Happy Valentine's Day

Well, I know it has been a little while, but as alsways Mrs Hammer is busy busy busy.
Basically working and sleeping. I have been really busy here at work and putting in long hours at Circles. I hope that it all chills out a little. I need some time to myself. The only night that I have at home this week is also the night of a wake for the mother of one of my co workers. Not only have I worked with this woman for twenty one years, I have met her mother, Josephine, who lived to 92 and was a wonderful cook. She used to send me meatballs and gravy (sauce for you non- Bostonians). She was a wonderful Italian cook.
But that was a night I had planned to make a dinner of roast chcken and creamed spinach and rice pilaf, yum.
I also made a great soup this week. I, like many people, have the best of intentions for the bags and bags of baby carrots I pick up. Well some how they don't get eaten as the low calorie snack for which they were intented. So I decided to roast a handful of the carrots with a potato peeled and cut the same size, two thick slices of onion and 2 celery stalks and 2 cloves of garlic (Drizzled w/ olive oil and coarse salt). After roasting for an hour, I braised them in 16 oz of stock for about forty five minutes and then put every thing in a blender with 3/4 of a cup of 1% milk until smooth. It was wonderful, my hubby was licking the bowl.

I did meet up with Team Boston at Doyles last Friday and it was great fun. I started the sweater for the piglet. I didn't have the pattern and here is my progress. Pitiful, huh.