Baby shoes and a new coaster

I've been really busy making hats, hats and more hats! My Flickr set will show that. XD In any case, I got a request from my friend if I could make baby shoes. She likes the ballet type of shoes. So I searched for patterns for baby shoes I could use as basis.

So after a bit of searching, I found these cute baby shoes. The pattern is for mary janes but I thought that if I didn't add the strap, it should be a fine enough basis for baby shoes, ballerina style. And I was right!

The baby shoes without the ribbon. Not yet, that is.

Aren't they adorable? I don't have ribbon at home so I'd have to get some tomorrow or before I give them to my friend. I just added 5 chain stitches to make a slot for the ballet shoes' ribbons. Because I used variegated yarn, I could buy peach, cream or light blue ribbons. The next time I make them, I might use two strands of cotton thread instead of just one. Oh well. Now I know better. :)

Because the thread was just too cute, I decided to make a coaster for myself using this thread. :D I have a booklet with patterns for doilies and coasters. I'm still not totally used to reading patterns using the marks instead of the words. But I have no choice but follow the diagram because the booklet's in Japanese. The coaster wasn't that bad. It's quite usable. :)

See? It's not so bad. It's really colorful!

Also: I finally made one of my notebooks into a yarn and thread scrapbook so I could remember which ones to buy and how to care for items made using them. After all, each kind of yarn or thread will have its own quirks.

Using Eggplant and Sausage in Pasta

We usually have pasta at home because that's easy to cook, all things considered. And one can easily store pasta too, as well as the other ingredients used for it. Anyway, Ryan's blog posts make me think of what else to do with the food at home. I've used Hungarian sausages in pasta before and it was really good. It's just so happened he wrote about using eggplant and sausage in pasta so I just had to try it. Admittedly, I liked the combination.

Yay! Cheese on pasta!

Instead of the usual tuna, beef or chicken, sausage and eggplant slices taste good.

I'm thinking if there are other recipes which use eggplant in pasta. I'd like to try them out soon too.

Attempt at Tuna Casserole

This was today's lunch :D

We usually have lots of canned tuna at home so I thought I'd come up with chicken casserole because I miss chicken casserole. Yeah, I know, it doesn't make sense. Those two different things. But hey, both are casserole dishes. ;)

Ingredients:

• 200 grams macaroni
• 1 can century tuna flakes in oil
• 1 small can of sliced mushrooms
• 3 tbsp margarine or butter
• 3 tbsp flour
• 1.5 cups of milk
• 1 pack spaghetti/tomato sauce
• cheese
• garlic
• onion
• pepper
• salt

Directions:

1. Chop the onion and garlic.
2. Prepare the pasta. Cook it according to the directions on the pack.
3. Prepare the bechamel sauce. In my case, I prepared kneaded margarine and flour. Then I heated up the milk and then whisked the kneaded margarin and flour.
4. In a skillet, saute the garlic. Saute the onions.
5. Add the tuna into the mix. Then the mushrooms.
6. Add the tomato sauce/spaghetti sauce. Let it simmer. Then add the bechamel sauce. Mix. Add salt and pepper according to your preferred taste. Wait for it to simmer.
7. Add the cooked pasta. Mix it well.
8. Add grated cheese. Cover.

It was my first time making bechamel sauce and I wanted to use up all the margarine. It was ok. The mixture of the spaghetti sauce and bechamel sauce tasted ok but not as good as I wished it was. It was a thick enough sauce for the casserole, for me, that is. I should try it with butter. Everything is better with butter, lol. Next time, I'd make sure there's green bell peppers too. I like green bell peppers in chicken casserole and I think it will be fine with the tuna. :)

French Toast in the Morning

French toast with cinnamon!

Ryan blogged about french toast some time ago and I felt like I haven't eaten it since goodness knows when. I woke up today with a determined mindset: I will have french toast for breakfast!

However, I ended up using wholewheat bread. I had no nutmeg. And instead of putting the cinnamon in the mixture, I sprinkled it on top of the toast. :) We actually had some tocino this morning so I could have experimented pairing it with that but I thought it was just too weird. I ended up eating this by itself.

Lasagna Attempt #1

This is the first time I made lasagna. This is the simple and comparatively cheap version of lasagna because I didn't use ricotta cheese.

I had to make do with what was at home but the recipe was based on this no ricotta lasagna recipe except that I just used regular processed cheese. That was interesting.

Some snags I hit:

• The lasagna wasn't really ok by 10 minutes. So it had to be cooked longer but I wasn't so sure how much longer. I added 5 more minutes but after baking it, it seems like it wasn't really that ok either. The pasta was soft but not for all the pasta pieces.
• The pasta ended up shredded. I am not sure if it was because of how I put it in the water when I was cooking it.
• I overcooked the cheese topping. I think the oven might have been too hot.

I really must learn to use the oven because I had to ask my mom to be the one to make sure the oven was pre-heated. ~_~

Anyway, the lasagna tasted ok. It wasn't too tough but there were bits of pasta which ended up crispy. It was quite cheesy so I liked it. I also think I did the sauce right, at least it wasn't so oily.

I'm going to have to do this again another day. Ryan of KainPinoy.com gave me some tips regarding lasagna earlier:

• Check the pasta when cooking it because sometimes the packaging's instructions are not enough.
• Make a cheese sauce using the following ingredients: a can of evaporated milk, grated quick melt cheese, a bit of butter and a slurry of cornstarch and water. Combine the milk, and grated cheese in a sauce pan and simmer until cheese is melted. Stir constantly. Use low heat. Add the butter. When it has melted, the mixture should have slightly thickened already. Add in teh slurry, mix and turn off the stove. Once you've arranged the lasagna, top with grated cheese before pouring the cheese sauce. This also works for baked mac, baked spag, red and white sauce.

