Hello readers, I need your help!
We are doing a recipe exchange at work (due next week!) and I’ve been putting off making my five submissions because I can’t decide which ones to hand in. Would you please help me?
Which of my recipes is your favourite?
This is another felting project, but a quick one. I know. Two felted things in one week. It’s almost too much to handle.
The last time I purchased a cellular (mobile) phone, nobody spoke of phones in terms of 4G, 3G, or even 2G. Not even just G. Blackberries were phones for people who had trouble leaving their work at the office. And the iPhone, and its subsequent smart phone progeny, was just a twinkle in Steve Jobs’ eye.
At the time, I bought a Motorola Razr, which was, back then, the thinnest phone you could buy and the height of fashion. Mine was pink. I loved it and used it faithfully for several years. Unfortunately, at my going-away party before I left Ottawa for Newfoundland, my boss’s husband picked me up and threw me in the pool, and my phone was in my pocket. And that was the end of my phone.
For four glorious years here on the Rock, the Pie and I have lived without the constant connectivity of a cellphone. Once we got used to it, we came to relish the freedom it afforded us. Recently, however, we have come to discover that not being able to reach our friends (or each other) when we are out is more of a problem than it used to be. So last weekend, we both bit the bullet, and with the friendly and knowledgeable guidance of Rick T. at the Telus store in the Avalon Mall, we both purchased our first cellphones in several years.
Mine is an HTC Amaze, a rugged little smartphone that uses the HTC Sense Android operating software. I can blog on it, check my email, the weather, the news, and send messages to people all over the world. It’s also like a Swiss Army Knife: it gives me cooking conversions, has a flashlight, a bubble level, a metronome … I haven’t actually used the real PHONE part of it yet, but Cait tells me that that’s not what phones are for anymore. It’s a little odd to think that I have more technology in the palm of my hand than was on the first ship that landed on the moon.
The thing I like best about my new phone is actually old technology: if I plug a pair of headphones to it to act as an antenna, I can get FM radio!
Anyway, as you know, I am the world’s clumsiest person, which was why I picked such a durable little phone. Because of its construction, there aren’t a lot of cases out there for the HTC Amaze, but I do still want to protect the extra-thick glass screen from unfortunate scratches. So I thought I’d make it a little pouch.
I made one for the Pie’s iPod Touch two years ago. It has a little extra room in the top of the fold-down flap to hold headphones. You can make these as quick and easy gifts. They don’t take long.
You will need a rectangle of fabric that is a little bit wider than the object you want to cover and a little bit longer than twice the length of it. Felt is a good one to use, because you don’t have to hem it, but you could use any fabric.
I prefer felted wool here, because it’s thick enough to provide a bit of a cushion, and the stretch of it makes it easier to get the phone in and out of the pouch.
Place your object on the fabric and shift it around until you have it where you want it. You want it to be wrapped up so that when it’s all sewn you end up with an overlapping top flap. See my clever use of the sleeve ribbing here?
Pin that in place and remove the object. I left plenty of room on the side for my headphones.
Now you can sew. If you are using felt, you don’t have to worry about seaming or seam allowances, so you can just sew on the outside. This means that you can use a contrasting thread, which will look pretty. I used a thick embroidery floss here.
Feel free as well to add embellishments, like buttons or badges or ribbons.
Whatever you like. It’s so easy you can just go crazy. This may very well be the girliest item I own.
I’m not sure if I’ll ever really get used to the concept of eating moose. But when in Newfoundland …
This is a roast from Fussellette’s dad, and I followed her instructions as to what to do for the basics of the whole thing. The rest was sheer fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants moose stew madness.
So you plop the roast into your slow cooker. Then you add your vegetables, like an onion, and/or some potatoes. I had some rather sad-looking broccoli and cauliflower in the fridge, so that went in with an onion. Then you add in a package of dried onion soup. I’m not usually one to add pre-made mixes to things, but these were my instructions.
Then we need some fluid. You could add in chicken broth. Or beef broth.
