[books] 5 College Book Sale

I waffled a bit about it Saturday morning but I made the trip down to Lebanon, NH for the 5 College Book Sale. I arrived right at 9am and got in line...

It actually didn't feel as crowded as other years. I spent 1.5 hours browsing books and really only checked out the sections I was interested in: crafts, cooking, gardening. I did swing by the fiction area to pick up some kids books for my niece. Then I got into the wrong checkout area- high volume. By the time I realized my mistake, I decided to stay.

I'm quite pleased with my books:

Good reference books all around. Herb books that cover lots of medicinals and not just culinary herbs. Craft books with lots of charted designs for cross-stitch:

Some of these border patterns would be good for cross-stitched bookmarks!

I'm in love with this Out of Vermont Kitchens spiral-bound cookbook (first published in 1939!) with all handwritten recipes:

This is really going to test my cursive reading skills. I wonder if a book like this would be fun to look at for a person who analyzes handwriting. "Here, see they way Ester Barnaby crosses her T's and how her words slant? She clearly must have been a psycho." 

I picked up a cookbook called "Just Pumpkins" and all the recipes focus on- you guessed it- potatoes. No, it's all pumpkins. Which I plant to utilize soon- I still have lots of pumpkin puree in the freezer from last fall.

And lastly I got a novelty cookbook on bread sculptures published in the 1970s. They're total hippie sculptures- a loaf shaped like mother goddess holding a bread baby; anatomically correct male and female bread shapes wrapped in a loving embrace. I mean... it's very funny. But there are also some cool tips and tricks for making and shaping bread dragons and alligators. I might have to give some a try.

I like to go to the 5 College Book Sale for the out-of-print books but they do have plenty of current publications. They have everything! I've gotten so many great books over the years. 

[misc] Mmmmm, raw eggs.

[playing] Deadwood. Scored this game in a Yankee Swap before Christmas and I've played it 4 times. This is a cute game- you've got a gang of cowboys that go to Deadwood to annex various buildings: the bank, town hall, newspaper, gold mine, casino, saloon, etc. There is some player interaction in the form of shoot-outs. If you don't want to fight and you have a horse, you can skedaddle to the abandoned mine. Players gain infamy in the form of wanted posters (but you better go to the church and get rid of as many wanted posters as you can before the Pinkertons arrive). It's a fun game and only $23 from Game Surplus.

[reading] A Game of Thrones. I'm late to the series but have become so obsessed with the story. It's so well written. It took a little perseverance on my part to get over the fact that bad things happen from the very beginning. Bad things happen to people you like. Bad things happen to people you don't like. Bad situations abound. But it's so. well. written. And compelling. I only get a few chapters in every couple of nights, so I should be done with it by the time the first HBO season comes out on dvd in March.

[cooking] Ice cream. I received an ice cream maker for Christmas and I've made the best homemade ice cream. I ordered the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream recipe book and their sweet cream base is awesome but uses raw eggs. Beat 2 eggs, add sugar, add heavy cream (hurg, this stuff has the consistency of white paint) and milk. Then whatever flavors you want. Then you add it to the ice cream maker to do it's ice-cream-making-thing. When I made my first batch, I told Dollar, "There's eggs in it." He said, "Weird." I said, "Raw eggs. Not cooked. Just... raw eggs blended." He said, "Uh... Oh... kay." I've been pretty careful about only using local eggs when I made this ice cream (from a farm two towns over). I don't know, we eat rare meat and runny eggs, so this can't be that different, right? ... I was a little apprehensive about the raw eggs but the ice cream is coming out so amazing that with worth the threat of salmonella. Also, this might help me to screw up my courage to make some homemade beef tartar with a raw egg yolk on top. Dollar has already told me that he will not eat that. Which is good, because I'll probably need him to drive me to the hospital.

[knitting] I made a little sample for a pillow cover:

Penny! Sigh. Anyway, I did a small test using yarn scraps to get exact measurements. Now I'm ready to cast on to the actual 16" x 17" pillow. I don't often swatch but I do know when it's important to.

[weaving] I hate weaving. What a tedious nightmare.

[crocheting] I can't get the idea of a mega doily rug out of my head. I just think this one is a little too mega. The .5 inch cotton cording that the artist uses appears to make a 1 - 1.5 inch thick rug once you crochet it up. I know a rug so thick and a lacy would be an open invitation in my house to trip and smash your head on a piece of heavy furniture. I think I'd go with 8/32 cotton cording and a slightly less open design.

[cross-stitching] Yeah baby, you know what I need? A new craft. I ordered some books and aida cloth. I am ready.