World Wide Knit In Public Day

 

Food Makes The Belly Go Round

It is often said that "Money makes the world go around" but for me it has to be food.

Here is a photo of my Birthday Breakfast from this October. Thick slices of Smoked Bacon with a Farmhouse Sausage and two Poached Eggs served with dry fried Mushrooms and the good old reliable Baked Beans. To go along with this was Toast made from my own home baked Wholemeal Bread and a mug of strong English Breakfast Tea

B had extras for his plate (not shown). He's from Scotland and loves to have Lorne Sausage, also known as Square Sausage alongside a grilled slice of Black Pudding to go with it.

I would like to point out that this size of meal would be for Brunch not Breakfast on a normal day. Most days I am happy with just a mug of tea to start the day. I know I can hear people muttering about Breakfast being the most important meal of the day but to be honest with you I have never been a fan of eating of a morning, before I have had a few hours to wake up.Recently I was surprised to find that a number of the photos on my mobile phone are of food.

Never having been a person who has carried a camera on a day to day basis, I have taken very few photos over the years. In the past a mobile phone was for phoning people when I was being mobile. That seemed to be the nature of the beast. A phone to use in the case of emergencies.

My current phone though was a step into a world of technology that I had previously never accessed or understood, so my use of it has developed gradually and been very organic. Now if I lost the phone I would be devastated as to Quote B "It is never out of your hand". I don't play games on it nor do I use it for Facebook as that is a site that to this day puzzles me. I have a page there, but don't ask me to find things on it. I have liked things and joined groups in the past, but have no way of clicking on items, posts or events to see them for a second time or to check appointments and invitations. After a few weeks ignoring it, I think I should log in, but when I do everything has changed yet again. So this is why I never use my phone for Facebook. I also hate all the adverts that appear on my FB page. Why I would want to find a mail-order Russian Bride beats me. Neither do I have a desire to go on a Gay Cruse Ship for a Holiday. I suppose it looks at the people that I am linked with and bases the adverts on those connections. I could be wrong. So to sum it up Facebook thinks I need a Russian Wife and a Gay Holiday. That sounds all a little Bipolar to me. Can a web site be Bipolar?

Twitter on the other hand is super. I enjoy using 140 characters and spaces to sum up what I am thinking and let people know what is engaging my brain at that moment in time.

Currently it all seems to be a little political which also surprises me as it started off as a way to keep in contact with my knitting friends. On twitter you can find me as @jaxomd

Now back to food. Recently I started watching the recorded episodes of The Great British Bake Off. They are quite old now but I am enjoying them a lot. The show has left me inspired to try baking more often.  I have always been a fairly good cook and I enjoy putting food together based of flavours and instinctive gut reactions to textures, as well as the cravings my brain gets from my tummy on a day to day basis. One day it hankers after cheese and the next it's after roast pork or a crunchy salad. So the Great British Bake Off ticks all the boxes for me.

The three tasks set for the contestants is a great way of putting the program together and seeing what surprises come up. The first task set is the one that lets the contestants bake their Signature dish for the judges. Each week it covers a specific element of home baking. The second task is the technical challenge, where all the contestants are given the same ingredients and recipe and asked to bake the same thing. A number of instructions have been left off the recipe intentionally.

This challenge shows the judges the technical skills each baker has to their fingertips as well as the knowledge they have to fill in the blanks on the sheet they are given. Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood are then able to judge the finished food in a blind comparison with out having observed the cooks in action. As they say the proof is in the pudding.

The last test is for each contestant is to produce multiple items in various forms of  similar baked goods. For example it could be twelve mini cakes comprising of six in one flavour and topping and six in a completely different composition. The choice is up to the contestants.

Welsh Cakes cooking on a heavy bottomed frying-pan

I have no desire to take part in future shows. I would be too shy to compete. Having said that though, if in an imaginary world I was on the show, then I would make Welsh Cakes. These flat cakes which are normally cooked on a bake-stone are one of the tastes I remember from my Childhood growing up in Wales.

I bake bread every week but for years now it has come out of my bread maker. Being able to make bread with only a few minutes of weighing up time has meant not having to buy bread from a supermarket for over nine years.

In the past, hand baked bread was always a treat as it took so long and made rather a mess. I loved the process but it did take hours from start to finish.

Having watched The GBBO though I think I should get back into hand baking again. the taste and texture is so much nicer than bread out of the machine. Should my Bread machine ever brake down though, I would have the replace it at once. The thought of having to rely on shop bought bread again sends shudders down my spine.

