Kitchen Travels

Yesterday morning I turned on PBS just in time to catch the beginning of  Bea Ojakangas: Welcome To My Kitchen.  I'd seen her on Baking With Julia and I have her Great Scandinavian Baking Book but I didn't know she had a TV show.

It was my lucky day because she made a Finnish cardamom bread she called Pulla.  My sister in law's family is Finnish and their version of cardamom bread is called Nisu.  So of course today I wanted to fool around in the kitchen and make it.  I had cardamom pods I brought up here when I moved 6 years ago.  I'd gotten them to steam in milk for homemade chai but I never knew you could crack them open to get to the aromatic seeds.  The more you know!  I need to have another go at making chai knowing this!

I ground the seeds in my mortar and pestle and was surprised how menthol-y they smelled!  Hitherto I'd never really baked with cardamom and worried the bread would taste like Vicks.  The finished product was an absolute delight, both delicately flavored and aromatic.  I made a half recipe and after we both had a couple buttered slices, the rest will come to work with me tomorrow along with a stick of butter.  Today was our warmest day yet and the butter on the counter was actually soft and easy to spread.  Simple pleasures.

She also made THESE!  Mom and I ate these every morning at our hotel breakfast in Helsinki and we saw them everywhere at bakeries and markets.  They are rye pastry shells that encase unsweetened rice cooked in milk and butter.  They aren't sweet but they aren't bland or particularly rich.  They are simple and homey and portable and delicious.  We always saw them called "Karelian" pastries.  Karelia is a region of Finland near Russia.  I clipped a recipe out of the paper in Helsinki, not that it did me any good because it was in Finnish so I was very excited to see someone actually make them!  They weren't that fussy of an undertaking.

This is a linen zippered pouch version of a Karelian or Piirakka I bought on that same trip.  It resides in my knitting bag and holds stitch markers.  This pouch is terribly impractical but I was so fond of these pastries that I bought it as a pleasant reminder.  I can't tell you how happy I was to bake these today in my own kitchen!  And Dave loves anything to do with rice so he liked them too!

As I mentioned earlier, it was a lovely warm day and all the critters are coming back for the season, like this guy.  There's a plank that sticks out of the pond and there's often two turtles sunning themselves on it.  I had a terrible time getting a picture of them however.  I'd open the deck door and from all the way up there, they'd hear me and plop back into the water.

This egret has been visiting the pond.  He slowly sidesteps around the perimeter.  The frogs have started singing the last two nights and nothing is more soothing than Mother Nature's own music.

At least 3 bunnies are sleeping and wiggling in this rabbit nest out in the tomato area of the garden.  I can't believe we have baby bunnies already.  It's just out of reach of Lopi's chain and is driving her crazy.

And I have to laugh.  I rounded the corner on my baby jacket and wound the second ball of yarn.  I love the interior of the label!  These people know a thing or two about knitting!

Belated St. Patrick's

I recently finished these Almeara gloves which are beautifully cabled and Aran-esque.  I bought some Jamieson's Double Knitting yarn at the Yarn Harbor specifically for this pattern...only to be unable to make gauge with it!  I was a tad miffed.  I ended up using larger needles and some leftover worsted from my Roosevelt Cardigan.  I don't know if I'll keep them for myself or give them away because I prefer gloves with long cuffs.  Whatever I do with them, I'll decide AFTER fair season.

I shaped them up using a pair of blockers I made out of a flexible cutting board.  I got the idea here and plan to use these a LOT!

Speaking of blockers, we drove up to Fargo last month for Dave's bowling tournament and to visit my dad's side of the family.  My cousins always take us thrifting when we're in town and I absolutely love the Dakota Boys & Girls Ranch!  We walked in the door...

...and right out front was a pair of adjustable sock blockers!  I haven't had a chance to use them yet so I'll have to knit myself some new socks!

My cousin Stacy took me to Modern Textiles again and I had a list of stuff I needed/wanted.  I'd recently ordered online from them and was more than happy with the service I received.  The store was clearly doing well and that made me happy!

There are so many goodies and great ideas in every corner of this store!

And finally my latest project on needles is a baby sweater in very appropriate Irish hues!  I'm loving the side to side knitting and short row shaping!

Dog Arthritis Bed and Blankies

 I spent yesterday in my sewing room and it felt so good to just dink around in there for an afternoon!  Of course I had to spend the first 30 minutes cleaning, sorting and organizing because it tends to become a dumping ground of fabrics, findings, materials and items that need to be repaired...but I digress.

