Valentines are so yesterday...

OK, here it is January 28th, and already the valentine decorations are on clearance to make way for the shamrocks. This is way to fast for those of us who plan at the last minute. Even those of us who prefer green to red and pink.

Avoiding the dry cleaner

I've managed to avoid the dry cleaner for over 4 years. Mostly I wear casual clothes, and I have started to hand wash some things that were previously marked dry cleaning recommended.

But, I have a confession to make. My jacket, pictured above, has not been cleaned in over 6 years because I needed to mend the lining in the sleeve first. We wear jackets infrequently in Florida, and I would remember the lining each time I would put this on, but promptly forget until the next time. And the tear in the lining wasn't getting any better by itself.

I believe I have mentioned in the past how much I don't look forward to mending by hand. Never mind I have enough hand sewing needles to last 4 more lifetimes, I just don't like to do it. But I did it anyway, and finally took the thing in for a cleaning. Ten bucks, why am I not surprised? Anyway, it's good to get that one little nagging job off my list.

What's next?

Knitting progress

Well, it's up to 31" and I don't think I've dropped any stitches, at least none I couldn't pick back up more or less. While it is getting more comfortable, I'm still not ready to start up with patterns or anything else that requires counting as I go. Baby steps.

Lucky for me, my neck is often cold.

Knitting again

I just couldn't resist that big ole' ball of yarn in just my shades of green. I'm a pretty bad knitter, but a scarf in all the same stitch can't be too bad, can it?

The question is, can I finish it before it gets too hot to hold it in my lap. That was the end of the similar scarf I started in 2008. Seriously.

Maybe it's the same everywhere, maybe not.

We are down to a total of 9 forks at work, and only 2 of them work right. Why did all the forks disappear? In previous years we couldn't keep spoons. Why?

By the way, those zigzag forks are cute but even more worthless than sporks.

How could you, Pepperidge Farm?

I bought a big bag of this stuff because it's my favorite part of Thanksgiving. I go to my sister's house for the holiday, but I make my own stuffing at home too. Ok, my secret's out. When eating the big feast at my sister's house, my "rules" are suspended. But at home, well, I wish I had never looked at the ingredients. There it is, before the 2% or less note, high fructose corn syrup.

Ok, how hard is it to make stale bread cubes? With bread that isn't contaminated? Not so difficult, but this is the stuffing mix of decades of tradition. I wish I had never looked. Now these bags are going to the food drive at work and I'll be buying loaves of bread in the store bakery to harden up.

Yesterday I read the most complex stuffing recipe yet. It involved 3 skillets, 3 baking sheets, and if you don't have a big cast iron skillet, another casserole dish. If it didn't look so good I wouldn't even consider it. But the mushrooms are already bought, know what I mean?

Sunday and the weather's chilly.

It was so nice that I had to make some pumpkin muffins. Yes, they were as tasty as I had remembered them from, oh, about 3 years ago. That picture, above, is an experiment with my new phone's camera. I still had to Photoshop it a little bit, though.

The trouble with seeing so many great baking recipes online is that I don't repeat that often. That means I have a plethora of specialty pans, tools and small appliances. I have started keeping some of them in the garage. One of the many perks of being divorced is that my garage is available for overflow kitchen stuff.