So as soon as I am up and out of bed and back in action  I'm going to hit the baking again. I aim to bake one bread each week sans machine and at least one other baked item. The pies and pastries in my new books look wonderful so there is going to be loads of options. This will please B no end.

Recently I have started going to the Tuesday Market at Abergavenny, where there are very good traveling butchers selling reasonable priced meat. I hope in future entries of this blog to cover the market. Till then, here are some photos of the meat I bought last time I went.

Free Range Chicken Breasts cost £20

Topside of Beef on the left
Rump Streak on the right. All for £30

Resurrection And Taking A Tumble

This is a good time to Resurrect my blog for many reasons. But the main one is that: 
Today I have rather a lot of time on my hands as I'm once more in bed. This time I have managed to avoid the Shingles, Calcific Tendinitis and Food Poisoning (Not my cooking!) and am happy to announce that it was a tumble down the staircase at home from top to bottom.
The reason I am happy is that I didn't brake any bones so feel as though I should find the silver lining in this particular cloud. 
My staring role as Humpty Dumpty was on Saturday when setting out to go to Boots the Chemist for some supplies.  Never before as an adult, have I cried after experiencing an accident; this time however I was sobbing, even if it was dry sobs. Yet again my lack of vocabulary when it comes to curse words let me down. I am reliably informed that a good hearty string of blood curdling, toe curling curse words punctuated by the odd profanity does wonders for relieving pain instantaneously. 
My time with Calcific Tendinitis was equally marred by the lack of a good solid four letter knowledge. Table, foot and Spud don't have the same ring nor the inherent pain relief. Anyway here I am five days later sitting on my bed watching BBC iPlayer and catching up with all sorts of programs I missed due to lack of time before. I also have a right ankle that is twice the size of my left one. 
Trying to rest downstairs on the sofa doesn't work as B tends to be mooching round in the Kitchen, Dinning Room or Garden and shouts out "How does this work?" or "Can you check this for me?" So I end up hobbling to investigate or clarify something resulting in ooddles of pain. Reflex catching of onions falling out of cupboards or tubs of Spread cascading out of the fridge is excruciatingly painful and reminds you why a Doctor often recommends "Bed" rest as opposed to just "Rest" when people are injured. 
So upstairs and hiding from the unforeseen occurrences that are just waiting to befall me, I am watching a lot of food related programs. One of these is the cookery series which sees Nigel Slater turn his weekly shop into a number of delicious dishes. In the first one he shows ways to cook with an abundance of ingredients. This got me thinking about my Christmas present downstairs waiting to be wrapped and put under the tree. It's Nigel's new book Kitchen Diaries II.









B has been watching the programs live on TV but I have missed them, so was a little surprised when he started asking for a dish I have never cooked for him before. The more B talked about the dish the more he included other dishes being showcased in the program. His memory for the technical aspects of the various dishes and their creation hit me as unusual. I do all the cooking in the house so cooking tecniques have never been top of the agenda when it comes to our chats on car journies. The chat then turned into "You would like the new book for Christmas" a statement of fact, rather than a question of "Would you like?"B is not a cook and is more likely to watch Real Madrid or Man United play football than a cookery program, so I let him buy me the book and will try to produce what he wants from it. A lollypop stick has more chance against a tsunami than me when it comes to this particular recipe. It WILL  be cooked and I WILL have the book whether I like it or not. 
There are worse things to give into than a cookery book, so I am very happy to oblige. As the book is for Christmas and the recipie yet unmade. B's hankering after the meal in question has not gone away. This has resulted in an odd thing. B has taken to buying me Recipie Books all week. I now not only have a copy of Kitchen Diaries II but also a copy of How To Bake by Paul Hollywood and a copy of Step-by-Step Baking by Caroline Bretherton produced by Dorling Kindersley. 


The Paul Hollywood book is by one of the Judges on The Great British Bake Off and looks very interesting. 








The DK book has just the best range of photographs a cook could want when it comes to learning a new recipe or technique. so I am going to have a super time dipping into the books and cooking for us both when the swelling of my ankle has gone down.

Am I lucky or what? The Recipe that has been causing all the culinary stir in my home is a Date and Bacon Buttie







I think I can knock one of those up for B when I am back on my feet.

