PRETTY LITTLE THINGS

Tamara Glowes - Rowan Knitting Magazine 48

2011-12-18T22:47:00.004+01:00

Hier ist eines der Projekte aus der Rowan "Russian Doll Collection" - Tamara fingerlose Handschuhe. Gestrickt wurde nicht mit Originalgarn, sondern mit "Merinos 6", einem 100% Merinos-Garn von Wollhaendler meines Vertrauens hier in Italien :) . Bei der Ausfuehrung hab ich etwas geschummelt und anstatt die gefuerchtete Intarsien-Technik zu benutzen, die Rosen erst im nachhinein aufgestickt.

P.S. Mit im Bild kein Eisbaer, sondern Cassandra, 11 Monate

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Tamara mittens from last year's Rowan Knitting Mag 48. Nice and cozy, knitted with 100% merinos yarn (though not the original Rowan yarn) and with r0ses embroidered afterwards ....

Vogel-Schal - endlich fertig!

2011-12-18T22:38:00.003+01:00

Seit etwas einem Monat ist er nun fertig, mein Vogel-Schal. Riesig ist er geworden, und echt leicht und kuschelig, so richtig was fuer die kalte Jahreszeit.

Wurde auch schon im Buero ausgefuehrt und fuer gut befunden.

Hier ein Fot0 beim Steek-Aufschneiden!
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Picture of cutting the steek!

Finally ready - my Birds-shawl. Very light and warm, the right stuff for the cold winter days.

Maya - Rowan Knitting Mag 48

2011-10-31T13:05:00.003+01:00

Bereits seit einem Jahr fester Bestand der Garderobe - "Maya Vest" aus der Rowan Knitting Mag vom letzten Winter. War mein erstes Rowan-Strick Projekt, und der Beginn einer grossen Leidenschaft fuer Rowan Felted Tweed ....

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This is Maya Vest from the Last winter's Rowan Knitting Mag. My first Rowan Project, and the beginning of a passionate love for Rowan Felted Tweed ...

Das Kleine Weisse

2011-10-31T12:52:00.003+01:00

Darf ich vorstellen - das Kleine Weisse, auch "Cardi" genannt. Schon seit ein paar Monaten fertig, und auch bereits mehrmals im Buero ausgefuehrt (und mir den Beinamen "Heidi" gebracht), aber erst jetzt Zeit fuer anstaendige Fotos gefunden. Gestrickt hab ich's mit "Bio Sesia", 100% Bio-Baumwolle, Lauflaenge ca. 180Meter/50 gr, habe fuer Groesse 36 etwa 6,5 Knaeuel verbraucht. Ich mag sie sehr sehr gern, nach dem Waschen wurde der Garn super-weich, das einzige Manko - die Buendchen sind schon nach 1mal Tragen ausgeleiert .... Merkzettel fuer mich - naechstes Mal Buendchen fester stricken ....

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My new favourite little white cardi - knitted with "Bio Sesia" 100% ecological cotton, very very soft and nice to wear. I love this cardi dearly, even if it gave me the nick-name "Heidi" ... who knows why? ....

My Big Fat Italian Wedding - die "Bonboniere"

2011-10-09T17:39:00.003+02:00

Die Vorteile, wenn man einen Sued-Italiener heiratet, sind eindeutig: immer gutes Wetter, lecker Essen, Urlaubsfeeling das ganze Jahr ueber. Der Nachteil sind die hundertsiebenunddroelfzig Verwandten, meistens weit ueber das Rentenalter hinaus, die es gar nicht abwarten koennen, dass der Lieblingsneffe endlich heiratet. Die Loesung - man legt gut 1200 km zwischen sich und der suedlaendischen Familie und hofft, dass nur diejenigen kommen, denen es auch wirklich wichtig ist.

Der zweite Nachteil ist der Brauch der "Bonboniere", eine Art Gastgeschenk, das mit den besten Absichten zur Erinnerung an jeden Gast verschenkt wird. Woanders auf der Welt koennte man mit einem Glas selbsgemachter MArmelade als "Wedding Favor" davonkommen, aber nicht in Italian. Hier gibb't eine Auswahl an kuessenden Porzellanpaerchen, Turteltauben aus Glas und sonstiger Kram. Dazu bekommt jeder Gast auch noch ein Tuetchen mit dragierten Mandeln. Ich haette ja liebend gern auf beides verzichtet, aber da streickt die Familie.
Doch auch hier gibt's ne Loesung: die Mandeln werden in huebsche selbstgemachte Schaechtelchen verpackt, der Rest des Geldes geht an die Wohlfahrt.

Ich bin jetzt erst bei 12 von ueber 100 ... eine kleine Auswahl koennt ihr schon hier sehen.

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The advantages of marrying a Southern Italian are obvious - always nice weather, tasty food and holidy-like feeling year round. The disadvantage is: innumerous realtives all waitung impatioently for the favourite nefew to finally get married. The solution: bringing more than 1200 km between yourself and the southern-italian family and hoping that only those who really care will come to the wedding.

The other disadvantage is the "bonboniere", a kind of guest favor. But whereas in the rest of the world you can get away with a jar of homemade jam as a wedding favor, in Italy you can't. Here the favors are a selection of kissing china-couples, doves made out of glass and stuff like this. Ah, and you get a tiny bag of glazed almonds...
I would happily skip this part, but then the family will be "not amused". So the almods will be packed in cute self-made boxes, and the rest of the money will be dedicated to charity.
I've finished 12 out of over 100 boxes, a tiny selection you can see here

Vogel-Schal

2011-10-09T17:26:00.004+02:00

Zum ersten mal hab ich die Strickmodelle von Christel Seyfarth bei Tina gesehen, und sofort kam das "Haben-wollen" Reflex. Nach etwas Stoebern im Internet hab ich mir das "Vogel-Schal" Strick-Set zum Geburtstag schenken lassen.

Fuer satte 150 € + Versand kam ein Paeckchen mit 13 Knaeueln farbiger Shetland-Wolle und einer Anleitung an, und dann ging der Spass erst los. Vor dem Stricken muss man erst nach dem "Seyfarth"-System sein Farbverlaufgern selber kreieren - aus den 13 kleinen muss man 2 grosse Knaeuel wickeln - einmal in den Rosa-Rot Schattierungen fuer das Muster, und einmal in Gruen-Blau als Hintergrundfarbe, immer jeweils 4-5 Meter von der hellsten Farbe, dann die etwas dunklere usw, und was eine echte Shetland-Wolle ist, die was auf sich haelt, vefilzt sie schon alleine wenn man sie ansieht ...ganz zu schweigen von den gefuehlten 10000 losen Enden, die man am besten gleich miteinwebt.

Nach dem Wickeln kommt dann das Stricken. Wer schon mal Stranded Knitting in Hin- und Rueckreihen mit Zunahmen in jeder Reihe und einem Muster, das nicht wirklich symmetrisch ist, gestrickt hat, der weiss, wovon ich rede ... Ich konnte's nicht abwarten, bis die ersten 60 Reihen fertig waren und genug Maschen auf den Nadeln waren, um einen Steek einzubauen und die Runde zu schliessen. (Ach ja, der Steek - das hat einen unermaesslichen Herzanfall-Potential...) Nach einer Woche Zug-Stricken (ca. 10 Stunden) sieht es so aus:

Hier kann man auch gut den Steek sehen, der spaeter aufgeschnitten wird:

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I've first seen the works of Christel Seyfarth here, and I wanted to start knitting one immediately. Her knitting kits are quite unique: you get a number of colored skeins and you have to "rewind" them in oder to create two new skeins - one for the background colour, one for the pattern. You take 4-5 meters of each colour shade and make a new ball out of the pieces (don't think about the loose ends you'll have to weave in ...)

