yum.

Ummm... I haven't blogged in awhile, but I had to share this!

I came across it on theKitchn blog today, and just couldn't resist.  It seriously took less then 10 minutes and I got to use my awesome air popper.  Even though it looks delicious while warm, really let it cool!  My tongue is still a little burned. 

Peanut Butter Popcorn
makes about 8 cups

1/4 cup popcorn kernels
Vegetable oil 
Fine salt
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup sugar 
1/2 cup peanut butter (should be free of added sugar) 
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Prepare a clean paper shopping bag or oversized mixing bowl. Heat a large heavy pan over medium heat and film the bottom with vegetable oil. Add the popcorn, shake to distribute, then put a lid on the pan. Leave a small crack for steam to escape. When the popcorn starts popping, shake vigorously to make sure the kernels pop evenly. When the popping slows, take the pan off the heat.

Pour the popcorn into the paper bag or bowl to cool, being careful to leave any unpopped kernels in the pan. Coated with peanut butter caramel, the unpopped kernels are a serious tooth hazard. Lightly salt the popcorn to taste.

Mix the honey and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Let it simmer for a couple minutes, then remove from the heat and add the peanut butter. Stir vigorously until all the peanut butter is melted, then mix in the vanilla.

Immediately pour the peanut butter caramel over the popcorn and stir with a long-handled wooden spoon until it's all coated. Once it's mixed you can put it in a serving bowl. Cover tightly after it's cooled.

---AustraliaCore---

JOSH PYKE: Lines On Palms

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C is for cookie....

that's good enough for me.




These lovlies are from a recipe in the Martha Stewart Halloween Magazine. They're pretty easy to make, and quite delectable. I usually make heavy, iced, shortening cookies shaped like bats on Halloween but I decided to give these a shot (I'll probably make the other ones anyway). There are tons of cute lil' decorating ideas and recipes throughout the issue, and a pretty awesome use of white cotton candy.




I don't know what's wrong with that etsy link, it worked for some and not others. You can get to the shop by just typing in knitxcore.etsy.com, if the link is still messed up. I hope to get some more things listed soon.

Cookie Monster absolutely approves of Martha's cookies.

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knitcore.

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 :-)

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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.

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I've got STEAM HEAT!

Otto is finished! After what seems like days of sewing (about 3 hours in real life), Otto is alive and touring the neighborhood. He seems to like Harry Potter, but is quite concerned about the conditions in which the delivery owls live. He likes trees, but hates getting dirty. He likes waving at passers-by on sunny Thursday afternoons.

Pattern Particulars
Needles: Clover Takumi Straight needles sz. 8

Materials: KnitPick's Merino Style in Cinnamon, Vanilla, Asparagus, and Cornflower. Fiberfill.
Time: 9-ish hours?

Loved: The short row wings and tail.

Hated: Sewing all the pieces together. In the future, Otto will be knit in the round.

When we First moved into our current condo, Dave's boss had given us a fancy wok with steamers and tools. I've used the wok a million times, but tonight I gave the steamer a shot. I was a little aprehensive, because I tried to use one a long time ago to make a steamed egg cake and burnt it, a lot. (the steamer, not the cake). I googled bamboo steamers and ended up at the same site where I get all my cooking advice. Thanx Martha! I made a quick spice rub with some of the organic parsley growing on the deck, and tossed some orange roughy on top of some sliced lemons. I put a second steamer on top of the fish with green beans in it. Awesome! Dinner on one burner! It took about 20 minutes and absolutely no-fuss. I wonder what else I can steam??

I casted on for my Seamless Hybrid today, I've only knit about 6 rows, but that damned Malabrigo is sooooo soft! I can't wait to knit some more. I need to pick a color for my hems and decide which yoke I'm going to do. I hope this one fits and looks good, I can't bear to throw another sweater under the bed.

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knitxcore.

If I knew you were coming, I'd have baked a cake.

FlintKnits showed me how to make an awesome photo mosaic.

Let's go clockwise from the top left.

Elizabeth Zimmermann's Ganomy Hat from the Knitter's Almanac: I'm going to try to do each of her monthly projects, in order, to have Christmas gifts ready when the time comes. The Ganomy Hat is one of June's patterns and a bunch of cool kids have already made them. I'm pretty much playing catch up.

Strawberry Cake: This comes to us from MarthaStewart.com. Lately, I have become obsessed with her website and consult it before I do pretty much anything. Why stress out about how to do something, if someone else has already done it perfectly? You can trust me that this cake is as simple as throwing strawberries in store bought cake mix and layering it all with fresh whipped cream, or you can go straight to the source.

Speaking of food, has anyone seen the Hungry Planet book and photo essay? It's amazing to see what people are eating, how much they spend, and how much it varies from culture to culture. Lupinbunny suggests that we should start a Hungry Planet Meme, where everyone takes a picture of what they buy in their weekly grocery shopping. No cheating! Be honest and have fun, we are not here to judge. I'll do mine the next time I go shopping. I can't wait to see what everyone does with this.

