Chicken Chickpea Stew and Escargot

I took the suggestion from squawkfox to see what I could do with a whole roasted organic chicken. I haven't gotten 22 meals from mine, but 1) my chicken was a bit smaller and 2) I ended up freezing about 6 cups of broth and maybe 1/2 lb of cooked chicken meat that I haven't used yet. As I'm just one person, I can only do so much. I would say that I should very easily get 22 meals for one out of this 3-4 lb chicken. I originally roasted it a-la Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking- amazing what a constant basting with butter and olive oil will do for a chicken skin. And then I used the crockpot to make broth. I love my crockpot. I cooked chickpeas and they turned out beautifully, which is great considering that canned chickpeas cost more than dried but cooking dried chickpeas has always been more effort than it's worth. I cooked mine on high heat for about 3-4 hrs and they were perfect (after an overnight soaking, of course).

I then made this delicious stew (or is it more of a soup? hard to tell, but it's not very liquidy, so I'm calling it stew) with some of the leftover chicken. I've been calling it Chicken Chickpea Stew, but there's quite a bit more than just chicken and chickpeas.

I based this roughly on the recipe from squawkfox, but pretty much added whatever I happened to have on hand:

3 small potatoes, peeled and cubed

2 tbsp olive oil

2 small onions, diced

3 cloves of garlic, diced

8 oz mushrooms, sliced

2 c cooked chickpeas

1 c dried lentils, washed and drained

10 oz package frozen spinach (thawed, but straight from the freezer worked fine too)

1 can tomato sauce

cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper

~1.5 c cooked, shredded chicken

4 c chicken broth

1. pre-cook potatoes in the microwave- about 3 min on high, covered. (I find this prevents the soup from getting too starchy)

2. Saute onions, garlic, and mushrooms in olive oil in large pot on med heat, until onions are cooked through and translucent

3. Add potatoes chickpeas, lentils, spinach, tomato sauce, chicken, and broth. Add spices to taste. Cook for about 30 min, or until lentils are cooked and soft. Serve with a nice crusty bread.

Next time I would amp up the tomatoes, maybe adding chopped fresh tomatoes as in the original recipe. The chicken, chickpeas, and lentils make this for a very hearty meal. I've also been eating it spooned over roasted cauliflower. Why did I not realize how delicious roasted cauliflower was before? I'm really not a fan of raw cauliflower on the veggie trays, but roasting things brings out the lovely caramelization and of couse that's delicious in any vegetable.

I also finished my Escargot hat!! I love this hat, and it makes me slightly sad that the weather here has been unseasonably warm for February so I don't have much excuse to wear it. I did wear it into work on Thursday, and my coworker was like, "you know it's supposed to be 40 F today, right?"

I hold out hopes for continuing to wear this this year, as it's only February and knowing the weather it will snow in late March.

I think if you wanted to be super geeky it would be fairly simple to modify the pattern to have two swirls, one on each side of the hat, to give a pseudo-Princess Leia look. With brown yarn (maybe no contrast). However, I will refrain from such things, not least because my project list is already way too long considering all the 'real' work that I should be doing (operative word is 'should').

Pattern is from the Winter 2011 issue of knitty.

I had vague ideas of entering the amateur cooking contest for baconfest 2012, but again, that involves time to actually develop a dish and test it. I do have some ideas, but no time to do test runs. So, unless some time miraculously falls into my lap, I may have to wait for baconfest 2013. Unless someone takes my brilliant idea, in which case I will need to further brainstorm what one could do with bacon.

kitten mittens

Oh, and I almost forgot. Those kitten mittens I made for Nick? He wanted them for a friend, and they totally put them on a cat.

Poor cat.

it's been a while...

It's been a while since I updated here. So, a quick recap:

December involved a lot of cookies. This was my first time with royal icing. They look a lot better from this distance than they did up close.

I tried being creative with the circles.

gingerbread men made of sugar cookies

sandwich cookies with strawberry-blueberry jam

turtle thumbprints- chocolate cookie, chocolate caramel ganache, pecan garnish

January involved Eugenia's baby shower, I made this baby blanket for her little Nathan (who was born in the middle of a blizzard!)

February was Kristin's baby shower, but I didn't actually get this to her until March. As far as I know, baby's not here yet.

