Friday 17 August 2012

Tortilla Love


My Baby Boy doesn't really like bread.  This is a nightmare in a house where the rest of us would happily live on bread, brie and red wine - the latter obviously for the adults ;-).  He will eat toast occasionally but his not-fussed-on-bread habit provides me with a lunchtime challenge.

I've been making my own bread for ages now - it is infinitely tastier the shop bought variety - and now I'm in a bread making routine, it's no hassle at all.  I ditched my bread maker a long time ago (not a fan of the texture or sweetness) in favour of a largely hand baked variety - ok I do cheat a leeeeetle by doing some of the kneading in my kitchenaid.  The River Cottage bread book has provided a wealth of recipes and advice and my friend Natalie, who is a Bakery student, has been great with troubleshooting.  I've even tried sourdough - an absolute must.

This week I came across a section in the book that I had largely ignored - it contained recipes for some things I had baked in the past, like scones and soda bread, and other recipes I had never even considered baking for myself.  Here I found the  recipe for tortillas.  My first reaction was that life is too short to be baking homemade tortillas.  My opinion after baking them is that I will never, ever buy a shop bought flour tortilla again.

So easy to make, and so tasty and fresh.  The recipe calls for 250g plain flour, 5g salt and 150ml of water which are mixed together and then kneaded - in the kitchenaid in my case.  The dough is then rested for half an hour in a bowl covered with clingfilm.  After this time the dough is divided into eight balls and then rolled out thinly into circular shapes.  Mine weren't that circular to be honest.  To cook them you simply heat a dry frying pan and cook on both sides for 30 seconds or so (I did mine for a bit longer).  The tortillas can be kept warm in a clean dry tea towel while you cook all eight. 

We've had tortillas with various fillings probably every day this week - the Baby Boy in particular is a big fan :-D

Thursday 16 August 2012

Complete


I completed my Rainbow Bright Blanket!  It only took me two days - must be the quickest thing I've ever knitted from start to finish.  Recovery from illness brought productivity! I snapped this Instagram photo in the midday sun today - two hours later and it is hosing down.

I love knitting, but making this blanket made me realise how much I LOVE knitting.  Even though it is August, I've started thinking about - ahem - Christmas.  I've dug out a load of sock yarn I've been hoarding and I'm wondering how many pairs of socks I might make as festive gifts.  Always better to plan these things early!

Thursday 9 August 2012

Rainbow Bright Recovery Blanket

I loved Rainbow Brite when I was growing up, hence the inspiration behind the blog post title!
This project is a brightly coloured rainbow blanket I'm making for a friend's baby:


I saw an amazing baby blanket while browsing on Pinterest earlier in the week and decided I had to make it or something similar.  I'm using my leftover stash of Rico Creative Cotton for it.
The word 'recovery' in the blog title is a reference to why I'm sitting around knitting during the school holidays when I should be rushed off my feet.  I alluded in a previous blog post to a challenging time in my life.  Three weeks ago I had my fourth miscarriage and it has been a devastating and difficult time.  Given the school holidays and my husband starting a new job I opted for a 'watch and wait' policy rather than any medical intervention.  Despite the events of this week, I still maintain this was the right choice for my family and myself.   On Monday afternoon I started bleeding heavily and this persisted into the evening.  After three near faints at home I was admitted to hospital.  They thankfully managed to deal with the cause of the bleeding but after fainting twice due to the blood loss, I ended up staying two nights in hospital and having a blood transfusion.

I am now home and on the mend, albeit very tired and a bit weak!  My parents and my amazing church family have been great in helping with my children and words can't even begin to describe how fabulous my husband has been.  I am resting up, hence plenty of  knitting time and the project is progressing well.  Bizarrely my friend had her baby while we were both in the same hospital at the same time but obviously in very different circumstances.   It seems appropriate that what has been a bit of an outing to say the least, a  is channelled into something positive!