Knitting a colorblock cable yoke sweater

One of the greatest things about moving to Vermont (yep, I now live in Vermont. Pictures forthcoming) is that I no longer need to put my grey sweater collection into retirement. I can also put my knitting needles to good use again! 

Today, I just finished knitting the Debbie Bliss Cable Yoke sweater (for the third time.) 

You might recall this pattern was the first sweater I ever knit (see my post, back in 2015.) Well, I ended up ripping the first one back and re-knitting it because I wanted it to be smaller. From then on, it was my favorite sweater. Til I accidentally put it through the wash (don't ask.) Ugh.

So, sad was I to have shrunk my favorite sweater, that I decided to knit the darned thing a third time. To shake it up a bit (rebel that I am) I decided to colorblock it this time. I ordered three shades of Drops Andes wool this time ( #9020 light grey, #0100 off white and #4010 lavender). 4 balls of each. Way too much wool, but I wanted to be safe. 

This one is only partly grey!

Knitting: Grey Spring Poncho

While on holiday last week, I was able to catch up on a knitting project that I had started a while back. A friend of mine had given me 3 balls of grey wool that she had leftover from a project. (Everyone knows I love grey!) I was being cheap and decided I wanted to find a project that wouldn't require me to purchase extra wool and I didn't want to pay for a pattern or needles. (Seriously cheap!)

So, I weighed the three balls of wool on my digital kitchen scale and found that I had about 280g of bulky wool. I searched on Ravelry.com for a pattern in that range and which used size 15 needles. Mostly I found headbands and gloves, but I also found this lovely Pepper Wrap Poncho

The only glitch was that this pattern used size 15 circular needles! I caved and decided to purchase new needles and give it a go because the poncho looked so cute. Seeing as this is only my second knitting project (third if you consider the teddy bear I knit in third grade/class) I was a little nervous about jumping into circular needles, but it was very intuitive and no problem once I got going. I was more stumped by the YO stitch, but quickly figured it out with the help of youtube.

This poncho is quite comfy and great for throwing over your shoulders as the afternoon turns to evening and the temperatures drop a little. I am not sure I would recommend it for the selfie-obsessed though, as it makes it a little hard to get your arms out very far. That's not a problem for me though!

Bacon, Leek and Barley Soup

I love soup. It is probably my favorite "type" of food. Recently, I landed on my new favorite: Bacon, Leek and Barley!

I believe that bone broth is extremely nourishing and healing. So, I love to get as much of it into my family and myself as possible. 

I recently tried making the English Bacon, Leek and Potato soup from the Nourished Kitchen blog. Seeing as I live in Ireland, I had no trouble finding the right kind of bacon. I loved this soup SOOOO much. 

This soup made me nostalgic for the soup my granny used to make. No one I have asked seems to know what her recipe was and it has been over 30 years since I have tasted it. So I am not sure if it even tastes like this, but this definitely brought me back. One big difference that I did notice though:  Granny's soup had barley in it. 

I tend to oscillate between following a strictly paleo diet and experimenting with traditional grains. So I decided to try their recipe with added barley. It was fabulous and even more like granny's soup. Either with the barley or without, this soup is a winner and my current fave. Here is the recipe:

Bacon, Leek & Barley Soup

250g rashers (English/Irish bacon)

80g leeks chopped

100g carrots chopped

470g potatoes chopped

100g barley

1-2 Tbsp butter

Sea salt to taste

8-10 cups bone broth*

1. Sautee the leeks in butter until they soften.

2. Add the carrots and sautee about one more minute

3. Add the bacon and cook til nicely brown

4. Add bone broth, potatoes and barley. 

5. Simmer until the potatoes and barley are both soft, about 20 minutes

6. Add salt to taste.

*Note. Every week, either on Sunday or Monday I roast a chicken for dinner, so that  afterwards I can stick the bones in the crockpot overnight and then have broth for the weeks cooking. From one chicken I end up with about 10 cups. (I fill three empty passata bottles and keep them in the fridge)

Knitting : Grey cable tunic sweater

Today I finished knitting my first sweater. Of course, it is grey.

I have actually been able to knit since I was about 7 years old. It's something that we learned in school in Ireland. I'm also very happy to say that both of my children were taught to knit in school last year too.

Anyway, prior to knitting this sweater, I had only ever knit scarves. Maybe three scarves total in my 35 years of being able to knit! My mom is such an amazing knitter, so I never bothered. I would just ask her to knit me what I wanted. 

A few months ago, I was invited to a "knit and stitch" night. My good friend, who is also an expert knitter, convinced me that I actually knew enough (plain, purl, cast on, cast off) to knit something other than a scarf and she showed me how to read a knitting pattern.

