V-Day Treat

I don't really have strong feelings about Valentine's Day one way or another. I probably cared more when I was in middle school/high school and wished I had a boyfriend to send me flowers. These days though it's kind of off my radar. I did get a little card/print for us, my friend Lynsey alerted it to me on Etsy. It's hanging in our living room now.

Now to the treat part - I committed a cardinal 'sin' - I used boxed cake and pre-made frosting! If that's not bad enough I used it to make cake balls (or if you're more refined cake 'truffles'! Shameful, but I so do not care. Y'all they are good. I'm almost positive there is nothing 'natural' in them but you what? that's okay. Sometimes you just want junky things. I used the recipe from How Sweet It Is (she has some fabulous pictures and more obscenely good-looking treat recipes). I bought Duncan Hines Strawberry Deluxe cake mix and cream cheese frosting and used Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips for the chocolate coating.

The hot pink sugar is from Bake It Pretty. The best part about these is that the cake is pink, very fun. They are really, really rich and sweet and I say that knowing I have a high tolerance for sugar.

I did have a hard time dipping them into the chocolate, not all of the cake part got covered. So there you have it, one of the few times I have used boxed cake mix and I don't feel bad about it. 

Tuesdays with Dorie: Bourbon Bread Pudding

It's Thursday, not Tuesday. I know. I meant to make this on Sunday but didn't get around to it. Yesterday we got snow so my night classes were canceled, SO I finally got the chance to make bread pudding. I didn't have any bourbon so I used a splash of Jack Daniels. I also didn't use the water bath to bake it in, I'm far too lazy for that.

I love bread pudding, it's my favorite dessert, and this one did not disappoint. Thanks to Sharon of Simply Southern for this week's selection.

Wonky Curtains

I sewed something, not very well though. I have wanted to make curtains for our kitchen door and kitchen window for ages. I looked at different fabric options and fell in love with some really cute Michael Miller prints (and I can't find now) but I couldn't justify spending the money. Instead I pawed around in the fabric stash I've been accumulating and decided to use fabric I bought last year when I went to San Antonio. The pattern is American Jane by Moda.

For the door curtains I used some lace at the bottom that I bought at an estate sale. There wasn't enough yardage left for the cafe curtains but I think that's okay. The seams are not really straight, but maybe no one will scold me. I'm just glad I had enough of an attention span to finish them. I'm sure there's a more proper way to make these, measuring and such, but being lazy and having a short attention span I just winged it.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Great Grains Muffins

These muffins seem so unsuspecting but gosh they're good, I think they might be my new favorite muffin recipe. I followed the recipe just as Dorie states, but left out nuts and used Red Flame Raisins for the fruit.

I loved the way they tasted, the cornmeal was crunchy and the maple syrup and raisins added the right amount of sweetness. I will be adding these to my weekend breakfast rotation.

Thanks to Christine of Happy Tummy for these week's selection!

Look what I finally finished

Just in time too! The little ones these are intended for are set to arrive within the next week.

Once I did one sleeve the others were easier to do. I learned that I really need to pay better attention to the edges when knitting something that's going to be seamed. The buttons sewing isn't 100% perfect, my technique needs work, but for my first major seaming/button sewing attempt I'd say it's pretty good. I bought the buttons at Churchmouse Yarn on Bainbridge Island in December and I really like the way they look with the yarn colors.

 

The Madelinetosh sock yarn softens up a lot after washing and now it's really squishable and soft. I can only hope one of the twins has longer arms than the other one because the sleeves on the green sweater are shorter than the blue-ish one. Oops. All in all I'm still really happy with the way these turned out and hopefully the recipients will enjoy them too.

I also made bunny hats for them in Madelinetosh DK, the green color is Creme de Menthe and the ivory color is Milk. So sweet! I can't wait to see these topping little baby heads.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Nutty Chocolately Swirly Sour Cream Bundt Cake

This is the part where I show you a lovely picture of my bundt cake. Which I would love to do except my bundt cake got stuck in the bundt pan. So instead of that lovely picture I have this to show you. 

