Affirmative!

I for some reason haven’t finished a knitted object in a while. I did finish a pair of socks, but I don’t really count them. Well I suppose I do, I just haven’t taken any pictures of them. In any case, Everything else on my needles is big (Bridgewater shawl, log cabin blanket, Whisper cardi), I’ve even been working on my quilt. You remember my quilt? Apparently I like to start big projects and then either be all insane and finish them right away, or set them aside, and finish them a year or so in the future. Like I did with my Lizard Ridge blanket. Today was not the day for big huge projects though, today I actually finished something.

Say hello to K-9. He's Doctor Who's robot dog (and later on he became Sarah Jane's). He's adorable, says things like "affirmative" and "yes, master", and is brilliant to boot. Well, at about 3 inches high, my little stuffed K-9 fits the adorable part of those qualities.

I really am proud of how he turned out. I even put a bit of weight in the body of him so he'd stay upright. I think I'd like to make the big one from the Doctor Who Pattern Book, but first I think I should finish up some other projects.

Did I also mention that I've been working. In my intended career field. It's great because I love it, it doesn't feel like work, and yet I'm getting paid for it. That's the best type of job.

Cheers folks!

Baking up a storm

I’ve been baking and cooking a whole lot the last week or so, Yesterday was insane, but it started last week. St. Patrick’s day found me with green cupcakes.

The batter was green. Not quite as green as I would have liked, but the amount of food colouring I had already used was a little insane.

Green icing to top them, and add in a few sprinkles and voila! Cupcakes that make everyone happy are born.

Yesterday though, was as I already said, insane. First off, the back story and reasoning behind it. The 26th (today) is Friday at the theatre, so party night. We’ve even got a theme, English Pub Night. So of course I had to think of something to make. My thoughts instantly went to Fish & Chips, but that would be really quite expensive, so I vetoed it. Next, Bangers and Mash… once again, too expensive. I then really drew a blank, so I did some research. Pork scraps seemed too difficult to make, I wasn’t really keen on just getting a bag of crisps, and then I stumbled upon Ploughman's Lunch. It then sent me after Baps, but deciding against making bread, I took a break and really had to eat something, all the research had me famished. On the docket: Cottage Pie.

What do you need?

Onion and garlic.

Corn.

Minced (ground) beef.

& Mashed potatoes.

Put it all together, and what do you get? A glorious meal, with 6 portions in the freezer.

Then later that evening, as I was doing more research, I stumbled upon Sunday Roast. It's not new to me, not new at all, I had just forgotten about it. With that came the memory of wonderful roast beef, lots of gravy, mashed potatoes, corn, carrots, and Yorkshire Pudding. I had it, my idea of what to bring to the theatre. Unfortunately I wouldn't have the bucket of gravy to go with it, but I'm okay with that.

They’re light, fluffy, and absolutely wonderful. Even later that night I looked at the two apples I had in my crisper, and decided to make apple crisp. No pictures of that though, it got eaten too quickly, and then put in containers for leftovers even quicker.

Like I said, I kind of went insane with the cooking. Oops. Good thing I have a good sized freezer and housemates who like to eat.

-Cheers folks!

What’s for Desert?

I said that I cook a fair bit, but did I also mention that I like to bake too? Well, I do, unfortunately our oven has not been working (broiler element snapped in half), for a while and it took our landlord for ever to get it fixed. In any case, it’s back to working condition now. After I scrubbed it clean (that’s about 45 minutes of my life I’m never getting back), I decided it was time to bake something.

Looking at what I had on hand, I figured that Oatmeal Raisin cookies were in order. I had made Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies last year, and remembered how cake-like they were, so I added less flour this time.

They turned out much better this time. Considering I took them to the theatre and they were all gone by the end of the night, I guess it wasn’t just me thinking they were good.

I also made banana bread today, but I didn’t take photos of it. It’s good, but the outside it a little over done, and the inside is a little under done. I think our oven runs a bit hot, mental note noted.

-Cheers folks!

What’s for Dinner?

I cook a fair bit. Usually nothing too extravagant, but still, I rarely take things out of boxes and pop them in microwaves and call that dinner. Except when popcorn is involved. And even then I often melt some sugar and make caramel popcorn.

Two days ago I went out and bought some steak, I had planned on just frying it up with some steak spice, but when I came home, the kitchen was a mess, and I didn’t feel like cleaning up the mess to cook for myself, only to make more mess. So the steak sat in the fridge for a day. I also got broccoli, for some reason it took that extra day for me to think of the obvious. Beef and Broccoli.

A trip to the fruit & veggie market for ginger and green onions and voila, supper was underway.

Two cloves of garlic, diced. A thumb sized (about a tsp I’d say) piece of ginger, diced. And a bunch of green onions, chopped. If you want more garlic, add more, if you want less ginger, add less. Vice versa works too, basically make it how you want it, just don’t add salt, the soya sauce will take care of the salty taste. Break up the broccoli into small flowerets. Heat up a big pan to medium with some oil. Add your veggies.

While the veggies are cooking, slice up your beef (I used a cheap cut of pan fry beef, no need to break the bank on steak). Put it in a bowl with some soya sauce (4 or 5 tbsp) and pepper, mix it around so that it’s all covered. Once your veggies are cooked but still a little firm, remove them from the pan.

Set them aside, add a bit more oil to the pan, and then the beef. Cook for a few minutes until the beef is browned on the outside, use your judgement. Add the veggies back to the pan, mix the veggies around with the beef and sauce, reduce the heat to low, and cover the pan.

Let the sauce thicken a bit while you cook up some rice. I used plain white rice because that’s all I had, but if you prefer something else, use something else. If you want a thicker sauce, add a bit of corn starch of flour until it’s the consistency you like.

Serve the dish over rice. It was wonderful, really easy to make, and made enough for three meals for me. I’ve made it before, and I’ll make it again.

-Cheers folks!

Heck Yea, I Got Pictures

I finally took some photos of Stilwell. The day was super bright, but not sunny, so the light coming in through my window was absolutely brilliant. I also realized that if I closed my closet door I could have a decent background to take some pictures in front of. I ended up having way too much fun with my tripod and my remote. There are (lots) more pictures on my flickr.

I also took a couple pictures of my newest Quincy hat, and I have since fallen head over heels in love with this picture. I did a bit of photoshopping, but really not too much.

And in response to my Aunt who said I was looking thin and asked if I was eating enough: I eat better here, and probably more than I ever did at home. I’m thinner because I walk everywhere, I swim, and I really really eat well. Lunch today was rice, kidney beans, green beans and a honey garlic sausage. No idea what I’ll do for supper though. And it is nearly 7pm. My hours and days are all messed up.

In Knitting Olympics/Ravelympics news, I didn’t finish my shawl. I did finish off the center portion as well as the picking up of the 612 stitches around it, and I even was able to get about 8 rows of the horseshoe lace done too. I consider myself a winner because of that, so yaaaaay.

-Cheers folks!