consecutively

It's 107˚ today. And I'm baking cookies. I question the sanity of this, too, but I made a promise, and I always aim to please.

Cookie of the Week -- week two

Milk Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

1 c unsalted butter, softened :: 2/3 c granulated sugar :: 2/3 c brown sugar :: 2 eggs :: 1-1/2 tsp. vanilla extract :: 2 c all-purpose flour :: 1 tsp baking soda :: 1/2 tsp salt :: 2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips :: 1-1/2 c macadamia nuts, roughly chopped.

Cream the butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add flour, baking soda, and salt and mix until just combined. Do not over mix. Stir in chocolate chips and macadamia nuts. Mound in 2 Tbsp. portions onto a lightly greased cookie sheet, spaced about 2 inches apart. Bake in a preheated oven at 350˚F for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned at the edges and set in the middle.

This recipe is my own modified version of one I found online a while back. These are smaller cookies, and I decrease the amount of vanilla extract. They are chewy and crunchy and supremely rich. I can only eat a couple before I get a little overwhelmed. I don't know yet if the kids will like them, since usually they don't even like walnuts in the chocolate chip cookies I make. I will get their input once they get home with the husband.

And a note: Now that I am making a cookie a week, I'll also need to half the recipes I use. 5 dozen cookies just isn't necessary. In fact, even when not baking a batch a week, I usually have to throw out quite a few cookies. Just don't tell my mother-in-law I still do this. Once, while she was sitting in my kitchen, I tossed a couple dozen cookies out. She almost fished them out of the trash!

Knitting is happening here. It always is, really, but sometimes happens at a break-neck pace and at other times, it's snail-speed. I finished one of the Miniature Cowichan Cardigans Sunday night. Yesterday, I cast on for the second. I may have to make a few more, since I have nieces who also collect American Girl dolls.

Mini Cowichan Cardigan from
Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts 2007
yarn: Cascade 220

This is for Annika's doll. Annika adores pink and selected this lovely shade of magenta for her doll's sweater. The color would sort of tire me out and I'd have to put it down once in a while, but all in all, I loved working the pattern. Of course, said pattern is no longer available online, as I found out all too late; thank goodness for blog friends that store PDF's forever.

Laurel's color selection is a softer turquoise. The twisted rib hems and cuffs are my favorite part to knit up. I'm hoping to have it done in a week's time.

cookie of the week

It is my hope that July will be the month that some of my hopes see light of day. They're not huge resolutions I'm tackling, just things that I wish I did on a regular basis. I sit down at the end of the day and think, "Oh, I would have liked to bake today," or, "It would have been nice to dust the blinds today." You know, things that get pushed to the bottom of my list because more important things come up. Or things that only get done once they're right in my face, screaming for attention.

Last school year, it was my hope to bake a cookie a week, like Leslie and others do. I don't even think there were two consecutive weeks in the entire year that my children enjoyed home baked cookies...

I know it's summer, but with Annika going to her first day of pre-Kindergarten yesterday, I decided it was now or never. The cookie baking began. Pre-K is only a month long. She'll start Kinder in August; Laurel will be in fourth grade. Maybe once August rolls around, I'll have a routine in place for the Cookie of the Week.

Oatmeal Toffee Cookies

1 c butter or margarine, softened :: 2 eggs :: 2 c packed light brown sugar :: 2 tsp vanilla extract :: 1-3/4 c all-purpose flour :: 1 tsp baking soda :: 1 tsp ground cinnamon :: 1/2 tsp salt :: 3 c quick-cooking oats :: 8 oz. pkg. Heath Toffee Bits :: 1 c Sweetened Coconut Flakes (optional)

Heat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease cookie sheet. Beat butter, eggs, brown sugar and vanilla until well blended. Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; beat until blended. Stir in oats, toffee bits and coconut, if desired, with spoon. Drop dough by rounded teaspoons about 2 inches apart onto prepared sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool 1 minute; remove to wire rack. About 4 dozen cookies.