I'm pretty sure this is my fault. I kind of took liberty with the amount of filling, which I believe caused the problem because I buttered and floured the pan really well. 

Luckily, the cake still eats. It's really, really good too. I kind of love the orange/pecan/chocolate/cinnamon flavors. However, next time I'll stick to the recipe amounts for the filling.

Thanks to Jennifer of Cooking for Comfort for this week's selection!

Alpaca and angora

This past weekend my friend Kenan and I drove (will she drove, I rode) to nearby Oxford, Mississippi for a fiber festival.

There were promisesof real, live alpaca and we just couldn't pass up that opportunity. The festival itself was pretty small but there were two alpaca, not as friendly as the ones we met in Colorado, and angora rabbits. 

 

The rabbits were pretty much the cuter things ever. They're bigger than my cats and look like giant balls of fluff, we almost could find the eyes on one of them. I wanted to take one home with me, although Doug seems to have a strict policy on animals other than cats living at our current house. 

 

After wandering around the festival we walked around the square stopping at Amelia, a tiny but completely adorable shop. She had items from several Etsy artists as well as other things I hadn't seen before. I bought a Shanna Murray decal, which I had been coveting for awhile but never ordered, a printed tea towel and a coffee mug. 

 

Down the street was Bottletree Bakery they were serving lunch but were decidedly low on pastries. We each got something sweet and wandered back down the street to have lunch at Boure. After lunch we stopped at Square Books and then later had coffee at High Point (which used to be in Memphis before it went out of business here). 

Before we left town we went to Knit 1 Oxford, Oxford's only yarn store. The staff was super nice and they seemed to have an adequate amount of basics. K and I couldn't stop petting the Cascade Baby Alpaca yarn. It is so flipping soft that despite my promise to buy any yarn I bought one luscious little skein of Chunky Baby Alpaca. Very soon it will become a neckwarmer/cowl - even thought I don't need another one.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Lemon Poppyseed Muffins (and Midnight Crackles)

Sooo behind in posting. 

First off, TWD from January 3rd was Midnight Crackles. I liked this but the dough turned to a rock after chilling. I had to leave it out for hours before I could attempt to form it for baking.

They tasted good but my hands/wrists/forearms were killing me after making them. Recipe is here on the TWD blog.

Secondly, this week's TWD chosen by Betsy of A Cup of Sweetness. I had made these before but previously left off the glaze but this time I went for it. I also used Meyer lemons instead of plain ones.

I really liked this little muffins, but they tasted (to me at least) better on Day 1 than Day 2. Thanks for this week's selection Betsy!

Should have but didn't

Things I should have done this weekend:
- Seam baby sweaters
- Clean the bathroom
- Re-organize the pantry

Instead this past weekend I:
- Drank a lot of chai tea

 - Wore comfy socks
- Ate dim sum

- Knit part of my new flip-top mittens (pattern from Ysolda here)

- Made muffins
- Bought new lamps (via Target)

- Watched too much ID and CI television

Maybe next weekend....

Long time no see

Why yes I am still alive. Unfortunately, my energies have been focused elsewhere. I can't believe I haven't even written a blog post in the new year. Shame on me. I have been knitting up a storm on some tiny things I'll show you soon. I've also been procrastinating on finishing those adorable baby sweaters for my Seattle friends. The actual knitting part is done, the seaming and sewing is what remains. I honestly did start working on one sleeve last weekend but the selvedge edge is so messy its hard to find the right stitches to sew up. I should have slipped the first stitch of every row to make for a neater edge. I have created a self-imposed deadline of having these in the mail by January 31st.

This is my last week of 'freedom', classes at UofM start back today but my classes are on Mondays and Wednesdays this semester so I don't go back until Monday. I'm taking an English class, Macroeconomics and an Algebra class (barf). No morning classes this semester thank goodness, I'm just on campus from 5:30-8:30PM on Mondays and Wednesdays. The work isn't terrible it's just going to class and having to be around people I'd like to strangle. Each semester puts me closer to the end though, so yay for that. 

