she’s he-e-re.
kim is here for her pre-rhinebeck visit; one of the reasons i haven’t been on the blog for the last couple of days is that we were busy getting ready. i put my head down and worked at my desk all weekend, squaring away enough to make me feel a little less guilty.
then yesterday, it was all about cooking, so we’d have nice foods to eat without me spending precious visiting time in the kitchen. i got up and got a fudge cake into the oven first thing.
then i went out to the garden to pick and pull up as many good things as i could possibly fit into a couple of days worth of meals. all of that stuff in the photo was for root soup—onions, rutabaga, potatoes, sweet potatoes, celeriac, garlic, celery, carrots, etc.
can i just divert you for a moment to rhapsodize about our rutabagas? i’m very excited i was able to grow them, because they’re one of my favorite roasting vegetables and we cannot buy them in the grocery store here.
i had no idea they were so easy to grow or i would have done it last year. anyway, they are and the other day, i made jody laugh when i said i had rutabaga the size of my head
i think she thought i was kidding around. now granted, i have the teeniest of heads, but look—i wasn’t exaggerating; not a bit.
we’ve already eaten them a couple of times and they turned out great. in fact, all of our root vegetables came out really tasty this year—the potatoes are creamy and tender, sweet potatoes are rich in color and flavor, and the carrots are sweet and more plentiful than i dared hope for.
tomatoes and eggplant not so much. but i get enough of those to cook with anyway. and the peppers are plentiful. i planned a curry from some of everything.
i got all this stuff washed up and cleaned, then brought it inside to start the massive task of peeling and chopping them into submission for cooking. i roasted a large pan of the root vegetables until the juices ran, then added those to a mirepoix of garlic, shallots, and celery, spiced it with ginger, cardamom, fenugreek, etc, added some vegetable stock and let it simmer til everything was very tender.
then into the cuisinart and wa-la—we have a soup. i ended up with these four containers for the freezer and a half-gallon which we’ll heat up with the addition of a little cream for dinner tonight (we have spinning class; they’ll come early to grab a bite and socialize). i also pickled some beets to make a salad.
once that was done i frosted the cake and set it out on the table right where kim could see it first thing. haha, do i know my girl or what??
next i ran to the airport to get kim and when we got back we got the curry on the stove. then we sat and knitted and talked while it simmered. we ate that for dinner last night and i gotta say, it was yummy.
but it may have been overshadowed by the cake, haha.
what a nice evening, right? this was my first big chance to spend time just cooking in my kitchen in . . . well, i don’t know how long.
we had a good night’s sleep and woke up this morning to pouring rain. kim and i went out walking anyway, and she took a few photos i think you’re going to like
yep, bümchen is done, done done and i’ll be wearing it on friday to lunch.
it’s really comfy too—enough of a sweater to give a light layer of warmth, but not enough to be hot. it’ll be a great sweater for spring and fall.
it’s kind of elegant too, i like that.
i’m knitting like crazy too—i’ve got a couple of secret projects going and then this denim shawlette. i had it a little further along, but i ended up ripping the whole thing out to start over again when i realized the motif wasn’t centered to my liking.
now it’s all good and rolling along . . .
and with that,i’m off. we’ll be in rhinebeck for the next five days with no internet, so i probably wont’ be back before next wednesday. have a great weekend and if you’re coming to the wool show, please stop by our lunchtime picnic at 12 noon on saturday to say hi and partake of the fun.
36 thoughts on “kimkimkim in the house”
My spidey-sense was tingling and I thought I would just check in to see if you had pictures of blumchen yet and voila – there is was.
The sweater is wonderful, classy and elegant and I am so looking forward to the pattern and getting it made. It will make a wonderful alternative to a suit jacket at less formal meetings.
Dinner looked pretty marvellous as well. Rutabagas are my favourite as well. I like to julienne them with parsnips, blanch them and then saute/brown them up in a little butter, finishing with a drizzle of maple syrup in the pan and then deglaze with a dash of ginger ale. I love my root veggies. Another favourite is sweet potato mashed with only one other ingredient – creamed horseradish!
Thank you for all of your perfectionism wrt finishing as well.
Ha! I told Kim she needed to look all glam for her airport photoshoot, and she said you didn’t take her pic any more!! Glad you are having fun together. That chocolate cake looks just divine. I love Blumchen, I’m going to have to knit faster on Rene because I want to knit myself one too. Have a brilliant time with all the Knitspotters and Clubbies at Rhinebeck. We shall raise a chocolate brownie to you all when we meet up in London on Saturday!
Yum!! to both sweater and food. Enjoy Kim’s visit you sound so excited and happy. Enjoy every second!!!
Lovely food, lovely sweater! Enjoy Rhinebeck!
Love the foodie shots. It’s making me hungry. Blumchen looks wonderful too. Have fun at Rhinebeck! We’ll be looking foward to lots and lots of photos.
PS – Hi Kim!
