A Year Of Projects (YOP Week 2)

Inspired by Sam I Am (who has limitless energy and projects going!), I have decided to join the Ravelry group A Year Of Projects (YOP) . The group is open to anyone and the rules are simple, you set yourself a list of projects to knit (sew, crochet, any craft), post on the group's board, and blog about it weekly every Sunday with your progress (which makes my post 3 days late, I'll work on that!!). The YOP runs from July 1st through to June 30th the next year and you can really start anytime. I've been working on my project list for a few weeks while I've been waiting for my circular needles to arrive in the mail!

I knitted these two Halloween pals a long time ago and have since lost the patterns, but I remember having so much fun creating knitted crafts. My winters here in the mountains are long and now that I am powered by painkilling Arnica gel for my hands, I am giving knitting another go! I think this is a great idea if you need a little support and motivation to get projects done.

So here is my Project List for 2017 (July 1 2017 - June 30 2018), I have eight of them:

1. Weekend Beach Cover Up: This is my first project, and I'll be starting this today. I now have the yarn, needles and pattern ready to go! In the summer when it's nice and hot outside, I spend most of the time on the porch in beach wear. I have one cover up, but I really would like to make one of my own.
Status: Starting today!

This is the colour I chose for the cover-up, a nice grey. The yarn is so soft and not too heavy. I've only knitted small projects before so this will be the most challenging one to date! :)

2. Hudson's Bay Blanket: I found this pattern online a long time ago. It's for a baby blanket, but my goal is to make one that fits our Queen sized bed. I grew up with Hudson's Bay colours - they were everywhere from winter coats, to blankets to even coffee mugs! I looked into buying one last winter, but oh my gosh are they expensive....they are not priced from the 1980's anymore that's for sure! I want this to be my main project for the winter.
Status: Planned

3. Early Morning Meadow Sweater: I've always wanted to knit myself a sweater, but I always lacked the confidence, so this will be my second winter project. I think I might choose a light grey or white colour. I hope I'm smiling like the gal in the photo when I'm done! :)
Status: Planned

4. Cheese Making: If you ask me, cheese making is a craft in itself! I'll be reporting all of my cheesy projects on my other blog Rainy Day Cheese Making. I have lofty cheese goals this year and here they are:

- Pizza Mozzarella
- 3 month aged Cheddar
- 6 month aged Cheddar
- 12 month aged Cheddar
- 6 to 12 month aged Red Wine Infused Cheddar
- Cream Cheese
- Camembert
- Blue Cheese (this is a maybe, it's complicated, needs good aging atmosphere and more equipment)

Status: Ongoing; Year Long

5. Memory Board: In my office, the wall space is limited because I like to put up all of my paintings. On one wall, I have a small cork board that I made years ago. It's adhesive cork on an old piece of cardboard box, with dark brown tape around it. It works, but it's very flimsy! My goal is to make a sturdy Memory Board on a plywood base. I look at this board several times a day and it makes me so happy. :)
Status: Planned

6. Organization Station: I'm a sucker for routine and planning! Every week or so, I update my little dry/erase board with my planned brunches and dinners. But I need a better system because I'm constantly looking for things and going back and forth to my laptop for more information...I have our shopping list taped to the fridge, our inventory list sitting on my desk...

I saw this on Pinterest and I love the idea. I haven't figured out quite what I'll be doing yet, but by the end of this year, I'll be much more organized!!
Status: Planned

7. Cold Frame(s) for Winter Gardening: After building my own screened-in porch this summer, I think that building a cold frame or two will be a cinch. :) At least I hope so! I can always ask Alex for help, but there is something about building your own projects that is extra rewarding! The plan is to make two of them, and I'll likely need to build raised beds as well. I have two spots on either side of the porch that I'll use for greens and winter-hardy veggies. Very exciting!
Status: Planned

8. Painting: For whatever reason, I have stopped my painting projects. I'm saddened by this because it gives me so much pleasure. When I'm painting, I'm very creative and I really relax and enjoy myself.

As some of my Blogger friends already know, I started painting watercolours of our pets. Charlie and Jack are done. My painting project for the summer and fall is to paint Marlene and the three cats Dana, Oscar and Leo. Our friend will be here this weekend to pick up Pavlov but there is a slight possibility that he will leave him for the summer with his other dog Stella (Pavlov's Mom). If so, I'll add those two to my painting list.

