New Maps!

So, yes, another map widget. I do like these things, especially when I have new states to check off! :) So, we've got my own domestic map, my international one, and Zach and my travels together (only domestic at this point):

Lara's Domestic Travels

Lara's International Travels

Lara & Zach's Travels

For all of these, Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com (it's the same place that does a lot of flickr toys).

W is for...

William & Mary - specifically, the Wren Building! Two W's in one!

This is my alma mater - Class of 2004. The Wren Building is the building that, at one point, housed the entire college. When the college was founded in 1693, the Wren building housed everything in it - dorms, classes, chapel, etc. It's still used for classes today. It's the oldest academic building in the States still used for classes. I, unfortunately, didn't get a chance to take a class in Wren, since it's mostly philosophy and religion classes, but I did get to go in for Yule Log Ceremonies and for the Senior bell ringing before graduation (the picture below) - all the good College tradition stuff (a 300+ yr old school is full of those). My own classes were mostly in Millington (Bio), Rogers (Chem) and T-Hall (Geo). Yup, I am a science dork :)

Another campus landmark I've got up here is the Crim Dell, a little bridge/waterway that can be downright beautiful when it wants to be. On it's off days, not so much :) During the procession by seniors across campus for graduation, everyone files across the bridge on the way from Wren to the Hall for commencement. The bridge is steeper than it looks, and it's funny watching all the girls in heels trying not to fall. You can see my sister and her friends paying very close attention to their feet in that picture below. I wore flat sandals for my graduation a few years earlier - it was SO hot, my feet would have died in regular shoes! Crim Dell Bridge also has a legend attached to it, that couples who cross over it together (other than at graduation) are destined to be married. If you cross over it by yourself, you're going to be single. As a result, even though it's a nice shortcut, no one ever crosses it during the school year. :)

Also, since my W is William & Mary, here's another William & Mary that mean a lot to me. Crazy coincidence, but that's also my parents' names :) They met in Atlanta at school, and didn't even realize the connection til they moved here years later! Yes, I did feel very silly filling out all my scholarship applications "School attending: William & Mary.... Parents' Names: William and Mary....." I started putting their middle names on the applications, just so I wouldn't feel like I was making up fictional parents! :) My sister and I both attended W&M (that's her graduation picture below on the right), and used to joke we should have a scholarship for being progeny of William and Mary ourselves!

V is for...

Vast.

As in the desert around post. It's a good 35+ miles up to post from the interstate and the closest tiny town ("town," mind you, not "city"). You really get a good idea of how empty the area is on that drive up from town. Just miles and miles of brown dirt and brown shrubs, as far as the eye can see. It's rather surreal looking on this road during the summer, since you get a lot of heat-haze making the 20+ mile stretch (shown below) just shimmer like mad. The picture above is one of my own, and the one below is a sign that used to be on the one road to post, but was taken down because it kept getting stolen. Unfortunately, I can't give credit to whomever took that picture, but I really like it.

I remember talking with an uncle before I moved out here. He was saying that Southwest US folk who move east are always amazed at the greenness and how closed in it is in the eastern US, almost a form of claustrophobia - trees and buildings blocking the view. He was adding that we'd probably be suffering from a reverse form of it, moving out and seeing for miles. I've been thinking a lot about that since moving out here, because you really do see quite a distance, and there really is just nothing for miles around here. I'm finding I am bothered by the view, but it's the fact that it's so dead looking, not that it's empty. If these hills and valleys were simply green grass, they'd be much more refreshing than they are now. I love looking across the ocean, and that's a view for miles, and at the farm where Zach's folks live, you can see for a good ways in some of their fields (not miles, but still, quite a distance). Traveling, too, some of the scenic overlooks we've passed (like just recently in Utah and Nevada) you could see miles and miles away, but the valleys were so green and pretty. Somehow, those views are so much more refreshing than the miles of brown here in the CA High Desert. Brown shrubland just isn't the most healing, satisfying view when you just look across tens of miles of it, like around here :\

V is for a lot of other things as well. Particularly, Virginia, where Zach and I each grew up, and Vacation, which we just got back from and which is why I'm running a little behind on my letters here - vacation pictures'll be another post though!

Speaking of Thanksgiving!

I MADE THE ROLLS!!

OK, for those of you who don't know my family personally, we have a family recipe for rolls that gets busted out every holiday season. You know the type of rolls I'm talking about - light and fluffy and totally bad for you and incredibly addicting. They usually get brought out at holidays, as they are good special-occasion rolls, and also because they make a batch of about 8 dozen (they're tiny, but that's still a lot of rolls!!) Holidays are usually the only times of year when we have enough people in one place that a batch of so many rolls will actually all be eaten.

