Shabu Shabu

Shabu Shabu is very popular in Taiwan and I went to a few meals while I was there.  I was lucky enough to be invited over to a friend's house for a not-easter meal and she served Shabu Shabu.

The selection was wide and varied and the meal was delicious.  Here is the table setting before we sat down to eat.

There was a pot on each side of the table and I sat on the side without any spiciness.  Very filling and good with no carbs.  I might have to invest in one of these and have at home Shabu Shabu.

I took over my almond sponge cake which was a hit as well.  Dessert was rounded out by Mochi ice cream.

Two Part Quilt

I am pretty sure that I had talked about my two part quilt before, but the project has languished for quite a while.  The kit I bought had enough fabric to make two quilt tops.  The first one was called film strip and I finished that some time ago as the sewing was pretty much just connected strips and some squares.  Super easy.

The second part of the quilt was much more labor intensive as it involved cutting a bunch of small pieces and sewing them all back together.  I had multiple strips hanging in the closet - out of sight, out of mind.

After talking to Marita about Tyler's quilting project, I wanted to finish up the last one so I could get that quilted too.  I spent a few days matching and finding all the pieces again and was able to finish it as well.

It came out pretty well and looks very much like stained glass.  Now I need to go shopping for some backing fabric and these two can get quilted next.

Beet Greens

Also in my farm box were two huge red beets with the greens attached.  I prepped the beets for a salad with goat cheese, but I didn't want to discard the greens.

I pulled up this recipe and had to go out and get some real bacon.  I used the green garlic as well as the spring onions from the box.  The greens were tender and sweet which was a bit unexpected.  I doubled up on the bacon portion cuz, you know pork fat!

Here is the browning of the bacon with the onions and garlic.

The final dish after the greens cooked a bit.

I definitely will make this again if I get some more beet greens.

Mushrooms and Red Kale

In this month's farm box, I got some cool mushrooms and red kale.  I found this recipe which seemed fairly simple and I had all the ingredients in the house.

I did add some crimini mushrooms for something else that I had some left overs from so I added that as well.  The recipe calls for garlic cloves, but the farm box also had some green garlic so I used that instead.

Here is the browning step with butter and olive oil with the garlic and mushrooms.

I then added the red kale leaves and the red wine.

The pan simmered for about 8 minutes and I found that the greens really reduced.

I think the greens could have cooked a bit longer since they were still pretty fibrous and chewy or it could be that red kale is a bit hardier than regular kale.  I will be heating it up again so maybe it will become a bit softer.  Overall, very tasty.

Crafty Road Trip

I took a crafty road trip with Jeri to Bakersfield.  We stopped off to get some gas for the van before we headed on the road and I saw the flower field with a flag.

Traffic was pretty light all the way up to Bakersfield.  We stopped for a bite to eat at the Old Hacienda.

And I had another tamale meal.  It was pretty tasty as well.  Their salsa was spicy and their chips hot and crisp.

But the whole trip was about this baby.

I picked up a 24" 8 shaft Macomber loom from Dee Dee who endured the trip from hell to the meet up place.  It was pretty fast to load from her truck to the van and we headed back home.  The traffic was much worst on the way back and it took a bit of time, but we made it back and moved the loom into the "study."

I got the bench too as this loom needs a high bench.

I already picked a warp and a draft and all I need now is some time to dress it up.

Great Maple With the Girls

Andrea, one of the original members of Supper Club, was in town for a visit so we made a point in getting together for dinner.  Since Janet and I tried Great Maple on Washington in the past, we decided that was the place.

It was not crowded as before and the food was still as good.  I decided to have the lamb burger since I did not choose it last time.

I added some cheese and fries.  It was very good but too much so I took half home for dinner the next day.

Andrea tried the short rib pasta which looked really good too.

And Janet rounded out the choices with chicken.

Good friends, good food, and good conversation - a trifecta.  It was good catching up and Andrea will be moving back West soon.

Tamales by La Casita

On the way out of Denver airport, I stopped and had a bite to eat at Tamales by La Casita in Terminal C.

They had quite a variety of Mexican food, but I had the tamale plate of one green chile and cheese tamale with green sauce and one pork tamale with red sauce.  They rounded out the meal with your choice of rice and/or beans and toppings.

Pretty tasty and the red sauce was spicy.  Good eats before boarding a plane.

New Tote

Sandy has a new tote that she will have published in a book called the Timeless Tote.  I saw the prototype and it is great.  The colors are my favorite, but the bag is a bit too big for my use.

The inside is super roomy with lots of pockets.

The fleece is a bit stiffer so the bag has more body and stands up on it own.  Val said that she would try to modify a smaller bag for me with similar colors.

