Luscious Fibers, Food and Life

new haircut

new haircut, originally uploaded by suz4t.

I got my hair cut today. I went with a much shorter style and I think I like it. It's taking a bit to get used to. It's the shortest it's ever been. It feels great and I'm sure it will be easy and quick to style. Yeah for short hair!

another beautiful dc sunset

We've lived in our apartment for more than a year an a half and we never tire of the sunset view from our bedroom. Tonight's sunset was pretty amazing...

 

to market, to market

suzanne's basket of goodies, originally uploaded by suz4t.

I rode my bike to the Mt. Pleasant Farmer's Market this morning to pick up some goodies. It's nice riding in the morning because it's so much cooler and well, I melt in the DC heat and that can be very messy.

I showed up early and the market was already bustling. Lot's of incredible vegetables, flowers, breads...many fantastic choices.



I was on a mission for some basil and heirloom tomatoes. I'm planning to make (and freeze) a few batches of pesto, so I got lots of basil. It smells fantastic. I got heirloom tomatoes for some simple tomato and cucumber summer sandwiches. Other items that called my name, sweet onions and a baguette and bagels from Breadline. Here are all the yummy goodies...

Now I'm going to go try and get Grant up so we can enjoy a yummy breakfast of strong coffee, bagels and cantaloupe.

a new ride and some columbian culture

sweet ride, originally uploaded by suz4t.

This morning I took a trip to REI and picked up my new bike. I had done the research and knew I wanted a comfortable cruiser that allowed me to sit upright. It seemed that the Electra Townie 21 was the best choice for me. I called around and not many shops carried the women's model, but I finally found it. I took a drive to REI, took her out for a test ride and thought she was perfect! The color is platinum and it has a quick release basket and bell..does it get any better?

This afternoon I headed over to James for a little get together to hear more about his trip to Columbia with Jean, Dr. David and David. As part of this Columbian celebration, James made two traditional desserts and everyone said they were quite yummy.



One of them was named "Three Milks" and the other was a deluce de leche cake. Both were quite beautiful. We watched a great slide show that Jean and James put together. They took many wonderful pictures and I could tell they had an incredible trip.  It was also nice to hear more about David and David's families.

dinner on the roof

grant, dinner, pbr, originally uploaded by suz4t.

Because the weather seemed a bit milder yesterday (only 88), Grant and I decided to have dinner on the roof. Yeah...it was only 6pm and let me say, it was HOT. I think I got a sunburn. Needless to say, we ate dinner then headed back to our apartment. I'm looking forward to when we can use the roof again.



For dinner we had a mixed green salad with grape tomatoes, olives and a few pecans, along with some delicious corn on the cob and one of our new favorite recipes, seitan ribz. It was a nice meal and a great end to the work week, or even better the beginning of the weekend.

This morning we're headed to a local U-pick farm. We haven't decided if we'll pick or just buy. I'll likely take some pics and let you know.

big storm last night

We had a huge storm last night. Lot's of rain all at once. We looked out our window and Grant saw standing water on the street (something he's never seen here in DC) and decided to go outside and get some footage (see below). I stayed inside, but have to admit it was pretty cool. Check out NBC4 for more images.

Chilly Breakfast

One thing I love about being at my parents is watching the birds and squirrels eat together at the feeding sanctuary my father keeps stocked (and shoveled out) during the winter months.  Each day you can see blue jays, finches, doves, downy woodpeckers, chipmonks and squirrels.  There's a place for everyone to feed and it's really quite something. My dad has always had a soft spot for animals (I could actually see him being a vegetarian.) and he nutured, or at least understood, my compassion for animals when I was growing up.

More shots from the Thurston Winter Feeding Sanctuary...

<

We're not in DC anymore...

As you can see I'm up in chilly Maine. There's lots of snow and it's really quite beautiful.  This picture is of my parent's front yard.  My parents made the big welcoming snowman a couple days ago. You can read more about that on my mother's blog.

Last night we had dinner with my brother. He made a fantastic lentil soup (read more about that here). It was good to visit with him, Mira-Su and Chris.  Their tree looks beautiful and the house is festive!

It's nice to be home for the holidays. I'm looking forward to when Grant, James and Daryl join us.

a nice saturday

Wüsthof ®  - Oh My!

Today I used one of our new knives and let me say...OMG! So I've been using the same knives that I purchased in Seattle, a $115 set, over 13 years ago and lets just say, I'm surprised I haven't chopped off a finger by now. Well, my knives were probably too dull to chop off a finger, but I was definitely needing to put a lot of pressure on my veggies in order to cut them...not the safest prep I'm certain. Well no more! This knife cut through my veggies like butter. It was amazing and beautiful. I didn't know what I was missing.

So this morning I was cooking up one of my favorite recipes, Sarah Kramer's Veggie Pot Pie, for our  friends Amanda and Sarah who have a new little one, Elijah. I cut out a panda for the crust, just for him...ok, really for Sarah. I thought it was pretty cute, but you know I love pandas.

Grant and I brought them some eats and visited for a while today. It was nice to see them all and to finally hold Eli for an extended period of time.  He even smiled and laughed for me. He was sleeping, but I like to think he was just having such a good time hanging out with me. Or maybe he was laughing at me. I'm not sure, but he was very cute.  Grant held him too...first time holding a baby...EVER!  He did a really good job and Eli was completely quite for a good minute or so :)

Oh and last night we got our Christmas tree. A little early this year, but since we're both traveling at different times this month, we thought it would be nice to have a tree for some of the time that we're here together.  After much frustration and event a late call to my dad, we did finally get the tree to stand up.  It should be fine as long as you don't blow on it.  It's funny, even though we live in a much bigger place this year, we still got a smaller tree...I guess we're just used to it.  We're decorating tonight, more pics tomorrow.

 

<

Still knitting

I know there hasn't been much knitting news lately, but it's happening. Not as much as I'd like, but that's ok...life has been busy. Right now I'm on a DC bus headed home. It's funny when I took this picture 5 blocks ago the bus was empty and now it's standing room only...darn S buses. Ok back to knitting in public.