During the winter, I would like to challenge myself to at least one watercolour per month. I used to paint with oils and acrylics, so I might go back into that as well, but watercolours are just so vibrant!
Status: Planned

Feel free to join in casually or officially with the Ravelry group! Let's motivate each other! :)

Kitchen Creations! Ice Cream, Cheese, Cherries

The past weekend, Alex and I were really creative in the kitchen! That's what happens when it's stormy outside and weekenders are loud. It keeps us indoors and when we have the motivation, we are very creative! :) I started my cheese making this weekend! The above picture is the before shot of Mozzarella...

And here is the after shot! :) Please check out the full post on my other (new) blog Rainy Day Cheese Making! I admit, I had some ifs/ands/ors and buts...but for my first attempt at making cheese, it was a great experience and a well-deserved notch under my cheese making belt! The next cheese will be Cheddar!

Summertime is pretty much the only time we eat fruit; well, other than frozen berries all winter in our smoothies. We bought a watermelon the other day and Alex had the idea of adding some spiced rum to it. Most recipes call for an entire bottle of rum for a watermelon, yeesh! I don't want to get drunk off my fruit lol...I just want flavour. So we kind of put together some "winter" spices (nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon sticks, star anise) and added orange rinds and fresh vanilla bean to the rum.

We're going to let that sit for 24 hours, taste it, then add half to the watermelon. I really enjoy Captain Morgan's White Spiced Rum and we're hoping we can recreate that flavour on our own. I'll report the results in a few days!

I made this Country Peach Ice Cream a few weeks back, but never had the chance to post about it! It's made very differently from the other ice creams I've made. This one is made with egg yolks. A custard is cooked and then everything is strained and brought together a day later in the ice cream maker. I can't say I'm a big fan of this style of ice cream, called "French Style". Alex loves it though, so I'll keep making this one for him with different flavours.

We still had about six pounds of cherries left so Alex spent some time pitting them. He used a wine bottle to hold the cherry and pushed the pit out with a chop stick. If we venture further into cherry stuff, we'll definitely be investing in a cherry pitter! We kept the pits because...

Alex decided on trying out some Cherry Pit liqueurs! Disclaimer: YES...I know that cherry pits DO contain cyanide...so I'll be feeding Alex a little bit of this liqueur daily for the insurance money....lol...I watch too many old movies. Actually there is so little cyanide in these that you need to actually consume over a thousand cherry pits (chewing them) to suffer any kind of poisoning, so we're good! :) We tasted it last night after simmering it for a while and wow...have you ever had Peter Heering Cherry liqueur? Well, it's close! This will sit undisturbed for a good 3 months as well.

Another new creation! I made a "Croque Monsieur" pizza! :) That made two days in a row of pizza, lovely! :) We had leftover "all-dressed" from Saturday night (using the new Mozzarella I made!) and last night I made a cheese sauce (from my Croque Monsieur recipe), loaded it with ham and sprinkled on some Gruyere and ground thyme...I can't describe the deliciousneess of this in words! :) Definitely a keeper!

More ice cream making! :) I made Coffee Ice Cream this morning. I decided at the last minute to add some Bailey's and it was just wonderful. Ice cream making has become a nice hobby for me!

This is the last of the fresh (inexpensive) strawberries! Gosh these fruit "seasons" don't last too long. I'm making another strawberry ice cream - but this time I'm making a "coulis" type of syrup and straining it before I freeze it. The last Strawberry Ice Cream was good, but the strawberry bits were too icy to enjoy. I'll report how this turns out in a few days! The rest of the strawberries will likely go to dessert tonight.

So I'll end my Monday post with some pets...always a sweet way to end a post! :)

(I had to actually verify that today was Monday...I'm so content with my lifestyle, I lose track of time!)

Oscar and "Mr. Wrinkles".

Pavlov and Marlene. Anyone seeing Pavlov in this photo might think he'd have us for dinner! He was just in the middle of a yawn when I got this photo!

Happy Monday to all! :))

Odds and Ends

Alex found more of the danthius flower that's been growing wild near our cedar trees, different colours. I'm going to look those up in my seed catalog for next summer, they're so beautiful! Tonight we have a full moon, it's called the Full Buck Moon of July. I got this photo through the porch screen last night before the storms came in. Another name for July's full moon is the Full Thunder Moon which is much more appropriate for us. Here's an interesting tidbit of lore:

"Thunder in weather that is hot

Causes milk and eggs to rot."

