A Very Happy New Year

 

christmasbokeh (1 of 1)

 

Christmas, packing for Whistler, being in Whistler, returning from Whistler and unpacking from Whistler put paid to all my good blogging intentions over the last week or so. Ho hum. I hope you all had a marvellous and stress-free holiday season.

And yes, I know I should be leaving you with an eloquent elegy to 2011 and divulging all sorts of self-improving resolutions for 2012 but I’ll be doing that tomorrow, as I have to make blinis for a party tonight.

Instead may I encourage you all to wear your red underwear for luck in the Italian tradition and eat plenty of lentils.

And if you have time watch this video.  I wish you all this and more in the New Year. Thanks for all your comments, emails, advice and encouragement over the least year. It means a lot.  Mwah!

 

 

"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art – write or draw or buil…d or sing or live as only you can. May your coming year be a wonderful thing in which you dream both dangerously and outrageously.
I hope you will make something that didn’t exist before you made it, that you will be loved and you will be liked and you will have people to love and to like in return. And most importantly, because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now – I hope that you will, when you need to, be wise and that you will always be kind. And I hope that somewhere in the next year you surprise yourself."

Share

Adventures in Knitting – Big Snowy Owl

 

Thought you might like to see the Minx’s knitted Christmas present – that you managed to guess so cunningly -   in all its final glory.

 

bigsnowyowl (1 of 1)

Snowy owl on snowy balcony in snowy Whistler

 

I have to say that this was a rather frustrating knit. 

Being my usual organised self, I’d left it until Christmas Eve to finish the top of the head and the face when disaster struck and I ran out of white yarn before I’d even managed to finish the ears. This despite having purchased the recommended yarn, used the recommended size needles and knitted to the recommended gauge.

So I had to rip the head back, miss out some rounds without giving him too truncated an appearance and reknit.  This time I managed to scrape through to the end, though I still didn’t have enough white yarn to add a white circle to the eyes as in the pattern.  You can imagine how thrilled I was by this at 3 am on Christmas morning.

 

bigsnowyowl2 (1 of 1)

 

All, however, is well that ends well. The owl is gorgeously soft, smooshy and snuggly and big enough to make for very satisfying cuddles (here he is sitting next to a standard-sized cushion). The Minx is also very fond of ‘Owly’, which makes a change.

More details on my Ravelry page. You can find the pattern here courtesy of the Purl Bee.  I DON’T recommend using their suggested yarn though.

Share

Stir Up Sunday

 

A couple or three weekends back, while I was also in the throes of Thanksgiving baking, it was Stir Up Sunday and I also had to get going with my Christmas baking. 

 

christmaspudding (5 of 5)

 

The name apparently comes from the collect from the Book of Common Prayer which begins ‘Stir up, we beseech you O Lord’. This was said in Anglican churches on the last Sunday before Advent and reminded cooks and bakers throughout the land that they should be making a start on their mincemeat and Christmas puddings, so that they would have time to mature before the Christmas festivities.

It’s a good job the Puritans objected to Christmas puddings and so never really brought them to America as I have to say the combination of Stir Up Sunday and Thanksgiving is enough to drive anyone to drink.

After the success of my mincemeat last year, and since the wonderful RainShadow Meats in Seattle is now rendering beef suet, I decided to make Christmas puddings for the first time as well as the mincemeat.  After reading through several recipes I decided to stick with dear old Delia and make some minor tweaks.

Her detailed recipe is here. Tweaks I made included adding substituting some glace’ cherries for half of the mixed peel and replacing the orange juice and zest with a spoonful of the Husband’s fabulous homemade Three Fruit Marmalade as suggested by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

christmaspudding (1 of 1)

 

As is traditional we also added some foil-wrapped coins to the mixture, to be found when we cut into the puddings – and yes, I really ought to get myself a more photogenic mixing bowl.

Since this is mostly a mix of dried fruits, beef suet, breadcrumbs, spices, beer and brandy, the puddings look surprisingly pale and anaemic before being steamed.

