They're finished and on my feet. Are all handknit socks this comfy? Or is it because I have spent so much time knitting them and I love them so much?
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I stole this moment as one of my little subjects bathed in the warm summer sun. It reminds me to appreciate how beautiful childhood and all of its innocence is.
xo jen
JFP
xo jen
JFP
For three years in a row we've fostered feral kittens for the Seattle Humane Society. It's a win-win for me and the kittens. They get a loving home that safely watches over them until it's time to be adopted, and we get KITTENS!!! for a few weeks.
Here is one example of how I like to corrupt their wee little minds. YouTube kitten videos. They loved it!
I had a great day paling around with my friend Jodi and our cameras. Check out more of my work on my website and photo blog. Jennifer Finch Photography. Thanks for looking!
I was pretty excited to go see Sera Cahoone perform last night. My husband and I saw her open for Sara Bettens a year or so ago and she was great, but still playing itty bitty venues. It didn't even dawn on me to buy tickets this time. I suck. The show was sold out. Take a listen.
My favorite fruit is in season again!Last night we tested the Veganomicon Lasagne Marinara with Spinach. As expected, it's really tasty! It looks like something the cat barfed up, but it really does taste great. We also tested the Chocolate Banana Pudding Brownies from Vegan with a Vengeance, which tasted delicious, even if a bit sweet. They completely stuck to my bakeware, so no picture.
My dad visited this weekend and he's a meat eater. He grew up in farm country, worked on farms as a kid and can make some mean biscuits and gravy. Dad has a lot of influence in my love of cooking. Making food beautiful was always important to him. Even if he made ramen noodles, he'd dress it up with something colorful and tasty.
Over the years Chrones Disease has made him change the way he eats. Nothing spicy, no whole grains, no tough outer peels on foods (ie, cucumber, nut skins), nothing fiberous (lettuce doesn't sit well either) no red meats, no onion (too spicy), no peppers (even paprika counts in that category). Almost everything we cook has spice and lots of fiber so even a couple days was challenging for cooking ideas. An internet search on low fiber diets and some perusing through my cookbooks and we were set. Enter Vegan With A Vengeance Potato-Asparagus Soup. Even with skipping the onion and pepper this soup has tons of flavor. We served ours in a crusty sourdough cannonball with steamed beets in a fresh basil viniagrette and apple pie a la mode (soy style of course) and it was delicous!
The next day was busy working on his house, so for lunch it was a quick trip to Taco Time. For dinner a salad of peeled cucumber, tomatos and kalamata olives tossed in a light dill viniagrette and for the main pesto and tomato pizza. I think he was surprised with how cheese like the cheeze tasted.
Today I topped the trip off with a big glass of soy milk and a pb&j. Dad is unofficially vegan. Well, at least this week.
Recipe: Butternut Squash and Pumpkin Seed Rice Paper Rolls from Veganomicon.Pretty easy to make once I got the hang of wrapping the buggers. The most tedious part was dicing the squash in to 1/4" bits.
Ok, I admit that I may look a little too long when walking past a package of Calvin Klein mens underwear, but can you blame me? There's a perfectly sculpted torso of a headless fantasy man. The internet leads me to strange and unexpected places. For example, Emporio Armani's website to look at underwear no less. These aren't just underwear though. This is David Beckham wearing underwear. And you want to know how I ended up on that site? I was looking at toilet installation info on Bob Vila's website which was encircled by these beautiful portraits of 3/4 naked man. No joke. But enough, go check out the underwear already!
We're being teased by the sun into thinking it's spring this week. My flowers are starting to come up and I've got the itch to clean. My friend Angie has a great trick to keeping her hat, gloves and scarves all tidy; shoe organizers! I just had to get me some organization, so I copied her tricky idea. Luckily I whipped everything out of the clusterf*ck of a closet before I could grab my camera for a before photo. If you look closely in the second closet photo, you can see my Karaoke Cable Scarf & We Call Them Pirates safely tucked away.
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It sucks when you're all excited about a project and then somewhere in there you lose interest or inspiration. This happened to my knitting bag to-be. I don't dig the yarn color. I don't dig the wood color and I'm not sure the tweed is helping any. I've lost perspective and can't decide if it's gramdma cool or uncool. I give up.
