Something New: Preserve

That big bowl of figs I had yesterday? Well it filled up this pot nicely.

Combined with the juice of one lemon and 2/3 cup of sugar boiled down to this:


Which filled up three jars nicely, that fit perfectly into one big pot of boiling water, resulting in:

CANNING! So simple that it can truly be done by anyone.

Figs

I love figs, and the season here seems to be far too short. Plain, with cheese, honey, baked, or jammed - I'm pro fig. I have a bowl full and a friend with a tree offering me as many as I want, I just need to figure out what to do with them. Maybe now is the time to make my foray into canning?

Completed!

As you can see from this poorly staged and badly lit photo I've finally finished my scrap blanket! I used solid white for the backing and a super thick puffy batting inside. I decided not to quilt it because I liked the general puffyness and didn't want it to be pinned down. And the best part - despite the extra material it's actually the perfect weight for a summer blanket, we've been sleeping under it for two weeks and haven't gotten hot yet. Not too hot, not too cold, but just right.

Another poorly staged photo for good measure.

I spy with my little eye,

An itty bitty cuc.

Sunday Morning

The rain is back. I spent the morning curled up in bed reading and now I'm on to poofs of quilt.

Big Basin

California Redwoods

Sweet Notes

I had a little extra time this afternoon so I stitched up a little love note for my grandma. And because everything is cuter small:

Who do I love? My grandma . . . awww . . . feel free to roll eyes here, I probably deserve it.

The whole project came together in about 15 minutes, with the fraying of the white edges taking the longest.

The back has a little velcro to keep it closed.

Making it the perfect place to keep a little charm safe.

Missing

This weekend I am headed to San Francisco for a memorial for my grandfather who passed away 3 years ago. At the time my grandmother was to ill to hold a memorial. Now, just after her 90th birthday, she is finally able to do so. Three years ago I would have been distraught at the idea of attending the memorial, but I've done my grieving and am looking forward to spending a weekend with my family reflecting on my grandfather's life, celebrating my grandmother's good health, and in general enjoying beautiful scenery and time with my family.

The only problem is that we are each expected to say something at the memorial. I intended to read a short "essay" I wrote in sixth grade about why my grandfather is my hero. Before he died three years ago I reread it to him and then tucked it away in some secret spot in my office. I have spent the entire morning searching through every item that I have ferreted away over the years and am stumped. I have found all sorts of random crap: my photo id from studying abroad in 2001, old love notes, my husband's photo id from his first job, a crisp one dollar bill from 2007, a savings bond, a letter I wrote an old friend in a fit of anger and didn't mail, pay stubs from 5 years ago, my husband's little league playing card (so cute), a stack of movie stubs from the first year my husband and I dated, a certificate to prove I went hot air ballooning . . . these are the more interesting things, I also found stacks of old student loan documents and receipts. Generally, I found every trinket and memento from the last 8 years except the one I want. The only good thing so far is the giant pile of junk I made to throw away (not counting many of the things I listed those will be returned to their hiding places not to be looked at for another 5 years).

Something New: Make Cheese

Making cheese is something that I have been wanting to do for a long time, but have always considered it to be way to complicated to be worth bothering. That is until I saw this easy-peasy recipe at the Kitchn. The steps can be summed up as follows: slowly boil milk, add lemon, let sit, pour into cheesecloth lined colander, hang in a ball from your sink, go to happy hour, drink champagne, come home, eat cheese. I didn't even need to be there for the majority of it, it was great!

I had pictures of the process but those pictures are in a camera that is now lost at the bottom of a lake. However, my cheese looked exactly like the cheese pictured above from the Kitchn and was incredibly delicious - the lemon flavor really came out nicely. I served it on grilled pizza with caramelized onions, pear, and basil. I used whole milk but I think next time I would up the fat content and serve it as part of an appetizer. All in all, easy to do and will definitely make it again.

Grrrr....

It appears that I am mathematically challenged. I went to the fabric store with the measurements for the fabric needed to create the border and the backing of my quilt. I knew that I needed 90 x 90 inches for the back as well as enough fabric to make two 17 x 60 inch panels and two 12 x 90 inch panels for the borders. It seemed simple enough, I added the measurements together and thought I bought the proper amount. However, when I started making the panels I realized that I was going to be about a foot short. Now I am stuck with a 6 foot piece of worthless white fabric,who uses plain white fabric, and am probably another week away from actually finishing this thing.

