Our Loopy Ewe Solid Series line has been used in another published pattern and we wanted to give you a peek! This crocheted scarf looks like it would be fun to do in a lot of different colors. The designer, Kathy Merrick, used Iron, Butterscotch, Dove, Pesto, Mocha, Silver, Sage and Slate Blue for this one. This pattern appears in Interweave’s Crochet Winter 2012/2013, available online today and on newsstands December 18th. (Photo by Harper Point Photography, used with permission.) Wouldn’t this be fun in shades of one color (like blue), going from lighter to darker? Like Whisper Blue, Ice, Cornflower, Cerulean, Royal Blue, Slate Blue, Indigo, and Navy? Or browns? Or greens? How about a quick Christmas scarf with Strawberry, Cardinal, Spring Green, Kelly Green, Evergreen, Surf, Caribbean and Turquoise? (Or just pick a Loopy Cake set or two – those are fun colors that all go well together!) I like the multi-color idea for a scarf. It goes with everything that way.

Today’s recipe is a long-time family favorite and I hope you and your family and friends enjoy this one as much as we do.

Congo Bars

Mix together:

1 cup butter (room temperature)
2 cups flour
2 egg yolks
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. baking soda

Mix well and press into greased 9 x 13 pan. Sprinkle 1/2 bag of chocolate chips on top and lightly press into batter. You can also add a half-bag of butterscotch chips as well, but we like the chocolate chips in ours.

Beat 2 egg whites until stiff and then add 1 cup brown sugar. Beat until combined. Spread over chocolate chips.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. Let cool and cut into bars.

Hasn’t it been nice to have one full week post-Thanksgiving before the month of December hits? Have you decorated for the holidays yet? (Or do you do that?) I think that’s on my list for the weekend.

Sheri betteraddthattomyhusband’sto-dolistthisweekend,too…

I shared my last cowl/mitt project with you a couple of weeks ago. I knit it with Prism Merino 12 and Plume, which are both soft and wonderful! I wanted to knit up a quick one-skein Merino 12 cowl on its own, too, and this is what I came up with. It should only take you a couple of hours and one skein of Merino 12.

Merino 12 Quick Cowl

Cast on 72 stitches on a size 11 (8.0 mm) 16″ circle needle.

Row 1: [K2, P2] all the way around.
Row 2: [K2, P2] all the way around.
Row 3: [K2, P2] all the way around.
Row 4: [K through the back loop of the second stitch on the left needle. Leave that stitch on the left needle and knit through the front of the first stitch on the left needle. Then pop both stitches off the left needle. P2].Continue this pattern all the way around.

Knit until you have just enough yarn to do a bind off row and you’re done.

K = Knit, P = Purl

Here’s a new recipe that Knitting Daughter has tried out on us a couple of times now, with rave reviews. Great for breakfast, or your mid-morning coffee break.

Gourmet Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbl. instant coffee
1 Tbl. hot water
1 1/3 cups mashed bananas (2-3 bananas)
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup chocolate chips

Sift together flour, soda, salt and baking powder.

Dissolve coffee in the hot water and add to the mashed bananas. Beat together the butter, egg, sugar and banana mixture. Add in the flour mixture.

Fold in the chocolate chips.

Bake at 335 degrees for 30 minutes. Makes 18 muffins.

Have a great weekend!

Sheri makingprettygoodprogressontheprojectslistfromWednesday’sblog

This is Gracie’s favorite thing to do when she’s not napping. She watches the visiting neighbor cats who seem to like our deck to hang out on. She has (mostly) stopped hissing and YOWLING at them through the window, but she keeps a very close eye on them. She  particularly dislikes Mocha:

But she doesn’t like his house-mate James, either. (I use the term house-mate loosely, because I don’t think their owner seems particularly concerned about letting them inside the house at night and when it gets cold. Maybe that will change when it snows or gets really cold.)

And here is a sequence of photos where she welcomes the other deck visitor, Al, to our back door. Please note the middle “action” photo. You might imagine the lovely welcoming sounds she made in that photo, to go along with her paw motions. Fortunately, Al doesn’t seem at all intimidated. (Click on photos to make bigger.)

My friend Claudia pointed out last week that all three of the visiting cats seem healthy and well cared for (despite their being out in all kinds of weather) and clearly Gracie doesn’t want any of them inside (although many of you have told me your own stories about adopting outside cats such as these), so we’re just going to continue to enjoy them on the deck. Well …. some of us will be enjoying them. Gracie, not so much.

Today’s recipe is one that I had on my Girls Weekend a couple of weeks ago. I came home and made it for my family that next week, and they all gave it up a thumbs up. I hope you enjoy it, too!

Apple Turnovers

2 apples (I used Granny Smith)
2 packages Crescent Rolls
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
8 oz. Mountain Dew
Cinnamon

Cut the apples into 8 wedges each. Unroll the Crescent rolls and sprinkle with cinnamon. Take one roll and wrap it around one apple slice, pinching the sides together so that no apple shows through. Repeat with the rest of the rolls and apple slices.

Melt the butter and add the sugar and vanilla extract, stirring until dissolved.

Grease a 9 x 13 pan. Add the pastry-covered wedges in two lines, lengthwise, in the pan. Sprinkle with more cinnamon. Pour the butter mixture over the top of the apples. Pour the Mountain Dew along the sides of the pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Serve warm with ice cream. Easy and delicious!

