Figs and Things

Sometimes I think that, with my love of home and general domesticity and the lack of slutty clothes in my wardrobe and dearth of stories about the times I went out and got wasted and partied until sunrise with pop stars and artists and aimlessly wealthy European riff-raff-y youths, men might find me too dull to date and marry.

So I like figs and sweaters, big deal!

But then I think, "But SOMEWHERE out there SOMEONE has got to find my love of hearth and home appealing, right? ... RIGHT!?"

 Uuuuh...maybe not?  His sideburns are sweet, though.

**Kate Beaton, once again, you are full of wonder and joy. Gotta love a gal who uses profanity and writes cartoons that riff on The Yellow Wallpaper.

You Guys Gotta See This Baby, It's Crazy

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Kate Beaton, I love you.  Your comics bring me unspeakable joy.  As Anne Shirley would say, we are kindred spirits.  Why didn't you make Christmas cards of this?  It's concert week and whenever we get to the soprano recitatives in Messiah that start with "And lo, the angel of the Lord cam upon them..." I think of this guy now.

December, You Speedy Thing

So 2010 is drawing to a close.  Yes, it's only the 2nd week of December, but everything work and life related that has yet to happen that I KNOW is coming makes it seem like the month is already over.  I suppose I should try to live in the moment or whathaveyou.  It also makes me think I should take a look back at 2010.  When I was a consistent journal-er (say freshman year of high school through junior year of college) I used to do end of the year recaps.  I'd bullet point (I've said it before, I'll say it again, I'm a list-lover) the highs and lows and main points of the year.  It was interesting to do a list rather than an emotional "how far have I come, how have I changed?" sort of deal.  With my consistent inability to think well of myself and anything I do, looking in sort of grand LIFE-HUMANITY-PROGRESS terms I'd say, "well, I haven't done ANYTHING, I've wasted my year, my life."  If I literally list out things that have happened ("moved to new apartment" or "knit my first sweater") I'd realize that a lot more happened in my life than I'm willing to admit to myself and even if it wasn't all doctorates and orphan-rescues, it's still my life and still worthwhile.  One the negative side (at least in terms of feelings) it also shows me all the things I HAVEN'T done.  Maybe I'll recap this year.  It's fun to try and recall all the wacky happenings and doings, it makes life seem more like it happened and its effects stay with you rather than you just breezing through and forgetting all the stuff that's "over and done". But I don't know how willing I am to look at what I'm NOT doing...

Employee of the Month

To the man who pulled up at the next pump at the gas station then got out and asked me "You need any steaks at home?",

I thought you were just sorta crazy, then I realized you were driving a meat delivery truck.  Sir, you are a dedicated professional and always on the clock.  I salute you.


Sincerely,

Darcy

Ten

1. Way too long between posts, even when stuff is going on. Worst blogger ever.
2. Snow in Seattle.  It was so lovely. I didn't get into any accidents or fall on my ass. Thumbs up.
3. Cafe mole from The Java Bean.  Add a little cumin and it's heaven on a cold day. 
4. Re: # 3, I do mean "mole" as in the Mexican food item, not the little furry creatures. 
5. Cafe moles might be adorable, though...
6. The Walking Dead. So much joy, so few episodes.  I heart you, Andrew Lincoln.
7. Fall Conference at work over and done with.  It was on Tuesday and I'm STILL exhausted.
8. Liz and I are having our super Christmas weekend starting Saturday. We're buying a tree, putting up lights, eating and drinking delicious things, writing Christmas cards and watching Christmas movies.
9. Making molasses brined porkchops with sauteed apples for dinner on our super Christmas weekend.
10. So excited.

Snoooooooooow!

I was hoping we'd get snow this winter - I guess winter is early?  It started snowing yesterday (very very very lightly, for a few minutes at a time) then stopped, but when I woke up this morning we had a little dusting!  All day it's been lightly snowing on and off.  The roads are still clear here in Ballard, it hasn't really stuck, but the cars and trees are all covered and it's BEAUTIFUL!  I get so excited by snow.  Why am I stuck in this darned office!? It will be dark by the time I get off - I want to go for a walk in it :( 

Seeing snow fall is one of my favorite things in the world.  I love it so much it actually makes me feel almost sad.  I suppose sad is the closest word I can come up with.  I wish I could go out to the middle of nowhere at twilight and be silent and watch it fall.

