but for my dedicated readers (owls hooting, crickets chirping)- okay for anyone who's stumbled across my blog and read more than an entry or tow; it should be pretty obvious- i'm not good at a fixed schedule.
my mom no doubt, blames herself for this, and it's not for her lack of trying. sure, i get my days straight and am at work when i should be, but i'm not good when things are absolutely the same all the time. i create for myself wiggle room and then do sneaky things like sabotage my own plans by getting sick. example in point: last sunday's post that was never made up and languishes in my saved drafts file of oblivion. we won't even talk about how many saved drafts exist in my various google mail accounts. (let's be fair, i use them as notes to myself for things like upcoming column ideas, etc).
i have a set of bracelets that fears they will never see the light of day, i was derailed from that project, i think, a few weeks ago by needlefelting. i'm a little stuck on needlefelting at the moment and have been sidetracked again by a new/old favorite- railroad knitting.
it's also called afghan stitch, tunisian crochet and about a million other things, but since everyone assumes anything done with yarn and stick or sticks is knitting, i like the term railroad knitting. (i've also often considered getting a shirt that says something to the effect of, "no i'm crocheting" or a graphic of a hook and then an = crochet, but i'd hate to seem rude. plus it gives me a chance to talk to people a little bit about my much misunderstood art. craft. whatever.)
so i'm in the middle of a trade with a lovely etsian who wants a laptop sleeve to protect her precious in her backpack and sent out a call for knitters/crocheters. i guess i was the lucky winner, either that or she's got totally bored of waiting for me to get through my attention division/new job/sinus issues and has yet to let me know. she seems the gracious type though, so i think she may stick with me. i like the opportunity to try something new, especially with a captive audience, so the big old book of 101 tunisian/afghan/railroad knit stitches i got at the library just the other day seems to have filled the ticket. for a project like this, i wanted to use something that makes a denser stitch, to protect the surface of the machine, but i wanted it to be textural- something the hdc sack thing i was doing only halfway covered. the stitch i'm doing at this moment looks like a honeycomb sort of thing, with nice texture lines in between, so i'm digging it. i'm using brown sheep's cotton fleece and i'm thinking i've found my all-season cotton blend yarn. it's got a nice texture, good colors, a little sheen, not much fuzz. i don't like the fact that it splits into strands a lot when i'm working with it, but the yarn's been nicely tolerant of my abuses so far otherwise.
i've also got an art/craft show/sale coming up this week (littman gallery, on campus at portland state u) and feeling the pressure. it's two days so i need to have inventory (which shouldn't be too much of a problem, etsy's slow at the moment; one reason i jumped at the trade!) but it's got to be the right inventory. it's on a college campus, so i'm thinking i'll leave the baby afghans at home. hate to be stereotypical, especially as the college from which i graduated (university of north texas) had such a large number of non-traditional students. but i regard those pieces quite seriously as heirloom quality and don't really want them pawed at, especially by people who may be admiring but may have smudgy hands and no intent to make them their own.
boy i think i'm coming off rude and snotty today. i think i'll end this as it lies now, and go switch out laundry. i'll try not to hurt anyone's feelings on the way down. hopefully the results of laundry will please me, as there's a nice big bright pink bags in there felting.
2009/03/06
all kinds of starty-stoppy
i've been pushing myself to do a lot of fiberwork recently, as i've just become enamored of a new aspect of it, and have been feeling the spring fever (as well as the spring sinuses!) but it's been hard to coordinate the thousand little things that have to be done in order to "do" this fiberwork in a business sense at all.
blogging's been problematic for me this week, and earlier in the week, when i really really wanted to just needlefelt, i had to take pictures, edit them, do listings, etc. and now that the posting part has slowed down, i am kind of temporarily tired of needlefelting. it's the way i would tell my mom when i was a kid, re: foods, "it's not that i'm full, i'm just tired of the way this tastes." which, when said calmly, i'm pretty sure she accepted it.
(and to add to my scattered attention issues, i've just been solemnly brought bamboo type purse handles, by the newly deputized vacuum patroller. what to do with these?!?!)
anyway, i'm not full of needlefelting, i'm just a little tired of it at the moment.
and dmanit there's a spot of decent light, time to throw off the computer and take some pictures. grr!!!!
so my attention span for the past week or so has been fractured to say the least.
dangit and an etsy forum question, but the etsy forums are being slow as molasses to load. so, to pass the time, some photographs (hot off the windowsill!) of the work in progress:
(these pics are not really edited, so they're not etsy listing quality, there's your disclaimer.)
