I Did It. I Really Did It.

Yes, folks, I specified in a message to Carson the wheel that I am looking for him to make. So grateful Kelly was here to assist me in the details I never would have thought of!

So, after composing the message in a word document, I copied and pasted it into a Rav message....

then......

wait for it.....

I hit "send."

Yup I did it. I really did it.

My Wheel

And here she is; or at least my "muse" for a custom wheel. I am truly in love. When I first spotted her, it was on a thread on Ravelry in the group Longbacken by Renee Darley. These are all her pictures, so I must giver her credit!

"The Lady in Black is mine" she said.  

My best friend, Kelly, was amazed that I FINALLY found a wheel that I became "twitter-pated" about. (Those who have watched Bambi know what I mean) I am not one to be drawn to the chunkier wheels, or ones that IMO appear "thick." This pretty lady is all about delicate, elegant details, and most definitely, not chunky. Oh, the tall pointy thing on the left is called a distaff. It holds the fiber while spinning. Usually for flax. I do not spin flax, so that won't be there.

See what I mean? I have no idea how old Renee's is. I hope that "my" wheel maker, Carson Cooper can replicate her as close as possible. *sigh* The most important details I am looking for are the "Maidens" which are the long, pointy pieces to the left of the picture, and the thinness of the wheel rim. The slanted bed is awesome! 

This view of the wheel shows the rim a bit better. There is also a routed detail around the side of the rim that I am looking for. The color is another detail; Black Walnut with a dark tung oil rub. I want it as dark as I can get it.

Kelly and I both are normally right-handed, but we found out that we spin left-handed; spindle and wheel spinning! Once I discovered that I realized that the main reason I hadn't felt comfortable with this type of wheel is because they were all right-handed. Yet another detail I am putting in: Left-handed! 

So, the money should be here soon ~ a week or so? Whatever. As soon as it hits the bank; I am on the phone with Carson. 

I have decided to call her "Renee" because if it weren't for her; I wouldn't have found this magnificent wheel that sent me down this road.

Updates to come!!

running in circles

I'm Not Martha Stewart... or Betty Crocker

SO!

I had been looking in the freezer for dinner ideas the other day. There they were; a 24 ounce bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips left over from Thanksgiving. 

COOKIES!!!

Then, today I decided was the day to bake the cookies. The recipe is ON the bag! I gathered said ingredients, and began whipping up the creamy wonderful batter I see in my "I can bake" fantasy. 

Oh, the butter is not at room temperature. Damn. Can't figure out how to defrost in my fucking microwave, so I put the butter in for about 15-20 seconds. Hmmm. Butter soup. It'll do. This was in the middle of me measuring out the dry ingredients. 

Fast forward to mixing the sugar, brown sugar, butter and vanilla in the "larger bowl" with my $9.99 big-box store mixer. Looking yummy! I even managed to crack eggs without getting shells mixed in! The next step was to "gradually add the dry ingredients." How gradual do you have to go to add this??? 

Oh, well. Mixed in the chocolate chips... getting what I can only call short of orgasmic thinking of eating a warm from the oven cookie with a glass of ice-cold milk. swooning

As I am scooping the "rounded teaspoon" segments onto the pan I am wondering exactly how they get 5 dozen cookies out of this????

Into the oven they go ~ batch #1. Halfway through the baking time, I peek in (because we all do that), and see what look like sunny-side up eggs made from poop with corn in the "yolk." 

WHAT THE FUCK!!! 

This was after I scraped the middles out; it was chocolate after all!

After that; I realized what happened. I forgot to add the FLOUR! 

FUUUUUUCK! 

So that is why it didn't seem as though there was enough batter for 5 dozen. Just a side note; it really is possible to add the flour after all the other ingredients. (although MARTHA would be just horrified; perish the thought) Here is the proof:

Now. As the above batch was baking, I began to channel Rachel Ray and her creativity. No, no EVOO, just the chocolate that I scraped out of the first batch of poop eggs. (the chocolate yolks) In the balance of the batter it went! Whoo-hoooo!!

 So, okay, it looked like I was getting ready to make cookies out of rocks. This will be interesting! When I took them out; I was impressed that they actually puffed up a bit. As they sat on the plate cooling, I was impressed with the taste. Considering I added the pre-cooked chocolate back in the batter, these were pretty tasty! Hey!! Twice-baked cookies! I invented something!

Now that I look at the picture closer; I realize that I actually made what looks like fried chicken!

Chocolate chip chicken anyone?

Oh, and Kelly? I guess I shoulda worn the FUCKING APRON!!

And everyone else; specifically my spouse; SHUT UP!!