gaysknits

i'm so close...

to finishing the asymmetrical cabled cardi i can taste it. well not really...but i am very very close.  both sleeves are joined and i am now making raglan decreases. i believe this sweater will be much shorter in length that i led myself to believe but i stuck with the pattern instructions and this is the length i will have, it's a good length for me but i must admit i dreamed of making it a longer length...more like a tunic type thing but maybe next time around.

i am ready to be done with this.  i have dreams of some spring scarves dancing in my head and i have the stash yarn to make those dreams a reality...but back to the task at hand.  i will most defiantly have enough of this yarn to finish. i wasn't concerned because i planned to order another ball or two from webs but it will not be necessary from the looks of things...i have two more balls untouched and two being used now..one was only used for the two sleeves which consisted of  maybe a half dozen rows.  a hat is plannned for the yarn that is left over and i may even wear the two of them together...at the same time...as an outfit!!!  i tried this on last night and although i am not used to making sweaters from the bottom up and i don't quite know how this is going to fit...so far i think i like it.  i have to say that i absolutely love this yarn. it is tweedy and really soft to the touch which is a surprise to me. on another subject the jerky turned out great...if you like that sort of thing or even if you don't...it turned out great.

it took a really long time...like 12 hours.  the meat i used was not optimal because it had a little more fat in it than recommended but it was on sale and you know how i like a bargain.  the meat was buy one get one free so i spent 10.00 for 20.00 worth of meat but by the time i cut out the fat i had a little over two pounds of meat so there when my bargain. you live and learn and it made the dogs happy because i  made them dog stew with the scraps and they aren't complaining...dogs love gravey!!! two pounds of meat yielded a pound of jerky...maybe more because we ate some fresh out of the dehydrator.  the only deterrent to using marbled meat is that it reduces the shelf life at room temperature but i plan to keep this refrigerated and anyway it will not be around long enough to go bad...that's a promise.  this is much better than the store bought stuff.  it is easier to chew and it tastes fresher and to me more palatable even if you don't like it so if you have a beef jerky fan in your life it's a real treat for them.  i'll make it again but i'll partially freeze the beef first to make it easier to slice thinner and more uniformly and i'll make my own seasoning because these packaged ones were too salty for me.  you have to use salt to preserve the meat so i wouldn't add more salt in the spices.  here's a link to a website i discovered with quite a bit of information about making jerky.  i'm sure there are more that i haven't discovered. this can be made in the oven too so don't be deterred if you don't have a dehydrator.  off to knit errrrr...ummmm i mean off to do my taxes first then knit.  later...love   g 

so that's how they make...

beef jerky!  i never thought too much about it mostly because i never had much interest in beef jerky.  i thought i  might like to have a dehydrator so in summer when the cherries are on my tree i could  pick them and dry them and have them throughout the year along with my herbs and apples and whatever else is growing in my yard.  the guy bought me a dehydrator a few weeks back  and during the  opening of the package i discovered a recipe for beef jerky and a packet of seasonings and salt to make it with and shortly following that discovery came a comment or what i took to be a hint that  the soninlaw's mother used to make great beef jerky.  as i said i took this to be a hint so i thought i'd try my hand at it last night.  i used beef that i bought on special buy one get one free so i got more bang for the buck.  the beef marinated over night and i started the dehydration process this morning...report to follow but know this...it will be hear say because i  have never personally tasted beef jerky and may not even taste it this time but if i do i will have nothing to compare it too.  it smells fabulous and the guy is anxiously awaiting  the finished product and the numberoneson has put dibs on a taste for himself being a huge fan of the stuff. now  let's talk what's for dinner.  remember that ham i made a few weeks back?  it was huge. it lasted forever & a day and i became a bit tired of ham but i suffered through the last ham sandwich and the last meal of ham and eggs and the guy finished it off with a little ham salad.  the rest was frozen as was the ham bone and some of it was transformed last night into black bean soup.

the bone is cooking in a pot of pea soup as we speak per the request of the numberoneson who also loves that stuff...go figure.  my mom was known for her pea soup which we ate with cheese and hunks of fresh french bread...from france...i haven't had a decent loaf of french bread since i came back to the usa but i digress.  i love pea soup too but an entire pot is way too much for me and the guy does not share my enthusiam for it so i eat a bowl or two and pass the rest on.  i make it often because i hate to waste a good ham bone and if you like it a bag of dried peas costs practically nothing so it is a cheap and really satisfying meal.  last night i had a hankering for black beans and rice so while i picked up a bag of peas i also picked up a bag of dried black beans.  i make it simply like this.  i browned some of the scraps i had on hand from trimming the beef for the jerky and made beef stock but i usually skip this step.  into the beef stock i added one half a bag of dried black beans and 5 more cups of water which i simmered  for hours adding more water as the fluid boiled off because i was not paying attention.  about an hour into the simmering i added some of the left over ham chunks and slices.  i cooked and cooked until the beans were tender and the broth was thick, the ham breaks up and becomes really tender.  i have added sausage to this in the past and i have made it strictly vegetarian and it is good all three ways.  i usually sprinkle chedder cheese on top and eat a bowl as soon as it is done...it is really yummy.

