Small pleasures

Happiness is a new sink faucet and sprayer nozzle.

And yes, for all you RED lovers, that is a red dish drainer.

Another Skein

So, would you believe me if I told you I have NO processed fiber in the house now? This is the last 2oz of my BFL roving. Its purple, with purple,teal, and blue BFL locks spun into it while plying.
All I have in my "stash" is about a pound of red Satin Angora, and some alpaca and kid mohair that I use in roving blends with BFL. At the farmers market, I have a few baggies of dyed locks, half a dozen white BFL lambswool skeins, and a handful of dyed BFL skeins.

This skein is 63 yards, and is priced at $12.

Lamb Turnovers with Yogurt Sauce

Ingredients:

1 # ground lamb
2T vegetable oil
2 green onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 T ginger, minced
2 T almonds,blanched and chopped
4 T lemon juice
2 tsp ground cumin
pinch of salt
pinch of hot pepper flakes (optional)
1 package of flaky pastry
1 egg yolk, beaten

Yogurt Sauce:
1 c plain yogurt
3 T fresh coriander
1 T curry powder
pinch of salt

Preparation:
In a nonstick pan, heat the oil over medium heat and brown the onions, garlic and ginger for 3 minutes. Add the lamb, then the almonds. Cook 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the lemon juice, cumin, salt and hot-pepper flakes. Let simmer 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Let cool and refrigerate. Preheat oven to 400° F. Brush pastry triangles with the egg. Place a ball of the lamb filling on each.   Fold into turnover shapes. Place on a cookie sheet and brush with the rest to the egg. Bake 15-20 minutes. Make the yogurt curry sauce by mixing all ingredients. Serve with the lamb turnovers.

Fun on a rainy day

While the rest of the upper midwest and east coast were getting snow and ice, southern Ohio had rain today - lots of it! Since I had the day off (President's day) we drove down to Marietta for breakfast, then took off cross country following the Muskingum River northward.

This is the cooling tower at the coal burning power plant outside Beverly.

This is a lowhead dam at Stockport, right beside the lock #6

This is the Stockport mill, which has been converted into an inn.  The restaurant is said to be quite good.  Here is the website.  Be sure to visit it and read about the hydroelectric power, and the history of the mill.

Yarn

The finished yarn.  It comes off the niddynoddy very kinky, as the yarn gets somewhat overspun, so I wet the yarn to release the twist, stretch the skein out in my hands, and then hang it (without weights) to dry. 

A closeup of the technique effect

Adding the dyed locks in as I ply the yarn  I put a finger in between the 2 singles at the drafting triangle, and let the locks twist into the space between the 2 plies, trying to keep the lock formation intact so the little curls show in the finished yarn. 

The multicolored dyed BFL locks, and the singles of teal BFL ready to ply.

Cute Bunnies

These are the 2 week old meat rabbit bunnies from Rae and Medallion.  Naturally for meat bunnies, he throws 4 nice pearls.  The tort is also theirs, and the 2 white and 2 black are from another doe who had 11 babies.

Quick & Tender Grilled Rabbit

Boil rabbit until tender and allow to cool. Cut into 6 pieces.  Using a fork put as many perforations in rabbit as possible. Cover with coarse black pepper and place in an appropiate sized bowl for rabbit pieces. Smother rabbit with your favorite italian dressing, cover, and allow to marinate in the refrigerator for at least three hours.
When ready for grilling, simply place the marinated pieces on the grill, and allow to brown nicely. 

Forgot to show you my new storage box

My SIL Carol got me this for Christmas.  I have it on the kitchen counter and store teabags, candy, cocoa,etc., plus all the "stuff" that gets tossed on the counter from our pockets. 

The interesting part is that the person who made it turns out to be the woman who sold me my first (used) spinning wheel, the Louet S10 I still do most my spinning on.  She also gave me my first spinning lesson, and for a while I was a member of her spinning guild that met in Newark (OH)

Virichic

My new baby, named for a tulip.  :^)

Sesame Lamb Meatballs with Minted Yogurt Dip

Ingredients:
1 # ground lamb
1/3 c onions, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 ½ tsp olive oil
½ tsp mint, dried, crumbled
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp allspice
1 pinch cinnamon
1 c fresh breadcrumbs, finely ground
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 T dried cranberries, chopped
½ c sesame seeds, lightly toasted
2 c plain yogurt
¼ fresh mint leaves, chopped
½ tsp salt

Preparation:
In a small pan, cook onions and garlic in olive oil over moderately low heat until softened. Transfer mixture to a bowl and stir in dried mint, salt allspice and cinnamon. Add lamb, breadcrumbs, egg and cranberries and combine well. Form into 1 ¼ inch meatballs. Roll meatballs in the sesame seeds and place on baking sheet. Cook at 450° F for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Yogurt dip
Add chopped mint to yogurt and mix well. Salt to taste and serve with meatballs.

New baby

I have a new baby bunny!  I have a new baby bunny!   Today I dropped everything at work & zoomed up to Youngstown to meet Janet and get my new chocolate Satin Angora junior doe.  She was born 9-7, so is just 5 months today.   I LOVE HER!   She has an awesome body, and very good sheen on her wool.  What a sweetie, too.  Her sire is Somerhill Banja Luka, who is linebred on my GrCH doe, Shiraz. 
Pictures and a name to follow.........

Mediterranean Shepherds Pie

Ingredients:

2 # ground lamb 
5 T vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 T minced garlic
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp mint, dried
1  tsp oregano
½ tsp allspice
35 oz can diced tomatoes
2 T tomato paste
¼ c parmesan cheese, grated
3 # russet potatoes
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1/3 # feta cheese, crumbled

Preparation:
In a large pan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion, stirring until softened. Add garlic and lamb and cook until brown. Drain excess fat. Add cinnamon, oregano, mint and allspice and cook for 1 minute. Add tomatoes, tomato paste and salt and pepper to taste. Cook for 15 minutes then transfer to baking dish.
Topping:
Peel potatoes and cut into 1 inch pieces. Cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Drain cooked potatoes and mash lightly with hand masher. Add parmesan cheese, butter, feta cheese and salt and pepper to taste. Mix well. Spoon potato mixture over the lamb mixture and bake in 400°F oven for 35 to 40 minutes or until lightly browned.

Groundhog Day

Here are Tim and Miss Bethy, who are guarding the lambs we've kept back to feed out for the farm market.

These are Maybelline's new Satin Angora kits.  She is red, bred to Gibraltar, a tort, so they will be reds and torts.  May-Bell was feeding them while I was working in the rabbitry.  They are full of milk and sleepy and content in the picture.  May had them yesterday.  Still waiting and hoping for kits from Voodoo.

Well, the sun came out this morning briefly.  We had blue sky and an angry looking thick bank of clouds to the west - reminding me of the eye of a hurricane.  I suppose stupid ol' Buckeye Chuck saw his shadow....
Its very windy here now, and we got lots of rain last night, but no snow or ice.  We may get a dusting of snow today.  I'm just glad for the rain, which melted much of the snow and ice we already have here.