BitterSweet

While I made these muffins a number of months ago, I still remember how quickly they went from a pleasant little breakfast treat to an addictive substance. Seriously, these things are so good, they should be made illegal. Before you know it, kids will be selling them on the streets for insane prices, getting high on muffins in their bedrooms, needing hospitalization from a muffin-overdose…

Okay, perhaps they weren’t that good… But I did thoroughly enjoy them. Again, from Vegan With A Vengence, (Maybe I should get a new cookbook?) and perhaps my favorite muffin recipe of theirs thus far. I’m a sucker for anything with cinnamon and ginger, and I suppose I do have a bit of a weird fetish for fiber. It’s not entirely unusual for me to down a full two and a half bowls of All Bran Extra Fiber… Which happens to be about 400% of your recomended daily fiber… Er, I’m not weird! No! I just like my bran, okay?!

Mmm… Fiber…

Anyway… As for the recipe, the only thing I took issue with were the raisins. I don’t hate raisins… I just wasn’t in a raisin-y mood. Instead, I chopped up a good handful of crystalized ginger in their place. I also decided to flip the measurements for the cinnamon and ginger, using more former than the latter, figuring that it should get enough of a kick from the chunks of crystalized ginger anyways.

The crumb was very fine and moist, not as heavy as most bran-products I’ve sampled. Definitely an excellent middle-ground for someone wanting a healthier breakfast option, but not wanting to renounce good taste in the proccess.

So if you’ve previously decided to renounce bran and label it as “crunchy granola” healthy, not something you’d really want to consume, give these babies a shot. You may even forget that they’re not just regular spiced muffins. Trust me, your stomach, and colon will thank you, too.

That’s right, The Happy Hooker strikes again! I regret choosing such a subdued color for this bag, but I wasn’t completely sure on my ability to complete it. I mean really, “half-double herringbone” stitches? I’m just a simple amigurimi-ist, I don’t know fancy crochet work! It’s all single crochets and slip stitches for me, thank you very much.

It took many false starts and tearing back numerous rows before I finally even understood what the pattern was instructing me to do. The book is wonderful, believe me, I’m just used to reading diagrams when it comes to crochet, as opposed to written directions.

In making this bag, I was really just testing out the waters, seeing if the current would sweep me away or if I could actually keep my head afloat. Since I somehow appear to have survived this trial, I guess I’ll be keeping my eye out for more challenging projects. There are really so many things you can do with crochet, and I’ve only been exploring one tiny length of the field.

If only more English patterns came with diagrams… I guess my Japanese amigurumi books have spoiled me!

I’ve been spending a lot of time with my friend Heather lately, and though I’m a bit embarassed to admit, much of that time is spent admiring her wild dreads. Completely envious am I, the girl with medium-length curly brown hair that fluffs up into an afro at the slightest hint of humidity. No, I could never even dream of getting away with a bold look like that, but right here infront of me, Heather not only pulls it off, she totally rocks it.

After hanging out for a few days in sucession, I noticed that she had worn the same plain, dreary tangle of a headband every single day (Not that I have anything against that; It really did look fine and I’m sure she washes it and what not.) I just figured that maybe she would like some difference, a small change of pace every now and again. Options never hurt anybody, right?

So I pulled out the .pfd file saved on my harddrive for Lacy Hair Tamers from the Interweave Fall 2004 issue. I figured there was just enough of my varigated lavendar cotton yarn to finish the headband out, and there’s even a good deal left over for accents on some future project. It knit up like a dream, coming together in the space of one day. I decided to forgo the blocking, wanting it to remain a bit stretchy to accomidate one’s head without slipping off.

After handing over this simple creation, Heather thanked me gratefully and wore it the very next day. I think I was even more pleased than her, though; Almost no one I know likes having their picture taken, but she was willing to model her new hair accessory and show off her awesome dreads.

Thanks for the inspiration, Heather!

