Spindles and Spices

Knit Bomb

2012-01-10T10:06:00.001-08:00

I love how common knit bombing is nowadays! Three stop signs by my house have been bombed, and I come across random bombings everywhere I walk.

Beer update: the chestnut brown ale was delicious, and no one had a hideous hangover from our homebrew. Currently fermenting is an Irish black stout similar to Guinness!

We are going to attempt growing hops this year. Those packets of hops are spendy, and I have read that hops are easy to grow in our climate. Has anyone ever grown hops? I'd love some pointers.

Dimsum Steamer Head

2011-12-30T10:31:00.000-08:00

I think this is the best knickknack ever! The boy has returned from his business trip, and before he collapsed from exhaustion, he gave me this dimsum head magnet from Din Tai Fung in either Hong Kong or Taiwan. While this still doesn't make up for having to walk Mingus for 10 days, it's a start.

The New Year is creeping up, and since I detest all the listicles going around the web, I'll spare you any type of year end round up or any resolutions (which I never make since I believe in fixing things I want to change right away instead of once a year). However, I do want to finish my neverending afghan. And soon! I have 2 more balls of yarn left, and so far I've crocheted 101 stripes. The picture above is old. Now, when I hold up the afghan, it covers my head, so that makes it just over 5-feet high. Dreary and cold weather, old episodes of Being Human, some episodes of Ice Road Truckers, season 1 of Portlandia (which is so, so Berkeley), Manhattans and martinis, and horrible congestion that is keeping my energy level diminished has made for record breaking crochet marathons.

Funny, but I don't have anything on the needles. Everything I'm working on requires a hook.

Happy New Year, blogosphere! See you on the other side.

Reds and Orange

2011-12-20T14:40:00.000-08:00

The first red is from these felted tree ornaments I made using the Cocoknits tutorial. Since I was using some Styrofoam balls that I had earmarked for a different project, they were a little too big for felting (2.5-inches across). I made a huge mess in the kitchen between all the yarn bits, boiling water, and copious amounts of detergent. Out of the 4 I made, 3 were good enough to give away. The wool yarn scrap coating on the 4th ball just wasn't thick enough and it kept on breaking as it dried. Will I make these again? Perhaps, but if I do, I'm going to use 1-inch balls instead.

The second red is from these watermelon radishes. Although they were delightful raw (crisp, peppery, and slightly sweet), I still gave them a toss with some heat and a little pancetta fat. They were delicious, but then again, isn't everything more delicious with pork fat?

The orange is this hot off the press looped scarf. The stitch pattern was modified from a sweater I thought about crocheting until I realized it was just the stitch pattern I adored. The scarf is made from my stash yarn, Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool. I have a few more hanks of the stuff, and since the one pictured is already looped around my friend's neck, I immediately casted on (chained on in crochet-speak?) for another.

I've been on my own for a little over a week, and the meals I've been putting together for myself have been strange and frugal. Besides pancetta, I haven't cooked any meat. Red quinoa, hummus, and pan roasted radishes was lunch. Dinner from a few nights ago included an avocado, one bunch of kale, and pasta with a slow cooked, fire roasted tomato sauce. It feels foreign to cook such small amounts, but I'm not a fan of eating the same thing over and over again. Lest you think it's all been healthy, the holidays have also brought parties filled with butter and sugar laden goodies and booze. Hm, maybe that is why I am eating more simple fare when I cook for myself.

International Cat Hat: North Pole

2011-12-13T13:17:00.000-08:00

Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas! Santa Cat gives presents to all the good kittens and puppies, although today he's more inclined to give lumps of coal to everyone. If you want to spread the cheer, knit one of these for the special cat or dog in your life.

Don't forget to check out my other patterns listed on the sidebar!

Materials
• 30 yards of Cascade Eco Wool (white)
• 40 yards of Cascade 220 (red)
• 1 US size 7 16 inch circular needles OR needle size needed to achieve gauge.• 1 US size 7 circular needles, any length, OR needle size needed to achieve gauge
(US size 7 DPNs may also be used instead of 2 circular needles)
• Row counter
• Tapestry needle

Special Skills Needed• Knitting in the round using two circular needles
Gauge
• 4.5 stitches = 1 inch on US size 7 needles in stockinette stitch with Cascade 220
• 3.5 stitches = 1 inch on US size 7 needles in seed stitch with Cascade Eco

Finished Measurements
Finished hat circumference is 15 inches at the brim. Please note that my cat has an enormous head!

Abbreviations
[ ] repeat instructions between bracketsco cast on
k knit
k2tog knit two stitches together
pm place marker
sts stitch(es)

Directions
Loosely CO 56 sts on one circular needle (needle A) using the white yarn. Slip half of the stitches to the other circular needle (needle B). Join to knit in the round, placing a marker at that point so you know where the round begins. Since my cat has an enormous head, you can create a smaller hat by casting on less stitches in multiples of 7 (example: cast on 49 stitches or 42 stitches).

Brim
Round 1: [k1, p1] to end
Round 2: [p1, k1] to end
Repeat rounds 1 and 2 three more times for a total of 8 rounds.

Hat
Switch to the red yarn.
Rounds 1-5: knit all sts
Round 6: [k5, k2tog] to end. 48 sts
Rounds 7-11: knit all sts
Round 12: [k4, k2tog] to end. 40 sts
Rounds 13-17: knit all sts
Round 18: [k3, k2tog] to end. 32 sts
Rounds 19-23: knit all sts
Round 24: [k2, k2tog] to end. 24 sts
Rounds 25-29: knit all sts
Round 30: [k4, k2tog] to end. 20 sts
Rounds 31-35: knit all sts
Round 36: [k3, k2tog] to end. 16 sts
Round 37-41: knit all sts
Round 42: [k2, k2tog] to end. 12 sts
Rounds 43-44: knit all sts
Round 45: [k1, k2tog] to end. 8 sts
Rounds 46-47: knit all sts
Round 48: [k2tog] to end. 4 sts

Cut yarn, leaving a 6 inch tail.

Finishing
Using the tapestry needle, thread the yarn tail through the 4 remaining sts. Pull closed. Weave in ends. Make a 2-inch pom pom using the white yarn and sew it to the top of the hat.

Here goes my usual plea: if you knit this, I'd love to hear from you and see your finished objects and your grumpy cat! Email pictures to wildtomatoknits (at) gmail (dot) com. I'll feature your finished cat hat on my blog.

http://spindlesandspices.blogspot.com

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Fifty is a Spooner

2011-12-11T09:49:00.000-08:00

The combination of soft bed and a cold house leads Fifty to ignore her survival instincts.

She's a heat seeking napper.

As cute as she is, I'd much rather her spoon with the dogs than, for example, my head. It's hard to sleep with claws so close to my face and an extra loud purring machine in my ear. The cuteness factor fades fast. My dogs, however, are equipped with fur to protect their sensitive skin and she normally doesn't purr when she sidles up next to them. I think even she knows that purring in their ear would be pushing it. The suppression of natural instincts is a precarious balancing act.

Any aspirations my crew may have about running for office will never be realized. I have too many incriminating boudoir pictures of them.

Buddies

2011-12-09T14:26:00.000-08:00

Mingus is blindingly white in sunlight. If he sparkled, he'd be a vampire.

Although these two have lived as a family now for 6 years, I am still awed that they get along so well. Vespa came along first, and she was not happy when we "fostered" Mingus, a big brute of a malamute. Mingus was bossy, humpy, and generally out of control. We didn't even think we'd keep Mingus when we pulled him from the pound. We planned on teaching him some basic manners, and then help him find a home.Yet, he mellowed with training, age, and stability. Now, even though they can be anywhere in the house, Vespa and Mingus prefer to be together.

The cats are siblings and we adopted them together, so from day one they've been the best of friends, but I never had such high hopes for my dogs.

Vespa and I walked on the trails near our house today. The weather during the day has been sunny and warm instead of the usually gray and wet I expect in December, so we savored this walk.

I have a hard time believing that Vespa is 8- or 9-years-old. Sure, she has a gray muzzle now, but she still seems as inquisitive and playful as a puppy. Greaseball and Fifty are still her elders, but they seem like crotchety old cats. Vespa and Mingus seem like pups, but this probably shows that it's been a long time since I've been around a puppy myself. I do recall a fair amount of gnawing going on when we fostered puppies, and I do remember being really excited when it was their time to go away.

No More Plastic Bags

2011-12-06T17:19:00.000-08:00

Blue Avocado Produce Bag

Looking for a stocking stuffer for just about anyone? Reusable produce bags to the rescue! It always bothered me that trips to the produce stands always meant getting a plastic bag here and there. Sure, I have numerous grocery bags that I use to tote everything home, and things like clementines and onions can be bought sans bag, but what about the bulk arugula (for this fantastic green smoothie) or the Brussels sprouts?

Although I did a fair job bringing old plastic bags with me to the store to reuse and some bags got second life as a vessel for dog poop, my pile of spent plastic bags kept growing. Since this has been a change I've been meaning to make for some time, I finally stopped making excuses and bought a set of 8 reusable produce bags. Although I wanted to buy cotton bags, I thought it may be annoying for the cashiers to have to open up and peer into each and every bag, so I ended up with sheer nylon bags. True, they are another form of plastic, but hopefully I can keep using these for a long time.

TazzyTotes bag

My main concern about the reusable bags was weight. Would using them make me pay more for produce? To figure this out, I weighted my bags. The large TazzyTotes are 3/8 oz, the Blue Avocado are 5/8 oz, and plastic bags from Monterey Market are 1/4 oz. So, yes, they do weigh a little more. The Blue Avocado bags come in a set of 2, and the bag not pictured has a pouch sewn into it for easy storage - that bag is obviously way heavier than the others. My strategy is to put things that you buy per item, like mangoes and avocados, into the Blue Avocado bags and the other things into the TazzyTotes. I plan on buying another set of TazzyTotes (3 large bags and 1 small bag sells for $6.99) so I don't run out of bags. The Blue Avocado bags were $8.99 at Star Market.

If you buy a lot of bulk items, the TazzyTotes come with a plastic tab and a dry erase pen you can use to write down the bin numbers. Pretty neat! If I knew how to sew, or if the boy had more time to do my bidding, I'd make a set. But, I've been saying I'll make some for over a year, so clearly that was not going to happen anytime soon. I'd rather be knitting or crocheting! If you know of any reusable produce bags made in the Bay Area or even the USA, let me know! Both of the bags I talked about were manufactured in China, and I would have loved to buy locally.

Notice anything odd about the lemongrass? The ends are all torn up. After trying to catch the bugs doing it, I gave up and chalked it up to bad karma. However, a few nights ago, the boy said, "Mingus really loves that lemongrass!" and my head snapped up. "What did you say?" I asked. "Mingus really loves that lemongrass! He takes a nip at it almost every time we walk by that pot." Mystery solved. Mingus was the bug I couldn't catch in the act. What a weird dog. And what a weird boy for thinking it is fine for a dog to eat my lemongrass.

At least Mingus isn't eating my garlic shoots. These garlic shoots have the promise of being Korean extra spicy garlic that is perfect for kimchi. Ugh, this also reminds me that the seed potatoes I bought at the same time are still sitting on my counter. I don't know where I have space to plant them!

And another odd thing is this mask. Why are there feathers in its mouth? The boy swears that the cat toy just landed there during an especially vigorous round of "catch the fake bird" with Greaseball. I don't believe him, but in the meantime, we both think it's a dandy place to rest the cat toy when it's not in use.

Last weekend was beer bottling day. I watched my friend and the boy rack seven bottles of beer. It's an interesting process, although the boy is still complaining that it's a lot of work for just 7 large bottles of beer. He's already talking about his next 5-gallon batch, which would require two new stockpots and a whole lot of space that we just don't have. I think the 1-gallon batch is perfect, especially at this stage where he's learning the rhythm, but I think the compromise is that we'll borrow equipment from friends who have long ago abandoned beer making yet still have all the equipment in their basements if he really wants to make a huge batch. I may even help this time. I hesitated to help during this first round because he's a little anxious in the kitchen, and sometimes that anxiety manifests into petty arguments about the who left a dirty pair of socks under the coffee table that the dogs later ripped up and other stupid things. However, if he's working with a friend in the kitchen, he plays all nicey-nice. (Yup, I've learned a few tricks to keep the peace after 15 years of togetherness.) In two weeks, we should have glorious chestnut brown ale!

Roasting Coffee

2011-12-05T11:14:00.000-08:00

Now that I have a video camera, I can record all manner of interesting things to share. I should probably qualify that the videos I take are interesting to me since I can't vouch for how many of you are interested in listening to coffee beans crack.

This is what it sounds like when my roasting coffee beans reach the 2nd crack. It's quite loud, even over the noise of the rotisserie motor. Saturday's roast was French roast beans from my steadfast source, Sweet Maria's.

I've been a home roaster for 9 years, mostly because I can get a good quality bean at less than 1/2 the price. Total time, from heating up the grill to removing the chaff is about an hour, but only about 10 minutes is active time. Ever a fan of multitasking, I usually take this time in the backyard to rake up coastal redwood needles and pick up dog poo, two chores that are neverending.

Overheard at Ranch 99

2011-11-29T14:27:00.000-08:00

After I put four packages of rice stick noodles into my hand cart, I heard someone say, "These noodles are for lazy people who don't want to soak their rice sticks!" Was that directed at me? Probably. There is something wonderful and magical about noodles that cook up in 10 seconds. The texture is chewier for these fresh noodles, better than the dried ones, but I didn't feel like telling that to the person who potentially just called me lazy. Let her eat mushy noodles!

Ranch 99 (or is it 99 Ranch) is a fun place to browse. I don't go often because the produce is wrapped up in Styrofoam trays and plastic wrap, the meat is of questionable origin, and the parking lot is a slow motion bumper car ride, but I am thankful that there is a Ranch 99 near me. The alternative would be to go to Little Saigon, Chinatown, Korea town, and whatever the Malaysian, Filipino, and Thai communities are called. I also don't go often because I easily can spend an hour there browsing and buying tons of stuff that I have to scramble to use up before it goes to the dumpster gods.

In addition to the lazy people noodles, I also found brown rice ovalettes! I have high hopes that the brown rice ovalettes will be chewier and nuttier than their white counterparts. For the uninitiated, ovalettes can be put into soups, or boiled and then stir-fried just like the wide rice noodles.

From the library, I checked out The Kimchi Chronicles cookbook, the companion cookbook to the television show. There's a wonderful recipe for an easy chicken stew that I've made twice now, and I plan on making the fried seafood pancakes tonight. The hardest part of the chicken stew is browning the chicken - and both times I managed to get some hot oil splattered in my eye. So, perhaps it isn't hard, but dangerous.

Much to the boy's dismay, there's another batch of kimchi in the refrigerator and some more fermenting in a crock - apparently the smell makes him sick, although he loves to eat it. Since the smell only really emanates from the refrigerator once it's opened, I consider it a good way for him to diet and drink less beer.

Since I can't figure where else to post it, I've been using my Twitter account to post inane food commentary. So, if you'd like to read or share inane food and occasionally knitting commentary with me and sometimes talk about cats and dogs (it's about as focused as this blog, which is to say "not focused" and full of my typical typos and grammatical errors), follow along at spindlesnspices.

Thanksgiving is for Spent Grain

2011-11-23T14:16:00.000-08:00

I know that Thanksgiving is supposed to celebrate abundance, but I get a kick out of turning things that would otherwise go to waste into something that is fit for a feast! After making the beer, we had two trays of leftover spent grain. I decided that the best way to use the grain would be to dry it, grind it, and use it to add a kick to my baked goods.

The flour tastes sweet and has caramel notes, so to accentuate those features, I made a slow rise bread with blackberry honey and spent grain flour. Bread flour and yeast were thrown in to help it rise since I didn't want to end up with a brick.

For the muffins, I spied a fantastic recipe for Spent Grain Applesauce Muffins from Brooklyn Brew Shop. For my version, I added 1/2 the sugar, opted to use the butter instead of oil (splurge! it's worth it!), used 1 cup of our spent grain flour, and used apple butter that we canned an embarrassingly long time ago. I had to cook the muffins an extra 10 minutes, for a total of 30 minutes, because my batter was so dense and moist. The resulting muffins are sinful. No one will know that it came about from pantry scraps.

My folks are cooking the Thanksgiving dinner, and although I do love to host my most favorite holiday of the year, they are both fantastic cooks, so I'm content to sit back and enjoy everyone's company. My mom will make her famous turkey jook, potstickers, and sticky rice stuffing, and my dad will make a juicy turkey and the best gravy ever. What's special and unusual on your Thanskgiving table this year?

