Sunday Supper - Beef Birria Tacos

I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it but a while back, not long after we moved in here, my InstantPot was put in the oven and baked until it was a very smelly and unrecognizable blob of melted plastic.  It was tragic and I've been upset over its loss ever since.  My Instant Pot was finally replaced this Christmas and I couldn't be happier.

And so....

photo courtesy of foodlion.com

Beef Birria Tacos made in a pressure cooker.  Tacos and getting to use my Instant Pot - what could be better?

I'll admit, the recipe sounds like a lot of work and I'm likely to skip the whole cooking the tortillia part, but the meat and sauce part sound excellent.  I'll just make it with store bought taco shells and if it tastes as good as it sounds, maybe I'll cook the taco shells next time.  Maybe.

I'm also curious what 12 servings means.  Is that 12 tacos, or is it enough meat for 12 people to eat tacos? I'm fairly certain it's 12 tacos and as a large, taco loving family, we probably won't have a lot of leftover meat, but if we do, I'm sure it's easily freezable.

Enjoy!

What a week!

This has been quite an exciting week!

I finished the Mimosa sweater for Sarah.  I even sewed it all up and she's worn it.  Of course I forgot to take a phot of it.  Next time she wears it...

I finished knitting the Squish blanket and bound it off.

I even wove in all the little ends and have been enjoying snuggling up under it the last few nights.  The blanket really is aptly named because it is incredibly thick and squishy.  If I can stand that many long-term projects, I may have to knit one for each family member.  I love it that much!

And, most exciting of all....

The Cadbury eggs are stocked and on the grocery store shelves.  This pleases me to no end.  My weight-loss doctor, probably not so much.

Sunday Supper - Maple Baked Butternut Squash

 

photo courtesy of thecookierookie.com

I was searching for January vegetable dishes and this maple butternut squash recipe from thecookierookie.com popped up.  I actually have real maple syrup on hand (a rareity around here) and so...

You'll find the actual recipe for this dish way, way, way down in the link but, before you get to the recipe, the website has some great tips on how to cut and peel butternut squash.  I found that information to be quite helpful.  I've mentioned before, I'm pretty unadventerous in the kitchen and have never cooked butternut squash before.  It's probably excess information that most of you will have to page through to reach the recipe but for those of us who can barely boil water, I was glad the information was provided.

Enjoy!

Continue-itis

You've heard of start-itis.  Well, I'm suffering from continue-itis.  I just keep knitting on the same items and never seem to finish them.

I'd forgotten how much I dislike having mutliple projects on the needles at once.  I mean, one simple, knit while I read type project and one complicated, gotta pay attention project on the needles at the same time is okay.  It's a good thing actually.  But more than that.... and it's just a bad case of continue-itis.

I did finish the knitting part of Mimosa and one side seam is sewn.  But that other side seam....  I really neeed to finish it before Sarah beats me over my head with my knitting bag but....

But when given the choice between sewing seams and knitting....

Even when the knitting is slightly boring and never ending, I'll choose knitting over seam sewing any day of the week.  There may actually be an end in sight for Squish.  I guestimated its length this morning and it looks like I only need to add four more color stripes.  And that means, by next Friday, I should, hopefully, be showing off a finished Squish.  Fingers crossed!

I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it, but my husband gave me this book, Selbu Patterns, by Anne Bardsgard for Christmas.  How he knew I wanted it or where to find it is beyond me but he really came through this year! 

 

And of course I had to immediately cast on a hat.  It's not a true Selbu designed hat, but it is using a Selbu design element.  This is the one knitting project without a deadline or a waiting receive so of course, it's the project I want to knit on most.

I could have knit this hat 16 times by now but I'm struggling with the chart color vs my yarn colors.  See how the chart is black and white?  Actually, it's charcoal gray and white.  My yarn is charcoal gray and yellow.  On the chart, the background stitches are white and the pattern is gray.  But my yarn, the background is gray and the pattern is knit in yellow.  I can't tell you how many times I've had to tink back and switch my colors.  

I'm at the halfway point of the chart though so 16 more tinks and reknits .... and I'll be back to solid color knitting.  If I focused, I could have this hat finished by next Friday too!

Wish me luck and happy knitting!

Sunday Supper - Chocolate Carmel Self Saucing Pudding

 

photo courtesy of delicious.com

Mmmm... yum!  

Chocolate carmel self saucing pudding from delicious.com.

(FYI, caster sugar is the Brittish version of super fine sugar according to Google.)

Enjoy!

Mimosa Part 2

Knitting on the Mimosa sweater continues.

I don't understand why it's taking so long to knit this sweater.  The fabric grows quickly and it's the only thing I've knit on since Christmas.  I'm sure it has nothing to do with spending 90% of my spare time eating leftover Christmas cakes and candy instead of knitting.

