Knitting Mochimochi Critters

Now that I have more Mochimochi Land patterns than I know what to do with I've been a little overwhelmed at the prospect of knitting everything I want to knit.  However, Christmas provided the perfect opportunity to jump right in and add to me existing Mochimochi Land work which already includes her bat, sleepy snake and mischievous mouse, oscillating owlets, and the as yet unfinished sausage dogs.

I think the very first Mochimochi Land pattern I ever saw was Anna's Woodin pattern on Knitty.com.  As soon as I saw the Woodins I thought of my sister.  Sofia learned a song in pre-school called "Little Bunny Foo Foo" that she used to terrorize us with on car rides by singing over and over.  And for some reason I thought of Sofia and that song and knew I had to make them for her.  But things didn't quite go the way planned.  I meant to make the log that is part of the Woodin pattern, but I started to make it from the yarn left over from the owlets, but half way through I ran out of brown.  The LBYS didn't have any more skeins of the right color so I had to switch to grass so that I could give Sofia her present on Christmas while I waited until the right brown arrived in the mail (but the LBYS was nice enough to give me free shipping).

I've also been hanging on to the snowman pattern since last year so I decided to make stocking stuffers for each of my family members with a different color scarf for each person.  For Todd I also made an adorable little lion and since Esteban asked just in the nick of time I made him plucky mushrooms and a tiny gator. 

Aren't they all adorable? 

As a post holiday project I also started a tiny grouchy couch for Todd which ought to round out my first batch of knitting from Knitting Mochimochi nicely.  And I have a request for a confused moose that will be up next.....soooo much knitting and so little time!

A Spectacular Craftacular

This weekend turned out to be a super crafty weekend. First we made our awesome brooches and then we wore them to the BUST Magazine Craftacular where we got lots of compliments. I have to admit that I didn't know about BUST Magazine until we came across them at Maker Faire, but the more I learn about them the more I like them.

I'd meant to get there earlier but we didn't manage to arrive at 18th street until nearly 10am and when I saw the line going to 6th Avenue, up to 19th street and back around towards 7th I had a little pang (ok maybe a big pang) that I wouldn't get a goodie bag.

Here's the contents of my goodie bag, plush purchases, cards I picked up, and my brooch.

As it turned out we did get a lovely gift bag with nifty stuff and which conveniently helped me to cart my purchases to two holiday parties, then home.

Here Ginger sits on, I mean models, the drapey sweater that Sofia convinced me to purchase in turquoise.  I was drawn to these shirts by the interesting designs and then I touched them and they were so soft I knew I'd have to buy one.  The people at the Pomelo Press booth were really nice and the let me try it on and everything.

Ginger also wanted to be in all of the rest of my pictures to here she is with the latest edition of BUST magazine which as lots of stuff I really want to read. 

Did I mention Ginger tried to be in all my pictures?  As soon as I got everything laid out she promptly ran across the cards.  Todd advised that she wanted to be picked up so I tried, but what she really wanted was to stand on top of everything.

Some of the fun purchases I made also included these adorable little glycerin soaps in the form of the characters from Space Invaders from Lollibomb Beauty.  

At the by {craftgasm} table Sofia and I went through a whole basket of clever little buttons made from maps to find these buttons.  Our pics included buttons featuring Prag (or Praha) where we spent a mini vacation several years ago when I was visiting Sofia during her year in London.  Another featuring Helsinki which we seem to remember being a required stop in all Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego games.  Finally I was drawn to a button with a little flowery doodle. 

The nice woman at the Mama's Hungry table had chocolate cake made with Coca Cola that looked delicious and she told us about here list of good southern food in NYC which we were extremely interested in.

This postcard doesn't actually do justice to the beautiful and creative cards that were on display at Alton Weekes' table.  I could easily have gotten carried away and purchased several of them, but I took one of his postcards instead so that I could peruse them online.

One of the more unusual things we came across were little moss habitats from two different companies.  Twig Terrariums featured environments that included little scenes with figures and even an environment in a light bulb.  SPIRITelemental had more open pieces with many including crystals.  Two different takes on a nifty idea. 

Everyone has a friend with bottle cap magnets, or a bottle cap belt, or maybe a bottle cap covered bar, but I'd never seen bottle caps turned in to jewelry before, especially not jewelry that wasn't obviously a bottle cap.  Jen Roder makes elegant jewelry out of things that most people flick towards the trash, including earrings, pendants, and cuff links. 

There was actually a lot more food and than I would have expected and one of the food/drink tables featured tea where they gave out tiny samples of sweetened Peppermint Patty tea on the way in and Coconut Vanilla Chai on the way out.  not just tea had some really interesting flavors so I asked them to suggest a third and they came up with Butter Cookie so I came home with three little sample tins.

