It's a new year! Yay!

Now usually January is a slow month. After the holiday parties and year end snafus, January is typically cold and dull, just the perfect time to sit back and chill after the craziness. 

Unless you're planning a wedding.... and you realize that it's approaching in almost 100 days. -cries- The Fiancé and I have been very due diligent. Ordering invites, finalizing catering and DJs, booking photographers and officiants, etc. But there are a couple remaining to-dos that I've been procrastinating. 

This past summer, along with some friendlies, I endeavoured to handmake all my wedding favours. My chosen craft: Jam. (Of course my favours are food! Duh.) Guest list all counted out, I had to make at least 100 jars, if I intended on making them place card holders as well. Turned out the summer had been much more productive on the favours front than any other point in the idea's life. I made strawberry basil, strawberry rhubarb, sweet cherry, pear, orange marmalade, nectarine, and blue plum. And also peach jam. But that wasn't for favours... I wanted some jam too! ;) 

My favourites would have to be the marmalade and the nectarine jams on toast. But the best, by far, and by the spoonful, has to be the sweet cherry jam. When I first had a taste of it I had to sit on the ground, my knees were so weak. No jokes.   

That being said, for those who will be attending the wedding, there will be no choosing of favourites! The Fiancé is making a jam allocation protocol so there is no sore feelings about who's getting what jam. All the jams are excellent. I just like those three best personally. XP

Jam and allocation done. I wanted to have a double use for these favours as place cards. 

We used vista print for our invites. They have so many add ons using the design theme, from mouse pads to printed tees. Unfortunately, they didn't have jam labels. Come on internet! Why you fail me now? =(

So I gritted my teeth and opened up Word. Easy peasy to add shapes to measure and fill in the background with a design from our cute invites: an A+M heart carve into a tree. <3 And I only had to fight with "Compatibility mode" for a little bit. XD Success! All ready to receive the names of the RSVPed!

Now to set up the registries and send out the invites! Look out February! There will be lots of jams in your future! 

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist

For ages I've been meaning to start making aprons. For friends, for sale and for fun. The original thought was it would be a neat way to get people interested in meal planning and cooking. (That's right, People, not just women, thank you very much.) But despite having made some designs on paper, I never actually got to down to making anything. 

With the last couple months though, I've had a resurgence of motivation! Yay! So, along with my lady Lesley, I got out the tracing paper and got to work. 

This apron pattern is actually based off the skirt front for the Blue Dress (V9472). I loved the pockets so much that it sprang to mind when I was game planning my project. Also, it meant I had a pattern to work off of, which was perfect too. 

The initial design was to completely copy the skirt front, adding a 3 inch finished belt to use as the tie. And to finish the edges in bias tape. The decorative edging was an after thought. The edging is actually my grandmother's, as found in her old sewing kit that I inherited. 

The plan went off without a hitch. Which surprised me... I'll be honest. Usually when I whip up a project something goes a tad awry. But this apron went super smooth. It probably took a total of 2 hours to lazily cut and pin and iron and sew. 

After the final product was around my waist I did decide I wanted to make some changes, should I make this design again. Mainly, deepen the pockets and shorten the length by about 4 inches. Less skirt-y length and more hip apron length. 

I look forward to making more! Maybe even trying to sell some. HMMMM. Haha. We'll see!

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist

I haven't baked too terribly much in a long time. This winter is different though. I got bit bad by the baking bug. I have a lovely Solstice party coming up and I fully intend on no one leaving hungry. I may have gone a bit over board though: Snickerdoodles, Soft Ginger Cookies, Butter Tarts, Apple pie and the most amazing Stollen Pinwheel Cookies. 

The following cookie recipe is that later named. I found it in a Fine Cooking magazine and it blew my socks off, so I thought I'd share. 

Stollen Pinwheel cookies

These pinwheel holiday cookies are reminiscent of the classic German Stollen, dried fruit and almond paste and memories of winters past. (Note: These cookies need to freeze completely before baking, so allow for 6 hours in the freezer or let them freeze over night.)

Filling Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup almond flour
3/4 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large egg whites
1 tsp salt

Dough Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
2 2/3 cups flour, sifted
1 cup almond flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup dried strawberries or cherries, chopped
1/4 cup dried pineapple, chopped
1/2 cup chopped candied citrus peel
1 tsp vanilla extract

Finishing ingredients:
3/4 cup butter, melted
~2 cups confectioners’ sugar (for dusting)

Making the filling:
1) In an electric mixer, combine the flour, almond slices, sugar, egg whites, and salt.
2) Beat on medium speed until combined, about 1 1/2 minutes. (The almond slices will break apart.) Set aside. 

Making the dough:
1) Using an electric mixer, beat sugar and butter on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
2) Add eggs and egg yolk. Beat on low until just incorporated. 
3) Sift in the flours, baking powder and salt. Measure in strawberries, pineapple, candied citrus peel and vanilla. Mix on low just combined. Don’t overmix. 

Assembling the cookies:
1) Using a rimmed rectangular baking sheet (approx. 9X13’) lined with parchment paper, spread the dough out evenly to about 1/2 inch thick. 
2) Use a second piece of parchment overtop the dough to smooth any bumps flat. Leave covered.
3) Refrigerate the dough until it’s firm but still pliable, about 30 minutes.
4) Remove the top layer of parchment. Spread the almond filling evenly over the top the entire surface of the dough. (If needed, wet your fingers and use them to spread the filling to the edges.)
5) Starting with the long side of the dough, roll the dough tightly around the filling. Peel back the remaining piece of parchment as you roll. 
6) Pinch the long seam closed along the cookie log. Wrap the dough in parchment and freeze until completely solid, about 6 hours or overnight. 

Baking the cookies:
1) Preheat the oven to 350’F.
2) Line 2 baking sheets (or more) with parchment. 
3) Unwrap the cookie log and transfer to a cutting board. 
4) Using a sharp knife, cut log in half and replace one half back into the freezer to keep it solid. 
5) Slice the dough into 1/4 inch medallions. Space the cookies about an inch apart. (If the dough begins to become soft again, replace in the freezer to firm up.)
6) Brush cookies with melted butter.
7) Bake until golden brown, about 12 to 14 minutes. (Rotate baking sheets once during baking if using more than 2 sheets in one oven.)
8) After baking, brush the still warm cookies with melted butter again and dust with confectioners’ sugar. 
9) Let cool on baking sheets for 15 minutes. Then transfer to a rack to cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container.
 
Makes approx. 54 cookies.

Even if I don't get to go back to AB again this year, it's nice to have that feeling of being close in memory to those you love and miss so much. 

Happy Holidays people! And enjoy the people, the food and the fun of the season. 

<3

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist

The season on pie is upon us. And am So excited.

This past July the Fiancé and I, with 6 of our lovely friendlies, went backcountry canoeing in Algonquin park for 9 days. For the record, I have never spent more than two days in the backcountry, never mind also canoeing and portaging, but it was the best friend vacation ever.

It was absolutely beautiful. I can't find the words to describe it. But there is nothing quite like travelling in good company on an Ontario lake. 

Now, 8 people in the backcountry, is a lot of people. On top of that, we were also getting more friendlies on day 7 and 8, for a total of 12 people. And people gotta eat. Luckily we had Rob, our master fooder, who had planned out our meals and bought all the foods. About 200lbs of it. Steaks, potatoes, bacon, eggs, clif bars, apples, corn on the cob, oatmeal, and snackies! 