We call them Grandmother's rolls in my family, though it's really my great-grandmother's recipe. We call them Grandmother's rolls, because that's what Mom calls them (her grandmother). My great-grandmother actually called them Icebox Rolls, as the dough freezes very well, so you can keep the dough in the fridge or freezer for a while, to be used when you need it.

Anyhoo, I digress. The important thing is, I successfully made the rolls yesterday! There were phone calls to Mom a couple times in the process (only 2!), but I did actually make the rolls. It feels like a rite of passage into adulthood in the family, or something like that :)

I do have to admit that they weren't perfect. They tasted right, something of which I'm very proud, but they kinda turned into the Monster Rolls Who Ate Manhattan (or the CA High Desert, as the case may be). I probably should have let the dough settle a little more before trying to cut out the rolls. Or maybe I let them rise too long? I'll figure it out. They just kept rising and rising and rising as they baked... They taste fine. They're just a little.... big. :)

So, after all this, and as I'm very proud of my first effort at The Rolls, I'm sharing the recipe with you all. Enjoy.

GRANDMOTHER'S ROLLS

Ingredients

• 2 packages yeast
• 1/2 c. lukewarm water
• 2/3 c. shortening
• 2/3 c. sugar
• flour (sifted) - several cups, as much as needed to produce soft dough
  
• 1 T. salt
• 1 c. mashed potatoes - can use powdered mashed potatoes; if using real potatoes, make sure they are very well mashed
  
• 1 c. milk, scalded
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• butter, melted

Directions

1. Dissolve yeast in water.
2. Add shortening, sugar, salt, and potatoes to milk.
3. When potato-milk mixture is lukewarm, add yeast water. Mix thoroughly.
4. Beat eggs well. Add to mixture.
5. Stir in enough sifted flour to make a soft, spongy dough.
6. Turn dough out onto floured board and knead well.
7. Put in large bowl to allow for rising. Dough will double in size.
   
8. Note: dough can rise in microwave. Set microwave on 10% power and 15 minute intervals, checking regularly. Add 3 cups water in container in microwave (for humidity). Make sure microwave has space for both bowl with dough and water container (particularly important if microwave has a turntable).
   

Baking Options

• Baking that day: Let dough rise, punch down, and roll out dough to desired thinness. Cut into 2-inch rolls (or desired size). Bake 10-12 minutes at 425 degrees F. Dip in melted butter before baking.
• Refrigerating dough: Cover dough with cloth or bowl lid and refrigerate. Pinch off dough as needed and shape. Let rise until doubled. Bake as above.
• Freezing dough: If you have more freezer space than fridge space, the dough also freezes well. Let rise, punch down, roll and cut dough as for fresh baking. Dip in butter. Put on pie tin or baking sheet, and then in a plastic bag. Freeze tin/baking sheet. When preparing dough, pull tray out of freezer with enough time to thaw totally, then bake as above. For example, for brunch, pull out tray from freezer the night before, and bake the morning of the brunch.

Makes a whole lot 2-inch rolls. Mom can make about 8 dozen, and I got about 4 dozen, but mine were probably 2-3 times as big as hers. :)

To all my friends and family,

You know, just in case I can't get hold of you on the phone today. :)

WIP Wednesday!

Long time no knitting, but here you go!

Still OTN - the baby blanket. Getting bigger, and I'm knitting away at it furiously (have a lot of repairs going on at our building at work, so have a LOT of down time there right now - good knitting time!)

Also OTN - Abrazo, by Knitty (Fall 08). Cute chunky-knit sweater vest. Needed some instant gratification knitting, with those tiny stitches on the baby blanket taking so long! I'm very pleased with this project so far. I'm using Lion Brand Wool-Ease T&Q, which I've had good luck with before, and the vest is coming along quite well. I'm through most of the body, and almost at the point where you stop knitting in the round and divide for the arm-holes. (note: It IS a very close-fitting vest, but t's not really as tiny as it looks in this picture - the stitches are all bunched up on the needle)

Also, the standard dishcloth knitting, though no pictures at the moment. I'm a bit behind on the dishcloth KAL at the moment, but we're not travelling anywhere for Christmas (Zach has to work - yay Army) so I'll have some very quiet days around here as the rest of post leaves for the holidays and we stick around. I WILL be caught up by the end of the year!!

No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth...

But, between being sick, being on vacation, and being in a constant race with Zach for the computer (I lose a lot), I haven't been posting much recently. Even missed my one-year blogiversary! (Thanks to all the well-wishers, though!) So, this is just a little note to let you know, I will be catching up soon - got V, W and X to do, some knitting to post, and LOTS of vacation pictures to sort and post. So, yes, more to come, just as soon as I have some time to grab the computer and chatter away! What else are holiday weekends for, if not for playing on the computer? :)