A Possible Solution

I was so sad when the armhole seam for my Essential Indulgence sweater turned out to be so unsightly. I didn't really know what to do, so I decided to e-mail one of my favourite knit-bloggers, Grumperina, whose good sense and opinion I believe in implicitly.

This was her (very rapid) reply:

"I'd probably take the whole thing apart, and crochet around each and every exposed edge, smoothing the jagged steps you mention in the process. Then I'd put it back together, allowing no more than a width of a stitch to stick to the outside."

Doesn't that make beautiful sense? Isn't she wonderful? So that is what I will do, before I give up on the idea of having exposed seams. It's been busy - my parents and Moocow came up to visit - but I did manage to finish one sleevecap.

Can you tell the difference? The neatened sleevecap is on the left, and the un-neatened one is on the right. Here are some closeups.
Messy. Neat.

This just might work! An added benefit is that the slip stitch I did to neaten the edge also has the effect of making the sleevecap ever so slightly smaller, so it should match the armhole much better this time around. Ahh, but I probably won't be able to work on it for a while. I have two midterms early next week, and half of this week is gone already, what with my family visiting. But it was so nice having them here.....now it's quiet (except for my roommate) again.

Slow Cookin'

This little 3-quart slower cooker used to be as a millstone around my neck. For the longest time, I couldn't remember who had given it to me, but now - really, as in right this moment - I recall that my parents were going shopping with/for me the day I moved into my freshman year dorm room at Cornell. We'd come all the way from Hong Kong, and they were going to leave that evening, and my mother decided that a slower cooker would save me from starving throughout my college career.

I appreciated the sentiment (okay, I admit that at the time, I didn't), but I never used it. This slower cooker proceeded to follow me from dorm room to dorm room, to my apartment off-campus senior year, into storage when I went to Japan, and came back and worked, and went to Virginia, and then came up here to Albany.

Well, I now have a lovely, cozy apartment, a decent-sized kitchen, and a single power outlet in that very kitchen that is completely blocked by the refrigerator. But I had just borrowed a very nice cookbook from the library, "Not Your Mother's Slower Cooker Recipes for Two" (not that my mother has ever used a slow cooker) by the Beth Hensperger (author of The Bread Bible), and was curious to try it out. Yes, it was time to bring this contraption out and put it to work.

So, in between all sorts of crazy cleaning and tidying (in preparation for my parents' visit this week), I went food shopping. Then, I read the user's manual. I had to plug in (in the pantry, where I normally have my rice cooker) and turn on the slow cooker, dry, for around 20 minutes to get rid of whatever finishing it is that they put on electrical appliances like these. The instructions didn't say anything about ventilating the room, but it's a must! The fumes were completely noxious; I have worries about my braincell count.

Then, after giving the inner ceramic pot a warm, soapy bath, I was set to go. I followed the recipe for Baby Beef Stew Classico. Browned some meat, added vegetables and broth and merlot (among other things) and, with a twist of a dial to turn it on, I left it to its own devices as I attacked the housework.

This is what I had around 6 hours later. The recipe said it would take 4.5 - 5 hours, but this is an older model of slow cooker. It doesn't even have a "keep warm" setting. Just off, low, and high.

It looks less watery and more chunky in real life. I'm not sure I'm terribly fond of the taste of red wine in my food, though. A little less wine next time, and a little more broth, perhaps? But my roommate said that it brought back memories of her childhood, so I think I got the slow, home cookin' flavour down pat.

Anyway, this stew isn't for me. It's for my parents and Moocow when they come up to visit in two days. Here's hoping the flavours will have matured by then!

Worth a Second Look

I've always liked cables. More than complicated colour combinations (I love the look of - and I love knitting - Fair Isle and other coloured knitting, but probably wouldn't wear a sweater of that type) or variegated yarns, I like classic (no fur or ladder yarns, please), basic yarns in solid, heathered or tweedy colours, knitted with interesting details and textures. I love textures.

So I was really excited when I learned that this book, Cables Untangled (by Melissa Leapman) was coming out. I'm always on the lookout for a good techniques book and, simple though cable knitting really is, I felt like I had more to learn. With a limited budget, my strategy is to check out a potential craft book at the local library thoroughly, if possible, before committing. Usually, more than once over a period of several months.

Somehow, the first time round, it didn't really impress me too much. I can't really remember why. But, recently, I gave it another look and I have decided: I want this book!

Apart from lovely sweaters like the one above, I guess what caught my imagination this time was the home decor. Not being the fastest of knitters, I've tended to concentrate on apparel, figuring that, if I wanted a pillow cover, or a blanket, I'd get it much more quickly if I sewed it. And, with the still unfinished baby afghan, I didn't think I would ever attempt another knitted/crocheted afghan again.
But look at these pillows! And the cabled sampler afghan on the cover is gorgeous. Even if knitting that would result in extremely delayed gratification, I don't imagine that I would become bored with it. I can definitely imagine these pillows, and that afghan, being more huggly and snuggly that anything I could sew or crochet.
So, this is definitely on my wish list now. My favourite sweater design in the book is the child's cabled sweater shown below. I was going to figure out how to knit it in my size, when I looked at the pattern and saw that the largest size provided IS my size! Yay! Sometimes, it pays to be small, especially when you're knitting for yourself. Smaller size = faster knit, less yarn.

