Projects Projects Projects!!! Part I

So after a brief (month-long) hiatus I am back! With lots and lots of things to share!!

Since the last time I've posted I have successfully completed:

1. A delicious experimental pie (for which I finally have the pictures)
2. A cuddly bear
3. My February Beret
4. Birthday wonderfuls

And am working on a pair of hand warmers to match my beret that will be done soon. Exciting, huh? And now you all know that even though I may not be writing I am certainly keeping busy.


First, the pie.

I found a spectacularly delicious-looking plum pie recipe over at Savour Fare quite a long time ago but I was afraid to start it because I'd never made a pie crust before, and all I've ever heard about them is that they're more finnicky than delicate machinery. The boyfriend, who is apparently the king of pie crusts, talks all the time about how he'll sit there and cut the butter into perfectly-shaped squares so it'll melt perfectly because otherwise the dough will be lumpy and your pie will be ruined oh noooooooo!!!!

But really, this recipe was super easy. Basically you just throw some ingredients in a mixer, whip it up, and chill it overnight. Then tada! After a bit of shaping you've got yourself a pie crust! A beautiful, tasty, and deliciously flaky pie crust.

I'm glad I finally worked up the courage to tackle this. I visited the boyfriend and a bunch of other friends at school a few weeks ago and finally had the guinea pigs necessary to try something new, so I figured, why not? Thanks to all my guinea pigs... and look how wonderfully it turned out!

Okay, so... secretly the only picture I have of the pie is the one above. I was rushing out the door and didn't snap pictures when it got out of the oven. D'oh. Instead I will give you a picture of the hardest part of the whole pie: the plums.

You know how with pitted fruit it's generally pretty easy to cut it in half and remove the pit? Well, yeah. I was working with mutant plums.

See how those pits are only sort of existent??? It added so much time to the cutting process!! There wasn't a full pit to pull out, and I was stuck with all this nasty hard stuff that I had to cut out with my paring knife. Gross.

All in all, though, this was a wonderful experience. The crust is like the crostata (tart) dough in that if it's out of the fridge or too long the butter in it will start to melt, so I'd recommend keeping the lattice dough in the fridge while shaping the base. It's also missing sugar (and we definitely noticed its absence), so I'd add some next time. It's a super versatile recipe, though-- I also made a scrumptious blueberry pie that I kind of made up the recipe to but that I didn't take any pictures of (shame)-- and is something I would love love love to do again!


Next time: Part 2, and maybe parts 3 and 4, depending on how loquacious I'm feeling. Stay tuned!

Many Things, or Cranberry Madness

Okay, first of all I'd like to thank everyone who voted on my Threadless design! It finished scoring early early this morning and came out with a final score of 2.46 out of 5 total. I hope that's good enough to be printed, and I'll definitely keep you all posted as to what the next stage is!

Also, BLAAARRGGHALISJFLUGAOISHDHGA;LJSJROAIUHGD I LEFT MY CAMERA AT MY BOYFRIEND'S WHEN I WENT TO VISIT THIS PAST WEEKEND!!!!! And he's not coming to visit me until August 3 and there's NO way I'm having him put a Nikon DSLR in the mail, so until he comes to see me I'm camera-less. Meaning I am nice-camera-less and will, for the time being, be using my dad's little Canon point-and-shoot. I have some pictures of a new yarn I bought that I have to download, but not having my camera means that the few pictures I got to shoot of my pies (which were pretty delicious, by the way) won't be up until early August. Which sucks.

And now, to come to the second part of this entry's title. Yes, Cranberry Madness. The lovely yarn that I just bought, mentioned in the paragraph above, is actually really nice. It's Green Mountain Spinnery mohair yarn died in this wonderful deep red color, and the more I work with it the softer it gets. The problem is that the combination of it and the pattern for which I'm using it is driving me absolutely nutso.

I can guess what some of you are thinking. You're not even done with your beret yet; what are you doing taking on other projects??

