Crochet Creations

A few months ago, I was inspired to learn how to crochet, at least in part by the news that I was going to have a niece. In college I (kinda) learned to knit (it took me five years to knit one scarf!) and I thought it would be fun to learn something new... AND I could make my niece (and the many other friends' babies) something handmade. Well, I've come a long way since my first dish cloth and my baby niece has come a long way, too! Welcome to the world, Lydia Rose! We are so thankful to God for you :)

So here are a few of the cute (and easy) things I've made. I learned from my knitting experience to make small projects and so baby-sized items are perfect for my short attention span!

(Made the hat, not the outfit... her nickname is Lydie Bug!)

Can't believe these tiny things will fit someone! And I cannot wait to meet my niece in person! Just 8 days till I will be in Nashville holding the sweet lil' girl :) I am SO EXCITED!

By the way, you can see a photo of Lydia on Facebook if you haven't already.

Yosemite: View from Above

And now, without further ado, I bring you Day 2 of our Yosemite trip (and then eventually there's a tiny bit more to come from my more recent trip with my friend and visitor, Katie...but I might give you a reprieve because I have a niece now that I need to update you on!).

On day two, after a very full day of driving and hiking, some stargazing at the Tunnel View lookout point, and a good night's rest in a sparse and spider-free (thanks to Steve for killing the biggest spider either of us has ever seen!) motel room outside of the park, we made the tedious, winding drive back in to the park for more sights to behold! This time instead of going into Yosemite Valley, we headed up, up, up to a lookout spot high above called Glacier Point. There we found some amazing new views of the waterfalls and granite peaks.

Pictured below are Nevada (top) and Vernal (bottom) falls, which we had seen from our hike the previous day.

 

Then Steve climbed Half Dome! :)

Just kidding, here's the real Half Dome. I just couldn't get enough of it!

Glacier Point is at an elevation of 7,214 feet (2,199 m) above sea level and 3,200 feet (980 m) above the valley floor below. Whoa, that is a long way down... straight down!

After enjoying the spectacular views offered at the lookout point, we began a hike to the top of Sentinel Dome, which was a moderate hike of about 2 miles (round trip) from our starting point at Glacier Point. The incline was not as steep as our hike from the day before, which our glutes thanked us for! :)

Well, that is, until we got to this point and had to ascend this hunk of granite:

But we were rewarded with a 360-degree view, including Half Dome, the falls, and on the other side, El Capitan and more. And the walking sticks we picked up along the way helped, too.

(That's El Capitan above, the peak with the sheer granite face.) We had lunch on top (PB&J and Doritos!), an exhausted Steve caught a quick nap (not joking... he found the flattest piece of rock for us to eat lunch on and then stretched out for, as my grandfather would've said, "forty winks"), and then we hiked back down where we indulged in some ice cream that was sold at the shop at Glacier Point. Ice cream AND these views? We were feeling just how incredibly blessed we are!

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?

O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

(Psalm 8:3-4, 9)

And that sums up our first trip to Yosemite. It was truly a wonderful experience and I think it's a spectacular place that everyone should see. (And neither my amateur photos nor Ansel Adams can do it justice... though Adams comes closer!) So thankful that we can enjoy these places and see the awesome work of our Creator!

Yosemite: Valley Views and Waterfalls Galore!

Okay, I better update you all on Yosemite before I go on my next trip there! My friend Katie is coming to visit and we are leaving tomorrow! In fact, I have to leave very shortly to get her from the airport. I'm so excited to go back, and you will see why shortly...

If you recall from my previous post, our first stop in Yosemite was to see the Giant Sequoias. We enjoyed marveling at the massiveness of these trees and ate lunch, then headed to Yosemite Valley. We entered the Valley through the southernmost tunnel and stopped at the spot called "Tunnel View," which is a very famous spot to take in the a view of most of the major landmarks. It was AMAZING!  Imagine coming out of a long, dark tunnel and the first thing you see is this:

El Capitan is the major granite structure on the left, and the waterfall on the right is called Bridalveil Falls. In the distance you can just barely make out Half Dome (just under the cloud arch), which is at the far end of the valley. Being here and seeing this made me teary as I took in the beauty and majesty of God's creation.

Yosemite has many waterfalls, and most are fed by the snow melting in the High Sierras. Here is Bridalveil Falls again, close up. I felt so blessed to have a perfect sunshiny day -- where we were not only seeing amazing granite formations and awesome waterfalls, but rainbows on top of it all! (More rainbows to come...)

Here is Half Dome. Of course you must know that the photos do none of this any justice whatsoever. (More photos of this next time!)

After driving through the valley a ways, marveling and staring and taking photographs the whole way (including this one where you can see yet another waterfall!), we parked and started our ascent toward the waterfalls on the hike that I had planned.

The hike for the afternoon was to see Vernal Falls and Nevada Falls on a trail aptly named the Mist Trail. Since it goes from the valley floor up to the top of not one, but two falls (and all the way to the top of Half Dome if you continue), it is quite steep and there are many places where there are long ascents up stairs carved into the rocks, like these.