Here's everything all wrapped up and ready to get sent to my first swap recipient. I made the 'Eye Mask' from Handknit Holidays
for my secret pal Luciousfibers, along with a bootie of other goodies, some handmade, some not. It is knit from Classic Elite Imagine, which I can't find on their website, but did find this adorable little scarflette which I will be making soon.
for my secret pal Luciousfibers, along with a bootie of other goodies, some handmade, some not. It is knit from Classic Elite Imagine, which I can't find on their website, but did find this adorable little scarflette which I will be making soon.
From my Vegan Swap Pal I received a bounty of goodies which included a delicous 450 calorie chocolate chip cookie that got eaten immediately. A raspberry chocolate bar, which I'm still working over a week later. A lovely note about her trek to Arizona across a frozen tundra with her daughter and yarning (is that a word?) along the way. Lotion, delightful yummy lotion. And two types of yarn, bamboo sock yarn I'd been eyeballing and a lovely skein of olive colored cotton with a few patterns to kick start the madness. I am in heaven! Thanks so much Yogini2!!
Hubby and I went to Nanaimo, B.C. this weekend for a dive trip. No I did not dive. I knit and went to Mad About Ewe Fine Yarns to check out their selection. It's a small shop, but they have a nice selection of yarns I had not yet seen. Like the Handmaiden Sea Silk that feels wonderful, and I picked up their Casbah sock yarn for a gift. They had a great fingerless glove pattern with delicate little cables which got for myself. I've always thought fingerless gloves looked useless, but after knitting when it's chilly, I know that I'm going to love them. They also had Lantern Moon bag handles which will be perfect for finishing my knitting bag!
I was going to post a picture of my knitting bag in progress, went to Ravelry to link it and this is what I got.
Bug eyed Bob!
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I was going to post a picture of my knitting bag in progress, went to Ravelry to link it and this is what I got.
Bug eyed Bob!
I've feel like I've been posting like crazy about food and it's because I am crazy about food. I'm very excited about all the delicous vegan recipes I've come across and delighted that they pass the hubby test. Today we tried a new recipe for "Spicy Italian Vegetarian Sausages" at Everyday Dish and they are spicy and fabulous. I can't wait to test them out with sauerkraut and mashed potatos. I'm sure we could make a German version too if I were to look up the spice content of your average brat.
Recently I joked to a friend that I may be the only one ever to switch to a vegan diet and gain weight. The sad thing is, it's true!
Last week we bought an inexpensive popcorn maker since my Costco box of popcorn ran out. It was the worst $10 we've spent. The plastic started to melt on the first batch, which was smokey, and on top of that, it didn't hold enough and we needed to immediately start another batch. Today we broke down and got a "real" popcorn maker. Tonight, it's me, a movie and endless popcorn baby!
I just wanted to take a moment to say Vegan Yum Yum is awesome. There are so many wonderful dishes and the photography makes me want to lick my monitor. Today our lunch was the Vegan Yum Yum dish of the day, Lemon Pepper Pasta, and quite tasty at that. I'm looking forward to trying many more of the recipes over there. Yum!
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Clive
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Ok, I'm shallow. I admit it. I saw my first glimpse of Clive Owen when Bourne Identity came out. He was cute in that movie and absolutely hot in Closer. Now the latest villian in the Bourne series is played by the delicious Edgar Ramirez and he's especially sexy in Domino. Phew. Glad I got that out.
While surfing recipes yesterday I ran across this one for Susan V’s Barbecued Seitan Ribz at Everyday Dish. She even has videos on youtube that show how easy it is to make them! Originally I was looking for something new to do with a butternut squash (she has a pumpkin hummus recipe I can't wait to try!). We tried the ribz and they are finger lickin good. Hubby was thrilled that it was like eating real ribs, minus the fat, gristle and bone. I didn't take a photo, but they even look like them in the pan since you cut the dough into strips. Woo hoo!
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Searching for vegan recipes has led me to a few interesting websites. Today brought me to FreeRice.com where you can get smart AND help feed the world. Try it, you might like it.
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