I headed to my favorite little wool and craft shop Winnie's Wool Wagon , I bought this Debbie Bliss pattern book:

I also bought ome beautiful bamboo needles (they were a little more expensive than the plastic ones, but so much prettier). I found the most beautiful grey wool,  Drops Andes Light Grey #9020  and got started on my "Cable Yoke Jumper"

I am so very excited. I want to wear my new sweater every day. I have been pinning and pinning sweaters to my to pinterest knitting board. I have joined Ravelry. I am now all set to embark on amassing the ultimate grey sweater collection. 

Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Lamb Heart Chili

In the interest of both budget and nutrition, I make a huge effort to feed my family organ meats regularly. Luckily since moving to Ireland, worrying about finding "grass-fed" meat and dairy is not really an issue. Phew. However, I still go out of my way to find meat that is free-range and organic. This is something I am even more serious about when it comes to organ meats.

On Saturday, I was at my local Natural Food Market trying to get as much nutrition as possible for my limited food budget. Along with some ground beef and chicken carcasses (for bone broth), I also picked up very reasonable lambs liver and lamb hearts.

I know my kids will eat the liver pan-fried (just don't tell them it's liver please) but I knew I would have to do something to disguise the hearts. I have made the PaleoMom's pumpkin chili before and really liked the flavor. So, I decided to do something similar, using ingredients I had on hand. I can't say this was a huge hit with my kids (they thought it was "too spicy") but I really loved it and they ate it at least. Sometimes they need to try something a few times before they come around, but even if they don't, this is a recipe I would make again just because I like it so much. I also suppose I could tone down the spice and see what they think. Anyway, it was fab and a great way to incorporate organ meats into your diet.

Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Lamb Heart Chili

Ingredients:
1 butternut squash, peeled and chopped
1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped
3 small onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 lamb hearts, chopped small (I remove the very obvious ventricles)
2 tbsp dripping or tallow or oil
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp mild curry powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cocoa powder
1 jar of tomato passata
1 tsp salt


Heat oven to 350F or 180C.
1. Roast the butternut and sweet potato pieces in the oven for 25 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, sautee the onions, garlic and heart pieces in 2 tsp dripping til onions are translucent and heart pieces are nicely brown.
3. Add the chili powder, curry powder, cinnamon and nutmeg to the sautee pan, toss everything around to combine and then transfer these a crock pot.
4. Remove half the squash/potato pieces from the oven after 25 minutes and transfer to crockpot.
5. Keep cooking the rest of the  squash/ potato for 20 more minutes, til soft.
6. Add bay leaves, tomato passata and salt to slow cooker.
7. When the squash/potato pieces are done and soft, use a stick blender or food processor to puree.
8. Add puree to the crock pot.
9. Cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3. (This will depend a bit on your crock pot. The one I had in the US seemed to cook at much lower temps than the one I have here in Ireland. This one always has stuff bubbling! Not sure I like that.)

So, that's a very simple organ meat dish, that I find quite delicious. We ate it over rice, but you could easily have it with cauliflower rice or on its own. I am also thinking it might be a nice savory filling for my einkorn crepes. It might also be nice with beans added to the mix (if you eat beans).

Einkorn Crepes

Today was a lazy Sunday morning and I wanted a quick and easy breakfast that also felt like a weekend treat. Last week, the kids tried pancakes (the way they are made here in Ireland) for the first time. In Ireland, pancakes are what would be called crepes in the US. Here they are just called pancakes and they are usually sprinkled with lemon juice and sugar. I remember how much my brother loved these as a kid. The kind of pancakes we eat in the US, thick and floury, are called American pancakes. There is also another style of pancake here, that they eat up North (Northern Ireland, to you non-Irish) which are a bit like American pancakes, but they are sweet and I have usually had them cold with butter and jam spread on them. They remind me of visiting my granny when I was little.

Anyway, today I decided to try my hand at pancakes or crepes. Because I try to minimize the amount of white flour my family eats, I usually go for alternatives to wheat flour. But lately I have been excited about trying Einkorn or Khorasan (ancient wheat varieties) whenever wheat flour is called for. Today's crepes were made with Einkorn and I think they tasted WAY better than regular crepes. My kids devoured them. They were super easy and I will definitely be making these again!

