Lentil Soup

... in which I pretend to be a Foodie



The conditions were perfect: We had a big dump of snow over night and it's cold (-15C/5F at 1:30 pm) so I wanted some warming soup, but I didn't have any soup in the apartment. I've been meaning to write down my recipe for Lentil Soup for my friend Sheri. The light was perfect in my kitchen... and I have a new camera (yippee) and wanted to play. So, my apologies, this one's picture heavy.

I don't remember where exactly I got the recipe, I couldn't find it in my cookbooks today when I was looking, so I just winged it. The quantities may need to be adjusted to suit your personal preferences.


Bring 2 Cups red Lentils, water & chicken broth to a boil.


Coarsely chop 1 small-medium onion.


Heat 1 Tbsp olive (or vegetable/canola) oil in a skillet. Sautee onion & garlic and add spices.


Add curry powder, corriander, cumin, crushed red pepper, garam masala (if available).


Cook spices, onions and garlic for 5 minutes.


Stir in onions, garlic and spices. Cook for 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add 1/2 cup milk or light cream, stirring to combine. Let it cool for a bit, even though you'll be soooo hungry after smelling it cooking...



The Recipe:

Lentil Soup
Combine in a large pot:
2 cups Red Lentils
4 cups water
4 cups chicken broth (or 4 cups water & 4 tsp chicken broth powder)
1/2 tsp cumin
Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Turn heat to low/medium-low as soon as it reaches a boil.

In a skillet heat 1 Tablespoon olive oil (or vegetable oil). Add:
1 small/medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 Tbsp curry powder
1 tsp corriander
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp garam masala (I have it on hand so I threw it in today. I have made the soup without also)
1/2 tsp salt
Cook for 5 minutes then add to soup pot, stirring to combine.
Cook for 30-45 minutes over medium low heat. Remove from heat and stir in 1/2 cup milk or light cream, stirring to combine.
Enjoy!

This was fun! I'm no Melanie but I can see why people get excited about taking pictures of food! I do have knitting and other things to share... Now that we've had the time change I'll be able to take pictures when I get home from work from time to time. So... I'll post knitting/spinning/weaving updates soon.

"So whatcha doin'?"

Anytime the Boy calls he asks me "So whatcha doin'?" Inevitably I'm knitting, spinning, weaving or sewing. When he called this afternoon and asked this, I was cutting scrap fabric for a quilt top. He asked "Are you ever not working on something crafty? Don't you ever just not do anything?" I had to think about that one. I can't think of the last time I wasn't making something. Sometimes while watching TV I'll put my knitting down for a while but never for long.

So today I finished this:






eta: oops! forgot the details:
Pattern: Irish Moss Toque (Ravelry link here)
Yarn: Mystery wool (similar to Patons Classic Wool) from Walmart ($4.99/lb bag! woo!)
Mods: -I knit 2 1/2 inches with a finer wool in the same color for a liner to cover my ears on the inside. I knit a turning round with my main wool and then started the cable pattern. I tacked this liner down after it was complete.
-my gauge was off so I started my decreases for the top 1/2 way through the 2nd repeat of the chart - the pattern called for starting after the 2nd repeat. Actually, i didn't discover that my gauge was off until I had completed the 2nd repeat of the chart. I told the Boy "I should have checked my gauge!" to which he replied "Of course! Why didn't you check your gauge? You should know better! I always check my gauge" and so on. I let him go on for a while before I finally asked him "do you even know what that means?" Which, of course, he did not. I called him a dumbass and proceeded to rip out 10 rounds of cables. Fun.

And I cut all of these:



and started sewing this:



So, a fairly typical day. You? What do you do with your "free" time? Do you or can you just "not do anything"? (yeah that question is terrible grammatically speaking but you get the drift)

Putting on my Jessica Fletcher Glasses

At work I often end up doing detective work to try to figure out what happened with a customer's account. My company moved its Admin operations to Calgary 1 1/2 years ago and none of the Admin staff made the move from Vancouver (we were all new hires in Calgary), so we don't have the historical knowledge that we would have had. I often say I need my own detective show as I successfully spelunk the files for the one piece of information needed to make sense of a problem.