And then we saw Vernal Falls. And I now understand what it means for something to be breathtaking, because I was literally gasping for air when I first saw this sight:

I just can't imagine anything more beautiful! And was just in awe thinking that God made all of this and called it good... but then he made man and said it was "very good." And if the creation is this beautiful, how much more so is the Creator?

Since it is still spring, the waterfall was absolutely gushing (it is one of the ones fed by melting snow in the mountains and dries up a bit in the summer after much of the snow is melted) and creating a mist that soaked us through and through (which also created the amazing rainbow! By the way, I stepped on the rainbow's end and there was sadly no pot of gold ;-) ). So we kept climbing up, up to the top where it was almost as beautiful looking back down.

And then we hiked a bit farther until we saw Nevada Falls. Unfortunately, though, it was getting dark and we knew we would not make it back before dark if we went as far as we'd have liked. So we had to turn back because I did not want to meet any of the nocturnal creatures that lived along the hiking path! (Especially bears!)

However, we were able to see both falls from the lookout point we visited (and hiked from) the next day, so there will be more waterfall photos in the next post. And since I am heading back tomorrow with Katie, I imagine there will be even more photos and updates down the road. (Oh yeah, and I'll post even more photos on Facebook soon.)

Yosemite: Giant Sequoias

As far back as I can remember, my dad had this famous Ansel Adams print, Moon and Half Dome, and I always loved it (in fact, I stole it and brought it to college with me... and then returned it afterward!).

So it was a dream of mine to visit Yosemite National Park, which is about a four hour drive from the Bay Area. And on May 11th, we packed an overnight bag and made the dream come true! (But not before fueling up for the drive with some Peets coffees!)

With just about a day and a half there, I planned our excursions so we could see as much as possible. So when we first arrived on Friday at around lunch time, we made our first stop the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. (Mariposa Grove is just one of the few groves of giant sequoias in the California Sierra Nevada range, which is the only place in the world these trees grow naturally!)

After lunch on this rock above, we hiked around a bit to see these wonders and wow are they impressive and amazing. So grandiose! They had some educational placards around so we learned a lot, too. For example, did you know...

- The trees only begin growing and really thriving as a result of fire! The natural cycle of seasonal forest fires helps with the germination of the seeds and also keeps other trees/vegetation from growing too closely so they can get maximum light.

- The trees are hundreds of years old and survive many fires, which burn the lower branches (so that's why the branches start so high!). This also makes them more fire resistant.

- When they fall, they decompose incredibly slowly due to the chemical makeup of the wood, which contains a high concentration of tannins. (The fallen one below has been down for hundreds of years and is still there!)

- They have really complex but very shallow roots, which is why they are fenced off so visitors cannot get too close to damage the roots.

It was amazing to see these giant beauties and we also really enjoyed the fresh smell in the grove! But we couldn't spend too much time here as we were headed for Yosemite Valley and had much, much more to see, which I'll share in subsequent posts... so come back again soon! :)

Beauty and Diversity in the City

Earlier this week I had lunch at a French cafe outside of Chinatown, followed by a visit to the Contemporary Jewish Museum and then a quick stop in a Roman Catholic Cathedral.  Say what?!

Yes, I was in San Francisco! I went into the city to do a practice run of getting to my interview the following day, which was right downtown. So I met a friend who lives in the city and we spent the afternoon having some fun.

Lunch was at Cafe de la Presse, and it was delish! The sandwich pictured below is grilled ham and cheese with, yes, a fried egg on top. Mmm...

Then, because it was the first Tuesday of the month and many of the museums are free, we decided to check out the Contemporary Jewish Museum.

Neat building, huh?

They were playing a film about the wild parrots of Telegraph Hill. It was an interesting story about this wild flock of parrots that live in the city and a man who studied and cared for them. (Now I have to find these parrots and see them for myself! Also, you can learn more here from the Parrot Man himself.)

They also had an exhibit on trees. I didn't realize, but trees are important to the Jewish culture and this exhibit was featuring different art featuring trees or wood in some way. And what I liked was that though some of it was a bit abstract, they explained what the meaning of each piece was. (That way I didn't have to say, "who says this is art?!")

Anyway, as you can see from the first photo of the museum, there is a Roman Catholic church behind the museum, so we stopped in to see. 

Being in a beautiful church always brings to mind the lyrics of a Needtobreathe song that I love, "Cathedrals have tried in vain to show the image of your face."  As our pastor recently pointed out, creation (and even our creations, we being given the ability to create as well) are so beautiful and yet they are only a shadow of the beauty of the Creator!  Wow.

Afterward, we ate cream puffs at Beard Papa. (Ugh, why did I not photograph the puff? It was a thing of beauty as well. I'm so glad I have taste buds, aren't you?!)

I'm so thankful to have had the chance to spend the day with a friend appreciating God's good gifts and the diversity and beauty of his creation!

