domestic bliss

Chicken!

Posted on June 27, 2011June 27, 2011 by bekswhoknits

Monday. The start of the week.
I’m always a little bit more enthusiastic on a monday – well as ado an as i get home from work.
Mondays at work are never productive but Monday afternoons seem to be.

So full of gusto, I cleaned the bathroom, started cleaning the kitchen, and decided to tackle a nice veggie filled dinner.

The veggies were boiled.
The carrots went in first, then the cauliflower. The bok choy and snow peas went in at the very end just to blanch.

The chicken was grilled in a little bit of butter (mmm butter). Then once that was cooked some sauvignon blanc (I’m getting better with my wines) went in to deglaze the pan. After that had boiled off, some chicken stock and cream went in to make a sauce. Some fresh parsley and chives topped off the sauce and that was it.

And the best thing was, after eating it I don’t feel bloated and stuffed.
Great way to start the week.

British Morning Socks

Posted on June 24, 2011June 27, 2011 by bekswhoknits

Next knitting project is for a friend who also loves How I Met Your Mother, and will totally appreciate the Ted packing his overnight bag, not with slippers but British Morning Socks. But said friend is also going to England soon to visit family so it’s a pretty good double play on words.

So I was looking through my basic knitting patterns (free download from knitting daily) and thought that the Mocassins looked easy enough.

I used Patons Inca in red and black. And followed the pattern to the letter.
It uses size 8 double pointed needles, so it looks like a sock pretty quickly. And then it switches to size 5 double pointed for that extra bit of detail.
I can’t reproduce the pattern here, but it should be easy enough to find on the Knitting Daily site.

I’m currently doing up a pair for myself in the Moda Cardellino yarn, but you can’t really see the ribbing detail as much with the multi-coloured yarn. I think i’ll have to buy some more Patons Inca, it really is the better yarn for it.

I can see these becoming a standby birthday/christmas present.

I’m giving them to my friend tonight. Hopefully she’ll like them (and get the joke).

Hotel food

Posted on June 14, 2011 by bekswhoknits

We’ve eaten out so much in the last week, it gets pretty expensive. But with everything that’s been going on, cooking dinner without all my usual staples has just seemed really exhausting.

Fortunately things are starting to get back to normal so i cooked dinner last night.

Chorizo, snow pea, and spinach tomato sauce with pasta or rice.

Done.

steak – nigella style

Posted on May 24, 2011May 24, 2011 by bekswhoknits

last night loml (love of my life) came home from work and told me that there was half a nigella episode that i had to watch.
He wanted me to watch her mussel linguine recipe but we ended up drawing inspiration from her bbq steak. The essence of the recipe is that the steak is charred on the outside but still bloodied in the middle.

And to go with it was potato. Well mashed potato, with carrots, bacon, cheese, spinach, mushrooms, and fresh parsley and chives.

simple. and delicious.

Knit one, purl one

Posted on May 18, 2011 by bekswhoknits

A while ago my boyfriend said I should find a hobby, something to occupy my time that was productive, so I started this blog.
Which has definitely done the job. It was (still is) a great way to spent nights alone when I could just write.

However since the loml (love of my life) moved in, nights to myself have diminished somewhat. And writing on my laptop while he’s watching telly always results in “what are you doing?” and love him as I do, he doesn’t quite get the whole blogging thing. So I can either write (as I am now) on my trusty iPhone, which is speedy but nowhere need my laptop typing speed. This doesn’t result in probing questions as it’s not uncommon for us to watch telly together and play on our phones (sometimes against each other so it’s not entirely anti-social .. and words with friends is cheaper than buying a scrabble board).
Or not blog.

So to occupy my time I’ve taken up knitting.

Wow.
I’ve learnt soo much.
I remember my mum teaching me to knit when I was younger, but I only really remember the actual knitting, which wasnt as exciting as the books I wanted to read.
There is so much more to knitting than I ever imagined. And thanks to the Internet its really accessible. I’ve bought a couple of apps, spent a bit of time of YouTube, and even bought some knitting books.

And it’s not all scarves. After only a month or two I’ve made a few beanies, a beret, and started a pair of arm warmers.

This is my first beanie so far.

I’ve also made some to send over to my brother and his family over east.

All those were made using 7mm double pointed needles.

The red and grey one is Inca 7019 & 7004.
The grey ones are Moda Vera Cardellino and the baby blue one is Sooky.

All three were from a pattern book from Cleckheaton.

Fun times and practical.

Now what to make next??

the evolution of a garden

Posted on May 17, 2011May 17, 2011 by bekswhoknits

i bought my place about 2 years ago. i can remember my excitement prior to settlement about all my plans now that i had a garden of my own, not just a patch in mum’s, or a rental property.

I somehow thought that because it was ‘my’ garden, things wouldn’t die.
And as it turns out i was wrong.
About a year and a half ago now, my mum and I spent 2 / 3 weekends weeding, mulching, and planting my new garden.
It doesn’t get any sun so my dreams of a vegie patch were dashed. But i was able to put in some nice flowering plants and some new trees to give myself some privacy.

So my garden went from before to after.

and then came the worst storm that my little city has had in a long long time. and my garden was flooded, the gutter above my pretty pink flowers broke and caused a stream of water to destroy them, and all the mulch was redistributed throughout the lawn.

That was pretty much the end of my foray into gardening. It was all too difficult.

But one of the benefits of having a man about the house is that he enjoys gardening.

Now here’s a photo of it before the rain destroys it.

Fish and chips

Posted on April 13, 2011 by bekswhoknits

The batter was salt, pepper, beer, mixed dried herbs, and corn flour.
The fish was coated in it and fried.
The chips went in the oven. The potato swirls went in the oven ten minutes later.

Ta-dah!
One very golden meal, straight from the freezer.

Happy Pie Day

Posted on March 15, 2011March 15, 2011 by bekswhoknits

Cottage pies. Or Shepherds pies. Or Potato pies.
Whatever you call them it’s what I made for Sunday night.

There wasn’t much pastry to go round so I made two with pastry (puff – prebought) and 4 without pastry in little ramekins.
Continue reading Happy Pie Day

My new cupboards

Posted on March 14, 2011October 5, 2011 by bekswhoknits

As promised some photos of my freshly painted cupboards.

Also my new cd racks.
Continue reading My new cupboards

i’m in love with a boy

Posted on March 11, 2011 by bekswhoknits

well my boy looked after me last night.
i didn’t (and i still don’t) feel too crash hot.
But i’ll survive…

but my boy cooked me brinner. For those of you who didn’t watch scrubs, brinner is breakfast for dinner.
So he cooked me bacon, eggs, mushrooms, tomato, and toast. The toast was complete with an Invader Zim reference (“i’m making Toast!” another reason i love this boy)
Continue reading i’m in love with a boy