Cast your vote now, a.k.a. HELP!!!

So, I've been ignoring the finishing, which I told you about before, that I have to do for this sweater from Interweave Knits (by Leslie Scanlon, IK Fall 2005). Why? Because I wasn't sure that I liked the look of the outside seams after seaming the front and back pieces together, and the sleeve seams, even though they were what had drawn me to this very simple sweater in the first place. However, last night I took the plunge and sewed one of the sleeves to the body. There were issues, though.

1) The circumference of the sleeve armhole was quite a bit greater than the circumference of the armhole on the body piece. I managed to ease the piece in to fit, but got a slight gather and pouch, which you can see below.
2) Is it just me, or does the armhole seam look messy and awful? (And this is why I have posted the original sweater photo from the IK website, rather than linking you to it. Normally, I wouldn't do this, but you need a real good look at the original. I hope that, by providing a link to IK, and citing the designer, the copyright police will forgive me.)

3) And, having scrutinized the original photo very careful, I realise that my neckline rolls, whereas the original sweater's neckline lies beautifully flat. Argh!! I'm not sure why it's doing that; I knit the neckline stitches with needles one size smaller (as called for in the pattern) to prevent rolling. Maybe I need to try again, with an even smaller needle size?

So, the question is, what do you think I should do? I have a couple of options, some more painful than others.

a) The visible seams were a bad idea. Save the sweater by ripping out all the seams - sleeves and body - and re-seaming them on the inside, making this an extremely plain and simple sweater. Not that there's anything wrong with that......but, apart from the armhole seam, I think the rest of it looks all right.

b) It wouldn't look too weird if all the sweater seams, except for the armhole seams, were on the outside. I should just undo the sleeve I just attached, and attach both sleeves to the body with seams on the inside.

c) The visible seams really are kind of nice. I should undo the sleeve I just attached, and try to do it more neatly this time. (Although I don't know if this is possible, since the sleeve shaping creates uneven edges at the top of the sleeve, hence the ripply look the sleeve seam allowance has compared to the body seam allowance.)

d) The rolled neckline doesn't look too bad. Try to block it flat but, if that doesn't work, don't worry about it.

e) The beautiful, flat neckline of the original should be the goal. Undo the neckline stitches and try again in an even smaller needle to try and tame the curling.

And, in other news, the gauge swatch I did with the Kool Wool for the jacket I'm knitting lied. I had completed about 60% of the back piece when I measured to verify my gauge, and found that it was off by a whole stitch. That adds a lot to the circumference, so I ripped it all out (frogging, in knit-speak, since you "rip it, rip it") and tried again with a smaller needle size. For the first couple of rows, it seemed the gauge was right. Then, when I'd knit around 7 inches, I checked again, and again found that my gauge had changed. Well, shoot. I'd been using my Denise Interchangeable needles, but I couldn't go down to the next size because Moocow has them; she's working on a bag! Things just aren't going my way at the moment.

So, anyway, I would really, really appreciate your input regarding the sweater I am trying to finish, so comment away!

No More Muffins, No More Pictures

I found a recipe for lemon poppy seed muffins on the Cook's Illustrated website (you need to pay for membership in order to access that recipe) and made some muffins before going home for Chinese New Year on the 16th. Gracious, was that batter thick! I used my newly purchased hand mixer, and the batter (it was practically a dough) climbed right up the beaters and up into the attaching mechanism at the top! I didn't read the recipe properly before going shopping, so I had lemon juice (bottled) but no lemons, and hence no lemon zest, which is what the recipe asked for. So I substituted in a little lemon juice, since the batter was so thick anyway.

Well, everyone at home (Moocow, my parents, my brother) said that it was kind of dry and not very lemony. I think it might have overbeat the batter, which could account for the dryness. And the lack of zest might account for the lack of lemon flavour. I think I'll try another recipe next time, though. But I forgot the last of the muffins at home when I left........and Moocow threw them out! *sniffle* My advisor and his wife, and my roommate, all said that they were nice. Well, of course they'd say that, but surely they weren't so bad they had to get thrown out?! Why, Moocow, why?



That's not the end of my sad news. I took some nice family pictures while I was at home. I think the greatest part about Chinese New Year (or any major traditional festival) is getting together with family. I hadn't been home for Chinese New Year since graduating high school. Well, my computer crashed as I was transferring my digital photos and trying to burn them to CD, with the result that I lost almost all of them. This, the picture of the pretty goldfish pudding, is all that survived. *sniffle sniffle* And thus, having shared my sad news, my head bows back down to my books.

First Pizza

I was asked to put on a kid's cooking class for a friend whose daughter's birthday is coming up! They wanted pizza. I've never made pizza before. Thought I'd better try out a recipe before I get 14 kids to follow my lead, or else I'd have 14 very disappointed faces to contend with. Probably not good karma. The photo story follows.








