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Saturday, January 22, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Sister Time
Faraday is uncertain, but intrigued. They will soon be buddies, I'm sure.
We have until Monday to find out!
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Sunday, January 16, 2011
Bellingham with the BFF
In December 2010 (so long ago), I spent a couple of days up in Bellingham, WA, with my best friend forever, Bethany JO. Beth and I go way back. We met at a slumber party around when we were ten. We instantly bonded over the devastation that our young foodie selves felt when we were only allowed one slice of pizza for dinner and NO DESSERT. At a SLUMBER PARTY. THE HORROR.
We reconnected a year or two later, when we cleaned house and watched the children of a woman in our church pregnant with triplets. Then, we were in homeschool band together. Now, still BFFs.
She collected me from SeaTac and we started the two hour drive north to Bellingham. First things first: Cedars called. This is without a doubt the best Indian food I've ever had. Their coconut or mango curry with lamb and their bottomless chai were staples in college at UW. I'm positive they've been on the blog before.
Fueled by countless mugs of chai, we chatted long into the night. The next morning, she went off to work like a good girl, while I slept in and woke up to:
NELLIE, Bethany's dear cat. She is a friendly lap cat who makes weird chirping noises at birds.
After a slow, relaxing morning, I walked through cute downtown Bellingham to Starbucks, where I entertained myself for a couple of hours until Bethany was off work:
I thoroughly enjoy meetings friends of friends whom I've heard about for years. I was a wee bit overwhelmed, however, by the evening's activity: a 30-person lingerie shower. Oh yes. They were super fun girls who welcomed me, fed me delicious taco salad (with ranch dressing. Who knew. I am in love.), and bought the blushing bride many, many embarrassing gifts. Ahem. Sarah, you'll look terrific. Nice to meet you.
Our final day was an adventure back down to Seattle. A mission we set for ourselves: find affordable and beautiful sock yarn and sock-appropriate double-pointed needles (DPNs) for Bethany's very first socks.
Beth drove me down picturesque Chuckanut Drive, singing:
We stopped at Michael's along the way. Michael's had sock yarn, but not the right DPNs. We moved on.
We saw some snow north of Seattle:
But then it was gone.
Another culinary tradition of ours is Trophy Cupcakes. They have ALSO been on the blog before.
Beth got her staple, Chocolate with Vanilla:
While I chose a new one, Chocolate with Cream Cheese:
Trophy, in my opinion, is the best I've ever had. They even beat Magnolia Bakery, my favorite in Manhattan. A key difference: Trophy has the perfect amount of frosting. Magnolia has too much. I'm never able to do this to a Magnolia cupcake:
(Never fear, Magnolia, Amy-sister and I will visit you next weekend. We still love you.)
The Wallingford Center (home to Trophy) has a beautiful little yarn shop. They had wonderful DPNs and gorgeous yarn. Sadly, it was for at least twice the amount I spend on supplies myself. Bethany tore herself away and we kept looking.
We continued our tour of Seattle eating establishments with lunch at Red Mill Burgers on Phinney Ridge. Red Mill Burgers, as they claim, is one of the Top 20 Burgers You Must Eat Before You Die, according to GQ and Oprah. Our burgers were, in fact, delicious.
Next up: Starbucks. Next door. Heh. We had to charge my Droid, a.k.a. our guide. While sitting, I knitted. Thinking that such a cute area must have a yarn shop, we checked my phone: YES! Just three streets down! We zipped over there and found that the prices were no better than Wallingford. Oh well. She gave up, and I sent her off to the awesome Knit Picks, my source for all needles and affordable yarn. :)
Finally, we had to part ways at the ferry terminal. Much love to you, Bethany dear!
We reconnected a year or two later, when we cleaned house and watched the children of a woman in our church pregnant with triplets. Then, we were in homeschool band together. Now, still BFFs.
She collected me from SeaTac and we started the two hour drive north to Bellingham. First things first: Cedars called. This is without a doubt the best Indian food I've ever had. Their coconut or mango curry with lamb and their bottomless chai were staples in college at UW. I'm positive they've been on the blog before.
Fueled by countless mugs of chai, we chatted long into the night. The next morning, she went off to work like a good girl, while I slept in and woke up to:
NELLIE, Bethany's dear cat. She is a friendly lap cat who makes weird chirping noises at birds.
