crafts + recipes + existential dread
OK, not entirely true, but a great “Saturday Night” song that we used to listen to while pre-drinking in college. (Ah, pre-drinking… I love that concept!). Anyway! My evening consists of:
— Forensic Files
— Cheesy Tots (potato puffs w/ Velveeta, sour cream, and scallions)
— Cran-grape juice with vodka
— Shawl knitting
And to class it up, I do plan on having a glass of a lovely Banyuls when Drew gets home. But for now I am loving my trashy evening!
I have been snacking on this Fruit Salad Salsa all morning. Oh wow! So good! It amazes me how often the simplest combinations taste the best. I made some cinnamon tortilla chips to go with it. Jake likes the salsa, but doesn’t like the chips. Noah likes the chips, but doesn’t like the salsa (I think maybe it’s just hard for him to eat, but he’s also been generally picky lately).
I also made myself panko-crusted cod for lunch. Again — super easy. I didn’t measure anything out but basically I just thawed a cod fillet from the freezer, lightly coated each side with light mayo, and coated it with seasoned panko (I used Adobo, basil, and oregano). Bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees or until flakey. It just doesn’t get easier!
Random bits and pieces:
— I am so tired today. Like really beat-down tired. I guess it’s not surprising because I’ve been overextending myself lately and our vacation was actually a good bit of work with the two boys.
— A photo I took of my favorite pasta salad is being used in this article on vegetarian entertaining. I was so surprised and happy that the author wanted to use it!
— Three things I am sick of hearing/reading about: 1) Paris Hilton 2) the iPhone 3) Harry Potter. I don’t care about any of these things and the obsession surrounding all of them is just plain silly.
— I made these awesome Raspberry White Chocolate Chip Muffins the other day and they are so incredibly good! They are quite sweet, though, and I think they are better as a treat than as a breakfast item.
— We’re probably going to be replacing our Hyundai Elantra within the next week. I bought that car right before our wedding! (Talk about being stressed out!). It’s six years old and is quickly approaching 120,000 miles. We’re deciding between a Corolla and a Matrix, but leaning toward the Corolla because it gets better mileage.
— I started the Flower Basket Shawl again a couple weeks ago, and just haven’t had the time to work on it. Well, I have knitting time, but usually I’m tired and I need to focus when working on my shawl.
— And last, starting on Sunday I will be the wine blogger at Celebrate Wine! I am very excited about this writing position, and I hope you all find your way over there a couple times a week. I’m feeling so good about writing again, I had no idea how much I missed it. And I am happy that I’m actually earning money again, I won’t lie about that. I’ve never been fully comfortable being a “housewife/at-home-mom” or whatever you want to call it.
So generally, good things all around! Hope everyone is have a lovely Friday!
I ate it before I thought to take a photo, and it’s barely a recipe, but damn is it good! I had two avacados sitting on my counter and I know I need to use them soon. I was really craving guacamole, but didn’t have the tomato or cilantro. So, I simply mashed up one of the avacados, sprinkled it with salt, and mixed in the juice of half a lime. Oh my goodness! So good! I didn’t miss any of the extra stuff I usually put in there. It would be a great sandwich spread, too.
I posted this photo to Flickr right before I left on vacation and forgot to write about here as well. Here’s the story. My SP10 Pal gifted me two beautiful skeins of Manos del Uruguay. I immediately thought of knitting My So-Called Scarf because, after all, it calls for this particular yarn. Every time I’ve seen a photo of one of these scarves I’ve thought it was so pretty. However, when I cast on for this, immediately I had second thoughts. I gave it a few inches and just wasn’t feeling the love. I asked Drew what he thought and he didn’t like it, either. So with that confirmation, I plan to rip it. But now I am not sure what to do with it. I have some felting patterns that this could work with, but I don’t know how I feel about felting variagated yarn. The yarn feels so wonderful and I really want to make something with it, but I am just drawing a blank. Any suggestions?
