Reflections, A new year, and new experiments

Sitting here listening to the rain pitter-patter on the sun room roof, wrapped up in a blanket, with a kitten snuggled on my feet, with a wonderful cup of hot tea, felt like the perfect time to sit and reflect on the past year, all the ups, downs, successes and failures. I won't bore you with the bad, but some of the goods from last year were getting closer to some of my friends and family through planning my wedding, I was able to leave my job where I was overly stressed (and also on a contrasting schedule with hubby) so that I could spend more time with him, and with my mom who needed three surgeries. Had THE MOST PERFECT WEDDING I could have ever wished for. Sadly for our bank account, I always wanted the fairy tale, over the top, royal type of wedding, but we did it. Got to meet many of my new family on my husband's side at the wedding. Traveled for the first time out of the country, to the UK. Went to the ocean for the first time IN SCOTLAND, went dolphin watching, again in Scotland, slept in a castle, played ping pong in a throne room, washed laundry in the castle, and hung it to dry in front of a fireplace (I know, I'm different), flew in a propeller plane, and spent hours driving through Scottish and Irish countryside. The final day of our trip, we spent hours at Guinness brew house, fell in love with the drink, and the people of both countries all over again. My mom made it through surgeries on both her shoulders, now we are working on getting things lined up for her back, and my mother-in-law was able to move closer to us and the rest of the family. Made some new friends, and reconnected with long lost friends. Learned how to make several things that we use on a regular basis, and have been able to spend more time with my husband, and our family.

My bouquet from the wedding.

Just like so many people, I've decided to set some resolutions. Not specifically new year's resolutions, just goals I want to accomplish this year in my ongoing quest to live a healthier, happier life.

1. Experiment more in the kitchen with healthy foods
2. Reduce use of chemicals in our lives by making more cleaning products (this should also help reduce plastic we use since we won't be buying the stuff in the plastic)
3. Allow myself to be happier by accepting that I can't do everything, and what I do, doesn't have to be perfect. Accept that I'm allowed to make mistakes. Yes I'm a perfectionist. 
4. Grow and can more of our own vegetables
5. Get my craft projects organized, cataloged, and down to a more manageable number

So, in an effort to to complete the craft project resolution, I'm finishing up pairs of socks that I had previously started. I got a pair of dark green socks, and 1 out of a pair of light green socks, both for my hubby, and working on the second of a pair of socks for myself. I know I've covered this in a previous post, but it's nice to get everything down in one spot.

My first self designed sock!

Light green sock for hubby

Start of the toe of the second sock.

As for experimenting more in the kitchen, the other night I tried making foil packet lime pepper chicken, with mashed rutabaga, and steamed broccoli. Turned out pretty well, even with the calamity of the rutabaga eating the knife. 

I started to peel the rutabaga, which was tricky because of the waxy coating, but muscled through it. Sliced a little off the bottom so it wouldn't roll when I'm cutting it, and started to cut it in half. This is about as far as I got the knife through and I couldn't get it to go any more. When I went to pull the knife out it just didn't budge! This is our sharpest knife, and since hubby was a chef for many years, he keeps them pretty sharp. I tried everything I could think of to get the knife out, but no luck. I even (shame on me) grabbed a hold of the knife with both hands and shook it to try to dislodge it. About half way through I realized what a sight I must be. Shaking this knife with a giant rutabaga on it, my hair coming undone, yelling (more growling I think) in frustration. This is the point I started laughing uncontrollably  and ended up kneeling on the kitchen floor, knife still in hand, laughing so hard I was holding my stomach and crying! An adventure indeed! By time I collected myself I simply had to share this moment with a few of my friends and proceeded to text/email them. The modern age of sharing EVERYTHING! 

I ended up leaving the monster on the cutting board and went to preparing the chicken.

Lime Pepper Chicken:

2 Cleaned, and skinless chicken breast

Pinch of Kosher Salt

2 tsp Lime Pepper herb mix

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp dill

sliced onion (these are like half onion, half chives we found at the farmer's market), they are sweet onions

Olive oil

2 Radishes, sliced

lime juice

2 TBSP chicken broth

2 Pats of butter

2 Squares foil to wrap chicken in

Take 2 tsp lime pepper, 1 tsp onion powder, and dill and mix them all together, breaking up any clumps. 

Sprinkle a little salt on the chicken, then coat both sides with the herb mix.

Drizzle some olive oil over the chicken, then turn it to get the oil on the foil, then turn it again so the oiled side is back up. 

Drizzle a little lime juice over the chicken
Sprinkle sliced onions over chicken
Lay a few slices of radish on top, then top with a pat of butter
Put 1 TBSP broth on top of each chicken, then fold foil in half over chicken, fold and crimp the three open sides shut so nothing leaks out.

