My favorite way to eat soba noodles

A friend was tweeting about soba noodles and it reminded me of my favorite way to eat them.  I found this recipe years ago even before I became vegan in Vegetarian Times/July 1999.  It's really the dressing that makes it so great; apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, lemon juice and dark sesame oil. 

Now, I want to eat some over the weekend.  Will need to go to the Chinese supermarket since I am out of soba noodles.  I have all the other ingredients already on hand.

What are the ways you love eating soba noodles?

My biggest knitting pet peeve

This knot to connect 2 ends of yarn in the middle of a ball is my biggest knitting pet peeve.  I once had 3 knots in a 50g ball while trying to knit one of my spring scarves.  It drives me crazy and I want to throw the ball across the room when it happens.

Luckily this time I was knitting something small and had knit only 10 rows.  When 3/4s of the way into a row for a baby blanket is another matter though which is what happened to me the last time I knit for a friend.

Is this also your biggest knitting pet peeve or is it something different altogether?

Cable and seed stitch fun

The last couple of weeks I have been working on a new hat and fingerless mitt pattern.  The hat was inspired by a stranger in the subway.  She was wearing a wonderful lace and cable hat and I really liked the look of it but wanted something warmer than the lace in between the cables.  Winters here can be very cold and windy and lacey hats just don't cut it most of the time. After a few trials trying different patterns I found the seed stitch looked good.  So here's what the hat looks like in black.

I also wanted to knit shorter fingerless mitts and decided to keep the cable and seed stitch as inspiration.  Here they are in black and a detail of the pattern in purple.

Vegan salmon bagel

Some weeks back I bought myself these vegan salmon steaks from the Viva Vegan Store and someone wondered if they would be great to make salmon bagels. 

The salmon steak by itself is delicious.  I love bringing it to work; microwave a few minutes with a herbed gravy and some mashed potatoes.  It's a quick, easy and delicious lunch and my coworkers can tell you how much I love it.  I rave about my lunch every time I bring this.

And yes they are great to make salmon bagels.  I used the creamy Sheese, thinly sliced one of the steaks, added capers, onions and voilà!  The vegan salmon bagel is born.  I just wish I had some sprouts to put on top since I loved eating it this way.

Fruity Coconut Jelly

Fruity Coconut Jelly are amazing, delicious jelly desserts.  They are made with coconut gel and seaweed instead of gelatin which makes them vegan.

I love these with a passion and I have now found them in my neighborhood at the Asian market.  I first ate these last summer when a friend found these shopping in Chinatown.  They come in various fruit flavours; these are green apple, pineapple, strawberry and grape. I must buy the mango ones next time I go shopping.

Yes, half of the container is already gone after just one day!  I eat them straight out of the little cup being careful not to spill some of the juice in them.  There's also a little piece of fruit in them which I have yet to identify. I even have the omni boyfriend liking them. 

Perfect games at bowling

Last night I had so much fun bowling with my team.  My boyfriend as usual was being his silly self exasperating our captain.  I know he does it on purpose and she's so easy to exasperate.

I am not the one who played a perfect, neither did my boyfriend.  The one who did plays on our team and he actually played two of them.  We play 3 games per night and he did them on the first and third game.  It was just so amazing to see him throw his ball and see it going down the alley so smoothly to make strike after strike.  Out of 36 possible strikes he did 34.

It did help us win all 3 games and may even be enough for us to end up in first position of the bowling league.

Too much knitting

This  morning I woke up with my shoulders and lower back hurting.  The reason : too much knitting.  Friday night I spent the evening knitting, going to bed past midnight.  I just kept telling myself, " A few more rows and then you'll go to bed."  Saturday was spent knitting all day as well.  I have a few custom orders to knit right now and want them to be ready to ship as quickly as possible. I also had quite a few fringed scarves to finish so I could finally add them to my shop.

Last week I had a pair of fingerless mitts with flap to knit and they turned out great.  I really love the cap for the thumb, it's so cute.  I once again used the Knucks pattern and added the flap by following different ideas people used.  I now have to knit a pair in red.