I worried about the dough rising since it's freezing in NY and the landlord is stingy with the heat, but I just turned the toaster oven onto 200F and sat the dough right on top in a ceramic bowl, turning the lump over once every 15 minutes or so. It worked beautifully. Sauce was from scratch - crushed tomatoes, some spices. I added some spicy salumi from Zabar's that had been sitting around, green bell pepper, and sauteed garlic (per one garlic-lover's request.) Unfortunately, all the store had was low-fat, low-moisture mozzerella, so the pizza's aromas suffered, but on the whole it was yummy! What a relief! If this Bumbling Bee can do it in a freezing cold kitchen, 14 kids should be able to manage just fine.



It must be admitted that the crust wasn't classic NY, given the constraints of my oven and lack of pizza stone. It was very nice though - slightly crispy outside, soft and tender inside. Paired with a lovely Tuscan Brunello (won't be on the kids' menu!) and a nice, crisp salad, it was a delicious meal.

Pompe a l'huile

Saw this recipe in Saveur's Christmas issue and just HAD to make it, even though I live alone and didn't have anyone to share it with. It's a sweet olive oil bread from Provence, and is a cross between brioche and focaccia. It's one of the centrepieces of a Provencal Christmas. Traditionally, the oldest person present at the Christmas meal breaks the bread by slamming it over the head of the youngest person. Everyone in the house gets a piece, even the dogs, cats, and farm animals, because it symbolizes togetherness and friendship. In that spirit, the bread is also never cut, only torn. The result was addictively soft, warm, and totally delicious. It's also deceptively rich. There's 3/4 cup of olive oil in there, so you get the idea. The second piece was still delicious, but by the third I came to a screeching halt. Definitely a food for sharing.

Come out, Snow Bunnies!!

Don't tell me there isn't global warming. Up until now, it's been an eerily warm winter with mostly rain rather than snow. In fact, I was beginning to think that the snow bunny (Cuniculus nix, ssp. skii) was going to be another victim of global climate change. You used to see them hanging out around ski slopes, bundled up in their winter garments. With the lack of snow here in upstate New York this year, I feared they were going the way of the dodo. After all, when that slope has no snow - or is all ice - the snow bunny is just your average couch potato.

Well, when it rains, it pours. Or, It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas? Whatever. We have around 3-feet of snow here in Albany. I had to dig my car out of the snow this morning (aided later by my kind landlord's snow blower - yes, I blew my way out of there) to make an appointment with an orthodontist. (Yup, I'm going to get braces at age 25.) The drive was treacherous, but I got there and back without too much trouble. Then I had to dig a place to park by the curb in front of my house so that I wasn't parking in the middle of the road. That's a picture of my car, two hours after I parked it. It's still coming down pretty hard, and is expected to continue until morning.

So, classes were cancelled today. I took the time to do my weekly cleaning. Then, I took pictures of all the works-in-progress that I have been saving up. That's the Greek Pullover (from IK, Fall 2005) in the rose-coloured Rowan Kid Classic that I splurged on when the colour was discontinued and it was on sale. It was still expensive, but I'd wanted that sweater, in that yarn and in that colour, for so long, and it was my last chance. The sweater is wearable now as it is; all I have to do is sew on the pink chiffon ruffles at the hems. But, technically, it is still a WIP.

Here's another sweater that I love from the Fall 2005 issue of IK, Essential Indulgence. Well, I didn't indulge myself on this one. Blue Sky Alpaca Silk is just too expensive! Instead, I got some Pure Alpaca from Elann, and knit this up pretty quickly. Now that I'm sewing it together, though, I'm having second thoughts about those outside seams (see how the seams are visible in the picture from the magazine?). The problem is, my seams seem (excuse the pun) a lot more prominent than in the photo. But this unusual feature in the pattern was one of the things that caught my eye. Well, if worst comes to worst, I'll undo all the seams and sew it back together again with traditional, on-the-inside seams. Here's hoping I won't have to do that!

This pair of Mittens from Lapland (in Folk Mittens) is something I've had on the needles for a long, long time. You see how the hat I bought almost perfectly matches the mittens? Well, I bought the hat after I'd started knitting the mittens, and you'd think that would be motivation to hurry up and finish them, so I could have a set. Well, that lone finished mitten you do see is too small! I guess that will have to be a "practice" mitten. I've started a second/new first mitten now, and this time I'm going to be good. I've resolved to knit a couple of rows each week, at least. The worst part of knitting this pattern is the braided cuff. It's lovely to look at, but a pain to knit because the yarn gets all twisted up.

And last, but not least, is the Peacock Feathers shawl from Fiddlesticks Knitting that I'm knitting for Moowcow. This is the most complicated lace pattern I've knitted to date and, maybe it's just me, but the pattern isn't intuitive, and my eyes are glued to the pattern chart. It's a headache, and I've just admitted to myself that I really want/need a magnetic chart holder so that the pattern is held up, and I can keep track of which line of the chart I'm on. So this is kind of on the back-burner until I order and receive the chart keeper from KnitPicks.

I do have a finished object: a pair of mittens I designed and knit for my roommate for Christmas. I finished at the last minute (before leaving to go home for Christmas) and boxed it up without taking a picture, so I'll have to ask her for them so I can get a picture now.

Chipping at the Stash

I catalogued all the yarns in my stash yesterday. I didn't think I had that much, but a little tucked away here, a little tucked away there....... Suffice it to say, I'm feeling more than a little guilty. I should be using this stuff!

