Close to my Heart

Cooked by me

Sorry, I have yet another food post, but this one is the first picture I've posted of a meal actually cooked by me. This is one of my favourite comfort foods, stir fried beef and tomato.  A tasty sweet and gingery concoction, so good!

 

Edited to add my recipe for this yummy dish, by request.

Brenda's Beef and Tomato

I don't really use a recipe, but here's kind of what I do:

 

Ingredients:

Round steak

Onion

Corn starch

Oil

Soy sauce

Fresh tomatoes

Ginger root

Sugar

 

Cut steak into thin slices.  Works best if steak is slightly frozen.  Place in bowl.  Slice onion and place in bowl with steak.  Add dollop of oil (a tablespoon or so, depending on amount of steak) and a tablespoon or two of corn starch (again depending on the amount of steak).  Drizzle soy sauce over top, and mix together.  Cover and place in fridge for a couple hours.

 

Heat oil in frying pan.  Add steak/onion mixture and stir fry until almost cooked.  Add tomatoes cut in wedges as well as ginger root peeled and cut in small pieces (I've never measured the ginger root, probably a teaspoon or so but according to taste). Sprinkle in about a teaspoon of sugar, to to taste.  Cook until tomatoes are soft.

 

Serve over hot steamed rice.  Enjoy!

What every bicycle needs

Well technically today's picture is from yesterday, however I think I can be excused for posting it today.  Yesterday I was in Victoria with my parents. My Dad has not been well the last several months and he had a specialist appointment. The short story is that he requires surgery that will hopefully correct the chronic pain he is in constantly.  It does have its risks, but we are optimistic that it will give him the quality of life he enjoyed until this past summer.

While in Victoria, I had a few brief minutes to spare and quickly visited two yarn stores.  One of them, as often happens, did not acknowledge my existance at all (no "hi," or "is there anything I can help you with?" nothing at all.  One clerk looked at me from behind the counter but did not say one word.  I did not give them any of my money and quickly walked out the door.

The other shop is new to Victoria since my last visit, and I was very happy I could finally check it out:

 

And today's official Photo 365 shot, a bike outside the store door that is wearing it's own sweater:

Ukrainian dinner

holubtsi, originally uploaded by Close to my Heart.

I'm at my parent's place tonight. Some of you may recall that a few years ago I blogged about my Ukrainian heritage. I think I've even shown this same dish that I've made before, but can't find it now. I did find a very similar recipe here.  Anyhow, today's picture is of my absolute favourite Ukrainian dish, so good! And Mom cooked it too, even better!

Sock yarn

Okay, this photo 365 thing is really difficult, and I'm not sure that I will continue.  We shall see.  At any rate, I do have two pictures to share today.  Myself and two friends ventured over to Fun Knits on Quadra Isalnd today.  Here's a couple pictures of my favourite part of the store, the sock yarn walls.  Sock/fingering weight definitely comprises the largest part of my stash, and I'm particularly loving all the small shall patterns springing up lately that uses this weight of yarn.

 

Multnomah #2

This was/is going to be my photo 365 picture for today:

It shows my recently completed Multnomah shawl blocking.  I had the idea that if I propped it against the wall in the hallway with the baseboard heater blaring directly across, and the little fan distributing said warm air that perhaps it would dry quicker than normal on a coolish almost winter day.  I was going to write that I hoped it would be dry by bedtime and that I would soon have actual Finished Object pictures to share.

Well this method worked better than I could even have imagined.  It was probably dry within about three hours.  I'm doing this with all of my blocked items in the future.

So, today I can also share a picture of my completely finished shawl.  There are many more pics over on my Ravelry Project Page.

Mmmm, breakfast

Joe and I love going out for breakfast.  We go to a little corner cafe that has the best home cooked food.  Picture is of this morning's feast, mmmmmm. 

Coin Belt

This year I replaced skating (which I didn't enjoy much last year) with belly dance lessons.  Great fun!  I'm not very good but it is great exercise and I love the jangling sounds that my coin belt makes.  It's the one belly dance accessory that I currently own.

I'm posting this today since tonight I'm going to a belly dance show that a couple friends and my teacher are all performing in.  Shimmy, sisters!

Here's today's photo, the kitties on one of their favourite perches.  This is a good vantage point of the fish pond/patio area as well as the green belt our house borders on.  And it's a lot more fun if the wind is blowing too, which it was when the picture is taken.  Further adding to the cat endorsement, there is a heater below the window and any cat lover knows how important that is!

The changing seasons

Today's IPhone photos represent the change of season.  It is beginning to feel not only that summer is over, but Fall is almost done as well.  Although the skies may be blue, 

it really is a lot cooler now, necessitating the wearing of wooly socks and other garments.

The fish pond and patio area, where we spend so much time in the summer, looks tired and cold now too.   No more pretty flowers and greenery, and the patio furniture has been put to one side as well.

 

Good thing I have lots of warm woolies, here's a couple pairs of recently completed socks:

 

Further details on either pair of socks can be found on my Ravelry project page here.

My new companion

If you follow me on Plurk, Twitter, or even Facebook, this is going to be old news, but anyway....

I have a new companion. This companion comes with me to work, to bed, on all my errands, and sometimes even to the bathroom.  It makes me accountable, keeps me organized, and entertains me.  It also helps keep me connected with friends and family.  What is it you may ask?  Well my newest, brightest, and shiniest favourite thing is my Iphone!  What you may wonder, happened to one of last year's bright and shiny items, the Blackberry?  Well let's just say the Blackberry was one of those relationships that were jumped into far too quickly without enough knowledge.  I ddn't really realize what a mistake it was until I met the Ipod Touch earlier this year.  The Touch lured me into deeper things, and convinced me that I needed to take the Apple relationship one step further.  I wished and wished that my cell provider could assist me with this, but they were not acquainted with this deeper need.  That all changed on November 5th when it was determined that these deeper needs of mine could indeed be met.  Local retail outlets were telephone stalked during my lunch break that day, and I could barely wait for quitting time when I would meet my new companion.  You've probably figured out the identity of my new close friend, the most wonderful and awesome Iphone.   Here's the front screen of mine:

 

My most favourite applications are on this first screen.  Social networking, lists, calendar, weather, my weight loss program (23 pounds now!) and even knitting applications.  I can carry knitting patterns in this handy little gadget too, see:

 

(I just learned how to do a screen shot)

The camera is far superior to that of the jilted Blackberry, which of course was tested on a kitty:

This post also marks the beginning of my participation in Photo 365.  I am going to endeavor to blog a picture every day in the next year.  While many will undoubtedly be Iphone photos (Typepad has a nifty IPhone app) I see this as an attempt to blog more regularly in a way that will chronicle my day to day life in the next year.  We'll see how it goes.