Put in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Check to make sure chicken is fully cooked before eating please!

Hubby came home, and managed to get the rutabaga chopped and we got that boiled and mashed just like it was potato. Steamed up some broccoli, which was then tossed with butter and a little garlic powder.

So yummy! I didn't realize it, but the lime pepper mix I bought had chili peppers in it, so it was a bit spicy for me, but moist and tender, and full of flavor! The rutabaga tastes kind of like a potato, but is slightly sweeter, with a very light carrot type of flavor. I ended up using the left overs to make something like potato pancakes in the morning with chives and garlic. That was amazing! I think we'll be buying rutabagas more often.

Not too shabby for my first time with a new vegetable!!

Well that's it for now, off to do some laundry so I can use up the store bought stuff, and plan dinner for tonight, baked ginger and lemongrass salmon and asparagus with a creamy dill sauce I think. Maybe work on my fair isle double knit hot pad some more since it's almost finished.

Take care, and happy creating!

Toe up socks

So, one of my resolutions this year was to decrease the number of ongoing projects I have. In an effort to complete this I have been finishing up socks that I have had cast on for the past 4 months. Well, I hurt my back Thursday sliding around on some of our wonderful ice we get here this time of year, and haven't really been able to get off the couch since without lots of pain. All this rest is helping, but it's taking it's sweet old time.

So anyways, I decided it's a perfect time to work on some of these old projects, namely socks, Light weight, normally requires a decent chunk of uninterrupted time, and I can't go anywhere, perfect! Well, I get to the bind off on a pair for hubby, but the first bind off I did was WAY to tight, he couldn't even get it over his heel. So I looked up an elastic bind off online, and did that. It was plenty elastic but it just didn't bounce back, so he has this frilly ring around the top of his sock now. Would be REALLY cute on a little girls sock, but not on someone who looks like they should be a linebacker for the pro's.

Frilly top, and I kinda made the cuff about 2 inches too short.

I followed the bind off technique I found at Slip Slip Knit for this. Not so great for me for socks, but I think it will work beautifully on some lace patterns I also have on needles waiting to be finished.

I have a second pair of socks on the needles for hubby, and a pair for myself (my first attempt at designing my own!) and I really wanted to find a nice solid, easy to do bind off that would be stretchy enough to accommodate a large foot sliding into it, but resilient enough to spring back. Back to the interwebs we go.

I made up four swatches of different bind offs, to see how they responded to being tugged, and stretched and all that. One stood out as a simply amazing sock bind off.

 These samples here are following the bind off on Slip Slip Knit's page. A little slouchy at the top, but definitely stretchy.

 This one worked up great, a little time consuming, but very stretchy, and very resilient as it would snap back to shape after being stretched. I found this one on Knitty.com. I completed a sock with this, and it turned out well, but I had to slightly alter it for 2x2 ribbing, as this was written for 1x1.

I tried a few others that were equally as stretchy, but not nearly resilient. They are a k1p1 invisible bind off I saw on Pinterest a while back, from Cranky Girl on wordpress.

k1p1 invisible bind off

I'm not sure what one I would use this for in the future. I used this for one of the sock, and it ended up kind of frilly. Once I got the hang of it, it was quick work, but just not what I was looking for. It might make a nice edging on a hoodie around the hood, it's less noticeable, especially if in a solid color, and won't be stretched out too much. I'll have to keep that in mind for a project I want to try.

The last one that I thought even worth mentioning is Elizabeth Zimmerman's sewn bind off. This is VERY loose, but I was disappointed in how it stayed stretched out. It'll be great for that cowl neck sweater I want to make though! This one is pretty simple. Just take a threaded tapestry needle, and go from right to left through two stitches, turn around, skip first stitch, and go left through right through the second stitch, and pull it off the needle, over and over.

Here is my finished sock, the first of my own design, with a 1/2 inch 2x2 ribbed cuff. You can't really see it too well, but I put 5 columns of three stranded braids across the top of the sock. It made it a bit more snug, which I like, but also much more time consuming. Happy Sock!!

Well, I do believe that is all for tonight, tomorrow I hope to get the last three inches of another sock for hubby done, I'm driving myself nuts with the 1x1 ribbing, of course I started this sock throwing, instead of picking, and my tension is too different to switch now. Bleh. Well, I know better for next time, and what is life if not one giant learning experience, especially for those of us who are creative!

Good night, and Happy Stitching!

Shameless Plug

Hi All,

Just a quick shameless little plug....

Check out my knitting page at Betterfly

Thanks, and Happy Knitting!

