Dinner Tonight: Pork Chops, Maple Baked Beans, and Coleslaw
For those that don’t know, the Snook and I take turns cooking dinner just about every night of the week. We use a lot of recipes off the Internet, and I thought it would be fun to document some of them here for you. (And I know you guys like the food posts!) Tonight’s meal was designed around these Maple Baked Beans from Serious Eats. I started them early today. You use dry beans but you don’t pre-soak them; instead you simmer them for 20 minutes first. I found I actually had to cook them for 25 minutes as they were just too hard before that. Then I assembled the dish as directed in our crock pot and cooked it on high all day. After about 5 hours, the ham hock was falling apart. So I pulled out the bones and transferred the meat and beans to an oven-safe dish. I added the butter and brown sugar and finished them off in the oven. YUM! Very nice baked beans, not too sticky sweet. The Coleslaw is actually from another Serious Eats recipe. It’s pretty good, but I recommend you only make half (unless you want to be eating coleslaw for the next two weeks). The Snook just cooked the pork chops in a frying pan with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper. Nice meal, and we have plenty of leftovers!

Spudds Christmas Party 2011
A couple weeks ago was the annual Spudds Christmas Party. I went along to collect the award for our company. There were plenty of people there, but I knew NO ONE. So I got some practice at mingling and small talk with total strangers. (Protip: Find a hot Italian chick and hang out with her. Old dudes will buy you drinks all night.) When I collected the award, Spudd made me give a little speech. I said, “I ran a marathon this year–” and everyone applauded. I continued, “–but I think I was actually prouder the day I got three 100s on the rower.” They roared. Spudd told them that I was one of only two girls to reach that milestone this year. Yay! When I was leaving, I noticed that Spudd’s son Josh had a “photo booth” set up in the corner where he wanted people to take a silly photo. I obliged. Fun night!

Cheers to my cousin Jenny for alerting us to the availability of Best of Bootie 2011. These free mashup “CDs” are available in January every year, and they are AWESOME. I love very catchy music, and frankly, these mixes are pretty much my only connection to what’s happening in modern pop and R&B. They make GREAT running music too! Highly, highly recommended.

Edited to add: Aaaaand I just came to a mashup called “Eine Kleine Big Booty Bonkers” which samples Mozart. LOVE IT.

The Wedding Blog – Amanda Palmer has finally posted the story of her wedding to Neil Gaiman, and it actually made me tear up a little. I identify with a lot of her reasons for initially not wanting to get married, and then for changing her mind. And I really identify with the idea of having a small, unplanned, FUN wedding. Theirs sounded lovely.

As you can see, my main output this year was socks. I don’t think there were very many of us who worked all the way through the Super Special Six Pattern Sock Club. But you know me – my favourite thing is to set a long term goal and then plod along doggedly after it. I think I’ll slow down on socks though and perhaps aim to make myself some real garments this year. I think the Snook might need another cardigan as well…

1. Boyfriend Socks, 2. Nanners Socks, 3. Fox Faces Socks, 4. Leyburn Socks, 5. Purple Ripple Afghan, 6. Nutkin Socks, 7. DailyMile Mitts, 8. Snook’s Hipster Cardy, 9. Eyelet Yoke Cardigan, 10. February Lady Sweater (Dyed), 11. Shur’tugal Socks

Bring on 2012!
I know I’ve been quiet lately. Big things are happening, but I’ve been enjoying the past week’s vacation too much to sit in front of a computer. One thing we’ve been doing is looking at bicycles. We checked out Cheeky Transport in Newtown, and then yesterday we visited Atelier de Vélo and Clarence Street Cyclery. At Clarence Street, we discovered it was the last day of their Christmas sale… and they happened to have a great deal on a Trek 2012 7.4 FX WSD bike. Four hours later, I was riding it home! The Snook came to meet me and we did a slow 8K through the CBD to the Rocks and then home again via Darling Harbour. It’s been a while since I rode a bike, and I’ve never ridden such a fancy one before. It’s going to take some practice!

I suppose I should mention why I got the bike. This is the really big news: I got a new job. A couple weeks ago, a friend and former colleague called me up with an offer to join him at Sitback. I met with the company founders, visited the office, and chatted with some employees. There was no interview as such; they were trying to sell me on the idea of coming there. (Very flattering!) I’ve been in my current role for three years, and I’ve been wondering if it’s time for a change. This was the perfect opportunity. I gave notice at my current role before Christmas, and I finish up on January 20. Then I start at Sitback on the 23rd! I will be their sole Business Analyst, writing specs for all the exciting projects they’re working on. One very cool aspect of the job is that the offices are down in the Rocks not far from the Snook’s office at Walsh Bay. We’re going to be able to commute together! That’s why I was excited to get a bicycle. The ride is fairly short – only about 4.5km – but it’s a lot faster on a bike than on the bus. I’ll miss my weekly workout at Spudds, of course, but I’m hoping to still get over there for the occasional evening class. Luckily some of my new colleagues are sporty and apparently we’ve got gym access there as well. I can’t wait!

Needless to say, I’m very excited for all the new changes coming in 2012!

Purple Ombre Sprinkles Cake recipe – Pretty!

I choose you, Bulbasaur! – CROCHET – I remain amused but uncontaminated by the spreading hexapuff madness. That said, I could totally see myself crocheting 1000-odd granny squares to make some silly 8-bit game character.

Hacking Scrabble (Part One) – Ooh, cool! I was worried this would be about cheating, but it’s more about memory tricks and some neat computing…

I’m gonna let it SHINE!
I present to you the cutest thing I’ve seen in a long time:

That kid in the middle, the one raising his arms every time they sing “shine”? That’s my nephew Penn. My sister asked him afterwards if he was supposed to do that. “Nope!” He just felt like it. I love that there was no self-consciousness; he’s at that age where he feels joy and he can just express it without worrying about what’s cool. Isn’t that wonderful? We should all have such moments in our lives. 🙂