bekswhoknits

Snausages and mash

Posted on July 14, 2011July 14, 2011 by bekswhoknits

First off can I just say I’m impressed that snausage is autocorrected in my phone.

But the point of this post is to brag about my boyfriend.
As I was organising all my clothes into my new wardrobes (sheesh I have a lot – and still nothing to wear) my boy took himself off into the kitchen and started making dinner.

He is a good cook. I would live with him if he couldn’t cook. That just doesn’t fit with my values regarding gender equality and stereotyping. And if he can’t accommodate my values then sorry – not on.

So he can cook. Sure his repertoire is BBQ, breakfast, brunch, and brinner, but it’s the actions that count.
Oh and he does good steak.

So off he went into the kitchen, and cooked me mashed potatoes, with sausages, mushroom gravy (gravox) and sugar snap peas.

And bonus points for polony sandwiches.

Umpire – Now We’re Active

Posted on July 13, 2011 by bekswhoknits

Umpire’s self titled EP has been on my playlist for a few years now.
It’s a solid EP revolving around their 2009 WAMI song of the year, Streamers.

So I was quite eager to hear a full length album.

On first impressions I was underwhelmed.

There are some clever songs on the album. Corner An Owl In An Alcove and The Canyon are stand outs, but they’re surrounded by unenthusiastic melodies which don’t seem to reach the promise of their EP.

On a first listen, I was missing the narrative that their EP had. The story is still there, but it takes longer to find.
The more I listen to it, the more I like it.
But it hasn’t become an album that I’ll listen to on high rotation. It’s an album I have to remind myself to listen to.

Umpire are finding their feet, and I believe they will firmly entrench themselves, as they have done in the WA music scene, in the Australian music scene.
I just don’t quite see it happening on the back of this album.
I want to like it more than I do, but I don’t.
And that makes me sad.

Capsicum, spinach, mushroom, and bacon fettucine

Posted on July 12, 2011 by bekswhoknits

Whilst my gorgeous, lovely boyfriend was putting together flatpack (and solving a slight measurement error), I was making a dinner that would (hopefully) take away some of the flatpack frustration.

Nice stodgy fettucine, dressed with a capsicum, spinach, mushroom, and bacon creamy sauce.

The capsicum, bacon, and mushroom went in the frying pan. That cooked and then some corn flour mixed with water, then some milk. And of course salt and pepper.

That thickened whilst the pasta boiled (and J flatpacked away).

It was some nice stooge to end the day – with a glass of wine. Wine is essential for flatpacking (i’m having way too much fun making verbs from flatpack, unlike flatpack which is anything but fun. But it’s all done! Huzzah!)

the joys of homeownership – post flooding

Posted on July 12, 2011 by bekswhoknits

My house is a shambles.

There is flatpack everywhere.

More importantly part of my bed is blocking the thoroughfare from the kitchen to the fridge. Needless to say, that made dinner a very awkward exercise, having to straddle a piece of flatpack to get between the oven/sink and the fridge/the rest of the house.

And of course it ended in disaster.

I burnt the vegies, burnt myself on the casserole dish I was cooking the vegies in, dropped the lid of said ($80) casserole dish (thankfully it just smashed the handle and I didn’t cut myself), and the gravy didn’t thicken.

But the lamb was still delicious.

I put together a chest of drawers and an underfloor box, J put together the wardrobe and a spare cupboard.

And tonight we get to assemble the bed. And then that’s it.

I am really looking forward to not sleeping on a mattress on the floor.

The lady at Ikea who put the wardrobe order through put through 2 x cupboard doors when we only needed one, but thankfully they’re going to come and pick them up (and give me a refund).

And then (hopefully) my house will be back in a controlled state of dysfunction, not the uncontrolled.

I will be so glad once this has all been sorted and my house will be back to normal.

I am so grateful that I had insurance and RAC sorted it all out (I’m not one for product placement but credit where credit’s due).

They paid for the hotel (that we witnessed the incident leading to the dead body being found, but that’s not their fault), we got all the money back for the clothes, furniture, carpets, and peripherals that got damaged.

Now if only my strata would actually fix the plumbing problem.

The flatpack was all between the kitchen and the fridge.

Wine is essential when putting together flatpack.

A completed chest of drawers/bedside table.

The lamb roast.

And the failed gravy. More corn flour next time perhaps. And less flatpack.

how to make ringtones in iTunes

Posted on July 7, 2011October 19, 2011 by bekswhoknits

Because flow charts are awesome.
and non custom ringtones aren’t

seriously people make yourself some ringtones in itunes
click to show/save PDF

Hand knitted creature comforts

Posted on July 6, 2011October 5, 2011 by bekswhoknits

A new scarf.