As the summer’s brutal heat cools off a bit, I find myself spending more time outside, admiring the busy city streets below from the safe isolation of the balcony. People are undeniably facinating, and there’s just something so curious about their manerisms, I can’t help but watch as the world walks by, taking note of different strides and gestures, different relations and different clothes. All these details by themselves are unremarkable, when considered in the greater scheme of things, it truely tells a richer story than what one could pry from their very lips.

One late afternoon as I examined the groups of people, walking together to who knows where, to do who knows what, two sweet little birds fluttered down to join me in my observations.

Even more interesting than the passerbys hurrying on their way to some important destination, these bright birds held my normally scattered attention, begging to be seen. Certainly not feathered friends from around here, I couldn’t even remotely guess where they may have come from. No matter, I was more than happy to have their company; Being so far separated from the street up on the 4th floor of my building, I was beginning to feel the familiar tug of loneliness again.

The plump and comfortably rotund female fused lovingly with her mate, a slightly leaner bird, striped in distinctive cool colors. Clearly not of the same species, but undoubtedly a perfectly matched couple nontheless.

How I wished they would stay here with me longer, but in the blink of an eye, off they went, to what I can only hope is another loving home. But I’m not too worried; I know that these two lovers will never be separated from one another, no matter who adopts them from my temporary home adjoined to this balcony. Off the hook one day, and on to bigger and better things the next!

…You’ll probably make a new friend.

But if you give a mouse a pile of cookies…

You’ll get one hyperactive rodent.

Trust me, I had only wanted to was to make him feel welcome here, new to this world and scared of all the bright lights, wide open spaces. Only a few hours experience in terrifying new life and his little beady black eyes could bore a hole right into your head, commanding his presence to be taken note of. So innocent, so helpless, how could I ignore his lonely cries?

After spending the whole day huddled in my arms, he simply leapt at the chance to try out a sweet treat completely foreign to him. One cookie would have been no problem, but he just commandered the whole platter within minutes! Who would have guessed a tiny newborn mouse could have been so forceful! Before I knew it, he had devoured atleast half of my whole stash! It took hours for him to calm down afterward, and boy, did he crash hard.

After a long nap, we had a little talk, and came to the conclusion that you should only give a mouse one cookie at a time.

Sweet treats are still a comfort food in his eyes, but not a wise stable when the recipient can’t metabolize more than one extra sunflower seed in his diet without getting a sudden burst of spontaneous energy. Cute but crazy, especially on a sugar high.

[Free pattern is avaliable here, but in Japanese]

When you wake up in the morning, how many times do you have to hit the snooze button before finally forcing yourself out of bed and jamming your feet into some socks? For me, I’m one of those rare “morning” people that are sometimes refered to as mythical creatures. There is nothing more invigorating that hopping out of bed and watching the sun rise with a steaming cup of coffee at hand.

During this past year in school, I found that the most time I ever had to myself was when I got up early for breakfast, alone in my quiet house, still filled with the quiet, even breathing of my slumbering family. It was during these solitary moments when I would take out my latest knitting or crochet project and turn out a couple solid rows before packing a lunch and heading out to catch my train.

Deep in thought one particular morning, enjoying the beautiful sunrise and ritual cup of coffee, I had a moment of inspiration. If coffee and crafting were such a passion of mine, what could be better than coffee composed of yarn?

A very quick but cute project, something you can finish in the small amount of free time in your morning schedule. Also a plus for those who love coffee but are sensitive to caffiene - Now you can have a cup all day long!

Materials:

Scraps of worsted weight yarn in white, dark brown, and cream
Size F hook1. Using the magic loop technique and white yarn, sc 6 in a circle

2. 2 into each stitch (12)

3. [sc 1, sc 2 into next stitch] 6 times (18)

4. [sc 2, sc2 into next stitch] 6 times (24)

5. [sc 3, sc 2 into next stitch] 6 times (30)

6. [sc 4, sc 2 into next stitch] 6 times (36)

sc in each stitch for 10 rounds

17. ch 10, sc into each stitch

Cut thread, leaving a decent length to draw back down through the stitches and tack down the handle to the bottom of the cup.

In brown, repeat rounds 1-6 and cut thread, leaving a tail long enough to sew it down later.