for dinner i mix it with brown rice for 'beans and rice' adding red pepper flakes to taste.  good, healthy and you cannot make a cheaper meal!  how cheap is it???  i dunno i shredded the receipt as is my habit upon returning from the store but dried beans are a great source of protein and seriously they cost pennies.  i make only a half a bag at a time because once again the guy doesn't share my enthusiasm for this and neither does the numberoneson...more for me.  feel free to garnish this with a dollop of sour cream or some chives or sliced green onion  and some shredded cheddar cheese. it is also good with nacho chips. while you're at it sprinkle a little cheese on those chips some sliced jalapenos and some tomatoes or salsa and some of those black beans from the soup and heat in the microwave for yummy apetizer style nachos which  i can make a meal out of. that's what's for dinner today.  later...love   g

exceptions have to be made...

after it was the superbowl. you can't just eat meatloaf while watching the superbowl.  you gotta have wings!  people in these parts really put together elaborate feasts and they party and by party i mean party.  this is a quasi state holiday called pittsburgh's going to the superbowl. 

 

i made ham for lunch. not because of the holiday or anything but because ham was on sale for 1.59 a pound but only if you buy the whole ham which weighed in at 13 pounds.  a 13 pound ham is close to being unmanageable but i managed to save a couple of bucks...it was 20 bucks and a half ham is 4.59 a pound so do the math...a half a ham costs more than a whole ham at these prices.  the butcher will cut the ham in half for you if you want to freeze part of it but i just cook the whole damn ham...and eat ham sandwiches for lunch and give some of it away and still have left over ham for a batch of split pea soup or your favorite bean soup or if you love baked beans home made are easy peasy and so good!  so for twenty bucks or less you get a ham dinner, lunches for a week and leftover ham for soup or whatever. if you are really lazy you can skip the mashed potatoes. all that peeling and mashing is too time consuming when there's a football game on tv that you cannot peel yourself away from. just bake a potato in the microwave and if you want to mash it go ahead and mash to your hearts content.  this is a trade secret of mine...mashed potatoes for two is a ridiculous proposition so i always mash two separate potatoes right out of the microwave. i use butter on mine...the guy uses low cholesterol spread or butter buds on his.  frozen veggies round out the nutritional value and voila ham dinner, ham sandwiches for lunch and quite a few leftover meals if you are into leftovers and i am. 

     

i splurged on the wings. for three dollars a bag on sale for superbowl sunday and a bottle of your favorite bbq sauce and blue cheese dressing....you have a great football game snack.  i used sweet baby ray's which i mix with teriyaki marinade because i love teriyaki sauce. bake the wings until they are browned and then bake them some more smothered in sauce until they are gooey and yummy. dip in blue cheese...mmm mmm these were good stuff! the sauces...well that'll break the budget as will the beer to go with them but it was the superbowl man you have to party!!! the neighborhood errupted in shouting and cheering and fireworks when pittsburgh won their 6th superbowl  and the people of pittsburgh took to the streets in celebration.  i made it as far as the front porch to take this picture!

i did manage to fix my wonky cables before the nail biting began and even though it was two steps back and only two steps forward to find myself right where i was before...this is so much better n'est pas?  i love the yarn...love the color...love the cables.  

     

maybe this will get a little more action during the next big snow storm headed our way. 

later...love   g

so you don't think it's all roses around here...

