AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

At least as awesome as cheese

One of my favorite web comics, Order of the Stick, is doing a Kickstarter drive to raise the money to reprint all of their books. Now we own most of the books already, but they were pretty hard to find at times and we certainly didn't get to buy them in order. However, the Kickstarter drive includes magnets, notepads, stickers and PDF exclusive stories for anyone who donates at least $10. It is pretty darn awesome.

 

The fans of the comic (all 5000+ of us) have pushed this drive to be the top earning creative drive and pushed it into the top 10 Kickstarter drives of all time. This is a fan-based equivalent (though without the happy doing good feelings) of the Yarn Harlot's Knitters Without Borders efforts, and both of them can be usefully funded for the cost of a few cups of fancy pants coffee.

I would highly recommend that if you like funny stories that you take a look at Order of the Stick. Yeah, it is geek humor, but the stories are well done and often very funny!

Iron Craft 2: The search for hearts and flowers

Per normal, I had too many ideas and eventually not enough time. The power of procrastination is strong with me.

Last night I finally got around to making something (rather than stealing the xanthan gum) from my molecular gastronomy kit, a gift from my husband. I wanted to try two techniques: gelification in both shapes and spaghetti form and spherification. Given the theme, I had this elaborate idea of making flowers from gelification and the center topped from the spherification. I was going to use the spaghetti and the other flavor to make a stem and leaves.

It even sort of worked.

So, the kit (which is no longer available at Thinkgeek) I have contains all of the chemicals I need for these items in 2 gram packets. I did some basic math and modified the recipes in the kit and came up with strawberry flowers with basil leaf and stem.

Here is the general recipe (warts and all):

Strawberry Puree
1 lb Strawberries, diced
40 grams sugar

Add the sugar to the strawberries and let macerate for 30 minutes. After the strawberries have been sitting for about 30 minutes, puree them and then strain them to remove the seeds.

400 ml water
4 grams calcium salts (I swear that I add the correct chemical name later)

Combine and stir until the calcium is dissolved. It takes about a minute and can be set aside.

Spherification
200 ml strawberry puree
10 ml vanilla vodka
1 gram sodium alginate

Using an immersion blender, combine the 3 ingredients until the alginate is completely dissolved. Let sit at least 30 minutes to degas (the color will be much truer the longer you let it sit... a good reason to use straight fruit juice and let it sit overnight).

To create the spheres, you can use a syringe or pipette to drop into the calcium mixture. The longer they sit the thicker the "calcium skin" will form around the sphere. Alternatively, you can fill a normal half-sphere teaspoon with the mixture and gently over turn it into the calcium water. This will create a larger sphere (or ravioli for the largest sizes). The one pictured is from a 1/4 teaspoon measure.

Gelification
200 ml strawberry puree
20 ml balsamic vinegar
2 grams carageenan

Combine the three ingredients over medium heat and stir until boiling. Turn off the heat. Pour onto a cool surface (I used a pizza pan), and store in the fridge.

For the basil, I used the same amount of carageenan, but I used a basil puree from a tube. Bad idea. It had additives including xanthan gum and salt and the entire thing smelled good and tasted, well, strongly of salt. Because I used the puree and then strained it out, the liquid was fairly pure and possibly not as strongly basil flavored as I was trying for. I also needed a larger amount of carageenan to get a similar level of gelling as the puree. No recipe, because it was not worth repeating though I did get to try out the syringe and the tubing to make spaghetti.

To combine, I placed the basil on the bottom of a plate, and using a heart shaped cutter I put 4 heart "petals" on top of the basil. In the center of the 4 petals I put a strawberry sphere. Visually it worked, but the flavor of the basil marred what could have been a wonderful strawberry experience.

Things I learned: Getting appropriate caviar shapes is harder than it looks. Mine all looked like tiny worms or tears. My lack of patience meant I had a much better success with the larger spheres. This all takes a fair amount of time, and it is best that at least some of these things are spread out over a day or two. Oh, and clean things right away. Getting things stuck in tubes and pipettes is not really a fun time had by all.

homemade Japanese-style veggie burgers

So, last year I found this veggie burger recipe on angry chicken. I've been using it off and on since then, because veggie burgers are affordable, tasty and full of wholesome tasty ingredients. Mostly I've been making my own veggie burgers, because homemade veggie burgers cost less than $4.00 for ingredients to make anywhere from 12 to 20 burgers depending on size.