Well, for your information, I'm done with three point five inches of the lacework on my beret, and I think that it's good to take a bit of a break every once in a while. Don't you? I expect this side project to be a quick knit, and then I can go back to my beret all contented-like.

Well, I expected it to be quick. Since I first cast on yesterday afternoon I have restarted this beast at least fifteen times. Either the stitches are too loose, or the spaces in between them are horridly uneven, or it's just a disgusting excuse for a first row and it's easier to sack it than try to fix it. Uurgh. As a result, I have huge cramps in my left pinky and I'm going a bit cross-eyed. I will complete this project, though. Just you wait and see.

VOTE VOTE VOTE!!!

Hey everyone, my design is up for a vote on Threadless! Which means YOU SHOULD ALL GO VOTE FOR IT!!!

You can find it, vote for it, and see a bigger image here: http://www.threadless.com/submission/284069/Self_Expression

Threadless is an online store for shirts and hoodies that has a really extensive, involved community. They hold an ongoing contest to find new t-shirt designs to print, and each design is up for only 7 days. The designs with the most votes and positive comments can then be selected to print!

Please, please go vote for my design. It's up until July 15 and I need all the help I can get! It takes five seconds to make an account if you haven't already, and then you're home free! (plus, Threadless is an awesome community to be a part of anyway-- just wait until they have another $10 sale and then you'll thank me!)  :)

Thanks to everyone who has already voted and those who will vote before next Thursday. I love you all!




(Up next-- plum and blueberry pies. Stay tuned!)

Barbecue Sauce

Cooking in my family is sometimes hard. My dad abhors tamarind, while my mom likes almost nothing containing coriander or molasses. Any recipe I come across is instantly doctored to suit my family's tastes. And in this case, it worked out for the better-- I made this barbecue sauce recipe that I found on Annie's Eats (she does have wonderful recipes), and the only thing I can say is mmmmm!

Let me back track a bit, and start by saying that my family only eats homemade barbecue sauce. Seriously. The homemade stuff packs a spice-filled tang with which the sickly sweet store-bought stuff can't compete. The only problem is that we cheat a little, as I think do most people whose bbq sauce is "homemade"-- my mom usually uses a ketchup base. So when I found this recipe that makes the sauce from scratch, I pounced.

That being said, I've changed the recipe a bit, and have ended up with a much different result that Annie's. We both halved the recipe, but while she ended up with 2.5 Mason jars of it, I ended up with a little less than 3 cups, or enough to fill a Mason jar, coat 3 racks of ribs, and have a little bit extra. 

I still think it's missing a bit of something-- next time I would add cayenne pepper as well as more cumin, chili powder, and a bit more molasses. Rather than using store-bought chili powder which packs a lot of extra salt, we make our own. If you're interested, its recipe is below. Annie has the bbq sauce recipe she used posted at her website (the link is above), but because I've doctored it, here is my changed recipe* as well!

*you should all note that because I've doctored the halved recipe, that's the one I'll be posting. "Scant" means "not quite," and for the spice measurements feel free to add a bit more than what's called for.

Chili Powder

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon oregano

2 teaspoons garlic powder

Combine ingredients thoroughly and store in an airtight container. 

Barbecue Sauce

Scant 1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil

1 large onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic

1 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp ground cumin

2 tbsp unsulfured molasses

Scant 1/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1 can crushed tomatoes

3/8 cup cider vinegar (or halfway between 1/4 and 1/2 cup)

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Black pepper to taste

In a large pot, heat the oil over medium-low heat with the onions and garlic. Sauté until the onions are translucent and tender. Mix in kosher salt, chili powder, and cumin, then add the dark brown sugar and molasses. Mix well and boil for about a minute and a half, then stir in the tomatoes and cider vinegar. 

Bring the mixture to a boil and then simmer for about an hour and a half, or until the sauce becomes thick and has darkened.

