I did practically no fiber work this weekend. I doubt this week will net many FO's to show either. I'm trying to finish up some items to send to the Colorado House Rabbit Society to sell at their November Bunny Boutique.



Elizabeth is seeking recipes for a knitblogger's cookbook so go to her blog and submit some of your faves. Here are three I submitted. All are from my cookbook, 'Tis the Season: A Vegetarian Christmas Cookbook (Simon & Schuster, 1995, now out of print but easy to find used). The stew is pictured in this photograph from the book.











VEGETABLE STEW WITH PUFF PASTRY CRUST



Serves 8



This savory stew is one of my favorite winter recipes. In this incarnation, I've topped it with an elegant puff pastry crust but it is also delicious served plain or with a simple biscuit topping. It is a great vegetarian Thanksgiving main dish as well.



1 medium onion, coarsely chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 Tbsp. canola oil

3 Tbsp. unbleached flour

2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar

1 Tbsp. firmly packed brown sugar

2 Tbsp. prepared mustard (ballpark-style)

3 cups vegetable broth

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

2 large carrots, chopped (about 1 cup)

2 large potatoes, peeled & chopped (about 2 cups)

1 cup fresh or frozen peas

1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels

1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed for 20 minutes at room temperature



Saute the onion and garlic in the oil for 5 minutes over medium heat or until tender. Stir in the flour until completely mixed. Add the vinegar, brown sugar, and mustard. Stir in the broth, cinnamon, carrots, and potatoes. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer until thickened and the vegetables are tender, about 45 minutes. Add the peas and corn and cook an additional 10 minutes. (The recipe can be made ahead to this point.)



Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 2-quart casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray. Spoon in the vegetable stew and let cool slightly. On a floured board, roll out the puff pastry sheet to a 12-inch square. Cut the pastry to fit the top of the casserole dish and place on top of the stew. Bake the casserole, uncovered, until the pastry is golden brown on top, about 20 to 30 minutes.







SALLY'S BAKED APPLE PANCAKE



Serves 8 as a first course, 2-4 as a main dish.



My mother-in-law operated a bed and breakfast called Farm Home in the apple country of Fly Creek, New York. This wonderful pancake was her signature dish.



2 tart apples, such as Granny Smith

1/4 cup confectioner's sugar plus additional for dusting pancake

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. fresh lemon juice

6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, divided

4 eggs, beaten

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup unbleached flour



Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Peel, core, and thinly slice the apples. Mix the apples with the confectioner's sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice. Melt 4 Tbsp. of the butter in an ovenproof skillet. Saute the apple mixture over medium-high heat in the butter until just tender, about 4 to 5 minutes. Set aside. Melt the remaining 2 Tbsp butter.



Whisk together the eggs, salt, milk, flour, and melted butter. Pour over the apple mixture and bake for 20 minutes or until puffy and slightly brown on top. Dust with confectioner's sugar. Cut into thin slices for serving. Serve hot.







THE ULTIMATE LEMON BARS



Makes 24 bars



These lemon bars always disappear instantly at potlucks. If you can find lemon oil at a gourmet store, do try it in this recipe. Lemons can really vary in quality. Buy the best you can find to give these lemon bars the strongest lemon flavor. Avoid largish lemons with a very thick pith, they often yield 2 Tbsp. or less juice per lemon. Look for small, heavy lemons instead.



2 1/4 cups unbleached flour, divided

1 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup confectioner's sugar plus additional for dusting bars

4 eggs

2 cups sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

5 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

1/8 tsp. lemon oil or 1 Tbsp finely grated lemon zest

1 tsp baking powder



Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. With a pastry blender or fork, mix 2 cups of the flour, the butter, and the confectioner's sugar until crumbly. Pat the mixture into a 12 by 9 inch baking pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until just brown. Do NOT overbake.