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Hope in a Jug

2011-11-21T09:58:00.000-08:00

Nestled next to our external hard drive on the old, stainless steel laboratory table is the boy's first attempt at beer. A couple of friends joined him on Sunday afternoon to tend grains on the stove. In a month, we should have a lovely chestnut brown ale from an all-grain brewing kit we got from Brooklyn Brew Shop!

I have 2 baking pans full of spent grains drying in the oven, and those grains will be incorporated into breads, muffins, and perhaps some dog treats. We only brewed a gallon of beer. If we had the spent grains from 5 gallons' worth of beer, we'd have to make friends with chicken ranchers and start another compost bin! Any spent grain recipes you can throw my way will be greatly appreciated.

2nd Round of Baby Knits

2011-11-19T17:02:00.000-08:00

My prolific friends and relatives are popping out babies left and right, so my knitting needles have been dedicated to baby clothes. Two more baby yoked cardigans found a home with wee ones.

In the span of a few months, I've made six of these. Six!

Since these all went to non-knitters, I made a point of sending the cardigans off with Knitterella gift tags so the recipients' know that how to take care of the garments and that these are handknits that required more effort than clicking on a gift registry and entering in my credit card number.

Out of the first four cardigans I sent off over two months ago, I heard back from three sets of parents and received some very nice thank you notes and emails! Although I know that giving a gift should have no strings, I really do become grumpy when I don't gets notes acknowledging that someone has received the gift, especially if I mailed it off. My assumption at that point is that the parents do not appreciate handknits, and future important events will mean a gift card instead of something heartfelt. I know that new parents have a lot going on, but it's not like my time is expendable - carving out the time to make gifts sometimes means doing nothing but gift knitting with my free time. Knitters, how do you decide who gets the handknits and who gets something less personal?

It's also time for my annual hat drive for an old friend's kids. He gets hats every year because he sends me adorable pictures of his kids in my handknits, and he lives in a cold, snowy place where ears and noses can fall off. This time, I knit them the Marsan Watchcap, scaled down for a baby and a little boy. Nothing like kid hats to use up partial balls of yarn! These were made using bits of my Debbie Bliss Casmerino Aran yarn scraps, making me want to knit another cardigan with the stuff.

Last weekend, we celebrated the passing of yet another year in Guerneville, a place close to home but just far enough to feel like a vacation. I planned out all the restaurants: River's End, Boon, and Applewood Inn. River's End had the lovely cocktail you see above, a seasonal drink made with hard apple cider and Maker's Mark (and now I want that cocktail glass and those salt and pepper grinders), Boon had a cherry habenero chutney that adorned a duck breast, and Applewood Inn introduced me to Bohemian Creamery and Mendocino uni. My favorite meal was at Applewood Inn, but I guess that's not surprising since we went all out and ordered the tasting menu (5 courses paired with 5 wines) and the place has one, well deserved Michelin star.

Pancetta Success (aka, I'm alive!)

2011-11-09T22:15:00.000-08:00

The scary Chinese curing salt with the label whose ingredients simply read "curing salts" did the trick. I unwrapped my pancetta today, a day early because I couldn't wait, and sliced into it. It was a rosy pink, and boy was I proud. Three of us tucked into bowls of creamy, fatty spaghetti carbonara with no thoughts of death or dying, although death by spaghetti carbonara would be a worthy way to go.

Tomorrow, I am going to use some more pancetta and saute it with shredded Brussels sprouts. I see more cured meat in my future.

Perhaps I'm tooting my horn too soon since it has only be a couple of hours since dinner...

The Meat Piñata

2011-11-07T15:17:00.000-08:00

In three more days, my homemade pancetta will be ready for some carbonara action! This project was spurred by a tutorial from The Tipsy Baker and an old blog post by Michael Ruhlman. My meat piñata is hanging above the bedroom door not because I think that's particularly romantic, but that location happened to have a hook conveniently located on the rafter. Plus, that spot is cool, the temperature ranges between 55-65 deg F, and mostly dark.

Strangely, the dogs are not going crazy from the smell, not that this is a smelly process. No scary mold or rotting smells are emanating from this hunk of meat. Yet, I expected that their sensitive dog noses meant that I would find them sitting underneath the meat mistletoe 24/7, but they are uninterested in it. This worries me because I am already paranoid that I'll die from eating homemade cured meat. Maybe the dogs know something I don't?

The picture above represents two annoying things (Mondays put me in an annoyed mood, you see):

1. Fifty-Fifty on our dining room table. I have an afghan in progress, and it rests on the table when I'm not working on it. This system is flawed because now the cats, particularly this cat, thinks the table is now an acceptable resting spot. No bueno.

2. Vespa's obsession with Fifty. You can see Vespa's signature pointy ears in the pic. Some days, they are squabbling siblings who go out of their way to annoy each other .And, although it looks like Fifty is the victim, she is far from innocent. Again, no bueno.

A third thing that annoys me is my weakness for all things gummy. I bought a box of fruit snacks, 75 packages of gummy fruits, and I've managed to eat about half of them in 3 days. I think this is why I feel cranky: sugar overload. Or at least I hope this is what it is, because if it's a character flaw that is much harder to correct. This is also why my way to not eat crap must be to never, ever have crap in the house. Chocolate? Meh. Cookies? Meh. Gummy anything? GIVE IT TO ME NOW!!!!! Please tell me I am not alone in my odd "food" obsession. Anyone?

Zucchini with Fancy Hats

2011-10-31T11:19:00.000-07:00

After I baked these spherical zucchinis, I regretted not adding some jack-o-lantern style eyes and mouths. That would have made them the perfect Halloween dinner.

Since I was getting tired of eating rice stuffing, I made a red quinoa stuffing. I find quinoa by itself boring, but jazzing it up with chopped dates, tomatoes, zucchini pulp (leftover from scooping out my vessels), shallots, garlic, roasted almonds and cashews, and a heaping of cumin, cinnamon, coriander, and salt makes quinoa something that doesn't seem to belong in the health food section of the market. It also made these little zucchinis deceptively filling. I was barely able to finish 2.

Cooking the stuffing was a snap. Simply saute everything together with a little olive oil. Start with your shallots and a splash of olive oil. When the shallots are starting to turn brown, add the ground cumin, cinnamon, and coriander and a splash more oil for another minute or so. Add the chopped zucchini pulp and tomatoes, and let the mixture simmer until almost all of the liquid has evaporated. Now, stir in the roasted nuts, chopped dates, and 1/2 cup of cooked quinoa.

I really do need to buy a grapefruit spoon, though. Using a regular spoon to depulpify the zucchini was a pain in the rear. I broke through the shells a couple of times - I guess I don't know my own strength.

Operation Weaving the Spider's Web

2011-10-25T12:23:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, knitting from a pattern is rather boring. One needs blue prints instead.

Operation Weaving the Spider's Web started as a sketch, but ended as a sweater. Sketch by Hyperdoodle, sweater by me. Yarn picked out by Hyperdoodle because picking colors has the side effect of making my eyes bleed, and he's a boy who knows his colors. Start talking about negative and positive values and the color wheel in front of me and my eyes start to cross. Not pretty.

The yarn is Cascade 220 and Cascade 220 Heathers. Amazingly, he was nonplussed at the idea of hand washing his own vest, so no superwash for us. I did send him off with a bottle of Soak, though, to be safe.

Last Tomatoes Standing

2011-10-16T17:15:00.000-07:00

Since I've returned from Greece, I've made stuffed tomatoes at least once a week. The first batch had crunchy, undercooked rice. The second batch was delicious, but I spent at least an hour chopping all the ingredients and referring to a cookbook. The third batch turned out just right, and thanks to my food processor, it was simple to put together.

The rice stuffing I liked the best included shallots, dill, parsley, fennel, pine nuts and obscene amounts of olive oil. Thanks to all this Greek food experimentation, I had to buy my olive oil in bulk!

While the book called for expensive risotto rice, I substituted a Chinese short grain rice. The results were very risotto-like, so my next food experiment is to use this same rice for an actual risotto (it's much, much cheaper).

This short grain rice is the same one I use for my Thanksgiving turkey stuffing with Chinese sausage and shitake mushrooms.

Since I tend to be a bit particular about matching and orienting the tomato tops with the correct tomato bottoms, I found that cutting the tomato tops almost all the way off (making a hinge) saved me time. I'll have to get a grapefruit spoon to help me hollow out the tomatoes faster, too.

Now that I got the flow of the cooking method down, I want to experiment with different grain stuffings and different seasonal vegetables.

She is Siamese If You Please

2011-10-10T11:26:00.000-07:00

I love it when people send me pictures of their cats rocking the International Cat Hats! Amy was very kind to let me post her picture of the dashing Trixie. LOVE!!!! Anyone else got any cat hat pictures they'd like to send me?

The lack of crafting and cooking content pictures can be blamed on my e-book reader, a Nook. I caved in and bought it before my vacation because I wanted to read Game of Thrones, Neverwhere, New Moon, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, but did not want to carry all of them since traveling light is the goal. An unexpected bonus of the Nook is that I can be reading total crap, like New Moon, and the person next to me never has to know. Since the book was downloaded from my library, I didn't even have to face a librarian to check it out. Checking out a hard copy of the Twilight would have been horrifying since the librarians know me (this is what prevents me from checking out a this book , although I see it on the shelf every time).

So, no pictures because my free time not spent crafting or cooking is spent reading. I can tell you that I made a kick ass yemista (rice stuffed tomatoes) after several barely edible attempts. I also made chickpea fritters that were delicious, but looked like something one of my dogs hacked up. Er, so maybe it's good that I don't have the shutterbug right now...

"Traveling" is a nice way to say "pigging out"

2011-09-29T12:12:00.000-07:00

Macarons the size of my fist! This is not a complaint.

I came. I saw. I conquered.

The boy and I are back after a glorious 3.5 weeks of eating, drinking, and more eating, and more drinking, and swimming, and sailing, and more swimming. The swimming and sailing occurred in Greece, where we sailed for 2 weeks in the Cyclades, and the eating and drinking happened in Greece and France.

More pictures will be forthcoming as soon as I have a chance to sort them, but for now, here's a taste:

Arc de Triomphe


The Agean Sea is a clear blue, not that dingy muddy color we get in the Bay

I wish my neighborhood was this charming.

No Longer a Mystery Socks and SS11 Socks

2011-08-27T16:18:00.000-07:00

Hot off the needles, here are my Mystery Socks designed by Jen at Knitting Like Crazy! If you look closely, you'll see that the freshly vacuumed floor was no match for Mingus and the billowy clouds of fur that he emits at a shocking rate.

It was satisfying to knit up a pair of socks with my newly acquired Sock Summit 2011 stash. Now, my hoarder brain is wishing I had bought more Socks that Rock, but I have one more skein in another red colorway to savor, as well as other skeins of sock yarn from my most excellent trip.

I never got around to sharing the socks I wore during Sock Summit: Cookie A's Twisted Flower. It was an exhausting pattern because there were no "rest rows" of just knitting - every row needed a chart. There was loads of tinking back, but I finished them in time for their debut.

Although I love these socks, they are more loosely knit than I prefer (I knit to gauge) and I worry about their durability. They're knit up using Malabrigo sock.

Already, the heels are pilled. Still, they were a (sometimes frustrating) challenge to knit, and I'm glad that they are done.

I'm daydreaming about knitting up more socks. I have some on the needles right now, but it's a traveling vine pattern done up in variegated yarn, so it's a bit too much effort for a pattern that doesn't show up well. Time to rip them out. If anyone has any sock pattern ideas for variegated yarns that are not Jaywalkers or Monkeys, please pass them on!

Mystery Socks and Baby Cardi

2011-08-23T13:00:00.000-07:00

As you can tell by the uninspired title, I'm not feeling the creative juice today. But, since I'm hiding inside today after snorting gallons of pollen and spores while gardening, I thought I'd share some projects.

Warning: if you don't want to see any WIPs of the Mystery Sock, don't look!

My ghostly feet blend into the floor

Clue #3 is complete for both socks, and I'm pleased with the results! I also realized that I'm using 11" circular needles, not 9" ones. That's why I mistakenly thought using 9" circs were easier the 2nd time around! I found my 9" needles and knit a couple of inches, and my hands ended up cramping, so back to the 11". Only having one circular needle to deal with does speed up the knitting process, but I do wish the Hiyahiyas came with pointer tips (it's supposed to happen by the end of 2011).

Socks aren't the only things I've been knitting. There has been a plethora of baby cardigan activity due to fertile friends. Oy, 2 more friends even told me that they're "not not trying", which means this wave of baby activity won't see an end in 2012. My first baby cardigan is off the needles and in the recipients' hands.

The pattern is Hannah Fettig's Yoked Cardigan (Rav link to my project). I have two more pink cardigans almost complete, and a blue and pale green one that need to be started. Since I'll have loads of yarn leftover, I'm excited to make some stripey baby hats!

I don't have any pictures as evidence, but I've been making boatloads of cashew milk. My last batch had a few dates thrown in for sweetener, and my first batch had maple syrup (dangerously good). My morning coffee has been greatly enhanced with the addition of cashew milk and sucanat. I just have to be careful to not swig down gallons of the stuff since it would be easy to do - I'm not a calorie counter, but drinking 1/2 a gallon of cashew milk in one sitting doesn't sound prudent. Cashew milk ice cream with vanilla and maple syrup is a project in my queue, after I make hand pulled noodles.

Sock Summit Fertility

2011-08-15T15:26:00.000-07:00

Since I've returned from SS2011, I've been sleeping with my knitting needles. Although I do not recommend doing this for the obvious health hazards to you and anyone else unfortunate enough to share your sleeping space, it does wonders for your FOs. In addition to the two baby hats that Vespa and Mingus so graciously modeled, I've almost finished 3 baby cardigans, and I've joined the Mystery Sock KAL hosted by Jen at Knitting Like Crazy. The picture above is from Clue #1. Clue #2's results are below. Like what you see? It's not too late to join!

Isn't that just the prettiest heel flap? I'm loving my Socks that Rock in Brick - STR is so wonderfully twisty and springy! I've only had the privilege of knitting with it once, and I turned that skein into a scarf, so I'm excited to try some STR on my feet. I've also busted out my 9" circular Hiya Hiya needles, and I'm finding that they are a joy to work with now that I knit lever style. There's no fussing and dropping any of the 5 DPNs or two circular needles. It's just around and around I go, until the heel flap, of course.

World's Smallest Tomato Harvest

Cooking has been a priority again this week. Last week was a bust due to many social gatherings that involved restaurants, but I am now back on track. Since zucchini is dirt cheap and ground lamb was on sale, I made some Mediterranean zucchini boats. I seasoned the lamb with loads of coriander, cumin, cinnamon, dried apricots, fresh English peas (odd addition, but they needed to be used up), and preserved lemons.

Scooped, salted, and ready for filling

Overstuffed with the lamb mixture

Ready for my belly

This week's food experiment is hand-pulled noodles. My attempt last night morphed into homemade ramen noodles, which wasn't a bad thing, but not quite what I wanted to eat. I now have the correct types of wheat flour, so off I go to try it again. This is one time where my stand mixer is a must.

Just Another Lazy Day

2011-08-11T12:52:00.000-07:00

While others are sweltering in heat waves, the Bay Area still hasn't made up its mind yet about summer. When the days are sunny rather than overcast and foggy, I throw the windows open so everyone can get a sip of summer before it goes away.

Overcast weather puts me in the mood to cook and craft, so I'm not that put out by the lack of sunshine. Another batch of kimchi was made, this time with some chili powder that packed a punch. I tempered the heat by adding fat and carbs. Voila! Kimchi fried rice with bacon and eggs. Brown rice is the standard here, and I love how Japanese brown rice transforms into little bites of mochi when it's fried.

Inspired by my Portland food truck excursion, I've been experimenting with this Bosnian pita recipe (burek). This is my first excursion into laminated doughs, and I have a lot more learning to do. Lesson number 1 was to not be stingy with the fat. Since I didn't put enough olive oil onto my rolled out dough, my first try wasn't laminated. It was rock solid. Still, I ate it, because hot bread with a tasty beef filling can't go too wrong. Try number 2 was much better once I let the fat flow.

Someday, I will remember not to cut into my food before I take a blog picture.

I have some ground lamb earmarked for try number 3. I'm thinking of seasoning the lamb with preserved lemons, cumin, and dried apricots.

