pepperknit

Every girl needs her own army of meek adorable robots, don’t you think?

These guys are particularly polite and sweet, and they’re going to live with Specs, a polite and sweet friend who didn’t even bellyache one bit that I delayed more than six months to hold up my end of a swap. See, she was exploring paper cutting, and I eagerly said, “you make me something like that and I’ll . . . yeah, I’ll make you something in return. Sure. Sometime.”

So she awesomely worked this up for me—featuring an owl, no less, the mascot of my alma mater. And then I got all excited to make her something in return, sewing some things, looking at books, even crocheting the start of a Mechanobot . . .

But I just couldn’t commit! It was too hard! What would she really want? What could I possibly make her that she’d like?

Until Chawne recently got a copy of Crobots, too. And she didn’t dilly-dally like I did. In fact, within a day of receiving the book, she’d whipped up a robot she named Dexter. And Specs’s response to Chawne’s robot was so good, I knew I had to recommit. And so Sangamo was born.

Sangamo follows the pattern (Mechanobot, available free online!) pretty much to a T. I even had almost identical hardware to adorn her with. The only difference is I used screws with a flat head for her legs, and if you set her down juuuust right, she can stand on her own. Soon after, Sangamo’s cousin Miss Gloria rolled up.

Miss Gloria was based on the Wheely pattern, but modified—she’s larger than the written directions, because the scale between her and Sangamo was going to be too far off. The wheels are the size specified in the direx, though. Her adornments are more fancy—glass beads and sequins—because she’s a fussy, girlie robot. She works hard to keep her wheels in perfect condition. Her pet robot, Yuri, completes the trio.

Specs and her boyfriend have two cats, Dimitri and Otto, so I chose a name in keeping with the theme. Yuri also deviates from the written Catbot pattern, especially with respect to the hardware. I decided that to look more like a robot (I mean, really, it’s just a cat otherwise), brass screws and brass hardware would complete the look. Oh, and I added a tail, which shockingly the pattern does not entail.

I’m on a bit of a robot craze as a result, though my love is only for Mechanobot at this point. I think you’ll be seeing more of him around these parts.

Some eat to live; I’ve always lived to eat. I cook a lot, and I take photos of the majority of what I make—I take photos of the majority of what I eat, whether I cooked it or not. Looking back at the pictures, I can relive every bite.

Like these pickles, that I made sort of on the spur of the moment because of a book I was editing. I am a freelancer, and I was giving Alton Brown’s latest cookbook a proofread. Which meant I was scheming to make nearly everything in it. But refrigerator pickles just hit me as the thing I had to have—and one night, probably between page 213 and 214, I set the book aside to make a batch. I’d never done something like this before, and though I realize that refrigerator pickling is not nearly as impressive as actual pickling, I was thrilled with the results. The onions are my favorite part, actually.

This year I finally mastered the art of poaching an egg, after years of perfectly edible but completely ugly attempts. It’s all thanks to Lauren, who shared a video of how she does it, and now I just channel her on Sunday mornings. I even got myself an electric kettle, which is what she uses to get her water hot but still, and now the process is even easier.

To enhance my sandwich obsession, I finally made mayonnaise from scratch for the first time. I’m not sure if I’d been intimidated by it or just lazy, but I found that it is neither scary nor time consuming. I think the worst part is cleaning the food processor, and I can handle that. (Or, um, if Jason’s around he’ll do it for me.) It makes BLTs with avocado just that much better, let me tell you.

This year I also became a master deep-fryer. I’d always been terrified of embarking on deep-fried endeavors, but this year I just filled pans with oil and let loose. In 2010 I’ll make donuts for the first time.

For instance, I deep-fried poached eggs (with Lindsay):

And Jason and I made tempura veggies and deep-fried spring rolls (twice!):

It wasn’t all savory, either. Reid, my chocoholic friend, turned 30, so I made him these chocolate cookies, which received rave reviews at the party. (I still happily remember when Reid, tipsy with birthday drinks, came over to me and said “someone asked if you are a GOURMET CHEF. and I SAID YES.”)

And I also was in Norway with my parents for Christmas this year, where we got snowed in for days, and mom and I baked Christmas cookies together for the first time in years!

I could go on and on. The year, as with past years, sure was tasty. I’m eager to try more new techniques and recipes—Steph recently loaned me her slow cooker slow cooker, so I’m looking for great recipes for that this winter. And if the year to come is even half as flavorful and perfectly cooked as our New Year’s Eve dinner, I’ll be doing okay.