 

christmaspudding (2 of 5)

 

The Husband, being an engineer, was then commandeered into covering the puddings with a double layer of greaseproof paper, covering them with tinfoil and manufacturing string handles for them, so they could be lifted in and out of the steam bath.

 

christmaspudding (3 of 5)

 

The Internet then informed me that Christmas pudding can be steamed in the slow cooker, a Christmas miracle indeed.  No more having to keep an eye on the pudding and making sure they don’t steam dry.

The larger one was steamed in the slow cooker for around 10 hours on HIGH and the smaller steamed overnight or for around 8 hours.

I don’t know what the alchemical process is that makes them come out all dark and moist and sticky at the end, but they sure looked good and smelled unbelievable.

 

christmaspudding (4 of 5)

 

The Husband then re-wrapped them so they could be steamed again at Christmas and now they sit ‘maturing’ in my cool closet, and delighting my heart every time I walk in there and glance at them.

I shall report back.

Here’s this year’s batch of mincemeat.  I’ve already used a jar to make mince pies and can report that it is very delicious indeed.

mincemeat (1 of 1)

Share

Picture the Holidays–The View from Here

 

Our next prompt was to remind us to take a few moments to enjoy the view.

This is  the view I have from my desk in a corner of my bedroom as I work.  The chair is my knitting chair. We had some lovely sunny days in Seattle last week so I decided to render this in black and white to emphasise the beautiful wintry light.

 

seattleview (1 of 1)-2

 

This is the view you get from that chair.

 

seattleskyline (1 of 1)

Share

Can You Guess What It Is Yet?

 

Wow! You guys are good.  Too good in fact.  I was hoping to keep the tease going a little bit longer at least.  However, my undying admiration goes to Stephanie and Rebecca who both guessed that it was the Purl Bee big snowy owl.  Oh and please don’t tell the Minx.

 

big-snowy-owl-2-425

 

I just hope I can do this one justice.  It looks like one of those projects where it’s all about getting the face right.  I’ll carry on pasting up progress reports.

 

big-snow-owl-4-425

In other competition news, I realise that I forgot to draw the ‘Edible Seattle’ prize. The winner is Dana. Congratulations! I’ll be emailing you shortly so we can get your ‘Edible Seattle’ subscription to you.

Oh and look for another giveaway on Monday.

Share

Christmas Cupcake Decorating at Trophy Cupcake

 

Last week I went along to a cupcake decorating class at our local cupcake emporium Trophy Cupcakes and got some fabulous idea and tips for Christmas cupcake decorations.

 

trophycupcakes (1 of 1) christmascupcakes2 (1 of 1)

 

Owner Jennifer Shea herself was on hand to demonstrate the techniques and also talk about her experiences and astonishing success with Trophy, together with Nicole, her head cupcake decorator, who is responsible for planning all the new designs.

 

jennifersheatrophycupcake (1 of 1) jennifersheatrophycupcake2 (1 of 1)

 

The great thing about this class was that cupcakes, piping bags filled with coloured buttercreams, sprinkles, decorations and all the right tools were all lined up and ready to go – in my kitchen even finding the icing bags and correct tips and nozzles is a challenge.

First up Jennifer and Nicole demonstrated how to make sparkly bauble cupcakes. These were super easy, but still very effective.  You just scoop a blob of coloured buttercream onto the cupcake and then dip and press the cupcake in a bowl of sparkling sanding sugar, moulding the buttercream into a dome as you go.  Then decorate as you want with white buttercream and a writing tip. Finally pipe a small swirl of yellow at the top (which you can’t see on this cake) to represent the hanger.  I do love the effect of these and I can see me using this technique a lot in future.

