Author: MCD

I'm a writer. I also bake. And knit. A lot. My novels are available anywhere ebooks/paperbacks/audiobooks are sold online. Find more info on my blog: http://www.madebymeghan.ca

Categories
baking

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies

Yesterday I tried baking a couple of items out of Martha Stewart’s Holiday Cookies (a special issue of her magazine). Every now and then I find a recipe I really, really like via Martha Stewart (though I usually modify it to suit my particular taste), but I don’t regularly collect her magazine as I am attempting to cut my consumption of paper.

I heavily modified the recipe for Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies and am not totally sold on the results.  They are a little like brownies with a subtle kick and, because of that, they may need some sort of icing to be really tasty.  If you click through to Martha’s recipe (link above) you will note that mine look nothing like hers and I believe that is due to the fact that I substituted in whole wheat pastry flour.

Modifications: whole wheat pastry flour, salted butter, cayenne pepper.

Notes: I could have upped the cayenne pepper content.

Tasting notes: dense, chocolately – almost brownie like – very tasty, but maybe a bit dry. The spicing was subtle, but added a nice afterthought kick to the chocolate.

Categories
baking

A series of Christmas baking photos:

I will elaborate on these further in an upcoming post, but here is a teaser of Icing Sugar Chocolates being dipped:

Sugar Cookies being iced:

Santa Whiskers baked and ready for consumption:

And rather perfect-looking shortbread (if I say so myself) (though please forgive the grungy cookie sheet – it is my favourite one and has needed replacing for a few years now):

I somehow neglected to get a picture of the gingerbread people, but here is a post (and the recipe) that I wrote earlier this year.

I will chocolate dip a second batch of shortbread tonight and then keep moving on down my list of things-to-bake until I run out of time or patience. I suspect lack of time will be the deciding factor this year in regards to the number of holiday recipes I manage to complete, and – honestly – I started too late.

Categories
Knitting

Another New Hat!!

Bramble, pattern found here – free – on Knitty, is supposed to be a beret, and honestly I passed it by when I first saw it, because I really am not a beret person, in fact I rarely wear hats at all. I think it is my short forehead that doesn’t play well with hats.

Then it snowed, and my llama hat itched, and I was worried my head would get very cold if I couldn’t lessen that itchiness, so did what any completely sane knitter does and went searching for a pattern on Ravelry. I found that this Raveler (dianabel) had modified her hat (series of Ravelry links) into a slouch.

So I completely ripped off dianabel’s modifications and made this yummy, soft, lovely cabled hat. It is the back detail that really sold me – I love how it all loops together.

I didn’t have enough yarn (I couldn’t justify a run to the yarn store seeing as I had just bought the llama handspun the week before) to complete the entire hat out of the Paris Night (navy) Malabrigo so I (kind of) randomly started off with a few green stripes to stretch my yardage. It turned out exactly as I envisioned! I absolutely love it.

Pattern: [modified] Bramble by Amanda Muscha
Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted – Paris Night & Verdes
Cast on: November 25, 2010
Finished: November 29, 2010
Pattern Rating: 5 stars
Yarn Rating: 5 stars
Ravelry Project Page

Note: photos courtesy of Michael

Categories
baking

An Experiment with Apple Pie…

I know it seems like I am never happy when I experiment with baking and, unfortunately, this post does nothing to counter that general opinion.

I had a bunch of apples. I had a brand new pie plate. I made a pie on a day that I had already been baking for 8 hours. I kind of made up the recipe, though I did use the whole-wheat pastry flour short crust I usually like. I cut out some stars to make it pretty.

What went wrong?

The crust was too dry – it broke and cracked. The innards weren’t sweet enough (in my opinion). I only ate a couple of bites of my piece. Michael finished my serving up for me, and then I had him take the remaining pie to his job site… where, supposedly, none of the carpenters had any complaints about being forced to eat 3/4 of an apple pie.

Problem is, my apple crisp recipe rocks and it is less labour intensive, so why make apple pie, at all, ever? Mark this one as a #fail.

Categories
Knitting

I love my new hat…

While down at Granville Island two weekends ago, I slipped into Maiwa to find some bulky yarn… yes, the early snowfall had driven me into wanting a slouchy hat, one that would cover my entire head. Once there, I happened upon some lovely natural handspun llama and, after quick conversation with the owner of the shop, I figured out that I had actually met the llamas from which this yarn was spun.

