Preparing for Canada - House Slippers

Hello all!

As I mentioned before, we will travel to Canada this summer. Vancouver and Vancouver Island to be exact. Man, I am so excited! Our first real holiday in two years and my first time leaving the continent since 2011 (when I was in Australia for Michelle's wedding).

I had my fair share of long distance travels over the last ten years and one thing I hate about plane rides are the shoes. My feet usually swell up but I don't like to walk around on the plane in socks. So this time, I decided to make myself "plane shoes" which I can use as house shoes in the hostels we will stay in as well.

The Oma House Slipper pattern from Tara Murray is fantastic! You have to pay for the pattern but it is well worth it! I used the size 4 instructions. Uh, no my feet aren't that tiny but instead of holding two strands of yarn together, I used a rather bulky yarn. After some trial and error, I discovered that the size 4 pattern worked best. 

As you can see, I added liquid rubber stuff underneath, so I won't slip. Undoubtedly I am not very talented at pretty figures but it should do the trick. Plus, no one will see it anyway, I reckon!

Oh, I am so looking forward to our time in Canada!

Is any of you from Vancouver by any chance and has some good yarn shop advice (or would like to meet for coffee)?

Take care

Anne

P.S. Thanks for your kind comments on Findus! I miss him a lot...

Yarn in honor of Findus

Hello all!

Yesterday something happened which shocked me to the core: My cat Findus died aged 16 years. He lived with my family since he was less then 4 weeks old and really owned us. 

We were lucky to have him this long since he almost died several times (he had an autoimmune illness) but that doesn't make the loss any easier. Earlier this week my mum took him to the vet because he was eating less and breathed really hard. The news weren't good: There was water in this lungs. He went home with my mum that night but had to go back to the vet last night where he had to be put down. The decision wasn't an easy one but as a pet owner you have a great responsibilty for you pet. And we didn't want to let him suffer and "drown" or starve because he couldn't breathe or eat. My parents and my sister were there with him til the end. I just wish I could have been there too!! Because I had a bad feeling beforehand I did skype with him earlier the day though and was able to tell him I love him. 

Anyway, I spent the night thinking what I could do in honour of him. When I feel sad I usually buy yarn but I figured that this time I should do it for someone else. On the World Vision homepage I found the Micro Credit Project of Judith Monica Herrera. She lives in Bolivia and needs a micro credit to expand her yarn store which feeds her family and allows her child to go to school. The project can be found here. 

When I saw the project I decided to donate some money to her yarn store in honor of my beloved cat Findus. I bet he would have loved that (oh, well, he would have loved the yarn to play with... or to eat... or to chew on... or all of it really).

 

These micro credits are a really good thing to support. More information can be found here (German) and here (English).

Take care

Anne

Recipe: Oremon Drink

Hello all!

Some weeks ago I had a very yummy hot drink at a local café. It seemed to be a picture of fresh orange juice, fresh lemon juice and sugar/honey. So good, so healthy! Vitamin C-Bomb I reckon...

Since I can't go back to this café everyday, I decided to make up the drink myself. After a few tries comes the result right here! I called it Oremon (ORange lEMON)...

Oremon Hot Drink

Serves 6

Ingredients

2-4 oranges (if they are juicy two are enough)

2 lemons

2 Tablespoons honey

Hot water

How to make it

Add honey into a teapot. Squeeze the lemon and orange juice into the pot. Add about the same amount of hot water (not boiling - it will destroy the vitamin C otherwise) as the juice. Taste and add more honey if it isn't sweet enough. 

Ta-Dah! Yummy hot drink made!

Take care,
Anne

PS There will be crochet posts soon... :-) 

And we're off!

All packed and ready to party - tomorrow, Captain Poprocks is taking his first overseas trip to Vanuatu!

See you when we get back!

Recipe: Raspberry Citrus Gravlax

We are about to go away on holidays for a few weeks to Vanuatu! Before I leave Sydney's horrible cold, windy weather behind, I thought I would share with you a lovely little recipe that is good for all year round :) 

As you know, I LOVE gravlax. I am a latecomer to seafood, and it definitely took me a while to get the hang of raw fish! I think what I love about gravlax is that it combines the beautiful subtle flavours that work so well with fish, with a certain bacony-meaty-ness that is just oh so good...

After our beetroot experiments, we decided to have a go using different flavours to cure the salmon. I love the flavour of raspberries - that sweet and sharp taste goes well with so many foods! 

The raspberry colours the salmon beautifully, with a delicate pink tinge.

Photo courtesy of Kiah Westlund

I also love the visual of the salmon fillets bathing in that stunning pink soup! 

Without further delay, the Raspberry Citrus Gravlax recipe! 

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RECIPE: RASPBERRY CITRUS GRAVLAX

Serves many

Ingredients
1 whole salmon, filleted, skinned and pinboned 
(ask your fishmonger to do this for you!)