all of the pieces need work. it's true, but i am going to give myself a night off, just to avoid just throwing stuff on the sweaters. i'm afraid that lacking real energy might make me push designs on them instead of what the sweater is saying to me. oh dear. yes, i talk to fibers.
the above is on a lovely cardigan originally sold at the gap. it's got a little rabbit hair yarn in it so it feels really soft. i'm trying to keep it from looking country, but this looks a little like a folky pear. i'm also craving avocadoes.
not that anyone could tell. this sweater's an older looking avocado green light wool thing. at least this is a little more peacock feathery in shape. but i need to decide if i love it or if i'm tired of it. it's a really lovely motif, but how far will it go, really?
this one actually has a name, and it's the closest to being ready. it's an awesome bennetton sweater, albeit a small one. i wear smalls, preferring a snugger fit, but this is ridiculously snug. but for a smaller framed lass, this one's going to be gorgeous. inspired by all manner of blooms and blossoms. it's a little femme for my general tastes, but it was too pretty an idea to ignore, and the perfect color sweater on which to do it. it's not a cardigan, but it says early spring to me.
when i allow myself to get back to needlefelting tomorrow, this will be the first to be finished and posted to my shop.
blogging's been problematic for me this week, and earlier in the week, when i really really wanted to just needlefelt, i had to take pictures, edit them, do listings, etc. and now that the posting part has slowed down, i am kind of temporarily tired of needlefelting. it's the way i would tell my mom when i was a kid, re: foods, "it's not that i'm full, i'm just tired of the way this tastes." which, when said calmly, i'm pretty sure she accepted it.
(and to add to my scattered attention issues, i've just been solemnly brought bamboo type purse handles, by the newly deputized vacuum patroller. what to do with these?!?!)
anyway, i'm not full of needlefelting, i'm just a little tired of it at the moment.
and dmanit there's a spot of decent light, time to throw off the computer and take some pictures. grr!!!!
so my attention span for the past week or so has been fractured to say the least.
dangit and an etsy forum question, but the etsy forums are being slow as molasses to load. so, to pass the time, some photographs (hot off the windowsill!) of the work in progress:
(these pics are not really edited, so they're not etsy listing quality, there's your disclaimer.)
all of the pieces need work. it's true, but i am going to give myself a night off, just to avoid just throwing stuff on the sweaters. i'm afraid that lacking real energy might make me push designs on them instead of what the sweater is saying to me. oh dear. yes, i talk to fibers.
the above is on a lovely cardigan originally sold at the gap. it's got a little rabbit hair yarn in it so it feels really soft. i'm trying to keep it from looking country, but this looks a little like a folky pear. i'm also craving avocadoes.
not that anyone could tell. this sweater's an older looking avocado green light wool thing. at least this is a little more peacock feathery in shape. but i need to decide if i love it or if i'm tired of it. it's a really lovely motif, but how far will it go, really?
this one actually has a name, and it's the closest to being ready. it's an awesome bennetton sweater, albeit a small one. i wear smalls, preferring a snugger fit, but this is ridiculously snug. but for a smaller framed lass, this one's going to be gorgeous. inspired by all manner of blooms and blossoms. it's a little femme for my general tastes, but it was too pretty an idea to ignore, and the perfect color sweater on which to do it. it's not a cardigan, but it says early spring to me.when i allow myself to get back to needlefelting tomorrow, this will be the first to be finished and posted to my shop.
2009/03/02
ojodios/practical magic
i think i realize why i like the new-to-me god's eye motif- it's a good representation of my brain.
it's going five or seven different directions and i'd like very much to do today's blog entry, rather than yesterday's.
it's incomplete and unposted and it's going to require me digging around in my favorites list on etsy. but i'm running this show and everyone seems to prefer it when i'm eased up on that, so i'm moving the share the love until wednesday. that sounds like a good day for it. don't you agree?
i mean, you do agree, right?
(i'm nodding my head here, pulling you on with me).
the story of yesterday is this great burst of energy, a whole lot done, and a whole lot more intended to do. my brain and energy have clicked into a different gear recently, and i realized today, while at work, that visualization is more powerful than i thought previously, and that it has a lot of influence on what manifests.
this is a liberating yet sobering thought. in our actions, we're only treading down grooves/tracks that we've already laid. but that means taking responsibility for daydreams, and when your airy fairy type friends say things about "follow your own bliss" they neglect to mention that actually doing it is a lot of work. it's not about the path of least resistance, passion only flows that way in fiction.
