Knit Monster Longies!

I am in a Facebook group for virtually everything.  Seriously.  Well not cooking, I should probably start one...  Anyway, one day in my local cloth diapering group someone mentioned Crankypants longies.  I went to their website AND FELL IN LOVE. Tender Tush  After all, isn't cuteness the main reason to cloth diaper?  Hehe.

If you are unfamiliar with what longies are, they are wool pants designed to cover a fitted cloth diaper.  Fitted diapers are not waterproof, and your best two options (because I guess a duct tape and a recycled grocery sack could be option #3) are covers made of PUL or natural 100% non-superwash wool.  PUL is what most people start with, it's easy & can be thrown in the washer and dryer... but it isn't very breathable, and you lose a few environmental points if that is your reason for going cloth.  Wool is pretty awesome, and I've got to say, way easier to care for than I had imagined.  It needs to be treated with lanolin (for waterproofing) prior to use as a diaper cover.  As far as washing goes, you do need to handwash and hang dry knit wool covers, but they don't need to be washed very often.  Air them between uses, and wash if they become soiled is my rule.

I learned to knit a few years back when #3 was a baby (if you didn't already know, you can learn virtually anything from youtube), so I thought I would give these pants a try.  After a bit of looking, I found a pattern here.  Since 'lil man is a whopping 23 lbs at 5 months old (and already beginning to grow into size 18 month clothing), I opted to make size 1-2 years rather than 6-12 months.  I used Wool of the Andes Sport Weight yarn from Knit Picks.  I used four skeins of Avocado, two skeins of Red, and scraps of white and black wool leftover from an awesome blanket I knitted years ago. 

There were a few things about the pattern that I had to tweak, and I like the look of a wide leg better, so I did seed stitching along the bottom instead of ribbing.  Erk.  I'll give you the full disclosure.  It is true that in the end I liked the wide finishing better, but I originally had ended the first leg with green ribbing.  I got to the last green stripe on the second leg and ran.out.of.yarn!  I didn't want to place an order and pay shipping for only one skein, PLUS I only needed a few yards.  The pants sat around for a few days, untouched while I thought about what to do, then I decided to finish off with the little bit of red I had left.  No joke- I used every bit of red that I had left!  I made an I-cord with the green I had originally used for ribbing, and again, just enough!  Without further ado (and with apologies for the bad color), I give you monster longies:

 

So here's the thing.  I am kinda lazy.  Failed to knit a swatch prior to starting... turns out my gauge was a little bit bigger than the pattern called for. Here's a pic of #4 with his *ahem* quite long longies.  Oh, and check out his super cute fitted diaper from EG Baby Designs.

 

They are pretty big, but with the legs rolled up and the waist tied he can use them!  I could also say I did it on purpose in order to get the most use. ;-)

 

Stay tuned, I will post about lanolizing later this week!

Cornmeal Blueberry Pancakes with Spiced Maple Butter!

So, remember that Breakfast & Brunch cooking magazine I bought a few days ago?  Well, while looking through it and salivating, Kendall challenged me make one recipe a day and work through the entire magazine.  The cover says there are 75 recipes... if you add the variations that is a heck of a commitment.  I have issues with commitments... so I have not said yes.  BUT I have so far made four of the recipes in four days.  I do appreciate a challenge.  Okay well three of the four were made yesterday, let's not get too technical here.

I actually made pancakes for breakfast AND dinner yesterday.  Pure craziness, I know.  For breakfast we had puff pancakes (of course, from the Fine Cooking mag and part of the mentioned breakfast recipe challenge), which were extremely quick and easy to make.  Mix up four ingredients, pour into a heated and heavily buttered cast iron skillet in a hot oven, bake for 12 minutes.  The puff pancake reminded me of an elephant ear.  They were good, but these were amazing:

Cornmeal Blueberry Pancakes- seriously the best pancakes I've ever made.  Heck, they are the best pancakes I've ever eaten.  Want the recipe?  http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/cornmeal-blueberry-pankcakes-spiced-maple-butter.aspx  Well, I made them for dinner last night, with some awesome thick cut bacon and a minted tropical fruit salad.  These are pretty much standard blueberry buttermilk pancakes, but adding cornmeal gives them the slightest and most pleasant crunch.  A pleasant crunch that would be thoroughly ruined if drenched in that cloyingly sweet mess called syrup.  Pancakes with syrup... I know this is the American standard, but I must ask... Why?  I really have an aversion to pancakes with syrup.  The word sodden comes to mind.  This recipe has given me the answer to my life-long pancake/syrup dilemma.  Spiced maple butter.  All the syrupy flavor you could ask for, no sodden mess.  Muy deliciouso, very similar to Texas Roadhouse's roll butter if you've been there.  Go make these, I guarantee you will be happy you did! 

Oh, by the way, you know how that first pancake is always all kinds of messed up?  Here's the fix-  Wait to pour your batter until the pan is hot enough to instantly evaporate a drop of water.  Now you don't have to convince your youngest child (or dog) to eat the icky one.  You're welcome.

Croque-Madame Sandwiches!

I am a total sucker for new publications from America's Test Kitchen and Fine Cooking.  A week or two ago I noticed a new Best of Fine Cooking magazine at the check stands, Breakfast & Brunch.  I almost bought it a few different times, but stopped myself because I rarely make breakfast. Something about the morning just doesn't appeal to me (the part where I'm out of my bed), and there isn't enough coffee at Dutch Bros. to combat that feeling.  I will say that I am truly jealous of morning people though.  You guys get so much done before I've even brushed my teeth...



