A delicious meal was had by all

We meant to go to Chez Panisse, but there was a fire there earlier this month, so we had to make alternate plans. This one was a winner.

Farro salad with apples, toasted almonds and more

It was a snowy day on Saturday, though not the raging blizzard we were expecting. The predicted foot of snow turned out to be 4 inches, and I didn't even have to shovel the south-facing sidewalk. All the snow just melted right off it.

Still, I didn't want to leave the house unnecessarily, which meant cobbling together something for lunch with what I had on hand.

That turned out to be farro, apples, sliced almonds, a handful of dried cherries, dehydrated toasted onions, spring mix lettuce and a spicy Asian-inspired vinaigrette that was left over from my book group dinner party on Thursday. I boiled 2 cups farro, toasted the almonds, sauteed the apples briefly in a little olive oil with some dried thyme, rehydrated the onions, and tossed it all with the vinaigrette.

There's enough left for lunch later this week, too! I bought some cheese today to go with it. I think some crumbles of goat cheese will work really nicely with it.

Plugging away ...

Just when I think I'm doing OK using fewer lifelines, I flub one row and have to rip back 16. Oy. But I'll finish it one day!

The bag is from my friend Karen at Fringe Association. We were able to meet up briefly at Stitches West, which is a big-ass knitting convention in Santa Clara, Calif. (There's Stitches South, East and Midwest, too.) Yeah, I went to a knitting convention. I bought some yarn. I'll show you that later.

Right now I've got to go pick up some stitches and knit back up to the row I flubbed.

You should go buy a tote from Karen. You know you want one.