I take it back.

I read this in the comment section of Nake-id Knits' blog:

I think clapotis is a French nautical term for the wave pattern that occurs when the wake of a boat crosses against the waves. When the scarf is made in a variegated yarn this really shows up well.

I take back what I said about clapotis being a bad name. It's an awesome name, that just has an unfortunate spelling and pronunciation. Oh... and here's a link to the pattern.

Buttons

I tried making buttons for my blog... nothing exciting so far. :P Here's what I have, should you want to use a button to link to my blog:






I'd try for something better, but it's way past my bedtime!

Secret Swap!

Nifty! I'm going to be part of The Great International Secret Blog Exchange! What fun! (And it'll only cost me $20 plus shipping... and I'll get to go shopping, and I'll get a surprise in the mail! You can tell I'm excited from that many "ands". ;) )

The deadline for signing up is February 10 (my birthday! how perfect!), if you're interested too!

Spring

I feel I should mention that weather.com puts a more positive spin on spring. Here's today's forecast:

Sunny. High 57F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph.

Yep, it's spring

What did I tell you... I finished my scarf last night, and this morning I got my first spring allergy allert:

Be prepared for allergies today! This is your Allergy Alert letting you know that allergy conditions in your area have reached a medium to high range.

Today's allergy levels for CHAPEL HILL, NC:
Medium (4.8 on a scale of 0-12)

Today's predominant pollen:
Cedar/Juniper and Elm.

Because of my allergies, spring is *not* my favourite season.

If you'd like to sign up for allergy allerts, go to www.pollen.com.

Expect Spring

I think I read on someone's blog that today (or some day recently) was the first day of spring, according to the Chinese new year... (feel free to correct me here... I'm bad at remembering stuff). I'd find it hard to believe spring in early February, but then I just finished my scarf, so I imagine I won't see any more cold weather this season. ;) (At least, not in this neighbourhood.)

Anyone else need an early spring? Send me the yarn, and I'll send you a magic scarf. ;) (One at a time... I don't want to get swamped here!) Oh... and I think the scarf magic requires good quality yarn, but I'll give it a shot with cheaper stuff too. ;)

Just kidding! (I have too many socks calling my name to start another scarf now!)

I'm lazy and tired, so pictures will have to wait until tomorrow.

Pondering...

...does toothpaste go bad? My tube has a date stamped on it, that is nearly a year old. I've pretty much ignored it, thinking "toothpaste doesn't go bad"... but maybe it does? I've been having a bad taste in my mouth, like I have bad breath or something. Brushing doesn't help. In fact, I think I might notice it more often *after* I brush my teeth. I thought it might be something in the water, but it happened both here and in Winnipeg. I thought it might be something icky growing on my toothbrushes, but replacing them didn't help. So my question is, does toothpaste go bad? My tube is about half full (I think I bought it on sale when I still had some, which is why it's so old), and I'd rather not throw away perfectly good toothpaste.

Does anyone out there know if toothpaste goes bad?

Pita by Request

Jewels asked for the pita bread recipe.... Mmmmmm... homemade pita bread is *so* good! Especially fresh from the oven, with a little butter. :))

I got the recipe from my mom, and I'm not sure where she got it from.

Pita Bread

1 pkg yeast
1 tbsp sugar
2 c lukewarm water
1/3 c milk
6 c flour
2 tsp salt

Dissolve yeast and sugar in 1/2 c water, let sit 5-10 minutes. Put flour & salt in large bowl, mix, make depression in center. Mix water, milk, and yeast mixture, and pour in depression. Mix. Knead until smooth and elastic. Let rise until double, 2-4 hours. Cut pieces from edge and shape into orange size balls. Let rise for 1/2 hour. Roll balls to 1/4" thick. Let rise for 1/2 hour. Preheat oven to 475F. Place bread directly on racks. Cook 2-5 minutes until puffed up. Place under broiler for a few seconds.

Notes:

Yes, I love to fiddle with recipes. ;)

1. I use hot tap water in a glass measuring cup, and find the cold cup cools the water enough that it's fine for the yeast. It's warmer than lukewarm, but the yeast proofs a lot faster. Just proof until frothy. Oh, and I don't bother proofing in only a portion of the water... do it in the whole 2 c.

2. Don't bother pre-mixing the yeast & milk, they'll mix just fine in the depression, and this way you can use the milk to rinse out the yeast from the measuring cup. (Fewer dishes too!)

3. If you have the right bowl (large and shallow), you can knead the bread right in the bowl, saving you from having to have a good counter space for kneading. I find a bar stool to be the right height for me for kneading bread... but then I'm short.

4. First rising: place bread back in bowl (if you took it out), and drape the bowl with a damp tea towel. Place the bowl in the oven with the oven light on. This provides enough warmth for the bread to rise. If you don't have an oven light (like at my current place), turn the oven to the lowest setting while kneading the bread, and turn it off when you put the bread in to rise.

5. Second and third rising: Place bread on a dry tea towel, and cover with a second tea towel. (You'll need four tea towels for this step, assuming a single recipe.)

6. Baking: bake at 475F until the majority of the pitas are puffed up like balloons, then switch the oven to broil setting. Watch the broiler, and take the bread out when the broiler turns red. The pitas will still be pretty white... they're supposed to be. If they brown, you've overcooked them.