Once you have your two yarn balls ready, you can start knitting - stranded knitting in go-and-back rows with increases in each row and a not-really-symmetric pattern ... after about 60 rows you've got enough stitches on your needles to build in a steek, so you can finally start working in rounds.

After one week of train-knitting (about 10 hours) in looks like this:

Blumenwiese

2011-10-09T17:18:00.003+02:00

Schon laengst fertig und mehrmals getragen, aber erst jetzt fotografiert - der "Wiesen"-Rock, mein erster Versuch in Irish Lace.
Einzelne Blumen und Blaetter mit Cablè- Baumwolle gehaekelt und dann auf den Rock draufgenaeht. Uebrigens ist das ein "zweifaches" Do-it-Yourself: der Rock war mal eine Jeans, das kann man besonders gut auf dem Foto der Hinten-Ansicht sehen.

Finished long time ago and worm several times, but only now did I have time to take some pictures - that's my first attempt at Irish Lace. The flowers are crocheted in Cablè-Cotton and then sewn on to the skirt.
By the way - this project is a double Do-it-Yourself: in its former life the skirt used to be a pair of jeans, as you can see particularly well on the back-view shot.

Angeschlagen - Camelia Shrug

2011-10-09T17:10:00.002+02:00

Ich weiss ja nicht, wie ihr's sieht, aber ich finde, dass eine Anleitung, die so anfaengt: "Schlagen Sie 4 Maschen auf einem Nadelspiel an. Arbeiten Sie weiter in Runden" etwas sadistisch ist. Ich meine, VIER Maschen auf einem Nadelspiel - das ist genau eine Masche pro Nadel! Und die soll man in Runden arbeiten??
Abgesehen von dem muehsamen Anfang strickt sich die "Camelia" sehr angenehm. Ich hab das Silkblend von Manos genommen, da ich die Originalwolle "Honor" von Lorna's Laces niergendswo ausfindig machen konnte.

I don't know what you think about it, but I find that a knitting instruction starting like this: "Cast on 4 stitches on 4 double-point needles. Continue working in rounds" is a bit sadistic, to say the least. I mean, really 4 stitches to start working in rounds? It's exactly ONE stitch per needle ....
Well, apart form the troublesome beginning "Camelia" is quite a pleasant knit. I use Silkblend by Manos as I couldn't find anywhere the suggested "Honor" yarn by Lorna's Laces.

Die Wolle von morgen

2011-10-08T20:32:00.005+02:00

Eigentlich gibt's Alpakas ja in ueber 100 natuerlichen Farben. Leider haben wir fast nur Camel-farbene, eine Farbe, die mir ja ueberhaupt gar nicht steht! Im Fruehjahr werden sie geschert, und bis dahin muss ich Spinnen lernen ... und hoffen, dass "Camel" wieder Trendfarbe wird!

Actually alpacas are availbale in more than 100 natural shades. Unfortunatelly we've got mostly lighht-borwn ones, a color that does not suit me well at all ..... Next spring they will be shorn, and until then I need to learn how to spin ...and to hope that "light-brown" will become the trendcolour of 2012.

My Big Fat Italian Wedding – was bis jetzt geschah

2011-09-17T10:46:00.003+02:00

Irgendwo tief in meinem Unterbewusstsein wusste ich schon, das Tilda’s Serie “Fruit Garden” nicht wirklich fuer Hochzeitseinladungen geeignet ist. Ich wusste es. Ich hab’s einfach nur verdraengt, weil es so verdammt suess und fruchtig aussah! Und weil ich die Sachen einfach haben musste, auch ohne zu wissen, was ich damit machen werde. „Hamstern“ nennt sich das wohl .... Ein Buntpapier-Block, ein paar Ausschneideboegen und ein Set, um einen Tilda-Engel selber zu machen, all das kam, wurde von der Anderen Haelfte begutachtet und nicht fuer hochzeitsgeeignet befunden. Ich bin mir sicher, dass Er Gruen und Rosa gar nicht als Farben empfindet ..... Aber der Tilda-Engel wurde echt niedlich und hat auch seinen Stammplatz im Badezimmer erhalten J Fuer die Einladungen muss ich mir aber was Anderes uberlegen .

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Somewhere deep within my sub-consciousness I knew that the „Fruit-Garden“ Theme by Tilda is not the right setting for wedding invitations. Of course I knew. I just chose to ignore it because all the Tilda stuff is so damn cute! I had to have all those beautiful papers, and fabrics and something called “brads” with tiny roses on them….I think it’s called “hoarding” …. Of course my Other Half did not approve …I think that He doesn’t even consider pink and green as colours … Now I need to look for other ideas for the invitations, but in the meantime I can keep my treasures :)

WIP – “Alisa” Wrap

2011-09-15T21:24:00.002+02:00

Jetzt wo die Temperaturen zumindest abends etwas kuehler sind, mag ich auch wieder Wolle stricken – im Sommer war mir einfach zu warm dafuer. In der letzten Woche ist mein „Namensvetter“ auch um gut 70 Reihen gewachsen, bin also fast bei der Haelfte angekommen. Und eine Sache hab ich fuer mich verstanden – Intarsien-Stricken ist echt doof. Mag ich nicht. Ist viel zu viel Fummelarbeit mit den zig Faeden, und geht sehr viel langsamer voran als Stranded Knitting. Aber schoen sieht es aus, das schon ..... Wie ungerecht!

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Now that the temperatures are getting a bit down I have resumed knitting wool – in summer, it was just too hot for it. So during the last week my “Alisa” wrap has grown by another 70 rows, which is almost halfway! One thing I’ve understood though – I don’t like intarsia-knitting. Really don’t. Too much fiddling with the endless pieces of yarn all tangled and mixed. So beautiful and yet so wicked! Life’s unfair …

The Secret Stash – die Aufloesung (Teil 4)

2011-09-15T21:21:00.004+02:00

Das hier sieht nach einem Lieblingsschal aus:

Anleitung dazu gibt es aber nicht, und so habe ich Manos SilkBlend „Andromeda“, Noro 282 und Zauberball „Brombeer“ zum Testen gekauft. Sie passen farblich auch alle ganz gut zusammen und die Struckturunterschiede stoeren mich eher wenig. Jetzt muss nur noch das passende Muster gefunden werden.

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I’ve got Manos SilkBlend „Andromeda“, Noro 282 and Zauberball „Brombeer“ in the tentative to recreate this scarf. The only thing missing is a pattern ….

The Secret Stash – die Aufloesung (Teil 3)

2011-09-15T21:14:00.003+02:00

5mal Jamieson’s Spindrift in „Granny Smith“ und in „Acqua“ – das wird wohl „Cladonia“ werden.

Die Farbkombi von Tuerkis und Aprfelgruen find ich so schoen fruehlings-frisch, und vor dem Fruehjahr wird das wohl eh nicht fertig.

Anleitung gibt’s hier: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/cladonia

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The 5 balls of Jamieson’s Spindrift in „Granny Smith“ and “Acqua” are meant for “Cladonia”. I really like the combination of apple-green and turquoise, it seems the perfect thing for spring.

The Secret Stash – die Aufloesung (Teil 2)

2011-09-15T21:03:00.004+02:00

10mal Prima Cotton von Debbie Bliss in „Apple“ werden „Broderie“ aus einer der vergangenen Twist Collective Ausgaben. Das wollte ich eigentlich noch im Septembre fertig kriegen, aber ich glaube, es wird knapp. Ab Mitte Oktober wird es fuer Kurzarm-Baumwolle auch in sonnigem Italien zu kalt.

Anleitung gibt’s hier zu haufen: http://twistcollective.com/collection/index.php/twist-errata/62-winter-2008/196-broderie

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The 10 balls of Debbie Bliss Prima Cotton in „Apple“ are destined to “Broderie” from one of the Twist Collective issues. Hope to get it going soon, otherwise it will be too light for the autumn weather….