The Gypsy's Curse

[VERY delayed post.]
Oh, Halloween, thanks for existing. I also totally want to punch you in the face.  After realizing that I own quite the collection of colorful skirts, scarves, and dangly jewelry, I decided to be a gypsy for Halloween.  All I needed was a corset.  Stroke of genius: alter the vest from my British street urchin outfit from last year:

I was house-sitting at the time and there was cable TV, so my hours of pinning and sewing were inspired by several episodes of What Not To Wear (then, oddly, Deep Blue Sea and Sin City).  I discovered that (1) I am quite creatively efficient in a fix (2) tailor's chalk is REALLY fun (3) shapeless purple corduroy vests make BITCHIN' gypsy corsets.

 Yowza!

Come Halloween, I layered the skirts, loaded on the eye make up, hooked on the corset and headed out.  I'm quite proud of myself.  It was an odd evening - started out later than we mean, waited in line way too long to NOT get into a club, then had a pretty darn good last hour and a half at another club. A vampire named Mike who had somehow lost both his fangs and his cape (so he just sort of looked like an old timey French dandy) offered to buy me a drink but Liz literally snatched me away from him (she's good at saving). 

Then, oh, then, my friends, on the way back to the car I managed to roll my left ankle and fall on my ass in a huge gypsy pile.  Within about 60 seconds it had swollen at least twice it's normal size and Liz had to shield it from my sight because it was unbearable to view. 

Kaushik drove us to the store to get a bandage while Liz and I sat in the car.  Her in the front seat shielding my hideous limb, holding it up in the air to elevate it ("I'm trying to give you zero gravity here"), both of us laughing somewhat hysterically and not quite sure why.  All the while I have tears rolling down my face.  Back at our apartment, Kaushik (what a ridiculously awesome dude) picked me up (tweaking his own back, booo - lift with yer legs!) and carried me in.  We must have been quite a sight: a tear-streaked, mangled gypsy being carried by an Indian pirate. 

Oh, Halloween, I wanted you to be so much better.  Can I wear my gypsy costume some other time, I'm WAY too into my vest to only wear it for a few hours. 

UPDATE: I'm much better now, not hobbling except at the end of a day where I've walked or stood to much (ie today - curse you grocery shopping and other errands).

I Am the Beastmaster

It was so freakin' gorgeous this weekend that on Sunday morning I decided I needed to be outside.  On a whim I went to the zoo.  (1) I have been here for over 2 years and haven't been (2) I just happened to have my sketchbook in my purse.  I spent several hours (in entirely inappropriate shoes) marveling at nature and doodling.  Elephants are fun to draw.  Napping kangaroos are adorable.  River otters are too squirmy and move too fast to capture if you're out of practice as I (shamefully) am.  Once I have access to a scanner I'll put up some of my doodles.  

The most magical part of the day involved and orangutan.  I stood very patiently in a corner of the window, watching them play out of sight or with their backs to me.  After a few minutes the other zoo-goers, bored, moved on and it was just me.  A female kept looking over her shoulder and making eye contact.  I didn't move.  Soon she came swinging over and perched on some vines right by the window, not 6 inches from my face and we just watched each other.  I moved my pencil to start drawing and she immediately moved her head to try and see what I was doing.  I stopped and she looked up at me again.  I moved my pencil and she quickly looked back down at my book.  So I started sketching and she watched me.  I didn't actually sketch much because I was too fascinated by the actual animal in front of me and her very direct, sad-looking orangutan eyes (they have very mournful faces) and Justin Bieber hair (I kid you not).  We spent about 10 minutes communing and it was completely awesome.  Best thing that ever happened to me at a zoo.  One of the best things that ever happened to me, period, I would say. 

I May Not Die Alone

Wonder of wonders, October is shaping up to be the most social month I've had in a very long time.  I have the ability to interact with a variety of humans.  Bully for me.

Ye Olde Weekende Wanderings

Last weekend was a glorious exercise in variety.

Friday Night: Out for drinks and a little dancing with friends, home around 3am for a weeeeee bit tipsy sleepover.

Saturday Night: Attending the Westmont Bright Hope for Tomorrow dinner.  Classy outfits, wine, a fundraising dinner.

Sunday: Church, and a visit to Camlann Medieval Village, a "working" historical village a la Williamsburg (on a MUCH smaller, more ragtag-band-of-misfits kind of scale), depicting rural England, 1376.  We saw archers, a potter, 3 sheep, learned about different arrowheads, and the horrors of warfare, then capped it off with trenchers, pottage and mead for dinner. 

