Sometimes we come across unusual street names as we’re packing orders. (No, I’m not going to mention any. You might live on one and think that there is absolutely nothing unusual at all about it.) We have fun seeing where everyone lives and seeing if your street name “goes with” your city and state. Some do, and some …. well, you just have to wonder. We have street names here at Loopy Central, too, complete with signs so that in-person shoppers can find the section they’re looking for. Here we have Lace Lane, Roving Row, Worsted Way, and Pattern Place.  Not only do the in-store shoppers use them, but they are useful to us, too. Before we expanded last summer, you pretty much knew where anyone was at any given time, because …. well, they were right there. Now, it’s not uncommon to hear someone say, “I’ll be back in Roving Row if you need me” because Roving Row is all the way back there by the Wall of Cascade.  And that’s a far bit away from the front room.  You’re welcome to come play in the streets here any time!

I tried a new crockpot recipe this week (adapted from a Betty Crocker slow cooker recipe) and it smelled great when I walked in the door after my day at Loopy. Better yet, it tastes wonderful, too.  I love crockpot recipes at all times of the year, but it’s especially nice in the summer when you really don’t want to heat up the whole kitchen. (I could not get a good photo of this to save my life. I took 12 and this was the “best” one. Sad, isn’t it? Sorry for the blur. But it does taste good!)

Hoisin Pork Roast

3 lbs. pork roast
1 medium onion, sliced
1 cup Hoisin sauce
2/3 cup seasoned rice vinegar
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 tsp. ground ginger (or 2 Tbl. grated gingerroot)
4 tsp. sesame oil
fresh cilantro leaves, if desired

Place roast in slow cooker. Cover with onion slices.  Mix remaining ingredients except cilantro, and pour over roast and onions.

Cover and cook on low heat for 8-10 hours or until done.

Remove roast to serving platter. Skim fat from surface of juices in cooker. Serve ribs with sauce and sprinkle with cilantro.

Have a great weekend and I’ll be back with you on Monday. In the meantime, do you have any unusual street or city names that you have come across?

Sheri soridiculouslyHOTandHUMIDhereinSt.Louisrightnow

We have had the same forecast all week long. “Sunny today, with severe thunderstorms likely toward rush hour and into the evening.” Sometimes the storms come, sometimes they don’t. (That’s the view out my office window during a storm. Montessori pre-school across the parking lot.) Nothing says, “Hey, make some coffee and sit down and knit” like a good thunderstorm. Well, sometimes a good thunderstorm says, “Hey, make a fire and sit down with some hot chocolate and read a good book.” But this week the thunderstorms have been promoting knitting.  Good thing, because I have a bunch of projects that I’m working on.

Several of you have asked what I used for blocking my Girasole. I bought two sets of these at Sam’s. I like them because they interlock (which also means they come apart for storage). The colored side is knobby, but the black side is smooth.  I used all of the squares in two sets to block mine, which turned out to be 72″ in diameter (just what the pattern said it would be.) So far, we have over 250 people KALing with us on this, and people are still signing up – how fun is that? It’s not too late to join. Details here.

We went to a dinner earlier this week and had the best cookies for dessert. I decided that I needed to come home and duplicate the recipe. (This was a catered dinner at church, so no one was there that could pass on the recipe to me.) I think they go well with thunderstorms and coffee and knitting. Or hot chocolate, fires in the fireplace, and a good book. You choose.

Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

6 cups oats
2 1/4 cups flour
2 cups butter or margarine
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups brown sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
3 cups dried cranberries
2 cups white chocolate chips

Cream together butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Add baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and flour, mixing well.  Add oats 2 cups at a time and mix until blended. Fold in cranberries and white chocolate chips by hand.

Scoop into balls and bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. (Cookies will flatten, so space well.) Let cool 2-4 minutes on pan before transferring to a wire rack.

Makes 6-8 dozen, depending on size. You can also freeze half the dough for later. I make the rest of the dough into cookie-sized balls, freeze on a cookie sheet, then transfer the frozen balls to a big zip-top bag when they’re completely frozen. Add a couple of minutes to the baking time if you’re baking the balls directly from the freezer later. If you click on that cookie photo to make it bigger, I think you’ll practically be able to smell them ….

Sheri whoishavingaGirlsWeekendwithKnittingDaughterthisweekend!
Whatareyoudoing?

Remember that song, “Just another Manic Monday”? We’ve decided that we need to change the lyrics to “Just another Frantic Friday”. Somehow, between in-person shoppers and getting orders packed up and out and taking care of new cases of yarn that come in and need to be unpacked, Fridays have turned into crazy days.  Lately, we come in in the morning and race through until 3:00 (when the mailman comes) and then sit back and look at each other and just ….. blink. Frantic. Friday. But lest you feel too sorry for us (and we’re surrounded by yarn all day, so I know that you really don’t), we had Loopy Groupie Lori stop by with Chocolate Chip Gooey Butter Bars, and Elf Wendy brought some dense chocolate desserts with her to work today. Since they both have such good taste, they both shopped for these delicious items at this bakery. I can see that I am going to have to pay an in-person visit there. Especially when they have lattes that look like that.

