Foodie Goodness

Last night I whipped up a sooper-simple quinoa recipe with junk I had lying around. (Can ya tell it's almost payday?!)
Quartered some onions, sauteed with olive oil, garlic, and diced red bell pepper until soft and a little browned. Added a can of diced tomatoes, a little can of diced green chiles, half a mini-can of tomato paste, 1 and 1/4 cup multi-colored quinoa, 2 Tbl taco seasoning, and some cumin. Mmm. Cumin. Poured 2 cups of water over the whole thing and let it simmer for 45 minutes. I added a little water at the end, to keep it from sticking. It turned out awesome - I ate mine over a bowl of fresh spinach, while Brian made tacos with lettuce, salsa, and soy cheddar-style cheez on flour tortillas. Leftovers were great at work today, and my portion (with the spinach) clocked in at under 300 calories. Yay!
Trying to whip up another miracle-we're-staving-off-going-to-the-store supper, and I stumbled across this recipe from the Post-Punk Kitchen. I did as directed... except used white vinegar, 1/2 whole-wheat flour, and added walnuts. And extra spices. Yeah cinnamon, what's up?

My great-gramma Clara's box grater, aww.

Folding in the carrot

I nudged the batter out a bit to thin the pancakes so they'd cook through.

All ready to bring to Brian's work for supper!

Suppers like this make me grateful to be more than a "cookietarian", to instead be someone who cares about eating healthy plant-based meals. There's so many times that it would seem "faster" to whip up pancakes with bisquick and animal products, but in the long run I enjoy food more because it's mindfully prepared.
A client was feeding her toddler a McDouble while they were visiting me in my office this week. It has really stuck with me because I was surprised that I had to suppress my gag reflex. I try not to be one of those "holier-than-thou" vegetarians but I was shocked at how normal it is to feed a child something devoid of nutritional benefit. I think what we put into our bodies is directly related to how our bodies, and therefore, minds, function. I think about how much less anxious Brian is, how his insomnia and gastro issues have diminished, and I have to give credit to eating well. Speaking of Brian, I should bring him his pancake supper before it gets cold. So, in conclusion:

Food is absolutely a political, social, cultural, economic, and moral issue.

Valentine's & Pirates

Gritty Knits' fiber club came in the mail last week, and all I can think of is those little chalky hearts from Valentine's day!

Because the colors vary so much from end to end, I'm envisioning a fractal 2-ply. Trust me, it's gonna be awesome.

Today is Pirate Knitting Day. I'm going to a party, there's gonna be pirate movies, and I'm bringing this:

Knit Picks Imagination "Pirate King" 

What are you up to?

10 Favorite Non-Knitting Blogs

This week's 10 on Tuesday is 10 Favorite Non-Knitting Blogs. Some of these can be found at any time in my sidebar, but I think I can dig up a few other goodies.

1. Just Go for a Ride...
This blog belongs to the infamous Ben Doom. He is a committed, thoughtful blogger and a rad human being. He's also my husband's bestie and boss, and I admire him a lot. His blog focuses on various types of bicycling and "day in the life" stuff. Good read.

2. Kyia's Just Riding Along
Miz Kyia is in a band with Brian, and I became friends with her through that route. She has this incredible luminous energy, which can only be glimpsed through the static medium of her blog. But with her hectic travel schedule, it's sometimes all I can get! (Can you tell I miss her lots lately?) I like Kyia's blog for it's amazing photography, world travels, ski trail reports, and all around good times.

3. Born This Way
Focusing on individual submissions, this blog showcases childhood photos and coming out stories from gay men and lesbians. It's often hilarious, frequently heart-warming, and always fabulous, girlfriend. Check it out.

4. POST PUNK KITCHEN!
I have a serious food crush on Isa Chandra Moskowitz, and if you're too cheap to buy her insanely awesome cookbooks, you can get some recipes here. Also, lovely food photos and vegan news. I heart you, PPK!

5. Overheard in Minneapolis
Pretty self explanatory, with that particular Midwest sensibility.

6. A Year of Slow Cooking
So, this lady made something in her crock pot every day for a YEAR. And I ate heartily through grad school as a result. Thanks!

7. The Sartorialist
When I want to remind myself how midwestern I am. On-the-street fashion photography and analysis.

8. Ordinary Courage
The Brené Brown blog. Brené is one of my heroes. She researches shame, resilience, perfection, and authenticity. She is a social worker and a treasure, and has shaped my life personally and professionally. I interviewed her for my MSW thesis!

