a smidgen of happiness

Been having a tough time lately with my impending unemployment and deportation.... It's not easy to never buy anything and be poor.... Too many things I dont want to go into here or now BUT i did see this wonderful yarn in the most fantastic colors and for 2euros a ball, i can afford to buy some for socks.

Also, i've been fiddling around, trying to figure out how to take good pictures with my new camera and this is the best picture yet. Maybe I just got lucky.

Without further ado, here is the fantastic circus sock yarn (click on it to see a bigger version):

April 2012 in Pictures

In April we had to come back home from the most amazing trip and go back to reality (e.g. work and PhD life). We finished some work on the roof-terrace, started our graden, and I did some knitting (of course).

Here is a neighborhood cat surveying our changes to the covered bit of our roof-terrace:

The start of our new garden

A close up of plants we would eventually manage to kill (except the aloe, that one is still miraculously alive)

A nearly finished mitered square blanket for my nephew

March 2012 in Pictures

Picking just a few pictures for the month of March is almost impossible. In March Jamie and I took one of the most amazing trips of our lives to South America. There was a scientific congress for my field, and it's only held every other year in different locations. I was accepted to present a poster and I was determined to go to present it. It's a great experience to present your work at a congress full of people who not only understand the work, but are also interested in it. It doesn't hurt when the congress is held in an amazing location. This edition was set for Iguazu Falls, Brazil.

I really should do a blog post about our trip. ... I have such a bad memory you'd think I would blog all the time to help me remember, but I am just too busy being lazy when I'm not working my ass off for the PhD.

Ok enough talk, lets get to the amazing pictures!

Strelitzia flowers at our hotel in Sao Paulo

One part of the amazing Foz do Iguazu

A toucan friend pondering me at the bird sanctuary in Foz do Iguazu (the city, not the national park)

Our hostel in Porto Alegre, Brazil

A massive tree among other massive trees spanning more than a city block in the Recoleta area of Buenos Aires, Argentina

Smoke and deliciousness in the Mercado del Puerto in Montevideo, Uruguay

A tropical storm coming in at Ipenema beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The strangest flower I've ever seen at the botanical gardens in Rio

February 2012 in pictures

Feb was a month full of knitting pictures. Yes, this definitely exemplifies the winter blues I mentioned before. I mostly want to curl up in a quilt and not come out until spring.

I made progress on the baby blankie of love

And I finished a stranded color-work hat for Jamie. Which he loves and i have never washed even once because he wont let me. I'll try again this summer.

Pictures: January 2012

So I take a lot of pictures throughout the year, and I dont really do anything with them. Sometimes I put them on Facebook to share with friends, and sometimes not. I thought it might be nice to go post and discuss some of the pictures I took last year, by month. I'm going to do my very best to stick with this and review each month of 2012. It might take me all of 2013..... But gosh darnit, i'm going to finish something I start.
Looking back, January of last year was not very exciting as far as pictures go.

I backed a really cool Kickstarter campaign for a 3D printed sculpture. Here it is next to another fine piece of art (reproduction, of course).

I started knitting two big projects. The first was my very first cardigan, a raglan construction one using Malabrigo sock yarn. This particular iteration was eventually frogged since i was holding the yarn double and it was too tight and using too much yarn.

The second project was a baby blanket for my sisters baby. He was scheduled to be born in May, so I thought I had plenty of time. This was the third try after several failed attempts at a different pattern.

And that was pretty much it for January. Winter is always a bit of a depressing bummer here in Northern Europe.

2012 in Review

1. What did you do in 2012 that you’d never done before?
Obtained a LoLcat kitten of my very own

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Yeah ok, after thinking about this one for a couple hours i've given up. resolutions are nice but i just dont have time for that shit with a PhD needing to be finished by this summer. so basically, i just want to get published, finish my thesis, have it approved, defend, get my diploma and get a post-doc. sigh. crazy year ahead. 

