West Coast Crafty

Our Thanksgiving was really nice, and I hope yours was too — things were very relaxing and low-key all day and then we headed over to a big potluck dinner with friends later on. I made salmon with chanterelles and leeks and a big pan of vegetarian stuffing, and we got to try about a zillion other delicious things people brought, too. The four-day weekend has some pockets of work here and there but this is the most time off we’ve had together in months, probably since the week Pearl was born, come to think of it. So I have a lot of things to be thankful for.

I’m thankful for Andrew and my precious Pearl and having some nice hours to spend with them, for my family far away, and for cell phones so I can catch up with them all; I’m thankful for my dear crafty friends and the pleasure of reading and seeing all the cool things they’re up to; and I’m very grateful that people want to stop by sometimes to read about what I’m doing, which is a huge compliment. Thank you for reading my little blog in the sea of cool colorful craft blogs! I am thankful for our home and that we have enough to eat when I know that some of our neighbors don’t, and very thankful that there are organizations that work hard to help those who need it that we can support. And I’m thankful that after some scares this year, my family is healthy. I have had other years that have gone differently and I don’t take it for granted.

So, on that note, I wanted to pass on something that’s dear to my heart today. My friend Linda has organized a fantastic fundraiser to benefit her sister Ann’s family while her brother-in-law Jasenn fights kidney cancer. Her Etsy shop, Hope for Jasenn, has a really lovely array of crafty gifts from lots of people in this community, with more on the way. Linda says, “100% of the profits from every item sold in this shop will be donated to Jasenn, Ann and Tegue to help with their everyday expenses. All of the items in this shop have been donated by generous crafters and friends, and I’d love to show my sister’s family just how supportive we crafty folks can be.”

Linda has a beautiful crocheted hat and vintage bird brooch up for grabs, Kayte and Betsy have donated signed copies of their wonderful books Complete Embellishing and Knitting for Good, Nancy is offering one of her gorgeous handbags, and there are lots more things to browse — I have already done some shopping myself!

My mother is a four-time cancer survivor and it means a lot to me to be able to pass along a bit of support to others who face the same fight. So along with lots of other folks I have donated a signed copy of my book and two double sets of my new kits. If you happen to be interested in either of these things, please head over to Linda’s shop! Thanks so much.

Our household is still collectively a bit under the weather so the non-essentials have fallen by the wayside this week. But this afternoon was so beautiful in a low-key fall-but-not-raining-(!) kind of way that I pounced on the chance to take Pearl on a long walk. We looped all around Southeast, dropped her little pink crocheted hat somewhere, stopped at Hot Lips for a slice and a boysenberry soda, retraced our steps to find the hat patiently waiting on the sidewalk for us, met Rachel at Little T for a coffee, and headed back home for naptime. So while Pearl slept I realized I was hungry again, and I had just enough energy left to make myself some soup.

I love soup but it’s hard to find just the right one, if I don’t make it myself… mostly because I don’t eat meat and I’m allergic to potatoes (good times, let me tell you!) so that rules out everything on the grocery store shelves but the occasional can of vegetarian chili. So I made this one up.

I’m not much of a food photographer and it was about midnight-black outside by the time I took this, so sorry, it’s not very artful. I also got some seven-grain carrot bread at Little T (hanging out next to the bowl) and oh my god, that stuff is good. I started by neatly sawing off a piece, polished that off, and grabbed the next hunk of it without a whole lot of ceremony. Hopefully there will still be some left when Andrew gets home. Maybe.

Anyway, along the lines of the slack point-and-shoot food photography, here’s my recipe for lazy soup. Pretty much everything I used came from Trader Joe’s, but you can substitute what you have in the cupboard.

Bring one container of vegetable broth to a medium boil and add about a third of a package of celentani pasta. After a couple more minutes, add any vegetables (I used half a package of frozen soycutash, though I have been known to chop and include actual fresh vegetables when I have more in the tank), and after a couple more minutes, add one can of diced tomatoes and a splash of olive oil. Simmer until the pasta is just the way you like it and everything else will hopefully have caught up too. Serve in a big bowl with parmesan and carrot bread.