With an electric mixer, beat the eggs, sugar, salt, lemon juice, lemon oil or zest, remaining 1/4 cup of the flour and baking powder until frothy. Pour into the hot crust. Bake for 25 minutes or until firm to the touch. Cool on a baking rack; cut into 2-inch squares. With a flour sifter, sprinkle the bars evenly with confectioner's sugar

Here is some of the blue Romney I purchased at Taos. I just adore the color - it is a cross between periwinkle and cornflower blue.









Today we finally checked out the new huge Talin international foods market. It is on Central and Louisiana in Albuquerque and is definitely worth a trip. I'm already planning on what to buy when I return. The store is divided into aisles for various cities - Manila, Kyoto, Milan, Bangkok, Cairo, etc. DH said it is his favorite grocery store of all time. The prices were good and the products ranged from the absolutely wild (headless ching chang, vegetarian squid balls, bottled eel, mustard oil, British white breakfast pudding, kimchee base, five kinds of natto) to the more mundane (Italian olive oils, tons of soy sauces, and a large wine section.)



I found many unusual items and was quite attracted to the wonderful smells in the Indian aisle with all the spices such as cardamom, the large moon cake display near the deli/bakery section (lotus rolls anyone?), and the produce section. There were plenty of vegetables I've never seen in my life - galangal root, bamboo, tiny green thai eggplant, limes the size of grapes, and yampa. They even had some of the controversial durian. But what really turned me on was the variety of Chinese greens. I hope to go back and get some soon - gai lan, gai choy, and many varieties of bok choy and cabbage. I did buy a few things - some imported Italian tomatoes, some chili bean paste, sesame oil, and some fresh dill for Peaches.

Pretend there are two socks below instead of one.



The color showing up as blue is actually bright turqoise and the gold is a lot brighter. This is a Santa Fe Sock from Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road done in Nature Spun sportweight and some Socka sport from the stash.



I had hoped to finish both today but that will have to wait as we're having guests this weekend. I spent the day cleaning and baking THIS as I found some frozen cherries when I cleaned out the refrigerator. I also made some graham thumbprint cookies from my new favorite cookbook, Nava Atlas' Vegetarian Family Cookbook. I still have to vacuum, do another load of laundry, make dinner, and go grocery shopping. Have a good weekend! I'll be back Sunday with something to show. I hope.

Peaches is a lot more into toys than other rabbits I've known and loved. She enjoys tossing around anything with a bell late at night and occasionally she manages to flip one of her toys into her water dish which seems to make her very happy. (Her proudest accomplishment is when she managed to flip her water dish onto me, soaking everything in sight.)



Bunny Bytes has the best selection of rabbit toys to keep your pet occupied. Word has it that a shipment of stuff from Bunny Bytes is on its way to our house as we speak.

Busy Bunny and Bunny Luv also have some great products, especially great baskets full of goodies which rabbits can eat, basket and all. American Pet Diner is where I buy her designer hay in small quantities. I also buy her Timothy-based pellets at APD.



Tomorrow (late night) I will have yet another pair of socks to show you, this time in southwestern colors. And maybe I'll finish spinning up a skein of that lovely Romney roving I bought in Taos.

SAILING AWAY...



Here are the Lake Ontario Socks, designed by Joanne Conklin . They are the current sock of the month for Redbird Knits. The pattern uses size 2 dpns and two strands of Zephyr (50% merino, 50% silk). The Lake Ontario Socks have a white cap top above the ribbing and a sailboat on the heel. I added some additional sailboats and some seagulls in duplicate stitch.

Apparently the National Scrabble Championship game was televised on ESPN this weekend with a rebroadcast on ESPN2 on October 14 at 5 pm EST. The game-winning bingo was TEOPANS which means a type of Aztec temple. My less-exciting new Scrabble word from this weekend is WITTOL which means a man who tolerates an unfaithful wife.



Michelle has declared this SOCKTOBER and I am in agreement. I'm planning on continuing to focus on knitting socks all month. Here's a sneak preview of a pair I should be able to show you by late tomorrow. First I have to fix the seagull on the right.

TAOS WOOL FESTIVAL





I really wish I lived in Taos. It has many of the great things that Santa Fe has (and even more yarn stores) and less of the bad stuff like traffic and crime and crowds. And it is drop dead beautiful up near the ski area, especially now when the aspens are turning golden.



