Can't wait for strawberry season

One of the things I was most looking forward to with my new kitchen was having the space to comfortably put food in jars.  A big cooktop to fit all of the pans and elbow room.  Not to mention counter space to deal with the jars, lids, funnels and other pieces of canning equipment that take up so much room.  I am not disappointed.  Today I made mandarin orange marmalade.  I'm not the biggest lover of marmalade but am hoping my dad and my husband will appreciate the home made taste.  This recipe, from Canadian Living, made 12 jars.  Enough to keep them in marmalade for a little while at least.  I think I'll go outside now and tell the rhubarb to hurry up and grow.  I'm all out of rhubarb chutney.

I know, I know but I really mean it this time

Last weekend I was sorting through my stash, with one hand on Ravelry finding patterns to go with various yarns.  After going through two (quite large) storage boxes, I realized that I have a lot more stash than I thought I did.  In fairness, quite a bit is made up of leftover yarns from completed projects but there are some never touched items too.  So, given that I have a bunch of projects lined up with the stash yarn, I really will complete some things before I buy any more ... honest.

This shawl has been on the needles for about a month.  It was easy but interesting to knit.  It is called Sakura by Leila Raabe and is a Brooklyn Tweed pattern.  The yarn is Tanis Fiber Arts Purple Label Cashmere Sock, a very nice, soft yarn.

My Comfort Food

My favourite dinner of any dinner I could choose from ... pasta with tomato meat sauce.  Simple, fast, easy and tasty every time.  I feel the fourth cold of this season coming on and wanted something simple, fast, easy and tasty.  Pasta with meat sauce.  My husband was out of town for the weekend and his time of arrival was indeterminate but he might not have eaten on the road.  Pasta with meat sauce.  When people talk about their last meal, this would be it for me.  With a nice bottle of wine and my favourite dessert, rhubarb crisp, and I would die happy (well not happy because I have too many unfinished projects, places to go and people to see but you know what I mean).

Non stop cooking extravaganza!

The new appliances have been getting a workout these last few weeks.  Cookies, breads, muffins in addition to yummy home cooked dinners.

Today I decided on two kinds of bread

• walnut fig bread (didn't have figs so used dried cherries) from Williams-Sonoma's Bread cookbook. 
• rosemary focaccia from Flour, an old favourite that I haven't done anything from in a while and decided to dust off.  Since I eventually want to try most of the recipes in this book, I figured I'd better get busy.  Last weekend I made some very tasty oatmeal chocolate chip cookies too.  And exciting news, when getting the link above from the Indigo website, I discovered that there is going to be Flour Too!  Mostly savoury items but I'll have to take a look once it's out.  

On the sweet side, I made my standard go-to bran muffin recipe; great to have in the freezer for rushed mornings when I need to bring something on the go.  

I also made macarons from Bon Appetit.  I think I've only ever tasted one of these before but they have been on my list to try to make.  The ones at the stores look much prettier than mine but these taste very good even before the overnight resting period they are supposed to have in the fridge before sampling.  They might taste better tomorrow but how is anyone supposed to wait until the next day to try them!

You know where to find me

Our reno is done!!!  We moved back in yesterday and I've been living in the kitchen ever since.  We had already done most of the unpacking so I spent a lot of time trying out the ovens.  I'm so excited!!!  Our little house now has a dream kitchen.

Gotta go make dinner.

Scrappy Happiness

I've decided, yet again, that I really, really, really need to make some space for myself in my craft room.  As I was sorting through things, I realized that I have a ton of Amy Butler left over from three quilts, some pyjama bottoms, a skirt, a bag or two and just general collection.  I found some other fabrics that have a similar fun theme dumped them out on my cutting board and made a quilt.

I cut 3 1/2" squares and 1 1/2" x 3 1/2" strips.  I sewed the strips together in threes to get more 3 1/2 " squares.  I joined the cut and sewn squares in strips of 4 and then sewed 1 1/4" sashing on each side.  Joining three of these pieces together gave me a block close enough to 12"x12".  I alternated the blocks so the sashing changed between a horizontal and vertical orientation and sewed them all together.  The quilt ended up as 5 squares by 5 squares.  I could have kept going because I still have at least a quilt worth of scraps left but I'll try something else with them.

I'm quite happy with the result.  As usual with Amy Butler and friends, it is very busy but very fun.