Today, it's all about the cooking...

So the knitting is just puttering along. I'm still working on The Classic Shirt, its bit of a mission for a plain ol' stocking stitch garment. It has 11 separate knitted pieces! Thank goodness I sew up as I go, that's all I can say, I think I'd throw in the towel otherwise! So while we're all waiting for that to be finished I have heaps of cooking to show you. Shall we begin? I think so...

Slow Cooker Lamb Goulash
This is what Amy and I had for dinner tonight. It was so good. The lamb was tender, the sauce was unctuous, the potatoes were creamy and delicious. I got the recipe from a blog run by my best friend from high school, Sharyn. We lost touch over the years, but thanks to the fantasticness that is facebook we found eachother again. Anyway, she runs this blog devoted to crockpot cookery. (Among other things, I think she's become a bit entrepreneurial since we last spoke.) Here's a link to the recipe and thereby the blog, follow her, its a good thing!


Gigantes Plaki
Oh. My. Goodness. You have got to try this! Its like baked beans, but the baked beans they served to Zeus on Mt Olympus. They are so good. Both Amy and I are addicted to them, they have become a regular Saturday night meal. I got the recipes from a Jamie Oliver cook book called Jamie Does Spain, Italy, Sweden, Morrocco, Greece and France.

This serves 6.

2 tins butter beans
olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 rashers bacon, chopped (optional, but you'll regret leaving it out if you do.)
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
4 tomatoes, chopped
1 tbsp tomato puree (I use paste, its richer.)
bunch of flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 tin tomatoes
red wine vinegar
salt and black pepper
feta cheese

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Heat oil in a casserole that can go on an element and in the oven. Fry onion and bacon until soft, not coloured. Stir in garlic , cook for a few more moments. Add carrots, fresh tomatoes, tinned tomatoes and one tin of water, tomatoe puree and bay leaves. Stir in parsley, add a splach of vinegar, a good pinch of salt and pepper and bring to the boil, simmer for 10 minutes. Add the beans, cover with a lid and cook in the oven for about an hour. The beans should be really soft and most of the liquid absorbed. Taste and season if required.

Serve hot or cold, but honestly go hot all the way. Sprinkle with crumbled feta. So. Good!

Nutella Cupcakes
I made these today. They are more like a truffle cake than a sponge, if you know what I mean. I got the recipe from here. They are very rich and very yummy. Try them, you won't regret it!








And finally - Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

At the moment I have a little wee lemon tree out the back, just laden with lovely, juicy lemons and this was just the recipe to take care of a couple of them. And since Dan loves lemon meringue pie, it was winner all the way around. It's a relatively easy recipe, its just fiddly, but it all worth it! Here is the recipe.






So now, Amy and I are hunkered down in our little house, waiting for the polar blast to hit Tauranga. She's working on an internal assessment for Classics, and I'm just about to start getting ready for work tomorrow. Oh and I have some proud mummy news. Amy has been accepted to study Law! Of course, its conditional on her passing NCEA Level 3, but that's not going to be a problem. I'm very proud of her. I am very lucky to have such brilliant children!

What I did during the holidays.

For me, these holidays have been nothing short of perfect. I've stayed home most of the time, watching telly, knitting and cooking. The weather has been lovely, not too cold, not too wet, just right for knitting actually. I have been out for a movie and coffee with the Lovely Susi, and yes she loved her cardi.  But really, that's about it. Its been great! So, this is what I've been up to:

The Little Boyfriend's mitts:

These were a very quick knit. They were done in a weekend, and are now keeping his hands warm in Hamilton. The pattern is Camilla by Spillyjane. I was turned on to Spillyjane's beautiful colourwork by the Yarn Harlot and I have remained in awe of the woman's work. I love the delicacy of her designs, they are right up my alley. When I get back into knitting socks, this is where I'll be going for patterns.

The yarn I used was Shepherd Baby Wool Merino 4ply in black, light blue and pale green. I thought it looked boyish, but smart and Callum agreed.

Samuel Crowe:

Samuel is a surprise gift for Beka, my almost daughter-in-law. He has taken just about two weeks to complete, and my hands are killing me with RSI due to the tight gauge he is worked in, but I think he is totally worth it. Of course, now Hamish wants one (along with a Cthulu, but that's another story.) If he's lucky he might get it for Christmas.

This pattern is available in Knitted Pirates, Princesses, Witches, Wizards and Fairies by Annette Hefford. This is a lovely book of soft toys. The patterns are not easy, but if you just follow the instructions, and don't second guess the author, everything turns out perfectly. I am really happy with Samuel and it will be a wrench to give him away.

