Dinner In

Last night I decided to be Joan Cleaver and prepare Keith a lavish dinner (well, I don't know how lavish it was, but still there was a salad and a main) for when he got home from work. Literally, I was there waiting to toss the salad when he walked in the door, and I had the pasta water just below a boil, and the sauce on a gentle simmer. It was very 1950's housewife of me, but I am getting bored with my two weeks off before work starts again.

We started with a simple salad of Romaine and cherry tomatoes and storebought--yes, storebought--Italian dressing. Italian dressing (the vinaigrette kind, not the gloppy white stuff) is one of those dressings I feel like I could never get quite right at home. It always ends up too restaurant-y and I want the taste I grew up with.
I used our very own cherry tomatoes and some fresh romaine and Newman's Own Italian dressing. It's the next best thing to homemade-satisfies my "store-bought" craving, but it's organic and doesn't have any gross additives like high fructose corn syrup. I definitely recommend it.

I also tried a new pasta recipe out. It's a faux bolognese from Mario Batali and uses prosciutto and mushrooms in place of ground beef or pork. Very tasty and quick to make.

Perusing the Internets

I forgot how much I love Urban Dictionary. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

A few exciting things...

We're getting our first American Apparel out here! It's going in on Broadway in New Haven right near the Yale CoOp. This means no more shipping charges or waiting a week to get clothes in the mail. Nothing like instant gratification...


And here's a hilarious article I found about Woody Allen suing American Apparel over some clever marketing using a shot of him from Annie Hall in which he's dressed as a Hacidic Jew.

Even more exciting, there is a great new movie coming out. I would categorize it as an indie romantic dramedy and it stars John Krasinski from the Office (love him!!!)and Maya Rudolph, formerly on SNL. The film is called Away We Go and also features Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jeff Daniels, Allison Janney, and Catherine O'Hara, Paul Schneider. Superb cast.

Here's a brief synopsis:
Longtime (and now thirtysomething) couple Burt (John Krasinski) and Verona (Maya Rudolph) are going to have a baby. The pregnancy progresses smoothly, but six months in, the pair is put off and put out by the cavalierly delivered news from Burt’s parents Jerry and Gloria (Jeff Daniels and Catherine O’Hara) that the eccentric elder Farlanders are moving out of Colorado – thereby eliminating the expectant couple’s main reason for living there.

So, where, and among whom of those closest to them, might Burt and Verona best put down roots to raise their impending bundle of joy? The couple embarks on an ambitious itinerary to visit friends and family, and to evaluate cities. (Read more)
Another awesome thing I came across, is an article talking about how the film went green during shooting: an amazing for such a wasteful industry. Plus, the soundtrack by Alexi Murdoch, sounds wonderful. And, oh yeah... did I mention that Sam Mendes directed the film. So many reasons to love this movie-I can't wait to see this in the theater!

Sea Dwellers

Astrid chewing on the catnip toy I made her.



It's Ollie the Octopus from this book, The Knitter's Book of Yarn, that Keith got for me as a Christmas present. I'm really into it. More on that later. So, Ollie was made with Sugar n' Creme (I didn't have purple, so I just used a multi-color) and was knit in the round on size 8 dpns.

Winter Baby

Our new baby, Astrid.


Scared of her new surroundings...

Flowers in the Snow

Much to my surprise, when I went out to get the mail this morning, snow coming down, I discovered the 2009 catalog from Brent and Becky's Bulbs. It was a pleasant spring teaser, which was graciously appreciated. I do love winter, and in fact, I much prefer a snowy winter to one that's just cold, but we've had snow on the ground since my birthday in mid December, so it's been a bit oppressive. And very tundra-esque around here lately.

I'm already eyeing the gladiolas, which I had lusted after all last summer.

lost website : (

Okay. Deep breath. Sadly, the squarespace account I was using to write my old blog expired and I have since lost all of my archived entries, including recipes, knitting, sewing and gardening projects, and worst of all, loads and loads of pictures. But in an effort to start anew, I'm continuing my blog here. I was able to transfer some of my old entries, but am missing many. More later.