Fiber Fool

Since families seem to be really good at eating (at least DH’s and mine anyway) I made up a batch of spiced pecans before the in-law arrival. The weather had been cool and almost cold in the mornings so it seemed fitting to make something decidely autumnal. To enhance the autumn flavors I presented the spiced pecans in a dish that had been DH’s grandmother’s. The gold color and the leaf design on the dish was just perfect for the spiced pecans.

Kristi’s Spiced Pecans

1 lb Pecans
1 C Sugar
1 Egg White, beaten
3/4 t Cinnamon
1/8 t Nutmeg, freshly grated
4 Cloves, whole
4 Cardamon Pods, contents only (discard outer shell)
3 Allspice Berries
1 t Salt
1 T Water

Preheat oven to 275 degrees Fahrenheit. With a mortar and pestle grind the whole spices - cardamom, all spice, and cloves. In a large bowl, mix egg white, salt and water. Mix sugar and other spices in seperate bowl. Add nuts to egg white mixture and toss to coat evenly. Fold in the sugar and spice mixture.

Spread coated nuts on a buttered cookie sheet and bake for 40 minutes. Every ten minutes remove nuts from oven to stir (removing it so they cool slightly while turning is important to recrysalize the sugar mixture). Let cool 5 minutes and transfer to an airtight container for storage.

Tuesday evening’s recital by SIL3, Jessie, was great. Her theme was “Jaded Soprano” and it fit her perfectly. DH even got a shout out because when she was taking a forensics class and studying poetry at the age of 14 he decided to broaden her scope beyond the typical for fourteen year olds and gave her a collection of Dorthy Parker works. She did several settings of Dorothy Parker for this recital.

I’m a soprano (mezzo) myself, but generally I’m not real fond of listening to sopranos. If I’m to listen to sopranos, give me a coloratura. It is so much more lively and bright, even when jaded, LOL!

In knitting news, I’m closing in on the end of the super sekrit project, but am having to pause to do a bit of trial and error on the exact finishing process… Once that is out of the way I’m clear to try finish the Wear Everywhere and knit more socks (a mate for the one knit from my Dye-o-rama buddy and perhaps start the design requested by DH…).

If you haven’t done so, check out the new fall a-longs… Socktoberfest and Twisted Knitters! I still need to add buttons. Soon, I promise…

1. Organ Room at CSU, 2. Coloratura Soprano, 3. Coloratura Soprano Flourish, 4. Pipe Organ at CSU

Don’t get me wrong, I love my in-laws. But when one is accustomed to having the house to themselves all day and to work and do as they wish it gets a little old to have house guests to entertain. It gets even worse when it also involves other people coming to your house to visit and more mouths to feed. Then throw in a stressed out soprano (aka diva or prima donna) that gets upset if you just look at her and other people coming to visit with your guests whom you don’t even know (without being asked if you minded if they invited them over) and you’ve got one cranky, tired, and worn out woman.

The icing on the cake was the grand announcement that I get the pleasure of repeating this all over again in mid-April. Those who know me and have been around for a while know that coincides with my birthday. Yes, I get to celebrate my birthday by listening to an hour of opera singing and entertaining more out of town guests for the days leading up to it. Just wonderful!

Please excuse me while I go put the heating pad on my cramps and pull the covers up over my head and scream into my pillow….

I didn’t quite have Still Waters by Tami Hoag wrapped up before my trip to MN, but I finished it just as we touched down in Minneapolis. I read during the times when you couldn’t have tray tables down because my knitting project requires a chart. So it worked out well.

Still Waters is the first mystery novel by Tami Hoag. It is set in Minnesota (surprised, aren’t you?) where a divorced Texan and teenage son retreat to for starting a new life. Elizabeth, a journalist decides truth is of the utmost importance when printing the weekly paper of the small town and it lands her and her son under suspicious light as various troubles fall on the sleep little southeastern Minnesota town.

If you have read Hoag before you will likely enjoy this book. It is full of the positive and negatives of small town life sprinkled with all the mystery, murder, and adventure of a typical suspense novel.

