Casey's Blog

     While meandering through Safeway last Friday, I found some rather large,rather lovely navel oranges on sale. This gave me an idea to do candied orange peels. I’d done them once before around Christmas, but they just sounded great then. I didn’t get the chance to do them last weekend, but I did get them done this time around. They’re not hard to do, just a bit time consuming with the boiling and rinsing three times, candying them, then letting them air dry. It’s worth the effort though!  The hardest part has to be letting them dry. They look so tasty and inviting that you can’t help but sneak a few now and then.

     Sometime back,  Citron caught my eye when I saw it on Yarn on the House's blog. It’s simple, vibrant, and  still incredibly elegant. I ordered the yarn last week, figuring that I’d pick up the needles at my local craft shop. No luck on getting the needles there, so I ordered them. However, that means that I have to find something small to keep me occupied while I wait for the needles.    

     After digging through my yarn stash, I got the idea to make a matching serviette type napkin to go with a tea cozy I made about a year ago. I  still had plenty of yarn left from the project to use up anyway. After combing through Ravelry, I found a pretty washcloth pattern that suited my needs. It’s my first attempt with yarn overs and this was an excellent way to fiddle with them.

   OK, that sounds a bit Pokémon-ish, but that’s alright. LOL.

Kukicha is a Japanese green tea, just in case you were wondering. I’m not sure how to describe the flavor of it, but here  it goes: a bit “grassy” with a chestnut and cream undertone is about the best I can do. It’s a pretty looking tea. The leaves are a nice light, bright green and there are some twigs in it. Yeah, you read  that right twigs. Kukicha is also known as “twig tea.” I’m not sure why the twigs are in there, but it does add a different flavor to it. I’ve seen one site say:

Land is a scarce resource in Japan, making all agriculture a pricey endeavor. So it became essential for the Japanese farmer to extract as much value from each tea bush as possible. Necessity being the mother of invention, the Japanese have been ingenious at devising tea varieties that are unheard of in countries more land-endowed. One such product is Kukicha. Twigs are an unusual tea ingredient. However, combined with green leaves they form a serendipitous mixture, with a unique taste and aroma. Well worth a try.

I’m not sure if that’s true or not, but whatever the reason for the twigs, it still makes it interesting. 

   I’m currently writing this out on Windows Live Writer. I’m not sure what I think of it right now. I’ll say this though- it’s a lot easier to add pictures and links to it and previewing the post as I write it. I’m a huge fan of being able to see my posts real-time. I can fix errors or possible errors ahead of time, rather than after I post it. Excellent in my case. Now let’s see if I can get it to post onto here. LOL