Friday Fancies

I've decided to take the next week off from regular posts so that I can try to make some long-awaited blog design tweaks. Don't hold me to it, though. I've been wanting to do this for well over a year now. Let's hope that I can finally get my act together and that I'm not too disappointed by the large gap between the vision in my head and my very minimal web design abilities!

Here are a few links to keep you busy in the meantime:

Some eye candy for Anglophiles.

Even more eye candy for Anglophiles.

Speaking of England, Penguin has a new English Library series coming out that looks similar to their clothbound classics but in paperback and featuring a wider range of titles. Hopefully they'll be available in the U.S. sometime.

I never thought I would ever try pickling anything from scratch, but these simple instructions may just tempt me to try it.

And check out this April Fools food project. Pretty crazy, but also way more effort than I'd ever go through for the sake of a practical joke.

Housekeeping

Because I refuse to carry around the giant 1Q84, I've been reading two books at once. While I'm working my way through Murakami's heavy novel at home, I've been carrying Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping in my bag to read here and there when I'm out and about. 

Reading these two side by side has made me realize that, for me, there are two distinct types of great authors. One is the kind of author that Murakami is, who writes stories that make me wonder how something so complex and unique can come out of a single person's head. The other kind of author gives the impression that their story wasn't something that was fully formed in their imagination, but something that was really labored over slowly, with every word precisely chosen and carefully considered. Marilynne Robinson falls into that latter category. As I read Housekeeping, I could almost feel the thought process that went into perfecting every single word.

The novel centers around two sisters, Ruthie and Lucielle, who are left in the care of their elderly grandmother after their mother commits suicide. When their grandmother passes away, their eccentric aunt Sylvie ends her transient lifestyle and takes up residence as their caregiver. As the girls age, they begin to drift apart. Lucielle, embarrassed by Sylvie's increasingly erratic and dreamy behavior, finally breaks with the family to live with a neighbor. Ruthie, left alone with Sylvie, becomes further drawn in to her strange world. The town begins to notice and suspect Sylvie of neglect. When the local court threatens to step in and split up Ruthie and her aunt, the pair decides to run and return to Sylvie's nomadic, drifter lifestyle. 

This is a quiet, densely detailed novel. I'm not sure I can say that I loved the story as a whole, but there were many moments and descriptions throughout that I did love. The pace is just a bit too slow to be a truly compelling read, but the writing itself is just lovely. It's worth reading just for the sake of marveling at Robinson's skill.

My First Sweater

What I'm about to say may sound like a humble brag. And, okay, it kind of is: I didn't have any chance to do any knitting posts over the past winter because I was too busy finishing my biggest knitting project to date- my first sweater.

I made it during the course of about six weeks as part of a free workshop at Lion Brand Yarn Studio (which I'd highly recommend if you're in the NYC area and have any interest in knitting).

There were definitely some ups and downs along the way, including having to rip out and redo quite a few rows of the eyelet pattern near the neck.

The end result came out looser and with a much wider neckline than the pattern intended, but I actually kind of like the slouchy fit. Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. It's not perfect, but it's not too shabby for a first attempt (humble brag #2?).

And just because I can't resist, here are a few pictures of the sister beagles during their second visit with each other:

Friday Fancies

Weather-wise, this past week has been one of the most perfect beginnings of spring that I can remember. One interesting side effect of the warm days and cool, misty mornings has been a pleasant (in my opinion, anyway) lingering fog. This is what the lower Manhattan skyline looked like during lunchtime yesterday:

If this keeps up, the city may have to change its name to New Francisco. Or San York.

Some other, less foggy highlights from the week:

Pretty paper flowers that would make a lovely keepsake.

A recipe for spinach feta dumplings (that seem like a twist on spinach balls, for those of you who have had those).

A few nice ideas for incorporating lavender into a wedding.

Some behind the scenes scoop (or should I say sGoop?) on Gwyneth Paltrow's much raved about Oscar dress.

And have you made the switch from hot to iced coffee yet this season? Here's an interesting article about the economics of iced coffee.

Pasta a la Schrute

Or, for anyone who's not a fan of The Office, pasta with beets.

This recipe from Whole Living magazine has only increased the love I already had for my favorite vegetable. The process is a little time consuming because it involves roasting fresh beets, but is otherwise really simple. The sauce, which is almost like a beet version of pesto, is made by pureeing the roasted beets along with sun dried tomatoes, walnuts, and olive oil, and is mixed with plain or whole wheat linguine. Red pepper flakes add a hint of heat that's nicely balanced by a dollop of ricotta cheese. 

I highly recommend trying this one.