Cloudier days put me in a knitting and picture taking mood, so the dogs dutifully modeled some baby hats for me. Again, it's baby season. This season, I have a whopping 7 babies popping out in September. January was a busy month.

Here's a better picture of the hat. It's the Upside-Down Daisy hat (rav link). I'm not happy with the petal edges. I think I'll improvise and crochet the petals next time so they look more finished. Other daisy hats on Ravelry look just fine. What's the trick? Maybe I should have whip stitched around the edges of the petals instead of basting.

And here's a better picture of Mingus. This picture captures his goofiness much better, but his ginormous head is blocking the hat. He's still waiting for a thought. It helps to cross your eyes ever so slightly when waiting for a thought to land.

I survived Sock Summit 2011

2011-08-05T12:07:00.000-07:00

Last April, Leann and I decided that we were headed to Sock Summit, a magical gathering of sock knitters that included an even more magical marketplace full of sock yarn. Our transportation of choice was the Coast Starlight, a train that a quick glance at the route map shows is only coastal before and after our time on it. But, taking the train to Portland seemed so old timey and stress-free, something we both longed to be, so we endured the 17.5 hour ride from the Bay Area to Portland. And we discovered that a Nalgene can fit a bottle of wine discreetly and that Dixie cups still exist. And we knit legwarmers!

Check out my legwarmers and my clashing Jaywalkers!

Upon pulling up into the Portland train station, we decided that a walk to our hotel was in order since sitting for 17.5 hours made us feel blobby. After checking in, we chowed down on Thai food, then made our way via public transportation to the Awesome 80's Sock Hop!

Leann and I have been friends since our angsty high school years, and we wondered what our teenaged selves would have thought of our current selves looking so ridiculous that cars stopped and laughed at us. Leann still remembered how to do wings and poofy bangs! My bangs went flat as soon as I stepped out of the hotel room despite asphyxiating myself with hairspray.

Any awkwardness we felt upon arriving at the Sock Hop was dissolved by 1 Manhattan, 1 greyhound, and the Village People's "YMCA". Now, how many of you can say that you danced the YMCA with the Yarn Harlot? She's in this shot, I swear! It felt too intrusive to kinnear her any closer. Paparazzi, I am not. The last song played was a practice run for the flash mob. So cool to see it all in person!

The next day, we hit the Sock Summit and shopped! I increased my sock yarn stash from 1 skein to 6 skeins, and I swear I'll post the sock yarn pr0n later. It's good stuff: Miss Babs, Sanguine Gryphon (best booth ever), and Blue Moon Fiber Arts. I also scored a set of Signature Needle Arts DPNs. Although 2 circular needles is my preferred sock knitting method, there are some patterns that are best knit with DPNs. Plus, I love knitting with my other pair of Signature straights, and I was dying for another pair. They do cell circular needles now, but not in the smaller sizes yet.

A highlight of these yarny gatherings is meeting other knit bloggers. I finally got to meet Michelle while she was working the Knitted Wit booth! She's just as lovely in person as she is online.

Portland is a good place for grub, both high end and cheap. On our last day, Leann and I heard about some food trucks that were near Powell's Books. These Bosnian pita's were delicious! I ordered a combo: 1/2 spinach pita, and 1/2 spicy beef. The spicy beef was by far my favorite one. Although they are called pitas, they reminded me more of Chinese scallion pancakes because they consisted of a filled, laminated dough that is then spiraled before being baked. I made my first attempt last night for dinner, but it was so-so. I need to find a better dough recipe (if anyone has made these, please do share a link to the recipe). Perhaps a yeasted dough would be better.

Above is a picture of the my new favorite schnitzel: duck. These are from Gruner, a German restaurant with a twist. There are other foods and drinks we ate and loved, like the avocado daiquiri from Mint, and the vanilla latte and country bread from Ken's Artisan Bakery.

Before we knew it, we were headed back on another 17.5 hour train ride. I started and finished the last 2 Hunger Game books, learned way too much about strangers (does that still make them strangers?), and knit on a sock. I think I am finally recovered.

Amaretto

2011-07-24T14:27:00.000-07:00

Apricot pit cracked open to reveal the nut

Since this year's tomato crop is abysmal at best, I'm consoling myself with apricots. Aside from eating them fresh, I've made apricot caramel ice cream and apricot jam (easiest recipe ever). I now have a nice collections of apricot pits set aside to make homemade amaretto. So far, the leading recipe contender is this one from CHOW. Has anyone out there made amaretto? Any tips or favorite recipes to share?

My lemon infused vodka has been ready to drink for a couple of months now. I should probably strain the zest from the vodka since it's been infusing since April, but I'm enjoying the over the top lemon flavor. The only problem is that since I used 100 proof vodka, a little shot glass of the stuff knocks me out. This was great when I had to stay still due to my loopy ankle (which is doing much better - thanks to all for the well wishes), but it's potency begs to be mixed with other things in order for me to stay functional. I suppose I could cook and bake with it, too.

They Know I'm Stuck

2011-07-16T21:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I sprained my ankle in a very uninteresting way. Consequently, the majority of my time is spent laying down. This morning, as I was laying in bed, Mingus and Fifty started to smother me because they both wanted head scratches.

Fifty is supremely stubborn, as you can tell by the look on her face and the fact that she persisted in staying in place despite Mingus using her as a pillow. Mingus was kind of oblivious to her presence, as per usual. Eventually, I had to yell for the boy to remove both of them because I was pinned down and Mingus has erratically kicky legs that were dangerously close to my injured ankle.

Now, let's hope that this bum ankle heals completely before Sock Summit! I cannot imagine hobbling around on crutches while trying to fondle sock yarn.

Post Natto Day Report

2011-07-15T00:29:00.000-07:00

June 10th was Natto Day, and to celebrate, my cousins came over to indulge in natto, fried eggs, and hot rice. The meal was especially memorable because the natto was of the homemade variety. Taking a cue from my cuz, I am continuing the natto train and fermenting some more today.

Can I eat this for breakfast like so many Japanese people? Probably, but do keep in consideration that I am not a sweet breakfast person. No insipid frosted cornflakes will pass my lips. Give me black coffee and natto and a fried egg over hot rice any morning and I'll be content. Natto contains probiotics just like yogurt with live cultures, so I can see why eating it is considered healthy.

And since we're on the topic of probiotics, probiotic supplements are such a rip off. Just eat foods with naturally occurring probiotics like kimchi, yogurt, and natto.

I've used the words "blue cheese" to describe the natto smell, but my friends had a better description after tasting some tonight: they taste like ginkgo nuts. If you have haven't had ginkgo, I guess this doesn't help, but ginkgo has a slight bitter taste like natto.

Natto phobia is unwarranted.

Have you eaten natto? What did you think of it?

Tilden Park Scarf on Stash & Burn

2011-06-23T19:03:00.000-07:00

The Tilden Park Scarf pattern is the June Sock Stash Knitdown prize for the Stash & Burn podcast! Knit something out of your sock yarn stash, follow the instructions June SSK thread on Ravelry, and you are entered to win a free copy of my pattern. Additionally, from now until the end of July, you can get $1 off my pattern by entering the promotion code stashandburn at checkout.

If you haven't listened to Stash & Burn, you're missing out. Jenny and Nicole give smart commentary about all things knitting and the occasional movie and television show.

Enter the contest today! Good luck!

Easy Pork Rillette

2011-06-19T10:53:00.000-07:00

I had one of those problems that really wasn't a problem last week: what to do with 1.5 pounds of pork belly? Originally, I wanted to buy a pork shoulder from Marin Sun Farms, but by the time I went the farmer's market, they were out of that cut. Since I wanted to buy some meat for the week, I grabbed a packet of fresh pork belly instead with the intention of making thit kho, a Vietnamese dish consisting of caramelized pork and eggs.

I had a last minute change of stomach when it was thit kao making day, and instead decided to make a pork rillette. Whenever we order the Butcher Block at Wood Tavern, some sort of rillette is featured, and while I know the cured meats take some dedication, the rillettes seemed like an "afternoon project" kind of dish.

Rummaging around my pantry, I found dried apricots, juniper berries, bay leaves, and a cinnamon stick. I also added a few cloves of garlic, a tablespoon of salt, a few grinds of pepper, and a cup of dry vermouth. The pork belly was cut into 1/2" squares, the apricots were chopped, the garlic cloves had their skins removed, and the juniper berries were lightly crushed. Everything was tossed into a cast iron pot with a lid, and the whole thing went into a 250°F oven for 4 hours.

After two hours, the pork belly had rendered enough fat to poach the meat, and after 4 hours, the meat was falling apart. I shredded the meat with two forks, similar to making ropa vieja or carnitas. I added more salt while shredding the meat - the meat should be on the verge of being too salty since this will be spread onto bread.

The shredded pork mixture is strained, with the fat and juices reserved, and then pressed into a dish. I put them into a big baking round, but more traditionally the meat is pressed into ramekins.

The reserved juice and fat is poured back over the meat, the dish is covered and refrigerated for at least 24 hours so the flavors can mingle.

Before serving, let the rillette warm up to room temperature so the fat will be easy to spread. Enjoy it smeared onto a slice of baguette with a touch of mustard and a cornichon.

First Tomato

2011-06-14T12:48:00.000-07:00

My first tomato of the season! It's been unusually wet and cool this summer, and that equals a tardy tomato crop. So, while others are sustaining themselves from their gardens on a daily basis, I've been monitoring this one little tomato for the past few weeks. Solemnly, I took a photo, then popped it into my mouth. Bliss.

This is a close up of my worm bin. Last week, I tossed some bok choy ends into the bin. This week, they're all regenerating and kind of freaking me out. It's hard to tell in this photo, but there are three sprouts (is that the right word?) coming from the stem. The boy wants to plant these and add them to his little discarded vegetable garden which thus far only has some sprouted onion tops that are thriving. The problem with those sprouted onion tops is that the old onion tops are still attached and they look rotten, so I'm not quite sure what is going on there. However, the boy will persevere because he likes thinking of himself as the punk gardener who goes around breaking conventional gardening rules.

Accidentally, this bin became a second compost bin. It's been going strong for a few years, dutifully digesting paper egg cartons and overflow vegetable scraps that my official worm bin cannot handle, and to my astonishment, worms have magically appeared inside the bin. Mind you, there's no holes in this bin and it sits on a concrete slab. How did they get in there? I suspect that our pitchfork was the vector. Regardless, I'll have to decide when it's done so I can let it rest and fully decompose. Currently, although only 1/4 full, it feels like it's full of lead.

Gaia

2011-06-13T00:13:00.000-07:00

Another cardigan down! Wait, didn't I say last time that it was time to stop knitting cardigans??? This makes my 5th cardigan of the year, and I'm beginning to think I should have joined one of those knit 12 sweaters a year challenges.

As you can see, I am procrastinating my sock knitting with cardigans. Usually, that would be just fine, but since I'm going to Sock Summit this year, I do want to have a sweet pair of socks to show off!

This is Gaia by Kristen TenDyke. It is knit using Spud & Chloe's Sweater in colorway 7515. Sadly, I bought this yarn Stash's going out of business sale. Sigh, that was such a fantastic store. I wrote a bunch of notes about this pattern on my Rav page, so I'll spare you them here. The one thing I should mention is that I used a lot less yarn than specified; I could have knit this using 3 balls of Spud & Chloe if I would have made it a bit shorter.

It was fun knitting set in sleeves again, and I'm especially happy with the method used in this pattern to knit the sleeve cap in place. Very, very slick.

OK, socks are next FO. At least one sock. I promise. However, I've been obsessively sketching cardigans in my design notebook, so I hope have the resolve to not knit up that last sweater's worth of yarn in my stash.

Friday Dog Butt Picture

2011-06-10T11:32:00.000-07:00

The boy built this fence to keep the dogs away from our delicate ferns.

If I cook like it's summer, will summer come?

2011-06-07T16:59:00.000-07:00

Sunshine seems increasingly rare these days, and the past weekend was full of wind and rain. Yet, I had a 1/4 pound of cherries that needed a purpose. Since they weren't that sweet, I stewed the cherries with some vanilla sugar, a pinch of salt, bourbon, and a splash of balsamic vinegar.

I roughly mashed them after stewing, then folded them into vanilla ice cream batter. Since I was feeling lazy, I didn't commit to making a vanilla custard. Instead, with a nod to the Ben and Jerry's ice cream recipe book, I whipped a couple of eggs and added sugar, milk, and cream to the batter. It was simple and more airy than a custard based ice cream, but the drawback is that it isn't as rich (only 2 egg yolks versus the 4-6 I'd normally use) and is hard to scoop. Still, is there such a thing as bad ice cream, especially when served with bourbon whipped cream?

I'm almost finished with another cardigan (someone please stop me!) that I can post soon. But for now, I'll leave you with a picture of my afghan. I stated the afghan on 5/24/10, and as of today I have 85 rows complete. I'd love to have this complete by the end of summer, although with the way this summer is starting out, I should try to finish this ASAP.

Dropping the Knit Bomb

2011-06-04T11:25:00.000-07:00

As I was walking around town, disconnected with everything surrounding me because I was stuck thinking about mundane tasks that needed to be done, it was nice to be snapped back to the present by a bit of unexpected knitting.

The knitting revolution has begun!

Slow Knitting

2011-05-27T11:05:00.000-07:00

Can anyone guess this sock pattern? It's been my zen project - you know, the type of project you have to buckle down and give your undivided attention. No listening to podcasts, certainly no television watching, and no gabbing on the phone. Just knitting. This project was just crawling along until I figured out how to knit 1x1 cables without a cable needle. Also, I was fumbling with different circular knitting methods.

This project started out as magic loop because I only had one 32-inch circular needle that was the right size. It was an Addi Turbo lace needle, and as much as I love them, the cables were a bit too stiff for the magic loop method and I was getting huge ladders on the sides. Then, I got my second circular needle back that was the right size (it was on loan), and I did my trusty 2-circ needle method. This would have been ideal, except my two circular needles were insanely long and kept getting in my way. Off to the LYS I went with every intent of buying another Addi Turbo lace needle that was only 16-inches. However, the Kollage square knitting needles caught my attention, especially since they were 1/2 the price of the Addi Turbos.

Knitting on DPNs is not my favorite, but I've used them before and the novelty of knitting with square needles is keeping me interested. I did have a "duh" moment when I first switched the project to DPNs and I completely removed one double pointed needle from my project. And then I freaked out. And then I put the project in a time out until I could collect myself. However, now I've finally found my groove. Sock Summit is my project deadline, although I really hope I'm done before then.

To counteract my "must concentrate" sock pattern, I've been crocheting on my neverending afghan. It's one year and two days since I first started it, and 80 rows are complete. I'm probably 60% complete. My afghan's days as my go-to knit night project are probably limited because it's a little odd to bring a blanket with you to cafes and pubs, even if I am working on it. I'm beginning to see the appeal of modular blanket squares.

To make up for the lack of pics, I leave you with Imploring Fifty ("if you just open the front door and let me give the dog a quick shove, problem solved!") and a blurry side by side comparison of Fifty-Fifty and Greaseball. Fifty's probably average cat size, weighing in at 11 pounds. Greaseball, on the other hand, is a whopping 20+ pounds the last time I checked. He's a jabba!

Miso Decanting

2011-05-17T19:03:00.000-07:00

The sweet miso I started last month is finally done! Well, it's a little overdone, but more on that later. When I first opened the crock, it smelled strongly of sake, a logical smell since koji is used in sake production.

I spooned it into the food processor and let it whiz about until it was blended to a velvety smooth paste, about 3 minutes.

The end result was 5 cups of sweet miso. Due to the actual summer temperatures early on during the fermentation time, I think I could have pulled this miso out of the crock about a week earlier. I can taste lactic acid, one of the main acids that gives sauerkraut and sourdough bread their tang, in the miso. Still, I made a batch of miso soup with it, and it was very warm and comforting on this drizzly, gray day. I even got the boy to down a mug, without force, which was a surprise. He wasn't thrilled when I fed him a spoonful of plain miso paste earlier in the day, so the fact that he voluntarily drank that soup is a testament that it wasn't too sour.

I don't know if I'll be using this batch of miso for salad dressings, but I do think it will be a wonderful addition to marinades. Any additional thoughts on what to do with tangy miso?

Vintage Cardigan

2011-05-09T13:45:00.000-07:00

Another cardigan complete! This is Miette by TheAndiPants, a free pattern on Ravelry. So far, I've knit 4 cardigans for myself in 2011(Aidez, Ocean Beach, Swingy Cardi) - I needed some more cardi action in my wardrobe.

