A Request

I have a small request this morning. My brother-in-law, Bill, is having some fairly extensive open heart surgery tomorrow at Cleveland Clinic. He's having his mitral valve replaced, his tricuspid valve repaired, and two cardiac arteries are being bypassed. He has been there since Monday and will hopefully be in the hospital for about a week. 

That's Bill on the far left next to John's sister with John and I when we hiked at Watkin's Glen last summer. Bill is a smart, funny, well-read, interesting guy, so if you've got a few moments tomorrow, maybe you could send some good juju, a prayer, good wishes, healing thoughts, or whatever fits into your belief system. 

I've been thinking about Bill for much of the fall. He had first visited several cardiologists closer to home in PA, and later on ended up at Cleveland Clinic for three days of testing. Thankfully the cardiologists there felt that this was something they could do, and after some fraught waiting and rescheduling (his surgery was originally scheduled for December 16th), tomorrow is finally the day. I wish Bill only the best and it may help me to relax just a bit knowing that there are others out there wishing him well also. 

 

It's my hope that Bill will feel well enough by the spring to return to one of his pet projects. He and John have been working on getting Bill's father's 1964 TR4 running again. We are all anxious to take a ride with Bill behind the wheel.

Thank you for your good wishes!

The Best Lunch Ever

Even though it's winter and the garden at Ryan's is dormant until spring, we still go up to visit him once every week or two. We used to go out to a diner for breakfast or lunch, but Ryan likes to cook, and he often says that he knows he could make something better at home. He was not wrong, and has perfected omelets, grilled cheese, tuna melts, sausage corn chowder, and supper on a bread slice. He has started watching American Masters: At Home With Jacques Pepin on youtube. This a series that PBS ran during the pandemic where the renowned chef cooked many of his favorite dishes at home in his kitchen. Despite being a famous French chef, Pepin makes some simple dishes and prepares omelets, scrambled eggs along with other variations, pancakes, and crepes. 

Ryan watched Onion Soup Gratinée and decided that since onion soup is one of his favorite things, this was something that he should make. He made it once for himself, decided it was delicious, and he would make it for us when we visited on Friday. His house smelled wonderful when we get there because he was caramelizing the onions. He added them to stock and toasted bread to add to the soup crocks. Following Jacques' recommendations, Ryan added toasted bread to the bottom of the crock, placed some grated cheese on top of the bread, ladled the soup in, added another piece of toasted bread and cheese to the top of the crock, and then baked it for 30 minutes or so. 

It was truly the best lunch I've had in a long, long time. Ryan has six crocks and said we could each have two. I couldn't imagine eating more than one, but the first one was so good that I was glad for a second serving. I've made run-of-the-mill onion soup with bread and grated cheese on top, but this versions has deeply caramelized and flavorful onions and the two slices of bread both rehydrate in the soup and mix with the melted cheese to become a delicious, thick soup that has bread, cheese, and onions in every spoonful. Ryan used cheddar, gouda, and gruyere cheeses but you could use almost any cheese you prefer. I love how Jacques Pepin makes cooking approachable and I love how Ryan used that to make us the best lunch ever!

The Weekly Loaf

Earlier this week I posted about the pullman pan I had redicovered in my kitchen cupboard, and wondered how cinnamon swirl bread would work. This is how:

Paul Hollywood might have some less than flattering things to say about this loaf, but I don't think he's stopping by. I rolled the dough tightly and got a good swirl, but there are still a few gaps between the cinnamon-sugar and the dough. But you know what might help fill those gaps nicely? Raisins! I didn't have any when I baked this bread, but I'll make sure there are some in the pantry before I bake next week. 

 

 

In the meantime I'm starting my morning wonderfully with a couple of pieces of toasted cinnamon swirl bread and a steaming mug of chai. Life is pretty good when you've baked bread!

Unraveled Wednesday: 1/8/25

I'm joining Kat and the Unravelers today with an FO and a UFO. I did finish John's Westerly Hat and he wore it so I can probably call that a knitting success. I could have saved myself some knitting and done at least two fewer pattern repeats before the crown decreases, but I'm not taking it apart to unravel some of the extra length and reknit the crown. There were no complaints from the recipient, so it must be okay.

I cast on for a cowl with the same cable pattern as the hat, but it took me four times before I was happy with it. I wanted to start with 2x2 ribbing, so I mistakenly thought that just meant my number of stitches needed to be divisible by two. There are 13 stitches in the cable pattern, so I cast on 130 and started knitting, but discovered my mistake when I ended up with two extra stitches. I ripped it out and started again, but made several different mistakes and I wasn't happy with the transition between the ribbing and the beginning of the cable pattern. I did some simple math and finally cast on 144 stitches, doing 10 rows of ribbing, then an increase row to 156 stitches, followed by the start of the cable pattern. That's working and I have incentive to keep knitting. Our overnight lows are in the teens and it's cold. We had to take Justin and Jess to the airport this morning at 4:00 am and I was wishing I had a nice warm cowl around my neck. But I'm kitty-sitting Nugget for the week and picking Jess and Justin up after midnight next week, so there will be plenty of opportunities to work on and hopefully wear this cowl in the near future. 

