Madhu Knits and Cooks

UPDATED: Flower Hat for Alana!

The wave of knitting for co-workers' kids continues this spring with a lovely lightweight hat for Alana, who is two and a half (or three quarters?) years old.  Alana's aunt Danielle picked out the pattern and the yarn for Alana's hat from a few options, and I think I owe her for picking both an awesome pattern and wonderful yarn.  I definitely plan on using this pattern again and again, and look forward to experimenting with different sizes, colors and yarn types!  Details on the project follow the picture of the finished, blocked hat.

 

Alana's Hat Details

Pattern:  Flower Hat, published by Rebecca Lennox and the Elmwood Yarn Shop.  I slightly altered the pattern by reducing the number of cast on stitches to 90 instead of 112

Yarn:  1 skein and only the slightest bit more of Schulana Sojabama, a 55% bamboo/45% soy blend (the "slightest bit more" probably equates to 2 - 3 yards) in 01 Natural.  Perfect yarn for spring/summer knitting.

Needle:  2 size 4 circular needles for main part of the hat, with 2 size 2 circulars for the bottom seed stitch border

Post-Blocking Measurements:  21 inches around at the widest point (the brim) by 7 inches tall.  The hat is approximately 18 inches wide at the middle of the hat.  Before blocking, the stockinette gauge was 22 stitches/4 inches for the gauge swatch I knit and steamed.  After blocking, it stretched to 18.5 stitches/4 inches, so a pretty considerable difference.  I knit 5 1/2 inches of the flat hat, followed by 2 inches of shaping.  The length didn't really expand that much from pre to post-blocking.

Update

What did Alana think of the hat, you may ask?  Let's ask her -- Alana, what do you think of the hat?

 

 (Alana thinks about the question)

 

 Answer:  She likes it!

Cook's Illustrated Chewy Brownies (Just Like the Cardboard Box Kind!)

This will be a relatively brief post to describe my attempt at making the March/April 2010 Cook's Illustrated Chewy Brownies recipe (see, I really am trying to use my cooking magazines more!).  First, I have to say, compared to a number of Cook's Illustrated recipes, this baked goods recipe didn't actually require using a number of new techniques or adding several steps beyond a "standard" recipe to achieve a good end result.  Sometimes after making their recipes, I admit that I actually pretty tired from all of the effort I put in to their dishes :-)  However, despite that brief respite that the editors allow us, the recipe called for baking the brownies in a pan that was covered in a foil "sling" -- so two large pieces of foil that covered the entire pan, and supposedly allowed one to remove the brownies easily from the pan to allow the brownies to cool more quickly on a wire rack.  Removing the foil sling from the brownies once they were fully cooked though ended up being a HUGE pain, and I had to scrape away the foil in some places, despite the healthy coating of cooking spray I had used to coat the sling.

The final result was pretty fantastic -- true to the recipe's description, the brownies had a shiny, hard coating on top, just like the brownies that you get when you use a semi pre-made box version of brownies.  The brownies were also very dense and fudgy -- perfect for any true chocolate lover.  While they were a little rich for my taste, the brownies were quickly gobbled up in the office and I think they'll be added into future potluck/picnic/birthday celebration baking rotations.  

 

 

Fresh and Light Spinach-Zucchini Soup

This is going to be the first of many reviews of recipes in my cooking magazines.  I have decided to make a concerted effort to go through and use my stacks of magazines, so that they aren't just unnecessary clutter in my apartment.  I chose to pursue this effort after flipping through some of my old issues one evening, and realizing that I hadn't made a single recipe in them.  It's really quite ridiculous that I pay money for these, and I generally get good results while also pushing myself to use new ingredients, so there isn't really much reason for me to not put them more to use. 

Given the recent change of a season in Washington, I decided to start with some light recipes that would highlight the flavor of fresh vegetables.  I found a great Spinach-Zucchini Soup recipe in my September 2009 Vegetarian Times issue that called for a lot of lemon juice and fresh herbs (mint).  I tried it on a Sunday afternoon, and it ended up being a fantastic light lunch.  I made a few alterations to the recipe, and I look forward to making future changes because the recipe seems pretty adaptable.  I substituted fresh cilantro for the mint because I had it in the fridge, I used 5 ounces of spinach instead of the 4 called for the in recipe, and finally, I reduced the amount of lemon zest a bit, and just squeezed half a large lemon into the recipe to taste.  The soup was very light and fresh-tasting because of the lemon (but not too lemony, which I am not a fan of), and I look forward to making it again throughout the summer!