Oh, my. That dinner…I want to come live with you. It would be so nice to have someone else in the house who cooks vegetarian meals =-) Your sweater is lovely. Now, you guys wave on your way by here to Rhinebeck…=-)
That was me, Mombee13 in the previous post BTW =-)
You feed your spinners? Oh my! If I lived by you that’d be reason enough for me to take up spinning! hehe You’re awesome! I sure wish you’d come to Rapid City 🙂 I need to talk to our fiber guild president!
I’ve never eaten a rutabaga, but see I’ll have to add it to my garden plans for next year.
I really like how Blumchen is nicely fitted – texture is nice too.
Have a great time on your trip!
Yum! Good job on the root vegetables. We moved into an apartment and our balcony doesn’t get any sun at all!
holy moly that is an impressive rutabaga you’ve got there ma’am.
Goodness.
Also.. I want to come to dinner at your house.
Yay! What, no rutabagas in Ohio?? Must be a NE thing–or not enough Irish.
Looking forward to seeing the sweater and you in person. Oh, and can you bring some of that cake, too? 😉
I LOVE that sweater!!! Have a great time!
I love rutabagas. We have large ones here also. How you make your vegetable curry?
Your sweater is fabulous and you look marvelous in it.
Yay! I can’t wait to see you & Kim & Becky at Rhinebeck & of course all our wonderful knitspot friends!
Oh my, as always, Anne, you look gorgeous in the lovely Bumchen!
ooh, love the finished blumchen photos! the fit is to diiiiie for! hoping to make it to the KS gathering on saturday….
A small request from the land of two languages up here in Canada: please don’t use “wa-la”, it’s voila. Merci!
Bümchen looks lovely and will go in my queue. Next on my needles is Leaving in a deep purple, yum.
Hope you have a great time in Rhinebeck.
Have a wonderful time at Rhinebeck! Hugs to you and Kim and Becky! I’ll miss seeing you all this year. 🙁
Love the photos of Bumchen!! Have to add this to my wish list to knit – it is getting pretty long as I often get sidetracked. Looking forward to seeing you on Sat at Rhinebeck – it is supposed to be a great day!!!
Have a wonderful time both of you! The Bumchen looks amazing on you Anne!
LOL! I think you should knit that rutabega its own hat! I’ve only had them boiled and mashed, but never roasted. They’re very turnip-like. Hmm. Maybe I’ll roast up a pan of veggies and make soup this weekend.
The sweater is gorgeous–of course everything looks great on you. Have fun this weekend!
Now I want a piece of chocolate cake….
Anne, you are so stylin’ in your Blumchen! It fits you like a glove.
Those are seriously large rutabagas! Maybe you could carve them for Halloween instead of pumpkins??
Now kimkimkim, I’m disappointed with your efforts on that chocolate cake! Surely you can eat more than that!!
Have an uber fantastic time at Rhinebeck 🙂
Yay for visiting friends and chocolate cake! Add in knitting and curry (OMG that looks yummy!) then throw in a finished Blumchen….holy cow, just makes everything even better 😉
Waaa!! I am SO disappointed not to be joining you guys for lunch Friday!! I know…the reason is a good one, but still all the same, I am disappointed. Give Kim and Beckie a great big hug from me and tell Kim she can have my dessert. 😉
I LOVE!!! Blumchen. Now that my Shorty is finished, THIS is the sweater next on my needles!
Have a blast and give Norm a big hug from me too. I spoke with him yesterday on the phone and we had a nice chat, but it’s not the same as chatting in person.
xoxo!!
Oh my, I don’t know which to gush about first, the mouth-watering cake or your gorgeous Blumchen! Can’t wait to see you and Kim and Beckie.
Love Blumchen even more now it’s finished. Have a wonderful time at Rhinebeck, hi to all Knitspotters going there. Looking forward to our London Rhinebeck meet up @ Loop on Saturday.
Wow! Love the Blumchen!!!! It looks fantastic on you, Anne. I love seeing Kim on the blog too. I know y’all are having a great time. Enjoy each other and do me proud on RB shopping : )
In this post something about you looks different – hairdo? No glasses? Anyway, you look younger and rested – maybe just happy to have been home with David for a few days! I echo the comments on Blumchen – very elegant.
That there Blumchen looks divine! As does all the food! Save us a slice of cake! 😉 Have a fantastic time at RB… looking forward to swapping photos from our Loop adventure tomorrow!
Ginax
We call rutabaga Swede here in the UK we usually have it mashed on its own or with carrot. I’be never tried roasting it, how big a chunks do you cut it in to?
The pictures just got better and better – that lovely rutabaga, then the roasted veg soup, the curry (hmm…), and then the chocolate cake 🙂 But the piece de resistance is that well-fitting and elegant blümchen! I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a knitted piece of clothing fit so well! Enjoy Rhinebeck!
Enjoy Rhinebeck!! The sweater looks great.
Oh! I wish I had kept up on my Reader, I missed you at Rhinebeck! Always next year, I guess 🙂
You are a great cook & I was drooling. Blumchen looks great on you.
Fantastic sweater! I think I have yarn in my stash just waiting to become a blümchen. The cake looks great too 🙂
Thanks you for the cake recipe, i made it last night and it was divine! Can’t wait for Blumchen to be released…
All that delicious food and knitting too. Heaven!
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