Patience little grasshopper

Busy, busy, busy....
I've been extremely busy studying for my exams and truth is I still have another one to go...
Bare with me just a little longer, I have some super yummy things planned and some might even be Totoro inspired... can't wait!

Spicy Tofu and Simmered Fish

For last night’s diner I made spicy tofu and some simmered fish. The tofu is full of flavor and the spiciness balances out beautifully against the fresh and sour taste of the vinegar.

The fish is nice and salty with just a tang of citrusy flavor. They’re both really easy to do and most of the preparation time is in letting it marinate, which is great cause you can watch your favorite soap in the meantime or get that nasty laundry in the washer ;)

Soon you’ll find my recipe here. 

Japanese doll Amigurumi

I love making Amigurumi, and here and there I might change the pattern a bit, but I am definitely not that skilled to make up my own patterns! But then again it can be good fun searching the web for that one specific pattern that matches your mental picture ;)

So a few months ago when work was a bit slow and I had a lot of time on my hands I looked for a Japanese doll pattern. All About Ami who is super skilled in making Amigurumi had just the one I was looking for! She calls it a Chinese New Year doll, but I decided she's Japanese ;)
Of course you can pick and choose your own colors but since I was making this for my baby niece who has a red sakura themed room I stuck with red.

The doll was not difficult to do, but some parts like the hands and hair ornaments might require a bit of fidgeting because you have such a small space to work in. I also found that you really need to keep your yarn tension in check when doing the hair part because it should be almost flat like a coaster. If you work to tight the hair will become a bowl-like shape and won’t fit the head properly. I also made a few changes to her pattern for the dress and hands. Instead of doing a tube for the dress, as her pattern suggested, I did a cone and made it out of one piece instead of two.

My sister loved the doll and all my friends requested one too. So thank you  All About Ami for your lovely pattern!


You can find the changes I made to the pattern here.

Dried apricot and pecan cake with a dash of rum

I had set out to make a date and pecan cake and had already put almost all my ingredients in place but upon inspection of my dates they seemed to have gone bad :(

After sulking for a few minutes I decided to bake anyway and searched for a recipe which called for similar ingredients. I eventually choose a dried apricot and pecan recipe that seemed incredibly easy so finally the baking could commence!

The recipe was indeed easy breezy and the cake turned out nice, but it was not wow... Maybe because I still had my heart set for that date cake I dunno. I think this recipe is best suited for a bunt cake or a loaf cake, which i did not do since I used a regular round tin, but done up with a big puff of whipped cream and nice cup of tea, it was just as lovely!
So there you have it: Dried apricot cake with chopped pecans and a dash of rum.

You can find my recipe here!