I must have acquired a case of the deadly Second Sleeve Syndrome. The last four inches of this sleeve seemed to take weeks, they were like pulling teeth. It took many alternating rounds of caffeine, alcohol and lemon sherbet (not all at the same time) to power though them. I just don't see how the other sleeve is going to get knitted without another long airplane ride someplace. Paris? Rome?
The first section of the sleeve is easy, because you can knit it on circular needles, and after the first three inches you get to do a decrease row, which is exciting. But then, horror of horrors, you have to switch to double-pointed needles for the rest of the way up. That's another 13 inches of rather dull K4 P1 ribbing on 5 pointy little sticks.
But let's put that out of our minds for now, I have a soup recipe for you. This nippy weather has me craving soup, so I made up some black bean soup the other night and it was lovely. It's also very, very easy. Bon apétit!
one-sleeved black bean soup
1 medium-sized onion
1 carrot
4 cloves garlic
2 cans black beans, rinsed & drained
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp dried ancho pepper
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
4 cups water, vegetable stock or chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste
hot sauce to taste
Cut up the onion and carrot and put them into the food processor with the garlic. Chop them very fine. Heat up the oil in a large saucepan, and then stick the processed veggies in there. Saute until the onions are translucent and beginning to turn golden, about 5-6 minutes. Add the cumin and ancho (if you don't have ancho, just use chili powder), and some salt and pepper. Saute another minute or two.
Now add the beans and about half the water/stock to the saucepan. Bring to a boil and then turn down the heat. Let the beans simmer and soften for about 10 minutes.
Use a heat-proof container to scoop out about 2 cups of your nascent soup, dump it into the food processor and puree. Then pour the puree back into the saucepan. Add the rest of the water/stock and stir well. You will have a nice, smooth soup with some chunky whole beans in it. If you like the whole thing smooth, then puree the whole mess before you add the rest of the water/stock to the pan.
Simmer your soup for as long as you can stand it (try to get 15 minutes in there at least), then shake in some hot sauce and eat dinner. This soup is great with a dollop of sour cream on top, served with salad and crusty bread. But it's also perfectly nice all by itself.
I'm suffering something awful up here in NY over some of my own sleeves. One's shorter than the other -- ok, so that one can be fixed -- but the other problem, that one is *wider* than the other despite being the same number of stitches, will require much frogging. And I hate sleeves enough to prefer un-matched sleeves to frogging.
ReplyDeleteI've ripped Pullover Flair and plan to recast on for it in the round this weekend. I think I might actually work on it if I don't have to purl as much. Fingers crossed!
ReplyDeleteummmm ... soup. sleeve soup !
ReplyDeletefood is my co-pilot, hee hee hee! My mouth totaly watered when I read lemon sherbert! Drool! Then I got to the soup, and now I must go fetch a snack! And hey, at least you are patient enough to knit a sweater, which is more than I can say!
ReplyDeletethe soup sounds wonderful! so good for february.
ReplyDeleteand you are a stronger woman than i am... i would put my eye out with a dpn about halfway down. have you tried the magic loop? i fell in love with it the first time i tried it and now it's the only way i do socks, sleeves, other wee round things... somehow it feels so much faster (and there isn't the danger of sitting on the dpn, which i have done quite often).
oh my god. why am i not using the magic loop??!!!??
ReplyDeleteEven better than magic loop; do both sleeves at the same time on a long circ (using ML); that way they match, and when you are done, YOU ARE DONE with the sleeves!!
ReplyDelete(of course, it takes twice as long to make progress...)