While in Minnesota I started Gunpowder Green by Laura Childs. I didn’t have much of any time to read with all the running around we did. Plus, there was now a TV in the room I was sleeping in so I fell asleep to that a few nights rather than ready :-} It was a slow start. It didn’t grab me as well as the other mysteries I’ve been reading lately. If it had grabbed me more I would have read it instead of watching TV.

That said, it did eventually suck me in and I finished it shortly after my return. Gunpowder Green is the second (no, I haven’t read the first, I can’t seem to get my hands on the library’s copy) in the Tea Shop Mysteries. Theodosia Browning, the owner of Indigo Tea in the historic district of Charleston finds herself caught up once again in solving the cause of a mysterious death that to many seems to be just an accident. But, in her gut Theo feels there was murder involved. So, she repairs some broken relationships and seeks out the truth behind the death of the man who was to kick off a big regatta that she was catering.

This book definitely does not make it onto my list of favorite mystery series, but I will likely give another one or two a try, though I’m not going out of my way to reserve the first or the next book. I’ll just read them if I come across them on the shelf when I go to the library. I think they are worth the trouble of placing a hold on.

I then jumped right into two more library books I had checked out before my trip that were due back soon. These were both culinary mysteries. First was Killer Pancake by Diane Mott Davidson. This if the 5th book featuring the Coloradoan catere, Goldy Bear. It was much like the others — enjoyable, a quick and easy read. There was a twist in that all the recipes were low-fat! I even remembered to copy down a few before I returned the book to the library this time!

Then I finally got the first book of the Joann Fluke series featuring a Minnesota cookie baker. Hannah Swensen, in a small sleepy town that is under assult of murders with startling regularity. Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder is another quick, easy, but enjoyable read. I think Fluke has a good handle on the various personalities of small town Minnesota. It makes me laugh because I can put people I know into some of the roles, LOL!

I had picked up and read one of her more recent books on a whim last holiday season as it was in the holiday display at our local bookstore. I’ll definitely be reading the rest of this series. In fact, once you get to book three I think NetLibrary has the remaining ones in e-Audiobook so I can read them while knitting or spinning or sewing even!

I don’t think these are written quite as well as Diane Mott Davidson. In fact, if you don’t have experienece with small town living or the personalities in the northern heartland you may not enjoy the books. But, if you like cookies and like stories of small town living you may find this series worth reading.

These niche mysteries can be kind of fun. I do have to wonder what niches haven’t been covered yet though as there is the home repair, various cooking ones, bed and breakfast ones, tea, coffee, Jewish food, knitting, needle arts in general, candlemaking, soapmaking, real estate, cats, and the list goes one. I jokingly said the only one I haven’t heard of is one that features a blind detective… Hmmm…. Maybe I should sign up for NANOWRIMO this year… LOL! Just kidding!

I’m now more than half way through The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. This is an abrupt departure from my reading mode of late. It might be a good thing for me, LOL! It is the first book club selection of the year. We meet next Monday, October 2nd. Having company has slowed me down on my progress, but once I got about 50 pages in I was sucked in big time; as in tempted to stay up all night if I wasn’t so darn exhausted from cleaning and entertaining. I’ll tell you more about it once I’m done and once I’ve seen where the book club discussion takes us.

* I must offer up some credit for this post’s title. Amanda of Amanda’s Weekly Zen posts most Sundays about books. She has also been the leader of several fun book and knitting “a-longs” though I have never officially taken part. So, thanks Amanda for Sunday Book Talks. I find it enjoyable to stumble across them in my blog reading on Sunday and Monday as I’m always on the look out for new authors to read.

Yep, I did it. I bought the boots! I have at least four if not six skirts that they go with. Plus, while I was home my sister and I got early Christmas presents in the form of suede jackets. We got them early because there were sizing and color issues to work out and they were more than 50% off so there was no waiting around. Plus, they aren’t lined so they’ll be perfect here before Christmas but not so much after Christmas.

For relatively cheap shoes and for high heels they are relatively comfortable. I certainly wouldn’t wear them for a day of being on my feet all day. But, the couple times I’ve taken them out on the town I’ve had no problems aside from a tad bit of slippage now and again. They will likely be going out again this coming week to go to The Jaded Soprado at the CSU music building on Tuesday evening and then there is of course the anniversary coming up the following week… What is better to wear to a special dinner than boots that make ya feel sexy? :-O