The Secret Stash – die Aufloesung (Teil 1)

2011-09-13T23:32:00.003+02:00

3mal Silk Blend von Manos del Uruguay in „Danube“ geht an ..... „Camelia“ aus der KnitScene Winter/Spring 2011. Das Original ist mit „Honor“ von Lorna’s Laces gestrickt, aber das Garn konnte ich beim besten Willen nirgendswo finden, und das SilkBlend von Manos ist ja auch sehr schoen :)

The 3 skeins of Manos Silk Blend in „Danube“are meant to become „Camelia“ from the Winter/Spring edition 2011 of KnitScene.

“The Secret Stash”

2011-09-13T23:29:00.001+02:00

Das kam vor ein paar Wochen mit der Post.

Mit dabei:

- 3mal Silk Blend von Manos del Uruguay in „Danube“

- 1mal Silk Blend von Manos in „Andromeda“

- 10mal Prima Cotton von Debbie Bliss in „Apple“

- 1mal Zauberball in „Brombeere“

- 1mal crazy Zauberball in „Flussbett“ (nicht im Bild, da bereits zu „Elise“-Schal verarbeitet)

- 1mal Noro Silk Garden in Farbe 282

- 5mal Jamieson’s Spindrift in „Granny Smith“ und in „Acqua“

- 2mal Suri Elegance Lace in „White House“

Nicht im Bild, aber aus frueheren “Einkaufsorgien” mit dabei:

- 1mal Zauberball in „Durch die Blume“

- 1mal Zauberball Staerke 6 in „Olivenstrasse“

- 1mal Zauberball Staerke 6 in „Indisch Rosa“

- 6mal Jamieson’s Spindrift in Lila-Toenen

In den naechsten Posts wird verraten, was damit geschehen soll.

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All these treasures came in a few weeks ago. Stay tuned to see what they are meant for :)

Fuer Elise ...

2011-09-13T23:27:00.001+02:00

Mein erstes Lace-Projekt, fast fertig. Sehr leicht zu haeckeln, etwas fuer die Ablenkung zwischendurch. Hab Crazy Zauberball von Schoppelwolle in der Farbe „Flussbett“ benutzt, leider reicht ein Knaeuel nur fuer ein Halstuch, ich haette aber gerne ein richtig grosses Dreieckstuch zum sich-drin-einkuscheln, sodass nachbestellt werden musste. Die Wolle ist wirklich sehr schoen, die Farbzusammensetzung find ich toll, vor allem wenn Tuerkis auf Braun trifft, nur leider ist’s etwas kratzig... Vielleicht bessert sich das nach dem Waschen. Die Anleitung gibt es hier: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/elise-shawl

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My very first lace project, very easy crocheting, something to relax in between more „serious“ and demanding projects. Ordered one skein of “Schoppelwolle Crazy Zauberball” in “Flussbett”, but it’s not enough …. Have to wait for the additional delivery…L

Pattern from here http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/elise-shawl

….und das Kleine Weisse

2011-09-13T23:22:00.004+02:00

Nein, kein Kleid, sondern ein Cardi (sprich: Knoepf-Jaeckchen), fuer die letzten kuehlen Sommerabende und die ersten warmen Herbsttage. Gestrickt mit suuuper-weicher Bio-Baumwolle von Canetta http://www.manidifata.it/ (das ist mein Strickladen des Vertrauens wenn ich mal was dringend brauche und nicht auf eine Internet-Bestellung warten will), langes Rippenbuendchen und ein einfaches Lochmuster, dann mit einer Haeckelborte versehen. Gesamtstrickzeit – 1 Monat Zugstricken (= ca. 2 Stunden taeglich an Werktagen waehrend der Arbeits-/Heimreise im Zug), Verbrauch 350 gr (180 m pro 50 gr).

Was dem guten Stueck noch fehlt sind die Knoepfe – da konnte ich mich noch nicht entscheiden und hab 3 verschiedene eingekauft ... vielleicht nehm ich auch alle :)

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A white cardi is essential for the last cool summer evenings and the first warm autumn days. This one is almost ready, missing only the right buttons that I still need to choose. Very fast knitting – only 1 month of train-knitting (= 2 hours daily on working days during the way to the office/home on the train), yarn used is a very very soft cotton, only 350 grams (180 m/50 gr)

Das Kleine Schwarze…..

2011-09-13T23:13:00.005+02:00

Jede Frau Brauch eins – das kleine schwarze Kleid, mit dem man immer gut gekleidet ist. Meins soll das hier sein (nur eben in Schwarz):

Es ist ein Modell von Hoss, gesehen unter anderem hier: http://sewknitcrochet.blogspot.com/2011/05/golden-coins-crochet-dress.html , die Anleitung in den unendlichen Weiten des russischsprachigen Internets gefunden.

Bis jetzt bin ich aber nur so weit:

Gehaeckelt wird in Runden ohne den Faden abzutrennen, und ist, zumindest am Anfang, doch recht muehsam ... Wird wohl erst fuer die naechste Cocktail-Saison fertig :)

Verwendeter Garn: Cablé merserierte Bauwolle, 250m/50 Gramm,vorerts 350 Gramm eingekauft

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Everyone needs a little black dress that makes you well-dressed in every occasion. Mine will be this one, seen here: http://sewknitcrochet.blogspot.com/2011/05/golden-coins-crochet-dress.html crocheted in rounds using black cotton yarn. Guess it will be ready for the next cocktail-season though …

Sylvi Coat - Twist Collective

2011-05-22T19:44:00.004+02:00

Bis vor einem Jahr hat sich mein gesamtes Strickwissen auf die eine oder andere Ausgabe von "Rebecca" beschraenkt. Dann hab ich durch Zufall Tina's Blog entdeckt, und da haben sich neue Horizonten fuer mich aufgetan - Rowan, KnitScene, Ravelry, und Twist Collective eben.

Neben dem "Little Birds" Pulli (gestrickt, fuer gut befunden, aber leider schon zu den Wintersachen dazugetan, wird also spaeter vorgestellt) ist Sylvi mein Lieblingsmodell.

Erstaunlich schnell gestrickt mit 6-er NAdeln und wieder mal einem Buttinette-Ersatzgarn ("Dakota", 70 m auf 50 gr, 60% Poly, 40% Wolle). Das Ruecken-Zopf-Muster hat's echt in sich, und auch die Blumen, die jeweils Bluete fuer Bluete spaeter dazugestrickt werden.

Der Mantel traegt sich sehr gut, auch jetzt noch wenn die Morgenluft doch noch recht frisch ist, und ich fuel mich jedeswal wie Rotkaeppch n persoenlich :)
Das wird sicherlich irgendwann nochmal nachgestrickt, vielleicht dann mit dem Originalgarn...

Rowan, die Zweite

2011-05-22T19:34:00.004+02:00

Wie versprochen hier noch der Nachtrag zu den Strick-Fertigstuecken aus Rowan Magazine Nr.48.

