And the best part ... Three more jars sitting in the freezer.

Actually, by the time I'm posting this there is half a jar in the fridge and one jar left in the freezer. I'll be making more soon.

I'm making watermelon rind pickles right now. The rind is cooking in the pickling liquid (which smells like a cross between the chip truck and Cinnabon). Our whole house smells sweet and vinegary; it tickles my nose.

Once again I need to apologies for the lack of posting around here and plead lack of internet service as my excuse (grrr, arg). The good news is that our connection seems to be working - at least for the time being - and I've got several posts written up and ready to go so you can expect a flurry of slightly out of date posting over the next few days.

I've got to get back to my pot - with luck I'll have some new pickles to share tomorrow.

I had a knitting date with a friend this afternoon. She wanted a little help working through a new pattern and I was happy to volunteer. I'd just finished a pair of socks and needed something simple for my knitting bag. This is the beginning of the Cashmere Cowl from the Purl Bee, except I'm making mine in merino. Birthday yarn to be exact, given to me by the friend I was meeting. I started off looking for a fancier pattern for this yarn (birthday yarn always deserves something fancy) but it was so soft I realized I just wanted something simple to wear right against my neck and this pattern was perfect.

The coffee shop we met at was really busy so we sat outside in the sun to knit. It turned out be be rather windy (and it was only +2) so our knitting was slow and eventually our fingers were too cold to keep going and we called it a day. I managed to cast on and knit a little over one round - enough to make sure I hadn't twisted anything - Phew!

It's not much but I like it so far.


Right now I've got almond macaroons in the oven. They are just starting to smell good. I've only attempted macaroons once before and they tasted great but didn't hold together at all. I'm using this recipe for what I think are usually called macarons. I  might even fill some of them but I think I'll use this filling instead; it sounds tastier and I can only make so much custard using up leftover egg yolks. I don't have any raspberry jam but strawberry is probably almost as good with the almonds. We'll see how many last long enough to be considered for filling.

ps. Super cute puppy asleep on the couch in here  :)