A few weeks ago, Melissa of Tiny Happy told me that her breakfast of choice was Marmite on toast. She assumed that I probably didn’t know what on earth that was- and she would most certainly be right. But I actually thought I knew. I thought the term ‘Marmite’ was a NZ way of saying ‘marmalade’. So I went on for the next few weeks thinking she had meant marmalade- until I found myself at the grocery store in the baking section searching for meringe powder (which I never found! Arrg!), when I spotted a cheeky little bottle with the word ‘Marmite’ scrawled across the label. Ah! So I didn’t know what I was talking about after all! Well, at that point I had to drop it into my basket and try it out. I read the label closer, hmm…brewer’s yeast extract. That doesn’t sound very good. Not good at all! But I took it home anyways. This morning, I remembered that it had been sitting in my spice cabinet for a few days now and I finally had a loaf of bread to use it on…the stars aligned.

I figure, this is a truly British experience, so I have to make some tea. Can’t have Marmite without a cup of tea! I choose a suitable flowery earl grey (called Dorian Grey from my favorite tea shop, Hina’s). I keep a bowl of cherries on hand in case I need to get rid of any strange tastes in a hurry.
I opened the jar and right away it isn’t looking like this will be an enjoyable experience. It actually reminds me a bit of earwax. I spread as thinly as I can, I don’t want to be completely overwhelmed with the taste of this spread that is marketed as “you either love it or you hate it”. It globs a bit in places so I make sure to add plenty of butter on top.

My first bite, I truthfully will say, I wasn’t in love with the stuff. It had a salty, meaty taste (yet as far away from bacon as you can get, surprisingly) that I don’t go for in the morning. But I got used to it after a couple more bites. I begin to think that this might taste better on a biscuit with dinner. I manage to keep eating.

All in all, having a bite of toast, sip of tea and nibble a cherry or two in rounds, the breakfast went quite well. I don’t know if I will be rushing out to have this every morning, but it IS a very good source of vitamin B, which helps ward off anaemia and *possibly* more serious diseases like alzheimer’s. Vegetarians, who are most prone to developing a vitamin b deficiency, benefit greatly from Marmite, as it is 100% vegetarian. Here are some links for those of you who are wondering more about the stuff:

Marmite history
wiki marmite

It’s late and I should be in bed. I got home from knitting group around midnight, more than a tad bit later than my usual 9:30pm. After Panera’s kicked us all out at closing time (9pm) a few of us decided that we hadn’t had enough crafting so we went to M’s place that she was house sitting (yes, she had permission and no, there was no giant party…unfortunately) and continued our knitting/stitching for a couple more hours.

I took my Wool & Hoop crewel project to work on and came so close to finishing when, just my luck, I run out of the thread! So now I have to order more off of their website and wait a bit longer before I can officially call that project completed.

Oh yeah, see those bowls in the picture? They are little condiment bowls that I bought from Costplus for a couple bucks. I don’t need them. Joe just shakes his head. I liked them, what can I say? They might come in handy one day! At the very least, they look darn cute in that picture. Four dollars is worth that alone!

Oh and to keep my motivation up for that Amy Butler apron I’ve been working on, I wanted to note that last night I cut out all the pieces needed and labeled them. Okay, I could be moving along faster, but I don’t want to overwhelm myself. Baby steps, or no steps at all!

Despite not having much to show for my weekend, I did do quite a lot. The new fabrics have been laundered and ironed, a crewel embroidery kit has been started, cupcakes have been baked and frosted, the house has been kept clean (miracle!), and I ate a lot of Joe’s cooking. We had his friend Marc over for a smoked whole chicken which was super tasty. So I can now scratch that off my list. I now know how to prep a whole chicken. It wasn’t as bad as I thought, but I still had to have Joe pull out the last couple of ‘insides’ from it. That got a little gross. Other than that, a little rub of garlic and lemon juice, a dash of salt and pepper, throw the used lemon and garlic inside and toss it in the smoker. Easy! I think I’ll have him cook that more often so I have a nice supply of sandwich meat. I also put together a nice strawberry short cake with freshly baked angel food cake (okay, okay, fresh from the oven from a box) with homemade whipped cream.

This is getting embarrassing. I don’t know what it is, but for some reason I cannot bake a good cupcake to save my life. I made cupcakes last night to make yet another attempt at baking a decent cupcake. I used cream cheese in the frosting this time and it was the best I had made so far. Joy! But- I destroyed the cake part. I think I overcooked them because they were just way too dry. The instructions said bake for 20 mins in a 400 degree oven which seemed like a pretty long time for such a high temperature, so I shortened the baking time, but obviously not enough.

