Life is in the Details

Week in the Life - Thursday

In the home stretch!

Week in the Life- Wednesday

These photos from yesterday look like a very ordinary day, but in fact it wasn't.  I just missed taking photos of all the out of the ordinary things, and each time I would say after... ugh, I forgot to take pictures! And in fact I only took 25 pictures yesterday at all.  So Day 3 will be more words than photos, and that will be fine. Hopefully today I'll remember to take the camera.

Early Summer Recap

Family, friends, crafting, gardening, and just enjoying the outdoors.  It's been great so far!

A new year...

The new year started quietly for me. My mom and Fred had planned to come down on Saturday, New Years Day, so I also spent the last day of the year cleaning my house.  It's the first time I made a point to do this, because of company coming, but I highly recommend it. It's so nice to start the year is a sparkly clean house!

 Ana and I stayed home watching the ball drop on tv, after being in NYC the day before.  We watched Kathy Griffin and Anderson Cooper on CNN.  I love them together and I laughed my way into the new year.  As I get older I realize that I appreciate the music choices on the Rockin' Eve show less and less, so I am very happy that there is now a non musical alternative! With my favorite news anchor, no less!   I made my favorite baked brie, in crescent rolls with raspberry preserves served on wheat thins for the festivities, and relaxed in pjs.

Saturday Mom and Fred came as planned. I made some chicken soup and homemade bread with lemon cake for dessert. 

It was pretty low key. Mom has wanted to visit while my tree was still up so that was the intent of the visit. It was her first time seeing my tree after having one for 10+ years, I guess it was time.

I love this photo showing my parents addiction to their Blackberries.  Fred is only recently a convert.  He never understood why people needed the internet on the go. Now look at him! And he's even on Twitter!

The day was capped off by an accident and thankfully not a trip to the emergency room thanks to Fred's super strong skull. I was explaining a joke from Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update about Governor Patterson walking lost in front of the camera, which while I know is not politically correct is still so funny and since the Governor got in on the joke himself, I think it's safe to laugh now.  But I was showing them how he bumps into the camera and I bumped into Fred, pretending he was the camera.  Unfortunately, my ottoman was right behind him and he wasn't able to step back when I bumped him and instead, he fell back, on to the ottoman.  Which would be fine if he wasn't so tall! He kept falling and banged his head into the wall behind the ottoman.  I don't know how he didn't hurt himself but I guess our skulls are meant to protect that brain! I felt terrible though and while Fred was so gracious about the whole thing, even while holding the ice to the back of his head, I will leave the SNL skits to the professionals!

The first week of the year was spent still looking for a job.  Engineering is still suffering from this recession, especially site planning which is my area.  It's getting scary how long this is lasting and how there just doesn't seem to be much improvement.  I keep hearing that people are shopping more and the stock market is up, but that does not seem to be helping the construction industry at all.  

I have been doing the work for a teaching certificate and I think that may be what my new career path may be.  I want to teach Science, which I do love deeply and I think I am enthusiastic enough about science that I could maybe pass that love of learning on to students.  I just think of teaching as such a calling, and I'm just not sure if I've been called.  But that will be a focus early on in this new year.

Then this past weekend I caught the Wii bug again! I got Ana Guitar Hero for her birthday, which she has been wanting, and I have been trying to figure out the game.  I'm getting better but at this point I am just struggling through the beginner level trying not to get thrown off stage!  And then another gift for her (really for myself...shhh)  I got Glee Karayoke which we both LOVE!! So fun if you're a Glee fan and like singing corny songs! We sang ourselves hoarse this weekend! I now want to get the Disney Sing It with all the Disney movie songs!!

The weekend ended with the taking down of the Christmas tree and all the decorations. It's always sad for me to put it all away because I love Christmastime so much, but I am definitely liking the uncluttered house with lots more room with the big tree gone. 

I hope this year I can get more uncluttered. Get rid of lots of stuff that I never use and start fresh before this new job or career or path starts for me.  I hope that 2011 is lots more of what I did this first week, focusing on a new job, learning new things, being creative, cooking simple food from scratch, decluttering and spending time with family and friends.  Oh and snow! We've had another few dustings of snow after the 28.5" the day after Christmas and we're expecting another 6-12" on Tuesday.  I am LOVING the snow!!

