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.

Obsession with a water drop

I watered my plants today as I do once every weekend. I noticed a drop of water dangling from the leaf of one of the plants. It caught the sun and glistened. I then became obsessed with capturing this semi-fleeting moment. Too bad my camera is just not designed for up close high res high mag picts. But it takes pictures of good enough quality that I can crop and enlarge. Here are a few.



I also started another hat to cover up my hideous mullet haircut. This time using random balls of leftover Ultra Alpaca. I hope that I have enough to make it to the end....

can i have new eyes??

I know I promised to blog more and I really do have a lot to blog about (lots of knitting going on!) but I really can not right now. I'm trying to severely limit my computer time. I've had some pretty serious eye strain and I have to go see a retina specialist on Monday for (5 hours!) extra testing as the reg eye dr thinks there is fluid in my retina (joy). This is in addition to needing new glasses with a stronger prescription And bifoculs for reading. B/c I'm 65 yah know. Ughed. (I'll save you all the bitching about how my body is falling apart far too soon for my liking. I'm not even 30 but you'd think I was 65+ looking at my medical info).
I've noticed that the amount of time I spend on the computer correlates with eye strain and thus the limit. I'm bummed but the eye pain is almost too much to bear otherwise. And of course I'm a bit more concerned that my school work is begining to suffer. I'm hoping this will resolve asap so I can resume my "normal" functions.

New WIP: Lace Ribbon Scarf

Its amazing what a couple days off from school just hanging out in my apt will do. I should be doing some research for my thesis, but the past couple of days I've felt kinda crappy so I've been taking it easy and knitting / sleeping instead.

I've wanted to knit this scarf with this yarn for some time now, I was just waiting to finish some of the other WIP's I had on the docket. I'm really excited about it so far, I just hope that the yarn softens up a bit after a wash with Eucalan as my neck is pretty sensitive. The yarn is 20% silk and 20% tencel both of which can be soft, so I'm not worried.






Here are some pictures of 24 hours worth of progress: 2 pattern repeats.


I really like the shade changes - they give this pattern a little extra oomph.



Also excited to CO my first project using one of my Rhinebeck 2007 haul. Hooray for stash yarn!