So there's more stuff to look forward to the next time I try cooking it again. For now, I'd have to enjoy a slice of lasagna.

First Knitted Beret - Done~!

Finally done~! My first knitted beret!

I've had the funky three colored yarn from Saizen's wipe out sale. They're thicker than worsted weight and it's basically three strands of yarn in different colors: light pink, pink, violet. I've been wanting to make a hat with them and I was thinking that for a beanie, it would take 3 balls if crocheted. Apparently, it really also needs 3 for knit.

I finished the hat this evening and here are some lessons I learned:

1. You really need to prepare your materials properly. If I didn't buy 3 balls of that yarn, I wouldn't have finished the hat. Aside from the yarn, I need smaller needles too, for the ribbing. So it was just right that I was able to buy them before today.


2. Math and gauge. You need to do the math. You need to measure the gauge - the number of stitches per inch, the number of stitches per row. Even if you really dislike that, you're going to have to compute it so you know how many stitches you need to make or you will have an ill-fitting hat or garment.


3. Stitch markers. I didn't want to keep moving stitch markers. But it would have been better if i really used them so I didn't have to keep counting the number of stitches per section of the hat.


4. Circular knitting isn't as difficult as I thought it would be. My 5mm circular knitting needles has a longer cord compared to the hat circumference but I managed. It's because I just pulled at the cord so I could knit. I was also intimidated with changing needles towards the ribbing but the change from two 6mm circular ones was fine. It was just like regular knitting but instead of using the ends of the 6mm ones, I slipped the stitches to one needle on the 5mm circular knitting needles. It must sound weird but that's what I did. :D

I might try making a beanie next time, I don't know yet. I actually need to finish a couple of items I am knitting and crocheting. I was just too hyper about circular knitting. :P

WiP: First Knitted Beret

Saizen had some knitting supply for sale in various branches: circular needles in Galleria, knitting booklets in Trinoma and various kinds of yarns and threads in Galleria and Ali Mall. Ali Mall had a sale of three-colored worsted weight yarn so I ended buying several of those. I've been wanting to experiment with circular knitting and guess what? I am now experimenting with my first top to bottom knitted beret. :)

I have two 6mm circular needles of different lengths. I followed this wonderful guide on how to knit using two circular needles. I tried making a small tube first and then when I sort of got the hang of it, I started working on this pattern I saw: One Day Beret. It's the kind of hat that doesn't really care about the gauge you have. What matters is the measurement of the hat. Since it's worked from top to bottom, it also gives me time to delay buying 5mm circular needles at this time.


What the hat started on.

I'm done with the rows with increases. I will be sleeping in a while so I just need to note my progress.

• increases for the hat - done


• plain stockinette - in progress. stopping at 2 rows for the moment


• computation of number of stitches for the band/ribbing - not yet done


• ribbing

I noted that 4 rows of stockinette is an inch long. Not yet sure how many stitches would make 1 inch.

magnetic-rose.net's birthday contest: win a voucher to eat your favorite japanese dish

Speaking of magnetic-rose.net, there's contest running there for her birthday and the site's birthday too so you might want to check it out :D

The contest has simple rules:
1. Answer the question: "What is your favorite Japanese food?" on her blog as a comment.
2. Create a blog entry with your answer and a trackback.
3. Post about it on an SNS.

For more details check out her blog.

To answer her question: For now I'd have to say it's okonomiyaki. I love the combination of flavors and textures in okonomiyaki. I've tried the one with noodles too and it's really interesting how the meat, the bonito flakes, cheese, the veggies all mix together and give you a rich tasting dish.

I used to crave for kakiage a lot. I also had a phase for salmon sashimi. (Then again, maybe I'd always like salmon sashimi~! *nom*) But right now, I have been craving okonomiyaki often enough to say it's my current favorite. Too bad I have to say only one dish. I'd have a list, to be honest. XDDD

Milk tea = happiness

Over at Rotch's blog is a post with the five local milk tea shops and kiosks. Mainly Metro Manila based ones so I don't really know any in the Visayas and Mindanao regions. I've never been to Tokyo Cafe but I swear by Serenitea's milk tea selection. Seriously. I love their milk teas. And because of her blog post, I had to post something about the topic because milk tea = happiness.

The closest kiosks and shops to me are Bubba Tea in SM Fairview and there's Ersao in West Avenue, as well as BubbleTea in the Block (SM North). Among the closest to me, I find BubbleTea has the most flavorful milk teas whether hot or cold. I like their matcha and their strawberry milk teas. Price is more than PhP 100, if I recall correctly. But it's worth it. :D The milk tea they serve is not overwhelmingly sweet. They also have a new menu now so there's ramen, takoyaki, etc. Their ramen is good for sharing. At least when you have ramen and takoyaki, it's better to share both.

Ersao would be my next destination for milk tea in this part of the metro. Aside from milk tea (I love their taro milk tea and almond milk tea), they have Taiwanese food and they sell packs of frozen dumplings which I love eating. Their pork with kuchay dumplings are yummy and economical, good for those who want to bring packed lunches to work or school. Anyway, a cup of milk tea is around Php 45 - PhP 60, I think. But you could buy set meals or snacks with the milk tea or shake of your choice. It's cheap and good. Though sometimes they run out of pearls for the milk tea, if you're unlucky. Compared to Serenitea and BubbleTea, the one they have is more watery but still has enough flavor and sweetness. Their milk teas come in one size only.

BubbaTea in SM Fairview is the closest to me but my last choice when it comes to milk tea because I find it a bit too watery sometimes. Or too sweet. But at least my milk tea cravings are satisfied. I regret trying their strawberry one though. So with this one, I'm sticking with the almond milk tea and royal milk tea.