(and here's where i contemplate all that, and one of my role models and send a mental emotional heart to tiff, hope she gets that.)
but so. yesterday and today have both been punctuated with things that it was absolutely clear to me that they needed to be done.
there was cooking and cleaning, and i needlefelted a cardigan:
this is my very safe workspace! really! no really, i can't wait until we get a slightly larger place. the countertop/bar is an okay height to work at, standing, but our table's a little taller still so it will be great for feltwork. it's a dark picture, but i promise, mom, all the lights were on and i wasn't straining my eyes. that pattern is called the god's eye, and i have seen it previously as an embroidery stitch.
that's not such a good picture, but you get the general idea. i'm hopeless so far at embroidery, but most of the women in my family have a cross stitch/crewel/needlepoint embroidery project in their life repetoire, so i've been exposed to it and have an appreciation for it. i also have a needlepoint project that i've been working on for nearly a decade. one day, that pillow with frogs and dragonflies on it will be done! and as god is my witness, i'll never do needlepoint again! (sorry, channeling my inner southern belle. it's in there. don't laugh.)
so, needlefelting seems like a good way to explore these stitches i love. it's not exactly the same, but one can take advantage of fiber texture to create movement and interesting detail.
this god's eye is really basic, and i've already got much more ambitious ideas. but it's a fun thing to do with brightly colored yarn.
this pocket is a little more sedate:
and i don't necessarily love the colors; i think they pull the design into borderline timidity. or are they keeping the design subtle? i like the shading in the leaf shapes, and enjoyed doing it. the lines around the circles are interesting:
and i'll be exploring that some more. i've been playing with that idea in my head for a while so it was interesting to see it come out.
that's another look at it, and already i see so many things that i'll have the opportunity to do better, soon.
i think i'd like to add these to my shop, consider this my statement of intention: these are my coming attractions. i would have the ability to do different sizes, in completely one-off designs, relatively affordably. i'd be upcycling, as i'd be getting sweaters secondhand. if they didn't come with cool buttons (mine came with black faceted shiny plastic ones- i can't decide how i feel about them)- that's easy to fix.
i have been looking at felt and fiber to try to get a fix on the colors that are out there and am very happy to have done so. now i need to learn the sweaters. i have ideas about embellishing seams, modifying sleeve length.
i'm visualizing one specific cardigna, and i think i'm going to start getting supplies together for it tomorrow. i think i'm liking this spring energy, feeling productive is so cool.
it's going five or seven different directions and i'd like very much to do today's blog entry, rather than yesterday's.
it's incomplete and unposted and it's going to require me digging around in my favorites list on etsy. but i'm running this show and everyone seems to prefer it when i'm eased up on that, so i'm moving the share the love until wednesday. that sounds like a good day for it. don't you agree?
i mean, you do agree, right?
(i'm nodding my head here, pulling you on with me).
the story of yesterday is this great burst of energy, a whole lot done, and a whole lot more intended to do. my brain and energy have clicked into a different gear recently, and i realized today, while at work, that visualization is more powerful than i thought previously, and that it has a lot of influence on what manifests.
this is a liberating yet sobering thought. in our actions, we're only treading down grooves/tracks that we've already laid. but that means taking responsibility for daydreams, and when your airy fairy type friends say things about "follow your own bliss" they neglect to mention that actually doing it is a lot of work. it's not about the path of least resistance, passion only flows that way in fiction.
(and here's where i contemplate all that, and one of my role models and send a mental emotional heart to tiff, hope she gets that.)
but so. yesterday and today have both been punctuated with things that it was absolutely clear to me that they needed to be done.
there was cooking and cleaning, and i needlefelted a cardigan:
this is my very safe workspace! really! no really, i can't wait until we get a slightly larger place. the countertop/bar is an okay height to work at, standing, but our table's a little taller still so it will be great for feltwork. it's a dark picture, but i promise, mom, all the lights were on and i wasn't straining my eyes. that pattern is called the god's eye, and i have seen it previously as an embroidery stitch.
that's not such a good picture, but you get the general idea. i'm hopeless so far at embroidery, but most of the women in my family have a cross stitch/crewel/needlepoint embroidery project in their life repetoire, so i've been exposed to it and have an appreciation for it. i also have a needlepoint project that i've been working on for nearly a decade. one day, that pillow with frogs and dragonflies on it will be done! and as god is my witness, i'll never do needlepoint again! (sorry, channeling my inner southern belle. it's in there. don't laugh.)so, needlefelting seems like a good way to explore these stitches i love. it's not exactly the same, but one can take advantage of fiber texture to create movement and interesting detail.
this god's eye is really basic, and i've already got much more ambitious ideas. but it's a fun thing to do with brightly colored yarn.
this pocket is a little more sedate:
and i don't necessarily love the colors; i think they pull the design into borderline timidity. or are they keeping the design subtle? i like the shading in the leaf shapes, and enjoyed doing it. the lines around the circles are interesting:
and i'll be exploring that some more. i've been playing with that idea in my head for a while so it was interesting to see it come out.