7. If you don't have a window in your oven (gee, I just love my current stove), you can cook them at 475F for five minutes and skip the broiler... they'll end up kind of golden, but still better than store-bought.


(Yarn Tomato: I used the recipe card this time, so you can double check the recipe I sent you. ;) )

Other stuff: I've got my gauge back! Yay! I started a pair of Lang Jawoll socks for myself (I call them green rainbow, because they're predominantly a turquoise green, but have a rainbow of other colours plied in. I'll post a photo soon.) All I had to do was remember that I held the yarn so tight that it caused a painful indentation on my finger. :) (Why is it that I love socks so much?) Anyway, now that I have my gauge back, I can start my sockapalooza socks! Yay! (I've got my ears plugged so I can't hear you pointing out that I already have three other pairs of socks started... my sockapalooza pal has priority!) Actually, I'll probably alternate between sockapalooza socks and socks for me... these green rainbow ones are much more fun than *plain* blue. ;)

Scarf update: I'm ready to start the gray stripes on the other end. :)

Yarn diet update: I broke down, and ordered from Knit Picks. I was adding things to my "wish list", and the total magically came to $30 plus change! Orders of $30 have free shipping! It was a sign! I know it was! (Um, that, or I'm impatient.) I, uh, did add one more ball to bring it to $32 plus change. And, uh, yeah, the order *does* include a *bit* more sock yarn. *blush* To top it off, I placed an additional order at theknitter.com... but this was to get the additional yarn I needed to do Bob's socks, now that I've decided to stripe them with black. And they have free shipping too! (All the time... so my order there wasn't nearly as much.)

Nothing much else new around here... except that I should go to bed now, so I don't sleep as late tomorrow morning as I did this morning! G'night!

Pan update

Oh... one of the reasons for me to document my recipe... it'll be a while before I make it again, and I didn't want to forget. Why a while? Um, 'cuz, when I was running the pan under hot water to rinse it before doing dishes, the non-stick coating started rinsing off too. (Remember I was wondering about those bubbles?) At least that meant I had fewer dishes to wash... ;)

Note to Paulina: Thanks for the pan... it served me well. Even though it didn't have the good graces to last me until I graduated. :P Oh well, it did well for a left-behind pan. ;) (I likely won't need it again before I graduate... I don't normally use it all that often.)

Rain & Recipes

To all my neighbours who wanted a snow day... I'm sorry. I wanted one too. Unfortunately, I'm now at a powerful 62" of scarf magic. (I'm thinking after I've done the last 10", it'll be spring here for good.) For those of you who are glad the Carolina basketball game is on, or something similar, you're welcome.

I made Manicotti last night. :) It was good. I seem to be the type of person who can't resist tinkering with the recipe. I think I'll document this recipe here. However, feel free to modify it yourself. ;)

Andrea's Manicotti

1. In a very large pot, start heating water to cook pasta. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Add the following ingredients to a large ziploc bag: one 15 oz container of fat free ricotta (425g), one 3.5 oz container of crumbled reduced fat feta (99g), one 16 oz package of part skim mozzarella, shredded (454g), approximately 2 tbsp dried basil, and some fresh ground pepper. (Yes, it shows up as little black flecks, but tastes *way* better than that white stuff.)
3. Eat the bit of mozzarella that was too small to shred.
4. Insert hand into ziploc bag and smoosh until thoroughly mixed, or until arthritis starts acting up.
5. Lick hand (to make sure seasonings are at right proportion, of course). Wash hand.
6. Once large pot of water is boiling, add pasta, and cook as directed. (Mine was 8 minutes.)
7. While waiting for pasta to cook, search for 9"x13" pan.
8. Ponder whether strange bubbles on bottom of pan are harmful.
9. Spread some olive oil around pan with a kleenex, then add a bit more olive oil.
10. Drain pasta, and pour out water so as to burn thumb by pouring boiling water through the potholder.
11. Suck thumb, and continue draining pasta, being more careful this time.
12. Run cold water over both pasta and thumb. Drain again.
13. Visualize pasta sticking to paper towels meant to dry them, then skip this step.
14. Cut hole in corner of ziploc bag.
15. Pipe cheese mixture into pasta shell.
16. Use thumbs to squish cheese mixture down, so you can fit more in. Repeat step 15.
17. Place stuffed manicotti in pan.
18. Repeat steps 14-16 until you run out of cheese mixture. Eat last pasta shell... it was broken anyway.
19. Pour two small cans of tomato juice (5.5fl.oz/163ml each) over manicotti.
20. Sprinkle with thyme and more fresh ground pepper. (I think some ground bay leaves would be nice here too, but I didn't have any.)
21. Cover pasta with 8 oz of smoked provolone slices (227g), making sure to remove paper slice separators.
22. Bake for 15 minutes.
23. Eat salad. (Salad is "good for you", and you're really hungry by now.)
24. Sprinkle manicotti with about 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese.
25. Bake 10 minutes longer.
26. Enjoy dinner.
27. After dvd finishes, package up remaining manicotti in individual serving size portions... voila, you now have TV dinners for later. :)

Although I've typed this up as 27 steps, don't let that intimidate you. I strongly recommend modifying steps 10-12. I served my manicotti with a tall glass of filtered water, presliced coleslaw with greek salad dressing, and Spiderman 2. Feel free to mix that up too.