November 17, 2009

The City of Roses

Hello all from Portland. We are here for a conference and school stuff. We finally found an apartment so I have a place to live while attending culinary school. Let me just say finding an apartment is hard enough without the scammers on craigslist. It is rude and all you scammers suck. Credit report scams are mean and can have a really negative impact on people's credit. Alan is the brains of this operation and noticed right away the fishyness, so there! No scamming us!

If we get the apartment (waiting on background checks), we are about 2 blocks from my school. It is a nice but small apartment and we would love to have guests. :)

I had my entrance interview and uniform fitting yesterday. Yikes! Orientation is soon.

I met with a nice lady about the wedding flowers and was really impressed with her and her ideas. I still have some time to look and decide but she is a top contender.

Knitting is slow going. I am still working on Ishbel in Frosch 100% Wollmeise. So far, no mistakes!

Last night we ate sushi at a place called 'Bamboo.' They serve sushi made with sustainable fish. Very cool! It was tasty and very chic. We tried the I Heart Unago roll and the Northwest Philly.

This morning we had breakfast at the hotel restaurant, 'The Original.' I had crème brûlée french toast. They soak brioche in crème brûlée and then pan fry it. Then they sprinkle it with sugar and torch it. It was so fluffy and very tasty!

November 11, 2009

glass

I love glass. I hate plastic. On our recent trip to Europe, our friends K&L shared with us some yogurt they made in this cool little machine. It makes the yogurt in these small, glass jars. No more annoying plastic, littering up the place!

It looked easy enough so Alan and I did some research. We found a machine we liked and we ordered it.

Ta da! We have been enjoying the first batch. We are almost ready for the second. We tried it with 2% percent milk and it was just the right consistency. I have been eating it with gingersnap granola, fresh apple, and a touch of honey from the Canary Islands.

I knit and finished my first Clapotis. I used 2/3 skein of Wollmeise, 100%, in Maus Alt. It is now at its new home. It was a easy, sometimes boring, pattern and I think it turned out well. It took a while to knit it up. The finished size is 14 1/2" wide and 68" long. I worked 3 1/2 sections of the increase rows, 16 sections of the straight rows, and followed the rest of the pattern instructions to finish it. I used size 7 needles. I didn't take great pictures but I hope to get some from its new owner.