Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
The hat that almost wasn't
Turns out, our foster beagle likes yarn. I learned this the hard way. If I were a better blogger (or a more patient person) I would have photographed the lesson of why not to leave knitting on the couch. However, when I walked into the room and saw the hat (still on the needles at least) on one side of the room and a ball of red yarn wrapped around two coffee tables and happily being chewed on by a beagle, it was all I could do to simply yell 'SAM, NO!' and try not to deafen my mother (I was on the phone with her when I walked in). It seems Sam thought the ball of yarn on the couch was a toy and jumped up to get it. I'm not sure how long he had it before I walked in, but it was either only a minute or two, or I just have really good luck, because the hat was still securely on the needles and the yarn, though no longer nice and tight in a center pull ball, was not knotted or tangled! How this happened, I will never know, but I was able to simply take the mess upstairs, grab the free end of the yarn and rewind it on the ball winder. The only real 'damage' was some extra dog hair embedded in the yarn (and ultra alpaca is hairy anyway, so who can tell dog from alpaca and wool fiber!)
So the hat isn't technically finished - I'm putting a knit lining, but I need someone with a big head to try it on to figure out where to stop the lining. (Damien self professes to have a 'bigger than average' head, so I don't want to end up with a lining that comes too low to where the bottom folds over on him) Hopefully either Jake's dad or David will do the trick. But the outside of the hat is all done and I love it. It's the Jacques Cousteau Hat.
I love the way the crown decreases! I would definitely make this hat again, though perhaps going up to a worsted yarn so it knit a little faster, though. This was my first time doing jogless color changes, and I think it looks pretty nice (though as Jake points out, very NY Giants - which makes me consider doing another with the same yarn and sending to my friend Kim's husband who is a HUGE Giants fan.)
So the hat isn't technically finished - I'm putting a knit lining, but I need someone with a big head to try it on to figure out where to stop the lining. (Damien self professes to have a 'bigger than average' head, so I don't want to end up with a lining that comes too low to where the bottom folds over on him) Hopefully either Jake's dad or David will do the trick. But the outside of the hat is all done and I love it. It's the Jacques Cousteau Hat.
I love the way the crown decreases! I would definitely make this hat again, though perhaps going up to a worsted yarn so it knit a little faster, though. This was my first time doing jogless color changes, and I think it looks pretty nice (though as Jake points out, very NY Giants - which makes me consider doing another with the same yarn and sending to my friend Kim's husband who is a HUGE Giants fan.)
Monday, December 29, 2008
Cheesecake!!
OK, finally, the recipe that yielded the best cheesecake I've ever made! And that is saying a lot, since I make an inordinately large number of cheesecakes. Jake's favorite desserts are cheesecake and pumpkin pie, so I make a lot of cheesecakes, pumpkin pies and the occasional pumpkin cheesecake.
My normal 'go to' recipe is a very old sour cream cheesecake from Bon Appetit. I have a photocopied version from my mom's print magazine, which is good because the recipe isn't online. It's from like a 1986 magazine, so I guess their recipe archives don't go that far back online. Problem with that recipe is that you have to bake it three times - once to crisp the crust (don't want to skip with this recipe, because you put nuts in the crust with the grahm crackers), one to bake the cake, and one to bake the sour cream topping. I was getting a late start as it was, and the timeline for that was just too long. I considered the Philly Cream Cheese recipe, but I only had 2 lbs of cream cheese and that recipe needs 2.5lbs. I was torn. I really wanted cheesecake but I was recipe-less. I checked out Alton Brown's recipe, he's one I trust to just go by recipe on, but his cooking was even longer than the Bon Appetit (really, Alton, 2 hours?!) and in my experience every cheesecake takes longer to bake than the recipe says anyway.
I have a huge collection of cookbooks, but no real motivation to flip through them all, so I pulled out my two favorites - How to Cook Everything and the Joy of Cooking. I struck out with Mark Bittman - his recipe needed 2.5lbs, too, but I found the gem in Joy of Cooking - it only needed 2 lbs of cream cheese and was from a trusted source, so off to the kitchen I went, making just a few modifications of my own.
