Amigurumi

Since the end of my yarn has finally been freed from the scarf that I was knitting, I wanted to learn some crochet. Around the internet I've seen all sorts of cute crocheted things called amigurumi. Since the yarn I ordered for a hat hadn't arrived yet, these seemed like the perfect little mini projects to learn crochet.

So I started with a mouse pattern that I found on the net and learned how to single crochet in a spiral, how to do increases and decreases, and what a slip stitch is (as well as how nice it would have been to have something to mark the beginning of my row rather than trying to keep track of the number of stitches).

Using the knowledge that was gained from making the mouse (and a safety pin to mark rows), I then decided to try a bunny pattern. But this one was done in rounds instead of a spiral and confused me completely (I'll have to figure out how to crochet in rounds some time). I ended up with odd shapes rather than spheres, so instead I just said "screw it" and made something up on my own. You can see the results for yourself.

And then lastly I tried to make something that sort of resembled a sheep. It still needs some eyes to see with. I'll have to find something to use for that.

Rope Scarf

So here's the scarf that I was finishing up. The weave I made kinda curled up so now it looks like a rope. Oh well at least it's done at last!

Italian Cookies

I had this leftover ricotta cheese that I had to find a way to use up. So I headed over to allrecipes to do an ingredient search and this is what I found. I'll let you head over there to check out the recipe if you choose to do so.

These cookies are really soft, moist and more cake-like than what usually think of a cookie. Unfortunately, they also don't seem to store that well. My glaze seems to have sort of melted and dissolved since yesterday so they don't look quite so pretty anymore. If I made this again I'm not sure if I'd frost them because they seemed pretty tasty already on their own.

Birthday Card

Happy birthday! Who's it for? I'm afraid I can't say. Too bad the paper cake piece on there is any sort of real substitute for an actual cake piece.

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Why what do we have here? Delicious chocolatey cookies, that's what! I spent the afternoon in the kitchen making a couple dozen cookies. Unfortunately I didn't seem to ever get the cooking time quite right so the middle was a little undercooked (but I know some people like that).

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1 cup butter
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F (190° C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract (and almond extract) and eggs one at a time.
3. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; stir into the butter mixture.
4. Mix in the chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
5. Bake for 9 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are golden. Let cool on sheet for a minute then remove to cool on wire racks.

Mmmm, pancakes

Sometimes I think breakfast is one of my favourite meals. You can eat all sorts of delicious things for breakfast like pancakes! Pictured here are some banana pancakes cooking on my griddle before they were covered with maple syrup (the real stuff) and placed in my stomach. I don't really have an official recipe that I use for these, just a list of ingredients I copied down the ingredients on a little bit of lined paper, but I'll share it just the same.

Basic Pancakes

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 2/3 cup milk
• 4 tablespoons cooking oil

1. Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
   
2. Mix together the eggs, milk and cooking oil in a large bowl.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredient mixture and mix until smooth.
4. Heat your griddle to medium (coat with a bit of vegetable oil before hand if yours isn't non-stick) and wait for it to be hot enough -- water drops should sizzle on it.
5. Pour about 1/3 cup batter onto the pan per pancake, or however much you want to get the size you desire.
6. Wait until the top is all bubblely and it looks like it's cooked about half-way through and then flip, the pancake side should be golden brown. Cook the other side until it's also golden brown. note: if the outside browns too quickly, turn down the temperature of the pan.
   

To give these some banana flavour, I added 2 small mashed bananas to the wet ingredients, used 1/3 cup less milk and added about 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla.

Housework

Unfortunately things such as housework and going over finances has kept me away from my projects, but that should be finished with soon. I have been working on finishing this scarf that I started knitting 2 years ago, and then stopped knitting. So I'll post that up when I finally finish (hopefully not in another 2 years).

Paper beads

The past few days I was busy rolling a Bath & Bodyworks flyer (and a Denny's flyer) into some paper beads. I still have to buy materials in order to finish them so they're all sealed and shiney, but here they are at the moment. My fingers are a little sore now so I'm going to have to take a break from this and find something else to do.

And speaking of finding things to do, I guess I'll also have to come up with a project to use these beads after I get a chance to finish them properly.