After a slow, relaxing morning, I walked through cute downtown Bellingham to Starbucks, where I entertained myself for a couple of hours until Bethany was off work:
I thoroughly enjoy meetings friends of friends whom I've heard about for years. I was a wee bit overwhelmed, however, by the evening's activity: a 30-person lingerie shower. Oh yes. They were super fun girls who welcomed me, fed me delicious taco salad (with ranch dressing. Who knew. I am in love.), and bought the blushing bride many, many embarrassing gifts. Ahem. Sarah, you'll look terrific. Nice to meet you.
Our final day was an adventure back down to Seattle. A mission we set for ourselves: find affordable and beautiful sock yarn and sock-appropriate double-pointed needles (DPNs) for Bethany's very first socks.
Beth drove me down picturesque Chuckanut Drive, singing:
We stopped at Michael's along the way. Michael's had sock yarn, but not the right DPNs. We moved on.
We saw some snow north of Seattle:
But then it was gone.
Another culinary tradition of ours is Trophy Cupcakes. They have ALSO been on the blog before.
Beth got her staple, Chocolate with Vanilla:
While I chose a new one, Chocolate with Cream Cheese:
Trophy, in my opinion, is the best I've ever had. They even beat Magnolia Bakery, my favorite in Manhattan. A key difference: Trophy has the perfect amount of frosting. Magnolia has too much. I'm never able to do this to a Magnolia cupcake:
(Never fear, Magnolia, Amy-sister and I will visit you next weekend. We still love you.)
The Wallingford Center (home to Trophy) has a beautiful little yarn shop. They had wonderful DPNs and gorgeous yarn. Sadly, it was for at least twice the amount I spend on supplies myself. Bethany tore herself away and we kept looking.
We continued our tour of Seattle eating establishments with lunch at Red Mill Burgers on Phinney Ridge. Red Mill Burgers, as they claim, is one of the Top 20 Burgers You Must Eat Before You Die, according to GQ and Oprah. Our burgers were, in fact, delicious.
Next up: Starbucks. Next door. Heh. We had to charge my Droid, a.k.a. our guide. While sitting, I knitted. Thinking that such a cute area must have a yarn shop, we checked my phone: YES! Just three streets down! We zipped over there and found that the prices were no better than Wallingford. Oh well. She gave up, and I sent her off to the awesome Knit Picks, my source for all needles and affordable yarn. :)
Finally, we had to part ways at the ferry terminal. Much love to you, Bethany dear!
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Green
Courtesy of Joy the Baker.
Happy Weekend from Snowy New Jersey!
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Tuesday, January 4, 2011
The Gingerbread TARDIS
Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly...my family knows them all well. Another family fav is the Back to the Future trilogy. Therefore, it may come as no surprise that when, sometime last year, my siblings and I were introduced to Doctor Who, we were hooked. Really hooked.
But I'm still on Season 5 with Matt Smith, so NO SPOILERS.
He's good, but I miss David Tennant. :(
Anyway! This Christmas, David, Jenny, and I exchanged many pieces of Doctor Who merchandise. (Much to the confusion of our grandparents. Our aunts are fellow Time Lord fans.) Like this shirt, or this sonic screwdriver flashlight, or (my favorite, from Jenny to me) this TARDIS cookie jar.
There's also the necklace I made for Jenny, out of a cufflink:
Back to the TARDIS though. The TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space) is the Doctor's time machine spaceship. It looks like a British Police Public Call Box from 1963, because its chameleon circuit broke and stuck that way.
In my search for unique, geeky Christmas gifts, I came across this blog post, on constructing a gingerbread TARDIS. The day after I flew home for the holidays, Jenny and I set to work.
We chose to use this gingerbread and frosting recipe.
We cut out carefully measured patterns:
We mixed the dough with Mom's incredible KitchenAid:
We danced:
We consulted the directions without getting flour on the computer:
We used steak knives to cut out building blocks:
See those little leftover square pieces? They were DELICIOUS.
Believe me, the entire family was gingerbread-dough-filled that evening.
The baked pieces weren't quiiiiiite, shall we say, straight? Precise? Their corners weren't exactly, oh, right-angled?
Whatever! We make it work! We do!