Carly's Creamy Cheesecake
(The original is 'Creamy Water-Bath Cheesecake' on page 980 of the 1997 printing of Joy of Cooking)
Ingredients:
2lbs cream cheese
1-1/3 c sugar
4 large eggs
1/4 c heavy cream
1/4 c sour cream
1/2 t. pure lemon extract (really, don't use the imitation!!)
2-4 t. vanilla (2 if you are using pure extract purchased, closer to 4 if using homemade vanilla - recipe follows)
Preheat oven to 325F, Fill a tea kettle with water and set to boil. (If you have time, set out eggs & cream cheese to come to room temperature, I didn't and it certainy didn't hurt the finished product!)
Make any cheesecake crust you like - shortbread or graham cracker (the Joy recipe makes this crustless). Press crust into the bottom of a 9" springform pan. I used a basic graham cracker crust with a little bit of sugar and nutmeg mixed in. I did not toast the crust.
In large bowl, beat 2lbs of cream cheese until smooth. I went about 90 seconds with the paddle set to 6 on my KitchenAid - obviously this will take longer with a hand mixer.
Add sugar and beat another 1-2 minutes until creamy and lightened.
Add eggs 1 at a time, mixing just until incorporated (I did this on speed 3 on the mixer) and scraping the bowl after each egg.
Add the balance of the ingredients and beat on low speed until fully mixed (again I did this on speed 3).
Spread the filling into the springform.
If you have a less-than tight springform, wrap the bottom and sides of the springform with aluminum foil. (My springform is nice and tight, so I skipped this.) Place the springform in a large roasting pan (or any pan at least as deep as the springform and sufficiently wide). Place roasting pan in the oven, then pour water from the kettle into the baking pan until it is 1/2 way up the side of the springform. BE CAREFUL when you push the oven rack back in so as not to splash water from the pan onto the top of the cheesecake!!
Bake until the edges of the cheesecake are set but center is still 'slightly' jiggly. I really hate that type of instruction, because how jiggly is 'slightly' jiggly?! In my case, I baked until only about a 2" ring in the center jiggled when shaken and the rest of the cake was set - about 1h20min. Turn off the oven, prop the oven door open (use a wooden spoon if your oven door doesn't have a partially open setting) and let the cake sit in the oven for another 30 minutes (the recipe says 1 hour, but I was tired and 30 minutes was the best I could do before needed to go to bed!) Remove from the waterbath and cool completely on a rack. When cool, cover tightly and refrigerate at least 6 hours before cutting and enjoying!
I promise you, this is the smoothest, creamiest cheesecake you'll ever have, while still having a nice density to it - I'm not a fan of the really fluffy cheesecakes, myself!
We made both a blueberry and a raspberry sauce to serve with the cheesecake, though the raspberry was the clear winner :)
Our easy sauce is in a 1.5qt saucepan, place a few tablespoons of sugar, 1c or so of frozen berries and ~1/4 c liquer (for the raspberry sauce we used Couintreau, for the blueberry we used black currant liqour). Bring to a boil and let cook at a rolling boil for ~10 minutes, let cool before refrigerating.
Sarah wanted to know about homemade vanilla extract, and it's pretty simple. We tried it once when we had two open bottles of vodka at the house. Simply use 1 vanilla bean per 200mL of vodka you are using (approximately 1/4 of a fifth of vodka). Split the bean(s), but don't scrape the insides and drop the beans into the bottle of vodka (I use FRIS). Store in a cool dark place until the vodka is brown - and there is your homemade vanilla! When I make it, it always ends up less concentrated than store bought (you can tell by the color) no matter how long I let it 'steep', so I just use a little more when I cook with it.
Sorry I don't have pretty step by step photos like over at the cooking blogs. . . I had no idea the recipe would be share-worthy (and even if I did, did I mention that I was very tired? never start a cheesecake at 9:30pm!) Let me know if you try it!!
