Last year for the superbowl the guy and I ate foods you can dip. This year he works so I’m headed to see friends and eat tacos- yum.
This week for my new recipe of the week I made Veggie Chicken Pot Pie. It was carrots, broccoli, green beans, onions, celery, mushrooms, and fake chicken strips, sauteed all together. Then I lightly coated the veggies in flour and added warm soy milk until it thickened. I seasoned and topped with biscuits and cooked for about 25 minutes.
It was super yummy, lasted quite a few meals and reheated well.
I never made it to the knitting group last weekend- the couch was just too comfy. But I did get to work on the baby blanket I’ve been needing to make. The pattern is Beth’s Little Star Afghan. They’re having a boy and their furniture is chocolate brown and blue. The bedding is rock’n’roll themed, so I thought the star would be an easy fit. It’s about half done. I have 9 more rows of solid blue and two rows of gray as a border.
I finished “The Likeness” midweek and started “Finn” by John Clinch for my book club. It’s a pretty dark portrayal of Huck Finn’s father. I’m not too far in, but it’s intriguing. I’m also supposed to read “The Awakening” for another book club, but I can’t find it in our boxes and I haven’t checked it out from the library yet. I read it and loved it in high school, so I’m hoping it will come back to me quickly.
Still no further work on the house, though the list gets longer everyday.
Another new year’s choice was to try two new workouts a week to keep myself motivated. This has been an easy one with the new gym membership. Saturday I did yoga, Monday I did shadow boxing, Tuesday I took hiphop class, Wednesday I started week 1 of C25K, Friday I did a hill workout and yesterday I took the puppy on a *long* walk. This week started with a new yoga workout. Yay for me, especially in this season of girl scout cookies.
It smells so yummy. I think it will taste great on some lettuce with some tortilla chips. It’s red, green and yellow peppers and onions in large pieces- mixed with olive oil, canned corn, and red wine vinegar- black beans rinsed and drained. Salted and peppered to taste. So not exactly kitchen cooking, but definitely kitchen prep work.
The pattern is from Blankets, Hats, and Booties to Knit and Crochet by Kristin Spurkland. I used lightweight organic pima cotton. I’m working on a matching hat, but it’s not turning out the way I’d like right now. Maybe I’ll post it later if it magically fixes itself.
Someday I’ll own cooling racks (and have enough counter space for them). Between batches of cookies going in and plopping kisses on the peanut butter yumminess, I made a super meaty, super cheesy lasagna for dinner and then to freeze. It was two layers of veggie beef scramble mixed with veggie sausage and mixed with a mushroom sauce and two layers of ricotta and mozzarella, mushrooms, and green peppers mixed with an olive sauce. We had it with a huge salad and have plenty of leftovers!
When all of that kitchen work came to an end, I worked on my current cross-stitch project. Here’s how it’s looking.
On christmas eve, my husband and I started a new family tradition: Port Party! We opened a delicious bottle of Daniel Gehrs Fireside Port that I got two years ago in Los Olivos. The 
Earlier that day I attempted to make an apple crumble pie using t
I worked like a little crochet worker bee on my mom’s present, which isn’t finished yet. It’s my biggest project to date and I’m about a quarter done with it. Here’s a photo of the blanket I’m crocheting for her.
And here’s my sister’s yoga bag. She got it a few days ago, so I can show the whole thing now. I used the same pattern from 
I finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix the same day I last blogged. We watched the movie on Christmas. I was totally unimpressed with the movie. i LOVED that book. Chris dragged out the Half Blood Prince for me, but I had already started The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver. She wrote We Need to Talk About Kevin, a book which still haunts me to this day. The Post-Birthday World is about a woman, Irina, an American expat living in London with her longtime partner Lawrence. On the birthday of a friend she considers what life would be like if she kissed that friend. The book is billed as a story about the choices we made and their good and bad repercussions. I’m only 50 pages in, so we’ll see how it goes. I like her writing style and I was engaged for the short time I spent reading it.
And some mystery gift images. I’m hand-making gifts for my mom, sister, and father. Here are two close-ups of what I’m working on.
I’ve also been baking up a storm, but I keep forgetting to take pictures. Last weekend I made mint chocolate chip cookies and mom’s peanut butter cups. The weekend before that I made sugar cookies. Later today I’m making kiss cookies. I’ve gotten in the habit of baking for Chris’s employees, so I send most to work with him, bring some to work for my colleagues, and we keep some at home. Yum!
Hook 'Em Up 
