Busy Halloween

I knit half of a sock yesterday while driving to the coast and back, which is nearly four hours of driving altogether. The pattern is called Calendula. I saw it on Misandventures in Knitting, and decided that for once I would actually complete one of her projects instead of just ogling it. I'm on the heel right now and having a little trouble because the directions have some German terms, but I'll get it!I used to have a New Yorker cartoon on my fridge that had a woman and her husband talking to friends. The woman says, "...And we raise our own children." It was probably really making fun of people like me, but I loved it and felt like Russ and I could say that too. We could count the number of nights either one of us have spent away from our kids, not counting the innumerable nights they've spent the night at friends' houses. My point is that since we didn't have a support system other than ourselves as we were raising our kids, we have always spent a lot of time together, which was fun although exhausting too. As they've gotten older, it's been more out of habit than necessity that we do a lot together. It has also been more of a challenge to go on day trips that make everyone happy, but we've still managed usually. So, it was a big deal yesterday when we decided not to cajole our teenage children to go to the beach with us for the day. They were both invited,.. with the disclosure that our day plan included buying apples, going to the natural food store in San Luis Obispo, and finding a challenging hike that we'd never done before. Both offspring opted out: I think it was the hike that did it.Stop number one, Gopher Glen Apple Farm.I'm cheating with this picture, since Paige didn't go along on this trip, but it's a picture of Gopher Glen our favorite place to get apples. We've been going to get apples there for at least twenty years,an were there in early October but needed to replenish our supply. Thirty pounds seemed reasonable! Next, we stopped at Kelsey Winery. A friend at work had told me that we should try their apple wines. We did a little wine tasting and decided that my friend was right; all of the wines were delicious. That's big coming from me because I'm not that big of a wine fan. We bought an apple chard and an apple merlot.
We did some other fun stuff, but the "highlight" of the day was to attempt to hike to the top of Bishop's Peak. I gave up when the trail became just rocks, not because I couldn't go on, but because I thought that if I were a rattlesnake, that's just where I'd like to sun myself! It was intense and a little hairy going down, but mostly because I didn't have good tread on my shoes. Great day overall.We ended the day with a little coffee and after buying some incredible looking caramel apples, headed home to a night of little goblins knocking at our door asking for treats.

Cooking School

I live less than two hours from Los Angeles, but I only go there a couple of times a year. Today I had one of those days that makes me glad I live so close. I went with some friends down to Culver City to The New School of Cooking to take a class in fresh Thai cooking. I like Thai food a lot, but now I feel like I understand it better. The girl who taught the class just happened to be Thai; she taught a souffle class the last time I went. We did all of the cooking ourselves, but she gave us a cultural/culinary introduction beforehand. Her description of the peppers that are traditionally used in Thai cooking was a little daunting. She said that we might want to kick it down a step with habaneros if the Thai chilies were too hot. Habaneros are milder??? Yikes!
We worked with partners. I cooked with one of my ex-students who I now teach with, and is now one of my best friends. We prepared "Dry Style Panang Curry," which was exceptionally good, without being too hot or strange....except that it has pork belly in it...which was strange to me. I really don't think we should eat pigs, but they are so darn tasty, even their bellies!

Our "Dry Style Panang Curry" is in the small bowl on the far left. The cream-colored dish was called "Seasonal Thai Vegetable Curry, and it was also delicious, as was the clam dish right next to it.





Dry Style Panang Curry

2 Tbsp. oil
1 lb pork belly, sliced into thin tiles
1/2 yellow onion (thinly sliced)
1 cup coconut
2 -4 Tbsp. Panang Curry Paste
2-3 Kaffir Lime Leaves, julliened
1/2 cup Thai Sweet Basil (Whole with stems)
2 tsp. fish sauce
1 tsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. Tamarind Paste
1/4 red bell pepper, julliened

Heat oil on high in a skillet and add pork belly. Brown the pork stirring occasionally for about five minutes. Drain excess oil.

Stir in 3 Tbsp. of thick coconut milk, curry paste, onion, and lime leaves. Stir-fry for about 30 seconds until paste starts to brown.

Stir in remaining coconut milk into curry paste. Increase heat to high until boiling. Allow to boil for about 5 min. or until reduced by half.

Add basil leaves, fish sauce, Tamarind paste, and sugar. Adjust flavors if necessary and serve garnished with bell peppers.

