I've been meaning to make this recipe - from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything - for a looooong time. I tried once earlier this month, but our old house is too drafty and it didn't rise properly (read: at all). So last night I put the oven on "warm" for a few minutes, then turned it off before putting the dough in overnight. That did the trick. And, WOW, is this tasty.

I've been meaning to start this project for a while - it's a stash-busting crocheted blanket/throw. The gray hex is going to be the middle, with other hexes arrayed around it. In my knitting fervor of the last year - I taught myself just about this time last year - I'd totally put crocheting aside. It feels a little funny to go back to it now, but I'm looking forward to doing this blanket and getting all those pesky yarn ends used up.

I'm so bummed to have fallen so far behind in TAD, but it is what it is. I made these cookies over the past couple days - my daughter and I made the dough together, then chilled it overnight. Yesterday I baked half the batch. They were all gone by mid-day today - these cookies are AWESOME. Baked the rest of the batch today and promptly froze them... well, most of them.

My daughter has a series of baby dolls named after the clothing they came with: Pink Baby, Purple Baby and Blue Baby. Last weekend, Pink Baby went grocery shopping with us, but could not come along when we walked the dog on the beach, because it was too cold. "My babies need coats," she said. And so I immediately started thinking about how I could make coats for them.

Last year, I gingerly cut up a wool/acrylic sweater my grandmother had made for my grandfather to make a pillow for my mother (their daughter). I kept the remnants, thinking there must be some way I could use them.

You can see where this is going, right?

This evening, we decided that I would make capes - no sleeves! - for Pink and Purple babies (Blue Baby does not need one, apparently), and that the trim on each cape would match their name. I started Pink Baby's cape first, but quickly put it aside when I realized that it wouldn't photograph well. Purple Baby's cape is 100% done, with only materials we had on hand. (Thus the blue button... I went for size - the better for three-and-a-half-year-old dexterity - rather than color.) It's not as "finished" looking as I would like, but I think it's pretty decent for a completely off-the-cuff project with no forethought whatsoever.

Also, pictures of dolls are automatically creepy. I apologize in advance if they freak you out.

Made from this recipe, which turned out beautifully. My only caveat: When the recipe calls for a 10-inch round baking pan, do not assume you can simply fill an eight-inch round pan to the tippy top without having your house smell like acrid gingerbread for hours afterward.

Whoops. TAD has gotten tough for me in the last several days. I haven't had time to be really intentional about making things, which is something I hope to return to this week. We'll see, though - preschool is closed all week for February break, and I need to get some work done in additional to hanging out with the girl.

In any case, while I didn't have time to make anything outside of my usual routine, I decided to capture some of the parts of that routine as my "things" for the weekend:

#12: Homemade chicken stock. I use tons of chicken stock, so we often end up using the boxed stuff from the store. But I *love* having homemade stock on hand. It's the perfect project for a work-at-home writer like myself - I can put it on the stove in the morning, get it going while I'm fixing my coffee and then ignore it for a few hours.

#13: Weekly meal plan & grocery shopping list. I alternately love and hate these tasks. We're on budgetary lockdown here these days, so I tried to make use of our freezer & fridge contents. That little challenge actually made the menu planning more interesting, and for once grocery shopping with my little "helper" was a breeze -- we did a week's shopping in 25 minutes with (gasp) no snacks!

#14: Sunday dinner: Spicy soup with turkey-zucchini meatballs and fried tortilla strips. Wow, was this ever good. Highly recommended. (I also love the blog on which it's featured.)

This week is slowly wearing me down. So, in an idea blatantly stolen from a TADer who posted yesterday (and whose name I failed to record), I present today's guest TADer, my goofy child. For once she actually spent more time painting than we did cleaning up, so I suppose that's progress. Here's hoping days to come bring me some renewed energy, inspiration and time!

Work is crazy, the house is a mess, my schedule is overloaded... so clearly I should make homemade hamburger buns for dinner, right?

They're actually really easy to make with the breadmaker. And they look impressive, no?

I spent the morning at the doctor - nothing serious, just a fasting blood sugar test that made me woozy for a while - and  decided to take the afternoon off. This is rare for me; I've been something of a workaholic for much of my life. And make no mistake - I've got an agenda for the remaining 50 minutes until I have to pick up my daughter from preschool (cut chicken into 8 pieces; walk the dog if there's time). But I was able to use the empty dining room table -- and the QUIET time! -- to sort the fabric pieces I finished cutting late last week. So, voila! A color wheel quilt. Now just to sew it. And buy the white fabric for the rest of the quilt. And cut that, and sew it. And back it and baste it and bind it.

But, for today, I'm excited to see the pieces all laid out.

Another knitted Thing... I started this yesterday just before the Super Bowl and finished it today while on my Monday morning conference call. (I'd have finished it yesterday if I hadn't decided to wash dishes rather than watch Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend hobble through the halftime show.)