Scarf

I barely got to knit a few rows of this before last night's storm took the power out (and along with it the sump pumps). I spent the rest of the evening in a rush to keep my apartment from flooding. Fortunately, the only water that came in, came in on the tiles and not the carpet. Despite that, the house is still in a disarray and I had to leave the rugs to dry in the sun today. I think I'll have to wait until the weekend to put the house back in order.

Grilled Chicken

Had dinner with Mom and Dad tonight. We grilled chicken wings and thighs, and dipped them in a homemade buttermilk sauce. Yum yum :)

Made it to Michigan City and Back

Friday night and into Saturday morning was the Michigan City race. It's a 65 mile course, there and back, overnight. It's our first overnight of the year and it was fun as always. We started at 8pm on Friday and finished just a few minutes after 7am on Saturday morning, placing 5th of 11 in our section. 

Ribby Scarf

Ok, so I'm a couple days behind on my blogging. The making, however, is still occurring every day. On Friday, my goal was to get past the first ball of yarn. Success :)

Ribby Scarf, con't

Ribby Scarf continues. I only have just a little bit left from the previous attempt, then it's finally time to join the next ball of yarn!

Ice Cream Sandwich

Natalie and I hung out today; I made coconut chai ice cream and she paired it with chocolate chip cookies, nom nom nom :)

Starting Over: Ribby Scarf

It's no secret that I had been miserable knitting this scarf. Tonight I decided to finally bite the bullet and start over, for the fourth time (the whole scarf could've been done by now!). There's 3 distinct things that I'm doing different that are making me much, much happier knitting this. And because I'm enjoying the knitting again, the scarf is naturally going up much, much faster. 

Changes include:

Switched needles. I was knitting on wooden straights and I switched to my Addis. Addi is by far my favorite needle, and having the right tool for the job is definitely a primary factor in the enjoyment-to-work ratio.

Added stitches. I went from 36 sts to 51. The width of the scarf went from 3.75" to 5.5", a much more proportional width for a scarf. I just don't like skinny scarves. Chicago winters are way too cold for that.

Every row the same. I knit scarves when I want a completely mindless project, when I need to be thinking about something else, but need to keep my hands busy. This pattern is set to repeat every 4 stitches, but casting on a multiple of 4 gave the scarf a right and wrong side, and I had to pay attention just a little too much to what I was doing. By casting on a multiple of 4 plus 3 allows the scarf to be completely reversible, as every row is the same :)

So now that I have a good pace set, I hope to finish this project in a reasonable amount of time.

Ribby Scarf

I continue to be unhappy with this scarf, yet I also continue to knit it, probably because I haven't found anything better to knit instead.

I can also tell when the height of summer is approaching, as my desire to knit anything at all completely wanes.

Crew Lunch: Chili

The Waukegan race has always been one of my favorites. It's usually our first distance race of the season and the party at Waukegan Yacht Club is always fun. I typically only sail the Sunday portion of the race (Waukegan-Chicago) as I'm at Ravinia with Mom and Dad on Saturday. I've also usually in charge of lunch for this leg of the race. In my quest to eat something other than turkey sandwhichs, I try to be creative for lunch, but the constraints are tough. 

First, I have to make something hearty and filling (sushi, anyone?), so both protein and carb rich, but I also want be healthy. Of course, if it's too healthy, the men will complain about it (quinoa, anyone?) and if it's not healthy enough, the women will complain about it (I will find a way to sneak kale juice onto the boat).

So after much deliberation this time around, I settled on chili. Everyone loved it(!), but it's one of those dishes that's probably better left to a day sail..

My modifications to the recipe included subbing Italian and spicy Italian sausage for the turkey, and subbing a mix of cayenne, Spanish paprika, Hungarian paprika, and crushed chili pepper for the chili powder.

Strawberry Lemon Sorbet

For my birthday, I got a new ice cream machine; today I decided to try it out, making a strawberry sorbet.

1 lb strawberries

3 lemons

Zest of 1 lemon

1/4 c honey 

Blend everything together, adding honey last, and more or less to taste. Chill until cold, then process in the ice cream maker. This yielded just shy of 2 pints for me.

I took one pint with me to Ravinia for a pre-show picnic, as a belated Father's Day present for Dad :)

Hemlock Ring Blanket

My darling Lithuanian sister and her husband are expecting their first child soon. This is likely the first of many hand knit gifts for the baby (much to Rima's delight). In any case, we threw a baby shower for her at work; she cried when she opened it. Then I cried, because she was crying. It was a sweet moment, and it makes me so happy to see how much she likes it :)

Mushroom Risotto

An oldie but a goodie. Classic meal that I've been consistently making for about the past ten years or so.

French Onion Soup

Technically, I made this entire soup from scratch; however, I only made part of it tonight. I had the onion soup base in my freezer; I simply added bread and grated gruyere and parm on top, finished in the oven at 350 for 30 mins.

