Category Archives: kitchen

fruit cup.

Posted on by
8

Fruit for breakfast, in all forms. Soon the strawberry rows will be open for u-picking at the farm I belong to, and I can’t wait.

The professor I TAed for this spring invited me to join his neighborhood coed over 30 soccer team, and yesterday was our first match. (Nope, I’m not quite 30, but apparently being a woman trumps being old enough, and my “extreme youth” is not a problem.) Let me just say that I didn’t FEEL any younger than anybody else on the field yesterday! Despite today’s aches, I had a lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to my weekly summer soccer game — something I haven’t done since I was a little girl.

I’ve made progress on legwarmer numero dos, thanks to a laid-back un-birthday bbq for a knitterly friend on Saturday night, and a This American Life listening gathering, complete with beer and dessert, last night.

And now, some Boh to help with Monday morning. I did not do this to him, but once it was done, I couldn’t help but take a picture. Poor Boh. Life is so hard sometimes. Time for more coffee and a little bit of knitting before I start today’s reading.  Hope your week is off to a good start!

half-calf.

Posted on by
13

I crack myself up. And yes, my coffee is fully caffeinated this morning (and every morning). More pictures of legwarmer numero uno? Why, of course!

I have not yet mastered the art of photographing my own legs. Clearly. I bound off very loosely, and I’m thinking that when I block these, I’ll tug a bit to get the ribbing a tad more snug. Otherwise, I’m thrilled with the length, the shaping, and the stripes! I’ll post my cast on/increase numbers when I finish numero dos.

After a very productive lunch date (and delicious sushi), a grad-student friend and I wandered over to a little antique shop downtown. Not only did I score a sweet, ruffly, polyester shirt in this adorable red print, but I also found these pins, which I intend to use to secure the many shawls I am going to knit this summer and beyond. Aren’t they gorgeous?

Also, this excursion solved a lingering dilemma. Remember my shalom button problem? (You know, four button-holes, three buttons, only two of which match each other?) Check out these glittery big red buttons. I’m planning to sew these onto shalom this afternoon, and send those orange buttons back to the jar. Hooray!

Happy Friday, folks! Hope your weekend is filled with sunshine and knitting.

Oh, and popcorn, popped on the stove. Definitely popcorn.

the future is bright.

Posted on by
8

At least, that’s what my dear friend P. said last Friday night when she looked at that tray o’ dumplings and slipped on her shades. It has been a week of visitors — meaning lots of extra puppy love for Boh. See?

P. made a quick stop-over on a cross-country drive, and then D. pressed pause on his whirlwind of round-the-globe travel/work to spend a few days in my smaller-town life. We also made dumplings (an homage to the vast number of dumplings we used to routinely inhale when we were roommates on the other side of the world), curled up with the dog — and made blueberry pancakes.

It is just us again. Here is Boh’s response:

I think he misses our house guests.

Today I did lots of laundry and end-of-the-semester apartment cleaning. The books keep multiplying, and while I foresee adding another bookshelf in the very near future, I decided to spend some time making more room on my existing shelves. (This is clearly code for further compressing my stash into my yarn containers to shift the ratio of yarn: books on my shelves…) Also, I finally sat down and plied up that gorgeous targhee from Hello Yarn in the Parritch colorway.

This may be a bit overplied. I am giving it a nice warm soak right now, and I’m hoping it will relax into a squishy 3-ply.

I even have some knitting to share! This is my citron shawl. The first few sections have gone quite quickly, though I realize I’m going to slow way down as my stitch count continues to increase. I am having a great time with this project — it requires just the right amount of attention, and the Classic Elite Silky Alpaca Lace is lovely.

Happy weekend!

classic.

Posted on by
7

This is my dad’s caesar salad — a staple of my childhood, and an oft asked for part of my repertoire. (All credit to Dad — I’ve never had a better caesar salad. Ever.) We had dinner at the home of friends on Wednesday, and the salad was requested. I had quite a bit of romaine leftover, and this afternoon, after submitting my grades (see what I did there?) I mixed up another big bowl all for me. It was the perfect way to celebrate the end of the semester. (Shout out to brokeknits — this salad on a teal sidetable is, of course, a nod to your signature photo-style.)

Please allow me an awkward transition as we move from a classic caesar to Classic Elite. See, I’ve got this gorgeous purpley laceweight, and I’m kinda sorta thinking it would be perfect with this dress, even though there isn’t exactly purple in the print. What do you think? Am I nuts? I feel like there might be the slightest hint of purple in the transitions from pink to grey, but mostly I’m thinking that this looks nice against the pale pink and the coral. More advice, please!

