The Great Yarn Re-Org of 2009

Friday night we had our dinner club, with a "Hawaiian" theme. To be honest, I'm usually really good with all the foodie stuff but was short of ideas on what to bring to this one. Since I didn't think the hosts would appreciate a Slow-cooked Hawaiian Kalua Pig in their backyard, I settled for an old favorite with a new twist. I found this recipe for Sake-Soy Guacamole in one of my Sunset magazines. It was by a Hawaiian chef so that counts, right?

I didn't catch a photo of it but I HIGHLY recommend it. It still has all that avocado-yumminess you expect from Guac, but with a smoother, tangier (is that a word?) taste. Served it with Tarro chips, but I think it would have been really yummy with the veggies suggested as well.

Before the dinner, I spent my Friday afternoon organizing, photographing, and Ravelring (I making up words left and right today!) my entire yarn stash.

BEFORE:




AFTER:





Check out the fruits of my labor over here at Ravelry. I also have about 15 projects lined up with yarn I already have, so let's see how far I can make it into the year without buying yarn.

Saturday the spring cleaning continued into our closets. However the effort was somewhat deterred by a phone call from a friend inviting us up to the lake on their boat. How do you say NO to that?



Katy came along and got to try out her new life vest.





Sunday was Mother's Day and we spent some time visiting with M's mom and Grandma, then headed to my mom's house for dinner. I was in charge of dessert, and brought Mimosa Granita, served with Vanilla Ice Cream & Strawberries. Highly recommended, especially if you live somewhere like the Central Valley and it's already 85 degrees at 8pm.

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In other news, I have been getting a mad, mad itch to start sewing again. My sewing machine has been buried in our spare bedroom but it is actually starting to see the light of day thanks to our weekend clean-up. I've been seeing this top popping up all over blogland and I LOVE it - I could see myself wearing it all summer long. I'm hoping I will have a few hours on my hands this week/end to give it a whirl...

5.7.09

Noro Shawl:



Cashmere Claudia:



This is for M's grandma. Those cables are killing my hands, but I know she will really appreciate it. I was trying to get it done by Mother's Day, but last night I had to rip out back to the ribbing and start over (I changed needle size too soon). I WOULD have been 50% done as of this morning, but now I'm back to 25%.

Both of these should be farther along, but I've been feeling like crap all this week. Pretty sure both me and the hubby are getting sick, given the fact that our alarm went off this morning at the usual time and we both agreed we could have used about another 6 hours.

Weekend Eats

Updated 5/11/09 with more photos

This past weekend we were at yet another Giants game at AT&T Park in SF. We were there for an annual outing with my dad's family.



We actually headed up the night before and met some of my sister's friends for dinner at Osha Thai Restaurant, which was BOMB, and some drinks.

The next morning, we took our time walking to the game along the Embarcadero and were finally able to stop at Hidive, a bar we always talk about stopping at but we never do.



We had a round of Bloody Mary's and prayed the rain would stop before first pitch. It did.

Sadly the Giants had a not-so-stellar performance, but we were able to sit in the Club Level for the second half of the game and take in the view.



My dad is 1/2 German, so we decided that this year we would have an an authentic German meal to cap off a day at the ballpark. Schroder's answered the call wonderfully. I'm not going to lie, I was a little hesitant. Most of the German food I am familiar with are the dishes we have at Christmas - German Sausage, Potato Salad, Kuchen, and the liverwurst that my dad special orders and tries to force on us every year.

We started out some Sausage Appetizer Platters, which had a variety of cocktail size Sausages with Kassler Ripchen (Smoked Pork Chops), Potato Pancakes, Herring, Pickles, Head Cheese, Sauerkraut, & Red Cabbage. I really liked the Herring (I might have been the only one at our 1/2 of the table to try it!) and Red Cabbage.

Next up was small plates of German Potato Salad and Cole Slaw, which I devoured. For the main course I had Grilled Salmon with Dill Sauce & boiled potatoes )lots of starches for those Germans!), and I was definitely happy with it. Oh yeah, and then there was the beer.



That's "Bavarian-sized", or 38oz of brew. But alas, this was not the largest beer you could order. Apparently there is something called "The Boot", which is an 80 oz glass in the shape of an actual men's boot. There was a group of kids at the table behind us trying to finish them off, but they finally gave up. THANK GOD, because their random bouts of Karaoke was getting really, really annoying.

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One final foodie-related post from this weekend: Last night we headed to our friends house for Sunday night dinner, and finished off the meal with some 5-Minute Chocolate Cake. Yes really. It had a pretty funky texture - kind of chewy, but hey! It really was cake in 5 minutes! Definitely add some whipped cream.