So the holiday knitting has begun, which means a lot of the things I am working on, I can’t post here. I am taking a bit of a different approach this year, I decided to knit things first and then figure out who gets them. This may or may not work out but I’ll be enjoying the process for sure.

The RepublicI saw this hat at SnB a few weeks ago and with my newly aquired stash of buttons, I had to make it. I think I spent more time debating the buttons than actually knitting. I knit it on 10 1/2 DPNs, so it only took a few hours. The button I chose is pearl so it’s pretty shiny but I think that this picture is a little better.

I would have modeled this, but with my short hair, it definitely doesn’t work for me. It’s really cute though and will definitely make a great stocking stuffer for a lucky recipient.

Entrelac Scarf

I’ve been dying to try this since I think it looks beautiful but I was pretty nervous. After picking up some Noro for a great deal (3 skeins for $10! Thank you Black Sheep Knittery) I had to give it a shot. It’s actually not as hard as I thought. And, I’m addicted to watching the colors change. It needs serious blocking because right now it looks like a basket. But, once done I think it will be really cute.

I may keep this for me. It’s just too fun. It has given me confidence to try the Lady Elanore however, but not in Noro (a little too spendy for me).

This month will be the first month of the year that I haven’t made my ’sweater a month’ goal. I have a wrap I’m working on that I would consider subbing as a sweater, since it’s really detailed and pretty huge. With only 2 weeks left in the month, I need to get my butt in gear if I’m going to make it.

I should have seen it coming…I was totally due for a kitchen disaster. Everything was going so well!

I really haven’t had one since Easter when I tried to make soup with the hambone. Who would have thought that once again, soup would be my demise? I always thought it was one of the easier food categories.

I digress.

Earlier this week, I saw a recipe for Mulligatawny stew on PinkofPerfection. For once, I had everything in my kitchen to make it and after a late night of wine and playing Wii with friends we had over, warm, yummy rice and this stew sounded perfect.

And perfect it was, until I put it in the blender. I blend all the time. Smoothies, margaritas, but never, never has the lid BLOWN OFF THE TOP like it did when I have a boiling hot soup in it!

All over me. All over the kitchen counter. All across our cabinets.

So what do I do? I think, oh shit, I must not have had the lid on tight and do it AGAIN. And the lid blows off AGAIN.

I would be lying if I said I didn’t try it a third time. Apparently I’m a glutton for punishment. I don’t know what the hell happened. Maybe the hot soup made a vaccum? Maybe our lid no longer holds a seal?

Either way, I decided to still eat the soup, just unpureed, which was fine but I don’t recommend it. I’m pretty sure my shirt is ruined and the poor car, who was never a fan of the blender in the first place, may never venture into the kitchen again.

Fall is my absolute favorite season–it contains my favorite holiday (Thanskgiving), sport (football), coffee (pumpkin spice) and apparel (jeans and sweaters, tyvm).

I have to work a little harder for it here in SoCal, but I find it nonetheless. I watch lots of football and go hiking. Last weekend Eric and I took two long bike-rides and purposefully rode through the fallen leaves.

I love fall cooking and it does a lot to set the mood. Switching from salads to soups and seeing the produce turn to squashes and potatoes makes me incredibly happy. My favorite produce market recently switched over–no more walls of watermelon–and I’ve been cracking out the cookbook for some inspiration.

Roast Spaghetti Squash

I love spaghetti squash. Of course, I love pasta so it’s no surprise. I found a new recipe that calls for hollowing out the squash and mixing it with zucchini, basil, tomato sauce and parmesan. You then re-roast the squash. It was fantastic. 

Ratatouille

My mom made ratatouille earlier in this week and I was inspired. I already had an eggplant, onion, tomatoes and mushroom in the fridge so I just had to pick up a little more zucchini and a green pepper. I’ve never had ratatouille before but it was delicious and really warming. I made a 2-quart casserole and ate most of it myself this weekend, forcing myself to stop so that I’d have lunch tomorrow.

Stuffed Peppers

I love stuffed peppers–but if I’m being honest find them a lot of work for what you get so we don’t make them very often. It’s been at least two years since we’ve had them. Still, the red and yellow roasted peppers are delicious. Of the three, this was the best. We stuff them with rice, tomato and ground beef with just a little bit of cheese on the top. I always want more rice and Eric wanted more ground beef. Next time I’ll have to stuff them separately.