The yarn is Spud & Chloe Sweater, a 45% organic cotton and 55% superwash wool blend. Knitting with the yarn was more pleasant than ordinary cotton yarn due to elasticity of the wool, but the finished yarn does feel very much like cotton to me. And so far, it's stretching like cotton, too. Remember that if you knit with the stuff - add some negative ease!

I'm a shortie, so again many shortie-specific modifications were made. For the details, see my Rav project page.

The flower buttons were a lucky find. The wall of buttons made my eyes cross at the craft store, and I almost missed them.

My next FO will hopefully be a pair of socks, the Twisted Flower by Cookie A. I need to finish up my sock stash before Sock Summit!

Swingy Cardi

2011-05-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

Being less than five-feet tall makes it hard to find clothes that fit right, especially when the style I'm after is a cardigan that's long in the front and short in the back. (It's a reverse mullet cardi!) So, what's a knitter to do? She makes one herself!

I added picot trim to the sleeves and the bottom of the cardigan,

and I added some scalloped edging to the neck.

Madeline Tosh DK is so smooth and soft. I had reservations about knitting with a single-ply superwash yarn, but those reservations melted away with each stitch I knit. MadTosh is a pricey yarn, but I was lucky that it was 20% off at Article Pract (it was a staff pick).

Speaking of yarn stores, my all time favorite store is no longer. Stash Yarn, you were the best! I am going to miss you.

More details on the cardi can be found on my Rav project entry. Perhaps I'll write this pattern up, too.

Anyone going to Sock Summit in Portland? I'll be there attending the marketplace and hopefully the Sock Hop! My train ticket and hotel are booked, so now I can concentrate on what I'll eat and where I'll visit. A friend works at the Omsi, so that's on the list, and I've love to do some kayaking, hiking, and yarn shopping. All recommendations are welcome and appreciated.

Porky Goodness: Cochinita Pibil

2011-05-03T11:32:00.000-07:00

Inspired by an episode of "Mexico - One Plate At a Time," an episode that features Rick Bayless and his daughter Lanie digging a pig pit in their backyard (so jealous!), I made a crockpot version of the featured dish: cochinita pibil. Years ago when we went to Merida, the capital of Mexican state Yucatan, cochinita pibil was featured on every menu and I made sure to sample it every time. I am a sucker for a good, slow cooked hog.

An aside, during the TV show, Lanie says, "Speaking of hot, let’s see what my dad is up to outside." The show cuts to a clip of Bayless in a skimpy tank top, muscles rippling as he digs a hole. Before I could turn to the boy and protest, he said "She means he's temperature hot." Who edits this show??? Did anyone else see this episode and have to do a double-take?

Even more of an aside, we had some friends for dinner when the boy made cochinita pibil a couple of weeks ago, and one friend mentioned that Rick Bayless is the kind of guy he expects to see in a dungeon clad in leather. Hm, food for thought.

I had some annatto leftover from who knows what, so into the blender it went with some lemon juice, garlic cloves, and salt. Have I told you how much I love my blender on steroids? Not only can it do demure tasks like make smoothies, but it can grind spices and purportedly grind wheat berries for flour. That's my next experiment!

This spice paste was rubbed over a luscious pork shoulder from Marin Sun Farms, then the pork shoulder was wrapped in banana leaves and thrown into the slow cooker over low heat. I added a scant amount of water to the bottom of the crock to ensure that the leaves didn't burn before the pork started to release its juices. After 6 hours passed, I removed the banana leaves and the bone, and used two forks to shred the pork. The shredded pork went back into the slow cooker to simmer over low heat for another hour with all of the juices.

To accompany the cochinita pibil, I made the traditional side dish of pickled red onions. The boy first made this a couple of weeks ago, and even a life long raw onion hater (me!) liked it. If you want to make some yourself, thinly slice red onions, pour boiling water over the onions and let them sit for a few minutes. Then, rinse them in cold water. Once rinsed, cover the onions with lemon or lime juice and add a heaping spoonful of salt. In about an hour, you have really pink pickles that go well with any rich meat dish.

I've been checking up on my food experiments daily. The Indian lemon pickles have multiplied - I put up another jar of the stuff because it smells so good. When I can, I sit the jars out to cook in the sun. The miso smells like sake and is bubbling away, the infused vodka is taking on a golden hue, and the preserved lemons are probably done now and I should figure out what to do with them.

Hope in a Pot

2011-04-26T13:25:00.000-07:00

Here it is: 2011's first tomato! This year, thanks to last year's utter tomato crop failure, I started my plants in April. Also, no fancy pants heirlooms, although I love them dearly, but only proven producers get a place in my yard. And, they have to be cherry tomatoes because we live in the fog during the summer. Cherry tomatoes seem to be the most immune to fog, probably because they take so few days to mature in comparison to their larger counterparts. I am growing Sweet 100s and Sugar Golds.

In addition to growing my own tomatoes, I vow to can enough local tomatoes to last us until the next tomato season. If this means that our living room cabinet is full of only canned tomatoes, so be it.

I was also motivated to take care of my little herb plot, which meant weeding, weeding, weeding. I just read "Plenty: Eating Locally on the 100-Mile Diet", and one of the authors, J.B. Mackinnon wrote that he was offended by the high price of herbs when he found out how easy they were to grow. I agree! I have a small patch of oregano, two types of thyme, and two types of mint growing in the front yard. I dared to plant the pineapple mint directly in the ground with the other herbs, but I'm keeping an eye on it and tearing out rouge mint patches when necessary.

Don't ask me about the rest of our yard. Anything I can't eat gets very little attention from me.

Do any of you live in the fog as well and have prolific vegetable plant recommendations? I'd love to plant more food crops for the summer, but the scant amount of summer sunshine here deters me. I'm resigned to not growing peppers or eggplants.

Greaseball continues to be Greaseball. He whines loudly for his breakfast or dinner, sits next to me on the bench during meals, and demands to sit in the boy's lap every evening. Spoiled.

Deadly Hot Sauce and Miso

2011-04-21T14:24:00.000-07:00

After a long day at work, it was a treat to come home to a huge Yucatecan feast made entirely by the boy. He even made a habanero chili salsa, complete with a custom graphic of a skull that somehow still has eyeballs. Other delights were cochinita pibil (pork slow cooked with an annato paste and banana leaves), lemon pickled red onions, black beans, and a huge stack of corn tortillas.

The more we cook at home, the more picky we become about our dinners out. This, I've noticed, leads to us cooking in more often.

Surprisingly, we manged to use all but 10 lemons from the freaking huge bag. Not bad! Thanks again for all of your suggestions. Seriously, there is no way I could've thought of all those things myself.

I spied this tub of koji in the refrigerator, noticed I had dried soybeans, and finally put the two together the other day. In 4 weeks, I should have a batch of homemade sweet miso. I bought the koji at Berkeley Bowl for about $5.

If it turns out good, I can use the excess to make more miso pickles. I think there is at least 2.5 pounds of miso here.

Ocean Beach Cardigan Sneak Peak

2011-04-19T14:51:00.000-07:00

I finally sent out my Ocean Beach cardigan to be test knit. It's an open, top-down raglan with eyelet details. Oof, designing a sweater pattern in a non-me size has been a challenge because I have to believe in the size charts. I'm not so good at the blind faith thing!

Hopefully, I can have the rest of the sizes written up and test knit in time for fall, although the thought of my summer being over and done with makes me weepy.

Food Projects Galore

2011-04-15T17:16:00.000-07:00

Thank you so much for the lemon ideas! You are all so creative! So far, I've dehydrated lemons, made Indian lemon pickles, and have frozen lemon juice into ice cube trays.

Up next is lemon marmalade and lemon hard cider. I bought some ale yeast and yeast nutrient after doing a bit of research on what needs to be done to make yeast reproduce in an unfriendly (in this case,acidic) environment. Do you have any more ideas? Keep 'em coming! I love comments, especially because I discover more blogs to follow. Such a creative bunch!

After creating an ugly, dense loaf of bread using the no-knead method, I went back to making pain au levain the way I outlined for the breadalong. I used rye, buckwheat, whole Sonoma wheat, and regular bread flour for this loaf, and it turned out beautiful! There are lots of pockets in this bread for jam, and it makes a lovely, chewy toast with lots of character. One of my favorite snacks lately is toast with a healthy smear of plain Greek yogurt and homemade guava jam.

Last weekend was a Chinese holiday that I only know as "Grave Sweeping" day, and this meant that I returned to my hometown to clean my grandmother and grandfather's cemetery plots. My grandmother made everything from scratch up until the day she died. Homemade noodles, though, are what her children remember the most. I was feeling a little reminiscent today, so I made a batch of noodles for tonight's dinner, a vegetarian chow mein. My crafty, creative aunts put together a book of Grandma's recipes a few years ago, so I can recreate the taste of her kitchen. Someday, I'm going to tackle some of her harder recipes, like a fermented brown soybean paste and salt pickled turnips.

After making two batches of Epsom salt tofu, I was sick of the grainy texture. I know some people can make tofu with Epsom salt as the coagulant with good results, but not me. My dad, upon hearing of my tofu failure, called his buddy who happens to own a noodle and tofu making manufacturing facility and asked what he used as the coagulant. The answer? Food grade calcium sulfate, otherwise known as gypsum. (When this tofu making guy heard that I was using Epsom salts, he decried my method by saying, "That's a laxative! It shouldn't be in tofu!" I never knew that Epsom salts were used for anything besides soaking sore body parts until recently.)

Anyway, by happy accident, I learned that the beer making supply store sold calcium sulfate, and it was cheap! 2-ounces for $1.50. Score! I immediately made some soymilk and turned it into tofu with out of this world results. The curds were big and creamy. This is what I was after! I think I'll eat this batch raw, sliced thinly with a scant amount of soy sauce, sesame oil, and green onions.

I tried to capture Fifty-Fifty and Mingus resting peacefully together, but as soon as Fifty saw me, she scrambled over for some head scratches. She looks like she's about to attack Mingus. She should attack him. He totally deserves it for always stepping on her.

Life Gave Me Lemons

2011-04-11T18:36:00.000-07:00

80-lbs of lemons are out on our deck. Why? You'll have to ask the boy what he was thinking when he filled up a bag (previously containing 50-lbs of Chandler walnuts) with lemons. He says he wanted to make hard lemonade since we had success with our hard apple cider, but I'm not sure how he's going to do this since the nothing I've fermented has had such high citric acid level. Various web searches come up with different solutions, and many require things like yeast energizers and nutrients. This picking frenzy is especially baffling since he hates lemonade. He's on his own for this one.

However, I've managed to use up 30 lemon peels for an infused vodka. My original plan was to make limoncello, but the amount of sugar that goes into limoncello is a little sickening, so I may make only a tiny bit of it. BTW, buying 100-proof vodka before noon at the store is going to earn you sideways glances, especially when you think you've swiped your credit card, but have not, and you have to stumble around to dig out your card again, then you don't know the correct phone number for the boy's discount card. At least I wasn't in my pajamas. The cashier strongly suggested I get my own discount card, hopefully because it's a company policy for him to ask and not because he thinks I like to take shots of 100-proof vodka before noon. At least I wasn't still wearing my pajamas.

10 lemons are also destined to be preserved lemons (pic at top of post). That only leaves me with, um, ONE MILLION LEMONS. Give or take a few.

I thumbed through my old school books, and one suggestion is that lemons can go whole into the freezer. That sounds a lot better to me than juicing one million lemons and freezing the juice in ice cube trays. Upon defrosting, the rind will be soft, but the pulp will still yield juice. One sacrificial lemon is in the freezer now to test this out.

So, taking into account that I'm not a sugar fiend (eliminating a lot of baking ideas), what else can I do with all these lemons? Anyone have any suggestions?

They Fit!

2011-04-11T10:29:00.000-07:00

No muffin tops on these puppies! They sweaters fit! And in my opinion, they look much better on the dogs than on my cats. After all, they were custom knit for Moxie (blue) and Quinn (lavender).

It's a huge relief. Now, the puppies won't be cold. Just in time for the 100 degree temperatures of summer? It's a good thing the sweaters are cotton...

Cats and Sweaters

2011-04-08T13:27:00.000-07:00

So far as I can tell, my cats have no love for sweaters.

Luckily (for my cats), these sweaters are not for them. They are for their teeny, tiny dog counterparts who live with my brother.

Fierce Fifty is gunning for the title of America's Next Top Cat Model. Look at the intensity in her eyes!

Greaseball is just resigned. He doesn't really mind one way or the other about the sweater.

The other animals did come over to check out his new duds, though. They are always intensely interested in photo shoots. Plus, they like to get tips from Greaseball since he is the breakaway star of the cat modeling world, thanks to his dapper beret.

These sweaters were knit yet more Elann Sonata leftover from the Curve of Pursuit blanket. I'm down to the last ball of the stuff, and I'll be so happy to be rid of it! Nice yarn, good price, but way too much of it.

These sweaters were knit as top down raglans while sitting in a Jeep on an 8 hour drive to Arizona. I finished everything but the sleeves, so they sat in my WIP pile. And I know I have project notes somewhere, but I seem to have misplaced one of my design notebooks. Doh!

I really hope they fit the dogs better than they fit the cats... Pictorial evidence hopefully provided in the near future.

The Ugly Loaf

2011-04-07T09:43:00.000-07:00

Last week, I started another Bertha so I could experiment with no-knead breads. Breads that lack a starter have no soul, so as tempting as the original no-knead bread recipe is, I opted to follow this variation instead.I used 6oz white bread flour, 3oz rye, 1.5oz buckwheat, and 4oz of Full Belly Farm's Sonora whole wheat flour.

The long lead time turned out to be more annoying than a traditional pain au levain, mostly because I timed it wrong and started at 10 in the morning, meaning that phase 2 should have been started at 4 AM the next day. That wasn't going to happen! I banked on the fact that the kitchen temperature drops dramatically overnight, thus slowing fermentation. At best, I was expecting a bread more reminiscent of American sourdough instead of a pain au levain, but I carried through.

True to all the warnings, the bread dough, measured and mixed in 5 minutes, was really, really sticky due to the high water percentage. The theory behind the no-knead bread is that the high level of hydration combined with the long resting time results in the gluten aligning, which is the same thing achieved by kneading traditional bread dough. When I woke up at 6 AM to shape the loaf, bleary eyes and lack of coffee made for a comical bakery session. Well, comical to anyone watching (the dogs), but not to me at the time.

The boy and I tag teamed the process, so he was in charge of baking the bread, and he got the enjoyment of baking bread smells (my favorite part) and being the first one to cut into it. I was pestering him all day while I was at work, asking about the crumb structure, the flavor, and the overall baking process. He emailed me back with one word responses ("good", "fine"), and finally stopped responding to me at all. I had to wait until I arrived home to judge for myself.

The crumb structure was holey and beautiful. That much cannot be denied. However, loaf was the exact shape of the bottom of my Dutch oven, and there wasn't much oven spring. This is due in part to the heavy flours I incorporated into the dough, but I have made beautiful loaves with dense flours before. The crust was almost scorched on the bottom, too, so this was one f-u-g-l-y loaf.

But how did it taste, you ask? Lovely! Slightly tangy due to my starter, slightly sweet thanks to the honey, and slightly nutty due to the whole wheat and buckwheat. The boy was stoked that he had baked his first loaf of bread, and I was able to coax a few more words out of him about it. He'd probably make it again, although he did complain that the instructions I sent him were "a novel".

My conclusion is this: if you are intimidated by bread making, try this! If you aren't intimidated, try it once and see what you think! It's so nontraditional that you have to try it at least once to see what all the buzz is about. Will I make it again? Probably not. This has gotten my bread making mojo back, though, so expect too many pictures of bread in the next few weeks...

Tweet Tweet!

2011-04-04T17:45:00.000-07:00

Follow me on Twitter: spindlesnspices!

Yet another thing I said I wouldn't do, but did.

Homemade Tofu and Eucalyptus Honey

2011-04-03T19:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, after dropping off my cosmetically challenged cookies to Bakesale for Japan (which raised ~~$1032.46~~ over $3,000 at the Berkeley location!!!), I kept myself amused by making tofu. I forgot how I came across using Epsom salt to coagulate soy milk, but knowing that fresh tofu could be in my belly in a matter of hours nagged at me. Dried organic soybeans are easy to come by, and cheap to boot. A lifetime supply of Epsom salt is even cheaper. Why haven't I made my own tofu before?

