beer 'n cookies

I had to laugh - my sister called me at work today and said "What's going on? Where is the weekly dose of Raining Sheep?" It is Friday and I usually have my weekely post up first thing. I was away on a business trip for three days and I must confess I did not have a post ready, did not do my regular round of comments on my favorite blogs, (my apologies for this to you all), and I have not picked up my camera in weeks. Life at work has been harried and I survived a four hour flight in a packed-out plane by snarfing down an entire bag of gummy bears. However, I did do some baking last week and I do want to share that with you.

Everyone needs to have a most excellent chocolate chip cookie in their repertoire. What makes these cookies especially delectable is that you shave a bar of the best chocolate you can afford into the cookie dough rather than using the standard chocolate chips. The cookies turn out full of oozy, delicious chocolate. I found the recipe on my favorite website 101 Cookbooks. The recipe makes a sizable batch of cookies and I caught the Babe red-handed with a huge plateful swilling them down with his beer - I know this is a departure from the traditional milk, but this is Canada and I would hate to be the one to dispel the myth of the importance of beer to a Canadian male.

french breakfast

There is nothing better than having a Monday off when everyone else is working. By working an extra half hour a day, I have the luxury of taking a day off each month. I always take a Monday because I love the feeling of awaking on Monday morning knowing I don't have to move a single body part from under the covers. The Babe gets every second Monday off as a rule - he works for the City! Usually he is ice climbing with his climbing buddies who I don't think have jobs.

On this Monday the sun was streaming through the windows and the cat was stretched out in an auspicious sunbeam. The previous day I went to the Ladybug Cafe and Bakery to stock up of on French cookies. The perfect day off includes eating sticky florentines and orangettes covered in rich dark chocolate for breakfast. Technically neither of those are breakfast foods but I figure that somewhere in the fabrication of these confections, fruit, nuts, eggs, milk are all used so I can argue that breakfast staples are incorporated somewhere in these two delicacies. A cup of Kicking Horse coffee made with freshly ground beans washes it all down.

All this is the perfect precursor to reading Molly Wizenberg's new book 'A Homade Life'. I absolutely love Molly's book because her father Burg, reminds me of my dad - specifically when it comes to food. My dad loves food and respects meal times as fervently as a good Catholic observes Lent. Dad has every cooking gadget you can image and when he embarks on a cooking experiment it takes my mom two days to clean the kitchen and utensils that are used in the operation. He also has made some of the best bread I have ever eaten. White, crusty peasant bread - the fattening kind! Dad is also guilty of sneaking a full teaspoon of jam directly from the jam jar. Americans may have apple pie, but Europeans have food with no discrimination.

too many socks - as if!

I am a bit late with my post this week, but it has been crazy at work. I had huge writing deadlines, the stock market is horrendous, people are calling me every day wanting me to tell them all will be well with the world - I had a man tell me I should work for free because our company's stock is down so much! As if - if I worked for free I certainly would not be listening to him yell and curse at me. I just come home and go to my knitting. Knitting is so undemanding - it's a happy place! It seemed for a while that knitting was at a stand-still, however, lately it is happening with the knitting scene around here.

I finished a pair of socks that I found mentioned on Sarah's blog. I used a Koigu yarn I had in my stash. It is not their painters merino - it is something else and I did not enjoy knitting with it. I had problems with the first sock but the second one was a breeze. In the end I have to say that they are classy looking socks and I am happy with them. The Babe quipped that pretty soon I will need to open a shop selling my socks because he thinks I can't possibly wear all the socks I knit. Snort! Can you imagine what I would have to charge for a pair of socks to make money on them? Obviously he has no idea!

As you can see by the photo, I was too lazy to get out of bed to photograph these socks. But who can blame me; I got the new Toast catalogue in the mail and I love the photography. Toast is a significant source of inspiration for me photographically.

Happy weekend everyone!

warding off the chill

I know that probably everyone in the world reads Soule Mama, but I only started reading the blog regularly since around Christmas. It took me a while to warm up to the blog because I don't have little ones any more and Soule Mama tends to be more appealing to those who still have small children at home. However, slowly the blog grew on me primarily because I really enjoy the photographs of everyday things and moments, and the lovely writing by both Amanda Soule and her husband who guest blogs every now and then. I was reading this post and fell in love with the shawl because I am definitely a shawl person. The pattern is most excellent because it is easy and simple - I had some amazing yarn and I wanted the yarn to be the guest star rather than the pattern. Also, in case you did not know, I am on a true yarn diet - no new yarn for a year, so I need to knit things from the stash. For those who are interested, the yarn is hand-dyed Lorna's Laces wool and silk blend - so soft and fluid.

Although it is March, Calgary is still cold with snow on the ground - we could easily get another snow storm, or temperatures down in the -20C and as I am writing this it is -15C. This shawl keeps the chill off even when I am sitting in my drafty spot by the window in my favorite chair. It will be perfect for wrapping around me when I sit outside to have my coffee on those days when it finally gets a little warmer. I also have to say that this pattern of alternating sections of stockinette and garter stitch is a very soothing knit. This is one of my favorite knits so far.

Happy weekend everyone.