Derry Walsh (at Derry’s Orchard & Nursery in Aldergrove) grows and sells apples trees (among other things) and last March we wandered out that way to pick up two one-year-old dwarf whips (trees). While we were there Derry gave us a tour of her acres and we met her llamas. Derry and her husband use the llamas for “exciting packing trips” and they are amazing beasts – strong, beautiful and friendly.

This handspun came from Shandy, who (I believe) was her biggest boy. He had the most amazing eyelashes and kept reaching out to sniff my hair while we were visiting.

I used almost an entire skein (200g) for the hat and then gave it a soak in soak and then a bath in hair conditioner in an attempt to ease the itchiness.  This repeat bathing really relaxed the hat and now it is almost too big, but I love it anyway.

I am completely enamored with the fact that I met the animal whose yarn I then used to knit this hat. Completely enamored.

Pattern: Autumn by Jane Richmond (Ravelry & Etsy)
Yarn: llama handspun, natural brown, bulky weight
Cast on: November 20, 2010
Finished: November 21, 2010
Pattern rating: 5 stars
Yarn rating: 5 stars
Ravelry Project Page

Categories
research writing

Researching Poetry and Channeling 16-year olds

I am currently swathed in cashmere [vintage, it tried to snow in Vancouver last night – crazy!!], sipping chocolate mint tea [from my own garden] and researching “dark” poetry for a young adult novel I am working on called ‘TIL DEATH [working title].

I wrote a short film with the same premise last summer when my [formerly a] English teacher sister, Heather, was briefly living with me and I put her to the task of combing through hundreds of years of poetry and selecting some that would suit the two characters I was creating, Luci and Colby. Heather selected passages from the writing of Tennyson [In Memoriam, of course], Browning, Barrett Browning, Arthur Hugh Clough [who I had never heard of] and Christina Rossetti. I added a Shakespearean sonnet [116], Bronte, Dickinson, Arnold and more Tennyson to that list.

I decided, about a month ago, to convert the short film in to what I was hoping would be a novel length story, but only really got started working on it late last week. Problem was, I couldn’t find this great [handwritten] list my sister had put together for me, and I tell you I really wasn’t looking forward to rereading In Memoriam [etc, etc].

However, I am happy to report I just found it filed under General Film in my filing cabinet, and am currently transcribing it into my writing program under the research tab so the pieces of paper don’t go missing on me again [Parker, the golden Persian, has a habit of dragging handwritten notes all around the house when I “forget” him in the office].

Favourite Heather selection:

I sometime hold it half a sin

To put in words the grief I feel;

For words, like Nature, half reveal

And half conceal the Soul within.

–       In Memoriam (5. 1 – 4), Tennyson

My favourite selection:

Unable are the Loved to die

For Love is Immortality,

–       Emily Dickinson

Poetry will be peppered through out the novel, just a verse or line here or there, as it is how to the two lead characters attempt to communicate. Yeah, that is sure to end well [insert sarcastic tone].

Categories
weaving

Weaving with the Knitter’s Loom

Last September I took a weaving course at Birkeland Bros. Wool, taught by the famous Pearl.  I had wanted to take this course for a while and I finally just signed up.

Now, I thought Birkeland Bros and Pearl were great, but decided, after making 4 scarves, that weaving with the Ashford Knitter’s Loom really wasn’t for me. I honestly found it a little boring. That is not to say that the finished pieces weren’t lovely and that you could make many different projects on this little, very intuitive loom, but I think I am just in a knitting lace & socks phase right now.

This is the first project I wove (re: all pictures), a new scarf for Michael, which will, most likely, be quickly reclaimed by me as soon as the cold weather really hits – Michael never wears scarves unless there is a blizzard and, thankfully, blizzards are very rare in Vancouver, BC, Canada!

I think I would love to have the loom around just to use up the bits of sock yarn that accumulate, but cannot justify the price for something I would probably use only a couple of times a year.

I also wove a green/multicolour scarf for my lovely friend Michelle’s birthday, but neglected to get pictures before gifting. She seemed to like it though. I also used up a bunch of socks yarn ends and made myself a scarf, and, though I have worn it a lot, I haven’t gotten it in front of the camera yet.

Ravelry Project Page
Pattern: 7.5 dpi, alternated the two yarns for the warp, and held yarn double for the weave/weft.
Yarn: Granite Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Worsted & Marcasite Misti Alpaca Tonos Worsted
Yarn Rating: 5 stars! Soft & Subtle colours.
Categories
Knitting

Oh! Ruby Longjohn Socks

I finally got shots of Michael’s newest socks – proudly modeled by himself by a blueberry bush in the backyard.

