  I hate the thing.  I had a regular Kindle that I really liked and I used it a lot when traveling but this thing ! I don't like the touch screen,the on and off switch is along the bottom so it is really easy to turn it on and off by accident.  My family says I need to get used to it but I don't think so. I also been doing some knitting on the Trail Jacket by Hannah Fettig of Knitspot.  This is done in the Quince and Company Osprey yarn.  Since it is knit on size 10 needles it is going fast.  It is knit from the top down .  On a final note -today there is a big article in the New York Times about Aspergers/Autism very interesting.  And oh yeah we saw "The Girl With Dragon Tattoo" yesterday.  I had seen the original in Swedish and read the book.  The movie was't bad but I as so done with that series.I am going to add some pictures but no links because I am too lazy.  Bye
Trail Jacket

 
Christmas Mantel Decorations

holiday lights and baking

It is cold and rainy today. No it really is.  The temperature is only in the 40's and it has been raining on and off all day.  It puts you in a holiday mood.  I put some lights and my little sweater ornaments on these branches I have in the house.It looks better than this but you get the idea.

WE went to the farmers market in downtown Phoenix on Saturday.  They had fresh dates which my husband loves but can only eat so many so what do you do with the rest?  Well in Maine (where else?) I get these delicious date bars from Borialis Breads.  I went on line and got a recipe for date bars from Pillsbury.  They came out FANTASTIC.I froze some and they froze beautifully.    I also made those peanut butter cookies with a Hershey Kiss put the center.  These were requested from my youngest son.  The recipe makes so many.  I threw some of the batter away.  I could have made another 2 dozen.
My husband was working this weekend and because of the weather I got a lot of knitting done.  I made a hat for one of my son's teachers.  I got a lot of work done on a scarf /shawl I started from Malabrago Book 3.  I bought the yarn and book this summer from Knit Happens but never did anything with it.  I also started the Trail Jacket a pattern by Hannah Fettig of Knitbot in Quince and company Osprey yarn which I taled about in another post.  I will take pictures   this week.  It is too dark out now to get decent pictures.  Reading wise I continue with "The Marriage Plot" by Jeffrey Eugenides.  I really like it .
Tonight is the season finale of "homeland" a good show on Showtime also a repeat of Downturn Abbey on PBS-great shows to knit by.  A new season of "Downturn Abbey" is starting in January.  Will show my knitting photos later this week.  Hope everyone has a good week. Peace

food,knitting update,books

This picture does not do this recipe justice. It is called 40 gloves of garlic chicken.  It is a family favorite and easy to make,and real comfort food.  It is worth buying a clay pot just for this dish.  First you need to put 40 gloves of garlic in the bottom of a clay pot.Sometimes I cheat and put some pre peeled garlic.  Put a few tablespoons of olive oil,lemon juice,herbs-basil thyme whatever you have hanging around the house and salt and pepper on top of the garlic. Put chicken on top of this.  Put olive oil-a couple of tablespoon and some pepper and herbs on the chicken as well.Put the chicken in a cold oven.  Turn oven on to about 425 and let cook for about an hour and a half.  Take out and check for nice brown color.  If chicken is not krispy and brown baste ,take off clay pot cover and cook for another 20 minutes--till brown and skin is krispy.  let sit for 20 minutes carve chicken and serve with garlicky juices.  Be sure to have plenty of french bread to sop up the juices.  My husband does a variation of this where he adds root vegetables to the pot along with the chicken.  I think my way is better.

Another comfort food dish I made this week was Swedish Meatballs. This recipe is taken from "More 60 minute Gourmet" from The New York Times by Pierre Franey.  I have been making this since the 1980's.It is served over brown rice in the picture but I have done it with mashed potatoes or noodles.  I now add spinach and peas to the recipe and have cut the cream from a cup to a quarter of a cup.maybe you can find this recipe on line or in the NYTimes archives because I think the book is out print.
Book wise I have gone back to reading "The Marriage Plot" by Jeffrey Eugenides.  I really like this book a lot.Right now the main characters are living in Providence, Rhode Island so I really lie the New England references. The weather in Arizona has changed a little.  It is cool during the day(60's) and cold at night -only in 40's.  I is supposed to rain this week and be even colder.      Yeah we love cold and rain!! You can wear a scarf and sweater!!
the other morning when I was taking the dog out around 5;30 I saw the eclipse of the moon.  It was beautiful.

Now to my knitting.  First I finished 2 sweaters I have shown before.This is the Abigail Cardigan .  Yarn and pattern is by Quince and Company.  I love the pattern -knit from the top down and the yarn -a blend of wool and silk.  It feels so cozy.

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This is the Miley Tee from C2 knits.  This is a great pattern.  I am definitely going to make another one.  Maybe in Rowan Kid Silk Haze.  The pattern is easy and fun to do.  Again knit from the top down so there is very little finishing.  Plus it looks really cute on.  You can layer it too. Christmas and Hanukkah are coming up.  My oldest son will be staying in Washington over the holidays since he has other commitments this year.  We will really miss him.  This is is the first time this has happened.I will be doing a little baking and decorating this week.  One thing I accomplished this week was sending out my presents to  my family on the East Coast.  Once that box goes out I feel the pressure lift. Last but not least I made a miniature stocking yesterday it came out really cute. This was made from leftover sock yarn and I had to use size 1 needles which was a pain but I really like the results.  The pattern was a free download from Classic EliteYarns.  Well again I timed how  long and it took me to do this post one hour and 10 minutes Yikes!!! This is probably going to a busy week for everyone but then we have 17 wonderful days off.  Hopefullly to spend with family doing baking, reading,knitting and seeing some movies.peace to all.

giftsand reading

will show finished sweater later this week

I wanted to do another post because my favorite blogs do frequent posting and pictures.  I have been doing a lot knitting on the Abigail Sweater from Quine and Co.  It is finished but I need to wash and block it.  Hope to do that later this week.  I wanted to give another shout out to Purl Diva a yarn store in Brunswick Maine.  The owner is Ellen and she has a great blog.  Around the holidays she does frequent links to free patterns for quick holiday gifts.  She had a pattern for a Kindle cover I downloaded that I may make. Check out her blog.
    Now for my reading.  I finished Diane Keaton's book "then again".  This a memoir about her life and feelings combined with journals from her mother.  Reading her  mother's journals caused Diane to exam her own life.  Parts of this book were boring and some were very moving.she does not gossip about the men in her life but all are mentioned.  One part that really got me was when she was talking about her kids growing up and she says something like "when did we stop reading Stellaluna?; 'and I know just what she means.  My daughter always liked to hold my hand when walking into school and then all of a sudden it seemed that stopped and I remember thinking when did that end?, or when their skin changed from the baby softness to grown up and maybe needing to shave.  I started a easy light mystery novel "Murder on the Rocks "by Karen MacInerey.  It takes place where else? Maine at a inn.  There is a murder along with delicious sounding sounding recipes.  I just needed some mindless reading now.
Last but not least I want to mention a blog my daughter writes for ASU .  It is the craft blog for the student on-line paper.  Check it out at Piece of Craft blog for state press magazine.
Peace