The struggle continues!

In non cooking news, I really am going to go ahead with making the Amy Butler apron. The fabric is now ready to be cut and labeled. Hopefully I don’t mess it up too badly! The instructions seem fairly straight forward. I think I can handle this.

I also spent the weekend planting more veggies and herbs. I had two tomatoes just begging to go in the soil. They had been neglected for a couple weeks (I’m so bad!) and definitely show signs of wear. Despite all that, one of them already has a tomato! Talk about a survivor!

I’m keeping an eye on them and giving them some much needed nutrients. Hopefully they will bounce back and maybe, just maybe, I’ll get to make some yummy BLTs this summer.

Okay, so now that school is out of the way for a whole summer, I can get down to business worry free. None of that “well, I should be doing homework” guilt trip (and then I’d end up doing neither…man I’m priceless!).

I went through some of my favorite sewing books last night and decided what would be first on my list to sew. I really want to make that Amy Butler apron from her In Stitches book. I think these two fabrics on the right will make a great apron! The yellow being the main part of the design and the darker one for the trim:

I also practiced my embroidery last night. I had no idea what I was going to create. I just picked out a color and started stitching until I had a rough idea of what I wanted to make. All I knew was that I wanted to learn a french knot. And I came up with this:

As you can see, I messed up a lot. I’m not even quite sure what I did differently to warrant a correct french knot and well, not a correct french knot. It seemed that if I accidentally wiggled my needle the wrong way, the knot wouldn’t work. So I’ll just practice some more tonight until I can see where I was going wrong.

The split stitch on the other hand is absolutely no problem at all. I can do that stitch all day and it’s so relaxing to do something right!

Oh and before I forget: I have a picture of me on my about page now! I just got the pictures from our family photo shoot that were taken by Shannon Stewart of Madison Ave Photography and she was kind enough to let me put one up on my website. I’m so happy these turned out! Thanks again Shannon!

We arrived home Monday afternoon and I wish we could have had a bit longer to explore Portland. There was so much to see! So much yet to be seen.

I didn’t get to do everything on my list, one really big one was the Japanese garden. I really regret missing this, but I keep telling myself I will be back. I’ll just put it first on my list next time.

I did, however, get to see what was on the top of my list this time: the Classical Chinese Gardens. They did not disappoint either. It was just stunning and the weather could not have been have been better. I did a thorough once around, just taking it all in and writing down the names of unfamiliar plants that caught my interest. I took a break and enjoyed a cup of green tea in the tea room and wow. I’m glad I sat by the window.

Then I milled around a second time taking pictures. I’m happy I chose to do it that way, because I tend to forget to experience the moment and get caught up with the camera. This time I fully enjoyed the moment.

To view more of the pictures I took of the garden, click here.

They played amazing music there, music with a distinctly Chinese flavor, you know, erhus and bamboo flutes and stuff. It sounded familiar, and then I remembered that when I was playing Guild Wars (online mmorpg), the soundtrack music had the same sound. I had always meant to look up more information about it, but simply forgot. So I decided to do a bit of googling and came up with this:

Sun Huang

I think can now add one more item to my “learn to do” list:

1. whip up a decent buttercream frosting.
2. prepare a whole chicken (yep, I don’t know how to do it…well, I probably could, I just have never tried!)
3. play the drums.
4. play the erhu.

So Joe and I will be heading off to Portland tomorrow morning. We’ll be back on Monday. I don’t know if I will be posting while there, probably not. Don’t want to waste too much time on that sort of thing when I could be sightseeing!

On a side note, I recently watched a great documentary on heavy metal. It explored the influences, history, censorship and genres of heavy metal, explained with a bit more intelligence than I expected too. For those who think metal is all about death and demonics, well, you’d be right, but it’s also more innocent than you’d expect.

On metal’s classical roots:

Here

When I was just a little kid, I was lucky enough to get to see Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford in The Phantom of The Opera. I became almost obsessed with the grandiose style of music. I was amazed at Crawford’s powerful voice mixed with electric guitar and violin. I was in heaven.

I’ve always enjoyed listening to classical and operatic vocals. I agree, it’s powerful stuff and I think that’s why I enjoy listening to metal, which creates the same sort of atmosphere and conveys that same power.

