Baking, knitting, and peddling.

This weekend I made apple scones, homemade sandwich buns, BBQ shredded pork, and country fried steak.  All but the shredded pork were new endeavors for me.  The scones and buns were a success, but  I could use some help in the country fried steak realm.  My breaded exterior lacked flavor and fell apart from pan to plate.  

The scone recipe was easy and I can see using this every other week or so with more than just apple.  My logic - a scone at Starbucks is $2.  Plus the $4 coffee and that's a $6 pit stop.  My simple recipe yielded 12 scones less than $3 total.  My goal - no more Starbucks pit stops.  I just have to take the time on my days off to prepare for my work week ahead.

With all this good food, it's a good thing I picked up my totally awesome recumbent exercise bike.  I love it.  I've peddled each day I've had it.  Mom is joining in my challenge to ride to Disneyworld.  We'll compare notes every month or so and track our progress across the country.  I've already browsed two magazines while riding and watching Gilmore Girls.  Eventually, I will be knitting and peddling.  I say this because I started a knitting class last night!

There is a really quant little yarn shop in Ft. Fun called Your Daily Fiber.  In browsing the internet yesterday for a beginner's knitting class I found one through this store....and it started last night.  I arrived to class early and picked out my needle and yarn.  I then learned to cast on and knit.  This, I already taught myself via YouTube, but I learned a different cast-on technique and also was using circular needles rather than regular needles.  Why you ask? My first project is a stocking cap - easier to make on circular needles!

Also in the knitting category, I just finished reading Summer on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber.  This was a fun, easy read about the goings-on on Blossom Street near Seattle.  Calling Blossom Street home is a yarn shop, bakery, book shop and all the characters that go with them.  It was a good read, but it was almost too cliched for my taste.  Each woman in the book was portrayed as a whiny, worrying, and longing woman.  Each desperate for the white picket fence life and (no surprise) they all get what they desire in the end. I'm all for the happy go lucky, but this was dripping with too much cheese.  I did like how all them knew each other through knitting though - a knitting group.  That would be nice to spend time with a consistent group of familiar faces every week doing something for fun and not under pressure (like grad school).

Next up on the reading list is a Robert Parker novel.  My brother is a fan of the Jesse Stone character so I thought I'd give one of his novels a reading.  So far, the book I chose, Death in Paradise is pretty good.  And now that I'm thinking of it, I'm off to read more of it.  Good night, folks.