We spent nearly four hours at the Craftacular and we didn't see all of it.  There were two floors of tables, but there were so many people that it was still hard to move around and to see everything.  We visited Anna Hrachovec's Mochimochi Land booth where we got our dose of adorable mini knitted creations, but I had really hoped there would be more knitted, plush, and yarn related stuff. 

I guess I'll just have to get my knitting fix from the latest volume of Interweave knits...

I made a plush brooch!

Last year I went to Jenny Harada's workshop at gallery hanahou and I had a great time making a wee peppermint beastie.  So this year I was very excited to participate in her plush brooch workshop.  Here Sofia and I with our adorable wearable creations with the wonderful Jenny herself.  I can't wait to see what the workshop next year will be like.

Here is a closeup of my happy purple creation along side the postcard featuring the workshop with a picture of Jenny Harada's first three.

Korean BBQ - So Moon Nan Jip

So Moon Nan Jip: Korean for "astoundingly yummy".

Despite living in NJ for three years we really have done a poor job of exploring the culinary options here.  We often end up eating out in NY instead of NJ, but we have found a couple of great places and one of them has the best Korean BBQ.  A friend who also lives in NJ recommended So Moon Nan Jip in Palisades Park and it does not disappoint.  The restaurant has an off-putting papered-over storefront, but inside is a nicely and cozy, and has tables with with charcoal grills in them.  They stay open until 3 am so they are a good option for a late night meal.  We've been there a number of times and everything has been delicious—even the mysterious souffles and fried fish that turn up some times without asking.  We've had nearly all the BBQ dishes and they're all good, but the best is really the kalbi (they do a good marinade).  I'm a fan of dumplings and the seafood pancakes, particularly the oyster pancakes.

So Moon Nan Jip makes you look this satisifed every time.

My Micro Visit to to San Francisco

This week I ended up in San Francisco (I almost wrote Chicago) for less than 48 hours. Most of the time I was away consisted of flights and work for a client, but I did have a tiny adventure on the way back to the hotel after work. During a chat last week with Hannah I mentioned that I'd be here and she suggested I stop Britex Fabrics. I didn't get my hopes up because I knew I'd barely be here at all, but I got to the end of my work day and found that not only was Britex on the way back to my hotel, but I did in fact have a little time before they closed, so I nipped over. The office I was working in was right in the middle of the union square area and I followed my handy Google Map and turned the corner to find this:

How perfect was that? And next to it I found this:

Inside Britex I was in artsy-craftsy heaven. The store is filled with all kinds of fabrics ranging from designer materials to basic cottons, buttons, trim, yarn and all sorts of other fun stuff.  The fabrics in particular were amazing, but the prices helped me to resist.
  

I barely managed to stop myself from buying a whole set of stuff for needle felting or some lovely purple silk yarn. Truth be told, if the dark purple yarn were the silk blend instead of the synthetic blend I might have succumbed to temptation. Look at the yummy yarns I managed to resist:

While I was playing with Google Maps and trying to get my bearings I accidentally clicked on the street view which I ordinarily find annoying. But this time it showed me the street around my hotel, including a Curry n Naan and a liquor store. Dinner?

After Britex I continued along to the liquor store where I procured an Anchor Porter and a tiny container of Haagen Daz vanilla ice cream.  Then I stopped at the Curry n Naan where I ordered my favorite Indian food dishes: paneer tikka masala, naan, and samosas, and was offered unlimited free chai while I waited. Winner!

Overall a very nice little trip, if short. I hope to make it back there one day when I can see the Golden Gate Bridge for more than a minute in the taxi on the way to the hotel and the bay from a better vantage point than a conference room.

We carved pumpkins!

Our local supermarket, like many supermarkets, started stocking pumpkins and Halloween practically in August so we did a good job when we managed to wait until after our trip to Turkey (post forthcoming) to buy our pumpkins instead of letting them rot while we were away. In any event we went over to Stop n Shop this past weekend only to discover that we were almost too late. There were barely any pumpkins left at all and the best looking ones were the ones at the checkout - so we selected two of the best display pumpkins and settled down in from Robin Hood (the one with Russell Crow) to carve them. When we were done we ended up with these:

Todd made his a scary toothy face and I ended up deciding to make a bat.  Woo hoo!  Let the holidays begin!

Making Chia Pinole Waffles

Todd is on his second read-through of Born To Run and when he got to the part about the Tarahumara diet he remembered that we had a bag of chia seeds from our trip to Bob's Red Mill. So he went looking for recipes, specifically for iskiate, made with water, chia and lime. But he also stumbled upon this recipe for waffles with both chia and pinole (a native version of corn meal) so we grabbed the few ingrediants we were nissing from Shop and Shop and gave it a go. 

They turned out far better than expected and are highly recommended. They have a great chewy, crunchy texture from the cornmeal and deep nutty flavor. The chia seeds lend an interesting flavor and the waffles are not sweet at all; it's all savory flavors and they didn't need any toppings or condiments. They're also vegan.

