Cedric visits the Norton Simon

We had a great time at the Norton Simon in Pasadena. A rather small museum, it has a wonderful collection, so one could spend just a few hours or even all day.

Cedric particularly enjoyed the sculpture garden, especially "Mountain" (above) and the beautiful landscaping:

Cedric at the Gate

Cedric and I were lucky enough to go sailing on Alma, and even luckier that Captain Jason and his wonderful crew took us just out the Gate! This is Cedric as we were approaching the Bridge, all of us very excited.

Knitting for Barbie

It's been a long time since I've knit anything doll sized, and it's as fun as ever!

I call this the "Starry Night Bra & Panty Set," and the pattern's no. A58 from a wonderful site, Sticka till Barbie, and it's available in Swedish, Dutch, English and French--and it's free!

The pattern is really easy to follow, and it took just a bit of leftover sock-weight yarn, and I used 2.0mm (U.S. size 0) needles.

There's over 1000 patterns at her site, and I can't wait to knit more of them!

Date custard pie

I wanted to try something completely new, and am so pleased with the results! It's not the prettiest pie, but is so delicious. The recipe is from the Fannie Farmer Baking Book, and I followed it as written. It's very simple, and I used the best ingredients I could find: free-range, organic eggs from Riverdog Farm, fresh dates that I bought at the farmers' market (I forgot to note the farm), plus milk (I used organic soy milk, since Paul can't handle cow milk), and a little salt--that's it. There's no added sweetener--all the sweetness comes from the dates.

The crust is the buckwheat crust from the same cookbook, and it's spectacular. Half wheat flour, half buckwheat flour--it's nutty and really flaky.

Whole wheat baguettes

These are the prettiest baguettes that I've made! I've really gotten the recipe down (King Arthur Flour's) so that I can whip these up even with a nasty head cold. And I still follow Julia Child's suggestion about the slashes (mentioned before), but now we have a French carbon steel knife that's incredibly sharp, which makes the slashes very easily.

I've also adapted the recipe to incorporate whole wheat flour: I grind 3/4 cup wheat berries, which gives somewhere around 1-1/4 cups of flour, and I substitute that for some of the white flour in the "dough" part of the recipe. The only challenge is the crust--they're not as crusty as the white flour version, so I'm working on that!

The turtle will move

I haven't yet mentioned this on my Ravelry project page, since it's a square for a baby blanket for one of the Ravelers, and we don't want her to see it until it's sent to her! But, in the meantime, I mention it here, so others who are working on the blanket can take a look.

It's going to be a Pratchgan-baby blanket, and the turtle is a tribute to the Discworld's Great A-tuin, as well as the turtle who was a Small God.

Timson's April Fool's

Timson likes being in the spotlight on Ravelry--normally a bit shy, and rather a homebody, he nonetheless likes being the center of attention at a photoshoot, and he always looks forward to April Fool's when the silly hats are out and about. This year, he loved his formal look--he thinks the top hat was tops.