9. FatFreeVegan, Vegan Dad
Nummy food.

10. Wise Bread: Personal Finance and Frugal Living
I am sort of a personal finance nutcase. So here's where I get some dirt.

Hopefully you've found some new faves among my top non-knitting blogs. Enjoy!

Wisconsin Point Beach

Just finished some new yarn, fresh from the spinning wheel.

 

These two 4-ounce braids came from Gritty Knits fiber club, 12 months apart.  I got 280 yards of 2-ply worsted. It doesn't seem like much but that's what my yarn meter counted as I wound. I'd love to use the yarn for the yoke of a sweater. It really reminds me of the beach at Wisconsin Point.

This is where I spent graduation from my bachelor's program... a few hundred miles away from UND, on the beach at Wisconsin Point in Superior, WI. Luckily my cousin texted me a picture of the summa cum laude under my name in the brochure or I wouldn't have found out for quite a while how well I graduated. 

Long time ago. Anyway, my Audrey in Unst sweater is plugging away, working on the waist shaping: 

God, don't you just love blurry photos? Hawt.

Saturdayyyy Hodgepodge

Saturdays are funny days. Sometimes it seems like I have tons of stuff to do, other times I get here and think, "What am I going to do with myself?" Today is sort of in the middle. I slept in, watched some history channel and knit while drinking coffee, and went to a meeting with some rad chicks I know. Then I met my mom for lunch & went to the Y. Now I have a few hours to chill and hang out with Brian before going to a thing. (It's a surprise. Shh.)

I've been spinning again. I'd like to spin a little each evening I'm home, but it's hard when there's so many things I'd like to knit. Which is tough when I have so much freaking fiber. So in the interest of guilt-alleviation, I spun some yarn last week.

From this:

190 yards of 2-ply, worstedish weight. 

Here's quiz from The Yarnista's blog.

I Am…… incredibly passionate (and often over-excitable)

I Want…… my dream job to become permanent. You know what I'm sayin'?

I Should…… ummm, SPIN MORE?!?

I Wish…… that the last 7 pounds would come off already. Sheesh.

I Hate…… the patriarchy, how much energy I devote into disliking my archrival, cleaning anything, bananas and mushy foods, and when peeps ain't pickin' up what I'm puttin' down.

I Fear……. uncertainty sometimes, becoming generally disliked by everyone I know, and Sarah Palin followers.

I Hear…… Brian watching TV, the neighbor's dryer running.

I Search…… my brain for a reason why I'm getting so many headaches lately. I think I need more coffee. Yes, that's definitely the solution.

I Wonder…… when looking at a starlit night, who made all this?

I Regret……. very few things. Can't really think of anything right now. That I can post on the internet.

I Love……. Brian Husbeast Hotpants. Knitting. Social work. Public radio. COFFEE. My fambly. My life.

I Always…… match my handknit socks to my outfit.

I Usually…… read my mail in the bathroom. Brian just pointed this out to me the other day.

I Am Not…… interested in cleaning my house.

I Dance…… alone to YouTube videos. Teach me how to dougie?

I Sing……. less than I used to.

I Never……. drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, drink soda, eat at McDonald's, or shop at Wal-Mart.

I Rarely…… miss any of those things.

I Cry…… thinking about how much I miss Pumpkin Pie Blizzards from the DQ.

I Am Not Always…… accurate, but frequently entertaining.

I Lose…… tape measures. What is with that?!?!

I’m Confused…… thinking about how to get over my deep distrust and anxiety about my archrival.

I Need……. 8.5 hours of sleep nightly, coffee, knitting, to go to Rhinebeck this year.

I Have…... the driest skin. Seriously, what the hell?!?

Milwaukee is pretty rad.

So... We went to Milwaukee for Brian's birthday last weekend. Our 3-day trip was amazing from start to finish. I really think I could just live in hotels and drive around strange cities looking for yarn stores and going out to eat at new restaurants for the rest of my life.

I knit a hat in the car:

Pattern is Wurm, yarn is Misti Alpaca Solid, Brian's expression is "nonchalant."

I worked on mittens for Brian's aunt at A Classic Slice.

We also ate rad food at Milwaukee's only 100% vegetarian restaurant, Cafe Manna. Lemme tell ya, it's not a cafe. It's a freaking restaurant. We were definitely the scruffiest people there.

Brian rode at Ray's Indoor Mountain Bike Park and had a good time Friday and Saturday...

