A sunny Sunday summary

Yes, today is sunny: alert the media! It's also windier than yesterday, so I haven't had the window open as much, but it has been open, and it smells like heaven. I guess one benefit to winter is that it really, really makes me appreciate fresh air. Which does not make winter worth while, but it's something.

I tried a new recipe last night, and I have to tell you about it, not just because it was good (which it was), but because this website, allrecipes.com, has a very neat feature: you can search for recipes by ingredients. Either things to include or exclude, too, which is handy. I had spaghetti and sauce and mozzarella, and though I could have just cooked the spaghetti and used it that way, I wanted to step it up just a wee bit.

So I searched on those three ingredients, and after looking at a few recipes, I added an exclusion on ground beef, since I didn't have any, and several recipes thought I might. I ended up making this Three-Cheese Spaghetti Bake, that was quite delicious.


Not bad-looking, right? I modified the recipe slightly: I had only an almost-full box of spaghetti, my sauce jar was 24 ounces instead of the 28 called for, and I had no Romano, so I added more Parm instead (meaning that, technically, mine was a Two-Cheese Bake). It turned out really good, and it makes a lot: I ate plenty, and had 6 generous portions left over. It reheats fine, and if it freezes and reheats well, it will be in the regular rotation from now on.

I was playing with shells today, to avoid making eye contact with the Bruins giving away a game (the Rangers should send Manny Fernandez a thank-you note)(he was quoted in the Bruins blog as saying, "I can't catch a break," which led to my yelling, "You can't catch a puck!"), and was much struck by these augers.


I'm very fond of them, but also, see how tiny the ones in front are?


Nature amazes me.

The Bruins, by the way, are in the midst of a busy stretch of 6 games in 9 days. This will be followed by a stretch of 2 games in 12 days. Which leads one to the question, Who made this schedule, and what were they on?

The cats are doing well. They celebrate the day, as so often, by napping.


I tried not to disturb them, but apparently was not successful.

What? Did you hear something?

I haven't written much about knitting recently, but I continue to do so. The socks are moving along, getting closer:


I was thinking while knitting the other day, how I find the inside of my hand-knit socks, the reverse side of the stockinette sole, to be just slightly noticeably bumpy, but how changing the knit to purl is not going to happen, as I'm not that fond of purling. I mean, I'll do it, of course, but I've found on the baby blanket that the knit rounds race by, while the purl rounds slog.

Then I had a Thought. Instead of reversing the knitting, how about turning the sock inside out? Then I'm walking on the smoother side. As long as I liked the look of the rest of the pattern ... I wonder how these socks would look inside out?


Not bad, I think. And I hardly care about having this side show:


I think I'm onto something here.