We ate like the kings and queens of the forest. But we had one particular dessert that was a lovely unplanned delight. With a huge bag of apples still left to eat and bannock dry mix to use up, a plan was hatched to make use of the literal metric butt ton of tin foil we'd packed along with us. This plan's hopeful outcome: Back Country Apple Pie. 

Back Country Apple Pie

Step one for backcountry apple pie isn't about ingredients. Although important of course, the real trick is having an oven to bake it in. Below is the story of how we built an oven out of a metric butt ton of tin foil, some abandoned grills and a desire for back country pie. The following recipe makes 2 pies, approx. 9' in diameter.

Pie Filling: 
6-8 apples, cored and sliced
1 tsp cinammon
2 TBSP drinking water
2 squirts Mio (concentrated juice flavour. We used the peach one! =D)
Bannok mixture: (dry ingredients can be mixed together in advance and stored in a sealed bag)
2 cups flour
2/3 tsp salt
1 1/3 TBSP baking powder
1/4 cup butter, melted
~1/4 to 1/2 drinking water
Topping:
2 packs apple cinnamon instant oatmeal

Making a tin foil oven in the middle of nowhere: 

1. First, find a discarded metal grate, preferably multiple, that has been left among the various campsites throughout the lake. (No, don't steal them, leaving future campers with none. Jerk.)
2. Set up the metal grates above the ground leaving space underneath for at least one gas burner. (We used two.) There should be at least 2 inches of clearance between the burner and the bottom of your baking grate. You don't want to burn the pie bottoms!
3. Cover the interior and exterior of your makeshift oven with tin foil. Make sure to overlap any cracks to keep it as air tight as possible.  
4. Cut a door flap in your oven. Roll the long ends together a bit to keep it from coming apart.
5. Place your burners into the oven. Make sure that the gas canisters fit on the outside of the oven. NO EXPLOSIONS PLEASE.
6. Once you're satisfied that there is enough clearance for your burners and canisters, it's pie time!

Pie Filling:

1. Wash all your apples in drinking water. (Especially if they've been sitting at the bottom of your bear barrel for 5 days.)
2. Using a makeshift counter log, remove the cores and slice your apples into a bowl.
3. Dust your apples with cinnamon.
4. In a cup, dissolve Mio in drinking water. Pour over apple mixture. Mix together until apples are coated in Mio mixture. 

Pie Crust:

1. First thing: you need something to bake your pies in. Luckily, with ample tinfoil, this is not a problem. Using a frying pan bottom as a template, form tinfoil into pie plates. Magic!
2. In a bowl, combine the dry ingredients with the butter. Work the butter into the flour with a fork (or between your thumbs) so that there are no large lumps. 
3. Add ~1/4 cup of drinking water to the mixture, to start. Continue adding water until the dough starts to come together, using your hands to work the moisture into the dough. 
4. Once the dough has come together, divide it in half. Using the palm of your hand, press the dough out flat on a cutting board (aka Elsa). It should be less than a 1/4 inch thick. Carefully transfer the dough to your pie plates of magic.

Baking:

1. Preheat your backcountry oven. To do so, ignited and warm up your burners. Once lit, turn them to moderate-inferno temperature and slowly and carefully position them in the oven. Close the door and let the oven heat up. (We added stones to the top of the oven so the tinfoil wouldn't blow away. We also used the metal shield from the burner kits to keep heat away from the fuel canisters.)
2.  While the oven is preheating, place the two pie shells on a grate (it will make it easier to move the pies in and out of the oven on the grate rather than two flimsy pie shells separately). Divide the apple mixture into the two pie shells. Top each pie with a package of instant oatmeal. (Apple cinnamon preferable, if you have it!)
3. It's bakin' time! Using an oven mit, place your grate carrying the two pies into your oven. Close the door. And put the timer on for an hour. Depending on the ambient temperature and the air tightness of the oven it will take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half. We also rotated the pies once as well to keep the bottoms from burning. 
4. Sit back and enjoy that apple pie smell. 
5. Once the pies are done, which you can tell by how soft the apples are, out the oven they come. Turn off the burners and let the oven cool Completely before attempting to disassemble it. (Or don't and use it again to bake birthday cake!!! =D)

It was quite the adventure. TL;DR: Would do again. <3

-Andrea 

The Half-Assed Hobbyist

This whole gardening year I have had high hopes that I would have enough tomatoes to make this savoury tomato jam. With the devastating falling over of my giant tomato plants, I thought for sure I would be waiting till next year to achieve this dream. But. My plants had other ideas.

I managed to collect enough for two batches of a savoury tomato jam that was an office favourite at the test kitchen I worked for back in AB. Essentially its the most fancy ketchup analog you'll ever eat. I love it on toast, warmed up on sandwiches, or even by the spoonful. Haha. ;)

Savoury Tomato Jam

In order to can this recipe, I needed to add an acidifier. I chose vinegar so the result is a tangier jam than the original recipe. I would however keep this jam refrigerated and eat it within 2-3 months. More for quality than safety. Also. If you are planning to can this recipe, get your waterbath canner sterilizing jars during the simmering stage of the jam. That way there is a smooth transition from cooking to canning. Makes ~2 cups.

2 TBSP oil
1 cup white onion, chopped
1 TSBP minced garlic (2-4 cloves)
2 cups cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped drained oil-packed dried tomatoes, patted dry
1/2 cup chopped drained canned roasted red peppers, patted dry
1/2 cup tomato juice
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 TBSP fancy molasses
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 tsp fresh thyme leaves, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

1. In a large dutch oven, with a lid, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until onion becomes clear. Add garlic. Cook for 2 more minutes, or until garlic is fragrant. 

2. Add tomatoes through molasses. Stir together and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes, covered, stirring occasionally. Remove the lid and continue to simmer for 30 minutes or until the mixture has thickened and most of the liquid has gone. Remove from heat.

3. Using an emersion blender or food processor, process the jam using an on/off pulse until just about smooth. Don't over pulse the jam, you want a bit of texture left. Add the parsley, thyme, salt and pepper. Pulse just to combine. 

4. To Can: I did a good post on how to can safely here! It's for fruit jam but the essentials are there. Below is the version for this recipe:

   1. Sterilize All The Things. As mention above, it's best to get this part going during the simmering stage of the jam. Thoroughly wash all jars and screwbands and lids and utensils (jar tongs; wooden spoon; ladle; jar funnel; plastic knife or spoon) in hot soapy water. Rinse clean of all soap residue. Fill the waterbath canner with water (and ~2 TBSP vinegar) and bring the canner to boil. Place all your jars evenly spaced in the canner and boil the jars for at least 10 minutes. (This will sterilize the jars.) Dry all screwbands and utensils and lay them out so they're easily accessible. Also, set a flat bottomed sauce pan filled with water on the stove. Put in the snap lids. Then, from a kettle filled of boiled water, add enough hot water to make the water in the sauce pan warm. This will soften the wax ring on the lids helping the jars seal completely.

   2. Prep All the Ingredients. Having now simmered and food processed the jam, you are ready for canning! ALSO. Make sure your canner is boiling hot! You won't have time to bring it back to a boil after you've started your jam. I also usually have a kettle of boiling water going as well in case I need to top up the canner during the process. 

