Latest Project: Felted Purse

I wanted to make a lightweight purse to carry inside my purse. Something I could just pull out and carry if I didn't want to carry my whole huge bag. We went to Goodwill this weekend. We donated stuff that's been sitting in the garage for over a year. I came out with a cami and a lavender sweater. I felted the (100% wool) sweater by throwing it the washer with hot water for 2 agitation cycles. Then I designed a pattern and made paper pattern pieces. I cut out the pieces, pinned them together, then sewed them up.

Quote of the Day

"When I was on that diet...What was that diet? Oh yeah, the Atkins diet. When I was on the Atkins diet I used to go to Sam's and buy the three pack of whipped cream cans and eat them straight. It was okay you know, because it is mostly air you know."

Hello, Veronica!

Veronica Mars has moved into our house. We are making our way through season one on Netflix instant watch. The show has some impressive writing. Not all the episodes are great, but I know we are both having fun watching it.

Chile Colorado aka Carne Roja aka Mexican Vindaloo

I love carne roja. On the rare occasion that I find it in a restaurant I usually can't eat it because it is made with pork. I've tried to make it a couple times, but I never get it quite right. I made it for guests yesterday. I started it very early so that I could get it right. I prepared it thinking of it as Mexican vindaloo, and it turned out really well. I used some tomato puree that I made from tomatoes from the farm and cayenne peppers from my minigarden.

Carne Roja

Potatoes

Oil

1 or 2 onions

Beef

Chile powder

Garlic powder

Comino

Bay leaves

Tomato sauce

Water

1. Wash, chop and boil potatoes until tender. I hate it when the potatoes aren't fully cooked, so I cooked them first.

2. Shred onion. I used one, but could have used two for the amount that I made.

3. Cut beef into small pieces.

4. Saute onion in oil until softened.

5. Add beef and cook until browned.

6. Stir in spices and cook for 1-2 minutes.

7. Add tomato sauce and water. Stir and bring to a boil. This is where I added in the tomato puree and slit open cayenne peppers.

8. Simmer stew, stirring occasionally, for about 2 hours. Add potatoes for last half hour of cooking.

I served this with tortillas, guac and Spanish quinoa. Cooking it for two hours ensured that the meat was tender, and pre-cooking the potatoes ensured that they were nice and soft. The guys loved it, so there are barely any leftovers.

My Problem Pelvis

Every 28 days or so my pelvis disarticulates and my sacrum just kinda floats there between my ilia. After a few days it all puts itself back together--and locks. The problem is that it doesn't always go back together the right way. The worst time that I can remember is when I rode around for hours in the back seat of a Honda Civic squished between two other people. Two days later I hurt so bad that I could barely stand up straight. I was truly blessed to have a chiropractor working out of the same office. He said he'd never seen anything so crazy. My sacrum was out of place and locked down. After two or three treatments I was better (but still in pain) and I just waited 3 weeks for my pelvis to unlock and my sacrum to float out.

Recently I spent almost a whole day on the floor, on my belly, in front of my laptop. Now my sacroiliac joint is killing me. Sometimes when my sacrum is misbehaving I can do a kind of Elvisonian pelvic thrust and pop it back into place. Sometimes I get into bridge pose and wiggle, jiggle, and bounce my pelvis until it pops. None of this has worked. Yoga hasn't worked. I resorted to self-manipulation, trying to rotate and unlock my pelvis. No luck. I even had Ross try and pop my back. Something popped, but much higher up. I think I'm stuck like this for the next couple of weeks. Damn hormones!

Mmmmmm-Marmelade

A while back when I was looking for some Dundee Ginger I bought a jar of Rose's Key Lime Marmelade. I love lime, and I thought Ross might like it too. Well, it is a big hit. The jar is almost empty! It is awesome on English muffins. Right after getting my shipment of Dundee in the mail I found that I can buy it at the local grocery store, Giant! I don't think that Giant has Rose's Key Lime, but I think they have Dundee Key Lime, so I won't have to go too far to find it. I just hope the Dundee is as good as the Rose's.

Class of Nuke 'Em High 2: Subhumanoid Meltdown

Last night after 3 games of bowling (in which I broke 50 in all 3!), we came home and Ross put on Class of Nuke 'Em High 2: Subhumanoid Meltdown (on Netflix). Here's the backstory: Back when we were teenagers and my parents still had cable we used to watch USA: Up All Night. "Watch" meaning have it on in the background while we made out (sorry mom). Anyway, I particularly remember this movie. The subhumanoids had "little mouths down there." A couple of weeks ago we sat through Class of Nuke 'Em High. Terrible movie, and no little mouths down there. I want that hour and half of my life back. I find it hard to even call that a movie.

So, last night we watched the second in the 3 part series. It had nothing to do with the first one. It was just as terrible, but we did get to hear the line about "a little mouth down there." There was also a fight scene where I spotted someone famous. All I could think was that his name started with an L, his name sounded like a girl's name, and that I don't particularly like him. IMDB didn't have him credited, so I had to rely on my weak memory. Just when we were going to bed I asked Ross the name of the lead singer of Aerosmith. From there my brain crunched out: Liev Schreiber. Yes, my brain works in strange ways. I'm 100% sure that Liev Schreiber was in this sad excuse for a film. He didn't even have one line, just one word. He had 2 seconds on screen, I suppose that's why he's not credited. Honestly, I wouldn't want that on my resume anyway. Now I want to make Ross watch part 3: The Good the Bad, and the Subhumanoid.