December Daily Update: I have to print out the last few pages of the December Daily album and assemble them, then I'll photograph the rest of the pages that I haven't blogged yet and update here. I am done through December 22nd, but I got behind in my photos and blogging with all the confusion of Christmas.  I hope to get that done in the next couple weeks.

 

Homegrown pizza from the last of the tomatoes...

Over the past few months, since I've been home and have the time, I have been making a lot of homemade pizza, usually every few weeks. And since the tomatoes started to ripen I've been making homemade sauce as well! Since September is now here, and my tomatoes are dwindling, I thought I'd take a few of the remaining stragglers and make some pizza last night.  It was Friday night after all!

I make my pizza dough from this recipe at allrecipes.com. I make it in the bread machine since generally I keep my house at a subarctic temperature, even in Summer because of my super hairy, easily overheated, Eloise, which challenges the rising in "room temperature".

In the bread machine, the dough is kept perfect, so I don't have to worry about drafts or room temp. And I just place the ingredients into the machine like I would with a bread machine recipe. Basically putting the liquids on the bottom, the flour on the top, and the yeast on top of that.  I turn on the dough cycle and go back to knitting for a while.

Last night though I made the sauce right away and then assembled it later when I was ready to eat. I have used this recipe a few times now and my homegrown pizza sauce has come out wonderful.  In months where there are no tomatoes in my garden I use this one.

I cut up the five tomatoes that I had, two were fairly large and three smaller ones. I think that's about enough for one recipe of pizza. I did rinse out some of the seeds, but I'm not neurotic about it.  It would be fine to keep them in, but I prefer less seeds.  It ended up being about 5 cups of chopped tomatoes.

I added the garlic, I cheat and use the garlic in a jar. I'm sure that breaks some foodie rule, but it's so much easier, and my palette is not advanced enough to tell the difference.

I added the tomatoes and fresh oregano.  Unfortunately my basil is pretty much gone, so I had to use dried. With basil I can tell the difference, so it's definitely better with the real thing. I also add a squirt of honey, maybe about a teaspoon, I like a sweet sauce. And just simmer until most of the water is gone.  Then as the recipe says, use an immersion blender to chop up some of the sauce, and leave a little bit chunky.  That's it! It's very easy.

After my dough is finished in the bread machine, I just assemble: roll out the dough; add my sauce; some fresh mozzarella; and a few mushrooms that I had on hand.

YUM!

Lake Time...

Yesterday was a perfect day to spend at the lake! The weather was stellar! 

I finally was able to give Katie her birthday present, she loved it!  She piled the doll and teddy into the stroller and pushed them around for an hour.  I loved seeing her dress up in her new tutu skirt and putting it on again herself later last night after dinner. 

I loved hearing Keiran's excitement when he saw that I had brought him a "half-birthday" gift.

I loved seeing my sister's growing belly and was so happy that her and Mike were able to steal away a few hours for themselves while Grandma, Poppy and I watched the kids. 

I loved seeing Keiran and Fred doing their regular collecting of shells and rocks from the edge of the water.

I loved hearing Keiran recite The Pledge of Allegiance which he learned over two web chats with my Mom. 

I didn't love, but still chuckled at Keiran and Katie's high pitched screaming and laughing uncontrollably at each other on the swings.

I loved watching Katie barely eat any pizza but then inhale ELEVEN Edy's Dibbs ice cream chunks.

And I loved seeing the whole family (minus this photographer who was watching last week's episode of Mad Men) playing Candyland.  It was a great time!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day.

 

I Miss My Blog

I have not written here in a long time and I miss it.  I don't miss writing it, as much as I miss reading it. Is that weird? I love reading my own blog, I love looking at the photos and things and people that I love. I'd say I'm going to try harder, but I have said that before, so I'll just say I hope to post here more often.

Today is the Opening Ceremonies of the Vancouver Olympics! I LOVE the Olympics and I always wish I could take off two weeks of work to just watch every event! 

This year for the Olympics I am participating in Ravelry's Ravelympics!! I am a member of the Wollmeise Team and I plan to make some Wollmeise socks over the next 2 weeks starting tonight during the Opening Ceremonies!  That is the goal, to test your knitting abilities to try to finish  a project or multiple projects during the course of the Winter Olympics! And there are prizes and people cheer each other on.  Normally it has taken me longer than 2 weeks to do a pair of socks, mostly because I lose interest after one and the second one takes a while to get going.  Well I am hoping that this will push me to finish both in the next two weeks.

