All back to normal

Tonight J and I had our first "official" dinner at home (we were out at a charity event last night), so I decided to finally break out my big, heavy Le Creuset pot that I got from my aunt and uncle in December to make a home-cooked meal.

I call this Country French Chicken, my own concoction with Coq au Vin as an inspiration. Very simple "recipe": I browned boneless, skinless chicken breasts in a little bit of olive oil with a couple cloves of garlic, then added two coarsely chopped Spanish onions, a small can of tomato paste, some red wine, chopped carrots and celery, two cans of diced tomatoes, and some haricots verts (known in this country as green beans). Just let it simmer for about 25-30 minutes, then served over some plain couscous. I thought it was a little lacking in flavor/seasoning, but J really liked it and practically cleaned his plate -- something he never, ever does. The best compliment, if you ask me!

Although there was not too much done over the weekend, for obvious reasons, there has been some knitting progress here at our house. My first Mata Hari has rounded the heel and is into the leg portion. Here's the obligatory progess shot:

The color's not quite right here; it looks more purple than the pale pink it actually is. The colorway of the yarn is called Strawberry Milkshake, and that's pretty much what it looks like.

At home, I've been making steady progress on my Adamas shawl; I'm now well into my ninth repeat of the body chart. I'm hoping to be able to put in some good blocks of time on it this week, and I put in a Knit Picks order yesterday for some lace blocking wires for when it's done.

Speaking of Adamas, I think that the Yarn Harlot may be copying me. Did you see today's post? Did you happen to notice what she's knitting? (second picture) She's not only knitting the same shawl, she's using the same yarn, Knit Picks Shadow! Don't you just hate it when famous knitters are always doing the same thing as you?

Of course, the Yarn Harlot isn't copying me, she's just as taken with Miriam's patterns as I am. Mim happens to be having a little sale on her patterns over on her blog. Today I purchased the patterns for her Seraphim and Mountain Peaks shawls and her Eleanora socks, and I can hardly wait to start them. If you haven't seen any of her patterns before, Mim is a really talented designer, and she's super friendly and helpful if you have problems or questions.

Finally, did you see those pretty new thumbnails, over there in the sidebar? J did those for me Sunday night. It had been a while -- the last time he updated them was sometime in March, I think. I appreciated it so much that I decided to buy him a ticket to Stitch 'n Pitch (we'll be there at PNC Park on 8/13).