The body is completed, except for sewing it up, and I've started the first sleeve.  I don't think I've ever knit a cuff-up sleeve before.  This one looks like a giant mushroom.

I'm waiting to do the sewing until the sleeves are done.  I knit the required number of rows on the front and back but they look a little short to me.  Hopefully it's just that I'm freakishly tall and the sweater will be plenty long and oversized on Sarah.  But if not, I have a plan to elongate the shoulders.  Hopefully that plan will not need to be executed because I'm afraid it will look weird once the sleeves are attached.  We'll just have to wait and see about that.  

Hopefully by next Friday I'll be writing about a completed sweater.  I'm just about out of Christmas candy. (Thank goodness!  I'm not sure my waistband can stand much more!)  Hopefully I'll be spending a lot more time knitting and a lot less time opening mini Reese's wrappers this week.

Happy knitting and happy Friday 13th!

Sunday Supper - Unstuffed Cabbage Casserole

So, I'll admit I'm not very adventurous when it comes to food and/or cooking.  I've never had stuffed cabbage or really even know what it is.  But this recipe for unstuffed cabbage casserole sounds pretty good.  And easy.

recipe and photo courtesy of foodlion.com

I like easy.  I am all about easy!  

I'm also all about cheap. One of my goals for 2023 is to spend less and save more.  That's going to be hard to do with grocery prices on the rise like they are, but this recipe should be relatively inexpensive to make.  And I imagine it's pretty filling.

Cheap, easy and filling.  What more could a lazy girl ask for?

Enjoy!

Mimosa

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.  Ours was really nice.  New Years wasn't much.  The family slept and I worked but Christmas was wonderful.  

I was so proud of Hayden.  She'd spent Christmas Eve Eve at her other grandparent's and she normally has a little too much fun there and comes home exhausted and a little grouchy.  I was a bit concerned about how she'd behave Christmas Eve at my nephew's house, in a strange house, with people she rarely sees, make that loud people she rarely sees, and withoout a nap and past her bedtime...  But she did fantastic!  She walked in, made herself at home and had a blast playing with my sister's grandkids. She even sat at the kid's table to eat and didn't need any help from her parents. The only time she got upset was when we took the book away from her so that someone else could do the traditional reading of The Night Before Christmas.

As for my Christmas Eve Cast On project, I cheated and cast on a few days early.  It's a sweater for Sarah that was actually a Christmas gift for her.  I thought I'd be safe because Sarah announced she wanted me to knit her the sweater early to mid December.  The pattern is Mimosa, a free pattern on Ravelry.

The sweater's design is super simple.  It's basically just a few rectangles sewn together and it's knit with US15 needles with mohair-like yarn.  Being free and so simple, the pattern doesn't even provide gauge but it does mention what yarn the designer, Ola Otuli, used.  I decided I'd use the same yarn just to be safe.

A brief internet search for the yarn took me to an Etsy shop, DewKnit in Lithuania.  I was pretty excited because Etsy's shipping esitmator thing said the  yarn would arrive between December 19 and January 5th.  Perfect, I thought.  It would never arrive before Christmas so I could wrap up a note and there'd be zero expectation of having a knitted sweater under the tree on Christmas morning.  Or so I thought.

Well, the yarn arrived on December 20th.  Thankfully Sarah is an understanding big girl these days and still didn't expect the finished sweater to be under the tree.  She has, however, checked on it's progress daily ever since  the yarn's arrival.

The sweater is knitting up quickly and I'm enjoying the yarn.  It's hairy like mohair but it's a wool/alpaca blend rather than being actual mohair.  And I'm loving it.  Mohair tends to make my hands sweaty and I feel like I end up with more fiber in my eyes and nose than on the needles when ever I've knit with it.  But this  yarn, this yarn doesn't shed like mohair.  It doesn't shed at all.  I can knit wearing my black work pants with no worries at all.  It's super soft and did I mention how fast it's knitting up?  If it wasn't for that pesky job of mine, I probably could have had the sweater knit and under the tree Christmas morning.

If you decide to knit yourself a Mimosa sweater, and you plan to use the yarn, Drops Melody, as mentioned in the pattern, I highly recommend you order from DewKnit.  Yes, the yarn had to travel from Lithuania, but it made the trip quickly, even at Christmas.  The yarn was packaged well and the customer service was great.  I won't hesitate to order from DewKnit next time.

And now I'm off to knit a few more rows.  I can't wait to hear about what everyone else is knitting in the the new year.

Sunday Supper - Black-Eyed Peas

Happy New Year!

And since it's New Year's, you've got to eat your black-eyed peas.  So...

photo courtesy of themagicalslowcooker.com

Slow cooker black-eyed peas from themagicalslowcooker.com.  They are made in the slow cooker so they're simple to make.  The recipe calls for simple ingredients that are most likely already in your pantry and it will even help use up some of that Christmas ham you still have hanging around.

Enjoy and Happy New Year!