Knitter in the Kitchen

You know when you are totally excited about a knitting project and just can’t wait to get back to it? That’s how I feel about this:

I’m using Noro Silk Garden in colorway 224, and the photo above shows the whole first skein. I’ve been knitting like crazy because I love watching the colors change. Ironically, I realized that I don’t want a scarf in these colors after I started knitting it, so this one will be a gift. I want darker colors for myself and ordered colorway 217. This scarf is essentially a smaller version of a very popular stole (without the fringe). Many thanks to Allison of Freckles and Purls for posting the pattern!

Also, I would like to thank everyone for checking out my destashing blog last week. Wow, some of those emails came in fast! In case anyone is interested, I still have four skeins of Cashmerino and two skeins of Jade Sapphire 8-ply cashmere up for sale.

In cooking news, we’ve enjoyed a few successes this week. I baked Apple-Date Bars (Cooking Light, October 2006) on Friday and they came out really well. I substituted raisins for dates, walnuts for pecans, and cut the sugar down to 1.5 cups. Next time I would cut the raisins a bit too, but other than that the recipe is wonderful.

The cover recipe for the October Cooking Light is Classic Beef Pot Roast. I have a brand new Le Creuset dutch oven that I’ve been itching to test, and this seemed like the perfect recipe. Oh. my. goodness. This pot roast is very, very good. My photo doesn’t do it justice. The meat is super tender and flavorful and the potatoes and carrots are delicious too. While the cooking time is long (about 2.5 hours in the oven), the actual cooking process is really easy. I can definitely see us making this again in the winter. The mods I made were that I doubled the garlic (which I do for practically everything because we like garlic) and I used a 2.5 lb piece of pot roast because that I was the largest cut I could find at the supermarket.

Someone please tell me that the stains on the Le Creuset will come off!

Lastly, Hubby put together this yummy pizza for us. The sauce recipe is from this book. I seriously considered making the crust from scratch but ultimately decided it would be too time consuming.

Food-wise, I think we’re set for the week!

Finally, a finished object.

Pattern: Clapotis
Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted, Color #162 Icehouse, a little less than 3 skeins
Needles: Addi Turbo US 8 / 32″

One reason why it took me almost two months to complete the Clapotis is that I don’t particularly like this colorway. I chose it because I was trying to move away from my natural inclination towards reds/purples/oranges. But these shades of blues and greens just aren’t me. I considered frogging the entire project multiple times because of the color issue. Ultimately I decided to finish it simply so I could have a shawl at work. My office is freezing cold whenever the outdoor temperature drops below 70 degrees, so at least now I can be warm as the weather continues to cool. And I love Shepherd’s Worsted — it feels comfortable against my skin.

Last month I also started a Karaoke Scarf for my sister. Currently I’m about halfway through with it.

If you’ve been reading my blog since last year, the scarf might look familiar to you. It’s because I knit the exact same scarf in the exact same color for my sister last year — here is the photo. She asked me to knit her another one because she lost the original. Sigh. But my sis is awesome so of course I’m willing to do it. This pattern is great for mindless knitting.

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about my yarn stash. I have decided to cut my stash drastically by selling anything that I don’t anticipate using in the next year. I’m just not inspired by most of my yarn anymore, yet I feel guilty about buying anything new because I already have so much. This is exactly how much I’m selling:

Please visit my destashing blog for photos and descriptions of yarns for sale. Thanks in advance for looking. In case anyone is interested, this is the yarn I’m keeping. This Rubbermaid container is a lot smaller than the destash container, though I must admit it’s hiding ten skeins of Kureyon and six skeins of Silk Garden. But this feels so much more manageable to me.

Finally, on the sewing front, I’ve been working on travel tissue holders as I will be contributing to the November Sampler.

Just a quick post about this week’s dinners…

1. Beef and Vegetable Potpie from the October 2006 issue of Cooking Light

The reviews of this recipe indicated that the potpie turned out bland. I tried to fix this by seasoning the ground sirloin with pepper and garlic powder beforehand. Unfortunately, it didn’t help. There is really nothing special about this dish, and we wouldn’t make it again. Also, while the Pillsbury breadstick dough crust was easy, it tasted odd to us. We didn’t think it went well with the filling and we ended up not eating the crust at all. The next time we make a potpie, we might have to try making the crust from scratch!

2. Chicken a la Veracruzana from Rick Bayless’ book Mexican Everyday.

I picked up this cookbook on a recent trip to Borders. I wasn’t intentionally looking for a Mexican cookbook, but I was drawn to the clear explanations and photos of ingredients commonly used in Mexican cooking. It looked like a good book for a novice. The Chicken a la Veracruzana is essentially a stew of chicken thighs, potatoes, diced tomatoes, picked jalapenos, manzanilla olives, and various spices cooked in a slow cooker. It was quite easy and turned out very well. We liked it over rice. Finally, we have our first successful slow cooker dish!!!

Amazingly, I finished my Clapotis last week! (Can you imagine that I have actual knitting content for this knitting blog???) I just need to weave in the ends and take photos this weekend. I’m also working on a scarf for my sister, which has been great mindless knitting. Exactly what I need.

Have a great weekend!

As a way of broadening my culinary horizons, my goal has been to try a new dinner recipe each week. I don’t always accomplish this; for example, last week I was too busy to pore over my cookbooks so we made our tried-and-true pasta primavera and grilled some chicken. Hubby isn’t interested in the entire recipe selection process, so I usually narrow it down to two choices and then ask for his opinion. This week, the two options were Chicken and Andouille Jambalaya from Cooking Light or a Potato, Beef, and Tomato Stew that I learned from my mother. I selected Jambalaya as an option because we were at the Elephant Bar earlier in the day and Hubby mentioned that Jambalaya sounded good. However, the ingredient list for this recipe is relatively long and there would a good deal of chopping and measuring involved. And it was Hubby’s birthday so it seemed a little mean to have him spend hours in the kitchen with me. So I offered the Potato, Beef, and Tomato Stew as the other option because it is one of his favorites. I was fully expecting Hubby to choose the Stew because: (1) he loves it, and (2) it would be much, much simpler. But he surprised me – even after looking at the recipe, he picked the Jambalaya.

From start to finish, it took us about an hour and a half, but Hubby and I are both slow choppers even with help of the food processor. We bought Aidell’s Cajun-Style Andouille sausage, which was okay, but next time we would use one of Aidell’s other flavors that we like better. I didn’t read the recipe carefully enough, so instead of adding 1.5 teaspoons of finely chopped jalapeno pepper, I told Hubby to chop the entire pepper and throw it all in. Whoops. Fortunately the result wasn’t disastrous – the Jambalaya was spicy but still yummy. I think this recipe is a keeper that will be great for the coming cold winter nights. And I was happy because throughout the evening Hubby mentioned several times how fun it was cooking the Jambalaya together!

Overall, I’m pleased with our progress in cooking. I feel like we are taking small but steady steps toward expanding our recipe repertoire and being more proficient in the kitchen. A year ago, my idea of a home-cooked meal was to boil frozen ravioli and mix it with a can of Prego. I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with that. But now, are much more willing to take the time to create our meals instead of simply heating them up. And I don’t know if we could ever go back to the old way of doing things.