Sunday, July 25, 2010

Happy Anniversary PHF!

The day came and went but it was 2 years ago, July 21 that I started this blog. I definitely have gotten better at it as I've double the amount of posting this past year. I guess it does help that I can post  on my iphone and I had a great birthday.


Look forward to postings more about food, making stuff, being hot and the new adventure that WG will be sharing with me. He starting cooking class in August and I'm sure that will come with many new stories and hopefully lots of good meals. 


Thanks for reading my silly stories. Enjoy!

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Cooking up storm

On one of the hottest days of the year, I'm in the kitchen cooking up a storm, sort of. At least I don't have the oven on. 

I just got the bug and decide to make up a nice light dinner and some tasty snacks. So I made some strawberry mint sorbet with mint from my container garden, boiled some peanut with salt and star anise, tossed up a quick green salad and started up cooking some beets from the farmer's market when WG comes barrelling down from upstairs to tell me we are going out for dinner with a friend. I wasn't sure what the main course was going to be yet so I guess this was a good thing. 


I did take some food shots of the process but don't have any finish product because it not going to be done till tomorrow. This is of the sorbet start to firm up and the cooked peanuts, the star anise is in the middle. If I don't forget I'll take some tomorrow. 


Artichoke Dip

We had our July birthday's at the office the other day. We were trying to do something new to change it up from a bagel breakfast. The theme was sort of picnic-y--watermelon, cookies, strawberry pie and I made Artichoke dip with cheese herb crackers. 


Everyone one at the party really like it. I think they were a bit surprised not expecting it to taste that great. I found the recipe from TasteSpotting, it's a collective of foods from other sites. It really great to look at and browser for some interesting recipes. It took me to theUrbanSpork.com's Creamy Artichoke Dip


I kind of fiddle with the recipe because I didn't have cumin so I added chili powder (has cumin in it), added a little bit of a kick. I probably add a little more olive oil and garlic but I think that is a taste and texture thing that is up to you. I also added some chopped parsley to the pureed mixture on top of mixing in chopped parsley after (makes the dip look a beautiful shade of green). I wish I took a picture of the dip but I forgot. I bet this dip would make a great sandwich or wrap spread with some roasted veggies and salad greens. And on top of it, it is pretty low-fat. Here's the recipe. Enjoy!




Creamy Artichoke Dip
This Creamy Artichoke Dip is the perfect choice for those who want a healthy option that doesn’t sacrifice flavor.  Serve this smooth, mild and creamy dip with tortilla chips or breadsticks.
Serves 4
Ingredients
  • 1-12 oz. jar artichoke hearts, drained
  • 1 garlic clove, crushed
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/4 teaspoon grated lemon zest
  • salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
Directions
Put the artichokes, garlic, oil, cumin and lemon zest in a food processor.  Add the salt and pepper, and blend to make a smooth puree.  Check the seasoning and stir in the parsley.  Scrape the dip into a bowl and serve.

Friday, July 23, 2010

An Elephant in the House

I mean an Elephant chair. A Thai Elephant Chair to be exact and guess who brought it home.


So the story starts out as I mention to WG that I wanted to move the chair in my office up to the bedroom so I can sit and knit and crochet more comfortably. He said "Why don't you buy a new one?" You can't imagine my excitement. We usually fight about what to get. That's why my furniture in my house looks like we just got out of college--hand-me-downs and garbage picked and a whole lot of mis-matched items. I'm like, Okay! (my mind is racing to figure out where can I look for a great comfortable chair that looks great, too. 


So about a month has gone by. I haven't had the chance to look for a chair. 


Then WG said "I need the truck to pick your elephant chair" 
"My what?" I replied very confused. 
"Your Thai Elephant Chair." WG said with confidence
"What does it look like? Where are you getting it from" I worriedly replied.
"It's Teak. Don't worry you will like it. Someone had put a sign up at Pad Thai." He replied back with no clue that about the images and thoughts that are running in my head. Does this chair look like elephant? Do I have to straddle it to sit on it? And what does it matter that it is teak? 


So I end the conversation with "What if I don't like it?"
Annoyed, he answered, "Then you have to buy your own chair and we can put this somewhere else.


Which is what I thought I was suppose to do. 


Well, the chair is here. And it is not really a chair more like a love seat or day bed. And it was heavier than WG and I can carry. But of course, like everything else that is heavy in our house, I had to help him carry it from the truck. There was a lot of yelling about not to drop the extremely heavy piece of furniture. But finally we got it in the house.


