Three Loopy Ladies!

Last night it was just myself and the two Dawns, but we had a great time as always. Dawn K prepared an amazing spread that we feasted on all night long! So good! (Will you please post the recipes, Dawn?) Your house looks so festive and Christmasy! I love all of the beautiful decorations that you've made, you craftsy girl! Dawnelle as a brand-new homeowner, braved the night and her tiredness to knit, chat and eat! Dawn K, you have quite the stash of mittens (it made me realize even more what a slow knitter I am!). You are a knitting machine! Dawnelle, the socks you are working on are gorgeous! It makes me a little jealous that you are on your second one, o sock guru! Dawn, thanks for winding all of my yarn. I hope I can finish all of my projects by Christmas!

We missed you, Pam, Ingrid, Cathy and Judi! Judi, we hope you are feeling better soon! Ingrid, we hope your daughter is feeling well, and we are anxious for news! Cathy, slow down and save a little time to knit! It's good for you! ;-)

I will miss you all next week, but I hope you all have a wonderful time with Dawnelle's mom and the latkes! I'm so sad to be missing it, so eat an extra one for me! I'll see you all when I get back! Happy Knitting! :-) Kathleen

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Just wanted to wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you all had a great day and enjoyed your time with family a/o friends :)

take care,
Ingrid

Recipes from Tuesday

I'm so glad that you all liked the treats that I brought last night. In the interest of keeping up my awesome procrastination record, I thought I'd post them now. (I really should be packing and baking. ;-) )

Pan-fried Onion Dip (from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook)

2 large yellow onions
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup good mayonnaise

Place the cream cheese, sour cream and mayonnaise in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat until smooth. Add the onions and mix well. Taste for seasonings. Serve at room temperature.

Cut the onions in half and then slice them into 1/8-inch thick half-rounds. (You will have about 3 cups of onions.) Heat the butter and oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the onions, cayenne, salt, and pepper and saute for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 more minutes until the onions are browned and caramelized. Allow the onions to cool.

* I use only 2T butter and 2T olive oil to saute the onions. This time, instead of using 1/2 cup sour cream and 1/2 mayo, I used 1/3 cup Greek yogurt, 1/3 cup light sour cream and 1/3 cup light mayo to try to make it a little lighter.

Chicken Sausage in Puff Pastry (adapted slightly from Lamb Sausage in Puff Pastry from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook)

4 sun-dried tomato chicken sausages (I used Trader Joe's)
1 sheet commercial puff pastry, thawed
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water or milk, for egg wash
olive oil
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

In a saute pan, heat 1 Tbsp of olive oil over medium heat. Add sausage and cook until the sausage is browned on all sides. Cool to room temperature.

Unfold the puff pastry on a lightly floured board, and brush the top side with mustard. Cut the puff pastry in half lengthwise and crosswise to make four equal pieces. Place one sausage at the edge of each piece and roll it up tightly, overlapping the end by 1/2-inch and sealing the pastry by brushing the edge with water. Roll the other 3 pieces of sausage in puff pastry. Place the 4 rolls, seam side down, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush with the egg wash. Lightly score each roll diagonally to make 5 or 6 equal pieces. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until browned. Slice and serve hot with mustard. (I like to use a combination of equal parts Dijon mustard and mango chutney or Dijon mustard and apricot preserves.)

Dawn K was kind enough to post the Peanut Butter Cookie recipe in the sidebar, so you can check it out over there.

I hope everyone has a delicious Thanksgiving! Happy Knitting in between friends and family. (I love a long car ride for that reason only!)

See you next Wednesday, Loopy Ladies!
Kathleen

Tuesday's Recap

Ah, a big thank you to Kathleen for the YUMMY snacks. That dip was just SOOOOOOOO good. I agree a spoon would be a good choice! I loved the sausage too! You'll have to post the recipes when you get back.

I added a recipe link to our sidebar. I'll spend a little time this weekend getting the recipes up for you all.

I like the Monkey socks. I think I am going to add that project to my list of things to do!

Dawn, your sweater is coming along great! I'll be home all day on Thursday if you need to call for any help! :)

Ingrid, I'm loving those mittens. I want to make at least one more pair for a Christmas present. Speaking of Christmas, your house is just BEAUTIFUL! The decorations are great. The kids did a wonderful job on the tree!

Judi, it looks like you are coming along really nicely with that blanket.

Pam, I'm glad I could help with your cast on. It was hard for me to knit on mine tonight. I was just too chatty! I hope you got some knitting time tonight!

I hope all of ewe ladies have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Pam's Birthday celebration!

What a lovely evening! Sorry I missed the first hour, but thanks for not having fun while I wasn't there. You guys are always so thoughtful that way!!!

Pam, first let me say on behalf of all of us HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I hope you have a great day tomorrow! Your felted mitten came out great! I really like the cuff you made to add. That is really cool. You got some nice yarn from Heather's shop. I'll let you know what I'd like from KnitPicks. Hopefully you'll get enough of an order for free shipping!

Dawn, you are a mitten making machine!!! I'm looking forward to seeing the ones you are making now felted! Thank you for the snacks. It's always nice leaving with a full tummy! :) The birthday cake was soooooooo good! I'm having the piece you sent home with me with my lunch tomorrow, maybe with that cup of coffee!

Ingrid, I'm so glad your finding that pattern easy to work with. It takes a while to wrap your mind around getting it started but it is just so easy once you know what you are doing LOL!

