Back from Vacation with a FO

Vacation came and went. It was fantastic, though! Great food, did some sight seeing, and enjoyed each others company. Still waiting on Matt to upload the pictures he took so I can share them with you. We did a cooking class while we were there at Charleston Cooks, which is right across the street from the hotel we stayed at. It was a “Weeknight Dinners” class where they teach you new and quick things to make for dinner. It was a great class and really renewed my desire to get in the kitchen and create again. I also discovered that I like salmon! I had tried salmon previously and didn’t care for it because I found it too fishy tasting, but in the class we broiled it with sour cream and whole grain mustard on top and then toped it with a tomato butter sauce. It was so yummy! The first thing I wanted to make when we returned home was the salmon dish and it was really good! It only takes about 5 to 8 minutes to broil on high and while it’s in there you’re finishing off your sauce. I want to make this again really soon. We also did this marinated pork dish, which was tasty, but the best part was the instant marinater used! It’s a plastic container that has a little hole in the top with a pump you put over it and you suck all the air out. When you release the air, the meat sucks up the marinade. Each time you pump out all the air, it’s like marinating for an hour. Needless to say, we brought one home with us!

Here’s all the loot we brought home after the cooking class:

Click here for the Flickr photo with notes on what we purchased.

Here’s a close up of the two tools I’ve used the most since coming back:

Grater (for garlic!) and garlic peeler. LOVE these!

A better picture of the instant marinater:

We haven’t used the marinater yet, but soon enough! My big purchase while there was when we went to the Le Creuset outlet store. I have wanted to own anything from Le Creuset for a long time and I finally got my chance to get something. I decided on a wok. An orange one. I got it at quite a discount, too :o)

My prrreeecccciiiioooouuusssss….

I did manage to get quite a bit of knitting done on the way down and way home since we drove. I finished a hat and got half-way done with a sock. While we were there I didn’t do much knitting other than when we watch the election coverage on the 4th. The hat I did was done in a few hours on the way home and I made it to donate.

Pattern: Beaufort Hat by Angela Hahn (Ravelry link – only available as a Ravelry download)
Started: November 8, 2008
Completed: November 8, 2008
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, about 1/2 skein
Needles: US 6 bamboo circular and DPNs
Notes: Quick knit, easy pattern to memorize for me. I cast on 96 stitches since I was working with different yarn and needle size. The extra repeat (12 stitches) made it the perfect size. I think it was a bit on the short side so if I were to knit this again with the same yarn, I’d and an extra inch or two before working the decreases (it decreases rather quickly!).

That’s all I have for now. I have some other projects I want to post about, but that would make for an even longer post! In my next post I’ll tell you about two socks I’m working on, revisit the Gable sweater, and the mittens I just started. Plus whatever else I might have on my mind ;o)