We have a couple of inches of snow on the ground and I thought it might make a nice background for a picture of the cowl. But the temperature was 23 degrees and the winds were howling at 30-40 mph when I took the picture Tuesday afternoon, so the background is the fleece afghan I snuggled under while knitting some more on the cowl. Outdoor photos will resume when it's not so darn cold outdoors!

 

I finished Ted Kooser's Winter Morning Walks this week. It is is a near-perfect collection of poems that Ted Kooser wrote on postcards and sent to his friend and fellow poet, the late Jim Harrison. Because he was undergoing treatment for cancer in 1998 and needed to avoid sunlight due to skin sensitivity, Kooser took walks in the early morning and composed these observational, reflective, and meditative poems. They have made wonderfully calm reading during this winter season, and it's a book I'll keep nearby to reread. These are poems full of gratitude, humility and hope. This year I also hope to read Braided Creek: A Conversation in Poetry: Expanded Anniversary Edition, Kooser's and Harrison's conversations in haiku. 

What are you making and reading this week?

Read With Us: Intermezzo Discussion

Today is the discussion day for our Read With Us fall selection, Intermezzo, by Sally Rooney. Kym, Carole, and I are each posting a discussion question or two on our blogs today, and you are welcome to respond in the comments. I would also encourage you to reply to others' comments if you choose.  This is a book discussion, after all, so there are no correct answers or right opinions. I've been looking forward to discussing this book ever since I finished it, and I don't know of a better bunch of people for a book discussion than all of you.

 

 

So here is my question: The relationships between Peter, Naomi, and Sylvia, and perhaps more notably due to their genders, Ivan and Margaret, feature a decade plus age gap. How do you think gender and the differences in age account for the Peter and Ivan's unacknowledged grief and how the characters relate to each other?

 

(Just as a reminder, socially awkward Ivan is 22 and involved with 36 year-old Margaret. Peter is 32 and involved with 22 year-old college student Naomi and former girlfriend Sylvia who is 32 and suffers from chronic pain.)

 

I'll be glad to share my thoughts about these questions tonight during our Zoom discussion. These questions on our blogs and the Zoom discussion are your chance to express your ideas. So what do you think? I can't wait to hear your thoughts! (And I'm counting on our discussion to give me fresh perspectives in my own thinking about this novel.)

The in-person Zoom discussion will be at 7:00 pm Eastern this evening. If you haven't RSVP'd to Kym already you can send me an email (the email address is in the upper right) and I will make sure you get an invitation with the Zoom link. I hope to see you there!

 

Look What I Found!

And look what I made with it!

I usually go to the grocery store once a week, but it's a chore I really dislike. With several freezers full of vegetables and venison, I honestly don't need much besides bread, milk, eggs, and a few other miscellaneous items. I had put off shopping for several days when it was raining, but when I had finally decided to go, all I really needed on my list was bread. I decided that I would much rather bake bread than shop for it, so I looked through all of my kitchen cupboards for something that I hoped was still there and that I hadn't gotten rid of in some ill-advised cleaning out.

And look what I found - my pullman pan! It's a lidded loaf pan that minimizes crust and makes it possible to bake nice square sandwich bread or pain de mie (if you're fancy but I'm not). I had lusted after this pan for several years and finally broke down and bought it probably 15 years ago or so. I baked with it quite a bit, but after the kids moved out, I barely used it at all. But I was glad to find it and bake a stellar loaf of sandwich bread. That was much more satisfying than going to the grocery store. 

 

 

 Justin and John's brother were here over the weekend to do "men things" with John so I used  up quite a bit of the loaf to make grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. It also makes great toast.  I think it would make delicious french toast and I'd like to make cinnamon raisin swirl bread with the it so I won't have that gap between the filling and the bread that you sometimes get in swirl breads. 

My pan came from King Arthur Flour and I originally purchased the 13" one. They also make a 9" one that might be better suited to our two-person household. I'm going to think about it for a while, but that 9" pan might be my Christmas/New Year/just because present to myself. 

Unraveled Wednesday: 1/1/25

I had hoped to join Kat and the Unravelers today with a completed Westerly hat for the first Unraveled post of 2025, but instead I've got a hat with just nine more rows of crown decreases before it's finished. That's okay with me; it should be ready for John to wear in a couple of days when our temperatures will barely reach freezing.  

I really love these cables and I had an idea to keep knitting them even after the hat is finished. I'll cast on more stitches than I did for the hat (130 or so?), knit a few rows of ribbing, commence with the cables again, then finish with a few more rows of ribbing. This should (hopefully) produce a nice warm cowl for me. I feel like I can do the cables in my sleep now and this might be a good way to practice cabling without a needle. I'll be tossing the stash for some yarn that says it wants to be a cowl and be casting on soon.

I also want to review what I've knit last year. I knew I didn't knit much, but thank goodness for Ravelry because I sure can't rely on my memory. 

 

I only knit eight things, but I did make things that I really like or were for other people. I think the one I'm most proud of is My Hydrophily (rav link). It's a wonderful pattern from Sarah and after looking at it here, I really need to wear it more often. It deserves to be seen!

 

I just wrote about books yesterday so I won't bore you with more, especially because I'm reading the same book. I am approaching the end of Ted Kooser's Winter Morning Walks but I don't want it to end. I'll be keeping this book nearby so I can reread it again throughout the winter. I'd love to hear about your making and reading. Here's to a happy and healthy 2025 for all of us!