Happy 2012! Put a Bird On It!

Welcome 2012! I hope everyone had a happy and safe 2012! Tom was working so our celebration consisted of a nice dinner of rib steaks, rosemary garlic roasted red potatoes and salad, topped off with cocoa apple cake. I was really excited about the cake. Cocoa apple cake was a staple dessert in our house growing up, and somehow through life's twists and turns, I lost Mom's recipe. Tragic. I'm not even sure where it originated from...maybe one of the Scott Paper ladies that my Dad worked with. I had done an internet search before, but nothing had come close to the original, which had chocolate chips in it. Flash forward to 2011. My cookbook cupboard had overflowed to the ridiculous. I made the decision that some serious culling needed to be done, and so one morning I went through my cookbooks and donated a bunch to the Book Nook, which supports our local library. In this day and age, most any recipe is a click away and so I reduced my cookbook collection to a fraction of it's previous size. I felt good about it. To test out my recipe accessibility theory, I did one last search for the Cocoa Apple cake. The first recipe that popped up was it! Of course it was a little shy on the chocolate chips, but I always added more anyway, so that told me it was the one! Anyway, enough about cake!
Jo and I went home shortly after dinner to avoid the drunken craziness that usually accampanies New Year's Eve. Good thing...I heard the boys go out a short time after we got home. We did our chores, got in our PJs and settled in for some telly and sock knitting. 100+ channels and nothing on to watch prompted me to see if there was anything new on NetFlix to hold my attention. What? The first season of Portlandia had been added! Since we don't get the IFC channel, I thought it would be fun to watch the show that sheds a light on our big city.

I ended up watching the whole first season (6 episodes in all). Kyle Maclachlan is hilarious as the mayor and Sam Adams (the actual mayor of Portland) has cameos as his assistant. The show is a series of skits with recurring characters that feature different locales here in Portland. Portlan's motto is "Keep Portland Wierd" and you definitely catch that vibe in Portlandia. The knitting of 2 socks at a time is going fabulously...knitting heel flaps and will be turing the heel soon. I hope to have this pair off the needles by the time my new ChiaoGoos arrive, so I can start on another pair with a lace pattern perhaps. Or maybe toe up 2 at a timeMight as well complicate it more! I did venture out yesterday to JoAnn's to take advantage of the 99 cent McCall's pattern sale. The main pattern that drove me there was McCall's 6513, a new Palmer/Pletsch knit top offering.

This is so the type of top I like to wear and I can't wait to take it for a spin. Unfortunately Tom had a job waiting for me when I was heading home from town so I couldn't dive right in. The good news is I knocked the job out in the afternoon and it paid for my little trip to JoAnn's! I picked up several other patterns and some more sock yarn. I won't rest until all my socks are handmade!
I have to go to work today, so I had best get off the computer and give Jo a bath. I like him to start off fresh with a new class. I'm sure he will be thrilled! Usually he runs and hides when I say the "B" word. Enjoy the rest of the holiday if you have it off. I am off tomorrow and will be watching the Rose Bowl. GO DUCKS!