Hygge & Wool

This weekend has been one at home, and mostly in the kitchen. I had a lot of class assignments to do so I set my computer and textbooks up on the dining room table, alternating between homework and cooking. Being in the kitchen at least gave me a sense of having a weekend and doing something for myself instead of just being a slave to college this week. S's brother came to visit, so it was nice to have someone to keep S company while I devoted my weekend to assignments, and it was also nice to cook for someone else, which I always love doing.

This weekend since I had time at home I set up my new KitchenAid mixer pasta cutter attachment and got to work. I've made raviolis before with a friend so I knew it took some time. I spent most of my afternoon alternating cutting 10 noodles and writing a few paragraphs. In the end, it was so worth it. To me, there is always so much love inside homemade pasta, it always tastes ten times better.

I didn't want to drown my fresh noodles in tomato sauce, so I opted for carbonara so that we could really taste the semolina flour in the dough. It was delicious, and of course heavy! I always find that when I eat fresh pasta I am always satisfied with smaller portions. My favorite addition to pasta a la carbonara is cracked black pepper; I always add a lot because I love the peppery flavor with smoked bacon and the egg sauce.

In the first photo is a snack I made with the extra pasta dough. I mixed nearly too much semolina flour for the pasta, so instead of making more noodles, I rolled it out on our pizza stone extremely thin. I brushed it with some thick olive oil, cracked black pepper, sharp provolone cheese, and some arugula to make a flatbread. It was our snack as I continued rolling out pasta noodles in the afternoon.

And, of course, I started this weekend of cuisine with homemade waffles. I made a decent size batch in order to put the extra in the freezer - homemade frozen waffles. I like my waffle batter to be extremely milky (I use almond milk) and with a teaspoon full of vanilla extract. It's like dessert for breakfast. I think next time I will still use the almond milk, and instead of vanilla extract, I'll use almond extract. And since I'm not crazy about syrup, I put Nutella on my waffles instead. It was a wonderful weekend of sweet and savory to balance out the workload that I had.

Adieu, Yelle

Weekend Recap @ Home in the Kitchen

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

This past Monday was President's Day and since my detail-oriented wedding from the weekend was over, I had the day off! S did too so we took a day adventure together. We drove less than an hour (towards the tourist area of Orlando) and visited an abandoned Chinese theme park.

Now, I can't exactly explain how I came about being able to explore this abandoned park since it is gated off and no trespassing signs are posted, but that's half the fun, wondering about the mystery, isn't it?

We came in the back way where most of the structures were wooden and decrepit. Many of the Asian style gazebos were chipping, and the historical replicas were broken piece-by-piece, most likely souvenirs taken home as a keep sake.

Whatever statues that couldn't be moved in the abandonment were left to be vandalized and over grown by foliage. The greenery adds to their beauty, and the graffiti made me feel less lonely as I walked around the empty spaces. I could hear my shoes crunch the acorns and echo across the park. The silence was eerie being that I am used to roaring crowds while exploring theme parks.

It was so serene to explore the park with no other visitors shuffling in front of us or speeding up behind us. There were no lines for the stone gardens, no photo-bombs in our portraits. The only people we came across were another set of urban explorers, toting their cameras as well.

The graffiti made me sad because I couldn't do something like that to a park that had original stone work, hand carved replicas, and Chinese entertainment when it was up and running.

There were models of the Great Wall of China, The Forbidden City, and the Potala Palace. Most were falling apart at the seams like the one above, and others like the Great Wall were left standing, all except the tiny people figurines that used to stand on it.

It was a beautiful day to walk around, snap photos, put my hair up. It was peaceful and exhilarating at the same time.

It was nice to take this mini-trip to a close place that felt so different from home. I came home feeling refreshed and inspired, until of course the class work piled up again.

I think I spoke too soon in the post earlier this week about adoring my college. Within a day, I started feeling overwhelmed with my course load. Five classes has never phased me before, but being this is my last semester with numerous groups projects and our capstone project, planning our college's career fair, I am in over my head this week. That explains why I've been a bit quiet on my end of the blogging pond! I am looking forward to a weekend of catching up on projects and catching up on errands.

Adieu, Yelle

our fair city travels

Urban Exploring: Abandoned Chinese Theme Park

Friday, February 22, 2013

Every Valentine's day, being that S went to art school, it's our tradition that he makes me a card. I always want a handmade card more than any box of chocolates or bouquet of flowers. The past few years, he's illustrated a different part of the body and cut it out as a card. The first year I got an anatomical heart, there was also a lung one year, and last year I got a skeleton hand with the quirky, "Can I get your digits?" written inside. This year, we made our cards together.

Last week our invitations were printed and the letterpress we used, Flying Horse Editions, was also having a Letterpress Happy Hour, just in time for Valentine's day. Our friend that works at the press walked us through the steps of picking our paper and designs, then picking the letters for what our cards would say. We went with the simple "Happy Valentine's Day" with a variation of font types and sizes. Then, he showed us how to operate the printing machine.

Our friend joked that it was kind of like inviting people to a restaurant and making them cook their own food. We had to clamp the paper in, as well as press the letters on ourselves. We are definitely not pros at this, but it was fun to use the printing press, especially just after our invitations were made, so we could see exactly how it was done.

It was also nice to see what others picked for their cards to say. I saw other languages like Latin and Spanish, and even cutesy sayings like, "Love you like cake." The entire atmosphere was nice; couples and friends printed their cards and traded, there was beer and wine to drink, as well as a food truck parked just outside of the letterpress for those looking to fill their bellies.

This past weekend we visited friends and family back home for a quick trip. The French would call this a "petit weekend," like a little weekend trip. S finally found his suit for the wedding, we caught up with family, and we got pho with my dad, just in time for Tet, the Vietnamese new year. It was the best bowl of pho I've had in a long time, paired with fresh spring rolls dipped in peanut sauce.

I've been thinking about friends and family up north lately. I know there is a blizzard and I hope everyone is bundled up tight! In Florida, it doesn't even feel like winter. This past week we had an exceptionally beautiful day and while at work my boss said that when we were done with all of our meetings we should go do something outside. It was the first time in months that I had time to just sit by the pool. It felt even stranger knowing that miles north, everyone is inside keeping warm, while I was in a bathing suit laying out at the pool.