For my mom's birthday, I made her a cake from Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." The cake was delicious, but the icing was a bit too sweet. Sometime, I will find a frosting that is not super sweet. I think I'm just going to have to use a whipped cream frosting (so no butter, less sugar) and add some kind of a stabilizer so it doesn't separate. Dad's birthday is coming up in a few weeks, perfect chance to experiment! ;)

orange sponge cake with orange icing

And February was also a bake-off at church. It was a busy month. I made tiramisu. Kevin says this is cheating, because tiramisu doesn't involve baking, but I will have you know that I made the ladyfingers from scratch. I also baked a biscuit jonde for a shell. Thanks to the daring kitchen for the recipe. I am of course completely remiss as a Daring Baker, and haven't done any of the challenge recipes in months. Somehow it's less motivating to bake when you don't have an audience. And then, their recipes are always so involved... I'm getting lazy.

the biscuit jonde. piped out the chocolate pattern, froze, then spread the cake batter over it. 

tiramisu in the springform pan

unmolded in all its glory

I actually wish I had a picture of this sliced, because it had nice layers (from what I saw). Unfortunately, as it was for the church fellowship time, I only saw one person's slice, and most of it ended up rather mutilated. But, even though several people didn't get to try it, I still managed to win the bake-off. ;) My brother told me that I was a baking bully, because everyone else brought cookies. But I didn't know everyone else was going to bring cookies. Tiramisu is one of my go-to recipes though, it's never anything less than amazing, so if that's cheating then I'm sorry.

Finally, tonight I made some blueberry mochi cake. I managed to forget to add the evaporated milk until after I had added both the rice flour and the blueberries, so my batter was shockingly purple. The baking toned it down considerably, but it's still obviously blueberry. These are delicious. They're mini-muffin sized, but I've still eaten about 10 so far, which means... more than I care to think about. I've been meaning to try this for a while and I will have to make them again (this time adding ingredients in the proper order, :P) I'm pretty sure that the original recipe was in regular-sized muffin tins, so I reduced the bake time, but it was still about 25 min total. I made 72 mini mochi cakes. Roughly half are going to my parent's house this weekend, I have the feeling my dad will really like these (don't tell him that butter went into the recipe! shh!! my dad is always on a diet).

I have a baking extravaganza planned. I just threw together a batch of brioche dough, and I'm hoping to bake it tomorrow. I've got my fingers crossed that this brioche recipe works, because I've tried it before and it's been a dismal failure. But I'm using the recipe from Artisan Breads in Five Minutes a Day. This is the first time I'm trying anything that isn't the basic master recipe in the first few pages of the book. :P Not from anything against other kinds of artisan breads, I just love basic french bread (and this one develops a bit of a sourdough flavor as you let it sit in the fridge) and I'm also lazy (as discussed above). Also, I don't really keep ingredients on hand for everything, despite what you might think. I don't know if that makes me a poor excuse for someone who calls herself a baker, but seriously, how many different kinds of flour does one girl need? In my opinion: one. All-purpose. Haha. This is why I'm not a healthy baker. (Wheat flour is also way too dense for me, but I read somewhere that whole wheat pastry flour is much lighter. My only problem is I'm sure it's also more expensive, and I'm trying to keep expenses down these days.)

Anyway. We shall see how the brioche goes. I've made enough for 2 batches, so I'm going to try regular brioche first, then a chocolate brioche. I'm excited!!

a cozy, a scarf, and the cutest little turtles you have ever seen

Been busy knitting lately.

A mug cozy, take 2 for my sister's bridal shower (which is not until next April). The first one I made went to my future brother-in-law, when he and my sister were visiting earlier this month. That one was a ribbed cable (can't remember if I ever posted it here). This is just a ribbed pattern with knits and purls, a little different than your standard knit/purl rib. We'll see what else I come up with, and in what colors (they're a great stash-buster, especially because my "stash" is mostly leftovers from previous projects. I'm definitely not a "ooh, that's pretty yarn let me buy it!!" person, I'm a "how much of this yarn do I need for this project?" person.)

My Wakefield Scarf. I made it much wider than the pattern, and added some fringe to the end. I wanted to use up the entire amount of this yarn I had, and I succeeded. :) It's a lovely wool-silk blend, and it's the first really nice yarn (read: expensive) I've treated myself to. I used the first half of the skein for the swallowtail shawl I finished this summer, but already this scarf has gotten way more use. Simply because- when do I ever wear a shawl around?

