Mango Salsa

I don't have any pictures of this one, but it's worth it.

It is also quite a bit of work, but it's worth it.

2 mangoes
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
1/4 cup fresh mint
fresh ginger to taste
1/4 cup white onion
1 lime

Peel and dice mangoes (this takes a while). Place in a large mixing bowl.

Roughly chop cilantro, mint and white onion, then add to mangoes. Juice lime and pour over mixture, stir.

Peel and grate ginger. Start with a nice sized chunk of the root, stir into salsa, then add small amounts until desired zing has been reached.

Let sit, covered, in the fridge. Overnight is best.

Some notes about the ginger- This recipe makes quite a lot of salsa, so you can be generous with the ginger. It is also a different kind of spicy than many people are used to. Also, consider the recipe amounts more like guidelines- a little bit more or less isn't going to hurt a thing. Enjoy.

Bow Barrette

I made an order recently to get some yarn for a hat for my father. To qualify my order for free shipping, I also chose this wonderful orange sale sock yarn. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to make socks (I only had one skien, I should be working on projects for other people...) but I couldn't resist pulling it out. I bought a set of cheap barrettes, and the decorative bit broke off of one of them. So obviously, this meant I had to make myself a hair do-dad.

Here you see most of the parts before I assembled it. I knitted a small, slim rectangle and sewing it over the barrette, with an additional layer of felt between the metal and the knitting (there were some snaggy bits, and I didn't want it to ruin the knitting, or tear a hole). I put it all together, and stitched it liberally to the barrette, I hope it will stay in place for a long while. 

Here's the final product. I really like it. While it does have a profile, it doesn't look bad from the side at all. That's my biggest pet peeve with those huge rockabilly flower hair things- they only look good head on. This bow, while being sizable, still looks pretty good from all angles. 

Cards!

These beauties came in the mail a few days ago! I love how simple they are, with the orange (my favorite color), and the nicely contrasting gray. I plan to use them as tags when I start selling things. The back is blank so I can scrawl down sizing and cost info.

I don't have an etsy store yet- when/if I do that it will be linked here and added to the next batch of cards, as well. I'm still working out many of the details involved with selling handmade goods, and don't want to take on more than I can handle just yet. Really, ever, but especially not now. I've had a nice break from classes to get many things started, but that's ending now too.

Vegan and Gluten-Free Banana nut Muffins

Banana nut muffins hold up really well as vegan and gluten free because the bananas already help replace the eggs. Here's my version.

• 3 or 4 ripe bananas (as usual, the riper the better)
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 3/4 cup sugar (sometimes I use brown sugar, and you can always use a bit less)
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1 tablespoon espresso (optional)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 200g (or about 1 1/2 cups) of gluten free flour
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees (F). Mash the bananas and applesauce together first. Then mix in sugar, espresso (if you are using it), and vanilla. Sprinkle baking soda and salt over mixture and incorporate.

Add flour, mix. Fold in walnuts. 

I find that if you sprinkle a small amount of sugar and cinnamon on the tops of the muffins before baking, the muffin tops are delicious and crunchy and amazing.

Pour mixture into prepared muffin tins. As you can see, I prefer Halloween themed tin liners. 

Bake for 25-30 minutes. 

Enjoy!

Headbands

Around the holidays this past year I made a shawl for a friend of mine with a beautiful leaf edging. In love with the edging, but less with the time involved with making the shawl- I make this headband out of the leftover yarn and the leaf pattern. I really love it because with my almost constant headache, commercially available headbands are too tight. I made this one loose enough that I can wear it most days. 

Also, I acquired a Styrofoam head.

I had some leftover fingering weight yarn and new sock needles, so I started working on another headband a few days ago. I love knitting in the round. Not the first few rows, mind you- there it is nothing but spiky chaos, but after that it picks up a nice rhythm and stockinette doesn't require any purling.

I ran out well before the headband was long enough, and switched over the the closest color I had which was much larger, and larger needles. I decreased a few times, and churned out the remainder of the headband in record time- considering how long the it took with the smaller needles. I love the final product, but it takes some time.

 Here's this headband on my Styrofoam head. The color change is totally hidden in the back.

Corner Bookmarks, and MONSTERS!

Isn't he cute? I came across Tally's post about corner bookmarks through Pinterest a few days ago and decided to make some for myself. I've been a bit of a perfectionist about the whole process, and there are a few areas to finesse.

Bookmonster says Nabokov is his favorite. Mine too bookmonster.

Here it is in full page marking and nibbling glory.

