The Sweater Challenge - The Countdown Continues

Well, I have 5 days left and I it's looking like I could make it. However, the next two days are going to be a wash because it's St. Patrick's Day weekend. Tomorrow the fun begins at 10am! So that really leaves 3 weeknights. Yikes!

I'm almost done with the left arm. I need to cast on the collar and figure out how to do the i-cord trim and button holes. Wish me luck!

almost done with the left sleeve

The Sweater Challenge!

Holy crap, I've had this blog for over a year now and I haven't yet blogged about sweaters. It's half the blog's namesake! You can tell how big my sweet tooth is :) Well now I've issued myself a 10-day sweater challenge. I started knitting this sweater the day after I moved into my new place in Chicago (Thanksgiving day weekend). I need to finish it by March 21st, cause it's for my dad. It was supposed to be a Christmas present. I wrapped it up for Christmas, when he opened it up the torso was finished up to the armpits. But since then, I haven't been as diligent as I should have been to finish it. Next week my Dad is coming down to Chicago for his birthday.

This is the final countdown. Can I do it? Ok enough blogging, back to knitting!

right arm almost finished, left arm not even started....

So many desserts, so little time - Ginger Pear Cake

I just spent a few days cooking on one of our ships. It was intense, lots of planning, several different dietary needs, along with a strict ship schedule to adhere to. Not to mention, 40 mouths to feed. Phew! :) I wanted to make desserts but just didn't have the time. So when I came back to land, I just wanted to bake and bake and bake! This is a recipe, I had planned on trying on the ship.

Ginger Pear Cake
4 cups peeled, cored and chopped pears - I used 4 Bosc Pears
1 cups white sugar - I used  scant cup
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour, you will need a bit more if you let the mixture sit overnight -  I didn't need more but it's a good reminder
1-2 inch knob of ginger peeled and grated on a micro plane grater about 1 tablespoon - I used 1 inch next time I will use more
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice - I didn't have pumpkin pie spice so I used another teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of allspice and 1 teaspoon of nutmeg
3 whole eggs
2/3 cup canola oil - I also didn't have canola oil so I used a bit less of olive oil
1 cup chopped pecans - pecans are expensive, I used walnuts

Directions

1. Combine the pears, sugar and fresh ginger and let stand for one hour or overnight

2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Spray a 10 inch bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray.

3. Slightly beat the eggs and combine them with the oil, chopped pecans and pear mixture.

4. Stir the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and Pumpkin Pie Spice. Stir in the pear mixture. Pour batter into the prepared bundt pan. - I didn't have a bundt pan so I used a bread loaf pan and a regular cake pan. (Note from the original cook, I let my pear mixture macerate overnight and had to add about an extra 1/2 cup of flour to the mix or it would have been very runny)

5 .Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 1 hour and 10 minutes.

 

It turned out very moist, a bit like banana bread. In the future, I may want to smash the pears or cut them a bit smaller. I may also make a ginger glace or serve it with whipped cream to make it more like a traditional cake. But will be perfect to bring into the office tomorrow for some sweets to go with their morning coffee :)

Stained Glass Cookies

Well, hello blog. It's been a long time. I recently moved so this is my first blog in my new place! I made some classic sugar cookies for our office holiday party with a new twist. The twist is the stained glass centers! I can't take credit for this idea, I did steal it off another website but I was surprised at how easy it really is and how nice looking they turned out.

  

I modified the Best Rolled Sugar Cookies recipe from Allrecipes.

Ingredients

•  3/4 cup butter, softened
•  Just shy of one cup of white sugar
•  2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
•  2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Jolly Ranchers

Directions

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. (1/2 inch works better with these cookies) Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. 

Place cookies 1 inch apart on parchment paper on cookie sheets. Cut the centers out of the cookies. It's best if you can do this on the sheet so the cookies remain their original shape.

Put Jolly Ranchers in a plastic bag and smash with a hammer. (Oh, how I love cooking with hammers). Sprinkler the Jolly Ranchers in the center of the cookie, better to have more than not enough to cover the area.  

Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely. Then peel off the parchment paper and serve!

Earth Shakin' Ice Cream!

Well I drafted this blog a long time ago and you're going to know how behind I am on this with the next sentence. The day after I made the ice cream, an unexpected thing happened, an earthquake in DC!  I made ice cream for a buddy at work for his birthday. Just as a few of us were sitting down in the kitchen to eat it - the earthquake shook us all up! We just sat there stunned for a sec. The metro goes right below our building and sometimes I can feel that. I wondered just for a sec, did the metro trains collide? Then someone yelled at us to get into the door frames. That was the end of it and we all evacuated the building. My friends took the ice cream with them. I think that must be a pretty good compliment to my ice cream, if your friends take it with them when the evacuate a building.

Alright back to the oh so old blog.

I have purchased an ice cream ball, like this one. And I have to say it's fantastic. I did the inaugural "churn" a couple months back at a friend's BBQ. It was a great thing to do sitting around the table, drinking beers, taking a turn at shaking it while the food was grilling. By the time the food was ready, we had ice cream! That time, I did just vanilla ice cream. This time I made up my own recipe :)

Cookies and Cream Homemade Ice Cream
1 quart of heavy whipping cream
1 cup sugar
1 tbls vanilla
oreo cookies
1 cup of rock salt or kosher salt
1 bag of ice (or at least 8 trays)

Put the ice and salt in the ball part of the container. Pour the sugar and whipping cream together into the inside cylinder part while stirring. Add the tbls of vanilla. You can stop there if you want and just make vanilla ice cream. I put some oreos in a bag and took a hammer to them!

Then dumped the crumbs into the cylinder. Close the lid and get your work out! I had my two room mates help me cause it is a lot of shaking. Easy to put the ingredients together but it takes some muscles to make. The box says it takes a half an hour but I think it takes at least an hour.

before I started the shaking! really is cookies and cream

Periodically, you'll need to open the lid and scrape down the sides. The ice cream will form around the sides. I recommend you take the ice cream from the sides out and place in a container and put in the freezer. This will help the rest of the cream form into ice cream.

after about 30 minutes

I added more oreos, stirred it up a bit and continued to shake it up! You may also need to drain out some of the water and add more ice and salt.

look at all that ice cream!

I'm always amazed at the end that it actually does taste like ice cream. It's hard to believe that all you need is cream, sugar, ice, salt and a bit of shakin. It's even better than store bought ice cream, it's so creamy and nothing artificial. Yum!!

My Sunday Night Doodles

The other day I felt like doodling. Here's some owls.

On My Summer Vacation

Remember when teachers used to have you write a journal entry on what you did on your summer vacation? Well, that's how I feel writing this blog. I went home for a week and helped my mom design a new dress. I perfected the skill of making "yo-yos"! This is my real first craft blog to give authenticity to the "sweaters" part of the name.

How to make a Yo-Yo
Cut out a circle of fabric. Any size will do. I used a ring of masking tape as a stencil.
Thread a need, double strand.
With the wrong side face up, turn the edge in a quarter of a inch and start stitching the side. You should stitch it loosely close to the edge of the circle.

Keep turning the fabric in on the sides and stitch the needle so that you're stitching the extra folds in (it will fold in on itself because it's a circle)

When you've gone all the way around, pull the thread through and make it ruffle together. The yo-yo will fold into itself and be half the size that you started out with.

see the little blue piece of fabric in the middle

I suggest cutting another small piece of cloth and put it inside the yo-yo for an added bit of color. The smallest yo-yos don't need this because the fabric will tighten together in the middle but all other yo-yos will have a bit of a gap that is best to cover the inside of the yo-yo as it's the wrong side of the fabric. Then do the final closure and tack the ruffles down on the back with the leftover thread.

yes the pictures were taken on a beach towel, I was being crafty at the beach. It was my summer vacay!

Then we sewed them on her dress