Made it to the End of the Year!!!

Happy New Year to all!!

This has been a fantastic year overall, but not without ups and downs of course. I started this project a year ago as a challenge to myself, to see if I had it in me to carry it through the entire year. Admittedly, I didn't blog everyday and I really did try to make something, or make progress on something, every day. For the handful of days that I was too tired or too busy dealing with other things that life threw my way, I tried to make up for it. In the end, each day is accounted for and on 95% of the days, I both made something and blogged about it, so I consider that a pretty good success rate :)

I will likely go back through the blog and take account of the different things - so far most are food, knitting, sailing, or event related - just because I'm curious of the final tally. I've also decided to keep blogging in 2015, though not likely every day. 2014 was a great year and I'm really looking forward to what 2015 will bring :) xx

Lamb Roast

So I didn't actually make any of this, Simon's mum did. We were invited to dinner at his parents and they thought it would be nice to treat me to a proper English roast. Clockwise from the top: mashed potatoes, English peas, roast lamb with mint sauce, Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, roast carrots, all smothered in a beautiful brown gravy. I'd never had Yorkshire pudding (which is kind of like a doughy puff pastry) or mint sauce. The whole meal was truly phenomenal and cheers to Simon's mum for preparing it :)

Brownstone

My internet connectivity has been sparse in England, we've been on the move constantly since I arrived, and I haven't had the chance to upload the final three posts of the year. Here they are now :)

On our way to a little B&B outside of London, in a town called Marlow, I had the opportunity to work a little more on the sleeve of Brownstone. I brought 4 balls of yarn with me, and I've barely even touched this one, but that's ok, as I see the other three as somewhat of a safety blanket (it's always better to carry more yarn than needed).

Made a Phone Call

Ok, not really, but I love the classic English red telephone booth :)

Made it to England

Woo hoo!!

Brownstone

I'm on my way to England for the remainder of the holidays :) I started Brooklyn Tweed's Brownstone on the early part of my flight and I'm pretty excited to be knitting another sweater again, too :)

Christmas Pheasant

Christmas Day dinner always varies in our house. Some years we go all out, other years we keep it pretty simple. This was one of the simple years. We roasted a pheasant (apparently you shouldn't cook the bird whole - the leg and breast meat require very different cooking times, not unlike turkey) and then just ate Wigilia leftovers.

Wigilia

This is our traditional Polish Christmas Eve dinner. We have barszcz czerwony with uszka (beet soup with mushroom-filled "ears" or mini pierogi), fish (traditionally carp, but we eat sea bass - delicious), boiled potatoes, and two types of sauerkraut - kapusta z grzybami i kapusta z grochem - one with mushrooms and the other with peas. In previous years we've used canned peas; this year we tried frozen and the dish came out much better. We finish dinner by sharing oplatki, or wafers. Finally, a cheesecake rounds out dinner, but we usually wait until after we open presents to eat that - we're too full otherwise!

Boyfriend Hat

So this wasn't for my boyfriend, rather for my dad for Christmas. I knit 8.5 inches before I started the decreases, I think I could've gone 9, but in the end it turned out ok. He is happy, so that's all that matters :)

Bacon Jam

I haven't been posting all week as I've been finishing Christmas gifts and I didn't want to ruin any surprises. Then I pretty much took a break from everything over Christmas itself, but today I'm back on the horse :)

I found this recipe for Bacon Jam and wanted to try it. And let me tell you, this stuff is pretty phenomenal (I mean, I guess it is bacon). It's fairly quick to make and it's so good that I anticipate it'll be gone soon, so I know I'll be making this again soon.

Garter Ear Flap Hat

This is the wee little adorable hat from the Purl Bee. This was such an easy knit, fun and came out absolutely perfectly :)

Boyfriend Hat

I won't say whether or not this is for my boyfriend, but I will say that I'm totally in love with the  pattern from Purl Bee. It's pretty straightforward and a good knit to have around while a million other things are going on.

I adjusted the pattern for worsted weight (Cascade 220) on 3.75mm needles. I got a gauge of 6.5sts/inch so I cast on 120. So far the fabric is thick and heavy - exactly what I want for a winter hat.