And also rode at 4 Seasons BMX/Skatepark. Guess what I did?

Yup, worked on my Audrey in Unst. I spent most of Saturday at The Knitting Knook in Fox Point - totally got my directions mixed up and spent my day with Mary and Annie there, instead of the knit-in I had RSVP'd for at a different yarn store. Kind of felt like a dumbass when I got home and realized I had bugged these poor women at the yarn store for like 3 hours. They were amazingly gracious, and I came home with some lovelies:

The black yarn on the right is Kraemer Sterling, made with wool, silk, and sterling silver. Whoa.
Our trip was super amazing, and I loved getting away with Brian for the weekend. It was the best of our style - doing our own hobbies, while sharing our excitement and experiences with each other over amazing food. Plus lots of in-the-car talking and late night Walgreens runs for junk food. Happy 30th, Husbeast Hotpants!

10 on Tuesday: 10 Things on your bedside table

This week's 10 on Tuesday is 10 things on my bedside table. Here's a picture to jazz things up:

1. Sheepy. I sleep with one stuffed animal at night; this sheepy is currently out of rotation. (I have another Sheepy and Purple Bear.)
2. Wrist brace. When I've knit too much, I sleep with it on.
3. Face cream.
4. Lamp with fuzzy shade.
5. Simple Abundance.
6. Journal and pen.
7. Glasses, from about 9 years ago. I do not leave the house in them, the prescription is so old that it's barely strong enough to get me from bed to the coffeepot. 
8. Tissues - I had a cold last week and was blowing my nose in the night. Yuck!
9. Phone/charger, because I have my alarm on it and I do occasionally get some late night emergency-type calls.
10. Candle and tablecloth - my attempts at home decor.

MKE

Just got back from Milwaukee, need to collect thoughts and photos but here's a snap while we waited for a vegan pizza at A Classic Slice on Kinnickinnic:

It was a very slouchy-hat-and-plaid-shirt scenester kind of day. Trying to get the mood right for the Decemberists show next weekend?

In all directions

One of the things I love about knitting/fiber life is that there's so many dimensions, so many directions to take it in. In knitting alone, I've got a boring sock in my purse for working on in meetings, a quick-knitting par of fuzzy mittens for a friend, and a lovely sweater I'm making for myself.

Cheesy smile! It's the Anisette Cardi from Stitch Nation, in Stitch Nation Bamboo Ewe. I finished it last night, and will be button shopping today!

I've also been spinning, of course - another dimension of the fiber obsession. This new-to-me fiber, Masham, just came off the wheel as a single. Yardage unknown, because I'm lazy and haven't counted.

It's really a hairy fiber like Wensleydale, loooong stapled, coarser, and really different from my usual faves. The January offering of the Gritty Knits Merino braid of the month club arrived...

 

As did some lovely braids from Spincerely Yours, from Brian for Christmas. 

With all this lovely fiber, it's hard to pick between spinning and knitting! I think I'll be bringing my Hitchhiker wheel when we go to Milwaukee later this week...

10 on Tuesday

Ten on Tuesday topic for this week is:

10 Favorite Childhood Games

1) Dress up. I even had my mom's home-made senior prom dress! Very Little House on the Prairie, as a matter of fact.
2) Barbies... except my memories of playing Barbie just reveal how pathological my childhood was. Bummer.
3) Legos. My cousin Cameron and I were Lego crazy, seriously. I loved the pirate ones.
4) Pretend. We played a lot of pretend games as kids, Bridge to Tarabithia-style, in the field next to my gramma's house. There was a memorable day involving a three legged table, which transformed from a ship into a post-apocalyptic bomb shelter. I was a weird fricking kid.
5) Scrabble - played it with Gramma all the time.
6) Uno
7) Catchphrase. We played this in treatment on Fridays and I still love it!
8) Candyland - this was a game I could play with my baby sister, tough to find because we were 7 years apart. This was a good game to play together.
9) 4-square, a great playground game.
10) Super Mario Brothers. My cousins had a console and I was VERY jealous!

Good, good things.

First of all, I knit a hat for my cousin Michaela. It's the Felicity pattern in Dark Horse Fantasy yarn. (Which is a creepy name for yarn, especially if you've seen Clerks II.)

Second, I'm still loving my job! I just got my first check and *swoon*, it's a good one. So I bought Brian a new camera for his birthday.

Third, we got a check for $100 from Brian's oral surgeon - apparently we overpaid when he had his procedure last April.