Berkeley: Sweet and Salty

Last week I had the opportunity to head up to Berkeley to meet some friends for lunch. We enjoyed some lovely pizza at the Cheeseboard Collective Pizzeria, which is in a neighborhood called the "Gourmet Ghetto." (Doesn't that just sound like somewhere you'd want to eat lunch?) They do make only one type of pizza each day, and it is always vegetarian, which makes it great for those who are indecisive and bad for meat lovers (I told Steve he might still like it because from my experience, they do wonderful things with flavors!). The seating area is small and you just walk up to the counter and tell them how much pizza you want -- they sell it by the slice or the whole pie.  The pizza when I went was with finely sliced (so I couldn't even taste them) red and yellow onions, feta cheese and squash with a pesto sauce. (Unfortunately I devoured it before I could take a photo!) The Cheeseboard is SO Berkeley -- it's a co-op, meaning that it is worker-owned and operated. Besides the pizzeria, they also have a bakery filled with delectable baked goods and tons of fancy cheeses, most of which I probably could not pronounce. I did see a couple of pastries that were too tempting to pass up, though, including a banana chocolate chip muffin, a cheese roll, and a sour cherry-candied nut scone (as pictured left to right).

YUM :)

Afterwards, we went to check out an ice cream parlor I was instructed to try called Ici. They, like many other well-known ice cream places in the Bay Area, distinguish themselves by offering some interesting flavors. And apparently amazing ice cream sandwiches. While they did have plain chocolate, they also had some other flavors that were interesting, including chocolate-orange, coconut-lime, and the one I ended up choosing, honey-banana-candied peanut (which I had smothered in hot fudge!). They have also been known, I've been told by a friend in the know, to have more exotic offerings, like lavender.

Finally, I went down to the Berkeley Marina and took in some salty sea air and pretty views!  There is a long public pier that extends almost 1/2 mile into the Bay and you can see the Bay Bridge, Treasure Island, San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Angel Island from there.  I enjoyed a windy walk to the end of the pier and back.

 

All that and back in time for dinner!

Crescent Yums

Crescent rolls remind me of childhood because they were a staple with certain dishes.  I don't necessarily remember which dishes, but I remember the rolls and I remember having the responsibility on occasion of being the crescent roller-upper.  It used to frustrate me (and still does, if I'm honest) when they didn't look just like the picture on the package.  They also remind me of my dear mom, because she doesn't call them crescents, she calls them by their proper French name, croissants.  Spoken with a proper French accent, of course! :)

Anyway, I now have a couple of recipes featuring these lovely refrigerated dough masterpieces thanks to Pinterest and an email recipe exchange.  And when one sees a recipe with crescents, one doesn't hesitate to try it because one knows that crescents are delicious and how could a recipe with crescent rolls be bad, right?

So here they are, without further ado.  

French Dip Crescents (recipe here)

 

 

The first time I made these was with thick-cut roast beef, provolone, NO horsie sauce (because of personal distaste and also a bad experiences with horseradish), and my attempt at her "easy" au jus. (Okay, I'm sure it really is easy compared to real au jus, but still not easy and turned out too salty for me for some reason.)  So, overall, wasn't exactly a hit, but I knew it could be better... so I tried again with thin-cut deli roast beef, shredded mozzarella (milder than provolone) and from-a-powder au jus -- I think I got the Lowry's or McCormick mix to which you simply add water.  Then I spiced it up with Italian bread crumbs sprinkled on top before baking, and VOILA! (Sorry, my French language skills are very limited. That's all I've got.) Definitely drool worthy!

Cheesy Chicken Crescent Roll-Ups

This recipe I got from a friend in a recipe exchange.  It doesn't necessarily look that fab when you see the recipe, but chicken + cheese + crescents = delicious!  And it actually does have good flavor thanks to the Italian bread crumbs (which is where I got the idea to put them in the recipe above).

1 pkg cream cheese (8oz)

1 pkg crescent rolls (8 ct) 

2 shredded cooked chicken breasts 

1.5 C grated chedder cheese 

1 C grated Monterey Jack 

1/4 t salt 

1/4 t pepper 

bread crumbs 

1/4 stick melted butter

 

Combine chicken, cheeses, salt and pepper. Spoon onto crescents. Roll them up making sure they are sealed around the chicken mixture. Brush tops with butter and sprinkle with bread crumbs. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. To reheat, just place in a 325 degree oven for 15 minutes.

The great thing is you can fudge this recipe quite a bit and it's still delicious!  I can even see adding other spices/herbs to change it up a bit.  As I mentioned, I use Italian seasoned bread crumbs and I also sub olive oil for the butter.  I also cheat and use whatever kind of shredded cheese I have on hand (usually just one variety).  And the secret to the roll up is to roll them like a crescent and then tuck the sides in to cover the chicken.  You don't want any of that precious cheesy goodness to get out!

Both of these recipes are good comfort food.  Let me know if you try them!