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Knitting Friday - and a recipe

 

My knitting has been pretty disastrous in the last week but I do have a recipe. Trying to get a nutritious breakfast meal which, with milk and juice, is a fast school day energy boost, I've been experimenting with cereals and peanut butter for months. I finally got peanut balls ready to go and the kids seem to like them, especially drizzled with dark chocolate (which is also not too shabby in the nutrient area.) However, I was starring at a big jar of mini pretzel sticks last week thinking: These are going to go rancid if we don't start making a serious dent in them. And, that's how this came about:

 

#1  Chocolate Pudding Pie

Chocolate Pudding Pie: a make-ahead, no-bake treat

You will need as ingredients:

1. 2 cups of crushed pretzels

2. 1 cup of peanut butter, not the natural stuff, you need the Skippy/Jiffy type

3. 2 packages of chocolate pudding (not instant)

4. 4 cups of milk

5. 1 cup real whipping cream (enough to cover the pie but you can use as much as you like)

6. powdered sugar (to taste)

 

You will need as equipment: 

1. regular sized pie plate

2. saucepan to cook pudding

3. bowl and beaters to whip cream

4. Cuisinart to chop pretzels (While you can mash cereal by hand, you need a machine for pretzels unless you want to go the plastic bag and hammer route.)

5. Cooking oil spray for the pie plate.

 

First steps in prep:

1. Crush pretzels to make 2 cups of crumbs.

2. Add 1 cup of peanut butter to it.

3. Mix to form dough consistency. (You can add a little more/less PB.)

4. Put the dough in a plastic container and put in the fridge overnight, or until cold.

5, Make the pudding as directed and cool slightly (I think the directions for pies and puddings are the same now.)

6. Whip the cream.

 

Second steps in prep:

1. Spray your pie plate with cooking oil.

2. Dump the dough in the plate and press into a pie crust. (You can use less dough for a thinner crust. The left-over dough is good to eat.)

3. Spread the cooled pudding over the dough.

4. Spread the whipped cream over the pudding.

You are done! And ready for your next pie using your own variations. (Ice cream instead of pudding? Crushed cereal instead of pretzels?)

#2 This is no more

And now on to knitting. What you see in picture #2 is the beginning of my second knit of this really, really nice cotton yarn. The first top I made from this yarn (as I mentioned last week) was frogged after I found an error which was not repairable. (Well, it was really easily repairable but I had no idea what size needles I had used originally so I had to frog.) Now, the top on the right has also been frogged also because the increase area, just below the top ribbing, just doesn't look right. I'm going to tackle this baby again with just a few rows of garter neck ribbing and see how that works.

What I didn't show in pic #2 are the needles I'm using. I was out of all my "go-to" interchangeable US 10 needles so I turned to my Boye Needlemaster set. You know that cheap interchangeable needle set which has been around for the millennium and everyone looks down on. (Oh, Dyakcraft are the best! Oh, I love my Hiya Hiya!) Well, I am knitting along very happily with my newish (Amazon last year, $32) Needlemaster US 10s. The joins are fine for this weight yarn and are staying joined. The cables are definitely stiff but they're working for me. (I think that many people use their interchangeables for magic looping in sock knitting. There Needlemaster cables would be a problem.)

This has been the week of complete or partial frogging since my Bowtie Pi:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bowtie-pi

 

got a major rip out as you can see in picture #3. Last week, this shawl was practically finished until I saw a large hole section on a increase row which was midway in the pattern.

#3 Bow Tie Pi

I always knew that "hole" was there but I had thought I could spread out the surrounding double crochets to shrink it. I couldn't. The up side is that I'm much happier with the look now but I'm in for at least another week of crocheting.

But I do have one project which is moving along nicely:

#4 Orange Top

This is the top I showed last week in "how to prevent underarm holes." It's taking forever because the yarn splits (cotton/acrylic from Smiley's; very nice feel but a bear to knit) and I have to be careful to pick up the whole stitch.

Of course, with the wacky rainy, cool weather which seems to be starting the summer, I wonder how often I'm going to be wearing camis and these tops.

Well, that's it for knitting but I do have an announcement: On July 9th, we will be getting our third Seeing Eye dog for training. Everyone is very excited. You can be sure that pictures will follow.

See you next week. Happy knitting.