Say hello to Sheldon #1. One of the girls at work pointed me to this pattern. I guess it started with one of the guys at work, his girlfriend made him one of these and he brought it into work as a desk decoration. Then my friend made one, she even made a mini version using sock yarn and size 0 needles. The shell comes off. It's adorable. I made these for a friend's baby shower, she's expecting a little girl in January. And since she already has a little girl (age approx 18 mo?), I made two. I could sit and knit these cuties all day.

 Sheldon #2:

Sisters. :)

Current projects: more mug cozies, the tomato sweater from interweave. I finished those kitten mittens (a la "it's always sunny in Philadelphia"), and sent them to Nick. If he sends me a picture of the cats, I will post it, hopefully they aren't too traumatized. Future projects include a blanket for my sister's wedding present, and a few more baby shower gifts...

I would like to sit around and knit all day, except I don't think it would really make me as happy as I would hope. But I'm contemplating opening a store on etsy.com. Except my list of things to knit is already quite long. (People need to stop having babies. And stop getting married. Except, not really, because babies and marriages are wonderful things. I just wish I had the time to knit something for everyone.) And I have the suspicion that knitting is not really my calling in life. Not quite sure what my calling is. If someone tells you, let me know, cause I'm still searching.

I haven't been baking much lately. I made a batch of orange chocolate chip cookies a week or so ago (they were fantastic). And I have plans for a pumpkin cheesecake for thanksgiving. But it's hard to be motivated to bake a lot because baking is meant to be shared and it's best to share it when it's fresh but that's kind of hard for me to do right now. I don't want to give my friends stale cookies or leftover cake. Again, probably not my calling in life. 

On a light-hearted note, thanks to Becky for this clip that indulges my super nerdy side:

random little knits

Recent adventures in knitting-land:

Fingerless gloves for my brother.

 

Look how excited he is:

 He totally needs a shave and a haircut though.

Baby set of hat, sweater, and booties, for a friend's baby shower:

Kitten mittens for Nick. A la "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia". He asked, I had time (and yes, they're a shorter version of the baby booties in the above photo). I only hope the cat doesn't get tortured too much.

what do you do when you can't find the sweater you want?

Well, if you're me, you knit it.

I have a cute black bolero that I bought a few years ago to wear with a dress to a wedding, and I love it. Even more so because I bought it at a second-hand clothing store so only paid like $6 for it.

I've been looking for another bolero-ish sweater in another color but haven't found anything, so I modified the pattern for a baby bolero in Louisa Harding's book, Natural Knits for Babies and Moms. (By the way, knitted baby clothes are so freaking cute, but I can't help but feel like it's a bit of a waste of time, because they grow out of them so quickly. I usually knit baby blankets for baby presents, because I can never be sure if the baby will be the right size for a knitted garment at the right time of year.)

Anyway. I added a longer rib to the bottom because I realized it was too short as knit, and I also wanted to give the body a little shaping (I have some curves that babies don't). I also really wanted a sweater with capped sleeves, so I finally looked through the Knitwear Design Workshop that I bought a while ago and used their gathered sleeves. The sleeves are also short, about 3/4 length.

And I have to say, all in all, it turned out pretty well. :D I kept track of the pattern as I knit, and I just typed it up quickly here in case anyone was interested. (Of course, it will only probably be useful if you're about my size. This one was about 34" bust and 13" long. I would imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to modify for larger/smaller but I haven't done the math, sorries!) This is my very first sweater of (mostly) my own design, and I'm pretty stoked. Maybe someday I will get to the point of having an idea, making a sketch, and going from there, rather than modifying patterns, but for today I'm rather pleased with myself.

(to be fair, next time I would shorten the length of the shoulders more, maybe 15-20 sts on each shoulder rather than 25. I forgot to consider how much the edge ribbing would add.)

Next project: either a tomato sweater or some cute mug cozies for my sister's bridal shower in April (the mug cozies, not the sweater). And of course I'm still working on that Wakefield scarf...

dobby socks and some fingerless gloves

Dobby Socks:

Yes, I'm a Harry Potter fan. And who doesn't love Dobby the house elf, who will take all mis-matched socks he can get? I was determined to finally use up my stash of sock yarn (I use the word "stash" rather loosely- remnants would be a more appropriate word, I suppose, as these were the last bits of various skeins left after finishing other projects).

