Knitting Party and Teaching

Last night, my friends and I gathered in my room for a knitting party. We popped a funny movie into the DVD player and started knitting up a storm while drinking hot cocoa and tea. It was totally the perfect way to spend a crisp, cold Saturday night. I've been knitting for years and have gotten pretty good at it, so I was helping others learn how to knit and/or teaching them new stitches. I used to strongly dislike teaching - when I do things, I tend to think in pictures, for the most part, so articulating the process of an arts and crafts project can be difficult. Previously when teaching, I'd find myself stumbling over words and feeling a bit stupid. Which was weird, since I am by no means a shy person.

As I've recently discovered, I find it a lot easier to teach when I am demonstrating what I'm doing. If I'm knitting, then I can do a much better job of describing the process if I've got some yarn and needles in my own hands. It just helps the words flow better, somehow. After helping my friends out last night, I realized that I've become a lot more confident with my teaching skills. That's excellent timing, as far as I'm concerned, since I'm going to be teaching 2 workshops at my college this January with TWELVE people in each workshop. However, instead of being nervous about it, I'm now kind of excited!

And now, I should really go to bed since I have a 1/2 hour oral midterm tomorrow morning and I need to be able to focus for that. Oh, and before I sign off, here's a picture of what I knitted over the weekend. It's not done yet, but you can still see the pattern!
View of the front:
View of the back (palm side):

Interesting Logic

The weather's gotten really cold lately. Really, really cold. However, my first thought was not "Gee, I should go out and buy a pair of cheap mittens from Target to keep my hands warm." No, instead it was "Gee, I should really go buy some yarn and knit an awesome pair of mittens." And so, tonight/this weekend, I will be knitting either these or these! I bought some really soft merino-angora wool that I'm really excited about using.

I guess my thought process here tells you all you need to know about my preferences for making something rather than buying it in a store.

Call for Recipes

I've been placed in charge of cooking Thanksgiving dinner this year and I'm super excited about it since I love to cook. There'll be all of the standard dishes such as:

• Turkey (in my family, we "lard" the turkey which is a funny way of saying that we lay strips of bacon over the skin of the turkey before roasting. The fat helps seal in all of the juiciness, and the bacon adds additional flavor. Bonus! You can eat the bacon with the turkey or wrapped around scallops).
• Mashed potatoes. I'm thinking roasted garlic mashed potatoes or maybe even caramelized leek mashed potatoes.
• Sweet potatoes (either roasted or mashed, I can't decide)
• Cranberry sauce, made from scratch of course
• Stuffing - maybe Italian chestnut stuffing or apple onion sage stuffing
• Brussel sprouts
• Green beans almandine

In addition to these staples, I'm also probably going to be making:

• Roasted spaghetti squash with Gruyere, parsley, and garlic
  
• Roasted butternut squash with goat cheese, sage, and caramelized onions
• Cauliflower and potatoes with English coastal cheddar sauce
• Several types of hors d'oevres, as yet to be determined
• Homemade bread (maybe I could make butter, too?)
  

So, what do you think? Should I leave out some stuff? Add something in? Do you have any recipes for appetizers or hors d'oeuvres that you'd like to share? What will you be serving?

Day of Food

In addition to randomly running into friends all day long, I also had some great foodie experiences. I first went to Sofra Bakery which I'd heard a lot of good stuff about. It's this tiny little Middle Eastern bakery near the Cambridge-Watertown border that does pretty fantastic food. In addition to selling food (both to go and to eat in), they also feature homemade spice mixes from Oleana (a fancier, more expensive restaurant run by the same owners) as well as vegetables fresh from the farm and homemade cheeses such as fresh mozzarella.

I have to agree with what I've been hearing - the space is too small considering how popular this place is. I went in around 2:30 on a Saturday afternoon and all of the seats were taken, as well as the places at the stand-up eating counter. Also, the standing room only counter blocked the overhead menu when customers tried to order. I had been warned that service was slow, but I actually found it to be not too bad. They make everything fresh to order and it definitely took less than 10 minutes. Be warned that portion sizes are smaller than what you'd expect, so while the prices are modest, you may find that you need to order extra in order to feel satisfied.

