where to begin...
GOOD: a great chunky ribbed sweater i made the girls. pattern is from rebecca (i'll post details in the knitting album) using ggh aspen - i wanted to jazz it up a bit by color blocking it and am superpleased with the result. it was a watch-the-dvr-before-you-max-out-the-memory-card kind of quick-knit, with just a little bit of shaping and ribbing that makes it fit now and expand into next year. a few more of these in the future... for the duo and most likely little man's winter wardrobe.
BAD: the costume fiasco. ugh. i basically lost 2 days work time by that other evening and then the following day's naptime and evening stitching together the most horrible of massively-voluminous-sorry-excuse-for-a-cat-costume. as you can see from the pic, the smallest size is larger than the kiddos. i suppose with more time and a whole lot of embellishment, i could have made good of a bad situation, but these are my precious little babes and they deserve better. more on the costume situation below.
ORANGE: two (yes, friends TWO) recipes for you.
Autumnal Slow Cooked Squash Stew (inspired by nigella's recipe in this book)
- 2 butternut squash AND 1 acorn squash, peeled & cut into 1" pieces
- 1/2 large spanish onion, diced
- olive oil
- 32 oz. box of good vegetable stock
- salt, pepper, bay leaf, water
- romano cheese
- add a few tbsp. of the oil to a saucepan over medium heat and saute the onion for about 5-10 minutes
- then add the squash (you may have to do this in a few different steps so you don't crowd the pan) and stir around over the heat with the onion for about 2-3 minutes and then let it slither out of the pan into the crock pot
- once the crock pot has all of your lovely squash and onion mixture, bring on the stock and add about 2 cups of water (or until the squash is covered)
- toss in a pinch of salt, pepper, a bay leaf and cover. set to low and walk away for the day.
- about an hour before dinner, add 1/2 cup of grated romano to the mix, give it a stir. then you can either use an immersion blender OR remove 1/2 the stew to the belnder to whizz up. (BE CARFEUL!) you want some of the stew still swimming chunkily amongst the satiny emulsion.
- decide ahead of time what you're having with it. i'll be adding some cooked ditalini to the soup at the last minute and serving the steamy bowls with oven-fried chicken in panko and a crunchy salad. but you may want to savor the stew all on its own for the orangey fabulousness that it is. be sure to sprinkle more romano over top the soup as you eat it to add a bit of salty tang to the party. enjoy!
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread ** the recipe is here at Cooking Light (yep, cooking light baybee!)
ok, so back to the costumes. if you are still reading this post, you know me well enough to know that i am:
- devoted to my babes,
- inspired to create as much as i can by hand,
- stubborn as all get out,
- willing to admit defeat when the jig is up.
and that's where we were yesterday morning. went to target... nothing left but dora and thomas and i just couldn't do that this year. onto babies-r-us... nothing in their size, which is awesome in that they've gotten so big, but frustrating when it's t-5 days to halloween and counting. and finally kohls where i never seem to find anything... same as target only less of a selection. uh oh. then it hit me.
me: "girls? what do you want to be for halloween? who's your favorite?"
duo: "_ _ _ _ _ _!" "_ _ _ _ _!"
me thinking: ok. i can do this. necessity is the mother of invention. think freeform. think caricature.
back to fabric shop. $20 more on polarfleece. one naptime sketching & stitching and we're almost done. they tried them on last night when dh got home and giggled calling each other by "name" until a teary bedtime when they had to switch to PJs - so i think we have a few winners. i have to go add bulk to the big blue one (i think i'll use the old cat costume for padding) and then work on the head piece for the green, but things are looking much brighter now.
disclaimer: yes, they are not even 2 years old and their language skills are age appropriate. so they most likely do not fully understand what the heck i was talking about. but what's cool is they actually know what and who they are for halloween and are gonna love it. and isn't that what it's all about?
