Wild Wild West Gauntlets and Cowboy Baked Beans

It's hard to believe it's that time again.  Fall weather and the change in seasons are being felt even here in Southern California where some think there were no changes to the seasons.  But there are changes and the longer I've lived here the more apparent they are.  It's not just that the stores are selling corduroy pants and foil wrapped chocolates shaped like leaves.  It's the tinge of coolness in the mornings, the emergence of rust colored flora, and the golden cast to the light in the evenings.  I treasure these small changes.  Until it gets down right cold in another month or so at which point I start wondering why exactly it was that I wanted cooler weather.  

Over the years I'e found that gauntlets are one of my most used fall/winter accessory and every year I knit several pairs.  The gauntlets I am wearing today I call my Wild Wild West Gauntlets because they are inspired by my love the outdoors and the America west.  And since I was particularly pleased with this design I have written up the pattern which I've made into a free download (link below).  I hope you will enjoy making them and wearing them as much as I have.

Particulars: pattern by Claudia Bugh available as a free pdf download  Wild Wild West Gauntlets; 2 skeins Organik worsted yarn by The Fiber Company (approximately 200 yrds); US 8 circular needles and DPN.

Cowboy Baked Beans Recipe ~

Cowboys practically lived off cooked beans while on the trail.  I know this to be a fact based on my extensive reading of western romance novels.  Ahem.  Intrigued by the notion I have often attempted to make bean soup or baked beans but I've been disappointed with the recipes I've tried.  So I tossed aside my recipes and came up with this way to cook them and I was very happy with the result.  I liked the soft texture and rich flavor and hope you enjoy them cooked this way too. Incidentally, while we try and eat healthfully all the time this is probably one of the healthier recipes I've shared on the blog.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cups dried Anasazi Beans (found in organic section of grocery story or health food stores)
32 Ounces Chicken Stock
1 diced fresh tomato
1 diced sweet yellow onion
2 Tbs Olive Oil
Kosher sea salt to taste

Steps:

1.  Wash and sort Anasazi beans.  Not only is this variety of bean very flavorful, it requires no advance pre-soaking.  Place beans into a large stock pot and cover with water and boil for approximately 1 hour or follow package instructions for cooking beans.

2.  Drain beans from water and remove any excess water with a tea towel.  Set cooked beans aside while you perform step 3.

3.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Saute onion in olive oil until slightly caramelized.  In a separate deep pot (oven safe with a lid and preferably cast-iron) combine cooked beans along with the diced tomato and the chicken stock (I use slightly less than a full 32 ounce container of chicken stock).  You want the chicken stock to cover the beans and tomato mixture by approximately 1 inch.  This should be enough moisture to keep the beans moist and still allow the beans to develop a thick sauce as they bake in the oven.  Lastly stir in the sauteed onion and cover pot.

4.  Bake for approximately 2.5 hours and salt to taste.  The beans should be soft at this point and the chicken stock cooked down until level with the beans.

And here's my little buckaroo.  He enjoys these beans too and ate a pot while standing on his hind legs as they were cooling on the counter just the other evening.  I hope his time spent in his crate reflecting on his actions will prevent this from reoccurring.

Until next time, be well and love well and may these days of fall be filled with color, texture and anticipation of the holidays to come.

Kyla Fingerless Mittens

Art intersects function. These fun and artistic fingerless mittens are designed by the very talented Monika of Smoking Hot Needles. And it's a free pattern. How amazing is that!


This is a cool post for me because I'm talking about two things that I love. First I love how generous and amazing the knit blog community is. It never ceases to amaze me how knitters so freely give their advice and share their patterns. For me, it wasn't so much that I learned how to knit from reading the knit blogs but rather that I learned what could be knit, other than a frumpy old sweater and scarf. The knitting blogs were my gateway into a world filled with gossamer shawls, handpainted yarns, brightly colored socks, and fingerless mittens. After seeing the many beautiful things being knit in blogland I never thought about my own knitting the same way again. Speaking of which, you will certainly never find a finer example of all that is good about knit blogs than Monika's blog Smoking Hot Needles.

Topanga, California

I'm going to talk a little about Topanga, California which is my home and where I love to be. Often I talk about other places and simply forget to talk about Topanga. These pictures of me wearing my Kyla Mittens are taken in our garden which is styled after a botanical garden or, if you prefer, a yard with a few hardy plants that don't require much water or care. The little community of Topanga is actually a 15 minutes drive down the mountain from where we live. Technically, as the crow flies, we are in the Santa Monica Mountains above Malibu and are surrounded by native California Chaporral.

You can see the Pacific Palisades behind me and if it wasn't such a foggy day you would also see the city of Los Angeles beyond that. At night the city lights are dazzling.

