Warmth in the North

blueberry muffins

    I was engaged in another episode of what to do as bread rises and this time played with some leftover blueberries.  This recipe creates muffins that are fantastic right out of the oven but they also do really well frozen and eaten whenever you need a quick breakfast.  The basic batter would probably work with all sorts of berries but I've only ever put blueberries to the test.

Blueberry Muffins
Makes 12 large muffins

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 pint fresh blueberries - rinsed, drained and patted dry
zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons white sugar



1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray the top of a muffin pan with non-stick coating, and line with paper liners.  If you make large muffins the batter will come up over the sides and stick if you don't grease the top, if your muffins are smaller feel free to skip this step.

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, 1 1/4 cups sugar, lemon zest and salt until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Mix together 1 3/4 cup of the flour and baking powder. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, mixing just until incorporated.  Mix blueberries with the remaining 1/4 cup of the flour, and fold into the batter. Scoop into muffin cups.

3. Sprinkle tops lightly with sugar.  Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

i'm a loser

    Really that's not some sort of melodramatic, self pitying statement, I lose things all the time.  I've always been the type of person who'll have to spend an extra ten minuets looking for things before going out the door.  My parents told me the solution to this problem is organization.  So a few years ago I decided to organize myself and now live in an well regulated bubble.
    My bookshelves are lined up alphabetically by author, dvds by genre, the linen closet looks like something Martha Stewart would be proud of.  I have storage systems that separate odds and ends combined with obsessive habits like putting my glasses and keys in the same place when I come in the door.  Everything has a place and they are always where they should be.
    Here's the problem - I still lose things!  Not all the time but every once in a while things go missing.  In those moments I take comfort in my last area of mess, the basket on the coffee table.  Overflowing with books, knitting, loom bits, camera lenses, and external hard-drives I can always find exactly what I need in this basket.  Sometimes mess is nice, especially if you live in the land of neat.

don't neglect your reaserch

    While I was researching which loom to get all the different terms were not that easy for me to visualize.  Shed was one of those terms and it topped my confusing list.  I knew that the shed was the space created by lowering and raising warp threads but the importance of a void wasn't clear to me. 
    The basics as I understand them now are that the larger the shed the less you need to wind your project as you weave.  Before purchasing and using a loom I had no idea how much I would appreciate a larger shed.  Initially the shed is larger and slowly shrinks as you weave so theoretically the larger the shed the faster you can weave.

    However I like my Flip because the shed stays wide enough for me to get a shuttle though even when it shrinks to almost non-existent.  I've seen quite a few complaints about the warp yarns staying together close to the heddle on some rigid heddles.  Thankfully by some accident I managed to land myself a loom without that problem.  Funny, all the research in the world and something overlooked makes me happy everytime I use the loom.   

Canadian Yarn ~ a winner

Once again Random.org helped me pick a winner...

 

   
     So Deborah from Caffeine Girl has some yarn coming for her.  Thanks for participating everyone! 

apathy

    I'm incredibly unexcited by this yarn but it's the yarn that I've been working with almost exclusively for the past few days.  The knitting is done and blocking has commenced but even now I'd just like to get rid of it.  I have no idea why brown has this particular effect on me I really like it in nature just not in person.  Oh well, all that's left to do is pack it up and mail it off, soon I'll be free.

Canadian Yarn ~ time's up

     Today seems like the perfect day for the giving away of a little bit of Canadian yarn.  Well at least yarn dyed by a Canadian ~ 430 yards of fingering weight yarn in Mermaid from Sunnyside Ellen to be exact.  The winner will also get pattern keepers, cute little ball and chain stitch markers and a mini pouch from Splityarn.

    Leave a comment telling me what's on your needles, hook, wheel, loom etc. by Sunday July 4th at 8pm pacific for a chance to win.

Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day!

    It goes without saying that I'm proud to be Canadian, whenever I travel the moment my feet touch our soil again I feel at home.  Everyone should feel that way about their country and those of us lucky enough to live lives of freedom and choice should never take anything for granted.  All Canadians have the day off to celebrate our lovely country but my co-workers and I are working, such is the life of people toiling in essential services. 
    To add a bit of cheer I made some cupcakes.  If you're like me most of your icing happens in 3 seconds with a pallet knife - slap, swish and swirl.  When you feel like being really classy some coloured sugar is the perfect touch.

    I decided to try to be fancy and used one of the tips I got a few days ago.  Swirling and twirly the icing was lots of fun if a little bit messy.  Of course special icing wasn't enough and I felt the need to move onto bigger and better things.

    My piece de resistance is rather icing heavy, I pity the person who has to deal with the sugar high this creates.  I may still need to work on my skills with a piping bag but the results aren't shame worthy.  I'm tempted to bring a handful of sparklers for an added festive touch.

Happy Canada Day!

in the mail

    I got a surprise in the mail today!  Yarn from Nancy at perched on a thin branch who had a contest a little while ago.  The colours are all light and summery, perfect for the cupcake pattern she sent.  I can't wait to see if I can manage to create little cupcakes stuffed with lavender to go with my pears.

    She also included a set of wonderful cards from her shop Second Seed.  They all feature birds waiting to fly away.  I can't wait to put them to good use and send them off into the world.
    I have been knitting but my current and most pressing project is not fit for camera.  It's part of a swap and I'm not sure if my partner likes surprises.  As soon as I'm finished and it's in her hands I'll be able to prove my productivity.

do fairies have a colour?

    I picked up a few odds and ends today in Grande Prairie after church.  If you're going to make a four and a half hour drive you might as well do your shopping at the same time.  It's not as if I'm about to make the trip without a real incentive.  When I moved here a box of random kitchen things went missing and it's taken me forever to replace some of them but I've been slowly getting things back.
    Today I snagged some piping tips for a festive project later this week.  I have plans for those tips but I haven't really iced anything in a long time, hopefully I haven't lost all my skills.  The cake decorating section in Michael's is scary and some of the products look like you need training to use them.  Although the fairy shades of food colouring were intriguing, how can you tell if they are really the colour of fairies?

experimental

    I spent a few minutes today warping with a worsted yarn extracted from my stash.  I'm excited to see how this yarn will weave up since it's so much thicker than the fingering weight I've used.  The heddle is still 10 dent (ten threads per inch) so it will be thicker no matter what.  It's the drape that really has me curious and I won't know about that until the end.
    This warp is also really long, I just started warping without measuring and eyeballed things, we'll see when it comes off if I've made a mistake.  I warped until half of my yarn was gone and kept the rest for weft so I'm not worried about being short.  Now I just need to sit down and spend some time weaving.