These socks, paired with The Woolen Rabbit Kashmir yarn in the Oh! Ruby colourway, were knit from another fantastic pattern by Anne Hanson of KnitSpot.  I really think the yarn perfectly suits the pattern.

The pattern: Longjohn Sock – The pattern, as always, was clearly written and offered in multiple sizes. I first knit up the size medium on 2.75mm needles (aka size 2), then chickened out after the cuff and recast on for the size large.  Unfortunately, I should have stuck with the medium, because, 5 inches into the large, I figured out the large was TOO large – Michael, size 10.5 feet, likes his socks tight.

The yarn: Kashmir: this was my first time with any Woolen Rabbit yarn and I was prepared to fall deeply in love with this merino/cashmere/nylon blend. First of all, the colour – GORGEOUS! Unfortunately for me, Michael was home when this package came in the mail and immediately claimed this skein for his next pair of socks. The downside was that the red seriously came off in my hands, in a seriously difficult to-get-off-with-multiple-washes red stain (that twisted around my right index finger). I also found the yarn far too thin for my taste when knitting socks (the fact that these socks felt like they took forever to knit probably didn’t help).  Also the yarn wasn’t consistent – very thick/thin throughout and somewhat nubbly. HOWEVER, the finished pair of socks is amazingly soft and really akin to dress socks – definitely meant for special occasions!! Michael LOVES them.

Ravelry Project Page

Cast on: July 28, 2010
Finished: September 2010
Pattern rating: 5 stars
Yarn rating: 3 stars

 

ETA: showed Michael this post and the following conversation ensued:

Michael: “Wow, my ankles look really wide.”

Me: “What are you, a girl?”

Michael: “Not with those feet.”

 

Categories
cooking gardening

Garbage Can Potatoes

Using vague instructions from The New Self-Sufficient Gardener by John Seymour (see page 134), two old garbage bins [well-scrubbed] and seed potatoes from Westcoast Seeds we attempted to grow our own baked potatoes this year.

We were cautioned, via instructions that came with the seed potatoes, to limit irrigation BEFORE we had growth, and I think that ultimately made us overly cautious with watering at all [to the point that we covered the seed potatoes when it rained].  So while we had lots of greenery and we built the soil up every six inches until the plants were about eight inches over the top of the bins, this was our entire haul out of one garbage bin:

The book had prepared [and excited] us for a potentially “heavy crop”. Now, true enough, we had an odd season here – a cold/wet spring followed suddenly by a hot/dry summer, so perhaps that was the limiting factor. We also weren’t too pleased with the new soil we brought in and will probably be investing in more sea soil next year, but, seeing as potatoes can grow in straw, I believe, ultimately, we didn’t water enough early on and then it was too late to reverse the lack of tuber growth.

Mind you, these potatoes tossed in a little olive oil and sea salt, roasted for 30 minutes in a 425°F oven and served with generous application of butter and sour cream were DELICIOUS!

We will be planting more garbage cans next year!

Categories
cooking

[super easy and super tasty] Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Roasted Butternut Soup Recipe

1 kg squash (approx) [I used one large and one small butternut.]

¼ cup butter

1 onion, large, chopped

4 cups stock [I used homemade turkey, but usually use chicken from The Stock Market.]

salt & pepper

1 cup cream

Cooking Instructions:

Roast squash – slice in half, dig out guts and seeds, brush with oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, place cut side down on baking sheet and bake in a 350° oven for approx. 30 – 40 minutes [until tender and scoopable].

Cool until touchable. Scoop out and reserve flesh.

Melt butter in large pan, cook onion until soft [approx 10-15 minutes].

Add reserved squash flesh. Saute for approx. 1 – 2 minutes.

Add stock. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes. Cool slightly.

Process in batches in blender until smooth and try to not burn yourself with the hot liquid while doing so. Return to pan.

[no picture sorry, but I am serious about not burning yourself. Hot stuff has a tendency to pop the lid during blending.]

Heat over low heat. Add salt and pepper to taste and stir in cream. Do not boil. Stir until heated through.

[again no picture. I add a fair bit of salt and pepper – would recommend you under add and then taste right before serving.]

Serve.

*Note: I prefer to use Avalon cream and butter – expensive, but local and so, so extra tasty! In my opinion, of course.