More Yeasty Goodness

I'm not sure what it is about yeast breads that's so appealing, but I think you may have noticed that I'm on a big bread/yeast kick. I don't know why. Maybe it's the smell that permeates the entire top floor of the apartment building; there's nothing like the smell of bread baking. Maybe it's the satisfaction of having hot, fresh, homemade bread that you know has no preservatives, nothing unnatural in it. Maybe my body's trying to tell me something with this craving for yeasty things.

Oh well! Whatever the reason, the main thing is that I find baking breads almost as satisfying as knitting, with a lot higher sense of instant gratification. Yesterday, I decided to try baking soft pretzels. I understand that on the east coast (Philadelphia, New York?), you can get these soft pretzels from street vendors. Not on this coast, at least not here in Kelowna.

I watched an episode of Good Eats on YouTube last week, the one about pretzels and decided that it looked easy enough, so I decided to give it a try.

They were a lot easier to make than I thought they would be. And, let me tell you, there is nothing like a warm, just out of the oven (well, they did need to cool down a little!) soft pretzel. I don't think I'd make these on a regular basis, but they were certainly nice for a treat. You can find Alton Brown's Soft Pretzel recipe here. I'll also link to it in the sidebar. You can find the You Tube link to the show (it's in two parts) in the sidebar, too.

Today, I'm planning on making a loaf of seed bread (sunflower and flax) and another focaccia bread. I'm really enjoying the focaccia as a lunch bread. It's a good thing John's working today!

It Ain't Pretty.... Yet!

We had planned on going to the new place today to do some painting and cleaning (teal blue walls in the living room do NOT go with our furniture!), but we're both tired and more than a little lazy. Besides, the Preakness is on this afternoon and John wants to watch it.

I'm okay with that. It gives me some knitting time. The Lilac Shawl (from Nancy Bush's Knitted Lace of Estonia) is really coming along. I know the pattern now and don't need the chart to work this center section.

The pattern calls for 14 repeats of the leaf section, but I think I'll do a few extra. I'm using smaller needles than the pattern calls for, making the entire shawl/scarf a little smaller. Right now, I'm up to 9 repeats completed.

I must say that this project is living up to it's purpose. It's meant to keep me from going crazy with the whole moving thing. It really is helping to keep my stress levels manageable. Now, though, it's Preakness time... back to knitting.

My Mother's Day Present to Me

Years ago, when our kids were small, we took them to Disneyland. It was there that we discovered Churros, a Mexican treat. There were churro vendors all over Disneyland and we were hard pressed to keep away from them. I think we all remember those churros fondly and have craved them ever since.

Yesterday, while doing some much needed grocery shopping, I picked up a magazine that was all Mexican recipes, including.... You guessed it.. Churros!

Today, being Mother's Day, I decided to spoil myself by making up a batch of these absolutely scrumptious treats. The dough is, basically, a choux pastry, the same kind of recipe as cream puff dough. They're crispy on the outside, soft and yummy on the inside. The recipe recommends a Mexican chocolate sauce for dipping, but I really don't think they need it. They're so good all on their own. Sheer decadence!

Start with 1 cup of water, 1/2 cup butter, 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Bring that to a boil and when the butter's melted, add one cup of flour, all at once.

Using a wooden spoon, stir it like crazy until it all comes together in a ball. Remove it from the heat. Let it cool for about 10 minutes.

Mix together 1 egg and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Pour the egg/vanilla mixture into the slightly cooled dough and stir it with your wooden spoon until it's all mixed in. The dough will be quite thick and will stay in a ball.

Put the dough into a piping bag fitted with a large star point.

Pipe the dough onto a parchment or wax paper-lined baking sheet into 4" strips.

Preheat the oven to 300F and heat the oil to 375F. When the oil is ready, fry the churros 4 or so at a time until they're golden brown, about 2 minutes.

Line another baking sheet with paper towels. Drain the churros on the paper towels and keep them in the oven until all the churros are done.

Once they're all fried, dredge them in 1/4 cup white sugar and 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon.

And then....... Indulge!!!

John had never had churros before. His comment? "You done good!"

The diet starts tomorrow.

PITA

And no, that's not Pain In The A$$.. it's pita bread and it turned out really well!

John has been in some pain today, and feeling a little under the weather, so instead of doing some of the things we'd planned, I had time to bake while he vegetated on the couch. I decided to make these pita breads after reading about them on a Ravelry thread. The recipe is very easy and it's fun to watch the breads puff up as they did.