Classic Shirt:

I've been working on this garment for a while now. I have to admit, I wasn't enjoying knitting it. Last night I decided to change from using Addi Turbo needles to bamboo ones and I am liking it a whole lot more. I think that the yarn was just too slippy for the Addis. Hopefully it will go a lot quicker now.

The garment is from Mother-Daughter Knits by Sally Melville and Caddy Melville Ledbetter. (Ravelry link here.) Its designed along the lines of a business shirt and is knitted in fine yarn at a relatively large gauge to give the appropriate drape and lightness. I'm using Filatura di Crossa Baby Kid Extra, which is a mohair yarn with a nylon binder thread. It is dandelion-clock-soft and so fine, I am loving the yarn beyond reason. Lynnette ordered the yarn in for me, as she doesn't carry it, I love that she can do this!

Actually the Classic Shirt is not far off finished, so its time to find another project and I think I'm going to go with the Greenfield Cardigan from New England Knits. I like a lot about this cardi, not the least of which is that is is designed in garter stitch, which I love! It's knitted in Double Knit so I think I'll try the new yarn we got in at the shop by Shepherd in either Zest or Forest. I really like the Blood colourway, but with the leaf detail, I think a plant-ish colourway is better.

I've been cooking too, as you would expect. We haven't really tried any new recipes over the past week or two. I'm kind of consolidating what I've learnt and so I've been practicing. But next week it's all on, with a number of newbies to try, I can't wait. I do have a couple of things to show you though. First up is my lasagne. I don't have a recipe for this as I do it by feel. Its not particularly flash, but it is yummy, gooey and filling, so its great for a family.

Ingredients
mince
bottle of pasta sauce
milk (a couple of cups, I think)
english mustard powder (I use Colmans)
a pinch of nutmeg
cornflour (about a heaped tablespoon mixed to a slurry with milk)
cheese (about a grater-full, I suppose a cup or two)
lasagne sheets (the instant ones)

Brown the mince, pour over a jar of pasta sauce and leave to simmer covered until everything else is done.
Bring the milk to the boil, with a pinch of nutmeg. Mix the cornflour and mustard to a slurry with milk, mix into the boiling milk and stir until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in most of the cheese.
Pour a half cup of water into the bottom of a lasagne dish and lay in some lasagne sheets to cover the bottom. Layer a third of the mince, cover with more lasagne sheets. Layer a third of the the cheese sauce. You can add spinach and/or mushrooms here, we like both. Cover with lasagne sheets. Continue in this way, finishing with a layer of cheese sauce, cover this top layer with the rest of the grated cheese.
Bake for about 45 minutes, until the top is golden and bubbly, at 175 degrees.

Yesterday, once I'd finished Samuel, I needed a break from knitting, so I took some pain relief and did some baking. Now, I'm not really bad a baking, I really enjoy it, well I really enjoy eating it! Anyway, yesterday I made some of these:

These are Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting and OMG they are gosh-darned delicious. I got the recipe here.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups sifted flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1 bottle red food colouring (if you're worried about colourings, you can use beetroot juice)

1/2 cup softened butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla 

1 cup buttermilk (recipe here)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp white vinegar

Preheat oven to 175 degrees. Line cupcake tins.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt, set aside. Mix food colouring and cocoa powder into a smooth paste, set aside.

Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and the cocoa paste. Scrape down the bowl as you go.

Add the dry ingredients alternatively with the buttermilk, ending with the dry ingredients. 

In a small bowl, mix vinegar and baking soda, add to the battter and stir well to combine.

Fill cupcake tins until about 3/4 full.

Bake for about 20 minutes, test with a skewer, if it pulls out clean they are done, if not cook for longer.

Allow to cool completely on a rack before frosting with cream cheese frosting

Cream Cheese Frosting

100g butter

150g cream cheese

3 3/4 cups icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla 

Beat butter until it is light and fluffy, add the cream cheese, beat again. Slowly add the icing sugar, continuing to beat. Beat in the vanilla and contine to beat until light in colour and fluffy.

First day of the holidays! I couldn't be more happy!

Its been a productive time here at Casa Helen. Lots of stuff has been knitted and plans have been made. I've also bought a shed-load of new books and magazines. You know what they say, "she who dies with the most yarn/fabric/books, wins!" Well I don't stash yarn or fabric, but if I'm competing in books, I am an Olympic Gold medalist!





