FO: mittens for Claire 2012

Details: pattern was a mashup of several things, mostly notably the alphabet by Little Cotton Rabbits and snowflake detail borrowed from a scarf pattern by Eunny Jang.

Needles: size 2 wooden 16" circs from Knitpicks

Yarn: Cascade 220 superwash

Dates: January 7 - January 26



Photos taken in very poor light on my dark green sofa, which seemed the best way to really make the pink POP!

Ten on Tuesday: 10 movies I want to see RIGHT NOW

1) The Artist - this wasn't on my radar before the Oscar nominations, but it sure is now!
2) Hugo - I missed seeing it at over my vacation (something about being busy moving!) but I still really want to see it
3) Midnight in Paris - couldn't talk anyone else in my family into seeing it...
4) Red Tails - looks fabulous, the only reason we didn't see it last weekend was because the show times didn't match our schedule (saw Haywire instead. It was surprisingly good.)
5) Eight Below - I just want to see Paul Walker and huskies.
6) Safe House - hey, it's coming out this weekend! I'm just a couple days early!
7) The Hobbit - yes, I know I'm about 6 months early.
8) My Week with Marilyn - once again, couldn't talk anyone else into seeing it with me...
9) A Cat in Paris - it's up for an Oscar for Best Animated, so it must be worth 2 hours of my time...
10) Chico and Rita - ditto #9

New recipe: artichoke polenta tart

Another new recipe! This time it was a savory tart from The Wednesday Chef. The idea sounded great (artichoke hearts, goat cheese, rosemary, and polenta - yes, please?) but I didn't put enough salt into ANY of the layers, meaning that we ended up pulling the tart apart to salt it, then reconstructing it and eating it. Thinking back, I'm pretty sure I just forgot the salt in the egg-and-cheese layer, but I know that I salted the polenta. Oh, well. It was intriguing enough that I still plan to make it again, just with much more salt.

New recipe count: seven

FO: NHM #1 in Cascade Sock

I finally finished NHM #1:



Details: Cast on in September, finished on the 21st of January, blocked and delivered by the 22nd.
Needles: two size 2 wooden 16" from Knitpicks
Yarn: Cascade Sock in navy blue and cream
Book: Selbuvotter by Terri Shea

I had a major problem with gauge: the first mitten was about an inch longer than the second mitten! Fortunately, the recipient said she didn't care, and happily wore them out into the snowy morning.

New recipe: vanilla ice cream from a custard base

On Tuesday we made vanilla ice cream in our little Donvier mixer. It's approximately like this one.

I used this recipe by David Lebovitz, but I couldn't locate my stash of vanilla beans and had to do without. It was still really good, and my FIL tipped me off that adding a little flour to the eggs will help prevent curdling. (I had a bunch of stuff stick in the strainer which probably means that I did something bad to the yolks.)

New recipe count: six

New recipe: cranberry quinoa almond cookies

Tonight I made a new type of cookie:

Either I mismeasured the salt, or else the recipe has an error, because these taste like they've got twice as much salt as they should.

Other than that, they're pretty good.

New recipe count: five

A great sandwich

Today I was catching up with Alex while I was in the sandwich line, and I accidentally constructed a great sandwich because I wasn't really focused on what I was doing.

I did a careful examination of my sandwich's layers and I'm pretty sure it contained

A bulky roll
provolone
pickles
mayo
hot mustard (not sure on this one)
ham
pepperoni
bologna
and possibly a slice of turkey (also not sure on this one)

Sadly, I think the keys to sandwich yumminess were the processed meats.

And no, this doesn't count as a new recipe.