I love "The Bean"

We are slowly but surely getting settled into life in Chicago. We still have some unpacking to do, but we'll get there.

This past weekend we decided to go downtown with our friend Danny, his friends Rob, Chris and Robert. We took the red line train to Millenium Park to see The Bean. I had no idea you could walk UNDER the bean. It was so cool. I know it's a bit quirky. However, it's silver and shiny. We walked under the bean and around it and took a few photos. The strapy metal thing to the left of the Bean is a Frank Gehry design...a concert pavilion...looks really cool.

Then we walked down Michigan Avenue to the John Hancock Center. We sat in the louge and have a few cocktails, enjoying the view and taking some photos.

I really enjoyed the company. We talked politics...WTF about Palin? Who even likes McCain? What did you think of the debate? etc. It was great. Granted my audience was pretty much agreeable to my point-of-view, but it was nice to talk among friends.

Now, I need to get over to You Tube to watch the SNL skit mocking Palin's interview with Katie Couric...then I need to watch the real thing for myself. I have heard that Tina Fey, once again, did a fabulous job impersonating this joke of a vice presidential candidate.

******************************************

Hat Attack update: I received my target's Work-In-Progress (WIP). It was just yarn...no Progress. I think I'm pretty much done with the novelty of this thing called Hat Attack. I have too many other things on my plate to be worrying about knitting hats for other people right now.


*sigh*

Hat Attack....Shot Fired!

Hat is done and has been mailed to my target. Completed Thursday, mailed Friday.

Details:

Fibonacci Frequency Hat by S. Quinn

ravelers can find it here.

2 skeins Therapi by South West Trading Company

30% Bowlder (Jadeite) Fiber, 50% Fine Wool, 20% silk. 100m/50g ball.

1 skein #533, 1 skein #530.

Knit Picks US size 3/3.25 mm needles, 2 circular method used

This was pretty fun to knit, but would have been more enjoyable if I wasn't in a race. Also, I found it very difficult to choose colors for a person I don't even know. I went with Red and Black because it was easy and fairly neutral...thinking if the person owns black outerwear (like I do), that it will coordinate. Hopefully the recipient will like it. :)

It took me 3 tries to get gauge, sort of. I kind of cheated. I started with size 5s and was getting about 5-5.5 sts per inch. Then I went to size 4s. I got about 6 sts per inch, so I decided size 3 was the way to go, but didn't really swatch. I started to, but then I saw the pattern was released and just decided to start knitting.

After the 4 repeats, I measured and got about 8.5 inches. I was a bit nervous about being too short, but discovered that being within an inch is acceptable. I did not take a final measurement. (I forgot!)

Comments about the fiber. To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of SWTC's yarn. I have used soy silk for my Clapotis and found quite a few knots in the yarn. The colorways leave something to be desired, for my taste. I would like to try their Bamboo, though.

This yarn felt great, but was not the greatest to knit with. I found it to be somewhat split-y and also found bumps or knots along the way. The final product looked great and it does make a nice fabric. The sheen is nice, too. Would I knit with it again? Hard to say. I think I would like the same fiber in a thinner yarn. However the composition of the fiber, may not lend itself to a finer yarn.

Now, I'm waiting to get killed, or I'm waiting to finish a hat...we'll see what happens next.

Sorry for the not great quality photo. I took it with my iPhone because I can't find the digital camera. Still not unpacked, of course! Even if I could find the digital camera, I probably won't be able to locate its charger.

About the blog. I hope to post at least once a week. But I can't commit to much until things are more settled at home. Still not sure about this month's Daring Bakers, but we'll see.

In Defensive Mode

I am almost finsihed with the 3rd pattern repeat. I have the 4th repeat to go and then the decreases. I hope to complete this tonight, so I can get it in the mail. I feel like I'm WAY behind on this and I'm about to get killed.

I don't know, this is fun, but way more stress than I can handle right now. Probably not a good time to be in a race against time type of contest.

Oh well.

Move completed

Yet lots of unpacking left to do.

At least all my yarn is intact.

I have yet to unpack the kitchen or scrub down the cabinets. Hope to get that done today. The apartement is relatively clean, but I just like to get rid of the previous tenants grime.

The drive up from Phoenix was long, but manageable. I drove the car with the two dogs, while R and my dad took turns driving the truck. This move was more difficult because we did not have as much help. Basically when we arrived in Chicago, it was the three of us unloading a truck full. My friend Danny helped out when he could, but I can't expect people to re-arrange their life for us. But after many long days and much work the truck was unloaded and everything is in the apartment or storage facility.

Today, we will continue to work on unpacking and arranging furniture. But we do have beds up and the television on. Unfortunately, no knitting has progressed because of the busy schedule and it is back to work tomorrow.

Our first "home-cooked" meal in the apartment was breakfast. I made some home fries with carmelized onions, fried eggs with gray salt and english muffins. It was pretty good, but I would have added some bacon and parsley or green onions to the potatoes (forgot to buy). We have also baked frozen pizza, but that doesn't count for much.

I hope to get a new post up this week with some photos and an update on knitting projects, etc.

Not sure if Daring Baker will make an appearance this month or not...we'll see. It will be a good excuse to test out the new kitchen some more. Oh, and with our wonderful new neighbors, plenty of people to help us eat it up!

Daring Bakers - Eclair!

This was a joy and delight to make, bake and eat!

This month's recipe was inspired by Pierre Herme's Chocolate Eclairs. While I'm a huge fan of chocolate, I felt the chocolate filling would be a little much, so I did adapt this recipe a bit. First, I chose to make a plain pastry cream. Second, after examining the recipe, I did not want to make 1.5 cups of chocolate sauce only to need a few tablespoons for the Glaze.

So, I scoured a few cookbooks to find some alternatives. I used both the pastry cream and the chocolate glaze recipe from Martha Stewart's Baking. I also took her queue and lightened the pastry cream with whipped cream. I was really pleased that I had done so.

I did use Pierre's Cream Puff Dough recipe. Here is the mise en place.

For those who have not made cream puff dough, also known as pate a choux, it's kind of a weird process. First you cook milk and butter, then dump in all the flour at once and beat it vigorously.

Then you dump the still-hot dough into a mixer or food processor and add the eggs.

Once the dough is together, you pipe it to form cream puffs, or in this case chubby finger-shaped logs for eclairs. Then into the oven to bake until golden brown and delicious. They will puff, sort of like popovers.





Eclair shells!








I'm getting better a photographing step-by-step (sorry if NKOTB got into your head there). However, I didn't do so well in capturing images of the pastry cream or chocolate glaze.





Here is the mise en place for the pastry cream.











Very standard pastry cream recipe. Uses cornstarch for the thickener. When this had chilled it was pretty stiff. I stirred it quite a bit to break it up some and then folded in approximately 1 cup of heavy cream whipped to almost stiff peaks. I folded in the whipped cream in 3 parts.





And because I'm sure you would enjoy some photos of chopped chocolate...here you go! Please don't drool on the keyboard. :)




Finally, I cut open each eclair shell with a serrated knife. I scooped about two tablespoons (or so) of the lightened pastry cream on the bottom, placed the lid on top and then glazed with the chocolate sauce. They were delicious!










I will say that for me this wasn't so much a challenge. I have made cream puffs as well as profiteroles in the past. I find pate a choux to be very versatile as well as delicious. However, these eclairs were so delicious, I'm glad they were part of the challenge.