Caturday XXVIII

It's Caturday!  The day I dedicate to The Kitten and her cuteness, and invite you to do the same with your kitties!

Notice anything different?  That's right - I have a new logo!  Wheeeeee!  Many thanks to my other half, A, for making it.  TOTALLY ORIGINAL ARTWWORK by A of The Kitten!  Snazzy eh?

And speaking of The Kitten, I love this photo.  The Kitten all curled up having a snooze, on my nice clean laundry!!! 

Have you got a kitty related post to share?  Fill in the form below, and have a great Caturday!

eat, sleep, poop: repeat

Babies.  Amiright?

No, I don't have any of my own, but I do like giving a little hand-crocheted goodness to parents-to-be that I know.  Baby stuff is just so quick to make!  I whipped this up in about 4 days of commuting.

I'm hoping this comes across as unisex, as I don't know what the sex is.  This is for my next-door-office-neighbour.  I hope it doesn't come across as weird, me giving this to him seeing as I barely know the dude.  It's just, that, crochet.  You know?  I did it because crochet. Crochet crochet crochet.  Baby needs crochet. 

Pattern:  my favourite (ok, the only one I've really tried so far...) pattern for a cardi, and my own pattern for a matching beanie.  
Yarn: Shepherd Baby Wool 4ply.  Shock horror I didnt use BWM!!!  Well, I made this on a whim and didn't have any suitable non-girly colours in my stash (well, it could have been pure white but that would have been boring) so I made a random purchase at a LYS.  Friggin expensive, I'll stick with BWM next time.
Hook:  3.5mm
Ravelled here and here

-Linking with-

Tami's Amis FO Fridays | Fiber Arts Fridays at Wisdom Begins in Wonder | Natural Suburbia for Creative Fridays | I've Made Friday at SusanD1408 Crochet Addict | I ♥ Fridays at Petals to Picots

The hunt for the ultimate Melbourne CBD eggs benedict: La Citta

We sampled another Degraves St cafe last week, and why not - there are so many!

Location: La Citta
11 Degraves St
Melbourne, VIC 3000
03 9639 1860

Dining Date:  19 September 2012

La Citta serves their benny on ridiculously large plates. Seriously, they didn't even fit on our micro table - what was up with that?  Otherwise La Citta has a lovely atmosphere, very dark and intimate, and so close I knocked all the shit off the table with my bag as I was leaving.  Ooops.

Base: Toast!  Multi-grain toast.  Fairly tasty, though the edges were a bit burnt on mine.
Eggs:  Cooked perfectly.
Sauce: Really REALLY tasty.  Had a touch of a mustard flavour in it, so tangy and went really well with the ham.
Ham: Top notch, although I don't think it was heated, and as a result the dish cooled down faster than I would have liked.
Price: $17.50
Coffee:  Good, but nothing to write home about.
Service:  Very good.

Tanya: 8/10 As you can see from the breakdown above, every element of La Citta's benny was great, but it would have been better if that ham was grilled, so that the dish didn't cool down so quickly.  Very very tasty otherwise, the sauce was the highlight, as it should be!

Lil sis:  8.5/10 Not on the traditional English muffins but the bread was fresh which was nice for a change. Eggs were a little over cooked but the hollandaise was the best we have had yet so it made up for that. Really nice ham too today.  Good service also.

And how does that look on the benedict-o-meter?  Because I can't be assed with quarter ratings, w are rounding up to 8.5 out of 10 Benedicts!

Make sure you check out my map to see the other eggs benny locations lil sis and I have checked out.

Caturday XXVII

It's Caturday!  The day I dedicate to The Kitten and her cuteness, and invite you to do the same with your kitties!

Today, kitten feet!  Does your kitty reach out to you with their little paw, either playfully or in some other gesture?  I love the little leathery pads, and the way the claws come out when you give them a little squeeze. 

Link up to your kitty related posts using the widget below.

Have a great Caturday!

Cheat's Lemon Tart Recipe

I've gotten quite lazy with my baking.  But I still really love cake.  Dilemma.  I'm constantly on the lookout for tasty cake recipes which avoid all that tedious creaming of the butter and sugar, and the fewer ingredients the better. 

