Still no news on the house. All we know is that the people who make the decision on whether or not to accept the offer have all they need and just need to make the decision. Grrrr....Arrrrgggh. I will post about it as soon as I do know.

In other news, I got another raise (a rather large one) and while I am still not making anywhere near what I was, I am doing quite well. That extra money is going to make a difference for us, especially since my hours will be a bit less during the holidays as there aren't as many weddings. Actually, if the deli that intends to sell our baked goods under our name decides to go with some items, my hours may not decrease quite as much. Our monthly income would have covered everything, even with a house, but now we have a little wiggle room, which is great. Now if we only knew about the house...


Giving this recipe a try for dinner. I will let you know how it goes.

I decided my sister needed an apartment-warming gift since she is moving into her first apartment this fall. Obviously, I wanted it to be something small since she will most likely be moving after the fall semester is over and is taking as little as possible with her. I decided to get her my most favoritest kitchenest tool ever..est. I am not going to mention what it is since it's a secret, but those who know me may be able to guess. Anyway, while I was at the site I buy these things from I noticed they were having a sale. I couldn't resist checking it out. I know I don't have a job (yet, I hope that will change soon) after this Friday, but I saw the thing I have been in search of for months, a kitchen scale (ok, just to be pedantic it says "baker's scale").

I bought it, and I am ok with that. There have been so many times I skip over a recipe because the ingredients are listed by weight rather than volume. No more! I also want to be able to divide my sock yarn skeins so I can knit them two at a time because I feel so much more productive when I do it that way. It's a multi-tasker! It may become my new favoritest kitchenest tool ever.

I am a bit excited.

I wish I could blame the storm early this morning for my alarm not going off, but it wasn't to blame since my power didn't go out, as per usual. I swear I set the thing, but it didn't go off. I did wake up and listen to the crazy thunder, lightning, rain and wind. It was a nasty storm, which I of course enjoyed thoroughly while I was awake.

I moved up some more stuff this weekend. I hope we will be able to get the rest of our stuff in one trip, with a few exceptions. The issues with the trucks kind of threw off our plans for this move. I guess that's how it works.

My plan for dinner includes these little guys in a salad and strawberry cobbler/crisp/crumble depending on what I can scrounge up from the items I have left. I think I will have to make bread crumbs in my coffee grinder (after cleaning it, of course). I unthinkingly bought a large volume of strawberries because they were incredibly cheap and in good shape not thinking about how I alone could consume that many in a reasonable amount of time, hence the cobbler/crumble/crisp I will be making.

Well, it's the beginning of my last week of work. I am not quite sure what I think about that yet.

Josh and I went to his, possibly, last tae kwon do class with Hawkeye Tae Kwon Do. There weren't many people there, about 10 I think, and we didn't do anything terrible exciting though I was sweating like crazy due to the ~85F temp and Christy's leadership. I am pleasantly sore due to our somewhat forced hiatus from tae kwon do these past months and my run on Tuesday morning. I hope we can find a club or school in MN that we like. I have found one that intrigues me. They don't have tae kwon do, but a bunch of other things and you can take them all for about $100, which is a bit steep for me right now.

Josh starts his new job on Monday so we are moving most of our stuff this weekend. We are loading almost everything Friday afternoon and evening, which won't be fun with the predicted 100F heat index, though Saturday should be cooler. We are going to have quite the caravan head to our new place with Josh's parents and their truck and trailer as well as my mom joining us at Eldora, Josh's truck and my car. Josh's new employer has offered three times to send a guy or two over to help us unload. I think I like these people all ready.

I will be sticking around until the end of the month in my mostly empty apartment. At least I will be left with a TV, DVD player, laptop, yarn and an air mattress as well as my kitchen and a few essentials. The first thing I thought of besides missing Josh, was the food I would be able to make with out considering what Josh would eat. What does that say about me?

I was smarter today and wore socks with my shoes and brought a sweatshirt, but my hands and nose are still cold. I usually use Josh's shoulder as a nose warmer, but he wasn't willing to come to work with me today. Apparently he has to go to work, too. I could really use one of these in this place right now. Actually, I think it could be pretty useful in most places during the colder months. June in Iowa isn't supposed to be a cold month. I found an electric company in MN that lets you purchase blocks of wind generated energy each month for about 50 cents per 100kwh. I think it's totally worth it.

