New Post!

If any one could give me tips on making the pictures work on my blog I would be much appreciated...

Happy Tuesday!

Lone Sock

I feel and hope that I will get better at posting, but making sure my camera is ready and conveniently waiting when I have an idea is almost impossible! I find myself thinking that I should stop and capture my progress but then I want to continue my progress while I can…Hence I have mostly pictures of completed projects or no pictures at all.

I can only laugh about this because it was intended to be a present. I completed one whole sock, of my own design, and just could not convince myself to do the other one. The punch line is that I then got inspired by a cowl pattern from Lionbrand Yarns (an after Christmas post) and used up almost all of the yarn I had for that sock project. So I have my lone sock :). 

This is not the first time that I have started and then taken a break in the middle but this will be the first time that I am choosing to not finish. At this point I can't really decide what I should do next, take it apart and do something else with the yarn or keep it as a pattern and example. 

So my lone sock sits in the bottom of my yarn bag, swimming around with the rest of stuff; candy, spare change and pocket knife.  I do have to say, my knitting bag is much more organized as of late because of my incredibly talented sister-in-law. She made me a small bag “to place things” which is perfect for my scissors, measuring tape, stitch markers and holders and other yarn what-not. Thank you for an already functional Christmas Gift!

 See you all in the New Year!

My love of Jiffy mix

I wanted to talk about some other recipe that I love that does not seem to involve cheese somehow...so Jiffy Mix it is.


I discovered Jiffy Mix at the grocery store because Jiffy offers those great, one recipe size boxes of the best corn bread mix. I am something of a brand follower so I tried the Jiffy mix, also the box has a ton of recipes on it, anything from waffles to cinnamon buns and chicken casserole. The product is much like Bisquik but I find Bisquik has a very distinct flavor that I am not so fond of.


I have made the pancakes and cinnamon buns with great success  and decided to try the sugar cookies. The thing is I really don't like sugar cookies- I think they are boring and can be ruined easily but there is no shortage of chocolate chips in my house! Here is what I did:

2 cups Jiffy mix

1/3 cup milk

1egg, beaten

½-1 ½ cups of chocolate chips

2/3 cup sugar

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp of nutmeg

Bake at 350 on a greased cookie sheet for over 8 minutes…they take  longer than I expect so I start checking at 8 and take out when ready.

The trick is to let the dough sit out for 15 to 20 minutes before baking. It will rise a bit and so the cookies end up being little golden brown mountains instead of flat cookies, see difference in pic... And because of the mix they are not crunchy but cakey which I love.

You can also add an extra cup of mix and a half cup of peanut butter for a twist.

I was thinking of experimenting with other things like adding cranberries and nuts or white chocolate chips and candied orange peel but I haven’t gotten there yet. 

Fish

I wanted to write a quick post on the weird but good fish i made last night!

It has .74lbs of Trout, which I have never had before. Its flesh is very similar to salmon but the taste is perhaps a bit lighter. I bought it because it was a good price and something different from the standard Haddock, Halibut and Flounder.

I left the fillet whole with skin on and baked it in my toaster oven on a piece of tin foil, temperature between 425 and 475.
The fish was dressed with:

A splash of lemon juice (about 1 tsp)
An even sprinkling of Morton Season All *Low Sodium* Seasoned Salt (about 1/4 tsp)
An even but light coat of ground ginger (about 1/2 tsp)
An even but light coat of ground cumin (about 1/2 tsp)
...This is where the weird starts....
A liberal amount of Asiago shredded cheese (about 1/4 cup)
2 to 3 dollops of butter or spread

It was good. I have no idea what inspired this either but it was really good. The cheese didn't burn and crust up but got nicely golden. The spices added a nice warmth (if that is possible), the fish was moist and it all still tasted like fish! Which was a good thing last night, though sometimes it is not.