that's another look at it, and already i see so many things that i'll have the opportunity to do better, soon.i think i'd like to add these to my shop, consider this my statement of intention: these are my coming attractions. i would have the ability to do different sizes, in completely one-off designs, relatively affordably. i'd be upcycling, as i'd be getting sweaters secondhand. if they didn't come with cool buttons (mine came with black faceted shiny plastic ones- i can't decide how i feel about them)- that's easy to fix.
i have been looking at felt and fiber to try to get a fix on the colors that are out there and am very happy to have done so. now i need to learn the sweaters. i have ideas about embellishing seams, modifying sleeve length.
i'm visualizing one specific cardigna, and i think i'm going to start getting supplies together for it tomorrow. i think i'm liking this spring energy, feeling productive is so cool.
2009/03/01
sunday, got in the way
have all kinds of an ambitious-type entry saved, but unfortunately my busy sunday got in the way. all will be explained tomorrow, with another late share the love installment, included.
2009/02/27
friday
nothing like a return to other people's schedule and expectations to make one welcome friday.
it's so arbitrary and it happens every week, yet i can't help but mildly celebrate its arrival/existence. a few minutes early to work this morning (quite a short drive), i got to enjoy a whole song of regina spektor's, a pretty melodic and echoing piece that suited this morning's bright sky quite well. things are greening. and i'd already had coffee, breakfast, made a listing on etsy.
the eye one
which i adore, specifically due to the adaptation of the embroidery stitch to needlefelting. i love a lot of embroidery motifs, but at this point, i am not an embroiderer. there is a certain appreciation for color, texture, fiber qualities that exists within embroidery, and so i'm interested in taking these old techniques and needlefelting them. well that's an ambitious statement, as this pouch itself is one of the first in the projects that do this.
there's a camel-colored felted bag that's accented with a warm blue and nice dark red that's just gorgeous- it's upcoming. i'm having difficulty finding a suitable button- i'm looking for a nice plain wooden one, on a shank. tougher than it sounds. it's fabulous. should i end up ever with a nice camel colored coat, i'd like that motif to go somewhere upon it, in those colors too. but this pouch is a more tropical assortment of colors, and there's nothing wrong with that either.
an enjoyable evening planned, some baked polenta fries (gotten from 101 cookbooks, a food blog i've come to find really reliable and quality) and broccoli, perhaps a cartoon movie from studio ghibli- one of the few types of movies the three of us find agreeable. maybe some stove popped popcorn, maybe some roasted garbanzo beans. the fantastic feeling of leisure, which i'm sure i will muss up with finding something yarn-related to work on. oh well, if i can't pet a cat, i can at least mess with sheep hair. planning tomorrow's breakfast all the while.
it's so arbitrary and it happens every week, yet i can't help but mildly celebrate its arrival/existence. a few minutes early to work this morning (quite a short drive), i got to enjoy a whole song of regina spektor's, a pretty melodic and echoing piece that suited this morning's bright sky quite well. things are greening. and i'd already had coffee, breakfast, made a listing on etsy.
the eye onewhich i adore, specifically due to the adaptation of the embroidery stitch to needlefelting. i love a lot of embroidery motifs, but at this point, i am not an embroiderer. there is a certain appreciation for color, texture, fiber qualities that exists within embroidery, and so i'm interested in taking these old techniques and needlefelting them. well that's an ambitious statement, as this pouch itself is one of the first in the projects that do this.
there's a camel-colored felted bag that's accented with a warm blue and nice dark red that's just gorgeous- it's upcoming. i'm having difficulty finding a suitable button- i'm looking for a nice plain wooden one, on a shank. tougher than it sounds. it's fabulous. should i end up ever with a nice camel colored coat, i'd like that motif to go somewhere upon it, in those colors too. but this pouch is a more tropical assortment of colors, and there's nothing wrong with that either.
an enjoyable evening planned, some baked polenta fries (gotten from 101 cookbooks, a food blog i've come to find really reliable and quality) and broccoli, perhaps a cartoon movie from studio ghibli- one of the few types of movies the three of us find agreeable. maybe some stove popped popcorn, maybe some roasted garbanzo beans. the fantastic feeling of leisure, which i'm sure i will muss up with finding something yarn-related to work on. oh well, if i can't pet a cat, i can at least mess with sheep hair. planning tomorrow's breakfast all the while.
