Category Archives: kitchen

eggs.

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Somehow I managed to use up all of the week’s eggs in a 24-hour period without even realizing it. You see, I made bread pudding (far above, and from Mark Bittman’s big yellow book) in order to put my moving-towards-stale homemade bread to good use. Yesterday’s frittata (recipe here) was absolutely necessary, as I needed to procrastinate AND I had some summer squash begging to be released from the veggie drawer.

Despite all of the reading I’m doing, I have been allowing myself some knitting breaks to clear my head, or, as in the case of this morning, give the coffee a little bit of time to work its magic.

I absolutely love the striping. Yesterday, I began the heel of #1, and I am excited to see how the colors arrange themselves in this part of the sock. (I’m just using the basic fingering weight sock recipe in Ann Budd’s Getting Started Knitting Socks, which I highly recommend.)

Also, it feels like fall here. Hooray for handknits!

another jellyfish.

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My third pinwheel is growing…which is a good thing, as it needs to be finished for a wedding I am attending in a few weeks. The rest of my knitting doesn’t look much different from my last posts, so I’ll spare you from trying to figure out if I knit 5 st or 25 st on my other WIPs. I do have some productivity from my kitchen to share:

You’re looking at a soothing, spicy soup that did exactly what I needed it to on Tuesday: address my drippy nose, and transport me to somewhere else. I will certainly be making this again. (If you haven’t checked out Heidi’s recipe blog over at 101 cookbooks, what are you waiting for? That lemony stirfry on the front page is on my list this week.)

Also, a loaf of banana bread. I tend to poke my bananas every day or so to see if they are ready to be turned into bread, specifically, Mark Bittman’s version of banana bread. I like the addition of a little bit of coconut — adds texture and depth without being overly sweet. Yum!

This guy is ready for his close up. He wants you all to know that he is trying very hard to be good, but that sometimes life gest really hard. Exhibit A:

I took this picture out one of our windows, without using the zoom. It is almost too much for Boh to bear. Yesterday he may have attempted to jump through the [closed] window — he bumped his nose on the glass and flopped onto the bed, ready to make another go of it.

This week has had more of a rhythm to it, and now that I have a pile of books to read and think about, I have less time to worry about transitioning into an academic life. Looking forward to the week ahead — we’re finally past introductions and syllabi, which means it is time for “real” grad school to start.

Happy weekend!

brought to you by the letter B.

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Brussel sprouts…

Boh asleep on my Bed (note that his head is on the pillow. Silly dog)…

Beret #2. How did that happen?

(no-knead) Bread #4. This time I used bread flour, and Boy is it Beautiful!

I didn’t actually plan for today to be sponsored by the letter B, but it is nice when things turn out that way. Here are the details of my accidentally cast-on and completed star crossed slouchy beret #2:

Yarn/needles: Malabrigo leftovers from Foliage and sassymmetrical, US 11 needles.

Mods: A bunch on this version: On the increase row after the first pattern repeat, I did K3, M1, rather than K2, M1, to make it slightly less slouchy. The second time through, the pattern directs you to do a repeat and a half. I eliminated the half repeat, and began the decreases, knitting the appropriate cable row partway through the decreases. Also, I did some stripey stuff to stretch the Cinnabar color a bit further, and I like how it turned out. Again, the cables and the large needle size make the resulting hat super squishy and soft. It will be easier to put Beret #1 in the mail with this one here for me to enjoy.

Time to slice into that Bread…

weekend.

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My Sunday morning began with some muffin making. I was out rather late with friends from the Southwest last night, and Boh still wanted to wake up at our regular time. If you have to get up earlier than you’d like, the wonderfulness of muffins wafting from the oven certainly helps with the expected crankiness.

