Back to work...

1. I wondered if they had somehow "edited for run time" on EqG, because there did seem to be a few holes. Ah, yes, the almighty commercial. The semi-local radio news station I listen to sometimes has ads touting how broadcast radio is still "free," but it seems to me in the past few years, the proportion of ads to actual news has grown.

2. One last task yesterday evening: winding off the balls of the Cascade Heritage Silk. Time to start Christmas knitting, especially as I give an exam on Friday and will have fifty minutes or so of invigilating time to work on it.

3. I never mentioned it but I did make the Chicken Francese from the newest issue of Cuisine At Home last week. (I ate up the last piece of it last night). The sauce was good, and I'd make it again, but the real lesson of the recipe is that I think I have a new go-to way for preparing chicken breasts. I had, formerly, usually oven-fried them (which has the virtue of being fairly un-messy, and also is one of those "set it up and wander off for 20 minutes" recipes). But the chicken breasts were so much better pounded out to a thin layer (1/4" or so), dredged in flour, and then quickly pan-fried. I think the three things that made the difference were the time (I often would overcook the oven-fried chicken, because of fears about food poisoning), the fact that I used Florida Seasoned Pepper (a Penzey's product and something that I have found is a very good salt-replacement, especially for things like chicken and pork - it's pepper, garlic, and lemon peel, among other flavors), AND I used a good-quality extra-virgin olive oil for frying. (I suppose if you were less profligate than I tend to be with ingredients, you could mix it half and half with a less pricey oil).

The brand of oil I use is California Olive Ranch. Which is apparently one of the relatively few olive oils that tested "pure" in that test a few months back that alleged some common store brands were dyed canola oil. It's not cheap, but it's very good.

4. There's some well-known chef (I forget who, now) who once commented that boneless, skinless chicken breast was "the tofu of meat." I laughed at the time but now I think I agree: it doesn't taste like much on its own, you have to do things to it to make it good. (I will say although boneless breast is best for the "pound it flat and pan-fry it" method I talked about above, I WISH I had a ready source of bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts. It's not that hard to peel the skin off at table, cooking the breast with the skin on adds minimal fat, and it keeps the breast from drying as you cook it. Of course, I also wish I had a local store with a proper butcher's case where I could request one (1) chicken breast, instead of having to buy a "family pack" and either eat chicken for a week or consign a few breasts to the freezer, where I will find them, freeze-dried and encrusted with ice, eight months later.

5. Lots of stuff to do today, mostly prepping for the rest of the week. Exam to type (Fortunately I was disciplined and actually wrote the thing yesterday - and this semester there can be NO recycling of questions from last semester, as I have a couple of repeaters in my class.) More lab supplies to rustle up, as I have a fuller lab this fall than I've had for a while.

6. I did, uh, wind up getting yarn for a cabled slipover sweater. When I was at JoAnn's on Saturday, I had a "15% off anything you buy" coupon. And they had Paton's Classic Wool in a nice dark brown tweed (dark brown with red and gold flecks in it). I don't remember the color name but they had five balls of one dyelot (somewhere over 1000 yards), which was enough. (One fault of craft-store yarn buying: they don't usually have enough balls in the same dyelot, and mixing dyelots is chancy, even if they LOOK the same when you put the two balls next to each other). I was hoping I remembered that the pattern I had was for worsted weight....it was. But also, in getting out the book (Folk Vests) to look it up, I remembered that, oh, ages ago (I think it was as a reward to myself for completing the promotions packet, back in 2010 or so), I had ordered the Jamieson's needed for the Prince of Wales vest, and never ever started it.

(This is the Prince of Wales who would have been Edward VIII, had he not abdicated. There's a....I hesitate to call it "political cartoon," because it's really not one, not in the sense we use the term, but a drawing showing him in a garden, looking slightly bemused at a large "Imperial" rose....a reprint of it is here. Both Jane Brocket and Cheryl Oberle use it as an illustration in writing about Fair Isle vests. Oberle seems even to have based her design on it. And I admit, I'm a bit intrigued about that era of British history, and also the story of the king who gave up his throne for an American commoner (and divorcee, which was probably equally scandalous to being an American and commoner at that time). So I want a version of that vest.)

I really don't NEED a fiddly project using lots of colors and requiring small needles. I really don't. But I kind of want to start it, now. (I am going to force myself to finish up a thing or two first, and get a start on my Christmas knitting....) This will be the first-ever steeking for me, though, and I keep thinking maybe I should do something less-precious first and steek it. I don't know. Will I be able to cut my knitting when it comes to it? I suppose I will, if it means otherwise that I won't have a neck opening or armholes...