Also, here’s Boh, post-walk.

And while he napped, I spun the third bobbin of this luscious Hello Yarn targhee in Parritch.  Can’t wait to ply.  Happy Friday!

pancakes/eggers.

Posted on by
5

A lazy Saturday brunch.

This evening’s activities: prepping for my final sections, snuggling with Boh.

Boh responds unfavorably to my attempts at photo composition.

I’m itching to spend some time with my knitting needles and my wheel. A few more days filled to bursting with meetings and final class sessions, and then I’ll have big enough chunks of time to warrant focusing on my end-of-semester writing, which will likely require some dedicated time for thinking (read: knitting/spinning).

baked chicken meatballs.

Posted on by
5

Still grading, still writing, still scrambling to figure out some kind of balance. Meatballs help. Especially these meatballs. The recipe has been waiting patiently in my binder o’ things to try, and I rediscovered it during a procrastinatory (yep, I’m making up words) purge of the recipe pile a few weeks ago. Enter a meat-eating boy. How could I not make these for dinner? Surprisingly quick, incredibly delicious, and perfect with a spring salad of romaine, radishes, carrots, cherry tomatoes and goat cheese.

No knitting — but I’ve done a (very) little bit of writing. If only the 100 words I’ve written here could somehow count towards the 1000 I need to turn in tomorrow…

Hope the sun is shining where you are. Here, it has made all the difference.

flowers and a wurm.

Posted on by
7

And pancakes. For dinner.

I managed to knit a few rows on my wurm hat while at a lecture on Springsteen on Monday afternoon. I realize it doesn’t look like I’ve made any progress, but it felt good to have this project in my hands again. I could listen to Thunder Road over and over (oh wait, I do), and my week is certainly better than it would have been because I was able to listen to Bruce, blaring loud, in a rather stuffy lecture hall. (Roy Orbison’s singin’ for the lonely/hey that’s me and I want you only.)

And then I filled my apartment with flowers, which is an important step in grading a huge stack of papers. Clearly.

ripped jeans.

Posted on by
9

I inherited these awesome ripped jeans several years ago from my dear friend champ, and changing out of skinny-conference-paper-giving-jeans into cozy sigh-with-relief-and-curl-up-with-boh jeans was exactly what I needed yesterday afternoon. (I know I tucked that into a ridiculous string of hyphenated words, but I gave my first conference paper yesterday, and I’m happy with how it went. Hooray!)

Also, I’ve done those dishes. Thanks, everyone, for your sweet responses to the giddiness of my last post. (I’m still grinning about all of that.)

Tonight, I made (and then ate too much) mushroom pizza. I also made some progress on my teal shalom. A few more inches, and I will be good to go.

I am still thrilled with the accidentally perfect sizing, and I’m pretty sure this is only going to require three skeins of Cascade 220. We’re getting into the crazy part of the semester — I’m expecting a huge pile of papers to grade tomorrow, and it is time for me to really get a move on with the writing I need to turn in next month, so my posting might be a bit erratic, but I’ll try not to disappear entirely. Spending time in this space makes me happy.

daffodils and dancing.

Posted on by
4

My yard’s first daffodil. I woke up early yesterday and got a fair bit of work done, as well as some plying and Easter baking.

I had to request consultations with my dough advisory council (my dad and my friend K.) when my Slovenian Easter buns took forever to rise, but I think everything that was supposed to happen occurred, and the result is delicious.

I also made an enormous Caesar salad (above), and then dished myself a 2-quart mixing bowl-sized serving. Yum. And that would have made for a pretty good day.

But then I did something rather uncharacteristic: I went dancing. Something about the arrival of spring gave me a burst of energy last night, and I stayed out way past my bedtime. And had fun. And consequently, I’m having a tough time motivating myself to do anything of (academic) import today.

But I’ve got daffodils, and the sun is shining.

pizza/plying.

Posted on by
5

More playing in the kitchen this weekend: homemade pizza and these double chocolate muffins, with walnuts and almond extract subbed for the butterscotch chips and vanilla.

Also, some spinning. This is Southern Cross Fibre merino in Bluestone — my first club shipment! It arrived on Thursday, and by Friday afternoon it was on my wheel. I spun all 4 oz. as singles, and this morning, sat down to navajo ply the whole lot.

My Bluestone is taking a bath right now, and soon it will be hanging to dry in the kitchen. On the list for today? Reading and knitting on Shalom:

Shalom matches the book I intend to finish today! Happy Saturday, folks.