Project Updates

Well, the Mystery Project is basically complete. I have some cleanup to do, but then it'll be ready to send out. Overall, I'm pleased with it. There were a few missteps (I sewed a part of it upside down.), but I feel ok about giving it to an actual person. Once its intended receives it, I'll post full pictures and a rundown.

As a part of the mystery project, I learned how to make button holes. This is an exciting development! I also learned how to use the machine to sew on buttons, promising a future in which my buttons don't pop off and run away at the most inopportune moments.

The Nerdy Kilt Hose are trucking along. I seem to have rallied on that project. I attribute this to two things. Thing the first: I was five episodes behind on the latest season on Lost. So last night I did battle with my router and managed, with much swearing and much knitting, to watch three episodes. Since tv is prime knitting time for me, I got a lot done. Thing the second: the Gentleman in Question is visiting this Friday, and I want these to be done in time. The router seems to be behaving itself today, so we'll see how far I get.

Comments Policy

Hello all! My family has noted that commenting here is confusing. In response, I've set the comments to the lowest threshold, which allows anonymous comments. Basically, that means y'all can comment without having to register. I figure at this point I'm not big enough to attract spam. But since anyone can comment, I think it's best to spell out the basic rules.

No spam! I don't care about your Viagra or anything else like that, so don't waste my time. Spam will be deleted mercilessly.

No trolling! If you troll here (defined as being obnoxious for the hell of it), I'll disemvowel you. I don't care if you're related to me, you still have to be respectful to people. Mocking me is generally acceptable. Y'all mock me in person, so I don't see any reason to stop online. Just try not to make me cry, ok?

That should cover it. The internet is unpredictable, so I'll take it as I go and see what works. Follow the philosophy of Bill and Ted ("Be excellent to each other."), and we should be good.

The Nerdiest Kilt Hose Ever

The never ending socks. Last year during the fourth of July, I was asked to make the nerdiest kilt hose ever. And that's pretty nerdy, considering kilt hose are by definition geeky. The gentleman in question wanted his kilt socks to have wrenches on them, to reflect his engineering nature.

Have you ever tried to find a cable pattern for wrenches? I have. They don't exist, so I had to make my own. Last August, I bought the yarn and began the process of making kilt socks. I've sort of adapted a pattern, but in all honesty, I'm mostly winging it. I'm doing them two at a time on circular needles so I can be sure they turn out the same.

The project has been fraught. There were a few false starts, and more than a little anxiety. The latest worry eating at me is that they are too tight. They aren't of course. This worry stems from the fact that the gentleman in question has skinny legs, while I have been gifted with the mighty calves. They don't fit me, and so, I am anxious.

Why have they taken so long? I blame it in television. Or the lack thereof. We don't have tv in our house because we don't feel like paying for it, and everything we want to watch can be streamed to the tv through one of the house craptops. This saves us money, and makes us watch less tv. Awesome, right? Except that tv watching was prime knitting time for me. I've never been one to just sit and knit; there was always something else going on as well. So now that I have more of a life, I knit much less. Meaning the socks trudge along, not being finished.

There is also the latest setback. I did some plane knitting earlier this week. I'm planning for these to have a flap heel. Somewhere over New Jersey I made the flap, and when it came time to turn the heel over Virginia, instead of turning, I just made another short row heel entirely. My socks now have two heels, nicely executed, stacked one right on top of another. Needless to say, I need to rip out and try not to be such an idiot.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Bars

The damnable graham crackers strike again! I made these last week, before my approximation of pie. They were extremely delicious, and fattening in ways I'd prefer not to think about. In my quest to use all of the graham cracker crumbs, I might turn my roommates in to 300 pound bouncers. Which, for at least four of us, would significantly up our income, so I guess they shouldn't complain.

And the bananas in the background prove that we do keep healthy options around. I swear. It's not my fault if the folks passing through the house choose peanut butter and chocolate over bananas.