My good internet friend Melanie posted a link to Musicovery, which I am quite enjoying. At the rather chilly lab, I usually listen to Pandora, but this is a nice change and a different way to approach listening to music based on mood rather than it's musical qualities.

I have been knitting on the Poms and on my traveling socks (so far the heel flap of the 2nd is on it's third iteration), but nothing yet for Summer of Socks. I think I will need to bust out the baby sock patterns for this one.

I need some pizza ideas. I have another ball of this dough in the freezer (leave it in the freezer for a week, trust me, you won't be disappointed) and so far I have made taco pizza, white sauce with chicken, peppers and red onion, and something else, but I can't remember right now. Josh has been adamant about no red sauce, so I better steer clear of that no matter how much I want a cheese pizza right now.

Josh and I are going to start moving stuff this Saturday, which makes me kind of excited. We started packing up the kitchen and my bookshelf as well as two of our three computers, so a truckload is heading north with us. It will be nice to get the boxes out of our current place. While in the throes of packing I noticed some sticky brown syrup dripping down our plastic shelves in our storage room. This is the shelf that Josh stores all his beer making ingredients on. Somehow, a bottle of malt extract broke and slowly leaked all over the floor. Luckly, since it is mostly sugar, it was fairly easy to wash away, but I had to use my bench scraper to get the stuff off the floor. Why was I cleaning it up an not Josh?

I finally finished a sock! Initially, I stopped working on it because I wasn't sure I liked the fit, but I needed a sock to knit yesterday, on dpns for some reason, and I decided I did like it.



This the first of a pair of Pomatomous in Dream in Color Smooshy in Gothic Rose. Despite my previous doubts, I love this sock and must start on the second one after I finish this post.

I decided Josh and I needed some more fruit in our diet so I made a blueberry crisp.



I combined a couple recipes which worked pretty well.

For the fruit:

2 lbs frozen blueberries,feel free to use fresh but halve the amt of cornstarch)
2 tbl corn starch
1/2c sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Bake at 375F for 30 minutes or until the fruit gives off some juice.

For the topping:

1c old fashioned oats (I like them better than quick oats)
1/3c flour
2/3c brown sugar
pinch of salt
cinnamon, cloves, ginger or whatever you want
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 c) unsalted butter cut into small cubes
I also added some pecans

combine all ingredients and use your fingers to mush it all together until you get course crumbs.

When fruit has baked for at least 30 minutes, add topping and bake for another 40-50 minutes until top is golden and crispy unless you like it softer than bake it until then.

I also made this and put it into the refrigerator to grow overnight.

Any guesses what it is going to become for dinner tonight?

It was a really nice weekend. I experimented a bit on my oatmeal bar recipe with good results and made two fabulous appetizers which are new to my repertoire. I got to play with a yeast dough (always fun) then turned it into a tasty pizza with extra dough stashed in the freezer. Josh and I saw Kung Fu Panda, which was excellent. I bought an iPod Shuffle (because the price of an armband for my iPod Nano is almost as much), went on a run, and got some knitting and crocheting done.

I also stepped on a weird piece of plastic which ended up embedded in the ball of my left foot near my big toe about half an inch while I was trying to go out onto my balcony to take a picture of the nasty looking wall cloud. I then made a bloody mess on my kitchen floor while I yelled for Josh that I was getting blood all over the floor. At least I think it was plastic because Josh broke it and threw it away before I could examine it more closely. My foot feels bruised and tender and still oozes a bit. Lovely, I know. I am a bit worried about it getting infected since the piece of mystery plastic was on the floor and made it quite a ways into my foot (not that our floor is dirty it's just a floor). It kinda ruins my workout plans for the next few days due to it's location. I am surprised I have gotten any running in with my sore knee, chest cold with cough, pulled hamstring and now puncture wound to bottom of foot which prohibits even normal walking. I am trying to get into a running routine, but it's not going so well.

