Chickpea flour pasta

Chickpea flour pasta, originally uploaded by girl from finito.

I love fresh pasta.. but man is flour, water, oil and egg expensive. Sunday I decided to take matters into my own hands and made pasta for the first time. I made this vegan friendly pasta with chickpea flour which binds a lot like egg. The conclusion: pretty amazing .. other than the kneading.. my arms were sore the next day. The first batch i made to wet and had a soggy dinner but the second batch turned out well. It's been dried and frozen for later nom-ing.
advice to future me: get a pasta crank-thing and omit the rolling out by hand part

a nice little day

distillery district, originally uploaded by girl from finito.

I was thinking about where I could take my parents when they come to visit me.. a place that was out of the way and reflected the Toronto that I have grown to like (not love.. but like). In this spirit I visited the distillery district with my pals Naseem and Kean. It's a nice place but... well considering the tours are given on segways it was a little pretentious. As Kean described it - it was like Granville Island (except without the great market and the crowds of people bustling around). I think it has the potential to be awesome - but there is a lack of shade on hot days and (I think it's real downfall) the buildings are too far apart to make the place look busy. The area lacks the energy of Granville. Distillery District... Fail. I will not be taking my family to visit you.

In other news fun times!

Award Winning

I posted a while back about what I am doing at my job in Toronto.

This weekend a co-worker and I were acknowledged for our work with Awards of Merit from the Association of Medical Illustrators. There were only three people who received awards in the professional interactive media category (the category we entered) so we were very pleased.

What won was my work on Periopertive Patient Simulations
and Michael's work on Trans-esophageal Echocardiology (specifically the standard views).

UPDATE 7/25/08:
this afternoon... after spending the day panicking that i might have left the stove on (i didn't.. i knew i didn't but somehow was filled with a sense of dread anyway) i walk up to my place to find these in front of my door. what nice neighbours to receive the flowers and leave them out for me. What an amazing set of parents to send me congratulation flowers.. I am so happy right now.

flowers from mom, originally uploaded by girl from finito.

fleurs, originally uploaded by girl from finito.

i am a knitting machine

with less than a week to the Alaska State Fair, all i'm doing is knitting..... must finish sweater ... must block sweater .... must finish ... must knit .. stop typing back to knitting

ps check out dr horrible's sing-along blog (tho sure you already have!) "Look at my wrist! Time to go!"

summer sun

found this great little animation that shows our summer light
our days are getting shorter now but as much as might lament up here we still have lots of light at 11 pm and frankly it is just dusky at midnight. then around 2-3am it is getting light again.
it is funny how you never really know what time it by just looking outside ...

It's Summer!

lemonade, originally uploaded by girl from finito.

It's finally gotten really hot and lovely out here and the summer garden is growing nicely.
I made a really simple lemonade this weekend and loved it.. so sour and refreshing

1st blooms of summer.., originally uploaded by girl from finito.

in other news my sweet peas have started to bloom.

sweater in the sun

westcoast rose progress
Originally uploaded by knit_north

as you can see i'm working on the second sleeve ... um clearly missed the unrealistic stanely cup goal ..... but gotta get moving as i want to enter it in the s.e. alaska state fair - yes for real! i really really want to win a ribbon ... or even a sticker or something - also tempted to make some rhubarb jam or something. if i hadn't lost my oh so lovely tam would have entered that but ah well .... it is almost yoke time for this sweater so i'm on my way (by the way here is a photo of the pattern - i've changed up the colour and added an extra repeat to the torso as i'm so long-waisted)

so despite needing to finish this sweater - i'm planning out my next knit Gigi from knitty - it is a cute cropped kimono sleeved cardie and rather mindless knitting - i even already have the wool for it an alpaca/merino sock yarn in navy/purple . it is so soft and lush. and after that???? well i think i need a cashmere scarf (yes need. i mean it's cold up here)... a big lacey one .... maybe in a robin egg blue? thoughts?