These bars require no baking. If I were ambitious, I'd temper the chocolate, but I don't see a reason to go through all that fuss with generic supermarket brand chocolate chips. So plain melting will do. Also, the original recipe called for a cup of butter, which I think is gross.



Peanut Butter and Chocolate Bars

Ingredients:
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 1/3 cup powdered sugar
2 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
12 oz chocolate chips

Directions:
Heat up the peanut butter in the microwave, then stir in the sugar and graham crackers. The mix will be a bit crumbly. Spray a 9x13 pan with non stick spray, then press the peanut butter mix into it. Stick the whole shebang in the fridge while you do the next bit.

Place the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl, and melt them. It took mine a minute thirty, taking time out to stir and such so they didn't burn. Once it's mostly melted, take the chips out and keep stirring till it's nice and smooth. Take your peanut butter out of the fridge and pour the chocolate on top. You'll need to smooth it with a spatula. Chill them in the fridge for a few minutes, then cut them while they're still warm. This will save you frustration later, I swear.

The only suggestions I have are that 12 oz of chocolate chips really isn't enough. I'd suggest going for a full pound. It was noted that they were a wee bit dry, so some more peanut butter wouldn't be a bad idea.

And seriously, I'm stumped with the graham crackers. Anyone have any suggestions about how to defeat them? They sit on the counter, the everlasting 5 pounds of them, taunting me.

Knitting and sewing posts next week.

Pi Day

Yesterday was Pi Day! This means I had to make pie. Fact #1: strawberries are in season here, so I decided to make strawberry pie. Fact 2: the damnable graham crackers remain. I swear they're like tribbles. With these two facts, I found a recipe. But once again, I had to make substitutions due to laziness and lack of supplies.

Like most houses, our kitchen has cabinets that go up to the ceiling. I wish architects were more aware of the fact that Americans are getting shorter. Because of my shortness relative to the cabinets, I substituted brown sugar for white sugar. The brown sugar goes in the pantry next to the fridge. A nice, easy to reach place. The white sugar goes with the flour on the top shelf of the cabinet next to the stove. I have to bust out the ladder to get to it! This makes no sense. Both of the bakers in this house are short. And yet, the flours and the sugar live out of reach. There is only so much effort I'll put into making crust with the damnable graham crackers, so brown sugar became the order of the day.

The second substitution came from the fact that we are out of butter. Now, I was already planning on going to the grocery store to buy strawberries, so the sensible thing to do would be to hold off and buy butter too. But no, in addition to being somewhat lazy, I'm also a tad impatient. So I improvised. We had two tubs of butter substitute in the fridge. I'm deeply suspicious of that stuff. But it was that or wait and buy butter. So I opened tub #1 and discovered a new genus of mold. It was red. Into the trash it went! Tub #2 was acceptably artificial.

Of course, this was all silly, because once there was crust, I went to the store and bought strawberries. And forgot to buy butter. And later, while making the filling, I used the ladder to get the hidden sugar, making the brown sugar even more ridiculous. So perhaps I should rechristen this desert Ridiculous Pie. In my defense, it was Sunday.

Ridiculous Strawberry Pie
Ingredients:
1 1/3 cup graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons butter, melted (don't be like me; use the real stuff)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
cooking spray
2 cups sliced strawberries
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon lemon juice1 quart container of strawberries.

4 tablespoons graham cracker crumbs
1 1/2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons butter, melted

Directions:Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Then you should make the crust by combing the graham crackers, sugar, and butter. Mix it with a fork, then dump it into a pie pan that you've liberally sprayed down. Pat the crumb mixture into place. Bake it for 15 minutes, and then let it cool completely. Might be time to go to the store.


To make the filling, combine the strawberries and vinegar in a pot and cook over medium high heat for 3 minutes. Stir in the sugar, then make a slurry with the cornstarch and the water and stir that in too. Bring the mix to a boil and let it boil for a full minute. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice. Set the pot aside and let it cool.


