Crunch time

There comes a time in every knitters life where what you want to knit, and the time you have to knit it clash completely and you have to either not knit it, lose sleep, or pick a different pattern.

I'm currently trying to finish one shawl (Woodland Shawl) to wear that matches my bridesmaids dress for my sister's wedding (May 9). I'm also secret knitting a giftie for her and her husband (due May 9). I also wanted to knit a shawl to wear with my rehearsal dinner dress (May 8), b/c it matches the shoes and it would really pull the outfit together. I also have to finish secret giftie for my best friend for her first baby. I want to get it done by the baby shower (May 30), and I have to get it done before I move to Europe (June 16). Just for added difficulty, I'm also working on my thesis and I have midterms and papers to complete for 4th term classes. I've got a LOT to finish by my birthday (May 10).

Right now the baby giftie is started, but on hold. I'm currently dividing my time between the Woodland shawl and wedding gifite. I have not started the rehearsal dinner shawl. But I've realized that the shuttle ride to and home from school is time that could be spent knitting. Unfortunalty, all current projects are just far too big to lug around. But the rehersal dinner shawl.... that could be popped in a bag for shuttle ride knitting.

Originally, I had my heart set on knitting Clapotis with my Briar Rose Sea Pearl yarn for the rehearsal dinner. Except the Clapotis calls for ~800 yards and my skein is only ~500 yds. I could use a bigger needle size, or adjust the patten, but those both take time. I dont have time. I've come to the realization that I just do not have the time to knit the Clapotis with this yarn for this project. So I started looking for something similar and simpler on Ravelry. I found the Sunday Market Shawl - another drop stitch design. And since this pattern is written in a way that you can stop knitting when you get close to the end of your yarn, it's a much more logical project. Also, it's knit on large needles so it should go quite fast.

So, Sunday Market Shawl it is. Cross your fingers that all projects are completed on time!

Here is the Sea Pearl hand wound into the most perfect spaceship looking center pull ball. Hooray for another Rhinebeck 2007 yarn CO!

Procrastination

Since I'm having trouble concentrating on Anything today (I'm currently watching TV, reading, blogging, and I've got knitting sitting next to me) I thought, why not post about a few of my favorite things in Europe. I've been thinking about Europe "in my spare time" haha considering the Big Move is ~10 weeks away.
These are a few of my favorite things (in Europe):



Really old things randomly interspersed through the cities.
Brick from where the canal used to be, the water has now moved several feet and there's a path where it used to be.
Utrecht, Netherlands










Art. Lots of it.

One of Monet's waterlilies at the Musee de l'Orangerie in Paris, France









Faces on buildings. Everywhere! I could write a whole post on faces, maybe I will.....
This one is on some historic building in Bruges, Belgium










Chocolate!! Believe it or not, this is the Only picture of Chocolate I have. I ate the rest too fast. Maybe I have this b/c it's the only piece of "special" chocolate I bought. The rest was good stuff from grocery stores. This was from a specialty shop in Gent, Belgium.








Alcohol!! Specifically beer, beer, and more beer, and some jenever. Both are in this picture from Gent, Belgium. No surprise that plenty of my favorite things are from Belgium as Gent and Bruges were my favorite cities.

Bummer

A couple months ago I signed up for free magazine subscriptions using some airline miles that were going to expire (seriously, expire? that's b*llsh*t. they shouldnt expire. but i digress). One of the magazines was Prevention. There was an article with a recipe for a "Smart cookie," a healthy chocolate chip cookie. Well, I'm always game for new chocolate chip cookies. I've been dying to bake this (well, bake anything) for a couple of weeks but I've been busy with my thesis. I'll give you the recipe and then let you know what I thought.

1 1/2 Cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup canola oil
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar (as i type this i realize i missed this ingredient)
2 lg egg whites
1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips or chunks


Combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon. In another large bowl whisk oil, and sugar. Whisk in eggs and vanilla until smooth. Stir in dry ingrediants. Fold in oats then chocolate chips. Chill dough at least 15 mins. Heat oven to 375F. Bake 7-10 mins.

Ok, so yes, I didnt see the brown sugar but I dont think that would have made a difference. First, there is a bit of user error on my part. I didnt realize that "Steel cut Irish Style Oatmeal" meant that it was chopped up in little pieces.... I'm not sure if this is what I was supposed to use or not. I'm used to the standard rolled oats. I guess I wasnt paying attention when I bought these.





