Last week I had the chance to test drive a drop spindle for my LYS. I don’t do a lot of spinning with a drop spindle but I do seem to get along with them fairly well so I brought it home and played with it a bit. I have to say it sure spins like a dream for someone so inexperienced. I wasn’t crazy about the quality of the parts other than the whorl which is a lovely cherry but then again I really don’t know a good deal about spindles. I could see myself doing a fair bit more spindling with one of these guys in my possesion.
I have quite a few teas and herbals stashed in my cabinet now but the one I drink the most is Genmaicha. I have to be very cautious with caffeine consumption but this tea is mild enough that I can have a cup every day with no trouble and I love the nutty caramel flavor the toasted rice lends to the tea.
It’s been a very stormy week here with thunder and lightning keeping me up many nights. Yesterday afternoon we had another whopper roll in with very dramatic clouds. This is the wettest summer I can recall since moving to the area from Louisiana over ten years ago. The garden loves it and I’ve had quite a few veggies because of it.
Although I have a number of knitting projects on the needles at the moment I was unable to resist the siren call of that red Kauni yarn. Revontuli jumped on the needles yesterday and is progressing right along despite 3 or 4 false starts before I sorted out the (very easy) chart.
Yesterday a couple friends and I drove up to Manchester for the Knit and Crochet Show. It seemed like there were significantly fewer vendors than last year but I was pleased to find Habu there as I’d really wanted to visit that booth after missing them in NYC. I also snagged some Kauni yarn for the Revontuli shawl I’ve been interested in for at least a year. From Habu I bought some pink mohair and grey wool for a two-tone sweater, a hunter and a light spring green for a two-stranded shawl and some drop dead red silk for another shawl. Lastly, I picked up a copy of the Zig Zag hat pattern from the Elegant Ewe that I so admired when it appeared on Baseball Knitter’s blog back in December.
I was very pleased to see the new vendor at the farmer’s market with all sorts of unusual vegetables. What does one do with pumpkin vine? They had beautiful squash blossoms, gorgeous bok choy and other lovely things. Hopefully I’ll remember to bring my camera next time. Searching for inspiration for our Chinese broccoli purchase I was surprised to find a dearth of recipes. In the end I went for a simple saute with ginger and garlic after a quick blanch and it worked beautifully. I served that with some fried rice to help clear the fridge a bit since we’ll be off on vacation much of the upcoming week.
Fried Rice
1/4 slab bacon, cut into lardons
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 large spring onion, chopped
4 cups cooked rice, chilled
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
Render the bacon over low heat until crisp. Add carrots and onion to the pan and raise heat to medium. Cook, stirring frequently, until soft. Stir in the rice, soy sauce, and sesame oil and cover, cook 4 or 5 minutes or until heated through.
With an impending vacation next week I realized the fridge was in need of a bit of clearing. I scooped the centers out of my tomatoes, lined them with basil leaves and then broke an egg into each. I topped them with some Asagio cheese and baked them at about 375 F for 30 minutes until the egg was just firm and the cheese was lightly browned. A sprinkle of salt and pepper and lunch was served. (Obviously you needn’t cook these as long as I did if you prefer a softer yolk.) I’ll have to make these again as I really quite liked them.
Recently Jason decided he wanted to join me for a trip to the farmer’s market so he took the day off yesterday. We planned to bike out there but he wasn’t able to get Chris’s bike in working order so we opted to walk instead. It’s a little less then 3 miles in each direction and thankfully the temps were in the 80’s and the humidity was a little lower than in recent days. It’s uphill almost all the way there which means you have an easy trip home when you’re tired and carrying all the veggie loot. The blackberries never even made it into the fridge.
For dinner we polished off the last of the romaine from last week (three salads off one head!) adding in some fresh onion tops, basil, a tomato, prosiutto and some goat cheese with candied ginger. Delicious!
Last week I had the chance to test drive a drop spindle for my LYS. I don’t do a lot of spinning with a drop spindle but I do seem to get along with them fairly well so I brought it home and played with it a bit. I have to say it sure spins like a dream for someone so inexperienced. I wasn’t crazy about the quality of the parts other than the whorl which is a lovely cherry but then again I really don’t know a good deal about spindles. I could see myself doing a fair bit more spindling with one of these guys in my possesion.