We’ve yet to make our annual chili and were talking about making sweet and sour meatballs and spare ribs soon. There’s lots more cooking to come. Fall has begun!

The citrus muffin experiment wages on. It’s fueled by the fact that now that summer has ended Coffee Bean is carrying pumpkin choc. chip muffins (not that I’m complaining) instead of lovely citrus deliciousness.

So, I thought I’d try again. This time, more zest, less orange juice, a splash of vanilla (daring, I know) and the repeat glaze from before.

These muffins were better, but only marginally. The first round was juicy and didn’t rise, not the case with this group. But, they were a little too firm…

Eric thinks it’s a lost cause. That I won’t be able to recreate mass market muffins without preservatives. And maybe he’s right. In the meantime though, I’m going to keep trying. As you can tell from the picture, these babies don’t last too long in our house.

It’s been two weeks since our first anniversary, but I have to post about it because I took some pretty cute photos and it was a great night.

After bantering around ideas about heading to Vegas and renewing our vows with Elvis or hopping on a booze cruise and heading to Mexico, we decided to be logical and just head out to a nice dinner. We choose The Lobster because we had registered there and didn’t get it as a gift, so we decided to gift ourselves.

The food was really yummy (although I thought I might spoil the mood by taking pics during dinner). We had wine, ceviche (YUMMY), ahi tuna and Eric had crab stuffed steak medallions. We had the best table in the restaurant, right next to the glass so we could overlook the pier.

After dinner we walked down to the beach for a bit and out onto the pier. The night Eric proposed we drove to the SM Pier and had champagne and rode the Ferris Wheel, so it’s a special spot for us. It was nice to head back there before heading home for some of our wedding cake and champagne.

It was a great night. I absolutely can’t believe it’s been a year already.

LA County Fair

This weekend the LA County Fair opened with a promotion for $1 admission from 10-1. Normally it’s $17/person. Eric and I, along with most of the Inland Empire and LA County, headed out since we prefered to spend our money on food and not admission. After a seriously rocky start where we sat on the transition ramp from the 57 to the 10 for an hour and a half (and I had a meltdown about the traffic), we made it in at the last second. Eric actually bought tickets at the $1 rate for the people behind him in line since they wouldn’t have made it.

Once inside however, we had a great time. We ate…and ate…and ate.  

Fried Veggies

Cheesecake on a Stick

Ice Cream Sundae

We visited the animals…

saw the knitting and spinning exhibits and my personal favorite, table scapping.  

We went to the pig and chicken races.  

Enjoyed the wine and beer tasting…  

We even did some shopping watched the Peking Acrobats (who were so amazing I refused to take pictures, you have to just see them for yourself).    

After a full day–about eight hours–we were officially exhausted. A great trip but time to head home.

Today I had to meet with a client in Brea. After meandering through the brushfires along the 210 and a succssful meeting I was ready for lunch. I’ve been working with this client for 5 years and thought I had been to every restaurant in a 10 mile radius. But, we met with a new employee at the company today who had a suggestion, a sushi restaurant called Fish in a Bottle.

Sushi and I have an odd relationship. I love it, but I’m much better served to eat it in the privacy of someone’s home. I start out strong but about half way through I’m over the chopsticks and really just want to eat with my hands. We had sushi at Trader Vics one night and I dropped more than one piece on my lap (and maybe flung some over my shoulder).

Today’s find was exceptional. The specialty rolls were pretty funky and I had a hard time choosing. Do I go with Blue Mountain or Cowboy?

(As described by the OC Register)

The restaurant’s Blue Mountain roll ($9.95) is made with crab, avocado and mozzarella, all baked and topped with blueberry jam. Though one of the more peculiar rolls on the menu, it was one of the best we tried. The flavors of the sweet crab and mild mozzarella seemed enhanced by the addition of the blueberry jam. The nori also did not seem out of place, mostly because there were other sweet elements in the dish.

The Cowboy roll ($9.95) is another menu anomaly, this one containing Angus rib-eye steak, red onions, field greens, bits of Gorgonzola and drizzled with a balsamic reduction sauce.

