Pieces and Meal

Well, Oatmeal is practically an FO. I finished seaming over the weekend- no small feat. While I am still not a "yay, I love seaming" type of gal, I must admit this was probably the best seaming job I've done thus far. That isn't to say it's phenomenal, but - let's put it this way - it doesn't totally suck. Which, in the end, is all I can really ask of myself at this point. The assembled Oatmeal had a bath yesterday and is now blocking. I had some leftover yarn, so I decided to really milk this East Coast baby thing and knit a pair of mittens to go with it.

Only four pieces, but man was there a lot of seaming.

I cooked another ginormous batch of veggies yesterday. (Note to self: we really need to acquire an outdoor grill. It was f-ing hot in the house yesterday from all the cooking.) Lest you assume that I am a vegetarian, don't believe the hype. I ate a smorgasboard of delish food (chicken, beef, veggie, and shrimp kabobs, and mashed potato bar, among other such deliciousness) on Saturday night at my friend's birthday party. I just felt really good last week, toning it down and sticking with mostly veggies and grains that I thought I'd try for another week. Thanks, not only to that one stop at Real Food Daily over a week ago that jump-started me, but also to Alice Waters (another long-time source of culinary inspiration) and my Chez Panisse Vegetables cookbook for some of this week's ideas. Again, I have no delusions that I will keep this up, but why not ride the wave for as long as it will take me?

Lentils and rice, sauteed broccoli, sugar snap peas, and baby bok choy, roasted eggplant, zucchini, crookneck squash, mushrooms, and red onions, braised swiss chard.

I totally forgot about the asparagus and cauliflower, so I think I will roast some of that tonight to add to the mix, along with some corn on the cob. Yum! I love cooking up a big batch of food on Sunday that will last me for days- I heart leftovers!

The following has nothing to do with anything, except it looked so cute just lying in the middle of the bed, that I had to take its picture. This smushy, much licked and slobbered on, mangled, soggy, and much loved thing is Dakota's bear. He has other toys, but aside from playing catch outside, he only likes (LOVES) this one. He's very cute with, too. He holds it in his front paws and licks it, chews on it a little, but not enough to do any severe damage (although, the bear lost his stitched-on mouth long ago).

I bought a back-up bear, in anticipation of when this one dies, but so far so good! He takes a lickin' (literally) and keeps on tickin'!