Craftapalooza

toe up 2 socks on 2 circ's with figure 8 cast on

For you non-knitterly people this title might sound like another language. For you sock knitters. Looky looky Joleen, thanks for the encouragement. Only took me about 6 cast-on attempts and several frogging's to work it out. But, phew, I did.

Pattern figure of 8 cast on toe up, two at the same time on two circular's, knitted on 2.5mm, Rocks that Rock, colourway Hard Rock (AGAIN, thanks to my supa dupa better pal). Thanks Steph for the Mata Hari chart, and here on public record "I slacker Nicole, will be sending you my part of the bargain soon". Really quite embarrassing how long it's been.

So, you wanna know how the knitting's going? Well at first it was a little awkward and it took me a while to get my head into the casting on two at the same time, but once I'd gotten over that, they're zipping along I tell ya! Zipping! Love it. Love that I'll have 2 when I'm finished. No single sock syndome for me. I cast on Friday night last week and today here's my progress. Well I'm about another inch along from here.

Continuing with all things reddish. This weekend I trotted off to the growers market and grabbed me a bunch of rhubarb. Rhubarb crumble was had with J9, she cooked a fabulous pasta with Persian feta. You had Persian feta?? OMG D.I.V.I.N.E. No pictures of crumble, but boring picture of a jar of rhubarb and vanilla jam. YUM YUM YUMMY. Lots of caps, lots of yum.

Rhubarb & Vanilla Jam, Donna Hay (yes Kelli, a sort of Australian Martha equivalent), Issue 28.

250g Rhubarb, trimmed and chopped
1 cup caster sugar (superfine)
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped (or 1 tspn vanilla bean paste)
2 tablespoons water

Place the rhubarb, sugar, vanilla and water over low heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat to medium and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat to medium and simmer for 8-10mins or until thickened. Remove the vanilla bean and discard. Spoon the jam into a sterilised 1 cup glass jar and seal. Makes 1 cup. Can be stored in the fridge for up to two weeks.

Enjoy!

fluffiness

Hmm do I have to say much in this post? Feed the blog, water the blog, blog fodder. Blog, blog, blah! Nah only kidding, well maybe,maybe not. Hmm woke up on an odd side of the bed this morning, followed by a gym workout with one of the instructors walking around blowing bubbles at us, "Good morning Nicole, stop yawning"....my inner dialogue at this point "Go blow your friggin bubbles elsewhere and get stuffed, it's my gym workout and I can yawn if I want to".

So...umm onto our usual blog programme. Here's a coupla things for you to look at. Pretty hey. It's a little like a Sesame Street moment "one of these things is not like the other", except it's a "both of these things look edible but only one of these things is edible". Or not!

We have the Kidsilk Haze scarf, just under 2 balls required, pattern from Melanie Falick's "Handknit Holidays". Pattern altered, I cast on 150sts, to end up with a total of 2400sts. I like the colour but would also like to try this scarf in a grey colourway, the red has the potential to look like a clown's collar. Noice.

Secondly, some more cupcake action. Even though I declared this year of the cookie for me, I'm drawn to cupcakes. These were for a work buddy's birthday. Vanilla cupcakes, from Donna Hay, vanilla frosting with marshmallows (cut the marshmallows into four petals) with coloured sugar and silver ball thingies.

Next up, cast on socks, toeup turkish with short row heels, that's the intent anyhow.

The only whoopie I'm getting at the moment....

Yes folks, bit of a drought at the moment. Ironic, you're in a relationship you stop wanting it, you become single you start obsessing about it. Or you sew, bake, knit, create like a maniac to distract yourself. Yes, yes, ironic I know.

I've had it on the brain especially since seeing a recipe named "Whoopie Pies" in the June issue of Delicious magazine. These are presented as a children's snack, however aside from the sweet marshmallow filling I don't think kids would enjoy the bitterness of the chocolate, but I did!

Whoopie pies, Delicious magazine, June 2006 Kate Tait

1 cup (150g) plain flour
1/2 cup (50g) dutch cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp bicarb soda
120g unsalted butter, softened
1/2 firmly packed cup brown sugar (100g)
1 egg, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup (125ml) buttermilk
100g white marshmallows

• Preheat oven 180C
• Line 2-3 baking trays with baking paper.
• Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and bicarb into a bowl.
• Beat the butter and sugar in an electric mixer on high speed until light and fluffy.
• Beat in the egg, followed by the vanilla and buttermilk.
• Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and beat until combined.
• Place 32 tablespoonfuls of mixture 4cm apart on the prepared trays, bake for 7-8 minutes until doubled in size and firm on the top when gently pressed. Cool on trays
• Place marshmallows and 1 teaspoon warm water in a microwave-safe dish and microwave on high for 20 seconds, then stir until smooth.
• Spread the marshmallows over 16 of the rounds, then sandwich them together with the remaining rounds.