ETA: This sounds like a really neat way to power your home using solar panels.

Definitely make these if you aren't near a campfire.

Yesterday was nice and warm if a bit windy. Actually the weather bar at the bottom of my browser window said "gales", which was fairly appropriate. I wore sandals and my toes didn't fall off, so it was a good day. It's still pretty nice today, though it is supposed to rain later.

Well, the weather was really just a segue into what I really wanted to talk about. Not that the weather really has anything to do with what I made for dinner yesterday other than the fact that I needed to open the windows to let the smoke out. I didn't burn anything, but it certainly got smoky. I actually roasted a whole chicken in my oven. I had never done that before, in the oven that is. I have done the beer can in the butt chicken before on the grill, which was incredibly tasty. I think the smoke was due to the butter I shoved under the skin, but I will have to try again with olive or vegetable oil (they have higher smoke points than butter) to test my theory.

The chicken was tasty, and the skin a nice golden brown. I tried the skin, but didn't like it. I am not sure what people find so appealing about chicken skin. I like cooking with it on because it adds flavor and keeps the chicken moist. I do wish I had made a pan sauce for a bit of extra flavor, but I was too lazy and had run out of counter space which isn't hard when you only have about 4 square feet to work on. i also made roasted cauliflower and orzo risotto with spinach. It was a nice meal that required little hands on time and I have chicken left over to shred for chicken tacos tonight!

I also made some cookie dough and shoved it in the freezer for cookie emergencies. I don't know how the cookies will taste but the dough was quite delightful. I used some cage-free eggs I found at our local grocery store that are only a few cents more than the store brand, so I am quite happy. I do look forward to the green eggs from the farmers' market though they are more expensive.

I would have posted pictures of all of this, but nothing was terribly photogenic and the light in my kitchen is crappy. I guess the chicken looked pretty good except for where I split the skin on the breast side while trying to shove butter in there. I think my technique needs work.

Small changes

I have been trying to make small changes that not only save money but are lest wasteful and less horrible for the environment. So far I have become a little fanatical about what gets recycled at our place, replaced our laundry detergent with some homemade phosphate-free detergent, replaced the kitchen cleaner with some homemade (and cheap!) cleaner, take public transportation to and from work, bring reusable bags to the grocery store and mall(when I remember) and now I am working on replacing paper towels with microfiber towels and other reusable towels after reading this article. Not only will it save money but it's less wasteful.

When Josh and I get our house we are going to try to make it as energy efficient as we can afford. Since Josh works at Lowe's (is there an apostrophe in Lowe's? I should know this), he is fairly informed about appliances and can get good deals sometimes. I am also going to look into fume-free paints. Can you tell I am a little excited about owning a home? We have been spending way more time talking about buying a house than planning a wedding.

I really wanted to finish the Zombies yesterday, well actually Monday, but realized quickly that was not going to happen. I have a couple more rows before the gusset is done, which will be a relief. I can get rid of the dpns I am using to hold the extra stitches!

Any ideas what I should have for dinner tonight? We kind of indulged during our long weekend so I am thinking something healthy, but I have some fingerling potatoes I really want to slice, roast and cover in parmesan. Mmmm.... I made beef stew and soda bread this weekend as well as pancakes and oatmeal scones, so we have had our share of hearty food. Salads would probably be a good choice. I guess the parmesan covered potatoes can wait.

I came home from tae kwon do with all sorts of goodies last night. I got a sweatshirt for $10, my new uniform, a blister the size of a dime on my right big toe and a blister slightly smaller than a dime on my left big toe. I also have a few sore arm muscles.

Now for some pictures. First is the pizza I mentioned in a previous post. It turned out rather well, except for the thin crust I was going for didn't really happen. The not-so-thin crust is topped with some light alfredo sauce I made, mozzarella, green peppers and chicken. The sauce seemed to be absorbed by the crust during baking. I will have to work on that.


Next up is the first sock of SKP2008. It now has an owner yet still needs a partner.


Third is the first of the Ribbed Tofutsie socks. About one more inch then the toe!