They look better in the picture than they tasted.
The recipe called for oil instead of butter (its supposedly healthier) it didnt cook the same and the cookies were greasy. Also, the oats didnt absorb any of the oil and were still chewy. So yeah, greasy oaty chewy cookie. And the oats got stuck in my teeth.

In terms of taste they were ok. I def think that the taste of butter is far superior to the taste of canola oil. So, maybe my cookies are healthier, but they are not as satisfying.


In conclusion, this recipe gets a hands down from me.
Bummer.

In knitting news I've re-started the Woodland Shawl on larger needles. I like it bettern ow, but seriously, what's the point of a swatch if it doesnt do you any good in the end? Wasted time.... Wouldnt be such a big deal if I wasnt on a deadline for this shawl.

summary through pictures

Just a quick post. Some knit FO's I havent posted. And some pictures from this weekend's trip to visit Amanda and Jason in the greater DC metro area. We went into DC on Sat. In other news I think I'm going to frog the woodland shawl I've got and restart on larger needles. SIGH.





Biggest moth I've ever seen - it was as big as my hand!


This butterfly loved Amanda's camera strap

Cherry Blossoms in DC

Blueberry Corn Muffins

Every month or two I get a new baking obsession. In Jan and Feb it was the Pillsbury poppin fresh grands biscuits. I just couldnt get enough. I loved the pop when you open the canister. And the buttery flaky goodness.

This month, its corn bread. MMMhhmm. But reg corn muffins kinda bore me. So I looked around the kitchen to see what I could add to the reg "Jiffy" box. Wheat germ and blueberries! I've been trying to eat more of both since apparently they help hair grow.
So this recipe is pretty simple.

I dont think the box or the recipe has changed in 50 years.
(yes there is lard in the mix, that's why it tastes so damn good).

1 Box "Jiffy" cornbread. Make as suggested.
Add 2 heaping tablespoons of wheat germ.
Let stand a couple minutes.
add 1 heaping cup frozen blueberries.
spoon into muffin cups cook 20 mins at 400F.



This is what they look like
Yummy goodness
I think that this ratio of berry to mix is the max berries you can get away with. The still have structural integrity, but you can tell they are on the verge of collapse.






And what do you eat with them for dinner? Some ham of course. B/c if there's 1 thing Anthony Bourdain has taught us, its that pork goes well with everything and everything goes well with pork.

WIP Sunday

Just an update on the progress of a couple WIP. I'm also expecting a package from Knit Picks soon, but that's for secret gift knitting, so it will not be blogged about until gifted (although the person who it is intended for is not a member of Ravelry, so there is a chance you can follow the progress there).


First we have the Lace Ribbon scarf.

Nice detail shot here.










And a picture of the progress here.
I'm really loving this scarf but its a boring knit. So I pick it up occasionally when I have a few minutes to spare. One thing I have to be careful about is that I keep forgetting to do the YO and I have to either tink or add a random stitch. I dont know why I have such selective memory about the YO.
It's a bit dreary today so the color isnt coming out quite right, but the greens are really saturated and amazing and remind me of the trees in Germany. Or emeralds. (:{








Last is the Woodland Shawl that I intend to wear at my sister's wedding in May. It's hard to tell scale, so that is about 8 inches of knitting. Also really like this and the pattern is easy to memorize so if I have an hour I can get quite a bit dine on it. It's become my TV knitting.




Also of note, I knit another bad hair cut hat with some leftover Ultra Alpaca hoping to use most of it up. But I didnt. So I'm left with the same problem that I started with. -->
Except now they are slightly smaller balls, but still just as many of them.
Sigh.

Oh, I almost forgot. You cant see but I'm using Knit Picks Harmony Interchangeable needles for the Woodland Shawl and I just Love them. They have sharp points which I really appreciate for lace knitting. And the colors of the wood needles make me happy every time I knit with them. I will def be ordering more of them!

