anna cooks - french onion soup

Last week I made french onion soup. It was a delicious and easy weeknight meal, so I thought I'd share what I did...



I basically followed Tyler Florence's recipe, but only used one large onion and a third of the rest of the ingredients to yield 2 servings. I was also sure to use a day-old roll (which I had gotten at the amazing Cambridge bakery, Hi Rise).

The other change I made was instead of putting the soup ( + roll and gruyere sprinkled on top) in the broiler, I just put it in a 450F oven for 10 minutes. I have an old oven, which doesn't do well on broil, and this method, which I read about in the french cookbook I Know How to Cook, worked perfectly well.

~ Enjoy ~

anna crochets - cotton perle update 3

After finishing my first crochet garland, I quickly started on another using the same cotton perle. (Read about my materials for this project here.)

This time I tried a new pattern (originally by Yvonne Eijkenduijn of one of my favorite blogs, Yvestown) for the crochet flowers, but modified it so that the flowers have six pedals. I also made a few crochet circles, using this basic pattern. 

I am getting faster, and hope to have a few more elements done for this garland soon!

anna crochets - flower garland

Sorry about the delay in posts! It has been a crazy week here in Boston.

I did get a chance to finish my first flower garland!

Here is a pic of me assembling the garland strand:

I used size 8 DMC cotton perle for the garland, and size 5 DMC cotton perle for the flowers. It is based on a pattern my Emma Lamb published in an issue 24 of Mollie Makes. See my progress here and here. 

anna crochets - cotton perle update 2

I finished some more cotton perle flowers during jury duty today. (Don't worry, I wasn't put on a trial!)

I'm getting closer to having enough flowers to make my garland. Learn more about my project here.

anna crochets - cotton perle

With the weather warming up, I decided to start a spring project in cotton perle 5, rather than wool. I got the cotton perle at Michaels, which had a great color selection. It is just one size bigger than the embroidery floss I used to make friendship bracelets out of.

I'm using a tiny size 1.5mm crochet hook - much smaller than anything I have ever crocheted with before. At first it was hard to grab the loops without letting them slip, but soon my hand adjusted to the size of the needle and it felt more natural.

I'm planning to use the flowers I make in a garland, much like the Emilia Flower Garland
by Emma Lamb.

anna crochets - cotton coaster

I bought some cotton yarn yesterday to make crochet garlands (see my Pinterest board on crochet garlands here!), but I decided to start with a crochet coaster instead.

It turned out a bit larger than I expected, but it is still sweet. Not sure if I will make three more for a set of four. I got the pattern for free from KRW Knitwear Studio. What do you think?

anna knits - chunky scarf update 2

I was hoping to finish my chunky scarf with the 1 + 1/2 balls of Rowan Big Wool I had in my stash, but it turns out I am going to need a bit more yarn.

 
Luckily for me, I went to a yarn store today and they had one ball left of Rowan Big Wool in black! This fast project will be done in no time!