My normal 'go to' recipe is a very old sour cream cheesecake from Bon Appetit. I have a photocopied version from my mom's print magazine, which is good because the recipe isn't online. It's from like a 1986 magazine, so I guess their recipe archives don't go that far back online. Problem with that recipe is that you have to bake it three times - once to crisp the crust (don't want to skip with this recipe, because you put nuts in the crust with the grahm crackers), one to bake the cake, and one to bake the sour cream topping. I was getting a late start as it was, and the timeline for that was just too long. I considered the Philly Cream Cheese recipe, but I only had 2 lbs of cream cheese and that recipe needs 2.5lbs. I was torn. I really wanted cheesecake but I was recipe-less. I checked out Alton Brown's recipe, he's one I trust to just go by recipe on, but his cooking was even longer than the Bon Appetit (really, Alton, 2 hours?!) and in my experience every cheesecake takes longer to bake than the recipe says anyway.
I have a huge collection of cookbooks, but no real motivation to flip through them all, so I pulled out my two favorites - How to Cook Everything and the Joy of Cooking. I struck out with Mark Bittman - his recipe needed 2.5lbs, too, but I found the gem in Joy of Cooking - it only needed 2 lbs of cream cheese and was from a trusted source, so off to the kitchen I went, making just a few modifications of my own.
Carly's Creamy Cheesecake
(The original is 'Creamy Water-Bath Cheesecake' on page 980 of the 1997 printing of Joy of Cooking)
Ingredients:
2lbs cream cheese
1-1/3 c sugar
4 large eggs
1/4 c heavy cream
1/4 c sour cream
1/2 t. pure lemon extract (really, don't use the imitation!!)
2-4 t. vanilla (2 if you are using pure extract purchased, closer to 4 if using homemade vanilla - recipe follows)
Preheat oven to 325F, Fill a tea kettle with water and set to boil. (If you have time, set out eggs & cream cheese to come to room temperature, I didn't and it certainy didn't hurt the finished product!)
Make any cheesecake crust you like - shortbread or graham cracker (the Joy recipe makes this crustless). Press crust into the bottom of a 9" springform pan. I used a basic graham cracker crust with a little bit of sugar and nutmeg mixed in. I did not toast the crust.
In large bowl, beat 2lbs of cream cheese until smooth. I went about 90 seconds with the paddle set to 6 on my KitchenAid - obviously this will take longer with a hand mixer.
Add sugar and beat another 1-2 minutes until creamy and lightened.
Add eggs 1 at a time, mixing just until incorporated (I did this on speed 3 on the mixer) and scraping the bowl after each egg.
Add the balance of the ingredients and beat on low speed until fully mixed (again I did this on speed 3).
Spread the filling into the springform.
If you have a less-than tight springform, wrap the bottom and sides of the springform with aluminum foil. (My springform is nice and tight, so I skipped this.) Place the springform in a large roasting pan (or any pan at least as deep as the springform and sufficiently wide). Place roasting pan in the oven, then pour water from the kettle into the baking pan until it is 1/2 way up the side of the springform. BE CAREFUL when you push the oven rack back in so as not to splash water from the pan onto the top of the cheesecake!!
Bake until the edges of the cheesecake are set but center is still 'slightly' jiggly. I really hate that type of instruction, because how jiggly is 'slightly' jiggly?! In my case, I baked until only about a 2" ring in the center jiggled when shaken and the rest of the cake was set - about 1h20min. Turn off the oven, prop the oven door open (use a wooden spoon if your oven door doesn't have a partially open setting) and let the cake sit in the oven for another 30 minutes (the recipe says 1 hour, but I was tired and 30 minutes was the best I could do before needed to go to bed!) Remove from the waterbath and cool completely on a rack. When cool, cover tightly and refrigerate at least 6 hours before cutting and enjoying!
I promise you, this is the smoothest, creamiest cheesecake you'll ever have, while still having a nice density to it - I'm not a fan of the really fluffy cheesecakes, myself!
