(mis)adventures of spindlerose

Ten on Tuesday: Things To Do Inside When It's Too Cold To Go Outside

Today's Ten on Tuesday was a little bit challenging. I do not mind cold weather; in fact, I kind of enjoy it. I learned the best way to dress for extreme cold (layers, lots and lots of layers) as a kid who walked about a mile to and from school in Wisconsin winters. When I was in fourth grade, my plastic glasses frame snapped from the cold on my walk home from school. After that, I put them in my pocket and walked home a little bit blind on sub-zero days. As a gown-up, I appreciate having the option to stay inside on cold days. 

Here's what I did on Sunday (the first truly cold day this winter):

1. Knit, spin, or do your favorite craft (I'm still working on the never-ending blanket)
2. Mess around online (blogs, Ravelry, the news)
3. Read a trashy novel
4. Practice yoga
5. Cook something warm
6. Drink a lot of tea
7. Vacuum
8. Snuggle with your sweetie, kids, or pets in front of the fireplace
9. Play board games
10. Take a long soak in the tub

Ten on Tuesday: Favorite Soups

Carole's challenge this week is to share 10 favorite soups. Soup is one of my favorite things to make and eat; I'm not sure I can limit my list of favorites to just 10. Here's a try in no particular order.

1. Black Bean. This is on my mind because I made a very tasty pot last night. I started here and then modified it by using red peppers instead of tomato, ground chipotle instead of jalepeno, pork stock instead of chicken broth, and cooking my own beans instead of using canned.
2. Minestrone. I usually make a vegetarian version with parmesan rind to flavor the broth.
3. Green split pea in any form. I love it with ham, but usually make the vegetarian version from the original Moosewood Cookbook.
4. White bean and swiss chard. I pulled a recipe out of the Williams-Sonoma catalog at least 10 years ago and make it at least once every winter.
5. Potato, leek, and kale from another Moosewood book, but I don't remember which one.
6. Mom's post-Thanksgiving smoky turkey noodle. Dad always cooks the turkey on the grill (more space for side in the oven that way), and the turkey stock Mom makes the next day is a little smokey and extra tasty.
7. Homemade cream of mushroom. I use the recipe from the original Vegetarian Epicure cookbook.
8. Lobster bisque.
9. Squash in any form. My sister makes hers with red lentils, curry, and coconut milk. I have that recipe stashed somewhere and all the ingredients in the house. I think I know what I'm making next weekend.
10. Corn chowder.

Now that I've stopped at 10, I realized just how many other soups I love: New England clam chowder, Grandma's Manhattan-style fish chowder, my friend Richard's vegetarian French onion, traditional Indian dal, red lentil, egg drop, won ton, and tom yum.

Let me know if you have a favorite I should try, or, let me know if you want to come over for soup and a nice slice of crusty bread.

Ten on Tuesday: Things I Want to Do in 2012

1. Knit with cashmere. I have cashmere blend yarn for several sweater-sized projects in the studio. This is my year to use it. I will earn a bit of luxury knitting every time I complete a fitness goal. First up is Sabine in Superior.
2. Run a 5K race in March or April. D and I have started running again. If we survive our cold winter morning runs, stay healthy, and stick to the plan, we will be ready for a 5K by St. Patrick's Day.
3. Run a 10K race in September. If we keep training through the spring and summer, we will be ready to tackle a longer distance by the end of summer.
4. Finish 12 sweaters. This is much less of a stretch than you might think. There are at least 10 nearly finished sweaters hiding on my shelves that stalled for some reason. It is time stop procrastinating, solve the problems, and finish them.
5. Finish 12 pairs of hand knit socks and give most of them away. My sock shelf is overflowing, but socks are still my go to project for travel knitting. Since there is a lot of business travel in my future, there will be a lot of socks.
6. Spin every day. Even 10 minutes a day with a spindle adds up to quite a bit of yarn after a few weeks. Daily efforts at the wheel lead to more consistent finished yarn. My spinning focus this year is spinning for a purpose rather than just spinning. I have made myself a personal fiber club of 6 bumps of fiber that I will spin for a specific project.
7. Knit with handspun. If I am spinning with the end project in mind, I need to knit the project when the yarn is finished so I can evaluate my progress and figure out what to do better next time. I also need to make some space in my handspun bin for the other yarns I plan to spin this year.
8. Learn how to weave. The more I talk to weavers and handle hand woven cloth, the more I want to weave. I am going to start looking for a used loom in May and take a weaving class or two later in the year.
9. Go back to Hawaii with D. We have not been there since 2009. It is time for a visit.
10. Post to this here blog at least once a week. I will start with Carole's Ten on Tuesday this month, and see where that leads me.

Ten things I did last weekend

 

1. Made coils with Jacey Boggs.
2. Learned how to handcard fluffy rolags with Andrea Mielke-Schroer.
3. Turned those yummy rolags into sproingy woolen spun yarns.
4. Spun cotton on a takhli with Stephanie Gaustad.
5. Sampled seven rare breed wools with Deb Robson and put my new hand carding skill to good use with some of them.
6. Spent the last hours of SOAR spinning with many friends in my hotel room. I took pictures ofbthis, but they are all unflattering, so I'm not going to share any publicly.
7. Introduced friends to D, the little red airplane, and the wonders of aerobatic flight.
8. Watched the first half of the Patriots and Packers games.
9. Picked up big sticks so D could use our brand new lawnmower.
10. Lots and lots of laundry.