And we learned something about waffle making—at least with a thick batter like this you need to wait until the steam stops coming out and ignore whatever your waffle iron tells you about being done.  These took about twice as long to cook as normal waffles.  They would also make good pancakes.

How to Wash a Great Pyrenees

Step 0.  Find two dirty dogs.

Step 1.  Get them nice and tired.  A long walk.  A puppy play date.  Sprints.  Something.
Step 2.  Feed them.
Step 3.  Brush them until your arm feels like it is going to fall off.
Step 4.  Have a snack.
Step 5.  Stock the bathroom with towels, shampoo, a bucket.
Step 6.  Wrestle 100lb hydrophobe into tub.
Step 7.  Wet, shampoo, rinse, condition, rinse.
Step 8.  Leap out of way to avoid soggy rocket exiting tub.
Step 9.  Tackle with towels and scrub, scrub, scrub.

Step 10.  Collapse on floor.  Have beer.  Relax for a bit.

Gather courage and repeat!

Dino's BBQ Returns!

Lately we've been a wee bit obsessed with the Momofuku cookbook by David Chang, but we do have other cookbooks.  We actually have a whole shelf of cookbooks, but we continue to return to a popular facorite: Dinosaur Bar B Que: An American Roadhouse.  Back in college, one of our favorite places to go for dinner was the original Syracuse location of Dino's.  It was only about an hour away and served by far the best BBQ within driving distance.  Jess was the one to first purchase the Dino's cookbook and test out some of the recipes and since we trust her food sense even above our own, we picked up a copy at  some point.

But a lot of the recipes require a smoker, which we did not have available to us until Whitney and Evan were nice enough to give us their old one.

Step 1: Fire up them coals.

Todd has been playing with the fuel to try to get the right mix of charcoal and wood chips and got a pretty good fire going. 

Filet mignon: NOT recommended for smoking because a far cheaper cut of meat will come out just as well. But if you're desperate for some smoked meat and it's been in the freezer forever........

Then we got our tasty Costco sized filet steak meat product slathered up in tasty spices and arranged it on the grill in the smoker.

To go with the tasty smoked meat, we decided to make the Dino's classic Mutha Sauce.  Unintuitively this sauce starts with onions and green peppers but then with the addition of all the other ingredients it turns into a rich red sauce.

Several hours later, the meat came out perfectly.  It was nicely marbled, with the heavy pink line of smokey goodness penetrating about 1/8 inch around the edges.

The tangy, spicy, smokey sauce got slathered right on top.  Here you can actually see the flecks of onion and pepper in the sauce, but they're not at all overwhelming.

And of course what Dino's meal is complete without dessert?  Even if you only get one dessert and lots of spoons it is always worth it.  We went with the classic key lime pie, adjusted to include a little extra lemon juice.

Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Charlie, Fred and Ken's Imperial Helles Bock

Hurray for Charlie Papazian and Fred Eckhardt! I don't even remember where we picked this one up.  I have the fuzzy notion that Olivia, Sofia and I were together in a beer store and we went overboard (as usual). I've always liked Sierra Nevada and I put this one in the cart because I thought it was a solid bet to be worth trying, no matter what it turned out to be.

Fast forward to today and Olivia and I were both very thirsty after rollerblading around Henry Hudson park for three hours. We were meandering through the beer collection looking for a sour to suit our tastes when Olivia started reading the blurb on the front of the bottle (see below).  This beer was brewed by Charlie and Fred! And man oh man is it good. It's so difficult to get a double or triple balanced correctly (this beer is 8.3% ABV), but when you do the results can be mind-blowing. I remember the first time I tasted a few of Bog's recommendations for stronger beers and I was blown away away by complexity of what are (by today's standards) relatively simple beers.  Gulden Drak and Piraat come to mind.  The Helles Bock reminds me of my first tasting of those beers. Minimal sweetness up front, but a lasting sweetness on the back of the tongue. Prominent honey notes (and I don't mean that as a euphemism for "this tastes sweet"—it actually tastes like parts of it were made by bees).  Just the right amount of hop aroma and minimal hop profile in the finish. Subtle kick from the strength of the brew, but remarkably restrained malt characteristic and just the right viscosity in the mouthfeel for a heavy beer like this.  Did I mention the color yet? Gorgeous. It looks like a MacAllen 12 and it took far less time to make.

I'm giving this beer a solid 5/5 overall.  Highly recommended.  Released in May 2010 and there is only supposed to be one batch.  Pick it up while you still can.

FNSC: Union Hall, Bark Hot Dogs and Bergen Street Comics

This week we found ourselves in Brooklyn again.  Our first stop was Union Hall where we were snubbed by a rude bartender who served beers that were all foam. 