2009/02/25
midafternoon: beer and potatoes (with a sort-of recipe)
i'm not being needlessly decadent, both the beer and the potatoes were leftover. started the new job in earnest today, and while it's not my absolute favorite type of job in the world, there are perks; i'm not confined to a chair and a four foot by four foot space for eight hours a stretch, tethered to a telephone (eek! the horrors!) and my mind completely on loan to someone i don't even like very much. and, i got off today rather early. early enough to stop by a clothing resale (somewhere between a lowbrow vintage shop and higher end thrift shop) and try on a couple of things that didn't fit "just right" and then come home and shoot some pics for my etsy shop and enjoy some of last night's potatoes with the hub. and a 1554 "enlightened black ale" from new belgium. in reverse order, now.
the new belgium beer was one of a twelve pack, purchased the other night for our weekly family dinner/lan party. being done in by sinus illness, ill partner and week-long school break kid, i was not into cooking. i'd tried wooing both of my darling housemates with tasty treats throughout the week: valentine's day, we had heart shaped, faintly sweet scones sprinkled with big grains of colored sugar and sweet yogurt (brown sugar and almond extract in plain yogurt- a versatile dip/sauce) with some rhubarb and strawberry jelly from last summer; individual cherry pies, tortilla soup, eggs and fried potatoes & bacon amongst other delights. but exhaustion and jaded palates led us to a chinese buffet. i am so traumatized by the experience that i may never visit another again. i tried to convince everyone else that the best chinese food is not to be found beneath a sneeze guard and on a steam table. but none of us could pin down one item from a conventional restaurant that we could settle on so it seemed a good idea. i'll not fault that certain unnamed buffet for its lack of variety, but for the execution thereof. it was close enough to being pretty good that its failure to do so led it to be completely awful.
feeling sorry for ourselves, we agreed that our beer for the gaming festivities should be good, something that we enjoyed. we've picked up a folly pack on occasion and that evening it fit the bill. there are three of us, so the three bottles of four varieties is perfect, and towards the end of the evening we're usually amenable to trading. the ones we've gotten included fat tire, of course (the chocolate milk of beers), mothership wit (a belgian-style white/wheat beer, which i almost always love), 1554 (a tasty and dark brown ale) and the wildcard, which has been an interesting concoction new belgium calls giddy up.
giddy up is billed as beer, espresso and a hint of lemony citrus. rewind back to my college days; the first coffeeshop i really frequented (r.i.p. brickhaus) featured a proprietress versed in coffee and a menu item that included espresso and lemon. i never tried it, as i was in a mocha shake (the porsche cherry was the best, off-menu and named after our friend bobby's "porn name" - based on his childhood pet's name + the name of the street he grew up on) phase, if not availing myself of the 2.00 bottomless cup of coffee w/ lots of sugar. those were the days. anyway, i should have tried it, regretted not, and therefore was excited to taste that beer. i've drank a lot of beer, tried lots of kinds, but don't really claim to know much about it beyond what i like, what i dislike and what i've not tried yet. it's like most new belgium beers, quite refreshing. a good start to an evening of gaming and beer sipping, the espresso taste kind of gives a (psychosomatic) energy lift, and the rich dark beery flavor and lemon kind of spiral together. delicious, to me.
so the 1554 was left over from a couple nights ago and i enjoyed it. a moment of leisure and a pint is a lovely moment.
the potatoes, nommed in a hurry, are the only recipe i really remember gran cooking when i was young. she went all out and did eggnog french toast on xmas morning, and would do the occasional thing here and there, but really is not one for cooking. this, i remember eating along with something that required ketchup and mustard type condiments as i used the same to cover over the green onion flavor in the potatoes. but when i was making them up last night, they didn't smell right, then i rescued some old green onions and once they were added, it was all correct.
so. the sort of recipe. i'm not going to bother with strict measurements, just use what you have, use your nose and judge based on your crowd's hunger and needs. we ate this as a main course, but it could have been a side, too.
boil enough russet potatoes. i didn't use russets at all for a while there, and have recently gone back. they're delicious. buy them organic, scrub the skins and don't peel them. that's wasting food.
while potatoes boil, get out some yogurt (sourcream), cheddar cheese (sharp if you fancy it), green onions (if the outsides look wilty, pull them off. there might be some good onion shoot there in the middle), a little butter, salt and pepper and a couple slices of nice thick bacon- i buy some good ends and pieces at an independent grocery here in town, for flavoring use, so i cut a couple of slices off that. (bacon's tasty, but optional. i made this without when i was hard core vegetarian, and with margarine too, and it was a-ok.)
if bacon, put it in a cold pan and turn on the burner, removing when it is nice and browned and crispy. let it rest on a paper towel to drain a little grease and crisp up. save your pan of bacon fat for browning onions or something in, throwing it away is wasting food.
