Due to website hacking and some other assorted issues, I’m moving my blog to a new home. (For those of you who found that my website was blocked at your office, it was due to the hacking.)

I’ve imported the posts and comments to the new site. This one will continue to be around for a while, but all new posts will be at the new address.

Hope to see you there!

The new blog address is: http://cabledsheep.wordpress.com/

Don’t forget to change any bookmarks/feed settings.

And so I did. I found this 10-minute no-bake peach crisp recipe, and away I went.

The recipe calls for “1 pound of peaches (3-4), peeled and sliced”. I suspect that it really means one pound after being peeled and sliced. I had two peaches, which weighed a total of just about one pound, but only about half a pound after being peeled and sliced. I couldn’t imagine using the amount of remaining ingredients for such a small amount of peaches, so I cut everything else in half, and it seemed just right.

I just topped it with some half and half, since I had no ice cream or whipped cream. Quick and tasty!

Another great recipe I tried, but which I didn’t take a photo of, is Smitten Kitchen’s amazing Naked Tomato Sauce. I used a variety of tomatoes from the garden, only a few of which were plum tomatoes, and it still worked out fine. Larry raved about it, and surprisingly enough, didn’t even ask for Parmesan cheese as he usually does with pasta sauces. He declared it perfect. It is a little bit fussy with having to peel and seed the tomatoes and make the garlic-infused oil, but it really wasn’t that difficult. I’ll definitely be making this one again.

The weather couldn’t have been more perfect. Our fall weather is a bit later than usual this year, so the trees hadn’t yet put on their fall colors, and the temperatures were a bit warmer than usual.

I took a break from tradition this year, and did not go on any hikes. Also, my camera never left my knitting bag. You’ll just have to keep an eye on Margene’s and Vicki’s blogs to see what comes up.

While at the retreat, I finished the second front piece for my Drops sweater, made a bit more progress on the Radiance Shawl (and at 30% through the shawl, have come across 6 knots so far…). I also cast on for an “easy” project before I left, which would be good for dim lighting and/or tipsy knitting. That project didn’t fare so well, despite having good lighting and sober knitting time. It got ripped back three times and is now in time-out.

The night before I left for the retreat, I watched some episodes from the second season of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. (Great nostalgia trip!) The show I watched had Bette Davis as a guest star, and I got a kick out of one of the scenes, where she was proficiently knitting (she was a thrower, in case you’re wondering).

That led me (of course) to Google for more photos. I found this great set of photos of celebrity knitters (and crocheters) – Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Jayne Mansfield, Katherine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, and more. One of my favorites is this one of Audrey Hepburn.

I won’t keep you in suspense. It’s Fennel Pesto in the making. I harvested a fennel bulb from the back yard, and wondered what I might do with the fennel fronds – the furry tops of the bulb. I found this recipe, and decided to give it a try.

It was quite good! The fennel taste is fairly subtle – it almost tasted a little grassy, more than anything else. The Pontiff actually liked it better than regular basil pesto. I did find it a little salty, so I’d cut down a little bit on the salt next time (I actually ended up throwing in a handful of basil leaves, just to help cut down on the saltiness). It was definitely a good use for the fennel fronds though, rather than just tossing them.

I served it with a Caprese salad (using some of my delicious garden-fresh tomatoes, of course):

I just put a blob on the side of the salad, then dipped the tomatoes in it. I also put a dollop of it on our steamed Tilapia. (It was going to be pan-fried Tilapia, but I forgot to take it out of the freezer.  When faced with frozen fish fillets, I have found that using the steamer works very well.)

As for the fennel bulb itself, I used it to make Scalloped Potatoes with Gouda and Fennel. If you don’t do dairy, or limit your saturated fat, this is definitely not the recipe for you. I don’t make dishes like this very often, but once in a while, it’s worth the calorie splurge. I made this recipe exactly as written. The fennel flavor is distinct, but not overwhelming. You could make it even more subtle by just using the fennel bulb and omitting the fennel seed. We liked it quite a bit. It had that “moreish” quality, where you keep wanting just a little bit more.

Three cheers for fennel! It will definitely be on my list to grow in the garden again next year.

I’ve had this recipe for quite a while, but had a difficult time finding cocoa powder that wasn’t processed in a facility that processes wheat. I finally found Hershey’s Dark Cocoa in one of my local stores.

They were easy to make and awfully good. I’ll definitely make them again. But next time I might eat them all myself.

At any rate, the Radiance Shawl is growing. The yarn is pretty, but sheesh… so many knots.

It’s not hard at all.

Now go away, you’re blocking my sunlight

Clockwise from the top: Hawaiian Pineapple, Pink Grapefruit, Woodle Orange, Martin’s Amish, and a mystery dark pink tomato that I thought was a Martin’s Amish, but is definitely something different. It has a lovely dark rose color that doesn’t really show true in the photo.

In the center is Sungold on the left (one of the most delicious tomatoes of any size I’ve ever eaten, and the only hybrid in the bunch), and Red Robin (grown from seeds from last year’s plant) on the right. It’s normally a darker red, but this was the only tomato left on the plant that was even close to being ripe. It had its main crop early, and now there are just a few stray fruit left.

It was so nice to have a good tomato year after last year’s terrible season.

Tonight’s dinner was provided, in part, by good friends Margene and her gardening-guru Smith, also known around here as “M&M”.

We started off with a simple salad (lovely Japanese lettuce provided by M&M, pink and yellow Amish heirloom tomatoes from my garden):

Then we moved on to the main event. Shrimp Scampi with broccoli (my garden) and spaghetti squash with butter and sage (squash from M&M, sage from my garden).

I used this recipe for the shrimp, using the Meyer Lemon Extravagonzo Oil I brought back from Idaho as my only Boise souvenir. Of course, then I found out that I can purchase it locally at a number of different stores. That’s good, of course, because now I can try some of the other flavors. Like the Roasted Garlic oil. If Matt Caputo calls it “the BEST garlic olive oil product on the planet”, that’s fine praise indeed.

The Meyer Lemon oil is quite tasty – it has a tremendous lemon zest kick to it.

Yum.