As God is my witness, I'll never be without socks again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, cheat, or steal. As God is my witness, I'll never be without socks again.
Are you going to a potluck? If so, this soba noodle salad with eggplant and mango is the perfect thing to take. It's seriously good, served at room temperature, and you can even transport it on the bus without fear of having a gooey mess at your destination. Perfect, unless all of your friends hate cilantro. See this typewriter brooch? A while back, I ordered one for Nancy from Craftyfolk's etsy shop. I wish I had picked up more than one because it turns out that I might need this too. Today I received an (ahem, rather large) order of socks from Sock Dreams. Since I wear skirts and over-the-knee socks pretty much every day this is not a complete indulgence. As God is my witness, I'll never be without socks again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, cheat, or steal. As God is my witness, I'll never be without socks again. And to end on a note of awesome, Dolly Parton singing "In the Ghetto".
0 Comments
It's been a week comprised of a) being out; b) being social; c) being at work; and d) studying. As of yesterday, I was living in my own filth and eating take-out sushi for dinner. Today I have groceries and the carpet has been vacuumed. There's swiss chard-chickpea stew simmering on the stove alongside a pot of rice. This is progress. (However, my bathroom needs cleaning and my inbox is out of control. Such is life.) On Sunday, Tara and Deb and I went cross-country skiing in the Callaghan Valley. A couple of months ago, my manager gave me her cross-country ski equipment (thanks Elisa!). Despite a pretty spectacular wipeout into the trees on Cypress in December, I was looking forward to getting out skiing again. I've barely cross-country skiied as an adult; when we were kids, my parents would take us out skiing a few times a year. We were pretty wussy and whiny kids. "I'm cold." "I'm tired." And so on. It's amazing that they kept taking us out, but it means that now as an adult, I can get from point A to point B on a pair of skis, so long as there aren't a lot of hills involved (hills are scary). This was exactly the third time that Tara had gone cross-country skiing. She was a trooper, despite the fact that the terrain had as many hills (scary) as flat stretches. And even though it was kind of a wet day, it was nice to be out in the quiet and the snow and the trees. And to eat Tara's home-made peanut butter cookies on the way home (thanks Tara!). One unexpected thing that happened this week was a spontaneous visit with my next-door neighbour. We've never really gotten to know each other, but now that she's about to move we finally spent an hour or two chatting, and it turns out that she's interested in cycling and food and textiles. In fact, she even gave me her button and fabric stash and a bag of stuffing (thanks Margie!). The other thing that happened this week? I finally decided to join the 21st century.
This was the rather daunting sight that I was confronted with upon arriving at yesterday's seminar on cabernet franc. We tasted 13 different wines; my favourites were the Tinhorn Creek Oldfield Series Rose (from BC), and the Chateau Ste. Michelle Cold Creek Cab Franc (from Washington State). All I can say is that spit buckets are a wonderful thing.
About a week ago I casually thought to myself, "I'd like to go to one of those knitting retreats in Port Ludlow that the Yarn Harlot and her colleagues organize". And lo and behold, within a couple of days, she had announced that Sock Camp was happening in the one week in April when my work schedule allows for some vacation time. People, I am going to Camp Castaway (!), and it is going to be good times and a real vacation. If all goes well, I may even cycle there and back (pending weather and a reality check on the distance). I also just picked up a couple of Michael Miller fabrics. These crowns are very pleasing. An ongoing weakness for polka dots. Lastly, I went to the wine festival international tasting on Thursday, and was reminded of how lovely moscato is (it's a sparkling and sweet Italian wine). If I'm not mistaken, I think it also tends to have a low alcohol content (5-7%). Time to start keeping some on hand!
Deconstructed, open-face tacos. Aka, do I ever stray from the Smitten Kitchen archives when I cook?
Purpose: To determine whether a vermontucky, served hot, would be an ideal winter drink. Hypothesis: A cold vermontucky is perfect in summertime. I think that it would be equally fantastic when heated, and a great alternative for colder months. Materials: Lemons, water, maple syrup, and bourbon. Because I am lazy, I will use bottled organic lemon juice rather than squeezing my own lemons. Procedure: Heat all ingredients in a saucepan. Taste and adjust water/lemon/syrup/booze ratios. Decant to a teacup.