Yes, we are a strange people, my roommate and I.  Join us, won't you?

Gonna Live Off th' Fatta th' Lan

I have a tragic tendency for checking impossibly large piles of books out of the library.  Coupled with my delusions of ultimate domesticity and knocking up against my natural laziness, distractability and forgetful procrastination, you have a recipe for super-stoked-and-ain't-never-gonna-happen mental disaster.


Today I went to pick up a copy of Daisy Cooks! Latin Flavors That Will Rock Your World that was on hold for me at the library (at least I know I will cook some food - THAT I can do).  I LOVE watching her on PBS.  I get SO hungry - her food is beautiful and terrible for you and I want to just plunge my arms into the pot and hug it and hug her and her little east coast accent.  While there I wandered into the cookbook section and found Washington Local and Seasonal Cookbook and Slow Food Nation.  (Of course, spitting right in the face of these two acquisitions I stuffed my face today with a quarter-pounder, fries and a soda from McDonalds.  What can I say, I'm well-rounded.)  Then I saw another amusing treasure - Storey's Basic Country Skills: A Practical Guide to Self-Reliance.  Pages and pages of summaries on how to run your own little country home from start to finish.  Handy tips on how to:

• buy land
• dig a well
• rotate your crops
• make cheese
• butcher livestock
• shear sheep
• keep bees

I actually really want to try to make some cheese but I have a nagging fear that I might just end up poisoning myself...

CraftFest 2010

Kara!!!

Kalin!!!!

Mochi!!!!

These are the faces of CraftFest 2010.  I went to Denver for the Labor Day weekend to see Team Lundquist and their mascot extraordinaire, Mochi.  We ate, crafted, ate, crafted, slept, and put the cycle on repeat.  So many delicious things, so much crafting, so much Degrassi marathon as background noise.  I love these two kids.  We also saw Lindsey and Nate Ballinger and their gigantic furry dog child Angel, who was incredibly huge and incredibly sweet and it was incredibly funny to see her and Mochi "play". 

Kara took me to The Fancy Tiger, an amazing little craft shop.  Maybe too fancy for every day use, but they had AMAZING fabric and BEAUTIFUL yarn.  I conned Kara into making me a case for my circular needles (she previously made a glorious one for my double pointeds).  I was seriously torn over the fabric choices but finally settled on Lizzy House's RIDICULOUSLY cute Castle Peeps pattern in brown as the base of the case with the green town print for pockets.  Kara supplied the lovely button and the skills.

I don't know if you can see, but the dude on the left is totally playing a lute and singing.

I knit Kate Davies' owlet sweater in a beautiful autumn red Spud and Chloe yarn (55% superwash wool, 45% cotton so it can go in the washer!) for my friend Maria's baby daughter.  I love the S&C motto: "Sweet yarns for real life". 

I haven't blocked it yet, so it still looks a little frumpy.  I also haven't added eyes.  You're supposed to use buttons, but buttons on a baby sweater seem dangerous, so I have to decide if I just want to sew 'em on real good or maybe stitch on some little eyes in a different color.  (Next I plan to knit a larger one in grey for her older daughter.  Then finally a full-size one for myself!)  Even Kalin got in on the fun, doing some paper craft.  Alas, I did not get a picture of the bitchin 3D robot he brought into existance.

And that, my friends, is the story of CraftFest 2010.  Now accepting applications for 2011 craft- and food-centric awesomeness.

Rot!

Oh bother,  I've got blossom end rot.  Well, I don't, but my tomatoes do.  From what I gather this is usually caused by uneven moisture or by calcium deficiency.  I have a sneaking suspicion that mine is due to bad drainage.  I'm really going to have to rethink how I work in the big plastic tubs I bought this year (more gravel on bottom? Bigger/more drainage holes beneath that gravel? Mulching? Was it mulching? It was mulching, wasn't it!? I SHOULD HAVE MULCHED!)  I'm worried all my little babies will turn grey and creepy and rot from the bottom up.  Can I get at least ONE good, ripe tomato?

Admittedly this whole container gardening thing was a domestic whim and I sort of just threw in and flew by the seat of my pants.  I tend to do that - just "give it a whirl" without doing appropriate research beforehand.  But I've really enjoyed what little gardening I've done and would like to do better at it next year and plan ahead and actually plant the little suckers on the right schedule.  So I'm going to get myself a copy of The Bountiful Container and do myself some research!