   3. Start Canning. Now for the fast hot mess that is jam making. Bring your jam back to boil. (Since it is thick it will bubble more that boil. Watch out for white shirts as it may spit at you!) Now that your jam has been sufficiently lava-ed, remove it from the heat. Using the jar tongs, remove a sterilized jar from the boiling canner and empty the water in it back into the canner. Place the jar on your clean counter next to the jam pot. Place the jar funnel on the jar and ladle the jam smoothly up to the recommended head space marker (for my recipe I used a 1/4 inch headspace). Remove the funnel, remove any air bubbles from the jar by running a plastic utensil around the sides of the jar, and wipe the rim with a damp paper towel or clean damp cloth. Place a warmed lid on top. Place a screwband on the jar, then grasp the jar with the jar tongs. Tighten the screwband to ONLY fingertip tight. This literally means using your finger tips only, tighten the screwband until there is enough resistance that it stops. Then, keeping the jar level, lift it up and place it back into the canner. Repeat!

   4. Finish Canning. Now that all your jam has been put in jars in your canner, top up the water with more boiling water from the kettle, if need be (I usually like about 2 inches of water above my cans, if I can get it). Depending on your altitude, you'll need to adjust the time you process the jars. But it's a standard 10 minutes across the board, no matter what. (For Alberta, add an extra 5 minutes.) With the canner lid on, process the jam in the boiling waterbath. After the time is done, remove the jars with the tongs, lifting them straight out of the canner (NO tipping to get water off the top!). Set them down to cool in an out of the way space. From this point on, till they're completely cooled, No Touching! Resist the urge to poke them! As they cool, you'll hear the popping sounds of the snap lids sealing. Even after this has happened, No Touchy! It's a waiting game now. If you did it right, you'll have delicious shelf-stable jam to look forwards. 

   5. Enjoy! Let the jars cool completely. This will take up to 8 hours. After they've cooled, check that all the jars have sealed. The snap lids should be divoted inwards and you should be unable to pry them off with your fingers.** Ta Da!!! Done!

Keep in mind! This recipe is not shelf stable. (Well. It may be that it's shelf stable but as I have not tested it long term I don't recommend that it sits out.) Instead, keep it in you fridge and eat it before 2-3 months. Also. ** If the lid did not seal do not fret! The jam is still good to eat! It just needs to be eaten first and within 2-3 days. =) 

I'm so happy that my little tomato plants did it. From little seeds to 7 foot giants! =) I hope my grandpa would have been proud. <3

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist

Normally when fall approaches I get very excited. (Mainly for all the pumpkin spiced things... yes, I'm one of Those.) But this year I found myself not wanting the summer to end. I just wasn't ready.

With all my wedding jam prep being done, my current knitting project at a redundantly boring spot and Matthew away for a week I went into a bit of a sad sack stupor. Good thing though, because I got at least something off my 'To Do before fall' list. One more step to being ready!

That checked off item was this Inspira Cowl. I had some shifting colourways yarn from a previous project that I had to use and wanted a change from my eventually-to-be-lovely sweater shawl. So onto Ravelry I went! And found this very simple but super fun looking free pattern. Very very easy pattern to follow and a great intro to colour work, if you're looking for one! (Also, did I mention Free? Haha.)

Anyways. It was a quick knit but reminded me that all the lovely scarves and hats will be coming out for another season. Yay! 

Bye summer.... I'mma miss you. See you next year! <3

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist

I am always impressed with Mother Nature's ability to create beautiful things. 

I have posted before about this orchid. I've had for a number of years now. This past year it finally bloomed though, and I was ecstatic! These beautiful pink blooms are the most fantastic I've seen.

A video posted by Andrea L (@thehalfassedhobbyist) on Aug 13, 2016 at 8:11am PDT

It was a sad moment when they started drooping, at the end of their bloom life. So I thought, why not press them? I didn't know whether or not you could actually press orchid blooms so I did a little googling and the answer came up yes! So into the most ridiculously huge textbook I had they went - University Physics, of course. I pressed them in between acid free packing paper I had laying around from moving the china from E-town. 

Now is was a waiting game. 

I waited for 4 months, from April to August. I've heard some flowers can take up to 6 months but I wanted to take a peak. I was not disappointed. the colour slightly dulled but the forms were perfect! My little bloom friends, pressed forever. 

My orchid had since bloomed again (with handy tricks from the internet again). The blooms recently were starting their droopy decent. With my book free from flowers once more it was time to fill'er up! This time though, I lightly spritzed the flowers with a vinegar-water mist. Hopefully the acidity with help them hold their colour better. Fingers crossed. 

Regardless though. They will be beautiful. My Forever Flowers. 

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist

The pattern itself, being a rummage sale find, had already been cut. Luckily, for the largest size! Because it's such a very block-y pattern though, I made the executive decision to iron the pattern to the smallest size. No tracing necessary. Fabric washed, dried and ironed, it was pattern cutting time! (I will admit to needing to work on my spatial awareness... as I ironed my arm with the linen setting. Booo.)

My grand master plan for this dress was to technically Not make this dress. Specifically, after getting the pattern home and reading up on it's construction, I realized that the dress was done up using 12 hidden welt button holes all up the front of the dress. Nuuuuuupe. Not going there in a linen dress. So I edited the pattern so that it would have a V-neck at the collar and a side zipper for boob-ular access. Sounds complicated but essentially I cut the front skirt and bodice on the fold and made a slit in the bodice front for the V-neck, finishing it with bias tape. Bam!  

Another grand master detail was the blue lace. I have this old wicker sewing kit, an heirloom from my grandmother, and inside it is about a million different laces, bias tapes, ribbons and appliqués. This lace is my favourite. Delicate and feminine but not super frilly. 

Fabric cut, detailing planned, I got to work constructing the bodice. The front and back bodice include tucks at the waist, which I've never done before. Simple enough though! Except, after all the construction was finished, I figured out there is a sense of direction to them... Shhhhh. Note for future projects. 

This was also my first collared project too. But the collar went perfectly. -pats self on back- Go go gadget planning skills! The lace attached before sewing the edge seams was a bit stressful but with a measuring tape and a dream, there is a way! The sleeves, with an interfacing sleuthily invisibly stitched to inside of the sleeve, was the perfect way to finish to bodice. Simple lines. Simple form. Love love LOVE.

Next was the skirt construction. Another bonus of this pattern: Pockets. Always pockets. The pleats in the skirt front make for a very nice waist too and match up with the tucks in the bodice, you know, if you don't mess up the tuck sense. Lol. Back to raving about pockets. Since I had changed my pattern to include a side seam, and I didn't want to fuss with the pockets in the zipper so I moved them down about 9cm. I'm pretty tall so the pockets are still within normal-not-knee-cap pocket range. Success! Now was the moment of truth. Measured, cut and stitched, the waist fit like a dream. One could say it was by design. Ehhhhh? =D

Now the finishing bits that are always the most boring and typically the most complicated: Zippers and hems. But first! More lace appliqué around the waist!  Probably the calm before the zipper. 

So. Keeping in mind that I major edited this pattern, I had planned for the side zipper to sit above the pocket (so I didn't have to fuss with sewing a seam AND a pocket in the same line of stitches. Uck.) I had two options: Invisible zipper that was orange tan or regular zipper that colour matched. My colour coordination got the better of me and I decided to make it regular.

Now to plan how I wanted to sew it in. There are a couple pretty standard ways of zippering. But unfortunately, I had not left lots of extra fabric in my seam allowance to do most of them. Minus planning points. I used my zipper foot to stitch as close as I could to the zipper teeth on both sides, making sure that the first places I stitched were to secure the lace in the right spots. No shifting allowed! I did some hand stitching afterwards to reduce the gap but it's still pretty visible. Good thing it's the same colour as the linen, eh? 

