chocolate interludes: chocolate mousse!

Posted on May 16, 2013 by catherine

This past weekend we had our very first dinner guests. I wanted to make a rich and delicious dessert, preferably one that would NOT involve turning on the oven. It’s been hot. I decided a chocolate mousse would fit the bill nicely and went digging in the file of childhood recipes that my parents have been kind enough to pass on.

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Chocolate mousse was one of my dad’s signature desserts back in the day. After finding the recipe, I think I know why: only four (or maybe five) ingredients. However, the recipe also revealed why this dish had eventually dropped out of rotation. Raw eggs form a not insignificant portion of the dish, and salmonella is not really the kind of leftover you want to send your guests home with. Fortunately, it is possible to pasteurize eggs at home, on your stovetop, which is what I did, using these instructions. The mousse turned out great, and nobody got sick (although I should note that the odds of a raw egg harboring salmonella are quite low to start with).

And now, without further ado, the recipe:

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Ingredients
4 eggs, separated into whites and yolks
1 tbsp strong dark coffee
dash of vanilla extract
4 oz dark chocolate (I got this awesome bar at our local European style market, the Milk Pail).
whipped cream, for serving

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First, break the chocolate into pieces and place in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave at 50% power in 2 minute intervals, until chocolate is melted.

While chocolate is melting, gently beat together the egg yolks, coffee, and vanilla extract. When chocolate has melted, mix into the egg yolk mixture. The chocolate will “seize” up and become a bit stiff. Don’t worry, but do keep stirring until everything is thoroughly mixed. The chocolate won’t ever look as smooth as it does when it first melts, but the consistency should be relatively uniform.

Beat the egg whites until peaks formed. If you are using pasteurized eggs, you may find that the whites don’t whip as easily as non-pasteurized eggs, but keep at it:

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Finally, fold the chocolate mixture into the egg whites. Spoon mixture into 4 bowls/cups/wineglasses. Place in the fridge and allow to chill for at least 2 hours. Serve with whipped cream.

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sunny side

Posted on May 10, 2013 by catherine

Just a few edgings left to go on my little cotton baby cardigan, the intended recipient is now out in the world so I’ve really got to get it done:

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Also spurring me to completion is the thought of attaching these adorable little buttons:

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I can’t decide if I should use all four or go with a more modest three…I guess some experimentation might be in my future!

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weedy wednesday returns!

Posted on May 9, 2013 by catherine

My garden this year is pretty tiny: I had to give up my garden plot when I moved north. What with the multiple moves in the past few months, I had kind of written this summer off completely. But, at the last minute, I decided to give container gardening a go and picked up a few tomato plants. Taken home, transferred into pots, occasionally watered, and left in the sunniest spot on the patio, they have flourished. This week, the multitude of yellow flowers has started giving way to small green tomatoes!

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We have an informal goal of harvesting 60 lbs of tomatoes from these plants, I guess we’re off to a good start!

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after the bind off: mitered square afghan

Posted on May 6, 2013 by catherine

Back in the summer of 2007, I spent almost all of my free time knitting and piecing together one hundred striped mitered squares:

Afghan progress

The Mason Dixon Knitting book was still a relatively recent publication, and I was about to move into my first solo apartment. The idea of being able to decorate a place exactly to my tastes (well, within the confines of my budget) was pretty novel, and I decided that I *obviously* needed a queen sized blanket for my new couch/futon:

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I had a slightly alternate piecing arrangement, grouping squares into 3-square “L” shapes rather than 4-square squares. This arrangement required a lot of plotting out on scratch paper:

The plan

Since then, I’ve moved a couple more times, and in a pursuit of a more open living space, I ditched my futon when I moved from an apartment to a smaller studio space as part of my migration to the Bay Area. But, I hung onto the blanket, and it still serves as a focal point of my living space. It’s just that now it lives on the bed:

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Six years on, this things is still going strong. The cotton yarn I used will go through both the washer and dryer with no problems, and the colors haven’t even faded much. In fact, I’m thinking maybe I should make a few more of these, with the plan of passing them onto my hypothetical grandchildren. This piece is truly destined to be an heirloom.

Do you have a major piece of knitting from years ago that you still use everyday?