(so far my milk and eggs are fine, am I pushing my luck???) :)

Marlene's Thunder Shirt arrived. Just in time too. Poor dog...she is so terrified of thunder and lightning. We are in full-on thunderstorm season and sometimes I wonder if she's just too far gone for anything to help. It's hard to tell but I think this is helping her a little bit. She seems to calm down more easily. I took this photo when the power went out last night during a big storm. Normally she doesn't stay on the bed, she'll try to hide, so maybe that's progress? I'll do anything to help her! The other three dogs slept through the whole thing!

For dinner the other night, I pulled out my "Potato" recipe book and made French Quarter Potatoes. The original recipe calls for it to be spicy and hot (Creole mustard, Andouille sausages, cayenne, peppers)...but I made it to suit our digestions. It has sausages and chicken with a mustard and Worcestershire sauce - VERY tasty and easy to make!

Last night's dinner was from the freezer. Fish and Chips with a cilantro tartar sauce that I made. It's just my Tartar Sauce recipe with chopped fresh cilantro. It gives it a nice flavour. It was the monthly shopping day yesterday and freezer food on 9 hour shopping trips is a relief! We're all set until August now in the food department! Maybe a trip for fresh veggies in a few weeks, but other than that, I'm happy to stay put and not go further than my porch!!

Here's what was in my Cheddar Cheese Making Kit. For anyone interested, it makes 8 batches:

- Rennet Tablets (10 tablets)

- Cheese Culture - Mesophilic Culture (which I can also use to make Cream Cheese!! Woohoo!)

- Cheese Cloth

- Calcium Chloride 

- Cheese Salt

- Basket Mold

- Thermometer

- Plastic Disc - For Pressing

- Orange Coating

- Natural Bristle Brush

- Recipe Booklet

Honestly, I could have bought the ingredients separately as I already have a thermometer, cheese cloth and a brush...plus I'd bought some of the additives already for Mozzarella....but I wanted my first attempt at Cheddar to be easy. The box says "Just Add Milk" so that sounded easy! 

As I venture more into Cheese Making, I'll be posting here on my blog; but I've also reserved a new blog address called Rainy Day Cheese Making. :)) What do you think of the title? :) There's nothing there right now but I'll be adding as I go! If you'd like to follow me there, I'll be very happy about that! :)

It's thundering again all day today...perfect day to start making cheese! Enjoy your weekend! :)

Goodies In The Mail and Cherry Bounce!

Isn't this hummingbird beautiful? This is just part of a gift box I received from my sweet Blogger friend Joyce at Octoberfarm. When Joyce told me she was sending me a surprise, I was thrilled!

The hummingbird is part of a mirror chain, homemade by Joyce! My photo does not do this justice at all! Alex and I tried to find a spot to put it but we had nothing high enough where the curious dogs couldn't reach, so I folded the chain in half. It's almost taller than I am! This is just the temporary home until we can get up a little higher! The sun shines on the mirrors and makes pretty reflections all over the yard!

I also received a lovely cozy looking matchbox with an owl candle holder! Joyce said I worked hard on my porch and I deserved a gift. I never expected this!

My owl friend is now on my porch and in use! :)

And a bag of chocolates from Salem Massachusetts was a wonderful touch!! Thank you so much Joyce!!! This really made my day. :)

Another package in the mail was my cheese making supplies. Yup, I'm going to become a master cheese maker! (ahem...we'll see!) I bought a kit for Cheddar, and the fixins for Mozzarella - which I'll try making first. I'm really getting into the cheese making culture (no pun intended)...I'm already planning to make Brie, Camembert, Gouda and Blue Cheese...only thing is I need a better set up because these cheeses age for around a year or more and need to be in a humid and temperate environment. There are solutions if you don't have a "cheese cave" (I WILL have one next to my wine cave in my dream home!!)...I have to read up on that some more!

Cherries are very cheap this week...and this week only sigh. This happens every year. Sometime in late June or early July, the Washington sweet cherries arrive and are $1.99 a pound, then suddenly a week later, they are up to $3.99 a pound and so on! Alex and I bought a TON of them. He likes to experiment with cocktail cherries, so he's aging some in different spirits and we'll see how they taste next year. We also made Cherry Bounce which is a homemade cherry liqueur infused with whisky or brandy. We used whisky and in four months, we'll be tasting it! More cherry experiments to follow! :)

Jack is happily rolling around in the grass with his toy/prey "Mr. Curly"...I think we named the toy that when we were watching lots of Three Stooges lol...anyway, he demonstrates perfectly the joy we're all feeling today! The lovely gifts, the cherries and the sunny HOT weather that has finally arrived in the mountains!!!