With the zipper in place, it was hemming time! I decided to mirror the stitching I did for finishing the sleeves, making the hem invisible (more commonly called a blind hem). It's a neat trick using a machine stitch instead of by hand (which is the more traditional way of doing it.) Essentially it's a periodic zig-zag stitch where you place the zig-zag to Just Barely catch the front fabric of the skirt. Then when the hem is turned out and pressed, it's like there is no stitching at all. Magic. =D

AND DONE. Well. I suppose I should case all my seams. But that's for another day. Until then, I'll lightly wear it ;) Haha. 

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist

I love my plants like my own children, well, if I had any. My houseplants and my outdoor garden, all my plantlings are precious to me. But it's extra special when my baby plants have babies of their own. My tomatoes are blooming and fruiting outside and, inside, my spider plant has been working on some new additions as well. 

Spider plants are strange in the way they propagate. They have two very different ways of doing it. The first way is standard plant procedure: make flowers, plant sex, make seeds and hope for the best (statistically favourable hope, of course). The second way they do it is quite a bit more interesting.

Spider plants grow little plant tendrils that extend out from the base of the original plant, and, on these tendrils are soon to be new little copies of the main plant. Essentially the plant is sending out little copies of itself beyond it's root system in order to find more soil and grow. Smart. Plant smart! Well, smart if it were, in this day and age, kept in a garden surrounded by soil. Now-a-days those tendrils will be lucky to find moist air they can start to 'grow' in. Enter houseplant owner!

I had two of these tendrils growing off my spider plant earlier this year. They grew two sets of babies each before I finally gave in and decided to deal with them. (Normally I cut off these tendrils so that my plant will focus on growing itself, instead of babies. But I got preoccupied so I had let them be.) 

A video posted by Andrea L (@thehalfassedhobbyist) on Jun 6, 2016 at 6:52am PDT

See this Instagram video by @thehalfassedhobbyist * 10 likes

My little plant babies however had spent a lot of time growing and there were in fact two separate plantlings on each of the two tendrils. I thought about cutting them apart but decided perhaps they would break apart of their own accord if I gave them a little force to contend with. Turns out this was the right choice as the both easily separated with a little persuasion. Then it was into a little jar with some water to propagate some roots. 

It really should have only taken 2 weeks, but I left my little rootlings in that jar for about a month. Their root systems got all big and ready to plant. 

Now it was just a case of finding some lovely (and cheap) pots from IKEA, filling the bottom with rocks (to keep excess water out of the soil) and filling the rest with potting soil. One day I'll have a back yard to do this, but till then, the kitchen sink can be half garden centre as well. 

My little babies seem pretty pleased. Now to find new homes for them =) <3 (And wait for more! Haha.)

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist 

There is something about stew that, no matter the time of year, is really terribly comforting. I know that it's summer, and hot out, and the last thing anyone wants to think about is sweating over a hot stove. But for me, Stew = #worthit. 

Coriander Coconut Stew

Oil
Flour
1 - 2lb chuck beef steak, cubed into 1 inch peices
1 large onion, chopped
One 2-inch piece ginger root, peeled and minced
1 TBSP minced garlic
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 can (400 mL) premium coconut milk
3 cups vegetable or beef stock
4 yellow potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
Salt, to taste

1. In a large dutch oven, heat ~2 TBSP oil over medium heat. 
2. In a bowl, measure ~1/2 cup flour. Dredge beef cubes in flour. Tap off excess flour. Place beef cubes carefully in the dutch oven. Be sure to leave space between the beef cubes. (The beef may have to cooked in two batches.) Brown beef on all sides. Remove from pan and place on a plate.
3.  Add ~2 TBSP more oil to the dutch oven. Add onion, scraping to loosen browned bit from bottom of dutch oven. Cook onion until clear, about 5 minutes. 
4. Add minced ginger and garlic. Cook until fragrant, about 5 more minutes. 
5. Add coriander, cumin and cinnamon, stir together and cook for 2 minutes. 
6. Add coconut milk and stock. Stir to dissolve coconut milk solids. 
7. Add back meat and add potatoes. Bring stew to a boil over high heat. Reduce to a simmer over low heat. Simmer for 20 minutes.
8. Add carrots and simmer for another 20 minutes. (If using red potatoes, add both potatoes and carrots at the same time.) Salt to taste.
9. Remove from heat. Serve!

Nom. There is really nothing like a good stew. Even in the summer. Might just me crazy me though!

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist

My babies are out and about now! Well not about. But still outside in the lovely sunshine!

I was asked by a fellow friendly what containers I use for my plant babies so I'm going to write up the "How-Tos" of getting started balcony gardening! (Keep note... Despite any greenthumb-ed luck, I've only been doing this for a couple years. Still learning myself!)

Really, for the most rudamentary balcony garden you need three things: Sun, Soil and Plants. Sounds super easy, and after some planning, it can be. But first I recommend putting the thought into what plants you'd actually want and what type of plants fit your sunlight offerings. 

First thing: Sun. Sun, in my opinion, is the most important factor in planting anything. Sunlight, how much and what direction, will most greatly affect the type of plants you pick as well as grow. Most balconies will get usually one direction of guaranteed sun. (Although some corner units will have enough windows that they can get two directions in a day. Lucky!!) To figure out how much sun your balcony gets think about the direction it faces and how sunlight hits it (if any) as the sun traces across the sky. South facing balconies usually get full sun. West and east will get part-sun and north balconies will get little to no sun (maybe in the evenings). Depending on how much actual direct light your balcony gets - for example, you can be south facing but blocked by another building - you can choose from a range of plants that love / super-hate direct sunlight. Whenever you buy plants from the garden centre (or even plant from seed packets) there are little tags that say if that plant likes direct sun or more shade. My personal favs for shade are begonias and impatiens. There are lots of recommendations online for sunny or shady gardens though!

Next Soil. Soil is important in your balcony garden for a rather obvious reason: There is no ground naturally in the sky. This means all dirt has to be chosen and lugged up and filled into containers to feed all the lovely plantlings. There are many many different types of soil. For beginners, I'd recommend a seed starter soil and a general potting soil. The seed starter has 'no' nutrition in it. It's usually made of materials that retain water so that seeds can grow and start to root. I would use seed starter soil for, like the name, seed starting. Although, it can be mixed with other soils to help retain moisture. Potting soil does have nutrition in it. There are three numbers on soil bags: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Different plants will have different requirements but a general potting soil will be a good base for all plants. Later on you can add fertilizers to water to make up for other nutrition requirements. Pretend that plants are like little ground-bound people; Instead of calcium for bone growth they need phosphates for photosynthesis! (More about fertilizers later.)

And last in the trifecta: Plants. As mentioned above, plants differ in many ways (sunlight preference, nutrition requirements, to name a few). But they also differ in use as well. What I mean is, some plants are decorative, some plants produce fruit, and some plants are themselves edible. AKA the difference between having a flower garden to look at, fruit bearing plants (like tomatoes) to can or an herb garden for cooking with or drying. Deciding what you want to grow with the space available is hard, especially if you've never gardened before, so don't fret and think you have to decide on everything before starting. Take a minute to think what you're ready for. I'd recommend starting with flowers or decorative plants first. There are many hardy varieties of flowering plants and foliage for sale at garden centres to build up the confidence and skills to taking care of a bigger or more fussy container garden. Or, if you like the challenge, go for all three! Flowers, fruit bearers and herbs!

Ok. Now that this process seems super daunting let me bring it back to three simple things to remember when starting a balcony garden: 

1. How much sun does your outdoor space actually get? Full, Part, None?
2. Where can you get seed starter and potting soil? (And containers! ...Canadian Tire!! =D) 
3. What kind of plants do you want: Edible or decorative? (Or both!)

