Tag Archives: baking

dilly beans and diamonds.

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dillybeans

I’ve been meaning to try my hand at dilly beans every day this week, so this morning, I got right to it. I even filled up the canning pot and put it on the stove alongside the water intended for my french press. The lids have been going “ping” — a good sign — so we’ll see how these turn out once they’ve had a few weeks to pickle themselves. (I learned that head-space can be a little tricky when you’re packing something into a pint jar and then pouring boiling liquid over it…)

lsd bob1

And for the “diamonds” portion of the post, I present bobbin numero uno of the CMF SW Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds merino. I’d abbreviate the song title, but I’m not sure I want to generate that kind of blog traffic…

I absolutely adore how this is spinning up, and I’m interested to see what the yarn will look like when it has been plyed and finished. I’ve read that this particular roving will plump up quite nicely, and I’m aiming for a squishier, slightly thicker sock yarn than last time.

Other goings-on around here:

zucchini bread

The first zucchini bread of the season!

pure and simple ribbing

The ribbing at the bottom of the pure and simple test-knit I’m working on!

That’s all for now! Boh and I have plans to take a long walk and stick our paws/feet in the creek, and I’m looking forward to a quiet, productive August (holy cow!) weekend.

hiyahiya.

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hiyahiya1

Whoa. Yesterday I felt compelled to do something about those needles with the other-than-smooth join. They were driving me crazy! The internets told me that a LYS is having a sale on everything this week, so I dropped by to look ONLY at needles. I was debating between 12 and 16 inch addis, and the (super nice) salesgirl asked if I’d seen the 9 inch hiyahiyas. I didn’t quite understand at the time that 9 inches was short enough to work them on circs the way I’d knit a hat, but at half the price of addis, I grabbed 2, as the join looked so so so smooth.

After one round with the hiyahiyas, I was ready to write this off as a failed experiment and give these needles away. And then I went to ravelry, stalked these needles in forum posts, and realized that it takes time to get used to knitting with needles that have a less-than-2-inch tip.

hiyahiya2

So I tried again, focusing on keeping my hands relaxed, and boy does this speed up the sock knitting! I’m not sure if I’ll use these on all of my socks, but I’m going to try to complete at least this plain-vanilla-sock with my new 9 inch hiyahiya as part of a “get-to-know-you” experiment. As you (and I) can see from this picture, I was getting a bit of laddering with the annoying needles. Not so with the hiyahiya.

sockprogress

Have you guys tried these needles? What do you think?

Other things occurring around chez rooster:

bread

I let this no-knead loaf to rise extra long (about 18 hours for the first rise) and I think that is the trick. One of my best loaves in recent memory.

soulwindows thirdbob

I did A LOT of spinning yesterday, and finished the third bobbin of Soul Windows just before bed last night. This last one has more green and brown than the other two bobbins, and I am interested to see how it will look all plyed up. Still keeping my fingers crossed for enough yardage for socks. I may start that tonight.

bohandbone

Also, Boh asked me to tell you that he did A LOT of work on his bone collection while I was spinning. They all know now who’s boss. (Boh.)

On today’s list: making pickles, plying, prepping for a meeting with my advisor, practicing some rusty language skills, and all sorts of other things that may or may not begin with p.

I stand corrected.

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That’s right. Remember when I said (yesterday) that it seemed as though Boh had forgotten about his supervisory role?

bohtalia1

Our dear friend T came over yesterday, bearing blackberries (for muffin-making) and some close-to-completed Thanksgiving Day fingerless mitts.

bohtalia2

Boh loves T, but he seemed to take a particular interest in her knitting progress.

boh talia concerned

See? Here he’s a little bit worried about that thumb-hole part of the pattern.

bohandtalia laydown

Phew! Boh can relax a little bit now.  (Note T, displaying a completed thumb-hole.)

blackberry muffins

And here are those muffins, made with blackberries picked from T’s yard! We didn’t quite achieve our goal of the perfect muffin top, but even so, these are very tasty. Perhaps we’ll make another attempt with the big muffin tin, which allows for more completely filled muffin compartments, thus creating opportunity for the muffin tops to expand.

ridiculousboh

Clearly, Boh had an exhausting day at work. (He is actually fast asleep and snoring in these photos.)

ridiculousboh2

Man, I love this dog.

taste-testing, peas, pesto.