I'm standing amidst a particularly hardy and well adapted plant, which is the New Zealand Tea Tree shrub. Both the pink and red sprays of flowers next to me are this type of plant. Given that California is facing a water shortage I highly recommend them to anyone looking to conserve water and yet still have colorful flowering plants around their home.

I wish I could also tell you what the white flowers is that I'm holding, but I don't know. If anyone knows, I would love to hear from you!

One thing that I love about Topanga is the quiet life we live. Except for those occasional coyote kills which are far from quiet, and the less said of that, the better. When people know where we live I'm often asked isn't it inconvenient? or What do you do if you run out of milk? The answers are yes and I don't. This is my home and I wouldn't trade living here for anything.

We start each morning with a short jog and that's lovely because it's peaceful in the mornings and I enjoy listening to the birds chirping happily around us. It's particularly nice in the Springtime because the mountain is covered with wildflowers and seeing all the pretty flowers somehow makes the jog feel less arduous.

Kyla Fingerless Mittens ~ Pattern Notes

But I digress and you want me to talk about the Kyla Fingerless Mittens! This is a great knit for the Spring because it uses a finer gauge yarn (sock weight) and that makes for a light and feminine accessory. I particularly like the wrist design because it creates a strong grip and these mittens will not easily stretch out or lose their shape.

I also learned a lot from this pattern. It is the first pattern written so that I understood how to add a motif of my own choosing. Monika has knit these mittens both with a heart and a cable motif and for mine I used a diamond shape motif created with bobbles (my bobbles are inside out but that's neither here nor there and I love them anyway, wonky though they are). It's so simple. All you have to do is decide what motif you want and then divide the total number of stitches for the top half of the mitten and then locate the center stitch so you can center the design. For example I knit these mittens on 48 stitches. That means the top half of the mitten has 24 stitches and the center stitch is the 12th stitch. To center a motif you simply have to center the design with the middle stitch placed on the 12th stitch. It's all clear as mud now, I'm sure. You can thank me later.

Knitting Tip #4 ~ Will you Have Enough Yarn?

With this pattern I also learned how to figure out if I would have enough yarn to finish my project, which is an issue that arises whenever you are knitting from a single skein of yarn. Since it can be disconcerting wondering whether you will have enough yarn to complete your project (particularly with socks that are a lot more time consuming) I highly recommend doing this. The simple solution is to pull out a food scale and weigh your yarn. If you know how much yarn your 1st mitten (or sock) used you will then know how much yarn it will take to make the second one. After I finished my first Kyla Mitten I weighed it and found that it used 20 grams of yarn. Since my skein of yarn had a total of 50 grams I knew then (hoped like the dickens) that I had plenty of yarn left to knit my second mitten. Despite my skepticism, this actually works perfectly. Both my mittens weigh exactly 20 grams and I have 10 grams of yarn left (20 x 2 =40 +10=50 grams = 1 skein koigu).

Particulars: Free Pattern: Kyla Fingerless Mittens (download pattern link) (ravelry pattern link); 1 skein Koigu Yarns merino wool handpainted sock yarn; US 2 Double Pointed Needles. More detailed pattern notes/modifications are on Mr Puffy's Ravelry notebook Page . The Dagoba Lavendar Blueberry Chocolate bar is nice but not essential to knitting this pattern.

Enjoy the Spring everyone! And try matching your chocolates to your knitting, just because it's fun!

Cafe au Lait Mitts

Why another pair of fingerless mitts? Because you can never have too many fingerless mitts in your wardrobe!


The yarn was a spontaneous purchase while visiting a LYS (Yarns on First) in Napa, California. That's actually one reason I love to visit a LYS. I often discover yarns that I would otherwise overlook.



There was a large bowl overflowing with these skeins and I immediately fell in love with the colors and feel of the yarn. It didn't hurt that the bowl was strategically position near a pair of fingerless mitt which whispered as I lingered "go on... make me....you know you want to." I'm so easily influenced.


Particulars: Free Pattern: Cafe au Lait Mitt; US 4 double pointed needles; 1 skein Classic Elite Yarns, Fresco (wool, alpaca, angora). I have been very pleased with Classic Elite Yarns in general and with how well my Cherry top (knit with Classic Elite Yarns Premiere - cotton/tencel blend) has worn. Upshot. This is a great pattern and knits quickly into a pair of soft cozy mitts.

Changes For the New Year

We have all eaten far too many goodies over the holidays. I'm not naming any names but, frankly, some more than others.


