Plum Cake

I made Smitten Kitchen's Dimpled Plum Cake recipe over the weekend. I used golden plums (orange? whatever they are), instead of the deep purpley gorgeous plums she used. I also used my KitchenAid for the very first time while mixing the dough. First, I have to mention my love for that appliance. The KitchenAid is the best thing ever. The dough came together, with zero effort on my part, in a beautiful harmony of flavors and ingredients and oh my goodness is it fast. Also? I found the whole thing delightfully easy to clean up afterwards. I can't believe I never used it before. It was a gift before I moved in with the fiance, and when I moved back it somehow ended up in our pantry in the basement. He brought it up for me to play with this weekend, and it is now installed in a corner of the kitchen counter, where it will stay in all its breast-cancer-pink glory until I die. Or at least until we remodel the kitchen.

I didn't take any photos of the finished cake. I wasn't sure it worked at first. I thought it seemed a bit undercooked, and it didn't really look like the picture from Smitten Kitchen. I thought I'd destroyed it by using the KitchenAid, instead of mixing with a hand blender. But two nights ago, we braved it. Tried the plum cake, with a little bit of whipped cream on top.

It's heaven. Make that recipe, now. It took me literally ten minutes to throw together (with the KitchenAid's mixing help), and only forty minutes or so to bake. Even using different plums, it is the most delectable sweet treat I've had in ages. It tastes of caramelized fruit, and summer. It tastes like George's love for me, and my love for him.

In other words, it came out differently than expected, but absolutely perfect in the end.

Photo-Enabled FO

I said I finished the Hemlock Ring Blanket. Still not blocked- because you can see it's already in use!



I am working away on the Lilac Leaf shawl, as well:



It's going beautifully.

Today has been a serious chore sort of day. A pretty great weight workout and a jog with two of my buddies to start off the day. Hit up Target to fill a prescription and such, loads and loads of laundry. I cooked a surprisingly yummy black bean chili, while doing a whole bunch of baking, and I finally cut out my veil.



I can't wait until the muffins cool- a chocolate banana muffin sounds like the perfect snack before bed! G is out of the house for the evening, a very rare treat, and I'm enjoying catching up on So You Think You Can Dance and now, after finally finishing my baking and chores, it's definitely time for some Lilac Leaf.

The worst thing that can happen to a knitter

I suspect that the worst thing that could happen to a knitter is losing the ability to knit. I'm not quite so whole-sale gone as all that... but I managed to pull a muscle in my upper back/neck, or some other cause not yet determined, and have spent the last two weeks knitting very little and taking a lot of pain meds. When the pain still wasn't gone by last Friday, I pulled in the bigger guns- muscle relaxants. Boy are these things weird. When I take them at night, I'm out pretty shortly thereafter. Took them this morning, since the pain and discomfort was pretty severe and I don't need to drive or operate machinery today. As near as I can tell they still make me woozy enough that I don't dare drive, but I seem to be awake enough to surf the web with impunity.

At any rate, all this pretty much explains why I haven't yet finished the darn NaKniSweMo sweater. I've been making an honest effort- I finished the front yesterday, and started the sleeves today. About three inches into the sleeves, in fact. But there's no way I can pull out a marathon knitting session the rest of the weekend to finish it on time. So much for that goal. I don't think I want to mess up my back further by trying to knit when my body tells me not to, but it's a hard hard thing to laze around in front of the tv all day and not have needles in hand!

My Thanksgiving this year was quiet and very pleasant. I did a fair bit of baking beforehand- something about the holidays really gets me in the baking mood. I made blueberry muffins, although I should have made the awfully sweet variety instead of the healthy sort. I like the sweet ones much better. I made a loaf of cranberry nut bread, which is nearly gone already between Turkey Day and breakfasts since. And I also made four dozen pecan tassies. I absolutely adore tassies- they're a bit fussy to make, but come out stellar. The winter edition of Bon Appetit has a recipe for chocolate almond tassies that I may try next- there's something absurdly appealing about little mini tarts with a cream cheese and butter crust. Again- not so healthy, but absolutely worth it.