For all these years, homemade tomato soup was not in my recipe file. When you have good ol' Campbell's Tomato Soup in the can, why bother, right? But friend Shirley convinced me that after I made tomato soup with garden vegetables, I'd be convinced it was worth the bother.
And Shirley supplied 6 orangish-yellowish heirloom tomatoes.
The how-to:
Peel 6 tomatoes by putting in boiling water for a minute. Retrieve, cool a bit and the skins fall off.
Saute 1/2 an onion in olive oil in one pan while the tomatoes are cooking on the stove top in another sauce pan.
Add 1 Tbsp sugar to the tomatoes
Make a quick roux by adding some flour into butter and stir along with some water until thick. You'll add this at the last to help the soup thicken.
Combine the onions to the tomatoes and then the roux and cook it all til thickened. Either dump into a blender or use an immersion blender to blend on top of the stove, leaving a few tomato chunks for texture.
Now add 1/8 tsp. baking soda, but don't ask me why.
Then add 1 can of evaporate milk to the soup and heat until it is hot, but DON'T BOIL the milk. Salt and pepper and croutons on top!!
I'll make this again, especially if Shirley provides the tomatoes!
Several weights of watercolor paper are in my stash, ready to be used for painting with tubed watercolors.
This newly finished "PANSY in BLUES" was painted onto 170 lb. canvas paper.
A thorough explanation of why various weights of paper are used for watercolors can be found here.
If anyone with camera expertise can tell me how to get that flash blur off the glass reflection, please let me know. I did take the flash off, but then the colors did not show through the glass.
Rivka, an amazing, generous, loving, faithful, Zionist (blogger friend) who went to Israel a while back, wrote a post Called "Choose Life" that can be found here. She believed so much in fighting that dreaded disease of cancer that she made herself available to speak publicly about how to treat adversity while continuing to live the good life. Rivka has several YouTube videos that can be viewed here and here and here and here.
In her words, on her blog, she says about herself:
Diagnosed with DCIS (stage ZERO breast cancer) at age 39 (June 2005). Three surgeries and 2 years later (July 2007)... I became a statistical anomaly: breast cancer mysteriously metastasized to my bones, liver and lungs. 2 years later (July 2009), we discovered metastases in my brain.
Diagnosis: Cancer is a "chronic illness." You can live with it.Translation: I hope to be on chemotherapy for a LONG time!
Sadly, Rivka's battle ended this weekend. Her many friends sat Shiva for her and her funeral was Saturday night at 10 pm in Jerusalem at the Kehillat Yerushalayim Beit Hesped in Givat Shaul, Jerusalem, across from the Herzog Hospital (on Har Hamenuchot). Over 1000 people attended. Loudspeakers allowed those outside the building to hear tributes to Rivka.
To learn more about Rivka and her strong faith, I would encourage you readers to go to her blog and read over her past few years of writing and encouragement. Her blog can be accessed at http://www.coffeeandchemo.blogspot.com/ if you are not used to clicking on links. Again, the web link is the same: CoffeeandChemo.
I did not know Rivka personally, but she had a very positive impact on my life. Likewise, here is what Baila, another virtual blogger friend, said (go to Baila's blog here):
Some of my friends think this whole blogging relationship is just plain weird. They wonder why I talk to "strangers". They don't quite understand why I am so saddened by a death of someone who, in their mind, I barely knew. It's hard to explain to you non-bloggers. I don't quite understand it myself. But after blogging for some time, we find that the lines of our real and blogging lives somehow blur. RivkA wrote so honestly about her disease and her struggle that I feel like I did know her. I will miss her--I checked her blog daily, even before the last week. She posted almost everyday.
Baila said it well and I agree with her sentiments.
Rivka ended almost all of her postings this way:
Please daven (or send happy, healing thoughts) for RivkA bat Teirtzel.
With love and optimism, RivkA
(June, 2009)
I believe this is what her friends say now and may I also say that her battle is over and Rivka, may you rest in peace.
Please daven (or send happy thoughts) for the memory of RivkA bat Yishaya.
Weezalana at Ravelry gives a free, quick pattern for fingerless mitts on this website. It was fun to put in a few cabled stitches, but the screaming colors in the yarn obfuscated don't let those cables shine through. So why would you NOT wear fingerless mitts? (Don't answer that.)
Here is my pair:
Jelliebean sold me the blue Faced Leicester 4 ply sock yarn, individually hand painted by none other than Jelliebean herself. We passed pounds under the table in Cardiff, Wales, at the Knit Up held at a pub this month for this and other yarn bounty. It was great fun and the beer and camaraderie made it even more festive!
Jelliebean Yarns and her dye partner can be found here on Etsy - All Things Handmade. I previously purchased some yarn from her long before I met her in the flesh, so it was a treat to get to meet that talented young lady while traveling.
Yes, it has lots of butter and cream cheese and sugar in the frosting. That is why it is so delicious. My bargain is that I won't eat any too much leftover Halloween candy if I eat cake. But, my, my, that pumpkin cake is good. We'll see if we can keep it around a day or two.
Can you tell that Libby is not crazy about the doorbell ringing tonight for tricksters? She and Mercy get in such a frenzy over that noise.