Darf ich vorstellen - hier ist die "Dominika", gestrickt aus Felted Tweed Aran mit 5-er Nadeln. Obwohl ich mich genau an die Anleitung gehalten habe, hab ich insgesamt zwei Knaeuel nachkaufen muessen...Aber schoen ist sie geworden! Rowan Tweed-Farben sind alle super aufeinander abgestimmt, es war echt ein Vergnuegen, die Jacke zu stricken. Dauer des Projets - ca. 1 Monat Zug-Stricken (d.h. ca. 2 Stunden taeglich Mo-Fr auf dem Weg zu- und von der Arbeit, mit dem Zug eben....das ist halt der Vorteil, wenn man so weit entfernt von der Arbeit wohnt - man hat eine ganze Menge Strick-Zeit :) )

Rowan "Alisa" Wrap

2011-05-15T20:04:00.003+02:00

Eins meier WIP heisst "Alisa" - wie passend :)

Das gute Stueck stammt aus dem Winterheft von Rowan, das ueberigens mein erstes Rowan-Heft ist und promt zu meiner Strickbibel wurde. Vor allem die "Russian Doll" Collection gefaellt mir besonders gut - daraus hab ich schon "Maja", "Tamara Glowes" und "Dominika" nachgestrickt (werden alle bald vorgestellt), und jetzt eben "Alisa". Das ist aber ein Mammuts-Projet: ein 2 Meter x 50 cm grosser Schal, oder eben "Wrap", weil man sich da so schoen reinwickeln und reinkuscheln kann. Bin gerade bei Reihe 152 von 540 + 40 Spiral-Haeckel-Dinger zum dranhaengen....Dummerweise kann ich das auch nicht auf dem Weg zur Arbeit und zurueck im Zug stricken, wie ich das sonst immer mache - zum einen sind's zu viele Wollknaeuel, zum anderen ist das Stricken in der Intarsia-Technik echt aufwendig. Es bleibt mir nur, zu Hause immer wieder ein paar REihen zu stricken, aber bis zum Winter wird es schon. GEstrickt wird das Original mit Rowan Felted Tweed als GRundfarbe und Kidsilk Haze (doppelt verstrickt) fuer die Blumen. Das Kidsilk hab ich durch "Sheba" und "Romy" aus Buttinette ersetzt - die sind zwar etwas dicker als Kidsilk, kosten aber auch nur 1/5 davon :)

Welcome Bag .... oder: Das Leben ist wie eine Kauni-Tasche..

2011-05-10T21:35:00.007+02:00

...man weiss nie, was einen erwartet. Ich bin ja eine ungeduldige Sau, und bei meinem neuen Projekt konnte mir der Farbwechsel meiner beiden Kauni-Knaeuel gar nicht schnell genug gehen. Dabei kam mir diese "Erleuchtung" - wenn man nur gedulgig ist, wird sich aus dem scheinbaren Farbdurcheinenader ein Muster ergeben, beim Stricken wie auch im Leben.

Und mit dieser leicht philosophysch angehauchten Einleitung geb ich mir selbst das "Welcome back" in meinem geliebten, aber arg vernachlaessigten Blog, mit der Kauni-Damask-Tasche.

Homemade Chestnut Pasta with Pancetta

2010-04-12T23:53:00.003+02:00

This recipe I made quite often this winter when comfort food was all I wanted to think about when planning dinners. Made with chestnut flour, rolled out by hand and cut into long thin stripes (tagliolini) or wider ones (tagliatelle), takes about an hour from start to yummy.

Here's how to:

Prepare the dough with 200 gr chestnut flour (keep any remaining flour tightly closed in the fridge as it tends to go rancid very fast once opened), 200 gr all purpose flour, 100 gr semolina flour, 5 eggs and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Let rest for about half an hour.

Once rested, roll the dough as thick or thin as you like (I made mine 1 mm thick), dust heavily with flour, roll the dough as you would a cream roll, cut as desired (around 1 cm thick for tagliatelle), unroll the scrolls to stripesand let them rest under a towel while you prepare the sauce.

For the sauce, heat some butter in a pan, add 200 gr of sliced mushrooms (champignons are fine), 200 gr of pancetta or very thinly sliced bacon and 100 g of walnuts. Let brown. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Cook the pasta , drain, add to the pan with mushrooms and pancetta, let mix the flavours for some seonds, serve with freshly grinded black pepper.

Guess who ....

2010-04-12T23:40:00.004+02:00

... is this marvelous girl? She's Beatrice, one of 9 (NINE) puppies born 1 month ago by our beloved Alice, a splendid Maremma-Abruzzo Sheepdog. Beatrice is the cutie we're gonna keep, and in her free time she likes, or so I hope, posing for my new dog clothes line :)

He is Ciccio, Beatrice's brother, the "face" (do you call it "face" in a dog??) of the "boys" line :)

Come back soon to know more about Beatrice, Ciccio, Buddy, Belle and Boule, Blanco, and two more for which we still don' t have names!

A Birthday ... and a CAKE!

2010-03-29T23:49:00.004+02:00

My first cake decorated with homemade fondant and sugarpaste flowers. More on it in the next post - stay tuned :)

The Daring Bakers Challenge March 2010 - Orange Tian

2010-03-29T23:30:00.003+02:00

The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.

I have to admit that at the beginning I was a bit skeptic - the recipe seemed too simple. Oranges, cream, and that's all? But fortunately I was proved wrong. I made the tian following the recipe step by step for my Birthday celebration last Saturday (more on that to come soon!) using a Bundt Cake mold. What should I say - it was delicious, kind of Panna Cotta with caramelized oranges and cookies :) Thank you for the great recipe!

The Daring Bakers Challenge February 2010 - TI-RA-MI-SU!!!

2010-02-28T20:01:00.003+01:00

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.
As usual when Italian dishes are part of the challenge, I'm (too much) critical .... after all, Tiramisu is THE Italian Dessert, and in Rome I've been living across the street from Pompi, a pasticceria/bar that claim to have the best tiramisu in Rome, and they're probably right. They've got the classic one, the one with Nutella and banana, and in summer the one with fresh stawberries (without coffe). But for the challenge I went the straight way, following the given recipe in detail. Let's take a look at the tiramisu parts:
- Mascarpone from scratch - I think that's the best part of the challenge. I've never made mascarpone from scratch, and I could't stop liking the spoon, testing whether it's firmed up ... which it did nicely. I'm only sorry that I didn't have any remains to eat plain ...
- Zabaglione from scratch - definetely tasty. I used espresso to flavour it, but next time I'll surely try Marsala wine.
- Pastry cream, from scratch, obviously - nice, but for my taste too swett, and has got nothing to search inside a tiramisu. Sorry.
- Savoiardi from scratch - really good. Different from storebought in more than one way, I enjoyed the fact that I could made the shape just as I fancied. I planned on serving individual portions, so I piped the batter circle-shaped to fit the individual serving glasses.
- Whipped cream .... nothing to search inside tiramisu, again. Sorry, I know I'm annoying ...

The result - following the recipes in detail I used all the required ingredients, including pastry cream and whipped cream. It was very good, but I think I'll scip both of them the nect time. And there will be a next time, for sure!

The Daring Cooks Challenge - Oriental Style

2010-02-14T12:14:00.003+01:00

The 2010 February Daring COOKs challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid.
For me, this challenge was the equivalent of finding oneself at the perfect place at the perfect time, in a way that a vegan friend was going to come over for lunch the weekend after the challenge was announced. Even though me and my BF eat vegetarian meals 5 days out of 7, cooking vegan is another pair of shoes altogether. No cheese, no cream, no eggs, no honey .... I know, there're substitutes, but the only one I can stomach is the veg cream. I don't consider tofu an adequate substitute for cheese or eggs, even if it may help with the consistence, but surely not tastewise. So, usually vegan lunches/dinners are quite a challenge in themselves. For this particular occassion I have chosen to make not only the required hummus and pita, but a whole lot more from Michele's site, and some more still :)

So, on the menu that day were:
-being in Italy, a pasta dish is obligatory, so this time I made wholewheat strozzapreti with walnut-thyme sauce (adapted from here, made without cheese)
- Hummus (I was not very happy with the recipe, as it was a bit too lemony for my taste, but it was Ok)
-Pita (made on the stovetop and really delicious)
- Yogurt-Cucumber Raita (not new to me, always refreshing and tasty)
-Cucumber-Yogurt Salsa (variation of the raita, but without yogurt, as I have realized at last second only that yogurt was not vegan.....)
-Baba Ghanoush (eggplant roasted in the woodstove which gave it a realy fantastic smoky taste. In fact, this was the best part of the meal!)
-Lentil salad with roasted veggies and mustard vinaigrette
-Felafels (baked in the oven, not fried - still delicious

And, to put th cherry on top of all this, a Upside-Down-Orange-VEGAN CAKE (Adapted from here)! Made with Muffin-like batter without diary/eggs and baked over a layer of melted brown sugar and sliced oranges, it was actually really delicious and a keeper even for non-vegan occassions.

