Almost a knitting stoppage

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Elizabeth

During most of 2012 when I was immersed in Newbery reading, I had very little time for knitting. It rather drove me insane. Most of what I got done was gifts: a couple of baby sweaters, gloves for my mom, etc. I didn’t entirely quit knitting, but I was down to just an hour or two a week, mostly during Sunday dinners.

Just before Mom’s birthday in November, I made her a pair of podster gloves, gloves with the fingers and flip mitten tops for use with iPhones and smart phones.

Mom has crazy long fingers and I was really worried about making the gloves right. She was excited to tell me that they are the first pair of gloves she has ever had that fit right. She also rather amusingly referred to them as having “turtlenecks” for her fingers. That’s apparently a good thing. Yay! I’m calling that a win!

Yarn is Socks That Rock lightweight, color Schwarzwald which was a Rockin Sock Club colorway from July 2011. This was my second time making this pattern. The first had been Christmas 2011 gloves for David.

I finished up some socks that have been on the needle for over a year. They began as a sample to teach a knitting class. Knit the first one for the bulletin board and started the second one during the class. I finally finished them up this last week.

Yarn is JoAnn’s Sensations Bamboo and Ewe patterened.

Pattern is a basic toe up sock pattern that I came up with mostly on my own, with help from Wendy’s generic toe up sock pattern.

The rush of babies continued, you saw some of them and their sweaters in the Happy New Year post. This weekend was a baby shower for Mallory and John’s new baby. I made their little boy a baby sweater vest.

It’s a bamboo/wool yarn blend and the pattern is Julian vest with an extra repeat of the “v” pattern. The size is 9 to 12 months-ish. I never worry too much about the gauge with baby garments. It will fit the kid at some stage of development. And in Alaska there is never a season where a sweater is not appropriate wear. So I made the 12 month size, but the gauge is a bit tight. Label it 9 to 12 months. It all works out.

I had more trouble with the edging. By now you would think I would be capable of picking up stitches and knitting a simple rib, but it took me more tries then I would like to admit. However the end result is adorable. Plus it has these cute little buttons on the sleeves to make it easier to go over baby’s head. So much fun!

This last week as I have slowed down on the Newbery re-readings, I’ve been ramping up the knitting. I rather have this thought that if I finished up everything (or most everything) on the needles, than after I get back from Newbery discussion (at the ALA Midwinter conference in Seattle) then I can knit whatever I want. Anything. Everything. And I’ll be free of “should be reading” guilt and “this project has been on the needles for 7 months” guilt.

The first priority will be my wedding shawl and David’s wedding socks. But I am allowed (we voted on it as a committee) to knit during Newbery discussions and there are two plane trips plus three extra days in Seattle with my sister and parents. I don’t want to cast on wedding shawl/socks until after I get back. Of course I’ll also be taking David’s scarf that is 2/3rds done. But it is 2/3rds of a full sized scarf, not the most portable/purse friendly sock.

So I think this calls for a new project. I already wound the yarn. You prep for Midwinter conferences your way and I’ll prep my way (read: wind yarn).

This Newbery adventure has been amazing, but I will be glad to be back to my regularly scheduled life. I am thinking that it will be a decade or so before I want to take on this again.

Happy New Year!

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Elizabeth

As we receive more holiday cards, letters, emails, blog posts, and updates, we feel vaguely guilty about not sending our own. Well, I feel guilty, David is more ambivalent. In lieu of a mailed card or greeting, we wanted to share with you some of the joys and adventures we have had in 2012.

January began with me (Elizabeth) traveling to Dallas for the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting. I was there to begin serving my term as a member of the Newbery Medal committee. It would end up being quite an adventure. Publishers sent me masses of books for consideration. As of last count, I have received 507 books, read 153 entirely and partially read another 75. In the first month of 2013 I will finish up re-reading the finalists for the award, head to another conference to vote for the winner, and cheerfully donate the majority of the books to libraries and schools.

Left to Right: Cleta, David, Elizabeth, Ray at the ceremonial start of the Iditarod. Anchorage, Alaska, 2012.

February brought Elizabeth’s parents up to visit Anchorage for their second winter Alaskan experience. They got to meet David (and Ray and David had a very serious dinner, but we’ll get to that later), watch the Iditarod and participate in some of the Fur Rondy festivities.

