green garlic soup

for the last year I have been on a mission to find a green garlic and potato soup recipe, preferably served chilled, but hot is acceptable too. I have also been on a mission to find green garlic. I have failed miserably on both counts until now. my friend sarah grows garlic, so she pulled one for me on thursday so I could try making soup. they are still really young green garlic, which only means one thing-- I have plenty of time left to get it before it totally matures into regular garlic!
I found this recipe for green garlic soup, so thought it'd be worth a try. I was hesitant about the cheddar and the chicken broth for two reasons:

• when I attempted this earlier in the year (substituting with elephant garlic and using a different recipe), the chicken broth pretty much rendered the soup unedible; I can't really explain it past that, but it sat in our fridge for about a month as I can't bear to throw away food.
  
• the cheddar negates some of the pure garlic cream taste I have been searching for ever since we left sonoma.
  

I was wrong about the chicken broth (yay!), but right about the cheddar (darn.) it is still quite delicious though! and, I always like to follow recipes pretty accurately the first time(okay, so I used my immersion blender instead of transferring half of it and slopping it all over the kitchen on the way to the blender), and make improvements later. I suspect I will try this again soon with more potatoes, a little more cream cheese, and no cheddar.

sock wars zombie shootout

one of the prizes for sock wars goes to the knitter with the most kills. well, this year, there was a tie between two of the competitors, and there was a discussion about how to handle it. the decision was for them to each knit one sock starting at the same time (saturday afternoon) and post a picture when it was finished-- first one posted would be the winner.

well, on friday, the coordinator decided to host an extra contest: anyone, regardless of whether or not they participated in the war this year, could knit alongside these two deadly assassins. the one who posted a picture first would be the winner and proud owner of a skein of cocoa beach yarns' newest 100% cashmere sock yarn.

I loved the idea but didn't really expect to do it; I've got enough knitting to be working on. but then I figured I would see what was going on at the time the pattern was to be posted. I checked for the pattern 15 minutes late, but luck was on my side- they were having difficulty posting it, so no one had started. I figured 'what's to lose?' so I cast on around 4:30 pm yesterday...

at 12:19 this morning I had a completed sock. and I am soon to be the proud owner of 100% cashmere yarn.