Some Pictures of Some Places

So winter break is over this Sunday. I'll be leaving the wonderful 83 degree California weather and entering the realm of 30 degrees and quickly dropping weather of New York City. I'm not that excited about that aspect.

But I had a really great break, and if it was any longer, I think I would really start to get bored. Over the summer, I hope I can get a job or internship, otherwise I am really screwed. All I want is to work at an adorable knitting store! Ah, dreams.

In other news, I made these Lemon and Honey Tangerine (I actually used Clementines) Gratins from Tartelette, and let me just say how delicious they are! It was a lot like a zesty creme brulee with Clementines sitting inside. So good. So bad for you. Whatever, this break did not set a good example of healthy eating.

When the task came to caramelizing the brown sugar on top, the recipe recommending using a flame torch, so my dad grabbed his (which is by NO standards a culinary flame torch), and it didn't work. Maybe we just didn't have the right hand technique or something, but it just burnt the sugar crystals instead of uniformly browning the surface. So instead we put the gratins in the oven at the top shelf and set the oven to broil for a few minutes. That worked perfectly, and made the surface hard when you tapped it with a spoon. Perfect!

I also went on a hike that was very pretty and snowy! I probably saw more snow there than I will in New York, but I'm probably going to eat those words in a few weeks.

Anyways, I will leave you with some adorable pictures of my dog, kissing a plastic hunk:

MWMH :: Gingerbread Teeth

This time tomorrow I will be landing in Lala Land!! I can't wait! But I will admit, today was a rather fine day in New York City, what with the snow and all. I had planned that this day would be devoted to two very important things: 1) packing & 2) making gingerbread cookies with the new cookie cutters that my friends bought me as an early birthday present. Fortunately, I accomplished both things!

On the walk around the corner to the grocery store, I made a mental comment on what lovely weather we were having, what with the sky being so grey and bleached out, and the temperature being so nice and crisp. Little did I know it would only get better!

Within 30 minutes after I had returned from the grocery store, I notice a facebook status update commenting about "snow." So, obviously, I rush to the window and see not just little white flakes, but huge white fluffs coming down, and rather fast too. I flipped out a little, or a lot. Furthermore, it snowed for the rest of the day and it's still going now, at 10:25. OOO!! The flakes just now got really big again! Ahhh this is so exciting for me! I've been pressing my forehead to my window for at least half the day today just watching the snow fall, but when I look at the windows of the apartment complex across the street from me, I realize that I'm the only person doing this. Everyone else's window is devoid of a nose squashed against the glass and mouth breathing a big circle of condensation on it. Ah, oh well.

Anyways, I won't bore you anymore with my weather naïvete. (Oh but it's so pretty!) So what would make a snowy evening at home even better? Filling the dorm with the smell of freshly baked gingerbread cookies! Exactly. So I busted out my new cookie cutters--which are the most random, amazing amalgamation of shapes: a banana, a tooth, a carrot, a toothbrush, and a lobster.

I got to work, made the dough, chilled it for a while, and then baked batches and batches of cookies. The first batch I tried out each of the cookie cutters, but soon found out that their sizes varied so much that the baking time would never be right for all of them. Since the carrot is ridiculously gigantic, I only made one of those. See, I'm taking these cookies to class tomorrow, since it's our last class of the semester, and our final critique in sculpture (and yes, I realize that I'm turning into Maggie Gyllenhaal's character in Stranger Than Fiction, I know...).

I made mostly teeth and lobsters because they were a good size and that way I would have plenty for everyone in class. I think they came out pretty tasty, and if you would like the recipe, you can find it over at No Special Effects. They didn't come out quite as chewy as the recipe said, but maybe it's because I rolled the dough out too thin. But then again, this did yield more cookies, so I guess it works out. They still are quite tasty and adorable, I think.

Sigh. I love nights like these, when I can integrate my hobbies with the forecast...

Until I reach the land of sand and ill earthquakes, adieu!

New Knitting Project Under Way!

Greetings from the library!

I realize that I haven't updated in a week, but you see, it's almost the end of the semester, and I have ever so much work. So, I am using my time at the library updating my blog instead of writing my final essay! I think that sounds like a perfect form of procrastination, don't you?

Anyways, before I get into talking about my new knitting project, I just need to tell the world something quite exciting: it snowed!! Oh it was so beautiful!! At first, when I was looking out my window around 8 pm, I looked at the ugly peachy-fluorescent street lamp and saw these little things hovering around in its light, and I began to wonder if we had some sort of lunar eclipse and there was an invasion of gnats or some other type of natural phenomenon. But they were in fact tiny snowflakes, which continued to grow in size as the night progressed! I was so excited! It was another beautiful form of procrastination, just screaming at me to stop writing, make some hot cocoa with marshmallows in it, and stand by my window and watch nature do its thing. So I did. And I got basically no work done. Which is why I am here in the library, being actually quite productive, up until right now. Also, I went to the Mud Coffee shop which I've heard so much about, and I loved it, and I want to go there all the time. There was even a grizzled old man at the bar with a sketchbook and some pencils and he was so cool. I want to be like that when I'm old...



Okay, so back to the topic of this post. I recently received in the mail this great book Romantic Style: Knits and Crochet to Wear or Display! It has a bunch of lacey, 1930's-inspired knits, and I just love it. I've decided that I am first going to knit this lacey shawl which I will intend to wear as a thick scarf. I bought some lace-weight 100% baby alpaca yarn from KnitPicks and I can't wait to get started. Here's the color that I chose:


I think it should be quite a lovely addition to my wardrobe. In addition to this scarf, I really want to make this hat from the purl bee. I love how it's made from such soft, yet light yarn. And it's such a simple design that I'm sure it will look good with everything. It calls for cashmere yarn, which I would definitely love to buy, but it's so expensive! Maybe I'll just splurge with some birthday money or something. I think that's what I'll do! Yeah!



Anyways, that's about it. I have about 1.5 weeks of school left, and my birthday is in 12 days, so I am excited to say the least! I can't wait to return to the land of 75º winters.

Until next time....

MWMH :: Frozen Toes and Nose, You Knows?

So it turns out that New York City gets cold in the winter. Colder than, say, Los Angeles.

Yes, it's true! As of today, I think we have entered winter. I now don my new long down parka, which makes me look like an commercialized, capitalist Eskimo, nearly every day in order to fight off the lower-than-40-degrees weather. Now, I am sure that some more seasoned New Yorkers will laugh at me for quivering at the thought of temperatures that aren't even below freezing, but let's just say I know I'm naive, and I realize that it's only just begun, but I plan on complaining and whining all the way through April.

One nice aspect however is that when I look out of my window from my bed, I see the orange and yellow leaves on the tree right outside, and as a form of procrastination, I can watch them float to the pavement below. I can't wait until it snows (this Friday they say!) and I can look out and see a tree naked of it's leaves but outlined in a fine powder of snow! Okay, so I know that also sounds ridiculously idealistic, and that in actuality the city rarely gets these perfect Aspen-like snow storms, but I can hope, right?

Until then, I shall continue my work on a watercolor I am painting for my drawing class. I just have to work on making it less corny. It's seeming a little tacky right now...pictures to come!

Stay warm!

(P.S. I have begun reading Jane Eyre, Anne, and I love it!)