Sunday's All Day Ragu Sauciness

 Sundays have become one of my favorite days of the week. I use it to relax and create yummy foods for the night and also for the week. Baking bread and simmering something all day in a large pot has become a Sunday ritual for us. My husband looks forward to it as well, since he tells me he's a very good taste tester.

I do have to say that I cook a lot and I don't use a lot of recipes to build soups, stews & sauces. It's usually by instinct and a lot of tasting. I did however put together an easy to follow recipe for this sauce. I used the last of my frozen stewed tomatoes from our garden last year. Although I've built sauces from good canned tomatoes as well and that's what this will be about. It's important to taste as you go and for me whats better for tasting than fresh bread!

Look at that stretch! Gluten free bread doesn't have to be hard or taste strange. This is the GF French bread recipe. Check it out and enjoy some warm yumminess.

As you can see below this bread makes for the perfect tasting spoon. I think I was guilty of tasting this sauce a lot!

The great thing about this sauce is...you can mix it up and use different meats like pork, panchetta, beef roast, etc. I just keep it at 2 lbs and mix it up! Also can play with herbs, broths and so forth. It's just plan fun to try it one way then give it a go and play.

Sunday Ragu Sauce

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• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion (chopped)
• 2-4 garlic cloves
• 2 tbsp fresh rosemary (chopped)
• 2 lb ground beef chuck roast (I always get fresh ground chuck...it's the bomb diggity)
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 cup beef broth (or bone broth if you make it, would be amazing)
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
• 1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes or stewed tomatoes

 Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven or large pot over medium high heat. Add garlic and saute until the edges are golden, about 2-3 minutes. Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 5 minutes. Season with salt, to taste. Add beef and cook until browned, about 5-8 minutes, making sure to crumble the beef as it cooks; season with salt, to taste.
2.  Stir in diced/stewed tomatoes (if stewed break them up in the pot), tomato paste, red wine and herbs. Reduce heat to low; simmer, stirring occasionally, with lid slightly ajar, until sauce has thickened, about 90-120 minutes. 
3. It's important to taste about halfway through to make adjustments. 
4. Serve with your favorite pasta or polenta!

Valentines Creative Weekend One

Sundays are so much fun for me...whether it's cooking/baking for the week or taking on new designing projects. I was thinking that I haven't done holiday hats or anything like that for my store yet. So I'm getting ahead of the game (for myself) and worked on a couple of fun hats today. The one I finished before writing this blog is the Skully Love Cap. Isn't it cute?!

 

 The second one is almost finished and it's called Tiny Hearts. I can just picture all the color combos for this hat. The spots could be dots or hearts really, it's all up to you. Now I'm thinking one more hat and I'm good for the day and the designs.

 

 These are just a few of the new designs I will be working on for the store. I've been wanting to take the skills to the next level with fair isle knitting, the color combos and designs are so much fun to play with. With the new name and direction of the store comes new labeling possibilities. I'm working on some vegan leather tags and unbleached stamped tags for the hats. Can't wait to play some more! Hope everyone had an amazing weekend and enjoys their evening. xo

Double Pointed Needle Storage

A little confession I have to make... I'm a person that needs to be organized. In fact I often have to stop in a middle of a project to fix, straighten or declutter things around me. It helps me think straight and well allow the creativity to flow I guess. I grew up that way, around a Mother that was rather OCD about all things in the house. Back to the post at hand (speaking of organizing!). As a knitter you start to collect a lot of different sizes of needles, especially double pointed needles needed for various projects. The problem with the needles is the fact they come with 5 needles in each set. I had this cute pouch that I kept all of them in and played the game of fishing each time I needed 4 or 5 of one size. Can I say frustrating!! Anyways I could sew up an organizer and do plan on doing this in the future as a project for my fellow knitters around me, they make killer gifts for knitters!

So with this project in mind I looked online to see what I could find for a basic pattern if anyone has ever knitted one. There were lots of OK ones out there but none I liked. I really wanted one like the sewn up jelly roll types with pockets. I finally found one similar to what I liked and took that pattern to a larger scale, so it can hold all the needles sizes I need. I found the pattern on Briney Deep Designs blog. So you can use her great pattern or go a bit bigger like I did. Either way it was a fun project and now I have a pretty and functional way to hold my needles!

This is her pattern with my changes to make it larger...

Needles: US #5, straights and double points
Yarn: I used Bamboo Pop (1 full ball and a quarter of the second was used. I figure under 350 yards) The original pattern didn't have yardage, so I'm going by what I used. 