But I had some mushroom broth in the fridge so I used that.
Which meant that I felt obligated to use some dried mushrooms as well.
I turned it to high and left it for a while. Later on, I added some frozen green and yellow beans and some wild rice.
And near the end a sprinkle of Bell’s Seasoning. I know it’s for chicken and fish but it’s got my name on it and I couldn’t help myself.
Eventually the meat is done and you gotta pull it out and tear it off the bone before chucking it back in the stew. It won’t be difficult.
Your dog can help.
And there you have it — moose and mushroom stew. Served with toast.
I feel kind of bad. Here I am, third-place winner for Best Blog About Crafting and I haven’t put up a crafting post in an age. Sorry about that. But rest assured I’m working hard on two major projects. They’re just the sort of long-term ones that don’t make for exciting blogging.
Two people who are very dear to me are getting married this summer. My eldest brother, Krystopf, ties the knot in early July, and my high school best friend, Doodle, gets hitched in mid-June. I am making both of their wedding presents, and both of them are blankets.
Doodle and her soon-to-be husband, The Cyclist, live in Portland, Oregon, a place with weather very similar to what it is here in St. John’s. By that I mean, windy and rainy. So an ideal present would be one that encourages cuddling and coziness, right? And we know from previous experience that felted wool is the coziest of them all.
When we were in Ottawa over Christmas, the Pie and I scoured the local second-hand stores to acquire as many genuine lambswool, merino, and cashmere sweaters as we could, in a specific range of colours. Doodle and I agreed on red, white, blue, and black, as sort of a combination of Canadian and American colours (and black goes with everything). I wanted to do something a bit different with this blanket, and have the colours sort of blend into each other, rather than have a pattern of alternating coloured squares. So it’s going to be a bit trickier than normal.
Here you can see our initial haul (and Gren). This is the colour scheme I am going with. You can see that the main colours are represented at the corners, and then they blend through the other colours in the middle. Like a square colour wheel.
Now, if you feel like undertaking a similar project, I just want to give you a heads-up first. A lot of up-cycling and recycling projects are economical and a good way to save money. This is not one of them. A 100% wool or cashmere sweater, even second-hand, will run you between $9 and $14, depending on the quality and size, and for this project, we will be using approximately 25 sweaters. So you can do the math there.
I felted all the sweaters while at my parents’ house (to take advantage of the fact that they were footing the power bill), and we mailed the sweaters back to ourselves in St. John’s.
Then I dismantled them. I carefully cut out all the seams, so all the pieces of sweater lay flat.
I’m saving the seams. I think they would make good toy stuffing material.
Here are all the sweaters, officially laid out in their colour wheel.
The sweater in the middle will serve as my keystone, if you will, and then I’ll use the rest of it to construct some baby toys for some wee ones I get to meet this summer.
Now I have to start cutting out the pieces. I want to do it more as a puzzle or interlocking oblongs than as simple squares, so I’m going to have to work out some ratios so that all the pieces will fit together nicely. I will keep you posted.
We had a Valentine’s cold-plate potluck at work on Tuesday and I was assigned to make a potato-egg salad. And as the best one out there belongs to the Pioneer Woman, that’s the one I made, with some modifications of course. Ever since the grocery store down the block closed I have found myself without certain key ingredients at unfortunate times. Today, it was green onions. So I improvised.
Wash and cube about 5lbs potatoes. I used two different kinds, for the colour. You can peel them if you want, but I like the texture and flavour of potato skins so I left them in. Plop those in a large pot and boil them until they’re tender and mashable.
You’re also going to want to hard boil 4 eggs, through whatever method you use. When they’re ready, peel them up. Mine were pretty recalcitrant and refused to be peeled in a civilized manner. The shells would not come off without a fight.
I punished them through the vigor of my chopping (even if your eggs are well-behaved, you’ll still want to chop them up).
Finely chop as well half an onion (or 5 green onions).
And a handful of sweet pickles. You can use dills, if you prefer, but I think it’s better with the sweet ones.
