Dragon Rambles

After being so incredibly good for almost all of 2009, I let myself splurge with the HAED christmas sale and bought 3 charts. The plan was to start one on christmas day and to stitch on it for most of my week off. Much umming and ahhing was made over which to start, and I went through my DMC stash looking for threads that I had – which narrowed it down to two possible starts. Then I went through my available fabric, and that helped to choose. Of course I probably had fabric for the other one I was tossing up with (Confabulation of Dragons) if I looked hard enough, but as Blue Faery was half the size, and would probably be a faster stitch, I chose it instead. There were some vague thoughts in my head that I could start Confabulation of Dragons too (maybe a guilt free Jan start), but I’ve since tossed that idea aside.

So, with Blue Faery being the winner, I settled in for a decadent weak off of stitching (even more appreciated, since it was the first stitching time I had made for myself in too long). I’m quite impressed with how much I got done. I was trying for the end of that second page but the mushrooms took longer than I expected.

The colours are all darker than the artwork, which unfortunately means some of the mushrooms and leaves will disappear a bit into the black background as they are stitched (you can see more of that in the next page), and the border is a little less grey than I would like, but so far I’m fairly happy with how it looks. I’m currently working on the 3rd page and will post a more updated pic next weekend.

Well, it may be a couple of months late, but I’ve finally finished the shetland lace shawl pattern that I was knitting as a baby blanket for a friend. Unfortunately, by the time I finished it today I had to take the photos under artificial light, so first here’s the last pic I shared to remind you of the colour.

The borders gave me some difficulty, mainly because I knitted them in the round and therefore had sooo much more to unknit every time I made a mistake. Oh and the making a mistake in one row that translated to several rows at a time because of dropped stitches. But I got very good at unknitting lace and I am happy to say that since returning from Australia I had a lot less unknitting to do – it all went so much smoother (WHEN I sat down to it, that is). So, here it is:

Since it is to be a baby blanket and therefore will be washed more than a shawl, I decided not to block it properly. After all, I don’t want Sally to have to take special care to pin it all out after washing it to get it looking the same as when she got it. And I used a fine enough yarn and loose enough tension that the pattern shows through quite well even without really being opened up. Look really closely on the following pic to see the shawl. You’ll see just how fine it is.

It was knitted in 100% merino wool so even though it’s fine, when it’s doubled up and wrapped around, it’ll be deceptively warm. I’ll be sending this off to it’s new home tomorrow so I probably won’t get a better picture. For now though I’m just happy that’s one big project finished.

So the weekend is here and I can finally play in the snow, and since there is still lots of untouched snow in my backyard, there was plenty for me to play with. On the agenda: a snow roo (got the idea after the head of our snow cat).

Here he is half finished:

But with all that snow being so powdery, and therefore I’m unable to roll a ball how am I going to do the head? Aha, I have an idea…

And yes that is me making the head. Make the most of this, you have now gotten two photos of me – that’s likely to be the year’s quota.

And this is what I came up with to solve the problem of the head:

And I thought this was such a safe suburb

Little did I know as I was dropping off to sleep last night, the snow was moving in and planning on sticking around for a while. So imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning to a winter wonderland. It was beautiful, and so of course I just had to take my camera along with me on the walk to work (because of course, while all the schools were shut and many people took the day off, I had too much to do and figured I couldn’t get away with it given I live in walking distance to work).

But, while I didn’t get to spend the day playing in the snow, I did get some great photos on the most enjoyable walk to work in a while.

My street was so peaceful and clean looking, not to mention pretty

But where did the road end and the pavement begin?

And as I made my way, the snow kept falling heavier (oh, what a shame). Even if I hadn’t been enjoying myself, how could I mind with views such as this.

Then at 3pm it was time to take my lunch break and head to the park next door to work to enjoy a little snow play myself (yes, I know that was a late break, but as the plan had been to spend it at the park it didn’t really matter when we took it, and meetings and actual work had to come first). Obviously a lot of people had been there earlier, as seen by the presence of this massive snow man

Kate and I then had a go at making our own, we decided art over size. Ok, so we’re not all that arty, but at least you can tell it’s a cat. Or at least my office mate recognised what it was supposed to be when I got back to my desk and showed him the photo

We had a bit of trouble with the nose. Personally I think the nose and the ears look make him look a bit more like a kangaroo, but I think we got the pose, the tail and the whiskers right

We are supposed to get more snow Sat night and Sun. But they’ve said that before and by the time the day arrived, the snow forecast had moved on elsewhere so I’ll believe it when I see it. But should we be so lucky, I’ll definitely spend Sunday in the back yard building more snow sculptures.

The thing I always love about christmas is the food: the amount, the variety and the general indulgence of it. The one time I’ve hosted christmas, I made lots of different dishes so that people can enjoy that variety and indulgence. This year I decided to do the same even though I was planning a nice relaxing day on my own. I knew this would mean I’d have leftovers for a week, but that’s the fun of christmas too

So I spent a good deal of xmas eve preparing anything that could be done before hand, and making the two desserts that needed to set overnight. This meant that I could do what I planned to do on xmas day and really relax, and still have that feast

I thought I’d share the photos of my feast with you so you could realise just HOW much I indulged, and why I was sitting rounded and replete at 5pm after starting to eat my feast around 2.

First for my mains: I cooked 4 dishes for my savoury part of the menu.

Potato and celeriac gratin; stuffed portobello mushrooms

Pumpkin, leek and spinach vol-au-vents; and suede and carrot mash

Didn’t it look so tasty all plated up ready for me to tuck in!