while bacon cooks and potatoes boil, cut off a tbs or two of butter and set aside. cut off a good knob of cheese, and slice.small cube, and save a nub for grating over the top of the potatoes. slice some green onions, and put butter and cheese back in the fridge. after the bacon's done and drained, dice it up into nice-sized pieces
one-a these days, your potatoes will be done- test them with a fork, when they're soft enough for pretty easy mashing, they're done. get out a baking dish (i used a glass bowlish shaped thing) and put the potatoes in. mash them up, add the butter so it melts. add enough yogurt/sour cream to make things pretty creamy. russets are mealy, so we want to bind that together. add in the cubed cheese and part of the bacon while stirring, then the green onions. add some salt and pepper, and stir. smell. you want to smell everything in a nice balance, but the parts that will stick out to your nose will be the bacon and green onions. use this smell to let you know if you need more green onions or not- they cut the richness of the dish, but we all have differing tolerances for them.
once that's all done, use a spoon and make the top nice and smooth. sprinkle on the bacon and cheese. it can sit for a little while at this point, or you can bake it immediately. stick it in the oven, covered, at 350 until the cheese starts to melt, then take the cover off so the cheese can brown a little. it takes 20-30 minutes all told.
ingredients: potatoes, butter, cheese, yogurt/sour cream, salt & pepper, bacon and green onions.
it's good stuff and a food/flavor memory for me.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
i have several projects going right now, in various stages of completion. they all reproach me when i walk past them; there are yarn balls giving me baleful looks, and purses that need buttons heaving meaningful sighs. beads twitter and giggle to one another under their breath, and patterns to find or devise playing ring around the rosy in the back of my mind. a folder of photos to edit and posts on etsy to space out and create. hopefully, it all leads to more.
the new belgium beer was one of a twelve pack, purchased the other night for our weekly family dinner/lan party. being done in by sinus illness, ill partner and week-long school break kid, i was not into cooking. i'd tried wooing both of my darling housemates with tasty treats throughout the week: valentine's day, we had heart shaped, faintly sweet scones sprinkled with big grains of colored sugar and sweet yogurt (brown sugar and almond extract in plain yogurt- a versatile dip/sauce) with some rhubarb and strawberry jelly from last summer; individual cherry pies, tortilla soup, eggs and fried potatoes & bacon amongst other delights. but exhaustion and jaded palates led us to a chinese buffet. i am so traumatized by the experience that i may never visit another again. i tried to convince everyone else that the best chinese food is not to be found beneath a sneeze guard and on a steam table. but none of us could pin down one item from a conventional restaurant that we could settle on so it seemed a good idea. i'll not fault that certain unnamed buffet for its lack of variety, but for the execution thereof. it was close enough to being pretty good that its failure to do so led it to be completely awful.
feeling sorry for ourselves, we agreed that our beer for the gaming festivities should be good, something that we enjoyed. we've picked up a folly pack on occasion and that evening it fit the bill. there are three of us, so the three bottles of four varieties is perfect, and towards the end of the evening we're usually amenable to trading. the ones we've gotten included fat tire, of course (the chocolate milk of beers), mothership wit (a belgian-style white/wheat beer, which i almost always love), 1554 (a tasty and dark brown ale) and the wildcard, which has been an interesting concoction new belgium calls giddy up.
giddy up is billed as beer, espresso and a hint of lemony citrus. rewind back to my college days; the first coffeeshop i really frequented (r.i.p. brickhaus) featured a proprietress versed in coffee and a menu item that included espresso and lemon. i never tried it, as i was in a mocha shake (the porsche cherry was the best, off-menu and named after our friend bobby's "porn name" - based on his childhood pet's name + the name of the street he grew up on) phase, if not availing myself of the 2.00 bottomless cup of coffee w/ lots of sugar. those were the days. anyway, i should have tried it, regretted not, and therefore was excited to taste that beer. i've drank a lot of beer, tried lots of kinds, but don't really claim to know much about it beyond what i like, what i dislike and what i've not tried yet. it's like most new belgium beers, quite refreshing. a good start to an evening of gaming and beer sipping, the espresso taste kind of gives a (psychosomatic) energy lift, and the rich dark beery flavor and lemon kind of spiral together. delicious, to me.
so the 1554 was left over from a couple nights ago and i enjoyed it. a moment of leisure and a pint is a lovely moment.
the potatoes, nommed in a hurry, are the only recipe i really remember gran cooking when i was young. she went all out and did eggnog french toast on xmas morning, and would do the occasional thing here and there, but really is not one for cooking. this, i remember eating along with something that required ketchup and mustard type condiments as i used the same to cover over the green onion flavor in the potatoes. but when i was making them up last night, they didn't smell right, then i rescued some old green onions and once they were added, it was all correct.
