crafting

I WANT AN AUSTRALIAN SHEPHERD PUPPY.

Just look at how cute they are, OMGad:





AUSTRALIAN SHEPHERD PUPPY > any other puppy or cat

I discovered this when I went over to Azure's to "go out" for her last night in town. We went crrraazzzzzyyyyyy!!!!!! I stayed up until 2:30/3ish, Azure stayed up until 5ish, partying? nope, matting! Wooooooooooooooohooooooo. Fun times!

Actually it was fun, and relaxing, and productive, which I am all for these days.

Azure measures dimensions for photos:




I cut the mat paper with the expensive yet precise mat cutter



Look at how nice the mat looks!



Then Azure went bye bye. Bye Azure! See you and Mike in February! I will miss you guys!

Today, I bought a styrofoam cone



And some feathers:





And made a feather tree! While listening to the fleet foxes!



It really is winter, isn't it?

library

Who loves the library?! I do!!!!

I borrowed so many gems today from the library. They were all on hold for me. I love making my hold list and picking it up. Today I borrowed:

The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I've been meaning to read this f.o.r.e.v.e.r. but just haven't really gotten to it. Now I want to read it and then watch the movie.

True Blood Season 1. I've heard it's the best. Now I watch it, for free!!!!!

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. It's sad that this man committed suicide before seeing his work in print. Then it goes on to win the pulitzer.

Dolly My Life and Other Unfinished Business by Dolly Parton. It's for book club at work. Don't judge me.

I love that this was all free. Free! Free! Free! So many hours of entertainment for free!

discovery

Today at work while I unwrapped 100000000000000 candy canes, for our candy cane ice cream, i discovered something magical. Some of the candy canes have hearts in their center! I thought this was pretty neat.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm thankful for many things this year. My health, my friends, my family, my work, progress, seasons, good food, the pacific northwest, transportation, fires, smartwool socks, pies, cinnabrittle sundaes, chapstick, and oysters. I'm sure there's more, but I can't think straight because there are many different food scents coming from my mom's kitchen.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Nina

Oh Nina Simone how you make me swoooooon

Falling for fall

I've seen many inspiring and beautiful things this fall:

like kites



and a harvest party



with a burn pile



or environmentally friendly art installations



and a whimsical show at Chop Suey



downpours



fall leaves on long walks



Abbott



pretty feathers and cute boots



Yay fall! You're so pretty!

Resolutions

This speaks to me:

No more dilly-dallying.
Accept all offers.
In it to win it.
Fail beautifully.
Try things you don't like.
Seek respect, avoid credit.
Be the thing.
Down hill no breaks.
Go for broke.
Higher highs and lower lows.
Live it out

Thanks Buster Benson!

Fun and Fearless 2010!

I have a new boyfriend, his name is Flu. We've been seeing each other for about a week now. I'm already tired of his shenanigans. He keeps me up all through the night, distracts and eventually prevents me from any social gatherings, and now he is getting really needy and taking a lot of my energy. It's time to break-up Flu, I just need to move on, you know?

Can't Wait, can't wait!

Drrreeeaaammmmyyyyy

Happy Equinox!

But just a couple days later!!

On Equinox I received 6 boxes of 36 lbs of cantaloupe and had to peel, cut, and process each one for our cantaloupe mint sorbet. That was already a large amount of fruit to cut, but on top of that, they were cute little organic cantaloupe, that slowly started to morph into annoying never-ending, why do you have to be so small, cantaloupe. During the whole process I kept thinking that there must be a joke about how cantaloupes can't elope, and how it would go.

After work I went to little home make lanterns. Well, I sat and watched Azure, Aviva and Dave make lanterns, while I ate homemade Thai food and drank champagne. But afterwards we all took a walk around green lake with other equinox celebrators. It was the perfect night, we wore t-shirts, a lot of people were out, and there were so many creative lanterns and costumes.

Cantaloupe x 500



Handmade lanterns



Aviva is pretty and that is a fish



Festive

The Coast

I went to a three day wedding this weekend.

It was on the coast.



I arrived at the coast with Kailin



and Mathew



This lady and that speaker was the center of many dance parties



It was cold.



They are happy.



It was beautiful out there.

hum hum

Rum Hee by Shugo Takumaru

makes me feel like I am flying a kite, then I am sitting on the kite, blowing bubbles into the air while fireflies are spinning and dancing around me, then the bubbles transform into GIANT white circular balloons, and I am frolicking through yellow peony fields holding the balloons by a purple string.



Also, I know I am about a decade behind the times, and I know that every time I hear this band playing on the speakers somewhere for the past decade, I always ask who they are. What I don't know is, why I haven't taken the time to ever listen to their whole album. This stuff always drives me crazy. KINGS OF CONVIENENCE are my new favorite bedtime band. Their music is really beautiful, and it makes me feel very nostalgic about the past, happy in the moment, and hopeful for the future.