At the end of February, on Leap Day, David purchased his first house! Buying it directly from Mike and Kristen made the process easier for a first time home buyer. And it meant lots of friends to help with both their move and his move.

March marked David turning 28! A very nice, responsible age, for a nice responsible adult home owner. He especially celebrated that it brought the last of the snows of an epic winter, 134.5 inches of snow, a new Anchorage record. It is entirely possible that no one was more excited about breaking the winter snow record than him.

This spring also brought babies to some of our good friends. Mike and Kristen welcomed their daughter, Samantha, and Chris and Hilary welcomed their son, Arthur. We’ve had lots of time to play and bond with the little ones and discovered that David has a secret power. His fantastic body heat lures infants to sleep.

Baby Arthur in the sweater Elizabeth knit him.

David lures Samantha to sleep with his radiator like qualities.

Most of you know that on May 5th 2011 David and I met at a friend’s party. This year on Cinco de Mayo David allowed me to believe we were going out to dinner with a friend. Instead I discovered rose petals leading to him sitting at a candlelit dinner of Moose’s Tooth (the same as our first date) surrounded by vases of my favorite flowers. After an amazing dinner, we drove to Point Woronzof, one of our favorite places to take walks, went down on one knee and proposed. I was so excited to say yes that I didn’t notice the friend who had hosted the previous party hiding in the parking lot photographing the entire thing. Thus we have beautiful professional photos of one of the best moments of our lives. (And why yes, that was what David and Ray were discussing at dinner.)

June brought my 30th birthday. I don’t feel old. Not really. But it is very weird to be 30. The summer also brought a unique career opportunity for me. Because of staff turnover, I managed 2 libraries, one of which had no other professional librarians. It was hard work and stressful but a great learning experience. In June I also went to the American Library Association Annual Conference in Anaheim to learn about librarianship and attend more meetings of the Newbery committee.

We ate ALL the fair food, especially the funnel cake. Alaska State Fair, August 2012.

Summer brought the usual fishing experiences and David stepped up and filled the freezer with salmon to keep us going through the long winter months. Hunting was less successful this year due to heavy rains cancelling trips and moose scarcity after the difficult winter. However we had all the usual Alaska summer fun: hiking, the State Fair, and staying outdoors as much as possible.

We also took an opportunity this summer to get away for a couple of days and drive the old Denali highway. I got to see the pipeline for the first time and we enjoyed the first of a lifetime of camping trips.

Fall had both of us working especially hard. I continued to plug away at reading juvenile fiction while David studied furiously for the Professional Engineering Exam. The last week of October was a nail biter as a confident but still nervous David took the exam. It wasn’t until mid-December before he would learn the good news – he passed!

David Nicolai is now a PROFESSIONAL MECHANICAL ENGINEER! He is ready to build all the things for you.

Unfortunately the fall also brought sorrow. David’s family lost his beloved Nana. Angelline Gamache departed this world after 80 years surrounded by generations of family and love she had created. Her legacy will live on for years in the many friends, neighbors, and family members she touched.

Aside from the large moments, our life continued in small ways as well. David is still with Coffman Engineers and still playing and refereeing soccer year round. I didn’t have as much time to knit this year with my reading duties, but I found a few moments. I also gardened a little, crafted a bit (discovering Pinterest might have been a problem) and baked a lot. We tortured the cats, walked, biked (we both purchased bikes this year), hiked, and enjoyed the company of family and friends whenever possible.

We have a lot of plans for 2013. I have a new spinning wheel I can’t wait to learn to use. David has a brand new PE license and plans to build. Next year might be the year we both go hunting and we’ll see who brings home the moose (or bison or caribou). And of course we’ll be planning a wedding for June.

We hope you enjoyed your 2012 and especially the 2012 holiday season. Happy New Year from us to you. May your 2013 be amazing, blessed, filled with love and laughter, family and friends. – David and Elizabeth

Happy Holidays – Coffman Engineers Christmas Party, December 2012.

Boxing Day Part 1 and 2

Posted on December 28, 2012 by Elizabeth

David’s newest LEGO technic, a plane. Christmas 2012.