In my previous LG post, I promised that I’d write about all of our yummy meals in another post. Well, it got really long, so it made more sense for me to publish my reviews over on HubPages. So you can check out my review of The Log Jam Restaurant, one of our perennial favorites. It was orignally reccomended to us by the owners of Alynn’s Butterfly Inn, where we stayed before we were even married! I’ve also written up an article about where to get a great breakfast. I reviewed the two places we ate this time around. Check them out!
Well I have spent the last three days (basically) computer-free and it has really been nice. Last night and this morning I did do a quick e-mail check, but that was about it. We spent Sunday through Tuesday up in Lake George, NY, where we go every summer for a quick getaway. It was amazing how much changed over the last year (and maybe that is because I feel like nothing ever changes there). Sadly, my favorite stop — Basketville — is gone. We were driving by and I was shocked. Seriously folks, my jaw actually dropped and I was speechless. For those of you who have never been witness to the glory of Basketville, I don’t even know if I can paint a picture that will do it justice. Yes, as you can imagine there were lots of baskets, but there were also cool ceramics, old fashioned toys, silk flowers, wicker furniture, teas and candies… it was just a great store. My mom mentioned that the one in Sturbridge, MA also closed and after I did a little research I found out that only two of the eight stores remain: the flagship store in Vermont and one in Florida. ::sniff::
We stayed where we always stay — The Brookside Motel. I heartily endorse this place if you’re staying up in the L.G. The rates are great, the location can’t be beat, and most important (in my opinion) it’s away from noisy part of Canada St. But just a hop skip and a jump away so really, you are just as close to the town as if you’re staying at any of the motels on the top of the hill.
We had plenty of good eats (I’ll save the details for another post), though unfortunately Noah didn’t make mealtime easy for anyone. Of course, I should have seen that coming a mile away. He was certainly testing some limits! All in all, it was a nice getaway and now we’re all back to work. How quickly that “vacation” feeling fades!
Sigh… I ordered the wrong freaking color to finsh up my scarf. It’s my own fault for not writing down the color number. I guessed between two colors what I thought was correct, and I really thought the name sounded right, but clearly I was wrong. I should have ordered “Flamingo” not “Bougainvilla.” I think I need to start keeping track of this stuff so it doesn’t happen again. It’s a small annoyance, really, but it was enough to give me a hard time falling asleep last night because I was so mad at myself. So, I think that in addition to a recipe binder I will find myself setting up a knitting organizer as well. I’m one of those people who immediately throws away packaging, so if I get in the habit of making up a project sheet and stapling the ball band to that sheet, I will have it for reference. Why did I never think of this before?
Many thanks to Anne, who spoiled me for the Spring Into Summer Dishcloth Swap! She knit me a beautiful burgundy cloth in a basketweave pattern that will fit perfectly in my kitchen! Plus, two skeins of Sugar & Cream, a skein of Cotton-Ease (which I have really been wanting to try!), a dark chocolate bar, the cutest sheep keychain (I am transfering my keys to it this morning!), a list pad (which I needed!), sticky notes, knitting needles, a ducky squirter (which the boys have already swiped, LOL), yummy smelling Lemon Verbena soap, a tealight candle and a wax tart, and last but certainly not least a wonderful dishcloth pattern book! I absolutely love everything and had a lot of fun opening it all up last night. It was such a treat after a long day at work.
I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who chimed in on my recipe storage post. I think that a binder really is the best solution (obviously it’s the one everyone seems to use!). But I like Christina‘s method of using recipe cards for quick reference. I received a cute recipe box as a gift and I would really like to use it. Seems like this might be a good way. After our vacation I’m going to start putting my recipe binder together. I have a feeling this will be a large undertaking; I have lots of recipes (as you might imagine).
And my request… I am desprately seeking a Lock & Lock lunch set like this one (which I prefer because of the insulated bag), but this one would do fine, as well. I have exhausted the Internet and just cannot find either of these for sale online. I will keep checking Ebay, but if anyone has seen either of these sets I would most happily pay you to buy and ship it and I will even include some extra surprises!