nutella chocolate chip cookies

I was going to make peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, when I realized I didn't really have enough peanut butter. So I made these, kind of making it up as I went along.

1.5 sticks butter (12 tbsps)

1 c brown sugar

1 c white sugar

1 tsp (approx) vanilla

1/2 c (approx) nutella

2 eggs

2 c flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

12 oz chocolate chips

cream first five ingredients until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, blending well after each addition. Mix flour and baking powder, add to sugar/butter/egg mixture and blend. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop by rounded teaspoon onto a cookie tray. Bake at 350F for approx 12 minutes. Cool on tray for a few minutes before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Love.

note: next time, I might cut down the sugar slightly. 2 c of sugar is a LOT of sugar. On the other hand, they spread nicely and were chewy but crunchy all at once...

knitting

I just fell in love with knitting again today.

Sunshine, in the book "The Shipping News", tells her dad, "It's kind of a trick, Dad, because it's just a long, long, fat string and it turns into a scarf."

It's like magic. I love it. It's just a long, long string, and you take two sticks and move it around, and voila! Scarves, lace, sweaters, socks, hats, gloves, mittens. And all from two simple stitches: knit and purl. Everything else is really just variations on a theme.

I like crocheting too, but I can do so much more with knitting (perhaps only because I've spent so much more time knitting).

Today, I started a toe-up sock. I may never knit a sock from the leg down again, mostly because I hate the kitchner stitch. (I don't actually know anyone who likes the kitchner stitch, most people I know just kind of put up with it because sometimes you just don't have a choice. Like at the end of a sock knitted from the leg down.) But knitty has a lovely tutorial on starting toe-up socks, and I really felt like the figure 8 method was magic. No slipknots even!

Anyway. My personal "use up my stash" project has commenced, and I'm starting with socks. I have no idea what to do with the odds and ends of worsted weight yarn. Especially because it's a mix of acrylic, wool, and wool blends. And an odd cotton blend thrown in there. Plus some baby-weight yarn. The hoarder in me won't let me throw anything away, even the scraps I only have a few yards of (you never know when you'll need it! and a few yards of yarn hardly takes up any space at all). Maybe I'll make a totally mis-matched blanket. Somehow, when you throw enough stuff that doesn't match together, it kind of works.