Well, it seems I've suspected that I should be feeling guilty for a while, because I bought a pattern from The Lansingburgh Yarn Depot the other day, since I thought my stash of Lion Brand Kool Wool would knit to the correct gauge. Last night, I knit a gauge swatch from a ball left over from the first Blackberry I'd made, (Procrastinate? Who, me?) and the gauge I got was close enough. I think I'm going to proceed.

The question is, which colour should I make? A deep, wine red? Or black? Well, chances are I'll probably be knitting two - one in each colour - to use up all the Kool Wool I grabbed at the Smiley's yarn sale in Manhattan last year. I guess the real question is: What colour would you like, Moocow?


I won't be starting right away. I do really have work to do. And I have a couple of projects that are in the finishing stages (being sewn up) that I really should complete first. I'll have pictures of my WIPs next time.

Farmhouse Yarns

I have a grant proposal to write and six papers to read for class tomorrow, but I took some time for myself today and went to a spinning demonstration at The Lansingburgh Yarn Depot (it's my favourite LYS in the area). The spinning demonstration was given by Carol Morgain of Farmhouse Yarns. Of course, I forgot to bring my camera, and so I don't have any pictures of Carol spinning.


It was wonderful, watching as she spun and told us about how she started her business. Hers is really an inspiring story, and you can find out more about Farmhouse Yarns on her website. Carol herself is fun and gracious; I asked her all the questions I'd been saving up about spinning. I think, some time in the next two months, I'm going to get a drop spindle and learn how to spin. I don't have the space or the funds to buy a spinning wheel now, but a drop spindle is a perfectly legitimate way to start.


Pat (the owner of the Yarn Depot) hosted with her daughter, Danielle, and provided all sorts of goodies to snack on while we talked and shopped. The Farmhouse yarns are lovely, the colourways exquisite. Even though I really, really shouldn't have, I bought three skeins of Cotton Blossom (a cotton and rayon blend) to make a summer top. I couldn't resist the cool, rippled feel of the yarn and the luscious peach colour! Then, being one of the last customers left at the end, Pat let us help her choose which of the yarns that Carol had brought with her today she was going to stock in the shop. Oh, what fun we had! Could time be any better spent? Even though I didn't get to take all that lovely yarn home, I did get to pick the colours that I liked, and know that I might see them again in the shop (unless they all get snatched up before my next visit!).

Oh, thank God!

Yes, it's been an inordinately long time since I've posted. Or since any of us have posted. I'm sure we're all busy. I was certainly busy last semester, with school, teaching and waitressing. Also, I've been having roommate issues. Serious roommate issues. So I haven't been in the mood to post. But that doesn't mean I haven't been crafty. No siree! I've saved up pictures of the sewing (minimal) and knitting (substantial) that I've been doing.

But first, I'd like to thank Google for FINALLY giving us CATEGORIES!!! When I have a longer moment, I'm going to have to figure out how to move various posts from our category blogs into the main blog. Once that is done (and I'm a little afraid that it is going to be a painful operation) it will be so much easier to post.

Anyway, here's a picture of the only serious sewing I've done in the past couple of months. It was a yoga mat bag for Moocow. I used a sewing pattern (it was either McCall's, or Simplicity; can't be bothered to dig it out right now), but it was really simple, and probably didn't really require a pattern. Oh well. The bag pattern came together with patterns for various pieces of exercise clothing. Don't you love the fabric?

Here come the holidays

Hello! It's been quiet around here, hasn't it? Too busy to try new recipes or work on crafts? I don't really have any excuse. I'm just lazy. But if there is any time of year that calls for recipes and crafts, it's this time of year! Tomorrow my office is holding a Thanksgiving potluck at lunch time. I'm going to bring some home made mashed potatoes, but what's mashed potatoes without gravy, right? (Personally, I don't need gravy on my potatoes, but this isn't about me.) Not wanting to cave and buy gravy or a mix at the supermarket, I decided to try making gravy from scratch. And because I didn't have any extra pan drippings laying around, I had to find a recipe that substituted drippings with oil or butter. So I kind of melded a bunch of gravy recipes together and came up with something resembling gravy. Since I'm not a big gravy fan, I can't really say for sure if it is good or not, but I'll find out tomorrow!

Since I pretty much winged it, I don't have a real recipe for the gravy, but I'm sure I used at least the following:

Basic roux:
2 tbsp unsalted butter (melt in pot first)
2 tbsp all-purpose flour (add to melted butter)
1 cup broth (I used mushroom broth)

Flavor (stir in as desired):
2 cloves freshly chopped garlic
half onion, chopped
splash of soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste

My office is also holding a cookie exchange and crafts fair in a few weeks. I can't participate in the crafts fair because, well, I don't actually "craft" much, but I am thinking of getting in on the cookie exchange with the Oatmeal Butterscotch. According to the rules, I have to make one dozen cookies per participant. There will be 8 to 12 participants. Yikes. Better make them bite-sized cookies.

