08.17.09

Ah, Julia…

Posted in General Info at 10:47 pm by Sue

Julia Child, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol 1 Butter. Yes, I think that was what did it… I totally love butter, which, alas, is quite evident in my feminine contours. Saw the new Meryl Streep movie Julie & Julia with my knitting buddies (did you catch that scene with a supposedly French woman knitting English style… sacre bleu!!) and now I’ve caught Julie Child fever.

I grew up during the Julia-Child-on-TV era, but wasn’t really into cooking at that time, so she didn’t have much impact on me back then. But now, I’m totally smitten. (Whether it’s with Julia herself or Meryl Streep’s portrayal of her, I’m not sure.)

Julia Child, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol 2 According to the movie, Julia Child really loved butter – a sentiment I can totally relate to. And now, many years after her TV show debuted, I’m finally ready to try French cooking a la Julia, so after seeing the movie, I ordered her cookbooks Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volumes 1 & 2. Apparently, a lot of us are smitten, as there’s quite a wait to get these books right now, but my books are on their way.

Fear not, this is not going to convert from a knitting and yarn blog into a cooking blog, and I’m not about to embark on anything as ambitious as Julie in the movie — no cooking every Julia recipe in one year for me, thank you, I’ve got enough commitments already. I doubt I’ll be deboning any ducks anytime soon, but I think many of her recipes will seem much less daunting to me now than they did some years back.

As usual, I brought knitting with me to the movie theatre, but didn’t knit a stitch. I’m all about knitting when I watch TV at home, but somehow, have never been able to do it in movie theatres. Maybe it’s the poor lighting, or my fear of dropping perfectly good yarn on a sticky theatre floor, or having the yarn roll away from me in the dark… just seems so, well, risky.

I do hate to waste all that good knitting time, but really — when you consider how much movies cost these days, it’d be a shame to look away from the screen at the wrong time and miss the most crucial scene in the movie, right? Maybe if the movie was really boring, I might manage a few stitches, but Julie & Julia held my interest through-out – then again, it just might have been the butter.

Anticipating good meals to come,
Sue

08.08.09

Wedding in the family – whew!

Posted in General Info at 11:05 am by Sue

Wow, the few past weeks (make that months) feel like they went by in a flash – we’ve had big goings-on in our family (and at Great Yarn Company too)!

My beautiful step-daughter’s wedding was two weeks ago, with all the excitement and hoopla that leads up to a big wedding. The ceremony was sweet, the bride was amazingly gorgeous, the groom looked happy (and maybe just a little stunned) — a very joyous occasion all around.

And then we baby-sat two little grandsons for a week while the newlyweds honeymooned… lots of fun, busy, busy, busy, and jeez, louise, am I ever tired!!! It’s truly amazing how fast a 5-year-old and a 16-month-old can be! They kept us all running the entire week – they’re so cute and so smart – definitely kept us on our toes! I didn’t think I was slowing down, but ya know, I was wrong – it’s gonna take us a few days to recover!

And just a few weeks earlier, there was another wedding in our family – dear hubby’s niece and her red-headed cutie had their special day. Another beautiful bride and very fun wedding!

Has anyone else had weddings or new babies or visits from little ones to share? I love new babies – such a great excuse for knitting adorable little tid-bits!

There are a lot of big things going on at Great Yarn Company too – new yarns on the way from Rowan, Alpaca with a Twist, and more, lots of great new pattern lines coming, along with cool notions and gift items, and we’re working with our computer gurus on our new website, which is coming soon! I’ll keep you posted!

Catching my breath, finally…
Sue