Happy Days
Weekends are happy days. I do need to go into the office today and do some GIS but for now I'm taking it slow.
Yesterday was lovely. Rich and I had our mini-pre-Thanksgiving, apparently a tradition of ours now since we spend actual Thanksgiving Day apart. It's really just an excuse to spend all day cooking fantastic food together. Or rather, taking turns in the kitchen b/c once the chopping is done and it's time to actually do the cooking, I like for him to leave. He hovers and distracts and gets in the way and cooking is Serious Business sometimes. :) He was in charge of the turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing, since he basically HAD TO HAVE all three even though he'll be eating all the same stuff later in the week. I made a green bean casserole, cranberry sauce (both from scratch), apple and brie mini quiches, a pumpkin and chocolate bread pudding, and an utterly delicious sweet potato recipe that involves roasting them and topping them with a little salad of celery, pecans, cranberries, and goat cheese that might be the tastiest thing I've ever eaten (link: http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/11/sweet-potatoes-with-pecans-and-goat-cheese/). Seriously, go make them. Super easy, quick, and delish.
So yeah, we made way too much food. I don't get to cook much, though, and it's nice to try new recipes out. The quiches and bread pudding were from the NY times vegetarian Thanksgiving recipes. Both were good, but not super fantastic. I'd probably make the quiches again b/c they were ridiculously easy and make a nice appetizer. I'd pass on the pudding.
We spent most of the day doing that, and then we went to see Harry Potter 7 Part 1. GREAT. Just great. I love HP so much it's crazy. I've decided now I need to reread, so I'm starting from book 5. I've read 1-4 so many times, and book 5 is where the real crazy stuff starts happening. I'm slowly working Rich down, he might actually even read the books someday. ;) Like I said, the movies are great, but they only just barely hint at all the political and social commentary in the books. They don't even come close to getting to the heart of the matter like the books. Sigh. J.K. Rowling is one of my heroes.
I got pretty yarn in the mail from The Sanguine Gryphon:
That top skein is Bugga in a special one-off colorway they were dyeing last week called Killer Bee. Brown is seriously underrepresented in my yarn stash and the color is so rich and varied, I couldn't resist. I have a shawl in mind. Then, they were having a 30% off sale on dye pot luck yarns, basically you don't get to choose the color but you pay a lot less. I absolutely freaking lucked out with mine, that blue-green is my FAVORITE COLOR and the yarn, Gaia Lace, is a blend of 60% silk and 40% cashmere and is, needless to say, amazingly soft and shiny. OMG I want to knit it right now. That might become an Annis from Knitty, but I'm also entertaining the idea of a lacy scarf. And the third miniskein is a little sample of Codex, their wool/silk worsted blend. It's very nice, which I already knew b/c I bought some at Stitches. I think I'll make a xmas ornament out of the little skein, it's a good color for it.
I love my yarn. :) I just wish I had more time to knit it. Seriously. I'm not loving holiday knitting this year. I finished a cowl and a shawl, but I have so many more things on my list and I really just don't want to make them. I just want to knit shawls and socks! Shawls and socks! Hats, cowls, mittens, and earwarmers all bore me right now, but they're the quick and appropriate things to give as gifts. Socks and shawls are special, not to mention a lot of knitting, so they are reserved for certain occasions. Plus, I'm selfish, all my socks and shawls I want to keep! Except for a couple of quicker shawl patterns. Sigh. So much knitting, so little time.
Yesterday was lovely. Rich and I had our mini-pre-Thanksgiving, apparently a tradition of ours now since we spend actual Thanksgiving Day apart. It's really just an excuse to spend all day cooking fantastic food together. Or rather, taking turns in the kitchen b/c once the chopping is done and it's time to actually do the cooking, I like for him to leave. He hovers and distracts and gets in the way and cooking is Serious Business sometimes. :) He was in charge of the turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing, since he basically HAD TO HAVE all three even though he'll be eating all the same stuff later in the week. I made a green bean casserole, cranberry sauce (both from scratch), apple and brie mini quiches, a pumpkin and chocolate bread pudding, and an utterly delicious sweet potato recipe that involves roasting them and topping them with a little salad of celery, pecans, cranberries, and goat cheese that might be the tastiest thing I've ever eaten (link: http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/11/sweet-potatoes-with-pecans-and-goat-cheese/). Seriously, go make them. Super easy, quick, and delish.
So yeah, we made way too much food. I don't get to cook much, though, and it's nice to try new recipes out. The quiches and bread pudding were from the NY times vegetarian Thanksgiving recipes. Both were good, but not super fantastic. I'd probably make the quiches again b/c they were ridiculously easy and make a nice appetizer. I'd pass on the pudding.
We spent most of the day doing that, and then we went to see Harry Potter 7 Part 1. GREAT. Just great. I love HP so much it's crazy. I've decided now I need to reread, so I'm starting from book 5. I've read 1-4 so many times, and book 5 is where the real crazy stuff starts happening. I'm slowly working Rich down, he might actually even read the books someday. ;) Like I said, the movies are great, but they only just barely hint at all the political and social commentary in the books. They don't even come close to getting to the heart of the matter like the books. Sigh. J.K. Rowling is one of my heroes.
I got pretty yarn in the mail from The Sanguine Gryphon:
That top skein is Bugga in a special one-off colorway they were dyeing last week called Killer Bee. Brown is seriously underrepresented in my yarn stash and the color is so rich and varied, I couldn't resist. I have a shawl in mind. Then, they were having a 30% off sale on dye pot luck yarns, basically you don't get to choose the color but you pay a lot less. I absolutely freaking lucked out with mine, that blue-green is my FAVORITE COLOR and the yarn, Gaia Lace, is a blend of 60% silk and 40% cashmere and is, needless to say, amazingly soft and shiny. OMG I want to knit it right now. That might become an Annis from Knitty, but I'm also entertaining the idea of a lacy scarf. And the third miniskein is a little sample of Codex, their wool/silk worsted blend. It's very nice, which I already knew b/c I bought some at Stitches. I think I'll make a xmas ornament out of the little skein, it's a good color for it.
I love my yarn. :) I just wish I had more time to knit it. Seriously. I'm not loving holiday knitting this year. I finished a cowl and a shawl, but I have so many more things on my list and I really just don't want to make them. I just want to knit shawls and socks! Shawls and socks! Hats, cowls, mittens, and earwarmers all bore me right now, but they're the quick and appropriate things to give as gifts. Socks and shawls are special, not to mention a lot of knitting, so they are reserved for certain occasions. Plus, I'm selfish, all my socks and shawls I want to keep! Except for a couple of quicker shawl patterns. Sigh. So much knitting, so little time.