On the plus side, at least my chard is doing well.  Those guys are tough!  Mommy's little soldiers.

One Classy Dame

Is it silly that I'm totally stoked for these Katherine Hepburn stamps I bought today?  I want to send more mail.  I want to travel back in time and be her best friend.

Roommate + Asian Food Products = Awesome

On her most recent trip to Thailand my roommate brought me the best present: Thai tea! 

If its logo is a thumbs up, it's gotta be good.

The last time she went she brought back juice boxes of the stuff and I fell in love.  It took us a bit but we found a restaurant near us that makes awesome tea.  Of course, I wanted to try making it at home.  The internet claims you can make it by just steeping a lot of strong black tea with some various spices like star annise and vanilla bean, but when I tried it ended up tasting like Chai tea.  Similar sound, different taste.  But, being Thai and all, this stuff is the real stuff!  Make a single serving in the French press, add way too much sugar, some ice and a healthy dose of evaporated milk and you've got heaven in a cup, my friend.

Heaven is apparently a beautiful pumpkin color.

Also Asian food and roommate related, this weekend was our eighth friendiversary (thank you, Westmont, for bringing me a delightful bud and awesome roommate).  We ended up making Indian food and watching a Bollywood movie from the 90s which prominently featured big hair, a climactic bike race, and someone punching someone else approximately every five minutes.  It was my first foray into Indian food and I was quite excited. 

This is what you need to make potato and chickpea masala and lamb tikka: 

I was going to make rava dosas (sort of like crepes) to go with the potato chickpea masala, but Liz made naan, so I've still got the semolina and rice flour.  The masala was so darned easy to make and sooooo delicious that I'll just have to make it again soon and make the dosas this time.  Next time I go to a BBQ I want to bring this instead of potato salad. 

This pic isn't as well-staged as I'd like, but can you blame me?  I was so busy

starting to stuff my face that I completely forgot about photos!

I'm Gonna Wife the HELL Outta This...

I'm psyched for domesticity, y'all. A while back a friend found out that I really enjoyed cooking and he told me (with a good deal of embarrassment) that I'd make a great wife. I think he thought that I'd be offended. Hell no, I'm not offended! I'm going to make a TOTALLY kick-ass wife.  Sometimes when I'm cooking dinner I just think, "Damnit, this is AMAZING!" and I wish I could communicate how  beautiful and enjoyable and satisfying and calming and invigorating and lovely and robust it can be.  Have you ever noticed how beautiful a halved blue potato looks next to green onions or felt how cool rice flour is or smelled toasted cumin seeds or used turmeric and watched that marigold color just bloom in the pan?  That kind of thing just fills me with awesome.  Since I can't capture emotions, sometimes I take pictures (Joanna, here's some more food porn for you). 

Last weekend I went to the farmers market and saw these guys and couldn't resist making a classic Sunday dinner: roast chicken.  I'd never roasted a chicken before, but how could I say no to that tragic little carcass, looking all vulnerable and delicious?

I'm gonna wife the HELL outta this stuff.

I made some tasty lemon garlic butter to rub under the skin.  This dim picture can't really do justice to the fresh, happy look of the butter, but trust me, it was summer in a bowl.

Now, in order to butterfly the chicken for roasting you have to turn it so the drumsticks are facing you, then cut along both sides of the backbone, removing the spine.  Two weird things: (1) You may not realize this, but when plucked, the chicken still has a tail - a floppy, weirdly unsettling little triangle of flesh. (2) The chicken was looking coyly over it's shoulder at me.

Gaaaaah!

Let me tell you, you do NOT want something looking over it's shouler at you, WATCHING you while you grab it by the ass and slice out it's spine.  You just DON'T.  Once the butterflying process was done, the chicken looked decidely...relaxed.   I couldn't stop laughing because it was just so limp and stretchy and pathetic.

Once cooked on a nice bed of potatoes, though, it just looked plain ol' delicious.  Fortunatley it TASTED delicious, too. 

Darcy Tested, Mother Disapproved

Cupcakes, cheese, coffee - NOT a part of a balanced breakfast.

My Life (or parts, at any rate)

My first sweater!

Two color knitting = super fun
 

It's not very flattering, but I made it and it's mine!
 

Now, to stitch up the armpits... 

This is the cat who came to visit.

She just wandered in...

And then it was bath time.

Goodbye, kitty.

The Greening of My Thumbs

Things I Found To Be Lovely