We’ve been using this recipe to pickle the jalapeño abundance that is emerging from our garden. We add more carrots and onions than the recipe calls for and a white vinegar yields a clearer bottle than the apple cider vinegar. We’ve already bottled 26 pints and might get a few more before the winter comes. We processed the pints 15 minutes in a water bath. It’s been unbelievably exciting but annoyingly immediate to bottle and preserve the bounty of our garden before it goes bad. Fortunately for me, the Mr. has completely taken the lead on this. I’m just his sous chef. Which suits me just fine.
We finally have enough ripe tomatoes and jalapenos to make salsa! We made a triple batch on Sunday and we’ve already polished it off. Our favorite is a recipe from Rick Bayless’s Mexico One Plate At A Time cookbook. Salsa De Molcajete. For the recipe, instead of canned tomatoes, we roast a pound of tomatoes under the broiler, turning them until they are blackened in spots and cooked through. Then, peel the skins off and either process in a food processor or crush them in our molcajete. Save all that yummy juice from the roasted tomatoes! We also substantially increase the amount of jalapenos to spice it up. The Mr. served his mission in Mexico and over the years I have slowly been raising my spicy heat tolerance to match his. Now our kids gobble up the spicy stuff too. I can’t tell you how satisfying it is to watch the kids devour vegetables from our garden!
If you’re interested in learning how to crochet the gloriously versatile Granny Square, you’re in luck! I’m teaching a Granny Squares class this Saturday August 10th at Harmony from 2 – 4 pm (only $15!) This is a really fun one day workshop where I teach you the basics of changing colors, crocheting in the round, and joining crochet motifs as you go – along with other fun stuff!
Are you hesitating to sign up because you don’t know how to crochet yet? No problem! This Thursday night I’m teaching FREE Beginning Crochet class to those that are signed up for my Granny Squares class! Come learn the basics so that you can make granny squares!! Thursday August 8th, 7:30 – 9 pm at Harmony in Provo.
Exactly 20 years ago today I entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT to serve an 18 month proselyting mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Taipei, Taiwan. I said goodbye to the Mr. (who waited patiently for me while I was gone – and then said, “Come home, already!” We were married 10 weeks after I returned.), my parents, family, and friends and wore my missionary tag for eighteen months with great pride.
I’ve been thinking about that girl – her dreams of the future, her confidence (oh! the confidence!), her expectations, her accomplishments – and wonder what she would think of herself now? I’ve also been thinking about how fundamentally my life was changed for the good by my decision to serve a mission and I’m filled with gratitude.
1. Saying goodbye, August 4, 1993. Those aren’t really tears of sadness – they were tears of, “Why the heck did I bring so much stuff??/2. National Palace Museum/3. Photo taken on the roof of the Taiwan Taipei Mission Home overlooking the Taiwan Temple. That sweater! I bought it at Benetton while I was in Taiwan and after living several years in Las Vegas, NV, I gave it to good will thinking I’d never really need it again. Oh how I wish I had that sweater still!! It’s on my list to recreate.
From the minute I saw Fanalaine’s shawl I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind. Something about the old world charm of the pattern, Fanalaine’s yarn color choice, and the clover leaf edging she chose just seemed really lovely to me.
It took me a little while to find a yarn I wanted to commit to, and thanks to Laura Harmon at Harmony, I’m delighted with the Egypto Cotton she ordered for me. I kept crocheting once the pattern ended to make it larger (I wanted it to cover my arms, not just my shoulders), but even so, it has been a thoroughly satisfying quick crochet project. I finished it in time for my birthday yesterday and I’m over the moon with it!
I found, though, that as I was crocheting I kept thinking that the puffs motif in the pattern reminded me of Quaker Oatmeal Squares cereal – in a really good, really yummy way. The puffs on the shawl had the same color, heft, and feel of the cereal. So, now I want to eat my shawl. Yummy!
Alipyper Ravelry project info here. Free pattern here. Fanalaine’s version here. Pattern for edging here.
Come learn how to crochet a darling, versatile flower that you can attach to anything you want – a bag, a scarf, a hat, whatever! I am teaching a Beginning Crochet class tomorrow, Saturday July 20th from 3-5pm at Harmony, which is located at 315 E. Center Street in Provo, 801-615-0268. Class fee is $20. Call now to reserve your spot!
Class participants need to bring 1 skein of worsted weight yarn and a size H/8 (5.00mm) crochet hook for the flower (10% discount given at Harmony for class supplies!). Green yarn for the leaves, a pattern booklet and a muslin project bag will be provided.
It will be so much fun!! Crochet has become such an amazing creative and stress relieving outlet for me and I would love to teach you or your children how to do it too.
Apparently {I} loves lemony treats as much as I do (Lemony Lemon Cake here, Lemon Ice Box Cake here, and Lemon Love here). He fashioned this stacked lemon cookie the other day and promised that he’d eat the left over cookies once he’d devoured the lemon cream he’d stolen. It didn’t taste as good as he’d imagined, poor thing.
I decided to crochet a few more handkerchiefs – this time using my own Eyelet Lace Crochet Edging Pattern. They only take a few hours to crochet and it’s nice to have a pretty gift on hand. I’m using up my stash of vintage #30 crochet thread and the last of my Irish linen handkerchiefs. I used a size 12 (0.60 mm) steel crochet hook for this size thread and made an 11 dc shell at each corner to continue the pattern all the way around the handkerchief.
On the left, 2 sc between each shell. On the right 3 sc between each shell.
I adjusted my pattern a little bit on these handkerchiefs…I crocheted 3 single crochet stitches between each shell instead of 2 single crochets. I think that the extra single crochet lets the lace lay a little flatter, but I like the lacy ripple affect when the shells are close together too. The flatter version on the right still ripples, but not so much. What do you think? Which version do you like better?
We were planning on heading to San Diego for this week, then we weren’t going to go, then we did, but we cut our original plan in half, so we ended up being home in time to celebrate the 4th in Provo (the BEST place in all of America to celebrate Independence Day).
The Mr.’s sister, Susan, and her cute family live about a mile and a half from Pacific Beach. They are always incredibly generous to host us when we come. This year I decided I wanted to try surfing and Susan gave me my first lesson.
I wished that I had looked more like this…
Go Susan!
But it mainly looked like this for me…
It was a lot of fun – despite the neti pot effect that my wipeouts had on my nasal passages – and I’ll definitely try it again!
On the way down, we made the obligatory stop at Cane’s (definitely our favorite fast food place – best chicken fingers EVER)…
drove through Baker, CA on one of the hottest days on record…
and I was able to work on another crocheted handkerchief – this time using my own Eyelet Lace edging pattern – which I finished once we returned to Provo.
My supply of hemstitched linen handkerchiefs is getting low and I have yet to find a place that sells exactly what I want at the price I want to pay. We’ll see if I can somehow figure out how to make them myself. Hmmm. Not sure I want to tackle that yet.