For us we chose to interpert boxing day to mean “take Christmas presents out of boxes, recycle boxes, put presents together and away”. Wikipedia assures me that is not what boxing day is really about, but it works for me.

On Christmas we enjoyed breakfast together, opened presents, used Google hangougt to open presents with my siblings, then spent most of the day with his family. It was a fantastic day of fun, family, love and laughter, but it left almost no time for tidying up and putting things away. So BOXING DAY!

This would have been more sucessful if we had not both worked. Working right after a holiday turns out to be crazy exhausting. So on Boxing Day part one (the 26th) we only got a few presents away, including David putting together his newest toy.

Schacht Ladybug Spinning Wheel. Christmas 2012.

Boxing Day part 2 (the 27th) we put together my present – a new spinning wheel! I’ve been drooling over this one for quite a while – a Schacht Ladybug. I’ve spun with a drop spindle, but never with a wheel. Can’t wait to learn, but I am afraid it will have to wait until after I finish my Newbery reading and re-reading. Putting together the wheel was a bit of a tease, but I couldn’t help it.

We got a lot of gifts; we’re both quite spoiled and loved. David got 50 years of Bond movies on Bluray. That’s actually about 22 or 23 movies. Thus I’ve seen more Bond movies in the last 3 days then in my entire life previously. Mostly I sit there and read or knit and occasionally look at David and say “Did they REALLY just say that?” Or point out flaws in the science, misogyny, and racism. But it is still crazy fun.

We’ve got yarn to knit for the new year, fluff to spin, movies to watch, more gadgets to put together, and a lot more fun to be had. Soon there will be an end of year Christmas/New Year wrap up post (taking the place of the holiday letter we never wrote to put in the holiday cards we never sent). In the meantime I leave you with this last image. Every Ladybug wheel has a ladybug “hidden” in a unique spot – part of the fun of putting it together is finding yours. Mine is on the main body of the wheel (still learning spinning terminology) just above where the left treadle fits in.

Found the ladybug “hiding” on my wheel! Christmas 2012

Nana’s Beer Battered Recipe

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Elizabeth

Life has been rough in our little corner of the world for the last few weeks. I’ve learned a lot about my fiance, his family, their traditions, and my own expectations. Mostly I’ve learned that they love each abundantly and I’m so blessed to be a part of their family.

Quite a few Yup’ik and Native Alaskan traditions differ greatly from what I was expecting, but one thing is the same between the South and here – crisis are best confronted with copious amounts of food.

Several times as the food was being planned, Nana’s beer battered salmon was mentioned. However for various reasons, and various lack of familiarity with deep frying, no one was jumping in to make it. Yeah, I’m from the South, I may repress most of my emotions publicly, but I can deep fry anything. Give me that recipe.

And so I made Nana’s beer battered salmon. It is odd for someone from a landlocked state to fry up salmon. Salmon is precious/expensive where I grew up, but not up here. Here we have an entire freezer full, as do most people we know. Even vacuum-packed straight from the river, salmon loses moisture and usually requires a sauce/marinade when you cook it later. Frying adds back in that moisture in a most delicious way.

My initial cooking instinct was that this batter was too thin. I decided to test out a few pieces before thickening it up. Glad I did because it was perfect. However it lacked seasoning. The aunts informed me that Nana didn’t use much seasoning beyond salt (probably a reflection of what was available in Alaska when she was learning to cook rather than a personal choice to eschew spices). I added in Nature’s Seasoning Blend (from Morton’s) because it is my go to quick and safe choice, about 2 teaspoons worth. I’ll be playing with different seasoning choices in the future. I know I’ll be making this again and again.

Now for the cooking (and this is my first time food blogging so be kind). First gather your ingredients:

I am using a Pyramid Thunderhead IPA because we bought a mixed case of Pyramid beers at Costco and neither of us really like IPAs. It has been also featured in a number of beer breads. The aunts let their beer go flat first, I dumped mine from glass to glass until most of the foam was gone. I deep fry in regular vegetable oil – the big container from Costco.

