Nicole's Butter Chicken Recipe

Here for saving. I have no idea where the original recipe came from unfortunately.

4 tbsp butter or ghee
3 tsp garam masala
2 tsp paprika
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 tbsp ground cumin
4 cloves minced garlic
1 tbsp minced ginger
5 green cardamom pods, ground or infused in a tea strainer (or 3/4 tsp ground cardamom)
1 kg chicken thighs, boneless and skinless
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup chicken stock (can substitute water if needed)
1/3 cup yogurt
1 tbsp lemon juice
3/4 cup cream

garnish with coriander, and salt and pepper to taste

In a large pan, over medium heat, melt the butter and cook all the spices, garlic and ginger until fragrant. Add the chicken pieces and coat them well for a few until mostly cooked. Add tomato paste, stock, salt and pepper and simmer gently for about 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked.

Add yogurt, cream, and lemon juice and simmer for 5 minutes until the sauce has thickened a bit.

Serve over rice.

Crafting Recap

For all those not on my ravelry, all the crafty goodness that has gone on since 2008 and my last series of posts!

Towards the end of 2009/Beginning of 2010 I was really into felt for a tiny brief while. I really want to get back into it though. It's just such fun! I'm sure it's kind of worthless pointless though. But I made a few things, mostly keychain charms.

I also made a figurine for bill. It didn't turn out nearly as well body shaping/clothes wise as the kitsune. But my sewing skills are rudimentary at best. I really would like to make more of these, and had intended to. (Sigh, honestly? so many projects fall by the wayside. I really need to be better about that.)

Around the same time I made a shadow illusion scarf for S (2009 Xmas). First time I had used wool yarn (cascade 220).

Sometime in 2010 J married T. In the end T and I became good friends and I made several things for her (most of which I did not take pictures of as they were identical to ones I had made for myself). But I did make her two pairs of gloves, same pattern as my lilac ones but very different color yarn.

 Another craze I went for was the pompom yarn at the end of 2010. It came out and everyone went nuts for it. So lots of scarves were to be had. I made one for myself, then friends, and then sold several. I didnt sell all that I made and I'm not sure it was really worth it, but I earned enough to cover all the yarn I had bought + some other yarn I wanted.

One of the sparkly white ones is for me. You cant really see the sparkles in the photo. I kind of want a black one for me but I haven't wanted to pay for shipping on more yarn.

And out of laziness I wanted more scarves. I made my brother another one of the Harry Potter Scarves of doom, and then a scarf of a different pattern one for myself, mom, and dad for christmas.
This is Dad's

And Mom's

Last but not least, there was yet another scarf for christmas. This one was for a friend who adores foxes.

We had a very cold year in NC, and I was feeling comfortable enough with small projects with expensive yarn. I wound up making an awesome cowl for myself in grey misty alpaca chunky, and then a green one to give as a gift. Unfortunately I still need to give it to the person it's meant for, and I don't have a photo of the grey one for me! I finished the first grey one while on the plane to an interview in Wisconsin (I ended up staying at my current job).

Another sign of a cold year and my growing love for patterns on Knitty - a Caliometry. Made in Manos del Uruguay yarn. I didn't like the yarn but have enough for a second headband. I might make another one a bit smaller. Not sure yet.

Late in 2010 I joined a Harry Potter Knitting and Crochet Cup group on Ravelry. Basically it was a way of making working competitive, and encourage me to try new techniques. Some of the projects I did for them really did expand my skill set (just about everything in this post knitting/crochet was posted in that group). Others, were just there to fufill requirements of staying in the group. It's been more good things than annoying in the end. It did inspire me to finally finish the armwarmers I had been designing with M and finish them!

I also started going to local crochet and knitting meetups. Met some cool people and started some cool projects as a result. This is one of the knitting meetup's charity projects - preemie caps for halloween.

And another charity project the crochet group did - a baby blanket. I actually made this blanket twice, I made one later for a friend who was having a little girl. The corners came out better the second time but this is a picture of the first.

And one more charity project for the crochet group. These were scarves for the Special Olympics.

 

This project was just a foray into felting. It's a purse organizer although I don't use it much. I think I need to redesign it somewhat to be a bit less floppy (some kind of base. I'll work on it someday maybe)

Some random crochet - slippers that I sent to a friend.