Last but not least is my favorite breakfast: steel-cut oatmeal with dried cranberries, Greek yogurt, pecans and honey.


I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures. I haven't had ideal light conditions at an opportune time when a picture needs to be taken, and I refuse to use the flash because it ruins pictures for the most part.

I am feeling better than I was most of this weekend. The sinus headaches are gone for the most part, and I was able to sleep most of last night without waking myself up with coughing. I call that improvement!

Saturday was exhausting. I didn't sleep much the night before and we had 8 people coming over to watch another UFC fight. We fondued again but added a chocolate fondue for dessert. We made rice krispie treats, cheesecake and pound cake to slather with chocolate and also had marshmallows and strawberries to dip in it. Everything went well until we tried to melt the chocolate. I have made ganache in the past without a problem and assumed this would be the same. I was wrong. The chocolate separated and got rather chunky and not good for dipping. We tossed it and I melted some more chocolate with cream on the stove top, but the same thing happened. I am guessing it was because I used chocolate chips rather than a bar. Extra stuff is added to chocolate chips that isn't usually in bar chocolate. I am guessing this was the problem, but I will have to do some more experimentation. I have most likely used bar chocolate for ganache in the past.

I started my first SKP2008 sock. I am not a fan of the pattern so I picked yarn accordingly. The color is not really to my liking so I thought it and a pattern I don't like well either would go quite well together. At least the sock is a fast knit. I finished most of the leg Sunday morning and started turning the heel last night. I can hopefully finish them rather quickly. I am not going to place very high, but I didn't figure I would no matter what the pattern. Several people were done the day the pattern was released!

Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

Notes: If I am using an unseasoned wild rice blend I cook it in broth to give it flavor. A boxed blend with a seasoning packet will have more salt and other seasonings which makes the seasoning portion of the soup very simple. If you make this using a boxed and seasoned wild rice mix you can follow the directions for the boxed mix and use less broth, around 6 cups instead of 8.

I suggested the use of evaporated milk for those of you interested in a lower fat version. You can also use corn starch instead of the roux to cut down on the fat as well. The evaporated milk doesn't taste the same as the cream or half and half, but it isn't bad.

I am writing this from memory and since I tend to improvise and never make this soup the same way twice, feel free to make adjustments or if you have questions leave a comment.

Ingredients:

• 6-8 cups low-sodium chicken or veggie broth
  
• 3 chicken breasts, I prefer bone-in, trimmed of excess fat and skin
  
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic pressed through garlic press or diced finely
  
• 3 carrots, diced
  
• 3 celery ribs, diced
  
• mushrooms, sliced (optional)
  
• 1 tbl olive oil or other oil
  
• 1 box of wild rice blend, cooked with seasoning packet
  
• 12oz evaporated milk or 0.5 cup heavy cream or half and half, I leave it up to you
  
• 1 bay leaf
  
• 1 tsp dried tarragon
• 1 tsp dried parsley
  
• 4 tbl butter
  
• 4 tbl flour
  
• salt and pepper to taste
  

Directions:

1. In a medium sauce pan cook the rice following the instructions on the box or bring 3-4 cups of broth to a boil and add 1.5 cups rice blend and cook until done, 30-40 minutes.
2. In 5-6qt Dutch oven heat olive oil over medium heat until shimmering. Add onion, garlic, carrot, celery and mushrooms, if using. Cook, stirring occasionally, until soft; about 5-7 minutes.
3. Add remaining broth, bay leaf, parsley and tarragon. Bring to a simmer then add the chicken breasts. Simmer for another 20 minutes or until chicken breasts are cooked through and have reached an internal temperature of 165F. Remove chicken from the pot and set aside to cool.
4. When rice is cooked add to the rest of the soup along with any cooking liquid. Chop or shred cooked chicken into bite-sized pieces and return to the pot.
   
5. Add evaporated milk, half and half or cream. In a small sauce pan melt butter over medium heat. When the butter as stopped foaming (all water has evaporated) add the flour and whisk for another 30 seconds.
   