In a bowl, mix together about 1 1/2 cups mayonnaise and 4 tablespoons mustard (I used a stone-ground dijon here, but you can use what you like).
In a wee bowl, arrange about 1/2 teaspoon paprika and 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt. I also added 2 tablespoons dried chives, for colour, as I was missing the green onions.
I also had another wee dish of dried dill, for garnish.
So here is my mis en place.
Mash your boiled potatoes. I really like the colour combination of the white and yellow ones here.
Stir in your mayo/mustard mix.
Add in your eggs, onions, pickles, paprika, salt, and optional chives. Make sure to scrape the bottom so you get everything mixed in evenly.
Plop it in a serving dish. The best part about this potato salad is it’s good hot, warm, and cold.
Garnish with a sprinkle of paprika and some dill, or whatever floats your boat. It’s not elegant, but it’s good!
Today is my little sister-in-law Mags’ birthday and I promised her a pasta dish. Because I’m not around to make it for her in person, perhaps she can persuade Mrs. Nice to whip it up for a birthday treat. Her brother certainly enjoyed it. Happy birthday Mags!
The measurements for this are approximate, and I’m going to jump back and forth between metric and Imperial because I’m Canadian and I can.
Preheat your oven to 350°F.
Plop about 500g thawed frozen spinach in a bowl, together with 500g cottage cheese, 1/2 cup strong-flavoured cheese, grated (I used romano, but parmesan would also be good), and 2 teaspoons dried oregano.
Stir it silly and then season with pepper.
Take a jar of chunky tomato-based pasta sauce and spread 1/3 of it on the bottom of a 9″ x 13″ baking dish.
Now take a package of uncooked manicotti shells (usually there are 14 shells in a box) and stuff them with the cottage cheese/spinach mixture. Lay them on top of the sauce in the dish.
This was my first one, which I tried to stuff with a spoon. I got a little too enthusiastic and it exploded everywhere. After that I used my fingers. And I’m still trying to figure out how to get the spinach out of my kitchen stereo speakers.
And then when I got to the end of my pan I found I had run out of space, so that’s why they are all spastic here. Plus I dropped in the leftover cottage cheese/spinach mix as well. Aesthetics are not really my strong suit.
Mix 1/2 cup water with the remainder of your pasta sauce and pour it over the top of the uncooked stuffed noodles.
Bake, uncovered, for an hour, until it is bubbling all the way through. Then sprinkle with 2 cups grated mozzarella and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes.
Let your lava-like pasta stand for a few minutes before serving. Not the most attractive photo, but that didn’t stop the Pie from going back for seconds.
We don’t tend to celebrate Valentine’s Day. We’re totally broke, for one thing, and for another, we’d rather not have to spend a day doing obligatory and clichéed things to tell each other how we feel. We do that on a daily basis anyway.
I am of course talking about our love for Gren. Duh. He’s so smooshy. In the words of Cait, “I want to smoosh him. With smooshes.” We definitely smoosh him regularly.
In any case, because it’s expected of us (and because nobody ever wants to do anything with us on Valentine’s Day), we usually have a nice meal together and talk about how stupid this Hallmark holiday is.
If you are of the same bent, or if you love to do smooshy romantic things for your true love, why not make up some fresh pasta and go from there?
I figured I would give ravioli a try. Why the heck not?
The ingredients for each component of this are so simple. The only one I really measured for was the pasta dough, because I’m not yet at the eyeballing stage for that.
For the ravioli filling:
You will need sweet potatoes, dried shiitake mushrooms (you can use fresh ones but I like the chewy texture of the dried ones), and roasted garlic.
Plop a handful or two dried shiitake mushrooms in a bowl of warm water and leave them for 30-60 minutes, or until all tender. I find that placing a small plate on top ensures they all get evenly exposed to water.
While those are percolating, peel and cube a large sweet potato. This one weighed in at 1 3/4lb. Plop that in a pot full of water and boil until tender.
Drain the sweet potatoes and mash ‘em.
