Simple knits for complicated lives
Grilled Chicken Taco Bowls! Yum!
This recipe comes from Betty Crocker and couldn't be easier. Actually, it could. I plan to use grocery store grilled chicken and if I get really lazy, a jar of salsa rather than the can of diced tomatoes and sliced green onions. And maybe even a scoop of store bought gaucamole rather than the chopped avacodo. I am known to be rather lazy in the kitchen.
Enjoy!
Tragedy has struck.
This giant box of yarn arrived...
On the same day this happened.
Yes, I am such a klutz, I managed to fracture my thumb while laying in the bed. I put my hand up over my head and drove my thumb straight-on into the wall and fractured it.
I really need to come up with a more exciting and less embarrassing story. But then, how many people can claim to have broken a bone while sleeping?
The tragedy is that I can't knit with my thumb like it is. I'm happy that it doesn't hurt that much (as long as I don't bump it on something, which does seem to happen 1,000 times a day. Have I mentioned what a klutz I am?) But despite being mostly pain-free, I can't bend it or move it towards my pinky so I can't grip anything.
I know opposable thumbs are important, but I never really realized just how important. I can't even put my hair in a ponytail and it takes me an extra 15 minutes to unbutton/button my pants. And worse, I have to take my shirt all the way off in order to remove my bra.
No knitting and no easy bra removal. It truely is a tragedy!
Sadly but thankfully, I can still scan gallons of milk and cases of beer and my grocery store customers have been very understanding and helpful, so I'm still functioning fairly well at work. I'd rather be able to knit but... At least I'm not sitting at home, bored out of my mind and twiddling one thumb.
Meanwhile, the giant box of yarn I can't currently use was packed with a Rainbow Hue Shift pack of Brava.
And a mini pack of Rainbow Brava.
I'm sure you've all seen the Hue Shift afghan and that's what I intend my Hue Shift pack to turn into. As for the mini's, I'm going to knit Stephen West's Garter Squish blanket. I can't wait to get started. I'm thinking that the next time I re-wrap my thumb, I'll tape a knitting needle in there between my thumb and the brace. That ought to work, right?
I'm supposed to wear the brace for three weeks.
As of typing this, three days of no knitting down, eighteen more to go. Wish me luck! Really, you should wish my family luck. I can't imagine what my mood will be after 21 days of no knitting. There could be some serious trouble ahead.
Okay, my Sunday Supper posts tend to have some sort of Christmas related theme for the month of Decmember and this year is no different.
I'm feeling extremely southern these days. Actually, I've been feeling extra southern since I started working at the grocery store. Never in my life have I been called Honey, Darling, Sugar or Sweetheart so often. The store is the mainstay of a very rural farming community so maybe it's to be expected. I don't know. It bothered me a little at first, specially since I'm... well, I'm old and gray haired, and I would estimate that 90% of the men over 30 say some form of, "How you doing, Darling?" or "Thanks Sweetheart." It was very weird and felt horribly sexist in the begining but I've gotten used to it now and have actually started to enjoy it.
Goodness, next thing you know, I'll be in the kitchen barefooted and wearing my pearls! Ha!
I should probably also mention that the 10% of men who don't call me Sugar or whatever, do say yes mam or thank you mam. Mam is included in there somewhere. It's all very polite and southern and has got me thinking about southern Christmas's so....
This year's Sunday Supper theme will be traditional southern Christmas foods.
To start off the month, we have....
Beef tenderloin. I know, you were expecting fried squirrel or something weren't you? But nope! We save the squirrel for weeknights.
At Christmas, we eat beef tenderloin and this recipe from Southern Living couldn't be easier.
Does rubbing something with butter, salt and pepper then sticking it in the oven even count as a "recipe?"
Okay, so today's recipe may not be the healthiest one but it sure sounds easy and delicious.
Welcome to Philly Cheesesteak Pasta from smalltownwoman.com. Sounds to me like a delicious and easy comfort food meal.
Happy November! We've actually had a real fall this year with cooler, but not freezing temperatures. Virginia's idea of fall is normally alternating days between 90 and 45 degrees. But this year, we've been having low to mid to upper 60's during the day and upper 30's to mid 40's at night. It's been awesome!
I have been spending as much time as possible outside. A lot of knitting has been getting done beside the fire pit. Last night I worked on a plain garter stitch dish cloth knit with free, donated yarn. It's the first thing I've knit for myself since early July. I've been focusing on bazaar knitting instead of selfish knititng. The bazaar is next weekend and I can not wait for it to be over so I can knit All the things just for me. Actually, I have another show in December so I probably won't be doing much selfish knitting until after Christmas. Or Christmas Eve. I do love participating in #ChristmasEveCastOn.
Anyway...
Here are a few of the Christmas gnome ornaments I've made for the bazaar.
Sorry for the bad lighting. The gnomes are hanging on the pegboard in my closet.
I can't imagine why the realtor thinks I need to clean/straighten/purge my closet.
She obviously doesn't knit/craft nor understand a bazaar vendor's lifestyle the week before a big show.
But yeah, even I can admit, my closet is screaming for help. I can't even get to my shoes.
I hope you had a fun Halloween. Hayden had a blast for the first few buckets full of candy but by the third or fourth, she was done! Thankfully the rain held off until well after acceptable trick or treating time.