Our day started with driving up the Turquoise Trail. We could have driven up through Albuquerque and seen the thousands of hot-air balloons from the Balloon Fiesta but this event makes the already awful drivers here even worse. They actually stop ON THE INTERSTATE to gawk at the balloons.



Traffic started to get bad again with all the construction they are doing near Tesuque and the Santa Fe Opera House. They are adding some neat retaining walls with large artistic renditions of lizards, birds, snakes, and rabbits.



After Santa Fe we hit Espanola. I have heard there is a Fiber Arts Center there now but I had no clue where it was. (Espanola is a relatively isolated small town with a huge heroin problem and the highest heroin overdose rate in the country. Experts think it is generational and keeps getting passed down from parents to children.)



Next we drove through Velarde, one of the greenest parts of NM. It is a pretty valley full of fruit orchards. I went to the largest produce market, the Fruit Basket, and purchased a bushel of Jonathans, a mini bushel of Winesaps, some tomatoes and garlic. I also unwisely purchased some monster zucchini for 25 cents each which we'll be eating all week.



We arrived in Taos about 10:30 am and the festival was starting to get crowded. In the past 10 years I've been attending I mainly spend my money at four booths - Fire Ant Ranch (where I first learned how to spin on a drop spindle) , La Plata Farms (I visited their sheep farm when I lived in SW Colorado), Palanca Farm (they have a booth full of books), and Elsa Sheep and Wool. Elsa S&W is all about Cormo. They sell ready-made garments and both worsted and woolen spun Cormo yarn in 2 weights. This Cormo is the Rolls Royce of yarn. I bought A LOT.









I purchased about 20 oz. of Romney from La Plata Farms for future socks.









I purchased two back issues of Spin-Off from Palanca Farm along with this wool/kid mohair blend, also for socks.









Some of the newer trends in knitting have finally reached the festival. I saw poncho kits and scarf yarn. The most crowded booth was one selling multicolored yarns. There were several booths that just sold felted items which I'd never seen before. I admired several angora rabbits and there was the cutest miniature Southdown sheep in the demo area. There was also a baby yak who was totally adorable.



I found Tracy Eichheim's Woolly Designs and checked out his spindles. The only heavier top-whorl spindles he had were Kokopellis. He had more bottom whorl spindles - actually throughout the festival I saw many more bottom-whorl spindles and many more Navajo spindles than I'd ever seen. Are top-whorl spindles going out of style?



Next we drove up to the ski area and found Taos Sunflower yarn shop. It was a cute building full of scarf and novelty yarns. They also had a good selection of Lamb's Pride for felting and all of Elsebeth's Lavold's new books and her silky wool line. I was in search of sock yarn but couldn't find any at all in the store. Lots of Mango Moon and Noro but no plain wool other than the Lamb's Pride.



Some of the most interesting fiber sightings of the day happened at the ski area. We went into a sporting goods store right near the lifts. I found lots of ready made Dale of Norway sweaters, including Norge, priced from $200-$250. Upon examing them I noticed that even though they were machine knit the tension was visibly different on the patterned part than the plain stockinette part. Interesting - the floats were pretty long as well on the inside of the sweaters. I also found Dale of Norway hats, some with a relatively simple colorwork pattern, for $59. They did have a fleece insert around the headband pattern but $59 seems high to me for a hat. I really liked the gorgeous Dale cardigan called Lysekloster - here's a photo.



Andean Software , also at the ski area, is a store full of Peruvian handknits and some raw alpaca fleece. This store has great prices and is definitely worth a trip. I debated getting some awesome knee socks done in about 20 colors but I know I can come up with something similar myself. The chullo hats were done in an extremely fine gauge and were just beautiful. They also had wonderful gloves, fingerless gloves, children's items, etc.



Next stop - Wool Festival of the Southwest in Farmington Nov 13-14. I think I'll get some alpaca and try harder to find another spindle.