Two Weeks and Counting

(this pic just cracks me up!)

I think the days fly by faster when one is sleep deprived, or it may be that I know just how fleeting these new baby days are, or maybe it has something to do with the sudden season change and the way that whole daylight savings thing crept up on me.

A little knitting has been done... I'm already working on my knitting while nursing and my knitting with sleeping baby on lap techniques, but I don't have any finished products to show this week, yet, so on with the baby pics and good eats-

My long time favorite (I've mentioned I'm a cinnamon fan)-

Snickerdoodles

1 cup soft butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 3/4 cups flour

2 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp cinnamon

Heat oven to 350. Mix butter, sugar, and eggs. Blend all dry ingredients except cinnamon and sugar and stir in. Roll into balls. Roll balls in cinnamon sugar mixture. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes. Enjoy.

I like easy cookies. These are easy, though they do take a few minutes to shape and coat, but many hands make light work and kids love to help with that part, at least mine do.

One thing that I am trying to finish (though it's not looking very probable at this point) is a November Birthday Hat for my little M, who will be a big 2 years old on Friday. We've got snow moving in for the weekend, so the timing is right, though being almost 2, she probably won't notice if it isn't done until this weekend, or worse, Monday... We'll see what happens with this one. Then there's another birthday hat to be made for my almost 6 year old later this month- 'tis the season!

Off to cuddle, nurse, and head to baby's 2 week check-up.

Happy knitting-

ali

One Week Already

Well that was a quick week; I knew it would be. Not much knitting has been done, just baby hats and a round on my lagging behind Mystery Sock, or was it only a half a round? That was all I could manage the other night before my eyelids involuntarily closed on me.

So... I will attempt to distract you with baby pics and good eats.

The night before going in for the induction I felt the need to cook my family 'one last real meal' (turkey, mashed potatoes & gravy, etc...) and then I even baked a 'real desert'- a freestyle apple tart.

This recipe is so easy, there's really no excuse not to make one when there are apples on the counter and pie crusts in the fridge and it's fall outside...

Freestyle Apple Tart

Prep: 15 min

Bake: 25 min

Total: 40 min

Makes: 8 servings

You Need:

1 ready to use refrigerated pie crust (it's okay to cheat now and then!)

4 oz (1/2 of 8 oz pkg) Cream Cheese, softened

3 of your favorite baking apples, thinly sliced

1/4 cup sugar

2 Tbsp flour

1 tsp cinnamon or 'cinnamon sugar' (I'm personally a hard-core cinnamon fan, so I don't use extra sugar here)

optional whipped cream for topping

(I made mine without the cream cheese this time, to accommodate my non-cream cheese appreciating husband)

To make-

1. Heat oven to 450 F. Line pie plate with crust. Spread cream cheese in 6" circle in center (unless your husband detests cream cheese...)
2. Toss apples with sugar and flour, spoon over cream cheese.
3. Fold crust partially over apples. Sprinkle with cinnamon (or 'cinnamon sugar').
4. Bake 25 min, covering loosely with foil for last 5 min. Cool. Top with whipped cream.
5. Enjoy!

So easy- older kids can slice the apples, younger kids can toss with flour and sugar, any kids can help assemble, and everyone can eat and enjoy!

*Large family tip: Make 2! (Those refrigerated pie crusts come in 2 packs anyway, right?!)

Well, I got a few naps in the 1st three days after having our new little guy, but I haven't gotten a nap in since. My brain was feeling the effects of fatigue last night, according to my eyelids. I think I need to go to bed earlier, it's just so against my nature, or at least my long ingrained bad habits... Adjusting to waking up every 2 hours to nurse at night always takes me a couple weeks. I'm hoping to settle into a decent schedule soon (tomorrow would be nice) as there is so much on my mind to be doing- fall crafts with kids, Thanksgiving unit study, crafting, sewing, decorating, quilting, baking, oh, and some knitting too...

I have a crazy stitch swatch to work up in the next few days- hopefully I can find an hour here and there where my brain is in alert mode, as this stitch will take concentrating, but I think it will be fun- I do so love a challenge.

I may try to knit up another Baby Shrug, this time for my little Mercy, who will soon be turning 2! Remember this? Or this? Or this? Oh, how time flies... Believe me, I'm soaking this one up, and taking a ton of pictures- yay! for digital cameras!

Off to cuddle and nurse, nurse and cuddle...

Happy knitting-

ali

To Bake, or Not to Bake- That is the Question

Every year, right about this time, the time when it just starts getting hot enough to be a bit uncomfortable once you add the extra heat of having the oven on for an hour or two, I get bitten by the baking bug. I can't really explain it. I like to cook and I like to bake, but I'm no queen of the cookie.

I live in Minnesota, a land where rising fuel prices have made it increasingly more expensive to stay warm in the winter (in addition to filling the gas tanks in the vehicles, we won't even mention that...) It would make sense for me to bake all winter long. I have an electric range, our furnace runs on propane, which seems to add up a lot more than our electric bill in the winter. In the winter I bake things like chickens, roasts, pizzas, and enough french fries to feed an army of 8, but not a lot of 'baked goods'.

And then late spring/early summer hits, and I get an insatiable urge to start baking cakes and muffins, cookies and scones, even the occasional pie. Perhaps it is the thought of summer menus and avoiding the oven for months. Perhaps it is the repetitive reading of A Friend to Knit With's blog. Perhaps it is a yet unnamed syndrome that I should seek treatment for. Whatever it is, it is feeding my pregnant sweet tooth (and causing this strange numerical increase phenomenon on the scale... the whipping cream could have something to do with it, perhaps...)

In the last couple weeks, I've made 3 'cookie cakes', a rhubarb crisp with the first harvest of our homegrown rhubarb, and some raspberry scones (frozen raspberries, when they're ripe, we eat 'em off the plants as fast as we can grow 'em around here, mental note- need to plant more raspberries...)

What does this have to do with knitting? Not much, expect for how comforting it is to sit with warm baked goods, a good strong latte with freshly whipped cream (just whip up about twice as much as you think the kids will need on their 'cookie cakes', that should leave enough for coffee drinks...), and some yarn. Knit a row/rnd, take a bite, take a sip, breath a deep sigh of contentment. Now this is living... and those pictures are making me need another latte...

Happy knitting-

ali

*health update- 19 month old had CT scan yesterday to rule out broken nose, hemotomas, and any subcranial bleeding, or something like that; bruising is turning ugly, poor thing

-5 yr old's asthma got bad enough for another ER visit last night; no admission though, waiting with the 'big guns' (oral steroids) for now, seems allergic and not bacterial- no pneumonia so far; closed up house, turned on AC early, installed fresh filter, gave benedryl as well as nebs, and she's holding stable, still not out of the woods with this episode, but maybe keeping her out of all the pollens for a bit will help- she needs more allergy testing, one more apt to make...

*contest update- still time to set some goals for summer knitting!