While your filling is cooling, hull and wash the rest of the strawberries. Place them in the pie shell, flat side down. Once your filling is cool, pour it over the strawberries and prod it into place. Mine looked pretty anemic at this point, but whatever, it's still good.

Stick the pie in the fridge for 4 hours. At the end of those 4 hours, pull it out of the fridge and make the topping. Melt the butter and mix with the graham crumbs and sugar. Sprinkle it over the pie, filling in any holes in your filling. Then serve your pie!

Recommendations: The fake butter isn't the end of the world, but the real stuff would be better. The original recipe also calls for chopped nuts in the topping, but I forgot to buy those too. I bet they'd be good. My filling was rather thick; in the future I'll use 1/2 a tablespoon instead.




Also, I need to be honest and admit that this was more of a pi(e) approximation. It ended up more like a cobbler. It's still pretty good, and it used up some of the damnable graham crackers.

Garlic Soup

I saw this recipe several months ago, and was intrigued. Garlic has never been anything besides an added flavor to the main event. Roasted chicken with garlic, for instance. Or pasta sauce. Or roasted plain the way my friend makes it, submerged in olive oil.

But never as soup. So I bookmarked the recipe and promptly forgot about it. Months passed, I moved states, and I've been out of work since then. So I'm trying not to spend much money either. And I found myself home alone for dinner. That's when the garlic soup popped back into my mind. Seriously, this soup is cheap. So here's my version, the main difference being that I didn't have fresh sage. I also didn't bother with the straining. Mmm lazy.

Sorry the picture is lame; I was hungry.

Garlic Soup

Ingredients:

6 cups water
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon dried ground sage
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
12ish cloves garlic, peeled, shoots removed, and sliced
1 teaspoon salt

For the thickener:
1 egg
2 egg yolks
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan
pepper
1/4 cup olive oil

Directions:

Combine the water through salt in a pot and bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium low and simmer the soup for 45 minutes. It's done when the garlic crushes easily with your spoon.

While the soup simmers, separate two of the eggs and set the whites aside for something else (This is an excellent use for them). Whisk the egg yolks with the whole egg. Add in the Parmesan and the pepper and whisk again. Drizzle in the olive oil while whisking. That gets everything nice and solidly combined.

Now the fun part. When your soup is done simmering, remove some of the liquid (1/3 cup or so) and slowly pour it into the egg mix, whisking the whole time. This is called tempering eggs. You do it so the eggs don't scramble and get weird. Keep whisking and add more cooking liquid until the egg mix is nice and hot. Pour the egg mix into the soup, again whisking like crazy. Scrambled eggs in soup is actually quite delicious, but it's not what you're going for here.

Cook the soup over medium low for a few minutes, until it reaches the consistency of cream. Ladle into bowls and serve! I ate mine with whole grain bread.

Mystery Project

I'm working on something special. It's a present for a friend who will remain nameless for now. As you can see above, it involves a lot of ripping out and starting over. This is because my sewing skills are...woefully undeveloped.


Nevertheless, I made good progress today. I completed 2 more steps in the process. As you can see, it involved pinning things and sewing them. I had to rip out several times, which was irritating. But since this is for someone else, I need it to be good. Until I finish this object and give it to the intended, I can't say or show you more. So let this pique your curiosity for now.

Cucumber Salad

I could make this salad every day. As it is, I make it every week. It's easy! And we go through it fast enough. There's only 5 ingredients, and they're easy to get. Dousing the cucumber slices in salt lets them sweat out their liquid. They absorb the dressing so much better that way. You can add other vegetables, sliced thin, or different spices. I've used cider vinegar and lemon juice. Think of this as a guideline, not a recipe.


Cucumber Onion Salad

Ingredients:
1 seedless cucumber
1 onion, any type, though red are the prettiest
dried basil to taste
1 1/2 tbs red wine vinegar
3 tbs olive oil
pepper
Salt

Directions:
Thinly slice the cucumber and lay the slices out on paper towels. Liberally sprinkle salt on the cucumber slices and let them sit for an hour. While the cucumber is sweating, slice the onion and add it to your bowl. Dump in as much basil as you like- I usually use about a tablespoon. After an hour, blot your cucumbers with paper towels and add them to the bowl. Whisk the olive oil and vinegar and pour it over. Add pepper as desired. Let the whole thing sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.




