Duck Chow Mein

I made duck chow mein for dinner tonight. Its REALLY good.

I know.. your thinking... "Is she NUTS?!?@?" ummm... no. Duck is good. Duck isn't difficult and the whole she-bang only cost me $7. We'll have leftovers for lunches too! I love 99 Ranch Market with a passion.

Ingredients:
Duck - 2 legs, $3.82
Baby bok choy, $.99
Fresh Ginger, $.40
Garlic (already had it)
Onion, $.20 (they were .39/lb)
Mushroom Soy (Had it)
Chili sauce (had it)
Brown sugar or palm sugar (had it)
Salt/Pepper
Rice Vinegar (had it)
Fresh Chow Mein noodles, $.79 (and I only used half the bag)


Set a small pot of water to boil (for the noodles). Score the skin on the duck legs. Season with salt and pepper. Heat pan and put the legs in skin side down. Cook until fat is rendering out ~5 min. Flip. Cook for another few minutes (I call it good once I'm not seeing pink on the edges, they'll cook more later). Remove duck from pan and set aside to cool. Wash bok choy and chop (2-3 cups worth). Chop 2+ cloves garlic, grate 1 Tbsp ginger, and +1/2 of the onion. Strip the meat (and any crispy skin) off the leg bones and chop roughly, discard any uncooked fat/skin, set aside. Reheat the duck fat in the pan (2-3 Tbsp is enough, if there is more, remove it). Is your water boiling? Add the noodles and cook until al dente (these really should be on the chewy side, ~3 minutes). To the duck fat, Add the garlic, ginger, onion, and a TINY bit of chili sauce. Stir fry until onion begins to color, add bok choy. Let cook, stiring until bok choy is wilted. Add the chopped duck and stir a couple core minutes. Add 2 Tbsp mushroom soy, 2 tsp brown sugar and 1 Tbsp vinegar. Stir and let cook while draining and rinsing your noodles. Add the noodles, Stir, SERVE! Its not necessary but I also threw in a bit of chopped fresh Basil at the end.

Short Short version:
Cook Duck, get fat
Chop veggie types
Cook veggies in fat.
Add Meat.
Cook Noodles. Drain.
Make sauce with meat.
Add Noodles.
Eat.

The short version is really what I do best. I don't measure. It comes out tasty. I'm happy.

Epic Sweater Returns

I'm attempting to start the Epic Sweater again. Wish me luck.

I have finished a baby blanket. Pictures to come. Possibly a pattern too. I'm still trying to decide what to name it thought... Butterfly Nets? Butter Baby? hmmm... more soon.

I'm such a fink....

I know... I said I'd post... I lied. Oh well...

On to current things. I traveled a whole lot in August, here are some highlights:

The home brewed beer in Utica, NY.













There were also 6 tapped kegs. I came home and recovered for a week before heading out to Colorado on the train.














The scenery was very scenic and I didn't sleep too badly. I came home long enough to get my classroom ready then went to Grass Valley for a driving clinic with Oliver. I was too busy driving to get many pictures but this is Oliver before our last drive where we did a driven dressage test and he rocked!













I somehow haven't done a whole lot of knitting. I started a baby blanket and then left it at school over this long weekend. The baby shower is next weekend. I'm gonna have to knit like crazy next week!
I think I'm going to start a sweater for the baby's older sister. So I'm off to hunt down a pattern....

Travelling Abounds

I'm off to traveling tomorrow. I will start with a weekend trip to Portland. My grandmother is from a tiny village in Greece and there are enough people from that little village that have immigrated to the West Coast that they have started having a Village Reunion every summer. I've never been so it should be fun. We will be staying with my Great Aunt Marina who I haven't seen in about 20 years.

I'm going to knit her a pair of socks while I'm traveling there out of this:


It is Sushi Sock yarn from The Unique Sheep in the Autumn in the City colorway. It looks like summer to me... :) It is Superwash+Bamboo and I Love it!









I'm going to try to hit a few yarn stores while I'm there and I'm also going to stop by the Oregon Brewers Festival
And have some yummy beer while I wait for my mom, uncle, and grandma to arrive.

After Portland I'm off to Upstate New York to visit friends. More blog later, must pack now!

Olympic Trials

The knitting Olympics are technically only every 4 years during the winter Olympics but I'm going to practice with the summer Olympics as an "Olympic Trial". The idea being to begin a project at the Opening ceremonies and finish by the Closing ceremonies. It should be something challenging. Since the Olympics are falling during my train trip to Colorado (lots of knitting time) I've decided to take on 2 Olympic Events. I'm going to be pulling up 2 projects from WAY back.

