This Weekend

This weekend involved awesome food.  On Friday night I made ramen noodles with lettuce, brussel sprouts, chopped carrots, scallions, sriracha sauce and eggs.  Yum!

Last night we ate at the Empire Grill Chinese Buffet.  They have the best sushi of any buffet I've ever been to.

 Their coconut shrimp is amazing (lower left hand corner).  Last night they had something called "seafood pot" (lower right hand corner).  It was a pastry puff filled with seafood and corn in a cream sauce topped with cheese.

Tonight I made brown sugar cookies and topped some with Hatch red chile powder.  Can't wait to eat more for dessert :)

What I've Been Doing

I've been working on some new patterns to make felted pouches :)

A couple of weeks ago D and I went to the Southern New Mexico State Fair and Rodeo and ate some awesome fair food.  D got fried pickles and string fries.

And I got carne asada tacos.  We both got Texas Twisters to drink.  Then D got deep fried oreos and I got a deep fried twinkie - so awesome!  I wish I had a picture!

D grew all of these chiles in our garden this summer.  He smoked most of them to make smoked chile powder.

I took a day trip to Albuquerque last week and stopped at my favorite sushi restaurant Shogun Sushi.

On the way home I stopped at this giant asian supermarket on Gibson that I've been wondering about for a while. 

I came home with these mung bean mochi :)

And I've started knitting a batch of toys for La Casa.  More pictures later!

Zucca Napoletana

This year we planted a super cute garden. One of the best things that grew was one zucca napoletana.

It weighed 7.5 pounds and measured 14.5 inches when we picked it. We made three different things with it because it was so huge.

First we cooked it on the grill with a ham and ate it with cornbread.

Then we made zucca soup - delicious!

And then we made zucca pie and topped it with cool whip :)

New York City Vacation - The Yarn Stores!

What would a trip to New York City be without visiting yarn stores?

Our first stop was Smiley's Yarns on Jamaica Avenue in Queens.

Because Smiley's Yarns has closeouts, it is hit or miss. There was nothing that caught my eye the day we went.

That's not what happened at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio. There is something so exciting about buying my favorite Lion Brand yarn at the studio because they have every type and color I could want.

I stocked up on Fishermen's Wool and even left with some new colors of Amazing.

I stopped by Downtown Yarns in the East Village because it got awesome reviews on the web.

It had a great collection of yarns and I left with some variegated Lamb's Pride in retro colors.

And I just had to stop at Purl Soho because of its beautiful ads in the Vogue Knitting magazine. It did not dissapoint! In addition to having yarns I've never seen before, they had an amazing fabric collection.

They carry Liberty of London fabrics and Kokka fabrics from Japan. I left with some Brooklyn Tweed Shelter yarn and some Kokka fabrics - one piece with owls and birds on it!

New York City Vacation - The Food

Last week I went to New York City on vacation. I grew up in the NYC suburbs and I love going back to visit. As usual, my mom and I ate completely awesome food.

We went for Dim Sum at Dong Yi Feng Seafood Restaurant in Flushing, Queens.

The dumplings were delicious! We got a great assortment of food.

My cousin Marilyn made me these beautiful kebabs.

My mom and I stopped at Dojo Restaurant in Greenwich Village for lunch. This has been one of my favorite restaurants since high school and I always try to stop there when I'm in New York.

I got the fried fish sandwich with tahini and a side salad - one of my favorite things to eat!

We found a great Vietnamese Restaurant called Saigon Shack for dinner. I ordered the vermicelli noodles with shrimp and spring rolls and my mom ordered a spicy brisket bahn mi.

It was right on MacDougal Street - so fun!

We visited our faviorite Indian restaurant Dawat for lunch. There used to be a Dawat near the town I grew up in and we'd go to the lunch buffet there all the time. That location closed a few years ago but luckily there is a Dawat in Manhattan.

We were there during restaurant week and got to share a restaurant week special. It included some of our favorite things - chicken tikka masala and spinach with cheese cubes!

We finished off the trip with crab puffs and ginger gai pan chicken at Lum Yen in Mamaroneck, NY. It was such a peaceful and relaxing dinner at the end of a great trip!

Saturday Snacks

Yesterday I made nachos for lunch.

We ate them while D was smoking a pork shoulder in the smoker :)

Look how much it made!

Yum!

Thrifting

I found these great arcopal ramekins that I just had to share with you! They are in mint vintage condition and were made in France. I love them!

Work has otherwise consumed me for the past few weeks.

But I've made a lot of progress.

And should have time to breathe by the holiday weekend :)

Current Projects

I started knitting a Feather and Fan Scarf from two Knit Picks Imagination sock yarns - Pixie Dust and Pirate King.

It is inspired by the swatch on the Knit Picks blocking mats.

I think the swatch might be the Chevron Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson. I don't have enough yarn for that scarf and, unfortunately, I don't have that book yet. I've just added it to the list of books I want along with More Last Minute Knitted Gifts. Both of those books have great project ideas in them and I want them on my shelf :)

I also picked up the owl sweater after work on Friday. I have attached the arms and knitted 1/4 of the owls. Hooray!

Memorial Day Weekend 2011

Yesterday we went to a Thanksgiving-style bbq at our friends' house. They cooked a turkey by burying it in the ground over a bed of hot coals. Delicious!

The past few weeks have been filled with felting.

I felt beverage can cozies in my sink using an old-fashioned washboard.

I just finished another handcrafted batch of felted beverage can cozies yesterday. Now it's time to take their pictures for Etsy and enjoy the rest of this long weekend!

Saturday Dog Walk

Today we took the dogs for a walk this morning. We walk them on a dirt road in the desert behind our house.

Yuccas are starting to bloom.

Last weekend D planted our garden.

Last week I made my grandma's Italian knot cookies. I added pecans and made a butterscotch icing using buttershots.

It made them taste like pralines :)