All in all, I would give this challenge a 10 out of 10 - the best and timely challenge ever! Hip-hip-hooray fo daring Cooks!

The Daring Bakers Challenge January 2010 - We are Going to Canada!

2010-01-28T20:46:00.003+01:00

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

So, Nanaimo bars this time. I was really curious to try them them since I've seen them on the web some months ago. And I really wanted to like them, I really did. So my lacking enthusiasm in the final product was certainly not caused by a lack of motivation. You can guess by now that I was less than happy with them .... It started with Graham Crackers. I've never had some, I've got no idea how they are supposed to taste like, but I expected them to look like crackers, at least. What came out of the oven was not like crackers at all. It resembled sponge - tasty and fragrant, but sponge nevertheless....which hardened up after some time out of the oven, but I don't know if it was anywhere close to the real thing.

Then, the first layer ... Coconut AND almonds? No way! I omitted the coconut and decided to follow the almondy direction throughout the cake.

But it was the second layer that really gave me the creeps! If you take a close look at the recipe picture in the DB-Forum, you can actually see teeth marks in it! No wonder, if you consider that the second "creamy " layer consists basically of sweetened butter, NO buttercream in any way! In my version, I prepared an actual vanilla-almond custard and mixed it with the so-called "buttercream". I added some canned pears on top of the crackers' layer as well before filling the custard cream.

The top chocolate layer was the less problematic.

The results? I brought it to the office yesterday and it was unanimously approved. But personally, for me, it was too too much work for a rather averaged result.

Little Black Dress

2010-01-17T23:25:00.007+01:00

A little black dress and a string of pearls is all you need to always look neat and dressed to occasion. What if the dress is a black-and-white tweed and has black flowers printed all over it and the pearls are a black plastic? Never mind, it's the style that counts!

P.S. If you like this dress, you can buy it here!
P.P.S. I will start a new rubric offering tutorials on "How to" - it's much more fun to share the "hows" instead of just showing off. In one of the next posts I will show you how to make the cute fabric flowers like the one attached to the dress!

Shortbread Owls

2010-01-17T23:09:00.002+01:00

What is a group of owls is called? A flock? Do they even ever fly around in groups? I don't think so...But can you picture my surprise as I found these cute little fellows outside my window? :)

Use any favorite shortbread recipe, preferably without any chunky additions. Shape into ovals, place an almond (I used particularly long hazelnuts) in place of nose, score with a toothpick the eyes and the feet, bake according to your recipe.

When ready let cool. In the meantime melt a bit of chocolate and pipe the inside and the outside of the eyes and the feet. Take a last look. Add milk. Eat.

In a Nutshell

2010-01-17T22:44:00.004+01:00

When life gives you walnuts, make walnut-bread pops

After seeing the recipe for Seeded Flatbread on 101 Cookbooks, my all-times favourite blog, and seeing virtually kilos of walnuts in the pantry, I decided I wanted to try it with walnuts and rosemary, baking the plops of bread inside the empty shells. It worked out just fine, resulting in a nice "head" to tear off and munch right away, and then crack the shell to get at the crunchy inside part. Quite an "interactive" eating!

Walnut-Rosemary Bread Pops
(adapted from 101 Cookbooks)

2 1/4 cups Whole Wheat Flour 
1 tsp salt 
1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 cup walnuts
1 tbs rosemary needles
2 tbs extra-virgin olive oil 
1 cup water, ice cold

Mix flour with salt and yeast, add water and oil, mix to combine, add rosemary and walnuts, knead to form a smooth dough. Cover and refrigirate overnight.

One hour before baking, take the dough out of the fridge and let sit at room temperature. Tear walnut-sized plops of dough and place them inside the empty walnut shells. Bake 220°C for about 15-20 minutes until tops are nicely browned. Let cool a bit and enjoy. Crack the shells using a nut cracker to reach the inside parts.

If you don't use all teh dough for the bread bits, shape the remaining dough into a flat disk, add toppings or sprinkle with some seasalt and a bit of oil and bake until crisoy on teh outside but still soft inside. Delicious either way.

Makes about 12 bread-bites and a one-portion flatbread.

First post 2010 - Kitchen Remake

2010-01-17T22:33:00.005+01:00

It's been a long time since the last post, and unfortunately I don't have a good excuse for not having posted for so long, except that I've been lazy .... very very lazy :( Sorry ....

So let's start this year with an "activity" post. As you may remember, after moving into the new house, we have decided to divide the open space that was the living-dining-kitchen room in two using the well-loved IKEA Billy libraries. Practical, but the kitchen site was ugly...very ugly:

See what a difference some color and wooden wine-cases made:

The Daring Bakers December Challenge - Living in a Gingerbread House

2009-12-27T19:52:00.004+01:00

The Decembre 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was brought to us by Anna of Vey Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge th edaring bakers everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenging recipes.

I was really excited by this challenge as it seemed like a great idea for holiday decorations, and I couldn´t wait getting started. In fact, this time I had it ready three weeks before due date. I chose Y´s recipe for no other reason that I didn´t have whipping cream on hand and didn´t want to go out shopping to get some. The recipe turned out okay, even though the dough did puff up a bit and I ended up baking two houses, rolling the dough for the second one slighly thinner to facilitate "construction". My "glue" of choice was royal icing that hardened up really fast and tasted good, too (and I liked up quite a lot of it from my fingers while trying to make things keep together). The decoration part was fun, too, melting candies for stained-glass windows and gluing silver drops to the roof, even if in Italy, as usual, it´s difficult when it comes to colourful candies ... I have this problem all the time when using recipes that are heavy on candies or other colourful stuff.

Anyway, the challenge was really fun to do, and I think it would be a great baking project with kids :)

Oh, and by the way - it was tasty, too! I wish I could live in a gingerbread house, waking up in the morning and taking a bite out of wall fro breakfast :) But I think it would make me homeless sopn ....

Ain't She Gorgeous?!

2009-12-17T20:52:00.002+01:00

Just wanted to share .... She's Areta, our "Sleeping Beauty" Maremma Sheepdog

What's Hot and What's Not on a Wednesday

2009-12-15T21:09:00.014+01:00

One more week has passed and it's time again for the "Hot or Not" list. So, what's been happening here in Morsasco all week long?

Hot

- New chicken coop finally built and happy chickens moved into their new home, far away from the bedroom window to not to hear the rooster crowing at odd times. Aren't they supposed to have an inner clock or something? Ours apparently doesn't have one, as he starts whenever he feels like it.

- A picture published on Craftgawker!

- New (for me) blog discovered today - loads of gorgeous stuff for printing, like the Carnivorous Plants Calendar

- Christmas presents problem solved, thanks also to Luana's helpful link

- Ordering books from Amazon, inlcuding Julia Child's "French Cooking" - it was too much talked about to be ignored

- Making lists

- Ticking things off lists - very satisfying :)

Not

- Loosing a baby chick to an unknown beast just one day before moving into the new coop - very sad :(

- Bad hair days ....