Kathleen, I like the yarn you bought. I think it is so kind of you to make those mittens for that little boy! Livia's mittens look really nice. I'm interested in seeing the cuff on them when they are done!

Judi, the blanket you are making is sure full of love, with the amount of time and attention you are putting into it. I'm sure it will be greatly appreciated!

I'm looking forward to next Tuesday. Maybe we can set aside a little time to talk about secret Santa!

take care,
Dawn

Cupcake Hat. . .Stat!

Well, Loopy Ewes, I found myself in a time crunch this past weekend with the cupcake hat. I tried it on my niece Friday night and much to my horror, it was too short! I tried blocking it and then tossed and turned all night about my quandry. When I woke up the next morning, I knew I had to reknit it. Scott asked me how long it would take me, I said, "Oh, probably about 2 hours." Well, I'm a much slower knitter than I thought because that hat took me a good part of the day to finish (well, OK, into the midnight hour -- like molasses, I tell you). The next morning, I woke up early and started knitting flowers like there was no tomorrow. I attached all the flowers and wove in all of the ends, finishing 15 minutes before the birthday party began. Phew! The hat and mittens actually turned out like I wanted them to, and they were well-received, so in the end all I wish is that I had had more time. The hat looks just adorable on my niece. Here are a couple of photos, so you can take a look at the finished project.





I took last night off from knitting, but now it's back to mittens! Seems like there's a mitten trend in this loopy group, which is awesome because I think they are so much fun to knit! I love seeing all of the photos of the finished projects too! See you all Wednesday! K

Mitten Fever

I thought I'd share pictures of my felted mittens. They are for Shauna (she said she didn't mind being the guinea pig :)

IRL, the mitten on the right doesn't really have a wonky looking thumb - it's just a shadow & the way the mitten is bent...




I also finished one fleece lined mitten and am 1/2 done with the second one (thanks to DawnK!
See you guys Wednesday, ingrid

Hey "ewe" guys! I just wanted to show you the poncho I finally finished for my granddaughter's birthday. I have to mail it tomorrow, so unfortunately I can't bring it to show. See you Wed. Judi

Fluffy and Fleeced

Here they are. I finished my fleece stuffed mittens yesterday. I have a couple of little "oopsies" but since they are for me I will live with it :) I'm excited that now when I go out to do my recess duty my hands will be warm! I wonder if I can come up with a full length body suit to keep me warm LOL!

Here's a picture of the mitten turned inside out so you can see what the fleece looks like inside. On Friday I went to Heather's Shop and bought some more roving and yarn to make some more for Christmas gifts. I've already started another pair and am about 1/3 done with the first mitten.

take care,
Dawn K

Wednesday Night ReCap

It was a quite night on Wednesday. Pam, Dawnelle, Judi and I braved the cold night and met at Pam's house. It was so warm and cozy there! Pam your fireplace is wonderful! I'd love one like that! Oh, and the snacks were scrumptious! I loved, loved, loved that pie! I love the new mittens that you made. They are so soft and pretty!

Dawnelle, I am looking forward to seeing the front and back of that sweater put together!

Judi, the blanket is just so pretty and will knit up before you know it!

I took a little field trip today to the yarn shop in Brewster and bought some more yarn and roving to make another pair (or two) of the lined mittens. I also double checked with Heather about the way I was knitting the fleece in....All is good :) :)

I still don't know if I need to be "on call" of our union on Wednesday night or not. I hope I can be there with you all!

take care,
Dawn

Spoon Roast

Here's the Spoon Roast recipe. Preheat the oven to 500º. Put a few tablespoons of oil in a pan and sear the meat on all side.
After you have basted the meat place it in a baking dish (0r pam) and season with your favorite seasonings. I use salt, pepper and sometimes onion. Sprinkle the top with flour. Add some water to the bottom of the baking dish. I use between 1-2 cups of water. Place in the 500º oven for 20 minutes. After the 20 minutes baste the meat with juices and reduce heat to 350º. Cook for 20 minutes per pound. The meat will come out medium well. I reduce the cooking time to 18 minutes per pound. Baste the meat every 20 minutes while it is cooking.

Let the meat sit about 30 minutes before cutting.

MMMMMM.....it's tender and juicy every time!

take care,

Dawn K

Mittens!

Hey, Loopy Ewes! I finally finished and felted my mittens. The whole process seemed daunting for awhile when my first try at the second mitten came out kind of wonky looking. Now that they are felted, I just love them. L loves them too, which makes me so psyched to finish her pair.

Here are the before and after photos!

Before

After!

Now I have mitten fever! I'm so bummed that I won't see you ladies tonight, but I hope you have a wonderful time! Don't have too much fun without me! ;-) K

The costume was a hit!

Hi Loopies, I think I finally figured out the picture trick. This is my grandson and my son, trick or treating last week. Adam loved his Spidey outfit, and Dad reports he is wearing it all the time.

I talkde to Dawnelle, and she mentioned changing our locale this week. I would love to have it here at our house. Kathleen, I know you offered your Mom's house, and if you are set on that, I'm OK with it. Just let me know. Can't wait for Wed. Last week was awesome. Since then, I have ripped out the entire baby blanket, boo hoo! Judi

What the boys can do when left alone!

Look what Rich and Timmy were able to do while I was at knitting! I don't think Rich has ever carved a pumpkin before. Timmy drew the face and Rich and he cut it out. In case you aren't able to tell, both of the pumpkins have a Frankenstein theme going on!

I guess I should leave them alone more often :) :) :)

take care,
Dawn K