 Lopi was limping around and unable to jump onto our bed or go up and down the stairs about a week into the second strike this summer.  The alarmist in me panicked because I was just sure she had hip dysplasia or something seriously awful and when you're not working, the last thing you want to do is take a dog to the vet.  We took her in and it turns out she has the arthritis in her knees and now takes a doggy NSAID every day as well as some glucosamine.  I joke every morning that she has to take her pills and supplements.  She's doing so much better and you'd hardly know she'd had any trouble.  Another recommendation of the vet was to keep her joints warm which can be a trick in Minnesota. 

 I had an idea to make a new dog bed for her and cover it with leftover Insul-Bright batting.  Striking nurses have little extra petty cash so going to Joann's just wasn't an option.  I didn't have any stuffing material so I thought about shredding up old clothes or fabric scraps.  Whenever I make a quilt there is always an 18" or so margin of batting leftover from the large queen size pieces I buy and I save everything because you never know when you might need it.  Well thank goodness I did, and I was a little embarrassed that I had so much scrap batting saved, but I used it all up!  I folded it and sandwiched and wrapped it around itself to make a padded dog bed and didn't sew a stitch so it took about 10 minutes and I used up scraps that were taking up space in my sewing room.  Win-win!

Next I wrapped around a layer of Insul-Bright to seal and contain it, blanket stitched the edges and whip stitched through the middle with yarn and an upholstery needle.  Not too shabby!  You can see in this picture how messy and cluttered my sewing room is.  I need to sew more to use up stash!

I made a large pillowcase for it out of some stash fabric and voila--an arthritis dog bed!  Zak and Lopi both lay on this and it was absolutely free! 

I made 2 dog arthritis blankets yesterday using Insul-Bright for the batting and doggy and critter prints.  Insul-Bright reflects energy back to it's source, both hot and cold, so it is ideal for cooler bags, casserole carriers, coats, etc.  I've seen dog arthritis blankets in catalogs which is where I got this idea.  We have a blanket on the couch upstairs and down so now anywhere they lay, they can keep a little warmer.  My dad is currently traveling in Israel, but were he here he'd shake his head and say, "You need to have children."

And I don't know about you guys, but I think today is definitely a macaron day.  I fancied something sweet with my afternoon coffee and they hit the spot.  I also had to make a little room in my freezer for the deals I scored at Target between my Cartwheel and coupons.  When I was single and mortgage-free, I never shopped for deals or clipped coupons and just bought whatever I wanted.  Now I play a serious saving game and actually plan my shopping trips and delight in the money I save.  It certainly served me well this summer when preparing for and actually weathering a labor strike.  Now I continue to do it and stash the savings for a rainy day.  Have a warm and sunny Minnesota Sunday!  :)

Festive Pillows

The last time Brenda and Melissa and I got together was this summer at Brenda's cabin for a Weekend Retreat and Craft-Off.  Brenda found this fabulous tutorial for magic pillowcases and we had fun with it.  I made a pair of Christmas pillowcases that weekend but I should have bought just a tad more fabric so the print could be horizontal instead of vertical.  It's a busy enough print that it doesn't really matter, but I notice it!  Oh well.  Fun, easy and quick project.

I bought Valentine fabric that weekend too but only got around to sewing them last night.  When we still chose our own scrubs, I made all kinds of seasonal and holiday tops and I love using seasonal fabrics throughout the house in various home textiles.  My mind is mentally going through my stash inventory for combinations that I could use for my nieces and nephew. 

On a somewhat unrelated note...where I grew up in rural north central Iowa, we trick or treated with an ice cream bucket or a large plastic bag.  In fact, the volunteer fire fighters in our community would hold an assembly at our school every year and talk to us about trick-or-treat safety because we went out in the DARK in my day.  They'd also hand out sturdy plastic trick or treat bags to every kid in attendance and that is what we used.  Since moving to urban Minnesota, I was surprised to see that most kids up here trick or treat with pillowcases.  I asked Dave about this and apparently it is standard practice from time immemorial.  What do you use where you live?

It's still winter...

More gloomy cold winter weather.  It is Minnesota however and we pass the season with the comforts of home.  Truth be told, I secretly love this weather because you get to wear all your knitting and snuggle up with blankies and bake with reckless abandon.  Nature gives us beautiful scenery too, like this Sleepy Hollow mist hanging over the woods and pond.

