Finally a walk, seafood pasta, brownie accolades

Today the cooking was about pasta, penne, to be exact, with a lovely sauce, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, knob of butter, parmigian rind. And onions, shrimp and scallions. Blue cheese sprinkles.

It was soooo good. I do like shrimp with practically anything. I'd skip the cheese next time though, too many competing flavors. But no complaints. And enough for several more meals.  

I managed a complete walk, tired coming home but I made it. No pictures, really quiet day for birds and animals. Very pleased I had enough energy.

Last year this time was a different story

I also found today that this is the total germination of the two beds of memorial snowdrops. Clearly since this lone one is flowering, there's little to no hope of a sudden growth spurt from the dozens of others.

Not acceptable. I've written to Breck to request a refund. Then I'll buy some shrub or plant locally and start again. This happens, nobody's fault, probably frozen in transit with no protection.

Gary came bursting in, this morning, all thrilled with the brownies, which he found when he came home yesterday. I gather he'd eaten one before he got his coat off! When he found out there were two more batches in his future, he was a happy guy.

A convo later with Paul Couchman, the Regency Chef, on Twitter, reminded me that seasalt goes well with chocolate.

So I sprinkled a bit on this afternoon's brownies with a cup of tea, great reminder. Chic!

I checked on my library holds, including this one

It's getting excellent reviews from a range of critics, and I've heard part of the audio, really good speaker. So we'll see.

I'd like to try recipes from Meghan's Together: Our Community Cookbook, but it's backordered everywhere. I think I'd like some of that food, Indian, and Middle Eastern. But I can wait. 

I'm interested in his story,  as a survivor of sibling abuse myself, rather than as a current gossip meme. Please tread softly.

If anyone's seen and cooked from the cookbook, I'd like to hear more.

Happy day everyone! May your energy fit your ambition today. Well, every day, but right now today's the issue.

Photo AC 

Quilling and brownies

 I haven't talked about paper quilling for ages. I have done it, and taught, it, but long ago, so no samples to show you.

However, here are some masterworks instead

It's not a difficult basic skill -- strips of paper rolled into cylinders and scrolls and glued down. You could probably use a paper shredder to get uniform strips. 

Might be a fun thing for grandchildren to do. I've taught kids as young as six. They need to be able to handle small items, so that's different ages for different kids. But the art of it is endless.

And I did get the brownies made, using a different baking dish, worked better.

The blue and green potholder is one I made on that little loom I showed you recently. The red one is a corner to corner knitted one. The handy testing skewer is really a baked potato nail from the days when you baked them in the oven, long since dedicated to testing cakes.

A supply of brownies went next door, so I expect Gary's pleased. I left a box of them for him when he was out.

And before we leave January which seems to have galloped by, here's a look at a page of Edith Holden's January 1904 entries

I think I still have the very end of that virus, after all this time. I did a bit of free weight work and some stair exercises because I didn't feel like walking. Then just about collapsed into sleep. Woke up sneezing and congested, dangit. 

It seems to abate for a couple of days, normal activity, then bang it's back. Never gets very bad, just not very good either. Good thing I have brownies in the house. End of grousing.

And while I was fussing about sneezing, I discovered a free streaming service has appeared on my tablet. Movies, tv. So maybe that's a good winter matinee idea.

Happy evening everyone, knit on, or grumble on,  whatever you're up for.

I'm still deep in This Golden Fleece, and totally recommend it as a history and a travelogue and a knitting and wool fiber primer. It's huge, about 500 pages, plenty of good research, footnotes, really well done.

Just finished the umpteenth reading of Pym's Crampton Hodnet, one of her funniest books, with great set pieces.  One of my favorites is the scene at the professor's house where there are about five agendas bumping into one another, one per participant plus Miss Morrow's observation.

A lot of wonderful antiphonal dialogue, really a masterpiece of writing, so understated that a lot of early critics didn't even grasp what was going on. Which was funny in itself.

And I've started the Trollope-as-Harvey book. We'll see how it works out. Hard to follow Pym though.

Brownies, Palestinian embroidery and the moon

So I made the brownies. I never used a mix before, never eaten brownies either, so I'm not much of a judge.

Looking a bit artisanal. Anyway I took a few over to Gary where they were well received. Maybe Handsome Son will like them, too. Me, not so much , not being a chocolate fan 

And to followers of the Moon, here's a Twelfth night offering for the year

Meanwhile al Bayt posted a lovely thread on, well, threads. Palestinian embroidery, wonderful traditional form. There was a local exhibit of Palestinian embroidery here a while back,  but it was a man, mansplaining a women's art so I didn't bother.

Here's the real thing

I'm getting back into my Arabic study next week, now that my brain seems to be working again.

And my next reading is a book

I discovered about through the wonderful Eine Saite blog, which I recommend. Full of interesting textile talk and great pictures.

Happy day everyone, the world's full of such lovely stuff to enjoy, so let's. Speaking of which, the puzzle solution is:

TEENAGER

It was three pairs of anagrams, so you just needed to jumble item five to get there.