Merry Christmas to me!

First things first: I have a domain!! cup-cait.blogspot.com now redirects to cupcait.com - hooray! On to cuter things:

I celebrated taking Thanksgiving week off of work by spending Monday walking through the Haight and shopping with Tim. This ended up being a fun but rather expensive day. On the bright side, I did find an elusive hooded rain coat (30% off, too!), some argyle knee-high socks (perhaps my favorite fall accessory this year), and some Doc Martins that are as comfy as they are cute.

Gah, I'm still learning the whole self-portrait thing. I look super dopey; don't judge too hard, please! :)

This hood is fantastic - if I need it to, it can cover my entire face (of course, then I can't see, but in a torrential downpour, it might be worth it). The raincoat comes from perhaps my new favorite store, Behind the Post Office.

I got a bit photo happy with my new shoes, but damn, I think I could wear them all day (I am not normally a heel girl).

Now, maybe time to save up for next Christmas's inevitable spending spree? (ha, yeah right)

I love Target

These are my new favorite shoes - light, comfy, match all sorts of things (including this skirt - perfectly). And less than $15.

 

Impulse buy of the week

A lovely Banana Republic leather jacket! I am still deciding whether to keep it (this is a much bigger purchase than most/all clothes items I own) but it is beautiful and I think I'm talking myself into it.

And bonus non-impulse-buy (if only!) - a way too expensive owl coin purse by Kate Spade:

(Update: sold out / no longer listed)

How to get rid of CSA cauliflower

My roommate's CSA started giving us cauliflower for a few weeks - unfortunate for her because she hates it, but excellent for me because I got to make this delicious soup. I'll try posting a recipe, although I didn't use one to being with, so it's mostly guesswork.

Not the prettiest picture (perhaps I should have found a cute garnish), but it was yummy

Caitlin's Roasted Carrot-Cauliflower soup

• 1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
• 3-4 carrots, peeled and chopped into large chunks
• 1 head of garlic
• olive oil
• salt & pepper
• dried or fresh herbs - I used dried rosemary, thyme, and sage because I didn't have the fresh versions around
• 1/2 large yellow onion, diced
• Crushed red pepper (optional)
• 16 oz chicken stock (half of a box)

Preheat the oven to 400° F. Toss the cauliflower and carrots in about a tablespoon of olive oil and salt/pepper to taste. Sprinkle on a bit of the herbs (you can add more later) and spread on a cookie sheet. Cut off the top stem of the garlic so that you can see the tops of the cloves. Drizzle a small bit of olive oil in and wrap the whole head in foil. Put the veggie cookie sheet and the foil-wrapped garlic into the oven for about 40 minutes. Stir the veggies occasionally. Take them and the garlic head out when the cauliflower is starting to brown in places and both the carrots and cauliflower are beginning to become tender (poke them with a fork to be sure).

Meanwhile, saute the onion in a medium saucepan in 2 tablespoons olive oil.  If you like a bit of heat, throw in some crushed red pepper (to taste) at this point. When the onion is soft and translucent, add the chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Add the roasted veggies and squeeze the roasted garlic head into the pot - be sure the papery bits don't fall in. Add more herbs to taste (I went heavy on the rosemary). Continue simmering for about 10 minutes. 

Pre-immersion blender

Using an immersion blender (or a regular blender), puree the soup until it is uniformly smooth and thick. If you want extra creaminess, you can stir in a bit of heavy cream, but I thought it was plenty rich (and healthy) served as is.

Halloween, and half-hearted apologies

How do people manage this blogging thing? Between a full-time job, a near-3-hour round-trip daily commute, not abandoning my friends and boyfriend, and cooking dinner several nights a week, I hardly find the time to bake anything, let alone write about it and post pics. This is evidenced by my 2-week-overdue Halloween post. I'm pretty pleased with my semi-homemade (and baking-related!) costume, so better late than never, no?

My awkwardly-posed and -lit self-portrait, pre-work on Googleween (Oct 28)

Me with my coworker Jen, as the Peanut Butter Jelly Time banana

My work/dance buddy Adrienne

One of my favorites, the LGBT Android pair, with bonus Android dog!

Buttermilk Biscuits

The boyfriend and I both grew up in the south, and although we remained unattached to most southern traditions, we share a fondness for buttermilk biscuits. I had never made anything but the ones out of a tube, but I finally gave it a shot last weekend. Yum!

 

Of course, the biscuits needed something delicious to go on top, so I whipped up some honey butter (with vanilla and cinnamon). It's not much to look at, but it sure was delicious.

I didn't get any good shots of the finished biscuits on their own, but I did take a couple served with our eggs (over easy for me, scrambled for the boy).

Pittsburgh!

Ahhhh, I am in beautiful Pittsburgh for recruiting. It's my first time back since graduation, and I immediately had a rush of nostalgia when I left the airport. Everything has memories - the drive from the airport, which I made many times with various friends or at-the-time boyfriends; Station Square, which was reserved for the "fancier" nights out; Oakland, where I spent so many nights eating half price food and drinking too many Mad Mex margaritas; apartment buildings where exes and friends lived; and of course, CMU's campus, where I lived for 3.5 of my 4 years in college, and where I spent probably 95% of my time during school. Despite the nostalgia, I wouldn't go back - I was miserable, trying to cram a CS degree into an amount of time that it shouldn't fit into, spending my "free" time stressing about work I should be doing. But it's still a very weird feeling, being back at this place I haven't seen since it was my entire life.

Memories aside, I still feel a very strong pull from Pittsburgh, something I didn't realize still existed. I thought I was getting used to California's perpetual spring weather (FUN FACT: spring is my least favorite season), but being here where there is real fall is breaking my heart, because I know I have to leave tomorrow. I think I lied to myself, tried to convince myself that I don't really need fall or winter, but being surrounded by the beautiful changing leaves and a cold breeze just makes me feel so at home, like I'm finally back in my element. To quote my favorite RSAD article (yes I have a favorite RSAD article, shush):

Now, though, things are very different - the world so beautiful it takes your breath away. Leaves falling from the trees, puddles as permanent fixtures, fresh chilly mornings, faceslapping breezes, lots of excuses to wear coats, boots, plum-red scarves; everything, in fact, a good old-fashioned girl like me could want from a season.

I don't know if I can do this California thing forever. But for now, I'm going to stick it out and see how I feel in a few years. And hopefully get Google to send me to cooler climates as much as possible :)

sigh

I wish I lived somewhere cold so I could buy coats, like these beauties.

 

Yarn

There is a lovely yarn shop just a couple blocks from my house. This stuff is so much better than the synthetic stuff from Michael's.

No pictures of things I'm making until after Christmas...

Bonus! An awesome combo of food and crocheting, Twinkie Chan, will be there later this month, and I fully plan on attending the demo!