Despicable Me Minion Hat

As I found I didn’t have time to knit 3 dolls like Young Elsie I wanted to find something creative for my kids.  I decided to try my hand at hats.  My son loves the movie Despicable Me so I went onto Ravelry.com and found a pattern for the minions.  It looked relatively easy which was good as I’d never knitted a hat before.  As I’ve forgotten how to crochet and have never done it in the round before here is how I got round that bit.

After I knit the hat I had to come up with a cunning plan.  (Yes, I watched Blackadder last night but my plan actually worked)  I bought bits of felt for the goggle eyes.  I didn’t have any patterns to cut out so I used household items to get the size right and cut it out of paper.

So once the felt is cut out you should have pieces to do this:

Using matching thread you want to sew the black to the white, white to the grey.

For the band, I tried crocheting and I am just so out of practice I decided to garter stitch until I got the length right.  I used 5mm needles and cast on 5 stitches.

I did however manage to single crochet the mouth!  Small victories.    Sew it all onto the hat to complete.

My son got a kick out of this Christmas morning. 

 

Young Elsie – the finished product

Happy New Years everyone!  I hope that 2013 is a great year.

I posted about knitting Young Elsie at the end of August.  My plan was to make 3 dolls for Christmas.  It was down to the wire on one doll!  I finished a couple of days before Christmas.  Not that it was difficult but it was time consuming given all the details.

I loved all the components that went into this doll and I got to try out a lot of techniques to make the various toys and accessories.  I needed a bit of stuffing, paper, straws, and cardboard to bring it all together.

This was for my niece and the poor thing was wary of it as she was very tired and the doll is 16″!  In time I hope she warms up to it though my sister was thrilled.  My kids are each picking a doll out for themselves so I’ll be working on that this year. 

Risotto with Sherry Mushrooms

My husband and I enjoy watching Hell’s Kitchen.  Not so much Ramsey yelling all the time but we like the competition.  One thing that gets us is how often they screw up risotto.  And it always looks a beige brownish mess on telly.  I wouldn’t eat it!  But we do enjoy risotto and it is not hard to make.  Does ours always come out the same each time?  No but it’s close.  And no one yells at us!

This recipe makes enough for the four of us though that will change as the kids grow.

To start I heat up our homemade chicken stock. You need about 4 cups. This ensures you aren’t stalling the cooking process when you add it to the risotto.  Because homemade stock may not be that salty taste as you cook to see if you need to add salt as seasoning.

While that is simmering I prep the onions, garlic, mushroom and thyme. It’s about 1/2 an onion and a few mushrooms.  I have a cup of risotto ready. I also grate about a cup of parmesan cheese.  My daughter practiced her knife skills with the garlic.  I showed her how to mash and mince the garlic.

No fingers were lost in this production of risotto! 

In a large skillet melt a couple of tablespoons of butter and saute the onions for a few minutes to soften.

Add in half the garlic ( we use about 3-4 cloves total) and saute for two minutes.  Then add in the risotto and again saute for 2 minutes.  Add 1/2 cup of sherry.

At this point gradually add the broth as the risotto soaks it up.  Stir as it is cooking.  While this is cooking, in a separate skillet heat up some olive oil and toss in the mushrooms, thyme, and garlic.  Cook until the mushrooms start to brown then add in a bit of sherry and saute for a few minutes.

We have garden peas in the freezer which I used for this.  Because they were from our garden they take longer to cook than store bought, which I didn’t realise so I ended up using a bit more broth to cook than normal so this risotto came out slightly less creamy than usual.

When most of the broth has been absorbed add the grated cheese and mushroom mixture to the risotto.  Stir then serve.  When we were in Italy we learned that you don’t want the risotto to cook so much that it is mushy.  You don’t want it crunchy either but have it a bit al dente.

Serve with more cheese on top and enjoy!  This takes about 45 minutes total but is very easy to put together and there are many variations of risotto to try.

 

 

Gourmet Cheeseburgers

We enjoy a good cheeseburger from time to time.  Earlier this year I was feeling creative and we had some fresh ground beef from a local farm.  So I didn’t want to do a basic cheeseburger.  It needed some pizzazz!  I came up with this recipe.

In a medium bowl, put in the ground beef, a few cloves of garlic minced, about 1/2 a cup of grated parmesan, 1/3 cup of panko bread crumbs, salt and pepper, a couple of tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce.  I’ll admit it is hard to tell if you put enough in as you can hardly taste the raw meat.  So occasionally I find I didn’t use enough Worcestershire sauce.  Which is a shame as it really makes this burger.

Mix with your hands but be careful not to overwork the meat.  It will mess with the texture.  If the meat isn’t sticking together enough add a bit of olive oil.  With meat from local farms it can be a toss up on the moisture level.

Form into patties and get the grill going.  While the grill is going, butter some baguettes and toast for the buns.

Also while grilling the burgers I saute up some mushrooms and onions in a bit of olive oil with some salt.  I cook them until the mushrooms are nicely browned.

Once the burgers are done, let them rest a few moments.  Now we use different cheeses.  My husband prefers Jarlsberg on this so I melt the cheese on the burger in the grill.  I spread goat cheese on mine when it’s resting.  Then it is time to put it all together.  I like to layer ketchup, then the burger, the goat cheese, mushroom and onions for my burger.

Yes it does get to a silly height!    So I just smush it a bit and enjoy all the flavours.  It is messy eating but who cares! 

Jean Greenhowe’s Young Elsie

When Rich and I were in England earlier this year I was introduced to Jean Greenhowe’s patterns for knitted doll figures.  They are really adorable so when I got back I looked for them here.  I was able to order a few books online and they came this week.

I am making this one for my 3 year old niece:

Turns out this is a lot easier to knit than Aran jumpers!  Given that it’s mostly st-st go figure.    My kids love them too so hopefully I can get this one done quickly then make one each for my kids.  There is a pirate I can do for my son and a cooking one I can do for my daughter.

I’ll post a picture of the finished project when completed.

Aran knits

Full disclosure, I may be one of the slowest knitters out there.  Which would have caused my Grandma to shake her head in wonder as her fingers could fly.  My dad has a long torso and he would come home and ask for a cricket jumper to be knitted.  It would invariably be needed within the week and she would get it done.  The first jumper I knitted was for my dad, it took me a few months and I would spend a few hours most days getting it done.  Needless to say I’m in awe of what she could accomplish.

Soon after finishing that mum mentioned she would love a cardigan.  So I went out and picked out a lovely purple yarn and found the pattern I thought she would like.  After much effort I had about 6 inches done and we were traveling together. She pulled out her knitting and I noticed she was knitting with purple yarn as well, and wouldn’t you know it?  She was knitting herself a cardigan in purple!  Just as well as she got to wear hers for a few years before I completed this:

And I’m working on a new jumper for my husband in the same pattern as he really liked it:

It’s taking awhile.  Good thing he isn’t growing! 

 

Our Growing Paynes

I have been thinking about starting a blog for quite awhile now.  I wanted a spot where I can share ideas, tips, and hobbies that make my family happy.  We like to follow a lifestyle that brings our priorities back to basics.  We are very much into organic gardening, cooking from scratch, and I love to do things like knitting.  As this blog grows I want to show that through my experiences and photos.  I am very excited to see how this will evolve.

I would love to hear from you!

Virginia