Simply, a few of my favorite things.

Inspired by watching Amelie, I've decided to make a list of my favorite simple pleasures.

Knitting

My EZ Percentage Sweater is moving along. I've got to start the second sleeve and get it attached today. This is the first time I've used Malabrigo for anything, and I'm sort of upset that no one told me how incredibly soft it is.

Happiness Soup
I was introduced to this amazing recipe by a friend a few years ago. You can't help but smile when you eat a bright yellow bowl of soup. It's actually made me become quite fond of yellow squash. You can find the recipe in Nigella Lawson's "Forever Summer".

Reading

I'm in the middle of three books right now; "Demonology" by Rick Moody, "Pattern Recognition" by William Gibson, and the new Harry Potter. I'm currently obsessed with short stories, after finishing Miranda July's "No One Belongs Here More Than You". I'll read just about anything. When I was just a wee one, I used thumb through the phone book when I ran out of "real" books to read.

(you can download and print out that snazzy book cover from katespade.com)

French Movies

Unfortunately, I do not speak french. I don't really mind reading subtitles, though. It seems as though film-making is still considered an art in most countries (except the good ol' US of A). Strong attention is paid to color schemes and small details that seem to be overlooked in american blockbusters.

I'm going to go try to make a cake in the crockpot, I'll let you all know how it goes. While you're waiting, go check out Charles' Vlog. He's an awesome guy and he dyes some pretty gr8 yarn :-)

<3

knitxcore.

Cold Beverages. Uh-huh.

A while back , I read about how much more superior cold-brewed iced coffee is (compared to drip coffee with ice). I was skeptical, but intrigued by this coffee trend. The NY Times and a couple of other reputable sources claimed that it wouldn't need to be sweetened and you barely need any milk, two things that I don't drink my coffee without. Usually, I would stand strong and wait out the trend, but coffee is my weakness and I love finding new ways to drink it.

Making cold-brewed iced coffee is sooooo much easier than it's fancy name suggests. Using my coffee scoop, I put 5 heaping scoops into a 1 qt. bell jar. I filled the jar with *almost* 5 cups of water, put the lid on and left it on the counter all day. Of course, Dave and I couldn't resist shaking the "S" out of it everytime we walked by. The next day, I strained it twice and put the super condensed cold coffee back in the jar. I dilute each glass with 1 part water, 1 part coffee and float just a little vanilla soymilk on top.

It ridiculous how tasty it is, and you really don't need any sweetner. It sounds crazy, I know! I usually use about 3 tablespoons in a big cup of sumatra blend, and I didn't use a pinch in this! AWESOME!!!!! Really, if you're a coffee enthusiast of any type, you need to try it.

*Knitting News*

I've got one sleeve attached to my seamless *whatever it's going to be*, and I'm almost at a new strip of color on the Ol' Log Cabin. My Harry Potter book came today, so it may cut into the knitting time signifcantly for at least a few days.

I swear I still knit....

but right now, I have nothing to show for it. So, I'm going to share some recipes I tried this week instead.

The first recipe comes to us via craftster, after hours (probably only ten minutes in real life) of searching for things to do with my *small* crock-pot.

Crock-Pot Chicken Taco Soup (originally posted by... )


2 large cans of Chunk White Chicken (sounds gross, but it's not bad!)
2 cans of diced tomatoes with jalapeno
1 packet of Ranch Dressing Mix (I used Hidden Valley)
1 bag frozen black beans and corn (I used something called "Latino Blend", it had peppers and onions in it)
water to fill

Toss all ingredients into the pot, let cook on low for 8 hours. Serve with crumbled tortilla chips.

It really is that easy! I'm usually kind of leery when it comes to things like canned chicken and ranch dressing mix but, I threw caution to the wind and gave this a shot anyway. Dave and I really liked it and I can keep all the ingredients in the pantry until I need them, so I'm a fan :-)

The second is from MarthaStewart.com. I was looking for a good baked apple recipe because Dave came home from a friends gushing about how tasty they were and I knew I could one-up whatever she had made. After a visit to aunt Martha and a lil' maple syrup, I found what I needed.