Expatriate vs Immigrant

I've been thinking about my Europe move a lot lately. Mostly because there is a LOT to take care of and now that my eyes are getting better I'm finally getting on it. A little late but hopefully still time enough. I've noticed that I use the words expatriate and immigrant pretty equally to describe myself. I was thinking maybe I should pick one so I looked up the definition on Wikipedia. According to Wikipedia, foreign born covers both immigrants and expatriates, but doesnt adequately describe either. An immigrant is a foreign born committed to living in a new country permanently and an expatriate plan to eventually return to their birth country. And therein lies the problem. Neither of those define me in the Netherlands. I dont intend to return to the USA, but I also dont intend to permanently live in the Netherlands. That's because I dont Intend to do anything. I cant. Being a scientist I have little control over where I go. Also, being a scientist dictates movement. You cant do your PhD and your post-doc at the same institution. Or, at least, its frowned upon. Also, I havent even decided if I want to stay in academia. And infectious diseases is not exactly big money, so not many biomed or pharmaceutical companies even have infectious disease units, let alone bacterial divisions. So, seing as my career future is so open, I'm not making any sort of commitment to geography. I will however try to integrate into Dutch society and I do intend to learn as much of the language as possible. The only thing at present that I am seriously considering is never permanently returning to the USA. So, doesnt that make me an immigrant? Or maybe, just a nomad? (Nomad, wanderer, roamer, vagabond, call me what you will!!! yeah!) (sorry, random Metallica interlude there). Expatriate until further notice? Sigh. Maybe I'll just settle on nomad.

Also, on Fri I received my official appointment from UMC Utrecht. As of July 1, 2009 I will be a PhD student jointly with UMC Utrecht (the medical school where I'll perform my research) and the Eijkman Graduate School of Immunology and Infectious Diseases (the part of the University that oversees the PhD program). I'm so excited! Its official. It never feels official until you have that acceptance letter in your hand. Oh sure, I have to submit my project proposal to the PhD Board and have it be accepted no more than 2 months after July 1 (sort of like a grant application) but I think that's more like a formality. At least, I hope so.

Sigh, now I just have to find a place to live. Which I hear, is no easy feat in Utrecht. So, keep your fingers crossed for me! Or, if you know anyone living in Utrecht maybe you can ask them if they have any advice? I'm sure I'll have plenty to say on this when I get into the thick of the search soon.

Roast Cornish Hen

It's going to take a while to write this as I'll be taking "eye breaks" but I wanted to get it down before I forgot it - this meal was really yummy! (until I hit a bloody part deep in the hen) (note - cook longer than 1 hour in my oven)

I bought a little Cornish Hen since they were on sale and I had been craving some sort of roast with veggies since Marty's mom made pot roast for his b-day dinner. I've also been lusting after Pilsbury flaky buttery biscuits in the little rolls that POP open thanks to that meal as well. I suppose cooking inspiration is a good thing right? Esp for me since I'm a self proclaimed "bad cook, great baker." I looked up this recipe and altered it a bit since I didnt have all of the ingredients.

2/8 of Lemon and 1 garlic clove went inside the hen.
Rubbed hen with olive oil and covered generously with sea salt and pepper and celery salt.
Cut up red potatos and carrots and onion - into pot with ~4 whole garlic cloves.
Cook in oven uncovered 25 mins at 450 deg.

Meanwhile make basting sauce.
I heated a chick bouillon cube and H2O (didnt have broth). Then I added a squeeze of lemon juice, olive oil, and some National Bohemian Beer. (didnt have white wine)


(Go ahead and laugh. It's crap beer I know, but its
the only alcohol I have besides red wine and rum. - neither would have worked for this recipe, but the beer had possibility. still light tasting, still alcohol)

Turn oven to 350 deg and pour basting sauce over hen. Then baste every 10 mins for 30 mins. Remove from oven and use juices and garlic cloves to make a sauce by boiling it down a bit.

It was all very tasty and yummy until I hit some blood while trying to cut off a wing. So clearly an hour in the oven is not enough. I'm not a big fan of blood so I decided just to eat the veggies and callit a night. I had already eaten some of the meat before I discovered the uncooked part anyhow. So I cut up the other half of the potato and another carrot, added some more garlic cloves and covered the hen up and popped it in the fridge. I'll "re-heat" / finish cooking it tomorrow for dinner. It was yummy. And the skin was the best part - and yes, it's good for you. Well, um, maybe not scientifically proven but my Great-Gramma always said to eat the skin and she lived through the Depression and past her 100th year. Therefore, I trust her advice.