Question for all of you who live in Indiana. Last weekend when we were driving up to meet College Guy and College Girl, we passed fields and fields of these bright yellow flowering plants. What are they? They looked so cheerful, and they were planted in rows so I know it’s something that was planned and planted on purpose. We just couldn’t figure out what they were. Does anyone know?

Today’s recipe was adapted from the Year of Crockpotting blog. She has such great recipes – I hope you have that site bookmarked. This soup recipe is delicious and SPICY!

Buffalo Wing Crockpot Soup
3 cups cooked and cubed chicken
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1/4 cup butter, unsalted
1/4 cup flour
2 cups fat free milk (or no higher than 2% – it will curdle)
1 cup chicken broth
4 oz. Velveeta
1/3 cup hot wing sauce (more, if you like it hotter)
1/2 tsp. celery salt
1/2 tsp. garlic salt

Add chopped onion, celery, and chopped chicken to your crockpot. Pour in chicken broth and milk. Add Velveeta and salt.

Make a roux with the flour and butter. (Melt butter in microwave and then whisk in the flour.) Add to the crockpot, along with the hot sauce.

Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours (or on high for 3-4 hours).  Delicious.

Watch for next week’s Sneak Up – we have fun things going up! Just in – the new Color Commentary from Lorna’s Laces, and this time it’s in honor of our friend Wendy at WendyKnits.  We ordered lots in Shepherd Sock, Shepherd Sport, and Roving to go up next week. We’ll also be adding in new colors of Claudia Hand Painted Fingering and Silk, as well as new colors in Mountain Colors Bearfoot. We have more Fleece Artist Trail Socks to go up, Yarn Pirate Roving and Fingering weight yarn, and Creatively Dyed in a new Worsted Weight. We did a lot of photographs this week (and by “we”, I mean Elf Wendy) and we’ll do a lot of color correcting this weekend (and by “we”, I mean WH), and then we’ll get it all up for you asap next week (and by “we”, I mean me). It takes a village, you know.

Sheri whohasn’thadmuchknittingtimelately,haveyou?

Is it my imagination, or did Friday get here quickly this week? I like that! Friday is my favorite day of the week. Why? Because Friday means the start to the weekend. Although I’m normally here most Saturdays, trying to catch up on all of the desk things that didn’t get done during the week, it still feels like a weekend. Usually one or both cats come to Loopy with me to keep me company, and WH is here working on photos. By the afternoon (sometimes early, sometimes late), we knock off and take the rest of the weekend off. And there is always knitting on the weekends, which I also love. (Saturdays used to mean soccer and basketball games. Things change when your kids grow up and head off to college!)

This weekend I’ll be out of town and away from emails today through Monday evening. I’ll catch up as soon as I get back. In the meantime, I wanted to leave you with a good recipe to try. I had Tres Leches Cake in San Antonio a few years ago and have been looking for a good recipe for this for a long time. I adapted this from a Cook’s Illustrated recipe and made it in Colorado over Spring Break. It turned out great (even making ingredient adjustments for the high altitude baking, which is always a gamble. The recipe below is for regular altitude baking.) I hope you enjoy it!

Tres Leches Cake
2 cups unbleached flour
2 cups sugar
8 Tbl. butter, unsalted
4 eggs (room temperature)
1 cup whole milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
(I would delete the cinnamon the next time. Maybe that’s an important part of Tres Leches cake, but we decided we’d like the flavor better without it.)

Milk Mixture
1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)
1 can evaporated milk (12 oz)
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Frosting
1 3/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 Tbl. light corn syrup

Start with the milk mixture. Pour the condensed milk into a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Microwave it on low power, stirring frequently.  You will cook this until it is slightly darker and thickened (about 12-15 minutes). When finished, slowly whisk in the evaporated milk, cream and vanilla.  Let cool to room temp.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan. Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon and set aside. Heat butter and milk together over low heat until the butter has melted, and set aside.

Beat eggs with electric mixer for about 30 seconds. Slowly add in the sugar until well mixed and beat until this mixture is very thick and glossy (about 5-7 minutes). Reduce speed and slowly add in the butter mixture and the vanilla. Add the flour mixture slowly after that.   Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for 30-35 minutes and let the cake cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack.

Use a skewer to poke holes at 1/2 inch intervals across the top of the cake. Slowly pour the milk mixture over the top, until it’s completely absorbed. Let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes, then refrigerate uncovered for 3 hours or longer.