Made with Moda Vera Bouvardia, an acrylic/wool blend.
But what struck me about it was the colours.
I used colourway 104-05
Which cycles through dark purple plums, with turquoise, green, pinks, and olive.

The base pattern was from knitting daily free lace patterns
I used the lace pattern (p1 yo k2tog) but not the recommended yarn. And i used 5.5m needles as recommended but the yarn.

It took me a while to figure out the pattern.
The language ‘one-row lace’ was/is confusing. I had to research it to make sure that it was just the same row repeated when you work back along the line, and there wasn’t some right side / wrong side inverse knit (k1 yo p2tog) that was necessary.
I still think i’ve done it wrong, and maybe I should have done something different on the wrong side. Mine looks a bit different from the pictures.
I also ignored the colour changes which made it a bit difficult to read the pattern (but easier to knit I would imagine).

But the end result is quite beautiful.

I started Thursday night and finished on Monday night, with another project (and some non-knitting time) in there aswell.
It was simple enough to knit, but the multi coloured yarn really makes it something special.

I love it.

Hazy shade of grey (and burnt orange)

Posted on July 6, 2011July 7, 2011 by bekswhoknits

My bathroom has finally been painted!! Huzzah!

My lovely boyfriend did the brunt of the work, whinged about it, and then when I came in to the bathroom to give him a hand, he promptly told me to get out because I was getting in his way.

The house is now finally all one colour. Well shades of the one colour. Except the pink.
Ok the house is finally painted all colours of my choosing.

The towel rack is new. J measured it to be exactly the length of two bath sheets. And he put in a new hand towel holder.

The towels are brand new as well (the sewerage leak damaged the brand new towels mum had bought me for my birthday – thank you insurance!)

So it’s all looking new and lovely.

The next thing will be the kitchen.

It’s nice having a place to call your own.

hot food for a cold day

Posted on July 6, 2011July 6, 2011 by bekswhoknits

I love a spag bol. Or any variation on a tomato-ey pasta sauce.
From discussions with work ladies I’m not sure that what I make is a bolognaise (they couldn’t agree between themselves), but it’s delicious.

With a bit of a tweak from my partner in crime J, who saw that I had bought chorizo (he has a not-so-secret obsession with chorizo) and decided what my tomato sauce lacked was said chorizo.

So in the chorizo went, with some chopped onion.
The beef mince was browned.
Once that was cooked some grated carrot and celery was added to the pot to sweat.
Then mushrooms, tinned tomatoes , bbq sauce, salt, pepper and dried Italian herbs for some flavour.

The tinned tomatoes are usually rinsed out and that water is put in to thicken the sauce a bit too (does everyone do this? Or is it just something that’s been handed down in my family?)

That then simmered away whilst I cooked the pasta (and made ringtones in iTunes)

Then a roll of the dice decided which season of How I Met Your Mother to watch (season 1), and bobs your aunty.

The pasta was dishes up with some fresh spinach and parmesan cheese

Hot food for a cold day.

Mmm… Pork Crackling…

Posted on July 5, 2011August 2, 2011 by bekswhoknits

When I was at Spotlight on Sunday, I came across a half price casserole dish ($17). My d.o.d (dear old dad) had bought me a casserole dish as a house warming present, but it’s a small one. It’s the perfect size for 2 person casseroles but not much good for a roast, or for entertaining.

And me being me I has to try it out straight away.
My poor boyfriend. Having to eat pork roasts all in the name of me experimenting.

The bigger problem was the J’s dad makes the best pork crackling.
I had a lot to live up to, but no pressure.

So into the casserole dish went potato, onion, cauliflower, pumpkin, and carrot.
On top of that went the pork leg, seasoned with garlic olive oil, salt, and rosemary. The pork leg was already scored, which was a bonus as I don’t have a sharp enough knife.

A casserole dish of goodness.

That went in the oven for 2 hours. About halfway through I took it out to put more salt and oil on the pork fat.
In hindsight this may have been where I went wrong. The only instruction I had about how to make crackling was lots of salt and oil. As it turns out, my interpretation of lots of salt, is too much salt. But it was still a success.

After 2 hours the pork was cooked, the crackling was crunchy, and the vegies were at that glorious stage of caramelised golden brown.
The pork roast was wrapped in tin foil to rest.
I drained all the pork juices out of the bottom, poured that into a small saucepan with some cornflour and water to make a gravy.
I probably could have done that in the casserole dish, but I wanted to keep the vegies in that to keep warm.
Next time I would cook the vegies in a separate casserole dish. All the pork juices did make them rather mushy.

But For a first try at a pork roast it was definitely delicious. J went back for seconds which is always a good sign.

Needless to say there was no crackling left.

I’m looking forward to cooking this in a camp oven.