If you'd like to try to make your own pita bread, the recipe follows:

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Pita Bread

Ingredients:

2 tsp. yeast

1/2 tsp. sugar

1/2 cup warm water

3 3/4 cup bread flour (or 3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp whole wheat and 2 3/4 cups bread flour)

1 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. olive oil

3/4 cup water

Pour the warm water into a small bowl and sprinkle in the sugar. Do not stir. Add the yeast to the warm water, making sure each granule is moistened. Allow to sit for about 15 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour and salt. Make a well in the center and pour in the yeast mixture, olive oil and up to 3/4 cup water, enough to make a firm, but soft dough. Turn the dough out onto the counter and knead until smooth, about 15 minutes.

Place the dough in an oiled bowl, turning to grease the top, cover and let rise in a warm spot until doubled in bulk.

Punch down and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Divide the dough into eight pieces, form into balls, then roll each piece into an oval, about 9" long and 1/4" thick.

Cover with a towel and allow to sit until slightly risen, about 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 425F; when oven is hot, preheat the baking pans for 5 minutes. Dust the pans with flour, then place the dough ovals on hot pans and bake for about 10 minutes, until puffy (don't let them crisp). Remove from the oven and wrap in a clean cloth to keep from drying out. Store in a plastic bag.

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Notes:

I still had some whole wheat bread flour in the pantry, so I made the whole wheat version. I don't normally have bread flour in the house; use whatever all purpose flour you have (I used unbleached white all purpose flour; it works just fine)

I had to use closer to 1 cup of water to get the dough to the right consistency and didn't have to knead as long as the recipe calls for. If you've baked bread before, you'll know when it's ready.

Instead of allowing the rolled out ovals to rise on the counter, I put them on parchment paper cut to the size of my baking sheets, making it easier to transfer them to the baking sheet; I put three to a sheet.

I would recommend baking them in the lower half of the oven. I tried baking two sheets at a time, but the pitas on the upper rack didn't rise as well as those on the lower rack.

A Quick Response to Shirley

Shirley asked if I've ever made a yellow mustard (like French's). She can't get it where she lives (Finland). In response, no, I haven't but I did find a recipe for yellow mustard here. It sounds like it's fairly simple to make, so I may have to try it next time we run low on it.

The recipe refers to something called Wondra flour; I'm not familiar with that, but with a little online research I found this:

"You cannot buy it in Canada....it is an easy blend flour and the Canadian flour that is the same is Robin Hood Instant Blend flour...sold in an easy pour cannister type package not the typical bag like regular flour."

Erp...Typos

There's a new post over at Headline Hunters. If you haven't checked out my other blog, please do. And if you find typos or glaring mistakes in your local paper, please feel free to pass them on to me.

For Gloria, who asked about the mustard powder I used... I picked it up at the bulk food store. It is ground seeds, but not as finely ground as Keen's mustard. I wouldn't use Keen's; it's just too expensive seeing as the recipe calls for a cup of mustard powder. You can grind your own if you want, or find the ground mustard seed. Apart from the wine, by the way, the ingredients for my batch of mustard cost me under $2.00.

On the knitting/packing front, I've packed up almost all of my works in progress and now have (had) just the Shetland Christening dress handy for working on. The problem with that is that I don't want to work on true lace all the time, nor do I want endless garter stitch all the time.

And because I don't have enough projects on the go, I started the Moving Scarf/Shawl. It's just enough of a challenge that I need to keep the pattern handy, but it's simple enough that I can work on it while watching/listening to the TV. Every wrong side row is purled, so there's a reprieve from patterning and paying close attention.

The pattern is the Lilac Shawl from "Knitted Lace of Estonia" by Nancy Bush. I started it last night, while watching the Canucks/Chicago hockey game. I'm using the laceweight alpaca I bought at the Oyama Lake Alpaca Farm last year, and knitting it on 3.5 mm needles.

The scarf is started at one end and worked through to the opposite end, without the edging. The second edging is worked separately and then grafted to the rest of the scarf. Above is my progress to date. As you can see, there are also nupps in this scarf. I'm not sure how clearly you can see it, but if you look closely, you can see a pink stitch marker in the far left diamond of nupps. I didn't notice until I was well past it that I had missed one of the loops; after the body of the scarf is finished, I'll go back and suture that loop in place.

