Made It to the Top of the Mast

The crew sent me up for a repair - which we were unable to fix without further investigation - but it was a fun trip up nonetheless!

Chocolate Pudding

Happy 150 days of blogging!!

Finished: Scarf

Finished this scarf yesterday (5.29) but didn't get the chance to photograph it until today. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out - simple yet elegant and soft.

Soba "Noodle" Salad

I found a recipe for Soba Salad on the new NYTimes Cooking site. Since I'd made buckwheat crepes yesterday, I had the idea to slice a couple crepes very thinly, to mimic the noodles. I wouldn't consider it a successful experiment. The crepes never really achieved the same type of fluidity that pasta has; the texture was rougher, grittier. Taste-wise it worked, but I could've just as easily wrapped the asparagus and edamame in the crepe itself. Maybe next time. Maybe with creme fraiche, or a creme fraiche based sauce.. hmm..

Buckwheat Crepes with Nutella

I had initially planned to make some kind of spinach and tofu scramble, healthy blah blah. Making Nutella crepes instead ended up being a waaaay better decision :)

Crepe recipe via NYT. Made one full batch with a yield of 14 crepes, 1/4 cup batter each.

Asian Lettuce Wraps

Mina found a recipe for vegetarian wraps and invited me over to cook lunch with her. :)

Pasta Salad

I made a pasta salad with chicken and pita today for crew lunch. I improvised the recipe based on the leftovers I'd brought home from yesterday's party. Everyone enjoyed it do much (yay!) that I barely remembered to take a picture before it was all gone!

Make a Mess

The first thing I did this morning after getting out of bed was to trip over my power cord and face plant onto the living room floor. Then, leaving for the harbor, I left the coffee I'd made on the kitchen counter. I picked some more up on my drive down, which I then managed to immediately spill all over the car. 14 hours later, after the sailing and the parties wrapped up, I got back into my car...and it still completely reeks of coffee. :/

Scarf

I spent most of the evening knitting this guy. It was really nice to have the night in to myself as I'll be running around for much of the remainder of the weekend.

Wine Jello Thursday

Wine Jello Thursday is a compliment to Burrito Tuesday and Taco Friday in the office, of course.

Over burritos the other day, the topic of conversation centered around the deliciousness of gummy bears, then of wine flavored gummy bears (actually gummy wine bottles [which can apparently be purchased at the international terminal at O'Hare]). The homemade version of this treat is obviously wine jello, which I made and brought to the office today.

I essentially took half a cup of wine ($6 bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from CVS) and mixed in 1 packet of gelatin. The result? TERRIBLE!! So disgusting. For whatever reason, the wine soured during this process and these little jello bites were practically inedible. (I should also note that the wine, in liquid form, despite being $6, was actually palatable.)

But as we say in design, we prototype to learn, so I think there will some experimenting in my future.. :)

Banana Oatmeal Smoothie

I've had two bananas sitting on my counter for about a week, getting riper by the day. Now that the weather's turned warm (and is hopefully here to stay), turning on my oven to make banana bread (my usual go-to for overripe bananas) just didn't seem appealing. So I opted for a smoothie instead, which turned into a quick and delicious lunch on a work-from-home day.

The recipe is below. Note that this makes about 4 cups (for me, that's 2 servings as meal, or 3-4 servings as a snack).

2 medium ripe bananas
1 1/2 cups ice
1/3 cup vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup cooked oatmeal
1/3 cup almonds
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Blend everything together until the consistency is even. Easy peasy!

Scarf

This is the new scarf I've been working on, which actually won't be mine, and is going into the Christmas gift pile. Recipient TBD.

Spicy Asparagus with Black Rice

I love asparagus, but most of the time I just end up steaming or sautéing it with butter and garlic. Today's NYT recipe of the day mixed things up a bit. Be warned: this recipe packs some heat!

