Corn Cub

My latest knit creation: Meet Corn Cub! He began as a freehand creation, when I started knitting in the round and decided to branch off to create 3 flaps. The flaps reminded me of a corn husk and thus the idea was born. The play on words helped me decide to make it bear versus just a plush corn. I had debated making the whole body so the bear could be removable, but in the end, the shorter method won and I only made the head.

I used worsted weight yarn and size 3 double pointed needles. The ears and snout and crocheted and the accents are sewn in.

As I mentioned I mostly freehand my projects, but here's a ROUGH outline:

-Cast on 6 stitches (2 per needle)
-Increase in rounds until you have a total of 40 stitches (18 stitches per needle)
-Continue around till you reach the desired height where the leaves will split
-Instead of continuing around, when you reach the end of the stitches on one needle, turn the work around and purl back across that section. Decrease each row by one or two to create a triangular shape. When you only have a few stitches left, bind off.
-Repeat with the other 2 leaves

Head:
-Cast on 6 stitches
-Increase in rounds until you have a total of 40 stitches (18 stitches per needle). Or make sure to match the same number of stitches as the base
-Continue around till you reach the desired height for the head
-Bind off
-Sew to body and stuff with filling

Ears and Snout (crochet)

Ear
My crochet freehand is even sketchier to describe, because I really do this by eye. So again, this is a VERY rough estimate:
-Chain 4
-HDC in 2nd chain from hook and repeat through all remaining chains.
-Chain 1, HDC in 2nd chain from hook and the next chain.
-Slip stitch the last chain. Sew onto head

Snout:
Crochet in the round for 2 rows (total 12 SC), then SC around once
Sew a nose and mouth using a different color
Sew onto head and add a bit of stuffing

Strawberry Mary Janes

These are probably the cutest things I've ever crocheted. As I mentioned in my last post, I have a baby shower coming up. After sewing a bib and failing twice more at sewing another bib, I decided to go with a craft I was more comfortable with. I found this adorable pattern on Ravelry by Yofi Design for $5. The pdf was great and comes with instructions for 3 sizes and contains lots of photos for clarification. The only thing I altered were the leaves (I made 2 instead of 3 and made them shorter and rounder). 

Baby Bib

It's been a busy year so far and I haven't had much time to craft, or even cook much. But with an upcoming baby shower and wedding I'm hoping this will get me back in the swing of things. 

Here's my first attempt at a simple baby bib, as found on the Instructables website. The only thing I did differently was add some padding between the fabrics to give it some thickness. I used sew on snaps for the neck enclosure. The plan is to make 2 more with different fabrics which I'll post once I'm done. 

Sweet Genius

Tune in Thurs, Jan 10th @ 10pm on Food Network for the dessert competition Sweet Genius! My friend's sister Emily Wallendjack will be competing! She's an amazing pastry chef. I've been lucky enough to sample her desserts at Jean Georges and Cookshop. I believe she's currently at Veritas but I haven't had the chance to visit yet. Best of luck, Emily!

PS: She won!!

Unicorn Poop Cookies!

I'd spotted these cookies on the Instructables website and loved the idea, but it took me forever to get around to making them. One of my favorite haunts at lunchtime is the Broadway Panhandler store which has everything from overpriced pans and knives to sparkle gel for cookies. I bought the latter, along with flower sprinkles and gel food coloring. I wasn't so sure about using the recipe from the original instructions after reading the posts, so I went with a recipe which other people recommended because it doesn't spread during baking: No Fail Sugar Cookies

It took me a while to get a method of rolling the dough and mixing the colors. I tried to follow the instructions, but in the end, I took globs of different colors, rolled them together like playdoh and hoped it would create cool stripes of colors, which it usually did. Just make sure not to overmix the colors or you'll lose the striping. Baking was 8-10 min per batch. I cooled them, painted them with white sparkle gel and sprinkled them with flowers, just like a unicorn would.

Brooklyn Night Bazaar

Last night was the Brooklyn Night Bazaar, where I had a booth selling my crocheted food ornaments. They did a great job advertising the bazaar and there were crowds of people coming in and out of the 6 hour event. The best part was that it wasn't just a craft fair, which tends to attract a limited crowd, there were food and beer vendors and live music, which kept people hanging around longer. It'll be continuing through Dec 22nd, Fri-Sat 6pm-midnight, so if you get a chance to visit, it's definitely worthwhile. There's a nice variety of indie vendors, ranging from screenprinted T-shirts, prints, jewelry, soaps, clocks, home-brewed beers, candies etc.

I shared a booth with my friends the Smithereenes and we lucked out and got assigned prime real estate in the center of everything. My mini burgers proved the most popular and sold out. I actually had someone run across the room after catching her eye to immediately buy one. The sushi and donuts were the next most-purchased items. Apparently fuzzy foods make people smile.

Gluten Free Products

There are a lot of gluten-free products out there now. After trying quite a few, I thought it might be helpful to those just starting out on a gluten-free diet to list brands which I think are worth eating or avoiding.

PASTAS

Favorites: 

Schar and Archer Farms

Consistency and texture are usually my biggest issues with gluten-free pastas. I honestly think that if you swapped these out with real pasta, most people couldn't tell the difference. Tastes great and has the same bite as pasta does. Made with rice and corn flour.

Edible:  
DeBoles: This is also made with rice and corn flour, but the texture is very gritty/grainy, similar to whole wheat pasta. It's not intolerable but doesn't feel like pasta.

Least Favorite:  

Tofu Shirataki: The smell alone is enough to turn you off. It's made from the "root of the Konnyaku - a member of the yam family and tofu." This is usually found in the fridge section of the supermarket, because much like tofu, it has water packaged with it. It smells horrible and has a really rubbery texture. I could only handle a few bites before throwing it out.

Quinoa Pasta: Very chewy, rubbery texture. I threw most of this out as well.
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CHIPS/CRACKERS:

Obviously,  you can stick with potato/corn based chips. But if you love pita chips and saltines as much as I do, you need alternatives.

Favorites:
FoodShouldTasteGood. I loved this brand even before I started gluten free, so it's a nice perk that I can still eat it. Their chips have great flavors, my favorite of which are Multigrain and Olive.

Riceworks: These are dense chips made from whole grain rice. Great taste, great cruchiness

Veggie Chips: There are a lot of brands of these so it's hard to narrow it down. They're easily identifiable by their tri-colored chips (off-white, orange and green). The flavors are fairly subtle, mostly just salty, which is what I tend to look for in a chip.

Least Favorites:
Glutino crackers: Texture reminds me of a stale cracker

Natural Nectar Cracklebread: It's like eating salty, flaky, airy crust.

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BAKING PRODUCTS: It's tricky rating gluten-free flours because it really depends on what you use it for. For example, coconut or almond flour may be great in a cookie recipe, but not so good in a crumble or cake recipe. I've heard that Cup 4 Cup flour, created by Thomas Keller, is the best one out there right now, but haven't had a chance to try it because it's quite pricey ($20 for 3lbs) and is only available at a few places, like Williams-Sonoma.

Gluten Free Bisquick: I made drop biscuits with these, not pancakes, so my rating is only based on that test. The results were more cake-like than biscuit, both in texture and taste. Perfectly edible as long as you're not expecting a traditional biscuit.

Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Pizza Crust: (I made pizza and foccacia with this) This comes with its own yeast packet. Rise time is very short. I wasn't a huge fan of the consistency or the flavor, but it's definitely edible.

I'd love to hear opinions of other products which I may not have had a chance to try yet, so feel free to post other brands you'd recommend!