A Victorian Valentine

The first paper Valentine's Day greeting cards go back the early 1400s. A revival of the Valentine's Day greeting card began to take place in Great Britian because of the availablity of printed cards and the decrease in postage costs. This made the token of a Valentine exchange more accessible for the masses.

In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began to sell the first mass-produced paper valentines in America.

Most recently, technological advancements have taken this tradition of card exchange to the next level, by provided Valentine’s Day e-card. It's a great way to get a quick card out with very little cost or delay, but frankly I still prefer snail mail.

This year I had the great luck to participate in a Victorian Themed Valentine's Day greeting card exchange with four other people from my Ravelry group, The Victorians.

Each person mailed a Victorian themed card to the other four in the group. The card could be handmade or purchased. These are the lovely results of my exchange, with one exception. The image found at the top of this page is in fact not a card but a sticker that was custom made and decorated the outer envelope of one of the card I received. It reads "To my Ravelry Valentine" I loved it so much, I had to include the image with the cards.

This beautiful handmade card has a portrait of a Victorian couple, not identified, in a sepia. I found it amusing that the outer envelope included a postage stamp of Edgar Allen Poe, How appropriate! A quote is found on the top left hand corner.

" Love me sweet, with all thou art,
Feeling, thinking, seeing,
Love me in the lightest part,
Love me in full being"

~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The Omnivore's Hundred List

I recently came across The Omnivore's Hundred created by food blogger - http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk/. It’s a list of 100 things for the adventurous foodie to try. The list is not a “fear factor” food list as one might think. Instead it’s foods that everyone should try to experience once in their life or more if you happen to really like the stuff. There are strange foods I have never heard of, Salted lassi, Epoisses and silly childhood foods like Hostess Fruit Pie.

So far I have tried 72 out of 100. I would like to think that's good, but it just makes me a bit of a piggy when it comes to food. I will pretty much eat or at least try anything.

The following instructions are from the original posting.
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional: Post a comment here at http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk/ linking to your results.
5.) Extra Optional: I would love to know your results. Please post a comment with your results.

1. Venison

2. Nettle tea

3. Huevos rancheros

4. Steak tartare

5. Crocodile

6. Black pudding

7. Cheese fondue

8. Carp

9. Borscht

10. Baba ghanoush

11. Calamari

12. Pho

13. PB&J sandwich

14. Aloo gobi

15. Hot dog from a street cart

16. Epoisses

17. Black truffle

18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes

19. Steamed pork buns

20. Pistachio ice cream

21. Heirloom tomatoes

22. Fresh wild berries

23. Foie gras

24. Rice and beans

25. Brawn, or head cheese

26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper

27. Dulce de leche

28. Oysters

29. Baklava

30. Bagna cauda

31. Wasabi peas

32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl

33. Salted lassi

34. Sauerkraut

35. Root beer float

36. Cognac with a fat cigar

37. Clotted cream tea

38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O

39. Gumbo

40. Oxtail

41. Curried goat

42. Whole insects

43. Phaal

44. Goat’s milk

45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more

46. Fugu - NO, why take a chance

47. Chicken tikka masala

48. Eel

49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut

50. Sea urchin

51. Prickly pear

52. Umeboshi

53. Abalone

54. Paneer

55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal

56. Spaetzle

57. Dirty gin martini

58. Beer above 8% ABV

59. Poutine

60. Carob chips

61. S’mores

62. Sweetbreads

63. Kaolin

64. Currywurst

65. Durian - Nothing that smell like that is going in my mouth.

66. Frogs’ legs

67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake

68. Haggis

69. Fried plantain

70. Chitterlings, or andouillette

71. Gazpacho

72. Caviar and blini

73. Louche absinthe

74. Gjetost, or brunost

75. Road kill

76. Baijiu

77. Hostess Fruit Pie

78. Snails

79. Lapsang souchong

80. Bellini

81. Tom yum

82. Eggs Benedict

83. Pocky

84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. - MUST DO!

85. Kobe beef

86. Hare

87. Goulash

88. Flowers

89. Horse

90. Criollo chocolate

91. Spam

92. Soft shell crab

93. Rose harissa

94. Catfish

95. Mole poblano

96. Bagel and lox

97. Lobster Thermidor

98. Polenta

99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee

100. Snake

My Norwegian inspired Snappy Hat

My Snappy Hat, designed by Corrina Ferguson (pattern can be found for free on Raverly.com) was inspired by the flag of Norway. Back in October my Ravelry group had a Phat Phlag Swap. We swapped yarn in the colors of our countries flag. My partner is from Norway (red, white and blue flag colors same as US) she sent me two malabrigo chunky skeins in azul profundo and burgundy and a white chunky Drops Eskimo skein. For my Snappy Hat I used the Burgundy skein.

This was the first time I would be making a project using cables. I had always been so intimidated by cables. They have always looked so complicated to me. Complex twisted yarns going one way then over and under, my head would spin, Linda Blair style. However, I know I would never learn if I didn’t at least try. So this was the perfect opportunity for me to give them a try. A small project using chunky/bulky yarn.

The cable part of this pattern was surprisingly easy to follow. But it look odd at first. The three stitches on the cable needle (see pic) always looked out of place because they seemed so far off to the right. For this reason, I wish the cable needle was larger because I found those three stitches would get very tight knitting off of the cable needle. You are in fact pulling them in a different direction and thus creating the shape and direction of the cable. A technique I need to pratice more.

This picture is after the three stitches were knitted off of the cable needle, creating the cable twist. It is really something special to see it take form. I found that aspect of this project very satisfying as well as how quickly this knits up. And no one can argue that a fast and quick project is most satisfying and good for the knitting ego.

Farmer's Market

Saturday night we hopped in the car with the kids and headed over to the Farmer's Market in the Fairfax District for dinner. The Farmer's Market has been around since 1934 and for Los Angeles that is pretty old. It's a wonderful place to have an semi outdoor meal of just about anything you can think of, from pizza, chinese, Korean BBQ to crepes, Mexican, French, seafood, you name it and I am sure you can find it at the Farmer's Market. In addition to prepared foods you can also find local produces, butcheries, pastries, gourment foods, and a whole host of retail stores.

We had dinner at the Mexican Food stand - Loteria Grill, it was DELICIOUS! They have an incredible menu. You can order from their many different sauted items and have them in either a burrito, taco, tostada or sope. They also serve a variety of enchiladas, and chilies rellenos. We ordered a shredded beef burrito, three tacos - mushroom and epazote, cochinita pibil, and carnitas en salsa morita, crispy chicken tacos and black beans and white rice. Everything was wonderful, but by far the carnitas en salsa morita were the best. Slow cooked pork marinated in a super spicy morita chilie sauce topped with onions and cilantro, great texture and flavors. Had us wanted more.

Next we took a stroll over to Bob's CoffeeDoughnuts for a little sweet dessert. This is one of the best place for doughnuts. They have New Orleans style beignets, bear claws, classic glazed, cinnamon rolls, just to mention a few and my favorite maples bars. Sebastian got a "pink" glazed doughnut in shape of a heart. Valentine's Day is just around the corner.

We ended our evening with a trolley ride around the Grove shopping area. My kids love it.