Celebrations, Appetizers and Doggie Birthday! :)

I've mentioned before that Alex and I don't go out too much and when we celebrate holidays and events, it always revolves around delicious meals that we share together. For Canada Day, I decided to have a day of appetizers! For lunch, I made Mini Croque Monsieurs, mini pizzas (red and white!) and Mini Quiches. The quiches were ham and Cheddar; and tomato and Feta. The Croque Monsieurs are DIVINE. For the pizzas, I made my usual thin crust Basic Pan Pizza Dough, and after pre-cooking it for a minute or so, used a cookie cutter to form the circles. The topping is just pizza sauce, fresh Mozzarella, a little Parm and some basil.

It was pouring rain on Canada Day, so we stayed indoors. I don't know what we were thinking...but we decided to give all four dogs a bath. This is the aftermath! They even pulled down the shower curtain lol...sore backs prevailed. But now they all smell like oranges until they dirty themselves all up again!

We definitely deserved a cocktail after that! Alex made some cherry Old Fashioned's with Canadian Whisky. I bought a bag of fresh sweet cherries with the intention of doing some kind of drink, and he came up with this one. It was so good! I got the idea originally from this recipe: Bourbon Cherry Old Fashioned's. But we wanted to try Canadian whisky (Canada Day of course!) and Alex added different bitters and sweeteners...very tasty!

With our cocktails, we had more appetizers before dinner. I made Fried Stuffed Olives, the recipe called for "deep fried"...I fried them in a pan with butter, so they didn't get that full-on deep fry look, but they were delicious!

I stuffed each olive with Blue cheese. Wow is all I can say!

"Meat and potatoes" for dinner in the form of chicken bites (the ones I used in my Tomato and Bread Salad); and Roasted Baby Potatoes with Blue Cheese and Creme Fraiche. Alex made his secret rum barbecue sauce for dipping.

How could I resist a red and white dessert? :) The strawberries are fresh, sweet and local, so I made strawberry shortcake for dessert.  Doing a day of appetizers is a lot of work, but I really had a lot of fun in the kitchen. 

Yesterday morning I made a broccoli quiche for brunch. (It's the same recipe as my Asparagus and Cheddar Quiche, but with broccoli instead). 

This is another "keeper" recipe, it was delicious! Check out my pie lifter. I got it as an "add on" item when I made a purchase through Amazon last month. Add on simply means it's a real deal but you have to spend the minimum $35 for an order to get it so cheap. The idea of this pie lifter is that you bake it under the crust so that the first slice comes out perfectly. I haven't tried that yet, but it still works pretty well, though the handle could be longer.

We've started a new tradition for the pets. :) Yesterday it was 2 years since we adopted Charlie. Each year on their adoption dates, we're going to celebrate the pet's birthdays. :) We don't really know all of their ages, but it's fun! I made Charlie a Spoiled Dog Cake and decorated it with Pupperonis and liver treats, doesn't that sound delicious? :)

I had the other three dogs on leash while Alex gave the birthday girl her cake.

She DEVOURED it! We had to stop her about a quarter in because she was loving it too much! We shared the rest of the cake with the other dogs. Next birthdays are all three cats together in August.

Keeping with the canine theme so to speak, we had what we call "European Hot Dogs" for dinner. :) This is Alex's dish. He cooks Italian sausages, layers them on toasted buns with melted Swiss cheese, then tops them with caramelized onions and mushrooms, sliced olives and a homemade honey mustard sauce. Delicious!

I made my Chocolate Fudge Swirl Ice Cream too! It was SO chocolaty...my only comment would be to make sure to really strain the ice cream very well before putting it in the ice cream maker. There were "crumbs" of chocolate, which was okay, but if you want a very creamy ice cream, double strain to get the little chocolate bits out. I'm sure Alex and I have gained weight during the last few rainy days what with me keeping busy in the kitchen lol...but this morning, we're FINALLY getting some sunshine! I hope my garden starts to grow again, it's been stalling for the last few weeks because of the rainy weather.

Our cute little house guest Pavlov will be with us at least another week! :) His owner is having apartment trouble in Montreal, to that I say, no surprise. Montreal can have nice areas, but most apartments are crap and landlords don't care. When he saw the place it looked great. When the previous tenant moved out, there was water damage on the floor, holes in walls and mold. Poor guy, he has to get work done before he can enjoy his new home. I'm glad my city days and apartment days are over!