what’s cooking?

Posted on Posted in book reviews/events, designing, food and garden, projects

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the view from my desk here in san diego can’t be beat—especially with snow flying back at home (poor david; i wish he was here with me). the first few days were a bit dreary, but since the wedding, the weather here has been perfect—refreshing 50s at night and in the 70s during the day. i SO needed this.

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w-day went off with no trouble at all; the day dawned perfectly beautiful and the event was lovely as can be with plenty of special people to celebrate kim and jeff’s happy day

if you enjoyed that small synopsis, you can see an even more extensive album on my flickr page

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an absolutely lovely day for my lovely friend; it just makes my heart swell to see her so happy!

that night the newlyweds went off to honeymoon and now they are enjoying a week in paris (so jealous!). i’m staying on here to look after the boys while they are away, which is pretty exciting considering the weather at home, which continues to be very cold and even snowy.

i can work very well right here while the boys go to school and work; they could probably even take care of themselves, but this way, they’ll get decent meals and have a reliable adult around just in case.

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we are cooking some old favorites and trying some new ones as well—the other night we made pasta with vodka sauce, which is always on the request list

but we also tried a new recipe for mahi-mahi with peppers and mango in a sweet and sour curry sauce that turned out delicious

and believe me, they gobbled up those green vegetables almost entirely—just a lunch portion left of each. we baked sweet potatoes with this dinner to round out the meal, which were also yummy.

today i did my long run while the boys were at church and when i got back i started a vegetable curry.

kade helped me finish it up when they got home.

for dessert, we’re making sticky rice with mangoes, using an intriguing method for steaming sticky rice that i found on the shesimmers website (my go-to site to read about thai cooking and recipes).

(with the publication of her first book, simple thai food, leela has a week of giveaways going—you should check them out)

on the recommendation of the proprietor of our local asian market, i’ve been using black sticky rice to make this dish, because it is both flavorful and quite beautiful. my sister-in-law nan was converted as well when we made it this way over christmas. the rich purple color of the rice is a gorgeous complement to the bright orange mangoes. like any whole-grain (brown) rice, it takes quite a bit longer to cook but it’s well worth the wait

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i couldn’t get the mangoes we like best, which come from thailand or the phillipines, so we had to settle for the mexican ones. mangoes are just about to come into season though, so hopefully we’ll see the asian type in the markets soon.

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with all this talk about cooking and wedding celebrating, you probably think i haven’t been knitting but i have. of course, mostly on secret projects, which i’m pretty sure you don’t want to hear, haha

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on the plane out here, i got the whole back of a sweater knit—i’m so excited; just two sleeves left to go and with some diligence (meaning, no email or ravelry chatter) i think i can knock those out this week and maybe do the blocking and seaming as well.

i’m working with our stone soup fingering yarn in the slate shade—this will be a lovely, lightweight garment, just perfect for spring. i can’t give you any more details than that right now but stay tuned, because it will be revealed soon.

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i’ve also worked on the fingering weight op art cowl in spirit trail sunna, colorway va-va-voom! it’s coming along, but i am trying to be fair and split my time between all three rejects i have here; they are all important right now.

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i’m also running as much as i can while i’m here—gotta take advantage of this glorious weather. i WANT to be out there for a long run every day but i’m trying to be sensible—my first half marathon is two weeks form today and from here on out, it will be important to scale back a little, eat right, and get plenty of rest.

so today was my last long training run until race day; i’m just so glad i got to come out here for the pre-race period. i’ve been a lot less stiff running in the warmer climate.

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i purchased some new shoes just before i left home which are breaking in nicely.

people often ask me how i come up with ideas for my designs and while it’s not always a straight line between inspiration and finished design, i can sometimes see afterward a clear relationship—like my hills in jamul hat design, which was included in the february BNK club package

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the colors, textures, and winding roads that i run on here are approximated in the shapes and textures of the hat.

today i ran a little bit longer than the half marathon distance—my turn back was about a half mile past this mile marker sign; when i got the other direction, the miles count down and after the zero point there is still one mile to go.

i’m tired, but it’s a happy tired; i am ready.

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ok, i’ll be back in a few days, hopefully with the fringe tree shawl pattern to release; i know some of you are waiting on that. i need to get photos from sarah so i can do the post.

have a good monday; happy knitting.

19 thoughts on “what’s cooking?

  1. Lovely wedding photos and it’s so nostalgic to see San Diego’s east county again. You’re there at the perfect time to get warmed up for your half-marathon. Enjoy the rest of your visit!

  2. So jealous…San Diego weather sounds glorious. The bride was beautiful and both she and the groom looked so happy. The boys sound like fun and your new shoes are the bomb! We’ll look forward to some more knitting at a future date!

  3. Beautiful wedding pictures Anne. Sounds like you and Kade and Sam are eating really well. You’re a great friend to keep the boys company. Hope you have a productive week with cooking, knitting and running. Enjoy the rest of your west coast visit.

  4. Is that Balboa Park and the Prado? Makes me homesick. Looks like a lovely wedding, weather was nice,too! Good luck on the half marathon race!

  5. Thank you for sharing the wedding pictures with us. It was a beautiful day for everyone. You are the bestest friend who is so unselfish with your time to spend and give to Kim’s sons such memorable moments of their own! The scenery pictures of CA are gorgeous. I am happy for your peace while you train and work, with a lot of fun mixed in.

  6. Enjoy the sunny weather. Back east it’s still winter. Seeing Kim’s lovely shawl, I now want to knit an Autumn Arbor…

  7. Jealous of that weather! Altho we did get one really gorgeously warm day before it’s been pouring every day since…

  8. Awesome! Thank you so much for sharing your photos of Kim’s special day. Have fun and bring back some of that sunshine, please. I think we may have turned the corner but any additional nudges towards spring can’t hurt.

  9. I am not tiring of looking at those glorious wedding photos one little bit! Glad you are enjoying the warm weather and the company of Kim’s boys. I am intrigued by your Stone Soup sweater in the making. I love just how lightweight this yarn is. Sounds like the perfect spring sweater to me, so what on earth are you doing reading this comment when you should be knitting the rest of it?!!!

  10. Hope you’ll be publishing a pattern for the blanket you knitted for the newly-weds. It’s so beautiful

  11. So glad you are enjoying being there. The wedding pictures were awesome THANK YOU for posting. It was so so great to see Kim so happy. I can’t wait for the sweater too. Stone Soup is one of my all time favorite yarns. Love it Love it Love it!

  12. Lovely wedding! Btw would love a post about how you started running and how you’ve gotten to the point you are now and any tips! Trying to run but my body disagrees with me!

  13. Thanks for documenting the special day and sharing the photos. Have fun with the family and enjoy the warm weather.

  14. Thanks for the nice pictures of Kim and Jeff’s wedding…enjoyed by so many. I’m glad your getting a nice rest and the cooking looks divine! NOT TO MENTION….HOW NICE THE WEATHER LOOKS. But we did have nice weather here today and tomorrow would you believe 68 degrees…I bet Kim’s boys and you are enjoying every minute.

  15. Many thanks for posting all of those beautiful photos of Kim’s wedding! And so nice of you to step up and mind the fort while she’s gone on her honeymoon. 🙂 Enjoy the warmth and getting your pre-half marathon runs in.

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