Green Hat Take 3

Started this project twice before. Different patterns--frogged! So I found this one in my pile of pattern printouts. Like the way this ribbing looks, hope the rest of the pattern is just as good. Looks like it will be a really warm hat. Good for this snowy cold winter. Stay tune.

Pattern: Lina by jokoknits

Yarn: Stitch Nation Full O' Sheep

A Bunch of Energy

So far this year I've had a bunch of energy and I've been putting it to good use. Besides the usual baking and jamming for the restaurant, I've been recipe testing and knitting my way through my yarn stash. I guess it doesn't hurt that it is bitterly cold outside and all of these tasks are prefect for a cold day. Here's a couple of recipes I've tested that came out great.

Recipe Testing

{Savory} Tried out two recipes from http://nomnompaleo.com/. No, I'm not on the Paleo diet. These recipes are great and really worth trying out. 

Slow Cooker Kalua Pig

A pile of shredded goodness

I know you can't beat the really thing but when you live thousands of miles away from Hawaii, you got to go to the next best thing. All done in my crock pot in 12 hours. Of course, I started it at 8:30am so it was done at 8:30pm. But my house smell delicious. And guess who came home and ate a bunch of it. I made it again and have a container in the freezer. I even made Kalua Pork and Cabbage with the little bit of leftovers that I had. Hmmmm. So good. 

Crackin' Chicken
I forgot to get a picture of this but this is a must try if you like crispy crunch chicken. A bit messy as the grease pops as the chicken is cooking. I had to scrub and wipe down my stove after. [I'm off to the dollar store for a splatter guard--totally worth the dollar]. I even made a small batch of the ghee to cook the chicken in. Very addicting. 

Did I mention how much I love snow?

Our path into the woods

This crazy girl from Hawaii just loves when it snow. Not sure how much we got but at least 6+ inches. Enough for WG to close the restaurant for the day. We used to always go for a walk in the woods when it snow [before we had the restaurant] and since I had a window of time between meeting. We went for our walked into the woods. No one there but us. Quiet, untrampled snow--so beautiful. 

Here's some pictures of our snowy walk in the woods: snow 02/03/14

Garden Update

Got picture of my garden without snow. Garlic is coming up. 4 out 8, not too bad as I wasn't sure if it was going to work. 

My Winter Garden

My garden after the snow

Haha! I thought I'd get a picture of my garden before the snow to show you the garlic. Oh well, I'll try and get it when the snow melts.

Surprise, surprise! My garlic is coming up. I pretty much forgot about it when the other day, I look out my window and I see little hints of green coming and remembered that I planted them. Doesn't look like much now but let's see when happen in the spring. 

The flat leaf parsley and scallions also don't seem to mind the cold and snow. 

My indoor garden seems to be putting up with my sporatic watering schedule. Did lose my poinsettia [waited too long to bring inside, never recovered] and the celery stalk [couldn't handle me going on vacation--WG is not a gardener]

My Hens and Chicks are tolerating it's location in the bathroom but I decided to move them with the rest of my indoor plants right in front of window in my dining room. Hope it like there better. 

Starting off my New Year

With roasting a chicken, cleaning my plasticware and starting some baby shower gifts. I hope this energy continues throughout this year. Have A Happy New Year!

On my walk

I decide to start walking [maybe some running] to work out my stress. So I thought I'd take pictures of something on my walks.

Today was beautiful for a walk. Here's a couple shots.