Foccacia and wine

My darling friends had given us Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan, and I gave the foccacia recipe a try. It's absolutely delicious. The bread comes out with a dense, moist texture, perfect to hold up to cheese, a dip in wine, or even sliced horizontally to make a sandwich. I cut down on the salt quite a bit (2 teaspoons rather than a tablespoon, and no salt on top), and topped it with only 1/8 cup garlic olive oil (made with sliced garlic sauteed in extra virgin olive oil) mixed with 1 tablespoon water. I cut the fat and salt since I like to top the warm foccacia with cheese (like a Point Reyes blue), or dip it in red wine.

The wines are two of my absolute favorites, the carignane and mourvedre from Cline Cellars. Grown in Contra Costa County, these wines are surprisingly affordable, and with every sip I feel lucky about what the phrase "buy local" means for me.

Pumpkin scones

The Joy of Baking's pumpkin scones recipe is wonderful. I've modified it a bit; I only use 1/4 c. organic vegetable shortening (rather than 1/2 c. butter), use lowfat milk or soy milk rather than buttermilk, and like them a little less sweet, so I substitute 1/4 c. agave syrup (rather than 1/3 c. sugar). I also omit the egg wash at the end to cut down further on the fat & cholesterol. I then bake them as directed on on ungreased cookie sheet--no need for parchment paper if you aren't using the glaze. They come out great!

And they're even good for lunch the next day!

Schmap Napa

Slightly Daft Cedric is slightly famous! His photo from his trip to Copia in Napa has been selected for the 5th ed. of the Schmap Napa Valley entry on Copia.

He was very modest about it, speechless, in fact.

Adventures in commuting

I met a bus newbie named Dave, who took a photo of me with my bike at the bus terminal.

Why is the little airplane a pigeon chaser? The hum of the propeller spinning in the wind isn't just whimsical, it's enough of a sound that pigeons (and even gulls) hear it and walk out of the way before the bike and I are near them!

The Men's Book

The booklet that has the pattern for Paul's sweater is actually for sale at Summer Breeze Books. And the price seems very good! I've never ordered from them, and don't know them, but they have a lot of interesting knitting items under "Vintage 10 cent items, etc."

A sleeve begins

It's another stage in the Journey of the Fine Gauge Sweater: the beginning of the first sleeve! When I started this sweater, out of sock yarn, over a year ago...

nevermind...

It's the beginning of a sleeve!

I've finished the front, which looks almost exactly like the back, and I'm so happy to have started on the sleeves because they're going so much faster. Being a "vintage pattern," the instructions for the entire sweater are very brief; the pattern assumes a lot of knowledge. For the sleeves, I've written out row-by-row instructions for myself--in the original pattern, the instructions for the sleeves (above the cuff) consist of seven lines, and I've filled an entire sheet of binder paper with rows 1-45. And I'll be writing out the rest. Because that's the kind of knitter I am.

"Sisters-in-law"

I love my in-laws so much!

(photo by Paul)