The Sweatshop of Love Blog

I grew up in a house that always had food in it. My mom is an amazing grocery shopper, and she got it from my papa (who is doing much better now, thank you). We often discuss the amazing deals we found on our recent grocery trips over our Sunday meal. I suck at this game. Everything in Chicago costs so much more than in Michigan that even when I get a good deal here, it’s like paying full price for something in Michigan.

Which is why PT and I have been building our grocery list in anticipation of our trip! We leave late tonight!

Which is why PT and I have been needing to get creative with our eating this week. But when I say I’ve got no food in the house, it isn’t like when other people say they’ve got no food in the house. I’ve just got a lot of pantry staples with no way to bring them together. I’ve got a pantry full of food because my mom always has a pantry full of food, because she is an amazing shopper. And she taught me well, despite my Chicago cost of living.

Pantry Staple Stir Fry

Wednesday night I cooked up some potatoes in the wok to get them crispy, and I dumped in a can of corn (Forgive me. A can of corn during CORN SEASON? I wanted to cry.) a can of black beans, and some taco-y and spicy seasonings. We topped it with some shredded cheddar (stolen from my roommate) and dumped some salsa on top. Served with chips (also stolen from the roommate)! This was great! Filling and fun; kind of like eating a whole lot of corn and bean salsa, with potatoes.

Toe Up Socks!

Sock are the Sweetest!

Wednesday night was Toe Up Sock class, finally! I have been trying to teach this class forever, and something came up every time. So I was so happy when Tara, Gil, and Lori signed up!

But, quickly, my delight turned to their horror. Really, they are only laughing to stop from crying. Toe up socks are hard to get started, but I kept saying the more stitches you get on your needles, the easier it gets!

Yeah, it’s a lot of needles. And yeah, that figure 8 cast on is hard. But they got it! And I bet if you ask them now they would recommend the class!

… right? I mean. Probably.

Oatmeal for Everyone!

Yesterday all of my meals looked like this. Random stuff mixed into oatmeal made on the stove, with a piece of toast. I love oatmeal, I do, but. But. But I’m excited that we are going to have some new food in the house real soon.

Soon to be Stockings

My Knit Picks order came in today! I ordered that Wool of the Andes yarn on top for the Christmas stockings I’m going to knit for PT and I. I love off color Christmas stockings, so when I saw that green I had to have it. It looks great with that Caron Simply Soft red.

Cucumber Sandwich with Swiss, and Leftover Potato Stir Fry

For lunch today I heated up the leftover potato bean thing, and had another cucumber sandwich. It wasn’t as exciting as I’m making it sound.

Off to Michigan in a few hours! I’ve got to pack. Have a great holiday weekend!

Having been in Minnesota last weekend, and with a Labor Day trip to Michigan on the horizon, PT and I haven’t done a lot of grocery shopping lately. We were living on what I had brought back from Michigan, and as that was running out we were only a few days away from Minnesota. We are making a master grocery list for Meijer while we are in Michigan, and tallying the fruits and veggies we are going to get, measured in bushels, at roadside stands.

So we are getting creative!

Beet and Corn Risotto

We had beet I wanted to use up, but no greens so I couldn’t make a salad. I automatically think about rice when I’m using up leftover food because stir fry is such an easy way to thrown everything together, but beet stir fry? I didn’t think so.

But rice=risotto… beet risotto? With corn!

This was so good. Sure, food shouldn’t be that color, but damn! I made risotto like usual, roasted the beets and chopped them, threw in half a can of corn with the beets at the very end with some Parmesan! Amazing.

Everything Else Stir Fry

Cashew Goodness

Last night I had to use up carrots, cucumber, pineapple, corn, and goat cheese. Without buying any other ingredients. So, naturally, I thought of rice, and figured I could use everything but that pesky goat cheese in a stir fry.

So cooked up some brown rice and I sauteed some onions, added carrots, cucumber, pineapple, and corn, PT did some fancy seasoning and saucing, and we finished it with both sesame seeds and cashews. It was great! I love pineapple in stir fry.

But, we still have three dinners left and I’m running out of options.

Not to mention breakfast! We are out of milk and fruit, so oat bowls are a no go.

Steel Cut Oats in the Crock Pot!