500g frozen raspberries
250g rock salt
170g raw sugar
1 tbsp mixed peppercorns
Zest of 2 lemons
Zest of 2 oranges
1 bunch of dill
60ml vodka

Method

1. In a food processor, combine all ingredients except salmon, and whizz until smooth.  Pour into a large baking dish that will fit both halves of the salmon and leave on the bench to defrost.

2. Snuggle your salmon fillets into the raspberry mix and make sure they are covered all over. Cover with clingwrap right to the surface of the cure to try and keep the air away from the curing meat. Put in the fridge.

3. After 24 hours, turn the salmon fillets over in the cure and stir the raspberry mix around. There should be a fair amount of juice come out of the salmon, and you want to mix that into the raspberry cure so that the salt can stay close to the meat.

4. After another 24 hours, take the salmon out of the cure and rinse really well under cold running water. Pat dry with paper towel or a clean tea towel, and wrap tightly in cling wrap. Store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

5. To serve, slice the gravlax as thin as you can (with a very sharp knife)! It's great with cream cheese, lemon and dill on some lovely rye bread, but try it however you like! 

Enjoy!

Recipe: Tarte Flambee

Hello all!

One of my favourite recipes is Tarte Flambee or Flammkuchen as it is called in German. It's such a quick and wonderful recipe at the same time. We really like to make it when we have friends over, for dinner with wine and so on. 

Usually we make the traditional version with onions and bacon, but sometimes we experiment too. These are the results of our experiments. Note: The dough is always the same.

Recipe: Tarte Flambee

Preheat the oven to 230°C
Important: Tarte Flambee should be baked with the grill function on (no fan forced!) and on the lowest ray.

Dough

250 grams plain flour
125ml water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt

Add all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. I usually knead by hand.

Roll as flat as possible. This is enough dough for one baking tray or 7 little ones (like on the photos).

Toppings

No 1 - The Traditional One

200 grams Schmand
200 grams Quark
(Note: People outside Germany will have problems getting these ingredients. You can use a mixture of double cream and creme fraiche instead)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Mix well and put on the flat dough. Note: This mix is usually enough for two Tartes Flambee. You can use all the cream but I reckon it's too heavy.

2-3 onions, chopped and braised
100-150 grams chopped bacon

Scatter the onions and the bacon over the cream on the dough.

Put the baking tray into the preheated oven and bake for about 16 minutes. Note: If you are making small pieces instead of a large one, reduce the time.

No 2 - The Almost Traditional One

200 grams Schmand
200 grams Quark
(Note: People outside Germany will have problems getting these ingredients. You can use a mixture of double cream and creme fraiche instead)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Mix well and put on the flat dough. Note: This mix is usually enough for two Tarte Flambee. You can use all the cream but I reckon it's too heavy.

2 bunches of spring onions, chopped
100-150 grams chopped bacon

Scatter the spring onions and the bacon over the cream on the dough.

Put the baking tray into the preheated oven and bake for about 16 minutes. Note: If you are making small pieces instead of a large one, reduce the time.

No 3 - The Salmon One

200 grams Schmand
200 grams Quark
(Note: People outside Germany will have problems getting these ingredients. You can use a mixture of double cream and creme fraiche instead)
Salt and Pepper to taste
2-3 Teaspoons of Dill-Mustard-Sauce

Mix well and put on the flat dough. Note: This mix is usually enough for two Tarte Flambee. You can use all the cream but I reckon it's too heavy.

2 bunches of spring onions, chopped
150-200 grams frozen or fresh salmon (if frozen: defrost before you use it)
Parmesan to taste

Scatter the spring onions and the salmon over the cream on the dough.

Put the baking tray into the preheated oven and bake for about 16 minutes. Note: If you are making small pieces instead of a large one, reduce the time.

Ta-dah! Corner to Corner Rainbow Throw!

Hello all!

I finally (!!) finished my corner to corner rainbow throw. I showed you some snippets of it here and actually finished the first version around the same time. Unfortunatly, I made a HUGE mistake...

Somewhere in the middle I decreased too much which resulted in an ugly bend on one side. I was so upset I didn't even take pictures of it... Some people said, one wouldn't notice but trust me: I would!

And soooo... I undid 48 rows of 16 different colours... I could have cried!

After that, the blanket stayed in a box for some weeks until I go back to it about 3 weeks ago. Now that it's finished (and man, there were tons of little end to be sewn in), I am really happy I undid part of the first version.

What do you think?

It's so cuddly and lives permanently on our couch.

Blanket Date:

Pattern: Corner to Corner Throw

Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK

Colours used: 17 (Lucy Pack). 3 Rows of each colour 4 times!

I used the colors in the following order:

Meadow
Aspen 
Spring Green
Sherbert
Cloud Blue
Turqouise
Aster
Lavendle
Wisteria
Clematis
Fondant
Magneta
Plum
Pomgrantw
Lipstick
Shrimp
Saffron

Take care

Anne

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