I'm a big lemon tart fan.  However, I can think of almost nothing worse than battling with short crust pastry.   It seriously takes all day.  So I call this the cheat's lemon tart recipe.  This is a gem of a recipe - I think it was originally from Better Homes and Gardens or something like that (disguised as the much less appetising 'lemon tea cake').  You get a lovely crumbly crusty type cake base, yummy lemon curd filling and crumble topping.  So not quite a tart but still, lemon curd.  The filling uses pretty much the same ingredients as the base, but with added lemon. 

I always always get tons of compliments when I make this.  The only downside is it requires a bit of heavy machinery - you need to pull out your food processor - but you can do all your tidying up while you leave the crumb mixture in the fridge!

Cheat's Lemon Tart Recipe

Ingredients

• 375g self-raising flour
• 250g sugar
• 175g butter
• 2 eggs plus 2 egg yolks
• 4 lemons, zest and juice 

Method

1. Bung 350g of the flour, 150g of the sugar and 100g of the butter in a food processor, and process until it's combined.
2. Add 1 egg and 1 egg yolk and again process until combined.  I have no idea what would happen if you just added that whole extra second egg.  I'm going to try this next time, because I never get around to making those merangues which I intend to do with spare egg whites...
3. Your mixture will be very dry and crumbly.  Spread out some cling wrap, and pour the mixture onto it.  Then grap the four corners of the plastic and try to smoosh it together (I find I need to wrap it a second time with cling wrap to keep it together).  Then chuck it in the fridge.
4. While this is in the fridge, preheat the oven to 180 C and grease and line a 20-ish cm round cake tin.  Mine is springform because that's how I roll.
5. Then make your lemon curd by placing the lemon juice and rind, the remaining sugar (100g) and butter (75g) into a saucepan.  Once the butter is melted add the other egg and yolk (see my comments re wasted eggs above) and whisk over heat until combined, then add the remaining flour (25g) and whisk until thickened.  This should happen pretty quickly. 
6. Get your crumb mixture out and dump two thirds of it into your prepared pan, and smoosh it down, keeping a slighly raised egdge.  Pour in the lemon curd, then sprinkle over the rest of the crumbs.
7. Bake for 30-35 mins, or until golden on the top and serve!!

nom nom nom

And it's good for a couple of days after you make it, but mine never lasts that long.
(I think I get extra points for this post because I avoided the title 'when life gives you lemons'!)

wip: honey

Lil sis (the one I partake in eggs benny with, not the one that just had a baby) thought she'd have a crack at knitting.  She just wanted a plain black scarf.  Well, she got through almost one ball of yarn and gave up! :(  She was doing pretty well, I thought, with her garter stitch, but she wasn't happy.

Oh well, big sis to the rescue!  I gave her a few options of patterns I could do for her (to hell with doing plain garter stitch) and she chose a honey cowl.  Besides, 7049 people can't be wrong, right?  I do quite like the front of the pattern, but the back is quite boring.  Luckily this is a cowl so it should be easy to keep the right side on the right side, you know what I mean?


Black yarn is just the best to photograph.

I'm making it with some el-cheapo wool my sister chose for her first project.  I personally really want to try this pattern as it was intended.. in that madelinetosh... is it as wonderful as they say?  I just don't know where to procure myself some.  I suppose I'll just go to the internet!  

This is why I can't participate in Year of Projects or One a Day.  I just don't know what I'm going to want to do, or be sidetracked by, next.  I have a rough idea what I want to do in my mind, and I don't feel the need to stick to any sort of plan.  I just do what makes me happy, which I try to do in all aspects of my life in any case. <3

Peace out homies.

Linking to- WIP Wednesday (Tami's Amis) | WIP Wednesday (Ambassador Crochet) | Yarn Along (Small Things) | Keep Calm and Craft On {Crafting on} (Frontier Dreams) | What you doing Wednesday (SusanD1408 Crochet Addict) | Hookin on Hump Day (My Merry Messy Life)

The hunt for the ultimate Melbourne CBD eggs benedict: Degraves Espresso Bar

Another laneway, another bunch of cafes, lots more eggs benny to try.  Last week was Degraves Espresso Bar.

Location: Degraves Espresso Bar
25 Degraves St
Melbourne, VIC 3000
03 9654 1245

Base: Toast!  Like a vienna loaf or something?  A bit too crunchy for me, but I'm a bit of a freak in that I don't like uber crunchy toast, it hurts my mouth.
Eggs:  Perfectly cooked.
Sauce:  Lemony!  This is the first sauce we've had that had a distinctive lemon tang to it.  It was quite runny and soon after the above photo was taken a lot of it pooled around the plate.  But then it was absorbed by the toast, which added to the tastiness.
Ham:  Really tasty, but ungrilled.
Price: $16.00
Coffee:  Quite good. 
Service:  Very speedy and friendly, and they didn't bother us too much.