Ingredients:
3 strips wakame, soaked, drained and chopped
1 10-oz bag shelled edamame, thawed
1 15-oz can cannelini beans, rinsed and drained
3 scallions, chopped
1 inch ginger, peeled and chopped
1/4 cup sesame seeds (mine were hulled)
3 large carrots, peeled and cut into 3-inch pieces
2 TBSP gluten-free tamari
1/2 cup rolled oats (for GF, try Bob's Red Mill)

Preheat the oven to 400° Fahrenheit (about 205° Celcius).

Wakame is a bit expensive, but it lasts for a really long time and no recipe really uses that much. Pull out 3 strips and put in a large bowl with cold water to cover. Let sit for 5 minutes. Scoop the wakame out of the bowl, leaving the soaking water behind and then chop and set aside.

Using a food processor, shred the carrots. Set about half of them aside in a large bowl. Change blades (at least I have to on mine) and add the edamame and beans. Puree until mixed, but you can still see some texture. At this point I pulled out about half the mixture, so I could retain more texture, but that is not completely necessary.

Continue adding the remaining ingredients including wakame, pulsing to further chop and combine. Lastly add oats to the food processor and pulse. If the mixture in either the bowl or the food processor is very wet, add more oats until it clumps but is still moist. I shape into patties. These ones are slider sized, and I got 20 slider sized patties. Place on a silpat, greased cookie sheet, or parchment paper.

Bake for 10 minutes, flip the burgers (they will be a little fragile) and bake for 15 minutes more.

These were really tasty. Neither my husband nor I are afflicted by Celiac, so the slider buns are generic flat buns from the supermarket and are not gluten free. With the tamari and wakame they are definitely salty enough without just screaming salty.

Of course we ate these with some weird (but tasty) chipotle, cheddar potato bites. Not a meal that went together at all even though each piece was good to eat.

some things shouldn't be funny, but they are

So, a few weeks ago I listened to the Lesser Known Candidates presidential debate. It was like a train wreck. I couldn't stop. While it was on video (and I was listening to the video), I had too many things to do to give it the attention it deserved. However, it was hilarious. What people consider appropriate is an amazing, amazing thing.

The video below is definitely not the Lesser Known Candidate debate, but it does contain one of the highlights. Even with my distaste for normal political discourse, this was worth watching... or listening to.

 

still on track

Just before New Year's I read this blog post about exercising every day. The best point made was that if you make it a daily requirement, then you are less likely to say "I don't feel like it today, and I only need to go to the gym 3 times this week..." So, I decided I was going to exercise each day. Now, my requirements aren't terribly stringent. Walking counts, and I'm only looking for 20 minutes. I've lost a lot of muscle tone over the past year or two, and figured that ramping up gently was more important than sweating up a storm.

At this point, things are going well. I have a gym membership and a pool membership, access to a treadmill and a small amount of free weights. I have done at least 20 minutes of exercise each day (the minimum appears to be the walk to the train station, which is takes between 20 and 25 minutes). I'm slowly getting back into swimming, trying to get back into running and trying new things like the rowing machine at the gym.

The worst thing about exercise is that it takes time away from my knitting. Depending on the exercise I do and when, I spend a lot of time not wanting to knit or anything afterwards. This is fine if I exercise first thing in the morning on a weekend, because there is still a lot of time to be useful in and less useful when I started yesterday as mostly being useless and moving to a complete worn out slugfest after returning from swimming.

The second worst thing is that sometimes the muscle soreness or other things make it hard to sleep. Today, for example, I've been up since 2 a.m. Completely unnecessary, and only now am I finally getting tired enough or calm enough or something to fall back to sleep (right around the time I'm supposed to start getting ready for work).