Take your hydrated mushrooms out of the water, cut off the woody stems, and chop them finely.
I found that after chopping, a quick sojourn in the food processor got them to the size I wanted them.
Save the water from your mushrooms — it makes a great vegetable stock.
I made this roasted garlic last week from three heads of garlic. If you click on the link above you can see how I did it. I’m going to use all three heads, because the Pie and I have been together for almost eight years, so it’s not going to matter how much garlic we consume. Do exercise some caution if you’re new to the relationship and you’re still trying to impress … Though I suppose if you both consume the same amount of garlic it really doesn’t matter, does it?
Anyway, I plopped that in the food processor as well (with a drop of olive oil) and came out with a lovely aromatic paste.
In a bowl, combine your mashed sweet potato, the minced mushrooms, and the garlic paste and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Stir that around and set it aside.
For the ravioli pasta:
For this you need durum semolina flour, salt, and eggs. Semolina is perfect for making pasta because it has an extremely high gluten content, which means that your pasta will stay cohesive even when immersed in boiling water. That is kind of important.
So take 3 eggs and whisk them together with a pinch of salt. I like to add in a few drops of olive oil, as well, for smoothness.
Pour 2 cups durum semolina flour on a clean work surface, make a well in the centre, and pour in the eggs.
Sorry, I couldn’t resist. I wish I’d thought of it sooner so I could have made a better heart.
Using a scraper and/or a fork, gradually incorporate the eggs into the flour until you have a coherent ball.
I used some regular all-purpose flour at the end, just to reduce the tackiness of the dough a bit. You will want to knead it for about 10 minutes, just to get all the gluten working for you.
Wrap up your final ball and let it rest for about 20 minutes.
Cut your dough into manageable sections. I cut mine into four. Flatten out your first section enough so it fits into your pasta machine. If you are rolling it out by hand, have fun with that.
I prefer my pasta maker.
I cut my strips in half, so that I could fold the second half over the top half like a mirror image. Though it does help if your top half is slightly bigger than your bottom half.
Put little dollops of your filling on your bottom sheet with enough space in between so you can cut them easily.
Carefully line up the top half and lay it over the filling.
Working from the inside out, gently stretch and press the top dough over the filling to form little pockets.
When each pocket is sealed, use a knife or a ravioli cutter to separate them.
For this first round, I went all the way up to the #7 setting on my pasta maker, which made the pasta sheets very thin — a little too thin. You can see how they have torn and I had to patch them.
The next round, I only went up to the #5 setting, which was much more manageable, and I prepared the ravioli on waxed paper, which made peeling them up much easier. I probably could have gone as high as #6, but I’m still new to this.
I separated each round of pasta with waxed paper to prevent sticking.
I had some leftover filling, which I froze. I would gladly make this again.
Now, set a pot of water to boil with a pinch of salt and a few drops of olive oil, and get started on your sauce.
For the sauce:
You will need butter, sage, lemon juice, and parmesan cheese.
Slice 10-12 sage leaves finely to ensure all their lovely aromatic juices get released.
To save time and my sanity (I really hate grating cheese), I cubed up about 1/3 cup of my extra-hard parmesan and gave it a go in the food processor. Totally worth it.
So for your mis en place you have your sage, chopped, your cheese, grated, about 1/2 cup lemon juice, and about 4-5 tablespoons butter.
By now, your pasta water should be boiling, so carefully tip all your ravioli in and cook them for about 8 minutes.
While that is going on, in a large, wide, deep frying pan on medium-high heat, melt your butter.
Continue to cook the butter, scraping the bottom with a spatula to prevent burning, until it starts to foam up and the clear liquid turns a lovely light caramel brown colour. Add in your sage leaves and remove the butter from the heat.
See the brownness?
Pour in your lemon juice and give that a stir. Oh man does that ever smell good. Like all the best parts of everything.
Drain your pasta and plop them in the frying pan with the butter. Pour in your cheese and toss the lot to coat.
Serve it up, with plenty of leftovers.
Though none for Gren. Much to his disappointment.
