Wednesday, November 16, 2011

a quiet evening


After an exhausting day, it's good to remember to slow down and enjoy the little things. 
In my case - candlelight and some tea in my 'fancy' cup.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

pumpkin goodness

I whipped up a batch of pumpkin french toast yesterday. It has to chill 8 hours or overnight, so I baked it this morning. I made two changes to the recipe. First, I used an 8" x 8" pan, because I had a small loaf of french bread. Second, after reading the comments I noticed that some people said it turned out too mushy. So I only used 1 cup of milk.



I think I may have died and gone to heaven. I am currently licking my plate (shh! don't tell anyone!). The few soggy bits on the bottom are mostly the caramel syrup, so instead of drizzling maple syrup over the french toast, I scooped up some soggy goodness from the bottom and ladled it on top. Perfect.

Yesterday I roasted two sugar pie pumpkins and ran them through my food processor to get a smooth texture. I used 3/4 cup for the french toast, set aside 3 tbsp to make pumpkin spice syrup for my coffee, and put the remaining pumpkin puree into ziploc bags to freeze for later use (1 cup in each bag so I know exactly how much I am defrosting).

I knew the pumpkin french toast recipe was a hit when I watched my husband take two bites, put down his plate, and immediately give me a hug. This recipe is Joe-approved. =)

Thursday, October 13, 2011

autumn = soup!

Our weather in Seattle has quickly become colder, alternating between soggy wet and surprisingly crisp. In my mind, weather like that demands snuggling on the couch under a blanket, knitting with wool, and eating soup. This year, even though we are barely into autumn, I have found myself trying new soup recipes at an astounding rate (at least for me). Here are a few recipes I've found:

Over at Collecting the Moments I found a great do-ahead strategy and a simple and delicious chicken noodle soup recipe. Joe and I both caught colds last week and this simple soup was the best of both worlds: quick and easy to prepare, and warm and filling.

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SophistiMom posted a great recipe for curry pumpkin soup. I do like me some curry, so I ended up doubling all the spices. It was a great soup, and it made my kitchen smell heavenly.

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(photo from SophistiMom)

Tonight I'm trying another new recipe: udon noodle soup with bok choy and poached egg from TheKitchn blog. I'll let you know how that goes.

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(photo from TheKitchn)

Saturday, October 8, 2011

ten things

In the spirit of Soulemama, here are ten things since my last post two months ago:
 1) I've made huge gains in organization at home


 
2) I celebrated another year of marriage with a picnic at the park


 
3) I picked blueberries


 
4) I went camping at Penrose and found treasures at the shore


 
5) I explored a very small town in upstate New York


 
6) I visited family


 
7) I made friends with Dempsey


 
8) I flew in a tiny airplane mere hours before Hurricane Irene hit the mid-Atlantic region


 
9) I smiled when I saw my mountains


 
10) I knit fingerless gloves for a friend


It's good to be back in this space. I hope to be around here more often. I know it's been quite awhile since I've posted, but I'm shocked to realize a full two months have gone by. My, how time flies.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

oh-so-important labels




Finally got around to labeling all my summer canning projects. From L-to-R: raspberry jam, apricot-rosemary jam, cherry pie filling and a ton of strawberry jam.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

summer knitting



I love knitting outside on my patio this summer. It's 75 degrees here right now, but in the shade that's perfect. Our old apartment did not have an outside space, so I have to keep reminding myself to take advantage of the patio area while the weather is so nice. While I've been outside this evening I have heard birds calling, and watched the neighborhood cats skitter around, chasing bugs, birds and each other. Perfect end to the day.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

raspberries




Last weekend I went raspberry picking with Joe, our friend Kristi, and my teacher buddy Blea. We picked raspberries at Biringer Farm, then headed over to Bryant Blueberry Farm to pick blueberries. I didn't pick many blueberries, but I'll probably go back for more. I have just enough to make blueberry boy bait a couple times.

My jam turned out runny again, even though I followed the directions and measured everything carefully. I think that's okay, though. I plan on switching from vanilla to plain yogurt (and possibly making my own... we'll see), and having plenty of runny jam to mix in will be nice. I also made raspberry fruit leather for the first time. I don't have a dehydrator, so I used my oven. The lowest temp on my oven is 170 degrees F, which was a bit more than the recipe recommends. What can you do? It's very tart and sticky, and absolutely wonderful. I think I'm going to make more fruit leather once I get my hands on a flat of apricots. I love apricot leather. Yum.

Friday, July 22, 2011

sights from my walk





dino sweater, part 1

This morning I finished the back piece of the dino sweater I'm knitting for my nephew. Probably the easiest piece, but still very exciting to get it off the needles. After knitting a couple sweaters for myself, it's very refreshing how quickly sweaters for little ones knit up.


Thursday, July 21, 2011

oh, Seattle summer

Finally got around to cleaning off my front 'porch' area yesterday. Set up our camp chairs and our small outdoor table, swept away as many spiders as I could, and rearranged my potted plants. Today, it rained. But I didn't want that to stop me from enjoying the outdoors. So, I did this:





Great how well those built-in cup holders work for holding yarn skeins.

Monday, July 4, 2011

Ira Spring Trail









strawberry day

A week ago yesterday was strawberry day. Strawberry picking, strawberry jamming and strawberry cake-making. Smitten Kitchen comes through again, with a delicious recipe for Strawberry Summer Cake.



Monday, June 20, 2011

a tree

Much sweater progress has been made. First, I finished my February Lady Sweater. No pictures of that yet, but I have worn it a couple times with glee. Glee, I tell you. I simply can't wear that sweater and not feel incredibly proud of myself for finishing a project that seemed so out of my league. Especially since I love the way it turned out.

Anyway, the tree. Joe asked me to knit him a sweater using this tree pattern we found on livejournal. It's modeled after the Tree of Rohan from Lord of the Rings. I decided to put it on one of Elizabeth Zimmerman's hybrid sweaters. To tell you the truth, I am much more afraid of doing the shoulder shaping than I am of any part of this tree. The charts provided for it are very easy to follow, and I just love how the tree pattern emerges and gets more beautiful with each row.


My knitter-readers will probably notice that the bottom curls. Don't worry, I plan on adding a ribbed border once the body of the sweater is complete.








Saturday, June 18, 2011

cuteness