Coffee Anyone

Jim and I were in Calistoga, California a few weeks ago and stayed at a phenomenal bed and breakfast, Luxe Calistoga.

Brent and Chris are wonderful hosts and their attention to detail are extraordinary.

 

It is a bed and breakfast and the food that chef Josh prepares for said breakfast is wonderful.

 

 

The one thing I can confidently replicate at home is the French press coffee that was served.

 

My one disappointment with French press coffee in the past has always been it cools off so quickly in the normal glass carafe.

 

Luxe uses Frieling insulated coffee pots and I am happy to report we are now proud owners of a Frieling french press coffee pot.

 

Oh happy days!

 

 

 



Burn Testing

Living in California there is currently a great concern about wild fires.

 

The latest in the news is the Mt. Diablo  fire which has covered over 3,000 acres and is now thankfully  60% contained.

 

Although I currently live in the Sacramento area this fire struck close to home for me as I have some great  memories of living in Concord and the Mt. Diablo area before we moved to Texas when I was ten.

 

And so today I was concerned when I did my testing of yarn to make sure it was wool that I didn't start my own wild fire.

 

Testing to see if your yarn is wool involves putting a match to it to see how it burns.

 

I had a water bowl for dousing ready if needed.

 

I am going to be knitting some felted slippers for a member of my family as a gift and I want to use yarn I currently own if possible.

 

 One skein still has a tag of Cascade 220 but I wasn't sure the other two skeins were also 220. I really couldn't remember why I had purchased three skeins of 220 as I normally buy with a project in mind. I recently had a friend knit a bag she felted in the washing machine and didn't realize all the yarn she used was not 100% wool and the shrinkage was not very consistent. 

 Didn't want to go there!

 

 

Anyway, it looks like the two unmarked skeins are also wool as both barely burned and became ash and did not have a plastic ball finish.

 

And I am happy to report I did not start any new wild fires with this test.

Pyromaniac I might be, wild fire starter I am not!!!

 

 

Bear Sightings

Thank you everyone for all the suggestions on how to retrieve my needle.  Unfortunately we have still not been able to get it from under the deck.  The limited amount of space between the deck boards has made it hard to maneuver but we are still trying to recover it.  Thank goodness I had a set of five so I'm still able to knit socks with the four I have I'm just being a lot more aware of where I am knitting and any potential hazards.

 

On a happier note, today I boxed up another 14 bears I knit to ship to the Mother Bear project in Minneapolis.

These bears are given to children in Africa whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS.

Last year I knit eleven bears.



And here are sightings of six of those bears that have been given a new home.

It makes my heart happy!

Lesson Learned

 

Lately I've enjoyed spending my mornings knitting outside appreciating the lovely California weather.  Although we are still hitting the 90's, our days are starting in the 60's and it's not until mid afternoon the weather sends me inside. 

 

Recently I've been working on a pair of vanilla socks on my favorite dpn's (double point needles) which I think are the Cadillac of needles, my size 0 dpn's from Signature Needle Arts . 

 

 Unfortunately 0's are no longer made by Signature because they had to be machined differently then the rest of the needles they produce because of their size and were prohibitively expensive to continue making. 

 

Horror of horrors I unexpectedly drop a needle after finishing a row the other day AND...

 

........it fell through a seam in the deck. 

 

Yes I can see it but I don't know how to get it back.

 

We've tried gum on a stick and very sticky tape.   They are made of stainless steel so a magnet won't work.

 

Jim actually has made two trips to Home Depot for bits to undo the deck but to no avail.

 

 

Maybe I can get Dru Ann to bring Pachelbel when she visits to go under the deck although we'd have to figure out a reason she wants to retrieve my needle.

 

 

 

(Really just coming up with an excuse for her to bring Pachelbel.)

 

I am now knitting with needles that can easily be replaced if I should drop them and they disappear when I am outside knitting on the deck

 

Who knew?

It's in the Jar

Yesterday I went with Jim to the local farmer's market that is just up the street from us.

We went for fresh strawberries and whatever else we might find. 

We arrived after 11:00 and many of the vendors were already slashing prices and I bought 15 pounds of ripe tomatoes for $6.00.

 

 

This morning after making Jim his favorite breakfast of waffles and strawberries I started processing the tomatoes.

 

 Half of them I cut up and made tomato sauce from the Ball Blue Book.

The other half I peeled after dropping them in boiling water and simply canned.

 

 

I now have 4 1/2 pints of tomatoes packed in their own juice, 3 1/2 pints of basil-garlic tomato sauce and yes, I made some more pickle chips since the water was already boiling.

 

I had a very fruitful morning.

 

 

Planter

Jim likes to buy magnums. 

 

FYI, wine ages better in larger format bottles.

At least that's what I'm told.

 

Lots of times they come in lovely wooden boxes.

 

What to do?

 

Add flowers and you have a lovely decorative planter for your outside table.

 



Cotton Candy

 

As if grapes aren't sweet enough they now make a cotton candy varietal.

 

These grapes are a new hybrid variety that were created using hand-pollination and took eight years to develop.  No worries for those who are concerned about genetic modifications of their food.  The idea behind the creation of this flavor being more children would eat them if they tasted like cotton candy.

 

 

Of course I bought them to try out.

 

 They are priced a dollar more per pound then the regular table grapes at my local grocery store. 

 

When you bite in to the grape you do get that "hint" of cotton candy flavor but once you start eating the skin that flavor gets lost and to me I was eating a green grape.  You could of course peel your grapes but that's a bit much for me.

 

Still they are delicious as I do like my grapes either in a bottle or fresh from the vine.