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infinite yoke

Posted on April 30, 2013 by catherine

As promised, a more current photo depicting the state of my cardigan progress:

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Sorry about the wrinkles, being hauled around in a tote bag every day will do that to a garment. But, you can see that I’ve joined up for the yoke and that things are therefore starting to get interesting, with a bit of infinity cabling working its way in:

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And, I’ve even been able to verify that it’s going to fit, although it was rather hard to get photographic evidence. Please settle for this view for the moment, until I can coerce my photographer into helping out:

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why I love my commute

Posted on April 25, 2013 by catherine

Where else would I be able to get so much totally uninterrupted knitting time? This sleeve has whizzed along almost as fast as the urban landscape does every morning as I knit in the pre-dawn wee hours:

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In fact, I’ve gotten so good with commute knitting I’m a little behind on photography–this sleeve has now acquired a mate! Now for the slog of joining up and getting through those first long rows of the yoke…

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Posted on April 22, 2013 by catherine

Signs of spring continue to abound around here:

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Bright cotton knits in tiny sizes…

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Growing in tandem with the bright green tomato plants. Yes, despite the loss of my garden plot, I’m still determined to work on my green thumb–these have been doing beautifully and I’m hoping for a summer full of multi-colored heirloom deliciousness.

And in a sign of true warm weather delirium, I pulled out my box of warm weather yarns:

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Although I’ve still got my woolen train project and a glove that I really ought to focus on, I can’t help but think about another lightweight summery project to follow up the baby cardigan above. A rummage around my box has me toying with these three options:

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Though with all the fine-gauge knitting I’ve already been doing, perhaps it’s time to move onto something a little thicker and faster? Still, I think I’ll be breaking out my stitch books and doing a little swatching soonish…though I’m trying to limit my WIPs, so not until I have something else finished!

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springling

Posted on April 3, 2013 by catherine

As promised, a peek at the starting of my newest project:

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Yes, just the swatch so far, but even that is pretty exciting in my current knitting world. After spending the last 3 months immersed in dark red 4-ply soft (which, by the way, I still love!), it’s nice to have an alternate project that’s a little brighter. This cheerful blue/yellow/white combo makes me smile every time I look at it and is the perfect accompaniment to the beautiful spring weather we’re having around here. The temperatures are up and the flowers are blooming, making me dream of lightweight, ethereal knits, pastels and brights, loose gauges and lacy stitches. This particular project is slated to be baby sized, so it should go quickly, leaving plenty of time to dream up a warm weather project or two for me. In the meantime, what are you planning on knitting up for spring?

Posted in cardigans, colorwork | 2 Comments

sidetracks

Posted on April 1, 2013 by catherine

I’ve been mostly true to my main train knitting cardigan project, with the result that I’ve plowed almost all the way through the body, whew:

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Next up, casting on for sleeves!

While it does make a good commuting project, the miles and miles of endless stockinette on that cardigan can get a tiny bit, well, you know…boring. Sigh. So, I’ve decided that I’m now splitting my knitting into “commute projects” and “home projects”. The latest home project just needs a few ends sewn in and a good blocking:

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Cute, right? This tam will go nicely with the gloves I was working on earlier this year, which would be finished by now had one of them not gone and GONE MISSING! I know! I have looked and looked and for the life of me, I cannot find it. So, time to cast on for a new one. Fortunately, I am very excited about how the one I have left is looking, so that’s good motivation to get into gear and make it a proper pair:

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I’m especially loving the little button detailing on the cuffs, which I’m echoing in the brim of the tam:
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Next post, I promise to break out of the 4-ply soft route and show off my new “home project” (it’s neither wool nor red!)

Posted in accessories, cardigans, gloves, hats, lace | Leave a comment

trainknitting

Posted on February 15, 2013 by catherine

Still without my usual camera, but it turns out the phone does a halfway decent job. So, without further ado, my newest project for the daily commute, as it usually appears on said daily commute:

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One cardigan, nearing in on the waist. Like how it kind of coordinates with my skirt? That is intentional. The yarn is more of the Rowan 4-ply soft that I have been using like crazy lately. I snapped this up in a discontinued sale at Webs 5 or 6 years ago and now that I’m finally using it, my distress over Rowan’s decision to discontinue the yarn is resurfacing. Seriously, this yarn is amazing. Soft, smooth, nice stitch definition, good weight for those of us not in super cold and snowy parts of the country.

Of course, if you’ve been knitting mostly smaller items and accessories recently (like I have), tackling an entire sweater using what is essentially a sockweight yarn is somewhat daunting. I’ve been using a silly little trick to make it seem like I’m going faster, slipping off little mini-balls of yarn from the larger ball and then challenging myself to knit “all” of it by a certain point:

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It seems a little silly, but it’s amazing how fast all those little sections add up. I only cast on last week and I’m already on the last waist decrease! Do you play games with yourself to make knitting seem faster? I’d love to hear about them if you do!

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