totally autumn

Phew, last week was rough... my poor Jeep broke down on Lake Shore Drive and is still in the shop getting its transfer case rebuilt, autumn quarter's about to start, and there's still a lot of packing to do before we move on Saturday. Time to focus on the positive things, like this little baby sweater I finished:

pattern: Camilla Babe, by Carrie Bostick Hoge

size: 3 months

needles: US 6 Clover bamboo circs and US 7 DPNs

yarn: Quince and Co. Lark, pomegranate, ~2.3 skeins (300 yds.)

my Ravelry project page

notes:

Very fun to knit! I just love the pattern, and I'll definitely revisit it. The yarn is soft and springy, with a deeply saturated color. I used a little more yarn than the pattern specified, but my gauge was also a bit loose. I knit the 3-month size, but the final (blocked) measurements are more like the 6-month.

The yarn fluffed up a bit during the blocking process. Be forewarned that this isn't a smooth, silky merino -- it's lofty and wonderful, but not buttery soft. I'm curious how well it will hold up (I'm guessing quite well), as I'd love to knit a cardigan for myself using Lark.

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Other good things...

- Coastal Knits is available for pre-order! Such pretty patterns. Can't wait for this to arrive in my mailbox!

- Brooklyn Tweed's fall 2011 patterns are out! I absolutely love Tinder -- it looks so cozy.

- Loopy Yarns had a 6th anniversary party last Sunday, and I picked up some very intriguing Imperial Stock Ranch 2-ply pencil roving in a beautiful shade called wild iris.

It's very soft and lofty, and it will be interesting to knit, as it's unspun. This yarn is earmarked for the Pembroke Wrap from the latest issue of Interweave Knits.

- I concocted a new ice cream recipe in honor of the lovely autumn days:

pumpkin spice ice cream

4 oz. cream cheese, softened
3/4 C. pumpkin butter
1.25 C. half and half
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice, or to taste (optional)

Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Freeze mixture in ice cream maker (I use a basic Cuisinart ice cream maker and run it for 18-20 min.). Transfer to an airtight container and put in the freezer to harden, at least 3 hours (even longer is better).

P.S. Sorry to be so slow at replying to comments lately... it has been a little hectic around here. 

almost autumn

There's a nip in the air and a spring in my step -- forsooth, autumn's just around the corner here in the upper midwest. We've been happily munching away on apples and pears from last Saturday's green city market.

I've been knitting away at f.pea's mossy jacket pattern. I'm using the specified yarn, Classic Elite Beatrice, now discontinued. This is a machine washable, heavy worsted weight merino wool with a neat construction -- 3 plies very lightly twisted together, which means that it's very easy to separate the plies (esp. with my pointy Knit Picks Harmony needles).

What's neat is that the 3 plies are different colors -- 1 tan, 1 beige, and 1 variegated. The yarn knits up into a very pleasant variegated, marled fabric -- not garish or awful like so many other commercial yarns. Each of these three plies seems to be a plied light fingering weight. Great stuff! Too bad it's no longer on the market.

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In August I instituted a no-new-yarn policy as we prepare to move, but this has already been bent a bit, as Quince and Co. restocked Lark in pomegranate. Not only did I order one more skein to finish Camilla Babe, but also a color book.

I'm contemplating colors for an Aidez cardigan using Quince's lofty aran-weight Osprey yarn. Frost?  Peacock? Delft? So pretty!

Two small projects are blocking on my dining room table as I type, so I'll be back soon with FO posts.

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in the kitchen

-- I really want to make pumpkin ice cream -- I just saw this recipe, but it's definitely more complicated than I'd like. Any recipe suggestions?  Otherwise I'll probably experiment (I'm thinking pumpkin butter + a slightly less cream-cheesy version of my cream cheese ice cream recipe).

-- Sour cream brown sugar ice cream was on the menu for a get-together last weekend! It was awfully yummy. I swirled fig butter through half of the batch, and that was especially tasty.

