Another one bites the dust...

Hopefully I've now gotten that song stuck in your head, because I'm evil like that. Another week has flown by. Thanks to my pinkeye (which seems to be resolved now, thankfully) and some goings-on at work, I had a three day week this past week, and I'm going to have another one this week because I'm going to Stitches West!! I'm pretty excited, though it doesn't really seem real. I've already made up shopping lists for all the yarn weights and yardages I'll need for all the different sweaters I want to make. If you actually clicked through, you'll see two men's sweaters. Yes, I'm convincing Big Man he wants a sweater. Considering how tall he is, I think I now qualify as a masochist. At least they're both done in worsted weight yarn, so it won't be too awful.

I'm also excited to see many of my online friends from Ravelry. I'm road-tripping up and picking up a lovely Raveler about halfway up, and it should be a lot of fun. I made loads of muffins this weekend (more on that later) and intend to take quite a few with me, both for delicious snacks and to ensure I have something to eat in the mornings that doesn't come from Starbucks!

The only sad thing is that I don't think I'll have much in the way of internet access while I'm gone, so the virtual world will have to muddle through without me somehow!

Yesterday (and Friday night), I decided I wanted to bake. As Big Man will testify, I don't usually do things in a small way when I cook. I should probably sign a contract to cook for the local firehouse (though they would probably take exception to my vegetarian meal planning). I looked in my cabinet, saw that I had 4 kinds of dried fruit, and decided I would make muffins. I don't think I've ever made muffins, but that didn't deter me. So, when making muffins, the recipes usually make 1 dozen--muffin pans only have 12 cups, so why not? However, if you're going to take the time to cook one dozen, why not make TWO dozen? I mean, really, it would be silly not to. Right? Right?

That's a 5.0 cubic foot freezer. Sure, there is some other food in there (like Big Man's Lean Cuisine, which will go to work Monday and be replaced with more muffins, see below). but there are also approximately 60 muffins stuffed in there too. Oh, and about 4 cups of cookie dough (see it perched precariously in between the top two bags of muffins?) because 8 dozen muffins weren't enough.

This is why we discussed getting a small chest freezer last night. That's about 20 blueberry muffins that wouldn't fit in the freezer yet, plus a few of each flavor to be eaten sooner rather than later.

Since I was waiting to go to the specialty store on Saturday for the sparkling sugar to sprinkle heavily on top for that lovely sparkle and delicious crunch (though it turned out they don't carry it anymore, phooey), Friday night I made Olive Oil muffins from Smitten Kitchen's blog (which is amazing, go look). I cooked mine too long, as I'm not used to making muffins, but they're still just wonderful. I imagine they'll be perfectly delightful with a salad or soup, or, well, anything. I didn't use fresh zest, but rather splashes of citrus oil. It's wonderful stuff, and just the thing for adding flavor when you don't have fresh fruit handy, or when a recipe would suffer for too much liquid added. Take note: a little goes a loooooooooooooooooong way!

On Saturday, after discovering I wasn't getting any prettifying sugar, I came home and started baking. First up were Sour Cream-Apricot muffins. It says it makes 1 dozen muffins. When I doubled it, I had enough for 2 dozen muffins and to fill a loaf pan (if somewhat shallowly). This is ok, actually, as they're delicious! Despite me (again) cooking them too long, they're very tender and delicately flavored. When I chopped the dried apricots in my food processor, I added some candied ginger to the mix (and should've added a bit more). Note: if you make this recipe, the dough is much more like biscuit dough than batter, and will seem EXTREMELY dry til you add the soaked apricots, so do not skip the soaking! Also, they don't really rise almost at all, so feel free to fill the cups FULL.

The line-up, L to R: Olive Oil muffins, Sour Cream-Apricot muffins, Cherry-Lime-Almond muffins, and Blueberry-Lemon muffins.

Next up were the Cherry-Lime-Almond muffins. I used the same recipe for these as the Blueberry-Lemon muffins, but modified it to suit what I wanted. Disclaimer: I think I'm going to try a different recipe next time, as this wasn't quite right (though not bad!).
Trader Joe's makes a neat product called almond meal (though I expect you could find it lots of places) which is ground almonds that you can use to replace part of the flour in your baked goods to provide an almondy flavor without the chunks. Obviously, I used it here, or else I wouldn't mention it! I used both the lime oil and some lime juice. I only made up a small part of the total liquid called for with lime juice and made the rest up with water. Even so, the batter was VERY limey, but it mellowed out some on baking. I chopped the dried cherries in the food processor again, and again added some candied ginger to the mix. Also again, I needed to add more ginger! I again cooked them too long (noticing a pattern?), but they are very flavorful nonetheless. I really like the lime in particular, and the cherry flavor becomes more noticeable as they sit.

The final contender was Blueberry-Lemon. I also used some almond meal in these, but didn't feel like including it in the name. I actually used real lemons in this one, so no lemon oil for me! I scraped the zest of two lemons and used the juice like I did with the lime. I added a good bit of powdered sugar to the liquid, though, to make up for the intense tartness of the lemon juice. For these, I used dried wild blueberries (I love Trader Joe's!), and they're so wee I didn't chop them. I finally learned from my mistakes, too, and took them out sooner than I thought I should, and they have the best texture of any of the group. The blueberries are wonderful bursts of flavor, and I wholeheartedly recommend them, even if they are a bit pricey.

Finally, the cookie dough was my old fallback, modified of course. I added chopped good-quality dark chocolate, dried cranberries, and delicious tulip poplar honey (thanks Dad!) instead of the egg. I usually tip in some shredded coconut too, but I didn't have any. I have no idea how these bake up, because I don't think I've ever actually cooked them. I always just eat the dough. Oh don't look at me like that--I know you've done it too!

Oh, right--I'm supposed to talk about yarn and stuff, huh? Well, though the twist hasn't been set yet, I did some spinning amidst the baking this weekend. This is spun from FatCatKnits' last installment of the first merino club. It totals 4oz, though it is obviously in two yarns. The thin two-ply is spun from what wouldn't fit on the bobbin when I did the single. I had thought I wanted to do a N-ply, but thought the colors would look good and tweedy as a two-ply.

Approximately 45yds/2.6oz of the single and 80yds/1.4oz of the 2-ply. Approximately.

I would also love to know what your favorite online or local yarn store is. I have another huge batch of promotional postcards to send out, and would love your input on who you'd like to see carrying my yarns. Sadly, I can only do within the US right now, as selling wholesale internationally is a bit much for my feeble brain to comprehend at the moment!