Yum!

Recently, our limited dinner menu has left us in a major rut, as we mostly repeat the same basic dishes week after week. While this makes grocery shopping easy, it doesn't make our evening meals anything more than a routine chore. So, enough is enough! We decided to remedy the situation by trying three things:

1. Expand our palettes
   
2. Eat healthier - portion control and caloric intake
   
3. Eat better - cut back on: ready-made foods loaded with preservatives, processed foods and convenience foods; increase: whole grains, fruits and vegetables, cooking from scratch.

Last night at my knitting group, I was sharing these aspirations with Pampootie and Susoolu, when I mentioned the one wrench in this entire plan:

I don't know much about cooking.

Now, I can bake somewhat decently. I suspect this is because things like cookies, cakes and bread are fairly straightforward: measure, mix, & stick in the oven. For a novice like myself, that's fairly simple. But let's face it: a good number of cookbooks today are anything BUT simple. Whenever I try looking for new recipes, I get a bit disheartened because most recipes seem pretentious and complex. In addition, there are ingredients and techniques I've never heard of!

Susoolu and Pampootie were quite understanding about this, and in addition to many tips, and kind offers of assistance (I don't think they know what they're getting themselves into!), they steered me in the direction of Nigel Slater's Real Fast Food.

While Mr. Tall and I were out browsing the shops and the Saturday market today, we picked up a copy of Real Fast Food, and when we hit the recipe for "Blue Cheese Pasta", we knew that would be our dinner for this evening.

Real Fast Food's focus is on meals that can be made in under a half an hour (roughly) using good quality, simple ingredients - ones you should be able to find in most supermarkets. Many recipes have variations noted, making this book an ideal starting point for your own experimentation. Thankfully, tips and helpful advice are plenty. I am so grateful to have had this book recommended to me, as it's not one I would've picked up on my own. The copy we found is very basic - it looks more like a trade paperback than a cookbook. No glossy photos to make your mouth water just by looking at them. Don't let that put you off! This book is completely worth it.

For dinner tonight, we did indeed make the "Blue Cheese Pasta". It was simple, quick and delicious. We used Gorgonzola, but paired it with some irreverent Scooby Doo shaped pasta. We can't take things too seriously now, can we?

Blue Cheese Pasta with bread from the Saturday Market

Easter Weekend

Mr. Tall and I took advantage of a four-day weekend by visiting Wales.

There were rainbows...


...that you could see the end of (no gold, though!)


And so many lovely books!

I must have hit the big time...

Today, I got my very first spam comment! I know that I may grow tired of them someday, but for the moment, I'm ecstatic that my blog has attracted the spammer type of attention.

A Miraculous Day...

A week or so ago, we were watching TV and an Oreo commercial came on. Not a big deal if you're in America, but here in the UK, we've only found them available (as 4-cookie snack packs) at a deli in our town.

Today, while grocery shopping, we stumbled upon this:

Mr. Tall's version of heaven

Of course, Mr. Tall helped himself to a couple packs. What was funny was watching other people respond to the display. Overall, people would pick up a package, turn it over and over and around, as if trying to figure out what an Oreo is.

So, if you've never tried an Oreo cookie and see this display at a store near you, buy a pack and tell me what you think!

FO: Matinee Coat

Earlier this week, I mailed off my penultimate lingering Christmas gift - a matinee coat for my niece, Denay.

Matinee Coat - finished

I really liked the lace stitch pattern at the bottom of the coat - it did take me a few attempts to get the pattern down, but once I got going, it was really quick and fun. It's a one-row pattern, with a purl row on the wrong side.

I decided to work the body of the jacket in one piece to eliminate some seaming. For this, I worked the sides and back of the lace pattern together, and separated the pieces once I reached the stockinette section.

Start-End: ?,2007 - Feb 17, 2008
Pattern: Matinee Coat from Simply Baby by Debbie Bliss
Yarn: Sirdar Snuggly DK in shade 0257
Needles: KnitPicks Options and fixed circulars sizes US 6 (4.0 mm), US 3 (3.25 mm) and US 5 (3.75 mm)
New-to-Me Techniques: Lace Knitting

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I felt the yarn could be a little bit splitty. Having said that, it's a great choice for babies - it's quite soft, comes in a variety of colors and is machine washable. I can see using it for other baby projects in the future.

I am very happy with the finished product. All the patterns in Simply Baby are simple and timeless, but require a good amount of seaming up in the end. My biggest gripe with the book is the lack of decent photos and schematics. This particular pattern lacked a good, clear picture of the finished piece. While the photos that were included were well-shot and artistic, they were not particularly helpful, making me very glad for Ravelry.

Success

There has been knitting lately, albeit at a much slower pace than I would like. This has been a very busy week for me. Mr. Tall and I both managed to get sick, with different bugs. While he has apparently been resistant to whatever I brought home, I can't say the same for myself :( This is also my last week at OldJob, which has proved to be very draining, especially given that I don't quite feel 100%.

But the main cause of stress this week has been my UK driving test. Thankfully, this morning I won that battle.

I passed!

I was really worried that I was going to fail this test the first time around. This is largely due to:

1. The higher percentage of people who fail this test the first time.


2. The differences in UK and US driving requirements


3. That I've developed bad driving habits over the (almost) 14 years since I have taken a driving test


4. That my driving instructor, while well-meaning, made me MORE nervous and MORE paranoid than any human should be.

Still, this morning I was relieved the moment I saw my examiner. He was one of those people you look at and immediately know that everything is going to be o.k. - a proper older English gentleman, complete with tweed cap and jolly disposition. In the end, I survived having only incurred 3 out of the allowed 15 minor faults.

I feel much better now that I can legally drive in the UK again, and am looking forward to a quiet weekend of R&R and knitting before I start NewJob on Monday!

On a very blustery day...

I’m a 4 seasons kinda gal. I love fall color, spring buds, winter chill and summer warmth equally. After living in Southern California for a couple years, a move to the UK, and a return to seasons, has been a welcome change. In some ways, I feel as though I am rediscovering the seasons when I wake up one morning and notice a fallen leaf, or a brighter morning.

I’m not ready for spring yet. I say that at a great risk of being outcast, as most people I encounter on a daily basis have turned complaining about the weather into an art form. For my part, I’m perfectly content to have a few more weeks of cold dreariness (it’s great for curling up with a good movie and knitting the day away!).

Almost spring flowers

Nevertheless, I know spring is right around the corner, and while I’m not ready for spring just yet, I will be by the time these bloom. Until then, they’re a great reminder that time is fleeting and seasons are cyclical. I will relish what is left of winter, then enjoy spring, summer, and fall until winter returns again.