cozy afternoon

It's the season for making tea and curling up under a blanket with a good book or some knitting.  Lucky for us, our friends and family gave us some wonderful gifts I thought I would share with you today.

 

On the left, a quilt from our my Grandma, "Flowers in the Cabin", which she commissioned for our wedding day.  On the right, Kivrin enjoying the hand knit blanket made by DH's aunt.  She apparently started this project before she knew I was a knitter and worried what I would think.  But as I told her, crafters appreciate these kinds of gifts even more; we know the love and effort that went into them.  

Here's wishing you a cozy afternoon ~!

cabin in the woods

Fall is in the air... and so is love.  I was off in the woods this weekend, staying at a cabin on a ranch in the mountains for a magnificent and awesome event.  My best friend/cousin is now married and I feel as though I have helped accomplish something big and wonderful.

There was food and friends and family.  There were farm animals and puppies and flowers and dresses, and many many things to take care of.   There was some little time for knitting by the fire,  there was sitting in the hots springs, there was rain and mist on the mountains and glorious fall leaves and sunshine.  There was a marriage, and the start of two new lives together.  There was joy.

mushroom ravioli

gluten free wild mushroom ravioli with lemon thyme cream sauce and balsamic reduction

My first homemade pasta~

The ravioli recipe was from The Gluten Free Italian Cookbook, which not only has wonderful dough, pasta, and filling recipes but also has excellent tips for the whole process.  Make the dough, kneed in the kitchen stand, let rest in fridge for 30 min.  Meanwhile, make the filling; I used local farm mushrooms, whipped eggs, cream, and Parmesan.

Then roll out the dough using a pasta maker and let the strips dry for 30 minutes.  Add your filling, lay dough strips on top, press down to secure, then cut apart.  Cook for 7-10 minutes.

For the sauce, I used 2 Tbs butter and some rice flour to make a roue, then added 1 cup of cream, some parmesan, thyme, a little lemon juice, salt and pepper and cooked until thickened.  This recipe is very similar to what I did.  The reduction is very easy- just put balsamic vinaigrette in a pot on low heat, and stir until reduced by half.

Dobertec!

the architecture of landscape

dreaming of fall

The temperature here scooped low this weekend, and so I spent my time admiring the apples on our backyard, and thinking about the approaching season...

I made some chai this weekend- it was wonderful.  We are also planning to make our own cider this year. 

Fall is tree planting season- we just bought a Norwegian Sunset Maple for our yard, which has me thinking landscaping...

and I've been dreaming of the new fall yarn collection, a new knitting bag, a sweater to wear, a watch, a book on architecture to read, and for dinner, beer mac and cheese.

I'm trying to figure out how to architecture my surroundings, how to landscape and design myself to match the beauty of the season unfolding.