Until now, I hadn't been able to make up my mind as to what to do with this yarn. I'm really liking how this pattern is knitting up with this yarn; I think I made the right decision. Incidentally, I keep referring to it as a scarf but I think, once blocked, this will be more of a shawl or a wide scarf. For the picture, I didn't pin it out as much as I would if I were blocking it; the needle would have been to short for that anyway. I've only pinned it out enough to show the pattern.

I know, the last thing I need is another project, but this one just feels good. And that's a good thing!

It Has Begun

Last weekend, we started packing. I hadn't intended to pack as much as we did, but we got into it and before we knew it, the dining room looked like this...

Both the cabinet and the desk are empty and we're using the dining room as our storage-for-boxes area. This weekend, we tackle this...

In truth, it isn't as bad as it looks because most of the boxes have been there, unopened, since our last move. I know there are some who would say that since we haven't even unpacked them, the stuff inside them really isn't needed so we should just get rid of it. That's a valid argument, but the reason we didn't unpack them is because we knew this place would be temporary. We will, however, be going through each box this time. I refuse to live with unopened boxes in the new place.

There are items in these boxes that I've been missing, but I haven't had the desire to even find the right boxes. We'll probably have a garage sale at the new place (we'll have room for one now) to help unload us of some of the stuff. Some of it will go to charity, some will be thrown out and some will be saved to pass on to kids and grandkids.

It hasn't been all packing, though. By now, I'm sure you've gathered that I like being creative. Knitting has been ongoing, but there really isn't much to show you. A few more rows of garter stitch really doesn't make for pretty pictures. I have, though, made progress on the second skirt of the Shetland Christening dress. I now have one lace motif left to do and then it's into garter stitch for that section as well.... endless garter stitch on 2.0 mm needles.

And then there's cooking. I don't know what inspired it, but last weekend I made this....

It's Dijon mustard. We were almost out of the commercial dijon, so I went recipe hunting. This one sounded like it could be really good, so I went to the bulk store next to the print shop where I work, bought the ground mustard I needed, got home and cooked it up.

It's a little thicker (I thinned one jar down with a bit of white wine) and a little grainier than the commercial dijon mustard, but the flavour!! Oh my, this is good stuff! As it ages a bit more (the recipe says 2-8 weeks), it should get even better. In all honesty, I don't think I'll ever go back to commercial dijon mustard again.

Oh, while I think of it... if you want to download any of the recipes in my sidebar, do so before the end of May. They're uploaded to my own web space and we'll be switching internet providers when we move and that web space will no longer be available. That also goes for any of the files on the Strings 'n Things Designs page. Once we move, they'll no longer be available there so get them while you can.

I will, of course, post them again at some point, but that will be some time down the road, after we're all settled in. In the meantime, I'll leave everything up as long as I can.

Now, where do we start with this office????

Grandma's Brag Book

I thought I'd share this little video with you; I put this together for my mother. For her, I put it onto a DVD (menu and all! I love my Mac!). Here, it's just the video.

It includes my children and grandchildren, hence a "brag book"... the video version.

May I Present?

Yesterday, after Sit & Stitch and after packing a box, I had some time to sit down and finish the shearing day video. I hope you enjoy it.

It's Official

We're moving. Again. Yes, this is a good thing. We're moving out of a third floor walkup into a ground level basement suite. No more lugging bags of groceries up two flights of stairs after a day of standing all day at work! The new place is a little outside of the town center, but has good bus service and is closer to the lake. We like that!

Now the packing starts! We'll be moving in to the new place (and out of here) by the end of May and we're both looking forward to getting settled in over there. As you can certainly understand, there won't be a lot of knitting time in the next few weeks.

Actually, there hasn't been a lot of knitting in the last while, other than knitting the seemingly endless garter stitch section of the Shetland Christening Dress. Last Saturday, John and I went up to the Oyama Lake Alpaca Farm to watch (and record) this year's shearing. That was fun! If you'd like to hear about it, do check out this week's podcast. Unlike last year's visit to the farm, this time all the equipment worked, thankfully. You can listen to the podcast over in the sidebar.

Here are a couple of pictures, and there are a few more over on the podcast notes page.

What's going on over there????

Herding "the boys" into the barn for their haircuts

(that's John in the blue sweater and ball cap)

I'm also putting together a YouTube video; once it's ready and uploaded, I'll link to it from here. Now, back to hockey watching; it's playoff time!!

Fun Day Scheduled

Today is supposed to be a podcast day, but there's just too much going on today to allow me the time required. It will be postponed. Today, John and I are going to watch an alpaca shearing and I'm kind of excited. I've never seen a sheep or alpaca or any animal being shorn before. This time, unlike last year, I am ready.