As for the knitting, I've finished the Lovely Susi's cardi. It is just gorgeous. Soft, smooshy and orange! Even lying on the floor of the lounge it looks comfy, so I can't wait to see it on her! The yarn is Naturally Aran Tweed, which I bought from the Awesome Lynette. Look at how beautifully it shows the cable, even with the uneven texture of the tweedy yarn.







I even managed to get just the perfect buttons. They match beautifully and really finish the garment. It always amazes me, how the wrong buttons can really ruin a garment. I'm not usually very good at choosing buttons, but the Awesome Lynette is. She usually picks my buttons, but not this time. These were the first buttons I chose and and for the first time ever I got it right! Go me!

And of course, it gets the obligatory inspection by the resident Evil Genius. He approves, so there you go, Lovely Susi, you can have your cardi!










The Little Boyfriend's birthday is coming up in early August, and he loves me to knit for him, which is lovely since the daughter he belongs to does not! This year he is getting a hat, mitts and a jumper. The jumper is a wee way off, but the hat and mitts are almost done. The hat is a free pattern from Coco Knits. I chose her Simple Slouchy Hat, which does what it says on the can. So simple, so easy, so practical. I got it done in an evening! The yarn I chose was Shepherd Baby Wool Merino 4 ply in three colours, to get the gauge, and the effect I wanted, as well, I knew that the mittens would be in 4 ply, so it all worked out perfectly. It's a bit difficult to see, but I chose black, pale buttery green and a warm pale blue. The effect is gloriously tweedy and quite boy-ish.

For the mittens I used a Spillyjane pattern. I would have liked to do her bacon mittens, or perhaps the pints, especially since he is uni student, but I wasn't sure he'd understand the joke, or he'd think I was lame, which is probably closer to the mark. Instead I chose a tiled pattern which is knitting up so fast! As long as he doesn't find out the pattern has a girl's name, I should be ok! Anyway, I think they're knitting up quite manly.

I reckon I'll get these finished by bedtime tonight, which means it's time for new projects! And yup that means....here are the books!

So first up is Charmed Knits by Alison Hansel.  In it is the House School Jersey, which I will knit for the Little Boyfriend in Ravenclaw colours, because us Ravenclaws have to stick together!

For the Potter fan, this book is awesome! None of the patterns are exceptionally difficult, but most are imaginative and fun. I especially like Molly Weasley's cardigan with the fantastic sleeves, and of course Dobby socks. I'm seeing at least the socks in my very near future!

Next is Little Red in the City by Ysolda Teague. This is a delightful collection of pattens. I love Ysolda's quirky patterns, I've knit quite a few of them for myself and as gifts. This time, she has modelled her patterns not just on herself, but on a plus size model AND has made appropriate changes to her patterns for us larger girls (finally!) I reckon there are about 4 patterns in this book that I will eventually knit for myself, including the gorgeously red cape/cardi Melia.

The next one is Knitting Plus by Lisa Shroyer. This book is targetted at those of us who are not meanly built. Lisa writes simple, concise explanations of how her fitting system works, and follows that up with a collection of patterns that are flattering and fashion forward. There are a couple of garments I'll be doing from this book as well. Of course this means that I might have to give up sleeping, and I wish someone would come and take my credit card away!

So, what I'm actually starting on is in this book :

I know! So cute! I'm knitting a pirate for Beka the Gorgeous. Its a lovely book, ideal for fun gifts for kids of all ages. The fairies and princesses are beautifully dressed, the wizard is suitably beardy, AND they all have knickers! Its awesome! I got mine from the Awesome Lynette but she is waiting for more stock to come in, in the meantime if you want one fishpond has it.

So thats it for today, I'm off to enjoy doing nothing on a day that is beautifully sunny, if a little cold. Kia ora!

Wait 'til I tell you what happened!

So, it's been a while, and it may have seemed that I was one of those fly-by-night bloggers (not naming any names or anything...) But no, the reason behind the lack of posting is - I dropped my phone in the loo. I'll just sit over here and wait while you laugh....

So we dried the phone out in the hotwater cupboard in a jar of rice, and everything works except the usb slot and the earphone jack. The upshot of this is that it took me a week to realise that I could email myself the photos. Anyway, its off to Telecom tomorrow, yay for phone insurance!

Lets catch up on the knitting.

This is a finished Not Yellow Coat:

No, I agree, this is not the best photo in the world, but I am really happy with it, now I just wish it would get cold enough to wear it. It weighs a ton! It used 36 balls of Zara Plus, and it knitted up so quickly. I knitted it pretty much to pattern, except for I added 20 stitches to each front to get more wrap-age.
Here is the button I finally decided on:

It has a bone/stone look to it and it suits just great! I am so excited, I can't wait to wear it, even if it means walking around the section in the middle of the night!

