Painting with Friends, and Cooking Cabbage Rolls

This week some painting friends and I got together to work on our art. Here are their smiling faces, and a glimpse of what they are working on.

We had lunch (Paula Deen's Chicken Salad, but with added pine nuts, grapes, curry powder, celery and some soy sauce, mayo and lemon juice for dressing). And we drank a variation of Arnold Palmer's Iced Tea (except it was limeade and iced tea).

KnitPicks' Podcast gave this recipe for Banana Bread (in episode 98) which went well with the chicken salad, although I tried to hurry the baking time!

And for dinner last nite, the dutch oven did the cooking with cabbage, ground beef and tomatoes.The recipe is here, but you might use instant rice as a quicker alternative to cooking it on the stovetop.






Either way, it is tasty and saves heating the kitchen by putting everything in the crock pot.


It's secret ingredient is cinnamon. That spice really perks up the cabbage and beef.

Enter Free Children’s Book Drawing on July 10, 2008

Recently, Amazon fulfilled my order request for a book entitled “A Squash and a Squeeze.” It is a rhyming children’s book with a moral teaching: be content with what you have, instead of always wishing for more.

I would like to give this handsome used book to a reader who might like it for their child or grandchild. Just leave a comment, and the random generator will choose an entrant’s name if you respond within 10 days.

One of the reasons I purchased this book was that it was a childhood favorite of mine. I asked my husband if he knew of the book, and his negative response was enough for me to hunt down this little gem. It has charming, timeless illustrations of farm animals.

Here is a UKSchoolRadio synopsis of the book:

A rhyming story about a woman who turns to her friend for help to find more room in her tiny house, as she finds it rather a ‘squash and a squeeze’! Following his advice, she brings all her animals into the house. She then finds the house even smaller, but when she is instructed to take them all out again, she finds that her house is gigantic for one!

At the end of the story, the little old lady is delighted to realize what a fine home she had before all the animals came to live with her. The last page says: “She’s full of frolics and fiddle-dee-dees. It isn’t’ a squash and it isn’t a squeeze.”

There is a lesson of being content with present circumstances that we can all learn, no matter our age.

(The copyright on the book says 1993, but the original date had to be prior to 1950, because my older brothers also had a book by this title in their bookshelf prior to my arrival.)

Just leave your name in the comment section below to win a chance for this delightful book.

Making Knitting Needle Knobs

While knitting, fun looking needles gild the lily when working your mojo with pretty yarns.

This site, Flying Fingers, sells knitting accessories galore, and some with pretty embellishments on the tops of their needles. Lots of those unusual looking needles can be seen here.

Would you like to make some yourself? It is easy and inexpensive (about $1 per pair if you already own the wooden needles, and you will have lots of clay left over).

I looked up some references on making those pricey looking needle knobs and found a nice tutorial here: handmade_knitting_needles.

So I made a couple of knobs just for fun, and came up with a few unusual designs, one of which is shown in the photo on right.

Steps for Making Knobs:
1) purchase modeling clay in color(s) you desire (Sculpey is readily available;
2) work the clay until pliable and then mold in any desired shape;
3) place clay bobber on non-working end of wooden knitting needle;
4) bake in preheated oven at 265 degrees for 25 minutes, having knobs lay over edge of cookie sheet;
5) cool and polish with wet, fine sand paper, if desired

Be creative; you could go wild and your knitting buddies might take over your stock.