If you don't remember our last visit to the Oyama Lake Alpaca Farm, you can find the original post here. Last week, I bought new batteries for the camera, charged them, let them run empty, then charged them again. I have a backup set of batteries. I've checked to make sure the recorder works and I'll remember to turn on the microphone! All we have to do before we go is renew the insurance on the car (which has come down this year... yay!)

And, when I can, I'll blog and/or podcast all about it!

In the meantime, here's what one of the future tutorials will be about...

Breaded

If you hadn't guessed by now, I love baking bread... bread of almost any kind. After a fragmented day today (I had two specialist's appointments today - OB/Gyn and ENT and worked between the appointments), I decided to make focaccia bread and tomato soup for dinner tonight.

I'd bookmarked a recipe on recipezaar.com a while back and tried it tonight. It's a keeper!

Above... before baking

Above... after baking

And, with the tomato soup that John made. This is good eats!!

You can find the recipe here.

And as for the doctors' appointments? Ob/Gyn says all is well. ENT (ear, nose & throat specialist) wants another needle biopsy on another part of my thyroid. Then, when the results are in, he's considering surgery to remove at least half of my thyroid (thyroid function is normal, but there are some lumps he'd like to remove). That's way down the road, though. For now, I'll just wait for the call from the hospital for the repeat of the biopsy. Oh, preliminary results indicate that there's no cancer. Life is good!

Corked!

This is FUN!!! I've made a second tutorial; this time it's about spool knitting, also known as French knitting or corking. We used to do a lot of this as kids. I don't do a lot of it now, but it's a handy thing to know.

A third tutorial is in the works.. for nupps, as requested.

Enjoy!

Thanks, but....

Wow! Your very kind responses amazed me! I am thrilled and humbled that you all thought my very first (yes, artful soul, my very first ever) video tutorial was worthy of such high praise. I had fun putting it together. That said, I can't take all the credit.

As a friend from irc (internet relay chat) once typed: /me hugs his mac. This computer has a wonderful program called iMovie and it's what I used to put together the tutorial. I've also put together a dvd for my mom, who's not online, using iDVD, another wonderful program on the iMac.

At the risk of sounding like an advertisement for Apple in general, and iMac in particular, I'll just say.... Ev hugs her mac!

Oh, Carol? A tutorial on nupps is in the works, and I have ideas for a couple more. Again, if you have any ideas for tutorials, please do let me know. You ask, you get.

You Ask, You Get!

In an earlier post about the lucets, Emily and Gail (hi guys!) were both curious as to how to use a lucet. Seeing as I was home today, I decided it might be a good time to put together my very first video tutorial.

Emily, Gail, here you go... How to Lucet

And, if you'd like the YouTube link, you can find it here.

Incidentally, it was so much fun putting this video together that, if there's something you'd like to see in a tutorial, let me know; I might just be willing to put together another one.

That Was Then

Just two days ago, I did say that I didn't need another knitting project, didn't I? I thought so. Well, that was then and this....

... is now. After swatching for Summit, I realized I had THE perfect yarn for it. Handmaiden Yarns Sea Silk. And it IS perfect! The yarn has a lovely sheen to it and will have (I think) just the right amount of drape for this pattern. I couldn't resist it's siren call.

Knitting isn't all I've been doing this weekend. I also made these lovelies. I've been baking for a long time and I have to say that these are the best cinnamon buns I've ever tasted, let alone made. They are really, really decadent and delicious!

After I'd glazed them, John had to help by cleaning all the dribbles off the counter. Such hard work! They were barely cooled and we already had one eaten. Incidentally, if you do make these buns, be advised that I only made a half recipe. The recipe calls for a 9x13" pan and an 8x8" pan. I used an 8x10" (ish) pan and made 8 large cinnamon buns.

The recipe is definitely a keeper!

New Toys!

Do you remember that back in January (here, to be exact), I improvised a lucet? To refresh your memory, a lucet is an ancient tool, harking back to Viking times, for making cords. I've used lucet cord to make a drawstring for a bag I made and I wear one as a reminder bracelet (every time I touch it, I think of my daughter).

Well, two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to work with Tim. He used to work in the same shop I'm in, but after the owner bought a second print shop, Tim has been managing it and no longer works with me. While babysitting the copier there, I asked Tim, who has a well-equipped woodworking shop, if he could make me a lucet.