Last week, my friend Sheri needed me to help her sort out a particularly gnarled problem. I said "Let me just put on my Jessica Fletcher glasses and I'll take a look." I have no idea where that came from, but it seemed to stick.

So today, to make Sheri laugh, I changed my profile pic on MSN.



Sheri says:
haha that's hilarious
Sheri says:
you are hott
Lori says:
i love the look on her face
Lori says:
i mean: my face
Sheri says:
very what is it inquisitive
Lori says:
haha
Lori says:
the slight "oh, there you are, what IS that thing sticking out of your back? is that a dagger? Well, who put THAT there?" look
Sheri says:
haha yes that's it

Clearly I am veryvery busy and important at my job... ehem.

It's just a movie... It's Just a movie!

Late Breaking* Oscar winning** movie news***: I don't know if you're aware of this, but the original Jaws is a scary scary movie****. I've seen it before but it's been years and years. I'm watching it on TV today and, even though I know what is coming up next and even though I live in a land-locked province, all I can think right now is "I am NEVER EVER going in the water again. Ever."

To distract us from this scary scary movie:



I spun this last week. 2 ply, about a sport weight but I don't know the yardage (forgot to count it). I love my new cameraThe Boy's camera. The shot above would not have been possible with my camera.



I have a new 3 ply that I spun this weekend but The Boy forgot to leave me the charger for my new camera his camera and sadly, he is in Vegas this weekend so I have no charger, therefore no awesome camera, therefore no new shots of the pretty 3 ply yarn. I hope you'll survive the anticipation.

Tonight I plan to watch the Oscars, something I rarely do (I usually just catch bits and pieces throughout the evening). We'll see how long I last before I go nuts. I just turned on the E! red carpet coverage (Jaws is over. WHEW), which I've never watched before, it's kind of interesting in a way. I haven't seen any truly crazy dresses yet but I hope there will be something insane soon!

*Yes, I'm aware it came out in 1975
**Film Editing, Original Score & Sound. Duh dum. Duh dum. Duh dum. (shivers down spine)
***Fine, it's not "news" per se, but I had forgotten and I have nothing else "new" to report
****I don't get scared watching movies very often, but when you're watching a movie you've seen before, that is part of the cultural lexicon, that you KNOW THE ENDING to, that you know what the scary thing is and you STILL cover your eyes, jump up on the couch, say "OH NO OH NO OH NO" as the music (Duh dum. Duh dum. Duh dum) starts... yeah. Scary. Plus: 70's fashions.

Diamond Lattice Stole

Finally



According to my notes on this project on Ravelry, I started in May 2008. The knitting wasn't difficult and I was loving the fabric it was producing, I just kept getting bored/distracted while working on it. I finally decided to just finish already on Sunday and here she is.



Pattern: Based on the Diamond Lattice lace chart from the Drawstring Chemise in the Spring 2008 Interweave Knits.
Yarn: My handspun, Seascape. Approximately 550 yards. I used all but about a yard of it. The yarn is about a fingering weight and is so soft and ... sigh. I love it.
Measurement: 18" x 72"



I can use it as a stole for all the super dressy events I attend, but I'll most likely use it more as a scarf.


(I just realized these aren't the most in-focus pictures. I need to figure out the self-timer on my new camera The Boy's camera)



It's light and fluffy and warm and cozy all at once. It's a welcome burst of color in a dreary February in Calgary.

Did I mention I love it?

One more for good measure:


I'm so very glad I finally finished this knit. I wish it hadn't taken me so long. Sigh. Did I mention I love it?

Corduroy Bag

The Boy is away this weekend, so no Valentine's Day outings for me. I don't mind, I'm not much of a Valentine's person anyway. Plus, he left me his digital SLR to play with, so I've been having fun. And, I've been sewing.



A couple of weeks ago The Boy was cleaning out clothes he no longer wears and brought me some items he thought I might want for crafting. Nice to see he's learning... As soon as I saw the pair of wide-wale corduroys I knew they were meant to be a new bag.



