Dinner for Two...

... Or, what I do when I don't bring books home from school.

Exhibit One: The last of our hand picked veggies. So colorful, so flavorful. I pan seared a red onion & cumin seeds (not hand picked), then simmered some green & yellow bell peppers and tomatoes with garlic, ginger, chili pepper, and Indian spices (specified by our great Indian cookbook). Sprinkle with garam masala and serve hot over rice.


Exhibit Two: Acorn squash "No wonder they call it squash"-ed bread. I made my own squash puree, then followed a recipe for Pumpkin Bread. I doubled the recipe, but obviously there wasn't enough baking powder to raise the loaves. Also, it lacks... something. I think it might be salt. Or maybe sugar. Or the delicious flavor of pumpkin. Mike suggested some apple butter.

Vegetable Love

A friend from New York was visiting this week. He and Mike went camping all week, while I was in class (Boo) but when they came back and I was done with class for the week, we went to Sauvie Island to pick vegetables for dinner.

Caleb and Mike are both excellent cooks- Caleb is starting culinary school sometime soon- and it was the first time Caleb actually went to the farm to pick his own dinner, so he was especially inspired to make something scrumptious.

We ended up with boatloads of delicious veggies (including strawberries! In September! Who knew?) and Caleb went to town in our little kitchen. He did two types of baked acorn squash (chili-spicy and brown-sugary), pan seared red peppers and onions, and delicious green beans with mustard seeds and toasted almonds. It doesn't look very appetizing here, mostly due to my totally lame photographic skills, but I promise, it was the essence of delicious. It is the most wonderful thing in the world to go from field to dinner in less than four hours. At 5 pm these veggies were still eating from their mamas, and at 8 pm, they were giving each other high fives in our mouths (Caleb's metaphors). Incredible.

While dinner was focused solely on fall - acorn squash and pumpkin beer- we leaped back to early summer with dessert. Amidst Caleb's frenzy in the kitchen, I whipped up my Grandmother's strawberry shortcake. It's just a simple baking powder biscuit, but it's so flaky, so light... I can never eat strawberry shortcake with angel food's cake or whatever other people serve it with. For me, it's Grandma's biscuits or nothing. Strawberries in September! Amazing.

Today, we took Caleb to the airport and drove around northeast Portland, looking for yarn stores until Ikea opened. We needed some cushions for the incredibly uncomfortable futon in our living room. And those you just can't get on Craig's List.

We're going to a wedding next weekend and I've been planning to make the Ribbed Lace Bolero to wear over my dress since this summer! The wedding is in LA, so it's probably not going to get too cold, so I'm wearing a fun summer dress and these little silver heels I've got, and I had a dream of the bolero in a light, silvery cotton yarn. I went to (the awesome and amazing) Yarn Garden shop in SE Portland, but couldn't find the right yarn. I had to go to Jo-Ann's to get the cheap (and oh-so-wonderfully soft) Lion Brand Microspun. (I know, I know- I'm a bad knitter. I tried to buy from the LYS, I really did. We went to 3 yarn stores before we found one that was open. But if you don't stock the right color yarn, I just can't help you.)

I've never seen this particular strain of Lion Brand, and even with the ridiculous splitting action, I have to admit to liking it. The designer of the bolero used Lion Bran Cotton Ease, which I'm convinced only exists in other people's blogs, because I've never seen it in a store, and when I've looked for it online, I get told that it's been discontinued. Is it just me? Anyway, Cotton Ease is worsted weight and Micro Spun is sport weight, so I dropped to size 7 needles for the ribbing, but I'm going to go ahead and to the lace part on 10s anyways. Mostly because I don't own any 9s, which would be the logical size to use.

The photo is of my swatch for this sweater. Yes, that is my entire swatch. I really hate swatching. All I can think when I'm doing it is, "I could be knitting something for REAL!" So I tend to do as little as possible to measure the fabric, and then rip it right out to cast on for the project. This here was 20 stitches over about 5 rows. So far, though, I've managed not to make any completely egregious gauge mistakes. I also haven not actually knit that many things from actual patterns in which gauge, like, matters.

I'm Not Dead Yet!

Just a note to let you all know that law school hasn't eaten me alive yet.

These are some gladiolas (gladioli?) Mike got for me at the Farmer's Market on Sunday. They are a gorgeous shade of bright red and really brighten up the living room. (I also have a vase of them on my desk.)

The silk painting is from a trip to China a few years ago- the large character means "Young people work hard for this beautiful world". It was a saying that resonated with me, after years of activism and organizing throughout undergrad. It also feels relevant now, as I work towards my law degree.

Bread and Roses

This weekend has been a great good-bye to summer.

We started out going to the downtown farmer's market on Saturday, and walked away with armloads of fresh kale, spinach, peppers, corn on the cob, and a package of grass-fed, sustainable and local ground buffalo. The corn and the buffalo (made into chipotle burgers) are on the grill now.

