As cold weather approached this year, Jose and I resolved to make more soups and stews. I had my eye on a few in the Puerto Rican cookbook that my MiL gave me several Christmases ago, the carne guisada recipe was at the top of that list. It seemed like a nice, cozy Christmas Eve meal, so away I went!
the ingredients (about 40 minutes worth of prep)...
tostones de pana in the pan...
the final product (served over rice)...
and my first (delicious) spoonful...
I am willing to go out on a limb here and say that this is the most delicious thing I've ever cooked. And easy! Prep-intensive, but easy. This may be our new Christmas Eve tradition (and also our Christmas and day-after-Christmas tradition, because it yielded SO MUCH FOOD)!
Recaito is a Puerto Rican cooking base made from cubanelle peppers, onions, garlic, cilantro and culantro. It's a staple. You can buy a jar of it from Goya...if you're weak. Okay, it's also legitimate to buy a jar if you only use it say...once or twice a month. We use it all the time - soups, stews, chili, rice, beans, chicken, steak, marinades. Everything. So not only is it cheaper for me to make my own, it's much more delicious. (Goya's slogan is "If it's Goya, it's gotta be good" but I say that "if it's my mother-in-law's recipe, it's definitely better".)
I have some serious PR cooking planned for my holiday vacation so I wanted to make a new batch so that I wouldn't run out. Plus I freeze most of the batch in ice trays and having a fresh supply in the fridge is priceless. SIDE NOTE: we're potentially looking at 12-15 inches of snow this weekend, so that escalated my panic level.
My (brilliant) friend Diane pointed out that although I'm not allowing myself to BUY any yarn, it's totally legit for me to TRADE yarn! As it happens, my friend Christy was willing to make a trade. She had lots of leftover cotton in her stash and I've been itching to knit some dishcloths, so a deal was made.
As has become tradition, we are hosting a New Year's Eve party this year. I said in the invite that we would make some good ole pork bbq for sammiches and that we would have apps-and-desserts-a-plenty. I invited folks to bring a side if they'd like, though I plan to also have that aspect covered.
If you know me, you know I love the SmittenKitchen blog. So over the past several months, I've earmarked some recipes that I might like to make for the party. I'm certainly open to suggestions, in fact, I wish you would send any and all favorites to me! Factors that will make a recipe more appealing to me: lack of meat (I do have some veggie friends who would appreciate being able to eat at my party) and the ability to pre-cook so that I'm not frantically trying to get timing right. If your recipes don't fit those categories, send them anyway. There are exceptions to every rule.
Last year at Christmas, my friend Jill baked and decorated these awesome sugar cookies and I was lucky enough to receive a box of them. Ever since then, I've been scheming and plotting to bake and decorate my own this year.
The dough making/cookie baking process started on Wednesday...
On Saturday, many dozens later, Jill and I started decorating...
I've been sick for the majority of this past week...and for most of the time, I didn't even feel like knitting. In the beginning though, I redboxed a few movies, curled up with my slanket and knitted the slouchy beret pattern that a friend recently found on Ravelry.
it's a shame that the best photo of all has such distorted color...
With the leftovers, I knit a headband from a pattern someone gave me a while back. I really love this yarn. I wish I had 4 more skeins in my stash. Alas.
I have several friends who have recently had babies and I've failed to complete the first baby-welcoming gift! I've bought yarn and started, stalled, ripped-out and RE-started projects, but no completions. Finally, I turned to a pattern that was suggested to me long ago as a fun and easy knit--the Baby Bib O' Love from Mason Dixon Knitting.
Now that the packages have been sent and received, I'm safe to post pics of my first attempt at bibs!
I was talking about the red yarn in my stash (you may remember...the Softwist and One Pound skeins from my stash post) and one of the women in my Meetup Group (which I really enjoyed, btw) suggested using it to knit scarves for The Red Scarf Project.
"The Red Scarf Project?" You ask. "What's that?"
I'm glad you asked. It's an organization that sends care packages to orphans, former foster kids, who are in college. The care packages go out for Valentine's day and the one common theme is a hand-made red scarf. I'm so super excited about making and donating them! You can even include a hand-written note of encouragement. Can you imagine being in foster care and somehow finding the strength, determination and funding to attend college? It really baffles me. These kids are my heroes.
I'm too late to the party to donate for V-Day 2011, but I will not miss the deadline for V-Day 2012! Who's with me?!
I met silk sari back at The Quarter Stitch in New Orleans, where I paid much too much for something I hate. If you had explained to me then exactly how much this would hurt my hands...I probably would have still bought it. That's how much I love the look of it.
My plan from the get-go was to make a clutch. I found one similar to my vision in Ravelry to show you. I have ripped it out and started over with so many different needles (hoping that the needles were the problem) that it's literally unraveling. So. I know that when I begin this time, it has to be my last time, no matter what.
After reading commentary on Ravelry, I now know that it's not the needles, it's the yarn. So I'm going to suck it up and try to get it finished. Man, that'll be a great day.
