Dark Brown Nut Bread

Our only time of the year to splurge and eat anything cooked. Some years, it is this:

DARK BROWN NUT BREAD




2 cups brown sugar (or sucanat)
1/4 cup butter, coconut butter or shortening of your choice

2 eggs, beaten well

2 cups buttermilk
2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt (use sea salt or "real salt" , or Himalayan salt--just don't use "table" salt)
3 cups flour


2 cups walnuts, roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream together the sucanat (or brown sugar) and shortening in a large bowl.
Beat the eggs and add to the creamed mixture.

Stir the baking soda into the buttermilk, and let sit while you do the next step. (It will "bubble up", and "start to work". Don't be 'skuurrrred' !!)

Combine all dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl, and "sift" together with a whisk.

Add sifted, dry ingredients and the buttermilk mixture alternately to the creamed mixture. Add nuts and blend.

Pour into two loaf pans (butter or spray the pans first--I like to "butter them" with coconut butter/coconut oil).
Bake at 350 for about 1 hour. Usually takes the whole hour.

Let cool a few minutes in the pans, and then remove from pans and cool completely. Tastes really good, after being cooled, refrigerated, sliced and with some butter on it!



YUM, YUM.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE

Merry Christmas! and here comes a great recipe which was always a "traditional" one at Christmas Time at our home. I think it was passed down from my Grandma (Mom? Dad? ????) It is TWICE as good as it looks. We used "Sucanat" instead of sugar (When you buy or order this it is sucanat, and sucanat with honey. You want to use the plain, darker, sucanat for this recipe) And, instead of eggs, you can substitute 1 T flax seed, ground in spice grinder and stir in 3 T. luke-warm water for each egg.

Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum.

Dark Brown Nut Bread. Recipe to follow. Can't even keep my eyes open any longer right now. Just make sure you have some buttermilk (about 2 cups), some sucanat (about 2 cups) or a box/bag of Dark Brown sugar, 2 eggs (or substitute), baking soda, and 2 cups of walnuts (coarsely chopped). Will post recipe next!

LOST & FOUND

So, this cutie was running around our house, SCREAMING at us (from afar) for the past 4 weeks. We couldn't tell if she was nice or not--seemed terrified of humans. When we first saw her it was warm-ish outside still. Then it got COLD here. Well, we could take it no more. Last Wed. night, the second really cold night in a row, we fed her, and lured her in so we could "rescue" her.



We "named" her "Deca" (as in ordering a cup on decaf espresso in France). Deca goes well with Truffles (see below)!








She's doing MUCH better now, as you can see. You've never seen a kitty so grateful to be warm and fed. It seems to be all she'll ever ask of life now. She is tiny, in good health, and seems to be about 2 years old. She lets us rub her tummy and play with her toes and everything! Completely content, this one. She WOLFED down any food we gave her the first couple of times. Now she just eats normally. She's figured out we're going to feed her again, so wolfing isn't necessary.



Of course, THIS Truffle is NOT pleased.
He couldn't even be lured by a hand-knit, catnip-stuffed mousie! He's going to take his sweet time getting used to lost&found kitty!


Right now we are "just" giving this kitty "foster care". We named her, but only, of course, because the vet NEEDED a name for their files. We are going to take her to the kitty rescue adoption place. We're just waiting for her to "recover".
(sure)

MORE KTS2 SHOTS

So, here is the package of goodies I sent off to my Knitters Tea Swap partner.
Hope she likes it. Knitters Tea Swap is
really fun if you like tea and knitting.












And, it doesn't hurt if you like and own a cat!
Isn't THIS one rotten!??

TOTALLY SPOILED ROTTEN

My sweet secret swap partner, Kerry, included this beautiful (handmade looking) card with my very pink and wonderful package of yarn, tea and chocolate.







It really makes your day when you realize that someone took the time to figure out and put together all your favorites into one lovely package. Thank you , Kerry, for the gorgeous yarns. I LOVE pink. Always. Everyone knows I'm a pink addict. And I also really, really love neutrals--just like these. I can't wait to start something with them.




This is how "PINK" it looked when we opened it!





There are several teas that are new to me, but in flavors I am sure to love. Like cinnamon and one in mint! AND there's a wonderful looking Chai which I can't wait to try with milk and honey. Thank you, Kerry in NY, for making this so special for me. You really spoiled me rotten!


Who couldn't love all this chocolate? Kerry, I now know that you love milk chocolate the best, but you still went out and found me lots of dark, which is my fav. That was sweet. I'll have to hide this from the masses!



Pretty soon, everyone else will have a welcome package at their door, too! Happy swapping! Happy knitting and Tea!


You can see all the Knitters Tea Swapping fun right here.

Cooler Temps

It has gotten decidedly "cooler" here in D.C. I say cool, because I know it can and will get COLD later. This could only be called "cool" for now. This one is going to have to go in for a hair cut (shave down) pretty soon, even if it IS getting cold out. He's a naughty boy and won't let us comb him ALL OVER, so to stop the matting, he has to get SHAVED. A real ordeal. He secretly hates being a long-haired cat, and likes it when his feet don't have so much fur between the toes that he can't even walk around without slipping.

Then there's this one, who doesn't get along with naughty-boy Truffle.


SHE is being a real pain. (The dog, not the sweet ballerina-girl.) It's been rainy out, and there's nothing worse than a Dobe who has to stay in because it's raining! Just like a two-year-old (probably forever, this one), can't think of anything to do for herself, and has to be played with all the time. SO, it really needs to stop raining for a while so Emma can go OUT and PLAY. She loves the cooler temps. Just not the rain.

It's slow, but trying to do some knitting. Can't post the latest thing I made here yet, because my Secret Pal in a tea and knitting swap might guess who I am, and look here. The latest cut thing I knit is for her, so I'll post that one soon. I'm going to start on something "Elizabeth Zimmerman" next. Getting ready for that snow that won't be long.

Drink lots of tea and do something you love!

Visitors

Before we had two groups of visitors (family), we knitted some tea cozies and more "washrags".






But we also had visitors of the non-human kind!


Gross and disgusting! Still trying to identify this one.

Baby Bibs

Here are some baby bibs we made (DD & I) for a sweet baby boy in the family.












And here is how much Truffle likes our knitting--he claims everything we make.

OUR SQUARE-FOOT GARDEN

Last week we started a small SFG on our deck. Radishes are sprouting already from seed, and we transplanted some herbs and tomatoes from seedlings. All doing great! See the spoiled rotten frenchman "Truffle" (cat)? And the cute eggs (which we want to blow out and save the pretty colored shells), and other findings from the Farmer's Market?

Farmer's Market Day

Here are strawberries from the Farmer's Market! And Kara Meat-meat with a stash of lettuce. yum.

Nice basket weave pattern in progress.