The simple projects

My niece asked for a pair of mittens in her school colours of blue and gold.  I put that on the list of things to think about for Christmas knitting, deciding I would have to go shopping for the yarn at some point (terrible hardship).  Then I was sorting through stash, yet again, when I came across leftover yarn from a felted bag project of a few years ago.  While the gold is really yellow, based on the schools website, I think the blue is pretty close.  The pattern is from Weekend Knitting and because the yarn is bulky, I finished these up in a couple of hours.  Instant gratification!

Only because I couldn't eat it all at once ...

... I remembered to take a picture of the bread I made the other day.  Also from the book Homemade Pantry is this lovely sandwich bread.  I let it rise right away instead of refrigerating as directed in the recipe (no room in the fridge for any more bowls) and it worked perfectly.  It rose more than most whole wheat breads and I used some of the whey left over from the ricotta cheese excitement.  I think I'll make some more this weekend so we're set up for lunches as we head back to work.

Another addictive knitting project

And a good use for leftover sock yarn.  I'm always looking for uses for the leftover sock yarn and, although a previously made baby blanket was a good project, I wanted something different.  I discovered this project, the Mini Mania scarf, on Ravelry quite accidentally while popping around the site as one does from time to time.  The weave-like stitch seemed to take forever to grow but once it did, I enjoyed seeing how the colours would move from one to another.  I followed the designer's suggestion of changing yarn between a solid and a variegated sock yarn and quite like the results.  Now the question ... should I keep it for myself or give it away for Christmas?  I do plan to make another with "fat" sock yarn.  Once that is done, maybe the decision will be easier to make.  Or maybe not.  I can never have too many scarves.  Hmmm.

It's always too late to take a picture of food

Because I always think of taking a picture after I have eaten it!  Anyway, yesterday's dinner was a multi-step affair.  It started on Monday with making ricotta cheese from my new favourite cookbook, The Homemade Pantry.  Wow.  It was so easy.  And one of those things that you can have cooking while doing something else in the kitchen or wherever.

Then yesterday I made almond-basil pesto, also from the above book.  I had no success with basil in the garden this year but Longos was selling huge plants last week so I bought one and had been dreaming of pesto ever since.

Next I made pasta from scratch (4 cups flour, 4 extra large eggs, 4 tsp whey from the ricotta process (or water)).  And was reminded again how much I love my Kitchen Aid mixer with its very practical attachments, which include a pasta machine.  I mixed a few tablespoons of pesto into the ricotta and made a stuffed pasta by cutting squares, spooning about 1 tsp of filling on one half and folding the other half over the filling, pressing the edges together to seal.  I was nervous that the little bundles would split apart in the boiling water but had no issues.

The sauce was partially a fridge clean-out combined with a big harvest of cherry tomatoes from the garden.  I quickly pan fried garlic and onion, cooked some shiitake mushrooms for a few minutes and then added halved cherry tomatoes.  I cooked that mix for a couple of minutes,  added some white wine, rosemary and a couple of teaspoons of pesto and let the whole thing simmer.  A little shot of cream and some pasta water at the end and dinner was ready. 

More kitchen experiments

This year I grew ground cherries for the first time.  I had never actually heard of ground cherries before I read something in Garden Making magazine last year on tomatoes, tomatillos and ground cherries.  So, while ordering some different tomato varieties from the seed catalogue at Cottage Gardener, I also picked up some ground cherry and tomatillo seeds.  The tomatillos aren't ready yet but I've been picking ground cherries for several weeks.  They taste, to me, vaguely of hazelnuts with a sour edge.  After collecting a bowl full, I decided I should make a small jam with them.  That seems to be what all of the recipes I could find did with them so, despite the fact that I feel they would be good in savour dishes too, I decided to throw in some sugar and lemon juice with the berries and make some jam.  The only trouble, I let them boil just a shade too long and made ... toffee!  Oops.  Good thing I have seeds left in the basement to try my ground cherry experiments again next year.

Today's cooking experiments were far more successful.

First up, I made ricotta cheese.  It was surprisingly easy and the results taste really good. The whey left over from the process is going in bread sometime this week.  The ricotta itself will be part of ravioli which will allow me to break out the pasta attachment for the kitchen aid mixer.  Always a lot of fun and a bit of a mess but I am never disappointed with the outcome.  There are many things that taste better homemade but I think fresh pasta is one of my favourites.

I also made crab cakes for lunch today from Lynn Crawford's Pitchin' In book.  Yummy, yummy, yummy.  The remoulade was also delicious.  Instead of the salad suggested, I just cut up some of our over abundance of tomatoes and sprinkled them on top.  This will definitely be made again.

Finally, pulled pork just came off the barbecue and will be perfect for lunch tomorrow.  I think I'll read for the rest of the afternoon!