Friday Recipe: Festive Veggies

This is the first post written on my new laptop, purchased with the proceeds of my Wakefield Redux sales. Thank you very much everyone who bought a pattern! I'm still figuring out how everything works, so bear with me. Thank goodness I have a computer science student in residence. We're in the midst of the same blizzard that's hitting everyone in this corner of North America. It's a day to hibernate, pack, and knit. ALL my knitting stuff has now been packed, with the exception of my bag of current knitting. It was painful to put away my spinning things, but with what time is available I need to focus on Isabel's ink blue sweater. As mentioned earlier, I'm using Barbara Walker's double wave cable from her first Treasury, but in an expanded form. The original stitch pattern was in words only, so first I charted it, then I made my expanded version (I wanted an 18-stitch cable instead of a 16-stitch version).

I find it soooo much easier to work from charts compared to words. How about you? Next, I cut out my chart and glued it to a piece of cardboard--easy to find in our recycling box. Guess what happened to be at hand...

Here's the new easy-to-work with chart, complete with sticky notes to mark my progress.

And here's the actual knitting in Elann's Sierra Aran in "blueberry".

I've been invited to a potluck dinner on Sunday and realized that the only thing I could take would be an apple galette; all the baking dishes are packed. I'd offer up that recipe today, but find I'm short of time, so here's a useful winter vegetable dish that's extremely popular in our house. It's standard fare at Xmas.

Braised Turnips and Carrots

1 yellow turnip, peeled and diced

1 c diced celery

1 c diced carrots

1 onion, chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

1 c water

parsley, optional

salt and pepper to taste

In a non-stick skillet, combine the vegetables with the olive oil and saute over medium heat until the vegetables are softened and have a little colour. Add the water, bring to a simmer, cover, and turn down the heat. Cook until the vegetables are very soft. This may take up to 45 min, depending on the size of your dice. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Stir in a bit of chopped parsley for colour (I never have it in winter, when it's not growing outside my kitchen door).

An inevitable part of packing is the unearthing of things forgotten or, in this case, never previously discovered. This gem turned up this morning.

I wonder where it was meant to be worn...some event at Rideau Hall maybe?