Peppermint Chip Brownies

I stumbled across this recipe about a week ago and immediately wanted to try it. I ran around to 5 different stores in an attempt to get the Andes Peppermint Crunch, to no avail. I subbed Hershey's Peppermint Kisses in the ganache; I also bought mini candy canes which I crushed with a meat tenderizer for the topping. Overall, this definitely satisfies on a number of levels and I know I'll be making it again :)

Dancing Bear

It should be pretty obvious by now that I spend most of my free time either knitting, cooking, or sailing. Occasionally, I like to branch out into a different craft. I've dabbled in paper craft before, never to a large extent, but I'm always intrigued by what can be created with such a seemingly simple medium.

This time, my blog surfing took me to paper cutting. I found the dancing bear and was immediately enamored. As a designer, I'm pretty comfortable with xacto knives, so I thought I might try it out. I used card stock because I wanted mine to be red as well, but I think that the card stock is actually too thick and inside corners are hard to get perfectly sharp. In any case, I think this still turned out pretty well and it was a pretty fun project, too. It was a nice break from the knitting.

Balls of Yarn

After Christmas is over, I'm starting a new project.. a sweater. The last sweater I knit was Boxy and that feels like ages ago. So I'm pretty excited to take on another big project :)

However, a big part of the knitting process is the prep. I've been fussing over the pattern for a couple months now; I want to make sure this one comes out just right. I need 11 hanks of yarn for this sweater (I bought 12 just in case. I've played the I'm-out-of-yarn-with-half-a-sleeve-left-to-go game before. It's not fun.)

In my sickly haze, just about the only thing I could cognitively process was winding yarn. But at least it's done now and I'll be able to start it soon, maybe even on Christmas Day..

Lemon Tea Concoctions

So the lack of recent posting is due to the black plague flu that's been going around. I left work before lunch on Tuesday and then didn't leave the house again until Friday evening. And that was to check the mail. Ok, and to run a couple errands. I needed to rejoin the living.

I drank quite a bit of tea concoctions over the past few days, steeping herbs and spices in an effort to alleviate the symptoms. Finally, after 4 days, I feel better.

Gather Ear Flap Hat

This is the second-to-last knitted item that has to get made before Christmas. Fortunately, this little hat is sized for a baby, so I should have it done by tomorrow :)

Mince Pies

Third time's still not a charm. I made these in preparation for our holiday pig-out at work and I learned that mince pies need to release steam as they bake, or else the mince kinda escapes everywhere. On another note, I think that I've finally got the size right!

Tortilla Soup

There aren't many days left in the year, and I'm ready for the blogging to ease up in the new year. I've decided I'll still keep the blog, but I likely won't be posting on a daily basis. You can tell I'm tired; I'm still making things but today is a 4-post kinda day. The holidays brings out the madness in all of us.

Anyway, dinner on Sunday was tortilla soup, from this recipe, and man was this good! In addition to dinner, I'm pretty excited I'll be eating this for lunch over the next couple of day too :)

Placki

Or potato pancakes, based off this recipe. I never remembered beating an egg into the shredded potato mix before. Mom? How do you typically make them?

Gift Tags

I made gift tags last night. This helped me accomplish two things: 1- I used up a bit of scrap paper leftover from another paper project I'm working on, and 2- this totally makes me feel like I'm ahead of Christmas. (Athough I should probably knock on wood for saying that, because if I'm not careful, it'll get away from me quickly enough.)

Stitch Block Cowl

Stitch block is finished!! I love the way this turned out :) This was a really fun and easy knit. Each section is knit for 20 inches, so it changed just frequently enough to keep me interested. Pattern is from the Purl Bee.

Snow Angel

It's been a really long while since I posted anything about snow angel, but she is finished!! And so incredibly crazy beautiful that I almost want to keep her for myself. I may have to knit another :)

Christmas Tree

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas.. 

Stuffed Zucchini

I should've blogged yesterday, but I got home late and needed to get to bed in a hurry. I should've also started knitting something today, but I got sucked into the Internet instead. So I'm one post behind.

In any case, this is a great little recipe for leftovers. We (still) have too much stuffing, but roasting it in a zucchini (or eggplant or green pepper) makes a great second round meal. I tried both tomato sauce and sage-garlic-butter sauce; the sage worked a little bit better with this particular stuffing. Dad also made tomato risotto, and that worked really well in the zucchini too :)

Salmon + Spaghetti Squash

The salmon was done in my favorite soy-poach and the spaghetti squash was seasoned then roasted for 45 minutes. The sauce is something mom gave me; it was the perfect compliment to this dish :)

Apple Crisp

I'm not sure why I was suddenly craving this today.. Fortunately I had all the ingredients on hand and just threw it together quickly...and ate the entire thing in one sitting :)

Stitch Block

Knit a couple rows of this between classes. And it's the last day of class!! In any case, I'm ready for this to be done..