Even with these problems, the benefits are still there. I feel better over all, have less stomach issues, feel happier (barring this morning's wake up time), and have slightly better temperature regulation. I just need to combine the better exercise habits with better eating habits and then I'll be able to actually lose some of the weight I've put back on in the past couple of years.

[10 Tuesday] baby, it's cold outside

This week's Ten for Tuesday is all about things to do when it is too cold to go outside.

So, I was outside yesterday. I went running with one of my friends. I was wearing long johns, a short sleeve tee, a tech tee, a hoodie, a cowl, gloves, mittens, and underarmor pants. I was bundled to the nines. The only part of my body that didn't have multiple layers were my feet in their running sneakers and socks.

So, what would I rather have done?

1. Play video games. We've been doing Fortune Street. It's a lot of fun, but the computer cheats. Standard video game fare.

2. Make old fashioned hot chocolate. While I want to make these, normally I make my hot chocolate with about a cup of milk, 2 tablespoons of the best cocoa in the house mixed with 2 tablespoons of sugar. Whisked and heated on the stove. Sometimes I add cinnamon or other spices. Yum!

3. Baking. While everyone needs to eat, almost everybody I know loves to eat cookies or cake more than they want to eat a bologna sandwich (and I'm a vegetarian, so I really would rather eat a cookie than a bologna sandwich).

4. Watch any sports or show where people are doing things in the cold when I am warm like HOCKEY (photos are from the Frozen Fenway... it might have been 50 degrees that day, but it feels cold when you are just sitting there). It is like schadenfreude with blood on the ice.

5. The treadmill. I know when it is cold that it is very easy to just stay on my butt all day, but really even a walk on the treadmill makes my body feel less like sludge.

6. Read a book. Cold days are perfect for snuggling under the best blankets and reading a trashy novel. I currently have a couple of books out from the library.

7. Surf the internet. I cannot really spend that much time on the computer/TV/etc., because I start to feel nauseous. Unfortunately word games on the internet are my downfall. I will spend a ridiculous amount of time on Words Play.

8. Knit. This is sort of, well, duh. I love to knit, but when I am inside during the weekend I spend most of my time either on the computer or in the kitchen. I really should use the slow cooker on the weekend, so I will have longer stretches of time for knitting.

9. Nap. Yup, the best thing to do is nap. Everybody should nap!

10. Snack. I know I shouldn't, but when it is cold I want to eat crackers (Wheat Thins are my personal crack). I love them, especially the cinnamon Wheat Thins. Maybe I'll go and get a snack right now.

And because hockey is cool. More pictures!

I think the mascots had the warmest clothes at the rink!

Happy Tuesday!

It's Iron Crafting Time

I fell off the wagon a lot last year. I would buy materials or scrounge materials from the house with the idea of making this really cool project for Iron Craft. However, with a 1 week turn around time and my reading patterns (which meant I decided what project I might want to do often on Monday only a short time before posting) I didn't give myself enough time to make a project and I chose projects that were super time consuming.

The first project for this year's Iron Craft is paper. I had this awesome idea but it involved nice paper, printed on a better printer than our home printer, a big of mosaic/decoupage, an exacto knife, spray adhesive and a foam board. As I never managed to get myself to either an art shop or a Michael's for any of the things I didn't have I had to scrap the idea. Then my husband made some random comment about the dog and I was off.

Paper Dogs. So much better behaved than normal dogs.

I was going to cut sheets of brown paper to the 6-inch squares, but then I decided that was also too prone to error and that I didn't need my dog to be natural colored.

Instead, I raided my origami paper stash.

I haven't done any origami in years. When I worked at Sasuga Books over 10 years ago, I spent a lot of time either there or in the Porter Exchange and bought things like origami paper a lot more regularly.

This paper is from the Echo collection, and I don't remember where I got it. The paper is acid free and uses a soy based ink. Very eco friendly. The paper is nice and thick, which makes it ideal for this application where you want a sturdy origami product.

I used these instructions for making my origami dog. I used a bit of glue (and a glue stick) to attach the head to the body and then dug out some googly eyes. Everything is better with googly eyes.