There. Not so complicated after all! Next considerations are, of course, how much space you have and how much you want to spend. But baby steps. ;)

Now I said I'd talk briefly about fertilizers. I use three different fertilizers for my various plants: a 'all-purpose' house plant fertilizer, a tomato specific formula, and an orchid formula. When I first starting using fertilizers I used Way to much and ended up burning my plants. Bad Andrea. It's Very important to follow the dilution instructions.... don't just fudge it. All fertilizers come with instructions to provide the right amount of nutrients to plants. Check your water can (or cup, if that's how you groove) for volume measures and do the math - cross multiplication - so that the ratio is what is recommended on the fertilizer package. 

After the dilution is correct, its figuring out how often for fertilize. In my experience, for house plants in a growing season (aka sunny out), they can be fertilized every week. In a Not growing season (aka winter where it's dark all the time), once a month. For my outdoor plants, I fertilize them Every Day. Ontario summer is the king of growing seasons and I don't want my plantlings to miss out on a minute of sunshine. I usually water them right in the morning and again in the afternoon, if it's been a particularly hot day (which it usually has been).

I could probably go on and on and on about my plant babies.... But I'll stop for now! =) 

My tomatoes are blooming and 4 ft; my petunias are exploding again; and my clematis are growing finally! Happy garden-drea!

-Andrea 

The Half-Assed Hobbyist

In an unsurprising turn of events, I have made friends with some yeasty fellows. The story of how we met is a rather fun one! Once upon a time....

Ok ok. In all seriousness though. A couple months ago my lovely lady friend Gloria attempted to set up a friend date with myself and her friend Donna. It was going to be an afternoon Introduction to Mead Making class, and I was super excited. Unfortunately though, the mead class was moved and we had to cancel the date. Sad Panda. But! It was always meant to be! Another mead class was found and the date set! The Depanneur, a very neat kitchen space on College near Dufferin, was hosting a mead making night with Fran Freeman, an urban beekeeper here in Toronto. 

The date back on, Gloria, Donna, Donna's GF and myself, all met up at The Depanneur, along with the rest of mead making class, and had a round of introductions. It was a neat class, starting off with some history of mead and mead making. Like how there are records of bee keeping in ancient Egypt! And where there is honey and environmental yeasts, there is mead!

Most of our other friend date compatriots were interested in either urban beekeeping or home brewing mead. For me, it was all about the mead. We were given a simple recipe for a melomel mead. (Melomel being a fruit and spiced mead). It's for a cooked mead. Apparently you can not heat the mead and ferment using natural environmental yeasts but the results can vary dramatically. So a cooked mead-ing we will go.  

Melomel Mead

This recipe make 1 gallon or two X 1/2 gallon growlers. (Which you can buy for $5 from Toronto Brewing. Easy Peasy.)

1 pkg brewer's yeast
2/3 gallon (~11 cups) filtered or distilled water
2-4 lbs honey
2 tsp tartaric acid
2 1/2 tsp malic acid
1 tsp yeast nutrient (rehydrated)

Spice Packet:
1-2 tea bags
zest of a lemon
zest of an orange
grated ginger
2 cinnamon sticks
6 cloves

1. Clean and sanitize all equipment. I used a product called StarSan. Rinse, let air dry, done.
2. In a large stock pot, bring water, and a cheese cloth packet containing spice packet ingredients, to a boil. 
3. Add acid powders to 'must' (aka the boiling spice water, in this case). 
4. Reduce heat and simmer for an ~40 minutes.
5. Activate yeast in a clean bowl: Add 1/4 cup warm water (27'C) with 2-3 TBSP honey and yeast packet. Let sit until foamy.
6. Add honey to the simmering pot and skim any foam from the must. Bring back to a boil and continue simmering for ~20 minutes. 
7. Remove pot form heat. Place stock pot in a sink of ice water and cool quickly to 27'C. Remove spice packet. 
8. When at the right temperature, pour (using a sanitized funnel and ladle) into 1 gal or two 1/2 gal growler(s). 
9. Add yeast and rehydrated yeast nutrients (divid as necessary). 
10. Swirl growler carefully to dissolve any yeast foam. 
11. Bung (or plug) the growler with an airlock-plug. Put water in the airlock. This stops air from getting into the growler but allows the yeasties gases to escape. (And not explode your glass growler.)
12. Let sit in a cool place for about two weeks. About 1/2 inch of sediment will gather on the bottom. After the bubbling has stopped, siphon mead, making sure to not disturb the sediment into another clean and sanitized growler. 
13. Let sit for 3 months! Repeat racking until desired taste. Bottle! 

BAM. 

So essentially: Sterilize jars, boil water, activate yeast, add honey, add yeast nutrients, add yeast, swirl and stopper. Actually, super easy!

It's been almost a month now and the little bubbles have ceased. The inch layer of dead little yeasty friends on the bottom of the growler is the tell tale sign that it's time to siphon the mead to a new home for another 3-4 months. So I got day trippin' to Toronto Brewing with my lady Glo and bought some siphoning necessities: Tubing, pump, starsan, extra growler. 

The siphoning went pretty well! I wish I had got all my mead out but I had to leave about an inch behind so I didn't suck up any more sediment. Ah well. Practice I suppose!

Now to wait. 

Also. Spoiler. I tried some. And it knocked my socks off. 

So. Excited. 

Cheers!

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist

There are many gem fabrics hidden away in my Rubbermaid treasure trove. This patterned blue linen is one of my favourites. A seaweed like swoosh on an electric blue that doesn't wash out. Mega love. I can't remember which fabric shop I bought it from, probably Sig Plach in Edmonton, but it's sat in my closet, along with a .50 cent church rummage sale Vogue pattern (V9472), for at least 3 years. 

Engage, sewing plans! =)

I have sewn with linen before and I have to say, it is probably my favorite material to work with. It doesn't fray too badly, it's light in weight and holds ironed creases like a dream. Fabric Sploosh! (Which can actually happen! Yay washable fabric! Lol.)

Anywho! I needed some notions and lining so I hit up a store called Designer Fabrics on Queen West. Dangerzone. I have not gone fabric shopping in a Long Long time. As per The Rules, I must use up my million tonnes of Rubbermaid imprisoned fabric first. But there were some really unique crepes.... that I restrained myself from buying. #hardknocklife

Meanwhile, at home, my fabric a washin' and a dryin' (cold water and low heat), I got started by being a good pattern owner, and tracing out the bodice pieces. Since it was a used rummage sale pattern, the skirt had already been cut out. Good thing the sizing on the pattern package was wrong! Two more inches of leeway. Yay! Project point!

The cutting part is always the most stressful part of any project for me. Especially when it's a fabric I can't get more of, like this one. Once it's gone, that's it, that's all, folks! Which is probably why I ironed this linen fabric four times to procrastinate laying out the pattern. I did eventually psych myself out enough to do it though. Took a lot of measuring to make sure that the seaweed pattern would meet at the waist seam but eventually it was cutting time! (Also, the lining for the bodice. That got a tad less ceremoniously cut out too. Rotary cutter for the Win!)

At this point, everything was cut and in another attempt to be a good sew-er, I tagged all the pattern markings onto the fabric with thread. I have since been told by my lovely lady who actually works in the costuming industry in Toronto that no one really does that unless it's Haute Couture. Lol. Well slap on an expensive tag with my name on it! It's Haute Couture meets Half-Assed-ed-ness!

