Zeke isn't the only one playing with yarn this weekend. I've had this skein of SULIFibres Raspberry Bush sitting on top of my basket for a little while and I finally realized it wanted to be a hat.I'm currently using 5 mm needles since that's the largest 16" circular I've got but I think the fabric would be nicer at 5.5 or even 6 mm. I don't think I'll mind any ripping back I have to do though - it just means I'll get to knit with this a little bit longer.

Zeke is an elderly cat. We are not quite sure exactly how old he is but the vet estimates he's about thirteen. He's also a very good cat - more likely to go for the knobs on the end of my knitting needles than for my ball of yarn. But every so often he becomes quite mischievous and kitten like. This is what we found when we got up this morning...

 

 

Oddly we considered this a good thing since the yarn is for Zeke's Christmas present (I realize that it is well past Christmas but our tree is still up and I think that's most of what Zeke is aware of) and I wasn't sure what he was going to think of it. Looks like he likes it.

 

 

My sister invited me over on Friday night to help her try out some new recipes she's planning for New Years day. She got an Indian cook book for Christmas and we had a lot of fun reading through it (so many yummy things). The recipes we were trying were for a kind of deep fried bread, the name of which neither of us could pronounce, and a caramelized carrot pudding.

These foods were both delicious and wonderfully simple. I think for both recipes combined we used a total of eleven ingredients (which includes a couple of extra spices and a substitution for self rising flour).

I don't have any pictures of the breads but they were cool. They start out as skinny pancakes of dough and then puff up like balloons in the hot oil. We discovered they were good all by themselves or with any manner of things on top (including the carrot pudding).

The pudding (pictured above) is fantastic. You stick grated carrots and milk together in a pot and just cook them until they make pudding and then you add some sugar and butter and some spices. It takes a while but is the perfect thing to cook when all you really feel like doing is having a cup of tea and some chatter in the kitchen.