Archives for November 2012

Grace Akhrem

Double Chocolate Orange Shortbead Cookies!

I’ve been going a little nuts with the baking lately… I’m coming up with and testing recipes for the February TNNA show, where I will of course be passing out cookies as usual.  I’ve been baking all kinds of shortbread cookies… so many!!!  This recipe was so unusual and delicious I just had to share!

Here is what you need:

2/3 cup flour

1/4 cup coco powder

1/4 cup confectioners sugar

1 tbsp ground espresso (I prefer a French roast)

1 stick of softened butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

zest of 1/2 a medium organic orange

 

Combine the flour, coco powder, sugar, and espresso powder into a bowl and mix well.  I like to use a whisk for this task.

Add the butter and vanilla extract and mix in well.  You can use an egg beater for this (on the very slow setting), but I just do it all by hand with a silicone spatula.  Mixing the batter burns a few of the calories that I intend to eat after the cookies are ready.  Then mix in the orange zest and chocolate chips.

Form the dough into a log about 1.5″ in diameter and roll into parchment paper and refrigerate for about 1 hour.  Preheat the oven to 325 degrees, line the baking sheet with parchment paper and cut the log into 1/2″ cookies.  Place cookies on baking sheet and bake for about 10-15 minutes.  The cookies will still be a little soft when they come out of the oven but they will harden a bit when they cool down.  Yield about 20-24 cookies.

These particular cookies tastes good with a nice strong cup of coffee and some half & half, mmmm!!! Milk works fine too 🙂

Grace Akhrem

Top Ten Quick Holiday Knits!

Every year we scramble through November and December to try and knit those last few gifts for our dear loved ones.  Well this year I though I would suggest a few patterns that will make your scrambling a little easier! There are my top 10 favorite quick knits!

These three patterns are my all time favorite hats to make and wear!

Robin Hood, Maid Marian and Olana Slouch!

     

Here are three necky projects. Also some of my favorites!

Seaweed Scarf, Cappa Italia, & Reversible Tangled Branches Cowl.

     

Then we have Veronica’s Fingerless Mitts, Bobble Bee and Victoria.

     

And of course let us not forget the freebie in the bunch, The Beekeeper’s Cowl!

Grace Akhrem

D.I.Y. Plant Stand, well kind of D.I.Y.

My idea of a perfect Sunday is sleeping in a little, making a nice healthy breakfast at home, going to the flea market in West Hollywood for a little shopping, going over to Joan’s on Third for lunch and then heading home to veg out on the couch knitting and movies for the rest of the day and maybe eating a cupcake or two that I just had to take home from Joan’s.  Last Sunday came pretty close, Rory and I headed over to the Melrose Trading Post…. but I had something particular in mind that day.  I was on the hunt for a plant stand!  And we found one!!! For $10!!! What a steal!!! How does all that excessive punctuation make you feel?!

Here is what we took home that day:

 

Now, as you can imagine I wasn’t totally in love with this paint job…. or lack there of.  It looked like someone sloppily smeared on some gesso and called it a day.  So I headed over to the hardware store and picked me up a quart of French Quarter Yellow paint, in the eggshell finish of course and then headed home.  I spent the next few hours painting the plant stand.  The hard part was getting into every nook and cranny of the knobs… and then I had to work a second and third coat of paint.  But it was totally worth it.  Here is what I ended up with:

 

Pretty neat, eh?!

I put this in the corner of my kitchen and arranged all my happy little indoor plants along with my sheep collection.  I couldn’t be happier with the outcome!

 

Now I want to find another stand for the out door potted plants…. I guess I’ll just have to make another perfect Sunday sometime soon 🙂

Grace Akhrem

Yarn Bombing LA – Call for Entries!

Lets help raise crochet awareness!!! The Yarn Bombing Los Angeles group has been invited to bomb the entire facade of the Craft and Folk Art Museum on the historic Miracle Mile.  This is such a big deal!  Wilshire Boulevard is a major street and thousands of locals and tourists visit the street every day for work, appointments, museums, food trucks and more! How could you not want to be a part of this?!

Don’t worry there is plenty of time to crochet a square and learn to crochet a square- the finished squares aren’t due until March 1, 2013.  So don’t stress yourself out, knit those holiday gifts and take your time.  All the squares must be 5″ x 5″ in the following colors: bright orange, white, bright green or cyan.  Here is the page with all the details.  You can also visit their Facebook page.

 

I have already gotten started on my squares… so far I have only crocheted one :).  If you forgot how to crochet a granny square, there is a fabulous tutorial on the Purl Bee blog for a basic and traditional square (my favorite).  You don’t have to get fancy, just pump em’ out- they need thousands.  They don’t have to be perfect, so this is a great opportunity for you to practice crochet and granny squares.  Here is a photo of my single crocheted square, it’s an experiment, but I did use an awesome yarn, Sincere Sheep Equity Sport! (In a singing voice) Looooooove iiiittt!!!

I hope each and every one of you can find the time to do at least one square! Major brownie points if you do 🙂 Happy crocheting!! Oh and make sure you shoot the LA Yarn Bombers an email if you are going to send in any squares… they would like to know and give you the  credit!

Grace Akhrem

Lavender White Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

YUUU-MYYY!  I finally came up with my own baking recipe!  That oven has always been a very mysterious little place for me, but I finally came up with a successful cookie recipe all by myself.  I feel so proud. 🙂

So here is what you need:

7/8 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup confectioners sugar

1 stick softened unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1 tbsp organic dried lavender

 

You can mix all of this using a food processor, but I just did it all by hand… I have to burn all those cookie calories somehow.  It’s not difficult- just requires a little bit of elbow grease.  Combine the flour and sugar into a bowl and mix together.  Then add the softened butter and vanilla extract and mix everything in well.   Then add the 1/2 cup white chocolate chips and 1 tbsp dried organic lavender (make sure you use organic- otherwise it most likely is loaded with pesticides) and mix in well.

Form dough into a log that measures about 1.5″ in diameter, roll it into some parchment paper and refrigerate for about 45 minutes to an hour.

Cut log into 1/2″ slices.  Lay out 1/2″ slices onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake at 325 degrees for about 10-15 minutes.  The cookies will not change color much and will still be soft- don’t worry they are ready and yummy!  This recipe makes approximately 20 cookies.

 Set them aside to cool, brew yourself a nice hot cuppa tea and enjoy!

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