Then came the desserts. Luckily I didn’t make the 4th one I had planned as three was quite enough, especially as I had a full serving of each… of course. There was…

Strawberry mousse

and Chocolate truffle cake (with bailey’s in that truffle mixture)

and Apple and raspberry crumble which I of course served with scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Yuuummmm! Much fun was had in both the making and eating of this feast (and it’s leftovers) and I’ll definitely be doing this again – just not too soon

Ok, so I was supposed to post these recipes before xmas, what can I say.. I was slack.  Here they are now, so you can use them any time through the year or save them for next xmas. Just bear in mind that the pictures aren’t the best as I had to take them in the evening under artificial light

Dark choc orange truffles

300g Dark orange choc (the good quality sort that has the orange pieces in, like lindt or the newish bournville)
125ml thickened (or single) cream
cocoa for rolling

Put cream into small saucepan and heat over low heat until volume just beginning to increase (not until it boils).  Turn off heat and add choc (chopped), stir with metal spoon (you don’t want any moisture) until well combined.  Pour into a bowl and leave to set in fridge.  Roll into small balls and coat in cocoa.

Milk choc marshmellow truffles

300g Milk choc (the better the quality, the better the taste; pref not eating choc)
125ml thickened (or single) cream
1 cup chopped marshmellows (if you start with the mini ones, there’s less chopping involved)
milk choc for coating

Put cream into small saucepan and heat over low heat until volume just beginning to increase (not until it boils). Turn off heat and add choc (chopped), stir with metal spoon (you don’t want any moisture) until well combined. Mix in the marshmellow pieces. Pour into a bowl and leave to set in fridge. Roll into small balls and coat in milk choc.

Apricot balls

500g dried apricots, chopped
1 tin of condensed milk
2 1/2 cups coconut
extra coconut for rolling

Combine all ingredients well. Wet hands (VERY important hands are wet, and you’ll need to keep rewetting them, wet hands helps to stop the mixture sticking to you rather than rolling) and roll mixture into small balls. Roll balls in extra coconut.

White christmas (variation)

300g white choc (using this instead of kopha and milk powder, close enough and tastier – especially using a belgian white choc)
1/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts
1/4 cup coconut flakes
1/4 cup each of chopped red and green jelly lollies (I was looking for some snakes or such to chop up but settled on wine gums as that’s all I found – you’ll need 3 rolls of wine gums to get enough green and red, and you get to eat the rest of the colours too)
1 cup of rice bubbles

NB: try and chop up the nuts and lollies to about twice the size of a rice bubble

Melt the chocolate (microwave for about 1 – 1.5 mins then stirring works quite well). Mix in all the other ingredients. Pour and pat out into a lined square baking tin (about 20cm), leave to set then cut into squares. You can also put these into muffin cases, but as it can be quite sickly you might want to go for the mini muffin size

Fudge

NB: the two recipes below use a nice cheats way for making fudge, without having to worry about sugar thermometers and sugar ball stages. If you don’t have the liquid glucose that’s ok, you can leave it out – you’ll still get tasty fudge it just won’t be as smooth as the glucose controls the formation of sugar crystals.

White choc, pistachio fudge

1 tin of condensed milk
1 cup light brown sugar
2 Tbsp liquid glucose
125g butter
100g white choc, chopped
1 cup shelled pistachio nuts, chopped
1 1/2 Tbsp Bailey’s liqueur

Combine condensed milk, sugar, glucose and butter in large glass mixing bowl (if you choose a ceramic one you’ll have to extend your cooking time as too much energy goes into heating up the ceramic and not enough into the mixture). Microwave for 8 min on medium-high (70%), stirring every 2 min. Microwave for another 4 min on medium-high, stirring every 1 min (mixture should now be think and bubbly by the end of the time, before the stirring). After final stir add (gets all bubbles down), add white choc and stir until melted and smooth. Stir in nuts and liqueur. Spoon into a greased and lined square cake pan (18-20cm) and leave to cool. Cut into desired sized pieces.

Dark choc, walnut fudge

1 tin of condensed milk
1 cup light brown sugar
2 Tbsp liquid glucose
100g butter
200g dark choc, chopped
1 cup chopped walnuts

Combine condensed milk, sugar, glucose and butter in large glass mixing bowl (if you choose a ceramic one you’ll have to extend your cooking time as too much energy goes into heating up the ceramic and not enough into the mixture). Microwave for 8 min on medium-high (70%), stirring every 2 min. Microwave for another 4 min on medium-high, stirring every 1 min (mixture should now be think and bubbly by the end of the time, before the stirring). After final stir add (gets all bubbles down), add white choc and stir until melted and smooth. Stir in nuts. Spoon into a greased and lined square cake pan (18-20cm) and leave to cool. Cut into desired sized pieces.

So many people start off the new year with new year’s resolutions.  I’ve never done that as a rule because, hey, who needs more stress in their lives caused by not living up to promises they have made to themselves.  But I’m also aware how slack I have been at keeping in touch with friends scattered far and wide this last year, so I’m going to resolve to keep in better touch.  I aim to try and send more emails, maybe even some phone calls, but also to keep a properly updated blog so that at least when the emails thin, anyone who is interested can see what I’m up to.

And with this new start, comes a new blog.  Big thanks to Vicky and Adam for hosting my old one, but it’s long past time my blog got it’s own home.  I’m also blending my dragontravels blog with my craft blog so this one will have it all: travel, walks, food, craft and just life in general. Here’s hoping 2010 is a good year of blogging for me, and I promise not to post crap just to say I posted something.  Thanks for following me to my new home and hope everyone has a great 2010.