I was lucky last week to have my parents visiting me from Colorado, during their spring break. We had a great time, even though I was only able to take one day off (gotta conserve my vacation time for going to Jeremy’s graduation!): We drove to the coast last Sunday for a visit to Florence and the Sea Lion Caves, and dinner at the superb (and seemingly very popular) Tidal Raves in Depoe Bay. Monday we took Rocky for a bloodwork check-up to find out whether his medication was helping to improve his glucose levels; the vet seemed very pleased with the result, so he’ll be continuing his meds for now. We went to see Inside Man on Tuesday, and Thursday we went up to Oregon City for a lovely dinner at Flambe with my aunt Stacy’s family. The Harlequin socks were gifted:
The photo shows the finished socks modeled on my own feet; Aunt Stacy wears my (rather small) shoe size, so I knew they would fit her nicely. She liked them so well after putting them through the gauntlet of nursing rounds and a visit to the gym that she called me back the next day and asked me to make her some more. 🙂 Glad to oblige; there is already yarn on the way to make a few more pairs of socks for her.
To complete the knitting update, I started work on my cousin’s Curlicue yesterday, and am making good progress. One skein of the Cotton Fleece came out to equal nearly 3 wedges of the blanket, so I should be safe as far as yardage. The pattern is an interesting one, but entirely managable with the line-by-line checklist I wrote out for keeping track of where I am in the pattern, and I’ve been having fun watching Netflix movies (The Constant Gardener and A History of Violence) while working on it.
In other news, my incredibly generous, wonderful parents made some major improvements in our kitchen, besides the other maintenance jobs that kept them busy while I was working during the week. They found me a perfectly sized wooden kitchen island (at Walmart, no less) to give me much-needed counter space next to the stove:
My dad put it together on Friday night and did a great job, even though it took rather longer than the 30 minutes claimed in the manual. Just ask my mom, who waited very patiently for us to be done:
If you have ever been in our kitchen before, you may have noticed another new addition to my kitchen family in the above photo, a beautiful shiny new Cuisinart. Jeremy, take a good look at it, because it is your graduation present. 😉 We tested it out on a batch of pate brisee dough in what must have been less than two minutes from start to finish, and made a gorgeous cherry crumb tart:
We also made a very tasty, but less than photogenic rhubarb meringue tart (let’s just say there were blind-baking issues), as well as a batch of asparagus-leek risotto with prosciutto and Dijon chicken stew (a Cooking Light recipe from January), both of which were fantastic and well worth repeating. The cherry tart was cobbled together from a variety of sources, and I’ll write up a recipe for it if I have a chance.
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