Recipe from the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook. This was my first time eating Mexican Wedding Cookies so I have no idea what they are “supposed” to taste like, but I thought these were pretty darn good. I love the flavors of the pecans and almond extract as well as the light and airy texture. This recipe has made my Favorite Cookie List as I can’t seem to eat just one! Photo taken by Hubby.
I experience ups and downs with my crafting. There are times when I feel completely blah about my projects and my knitting only surfaces when I have absolutely nothing else to do.
Then there are the happier periods, like right now, when I am excited about my knitting and moving through projects at a good pace. At the same time, I am also eagerly trying new cooking and baking recipes. Successfully striking that delicate balance between my hobbies feels really good. I doubt I’ll be able to sustain that balance indefinitely, but I am trying my best to enjoy it while it lasts.
One big change I made recently was deciding to be content with my yarn stash. I have quite a bit of yarn, yet I continue to add to it regularly. I’ll come across a neat pattern and buy the yarn for it, but I know it won’t be knitted up for quite awhile because I don’t knit as fast as I buy yarn. When I got overwhelmed with my stash in the past, I destashed, but the thing is, I really like everything in my current stash and I don’t want to part with any of it. So at the end of March, I committed to a six-month yarn diet. I’ve gone on one or two shorter diets before, and I remember them as times of deprivation. Like, when is the diet over so I can buy yarn again? But this time feels different to me — instead of viewing it as not getting to do something I like, I see it as a great opportunity to finally knit the awesome yarns I have. The end result is the same, but the approach is making all the difference. I set it for six months, but I am curious about how long I can actually go and how much of my stash I will use.
To kick off this commitment, I am running a small contest. All you have to do is guess the number of unused balls of yarn in my stash. The winner is the person who guesses the right number (or closest to it); if multiple people guess correctly I will use a random number generator to select the winner. And no, my stash is not listed on Ravelry. The prize? A brand new copy of Hats, Mittens, and Scarves by Andrea Tung. My friend Joyce kindly gifted me with a copy months ago, and the second copy I received on the Stitch ‘n Ride train needs a new home. Contest ends when the comments close on Saturday morning.
Happy Birthday, Carolyn! I hope you enjoy a special day.
Pattern: Clapotis (scarf size)
Yarn: Sundara Yarn Aran Silky Merino, 2 skeins, Grey Over Pink
Needles: US #8
Recipe from here. Easy and yummy! We doubled the recipe and made a fair number of mods, but they were personal preferences (e.g., using leaner ground beef, adding more garlic and basil, etc.).
So what happens when we finish cooking is that Hubby plates the food and I run upstairs to get the camera. He has made a few style suggestions in the past that I really liked, so I dubbed him the food stylist. This time he thought it would be fun to include a drink in the background and see if readers can guess the drink correctly. Anyone??
Recipe from Gourmet, June 1995 found via Smitten Kitchen.
Mods and Thoughts
:: I used 3/4 of a large white onion and chopped it instead of slicing it.
:: I meant to chop some garlic to throw in with the onions, but I forgot so I added 1 Tbsp bottled minced garlic instead. We love garlic!
:: The recipe doesn’t indicate dry or sweet marsala wine; I used dry.
:: The mushroom sauce is really delicious. If you click on the Gourmet link above and read the recipe reviews, you’ll find that a lot of people doubled the mushroom sauce. I would definitely do that next time because the mushrooms are what make this dish taste good.
:: Be careful not to overcook the chicken like I did! Because dried out tough chicken is not a good thing. Unfortunately I am the queen of overcooking meat so next time Hubby gets to watch the chicken.
:: I am still trying to figure out what do with the mushroom sauce in the last step. The recipe calls for reducing it to 1/2 cup, but that seems like very little liquid and I would like some sauce on the chicken. Instead of reducing, we threw in about 4 teaspoons of cornstarch to thicken it but that was a bit much. Next time, we may experiment with either adding less chicken broth at the end or adding just a 1 or 2 teaspoons of cornstarch.
All in all, a great dish!