After drawing one out and explaining to him what it was for, he obliged me and this week, as my boss passed me in the shop, he said "Your slingshots are here". I was momentarily puzzled, but quickly realized that he meant the lucets Tim had made for me.

The two lighter coloured lucets are made of pine; I'm not sure what kind of wood the center one is, but it is also quite a bit thicker than the pine lucets. Both of the pine lucets are very comfortable in the hand, light, smooth and fun to work with.

The cord you see on this lucet took about an hour to make and, now that I have the rhythm down, goes very smoothly.

Tim has let me know that the lucets aren't difficult to make, but the sanding takes some time. He's also let me know that he's more than willing to make them for sale. If you're at all interested in learning how to lucet, let me know and something could be arranged.

I'm Swatching You

It's not that I need something else to work on; heaven knows that's the last thing I need! It isn't that I think this is the most beautiful yarn in the world and I want desperately to knit something with it. In all honesty, this yarn has been in my stash for years and I just don't know what to do with it; I dislike everything I've ever started with it.

However, this pattern just begged to be swatched... just to see how it's done! If you don't recognize it, head on over to Knitty and look up Summit in the Spring & Summer 2010 issue. I just HAD TO!!

I like it! I have a feeling another shawl/stole will be in my wardrobe at some point. I'll just have to decide on the yarn I'll use; it won't be this one. It's working up just a little too stripey for my liking.

It Feels Good!

I made a conscious decision this week to pick up and knit on the Shetland Christening Dress again. I'm so glad I did, because I'm really enjoying it again. I've been working on both skirts, the edging of the second skirt when I want a bit of challenging knitting and the garter stitch body of the first skirt when I want nothing but simple knitting.

And the best part? Progress is definitely being made! The second edging is now past the halfway point; it will have 23 scallops and right now, there are 12. Actually there are almost 13 now, since I've worked on it a bit after taking the picture.

Unfortunately, working on the christening dress means the mittens won't be done this week. It's a good thing there are no time constraints on anything I'm working on.

Time's Been Flying Again

I just checked to see when I blogged last and was surprised to realize it's been almost two weeks! I guess it's about time I got back here, isn't it?

The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of activity, emotional upheaval and work. We drove to Vancouver to deal with Tony's remains, visited my mother, visited with children and grandchildren, drove back, and have been dealing with Tony's affairs since. Suffice it to say that it has been an unpleasant task, with John becoming more and more angry at his father. We had planned on driving back to the coast at Easter for a memorial service and to spread Tony's ashes, but that has been cancelled, indefinitely postponed. I won't go into further detail, other than to say that John is extremely disappointed in his father (furious is more like it).

I've been busy with other things, too. Last weekend, I asked John to help me build my light tent (I've been calling it a light box, but it is, technically, a light tent). He very graciously cut the pvc pipe to the sizes I'd specified and was generous with advice when I encountered unforeseen problems (like some of the fittings being too big/loose). Duct tape is a wonderful thing!

Here's what the finished light tent looks like...

I bought three different colours of posterboard: black, white and blue. Below is the light tent with a white tablecloth draped over it; the only thing missing are the lamps that would be used to light the tent from the top and the sides. They will come at some point. For now, I'll just use the ambient light here in the apartment. For my purposes, it's probably sufficient since I usually take pictures in the daytime anyway. But the lights will come!

I did a bit of playing around with taking pictures using the light tent and I think it will work quite nicely. Below is a little angel that was given to me when I left Kamloops; she sits on a shelf in my living room. I've tried taking pictures of her before, but they never turned out well; this time, I'm pleased with the picture.

This beaded rose is another favourite item; it was also a gift from a woman who worked with me (she did some amazing beadwork!). Again, this is something I've tried to photograph before, but just couldn't get a satisfactory picture; this time, with a white background in the light tent, I did.

The main reason for making the light tent, though, was for taking pictures of my knitting. As you can see, I HAVE been doing some knitting. Finally. Until this week, this month has been seriously lacking in knitting progress.

These are, of course, La Joie du Printemps (The Joy of Spring) mittens, designed by Heather Desserud. It's my goal to finish the second mitten this weekend. It's a goal, but not a hard and fast one; there are a few things that John and I need to do this weekend, Tony-related, and that may cut into my knitting time. But at least I'm knitting again! I've even worked on the Shetland Christening Dress!

By the way, if you want to make a light tent for yourself, here's the link to the tutorial I used. I didn't make it exactly like the one in the tutorial, but a tutorial is nothing but a guide.