Have someone helping you (pictured is my David, you’ll have to get your own helper) cut the salmon into bite sized chunks:

Please note that his bite size chunks are really more two-bite sized chunks. They were perfect that size. When he is finished with that, have your helper finish up the remaining beer. (One beer is a bit less than two cups needed four a double batch so he gets about 2/3rds of the second beer.)

While he’s doing that, mix up your batter:

I made a double batch of beer batter and we had plenty left over after cooking up three large filets. The egg whites are whipped to stiff peaks and folded in at the last moment before frying.

Next set up your frying space.

I am a big fan of getting everything set up and ready to go before you turn on that oil. When you’re frying, that is all that you need to focus on. On the right, beer batter, salmon chunks, and sliced potato (for testing if the oil is hot enough). Middle: fry pan, splatter guard, oil thermometer (the less tasty but more accurate way of testing if the oil is hot enough), metal tongs and metal slotted spoon. When I was young and stupid, I melted a plastic spoon in frying oil. Left side: baking sheets lined with a triple thickness of paper towels to put fried food.

And it is time for the fun – start frying!

You need to keep the oil at around 360. As I was heating up the oil, I tested it with a sliced potato. That’s delicious (especially with a light sprinkle of the seasoning salt) but not the most helpful. The thermometer helps you maintain a steady temperature. It is also acceptable at this point to grumble about using an electric stove and make your partner promise to never buy another house without a gas stove in the kitchen. Flip things over periodically so they cook evenly. Try not to burn yourself too badly.

Always I let the fried things cool on a triple (minimum) thickness of paper towels. Often I pat the top with another set of towels. This absorbs some of the grease and makes them healthier (probably not, but it does make them less greasy).

Nana’s way of doing this had apparently been to cook them ahead of time, store in the fridge, and then pop in the oven to reheat. I did so as well. Worked marvelously though of course fresh is best.

Also we had a lot of batter left over. So I beer battered some carrot sticks (out of the organic Full Circle box which I thinks makes them a health food) you see those in the smaller pans. Those were fantastic and vegetarian friendly. I was considering beer battering many other things before common sense reasserted itself. Beware once you start frying, it is hard to stop. I’m glad I didn’t remember we had mini snickers left from Halloween or there might have been beer battered snickers.

And if you made it through all of that – the recipe almost exactly as I received it):

David’s Nana’s Beer Batter

2 egg whites (beaten to stiff peaks)
1 cup flour
2 tablespoons oil
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup beer (flat-ish)
Optional: other seasonings, see note above, use your own best judgment

Mix ingredients (I used a whisk). Fold in stiff egg whites just before deep frying.

Moral of the story: everyone likes fried things and food is the universal language of love.

What I’ve Been Cooking Lately

Posted on October 25, 2012 by Elizabeth

This was promised to be a general life, house, cooking, DIY, crafting, knitting blog and here it goes. (No pictures this post because I didn’t take any.)

I don’t get home most days until 7ish or 8ish when I was commuting from the Eagle River library. I also tend to want food NOW not food in an hour when I’ve cooked. And we’re still trying to eat healthier and avoid pre-made processed foods and mixes with their crazy chemicals and loads of sodium.

My solution is a combination of a few quick easy meals, cook ahead and freeze cooking, the crockpot, and leftovers.

Monday is my day off. I’ll usually make a large something that can be frozen in smaller batches or be leftovers for the rest of the week. (I try not to have more leftovers than we will realistically eat in a week. When in doubt, freeze it.) Monday is also my day for new recipes, more elaborate cooking, grocery shopping and prepping as much as possible for the rest of the week, not to mention as much cleaning, errand running, and housework as possible.

Lately though Monday has also been my day to read as much as possible for the Newbery award. Details available here. This has meant even more crockpot and easy cooking than ever.

Slow Cooker Tortellini Soup
First off I made this creamy slow cooker tortellini soup I saw on pinterest. I mostly followed the recipe, except for a few changes.
*I thought I had mushrooms, but I didn’t. Didn’t miss them though I bet they would be excellent.
*I didn’t measure the amount of spinach I put in, just chopped up one bunch. It seemed to be about right.
*Since I had just finished a batch of chicken stock, I used a cup of that instead of vegetable broth.
*And the biggest change was that I didn’t have a white sauce mix envelope. I just added the ingredients from this white sauce mix recipe that would be equivalent to one quarter the total. Or to say I put in 1/4th of what was called for of every ingredients (mixing it in the crockpot). With dried milk put in twice (once in the original recipe, once in the sauce mix recipe) it was rather thick and milky so I added an extra cup of water. Worked perfectly.
The only major thing I will do differently is not to add the butter in that white sauce mix recipe. It tended to separate when reheated. But this was an amazing soup and David and I loved it. Will definitely be making again. Not very healthy though with all the milk/cream based yumminess.