Okay, back to my point.  Breakfast & Brunch - T'was the eve of February the sixteenth, year of our Lord two thousand thirteen.  My husband, #3, #4, and I were at the market to acquire our dinner.  I.was.freaking.starving.  Picked up the mag while we were checking out and saw the recipe for croque-madame sandwiches.  I immediately realized that I had all ingredients (with the exception of the white bread) already at the house.  I turned to my husband as the checker began scanning our items and calmly said, "Go, get some white bread, hurry!"  As I had flashed the photo to him, he quickly acquiesced.

Flash forward to the next morning:

I got all of my ingredients out and got to work!  Step one, make a roux (a simple mixture of fat and flour) as the base for the bechamel sauce.  I followed the recipe for this sauce, but I will tell you how to make a simple base white sauce.  You'll need 2 Tbsp butter, 2 Tbsp flour, and 2 cups whole milk.  Melt the butter in a medium sauce pan over medium heat.  Add flour and stir continually until the roux develops a nice beige color.

I love this wisk by the way (Kuhn Rikon Silicone Butterfly).  It works amazingly well for roux making, quickly scraping down the entire surface area of the pan and keeping it from burning in any areas.  Here is my roux, looking nice and beige.  At this point you need to add your liquids quickly to prevent burning (you should have them measured out already).  Pour in a continuous stream while whisking with your other hand.  You want to be stirring pretty much continually (otherwise you risk lumping), reaching down to the bottom of the pan until your sauce is thickened.  The process will take roughly 3 minutes, but pay more attention to the characteristics of the sauce than the time.  If it starts bubbling at all, turn the heat down!   Bechamel sauces do need to be babysat, but thankfully they come together really quickly.  Once it is slightly thickened, take the pan off of the heat.  Now you can mix in whatever flavorings you want to add to your sauce: cheese, herbs, worchestershire, etc.  Viola!  Now pour that sauce over some pasta or potatoes or pretty much whatever you want to.

So after I made my sauce, I put together a few gruyere and ham sandwiches, and quickly toasted both sides in a skillet.

Then I transferred the sandwiches to a baking pan, ladeled on some bechamel sauce, topped with grated parmesean, and broiled it until it was golden and bubbly.  While broiling the sandwiches I fried up a couple of sunny-side up eggs, which I topped the sandwiches with after removing from the oven.  Mmmmmmm.  All this, and we were still 10 minutes early to church.  Woot!

Organic Mozzarella Cheese!

Here are #4 and I, ready for our latest adventure! (Yes, he is totally zonked out strapped to my back).   Also, if you can read time backward, you will notice that it is 10:55, and you may notice pajama clad #3 squatting in the corner, watching TV.  Ya can't do it all.

So, those of you who try to eat organically have no doubt noticed that while organic milk is widely available and not too terribly expensive, dairy products made from organic milk can be very difficult to find and are sometimes prohibitively expensive.  Well, some good friends of mine gave me a cheesemaking kit for Christmas, so today I am going to find out just how hard it is to make my own organic cheese.

    

I will be using Ricki's Cheesemaking Kit, which can be purchased here: http://www.cheesemaking.com/store/c/1-Kits.html.  It comes with everything but the milk (okay, and the 2 pots, bowl, wooden spoon, and fine mesh colander).  The instructions expressly state that ultra-pasteurized milk will not work for cheesemaking.  Well.  It certainly isn't hard to find regular pasteurized milk, and it certainly isn't hard to find ultra-pasteurized organic milk... but it turns out that nearly all the organic milk I could find was ultra-pasteurized.  Finally, at the third store I went to (Fred Meyer), I found Organic Valley brand milk, which is just regular-ole-pasteurized.  I got whole milk, I mistrust anything low fat.

Alright, the instructions were pretty easy to follow, dissolve rennet tablet in water, heat citric acid, water & milk... I followed them to a T.  (You can find her directions here: http://www.cheesemaking.com/howtomakemozzarellacheese.html) An issue came up at the curd stage though.  My curds set up, but not nearly as well as they should have. The next time I make it (because I will totally do it again), I will definitely let it set up longer if I'm questioning the readiness at all.  Mine ended up resembling ricotta at this stage, rather than having a nice defined curd.  I believe this was an issue of following the timing and temperatures rather than the descriptions of appearance given in the instructions.

Anyhow, at this point I was supposed to ladle the curds into a sieve to separate from the whey.  My curds were much too small to mess with all that.  I just slowly (and carefully) poured my curds and whey through a fine mesh strainer.

Aww, isn't it cute!  From here, the instructions had you decide whether to use a hot water bath or microwave method to finish up the cheese.  Short rant- I don't know why in the heck a person would go through all of this just to destroy any nutritional value with the microwave.... so I chose the water bath method.

  

Easy peasy.  Seriously easy peasy.  Heat a pot of water to 185 degrees.  Dunk colander.  When the cheese comes together & gets all stringy you get to play with it and stretch it out!

Here is what I had in the end:  12 ounces of beautiful organic fresh mozzarella cheese.  I was supposed to have 16 ounces, but my theory is that by not letting the curd set up enough, I poured off those extra four ounces with the whey. All in all though, not bad for a first try.  It took me about an hour from start to finish, and I did the dishes in that time as well.  So $5 and around an hour of your time for a pound of organic cheese.  Pretty swell if you ask me.

Since it also happened to be Valentine's day....

I thought a few heart-shaped pizzas were in order!