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.