We made both a blueberry and a raspberry sauce to serve with the cheesecake, though the raspberry was the clear winner :)
Our easy sauce is in a 1.5qt saucepan, place a few tablespoons of sugar, 1c or so of frozen berries and ~1/4 c liquer (for the raspberry sauce we used Couintreau, for the blueberry we used black currant liqour). Bring to a boil and let cook at a rolling boil for ~10 minutes, let cool before refrigerating.
Sarah wanted to know about homemade vanilla extract, and it's pretty simple. We tried it once when we had two open bottles of vodka at the house. Simply use 1 vanilla bean per 200mL of vodka you are using (approximately 1/4 of a fifth of vodka). Split the bean(s), but don't scrape the insides and drop the beans into the bottle of vodka (I use FRIS). Store in a cool dark place until the vodka is brown - and there is your homemade vanilla! When I make it, it always ends up less concentrated than store bought (you can tell by the color) no matter how long I let it 'steep', so I just use a little more when I cook with it.
Sorry I don't have pretty step by step photos like over at the cooking blogs. . . I had no idea the recipe would be share-worthy (and even if I did, did I mention that I was very tired? never start a cheesecake at 9:30pm!) Let me know if you try it!!
Saturday, December 27, 2008
1 down, Too Many to go
I am losing hope of completing everything OTN before year's end.
Truth be told, I wasn't that confident from the moment I declared I'd try, but with 4 days left, I'm pretty sure even if I knit continually I'd not finish. I did finish mom's second pair of socks, which is good since she leaves in the morning. They were my own twist on a basic rib, and I quite like them. They took just over a skein of the Louet I was using and I have a skein left, so I might make them again for me!
(more pictures on Rav here)
The picture is taken with my new camera (this one). I can't decide how I like it - I need to do some serious playing with it to decide if I want to return it in the 30 day window I get.
Since I gave up hope of wrapping things up, I cast on two new projects tonite! They both have deadlines for completion. One is a secret and will have to wait to be revealed, but the other is this nifty hat for our friend in Alaska. He is the one who crab fishes and sent us all this crab in June. He sent us some King Crab a few weeks ago, so I'm sending him a hat to help keep warm when he heads back out on the boat January 27. I'm using Ultra Alpaca Light and I'm going to add an inner liner knit with the same yarn. That would be two layers of alpaca/wool blend in sport weight, which was pretty much the warmest thing I could come up with. Hopefully he likes it. The only down side is small yarn and small needles is much slower going than a typical hat!
Unfortunately, the reason I had time to cast on two new projects today is because time wasn't spent sewing. I promised mom I'd make her curtains while she was here if she found fabric she liked. Nothing tricky - cafe curtains for her kitchen. As is usual, the sewing was easy, the cutting straight lines from my fabric took an ungodly amount of time! I finished two of four bottom panels and one of two valances before my bobbin needed refilling, at which point I proceeded to break the bobbin lift cam on my machine. It's fixable, but the place I know to order parts from is in Samoa, so it'll take a while to get to me. So mom is going home with curtains for one window and a promise for the curtains for the 2nd. She'd probably rather have had the promise of the 2nd sock instead, since she really hates her current curtains. I hope she'll send me a picture when she hangs them, because they turned out quite well, if I do say so myself!
Cheesecake and vanilla to come tomorrow after mom is safely at the airport!
Truth be told, I wasn't that confident from the moment I declared I'd try, but with 4 days left, I'm pretty sure even if I knit continually I'd not finish. I did finish mom's second pair of socks, which is good since she leaves in the morning. They were my own twist on a basic rib, and I quite like them. They took just over a skein of the Louet I was using and I have a skein left, so I might make them again for me!
(more pictures on Rav here)The picture is taken with my new camera (this one). I can't decide how I like it - I need to do some serious playing with it to decide if I want to return it in the 30 day window I get.
