It was a pleasant minus fifteen degrees and slightly overcast. I also got caught up to date with Coronation Street ...
... and did a little quilting.
Aside from that, I spent the rest of the day in the kitchen. I cleaned out the fridge ... which, for the record, I seriously hate doing way more than any other yukky household chore! ... and simmered up a giant pot of soup stock from the turkey carcass (which I had put in the freezer the morning after the Big Day) and assorted wilted / accumulated / leftover vegetables.
I think I forgot the vanilla. Oh well!
Second, add 4 cups of flour.
I used Whole Wheat bread machine flour because that's what I had. Usually, I use Unbleached flour, so I don't think this is a "fussy" recipe.
Third, add 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon.
I didn't have any nutmeg, so I added a pinch of allspice. I'm very versatile, me! (However, I was seriously having a difficult time measuring and posing and taking photos all at the same time today! Some days I'm ambidextrous, and some days not so much.)
Fourth, add 2 (generous) Tablespoons butter.
This is also one of those occasions in life when margarine just won't do. Okay, I admit it ... in my world, there is NEVER an occasion when margarine is suitable ... I seriously hate the stuff! The Creator did not say "thou shalt consume whipped plastic" instead of Divine Real Cream and Butter!
Fifth, add 1/3 cup dark brown sugar.
Hmm. That cane sugar looks a tad pale. No problemo ... I added a tablespoon of molasses ...
... to darken it up! Sweet taters and molasses ... sounds like a logical combo, don`tcha know!
Sixth, toss in one and a half teaspoons salt
followed by 2 teaspoons bread machine yeast.
Seventh, put the bowl into the machine, and set it for REGULAR (or basic) and light crust ...
... then close the lid and let your bread machine do its magic!
If your sweet potato is a little on the dry side (smaller ones sometimes are), you might need to add a few more tablespoons of water or cream so that it all mixes up into a smooth dough. I didn`t have to add more liquid ...
... I had baked a gigantic sweet tater in its own skin, and it was moist enough.
About 3 hours later, you should have a Heavenly loaf of finished Sweet Potato Bread:
This loaf raised so well, it hit the bread machine lid before it finished baking! I LOVE this stuff toasted and spread with butter (of course) and some tart blackberry jam ... PURE BLISS I tell you! Not too darned shabby toasted with bacon and fresh tomatoes either ...
Since I had a bit of mashed sweet potato left, I also made Sweet Potato Biscuits:
My biscuit recipe makes about 10 large biscuits.
I suspect you`re wondering WHO is going to eat all this baking, considering I live by myself. The answer is simple: ME! But not all at once! I freeze things in small batches ...
... like two sweet potato biscuits separated by a square of parchment paper ... or loaves already sliced so I can take out a me-sized portion when I want it. Otherwise, half the biscuits or half the loaf of bread would get stale before I managed to eat them all. I'm very versatile, me!
Cheers!
I don't recall the name of the book it came from, but it had something to do with antiquated stitchery patterns. If memory serves me correctly, I was researching Assissi stitchery, or voided work when I found that little goodie. I don't even remember if the original picture was black and white ... which is too bad because there is no colour chart to go with the symbols. I have 
I'm using linen-coloured Aida cloth, 14 count. I wasn't sure I'd like the birds in black. I don't like crows. Nasty evil creatures. I've had a strong dislike of crows since I witnessed them picking the eyes out of a newborn lamb back when I was a little girl. And don't even get me started about that nasty crow in my previous neighbourhood! I can handle crow swearing ... I just cuss them back ... but that bad bugger kept dive-bombing me and knocking my glasses off! Anyway, these birds look more like chickens or peacocks or something, and I quite like them stitched in black. I'm picturing the finished product on an end table. So what do you think?
... online (I don't own a television). But "lite" Internet service is 
It's called an UMBRELLA YARN SWIFT 'cuz it works something like an umbrella. More on that in a moment. A yarn swift comes in very handy when knitting with wool that comes in skeins like this:
REAL wool often comes this way. Skeins like this are NOT ready to knit from. Synthetic yarns tend to come in tidy little balls and all you have to do is find one end and start knitting. As y'all know, I prefer working with natural fibres, as in real sheep's wool. When you try to find one end of the wool in one of these skeins, you will end up with this ...
... a giant apparently endless circle of wool. In the OLD DAYS, knitters had to find family members, partners, and friends to "volunteer" to hold the circle of wool while you wind it into a ball, like this patient young lad:
Eventually, family members, partners and even very good friends learn to RUN AWAY when they spot UNWOUND SKEINS of wool on the horizon. When that happens, the knitter either has to clone themselves and have their clone hold the circle of wool, or use a yarn swift. I haven't mastered cloning me (and believe me, there are days when I could REALLY use a cloned me!), so I carefully untie the knots holding my wool in this circle ...
Then I tighten the ribs ...
... just like popping open an umbrella. A quick twist of this knob ensures my swift stays open and the circle of wool is held taut, like so:
Then I wind one end of the wool around my fingers ...
... and keep on winding ...
... and winding. The "umbrella" twirls as I wind.
It helps to put on some good music, or catch up on Coronation Street for the week while you wind. 
Eventually, you end up with a nice tidy compact ball of wool, all ready for knitting. Coronation Street was particularly good, and I was really ON A ROLL 
They're for my gurnsey cardigan. 
After Corrie, I decided to make fruit bread. I wanted something different from the usual "seeds and sticks" whole grain bread I make for myself. I don't make fruit bread very often as I don't always have the necessary ingredients ... I like it with golden raisins, almonds and candied peel. However, I must have been thinking ahead the last time I did a big grocery shop as I opened my pantry doors, and ... voila! ... all the necessary things. As I don't make fruit bread very often, I referred to my favourite fruit bread recipe. All those fruity goodies are expensive, so you don't want to take chances on goof ups. Or so I reasoned.
... it didn't. This pathetic lump should be four times that high. I haven't had a bread disaster in YEARS, and have no idea what I did wrong. Any suggestions to use up this heavy lump of baked sweet dough???
This particular chore usually DOES involve disaster. "Tackle" is a leaper, and if I don't keep a very close eye on him, he leaps out of the open tank ... or net ... or hand ... or bucket ... and goes carpet diving! I can't begin to tell you how many times I've had to chase him across the carpet, then rush him to the sink to rinse the dog hairs off him before putting him back in the water. For all that, he is still healthy and HUGE.
He's spending the night in a big bucket with an aerator ... and a lid on top ... while his tank circulates fresh water for 24 hours. He is not a happy camper. He's so big ... longer than my hand, finger tips to wrist ... that there isn't much room to play in the bucket. He'll be unsociable for a couple of days after I put him back in his clean tank. Who says fish can't pout!
It's a lovely hand-made wood burl clock. I bought it at a silent auction last summer because I loved the wood. I didn't really need the clock, but I'm a carpenter's daughter, and I appreciate fine wood and skilled wood work and finishing. As soon as I got the darned thing home, however, I regretted spending my money on it because it DIDN'T WORK. I went and bought a fresh set of batteries, and it still didn't work. Dead as dead can be. Not one tick, not one tock. I thought about replacing the clock works, but never got around to going all the ways across town to the Michael's craft store ... a two-bus expedition from home.