Sunday 24 February 2008 at 9:01 pm
...but Fatfree Vegan Kitchen is one of my favorite food blogs anyway, just because of her colorful, inventive, and healthy recipes. I modified her Roasted Cauliflower Soup recipe to use the ingredients I had on hand, and it turned out really, really well.
My changes: No truffle oil; I added carrots because my head of cauliflower was small; I used fat free chicken broth because I rarely have veggie broth in the pantry; I substituted 1 cup of beer for 1 cup of broth; and I added a handful (1-2oz) of shredded cheddar at the end. Even with my additions, this is a very healthy soup.
All pretty, before roasting:
All done (accompanied by the Epicurious cheddar drop biscuits, using rosemary instead of scallions and half whole wheat flour):
I had a very nice weekend. On Saturday Jag and I watched two of his best friends earning (and I do mean earning!) their black belts in Isshinryu Karate along with a third member of their karate school. It was a privilege to be present for the test.
On more minor notes:
Thursday 21 February 2008 at 10:31 pm
I started an Excel spreadsheet to track my credit card debt in May 2005. At that point, my combined balances totaled just under $23,000. That amount isn't even my peak debt; I'd already started paying down my balances when I decided to use the spreadsheet, but twenty three grand is certainly bad enough. In November 2006 my furnace/AC unit died, so I took a $4,000 setback to my debt repayment schedule to cover that little purchase, using a low interest rate offer on one of the cards. I also ended up charging certain expenses at the same time I was trying to pay off the cards (dumb, dumb, dumb).
Yesterday I paid off the balance on one of my two remaining cards and currently have just under $8,000 to go, which means I've managed to get rid of at least $19,000 worth of debt since May 2005 (not including paying off my car loan in the meantime).
I've been carrying such large credit card balances for so long, I honestly never thought I'd manage to get this far. I also never thought that all the stupid financial choices I made in the late 90s and early 2000s would haunt me for this long or have such a huge impact on my life in terms of affecting my credit score, my ability to survive job uncertainty, or my freedom to voluntarily make a career change to a lower-paid profession (not to mention my meager retirement savings). I have absolutely no one to blame but myself for having gotten into this situation, and I am so glad I finally made the decision to take care of it. I'm actually looking forward to putting every spare dollar I can towards that last balance and finally breaking free of my self-imposed indentured servitude. Instead of working for Citibank and Chase, I'll be working for me! I've been carrying balances since shortly after I graduated from college, so this will truly be the first time in my adult life that I don't have debt hanging over me. Which is just really sad when you think about it.
Some web sites I've found really helpful while working towards credit card debt freedom:
And also, um, maybe, Dave Ramsey's "Debt Snowball" plan.
Sunday 17 February 2008 at 1:55 pm
Yesterday was a whirlwind shopping spree at A Southern Season, Barnes & Noble, and Thimble Pleasures and Yarns, Etc in Carrboro (which are conveniently located across the street from each other), with stops for brunch and dessert (mmm, root beer float) along the way. Jag gets the Most Patient SO Award for driving me to Carrboro to buy fabric and yarn. 
I had never been to Yarns, Etc and had last visited Thimble Pleasures years ago during their opening week, so these were basically both new stores to me. Thimble Pleasures is one of the best quilt stores I've ever visited. Walking into their batik/Asian fabric room made me want to pass out. I was so overwhelmed I couldn't decide what to buy, so I assigned Jag to choose some brown fabrics for the Autumn Splendor quilt I've been thinking of making (more about that below). After fanning myself vigorously with some fat quarters, I was finally able to select a few fabrics for my stash. I don't know what project they'll end up in, but it'll sure be purty. I got out of the store for under $50 for a good selection of fabric, which was a nice surprise at the register.
Next stop was Yarns, Etc. I've been to their slightly larger sister store in Raleigh (Great Yarns) several times, but I think Yarns, Etc has a friendlier vibe. I bought 2 balls of Kidsilk Spray to make a really pretty triangular scarf/stole that I first saw Molly wearing at Geek Beer, which will forever be the Molly Scarf to me. The pattern was free with the purchase and should be a quick knit. I was also unable to resist some locally hand-dyed sock yarn from Three Waters Farm. This may be destined for a non-sock project; I've been toying with the idea of knitting lace table runners and these colors are great for spring.
The Autumn Splendor quilt is a scrappy quilt from the Spring 2000 Quiltmaker "All-Time Favorites" special issue that I've wanted to make for a while (like about 8 years 
).