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jaminaction

Strawberry-balsamic jam on a slice of fresh-from-the-oven homemade bread. Not a bad start to Sunday morning.

compoteinaction

Strawberry-rhubarb-fresh mint compote over plain, local yogurt. A mid-Sunday morning snack.

pickled sugar snap peas

Deb does it again — saw this recipe for pickled sugar snap peas over at smitten kitchen, and had to mix up a batch. I can start eating them this evening…

pesto

More green in a jar. In the spirit of eating everything in my share, I chopped up the remaining garlic scapes, picked my basil stems clean, tossed a few walnuts and a generous helping of olive oil into my mini-cuisinart and began blending, adding more olive oil and some salt and pepper to taste to get it right. My new favorite sandwich, courtesy of the folks up at P’s farm, is toasted bread (in a cast-iron skillet), cheese, pesto and as many greens as you can fit into a sandwich — fried egg optional. Yum!

But where are you, you may be wondering, on that sock? Is there a chance you’ll make the KAL deadline? I don’t even want to show you what Boh looks like this morning. He’s concerned. Very concerned. He thought the weekend’s canning adventures were over, and then yesterday he watched as I left for about an hour, Border’s coupon in hand, and returned with 2 more books on pickling and preserving…

sock2gusset

I did get a few solid hours of work on sock number 2 in yesterday, thanks to the very last episode of Season 2 of The Wire, and some knitting podcasts. I’m in the midst of the gusset increases, and if I can turn the heel and get an inch or two of the leg done today, I just might be able to eek out a full pair before it becomes July.

two-quart/two-ply.

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2qt

Midway through my dinner — a salad comprised of red lettuce, mustard greens, radishes, harukei turnips, tomatoes, avocado and a homemade vinaigrette, I realized (a)  that I was eating out of a 2-quart metal mixing bowl and (b) that I hadn’t even considered eating out of a cereal bowl.

Ridiculous — and completely awesome.

Something else completely awesome? This targhee 2-ply:

targhee2ply

targhee2ply2

The actual color is in between: not as pink as the first picture, but more vibrant and shiny than the second. It is amazing what light coming through the window will do to the same bobbin! If I’ve done my math right, we’re looking at 327 yards of 2-ply — no wonder it took almost twice the amount of time I had budgeted for plying this morning!

Time was budgeted because today Boh and I are heading to the north country to stay with my dear friend P. and help out in the land of CSA veggies, piglets, and farmers’ markets. We’d be on the road already if it weren’t for the plying that I absolutely HAD to do this morning — that way, the yarn will be dry by the time we return.  (Obsessed? Who, me?)

muffinsforroad

Baked some muffins for the road, washed and hung the yarn to dry, even vacuumed the spot usually occupied by Boh’s box. Time to hit the road! Have a great weekend.

spices and stripes.

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In an effort to both stay busy and create a sense of cleansing/starting some things anew, I’ve been cleaning like a fiend this week. Yesterday, I finally knit myself a dishcloth and, inspired by the yarn pirate herself, ditched my sponges. In keeping with my occcasional theme of knits-in-action, here’s a shot of my new dishcloth in its new home:

dishcloth in action

Thrilling, I know. (But seriously, these cloths are surprisingly sturdy scrubbers, and the idea that they will just go in the weekly wash with my other kitchen cloths makes me very happy.)

Also, I tackled the spice cabinet. I wish I’d thought to take a “before” picture, but I was too excited to measure brightly colored seeds and powders into their respective jars. This will be an ongoing project, as the co-op only stocks so many small jars (which I think are intended for lip balms or creams in small quantities) at a time. Still, this cupboard is much happier:

spices

In celebration, I baked some chocolate walnut cookies. I saw this recipe over at the kitchn, printed it immediately and tucked it into the binder o’ kitchen ideas. In a word: yum. My kitchen smelled so rich and chocolately that I had to open a window.

chocwalnut1

These cookies are cooling on newly available counter space — yesterday I lugged the microwave that was in the apartment down to the basement. I figured that since I’ve been here almost a year and haven’t yet plugged it in, I probably won’t miss it, and the extra space sure is nice! Here’s a cookie macro shot:

chocwalnut2

Again: yum. Yummmm.

