Yarn Along

I am  joining with Ginny of Small Things again this week for the Yarn Along.  I'm really looking forward to seeing what everyone is knitting and reading this week.


For my reading, I'm still working on Wuthering Heights and still enjoying it.  I'm going to reserve further commentary on this book though till I finish it.

On the needles this week, I still have all of my projects from last week as well as another shawl using cotton yarn.  My intention is for this to be a Christmas present.  I've been working on most of these projects a little each day.  I am putting my foot down with myself however and not allowing myself to cast on any more projects till I complete at least one of these.  I realized this morning when I was putting all of the projects out together that they are all in shades of blue or green.  I have some delicious reddish-brown yarn waiting for my next project to break out of that rut.


You might notice one further addition to my table of knitting this week.  A new pair of reading/knitting glasses. I've never worn glasses before and I am amazed at how much more clearly I can see my work and my reading now.

W's book pick for this week is The Rose In My Garden.  We love the beautiful illustrations of flowers and critters.  If you are familiar with the book you might find it somewhat ironic that our cat was pretty insistent on staying on the sofa while I photographed it. 

Simple Joys: Our Favorite Room

After moving into our new apartment, we quickly found that W's playroom has become our favorite room in our home.  It is intended to be a breakfast nook off of our kitchen, however, we are accustomed to eating as a family in the dining room and felt that the space would be better used by W.  I love that his play centers around the room where I spend much of my time cooking.  He seamlessly floats between playing and helping me throughout the day.

The playroom is also where I now have my gliding chair and it is also the favorite place for most adults in the house as well as a comfy place to take a break, to snuggle and to read books.  Daddy often sits in this chair when he comes home from work while I put the finishing touches on dinner.  It's also a great place to sit, drink a cup of tea or coffee from my favorite mug and knit, read, meditate or pray.

On the high shelf above my chair I have some of my favorite things that help make the room feel homey.  There is the first basket that I made last year, a picture of my grandparents' farm and a little oil diffusing votive holder.  This is also where I put instruments such as my lap harp and penny whistles that I want to keep out, but away from W.


I love that W also has a little table and chairs in this room.  He sits here for snacks and to color.   Above his little table is a little shelf with two drawers that hold his crayons.  We are using the shelf as a mini nature table so that he still has some seasonal items in his main play space, though our primary nature table sits behind the sofa dividing the living room and dinning room.

(Obviously I took these pictures just before Easter.  

It has just taken me a while to get around to writing this post.)

On the other side of the room is W's main toy storage and play space.  Eventually I will be putting arches across the backs of these shelves like this so that we can make a little house with his giant rainbow playsilk.

Above the play area is the mobile I made for W last winter.  It features a shepherd boy W has named Sebastian and his sheep.  

Sebastian is also featured in the window valance which I made by felting wool onto a playsilk.  My mother then cut and sewed the valance and I think it is just perfect.  The sheer curtains behind it are also made from silk veils.  The whole thing has such a beautiful airy effect.  Sometimes W and I like to make up stories about Sebastian and his sheep.

Between this main play area and the kitchen counter I have a fold-out  table that I often use if I am baking or doing projects where I need a large work space.  I imagine it will be a wonderful place to cut out fabric if I ever get my sewing machine set up again.  Above it is the chalk board where I try to do a seasonal chalk board drawing each month.

This hook  where W and I keep our aprons is  between the playroom and the kitchen on the other side of the room.  I love this rooster hook.  W picked out this hook as well as two rooster rugs for this kitchen and I just love them.  We also often keep cheery  rooster place mats on his little table.    Also in this picture you can see our rhythm chart which helps us to keep track of our activities and meals for each day.

Lavender Cake

A few weeks ago I discovered this recipe on the blog Chocolate Eyes.  I wanted to make it that very second, but didn't have the lavender or even know where to get it.  A few days later, I was at our local farmers' market and the wonderful herb man there sells bags of dried lavender blossoms.  I went to buy one and learned from him that the French lavender I had in my hand, while good for perfume or potpourri, was not what I should use for tea or cooking.  Instead, he went to his van and brought me a bag of English lavender.  