Bacon

Yes, I realize how much of a hipster it makes me to make my own bacon BUT I DON'T CARE BECAUSE BACON IS DELICIOUS :)

Green Juice

More juicing today :)

Kale, parsley, celery, cucumber, honeydew, and pineapple.

Vegetable Curry

I think I've made curry only once or twice before. This recipe came off the back of the packet of the curry seasoning I bought while in Grenada last year. Served it over rice..yummmmmm.

Honey Meringues

My sweet tooth kicked in tonight so I made honey meringues from the Nourished Kitchen cookbook. I honestly have to say that these weren't my favorite. Maybe because this wasn't the type of sweet thing I was craving, or maybe because the flavor of the particular honey I used was too dominant, but something was a little off for me. That said, I love the texture of meringues and I'm excited to make this again, to experiment with a variety of flavor profiles :)

Bedtime Tea

A concoction of lemon, honey, mint, ginger, and rose water. Goodnight!

Picnic on a Rooftop

Nat and I had a dinner picnic on her rooftop today; the view is amazing! She made these delicious black bean burritos and I brought ice cream and wine. 

Vanilla Mint Ice Cream

Used this recipe and it is light and interesting and complex and not too sweet. Overall, a recipe worth repeating!

Also, this batch of ice cream broke my ice cream maker :( I like to think that's a good enough reason to get an upgrade :)

Portugal Cake

This recipe came from my new Nourished Kitchen cookbook and turned out perfectly! Happy Mother's Day, Mom!!

Liberty 2 Delivery

We made the delivery today, down the river and up the lake, on a perfect day for a sail :)

Binding Off

The bind off edge on this is sooo pretty, but takes forever to knit. Slow and steady, I guess.

Smoked Salmon Salad

This is my take on tuna fish salad. I find that substituting smoked salmon for the tuna adds a bit of depth to this classic dish.

Recipe as follows:
1/2 lb smoked salmon, shredded with a fork
1 dill pickle, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 spring onion, diced
1 tbsp mayo
2 tbsp spicy mustard
1/4 tsp celery seed
1/4 tsp sriracha
pinch of salt and pepper, to taste

Mix everything in a bowl and serve immediately, or refrigerate. Makes enough for 4 sandwiches.

Red Juice

I didn't really feel like eating dinner today..so I drank it instead. Red juice includes: 2 beets, 3 carrots, 1/2 bunch celery, 1 cucumber, 1 blood orange, 2 handfuls blueberries (approx 1/2 cup). I blended the blueberries in afterwards, instead of pushing them through the juicer, which worked well.

More Knitting

I took the knitting over to Mina's to watch the season finale of the Mindy Project..and due to a network error, the episode didn't play :/ At least I was in good company, with both my friends and my knitting.

Knitting Lace

As long as the weather stays cold in Chicago, I don't mind having a big hunk of knitting in my lap. It's just about the only thing to make this crappy spring tolerable. Now the trick will be to finish this before it gets warm!

A List

I've been following Jenny McGruther's Nourished Kitchen blog and recipes for about 4 years; today I finally got her new cookbook! I immediately read the whole thing cover to cover and made a list of everything I want to make, at least in the near future. I think this'll definitely keep me busy for a while :)

Detox Tea

I did not make anything yesterday. Instead, I went to the bar. So I'm making up for both yesterday's post and last night's drinking with a cup of lemon, honey, ginger and mint tea. Cheers!

Cauliflower Salad

Everyone I know had a crazy busy insane week. It's rained every single day, and although the calendar says it's May, it really feels more like March. 

Mina came over for dinner and I made this cauliflower salad based off a Tasting Table recipe. The result reminded me so much of taboule that we decided to include hummus and pita to complete the theme. And cheese and crackers and some wine, too. And Twinkies. I haven't eaten a Twinkie in 20 years, maybe? To be honest, Twinkies are kinda gross, not at all magical in the way they were when I was a child. Oh well. That still didn't stop me from eating the whole thing :)

Knitting Lace

Which is way way way better than knitting stockinette for hours and hours on end.