This is a really easy and versatile side or meal. Plus it looks good if you don’t broil it too much.

The recipe will make a meal for 2 or sides for 4
Squash
1 lg or 2 sm acorn squash
olive oil
Cut the squash in half - scoop out the seeds and goop - brush over the innards with olive oil and set skin side down on a baking sheet, bake at 350 until you can pierce the squash easily with a fork. You can use other squash or a pumpkin. I prefer the Acorn because it’s not too fleshy and it’s just the right size.

Stuffing:
2 cups cooked brown rice
1/4 cup cooked wild rice
1 med onion
6 ounces of chopped mushrooms
Garlic, s&p, Soy sauce
Saute the onions, garlic and mushrooms, mix all other ingredients in and fill the squash halves. This is my basic recipe for rice stuffing. If you are looking for a protein or iron boost, add tofu or omit the wild rice and add in Lentils. This stuffing is also good with chopped spinache.

Once the halves are filled with your stuffing, add cheese (soy cheeese is what I used) or not, place under the broiler for a bit. Watch them or you’ll end up with black spots like mine. They were still good to eat, just didn’t look quite so pretty.

Did any one make the Crab Enchilada’s from HERE last week? I made them. I don’t have a picture of how they came out. We substituted the soy alternatives for the dairy and it was so good! Boogie Baby loved them enough to lick her plate.

She looks drugged doesn’t she? It’s that the enchilada’s were so darn good.

KNITTING…
I’m still working on that brown sweater. I have one more piece to go and then I can get to seeming.

SPINNING…
I brought home a Victoria from the shop over the weekend. I wanted to give it a once, twice and thrice over. My next post I’ll have written up my review for this little gal.

Each year around this time I start thinking of all the luscious fleeces that are about to be shorn. Shiny fleeces, Alpaca, Llama, Cormo, Black Merino, one of the Leicesters. I dream of the browns, and the whites, and the blacks, and greys. I think of the Shetland I got one year that was almost burgundy. I dream of all the things I can do with these fleeces. I dream of multicolors and depth of colors. All the richnes. Which fleece do I want? How many do I want? Do I want all of them? One fleece per festival? Many per festival?  I can hear husbeast groaning under all the weight of the fleece he’s carrying.

Inevitably the thought lingers on what fleeces do I already have sitting in the basement needing some love….

Oh, hmm, yeah. There’s um, well, theres a couple.

To avoid the guilty feelings of all the lingering fleeces, I need to process one before I buy new. Now you know once I get to the fiber festivals and see the fleeces, all the guilty feelings have run away and hid. Because if guilty didn’t run away and hide, greed exuberance would beat it to a pulp.  So guilty feels free to hang around for now. Come NH (the first of my season of shows to visit)  guilty will be no where to be seen until after the show sometime.

Last year the one I processed, I never did anything with it. I don’t like it. There is too much hay in it. I bought it 3 Fiber Frolics ago and thought I could deal with the hay. I lovingly picked through and seperated out major colors in my 11 pound fleece and scoured half of it but didn’t want to deal with the hay last year. I don’t want to deal with the hay this year either.

At least this year I got up the gumption and I put a few ounces through the carder (that blurry tan in the lower right hand corner - you know all these photos can be enlarged right?). Most of the hay fell out in the carding process. Now I have to clean the carder really well. With all the work I’ll have to put in it, I don’t think I’ll have the energy to spin it. I might send it out to be processed. hmmm. that’s not a bad idea.

I boxed up Corrie again and turned to the Llama I got at MDSW 2005. The llama folks had a gorgeous sample done where they didn’t card the fleece of a multi colored llama. They spun it from the lock and I  loved it.

I started on the yarn, then I stepped backand took a good look at it. Look at all the fly aways. I stopped, I plied and now I have this:

I’m going to knit that up before I decide what I’m going to do. I may just card the whole fleece. I know I’ll lose the color blocks unless I seperate and card each color by itself, which isn’t going to happen.

With all that, I started washing Cosmo:

Cosmo is a cutie pie of a fleece. No hay, no dung tags just a bit of greese. I’m in love with Cosmo. I got him from a little farm we visited on our fiber tour. Anj do you remember that place? They had a gorgeous open layout house and all the fleeces were in the loft. I think I need to visit them again. If I get Cosmo’s fleece from this year, maybe I’ll ply the 2 together and then I’ll have a good amount for a sweater.