 

 

Wonderfully Fresh and Flavorful Vegan Meal -- Indian-Style Roasted Cauliflower, Chinese-Inspired Sauteed Spinach and Red Quinoa

I have been trying to create new versions of some traditional Indian dishes that I like -- so adapting the usual spice blends I use for the vegetables I ate growing up to new ingredients, and trying to cook things differently by using new techniques.  Through these adventures, I recently made what in my mind was a pretty successful dinner -- it was flavorful, quick, and used good, fresh ingredients.  Details about the meal -- an Indian-style roasted cauliflower, a super-simple Chinese-inspired sauteed spinach and cooked red quinoa -- follow the picture.

 

Roasted Cauliflower

Ingredients

• 1 medium head cauliflower, cleaned and coarsely chopped into 1/2 - 3/4 inch segments
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp cumin (whole not ground)
• 3 dried red chili peppers
• olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1.  Pre-heat over to 450 degrees, and cover a large baking sheet with foil

2.  Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, and add mustard seeds.

3.  When the mustard seeds start popping, add cumin and break the red chili peppers in half, adding them to the saucepan as well.  Mix together.

4.  When spice mixture is fragrant, add sliced garlic and saute until garlic also becomes fragrant but before it burns.

5.  Immediately add cauliflower, and toss for 1 - 2 minutes to ensure the cauliflower is completely covered by the olive oil and spice mixture.  

6.  Remove pan from heat, and place the cauliflower on the prepared baking sheet in one layer.  Add additional olive oil and toss, if the cauliflower pieces aren't covered by a very light layer of oil.

7.  Place baking sheet in oven on the highest rack, and roast for 15 - 20 minutes or until the cauliflower has browned to your liking, and is tender.  Liberally season with salt and pepper, and serve.

Chinese-Inspired Sauteed Spinach

Ingredients

• 1 bunch spinach, thoroughly cleaned, patted dry (this is important) and with only the ends trimmed
• 5 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce, additional to taste
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 2 dried chili peppers (optional)
• Vegetable oil

Directions

1.  Heat 2 - 3 tsp. of vegetable oil on medium-high heat in a large saucepan.  Add garlic and red chili peppers, and cook until mixture is fragrant (approx. 1 - 2 minutes).

2.  Add spinach, tossing with tongs to ensure all spinach wilts evenly.  After the spinach is lightly wilted, add the soy sauce, tossing to coat.

3.  Once the spinach is cooked to your liking, stir in the sesame oil and remove from heat.  Serve immediately.

Vest for 3-Year Old Henry!

In what has become an unsurprising opening for most of my blog posts, this latest knitting project has been over a year in the making.  And unfortunately for Henry, it was completed after the DC winter season (its now almost 90 degrees here!), so it may not be put into meaningful use until next fall.  But at least I finally finished it :-)

This children's vest turned out remarkably well -- I found the pattern on Ravelry, and ordered the pattern booklet, Sirdar's 324, online.  At first, I thought I would design the vest myself but I couldn't think of any interesting motifs to help make the vest more distinctive.  I'm glad I purchased this specific pattern booklet because it has a good range of children's patterns, which is where my knitting has been concentrated in recent months.  The yarn I used also turned out to be perfect as it produced a good mid-weight vest that can be used in both fall and winter, and it knit up fairly quickly on the needles.  I did convert the pattern to knit the pattern in the round (I hate seams!), and that was fairly simple.  The bulk of my "focused" time on the vest was spent on the neckband and armhole borders which required a fair amount of work with picking up a LOT of stitches. Details of the project follow the picture of Henry modeling the vest.

 

 Henry's Vest Project Details

Pattern:  Design G, Tank and Beanie, Size 3 -4 years.  Published in Sirdar 324, Vintage Snuggly DK Knits.

Yarn:  1.3 skeins (approx) of Mission Falls 136 Merino Superwash in 004 Charcoal.  0.2 skeins (approx) of Mission Falls Merino Superwash in 003 Oyster as the contrast yarn.

Needle:  2 size 4 circular needles for body of the vest, 2 size 3 circulars for the bottom, neck and armhole ribbing.

Post-Blocking Measurements:  26 inches wide (13 inches per side) by 15 1/4 tall (measured from bottom of vest to top of shoulder).  The armholes were 5 inches long, and the "v" of the neck was 6 inches long.  Although the gauge was slightly smaller than what was called for, the result perfectly measures to what the pattern calls for.