Red Curry Paste

15-20 red chile (Serrano or Thai) Dry if fresh is unavailable
2 stalks lemongrass, chopped
5 shallots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1'' section Galanga (Try finding that in Kansas, ha,ha)
2 - 4 Tbsp cilantro roots or stems
1/2 tsp. coriander, ground
1/2 tsp. caraway seeds
1/2-1Tbsp. fish sauce
1 Tbsp. shrimp paste
2 Tbsp. oil (if needed)

Seed and soak the chiles in hot water until tender if using dried.

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until smooth.

Store in an air-tight container in the fridge until ready to use.

Another Hat!

I'm not that excited about actual Halloween night, seeing that our neighborhood has seemingly been deemed by our town to be the neighborhood least likely to give out poisoned candy so that we often go through between 400 to 600 mini-candy bars between 6:00 and 9:00 P.M. On the other hand, I like the build-up to it. I knit a second little Halloween hat for one of my sister's kids last night while we watched Shawn of the Dead. I hate horror films...except for this one. For some reason I'm not disturbed by the zombies getting skewered or the whole "removing the brain" advice from the newscaster. Maybe because it's British. Whatever the reason, we had a pleasant evening eating a "Wildcat Special" pizza with Paige and her friend Veronica and watching zombies get blown away. I just make the pattern up, and I'm not overly happy with it, but it was fun along the way.
I have the temporarily on display on my mantel until I mail it on Monday. The cute little woodblocks, however, get to stay. I already had the little Arbor Lodge, which is located in Nebraska City, Nebraska, built by the founder of Arbor Day. The trees are new. They have lots of apple trees in Nebraska City, so I ordered an apple tree and another "falling-looking" trees from Cat's Meow in honor of the falls I would like to experience again sometime.It seems pretty obvious that I like to show off my kds, but usually I do have their pics have some connection to knitting. So, here's my connection. I have only one show on T.V. that I regularly watch. It's The Office. Jim and Pam got married last week, and Paige baked a cake to eat as we watched. What could be better than eating cake and watching a show you love? --Knitting once you finish your slice of cake!

Routine Smoutine

It seems to have happened again that I've disappeared from blogdom wholehog. When I'm disconnected, I'm really disconnected. I can't fully blame it on my busy daily routine although I am really busy, I think it's mostly that the endless September heat depresses me and for some reason discourages me from holding warm wool in my hands in the evening.

I don't really care for knitting "philosophy" books. I mean the ones that elevate knitting to a religion, basically. On the other hand, I do consider knitting to be far more than a hobby for me. The amount and type of knitting I'm doing usually reflects in some way on my life, at least indirectly. I'm always busy at the beginning of the school year and don't have much free time. Plus, I've been distracted by my poor mom's health problems in the past couple months. She's had cataract surgery, congestive heart failure, and lost a crown all within a month and a half...oh, and her cat died. I think that's why I chose to start the "seaside throw" from Debbie Bliss's Home. It's nice not to have to think too much sometimes, and this pattern doesn't take much thinking. I love it because it's easy to memorize, and I can just sit down and knit it anytime. It's comforting when lots of other things in my life seem hectic and out of control to have that throw waiting there to be knit whenever I have a little extra time. I used 15 skeins of Debbie Bliss Cathay in fuchsia that I bought for only $3.50 from Little Knits a while ago. It was a little "splitty," but overall, I love it and am looking forward to snuggling with my throw as the weather gets cooler.I have gotten in a few other mindless knitting projects lately too. I like knitting little pumpkins and found a new pattern on ravelry that I like called Autumn Pumpkins. I like the little attached leaf. I've only knit one, but I'll crank out more before Halloween.I also knit a little pumpkin hat for my nephew. It was easy too, but a little different from the rest.

A pretty regular compliment I receive from kids in my high school English class is "You're the most normal English teacher I've ever had." I have heard "You've inspired me to major in English,"...about four times in...twenty plus years, so it makes sense that I've decided to embrace the first complement. I don't like labels and "normal" is in the eye of the beholder, but I think what they're really saying is that I make them comfortable, which is partially because I'm a part of many of their lives outside of school since we live in the town where I teach.