This pattern is a "Very Easy, Very Vogue" pattern. Having previous experience with Vogue patterns, this title can be a bit of a misnomer. Specifically, Vogue patterns assume you know what you're doing.... Which is a fair assumption for someone who has previous pattern experience. It is not particularly forgiving if you've never sewn from a pattern before though. Skills like ease stitching and easing in the sleeves, or even slipstitching the entire bodice and lining together are both techniques used that I would not expect someone who has just picked up their first pattern to inherently know. 

Anyways. Regardless of the pattern ease (Heh heh), this dress nails "Very Vogue" very well. (So 50% right in the title. Not bad?) The pattern has two features that I super love, 1) The Bateau-ish/Princess neckline.  I love the simple high shoulder scoop. It's super elegant and sits well on regular and wide shoulders. And 2) The Pockets. Oh Gad. The pockets! They are designed to be a dramatic and visible. I really think they Make this dress. As I said before, this pattern was a rummage sale find and it's previous owner loved the pockets so much that only the skirt pieces were even cut out. I don't blame them. I'd cut a pattern for those pockets too. 

Anywho! I got trotting, getting the darts ironed and sewn for the bodice and the lining. The sleeves had to be eased in but the fullness of the shoulder was #worthit.  Then it was on to skirt! Two pleats, two darts, and pockets sewn and basted into the skirt front. It was possibly the easiest skirt I've ever made. (Vogue! What's happening here! No convoluted hand-stitched pocket finishes? Disappoint.) The entire time I was holding my breath though; Please let the fabric pattern match up, oh please, oh please! Well Go Go Gadget math skillz, they did. Check mark. 

The "lining and finishing", as it's outlined in the pattern instructions, were a bit more dubious than the gloriously simple skirt construction. While putting in zippers, hand-stitching lining, and hemming sleeves have never been my favourite pass times, for this project I straight up was didn't wanna. Maybe it was the finality of this project being done (or more likely the billion other things on the go...) but it took some time to get down to it. The zipper has three minor puckers, the lining is a half cm off (I'M NOT FIXING IT D= Sorry Heather), but the hems are Perfect. Good enough for meeeee. Finished! It fits like a dream too. Hur hur, almost like it was made to fit. ;)

I should, at some point, take better pictures of all my projects. Maybe when this dismal "spring" smartens up in Toronto. Until then though! 

(Also, next project? I have no idea. That's a new feeling. Dun Dun DUN.)

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist

It's been a month and a bit now since I planted the seed babies so it's report card time!

I had some luck this year, but not as much as I'd hoped. The tomatoes did amazingly. I have 18 tomato plants (Sweetie and Tiny Tim). Five parsley plants and new lettuce sprouts coming up daily. Also one surprise treat! A jalapeno sprout! It seems to be trucking along so we'll see it if survives.

On the disappointing side of the gardening train, the roses and the little gem squash didn't sprout. Neither did the apple seeds, grape seeds, or citrus. They were all seeds I had collected over the course of last year, so while disappointing, its not terribly surprising. I did have some luck with basil (usually my bane) but the seedlings wilted quite early. Sad Andrea.

Ah well. This year I started keeping a journal of when gardening things started happening, so next year I'll be more prepared! Next step is to wait for it to be a tad bit warmer and transplant then seedlings to their own little homes.

Like maybe when it stops snowing.... in April. XD

Also. Who wants tomato plants? Haha. I can't have 18 of them. (Well I could... but I'd rather have room on the balcony to sit. Haha.)

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist

Every week, mostly, I follow a meal plan. Simply put, it's a list of what meals I want to make that week. It's a pretty simple idea but it helps save money and cut down on food waste. Every Sunday morning over coffee, the Fiancé and I go through the fridge, the freezer, the 'on sale' items on our grocery store app, and our fanciful food desires, and figure out what we want to eat the following week. Usually we try to come up with meals that use up fresh produce or leftover ingredients in the fridge. Or meals that make leftovers for lunches (or the freezer - quick defrost dinners = best). Or meals that take advantage of the grocery store sales. While one writes down the meal plan, the other makes the grocery list. It usually take 20 minutes if we're feeling uninspired (that's where cookbooks and the internet come in!).

Making a meal plan may sound super fancy, like I'm making a roast every other day, but it's definitely a lot more casual. For example. Despite my love of cooking, I do Not want to have to cook for 2 hours every night. Some of my favourite meals are done in 20 minutes or less. And I actually make it a point when planning to only have one prep intense meal (if any) on the weekly roster. The following pizza is an example of this. It uses leftover roast chicken, a pre-made pizza shell (I sometimes stock up on these when they're on sale and freeze them) and a 5 minute homemade peanut sauce. Once it's all put together it literally takes 8 minutes in the oven. Sold.

Lazy Thai Pizza

Pre-made pizza shell

Peanut Sauce (See below)
Chicken Mixture (See below)
~ 1 cup bean sprouts
~ 1 TBSP cilantro leaves, chopped

1. Pre-heat oven to 450'F.
2. Layer peanut sauce, chicken mixture, bean sprouts and cilantro.
3. Bake pizza for 8 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Enjoy!

Peanut Sauce
3/4 cup peanut butter (I used chunky)
2 1/2 TBSP brown sugar
2 TBSP soy sauce
2 TBSP water
1/4 tsp chili flakes

1. Combine all ingredients in a sauce pot.
2. Over medium heat, stir ingredients until well combined and heated through, about 4 minutes. (Add some more water if it's too thick, stir till smooth.)
3. Remove from heat and set aside till ready to assemble pizza.

Chicken Mixture
Oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 TBSP minced garlic
~ 1 cup roast chicken, shredded

1. Heat ~ 1 TBSP of oil in a frying pan over medium heat.
2. Add onion and cook until clear, about 5 minutes.
3. Add garlic and chicken and stir together. Cook for about 2 minutes until garlic is fragrant.
4. Remove from heat and set aside till ready to assemble pizza.

Bam. Dinner done in 20 minutes.

Also. Oh gad, it's good.

Meal planning win! ;)

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist

Since I've recently taken up knitting again, after a hiatus brought on my lack of pre-planning and sheep having to grow me some more wool, I got distracted by updating my Ravelry profile with projects that I've done over the last couple years. I am super bad at keeping up to date with Ravelry, much like can be with blogging (haha), but I realized that there are two projects that I have never mentioned before!

The first is actually from a while ago, back when I was still living in AB. The pattern was posted by a favourite artist of mine: Azure cabled slouchy hat. The yarn I found at a farmers market in Kelowna BC in October of 2013. Alpaca I'm pretty sure. And I Loved it and how soft it was. I kept the yarn around because I wanted a slouchy hat pattern with a cabled star. Azure's pattern was Perfect! Made it in April 2015 and have been wearing it everywhere since.

The second is a pattern and yarn I had specifically sought out. The yarn, Classic Elite Yarns Liberty Wool, came from a store in Edmonton (now closed -GASP-). I fell in love with the yarn and, more specifically, the pattern for the slouchy that came free with purchase! It felt like space invaders. Love! I actually ended up at Romni Wools in Toronto to get a contrasting colour to complete the look. But after I'd finished it, it was so very tight that it looked more like a beanie than a slouchy hat. So it got stuffed into my finished pile where it lay until I fished it out for this post. I decided, disappointed memories a thing of the past, that I'd take the time to actually block it. I took the 20 minutes to soak it and got stretching. It's still not as slouchy as I'd hoped but it's much better! And hopefully with some wear it will relax a bit.

Knitting all the things! Just in time for the warm weather...? I suppose I could wear wool ironically?

No. Not.

XD

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist

It's been forever since I knit anything.

I've been working on my crochet skills (just making dish towels though, nothing fancy). And my last knititng project got put on hold because I ran out of wool. Unfortunate problem with using real fibers is that the sheep needs to grow more when the skein runs out! Haha.