I made a simple bag with lining.



I used magnetic snaps, which was a new thing for me.



I had this idea a while ago to use belts for straps on a purse so I figured I would use them on this bag.



I'm fairly happy with it, except I need to figure out if I want to try to secure the bag to the belts in order to stop the scrunching. I stitched through sides with the holes in the belt but the other sides are not secured. Not sure yet if I should try to do something on those sides also.



I may have gone a little picture happy... expect more posts soon. Exciting, huh? I may just "accidentally" "forget" to give the camera back.

Sahara. Finally.

My project notes on Ravelry indicate a start date in May 2008 for this one. That can't be right. Or maybe it is. It was a long time. But, she's finally done and I love her.


Pattern: Sahara by Wendy Bernard (Knit & Tonic).
Yarn: Butterfly Super 10. My scale shows that it was exactly 1 pound, which would make it about 996 yards in total.
Mods: Knit on US 8/5mm needles (pattern calls for US 6); 3/4 length sleeves - changed the frequency of sleeve decreases to accommodate; added length in the body; knit the XS size sleeve due to my larger row gauge.


I love this sweater. It fits perfectly and is very comfortable. I foresee more of these in my future.

Just not right now.

This one was languishing in my WIPs bin for a long time with one complete sleeve and one 1/3 done sleeve. Why would I do that you ask? Well, I had already knit 2 sleeves-- one following the pattern exactly and one when I realized that my row gauge was very different from that specified and it would make for a better fit if I followed the directions for the XS sleeve rather. By the time the 2nd sleeve was done I was no longer feeling the love for the sleeves. So it sat. And sat. Then last weekend I decided to just finish it already. So I picked it up and quickly blew through sleeve #3. And promptly realized I wasn't following the notes I had written for myself and ended up having to frog 40 rounds of sleeve. And so, this one sweater ended up with me knitting almost 4 complete sleeves.

She's lucky she fit so well or she may have become a really pretty colored rag.

(I know, I shouldn't blame the knit item for the problems but who am I going to blame? Myself?? haha)

I'b sick. sniff.

There's a mutant death cold/flu going around my office and I managed to come down with it Sunday. I've been holed up on my couch covered in a cozy felted blanket (I'll keep the one with the blues, mostly by default. Wouldn't want to gift an infected blanket... ) watching TV and knitting.

Yesterday I finished a pair of socks for my friend Cobi

Pattern: Go With The Flow socks from Interweave Knits Summer 2005
Yarn: Estelle Cadenza in orange


This pattern knit up very quickly. Or maybe it was just that I managed to avoid distraction (mostly) while knitting them. They're a touch small on me, Cobi's feet are shorter than mine. I hope they fit. The pooling worked itself in spirals on the first sock and in bigger splotches on the second. It would have been cool if the pooling worked out the same on both but I can deal.

Today I'm working on my mittens and watching the Inauguration and speech and hoopla. What a great moment in history. I know I'm not American, but it really does feel hopeful.

We're in a Chinook right now, but it's supposed to be -12 C by the weekend. I hope to have new mittens by then. I think I can do it.


Now, if you'll excuse me, I need more juice and a nap.

Recycled Sweater Blankets

Years ago, before this blog, before I knew about Craftster, before it ever occurred to me to take pictures of things i made, I got this idea for a blanket made from squares of felted sweaters. Now, of course, this type of project is all over the internet. At the time, however, I don't know where I got the idea. I don't have a picture of that blanket, it was a Christmas gift for my friend Cobi and she loved it. I always meant to make one for my friend Julie, but never got around to it.

So I finally decided to make one for her and dug out the leftover squares from Cobi's blanket. I added more felted sweaters to make up enough for the blanket. I zig-zagged the squares into strips and the strips into the blanket like I had with Cobi's blanket. But after I was done I realized there were many many many spots where there were gaps in the sewn strips...