In other recent news, we have had tons of snow here on the East Coast! And it's made for some very pretty pictures!

 

It also makes a lovely backdrop for some recent knitting.  These mittens are my first stranded project.  They are the Bird in Hand pattern by Kate Gilbert.  I loved doing the stranded project but I ran into a few problems.  First of all, I used a needle that was a size too big so the mittens are rather large, and they had some tension problems.  (Notice how the dot pattern on my palm goes from large stitches to tiny stitches.) But for a first time out, I'm very happy with them, and they're so WARM!! It's amazing what doubling up the layers of yarn will do! I may have to move to a colder climate for these!

I used Madelinetosh Worsted in the Tart Colorway (which is now known as Tosh dk) and some Cascade 220 Superwash in the natural color.  With some scraps for the little thumb bird, I love the little birds on the thumbs.  Such a great detail! 

 

And the project I just finished last night that I was racing to finish is my Multnomah shawl.  I wanted to get it all finished before the Ravelympics started tonight, and I got it in just under the wire.  This one is in Wollmeise yarn in the Amazonas colorway. The color is so much more vibrant in real life, her colors just glow!  I would also like to thank my model, Eloise.  Isn't it a great color for her?

 

So I have been spending my free time cozy on the couch knitting warm wooly things and watching the snow fall outside.  It's been a wonderful winter for that.

Tonight the Opening Ceremonies and maybe some sushi as a nod to Vancouver and all their wonderful Japanese restaurants!  Other than Canadian Bacon and Tim Hortons coffee I couldn't think of what else to have for dinner that would be authentic Canadian and available at my local grocery store. Plus sushi is just darn good!

Jammin'

 

I was going to title this post I Be Jammin' since that is what I kept saying while I was jamming this morning, but lets face it, I'm just not that cool.

I know I have been away from blogging for a long time now.  I actually was sent an article last week from my friend George, from the New York Times, talking about the demise of millions of blogs that are no longer updated and just floating around in cyber space.  I would hate for that to happen to my little blog.  But as I told you back in February, I started knitting, I became obsessed and my obsession left me little time for anything else. I worked, slept and knit, and ate of course, I'm not dieting or anything! Lately I feel a bit less obsessive.  I can't promise an update everyday, but I'm going to try harder.

This morning, I decided to make jam from the strawberries that have been in the fridge all week waiting to be jammed and I couldn't resist updating since this kind of activity is just so blogworthy.

I've never preserved anything before.  But every year I say that I'm going to go berry picking and learn to make jam and how to preserve it, but I just never get around to it.  I remember my Uncle Nick (actually my next door neighbor growing up and family friend for almost 40 years) canning when I was little.  The Kuikens' had a large garden in their backyard, and as the vegetables came into season, Uncle Nick would pull out his great big pot and preserve some of his veggies to last past the Summer months.   I think he canned all kinds of vegetables, but as a kid, vegetables weren't really my thing, but I remember all kinds of pickles!! I don't think I realized that pickles started out as vegetables until I was much older. 

So this morning, I pulled out a smaller pot, I was actually not very prepared for this enterprise, other than getting the ingredients and picking up some little canning jars at the grocery store. I was wishing I had a jar picker upper thing when I was taking the jars out of the water.  It was very slippery with just some tongs and a towel!

I think there is a whole science with this preserving that really takes some practice and research.  But being that I was making such a small amount, it is highly unlikely that these preserves will last long enough in my house to worry about the bacteria. But as practice I wanted to try out the whole boiling of the jars. I washed the jars and boiled them for about 10 minutes.

 

I mashed up the strawberries. These were just strawberries I picked up from Whole Foods.  I had ambitions of going strawberry picking and making jam for the whole year, but the best laid plans...

I added just some lemon and sugar. I tried not to add too much sugar, although I read that the sugar is really what preserves the strawberries.  But I wanted it to taste fresh, not like candy, so I didn't go crazy.  Soulemama had suggested on her blog to add some zest which seemed like a brilliant idea to me.  I love anything with lemon zest! She also has more details on how to preserve the jam here. I was sort of cross referencing her blog, Allrecipes.com and the How to Cook Everything cookbook by Mark Bittman. They kind of agree but I'm sure it's best to just not anticipate the best jam in the world your first time out.  I actually am still waiting for mine to cool, but I'll give a review of my piece meal recipe after I taste it!  I decided not to add pectin.  I had some, but the allrecipes jam didn't include it, so I didn't either.  It got 147 fairly positive reviews, so I figure they must know what they are talking about. 