The history of the ultimate gesture in metal, the devil horns:

Here

On the issue of violent lyrics:

Here

And I’ll leave you with the other major contributor to the development of metal, the blues:

Here

You know what, I’ll bet you enjoyed that solo. I know, I know, Marty Friedman, that guy can rip. If you want to hear more solos that will make you swoon, here you go. I went a little crazy with the linking didn’t I? I just love this stuff so so so much!

Ballad style solo

Dragon Mistress

See you all next week!

I hate that it seems like everything I make that I am wanting to share with you all always happens to have some sort of meat product in it when I know that most of the the few who read this blog are vegetarian. Take for instance these potatoes that I made yesterday as a side dish for dinner:

I knew they’d be good. My mom used to make this when I was growing up and recently reminded me of how good it was when she made it again on my last visit to Tehachapi. It’s a simple, traditional side, perfect as leftovers and a nice dish to bring on a picnic. Problem is, they use bacon!

German Potato Salad

2 lbs. unpeeled red potatoes
6 slices bacon (cut in half)
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
2 tsp flour
1/8 tsp pepper
3 Tbs red wine vinegar
parsley to garnish

1. Boil potatoes until fork can easily pierce skin (about 45 mins).
2. Drain potatoes, let cool slightly. Dice.
3. Cook bacon in large frying pan until slightly crispy. Remove bacon and let cool.
4. Reserve 2 Tbs of bacon grease and discard the rest from the pan.
5. Fry onions until soft in the 2 Tbs grease.
6. Add sugar, salt, flour, pepper and 1/2 cup water.
7. Slowly stir in red wine vinegar. Let sauce continue cooking on low until sauce thickens a bit.
8. Add potatoes, gently combine with sauce. Add in the bacon, crumbled into medium bits. Heat through.
9. Plate and garnish with parsley.

I’m thinking maybe fake bacon can be used for those who are vegetarians? Although, I’ve never used the stuff so I’m not sure how similar their properties are. Hopefully I’ll have something meatless to show you all soon.

I don’t get to spend it with my mom or grandma this year. I hope they still have a good day today. I wanted to post pictures from our family photo shoot a few weeks back, but unfortunately I haven’t gotten the pictures in the mail yet. So I’ll supplement with last year’s Mother’s Day photos and one of Joe’s mom that I love.

Just wanted to say thanks to all my moms, grand and the regular sorts and even the aunts who acted just as motherly, who took care of me while growing up (you too Brenda, thanks for all that food!)

Isn’t this black and white wonderful? I love it. It is a photo of Joe’s mom (Brenda) as a child with her brother and her mom. I love how her mom is a bit out of focus in the back, looking lovingly down at her kids (or maybe she is waiting for them to get in to trouble?). So sweet!

Thanks Mom, Grandma, Barb, Brenda and Aunt Ally! I love you all!

Today was such a beautiful day. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect. Despite the fact that I have been under the weather lately (I just couldn’t manage to fight off the virus Joe has had for the past week), we still managed to have a lovely day and not keep ourselves cramped up indoors (like we had while Joe was going through the worst of the virus, the poor guy was miserable). Joe started the bbq and we had chicken wings for lunch out on the grass.

Oh yes. The blog has been updated a bit. I know, I know. Not my design, just another theme that has been tweaked here and there. I realized a full blog redesign would be quite an undertaking in Wordpress which deals in PHP (which I learned nothing about in my web programming class). I like how it turned out anyways…

Joe and I will be heading off to Portland, OR on Wednesday for five days. I’ll mostly have to roam about by myself during the day while Joe attends his Ruby conference. I don’t mind being alone, that way I won’t feel rushed or bad that I spend hours looking at plants or fabric. It is sort of scary though. I have no idea how to navigate the city and I do tend to get lost easily. Eep. I guess I’ll just go with the flow and try not to panic if when I get lost. Anyone have any suggestions for food, crafts, sightseeing stops? I’ll need plenty to do. So far on my list are both Japanese and Chinese gardens and Mabel’s Cafe and Knittery, oh! and Powell’s.

Tuesday was a good day. It was warm and I had a drawing assignment to do that for once didn’t require me to sit in a dark room indoors trying to get the spotlight just so on my subject. I finally was free to go out and draw.

So I decided to go out in the front yard, lay out a blanket on the soft, green grass and draw for a couple hours under the dappled shade of the old London Plane trees. If it weren’t for my hand cramping, I’d say the whole thing was very relaxing. Class is over in another week or so and I think I may continue to go out, sit and sketch again now that I’ll have more freedom as to what (and where) I want to draw.