My (belated) Christmas present to myself came yesterday, and I promptly put it up:



It looks vintage, but it's actually not. It's a reproduction from Victorian Trading (made in India, I note with a bit of dismay, despite the stamp on the front of the object).

I like it because it looks like something that my grandmother would have had in her house (in fact, I think she had something very similar to this, but that sat on the floor rather than hung on the wall).

I also like it because it is a so-simple-it's-elegant solution to a problem - having a convenient place to hang various unmentionable items while they dry. (I do think I will keep some scraps of plain white cloth in the cabinet below where it hangs; I am not at all sure that the stain on those arms won't transfer to things).

It will also work to hang up damp-but-clean kitchen towels.

And when you're not using it, it folds up neatly out of the way:



It looks very right in my kitchen. As I've said before, I live in a vintage 1946/1947 house and I sort of like to have a few of the impedimentia that might have been around during the era when the house was first built. (OK, the original of the dryer is probably older than that, but I am sure people in the 40s had similar things to dry clothes, especially in the winter or in damp weather when you could not hang things outside).

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My jaw is still somewhat sore, so I decided to make some chocolate pudding to have with dinner last night. This is a simple but not-quite-instant (because it can take 10 minutes or so to thicken up as you stir) recipe, originally from the (sadly out-of-print) Square Meals by Jane and Michael Stern:

4 T cocoa (I used Hershey's "Special Dark," but I suspect the pudding would be really spectacular with a high-grade gourmet cocoa like Droste or Valrhona)

4 T corn starch

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 t salt

You mix those things together in the top of a double boiler and put it over a pan of hot but not boiling water. Then you add

1/2 cup light cream*

and mix it all together.

Then, you scald (I did, though maybe it's not strictly necessary) 1 1/2 cups additional cream and SLOWLY add it to the mix while stirring. Then you stir constantly until it thickens (this is the time consuming part, add 1 T vanilla (or whatever flavor you like; I suppose you could spike it with rum if you are into that). Put in a big bowl or serving dishes, cover well (to avoid a skin) and chill.

Be sure to stir WELL. My pudding actually wound up a bit lumpy because I stirred kind of lazily, and I also think I might have had the water a bit too hot - I think I heard it boiling before I turned the heat down.

The recipe claims it makes 4 servings but what I wound up with looks more like 6 to me. Then again, the Sterns are not known for stinting on portion size.

Even with just the plain old Hershey's (though I think the Special Dark cocoa powder is better than the regular), it was fantastic. Much better than "box" pudding, and not THAT much more work to make.

(*I grabbed, by mistake, heavy cream, and didn't realize until I got home [stupid Friday wal-mart]. My mother confirmed what I thought: that mixing it half and half with milk would approximate light cream, but she also added, "I make a similar recipe and just use skim milk." Which would be more accessible (I don't keep cream on hand) and would be much lower fat. But I like to make a recipe as-written the first time and then change it up. But I suspect you could use any grade of milk or milk-like liquid in this; perhaps even soy milk, which would make it both vegan and lactose-free...but I suspect you'd have to be even more careful heating and stirring to keep the soy milk from curdling.)

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And here is the second "Vanna's Choice Taupe Mist" critter. This is probably the most unusual amigurumi I have ever made.

Some years back, when Beanie Babies were in their first popularity, there was a list making the rounds of "failed Beanie Baby characters" or something. It was marginally funny; the one that I remember best (because it struck me as the funniest one) was Tapey the Worm.

Well, this isn't Tapey, but it's his cousin, Flats:



Yes, it's a crocheted planarian. The pattern is a freebee on Ravelry. You crochet two flat pieces and then sew them together. The only little change I made was to do the eye spots with embroidery floss rather than the yarn scraps recommended.

It's about 9" long and I think it would also make an amusing cat toy if you had a largish cat.

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I'm not sure how to post about this without seeming a bit of a Pharisee (in the sense of it looking like I'm publicly advertising how "good" I am), but whatever.

I put the binding on the Bento Box quilt last night. And I decided it wanted to go out into the world and make its living (like they say in the fairy tales).

And, coincidentally (but perhaps not*), I received the regular e-mail newsletter from Quilt Asylum. And what do they mention but being a drop-off point for Project Linus? So I take that as a sign that the quilt needs to go with me this morning and head out to its new life, hopefully to comfort some child somewhere:



(*There are really quite a lot of things in my life that happen that could be interpreted as coincidences or could be interpreted as not-coincidences. I don't know if it's simply a fact that I'm very good at seeing "patterns" in things, or maybe if there isn't maybe something more to it.)