Rapid Prototyping Art

We use a number of rapid prototyping tools at work. We had a bunch of spare parts and decided to engage in a creative exercise and make a handful of art pieces from them. This one is mine :)

Stitch Block

Ok, I'm just about to the point where I've had enough of this cowl. This needs to get finished and I need to move onto other projects. Christmas is in 22 days and that knitterly clock, the voice inside my head that just invented two brand new projects in the past two days (you can do it! is what she says) despite Christmas being 22 days away, is starting to get louder. The pressure is almost-but-not-quite-yet in crazy mode.

Stitch Block Cowl

Happy December! Now this blog project is really in the home stretch.. I can't really believe how quickly the year has gone by!

The other thing that's going by quickly is this cowl. With about a third of the third pattern knit up, it's really coming together. I'm pretty excited about it actually and kind of want to make a couple more :) We'll see...

Stitch Block

Ripped out and started the third pattern over today, with different yarn as well as one needle size down. So far, I'm much happier with the way this is turning out :)

Pizza

Homemade pizza for dinner tonight. This isn't a fast dinner (you have to wait for the dough to rise all day) but it sure is worth it! :)

Stitch Block Cowl

Thanksgiving is over and there is no cooking today! Naturally, that leaves plenty of time for watching movies and knitting. I put in a little bit of time into the cowl, starting the third section. However, I'm not too happy with it. I think that the guage is too loose (you can see the fabric pucker on the needle) and I'm not too thrilled with the yarn I'm using either. I've stopped here for now and I think I'll head over to the yarn shop in the morning to figure something else out.

Thanksgiving

I am thankful this year that my family is together and that we can share a meal together. This year was one of the most relaxed thanksgiving preparations I can remember for the past 10 years. With the cranberries, stuffing, apple sauce, and pie already finished, there wasn't too much left to do - just the turkey, green beans, corn, brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes, gravy, and whipped cream. We also bought a can of cranberry jelly, as well as the corn bread. Recipes below.

Turkey
Not unlike the stuffing, Mom and I also try out a different technique with the turkey every year. We start 2 days in advance by brining the turkey in a solution of 1 gallon water, 1 cup salt, and 1 cup sugar for about 6 hours. We dry the turkey and leave it in the fridge for a day to dry the skin out. This is supposed to help crisp the skin while cooking. This year, we decided to butterfly the turkey and cook the legs and breasts in separate pans in order to get the cooking temperatures just right: 160 for breast (light) meat, 175 for leg (dark) meat. We do this because, through trial and error, we've discovered that you just can't get a whole turkey cooked perfectly, ever. And who cares, really? Once it's on the plate, it's all the same. We line the pan with chopped onions, carrots, celery, mushrooms, sage, parsley, thyme, cinnamon stick, and lemon zest (peeled whole, not grated). The cavities are filled with stuffing, the skin is covered in butter and pepper, and the turkey is placed on top of the vegetables and placed in a 500 degree oven for 20 minutes to crisp the skin. The pans are pulled out and filled to 3/4 full with chicken broth and white wine. We then cover the turkey with parchment paper and then cover the whole thing with foil, and turn down the temp to 350 for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, we start checking the internal temperature of the meat with a thermometer, adjusting cooking times as necessary. This year, the legs were pulled after an hour total, and the breast required 1 hour 25 minutes total.

Green Beans
I'm not sure where my mom found this recipe, or when, but I'm going to assume circa 1996 based on an advertisement for Johnathan Taylor Thomas' Pinocchio on the back. Ohh, JTT.. :) Ok, recipe, right.

2 bags frozen green beans
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 c milk
1 t soy sauce
dash pepper

Mix all ingredients in a casserole dish and bake at 350 F for 25 minutes. Boom. Done.

Corn
Corn for thanksgiving is also pretty easy: 2 bags of frozen corn heated in the microwave for 5-10 minutes, then stirred with butter and salt.