It's Still Bizarre

Didn't finish writing about yesterday’s visit to the Cardiff Craft Bizarre at the Mackintosh centre, in Roath. so here is a little catch up.
The Lady bellow is Linda Ditchburn who runs HoopLoop. I met Linda about nine months ago when she had a stall at Milgis on City Rd. Back then I bought a book thong from her. Yes you read that right... a thong for books. I keep a knitting journal the old way... on paper in a leather-clad binding. Inside I keep all my sketches and pattern designs and doodles along with ball bands and the odd snippet of useful information, such as how much yarn it will take to knit a jumper for a Man/Woman/Child... Insert correct chest size and out comes the result I want. Very handy if I spot cheep yarn but it only works if I have my journal with me.


Any way back to Linda and HoopLoop. Linda made a real impression on mw the first time I met her. She has a really bubbly personality and a big smile to boot. As you can see from the photo bellow Linda mostly makes jewellery from semi-precious stones, lampwork beads and swarovski crystals. Some of Linda's pieces are crocheted with silver wire and have stones dotted along their length. The wonderful bracelet & necklace sets are quite wonderful and would make the special lady in your life very happy with out braking the bank to please her.

Linda had some Crochet Scarves on her stall in what I would call a Queen Anne's lace pattern. sorry linda I foggot to take a photo of them.
Linda has revamped a bookmark pattern to her own taste and made a very striking scarf as a result. I think it would make a smashing gift for someone you know who would appreciate a hand made accessory come next winter. Art, fashion and cossy wooly warmth all together in one item.

I have been trying to learn to crochet and funnily enough there is a good reason I recognised the general pattern of the Queen Anne's lace. I am trying to make it myself, but have yet to figure out where all the loops are supposed to go. I keep on running out of places to put loops with my crochet hook. the finished iten should in theorymatch the pattern.

Ok I suppose I had better show you my effort at Queen Anne's lace.

As you can see it is not lying flat, but wanting to twist and spiral. I love the pattern though so I will persevere with it.
there were more stalls at the Bazarre that are worty of mention but they will have to weight until tomorrow.

Roath Farmers Market and Craft Bazzar

Today I went to Roath for the Farmers Market as I had heard they had just included a Crafters aspect to the weekly event. Here is what the Riverside and Roath Market's web site has to say.

Craft Stalls are now a regular feature at RCMA’s Riverside and Roath Markets. We hope this will provide yet another reason for people to come to the markets, and also help support some of the many artisans and craft makers who live in and around Cardiff. As with the food stalls, people can only sell high quality items that they have made themselves.

Well I was very impressed with what I saw today.


The food on sale looked very fresh. I grow a lot of my own vegetables at home so recognise the telltale signs of fresh or wilted vegetables. A number of the stalls were selling ready meals that were organic and home made. All food items have to be grown or made by the stall-holders to qualify as market traders.

However what I was going to Roath for was not the food. I had heard about the Craft Bazaar held in the Mackintosh Sports Club on Keppoch Street. This is the venue that offers its car park as a home to the Farmers Market between 9:30am-1pm.

The first stall I saw belonged to Sue Thomas who trades as Whitchurch Pottery.

Sue is fairly new to potting but to look at her work you would think she has been doing it for years. Sue can be seen on her stall with Nigel in the first Photo.

All her work was on display. What caught my eye were her small glazed pots. Now some of you who read this Blog know I am a knitter who is keen on making socks from hand dyed yarns. These yarns are far too nice to be rolling round on the floor while I am knitting. The solution to this is a Yarn Bowl. In America Yarn Bowls are easy to find on the Internet. Here in the UK knitting is not so popular and we have fewer crafters supplying our equipment needs than our cousins over the pond.

Well having seen Sue's pots and bowls I asked her if she made Yarn bowls, only to see her face light up. quite by chance Sue had a prototype for a yarn bowl with her. She unwrapped it and let me hold it. It can be seen at the front of the table in the photo bellow. It's the white un-glazed one.

I politely made enquiries if she could make bigger ones. She imediatly asked what I thought of the size of her prototype and I was able to explain what a knitter with a 100gm ball of sock yarn would need from a potter. thankfully I had my camera on me so was able to show her how large a ball of yarn is.

I did buy one of her normal small bowls for my stitch markers. Here is a photo of my new pot I just love the metalic finish and the inside is so smooth. A larger one, cut with a channel for the yarn to follow, but with out the nipped in waist, in this colour would be smashing.

Sue was doing brisk business at 10am in the morning. She said she is more than willing to take orders. she struck me as the sort of person who was willing to have a go at anything if people could discribe what they needed.

I did tell her to raise her prices though. I do think that all crafters are worth paying well when their work is good. I look forward to seeing Sue and Nigel again the next time I go to the market in Roath.

