Frozen banana disks

I always have bananas that are either too green,  and you wait a week for them to ripen, and then they’re instantly too ripe.  What to do … I think I saw this on Pinterest.  Slice them up, flash freeze on a cookie sheet, then throw into zippy bags.  I mostly use bananas for either smoothies or baking, so this will be ideal.
Sent from the Galaxy … Samsung Galaxy.

this is 5 bananas worth

I’m trying to work here

and this is what I have to put up with:

Ava was worried that I’d work right through her supper.

Doing Laundry

and <<stop the presses>> actually knitting!  After taking almost SIX MONTHS to finish the big fella’s socks, I looked in my knitting bag and I had almost forgotten about the beautiful socks that I’d started on our holidays:

West Coast Sunset socks

Indigo Moon Ultimate Sock Yarn, colourway “West Coast Sunset”, cast on Sept 30th, according to Rav.

not quite true colour representation

The red hues are deeper,  like in my post when the yarn was acquired.  I am doing a 3×1 ribbed leg, will likely keep it going on the instep, too.

The weather looks like it might be warming up; the poopers will be glad to go for a little walk soon.

until then, I'm snuggling on my electric blankie

~

baking in the sun

It’s been a year

since our little princess left us.

a couple of days before she left

In her usual spot on the couch, keeping watch over the neighborhood.  We miss her daily, and think of her often.

Huddle together for warmth!

This week has been very cold:

Yesterday ^^ was warmer than today.

Apollo has the right idea:

two blankets - electric on the bottom, princess on top

The sun doesn’t come around to the living room until mid-late morning, so they need their blankies to keep them warm.  Once the sun starts shining in, Ava absolutely bakes on her leather couch – and loves it!

here's another sock photo

I checked on Rav and I started these socks on August 1st – that’s ridiculous.  Long gone are the days when I could knock out a pair of socks for the big fella in a week.  [sigh]  Great colours, though – Trekking XXL in colour #450.

My nephew came for supper tonight – we had steak and the fixin’s as we usually do when he dines with us.  And I made lava cakes.  I haven’t made them in a long time … so good!  And so easy!  I mixed them together while I was waiting for a report to print, then popped them in the fridge until it was time to bake them off after supper.

Ava and my nephew had a little love fest going on.  He sat on the couch next to her and petted her the entire time.  After he left, she was insufferable.  She moaned and groaned and carried on.  I sat with her and scratched her brisket and rubbed her ears, but it wasn’t the same.  [big greyhound sigh]  Funny little dog.

Finally – and not a moment too soon!

Finished the big fella’s socks last night. -45 wind chill today.
Sent from the Galaxy … Samsung Galaxy.

Frozen Balls FTW!

When we last left our story, there were frozen chocolate chip cookie dough balls.  I did an experiment.  I took out 8 dough balls (to counteract the comment snark when I said 6 cookies …) and put them on a cookie sheet for 30 minutes.

waiting to bake

I baked them off for about 14 minutes:

looks good from here!

I would say the experiment is a success.  And I still have 24 more balls in the freezer.

Speaking of frozen (but not balls):

"no, mommy, I do -not- have to go outside in the -36° wind chill just yet. I can hold it."

and

"one way ticket to Florida, please"

Our very mild winter temps have turned more seasonal this week.  It’s kind of weird for it to be this cold and brutal and there to be so little snow on the ground.  Bizarre, actually.  Supposed to be this cold all week.

We’re all classy here

Apollo’s classy:

we don't call him "Tubby McPoundage" for nothing ...

The big fella had the camera out the other night.

Ava's classy

I’m classy:

(hey, it's been a tough week)

Last night, even though I was exhausted, I did mix up a batch of cookie dough (yeah, it’s that recipe again).

nom! don't they look great?

I did things a little different.  Instead of chilling the dough 24 hours, I put one dozen dough balls on a cookie sheet and chilled for about an hour, then the rest of the dough I made 1.5 oz dough balls, 32 in total.  I flash froze them on a cookie sheet, then put them in a zippy bag.

future noms!

I baked off the one dozen and they turned out really good.  Although I didn’t use my usual chocolate disks.  Last Saturday we went to check out the new “Bulk Barn” store and while these were labelled “bittersweet”, I actually think they were semi-sweet.  Not like my favourites (old photo):

the nib-shaped ones on the left

And as always, I made the sacrifice for you, reader, so you could see the melting chocolate bits inside:

soft and melting

So now I can pull out six dough balls and bake them off any time and we’ll have oven fresh, melting chocolate chip cookies.  Yay!

Both of my office assistants

Actually came into work today and were actually awake. Briefly.

You don’t pay us enough to come in full-time

Sent from Samsung Mobile

Until the “real” case gets here:

I whipped up a quick sock yarn phone sleeve/sock:

Samsung Galaxy Sock

I used some left over Zauberball Crazy sock yarn. I cast on 52 stitches with 2.25 mm needles, did .5″ or so of 2×2 ribbing, then stocking stitch until it was long enough. I did a three needle cast off on the right side just to give it a little structure on the bottom.

This phone is all touch-screen so the entire front of it is glass.  I’m terrified of breaking it!  My BlackBerry was constantly getting dropped, falling off things, etc. until the point that some of the keys stopped working.  I’ll have to be much more careful with this one.