so. the sort of recipe. i'm not going to bother with strict measurements, just use what you have, use your nose and judge based on your crowd's hunger and needs. we ate this as a main course, but it could have been a side, too.
boil enough russet potatoes. i didn't use russets at all for a while there, and have recently gone back. they're delicious. buy them organic, scrub the skins and don't peel them. that's wasting food.
while potatoes boil, get out some yogurt (sourcream), cheddar cheese (sharp if you fancy it), green onions (if the outsides look wilty, pull them off. there might be some good onion shoot there in the middle), a little butter, salt and pepper and a couple slices of nice thick bacon- i buy some good ends and pieces at an independent grocery here in town, for flavoring use, so i cut a couple of slices off that. (bacon's tasty, but optional. i made this without when i was hard core vegetarian, and with margarine too, and it was a-ok.)
if bacon, put it in a cold pan and turn on the burner, removing when it is nice and browned and crispy. let it rest on a paper towel to drain a little grease and crisp up. save your pan of bacon fat for browning onions or something in, throwing it away is wasting food.
while bacon cooks and potatoes boil, cut off a tbs or two of butter and set aside. cut off a good knob of cheese, and slice.small cube, and save a nub for grating over the top of the potatoes. slice some green onions, and put butter and cheese back in the fridge. after the bacon's done and drained, dice it up into nice-sized pieces
one-a these days, your potatoes will be done- test them with a fork, when they're soft enough for pretty easy mashing, they're done. get out a baking dish (i used a glass bowlish shaped thing) and put the potatoes in. mash them up, add the butter so it melts. add enough yogurt/sour cream to make things pretty creamy. russets are mealy, so we want to bind that together. add in the cubed cheese and part of the bacon while stirring, then the green onions. add some salt and pepper, and stir. smell. you want to smell everything in a nice balance, but the parts that will stick out to your nose will be the bacon and green onions. use this smell to let you know if you need more green onions or not- they cut the richness of the dish, but we all have differing tolerances for them.
once that's all done, use a spoon and make the top nice and smooth. sprinkle on the bacon and cheese. it can sit for a little while at this point, or you can bake it immediately. stick it in the oven, covered, at 350 until the cheese starts to melt, then take the cover off so the cheese can brown a little. it takes 20-30 minutes all told.
ingredients: potatoes, butter, cheese, yogurt/sour cream, salt & pepper, bacon and green onions.
it's good stuff and a food/flavor memory for me.
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i have several projects going right now, in various stages of completion. they all reproach me when i walk past them; there are yarn balls giving me baleful looks, and purses that need buttons heaving meaningful sighs. beads twitter and giggle to one another under their breath, and patterns to find or devise playing ring around the rosy in the back of my mind. a folder of photos to edit and posts on etsy to space out and create. hopefully, it all leads to more.
2009/02/23
love, late
our household for the past week and two days has been hit simultaneously by an adult incidence of illness, with requisite puny days and schoolfree week. bless those year round schools. a week's a nice long time, and we could have done so much more. in my ideal freelance future, i can visualize a three day field trip (and i mean really, like a field with a trail and some trees in it or a field with some sheep in it) but reality intruded, unpleasantly, but was treated to many cups of hot tea.
therefore with these protestations, i must submit my second shared love installment a little late but with no less love. i don't give myself a break on anything else- i was still working (on things that will be felted and thus washed in really hot water) and cooking, etc, so i cheesed out on uptalking another something cool. but here it is.
song for today: yael naim's "new soul" - really too cute.
which fits in nicely with this week's very cute new friend: gossamer, of portland
i cast the net wide on a day when i felt a little puny and the smallest person in the house needed some out time. we managed to catch a beautiful sunny day in the 50s. i made a list from google maps of several yarn/fiber places i'd yet to visit; needing fiber, a needlefelting pad and a good shove towards just getting started on that already.
gossamer was our first stop, and i'm so glad it was. the window beckoned with fairies and skeins of lamb's pride in shades of green (and i'm a sucker for lamb's pride/lanaloft. confronted with a rainbow of them, i'm apt to grab a skein or two of some unlikely shade partly because it's just so darn useful. even more so now, but i'm getting ahead of myself) and once inside we were greeted with natural/ambient light and the warm sweet scent of beeswax. jewelry afore us, lamb's pride to my left, felting supplies aplenty, not to mention work on the walls and lots of books. and a cheery, chatty, knowledgeable proprietress busy at some work on a central table. cozy, without feeling small and homey without being run-down. all questions were answered amiably as i fumbled through wool fibers of several colors and flipped through sheets of all-wool felt, in fabulous shades. (and made in europe to their stringent children's safety standards!!)