Anyways! I bought this amazing wool in Japan from the Mitsukoshi store in Nihonbashi so decided to get back to knitting. Mitsukoshi was the Fanciest department store I have Ever been in. Not only was it the most clean and organized multiple-storey tall store I've ever seen, but it also was well staffed. I had a personal knit shopping assistant to myself when I hit up the Wall of yarns in the craft section. (There was also fabric... but I restrained myself.) The store also sold Handmade sweaters and hats, made In-Store. For real. There were ladies sitting at a table in the middle of the craft floor, dressed fabulously, knitting and making hats. Wat. Japan.

Anyways again! Backstory of this lovely yarn complete. I wanted something special for this yarn. I got to pursuing Ravelry and also free pattern sites (my favourite is purlavenue.com) to find something. It turned into a bit of a process.

I started with this pattern for a beautiful leaf patterned cowl done on circular needles. I loved the look and the yarn fit the bill. Unfortunately, the colourwise in my yarn was variegated in much shorter chunks than the yarn that was used in the example pattern. So the lovely fading colour turned into weird striping. Abort.

Next up, I found a project on instagram for the Roving Ruru Grand skein in crochet. It looked super wonderful, but it didn't have a pattern. Now, with knitting I have enough experience to fake it. This is not the case for crochet yet. Attempt to crochet a 'enterlac' blanket: fail. Back to the drawing board. (Or rather Raverly....)

Heading back to Ravelry turned out to be a good decision. I went through some past favourites from a million years ago and found this pattern. Sold. It even looked nice with some striping! Success. So I got to it. The pattern came with a Row Tracker, which initially also came with a groan of 'Ugh, learning' but was actually super simple to use: Finish a row, get a checkmark, never forget where you're at. Genius. I wish every project had this. And the colour continued really nicely, I think, and even when it started striping it got a very nice contrast.

Yarn Justice, me thinks. =)

I still have to block it out. Which will happen eventually. She Says.

XD

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist

One of my 'New Year To-Dos' last year was to make three different meals that I've never made before from different cultures around the world. Since it didn't happen last year, I've been attempting to actually succeed this year. It's been going well this year already: Korean Spicy Bulgogi, and Mexican Chiles en Nogada. But what I really want to learn is how to make Indian curry

The Fiancé and I hit up a local Chapters for a 'cookbook'. I'm picky about my cookbooks though.... I really could care less how many recipes a cookbook has. What I look for in a cookbook is an explanation of the basic cooking methods, flavours or ingredients and some history of the type of cuisine the book is about. Essentially, I want to learn how to make the food; I already know how to follow a recipe. I found one book called '50 Great Curries of India' by Camellia Panjabi which fit the bill. (And I get the hilariousness of 'not caring how many recipes a cookbook has' XD). The book started with a lovely intro from the Indian hospitality mogul who 'collected' the recipes. (Fun fact about these anthologies is that typically they are compilations of recipes from many different people, not just one.) Anyway, regardless of whether the name on the cover actually wrote a word of the cookbook, I want the information and I want it to be accurate. In this cookbook there's about 50 pages of well written background of Indian curries and spices and acidifiers. Also how and why they are used. Yay! Learning!

Below is a recipe I made from that new cookbook, but edited so it's easier to follow. NOTE: First time making it, It Will at least 2 hours to make this curry properly so heads up that it's not a lazy late dinner type meal. (Which I learned the hard/h-angry way. Haha.)

Cauliflower Gashi (or Aloo Gobi - Cauliflower Potato Curry)

This curry really comes in three parts. First is to make your coconut milk (or if you super don't want to you can just buy a can. You'll need at least 2 cups). Second is to make the spice paste. And third is to make the actual curry itself.

Coconut milk:

1/2 cup fresh chopped coconut**
2 cups warm water

1. Combine fresh coconut and warm water.
2. Let soak for 30 minutes.
3. Blend together well and strain out coconut with a fine mesh sieve. Set aside milk. (If you make this way ahead you can store it in the fridge. It may separate but don't fret! A good stir and some heat will bring it back together. Also, you won't be using the left over coconut mulch. But I'm looking into what can be done with it!)

** I found fresh coconut in the 'fruit salad section' at a reasonably fancy grocery store. It was even cut up already. I think some other grocery stores sell it whole. If you hit up a Indian or Asian market though, it's relatively common.

Spice Paste:

3 TBSP oil, separated
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup fresh chopped coconut
5 whole dried red chiles
2 tsp coriander seeds
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
1/8 tsp mustard seeds
1/8 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 inch piece cinnamon stick
2 cloves
4 black peppercorns
2 tsp tamarind paste
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp paprika
Water

1. Heat 2 TBSP oil in a frying pan over medium heat.
2. Cook onion and coconut together, stirring frequently, until they start to brown. Remove from heat.
3. While the onion and coconut cool, combine chiles, coriander, cumin, mustard, fenugreek, cinnamon, cloves, and peppercorns into a bowl. Heat 1 TBSP oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add spices and cook for 1 minutes. Remove from heat.
4. In a food processor or blender, combine cooked onion, coconut, and spices. Add tamarind, turmeric, paprika and 1/2 cup water. Blend until smooth and paste-like. Makes about 11/4 cups.

**I got ALL these spices from Bulk Farm. That's right, the knock off Bulk Barn. Haha. And it was way less expensive than buying them from the grocery store too. You can buy as much or little as you want. To store them, I use IKEA spice jars. They're relatively cheap but still look nice and seal well.

Curry:

1 1/2 TBSP minced ginger
1 medium onion, chopped
4 tsp minced garlic (or 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped)
Spice Paste (~1 1/4 cups)
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into large pieces
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
Half a head of cauliflower, cut into florets
Water

Coconut Milk (~2 cups)

1. In a large frying pan, heat oil over medium heat.
2. Cook ginger for 2 minutes. Add onions and cook until clear, about 5 minutes.
3. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes.
4. Add the spice paste and stir everything together well. Cook for 2 minutes and then add 1/2 cup water. Stir together.
5. Add potatoes and salt, stir to cover potatoes in curry sauce. Cook for 5 minutes. Add another 1/2 cup water, stir to combine, and cover frying pan with a lid. Cook for 8-10 minutes, lid on.
6. Add cauliflower florets and coconut milk. Stir together. Bring to a boil. Reduce temperature (low-med) and simmer curry until potatoes are cooked and cauliflower is tender, at least 30 minutes. Serve over white rice.

Super yum. Also, you can always use fresh ginger and garlic too. I buy pre-minced stuff all the time so I just use that instead. Time saver and hands-constantly-smelling-of-garlic saver.

The recipe did take a lot longer than I initially had thought (like almost 3 hours) but the next day when the Fiancé took the leftovers to work, his coworkers lucky enough to get curries for dinner all the time were surprised that we spent so little time cooking! Haha. Lesson learned! Good curry takes a good chunk of time! I look forward to making many more recipes from this book. (And hopefully I'll get the hang of it and be able to make my own!)

Cheers!

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist

As many of you know, I have a rather large(-ish) fabric collection. It's not the biggest that I've seen, of course, but it's modesty is really a big sham. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

One of the last purchases I ever made at a now closed fabric shop in Edmonton, Estee's, was an absolutely ridiculous knit fabric in browns and yellows. I went with my lovely lady Lesley and she bought a super stretchy deep blue knit. The plan was: Make sweaters together. But this was pre-move, and despite all our good intentions, the projects never got started and the fabric went to live with it's brothers and sisters on a shelf (and later in a giant Rubbermaid bin).

