A wooly hat...

Yes, that's just what you need for the current weather...  Actually it's the last thing I want in this 25 degrees-plus spell we're having but, the hat I started knitting back in February is now finished!  Ta Dah! This is the pattern I chose from Ravelry, which is a great place to get started. And I fell in love with this hat by Grace Akhrem as soon as I saw it:

Actually it's been almost finished for a while now. It came to Derbyshire with us in March/April unfinished (with finishing accoutrements, like needles and buttons) but as the weather was good there I didn't feel compelled to sew it up. As that was all that it needed. Now if it had been cold...

And d'you know what, because it was knitted "in the round" (oh, get me with my knitting technical terms) there was actually very little sewing to do...

[blushes furiously]

When I bought the wool (yes, back in February when it was very cold) I couldn't decide between a navy and pink multi-colour wool or a lovely plain cream. I always like the multi-coloured skeins on the shelf but often am less keen on them when they're knitted, but I really liked this colourway and there wasn't a plain navy which I'd planned to buy. So as I often do when faced with such tricky decisions I bought both! 

I decided to start with the navy and pink multi-colour version as I thought that might be more forgiving as I started to knit again. And the doubts about the multi-coloured wool crept in but I persevered. 

I used to knit a lot back in the early nineties but haven't done any for a very long time.  Luckily a video on the internet reminded me of how to cast on (and cast off again later on) and I remembered the basic knit and purl stitches so I was well away. I couldn't believe how quickly reading the abbreviations on the pattern came back, and how quickly my hat grew.

MOH couldn't believe I was knitting, there were regular shakes of the head... But knit I did, and it was great fun. I've already lined up my next project - I've decided to knit a summer top but didn't want to start that before this was properly finished. So expect that some time in the autumn!!  So onto my finished hat - I like the multi-coloured wool pattern, I think it's better on the brim section than the crown and as that's the bit I think I'll see most, that's a good thing!  

The next problem I faced was how to photograph it; photographing it on a flat surface did nothing for its looks, I'm not that good at selfies and I couldn't see MOH agreeing to model it either!  So hopefully my plan worked:

A flatter version!

All in all I'm pleased with it, and glad I've actually Properly Finished It so I can start with that summer top. The only problem is this time I've a choice of three colours: a beige, a pale pink and a pale green. And I'm still undecided. Choices again y'see!

52 Cookbooks #28: Salted chocolate lime mousse

This week I've a guest cook in the kitchen - MOH. He'd promised to make chocolate mousse for my birthday at the end of May but with it being a weekday and what with one thing and another I've only just called in the chocolate mousse promise!

52 Cookbooks: the challenge is to cook a 

new recipe from one of my (many) 

cookbooks each week for a year...

He's been at home again this week, recovering from his chicken pox but is so much better - next week he's back to work. Phew.  My task was to find a chocolate mousse recipe and I thought it would be good to try this one.  Usually I'll go straight for the Leon chocolate mousse recipe but now I'm in the habit of actually looking at my cookbooks, I thought why not...

The book this week is Hugh F-W's River Cottage Fruit Everyday book from the TV series of the same name. 

MOH is a good cook and I often save the recipes with lists of ingredients as long as your arm for him as I know he'll follow them to the letter, where I'd get bored half-way through and start to improvise...

With MOH cooking it usually goes something like this - "No, you sit down I'll do it" followed by "Where's this, where's that" and I'm up and down finding things in the kitchen. Having had experience of this I get the ingredients out now before I sit down, however we seemed to have a mixing bowl shortage so I was up helping to locate those. And Billy the electric whisk. And the tea cups to serve this in...

When I did sit down again though it dawned on me that I'd not get to lick the bowls out. Oops, tactical error. Oh well! 

However MOH called me when there was a bowl to be licked - yay!  Although there was no way though that he could claim to be innocent in the bowl licking department as he had chocolate mousse on his face...

Here they are:

I'm a very lucky girl!

The verdict

• Apparently I couldn't have chosen a recipe that needed anymore bowls! I suspect I could but I didn't know that was the challenge...
• It's got fruit in it - limes - so it must be healthy!!
• They were saltier than I expected, but I liked the salt and lime taste with chocolate. 
• They were fluffy and quite rich, but lovely - I think we'll be having these again!

52 Cookbooks #27: Pasta with chicken, sage and onion butter

It's been a funny couple of weeks cooking-wise here as with MOH ill he hasn't really had much appetite.  And the food he wants is plainer than we'd usually have as he's finding everything - especially garlic - much stronger than usual.

52 Cookbooks: the challenge is to cook a 

new recipe from one of my (

many) 

cookbooks each week for a year...

That left me in a bit of a quandary on which cookbook to use this week, but then I remembered this Gary Rhodes book which I hoped might help me out. 

It says on the cover "one simple recipe for every day" and thankfully there were two or three possibles that I thought he'd go for.  I was right and in the end I opted for this pasta recipe as I had some leftover roast chicken that I could use.

While flicking through this book there were quite a few recipes that I probably would cook too, so I must remember to look at this book again when I can be a little more adventurous...

The recipes are more classical, as you'd expect from Gary Rhodes - but no worse for it.  Anyway onto this recipe.  It assumes uncooked chicken but substituting cooked chicken (and changing the cooking order) worked perfectly well.

The other ingredients are pasta (of your choice - I used fusilli), a red onion, a clove of garlic (yes I snuck one in and got away with it), butter and sage.

I mean chicken, onions, butter and garlic - what can go wrong!

The sauce is really just melted butter and I added some of the pasta's cooking water to help things gel more.  The sage is roughly torn and it's added a short while before the pasta so it has time to soften and flavour the butter. 

The verdict

• This was an easy to cook and tasty pasta dish
• It was great with leftover chicken, but equally you could use uncooked chicken (as the recipe says)
• I'd make this again and could easily see this becoming part of my repertoire
• MOH scoffed the lot, with it hardly touching the sides so I'm taking that as a good thing!