Wonders of Summer

1. Squash Blossoms - stuffed with goat cheese and basil, dipped in beer batter and pan fried.
(photo will appear here when I remember to bring my cell phone in from the car...)
2. Baby Pumpkins in mom's garden - bringing hope for a good harvest and awesome decorating
3. Air conditioner - 'Nuf Said
4. Summer Beers - Anchor Summer, DogFishHead Peche
5. Strawberries - Jam, Sidecars
6. Light - Being able to go to the stable at 8pm and still see.
7. Sleep - Haven't gotten up before 9 in a couple weeks!

Its only the beginning of July and there is so much more summer to go! Yippee!

Wedding Things

Things people should know about our wedding:

1. I am NOT a cupcake. I will not have sprinkles on me. I need no frosting.
   
2. We are not having a Wedding themed Wedding.
   
3. I have already thought about what I want for photos, flowers, and foods. I appreciate your suggestions but I DO already know what I want.
   
4. Our wedding = Our choices.

That is all.

What day is it?

I love summer. I love not being able to tell the days apart. It could be a Monday or a Saturday and I only notice the difference in business hours and parking meter tariffs. Unfortunately this effect also makes the days fly by, but that can be countered by productivity. I got a few things done this weekend that I had been meaning to do. This is a serious accomplishment considering I'm the consummate procrastinator. I made cabbage rolls, I rode 2 horses, I line drove my horse, I baked garlic bread, I stamped postcards, I made address labels, I did dishes, I drank wine. Now I need to go make a to-do list for the week. big event this week is the Vet appointment for Oliver. Hopefully we'll figure out what's really wrong with him so it can be treated. I smell garlic bread burning....

Summer Blogging?

Well, maybe...

Cooking and crafting today. But not really knitting.

Cooking:
I am going to make a HUGE batch of Mapa Dolmathes, or stuffed cabbage rolls. I'm stuffing them with ground lamb, rice, tomato sauce and herbs. Yum! And hopefully they'll last us long enough that I can clean the kitchen and not immediately ruin it again by cooking.

Crafting:
Making an attempt at stamping. Probably not getting as fancy as the 'real' crafty stamping types... but.. whatever. Got a nice custom stamp from Berkeley Stamp. Very nice people, quick turn around, and a very nice stamp.

Knitting:
I dunno... if i get bored with the stamping I may work on my sweater. I should. I want to wear it. urgh... SO Uninspired.

Sad lack of blogging

I want to blog more. I feel like I want to write about knitting, and cooking, and crazy people.

Knitting: Sock scraps blanket. Didn't mean to make it so ' patchwork' the self-striping yarn did it for me.













I bought yarn at Stitches West. All sock yarn. Here is the highlight skien from Blue Moon.














One of their 'rare gems'

Cooking:
Well, actually Drinking...
Strawberry Daiquiris. I love having a new fridge and ICE! I have been making them with a bit of Triple Sec as well as Rum, Lime, Ice, and strawberries (TJs frozen ones, or fresh) Add whip cream and a straw.

Crazy People: People are crazy. 'Nuf said.

Monster Creation

I like knitting socks. I do it quite a lot. I asked my dad what he wanted me to knit him for Christmas. He finally said "socks.". I say finally because I have pretty much knit everyone else socks except him. Mom is up to 5 pairs already but he's never shown an interest in them. I've knit him hats and arm-warmers, but no socks. So... of course I said "yes" and knit him some lovely socks out of rather nice yarn. I didn't have them finished at Christmas but I gave them to him finished on January 4th...... fast forward less than 1 week.... January 9th... Dad wants ANOTHER pair!!!! Dad didn't want knitted socks in the last 3 years that I've been knitting socks and now he wants 2 pairs in as many weeks!

Now, I should probably just consider this as an affirmation of my incredible sock knitting skills... 1 pair and I can hook you for life! But this is a little much!

Now, I also shouldn't encourage this behavior, I should knit slowly, should make him buy the yarn.



Ummm... oops. He managed to ask me for grey/red socks. I just happened to be partway through knitting a pair in just those colors, in just his size.... oh well. Hopefully these will hold him over until his birthday!





Cooking:

I've been on a decidedly Thai kick for over a week now and there is no end in sight. The food is yummy, the cost is reasonable, and it doesn't seem to turn my kitchen into an unrecoverable mess.

Every night I've been doing a Green Papaya salad as a side dish. So good, so cheap. 1 medium Papaya will last us 4 days and costs $1. Shredded papaya plus Cucumber, Green beans or carrots tossed with a garlic, lime, fish sauce dressing.

A reasonable version of what I've been doing is here, but I don't use tomato.

Food Blogging...

This blog may take a bit of a food turn. I am knitting, but I haven't really felt like blogging about it. A quick trip into the knitting before the fooding....

I knit 9 pairs of socks from christmas presents. It was crazy. I finished all but 1 pair by christmas, I finished the last sock for my dad on Jan 2.

These are the socks for Mom, I made them with Fleece Artist Nova Sock, Procured in Seattle. She hasn't worn them yet.






I'm still working on K's Epic Sweater. I'm nearly to the sleeve separation but there are so many stitches now that it takes me 6+ minutes to get around. Its an hour+ of solid knitting to do the 10 row pattern of raglan increases. But in 20 more rows I should be ready to split off for the sleeves.




I really like how the raglan is turning out this time. Its a keeper. If it ends up like the last one (kinda square) I'm probably giving up. 20 more rows and I'm putting it on scrap yarn and making him try it on.






Food!
I got the True Thai cookbook for Christmas. I've been wanting it for a while and I'm going to try to cook as much from it as I can. We made Chicken Satay on New Year's eve that was yummy and has made me even more determined to cook more Thai food!

K and I both acquired colds in the last couple days. We're both taking copious amounts of Sudafed and moaning a lot. But in an effort to begin my Thai cooking craziness I made a Run to 99 Ranch Market yesterday.

The trip to 99 Ranch nearly did me in. I got lots of good stuff but was so obviously not 'all there'...

• I tried to take some other guys cart, he chased me down.
  
• Dropped my list in the produce section and had to go back
• Couldn't find the coconut milk to save my life (went down every aisle twice before noticing it)
• Had to go back to produce a 3rd time to get tofu, tossed the first bag of tofu on the floor crushing it
• Went back to the produce section a 4th time (did I mention the produce section is really difficult to go back to? The flow just doesn't work that way) to get limes only to find they don't have limes, only key limes, I gave up on the limes.
  
• I spent 20 minutes in the soy sauce section trying to find 'sweet dark soy sauce' to absolutely no luck, I ended up finding some 'sweet soy paste' in a jar, and made in Thailand, and not containing MSG so I went with that.

I took me over an hour to do that little bit of shopping. It was brutal and I had to sit down for an hour after I got back to recover before cooking anything. I made Ginger Chicken which was lovely and I paired it with Green Papaya Salad which did wonders for sinus clearing and I think one papaya may last us a week.

I think I'll do a beef curry tonight. I'll try to remember to take pictures.