Now that the Not Yellow Coat is finished I'm knitting The Lovely Susi her Sprout (Ravelry link here.) Its coming on so fast, I reckon it will be finished next weekend. She chose a lovely burnt orange Aran Tweed by Naturally. Its just a lovely cushy, squishy two ply felted yarn and I highly recommend it. It feels soft and luxurious and it has beautiful stitch definition. Here - see what I mean?

Gorgeous, no? Here it is again modeled by the local spokescat, Whiskers:

Well, that's the knitting caught up on, what have I been cooking? Well, mainly I've been cooking the same recipes again and again to get them better each time. But tonight I cooked something from the legendary Julia Child and it was delicious! I don't have a photo, because, well, its a stew and they all look the same if we're honest. But my goodness! The flavour!

Carbonnades a la Flamande (Link to Julie/Julia Project)
The measurements are in imperial, and I can't be arsed converting, sorry!:

3 lb chuck steak
2-3 tbl vege oil
1.5 lbs sliced onions
4 cloves smashed garlic
salt and pepper
0.5 pint beef stock
1 pint lager
1 tbl light brown sugar
bouquet garni containing parsley, thyme and bay
0.75 oz cornflour
2 tbl red wine vinegar

Heat oven to 175 degrees C
So, you slice the meat and fry it in the oil, just browning it, in small batches. Hold over.
Fry the onions for about 10 minutes in the remaining oil, adding more if needed. The onions should be soft and jammy. Take from heat stir in salt, pepper and garlic.
Layer onion, meat, onion again and meat again.
Pour over heated beef stock and lager. The meat should be just covered.
Bring to a simmer on the stove top, cover and place in oven for 2.5 hours.
The meat should be meltingly tender, and you should be able to cut it with a fork. Remove from oven. Pour off the gravy into a saucepan, bring to the boil and thicken with a cornflour slurry made with the vinegar. Pour over the meat.

I served it with mashed potatoes, but it would be awesome with buttered noodles too.

What I did today...

So, today I did something I would never have thought I could. I'll give you a clue:

See that? That's Mauao. From the air! Out the window of a small aeroplane. Today I went flying with High. And I only cried once, when we took off. It's a lot like being attached to a string, being in a plane. You kind of bounce around and wibble around  in the air, but you are kind of suspended. Its pretty cool. So this post is really just going to be a slideshow of sorts, so please bear with me. Normal broadcasts will resume shortly.




So, here's High being all piloty and everything:

and filling the gas tank:

The plan was to fly to Taupo, then to White Island and then home, but there was something wrong with the radio thing (?!) so we couldn't go. Instead we flew around Tauranga and looked at stuff:

This is over Bethlehem, you can see Bethlehem College as the collection of white buildings towards the centre top of the photo.

And this is Matakana Island.

And here are a couple of photos that I don't know where I am at all:

Awesome eh?! I'm kind of excited to go again now. And absolutely bloody terrified!

As for the knitting, the Not Yellow Coat and I are having words today. First I miss-crossed a cable, so I had to drop back and pick it up right way round. Then, I knitted like a lunatic and only realised after 20 rows that I should have started to shape the neckline 10 rows before. I have only just finished ripping back and picking up... let's be honest here, I am not talking to this coat until it starts behaving itself, hmpf!

Everybody say "Hi!" to Flyboy!

So, I think winter is over. I think it lasted about to days, maximum. Which is kind of disappointing considering that I'm knitting a huge winter coat! Speaking of which, its coming along quite nicely, thank you. I now have the back, left front and left sleeve all knitted, all sewn up and ends tucked away. It is soooo heavy! Which is  unsurprising considering it has a kilo of yarn in it (give or take) so far. I've started the right front and I'm about half way up the body.

Amy and Totie went to their first funeral yesterday. Their Great-Grandma died late last week. She was their Dad's Grandma. I remember her from when Mike and I were married. She was a lovely lady. She had so many cats, all of whom ate different things, at different times. There was a time, too, that she brought up a baby starling. She was an amazing lady, and she will be sadly missed by her family.

Picture sourced from: http://www.thedearsurprise.com/?p=786

It is from this lady that my daughters are related to the Bounty mutineers. Her maiden name was Quintal, from her forebear Matthew Quintal. Matthew's two greatest claims to fame were that he was first sailor to be flogged on the trip to Tahiti, and then he scuttled the Bounty once the mutineers got to Pitcairn Island.