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients: (makes about 12 crepes)

2 cups einkorn (or regular) flour

4 eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup water

1/2 tsp salt

butter or oil for the pan

Directions:
If you have time, sift the flour. Whisk in the eggs. Add the milk, water and salt and whisk til combined. Heat oil or butter in frying pan. Ladle or pour batter into hot pan (enough to thinly coat the bottom of the pan). Cook til edges are nicely golden and it seems solid enough to flip. Flip the pancake, cook a little bit more and then slide onto a plate. Super quick and easy!

Look at that lovely pancake!

Today we put a little maple syrup and blueberries on our pancakes. (These pancakes seem to need a lot less syrup than American style ones.) If I had a lemon, I would have gone with the traditional lemon and sugar. I will also be experimenting with an easy, homemade, heathier nutella type spread as well as using these for savory wraps. Stay tuned!

DIY lego tablet stand

Yep, you read that correctly. My husband and son just built a stand for our tablet out of Lego!

Seeing as we don't have a tv in our house (yet) we watch a lot of shows on a tablet. I also use the tablet when I am working on a portrait. 

 So, my industrious (and frugal) husband joined forces with my son and they built us a tablet stand out of LEGO pieces!

I LOVE this! It works perfectly and I just think it is so cool:

Basic Vegetable Soup

I love soup! I am so happy I moved to a colder climate, where soup is a standard on so many menus. When traveling around the countryside, without fail we can always pop into a pub for lunch and find vegetable soup, with a side of homemade brown soda bread on the menu. Its usually the most reasonably priced option and its also my favorite.

I have started making vegetable soup very regularly at home too. Its quick and easy. I love it and my daughter loves it. Its super easy to make, with ingredients that I pretty much always have.

Basic ingredients:

1 large potato (or 2-3 small)
1 large onion (or 2-3 small)
1 medium courgette (zucchini)
1 large carrot
1 tsp sea salt

( These proportions and ingredients can be varied somewhat. I also sometimes add other things that I need to use up, like bell peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, etc...)

Directions:
Chop all the vegetables (no need to chop them too finely.) Put the chopped vegetables in a pot and cover with water. Add the sea salt.

Boil for about 20 minutes, or until you can put a fork easily into the vegetables. I use an immersion blender to blend the soup, but you could use a a regular blender or food processor,

The soup is ready to serve as is! I sometimes drink it out of a cup, like a warm drink. For the kids, I sometimes stir some milk or fresh cream into the soup to cool it down.

Enjoy!

Advent Calendar

I love December! I remember how exciting the build-up to Christmas was when I was a child and I love reliving that with my children. Last year, a good friend got me started on making an Activity Advent calendar for the month of December. The month became even more fun. There are lots of beautiful ideas for homemade advent calendars to be found online. You can check out my Christmas Advent Calendar Board on Pinterest for some lovely examples.

I have been really busy this year and last, so I kept it super simple. Last year I clipped paper bags to a ribbon. This year I used brown envelopes and a set of pegs on a string that I found at Tiger (I love that store!)

It is my goal to start including more "giving" activities in our advent, but that didn't happen this year. Its mostly food and crafts. Fancy that! Here's my list (shhh, don't tell the kids!)

1. Open the ottoman, and you shall find.... (a lego advent calendar)
2. While doing your homework, drink hot chocolate with a special topping (marshmallows)
3. Make gingerbread houses
4. Go into town and visit the Christmas Market
5. "Family Movie Night"- Watch Rudolf and eat popcorn
6. Go ice skating!
7. Visit Castletown Market
8. Decorate and send Christmas cards
9. Dress the car up as Rudolf!
10. Dress Pepper (our dog) up in her Santa suit for the walk to school
11. Make new Christmas ornaments for the tree
12. "Family Movie Night"- Watch Miracle on 34th St and drink eggnog
13. Buy a Tree!!!!
14. Make origami ornaments
15. Go for a neighborhood walk to look at Christmas lights
16. Write secret notes to each family member and put them in their stocking
17. Have a picnic dinner by candlelight beside the tree
18. Bake Christmas Cookies
19. "Family Movie Night"- Watch Home Alone 2 ad drink hot apple toddies
20. Make pinecone bird feeders as Christmas present for the birds
21. Make a silly video Christmas card
22. Go to the Panto
23. Have Afternoon Tea
24. Sprinkle Reindeer Food (Magic Sparkling food that lights Santa's way) in the Backyard!

Small space design on a budget- kids room

As I've mentioned in other posts, part of moving to Ireland encompassed a choice to downsize. I have been happily embracing this choice and have been enjoying the process of maximizing the use of our 700 square feet, making it a space that I enjoy visually (very important to me) while doing so on a strict budget.

I am finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel (of boxes.) Our little home is starting to come together.