ABBREVIATIONS
LK2tog: Lift corresponding stitch from “case body”, place on left needle. Knit together with 1 “pocket” stitch.
LEK2tog: Lift stitch from “case body” inner panel edge (next to seed stitch border), place on left needle. Knit together with 1 “pocket” stitch.

Co 116

knit 5 rows of seed stitch (continue doing seed stitch in pattern for the first 4 and last 4 stitches of every row)

Row 1: P1, K1, P1, K1, K across to last 4 stitches, K1, P1, K1, P1
Row 2 and all even rows: P1, K1, P1, K1, P across to last 4 stitches, P1, K1, P1, K1
Row 3: P1, K1, P1, K1, K1, [K3, P1] to last 7 stitches, K3, P1, K1, P1, K1
Row 4: K1, P1, K1, P1, purl to last 4 stitches, K1, P1, K1, P1

Row 5: P1, K1, P1, K1, K across to last 4 stitches, K1, P1, K1, P1

Row 6: K1, P1, K1, P1, purl to last 4 stitches, K1, P1, K1, P1
Row 7: P1, K1, P1, K1, K2, [P1, K3] to last 5 stiches, K1, P1, K3, P1, K1

Row 8: Row 4: K1, P1, K1, P1, purl to last 4 stitches, K1, P1, K1, P1
Work these 8 rows for a total of 8 repeats of the overall pattern.
Work 5 rows in seed stitch

The flap...

Row 1: P2tog, K2tog, P1, K1, K across to last 6 stitches, P1, K1, P2tog, K2tog

Row 2: K1, P1, K1, P1, P across to the last 4 stitches, K1, P1, K1, P1

Row 3: P1, K1, P1, K1, K1, [K3, P1] to last 7 stitches, P1, K1, P1, K1

Row 4: K2tog, P2tog, K1, P1, P across to the last 6 stitches, K2tog, P2tog, K1, P1

Row 5: P1, K1, P1, K1, K across to the last 4 stitches, P1, K1, P1, K1

Row 6: K1, P1, K1, P1, purl to last 4 stitches, K1, P1, K1, P1

Row 7: P1, K1, P1, K1, K2 [P1, K3], to last 5 stitches, P1, K1, P1, K1

Row 8: K1, P1, K1, P1, Purl to last 4 stitches, K1, P1, K1, P1

Work 5 rows of seed stitch and then bind off.

Pockets...

Pick up 109 st on the wrong side at the bottom edge of case body, just above seed stitch border and between side seed stitch borders. Each pocket stitch will correspond to one case body stitch (excluding seed stitch border).

Row 1: LEK2tog, K4, LK2tog, K4, LK2tog, K4, LK2tog, K4, LK2tog, K5, LK2tog, K5, LK2tog, K6, LK2tog, K7, LK2tog, K8, LK2tog, K9, LK2tog, K10, LK2tog, K11, LK2tog, K12, LEK2tog

Row 2: Purl

Repeat these 2 rows 21 times. 

Then continue the same count for the last 5 rows but in seed stitch.

 Bind off

For the closure you can do an i-cord (she has on her page), a button closure or ties. I found a button that I plan on sewing on with an i-cord to wrap around. 

 I'm very new to putting up patterns and I'm so glad I found an amazing pattern to play with. Thank you to Briney Deep Designs for a great idea!

Hot Cocoa Love

Nothing like a hot beverage in your favorite mug on a chilly day, snowy day or really anytime you need a little bit extra coziness. I love tea most anytime of day, while reserving my mornings for a cup of coffee and every once in awhile needing something decadent like hot cocoa. Since I've been gluten free for 2 years now, I've played with a lot of recipes to make at home and have the convenience of the "instant" loving world. So I have a couple of recipes I'm sharing with you...one with dairy and the other without. I prefer the one with dairy most of the time but do love heating up coconut milk for the other. So this is a preference for any of you wanting to try it out.

Instant Hot Cocoa (w/dairy)

2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup cocoa (Dutch-process preferred)
2 1/2 cups powdered milk
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons arrowroot starch (or cornstarch)

1 pinch of salt

1 pinch cayenne pepper, or more to taste (optional)

Instant Hot Cocoa (w/out dairy)

3 1/2 cups of sugar
2 1/4 cups of cocoa (Dutch-process preferred)
1 Tablespoon of salt

 

Directions (for both recipes)

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and whisk to incorporate evenly. Seal mixture in an airtight container, keeps indefinitely in the pantry. To make, I used 1/4 cup cocoa mix to about 3/4 cup hot water or hot milk of choice. Stir to blend, add some marshmallows or you favorite topping and enjoy