Gratuitous close up.

Lombardi Gras

I first moved to New Orleans in 2002 for school. Have you ever gone to a place and been struck with the feeling that you belonged there? That's what New Orleans felt like to me. But like most college kids, I didn't get all that involved with life outside of college and college bars. Function of the age I guess. In any case, I didn't care in the least about the Saints.

That changed for me after the storm. I moved to New Jersey for graduate school in 2006. It was lonelier than I expected, and I was surprised at how much I missed New Orleans. So even though I wasn't a huge football fan, I bought a six pack of Abita and sat down to watch the Saints play the first game in the dome. And it was amazing. From beginning to end. That's when I became a fan. Saints games were impossible to see in Jersey, so I watched the Giants. I'm not an expert; most football fans would call me a dilettante. But whatever, I watch the games and I enjoy them, so the armchair pundits can go mock somebody else.

Since then, I watched the Giants win the Superbowl. I can state from experience that fans in other places are kind of lackluster in comparison to the Who Dats. The ticker tape parade for the Giants was kind of cool, but not awesome enough to cancel school. And as an aside, after living in New Orleans, parades in other places aren't that interesting. No one throws you anything! In high school when I lived in Baltimore and the Ravens won the Superbowl, there wasn't nearly the level of excitement.

The night of the game, I went down to a neighborhood bar in the Bywater with my roommate and some friends. We sat and drank beer, and I brought my knitting since we joined our friends at the bar 2 hours before kickoff. The game was close, and emotions ran high. In those final moments, when it became clear that we won, the whole city erupted. I've never heard such noise. Cars honking in the streets, spontaneous jazz bands, people shouting, the whole works. We, along with everyone else, left the bar and walked to the French Quarter. Bourbon Street (a place I avoid) had Mardi Gras level crowds. Thing was, everyone was happy. The folk in this photo were hula hooping for joy. There wasn't much shoving, people were dressed up, and everyone was smiling. I was there. People hitchhiked in and brought their babies.

But what of the sock? The sock is a long term project. I began it last summer in New Jersey. It languished in my knitting bag, ignored for more interesting and complicated works. Technically, it's a Harry Potter sock. The yarn is German, Harry Potter branded. So JK Rowling is making money off my knitting. The sock got shoved in my bag in the post game euphoria, and it stayed there for a while. It came with me to the Saints Parade. I stood on Canal street with eight hundred thousand other people and saw Sean Payton fist pump the Vince Lombardi trophy. And the sock was there with me.

So now it's a Saints sock.

Chicken and Dumplings!

Last night, I made chicken and dumplings, and my housemates love it. I'm pretty pleased. Seriously, they say it was everything they had hoped for. I adapted this recipe from Cooking Light. I had to change some of the ingredients and improvise as I went. The following is my version.


Chicken and Dumplings

Serves 6

Soup Ingredients:
2 tsp olive oil
2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 1/2 cups sliced carrots
1 1/2 cups sliced celery
1 cup diced onion
2 garlic cloves
1 Quart Chicken Stock (our was homemade, I'm guessing a quart? Might have been more. It doesn't really matter)
1 tbs ground sage
1 tsp dill
1 Tbs basil
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup water

Dumpling Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbs chopped fresh or 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
2 tbs baking powder
pinch of salt
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
1 large egg

Directions:

Heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the chicken and cook until brown on all sides. Remove the chicken from the pot (it's a good idea to drain off some of the fat at this point), and then add the carrots, celery, onion, and garlic. Cook for 5 minutes, or until vegetables are fragrant. Add in the stock, scrapping the bottom of the pan to get all the cooked and delicious bits. Add in the salt and the herbs, then lower the heat and simmer the soup.

