I see red!

Hi, Y'all!

A friend of mine once told me: When I think of you I see red." But in my defense I have to mention that we talked about clothing and shoes! In my childhood I was all into pink and violet and later I really liked green (well I still do, but more politically). But somehow I always turn to red if it's regarding shoes or handbags. Or think of that beautiful evening gown worn by Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman"!

And therefore, I'll show you what I made lately. (OK, forget Julia Roberts for the time being, I am not even remotely like her!) I already told you that I bought some fabric at the Netherlands fabric market - and among other things there were some pieces of faux leather. Usually I like classic rectangular bags, but thinking out of the box (literally) I tried a round one: 

I wasn't satisfied with my first attempt because the softness of the material. It was all very wobbly and didn't look professional at all. So I tried to support and spread the round parts with cardboard, but that didn't work. I was tempted to tear it apart completely but ended up topstitching the seam allowance into the direction of the zipper and then also made a lining which I handstitched to the zipper. Et voilà - it keeps its shape!

It's approximately 20 cm in diameter, thus my most important utensils like purse, keys, mobile and mask fit perfectly, and because I tailored it to me personally, I don't need any sliders for the bag strap. Clean, plain and minimal. 

From the leftover fabric I made a really small crossbody bag which can contain keys, mobile and poop bags, only. And exactly that is it's purpose: When I have to walk the dogs but don't have pockets in my clothes. 

Here a closer look. And as I have to reach the little black bags rather quickly on walkies I didn't use any closure for the handbag, only a tassel as decoration. 

A colleague told me lately, that she always knits socks during team calls or webcasts when she only has to listen, my bestie regularly takes part in a competition called "sock madness", and another friend of mine has been knitting socks since forever (when it was still uncool, that means). And therefore I thought, I might try that myself. Said and done, here's the first work in progress:

And here comes the finished pair - knitted from the top down to the toes. The cabled rhombus is only on the outside of each sock, but the single cable runs on both sides into the toe area. 

Then I started a pair toe-up with a crocheted chain as base. You knit from that crochet chain to the very tip of the toes and then back again to the beginning of your toes first in shortened and then elongated rows, and then you can eliminate the chain and have all the stitches for a complete round on your needles. And yes, I still use five needles to knit in rounds, although I have some sets made of bamboo. Advantage: You can use them on the plane whereas the metal ones are forbidden by most airlines.

Interesting features: purled gusset and the heart shaped heel instead of a normal one. 

Well and then I had the plan to mix several patterns into a frankensock, if you will say so. Shaft and heel were already done...

...and then came Else...

But she had so much joy with the skein of yarn and I wasn't sure if the yarn was enough anyway, I let her play with it. She took the whole skein apart and the sock went over the rainbow bridge but that's perfectly fine. 

A nice weekend to Y'all!

Oven Inspirations

Hi Y'all!

It might take quite some while, but at least my parents seem to slowly find back to some kind of normalcy. Not regarding COVID (but that's similar, I guess), but regarding the flooding. The damaged and dirty furniture is removed, the power box renewed, the new kitchen ordered, and both look more optimistic into the future than three weeks before. And I would like the solidarity, the willingness to help and the team spirit which the people showed during those difficult times to stay as long as possible.

Here at our river Elbe we had no heavy rainfalls but the last few weeks didn't feel like summer. Dresses and flats without nylons are okay, but if you ask me, I could do with some higher temperatures. But according to the two furry fellows who are snoring right and left of me the weather is perfectly fine for them. 

And with temperatures like that I was in the mood to heat up the oven. Please enjoy another glimpse into our kitchen...

I may have mentioned it before, that I try to structure my week a bit. On Mondays or Tuesdays I do the ironing (cause I do laundry on Fridays), then I have water Wednesday - that means I water all my plants (otherwise they either drown or die of drought) and on Fridays after house cleaning (which is done by a helpling, thank goodness) I do the laundry, because then I can add all the dirty cleaning rags, and in the afternoon I do the grocery shopping. You might imagine that my energy to cook is on a rather low level after that. Therefore something quick and easy is in order. Sometimes that means delivery hero, sometimes I just pull a ready made dough out of my hat like a rabbit. With some sour cream, diced bacon and onion it's a classical tarte flambee. But you could top it with camembert or goat cheese and sprinkle it with mountain cranberries after baking, which is also delicious. And in case you have to impress: Try smoked salmon and arugula!

Tex-mex cuisine is always a good option, although I have to admit, that there is always room for authentic improvement... Anyway, I had some leftover minced beef which I fried in a pan together with onions, garlic, tomato paste and cumin and all the spices I deemed appropriate. Of course that called for corn and kidney beans, which I also added to the mix. Instead of tortillas I took ready-made whole grain wraps (sometimes you simply have to keep it simple, right?), filled the meat into that wrap and folded little packages. Put them into an oven pan, added some sour cream and shredded cheese. Bake and enjoy!

Once the oven is heated let's continue with dessert. Red currants are not my favorite type of fruit because they are sourish by nature. But if you cleverly combine them that sourness is exactly what makes it interesting. Thus I prepared a dough with yoghurt and hid the currants under crumble. In order to portion and freeze them, I made muffins instead of a whole cake: 

Some of them are sleeping beauties in my freezer right now, but if I need a sugar rush they are defrosted in no time! 

And last but not least I tested a tangerine cake with sour cream. It had some kind of shortcrust as base, and on top of that came a home-made vanilla pudding. To be honest: up to that day I only used the pre-mixed powder which comes in the little blue paper bags. But generally it only takes milk, sugar, vanilla and starch - it's as simple as that. As I didn't have vanilla, I grated some tonka bean, which had an almondy taste and that fitted quite well. The freshly cooked pudding was mixed with loads of sour cream and then spread on the cake base. On top I added canned, drained tangerines and baked it. 

Sorry, I should have covered the cake at the end of the baking process... Once it was cooled, I used the tangerine liquid to make a glaze which I carefully spooned on the cake. 

According to the recipe the cake had to stay in the fridge overnight, but after a morning the glaze was perfect, as you can see in the pic below. 

You guys, that's it for now. Next time, I plan to show some insights from my sewing room...

Have a good time!