sweater scraps, organized by color, and the lamb's pride too. i adore places that organize by color, my thriftshop trained eye is pleased and enjoys browsing that way. the (local) beeswax was the source of the gorgeous scent and many bars stood proudly on the shelves.
i also got to touch a piece of nuno felt/scarf and touching it immediately made thirty or forty new ideas scan across my brain.
needless to say, this was an enjoyable shop that will no doubt become one of my favorites. i like the neighborhood (e burnside) but don't make it that way very often. as i'll be out and about more due to upcoming employment, i will certainly make a stop to visit. and i see on the gossamer website that there is an open crafting time, which if i ever have a tuesday evening to myself, i would like to visit.
gossamer
also has an etsy outpost, on which she sells her beautiful and colorful dutch merino felt. i love how she's got the color groups assembled, and i do believe that she's one of those darling shop owners that would put together a custom set for a buyer.
however, should one make it to portland, her shop is worth the visit- it's part craft/education supply shop, part boutique, part gallery. beautiful felted paintings line the walls- the shading is incredible.
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and of course my visit finally precipitated a felting flood, which is kind of closing in on the finish to my mad de-stash. i didn't realize de-stashing takes so long, but it's okay. the new stash does call, but this needlefelting thing is so awesome that it's a huge distraction. at this point, i'd rather felt, but there's no more felting to do. only buttons. which don't thrill me, but i have to be very serious about as it's such an important part of the piece. i have some new pouches and purses which will appear in my etsy shop as a trickle over the next several days (after buttons and photos, that is).
therefore with these protestations, i must submit my second shared love installment a little late but with no less love. i don't give myself a break on anything else- i was still working (on things that will be felted and thus washed in really hot water) and cooking, etc, so i cheesed out on uptalking another something cool. but here it is.
song for today: yael naim's "new soul" - really too cute.
which fits in nicely with this week's very cute new friend: gossamer, of portland
i cast the net wide on a day when i felt a little puny and the smallest person in the house needed some out time. we managed to catch a beautiful sunny day in the 50s. i made a list from google maps of several yarn/fiber places i'd yet to visit; needing fiber, a needlefelting pad and a good shove towards just getting started on that already.
gossamer was our first stop, and i'm so glad it was. the window beckoned with fairies and skeins of lamb's pride in shades of green (and i'm a sucker for lamb's pride/lanaloft. confronted with a rainbow of them, i'm apt to grab a skein or two of some unlikely shade partly because it's just so darn useful. even more so now, but i'm getting ahead of myself) and once inside we were greeted with natural/ambient light and the warm sweet scent of beeswax. jewelry afore us, lamb's pride to my left, felting supplies aplenty, not to mention work on the walls and lots of books. and a cheery, chatty, knowledgeable proprietress busy at some work on a central table. cozy, without feeling small and homey without being run-down. all questions were answered amiably as i fumbled through wool fibers of several colors and flipped through sheets of all-wool felt, in fabulous shades. (and made in europe to their stringent children's safety standards!!)
sweater scraps, organized by color, and the lamb's pride too. i adore places that organize by color, my thriftshop trained eye is pleased and enjoys browsing that way. the (local) beeswax was the source of the gorgeous scent and many bars stood proudly on the shelves.
i also got to touch a piece of nuno felt/scarf and touching it immediately made thirty or forty new ideas scan across my brain.
needless to say, this was an enjoyable shop that will no doubt become one of my favorites. i like the neighborhood (e burnside) but don't make it that way very often. as i'll be out and about more due to upcoming employment, i will certainly make a stop to visit. and i see on the gossamer website that there is an open crafting time, which if i ever have a tuesday evening to myself, i would like to visit.
gossamer
also has an etsy outpost, on which she sells her beautiful and colorful dutch merino felt. i love how she's got the color groups assembled, and i do believe that she's one of those darling shop owners that would put together a custom set for a buyer.
however, should one make it to portland, her shop is worth the visit- it's part craft/education supply shop, part boutique, part gallery. beautiful felted paintings line the walls- the shading is incredible.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
and of course my visit finally precipitated a felting flood, which is kind of closing in on the finish to my mad de-stash. i didn't realize de-stashing takes so long, but it's okay. the new stash does call, but this needlefelting thing is so awesome that it's a huge distraction. at this point, i'd rather felt, but there's no more felting to do. only buttons. which don't thrill me, but i have to be very serious about as it's such an important part of the piece. i have some new pouches and purses which will appear in my etsy shop as a trickle over the next several days (after buttons and photos, that is).
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