At this point, you should make the dumplings. Measure out the flour into a bowl, then add in the rosemary, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the butter using a pastry blender. Stir in the buttermilk and egg. You should have something that looks like a wet, shaggy biscuit dough.

Back to the soup! So take the 1/4 flour and mix it with water. Stir the resulting grayish goo (it's not the most appetizing thing in the world) into the soup. Bring the heat back to medium and let it simmer for 5 minutes or so. It should thicken a bit. Now, the fun part. Reduce the heat to medium low, and scoop the dumpling dough into the soup, a tablespoon at a time. Mine were bigger because I'm lazy. Cover the pot, and simmer for 10 minutes.

Ladle into bowls and eat. Then make your roommates clean the kitchen.

This makes me happy.

70 Million by Hold Your Horses ! from L'Ogre on Vimeo.

A few of my art history friends have posted this on Facebook, and it's great. If I teach the intro course again, this will definitely be the extra credit.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Truffles

I am in love with these. Actually, lust might be more accurate. They were born out of neccessity. A few days before Mardi Gras, my roommate came home from her job at the coffee shop carrying a 5 pound box of graham cracker crumbs.* The girl hates to waste food. She might be allergic to it. It's been hanging around the house ever since. I made a chocolate pie with a graham cracker crust, but still, the graham cracker crumbs endure.

And here we are, post Lombardi Gras, and still, the crumbs. Clearly, the answer is truffles. I adapted the recipe from here. I had to make some changes to make use of what we had in the house. It would be a good idea to temper the chocolate, otherwise it melts in your hand. But I'm lazy. So I didn't.

Peanut Butter Truffles

Ingredients:
3/4 cup peanut butter
2 tbs butter
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
3/4 cup powdered sugar
12 oz bag chocolate chips
1 tbs butter

Directions:

Stir together the graham cracker crumbs and the sugar. Heat the peanut butter in the microwave and pour into the sugar mix. Melt the butter and pour that in too. Stir till it's all mixed. It'll look like a thick, crumbly paste.

Melt the chocolate chips and the butter in a double boiler. Take chunks of the peanut butter and squeeze it into balls. The original recipe says you should get 36. I think that's silly, I only got 12. Dunk the balls in the chocolate, then set them on wax paper. Stick the whole shebang in the fridge and let it set.

Then you should eat them. Just try not to eat all of them in one sitting. I dare you!


*It's not that strange, a few days later she biked home carrying three king cakes while wearing sunglasses given to her by a motorcycle Elvis, singing Pink Floyd.

The Beginning

Hello! I finally caved and got a blog. I'm about 2 years late to this party, but I feel like it'll be ok. Having a blog means that you think people care about what you have to say. Assuming you have anything to say, and frankly, I never felt like my thoughts were interesting enough to share. But here's the thing: I read other people's blogs everyday. And they're fascinating!

So here's my blog's manifesto, if you will: I intend to post, on a regular basis, photos and stories about the stuff that I make. And I make a fair amount of it. I'll be covering my cooking and baking (with recipes!), my knitting, my sewing, and any other crafty thing that wanders through my life. So let's get started...

This year for Christmas, my boyfriend got me a sewing machine. A Janome TB 12 for those of you who care. I learned to sew on a machine years ago, in 7th grade. We all took whatever the PC version of home ec is called, and our class project was to sew a bag. But not just any bag mind you, a cat-shaped bag. That's right. Cat shaped. It was orange. My mom still has it in a closet somewhere. And that was the end of my sewing adventure.

Until I got the Threadbanger. Learning to sew a straight seam was a challenge. Actually, it still is, but I digress. I hemmed curtains, made ugly pillows out of fat quarters, and generally played around. The apron pictured above is my first finished item. At least, it's the first item I'm not ashamed to show people. The pattern is Kwik Sew 3547, view C. The rick rack defeated me. That stuff is evil. Despite all of that, I like it. It defeats the orange cat shaped bag. I shall continue to sew!