Christmas, New Years, and Life

Ok, I know I said I would get a post up a few days after Christmas, but I kinda forgot about the crazy cleaning that takes place between Christmas and New Years, and then forgot about the mess we always make for sauerkraut and pork. Especially when we get to have a bunch of people over! I loved every second of it too. Well except for when my lemon meringue pie didn't set up, and I had to run to the store to get a dessert while everyone was still sitting at the house :(. I'm putting off the cleaning from New Year's Day to work on this (shame on me, I'm being a bad housewife)

Christmas went well, we missed a few people due to colds, and work, but most of us were there. We had Christmas dinner at my mother-in-laws house, and OH MY GOD that ham was delicious!! I ate way more than I should have, but it was all so tasty!! I have to get the recipe from her for these cookies called Angel Squares I think. I like them better than rum balls and coconut macaroons, and if you know me...well that's saying something.

So now let's back track a little to the Saturday before Christmas, and Katie's birthday bowling bash! I made Lemon Curd Coconut Cupcakes and they seemed to be quite a hit. Of course I forgot to take my usual gazillion pictures until after they were half gone....

Lemon Curd Coconut Cupcakes

nothing to fancy about these, but here's the recipe.
Basic vanilla cake recipe
2 1/2 Cups AP flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs
3/4 cup whole milk

Mix the flour and baking powder in a bowl. In another bowl, beat sugar, butter, and vanilla until smooth and fluffy (it's very important to make sure there are no chunks of butter, as that will make a gooey under-baked mess). Add eggs one at a time, beating until well combined. Add flour and milk alternately in two additions, beating until just blended. Pour into cupcake tins line with paper, and bake at 325º about 20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool, then fill a pastry bag with Lemon Curd. You can buy some at the store, or make it yourself. If you make it yourself, I find that the Lemon filling for a lemon meringue pie works beautifully. If you don't know how to make that, check out Betty Crocker Classic Lemon Meringue for the filling. Using a large tip (or the one made for filling), squeeze lemon curd into the center of each cupcake until you start to feel the cupcake swell. If some oozes out, just spread it on top and let it air dry so the icing will stick.

For the icing:
1 1/2 cup coconut flakes
3 TBsp butter, softened
8 oz marscapone cheese
2 2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp Vanilla

Combine and beat all ingredients until smooth. This icing is too soft to really do anything fancy with, so just glop it on top and try not to eat it all before it makes it to the cupcakes.

A big part of our Christmas gifts to everyone this year were cookies! On top of traditional chocolate chip cookies, I made these three

Almond Sugar Cookies

I didn't get any pictures, but I put them in these cute little clear baggies with red stripes and tied them up with ribbon. 

Checkerboard Shortbread Cookies

For the checkerboard cookies, I'll have to do the recipe with lots of pictures showing how to make the cookies at a later time. This post is already going to be ginormous.

Apple-Cinnamon-Raisin-Oatmeal Cookies with Maple Icing

These are by far the most amazing oatmeal cookies I have ever had, and I will be making these again, if I can remember how I did it.







I also made some peppermint fudge, and peppermint bark to give out this year. It was my first time making peppermint bark, and that was an experience in and of itself. I had tried to melt white chocolate for some other cookies I had made, but ended up throwing it all out cause I couldn't get it to melt well, it just seized up. So for peppermint bark I chopped up those Hershey's mint kisses, and spread them on top of milk chocolate I had already melted and poured onto a cookie sheet. In my research for how to melt the white chocolate successfully, I found a video that showed a French Chocolatier using a heat gun during the tempering process. This sparked my imagination, and I pulled out our heat gun. Well, this melted the chopped pieces on top, but to get warm enough to let the top stick to the bottom, the top was browning. So I popped it in the oven for about 10 minutes, and viola! We have peppermint bark!

Melted, and cooled milk chocolate

Chopping an entire bag of Kisses

I also made Peppermint Chocolate Fudge!!

2 pkg semi-sweet Bakers Chocolate squares
1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp peppermint extract

Melt chocolate and milk in double boiler, add peppermint, pour into foil lined pan, cool, cut ENJOY! I sprinkled a little sea salt on which made it absolutely delectable.

I also ended up making coupon name tags for everyone this year. Thanks to Microsoft having all sorts of templates out there, I found some really pretty Christmas themed ones, and printed them out of heavy paper.

Here are a few more things I made for Christmas but won't go too far into detail. 

Lotion Squares (more in my post from 12/1

Body Scrub

Crochet doily for my MIL

Lotion that worked!

Name tags for the sweet treat bags

Vanilla Peppermint Chapstick

Book tote bag for Pam

Tote for Melinda

Tote for Dd

Peppermint swirl cheesecake!

Well that's it for now, I need to get to cleaning so I stop stressing about how bad the house looks. I'll be back later with a post on mess free soy candles, so stay tuned.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and a Happy New Year.