The first room that I chose to tackle, was probably the most challenging- the kids room. My kids each had a room of their own in L.A. and they had WAYYYYY too many toys. Not only were each of their (pretty big) rooms full of toys, but they had toys scattered all over the rest of the house too. We had storage ottomans in the living and family rooms dedicated to coralling toys, and that was not the full extent of it. It was obscene! Very happily, we whittled the toys down to what seemed like a minimum, in order to undertake this move.

That said, they are now sharing a very small room. Not a box room, but close. Also, a room in a home that we rent, so there is not a lot we can do to the space. They still have too many toys as far as I am concerned, but thanks to Ikea, we are trying to give them all a home in their new, teeny, tiny space.

This is what design-on-a-dime for a small space is looking like for our kids' room:

I like this room so much, that sometimes I just come and hang out in here!

Bone Broth

Once a week, usually on Monday, I roast a chicken for dinner. The next day I make a batch of bone broth. Bone broth is an amazing source of minerals and boosts the immune system. According to Wellness Mama

"Its high calcium, magnesium and phosphorus content make it great for bone and tooth health. Bone broth also supports joints, hair, skin and nails due to its high collagen content. In fact, some even suggest that it helps eliminate cellulite as it supports smooth connective tissue." It also a very inexpensive addition to the diet.

I go to the Farmer's Market every Sunday. That's where I prefer to buy my chicken. I feel I have a better chance of getting a chicken that is not only organic, but maybe also got to run around and eat some bugs rather than just being fed grain (even if that grain is organic). If I am lucky, my chicken guy will also have a bag of chicken feet for me. On Tuesday, when I go to make my broth, I add a few chicken feet to my leftover chicken bones and this makes a lovely gelatinous broth. If I didn't manage to get feet, I also sometimes use backs or even turkey necks. Feet, backs and necks are extremely cheap, so I usually keep a few of these in the freezer to add to my bones.

After my bone broth is made, I keep it in the fridge for the week and use it to make gravy, soups, mashed potatoes (in place of milk) and I also drink a cup of it every morning. Seeing as I don't drink coffee or tea (caffeine doesn't agree with me, even the small amount in decaf,) I love having a warm cup of something in the morning to sip. My daughter also likes to drink it and I feel I am giving her so much wonderful nourishment in every cup.

I make my broth in the crockpot. Sometimes I do it overnight, and sometimes I just let it go all day. Either way, it requires so little effort. I have made broth on the stove too, but its just easier to let the crockpot go and not think about it.

To make my broth:

Ingredients

- bones of one chicken (I remove any meat and save that for salads and lunches)

- 4 chicken feet or one chicken back or one turkey neck

-. 2 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar

- 2 ribs of celery

- 1 or 2 carrots

- 1 small onion

- 1 tbsp celtic sea salt

I put all the ingredients in my crock pot, cover with water and cook on low for about 8 hours.

When its done, I strain it and have my weekly ration of chicken broth! So simple, avoids waste and adds more nourishment for my family.

The violin tray

I would like to share with you the story of my son's violin tray.

My son (who just turned 6) has been playing violin for almost 2 years. Violin and the motivation to practice regularly had become a very major struggle for us. My son didn't like practice, BUT when asked if he wanted to quit violin, he would say no. He was determined that we has going to play Hedwig's theme (from Harry Potter, in case you don't know) someday and he couldn't quit. He also completely identified himself as a violinist. I would tell him that if he wanted to play Hedwig's theme, he would need to practice and also if we were going to keep paying for all these (quite expensive) lessons, that he would need to practice. One day, he even conceded to practicing his 5 minutes of twinkle variations with tears rolling down his cheeks, but still claimed he did not want to quit violin. This was too much for this mommy to bear and I resolved there and then that I MUST find a way to make practice fun and enjoyable for him. (Not that I hadn't been trying, but I really needed to step up my game.) Tears and violin were not an OK combo in my book- there would be no 'battle cry of the tiger mom' in my house.