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Holy cow it seemed like Everyone had babies this year. My cousin Shannon had a daughter, my friend Cat had a daughter, my sister had a son, my friend Amanda had a daughter, my cousin Tom's wife had a daughter, and lots of people I'm facebook friends with had kids. 

4. Did anyone close to you die?
I think 2012 was the first year in many years that there hasn't been a death of someone directly related to me....

5. What countries did you visit?
New countries that I had never been to before: Brazil; Argentina; Uruguay; Sweden

Countries that I have been to before: England, Belgium, Germany

6. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012?
Same as last year: A first author scientific publication.

7. What dates from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Again, I'm really bad at remembering actual dates, but visiting Foz do Iguazu was amazing. And our first night in Uruguay when we ate the most amazing chorizo in the whole world. 

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Not quitting my PhD and surviving Islay's kittenhood.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Having my paper rejected three times already. 

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Managed to sneak by this year without injusry. Had a couple colds, maybe a flu, some sunburn. Nothing dramamtic.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
hmmmm we got our cat for free so i guess all the toys we bought her were pretty fun. Couple of nice art prints for Jamie's room cheer me up too.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Same as last year: Jamie for being awesome and taking care of me during my hellish PhD. Knitting friends who welcome me back after long absences each time i try to have a social life.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
So many... the world is going to hell yadda yadda

14. Where did most of your money go?
Rent, traveling, beer, yarn, savings.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Going to South America! Going to Stockholm to see my friend Andreas!

16. What song(s) will always remind you of 2012?
Not sure really. Not a huge year musically for me.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? 
b) thinner or fatter? 
c) richer or poorer?
Happier, fatter, tad richer.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Exercise. Sleep.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Worry about my PhD.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Same as last two years: We spent Christmas and Boxing Day with Jamie's family in Stevenage, England. 

21. Did you fall in love in 2012?
I stayed in love with Jamie. And I guess you could say I fell madly in love with my fierce kitty Islay. 

23. What was your favorite TV program?
Pretty much same as last year. Pretty boring here.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Not sure? 

25. What was the best book you read? 
"I could Pee on This" a poem book by cats.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Nothing new, how lame

27. What did you want and get?
To go to the pneumococcal congress in Brazil. To travel around in South America. A kitten.

28. What did you want and not get?
My paper accepted. An extension of my PhD. The data of a trial, on time. A new camera. Nicer weather. Lose weight. Kick insomnia. Less migraines. 

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Oh jeez I am so bad at remembering what films I saw and when. The Avengers 3D was pretty epic i suppose.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
The "big" 3-0. I invited friends out for dinner and drinks, and they actually came! It was fun.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Same as last year: A magical understanding of the Dutch language. More contact with the people, friends and family, I left in the States. Less insomnia. Less migraines. Less pain and suffering on my part in general.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2012?
Mostly the same as previous years - whatever doesnt make me look pudgy and lots of black with a creeping towards a bit of "Dutch" and "European" fashion.

33. What kept you sane?
My office-mates and my boyfriend.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Well it was an election year so I guess I should say Obama? I voted for him and am super glad he won but it wasnt as crazy awesome as the first time.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
Same as last year: Marriage equality - no reason the States should discriminate. Immigration rights. Oh and several places voted in marriage equality laws so that was pretty amazing.

36. Who did you miss?
My friends who are not in the same country as me. My Grampa and Gramma.

37. Who was the best new person you met? Why?
My nephew Jacob who I met on skype. He's the cutest little stinker

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012.
Don't roughhouse with kittens - you'll end up with bleeding, shredded arms/hands.

