Sue's Penang curry

I've made this Penang beef curry a few times now since my friend Sue shared it on her blog, but this is the first time I've tried freezing it ready to go.

Here it is, ready for a stir...

And on the plate:

This recipe is such a winner! I was worried that the peanuts might not respond well to being frozen then defrosted, particularly since I used crushed peanuts not whole, but it worked well.

The only downside was that we ate a little late that night and it was slightly overdone ... but I'll be sticking another bag or two of this in the freezer!

Orange beef stew

This semester I'm working extra hours at the clinic and I've started a part-time study load so I'm experimenting with kitchen short cuts!

I've been a fan of the slow cooker freezer meal idea for years, and thought I'd start keeping track of some of our trials...

This Orange Beef Stew comes from the Mama Baby Love website.

I grabbed my pre-prepared bag from the freezer early in the morning and sat it on the bench to defrost enough for the bag to slide off.

The bag slid off nicely, and my frozen goods almost fitted entirely within the slow cooker. I added two cups of boiling water, put the lid on top, popped it on low, and when I came back an hour or so later it had settled enough to close the lid all by itself.

 

First stir - looks delicious, doesn't it?

The final result looks a little less appealing! I think there was too much liquid - if we make this again, I'll only add one cup of water. I added dumplings for the last 40 minutes or so which I won't worry about in future.

Finished crochet blanket!

Time to update the old blog! Here's the finished blanket that I started over a year ago! Draped over the 18yo, who is a bit over six feet, so I think it's long enough for a throw rug :).

If the ends look a little uneven, that's because they are! The pattern is in multiples of seven, but I didn't calculate that well at the start, so found myself constantly increasing and decreasing on the ends to keep things even ... with only limited success!

If I say so myself, it's excellently warm and drapes nicely over three people sitting on a couch with a nice solid pure wool weight to it.

I can't find the pattern, but it's basically seven trebles, three trebles in to the next stitch, seven trebles, (YOH draw stitch through then draw stitch through two loops) in the next three stitches, then draw stitch through all loops on hook before starting off on the next seven trebles. It's a great pattern for keeping your hands occupied while chatting or watching TV.