I've been pulling fabric out of my stash that I thought would work well in the quilt. As you can see, there's plenty of red, tan, burgundy, yellow and orange, but not so much brown.
Jag picked out some great browns that I think will add some needed depth to the palette.
In the meantime, I haven't stopped knitting, but I do have project ADD. I've gotten about 4" knitted below the lace panel on the Simple Knitted Bodice. I tried it on again today, and the hip increases seem to be doing what they're supposed to. I've got at least 4 more inches to go (probably more, since people with my body shape should not be wearing "cropped" anything).
I also started another circular washcloth from a different pattern:
And I've gotten 2 repeats done on the cuff of the second arrow lace sock.
The End
Friday 15 February 2008 at 11:14 am
1.) Your toast smiles at you.
2.) You look across the kitchen table to see a dozen roses and your sweetie looking back at you.
Sunday 10 February 2008 at 7:32 pm
Today was supposed to be a "crafty day" for me, and I had big aspirations. I kept getting sidetracked by cleaning the house and laundry and various other sundry tasks, but I did manage to make something.
I solved the problem of my unruly DPN collection back in September by making a needle roll; I decided to do the same for my tangled heap of fixed circular needles and Knit Picks Options needle cables. For some reason I got it into my head that it needed to be quilted, so I basically ended up making a wall quilt that happens to have pockets for holding cables. I used scraps from my Grandma's tote bag and did some rough and ready machine quilting. I didn't feel like labelling the slots, so I used stick-on velcro circles to hang a needle gauge to one side. I'm pretty happy with the result.
Now I just need to find a dowel or tree branch or something else decorative to hang it from. I also need to make a second needle roll for the untidy pile of Knit Picks Options needle tips I've accumulated, since the DPN one is full up. 
On the subject of crafts, I'd like to highly recommend a new magazine called Living Crafts. I subscribed just before Christmas, and I've been really pleased with it. It's heavily into seasonal crafts with natural materials, many of which are completely adorable Waldorf-style toys that I want for myself. (Ahem.) There's a a lot of needle-felting and usually 1-2 knitting patterns per issue, along with other miscellaneous projects. One of the coolest ideas from the current issue is from the "Weaving a Life" article, which has a picture of a group of middle school kids "weaving their fall garden harvest into their EarthLoom" (bad picture below). This strikes me as a really great idea for a seasonal group activity.
On a semi-related note, I also think I need to make some of these (free pattern at Jean Greenhowe Designs).
Sunday 10 February 2008 at 11:32 am
I've had a very pleasant and productive weekend so far. I:
Went to Geek Beer, got to wish Molly goodbye, and had a really nice dinner with a subset of the crowd afterwards.
Went for morning walkies.
Swept heaps of dead leaves, etc off the deck, got rid of an old rotten rope hammock (saved the crossbars for plant stakes), and generally cleaned up outside.
Had lunch outside on the deck and knitted and flipped through old quilting magazines for ideas, while in the company of my sweetie and one of the kitties.
Enjoyed the unnaturally warm weather (although seeing daffodils bloom before Valentine's Day is a little weird).
Cleaned old stuff out of my fridge (ew) and my pantry.
Replaced some lightbulbs and cleaned all the bugs and assorted crap out of the globe light fixture in my kitchen (which was gross, but now I'm happy every time I look at it).
Worked on my sweater and lace sock projects a bit.
Caught the second half of a Duke game, which Duke won.
Had potato pancakes for dinner, mmmm.
While sorting through the pantry, I discovered that I apparently had aspirations of starting a nut store at some point in the past.
So this morning I flipped through my trusty King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion in search of some way to use up my overabundance of nuts. The recipe that caught my eye was a Cranberry-Almond Coffee Cake that's supposed to use up post-Thanksgiving cranberry sauce. I love tube pan recipes that involve layering the batter over a surprise inside, so I subbed in a jar of apricot preserves for the cranberries and some sour cream for the buttermilk, and got a very tasty result.
Before:
After:
This is probably the most-used of all my cookbooks, and I have yet to make something I don't like from it. Which is good, because this recipe only used 1/2 cup of almonds from my vast nut hoard. 
Sunday 03 February 2008 at 11:02 pm
You and the rest of the team put in a great effort tonight against those arrogant, cocky bastards and their smirking twit of a quarterback and made football history. However, I think you should be aware that it was my custom-designed T-shirt featuring Tom Brady being fed through a wood-chipper that truly propelled you to victory.