My new favorite thing is my essential oil diffuser.  I have one in my living room and one in our bedroom.  Both were purchased at Target for $29.99 and I don't know what I did without them.  We've used aromatherapy at the hospital for some time now and I use these at home every day and at night.  I use oil blends for relaxing and energizing and just love them and sent one up to my sister in law and nieces in Duluth.  Maybe it is just psychological but I find it very calming and thought they could use a little calm while my brother is deployed.  Also it scents the house without being sooty like a candle, and even though our dogs are well behaved, I always got nervous burning a candle with a dog running loose.  Our new Hyvee stocks a large selection of oils and diffusers and I check them out every time I'm in there.  My favorite oils so far are Sunleaf and Minnesota made!

I finished my first pair of gloves using sock weight yarn and size 2 needles.  These took forever but I am very pleased with the result.  I have tons of sock yarn and now have another project to utilize it instead of just socks.  This yarn was purchased at a gas station shopping center in Iceland!

I look forward to watching EastEnders every weekend on Tpt with a blankie and my heating pad and now I can drink tea with my mug!

My holly plant has berries developing!  I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!  Now I'm checking every day to see if they turn red!  I want this thing to turn into a full blown shrub so I can cut boughs for holiday decorating!

It's Christmas time in the city...

Christmas has come and gone in what seems like the blink of an eye.  I've had my tree down for almost 2 weeks now but I still have some winter decorations and lights up for a little longer.  I was on call the afternoons of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and was called in both days.  I thought the view of downtown looked so pretty with the snow and was reminded of that song with the red and green traffic lights.

I was excited about my holly plant.  First of all, I've managed to not kill it for an entire year.  We saw entire bushes and hedges of this beautiful plant growing wild and unchecked all over England and Ireland so I wanted to coax my little centerpiece plant into something sizable.  I have it in a large pot and it sits outside in the porch during the spring and summer but it only sprouted a few new leaves.  In the winter, it sits in the large easterly facing window and seems to be happy there.  Around Christmas, I started noticing these little buds appearing on the stems and was so excited thinking they might be holly berries developing.  The large red berries in the picture an artificial decorative sprig.

We were reading about this at work that there are male and female holly plants and for actual berries to develop, you need a male plant to fertilize them or they develop into flowers as pictured above.  I hope to some day have a plant big enough to snip entire boughs and decorate the house.

Of course I did my fair share of baking during the season.  Dave has finally convinced me to make peanut butter blossom cookies with real Hershey's Kisses instead of chocolate stars.  My only complaint about that is having to unwrap all those candies but the foil debris looked so pretty on the counter.

I made a little extra pocket money by selling sugar cookies to a few friends and coworkers.  My good friend Nancy bought some for both Thanksgiving and Hannukah.  For the latter, she'd requested plain red hearts and blue circles for her order--and she didn't even want sprinkles on them.  I felt so bad making unadorned cookies for her but at the last minute I had an idea for simple decorations.  She loved them and I was happy.

Mom, Freya, JJ and I all attended the Martin Luther exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.  I've been to Germany twice but never to any of the Luther sites.  2017 marks the 500th anniversary of the Reformation and I'm sure traveling there this year would be a zoo.  Luckily we had the nest best thing at the MIA.  I finally got to see Lucas Cranach the Elder portrait of him in person which was a highlight of the exhibit for me.

They'd brought several Luther treasures to the Twin Cities including the pulpit from which he delivered his very last sermon.  It was brought from Andreaskirche in Eisleben, Germany.  

They had several beautiful altarpieces from different German churches on display.  How generous of the German congregations to loan their treasures to us.  I couldn't help but think their churches must look so forlorn without their beautiful artwork.

They also had furniture from his house in Eisleben, including his writing table.  He brought religion to the masses with his translation work and his writings.  How amazing to see the table where he worked.  I felt very proud and thankful to be Lutheran at the exhibit, especially when I saw a real surviving Indulgence. 

I also love medieval history and this surviving physician's plague mask was a sight to behold.  I especially love reading about the Black Death ever since Norwegian camp because it was such a significant event in European history. 

On a lighter note, Mom and I took in the Dressing Downton even at the Mall of America.  Until the 31st, they have original costumes on display from the show.  Mom got the senior discount and I got the TpT members' discount upon admission.