Poached Nectarines

So, instead of poached pears, I decided to make poached nectarines. Pears aren't in season now, and I saw a beautiful picture of a poached nectarine in a magazine that inspired me to make it. They are all over the farmers markets, so it was a pretty easy transition.

I just made a test batch and I am so excited to serve this dessert! After poaching the nectarines a layer of skin peels off effortlessly and the fruit reveals an incredibly colorful flesh that exposes soft tones of red and orange. The next step is to taste it and hope that it tastes just as elegant as it looks!

Dodge

Hi. Today after work I got dinner with my friends Shannon and Paul, then, on my way home, I stopped by to watch a game of street dodge ball at Cal Anderson Park. It was awesome. I love street b games.

This Weekend

I picked 2 lbs of blueberries!! For $1.25/lb!! I wish I had my camera with me at the time, there were a lot of little jewels around the farm, but I did manage to bring back a little blueberry bouquet for you.



My heirloom tomatoes are also going insane! The heat wave made them really happy, and they are popping up all over the place.







The cucumbers are popping up too, they were made from scratch {seeds}



They have funny ringlets that grab onto anything next to them



Including other ringlets.



AND at work today, I got a bunch of blackberries from Pacific Crest Farms. They were delicious and will probably be just as delicious in ICE CREAM.



Then I went home, and ate a yellow watermelon for the first time. It was sweet and hydrating and filling.





<3s. Many of them.

GUESS WHAT?!

Guess what I get to do Thursday of next week?

I get to help fillet 60 lbs of salmon at the Loki house! Loki is a local fishing company that practices sustainable harvesting of wild fish. They are supposed to be a top notch fish company, and I get to go to the family's house and fillet fish for them!

That's not it...

I am also in charge of dessert for a fundraising event called Smoked and Pickled.

Here are some details:

Five-course smoked salmon & BBQ dinner to benefit the Vera Project. Featuring wild Alaskan coho salmon from Loki Fish Co., Molly Moon handmade ice cream, and Redhook beer-- come out and enjoy awesome food and drinks to benefit radical All-Ages Music & Art!

Menu:
Spicy Sangrita shooter w/ Ikura, creme fraiche, & chives
Summer grape & feta salad w/ meyer lemon olive oil
Roasted corn w/ chili-lime dressing
Dirty rice & bacon black beans w/ bourbon cornbread
Salmon smoked two ways or Vegetarian BBQ'd Mac n' Cheese
Poached pears w/ Molly Moon Ice Cream

I contacted the person in charge of this dinner, pitched the dessert idea, and now I will be playing with recipes for the poached pears, and hopefully I will find something that is easy and fast since there might be a lot of people at this event. I will make the ice cream at work so half of it is already done. I'm pretty excited about this! Whoooooo!!!!

Heat Wave

During the record-breaking heat wave I........

Went swimming in a lake
Made hot hot caramel for our salted caramel ice cream at the hottest time of the hottest day ever recorded in Seattle. {There was no A.C.}
Tried not to sweat too much while making ice cream
Ate dinner from an amazing garden
Got a mosquito bite on my toe that inflamed, turned purple, and made it difficult for me to walk on for a couple days

That's all.

The weather

The other day I saw a lightening and thunderstorm at sunset from afar. All I can say was that it was EPIC, and it would only look this way in Seattle.

YES.

WSSF

In the winter I had a relationship with a lake. In the spring it was flour. Now it's summer and I'm having a fling with sugar crystals. Most days I feel like a sugar cube at the end of the day. It is sweet.

Croissants

What do you do on a rainy day? Make croissants!

Yesterday was the perfect day for croissant making because it was raining, so I didn't feel the need to take advantage of the day by being outdoors. Instead, I decided to dedicate the day towards making croissants.

It's funny because the other night I wanted to make croissants for dessert with friends, and I thought I would just whip them up and then we would be able to eat them, but then our friend Kim heard that I was going to make croissants and was like "doesn't it take 8 hours to make?" I responded with "no way! Probably like an hour or two!" Then I looked at the directions and saw that it did in fact, take around 8 hours to make. Oops.

So I had to postpone it for a day, like yesterday, where I could dedicate a day to the croissant.

It actually wasn't that difficult to make, the only thing is that you have to wait for periods of 2 hours at a time, so that the dough can chill and rise and things like that. However, the payoff was huge! Puffy, flakey, doughey, buttery croissants formed in the oven, and when eaten hot and fresh out of the oven, it made every hour worth it.

That's three sticks of butter. That's right, THREE.



Butter square, on top of dough



Butter in an envelope. Want me to ship you some?



Shaping the croissant. Cute! They started to look like crabs to me after awhile.



Before going in the oven



Croissants! I should probably bake less on one sheet next time.





When pulled apart. They were chewy and doughey and oh so good!