Sit back, feet up and enjoy slowly with a cuppa...not quite the same, but a distraction.

Hmmm can you smell the cookie goodness?

Well maybe you haven't got your nose close enough to the monitor, come on, just a little closer. Breathe deeply...A selection from the flickr group, nice cookie makers cutters, hey Lisa! Lisa....what's your news, come on spill.

Have a great weekend everyone. All you back-tackers should be in the thick of it now :)

rockin' the road

Alison M gave me this recipe, I have no idea who the creator of it is. It's sweet and naughty and very quick, too quick!, to make. Purrfect.

Rocky Road

You'll need:

• 1-1.5 cups Rice Bubbles
• 1 Packet Raspberry lollies (chewy jube like lollies)
• 250-300 grams Chocolate (don't go all cheap on the chocolate)
• 30grams Copha EDIT - Vegetable shortening
• 1/2 packet Marshmallows (don't go buying cheap here either)

Prepare the tray you're going to put the mixture into by lining it with baking paper. No need to grease it. You could also try using cupcake liners.

Cut up the marsmellows and put into a bowl together with the rice bubbles and the raspberry lollies, also cut these in half.

Melt the copha and chocolate together on medium in the microwave for about 2 minutes. Make sure they're combined well, give them a good stir.

Then pour over the dry mix in the bowl. Stir it thoroughly through and when combined spoon it into your prepared tin, pushing it down and smooshing it about (yes, smooshing).

Stick it in the freezer for about 30minutes. Then cut it up and enjoy with a cuppa. Easy!

Since we're about food today, I made scones on Sunday morning. My parents were coming over for morning tea, it ended up being mum and I only, who turned up with 2 garments she wanted altered. This is typical in our relationship, role reversal. (Sounds nasty, but it's a true reality.) Whipped up a batch using my favourite Woman's Weekly recipe. Very basic recipe that I have success with always. The trick with scones is to not over handle the dough. I also use a knife to cut through the mixture when adding the milk to the flour. Yes, yes I know, there are lots of other versions that use cream and other ingredients, but this one works and I like the end result.

The Australian Women's Weekly - "The Basic Cookbook", ISBN 0949128295. Was first printed in 1988, my edition is 1994.

Scones

Best eaten the day they are made or STRAIGHT from the oven! Can be frozen for up to two months, though I couldn't imagine doing that :)

• 2 cups self raising flour
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 15 grams butter, chopped
• 1 cup milk, approximately

First up preheat your oven to 230C.

Sift flour and sugar into a bowl, then rub in the butter with your fingertips.

Make a well in the centre of ingredients, add ALMOST all the milk at once.

Using a knife (butter knife or similar), "cut" the milk through the flour mixture to mix to a soft, sticky dough. Add the remaining milk only if needed for correct consistency. What's correct consistency?....you want a soft not too sticky dough.

At this point turn dough from bowl onto lightly floured surface (don't go using too much flour, you'll upset the balance of ingredients).

Kneed LIGHTLY, you hear that LIGHTLY, until smooth, not completely perfectly smooth but good enough :)

Press dough out gently and evenly to approximately 2cm thickness, you don't need a rolling pin.

Dip a 5cm cutter into flour, cut as many rounds as you can, place the scones side by side just touching in a lightly greased 20cm circular pan, you can use a square pan. Gently knead the leftover dough again and repeat your cutting, when patting the dough out for the second time, leave it a little thicker than the first time.

Brush the tops with a little milk.

Bake for 15 minutes or until tops are browned and scones sound hollow when tapped with fingertips.

Makes about 10.

Serve hot from the oven with double cream and preferably homemade jam. Mine were eaten with homemade apricot and cinnamon jam. Of course, you need to be drinking pot brewed tea! Let me know if you make some!

Show 'n Tell

Woot! Friday. Love it.

Finally, finally after 3 months, finished Gillian's birthday socks. *Cough* her birthday is in December. Guess that's what can happen when you have craft ADD. As much as I love knitting socks I get bored and need to space them out with other creative adventures. I'm happy with these and I think Gillian will love them. The details: knitted on 2.5mm circ's, basic rib pattern, Cherry Tree Hill superwash merino (handwashed in cold water after knitting, a lot of dye did come out, but I didn't notice a big colour difference).

I won an auction for a piece of Lisa's art, "Hunted Rabbit". I love it. It's a vintage shooting target with watercolour bunny and a perforated edge around the bunny. I've retired Camilla for the moment, Lisa's in da house!

