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Tuesday, January 26, 2016

In the kitchen: brining and baking

If you were two sum up how I have spent my free time this past week, it would only take two words: brining and baking. Or maybe I should say reading about brining  because I've spent significantly more hours learning about the brining process than actually doing brining work.

After reading this lovely post on The Nourished Kitchen about preserving lemons, I knew I had to try it myself. 



The prep work was super basic so it looks like the real challenge will be waiting for the lemons to cure. In the meantime, I'm searching Pinterest for recipes to try when they are ready. 

Now, for the baking news. My whole family loves my modified version of the Cinnamon Raisin Quick Bread recipe from the 100 Days of Real Food cook book so much that I always make a double batch. I don't know about you , but I always have this "ahhhhh" moment when bread goes into the oven. I pour myself another cup of coffee and stick it in the microwave...




...only to discover that I forgot to put in the melted dairy-free butter. Yeah. Mom fail. Thankfully it is still yummy and even tastes more bready and less cakey which I like. The only downside is that it doesn't stay moist as long do I think I'll just use about half of what the recipe calls for from now on. 

In other baking related news, I found a stack of 5" wide baskets for 98c at my favorite thrift store! These will be perfect to prove small loaves of sour dough bread in later this week!




To see more pictures of my baking/sketching/knitting adventures, make sure you follow me on Instagram!!







Monday, January 18, 2016

Knitting Koselig

So, this is the forecast I awoke to on Sunday morning. Yeah, I know. Last year, tears would have welled up in my eyes with this sort of forecast. 


Thankfully, one of my friends posted this article on how Norwegians not only survive these seeming endless cold days but actually enjoy them!
"Norwegians have a word, koselig, that means a sense of coziness. It's like the best parts of Christmas without all the stress. People light candles, light fires, drink warm beverages, and sit under fuzzy blankets." 
I can totally get behind this idea!!



My son has been wanting me to knit him a blanket since his older sister has one of her own. I'm using the Super Easy Blanket pattern/formula but with slightly different gauge and yarn (Ravelry link here). 

Hope the endless rows of garter stitch help keep me cozy at least through March!