Hence, at the start of this new year I have formed the intention that we shall all eat a more healthful diet rich in whole grains. I say an "intention" because like Andrea of At Home Mommy Knits I think a resolution can feel too imposing and I would never want to seem dictatorial. That being said, I do all the shopping and cooking and as a consequence I do have a certain amount of power over the members of this household.

Since you, dear reader, might not be quite ready for the mung bean casserole I cooked for dinner last night, I'm going to share a honey soaked bran muffin recipe instead. The source for this recipe is Grains, a gourmet pantry cookbook, pictured above (which has several recipes that I enjoy). I have slightly modified the recipe to make the muffins smaller and to include honey, which is more to my taste. These are also great without the honey if you don't want a sweet muffin.

Not so Giant Bran Muffins, Soaked in Honey

Ingredients:

3/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts - toasted
1 1/2 cups wheat bran
1 1/4 cups milk
2 large eggs
1/3 cup molasses
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2/3 cup dark seedless raisins
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
1 tablespoon sugar (I use brown sugar)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
honey

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 12 muffin cups (or 6 large muffin cups for giant muffins).
2. Place walnuts in baking pan and toast, shaking pan several times for 8 to 10 minutes or until nuts are lightly toasted. Tip immediately onto a plate to stop cooking.
3. In large bowl, combine bran and milk and let stand, stirring 2 or 3 times for 10 minutes or until most of the milk is absorbed. With a wooden spoon, beat in the eggs, molasses, and melted butter. Stir in raisins and toasted walnuts.
4. In a separate bowl, stir together flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt. Add flour mixture to bran-milk mixture and stir until just incorporated.
5. Here's my honey part: Add approximately 1 tablespoon honey to muffin cup just before adding the batter. If you want to skip the honey just spoon the batter directly into the muffin cups.
6. Bake approximately 18 minutes (I have reduced the cooking time due to these being smaller muffins) or 25-30 minutes for 6 giant muffins. The muffins should be firm to the touch, but you don't want to overcook them or they will be dry.
7. Turn out onto a wire rack and drizzle the bottom with more honey (if you want to) and leave upside down for the honey to soak in.

These are nice warm with a pat of butter and go well with salads or eaten as a quick breakfast snack along with an apple.


Have a great week everyone and make sure to cook at least one dish that uses whole grains!

Lemon Pound Cake Recipe with Lemon Glaze

With my tea today I'm enjoying my favorite lemon pound cake. The recipe is slightly adapted from The Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen. I have both her Moosewood cookbooks and have enjoyed many of the recipes.

Since I don't like to make a huge bunt cake I simply half the recipe and bake it in a loaf pan for 1 hour. In addition to using lemon extract I like to add the zest of 1 lemon to give it a little extra zing. I also add a lemon glaze once the cake is cooled because otherwise a pound cake can seem a bit plain.

Lemon Pound Cake;

All of the following ingredients should be at room temperature:
1/2 lb. unsalted butter (2 sticks)
1 & 1/2 cups white sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup whole milk
1 tsp. lemon extract
1 & 1/2 tsps. baking powder
zest from fresh lemon
2 cups all purpose white flour

Steps:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a loaf pan (butter and flour) to prevent sticking.

2.  Using electric mixer beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Remove mixture from electric mixer and continue using a wooden spoon.

3.  Sift together flour and baking powder.  Set aside.  Mix together milk and lemon extract and lemon zest and set aside.

4.  Alternately add flour and then milk mixture, mixing thoroughly with wooden spoon after each addition.  Both begin and end with flour.  Mix thoroughly but don't over mix and/or beat mixture.

5.  Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.  Bake for approximately 1 hour or until tester comes away clean.  Allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto wire rack to cool completely before glazing or slicing.   

Lemon Glaze:

1 cup sifted powdered sugar
1 tbs. lemon Juice
1 tbs. whole milk

Combine ingredients and drizzle over cooled pound cake.


By the way, although I don't often drink wine, I do enjoy an occasional glass and would love to hear any of your recommendations!

And I have been knitting too....Just when I decided that I didn't like variegated yarns anymore I discovered the perfect pattern. I can't stop admiring how nice these gauntlets look with a variegated yarn.  Which just goes to show that there really is a pattern for every yarn!

Specs: Pattern: Basic Gauntlets from Capistrano Fiber Studio; US 3 needles; 1 skein hand painted Capistrano Fiber Studio (150 yrds. superwash fingering merino). I bought this yarn and pattern at a LYS that has since gone out of business. The pattern was written by Lori Lawson owner of Capistrano Fiber Studio (who dyed the yarn). I must say her yarns are some of the prettiest yarns I've ever knit with - she also wrote the pattern and and dyed the yarn I used for my Lace Scarf With Ruffle - Ravelry Link).

Have a great weekend everyone!