Saturday, December 29, 2012

My First Shawl

So I'm new at knitting and I don't want to make a scarf or anything that will make me bored and not want to finish. I have a ball of green yarn and I found a leafy shawl that looks interesting. (Ashton Shawlette)

I don't have the right yarn or needles but hey, you deal with what you've got ^_^

12/29/12 You go into the first chart with 7 stitches on your needles.

Aaaand cue screeching halt.

1/2/12 I'm done with the first chart.


It took a few days to get here for a few reasons. I tried on my own for a few days and just couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong, then a few days more of talking with the designer (she was super sweet ^_^ ) until we figured out what I was doing wrong, then a day or two to get to this point. Turns out that I learned a stitch incorrectly aaaand it was a really important stitch. Yeah it looks like a pile of crap (my fault, not the design's) I know it'll look better as I go along and when it gets blocked. I keep losing a stitch somewhere on one side so the design over there is prolley gonna look funky anyways. Not gonna tell you where, just in case when it gets done you can't tell ^_^ But hey, for my first try at shawls and being a complete newbie at knitting, it doesn't look too bad. It could be on fire and have gaping holes in it right now and it'd still be better looking than what I would have had if the designer hadn't helped me so much. You rock ^_^


Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Playing with Rice

So I suck so badly at cooking rice that my friend gave me a rice cooker for my birthday. So far I've cooked in it three times, one of which was more successful than the others. So let's start with the first try.

*sniff* Ain't it beautiful? 

There it is making fluffy rice. I even went all out with the complicated ways of making rice. I cleaned the rice until the water ran clear, I soaked the rice for 30 minutes, added the right amount of water according to the lines on the inside of the bowl, and pushed the little cook button ^_^

Mom likes bunches of butter in hers.

And here I added tuna and mayo to another bowl.

It was a success ^_^ It was fluffy and awesome. Yays! =D Now for my less successful second try.


I took a can of mixed vegetables and drained the brothy stuff out of it. I added a chicken bullion cube to it and added enough water to make it a cup of water. I nuked it in the microwave until the bullion dissolved. Added the rice and broth to the rice cooker bowl and added water till it was at the little line. Scrambled an egg and lightly stirred it in.


Pushed the cook button and when it got done I let it sit for 15 minutes in the cooker. Buuuuut...

This is after it was stirred after steaming.

While it looks good, the rice wasn't cooked all the way so I dunno. I put it in the fridge and am saving it for fried rice.

My next experiment is prolley gonna stain my bowl forever. Added a can of tomato soup and a can of water to the rice in the bowl. I checked it after it said it was done and it wasn't so I put it on for another go. Checked it after that and while most of the liquid was gone, it still wasn't done and I decided to break the rules and actually stir it. The bottom of the rice was burned so I added 2 of the little rice cups of water to it, stirred it and put it on again. Decided after a little while that tomato stuff prolley wasn't good to mess with in a rice cooker. Added another can of tomato soup, basil, worchestershire sauce, soy sauce, garlic salt, italian seasoning, parmesan cheese, american cheese slices, Texas Pete hotsauce, and A1. I know it seems overboard but it was tasteless for a good while. After all of that it was edible, just still a bit strange. I had to stir it the whole time, so the rice wasn't fluffy. It turned out to be tomato goo that was a little over spiced, but that was my fault


Nothing to get excited about, it was meh, it really needed meat in it. But! I figured since it was mostly tomato and cheese and too much spice it would be good on a pizza.


I only put it on half, just in case, cuz I like Totinos and would hate to screw the whole thing.


This was actually pretty good. Much better as a pizza topping with it's over spicyness. Only thing that coulda been better is if it had shredded cheese sprinkled on it. Nom.

Moral: Experimentation requires more research, but the rice by itself was badass.

P.S. This rice cooker is awesome cuz not even one stain after all of that abuse.