14 Carrots of Goodness

Last Saturday after I had a very nice 7-mile run, Scott and I headed to the 14 Carrot Cafe for breakfast



The 14 Carrot Cafe is a nice restaurant located in the Eastlake neighborhood. The menu has a slight Greek flair which I love but because I like to copy Scott, I ordered the Huevos Rancheros.





They were delicious! I loved that they placed the sour cream and the salsa in bowls on the side. It's those extra touches that I love.



The specials looked delicious too and made me crave something with pumpkin in them.



14 Carrot Cafe
2305 Eastlake Ave E
Seattle, WA 98102
(206) 324-1442

El Fin Mr. Central Park Hoodie

I jumped on the Central Park Hoodie bandwagon when I first saw this pattern in Knitscene, Fall 2006 .



After searching for yarn that wouldn't cost me a fortune, Jessica sent me a link to WEBS and some fantastic Araucania Nature Wool Solids which cost me about $35 and change.



I loved knitting this sweater and didn't even mind when I had to re-knit the left front when I didn't alternate skeins and ended up with a very light left front.



Once I got the sweater seamed up, that is when the disappointment sank in.

The sleeves feel a bit tight in the biceps and the sweater feels about an inch too small over all. I'm going to try blocking it again to see if that helps but I admit to being frustrated.



My gauge is spot on for the sweater and I made the size which measured exactly to my bust size. I probably should have made the size up to accommodate t-shirts and such.



Check it out on Ravelry

Seriously Good Pie

Scott and I have been trying for months to return to Serious Pie. I finally figured that if we went at 5:30 on a Tuesday, we'd get in without the 45 minute wait. Scott warned me that I would need to prepare for a wait but it was a delight when we walked in and were immediately seated.



Serious Pie is a Tom Douglas restaurant and one of my favorites. The pizza is amazing! I've had salads there that have made my tastebuds cry with delight. They cook all the pizzas in a wood burning oven and serve them up on custom made Epicurean boards (with special grooves).



We ordered a mushroom and truffle cheese pizza along with the daily special pizza with was a spicy sausage. I love the truffle cheese pizza and studied it this time in an attempt to make my own.



The story behind Serious Pie is that the space was previous used to make bread for the Dahlia bakery and restaurant. Tom saw an opportunity to offer up pizzas and I am so glad he did!



One of my favorite meals is a delicious pizza with a nice frosty beer. Tom takes the ordinary pizza experience to a whole new level though and has inspired me in my home pizza making skills.



For desert, Scott and I decided to share the pumpkin canoli which was amazing! The pumpkin spice was just right and the canoli was crispy and full of flavor.



Serious Pie
316 Virginia
Seattle, WA 98121
(206) 838-7388

Mon-Sat 11am–11pm
Sun 4pm-10pm
No Reservations

Pizza, Beer and Wine are available for take-out.

Cannon Beach

For my SIL's (sister-in-law) birthday she asked us to go to Cannon Beach for a weekend getaway. We found a house to rent and prayed for good weather. I told Scott to bring some things to keep him occupied because I envisioned a rainy weekend stuck in a house without a TV staring at my family. And oh wouldn't that be just so much fun! Me, I packed lots and lots of knitting.



Instead of rain, we were rewarded with an amazing weekend of sun and scenery. I couldn't stop taking photos and was thrilled with the weather.



The only downside to the weekend was that I didn't do as much knitting as I wanted but I did finish knitting my Simple Socks!



Happy Birthday SIL! I hope you had a fun weekend too!

Lurvely.com Rawks!

My boyfriend, Scott recently created a site called Lurvely.com where you can find great photography from Flickr.

Scott puts it right when he says, "I've been puttering around with building a Flickr based web site lately. I'm calling it Flickr Lurve. The basic idea is that Flickr has amazing photography, but it's hard to find them.

When I'm looking for inspiration, I start with Interestingness, find photos I like, see more by that photographer, then see what they faved. If I find something I like, I fave it. It's a pretty effective way to discover great photos. Unfortunately Flickr isn't optimized for this. This is where Flickr Lurve comes in.

Flickr Lurve takes the idea of exploring great photos and makes it the primary way to navigate. You start with Interestingness. When you see the work of a photographer you like. Unlike Flickr, the photographer's work is ordered by their best work, instead of their most recent.

In other words, Flickr Lurve is all about finding great photography."



You can also browse Lurvely.com on your iPhone, Blackberry or other mobile device!

The Allure of the Simple Sock

Back in May before I headed to Hawaii, I pulled out some Socks that Rock in the colorway "Carbon Dating" and cast on for a simple ribbed sock. A simple cable that did not work! After debating for awhile and placing the partially knitted sock into knitting jail, I ribbed it out one evening while waiting for the bus.



I then cast on for a simple sock. Just a basic twisted rib for 12 rows and then some st st for many many rows. I've been toting these socks along with me on many bus rides to and from work and slowly they've been growing. I'm now on the foot of the second sock which signals a new pair of warm socks for my cold feet that are trying hard to adjust to the idea of winter.



