Happy Halloween!

A lot of chopping... is it worth it?

I chopped for almost two hours and got a blister on my index finger, with the following result:



I made this Cottage Pie to go along with the aforementioned brown bread. The end result was delicious! And the leftovers were even yummier. But, it was A LOT of chopping. A lot. I didn't mind it too much. I worked on it during an afternoon when I was working from home, so I really took my time with it and enjoyed myself. It wasn't until the very end, when I noticed my blister, that I'd realized just how much chopping there was (and also how I seriously need to get my knife sharpenned--or just get a better knife). But, it was really tasty, and a nice intensive project to keep my mind off of other things. So, I do recommend it. And the good thing about Shepherd's or Cottage Pie: you can put in whatever you have!

And, I promise, I will be back soon with some more knitting blogging.

Dreaming of Ireland

A few years ago, my husband and I went to Ireland. It was our first European trip together, and we fell in love! We traveled from Dublin down the southern coast, stopping along the way, and left from Shannon. We loved the people, the culture, the sites, and even the food. Our very favorite was the brown bread. We stayed in B&Bs during our trip, and they all served delicious brown bread with soft butter. Since then, I've been trying to recreate the bread we head in Ireland, with various degrees of success. Tonight, I have found it. The very first result in a google search for "Irish brown bread" is this. And it's delish.



The recipe is super easy, and it turns out great! The texture is great--soft, yet with texture from the whole wheat flour. I used stone ground whole wheat flour, which I highly recommend. I had to add extra buttermilk, to get the texture right, but the directions in the recipe tell you exactly what consistency you should be looking for (slightly thick brownie texture, yet pourable). This bread is perfect served with some salted butter, alongside a hearty stew or soup (I served mine with Cottage Pie, which I'll be discussing in a later post).

Scalloped Turnips

As promised, here is a review of the scalopped turnips recipes from Simply Recipes. We only had two turnips--one was giant, though. We really needed probably one more, because the turnips turned out a little soupy. The flavor of the turnips was pretty good, though. They still had a lot of turnip flavor, so the scalloping doesn't take out all of the bitterness of the turnips. But, my husband loved them! I was a little on the fence, but probably because I may not love turnips themselves. I will try something different next time, to see if I like them prepared another way.

I served it with chicken breast stuffed with goat cheese and spinach. It's based on a recipe from Simply Recipes, but I made some changes. I pounded out two chicken breasts, seasoned them with salt and pepper, put a layer of spinach on the breasts, and sprinkled goat cheese on top. Then I rolled the breasts, secured it with a toothpick. I browned the breasts in a pan with hot olive oil first, then finished it in the oven at 425. It was delicious!

Saturday Brunch

I love brunch on the weekends with friends! We had a delicious brunch at Toast on Market in Louisville yesterday morning. I had a Monte Cristo French toast sandwich with hashbrown casserole. The French toast was great--the bread was cooked like French toast and it was served sandwich style with ham, Swiss, and orange marmalade. The coffee was flowing and my husband recommends the spicy bloody Mary. It was the perfect start to a great Saturday!



-- Posted from my iPhone

First Fall CSA Share!!

A co-worker told me about the fall CSA program from a nearby farm--Elmwood Stock Farm. Although their main CSA is during the summer, they offer a fall program with biweekly pick ups, for a total of 10 weeks. It focuses on fall produce, plus any leftover/stored summer produce. We also opted to do add the meat option. I was looking so forward to getting our first share and cooking some great, fall foods! Well, today was the day.



In this share, we got the following: baby beets, brussels sprouts, organic, garlic, garlic powder, kale greens, sage, rosemary, gold potatoes, red potatoes, baby rutabagas, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, stripetti squash, sweet potatoes, turnips, cucumbers, eggplant, bell peppers, a whole chicken, and ground round. All of the veggies are organic--with the exception of the squash. The beef comes from certified organic angus cattle and the chicken is also organic.



I decided to do the CSA program, our first time ever, because I am really falling in love with the idea of buying local. Sure, there are environmental reasons, but I personally like the idea of helping my neighbor. In these tough economic times, I worry about the farmer in the next town, the local artisans, businessmen, etc. So, the idea of getting fresh produce and supporting local businesses makes me feel like I am supporting my community. I also really like the idea of being force to try new foods. Although I recently moved from Chicago, which has amazing farmers markets, I would never step out of the box and try new things. So, today I am. And, as I write, I have scalloped turnips in the oven. I will be sure to post a follow up review of the recipe!

Kentucky Wool Fest

A few weeks ago, DJ (my husband) and I went to the KY Wool Fest in Falmouth, KY, with his mom and dad. I had never been before, but the festival is huge in the craft collectors-crowd. There are multiple tents where people sell their crafts, lots of food, and, my favorite, wool and fiber! This was my first fiber festival, and I loved it!! The KY Wool Fest is still growing, but I got to meet some lovely women who dye and spin their own yarn--some of whom even raise the sheeps! We had a great time and it has inspired me to keep knitting, and even learn to spin! I purchased a drop spindle (have yet to find time to use) and some roving to get me started.



Here are some of the other goodies I bought:

Sock yarn by LunabudKnits

Handspun yarn by a woman who raises her own sheep:
Of course, there were livestock at the festival! I got to meet this lovely alpaca, along with other animals, including sheeps and even pot-bellied pigs!

I was super excited to watch the sheep shearing. Although I know I saw this as a child, I only started knitting about a year ago, so I did not appreciate what I was seeing back then.
I had a great time and I can't wait to go to more fiber and yarn festivals!! I don't have anymore planned at the moment, but really hope to go to Stitches South next year!