Continuing the "Lisa" theme, another gorgeous Lisa's cushion arrived and it is lovely. See it in the background on the sofa, Lisa's pics are much better and Spud does like it too even though he doesn't look too impressed. I realised too that the 6 is the date of my birthday....but I wonder if Lisa knew that, somehow I don't think so. Spooky!

Last up, payment for a work colleague for helping me...Donna Hay, Vanilla Cupcakes with chocolate frosting and a candy raspberry to top it off. Enjoy, we will!

Cut

Lisa wanted to know how many cookie cutters I have, this wasn' t just a random question (no peeps she doesn't have a cookie cutter fetish, well, not that she's shared....) she'd seen some pictures up on flickr showing my nook in which my cookie cutter collection could be seen. Duly counted, I have 34...is that too many? Di might think so! Oh and there's also another 5 snowflake cutters in a tin somewhere.

For Christmas one of my work buddies gave me this very cool set of coloured aluminium cutters. I love them. Thanks Dick! I haven't used them yet.

So...my favourites. You wanna know?

Last year for me was "year of the cupcake", I think this year is going to be the cookie's turn. Time to hone my cookie makin' and decorating skills.

tea?

Some of us Aussie bloggers are having an afternoon tea swap. Since keeping busy is my favourite activity at the moment, I made a couple of batches of biscotti. We have white chocolate/cranberry and glace ginger/clove. The basic recipe follows:

Biscotti
(Ian Palmerston, can't remember the book title, but he calls it Almond Bread)
125g caster sugar
3 large eggs
125g plain flour
125g of your chosen flavour (suggestions: slivered almonds, glace fruit, macadamias, I also add spices to compliment like cinnamon or clove or even add lemon zest, or 5ml of vanilla essence)

• Cream sugar with the eggs until smooth
• Mix in the flour and flavour of your choice
• Pour mixture into oiled or non-stick rectangular bread tins (or I also use mini loaf tins)
• Bake in oven for 45 mins at 160C
• Allow to cool before removing from tin and wrapping in kitchen foil
• Refrigerate at least 24 hours
• Carve sides away from bread (I don't do this, I like it rustic)
• Slice thinly (I usually try for between 3-5mm thick)
• Put on tray and bake in oven at 150C until crispy (about 5-10mins, I sometimes turn it over halfway through)
• Store in airtight container, but not before you've made yourself a cuppa and sat down to enjoy!

aaah weekends

Kicked off this weekend with a burger and movie Friday night (Cinderella Man). A tear jerker. Well, for me it was. Not just little tears, big, wet tears. Quite satisfying. I really enjoyed the film. Doughman and I had a quality evening together.

Saturday woke up late (9am), got dressed and went out for a leisurely breakfast, then on to domestic duties. Saturday afternoon I started sewing a bag. It was intended to be my new handbag, but I think it's a little large and could do with some refining. It's an excellent knitting/craft bag. It's made from the woollen fabric and cotton I bought in Sydney visiting Al. I'm going to test drive it as a handbag this week. Great simple pattern from Cotton & Paint volume 21. Easy peasy. Was frantically sewing on the machine at 6.59pm as guests were knocking on the door for dinner, just as well Doughman was on the case. I finished it off this morning. I covered a couple of buttons to add to the fabulous rose button and used a couple of magnetic closures on the interior. Overall I'm happy with the bag.

Doughman spent quite a few hours Saturday afternoon cooking up a feast. Fresh pasta with a puttanesca sauce followed by coconut and rhubarb cake with lemon syrup and vanilla icecream. Yum.

Then today a couple of girlfriends (Alison M and Kate) and I met up with Di who's in town. We spent the afternoon knitting and eating. It was great to see Di. We met over 5 years ago and it wasn't until I started blogging that I met Al who mentioned Di to me and we realised we have quite a few common friends. I made some further progress on the sock. I know on Friday I made the grand statement that I would have finished one sock and be on to the second....well there's still time tonight whilst watching, cough umm, Idol.

Crafty food

Spicey bought Doughman a set of alpha biscuit cutters as a thank you for assisting him get a foot in the kitchen door of one of Perth's top restaurants (there was also a monkey and a dinosaur). So happy for Spicey that it's worked out well. Doughman put the cookie cutters to the test this weekend and had much success. The recipe is a polenta based biscuit with lemon zest, really lovely. If I remember I'll post a copy of the recipe. They are really great.

We also discovered that once you start eating the biscuits that you can be left with cat poo. Much to Doughman's amusement. This one's for you Doughman.