I opted for the Blue Mountain, since I feel like not eating fish while in a sushi restaurant is a bit of a crime. It was so good. I know it sounds weird. Cheese and jelly with sushi? Trust me, it was perfect. So perfect I don’t want to eat anything else because my taste buds are still remembering how good it was.

You’ll be happy to hear that I did not drop any on my lap. Thank God for that because I was wearing new white pants and blueberry jam would not have looked so good. It wasn’t easy either because the roll was enormous. Four pieces of sushi and I was stuffed.

Next time you’re in Brea (or Cyprus), Fish in a Bottle is a must. Lucky me we’ll be heading back that way soon.

One of the good things to come out of this downturn for me was realizing how little I really need. But I think a lot of people are going through this so that’s not super unique.

But for us, the slide was interestingly timed with our wedding. The market literally tanked while we were on our honeymoon (and who wants to watch CNN when they can be lounging in the Caribbean). When we returned to reality, this made combining our finances and starting to plan long term as a couple really interesting–especially given that we decided the first thing we wanted to do was produce Eric’s album. This meant a whole second round of expenses after the wedding at a time when things were really slowing up at both of our jobs.

I’m really proud of us. I don’t want to sound cocky, but we’ve worked hard this year, put ourselves in check and really been plowing ahead toward our goals.

Part of our plan (and one of my new year’s resolutions) was to track all my spending. So I signed up for Mint.com. I’ve been using it for a few months now and I LOVE it. I especially love all the little charts and graphs compairing my spending in certain areas to others in my demographic and my spending on items like a phone plan, car insurance, etc. It’s really intersting. I actually am paying too much for my car insurance.

Anyhow, this morning I was poking around on Mint while I drank my coffee and found this chart, which tracks my spending since April.

Look at me go!!! Also, what the hell was I doing in April?! I can’t wait to see where we stand at the end of the year because there are a couple things we can still do to cut back but just have to wait on due to timing. Cell phone contract, that means you.

Long story short, I know that QuickBooks has all of these features but I really like that Mint enters everything for me and I just have to log in and check my receipts to stay on top of the finances. I also like that I can set a budget for each month and it sends me weekly updates that shows my progress in every category.

Who knew I was such a financial dork, not me for sure!

Believe it or not, there has been knitting going on around here. Quite a bit actually. This wrap is from Inspired Cable Knits by Fiona Ellis. When it’s finished, it will actually be two long pieces sewn together. (I can’t find any good photos of it online.)

I feel like this project is taking me ages.

First, it’s slow going, not because of the cables in the middle, but the tiny triangles on the side, which are making me so crazy, I’m considering ripping out the whole thing and starting over without them.

Second, is not a project I get to work on often. It’s a bit too intricate for Stitch and Bitch, and when I try to work on it at home Foxy inevitably sits on the pattern or forces her way onto my lap making any attempts at knitting either incredibly slow or completely futile.

Third (and typically), I’m not actually sure if I have enough yarn. This is the problem with using stash without labels. When will I learn…

I know that when I finish it, I’ll love it. Until then, I’ll just keep plugging away, a row or two at a time. I’d like to think that I’ll finish it before my Twilight stitch markers are completely out of date. And, just in case anyone was unclear on my Twilight stance–Team Jacob.

Sunday morning I woke up not feeling well. After my morning coffee and lounging about, I just couldn’t shake it. I decided a day on the couch with a book was in order. Luckily I had been at the library earlier in the week and picked up a new book: Garlic and Sapphires.

Ruth Reichl was the food editor for the Los Angeles Times and who was recruited to be the Restaurant Critic for the New York Times. This book shares her tales about life in NYC, eating in full costumes to avoid being pegged and going out to eat night after night.

I really enjoyed her writing style and will definitely check out her other books. This book came out in ‘05 and I hadn’t heard of it until browsing Amazon one afternoon. It’s a quick read. Great for foodies. It’s especially good for busy moms or people who only have 10-20 minutes at a time to read. The chapters are great stand  alone stories…or, if you’re a bookhound like me, you can read the book cover to cover in an afternoon.

By the time I finished, my stomach was feeling better and I was inspired. Off to the kitchen I went for a Sunday dinner of pasta with homemade sauce.