Brussels Sprouts
This was a last minute addition to the table. Every year, we try to add one "variable" dish. This year it's this one. Mom and Dad made this over the summer with fresh figs (when they were in season) and it came out so well, we decided to make it again, but with dried black figs instead. It ended up rounding out the table perfectly :)

Mashed Potatoes
Mom is in charge of this one, since I can't make a potato to save my life. Basically, peel and boil potatoes, strain and mash. Add butter, milk, sour cream, and salt to taste. As a variety, my parents had made jalapeno juice and frozen it a few weeks ago; we added a small cube to half the potatoes for a kick.

Gravy
Gravy is a traditional pan gravy. After the turkey comes out, the vegetables and herbs are strained to leave stock, which is put over medium heat in a separate pot. Butter and teaspoon of potato starch (diluted in cold water and tempered) are then added to thicken the gravy.

Whipped Cream
Finally, to close out the night, we also make our own whipped cream. It's pretty simple: take a cup of heavy whipping cream, pour in a shot of bourbon and a half teaspoon of brown sugar, and beat until you get stiff peaks. Be careful not to overbeat the cream; I did this one year.. the cream started to separate into a solid and liquid and I kept beating, thinking that it would come back together. It did not. What I actually had made was butter, and the liquid was buttermilk. In any case, a touch of bourbon and sugar in the whipped cream rounds out the flavors of the pie quite nicely :)

And that's it! Thanksgiving 2014 has come to a close and everyone is passed out either on the couch or in front of the fire place :)

Thanksgiving Eve

It's been a busy Thanksgiving weekend here. Mom and I had a minimal amount of time to plan this year, which ended up being a bit fortuitous, as it forced us to make decisions on what was in and what was out. Additionally, we both made an effort to get a big chunk of the work done before Thanksgiving Day. Neither of us wanted to fall into our seats at dinner, absolutely exhausted from a day in the kitchen. So, on Thanksgiving Eve, we each tackled two dishes: she made apple sauce and cranberry sauce, and I made stuffing and pumpkin pie. It was a lot of futzing in the kitchen on the night before, but it really turned out to be worth the effort! Recipes and comments are below.

Pumpkin Pie
I've been making this pie recipe for several years now. I basically follow it to a T (except for the one year when I completely forgot to put in the pumpkin puree - whoops) but I make two small modifications: I will add a shot of rum or bourbon, whatever's on hand, and I will use orange zest instead of lemon zest. I find that the orange really deepens the flavor. I will also puree my own pumpkin from scratch. I've found that quartering the pumpkin and steaming for 30 minutes is the best and fastest method (versus roasting) to get the skin off the pumpkin. This year, I discovered this recipe for pie crust, when I was making mince pies for Simon. For pumpkin pie, I simply halve the crust recipe.

Cranberries
My friend Erica use to host Friendsgiving. I went for a few years - she would make a phenomenal turkey and an equally delicious cranberry side. I asked her for her recipe, adopted it, and it's been on our table ever since. Recipe is:

2 bags fresh cranberries
1 C sugar2 T cinnamon1 t nutmeg1 shot bourbon

Mix cranberries, sugar, and spices in a baking dish (I use a 9x13 cake pan but it doesn't make much difference). Bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes. You'll see the berries start to break up and ooze juices, which is exactly what you want. When the berries look soft and juicy, remove from oven. While hot pour bourbon over berries. Stir well and let cool. 

Stuffing
I have to admit, I love stuffing out of the box. However, ever since I've been cooking most of my food from scratch, I've wanted to make a homemade stuffing that was just as tasty as box stuffing (but without all the added salt and processed ingredients). This year I found a new stuffing recipe and it worked fairly well. The only hiccup was that I decided to incorporate some leftover apple pecan cake that I hadn't found terribly tasty. OMG. Big mistake. I thought that I didn't like the cake then; I threw in half my spice cabinet to try to overcome the cinnamon-y sweetness in the stuffing. (Note: chili powder, cumin, and balsamic vinegar all helped.) We also stuffed the turkey, and while it was roasting, the stuffing absorbed some of the broth, wine, vegetables, and herbs in the pan, which helped a ton, too. Next year, I will make the stuffing as it was written and then maybe I will have finally achieved my goal. This year, box stuffing still made it's way onto the table (but I'm not complaining).