Adobo Chicken aka Larry

Larry invited us over for dinner as he is learning to cook.  He was ambitious and decided to make adobo chicken from scratch from a Cook's Illustrated cookbook.  He made it from scratch and paired it with thin asparagus and jasmine rice.

It was delicious and excellent for a first try.  He didn't even taste it as he was cooking.  Val made a greek salad.

And Terry rounded out with dessert.

I told Larry that now he needs to make dinner every time I visit and he agreed.

I Spy Quilt

Val had given me a stack of squares to make an I Spy quilt for Tyler.  I went to Beverly's and purchased some coordinating fabric.  I worked on piecing the quilt together and while I was visiting Val, I was able to have some embroidery done on a couple of squares and finished putting the front and most of the back together.

Here is the front with the large border.

For the back, I was able to get the smaller border finished and need to talk to the quilter before placing the larger border on.

Almost done.  Val even purchased an I Spy game for Tyler as well.  Hard to believe the kid will be a year old this week.

Timmy Missed Me

As soon as I got into the house, Timmy was all over me.  He is very athletic and was up on the kitchen cabinets to lord over his territory.

He had to climb on top of me to exert some dominance.

He at least waited until I finished my breakfast.  Val got these Marie Calendars breakfast sandwiches.

Once the package is opened, then you arrange everything according to instructions and them microwave for a minute and a half.

The sausage was a bit greasy and I blotted with a paper towel and stacked my sandwich.

Pretty good breakfast sandwich.

Colorado and Bone Fish

After landing a day late in Denver - my flight was cancelled due to snow in Denver, Val picked me up and the weather was great - no snow and 50 degrees.

We headed out and and stopped for an early dinner at Bonefish.  It was 4:45 pm and the parking lot and the restaurant was already full.

We were brought a bread platter with a pesto dip which had a definite bite.

Of course no meal here is complete without the bang bang shrimp.

I ended up ordering the fish and chips with the beer batter.  The fish was light and the crust was crunchy.  Very good and filling.

Spinning on a Turkish on a Plane

I unwrapped the Bayou batt from the Jenkins challenge which is colorful and sparkly.

I pulled out the brown side first and wrapped it around my distaff and got it ready for my wait at the airport and my flight out to Colorado.

I was able to sit in the front row of the plane so I had room to spin on the plane and this is what I was able to get done by the time we landed.

My turtle is not as neat as others, but I'm pretty happy that I was able to spin at all.  It is my first time spinning on a turkish spindle let alone my Jenkins spindle.

Old Man and the Sea Redux

After I finished knitting the Old Man and the Sea the first time, it was a bit snug.  Since I liked the sweater so much, I ordered some Knit Picks Simply Cotton Sport in the marshmallow color and made another one the next size up.

I started this project July 2013 and it languished when new projects took my attention.  In my quest to work on my WIPs, I was able to finish it with two skeins of yarn left over.

Another WIP down and now I am down to 22.  I finished or frogged 8 projects since the beginning of the year.

Sake Sushi

Went to lunch with my brother and Dave before they left for home.  I was surprised that he got Cesar Chavez day off since I never heard of it.

Sake Sushi is on Clairemont Mesa Blvd and it use to be a really good pho place until it closed.  Sake Sushi took over and for a long time had a great grand opening half price on sushi sale.  I had taken Angie there when she visited once and she ate her weight and mine in sushi.

I had a hairy salmon roll with an eel roll with an appetizer of monkey balls.

Great neighborhood establishment.

A Parade of Turtles

As I had previously posted about my awesome spindle bowls from Tangled Dragon Studio, I was able to re-superglue my first turtle's limbs back together with its body again.  I'm not sure it will hold, but I decided to take a photo of the two bowls together.

I think Cindy did a great job making the limbs a bit heftier for the second one since the first one was so fragile.  I will probably use the second one for spinning and just have the injured turtle as a decoration.

Spinning Project Finished

I had won some CVM/Romeldale fiber from Black Sheep Gathering as I posted about here.  I decided to spin for the Sycamore Vest which recommends a DK weight yarn.

It took some time as I really only spun on spin days but I finally was able to get through all that fiber.  I did a 3-ply yarn and I pretty much got a yarn with some spring.

Hopefully it will be enough yardage since I didn't exactly measure.  All it needs is a wash and the yarn and pattern will be in the queue when I can start new projects again.

Nunoco and Jenkins Challenge

As I posted here, I succumbed to a fiber challenge.  I finally got the fiber I ordered from Nunoco across the pond with some other goodies to defray the shipping costs.

The fiber I picked was Bayou (on the right) and the one that was picked for me from my top 5 list was Underwater Love (on the left).

The challenge is to spin on a Jenkins turkish spindle each batt and then ply the two together.  I think the colors are very complimentary.  The challenge starts today and we have two months to complete.

Here is another photo of the fiber and the spindle.