And the back! I've altered Tally's technique slightly so that both the upper triangle and the back show the pattern, and the inside shows the card stock. I had fun with some less frighteningly cute varieties as well.

For these next photos, remember that all bookmarks are oriented the same way. The top two are the same, and the bottom shows the opposite. The patterned paper can be put on the top triangle, or on the inside. I personally like it better on the top triangle, but the other way has it's charms.

Here's another monster for prosperity!

Why rice cookers are the greatest invention ever.

My parents have each given me a gift that I could not (relatively speaking) live without. When I left home for college, my father gave me a jump start kit that I've never yet had to use. I totally drive around on a 3/4 dead batter because heck, why not?

My mother gave me a stainless steel rice cooker when I left for college, and it has seen much more use. It comes in super handy for this dish I make all of the time (I plan to make it tonight).

Eating with allergies is difficult, and eating fried things with allergies is even harder. I love this meal because the tofu is a bit crunchy, but it still feels healthy to eat it- there are vegetables, right?

You'll need:

• 1 package of cubed firm or extra firm tofu, with a drained weight of about 8 oz. (I like the Nasoya brand- it's organic and not GMO)
• 4 tablespoons of rice or gluten free flour mix
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• olive oil for pan
• approx. 2 cups rice
• a vegetable. I like using asparagus or broccoli or green beans
• soy salt (I use gluten free tamari, but all of San-J's sauces are great)
• optional but awesome: Sesame seeds

Keep in mind that I've never once measured out spices when I make this.

First I put the rice on. I usually make about 1 1/2 cups of white rice for two people, or about 2 cups of brown. They expand differently. However much you want to make, in my rice cooker you can just double the water, push the button, and you're good to go. If you don't have a rice cooker, I'm sorry. There are other ways to make rice, I just don't bother with them.

Prep your veggies, and set aside. When the rice starts steaming I put them in the steaming tray and add to the cooker then. If you are using one of those steam-able bags, you'll want to wait until later.

Cut into the plastic top of the tofu container, and drain into the sink. When the water is gone, dump into your shaker vessel. You can either use a gallon zip lock bag, or lately I've been doing this in a largish leftovers container. Add gluten free flour, ginger, paprika and sesame seeds if you have them. Feel free to ad-lib here, if you like it spicy go crazy. Do a little dance and shake it!

I usually put enough olive oil in my big pan to cover the bottom, but not much more (trust me on this, use olive oil. Vegetable oil doesn't taste the same). Turn it up to about medium. Add the prepped tofu to hot oil, and cook until tofu crust is light brown and a little crusty.

If you timed it right, the rice and vegetable will be done pretty quickly after the tofu- if not, just turn the tofu down super low. It can take it.

Layer rice, vegetables, tofu and sauce on a plate. Consume.

Crafting!

Well, I've done about as well updating this blog as I ever did journaling, which is to say terrible.

Sorry about that.

To compound my string of bad choices, I've created another specifically for crafts. I'm trying to be more productive in that area. If you want to check it out, it's here http://kniterarylibrarian.blogspot.com/.

Organized Crafting

I tell myself I want to do many things. I can't count the number of projects I have started and then stashed and forgotten about. The last few days however, I've been on a serious productivity roll. I think it has something to do with being so close to the end of this quarter- I just turned in two large final projects and all the sudden have mental and physical energy aplenty. 

Anyway, I used some upholstery fabric left over from a renaissance fair bodice to make cases for my knitting needles and crochet hooks. I've made attempts at this before (I don't recommend crochet- the small hooks slip right through), but neither worked out for various reasons. 

The new set is both functional and attractive- or I think so. Judge for yourself. 

This is all three pieces together. The small blob holds stitch markers, point protectors, a set of small scissors, etc. 

The construction is actually pretty simple. I measured the height of my tools and knew I wanted the width when closed to be about five inches- so the width when open is about four times that- 20 inches. Then I cut enough of the dark blue to make a small pocket, and enough of the red to make a slightly higher pocket. My iron was my best friend! It really helped when I closed off the edges- the bias tape I had wasn't wide enough, so I made my own out of more of the red fabric.

Here's the inside of the little guy. It was a lot of small area sewing. I'm really proud of both myself and my brother sewing machine. He worked like a champ. I pilfered the zipper from a bag of Basmati rice- and it didn't have guards on either end of the zipper. I lost the zipper pull a few times. The little guy is cute and is intended to fit in project bags. 

I'm hoping to be a more productive crafter and blogger- so here's to organized productivity!