Too short.

And just like that, my vacation is over. I'm tired, and I should go to bed, but I don't really want it to end yet. I don't really like here so much, but my husband and son are still here, and it's strange having a life there without them. I've booked my tickets for Christmas though - I'm taking a long break, over a week, and that will be good.

Hopefully next time, I won't have food poisoning. That put a bit of a damper on the trip for me, and I'll spare you the details, only to say that Thanksgiving dinner was much better going down than when it made its return. For posterity, however, I will say that a) I brined the turkey using Alton Brown's guidelines, and it was much better than usual that way. I will do that again. b) I tried to make pie crust, and I still don't have the knack. I used a 50/50 shortening/butter mix, and it was pretty meh. c) Cranberry sauce is excellent if you add in a pint of blueberries, cinnamon, nutmeg, and tangerine zest. d) I finally made the gravy well, but my stuffing was too crumbly. And yes, I'm really sad that I didn't eat many leftovers this year. Next year the big change will be to make a pecan pie and a pumpkin cheesecake. I'm neutral to negative when it comes to pie, and the husband isn't a big pumpkin fan. (I could, however, throw all caution and tradition to the wind and attempt this next year, but the primary limiting factor is that I don't have a stand mixer.)

Knitting news is very very boring, and I don't have my camera cable with me. I brought my Verona shawl, , which makes a lovely, wearable final product, but is a lot of uh, sure, let's say meditative knitting. I will wear this scarf quite a lot, but I'm less entranced with the knitting than some of the other folks who have been knitting it. It's soft and warm and almost weightless, and I like the color and the irregular qualities of the yarn. Frankly, it's almost long enough for me, but I wouldn't mind being able to wrap it around my neck one more time, so I suppose I'll just keep going for a while.

Finally, I'm leaving you with a video of a song that I'm very fond of. I just missed a concert I really wanted to see, but I was able to watch Mike Doughty in a live streaming of his NY concert tonight. He closed out the set with this song, "Your Misfortune," which is the last song on an album that I have listened to over and over again. This is from a show in Japan, not the one I watched tonight, but I think it's pretty, and some of you might like it as well.



Photos when I return and find my camera cable.

Reading

Lately, I've been reading a lot more nonfiction than fiction. Earlier this year, I finished reading Ghost Map, which is a pretty interesting read if you're interested in cholera, epidemiology, or social history. I didn't think that most of you would be that excited about it, and frankly, there are enough serious flaws to the book that I can't recommend it. The parts about epidemiology are great, but I didn't find the author's pontification on urban life to be particularly interesting, or enlightening, and could have been edited out. The loss of focus to the book was a serious flaw in an otherwise interesting read.

However, I'm reading something now that I think would be of more interest to anyone coming by my blog. I don't consider myself a serious foodie, but I like food, cooking, and eating. I also really like reading books about the aforementioned topics. Heat is written from the perspective of a journalist and cooking enthusiast who somehow managed to get a job as an extern in Mario Batali's kitchen. Buford writes well, and has a good story to tell. It's compelling reading, and has not only managed to inspire me to spend more time in the kitchen, but also to look into Batali's recipes and techniques. I've had mixed opinions of Food Network celebrity chefs, but Batali comes across as a guy who genuinely has some technique, and is a lot more interesting than his TV image. (Speaking of which, I tried to watch Rachel Ray cook Thanksgiving dinner in an hour. Was flipping through channels and caught about a minute or two, after which I went back to cartoons. I find her voice grating, and my son commented that what she was making didn't look very good.)

Anyhow, the other book I'm reading, but left at home, is Spice: The History of a Temptation. It's not nearly as fast of a read as Heat, and not as much fun. It's interesting though, if you have any interest in the history of spices, and the role they have played in exploration and expansionism. I haven't gotten that far into the book, and I'm more interested in the role spices played in social history, but it's not bad so far. I'm not going to give it a hearty endorsement yet, especially as I haven't finished the book, but if you have an interest in the topic, it's not bad.



I've had a resurgence of interest in cooking, and have been playing with the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day book. I'm a big fan of the basic bread recipe, and I enjoyed the olive oil dough, but I'm lukewarm on the brioche. I also decided it was time to toss out my old spices and start over with small jars from Penzey's. I've threatened to do this several times in the past, and after some really disappointing experiences, I decided it was worth the investment - and really, it's a lot cheaper than what I found at the grocery store. Speaking of which, I'm shortly off on my final run before Thanksgiving - I need about 4 things, as I'm testing some new recipes this year. I'll try to get some photogenic shots of anything that turns out particularly well. It's strange making a break from the Thanksgiving dinner I'm used to (my mom's), but I think it's time to try out some new traditions.

Did I mention that my kitchen is small?