Hearty Breakfast

We had picked up some steel cut oats at Green Grocer a couple weeks ago, and this cool weather begs me to get the crock pot back out!

We threw some oats in the crock pot last night with raisins, some butter, cinnamon, and a lot of water, and in the morning it was done! We ate half our bowls,  with brown sugar on top! It was so much food; but that just means we already have tomorrow’s breakfast.

This was a MESS, though. I washed the crock pot once already, and it’s soaking a second time. Might not be worth it.

I realize that when normal people eat out of their pantries they eat, like, cans of beans with mustard. We aren’t quite there yet. But tonight’s dinner? No idea. I’ve got a bag of potatoes, some onions, and goat cheese. I don’t even have pan cake mix! Goat cheese risotto? hehe

This should start getting interesting.

Despite sitting around all day waiting for my special FedEx package to come in, missing my workout, leaving for Sweater Club before it arrived only to come home to it sitting outside my door, delivered at 7:56pm, holy shit am I excited!

FedEx Makes Me Happy

We are entering a new phase at The Sweatshop of Love: actually trying to make money! It is something new and different for me, and, as usual, I have no idea what I’m doing, but I thought buttons would help.

My Knitting Avatar on a Button Should Solve All Problems in Life

Obama is president now because he had buttons that people wore, so if people wear these buttons then I’ll be famous, too!

My Honest to God Reaction to How Cute These Are

Right?

Me Gazing Adoringly

Get one here! Or email me.

To celebrate, PT and I had Muffin Club this morning before heading off to work.

Apple Yogurt Muffins

We haven’t held Muffin Club in about a month because PT’s mom was in town, we went to Michigan, things just kept coming up. We are back with a vengeance, though, and we got up at 6am to bake these Apple Yogurt Muffins and take a sunny stroll along the boulevards to start our day off right.

I’m glad I got out a little, at least, since I’m battling some kind of insane headache/cough/dizzy/body ache/tummy bubble/sore throat thing now.

Sick People Food

I cooked myself up some oatmeal, threw some raisins and cinnamon in it, and ate it with some crunchy peanut butter on my homemade bread. I’m drinking hot tea, and it is 76 degrees. I’m the worse sick person, totally in denial, PT was just yelling at me through gchat to get off the computer and lay down and to most certainly not go work out. I better do that before he jumps through the computer and knocks me out cold so I get some rest.

Buy a button!

Well it was bound to happen. And I know that I almost did it before, but…

but…

But it might be time for me to knit a dress.

I blame my mother, actually. She got me looking through all these old magazines I’ve collected over the years; I’ve got stacks and stacks of Interweave Knits and Vogue Knitting Magazines and Knit Simples. She wants to knit a vest after her first sweater success. (I don’t make this shit up! My mom wanted to kick me out of her house when I wouldn’t her knit anything but a sweater. She yelled. She hit me a few times. And now? Now the woman can’t get enough. Pictures to come.)

So I’m glancing threw magazines and I come across this cute little dress. I flip by it because it is a dress and not a vest, but I keep thinking about it. I go back to it. I look at the pattern. I have my reservations – the skirt part of the dress is knit in a very annoying K1P1. Not as annoying as seed stitch, but you know. But the cowl is pretty. The sleeves are pretty. It would look really cute with tights. I could knit it in Carron Simply Soft.

But it is a dress? Who knits dresses?

The Sweatshop of Love knits dresses. So bring it on. As soon as I’m done with this:

Bottom Done!

I’m about to bind off the bottom section! I think I need one more skein of the Homespun and one more skein of the Carron Simply Soft in Blue, but I can get that this weekend and then see where we are. Its cute, right? I like how the Homespun stripped subtly. I love the blue with it! It is going to be a cute one.

This weekend PT and I are jetting off to Michigan for the weekend, before my weekends are spent sweater knitting with you all on Sunday mornings and my mom starts calling me to say that she forgets what I look like. I hope to get some good car knitting done. Because, and I hate to say it! but I’m excited about the dress. Gah!

Oat A Licious Bowl O Fun

And you know when I’m getting anxious for warm weather because I start throwing fruit into everything. Here is oatmeal with frozen peaches, grapes and cherries, oranges, raisins, almond slices and a sprinkle of brown sugar. If I squint I can’t see the snow on the ground and can imagine eating this fruity bowl on the back porch in my sweater dress.