New stuff

A month out from my birthday I've finally figured out a few large scheme things I would like to do during my 30's. Nothing to serious, just a few lofty (mostly travel related) goals:

• Travel to the Arctic Circle.
• Visit one of the three remaining continents that I haven't seen - Australia, Africa or Antarctica - Guy's choice.
  
• Swim in the Mediterranean.
  
• Go into a really deep cave - I've been in a salt mine and it was awesome, I want to do something like that again.
  

AND

• Learn to sail. This probably interests me most, but do to the cost I probably won't be doing it anytime soon.
  

I've cleared out the old things on the sidebar and put in some new things that I'm currently interested in trying. I did 8 of the things previously listed, which I will consider a success. I made sushi, volunteered, kayaked, ran an 8k, took an art class, swam in a swimming hole, made pretzels, and tried a new food (Ethiopian).

Peonies

I spent the day a ball of nerves waiting for a late afternoon appointment. 4:45 Is seriously the worst time ever for an appointment to be scheduled. I tried to focus my energy on the garden and enjoying these beautiful peonies that I found growing in the backyard but seriously, it's hard to focus on anything else.

Quilt

So close . . . I have 5 more strips to attach to the top, but I think I might have to cut a few more. I really underestimated how many rectangles I would need. I originally cut out 150, each 7 1/2 x 7 1/2, but that was barely even half of what I needed. In the picture above there are 18 connected rows which is 216 scraps, and I have already run out of 4 of the fabrics that I used. I will definitely have to add a border to make it wide enough to comfortably sleep under.

In person the red doesn't seem as bright as it does in the pictures. I love all the different projects that these scraps came from. I sit and look at it thinking fondly of my past projects, sappy huh?

What do you mean you don't want me standing in the middle of the picture?

Happy 30th to Me!

Today is my big 3-0 and I am feeling good, I'm actually really excited. I friend of mine, who is also turning 30 soon, recently told me that she planned on spending her 30th sulking because she hadn't accomplished everything that she had hoped to by this age. This in turn got me thinking about all the things that I HAVE accomplished in my 20's and I felt really really good because I have done a lot. I've seized opportunities, put myself out there, and can't think of any regrets or missed opportunities. Which in turn has lead to me feeling pretty excited about what new experiences my next decade will bring me. So out of reflection or pure bragging, I'll leave that for you to decide, I present to you my 20's:

• I graduated undergrad.
• I graduated law school and passed the bar on my first try.
  
• I got married to someone I love very very much.
  
• I lived in England for 7 months.
  
• I studied in China for 2 months.
  
• I traveled alone in Europe and China.
  
• In Europe I visited Germany, Austria, Spain, France, and Italy (not always alone).
• I've been to the Great Wall and got vertigo.
• I've seen Machu Picchu.
• I've been on cruise ships, catamarans, dragon boats, whitewater rafts, and kayaks.
  
• I've flown by biplane.
  
• I've been in a hot air balloon.
  
• I ran my first 5k, 8k, and am training for Hood to Coast.
  
• I zip lined through a jungle.
  
• I went to St. Lucia, St. Thomas, St. Thomas, Mexico, and Peru.
• I volunteered at my dream job and kicked ass realizing that even if I never get this job I could not only do it but I could do it well.
  
• I took pottery, learned to sew, cook and started learning to knit.
  
• I snorkeled.
  
• I swam in the Caribbean and Pacific.
• I sipped Champagne on the top of the Eiffel Tower.
  
• I've seen the Colosseum, Mt. Rushmore, Stonehenge, and the Terracotta Army.
• I've done a keg stand.
• I've taken a cooking class in Mexico with my Grandmother.
  
• And most importantly the friends that I have made in this last decade are more important and dear to me then anyone I had met before (excluding my husband but we go way back).
  

All in all, I feel as though I have done things and seized opportunities. I'm excited to see what adventures this next decade will bring.

Currently Reading: Bossypants

Bossypants by Tina Fey

This was a super easy read. I thought it was a little light on content but overall very very enjoyable. In case you were wondering this was the last book I read:

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

I thought this was an incredible book. In general I am only so-so on Dave Eggers, preferring his non-fiction to his fiction- this being of the non-fiction persuasion. Briefly, it is the story of a Syrian-American and the events of Hurricane Katrina. Highly recommend it.

