Frustrated!

Did you ever put a lot of thought and work into something and it didn't come out the way you wanted?

I did a lot of research before casting on a sweater for my brother, who lives far away.  I got his measurements. I swatched. I spent a lot of time with a pocket calculator. I took information from four different sources including Knitting From the Top by Barbara Walker and Sweet Tomato Socks by Cat Bordhi.  I thought I was ready to publish my first original design, a crew-neck pullover.

I began by starting from the neckband and it was beautiful the way the shoulder straps grew from increases.  I got to the tip of the shoulder, started working the set-in-sleeve style which required me to put in some increases at a rate I determined, also using a few short rows in Cat Bordhi's style.

Then I did some color work off a chart from a sweater pattern that aside from that bit looked like it was 1980's dated.  By then the stitches had increased to the point where they were jammed around my 24" circular needle and I was contemplating buying a longer one.  I got down to the underarms, separated the sleeves from the yoke, then completed a few more rounds.

There was by then about thirty hours of work in this project. Hooray! I had completed enough that it could be tried on and I could see how the fabric draped around a human.  So I ran across the street because I saw my neighbor's daughter's fiance on the porch, and he looked about my brother's size.  He was a good sport about being asked to model.

You know those girly blouses where the fabric is gathered at the top of the shoulders to produce a puffed sleeve?  If that had been my intention, I'd have nailed it to perfection.  Grr-rrrrrrrrrr!

Oh, well, back to the drawing board.  I've got plenty of this yarn. I'll set this attempt aside to complete someday for myself.  I'm going to start over for my brother, this time a top-down raglan so I can be sure the shoulders will look right.

Passover Macaroons

I have been gritting my teeth trying to put up a link for something that ought to be online for free.  The enemy opponent is the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and its jsonline website.  I cut a recipe out of the paper I bought on April 1, 2009.  This was published for the use of anyone who buys a paper, and as they are careful to tell us, one can share a recipe from a source as long as one doesn't share the entire source.

In other words, as I understand the newspaper, it's legal to share a recipe without express permission from a cookbook for promotional purposes as long as you only share a small part of the cookbook.  Sharing most of the recipes from the book would be wrong.

So if I understand their position correctly, it would be fine for me to share a recipe from the paper, for promotional purposes, as long as I don't share most of the recipes from the paper.

They like to sell papers, so they have some of their recipes in a searchable database.  I thought I'd link to my favorite in a Facebook share, which would be nice for them as well as for me.  Guess what?  The recipe is "older", so they want me to pay for the privilege of searching for a single article.

You might guess that my reaction included profane language.  So, as a goose courtesy to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and jsonline, I will share the recipe here.  I can link to this article from Facebook, accomplishing with a bunch of typing what I'd hoped to do with a few clicks.

The author of the recipe, Toby Colton, is an acquaintance of mine from way back and deserves to be honored as a brilliant cook.  The newspaper folks were nice enough to quote her.

There were a few instructions omitted by the newspaper, my additions and clarifications are in italics.  (I apologize for not retaining the name of the Journal Sentinel employee who wrote the words not in the quote, I'd like to be able to be precise in giving credit where it's due.)

So here it is, for promotional purposes, from the April 1, 2009 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel food section.
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"This is an absolutely fabulous Passover macaroon recipe," said Toby Colton of Glendale.  "You will probably never want to eat canned macaroons again.  They are best eaten soon after they are made, when the outside is crispy and the insides are tender," she said. "But they can easily be made several days ahead and kept covered until it's time to serve them."  Colton adapted a recipe from a friend to make two varieties of macaroons from one can of sweetened condensed milk: one regular, the other almond-flavored.  "Most people prefer the almond," she said.  "I use the almonds with skins on, and that gives them a speckled look that differentiates the almond macaroons from the vanilla."

Passover Macaroons (Regular and Almond)
Makes 6 to 8 dozen

5 cups unsweetened finely shredded dried coconut (divided)
1 cup white chocolate chips or kosher-for-Passover white chocolate chips (divided)
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk (divided) (see note)
2 teaspoons double-strength Madagascar vanilla extract (divided)
1 cup ground almonds (see note)
1/2 teaspoon almond extract (add more if your whole almonds do not have a strong flavor)
Parchment paper

Prepare two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
If using a microwave, melt stuff in medium bowl and add coconut to bowl later, this makes for one less dish to clean afterwards.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
To make regular macaroons: In medium bowl, place 3 cups coconut.  In small saucepan over low heat, gently melt 1/2 of the white chocolate chips. I use a double boiler or microwave.  Add 2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk and stir, removing from burner.  Add 1 teaspoon of the vanilla and stir.  Add to coconut and mix well.  Drop a well-rounded teaspoon of the mixture onto the parchment, using a second spoon to push the mixture off the first spoon.  No need to leave a lot of space between cookies; they do not spread.  With wet fingers, pat down the tops a little so they don't get too brown.  Or, use a small cookie scoop of 2 teaspoons.  Bake in preheated oven 9 minutes or until very lightly browned.

To make almond macaroons: In same bowl, place remaining 2 cups coconut and mix with ground almonds.  In small saucepan over low heat, gently melt remaining 1/2 cup white chocolate chips.  This can be the same small saucepan. I use a double boiler or microwave.  Add remaining 2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk and stir, removing from burner.  Ad remaining 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and the almond extract.  Stir.  Add to coconut/almond mix and stir well.  Drop dough as before onto parchment-lined cookie sheet.  Bake as before.  I prepare both batches, preheating the oven before the second batch, and bake both at once.
Each flavor of macaroons makes 3 to 4 dozen cookies.

Note: This is a dairy recipe.
Note: Process 1 cup whole skin-on almonds in food processor with metal blade until very fine, but not to a butter consistency.