One of the projects that really I learned something on. Stranded Knitting. It's not quite Fair Isle, and there's a lot of wrapping of stitches. I then felted the thing and added ribbon to make a coffee corset. There was someone else's design at the core of this but I hacked it to bits by the end of it all.  I found a rose design in cross-stitch I liked, and then edited to suit my needs, then took the base coffee cozy pattern and edited that to suit my needs. In the end it came out too big for paper coffee cups- but works well for larger sized items.

Another technique learned- Tunisian Crochet. The crochet group had someone teach us the basic stitches, the following is a dishcloth in Tunisian Simple Stitch. I find tunisian confusing, but the giant super mario blanket project on ravelry makes me want to learn to do color changes and make something for a tapestry. I'm crazy. Clearly.

Here's a charity project I did - a cap for chemo patients. This is me in the photo and I actually like this photo of myself. I've gained some weight back since then, which really upsets me.

 Felting Experiment - Used up some very old yarn I had for a needle holder, turns out it felts super thick! I kind of wish it was still made so I could make some felt bowls or something with it. I'll have to find another yarn that felts as well (and the answer isn't Cascade 220)

Just a filler project - a peace washcloth I didn't much like.

And some amigurumi truffle magnets. I would like these better but they're a. too big for really good magnets and b. the magnets i bought to glue on the back are not nearly strong enough. Grr. So much for buying those from michael's. Lesson learned.  I think I may throw these out honestly.

Amigurumi - I discovered a whole new world of crochet when I found these. This one was my second, back from 2009 I think.

I saw a few online that I liked, that looked easy enough that I would rather make them myself than pay for someone else to. Turns out it wasn't that hard to figure out a basic design. My results of the rabbit I wanted to do are below (He's a Chinese new year rabbit). I plan to retry the pattern a second time with a couple alterations and then potentially publish it on Ravelry.

Another Amigurumi - this one someone else's design. I traded him to my coworker and I want to make myself another.

And another character Amigurumi - a Mario Mushroom.

Some more goodness from Ravelry patterns. I used redheart from my stash for this, and the purse wore out relatively quickly in the end (well it held up but looked bad.) So i tossed it when I was done. I want to remake the thing in Knit Picks Wool. (I love knitpicks. So affordable!!!)

Tried my hand at dying once and these are the results (You see the yarn again in the next project). I'd like to get more into this but I need a swift and keep waffling on spending that kind of money.

Lastly I got into Thread/Lace Crochet. I worked on two projects one in fingering weight one in thread weight. The first is a fancy bookmark, there's a ton of rainbow yarn left I don't know what to do with. The Second is The Anti-Craft's Asphyxiation choker, adorned with a pendant I found from Blue Moon Beads. The last is a pair of earrings I made with embroidery thread.

And that's about all there was to be seen! I do feel rather depressed that's all I have to show after 2 more years of crafting, but I will confess, it hasn't been my priority. I really should make it one.

Back Again Back Again

I"m back, I haven't been posting here even though I really should. Lately (as in since last post in 08??) it's been a lot of knitting and crochet, which is on my Ravelry site (search for Prism). I may post a "couple years in recap" post here, and I plan to pick this blog up again.

Right now my interests are just too broad I'm finding, and I still have this unnatural reluctance to paying for classes. But i think the answer is I really just need to do that to establish some more skill sets I really dont have.

But anyhow, we're back!

Japanese pillow

Japanese pillow
Originally uploaded by Hayley a.k.a. Prism

This is from a pattern book that Mom P has and she and I made together as a sewing lesson. I remember most of the lesson I think. Really I should go buy me a nice cutting board and a better rotary cutting blade for a lot of my crafts, as it was immensely useful.

She did most of the flower appliqué, with clear thread of all things! (I should order some, it's NEAT!)

Anyway, I really liked doing it and if I had any taste for design would do more things like this. One day I suspect I'll have a house where I decorated it beautifully with things I made like this. That or it'll look like my bedroom does now (I should clean, not craft, but only one of these appeals). Ugh.

