Category: cooking

  • Crafting Galore

    My crafting mojo is really strong right now! Maybe it’s because it’s been so hot out, I’ve been staying home surrounded by all my delicious crafty supplies. I finished knitting a deadline sweater (still needs ends, blocking and oh yeah, the pattern) and was immediately gripped with the urge to start something new, despite all the other stuff I have going.

    I pulled out a bunch of yarn and found my sock yarn scrap stash – there’s a lot of it! I just wanted to make something easy, quick, and scrappy, so I ended up starting a half granny square triangle shawl.

    half granny square shawl

    half granny squares

    It’s so fun! I want to make all my sock yarn scraps into shawls! Grey is Anzula Squishy, pink is madelinetosh pashmina and multi is Indigodragonfly MCN Sock.

    I’ve been cooking up a storm, too. This week: homemade bagels (from this recipe, with brown sugar instead of white and no malt powder) and blueberry pie (with cornstarch instead of flour for thickening). YUM on both counts, and I should probably work out or something.

    Bagels!

    blueberry birthday pie

    And I picked the first tomatoes of the year! They’re so cute.

    First tomato harvest of the year!

  • a gloomy monday

    Looks like my almost non-stop vacation knitting ended up throwing off my game – my elbows are sore. I know enough to stop when my body gives me that hint, though I really really want to be knitting right now! Still, it’s best not to push too hard, since I don’t have any hard deadlines at the moment. Maybe a few days of spinning instead would be a good break, just to change things up a bit.

    I ended up ripping out the body of Sheepcote that I’d started last week, but I’m back on track now and finished one sleeve.

    march 10: one sleeve down

    I recently got a new, huge and awesome counter for my kitchen from Ikea, so here’s a recipe I made over the weekend for a get-together. They went over great!

    March 3

    Jam Bars – based on these from Loveless Cafe.
    Makes one 9×9″ pan (scaled from original – no nuts, more jam)

    2/3 cup rolled oats
    1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
    2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
    1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
    1/3 teaspoon baking soda
    2/3 cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into cubes
    1 cup jam or preserves (I used homemade strawberry freezer jam, partially pureed.)

    Preheat oven to 375F. Line a 9×9″ pan with parchment paper.
    Combine oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and baking soda with a spoon or mixer.
    Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
    Press half the crumb mixture into a pan and bake until golden and set, about 20 minutes.
    Pour jam over crust and top with remaining crumble mixture.
    Bake another 20 minutes or until golden and set on top, and jam is bubbly.
    Let cool completely before lifting out and cutting into bars. Yum!

  • unhealthy muffins

    20/365 - banana oat muffins

    I made a batch of these over the weekend and they were so good I wanted to share the recipe with you. I’m not going to pretend these are good for you, but everyone needs a treat!

    Banana Oat Chocolate Chip Muffins

    Ingredients
    1.5 cups flour (I used unbleached all-purpose)
    1 cup rolled oats
    2 teaspoons baking powder
    1 teaspoon baking soda
    1/2 teaspoon salt
    1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
    2 eggs
    1/2 cup white sugar
    1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
    1/4 cup buttermilk (I love buttermilk, but regular milk would be fine as well)
    1/2 cup butter, melted
    1 teaspoon vanilla
    2 large ripened bananas, mashed
    1 cup chocolate chips

    Directions:
    1. Preheat oven to 375 F and line muffin tins.

    2. Combine flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl until well mixed.

    3. In a large bowl, mix the eggs and both sugars together until just combined. Add the buttermilk, butter, vanilla and the mashed banana and stir to mix.

    4. Add dry ingredients all at once and stir together until almost combined. Add chocolate chips and stir just until everything is moistened, but don’t over mix.

    5. Spoon into prepared muffin cups and bake at 375F, about 25 minutes for regular sized muffins or 18-20 minute for minis. Tops should be risen and golden, and a toothpick inserted into the muffin should come out clean (except for melted chocolate!).

    This ended up making a dozen regular-sized muffins and plus about 15 minis.

    Enjoy!