hey muffins

home in maine for the holidays . . . posts a coming . . . full of fun and adventure . . .

the elusive couple re_mix

the ever fashionable mr. adam accompanies me on a w_r. magical.

i seem to be in a bit of a style rut -- unable to shop, disappointed by chicago's thrift stores . . . le sigh. hope to snap out of it soon.

me:

cardigan : libertine collection, target
dress : forever 21
necklace : forever 21
tights : spanx
boots : vintage, montreal

adam:

sweater : uniqlo
tshirt : aa
jeans : uniqlo
boots : thrift

wwjd?

from sortakinda.com

warnken

oof, apologies for the blurry.

finally! finally! i cast-on for the zetor scarf from jatta soheltaa.

[tangential side-note - i lived in finland for a bit during university and am always! tickled to see finnish. ravelry is chock-full of super talented finns! what's up with that? shouldn't sweden be up in arms in a knitting race?!]

i bought this yarn, peria kid mohair, while in london, at the very beautiful and very cozy loop, in islington.

unfortunately, i had forgotten my camera that day, but it was very grey, rainy and chilly, i suppose a typical english day. loop was the first stop on the yarn tour 08, in which i first ventured to islington [a charming and quaint part of london], then out to the no-mans-land surrounding the handweavers studio in blackhorses [lots of petrol stops, shabby mechanics shops].

peria is ok. i am always on the look for subsitutes for kid silk haze, which, quite frankly, is ridiculously overpriced. k1c2's douceur et soie is pretty close to it, and pretty affordable, but i've only ever seen it at halcyon, i think. peria's a little thicker, and 100% mohair. i have to say i am not the biggest fan. it's uber sticky and tangly, which tries my patience, and sheds like a motherfucker. should have known.

oh well, the color is beautiful [it's the top one, fyi], and the scarf will be named warnken, in the honor of ms. emma warnken johnson, whom we stayed with in london, most likely past our welcome. in addition to living in london, ms. johnson is particularly fond of that shade of mustard yellow, and it never fails to remind me of her.

huzzah gender roles!

[oh man, cabbage looks like brains]

yesterday was cold. drizzly, overcast, windy. kind of nasty and certainly the type of weather which commands a lie-around-the-house day.

despite the grueling schedule of the fourth season of doctor who, lazing about and drinking pbr, i needed a project. adam had already adopted the need to move out shelves, cabinets and ephemera from the storage room, and since he had already called the heavy-lifting, dust-inhaling, grunting work, i opted for the kitchen.

now, this has taught me something that i [half-heartedly] knew before - shop-bought dumplings are a godsend. or perhaps ravioli, samosas, pot stickers and pierogi would be transformed into a rare and luxurious treat.

my eyes had been opened to the glorious tastiness of pierogi while in poland, and while i could have bought frozen ones in chicago, why the hell not. let's roll out some pierogi.

they came out ok. i improvised the filling and took a dough recipe from the omniscient askmefi, and they were a little tough - i had used a blend of whole wheat and bread flour for the dough, which i think contributed to that. next time, less gluten.

the filling fell a little flat for me too - cabbage needed to be shredded, not just chopped, and certainly more spices - although, as a girl born and raised in a proud tradition of delicious mediterranean cooking, i don't have any sort of intuition towards eastern european tastes.

either way, smothered with sour cream and maggi hot sauce, they were pretty good - although i have a long way to go before mastering old-baba secrets.

puppy-dog and computer kept far away from flour and butter


hey! let's pretend we're polish unionworkers in chicago! pretentious?!? you betcha.

pierogi recipe

filling :

(1/2) head of red cabbage, shredded
(10-15) medium brown mushrooms
(1) med onion
an obscene amount of butter
1 tsp celery seeds
pepper

fry up onion in butter. when golden, add mushrooms, cook until liquid evaporates, then add cabbage until tender. took about 20 minutes all together.

set aside to cool while you make the dough

dough : (taken from this post on mefi)

(2) cups white bread flour
(2) cups whole wheat flour
(2) eggs
(1 1/2) cups water

make well in the flour in a bowl, crack in eggs, scramble them up with a fork, then incorporate into the flour. add enough water to make a dough, for me it was about 1 1/2 cups. knead for about 10 minutes until smooth and non-tacky. let it rest for 5 - 10 minutes and it will be a lot easier to roll out.

separate dough into (4) sections. roll out one at a time, cut out circles with a biscuit cutter or glass. add about 1 tsp [we made little guys], fold over, crimp edge with your finger.

add in batches to a large pot of boiling salt water - cook for about 2-3 minutes until firm to touch.

add yet more butter to a saute pan and fry until golden on both sides. serve with fried onions, sour cream and maggi hot sauce with a side of pbr!

grant park

there were over 200,000 people in grant park on tuesday night. after much deliberation [i had been up since 5:30, tired, a little cranky, sad about office work, &., &.], adam and i meandered down to the loop to meet ryan, cat and drew to watch the election results and to pray that my heart wouldn't be broken again.

after cnn called the election, we wandered over to grant park in time for the mccain concession speech - very gracious, from what i could hear - people were booing and hissing all around.

but one of the most striking things for me was the lack of anarchy. i had been leery about the sheer number of people - i don't really like crowds and getting into a mass of people tightly packed where i can't get out if necessary makes me a little anxious - but there was no pushing. no crowding. just people - black people, white people, brown people, old, young, children - all quietly listening.

if you know me, you also know that i am somewhat of a cynic - i am leery of politics and politicans, simply because i feel so much of what they purport to do or say is entirely for show, and once in office, revert to personal agendas, not solving anything or helping in any way.

i resisted getting swept up in oba-mania, because of this starry-eyed earnest aura surrounding his supporters in my demographic. come on guys. his platform is "change"?? he's a politican! they are all. the. same.

but, in grant park, my little cynical heart melted. look at all this people, being nice to each other despite background, despite socio-economic class, despite race. i was elated and excited to have obama win this election and i eagerly anticipate his next actions because i believe now that change is possible, that we can hope to make america once again into the kind of nation that serves as a role model for the rest of the world.


from repowers and chrisdetmer, respectively. i haven't been good about taking my camera with me . . . .

soul crushing

man, office work sucks. i miss academia.

went a thrifting

and was sadly disappointed. if the clybourn and western salvation army is anything to go by, chicago's thrift stores are dirty, crowded and kind of skanky . . . and not in the good way.

i found a pair of black patent pumps, a lavender short cap-sleeved angora sweater and a certifiably bad-ass black and gold tunic. oh man. but it was not a good experience.

i've been in a bit of a sartorial tizzy lately, because i have a job! an office job! and i have no idea what to wear. oh dear.

pictures to come!

retroactive fridays [done saturday]

i am still interested in letting you all in the poland adventure, so to organize and structure my posting habits, let's do it on fridays. or saturdays, as it may be.

above: behold our apartment in debica. or, rather the view from it. i don't believe i have any pictures of the inside; if you have catholic grandparents, picture that. that is what the interior looked like; a lot of kitschy knickknacks, at least one crucifix per room, creepy pictures of jesus, a couple of marys scattered around and more than one magnet of pope jp ii. oh man. plus all the closets smelled like mothballs and i had such a fear of picking it up that my clothes remained on the floor.

please notice the soviet-block style flat, gayly painted. and the carefully manicured garden round back, maintained meticulously by babuskas in scarves. the building across the way is a bakery - it had pigeons living in the window.

there was always a thin haze of smog over the city - and the distinct odor of burning rubber. oh debica.