A Cupcake Review

I recently volunteered to bake cupcakes for my boss's birthday and was quite excited to try a new recipe. I love making baked goods from scratch and really wanted to try making real buttercream. So, I decided to make Martha Stewart's yellow butter cupcakes with her chocolate buttercream frosting. The instructions were very easy to follow and didn't require anything too difficult.


The batter tasted delicious, and I was excited to see how they would turn out! Unfortunately, I think I over-filled the cupcake tins because they rose too much and spilled over the sides. I was a little disappointed in that. The recipe said to fill each tin, but I would recommend leaving some room at the top. Because they rose so much, the cooking time was also off. So, I kept an eye on them, but couldn't keep the edge from browning too much, since the middles weren't completely done. They turned out pretty good, probably a little on the dry side (maybe I over baked them??). The icing was delicious. Real buttercream is super rich, especially with chocolate in it.



Overall, I think the recipes are both very good, classic recipes, but I needed to improve my execution! I am adjusting to a new oven (and an electric oven at that), so that may explain some of the problems.

Knitting for Babies

I love knitting for babies!! Especially clothing. It goes so fast, yet you feel like you've accomplish so much! I recently finished my first project from Vintage Baby Knits, the Louise Cardigan.



I used Lorna's Laces sock yarn on size 3 needles. It used less than 2 skeins for the 3-6 month size. I am really happy with the way it turned out. I do think that the pattern would look a little better with slightly textured/tweedy yarn, but I still really like it a lot! I didn't modify it at all, although I could have done the sleeves in the round, as some on Ravelry have done. But, I was glad to have the seaming practice, because I don't have much experience with seaming. I love the pattern and hope to do others from her book!

Fall Cooking

Work has been stressful for me lately. I've just been really busy and have been having motivation issues. Plus, I have a really bad habit of not being able to leave work at work, and I tend to stress about work at home. This is one reason why I am so addicted to knitting--it's one of the only things that can completely occupy my mind. Cooking has the same effect. I don't cook as much as I'd like to because I am sometimes too tired to put much effort into cooking. But, something about the fall begs me to cook. I love hearty fall foods: stews, warm casseroles, root vegetables, pork chops with apples! Earlier this week, I had a craving for just that: spiced pork chops with apple chutney.



The chutney was quite good. It calls for apples, cranberries, brown sugar, cider vinegar, dry mustard, ginger, all spice and salt. Although I tend not to like mustard, even in dry form, I really liked it in this. It counterbalanced the cider and the sweetness of the apples and the cranberries.



The pork chops I used were thicker than called for, and I always find that I have to cook pork chops longer than recipes call for. I can never get the inside cooked correctly without the outside overcooking. I started these on a stove-top grill pan, and finished them in the oven. They actually turned out really good and juicy!



We paired it with sweet potatoes that had been baking in the oven and some apple cider wine from a small winery in southern Indiana, Huber's Winery. We got the wine in September when we went with some friends. We did a wine tasting, and I really liked this wine. It's a seasonal selection. It's a little thick and a little sweeter than I typically prefer, but it really does have an apple cider taste, which I love! And it paired well with the chops.

Hanging on to Summer

Although my last post relished the fall, this post describes my attempt to cling to summer during the looming winter! I posted previously about sockdown going on in the sock knitter's anonymous group on ravelry, and here is my first completed sock of the sockdown!


I knitted the September Mystery Sock by Nancy Bush. The yarn is minestrone by Yarn Chef, in the straw hat colorway. This was my first time using any yarn by Yarn Chef, and I was pleased with it! The yarn was just a hair splitty, but I think that's because I had problems getting it wound, caused by my failure to properly secure my ball winder, which resulted in a giant knot that I really had to struggle with to undo. There is a lot of yardage in the minestrone--these are socks for my wide, size 10 foot and I had plenty of yarn leftover that I could have used to make them longer.

I really enjoyed knitting this sock and learned all sorts of new techniques--estonian cast-on, vikkel braid, and a different toe (not quite sure what the toe style is called, but it doesn't use kitchener!). I love the yellow because it will remind me of the summer, even in the middle of winter when I need to cover my cold feet up with warm, wool socks!

I did make some modifications, for sizing. They're listed below:

• CO 66 instead of 60, for my big feet.
• I only did 5 pattern repeats before starting the heel, because I like socks that are slightly shorter and was also concerned about yardage (but I shouldn't have been, I had plenty left over!)
• Because I used 66 instead of 60, I had to redo some of the math for the heel. I worked the heel across 33 stitches, instead of 29.
  
• For the heel turn: R1: k22, ssk; r2: SL, P11, P2tog; I then worked until all stitches were used.
  

Still here!

I am still here! I have just been super busy lately. Between commuting to work, trying to get some knitting projects finished, and traveling on the weekends, I haven't had much blogging time. But, things are going well. I am really enjoying my work. It's intellectually challenging and interesting!! I am trying to keep up with my hobbies on top of work, but I have a feeling my hobby-time will be cut some in the coming weeks. I will be busy at work for the next month or so, and will probably have some late night to try to get everything done.

For now, I want to do a little food blogging! Fall is upon us in Kentucky. The leaves are changing colors, the air is cool and crisp, and fall festivals abound! I love pumpkin, and tried a new pumpkin recipe last week, pecan-topped pumpkin bread, from Cooking Light. It was very good! The bread is super moist and tasty. I froze one of the loaves to enjoy later! If you like pumpkin, try the recipe. It uses egg and egg substitute, to cut down some on the fat. You could probably make it even lighter by replacing some of the oil for applesauce.