I Am Wool

No, I'm not making a Zen knitting statement, I just took the "Which Fiber Are You" quiz at the Pottercraft site and it tells me that I am wool. Finally I know my destiny. Really though, it's a fun quiz and if you email them with your results as the subject and your postal address as the body of the message they will send you a free button so you can tell the world.
So what does it mean to be wool like me? Well according to the quiz results it is this:

Wool – Resilient and extensible“Wool is extremely resilient and highly extensible…you can stretch it a third of its length, or two-thirds when wet, and it’ll recover to its original shape.” –The Knitter’s Book of Yarn
Wools have a very peaceable and amenable personality. You are a social animal and tend to prefer the company of others over solitude. You are agreeable and rarely on the wrong side of an argument. You are not a fighter but you are strong. You are resilient and don't let things bend you out of shape, and you can show a lot of self-restraint when necessary.

Perhaps so, though I would have to disagree on the dislike of solitude. In public, the more the merrier but when I walk in the door to my house it's like walking into my own hermitage. Save for Tom, the dogs and the cat I really just want to be left alone most of the time.

*** Update - 1, February 2008 ***

I just received my free "I'm Wool" button from Potter Craft. It looks just like the picture at the top of this blog. Someone even wrote "Enjoy!" on the card to which it was attached. I'm a sucker for personal touches, they melt my cold little heart.

Desperate Measures

I have a big sweet tooth, if it contains sugar (or even sugar substitute), I want it. Well, today was one of those days where I arrived home from work feeling cold, worn out and anti-social. Oh yeah, and really craving something sweet. Tomorrow is grocery day and I really didn't have much in the house to make sweets, especially notable was the lack of fruit, confectioner's sugar, white sugar, butter and milk. ARGH! I couldn't come up with anything. So I collected my thoughts and figured since I didn't have milk or butter I would have to whip up something Vegan. I came across Peanut Butter Coffee Cake at VegCooking.com and it hit the spot wondrous well. Granted, my version didn't turn out vegan and I had to fudge it a bit as well. I used real eggs (yes, I'm going to hell), I substituted water for Soy Milk, and I used oil instead of margarine. I know this sounds like a mess but it came out perfect, delicious and it tamed my sugar craving. Perhaps one more piece? Ah, if only I had a cold glass of milk. Oh, here it is...

Peanut Butter Coffee Cake
Serve this delight at your next brunch, and it will be gone before your guests can say, “Another cup of java, please!”

For the topping:

1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup peanut butter
3 Tbsp. margarine

For the cake:

2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup soy milk
1/2 cup peanut butter
Egg Replacer equivalent of 2 eggs
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) margarine

• Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Grease a 9 x 13-inch baking pan.
• For the topping, mix the brown sugar and flour. With a pastry knife, a fork, or your fingers, cut in the peanut butter and margarine until crumbly; set aside.
• For the cake, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the soy milk, peanut butter, egg replacer, and margarine. Beat until smooth, about 3 minutes with an electric mixer. Pour into the baking pan and sprinkle with the topping. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Preparation time: 20 minutes Baking time: 30 minutes
Makes 12 servings

Counting My Chickens Before They've Hatched

The US government is in the process of approving a tax rebate for citizens who meet certain criteria in order to boost the economy. The original plan was an $800 check, but it's looking like $600 is going to be the amount if in fact it is approved. Nonetheless, I'll take it! Though I take everything our government says with a proverbial grain of salt, I'm jumping the gun on this one. Maybe it's the winter doldrums, maybe it's the after holiday poverty or maybe it's the promise of several hundred dollars worth of knitting books and supplies! Tom and I tend to be very simple, practical people who don't splurge on much of anything. Even our income tax returns never go towards anything fun; they go toward things we need, not things we simply want. Tom and I decided that this would be "free" money for us, we can each spend our half however we please. Of course this had me poring through knitting catalogs/websites as well as my Amazon wishlist in order to compose what I called my "$800 List". Well, it looks like I'll be paring the list down a bit but I'm not upset, after all it is money that I wasn't even expecting. I was only at an estimated $700 of my $800 list anyway. At least I didn't get too carried away.