Since I gave up hope of wrapping things up, I cast on two new projects tonite! They both have deadlines for completion. One is a secret and will have to wait to be revealed, but the other is this nifty hat for our friend in Alaska. He is the one who crab fishes and sent us all this crab in June. He sent us some King Crab a few weeks ago, so I'm sending him a hat to help keep warm when he heads back out on the boat January 27. I'm using Ultra Alpaca Light and I'm going to add an inner liner knit with the same yarn. That would be two layers of alpaca/wool blend in sport weight, which was pretty much the warmest thing I could come up with. Hopefully he likes it. The only down side is small yarn and small needles is much slower going than a typical hat!
Unfortunately, the reason I had time to cast on two new projects today is because time wasn't spent sewing. I promised mom I'd make her curtains while she was here if she found fabric she liked. Nothing tricky - cafe curtains for her kitchen. As is usual, the sewing was easy, the cutting straight lines from my fabric took an ungodly amount of time! I finished two of four bottom panels and one of two valances before my bobbin needed refilling, at which point I proceeded to break the bobbin lift cam on my machine. It's fixable, but the place I know to order parts from is in Samoa, so it'll take a while to get to me. So mom is going home with curtains for one window and a promise for the curtains for the 2nd. She'd probably rather have had the promise of the 2nd sock instead, since she really hates her current curtains. I hope she'll send me a picture when she hangs them, because they turned out quite well, if I do say so myself!
Cheesecake and vanilla to come tomorrow after mom is safely at the airport!
Just stopping in to share cuteness. . . .
Still owe you some cheesecake (and vanilla!) recipes, but am busily trying to entertain mom and finish sewing her curtains. But in playing with my new camera on Christmas morning, I have some cute poochie pics that must be shared!
Zosia, who cannot WAIT to get her mouth on the new squeaky pheasant!
Sam, who wasted no time tearing into his toy (which matches his collar, coincidentally!)
Jimmy Ray hates the new camera as much as the old, so no photos of him :(
Hope you're enjoying your weekend!
Zosia, who cannot WAIT to get her mouth on the new squeaky pheasant!
Sam, who wasted no time tearing into his toy (which matches his collar, coincidentally!)
Jimmy Ray hates the new camera as much as the old, so no photos of him :(
Hope you're enjoying your weekend!
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Merry Christmas!
I hope you all have a wonderful and joyous Christmas!
My mom's 2nd socks did not get finished, so she got one in a stocking with a promise that the mate would be done before she left Virginia. I probably would have finished them if I hadn't had poor cheesecake baking scheduling skills which kept me up past my bedtime Tuesday. Totally worth it though, as it was possibly the best cheesecake I've ever made (and I'm a pretty good cheesecake maker, if I do say so myself!) I used homemade vanilla extract, to boot! I'll share the recipe after we open gifts! We just opened stockings and now Jake is making pancakes!
Enjoy your day!
My mom's 2nd socks did not get finished, so she got one in a stocking with a promise that the mate would be done before she left Virginia. I probably would have finished them if I hadn't had poor cheesecake baking scheduling skills which kept me up past my bedtime Tuesday. Totally worth it though, as it was possibly the best cheesecake I've ever made (and I'm a pretty good cheesecake maker, if I do say so myself!) I used homemade vanilla extract, to boot! I'll share the recipe after we open gifts! We just opened stockings and now Jake is making pancakes!
Enjoy your day!
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Z is for Zosia
Yes, I got an easy out for a hard letter! My pooch Zosia will wrap up the year of the ABC Along! Even though I wasn't the best about keeping current, I really had fun doing this and I hope someone hosts it for 2009!
I let you take the picture, now let me go back to sleep!
Friday, December 19, 2008
Meet Sam!
We have a new addition to the house, temporarily. Not sure if I mentioned before that we were looking at getting into dog fostering, but we've been thinking about it for a while. Then we saw on the website of where we board our dogs (she runs a beagle rescue, too) a request for fosters over the Holidays. A lot of the dogs through her rescue stay at her home with the dogs she boards, which takes away from how many paid boarders she can have. So they were hoping to find holiday homes, and so we called yesterday and today brought home Sam!
He was a stray, so they don't know much about him. He's a little skinny, but otherwise healthy!
