WIPs, sunglasses, and NRaWin2012

There has been knitting...but just not as much as I had hoped. My first term of the Harry Potter Knit/Crochet House Cup I did all things.  I turned in 6 classes a month, which is as much as you can do for points, finished an OWL, completed my BROOM, and even did all the Quidditch.  This term I started off behind because of my Calligraphy Cardigan, which to be honest was TOTALLY WORTH IT!  I love it so much and wear it practically every day whether it matches or not.  I even got nominated and won a prize for it. 

This term, I have only managed to get one class turned in, detention last month, I'm working on my OWL, which needs to be at 50% before midnight on the 29th and I still have about 8 inches of knitting left before I hit that mark, and I cast on my BROOM.

My OWL this term is the Aidez cardigan in Cascade Ecowool.  I am really enjoying knitting this but it took me WAY too long to get the different charts memorized so I could really get moving.  I also had a hard time with the set up row.  I am knitting the fronts and back as one piece where the pattern is written to knit them in pieces.  I am going to seam the sleeves but I just couldn't get around seaming the sides.  So far it is coming along nicely.  Here is a progress picture from Sunday night.

If you're my friend on Facebook, you know that my Facebook friends get bombarded with CGR pictures.  I mainly post them for my father, who lives in Panama, and Special K's family up in Ohio.  Here is a cute picture we took this weekend.  She is growing TOO fast and I just can't even blink because I feel I'll miss too much.  Being a mom is such a blessing and having her as my daughter is amazing!  I just love watching her learn new things and discover the world.  She'll be 15 months old on Thursday and I can't believe it! 

For this past week's recipe, I was kind of lame.  It was Sunday night and I had almost forgot to do something.  I still owe you another one from a week I missed posting about...I just found the pictures of some awesome deviled eggs Special K and I made for Valentine's day.  I'll post that later this week.  But for this week, I did homemade whip cream.  I'm not sure how you feel but I LOVE whip cream!  I could eat it with a spoon or from the spray bottle!  I had been wanting brownies and figured why not make some homemade whip cream to go with it!

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RECIPE:  Homemade whip cream

1 cup of heavy whipping cream
1 tsp of vanilla extract
1 tbs of powdered sugar

You can use a mixer but I chose to do it the old fashion way with a whisk...my shoulder got a workout!  First you will mix or in my case whisk the heavy whipping cream in a bowl until you get soft peaks.  Then you will add the vanilla extract, which I used some homemade kind that my friend Tinyant's husband made, and the powdered sugar.  Then mix/whisk until you get stiffer peaks but be careful not to over mix or you will get a lumpy tasty mess. :)

Then scoop it onto whatever and ENJOY!  The brownies were so warm and the whip cream was a perfect addition to them!  YUMMO!

Hope you enjoyed this post.  More to come! 
Happy Knitting, Mothering, and Sweet making!!!

NRaWin2012: Pepper and Onion Steak

I am STILL behind on these posts but I have been making them.  This next one is from our dinner on Feb 17th! :)  So...we're just going to keep working on trying to get caught up.  I've made Peppered Steak quite a few times and sometimes it comes out good and I have been known to over spice it.  My DH isn't a fan of soy sauce or anything too salty so that is good but I have over soy sauced or salted things plenty!  He was worried I would do the same with this so I enlisted my sister G's help since she always makes this really good!

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Recipe: Pepper and Onion Steak

I started with a piece of steak...wish I remembered what kind of cut I got but I don't.  I sliced up the meat and put it into a bowl with some soy sauce, worcestershire sauce and some spices.  While that marinated, I started the rice and chopping the onions.  Then I started browned the meat while I cut up the rest of the onions, peppers and garlic.  I put in the veggies as soon as the meat was browned.  I then let it saute while I finished up the rice and put on the beans.  It took about 10 mins or less for the veggies to be done.  I like them to be a little bit crispy still.

This turned out pretty good! My sister usually uses a little Italian dressing for the marinade too but I didn't have any.  I'd like to try again with that.

Happy Cooking!!!

This moment - Dinner time!

{this moment} – A Friday ritual from Soule Mama.  A single photo  – no words – capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your “moment” in the comments for all to find and see.

NRaWin2012: Homemade cupcakes!

Ok...so yes...I'm behind...I have been cooking and baking but no blogging. :)  So...let's try and catch up here.  2 weeks ago for the superbowl I baked homemade cupcakes...After I made these cupcakes, I watched an Alton Brown episode (We love Alton Brown in my house), and he says to just go with the boxed cake but make the icing homemade!  So next time, I'm going to try a butter cream homemade icing and just make the boxed cake.  However, at least now I can say I baked homemade cupcakes.  Well...this would be the 2nd homemade cupcakes I've made.  The first were the vegan ones I made for Carmen's birthday which were DELISH!

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Recipe: Homemade Cupcakes.

The recipe was found here.  I followed it to a T so I would just go over there and read what she wrote. :)  Sorry for the lack of detail here.  My review is that I don't think I would use this recipe again if I was to bake more.  While they were really tasty, I wasn't a huge fan of the texture.  OH and I bought the butter cream icing from Publix since my Father-in-law loves it and we were going over there to watch the Superbowl anyway! :)

Speaking of Superbowl day...we went over to my FIL's early and went on CGR's very first boat ride!  She loved it! She didn't want to sit for long but she loved being on the boat! Here are some pics.

She loved the wind in her face!

 

Happy Baking!!

FO: Calligraphy Cardigan

My Calligraphy cardigan has been completed...and worn practically every day possible since!!  And I do not exaggerate that I can't stop wearing this!  It's super comfortable and I feel goes with EVERYTHING...even though it really doesn't but who cares I LOVE IT!   If you are friends with me on most social network sites, you will have already seen these pictures but I wanted to post to my blog as well. 

Pattern: Calligraphy Cardigan by Hannah Fettig
Yarn: Hand spun and hand dyed by me from wool that I purchased from Warren in WI and sent to be processed.

Yes, me and my girl are very silly!! :)

The hand spun yarn was a bit thicker than the called for gauge so with the help of Jasmin from the Knitmore Girls Podcast, I was able to change the numbers proportionally to fit what my gauge was and the fit I feel is perfect!!  I'm not sure I can explain exactly what we did but if anyone wants to know I can do a post about it. Thank you Jasmin for all your help and Congrats again to your family on your beautiful addition G!!

Happy Knitting!!!

NRaWin2012: Sausage stuffed mushrooms

This was actually the new recipe for two weeks ago but we made it and then I never posted. :)  This was actually another Special K recipe but he hasn't had time to post the blog so I'm not sure exactly what he did. 

Recipe: Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms.

What I do know...he got the recipe from Rachel Ray's site here.  I know that he left out the celery and other stuff but not sure exactly what.  All I can say is that these were FANTASTIC!! I love mushrooms!  We also had a bunch of left over and we used  it for pasta which I have a picture of somewhere...I'll have to add later.  Also...we kept some of the sausage mix out before we added anything that Carmen was allergic too into it...and she loved it!

Happy Cooking!!!