I am not sure where the idea for my violin tray came to me from and it did not come without a little trepidation. You see, I don't normally go down the path of rewards, bribes, etc... (I don't say that in order to make a statement about what I think is right or wrong in parenting in any way. I don't like "mommy wars", diversive parenting etc... its just not what resonates with me or what seems effective in the long run with my child. If you want more reading on rewards/punishment etc..., Alfie Kohn is a much more eloquent writer than I am and he writes extensively about such topics... I only bring it up to give you some backstory on my own initial reservations about my tray idea)

So here is the initial concept for my violin tray. It starts with 12 over-turned teacups on a tray. Underneath 8 or 9 of the teacups would be notes with instructions for songs, variations, unit-practice, scales or even a set of songs that he needed to practice. Under 3 or 4 would be "wild cards." Sometimes a wild card would contain a treat, like a gumdrop or cookie, sometimes a dollar, sometimes a quarter, sometimes it would have an instruction to hop on one foot while singing old macdonald, sometimes it would say "play me your worst tone" (he found this quite funny, especially as I covered my ears and shrieked), or run around the couch 3 times,.... I would hide toys from his room under the wild card teacups, I would ask my husband to sneak into his room at night and build me some little lego vehicles to hide under the teacups... sometimes I would even buy a lego minifigure from the lego store for under the teacup ( I called those my high stakes trays.) The tray would vary every time, both the wild cards and the 8-9 practice cups would always be re-arranged and different. I set up a new tray every day. Practice would start with picking up the first teacup and finishing what was instructed before proceeding to lift the next teacup. We would proceed sequentially through all twelve teacups, some being wild cards, most being instructions to play something.

This tray thing was so exciting for my son. I knew he would like it, but I had no idea how much he would like it and how much it would motivate him to practice. This game was so much fun, that he was even amenable to starting over and "getting it right" before proceeding to the next teacup. That would never fly with him before. He would have never started over before. Now, he was waking me up at 6 in the morning asking if he could do a violin tray. I would offer to take my kids out for ice-cream after school and he would ask if we could go home and practice violin first. He would ask to do up to 5 trays a day sometimes. (Considering that sometimes I would put "play 6 six songs along with the CD" under one teacup) this tray was inspiring so much more repetition than I was ever able to achieve pre-tray (remember before the tray, I could hardly get him to practice at all).

This all sounds amazing right, but of course the neurotic in me couldn't stop worrying. Even though, he was now practicing a lot and wanting to practice and having fun and making a lot of progress on his violin, I worried that I set up a total dependence on this tray? Would the novelty wear off quickly and then what would I do? What if the novelty does not wear off and he is dependent on this tray? Would I have to continually increase the stakes? Would I always need a tray? Would he actually love playing violin or just love the excitement of the tray? I know the pitfalls of using rewards and though I had disguised my system as a game (having the tray change every day was to hopefully somewhat reduce the expectation that if you do y then you get x. Yet, I know this was kind of like creative bookkeeping and I am not really fooling myself), I knew it was a sort of reward system. At least the tears were gone and there was joy in our practice sessions and maybe he would actually get to play Hedwig's theme someday, right??? hmmmmm....

Well, he is not yet on Hedwig's theme, BUT after almost 7 months of playing with the tray (yes, the novelty lasted that long!!!) he has progressed so much because of the tray and he actually has gotten to the point that he enjoys playing his violin, is reading music, playing many songs and will now sometimes say to me "do I have time to play Camptown Races (or some other song) before we go to school?" and then will proceed to not only play Camptown Races, but flip through his "songs for little players" book and play a bunch of songs, just because he enjoys playing them! No tray involved. He doesn't call it practice, he's just playing his violin, because he can. I am not sure we would have gotten to this point without the tray (or something else, but I didn't think of something else.) He still asks me to set up a tray too, but he will also happily play his violin without one. Phew.


So, I just thought that I would share my story of the violin tray in case someone needs to get over a little hurdle with practice in order to get to the point of loving playing their instrument. 

Tigernut sweets

Today my son's kindergarten class held an Egyptian banquet and I got to make an Egyptian candy called Tigernut sweets. These sweet treats are simply dates, walnuts and cinnamon pureed together, then rolled in honey and almond flour. They are quite easy to make and depending on what you believe is healthy (is a lot of fructose really better than a lot of sucrose? I don't know. I am too busy making hawk costumes and tigernut sweets to get that phd in nutritional biochemistry but I do wonder and did at one point in my life contemplate going to grad school to study something like that. Though I have contemplated many a phd program in my lifetime. In fact I wouldn't mind getting a phd in lots of things, if phds could be gotten in 6 months... Oh wait, that's not the point of phds, 6 months would hardly an expert make and I have come to realize that I will never be one of those.) Anyway, digression aside, tigernut sweets are a fun, sweet treat. The recipe is one of the oldest recipes known and was found written on a piece of clay!

Instructions: Puree 200g fresh dates, 1 tbsp cinnamon powder, 2 tbsp chopped walnuts with a little water til you have something paste-like. Pour some honey onto one plate and almond flour onto another plate. Form a little ball of date/walnut/cinnamon and roll it first in honey and then in almond flour. That's it. Its like a little truffle!