 

I brought the jam to a boil, then low heat as recommended by Mark B. Then it wasn't jelling so I went to high heat for 10 minutes as directed by the allrecipes recipe.  This part was frustrating because I wasn't sure what would change to make it jam.  But when it jams it really looks like jam! Finally I was jammin'! It came together and transferred the jam to the jars and they are cooling down now to be refrigerated I can't wait until later to try it out! If I can wait that long. Warm jam is probably good too right?

Getting ready for Spring!

I'm starting to look forward to Spring! Let me preface this by saying I am completely a Winter person, I love the snow, I love the cold! I know I am unusual in my love for all things frozen.  I grew up surrounded by skiing and skiers, and in ski areas. My mom worked at Hidden Valley Ski Area in NJ for most of my childhood, I joined her in my teens and my dad now owns the local ski shop. It's in my blood to be cold hearty. 

But once the trees start to bud, and the crocuses peek out of the flower beds, I start to look forward to warmer weather. This year may have been even tougher than past years in saying goodbye to Winter since I only started knitting in February, and haven't been able to truly immerse myself in all the knitted goodness that I've made the past few weeks because it just has not been cold enough. Thankfully I can still prepare for next year and add some cotton yarn to my stash to continue with my current obsession. 

The nest above is sweet treat for those of us not ready to lay down the knitting for warmer pursuits just yet. It's a perfect knitty project for Spring! I purchased this felting kit from The Yarnery and it was so quick to put together! I did the knitting in one night and felted the next.  The little eggs were my first attempt at needle felting and only took a few minutes to reshape from robins egg colored fluff to tiny egg shaped felt.  I also ordered their Wooly Bunny kit, we'll have to see if that one gets completed before Easter next week. 

In addition to enjoying the Spring outside, I thought it time to bring some Spring into my house as well.  I brought home some pink tulips the other night. Nothing like fresh flowers to get me wanting to start my garden and do some Spring cleaning! 

I have also started knitting my first sweater project in the past week. It's actually pretty well underway at this point. The yarn I am using is Peace Fleece tweed in a color called Grass Roots.  I love this yarn.  It is just so natural, very unprocessed, as I knit I find bits of hay and tiny sticks. I love that.  It's not the softest wool in the world, but I love being reminded of the source of my yarn regularly as I knit.  

I'm making the Garter Yoke Cardigan, which was published in Knit 1 magazine in their Winter issue. The pattern didn't go up to my size, so I've had to modify it a bit to fit, but it seems to be working out very well.  My engineering background has really helped out upsizing the pattern!  I am diligently working on the sweater hoping for just one more cold day once its finished to be able to try it out. 

So yes, although I'm looking honestly forward to Spring, I'm not quite ready to abandon my favorite season. Could you all say a prayer for a couple 30 degree days toward the end of April, that's all I ask, just a couple. 

Snow Day!

No, I didn't get to stay home from work to play in the snow and make angels. It would have to snow 3+ feet to get the workday off.  BUT, School is closed! I haven't had a real snow day in many many years! Well I guess technically it is a snow night, but still, pretty neat. I am sort of torn though because I was actually looking forward to my class, but I'm still happy to be home having homemade chicken soup, with my homemade english muffins! Love my cozy house with soup on snow days..err.. nights. 

 

This is the most snow we have had so far this year.  Right now we have exactly 5" of snow and it's still coming down pretty hard! We are supposed to get 3"-5" but we're there now.  They said more on the coast though and since I'm about 4 blocks from the coast, that could be the reason for the extra inches! 

I grew up in the northern-most corner of NJ in Sussex County and up there we get snow like this all the time! I think my parents have had 6"+ of snow probably 6 or 7 times this year already, but down here at the shore we haven't had more than 1" all year!! This is VERY exciting!!

And this is my snow loving newfie! She is actually sitting outside right now just letting the snow pile up on her. She's laying right next to the door, as if to say, I really want to be inside with you guys, but not enough to give up the joy of laying in this cold, white, snowy bliss! Silly dog. 

So I am now going to spend the evening curled up on the couch.  My homework is all done, my laundry is all finished, I'm all done with dinner, what else is there to do? Maybe browse some Etsy!