6. Add the roux to the soup and bring to a simmer. Cook stirring occasionally until thickened to desired consistency. If too thick add more broth or water. Season with salt and pepper to taste and don't forget to remove the bay leaf.
7. Enjoy with some good bread and a salad if you feel the need to be healthy.
   

I really want a cookie or cake...maybe a brownie or blondie.

I am making creamy chicken and wild rice soup for dinner tonight so the oven will be free for a dessert of some kind. I don't usually make dessert, but I think I need one. Maybe I will write down my recipe for the soup tonight.

I thought I messed up my Pomatomous sock, but alas that was not the case. I, of course, didn't realize my stupidity until I had tinked back to the point where I knew it was correct. I decided I was wrong even though every time I looked at it I couldn't figure out where I had gone wrong. I am a doofus. At least it was only about 5 rows.

I want one of these! I may have to try making one myself. I saw the innards of a frog just last week as I was cutting his heart out, so I should be able to do it. His heart is still on my bench in a clear vial waiting to be covered in wax.

Anyway, I am rather excited for my birthday this weekend. We are having people over and are thinking about doing fondue for dinner. My mom got us a fondue set as an engagement present (I didn't know you gave engagement presents), but it is on backorder. Josh thinks we should have two anyway so he is going to pick up another from Target. The first course/appetizer is will be cheese and the main course will be a broth fondue. We want to make it vegetarian friendly as well, so that may take a little planning, i.e. cook the veggies first and use veggie broth.

I have yarn coming so I can make Inga. I picked some rather wacky colors, and since I ordered them online, I have to hope they go together as well as I picture them in my head. I ordered some white too so if they don't I can use it instead. The yarn may be at my apartment already so the Monkeys may be put aside for a bit to make this hat. What I should do is finish this first Monkey and start it's mate before starting Inga. That's what i would do if I was a responsible knitter.

I made chicken tortilla soup Sunday night. It was really good so Josh suggested the next venture should be chicken enchilada soup. My theory for a recipe is to combine the tortilla soup recipe with my cheese soup recipe, i.e. use the soup base (chicken broth with cilantro and a puree of tomato, onion, garlic, and jalapeno)from tortilla soup and add cheese to it. Have any of you made it before? I did a quick search for recipes but didn't see anything too promising. I usually rule out recipes with processed cheese food rather than real cheese, so that cut down my options. Processed cheese food...That just sounds icky.

Thanks for all the helpful comments and discussion about cameras yesterday. I think I will get the Canon PowerShot S5 after my next paycheck. I am not quite ready to spend another chunk of money after Christmas, traveling, a new computer and my car's lack of registration issues. I have the money, I just don't want to part with it yet. Maybe after my birthday. I will most likely get some more money as gifts to put towards it anyway.

Speaking of my birthday, I am going to make a cake. Shocking, I know. But this one is a special cake because I am also going to really decorate it, not just frost it and dump some sprinkles on. I am taking inspiration from this cake. The next UFC is on my birthday and it is also the 20th UFC my friends and I have gotten together to watch. Mine will probably not look as nice. I think I am going to play with some fondant and try my hand at piping the UFC logo, though I may just make it out of fondant and stick it on there.

In other completely unrelated non-news, I just found these instructions for making a self-watering planter. I think I may make myself one for a little herb garden. Unless the farmer's market is going on, it is impossible to find herbs that are fresh and not overpriced. I like this little box because it could sit on my kitchen table, and I wouldn't forget to water it.

I still can't get used to the idea that I have to work for a whole 5 days this week. I know some are now moving to longer work weeks, but after my last three partial weeks I don't know what to think! I also have to teach tkd tonight.

I didn't get a lot getting-rid-of-stuff done (one box to Goodwill), but we did reorganize the computer room and it's closet. The storage room off the kitchen also saw some changes for the better. I cleaned out our little pantry and put everything in it's place. The new magnetic knife bar from Ikea didn't get put up, but that's a quick and easy project that will hopefully be done this week. I feel much better. My closet will be tackled sometime. I already have a basket of clothes that I don't wear a lot, but I need to do a deep cleaning of the closet. The bookshelf is still a mess and I need another magazine thingy.