For a week after I moved in, I didn't have internet. Work's been busy, and long, and all-consuming, and I just haven't been able to figure out what to say here. The problem with a knitting blog is that it's about knitting, and now that I have no AC, and it's high summer, there's a minimal amount of knitting going on to write about.

But then I remembered that occasionally, I cook, and I thought I'd tell you about the challenge I set myself after moving here. My kitchen, as I mentioned, is small.

(Please excuse the dishes in the sink - I decided to take photos and write this after I fixed dinner.)

That's the bulk of my kitchen, with the photo taken from me standing with my back against my apartment door.

This is taken from the living room, and you can see the entire extent of my kitchen here. There's a closet that I use as a pantry, but I'll be honest and tell you there isn't much in there. The paper on the fridge is a takeout menu from a sushi place.

See? Small. Since I wasn't really happy with using a cutting board on the sink as counter space, I bought this cart from IKEA. By the way, I'm a lousy shopper. IKEA terrified me. Way too many choices. Nice stuff, but overwhelming.

Anyhow. I've set myself 2 goals while living here. First, you might note there's no microwave, and if you've ever followed me on Flicker, you might notice that I can't shut up about how hot it is here, so turning on the oven isn't an option. Thus, a lot of convenience food is out. Second, I'm really trying to limit takeout. Third, with access to fresh food (small farmers markets, a big farmer's market, and Trader Joe's) I'm trying to really limit processed food items. And finally, I'm trying to cook without a cookbook. I can't take full credit for this idea - I saw this blog post, and it resonated with me. So far, it's been an interesting experience. I'll admit to eating a lot of salad, and some basic pasta, but it makes shopping a lot easier. As an added benefit, I think this in conjunction with walking to and from work has resulted in me dropping some of the excess pounds I carry around. Oh, and my final challenge? My kitchen tools consist of one large pot, one pan, and one medium pot, a spatula, spoon, vegetable peeler and a can opener. Knives, a set of mixing bowls, my multi-tool and a George Foreman grill round out the tools.

Tonight wasn't the healthiest meal, but it was tasty - I brought some well salted water to a boil, then added angel hair pasta and about 8oz-10 oz of asparagus trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces. That cooked for about 2 minutes, until the pasta was close to done. Then I cracked an egg and dropped it into the water, and cooked for about a minute more. I drained most of the water off the pasta/veg/egg combination, then tossed it in a bowl with maybe 2-3 oz of herb coated chevre, and tossed everything to combine. To keep it from being too sticky, I finished it with a tiny bit of olive oil and ground black pepper over the whole mess. It was even better than usual, thanks to the addition of the egg.

This weekend I'm planning a trip to the market for more fresh vegetables and for some spices I desperately need. I'm having fun cooking this way, and it's a nice way to shake things up a bit. A friend suggested trying a chickpea and apple salad today, and I'm leaning towards trying that this weekend. Simple ideas are definitely welcomed, so please share if you have a favorite ultra-easy dish that I can try!

Almost a week later...

And almost no knitting. Still knitting the same lace scarf I've been working on, and plan to finish it someday. I've been working a lot, and doing some reading, although nothing too exciting, or at least not worth mentioning.

I painted my fingernails.


I made rice crispy treats.


I made cookies (blogged by someone else, here) from Nigella Express.

I baked some pumpkin cranberry bread, that, despite being non-photogenic, was delicious. I've been on a bit of a cooking tear, actually. I've been having a good time with Nigella Express, and have been nibbling on martini olives (green olives marinated in gin and vermouth), and chocolate pistachio fudge, which was way too simple to make for my own good. Tonight I made an incredibly simple salmon dish from the book, and it reminds me that I want more of Nigella's cookbooks, no matter how many miles I would need to run to continue to fit in my jeans.

And today I went to the beach in December. It was windy, chilly and overcast, but still beautiful.


Enjoy your holiday preparations, and time with your families.

Summer of what?

Doesn't look a lot like a sock, does it?




It's a free Berroco pattern, and I'm knitting it with some Softwist that has been marinating in stash for at least 4 years. Originally I had purchased the yarn to knit a lace tank, but I became less enamored with that idea as time went by. (Wool - tank top? No.) The yarn isn't my favorite thing to knit with. It's a worsted weight wool/rayon blend that doesn't have great yardage. It's splitty and slippery, and doesn't feel fantastic in the hands. I hadn't been knitting long when I purchased it, and I wouldn't do it again. Should work okay for a vest though, and the pattern is kind of cute.

My sock mojo isn't working very well right now. I have 2 pair on the needles from before the SOS officially started, and I did knit one pair, but honestly, I haven't been knitting much. I've managed to develop a sinus infection, ear infection, and pink eye. So, since I'm taking a few days off work (I'm a little wobbly, despite antibiotics), I'm knitting. Or at least I've felt well enough to knit for the last 2 days. I admit that I'm looking forward to not being sick - it's been 2 or 3 weeks of this, and I'm kind of bored with it.