See, always thinking ahead to the next fleece.

April Snow is inevitable in these parts. It’s usually the type that falls and melts within a 24 hour span. It started to snow early Wednesday morning. By 2 in the afternoon it was still snowing but melting at the same rate. The roads were clear and there was a little dusting over the lawns.

This morning was a different story.

This past weekend I was playing in this garden:

and Baby Boogie was swinging here:

Someone didn’t seem to mind

It’s still falling

and there is suppose to be another storm tomorrow. I can’t really take “snow days”. I can’t really use the excuse of “I can’t get into work because of the snow”.

I am thinking of taking a half day and using my patented - “but everyone else gets a snow day so I want one too” excuse.

I thought of a million titles but nothing clearly describes the level of excitement. Nothing can even come close. I was walking about 2 inches off the ground.

I got a new spindle.

I know, that in itself isn’t exactly anything to get all excited about. I get new spindles probably too frequently. And in the shop I’m surrounded by litereally 100 or so. This one is different. I carried this spindle with me all day Monday after I got home from work. I totally would have had it with me all the time since then if I didn’t have to work and I wasn’t afraid to hurt it.

This spindle is the coolest spindle on the planet earth. No, don’t try and argue with me. There is no spindle that you have that could possibly match up to my wonderous spindle. Nope, not a single one. Mine is the best and I will hear nothing else.

That’s right
It’s a skull and crossbones spindle.
Tom at Golding spindle made it for me. I never really had a desire for a Golding. Weird I know. They are all lovely but that’s just it, they were lovely. Nothing really reached out and grabbed me. I’ve been dreaming of a custom spindle for a long time. Sarah suggested I contact Golding to have them do a custom.

I’m so positively thrilled that I asked for this spindle to be created. And I’m even more thrilled that Tom and his painter did such an amazing job on it. It’s not a cutesie pretty skull, it’s a skull. It’s my skull and crossbones spindle. I’ve never named a spindle before but this one can’t just be called “you know, the spindle with a skull on it”. His name is Sparrow.

Husbeast was teasing me and saying if he ever needed to get my attention he’d be holding Sparrow hostage. I don’t think he’s very funny. It made me just hug Sparrow a little tighter.

I’ve of course been spinning on Sparrow when I get a free moment (not that there are many around here). The fiber you see behind Sparrow isfrom Indigo moon Fibers. It’s the last batt I bought from her and it will be a Lady Eleanor for Scarf Style. I loved the one that <a href=”http://amysbabies.blogspot.com/”>Amy</a> made and have been itching to make one myself. I’ll get all 9 ounces of this batt spun up into a sport weight single and then I’ll go to it.

Last week was so crazy I didn’t have time to cook and prepare the recipe I wanted to make for you. I want it to go on record that it’s not all my fault. The only grocery stores I went to last week were 2 Health Food stores and they didn’t have the ingredients. What type of a health food store doesn’t have Silken tofu? The stores that I went to, that’s what kind.

I’m not going to completely leave you without a recipe. I’m sending you over to Concate Knits so you can get her G’pa’s Crab Enchilada recipe. It sounds really good. I still eat seafood but I’ll be changing the dairy out for soy based options. Those enchiladas will be on our menu for one day this week. Thank you for the recipe lady!

Still, in all that craziness (and I’m sure this added to it) I had an update.
Yesterday I updated the website with sale items for the April Fool. My email service sent out the notification this morning instead of yesterday morning so I’ll extend the sale until April 3rd. Really if I had known it would be that late, I wouldn’t have busted my butt to get done in time for April Fools.

Here we go with all the goodies:

Get 1lb of free fiber with a new wheel

The Baynes Colonial Upright wheels are the newest items to be added. The Oak Victoria wheels will be here tomorrow

Get 4 ounces of free fiber with the purchase of a spindle

There is new stock in Kundert and in Jenkins Turkish Spindles

I have a brand new yarn called “Super Nova”. It’s amazing if I do say so myself. It has a 10% nylon content. I’ve had it mill spun specifically to my specifications. This is my perfect yarn and I hope you like it too. I’ve got it on sale right now at an introductiory price of $20 (1 skein makes 1 pair)

Other new items (not on sale):
I am proud to announce that I’m carrying Susan Lawrence’s Forest Canopy Shawl in kits

I have 6 new colors in the Almost solid series!