To frost: Remove the cake from the fridge 30 minutes before serving. Beat the frosting ingredients into soft peaks and then frost the cake. The frosted cake can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Now that it is May, we have a new “Loopy’s Summer Vacation Contest” starting up! This will be our third summer of sending Loopy out to visit places of interest with you all summer long. (Here are the two photo galleries from past contests. You can see that Loopy has had a LOT of fun traveling and seeing the sites with all of you.) We will include a Loopy postcard with your first May order and will continue while supplies last. Some people pose the Loopy postcard, others take their Little Loopy or their Big Loopy. Whatever works best for you is fine with us. You can start adding your photos to Loopy’s 2009 Summer Vacation photo gallery through your Loopy account, as soon as you get them.  (Jill – I nabbed your Beachbum Loopy photo from last year as the Highlight Photo for this year. It was a cute closeup!) We’ll accumulate photos all summer and will do the judging in September. Have fun!

Sheri sowhatisyourfavoritedayoftheweek?Andwhatmakesitafavorite?

What a great weekend! Easter Celebrations happening, the weather is going to be beautiful, and we have a chance to have these two favorite kids of ours home for a few days.  They arrived last night and don’t have to go back until Monday. (It’s so nice that they can hang out all day on Easter, instead of traveling back to school in the afternoon. That makes for a very relaxing day.) We have plenty of things planned – dinners out, dinners in, movies, church, hanging out, visiting with friends, and … probably some catching up on sleep, as all college kids seem to need to do. (Or is it just that you sleep better when you’re home in your own bed?) I’m so glad to have them home.

Here’s a new recipe that I tried last week, after a walk through the fresh produce section, where the peppers were just too colorful to ignore. I just continued through the rest of the aisles and pulled a few more things that sounded good in here. This is great warm the night you make it, but it also tastes great cold the next day as a leftover.

Bells and Clucks

4 cups cooked chicken breast, cubed
1 box whole wheat pasta
2 cups snow peas
1 red bell pepper
1 orange bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1 tsp. basil
2 Tbl. olive oil
1 cup chicken broth
Italian Vinaigrette with Blue Cheese Crumbles Dressing
(I used Marzettis)

Prepare pasta according to directions on box, and drain. Cut peppers into thin strips and toss them into a large pan with olive oil. Add snow peas and basil. Stir fry for 2-3 minutes, then add in the chicken broth and steam for 3-5 minutes with the lid on. Don’t overcook!

Add everything together and toss with dressing as desired.

Easter Blessings to each one of you. I hope you have a great weekend!

Sheri whowillbeworkingonChallengeSocksthisweekend

… mug? Or teacup?  Or your preferred container for hot beverages? This is my favorite. Some of you may remember that I have a habit of over-buying mugs/cups. I don’t know what it is.  But I have found my favorite and I think my mug-buying days are over. (Unless this one breaks.  But I know where to get another one of them.) I love the size of this, the weight of it, the feel of it, and the colors. (Mine came from here. I love their work and have purchased several things from them.) Since I’m so attached to this mug, it made me wonder if others of you have a favorite?  Tell us about it in the comments below for this month’s blog contest. We’ll randomly draw the winners from the comments and will announce them next Friday.

Today’s recipe is one of those comfort food types of things. (Good taste plus pasta = comfort.) It makes a lot and there are all kinds of things in there.  Just add some fresh fruit or a big salad to the menu and you have a meal.

Pasta and Cabbage Casserole

1 pound spaghetti noodles, cooked al dente
3 cups shredded frozen hash browns, thawed
1 lb. sausage (or 3 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed)
2 Tbl. olive oil
1 bag of shredded cabbage slaw (or 1/2 head cabbage, shredded)
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 cup (or can) of chicken broth
4 Tbl. butter
2 cups Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese, shredded
1 cup sharp cheddar, shredded
(Want more color? Add broccoli to the recipe. Yum!)

Brown sausage in skillet and drain. Add olive oil to the pan and stir in onion, garlic and cabbage, cooking until tender (about 10 minutes). Add chicken broth and heat through.

In large bowl, combine cooked noodles, hash browns, butter, 1 cup cheddar, 1 cup Parmigiano Reggiano, and cabbage/sausage mixture and mix well.  Turn into a 9 x 13 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.  Add the last cup of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese to the top and bake for 5 more minutes.

Because I don’t have quite enough knitting projects “in progress”, I picked up a book last night and have decided to make a Noro Chevron Sleeve Cardigan from Knitting Noro. Just for fun. (Although I’m not sure why I just admitted that to you. I ought to have kept quiet about it until I was almost finished.  One day I’ll learn.)

People were eating chocolate here today. How do I know? There’s evidence on the floor. And just because there were kisses by my favorite mug in the photo, don’t be fooled. It was totally for eating scale so that you could get an idea of the mug size. (The carpeting looks a little ugly close up, don’t you think? It’s a good thing that there is a lot of beautiful yarn and chocolate around here to distract people from looking down.)

Sheri whoadvisesyoutostartanewprojectsothatI’mnotaloneinthisWIPabundance