Midnight Munchies (i)

I'm sure I'm not the only one who does this: Brush teeth, get into bed, get on the internet, and settle in to read recipes... which inevitably leads to an attack of the Midnight Munchies.

Great.

So in an attempt to fend off the attack, and in the interest of recording these ideas to follow up on later, I thought I'd share it with... the internets... from my little soap box... yeah.

Today's minor obsession is PANCAKES.

Now I love a good American pancake. Forget the flimsy European pan-crepes. Wait! Those are good, don't get me wrong, but there's nothing better than a light fluffy pancake. That's more 'cake' than 'crepe', if you ask me... and far more substantial, because they're good at soaking up syrup (oh boy syrup).

This is an interesting article comparing different recipes, but the recipe at the end is, in itself a little odd to me. Also the pictures are quite... I mean the bacon looks great, but those are definitely not my idea of a good pancake.

Here's another recipe, but this time for SCOTCH pancakes. There is a special place in my heart for this pancake cousin. The let on my student house ran out early July, so I spent the last few weeks of my life in the UK like a hobo, living in a few different places before I finally flew home. I stayed with a friend of mine for about a week leading up to my graduation, so while I had access to a kitchen, it didn't seem much point to buy 'proper' breakfast food like toast or eggs or bacon or cereal. I happened to find a packet of these palm-sized babies going for £1 at the nearby co-op, so I basically survived the morning meal with these and a little Nutella (which I'd kept after moving out). Granted, they weren't exactly fresh coming out of a packet like that, but they were so, so good. Quite indulgent for a student diet! They are not quite so fluffy as the American ones, and not quite as big, but sweeter and more cake-like than the English pancake-equivalent. (Is it so bad that I miss English food?)

Got to try making those some time. Pity I don't have any nice pictures to post, but this kitchen we have at the moment isn't very conducive so I don't like to go in there to cook. Ah well!

Till the next wave of midnight munchies...

Reuben the Pink Fluffy Unicorn Dancing on a Rainbow

 

(Edit: welcome visitors from the crochet pattern central, greatamigurumi blog and ravelry! (: And everywhere else, of course (: )

I'm horrified to note that, while I have made up a lot of the stuff that I knit, there is only ONE (measly) pattern on this blog. Therefore, I present to you Reuben the pink fluffy unicorn dancing on a rainbow. Netizens may recognise this theme from this video:

Yes. The strange asian guy with a big mouth and triangular eyebrows. (Somebody make a muppet of this guy already!)

To cut a long story short, due to a fortunate (or for some, unfortunate) string of events, pink unicorns became a 'thing' of a friend of mine. It soon became obvious that I had to make him a pink unicorn with an accompanying rainbow. And naturally, it had to be an amigurumi unicorn. With articulated legs. And prancing action.

Take a moment to admire his flowing mane.

Biscuits, Crochet and a Disapproving Dog

Okay, so I'm writing a post to try and motivate myself to be better at tracking what I've made. I'm considering doing 'archival' posts to track the best of the projects I've made in the past (or the worst, it depends!) It also helps that I've recently invested in a point and shoot camera; it's so much easier to download pictures from that than my DSLR, and the file sizes are small.

So I've been working for a while as a psych intern, and it's been roughly two months since I've graduated. The UK (and sweet, sweet online shopping) seems miles away. Instead of iPlayer, Anime Ultima. Instead of a bike, bus 105. And instead of shortbread, a sorry excuse for what should otherwise be an exquisite butter biscuit (I made green tea ones). Hmm. That's what you get with 30 degree weather, I suppose. And another thing: what to do with my luxury yarns when I can't very well wear them in this heat. HMM.

As an alternative, I've picked up embroidery, basing it off a close-up of a 19th century Gujarati coverlet that was featured on a postcard I picked up at the V&A. It's a chain stitch elephant, which is surprisingly pleasant to complete despite the repetitiveness of the stitch. Hopefully I can finish it and turn it into a purse.

I've also returned to crochet and my favourite crochet book so far: Crochet Lace (ISBN 9784529048194).