Individual ratings:

Tanya:  6.5/10 Very flavoursome, however I'm not a huge fan of the uber lemony sauce.  It was nice to try something new, but I prefer a thicker, creamier sauce.

Lil sis:  7/10 Today’s Egg’s Benny were very tasty! They were a little sour though but still good J Bread was ok but it must be a English Muffin to score big points. Quick service and nice tip jar, it said “For every tip Justin Beiber get’s a punch in the face!” I tipped them.

And how does that look on the benedict-o-meter? (I really need to make quater ratings, so instead I'm rounding it up!)

7 Benedicts out of 10!!


Make sure you check out my map to see the other eggs benny locations lil sis and I have checked out.

Caturday XXVI

Welcome again to Caturday, the day I dedicate to The Kitten and her cuteness, and invite you to do the same with your kitties!

A quick one today, just another picture of The Kitten, with one of her many insolent facial expressions.

Link up your kitty related posts using the widget below.

Have a great Caturday!

fo: layette the second

Finished!  Good old Ravelry tells me I started the baby blanket for this set on 10 August.  I wove in the last end and added the last button on 9 September.  So this set took me less than a month!  I am truly the crochet master!!

Ahem.

So my sister is having a baby.  She is due tomorrow.  Tomorrow people!!  I'd always intended to make her something, especially after the success of my last layette.  But time just got away from me, and I really had to push (see what I did there?) to get this done in time. 

But I did get it done!  I posted it to her earlier this week (she's two States away), and I had a great phone call from her the next day.  Happy recipients are the best thing ever.  I really do love being able to do something when it is appreciated so much.  This sister is learning to crochet too, so her comments were just gorgeous, for example 'the caridigan has no seams, how did you do that?'.  Awww

Anyway, check out my extensive range of gratuitous photos!!

This set comprises:
A blanket, my pattern, ravelled here.

Two cardigans, one small, one a bit bigger to accomodate growing baby, ravelled here and here.

Two beanies, my pattern, one small and one a bit bigger to match the cardis, ravelled here and here

One pair of booties, ravelled here (Only made one pair :( shameful!  but look how versatile!  cuffs up? cuffs down?)


 Yarn used was Bendigo Woollen Mills 4ply cotton.  Check my projects pages for all the deets, like measurements and yardage.  I didn't want to bore you here, but I took care to measure everything before it left.  Even though I have no babies, it was hard to part with this set.

-Linking with-

Tami's Amis FO Fridays | Fiber Arts Fridays at Wisdom Begins in Wonder | Natural Suburbia for Creative Fridays | I've Made Friday at SusanD1408 Crochet Addict | I ♥ Fridays at Petals to Picots

wip: owww

I had my workplace assessed last week.  I've had this pain all up my right arm.  I supposed it was because I'm not sitting at my desk properly.  I'm also a bit paranoid becuase of all of these type of articles I've been seeing lately (also this infographic) (I think I need one of these.. ahh the joys of random googling).  The assessment lady made some changes, but when I got home, I realised that I've been crocheting like a mad woman this last month.  Usually my crochet time is limited to my daily commute, but this last month I've had a deadline so have been devoting every spare moment I've had to the hook.  So, I think I can fairly attribute at least some of my pain to crochet. 

Talk about suffering for my art.

Anyway, I've finished my mammoth project, but will show you later, given that Friday is the traditional day for showing off in the crochet community.  After finishing my biggie, I was in that limbo state where I didn't have a project I immediately needed to get to (I do have an extensive range of wips, but was not feeling inspired).  It's an odd feeling, not knowing what to do next, but I have been enjoying getting home of an evening and plonking myself on the couch without a hook in my hand  (I've started watching Breaking Bad finally, which is really good!).  And I've been resting my arm a bit, which is also nice.  However, I always need to have something to do on the train, so I've chosen a small project for myself.  I've learnt a new skill too, and that's pretty rad. 

I give you the beginnings of a camera strap cover (is there a technical term for this?).  It's s done in tapestry crochet (oooOOoooo) in the most awesome kitty design.  Go me!

