Tuesday, March 29, 2011

I Knit a Chicken

Truth be told, I am a sucker for Fiber Trends' felted animal patterns. They're crazy-fussy, but they're small and over quickly. I saw this one at my local yarn store and snapped it up! This is Henrietta and Family. Someday I will knit Henrietta, but I only did a chick this time. The only yellow yarn I had was some I had bought at a farmer's market in Vermont and had no label. Unbeknownst to me it must have had some mohair in it, because when I felted it, it came out very fuzzy. Which was appropriate. And adorable. Here's the chick:

Waaah! I love it! I have a lot of this yarn left; if I get my act together I can maybe knock out a couple more for an Easter centerpiece. Or just gaze lovingly at this one.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Crafty Monday - Make Your Own DELICIOUS Granola!

We eat a lot of granola here, chez Momogus. We consume veritable tanker ships' worth of fruit, yogurt and granola basically year-round. I had always bought granola from the supermarket, but then my friend Jeanne gave me some homemade granola as a Christmas present, and I saw the light!!

I begged her for the recipe and took it out for a spin this morning. Oh boy. I made two batches, which is approximately 10 cups. I ate about half of that, "testing" it. A friend of mine said, "Oh you'll never go back to storebought again." It was SO GOOD I couldn't believe it. And easy.


This is actually Molly Wizenberg's recipe from Bon Appetit. Here is the link if you want to read about her granola revelations.

Everyday Granola (a/k/a You'll Never Go Back To Storebought!)


Ingredients
  • 3 cups old-fashioned oats
  • 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
  • 3 tablespoons (packed) brown sugar
  • 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon (generous) salt
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 cup assorted dried fruit [momogus note: I used dried cranberries and blueberries. I've also used chopped up dried apricots]

Preheat oven to 300°F. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment. Mix first 7 ingredients in large bowl. Stir honey and oil in saucepan over medium-low heat until smooth. Pour honey mixture over oat mixture; toss. Spread on prepared sheet. Bake until golden, stirring every 10 minutes, about 40 minutes [momogus note: mine took about 30 mins]. Mix in fruit after granola cools. Can be made 1 week ahead. Store airtight.

Makes about 5 yuuuummmmmmyyyyy cups!! Now go run to the store and get the ingredients!!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Gansey Madness....

Here are the next sweaters that are coming down the pike, Momogus Knits-wise. They are cardigan versions of the Chestnut Hill Gansey.

Baby version:

Child's version:

Adult version (this has been on the needle for months - oy vey, these take so long to knit!!!):

Then I decided, as with the original ganseys, that I would make an American Girl Doll version. I loved how the original Gansey turned out. Look how cute!


Well, why wouldn't the cardigan version be just as cute, right? Here it is:

Looks cute, right?


Uh oh. Fits bad. The back is the same size as in the Pullover version; I think I need to make the fronts a couple of stitches wider. Poor American Girl, she looks uncomfortable in her ill-fitting sweater! Fortunately, it only takes a smidgeon of a moment to knit one of these up, but still....

These patterns will be available soon - have to finish up that Adult sample and re-do poor American Girl Doll's sample.

(As a sidenote, to keep her decent I had to order this doll a little mock turtleneck (from Lavenderlore on Etsy.com). And let me tell you, I love ordering clothes for this American Girl doll! It's probably a good thing I didn't have a girl, because I would be going broke getting a wardrobe for her dolls!!)

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Happy St David's Day!

Today is St. David's Day, folks! It is to Wales and Welshmen what St. Patrick's Day is to Ireland and Irishmen. But instead of green hats and green beer, we embrace daffodils and the mighty Welsh Cookie.

When I was growing up, my grandmother (whose father had emigrated from Wales to the Scranton area alone at age 16) used to make Welsh Cookies all the time. Every week, maybe? It seems like they were always in the house. And boy oh boy were they delicious! There are variations of this recipe all over northeastern Pennsylvania, where so many Welshmen settled to work in the coal mines. I've made them only a handful of times since my childhood, but the smell, the taste, even the look of them sends me rocketing back to childhood.

Mmmm.....look how pretty.......


Here is my grandmother's recipe:
Leona James’s Welsh Cookies

Ingredients:
4 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
3 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1 tbs baking powder
scant tsp baking soda
1 cup (8 oz) lard (you can use other shortening if you don’t want to use lard, but your cookies will not taste as tasty!)
1 cup currants
3 eggs
milk
1 tsp vanilla

Mix all dry ingredients.Cut in lard and then add currants. Put eggs in a measuring cup and add milk until you get 1 cup. Add vanilla to this mixture. Add to lard/flour mixture. You may need to drizzle a bit of water on dough to get it all mixed together. Let chill for 30 minutes.Roll out flat on a floured surface.Use a 2” round cookie cutter dipped in flour to cut out cookies. Fry on heated (but ungreased) griddle (325 degrees on electric griddle) until cookies are golden brown on both sides. Makes about 3 dozen.

These cookies are best eaten hot off the griddle, or warm, or at room temperature, or refrigerated, or frozen. Enjoy and Happy St. David's Day, everyone!