Saturday morning

I have to admit I feel like doing nothing yarn related or one planet related this entire weekend! I wish, I wish, I wish. I have assigned myself one chore for the weekend and it is not too bad!

I have to go through all these Jo Sharp pattern books and find some patterns that we want to feature on One Planet. The books are so incredible, each one is inspired by nature and the season and the photography is beautiful and so are the patterns! But the problem with having an online store and pattern books is that when people view the link for the pattern book, they don't really know what yarns to buy . So we somehow have to figure out how to show some individual projects within each book. I hope I am making sense! It involves going through each book and then doing some web page tweaking basically.... So my only goal this weekend is to really go through the books and make a list of patterns that we will have the yarn for, which is not too bad of a chore.

Yes, Jodi, I can cook!!

My sister swears I can't cook even though she knows I graduated from culinary school and worked as a chef a decade ago. Time flies..... I think when I moved here, she expected that I would be cooking for her and her family all the time and it didn't happen! :) I am on a new organic kick and eating lots and lots of veggies so I decided to actually cook / make a few things this morning for the week with my ingredients.... I realized though why don't cook anymore. I have a back problem and I couldn't stand to chop ingredients or to stir the pot. This really bummed me out. The pain was so extreme (deep burning down my spine and into my neck) that finally I brought a chair into the kitchen, but even then I was barely able to finish. I have to figure this out... I guess I could pop a bunch of pain pills 1/2 hour before cooking but that doesn't sound great. Mix them with some wine? No... Hire a gorgeous male chef to simply follow my direction? That sounds good, but hmmm..... no money!

Well here is what I made anyhow. First I made this yummy organic beef stew. It smells great and it is still on the stove. The recipe has a Moroccan bent to it. Every ingredient was fresh and organic----- stew beef, herbs, fresh chopped tomatoes , crimini mushrooms, and other veggies! The Moroccan bent is the addition of yams and Moroccan spices. It should be good. I think I am going to add in a bit or red wine from Oregon soon and then it will be done....



The second "dish" was a guacamole kit put together by Melissa's Vegetable company-you chop up fresh garlic, shallots and a serrano pepper. Add a ripe chopped plum tomato and chopped Hass avacados and then squeeze lime juice over the whole thing. It looks great. I also added some sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. I am not sure what / how I am going to eat this since I am on a no grain/low carb diet. I could eat it with a spoon but that is way too many calories! So I might eat small amounts over the next week with some broiled tilapia fish or some scrambled eggs.


I do have some knitting this weekend. I am trying to work hard on the baby blanket for Kaylon, an adorable little boy who will be moving here from Guatemala in the next few months to live with Andrea and her hubbie! I only have two more squares of the blanket, but I admit touching wool is hard in the 105 plus heat!! So in between, I just started working on Wendy Bernard's Sizzle Pattern using the new Lanas Puras Clarissa yarn. I love love this yarn, it is 50% cotton/50% wool. The pattern is going to look quite different I think but still adorable. We have some cute patterns hopefully soon in the yarn as every designer who has gotten a hank so far loves it......

Happy Weekend, I am off to a coffee shop with the Jo Sharp pattern books......Maybe I'll try to get in a swim as exercise has to help my poor aching back, right? It is very hard to cope with, this is my blog so I can say that here.....