Mocha Bread

I decided to make some chocolate bread this afternoon. I've worked out an adaptation of a wheat bread recipe for a bread maker in which I use the recommended amount of strong (bread) wholemeal flour, but less regular flour than is called for (whether that's wholemeal or plain) and add porridge oats. To make it chocolate, I add a 100 gram bag of dark chocolate mini chips. As I was getting the bread pan from the bread maker, it dawned on me that I could easily make it mocha by using strong coffee instead of water, whey, or milk, as I usually do. So I did. It came out great! I will definitely make this again. 😋

After some mild weather, it's gotten cold again and some mix of rain and sleet has fallen in between sunny spells. Bill went out this afternoon, but didn't go far, since it was 'slippy' in spots. I am still nervous after my fall over the summer--I still have some scars from that, but I feel fortunate to have escaped with no broken bones. I have spikes for my shoes, but they're not much help on black ice. So I stayed in, had a couple cups of tea, read, swatched for a new Tunisian crochet project, and looked at the sunset through the window.

I hope you're having a pleasant day, too!

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Munching and Stitching

It has finally cooled off some here. The other day, I was making the jalapeno cheese puffs (recipe here) that we always have on 25 December and I was roasting! We only have one of the storage heaters on in our house, even though there are many of them. We turn on the one in the living room and that's it. Each room has doors that we can close to keep the heat where we want it and we have the door between the kitchen and the living room closed. It was quite mild for a week or so and then I had the oven on. It's a small thing, but it does heat up the kitchen. It had zoomed up to 65 in there and I had to rummage around for a scrunchy to put my hair up. When I was done, I was wishing we'd turned off the heat altogether, since it wasn't very cool in the living room, either. After a while I found things more tolerable. It was worth the discomfort, though, because the puffs came out great! I used some bottled red jalapenos and chopped up a red chilli pepper from veg man.

We still have a few left and will have them with some soup for supper.

Yesterday, I finished the border on this blanket wrap and wove in the last few ends. I'd been working on it the day before, but had to set it aside because it was too hot to have on my lap.

It's made with odd balls and scraps of textured, ribbon, and eyelash yarns and a 10mm (US N) Tunisian crochet hook. I chained 80 and did an extended Tunisian knit stitch until I was pretty much out of yarn and then did a narrow border in regular crochet with some plain worsted weight. I don't like doing regular crochet with this kind of textured yarn, so at first I tried knitting with it, but I didn't like that either, so I ripped back and began again with the Tunisian, which worked beautifully. There is also the added bonus of being able to easily weave in ends. This allowed me to tie smaller bits of yarn together and keep on stitching. Had I knitted it on large needles as I originally tried, I would have had to keep all my ends at an end--these kinds of yarn can be tricky to weave in properly anyway and with a loose knit it would have been impossible to do well in the middle of a row. Not a problem with the Tunisian, though, since there are solid ridges useful for hiding ends! The Tunisian extended knit stitch was a great stitch to use, because it creates openwork 'stripes' on top of a more solid 'stripe.' With bulky yarn like this and a big hook, had I used a more solid stitch, it would have been quite bulky and heavy. This has some heft, but it's not too heavy or bulky.

Since that was my big downstairs project to pick up and put down as I felt like, I will be starting another one later today. And now it's a bit chilly, I might just stick this on the bed.

Hope you're enjoying this week, no matter what the weather is where you are!

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Season's Greetings!

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Lasagne with Homemade Ricotta and Other Yummy Stuff

We have just eaten our usual 24 December supper of lasagne. This is the first year I've made it with homemade ricotta. It is sooooooo good! Glad I have plenty of leftovers!

I made the ricotta for this on Friday and I left it wet. It gets less wet as it sits, so I stirred a bit more whey into it today.

I probably did not need to do this and as I was putting together the lasagne, I worried that I shouldn't have, but I use regular lasagne sheets uncooked, so a little extra moisture is desirable, since they absorb quite a bit of liquid. Cooking stuff in the fan oven dries things out, too. In the end, I was glad I made the ricotta wet. Between that, the sauce I made, and the mozzarella, there was just the right amount of moisture. The end result is delicious!

This afternoon, I made another batch of ricotta, but strained it more, so it's not as wet. I want this for spreading on crackers with smoked salmon.

And I made some hummus with red pepper, onion, oregano, and coriander in addition to the usual ingredients.

This is also for crackers and smoked salmon or for using as a dip with carrot sticks.

Tomorrow I will be making jalapeno cheese puffs and that will be it--we will have enough munchies for tomorrow and the next couple of days. Yay!

I hope you are having a lovely Sunday.

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A Few Small Seasonal Stitches

Had fun stitching some small seasonal projects during these past couple of months, using various techniques. I've posted some already, and here are the rest.

Needle felted background with crocheted star and trim

needle felted background with sea glass tree, french knots, and crocheted trim

needle felted background with small cross stitch tree, french knots, and crocheted trim

cross stitch attached to watercolour paper with buttons

cross stitch attached to watercolour paper with button

cross stitch attached to watercolour paper

tunisian crochet scarf using extended knit stitch

tunisian crochet extended knit stitch scarf detail

huck embroidery using perle cotton on aida cloth

Happy Friday!

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Happy Solstice!

Happy solstice! This is always a bittersweet day for me--I love the long dark and feel sad that there will soon be a little more daylight each day. My favourite time of year always seems to be so brief. But knowing that all is impermanent is all the more reason to enjoy it while it's here. Whichever part of this day it is that brings you joy, the long dark or the return of the light, may it bring you inner peace.

photo by bill burke

photo by bill burke

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Not Forgetting the Head Gear!

Yesterday I posted about my, uh, 'attachment' to the fingerless mitt pattern that I discovered in a crochet magazine our daughter sent (Crochet World Holiday issue). I have these little attachments from time to time. Something catches my fancy and I make one and then keep making them, trying out new things and experimenting as ideas arise. For a while it'll be socks. Then it might be cowls and scarves. Years ago, it was blankets. At other times it's been bags or wall hangings or doilies. And of course, hats have been a big one for several years now. These never really go away--they just simmer until the time is right to focus on a particular type of project again. Looking through magazines is one way to fire up enthusiasm for one thing or another. So last night, I made a hat using another of the patterns from the magazine.

As I almost always must, I went up a couple of hook sizes from what it said in the pattern and I had to adjust the pattern, which was no problem. I just did an extra round of increases for the crown. I went down two sizes of crochet hook to do the last round, so it would not be too loose. The photo showed it as very close fitting and I didn't want that, but I didn't want it to be slouchy, either.

I used 2 strands of fingering/sock weight yarn left from other projects--one purple and one grey--and a 6 mm hook (5mm for the last round)

The hat begins at the crown with a circle of double crochets (US terminology--UK treble crochet) with regular increases, from the second round. The pattern called for 6 rounds--60 stitches before starting the body of the hat. I did an extra round and had 70 stitches. When I was done, I used my starting tail to sew on a cloth button I had in the button tin.

I still have enough yarn left to make a pair of matching fingerless mitts, too 😉

Partway through the crown, I started thinking about a similar construction using some different stitches, so I might just gather up some scraps soon and try it out.

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