My initial attempt was tasty, but the texture was grainy. More experimentation needs to be conducted before I can achieve the custardy tofu of my dreams. Once I can master that, the variations I can make are endless. And of course, I found another gadget I want: a stainless steel tofu press from Japan. Do I need it? No. Will this stop me from talking about it to the boy until he'll have no choice but to make me one? Definitely not. (That's how I got my swift!)

The boy's biking beekeeper buddy relayed a message to me: he'll trade me some local eucalyptus honey in exchange for some kimchi. I'm no dummy, so I gladly accepted and got to fermenting. Yesterday, we exchanged the goods - oh boy, I really hope he likes my kimchi because I adore his honey.

There is some thing smugly satisfying about bartering goods and skills with friends. Maybe because it's like dipping my pinky toe into being off-the-grid, or perhaps it reminds me fondly of trading stickers in the 1st grade? (Clearies were the best; even better than scratch and sniffs.)

I'm not doing so hot on keeping the dogs off the couch. Vespa looks just a little too cozy here, and it slays me that she is propped up on the pillow. All our pets seem to put their heads or shoulders on pillows! At least the couch is easy to wipe off and vacuum, unlike our last horrifically hairy couch. I still cannot believe that someone took that couch off our hands for free.

Bakesale for Japan is Saturday 4/2

2011-04-01T22:53:00.000-07:00

Bakesale for Japan is this Saturday 4/2! If you happen to see frosted sour cream cookies for sale at the Berkeley or Oakland locations, they may just be mine. Buy them! They're really good! The sour cream makes them really moist - they're almost like a mini cakes instead of cookies.

Since the bakers were asked to write out the ingredients, I was really tempted to write on the labels "these cookies were baked in a facility that processes kimchi", but I am the only one who would consider that a selling point.

The boy and I frosted them, and unfortunately our frosting skills are not as perfect as my mom's, so if anyone asks, I'll tell them my 6-year-old helped. It's not a flat out lie, since the boy does have the number "six" in his age.

So, if there's a Bakesale for Japan in your area, go get yourself some goodies for a good cause. Last year, a similar bakesale for Haiti raised $23,000, so let's quadruple that on Saturday!

Buckwheat Pasta

2011-03-31T18:11:00.000-07:00

I had a dream that I was eating buckwheat pasta, so when I awoke, I had no choice but to make it. My initial attempt at buckwheat pasta was a little protein heavy. Since buckwheat lacks gluten, I compensated by using bread flour and vital wheat gluten in the dough. The result? One ball of rubber that needed about an hour to relax after it was formed.

After I researched the use of vital wheat gluten, I discovered my mistake. The recommended amount of vital wheat gluten that should be added to a cup of gluten-weak flour is 1 teaspoon per cup. Er, I added 1/4 a cup. Regardless, I did manage to turn the dough into pasta sheets. Really rubbery pasta sheets.

Since I feared that making fettuccine noodles would be a little too much like a eating rubber bands, I opted to cut my pasta into pretty triangles.

And to add another protein punch, I made a quick pasta dish out of tuna packed in olive oil, dried chili flakes, salted capers, arugula, and a generous squeeze of lemon juice. The result? Good, surprisingly good. The texture did have a bit too much chew, but due to all the protein (the pasta dough also has eggs), a small amount kept me full for hours. That never happens with regular pasta! I'll have to try making this again soon, this time being a little more stingy with the gluten additive.

Bakesale for Japan

2011-03-31T09:58:00.000-07:00

Bakesale for Japan is a national bakesale whose proceeds will go to Peace Winds Japan. Check out the website to see if there is bakesale going on in your area. I'm going to be making my mother's famous sour cream cookies! What will you be baking?

They are also looking for origami paper donations and people to fold paper cranes, so if any of you crafters have the time and/or supplies, let's get to it!

The Last 96 Hours

2011-03-28T10:57:00.000-07:00

Friday started off with drizzly skies and wackiness. The boy participated in 24 Hours of LeMons. Per the website: "Endurance racing for $500 cars. It's not just an oxymoron; it's a breeding ground for morons." That sums it up perfectly. I volunteered to snap photos on track day, the day where all the participants dress up and put on a little show for the judges as they're getting their cars inspected. The boy's team decided to go with their Volvo's Swedish vibe - they were the Swedish Bobsled Team. They started out ringing cowbells in their tracksuits, then they stripped down to spandex for the judges.

The boy stenciled the Swedish flag theme on the spandex, and he also modified the suits with his sewing machine. Creepily, those spandex suits originally covered the whole body: fingers, head (no mouth or eye holes), and feet. I am dreading the types of advertisements that are going to be coming our way now that he had these shipped to our house. He cut the head part off so they could see, a plus for someone driving really fast on a race track.

The cats and dogs stayed home, much to the annoyance of Mingus. You can see his thin, black mustache in this picture. I think it makes him look French.

After reading The Art of Eating In, I have begun to cook more dinners at home. Although I do love going out to eat, so many times the stuff I'm eating is stuff I can make myself, is made from meat and produce from who knows where, and doesn't blow me away. When I do eat at a restaurant that fits my personal food philosophy, that place tends to be more of a special occasion place where dinner should last at least a couple of hours, and it's hard to spare a couple of hours during a weekday.

The boy thought the premise of the book was totally stupid since there are a fair number of Americans who have to eat in daily because they have no other choice if they wish to eat at all. (I should back up a step and say that the book is about a twenty-something woman in NYC who gives up eating restaurant food, including take-out, for 2 years.) But, that book wasn't about that. The author does know that she's coming from a privileged perspective, and her reasons for not eating out were more from an environmental standpoint. The point that stuck with me, though, was that it takes a different rhythm to cook dinner each and every night, but that rhythm can be relaxing once it is internalized. When I thought about our eating out habit, the time it takes us to decide where we are going, drive to said restaurant, wait for the meal, and come back home is really more time than whipping something together and cleaning up.

So, since I had a bit of time this weekend and I had home cooked meals on my mind, I made yet another breakfast custard, this time with leftover bacon grease, green onions, 3 types of mushrooms (crimini, king oyster, and blue oyster mushrooms), and magic cheese. I'll spare you a picture since all the custards look the same. I also made a 4 bean (chickpeas, black lentils, split green peas, split yellow peas) and kale soup, a loaf of bread, and for dessert and future snacking, some coconut mochi cake with a spiked whipped cream. This time, I made the whipped cream with Makers Mark. As I bake more, I'm becoming less dependent on recipes, which in turn means I bake even more. This can become dangerous!

Oh, one more thing for those of you who are part of the Knitted Furmiliation forum on Ravelry. Are you interested in a KAL or CAL? If so, pipe in! So far, I think only 1 person has read the thread because the forum hasn't been active in quite some time. I was also toying with the idea of a mystery cat hat KAL...

Savory Mushroom Cheddar Custard Recipe

2011-03-24T10:19:00.000-07:00

Although I've tried to be a quick and simple breakfast person (a cup of yogurt, a bowl of cereal, a slice of toast, a protein shake), a rushed breakfast is never a good one for me. I'm also not a fan of sweet foods first thing in the morning, which rules out most cereals, and I want my food hot and my coffee black. This is a dilemma when my work schedule has early starts, but I've found a way to quickly get a good, hot breakfast: make a large quantity of something ahead of time and reheat it. OK, this is not rocket science, but for some reason it just didn't connect in my head until recently, so my breakfast would be leftover dinner. Yes, I'll eat spicy Sichuan food, chard and chorizo soup, whatever necessary to keep me from becoming a low blood sugar monster by 10 AM.

Tarts have been my breakfast of choice since Pi Day, but I found myself one egg short of making a tart the other day. So, I opted to make a savory custard using ingredients I already had in the house. It turned out so good I had to share! A note on the cheddar: I used Trader Joe's English Cheddar with Caramelized Onions, and it made my custard sing. Amongst my friends, we reverently call it Magic Cheese because it has just the right blend of savory, salty, and a heavy dose of umami.

Savory Mushroom and Cheddar Custard

Ingredients

4 cups of sliced mushrooms
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 T butter
1 cup grated cheddar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
2 tsp fresh chopped thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 °F. Grease a 10" tart pan with oil or butter (if you use butter, the paper that butter is wrapped in is great for spreading it around the pan).

Over medium heat, melt butter in a large saute pan. Add mushrooms and a pinch of salt, if desired.

These are cremini, blue oyster, and king oyster mushrooms

As the mushrooms cook, they will start releasing their liquid. Add the chopped garlic after the liquid has evaporated. Continue to saute for a few more minutes. Set aside mushroom mixture to cool.

Beat the eggs and milk together. Add the cheddar, cooled mushroom mixture, thyme, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

Pour the custard into a tart pan and place it in the oven. Bake for 35 minutes, or until the custard is set in the middle and golden on the top.

This custard is great for any meal of the day, but I'm particularly fond of it for breakfast.

Aidez!

2011-03-22T12:08:00.000-07:00

Done! I finished weaving in the ends this morning, and then immediately put it on and took some pictures (hence, the bad lighting). I followed the pattern exactly for a size xs, partially due to the rareness of me knitting a sweater in pieces. I didn't want to mess up!

It felt like I was knitting forever, yet my Rav page says I started on 2/14 and ended on 3/22. I think this is mostly due to the blocked pieces sitting on our dining room table, mocking me for about a week.

The yarn is Cascade Ecological Wool in colorway 8016, and it is delightfully springy to knit, and delightfully warm to wear. This is so much softer than Cascade 220, but every bit as economical. I'm tempted to go out and buy another 2 skeins for another cardigan!

I have one more cardigan on the needles, my own design, and another cardigan that I need to finish writing up all the pattern sizes and get test knit. Cardigans, it seems, are on my brain.

BFB

2011-03-21T22:58:00.000-07:00

Books, food, bread

A rainy weekend meant that I had the luxury of standing still and reading a couple of library books. First, I inhaled The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love. It's one woman's memoir her bumpy transformation from Manhattanite to farmer over the course of a couple years. I highly recommend it, especially if you want to learn more about what it takes to roll up your sleeves and run a farm the old-fashioned way.

The second book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, got a lot of press a few months ago from an unfairly edited article that ran in the Wall Street Journal titled "Why Chinese Mothers are Superior." My poor mom got calls and emails days after that article ran from concerned friends asking if she raised my brother and I like Amy Chua, the tiger mom. Ha ha! I'm halfway through the book, and every few pages I start laughing out loud because some of her observations and beliefs are so funny and familiar to me. And for the record, Chua's book shows humility that was lacking from the WSJ article; she doesn't always think that her way of parenting was the best way now. Hoopla aside, it's a funny book and an easy read.

I made another paella this weekend, this time with asparagus, chorizo, chicken, and some lamb stock I made in the pressure cooker. (Meat stocks in the pressure cooker are a beautiful thing! If you haven't tried it yet, it's a huge time saver. You can actually make a stock after work that tastes as if you simmered it all day long.)

I haven't made a slow rise bread in ages, so I warmed back into it with a recipe for Cheddar-Stuffed Crusty Loaves from King Arthur Flour. This recipe is similar to the one found on the back of the bread flour bag. It's not that much work, but it does take a long time since the starter is made the night before, and then there are two risings about 2 hours apiece. Rolling up the cheese bread was fun!

Next time, I think I'll cut the loaves crosswise into smaller loaves.

I think making smaller, cross-cut loaves would have prevented this cheese barf from happening. Funny how I call it cheese barf, yet I scraped it all off and ate it... I guess having 4 pets makes me used to barf.

Regardless, this was fantastic; cheesy and crusty as promised. It went well with the simple chard, potato, and farro soup I made for dinner.

I finished my Aidez, save for a few ends to weave in. Hopefully, I can get a good picture of it before the sky opens up again.

Ridiculousness

2011-03-19T22:38:00.000-07:00

I awoke yesterday to this:

The boy had already left for work, and I was snoozing for an extra hour. When I first woke up, I spied Fifty on the boy's pillow, then as my bleary vision sharpened, I noticed Vespa, then Mingus, and finally Greaseball. It's funny how they can all get along when the reward is the forbidden bed. Well, forbidden to the dogs, at least. I have no idea how to prevent cats from getting on a bed.

Vespa and Fifty decided to shine their laser beam eyes at me since they knew that I'd soon shoo them all off the place of supreme coziness.

Their evil plot didn't work. I still shoo'ed them off the bed.

Guinness Ice Cream Recipe

2011-03-18T12:20:00.000-07:00

For St. Patrick's Day, the boy and I were invited to a friend's house for corned beef and cabbage, and of course, beer. Since the main courses were already taken care of, I decided to make an Irish Car Bombs for dessert, meaning that I made Guinness ice cream and served it with Irish whiskey whipped cream. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out! The ice cream had lots of Guinness flavor, thanks to the boy who knew to buy Guinness Extra Stout instead of the canned stuff I would have surely picked up.

Roula, the resident dog, even agreed that the Guinness Extra Stout was key.

There was some discussion at the dinner table on Irish Car Bomb ingredients. The person whom first made me one has always dropped a shot glass of Irish whiskey into a pint of Guinness and he insisted that it was the authentic recipe, but when I was reading up on it, many recipes included Irish cream. If you are one of those people who believes Irish cream is essential to a Car Bomb, pour a shot of Irish cream over the top. I personally prefer just the Guinness and whiskey.

Guinness Ice Cream Recipe with Irish Whiskey Whipped Cream (aka Irish Car Bomb)

Ingredients

Ice Cream Batter

1 12 fl. oz bottle of Guinness Extra Stout

2 T dark unsulfered molasses

2 cups heavy cream

3/4 cup whole milk

6 egg yolks

1 cup sugar (I used vanilla sugar)

Whiskey Whipped Cream

1/2 cup of whipping cream

1 T plus 1 tsp Irish Whiskey

1 T sugar

Directions

Pour a bottle of Guinness Extra Stout into a small pan. Add the molasses.

Boil on high until only 1/2 a cup of liquid remains. This step not only gets rid of the alcohol that will make the ice cream harder to freeze, but it also concentrates the flavor.

Decrease the heat to low. In the same pan, pour in the cream and milk, and occasionally stir. As the mixture is heating up, mix the egg yolks and the sugar together in a small bowl. When the mixture is warm, temper the egg yolks by adding a ladle full of the warm mixture to the bowl and quickly whisking it together. Repeat this step until roughly half of the mixture is whisked with the egg yolks and sugar. Pour the egg yolks into the pan and frequently stir the mixture.

Once the cream and milk mixture passes the spoon test (a clean stripe can be wiped across a dipped spoon), quickly cool the batter by pouring it through a fine sieve into bowl in an ice bath. Stir frequently to cool the mixture.

Once the mixture has cooled, pour it into your ice cream maker and follow your machine's instructions. Freeze the ice cream at least 2 hours before serving.

Before serving the ice cream, make the Irish Whiskey whipped cream

Combine the chilled whipping cream, whiskey, and sugar into a mixing bowl and whip away until the cream forms soft or stiff peaks, whatever you prefer. If you have a stand mixer, mix it on the highest setting. If you are whipping the cream by hand, it helps to have the cream extra cold, and you can even chill the bowl. Personally, I never have to worry about cream temperature when I use my stand mixer.

Serve the ice cream with a generous dollop of whipped cream, and if you wish, a shot of Bailey's Irish Cream poured over the top. It can also be served with a sprinkling of chopped, toasted hazelnuts - I think that hazelnuts compliment Guinness well.

Kaboom! You now have an Irish Car Bomb.

Pi Day Pie

2011-03-15T22:24:00.000-07:00

For Pi Day (3/14), I made a chard and saffron tart, otherwise known as an egg pie according to my friend, Steph. The dough was a yeasted tart dough that was a snap to make - no kneading required! I made this tart loosely based Deborah Madison's Saffron and Egg Tart from The Greens Cookbook. Not surprisingly, the resulting crust was more like white bread than the buttery, flaky crusts I associate with tarts. Next time, I'll have to substitute a sourdough starter or different flours to give the crust a little more personality.

My version of the tart had one bunch of chard, garlic, leeks, saffron, nutmeg, Parmesan, and a healthy sprinkling of toasted hazelnuts.And eggs. 6 eggs.

This was a "use what I have" dinner, made mostly because I did not feel like venturing out unnecessarily in the rain. The pickings in the refrigerator are getting lean, as tonight's dinner illustrated: homemade macaroni (tube wormy looking, but good!), chopped leg of lamb (leftover from a rotisserie lamb the boy made over the weekend), roasted sweet potatoes, parsnips, and multicolored carrots. I can no longer play chicken with the grocery store - tomorrow we're either eating out at a new (to me) Korean restaurant I've been dying to try or hitting the produce market on the way back from work.