I received a box from WEBS this week, containing materials for several pinwheel blankets and a cobblestone sweater for me:

Thus, I cast on for pinwheel blanket wedding gift #3 (Valley Yarn Northampton in Apple):

Also, because I have a need for a portable project for guest lectures, bus rides, etc. (and because I need to work on my goal of knitting more socks/taking advantage of my sweet Yarn Pirate Booty Club membership), I also cast on for a plain stockinette sock using this beautiful superwash BFL in June Bug:

I really like the way the yarn is striping, and these are already moving along quite quickly. Details: I’m using the basic sock formula for fingering weight yarn from Getting Started Knitting Socks, by Ann Budd, and I’m using 2.5 mm (US 2) needles.

I’m off to eat muffins! Have a great weekend.

FO: star crossed slouchy beret

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Ta-da! This was super quick and quite fun to knit. The cables increase the squish factor of the Malabrigo, and while the variegation is a bit busy, I am quite excited to send this westward to its rightful owner. Here’s another shot of the Star Crossed Slouchy Beret, in which the dog demonstrates his usefulness as a table/backdrop:

Using the eyeballing method, this hat took about half a skein of Malabrigo. I may make one for myself out of my sassymetrical leftovers. This is where a scale would come in handy…I’ll keep you posted. In other news, here are some pictures of yesterday’s victories:

Delicious collards from my local farmers’ market, cooked with garlic, ginger and chile.

My very own yarn! (Dog for scale.) I’m not sure if you can get a sense for the thickness of this yarn, but most of this feels like a light worsted or even a heavy dk. I need to get better at spinning the spindle levelly, and at joining new pieces of fiber without getting an ugly blip in my yarn, but I am feeling really good about this. Dividing my roving into more vertical pieces, and doing more pre-drafting to both lengthen the roving strips and separate the fibers from each other made all the difference. I had a lot of fun with this, and am looking forward to practicing a bit more.

I also have a recent yarn acquisition to share, purchased at my new LYS. This is absolutely gorgeous, local, undyed alpaca. I bought two 8 oz 660 yd skeins, and I’m wondering if I could turn this into a drapey Gathered Pullover. What do you think? Other ideas include a luxurious shawl or lacey shrug.

Thanks also for all of your kind words about graduate school and the transition. It feels truly indulgent to be able to set most of my own schedule and focus on reading and writing and thinking. I’m sure my anxiety will begin decreasing once my seminars get past their introductory meetings and I am able to work through the transitional cobwebs by participating.

Alright — off to do a bit more reading, and then some baking, spinning and frolicking with the dog. Happy weekend!

it has begun.

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I am officially a graduate student. I attended my program’s orientation session yesterday, and classes start tomorrow. I don’t exactly know how to describe my feelings at this moment. Several years of work in a range of positions have helped to affirm that I want to become a scholar and a professor, and I am thrilled at the particulars of the opportunity in front of me. That said, I am also incredibly anxious, perhaps beginning to feel the self-doubt that will likely rear its head many times during the next several years as I work to explore the kind of work I wish to do, and the kind of scholar and teacher I will become.

I think quite a bit of this is reasonable at this point: I’ve been out of school, and thus out of situations that require my brain to operate in a critical, academic way, for four years. Many of the people in my program are younger, and thus, while the “life” aspects of graduate school may be newer to them, their brains are likely a bit sharper when it comes to seminar discussions and critical thinking and writing. How do you reclaim that chunk of brain power and work on expanding and refining these abilities? The only answer I can come up with is to just jump in, with an eye towards maintaining a balance in my life that includes cooking, running and knitting (while READING, and this week, attempting to reacquire enough language skills from college-land to pass a placement test…)

So, pie = balance. The pie above, by the way, is fresh peach and strawberry, with a dusting of a crumb topping. Yum!

Also, while the BSJ patiently waits for buttons (and seaming), I’ve cast on for something new:

It’s the Star Crossed Slouchy Beret, and it is moving quickly. I’m using Malabrigo in Verdes, and while I worried that the variegation would be too busy for the cabled pattern, I’m liking it so far. This is heading back West, to a dear friend who requested a green hat. I am excited to get this in the mail, as I’m sure the mornings are already turning cold in the mountains.

I’ve also begun making some lists for holiday knitting — more on that soon.

jam-ming?