Pass at Loobylu's for more Wednesday Hot or Not lists

There is something fishy - The Daring Cooks Challenge December

2009-12-14T21:57:00.005+01:00

This month is my first Daring Cooks Challenge, and it's been quite a challenge, really. I've completely forgotten about the deadline until, well .... until this morning. Fortunately this month's recipe, brought to us by Simone from Junglefrog Cooking, is quite last-minute friendly. Shopping, cooking, taking pictures and eating - it all took no more than 2 hours. I cheated on the pastry, using store-bought puff pastry, and had to chop the spinach instead of pureeing it given the lack of the necessary equipment. The spinach-arugula-cream cheese-mix got some dill and lemon to spice it up and made great leftovers, too, baked in individual ramekins. (I love dill and suffer tremendously the fact that it rarely can be found in Italy and doesn't grow well here, too...so every time I go back home I bring a huge bunch of dill, freeze it and use on very special occasions only :))

The salmon en croute turned out to be quite delicious, and rather photogenic, too. You can get the the recipe here.

Gingerbread, Gingerbread, Ginger all the Way ....

2009-12-13T17:59:00.003+01:00

This weekend was dedicated to pre-Christmas baking. Gingerbread-baking, to be exact. Coming from Germany, I am completely spoiled when it comes to gingerbread, as in Germany (like in most Nordic countries) gingerbread for Christmas is really a BIG hit, and there are thousands of different styles. Virtually each city has got its own recipe, and the supermarkets offer further temptations, like chocolate-covered jam-filled gingerbread hearts. I decided to try a recipe for soft molded gingerbread that I've cut out of a magazine years ago, wanting to use once again my new shortbread pan.

Like most gingerbreads, also this one calls for baking soda and for an overnight refrigeration before baking, so plan ahead accordingly. The results are well worth waiting - the resulting gingerbread is soft and kind of fudgy in the middle, with a nice spiciness from ginger, nutmeg and cloves, but not overly so. The glaze gives it a nice touch, but according to me is more of a visual addition than a taste-wise one.

All in all, definitively a keeper. And a beautiful one, too.

Soft Molded Gingerbread Recipe

1 cup butter
3/4 cup + 2 tbs sugar
1 gg
1/2 cup molasses
2 tbs honey

3 3/4 cup AP flour
1 tbs cocoa
4 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp cinnamon
a dash a freshly ground pepper
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp soda

Cream butter with sugar, add the egg, the molasses and the honey, beat well until fully incorporated.

Mix together the dry ingredients, add to the egg mixture, mix well first with a spoon, then with hands until a dough pulls together.

Wrap dough in clingfilm, refigirate overnight.

Take out of the fridge and let sit at room temp for 15 min. Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease the gingerbread pan, put the dough into pan and pat with your fingers until distributed evenly. Bake for about 20-25 minutes, until the top appears dry (not overbake it! It should be still soft inside!)

Let rest in the pan for 5 - 10 min, in the meanwhie mix 1/4 cup of confectioner's sugar with about 2 tbs of water to make a glaze. Take the ready gingerbread out of the pan, brush with glaze, cut into slices and let cool. Enjoy!

You can roll the dough and cut cookies out of it, as well. Adjust the baking time accordingly to about 10-15 min.

Treasures

2009-12-08T21:34:00.003+01:00

The good thing about living in the country is that beautiful things are just around the corner. This time, I found this particular "flower" in the stack of fire wood in our backyard.

What's hot on a Wednesday

2009-12-08T20:54:00.007+01:00

Another week, another hot or not list following Loobylu's thread.

Hot

- My first ever Nativity. It comes from Peru :) Love Maria and Joseph with the traditional Peruvian caps and capes and the baby Jesus in his nutshell-crib. Have discovered it at a fair-trade market in Genoa, along with other Nativities from all over the world and tasty mango fair-trade jam.

- Two more weeks till Christmas - means two more weeks till I can go to Germany to visit my parents and grandma+grandpa. Means lots and lots of cooking and baking and trying out all kind of new recipes.

- Our dogs. One (or rather three) of the most beautiful things when I come back home after 1,5 hours of commuting. How could I eve live without them before?!

- A very long weekend due to the two days of holidays yesterday ("bridge") and today (The Immaculate Conception) - lots of time to indulge in knitting by the fire, making long walks outside and finally building the new chicken coop.

Not hot

- Two more weeks till Christmas - and no idea about presents to make ...

- A nasty landslide that has blocked the (already slow) commuter train line for most of the last week. Means - 2 hours to go to work and other 2,5 to come back home .... And it's only December! I'm wondering what it's gonna be like when real winter comes?

Fortunately, only 2 Not's this week - against 4 Hot's. Definitively a good week :)

A book review and a recipe

2009-12-08T20:14:00.003+01:00

I love cooking, but I don't have a lot of cookbooks. Usually, I prefer internet as a source of inspiration instead of spending 20-30 euros for a collection of recipes, most of which I never come around recreating. With Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson it was a different story altogether. I first discovered her wonderful blog and loved virtually any recipe I tried. From there, it was only one step to buying Heidi's book that is chock-full not only with gorgeous pictures and tasty dishes, but also a ton of useful information on healthy cooking. Till then, I had only a very blurred idea about what "Healthy cooking" was about, and considered health food stores as the reign of people wearing Birkenstock sandals throughout the year (WITH socks, if the weather conditions should require it) and feeding their children sugar-free dusty muesli for breakfast. After reading Super Natural Cooking, the things have changed. I'm no more afraid of buying whole grains and flours, trying different kinds of browns sugars (and yes, they ARE all different!) and turn to the book and to the blog anytime I need inspiration or am in doubt about some "healthy" stuff.
The following recipe for Gingery Shortbread is from Heidi's book, though there are variations to it on her blog, too. I changed the original recipe a bit, using buckwheat flour instead of the amaranth one, and adjusting baking time and temperature as i was dieing to try my new shortbread pan and figured that freezing the dough inside the pan and then putting it straight into hot oven, as instructed, would do the ceramic pan no good.

Was I satisfied with the results? Well, given the fact that I've never had any shortbread before, this one was delicious, with a hot spiciness from the ginger and a tenderness from the butter that I've never met in a cookie :) I will definitively try all the variations of the recipe (rosemary and pine nuts seem so good!), hoping that a less chunky dough (due to minced candied ginger) will result in a more defined pattern.

Enjoy!

Gingery Shortbread Recipe

(adapted from "Super Natural Cooking" by Heidi Swanson - I give full dose here, though I halved the recipe to fit my pan)

1 1/2 cups white whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 tbs ground ginger
1 cup unsalted butter, room temp
2/3 cup natural cane sugar (I used Demerara sugar)
1/3 cup minced crystallized ginger

Mix flours, salt and ground ginger in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, cream butter with sugar, then add the dry ingredients and the minced ginger and mix until just combined and crumbly. Gather together and wrap tightly into cling film, refrigerate for 20 min.
Preheat oven to 160 ° C. Spay the shortbread pan with non-stick spray and pat the dough into the pan. Prick entire surface with a fork and bake for about 25-30 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before releasing the gingerbread from the pan. Eat.

Alternatively, you can roll the dough and cut cookies out of it. In this case, I would follow Heidi's suggestion to freeze the cut cookies for 10 minutes before baking, and reduce the baking time to about 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies.

Knitting Projects

2009-12-08T20:00:00.003+01:00

Do you remember my post on the cardigan knitting project from about 2 weeks ago? The chunky cozy gray alpaca knitting? Well, the things did go on quite slowly, mainly for the lack of time, but I'm about 1/3 through. The surprising thing is - what you see here is not the front of the cardigan, and neither the back , but - the sleeve! Yes, this one is started from the sleeve, which is quite unique in my experience. The only problem with this project - which I think is the problem of all the chunky knits - it's HEAVY! By now it weights around 300 grams, and the wool destined for it is a total of almost 1 kg ... Stay tuned for more - there are still 700 grams of top-quality knitting to be posted :)

The Daring Bakers Novembre Challenge - we're frying!