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Posted by greeeenwithenv to Bumbling Bees - Food at 11/15/2006 07:03:00 PM

Fun with Fennel

I've been super busy, but now I'm at home recuperating from a nasty cold. A couple of weeks back, I bought some fennel at the local farmer's market. What a lovely vegetable! I've experimented with it a bit; in salads, pasta, and in soup. For those of you who don't like the anise-like flavour, cooking it mellows it out a lot. But for superb crunch and flavour, fresh is the way to go!
Here, I threw together some romaine lettuce with tomatoes, fennel and lemon cucumbers (deliciously crisp, from the farmer's market), topped with some balsamic vinaigrette . Raw fennel bulbs are crunchy. Kind of like celery, but not stringy.







Here's a recipe I got from The Quick Recipe, from the writers of Cook's Illustrated. There were some really great recipes in here. I think I'm going to have to get my own copy some time soon. This is pasta, with tomato, basil, fennel and some parmesan cheese on top. Light and delicious!














And this pot of delight is a tomato, zucchini and fennel soup. It's made extra flavourful with fresh basil, chicken broth and white wine (the first time I'd ever bought alcohol for my own use). It was really simple, an example of the type of recipe you can find in books written by Brother Victor D'Avila-Latourrette. This particular recipe came from his twelve Months of Monastery Soups. What I love about his books is the emphasis on fresh, seasonal ingredients. They're very healthy, and for the most part are very frugal, too.

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Posted by Lana to Bumbling Bees - Food at 9/24/2006 02:54:00 PM

Noodle Sauces

I've been messing around trying to come up with easy sauces to go on my regulation plain white Shanghai noodles since Boyfriend is no longer allowed ramen (see "Health Food Ahoy!"). For a while, I've been depending on my soy-sesame combination. That's this:

1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon or so of sugar
A sprinkling of toasted, crushed sesame seeds.
Toss with noodles. Serves 1.

But after eating that for 2 months, I got bored of it. So here's my new one.

2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons sushi rice vinegar (the pre-sweetened kind)
1 teaspoon regular Chinese white rice vinegar
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 stalk chopped scallion (just the green bit)
Light sprinkling of chile flakes
Toss with noodles. Serves 1.

Tastes vaguely like soba. It's good! It'd probably be even better cold, too. At least, until I get bored again...

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Posted by Kea to Bumbling Bees - Food at 9/14/2006 12:11:00 PM

Goodbye, Central Star Ferry Pier

Here's a dying burst of nostalgia for you guys who haven't been back to HK in a while. They're demolishing the Central Star Ferry pier, and building a new one somewhere off by the IFC 2 tower. Here's an article. Click the link to see the picture of the new ferry terminal building - an awkward, Disneyish looking faux-colonial structure seemingly designed by cutting a lot of pictures out of travel magazines and gluing them together. I'm no expert or anything, but it looks like the architect borrowed a bunch of shapes from 19th century British architecture without understanding anything about the structure, proportions or visual balance of those buildings. This is our government's idea of historical and cultural enrichment, by the way. Perhaps I should be glad that it isn't pink, or covered in bathroom tiles.

When you come back to Hong Kong next time, the Central waterfront as you know it will be gone. They're putting a mega-mall on the site of the current pier. And then they're going to reclaim some land and put a highway in front of the mega-mall. If we're lucky, we'll get a strip of park in front of the highway - but nobody's going to bother to cross a highway to get to it, and so the waterfront will be dead, boring, ugly, and hostile to pedestrians - just like Admiralty. There's also some question as to whether the Star Ferry will be able to survive as a business in its new, inconvenient location. It expects to lose a full third of its passengers. Goodbye, Star Ferry, we loved thee well.

Another vague attempt at tailoring

These are the most recent clothes I've made, mostly by reverse-engineering clothes I already had. I used a tank top to get the measurements for the width of the halter top. And I took the measurements for the pants from a pair of gauchos my mom got me from the US, but I made them long instead of mid-calf length. (Calf-length pants annoy me in some way I can't quite describe - it's like they're neither fish nor fowl, or something.)

I can write up instructions if anyone's interested.

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Posted by Kea to Bumbling Bees - Sewing at 9/06/2006 07:04:00 AM

Green bean salad

Now here's a simple one. You can do it in the microwave.

You need:
Green string beans. (I get the foot-and-a-half long, really dark green ones from the Chinese market. I got no idea what they're called. I guess any will do though.)
Peanut butter
Soy sauce (I use Chinese dark soy. Japanese cooking soy is too sour.)
Sugar
Toasted sesame seeds (Optional. I make these in advance and keep them in a jar.)

1. Wash and break the green beans into 2 inch segments.
2. Put the beans in a big bowl, add a bit of water in the bottom, cover with a plate and nuke on high for 3 or 4 minutes.
3. Pour off a little of the now hot water into a smaller bowl, drain the rest. Run the beans under the cold tap.
4. Melt a small dollop of peanut butter in the hot water. Add an amount of soy sauce equal to the amount of water in your bowl, a couple pinches of sugar, and the sesame seeds. You may have to fudge with the proportions a little. You're going for not too salty, not too sweet, not too bland. It should taste good on its own. Pour it on the beans.
5. Put in fridge until cold.

I read on some website that you should bruise the beans with the back of a knife first to speed their absorption of the dressing. But leaving it in the fridge for an hour accomplishes the same thing.

