In the meantime, this is the recipe for Grandma K’s cheese pierogi. I don’t have the sauerkraut and mushroom filling recipe in front of me, but it’s basically boiled sauerkraut mixed with sauteed mushrooms and onions, with a crumbled mushroom bullion cube and caraway seeds for extra flavor.

Dough:
2 cups flour
2 eggs
½ tsp salt
1/3 cup water

Filling:
1 lb farmer’s cheese
grated onion to taste (1 Tbsp)
1 egg
salt & pepper to taste

Combine dough ingredients, roll out and cut into approximately 4” circles (try to cut out 9-12 circles per batch). Combine filling, place a spoonful into center of dough, fold over and seal edges.

Place dough in boiling salted water, let cook until they float, simmer for about 5 minutes more. Cool on a rack or dry on a towel.

Fry in butter and serve with sour cream.

Separate eggs; beat whites to soft peaks. Blend milk, yolks, Bisquick, vanilla and oil. Fold in whites.

Cook in Belgian style waffle iron.

Anyway, here it is.

3 cups self-rising flour, or make your own with 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon of salt per cup of regular flour
1/2 cup sugar
12 oz beer

Mix the flour and sugar together, then slowly pour the beer down the sides of the bowl and mix. Put in buttered loaf pan. Bake 30 minutes, baste the top with melted butter, bake another 30 minutes, baste again, then bake a final 30 minutes (1.5 hrs total).

I’ve used several kinds of beer with this recipe – everything from cheap lagers like PBR and Coors to dark stouts/porters like Guinness. You could really experiment with different beers and maybe more/less sugar or other ingredients with this super easy recipe.

Kaz Fish chowder recipe

Ingredients

2 lbs white fish (cod, haddock, etc) in large (2-3 inch) chunks
4 large potatoes, sliced (peeling optional)
3 onions, sliced
Celery leaves, chopped
1/2 cup butter
1 bay leaf
2 1/2 tsp salt
4 whole cloves
1 clove garlic
1/4 tsp dill seed
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 cups boiling water
2 cups light cream (half and half)
Chopped parsley

Boil water while preparing ingredients. Combine all ingredients except cream and parsley. May not seem like enough water at first, but ingredients will break down and add more moisture. Simmer until done (potatoes are cooked through), adding more water as/if needed. Add cream and parsley, heat through and serve.

In the meantime I’m working on things that are much more fun – quick (1-4 hour) little projects to give as holiday gifts because money is tight this year.

My two favorites so far are these cute little star ornaments and bunny nuggets. The bunnies take a solid 4 or so hours to make with all the fiddly sewing and details and stuff and are sooo cute (will update with pictures later).

The stars are so fast I can knit one during a single train ride to work. Here’s a blurry cell phone photo of the one I did this morning. I still need to sew the seam but you can see how cute they are.

Got it at my LYS anniversary sale for 25% off. I am so excited.

I altered the original pattern(login requried) to knit in the round (because, why the hell would you sew seams if you didn’t have to?). Otherwise, so far I’m going just as written. Played around with different kinds of increases before I found one I liked, and since I’m knitting in the round I’m doing the increases where I think they should be (on either side of the calf) rather than at the beginning/end of the row.

Awesome thigh-high tights/leg warmers in pretty colors and styles for fall? Yep, I’m inspired. They’re probably a bit tedious to knit, but that’s the perfect kind of thing for the train commute – not too complicated and easy to work on in small chunks. Plus, I’m way out of practice and it’d be best for me not to jump into something more advanced until my fingers re-learn what they’re doing.

I also agreed to make another six-hour afghan (free pattern but log-in required); my brother and sister-in-law saw the one I made for my mom when we were home for my sister’s wedding this weekend and they want one.

The bigger issue is that I’m tired of making little things — hats and mittens and scarves — and I want to make a vest or sweater for myself. So not only do I want nice yarn, but I need a lot of it.

In the meantime though, I may take some of that yucky acrylic stuff I have in my closet and make a bike cozy. As in, a knitted top tube pad to protect the frame of my new bike from scratches when locking it up. Why not? People sell them on Etsy! For $20!

I did wear the hat today but might try blocking it tonight to see how that changes the drape. To be honest, the very thing I was worried about before beginning this project did happen; the variegated nature of the yarn competes with the interesting cabling pattern so you can’t really see it. And something I didn’t predict: the pattern of the color variation changes with the increases and decreases throughout the hat, which is (to me) distracting. I think this hat would do better with a solid color.

Also, various project updates and frustrations:

• I think the brim on the red “Capitan” hat is too big, and I haven’t had the interest to fix it. I also haven’t finished it as it is, so it just sits there, almost but not quite done.
• I ran out of yarn on the slouchy beret I was really excited about. Grrr. Well, technically there are a couple yards left but I can tell it won’t be enough. My LYS doesn’t have the yarn, although I haven’t tried the downtown store yet. I’m also considering: trying to finish it up by reducing the number of rows left and decreasing more on each row; or changing to another color yarn if it wouldn’t look too wonky. I think it would look too wonky. Sigh.
• I’m really tired of hats, and frankly have no use for more hats! I think it might be time to try an actual piece of clothing. A sweater or a vest, maybe?

Oh, and here’s a WIP picture of the “Capitan” hat.