Monday, July 16, 2007

Hail The Size Of...


...TENNIS BALLS!!! That's right. A storm blew in tonight and we could watch as the hail came towards us from the north. The hail was huge and bouncing like tennis balls on the grass. I have never in my life seen anything like it. I was a little worried about the kids' cars that have no garage to take refuge in, but there was only a small dent on Kirstin's car. 'Character' she calls it!!
After the storm, we collected these two hail balls to put in the freezer!


Today has been a special day, in that it is Kirstin's birthday. For one of her presents, she wanted a copy of the cookbook I am working on. (It's been a SLOW process!) It's basically copies of all of our 'Tried and True' recipes, put in a big binder in top loading sheet protectors. So far, I have about 145 recipes in there with 50 or so more I still need to type and format. (There's always dozens of other things I rather be doing, however, like knitting!!) (And yes, those are M&M's on the cover!!)


For her birthday dinner, Kirstin requested Roly Polies. I love when the kids request these, because it's one of the meals that Steve makes. I can honestly say I have never made them. (I do this on purpose!) I thought I would share the recipe, although I have to tell you they are tricky!! (At least that is what I am told!!!) (Larger batch size in parenthesis)

Roly-Polies




2 (3) eggs
3 1/3 (5) cups milk
2 (3) cups flour
1/8 (1/4) tsp. salt
1/4 & 1/8 (1/2) tsp. baking powder







1. Mix eggs with milk, then mix in other ingredients.

2. Heat pan, (use a well-seasoned cast iron pan) but not so much that it smokes.

3. Melt a little dab of Crisco on pan.




4. Ladle about 1/4 cup batter onto pan and spread out fairly quickly with large spoon.







5. Cook until the edges just start to appear dry. (Steve says this is a crucial step!)












6. Turn roly polie over with a long narrow spatula and cook a few more minutes.











7. Prepare like regular pancakes with butter and syrup . Or roll up with sugar. (My favorite!)

8 If you can, make batter the day ahead..they cook better.

8. Batter freezes well.










(Birthday girl likes to unwrap hers and eat it by the strip. Sigh.)






















On the knitting front, I finished another pair of socks. They also have 'character'. Hopefully no one will look too closely. They'll be perfect to wear with blue jeans this fall!





















While I was in limbo deciding what socks to cast on next, I pulled out my little kit I got from Sheri to make a little mini sock. It turned out so cute! I ended up just making a miniature of the Fluted Bannister sock, since I had that pattern memorized! It's about the cutest little thing I ever saw. I need to buy a Sock Blocker Key chain so I can hang it from my knitting bag!


















Sumo offered to model my little sock, just to show you how little it is. (Of course, Sumo does have big paws!!)



Well, I am off to cast on another pair of socks. I think I will use some yarn given me by the gals from Cider Moon after we met them at the TNNA convention. I'll keep you posted on my progress. Oh, and is any one going to the Midwest Fiber and Folk Art Fair in Illinois this weekend? It looks like a blast. Still trying to work on how to get over there....


Until Next Time....

8 comments:

Sheri at The Loopy Ewe said...

Holy canolli. You all grow your hailstones BIG in Iowa! (And Sumo did a great job modeling the little sock, which turned out very cute, by the way!)

Happy birthday, Kirstin! :-)

Anonymous said...

That is some serious hail!! I hope it didn't cause much damage.

Happy birthday Kirstin! Ken makes the crepes at our house too.

AR said...

Yikes! Those babies are huge! I hope there was no damage.

Happy Birthday to Kirstin!

monica said...

Wow, that is some humongous hail. Happy Bithday to Kristen. We fill our roly polies with a mixture of cottage cheese and fresh strawberry jelly, my kids love them, They are good sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon too. Great looking socks.

Karen said...

Thankfully, I've never experienced hail that big! You are so fortunate that the cars weren't damaged more. We got a bad hail storm here a few years ago and it trashed our cars and required we re-roof the house, and those suckers were small compared to Iowa hail!

My mom always made "roll-up" pancakes for us when we were growing up. We usually spread jelly on ours or butter with syrup. Yum! I haven't had them in many years and you've made me hungry for them! We also love Dutch Babies...they are sort of like a ginormous popover. The recipe is on my site. They are yumm-o (said with that Rachel Ray emthusiasm)!

Robin said...

Those socks are amazing. I love socks that don't match up just right. Once again those design features. What yarn did you use for those???? I would love to go to Illinois too but it just isn't going to happen for me but I hope you get to go.

marit said...

Well, they say everything is big in America...that goes for hail too, apparently....
BTW-I made your rhubarb cake the other day, and it was DELICIOUS!!!
Happy birthday-belated-to Kirstin:-)

Deborah said...

when hail comes in that big, I'll be bracing for locusts and the plague! YITES