Still, these are minor quibbles. The food here is amazing! I ordered the Turkish Breakfast ($8) which comes with a soft-boiled egg, cucumber, tomato, olives, feta, fig & thick yogurt with spoon sweets. I also had the fresh cheese borek ($7) that was made of thin noodles and the house-made mozzarella, then sprinkled with sesame seeds and baked like lasagna. This came with a helping of labne and tomatoes. The borek was pretty good, though I think it perhaps could have used a stronger flavor (maybe with fresh feta?). The Turkish Breakfast, however was the real star of the show. The egg was perfectly boiled - not hard or overcooked, and the yolk was still flowing. It was pretty clear that they hadn't pre-boiled any of the eggs to speed the preparation process, which I really appreciated. The egg was then rolled in these filo-pastry threads that had been deep fried to crispy-crunchy brownness. It was seriously the best egg that I've ever eaten, and I rather suspect that it came from the sister farm run by the chef's husband. The cucumbers were tiny, freshly sliced, and also straight from the farm, as was the fresh tomato compote. The olives were imported from Morocco and the yoghurt was house-made. Amazingly, the figs were fresh and there were at least 2 whole ones there, coated with a sweet honey glaze. They paired well with the yoghurt, balancing sweet and sour together in perfect harmony. Also stellar were the feta cheese croquettes that came with the Turkish Breakfast. It was a seriously good meal, and there were so many good options to choose from that I know I'll be back soon.

While I was in Watertown, I took the opportunity to go to some local Armenian and Turkish markets. In one store, I found a pint of fresh figs for only $2.50. What an amazingly cheap price!!!!! I also picked up some candied figs as well. In the other store, I bought stuffed grape leaves, Turkish delights, and a bunch of assorted pastries. I'm looking forward to eating them tonight, but for right now I'm still full from the delicious meal that I had at Sofra Bakery!

In which I run into everyone I know

Today I took the bus from college into Boston and ran into so many people that I knew. Seriously, I ran into no less than 3 people from my school (one had graduated and was working in an independent bookshop where I have a frequent buyers card. The other two were also in that bookshop for a completely different reason and didn't know the alum working there). Later on, I went to a new cafe that everyone's been talking about and ran into a girl from my high school. Also at the shop was another girl whose sister was in my Italian class in high school. Normally, when I go into Boston I almost never see people I know. It was kind of cool to see all of those random people where I least expected them!

So I have this 10-12 page paper...

Due tomorrow. That I haven't started yet. And I just woke up. At 6:30 on a Sunday evening, having gone to bed the night before at 10pm. Because apparently I made an attempt to regain all the sleep that I have lost this semester due to homework in one fell swoop. On the bright side, I won't feel the need to sleep at all tonight and I can focus on that paper.

Figs with Prosciutto

Here's a yummy recipe that I like to make as an appetizer. I came up with it during high school and usually serve it in the fall when fresh figs abound.

Figs with Prosciutto
• 8 fresh figs, washed and cut in half
• 8 teaspoons goat cheese (chevre)
• ¼ teaspoon finely minced fresh thyme
• 8 slices of thinly sliced Prosciutto di Parma (approximately 4 ounces)

Preheat oven to 400°F. Cream together the goat cheese and thyme, then spoon ½ teaspoon of the mixture onto each fig half. Cut each slice of Prosciutto in half, lengthwise, and wrap each strip around the fig halves. Place the figs in a small ceramic baking dish and roast until brown around the edges and cooked through, about 10 minutes or so. Eat while hot.

Serves 4 as an appetizer.

Women's Colleges

There are certain things that I have come to expect from attending a women's college. Stepping out of the shower and not encountering a horde of 4 men in the bathroom is one of those expectations. This morning, such expectations came to nought. Talk about unsettling!

I voted...did you?

I went out and voted at 7am this morning. There was already a line stretching all the way down the block, despite the fact that the polls had only just opened. If you haven't voted yet, you should get out there and do it. If you don't have childcare, bring your kids to your polling precinct. My mom always used to do that and I loved standing in the voting booths with her. So c'mon, what are you waiting for? Be part of this historic election and help choose the newest president!

Sweet Honey in the Rock

Today I had the very special opportunity to see Sweet Honey in the Rock performing live! It was nothing short of amazing. The performance was beautiful, spiritual, uplifting, and empowering. If you ever have the chance to see this amazing group of women performing live, you absolutely have to go see them. At one point, my friends and I were in tears because they were just so good. The rest of the time we kept on giving each other looks of pure happiness because the experience was just so amazing!

It was also the perfect way to spend the Sunday before the upcoming election. I have to go back to my hometown on Tuesday to vote because I wanted to do it in person instead of by absentee ballot. This here's a political message for y'all: the most important thing is not who you're rooting for, but the fact that you GET OUT THERE AND VOTE!!!!!!! We are so lucky to be able to choose our president and have a say in the politics of this country. It's a right that everyone in the whole world should be given automatically, and yet still aren't. Many people in other countries can't vote and would love to be able to. Don't squander what so many in this world would consider a privilege, not a right - get out there and voice your choice!!!!