Our evening manager is expecting a little girl in May. I’d love to knit something for her and Molly Bee has got me thinking again about sweaters. Ruth Brown-Reinsel’s book, Knitting Ganseys, has a cute little sweater that would be perfect.
Chelsea’s Heart Gansey. Only two 100g skeins of sport weight (in maybe a nice soft pink) for a sweater for an 18 month old. Quick and relatively easy.
And I’ve been also contacted again by the KnitPicks design coordinator to do work for them as a test knitter. Too many choices.
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Completed the little gansey sweater sampler this afternoon. I’m beginning to think I really need to do a sweater again. I’ve only done two, but both were learning experiences and as slow as this was to complete, I really enjoyed it.
6 inches across at the waist. 15 inches from cuff to cuff. 8 inches from collar to waist. Don’t know *what* I’m going to do with it. Anybody have a use for a tiny sweater?
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Today is National Chocolate Covered Raisins Day. Go grab a handful and celebrate the day… 
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Our earliest spring violet. Marsh Violet (Viola palustris). Though it looks white, it is usually described as being purple to blue. These guys have just a touch of purple.
The native Red-flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum) is a welcome sight in the early spring. Nothing brightens up a day better than these pretty red blooms.
Another early spring bloomer is Winter Hazel. Bare stems with bright yellow flowers and red stamens make a striking statement in the garden.
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Thanks for everybody’s birthday wishes. It was a pretty good day.
Banana bread turned out delicious. Really nothing special, but it is so tasty with very ripe bananas. Be gentle with mixing of the flour. Just enough to incorporate.
Greasing and flouring only the bottom of a regular loaf pan causes the bread to cling to the sides and rise higher. If using a nonstick loaf pan, on which the sides are very slick, grease and flour sides as well as the bottom.
I’ve begun to use a scale to weigh out dry (and sometimes wet, yogurt in this case) ingredients, so gram weights included. I skipped the walnuts this time. Good site for conversion from volume to weight here.
Makes one 9-inch loaf
2 cups (200g) unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (143g) granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 1/4 cups (115g) toasted walnuts , chopped coarse (about 1 cup)
3 very ripe bananas , soft, darkly speckled, mashed well (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup (63g) plain yogurt
2 large eggs , beaten lightly
6 tablespoons (88g) unsalted butter , melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1. Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom only of regular loaf pan, or grease and flour bottom and sides of nonstick 9-by-5-by-3-inch loaf pan; set aside. Combine first five ingredients together in large bowl; set aside.
2. Mix mashed bananas, yogurt, eggs, butter, and vanilla with wooden spoon in medium bowl. Lightly fold banana mixture into dry ingredients with rubber spatula until just combined and batter looks thick and chunky. Scrape batter into prepared loaf pan; bake until loaf is golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.
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Sweet 60..! 
Today is my 60th birthday. I’m off work and don’t expect to do much today but relax. I’ve got a good sounding recipe for banana bread, three very soft bananas and all the ingredients. If it tastes as good as it sounds like it will, I’ll post the recipe. Later this afternoon, I’ll be heading into town for beer and dinner at Lucky Labrador
Pastry class recipes.. Hmm…. I thought they were in the handouts we received in class, but they don’t seem to be there. I’ve contacted the school and I’ll try to get a hold of the instructor and get copies. He had promised we would get them, but things got hectic at the end of the class and they seem to have been forgotten.
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This one has got be one of my favorites so far. I’ve always loved working with cookies and cakes and sweets and I just clicked with this class. The chef/instructor and I talked a bit and he’s planning on starting a professional pastry cook class in the next couple of months. Unfortunately, the first classes will be strictly evenings due to lack of space during the day, but he’s expecting to expand into day classes later. Now this I would love..
Today’s results. On the left, a chocolate cup (balloon dipped into tempered chocolate) filled with chocolate mousse and topped with whipped cream and chocolate filigrees. On the right, a little custard pastry. A quick short dough crust, brushed with chocolate and filled with a vanilla pastry cream, topped with fresh fruit and an apricot glaze.
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Off for the final class for this session. This will be a pastry class and I’ll be bringing home goodies… 
I’ve been fighting the blues something fierce the past week and I’m hoping getting out into the world for the day does me some good. I’d planned on taking the bicycle along for some riding after class, but I’m moving too slow this morning to get it loaded up so I’ll be heading over to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) for a while and then to my (current) favorite pub for beer and dinner.
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Eileen received a copy of this, forwarded from a friend (click on the picture for a more readable version). I’m a skeptical old fart and headed over to snopes.com to see if Michael or Barbara had anything to say about it.
They do, but whether it’s for real is yet to be determined. Still, Eileen had a good laugh and I’m sure you all will appreciate it also… 
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Step outside this evening to round up the outdoor cats for the night and was met by the many voiced chorus of the Pacific Tree Frog. Have I mentioned that the Tree Frogs are back? I wish I could really record the overwhelming sound that comes from a creature so small. I recorded a little bit of their calls last year, but there’s no way to really appreciate it unless you stand in the middle of a couple hundred male frogs all trying to outdo each other.
Culinary class yesterday was exceptional. Kitchen Fundamentals, This was the second class I’ve taken from Chef Thompson, one of the primary chef/instructors at the school and I enjoy him more each time. He’s a talker. He warned us at the start of the class that he’d probably run the class over time and he managed to turn what was supposed to be three hour class into a four hour class. I actually had more hands on work with a chef’s knife in this class than in the Knife Skills class last week. A bit of everything, including roasting peppers, learning to do the little wrist flip thing you see cooks do while sauteing. We had chopped onions (using the same technique I mentioned last week) and then sauteed them in a little oil over *very* hot gas stoves, attempting to flip and keep most of the onions in the skillet. I did pretty good, as I’ve worked on the flip for some time, but others weren’t as adept. There were lots of onions on floors and stoves… 
I’m glad the Consumer Class students don’t have to clean up after themselves. Finished the class, breading and cooking up *huge* chicken breasts. The more I take classes at Oregon Culinary Institute, the more I want to go full time. Soon…
Not much knitting the past couple of day because of work and classes, but I’ve picked up stitches on the second sleeve and given a couple free hours I should be able to finish it and then finish the neck and the little sweater will be complete.
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