Above, the sauce before thickening. Below, after simmering for 1.5 hours.

Stir in the Worcestershire sauce and ground black pepper. Add the mixture to a blender or food processor and blend until smooth (here, Annie adds water to ease the blending process and achieve a less viscous consistency, but I liked the consistency of the sauce without the extra water and had no trouble blending it. Feel free to add water, 1/4 cup at a time, if you are having trouble blending or if the sauce is too thick for your  tastes). 

Happy barbecuing, everyone!

BOOM CRACKLE FIZZZZZZ

Happy 4th, everybody! I hope you're all having a wonderful day outside with your friends and families and lighting crazy things on fire.

In honor of Independence Day I'm trying the barbecue sauce recipe I found on Annie's Eats, though not actually today because my aunt and uncle are coming over with their munchkins, and I don't want to serve anything when we don't know what it tastes like. We do have a rack of ribs in the fridge, though, that has this barbecue sauce's name on it, so I'll keep you all posted as to how it turns out!

In other news, I've restarted my beret again. Third time's the charm, eh?

..Also, a New Look!

Yeah, that's right. The blog has a new look in honor of summer! Enjoy, dear readers.  :)

A New Love

Yeah, that's right. I've found a new love. Not that the boyfriend wasn't enough, but this is the kind of love that comes in robin's-egg-blue bags and keeps you happy for hours and days and months and years.

No, it's not Tiffany's, silly! It's Pins and Needles, my new favorite store (that I happened to just wander into for the first time this afternoon)!

Long story short, I have wanted to knit SockPixie's February beret (which can be found here) for a looong but didn't have the time during the school year to pore over the pattern, and didn't own the correct size needles OR have the necessary yarn lying around. So after realizing that I've been home for 6 weeks already and have accomplished absolutely NOTHING, I've decided to knit it, whee!

Of course, there was still the problem of not having any of the necessary supplies. I was about to order some good-looking stuff online when my mom reminded me of this cute little shop in town that specializes in knitting and needlepoint supplies, so I dropped in this afternoon. It was such a pleasant experience! The woman in the shop was incredibly helpful, especially for a baby knitter like me, and helped me pick the right yarn for the gauge called for in the pattern.

Isn't it delicious? 

I settled on a Dream in Color yarn in a turquoise-ish color called Superwash. It's hand painted so it has this nice, subtle shading to it, and it's super soft!

The woman in the store then taught me how to wind the yarn into its own little self-contained spool, and even let me open a pack of needles to test my gauge! It was actually awesome she did that because I needed to go a needle size down from the one called for in the pattern. AND she said they are always available to help if I get stuck, which will definitely come in handy as I am tackling an I Cord and grafting live stitches (eek!) for the first time. Needless (needles?) to say, I am very happy with this new find.

Look! My own tamed yarn-ball!

Also I lied a bit, I guess. My friend has lent me three seasons of 30Rock, and after a brief watching hiatus I am back at it in full force. In the past two days I've watched two-thirds of the third season and finished a scarf I've been working on. Now, I know what you might be thinking. Berets? Scarves? Aren't these winter clothing items?

Well actually yeah, I guess they are, technically. But to be fair the scarf is lace, so it would be perfect for cooler days like today! Where it is only in the low 70s! I'm actually wearing a light scarf right now. Anyway, check it out:

The pattern is from knitzofrenic-- I found it and decided I had to knit it, even though I didn't have a recipient in mind, but after a couple of weeks of my mom walking past and cooing every time she sees it I am sure it will have a happy home while I'm at school.

This scarf is super easy to knit. Seriously. This was only my second lacework project but it's essentially four rows repeated over and over and was painless to memorize. I didn't look at the pattern past the first five or so minutes I started working on it-- it's that simple! There's no gauge either (because it's a scarf), so I was able to use some of the random yarn I have lying around the house/have inherited from my great-grandmother. The scarf is still super curly in the picture because I still have to block it, but it's going to turn out beautifully.