Quinoa Chicken Salad with Spinach

I hadn't cook anything for a few days, which was making me a little antsy, and I was also in a hurry to get to WI tonight (staying the night due to an early morning meeting tomorrow), so I quickly got this going while I packed and cleaned up the house. It's an easy and hands off meal to make, when you need to do something else.

2 chicken breasts, seasoned and roasted at 350 for half an hour

1/2 c quinoa (dry)

2 handfuls of spinach 

1 handful grated parm

Fresh ground pepper

I think I've made this before with more quinoa and with more parm. Tonight's version was good too, but I barely tasted it, to be honest, as I was too busy running off to the the next thing.. Oh well, it's just been one of those days.

Ribby Scarf

After a brief hiatus, I decided to continue on with this scarf as is, and just see what happens at the end.

Make Dad Proud

This is something I strive for everyday. Happy Father's Day!!

Made it to 32!

Happy birthday to me!!

Blueberry Banana Smoothie

I'd planned today to go out and help Suzanne with some cleaning. Knowing that I'd be wiped at the end of the day, I started out my day with a breakfast smoothie.

1 banana, 1/4 c frozen blueberries, 1T ginger, 1/4 c almonds, 1/2 c oatmeal, 1/2 c yogurt, 1 1/2 c milk. I also added 1 scoop of protein powder. 

Sleepy Tea

Nothing special here, really. Just water and a tea bag. But after a long day and an even longer week (I put over 600 miles on my car this week), this was all I had the energy for today.

Ribby Scarf

I took the scarf with me to Wisconsin today. As I was knitting, I became increasingly dissatisfied with the width; I think it needs to be 2-3 ribs wider. As such, I've put it in hold until I figure out what to do.

Ribby Scarf

Progress on this guy is slow. I finally found the time today to knit, after beig too busy to do so for several days. The scarf itself is also simply knitting up slowly, based on the stitch pattern, I think. 

Onion Soup

Onion soup is becoming a new favorite of mine to make, probably because the results far exceed the effort! This time around, I had caramalized the onions in advance and had them hanging out in the freezer, ready to go. I also adjusted seasoning with balsamic vinager and soy sauce, to make up for the lack of cheese on top.

Lettuce Wraps

Mina and I made lunch today, she wanted lettuce wraps so we created an assortment of fillings that got mixed and matched together :)

Rum-gria

Mike brought fruit cups as part of lunch today. After the race, I decided to throw my ration of rum into the cup, and make a "rum-gria" or in other words, a twist on sangria. The mix was both delicious and worth it!

Fits 'n Starts

This is the third (and hopefully last) start on the scarf I'm knitting for my friend. As you might be able to surmise, Cerus #3 has been ripped out, and is waiting to be reknit. 

The new pattern is an offset rib out of my stitch dictionary. 36 sts cast on on size 5 needles for a width of about 5.5 inches. I think that'll meet my needs exactly :)

Veggie Burgers

Mina came over for dinner tonight. A few weeks ago, she'd found this recipe on a blog by one of the cooks at Mana, a vegetarian restaurant in Chicago. She asked if I could make it; of course I was more than happy to try.

Now, I've been friend with and cooking for Mina for several years. I always find it difficult to come up with something to prepare because I'm an omnivore while she's a vegetarian. My mental model of vegetarian food is essentially scaled up veg side dishes (terrible, but true). So tonight, when these burgers finally made their way onto the plate, I was both surprised and delighted. Not only were they quite tasty, but they were satiating, too. I didn't even miss the meat! Mina was also pleased :)

Modifications were slight, but included the omission of the bun and subbing Thai sweet rice for brown rice (it was what I had on hand). I also cooked half on a regular skillet and half on a non-stick skillet. For these, the non-stick was much, much better, allowing a nice crust to form on the patty.

Cerus #3

Most of the blogging I do, I do from my phone. I take all the pictures with my phone and blogger has an app that allow me to post from my phone as well. I'd meant to post this last night, but I changed the pass code on my phone and then immediately proceeded to lock myself out for the night :/ The issue resolved itself this morning and my phone is fine. (Whew!) 

After 2 days of knitting on Cerus #2, I decided that while I liked it, I didn't like it for the recipient I had in mind. As such, I'm abandoning it temporarily and starting over with a different yarn. While this yarn obviously doesn't have the same color play as the other, I'm hoping the texture of the linen stitch will really pop. (Yarn is Rowan Pure Wool DK.)

Cerus on a road trip

Something very unusual happened today: I went to Wisconsin (which is normal), but I didn't have to drive (which is a treat)!!! Of course I immediately jumped on the opportunity to knit in the car both on the way up and back down. While Cerus is a slow knit, on the account that it is knit lengthwise, I think I made good progress!

Cerus Scarf

This is my second Cerus. I made one a few years ago for my friend Joe. I also intend to give this one away, but I'm not convinced yet that it'll work for the recipient I have in mind..

Grilled Chicken

Had dinner with Mom and Dad tonight; grilled chicken was on the menu, in a homemade wing sauce accompanied by a homemade buttermilk sauce for dipping. Yum yum!!