Everyone who's sampled has given a thumbs-up. For those of you who aren't coconut fans, you can certainly omit the coconut, but I have to say that it's not an overwhelming flavor, is pretty tasty and gives it a little moisture. The cookies are chewy, mostly from the toffee bits melting during baking. And they're fabulous with coffee.

the last bit of June

good-bye June.
hello dog days of summer.

strawberries from the market :: put up :: spreadable

i was utterly inspired by erin's blog post. this is one of the best things i have ever made. ever.

and i'm ready to make more, once i hit the farmer's market on thursday morning.

i've paid it forward in full

This was the last Pay It Forward gift I sent off. It made its way safely to Katie.

Difficult to part with, this one. To ease the sting, I got my hands on another skein of Malabrigo Worsted weight in Forest; I'll make myself a Dolores Park Cowl out of a flattering green. I'm fairly positive that this pattern has begun a Malabrigo stash craze... and I completely understand the craze that is the cowl.

I followed modifications made by Jennifer in her blog post. She knit hers on a US 8, but because I knit tightly, I used a US 9.

please mr. postman, look and see

I suppose I can share my latest FO's, now that the USPS has speedily delivered the Pay It Forward packages I've sent out. The third has yet to be mailed off -- I think tomorrow it'll hit the mailtruck.

The first was a Reverse-Bloom Flower Washcloth for Amber. She's been knitting kitchen scrubbies and dishcloths as of late. Digging through my stash, I spied some Cotton Chenille and thought of the flower washcloth immediately. You can find the pattern in Weekend Knitting by Melanie Falick.

It's a quick knit; I think I did it in two evenings. Most could do it in one sitting, but I never have that big of a chunk of knitting time. I've knit a few of these before, and regardless of how mindful I am while knitting, my petals always curl up at the bottom. The Cotton Chenille is user-friendly. And I can report that after a couple of years of use, my other two flower washcloths are still in good shape. Amber now has her own skein of Cotton Chenille to knit a second cloth if she so chooses.

You might remember this noodle-like mass:

This yarn has a story to tell: it was purchased in February of 2007, knit into the Fitted Textured Sweater in Modern Classics within a few months, then sat and sat unseamed for months. It was my first sweater, and I didn't realize until I began seaming that it would never fit nicely. In fact, if it were in a store, I would have never bought it. Completely wrong for my body type...

The Juliet Scarf in Knitting Little Luxuries has been in my queue since I discovered it upon publication. I had all the required yarn; to be exact, as a result of frogging the sweater, I have enough for ten of these scarves.

It has been sent to Leslie. If she takes some pictures, I'm sure her photos will be much more stylistic.

This wasn't such a fast project. I suffer from knitting ADD and I could only sit through a couple of pattern repeats at a time. I think there were 19 pattern repeats... it had been on the needles for a month or so! Juliet is my first lacy scarf. It wasn't painful or anything, but it was definitely a labor of love. It's knit in Louisa Harding Kimono Angora Pure, a fabulous, lofty, soft yarn.

And for about two days, I was a monogamous knitter. I've finished the third Pay It Forward gift, but I'll post about that later. Meanwhile, happy knitting!

WIP Wednesday

Summer days are here, at least in the life of a stay-at-home mom. Here at the SheepishOne home, our summertime daily temps are an average of 95˚F. Playing outside is not exactly fun. As much as I'd love to camp out poolside for much of the day, three young children make that just a teensy tiny bit impossible. Maybe once everyone's out of floaties and eminent drowning danger, I could swing a full day at the pool...

So, school's out, and we've begun our craft planning. Things on our to do list include: freezer paper stenciling, friendship bracelet making, tie-dyeing, clothes making, clothes making, more clothes making, knitting, and possibly embroidery. We'll still go to the beach, visit the aquarium, read some books, go to the pool, and just relax, but I'm looking most forward to the crafting.

My recent crafting endeavors:

Knitting the Juliet Scarf.

Ripping out the work (more than once) on my Sweetpea sock.

Frogging an entire pair of socks that I just didn't love.


Stashing fabric and patterns for aprons and skirts.

Summertime also translates into "Hardly See My Daddy Season" chez SheepishOne. The man of the house is a firefighter, and with an especially dry fall and winter like this year, our fire danger conditions here in California are high. The man just got home last night from his first wildfire of the year. He was gone for six days. We made it through this stint better than we have during others, but for my children, who are used to their dad being at work for 48 hours, then home for 96 hours, there is nothing better than the news that the man is on his way home.

when life hands you a stimulus check

you should blow it on shoes.