food

Hoppin’ John a la Jen

Jen2 Comments
I hear it’s good luck to eat black-eyed peas and collard greens on New Year’s. We had ours a day late, but I’m sure whichever anthropomorphic personification in charge of Luck is okay with that.
  • 1 15 oz can black-eyed peas
  • 1 29 oz can small white beans (You could use all black-eyed peas, this is just what I had on hand.)
  • 1 lb or so of left-over pork loin w/ salsa (Cooked for dinner the night before, tradition calls for a ham bone.)
  • 1 bundle of fresh collard greens, washed and chopped
  • 1 tsp red pepper flakes (Or more. I kept it mild for the boys.)
  • 1/2 Tbsp garlic powder
  • 1 tablespoon McCormick’s Italian Seasoning mix
  • 2 15-ounce cans of tomato sauce
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in slow cooker, and cook on low for about 6 or 7 hours. Serve hot with corn bread. It was AWESOME. Even the kids ate a bunch of it.

Adventures · Meta

Post a Day Challenge 2011

Jen4 Comments

For some strange reason, this really appealed to me, so I’m really going to go for it. I’ve already posted two days in a row, how hard could it really be? (kidding!) Anyway, I’ve been mulling it over all day so I figured I should just go ahead and make it official. Wish me luck everyone!

Meta

2010 in review

Jen2 Comments

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

Healthy blog!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

Featured image

A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats.

About 3 million people visit the Taj Mahal every year. This blog was viewed about 55,000 times in 2010. If it were the Taj Mahal, it would take about 7 days for that many people to see it.

 

In 2010, there were 86 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 600 posts. There were 18 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 26mb. That’s about 2 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was February 25th with 4,784 views. The most popular post that day was Woven Square Slippers: A Tutorial.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were stumbleupon.com, tipnut.com, ravelry.com, mindingmyownstitches.blogspot.com, and Google Reader.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for sisyphus, pageant talents, weird facebook status, bugs that eat clothes, and bear skull.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Woven Square Slippers: A Tutorial February 2010
20 comments and 1 Like on WordPress.com,

2

I am Sisyphus January 2008
3 comments

3

How to Darn Socks March 2008
9 comments

4

Free Patterns February 2008
1 comment

5

Weird Facebook Status Juxtapositions May 2009
2 comments

Thanks to all my readers for a great 2010!

holiday cheer

2011: A Knitting To Do List

Jen10 Comments

1. Socks. I blew out the heels in two pairs of hand made socks this fall when the weather turned cold and I started wearing them again. And never mind that both boys are going to need a pair of socks to wear with their winter boots by next year since they are about to outgrow the ones they currently own. Clearly it’s time to knit some more. I’m considering a Yarn Harlot style self imposed sock club.

2. Two Sweaters. The Mister has been wanting me to knit him a Doctor Who themed sweater for some time now. The only thing that’s holding me back is the sheer amount of work of it. He’s not a small dude, you know? I also have the yarn for another sweater for me.

3. Spin. I still have a crap ton of Romney fleece to spin. I should do that. The plan is to not spin it so fine or to navajo ply it (but first I have to finish the quiviut/silk blend which wants to be a teeny tiny yarn).

What’s on your to-do list for this year?

holiday cheer · Knitting

2010: A Knitting Year In Pictures

Jen1 Comment

What did your 2010 look like? Happy New Year everyone!

holiday cheer

Merry Christmas!

Jen2 Comments

I hope your Christmas is full of fun, fibery goodies, and sweet treats! Merry Christmas to all!

Current Events

Winter Solstice Eclipse

Jen1 Comment

In case, like me, you weren’t able to catch the solstice eclipse due to weather (or the fact that it was in the middle of the night), here is a great time lapse movie of the eclipse in its entirety. Really amazing stuff.

holiday cheer

9 ways to have a happy, secular, Christmas

Jen5 Comments


I didn’t mean for my last post to sound as if I didn’t care for Christmas at all. In fact, I love Christmas. It’s my favorite time of year, the best holiday by far. But when you shout “keep Christ in Christmas!” you’re talking about MY Christmas too, and frankly, MY Christmas has never had much Christ in it to begin with, seeing as how I was raised as an atheist, and I don’t really need Christ in my Christmas for it to be a wonderful, joyous time. I have many wonderful, happy memories of Christmases past and the season is imbued with deep and rich meaning for me. Christ doesn’t figure into it at all. I look forward to Christmas with child-like wonder and anticipation every single year. Yes Virginia, it is possible to have a meaningful Christmas without Christ. And you can too.

  1. Deck the halls: the practice of putting up greenery and other decorations in the winter has a long long history, so go crazy! Get a tree and a wreath and some roping for the stairs. Bring greens to every corner of your home!
  2. Have a holiday party/feast: thousands of years ago, the winter solstice was the last chance until spring for good eating. Aren’t we lucky to live during a time in in human history that very few people have to worry about starving to death before food starts growing again in the spring?
  3. Play Santa: exchanging gifts is a long standing tradition and was a part of most ancient (and not so ancient) mid-winter celebrations
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  4. Light Candles (and put up lights): the days leading up to the winter solstice are the darkest days of the season. Put up some lights to ward off the darkness.
  5. Go Caroling/enjoy some secular (or not) holiday music. So many wonderful songs abound this time of year! For non-church going folk it’s our big chance spread Christmas cheer by singing loudly for all to hear!
  6. Speaking of which, watch holiday movies. There are many wonderful old and new holiday classics, most available from Netflix (or wherever your at-home movies come from).
  7. Go to NYC and see the sites.
  8. Bake cookies. Cookies are awesome. Also, pie.
  9. View Christmas through a child’s eyes. The holidays are a magical time of year. Something about the lights and the cold weather and the delicious anticipation makes this holiday the most special of them all. And yes, some people find that meaning in the story of the birth of Christ. But it doesn’t have to be that way for everybody. Sometimes you don’t need a reason for the season.

Go, secular humanists! Go forth! Make meaning in this season for yourselves. Because Christmas belongs to you too.

Merry Christmas!

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grumble · holiday cheer

Humbug!

Jen3 Comments

Dear Christians,

Here’s the thing. Christmas doesn’t really belong to you. At least not in its entirety. And the fact of the matter is that it never really has. Human beings have celebrated Midwinter festivals in one form or another for thousands of years. The many layers of tradition, folklore, and celebration of our modern Christmas have been handed down to us through hundreds of generations of human history and are not limited to a single storied birth which very likely didn’t even occur near the winter solstice, if it occurred at all.

Christmas, as much a secular holiday as a sacred one, belongs to everyone. I’m terribly sorry that you don’t care very much for sharing your sacred holiday with the unwashed heathen masses, but it doesn’t change the fact that you DO share it. Further, the secularization of Christmas doesn’t make it any less sacred. Celebrate a sacred holy Christmas in your places of worship and stop lashing out in annoyance at those whose celebration is more secular. Keep Christmas in your own way, and I’ll keep it in mine.

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