Been doing some cooking, but not taking photos of the goodies. I did make chocolate chip cookies, not from the Jacques Torres recipe recently in the NY Times, but the standby Tollhouse Cookie recipe. I did make one variation to the recipe, other than my usual addition of extra vanilla. I let the dough rest overnight, which did make a tastier cookie. I didn't cook the entire batch after the overnight rest, and left it in the fridge for a total of 3 days, and made larger cookies than usual. Frankly, the cookies were better at the larger size, and they were better than usual with the overnight rest, even tastier after 3 days. Try it if you don't believe me.

My other cooking find was a Nigella recipe - and oh my, it was good! The recipe was for Mirin Glazed Salmon, and it's definitely going to be cooked again at my house. (Here's a beautiful photo of it, better than mine looked.) Watch out for the glaze - it's hot and will cause blisters if it lands on you.

That's all I've got for now...

Garage sales and living rooms

Clearly, it's still not done, and I'm getting kind of bored with it. The nice thing about the pattern is that it's so completely mindless that you can work on it anywhere, at any time. So my scarf has been worked on with my morning coffee, while listening to NPR, during the 10 minute intervals between doing something in the lab, while watching TV. But still, not done.

I have no idea why it's so important to me to finish this one over other things. Finishing my sweater would be less effort and more rewarding, but I never said I made any sense.

I guess the weekend is over already, and I spent most of it in the lab. I had really hoped to do more cooking, but I ended up out of the house for more hours than I had anticipated. I really wanted to make brownies, as I like chocolate very much. However, I forgot to get ice cream, and I figure if I'm going to make brownies with chocolate sauce, I might as well get ice cream to go with it. I still got to something though - in the oven right now is a pan of breakfast bars from Nigella Express. The recipe is extremely simple, essentially having you throw a bunch of solids into a bowl, mix with condensed milk, plop in a pan and bake for an hour. They're not done yet, but they smell good. Photos and a report on the taste tomorrow, when there's some light in my house, and if I have time to post after I run.

Elizabeth posted about recent kerfluffles regarding rude comments, and whether or not a blog was like a garage sale or a living room. I was somewhat surprised to find out that I have an opinion about this. I don't think I would ever tell someone their knitting sucked, but if they asked, I would (and I think I have) commented that a color combination isn't for me. I don't think it's the nicest thing to tell someone what they're knitting is fugly, and I don't know that I would do it. But I wish there was more constructive commentary on blogs. I think the lovefests on blogs get to be a bit much. I don't think everything I see other people knitting is great, and I've certainly cranked out some crap. I've still got a lot to learn, and I wouldn't mind it if people suggested better ways of doing something, or a means of fixing a problem that I may not be aware of. The key word here is constructive. Criticism is a big part of my job, and it's not always a negative thing. I do think it can be a challenge to find the balance between saying something overly critical and useless, being sycophantic, and actually providing constructive critique. I should do this more myself. I've gotten out of the habit of commenting. Blogging too.

Oh - but just for the record - I still can't stand the comments on how one should blog. The blog isn't my hobby, neither is photography. I don't have a great camera, I'm barely home when it's light out, and well, I'd rather knit than write or take pictures of my knitting. Nor do I really want to be told how often I should post or what topics I should or shouldn't address. Many options are out there. Read or don't read as you choose.

Weekend food blogging

I'm not as good about cooking during the week as I would like to be. The weekday schedule is highly variable, and it's questionable on any given day as to when dinner is going to happen. Even living in the south, it gets chilly, so I had been on a soup kick. Last weekend I made squash soup, which was excellent.

First you chop up some vegetables, and soften them in some olive oil and butter.


Then you cook them in chicken broth until the vegetables start to fall apart, puree them with a stick blender, and add a little salt and pepper to taste.


I've also been in cookie-baking mode, but I don't have the recipe perfected for these lovelies yet.

Once I get it just right, I'll share, but I'm still working out the details. Nothing better than a chocolate oatmeal chocolate chip and dried berry cookie. Yum!

I was hoping to do a bit more cooking today, but I'm feeling a bit under the weather.

I've also been reading a new book that came in the mail on Friday - Nigella Express. Thanks Bells, for introducing me to her recipes. I've been getting a kick out of reading the cookbook, and dreaming up what to make next. The recipes all sound mostly like guidelines, which is fine with me - she's got some lovely sounding ideas. I just read two reviews commenting about the refined sugar and fats found in the recipes, but I think that I can live with the occasional splurge... Food is for eating and enjoying.

Finished The Historian today. It was okay. I wouldn't recommend running out to find the book. Lots of atmosphere, not much in the way of a plot or character development. It wouldn't have suffered from some more judicious editing.

There's been knitting, but flickr is being strange and I can't see my photos, which means I have no idea which photo is which...