Unraveled Wednesday 11/23/22

 Good Morning All,

Looks to be another fine day here in Eastern PA.  The temps have warmed up a bit (32 this a.m. instead of the teens) and the sun is out.  There is a fat male Cardinal sitting on a wire outside one of my office room windows.  So pretty.

Yesterday was full of food.  LOL.  Fletch and I did a quick, small ($138 later) shopping at one store.  We picked up some necessities:  cat food (Mabel consumes food like she has not had any in months!), sunflower seeds and a fresh suet cake for the birds.  No meat and no paper products or cleaning supplies which automatically jack up the bill.  My gosh a trip to the store has gotten even more expensive.  AND, we couldn't get everything there - I had to run to a different store in the afternoon for a certain kind of tea that Fletch likes as well as soda that he drinks, but also peanuts for the birds (which the first store does not sell).

The afternoon was then spent baking and cooking Fletcher's Mom's Cranberry Chutney recipe.  On the baking front I made Cranberry Pumpkin Pecan Bread.  Oh My!

This morning, Fletch will take one loaf over to a couple for whom he still works occasionally.  I think I'll send along a jar of the chutney too.

The second loaf of bread will probably be shared with Rob and Eva across the street.

Anyway, the house smelled marvelous all afternoon, but by the time I should have been cooking dinner, I didn't really feel like it.  Trader Joe's to the rescue!  When I shopped there on Monday, one of the items that I picked up that was not on my list was this:

Another shopper was scooping up bags of this into her cart.  I asked her how it was and she highly recommended it.  Well folks, if you like mushrooms, I highly recommend it too!  The truffle sauce is very rich tasting and yummy.  Best of all, it heats up from freezer to table in about 15 minutes!  The bag says it contains 3 servings, but we finished the entire bag...just the two of us.  To go along with this I threw together a salad of garden greens and garden radishes with a few sugar snap peas and a bit of cucumber.  Cleanup was a breeze too.

Let's get to the knitting, shall we?  After all, it is Unraveled Wednesday when Kat hosts the Merry Band of Makers to talk making and reading.  Dee had posted a shot of our twinie socks last Saturday.  Since then a bit more has been knit on the Turning Leaves vanilla sock.

The skein of yarn is LARGE - I will be making these socks longer than normal.  I've gotten to the point where I usually would start the heel flap, but weighing the yarn last night, I still have 92 grams!

The Christmas sock is also made from a very large skein of yarn.  I will start the heel flap on this one next.  There are 15 rows of ribbing and 85 rows of plain vanilla.

My head has calmed down a little (lol) and I'm not throwing around ideas of multiple other projects to start.  This is good - I want to concentrate on finishing these two pairs of socks and then move on to other things.  I say that today...we'll see what tomorrow brings.  

The reading side of things is pretty much where it stood last week.  Fletch and I are still working our way through (listening to) Graceland, At Last by Margaret Renkl.  I'm very happy that the second half of the book is not political.  There is more about music (Renkl lives in Nashville) and other things.

I am well past the half way mark of The Marriage Portrait which is the selection of the "Read With Us" group (hosted by Kym, Carole and Bonny).  I love it!  The other day I mentioned to Kym that it is a book I don't want to put down once I start reading, but at the same time, I'm trying to drag it out to make it last!  Most likely I will need to re-read or listen to it prior to our discussion in January.  My guess is that I will finish it up in these next few days.  That's ok as I have a bunch of other library books on my nightstand (including The Colony and Booth) - such a wealth of reading material.

Today I will be mixing up dough for pie crusts - most likely I will make the pies tomorrow morning.  Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!