HAPPY THANKSGIVING

November 26, 2008

For Thanksgiving, I made both of my sister's aprons from this pattern. The apron takes about four hours to make from start to finish, very easy but of course I am not the best seamstress in the world.

Josi's is the lemon pattern and I made Sabrina the same apron but with a watermelon theme.

Added to the apron, I sent a knitted dishrag.


Very easy to make: I use size 8 needles with one ball of cotton yarn.
Cast on three stitches. The the following pattern: knit one, add one,
knit one to the end - until you have 44 stitches, then decrease as follows:
knit one, decrease one, knit to the end until three stitches left and bind off

I love the add of purple color for the pocket.


Finally, I made the most delicious Cranberry Bread from this site: http://shutterbean.com

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Leslie

AMY BUTLER APRON

November 5, 2008

My neice Leticia is getting ready for a long trip to Australia and New Zealand.

She wanted a project to do to keep herself busy on the airplane trip so I

mentioned that she should do an embroidery project.

So I made her this Amy Butler apron from this book

And then suggested that she chose an embroidery pattern from this book

It is going to be too cute.

STRAWBERRY CAKE

I have been searching for weeks for a good strawberry cake recipe but the overwhelming majority called for cake mixes. Finally, found a recipe which I adapted and modified into a pretty winning recipe.

For the Cake:

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup sugar

1 pkg. strawberry gelatin

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 pkg. (16 oz.) frozen strawberries, thawed

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour, put down parchment paper onto greased bottom and then grease the top of the parchment paper into two 8 inch round cake pans.

Whisk together flour, salt, and soda. Set aside.

Beat eggs in large mixing bowl.

Add oil, sugar, gelatin, and buttermilk - stir vigorously until well-blended.
Add flour mixture and blend well.

Process strawberries in food processor. Reserve 1/4 cup for the frosting.

Fold remaining berries into batter well.

Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove from oven. Turn out of pans onto rack and cool completely

Frost with strawberry and cream cheese icing

ICING:

1 stick of butter, softened

1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup pureed strawberries

1 box powdered sugar (1 lb.)

Combine all ingredients. Beat until creamy.

Recently, we went to San Diego to visit our children. Here is my son and I at the Light House at Cabrillo National Park I would highly recommend anyone visiting San Diego to visit this National Monument. It is lovely.

THE JEWISH NEW YEAR

October 1, 2008

In celebration of the Jewish New Year, I made a delicious Challuh (silent C). I had numerous recipes and they all looked delicious but I used the one that called for ingredients that I already had (poppy seeds or sesame seed optional). Lots of raising time but fit in my schedule.

The recipe is from Julia Child's Baking Book and is very easy to make. I did the egg wash on the top which is a first for me because I am sooo afraid of eggs.

Anyway, my new knitting project is the scarf by the Baking with Julia book.



MERCI SCARF

Use Fine Merino yarn, enough for the size you need or want

I used US size 8 needles over 35 stitches

Row 1: *k3,p1*, rep betwn * * to last 3 sts, k3
Row 2: k1, p1, *k3,p1* rep betw * * to last st, kl


Happy Jewish New Year!

KILIMANJARO EXPANDED

Since my last post was so sketchy, I am expanding about my kilimanjaro trip post.

As I said it was fantastic. The airplane ride was 19 hours of flying time and basically 36 hours of travel time. I got to Kilimanjaro at about 7:30 p.m. on Thursday night, August 7 and met Scott there. We stayed in a hotel about 1 mile from the airport.

The next day we stayed in a very nice are where we saw some animals in order to try to get acclimated for the climb. Finally, on Saturday, we started our climb.



It was awesome. Both Scott and I were in really good shape to make it to the top. Of course

he was in much better shape than me simply because he is 22 and I am 53. Anyway, I think

both of us had a fabulous time climbing to the top.

We summited at 2:30 p.m. on Friday August 15. It was very emotional for me because I had spent such a long time getting ready for the climb and then being with my son was very important. I also thought about Tom and Scott when the joked about doing the 7 summits since Scott was a little kid. I really had little trouble reaching the top but was very tired and breathless.

It only took us about ten hours to reach the bottom but 1 and 1/2 days. We went through a wonderful rain forest with huge rainforest plants. Here are our guides and porters at the celebration at the bottom.

We then went on our safari which was also lots of fun. We stayed in permanent standing tents with solar lighting. Nice but not elaborate.

We saw lots of animals.

Hippos (and I mean lots of hippos and lots of hippo poo)

Lions (and the babies were soooo cute)

Baboons (so much healthier looking than in the zoo and their little babies were sooo cute too)

Elephants




So many more animals - rhinos, water buffalos, zebras, wildebeast, ostriches (and the ostrich mating dance), flamingos. It was absolutely awesome.

Finally, finished and back home through Amsterdam where I stopped off and visited the Rycks Museum and the Van Gogh Museum for a little western culture to add to the fantastic Africa Adventure!

KILIMANJARO

Just returned from trek to Kilimanjaro and Safari. It was absolutely awesome and highly recommended. Lots of exercise and animals. Saw the big 5 and very interesting birds, etc.