Baked Apples With Spiced Ricotta and Maple Syrup

4 medium Rome apples, (8 ounces each), cored to within 1/2 inch of base
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
6 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
4 (3-inch-long) cinnamon sticks
3/4 cup ricotta cheese
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon confectioners' sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons heavy cream

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Peel about 1 inch of skin from tops of apples; cut a sliver off the bottom so apples will stand. Place them in a 9-inch glass pie plate. Cut 1 tablespoon of butter into 4 pieces; fill each apple core with a piece of butter, 1 tablespoon maple syrup, 1/8 teaspoon ginger, and 1 cinnamon stick. Place remaining 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons syrup in bottom of pie plate.
Bake apples, basting several times with pan juices, until they are golden and tender, about 35 minutes (the skin may split). Transfer apples to a serving dish; let baking juices stand to thicken, about 15 minutes.
Puree ricotta, confectioners' sugar, remaining 1/2 teaspoon ginger, cinnamon, and cream in a food processor. Serve 2 heaping tablespoons of ricotta cream with each apple, and drizzle with the warm syrup.

I skipped the ricotta sauce, it was only supposed to be a quick breakfast. Despite the long directions and the cooking time, it really didn't take much. These were DEEEEE-licous!!!!! I can't wait to make them with the Ricotta Cream!

I have a cake in the oven right now (this was supposed to be a quick post), so I'll catch everything else up later in the week.

<3
knitxcore.

You Don't Ganomy!

My Ganomy Hat is finished! I have a couple of pins coming to spruce it up and make sure Mr. Ganomy has a proper photo shoot, not that my bathroom pics are that bad, but he deserves a couple of good pics just like any other FO's. Elizabeth suggests placing a ping pong ball in the top, just in case your hat get lost at sea, it suppoesd to make it float. I usually stay on dry land, so I switched that up a little bit.

Pattern Particulars

Pattern Source:Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac
Needles: Addi Natura 16" circular, Clover Takumi DPNs sz. 8
Materials: Lamb's Pride Worsted in Wild Oak, and a tiny cat toy with a bell in it.
Time: About 4 hours
Loved: The ingenious shaping and that it jingles when I walk!
Hated: The fact that my gauge was a lil' off, but I later fixed that with some wet blocking.



I bought more yarn from Hobbledehoy's Etsy shop this week. I've had it favorited for almost a month so I figured it was time to stop being so cheap and give in to my consumer's urge. The colorway is called "Pop Quiz", it's a white base with flecks of primary colors. I think it may become a pair of Bubble Wrap socks in the distant future.



MidnightPurls also hooked me up with some of her hand-dyed Sea-wool last week. She used acid dyes from HelloYarn and over dyed it to my favorite puce-y shade of green. She knows what I like :-) I'm saving this for something awesome!



I just got the new issue of Croq Zine. I was going to swear it off, but then she put up a damaged copy for half-price and I couldn't resist. It came today, so I haven't had a proper sit-down with it yet, but I did learn about GoodSearch.com. GoodSearch.com is powered by Yahoo! but it donates a minimum of 50% of all ad revenue to charitable organizations in the U.S.! AWESOME, right? Even better than that is you get to choose what charity your specific clicks go to and if it isn't already in the GoodSearch database, you can add it yourself! Everyone uses search engines, might as well use one that going to do something besides bring up porn when you type "ketchup" in the box.

I'm still chugging along on the Ol' Log Cabin and I started my Seamless Hybrid this week (sorry Rodger! I couldn't wait!). So, I'll try to get some pics up soon. I also have some racy pics of KnitXcore @ the Beach to share (j/k), if my computer decides to stay online long enough to upload them :-)

<3
knitxcore.