Month: December 2010

Happy New Year!

So, what’s everybody doing tonight? John and I actually have plans to celebrate! Well, I guess we usually celebrate, if you can call staying home and trying to stay awake till midnight celebrating. 😉

I just realized this is actually the first year since we’ve been married that we’re actually going out for NYE. (16 years, if anybody wants to know.) We have friends with an apartment in the Big City (Seattle!), and we’re joining them for the evening. Dinner out, then rooms at a hotel with a view of the Space Needle and the fireworks. I’m hoping we don’t embarrass ourselves and fall asleep before the champagne gets opened.

For those of you who are on the edges of your seats over the sauerkraut saga, we did survive. It was a little saltier than I’d like. I just rinsed it in a colander this time. Next time, I think I’ll actually soak it in a big kettle of fresh water for a bit. It was pretty good though. Here’s what it looked like.

Next time we’re going to try a pork roast with it. I know you can hardly wait.

While we’re on the topic of food, don’t forget to get your black eyed peas lined up for tomorrow. Here are mine, ready to go.

Here’s how I make them, for those of you who don’t already have your favorite recipe.

Next up, some exciting photos of holiday acquisitions! Have a happy and safe New Year!

How Do You Know When It’s Done?

Sauerkraut, that is.

The correct answer, of course, is “when you have to hold your breath walking through the garage because of the stench”. It reached that point last week, but I put off dealing with it until today. It’s an icky, rainy day in the northwest, too nasty to do much else, so I figured I might as well put this in jars and in the refrigerator. At first I thought I’d put this up in quart jars, but it appears to be the wrong time of year to buy canning jars around here. Currently John is out foraging for a gallon glass jug, but here’s the interim solution:

I’m pretty sure that storing this stuff in plastic will doom the plastic containers to smell like sauerkraut forever, but so be it. I never really talked about what you do with this stuff once you get it in your crock. Periodically during the brining process, oh, about once a week when I remembered, I took the rock out, then scooped out some of the nasty liquid on top, along with whatever yucky stuff had started to grow, then the plate. I mixed the kraut up a bit, added a bit more fresh brine, mixed again, then washed the plate and the rock and replaced. I haven’t tasted it yet, since I’m a bit of a stickler about food poisoning, so I’ll plan on heating it up as I use it. It looks and smells like a fine batch of kraut, however. It’s just that a gallon or so of it is a bit overwhelming all at once. Tonight’s dinner is sausages and kraut, I’ll report back if we survive.

OK, John just sent me a photo from Target. John and Tar-zhay save the day!

On the knitting front, I’m still working on the Passionately Pink Surprise Baby Present. (I’m going to have to pick a name and stick to it at some point.) I better get on it, since the recipient was born earlier today! I have a new grand-niece, Rowan Annabelle! I don’t have a photo yet, but I hear tell she is gorgeous.

I hope everyone’s holiday season is going well. We had a fairly low key weekend, since I had to work. I was pretty grumpy about the whole thing, but to put a positive spin on it, at least I have a job and don’t have to live in a box under the bridge. Where the hell would I ever keep all the yarn?

We did have the annual Solstice friends and neighbors gathering this year. It was quite a festive event. I made cassoulet, which I’ve never done before. Rather than putting up a billion photos here, I’ll just link the Picasa photo album that John put together. Let’s just say that our coronaries all probably took a hit from the duck fat and sausage load.

Well, the guy with the kraut jar is home, so I’m off to finish that project. Next time, maybe some actual knitting!

What’s Playing At Your House?

OK, I admit it. This is a “filler” post, one of those things you put up when you’ve got nothing in the knitting department. I’m knitting the same stuff, the only thing that I’ve made any big progress on is a gift, and it’s mostly Shocking Pink Garter Stitch, anyway, so photos really wouldn’t help.

John and I are trying to do a gradual dredging out of all the crap in this house. We’ve been making progress in weeding through the gazillion books around here. Anything that’s already been read is going, and anything that we both look at and shake our heads at goes as well. The music collection is the next frontier. We have a bazillion (is that more than a gazillion or less?) CDs also. We finally have our home music system set up so we play music from ITunes straight to the stereo system, so there really is no need to keep the actual CDs once they are burned to the computer.

As part of this, the whole CD collection is in paper bags sitting next to my computer, and every time I’m up here, I burn a few of them to the hard drive. It’s a pretty eclectic collection, even I must say. One of the things I discovered recently is that you can sort your music by how many times each song has been played. Here are my top 10 or so played songs.

1. Memories Are Made of This, by Dean Martin

2. Set ’em Up Joe, by Vern Gosdin (I know I’ve mentioned him before, the greatest country singer of all time)

3. Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, by the Andrews Sisters

4. If Wishing Made It So, by the Subdudes

5. It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere, by Alan Jackson & Jimmy Buffett

6. Cuando me enamoro, by Andrea Bocelli

7. I’m Gonna Be Strong, by Buddy Miller

8. Blues Stay Away From Me, by Jorma Kaukonen

9. Blue Moon, by the Mavericks

10. Smoking Panatelas On the Blue Mediterranean Sea, by the Aqua Velvets

11. Running From Mercy, by Rickie Lee Jones

12. Bird On A Wire, by Leonard Cohen

There you have it. Speaking of the Mavericks, we’re headed to the big city today to hear Raul Malo perform at the Tractor Tavern tonight. Here’s a video of him singing Let It Be Me.

And another one of him singing Blue Moon, with the Mavericks.

I’m pretty sure that I’m going to enjoy it. I’ll report back next time. What’s on your playlist?