Results: The hot vermontucky tasted fine, but not as good as I had expected. In fact, I preferred it as it cooled down. Conclusion: The vermontucky is best prepared as God intended it: cold, and in the summertime. In the next week-and-a-little-bit, I have at a minimum: a hair appointment, pub knitting, the international wine festival (hurrah!), a seminar on cab franc, a day of cross country skiing at Callaghan Valley, a dentist appointment, my Business Law exam (which means I'm in study mode as well right now), and our monthly staff social. In the meantime, I've also been trying out some new eateries:
Last week, Tara and I had dinner at Hubbub. They say that their sandwiches are life-changing, and while that has yet to be determined in my case, the roasted vegetable one was pretty fabulous. (Their side salads look quite inspired too.) Today, Sian and Tara and I were very excited to try out Cartem's donuts, and we then proceeded to have coffee at Nelson and the Seagull (as their website says: "Bread and coffee. That pretty much sums up what we are all about"). Sian was nice enough to let me have a bite of her ploughman's sandwich, and I'll definitely be going back within the next week to get one of my own. Their bread is baked in house and, get this - on Wednesday evenings there's yoga followed by dinner, for $25. How great is that? Also, Sian has assured me that this is a fantastic veggie burger. I'm making pickled onions tonight, and I think the onions and the burger are fated to be together. I have an annoying habit of wanting to sew, and then not sewing. Or sewing something in painfully slow and infrequent installments. It was time for an intervention, so I staged an easy win using Gertie's extremely helpful half-slip tutorial. For me, these slips are super functional, since they prevent your skirt from sticking to your hosiery, as well as kiboshing any potential transparency issues. (The two points where I veered from Gertie's instructions were to make my slips are slightly narrower at the waist than at the hem, and to sew my elastic on the lazy way: just a zigzag stitch on the right side, and no steam shrinking.) This one is very twee. Different lighting and slightly less twee. Now that these are done, it's time to finally get cracking on Vogue 8379, inspired by the Selfish Seamstress. I think I pre-washed my fabric for this dress in the summer. INEXCUSABLE.
Now this is my kind of humour. The first segment in this Spilled Milk podcast where they talk about heirloom apple names? Totally cracks me up. I've listened to it several times and it still makes me laugh so hard I cry. As a side note, don't you think that Hunge would also be a good name for a cat?
Watching Nigella Lawson cook is always mood enhancing. Maybe it's the way she talks about and describes food, maybe it's the pleasure she takes in cooking and the unabashed focus that food has in her life. In later episodes, it's also about the sheer number of warm glowy fairy lights in her kitchen. (It seems like Youtube has taken down a lot of Nigella's videos, which is a shame; even though I've seen most of them, I still like to put one on every now and then for a little relaxing and vicarious cookery). Lake Breeze Meritage is new to me, and rather pleasant. It's available at Village VQA Wines for about $20. Yesterday I checked out Plenty from the library. Again. This one may be worth purchasing, even though space on the cookbook shelf is tight. First up? Soba noodles with eggplant and mango. Shakshuka. Sweet potato cakes. Swiss chard, chickpea and tamarind stew. Mee goreng. Tonight's dinner was Indian Spiced Cauliflower and Potatoes, and Mixed Citrus Salad with Feta and Mint. I fully expected the cauliflower and potatoes to be divine, and they were... okay. Meanwhile, I had been dragging my feet on making the citrus salad. Perhaps I was feeling lazy and knew that I'd end up with citrus-y juices everywhere. (In fact, the only reason that I made both recipes tonight is because I halved each - doing the extra chopping required for two full recipes felt like too much, even though I'm always happy to have extra leftovers.) However, I'm glad I didn't abandon making the salad, because it's outstanding. Go make some now. And the extra grapefruit on hand? Will become this. If January is a month of housekeeping, then perhaps February is about small pleasures. Anticipating a trip to Cartems Donuterie. Talking a snowy walk in the woods around Brothers Creek. Planning a mini-break for when the rain stops. Right now I'm watching "Pimpernel Smith" with Leslie Howard, and watching Leslie Howard is always a pleasure. Of course we all know him as Ashley Wilkes, but he was just as good at comedy as he was at drama. I present the following Youtube evidence:
Exhibit A: The Scarlet Pimpernel Exhibit B: Pygmalion I tell you, I'm thisclose to falling into "they don't make them like they used to" fallacy. And that's even before we touch on Bette Davis. (By the way, "It's Love I'm After"? Dream cast of Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, and Olivia de Havilland.) |