What will you be knitting on this weekend? I am warping a new scarf and will try to finish up my Derecho #2. I’ll share my results with you next week on the blog. That helps to keep me accountable.

Sheri myderechocolorsaremorespringythanwintery.Ohwell.

Last night was an extra fun Knit Night! My friends Claudia (the Wollmeise on the left) and Maria (on the right) have been here visiting from Germany this past week. It has been so fun to have them here and I am glad we could share a Loopy Knit Night with them, too. We’ve done a lot of knitting, shopping, touring, and eating over the past 8 days. They’re heading back home to Germany today, but Claudia will be back for the Spring Fling in April. (Spring Fling information will be out next month.)

Here’s a super quick and easy dinner idea that my family likes. I hope your family will like it, too.

French Bread Pizzas (found on Pinterest, originally from the What’s Cooking with Ruthie blog)

French Bread (unsliced)
Your favorite pizza sauce (I like using my spaghetti sauce for this.)
Your favorite pizza toppings (We used sausage and pepperoni.)
Your favorite pizza cheese (We used Mozarella.)

Cut the bread lengthwise, so you have a top and a bottom.  Then cut each piece in half so that you have 4 large pieces from the loaf.

Spread the pizza sauce on each slice, then top with your pizza toppings. Finish it off with the cheese and bake it at 500 degrees for 5-7 minutes.

Sheri hopingyouallhaveafunweekendplanned

That’s a pretty good combination, isn’t it? First the cashmere show and tell. Elf Roberta knit up this beautiful scarf for her sister-in-law out of Sweet Georgia’s CashSilk Lace in the Summer Skin color. The pattern is Felicia’s CashSilk Fern Lace Scarf, which is free on Ravelry. It uses just one skein. I can tell you, it turns into a beautiful, lightweight luxurious scarf. I think that pattern would also look beautiful done up in fingering weight yarn – something like Madelinetosh Sock or Three Irish Glenhaven Cashmerino Fingering.

We tried a new dessert recipe at our house last week. It’s similar to this one (in a rather anemic looking photo) that I’ve shared with you before, but with the addition of peanut butter. YUM.

Peanut Butter Brownie Trifle

1 brownie mix (for 9 x 13 pan) + eggs, oil, water
1 large containter Cool Whip
2 large boxes of instant chocolate pudding
(prepare each box as directed, as you assemble)
1 bag of peanut butter cups, chopped
3/4 cup of smooth peanut butter
1 (8 oz) pck. cream cheese
3/4 cup powdered sugar

Bake the brownies as directed and let cool. When cool, cute them into bite-sized pieces.

Put the cream cheese in a mixing bowl and add the peanut butter and powdered sugar. Beat until well mixed and smooth. Fold in 1 cup of Cool whip.

Assemble the layers:
1/2 of the brownies
1 box of the pudding prepared as directed and not yet set
1 cup of chopped peanut butter cups
peanut butter/cream cheese/Cool Whip mixture (use the whole thing on this layer)
1/2 of the brownies
1 box of the pudding prepared as directed and not yet set
Frost with the rest of the plain Cool Whip
Top with remaining chopped peanut butter cups

Let set for a few hours (or overnight) and enjoy.

It was fun to read all of your comments on last Friday’s blog post. We’re so glad to have you all here with us on our Sixth Anniversary! I used the Random Number Generator to pick a winner from last week’s comments. The skein of Wollmeise Lace goes to Kimberly in Mt. Pleasant, SC. Congratulations, Kim!

We have another contest this week (since it’s our anniversary month, you know). This week’s question: What’s the best book you’ve read or movie you’ve seen this summer? (I’m looking to add to my book and movie lineup as we move into the fall.) Since this is our second contest of the month, we’ll be giving away two prizes – two of our Sixth Anniversary Kits, which will be making their debut next week. Leave your answers in the comments below and we’ll draw the winners next week!

Sheri goodgrief.OperaonthePandorastation.AbitmuchforFridayAfternoon.

As most of you know, we’re in our second year of Camp Loopy around here, and having a lot of fun with it this summer! Each month the campers are challenged with a new project and today is the day that Project Two needs to be finished and Project Three can be started. It has been great to see all of the photos that have been coming in. And on that note – it’s time to vote for your favorite project from the first month of Camp. You’ll find 768 photos in the Project One Gallery, and we need to award one the “Reader’s Choice” award. YOU are responsible for that! Please take a look through the gallery and email your favorite choice to support@theloopyewe.com. We’ll give it a week or so for voting and will announce the winners soon.

To go along with your camp knitting, I have a new s’mores recipe for you today. We tried it out a couple of weeks ago, and it’s wonderful.

S’Mores Dessert Pizza

1 tube of Pillsbury Sugar Cookie
Slice and Bake dough
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 Tbl. softened butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups mini marshmallows
1 package semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cut the cookie dough into slices and then pat them out on a pizza pan or baking stone, so that it becomes one big cookie base.

Mix the brown sugar, oats, butter and flour together and sprinkle this over the cookie crust.

Sprinkle chocolate chips over the crumb mix.

Bake at 375 degrees for 5 minutes. Top with marshmallows and then bake for 10 more minutes, or until marshmallows are golden brown.

I’ll be knitting and watching the Opening Ceremonies tonight. How about you?

Sheri andmabyemakingS’moresPizzaagain