Potatoes in the Mist

Lately I have only been reading books that are set on Nantucket. This is by accident, not design. Although...I haven't been there in 9 years. I wouldn't mind going again someday. I think E would enjoy the beaches. We did take him to the beach once this summer, but it was frightfully hot. At one point he fell asleep against my leg. D is trying to eat healthier (this is quite a turnaround for someone who used to avoid vegetables, despite being vegetarian). So when I made capellini with tomato pesto tonight, I used whole-wheat pasta instead. And you know what? It actually tasted better. Tomorrow night I am planning to make black bean burgers with salsa mayonnaise. I know it sounds gross, but I am looking forward to it. I love both salsa and mayonnaise. And guacamole (though I won't mix that in).

Having trouble sleeping. I'm reading Winter Solstice by Rosamund Pilcher and Plum Pudding Murder by Joanne Fluke. 110 pages into the former and about 4 pages into the latter, at which point I got restless and wandered into the kitchen for grapes. I'm in the midst of a spell of gift knitting. I'm on my third pair of mittens, and that will be it for a while. One can only make so many mittens. I had a peak food experience today. I took E to this elevated park. There's a little stand serving apple cider doughnuts and little crackly bags of pumpkin spice doughnut holes with a small container of icing for dipping. I told the girl behind the counter that I usually got the apple cider doughnuts, and asked how the pumpkin spice doughnut holes were. "Those are delicious," she said with conviction, "and they just got out of the oven." So of course I got them. They were unspeakably fabulous, warm and melty, and the icing was equally delicious. I may have scraped...

All from the library :)

Here's the mitten I just finished. I really like this pattern. When you make mittens with bulky wool, instead of worsted weight, it's much faster, and the finished product is cuter and cozier as well...

I am making some mittens that I love. I broke the yarn fast today, buying some bulky Madeline Tosh in a colorway called "Molly Ringwald." The shade is pale pink. I don't know why I resisted this pattern for so long. I guess the strange gauge (2 1/4 stitches per inch) and the woven cuff scared me off. I shouldn't have been afraid. The pattern is in Speed Knitting by Kris Percival. She has never led me wrong yet. I finished The Blue Bistro and am a little bit in mourning for it. I added a bunch of Elin Hilderbrand books to my library hold list. Now I'm reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks , which doesn't grip me as much as a novel would, but is quite interesting. Bear in mind I almost never read nonfiction.

I'm in a good mood right now :) The exterminator came, our kitchen is clean (though we still have to move everything back into the kitchen - I've made a dent, but there are still many trash bags filled with cookware, plates and spices in our living room). I'm reading The Blue Bistro by Elin Hilderbrand, which I love...I read Barefoot by her before, thought it was OK, and couldn't get into The Island. This one is about the restaurant business and I'm eating up the descriptions. Hand-cut potato chips with creme fraiche and caviar...yum! (Well, except for the caviar.) And banana French toast with chocolate syrup... I also thought you should all know that I haven't bought yarn since late August, and can't remember the last time I bought clothes. The book fast didn't last, of course...but I *am* using the library more.

So I read that Lady Gaga wore a dress made out of meat to the Video Music Awards...truly disturbing. And yet, I think she might have some staying power. She doesn't seem to care what others think about her and is willing to shake up her image. I went to MA for the weekend. While it was nice to visit family and get in touch with my roots, I also came down with a serious cold. Or maybe just turbo-allergies. Either way, it's unpleasant. I poured some boiling water into a stainless steel bowl and let the steam waft up...I think that may have helped as much as anything. Hopefully things will be better tomorrow. On the reading front, I'm slightly past the middle of Healer by Carol Cassella...she's a doctor who majored in English undergrad...so she has an English major sensibility, but lots of medical knowledge. It's kind of a cool mix. I also read Oxygen by her (nothing to do with the network), but I like this one better. A bunch of books are also waiting for me at the li...

Hello. For some reason, I'm having trouble sleeping again. Which is the very reason I started this blog back in 2005. Anyway...I made it through 500+ pages of Outlander and then had to drop it in the library bin after all the grotesque violence Jamie had to endure in prison. I couldn't deal with the description of his mangled right hand. Or the nefarious Captain Randall, who was just too thoroughly evil to be believable. So...bye-bye, Outlander. I am now reading No One You Know by Michelle Redmond and enjoying it quite a bit. It feels like my type of book. Finally...an exterminator came today. He surveyed the kitchen cabinets and said, "This is serious. I'll come back next Wednesday with a bomb." Yes, he really did say that. So our kitchen will be bombed a week hence, and no one can be in the house for 3-4 hours afterward. Then we can go in and sweep up the dead bodies, he told us.

So I'm reading Outlander, a long but interesting time-travel tome...I have about 200 pages left. I've checked out the rest of the series on Amazon, and each entry got solid reviews except #5 and #7. So perhaps I will read #2, #3, #4 and #6...However, they are all at least 600 pages long (one is almost 1000) and thus represent a major time suck...So I may read other books in between. I went to the hairdresser today. It is funny how a cut and color can make you feel like a new woman. My favorite season is here. It may not be officially fall until September 21st or whatever, but I've always felt autumn begins on Labor Day. This was the grossest, sweatiest summer in history and I'm glad it is over.

Well...I ended up caving with the books. I know. That was fast. In my defense, the only branch library in easy walking distance is tiny, so I have to use interlibrary loan, and it takes forever. It used to be faster; I think there were budget cuts. So anyway. We took a family trip to Borders. I got: Outlander , Diana Gabaldon No One You Know, Michelle Redmond The Tale of Halcyon Crane, Wendy Webb I've started Outlander . I'm still going strong with the clothes and yarn. I have 3 projects on the needles: this , this and this .

So...no idea if I'll follow through with this or not...I was thinking about seeing how long I could go without buying clothes, yarn or books. I'm going to give it a try. Today I watched The Last Days of Disco , directed by Walt Stillman. I think Chloe Sevigny is always good (although she definitely has an edge) and the director had a good feel for the ups/downs of female friendships, and their competitiveness, particularly in the early 20s. I also liked Metropolitan from the same director. So I added Barcelona (his third film) to my Netflix queue. The baby question? I am kind of leaning toward yes. But I'm giving myself a number of months to think about it.