Susan Howatch is another of my favorite authors. Howatch was introduced to me (her writings, not her person) by my SIL Charlotte. We both read one of her book set series several years ago. That series is entitled "The Church of England", or the "Starbridge Series", and can be found here. Howatch has many more books that I need to catch up on.
From that same site:
Susan Howatch was born in Surrey in 1940. After taking a degree in law she emigrated to America where she married, had a daughter and embarked on a career as a writer. She left in 1976 and lived in the Republic of Ireland for four years before returning to England. She lived in Salisbury - inspiration for the very successful Starbridge sequence and now lives in Leatherhead, Surrey.
Howatch's Facebook page has thousands of fans, and is fun to peruse occasionally to see how her thoughts are still effecting others.
All this to say that I just purchased a download of her book The Rich Are Different (recorded in 2009, written in 1977). It is 28 hours long, so will be good company as I knit up The Sage Remedy Top from Ravelry in this Hyacinth Blue colorway from KnitPicks:
The hyacinth color has some red tints in the blue and is working up nicely. Wool of the Andes (a workhorse in the KnitPicks line) shows up the stitch definition.
This is designer Sarah Sheperd's version of the finished top:
I really like this pattern because it will hide my lymphedemic left arm and flat chest since it will be layered over a turtleneck, and has extra fullness to hide all kinds of body flaws. You know what I'm talking about, girls.
Do you like mystery books? If so, don't you love Elizabeth George?
You might like to go to George's website and peruse all the book titles she has written.
We have enjoyed watching many of the Inspector Lynley shows on TV. The Inspector (a titled British bloke) and his sidekick, Barbara Havers, do service to Ms. George's main characters.
Fifty-one of George's stories and fan comments can be accessed at this site, so you, too, can be an active fan of Inspector Lynley and interact virtually with other fans. BBC Mysteries has their own website where you can also delve into the characters of Lynley and Havers.
Over the past year, my husband and our two dogs and I have viewed these TV shows in the Elizabeth George Inspector Lynley series via Netflix:
Guise of Death
Know Thine Enemy
Natural Causes
Limbo
Great Deliverance
Word of God
Deception on His Mind
Blink of an Eye
Suitable Vengeance
One Guilty Deed
Cry for Justice
Traitor to Memory
In Pursuit of a Proper Sinner
Payment in Blood
For the Sake of Elena
I just downloaded George's audio book Number 13 (With No One As Witness) on to my mp3 player, since it is not yet out on TV. The reader has an authentic British accent and is an easy listen.
Most of my knitting is accomplished while Inspector Lynley and Barbara Havers are chasing murderers in the British countryside (while on the TV background).
OK, I was sucked in. Again. This time it was a knitting group from Ravelry that caught me:
p/hop (although it sounds like a rapper’s name) means pennies per hour of pleasure. It is a fundraiser for the international medical aid organisation Medecins Sans Fontieres (Doctors Without Borders). Lovely designers from all over the place have pledged to donate patterns to MSF, which you can download in return for a donation! Once you have your newly knitted/crocheted scarf/socks/sweater in hand, we ask you to donate an amount that corresponds to the amount of pleasure you got from making it… I think I’ve made this sound more complicated than it is! Hopefully you know what I mean…
p/hopping has grown from the original name and is what happens when someone offers and item and (hopefully) someone else decides they want it. Visit www.p-hop.co.uk to see our patterns, catch up on news and share some virtual cake and a cup of tea.
Here is a picture of the pair of fingerless gloves I'm making, with my wages going to Doctors Without Borders in the US:
As the title suggests, the inspiration for this pattern came from the BBC adaptation of Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. Jane says, ‘This gentle drama, both humorous and touching took us into the lives of gentlewomen of certain age living in reduced circumstances. I noticed that many of their costumes included delicate mitts which they wore to ensure warm fingers in their draughty houses. I have adapted this idea to create some warm but delicately lacy mitts to take the edge off chilly spring mornings."
Further information about Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) / Doctors Without Borders:
MSF is an independent humanitariam medical aid organisation, committed to providing medical aid wherever it is needed, regardless of race, religion, politics or gender. We currently work in over 60 countries helping victims of war, natural disasters, disease epidemics and those who simply have no access to even basic healthcare. For more info, please visit http://www.msf.org.uk/
Cowls are the magic cure for disguising crepey necks. If the money fairy gave me an extra $10K, maybe that could be fixed, but that is not going to happen.
So here is my latest cowl rendition, knit in a silk and wool blend purchased at I Knit London and found on Ravelry at this site.
The free pattern from Bernat for the baby blanket is finished and off in the mail to Laura:
This 100% hand painted silk fiber, from Cascade Lace (Switzerland), luscious to hold and light reflective, is being made into the lace Norwegian Woods Shawl:
Designer Sivia Harding says about her design:
This top-down lace triangle portrays a forest progressing from winter into spring. Beads grace the bottom edge....This pattern can be upsized by doing more repeats of one or more of the three lace patterns used in the shawl. Note that more yarn and beads will be required if the pattern is made larger.
The repeats are 12 stitches, so I made lettered index cards for the pattern rows from the stitch charts. It was too difficult to read that chart, and the cards seem to work for me.