I did finish a few things from the knitting basket which makes me happy. Wicked and the Zeebee hats are done and drying on a towel in the living room. I just need to weave in the ends of the Stripey Socks and send them to their recipient along with some goodies. Pictures of all to come when the sun comes back. I think I have a good lead on some eyes for Norberta.

I started a little scarflet for to include in some belated Christmas gifts due to a possibly too small hat. Since I want to do some colorwork this year as part of the Fearless Knitting KAL I decided to teach my self to knit carrying the yarn in my left hand to I can have one color of yarn in each hand. so far it is going well except I tend to twist the stitches in a decidedly combined knitting way. Not bad, but could get confusing when I knit with yanr in both hands since I don't twist them when I knit with the yarn in the right hand.

Josh received another call from his sister yesterday while we were out shopping. He had left his phone at home charging so was not able to answer it. His sister left a message ending with a remark about how he probably didn't answer his phone because she called. That didn't make Josh happy and he almost decided to not visit her next weekend. I talked him into going, but he really doesn't want to. I don't either, but I really think we should. It will most definitely be awkward.

It's 50 degrees right now...in Iowa...in January. There may be thunderstorms.

Food Networks Top 100 Recipes of 2007

My fave chef, AB, has 2nd and 3rd! His baked mac and cheese is very tasty. I will be checking out some of the others. I need some new dinner ideas.

I usually don't remember much about my dreams. If I do, the details are definitely lacking. The last couple of mornings I have woken around 5am, looked at the clock and gone back to sleep. During that last hour and I half before my alarm goes off I have had similar dreams. Yesterday morning I dreamt that I was going to my class in which I was supposed to give a presentation on my current research project. The problem was I forgot to bring my iPod which I had saved my presentation to. I went back to the lab to grab it, got distracted by something and rushed back to class. Once I got there I realized I had forgotten my iPod again. I tried two more times to bring my iPod with me before I woke up. This morning's dream was similar, but instead of presenting I was going to my eye exam. In this case I forgot to get off the bus at the right stop or something like that. The details are fuzzy.

A few nights ago I had been working on a red cabled hat before I went to bed. I mis-crossed the cables in the last row, but was too tired to fix it at the time so I went to bed. It must have bothered me more than I thought because I had trouble falling asleep and kept waking myself up because I was dreaming of cables in red yarn.

Well, I did make it to my eye exam this morning and I was a half hour early because I couldn't remember what time I had scheduled it for. It looks like it's time to get some glasses. I am near sighted and if I drive for long periods of time, especially at night, I get headaches. Luckily I can get by without them for the most part, but I think I will appreciate them for driving. Since I have extra money in my health care spending account, I think some prescription sunglasses may be in order as well. Maybe I can squeeze in a massage this year too!

I may not seem like it, but I think I am a romantic at heart. At least when it comes to fiction. It's kind of silly because I will occasionally have to force myself to read the book if it's not going the way I think it should. If the two characters, who I know love each other for some reason aren't going to get together I get a little distressed. Why? I have no idea. I usually overcome this and continue the book after awhile, but for a little while I can't stand the thought. I am a dork. I guess it's probably a good thing I never got into romance novels.

I am totally in the mood for soup. On Sunday I made beer cheese soup. a little oniony but had good flavor otherwise. Last night I made white cheddar and potato soup. It was so good and a great way to make a dent in my potato stash. I am going to write my recipe here so I don't forget it.

White Cheddar Potato Soup

Servings: 3-5 depending on who is eating it.

Ingredients:
1lb potatoes cut into 3/4" cubes or as close to cubes as you can get them
1/2 onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
2 garlic cloves, diced or pressed through a garlic press
3 tbl of butter or olive oil ( I did a combo because I didn't add enough butter initially)
3 tbl flour
3 c low-sodium chicken broth
1/4 c white wine (optional)
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried tarragon
1 tsp dried parsley
3/4 c half and half, whole milk or some cream (I would use less cream)
I think condensed milk would work fairly well if going for a lower fat version
1 cup shredded white cheddar ( I used 50% fat free because it's what I had on hand)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. In 4-5 qt pan on medium heat add oil. When oil is shimmering add onion, carrots, garlic and celery. Cook until soft, 7-10 minutes

2. Sprinkle flour over the veggies and stir a lot. Cook for another minute.

3. Pour in chicken broth, wine (if using), bay leaves, parsley and tarragon. Bring to a simmer and add potatoes. Cook with lid on for about 10 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender.

