Little bit bigger

Here's Celestarium, as of this morning:



I've gotten the hang of applying the beads. It's nice to have a use for those tiny little crochet hooks I bought so many years ago.

It is kind of satisfying to work on - at least right now, when the rows aren't super-long. (I am close to another increase, and every increase is a doubling - this is a pi shawl)

OH OH OH OH I worked on a pi shawl on pi day!!!!!!! Excellent.

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Yesterday was a pretty good day. Did not find a lot at the antique shops but I did buy a 1956 edition of "The Joy of Cooking" (I did not have a copy of that one; there are a few good basic recipes in it not in some other books). I also bought a copy of a hardback (! from before the era of spiral bound fundraisers, maybe?) cook book called "Noted Cookery" that was published to raise money for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. It was published a few months after I was born, so I guess it's almost "vintage."

(I learned: "Antique" is 100 years old or more; "vintage" is 50 years old-100 years old, anything more recent is just "used." So I feel a slight annoyance at hearing about "vintage" toys that were ones I played with at age 10, but then again - it's an easy way to separate the first run of My Little Ponies from the current one, at least among people not familiar with the "generations" designations that collectors use)

Anyway. It's a fun cookbook - it has some different recipes. (If I can ever find a bulk pork sausage that's low enough in sodium, I am trying the German Meat Loaf recipe. It has a number of international recipes (Cornish pasties, something  called Worsten Broodjes that I presume is Dutch...)

Also, because this is a fund-raising cookbook, the names of all the contributors are there (usually as "Mrs. Husband's Name" though there are a few men who contributed and either a few single or widowed woman who get their own names).

There are a couple from "Mrs. H. Ross Perot." Heh. (Crabmeat-aspic salad* and Mocha-Nut tortoni).

(*I always think of a rude joke one of my uncles made about aspic, saying it was enough to make anyone's.....well, you probably get the idea)

There are also a few "famous people" recipes. Not sure if they wrote to the people and got them ("Bob Hope's favorite lemon pie") or if they were out floating around. There's one from Loretta Young called "Bride's Delight," presumably because it is easy: you boil a can (unopened) of condensed milk until it caramelizes, cut it in thin slices, and serve with whipped cream. (Ugh. the thought of that much concentrated sweetness makes my teeth curl up)

There's also a Texas chapter, which has a recipe for something that looks like a hybrid between spoonbread and cheese grits and which may be my next potluck contribution. (I am mindful of the fact that our new minister is a vegetarian, but he does eat cheese). And anyway, cheese grits are just good.

I also went to Tuesday Morning; they had a Lagoona Blue doll (the one with her pet sea turtle - it was one I had contemplated ordering off of Amazon at one point, but of course she was cheaper here) and also a Cleo de Nile from the same line. (I HAVE to get that shelf put together and installed so all the dolls have a place to live....)

I did all the necessary shopping yesterday (it was a full day) so I now have the choice on Friday that if I would prefer to stay home and sew or knit, I can, instead of driving to Whitesboro. At this point I am thinking of "saving" the Whitesboro trip for some Saturday when I really need something more fun. I will have to think about it.