Project 1: Pixie Cables baby afghan






<-----The blue/green cabled blanket





I have had this booklet for at least 15 years. It has both crochet and knit patterns, but I only knew how to crochet back then. I remember looking at the cables and thinking that that would probably be the softest prettiest blanket of the bunch but that I didn't know how to knit, and mom could only knit and purl and was too busy trying to remember how to do it herself to actually teach me (and I had NO attention span for learning... It was probably more me...). I still have the book so in a weird way I think I'll feel a circle of completion to finally knit the first project I had ever wanted to knit. If I can knit that "unattainable 'cause its knitting" afghan from way back it will be quite the cool thing. So, until August I need to find some yarn for it. I was originally knitting this baby another one of my mitered baby blanket patterns but the stripes are annoying me and I think that one is not going to get finished. I don't think I want to use the Blue Sky Cotton for this one because the cables require something with a bit more elasticity, but I also don't want to go straight acrylic or wool. It would be really cool to do this in something organic but that might be a budget stretcher. hmmm... maybe panda cotton?

Project 2: Argyle Socks

In a random pile of old pattern pamphlets that my mom somehow gleaned from someone else I have patterns from 1940. Absolutely classic and fairly clean instructions for knitting argyle.




















Early in my kntting career just after I started doing socks I bought 4 colors of a super wash wool that I thought I'd make fair isle socks with. I spent WAY too much on the yarn and I don't even know if its enough to make 2 whole socks with so.... Not Gonna Happen. Instead I'm going to use it for argyle! That way I'll definitely have enough for the argyle part and I can use bits of different colors for the heels and toes, and it should use less yarn than fair isle would have since I'm not carrying the yarns around the whole row.

More to come on these...

Moving along

This is going to be one of those 'random' posts. Other people seem to do random Thursdays. I think I'm just going to have to do a random Monday.

1. Tulip on Crack is finished except for sewing in the ends.














Its still awfully cute, and I've started a little ear flap hat for her big sister to match.

2. We did win lots at the county fair this year...



















And those ribbons don't even include the BBQ!

3. I'm going to send in my entry for the Lambtown spinning contests July 19th in Dixon. I'm probably nuts, but it just sounds like fun.


4. Pebbles has just turned 10!

I got Pebbles from the Milo foundation as a kitten when K left me outside of Safeway while he ran in to use the ATM. Less than 5 minutes later I had a kitten. (K now knows better than to leave me alone at pet adoptions)

10 years later she is still the queen of bitchy spoiled kitties. And still quite the round fluff ball. She has stared down a hawk and was bit by a raccoon yet had no other scratches on her.

Many more years pebbles!


5. I got a new cell phone, after I was no longer able to charge my old phone. I got a Samsung Glyde . Its pretty cool. The pictures in this post were all taken on it! Considering our actual camera sucks, the pictures look decent. It also has a web browser (and I get 1 month of free browsing!) and can do movies and music too. Its definitly a step up for me but less of a jump than switching companies to get an Iphone.

More when I'm feeling less random. I'll start temping next week and I'm going to do some traveling in August.

Crack

Warning! Mature content! Not for the weak!

It can be addictive.
It can rule your life.
You think "but everyone else is doing it" or "I don't have an addictive personality, I can try it and leave it.....".
You think you can pick it up and just do a little.
You know people who have tried it and haven't had lasting side effects.
You also know people who have fallen into the cycle of highs and lows.
It is expensive.
The high may last for a full day before cutting you off.
The rush is incredible, It draws you in and won't let you go until its done.
You will find yourself scraping the bag for any last little bit until its all gone.
You may have to get more....




What am I referring to?


This.














The Dream in Crack Tulip Sweater
Isn't it just too cute! Aren't the colors too sweet!

I didn't think I would succumb to the trendiness, little did I know that when faced in person with this kit..... The wool fumes overcame me. I saw the kit. I had to knit it. I cast on immediately. I was halfway done by dinner. I would have been done in 24 hours if I hadn't picked up the button band like I was actually on crack. I ripped it back, then reclaimed the high by knitting the sleeves and I'm about ready to re-attack the button band. The baby I'm knitting this for isn't even due until October but I will be done in a total of 3 days (if not for the crazy button band it would have been 24 hours).

I paid more than it is listed on that website... but I still have this much left over...













I'm going to make matching little hats for the baby and her big sister. Just to prolong the high.

You've had your fair warning. Good luck.