C in DC

I had my first class of the semester Monday night, and I’d gotten there early so of course I started knitting.

A few minutes later a girl walked into the class and saw what I was doing. Her eyes lit up and she exclaimed, “Oh cool, you’re knitting!”

She sat down next to me and pulled an unfinished garter stitch scarf out of her bag. It turned out she had just taken up knitting last week– I was impressed by how much she’d knit in a week!– and she started peppering me with excited questions.

As I was explaining the difference between stockinette and garter, I began to get excited too. My field of study is not one that attracts knitters, and I’ve never had a classmate who knit. “She shall be my protege!” I thought happily to myself, “I shall teach her new techniques!”

Just as I was going to ask her if she was on Ravelry, she asked, “So what’s your major?”

“Electrical engineering,” I replied, thinking it was an odd question to ask in a graduate class.

“Oh. This isn’t Comm 300?”

My heart sank. (It turned out there was some kind of of screw-up with the classrooms– people kept coming in during the period, looking for the elusive Comm 300).

Aww, well, I had a knitting classmate for a minute.

I must be on a ginger kick lately; this recipe for a gingery Asian-style salad comes from Kalyn’s Kitchen. The ginger vinaigrette is phenomenal– I’ve made similar dressings before, but this one is a million times better. Maybe the heat has something to do with it. It was so good that I had to go back to the kitchen and make a second batch.

Here’s my latest FO, which Lindsey correctly guessed as being a Norwegian star earflap hat. I had a lot of fun making it, and it was a great way to use up some Patons merino that was leftover from Christmas projects. Stranded colorwork is my new love! 

The lining came from a blanket I bought for $2.48 at CVS, which was easier than trekking to a fabric store for some fleece (I used the rest of the blanket to insulate my drafty windows).  

The hat looks awful on me, but most hats do and I wasn’t expecting this to be an exception. Regardless, it was a quick project, completed in under a week, and it barely cost anything in materials.

This was a project of many “firsts”: first project with a Norwegian Star motif, first hat with earflaps, first time lining something, first I-cord, and first pom-poms (which, incidentally, are ridiculously fun to make). So I say it was time well spent.  

I’m going to donate the hat to charity, unless someone wants it.

After a delightful Saturday morning at the farmer’s market and LYS, I wanted to go home and bake something. I came across a recipe for these little ginger cookies in Classic Home Desserts, a very comprehensive dessert cookbook that I highly recommend.

This is a recipe of MFK Fisher, who claimed her cookies contain three times as much ginger as is standard. She said she liked to serve them at the end of cocktail parties “to evade trouble with the cops.” 

The cookies are wonderfully chewy, slightly buttery, and very gingery without being too hot. They’re the perfect companion to a cup of black or herbal tea.

M.F.K. Fisher’s Ginger Hottendots

3-3/4 cups flour
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
2 Tbs ground ginger
1/2 tsp gr. cinnamon
1/4 tsp gr. cloves
3/4 cup unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup dark molasses (not blackstrap)
2 tsp cider or balsamic vinegar

Sift dry ingredients. Cream butter and sugar. Stir in eggs, molasses and vinegar. Add dry ingredients and mix until just blended. Dough can be refrigerated at this point, if desired. Roll dough into 1/2-inch balls or into 1/2″-thick rolls and cut into 1/4″ to 1/2″ pieces and place 1″ apart on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 325° until soft, about 6 or 7 minutes; don’t overbake. They will crisp as they cool. Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool. Store in an airtight container. Makes about 15 dozen tiny cookies.

I’ve been slacking on my knitting, so I’m going to distract you with a fun little game. Try to guess what these are going to be:

The winner gets… well, nothing, for now. But if this becomes a regular installment, there might be prizes for whoever has the most correct guesses by the summer.

This was a hastily-done project, as I was in need of a place to hang coats after my freestanding coat stand broke (note to self: don’t buy furniture from CVS. Especially when it’s on clearance).

I just got one of those unfinished wood pieces from A.C. Moore, removed the hardware, painted it chocolate brown, decoupaged it with art postcards, and screwed the hardware back in. It’s a little sloppy, but it does the job and looks pretty.

I usually skip breakfast, which wouldn’t be so bad except I tend to skip lunch as well, and the one-meal-a-day thing is supposed to be really bad for your metabolism. So I few days ago I whipped up a batch of cranberry muesli.

If you get excited by recipes that involve wheat germ and yogurt, like I do, you’ll love this one. It’s low calorie but very nutritious and filling. Here’s the recipe.

Cranberry Muesli (from eatingwell.com)

1/2 cup low-fat plain yogurt
1/2 cup unsweetened or fruit-juice-sweetened cranberry juice
6 tablespoons old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick-cooking or steel-cut)
2 tablespoons dried cranberries
1 tablespoon unsalted sunflower seeds
1 tablespoon wheat germ
2 teaspoons honey
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt

Combine yogurt, juice, oats, cranberries, sunflower seeds, wheat germ, honey, vanilla and salt in a medium bowl; cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours and up to 1 day. Makes 2 servings, about 2/3 cup each 

NUTRITION INFORMATION: Per serving: 209 calories; 4 g fat (1 g sat, 1 g mono); 4 mg cholesterol; 37 g carbohydrate; 8 g protein; 3 g fiber; 190 mg sodium; 266 mg potassium.
Nutrition bonus: Calcium (15% daily value).
2 1/2 Carbohydrate Servings
Exchanges: 1 starch, 1 fruit, 1/2 other carbohydrate, 1/2 fat

I know I won’t accomplish all of these things, but I’d like to try.

1. Join a knitting group– I’ve been to a few, but never got into the habit of going regularly. I’m going to check out a new one tomorrow.
2. Experiment with dying yarn.
3. Knit another sweater.
4. Knit an afghan.
5. Relearn how to use a sewing machine.
6. Take an art or craft class– Can anyone recommend one? They all seem to be too expensive or too far away.
7. Find more excuses to decorate cakes– Perhaps I should start hosting afternoon teas at my house.
8. Get better at photography.
9. Participate in a swap on Craftster or Ravelry.
10. Learn a new craft– Quilting and resin jewelry making interest me, and someone recently told me that framing is one of the most useful crafts you could learn.
11. Finishing languishing projects– In particular, a painting that has been sitting around half-finished since July.
12. Open up an Etsy shop– Unlikely to happen, but I’d love to do it someday.

One of my old standbys for chocolate cake is the “Perfectly Chocolate” cake and icing recipe on the back of Hershey’s Cocoa. As far as basic chocolate cakes go, this one is superb, which is funny because most recipes involving cocoa instead of chocolate disappoint me with their blandness.

For C’s birthday I halved the cake recipe to make a dozen cupcakes, and doubled the amount of frosting. Mmm, frosting.

Though I enjoy making elaborately decorated cakes, I think a birthday cake should have a cutsey, homespun look. So out came the cupcake tins and colorful sprinkles and maraschino cherries. C doesn’t like most sweets, but she loved these!

I finished these while sipping coffee in the National Portrait Gallery’s stunning new Kogod Courtyard. Who cares if the coffee is $3 when you’re surrounded by so much beauty?