Seven Skeins of Malabrigo Worsted in Lettuce: This is the beginning of my Seamless Hybrid. I bought it from Misocrafty's Amazing De-stash. Hopefully, I'll get around to swatching it up this week, so I can start doing my math. Rodger from Over Abundance will be knitting his Seamless Hybrid at the same time, so when we're finished you'll get to see how 2 different knitters interpret the design.

me: i like trees.

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knitxcore.

Why Macy*s rocks...

Macy*s rock because, sometimes they have things that you want for 1/2 price. You may recognize Kiwi from my sidebar, he's was on my WisT for quite awhile. Usually, I would just buy the cheapest tea kettle I could find at Target. But, I was waiting for Dave to come pick me up after work and the lime green teapot was screaming, "BUY ME!!!!". It didn't help that I got my tax return this week. Don't you love how you feel rich for a few days? I'm pretty much in love with my new lime green kitchen accesory.

I decided to make a tiny felt cat from the new issue of Craft:. The pattern and idea are from Aranzi Aronzo's "Cute Book", which was just translated to english. They make a bunch of really cute lil' felt animals. I guess I don't. It's my fault, really. I didn't trace the pieces (or cut them well). I changed the eyes, too. I didn't have any white felt and I was just killing time, anyway. I know it's ugly, but sort of in a cute way? maybe?

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some stuff I did this week.

1. With the help of WikiKnitting.com, I constructed a small light box. I didn't do the best job putting it together, but i just wanted to see how it worked and if it would make my pictures any better. The light box made a small difference, but I don't think it would be worth the effort to make a big one. I read somewhere recently that people have use those big white ice coolers that you take camping as a light box, so I'm going to see if I can get my hands on one of those this summer. Pictured above is a Jawbreaker Brooch made of felted batting. Pretty much using the same method you would to felt beads, but wrapping layers of colors and then once dry , cutting a single slice through the ball. Below that is the CROQ-POT yarn from a few posts ago. I named it Candylion in honor of Gruff Rhys' new release.

2. I started planting my lil' deck garden. I planted an organic Mr. Stripey Tomato plant (Tigerella) and organic Parsley seeds that I bought at Target. The parsley has already popped up some seedlings, and I want to get some basil planted this week. I have a small deck, but I'm packing it full of plants this summer.

In MDK, there's a small section dedicated to calamari knitting and in it there's a rug knitted from yarn made of wool potholder loops. Well, wool potholder loops were kind of price-y and not that accesible. However, Michaels just put together a cute kid's crafting section and in it was about 10 bags of cotton blend potholder loops. I pretty much cleaned them out. I know when i paid for 4 bags of potholder loops the lady was thinking, "WTF is he going to do with this?". If she had I would have been able to tell her i was making a 3lb. ball of yarn that would later become my new kitchen rug. I want to get a few more bags and loop them on before I start. Dave really likes to loop the lil' guys together, and he's pretty excited to see how big the ball will get. Who am I to take away a grown man's potholder loop induced joy?

3. I saw the Philadelphia Orchestra performance of Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique". They opened with a violin concerto from Beethoven and the soloist (Julia Fischer) blew my mind. I've never seen anyone move their hands so quickly. Now, don't get me wrong, I've been to a bazillion punk and indie "shows", but classically trained musicians put those skinny boys who flail around to shame. I've been to shows where after 2 songs, the band needs a break in the middle of their 25 minute set. The Orchestra played 4 movements that lasted over 45 minutes!!!! I wasn't sure that I would like going, or that I would have a nice time but I was blown away by the talent of these musicians. It was also my first time in the Kimmel Center, which was beautiful! So clean and sparkly :-) In the picture you can see the world's largest organ pipes, which were inside of Verizon Hall. Sadly, it wasn't played. I guess there's no room for an organ in a orchestra with a million violinists in it.

4. Most of you probably already know what this is, it's been a topic of discussion with a few of my blogging pals for about two weeks. CubistLiterature had made a post about eating frito pie, and I had never heard of such a thing. After realizing that is must be a Texas thing, David gave me the scoop:

"Just for KnitXcore here is a quick run down of how to (or how I) make a frito pie. You'll need a big bag of fritos, hormel chili or whatever chili you like best, and lots of shredded cheese.... I like sharp chedder myself. All you gotta do is layer some fritos in the bottom of a pan, then layer some chili on top of that, then layer some cheese on top of that, and then continue layering the fritos, chili, and the cheese until your pan is full. Then pop that baby in a 350 degree oven until it's good and hot and the cheese is melted real good and you have yourself some damn good eatin'. Try it. You'll like it. "

So tonight, we tried it. We liked it. :-)

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knitxcore.