We frosted four little Police Public Call Box signs, with baggies, toothpicks, spit, patience, and love:
We made little paper window panes:
Then, assembly began. We used frosting spreaders, spatulas, and fingers to cement the uneven walls to each other and the base. Getting the door to stand ajar was tricky; we finally propped it up from the inside with a cookie cutter until the frosting hardened. It looked rather messy. Adding the corner pieces, roof, signs, and a whole lot more frosting spruced it up to our satisfaction:
Note the wonky door and awesome door poster:
What TARDIS would be complete without a Time Lord?
David added some graffiti:
And then we had a photo shoot:
Our creation was displayed until Christmas Eve, when we wrapped it in plastic and froze it while we were in San Diego. Yesterday, we thawed it and started gnawing on it. It's pretty stale...but good dipped in milk, coffee, or hot chocolate!
Sadly, Gingerbread Doctor met his match in Golden Retriever Maddie. I don't think he'll be regenerating from this one.
But I'm still on Season 5 with Matt Smith, so NO SPOILERS.
He's good, but I miss David Tennant. :(
Anyway! This Christmas, David, Jenny, and I exchanged many pieces of Doctor Who merchandise. (Much to the confusion of our grandparents. Our aunts are fellow Time Lord fans.) Like this shirt, or this sonic screwdriver flashlight, or (my favorite, from Jenny to me) this TARDIS cookie jar.
There's also the necklace I made for Jenny, out of a cufflink:
Back to the TARDIS though. The TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space) is the Doctor's time machine spaceship. It looks like a British Police Public Call Box from 1963, because its chameleon circuit broke and stuck that way.
In my search for unique, geeky Christmas gifts, I came across this blog post, on constructing a gingerbread TARDIS. The day after I flew home for the holidays, Jenny and I set to work.
We chose to use this gingerbread and frosting recipe.
We cut out carefully measured patterns:
We mixed the dough with Mom's incredible KitchenAid:
We danced:
We consulted the directions without getting flour on the computer:
We used steak knives to cut out building blocks:
See those little leftover square pieces? They were DELICIOUS.
Believe me, the entire family was gingerbread-dough-filled that evening.
The baked pieces weren't quiiiiiite, shall we say, straight? Precise? Their corners weren't exactly, oh, right-angled?
Whatever! We make it work! We do!
We frosted four little Police Public Call Box signs, with baggies, toothpicks, spit, patience, and love:
We made little paper window panes:
Then, assembly began. We used frosting spreaders, spatulas, and fingers to cement the uneven walls to each other and the base. Getting the door to stand ajar was tricky; we finally propped it up from the inside with a cookie cutter until the frosting hardened. It looked rather messy. Adding the corner pieces, roof, signs, and a whole lot more frosting spruced it up to our satisfaction:
Note the wonky door and awesome door poster:
What TARDIS would be complete without a Time Lord?
David added some graffiti:
And then we had a photo shoot:
Our creation was displayed until Christmas Eve, when we wrapped it in plastic and froze it while we were in San Diego. Yesterday, we thawed it and started gnawing on it. It's pretty stale...but good dipped in milk, coffee, or hot chocolate!
Sadly, Gingerbread Doctor met his match in Golden Retriever Maddie. I don't think he'll be regenerating from this one.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
A Mountainous Day
The year Twenty-Eleven began this morning rather congestedly and coughy, necessitating an unfortunate shortening of my planned weekend trip to Seattle. Two late parties and an overnight stay had to go. Boo.
However! After a delicious German pancake and sausage breakfast, Amy, Susanna (our visiting AZ friend, whom we met in Morocco in 2009), and I got on a ferry and headed to the Emerald City for the afternoon.
The Olympics were glorious in the sun today!
Amy gave Susanna a tour of the waterfront, while my dear friend Alicia picked me up and drove to B&O Espresso. I had a Mocha Valencia and smoked salmon and goat cheese quiche. We shared creme brulee and great conversation. :) I met Alicia while swing dancing in Seattle my senior year of college. We hadn't seen each other for three years, and that is really unacceptable. She's too fabulous!
Now, we are ferry-riding home, watching the sunset over Mt. Rainier. My cough has gotten worse, but the day in the cold was worth it. Time for some tea.
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Heeellooo 2011!
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