Raspberry Chocolate Wrist Warmers

Raspberry Chocolate Wrist Warmers
Originally uploaded by Hayley a.k.a. Prism

These are some wrist warmers I made. they're not 100% identical, but the larger problem was the yarn. Debbi Mumm Traditions. I 'd been warned but I did it anyways because I loved how the original designer of the pattern's turned out. Needles to say mine wound up nothing like that.

But as it turns out- Ri wants them, so they shall be hers.

I may one day make another pair but I feel pretty foolish wearing them. Maybe when i'm skinny one day.

Crochet case

Crochet case closed
Originally uploaded by Hayley a.k.a. Prism

A long time ago I made a knitting needle case (I'll post about that soon), and it didn't turn out exactly as I would like. The answer is - use a 2nd piece of fabric as a liner. All comes out quite well then. This one is for my crochet hooks and I googled around at different patterns before arriving at this one. It's a fat quarter and I left it whole because I like a longer flap on mine. I think it looks neater. Just some scrap ribbon I had lying around as well.

It holds all the hooks I have, which is an entire Boyle Crochet Master set (hey, I got it half off), which came in such an ugly red faux leather case I decided this was much better!

The pocket is short enough that I can get the tiny lace hooks in and out without stabbing myself (they are sharp as it turns out!), and the large pockets to the left are for other tools (if I ever put any in there), or I could sew extra hook pockets into it as needed. Right now there is no spare space but I can't see why I'd ever need more hooks than I've got!

Crochet case open
Originally uploaded by Hayley a.k.a. Prism

My First Amigurumi!

Golden Snitch
Originally uploaded by Hayley a.k.a. Prism

So I learned kind-of how to crochet a long time ago, and then found a reason to try and really learn it! Amigurumi!

Apparently I am going through a "cute thing" phase of my life that I don't see ending any time soon. The pattern for this Golden Snitch is on Ravelry, I made it out of cheap Red Heart I had lying around. I think it turned out pretty well!

I'm keeping this little guy, he's on one of the shelves of my wall now instead of on top of my webcam.

Yoga Socks

Yoga Socks
Originally uploaded by Hayley a.k.a. Prism

"Easy Peasy Yoga Socks" - Available on both Google and Ravelry (free! You'll probably notice a lot of my patterns are ones I found for free - at least for now).

The yarn I got at Knitch in Atlanta (I so want to go back!) and is Trekking XXL in Color 153. I have leftover yarn (a decent bit but I dont think enough for another pair? maybe?) out of the skein.

That said be wary of the sizing and how you cast off on this. The original designer doesn't include a gauge and her definition of "average" must be tiny! I added to 48 st. for cast on, and found that I wound up with a distinct top and bottom because I have a fat leg. I did Elizabeth's Zimmerman's sewn cast off which is what made it too tight. The pattern does call for a ribbed bind off w/ extra stitches - so that for next time for sure. I mistakenly thought the sewn would be stretchier.

And no, that is not my foot. That is S's foot.

Fingerless Gloves

Fingerless Gloves
Originally uploaded by Hayley a.k.a. Prism

These I finally finished this year (earlier in the year though), long after they were promised. These are fingerless gloves for S, made out of black yarn but with the pattern for "Hooray for me gloves!" (Google and Ravelry will lead you to it).

They were my first project in sock yarn which I have later learned to love, but this yarn was a bit rough for my tastes after I got ahold of some other fingering-weight, and black was hard to see! S likes them though and they work for her - so that's all that matters. She's modeling them here for the blog.

Tiny Fox Sculpture

If you haven't figured it out by now, the sudden flood of posts isn't that I did tons of crafting in October (okay, well maybe I did, but not THIS much), some of these projects have been done for a while (varying from a few weeks to slightly over a year), and I just now got around to photographing and dealing with them. Finding that Flickr will tie into Blogger has made this IMMENSELY easier as long as I chop it up into one project per post and edit in additional photos later (and go back and add tags, shame that Flickr doesn't support that). So hopefully I will catch up soonish!

That said, here is the fox sculpture I made inspired by things on Deviant Art and the octopus. He however, is of my own design and mine. I need to make more of these (I bounce between different crafts far too much) , this one I gave away to T.

Tiny fox - Front
Originally uploaded by Hayley a.k.a. Prism

Tiny Fox - Back
Originally uploaded by Hayley a.k.a. Prism