Well, I'm off to go put more tags on more items for the bazaar. Hopefully I'll have time to post next week but no promises. My 'real' job takes up a surprising amount of my time and I still have an awful lot to do to prepare. Thank goodness for the end of Daylight Savings and gaining an hour. Wish me luck. And focus! 😀
Oops! Looks like I failed to say it in any of my previous posts this week.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
I'm a little late with this Halloween trail mix recipe for actual Halloween but it will be a great way to use up any left over candy. Like there's ever any left over candy. Ha! Okay, so maybe we all need to carry ourselves to the store and buy out all the Halloween candy corn and Reece Pieces that are left so we can make this. It sounds delicious! And super easy! And there's nothing that says you can't enjoy candy corn in November.
Knitting for the upcoming bazaars continues.
This week I'm focusing on creating Christmas gnomes. I'm sure I'll share photos when I actually get a few finished.
The making is going slowly because the house selling ordeal continues. No acceptable offers yet but interest in the house remains high and it feels like we have to leave the house almost daily for showings. And yes, I am aware that I shouldn't be complaining.... but .... I'm starting to complain..., pretty loudly.
Meanwhile...
Quack, quack, quack.
Hayden's duck feet worked well. She went to a local trunk-or-treat event this past weekend and had a blast. She remembers being a ladybug last year but she doesn't remember getting candy. She is Quite excited about the Halloween candy this year!
Okay, I'll admit, I'm not too sure about today's recipe. Food Lion lists carrot cake smoothies as a healthy meal, and I'm sure they are. My eye doctor would be thrilled with them since she wants me eating orange and yellow foods every day. I have the feeling these smoothies are either delicious or disgusting. I can't wait to try one and find out for myself.
I'm leading a pretty exciting life these days.
I got a new reusable Starbucks cup and it came with an awesome, striped straw.
I reordered business cards and they came in this cool, colorful box.
Because we put our house on the market, we replaced the random rolls of toilet paper that were sitting around the house with real tissues. I feel fancy and grown up now.
I spent the majority of this past week weaving in ends in preparation for next month's Christmas bazaar. There's only a little less than three weeks before the first one I signed up for and I'm starting to panic just a teeny tiny bit.
I started a new hemmed brim hat. The yarn looks so much better in person. In person, it's a very pale, grayish olive green.
And while this was totally unplanned but I happened to realize the bag was in the background, if you want a little more excitement in your life, get yourself some Creative Snacks Co. Drizzled Granola Bites. They are so good! And they come in several different flavors (my personal favorite is the lemon blueberry. Yum!!) And slightly more healthy than snacking on candy corn. Look for them in your local grocery store. My store keeps them on the cereal aisle.
What's your exciting life been like this week?
My husband will call today's recipe for Ground Beef & Tortellini "homemade Hamburger Helper" but who cares. It sounds tasty and it's cheap and super fast to make. The recipe calls for ten minutes of prep time and another ten to cook. But as far as I can tell, the only prepping needed is locating a pan and grabbing the ingredients from the fridge. My kind of meal!
First, we finally have a house full of pumpkins and candy corn. I just Love autumn!
I am so happy to have cooler temperatures and pumpkins. My jeans, sweaters and boots have been dug out of storage and we've even turned on the heat. I love fall!
I'm still frantically knitting for this season's Christmas bazaars. The first one is on November 12th so I have some time but unfortunately, work takes up a lot of my time. And then there's the whole house selling thing. Cleaning up all my crafty mess, putting it all away, leaving the house for an hour or so, then coming home and getting it all back out again takes up a surprising amount of time. I shouldn't complain. Having lots of interest in the house is much better than having no interest. Amazingly, according to Zillow, the listing has had 2,268 views in 13 days. Thankfully not all those people have come to see the house, although it does feel like I've dumped the trash cans and mopped the floors that many times. 😄
At the moment, I'm focusing on knitting fur headbands. They were extremely popular at Winterfest last year so I decided to make them again this year. They don't look like much until you put them on but they are super comfortable, soft and warm.
I wore one pretty much the entire time I was working Winterfest last year.
What have you been knitting?
Today's Cheesy Chicken Asparagus Pasta is another popular Food Lion recipe. It sounds healthy, easy to make and budget friendly.
I've been doing a little more knitting this week but still not as much as I'd have liked.
I'm almost ready to start decreasing on this hat. Only a few more rows to go.
Wow, that's orange! Hayden is going to be a duck for Halloween so I'm knitting her duck feet to go over her shoes. I don't have a pattern and they didn't flare out and 'web' as much as I'd hoped they would, but they do fit over her shoes perfectly. Now I only have the challenge of making the second one match the first. Hope my notes are better than I think they are.
I've also knit 40 billion chapstick holders for the upcoming fall/Christmas bazaars I'm doing.
But the real reason I haven't gotten much knitting done...
I never pass up a chance to go to the zoo. We saw the penguins,
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Today's recipe is for slow cooker crab dip. I won't be able to eat it (I'm Horribly allergic to seafood) but we play the Cowboys today, our team is pitiful this year (they may as well have Hayden and I playing on the team,) my husband has been working extra hard lately and he loves crab dip so... Slow Cooker Crab Dip. Maybe it will bring us good luck on the field today.
