Thursday, September 30, 2010

Mustardy Wheatberry Cabbage Salad

Suddenly it has started feeling like fall, and it just didn't seem right to make coleslaw out of the head of cabbage I had in the fridge.  Plus, we are basically out of mayo and I was trying to figure out what I could make with materials on hand.  This felt much more seasonally-appropriate and used only things that I already had in the fridge (and yes, I am the kind of person who keeps whole grain mustard and wheatberries on hand just in case)....  Overall, I was happy with how it turned out, it was nothing spectacular but it has been quite good for eating for lunch all week.


Mustardy Wheatberry Cabbage Salad
Adapted from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian
  • 2-3 cups cooked wheatberries (I cooked mine in my handy pressure-cooker, but you can also soak overnight and then cook on the stovetop in about an hour)
  • 1/2 small or medium head of cabbage, shredded
  • 1/2 small or medium red onion, finely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons whole grain mustard
  • 1/3 cup (or less - mine turned out on the oily side) olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons red wine or cider vinegar
  • salt and pepper to taste
 Combine wheatberries, cabbage and onion in a large bowl.  Stir mustard, oil and vinegar together to combine, then toss together with the salad ingredients.  Enjoy!

Monday, September 27, 2010

Yosemite Socks


I'm calling these my Yosemite socks since I knit basically all of the second sock on the way to and from our recent quick trip to Yosemite (not to mention in Yosemite).  Plus as Lawson points out it sounds bit like Yosemite Sam and that is fun too.  Yosemite was beautiful!


The yarn is Stroll Handpainted from Knitpicks in the Make Believe colorway.  I was happy with how the yarn striped and the colors.  I have another pair of socks I made with Essential (the old name for Stroll) and I find that it feels a bit artificial as it wears and not that soft, but it is certainly durable.  I'll have to see how these socks do...

I used my favorite More Sensational Knitted Socks as a general guide for the pattern and I tried the round toe which I have never done before.  I was pretty happy with how it turned out - I think it shows off the stripes nicely - and I appreciated not having to do any grafting at the end (which I really don't mind too much, but it did save some time). 


I keep telling myself that after I just finish this next project I will really buckle down and work on my sweater (I haven't made much progress since this post).  Somehow I always hit a rut about halfway through knitting a sweater.  So I have been pushing myself to get back to it because I know I will really like it when I am done.  However, as you may have gathered from the fact that I practically didn't have any time to post here in September, things have been a little hectic in our lives lately and finally I decided to just give myself a break and knit whatever I feel like knitting.  Which I think means there will be several more pairs of socks on the horizon and probably some more pumpkin baby hats (have to get those done before halloween of course!). 

Here is the next pair of socks I am working on - made with really subtle, pretty yarn from Spunky Eclectic using the dragonfly socks pattern.  A lot of the socks I have knit myself have been in really bright fun colors so this is a nice change and I think that I will really enjoy wearing these - they feel a bit more classy.  These are also my first lace socks (or really, socks with any pattern significantly more complicated than a rib), and it has gone really well!  Socks are often my mindless project that I pick up for a few minutes here and there, so I was worried that I would lose track of the pattern but it hasn't been an issue really, the pattern was quite easy to learn.  I made a few mods including replacing all the sl1 k1 psso's with ssk's, which I find much easier to work, but mostly the pattern has been great.


Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...