Incidentally, the same sauce goes pretty good on noodles.

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Posted by Kea to Bumbling Bees - Food at 8/31/2006 10:53:00 AM

Greatest Fish Ever

We got one of those mini toaster ovens with an adjustible temperature setting so now I can bake! yay! My digicam power cable's gone missing, so I don't have any photos, but I devised a really awesome way to bake fish last night. This is without a doubt the best fish I've ever made. It's like the typical Cantonese steamed fish with ginger and scallions, but with a twist. Best thing about it is that you don't even need to add any oil since you seal the moisture in with aluminium foil.

1 largish sole fillet (I guess any fish fillet will do, but I like sole. It stays soft and flaky and it's hard to screw up. Also, it's cheap. And most likely environmentally sound to eat. What more could you ask of a fish?)
1 scallion, chopped
A handful of chopped coriander
2 slices of ginger, chopped finely
2 tablespoons dark soy sauce (Chinese)
1 tablespoon lemon juice*
2 teaspoons Tianjiang You. That's a really unusual sweet soy sauce. It tastes almost like pancake syrup. Bought it by accident, now use it for glazing meat. I guess honey's a good substitute.

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius (390 F).
2. Place fish fillet on a large piece of aluminium foil in a baking dish.
3. Spread the ginger, scallions and coriander on top of the fish.
4. Drizzle the lemon juice and soy sauce on top of the fish.
5. Dribble the Tianjiang You evenly over the fish.
6. Take up the corners of the foil and wrap the fish, sealing all the juices and seasonings inside the package.
7. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until white and opaque.

* I used that fake lemon juice you buy in little bottles at the supermarket. It's not very sour. I suggest using less if you squeeze real lemons.

(Question for Lana: If I find a recipe in the book, but then modify it, can I post it up on this blog? Or is that still copyright infringement? No, it's not this one. It's for sponge cake.)

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Posted by Kea to Bumbling Bees - Food at 8/31/2006 10:15:00 AM

Hidden Treasure

I've been so busy - and so tired - lately that I haven't had the time or energy to do much knitting. I've been working 40 hours a week at my day job, and another 10 to 16 hours at night at a restaurant. Thank God I quit the restaurant job (conflicts with one of the managers - a woman), and since the semester is starting soon I've finished up my temporary assignment at my day job, too.

Today was graduate student orientation for the Biology department. Tomorrow, all day long, will be the general graduate student orientation. Then, Friday morning, will be the first TA meeting for the introductory biology course I'm going to be a TA for.

But it feels good to be going back to school. I was in such a positive mood that I decided to try and locate some local yarn shops, something I've been meaning to do since I moved up here in April. Well, the first one I couldn't find, after driving around for half an hour.

The second address I had was for Eastside Weavers, in Troy, NY. The directions were simple enough, but they landed me at a little dead-end street in front of a huge house with a lovely garden, and no signage at all. I didn't want to assault unwitting homeowners with, "Do you sell yarn?" so I was hesitant to try the doorbell. Not a person in sight to ask, either.

Then I noticed a "Come In, We're Open" sign on the garage door. I finally plucked up the courage to ring on the doorbell. I was about to leave when an elderly gentleman opened the door. As he was telling me, "She'll be right with you," the garage door started sliding upwards, and rows and rows of colour greeted my eyes. Yes, I had definitely found it.

Pat Bohrer - who, dyes her own rovings and yarns, spins, weaves and paints silk scarves - taught herself to spin almost 16 years ago. She went to a fiber festival where she saw someone spinning, and wanted to learn. Then her husband bought her a spindle for Christmas, and the rest is history.

Lining the walls of the garage and basement of the house, she has cottons and cotton blends, wools, alpacas, silks and even the hunk of wonder I bought, camel!!! Well, it's a 50% silk, 50% camel laceweight yarn in lovely shades of purple and grey. And Pat is so kind; she took me on a tour of her house to see her looms, and let me play (i.e. try to spin) with a drop spindle while she wound up the yarn into a centre-pull ball for me!

I'm hoping to squeeze out some time in between classes, TA-ing and research to learn how to spin, because Pat offers lessons. This yarn is so special (and a birthday gift to myself), I'm going to have to be on the lookout for an interesting shawl pattern to do it justice. I'm thinking I'll go look at A Gathering of Lace again; I seem to remember them having some spectacular patterns. There's almost 1600 yards in this ball, which should be enough for most shawl projects.

I have tried out a couple of interesting recipes lately, so stay tuned for that!

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Posted by Lana to Bumbling Bees - Girls with Purls at 8/30/2006 08:34:00 PM

Hummous recipe

In search of healthy foods, Boyfriend and I decided try making our own hummous. This is because it costs something ridiculous in Hong Kong, so it's actually cheaper to make it ourselves. I also like to be able to control what goes in it. I like a stronger tasting hummous than most people as I don't like the taste of plain chickpeas all that much. Here's a recipe we made up:

1 can 'o chickpeas.
1 tomato
1/2 a bell pepper (or 1/4 red and 1/4 green)
2 cloves garlic
Basil/Italian spices to taste
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 tablespoon crushed toasted sesame seeds
2 tablespoons medium spicy salsa

1. Chop the vegetables into chunks
2. Drain 2/3 of the liquid out of the can of chickpeas, save the rest.
3. Put chickpeas, liquid, and olive oil into the blender and blend until mashed.
4. Bit by bit, add the veggies, garlic, and seasonings to the blender until everything is all pulped and mixed together.