39. A Quote or song lyric that sums up your year.

not really i guess. just trying to not drown

yummy carrot cake

After trying to force feed myself bacon or eggs or quiche for breakfast for two weeks and not enjoying it at all i decided to go back to what works for me in the morning, something semisweet. Looking for a breakfast that is delicious and not full of fake sugar, bad fats, gluten, etc is difficult, so i decided to try and alter an existing recipe. Here is the link to the original recipe. I made a half batch in case it was horrible, but it was delicious so I'm making it again. Also i'm not very specific on a lot of ingredients when i bake, so a lot of things are estimates.

Ingredients
75g raisins or sultanas
enough Cachaca to cover them (or rum)
6 cloves
     50-75g regular flour
     10-15g of almond flour
     60g of rice flour
      total ~150g of flour
1 tsp baking powder
~1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
60ml liquid coconut oil
30g unsalted butter
100g raw sugar
45g brown sugar (bastardsuiker)
2 eggs
90 ml karnemelk (sour milk or buttermilk)
~350 ml grated carrot

In convection oven or microwave put raisins in ceramic bowl, cover with cachaca, add cloves. Heat on high and leave in for alcohol to steep into raisins.

Oil baking pans (i used coconut oil as an experiment but i wont be doing it again. i'm going back to butter. i couldnt get my cake out of the pan).

Whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg; set aside.

Heat coconut oil and butter together until melted. In small bowl, whisk eggs and sugars together until frothy. Whisk in karnemelk and oils until combined. add carrots. combine with dry ingredients until no dry bits remain. add steeped raisins last, stir until just combined. pour into prepared pans.

bake for 30-45 mins at 180-200C, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Frosting:
1 tub cream cheese
spoonful coconut oil
1 tablespoon confectioner sugar
spoonful honey
remaining cachaca from raisins

whisk all ingredients until soft and spreadable (note to self - make sure coconut oil is melted and not hard)

put cake in fridge to cool. spread thin layer frosting over it, place back in fridge. when first layer is hard,  spread remaining frosting over cake. place back in fridge until frosting is hard.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Stout delicious noms

Oh goodness, they changed the look of blogger. Now i'm kinda lost. Well, this is a recipe post (a re-post really). I've taken one of my favorite cakes and modified it again, this time I halved it and changed it to metric - and baked it for my birthday, of course! Original post here containing original cake recipe.

Chocolate stout cake (my version)

INGREDIENTS
Cake
1 cup or 250 ml stout - I used Guinness
~1 cup or 200g unsalted butter
0.75cup or 90g unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder (I bumped it up to ~150-180g/ cake)

2 cups or 240g all purpose flour
~1.5 cups or ~300g raw sugar (or half brown(bastard) and half raw)
1/2 tablespoon baking soda
0.75 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup or 1pot (125g) sour cream

Icing (for 3 cakes)
2 cups or ~450ml cream (heavy cream for whipping)
1lb or 0.5kg bittersweet/pure Belgian chocolate - chopped

PREPARATION
For cake:
Preheat oven to 350F or 180C (200C if using a convection/magnatron)
Butter cake pans (I've used a variety - the original recipe is for a 3-layer cake using 8-inch round pans)
Bring stout and butter to simmer in heavy sauce pan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is (mostly) smooth. Cool slightly.
Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in large bowl to blend. Beat eggs and cream in another bowl to blend until fluffy. Add choco-stout mixture to egg mixture and beat to combine. Add flour mixture to this and beat briefly to combine. Use rubber spatula to fold mixture until completely combined. If layer cake - divide batter evenly to all pans (and probably make double e.g. the original recipe). Bake until tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean (about 45 mins in convection). Transfer to rack, cool 10 mins. Turn cakes out into rack, cool completely.

For icing:
Bring cream to simmer in heavy medium saucepan. Put heat to lowest setting or turn off. Add chopped chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Refrigerate until icing is spreadable, stirring frequently, about 2 hrs. If making frosting in advance it will get hard in fridge. Let it warm to room-temp and whisk in some milk to get it to the consistency you want (not too runny). Put frosted cake into fridge at least 4 hours (i do overnight) to set frosting.

Enjoy!!