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Yesterday, while in the grocery store oohing and ahhhing over the strawberries, I decided to make jam. I love those little Ball jars, and they were on sale. Done and done. Once I arrived at this point (see photo) — the “bubbling mass”, as The Joy calls it, I reached a bit of a conundrum. The recipe directs you to set a timer and leave the berries alone until the beep. Then, you are to tip the pot so you can see the bottom to determine whether the liquid on the bottom is demonstrating a “tendency to set”. I ended up allowing my bubbling mass to simmer for double the allotted time, after which I think I talked myself into the presence of said “tendency”. It seemed awfully runny when I spooned the mixture into jars, but a few hours later, after a full cooling and some refrigeration, it seems that I have jam (even if it is not quite as sticky as I’d like). I made some more bandwagon bread to serve as a delivery system.

Time for a bit of knitting content — my BSJ is off the needles, and is patiently awaiting seams and buttons. I love the colors in this sweater, and I think it will be absolutely perfect for a fall baby. I seem to know several folks expecting an arrival this fall, so it is quite possible that there will be a few more of these adorable sweaters in my knitting future.

Also, it appears that you guys like pork! I had more visits to my blog yesterday than ever before — and there wasn’t any knitting content to be found. I’m glad you’re here.

who, me? wagon?

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Yep, that’s right. Years later, I’m finally baking that no-knead bread everyone made such a big deal over. I always intended to make it, but never seemed to have availability when the recipe requires it. You’ve heard it before, I know, but this is awesome. It requires maybe ten minutes of your life over a period of about 20 hours, and the result is this:

Can’t think of a better way to inaugurate my use of the apartment’s oven. Almost done with sassymmetrical!

home?

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It will be. I can tell. Knitting content below, I promise, but first, don’t you want to see some pictures of my new home? I thought so.

I love it. This is the first apartment that I’ve truly had time to plan and move into, instead of simply selling everything I own, moving, and then reacquiring things that will “do” until I find exactly what I want. I am really happy with this space, and I am excited to be in it — this should help with the mountains of reading and writing ahead of me. I’m hoping I’ve found an apartment to make into a home for the next several years. I think Boh and I are off to a good start here.

Now, about that knitting…

I love this sweater. My sassymmetrical is about one repeat shy of being complete in the body, and then there are only a few rows on each arm to finish before I can wear it. The weather here has me longing for this — breezy in the evenings, a bit overcast — perfect for a short sleeved cozy wrap-like sweater to throw on over a t-shirt as I walk the dog through my new neighborhood. Hoping to make some progress this afternoon!

“why is bad taste ubiquitous?”

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That has absolutely nothing to do with any of the knitting I am going to share with you, even though my clapotis looks more like a blob and less like a glamorous french scarf. Worked on (the also ubiquitous) clapotis yesterday while watching Helvetica (which is far more fun and dramatic in a German accent), and one of the font designers may have said this when asked about Helvetica’s popularity. Love it. T-shirts may be necessary. I’m told that preliminary research into whether or not this could be printed in Helvetica has begun.

Anyway, lots of pictures today. I left the house early yesterday in order to do laundry before work — no time for blogging. First off, I roasted some fennel for dinner on Tuesday night. Yum!

Next up? This morning’s sunrise:

Oooh. Pretty.

Now, onward to the knitting progress.

I am moments from the halfway point of my clapotis (which I am making in Brooks Farm Riata, for those keeping score). I’m not sure if I’m going to have enough yarn to knit the pattern as written — If I can get through the 6th repeat of the straight section before switching to the next skein, I’m golden. If I only get through five, I’ll shorten the straight section by a repeat or two. Now that I am dropping stitches in each repeat, the knitting is moving along more quickly — and it is good TV/conversation knitting, except for the SSK and YO in one of the rows — I may have fudged this a few times so as to not rip back, as Riata is fairly sticky and I don’t think the errors are noticeable in the least.

Boh is a bit concerned about dropping stitches, as is evident from this photo:

I’m not sure that there is anything Boh isn’t worried about…