Mini post B

New favorite restaurant. Best burgers in town (yes, even better than Ole Ole's!); possibly best burgers ever. Feel bad about ordering hamburgers there when its a tapas joint.

Wonderful atmosphere. There's even a secret nook to sit in, like a slot wide enough for a row of two-seat tables.

If you're planning on going and want a date call me up. I'm available at moment's notice to meet you there!

OK. I've gotten these things off my chest. Now back to sewing for me.

(image from here)

Mini post A

Is too much cowl neck too much? I recently purchased a lovely pink cowl neck sweater (similar to the one shown above) from JJill via the world wide web. It arrived in the mail last night and, seriously, the cowl part is as long & wide as the sweater is. Ryan commented I could wear it as a hood, which I almost can.

Thoughts?

(image from JJill)

Ducks in order

Hello again! Remember me?

It seems I have gone AWOL (love military acronyms and always look for opportunities to slide them in). Wish I could say my absence was because I'd been whisked off to Paris France or some other lovely and romantic and appetizing vacation spot.

Alas, I've only been working. I have a new night & weekend job. Its called sewing up a storm in an effort to try to sell my goods. November 1 is my self-imposed deadline. That way I'll be able to enjoy the landslide elections without sitting at my sewing machine!

So stay tuned for more. In the mean time, I will be eating the food Ryan makes me (on the lunch menu we've got grilled cheese & tomato soup), sewing the nights away, and pretending I'm in Paris France on holiday.

I'll be back once I have something to show for all this talk!

Mmmm...pie

So concludes another blurry weekend of cleaning, chatting with Abby over a brief visit, watching one of my favorite movies (Ryan refused to watch this one with me after the fifth sitting), sewing just a lil', and cooking!

That's right, I spent another marvelous Sunday in the kitchen, baking and cooking up a storm. My day got off to a rough start at the grocery store, though, in the produce isle. I was gripping a large bag of onions for the french onion soup I would later handcraft, when the bottom of the bag inexplicably burst open, dropping every last yellow onion from my hand. After fumbling around, picking up most of them, I stood up to watch a whole stack of tomatoes cascaded down around me and mix with the few onions I hadn't bothered with thirty second earlier. I just stood there, both hands full of produce, waiting for someone to beam me out of the situation. Fortunately, a very nice Trader Joe's employee came over to pick up my mess, blaming the spill on unevenly sized tomatoes (or something like that).

Anyway, by the time I got home with all veggies and other groceries in tact, I was ready to rock. I cranked up some mixes that John sent us (they're really the only music we listen to around here - even the animals respond to the tunes) and made the following:

- More of that flavorful, moist olive oil bread brought to us from our friend Martha Stewart (it just occurred to me: do you think Martha and Hilary Clinton would be - or have been in the past - chummy? All of a sudden they remind me of each other in some inexplicable way. Never mind. Forget I ever mentioned it.)
- Pizza dough for dindin tomorrow night (am I on it or what!?!)
- Banana cream cheese bread. Yes. And friends, it's good. Possibly better that the pumpkin bread from last week.
- Fench onion soup and now the house smells like French onion soup.
- Apple pie. Ryan gives it an eight out of ten. It's not what you'd call traditional, as it has a sort of custardy filling and a crumble topping. But if you asked if I'd make it again, the answer would be yes.

And yes, we're going to eat only fruits and vegetables for the rest of the week.

Now, my husband is home after a weekend of field work on Oregon's southern coast. Our bellies are full. King of the Hill is on, and Hank just said “someone in our neighborhood is building a jack-ass McMansion.” I laughed out loud. The cats are taking a momentary and much appreciated reprieve from hissing and chasing. Another week begins.

An African-themed evening

After sitting down to dinner, pressing "Play" on the remote, and mentioning that I need to finish sewing on those patches tonight, Ryan - quite remarkably if you ask me - recognized a theme: Africa.

Here's why:

01) dinner = African peanut soup (definitely not a meal for you dear ones allergic to that pesky nut!)
02) DVD = Michael Palin, Sahara
03) patches = a project for a friend, where I sew patches onto zoo uniforms for workers in Kenya in exchange for detailed information from him on traveling to that beautiful, magnificent continent

See? An African-themed evening indeed. I like it. Now, back to work!

She's a maniac

And when I say maniac, I mean me. And yes, I wrote a title about myself in third person. I've recently written a short bio for a new creative endeavor, so I'm in third-person mode. "Trained as an architect, Rebecca loves all things..." (fill in the blank correctly and win a prize!).

What's so maniac about me today? My kitchen skills. First, set the tone by imagining a random combination of old-school jazz and blues on the local radio station, filling the house with easy listening.

OK. First up we have homemade ragu alla bolognese on the stovetop, simmering away.


Then there's Martha Stewart's olive oil bread currently rising, intended to compliment the said ragu tonight for dinner.


Finally, behold the delicious-smelling cream cheese pumpkin bread, an on-the-go morning treat.


It's a culinary triple threat, of sorts, gaining momentum in my kitchen as we speak. And huuun (short for honey), as my mama would address you, things are tasting pretty darn good in here right now. This homemaking stuff energizes me. Yeah! (corny? OK, I'll tone it down a bit)

On another note but slightly related, I present to you an additional mildly maniac-esque quality of yours truly: my incessant need for lists. I have notebooks filled with lists of craft projects, of all the professional exams I have to endure to call myself legit, of books I intend to read, and of grocery shopping items (a template actually, so all I have to do is check off what I want for the week and then it magically appears in the kitchen - just kidding on that last part). You get the picture. And now, I bring one more list to the table: the Brown Bagging It list of options for packing your lunch at home and taking it to work with you so you don't end up eating at Chipotle Monday thru Friday.

Here she is, brought to you by cooks.com and reformatted by me:


Enjoy, friends.

So long weekend. See you next week.

This is how I spent my Monday morning, aka Day of Me, aka Day off because they can't afford to pay me for five days of work. It was a fun day spent with Amy, Aiden, Seden, and Maya (catch a glimpse of that gorgeous leather sofa and chocolate brown wall - there are also cream silk curtains at tall windows and tastefully placed deep red accents involved).

And no this is not turning quickly into a baby blog, what with all the photos and sewing projects indicating otherwise.

Here's what else held my attention this weekend:

- a productive outing to IKEA for some cheerful accessories

- a trip to Fabric Depot to help my friend Siobhan pick out the materials for her Halloween costume we're going to make

- some baking follies

- a moment of autumnal zen with my new crimson glasses paired with some tea lights; all lit up they set a nice festive tone for down time

Welcome Fall. Welcome Aiden and Maya. Welcome pumpkin picking, apple pie baking, and holiday & birthday scheming. We're off to the start of a fabulous season.

Delicate balance

Folks, 24 hours ago we brought a new member into the family and in so doing have created a potentially hostile situation.

Meet Greyson. Eight weeks old, tiny, soft, and happy-go-lucky: our new kitten (you can't even imagine how squeaky sweet his little meow is).

Now slowly pan over to Misha, our beloved but troubled five-year-old formerly feral cat. Meech is, how do I say, not too happy with our new arrangement

On the one hand, I am loving, loving, his curious, gentle, unguarded nature. I can rub his belly without fearing a scratch or hiss. Our girl, on the other hand, is tormented right now and she's looking at us like we've betrayed her. It hurts.

But as I type, Ryan is saying everything is going to be just fine. He even suspects she might be coming around and liking this little guy as much as I already do. I'm inclined to take his word for it.