  Sour Cream Brown Sugar Ice Cream

2 C. sour cream
1.5 C. half-and-half
1 C. brown sugar, firmly packed (preferably dark brown)
.5 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 T. bourbon
fig butter (optional)

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until completely smooth. Pour into your ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer's directions (about 20 min.).

Optional: Pour half the ice cream into a freezer-safe container. Dot a few blobs of fig butter over the top; swirl with a knife. Add the rest of the ice cream. Add a bit more fig butter if desired.

Put in the freezer and allow to harden for at least 3 hours.

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A copy of Moosewood Restaurant New Classics has been sitting in my kitchen bookcase for a few months, sadly unopened and untested. I pulled it out to peruse at lunch today, and the recipes look fantastic! I'm getting very excited about veggies again. 25 tape flags now mark recipes that were calling my name. I'll keep you posted as to the successes.

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Jane Austen fans, the Los Angeles Review of Books features an interesting review article on two new books about Jane Austen.  

chevre heaven

After a very hectic and stressful week, I was delighted to spend some quality time in the kitchen yesterday. Not only did I make my first French tomato tart of the season (always delightful), but I also gave the ice cream maker a workout.

The flavor profiles in Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home are so inspiring and creative! I am less enchanted, however, by the number of steps in the recipes. What's a cook to do? Inspired by Jeni's recipe for goat cheese ice cream, I "unvented" my own version, using the fail-safe "technique" from my cream cheese ice cream recipe. I paired it with a baked rhubarb compote, again inspired by a Jeni's recipe, but jazzed up with some citrus and ginger.

chevre ice cream

7 oz. fresh chevre (goat's cheese), softened
2 C. half and half
1/4 tsp. salt
2/3 C. sugar
1/4 C. tapioca syrup or light corn syrup
2 tsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Freeze mixture in ice cream maker (I use a basic Cuisinart ice cream maker) for abut 18-20 min. Transfer to an airtight container and put in the freezer to harden (at least 2 hours). Let ice cream soften for 5 min. before serving.

NB: Pop the airtight container you're going to use to store the finished product into the freezer before you start working on the ice cream. That way it will be nice and cold when the ice cream maker is done, and the ice cream won't melt when it hits a warm container. Makes for a better, more consistent texture!

baked rhubarb compote

12 oz. (trimmed and sliced) rhubarb
zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
1/3 to 1/2 C. sugar (depending how sweet you like things)
3/4 tsp. fresh ginger, minced

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Combine all ingredients in an 8-inch square Pyrex baking dish, stirring to mix well. Bake for 45-60 min., stirring every once in a while, until the rhubarb begins to fall apart.

NB: You can use frozen chopped rhubarb, too. My local Whole Foods carries Stahlbush Island Farms frozen rhubarb year-round (at an affordable price, to boot), and it works great! Don't bother to thaw the rhubarb first, just up the baking time a bit.

more rhubarb goodness

I made the most of rhubarb season this year. Not only did I make rhubarb compote (recipe here), a fantastic lemon rhubarb buttermilk bundt cake emerged from the kitchen yesterday.

Moist, tart, and delicious. I only wish it had a little more rhubarb! The recipe's originally from the cookbook Rustic Fruit Desserts, but you can also find it here.

The ice cream maker has been getting a workout, too.  I tried Minnesota Locavore's recipe for strawberry rhubarb ice cream. It's yummy, tart, and very fruity! The high fruit-to-dairy ratio means that it tends to get a little icy and hard, so it's best to eat fairly quickly. The recipe makes a fairly big batch.

Jeni Britton Bauer, the genius behind Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, has a new cookbook out, and it's very charming. It emphasizes daring pairings of flavors, using local, high quality ingredients, and trying some new techniques.  Cream cheese and a little corn syrup seem to be the key to many of the recipes. I have mixed feelings about corn syrup, but I'm willing to give it a try.  I'm also intrigued by this elderflower ice cream recipe, but St. Germain is curiously absent from our liquor cabinet at the moment.