Apple Sauce
Mom makes this every year, mostly from her own experience. The recipe, loosely, is:

3-4 lbs apples (granny smith and gala), peeled, cored, and cut into chunks
1 C sugar (more or less depending on sweet/tartness of the apples)
pinch of salt
2 t ground cinnamon or 2 sticks of cinnamon
1 T lemon zest
1/2 t ground cloves or 5-6 whole cloves

Mix all ingredients in a large pot over low heat. Stir continuously until apples are soft and have broken down into a sauce-like consistency, with some chunky pieces remaining. Adjust spices and seasoning as necessary.

Mistake Fixed

Of course with it I made another mistake, but you can't see it from the right side of the fabric, so I have decided to let this one go. Besides, nothing is perfect (even the Amish intentionally make a mistake in their exquisite quilts), so I'm ok with continuing on the cowl :)

Mistake

Whether or not you can see it (about an inch and a half in, 12 rows down from the top), it's the only thing I can see, but fixing it is going to require a bit more focus than I'm willing to give tonight.

Stitch Block Cowl

Due to weather (rain ALL day), we did not sail. Instead, we hung out at the cottage, drinking tea and watching movies. I also pulled out the knitting for a while. It was a perfectly relaxing rainy day and it seemed like everyone needed the break. All in all, it was a great weekend :)

Pancakes

Overall the sailing weekend in Georgia was a success. We raced 6 races on Saturday (and won all 6). We stayed in a cottage by the lake, so we could make breakfast before we went out on the water. I offered to make pancakes - yum! :)

Stitch Block Cowl

Knitting on a plane! We're racing the boat in Atlanta this weekend; it should be a fun weekend, as our first adventure was that we blew a flat tire on the way to the cabin on our way from the airport. Hopefully that's our only notable adventure for the weekend :)

Made it to IPRO Day!

Fall IPRO Day was today; I am so proud of one of my student teams, they built a working stove over the course of the semester!

Cuppa Tea

Another late night working this week. I made a cup of tea after I got home to get me through the remainder of the evening.

Made the Deadline

I have a major deadline for work tomorrow, and my team has been working really hard to meet it and make it work. As such, it's left me too exhausted to do much more than flop into my (hotel) bed. Goodnight!

Stitch Block Cowl

Progress continues on this one. I'm a little less than halfway through the second stitch pattern, which also means that I'm about halfway done with the cowl itself :)

Caramel Glaze

So it looks like chocolate, but is actually caramel. Why? Because in my uncaffeinated state this morning, I burned the caramel and poured it over the cake anyway. I thought that it would still turn out gooey, but no. It is rock hard. It actually reminded me of peanut brittle, but without the peanuts. I can't cut through this with a butter knife; I have to use a chefs knife. 

So.. there you have it. I would not say that I hit a home run with this one.

Apple Pecan Cake

Everyone once in a while, things are going well for me, and I feel quite clever. It's usually following these moments that I end up eating a big slice of humble pie. Or in this case, apple pecan cake.

I loosely followed this recipe. Very loosely. Ok, basically the only thing that recipe and my recipe had in common was the ingredients list. Because I had been feeling clever, I thought that I could change (fine, halve) the quantities of sugar, apples, and pecans and have the end result be exactly the same as if I had used full portions. I also used a bit of buckwheat flour instead of white flour, thinking that the two are interchangeable. (Turns out they're not.) Now I understand that this makes no logical sense at all, but it made sense to me at the time of baking.

So now I have a full cake that can best be described as "meh." It tastes…healthy. And while I'm a big proponent of eating a well balanced diet, some desserts shouldn't taste healthy. They should taste like dessert.

Fortunately, there's also a recipe for a caramel glaze included. I think I'll glaze the cake in the morning to see if that will help save it.

Salsa

I'm pulling double duty today. First up is a quick salsa. I didn't really follow a recipe; I just chopped up 2 tomatoes, 1/2 onion, 1 jalepeno, 4 garlic cloves, and a small handful of cilantro, seasoned it all with salt and pepper and voila!

Stitch Block Cowl

Progress on this is moving along quite nicely and I really love how the two patterns juxtapose against each other :)

Stitch Block Cowl

I've started the next stitch pattern on this cowl, finally. What I really like about this pattern so far is that each stitch pattern only gets knit for 20 inches. It's exactly long enough to hold my interest while providing just enough monotony (read: I don't have to devote all my attention to just the knitting) before moving onto the next pattern. Plus, this blue yarn came out of the stash, so that's always something to feel good about :)