Stovetop Easy Chicken Bake
Yes this is a mostly processed food. My sister told me about this a mix of bite sized chicken and veggies mixed up in condensed soup and sour cream with stovetop stuffing baked on top. It’s yummy, easy, and filled with lots of veggies. Just be aware that you’re getting a ton of sodium in this one recipe and plan the rest of your day accordingly. The recipe is on the back of the box of Stovetop dressing or online here. Make it once and you’ll have it memorized. The main thing I changed was to use a smaller bag of veggies (12 oz) and cut up a fresh broccoli head with them. I didn’t steam the broccoli before cooking so it was relatively firm/not mushy. Delicious. David loved it. Sneaks full servings of vegetables in. Prepared in under 10 minutes.

Pumpkin Poppers
On the sweeter side I made these pumpkin poppers. They were like addictive pumpkin donut holes. I ran out of allspice (how does that EVEN happen?) and so I used cardamom instead. Fantastic, but next time I’m going to try upping the pumpkin and leaving out the oil. Would make them healthier and more pumpkin flavored. Both of which are good things. I ended up giving most of these away at work so David and I wouldn’t eat an entire batch. They disappeared quickly.

Side note about allspice – doesn’t it seem like if you have that it should be sufficient for all your spice needs? I was so sad as a child when I realized that was a specific spice and not a substitute for every spice or an instruction to toss in all the spices in your cabinet.

Additionally I made a weight watcher recipe (stuck behind a pay wall on their website) that was slow cooker Caribbean chicken with sweet potatoes and pineapple. Also amazing. When we had it for leftovers, we combined it with rice.

Long entry, but I see everyone’s pinned recipes and I always like hearing the “I tried this but changed this and here’s how it worked” stories. I would (and probably will) remake and recommend any of these recipes.

We Need A Dog

Posted on October 11, 2012 by Elizabeth

I read some articles recently about training dogs to smell cell phones. Apparently they can smell the chemicals in the battery. They mostly use them in prisons where a cell phone is a very dangerous and popular contraband item. Dave and I knew that from watching what we affectionately call the people in prison shows.

Now some of you (my sister) are asking wouldn’t the dog just hear it ringing? (And implying that wouldn’t I just hear it ringing?) But to do that you have to ask David to call your cell phone and he reminds you this is the third time in two days you’ve “lost” your cell phone and it was on the kitchen counter (or couch or whatever). Once he just laughed and laughed because your cell phone has crazy camouflage power and even though it was only a foot and a half away from you it was the exact same color as the book it was sitting on and could not be seen. And he laughed instead of being helpful.

Dogs don’t make fun of you. Dogs are just excited to go on a hunt. We should get a dog and teach it to smell cell phones. Or get one of those keychain things that help you find your iPhone (or vice versa). I usually can find either my keys or my iPhone.

Oh look! Another blog!

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Elizabeth

So I’ve started another blog. I should say we, but I’ll have to admit this isn’t David’s favorite project.

We’ve not just started a blog, but an entire website. It started with my weariness with out of the box wedding site options. I have a librarian blog, but that doesn’t entirely cover what I want it to. Mostly I can’t use it to go on and on about knitting, crafting, doing stuff to the house, travels, etc.

A few conversations, facebook posts, and emails later here I am thanks in large part to the generosity of Josh who is hosting this, set it up, and seems not to be afraid to be my first person to call when I get stuck. So here is a new blog. And a new website. It seems fitting as we start our new life together to have this new place together.

It’s a way for people outside of facebook to see photos, and for us to control or create a digital brand.

There’s a possibility that David will also post, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Elizabeth and David Nicolai

Life, Love, Librarianship, Engineering, Crafts, Geekery and a Wedding

Author Archives: Elizabeth