We've been having some really excellent game nights with our new law school friends, and last night was no exception. We went through an entire deck of Apples to Apples cards, which is a first for me. Mike wanted to make cookies to take over, but he's been sick (he just started work at a daycare center, and he got infected with baby germs). So he took a nap and I made cookies. Delicious, soft, chewy, melty peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. As close to cookie-perfection as one can come, if I do say so myself. So perfect, in fact, that a full 24 hours after baking the chocolate chips are still melted. The recipe, as always, was from the Cook's Illustrated New Best Recipes book.


You might notice, lurking in the background of that delicious looking spread of soy milk and pb-chocolate chip cookies some other, mysterious, no so perfect looking cookie. Those are the cookies I made today. We had plans to go to a potluck BBQ for a law school group, and I wanted to make something for any vegans that might show up. The bakery in Berkeley had a great vegan chocolate cookie recipe, which I tried to fudge. I started with the recipe for triple-chocolate cookies from the Cook's Illustrated cookbook, and substituted carob chips for the semi-sweet chocolate and bananas for the eggs. I should have added more flour and cooked them for a bit longer. What I got were chewy, not-so-chocolatey, banana flavored blobs.

Delicious, yes, but I think they'd be better crumbled up on ice cream. Or maybe crumbled up with some Bailey's Irish Cream (or some vegan alternative) drizzled on top. Or both. But as cookies, they didn't work out so well.

Amidst all this baking, I even made a fair amount of progress on the sweater! This is the completed back and right front, lounging in the garden. This sweater flies off the needles, when I actually work on it.

Presents!

Greeting me when I got home from my second day of law school were these lovely presents! In undergrad, they used to deliver flowers to the reception desks (from the olden days when you had to sign boys in and out of your dorm) and I would always walk past, knowing the flowers were never for me. When the flowers are delivered to your front door, there's none of that disappointment!! Thanks Mom, they're beautiful.

In the red package (with the adorable, and tiny, Lorax sticker), was a knitting shirt (Resistance is Futile) from the very talented (and local) NeitherHipNorFunky! She was having a sale, and I love handmade silkscreens, and I am surviving law school (so far), so I bought myself a present. She even sent along a postcard with some of her paintings on it! Not only is she a very talented knitter and silkscreener, she is a painter as well! Me? All I can do is read casebooks and knit a few rows a day.


I've managed to stay on top of my readings (it is only day two) and have completed all my work for tomorrow. Mike has a music lesson to give tonight, so I'm planning on doing a little Contracts work, due Thursday, watching L'Auberge Espagnol, and knitting! I've started the shoulder decreases on The Minimalist, and perhaps tonight I'll try to finish up the back. I'm still on the first ball of yarn- 220 yards in a skein of Cascade. It's amazing.



This picture pretty much captures the color, but makes it look like I have a very short torso. I do actually have a short torso, but I'm less square-shaped than this picture implies.

I do believe I picked the right pattern to be working on for the beginning of school. It's easy to pick up, and I don't mind doing only a few rows (or a portion of a row). I've just been picking it up right before going to bed- in bed, actually. My knitting basket has even migrated from the living room & office into the bedroom. We'll remedy that tonight with some serious knitting & movie time.

Law School and Knitting

Law School and Knitting
Originally uploaded by castonacupcake

So far, it looks like starting a sweater at the beginning of law school hasn't been such a bad idea. It's been nice to come home to a few rows of moss stitch before hitting the books. Even though I've only gone through the first two days of Orientation, I feel like I'm already in the fray.

I've got almost 10" done on the back of the sweater, so I'm almost to the armholes. This will be my first seamed sweater since I've actually learned what I'm doing with knitting. I'm looking forward to a wearable finished project.

(I'm also testing out the posting-from Flickr set up, so bear with my if this page looks a little crazy)

Am I Crazy?

I started a sweater! Two days before law school begins... am I crazy to think I'll have any time to knit in the next four months? It's not a very complicated sweater- the Minimalist Cardigan from the new Interweave.

I've got about 3" done so far, and I'm already wishing I knew how to knit Continental (is that the style where you hold the working yarn in your left hand?), because all this k1 p1 is a little tedious with the working yarn in my right hand.


Even if I only get to work on this a few hours (minutes?) a week, I think it will be a mindless escape from hours and hours of legal reading. And perfect for fall. Just look at the wooly, nubbly goodness!

I'm using Cascade 220 in a lovely heathered shade called Garnet that reminds me of a good red wine. Maybe mulled, to fit with the fall theme.

While I was buying the yarn, a gorgeous, sunny yellow sock yarn caught my eye and I just couldn't resist. Even though I won't be making socks anytime soon (I don't think), it was just sitting there on the shelf, calling to me while my Cascade was being wound into cakes. So I got it. It's Shubui, 100% superwash merino in a colorway called Finch. I'm thinking it will be the perfect antidote to the dreary, gray, rainy, wintry weather I'm facing for the next several months.