As you can see, you could get right up next to the clothing to inspect the hand stitching and details.  Beautifully constructed garments.  What a privilege it must have been to participate in that production.

Glensheen

Amy treated us with a visit to Glensheen which is a historic mansion in Duluth.  Admission is $15-$26 depending on which tour you're going to take but with her military ID, she can bring up to 5 family members free of charge.  We're fond of saying, "If it's free, it's me!"  We were there at 0845 waiting in line for the gate to open and it's a good thing too because it was busy.  The mansion is currently decorated for their very popular Christmas tours.  Only Minnesotans would wait outside in cold weather with snow actively falling!  I noticed some nice hand knits this day too!  ;)

Even the stables are decorated!  And they go all out.  Beautiful fresh greenery and garlands everywhere and lights hung on practically anything that didn't move.

The house was completed in 1908 so if you like Titanic or Downton Abbey, this is the perfect time period for you.  I loved all this white tile throughout the servant areas of the house.  This tree was in the carriage house where you enter the grounds to start your tour.

The grounds are rather extensive with a man-made babbling brook and trails/tunnels.  Much of the trails are not open to the public but I watched a special on TpT and there was talk of interest in opening them.

Of course the upstairs rooms were beautiful but much of the first floor formal rooms were quite dark and flash photography was not allowed.  This is the grand staircase with stained glass windows. 

This is the view from those windows.  That water you see is Lake Superior.  Talk about your lakefront property!

This is Mrs. Congdon's bedroom upstairs and was so bright and beautifully blue. 

She had a lovely view of the lake out her bedroom window.

As we approach her writing desk, what do we have here?

Why it is a bead crocheted reticule!  I might have to try and steal this design for my fair project next summer!  All the furniture in the house is original and was custom made in Minnesota.  You see all sorts of Arts and Crafts period furniture and Art Nouveau stained glass and lamps.  Gorgeous.

Sewing room.  Mine is much messier.

I think this was a larder off the kitchen.  I love rooms like this.  Just look at all that storage!

Of course I loved the kitchen but I was a tad disappointed.  It had been the most renovated room in the house because of course the house was occupied up to the late 1970's so there was a modern electric oven and refrigerator.  My favorite part of stately homes in England is always the old kitchens and implements.

Storage room for all the dishes and china.  Who needs a hutch when you have an entire room?

This is the glorious breakfast room or Green Room off the kitchen.  Just look at the view out those beautiful windows.  What a great place to read or knit!

This was a downstairs storage room.  Again note all that "below stairs" white tile.

Laundry room with a ginormous mangle and clothes horse.

There were 25 Christmas trees throughout the house, even one in the boiler room!

We had almost as much fun outside as we did inside.  The grounds and trails had these lights set up and it had snowed all day while we were there.  It was a perfect Minnesota day though because it really wasn't too cold, the snow was heavy "snowball" snow so it didn't blow around and just coated everything so beautifully.  I really liked this picture I snapped of my niece.

Here is my brother's family halfway down the trail that leads to the shore.

Can you see the ship on the horizon?

The self guided tour was set up so cleverly.  You exited the house via the laundry room and before you did, there was an urn of hot water and packets of cocoa mix and jars of marshmallows and candy canes.  While you traipse around the paths to the bridge and the shore, you have a wonderfully hot cup of cocoa to carry with you, and then you're met by a fragrant fire pit complete with sticks and the makings for s'mores!  The snow was falling, you can see your breath, you have the world's most appropriate beverage and snack, and everyone is bundled up in winter coats and lovely hand knits...I've never felt more like I was in a Currier and Ives print!

Photo-op before we left the grounds.  They also had a Christmas village set up in the front lawn of pine huts selling crafts, coffee, breads, sausages, fresh greenery and garlands, etc.  

What a great morning activity.  And again I'm glad we got there first thing because it was hopping when we left.  Cars lined the streets for blocks as we drove away.  I'd recommend this to anyone visiting Duluth!

And speaking of road trips, my sister took her family to Canada to visit a family friend and they brought me back this Kinder advent calender!  I think the prize on the 25th is a full size Kinder Surprise Egg.  This is quite possibly the best gift I've ever been given!  It's right up there with the Red Ryder carbine bb gun as far as epic presents!  Thank you Lisa and kids!