Flying High

If I may, I'd like to recommend a new blog to you. Its by my mate High. He's learning to fly. Its his first post ever, so be gentle.

Today's recipe is actually two recipes from Economy Gastronomy. Its an Allegra McEvedy recipe and it rocks the socks off the fox!

First of all you start with this:

Daube of Beef

 10 shallots
3 bay leaves
350g bacon chunks, chopped reasonably small
handful of thyme sprigs tied with string
5 cloves of garlic
olive oil
bottle of red wine
salt and pepper
2.5kg chuck steak or gravy beef
2 litres beef stock

Preheat oven to 170 degrees C. You can use either your biggest roasting pan or if you have a casserole big enough use that. It nneds to be able to go on the stove top and in the oven.

Fry together shallots, bay leaves, bacon,thyme and garlic, for about 10 minuts until shallots are translucent. When it starts getting sticky on the bottom, pour in the bottle of wine and scrape up the yumminess of the bottom of the pan. Simmer and reduce for about 10 minutes.

Cut the meat into pieces and season well with salt and pepper. Lay the meat over the top of the wine soaked veg and cover with beef stock. Bring bak to the boil, cover and pop into the oven for about 2 hours. Check for tenderness, if the meat is nice and soft take the lid off and cook in the oven for a further hour.

Serve with colcannon (mashed spuds with chopped spring onion stirred through) and steamed cabbage. So yummy.

You need to reserve about 400g of the meat and 700ml of the cooking liquid for the next recipe.

Pappardelle with Slow Cooked Beef and Mushrooms

the reserved meat and liquid
300g mushrooms
250g dried pappardelle or any pasta you fancy
salt and pepper
olive oil
1 tbsp butter
40g Parmesan, finely grated

for the salsa
400g tomatoes
basil
flat leaf parsley
1.5 tsp red wine vinegar

Put the meat and cooking liquid in a saucepan with the mushrooms and boil for about 30 minutes to reduce the  until the sauce is thick and sticky.

Cook the pasta in a big pot of boiling, salted water with a dash of olive oil.

Stir the meat mixture through the cooked pasta with most of the parmesan and butter. Serve in bowls topped with the salsa and a further sprinkle of parmesan.

For the salsa
Chop the tomatoes, basil and parsley. Toss in a bowl with the red wine vinegar.

It finally feels like winter...

Finally, in the middle of June we are having winter weather. It's been raining for the past two days, and last night it was cold enough for the heater to be lit. It has been a very long autumn this year, and as a knitter, I fully object! Hopefully now I'll be able to wear winter woolies, I can't wait!

It's Saturday today, and that meant that I worked at the shop this morning. It went so quickly, it was so busy! Courier Donna popped in, its always lovely to see her. She's knitting a set of Beatrix Potter toys for a friend, I can't wait to see them finished. I have seen parts (such as a duck's butt) but I can't wait to see them all done. Courier Donna is also going to knit the Yellow Coat. In fact she's the one who put me on to the pattern. Hopefully she'll start once she's finished the toys.

As for me and Not Yellow Coat ... I've now finished the back and the left front. I'm doing the left sleeve now. I do it this way, because I hate hate hate sewing up! If I make the pieces as they go together, I can sew a few seams and hide a few ends at a time. It seems easier. I have to say, with this rainy weather, it is no trouble at all to stay indoors and knit the day away!

 L- R Helen the Wife, Me, some strange woman I don't know,
some strange bloke I don't know

Tonight I tried another new recipe. This one I got from Helen the Wife. Here she is looking gorgeous when we went to a mutual friend's birthday dinner. Its strange, we have similar colouring and our names are exactly the same, except our surnames (obviously), and she's married to my subsequent husband, Stu the Lucky.

Anyway... this was delicious and soooo simple. It makes great use of packet mixes, which is great for easy weekday meals (which I must remember!) Amy and I thought the stuffing mix I chose could use a touch more herbage, and maybe some softened onions, but other than that ... yumm-o!

Beef Olives
Helen the Wife

6 Schnitzel
Stuffing mix (heck you could make your own
1 pkt gravy mix (I chose Brown Onion)

Lay the schnitzel pieces flat, cut off the fat. Mix up the stuffing mix and put a blob across one end of the meat. Roll up and place in casserole (I'm going to brown them in a frying pan next time just because I think the colour would be better). Mix up the gravy mix and pour over the meat, cover and cook at 180 degrees for about an hour.

I served this with mash and a green salad. We will definately be having this again.