They had a lackluster beer list consisting of things we've already had or were not interested in trying except for the Donnybrook Stout by Victory (which we'd already had at Pony Bar) and Sawtooth Ale from Left Hand which tuned out to be very drinkable.  While we waited for the kitchen to open and Sofia to arrive I knitted and we watch people play bocci.

The iPhone 4 failed to illuminate this picture properly. The flash-free version was even worse.

The food was surprisingly good and the waitress was much nicer than the bartender.  I'd spotted the steak sammich (steak, gorgonzola, arugula, caramelized onions, horseradish aioli, ciabata roll, Cajun fries) on the menu and that turned out to be a tasty winner, as were the drunken Jamaican wings that Todd ordered on a whim.  The wings came with an excellent vinegary blue cheese dressing which was wasted on the wings because the wings were so good that we barely noticed the dressing.  Oh, and the wings also came with some tasty cucumber spears that went really well with blue cheese dressing.

Our second stop was Bark Hot Dogs where we had a Bark Red Ale, a Rightous Rye, and a Sweet Action—all from Six Point. 

The beers were all tasty.  For food we settled on a Kase Krainer, a Weisswurst, and a Beans and Frank.  The Kase Krainer was the best of our choices, especially since the filling included liquefied Swiss cheese. 

Here I am being made fun of for eating the mustard
right out of the little paper cup.

The sausages were served with tasty (but slightly dry) sauerkraut, very tasty bread, and whole grain mustard that was good enough eat by itself.  The best part of the Frank and Beans were the beans, which were home-made and smokey. 

After Bark Hot Dogs we were lured into Bergen Street Comics by the lovely piles of colorful books.  Comics are really an underrated literary genre because people think of them as a simplistic set of pictures for kids when in fact the illustrations add an additional dimension and layer of complexity to the story.  We narrowly resisted the urge to buy the entire Sandman collection by Neil Gaiman, but did come home with the first Sandman volume, as well as Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi, and Revolver by Matt Kindt.   

Our night ended on a sad note when we hiked over to Four & Twenty Blackbirds only to find that it was closed for a private party, which was not listed on their website.  BOOOOOO to Four & Twenty Blackbirds.

Off-Season Mallomars

This week Todd sent me a very intriguing link from the kitchn on "How To Make Homemade Mallomars." Since they looked delicious and we're always up for a challenge we decided to make them as soon as we had a chance.  We had to choose a graham cracker recipe.  There were two options the "DIY Graham Crackers" also from the kitchn and one from Martha Stewart.  Although the example mallomars included the Martha Stewart recipe we opted for the ones from the kitchn, which had more whole wheat flour in an effort to make a slightly healthier mallomar.  We can try, right? 

The recipe is broken into three big steps: 1. make graham crackers, 2. add marshmallow, 3. dip in chocolate.  The first step was deceptively easy.  Whip up graham cracker dough:

Roll out the dough.

Make cute little circles.

Bake until toasty brown.

Next was the tricky sticky part: the marsmallow.  Make no mistake—everything in your kitchen will be sticky by the time you're done.  And I think that maybe we could have whipped it a little less because we had a bit of a struggle getting the fluff into the bags we used to pipe it and on to the graham crackers.

As you can tell Todd and I had two different styles of applying the marshmallow fluff.  Guess which ones each of us did.

Hint: Todd says the left method is too hard.

Mine are the ones on the left that look a little like marshmallow peeps perched on the graham crackers.  I just applied the tip of my icing bag, with a fairly large opening, to one point in the middle of the cracker and then kept squeezing until I'd made a peep.  Todd on the other hand used a much smaller opening, started at the edge of the graham cracker and went around in a circle. 

The final part of the whole process involved some fondue.  Once the marshmallows set, you take them and dip them in melted chocolate.  We chose yummy dark chocolate and melted it up in our fondue pot and then started dipping.  In an effort to make this project even more complicated I insisted on making my half of the mallowmars with peppermint marshmallows and to designate them, in case the shape didn't give them away I put pieces of peppermint candy on top.

This project made for a long day, but the final product was delicious!  Unfortunately they have spoiled us for commercial mallomars.  Our homemade mallomars have a very thick, satisfying graham cracker, chewy flavorful marshmallow, and a generous but crackly coating of delicious dark chocolate.  I really liked my peppermint variation and I think I could have added even more of the peppermint extract. 

Todd's post-experiment edit:  I do not like commercial mallomars and only passed this along because I knew Olivia liked them. But after we ate all of these I started to have dreams about them. The graham crackers in these are absolutely delicious. I also don't like marshmallow very much, but this marshmallow was delicious. The quality of the ingredients is what makes this recipe and I'm anxious to make them again. I also preferred the vanilla to the peppermint. It overwhelmed the delicious graham cracker and marshmallow intermingling.