i'm here to report that everything's coming out wonky. all wonky.  first of all my back hurts and my neck is killing me. again i don't know what i did but i think falling up the stairs may have had something to do with it.  second i shopped most of the day yesterday and came up with nada...zip...zilch in the way of snow boots except the really cute mukluks that were covered in rabbit fur...ewwwww...somebody else can have those.  i'll wear my colombia's with the blow out until next season and hope for better luck on the sale rack next winter.  i searched high and low for some...dare i say this on a knitting blog...sweaters but found few worth giving a second look.  the score over the past week was a pair of skinny black jeans, a black scoop neck tee for summer, and a free people blue cotton belted jacket that is so glam...all from gabriels for about 35 dollars total...nice score.  a few of the buttons were missing from the jacket but i was elated to have found a spare in the pocket thanks to some kind soul who put it there when it fell off and an extra button sewn to the tab so yipee!  i also scored a cute long rayon knit cardi in multi shades of red white and black...or is it taupe...on the clearance rack in the juniors dept at macys for ten bucks and and black wool and rayon blend tunic sweater in the petites dept also at macy's for 35 bucks.  spending thirty five bucks on one item goes against my grain these days but it was the always wearable black and it was the tunic i was searching high and low for and it looks great with jeans...it may be too short to wear as a dress but i don't wear dresses these days anymore anyway so there you have it.  the reason for the last minute shopping spree was this...today is the kick off for no shopping february.  if you were around last year you may remember dr ruth and i share a pledge not to shop for one whole month and it has come around again.  last year was a great success and this year in combination with my ban on shoe shopping for the year this should leave all sorts of room available in my closet and in my yarn stash!  speaking of yarn  i was knitting away on my cables last night and watching a movie and it seems i forgot to cable back or was it that i forgot to cable front in any case i have some ripping out to do on my cardi...my cables are a bit wonky and one sided and as you can see are more like swirls than cables.

also in the wonky deptartment is my green sleeve gloves which btw would look cute with my new blue jacket but i switched greens and am not convinced i like it yet.  i'm going to go the distance and reserve judgement when i come to the end.  if i hate it i can choose to just not make a second.  knitting is not going well.  cooking on the other hand is going a bit better than the knitting is. 

today is the superbowl and if you live in pittsburgh you know just what this means.  it means that if you plan to go grocery shopping you better pack a lunch because you'll be in a long line for quite some time and you'll have to push your cart full of groceries a long way through many inches of slush to get to your car only to find out that people have been using the empty space next to you for a cart return and you have to move about fifty carts before you can get your truck out of it's parking space.  that explains my neck and back pain huh?  anyway on the menu for today are wings with blue cheese...my fav...and i'm damn lucky to have gotten a bag of frozen wings because the family behind me in line with three carts had about thirty bags of wings so no one else got any to be sure!  people in pittsburgh are partying today it's like a state holiday. a what's for dinner post will follow because we also have ham but for today...we have some celebrating to do...go steelers!  see you on the other side of the goal post.  later...love   g

i've long been of the opinion...

that people don't know how to shop for groceries and part of the reason that they don't is that they don't know how to cook either. i'm not being mean or judgmental but seriously with the price of food in the grocery store it's about time for some changes in the way we shop and the way we eat.  i'm not talking gourmet cooking but i am talking decent meals at a decent price.  i'm not a  big consumer of packaged foods or frozen dinners or prepared foods and like any self rightious control freak i think i have an answer to your high grocery bills. over the weekend the youngladygrandaughter  and i made a pot roast in the crock pot.  we calculated and figured it cost about $8.50 tops. the dinner fed four and the guy and i had plenty of left overs.  that's what i'm talking about.  the youngladygrandaughter likes to eat and a lot of the time we cook together...only if she's bored or starving and there's nothing on the tv...i don't want her mother to think she's a wonderful  child here and a lazy puke at home but we do cook together and i've come up with a plan.  she'll learn how to cook more things and we'll come up with some good menus along the way and it'll give me a new topic to blog about.  it's called what's for dinner. it's a feature that will show up about every two weeks. we'll have a dinner menu, break down the cost...give or take...and offer a few how to's along the way as well as some amusing stories like when i tried to grab the bowl out of the oven without a mit...ouch!  that was then this is now and last nite we had fish.

tilapia is one of my favs and you can buy a bag of individually wrapped frozen tilapia for 3.99...if you buy them on sale or at aldi's or for a little more $$ if you don't but still  this meal won't break the bank. there are four pieces of fish in a bag.  they are small but as a rule we all eat to much at a meal anyway so deal with it or make two and double the price. bake the tilapia in the oven with a spay of cooking oil (olive is my preference but canola works too) and if you don't have the spray just spread a little on top of the fish you can even spread the oil with your fingers then sprinkle bread crumbs on top add a little lemon pepper seasoning or just plain pepper and bake for a few minutes.  put a potato in the microwave and cook some frozen veggies and voila dinner is served!  tilapia  is $3.99  for four pieces, you can get frozen veggies for $1.00 a bag and a sack of potatoes can be had for $4.00 on sale or more if not on sale but buy them when they are.  my favorite potato is the golden klondike which costs a little more like $5.99 but for a meal for one...fish is a buck, veggies 15 cents a portion and a potato is  what 30 cents tops??? you have a meal for less than $2.00...see what i mean?  serve with a glass of wine or iced tea...i make my own iced tea too.  a frozen fish dinner is way more than that and this tastes better and it can't get any easier than this! for desert we had knitting!!!  later...love   g