I made this lavender cake for the first time that day and was hooked, but wanted to make a few tweaks to the recipe.  To start, we don't necessarily need a gluten free recipe at our house and I had our home ground whole wheat pastry flour on hand, but did not have chickpea or rice flours.  Also, my bunt pan is fairly tall and the cake batter was not enough to really fill it so that we could appreciate the pretty architectural detail the this pan uses to form the cake.   By a misread, I also added a whole lot more lavender than the original recipe calls for, and find that I like it that way....note though, it might be too much lavender for some folks taste.  This is quickly becoming a favorite summer desert in our house.


This cake tastes so good and the lavender is amazingly calming.  A few bites in and I feel mellow and ready for a nap.

In the end I rewrote the recipe out our version of the recipe:

Lavender Cake

1.5 cups butter softened

1.5 c sugar, white, brown or honey
6 eggs, beaten
3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 t baking powder
6  T dried, minced lavender
1  t vanilla
0.5 c milk

Glaze
1 c. powdered sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
1-2 tsp dried, minced lavender
milk or non-dairy substitute to thin to desired consistency

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Grease & dust a tall bunt pan with flour. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs.  Grind lavender in a mortar and pestle and fold lavender and vanilla into the batter. Whisk together dry ingredients and add a little at a time alternating with several tablespoons of milk to get batter desired consistency. Pour into pan and bake for about 25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Let cake cool 10 minutes, then turn out onto plate to cool further. Make glaze and drizzle once cake is completely cooled. Garnish with additional lavender if desired.

I also think this cake would be wonderful with some lemon.  I've been thinking of either substituting lemon juice for the milk in the glaze or making the recipe as cup cakes and using a lemon curd filling to make little butterfly cakes using this technique.

A Glimpse Of Our Weekly Rhythm-On Friday We Grind Our Flour

I thought I might share a little bit about our weekly rhythm here.  Specifically, I want to share what we do on most Fridays.  This is the day that we grind our flour in order to prepare for baking day on Saturday.  It's also the day that we have some sort of pie for dinner.  It can be pizza, or a quiche, or pot pie.  Usually it's something that requires using some of our freshly ground flour.  W doesn't like the noise of the mill particularly, but he does love to help with the grinding.  Honestly, he's more help with this than I have ever wanted!  Still, I wouldn't miss involving him in this process for anything.  Grinding our own flour helps to connect him with the source of his food even at this young age.  He knows what wheat looks like when it's growing, thanks to the wonderful folks at Mount Vernon.

And within a few weeks we'll be able to go see how they separate the kernels of wheat from the chafe in this threshing barn.

We also have been to see them operate the Mount Vernon Grist Mill where they grind wheat and corn.

Picture courtesy of my MIL.  
W was too terrified of the noise for me to get any pictures inside.

Okay, back to our home flour grinding.  This is the mill we grind on.  Someday I'd love to get one of those lovely hand powered mills too, to help W get an even better feel for the process.

Please ignore the kernels of wheat all over the counter and 

kindly remember that I have a two and a half year old helping with all of this!

We mostly grind soft white wheat for pastry flour and hard white wheat for bread flour. 

Soft white wheat on the left and hard white wheat on the right.

W helps me to measure out the grain and sort it to make sure there are not any rocks that go into our mill.   And then we fill up the hopper of our mill, turn it on and go read a book in the other room.

Then W thinks the fun begins as we bag up the flour as soon as it's ground.

Next time I must remember to put an apron on him!

What a mess!

Do you see what I mean about more help than I ever knew I wanted?

And here are my giant bags of flour with the wheat.

The hard white is on the left and the soft white is on the right.

And then of course the best part about our flour grinding day.  Making pizza for dinner.

 He is such a big helper getting that yeast to proof....

...and helping to mix up the dough with Mama's dough hook.

Sorry I didn't manage any pictures past W mixing up the dough for the pizza.  I was too exhausted from cleaning flour off of every surface in my kitchen.  You'll have to take my word for it.  It was delicious!