Okay, I thought the salsa would be weird. Boyfriend suggested it. But I tried it, and I swear it's good. It gives the hummous a slight tangy kick. It's also a bit of a pain to toast and crush the sesame seeds, but it's well worth it. I like to do a whole bunch in one go and store them in a jar. They're good on noodles, too.

It's probably easier to use a food processor, but I don't have one. My blender can handle it if I add the ingredients bit by bit and put it on a low setting. Sometimes things get stuck and I have to stop it and give the pitcher a bit of a shake.

Fishy salad

The recent heat wave in the Bay Area, along with all the summery recipes on this here blog, inspired me to make a yummy dinner salad for myself. But what? I took a daring route and bought fresh fish for the very first time at the market. For some reason I’ve always thought that seafood was difficult to cook, but I like seafood and need more of it in my diet. I selected the cheapest decent looking thing I could find, which was two fillets of rock cod (I think). I also bought some packaged portofino and one English cucumber. I’ve been wanting to test out the brand new vegetable peeler my dad gave me for my birthday. I’m very picky when it comes to peelers, and he picked out a great one (but only after I shot down his first choice).

So when I got home, I rinsed the fish and seasoned it simply with salt, pepper, and some dried garlic and herb, then quickly pan fried it. I used half of the cucumber and peeled off all the skin (rind?), then cut it into random bite-sized pieces. I was in a rush, because I was hungry! The fish was already flaking nicely, so I layed the fish and raw cucumber on a bed of portofino. I drizzled my most favorite sesame and miso salad dressing (this can make anything taste good; if the fish hadn’t turned out well, I would’ve doused the whole dish in this) on top, and finished it off with some sesame seeds and a bit more pepper.

Voila!



I liked how it turned out. Nothing fancy, but it made me feel good. One fillet was enough for one serving, but I helped myself to another serving of this salad and finished off all the fish. Now I’m not (too) afraid of cooking fish anymore! Yay!

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Posted by greeeenwithenv to Bumbling Bees - Food at 7/31/2006 02:21:00 PM

Patchwork Cushion Cover

Note: I posted this in the sewing blog yesterday but for some reason it did not appear in the main blog.

I've been procrastinating a lot lately, so much that I found myself doing something resembling quilting. I made a patchwork cushion cover for my sofa cushions. I have no sewing machine, no pins, no chalk (I used a felt tip) and no patience for measuring, so making this one cushion took two days. One down, three to go.

My original cushion covers were Hideous Loud Print Orange and Modern Art Lime Green. Boyfriend pronounced them the ugliest pillows on earth. We had just bought them in a hurry so our friends would have something to sit on during our housewarming gathering 2 months ago. It's a small apartment and we don't have enough chairs. Red, blue and plaid is a big improvement. (Remember the plaid cow? It's the same cloth.)

I'm a bit worried about the inside seams fraying all over the place since I didn't have the patience to bind them all individually. I'm thinking of buying some of that iron-on interfacing and sticking it on. I'd just have to get an iron first. I'm also wondering how it would fare in the washing machine. I left about an inch of room for shrinkage, but what if the different kinds of cloth shrink differently? Oh well, I guess I'm not washing them anytime soon. I wonder if the laundromat will cold wash them and then give them back to me wet to hang out to dry?

Health Food Ahoy!

Last month, Boyfriend got his blood tested and his cholesterol is through the roof. The maximum amount of cholesterol a person should have - he's got twice that amount. But if you looked at his diet last year when he was living alone, you wouldn't be surprised. I'm sure you've all heard horror stories about what males living alone survive on. Eggo waffles. Hotdogs. Canned foods. Cup noodles. McDonalds. It's not that Boyfriend can't cook. He just lost the motivation do so, having a soul-sucking 6 day a week job which left him with no energy except to sleep and watch TV. On top of that, he has this morbid curiosity about combinations of food that can only be described as revolting. He got to the point where boiling ramen was too much work. He ate cream of mushroom soup straight out of the can. He ate half a package of ham for lunch. Not ham sandwiches, mind you, just the ham. He ate ketchup on rice, with crabsticks. And possibly mayo. He snacked on cocktail cheese sausages as if they were potato chips. Vegetables were either of the frozen variety, or a can o' corn.

So now he's on medication and he's not allowed to have red meat, eggs, junk food, processed meats, or full cream dairy anymore. We read labels for trans fats (especially horrible in Asia where they put palm oil in everything packaged). We made hummus (it's too expensive to buy ready made here). We bought olive oil (also crazy expensive here). I'm grilling the chicken. I'm steaming the fish. I'm steaming the veggies. We're looking into cheese substitutes, butter substitutes, and meat substitutes. I'm buying those plain white Shanghai noodles instead of the eggy kind. And rice vermicelli. We replaced ham with smoked chicken because turkey costs too much. Tofu is our friend.