It is silly though how I believe that once I turn the heel on a pair of socks that I am nearly done when in actuality, I still have about half a sock to knit!

Boo Boo Rigby!

I went out to my car yesterday morning to head over to Golden Gardens where my running group was meeting when I noticed a bright note under my windshield wiper and I thought, "Hey! I can park here!"



It turns out that someone hit my car the night before. They said they tapped the bumper but that dent is not a tap! Poor Rigby, he just wants to look dapper and people keep messing with him. I called the guy after my run (9 miles! Yippee!) and got his insurance information. Today, I'll call his agent and we'll get it all sorted out.



Rigby needs a car spa day!

Central Park Hoodie Progress

My Central Park Hoodie and I have entered the home stretch. Last night I completed knitting on the hood and picked up for the button bands.



I laid out the sweater to do some measurements which basically was an invitation to the cat to come check out the sweater.



I'm looking to finish this sweater this week so I can block it next weekend while I'm in Cannon Beach. The only good place to block a sweater in my place is the bed and if I'm gone for the weekend, that will give the sweater more time to dry since I won't be using the bed.

Christmas Knitting

I've been working steadily along on the last of my Christmas knitting which are socks for my Mum. She's a great sock lover and often asks for socks from me so her socks are special.



I've also been looking to learn how to make two socks at one time and I thought it would be fun to do so with my Mum's pair of socks.

Unfortunately, they are too big! The cuffs hung like elephant skin around my ankles and my Mum has much smaller legs than me (we call her bird legs but really that isn't nice). I decided that they needed to be ripped but then I was worried I wouldn't have the socks knit in time since I'm easily distracted.



This weekend, I remedied that problem by making socks from Knitalong. They were quick and my Mum will love them. Now I still plan to finish the other socks and give them to her but if I don't finish them by Christmas, she'll still have a gift under the tree.

Whew! One less holiday worry on my list. Now to go and get my SIL's birthday present together!

Meg and The Very Bad, Mis-Understood Sweater

My friend, Meg is working on the February Baby Sweater by Elizabeth Zimmerman. She's been having a few communication issues with the sweater and has had to rip it out more than she's knit on it. She recently emailed me to ask for some advice since I recently finished one of these little guys.

I told her it was time to swatch! I swear I heard her groan across town. If there is one thing that Meg is not fond of, it is swatching. She agreed though and I told her that in solidarity of the swatching, I would do one too.



I had a secret agenda with this swatch though. I'm planning on making the February Lady Sweater and I wanted to see what the gull lace pattern would look like in my chosen yarn. Pretty, Pretty!

After knitting up my swatch, I sent a picture to Meg who reported back that she was having some problems with her YOs. I knew this meant that we would need to meet up face to face.



We agreed to meet this Saturday to run a few errands and knit together. Meg showed me how she did YOs and well, it was interesting. It wasn't quite a YO but it was a nice stitch nonetheless. I showed her what a YO should look like and how it was made. Meg did some practicing with the stitch and exclaimed that she understood it now!



And then because this sweater wouldn't be happy unless Meg ripped out some of it again, it was ripped back. She started again and this time I think the sweater and her will have a bright future. They were just having some communication issues as all couples do from time to time and needed some counseling from an outside source.

Smitten with Cherry Hand Pies

Back at the end of August, Smitten Kitchen featured some Bourbon Peach Hand Pies that looked delectable.

I am not however in love with Peach Pie and so I decided to substitute another kind of stone fruit, cherry. I purchased some wonderful frozen cherries and this is where I'll put in a warning. If you are going to use frozen cherries, allow them to defrost and DRAIN VERY WELL in a colander placed in your sink for a few hours, then pat the cherries dry before making the pie filling. I did not allow my cherries to dry enough which made my pie filling a bit too moist.



The pie crust for this recipe is a bit fussy. You chill and freeze and chill the dough making the entire process really drawn out. I'm thinking of using my favorite and less fussy pie crust recipe the next time I'm in the mood for a hand pie but this crust was quite tasty.



Once you cut out the crusts (I used a small bowl as the guide for my circles), you chill the dough again.





Then you fill the crusts with pie filling (the good stuff) before chilling them again. You can see the cherry juices in the photo above which indicates that my filling was too wet.



I had quite a bit of pie filling left over which I froze to make a crumble with later.





I then sealed the crusts with water and pressed the edges with a fork.



Then you chill the pies again! At this point, I left the house to have lunch and watch a movie.



I pulled the pies out when I got home and let them warm for about 5-10 minutes before applying the egg wash and covering them with sanding sugar. I only had pink sanding sugar which is why they are pink.



I stuck them in the oven to bake and waited 20 long minutes for them to be ready to eat.



The final verdict is that this is a fussy recipe but such a yummy delicious one! I'll be making this again soon!