Jackie E-S is the owner of HeartStrings FiberArts, a showcase for her growing roster of original pattern designs. As a certified master knitter and teacher, Jackie continues to share her love of knitting and knowledge through design and publication of skill-building pattern instructions, and conducting workshops, programs and demonstrations. Her interest in the fiber arts extends beyond knitting and spinning to include weaving, dyeing and all needle arts. She also enjoys contract bridge and music.
I wouldn’t get out on a motorcycle in the snow like some parts of our country are dealing with now. But in other parts of country the weather is still doable, albeit very chilly. That is where fashionable layering against the cold can sport a lovely hand-knit such as Filigree Lace Neck Warmer made by Denise Kinley. Doesn’t she look cozy and ready to ride anywhere?
So even if you are chillin’ off your bones now, this might inspire you to pick up the needles and make one of these for yourself. This pattern is quick to make up and doesn’t take much yarn, so it can make a good gift for a friend or riding companion, too.
p.s. For more layering against the cold options, the HeartStrings #A135 Filigree Lace Neck Warmer pattern also comes with instructions for a coordinating hat and two styles of hand/wrist warmers.
I misspoke yesterday when I said I was going to make a dish with “fresh mushrooms, curry and other Indian spices”. It just dawned on me that I never got out the curry powder when I was making this last night. I re-checked the receipe (“Mushroom Curry” on page 84 of Madhur Jaffrey’s Quick & Easy Indian Cooking) and sure enough, there is no ingredient called for by the name of “curry”.
Ah! Ah! I searched around and found this on Wikipedia:
“Curry … is a generic description used throughout Western culture to describe a variety of spiced dishes, especially from Indian or other South Asian cuisines.”
So if you have thought like I did, that curry meant something hot and spicy, that is not necessarily the case. It is similar to the term ‘stew’ in that there does not have to be any particular ingredient, or even one that is named curry!
After I’ve been going on and on about this Mushroom Curry dish, you probably are wondering what I am talking about.
Here is a photo where I am stir-frying the paste of fresh ginger, onion and garlic. I couldn’t continue taking pictures during this stage because I had to be diligent in moving the mixture around until it reached the stage of golden brown. This reminds me of the process of making a rue that is fundamental to so many of the cajun and creole dishes here in southern Louisiana.
Stir-frying the rue
Then other ingredients are added: some plain yogurt, a bit of tomato paste, ground coriander, salt, a touch of cayenne pepper, water and mushrooms that had previously been lightly stir-fried. Simmer covered for a few minutes, then garnish with a sprinkling of fresh chopped cilantro.
Mushroom Curry - Cooked and ready to go
I served it on the plate over some Basmati rice.
Mushroom Curry served over Basmati Rice
Delicious, imho. Wish you could have been here to enjoy it with me.
I’ve been keeping up with the 30 Day Blogging Challenge so far. Have you noticed? It’s been fun and I hope you are enjoying it, too. Besides motivating me to blog daily, I have made new friends and learned lots of interesting things. For example, I had never heard of Meatless Monday until I read about it yesterday on The Organic Geek’s blog.
Since I hardly ever meat anymore, I thought it would hardly be any effort for me to go without meat today (Monday). In fact, the last time I had meat was last Thursday, and that was just a tiny bit of left over chicken in a mostly vegetable Indian stew that I had made up 2 days before. I certainly didn’t want that delicious concoction to go to waste!
So there I was earlier today, checking out the frig for something to eat for lunch. I just realized that I still had some left over French onion soup made earlier last week. And again, I don’t want this to go to waste. But wait, that soup has a beef broth base. Does that count as meat or not, lol?
I do have a totally vegetarian dish planned tonight with fresh mushrooms, curry and other Indian spices. I made this recipe a few weeks ago and it was very tasty. Oh well, I think I’ve mostly kept to the spirit of Meatless Monday. Did you?
Please join me at the new HeartStrings FiberArts business page on Facebook. To celebrate, I am having a drawing for a Sock Therapy Kit. This kit includes yummy Merino blend yarn, “chocolate” ribbon and pattern to make socks as shown. Enter now. Comments close next Saturday, January 15 at midnight CST and I will announce the winner the next day.
You can click the picture below to preview the cover page of the pattern that is included in the kit. If you win the kit (and I hope you do!), you will get the complete printed pattern along with yarn and ribbon to make the socks.
This kit is the last of it’s kind; I will not be making up any more, so it’s quite special. I figured a contest was the best way to give it to someone special, because otherwise I would have an impossible time choosing from all of my wonderful friends and fans.
So com’on over now to HeartStrings FiberArts on Facebook and “Like” to become a friend/fan. Then comment under the post for “Sock Therapy Kit Drawing” letting me know you want to enter the drawing.
I’m cookin’ up more ideas for contests, giveaway’s and other fun stuff. So I hope to see you soon over at Facebook where you can keep up with what’s going on at my business.
Now here’s an interesting concept — environmental fonts. The idea is to save costs and resources by leaving tiny little holes during printing, thereby saving on ink or toner.
Here is a downloadable pdf document I put together to give you an idea of what this looks like. You can see that at the larger point sizes, the holes become more apparent. But at the smaller sizes, the holes are barely if at all noticeable, while still retaining legibility. Sound like a good idea?
See it in action for yourself. You can get the Ecofont Vera Sans font here for free. This is a version of the Vera Sans font to which the Ecofont technology has been applied.
Although I try to minimize the amount of printing I do of draft documents, emails, etc., it is still a fact of life that I cannot (yet) go completely paperless. The jury is still out, though, on whether Ecofont would help in the interim to save money and help the environment. Nevertheless, I do find the idea to be quite fun and interesting.
Related Images:
Behind the scenes with Jackie E-S and life at the HeartStrings FiberArts studio.