Using the cream yarn, top stitch (I’m not sure what the proper term is) around in a spiral on the top of your brown circle.

Lightly stuff the cup and insert the brown circle a couple rounds in from the top. Stitch to the inside, stopping when you get near the end of your coffee circle, and readjust stuffing, if you desire yours to be more or less firm. Close up remaining hole and secure, bury the end on the inside and cut thread.

Enjoy, but don’t injest.

Hundreds upon thousands of glittering glass beads call to me from their tiny little plastic recipticals perched atop my book case. How my hands itch to grab crazily and pull random colors, stringing them up into fantastic designs. And yet…

It’s been quite some time since I’ve done a serious beading project now. While I’d love to just take the plunge and attempt some intricate lacy pattern, I think it may just end in a whole mess of tangled threads and all of the hundreds of thousand seed beads on the floor. Hoping to preempt this hiroshima in bead-form, I carefully picked through my collection and picked out some of the cheapest, bulkiest plastic numbers I’ve got.

A very simple one-shot deal: A medium chain with large spherical pink and white beads threaded through eyepins, topped off with black seed beads, all crimped and cut short at the end. Not my usual racket, but a very enjoyable venture. I guess I had been taking my crafting a bit too seriously, so it was very refreshing to ease back into beadwork and do something more bulky and fun.

Over two months ago now (My, how time flies!) I finally caved in to the temptation of the recipe for Mocha Chip Muffins beckoning from within the pages of Vegan With a Vengence. Although I’m not so big on chocolate, and especially not for something I might try to pass off as “breakfast,” I figured that since it included instant espresso powder, it certainly couldn’t be such a dive.

To take the chocolate down atleast a notch or two, I opted to replace the chocolate chips in favor of toasted hazelnuts. (Can you tell I bough one huge bag, or what?) Since it was my first time trying these muffins, I figured it would be a better idea if I halved the recipe. I can only eat so many muffins in a short stretch of time, too. I would hate to waste wonderful muffins if they happen to go stale while waiting patiently for their time at the table.

So I whipped up the batter and cheerfully shoved them into a screaming hot oven and watched as they rose beautifully in their little metal orifices. A few happy minutes passed where all was well and thoughts of happy muffins danced through my head… And then I realized - Like a grade A space cadet, I had dutifully halved the whole recipe… Except for the nuts. Okay… not an immense tragedy, they were just much nuttier than I had intended.

With a half cup instead of quarter, the hazelnuts actually seemed to be relatively consistantly dispersed. I suppose that if I were to make them again, I would probably double my add-ins of choice once more.

I can’t say I wasn’t fully expecting it, but they really were much too rich to become a regular breakfast staple. In fact, they could have truly passed as cupcakes, even without frosting. Maybe next time I should do a bit less cocoa but more espresso, as that was the flavor I was really hoping to experience in the first place.

But hey, if you do want a true dessert-for-breakfast indulgence, why don’t you grab your homemade Nutella and slather it on thick? Of course, I just happened to have enough left over to test this innovation…

…Just looking at that picture, I don’t think I really need to describe the taste.

Half of the recipe yeiled about six and a half muffins… Well, to be more precise, six medium muffins and one little midget muffin. Although I left them in the oven for an extra five minutes or so, no damage was done, and if anything the slightly crisper edges made for a nice overall texture. Definitely not one to miss, even if you Mocha Chip Muffins don’t actually have any chips in them.

Another leftover from very long ago - My second penguin amigurumi, all dressed up in his finest black tuxedo this time.

Sadly, I wasn’t able to get very good pictures (I think it was a really overcast day, or something equally uncondusive) and to make matters worse, it was so long ago that I already gave it away months ago! My poor photo-shopping skills weren’t really able to salvage much of those horrible snapshots, but you can atleast get an idea of what he looked like.

Who knows, with such a brutally hot and humid summer, maybe the penguin himself was just feeling rather blah. Completely understandable; I would have prefered to skip town in favor of a more arctic climate, too!

I can only hope that he’s now happy in his new home. I may not have great pictures, but it’s the fond memories of our time together that counts!