Saint Patrick's Day is coming up, and since we're invited to a friend's house for dinner, if my schedule cooperates, I'm planning on making an Irish car bomb dessert: Guinness ice cream topped with Irish whiskey whipped cream!

Muffin Liner Tragedy

2011-03-14T13:46:00.000-07:00

I'm in mourning over the death of one silicone cupcake liner. Apparently, the yam corn muffins I made pushed Mingus to do this. Having only 11 cupcake liners has quelled my desire to make more quick breads, and the boy finds this very sad. I've looked around for a way to purchase just one liner, but apparently I am the only person who has a dog that murders cupcake liners. Either that, or other people who find that they are short 1 or 2 liners just get on with it and order another 6 or 12. Sad, sad, sad. So, here's my plea: if you have one silicone muffin liner to spare either because you hate them or your dog destroyed 11 of them, let's chat. I can swap you a ninja nugget tawashi and a free copy of my Tilden Park Scarf. (BTW, you no longer need a Paypal account to buy the pattern - I can now accept credit cards!)

This is the muffin that pushed Mingus over the edge.

This muffin was made from 3 eggs, buttermilk, corn oil, mashed yams, and some coarsely ground cornmeal, so light it was not. However, they were good straight from the oven. Because I was trying, until the muffin liner murder, to incorporate quick breads into every meal, they were served with homemade gnocchi and margaritas. That may have been one of the stranger meals we've put together, and we even had people over to share it with us.

The homemade gnocchi was inspired by a gnocchi streak I had 2 weeks ago. I had gnocchi 3 nights in a row for dinner at various eating establishments, and on the 4th night, instead of being sick of gnocchi, I wanted more and started to have withdrawal symptoms. So, on a Friday night, I popped a few potatoes into a 400 degree oven and invited some people over for dinner. My friends came over to help me shape and roll the gnocchi, and what we couldn't eat that night was fed to the freezer for future use. The gnocchi pictured below is from today's lunch of gnocchi, sun-dried tomatoes, chard, and loads of garlic. I finished it off with a sprinkling of Parmesan. (Yes, I ate it all. Don't judge me.) Quick tip: broiling your cooked gnocchi is a really, really good idea.

In other random news, how lazy do you have to be to buy pre-peeled garlic? The boy came home with a bag of peeled garlic and could not stop extolling the virtues of his cheap garlic cloves that were ready to go. Apparently, when he makes his famous rotisserie leg of lamb, he hates peeling the garlic cloves that uses to season it. However, now we have a ton of mystery garlic (the mystery being where was it grown?) that needs to be used ASAP. This may be a job for kimchi.

In knitting news, Aidez is off the needles, and I'm just waiting for the blocked parts to dry so I can seam it together. It's dumping rain here, so the chances of it drying soon is pretty unlikely. Hopefully, I can get it done before next weekend.

Happy Pi Day, everyone! Go out and celebrate!

Disturbed Fifty-Fifty

2011-03-11T15:55:00.000-08:00

The sunny spot still remains the most popular place in the house, especially when there is an old towel by the door that everybody uses to wipe their feet.

Greaseball still remains the most annoying of cats, especially when he sticks his schnoz where it is not welcome.

Everything But the Kitchen Sink Spelt Recipe

2011-03-07T16:13:00.000-08:00

What do you do when your enthusiasm at the produce stand leaves your refrigerator packed to the brim? Inspired by the lovely grains served at Slow, I made a spelt "risotto" that was able to take on the remnants from my wild time at the produce store. Up above, there is one bunch of chard, a pound of asparagus, a cup of dried spelt, some dried persimmons, toasted almonds, leeks, and garlic. I also ended up using chickpeas and some stock made from a a turkey carcass taking up way too much space in the freezer.

Start by sauteing your leeks with a bit of olive oil and a pat of butter.

After a few minutes when the leeks have softened, add the garlic and stir a bit more. Then, add the dried spelt and stir frequently so the grains are all coated with oil and start to toast.

Now, in goes the bunch of chard.

The chard wilts quickly, leaving more room for the other ingredients.

Throw in some beans. I cooked up a batch of chickpeas in the pressure cooker, starting with one cup of dried beans. I'm playing fast and loose with the quantities, proving that it's really hard to go wrong. I tossed in the chopped asparagus after the beans. As I add in each ingredient, I also toss a bit of salt into the pan.

Now, add the cooking liquid. I started by adding 1/2 cup of white wine, deglazing the pan as I stirred. Then, I added a bit too much turkey broth, but it was fine because it just meant I had lots of broth for my spongy bread to drink up. Spelt is great in that it stays chewy even when cooked for a long time. I started to add broth a bit at a time, but ended up getting impatient and ditched my risotto style. Salt and pepper to taste.

Dinner is done! To make this a bit more decadent, you can melt in some soft cheese. Conveniently, I had some Red Hawk in the refrigerator, and OMG, I think I should always have some Red Hawk in the fridge because it has so much flavor! You can substitute brie, especially the mushroom brie, Parmesan, or even a sharp cheddar. I like the softer cheeses, though, because they melt into the broth and make a rich, creamy sauce.

Yesterday, I made more muffins out of leftover produce. This time, I made a mash from a leftover Japanese sweet potato, a mixture of rice and wheat flour, dark molasses, ground ginger, and ground cinnamon. I served these muffins with homemade pumpkin butter kindly gifted to me by a cousin - perfect for a nippy day. If I manage to use up the rest of the produce in tonight's dinner, I'll buy some cornmeal tomorrow so I can start making cornbread muffins.

I'm eying the remaining gai lan and cabbage in the refrigerator, but somehow I don't think they will make tasty muffins. I think they'll have to be chow mein ingredients instead.

Muffins are taking over my brain.

Have you seen the muffin woman?

2011-03-05T14:08:00.000-08:00

Ah, the luxury of the weekend brunch! This is the first weekend we've been home in ages, so I wanted to celebrate by making a batch of blueberry muffins. This is my second attempt, the first attempt being during a ski trip to Bear Valley where I had 5 other testers. Making a muffin mix is surprisingly easy - I measured all the dry ingredients out ahead of time and dumped it into a bag. When morning came around, I mixed some vanilla extract, milk, and an egg together, poured the wet ingredients into a medium sized mixing bowl, and gave the mixture a few stirs. The hardest part for me is to not over mix the batter and to be at peace with it in all its lumpy glory. The more you mix your quick bread batter, the tougher it will be. Pop your batter into a 400 °F oven, and in 20 minutes, muffins!

The silicone cupcake liners have given me so much use. They were an impulse purchase from the clearance rack at Sur La Table, made partly because I was really happy with my silicone baking pan.

If you'd like to make your own muffins, the basic recipe is simple. First, preheat your oven to 400 °F. In a medium bowl, whisk together in a medium bowl 2 cups of flour, 1 T of baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/2 cup (or less - I used 1/4 cup) of sugar. In another bowl (I use a large liquid measuring cup), mix together a cup of milk, one large egg, 3 T melted butter, and 1 T vanilla extract. Make a well in the bowl with your dry ingredients, pour in the wet ingredients, and fold the mixture a few times with a spatula. Throw in about a cup of blueberries, give another stir, and divide the mixture into muffin tins. Pop it into the oven, and 20 minutes later (or whenever a toothpick can be inserted and come out clean), you have golden muffins! (This post is reminding me of a Betty White skit on SNL...) There are tons of tweaks you can do to the basic recipe, and I think my next muffins will have sweet potatoes, maple syrup, and nutmeg in them.

Our weekend warrior ways have consisted of heading to the snow. I've had a blast cross country skiing, and I can confidently go downhill now without somersaulting to the bottom. The only downside to all this traveling is that, between the climbing and skiing, my hands are chapped to a point where even lotion doesn't really help.Paraffin dips have been keeping my skin from cracking. Although there are contraptions you can buy to heat the wax, I was determined to not buy another huge gadget mostly because we don't really have the space. My first attempt was to melt paraffin in a double boiler, but that was messy and it was really hard to wash the wax off my pan. By chance, I saw an ad for slow cooker liners, and although my first thought was "how lazy do you have to be to use a liner?", my second thought was "Hey! I can use liners in my slow cooker for melting paraffin wax!" So, that's what I did - totally perfect solution and I'm using something I already own. When the wax solidifies, I can lift out the liner and save the wax for another time. If you haven't done a paraffin wax treatment, it is luxurious! Dip your hands a few times in melted paraffin (be careful that the wax isn't too hot, though - it should be just barely melted), wrap your dipped hands in plastic bags and stuff them into mittens. Sit around and do nothing for 20 minutes, then peel off the bags. If you use your slow cooker, make sure you melt the wax on low and don't leave it unattended - there are tons of warnings on the paraffin boxes about paraffin catching on fire.

In crafting news, I'm knitting another long cardigan, mainly because I refuse to dish out the money to buy one and because I'm at the point where buying a machine knitted sweater would shame me (a little voice in my head says that I'll lose my knitter badge if I don't make my own sweaters). I'm knitting Aidez in Cascade Ecowool, and it's coming along at a nice clip. The cabling and textured pattern have slowed me down a bit, but I still hope to have it done in a couple of weeks. Cascade Ecowool smells incredibly sheepy, so I have to keep it out of reach from the animals because they think it smells like something they should kill. Hopefully I'll have some pictures to share when I post again.

I Heart Pom Poms and The Devil Cat

2011-02-22T14:55:00.000-08:00

Cross country ski season is here, and with it comes a new ski hat. May I present to you I Heart Pom Poms by Karen Borrel. I have somehow managed to give away all of my previous ski hats, and this yarn, the butter soft (and superwash!) Malabrigo Rios in Azul Profundo is leftover from my cardigan design. I have one more skein left, and I hope to transform it into a matching cowl or scarf.

Even though I wouldn't describe myself as a lover of pom poms, I knew I had to make this hat when I saw my friend's FO. The nifty part of this design is that it can be transformed quickly into a cowl, although I don't see myself ever wearing it like that since having two pom poms around my neck would make me look like I have goiter.

I made some minor modifications to this hat:

CO 88 stitches instead of 92 - I think I could have reduced the number of stitches by 4 more for an even better fit
1x1 ribbing with size 6 needles both at the bottom and top of hat
Body of hat with size 8 needles
Stitch markers for eyelets every 22 sts
10 purl ridge repeats instead of 9 for more slouch

All this skiing means that my cousin is watching the house and, more importantly, the beasts. Greaseball lived up to his beastly reputation and woke my poor cousin up when he thought it was an appropriate time for breakfast. Let me assure you that it was not an appropriate time for breakfast. It never is when that devil cat wakes me up.

You can find more of his work at http://hyperdoodle.blogspot.com.

Gimpy Dogs and Java Curry

2011-02-07T12:40:00.000-08:00

So, Vespa had a mini-me lump growing on her side. I noticed it a couple of years ago, and our vet said since it was a slow growing lump that wasn't attached to her muscles, that we could safely leave it if it didn't seem to bother her. Earlier this week, it was obvious that it was bothering her since she had taken an interest into chewing it, and since no good can come of a dog chewing a lump on her side, off to the vet she went. The lump was safely removed and we had confirmation that it was a benign cyst that needed no further examination. Whew!

Now, the hard part: 14 days of no jumping or running and only leashed walks as exercise. This means that there is no wrestling with Mingus and no chasing the squirrels who taunt her so in our backyard. Oh boy... I don't know if it is going to be harder for her or for me.

On top of Vespa's surgery, it was a busy week that was in need of some comfort food.

The boy hates this stuff, and he can't understand why I find a processed curry sauce comforting when I recoil at most boxed foods. The answer? I don't know, but Japanese curry roux is delicious and I'm not going to question it. I find Java Curry especially spicy and tasty, and it's even better if you marinate your chicken overnight with a little rice wine, garlic, sesame oil, and soy sauce. Oh, and if you have some fat, juicy carrots from Full Belly Farms, your curry will be even better.

The boy asked if Japanese curry was the equivalent to "poor white trash" food, and I told him no because there is a bit of prep work to do that involves real chicken and vegetables. However, maybe he does have a point in that I'm prejudiced about my convenience foods, and that really there is no difference. Whatever. More curry for me.

Kale Chips are a Lie

2011-01-27T10:15:00.000-08:00

I love my deep green veggies, so this is not a veggie hater's post. However, kale chips are not my thing. I was inundated with posts about can't-eat-just-one kale chips, and even kale chip recipes go on and on about how delicious they are ("like potato chips, but healthy!" should have been my tip off that something was not right), so I made up a batch with some of my favorite olive oil and sea salt. Blech. Yes, kale chips are crunchy. However, I like my kale lightly parboiled and sauteed, thankyouverymuch. Even the boy didn't like the chips, and he is the one who usually happily mows through my food experiments gone awry. He suggested that the kale smoothie I made was a more palatable way to eat kale. For me, it's a toss up on which kale form factor was more horrible.

However, to be fair, I do love the taste and natural texture of kale, so I'm not the best one to judge creative kale forms. The dogs like the kale chips, so what I lost in food is gained by in entertainment value because feeding a dog a crunchy snack is funny.

This whole kale experimentation was based on my earnest effort to less meat. Honestly, I think it was easier to be a vegetarian, going totally whole hog (whole off the hog?), instead of just dabbling with meat here and there. I've heard the same thing from people giving up booze and sugar: it's easier to have none at all then just a bit. My latest cookbook has helped me eat less meat: The Indian Slow Cooker by Anupy Singla. While this book is not vegetarian, the recipes I focused in on happened to be mostly meatless.

So far, I'm impressed! I was intrigued by the thought of Indian food quietly bubbling away in the slow cooker while I was out and about, so I gave it a shot thanks to a nudge by all the good book reviews. I've made aloo gobi (cauliflower and potatoes), rajma (spicy kidney beans), keema mater (lamb stew with peas), and a pumpkin stew. All came out spiced just right - it's not Indian food adjusted to American palates, but rather authentic recipes that Singla and her family put together. Most recipes call for 4-10 Thai chilies and copious amounts of ginger, onions, and garlic. My only gripe is that some of the recipes have cooking times of, for example, 6 hours on high and 2 hours on low. Unfortunately, my simple slow cooker has temperature and time coupled, which means that I have to be present to switch temperatures, so not all of the recipes are of the "set it and forget it" genre that I associate with this type of device. They're still perfect for weekend cooking, though, when I'm out for only few hours at a time instead of a whole day.

The bean dishes are cool because she starts you off with dried beans, and those recipes are well suited for a day at the office since the cooking times at one temperature are long. I had never tried cooking dried beans in my slow cooker since those are usually candidates for my pressure cooker, and the kidney beans turned out buttery soft.

In crafting news, I'm designing a cardigan in Malabrigo Rios that I hope to write up into a pattern. Mmmmmm, Rios is my new favorite yarn because it's the perfect marriage of color, structure, and softness - even when I have to rip something out, it doesn't bother me because it prolongs my knitting experience. How I'm going to test knit the thing in different sizes is a bit too much for me to think about, although I'm looking forward to the spreadsheets and math. I'm hoping I can find more local test knitters because, as I learned last time, it is invaluable to see the finished product for myself. Hopefully, I can give you all a sneak peek in a week or two.

Some Gift Knits

2011-01-17T17:46:00.000-08:00

Greaseball wasn't too irritated with me. This picture is taken post sweater fiasco: I wanted to try a dog sweater I'm knitting up on him to see if it would fit. He's not a dog, but he walks on 4 paws, so I wanted to see if the front leg spacing (front paw spacing? arm spacing?) was correct. Ooooh boy. He did not like that at all, and this is the cat who can sport a pimp hat and a beret. His points of contention were that he's much more plump than my brother's dog and he has almost no neck, so this meant that the sweater was too constricting around his shoulders.

Onto some of the gift knits from last Christmas. A friend of mine has twin daughters, and I've been meaning to knit them hats. I told him this after he gave me a present, but I hope he knows that I was sincere and not just doing the "oh crap, now what do I do?" reflexive present maneuver. Their colors are totally girly, pink and lavender, so I was forced to visit my LYS. Such torture! The hat was made with Karabella Yarns Merino Superwash, and it is perfectly soft for little girls' heads. The initials on their hats were a compromise because my friend had asked that I embroider the girls' names onto the hats, but when he spelled the names out for me and they were over 10 letters apiece, I made a mental note to only use their first initial. I'm a little suspicious that he also wanted their names on their hats so he doesn't get them mixed up, but he wouldn't confess to that once I pointed it out. The pattern was just something I made up: a seed stitch brim and a stockinette cap. I added some contrasting crocheted flowers to the side so they wouldn't look so boring.