Linking to- WIP Wednesday (Tami's Amis) | WIP Wednesday (Ambassador Crochet) | Yarn Along (Small Things) | Keep Calm and Craft On {Crafting on} (Frontier Dreams) | What you doing Wednesday (SusanD1408 Crochet Addict) | Hookin on Hump Day (My Merry Messy Life)

The hunt for the ultimate Melbourne CBD eggs benedict: Brown Sugar Cafe

Last week took us to Brown Sugar Cafe, in the same laneway as Cafe Segovia, our venue of the week before.

Location: Brown Sugar Cafe
25 Block Pl
Melbourne
03 9639 7577

My sister posing outside Brown Sugar Cafe, with a belly full of benny.

On to the review!
Base: Turkish bread.  I generally like turkish bread toast.  I have a standing toast friday where I get turkish toast with vegemite.  Delish!  But this turkish bread, I dunno if it was old or just over toasted or just some weird variety that was made with added cement.  It was really hard, difficult to cut with my puny knife and really detracted from my whole breakfast.
Eggs:  Very good quality and tasty, though mine were slightly overcooked. 
Sauce: Not bad, but not excellent.  It didn't have a flavour of it's own, but tasted like eggs, so you couldn't differentiate it from the eggs.  It was like egg-ception.
Ham:  Ok, but I felt there wasn't quite enough of it.
Price:  $15.90
Coffee:  Ok, but nothing to write home about.
Service:  Very good.  They didn't bother us after we finished our meal as we sat chatting for another half hour. 

Tanya:  5.5/10 As I said above, the turkish bread ruined it for me.  No joke, I could hardly cut it with my knife.  Breakfast should not be this hard! So, the toast really ruined what would have otherwise been a very nice breakfast!

Lil sis:  6.5/10 Eggs good (cooked to perfection). Sauce, not bad (needs more). Ham, delectable (needs more). Bread, Chewy (GET RID OF IT)!! Coffee was satisfactory. Also great service, but so it should be considering it was very quiet at that time of day

And how does that look on the benedict-o-meter?

Make sure you check out my map to see the other locations we have benedicted!

Caturday XXV

Welcome again to Caturday, the day I dedicate to The Kitten and her cuteness, and invite you to do the same with your kitties! (Yes, I know I need a new logo)

Just ignore the crap on the ground, the portable dvd player, the exposed mattress because I'm not fancy enough for a bed skirt (or valance, as I just found out from google because I couldn't remember the proper name for bed skirt).  These things are unimportant with The Kitten is rolling around on the floor being cute.  In these instances the only sensible thing to do is grab your camera and take as many photos of The Kitten as you can, capturing that cuteness for furture generations.

I especially like that she is winking in the third picture.

Got some kitty related goodness to share?  Fill in the Mr Linky below!!

fo: spiral

My completed Spiral Cowl. 

Photos again courtesy of my wonderful friends Clara (photos 1 and 2) and Louisa (photo 3).  These were taken at the same time as the Blissful Flowers Shawl, but we wandered up the road a bit to Parliament House.

Pattern:  Sprial Cowl.  I don't have a lot to say about this pattern.  It was quite simple, and mindless (you don't even know how crazy it is that I can say knitting is mindless coz you know I never imagined i would be able to coz it was so so hard and now I can do it and it's just so freaky right?  My knitting skillz rulez) just knitting around and around and around (I am still amazed that knitting in the round give you purl on the other side. trippy).  I love the picot edges too.  I didn't add a button, I think I can keep in place if I need to with a brooch or something.
Needle:  4.5mm circulars
Yarn:  Bendigo Woollen Mills Allegro in Wild Inferno.  (left overs from my Thinking of You)
Ravelled here

Check out my other FOs modelled at various Melbourne locations on my blog map.

-Linking with-

Tami's Amis FO Fridays | Fiber Arts Fridays at Wisdom Begins in Wonder | Natural Suburbia for Creative Fridays | I've Made Friday at SusanD1408 Crochet Addict | I ♥ Fridays at Petals to Picots

wip: progeny

Still working on the layette for my sister, or more accurately, for new niecicle, due mid this month.  I should be finished by the weekend, I'm just getting to the finishing touches like weaving in an endless amount of ends (curse you stripes! *shakes fist) borders and buttons.   The layette will consist of 1 x blanket, 2 x cardigans (one small, one a bit less small), 2 x hats (ditto on sizes) and 1 or two pair of booties.  Here's some arty farty pictures of some bits and bobs.

