Back to Work

Hello All,

How was your Thanksgiving?  Tasty?  Ours was delicious.  And also bitter cold (outside temp - not the food - lol).  It did not get above 28 on Thursday!  The gathering at Colin & Mailing's was smaller than usual as her parents were both in China.  Colin and I watched a few episodes of Monty Python (the original Flying Circus - now on Netflix!!) before dinner.  Fletch and I waddled home around 8:30 or 9 p.m.

It was so wonderful to have so much time off work!  I think I averaged 10 hours of sleep each night!  Of course, last night was the exception and I was awake most of the night (and am dragging this morning).

I did manage to finish the mitts for my sister-in-law.  The colors are not accurate in the photo.  The cuffs are grey, and then the other two colors are purple and blue.  I realized I did not have enough of any one color to make two mitts, so I just reversed the blue and purple and I like them!

The picture above makes them look huge, but they fit my hands nicely.  Being made with Lopi yarn, they are extra warm!  I'm more than halfway finished the first mitt for my brother- they should be finished this week.

I made breakfast bars using Colin's recipe and they turned out great!  They are a bit crumbly and easily fall apart, but the taste is wonderful.  Kathy B wanted the recipe, so here it is:

Breakfast Bars

2 Cups dried fruit (Colin used dates and cherries; I used apricots and cranberries)

2 Cups nuts (Colin used almonds; I used pistachios and walnuts)

2 Cups rolled oats

¼ Cup nut butter (we both used peanut butter)

¼ Cup honey (I used maple syrup instead)

Chop the dried fruit in food processor until it becomes a ball.  Put in bowl.  Either chop the nuts in the food processor or rough chop them with a knife.  Add to bowl with fruit.  Add the oats.  Using your hands, mix all of that together.

Put the nut butter and honey or syrup in a small saucepan and heat on low until it is all liquid.  Pour into bowl with fruit, nuts and oats and mix all together.

Line an 8” x 8” pan with parchment paper and add the mixture, tamping it down.  Put another piece of parchment paper on top and weight that down.  Place in freezer for 2.5 hours.

Pull out of freezer, cut into bars, individually wrap and store in freezer.

 Let me know if you make any!!

Some of you asked about the cranberry and fig sauce.  It was a recipe from the November issue of Bon Appetit and it was good...but I missed the flavors of orange and cinnamon.  Instead there were flavors of shallot and fresh rosemary and balsamic vinegar was added. 

On the reading front, I finished "To The Bright Edge of the World" last Wednesday.  Fabulous!!  Five Stars!!  I did not want the story to end.  Now I'm in the midst of reading The Alice Network which is an easy, but good read.

Friday, the 30th, is Mailing's birthday and we will be back at Colin & Mailing's for a birthday dinner on Saturday.  I think/hope here parents will be back from China and will join us.

Luckily it seems pretty quiet at work today.  I plan to order a few things on line this morning and then knit on a sock at lunch!  Hope everyone is doing well.