I set it aside, frustrated, and decided to try again. So I gathered more wool sweaters and made a second blanket, figuring I would keep the original one for myself since it wasn't good enough to give away. While I was making the second blanket I realized that I could sew over the original seams and get the gaps taken care of. I don't know why that didn't occur to me before...


So now I have a dilemma: Which one do I give Julie and which one do I get to keep?

Blanket #1:


Blanket #2:


I think I may ask Julie to pick the one she wants. Is that tacky? or brilliant?

Quiet Sunday

It's been a nice quiet weekend. Well, other than the near heart attack watching the Canada/Russia semifinal game in the World Jr.'s yesterday. That involved a lot of yelling at the TV and jumping/cowering on the couch (reciprocal scoring throughout the game, Canada down by 1 with under a minute left in the 3rd period, Canada scoring with 5 seconds left, overtime and a shootout. It was a doozy)... Where was I? Oh yeah, a quiet weekend.

Today I took down my teeny tiny very fake Christmas tree and noticed that my Christmas Cactus had a big bloom on it that was being hidden by the tree.


After I had the tree and ornaments packed away I decided I wasn't ready to relinquish the tiny LED lights yet, so I put them in a jar. I really like how it looks and I may keep it like this for a while.


The rest of the day was spent watching Wild Card football games and knitting a new pair of mittens (well, the first of the mittens).



This is something I've wanted to do for a long time (since 2006 according to this blog). I charted the pattern from a pair of authentic Norwegian mittens loaned to me by my "aunt" (my dad's cousin's wife) whose aunt knitted them for my aunt's father in Norway in 1949 (I posted a pic of the originals here in Dec. 2006).

The background yarn was spun by me about a year ago (and I just realized I didn't ever post it here, bad blogger)

The colorway is "Snow Squall", which seems very appropriate for mittens. It's a wonderful wooly Icelandic wool from Spunky Eclectic FOTM. I navajo plied it so it has long color runs. The contrast color is SandnesGarn Tove, also very very wooly. My mom would go squirrelly just thinking about these mittens.

Of course, now that I'm getting to these new mittens the weather will start to improve... Sigh. Oh well, I'm not going to turn down a chinook at this stage in winter. It's been too cold (and snowy) for a month now. I'm ready for some Calgary warm weather.

New Year Plan

I'm not good at making or keeping resolutions. (well, more the keeping part). So I thought I'd think a bit about what I'm thankful/grateful for and what I'd like to do better in the future.

I'm Thankful/Grateful and Happy:
-that we have my Mom with us and she seems to be getting better. Her memory and speech functions are improving steadily and she is in good spirits. I love my Mom and I'm so happy that she is fighting this latest battle bravely.
-for my family. I love my sister and brothers and in-laws and all of their many many many kids (I have 9 nieces and nephews).
-for my creativity. I rarely am bored as I'm constantly making something or planning something to make. Some people in my life find this humorous but they almost always enjoy the results of this creativity.
-for my job. This one isn't always easy to remember, as my job isn't very exciting nor does it make me a rich woman, but it is a steady income and I'm good at my work. A sub-point here is that I'm happy for my coworkers. I have been pleasantly surprised over the last year to realize that I am friends with many of my coworkers and am on very good terms with the rest of them.
-for the country I live in. It's not perfect and everyone has their own view on how it should run, but by and large we are a peaceable sort and as a whole we have a concern for the world at large and try to do good in it.
-for the Boy. Without being sappy or sentimental. I'm thankful for the way he makes me laugh and the way I can make him laugh. For the ridiculous arguments we have on a nearly daily basis. A boy who isn't scared to argue with me is a valuable thing indeed.
-for getting through the past year without serious illness or injury (that is not to say with no illness or injury... There was the lung infection, scalding my hand, mono, the Death Flu of 08...)
-for my eye sight!!! I almost forgot this one! My eye surgery was a success and the recovery was relatively short. (I was telling my friend Sheri today that I sometimes forget that I used to wear glasses!)