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My aunt kindly handed down my grandmother's china hutch to me last weekend, and it was a treat to move it into position and actually display some of my pottery. The arrangement could still use some tweaking, but I love having something sturdy and well-made that served at family dinners for seventy years.

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Knitting in air-conditioned splendor was a true highlight this past weekend (along with a couple of BBQs, the sidewalk cafe at Tiny Lounge, and a few choice episodes of Arrested Development), especially as the mercury kept rising.

I finally knit myself a star crossed slouchy beret. I love the pattern! I've made a couple of these as gifts, and they were very well received, so I'm thrilled to have my very own. Now I just need to block it.

This time the yarn is Malabrigo Rios in "teal feather" (which I picked up last spring at the grand opening of Windy Knitty, a very cute and well-stocked yarn shop in Andersonville). Full details are forthcoming...

I've also just joined the arms to the body of my Shalder cardigan and am about to embark upon the yoke's lace pattern! The cardigan's suspiciously covered in cat hair...

fire and ice

Mmmm... I think the cream cheese ice cream recipe has been perfected!

 cream cheese ice cream

6 oz. cream cheese, softened
3/4 C. milk (low-fat or skim is fine)
1/3 C. half and half
3/4 T. fresh lemon juice
2/3 C. sugar
3/4 tsp. vanilla extract
1/8 tsp. salt

Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Freeze cream cheese mixture in ice cream maker. I use a basic Cuisinart ice cream maker and run it for 18-20 minutes. Transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden, at least 2 hours. Let ice cream soften 5 minutes before serving. Delicious with berries!

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We headed up to Wisconsin for some R&R a couple of weekends ago.  It ended up being a heat wave!  We made it up to the Balanced Rock Trail at Devil's Lake State Park despite the heat, and had a great time.

We look pretty happy despite the heat and mosquitoes, don't we?

A quick stop in Madison on the way home, too, including a walk down the Lakeshore Path and through the Allen Centennial Gardens, one of the most peaceful spots on the UW campus.

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More knitting content soon, I promise, as well as another recipe. In the meantime may I recommend a lecture by Alain De Botton -- On Pessimism?

long weekend

We kicked off some serious R and R with a party at Revolution Brewing Co. to celebrate the end of Chicago Craft Beer Week. Revolution's joint venture with 3 Floyds Brewery, barrel-aged Sodom (an imperial stout), was most definitely the highlight. We even managed to get up bright and early Saturday morning, hop into the Jeep (armed with homemade maple oat scones), pick up friends, and hit the Green City Market, one of the nicest parts of a Chicago summer.  Arugula, rhubarb, and baby salad greens made it into our shopping bag, and fantastic crepes (mmm... rhubarb compote) made it into our tummies. :-)

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happy hexagons...

Still crocheting up a storm around here. I'm using leftover Lion Brand Nature's Choice Organic Cotton yarn for Nova's ingenious ruby hexagon pattern. Long-time readers may recognize this yarn from my awesome, 70s style stripey blanket. I'll definitely need to pick up more, but it still feels good to use up all the bits and bobs.

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I'm also powering through the first sleeve for my Shalder cardigan. There are so many fantastic cardigan patterns out there right now, including Chickadee and Cria from Ysolda's new book -- I really want to finish this before I give in to temptation and cast on for another... Plus I need to start thinking about the Big Lebowski cardigan for Paul.

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My ice cream maker has been seeing some use! I made some terrific lemon curd ice cream last weekend -- I used this recipe, but simplified it by using a jar of Trader Joe's lemon curd instead of making my own. So tart and yummy -- especially good paired with blackberries.

I loosely followed this recipe for cream cheese ice cream. It's good, but very solid -- the recipe could use a little tweaking. I'll post it once it has been perfected.