Fourth, I'm eligible for dental insurance again, and at a reasonable rate. Brian can get his cavities (all 10 of them!) filled! Yay!

Fifth, we're going to Milwaukee for Brian's birthday, and I've already scoped out some yarn stores.

Sixth, I brought my wheel to guild last night and actually spun on it. Good times. I think I'm bringing it to Milwaukee!

Seventh, I'm losing weight again - I lost 5 pounds in the last 2 weeks. Fabulous!

Eighth, it's the freaking weekend. Have fun!

I'm getting kind of boring.

It feels like I have less time in my life. Considering I'm working 35-40 hours a week now, of course that's true. More of my time is spent in a place I love, doing meaningful work. Those hours are definitely pulled from the abundant "knitting/TV/internet" category of time. It also feels more difficult to squeeze in gym time, and I feel less motivated to work out. When I wasn't working, it was definitely a social thing and I had plenty of veg time.

With the end of the bastard overnight weekend shifts, we can do more social things too - like we did this weekend. Pretty packed, it felt like. 5 hours of knitting with the dear Audrey and the Macys', then supper and a movie with the Kalla Krew on Friday. Meeting, lunch with mom, and a failed craft project Saturday before supper with Brian's family, and a coffee & meeting already today. I need to get to the Y... but I kind of just want to knit and chill. My mind is kind of racing today, though, so I need to hit the gym and burn down some of the chaos.

I haven't even cooked anything good lately, and my knitting isn't really moving at all... still working on sweater #1 of 2011, and whipping up a hat, too.

I'm just being boring and whiny now, so I guess that's a good time to hit the gym. Ciao!

BACONFACE!

Kyia gave me bacon band-aids for Christmas. And I just couldn't wait until I had an actual deformity, so I decided to rock this one Nelly-style. Which led to some interested youtubing to educate Mr. Anderson. I feel he now has an appropriate grasp of Nelly, grillz, and Air Force Ones.

10 on Tuesday

10 Things You Wouldn’t Want to Live Without

1) My vegan cookbooks - Vegan with a Vengeance, the Veganomican, Appetite for Reduction, La Dolce Vegan. These humble tomes have drastically changed what I eat, and as a result, my life. I mean, I even eat kale now. 

2)  Ball winder and swift. If you're not a knitter, they're too difficult to explain. If you are a knitter, you know why they're priceless.

3) Knit Picks size 1.5, 24" circulars, in sets of twos. Perfect for sock knitting. (and yarn, of course - that goes without saying.)

4) The internet, specifically Ravely.com. I love you, baby.

5) My very best Good Earth Food Co-Op travel coffee mug. It's green, it's totally sealable, it's hand-shaped. Joy every morning. Also, coffee. Mmmm. Coffee.

6) Great sheets. My skin hurts all the freaking time because it's so dry, and soft, smooth, fluffy sheets make sleep tolerable.

7) Spinning fiber: pre-washed, pre-combed, pre-dyed. I hate cleaning ANYTHING, and if I had to raise my own sheep I just wouldn't spin, it's as simple as that.  

8)  Strong lighting. I need brightness and light in my life. I would have been a terrible pioneer.

9)  iPod, for working out at the gym. And my gym membership, I suppose.

10) I'm having a difficult time thinking of number 10. Hmm.... I guess my Old Navy sweatpants. They are my comfort uniform and I love them lots and lots. 

How about you?

Sweaters, sweaters, sweaters

2011: The Year of 11 Sweaters. Yes, this resolution will be a challenge, as I haven't knit 11 adult sweaters in the 7 years I've been a knitter. I did some training, knitting 4 sweaters last year, and I feel like I'm up to it.

I picked out 11 sweaters I'd like to knit (although I'll probably change my mind!), and have yarn for five of them. In no particular order, here they are! Photo rights belong to their respective creators, of course.

Anisette, in Mercury Rising Bamboo Ewe. Cast on this morning, see Ravelry project page here.

Tea Leaves. (I hate this picture, btw. It's really much lovelier in lighter-colored yarns.)

Audrey in Unst, in sapling green Silky Wool. 

Coraline, in Misti Tonos Pima Silk in "Leaf Hopper".

Falling Stars, using the kit I got from my mother-in-law for Christmas. She's really the best!
The coral color used in the kit (top row of yarn, second in from the left) doesn't suit me at all, so I may need to order a ball of a more fuchsia color to sub.

Canopy Cardi.

Climbing Vines.

Peasy.

Cream Puff.

ZickZack Tunic.

Sienna Cardi.