Ianto: The start and the end

Remember the start of Torchwood created by Russell T Davies, and how it all began? Fresh faces and new characters that were going to put a twist on the Dr Who series. Well imagine our pleasure to find out that not only was it going to be filmed here in Cardiff but the story was also going to be set in our great city as well.
Most people knew who Captain Jack was, due to following Dr Who, but the other characters were all going to be new.
















One of the characters we were introduced to was Ianto, played by Gareth David-Lloyd who to put it bluntly seemed to be a little light in the dynamic all singing all dancing department, when compared to Captain Jack, Gwen or even the main characters we all grew to love when watching Dr Who.
What few of us were prepared for was how Ianto would grow on us all and develop as a character in his own right.
Few of us were prepared for how he left the series this year in the week long run of "Children of Earth" that we were all addicted to. To watch Ianto die in Captain Jacks Arms as they both lay on the floor in front of the tank containing the ambassador of the "456".

Well fast forward to the present day in the "real world" of Cardiff Bay and take a walk to the front of the "Tourist Information Shop" front that serves as the main entrance for Torchwood and there you will see a shrine dedicated to Ianto by fans of the show. Over the weeks since the series aired the shrine as grown. The photo on the left was taken a few months ago when it was just starting. Last time I went past and the site was full of mementos, photos, flowers and sachets of coffee, sugar and coffee whitener in tribute to Ianto being the Coffee Boy for Torchwood. I didn't have my camera with me to record the full impact of the fans dedication.
I just wonder what the new series of Torchwood hold for us? When it does air I am sure I will not be the only one glued to the TV.

Tempus fugit

Tempus fugit is a Latin expression meaning Time flees and boy hasn't the last few months gone quick! I hadn't realised how long it has been since I wrote my last Blog entry. There has been some good times and some that have been tinged with sadness. I have been looking at the photos on my computer and trying to work out a time line to work from but that is proving a little elusive to my middle aged brain, so I am going to use the photos and tell you a little about them. I will try to start with the oldest and work forward but I am not promising to stick to it. Unfortunately the oldest I want to Blog about is also the hardest and takes us back a little further than I had first intended with this Blog. However it is now time to share what could not be shared when it was still fresh back in April to July of this year.

A Blanket for Jason

When I first started knitting just over a year ago I joined a group called Men who Knit and was amazed by the warm community of guys on the site who took the pleasure and time to share with others what they enjoyed most about knitting. This was a while before I found Ravelry. If you were looking for advice the guys would share their knowledge and point you in the right direction if you needed help. Well anyway I thought it was a wonderful place and just what I needed at the time when I was starting out.




One or two members of MHK stood out due to either their skills with the old sticks and string and others due to their kindness and generosity. One guy who stood out was Jason a young man who was very creative in many ways. Jason was musical and funny and made us all laugh. He would post things that made people smile and brought a shine to peoples days when they needed that ray of sunshine. I personally was just in awe of his knitting and the speed with which he could create a finished item. Often when finished, the item would wing it's way to a member of the group that Jason thought would appreciate it the most.

Imagine the groups horror when after a few week silence Jason posted to tell us that he had Testicular Cancer. Naturally our thoughts were with him and many members sent him their prayers and best hopes and wishes for a speedy recovery. A few members knitted him Chemo caps and asked that he keep us informed about his recovery.

What we as a group were not prepared for though was a new post a few months later to let us know that the cancer had now spread to the rest of his body and that at 30 his life was coming to a close. As a group it was as if we had been poleaxed. But in our frustration we knew we wanted to do something to show Jason our love in his short time left with us. One of the guys on MHK called Kyle put forward the suggestion that together we all knit Jason a comfort blanket.




Yarn of a suitable nature and colourway was chosen and we were asked to knit 72 squares to be posted to the USA for the blanket to be sewn together and sent to Jason in Holland as soon as possible. Each square was to be 8"x8" and made using the range of just four colours.

Squares were sent to America from all over the world and Kyle received over 200 squares in a matter of a three week period. Squares were chosen and each person who sent in squares was represented in the final blanket. I made four squares using techniques that I had never tried before. Jason's knitting had been inspirational to me in my early days of learning to knit and I wanted my contribution to be living up to that ethos and stretching me as a knitter too.

When I saw the blanket finished I was pleased to be able to spot two of my squares.
Kyle has blogged about the blanket and a little about Jason too. I am sure he would love you to read what he had to say.



RIP Jason, November 24th 1978 - July 4th 2009