Chickenlips Knitting

Happy 2011, everyone! Please know that I wish good things for you all in the new year. I admit to having distanced myself somewhat from the news reports. I'm not trying to be an ostrich, or the queen of denial, I am just trying to keep as much negativity as I can out of my mind, heart and spirit. Although we are blessed with abundant food, a place to live and love for one another, it was a rather unhappy Christmas for reasons I described in previous posts. I've made a conscious decision to leave it all in the past. While one of my more glaring character defects is the tendency to hold a grudge, I do accept that I have no control over other people's behavior. It's a start.

I'm also trying to walk a more righteous path where my health is concerned. Since the holidays ended, my diet is much higher in salads and fresh vegetables. I haven't completely given up sugar, but I'm staying away from it as much as I can. Although my daughter, who has lost 70 lbs. cautioned me not to get on the scale, I had to know. I lost 4 lbs. It's a start.

Looking at the blog post title, maybe I answered my own question of "now what"? Not to get all hippie dippie 70's psychobabble about it, but someone a long time ago told me, "It's ok to just be." So I'm not going to take on the monster task of re-inventing myself, or pushing my tiny kitchen to produce mass quantities of hand dyed yarn and fiber with chemical dyes when I miss cooking a variety of good food. Self-care has to be priority one right now. It's a start.

I recently finished a pair of socks.

These are just plain vanilla's. The yarn is Deborah Norville Serenity, and I got 2 50-gram balls for $5.00 at Jo-Ann in Spokane. Talk about cheap azz crafts! It's a blend of superwash wool, bamboo & nylon. Very soft and comfy - I'm pleased.

That's all the knitting I have to share right now - I'm working feverishly on a big project, the Tomato sweater. Jason is going a convention in Pasadena on Thursday, and I get to go with him! I've never been there and I'm excited. Just to get away from the too-cold weather here for a few days will be a nice break. Anyway, I wanted to have the Tomato done before we left, but it won't be. I'll take it with me and work on it while we're there. I plan to visit Abuelita's while he is at the convention center.

The rest of this post is gonna be pictures of food. Michelle and I were craving the Sizzling Rice Soup that we enjoy at China Bay , so we tried to make it at home.

You're supposed to spread the cooked rice on a greased surface - I put foil on a cookie sheet and sprayed it with Pam - and bake it at 300 degrees F for 40 minutes. I had a mixture of chicken broth with a bit of soy sauce, sliced green onion, pea pod, carrot and sliced beef steaming and ready, and I couldn't wait for the rice to be done, so it didn't get crispy and sizzle when I added it to the broth. No matter - it was still pretty good!

Jason's family is from the South, and Southerners eat blackeye peas on New Year's Day for luck. We adopted the tradition.

I use the canned kind, add some brown sugar and simmer it until the liquid in the pan is thick.
For New Year's Day we also had a standing rib roast, and to go with it I fixed Yukon Gold potatoes roasted in olive oil with onion, garlic and fresh lemon thyme.

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I am dialing back how much time, energy and money I will invest in Stitchjones this year. I still plan to do dyeing. The fiber events I will vend at this year are the Columbia Gorge Fiber Festival in mid-April, Black Sheep Gathering in June, and Oregon Flock & Fiber in September. There's going to be another Sock Summit here in Portland this summer. I was a vendor at the first one, and as much as I'd like to participate in the second one, I know it's out of my reach. Scaling down also means being less active in social networking, so I'm backing off the Facebook/Twitter thing too. Closing some doors, waiting for a window to open and trusting that it will.

It's a start.