Pensive Frog

With summertime scenes like this, fall comes as a welcome blessing.
If you click through, you’ll find a short video of revelers at a wave pool in Tokyo. I know it’s one of the most crowded cities in the world, but day-um! I visited Tokyo in 1990, and was terrified of getting lost on [...]

The cleaning staff at work are nice enough. We exchange pleasantries when they make their evening rounds collecting trash and various recyclables. But why, GOD WHY must they clean all the bathrooms in the building simultaneously? It’s 5:07 pm, time to dispatch the “Caution: Wet Floor, Cuidado: Piso Mojado” tent signs [...]

Welcome to Wanderlust Friday, jam edition! You may remember that I traveled to the Big Island of Hawaii in July, but I don’t think I ever mentioned my visit to Mr. Ed’s Bakery in Honomu, near Akaka Falls. I first entered Mr. Ed’s in search of ice cream, but found myself in the [...]

Dyeing yarn at home can be fun. It can have great results! It can have horrible results.
If a yarn turns out badly, there’s only one solution. Dye it again. And again. Until it looks sort of OK.
So start with this:

Overdye with coffee, then overdye again with 5 packs [...]

I just bought a copy of Heidi Swanson’s Supernatural Cooking after falling in serious like with her blog, 101 Cookbooks. The cookbook is great, and full of creative recipes that I haven’t gotten around to trying yet. But if Heidi keeps posting delicious recipes on her blog - like this one for Espresso [...]

I got sucked into an episode of Wife Swap the other night - now I know I can’t be alone in my opinion that this is one of the best guilty pleasure television shows on the air today, right? Anyway, if you’re not familiar with the show, two individually crazy families trade mothers for [...]

I love fall, but it’s sadly the time when farmers markets shut down for the year. Bah. I did get a few nice hauls from the Edmonds Farmers Market this summer, including some sweet knobby carrots (so much better than even organic carrots from the grocery store) and beautiful, ephemeral flowers.

The [...]

In case you hadn’t guessed, that post title was meant to approximate a raspberry. In addition to luscious blueberries, I also scored a bumper crop of raspberries this summer in Sequim. We all know that raspberries are the most delicate of beasts, tending to mold mere hours after picking. And these berries [...]

Don’t you love hearing about places you never knew existed? I was so captivated by Bea’s description of a Weekend on Block Island on her blog La Tartine Gourmande that I just had to find out more about the place! Although Bea’s pictures look like they were taken on a European pleasure island, [...]

Make a pie!
This is my all-time favorite recipe, I’ve used it for about 5 years. The promise of pie is the only way to get SOME people to agree to go berry picking. This pie is quite effective motivation.

Open-Faced Fresh Blueberry Pie
adapted (to make it easier!) from Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Pie and Pastry [...]

Sometimes I make bad decisions. Like buying a tin can of butter at the 99 Ranch Market.

It was nestled between the kimchee and the red bean buns, and I wanted it. Hello, butter in a CAN? Yes, I had seen all the scary news stories about recalled Chinese toothpaste and pet food [...]

I am terrible about finishing knitting projects. So far in 2007, I’ve completed two pairs of socks. I’m racking my brain, but I seriously think that’s it. I have at least a dozen unfinished objects on the needles, although that’s not quite accurate because most of these projects have their live stitches [...]

Something a little different for this week’s Wanderlust Friday - I came across the Clayoquot Wilderness Resort a few years ago, and ever since I’ve been taking little “trips” to their website, just to imagine myself in the pictures. This place sounds like heaven. And for almost $20,000 per week (okay, Canadian dollars, [...]

I thought I was hallucinating when I saw this news article. Apparently, Hawaii Tourism Japan is attempting to lure Japanese tourists to the islands by promising them that smokers are welcome, and free to puff their way through paradise. Now, I know that almost half of the men in Japan smoke, and I [...]