In the spirit of starting new things, a project I’ve been looking forward to arrived in my inbox yesterday. I’m test-knitting stripes! for Whitney over at whitknits. (You can see her stripes! in this post. All of Whitney’s knitting is beautiful, and this post highlights a whole slew of inspiring projects.) When I saw her stripes! earlier this winter, I knew I wanted one so I jumped at the chance to give this a try.

swatch

Because I am taking my test-knitting responsibilities very seriously, I swatched and even washed and blocked my square of eco-wool to be sure my gauge was correct. It really didn’t take long at all. In fact, swatches dry wayyyy faster than sweaters do. Note to self: there is no reason not to do this all the time.

stripes macro

I spent a few hours catching up on podcasts and getting started on my stripes!, and I’m already loving this sweater. I learned a new cast-on, and this ribbing is so pretty. More pictures soon, as I intend to knit a few more rows before bed.

2-ply and pie.

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bohpliedcandle

Yay! My first wheel-plied yarn! Some ravelry forum advice confirmed my decisions to turn this into a 2-ply. My singles are a bit underspun to remain singles, so I’ll try again with something else. I am thrilled with how this looks all plied up — the wheel makes a huge difference with respect to evenness of the twist and the amount of time it takes to ply. This practically flew through my hands on Friday night. Here’s a close up:

plied candle

I’m still working on consistency, but for the most part, this looks to me to be worsted-weight yarn, with some thinner and thicker bits adding a touch of character. My math tells me that this is about 120 yds of subtly shaded goodness. What shall I make?

I believe I promised you pie: peach-strawberry-rhubarb, to be exact.

pie

M and I made a big batch o’ crust and then this delicious pie. Oh, and a big, green salad filled with radishes and beets from the farmers’ market to go with it. (I failed to photograph the salad.)

We had a lovely visit — so nice to have a dear friend here to walk, talk and bake with. Boh loved that she was here too.

Mostly unrelated, but I wanted to be sure to post this so that you know that I occasionally ruin things in the kitchen. Boh was the only witness this time.

beautiful beans

Aren’t these green beans lovely? (More green in my kitchen?!) On Friday I was planning to fix a late meal to tide me over until M’s bus got in around 11:30 pm. I rummaged through the cookbooks, and found a lovely green bean recipe in Supernatural Cooking, by Heidi of 101 cookbooks. The beans are tossed with lemon and lime zest and some fresh chives, all of which I had. I oohed and aaaahed over these as I mixed the beans with the other ingredients, sat down to take a bite, and promptly spat out a mouthful of very pretty beans. I’m pretty sure I grabbed a lime that had turned to the dark (rotten) side, as my beans did not taste citrus-y — just plain bad! I am looking forward to making this again with a lime that is NOT ready for the compost, as it sounds absolutely delicious and perfect for summer. I was so disappointed, but the beans were so pretty that I thought I’d snap a picture for you anyway.

Hope you’re enjoying the weekend. I can’t believe June is tomorrow. Crazy.

strawberry shortcake.

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Warning: lots of photos today.

So last week, when I was not quite finished with my last project, dear (blogless) friend K came over to make this cake. Our scheduled cake-date was the perfect motivator. I made a lot of progress on my paper that day, and was able to thoroughly enjoy this process. Also, while I tend to have help in the kitchen, I tend to make desserts by myself, you know, in preparation for an event or an evening or what-have-you. When there are two bakers in the kitchen, more pictures are taken. K is a phenomenal baker, so these pictures feature her at work!

cake1

cake2

cake3

cake4

cake5

cake6

And, as with all tasty things prepared in this kitchen:

cake7

More knitting and spinning soon, I promise. Posting may be light this week, as it is a week of transition: dear ones leaving for the summer or longer who deserve proper send-offs. And over here, a new routine to establish and settle into. Bittersweet, but also much needed: summer is here.

that other stuff.