But now I'm craving cookies all the time. I open the fridge, look at the food, close the fridge, walk around the apartment, open the fridge again, and sigh. Oh, what I'd do for a chocolate chip cookie...

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Posted by Kea to Bumbling Bees - Food at 7/25/2006 01:26:00 PM

Coin Pouch

This is the other thing I've been doing instead of work. Boyfriend has this tendency to destroy his coin pouches. The zippers break. The seams split. I don't even know how you can split a seam in leather. Objects in his pockets must be subject to forces normally seen only at the centre of black holes.

I was at a craft store with my mother last week and spotted some hinged metal clasps. This eliminates the need for zippers. I got some extremely heavy denim and made a pouch leaving a whole 3/4 centimetre seam allowance, and then bound up all the edges with V stitching so that they won't fray. If this thing isn't indestructible, I don't know what is.

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Posted by Kea to Bumbling Bees - Sewing at 7/25/2006 01:17:00 PM

Grilled Eggplant Salad

I had the most delightful dinner tonight! Moocow sent me a recipe for a grilled eggplant salad, and I decided to try it out tonight. I didn't have the mint or parsley that was called for in the recipe, so I used fresh cilantro instead.

To go with it, I made some cold soba noodles. The perfect, light summer meal. Thanks, Moocow! And long live the aubergine! I adore you with all my heart and tummy!

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Posted by Lana to Bumbling Bees - Food at 7/20/2006 07:44:00 PM

From Garden to Plate

So those seedlings I started last month have, for the most part, grown and thrived. The borage, as you can see, has grown like a weed.

The basils, marigold, parsley and sage are great, too. Even the dill looks pretty healthy.












But the chives just aren't growing, something in the garden really likes nibbling on my nasturtium leaves, I'm not sure the calendula has come up at all, and I can't decide whether that stuff is chamomile, or a weed. The oregano could not be coaxed out of the soil. I think I'll have to try again with that one!


Still, I'm having fun! I wish I had time and space, and money, to plant all the things I want to grow. Several more kinds of basil, three or four varieties of mint, scented geraniums, thyme, lavender, rosemary, and vegetables!! Next year, I shall vegetables!

But, baby-steps. I've got my herbs, and I know how to use 'em! It was so hot today, even this evening, it was painful turning on the stove for a quick pasta with olive oil, green peppers, tomatoes and garlic. So I turned out two extra, easy "salad" items to stimulate my appetite.

Tomatoes with fresh basil from my garden, lightly drizzled with olive oil, and a cucumber salad with a yogurt-dill dressing (augmented with some dried dill, because my little dill plant isn't up to major harvesting yet). Pesticide-free, organic herbs that I've been waiting for! Ahhhhh!

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Posted by Lana to Bumbling Bees - Gardening at 7/17/2006 09:10:00 PM

What am I supposed to do now?

This is how big my plant has gotten now. Just look at this thing! I've already run out of stalk for it to climb up.

I don't understand why it's not growing more leaves. I see a few leaf buds, a couple of leaflets, even. But mostly it's just making more and more vine. Not enough sunlight, maybe?

I've tried moving it to a sunnier location (the middle of my bedroom floor, very awkward), but I still don't think it's enough. My apartment just does not get that much sun.

Would it help if I nipped the terminal bud off?

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Posted by Kea to Bumbling Bees - Gardening at 7/14/2006 04:27:00 AM

Mondo Democracy Bean of Doom

Okay. You know my democracy plant? The one I posted about two days ago? It's this big now.
It grew six inches in 2 days. I transplanted it to a bigger container, and it's already outgrowing it - the roots are starting to stick out the holes on the bottom. You can see the white roots pressing up against the side of the plastic.

Help! What the $*!#^ is this plant?? I have never seen anything grow this fast! Soon it's going to take over my kitchen, strangle the parrot, swamp the apartment building, strand Boyfriend in the elevator for a week without a machete, and colonise the entire block.

Meanwhile, in this week's news, Hong Kong's notorious and much reviled former Minister of Security Regina Ip, a woman who made Maggie Thatcher seem nurturing in comparison, has undergone a full political conversion and announced her support for democracy. Maybe this plant is an omen.

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Posted by Kea to Bumbling Bees - Gardening at 7/08/2006 04:00:00 PM

My democracy plant

Meet my democracy plant. I got it at the democracy protest last saturday. Audrey Eu (the politician) was selling them. I don't know if you've seen these things, but they come as a big bean inside a ceramic egg. You're supposed to crack the top off the egg and water it, and hey presto, a bean plant with appropriately Festive Phrase (tm) printed on the side grows out. I have no idea how they do this - the bean pod itself was blank, so how did they get the words on the plant? It's magic. Unfortunately, I dropped the egg on the tram on the way home - the bottom just fell out of the paper bag! I was sad. I broke my democracy egg.

But I planted the bean anyway, and here's what I got. It says "universal suffrage" upside-down, in Chinese. Sorry I couldn't get a less blurry photo.

I'm gonna try really, really hard not to kill it. Maybe if it grows, we'll get some democracy? Come on magic bean, do your work.

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Posted by Kea to Bumbling Bees - Gardening at 7/05/2006 03:47:00 PM