This is a really cute dog and super quick. The folds are easy to make and the site explains with lot of pictures how to do the different folds.

Awe... so cute!

Of course, this morning after I tried to adjust the origami-ness so it would stand again (I pressed it under a card box a little too long and it didn't want to stand), one of the eyes fell off. It is currently being superglued on. I will not be defeated, and now I have another cute thing to put in my office!

the last knit of 2011

Right before Christmas I started a new project, one that would be easy to finish and take me into 2012 with a win for lack of a better word under my belt. I started "Halo," a cowl that requires no pattern and thus no pattern was used.

I finished Halo on New Year's Eve early enough in the evening that I bemoaned my lack of knitting. Knitting at social gatherings helps to keep me from over eating. Instead I came in a very close second in a game of Scrabble. Our game of Scrabble kept devolving into ludeness. While there was lube on the board, there was a brief moment where I would have been able to empty my rack playing ovaries on a triple word score. I almost had gonads and another player almost had vaginas. A good evening with the game crossing the cusp of the year.

While I do sometimes wear the cowl all long and layered under my jacket, more commonly I wear the cowl twisted around my neck as a double loop. It is more compact, which works really well with the puffy (Uranus!) winter coat I pulled out this week when the temperature went well below freezing.

Specs:
Pattern: Halo (rav)
Yarn: Kidsilk Haze in Jelly (2 skeins)
I have about half a skein left which will probably become some kind of fingerless mitt or mitten liner.

I love this, though occasionally I do try to eat the mohair. As a flaw, that is pretty minor. It is comfy, warm and cheerful and what more could I need in my knitting for the first months of the new year.

My first knitting (yeah, I've already cast on something new) of the new year is the Abigail Tee from the Winter 2008 Interweave Knits. I'm using gift yarn from my husband (from 2007, so I really don't have an excuse for not starting this earlier). It is going to be spectacular when it is done, but right now it is a mostly shapeless amorphous blog of lace weight yarn. Delicious and sparkly but not vampiric.

Because if it was a vampire I would stake that shit no matter how gorgeous!

Can I hear the people sing?

Singing a song of organelles!

 

I found this via one of my friends. It was hilarious and I so wish I had access to this when I was studying cell bio in college!

Mmmm, cake

The last cake of the year is sometimes a bit of an uphill battle. It is the constant fight between big ideas and the time crunch at the end of the year.

For many of my friends, I have made super hero cakes. I have made Superman (using a character pain pan) a number of times, Captain Hammer, Ghost Rider and, well, Green Lantern.

Green Lantern is a salted caramel ice cream cake, and until I had a crust fail the cake would have been gluten free. Unfortunately, I made this delicious and moist cake which had two flaws: it cracked and it shrunk.

The cracking wasn't really a surprise, but I expected to be able to cover it with ganache or frosting and have no one really know. However, the shrinking meant that it didn't fit the springform pan I was using for the final cake. Instead I took the cake and processed it with chocolate bunny grahams (and thus ruining the GF nature of it all) and then pressed it up the sides and bottom of the buttered springform pan. I had more crust than I needed, because I didn't make quite as much ice cream as I needed to fill the pan. The ice cream was this recipe and it had its own issues with fail. All my fault, both sets of fails.

The ice cream was resurrected with a bit more custard added to the base and a couple grams of xanthan gum (which did what it did best). The texture wasn't quite like ice cream the way I am used to it, more like a thick and delicious caramel sauce. It was awesome however and everyone seemed to like it just fine.

The green lantern symbol was my last bit of excitement. Normally I would use fondant, but my box of fondant was like diamond hard or at least granite. Instead I colored white chocolate and piped it to shape. Possibly tastier, but really no one was expected to eat the decoration! It was a bit harder to pipe it smooth, but if I had been thinking I would have used a pastry brush and a tiny amount of water to smooth the surface. I've never seen Green Lantern looking so, so rustic!

Happy Birthday!

Oh, and this is the post my husband said I should write. There will be knitting tomorrow as I write about my last knit of 2011.