2009-11-28T17:23:00.005+01:00

Incredible, one month has passed since the last challenge. This month the recipe chosen by Lisa Michelle was quite familiar to me - after all, living in Italy has the advantage to getting to eat fresh-made Cannolli as often as one wishes to. It was quite exciting to made them from scratch and results were very satisfying, even though frying in my small kitchen was quite a challenge in itself: I added orange water and orange-scented chocolate to the ricotta-filling and decorated the filled cannolli with candied orange peel. What do you think can i be proud of them? :) Check out what fellow bakers did here!

What's hot on a Wednesday

2009-11-25T19:45:00.005+01:00

What’s hot on a Wednesday?

Yes, it’s that time of the week again. Following Loobylu’s thread here it comes again – what’s hot and what’s not on a Wednesday?

Hot

- Four baby chickens that have successfully survived the 600 + km of us changing home

- The Sharon fruit tree and the pomegranate tree in my new garden that provide me with sweet tasty fruit for my lunchbox

- The wood-burning stove in our living room – never had such a cosy warm winter

- Kimmi dolls – have just discovered these gorgeous Japanese wooden dolls last week. Still cannot decide about to whom of them to give a shelter on my library shelf.

Not

- A Skorpion in the bathtub - these are the disadvantages of living out in the "wild"

- 2 weeks of continuous fog around here

- Commuter trains that are always late

- The last part of “Un medico in famiglia”

- an Italian tv-format adapted from the Spanish Médico de familia - went on air yesterday, only 2 weeks after I have first discovered this beautiful a bit naïve but good-hearted piece of Italian cinematography. And I have just started loving all of them!

What is hot or not at your place this week?

Knitting Projects

2009-11-25T19:42:00.001+01:00

Knitting Projects
Can you believe that this gorgeous scarf is only two hours of work? Made of pompom acrylic wool, it’s so soft and fluffy I’d like to wear it all day long. The colour combination is really nice and is available in many more colours (greens, pinks, turquoises …..) .
By the way, if you like it, you can buy it here!

The story of a (Cup)Cake

2009-11-25T19:40:00.001+01:00

Inspired by Bakerella’s gorgeous mini cakes on a stick, I finally got around to making some myself for my office-leave in Rome. I adopted the recipe a bit to the things I had on hand, and was quite satisfied with the results. The mini-cakes are tasty and give a full blast of intense chocolate flavour in one perfect bite. They are lovely to look at, too :)

Recipe:
5 cups cake crumbs (I used chocolate)
½ cup fresh cream
Chocolate (I used white)
Smarties
Sprinkles
Food colourings
Skewers
Mix the cake crumbs with the cream to create an even mixture. Refrigerate until workable. Make nut-sized mushroom-shaped bites with a chunky “stem” and a rounded “cap”. Stick on skewers, dip the tops in melted chocolate (coloured to your liking if using white), and decorate to make them look like cupcakes. Store in a cool place.

Knitting Projects

2009-11-25T19:37:00.001+01:00

Knitting Projects
Having lots of time to spend on the train to and from Genoa going to work and back, the options are three – sleeping, reading and knitting. My newest knitting project comes from the Italian magazine “Maglia” that is available at the newspaper stand once a week and comes with about 10 new patterns and a skein of wool. The wool comes in “natural” colours and is intended to create a knitted blanket made of different-patterned squares, not unlike a quilt. The blanket is too much (and a bit too boring) for me, I’d rather use the knitted squares to make pillows (follow the next posts for the evolution of this idea), but the patterns are really beautiful. Unlike most of the knitting stuff available in the magazines, these ones don’t look like from my grandma’s closet. The project I am currently working on is a chunky braided cardigan, knitted all in one piece out of alpaca-merino wool taken as a double thread. The results till now are lovely – thanks to the double thread the work goes on fast, and I am quite intrigued by the fact that it’s all a one-piece.
I will keep posting about the progress. For today I leave you with the result of an hour’s work:

Changes

2009-11-25T19:32:00.002+01:00

It’s been a really long time since my last post, and I apologise with all my dear readers who came along to find nothing new. In the meanwhile, lots of things happened. Two weeks ago, me, my wonderful BF, our 3 dogs and 5 chickens + 4 baby chickens moved house. As I told in my last post, I have changed office and am working in Genoa (Liguria – think sea, foccaccia and Pesto) , while living in a rural house in Morsasco (Piemonte – think hazelnuts, gianduia and lots of wine), a teeny-tiny village of 700 inhabitants. Even though the miracle of the modern communication technology has long ago reached this place, we still don’t have internet at home, so that’s the reason for the delay.

These days have been busy with packing and unpacking stuff, building the new coop for our chickens and doing numerous trips to IKEA – officially to get 4 (FOUR) Billy libraries (follow their fate in one of the next posts), unofficially to get these marvellous ginger-spiced caramels:

What's Hot and What's Not on a Wednesday

2009-10-28T21:15:00.011+01:00

Following the thread on Loobylu’s page (which, by the way, is one of my favourite blogs, and the first one I started reading, either) I decided to participate in this week’s Hot or Not series.

So, what’s hot on a Wednesday?

The last beautiful Indian Summer days in Rome are definitely hot

Going to the Vatican Museums tomorrow – Hot! I am ashamed to say that after more than a year in Rome I still haven’t been there. Tomorrow is my last chance…Why? See the “Not so Hot” part :)

The Feijoa tree that’s growing in our backyard. It bloomed beautifully all summer long, and yesterday I tried my first fruit – it’s fantastic! It tastes like a mix of wild strawberry and kiwi, sweet and tangy and intense. I think I’m hooked on those ….

Shopping – hot hot hot!!!! I did quite a bit of online-shopping lately and am currently waiting for:

These gorgeous Japanese crafting books bought from here, which is the best source when it comes to Japanese books.

A book full of scarf knitting projects from here – winter, I’m ready!!

A shortbread mold with a beautiful butterfly pattern.

Lots of fabrics and other pretty little things from Dawanda – the German equivalent of Etsy (by the by, I’ve got a shop on Dawanda – come to visit me soon ;)

Waiting for baby chicks to hatch – incredibly hot! Our sitting hen is currently hatching 16 eggs which should be due in 3 days. Last time we scored 5 out of 10 and kept her. She’s quite a beauty by now:

What’s not-so-hot?

I am leaving Rome. Like, next week already. I am moving to Genoa, which is a cool city, and I will do a nice job, which is cool as well, but I will be missing Rome. Things like stepping out of the metro and finding the Coliseum right in front of you, or strolling along the Fori Impreriali – my favorite part of Rome, stopping for a piece of pizza in San Giovanni or going to Porta Portese flea market ….It’s just the usual story – you think you still have a lot of time to do everything, and then the time is over, you move on and leave things undone. Oh, I’m getting too melancholic here…

Angry neighbors in general – not hot

Angry neighbors that don’t like dogs and keep on complaining – so not hot

Packing, cleaning, fighting with Italian bureaucracy for moving house – not hot at all.

Puppies!

2009-10-26T22:39:00.003+01:00

If you would like to have a beautiful white puppy of Italian maremma sheepdog, take a look here.

October Daring Bakers Challenge - Macarons

2009-10-26T22:10:00.003+01:00

Oh yes, I'm a Daring Baker and this month's challenge was making Macarons. "Macaron" is french for "Damn much work for this neat little cookie". I've been dying to try them from the first time I saw them last year on internet. Cute little cookies with different fillings and in rainbow colors - that was quite intriguing.
For the challenge we were supposed to use the french technique. I started full of enthusiasm, grinding my own nuts, letting the eggwhites age on the counter and putting high hopes into the result. Suffice to say that I failed competely at that. The macarons came out flat and brittle and I felt defeated. Fortunately after reading the comments on the forum I realized that I was not the only one. Many fellow bakers did have problems with the recipe and some have suggested trying Tartellette's recipe. It worked like a treat! For my Pesto-inspired macarons I did sub half of the almonds for pine nuts and prepared basil-infused white chocolate ganache. The macarons came out quite pefect, cute little feet and all, even though I wish I had made smaller circles. The flavors played toghether nicely and the cookies were gone whithin an hour :)
Would I make them again? Not on a day-to-day basis, but for some fancy party surely yes!