I'm currently mourning the loss of season 5 of True Blood, so to lessen the blow I've obtained the audiobooks.  Book 1, Dead until Dark has so far lived up to expectations, as Sookie lives up to her name of being the BIGGEST SOOK EVER!  But it's fun to listen to and I'm interested to see how it differs from the show. So far, about half way through, it's very similar, although I know the show evetually deviates a lot.  There's no Tara, which is the main difference.  Oh, and **spoiler** Elvis is a vampire.

Here's a treat from you, one of my favourite Lafayette quotes from season 5!!

See what I did with my title?  Relevant to my wip and the book I'm reading right now ;)  I'm so clever!

Linking to- WIP Wednesday (Tami's Amis) | WIP Wednesday (Ambassador Crochet) | Yarn Along (Small Things) | Keep Calm and Craft On {Crafting on} (Frontier Dreams) | What you doing Wednesday (SusanD1408 Crochet Addict) | Hookin on Hump Day (My Merry Messy Life)

The hunt for the ultimate Melbourne CBD eggs benedict: Cafe Segovia

The hunt last week brought us to Cafe Segovia.  One of those cafes hidden down one of Melbourne's blink-and-you'll-miss-it laneways.

Location: Cafe Segovia
33 Block Pl, Melbourne

Huge Nutella jars on the shelf.  Always a good sign.




Base: English muffins!  Yyyyyaaaaayyyyy!
Eggs:  Delish.  Slight vinegar from the
Sauce: Really good.  Great yellow colour.  Lemony tang.  Creamy.  Not enough though!!
Ham:  Eggs Benny on the menu came in Atlantic, Florentine or Bacon!  What?  Lil sis got a custom order with ham, but I stayed with the menu.  The bacon was REALLY GOOD.  Like, all smokey and juicy all at once.  MMMMM bacon.  The ham looked quite good too, a generous amount of shaved ham, grilled too!
Price: $16.50
Coffee:  ok, but nothing special.  Especially considering it took its freaking time to get to us and the barista looked like one of those fancy pants hipsters who knows what he's doing.
Service:  Quite good.  The waiter got us a booth, and booths always get an extra tick!!

Tanya:  8/10 By far, the best eggs benny we have had yet.  The sauce was the highlight for me, just packed with flavour, and very fresh tasting!  I really liked the bacon for a change, I know it's not 'traditional', but god damn was it tasty!

Lil sis:  8.5/10 I rather enjoyed today’s Eggs Benny, so far they have been the most delectable and gratifying. They were on a standard English muffin, the ham was flavorsome and the eggs were nice and runny. Hollandaise was pretty sweet but I wanted more!

And how does that look on the benedict-o-meter?

I actually don't have an 8.25 benedict, so let's round it up!

Make sure you check out my map to see the other eggs benny locations lil sis and I have checked out.

August movies

I did not watch many movies this month!  I put this down to having a whole weekend wiped out by work.  boo!  So yeah, I didn't get to the cinema at all :(

I don't even know what I'm doing with this post to be honest.  There's some crafty related stuff (like this), there's action figures, there's a clip.  Whatevs dude!

Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel
This film was grrreeeeaaattttt!  If you are a Chris O'Dowd fan (and really, who isn't?  I mean, you've seen  The IT Crowd right?  Don't even tell me if you haven't, just go and watch it then come back) you will totally love this flick.  It's quirky, different and done simply and very, very well.  It's all about time travel and the hijinks that can happen if you mess with that shit!!

Clash of the Titans (1981)
The original and the best, quite surely!  I love stop motion.  The story was fantastic, the make up was great.  I dunno, what else do I need to say?  Just see my comments re the 2010 version.

Action figuuuurrreesss!  

Clash of the Titans (2010)
So yeah, I watched the original, I had to see what they did with it.  It was ok.  It was just meh really.  TOO much CGI.  It just all bleeds together after a while.  Similar story, maybe a bit simplified.  And you know, Liam Neeson was in it, so it's not all bad.

I couldn't find a proper pegasus thing I liked, so you get a unicorn instead!  Kawaii! 

Troll 2
A found this movie on some list claiming it as the worst movie ever.  So of course, we had to watch it. Oh wow dude, it was soooo much fun.  The worst acting I think I've ever seen.  There were so many clips I could have shown you.  Like this.  Or this.  Or this.  I chose the below one instead.  Doesn't this make you want to watch it?  Oh my goooooodddd!

The pick of the month?  FAQ about time travel!  Now go and see it!!