New Year's dinner

I made Kombu Maki for New Year's dinner. I felt a little lazy when it was time to start preparing, but I didn't want to start the new year out eating leftovers so I made it. Here some pictures of my meal.

Two of the main ingredients (sorry for the empty packages, decided after I started to start taking pictures):


Kanpyo is dried strips of squash. Not too easy to find in NJ. My mom usually send me it to me. It is sometimes use in a veggie sushi.


Kombu is the dried seaweed that is wrapped on the outside. Not as bad to find in NJ, but the stuff my mom send me from Hawaii is way better that what I find in NJ.

The rest of the ingredients are sliced pork (I used pork shoulder, need a little fat to give it taste and texture), gobo or burdock, shoyu, mirin and sugar.


This is one of the kombu maki. The slice pork and slice gobo is inside, wrapped with kombu and tied with kanpyo. A nice little seaweedy package.


Everything in the pot pre-adding the seasoning. Need to simmer in water for a bit to soften it up. Then add seasoning to taste. It was delicious as I remember. This is one of my favorite dishes.

Snowy day adventure

On the snowy new year's eve, I went on a mini adventure with almost famous mountainman into woods of Rutger Gardens.


Oremiah "noodle-eating" Johnson, my guide


The first thing he spots are animal tracks. Bear? he shout as he points in the prints.


The raging river that we had to cross.


My guide trained me look for sign of danger. Instead I looked for things to shoot with my iphone


Look! Tree. Oremiah explained. Does it have special healing powers? I asked. I don't know, just a tree.


More tracks in the snow, I think those are Oremiah footprints.


Another tree


Tree Grid

So here's my adventure on New Year's eve after the morning snow. WG got my iphone up and running (as many of you notice from FB posting) and I wanted to start taking pictures with it. If it clears anything up, WG has been quite interested in Jeremiah "liver-eating" Johnson since we came back from Yellowstone this summer.

making stuffs

It's been a month since my last post, partly because of laziness to post, another part due to guests at the house and the last part of me making stuff. I surprise myself of how many things I've finished in the past couple months. Here's the what I've been up to.

M's bag turn into scarf


Started off life as a wedding bag, but I made too many mistakes to finish in time. So instead I turn it into a drop stitch scarf http://christine.typepad.com/knitting/easy-drop-stitch-scarf-pa.html. It's made out of mulberry silk, it has the perfect amount of sheen to make it an elegant scarf.

Pink Scaruffle


Someone gave me a lot of this pink mohair stuff (too fuzzy and pink for me). I finally decide to make make something out of it. The first thing I made was a gathered scarf that I gave a to friend who sister loves pink (picture to come). But I still had 1 more skein left and that when the scaruffle from The Knitter's Book of Yarn by Clara Parkes was born. Not sure who will get it--I have a few pinkys that may love it.

Flower power



I found several flower patterns that I wanted to try. I making pins out them for gift this holiday season. Flower patterns from: Top Left: Tahiti-Style Photo Frames, Knit 2 Together by Tracey Ullman and Mel Clark; Top Left: Top Left: Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller; bottom: http://littlegreen.typepad.com/romansock/2009/04/mollie-flowers-the-tutorial.html

Baby Ribby's blanket



Sorry for the bad picture. This will be my vacation project. Momma Ribby asked me to make her baby blanket in her colors. I love the look of the mitered square blanket in Mason-Dixon Knitting by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne and always wanted to make it. I got to okay on the pattern, found some yarn with the colors and off I go. I goal is to finish up the square by the end of my vacation and start stitch up the blanket in Jan. Wish me luck.

I think I'll stop here. I have more stuff to show.

My walking path

Been back to longish walks the past 2 weeks. The weather has been cooperating, in fact, it's been a bit warm for my taste. 10 miles the first week and 8 miles last week, hope I can keep it up for a while.

Here's some pics of the path that we walk on. It's D&R canal path. It's great, there are so many birds to see. I think I saw a blue heron on the way back from my 10 mile. Anyway, I thought I'd share the beautiful day we had. The light was beautiful.



walking to Bound Brook




walking back to Piscataway

Some Recent Baby Gifts

I haven't really been a slug these past few months. I've been . . . crazy busy at work, having too many visitors at home (cleaning and washing), dealing with my skinny old cat (cleaning and washing) and making gifts (the only fun thing). Yes, I've started on my holiday gifts. I guess I should complain that Starbucks are already using the holiday cups.


Anyway, here are some baby gifts I've made. Not the best pics, from my phone, kind of last minute. Right before I wrap the gift. I need to get my own camera or work on setting up better shots.

Teal pom-pom hat for Anders. I love pom-poms, make anything fun.





Round Baby blanket in green, white and blue colorway with picot edging. I know really crazy point of view. I was trying to get the whole thing in.




Close-up of center of blanket




Picot edging in dark blue colorway

Flea Market Pattern book

I got this knitting pattern book at the beginning of the summer ($1) and just got around to scanning the pages. Then they sat around in my transfer folder for a couple of weeks as I forgot I that I did it.

Anyway, wanted to show off my find and it has all these great cardigans to make. Don't know when I'll end up making them but I hope I can get at least on made for spring. They are so great.


Here's the book:



a cute 2-tone sweater



a dolman sleeve--this is the one I'm thinking of making



this ribbed shrug looks so great but will it make me look fat?

It's been a while . . .

I guess I got busy, no really, I was just lazy to post something new. I burnt myself out editing the vacation pictures (this is why I want my own camera). I just took a bunch of really crappy pictures (from my cell phone) of some baby gifts I just made that I need to put up on flickr and ravelry, I have to still edit my arches pictures to post the link and M/T wedding pictures. Oh well. . . . I guess I have something to do tomorrow.

I need to get inspired somehow. This change of life crap is really getting the best of me. Feeling old and tired (really tired), my only inspiration is how I can get more sleep. My new idea is to get one of those mini trampolines to work out on; Not so expensive ($200), hopefully doesn't take too much space (along with my dressform, computer and small tv) and I will (hoping, so I can cancel my stupid gym membership) enjoy it to use it at least 3x a week.

There is something that I'm looking forward to: making a baby blanket for someone at work. Once we buy the yarn, I can start knitting. I think I'm going to make the Mitered Square Blanket from Mason-Dixon Knitting. I love the look of the blanket and this give me a goal to make it. If it comes out great, maybe I'll make one for myself (my list is getting so long).

Well off to post those crappy pictures. I just wanted some proof that I haven't been a totally slug these past few months. Oh I forgot to mention, I did drive 1000 miles in 3 day with my mom as the navigator and dad sleeping in the back. Just visualize that and you will understand.