LittleRedSaid.......

I have had the compulsion to start a knitting project ever since the weather turned cold. Well, I found a quick little one skein project that I think will fill that need to knit. The lack of knitting supplies in Prince George has been more than a little frustrating, and while there is no way I was going to be able to find the yarn called for in the pattern..........I grudgingly settled on a yarn with some alpaca content to give me the softness I was looking for. My replacement yarn was not the size requested by the pattern so an adjustment in needle size was needed to knit the required gauge. After a cranky bit of swatch knitting (I hate knitting swatches) to confirm I wouldn't be making anything giant...........I was on my way.
I have not knit much in my life........and certainly not much since I was little. All I knew were the few stitches my grama had taught me. I remember sitting in her rocking chair knitting mittens in the round without a pattern many times with all her left over balls of colourful acrylic yarns. Grama was thrifty about many things and practical too, and without a doubt one of the most interesting people I've had the privilege to know (although I bet she never knew it). No doubt, for her, acrylic yarn offered a good long life to her many projects. I wonder if she would find my attraction to wool yarns wasteful. With this project I did manage to learn a new cast on and a new bind off and it's the first time I've used the technique of holding stitches by knitting them onto scrap yarn, so it has been a learning experience as well. Thank goodness for utube! So helpful to see a stitch being done....much more so than reading about how to do it.
Soon my little project will be done and I can show you the finished product and stop taunting the cat with what appears to be a delicious ball of yarn!

Order is returning to my daily schedule now and I am starting to think about some new lunch options for Ike. Currently his favourite lunch is just cold cuts, cheese, crackers, sweet pickles, fruit and a cookie or something for dessert. ( today dessert is ginger sparkle cookies and a few Halloween treats) There are so many options when filling a bento box for a kids lunch......I think it might be time to try some new ones. We have tried boiled eggs with ranch dip, avocado salad, potato pancakes and ham, pikelets and fruit and cheese, and small finger sandwiches. I would like to try mini quiches or a frittata slice too. If you have any ideas...please let me know....we'd like to try something different too!

Since being home from work, I have missed the occasional trip to Vancouver and the trip to Daiso that came with it. Fortunately for me a coworker still makes these trips and he has been patient enough to fill my shopping list at Daiso for me. If only I could have a live camera to walk through the store with him. But of course that would only lead to spending more money......But come on.....this stuff is so cute....so kawaii....who could resist. And since it's a $2 store......it's pretty affordable....right?

Halloween is finally here! Ike was so excited....when he woke up he said 'It's time to get up....it's a big day today' Ike waits all year for Halloween with just as much anticipation as Christmas. Last night was the big Kids Halloween party put on for children of the Pulp Mill employees. There are always carnival type games to play, inflatables to jump in, and treats and drinks to be had. Each year one of the most exciting carnival games for Ike is a chance to win a pumpkin. Each child takes a seat on one of 16 numbered chairs....and a wheel of fortune is spun to see which chair is the winning chair. Ike spent an excessive amount of time trying to win a pumpkin this year and finally got one to take home:) He is carving it up with dad right now.....picture to follow.

Well Ike was right....it is a big day with lots to do. After pumpkin carving, there will be some baking to do, supper to make, a big clean up from sewing and cooking projects, house and yard decorating, dressing up time, trick or treating with friends in a new neighbourhood this year.......followed up by fireworks at another friends home. Good thing it's on a weekend this year! Happy Halloween everyone:)

When I got up this morning....I was in for a bit of a surprise! There was snow.......falling.......and the clusters of snow flakes (snowballs if you will) that were falling were 1/2 inch across. At that rate we'd have 6 inches of snow by noon. It is unusual here to have snow here on the ground on Halloween. Some years we do.....but most years we don't. Our snow doesn't tend to come to stay until much later though and I am hopeful that this crop will melt off before we are fully committed to winter.

The snowy walk into school with Ike this morning was gorgeous....I should have brought my camera and you could see that all the kids were super excited to be playing in the snow. Halfway there I called back to Ike...."Do you think the snow is damp enough to be good for snowballs???" My answer grazed off my shoulder and rolled to the ground in front of me. Perfect snow for snowballs!

