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Vacation Blog

Posting HERE for the next few days....

speaking of prosciutto...

Not here yet...but I will be in just 4 days!

Over the weekend we watched Bella Martha...a German film about an A-type chef who becomes the guardian of her pre-adolescent niece. I recommend the movie if only for the mouth-watering food scenes (in fact, Netflix has created a category just for me, Food Films). In one scene Martha, her niece and a co-chef-and-eventual-love-interest have an indoor picnic. One of the anti-pasta dishes includes prosciutto...yum!

Knowing that I had to have some prosciutto, I stopped at Balducci's last evening on the way home because I reasoned that they would be the only grocer to sell prosciutto...but I get ahead of myself.....KNOWING that I was going to stop for said prosciutto, I searched online for recipes that included prosciutto but not pasta. I found one for a prosciutto and ricotta frittata...yum again!

I love Balducci's. I don't shop there often but when I do I usually cannot avoid getting one of their Decadent Brownies (their name, not mine)....imagine brownie dough ever so slightly baked on top...the remainder really ooey gooey and then chilled...they're heaven, pure and simple. But the best part is that they are soooooo decandent that they last at least two days (truly...I'm not making this up...they're really decadent). But I digress...back to the frittata...

The frittata was amazing! The recipe is HERE. A few NOTES: It calls for Swiss chard but I think that spinach would be a good substitute if chard is hard to find. Also, next time I will omit adding any salt because the prosciutto was salty enough...additional salt is not needed. I wasn't sure that two eggs would make a large enough frittata for two but with all of the other ingredients, it was filling. The only side "dish" I included were a couple of those long skinny Italian bread sticks. Make this dish...it's easy, it's fast, and it goes well with Pinot Grigio...what more could you ask of a recipe?!

Thursday Night SnB

Lunchtime project - yes, I'm obsessed

A couple of weeks ago I started attending SnB (Stitch 'n Bitch) knitting club that meets at Panera's every Thursday evening.  There is little to no bitching I'm pleased to say (except when I much redo a row or two because I'm distracted by conversation)...there is, however, much inspirational knitting. The group consists of all women (except for our fearless leader's fearless husband) who's ages vary from early twenties to well....let's just leave it at the fact that I am not the oldest :-) Jobs are rarely discussed (hence the lack of bitching) but I do know that one woman is an engineer, another is a grad student, and another is a Grandmother Extraordinaire that creates what only can be described as adorable knits for her new grandchild.

It seems that the art of knitting is no longer confined to the elderly (aka Moi). The skull bone patterns that I have encountered online are a testament to this. Current knitting trends refreshingly include youthful designs. Admittedly, my style does gravitate toward the classic (read this as boring). But who knows?! I never thought I would don (eternally) a tattoo either (which, incidentally, is still a bit crusty in the middle but seems to be healing quite well otherwise and is no longer sore in the least!)

awry

something by Picasso which I photographed (legally) but I'm not certain that posting it is legal

Speaking of Legal vs. Illegal...this week and next week, my school is administering the state standardized test for NCLB. I signed a document stating that I would not disclose anything about The Test. As far as I remember, the Disclosure Form did not prohibit posting a photograph that depicts how I feel about said tests (see image above).

I do not find it coincidental that in the very week that standardized testing interrupts my life, that a major news story informs us that drinking eight glasses of water per day is unnecessary. Duh. No one that I know drinks eight glasses of water per day. No one that I know has the freedom to dispense of eight glasses of water during the work day, nor has the desire to spend their resting moments in a room that has nothing whatsoever to do with resting.

So to the math teachers of the world I apologetically say...I have never once had to use Pi in my life after college (except perhaps for the occasional Jeopardy answer). And to the bottled water manufacturers of the world (esp. Fiji) I say...thanks anyway, because your products are superior to my tap water but my consumption will not wane nor grow in response to Recent Findings.

Guess I'm just an English-Major, I'll-drink-whenever-I-feel-like-it, learning's-so-much-more-than-ABCorD kinda girl.

a sweater & a smile

Big Smile! When I awoke, I put the finishing touches on the first sweater I knitted. The yarn is by Cascade and it s soft blend of Pima cotton and wool. It took a little over a month to complete but finally it's finished.

A new project underway--  a cardigan from last month's Vogue Knitting made with Rowan's Cotton Rope.

Indulging my Alter-Ego

photo taken in Doolin Ireland with my Holga camera

I talked about doing it and finally did. I got a tattoo. My mother simply shoot her head and my father reminded me that my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

People who have never had a tattoo (the former Me) always want to know if it really hurts. People who have had a tattoo (the present Me) usually respond with what can be condensed to an all-encompassing DUH! Imagine jabbing yourself a few thousand times with a rusty razorblade in the same inch-and-a-half square area. Yes, it hurt. A lot. But for me it was like being sixteen and having my ears pierced all over again.

On both occasions I went with friends who were virgins at self-mutilation. And again, I volunteered to go first (I tend to be more brave than bright). I KNEW that if I didn't put on a brave front that not only would I be the first in line, but that I would also be the last. But unlike having your ears pierced, tattoos take longer. And they hurt more. And you can't just let the old skin grow back. But that's okay....fortunately, my tattoo artiste was brilliant and I love my tattoo. It's so vivid that it could have been done in Crayola Crayon colors that they didn't even make when I was a kid. I'll love it even more when I don't have to clean it and lotion it up ten times a day and when it stops feeling like a sunburn on top of a bruise.

Would I do it again? You betcha! Would I do it tomorrow? Not on your life! My Alter-Ego is going to have to take siesta for a while because I have a lot of unfinished knitting projects to attend to....

up close and personal

Prickly pear cactus....close...but not too close

As I opened the laptop to add text to this post, my cat climbed onto my lap (the laptop is on the arm of the couch so she took advantage). Her face is just a few inches from mine and her ear twitches each time I exhale through my nostril. That's pretty darn close.

Better a cat than a cactus.