These were all toe-up socks. Once I started, I loved it. These were made with knitty's Figure 8 toe tutorial (the last example of starting a toe-up sock), on size 2 dp needles. I can't really tell you where the yarn came from, but it's mostly acrylic or acrylic/wool blends of sock yarn.

Rough sock pattern:

Start toe-up pattern with 8 loops on each needle, as described in the Figure 8 toe-up sock. Once you're knitting in the round, increase the toe until there are 48 stitches total. At this point, the toe is complete, and you can throw in a pattern if you'd like. Continue knitting in the round until the foot reaches the start of the heel/ankle.

For the ankle, repeat the following 2 rounds 7 times (62 stitches total):

round 1: k11, M1, K24, M1, k11.

round 2: knit.

For the heel:

On the next round, k6, turn. Repeat the following 2 rows until you're back at the original 48 sts:

Row 1: purl 11, p2tog, turn

Row 2: knit 11, k2tog, turn.

Join in the round again, knit in the round (continuing any pattern) until the ankle is at the desired length. Bind off all stitches loosely.

I kind of made up this heel because I didn't like how any of the heel patterns looked for toe-up socks. Now I have 6 lovely, mismatched socks!

fingerless gloves:

I actually made these a looong time ago (almost a year?) on the train to/from work. I use them at work all the time (more in the summer than in the winter because of the A/C). The pattern is knitty's Fetching gloves, but I continued the cables up the back hand of the glove because I like cables.

Currently working on the Wakefield Scarf, using the rest of my super-nice Helen's Lace yarn used for my swallowtail shawl. Once that's done, I'm going back to stash-busting, this time with something felted. I'm thinking felted bag, but we'll see.

knitty knitty

Sara's wedding was this past weekend. And it was absolutely lovely.

I finished this about a month or so ago, but didn't post because I wanted it to be a surprise when she and Brian actually received it, using a pattern for an aryan sampler afghan. (For the non-knitting folks, a sampler afghan simply means it uses a variety of patterns, giving you a sample of each.) I mixed it up with a few different colors, rather than the monotone the pattern called for. I was also too lazy to do a thick border, sorry guys:

I also knit myself a lace shawl (the swallowtail shawl from interweave)

I need to re-block this. the edging is supposed to be peaked, and I didn't leave it long enough or pin it correctly or some combination of the two, because it looks more ruffled than peaked.

knitting

I just fell in love with knitting again today.

Sunshine, in the book "The Shipping News", tells her dad, "It's kind of a trick, Dad, because it's just a long, long, fat string and it turns into a scarf."

It's like magic. I love it. It's just a long, long string, and you take two sticks and move it around, and voila! Scarves, lace, sweaters, socks, hats, gloves, mittens. And all from two simple stitches: knit and purl. Everything else is really just variations on a theme.

I like crocheting too, but I can do so much more with knitting (perhaps only because I've spent so much more time knitting).

Today, I started a toe-up sock. I may never knit a sock from the leg down again, mostly because I hate the kitchner stitch. (I don't actually know anyone who likes the kitchner stitch, most people I know just kind of put up with it because sometimes you just don't have a choice. Like at the end of a sock knitted from the leg down.) But knitty has a lovely tutorial on starting toe-up socks, and I really felt like the figure 8 method was magic. No slipknots even!

Anyway. My personal "use up my stash" project has commenced, and I'm starting with socks. I have no idea what to do with the odds and ends of worsted weight yarn. Especially because it's a mix of acrylic, wool, and wool blends. And an odd cotton blend thrown in there. Plus some baby-weight yarn. The hoarder in me won't let me throw anything away, even the scraps I only have a few yards of (you never know when you'll need it! and a few yards of yarn hardly takes up any space at all). Maybe I'll make a totally mis-matched blanket. Somehow, when you throw enough stuff that doesn't match together, it kind of works.

colorwork and entrelac

I haven't posted about any knitting in a while. I should be getting ready for bed, but sleep has been a bit elusive and my dreams have been a bit restless (but that's another story for another day).

