pepperknit

A friend of mine has started writing a little food column, where she takes a recipe and gives it a try, as a novice cook. She asked me for ideas of what to make—my list included two things that I had actually never made from scratch before: angel food cake and mayonnaise.

Today I crossed one of those off my own personal list.

No, it’s not a specimen in a jar, that is homemade mayonnaise! it’s in one of the Desert Pepper salsa jars that I use as drinking glasses—I keep a handful of the lids around, which makes my glasses available for mixing up salad dressings or storing things that need storing.

Conversation with other food-minded friends today sparked a craving for mayonnaise like I have never had before in my life. I know the mayonnaise debate can get quite heated—just ask my Aunt Kathy and her daughter Meaghan, who stand staunchly on opposite sides of that egg-oil line. Meaghan thinks the stuff is vile; Kathy feels it is “UNAMERICAN” to dislike mayo (nevermind that the foodstuff is French, named for the duke of Mahon). I swear, every single lunchtime conversation at beach week veers into the Great Mayo Debate.

But I’ve never been able to get my hackles up on the subject. I like mayo, sure, but I don’t love it. I like a little moisture on my sandwiches, and I’ve recently decided that a burger with mayo is better than a burger with ketchup (though give a hearty stir and I’m pretty happy, too). When I worked in a restaurant, I loathed the people who requested sides of mayo, because it meant sticking my whole arm up to my elbow into the almost-empty-but-not-quite economy size jar of the gloppy white stuff. But now I’m that person—okay, I guess I’m a mayo fan.

But I was never a fan like I am now. I used Berlin’s Whimsy’s recipe for garlic mayo, because I figured why just do something basic when you can do something sublime? I had all the ingredients on hand and my food processor was out and ready to go anyway. And the results—after all of 3 minutes’ effort!—were well worth it. I even stopped off at Five Guys to buy fries just for the occasion.

Of course, 2 cups’ worth of oil means I now have a LOT of mayonnaise. Looks like I’ll be eating a lot of BLTs!

Today is a big birthday for my dad. Well, in truth, his birthday is August 24, and I’m writing this on August 23 (my BFF since kindergarten’s birthday; hi Liss!), but where dad lives it is just now August 24. It’s weird to not be with him on this, the day that marks his 60th revolution around the sun, but Mom and Dad are still in Singapore (actually I think they’re in Thailand right now, just for a visit), and another trip for me wasn’t possible.

So here’s to Dad! Always up for participating in whatever photographic idea I’ve got in my head . . .

Always up to a good meal and trying new things (at this dinner i made him eat taramosalata, one of my favorite foods, and he liked it!) . . .

Always fascinated by the beautiful things around him (this day, he borrowed my point and shoot camera and was exploring—what was it, dad?—”shapes and shutters” or something silly like that. another day he used the camera to look at “color”) . . .

Always interested in the culture and places he visits—and he’s been all over Asia at this point! Next up, Europe—I’m looking forward to the next adventure, which begins in Norway in October, and will last for 3 years. (Here we’re making our way down the steep, steep stairs on the Buddhist temple of Borobudur in Indonesia.)

And always inspiring me. Just in this past week—perhaps because I’ve had dad’s birthday on my mind?—I started running, for pretty much the first time in my life. Dad’s an accomplished marathoner and is “pretty fast for an old guy,” as he likes to say. (He’s being modest—he’s really fast for an old guy.) I’ve never been a runner, despite all my exposure to the sport, but something changed in the last week, and while I’ve only taken a few slow steps, I think I see a lot more in my future. And I know I’ll think of Dad on every run—and perhaps curse him, once he starts giving me training advice. (As a certified coach, he probably deserves to be listened to, though, I guess!) Here’s hoping I’m as in shape and healthy as he is at 60.

Happy birthday Dad!! Wish I could be there in person. (Your gift requires some discussion, but we will discuss it soon.) Looking forward to seeing you guys in the States in about a month—maybe we’ll go on a run together. Mom can cook us up a big breakfast as a reward.  :)

I took enough yarn with me down the shore to knit an entire sweater. I told myself “you have one week: get it done.” I knew this was risky, given I would not have my (small but good) library of knitting books on hand as reference, as I was designing my first set-in sleeve. I knew i would have internet access and could easily read great tutorials on armscyes on knitty, and I could use the fantastic armscye calculator, created by my friend Elinor of Exercise Before Knitting’s genius husband. I knew if all else failed I could wing it and it would probably be okay. But instead . . .

Yeah, I didn’t knit a single stitch. Didn’t touch the yarn, didn’t look anything up. I jumped in upon my return and am cranking along—of course, I’m also freaking out about those armscyes. All the references and reading in the world can’t help me i don’t think. I just have to do it!

“I tried to think of the most harmless thing. Something I loved from my childhood. Something that could never ever possibly destroy us. Mr. Stay Puft!”

It’s a classic (even the channel AMC (American Movie Classics) tells us so). It’s always on TV (just tune to AMC). It’s part of cultural consciousness like only a few other movies in our lifetimes. It’s Ghostbusters!

And it’s also Jason’s favorite movie. But I noticed, despite all the cool T-shirts Jason has and has even made himself, he was lacking in the Ghostbusters department. I had to fix that, didn’t I? Ectoplasmic goo isn’t so easily rendered, but the Stay Puft marshmallow man sure is.

I found an image online that I traced and tweaked to create space between his joints. The whole thing got traced onto freezer paper. Freezer-paper stencils are incredibly easy once you’ve got a plan—in fact, I once wrote out a short tutorial, the first time I gave it a shot. My only frustration was the paint itself. Opaque white is thick and gunky, and stenciling it on wasn’t the smoothest of operations. But I made it work (perhaps the homemade look helps—don’t want anyone to think he got this in a store, after all!). A second layer, in orange, was applied after the white was fully dry, and this guy was ready to ravage all of New York City!

Let me acknowledge the long silence round these parts and apologize. I said I was on a knitting break but that isn’t entirely true—I’ve actually knit a few things so far this year, and I’m overdue to share them with you. It’s a rededication to the blog, as I’m currently bursting over with crafty happiness!