 

baublecupcake (1 of 1) snowmancupcake4 (1 of 1)

 

For the snowman, we started with a large round #809 tip and made a triple swirl of white buttercream. Then edge the bottom of the snowman in coarse sanding sugar.  Add a scarf using green buttercream and flat tip #44 (getting this to follow the line of his ‘neck’ is fiendishly difficult) and then pipe on black buttons, eyes and mouth. Use red buttercream and tip #8 and swirl to make a hat and finally use tip #4 and some orange buttercream to pipe a carrot nose.  You will note that this cake required five different bags of buttercream and five different icing nozzles, so is not likely to be made in my kitchen any time soon, much as the Minx adored him.

 

Christmaswreathcupcake (1 of 1)

 

The wreath decoration though is much more accessible. Spread a little white vanilla buttercream on the cake.  Make leaves round the edges with a #366 leaf tip.  Sprinkle with sanding sugar and little red non-pareils for holly berries and then pipe a red bow with a #4 tip.

Finally we made poinsettia cupcakes.  These are surprisingly do-able if you can get the hang of the #366 leaf tip (the same as for the wreaths)

Here is Nicole demonstrating the in and out technique you need.

 

poinsettiacupcake2 (1 of 1) poinsettiacupcake (1 of 1)

snowmancupcake5 (1 of 1)

 

Once you’ve got that down, all you need to add are some extra green leave and a sprinkling of yellow non-pareils (sorry, I didn’t manage to get a good close up of the poinsettia).

After the demonstrations we all go to decorate our own cakes.  Definitely not as easy as Jennifer and Nicole made it appear, but do-able I would think with a bit of practice.

 

christmascupcakes (1 of 1)

 

Here are the ones I made, first attempts at all four. The snowman has clearly been at the mulled wine, but my wreath had definite possibilities.

 

Christmaswreathcupcake (1 of 1)

 

Trophy will be doing more cupcake decorating classes in future and I highly recommend them if you live in Seattle. It was lots of fun playing with all the icing bags and sprinkles and I picked up some good tips and ideas.

 

christmascupcakes3 (1 of 1)

 

I also snapped a pic of some simpler Christmassy cupcakes they had in their shop which I might even attempt over the next few weeks.

Share

Picturing the Holidays – You Hold the Key

 

For this prompt I had to photograph something that helps me to slow down, take a deep breath and enjoy the moment.

knittingneedles (1 of 1)

 

And it will come as no surprise to any of you that I chose knitting as my thing.  I love the satisfaction of seeing the puzzle of stitches work itself out on my needles, of watching yarn forwards and knit togethers line up where they’re supposed to as a pattern slowly emerges before my eyes.

 

knitting (1 of 1)

 

And then when the puzzle is figured out, it becomes a meditation. Each stitch pattern ebbs and flows in its own rhythms and my mind ebbs and flows with it.  And if you take things one little stitch at a time; if you rip back, correct your mistakes and press on; if you’re patient and persevering and just keep going, however daunting a project might seem; one day you will be able to look back on your work and see that you have created something beautiful.

Share

Things I Am Loving – Wooden Christmas Trees

 

We’ll be putting up our Christmas decorations this weekend and I would love to be able to justify buying this utterly fabulous ‘Superstar’ Christmas tree by Modernica, available in either a full-sized floor-standing version or for the table top.

ModernicaChristmasTree modernicachristmastree2

 

modernicachristmastree1

 

In the absence of a significant lottery win between now and Christmas I’m going to have to content myself with my much-loved and much cheaper Muji mantelpiece version. For some reason these never seem to be available on the US Muji site, though they do have them online in the UK.

The one on the left is the version we have, I’ll snap a picture of it in situ when we get it out this weekend. The one on the right is the current version, which is maybe a nicer shape, but has far less charming decorations. 

 

mujichristmastree mujichristmastree2
Share

Picture the Holidays – Reframing the Season

 

Our next prompt was to ‘Reframe the Season’. 

 

wintergarden (1 of 1)

 

The hint talked about using a literal frame and focusing about what we put it in, but I couldn’t think of what to do with it.

Then I glanced out of my window and saw the December garden in all its mellow wistfulness.  It seems to me that this season is one that we very much experience through the window frame, rather than being out and in the thick of it.

Share