This past winter has been a flurry of activity on the fabric-using front. PJ pants, the green gingham dress, and I thought there was more but apparently not. (Lol.) So! Since it's 'winter', Lesley and I decided to skype sewing date our overly well intentioned sweater plan into action.

I've never dealt with knit fabric before and didn't actually think much of it until my pattern arrived. I bought an original 1971 Simplicity pattern from Out of the Ashes Collectibles on Etsy. It was Exactly what I wanted: 1970s shape with long sleeves and a turtleneck. Perfection. (I defs recommend her shop by the way! Lots of neat patterns and she ships quick!)

The pattern said it was designed exclusively for knits, which got me thinking: What is different about knits that it has a special pattern just for it? Answer: Knitting is stretchy. This little fact about knitting should have been obvious to me, as a knitter, but I totally didn't think about the ramifications that stretch would have on actually sewing something. AKA my brain was like: "Ehhhhh. So?", when it should have been: "Oh shit. I've made a huge mistake."

It turns out that stretch fabric is special much in the same way working with tulle is special: It sucks. Ok ok, I may be over reacting, but let me explain. Different patterns are designed for different stretch fabrics. Some fabrics have almost no stretch whereas others are SUPER stretchy (like 15 cm of stretch). Some fabrics are good at stretching and returning to their original shape afterwards, but mostly stretch fabric gets all deformed and wavey looking. Unless it's crafted properly. Which is, of course, the hard part.

So! I got out my handy Vogue sewing book (formally sewing paperweight), and found an entire section devoted to sewing knit fabrics! 'Great!', I thought. All the information! Sassy brain, book learning is for people with patience! I read all the info about different types of stretch fabric AND how to test your fabric using a Stretch Gauge (pictures!). Most new patterns, it turns out, if they use stretch fabric, have a stretch gauge on the pattern envelope too. So you can test the fabric before you buy. Someone is thinking ahead! (Don't worry, it wasn't me.) It turned out my wild vintage fabric was 'Moderate' stretchy and Almost retained its shape after being stretched. Success! My pattern was for stable and moderate knits. Fluke point Andrea!

Next was cutting out the pattern. This was actually, in my opinion, the hardest part of the whole project. Because I had a prominent Zag going on with the fabric, I'd be trying to match naps (sense of the fabric) for all the pieces I had to cut. This is difficult enough as is, with minimal sewing training, but add in the fact the fabric is stretchy and likes to curve of it's own free will, well, it's a pain in the butt. There was a lot of 'placing' the pattern pieces. Hours of it. In the end, I definitely gave up a teeeeny bit cutting the last dress back piece, which you will see later was a mistake, but one that most people won't notice. Advice for cutting stretchy knits with a nap: lots of sleep, patience and maybe some formal training. XD

Anyways! All cut out! I decided that I really liked the salvage edge of the fabric with it's pink yarn. That was going to be my pre-made hem. So essentially, the dress was 11 seams:  Back, 2 sides, 2 shoulders, 2 turtle neck, 2 arms and 2 sleeves. Easy peasy. I marked all my pieces with some green thread, set my lovely chainsaw motor-ed sewing machine to knit setting (slight zigzag and a lighter presser foot pressure) and got to stay-stitching. I usually don't bother with stay-stitching everything.... mostly because of laziness.... But for this project the fancy knit information book AND the pattern itself said to stay-stitch. I'm glad I did. The pieces kept stretching all over the place as a sew-ed.

Marking before sewing, it turns out, is Super important with stretch fabric too. After the stay-stitching, the pieces can get all out of shape. So much so that they may need to be cut and stay-stitched again. This didn't happen to me, thank gad, but I was glad that I had pre-marked all the pieces. Now it was just a case of pinning the pieces together, while matching the markings And that lovely Zag.

All the seams went together super well. (Well, minus my rage-quit dress back piece. The seam was fine but the zag was about an inch off. -cries- Ah well. A belt and no one will notice!) I had even planned for my lovely scalloped pre-made hem to line up and it even worked! -gasps heard from the invisible crowd- All that remained was to finish the seams (and find the stray pins caught in the knitting.... but that's what magnets are for, right?). The sewing book and pattern instructions heavily implied that overcasting the edges was the way to go to finish this dress. I have an overcasting stitch on my sewing machine but I actually wanted to check out one of the work rooms I've seen in downtown Toronto.

These places seem to me like never-never lands of sewing expertise and fancy quilting and serging machines. There are a bunch of places that offer sewing and quilting classes, or just rented time on a magical machine of your choosing. The place I decided to try was by my friend Heather's place on Queen W. (Heather is the Real seamstress of my friends. She does costume work for TV and Movies in the GTA!) The place is called The Workroom and I highly recommend it if you don't want to have to buy a serger (or just don't want to deal with the hassle of threading and maintaining one, like me). $8/hour of use? Sold. I was super impressed with the storefront too. I have a feeling, based on the fabric selections, that it's more of a quilters heaven than a fashion hub but it still served it's purpose. Edges of 11 seams serged and finished.

Overall, it was a fun project! I got to order a vintage pattern from an adorable Etsy store owner; I got to work with material I've never dealt with before (and probably won't again for a very long time); and I got to adventure to one of the many sewing spaces I've seen around Toronto. And now have a hilariously amazing turtlenecked 1970s sweater dress.

XD

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist

It's that time of year again! End of February is seed sowing time! It always seems so early, with the weather still below freezing and the sunlight still under 5 hours a day. BUT! The gardening book say-ith it's seed sowing time! So it's seed sowing time.

I decided to take a little bit of a different approach from last year. Last year I bought a little terrarium seed starter kit with little dehydrated soil puck things. It worked well but I ended up wasting a lot of the little soil puck things. This year I bought a 14 lb bag of soilless seed starter for $7 instead. (Yay Canadian Tire!) I filled the terrarium thing from last year, moistened the 'soil' and divided out little plots. I had a list of seeds that I wanted to plant: Tomatoes, squash, lettuce, herbs, citrus, apples, peppers and Alberta roses.

The roses are my 'something special' that I wanted to try this year. They always remind me of visiting my grandparents house as a kid. My grandma used to have two bushes on either side of the front door. Whenever we came to visit, she'd give us 3 or 4 blooms. We'd take them home and put them in a glass bowl filled with water and the kitchen would smell of roses.

These roses are from my lovely lady Lesley who came to visit me a bunch last year. She flew them here in a mug, fresh from an Alberta field. I tried to get the flower stems to root with some soft wood enzymes, but alas, it did not take. I wasn't overly hopeful so the disappointment was minimal. BUT what was successful was many of the flowers went to seed! (I maaaaaay have pollinated them by rubbing the different blooms all together... Plant sex is weird.) But yay! Seed pods! Results!

I'd never collected seeds before so I kept the whole seed pod of each flower. I was actually just going to plant the pods themselves when, because I had a bunch of them, I decided see what was inside by breaking one open with the flat of my scissors. Poof! A million little under developed seeds came puffing out. Ack! Well under developed seeds are probs not going to grow, so I broke open the biggest seed pod and out puffed a load of under developed seeds AND 5 fully developed seeds. Haphazard gardening skills, check.

And that's the story so far! Watered and lidded the terrarium thing and now to wait. All the future seed babies get to live on my kitchen counter for the time being. (I may have to figure out a warming lamp/mat situation because winter is back with a vengeance....) Everything I planted has a 10 - 12 day germination period so I'll see what sprouts in a couple weeks! Fingers crossed!

-Andrea

The Half-Assed Hobbyist