Egg Season

Why do eggs seem kind of magical? This time of year they are popping up everywhere. Easter was just a few weeks ago, birds are busy building their dream homes in the trees in your backyard, and soon they will be showing up by the dozen at your local farmer’s market.

Our local farmer’s market in Oak Park is just a few weeks away from opening. I look forward to the freshest eggs and our favorite doughnuts made early every Saturday morning.

A truly fresh egg is incomparable to one purchased at the grocery store. Their yolks are blindingly yellow, sitting quite snuggly in the whites. There shell is more sturdy and their flavor is brilliant. They are great for poaching— finished as a beautiful nest to place on top of some avocados or to crack into these roasted tomatoes.

Click here for the recipe! 

This recipe comes from this months Whole Living magazine along with a handful of other egg recipes. Eggs are a simple nutritious way to eat and they are also ALWAYS photo worthy!

(Photos by Roslyn Street)

Stack, Group, Fill, Dump

My youngest nephew is about to turn 2. He loves to organize, group, stack, dump, and collect items into various bags, buckets, boxes –whatever he can get his hands on.

I watched him “doing his work” with all kinds of random items from around the house. His “work” inspired this felted project.

For the number bags:

various colors of  w00l felt

embroidery thread that matches the chosen colors of felt

tapestry needle

black beans

tacky glue

Cut 2, 3×3 inch squares for each bag. Using a color that contrasts your felt, thread a tapestry needle, doubling your embroidery thread and knot the end. Holding both squares insert the needle into the back of the top square so the knot is on the inside of the square. Whip stitch around three of the edges, fill the bag with the beans and continue your whip stitch closing the fourth side. Tie a knot, weave in the end and cut.

Cut numbers free hand or print out this 0-9 Number Template PDF. I think the free hand looks a lot more fun! Glue the numbers on a contrasting bean bag using tacky glue. I chose to add the black dots on the back as a second way of counting. These are also adhered with tacky glue.

The bag is made with a large piece of wool felt. I cut a large rectangle (28×11) and folded it in half so it is measuring 14 L x 11 W. I closed up the right and left sides of the bag first, using a crochet method inspired by a Purl Bee project. The tutorial is here. A whip stitch would also work just as well. I used scrap yarn to create the tie, doing a simple crochet chain and then adding a tassel to the end.  To enclose the tie at the top of the bag, I folded about 3/4-1 inch of felt over the tie and stitched it closed allowing a little space for the tie to move around. I free-handed the letters for his name and glued those in place with Tacky Glue. There are so many options for making the bag — whether you have cotton fabric, felt, yarn, thread whatever. Get inspired to be creative with what you have and make something your own.

(Photos by Roslyn Street)

Inspira (in-spy-rah) Inspiration for your neck

This time of the year my cowl is the perfect accessory. The weather is up and down. My coats come off. My shoes change from booties to flats, but my cowl is always around my neck. A few weeks ago I took a class at Knit 1 to learn a two-handed style of knitting used when knitting 2 different yarns at the same time (color work). I specifically learned so that I could make this gorgeous cowl.

I enjoyed this particular style of knitting so much, that I was inspired to make 2 other Inspira Cowls for two women I love. The self striping yarn has a mind of its own. Each cowl is like a snowflake — no two are ever the same. Even if you used the 2 exact same yarns, the stripe could work itself differently in each, changing the way each colors interact with another. I sat and knit and knit and knit just to see how the colors would play with each other throughout. Each week we would all excitedly walk into class to get a peek at how the cowls were coming along and every week we were all amazed at how magical yarn can be.

The pattern, here,  comes in three different styles; Afrique (the one I made), Mesa Rock, and Steampunk. The patterns are slightly different and each is made with a different weight of yarn.

(Photo By Roslyn Street)

Beets, they’re what’s for dinner.

I can’t get enough of beets right now — I love their sweet earthy flavor and for some reason I feel like I am nailing it in the health food department. Beet salads are on restaurant menus everywhere. I don’t know why I always thought them to be quite the hassle to prepare at home. They couldn’t be easier.

Last night I prepared the beets in a salad and served it with salmon and brussels sprouts. I added to it what I had in the refrigerator. Cotija cheese which is a very tasty mexican cheese made of cows milk. It is a little harder than feta cheese and not as salty, but quite similar. Blue cheese or goat cheese also would have worked well. I shaved some carrots and whipped up a very simple dressing (see below for recipe).

Last week I made a beautiful beet risotto. I have an ongoing love affair with risotto and this recipe was a first for me. I found this recipe by Grace Harris at FoodandWine.com. It was a fun (and extremely delicious) way to use the beets, and for a dinner party the presentation is amazing — the rich color, painted on the rice, would impress any guest under a piece of swordfish, halibut or even a steak.

Why are you still reading this? Go get some beets! Find a way to cook them so your family will enjoy them. If you have any great beet recipes of your own please leave a note and share!

Beet Salad

To prepare the beets, cut off leafy stems. Fill a pot of water so the beets are covered. Add 2 tablespoons of vinegar to the water and boil for about 40 minutes, until tender.

3 large beets diced

1-2 carrots shaved

crumbled cheese 

(cotija, feta, goat, blue)

You will not need all of this dressing for the salad. Dress to taste, and store the rest in the refrigerator for tomorrow’s salads!

Dressing

1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup of oil 

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 tablespoon of honey

pinch of thyme 

pinch of oregano

Whisk ingredients until emulsified or, like me, get out your immersion blender and really get it going!

A lot of knitting

My mother started knitting a pair of mittens for me before I went to college. It was a complicated pattern done on very tiny needles. Long story short, it was a lot of knitting. While in college they were completed and I proudly wore them around campus. One evening while in the computer lab I took them off and put them in my pocket. Somewhere in between my computer and the printing counter they dropped out and were scooped up by a very unkind but very lucky mitten thief. I still get a little bit of a stomach ache thinking about how much time and love was put into those mittens.

When I picked up knitting just a few months ago (for the second time) I was determined to knit something on tiny needles that in my mind was equivalent to “a lot of knitting” and the recipient would be my mother. I decided on socks and planned on having them finished for her first visit to the windy city. Upon her arrival this past weekend I gifted them to her. They fit perfectly and she couldn’t believe I had knit them for her. It was a wonderful surprise and probably the most satisfying item I have knit so far.

(Photo by Roslyn Street)