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sillydog

Lots o’ pictures today — I have a (digitized) pile of shots (like this one) to share! Yesterday, the wheel won out, and rightly so. I may have spent another hour and a half spinning last night. I’m still breaking the yarn every so often because I haven’t quite balanced the pull of my bobbin with the speed of my treadling, so I was getting underspun yarn that wasn’t quite strong enough to be pulled onto the bobbin. (Does that make sense?) I am already way better at starting and stopping the wheel, and at sliding the guide around to get a more evenly filling bobbin. Though the specific mechanics are the same, drafting with your hands in your lap is different from spindle spinning, but I like it. (I like them both.) More writing today, but I will be rewarding myself with time at the wheel — that luscious undyed oatmeal BFL is going to be all spun up by the end of today.

First up: Food. Here’s a picture of the last piece of quiche. I forgot to take a “before” shot. We were too busy eating.

last piece quiche

A strawberry cake I baked last night, totally impulsively. Deb at smitten kitchen posted this around dinner time, and I could not resist.

strawberrycake

Pile o’ cookbooks — they looked pretty to me when I was in the kitchen snapping food pictures.

pileocookbooks

Those pears need to become pie, stat. We’ll see how far I get with the paper today. This next one does not fit into a category, but it was chilly early in the week, and I was wearing my 28thirty for added warmth. (I’m one of those people who would rather throw open the windows and put on a sweater than keep them shut and not need layers.)

28thirty in action

I love it. I may have made the upper sleeves a tad tight — in response to how loose the shoulders seemed — but I think with a little more wear, these will stretch just enough.

Next: Work photos.

workspace2

This enormous primary source was way too big to rest on the desk next to my computer, so we had to curl up on the couch. Boh was not pleased that the book took his spot. There’s my whisper, about an inch into the ribbing, for “thinking” while working.

yarnwinding

Yarn-winding is work, right? Here’s my technique. I’ve got about an inch and a half of the whisper ribbing, and I’m ready to start the second ball. I’m glad it is already wound!

spinning corner

Okay, one more wheel pic. This is my spinning “work” space, at the moment. Bright yellow bowl for fiber, sturdy chair to sit in, rug for wheel to stand on…Have I mentioned yet that I love my new wheel?

Blogging helps me to get words in my fingers — time to pour the coffee and switch over to academic writing. Have a great day!

scones and sweaters.

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Self-explanatory, no?

scones

Heidi’s maple syrup scone recipe was super easy, and incredibly delicious. I even called my mom to tell her about it. Maple syrup is a big thing around here, so I can get jars full of different grades of local syrup at the co-op. This recipe perfectly highlighted that hard-to-describe but oh-so-good maple syrup sweetness. And it is quick enough to make impulsively. And then ruin your dinner by eating one (or two) moments after the scones come out of the oven. You’ve been warned.

Next up: 28thirty is blocked! And dry! No buttons yet, but I have some options, and am waiting for some of last week’s ebay purchases to arrive so that I can play around with size/color. Here are some rooster-in-the-mirror-wearing-the-sweater-even-though-the-sleeves-are-still-damp weekend pictures. (Apologies for my hyphen abuse today.)

28thirtyblocked-blurry

28thirtyblocked-closeup

28thirtysideblocked

28thirtyblocked

Also, I really love this picture:

amytiltedpic

Trying to take pictures of yourself using the hold-your-arm-out-at-a-ridiculous-angle approach occasionally yields unexpectedly delightful results.

I’ve also made some significant progress on Whisper:

whisper-sleeve1

boh-whisper-sleeve

Boh thought about knitting a few rows this morning, but ultimately decided that he’d rather take a nap.

I lengthened the sleeve to about 9.5 inches so that it falls just past my elbow, thinking that when I block this, I’ll get a bit more length. I’m into a big stretch of stockinette, which makes this project perfect for some of the lectures on my list this week.

I woke up with the sun today, well before my alarm. It has been awhile since I’ve done that, as the winter sun rarely appears before the appointed wake-up time. The days are lengthening now, and I like it.