He's not housebroken, so that will be a bit tough to work on, but all 3 pooches are getting along for now. Sam has to get a bath tonite, we'll see if he still likes us after that!
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
More projects
(This post someone disappeared from my blog. . . . . so I'm reposting - thank goodnes for bloglines :)!)
At the gym last Wednesday night, Jake decided that a cowl to wear with his leather jacket. I had suggested it before and he said no, but I guess Wednesday was a particularly cold morning and changed his mind. I pulled out some color options from the (ever growing) malabrigo stash, he chose the Churra. I gave him two choices of cowls. He chose the Morningside pattern.
I cast on during lunch Thursday and a few hours later -
I absolutely adore the pattern. Super simple, super quick, super fantstic for showing off a neat yarn. It's sometimes so hard to find a pattern that doesn't compete with the yarn. I made no mods, beyond knitting an extra 1/2 inch or so before I bound off.
Jake really seems to enjoy it, too (except that it messes up his hair a bit in the back!). It's nice that he honestly WANTs the stuff I knit for him, not that he just 'lets' me do it to give me something to do! Looks pretty good, eh?
I finished a pair of socks for mom, too. After this post, I ended up finding someone destashing some worsted Louet Gems for a steal ($19 for 3 skeins shipped priority!) They aren't the most exciting things, but mom wants warm socks to wear with boots and these fit the bill! The pattern is Thuja, I just did it over fewer stitches to fit a ladies foot!
This leaves Wisp #1, Herringbone Socks, Jake's socks, Jake's sweater, sock pair #2 for mom, my lace scarf and my blue shrug as active projects and my goal is to wrap them up before the new year. I'm not counting goddess, because it's definitely hibernating for warmer weather! I only have 2 more work days until year end, that leaves plenty of time for knitting this all up, right?
At the gym last Wednesday night, Jake decided that a cowl to wear with his leather jacket. I had suggested it before and he said no, but I guess Wednesday was a particularly cold morning and changed his mind. I pulled out some color options from the (ever growing) malabrigo stash, he chose the Churra. I gave him two choices of cowls. He chose the Morningside pattern.
I cast on during lunch Thursday and a few hours later -
I absolutely adore the pattern. Super simple, super quick, super fantstic for showing off a neat yarn. It's sometimes so hard to find a pattern that doesn't compete with the yarn. I made no mods, beyond knitting an extra 1/2 inch or so before I bound off.Jake really seems to enjoy it, too (except that it messes up his hair a bit in the back!). It's nice that he honestly WANTs the stuff I knit for him, not that he just 'lets' me do it to give me something to do! Looks pretty good, eh?
I finished a pair of socks for mom, too. After this post, I ended up finding someone destashing some worsted Louet Gems for a steal ($19 for 3 skeins shipped priority!) They aren't the most exciting things, but mom wants warm socks to wear with boots and these fit the bill! The pattern is Thuja, I just did it over fewer stitches to fit a ladies foot!This leaves Wisp #1, Herringbone Socks, Jake's socks, Jake's sweater, sock pair #2 for mom, my lace scarf and my blue shrug as active projects and my goal is to wrap them up before the new year. I'm not counting goddess, because it's definitely hibernating for warmer weather! I only have 2 more work days until year end, that leaves plenty of time for knitting this all up, right?
Wasted Day
I was off work Monday - using up vacation. I ran some errands and planned to spend the rest of the day knitting socks for mom. I LOVED the Fargyle pattern when Knitty came out, so that's what I wanted to do. Boy, was I disappointed :( 
I haven't actually frogged it yet, because I'm just going to knit from it rather than reballing. Given mom arrives in just a few days, pair #2 will be a simple rib with a little cable thrown in for interest! The yarn is Worsted Loet Gems, and it is pretty FAB!
I have photos of a few other projects to share soon!
I haven't actually frogged it yet, because I'm just going to knit from it rather than reballing. Given mom arrives in just a few days, pair #2 will be a simple rib with a little cable thrown in for interest! The yarn is Worsted Loet Gems, and it is pretty FAB!I have photos of a few other projects to share soon!
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