Weekend Wrapup

We had a good, productive weekend. It wasn't really very active, but full of nice little blogworthy details. First, I have to welcome back our Canadian friends. They took their usual summer holiday back to visit family and we missed them dearly. I was lucky enough to get to pick them up at the airport on Saturday and welcome them home myself. It was fun to watch my friends, still stunned from their day of travel, arriving back at their home here and trying to decide which place they really belong. Here! I say.

Second, and I promise I *will* stop beating this dead horse...and I really want to thank everyone who's commented here congratulating me on my Fair winnings. The recognition really does mean a lot to me, as most of my real-life people don't really understand or seem to care about how important knitting is to me. I'm still on a bit of high about the wins at the fair this year, when I think about it. But it also makes me a little sad not to be cheered on by the muggles, so the comments here have been huge compensation. Thank you!

I layed out all the pieces with their ribbons on the bed the other day and here it is, along with a little cat butt.



Now, I'll stop with the fair stuff. Really. I promise.

Here's what my kitchen looked like during dinner preparations last night. It always seems like I have so much counter space, but it also fills up amazingly fast when I get to cooking.



Look! I made pizza! Slightly mishapen, but oh-so-delicious. Kalamata olives, turkey pepperoni, fresh mozzarella, artichoke hearts, fresh tomato slices and banana peppers. Plus a little sauce and some regular mozzarella.



I also made one for the girls with fewer toppings and no sauce. Julie won't eat tomatoes.



Oh, my it was good, and nobody bitched or moaned during the meal. I haven't mentioned it yet, but for a month or two now I've been reading Badger over at Make Your Own Damn Dinner rave about this new book called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. She kept including descriptions of awesome-sounding crusty breads as part of her evening meals, and saying how easy and quick it was. Well. Finally she won me over in temptation - I adore crusty bread. So I bought the book, bought a couple kitchen items like a big dough-storage bucket and a pizza stone for the oven. Totally carb-o-licious! More on it all in a minute, but first let's talk butterflies.

We woke up this morning to find two of our five Painted Lady butterflies hatched from their chrysalis. I tried putting a little mashed banana in there to see if they would eat it, and instead they kept falling into it, so I cleaned it out.



Also, our giant Cecropia moth caterpillar seems to be getting ready to make a cocoon. See the silky fibers all over the side of the cage? Those weren't there yesterday.



By this afternoon, a third butterfly had opened.



And here's a picture of its beautiful wings opened up.



Really, we must be simple people because these critters have kept us endlessly entertained for the last week. It is so fun to watch them do their little thing and cheer them on. I think the girls and I will have a butterfly release tomorrow afternoon.

And back to the bread. After the pizza-making last night, I was out of pre-made dough in the fridge. So this afternoon I got the girls started playing with some Moon Sand and whipped up another batch.



While I was pulling out the mostly-empty dough-bucket from the fridge, I glanced at the crusty-looking yogurt container in the back at the bottom and felt a surge of pity in my stomach. Poor Fannie has been left ignored since the end of June. So I brought her out and took a look.



Not pretty - not at all. But my friend had told me that it would look like this and still be okay, so I had faith. I mixed up a new batch of starter, threw half of it back in a clean yogurt container and the other half in with the new batch of dough. The book does not have any sourdough recipes in it, although it does mention that if you make a habit of leaving a few bits of the previous batch of dough in the bin before mixing up the new batch, a sourdough flavor will build up. I figured what the heck, time for a science experiment.

I ended up following the basic recipe, just adding the starter and a little extra flour. It worked like a charm, and I ended up with a nice round loaf of sourdough by dinner tonight, plus enough dough for a couple/few more loaves this week or next.

Julie has been begging for chicken-noodle soup, so I roasted a chicken Friday night for dinner, boiled the carcass with some veggies yesterday, and tonight whipped up the soup.



Yum!



Julie enjoyed it too, although she requested chopsticks to deal with the too-long noodles.

Poor Joe - he has horrendous allergies. Really really bad. He's allergic to everything. Right now is peak season for fall outdoor allergies, plus he's highly allergic to cats. Normally he's well-medicated to deal with it, but this week he's off his meds in preparation for another skin-prick test. He's finally going on the injection program his allergist has been bugging him to do for at least the last eight years. In the mean time, though, he's walking around snuffling and scratching. He told me this morning that he itches all over his entire body. He's kinda cranky, and I actively encouraged him to leave the house for a few hours today to get away from the cats. I almost wish he'd go stay with his parents till he's back on his meds, but he's too stubborn to consider it.

And finally, I'll leave you with a picture of my sock collection. I think I showed a similar picture about a year ago, and as I was getting ready to put on my first pair of handknit socks of the fall, I thought I'd document the current status before half of them end up in the wash.



I think I counted 29 pairs.