I haven't been baking as much but decided last night to make something together for Doug's game group that gets together on Thursday nights. I thumbed through my collection of baking cookbooks and found a recipe for Butterscotch Cashew bars from the Sweet Melissa Baking Book. The bars are made with a shortbread base with a butterscotch caramel on top and then sprinkled with whole, salted cashews. (which by the way I completely forgot how delicious cashews are, OMG).

They were really easy to make and totally addictive once you started eating them. Hope the guys like them!

Knitting until my hand stops working

Being a smart (lazy) person, I did not attempt to knit any holiday gifts for people. It's just too much pressure (on me, by me) and I can never remember to start early enough. Maybe next year? I have been furiously knitting though. The MKM has been selling items at Republic Coffee, our weekly hangout, to raise funds to help me pay for this. I can't thank my MKM friends enough for giving up their precious knitting time to make items to sell. They are made of awesome. These are some of the things I've been knitting recently (with stash yarn!)

Neckwarmer in an alpaca/wool blend

Ribbed man hat

Chunky button hat

Queen Anne's lace hat (I made this in October but forget to post a picture)

 Apple/pear baby hats 

Also in progress, baby sweaters for my very dear friends who are expecting twins in February. The green one needs to be blocked, have the sleeves seamed and buttons sewn on. The blueish/gray one is still being worked on. Both are knit in Madelinetosh sock, one in Thyme and one in Celadon. The sweater pattern is Maile and is free on Ravelry. I'm desperately trying to finish them in the next week or so, I wanted to finish them by Friday but that is so not going to happen.

I also have some new yarn porn to show. In order to save funds for the baby-making, I limited myself to  buying just two skeins of yarn in Seattle. This is Blue Moon Socks that Rock in Rosemary Rocks. I bought it at Churchmouse Yarn and Teas on Bainbridge Island.

This is Madelinetosh Vintage in Colbalt and I bought it at Little Knits in West Seattle.

Since I had already signed up for the Madelinetosh yarn club and couldn't cancel, I've gotten two shipments of it. Although I did sell some stashed yarn on Ravelry. This was the first installment, the colorway is Laurent and it's 80/20/10. It's very soft and springy and the color is so pretty in real life. I'm planning on using it to make a set of Snapdragon mittens and a tam.

This was the second shipment, it's Tosh DK and the colorway is Geode. I'm not sure what I'm going to make with it but I really like the color.

My poor hands have really felt the burn lately, I've been knitting so much my hands are stiff. I think I need to start wearing one of those hideous braces, at least at home.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Rewind - Swedish Visiting Cake

Okay despite the fact I have sweets coming out of my ears, I still made this cake. I made it back in April when it was first chosen but I took it somewhere else for others to eat and didn't get to taste it myself. Since I had almost everything I needed to make it in my pantry/fridge I choose it to rewind. My only alterations were to use orange zest instead of lemon and to up the almond extract from 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon. This cake is one of my favorite TWD recipes. It's so simple to make, takes almost no time and has such a good flavor. Perfect!

Made with love (a little bit of snark)

Two weeks the MKM had our Christmas party/ornament exchange. Each of us handmade a dozen ornaments to exchange. My original idea was to print off a black and white graphic of a whisk onto fabric and then sew little pillow style ornaments. Unfortunately neither my printer at home, nor my printer at work would cooperate. Plan B was to make the same kind of ornaments I made last year, the glitter cupcakes (instructions are found here at Bake It Pretty). Of course I ran out of the Martha brand glitter glue I bought last year and couldn't find any at Michael's so my cupcakes didn't look at 'frosty' as I wanted them to. 

Everyone made such cute ornaments and every time I put them on my tree I'll think about them!

We also had a potluck and I brought an orzo salad with baby spinach, feta, sun dried tomatoes, olives, etc. and I wanted to try something new so I made Nanaimo bars. You can read all about them here. I used the recipe on the City of Nanaimo's website  . I couldn't find any vanilla custard powder so I subbed vanilla instant pudding mix instead. These three layer bars were deeelicious. The base was coconut/almond/chocolate graham crackers, the middle was a vanilla frosting/custard and the top was chocolate ganache. Very yummy and pretty simple!