Back to Reality, but First...

Oh my, longest blogging hiatus ever!  The SF trip was wonderful.  
May I please move into the apartment with this view?  Since then it's been pretty hectic, so here's a little recap.  

Just wish I had pics of hanging out with Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef: Shauna, Danny and their extremely adorable daughter, and with Diane and Todd, a.k.a. White on Rice Couple.  Good food and chatting about how they collaborate on their blogs as couples: they made this video featuring their new cookbook both of which brought happy tears to my eyes.  So inspiring that I may actually try cooking! and I'm very lucky to have spent time with them.  
Justin already covered some of the yummy things we ate, but there were some crafty things I liked too.  After working hard on Fashion Week NYC it was a luxury to be able to do as this window suggested:

This awesome building is The Contemporary Jewish Museum and the colorful Mexican banner from The Museum of Craft and Folk Art.  

Right next door is the Indian restaurant Amber where I had butter chicken and met Marisa from Food in Jars, a canning blog: I totally want to try it this winter!

I spent quite a while in this exhibit of glass blown sculptures by Loretta Hui-Shan Yang: they were substantial, yet delicate.  After the vessel and flower are created separately they need to be joined at just the right temperature, or both pieces will shatter.

I couldn't believe this luscious fountain could be found in the middle of the city!

And yea, it's touristy down at Fisherman's Wharf, but I love the water and the sweet faces of the sea lions.  The lobster bisque and dungeness crab I had for lunch were pretty good too.

The Blue Angels were in town for Fleet Week and they roared overhead much to the shock of everyone within miles.

I adored this turtle bread from Boudin Bakery so much that I wouldn't let anyone eat him.

Britex Fabrics has 4 floors of beautiful bolts, patterns, supplies, notions and a very helpful staff and I bought some vintage lace.

At The Ferry Building Marketplace I wanted to fry up these pimientos de Padron right there.  

Instead, I got some lemon shortbread from Miette, and later, a very flat, portable umbrella from Kinokuniya in Japantown.

Snapped a cool window display of sewing spools and this crocheted dress at Louis Vuitton

but forget which store created this very large display of paper butterflies and sequins that spanned 3 windows.

At ImagiKnit I bought some soft pink Heather Prime Alpaca.  More on that soon...but I wish I could make it to the book signing on November 21st with Twinkie Chan for her new book of Crochet Goodies for Fashion Foodies, cool.

How was the coffee at Little Bird Coffeehouse so good and how did the baristress create this lovely swirl?

Everyone told us it was unusual for it to be so warm (in the 70's!) and in our walks up and down the hills we spied this doggy Halloween costume

and a display of angel cats!  

Oh, to be on vacation again...

I Left My Heart...

...in SAN FRANCISCO...That's where I saw this cool graffiti last year and we're heading back next week: Justin to speak about cookbooks at the BlogHer food conference, me for some much-needed vacationing, so if anyone has any cool, fun, crafty, foodie SF tips I'd love to hear some recommendations!

I've finally completed a (small) sewing project: a little drawstring bag with pink lining and silk ribbon, just in time for the end of National Sewing Month.  It isn't as awesome as the Wonder Woman costume my Mom made, but it's a start and the pattern is perfect for my next bout of car crafting and to take some supplies along for my trip west.  What to do with all that plane time?

There was a bump in the road when my worst fears were realized and my beautiful machine jammed: the very thing that had made me hesitant all this time!  Fortunately, Justin stepped in and I didn't need to carry it into the city for a check-up and she seems to be running well again, phew...

I also had time to package up all the bath fizzies: it's good to not be working until midnight these days!

I can't wait to give them to all the hard-working ladies who helped me so much during Fashion Week, thank you, all, I couldn't have done it without you!

Foodie Gifts

Anyone who knows me knows that eating is my absolute passion.  I'm grateful to work in catering so I can eat for a living since sometimes crafting is a way to distract myself from thinking about my next meal.  So, if there's a way to combine food and crafts, I'm all for it. 

The pic above was a Christmas gift for my Mom and a few other bakers in my life: a kit to make your own bread, but without kneading.  The amazing techniques come from Kneadlessly Simple: Fabulous, Fuss-Free, No-Knead Breads by Nancy Baggett, one of Amazon's Top 10 Cookbook Customer Favorites of the Year.  The slow rise method means that you don't have to spend all the time and energy kneading the dough to get amazing results at home.  The kits were easy to put together:

Just a few kinds of flour (I found mine at Lifethyme Natural Market on 6th Ave), sesame seeds, poppy seeds and a packet of yeast.  I had read that Ball stopped making their classic canning jars, but fortunately it was a myth! and I found them at Fishs Eddy, a cool store by Union Square and also in Brooklyn that specializes in commercial quality dishes, glassware and other tabletop pieces from hotels and diners across the country.  I wrapped each jar in a snowflake dish cloth from Crate and Barrel (since I had quite the snowflake theme this Christmas) and attached a note with the recipe.

Another Christmas gift was the re-creation of an ice cream sundae that my boyfriend and I had in San Francisco on his birthday trip this summer.

Bi-Rite Creamery and Bakeshop is in the Mission District and I'm so glad we trekked out there because we found Sam's Sundae.

If you can't read the sign up there, it's: chocolate ice cream, organic bergamot olive oil, maldon sea salt and whipped cream, wow!  Such an interesting combination, it was unlike any sundae we'd ever had before.  So, for Christmas I found the ingredients.  I like the idea of giving (and then eating) a memory.

The chocolate gelato was just from my local grocery store, but the Maldon sea salt was from Whole Foods (after I called and they said they had it, I arrived and they didn't have it, but they then found it in the back), and the bergamot olive oil was so hard to find that I went to Amazon.  They seem to be sold out of the one that I bought, but go to the link and there's a different one available now.

And a last word on Whole Foods: today I called to see if they had kumquats and they said, no definitely not, maybe by Friday.  For some reason I still felt that they'd have them and I'm glad I went over because they had plenty.  So, I also bought honey, ginger and whole cloves to make preserves from Su Mei-Yu's The Elements of Life: A Contemporary Guide to Thai Recipes and Traditions for Healthier Living.  These kumquat preserves can be saved in the fridge for months and steeped as a tea, can heal a terrible cold just about overnight.  And check out the book to find out if your element is earth, wind, water or fire, and how you should eat to best balance your type.