Even though it's often incredibly frustrating to live in a small, conservative narrow-minded town, I love many aspects of it too. That's probably why I love the play Our Town, except for the end which I think is kind of freaky because I really don't get the sitting in chairs things after you die. (OK, I kind of do; I just don't like it.) You could argue that Thorton Wilder's theme about the "universality of the human experience" isn't so "universal" anymore, but much of it is still my "normal." There are tons of lines that I love from Our Town, but one of my favorite ones is spoken by Mr. Webb, the Grover Corner's newspaper editor. He says, "...there isn't much culture [in Grover's Corner]; but maybe this is the place to tell you that we've got a lot of pleasures of a kind here: we like the sun comin' up over the mountain in the morning, and we all notice a good deal about the birds...and we watch the change of seasons." Living in Central California, you have to watch really closely to see the seasons change a lot of years, but I appreciate the point of this quote. It's why I love gardening, and it's why when I was browsing through an online seed catalog that I had to buy some heliotrope seeds. I remembered a line where Mrs. Gibbs tells her husband, "Come out and smell my heliotrope in the moonlight." I love that idea of just enjoying simple things. Well, I've gone out in the moonlight all summer long waiting for a lovely scent to waft through the air from my heliotrope. It hasn't happened. They're not that pretty either. (They're the purple ones) Maybe I'll go back to trying recipes from food in books I love because the gardening part hasn't worked out too well.


In fact, I really do need to do some experimental cooking because I've spend a lot of money on food-related books this summer. My favorite by far is Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life I knew about her blog Orangette, and I have enjoyed reading it periodically, but the book is wonderful. What could be better than good stories and great recipes? I read it in a couple of sittings. Yes, I am showing off my bookcase again in the first shot and the nice chair rail and dual-tone wall that Russ painted this summer.

No Fair!

My parents moved to Humboldt County in Northern California over twenty years ago, and it's become kind of a second home to my family. We visit every summer and spend our time hiking, searching for shells and rocks on the beach, eating great food, and just enjoying ourselves whenever we're there. We also almost always, go to the Humboldt County Fair in Ferndale. This year was the third time we've ever missed the fair. It doesn't begin until August 13, which just happens to be my first day back at work. How sad!
The only thing I don't like about Humboldt County is that along with great organic produce, liberal political leanings, and, of course, a sizable number of yarn shops, is that it has a disproportionate number of scary-looking homeless people. I'm not talking about hippies...I mean SCARY people. Paige and I always laugh at this sign near downtown Arcata. I'm sure it's a joke. ..otherwise no one would come through the front door because Arcata has to be the hippy capitol of the world!There's a really nice fabric shop in Arcata called Fabric Temptations. They also have a fairly extensive range of yarn choices, so I was more than a little embarrassed to walk in there and buy...two skeins of red, white, and blue stripe Sugar and Cream yarn. I don't have anything against Sugar and Cream. It's perfect for knitting dish clothes, and I wanted to knit a flower dish cloth for our dog sitter to line a basket of Northern California goodies I planned to give her. I still had the urge to say, "I'm really one of you. I knit with Manos de Uruguay, Lorna's Laces, and Debbie Bliss. I usually waste hundreds of dollars on quality yarn! I'm not usually so....practical"


Humboldt County beaches aren't the type of beach that you go to if you want to tan, but that also means they aren't usually crowded either. We usually go up to Trinidad for a day and hike around.


We made our perfunctory stop at Schat's Bakery in Ukiah. Kai got a cherry pie.

An additional tradition that we've seemed to be developing is to go to the Ukiah Farmer's Market. They had a wonderful yarn booth there, but I'm way overloaded with unfinished projects, so I refrained from any purchases. I'll plan better next summer.

Paige got a henna tatoo, which was supposed to last three weeks but is pretty much gone now, but it was pretty while it lasted.

Slow Knitting Month

I haven't accomplished much knitting this month as usual. I didn't even go to the knit shop that I discovered in Lincoln last year, maybe that has something to do with buying a ton of sale yarn from Little Knits just before we left on vacation.

I did finish my "table runner, which actually turned out more like a placemat. I really liked working with the bamboo/silk yarn for this. If it didn't cost 8 dollars a skein, I'd make a whole set...And yes, I have heard of blocking. I just don't ever do it.
I decided to knit fingerless gloves with the Manos de Uruguay yarn that I bought in San Luis. I had a beautiful pattern from Monica Jines for fingerless gloves, which called for sports weight yarn. Typical of me, I went ahead, even though the Manos is closer to worsted. Of course, they ended up being too. big. I took a picture of them, but I'm starting over and improvising a little so that I cast on eight fewer stitches. That should do it...and if it doesn't, it's mostly about the journey anyway.