No wonder I was so tired all day Monday.

Ten on Tuesday: Intentions for 2011

Carole's 10 on Tuesday topic this week is 10 Intentions for 2011. For the past few years, I have avoided New Year's Resolutions because I try to live intentionally year round. Most of these intentions are not new for 2011; instead, they are continuations of intentions formed during the past year or so.

1. Buy a house. After 5 years in Virginia, D and I have concluded that we are here to stay, the real estate market has stabilized, and we are ready to be home owners again. I look forward to having my own space again, but I dread the process of getting there.
2. Pick up after myself. As my Christmas gift to D, I cleared my stuff off of all the flat surfaces in the living room and dining room. I was surprised by how little time it took. My newest habit is making sure those surfaces are clear at the end of every day as an ongoing gift to my husband who always picks up after himself.
3. Eat more fruits and vegetables. The bi-weekly produce boxes help with this, but I still do not think to grab a piece of fruit for afternoon snacks or toss together a salad at dinner time as often as I should.
4. Move more. Now that my back is better (that 3 month disappearance from the blog was mostly caused by a bulging disk and the time devoted to healing), I would like to get back to a serious yoga practice and running. I also need to continue working to strengthen my core so all those disks stay put.
5. Process photos after I take them. I just cleared 2 months of photos off of my camera which include several shots of finished knitting projects and all my pictures from SOAR. Most of our Paris shots are still untagged. I must keep this backlog from getting worse (and do something about the backlog). Why is taking pictures so much more fun than organizing them?
6. Join Spindlicity Stashdown 2011. This will also be my Productive Spinners Stashalong project for 2011. Between now and January 6, I will put together 12 projects to spin this year and finish the project I'm currently spinning on the Schacht-Reeves. Starting on January 6, I will work through a variety preps and blends and use my beautiful living room wheel most days.
7. Finish 12 pairs of socks. This is my third year attempting this. In 2010, I completed 10 pairs and 5 odd socks. This is enough knitting for 12 pairs but did not put 12 new pairs in use.
8. Finish or frog 12 WIPs. I started several new projects in 2010 and only finished 2 projects I started before 2010—and those do not really count as pre-2010 since I started them late in 2009 so they never languished as UFOs. I just counted, and I have 36 projects listed as WIP or hibernating on Ravelry right now. Between now and January 1, I will choose 12 and they will be finished or frogged by the end of 2011.
9. Continue to declutter. This will make moving a whole lot easier.
10. Blog more. This is a place to share what I'm up to and what I'm thinking about in a form longer than the few words of a Facebook update. I need to continue flexing my writing and photographing muscles, and this is the best place to share those efforts.

Happy New Year!

Ten on Tuesday: My refrigerator

Every week, Carole suggests a list of ten things. This week's topic is 10 things in my refrigerator right now.

1. Leftover pizza from Saturday night's "I don't wanna cook." All that remains is 1 slice of sausage and mushroom and 1 slice of cheese.
2. Cheese, glorious cheese. Whenever I visit Wisconsin (or anyone from Wisconsin visits me), I haul as much cheese as I can squeeze into my luggage. There are a few 1 lb. tubs of Merkt's Port Wine Cheddar and Swiss Almond spreads and several pounds of Grassland Extra Sharp cheddar (the cheese of my childhood brown bag lunches, grilled cheese sandwiches, and macaroni and cheese).
3. Red pepper, green pepper, and cucumber salad with homemade red wine and herb vinaigrette. This is D's favorite salad and we eat it frequently, so I usually chop up several days worth at one time. I chopped up a big bowl of it last night.
4. Tuscan kale
5. romaine lettuce
6. napa cabbage
7. green beans
8. colorful baby carrots
9. apples and pears
10. Maitake mushrooms

The last six items came in last week's box from Washington's Green Grocer. I have plans for almost everything on the list: the romaine, napa cabbage, and carrots are turning into lunchtime salads; the kale will be added to soup tomorrow night; and the fruit will be afternoon snacks and baked into desserts. Do you have any suggestions for what to do with the mushrooms? I'm excited to try them, but none of my usual internet recipe sources have turned up recipes.

Ten on Tuesday

I'm starting to have trouble coming up with good blog topics and it's only the 14th. Inspired by many of my friends, I've signed up for <a href="http://caroleknits.net/" target="new">Carole's</a> 10 on Tuesday. 

Today's topic is 10 Reasons to watch football.

1. It is fun.
2. Three hours of knitting time per game.
3. Three hours of spinning time per game.
4. I get to spend quality time with D. I grew up watching the Packers, the Badgers, and my high school team, but got away from watching football in college. Shortly after D and I got engaged, I found myself shopping for a television with him so that he could indulge his Sunday afternoon football addiction.
5. Fantasy football. D and I participate in 2 longstanding leagues (both have been going for over 10 years) with college friends. Draft weekend is a great chance to reconnect with those friends and find out what has happened in their lives in the past year.
6. It gives me a chance to pull out my <a href="http://www.cheesehead.com/products.asp_Q_catid_E_6" target="new">foam cheese</a>.
7. Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady in tight pants.
8. It gives me something to chat with my parents and siblings about.
9. Excellent snacks. Bratwurst anyone?
10. At least one day a week, D and I do not fight over who controls the remote.