It's knitting and Soup weather.

The weather certainly is getting much cooler, not yet cold enough to crack the gas heater out, just adding extra layers of clothing.

I got to thinking I don't have any winter hats, so I went on a virtual search for one I could knit. Didn't want a beanie so searched for a beret, couldn't find one I liked so I tried the word Tam. Found a great pattern, Tam Topper. I'm not a fast knitter but this knitted up quickly, I'm sure a quick knitter could pop it out in less than a day. I'm happy with how the Tam looks but not sure about it on me, looked better on my daughter but she said it was too loose. The band is a little loose I think I'll add elastic but I think on me it looks like I'm wearing a snood. Cassie thought it looked ok, maybe it's just me I'm not used to wearing this sort of cap. I have it on right now, my head is feeling very warm which is very nice. I used Panda Magnum Soft 8ply to make this one, used the needle size recommended in the pattern. I usually am a tight knitter so the tension has seemed to work out well - thinking next time I may go for the next size down for the band to tighten it a touch.

Tonight for dinner we had the remainder of a Pumpkin soup I made earlier in the week. My Pumpkin soup is a simple very basic one, I cook the pumpkin in a stock - sometimes chicken but this time I used a powdered vegetable stock with water. Once the pumpkin is cooked I mash it with a potato masher then decided it had too much liquid, I let it reduce for a while before pureeing enough for 3 bowls. Last night I cooked pasta, used some of the unpureed soup to coat it and added some bought pasta sauce, it was delicous. I had made the rest of the family a meat sauce (sneakily added some leftover oatmeal from breakfast to add extra fibre - no one noticed a thing) after my son ate his first serving he came back for seconds so tried my pasta - he ate all my leftovers.

I made bread during the week in the bread machine, I haven't been happy with how the bread has been turning out of it lately looks like I need to get a new one. The bread tastes great but falls in on it's self. I thought it was because I've been using US measurements in recipes I've found on the net but finally found my bread recipes and even with metric measurements it did the same thing. I ended up with a heavy but very delicious bread. I was looking at a machine at Auldi today, it makes a long loaf as opposed to a tall loaf but I'm not sure about the brandname.

Wholemeal Bread

Ingredients

290 ml cold tap water
420g/3 cups wholemeal flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 tablespoons oil (or butter)
2 teaspoons dry yeast


Place ingredients into bread machine in the order listed. Try not to let the yeast touch any liquid just yet. Set your machine to large wholemeal and just sit back and wait for the machine to do it's thing.