Well, nearly! I have been crocheting a baby blanket for a friend at work who is going to be having her baby in October. I decided on a pattern of granny squares, using lemon wool and cream wool, as she does not know what sex her baby will be yet. Each square has three rounds of crochet, either going cream-yellow-cream or yellow-cream-yellow. I have made 36 squares which are going to be sewn together, and then I am going to crochet a border around the whole thing.
I have used Peter Pan baby wool, because it is washable and ultra soft, and a 3.0 crochet hook. Each square has come up at about 6cm long. When I have finished the border I will post a picture here.
If you fancy trying your hand at crochet, granny squares are a great way to start. You can use double knitting or chunky wool and a larger hook, and the squares will grow really fast. My best tip is that if you leave a really long tail when you start each square, you can use it when you sew the squares together.
Oh, and whenever you are going to follow a crochet pattern, check if it is American or British. I found out the hard way that we use the same names for different stitches, which means things can turn out very differently from how you expect!
Here is a link to the pattern that I use; it is an American pattern, and although it looks complicated at first, it is really easy to do as there is a lot of repetition, and once you have made one or two squares, you will just be glancing at the pattern now and then for reference, and then you will just be able to sit and make them without the pattern at all!
http://www.jpfun.com/patterns/free/granny_squares/f101001_basicgranny.shtml
Monday 18 August 2008
Mimi Makes Naan Bread
I have always loved having adventures in the kitchen, and just recently I have been having lots of them! I have been experimenting with cooking in a low GI way, and also with slow cooking, and cooking with beans and pulses. Basically, we want to eat healthily and without breaking the bank, but also seasonally, and most importantly, deliciously!
The dinner I made the other evening was really enjoyable to cook, used up odds and ends, and although not low GI was healthy too.
I made a vegetable curry with a tin of tomatoes, chopped onion, chopped potatoes, celery and carrots bubbled away with some stock and curry powder, and a tin of chickpeas put in towards the end. What made this dinner extra special was the homemade naan breads. They are easy to make, and freeze well, and I did feel really accomplished! Of course, you will need a flowery apron for this, because otherwise you will have a floury top!
500g plain flour + extra
1 tsp each of bicarbonate of soda and baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
250ml milk
2 tbsp yoghurt
200ml water
1 egg
1 oz melted butter
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp nigella seeds (also sold as black onion seeds)
Sift the dry ingredients together, and then stir in the wet. My recipe said that I would need 500g of plain flour, but the dough was really sticky, and I ended up using about 750g. You want a nice soft, but not sticky dough; one you can knead for 5 minutes, and then leave to rest for 15 minutes.
Pull pieces off of the dough, and roll them out quite thinly. How big the pieces you pull off depends on how big you want your naan to be. I made mine so that when they were rolled out, they were about the size of my palm (I have big hands). How thin to roll them is a bit of trial and error too. My first one was way too thick, and by the time the outside had cooked, the inside was all doughy and raw. I rolled the rest out to about 1cm thick.
Wipe a heavy bottomed saucepan with a little oil, heat the pan and then cook the naan for about a minute on each side. I could fit three in my pan at a time, and to find the cooking time, I tasted one after a minute of cooking to decide if they needed a bit longer or less.
This all sounds very hit and miss, but really, it was an easy recipe, and I shall definitley be making these again!
The dinner I made the other evening was really enjoyable to cook, used up odds and ends, and although not low GI was healthy too.
I made a vegetable curry with a tin of tomatoes, chopped onion, chopped potatoes, celery and carrots bubbled away with some stock and curry powder, and a tin of chickpeas put in towards the end. What made this dinner extra special was the homemade naan breads. They are easy to make, and freeze well, and I did feel really accomplished! Of course, you will need a flowery apron for this, because otherwise you will have a floury top!
500g plain flour + extra
1 tsp each of bicarbonate of soda and baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
250ml milk
2 tbsp yoghurt
200ml water
1 egg
1 oz melted butter
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp nigella seeds (also sold as black onion seeds)
Sift the dry ingredients together, and then stir in the wet. My recipe said that I would need 500g of plain flour, but the dough was really sticky, and I ended up using about 750g. You want a nice soft, but not sticky dough; one you can knead for 5 minutes, and then leave to rest for 15 minutes.
Pull pieces off of the dough, and roll them out quite thinly. How big the pieces you pull off depends on how big you want your naan to be. I made mine so that when they were rolled out, they were about the size of my palm (I have big hands). How thin to roll them is a bit of trial and error too. My first one was way too thick, and by the time the outside had cooked, the inside was all doughy and raw. I rolled the rest out to about 1cm thick.
Wipe a heavy bottomed saucepan with a little oil, heat the pan and then cook the naan for about a minute on each side. I could fit three in my pan at a time, and to find the cooking time, I tasted one after a minute of cooking to decide if they needed a bit longer or less.
This all sounds very hit and miss, but really, it was an easy recipe, and I shall definitley be making these again!
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