I also crocheted this hypnotic tawashi for another friend. It turned out super cute, as do most things that come from Japanese craft books. Which makes me ponder what is it about Japanese things that make me and other women I know go gaga? Age-wise, I should be over my Hello Kitty and Company phase, but since I'm not, I don't even go into Sanrio stores for fear of leaving with some cutesy chachki that I'll end up giving to my friend's daughters.

Family Photos

2011-01-11T11:15:00.000-08:00

Poor Mingus had his feelings hurt because he wasn't included in the family photos, try as he might. Surely, a gathering of people means that they are all there to give him pets!

When we all got up and moved to another spot with equally poor lighting, he followed and asked politely for more ear scratches.

While hiking in Arizona, Vespa and I got our own family portrait. I <3 my dog!

While vacation was relaxing, it is good to be home. The cats missed us a lot and haven't stopped giving us head butts. I missed my kitchen a lot because cooking with electric burners and nonstick pans make my blood boil. I missed my produce market a ton! Although lots of fruits and vegetables are grown in Arizona, it was a challenge to find anything other than potatoes and iceberg lettuce in the sleepy town where we spent most of our days.

There was always plenty to keep me pleasantly occupied. I got loads of knitting and crocheting done, and I got in some pretty good off-road biking. It's nice to have stretches of road where you can ride for miles without encountering a motor vehicle. In order to ensure that all my skin dried up, I also went to Yosemite and had a blast cross country skiing. Finally, I think it's time to ditch the rental skis and get a pair of my very own since I have at least 3 more skiing trips planned this year. Plus, wearing shoes that other people wear and sweat in is disgusting.

Happy as I am to be home, I think the dogs are a wee bit depressed. All that Arizona sunshine translated into long hikes. They also had more people to fawn over them, plus houses with plush carpeting to rest their tushes.

The next post will have crafting content. I promise.

Dateland

2011-01-02T12:04:00.000-08:00

Home to the world famous date shakes.

Civilization

2011-01-01T16:41:00.000-08:00

I think I am done with off-roading. Today's trip involved a ridge
drive where I couldn't decide if it was better to be in the Jeep or
out walking behind it. Both paths were equally treacherous, and
afterwards, I was so shaken up that I demanded to be taken to a
Starbucks even though the nearest one was 15 miles away.

Tomorrow, we are headed to Phoenix to stay in a haunted hotel. I am
looking forward to being in a big city and hopefully having a bowl of
pho. The Bay Area has spoiled me for outback living.

Road Tripping Dogs

2010-12-30T16:17:00.000-08:00

A Dog and Her Cookie

2010-12-21T21:16:00.000-08:00

Vespa and I have been getting loads of Christmas cookies and other edible goodies. She's so thrilled when she gets a whole cookie and doesn't have to share it with Mingus or Greaseball.

Note that her ears are so ginormous that I can never fit them whole into the frame.

All is Well

2010-12-17T14:00:00.001-08:00

My fears about my neighbors having a hard time this Christmas were mostly quelled. I walked Vespa a little earlier than usual, and was pleasantly surprised to count 9 blow up Christmas things gracing their house. They also had 2 lighted reindeer and festive paper decorations, too.

The only thing strange now is that they run the air compressors for a couple of hours, stop it for a few more hours, and then run it again late at night. Maybe they are trying to conserve energy. If the rain stops tonight, which is highly doubtful, I'll walk Mingus by the house so he can have some Christmas cheer as well.

Oh, but on second thought, Mingus has royally irritated me and perhaps he deserves only a lump of coal. A few days ago, I arrived home from work ready to eat my arm off and grumpy from the unexpected two hour commute. I was starving in one of those "nobody better get in between me and the food" ways. All I had to eat was some leftover lunch from a work cafeteria - it wasn't stellar, but it would do - and a hunk of Acme olive bread. As the food is heating up, I'm looking for the bread. I can't find said bread. However, I found a shredded bread bag on the floor, sans bread. Bad Mingus! I was sad, but at least I had my lunch/dinner to console me. I put the food down and went to wash my hands. When I returned, my dinner was gone! Double bad dog!

The boy later informed me that the bread bag had not only bread, but a hunk of salami in it, and that the bag was previously nestled in his work backpack.

Now, some of you may ask why I blame Mingus instead of Vespa, and the answer is that he is a very bad dog who takes advantage of situations. He once snagged a mouthful of roasted leg of lamb while company was over. Vespa, on the other hand, has never counter surfed. Never.

Plus, Mingus has a special relationship with carbohydrates, and most specifically, bread. Last week, he sniffed out a piece of bread I had wrapped up in my purse, opened my purse, and ate it. Nevermind that I earmarked that bread for him. (The restaurant I went to serves a lot of senior citizens, and the wait staff presumes that all patrons want to take home leftover bread, butter, jams, etc. I like the idea of not wasting.)

And this is why Mingus's middle name is "Don't Mind If I Do!"

Attack of the Killer Ninja Tawashi

2010-12-16T13:31:00.000-08:00

Beware the super stealth ninja tawashi! Ninjas are taking up a big part of my brainwaves, and I'm not sure why. I made this little guy while I should have been making a gift, but I could not help myself. The ninja just wanted to be made, and I was merely the humble vessel. Crochet patterns are a pain to write out, but pretty easy to chart. Perhaps I'll make a ninja tawashi chart so more ninjas can materialize and take over the world.

I also spent a little bit of time sketching my perfect ninja in AutoCAD. I'm sure that's what my high school drafting teacher had in mind when he told us that we were learning an invaluable skill. Cracking open the CAD to sketch ninjas sounded like a fun thing to do, so I did it with gusto. I think these are going to be incorporated into a new project.

What project? Probably an embroidery project because that's another thing sucking up part of my time, in a most pleasant way, of course. I have a vision of legions of cartwheeling ninjas embroidered onto napkins.

And speaking of napkins, the picture above is a joint gift project by the boy and I. Gotta love a husband who sews! We found 100% hemp material at Dharma Trading Co., and we snatched up a few yards. He cut them up and hemmed them, even adding some cool mitered corners. I personalized them with some French knots and split stitches. It's funny, but as of two days ago, I never embroidered in my life. Thank goodness for kind strangers who post videos!

I think the coolest thing about embroidery is that the start up cost for the necessary tools are cheap. Although I admit to having $50 of stuff in my cart at one point (so many fancy, unnecessary tools!), I walked out of the craft store only paying $5 and some change.

I also made a demented rainbow dishcloth for a relative. This is the relative who sent me a Betsy Ross Pig ironing board cozy that was later used to cover low window at and old employer's bathroom. For this relative, the louder the colors, the better. I used a lot of my kitchen cotton scraps, and added a double crochet border.

What did I ever do before learning how to crochet? I really like it for the neat borders that can be added quickly to any project. Before I learned how to crochet, to get the same effect I would have to do an applied i-cord, which is neither fast nor fun.

I have some other gifts to share, but they'll have to wait until after they're gifted.

Holiday Dog

2010-12-13T22:55:00.000-08:00

A little picture from our evening walk. During the Christmas season, I love our night walks even more. Trees and ornaments don't really float my boat, but lights! I love sparkly lights!

This year, it seems like less people are decking out their houses. My most favorite decorated house last year had seven (!!) Santas, the type that are blown up like parade floats, hanging around their house. One was on their front deck, two snow globe Santas were on their lawn, and there were a few more all lit up in all their kitschy glory. Oh, it was always great fun to walk by that house! This year, the house is completely dark. No lights, just a wreath on their front door. Because I'm fascinated with hoarders, the first thought that crossed my mind was that they are reformed hoarders (I once saw the inside of their solidly packed garage) and that step one of their new lifestyle as non-hoarders was to tone down the Christmas decorations.

As for us, we just have lights this year. A Christmas tree proved to be a nightmare since the cats wanted to munch on the needles and Mingus thought we brought a port a potty inside the house. Ick. I won't be able to have another tree until I can get over that trauma.

Almost to 100 Cats with Berets!

2010-12-11T12:36:00.000-08:00

On Ravelry, one of my obsessive compulsive behaviors is to check how many Ravelers have made my International Cat Hat France: Le Mieux. 94 people have made mini berets for their cats and (small) dogs. It's strange and cool that a nagging idea of a bereted Greaseball resonated with at least 94 other people. A blog giveaway is in order once it reaches 100!

Click here to see a bunch of cats who eat croissants and drink coffee. You must have a Ravelry account to view the project page, but if you don't and you knit/crochet, you surely are already a member!

Random Bits

2010-12-09T12:11:00.000-08:00

Over the past weekend, I was on my own without a plan in sight, so what did I do? I organized my yarn stash and wound all the sock yarn scraps into balls. Then I laid them out on the table and tried to get them to tell me what they wanted to be, but so far no luck. The colorways are all so different and not at all complimentary to each other. But, I do enjoy looking at them and remembering the projects I made with each one.

That was Random Item #1, which is probably not so random for a crafty blog. Random Item #2 is that I've been watching and watching and watching a pair of French twins, Les Twins, dance on YouTube. (I told you, random!) I'm fascinated by them, and by new style hip hop in general. Perhaps this is a case of being attracted to something that would be impossible for me to do, like being the center in a professional basketball team. YAKfilms has a variety of hip hop dance videos that are oddly compelling.

In on topic news, people have actually been making and buying my Tilden Park Scarf! I don't know at what point I'll feel comfortable calling myself a designer, but this does make me feel one step closer. It's been such a fun process! Many thanks to Rani for being my first customer! That was so cool!

Tilden Park Scarf

2010-12-06T16:39:00.000-08:00

I'm thrilled to announce that the Tilden Park Scarf is now available for purchase through Ravelry! If you're not a Ravelry member, don't fret, you don't have to be a member to buy the pattern.

The Tilden Park Scarf is ruffled and ruched infinity scarf that adds a feminine touch to any outfit, from a little black cocktail dress to your favorite worn in tee. I've been wearing mine doubled up to add some ruffly goodness to my jackets.

The Tilden Park Scarf takes 480 yards of fingering weight yarn. Pictured is my scarf in Schafer Anne (60% superwash merino wool; 25% mohair, 15% nylon; 560 yards/133 grams per skein). It is knit in the round, so when you're done, you only have 2 ends to weave in.

Many heartfelt thanks go out to the kind people who test knit this scarf in 2 weeks and provided me with invaluable feedback. Also, the pattern looks extra spiffy thanks to my graphic designer friend who performed a layout miracle! Making words and pictures on paper look pretty, balanced, and yet easy to read takes mad skillz.

Reluctant Sock Model

2010-11-29T22:28:00.000-08:00

I actually think Greaseball prefers modeling hats over socks. He's mostly pissed off that I used the flash, thus waking him up from another nap. Oh well, he's got to earn his kibble somehow.

The sock yarn is from A Verb for Keeping Warm in the colorway Wonderboy. The pattern is (yet another) Jaywalker (Rav link). I'm not one for WIPs, but this was started in May! Tonight, in an effort to procrastinate finishing the boy's sweater (I only have to knit the collar), I finished up this sock. Funny how it works out that way.

So Much Sweater Potential

2010-11-29T16:06:00.000-08:00

I'm the proud owner of 6 skeins of Malabrigo Rios in the Azul Profundo colorway.Malabrigo's colorways are compelling, but Malabrigo worsted is a single ply, and I like hard wearing yarns that don't pill when you look at them funny. When I read that there was a superwash, plied Malabrigo yarn coming out, I had to have some.

I know that I want to make a cardigan, but beyond that, I'm stumped. Yoked or raglan? Buttons or zipper? Ruffles or ribbing? Cables or plain stockinette? Long or cropped? I have a bad case of analysis paralysis.

Potential cardigans are (Ravelry links):

At different times of the day, different cardigans call to me. I'm even thinking about just making a simple top-down cardigan with a boatneck. Maybe I'll learn how to steek, too, since I'm much faster when I knit in the round.

Scarf Teaser Pics

2010-11-21T15:26:00.000-08:00

These are pictures of the pattern I hope to offer up for sale on Ravelry soon! It's ruched and ruffled infinity scarf made out of 420 yards of sock yarn.

I don't know about you, but my sock yarn stash mocks me! Sock yarn is so tempting at the LYS, yet for me, within steps of leaving the store it's pull on me diminishes when I realize I don't have a clue what I'm going to do with my new skein. Those of you who can roll with it have my utmost admiration. As for me, I get anxious when I have yarn just sitting around - so much potential FOs! So, sock yarn was on my mind when I was browsing all those infinity scarves in the stores. My fingers itched. I had to make one.

This scarf is in the test knit phase right now, which is just thrilling! Expect to see it for sale in January 2011!

Hugs

2010-11-19T12:34:00.000-08:00

The boy was hoarding these pictures of the pets on his phone. The quality isn't great, but they're just so sweet! I love how Vespa puts her paw on Fifty, and I love how there seems to be an animal sleep train going on. I don't love how they are on our bed, but I suppose if I saw them hugging and spooning, I'd snap a photo instead of snapping at them to get off the bed.

Knitting is happening fast and furiously in these parts. I'm almost done with an infinity scarf that I designed, and I'm hoping to get it test knit and up for sale on Ravelry! The boy's sweater is almost complete as well, and hopefully he'll be able to wear it on Thanksgiving.

Madison Bag

2010-11-15T12:31:00.000-08:00

A most excellent purse made by the boy as a present to me. It's the Madison Bag, an Amy Butler pattern that I had bought eons ago when I thought I would learn to sew. The boy thought this would be a great project for me, but as evidenced by the amount of time it has sat in our project bin, it wasn't meant to be my project anytime soon.

The red with white polka dot interior makes it even more quirky and fun. I'm going to be using this bag a lot!

Tiny Boyfriend Hat

2010-11-04T09:40:00.000-07:00

The annoying thing about kids is that they persist on growing, leaving a debris of lovingly hand knit goods behind. The cutest baby in the world has turned into the cutest toddler in the world, and this toddler needed a new hat since the last one I knit him doesn't even cover his ears anymore.

It must be really cold where he lives if he needs a hat right now. In my neck of the woods, the high is supposed to be 75°F on this November day.

The pattern is The Boyfriend Hat by Stephanie Nicole. It's a simple, ribbed hat that has very symmetrical decreases at the crown. To make this hat kid sized, I cast on 90 stitches instead of the prescribed 100. I also knit the hat for 7 inches before doing the decrease rounds because I wanted his ears to be covered. The yarn is some RYC Cashsoft DK I had in my stash. Ahhh, gotta love using up the stash!

I thought this kid would be swimming in this hat because I made it much bigger than I thought was prudent, but as you can see, this is only going to last a season. Hopefully, he'll be back in the land of mild winters next fall, though, so no hat will be necessary (but I'll still figure out a way to make him more knitted goods).

My Pimp Paw is Strong!

2010-10-26T17:48:00.000-07:00

Big G, the notorious C.A.T., is the most wanted hoodlum in our neighborhood. Among his rumored activities are pushing catnip, stealing food from kitties, and threatening the other toms. You see, there is only room for one player in this 'hood, and his pimp paw is strong!

Remember, folks, Halloween is right around the corner, and your cat does not want to be left out. Check out my other free patterns for dressing up your cat or your kid.

Materials

40 yards of worsted weight purple yarn for the hat. I used Cascade 220 in colorway 7807
10 yards of worsted weight yellow yarn for the gold chains
Size J crochet hook for the hat
Size K crochet hook for the gold chains
12 inches of 5/8-inch ribbon in an animal print
A couple of feathers. Mine feathers were plucked from a catnip mouse.
glue
tapestry needle

Gauge
4 sts in sc = 1 inch (I'm a tight crocheter, so check your gauge)
Finished hat has a 10.5-inch circumference around the sides (not the brim)

Abbreviations
[ ]     repeat instructions between brackets
ch     chain
sc     single crochet
sl st slit stitch
st(s) stitches

5/28/11 Edited sc increases so stitch counts are correct.

Directions
Using the magic ring method and the smaller crochet hook, ch 1. SC 5 into the loop. Pull the tail tightly to close the hole and sl st into the turning chain (the first ch 1).

