Never Trust a Yorkie

Coming to you LIVE from the new blogger, minus 4 wisdom teeth. The surgery went better-than-expected; I haven't had and any major pain or swelling, and I was eating solid food 2 days later. I've been super-spoiled because I haven't even THOUGHT about work since last Thursday, when I had my surgery. This is the last of my 5-day mini-vacation; Today we are off for MLK observance. SOOO... I've been organizing my recipes and cutting out articles from my InStyle magazines that date back to 2003 (I figured it was about time to recycle them).

Besides that it's been a mellow few days around here, despite the fact that it has been FREEZING. Literally. It's been dropping to the mid-teens at night! Matt's poor brother works for a citrus packing house and has probably only slept about 8 hours total the last few nights. I prefer my PJ's and the Manresa Legwarmers (which work fab under Uggs, by the way). We did wander down to the Zoo on Sunday, which was fun, and I found me and my sister's forgotten brick at the entrance to the wild bird exhibit:

The only other time we made it out all weekend was to go join some friends for dinner, wine, and some good old-fashioned drinking games.

He's so dramatic. It was a total accident!
I brought some knitting (Tweedy Vest) and debuted the Hourglass Sweater. I was still on my drugs and a little bit out of it, so I didn't realize that during round 1 of our game one of the Yorkie dogs my friend was dog-sitting stole a ball of yarn from my lap and a giant, mess of a tangle ensued.

Silkroad Tweed is a b*tch to untangle. And those are still the only photos of the Hourglass sweater that exist. Also, millions of thanks to my kick-a*s boyfriend who untangled most of this for me.
I'm now working on a commissioned piece for a co-worker and a secret project. I finished up Matt's big-a*s alpaca socks about 10 minutes ago, and should have photos tomorrow. Till then... I'm off to finish being lazy.

Divinely Domestic

Viva and the front of the Tweedy Vest. For some reason, I can't get my camera to focus on this piece - the ribbing always blurs together. I did the front first because I had to order an extra ball to finish this since this was not the original pattern for the yarn... and just in case there are dye-lot issues, I rather they be in the back.

The goal is to knit up the yarn I have by Thursday AM because that's when I'll get legally drugged up while the doctor extracts the wisdom from my mouth. The post-op recovery couch time will be a tempting time to knit and since I don't trust myself to do anything but straight st st - this is out of the running. No yarn = no ability to work on the vest. Hopefully I'll be able to get the sleeve of Aline finished - seriously, it is only like 3 hours away from total completion but I am so bored with it, I'm hoping the drugs will make it less painful.

In other news, I scored this AWESOME vintage Sunset cookbook from eBay. Ignoring the fact that almost every recipe starts with "1 stick butter" or "1/2 cup vegetable oil", this thing is awesome. There is a recipe on how to cook a whole chicken in clay, which you can then break at the table and triumphantly lift out your bird to the amusement of your guests.

It made me want to quit my job and spend all day cooking up fabulous meals for TNB & I, and dreaming up dinner parties that would knock the socks off all the neighbors. Oh who am I kidding. I wish I could do that anyway.

Willpower Doesn't Exist In My Dictionary

I suck at New Years resolutions. I'll freely admit, I have very little will-power (case in point, new WIP alert added to the 6+ current projects). What I suck at even MORE is dieting. I love good food and wine way to much to give thought to eliminating it.

However, in the last couple months I have become somewhat self-concious of my body. This is a new thing in my world; I've never minded a couple extra pounds and a softness to my belly - in fact I loved it! That's what a woman should look like! But it seems that as of late, my jeans are getting tighter and tighter and I have started to intentionally wear very loose clothing. I don't like this. But I am fundalmentally against dieting. What's a girl to do?

So I set a New Years Resolution. No, it's not "Lose 10 pounds" or "Excerise every day". My goal is to wear a swimsuit on my family vacation this July and not be self-concious of it. Hell, for extra kicks, I'll go one step further and say "and publish a photo of myself in the said bathing suit on this website". This is an ambigious resolution because I can either 1) accept the way nature is running it's course or 2) get my butt in high gear and do something.

So yesterday, I came home, and before popping the wine cork or picking up the knitting, I did 45 minutes of Tae Bo and 20 minutes of yoga. I loved it. I then cooked one of my favorite, super healthy recipes and ate it while stretching on the ground... WITH my coveted glass of wine. I felt happy, content, and not deprived at all. There may be hope for me yet!

Chili-Lime Shrimp Over Greens

1/4 c. soy sauce
1/4 c. lime juice
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon (or more depending on your heat preference) Chili powder
1/2 teaspoon (or more depending on your heat preference) Red Pepper Flakes
4 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 lb frozen, uncooked shrimp
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 1/2 cup salad mix (recommended: one with arugula in it)
3 radishes
1 carrot
about 15 cherry tomatos

Combine the first 8 items (through the olive oil) in a medium bowl, mix to blend. Reserve about 2 T. marinade in a small jar or bowl.

Defrost and peel shrimp, add to bowl of marinade. Mix to cover, and marinate about 15 minutes room temp. or up to 1 hour in the fridge.

Add about 1/2 c. marinade from shrimp to a small sauce pan (big enough to fit all shrimp in one layer). Bring to boil.

Add shrimp in one layer and cook through (they are done in the photo above). They will be white-ish in color and have curled up tightly. Drain excess liquid from pan (it's ok if a little remains).

Shred carrot, chop radishes, and 1/2 tomatos before adding to salad greens. Add rice wine vinegar to reserved marinade and blend. Pour over salad and toss.

Top salad with shrimp. Enjoy with a glass of Sav. Blanc.

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Finally I leave you with Viva... a representative view of a night at our house

"I find that doing yoga poses over a stack of housing magazines helps bring calmness to the soul"

"I call this one the 'Show Horse'"

She really sits like this in my lap. No cats were harmed in the creation of this photograph.

Off to drink my low-sodium V8.....