4. Stir in half and half and return to a simmer.

5. Turn heat to low and slowly add the cheese while stirring constantly.

6. Remove bay leaves and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Best served with crusty bread and a big glass of milk, in my opinion.

This will be a long post

Yesterday was very interesting, to say the least. Not only did we spend almost 9 hours driving through a snow and ice storm, but I competed in a cooking competition at Le Courdon Bleu Culinary School in the Twin Cities. I am not sure why I didn't mention it before. I found out I was a finalist two weeks ago today, which was right before the Thanksgiving craziness and I guess it kinda slipped my mind as blog material.

Anyway, 10 people were picked based on a 250 word essay. I, along with 9 others, was picked to participate in the Panier de Marche Scholarship Competition. We had an hour and a half to cook a meal consisting of a protein, a starch and a vegetable. We were limited to a list of ingredients they provided. I made lemon and herb cous cous, salmon with a lemon butter sauce, and green beans with roasted onions. Just for participating we received an apron, hat, embroidered chef's jacket, really nice chef's knife and $125 towards culinary books. The prizes were $1,500, $1,000, and $500 scholarships for the top three.

I placed third and received the $500 scholarship. I really didn't think I was going to win anything. I was just happy to get a new chef's knife! The guy that won looked about 14 years old and the 2nd place winner is a sous chef somewhere, I think. I am still surprised I won anything because everyone's dishes looked really good. We were judged on taste, presentation, and sanitation. I really wish I could have seen the scorecards. I washed my hands a lot to kill time because my meal was really simple and quick to make. I could probably finish it in about 45 minutes, but since I had 90 minutes to kill, I tried to waste my time in a constructive way.

The drive home was almost as interesting as the competition. The snow started during the competition. By the time we left it looked like there was almost 5" of snow on the ground. We decided to stop at a coffee shop so we could check the road conditions on our new laptop, which luckily arrived Thursday. We decided to head home after grabbing a celebratory lunch at Red Robin.

The roads weren't great, and we saw a bunch of cars and trucks in the ditch. It made me very thankful my tires are relatively new. It took us around 9 hours to get back to Coralville, but I think we made the right decision because the Twin Cities weather wasn't supposed to be any better today, so we may have gotten stuck for another day if we had stayed.

I finished a Zeebee. While it is too small for the intended recipient, it fits me nicely. I am working on another one, that will hopefully be a better fit. My gauge swatch wasn't terribly helpful, so I am guessing as I go. I may need more yarn for the second one! Well, technically the third, since I intend to make two for Christmas gifts. The first one doesn't count because it's for me. I am really enjoying the garter stitch on Zeebee so I am not complaining.

I have finally gotten a decent picture of Foliage. Not an action shot, but better than nothing.

Pattern: Foliage
Yarn: Cascade 220 #7811
Needles: 4.5mm

Five days of no-work makes me lazy! I wish I could stay at home and spend my days cooking, baking, knitting, and playing video games all the time!

Thanksgiving was nice. I didn't enjoy driving through the snow on Wednesday night, but the picturesque snow that fell most of Thursday was kinda fun. The big fluffy snowflakes drifting lazily to the ground were very holiday-ish. All but one of my extended family members made it. He's currently in Africa, so I suppose I can forgive him. All the food turned out well, and I didn't overeat!!! That's an accomplishment. I made the flourless chocolate cake for my uncle's b-day celebration and everyone loved it, which made me happy.

We put our Christmas tree up last night. That was of course after re-arranging the kitchen and playing Zelda for most of the day. I also started a Zeebee and Wicked just needs another 2" or so on the bottom edge and the sleeves, which are going to be 3/4 length. It will definitely be ready for Wicked.