Knitting Projects

2009-10-24T23:54:00.007+02:00

One of my last year's projects - a soft woolly bolero with matching mittens. It makes me think of Little Red Riding Hood, Heidi and other heroes of my childhood :)

My Magic Tree

2009-10-20T21:40:00.005+02:00

Come with me to the fairy land to see my little shiny Magic tree ....

Pizza pizza

2009-10-16T21:51:00.007+02:00

Living in Italy, one would suppose that I'm surrounded by innumerate occasions to eat good pizza. Unfortunately, Rome is full of mediocre pizza, and finding a really good one is quite an challenge. You're best off buying it at the small standing-in pizzerias where they sell lot of types by weight. Spending around 8 euro, you can sample around 4 pieces with different toppings.
But when I'm not into eating out, I like making pizza at home. It's cheap and tasty, and good girl as I am I will even share my treasured never-fail pizza recipe with you.

You start with this:
325 ml water
4 Tbsp olive oil
500 g bread flour
1/2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 packet dry yeast

Dump it all into the bread machine choosing the pizza-sycle (1,5 hours). (of course you can make it without bread machine, too. Dissolve yeast in a bit if warm water knead all the ingredient for about 10 min, until you've a smooth elastic dough. Put into a lightly oiled bowl, cower with a towel and let rise in a warm place for about 1 hour)

Go on to prepare the toppings and the sauce.
For the sauce, you will need about half a liter of plain tomato sauce, in Italy it's called "passata di pomodoro", basically it's just pureed canned tomatoes with a bit of salt. Add some olive oil, salt, a bit of sugar and a bit of dry oregano. Done.

Now shred your mozarella. You don't want to waste your good stuff on the pizza - it will be too watery. Use the dryest kind you can find, and pat the moisture with a paper towel. Shred it or cut into little cubes.

Preheat your skillet.

By now your dough shouldbe ready. Pour it onto your well floured working surface and divide it into 5 pieces (makes medium-sized pizza).

Roll out the dough to fit your skillet. Dust the skillet with flour, put the dough disk inside, smear with the sauce, top with mozarella.

It will look like this:

Put lid on top and lower the flame:

Cook for about 5-7 minutes, taking care not to burn the undreside too much (a bit charred is ok, though, it gives it the "real" pizza touch.

When it's ready, put other toppings - here I used basilikum and prosciutto - and enjoy :)

Remembering the summer

2009-10-16T21:08:00.005+02:00

Long Greek-goddess style dresses were all the hype this summer. This one I made of light jersey. I really like the neckline of this one - it shows off the shoulders and the back nicely :)

Oh, and by the way - if you like this dress, you can buy it here!

Meet the tofu

2009-10-15T20:39:00.006+02:00

In my last post, I've been speaking about the Japanese ability to anthropomorphyze everything. Browsing through the web today, I came along a great site selling Japanese kawaii stuff - bento boxes, stationary, cell phone charms...And guess what I found there?! A plush toy figuring a...tofu cube....dressed as a wolf...TOFU?! Dressed as a wolf? I mean, really? Anyone who has ever seen a block of silken tofu know that it kind of ... lacks personality ... But despite my firm resolution not to like it, I fell in love immediately... making me want to spend cold winter evenings cuddling this squishy adorable cube of ...whatever ... Just judge for yourself:

And if apple-pie tofu isn't quite your thing, there is also a green bean that looks like a dog that looks like a bean.

To top it all, here is a triplet of algae....It kills me thinking that this is what my sushi-wrapper really look like.

Experiment failed

2009-10-14T21:57:00.006+02:00

Does it remind you of someone famous? No? Unfortunately me neither.... Inspired by Panda Bread and this cutie, both examples of Japanese capacity to turn everything from bread to domestic animals into icons of cuteness, I wanted to try my own version of it....Well, from the aesthetic point of view the experiment failed. The bread was still tasty and made great breakfast toasted and slathered with butter and honey :)

For when it's getting cold...

2009-10-14T21:41:00.006+02:00

...a hand-knitted warm fluffy jumper is your best friend. This one is from soft mohair wool and is the result of last year's cold weather stay-in. The attached scarf and the belt come from the Roman flea-market "Porta Portese" and are actually a silk shawl divided in two.

Got milk?

2009-10-14T21:07:00.002+02:00

I love breakfast. I would happily skip lunch and dinner for having breakfast 3 times a day. It's been only recently though that I have discovered granola. The good, homemade type of it, not the store-bought chock full of sugar and fat. Today, I will share with you my favorite granola recipe with olive oil, honey and pistacchios. Topped with some milk or homemade yogurt (thanks to my new yogurt-maker!) it's the best way for me to start the day :)

Olive Oil Granola Recipe
(adopted from The Kitchn)

3 cups rolled oats
1 cup salted roasted pistachios, hulled
1 cup roasted pumpkin seeds
1 cup dry grated coconut
3/4 cup honey
1/2 cup mild extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sea or kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
Dried fruit like cherries or cranberries

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a large bowl, combine oats, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, coconut, honey, olive oil, salt, cinnamon and cardamom. Spread mixture on a rimmed baking sheet in an even layer and bake for 45 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, until golden brown and well toasted.

2. Transfer granola to a large bowl and add dry berrries, tossing to combine. Serve with cold milk or yogurt.

Yield: About 9 cups.

Inspiration

2009-10-11T19:31:00.009+02:00

What comes first - the inspiration or the material? For me, it's usually the material. I love love love shopping for fabrics, thanks to Etsy, Dawanda and the like. By now I have quite a collection of fabrics, some have a mental tag attached to it with a precise idea as to what it will become, others are just my source of inspiration, being the beautiful muse everyone needs :)

Hello, cupcake!

2009-09-25T23:31:00.005+02:00

What can be cuter than a pack of fluffy little puppies? Why, cupcake puppies, of course! This was the image that got me into buying the "Hello Cupcake!" book some weeks ago, with the luring subtitle "...playful creations anyone can make".

Living in Italy I could be not further away from canned frosting, rainbow food colors and marshmallow fluff requested for the "easy creations" even if I lived on the moon. The standard italian grocery shop doesn't carry any of the above and my secret stash of food colors brought way back from Germany features the 3 basics of red, blue and yellow.

And so, waiting for my newly ordered baking supplies to arrive, I did try what seemed a more simple and affordable project - a bunch of sunflowers. The recipe used is a vanilla cupcake from the book with a basic butter-cream frosting I found on the internet. While I didn't care much for the frosting - too sweet, I really liked the cupcake where I've added some chopped kiwi for a bit of zing. Following the decoration instructions was easy and fun and I cannot wait to try something else from the book. I've got my eye on the white puppies already -- gonna make them look like my dogs :)

So, you started a blog - and now?

2009-09-24T20:30:00.003+02:00

...and now, I guess, I have to cure it, to nourish it and to let it grow, like the tomato plant I had in my veggie patch all the summer long. Now the summer has gone, even here in sunny Rome, but I still have nice memories of it and of my beautiful tomatoes... Where was I? Oh, the blog. So, what can you expect from it, dear reader? Crafty stuff? - well, you guess it from the name of the blog. I love sewing, knitting, stitching, cookie decorating - you name it. Which better occasion to share new projects (and to show off old ones :-)) Tomatoes? Why, sure, in the Tomato-Basil-Upside-Down-Bread-Recipe. Arty Rome-pictures? Sometimes. And, why not, a little peek into my daily life with 3 adorable dogs, 5 chickens and a little veggie patch (fancy some Brussel Spouts?) . So, lean back, relax and enjoy :)