And also sorry to everyone's comments that got deleted off my last post during the blogger glitch. I even took the time to respond for once!

Bad blogger

Bad blogger. I'm a bit flighty - I pick things up and then leave them. I'll blog for two weeks, then ignore it. That's probably why my readership keeps slipping, that or I'm boring.

I've started a new knitting project, a simple shawl. I have "mastered" the knit stitch, the purl stitch, casting on, making scarves and hats and needed a new beginner-ish project to try. My local yarn store suggest a shawl. Frankly, the pattern is a little too easy - knit every row, front and back, increase by one stitch every other row. At the store I picked out two different yarns that I adored and the sales lady told me that they would be difficult to use at my knitting level and strongly encouraged me to get something else. I picked the sea foam yarn in the background even though I wasn't thrilled about it.

Once I started the project I quickly realized how boring both the yarn and the pattern were. So yesterday I went back to the yarn store and picked out one of the yarns I originally wanted - the dusty pink, silver, plum color change yarn in the foreground. I came home sat on the front porch in the sun and started the project over and what do you know it's so much more interesting now.

London Eye

Up

Up

And

Away

Progress Friday?

It's beautiful out, a little cold, but beautiful. I got up went for coffee and found these daffodils - 22 for $3. How could I resist?

My plans for the day involve working on my quilt. I came home from the trip with a renewed interest in finishing it. I realized I was putting way to much time into creating a random look instead of just doing it randomly. So this week I cut all the remaining rectangles and paired them randomly into twos, stitched them together, and trimmed them all to a (hopefully) uniform size. Today I want to get all the strips combined.

I'm going to go for a run, hopefully along the waterfront. And then I am going to try to make these, Not Martha - Easter Surprise Eggs.

We'll see what actually gets done.

Something New: Make Salad Dressing

I feel like I am the last person to figure out how easy it is to make tasty salad dressing at home. I never bothered before because the store stuff was fine and it seemed like a huge hassle. I now know that both ideas were wrong.

Last night I was planning on making a salad with blood oranges and realized that none of the dressings we had would allow the oranges to shine. I googled "homemade orange vinaigrette" and voila! I had a dressing recipe that called for ingredients that I already had: orange, garlic, honey, salt, pepper, oil and balsamic. Ten minutes later I had enough delicious dressing to last two weeks! I don't think my salads will ever be the same. If you are interested, I used this Giada recipe, here.

In another something new vein, I'm opening myself up to emails (yikes!) at midgeme_blog@yahoo.com

London

This was one of those trips where we walked, and walked, and walked; every single day we walked most everywhere. Our first day in London was the day our flight arrived. We landed at noon, and our goal was to stay up until evening to limit jet lag. So we headed out walking.
We left our hotel at King's Cross and walked with no particular destination in mind. After about an hour we ended up in Trafalgar Square - this is looking back towards St. Martin's in the Field.

The Admiralty House on St. James's Park. We ended up walking down to the river and circling back through Covent Garden.

On our return trip to London we visited: Parliment, Big Ben, West Minster Abbey, and the London Eye before walking on to Buckingham Palace and Harrods.
We didn't go into Westminster Abbey because it cost $16 Pounds a person, or about $25 US, which would have been $50 for the two of us. I understand the need to charge something to protect this historical place, but this is ridiculous. This price effectively prevents many people from experiencing something of such great historical significance. $100 For a family of four? Comparatively, Notre Dame - free.
The weather was gorgeous and everything was blooming. St. James's Park from the other end.

The garden's near Buckingham Palace were all planted and readied for the wedding. I couldn't help myself I bought my mom and I cheesy commemorative mugs.

At Harrod's we poked around ohhing and ahhing and stopped for hot chocolate at the Chocolate Bar. From left to right I had: dark chocolate, orange chocolate and white chocolate.

Our hotel was right next to the Tower Bridge - every day from our room this was our view (except from the other side).

One good thing with all the walking was the balancing effect it had on all the food we were eating. Lunch one day: fried fish, fried shrimp, chips, mashed potatoes, sausage, and two meat pies with gravy.