It has been a busy time here getting Ike's costume ready, finishing swaps, and keeping up with the usual home and school commitments. Last night had to be a quick supper and I decided to make the America's test kitchen pork chop recipe I posted about here. Again they turned out fabulously and are now a family favourite. To go along with them I made auntie Lucille's Rice Pilaf and although I thought that I had previously posted the recipe......I could not find it here....so here it is in case you'd like to try it.

Aunt Lucille's Rice Pilaf

1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 envelope (about 2 tsp) of chicken soup base
2 1/2 cups water
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp sage
1/4 tsp thyme
1 cup rice (uncle Ben's Converted)

Melt butter over medium heat and cook onions, celery until translucent. You may also add in chopped peppers and mushrooms as I did this time if you like. Add all remaining ingredients except the rice. Bring to a boil. Add rice, stir and turn down to a simmer and cook with the lid on for 20 minutes. Remove lid, stir and cook about 3 minutes further with the lid off.

Halloween is sneaking up on me again......Just like it does every year. Today I simply must finish sewing my son's top and bottom for his Halloween costume in order to not get too stressed out over the whole thing. He has instructions to give me hell if it's not done when he comes home from school.....which is appropriate since he will be a little devil this year:)
Yesterday, I finished up the Baker's Challenge just in the nick of time so at least that is out of the way. Now, two more quick swaps to get in the mail and I'm done for a bit. Anyway, here is a photo of the Annie doll......well part of her anyway. She has now arrived to my partner in Brasil just in time for Halloween! She is dressed up for Halloween this year as a black cat. She has a warm fleece black top and bottom with tail attached....because Halloween is a bit chilly here. Hmmm she may be a bit over dressed for Halloween in Brasil.
The Halloween apron swap arrived back in Ontario for my partner as well....now if I can only figure out how to turn the photo right side up........I'll have to come back and fix this.....but you get the picture!

When I quickly glanced earlier this month and saw that Macaroons were on the agenda..... I said 'Yum...nothing wrong with that' . Some time after, I purchased a big bag of coconut in anticipation of the challenge. A little after that, I sat down to read through the instructions and discovered that the recipe this month was actually for French Macaroons which contain no coconut, but instead contain powdered almonds. After looking at the photos as well, it dawned on me that I had just seen these pretty little cookies on someones blog just a few weeks ago in beautiful tinted shades filled with delicious looking filling. Now I wish I could just find that blog again. Oh well, I'm sure in a few days I'll find it again. Well, now I am really intrigued to try these cookies which according to the ingredients seem to be a version of an Italian wedding cookie or Ameretti cookie a little more leaning towards the meringue though. Since I love almond flavours and especially Ameretti cookies (it's the best part of an Italian wedding in my books) I was very much looking forward to this challenge, I was not disappointed......not at all:)

Without more delay......The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe. Have a look here to view other challenge results......and yes that is a new cup and saucer.....I realize I have a problem:(
My attempts yielded some experimental mishaps and unintentional snacks as I figured out the proper size and spacing required for the given baking times. The time required until beginning to become golden was a little more difficult to judge as I had added cocoa and vanilla bean sugar to the batter. A quick filling with some milk chocolate ganache and they were complete. In the end it was not as time consuming as I has thought it would be, but for the next go around, will definitely get the proper size piping tip and go with parchment over silpat. After several batches....some of which had a bit of sticking issues, I discovered that it was the undercooked batch that stuck, and that the silpat offered no real advantage over the parchment in this application. I eventually did learn to identify the slight browning called for as a signal that they were done....and at this point in baking....no sticking issues. After all that trial and error...and eating my mistakes....I can say that I enjoyed each and every degree of doneness.....whether over or under baked....and with all the limitless flavouring options....I will most certainly be trying these again. Next time I may look for the almond flour rather than processing my own as it might just give them more height. The recipe that follows is quite simple and really worth giving a try!

Macaroons

Ingredients
Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)
Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)
Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)
Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.
2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t over fold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.
5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).
6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
7. Cool on a rack before filling.