In the future (starting this year) I'd like to do better at:
-exercising and sticking with it.
-eating healthier/not eating junk.
-finishing things I start. Sure I'm creative but my brain has a tendency to skip from project to project and not finish things.
-keeping in touch with people I care about. This includes people I have lost touch with from my past and who I would love to reconnect with.
-not letting frustration get the best of me. I don't deal well with frustration, especially when the ability to change or correct the situation is out of my control. I need to breathe, be calm and just relax.
-getting out of my apartment more. I'm a hermit. There, I've said it. I have my yarn and fabric and computer and TV and Wii and... I need to get out more... which leads me to
-doing things that scare me. I'm shy (people who know me from situations where I was comfortable don't believe this but it's true). I let myself talk myself out of going into situations where I won't know anyone or where I'll be out of my comfort zone.
-being more presentable. I tend to wear the same things over and over and don't really care that much about what it looks like. Comfort is key. I also have a tendency to not bother with getting hair cuts until the situation is dire. I would like to at least appear like I have access to a brush and know the name of the stylist who cut my hair.
-not buying more yarn just because a project popped into my head. I do not want to buy any yarn until I reduce the current size of the stash by 1/3. Reducing can take the form of using it or selling/gifting it. (This will necessitate cataloguing the yarn, which I started to do before my spreadsheet disappeared. argh)
-keeping up with my blog
-following up on comments from kind readers
-remembering to be happy for all the items (and more) in the first list.

I think that's a good start for now...
Happy New Year everyone.

Final FOs of 2008

Happy New Year everyone!

I finally got around to taking pictures of the last few FOs of the year. In order of completion they are:

1. Cabled Purse

Pattern: Cobbled together from several different free patterns online
Yarn: Some chunky grey yarn of uncertain fiber content (mill ends purchased in bulk at Walmart)



2. Mom's February Lady Sweater

Pattern: February Lady
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease
Mom loved it! It fits perfectly and she was really happy with it. As was I. I finished it the evening before we drove out to Saskatchewan, cutting it close but it was done!

3. Knitting/Tote Bag for Wen-Shu (My co-worker who just learned to knit)


No pattern, figured it out from scratch using a basic square bottomed bag.
Fabric: cottons from stash

4. Raisin yarn (for Wen-Shu to enable encourage her in her knitting)


Fiber from Spunky Eclectic. I lost the tag (again) and can't remember the breed. Weight is about a worsted and it's around 140 yards.

an aside: You remember when I showed you Wen-Shu's first knitting efforts? She is progressing so fast! I taught her to purl just before Christmas and over the break she figured out ribbing and made her daughter a toque without a pattern! It's like having a kindred spirit in the office and so much fun to see all of her progress. She said she was going to try to figure out colorwork over the weekend too!

Back to the list:

5. Slouchy Devra hat

Pattern: Devra 2 from pieKnits
Yarn: Paton's Shetland Chunky from stash

This was such a quick knit! I cast on in the evening on December 23 and finished in the truck on the way to Saskatchewan for Christmas (having someone else drive on that 5 hour drive=awesome!)

6. Quickie Scarf

Basic 1x1 knit
Yarn: my handspun... the softest squooshiest yarn I've ever produced... :D

And finally (drumroll please...)
7. The Boy's Argyle Toque

Pattern: I was inspired by Angela Sixian Wu's Mini-Argyle Beret (ravelry link here). I came up with a new chart to fit the sizing I needed.
Yarn: Estelle Cadenza (beige background)
Sandnes Garn Lanett (orange)
Sandnes Garn Sisu (blue)



The toque is reversible, and matches a jacket he has (I hope). He had requested a toque to match and I know the orange is perfect. I just hope it's okay. He's away this week, so I'll find out how he likes it next week.




I spent today taking pictures and starting to catalogue my yarn stash. I had a whole spreadsheet full and took pictures to go along with it. I just opened the spreadsheet to check on a name for the toque above and the whole thing was gone. GAHHH!!! A whole day's worth of effort gone. Well, I have the pictures but without the info on the yarn I'll have to start from scratch. I was planning to start the (really really really really) long process of putting it all up on Ravelry. sigh.