I made these fingerless gloves for my friend Katy's birthday (which was in February):

It was my first real attempt at colorwork knitting. Next on my list to tackle is a fair isle pattern, but I have another project to finish first. I could maybe claim that I designed the pattern myself, because I took my basic 4-needle mitten pattern and some graph paper to chart out this basic diamond colorwork pattern that I put together after staring at pictures on the internets. What would I do without the internets? I was at one point going to write up the pattern and post it, but I never got around to it. If anyone really wanted it, I might post it eventually.

Then, I made this entrelac baby blanket for one of the ladies in my small group:

It turned out much bigger than I had expected. Turns out 17 blocks of entrelac in each row is a lot. But it was still reasonable baby-sized, I suppose. My baby blankets keep getting bigger. I think the one I made for Kristina's baby was about 20x20 inches, the one for Keith and Heather's little one was maybe 30x20 inches, and this one was closer to 48x36 inches. Approximately. I didn't actually measure, since I finished edging and weaving in loose ends rather late the night before the baby shower. Actually, I never measured any of the baby blankets I've made. I don't quite see the point of measuring blankets- it's not like it has to fit anything. If it looks big enough, it must be big enough. And if it doesn't look big enough- well, hopefully they're like Kristina, who used it as a car seat blanket. :)

This project was my first real project with entrelac. I started then unraveled an entrelac scarf, mostly because with worsted weight wool yarn in dark purple and off white, it just looked... dowdy. (I actually used that yarn to make Katy's mittens- much better use of the yarn, I think). But I'll have to do better with the bind-off. Or just cast-on more loosely. Because (though the pictures hide this nicely) the bind-off edge was much looser than the cast-on edge, so the blanket isn't exactly rectangular. Que sera, sera. I just did a simple double crochet edging, one round in each color. I find I much prefer crochet for edging blankets, just because it's much easier to handle. And possibly faster, though I can't say for sure. But I'll have to do entrelac again. I think in the right colors and the right weight of yarn it would make a really lovely shawl.

But, for anyone who's interested, that blanket was an 8 stitch entrelac pattern, with 136 stitches cast on, worked for 23 tiers (including the bottom and top triangles). Baby weight acrylic yarn in pink and cream, size 6 needles. I can write out a more detailed pattern but it'll take up space. Again, if anyone wanted it I can pass it on. (It hardly counts as a pattern in some sense- just keep doing the entrelac until it's done.)

I really want to make a nice lace shawl. Only (1) I can't quite pick a color, (2) I have to either buy the right yarn online or go to the local yarn store (not Micheal's or JoAnn's) and the only time I can make it to the yarn store is on Saturdays, and (3) I have another project I must finish in the next month or so. I'm really a one-at-a-time kind of knitter. Maybe two, and that's only if I have a "stay at home because it's big and cumbersome" project and a "take it on the train" project. But I'm rambling.

And finally, not knitting but not really baking either: lemon curd vol au vents. I had the shells in the freezer from... umm... September? Baked puff pastry doesn't keep well, but it's ok.

Lemon curd recipe was from the joy of baking. I liked this recipe (though it's the first lemon curd recipe I've tried) because it only used whole eggs. I get tired of using only egg whites or only egg yolks. I like to be efficient with my baking, and I like to not have leftover pieces. At any rate, lemon curd is marvelous. And easy. It does hit the spot, but it's a different kind of spot than my typical chocolate craving. This would make a lovely tart filling, or even cake filling. With fresh berries, and whipped cream! I have a "strawberry shortcake" recipe that involves lemon curd folded into the whipped cream that sounds fantastic. The downside is that I don't think the assembled desserts would keep very long, and I'm all for the dessert I can make and keep in the fridge for two weeks without being left with a stale, soggy mess. This is part of the reason I love tiramisu- it gets better the longer it sits.

merry christmas

Little knitted gifts:

For my sister, a pair of mittens that open to be fingerless mitts:

I started from the pattern given on Knitty.com for their "Fetching" fingerless mitts, modified the cables, and added a mitten top and thumb cap.

A lacey scarf:


This one is the Juliet Scarf by Louisa Harding

A lacey beret:

This one is the Grace Lace beret.

For my brother, a knitted sweater. It looks best on a person, so here he is:

This was the Woven Bands Pullover by Hana Jason

For my mom, a knitted lace scarf:


Estonian Lace Scarf by Nancy Bush

For my dad, a knitted scarf:

Pattern from Cotton & Cloud