With both of us sweating from wrestling the chair in the front door, I asked "are moving it upstairs now?" 
He looks at me like I have 2 heads and said "No, it's too heavy."


So that's why I have an elephant chair in the middle of my living room (please remember, it was only suppose to be small club chair for the bedroom). We still need to figure out where we should put it with all the other mismatch items there. 


I have to say, it is a pretty nice chair/love seat/day bed. And comfortable, too. Here's a pic of the elephant. The bottom section is where it sit on the elephant's back. By the way, when WG was telling how it is suppose to sit on the elephant's back, he said this chair was too heavy to sit on the elephant. Probably the really elephant chairs were made out of rattan. 


My elephant

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Needing some attention

Click
While I was taking my pictures of my unfinished projects, C-nP was walking in and out of the pictures. I guess she wanted some attention. So she got it. Here's she is sitting on her favorite blanket. Loves the quilting on the blanket. Whenever I bring out in spring, she just rolls around and plays on it. Her sister loved it, too.

my unfinished projects























I'm having a lot of trouble finishing project lately. Maybe too many going on at one time?(These are on top of Baby Ribby's Blanket and another secret baby blanket project.) Keep making mistakes then having to rip the out. But I wanted to share what I've been working on beside cleaning out the crap from my house. 


Projects:
1. A's new shoes. One is bigger than the other. I have to rip apart one side and try and make it match. This is why I hate making pairs of things. They never match. 
2. Tiger team scarf. Needed a project for my long train ride home from Boston and wanted to treat myself for having to attend week-long meeting stuck in a conf. room when the weather was so beautiful. So I fell in love with the yarn first, it is so beautiful. Kind of gun-metal gray with a little bit blue. 
3. Purple ivy. Bought this yarn last winter when this color was so hot. I hope by the time I'm finished it will still be in fashion to wear it. It's a great looking pattern but not good to work on when tired (which I'm always tired lately), too many mistakes. 
4. A colorful cap. Another baby gift. This is taking a really long time; skinny yarn, small needle. But it is really fun and playful. 

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Working on a new look

So I decided to update the look of my blog for it's 2nd anniversary. Picked a new template, fiddled with my banner (too lazy to come up with something this weekend, need more time). So for now, here it is.


I do want to do something different but I need to think on this more. Like everybody else birthday, I'm late as always. But you Why wouldn't  I think it would be anything different with my blog. 


ps. I'm hoping for some food pics this weekend. I want to make a Hawaiian sweet--chichi dango. Been craving it since my trip in April. Let's see if the recipe I found stand up to the ones I had in Hawaii. 

Last square

This is the last square for Baby Ribby blanket. I'm on the road to a finish blanket. I laid out all of the 4-squares, made a map, and took pictures of each for reference. Will post the finish product hopefully soon. Have another baby blanket waiting for me to work on.




Last square









The map










The layout



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Friday, July 2, 2010

Cleaning out crap

UPDATE: 6 boxes of of crap went to Goodwill yesterday. 5 boxes of books and a box of housewares. Still have more to get rid of. I'm on a roll now.


I'm on a break from cleaning out crap from my garage. I just loaded 5 boxes of books (roughly 75 books) and a box of housewares in the car. I still have a lot of stuff.


Here's some pictures of my goings-on.
Oat's books
WG's "Keep" books. I gave him 3 full boxes to look through and this is what he kept.


My pile of books
My pile of books, not bad for someone that has 5 boxes in the car to go to goodwill.


Reference books to give away
And a box of reference books to give away to any takers. 


Now I have to figure out where to put all the things I'm keeping. I don't like it in the garage. Hard to get to. And I have to break down the boxes that don't have anything in it. I wished I could get rid of more stuff. Maybe one more sort, and I'll eliminate even more.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Need to figure out what font to use

As you can tell from past several posts, I can not figure out what font to use. I  know the size but the font keeps changing. You would think a designer could make this decision easily but I can't. And it doesn't help that when I post from my iphone, I don't have a choice. Maybe one day, something will inspire me to choose. But for now, I still can't pick one.

A Creative Idea for Medium Fed Ex Box

My office was freezing for the past 2 days. I need to upgrade the air condition vent deflector. With the help of 2 tall people, here is our creative use of a Medium Fed Ex box. 



We cut a hole in the back of box the size of the vent and used the cutout as shim. Then push the box on to the vent and inserted a the shim. Add a push pin at the top to hold it in place. 

I didn't tape up the box tightly, there is still few small holes for cold air to escape for when my super hero power come on and I don't melt away.