Tag Archives: kitchen

we live here.

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Boh and I enjoyed a gorgeous sunset from the porch last night. Those of you who have been long time readers may remember the pictures I used to take from my front door when I lived in the southwest. I have a feeling you’ll be seeing lots of pictures from my porch.

We live here. (In the, whoa, it looks like we live here, sense.) I have begun to make messes in my new kitchen.

Behold the yarn and fiber closet. I know it has been far too long since I posted about knitting and spinning — first it was the exams, then the move, then the research trip. All that is over now. I spent yesterday afternoon trying to unpack my fiber, which basically meant that I had to go to the store to acquire tools for closet organization. I’m so thrilled with these hanging racks for my yarn and fiber. Stay tuned for a picture of the “book” case (read: yarn case) in my bedroom. And, of course, actual knitting!

first lake house pancakes.

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The occasion? A pretty lady came to visit and brought maple cream. We spread that on these raspberry pancakes (raspberries I picked at the farm in September), added some plain yogurt, and ate them on the porch.

Boh was very happy to see P. He particularly loves snuggling with her — something he’ll miss once she’s on the west coast. (We were her first stop on her westward journey.) Speaking of journeying, I’m currently visiting college friends (and their very sweet children) while doing some research in an archive that just happens to be where they live. Boh is hosting Ethel Louise at the lake house. More soon!

signs of spring?

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The first Caesar salad of the season. (My dad’s recipe. Also, further evidence that Boh is my dog. He LOVES the smell of garlic. He kept licking his lips and leaning on me while I inhaled this enormous bowl of salad. So silly.)

First daffodils in the yard.

Shorts! (Only for a few hours, on an unseasonably warm Monday night.)

And then a few days of rain. And reading. Both of which create the ideal conditions for Boh to make this wrinkly face. (And, let’s face it, for me to want to knit instead of work. I’m on my final stripe of the shawl. Pictures soon!)

cookbook annotations.

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Have we talked about this? I write in my cookbooks: dates, love notes to myself, substitutions, impressions. This does not strike me as odd — I write in all of my books — but I will say this: my cookbook annotations might make me happier than all my other marginalia combined. I like to flip through them and think back to the meal, the evening, heck, even the kitchen in which I last prepared a particular recipe. You can see my notes on Heidi Swanson’s Sun Toast in the picture. Here’s the toast:

I made it again today, and snapped a cast iron pan picture:

So simple, and seriously delicious. I may rub garlic on all future toast.

Somebody is excited for spring. (And so am I!) It is getting harder and harder to stay inside and read, grade, and write. A few more weeks of this pace. Just a few.

mail day.

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You know what else (besides turning in exam #2) made Thursday a great day? It was a great mail day. Which reminds me of the excitement surrounding the mail — sent ahead, general delivery, to post offices in small towns we’d be riding through every ten days or so — on a cross-country bike trip I participated in nine (whoa!) years ago. The joke was that “mail” day was actually “male” day, a celebration of all things male. There was a long (tongue-in-cheek) list of the kinds of things that were acceptable on male days (I’m pretty sure trampolines were on the list). I hadn’t thought about that in years, but typing out “mail day” brought it back and made me laugh, almost a decade later.

Anyway, I had ordered — and then forgotten about — Heidi Swanson’s latest cookbook, Super Natural Every Day. I intend to cook out of this ALL SUMMER, and I have big dreams of modeling my lake house kitchen on much of what Heidi describes about her pantry, kitchen tools, and emphasis on a range of grains and better-for-me flours. I know I’m only moving across town, but I am trying to use up extras hiding in my kitchen cabinets before the end of May. This book is beautiful and incredibly practical. I want to eat everything in it.

This guy got his own “male” day of sorts yesterday. Instead of working last night, I cleaned out a kitchen cupboard, and found a bone I’d been saving (and then totally forgot about) for Boh. He watched it intently (pictured here), tossed it around a bit, and then ran away from it/came back to it several times before settling down to eat it. Male day, indeed.

I really need to get back into reading (and grading) mode this week in order to feel ready for my third exam, which starts a week from Monday. Here’s hoping for a productive day!

(re)starter.

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I have been meaning to post about my birthday present from Ethel Louise (welcome to blogland!) for about six weeks now. (You know, because my birthday was six weeks ago.) Ethel is a fantastic baker, and she gifted me my very own sourdough starter, complete with bread-baking instructions. I was going to wait until I actually baked bread to share this, but let’s face it — that might not happen until after the exams are over. I ignored all non-writing responsibilities last week, and then panicked about forgetting to feed my sourdough starter (it still needs a name) its weekly meal. Ethel says it is very, very hard to kill (unlike my motivation).

Last night I gave it white and whole wheat flour, and happily watched as new bubbles rose to the surface. I need my brain to start bubbling with thoughts again, too, as I am by no means done with this exam process! (Just past the most anxiety-inducing one of the three.)

More knitting soon, I promise.

inching forward.

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I’ll start with the knitting progress, as it is the most tangible. I spent a few hours knitting last night, and gained an inch or two on the foot of the first sock of this pair. The pooling is horrendous, the sock seems a little big to me, but you know what? I love this yarn, and I am going to love these socks. These were once too-big toe up socks from a KAL oriented around Socks From the Toe Up, and then they were a pair of the Gentleman’s Fancy Socks (from Knitting Vintage Socks, maybe? I’m too lazy to look), and then they became basic stockinette “vanilla” (as the Knitmore Girls say) socks because I needed something to knit on during a lecture about nineteenth-century spirit photographs.

This is from a morning last week, but it could be today, as Boh has decided that today is the kind of day for getting back into bed. It is slushy and rainy outside, and I don’t blame him.

I was really on a pizza-making kick last week. This one was so delicious that there weren’t any leftovers…

This weekend, Boh and I headed home for my family’s annual February turkey dinner, where everybody gets together for a low-stress Thanksgiving-like meal. The food was delicious, and it was great to lounge around my parents’ house with family. And Boh got a bath. (He’s thrilled.) I think I did more driving than reading this weekend, but the change of scenery helped me finish up a draft of a research proposal, so I’m calling it a productive weekend. Plus, my parents sent me home with enough leftovers to feed me through Tuesday!

Alright, time to start the week.

 

new chairs.

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Craigslist victory! Now, where to put them?

Someday, these might be on the porch of that lake house.

A mixture of veggies on the stove. These colors make me happy.

Terra helped me grade 40+ response papers last night and this morning.

I turned the heel of the first of two long-neglected plain and simple socks. It helped with Monday.

Back to the chairs. I love them. In fact, I might sit in one while I read tonight’s book…