Top and Side of Hat
Rnd 1: Ch 1, sc into base of sl st just made, sc 2 times into next 5 sc. Sl st into the turning chain. (12 sc total)
Rnd 2: Ch 1, sc into the base of the sl st just made, [sc 1 time in next 1 sc, sc 2 times into next sc ] to end. Sl st into the turning chain. (18 sc total)
Rnd 3: Ch 1, sc into the base of the sl st just made, [sc 1 time in next 2 sc, sc 2 times in next sc ] to end. Sl st into the turning chain. (24 sc total)
Rnd 4: Ch 1, sc into the base of the sl st just made, [sc 1 time in next 3 sc, sc 2 times in next sc ] to end. Sl st into the turning chain. (30 sc total)
Rnd 5: Ch 1, sc into the base of the sl st just made, [sc 1 time in next 4 sc, sc 2 times in next sc ] to end. Sl st into the turning chain. (36 sc total)
Rnd 6: Ch 1, sc into the base of the sl st just made, [sc 1 time in next 5 sc, sc 2 times in next sc ] to end. Sl st into the turning chain. (42 sc total)
Rnd 7: Continue to sc into the next stitch (you are crocheting in a spiral) until the hat is 2 inches high.

Brim
Rnd 8: Ch 1, sc into the base of the sl st just made, [sc 1 time in next 6 sc, sc 2 times in next sc ] to end. Sl st into the turning chain. (48 sc total)
Rnd 9: Ch 1, sc into the base of the sl st just made, [sc 1 time in next 7 sc, sc 2 times in next sc ] to end. Sl st into the turning chain. (54 sc total)
Rnd 10: Ch 1, sc into the base of the sl st just made, [sc 1 time in next 8 sc, sc 2 times in next sc ] to end. Sl st into the turning chain. (60 sc total)
Rnd 11: Ch 1, sc into the base of the sl st just made, [sc 1 time in next 9 sc, sc 2 times in next sc ] to end. Sl st into the turning chain. (66 sc total)

Cut yarn. Using a tapestry needles, thread yarn tail through the last stitch and weave in tail. To get my hat to have crisp edges, I soaked it and blocked it on top of an upside down measuring cup. When dry, glue a piece of ribbon and a couple of feathers to the hat. I used plain old Elmer's glue, but feel free to use some other type of adhesive or to stitch the ribbon into place.

Gold Chains
Using the larger crochet hook, make a slip knot. Ch 1 until you have a "gold chain" long enough to wrap around your cat's neck, then cut yarn and thread the yarn tail through the last stitch. My chains varied from 16 to 21 inches, and I made 4 necklaces. Tie the necklaces together at the base.

As always, if you make this, let me know! I continually troll my patterns on Ravelry looking for new pictures, so if you're too shy to contact me, post a picture of your pimpin' cat in Rav and I'll be sure to see it!

http://spindlesandspices.blogspot.com

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Chinese Chicken and Long Bean Stew

2010-10-23T12:16:00.000-07:00

Last week, I had an amazing Cantonese clay pot dish with rock cod, mung bean noodles, Napa cabbage, and tofu skin at New Kong Yang in Fremont. If you want to try it out for yourself, it has the cumbersome name of "Fillet of Rock Cod with Dried Beancurd Stick Deluxe Claypot (and I think it's #25). Eating that dish reminded me that there are some very tasty one pot Cantonese dishes that have fallen off my cooking repertoire, and I planned on fixing that this weekend.

I've tried to keep a Chinese clay pot around, but I'm apparently not a gentle person because I break them all the time. You have to be careful not to heat shock them, and even when I am careful, they seem to fall apart after the tiniest bump. Therefore, I used my ever so traditional Chinese stew pot: the (French) Staub.

I'm going to 'fess up now and say that I this post is mainly for me. I don't want to forget how I made this dish! When it comes to Chinese cooking, I navigate by taste and smell. This has the unfortunate side effect of sometimes forgetting how I did something because I'm grabbing whatever I have on hand at the time, and currently my pantry is stuffed with Cantonese, Korean, and Sichuan items. And, yes, I used all of it here!

Admittedly, if you don't live in an area with a large and diverse Asian community, some of these ingredients are going to be hard to find, so feel free to use whatever you have on hand. I pictured two harder to find ingredients below: dried bean curd skin and mung been noodles. Both are excellent sources of protein, and they provide different textures - the tofu skins are chewy firm while and the mung bean noodles have a slight chew, but are mostly silky.

Chinese Chicken and Long Bean Stew

Serves 4

Each in a bowl of warm water, soak until soft (about 15 minutes):

3 dried tofu skin sticks

3 bundles of mung bean noodles

Drain the noodles and tofu skins. Slice the tofu skin sticks into 3/4" sections. Set aside.

Cut into 1/2" crosswise slices:

2 skinless, boneless chicken thighs

Put the cut chicken into a mixing bowl and add:

3 T Shaoxing wine

2 T mushroom sauce (or oyster sauce)

3 T soy sauce for seafood (or 1 T regular dark soy)

1 T sesame oil

2 T minced ginger

Let the chicken marinate for at least 30 minutes.

Heat a 5-qt pot over medium flame. Once hot, add:

2 T peanut oil

Swirl the oil around to coat the bottom of the pot and immediately add:

3 T minced ginger

3 T chopped garlic
3 stalks of green onion, white part only and cut into 1/2" along the diagonal

Saute the ginger and garlic for a minute. Add the marinated chicken and continue to stir. Cook for about 5 minutes, until the outside of the chicken is no longer pink, and add:

1 T Pixian chili paste

1 tsp brown bean paste (I used Korean doenjang)

Continue stirring over medium heat for a minute. Deglaze the pan with:

1 cup chicken stock

Toss the tofu skins and mung bean noodles into the pot. Cover with:

4 cups chicken stock (or enough to submerge the chicken, tofu skins, and noodles)

Turn heat to low. Add:

3 T light soy for seafood

2 T black vinegar

Cover the pot and simmer the mixture for 10 minutes, then add:

4 cups of long beans cut into 1" pieces

Cover the pot again and cook for 5 more minutes. Add:

1 T sesame oil

Enjoy! Seeing this recipe written out makes it look a lot more complicated and hectic than it really is. I spent probably about 10 minutes measuring out, chopping, and grouping ingredients, and the actual cooking time was about 15 minutes. There's a lot of downtime while things are soaking and marinating, and I usually use that downtime to clean up the kitchen as I go.

Dry Cider

2010-10-22T09:50:00.000-07:00

After 10 days, we decanted our hard cider experiment and enjoyed! It was quite dry, which is the way I like my cider, and there wasn't any funky aromas like the hard cider I recently drank at The Trappist. I'm going to pick up some spiced cider today to start another batch, and I'm sure this next one will take longer to ferment since the weather has cooled down considerably and I'm now wearing a down jacket around the house. (OK, so I don't live in WEATHER, as some of you in snowy areas pointed out, but I'm a wuss who hates to be cold.)

The fact that it's the day after I enjoyed the hooch and I'm still here to blog about it means that it didn't kill me. The boy was worried that our concoction would make us go blind, and I'm still scratching my head over why he would think blindness would be an issue. Headaches? Sure, I buy that (and, no, I did not get a headache). But blindness? Since my vision is far from perfect to begin with, if the hard cider made it worse, I can't tell.

Vespa, the dog who would be a smoker if she could, was giving Mingus nibbles. Mingus, attention whore that he is, loved it. He even rotated ever so slightly so she could reach new spots. My theory is that since all the animals live in a small space, they become weird. Yeah, I'll blame it on the space.

A New Toy!

2010-10-18T11:55:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, the fermentation crock I ordered from Isidora Spielmann arrived! It's both beautiful and functional, very high compliments in geek-speak. I have two heads of green cabbage bubbling away in there, slowing converting to sauerkraut.

I love the whimsical details adorning the fermenter's sides. Even the weight stone is a piece of art!

Sunday was a total food immersion day, starting with a trip to the farmers market (carrying 10 pounds of cabbage makes for a good workout), followed by gluttony at the Spice of Life Festival (Chairman Bao's truck is worth the wait! And Masse's Pastries is serving made-to-order churros and Mexican hot chocolate!), and ending with some kimchi and sauerkraut festivities.

For comparison, here is my Harsch crock. I still feel nothing but love for it, but it's huge and merely functional in appearance.

I realized today that I need some local fermentation buddies. Sure, there are online groups aplenty out there, and I have loads of friends who will share my finished goods, but sometimes a gal just needs to compare notes with people in person. Not to mention the exciting possibility of food and beverage swaps! I'm trying to convert the boy into a fermentation buddy by insisting he reads the same beer brewing books I am. I already assigned him the boring but necessary job of equipment sanitization.

There has to be some kind of club out there for people who like to ferment things... Imagine the cool parties we'll have with cheese, beer, sourdough bread, and kimchi! Plus, everyone will have excellent digestive health, which has to be an added bonus somehow. Hm. Must think on this.

Hooch

2010-10-14T12:26:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Brew Bakers in Huntington Beach, I decided to try my hand at making hooch. This formerly child friendly apple juice from Trader Joe's will hopefully transform to a non-child friendly dry hard cider through the power of fermentation.

Brew Bakers has a unique setup where you can pick your beer recipe and make it with a beer making guru guiding you through the steps. No shortcuts here: you start with grains to make your mash. It was fascinating watching the entire process, and since all the beer for sale here is made by them, it instills confidence that I, too, can make this stuff. I had an excellent sour cherry beer while I watched the process, and I got to talk to the person who made it. Since I was a fan, he cracked open and shared another sour beer he brewed which somehow was even better than the sour cherry beer. The boy is in full support of this new interest (surprise, surprise).

The whole setup hard cider was pretty cheap. I paid less than $3 for the rubber stopper and the airlock, both from Oak Barrel Winecraft. The half gallon jug was free with a purchase of cherry sour beer (so, so good - much better than the Flemish brown ales commercially available) from Brew Bakers. The apple juice may have been the most expensive item, and it was around $4.

The picture shows day 3 of fermentation. Initially, I covered the mouth of the jug with cheesecloth and a rubber band, which gave the whole project an illicit feel. Woot, we're making moonshine! Once the fermentation really got going and it was bubbling, I fixed the airlock and stopper into place. Now, more waiting.... I'll taste it periodically until it is quite dry.

Kimchi Shortage!

2010-10-06T22:08:00.000-07:00

Obviously, the kimchi shortage is not in our house, but South Korea is experiencing a shortage due to a wet cabbage growing season.

You can read more about it here.

Perhaps I should start exporting my kimchi?

Constantly Eating

2010-10-05T15:11:00.000-07:00

Since the projects on my needles and hook are long term, there's nothing much to show. WIP photos aren't really interesting to me, so I assume that anyone who checks in won't find them interesting as well. However, I am constantly eating, so I do have some more food finds to share.

Today at the market, I bought these two jujubes. I didn't want to read up much on them before I tasted them, so I just dove right in. They remind me of apples, but they are sugary sweet with no tartness to offset their sweetness. Their texture is more snappy than apples. I've encountered dried jujubes in the medicinal soups my dad makes and in teas, but never fresh. They were quite good, but more of a dessert than a fruit.

I think my kimchi craze is waning, so I wanted to recombine all my leftovers into something new to use up the stray bits. Fried rice was yesterday's solution since I had egg whites leftover from making a miso caramel ice cream, spicy chicken and brown rice leftover from the previous day's dinner, and the always present cabbage kimchi in my fridge.

I have some koji that's just begging to be turned into miso or amazake. For those of you in the Bay Area, Berkeley Bowl West sells a pint of koji for around $5 - the price is low enough to experiment with abandon. This will probably be my next project unless something else shiny comes around.

The Kimchi Chronicles

2010-09-28T10:32:00.000-07:00

The kimchi making bug still has me obsessed, which means that dinner still consists of some sort of grilled meat, short grain brown rice, and an assortment of banchan. Since summer in the Bay Area is having an extinction burst, these meals are perfect for a day when you just want to throw something together and call it dinner, especially if the rice was made earlier and only requires a jaunt in the microwave. The banchans are made on different days, but they are all meant to live long, nonperishable lives. At various times I've thought about how lovely it would be to have a refrigerator dedicated to banchan, a staple in so many Korean households, but those thoughts are shortly chased away by the reality of my living situation: only 2 people to feed, we already own an extra freezer in the garage, no room to put a chest refrigerator anywhere, and I have no idea how much longer my banchan obsession will last.

The last round of cabbage kimchi consisted of Napa cabbage, radish, and carrots as the base vegetables. I used up the last of my Mexican chili powder (I think it was ancho?), so I treated myself to a trip to the Korean grocery market to pick up some more staples: gochujang, doenjang, and some Korean chili flakes. (For those of you in the Bay Area, Koreana Plaza is a fun field trip, but beware alert in the parking lot because there's a lot of backing up without looking going on!)

Grocery shopping with the boy means that we'll end up with some random food item that will require some research to use up. During this trip, he grabbed a bag of dried fiddlehead ferns and this bag of either dried squid or dried cuttlefish. He could not resist the drinking squid or the promise that this squid would go good with beer. What a sucker.

Thankfully, a little web search pulled up plenty of recipes for the dried squid. Maangchi is a wonderful resource for Korean food, and the added videos and cute commentary can easily absorb your afternoon. I used her recipe for seasoned dried shredded squid (ojingeochae muchim), and I'm happy to report that it is delicious! The squid is right: it is perfect with beer. My only change to the recipe was to substitute brown rice syrup for the corn syrup, and I used canola oil instead of olive oil (olive oil? really?).

Another banchan I made are these stewed black beans (kong jang). These are what I go nuts over at Korean BBQ restaurants, and they turn out to be a snap to make. My only changes to the recipe was to omit the corn syrup and to add an equal amount of sugar towards the end of the cooking time. Also note the the black beans are black soybeans (edamame), not the black turtle beans commonly available here. If you cannot find dried black soybeans, you may substitute regular soybeans. The tricky bit is that when you go to a Chinese or Korean market, "black beans" usually refers to the black soybeans. If you want to make sure, inspect the package of dried black beans. The skin is black, but the flesh underneath is a pale green.

Can anyone explain to me why there is so much corn syrup in Korean recipes? I tried to buy a gochujang without it, and it was impossible. I'm sure that Korean grandmothers weren't using the stuff 100 years ago, so what gives? Is this simply a matter of economics? I notice that other recipes use malt/barley syrup, too. Luckily, I have a jar of brown rice syrup from some long ago recipe, and that does the trick.

Since I bought a package of Korean chili flakes, I was chomping at the bit to make this cucumber kimchi (oisobagi kimchi). It's currently sitting in the back office, the coolest spot in the house, fermenting for a day. It was good right away, but it will be even better once it the flavors meld more and there's a bit of lactic acid in the mix.

Now, it's time for props. There are a number of fantastic Korean websites out there that I have been reading over and over again for recipes, brand recommendations, and inspiration.

I am complete in-mind!

2010-09-24T17:25:00.000-07:00

I get some of the best email and comments from people who are convinced that I spend my free time thinking up ways to torture my poor, abused cats. This last round of comments were just too good to not share.

"Well, I think that was ridiculous. I mean, no one cat need any hat, it's just a animal. You're complete in-mind."

"That poor little cat, they using to do stupids things, as being a model
or something more foggy. You should be embarrass about it. "

"Excellent way to make a comic blog, that little cat isn't cute with that hat, maybe you're sick or something, I really was deception about it. "

So, folks, if you only remember one thing, let it be this: no one cat need any hat!

See? I am knitting!

2010-09-21T10:59:00.000-07:00

Currently on my needles is a sweater for the boy. It's a boring man sweater, with excitement only derived from going at it sans pattern. I'm making a top-down raglan using the guidelines from Custom Knits. Now, the exciting parts are over, with "exciting parts" being loosely defined as swatching, calculating gauge, figuring out how many stitches to cast on, and separating the armholes and calculating extra stitches to cast on for the body after that.

I've begged to add cables. Nope. I've asked to make it ribbed. Nope. How about a v-neck? I've never made a v-neck before! Nope. He wants it plain, and he hates ribbing for some reason, so I'll finish off the cuffs and neckband with either moss stitch or crab stitch. If it weren't for the fact that he remodeled the bathroom and pretty much painted two rooms by himself, I'd scoff at the idea of making him a plain sweater. However, he did concede to letting me add some green racing stripes to one sleeve, and I'm also thinking about adding a little green skull and crossbones somewhere. It will be a surprise!

Anticipating the miles of stockinette I'll have to knit to complete the body, I tried to convince him that tight sweaters look super sexy on men. Nope. In fact, the he wanted positive ease. And did I mention that this is knit up in Hempathy, that yarn that is a skinny DK?

Last night, I tried the sweater on him now that the armholes are complete. Success! Of course, it looks like he's wearing some sort of top that goes well with Daisy Dukes (sadly, he wouldn't let me take a picture), but the critical parts are all done.

Now, back to knitting miles of stockinette...